BTW: It will cause them to think alright. Think that the stereotypes they’ve heard of, and the misrepresentations that are portrayed in TS porn are accurate, and that we as a group approve of these terms, and all live that life. If this is how we are addressed by “so-called” advocates, how will this have a positive affect on the bigotry we face??? No matter how you slice it comes up the same… Being considered to be less than we are, and this is not good.

BTW, even if this was an article bashing transsexuals, addressing the issue still causes people to think.

It’s unfortunate how she was so poorly received and misunderstood at our high school, but I’m positive where she came from she was Top Diva. There are so many trannies in the Philippines, and the lines are so blurred, which is strange considering the strong Catholic influence. Culturally you see a lot less shock and disdain towards people who dig gender-f-ing. I think you’d really dig a vacation there. We should go!

Your kindness and honesty was evident in your post. ‘You’ I wouldn’t mind getting to know. I don’t believe I would have to walk the line between fire and hate to have a normal conversation. There are an awful lot of good transsexuals out there who don’t have their dagger out waiting to stab you for misspeaking. Many of us have heard the vile condemnation for blurring the boundaries between male and female. I have found when males and females have strong enough hold on their own gender, we “trannies” don’t frighten them. They are really nice people.

Have fun with life. It’s too short to take it seriously.
always,
Barb

This broad definition might not have been acceptable to Virginia Prince originally, but the broad definition was necessary to allow law to be written as to not exclude anysubgroup from the effect of discrimination on the basis of gender identity. I think that if anyone considers what we want to broadly achieve in the way of civil rights, can understand why a broad definition would be preferred by most.

Samara

For those who are “transgenderists” after the manner of Virginia Prince and Tri-Ess, who live opposite their birth sex and have no intention of obtaining surgery, “transgender” may represent a lifestyle. However, a “transsexual” is NOT living a lifestyle. A transsexual is aligning life to what he or she knows to be the truth of who he or she is. It’s an identity issue in this case, not a lifestyle issue.

Yet, Daniel Batalla’s article attempts to do something very positive. When I attended CSUF in the 70’s, I wasn’t fully “out.” I knew my gender identity was not in alignment with what I was assigned by the world. In fact I was struggling to make sense of what I needed to do at all. I did cross dress at the time. I sensed I needed to transition but had no sense of how. But I did face a very hostile environment from other students who also knew that I wasn’t really a “man.” In that day it meant a lot of ridicule. It meant a lot of non-cooperation in what was supposed to be group efforts at learning. It meant a lot of imposition of shame that drove me to the edge of suicide more than once. Eventually I dropped out of college altogether and never had opportunity to return because of work schedule demands and eventually an inability to make sense of how I could financially survive a return to school. Because of this, I know the future doesn’t belong to me. It can belong to the next generation of transgender people…if we let it.

I did have the opportunity to serve San Francisco’s Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force as an Employment Committee Secretary in 2000. This group worked for change in state law in the form of AB 196, which gave legal protections to transgender people for the first time. Passage was a huge win for my demographic. But even so, passage doesn’t stop people from discriminating. It doesn’t stop people from seeking to harm or even to kill us, sometimes even in the name of religion. We remember those who were killed each year about November 20, at the Transgender Day of Remembrance. This year, there are many from 2008-2009 to remember, each murdered for being “different.”

Mr. Batalla, you learned. You are continuing to learn. While your words may not have gone over with all of us who live under the “transgender”label, I certainly respect your facing the issue directly. Blessings.

In other words, no single trans persons speaks for all and never will. This is important to remember when some claim authority to be offended on behalf of all. In order to maintain their own identities in the face of a world that would deny them, transpeople become the most stubborn and opinionated people on the planet.

The article itself is very interesting. The pain she must have gone through, just trying to be herself and having so much trouble finding acceptance — and the danger involved. Thank you for that, and thank you for not being negative.

What Brittney said is true as well what Rev. Cathryn said, the term is both hated but also used by some within the community. I personally find it offensive when used by someone not transgender, but I also look at the context that it was used.

Lifestyle is as Brittney and others have said is a choice. While being transgender is not a choice just as having blue eyes is not a choice. To me, lifestyle is driving around in a red convertible and wearing an Ascot or having a beard.

I’m still baffled by what a “transgender lifestyle” is though.

Thank you for your empathy. It is impossible to know what words are offensive want which are not, which crossdressers are rabid transsexual haters or not.

Brittany espressed some very valid and widely accepted points. To add one item, not in criticism, but to clarify, the words “a community out there that didn’t just want to dress in drag, they wanted to change their gender.” would more accurately reflect the truth by adding the word “presentation” to the end of the sentence.

You learned like I did, at an early age, that our gender presentation would not be readily accepted at home or in school. Since this sense of gender was innate,(I were not bitten by a radioactive spider)I did what was necessary in order to avoid ridicule. This meant I had to craft a gender presentation, whether it truly reflected me or not, that would be accepted by the world around me.

You are wonderfully correct and that people like “that girl” COULD teach us a thing or two about being true to ourselves. Thank you Daniel