I’m not a fan of heterosexual transvestites, particularly the on-line crowd who are often fantasy cross dressers presenting very male take it or leave it domineering arguments.
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.
I actually get really pissed off when male cross dressers get in my face about not being lumped into the same category they are.
Most of them are way too testo driven and too misogynistic to not get on my nerves.
In spite of all that I feel obligated to point out that in my forty plus years of being out and having been around transgender and transsexual people I have encountered rather few heterosexual transvestites in places other than conferences or meetings, TS/TG events and gatherings or restaurants/bars/clubs catering to TS/TG people.
I’ve had sex with a couple of fairly major rock musicians who wore women’s clothes.
I’ve been to bars like the Queen Mary in Studio city that were sort of up scale from the “trannie”/drag bars where sisters hustled the men and were turning tricks. So I’ve encountered the elusive heterosexual transvestite, shy night creatures by habit, often frightened by day light, harsh words and encounters with disapproving straights.
While this species of the genus generally labeled with trans-prefixed word is often blamed for all of humankind’s woes as well as the entire system of misogyny and sexism, in reality they are only rarely spotted in the wild and when they are tend to be afraid of other people not of their particular species.
I sometimes think they are scapegoated precisely because they are easy targets and aren’t much given to defending themselves.
That pretty much leaves them a pariah minority because transsexuals are quite willing to join the majority culture in beating up on them and even the full time transgender folks aren’t terribly inclined to defend them.
The 1960s and even the 1970s are long past and in the intervening years conformity has become the rule. Freak and geek bashing along with bullying and hippie punching has become an international sport.
Now the butcher’s Bill is starting to come in ominous envelopes.
Lately I find myself thinking…
Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the Socialists…”
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.
It doesn’t make me like heterosexual transvestites enough to want to be friends or welcome them into my house. But it is enough to make me think before joining a bunch of bullies in scapegoating them.
You see the next people they are going to come after are the transgender people and pre-op transsexuals.
I’m not being paranoid. They have already started on this one.
Newest group to get the “Men in Dresses invading the Women’s Room” target hung on their back are pre-op transsexuals in schools that have non-discrimination policies.
Along with the usual suspects like BevJo Von Dohre and Cathy Brennan flogging the transvestites in the lady’s room meme we have their allies the Christo-Fascists and the ultra right wing crazies.
Bigoted minds run in the same circles.
I have come to view the radfems as allies of the radical right wing misogynists since they always show up to run their “Trannie Scare” tactics at a time when women, especially heterosexual women are under attack.
Nothing like a good scare tactic to distract women from the “War on Women”.
I find it really interesting that I’m post-transsexual. I’ve been fucking sterile for some 43 years and yet I run far more articles about reproductive rights and abortion on a blog titled, “Women Born Transsexual” than you ever find on most “radical feminist” blogs. Indeed I run far more general feminist articles than one usually finds on their blogs.
For months now they have been saying about their campaign, “Its only transvestites in the Lady’s Room.”
Except now the target has moved and it’s pre-ops in the Women’s room and their allies on the right agree.
See:
Perhaps if we could get past fighting about whether we are all part of the same group and have to wear the same label we might move on to actually fighting the right wing instead of each other.
The Radical Right is trying to co-opt feminism by calling anti-abortion centers and right wing pacs “Susan B. Anthony” this and that.
I think it is a mistake to join the radfems in beating up on the transvestites if for no other reason than the radfems and their allies the radical right have already started in on the pre-ops.