TransGriot: note: I'm sick of hearing the BS SRS=transsexual argument myself, and far too many predominately white transsexuals are the ones pimping it. And now, here's guest poster Zoe Kincade.I am honestly disheartened to find so many transsexuals buying into this thinking.
While it definitely seems to be the case that I see eye to eye on transgender ideology being harmful to transsexuals with some, other transsexuals do not appear to be willing to give up their personal pride and prejudice to establish the kind of transsexual community that is necessary to make up any kind of adequate contrast to the transgender juggernaut.
The 'surgical correction = transsexual" argument makes no sense. Transsexuality is a birth condition of identifying with and permanently adopting the identity of the opposite sex, and the effects of said condition are not always absolute. Dr. Harry Benjamin believed that non-operative transsexuals existed and that the separation between the classifications of transsexual was not definitive, psychological studies have backed up his assessments in the case of non-op transsexuals, and I know non-op transsexuals who still identify as transsexual personally. If they operate as the sex their condition points them toward, it is none of our business what they are packing in their pants.
As I explained to a transsexual separatist named Lisa this evening (and she continually attempted to browbeat me into submission regarding), the genital based disagreement is sourced from a predominantly white, Western, and transsexual woman point of view.
It ignores other cultures (where transsexuals can be more accepted, and thus feel less of an impetus to have genital surgery), it ignores history (many historical personalities and cultural groups assumed the identity of another sex, which was not necessarily inclusive of changes to the genitals), it ignores the experiences and status of female-to-male transsexuals (where genital surgery is not really much of a viable option), and it hypocritically places transsexuals in the position of 'genital police'; it is safe to say that none of us would want to convey our genital status to perfect strangers, so why are anybody else's genitals any of our business?
I have many more sensible reasons than that, and plan to detail all of them in my upcoming manifesto against such thinking. It is harmful to development of transsexuality as a cross-cultural identity with a rich history and easily as poisonous as any transgender ideology to transsexuals in reality, unfortunately. It keeps people with the transsexual birth condition separated (thus, marginalized) and holds surgical correction up as the 'gold standard of transsexuality'; i.e. makes for an elitist rift that excludes perfectly decent transsexual human beings.
That, in turn, is what sabotages transsexuals as having their own booming community in lieu of creating splinter groups of those who could afford it or otherwise had a life experience where they had to change their bodies through surgical means. To top all of that off, surgical correction is not necessary to separate transsexuality (an inherently sex-based condition) from the gender-based ideology of the transgender political machine. Given that, the only purpose it serves is to be divisive to us all at a time when we should be unifying behind a common identity.
I cannot in good conscience agree with such a position given the wealth of evidence, common sense, and logic that stands opposed to it, and I hope others will understand my disagreement.
