I find the Sisterhood of Transsexual Purity every single bit as messed up as I find the Transgender Borg.
Obsessive Trolls in want of lives. They seem to have nothing better to do than crawl endlessly through everything from the Usenet to mailing list and now through blogs looking for nits to pick. They are like zombies looking for brains to eat and people to draw into their troll world where the endless game of Transwarcraft gives meaning to their pointless and empty existence.
Perish the though that the coiners of WBT might not share their obsessions nor their politics.
We might think that Christan Williams, Autumn Sandeen, Dyssonance and Monica Roberts are too crazy to take seriously, but are they any more fucked up than the trolls of HBS/Classic transsexualdom?
The World of Transwarcraft is kind like George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books, only without the occasional sexual titillation.
Endless fucking war over the meaning of words that no one really gives a damn about.
I stuck my head up, looked around and saw that most of these wars seem to be perpetuated by a relative handful of people, many of whom seem to be on line for 18 or more hours a day which suggests both a lack of sleep and an addiction to stimulants such as cocaine or meth.
I actually remember when I bottoming out with drinking, how I would binge and go on an Internet tear, lashing out full of rage.
That didn’t improve my life.
Sobriety did…
An Acquaintance of mine, Andrea James was curious about a bunch of the players in this World of Transwarcraft. When it comes to the awarding of points for honestly claiming their own words the crazies on the Transgender Borg side win hands down. They are out there putting their name on their words and often their pictures. As a result they take the heat.
The Sisters of Transsexual Purity, on the other hand often hide behind aliases. The ones who don’t tend to be far less dogmatic.
Their attacks come off as though they are right wing operators being paid to follow a script.
They are dogmatic in the same way as the Dominionists who are exposed by Southern Poverty Law Center and People for the American Way. They use virtually the same scripts.
They hide behind numerous aliases, create different e-mail accounts and even go so far as to put up dummy blogs with zero posts.
In some ways they are very much like Denise Tree aka Kiira Tirea and others.
Refuse to take their bullshit or call them on it and immediately they slip into ad homenim attacks.
It’s easy to dismiss these people as cranks, failures and nut jobs.
But along with being a general pain in the ass, and annoying they destroy people’s ability to work together for similar purposes even when those purposes aren’t the same.
Lately rather than fighting with people I’ve found myself wondering, Cui bono. Who benefits?
What if these trolls aren’t just attention whores getting their jollies by stirring shit.
What if stirring shit is how they earn a living?
I wonder because I’ve discovered there are people out there who will pay for people to write reviews for businesses. But there is even a darker side there are people who get paid to go on the sites of other business and write negative reviews.
Weird and nasty.
Not to mention extremely boring that people are still pushing the same BS they were pushing ten years ago.
Women Born Transsexual 
April 30, 2012 at 2:37 pm
I do not have the interest, time, or energy to get after issues that aren’t even passably viable anymore. TGism is in its end days; as a result, militant TS activists responses are off point. The season has come to build. At least that is my not-so-humble opinion.
April 30, 2012 at 2:52 pm
I’m actually friends with a lot of the saner Trans-Activists, many of whom are also post-op transsexual men and women.
Many are also involved in causes far beyond those of the Transgender Borg, often beyond LGBT as well.
Things like Occupy and environmentalism.
I don’t like bullying from either side.
I hate the creepy HBS trolls with their sock puppets and aliases.
At least the Borg sign their bullshit with real names.
April 30, 2012 at 7:22 pm
We think of our friends and/or acquaintances as men or women first. If they are active in anything that comes as part of who they are. In fact, among our real-life friends there is just one close friend who has history and is post-op. We have a number of interests in common but I hardly ever talk to her about “that” — it is only a distant echo now.
As for the HBS/TrueTS stuff, we examined the terminology but found the implementation wanting and never bought in — something we have made very clear. Even so, I keep coming across nasty references to either (1) our TG tendencies, or (2) or HBS/TrueTS commitment. Never was; never will be.. Go figure.
April 30, 2012 at 8:08 pm
Yeah I know… When I first started this blog the HBS/Classic transsexuals flocked here looking for a kindred souls. When the decided I was more a left wing hippie that saw the whole thing as strangely insecure they started denouncing me. On the other hand I was actually one of the pioneers of early Transsexual Activism and yet the TG Borg don’t like me because my life contradicts their fictionalized history.
The one thing I’ve noticed ia how many of the “HBS/Classic transsexuals” don’t really fit their ideal. Either they came out in middle age, or have these careers as engineers and truck drivers.
As Andrea James pointed out a number of them claim to be disabled.
Now I may start Social Security at 65 instead of 66 but part of that is because the job market for people my age sucks and I can’t handle standing on a concrete floor for six to eight hours at a time.
I’ve sort of come to think that those who scream the HBS line the loudest are rarely good candidates to be considered “classic transsexuals.”
Especially when their lives seem to consist of internet trolling.
April 30, 2012 at 9:13 pm
I have never understood why it’s so important to be a “classic transsexual” (whatever that is), or some sort of “special” HBS person.
Isn’t the goal to be a woman? To be just another woman — perhaps “special” because of some activity, talent, achievment, etc?
Doesn’t the “I’m SPECIAL BECAUSE I’m a ‘classic transsexual’/’HBS’ person — and you’re NOT” idea go against all of the goals stated by the “I’m a woman — and you’re not” crowd?
I also do not quite understand why so many folks seem to think it’s important to be a “primary” transsexual — as opposed to being a “secondary” (again, whatever that is).
Why is it so important? Does one mean you are “more legitimate” than others?
Again, why?
Perhaps it’s important because they are filled with doubt, with self doubt. By claiming I’m BETTER than YOU — I can quiet that little nagging voice in the back of my head — that little voice that replays all the crap we were taught in our youth.
I think the goal is to deal with it ourselves. To be honest with ourselves. To recognize the crap from our youth, from our transition, from those who abandoned us, as just crap.
Trying to belittle others, trying on the role of bully does not work. It in no way helps us deal with our issues. You have to look at all the crap. Face it. Move beyond it — and not attack other folks for being different. “Othering” other folks the same way you once might have been is not a good survival strategy.
April 30, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Tina, my state of being matters most in my personal life.
Out there in the social networking bit stream it differs as you we know. Much like WBT — and inspired by it — the emergence of HBS/TrueTS was based on making a distinction between those headed for surgery (whether attainable or not). However, there were darker sides.
Many of them walked away from WBT because they saw it as political — in your case, Left Wing. But instead of recognizing that medical treatment “should” be embraced by either Left of Right, some had their own brand of politics (often petit Right). Add into that the outrageous claims that “homosexuals” are to blame for the T in GLBT and they go down a dark and perilous homophobic alley that leads to a dead end.
I personally feel that as long as SRS is excluded from insurance and/or medical care, transition is a political act, so I publicly agitate for non-partisanship (at odds with my deeply partisan soul) to garner research attention that firms up the basis for medical care. As the years pass, the medical needs become more readily admitted in the political center even as the politicians search around for their courage.
The science network is very different from the social network. It requires rigor, patience, and endless — but professional — exposure that stresses theory in supportable constructions and confirming facts in evidence. It is way below the activists radar, but I am not in this for personal acclaim.
The love of my family and friends occupies far far more of my heart.
May 1, 2012 at 12:07 am
Well it is in many ways more about politics, particularly about the politics that leave so many post-transsexual folks screwed over as a result of their finding themselves part of a minority group that is subject to discrimination.
But it is also political due to most working people being fucked over by the banks and corporations.
I also don’t hide my contempt towards the bigotry of the HBS faction.
April 30, 2012 at 10:33 pm
tinagrrl said… “I have never understood why it’s so important to be a “classic transsexual” (whatever that is), or some sort of “special” HBS person.
Isn’t the goal to be a woman? To be just another woman — perhaps “special” because of some activity, talent, achievment, etc?”
YES!!!!
May 1, 2012 at 2:20 am
“World of Transwarcraft” perfectly sums the whole thing up.
It is a farce.
Most of the HBS crowd appear to be late transitioners who instantly go into denial that they were late transitioners for reasons that i do not understand. They then go and attack everyone else who is a late transitioner and hound young TS’s all over the internet.
The TG Borg don’t seem to be much different. They attack people for being early transitioners and try to hound people all over the internet.
I have come to the conlusion that pulling there internet connecitons would be a good idea there.
May 1, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I do admire those who seriously search for a medical reason. I do not do that. Nor do I think it truly important. We deserve the same rights as every other citizen of whatever state we are a part of. We deserve the same right of self determination — not because of any biological/medical reason — but, just because we are. Just because we exist.
Would finding a “gay gene” make a difference? Would discovering the major biological reasons for growing up TS really make a difference?
I think that would only have our “condition”, our “syndrome” judged to be a “serious birth defect” — and a valid reason to abort the fetus. Same with the “gay gene”.
Haters hate. that’s what they do. Perhaps they see it as their “job” — but they HATE. They use whatever they can to support their hatred of “different” people.
Just look at the history of antisemitism. Counter-factual arguments, totally debunked “scientific” studies, and documents, still used to promote this ancient hatred. Look at racism — same thing. And yet, those who hate — still hate — no matter what you or I say.
It’s an article of FAITH. This is what they BELIEVE, and no “objective truth” can shake that FAITH. These are “Religions of Hate”.
Looked at this way — “transition”/coming out is ALWAYS a political act. Going against the expected order of things, for whatever reason, is always seen by the society you are a part of as a POLITICAL ACT.
What I do not understand is why so many folks seem to want to align themselves with those who would destroy them?
Why do some “lesbian-radical-feminists” use the very same arguments against post-transsexual women as the radical-right-wing uses against them? Why must some transsexual (pre-op) and post-transsexual women use arguments similar to the radical-right-wing against TG and even gay folks? At the same time — some TG “leaders” do the exact same thing when any WBT/TS/post-TS person claims independence from the cult our fine TG friends have formed.
Why do ALL these people act this way? — oh-oh, wait a minute — just look at Belgium — the Walloons and the Flemish. This nation, one of the founding members of The European Union is being torn apart simply because those two groups do not get along. Even before the Belgium Revolution in 1830 when Belgium seceded from The Netherlands, it was known as Belgium. The ROMANS called it Belgica — and yet, these folks still dislike each other enough to each want their own country.
Look at the “Lost Cause” southerners — their revisionist history, outright fabrications, and denial of what really happened continues to this day. It helps maintain an often virulent form of racism.
For all these folks neither truth nor self interest seem to matter — only their FAITH.
So — back to the point — we deserve equal rights simply because we are. simply because we are citizens of whatever state we are a part of. We do not require justification from outside “experts”, from MD’s or shrinks.
We validate ourselves. At the same time, does it make sense to do to others almost exactly what has been done to us?
Being TS/post-TS/WBT is a political act. Most of us go from being some small part of :”The Masters Of The Universe” (male) — no matter how small — to being a part of a “lesser” class. It makes no sense. Neither you nor I have lost our abilities. We have not lost our talents — and yet — others tend to now discount us. No amount of clinical justification will change that.
So, as I see it — my interests are best served by supporting those in our society seen as “lesser”, those who are still hated, those who our good religious folk — be the of ANY religion — preach against. Those who are damned from the pulpit — not for any grave sin, or crime — but for BEING, for existing.
The very same folks who use The Bible to damn us say our marriage rights will open the door to polygamy, bestiality, etc. Meanwhile polygamy seems to be sanctioned by The Bible — and there’s a “reality” show on some channel called “Sister Wives” — all about a polygamous family. Why aren’t those churches picketing the channel, boycotting both the channel and the sponsors? Why not fire and brimstone sermons about those folks? Why not do as they do to gay folks — and call for the death of such families? Why not deny them welfare, food stamps, any and all equal rights?
Oh — I see — they are not gay, and their existence supports an ancient patriarchal order – while being gay, or trans (of ANY type) actually does not. No matter how much of a “fembot” any trans person wants to be, or becomes, the reality is that leaving the dominant male sex for that of female is often seen by society as a form of betrayal.
Individuals might be able to overcome these issues even though their past is known. Some go into “deep stealth” (I do not count the HBS, CT, folks who are all over the web as being stealth at all) – and continue with their lives. But, too many of those folks seem to be isolated from themselves and the rest of the world.
I think “success” for us is living a good meaningful life, maintaining a balance, and never forgetting where we come from. Oh yeah, and NEVER forgetting that what we did, for whatever reason, will be seen as a “political act” by many, many, folks.