y2gender

It seems like almost every LGBTIQ related blog or forum I frequent these days ultimately ends up having transgender versus transsexual wars. I’ve been attempting to engage in respectful dialog with a few people from the “we aren’t transgender” camp, in an honest effort to understand where they’re coming from and to find peaceful resolution to this issue. I hope we can eventually find some common ground, not as part of a transgender community, since they don’t wish to be part of it, but simply as allies in a struggle to create a better world for ALL women and men, including people such as myself who don’t identify within the gender binary.

I don’t necessarily agree with everything they’re saying, and I don’t expect or need anyone to agree with me either. I do understand that some women with transsexual history don’t wish to be included as part of the transgender community, and I honor each person’s need to self identify. I also request that my identity be respected, I’ve struggled for years to figure out who I am. If someone doesn’t wish to be included under the transgender or LGBT umbrella, I don’t have a problem with that, as fabulous an umbrella as it might be.

In a public dialog with one person at her blog, we were having a reasonable conversation when another person dismissed my last post as “typical transgender bullshit". I had to laugh, since I’m not exactly a card carrying member of the transgender activist elite. I never received a manual and I haven’t paid any membership dues. Besides, many transgender people, with whom I share this lovely umbrella, don’t agree with my sometimes way out there in left field opinions either.

In a recent blog post, I saw the suggestion that the transgender umbrella should be renamed “Transvestite Community". The scenario was painted thusly, some people identifying themselves as “classic transsexuals” wish to completely divorce themselves from any further inclusion with the LGBT community, and all the rest of us transgender folks left under the umbrella would hereby be called transvestites or drag queens. Or maybe just “men in dresses".

I’m not a transvestite. These days the term has negative connotations, however, the word does have a noble history. It was originated by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, a German sexologist who founded the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin in 1919. Dr Hirschfeld researched homosexuality and transvestism, the Institute housed his immense library about sex. Years before founding the institute, Dr Hirschfeld was involved in an attempt to repeal Paragraph 175, a German anti gay law. On May 10, 1933, Nazis in Berlin burned works of Jewish authors, including the library of the Institute, along with other works considered “un-German".

I’m not a drag queen either, unfortunately I’m way too frumpy to ever qualify. Seriously though, drag queens were in the front lines fighting for our rights in the 60s. We wouldn’t have bupkes without them. Nada. Nothing. On a personal level, when I originally came out as transgender in a rural southern town, a friend who was a drag queen took me under her wing and introduced me to her world. We were from completely different worlds, with not much in common except being transgender, but she was always there for me as a trans-sister.

Once, the great American songwriter Woody Guthrie was filling out an application form. He got to the line where he was to specify his religion. He looked at the various choices offered, didn’t find what he wanted, and wrote in ALL. Someone in an official position said, you can’t do that. So Woody crossed it out and wrote NONE.

In the spirit of Woody Guthrie, I’m ALL; non binary gender variant, transsexual, androgyne, genderqueer, transgender, transvestite, cross-dresser, “man in a dress” and especially drag queen. Or I’m NONE. If, as a transgender identified person, I’m lumped in with anyone else’s struggle for equal rights, then I will proudly stand with the drag queens, thank you very much! And I’ll be standing there until we all have our rights. Every last one of us.