Women Born Transsexual

http://www.365gay.com/news/wva-rejects-anti-gay-amendment/

(Charleston, West Virginia) A bid to advance an amendment to West Virginia’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage has failed.

Republicans and social conservatives had pushed the amendment, but it languished in a House committee.

Monday, Republican delegates attempted to drive the bill directly to the floor for a vote.  The bid failed 67-30 along party lines.

Amending the West Virginia constitution requires approval of the legislature and a vote by the electorate.

Earlier this month, the conservative Family Policy Council began a telemarketing campaign accusing two lawmakers – Delegates Carrie Webster and Barbara Fleischauer – of blocking a vote on the measure.

Webster and Fleischauer called the move “intimidation.” The bill was tied up in the House Committee on Constitutional Revision, which Fleischauer heads. If approved there, it would have gone to the House Judiciary committee headed by Webster..

Last year, the Family Policy Council unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Gov. Joe Manchin to recall the legislature to pass the proposed amendment. The measure was added to the legislature’s agenda this session.

West Virginia has had marriage law since 2000. But amendment supporters say it doesn’t go far enough and could be challenged in court.

By Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash
Posted on March 30, 2009, Printed on March 30, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/134000/

When Americans think of patriarchal societies, female submission, or extreme gender inequality based on religious teachings, visions of Muslim women in burkas or Hindus in poorly arranged marriages may come to mind. The reality, though, is that a growing number of American Christian fundamentalists also have rejected feminism and egalitarianism, embracing instead male dominance and what they call the “Quiverfull” belief system. Picture the Massachusetts Bay Colonies before Hester Prynne‘s day. The women in such communities live within a stringently enforced doctrine of wifely submission and male “headship,” including a selfless acceptance of possibly constant pregnancies and as many children under foot as God might bring. They reject not only “reproductive rights” of any kind, but also higher education and workforce participation for women.

Continue Reading at:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/134000/christian_fundamentalist_group_preaches_patriarchy_and_women%27s_fertility_as_weapons_for_spiritual_warfare/

Opponents, led by the Republican Party, used the same tactic that they used to successfully defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s changing their framing from the fear of “Unisex Restrooms” which have become a reality on airplanes and in homes across America, with the argument  it would open all bathrooms to men and women.

Supporters argued transgender individuals are using the bathrooms now and needed the job protections the bill would provide.

The House voted 181-149 to kill the bill.

Thirteen states, the District of Columbia and 93 cities and counties have laws banning discrimination on transgender status according to the Transgender Law Policy Institute.

I am kind of stunned when I read the writings of women born transsexual who blame the victim in murder cases involving pre-op transsexuals by taking the side of the murderer who claims that the sister deceived him.  That is to me male identified behavior on the order of a male judge who blames the victim of rape for how she was dressed.

I have heard WBTs make just that statement regarding the case of both Gwen Araujo and Angie Zapata.  “They were asking for it!” “What did they expect, tricking men?”

As though murder or even hitting is a proper response.  It is not. Getting up and leaving is the proper response.

I would never ever vote to acquit some one using the “Transpanic” or “Gay panic” defense as I see that defense as being the equivalent of a guilty plea.

Never mind the stolen credit cards and car.

But then I am woman identified and I find male excuses for rape and the abuse of women to be inexcusable.  She did not make you hit her.  You hit her.  The way she was dress or the fact she was out did not make you rape her.  You are a rapist.  That is why you did that and if I had my way you would never ever be capable of committing that act again.

Being woman identified means putting women first and if we consider ourselves women that means including even our sisters who are still in the process of getting their SRS among those people we put first.

Now I am not straight iddentified either because to be straight identified is to believe the rules of the patriarchy which make men superior to women in every thing.  To be straight identified is to believe that what men say goes and that women are inferior to men rather than equal to men.

To be straight identified means obedience to authority and I have spent my life questioning authority.

Had I not questioned authority I would have tried a hundred different cures before accepting the reality of what I was born.

Not being straight identified I have not obeyed authority nor have I tried to live up to the stereo-typifying expectations of the doctors who tended in the early 1970s to look upon us as experiments.  Instead I have followed my own muse.  Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse as there are no guarantees when it comes to charting your own particular life course.

Therefore I take a rather dim view of those who say there is correct way to deal with the pre-conditions I was given regarding life.  Those pre-conditions for me included not only being born transsexual but being born poor and working class.  For others pre-conditions might include matters of race or culture.

I tend to view male identification when it appears in women as stemming from a sense of inferiority and representative of an unwillingness to stand up for their sisters.

It is a fool’s bargain because taking those positions merely makes one a tool of the male authority and not an equal.