ENDA da wurld?

[pandora_parrot]

I wrote an essay on a disturbing trend I've been seeing online lately in trans-related forums and support groups. Feel free to read on if you like.

x-posted to transgender, tranny_rage, and transfeminism.



Ever since the whole ENDA fiasco where big name GL(b) organizations turned their backs on trans folk, I've been seeing an increase in what I might call "Trans-fundamentalism" throughout the net. There doesn't seem to be any one group or belief system emerging quite yet, but there are several trends I've noticed:

- The "trans-fundamentalists" are often extremely sexist/misogynistic in their language, seemingly believing that stereotypes of men and women are actually facts handed down from on high. Men walk like *this.* Women talk like *that.* Men hold their heads *this way* Women like *these things* etc. To me, it's all the same bullshit that's been used against trans people throughout their early lives to require us to fit society's expectations of how girls and boys *should* act.

- Many of these "trans-fundamentalists" seem to identify with a notion called "Harry Benjamin Syndrome" where transsexualism is seems as distinct from all other forms of transgender expression. It is portrayed as a "birth defect" and a purely medical condition. While I don't have any problem with this notion as a theory, it is being touted by many of these individuals as a scientifically proven fact, which is far from the case.

- The biggest thing I've noted from "Trans-fundamentalists" is their disdain for anyone that doesn't closely match their version of what it means to be trans. Cross-dressers, transvestites, genderqueers, gender-fluid/gender-fucked people, etc. are often spoken of with disdain and disgust. There is often a distinction made between "transsexuals" and "transgenders," the former of which is touted to be "normal" while the others are described as deviants, perverts, wacko-liberal-activists, or just simply dismissed as irrelevant.

- Many of the individuals that I've seen fit this description appear to be "know-it-alls," telling people from all walks of life that *their* ideology is the one right way to be a transsexual. They are frequently among the first to post to forums where the readership is primarily gay/lesbian. They often pounce on "newbie" trans-folk, telling them how to *properly* be trans.

- EDIT I forgot to add that they frequently seem to be atrocious at spelling and grammar. :)

An ex-lover of mine, that transitioned a little over 10 years ago, commented that the modern era is a lot more accepting of non-gender-normative expression than the her era of trans-folk. Back then, the only way to do things right was to transition, get SRS, and go stealth, leaving your old life behind forever. The prize that you were supposed to seek was to find a member of the opposite gender to marry, without your partner ever knowing that you "used to be the same gender as them." This was the only way that her community knew to transition, and she felt that she had to match it.

As I began transition, I was surrounded by other young transitioners that seems to throw off a lot of the sexist bullshit that seemed prevalent back that. People were out and proud about being queer. Many of them weren't ashamed of their other sub-culture affiliations, either. Polyamorous people. Kinky people into BDSM. Folks in the goth, punk, and straight-edge scenes. Bisexuals. Feminists. Vegans. Animal Rights Activists. Pagans. Otherkin. Furries. Gamers. Geeks. Sci-Fi Nerds. Ravers. All sorts of things like that. They're PROUD to be themselves, and I'm proud to count myself among them.

But that all seems to be changing again. I'm seeing an increasing number of folks that want to return to something like it was 10+ years ago. They want to bring back the notion that the best way to transition is to gain acceptance from the normals. Instead of being an empowering community of self-acceptance, they want it to be a community about how to differentiate yourself from those FREAKS. My ex-lover still struggles with this to this day. There's a voice in her head from all those "tranny-mommas" telling her that letting ANYONE know she's trans is wrong and horrible. She lives in fear of people finding out her history, even in communities that she KNOWS accept other trans people without question.

Frankly.... I think this trend is horribly disheartening. It seems like EXACTLY what the GL(b) community did to us tranny folk. Cuz... ya know... They're JUST like straight people, donchyaknow? They just HAPPEN to like people of the same gender. They're certainly not lake any of those FREAKY tranny people! Did you know they want to break into bathrooms to rape women and sacrifice children to dark gods?

And now these... "trans-fundamentalists" are doing the same thing right back to us: "Oh we're just TOTALLY NORMAL AND REAL WOMEN (oh, and there's a few men here, too, but don't worry about them.) We're JUST like you straight non-trans people... we were just born in the wrong body/wrong chromosomes/it's just a BIRTH DEFECT! We're certainly not like any of those FREAKY transgender people. Did you know that they want to destroy the gender binary, overthrow the government, and eat babies?"

I certainly don't have any problem with the notion that some trans folk are born in the wrong body, just have a birth defect, or whatever. Frankly, I think the notion makes a hell of a lot of sense and I would not be at all surprised if the medical community finds more evidence of this. But dude... that's not the story for all of us. Some of us don't fit in those categories. It's not so simple for us. Hell... some of us *LIKE* the notion of being different, of being "rebels" against an oppressive gender binary. The community of those that transgress gender norms is larger than these trans-fundamentalists want to believe. They want to split themselves off from the rest of us, reclaiming an old distinction that makes no sense to people unless you're well versed in trans politics.

I think the growth of this trans-fundamentalist group makes perfect sense. Our community is miffed that we were kicked out of ENDA, and many members think the best way to get back is to jettison us unsightly QUEER FREAKY folk and show the rest of the world just how NORMAL they are. And you know what... They're probably right. The "Harry Benjamin Syndrome True Transsexual Tranny-fundamentalists", if they get enough of the community behind them, probably will manage to get themselves normalized and accepted by society. Hell, it worked for the GL(b) community, why couldn't it work for them?

But it will once again be at the expense of the rest of us. Those of us that have fallen through the cracks of society because we still don't fit in. Those of us that dream of the day when we can proudly hold our head up high and announce who we are without fear of reprisal. The GL(b) community has left behind the dykes, faerie fags, bears, S&M enthusiasts, cross-dressers, and all the other folks that still are seen as "too weird for normal society." This trans-fundamentalist movement will do the same thing. And we, the freaks and weirdos, will still bear the brunt of the discrimination and abuse that goes with living your life outside of the social rules of society. We'll still struggle with high suicide rates, police brutality, and everything else that goes with being an oppressed minority.

I don't want this. Hell yes, there's a selfish component to this, absolutely. I want the ability to be myself in this society. And I want my friends and lovers to have that same freedom. It's not "flaunting" anything, like everyone always accuses us queer freaky folk of. It's just being FREE to EXIST in this world. I'm lucky in that I've found a niche where I can mostly be myself without explicit oppression, but I still live in fear. Many of my friends and lovers haven't been so lucky. And the story repeats itself throughout this nation, throughout this society, and throughout this culture.

Whatever the case, I'm going to do what I can, when I can, to fly my "FREAK" banner high and remind the normals that there's folks out there that don't fit your rules. And you know what... That should damn well be okay.

Comments

[mathwhiz78.livejournal.com]

FREAK

It's a FREAK banner.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

ROFLOL

Dude...

That's funny.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Preach it, sibling!

[fluffthebunny.livejournal.com]

Hell yes, there's a selfish component to this, absolutely. I want the ability to be myself in this society.

Hear, hear.

If being oneself requires adapting to a heteronormative view of sexuality, and a binary view of gender... then is it really being oneself?

Of course not.

[moogiewoogie.livejournal.com]

I know I'm going to get my ass kicked for saying this. I know it's not popular, but I just have to say what I want. I know that it's probably wrong as well, and that you can't compare "certain kinds of suffering" to others. In all though, I think we can agree that over time, different groups have fought for the rights they deserve, eventually gaining traction in the mainstream.

I think you're right, but I've been expecting this for a long time. Now that it's coming to fruition, I can't help but feel a bit disgusted at what I've observed. We as a society are a species of exclusion. We find people that fit into little boxes and put them there; we take people who don't fit into the normal boxes and cast them aside. Those of us who are different are "the others", off to look for their seperate piece of the pie.

It happens throughout history. When a group gains newfound freedom, they cherish it...loving it to the point of smothering. They drink it in, and become inebriated by its charm. When that takes them over, the drunkenness, that is, they become the classifiers themselves. They forget about THEIR experiences of ostracization.
Think about it this way: In the years of the Roman Empire, Christians were seen to be vermin. The Romans viewed them as the enemy and routinely treated the Christians as "the others". As time went on and Christianity spread, the religion became accepted and its followers became accustomed to being "normal". Flash forward two thousand years, and to some of those (but certainly not all) we're the enemy.

Think to the suffrage movement. How many women out their stand on the precipice of hatred, forgetting that just ninety years ago they couldn't even vote? Think to the civil rights movements of the 60's. How many African-American people forget what it was like to be the odd ones out?

In the 80's, the GLB population was very cautious of the transgender community. Even to this day, there's some strain. And now, here we are, tearing the communities apart. We've got a group of people saying they're some "Sepcial kind of person, even more special than these other 'freaks' and deserve rights". It's to be expected -- It's the natural progression of freedom in some ways. Trans people are becoming popular and more widespread. While not explicitly allowed, the progression for the allowance of different flavors of transdom is making the community splinter.

Fuck. When did we lose sight of the goal? When did we stop being people and start being faggots, queers, white folk, black folk, "harry benjamin sufferers"...? The only thing left to do it seems, is just fight and rally against that. Be yourself and be an individual. Labels are for clothes. I'm a person.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

Fuck. When did we lose sight of the goal? When did we stop being people and start being faggots, queers, white folk, black folk, "harry benjamin sufferers"...? The only thing left to do it seems, is just fight and rally against that. Be yourself and be an individual. Labels are for clothes. I'm a person.
*nods in complete agreeement*

Exactly.

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

Labels may be for clothes, but words are for communication. It's all fine to say, "I'm a person," and leave it at that. But it's only the beginning, isn't it?

To identify as a person, and nothing more, is to be a blank page. It's the lowest common denominator. It is all-inclusive, but completely without distinction. Including everything and meaning nothing.

The words tell what I am beyond being just another iteration of homo sapiens sapiens. They don't tell the whole story, of course, how could they? One must begin somewhere, though.

Words like bisexual, kinky, pagan. They aren't the end of who I am. They're just windows to let people look in.

Until someone works out telepathy or some other word-free mode of communication, were stuck with them. Sometimes, they're are all we have. Admittedly, they're slippery little things, so we have to do our best to make their meaning clear. Otherwise, what use are they.

It's the words that turn the page into poetry, after all.

[lisbethk24.livejournal.com]

Not even telepathy will be word-free. Hell's bells! We still use words to talk to ourselves in our own heads. Raw wordless thoughts are too confusing, like dreams with no interpretation.

[take-walker.livejournal.com]

I like this, I really do. Someone give this person a cookie! And a medal! And a beer, if you're into that.

Labels aren't the problem, it's the practice of using them as a singular method of understanding a person. Like you said, they're 'windows' to give people a glimpse, a starting ground, maybe a conversation topic. Not being able to move past them into the full three-dimensional personality that each of us is is a travesty.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

Have I told you how much I like you recently?

Cuz I do

A lot.

[mantic-angel.livejournal.com]

"the day when we can proudly hold our head up high and announce who we are without fear of reprisal."

I am consistantly shocked how successful it is when I just treat it as perfectly normal (and am willing to then spend the next hour explaining the concept :)) Admittedly, I live in nice liberal realms, but I've been making a point of seeing just how open I can get my life to be, of late.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

I've been making a point of seeing just how open I can get my life to be, of late.
*laughs* I've noticed.

Love you, beautiful one.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

There are always going to be people like that. It's insecurity plain and simple. The people born physical intersexed look down on transsexuals. Transsexuals look down on transgendered. Transgendered look down on transsexual, drag queens look down on transgendered, etc.

Not always and not everyone of course, but you'll find zealots in every group and you'll find that most of them are the same. They need to PROVE their way is THE ONE TRUE WAY because they're insecure about their position.


If you ever want to really catch one of the 'true transsexuals' nipples in a wringer, I suggest you mention to them that according to sociologists, women tend to interact with one another by networking. Lots of social connections and friends and there isn't a clearly defined 'Group X is better than group Y' sort of thing. More like person X is a better friend than person Y. Whereas men tend to operate on a ladder structure. People are above or below you.

That's nearly guaranteed to make them back peddle and start going on about social stereotypes of men and women. Which, you in turn, will get to find hilarious because 9 times out of 10, they won't realize that they'd just been using the very same stereotypes to assert their *cough*rather masculine, don't you think? ;)*cough* dominance.

[lisbethk24.livejournal.com]

"If you ever want to really catch one of the 'true transsexuals' nipples in a wringer, I suggest you mention to them that according to sociologists, women tend to interact with one another by networking. Lots of social connections and friends and there isn't a clearly defined 'Group X is better than group Y' sort of thing. More like person X is a better friend than person Y. Whereas men tend to operate on a ladder structure. People are above or below you."

Hee hee! Excellent!

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

It's not just in the LG(b) community. (I love that way of putting it, by the way.) All kinds of subcultures are closing up a little, putting a little distance between themselves and the "real freaks."

It's the times, the divide and rule strategy of the folks at the top. And it will only work for so long as people are afraid to stand up and wave their "labels."

[pazi-ashfeather.livejournal.com]

*hugs!*

Very well-said.

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

It is interesting. I have seen not so much this movement itself as backlash to it, pushing in the direction of greater acceptance of diversity. That still suggests to me an increased noticing of it, since the people who have been talking about it were talking about other things previously. Mrh.

To say simply it is not an unusual thing is unsatisfying. To agree prompts the thought "Okay, so now what?". It is very, very tempting to say there will always be marginalisation of (one) group(s) by another so that they may in the distinction look more acceptable to the majority, but always is a word I try to avoid. Here it suggests not only acceptance that things are how they are, but also not striving to change them.

Hm ,something to add. From what I have seen from several of the people in question, as well as the desire to separate themselves from 'freaks', they seem also afraid of those same people. Because they like fitting into the categories this society currently holds open for people (as much as they are capable of doing so), they see people's desire to live freely as themselves as an intention to destroy their own ability to live the lives they want. It suggests a point on which dialogue could be opened, if there is openness to it.

In conclusion, "Yes." P:

[lisbethk24.livejournal.com]

First of all, let me point that there was only ONE "big name GL(b) organization" that turned their back on us. It just happened to be the one that had the ear of congress. More than 350 big name GLBT organizations told them they were wrong. In my more than 50 years of life, I have never seen so much support amoung the G and L communities for T people.

I first became aware of the ground swell of that support in 2002 when I was in Baltimore at an LC assembly where the lesbian activist Rev. Jane Spahr gave the keynote saying, "We will all go through the door together or none of us will go!" That sentence resulted in a standing ovation from a room of 250 gays and lesbians (plus some bisexuals and three trans-people). That was the assembly that broke the wall that had kept trans and bi people as second-class members of the organization. And without the tireless work of G and L people, it wouldn't have happened.

Today we are seeing a conservative backlash. This is not unusual when people of a concervative persuation see the handwriting on the wall and refuse to accept it. But it is now only a matter of time until the next generation tosses them out. Rear guard actions tend to be the most bloody.

I, too, have encountered the Harry Benjamine Syndrome people and am equally frustrated by them. They are also the ones who get GRS and say, "I'm not a transsexual anymore. I'm a woman." What can I say? Are these people so uncomfortable about their pasts that they feel they have to rewrite them? Well, I'm just a TOTALLY NORMAL AND REAL WOMAN now, but I'll also never stop being a transsexual. I can't jetison the past that is part of me. My brain is big enough to hold more than one identity, and I have lots of them. I'm a parent and a programmer and a writer and a lutheran and an activist and a polyamorous lover and a Domme and lots of other things of various salience.

And even though I could likely go stealth, I refuse to go through the door and leave anyone else behind.

[regalpewter.livejournal.com]

Brilliantly said. I believe that we need to remember that there are no class divisions in a lifeboat.
It's a real shame when folks forget thier history.
Just who were the folks involved in Stonewall, anyway.
It is an old tactic of the historic 'progressives' to depower a group by turning it in against itself.
Read about the Wilson years and really worry.
YIS,
WRI