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http://www.thescavenger.net/glbsgdq/dont-call-me-transgender...
I found this to be an interesting essay. The comments below it are almost as interesting. The article reveals the sometimes contentious views about the term transgender, in all its ramifications, and how it's use as an umbrella term may trample on self identities.
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I've been saying something
I've been saying something similar for some years. I have no problem with people who consider themselves transgendered, but I'm not one of them. If the context is such that you don't need to distinguish me from any other woman, then don't. If my medical history is relevant, I'm a former (post-op) transsexual woman. I think transgendered is a fine term for people who reject the gender binary, or want to blur lines between the sexes. Heck, I have no problem with anyone who feels comfortable with the term transgendered using it to describe themself, even if they are also transsexual. But like swinging a fist (and yes, labels are political fists), your right ends at my nose. Don't apply that label to me. I reject its use an an umbrella term, though, mostly because I think it's pointless to have an umbrella term. Some of the people that they try to lump together under that term understand each other less than those they don't might understand any of us, and conflating us all together only sows confusion and discord.
Perhaps we should eliminate all umbrella terms?
Like "human"?
This article protests the use of transgender as an umbrella term based on some vague accusation that this may do harm to some people's sexual or gender identity.
Perhaps, but certainly not as much harm as is done by being beat to death in an alley because one belongs to a group that does not have enough political power to enact equal rights laws. Let's get the politics sorted out and admit that transgender is as much a political term as a social one and then we can worry about subgroup politics and labels. Trying to insist on the subgroup labels before the larger purpose is achieved would be similar to blacks wanting all of the differences of heritage between them recognized before they got their civil rights.
Right now, some Hispanics are engaged in a similar destructive-to-a-larger-purpose nitpicking over just what is a Hispanic. Some people of diverse backgrounds resent being lumped in with others but the fact is, to the ingroup, non-Hispanics, the distinctions between a Cuban, a Puerto Rican, and a Mexican are not the differences over which discrimination may be practiced. Even amongst people of Mexican heritage there are agitations that different generations of Americans of Mexican descent, illegal, Indios, et cetera are all different groups.
These are the same arguments that are used to object to LGBT (or GLBT) as an umbrella group when the absolute rock-bottom fact of the matter is that the outgroup cannot afford to fragment in the face of institutionalized ingroup discrimination.
There's a flag for that. I think it was designed by Benjamin Franklin and it shows a snake cut up into pieces and it says, "Join or Die."
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
And this as well....
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Stealth
I understand the reasoning behind unity and/or strength in numbers. But there does need to be true unity, a joining of equals. I'm "T" and a lesbian, or as far as I'm concerned, I'm a lesbian. The "T" situation was, as Angharad says, "cured" or surgically-corrected some years ago. But even in the GLBT (and Q) groups, there is very much a "red-headed stepchild" stigma attached to being part of the "T". As long as that continues to be the case, there is no real unity.
Rather than the snake whose parts make up the whole in harmony, the GLBT community is more like a lizard that can shed it's tail to escape an enemy, and the "T" in GLBT is that tail. This is why I don't associate with any GLB groups anymore. Their agenda is not our agenda, and whenever convenient they will drop us and scamper merrily off.
On a bit of a tangent, I've been spending a lot of time over on deviantArts lately. They are wonderfully-accepting group, with groups and forums for just about every point on the sexuality/gender scale. The only thing that is not tolerated, it seems, is intolerance. During a recent upgrade the individual settings got bumped back into a binary gender setting for members. There was a substantial outcry from all sides, and it was one of the first things fixed. It would be nice if the more mainstream organizations would adopt that attitude.
As the saying goes: I don't care what you call me, just call me in time for dinner!
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Law and Stealth
As long as laws and law enforcement are allowed to discriminate, stealth is an illusion. When the law or those interpreting or enforcing the law act to discriminate, there is no hiding.
I went through this whole thing when Jeanne died, the law said I had the decision-making power over Jeanne's affairs because I had power of attorney and we had a state-approved domestic partnership. Agencies, private and public, ignored the laws as written and gave control of Jeanne's affairs to her sister who hated her.
T*s just do not have enough presence or gravitas alone in the public sphere to get fair treatment. It's not that the LGBT alliance is the best way to do it, it's more or less the only effective one. Saying that there is discrimination in the LGBT community against T is true and that has to be worked on. Abandoning the alliance is abandoning the hope of ever really having influence over public policy. And many of the LGB people also realize this; they need the T*s, too because every voice is important.
If it were true that no gains had been made by T*s by working with the LGBT alliance, and that LGBs always abandoned Ts when convenient, then yes, the alliance would be broken and useless. Neither of those things is true. Almost all of the gains made by T*s have been made by working with the LGBT alliance and getting included in language and because it is one of the smaller and more distinct (to outsiders) groups in the alliance, it is the easiest to abandon -- and yet it has not always been abandoned.
This is group politics, not individual friendship. Because some amorphous group has had some members and some occasions to be less than loyal does not mean that everyone in that group is always going to be disloyal.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Voice of Reason
There is a misconception that Erin acts as the Voice of Reason around here because she owns the place.
While it is true, she does own the place and has the first and last Right of Refusal, it is also (and more) true that she acts as the Voice of Reason, because she is so darned reasonable.
Over the years I've found that kissing up to Erin doesn't always work, so I simply love her . . . which does.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Doomed to fail.
Specifically, the removal of any generalizations is doomed to failure. We, as a species, are programmed for stereotypes and generalizations. In fact, it's not limited to humans; many prey species have taken on the form of inedible prey species for protection.
Basically, the 'Don't judge a book by it's cover.' statement is something that's impossible to implement, but should still be kept in mind. In fact, it might be better to try to teach people that they need to be aware of the first impressions, then think about them, rather than the trite statement above, which says to throw away first impressions, and go for deeper meanings. Sometimes a flower is a rose, sometimes it's a violet, and sometimes it doesn't matter - it's a stinky plant :)
As humans, we seem to have a need to categorize and label everything, no matter how trite it might be. Think of the various ways that ethnic and racial groups have referred to themselves and others throughout recorded history. Shoot, even the Native American groups did it - they had a name for themselves, which usually meant something like "The people", and a name for other groups, which was either a derogatory statement like "blubber eaters", or a statement of "Not people".
When you get down to it, the LGBT descriptions in general are absurd. Sexuality is a polar continuum, not a set of points on a line. Most men are closer to the 'heterosexual' pole than women are - I think that's a function of natural selection and 'safety in numbers' programming - but both men and women can be all over that continuum. If anything, those who are TG are the hardest to deal with, because mentally they can be one direction, physically another, and emotionally a third. Kind of like teeing off a golf ball in a tiled bathroom.
Despite this, the labels are unavoidable. They enable people to create connections, awful as those can be sometimes.
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Shrug
Can't say I'll get too worked up over being lumped as TG. I was born a boy, ostensibly normal and healthy. I 'chose' to change that, thus I am not 'typical'. I live as me, but have not had surgery, aint money a bitch?, but I accept that I step outside the majority's understanding of man and woman. Sometimes I get some very personal questions, sometimes a bit of grief, mostly 'they' shrug' and get on. Just the way it goes. If a 'label' helps gradual understanding I won't object.
Yet I am not much of a group person, I don't do 'let's share' well. Bit of a loner I suppose, but not pathological about it, we all need people, friends, colleagues, whatever. I'm comfortable with me mostly, slings and arrows and all. Has its moments sure, but what choice? It is what it is and we all make judgements and have our prejudices. Call me TG, or TS, yeah okay. Call me 'he-she', I'll bristle, call me 'it' the fangs come out. It's all degree and perspective.
Hey, just call me Kristina, that's cool.
Kris
But no simple word fits me...
...or "Why can't we all just get along?"
These debates over these distinctions really seem to be centered in the T and/or GLB communities themselves, which is really sad. The straight community could give a rat's ***. They think we're crazy for not supporting each other, and they're right. I know there are some in the GLB community would just as soon throw us T's under the bus, but I find treating individual GLB people with respect and fighting for their causes goes a long way to gaining acceptance from individuals, GLB or straight. And lest we forget, since the straight community really does tend to lump us together, broader acceptance of them also helps us.
At work, I have joined in the work of getting domestic partner benefits for retirees and tying up the loose ends on the DPBs for the employees. Lesbian friends helped me put together transition guidelines for management and HR and have join me in working for a better bathroom/lockerroom policy for the T folks. We don't hang out in each others circles, and a lot of time I really don't fully understand what they are going through. Most of the lesbians in the group are butch. They don't get why I love skirts and painted toenails. But we did all grow up being shamed for what most of the straight community sees as shades of the same issue, be that the truth or not. Despite our differences, we support each other. I just wish the larger GLB and T communities could get beyond the debate over the names and respect and help each other.
I understand the trouble some people have with the 'transgender' umbrella term, but it really is what I go back to. Crossdresser doesn't fit me, though to an outsider it might seem like that is what I do. Transsexual or transwoman seem to fit those who transition and live in the target gender 100% of the time. But I'm trapped in the middle. Whenever I tell someone I'm 'transgender' I use that as a starting point. It takes a few minutes to really explain how I fit into this space, and to do it I have to point out the other sorts of people who fit in under the term. After an initial conversation, and with poeple I don't really know, 'transgender' is just easier to use in conversation than 'part-time-transitioned-semi-closeted-non-op-but-may-someday-when-the-kids-are-older-transsexual'. People may find their identities get lost in the term 'transgender', but it really is the only one that I feel like I can use.
Alison