Well I just had an excellent lgbtq caucus session in which many bloggers and members of mainstream lgbt groups conversed on what worked and what didn't work on recent issues where the community gained success and failure.
In my section, we mostly talked about DADT and ENDA. With DADT, we all agreed that while it looked like everything gelled together, it was really a hodge podge of luck and crap shots held together by the diligence of those working on the outside (Get Equal and those members of the Armed Forces who chained themselves to the White House fence) and those working on the inside to force the vote.
A good point was made as to how we were able to control the issue so much that the horror stories from the right (i.e. soldiers being sexually assaulted in the showers, ogled by gay soldiers) had no resonance.
ENDA was a stickier issue in that we had to address the problems with transphobia within the lgbtq community. There were several excellent points made about this. I made the point that transphobia is indicative of a larger problem in our community in that that we don't take the time to educate ourselves on the different groups and ethnicities which make up the lgbtq community.
And at this point, I really need to admit something.
When I was in college, I had transphobia. I had the mistaken belief that transgender issues had nothing to do with gay issues and I voiced that opinion to a few people.
My mind changed because of a play by Charles Fuller called A Solider's Play. In it, there was a character who mistakenly believed that the African-American community is held back, not by white oppression, but by black folks who seem to be less intelligent. He thought that if he could just get rid of those folks, white people would respect his race more. His mistaken obsession caused a lot of pain and several deaths, including his own, but not before he learned the hard lesson that hate and oppression don't need a reason to exist.
It made me realize the same thing about homophobia. Of course my change of mind was also helped by the fact that I befriended several transgender brothers and sisters who, by their basic decency and kindness, wrecked every stereotype I had, particularly the Jerry Springer mess of transgenders "tricking men" into having sex with them.
So now I adopt a Fannie Lou Hamer - civil rights activist - frame of mind when it comes to how the transgender community fits into the struggle for equality:
"We didn't come all this way for two seats when all of us are tired."
Or to put it another way - "if all of us aren't free, then none of us are free."
In my section, we mostly talked about DADT and ENDA. With DADT, we all agreed that while it looked like everything gelled together, it was really a hodge podge of luck and crap shots held together by the diligence of those working on the outside (Get Equal and those members of the Armed Forces who chained themselves to the White House fence) and those working on the inside to force the vote.
A good point was made as to how we were able to control the issue so much that the horror stories from the right (i.e. soldiers being sexually assaulted in the showers, ogled by gay soldiers) had no resonance.
ENDA was a stickier issue in that we had to address the problems with transphobia within the lgbtq community. There were several excellent points made about this. I made the point that transphobia is indicative of a larger problem in our community in that that we don't take the time to educate ourselves on the different groups and ethnicities which make up the lgbtq community.
And at this point, I really need to admit something.
When I was in college, I had transphobia. I had the mistaken belief that transgender issues had nothing to do with gay issues and I voiced that opinion to a few people.
My mind changed because of a play by Charles Fuller called A Solider's Play. In it, there was a character who mistakenly believed that the African-American community is held back, not by white oppression, but by black folks who seem to be less intelligent. He thought that if he could just get rid of those folks, white people would respect his race more. His mistaken obsession caused a lot of pain and several deaths, including his own, but not before he learned the hard lesson that hate and oppression don't need a reason to exist.
It made me realize the same thing about homophobia. Of course my change of mind was also helped by the fact that I befriended several transgender brothers and sisters who, by their basic decency and kindness, wrecked every stereotype I had, particularly the Jerry Springer mess of transgenders "tricking men" into having sex with them.
So now I adopt a Fannie Lou Hamer - civil rights activist - frame of mind when it comes to how the transgender community fits into the struggle for equality:
"We didn't come all this way for two seats when all of us are tired."
Or to put it another way - "if all of us aren't free, then none of us are free."
Anybody who still calls gender-neutral human beings "queers" or "LGBTQs"(regardless of whether the "Q" stands for "questioning" or "queer") suffers from both homophobia and transphobia. There will never be any such thing as "queer" human beings, and there is absolutely nothing questionable about LGBT status.
ReplyDeleteWe can talk until the cows come home about what society needs to do in order to treat us equally, but until we truly begin to consider ourselves equal to the heterosexual population, we'll never shake loose from second-class citizenship. The late Audre Lorde said it best: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." "Reclaimed" hate speech is one of the master's tools.
I appreciate your sharing your thoughts here regarding transphobia.
ReplyDeleteI too was transphobic when I was at a certain stage of my life.
Fortunately, having the opportunity to meet several transgender and transsexual individuals helped rid me of the unfortunate bigotry I once had.