This is blog head quarters featuring the senior editorial staff
WBT or Women Born Transsexual is a sort of shorthand, a meme coined 10 years ago by my partner, Tina and myself. It is a way of saying transsexualism is innate and that we are women with that as a medical history. The corollary for our brothers is MBT or men born transsexual.
Women Born Transsexual or WBT is for people who recognize transsexualism as an innate condition rather than a gender identity disorder. It does not mean I support the idea of male brain/female brain. I am willing to extend the idea of innateness to L/G people as well. I think that while transgenderism is different from transsexualism that people with transgenderism have an equally valid claim to innateness. The proof is in our existence, we do not need to justify our existence to demand full human rights and equality.
We view transsexualism as a medical condition we were treated for rather than as an identity. We tend to not consider ourselves transgender although many of us are quite willing to work with transgender people in achieving common goals. We are not willing to allow our unique history and life experiences to be erased or swallowed up by the transgender paradigm.
Many but not all of us do not see ourselves as being part of transgender as a collective noun. This is neither elitist nor hostile and a great deal of misunderstanding could be alleviated by simply saying transsexual and transgender when describing people who are now erased when transgender is used as a universal and collective descriptive noun.
This blog is unabashedly Left Wing. It is also militantly atheistic. I am as interested in issues such as globalization and the economy that oppress all working people as I am about trans-specific issues. I view transsexualism and transgenderism as just one of many things for which people are oppressed. I explore how matters of class and race make TS/TG issues far more difficult for those who are poor or people of color.
A strongly Feminist point of view is a given.
It is also post-transsexual in that I focus on issues that affect us as ordinary people rather than as transsexual or transgender people.
I am political to the left, an anarchist and militant atheist as well as lesbian in politics and bisexual in personal history.
Email: Suzan.WBT@Gmail.com
02/19/2009 at 8:43 pm
Hello Suzan, so nice to have you here!
Certainly, yours is a voice that should be heard.
We sincerely hope yu have great success with your blog (however you may choose to frame and measure such a thing).
02/25/2009 at 1:35 pm
Suzan:
Your statements and idea resonate greatly with me.
I’ve always considered myself a woman with a transsexual condition (since corrected). And much like a woman who has, for example, diabetes, my disease does not make me any less of a woman than diabetes would.
I look forward to more of your posts!
Thanks!
-Sandy
02/27/2009 at 6:48 pm
Hi again Suzan.
I have just posted a short piece on my blog, welcoming you to the blogosphere.
Please let me know if there is any correction or additional information you want me to make. All the very best.
Jo.
10/03/2009 at 12:47 am
I read your articles, especially including “Class privilege and SRS”, and I just wanted to say a simple “thank you” for publishing. You are so right on the mark about so many things.
best regards,