Transphobia in the queer community?!?

A

Angelina Torres

New member
Hey I am a Dyke and I have no problem with trans-gender people, but I am aware that there is a high hostility towards Trans people in the LGBP(T?) community. Can some one please give me some reasons/Opinions as to why this is and also could someone give me some derogatory terms used against Trans people. (Terms are for a speech I am writing.) Cheers :)
 
I have never really heard any derogatory terms against trans people.

But I know one of the big reasons why some lesbians and gays have a problem with trans people is because they feel they are just trying to escape being gay and/or are self-hating gay people who want to change their sex so that they can fit into the mainstream as "straight" people. A lot of gay people have tunnel vision and only care about ALL "gay" people coming out and fighting for gay rights and such, so they feel like trans people actually hurt the fight for gay rights because they are "leaving" the fight or refusing to fight but, instead, give in by becoming "straight." They don't realize that some trans people actually become gay or les when they change their sex (for example, someone born male might actually like women but feels he is really a woman inside and when he changes his sex he is then seen as a lesbian--I know someone like this) or that being trans has nothing to do with the gay/les identity.
 
It mystifies me.

I read Janice Raymond's infamous anti-trans book, "The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male," to try to understand how a feminist could ever push transmisogyny. And while she had some good criticisms of how gatekeeping was done, and in many places still is done, it just doesn't justify her hatred of trans people.

It looks more like victim-blaming than feminism.

Aside from that, Ron Gold, and also Lynn Baker, seem to see trans people as taking the easy way out - avoiding heterosexism and/or patriarchy by transitioning to gain straight privilege and/or male privilege.

Bev Jo seems to have a long personal conflict with Beth Elliott, but I have no idea what caused that or what to make of that.

Mary Daly and Janice Raymond were both cultural feminists, and Mary Daly was very much interested in the history of mythology. She traced a narrative of the original female - a goddess-figure - being dismembered and replaced. Anyway, it was easy to misconstrue transition as a living-out of that dismemberment, instead of a living-out of remembering.

An interesting blog post on Daly's narrative here:

http://radicalhub.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/re-membering/
 
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