Further proof there is no “Transgender Umbrella”. Mostly the “Transgender Community” gloms onto post-op transsexuals for legitimacy and disowns sex workers and drag queens for their outlaw status.
But heaven forbid post-ops claim they aren’t transgender because that makes them separatists.
And people wonder why I just report the stories rather than engage in “trans-activism”.
From The Stranger: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/about-the-word-tranny/Content?oid=19946137
Banning Words Is Censorship, and Censorship Is a Conservative Tactic
by Mx Justin Vivian Bond
June 25, 2014
Last night, I was talking with someone who is in their early 20s about the troubles developing around the use of the word “tranny,” and they got very passionate, saying, “I HATE GENDER! Fuck gender!”
I asked, “How could gender change so that you wouldn’t be so upset by it?” They said, “I don’t know, I just wish I could set it on fire and get rid of it and make it go away! IT’S SO STUPID! I HATE IT!”
All I could say was: “I totally understand how you feel. So try to imagine feeling the way you feel right now for every day of your life until you’re 50. Then see how that weighs on ya!”
Gender, as we know it, sucks? Okay! Let’s try to come up with something else!
Why don’t we start by addressing the recent controversy over the use of the word “tranny”?
Tranny was invented as a term of affection between those of us who wished to live outside the gender binary system, but now a new generation of trans activists finds that word to be deeply offensive and have sought to banish it entirely. For the record, I’m sorry the word we made up was overheard by mean people and has been used to cause so much pain to those who are experiencing transphobia in their young lives. It breaks my heart that transphobes from within and outside of our “community” have used that word to inflict pain on people. I am delighted that the word “queer,” a word that continues to be loathed by a huge number of conservative, mostly bourgeois members of the LGBT community—a controversial and reclaimed umbrella term we fought hard for—has become a word that many conservative, state- and university-educated young “activists” seem to be able to cope with. For now.
You never know, though—next week, “queer” may once again become a forbidden word. But ultimately, we live in the present, and if it’s not important to them how their level of comfort with the word “queer” came about, it really, truly doesn’t matter.
Some of these young activists have been attacking self-identified trannies on the internet for using that word. I have felt the rage and anger they’ve directed at those of us who have different understandings of the words “queer” and “tranny.” It hurts to a degree, but it’s not a new pain. My greatest wish, and I mean this with my whole heart, is that the strategies they are using to combat transphobia now will lead to the better world they are hoping for. And it seems to me that there is room for both strategies (reappropriation and word-policing), because progress will most likely come about through trans visibility and dialogue around these issues, which will educate and illuminate, with the desired goal of ultimately making room in the world for an infinite variety of gender expressions.
But if by erasing the word “tranny,” they hope to get rid of embarrassing associations with trans sex workers, drag performers, trashy gender fuckers, and other self- identified “freaks” who choose to live outside the binary gender system, they are in for a big disappointment, and in my opinion, they should be ashamed of themselves. Long before and even since Stonewall, the gay bourgeoisie has tried to hide the drag, leather, and trans subcultures away from the mainstream media to present a “positive” face in order to gain mainstream acceptance for the heteronormative LGBT people of their own class. This was also a strategy adopted by many feminists when they tried to purge lesbians from their ranks when feminism started to get a lot of mainstream attention. It didn’t work for them, and it won’t work for the (hopefully) well-intentioned trans “activists” who are getting a lot of mainstream media play and who have been have attacking other people who have more liberal and fluid notions of what gender can be.
This argument around word-policing has mistakenly been described as “a generational thing.” It’s not. It’s about conservative tactics versus more progressive ones, and traditionally conservative media outlets like the Advocate as well as private and state-run academic institutions are more than happy to give them a platform. Before “Queer Studies” programs became institutionalized, there were loudmouthed, rebellious queers who were a threat to the status quo, and they were hated. Banning words is censorship, and censorship is a conservative tactic. Maybe you’ve heard this one? “I don’t mind that you’re gay, but do you have to talk about it all the time?”
Complete article at: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/about-the-word-tranny/Content?oid=19946137
Women Born Transsexual 