I never took her seriously after reading a lot of her posts … Not 15 years ago and not now

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… Ironically I consider her a puissant transvestite that got carried away with her own Usenet bullshit.
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That is the sense i always got from her over the top posts though I never brought it up… It’s why after awhile I just ignored her and why she is ultimately of little significance.

But there are those who i think are real who do espouse those types of views.. and those I do think cause problems and hurt people with their form insecurity based elitism.

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I’m getting trashed by the extremists at both ends
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That has long been the case for me.

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yet I due to shifting my focus from identities to issues I am able to have reasoned discussion with both people with transgenderism and people with transsexualism on matters such as health care access, hate crimes laws, anti-discrimination laws etc.
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That is sensible approach IMO. TG’s dissing TS and say we don’t need surgery and HBSer’s hating all GBLTers to the point that they oppose same sex marriage because their insecurity strangely makes them believe that SSM would make their marriages to men, homosexual somehow.

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Stuff that is more important than playing the loser game of identity based politics that only serves to divide the progressives so that the right wingers and Xians can win.
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Given what happened with the health care bill – both the dilution and the abortion amendment, as well a the vote in Maine, shows the right wingers still have a lot of influence… WAY too much.

- Karen

As for people like Usher and her transsexual extremism… Ironically I consider her a puissant transvestite that got carried away with her own Usenet bullshit. Pretty much totally irrelevant to the entire discourse.

I’m getting trashed by the extremists at both ends yet I due to shifting my focus from identities to issues I am able to have reasoned discussion with both people with transgenderism and people with transsexualism on matters such as health care access, hate crimes laws, anti-discrimination laws etc.

Stuff that is more important than playing the loser game of identity based politics that only serves to divide the progressives so that the right wingers and Xians can win.

In general many people seem to be headed to extremes today- at least among the most vocal both in society in general as well as in this arena…

One extreme seem to be that either all T* are basically the same with TSes included .. and all T’s are ‘queer’ … but queer in a wider sense, not necessarily speaking of sexual orientation. To be honest, when used like that I’ve never really had a good sense of what the word queer means, except perhaps not fitting societal expectations of gendered/sexual behavior.

It’s unfortunate that this view of TSes has gained so much traction in mainstream society.

The other extreme (though much smaller in number) is then extreme narrowness exhibited in places like ‘classic transsexual’ sites. There someone can’t be a real TS if they support same sex marriage , are not het, or stay married, or don’t hate all ‘TGs’, or did not transition young or don’t pass very well… In other words the type of stereotype some of the old gender clinics pushed from what I have gathered.

This narrowness IMO is just as harmful as the ‘everybody is the same’ politic. Neither extreme corresponds to the real world situation as far as I can see and both deny who a lot of people are… yet the clash of the two views seems to be what most of he debate ‘in the community’ seems to be about.

Both sides have their own code of political correctness in behavior, language and thinking in general, and tries to enforce it and force it on others and actively work against the other…

What a waste! But no different from our polarized ‘mainstream’ society in that way it seems.