With crossdressing communities in particular, I was rather struck by how diverse the attendees were. Some needed to transition, but were afraid, or remained as they were for the sake of their spouse / partner / kids / families / careers; some were recreational CDs who really didn’t get why someone would want to transition; some lived part-time and seemed content; many were questioning and really struggling to figure themselves out; on occasion there was someone who lived full-time except for work but had no interest in surgery or sometimes even HRT… probably my first lesson was the only thing you could generalize about was that generalizations were doomed to fail.

Groups form organically. If attendees don’t seem to fit a person’s own self-understanding, they move on — sometimes to other groups and sometimes to build their own circles, whether formalized or a loose connection of friends. To generalize based on any one group a person has met can even be impossible, because those experiences are limited by ones own travel, and by the organic evolution of the group met (i.e. who stays / who leaves).

A few things were always consistent, though: human needs, complex journeys, uphill climbs, and fascinating stories to hear, provided you’re not only interested in similar stories to yours, and are fine with stepping out of the comfort zone of your own experiences. (I mean that “you” as a general statement, not you personally).

This is why I’ll always oppose ejection and vilification, and am happy to back you up on your statement here.

And you wrote:

“I think it would be easier for those activists promoting non-discrimination measures to actually get those bills passed if transgender was limited to its original definition and described people who lived full time without pursuing SRS.”

Probably, but easy isn’t always right, and taking the easy way now simply means that a smaller group will have a tougher go of things later. Many of us already know what that’s like.

Also essential to understanding Fausto-Sterling’s work is what she writes about the differences between Frank Beach an C. W. Young. Fausto-Sterling embraces the “concept” of gender identity disorder. She also freely quotes people like J. Michael Bailey. I find systems theory and the work of Ansermet and Adrienne Harris but a lot of what she gives away in her lectures is reminiscent of John Money and indicates a tabula rasa, social constructivist view of human development that seems blind to physical reality unless she’s making comparisons between herself and someone like Dierdre McClosky, which I have witnessed her do, publicly. Viewed objectively, her work is essential but the irony is that she is the same as the male scientists she rails against. She’s searching for data to justify her own biases.

I don’t put some sort of great moral judgment on it nor do I find some great need to understand it.

I don’t have to in order to defend your right to do this. Look at it this way I made a practice out of reading the ingredients so I could tell people if there were any pork or for that matter meat by products in the stuff I was passing out because they have religious practices. I’m an atheist but, why should I disrespect something minor like that when it takes so little effort to treat people like I hope they would treat me.

It’s not about having to be the same as another person or understand them. There’s seven billion people on the planet and they are a diverse mass of people.

Extending the same human rights and respect to others is as Kropotkin would put it a matter of survival.

Just a point of clarification, draq queens are not crossdressers. You might want to check definitions under transgender in Wikipedia. I do wish crossdressers were more politically active, but except for a small group of us, it usually doesn’t bode well for our family life and our jobs. But then that holds true for transsexuals in many ways too…….Tasi

But I also don’t run around scrutinizing everyone trying to read them, if I was doing a demo myself I always tried to be extra nice to members of groups some of my co-workers were prejudiced towards.

Most cross dressers I have know over the years have been drag queens rather than straight people, as I have mostly live in places like SF,Berkeley and Hollywood which tend to be very gay friendly. Now I live in suburban Dallas rather than in an area like Oak Lawn.

Nonetheless most of my encounters with heterosexual CDs have been in the context of conferences or meetings. Or drag bars.

My activism extends far beyond the LGBT/T world and includes the anti-war movement, the environmental movement and the anti-globalizartion movement. I’m Anti-fascism and anti-racism.

I was glad to see your recognition that we should all pull together against much more evil forces of the radical right. Just today a friend passed along a YouTube video of a Baptist pastor preaching hate in his church and literally saying lets put all the gays in a concentration camp. Guess who is next? Not me because you are more visible. We both know that CDs and TSs can be a world apart but we need to tone down the rhetoric and work together against those forces that lump us all together anyway. Bullies are bullies, no matter what their shade. Set them off in the corner and let the rest of work together to make the world recognize who the bullies are and what needs to be done with them……..Tasi