(no subject)
A good friend of mine tossed this grenade over the fence at me. I shake my head in wonder...
=====================
Trans Issues in Africa (and elsewhere)
In the aim of strengthening their cause, gay rights activism often compromises the identity and struggle of trans gender people by lumping the two communities' issues together, writes Audrey Mbugua.See the Whole article at allAfrica.com
http://allafrica.com/m|GC[stories/201102110459.html
=====================
From where I stand, it seems obvious that there are (at the very least) TWO issues here. Gay people are ATTRACTED what ever sex they identify with being. Trans people however, seem to have been born into a body which DOES NOT MATCH the sex they identify with.
Vastly oversimplified, the dichotomy amounts to a difference between a charactistic (brown eyes, blonde hair, homosexuality) and a birth defect (hare lip, spina bifida, wrong-sexedness).
No doubt there is a LOT of confusion generated because a trans person might ALSO be a homosexual. The two conditions are NOT mutually exclusive. Further, a trans person may not at first have any idea what's going on- Gods know that far from promoting a consciousness raising about TS/TG issues, the current climate is more one of witch-hunting, persecution and outright murder.
Who's a confused kid going to turn with such feelings? Especially if there's a growing understanding of Gay/Lesbian issues, and a growing number of people and places where openly gay people are accepted? To a young, confused/ignorant/scared kid, the issues might appear superficially the same.
Moreover, the (not unjustified) unwillingness of trans people to stand up and declare theselves (thereby exposing themselves to the above mentioned witch-hunting, persecution and outright murder) militates against any large protest against this lumping-together. Instead, the relative silence of the TS/TG community makes them unwilling members of the struggle for Gay/Lesbian rights, while they and their community are still shrouded in ignorance, superstition and prejudice.
It must rest to some degree upon those of us who are NOT at risk to take up their part, to be willing to be their public faces, and to support their efforts to be known and understood in a way that does NOT provide their persecutors with new prey.
=====================
Trans Issues in Africa (and elsewhere)
In the aim of strengthening their cause, gay rights activism often compromises the identity and struggle of trans gender people by lumping the two communities' issues together, writes Audrey Mbugua.See the Whole article at allAfrica.com
http://allafrica.com/m|GC[stories/201102110459.html
=====================
From where I stand, it seems obvious that there are (at the very least) TWO issues here. Gay people are ATTRACTED what ever sex they identify with being. Trans people however, seem to have been born into a body which DOES NOT MATCH the sex they identify with.
Vastly oversimplified, the dichotomy amounts to a difference between a charactistic (brown eyes, blonde hair, homosexuality) and a birth defect (hare lip, spina bifida, wrong-sexedness).
No doubt there is a LOT of confusion generated because a trans person might ALSO be a homosexual. The two conditions are NOT mutually exclusive. Further, a trans person may not at first have any idea what's going on- Gods know that far from promoting a consciousness raising about TS/TG issues, the current climate is more one of witch-hunting, persecution and outright murder.
Who's a confused kid going to turn with such feelings? Especially if there's a growing understanding of Gay/Lesbian issues, and a growing number of people and places where openly gay people are accepted? To a young, confused/ignorant/scared kid, the issues might appear superficially the same.
Moreover, the (not unjustified) unwillingness of trans people to stand up and declare theselves (thereby exposing themselves to the above mentioned witch-hunting, persecution and outright murder) militates against any large protest against this lumping-together. Instead, the relative silence of the TS/TG community makes them unwilling members of the struggle for Gay/Lesbian rights, while they and their community are still shrouded in ignorance, superstition and prejudice.
It must rest to some degree upon those of us who are NOT at risk to take up their part, to be willing to be their public faces, and to support their efforts to be known and understood in a way that does NOT provide their persecutors with new prey.