As you may know, most of the TS Separatist leaders have moved on with their lives and the ones who are left seem to be the Ashley Love/Just Jennifers of the world who regularly make absurd and demonstrably false claims. I will continue to both confront and make evidence-based corrections when folks like Love attempt to pass off fiction as fact. Having said that, now that the historical record seems to have been set right on coinage myths, I can’t say that I have any significant issues with folks like Dana Taylor or Suzan Cooke. I’ve had friendly correspondence with some of the folks I used to butt heads with and I’m glad to see that everyone seems to be moving forward.
After the radfems attacked the transgender community, over the last several months, I have been doing some soul searching and one thing I told myself is that I do NOT want to look like them. I was disgusted by what I saw and am grief-stricken by my part in some of this war. I actually helped hurt some of my sisters and I am paying for it in my own heart. I think now is a time for solidarity. Dana Lane Taylor
I think for a long time, RadFems have watched us go at each other while they mocked us from the sidelines. It seemed like RadFems cozied up to some TS Separatists so that instead of correctly blaming RadFems for the destruction of trans healthcare, Separatists blamed non-True TranssexualsTM for trans-related health care costs being excluded from health care coverage (and/or tax deductions). While H-BSer Separatists were busy blaming non-H-BSers for the stigmatized view many began taking of all trans people over the past 3 decades, RadFems, of course, never clued them in that it was the RadFems themselves who were fanning the flames of transphobia so that even a trans Stonewall hero like Silvia Revera was beaten for daring to speak out at a queer gathering1.
It seems that we’re coming to a point where we’re beginning to see we share a common enemy:
7/12/2012: From ex anti-trans RadFem, Julie Bendel
While RadFems kicked back and mocked us as transpoodles and pretendbians and worked against trans equality we, in our arguing, seemed to forgot the toll anti-trans RadFems took upon the lives of folks like Filisa Vistima. We forgot that RadFems have a history of going as far as to work with racist religious fundamentalists if it meant harming trans folk. We seemed to forget that it was the RadFems who shaped many of the original and enduring anti-trans memes that affect the lives of countless trans folk to this day.
Unity Not Uniformity
The tide is (finally) turning against our shared enemies: anti-trans RadFems.
At one time, the anti-trans lesbian feminist Julie Bendel, the TS Sepritist Dana Taylor, the radical post-transsexual Suzan Cooke and I would have been at each other’s throats arguing theory, rhetoric and history. It seems that day has past.
Today, all of us agree that transwomen are female women, that lesbian transwomen are actual lesbians, that calling one’s self transgender is fine, that calling one’s self transsexual is fine and none of us are arguing over who coined transgender. Do we agree on every-fucking-thing? Nope. But that’s not the point. The point is unity, not uniformity.
Today, I get to live in a world that is becoming more and more aware of just how shamelessly, willfully and wantonly harmful anti-trans RadFems have been over the past 4 decades.
RadFem opinion leader and attorney Catherine (Cathy) Brennan, Partner at Hudson Cook LLP
Today, I get to live in a world of allies which is more unified, more respectful of our differences and more focused on confronting what has been a hidden tumor poisoning practically all aspects of the queer community for decades. Which means, I think, checkmate.
Notes:
The featured image comes from http://radfemscorpion.tumblr.com check them out. Now.
1.) Before RadFem influence:
In the beginning, we were the vanguard of the gay movement We were very well respected for the first four years Sylvia Rivera
After RadFem influence:
Women in the GLF were uncomfortable referring to Riverawho insisted in using women’s bathrooms, even in City hallas she. Pressure mounted. The year 1973 witnessed clash that would take Rivera out of the movement for the next two decades. Her lifelong friend and fellow Stonewall Veteran Bob Kohler recalled, Sylvia left the movement because after the first three or four years, she was denied a right to speak. It was during the Pride rally in Washington Square Park after the Christopher Street Liberation Day March.
To the dismay of Lesbian Feminist Liberation drag queens were scheduled to perform. As they passed out flyers outlining their opposition to the female impersonators, Rivera wrestled for the microphone held by emcee Vitto Russo, before getting hit with it herself. Rivera explained, I had to battle my way up on stage, and literally get beaten up and punched around by people I thought were my comrades, to get to that microphone. I got to the microphone and I said my piece. Rivera complained that the middle-class crowd cared little to nothing about the continued harassment and arrests of street drag queens. Bleeding, Rivera sang, You Gotta Have Friends, screamed Revolution Now! and led the crowd in a chant of Give me a G, Give me an A, Give me a Y What does it spell? Barely audible, her voice breaking, GAY POWER, she groaned. - Benjamin Shepard, Sylvia and Sylvia’s Children: The Battle for a Queer Public Space, That’s Revolting! (ed. Matt Bernstein Sycamore)
cross-posted from Ehipassiko
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Your remarks have clarified that you are a hateful, bigoted bitch who has no understanding of trans issues. You clearly have an agenda of demeaning trans* women at any cost (my guess is trans* men get a free pass, though, right? Double standards tend to be the standard with people like you), How pathetic that you have nothing better to do than spend your time in a drunken haze attacking a marginalized community with your hateful and asinine rhetoric. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
Harmed women? How is that? Something you read in a textbook? The best thing to remember is to avoid feeding idiot trolls.
i’m not feeling the love here..
What do we have in common with gays and bisexuals ?! A need for equality! What do we have in common with cross dressers and drag queens ?! A need for equality! What did gays have in common with Martin Luther King?A need for equality!
There is only one common goal for everyone in a struggle for rights. The time waste to this point thanks to these separatists is enough to feel shame. We move on.
Cisgender measurements are no longer applicable.We understand not only the transsexual but the cross dress and drag women. Unity has nothing to do with politics because politics objectifies instead up learning about people. Every trick the rad fem / separatist tried was to objectify and stereotype .
Who cares whether a tiny group of transsexual separatists are arguing with a tiny group of angry transgender activists over “theory, rhetoric, and history” or whether those 2 tiny groups are now tolerating each other? You are irrelevant either way. You are irrelevant to the so-called radfems. They say what they genuinely believe; they aren’t tailoring arguments based on the effect that it will have on the “unity” among a handful of underemployed malcontents. Your supposed “unity” will not silence a single woman.
More important, none of this is relevant to the real world. You live in a strange bubble where you think that incessant babble about your gender disorder is worth anyone’s time. Here’s an example of how detached you are from the real world. A meme is something that most people will understand when they see it. It is based on common experience. We all know a Good Guy Greg and a Douchebag Roommate and even those who don’t personally know people like that will quickly get the reference. No one other than a warped transgender activist steeped in the language of the trans cult will understand the scorpion meme. If 200 people in all of North America understood those memes I’d be surprised. By no coincidence, no transgender event has ever attracted more than a couple hundred people. There aren’t that many of you. We should all be thankful for that.
And yet……here you are.
Someone needs to look in on the asylum now and then. Just to make sure you have food and water and aren’t flinging your feces at women.
Someone who spends so much time with such insignificant, repulsive people doesn’t act in accord with their assessment. They should consider whether they’re inside that asylum looking out, rather than outside looking in.
Who spends their lives obsessing over insignificant, powerless people and thinks they’re paragons of rationality?
The deluded or hateful, of course. Sounds like you hit the Daily Double in that sad game.
Get some help.
Nobody who hates womyn as much as you do has the right to call herself a feminist.
And – just making no sense. “You’re a tiny insignificant group of mentally challenged people” …..and…”You’re a powerful, existential threat to over 50% of the population.” At the same damn time. One should occasionally ask themselves what might motivate such a visceral reaction that incorporates diametrically opposed assessments of a “tiny minority”. At the very least – they should ask themselves how they continue to lose to a tiny minority of mentally challenged, poor, politically disenfranchised, powerless people. I mean – here you are – high level professionals – partners in major firms – corporate executives – politically connected – from monied families – financially well off – assuming you’re representing a large portion of the population – and you’re getting your ass handed to you by these people? Some of your preconceptions about them, yourself & the general populace may be a tad skewed. Just saying.
I think you may have confused my cultural transfeminism with cissexist ‘radical’ feminism because I spell womyn with a y.
Just saying.
Nah – that wasn’t directed to you. It was agreement – then exposition on those you were referring to. Poor transition on my part? Pun intended.
As with many times that a trans person was unintentionally slighted, pronoun trouble was involved. ^_^
I say to you, Madame – Duck Season!
Daffy Duck: Let’sth run through that again.
Bugs Bunny: Okay.
[in a flat tone]
Bugs Bunny: Wouldja like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?
Daffy Duck: [flat tone] Shoot him now, shoot him now.
Bugs Bunny: [flat tone] You keep outta this. He doesn’t hafta shoot you now.
Daffy Duck: [with sudden passion] Ha! That’s it! Hold it right there!
[to audience]
Daffy Duck: Pronoun trouble.
[to Bugs]
Daffy Duck:
It’s not: “He doesn’t have to shoot *you* now.” It’s: “He doesn’t
have to shoot *me* now.” Well, I say he does have to shoot me now!
[to Elmer]
Daffy Duck: So shoot me now!
No one called transgenders a minority. They don’t have that kind of legitimacy. I said they were a tiny group. No one said they were an existential threat to women. They can, however, harm individual women. And have.
But that wasn’t the point either. The point was that no one in the real world cares about the drivel that you all post here. It is utterly incomprehensible to sane people who are not schooled in the ways of your fevered minds. You use the meme generator as a way of fooling yourselves that your issues are understood by society and even have a place in popular internet culture. I can assure you that outside of cyber mental asylums like this site, no one knows and no one cares.
Ah – we love you two. If only everyone who said they didn’t care at all spent so much time as you on what they care not a whit about…..well….we needn’t plan for that eventuality. You’all come back now when you need to display your disinterest, sugar.
The most amazing thing is that the RadFems have the arrogance to think that they speak for all women. They only speak for them selves.A couple of points need to be made.
1. You claim “They can, however, harm individual women. And have.” but I challenge you to provide one example of a trans women who was medically transitioning, who in any real way harmed any women. Please let’s be clear I am talking about a trans women who is medically transitioning under the supervision if an MD and a licensed therapist or has already done so, not a cross dresser or a man in a dress.
2. I repeat most RadFems have the arrogance to think that they speak for all women. They only speak for them selves. My partner, who is my legally married spouse, who has stood by me during my transition and is still my best friend and lover (and was assigned female at birth) has absolute hatred for RadFems, she was involved with the second wave feminists during the 70s. Contact with RadFems will have that effect. In addition most of my friends are women, most were assigned female at birth,and many are lesbians. They not only completely accept me as a woman but accept me and my partner as a lesbian couple. Oh by the way they want NOTHING to do with RadFems.
Lets face it, the 70s and 80s are long past. The RadFems have lost most of their power, as a group at least. They are nothing but a small clot left with nothing but a hatred that is rotting out their innards.
”
Please let’s be clear I am talking about a trans women who is medically transitioning under the supervision if an MD and a licensed therapist or has already done so, not a cross dresser or a man in a dress.”
Excuse me? Are you attempting to erase or marginalize your fellow transgender who are men in dresses/cross-dressers/genderqueers? Are you a TS separatist/exterminationist? I think you really stepped in it, dear. Now you’ll go on the trans activist enemies list. But at least you’ll be in good company.
Hello old friend. Has it really been this long? You look great – ate you exercising?
It’s so nice to see you’re progress – unlike other radfems, you no longer think we’re an existential threat to the existence of Cis women – or even that we’re the end of gay people. You’ve progressed to just thinking we might hurt some Cis women. Like a shellfish allergy, hornets and other people – including other rad fems.
I’m very proud of your growth as a human being – you’re one of the good ones. You should stop by more often.
How’s the family? Are you getting some time off this summer? Don’t worry – there’s someone out there for everyone – you’ll find someone yet.
Wow – look at the time. I need to be on my way home. Safe journey – don’t let so much time go by next time. My love to your family!
What I may or may not have stepped in is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you failed to address my question. No surprise there. I chose trans women who are medically transitioning for good reasons.
1. We are a very well defined group with no question as to who belongs and who does not. This is in no way meant to marginalize or erase anyone else.It was meant to make it difficult for you to blame us for the action of someone who is not part of our community.
2. We are the group that the second wave feminists tried to literally exterminate. Many of us were forced into survival sex work because of the bigotry that was at least in part stirred up by the second wave feminists. Many of us died on the streets because of this. Many of us died because the denial of appropriate medical care drove us to suicide, either directly or through subsistence abuse. Here the second wave feminists most defiantly played the leading role. The second wave feminists, of which you clearly seem to one, did tremendous amounts of horrible damage to a community that never did anything at all to harm you. There is real blood on your hands, blood that will never wash off. Thankfully now the second wave feminists are, as I said, nothing but a small clot left with nothing but a hatred that is rotting out their innards. Please understand that these remarks were in no way meant to minimize that damage second wave feminists have done to others. I freely acknowledge that second wave feminists did tremendous amounts of damage to lots of different sorts of innocent people. However few others were harmed nearly as badly as trans women.
For the record I most certainly do not consider a lack of access to the medical means to transition as in any way making a trans woman less of a woman. I was once in that situation myself.
As to the question am I a separatist? I certainly do not identify as a separatist, but I have been called lots of far more unpleasant things. I think that it is foolish for trans women to argue over whether we call
our selves transgender or transsexual. As for those who are gender queer, I do not consider them part of my community, but I do consider them to be natural allies under the transgender umbrella. As for cross dressers, people cross dress for lots of diverse reasons, some cross dressers may be part of my community, some may be natural allies, many are most likely neither. I certainly do not consider cross dressers to be responsible for the bigotry that exists against the trans community.
“[Classic TSs] are a very well defined group with no question as to who belongs and who does not.”
So in your mind, classic TS’s are in the trans club, but for everyone else, there is a question mark? They presumably have to get your stamp of approval in order to “belong”?
Your attempt to ameliorate your initial remark has only clarified that you are a TS supremacist.
Maybe before you go after women, feminists, gays and lesbians, you all should sort out the differences in the madhouse known as “trans.” I am sure that you “gals” will resort to some violent method of resolving your differences. Perhaps you could draw on the techniques that you have honed by attacking banks in Oregon or women at MichFest.
‘Classic transsexuals’ or HBSers view ‘real’ trans women as comprising about 1% of post ops. They’re a lunatic fringe which, unsurprisingly, is sought out and supported by the rad fem lunatic fringe.
There is a clear difference between those who need medical transition and others in a few respects, one being that we’re most targeted and victimised by the actions of extreme rad fem hate groups.
Still, speaking as a queer feminist trans woman, we could all learn a lot by the inclusiveness practiced by the extreme rad fem community. On the one hand there are examples like the Hudsoncookie and her mission to help pay day lenders or those two leading members of AROOO who are economically supported by their boyfriends in order to have more time to further the cause, those who might not be accepted in less generous groups. And then there’s the rad fem willingness to incorporate, not to mention appropriate, the narratives of lesbians and of other types of feminism into their own, or their ‘accepting’ relationship with trans men. And of course there’s also the way that, certainly in respect of relating to trans women, rad fems are also happy to include so much from the paranoid fantasies of non neurotypicals into their lived experience.
Agree that it is sad such versatile and broad acceptance hasn’t made itself a fixture of the trans community. If we ever dwindle to the same point of irrelevance, no doubt we’ll be forced to emulate such tolerance too.
” Perhaps you could draw on the techniques that you have honed by attacking banks in Oregon or women at MichFest.” Hey – if you’re alleging Hermes Daughter has committed crimes – please report her to the police. Pronto. If not – she should sue you.
When you learn to read and stop putting words in my mouth then perhaps I will respond to you. At present it seems that all that you are capable of is making wild unfounded accusations that only make you look like a fool.
I suspect that the fact that I have a loving partner who was was assigned female at birth and I have lots of women friends certainly not all but many of whom were assigned female at birth who completely accept me not only as a woman but as a lesbian has you so completely filled with hatred and rage that what little capacity for reason and rational thought you might have had at one time is long gone.
In the mean time, it is clear for the world to see that you are nothing but a nasty hate filled person who along with all other second wave feminists have been relegated to the rubbish bin of history.
See – Brennan is a uniter, not a divider.
She’s brought together radical feminist critics of trans folk, transsexual separatists, the ABA, the Dyke March, the LGBT Bar – next she’ll even bring Dana LaRocca to the table.
Brava. I never thought I’d see someone use the Sirens of Titan strategy effectively in the real world. Never imagined someone would use it in a self inflicted manner.
Strategery!
I’m sorry, but what exactly is the Sirens of Titan strategy? I’ve never heard that term before?
It’s the title a Vonnegut book – the gist being the disparate factions of humanity are joined together by a common enemy. Much as in the Watchman graphic novel Ozymondais forces the nations to stop squabbling by faking an attack by aliens.
She’s basically united all of those factions by their revulsion to being associated with her. A neat trick – and a self inflicted wound.
Keep up the good work! Hell of an advertisement for her employer.