GLB__________________________________t

[aki-no-kaze.livejournal.com]

I posted this to the gsa_lj community, but I would be interested in hearing what you all think on the matter.



I got to thinking last night, after a rather heated discussion with people about how they felt that transpeople were "tricking" others into having sex with them, about why transpeople are constantly bombarded with the association that who we are, and what we are doing, is somehow tied to sex (verb).

and it hit me... it is because we have associated ourselves with the GLB movement, a movement we have no reason to be in and should never have been in in the first place.


The GLB community is, and always has been, based on one common factor: sex. Who you sleep with is what differentiates you from the world at large, you are tied together by who you put what in and where. Transpeople however, are not part of this sexualized community. We are not here because who we sleep with is different then the straight community (not to say there are no GLB transfolk, but their GLB status is not related to their identity as a transperson) but rather we have a medical condition that requires medical treatment.


gays are men who have a preference for sex with men
lesbians are women who have a preference for sex with women
bisexuals are people who have a preference for sex with men or women
transsexuals are people who have a severe dysphoria about their physical sexual characteristics as well as how they are perceived by others to be a member of a gender they do not feel they are.

*hums a few bars of Sesame Street's One of these things is not like the other*


so I have to wonder, why are we part of the glb community? what sets us apart from the hetero-normative culture has nothing to do with who we have sex with (verb), but what our sex is (noun) in relation to how we know inside that it should be. Is this where we should be, and is it doing more harm then good?

Honestly, I think it is time that we stopped clinging to the coat tails of the GLB movement, that association has sexualized our condition to the point where even other queer folks now think there is nothing wrong with insulting a transperson by telling them that their lifetime of struggle to be who they are is little more then a ploy to get more sex by tricking people, insinuating that our condition is tied to sexual desire in the same way that all other members of the GLB community are linked together. The GLB community is, as I said, based on sex... it is what ties them together and because transfolk are not part of this sex culture it always leaves us on the outside, either ignored at best, or constantly insulted at worst.

This association also has huge drawbacks when applied to the way in which transpeople are perceived by straight culture. Having been associated with the GLB movement for so long, we have been linked with the idea that being trans is in some way tied with sex (verb), since it is sex (verb) that ties the GLBs together. This association has radically held back our ability to fight for equal rights, medical access, and general respect from the public at large... because our condition is viewed by many as a sexual preference, it is seen as unnecessary to provide us with any more consideration then the GLB movement as a whole. Since GLBs do not require medical treatment, why should transpeople? If GLBs are covered against discrimination, aren't transpeople covered as well? Why should we make special considerations (read: spend money) on one part of the GLBt community and not on others?



so what can we do? Well, I for one will no longer be associating as part of the GLB community on the basis of my transsexuality (my bisexuality is another matter). We aren't one of you and we should stop pretending to be, we aren't tied to you by who we sleep with so it makes little sense to continue to hang out with a group that we have nothing in common with.