Letters to the Editor

• @ bobbyjoe

  [Read the article: Why the T in LGBT is here to stay]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I think we need to set aside this "idealism vs. pragmatism" paradigm; i.e., if you're in favor of trans-inclusion you're following your heart, if you're in favor of trans-exclusion you're being "practical" and/or "strategic." Rather than talk about hurt feelings and/or who belongs in the "community," I want to take this "pragmatism" argument head-on. Please, any of you who are telling us that ENDA is at risk if we include gender identity, explain to me exactly how many votes we lose. Which votes do we lose? Please, enlighten me. Tell me what the chances are of passing both a GLB and a GLBT version in both the House and the Senate, vote by vote. And then, tell me what the chances are that Bush will veto the damned thing anyway. And then tell me whether we would have a 2/3 vote to override such a veto, again, both the GLB and GLBT versions, vote by vote. Come on, sell me on this pragmatic argument. Give me some facts and figures. Did you conduct a poll, that contrasted the average American's feelings towards gays with their feelings towards trangender people?

  Or did any of you bother to do any of this sort of research before throwing hurtful barbs at the T community?

  I have been hearing this tired old argument for years, about why transgender people aren't really part of our "community," how they reflect badly on us, how we all cringe when they show up at Pride, and how they're riding the coattails of the gay movement, blah blah blah. And you know what? This argument always, always, always, ALWAYS comes from some white gay male. I've never heard lesbians engage in this kind of vitriol, and the straight people I know who are close enough to gay activism to hear these arguments are usually completely mystified by them. My two-bit psychological theory is that certain gay men are repulsed by the notion of effeminacy in men (in fact, there's a great book on this topic called Sissyphobia, by Tim Bergling), and you guys are projecting some sort of internalized something-or-other onto MTF transsexuals and transgender people. Moreover, you are assuming that the average American shares your disdain, when in fact, you have no evidence that this is the case.

  Well, let me tell you something, boys (and by "boys," I mean, the gay white male bigots who keep pushing this argument): As a lesbian, I am damned sick of your attitude. I served 4 years in the U.S. Army under the nefarious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which was put in place and remains in place to this day for one reason and one reason only: Fear of gay men in showers. Not trannies, not Liberace, not fear of soldiers flouncing around in feather boas--fear of gay male sexual predators, preying on men in showers and spreading disease. Yeah, I get regularly lectured by the right wing about my "unhealthy" lifestyle and accused of spreading a disease that is "God's wrath," despite the fact that lesbians are at lower risk for STDs than the average heterosexual. I and countless other lesbians have suffered under the military's policies (see http://www.sldn.org), all because we're supposedly riding on "your" coattails. Also, countless other lesbians (including people like Elizabeth Birch) spent a generation taking leadership roles in this movement--much to the chagrine of gay men who started grousing about "reverse discrimination"--when an entire generation of gay male leadership FREAKIN' DIED. By the way, you're welcome.

  A few years ago, a professor named Diane Mazur published a law review article in which she suggested that Don't Ask, Don't Tell be repealed in a way that allowed lesbians to serve, but not gay men. Her argument was that there's little evidence that lesbians undermine unit cohesion, no one seems to care who they shower with, they rarely get pregnant, and the wives are perfectly happy to have their husbands spend their days and nights with other women as long as the women are lesbians (making them preferable in many ways to straight women). It was mostly a rhetorical game on Prof. Mazur's part, intended to turn the arguments in favor of DADT on their head, but it also kind of suggests that maybe it's you guys who are holding the movement back, not us lesbians and certain not the transgender community. Oh, except that you bankroll the movement, a fact that some of you are more than happy to bring up at the slightest opportunity.

  My point is this, boys: GET OVER YOURSELVES. I know this might be hard to get through your privileged white male skulls, but you don't own the clubhouse, you don't get to decide who belongs in it, and there are a lot of people in your "community" who have been supporting you for a very long time who are starting to find this boyish game of yours more than a little bit tiresome.

  Permalink Thursday, October 11, 2007 07:07 AM