I understand why why straight sisters went to Pride Day events in San Francisco and LA.
They were rockin’ good parties.
Those of us who were lesbian identified marched with the lesbians or with organizations to which we belonged.
The queens rode floats being fabulous and showing lots of skin and looked at those of us who assimilated or were lesbians as though we were pathetic because we weren’t cock crazy the way they were.
I went to Dyke Marchs.
I let myself be talked into marching with Trranssexual Menace a couple of times and felt fucking disgusted. It was so freaky I don’t have words for it, subjecting myself to the scrutiny of all those people for something that accomplished nothing.
Trans-Pride. WTF. I’m not proud of being transsexual. It was a freak accident of birth. It was something I had an operation to correct.
Now the transgenders want to have separate Parades and events. I’ve heard these events have become standard in Los Angeles and else where.
I view these as being by and for full time transvestites and not for women identified women. I’m female now. Why would I identify with a bunch of trannies. To me this is yet more identity politics run amok.
I never needed a T or for that matter a B stuck onto L/G. I felt included as a lesbian. As a bisexual I didn’t consider myself part of the lesbian community when I was in a relationship with a man.
Grafting Trans on to the Gay and Lesbian community has made it harder for gay and lesbian people to get their issues addressed.
As a lesbian my issues aren’t even that closely related to gay men’s issues. In fact they tend to be much more closely related to the issues of all women.
I have specific issues such as marriage equality that are L/G issues but many issues such as getting nationalized health insurance are not nor are matters of women’s equality.
None of these things have anything to do with transgender.
Indeed I am more oppressed by transgender activists who have colonized the lives of WBTs to support their own claims than I am by straight society for once upon a time having had an operation.
Women Born Transsexual 
June 16, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Suz and I seem to have reverted to our initial attitudes when it comes to TG.
Mara Keisling did not do the TG cause any favors by making such ill informed statements.
I still support the rights of ALL people. Still support civil rights for those TG identified — I DO NOT support their “right” to colonize WBT, co-opt my reality, then add me to some imaginary “TG umbrella”.
I think the actions of our TG friends makes it even more important for WBT’s / post-ops / HBS folks to be truly “woman identified”.
It’s interesting that many TG folks look down on our “assimilationist” attitudes when that’s exactly what most of us dreamt of all our lives. How great was that dream of growing up to be a girl / woman? How often was that the fantasy we went to sleep to?
Now, those who wish to reduce woman to a series of roles, a performance, look down on those of us who have achieved that dream. We are seen as reactionary, elitist, assimilationist, etc., etc., etc., when all we want to do is move on to live our lives.
There are times I feel like one of those aging Mafia Dons — “as soon as I get out, they drag me back in again”.
“Why are you still active at all?”, some say — well, it’s to keep from losing any more rights. To keep my right of self-determination.
Just because I do not support this false “umbrella”, an “umbrella” that seems to have been invented by some shrinks and professionals to “keep us in our place”, does not mean I cannot support truly progressive causes.
I do, and will continue to do so.
June 16, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I don’t worry too much about defining myself, but if you held a gun to my head, I would say straight female — though I guess hanging in my local gay bar and occasionally messing around with girls thing murks up the definition a little. I would never march in a Trans-anything group — not that there is anything wrong with that. 😉
Seriously, I have chosen to keep my past as private as possible, but sometimes I feel a little selfish about that. Having open, successful post ops in the public eye would probably be of great assistance to kids struggling with this. I guess I am putting myself first. I suppose it is not a noble thing to do, but I did not spend my childhood pining to be a trans-advocate.
June 17, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Heck, I don’t worry about defining myself either. I do worry about, get upset about, others defining me with no input from me.
I define myself, by my life and daily actions, as woman.
It’s as simple as that.
Others around me, those I interact with on a regular, or irregular, basis, see me as, treat me as, woman.
When those outside me, those I have no connection with, wish to define me as “transgender” for their benefit, I tend to get upset.
When their spokespeople act in a way that denigrates SRS, the result of SRS, or even the frequency of, or efficacy, of SRS, I get even more upset.
These are folks that have no connection with me, have never asked for my input, have rejected my statements as somehow invalid, yet, at the same time, they claim to speak for me, and those like me.
When that happens — I get upset.