Definitions and MythsDefinitions
A few TS/TG terms for the 90's
Myths about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans-identified People
A transgendered person is someone whose gender identity or expression differs from conventional expectations of masculinity or femininity. Transgender or trans-identified is often used as a catchall term for gender variant people.
Gender identity is an internal sense of being male or female. This differs from biological/genetic sex.
A transsexual wants to change his or her physiological gender in some way, and to live in the new gender role.
An intersexual is someone whose sex may be neither male nor female. 1/500 of the population has a karyotype other than XX or XY. An old term for intersexuals is hermaphrodite.
MTF/M2F means male to female.
FTM/F2M means female to male. Some FTMs identify as TG Butch. They wish to pay homage to their lesbian heritage but feel they are more male-identified than a butch lesbian.
An androgyne (sometimes called the third sex) chooses to live outside of socially prescribed gender roles. "Sie/zie" (gender-neutral pronoun) may or may not alter "hir/zir" body.
A cross-dresser enjoys dressing in clothes appropriate to the "opposite" gender. This is different from a transsexual who has not completed transition to the point of being full-time. "Transvestite" used to be used to describe cross-dressers.
A drag queen or king cross-dresses for more theatrical reasons, and may also impersonate specific individuals.
Source:
Kingston Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Month Pullout, Progressive Independent Community Press (PIC Press). Page 17, June, 1998. E. MacDonald & T. VanVierzen.
Transpeople have always been a part of the queer community — sometimes in fashion, and sometimes not, but always fabulous.
Who's Who? What's What?
Transsexuals are extremely unhappy in the gender to which they are assigned and change their gender roles and bodies in order to live as members of the 'other' sex. Modern medical technology (synthesized sex hormones, electrolysis, plastic surgery) makes this much easier than it was in the past. About 50% of transsexuals are male-to-female and 50% are female-to-male (FTM). Many have sex reassignment surgery, in which their genitals are modified. MTF transsexuals have been accused of being "froo-froo" (caricatures of femininity), but in actuality their presentations range (as do those of non-transsexual women) from extreme butch to extreme femme.
Transgenderists live as members of the other sex but without the extreme need or desire to modify their bodies shown by transsexuals. Some live as members of the other sex while others stake out "third gender" status. Transgenderists may take hormones, but do not have genital sex reassignment surgery.
Crossdressers wear the clothing of the other sex on occasion, but do not desire to change their sex. They dress for personal reasons which can range from a need to express their feminine or masculine side to a way to express themselves erotically.
Drag Kings and Drag Queens present larger than life images of men and women, exaggerating sexual stereotypes for entertainment or self-gratification.
Androgynes, Gender Blenders, and Gender Benders merge the characteristics of both sexes in ways subtle or shocking.
Gender Fuck is the deliberate flaunting of gender norms with a goal of shocking others.
Intersexed (hermaphroditic) persons are born with genitals which show characteristics of both sexes. Many have surgery in infancy, and many of those who do grow up feeling they have been robbed of an essential part of themselves.
Transpeople Can Be Straight, Gay, Asexual, or Bisexual
Terms such as gay and straight make little sense when applied to transpeople. Is a post-op male-to-female transsexual paired with another woman a lesbian? What about a pre-op male-to-female paired with a man? Or an FTM transsexual paired with another FTM. Although not all transpeople identify as part of a larger queer community, many do, and certainly the general public and gay-negative politicians do not consider us heterosexual, no matter who we love.
Our Queer Issues
Almost all transpersons and intersexed persons grow up with a deep sense of internalized shame. We do not chose to be who we are any more than gay men, lesbians, or bisexuals, in fact, many of us actively fight our true natures, desperately seeking to fit in gay and straight cultures. Our 'coming out' process is parallel to that of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals and can result in loss of support of family, friends, and employment.
Discrimination against transpeople is extreme — even greater than for gay men and lesbians. We must fight to keep our jobs, whether as physicians, teachers, airline pilots, truck drivers, or cooks in restaurants. A disproportionate number of "gay bashings" are directed at transpeople who by our very nature are the most visible members of the queer culture.
Laws which negatively impact gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals affect transpeople in the same manner. Our rights to marry, to hold jobs, and otherwise fully participate as citizens in American culture are as jeopardized as those of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. And yet without specific trans-inclusive language in bills like ENDA (The Employment Nondiscrimination Act) transpeople can be excluded from protection. For this reason transpeople have become politically active in past years, after centuries of marginalization we are fighting for our rights.
Inclusion
Throughout history transpeople have been on the cutting edge of queerness. The Stonewall Rebellion, the 1969 event that led to the birth of the gay liberation movement was all about queens and butches. Transpeople provide entertainment in the bars, raise a great deal of money at benefits, and provide the bulk of the fashion sense for the larger queer community.
Many gay, lesbian and bisexual persons have significant transgender issues. Others, while not considering themselves transgendered in any sense, experiment with styles of dress, hairstyles and clothing which seriously bend gender - sometimes to the point of being mistaken for members of the other sex or to the point of experiencing the same discrimination faced by transpersons. And of course many transpersons proudly identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Many G/L/B organizations — including various Pride organizations — have opened their ranks to transpeople by signifying inclusiveness in their names. Others have been reluctant to modify their names but are nonetheless accepting of transpeople. More and more gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals are coming to realize that transpeople are not strange "others," but just human beings struggling to live with dignity.
Distributed by:
American Educational Gender Information Service (AEGIS)
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It is important to remember, when trying to correctly/appropriately refer to transsexual/transgendered people that as a community we have only recently started to claim the right to self-definition and self-naming. Therefore our use of words is fluid and constantly evolving. It reflects our sometimes frustrating but always motivating struggle with language. Our different categories/identities are not mutually exclusive. I can be a transsexual man and intersexed or a transsexual woman and a drag king. Also, many of us will identify as members of one group at a certain point and later on in life decide that we relate more to the members of another group. Furthermore, some people could perfectly fulfill the craters for membership in a ts/tg group but simply don't identify as such. That doesn't mean that they're not dealing with gender identity issues or that they don't suffer discrimination based on a perceived transgression of sex/gender rules. Each group has its own specific agenda, issues, ideas, opinions, strategies in fighting transsexual/transgendered oppressions etc. But as Leslie Feinberg puts it: "The glue that cements these diverse communities together is the defense of each individual to define themselves."1 Finally, never forget that transsexual/transgendered people are very diverse when it comes to sexual orientation. We are bisexuals, lesbians, heterosexuals, queers, gays, asexuals, polysexuals, pansexuals, biosexuals... We are all of it and even more!
1 Transgender Warriors, Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996)
2 Transgender Nation San Francisco, A Glossary of Gender.
3 Zachary I Nataf, Lesbians Talk Transgender (London: Scarlet Press, 1996).
4 Anne Fausto-Sterling, "The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough," The Science. March/April 1993.
Quotes For Thought
"I learned that language can't be ordered individually, as if from a Sears catalog. It is forged collectively, in the fiery heat of the struggle.""Right now, much of the sensitive language that was won by the liberation movements in the United States during the sixties and seventies is bearing the brunt of a right-wing backlash against being 'politically correct'. Where I come from, being 'politically correct' means using language that respects other peoples' oppressions and wounds. This chosen language needs to be defended."
Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Warriors
"One of the ways that people justify oppressing people of any alternative gender or sexuality is by claiming that the social norm is natural. That is, it originates from God, an authority to which there is no appeal. All this is, in fact, a complete fabrication. There is no natural "sex" because "sex" itself as a medical or cultural category is nothing more than the momentary outcome of battles over who owns the meaning of the category."
Sandy Stone, interviewed in Transsisters, The Journal of Transsexual Feminism #8
"Naming is power. When I tell you who I am, I give you the power to name me. When someone else names me, they define who I am and usurp the power that is rightfully mine (...) Transgendered people in particular need to respect the fact that terms and labels which empower them do not necessarily empower transsexuals. The beginning or end of our freedom lies in the power to name ourselves — or others."
Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan, Transsisters, The Journal of Transsexual Feminism #7
"l do not believe in the term transsexual much less transgender, although I employ both on occasion: simply to contest the oppression that comes with being socially identified as either one. I don't believe in male and female or man or woman either. I believe in them as political accomplishments, cultural categories instituted to cause us to read the body in a specific way: promoting and sustaining the imperative that the most important thing bodies can do is reproduce. But I don't view them as the so-called "natural facts" they are interminably and predictably proposed to represent. (I should add that I support anyone's right to identify as any of these.)The point is that all these names reflect the political aims of a cultural regime which produce certain gender "realities" for its own changing, and historically specific, needs. Such is the power of culture, acting through language, to create the perception of the "real," and apportion privilege accordingly. Or rather, to apportion privilege, and therefore create the "real as real," as an undeniable cultural fact. So if we are to disrupt the regime, we must take control of language, take control of (corrupt) the definitions, disturb the structure."
Heterosexism
The system of beliefs and behaviour that exclude and demean those who are, or are perceived to be, lesbian, gay or bisexual. Heterosexism includes the promotion by individuals and/or institutions of the superiority of heterosexuality over same-sex relationships. Heterosexist beliefs include the assumption that everyone should be heterosexual; that everyone is heterosexual, unless known to be otherwise; and that nonheterosexuals are unnatural or abnormal. Heterosexism can be overt or covert; and intentional or unintentional. Like other forms of discrimination, it is often invisible to those who are not its targets.
Examples of heterosexism include, are not limited to:
Homophobia
The term homophobia is often used to describe personal forms of heterosexism, including rejection and verbal and physical abuse. Some find the roots of the term (the irrational fear of same-sex oriented people or feelings) useful in addressing heterosexist attitudes. However, others prefer to use the more inclusive term, heterosexism, to describe all forms of discrimination against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.
Sexual Identity
Also referred to as sexual orientation or sexual preference. One's sexual identity includes emotional attachment, sexual attraction, sexual behaviours and often identification with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or heterosexual cultures. Sexual identity is preferred over sexual orientation by many as it includes, but does not solely focus on, sexual behaviour. It is also less clearly tied to a particular position in the nature/nurture controversy of sexual preference, unlike sexual orientation, for example. Sexual identity implies personal choice in shaping one's sense of self and is, therefore, considered empowering by many.
Transphobia
Transphobia is the negative valuing and discriminatory treatment of individuals who do not conform in appearance and/or identity to conventional conceptions of gender. Lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered (or trans-identified) individuals are typically the targets of transphobia. As with heterosexism, transphobia can be personal or systemic, overt or covert, and intentional or unintentional.
Transgendered (Trans-identified)
An inclusive term referring to the many people who cross socially constructed gender boundaries by adopting a gender identity, presentation, or behaviour that is not typically associated with one's assigned biological sex. Transgendered describes transsexuals, transgenderists, cross-dressers and intersexuals. The term transgender can be confusing as "transgenderist" represents a subcategory of the larger cross-gender group. For this reason some use trans-identified as the inclusive term.
Gender Identity
Gender identity refers to the self-image or belief held about one's gender as being female, male, androgynous, or undefined. Gender identity may differ from assigned sex and, if so, the individual is considered to be transgendered and may identify as a transgenderist or a transsexual. Gender identity differs from sexual identity (sexual orientation). Transgendered people may be heterosexual, lesbian, gay or bisexual. However, transgendered heterosexuals are often assumed to be same-sex oriented and, as a result, experience heterosexism as well as transphobia.
Queer
The definition of queer continues to be debated among queer theorists but it is commonly used to define lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and other people and institutions who are on the margins of mainstream culture. Historically the term has been used to denigrate sexual and gender minorities but more recently it has been reclaimed by these groups and is increasingly used as an expression of pride. Queer can be a convenient, inclusive term when referring to issues and experiences affecting the many groups subsumed under this umbrella. Because it is still used to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, those who do not identify as queer are urged to use the term with caution, or not at all.
HRO99
You probably don't know any who are "out" to you, but you likely do know some. Research suggests that at least 10% of the population is lesbian or gay; and a far greater proportion is bisexual. The prevalence of trans-identified individuals is difficult to estimate as most hide their cross-gender identities and preferred forms of expression. However, in the recent past, this community has become more vocal and visible and it is clear that the size of the community is larger than traditional estimates suggest.
Maybe, maybe not. For the most part, you can "spot them" only if they want to be identified. Don't let gender role stereotypes or heterosexist stereotypes fool you. There are femmy, butchy and androgynous lesbians, bisexual, and heterosexual women. There are femmy, butchy and androgynous gay, bisexual, and heterosexual men. There are transsexual women and men who will pass, undetected, in any crowd; and there are transgenderists whose gender presentation conforms entirely to that expected of members of their assigned sex.
Heterosexual men represent about 90% of sexual abusers. Boys are also sexually abused by some straight men.
The Canadian Psychological and Psychiatric Associations consider people who desire same-sex relationships to be healthy and normal. The American Psychological Association stated that, "It is no more abnormal or sick to be homosexual than to be left-handed." Heterosexism is the problem.
Sex is assigned at birth on the basis of a cursory look at the infant's genitals. In about 5% of births, there is some ambiguity in the external sex organs and mistakes can be made. There can also be inconsistencies between a person's internal reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones, external sex organs or secondary sex characteristics. In addition, a person's gender identity may not match their assigned sex. Most people are raised to ignore the variations that occur in nature and trivialize other people's experience of their gender identity.
Political correctness is a term that has been used to silence, or ridicule, those who object to discriminatory and disrespectful language and actions.
Many faiths do not believe this. However, most faiths agree that intolerance and hatred is wrong.
We don't know what causes differences in sexual identity, either gay or straight. Some believe that their identity was chosen, others believe that they were "born that way." We do know that socialization and the social climate pressure all of us to be heterosexual.
For people who have experienced discrimination throughout their lives, a few disrespectful or insensitive comments can have a powerful impact on their sense of well-being.
Women's spaces are not safe whenever anyone behaves in a threatening or disrespectful manner. Transsexual women are no more likely to be disrespectful than non-transsexual women; and any woman who behaves badly should be excluded. Non-transsexual women may need to examine why they feel unsafe in the presence of non-threatening transsexual women. Transsexual women do have a right to be treated as members of their chosen gender.
There is no evidence to suggest that bisexuals are more sexually active, or more indiscriminate, than anyone else. Bisexual women and men are emotionally and sexually attracted to both genders. They may be with women at one point in their lives and with men at another time.
One could argue that it is heterosexuals who continually announce their sexuality with wedding rings, pictures in the office, constant references to their opposite-sex partners, etc. Same-sex lovers are often criticized for engaging in affectionate, or sexual behaviours, that go unnoticed in heterosexual couples.
Internalized homophobia leads them to want to change their sex. Transgenderists and transsexuals typically experience a great deal of discrimination (transphobia) on the basis of gender identity or expression. They also tend to be targets of homophobia whether or not they are same-sex oriented. Changing one's sex does not offer a route to social acceptance.
Employment equity ensures that qualified workers, previously denied access to jobs, will have the opportunity to fill these jobs. The goal is to end discrimination against certain groups, not to grant special privileges to them.
HRO 99
Gender Myth #1
Although male-to-female transsexuals have surgery to change their anatomy and take female hormones, they still act like men.
FACT: Some male-to-female transsexuals act in ways many consider to be masculine; some don’t. The same can be said of nontranssexual women. In fact, some times of "masculine" behavior in nontranssexual women are applauded in the lesbian and women’s communities, while the same behavior in a transsexual woman is taken as proof that she is "really" a man. Labeling behaviors as masculine and feminine is of little practical value and only reinforces gender stereotypes.
Gender Myth #2
Male-to-female transsexuals are not women-born women (or womyn-born womyn).
FACT: No one is born a woman. Most of us who ended up as women started out as girls. The paths we took to womanhood are many and varied. Most male-to-female transsexuals felt like girls from as early as they can remember, just like most nontranssexual women. Although many nontranssexual women struggle with changes associated with becoming women, most become women without consciously attempting to. This fact doesn’t make out paths any better, more natural, or more valid than transsexual women’s paths.
Gender Myth #3
Male-to-female transsexuals have been socialized as men, and this socialization cannot be changed.
FACT: The messages given to each person about the roles of males and females in society are a little different, and these messages may be experienced in very different ways. Many transsexual women felt that the male messages they were given were inappropriate. Many felt inadequate to meet the demands placed on them to "act like a man." Nontranssexual women feel they have a choice to become aware of and reject parts of their sex-role conditioning—so do transsexual women.
Gender Myth #4
Male-to-female transsexuals are trying to "pass" as women. They try to make themselves as much like nontranssexual women as possible.
FACT: Male-to-female transsexuals are women; they don’t need to pass. They don’t necessarily want to hide or eliminate their differences from nontranssexual women, although the threat of ostracism leads many to do so. Some transsexuals are proud of their particular route to womanhood, feel that they have learned a lot from the journey they have taken, and value the unique qualities they bring to the women’s community.
Gender Myth #5
Transsexuals take jobs away from other women because they had access to better training when they were men.
FACT: By making the transition from male to female and staying at the same job, some transsexuals have forced employers to change rules restricting women’s positions and salaries, thus opening doors for other women. Many transsexual women seek out qualified women to hire. Furthermore, by holding jobs not traditionally thought of as appropriate for women, these transsexual women bring the message to the general public that women are capable of performing "men’s" jobs.
Gender Myth #6
To lessen the power of patriarchy in our lives, we much purge the community of everything male, including women who once had male anatomy.
FACT: By emphasizing the distinction between male and female, we reinforce the idea that there are exactly two distinct sexes. This is the very concept that permits sexism to exist, because discrimination would be impossible if women were not readily distinguishable from men. If we wish to deflate the power of the patriarchy, the most effective thing we can do is encourage the blurring of gender lines and expand out thinking beyond the male-female dualism.
Gender Myth #7
Most women can easily prove that they are not male-to-female transsexuals if they are challenged do to so.
FACT: There is no simple way to prove you are not a transsexual. There are no apparent physical characteristics nontranssexual women have or lack that distinguish them absolutely from transsexual women. Birth certificates and other documents show an "F" for both. Chromosome tests may reveal an XY pattern for a nontranssexual woman. Hormone levels do not distinguish transsexuals from nontranssexuals. Even inspection of the genitals may not provide definitive proof of your gender history.
Gender Myth #8
Male-to-female transsexuals have been raised as boys, have never been oppressed as women and cannot understand women’s oppression.
FACT: Some male-to-female transsexuals were raised as girls for portions of their lives, appeared to the world as girls, and were treated like girls. Some were beaten and raped both by outsiders and by their own family members because of their belief that they were girls or their desire to become girls. For most, the difference in the way they were treated when they appeared as men and after they began appearing as women brought sexism into sharp focus.
Gender Myth #9
Women’s space is not "safe" space if male-to-female transsexuals are allowed.
FACT: Women’s space is not safe whenever anyone in it behaves in a threatening or disrespectful way toward another. Transsexuals are no more likely to behave this way than nontranssexuals. We should exclude individuals who behave badly rather than exclude an entire group because some of its members act in offensive way—any group could be excluded on this basis. Most importantly, women must take responsibility for their own feelings of being unsafe when others are not acting in threatening ways.
Gender Myth #10
Transsexuals have surgery so they can have sex the way they want to.
FACT: How or with whom a person wants to have sex is rarely a major factor in the desire for sex reassignment. Usually, people undergo reassignment in order to make their bodies conform more closely to the way they feel inside—their gender. Whether a transsexual is attracted to men or to women usually doesn’t change with surgery. Although no figures are available, probably a third of transsexual women are straight, one-third bisexual, and one-third lesbian. Sexual orientation is not related to gender identity.
Gender Myth #11
Male-to-female transsexuals are trying to take over the lesbian community.
FACT: Most transsexuals who identify as lesbians are focused on their own personal happiness—just like most nontranssexual lesbians. Those who feel strongly about their right to participate in women-only events may become activists for their cause and hope to influence the lesbian community. On the other hand, being overly sensitive to issues of power and wanting to avoid controversy, many transsexuals repeatedly decline to take leadership positions and abstain from participating in decision-making votes.
Gender Myth #12
The sex assigned to a person at birth is that person’s "real" sex.
FACT: Sex is assigned at birth on the basis of a cursory glance at the baby’s genitalia. In about 5% of births, there is some ambiguity in the sexual organs, and mistakes can be made. In other cases, internal genitalia, chromosome patterns, hormone production, and secondary sex characteristics that develop later may be at variance with the person’s external anatomy. Sex is arbitrarily assigned by the patriarchal medical system and there is no reason to assume that it is any more correct or real than what a person experiences.
Gender Myth #13
The lesbian and women’s communities have nothing to gain by including transsexuals.
FACT: Transsexual women bring many valuable qualities to the women’s community. They bring skills usually taught only to men into the women’s community and pass them on to other women. Many are active feminists, increase opportunities for women, and seek to hire and promote women. Those who have made it through transition must have intelligence, persistence, and a sense of humor. Many also bring a spirituality that has been possessed historically by cross-gendered members of various cultures.
Gender Myth #14
Nontranssexual women have the right to decide whether transsexuals should be included in the women’s community.
FACT: Each individual has the right to claim her own identity. While being adamant about having this right for themselves, some members of the women’s community would deny it to others. Just as each woman must come to her own conclusion about whether she is a lesbian, each must know her own truth about being a woman. Transsexuals can and do include themselves in the women’s community and the lesbian community without permission from nontranssexuals.
Gender Myth #15
Transsexuals are guilty of deception when they don’t reveal right away that they are transsexuals.
FACT: There is no standard of disclosure that requires transsexuals to reveal their medical history, just as lesbians do not need to mention their sexual orientation immediately on meeting someone. The circumstances in which this is considered an important fact to know vary from person to person. The individual meeting a transsexual may collude in the "deception" by assuming she or he is a nontranssexual. If it’s important to you to know, take responsibility for asking.
Gender Myth #16
Male-to-female transsexuals are considered men until they have sex-change surgery.
FACT: Although male-to-female transsexuals appear as men during some part of their lives, most never consider themselves men. They have felt like females for their entire lives. The change from male to female is a change in external appearance of sex-related characteristics, not a change in gender (how a person feels inside). This transition takes place over a period of several years, and sex-reassignment surgery is only one part of it, together with living as a woman, taking hormones, and resocialization.
Gender Myth #17
People can be categorized as transsexual or nontranssexual — there is no in-between.
FACT: There are nearly as many categories as there are people. There are transsexuals who have had or plan to have one, two, or many surgeries to make their bodies conform more closely to their gender, and those who will never have surgery. Some people feel comfortable expressing both genders. Some refuse to identify as either gender. Some people (male and female) enjoy cross-dressing, but their gender is congruent with their sex. Some conform to gender norms; some flout them. The possibilities are infinite.
Gender Myth #18
Women who want to become men have bought into societal hatred of women or are hoping to take advantage of male privilege.
FACT: Female-to-male transsexuals don’t want to become men—they are men. The reason they want to change their bodies to become more male appearing is because that’s how they feel inside. If they gain male privilege, it is tenuous; whatever they have gained is lost if they are discovered to be transsexuals. If transsexualism were based on misogyny, there would be far more female-to-male than male-to-female transsexuals. In fact, their numbers are thought to be about equal.
Gender Myth #19
A person’s "true" sex can be determined by chromosome testing.
FACT: Although most persons identified as male at birth have XY chromosomes and most of those identified as female have XX. Some "women-born women" have XY chromosomes, a fact that may be discovered only when they are tested to qualify for athletic competition. Other patterns, such as XXY, XYY, and XXX (no, this does not make you an Amazon) can also exist. Some individuals have what is called mosaicism, in which some percentage of cells have an XY pattern and the remainder have XX.
Gender Myth #20
Transsexualism is unnatural—it is a new problem brought about by sophisticated technology.
FACT: Throughout recorded history there have been people whose gender identity did not match their anatomic sex, and there is evidence that sex-change surgery was performed thousands of years ago. In some cultures, transgendered individuals were held in high esteem as shamans. Today, surgery—from liposuction to sex reassignment—allows many people to have a physical form that is more congruent with their inner sense of themselves and the way they want to appear.
Gender Myth #21
"Real" women, certainly those who belong to the lesbian community, rejoice in their womanhood and have no desire to be men.
FACT: There are people who were assigned at birth who identify as men, and many of them are part of the lesbian community. Most would be labeled as butch lesbians. Many are afraid to reveal their desire to appear more completely as men, including taking testosterone and undergoing surgery to remove their breasts and construct penises. (Transsexual men are apparently permitted in Michigan because the are "still women" according to the Festival doctrine of immutable sex.)
Gender Myth #22
Now that Festival policy has been made clear, there are no transsexuals at Michigan.
FACT: Festival policy is far from clear. The brochure states that the Festival is for "womyn-born womyn." Many transsexuals include themselves in that category. While some transsexuals have no desire to participate if they know they are unwelcome, others are here and will continue to come because they have a right to be at any event open to women. No statement has been issued about whether female-to-male transsexuals are welcome at the Festival.
Gender Myth #23
Transsexuals have caused trouble in Michigan, resulting in their expulsion.
FACT: According to Festival organizers, transsexuals have been attending MWMF for many years, and 1991 was the first time a transsexual has been expelled. Nancy Burkholder was expelled because she said something that made a woman suspect was a transsexual, not because her behavior was offensive. In fact, Nancy had participated fully in the 1990 Festival without incident. There is no evidence that transsexuals have ever caused trouble at Michigan. Seeing transsexuals as trouble-makers is once again blaming the victim.
Gender Myth #24
Nontranssexual women at Michigan don’t want male to female transsexuals here.
FACT: Although Festival organizers claim that the policy excluding transsexuals reflects the sentiment of the community at large, many nontranssexual women support the rights of transsexual women and want them to be included. A survey of over 600 women at the 1992 MWMF showed that 73% of those surveyed thought male-to-female transsexuals should be welcome at the Festival; 23% thought they should not be welcome and 4% were undecided. Only 20% would welcome female-to-male transsexuals, who are apparently permitted.
Myths about transgendered people include:
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/english/Discussion/genderid.htm
Source:
Ontario Human Rights Commission, October 1999. Toward a Commission Policy on Gender Identity. Discussion Paper. Page 10-11. Prepared by the Policy and Education Branch, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Toronto.
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