Pardon me if I get emotional here. I will do my best not to be shrill or unreasonable. In fact, I think my position here is very reasonable. To wit, I've seen my fellow Kossacks, on at least two occasions, use transgenderism as an attack on Republicans--once against Ann Coulter, and once against Tom DeLay. Such attacks should rightly disgust every person who champions progressive values. There are plenty of ways to confront Republican hypocrisy without ad hominem attacks that rely on stereotypes and shameful emotions which denigrate a beleagured and persecuted minority.
I make no secret that I am, myself, a transsexual woman. That is, I was born with male anatomy, but from an early age I knew I was not like boys. It wasn't until puberty that I began to suspect how unlike boys I was, and when my father found out about my experiments with crossdressing, he quickly shamed me into denying my true nature for most of a decade. When, in college, I began to overcome my fears, I first considered myself a crossdresser; yet, after a couple of years, the truth became more obvious to me, that my body disguised that I was more woman than man deep inside.
That revelation cost me plenty. I lost a girlfriend who said she loved me as a crossdresser but that she was no lesbian and couldn't stay with me if I insisted on transitioning. When a friend I held in high regard found out I was dating another transsexual, she decided I was a "faggot" and cut off all contact with me. (Good riddance, perhaps, but it still hurt.) I nearly lost my family, when my father found out and demanded that nobody else in the family ever learn of my transsexuality. I wound up having a nervous breakdown, dropping out of college for a semester, dodging work and spending all day talking online with other transgendered people.
I moved to Seattle, amongst other reasons, because there is a sizeable transgender population here, because the transgendered are protected from hate crimes and discrimination by law, and because it seemed like a good way to start a new life as a woman. Even then, I only made baby steps--it took a few years to earn enough money to afford hormone prescriptions, for starts. Finally, I began living full-time en femme in 2001, comfortably walking through airports even in the wake of 9/11, using my new name, and feeling like I've finally started achieving some of my life goals.
And I am one of the lucky ones. I still enjoy a hi-tech job and am typically treated as one of the women. I've never been attacked unless you count a few snickers here and a few slurs there, and it's been a while since I endured either. Most transsexuals either have to wait much later in life to transition, or else do so before they are ready. Many lack the education to get a job with decent wages or health care, and so often wind up working as prostitutes in order to pay for the medical expenses. Rape is sickeningly common, as are murders; and stories of despair-driven suicides are tragically common in the transgender community. Those who survive often lose their family, friends, and livelihoods.
And being transsexual is but one way of being transgendered. I know many crossdressers, drag queens, and intersexed persons with similar, horrifying stories. We all have suffered in our own way, but increasingly we are willing to fight for our rights and for our lives. It does not help that we have many stereotypes against us--the male-to-females have to bear the brunt of every female stereotype plus the insinuation that our "unmanliness" is a source of shame, while the female-to-males get treated to choruses of "penis envy" and "tomboy", reinforcing the notion that they "should act like a girl." All of us bear the brunt of a society that believes, against all scientific research, that boys are boys and girls are girls and there is no gray area in-between, no way of bridging the gap between the genders, no way of crossing over. Still, we fight.
It is in the spirit of that fight, as much as in the spirit of progressive values, that I must protest the use of transgenderism against politicians and pundits we may dislike. Yes, Ann Coulter is rude, insensitive, bigoted, deplorable, attention-hungry, unprincipled, etc. etc. So what if she has an adam's apple? Even if that guaranteed that she was born a biological male--and it doesn't--so what? If she were in fact transgendered, how does that impact her shrill punditry or her disregard for truth and kindness? Oh, sure, I know, many of those who read her books and columns and keep their eyes on her TV appearances might well be aghast if they found out she was transsexual. Many would also be horrified that self-described progressives, liberals, and Democrats would use her transsexuality against her--and they would be right to be horrified. Never mind any hypocrisy on the part of Coulter's fans in this hypothetical situation. To attack Coulter for apparently being transgendered is to attack the transgendered, and as such it fails as an attack against her.
Likewise, there are apparently rumors that Tom DeLay crossdressed. Once again, I repeat--so what? He's a lying, despicable scumbag who doesn't flinch from using religion to bolster his anti-religious views, and who loves to boost Republican power while destroying what little power Democrats retain. Whether or not he dresses as a woman, in part or in whole, for whatever reason, is completely irrelevant to the discussion of whether he is fit to hold office.
We do not benefit from slandering Republicans; it makes us look sleazy while fueling their martyrdom complex. When the basis of the slander strips dignity from those who we should be actively supporting, it brings us down even further. It needs to stop. We have no mandate to encourage civil rights if we use ridiculous stereotypical images to strike against our political enemies. If progressives are to stand for inclusiveness, we must extend that inclusiveness to include... myself.
[editor's note, by lilithvf1998] CategoryLGBT