i want lots of opinions on this. you need not be familiar with the issues.
an email i received this morning:
There is a major issue in Kalamazoo regarding homeless transgender people. Today, I had a 20-year-old MTF come into the office looking for temporary housing, as she will be getting an apartment at the beginning of next month.
She has attempted to go to the Gospel Mission but because her ID says she is male, she ( Read more... )
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Maybe shelters could try to find safe houses, people with extra rooms who would be willing to host the individual under the shelter rules.
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i've been very active in the trans & allies support group at our lgbtq resource center here in the past.
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I'd like to see that film again too, it was the first movie that really brought to light that issue for me.
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if it is who i think it is, this particular person doesn't even come close to passing as a woman, ever. he looks just like a man wearing a wig."it sounds like you are still thinking of these women as men. it doesn't matter how well you pass; that is not the measure of how much you identify as a woman. to be honest, transitioning from male to female is a lot harder than female to male, it is expensive either way but even more so for mtf's. thinking about them as male prevents us from allowing them in women's spaces. thinking that they can't "fundamentally" get it or that they would be a threat is totally flawed. these women are not perpetrators- in fact they are more likely to be victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and thus need safe spaces. they are discriminated against based on gender much more blatantly than any bio woman and yet we still see them ( ... )
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private rooms sounds like a very good solution, if they are available at whichever shelter is in question.
i am also a big advocate of trans rights. my sister is trans (remember i had a little brother named jon? now i have a sister named alice.) and i am also active in the trans support and allies group at our lgbt resource center. i have made many friends there. it seems to usually be a group of very honest, brave, open-minded, and kind people.
also, when it comes to the issue of gender expectations, i am very much opposed to the traditional men-should-be-manly and women-should-be-girly type of thinking. i wish that line could be blurred into extinction.
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as a SOFFA i just get really frustrated with the double standard applied to mtf/ftm. in my experience there is so much more negativity directed at mtfs when it comes to women's spaces. and i, honestly, do see how it is tricky on both ends (ie the michfest debate or women's colleges etc.) but when it comes to social safety nets like homeless shelters and domestic abuse centers, those are spaces for people in dire situations. dire situations are not the time to debate the validity of gender in certain spaces. you go to those places because you need safety, you need shelter, and you have no where else to go and being discriminated against or having ones safety compromised is terribly upsetting to me. you know what i mean?
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i went to michfest before i really became aware of the issues that we being debated. i wasn't very trans-savy at the time. i saw them camping across the road on my way in and i saw them being escorted off the land one day as well. all of that aside, michfest was a really awesome experience, and i'm glad that now women of any origin are allowed to attend.
i think a lot of the reason that ftms sometimes have it easier than mtfs is that ftms are generally able to pass with less effort.
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