Transsexual Elitism

[justanormalgirl.livejournal.com]

There is a curious phenomenon among members of some groups and that is self-loathing. Secretly gay politicians pass anti-gay laws and ordinances. Black women refuse to date Black men. Women are anti-feminist. Trans people denigrate other trans people.

( Harry Benjamin Syndrome and transphobia )

Elitism? Maybe not.

[labrat78.livejournal.com]

In her post previous justanormalgirl quoted.......

"You can't find equality by degrading other groups. We must stick together and support each other in all our diversity!"

Maybe true but I can understand why a few of our older sisters who have moved on are bitter about being pigeon holed with a group that they prefer not to be with. I for one certainly do not appreciate having a person speak for "my right" who has not fully transitioned, and has no plans whatsoever on doing so. I don't consider myself to be a "stuck up" TS woman with HBS but I can sympathize with those who maybe are and why they want to distance themselves as much as possible from the ones who consider being "trans gendered" a "hobby or fetish". Yes, they are out there and some are even on this list and they know who they are.

I certainly do not ever want some hetro-male crossdresser standing up for rights in the halls of Congress just because he thinks that he should not be discriminated against because of his dress. This person when asked will not ever want surgery or may not even be under a doctors or therapists care for his behavioral traits. I don't want his person of anyone like him passing themselves off as representing ME. He has no idea what goes on in my head anymore than I have with his. I KNOW what I AM and have since the age of six. Does he? Chances are the answer is no.

But yet this is the kind of representation that TRUE TS's get when confronting anyone from government officials to religious bigots. This is exactly the kind of crap that gives people like me and some of you a bad name and thats the last thing anyone wants to have is bad publicity. In fact, I don't want any publicity at all. I just want to live my life as a woman (which I am, thank you very much, BTW full time all the time). You ask around and you will find that most true TS's or HBS men and women if you prefer transition quite well when it is all planned out and done diplomatically.

So does this term HBS denote any elitism? I don't think so. Sure there are many older post op's that have a certain amount of bitterness about what is going on as well as possibly having regrets for their own transition no matter how many years ago that may have been. I can understand how they got that way. One big reason may be that they didn't have it as good as this present generation. Times are different, thats for sure and transitioning is not horribly stigmatized like it has been in the past due mostly to more public exposure of the condition.

But all this good publicity will go right down the tank as long as the American public see people out there demanding rights and special treatment for themselves while claiming to represent a mostly unseen and quiet group who, if they did their planning and didn't make asshole out of themselves while doing it, have already slipped into their role that they should have had at birth but were denied it.

Transsexualism or Harry Benjamin Syndrome is a MEDICAL CONDITION! It is NOT a fad, phase, fetish, hobby or anything else. I for one certainly do not want to have the wrong person standing up for me, pretending to know how I feel when that person can go home, change clothes and become whoever they want.

That's my two cents on the matter.

Traci

Mods?

[profgreen.livejournal.com]

Would it be possible if a moratorium was placed on entries about the psychological/physiological/medical/identificatory status of transsexuality/transgenderism/HBS/Whatever the fuck it is.

The reason I ask for this is because we all tend to get along fairly well until this topic comes up and then tempers flare and we are at each others throats (I'll admit i'm one of these people who gets upset because I have strong views).

I know I don't have to participate and can just scroll down my friends page, but the fact that it keeps coming up is rather ridiculous. I know it is a hyper-sensitive issue in this post-ENDA era and thus worth talking about. But NO ONE seems to be able to talk about it sensibly, so perhaps we can save our breath.

I mean lets put ourselves in the shoes of a scared little boy or girl who is having gender issues. They timidly search transgendered on LJ and come across this community which should be here for support. Instead they see some pro/anti HBS post with us all about ready to rip each other's genitals out so it won't matter anymore!

What would they think? Would another one fall back into the darkness? Would it be further confirmation for that person that there was no hope?

I think "transgender" should be a hope building community. Not a warzone.

Mod post

[ftmichael.livejournal.com]

christinemax and I have discussed the issue of discussing 'Harry Benjamin Syndrome' and other various identities, and the potential divisiveness thereof. We've decided to continue to allow those discussions for the time being, but with the caveat that if we see community rules being broken, appropriate action will be taken. Discussion and debate are fine as long as everyone remains respectful. The comments in the recent post by labrat78 have so far done a fine job of that. We'll be keeping a close eye on potentially explosive discussions to make sure everyone plays nice with each other.

ETA: If you make a post regarding HBS/identities or anything else that you think will spark debate, I'm going to require that you have the word 'controversial' somewhere in your subject line. This will help people avoid such discussions if they choose to.