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For most of my life, when I looked at the people passing by in my daily activities, on some subconcious level I felt like I was one of them. Beneath whatever surface tensions, we were all part of the human family, and aside from my transition I wasn't terribly unlike most of them when it came to the basics. Read More
Great Article
It was very on target, informative and what I found most refreshing is that it was polite. Despite the treatment that this nation has given you/us, you keep your composure and assert yourself in a way that is compelling and wonderful-
Thank you,
Savannah Jackson
Transgendered Activist
beautifully stated
I wonder how many of those who would ridicule you/us as some kind monster(s) 'ever' conduct themselves with such grace. That was so eloquent.
-Kynni
Excellent post
I have heard you speak a few times now. Your writing is excellent. As a genetic woman I can only imagine how difficult it was to hide for so many years and to continue to be harrassed for being who you are. I applaud and am awed by your activisim.
Kathie Adams
http://www.kathieadams.com/
Thank you
Thank you for this wonderful article. I sincerely hope that reading this helps educate society in general, and those with a prejudice against or fear of transsexuals specifically, that people are people, and while everyone's struggles may be different, in the end, we are all only human.
And about the kids?
I always read what you write and I'm usually concern about this grow up thing and discover your identity. Generally, we end up discovering from the age of 6, more or less, but the thing is, I think that the corner stone of the whole problem lies on education. Any kind of education: parental education, school, TV, books etc. I know that we have a lot to go through, and there are a lot of basic rights that we all must fight for, but if science already explain all about sexuality and these matters, I think we should try to invest our times in education, with the back up of science, with genetic scientists, neurologists and so on. I use to say that there aren't better argument then the voice of reason. Enough of emotional talks and no direct points. I mean, just like you perfectly did here, put people to face the facts. We all should start to think about this. I truly believe that the biggest problems in the world have deep connections with the lack of education and old medieval educational models.
Thank you
I, too, was struck by the polite and generous quality of your voice in this piece. I, for one, am humbled by your spirit and your perseverance, in spite or because of your rejections and losses. What a beautiful soul... and, not coincidentally, your outside is as beautiful as your inside!
Thank you, Calpernia, and many blessings on you.
~suzanne
Thank you Calpernia
Thank you for such a heartfelt article! I wish everyone in the world could read it, we are blessed in ways few will ever understand yet we still must strive to be accepted by those who who made us.
Thank you Calpernia, you are a person who I admire.
Allison Lohman
Thanks
You're Stunning!
Beautiful...thank you!
A the mother of a transgender young man and educator on gender variant and transgender youth I just have to say BRAVO!
I gave birth to this wonderful young man and I couldn't be more proud of him and my whole family. When folks point their finger and say 'that is wrong' they need to remember that most of their fingers are pointing back at themselves. I know it is a silly statement, but I used it to demonstrate that people who are happy with their own lives and who they are, rarely have time to label you as 'other', eh?
Thank you again Calpernia, for simply being.
Kim Pearson
Executive Director
TransYouth Family Allies
Thank you Callie!
Calpernia,
I really appreciate your words here. If only your heart-felt words didn't fall on mostly deaf ears outside of our "community." Thanks for being on the front line in our battle for equality.
Tara Martin
Transsexual Law Enforcement Officer and proud of it!
Wow!
One of the best pieces to come down the road in a LONG LONG time.
You go girl.
the truth
I have lived the things you have described, as well as survived them. I am a TS, a veteran, a college graduate, a father, a mother, a sister, a brother, I'am even the lady with all the cats that lives down the street and gives out the big candy bars at Holloween. Those that try so hard to marginalize and exclude me from what they picture as the way that humanity and the world turns, seem to keep missing the main point to it all is reality the you so eloquently have pointed out, I am them, they are me, and we are all a product of each other.
Thank you
Thank you Calpernia for this well written piece. Many of us in the transgendered community face such huge obstacles trying to achieve congruency among mind, soul, and body. I am more fortunate than most in that I live in a progressive city and have legal protections under state and county laws. I have a good job. And I have friends that care about me. Nevertheless, the social challenges continue on a daily basis... the stares, the whispers, the outings, and the shunning. That is what is for me the most difficult part of this journey that has been both a blessing and a curse. Keep up the fight!
My Letter to Congress/Legislature ref Same Sex Marriage
As both a Christian and a registered voter I urge you to consider all of potential ramifications of any proposed marriage amendment to our Constitution. If passed it would then require legislation on the legal definition of a man and woman. As someone that has been affected by and studied sex/gender issues, it became evident that not all women are chromosomally xx nor all men xy. There are also xo, xxy, xyy and mosaic chromosomal karotypes. Kleinfelters, Turners and Androgen Insensitivity Syndromes; as well as Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and 5-Alpha –reductase deficiency are but a few naturally occurring phenomena that result in female bodied males and male bodied females. Toxicologists are also recognizing the fact that prenatal exposure to certain environmental chemicals with hormonal properties as well as many commonly used medications for male pattern baldness, prostate and heart diseases can result in incongruent sex/genital development as well as ambiguent genitalia, intersexed conditions (hermaphroditism) and transsexuality. For over 40 years now babies born with ambiguous genitals are surgically corrected (?) to female during infancy no matter what their sex karotype. Everyone is born with the innate ability to recognize their own gender no matter what genetic, medical or evironmental factors they have been exposed to. None of these conditions are a choice for those affected. To exclude these people from protections granted all other citizens is in direct opposition to everything this country stands for. All citizens are entitled to the pursuit of the "American Dream". If current marriages were to be challenged in a court of law and defendants required to provide personal medical records for public scrutiny as to prove ones sex, many now legal marriages would need to be annulled and would violate ones right to privacy.
The original concept of the marriage license was to prevent very closely related individuals from marrying and the resulting potential birth defects due to inbreeding and as societies blessing to those who choose to commit their lives to each other as well as to protect the children. The real threat to our society is the rate at which babies are being born outside of a committed, loving relationship. There are many same sex couples that are totally capable of raising happy, healthy, well adjusted children that will ultimately become productive members of our society.
Marriage has its roots in religion and, I believe, it is up to the churches to decide who they will and will not marry. It is NOT the governments business to legislate religious policy.
Thank you for your attention,
Reply
Hello calpernia, I am a 26
Hello calpernia,
I am a 26 year old independent woman film maker from India.I recently completed a film on a man called Raju.I was forwarded your article by a friend who saw my film and urged me to write to you.I've been showing my film around and it seems to have a domino effect on the way the audience manage to see Raju for what he is,as against what he appears to represent.
Society has stocked our community with so many stock clichés that it took a while before i could make the film receptive to an audience of men and women in my country who recognise only the man,the woman and grudgingly the eunuch(because the eunuch features in our scriptures).
Raju is a 42 year old beautiful person,from the lowest of economic classes in India.Where he comes from,you can't afford to be poetic.You can only just about manage to fight for some space for yourself.He chooses to live.and how!
I believe you must see the film.I would be delighted to share it.
Do reply.
Warmly,
Milann
Cliche blaming of Christians
As a 55 year old post-op ts, I find that blaming conservative christians for most of the rejection a transgendered person faces in society a tired and cliched excercise that belittles all concerned. I understand that people with children don't want the values that most homosexual and transgendered people expouse, thrust upon their families. I don't blame them!
I also understand that LBGT people seek the legitimacy of marriage to strengthen the morality of their unions. It is the natural desire of humans to bring morality into their unions for the sake of their very survival. Unfortunately, the promiscious behavior of the majority of the LBGT community goes before the few who do try to live clean, moral, and Biblical based lives. For example, I don't know of any portrayal of LGBT people on LOGO that does not include promiscious and ugly behaviors. These are behaviors that I would not be comfortable watching with my grandchildren, so like most, I do not expose them to such.
Until the LGBT community cleans up it's act, the rejection by common folk just trying to raise good kids and grandkids will continue and deepen, especially as the LGBT continues to embrace all that will blame fundamental christians as the only thing that stands in the way of their "freedoms".
In my experience in churches, the creative and gifted rise to the top in leadership positions, regardless of their "sexuality". If one proves by living a moral, biblical based lifestyle, that they can sew seeds of love and goodness into the lives of others, then the honor of those responsibilities will be entrusted to them. I know so many ministers, choir directors, drama teachers, artists, ect., that are considered great gifts to their congregations, and are loved and appreciated for who they are. That they happen to be gay or transgendered is rarely an issue if they set a good example. I personally have found congregations to be loving and supportive in the everyday struggles one faces. I can't blame people in churches who believe the Bible for the crosses I been brought to bear. God being the potter, is perfecting a mysterious work in me the clay, that I can't always trace or explain. I trust Him in his work, because He has been good to me, despite my many doubts and protests.
I have found as a Post-op TS, that the greatest gift in life is to give good unto others. To be used of and by God Himself, is the greatest reward a human can experience. It affords one the opportunity to feel their worth and know that they are important, loved and cared for by the one who created them.
Finally, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Phillipians 4:8
Transsexual Christian
Mouthing their scriptures??
Sorry you're offended by my life's experiences Calpernia. I have found that the beginning of true self awareness is the realizaion that it is necessary to know who created you and what your purpose is here on earth. As you grow older, these things will matter more to you.
I'm also sorry that you have been hurt as a result of christians. I'm thinking you may be reflecting a bit on how the church was when you were little. Churches, just like the people in them, have changed since then Calpernia. There are loving congregations that welcome any who come. Right here in Nashville I know of several I could recommend, and be assured that you would be treated lovingly and with care, if you ever dared to give God or His people a chance.
If you care to know what God thinks about anything at all, I recommend His diary, the Bible. You may have to dig around a little, as He also recommends. Translations often taint the true meanings and great truths of the ages. Like this one....Jesus shed his pure blood for everyone. By the one man Adam, death entered our bloodstream. Jesus, the only man born since Adam with pure blood (son of the Holy Ghost) poured out his pure blood as reconciliation to God for ALL mankind. Not to mention rising from the dead and promising all a new glorified body just like his. I got a cute bod now thanks to some well placed sil and a niptuck er two. BUT, I can feel it dying everyday. Pardon me if my blessed hope is in Jesus who promises me eternal life in a perfect bod that never dies and can fly btw.
In this light, disagreements over doctrine, dogma, same sex marriage, and bound for hell theologies are trite and divisive. www.gospelrevolution.com is a site you may be interested in visiting to see the exciting things happening in churches today.
Believe what you will sister, but when you encourage me to abandon my hope source, you seek to diminish my peace calling and election sure, because of what someone thinks of me???? I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water. It's great fun when God uses me and my circumstances to correct those who pre-judge me. It's not a calling I axked for, but like I said earlier, He's the potter, I'm the clay.
Response
Real world
If you're making your positions by the "news" or media reports Calpernia, you are not getting the full picture of what is going on in todays christianity, and therefore again pre-judging and broad brushing people with heavy strokes of misconeption :essentially doing just what you say is wrong to do.
Criticize and question me all you want. The truth is the truth, and that's what you will get from me, silly or not. I ,as many, find the promiscious behaviors offensive, but more than that , embarassing. I don't want it around my grandchildren...for their own good. Would you want your child or grandchild watching Little Britain or Californication? (Tsk Tsk if you do;) Let me call the mother board and see if we can't straighten you out a little bit! (Just kidding)
It would be no problem for me to go to 10 churches and volunteer. I work in a church and have for years. My family stands beside me and are proud of me now, though that was not always the case. But when I started living for God and living a moral life, they saw clearly as I did what I was destined for. My family is everything to me now. In the end, they are all you truly have on this earth. Thank God for them...care for and cherish them.
Haven't you realized we all sin? Everyone sins! Everyday, every minute. Sin is not a condition or an act. It's a deadly blood disease that has killed everyone from Adam's loins. My righteousness is as filthy rags before God (and evidently you too;} We are all fallen critters. The message of Christianity is the hope that we may be made perfect one day......a feat only God can do. The one pointing a finger and telling you you're going to hell is a straw man. There are misguided people in the churches that have unreasonable and incorrect assumptions about LGBT folks. No church is perfect. But little is much when God is in it, and if you could see the good works the church accomplishes in peoples lives, you might not be so harsh in your judgements of them.
The congregations I speak of are quite large...one has 5000 people. One is pastored by the daughter of one of gospel musics favorite singers, who washed the feet of LGBT ministers and apologized for years of wrong thinking. The church world is changing Calpernia. My hope for you is that you find that quiet peace one day with the enemy that holds such a big peice of your heart.
Wasting Your Time
I have watched your debate with Ms. Addams. It has been sound and well argued. Unfortunately, it is for naught. She is arguing the GLBT mantra, one you, Michelle, do not follow nor support...nor do I.
I too am Christian...and it is most offensive to see the Church faulted for the problems of the GLBT...invariably, of course, the issue of same sex marriage. It is impossible to read a GLBT blog that doesn't pound on Christianity as a matter of course. However, also disturbing is the continuing push by the so-called "GLBT activist" to associate homosexuality with transsexuality.
Ms. Addams article continually refers to the GLBT. She continually marginalizes classic transsexuals, both pre and post op, by expounding the position that there is some form of connection between homosexuality and transsexuality...and that the issues of one, are the issues of the other. What Ms. Addams fails to understand, as does society as a whole, is that the very vast majority of the 60-80 THOUSAND post operative transsexual men and women walking around in the United States each day:
1) Identify as heterosexual.
2) Do NOT identify as transgender or "trans" anything
3) Are, at most, middle of the road politically
4) Want and desire no "special" rights
5) Do not support the GLB lock, stock, and barrel
6) Are not "out"
7) Resent being associated with the GLBT
8) Lead exceedingly normal lives
9) Have had their surgery and then integrated into the mainstream wanting nothing more than to go on with their lives
Instead, what the public sees are flamboyant drag queens (or "showgirls" as Ms. Addams refers to them...a rose by any other name kind of thing) at Pride Parades holding GLBT banners marching along with half naked men in fake leather chaps demanding same sex marriage rights and criticizing, often violently, anyone who doesn't approve of their perceived entitlement.
Ms. Addams' life and work is defined by her openly being "transgender"...and that's sad if one's initial motive in having gender reassignment surgery in the first place was simply to be "what she always knew she was". A few never make the jump from being a transsexual to simply being female, instead preferring to remain perpetually in transition as a transgender.
I am 58...and post op.
Reply
Alike? Hardly...
“If you are a post-op transsexual woman, then you and I are probably pretty much the same thing. The big difference is, I just don't feel it necessary to lie about my days as a girl scout or my first menstruation. They didn't happen for me, and they didn't happen for you. I believe that I can be a woman and at the same time be comfortable enough about my history of transition to speak out when it can be helpful. In my everyday life it rarely comes up. I am a woman with a history of transition.”
There is a world of difference between you and I; because we have GRS in common doesn’t make us synonymous in the least. For someone who doesn’t appreciate “…misattribution of my intent and misstatement…” of your words you don’t seem to have any problem committing the same foul against others. Because I don’t walk around with Sex Change tattooed across my forehead doesn’t mean I lie about my past which, in fact, I don’t do.
”It's very freeing to stop lying about one's history, but being honest comes at a price which some are unwilling or unable to pay.”
The truth is your success is based on exploiting your past. Your existence is defined as being transgender. I don’t doubt that your transition rarely comes up…to your face. But your exposure has relegated you to Calpernia, the transgender…the transsexual…the woman who used to be a man. Agreed, many of us didn’t transition to wear that as our identity. But implying that by not being “out” is lying about our past is an age-old and most tired argument.
“The older generation to which you belong…”
Ah, the youth imperative enters the narrative in true transgender form. As you feel the need to state what I “…sound like…” I could add that you debate like a Jerry Springer drag queen (or “showgirl”, as, and if, that makes you feel more comfortable), insinuating, by implication, feelings I simply do not have and speculating on issues and a background you have no insight into. There are tens and tens and tens of thousands of post operative transsexuals, of all ages, and all races, and of all backgrounds; few of them carry your banner. My background is not the issue, nor is yours for that matter. However, I can assure you I wasn’t trying to figure out things in my 20’s, never suspected I might be homosexual, and certainly didn’t have to garner the support of a group of “wilderness lesbians” to help me.
“I've chosen to side with the people who love me for my full truth. You've chosen to side with people who may or may not.”
I have no idea what “love me for my full truth” means…perhaps, in context, it means loves you because you are an out and proud transgender, I don’t know. Either way you are incorrect. I’ve chosen to live in all of the world. A step outside of the transgender paradigm, a step I would suggest you make, would quickly show you the GLB do not unilaterally “accept” your tribe anymore than the other “side” does mine. I’m sorry your transition was so difficult in spite of your GLB alignment; that is nor was the case for many of us…even those of us who transition within the mainstream. One’s “side” is composed of those of whom we relate to on a daily basis. The difference, as you put it, is that I choose to count those on my side who are not overtly aware of my past, where your identity is based on it. I don’t see my past as pertinent, you see yours as paramount. I suspect that should you have had to transition as most do, i.e., within the mainstream, without notoriety, without fame (or infamy), working a steady job within a non-transgender atmosphere, your take on the issue would be even more militant.
”Because we are all endangered by people who fear and hate gender transgressors…”
That is a ludicrous and disingenuous statement. It implies that the vast majority of the mainstream hate those who in any way express an alternate gender expression. As someone whose employment takes them all over the nation, from the most cosmopolitan to the most intolerant areas of the country, that is a blatantly false representation of how society at large sees things. The mainstream’s acceptance is based on the one-on-one presentation that appears before their eyes, in person, not on some preconceived notion; people, on the whole, are good…better than you portray them. I would assume you will counter with the Transgender Day of Remembrance list. So there is no mistake, I will say right now that there is never any justification for killing anyone…for any reason, particularly and specifically, someone who offers up a different gender expression. But if you have actually read the circumstances behind the deaths of those who dwell on the TDOR list you will see that many if not most were inserting themselves into situations that screamed violence. The results were and would have been just as likely the same regardless of whether the person was transgender or an extraterrestrial.
”Even stealth transwomen are vulnerable… You can be sure those newly outed women will gladly make use of the hard won legal rights that we've fought for in their absence…”
And, exactly what are the rights that YOU have fought so hard for and acquired for me?...or any transgender activist for that matter. Employment maybe? Virtually every state in the nation is an “at will” state and can hire or fire anyone for any reason. There are over 80 municipalities and/or states with gender expression or sexual identity non-discrimination laws/statutes on the books, including many major cities, yet unemployment is still consistently stated as being high within the transgender community. ENDA is expected to be the Holy Grail of the GLBT and alleviate what state and local statues can’t?...yeah, right. Why won't it make a difference? Because employment and someone’s ability to convince a firm to hire them is the perspective employee’s imperative. It is up to the individual to present physically and intellectually in a manner that sells themselves to the employer. Again, it’s the one-on-one issue you fail to grasp. Certainly there have been instances in which someone was “outed” and subsequently they were dismissed, but just as certainly there have been situations in which they weren’t. Regardless of what and when issues such as that arise, whether someone is accepted or not will not be decided by legislation. Tolerance is not acceptance. Those of us who live stealthy lives are under no illusion that our past is secure from someone who make it their mission to out us, or disclosure due to our own misdeed. It simply does not play a part in our daily lives. If it does happen, a prudent person would not want to associate with those who don’t desire our association anyway. But, to say that situation (our demise and social excommunication) is a given, and that if not for transgender activism it will be the case is ridiculous.
”Every amended legal document locked away in your desk drawer... every hormone pill or injection in your medicine cabinet... every body-affirming surgery... all were available to you because some women were willing to be out…”
Well…not exactly, Calpernia; I suggest you check your history; you are supposed to be an authority after all. In the mid and late 1960’s (and even the early 1970’s) when many of the States put the birth certificate laws on the books it was done under the radar. Most significant legislation legitimizing post operative transsexuals was done long before their was a transgender movement and without the help of any organized GLB lobby. Transsexualism was not associated with the GLB movement (which didn’t exist) and transsexualism was seen as distinctly different from drag queens (or, if you like, “showgirls”) and crossdressers/transvestites. Transsexualism was seen as a medical condition exclusively. The April Ashleys, Carolyn Cosseys, Aleisha Brevards, and Lynn Conways of the world were not “out”. On the contrary, these women transitioned, had their surgery, and went as deep stealth (no pun intended) as they could. Post operatives didn’t wear their transition on their sleeve then as many do now. The gender clinics, for those of us fortunate enough to be able to find them, were most sensitive to issues of “outing” their patients. The up side was that we had a legitimacy. That legitimacy has been eroded over the years. Anyone with a few thousand dollars can side step the Standards of Care scoot off to Thailand, have GRS, and then endlessly blog on the internet about being female while simultaneously lamenting the pitfalls they encounter in their daily lives…all the while screaming entitlement. The GLB has absorbed transsexuals and society now sees endless streams of activists, just like you, who further the misconception that transsexuality and homosexuality are joined at the hip. Do we own something to those who went before us…yes. Do we owe anything to the “out and proud” gender libertines who try to sell us such ridiculous concepts as “pregnant” men and women with penises…or to the advocates whose motives marginalize and delegitimize post operative transsexuals by attempting to wholly deconstruct gender as they happily identify as not just females, but transgender females relegating not only themselves but other post ops to some less than/other than third gender…no on your life.
By the way, being shamed by you is something akin to being chastised by a knat…hardly more than a bother. Knock yourself out as you cruise through life as, and defined by, the word, transgender, known always and only by that moniker; it’ll only take you so far and be recognized only by other transgender.
Reply
the toxic myth of stealth
this is it. it's all true. an there is no way to live a full life being part of situations where the people will feel betrayed and lied to and outcast you in a heartbeat. I'm a 2nd wave transwoman and when I began I was genuine, I was real. that alone thru all the early struggles and they were huge, female. that I could walk down a street in a small town looking akward and unpassable and hold my head high for the first time in my whole life. after 10 years of that struggle and with the changes from hormones and influences from older transitioners which were toxic and mis guided me into the desire to "be accepted" to be stealth. it was an alien concept.
I bought into it. maybe it was the lonliness, maybe it was because I had bad ID (all male - and nyc no less...:( ) and coudn't get a real job now between to genders. and the remarkable thing is that changng my name only made things worse legally. because it wasn't universal, but that would'nt have made a difference either because of the events to come after 2001 and the policies enacted.
so the cozy comfortable middle class life I'd struggled to creat over the years 1999 to 200came to an abrupt and final end. once that mismatch letter arrived on my bosses desk I was done.and more than that people talk and the end was near for every affilation and support other then transfriends.
stealth is a lie.
stealth isn't real.
stealth is giving up on yourself.
and your worth more than that. it's not your job to convert haters or co-opt them on your own. it's all of us together that have struggled all these decades so no one will ever have to go thru what we have.
My journey began with death, the death of my Nana. In my 20's alone poor and shy and afaid of the whole world.
I'm no ones heroine but my own, and I wish you all the best and hope that by adding my real name and face and voice again, turning away from the cowardice of stealth, I can redeem some of mhy authenticity and integrity - Once I was real and i traded away my only asset for a few years of minimum wage employment a car and a house. I'm deeply ashamed of my epic fail. Know that what sustained me thru the most exqusite depravations, lonliness and fear and ignorance was my genuineness, my commitment to being myself real and true and whole in my my own brokeness.
Forgive me as I try to forgive myself another light still shines thru it's tarnished, glazed and teary eyes I scream I'm transsexual!
I'm like you. and Mom, you don't recognise me anymore but
I CAME FROM YOU.
Christians have a lot of ignorance about Transsexuality
Hi all,
I am a transgendered woman and I consider myself a devout Christian. And Calpernia is right about the negative view held by the majority of Chrisitans. I am fortunate that the Christian church I go to is for the most part very understanding.
Unfortunately, many big groups such as Focus on the Family, Concerned Women, and even Crosswalk.com are very opposed to transgenderism, and view it as a sin, out of their own ignorance, in my opinion. All I can say is to show true Christian "agape love" to others and try to forgive your enemies like Jesus did. Those relgious groups that are persecuting sexual minorities like FOTF will have to answer to God for judging people too harshly; especially minorities having genders that do not match their physical bodies, and those of a different sexual orientation. God alone is the one who will judge. These groups need to practice more humility in my honest opinion.
It's a shame cause I know that there are plenty of compassionate and loving Christians out their who want to make the world and this country a better place to live.
Just my 2 cents.
Bobbie
abortions = the plain facts
The following is just the facts do with them what you want. I am not here to enter into a discusion.
........................
abortions = the plain facts
Who doesn't get them ==>
surely gay men don't
surely transgendered people don't / can't .. their bodies are altered surgically
surely most lesbians want children to raise as they don't have male partners
Who does that leave getting abortions ==>
surely that means only or mostly straight women get them after having some sort of personal event that leads them to it.
ABORTIONS - NOBODY- LIKES - THEM
WHO - DOESN'T - GET - THEM - gay men don't
-- transsexuals - can't
-- lesbians don't
except in case
of rape
-- feminist - womyn +
men were
educated about
their
sexuality and
use protection or
ask a mate
to get pregnant
ABORTIONS WON'T BE NEEDED WHEN -- daughters +
sons are
educated
about their
sexuality +
not shamed
for it
--- when males
don't rape but
find other
outlets
--- when women
may die due
to pregnancy
/ complication
---- when scared
females
are given
proud choices
UNTIL THEN --suport adoptions --
by gale males
transsexuals
lesbians + all
WE COULD POTENTIALLY BUILD BRIDGES TO THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT BY ALLOWING GAYS AND LESBIANS ETC TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO ADOPT CHILDREN THAT MAY BE ABORTED. IF WE CAN CONNECT WITH THE RELIGOUS RIGHT AND GET THEM TO SUPPORT GAYS AND LESBIANS AND STRAIGHTS THE ABILITY TO ADOPT THESE CHILDREN BEFORE THEY ARE ABORTED WE COULD SURELY BUILD BRIDGES TO THEM AND DOWPLAY THIS ABORTION ISSUE. THIS WILL ALSO HELP TO BUILD BRIDGES WITH GAYS AND LESBIANS AND THE RELIGOUS RIGHT.
YES IT WILL TAKE SOME FUNDING OF WOMEN SEEKING ABORTION BY THOSE SEEKING TO ADOPT BUT IT COULD BE A WAY TO PLEASE BOTH ENDS AND SHOW THAT GAYS AND LESBIANS ARE NOT ALL ABOUT ABORTION SINCE MANY SEEK TO ADOPT CHILDREN.
I AM NOT SAYING THAT IF A WOMAN STILL WANTS AN ABORTION THAT SHE SHOULD BE FORCED TO HAVE THE CHILD AND LET GAYS AND LESBIANS ADOPT IT BUT I AM SAYING THAT THERE SHOULD BE AN AVENUE FOR THIS ACTION.
WE NEED TO BUILD BRIDGES NOT LINES IN THE SAND.
We Come From You - Transsexual People and Politics
Thank you Mme. Addams for your post. I am a f2m (m2m identified) and am the son of a rather conservative preacher. Every year my parents would take my sister and I to Bob Jones University (shudder still at that thought) to celebrate Thanksgiving. My father was the minister of several churches and I remember how he would read Dobson's Focus on the Family newsletter.
I was 6 or 7 years old and I remember looking at my parents and wondering why they rarely laughed or smiled. Their stance was typically against someone or something and rarely for or with someone. They talked about God's love and how 'we're supposed to help our neighbors', but they didn't seem to love anybody. If my parents came across someone who was 'different' they'd make fun of them. Where's the love?
Ironic then that they now have a son. Excluding someone else is an either/or game. Either you win or I win. The same perspective that led to the school yard being a bully is the same perspective that leads to exclusion.
Frankly, excluding someone else because they don't think like I do is exhausting and it limits the human experience. You know, I didn't speak to my parents for roughly 3 years. I wanted to work through my questions of gender and I think they figured out they could be a part of my life and accept me or not. They actually made a special trip to visit me a couple of months ago and we stay in contact with each other.
My questioning of gender has led me to broaden my perspective in other areas of life. I learned French because I like the sound of the language. I learned how to produce documentaries because I wanted to see if I could do it. Sometimes the best experiences come when you leave your backyard and begin asking questions.
Thank you so much for your article. You're right, we do from you.
Merci,
Johann
Thank-you
Thank you so much for your article. I agree with every point with everr fiber of my being. I am a single mother of three children. The oldest of which (8 years old) is transgendered. He was born female and is currently living as male. I as a mother support him fully. I am currently involved in what is becoming a political issue with him going to school. The more information out there the better.
Thank you
Tiffany
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