Friday, December 21, 2012

His Own Worst Enemy

The man who would be king, well at least of the transgender fascists has been very busy lately.  Yes, Mr. "Cristan" Williams, who spends his time trying to prove that the modern transgender movement has been around a lot longer than it actually has is at it again, and he is doing a pretty good job of proving the things he has devoted himself to disproving.

In three recent articles, he has shown exactly the reasons true transsexuals want no part of the movement he attempts to force us into, and even ignores it a major leader's somewhat sage advice.

In the first article, he carries on about how Phillip Frye (not the character from Futurama, but Houston's best known transvestite) who was one of those who created a movement that no sane transsexual would want a part of was a major force in the early gay rights movement, and worked diligently to force the LGB to tack on the T.  Frye has done more than his share of damage to transsexuals.  He was one of the louder voices carrying the mantle of Arnold Lowman, aka Charles "Virginia" Prince that surgery was not necessary, and even undesirable.  He also pulled some absurd stunts that did more than a little to discredit transsexuals legitimacy, such as seeking out post-op "lesbians" in relationships with biological women to have them get "legally" married in Texas as a response to the Littleton case.  In another words, a woman was supposed to legally marry another woman.  But all the Texas authorities did was grin a stupid grin, and say, "Yep, as we all said, they're men, and they are jus' marryin' some woman...no problem."

Then he posts about Lee Brewster, a gay drag queen/transvestite who ran a specialty boutique for drag queens and transvestites in New York City until his death.  Brewster, like Frye was basically a transvestite who got a bit carried away, but who had no desire to actually be a woman.

Then he writes about Leslie Feinberg, someone who is really more butch lesbian than anything else, who played a major role in creating the modern transgender movement, the one he tries to claim existed long before, in the mid-Nineties.  But I have to love the fact that he quotes Feinberg in the following exchange from 1993:
Would you consider anyone who is a butch woman or an effeminate man to be transgendered?
Leslie: I think the point is not whether I would, but whether they would. What I think is that the gender community is forming a movement and starting to be visible and that more and more people will decide whether they are or are not gender oppressed.
So, Feinberg, a founder of the movement acknowledges that people have a right to be "separatists."  It was, is, and should be about "identity" not being forced to accept a label.  The only people I feel "gender oppressed" by are people like Williams, who try to tell me how I can view my "gender."

Ah, but there's more...

Some transsexuals regard being transsexual and being transgendered a being very different from each other and don’t really consider the term “transgendered” as being appropriate to their situation. Do you see there being a fundamental difference between being transgendered and being transsexual? 
Leslie: Well, in the literal sense, we’re talking about ether people crossing the lines of the sex they were mandated at birth and people who are crossing the lines of gender. So, of course, I do think there’s a very real difference between the lives of transsexuals and those who are transgendered, but that’s in the ten(sic) literal sense of the word. I also think that transsexuals who are read very easily on the street have very different lives than those who aren’t, but there’s becoming another use of the word “transgender” which is not so literal, which seems to me to be a kind of umbrella term to unite a very diverse population, and that’s the sense in which I use “transgendered.”
Now, I’m also very aware that language changes and that struggle shapes language, but it may be that there will be specific terms – the “transsexual/transgender” community or a term that we haven’t even heard yet, maybe “trans people” will come to mean anyone who crosses any sex or gender lines. So what I like about uniting us under this broad umbrella term is that it unites a group who share more in common than we differ.
Even from the beginnings of what Williams tries, falsely, to claim was around when it wasn't, Feinberg acknowledges that there are differences.  She wants to create a "community" but one born of identity, not forced assimilation.  And, quite frankly, it has pretty much failed.  Feinberg was wrong.  We don't share that much in common after all.
I agree that there needs to be an umbrella term for all of us, but the reason that some transsexuals don’t like that term — and I tend to agree with this — is that it at least has the implication that transsexuals don’t really change sex. So, do you acknowledge that that term at least has the potential to be used in that way?
Leslie: Certainly I’m not using the term to define anybody for themselves or to impose upon them a term that strips them of an important part of their identity, I think that frequently language doesn’t suit the needs of all the individuals of a community. I remember after the Stonewall Rebellion when the word “gay” first came into use that a lot of people were very angered because they felt it trivializes our oppression. Now the word “gay” has become very accepted. For some of us the word “lesbian” was very difficult to say because it sounded so close to slurs that had been used against us. So I think that the more that we grow as a movement and mature, the more our Ianguage will reflect accuracy and more of what each group within that community feels most expresses their identities.
So, there you have it, Mr. Williams hoist by his own petard.  The very actions he has engaged in, repeatedly, condemned by one of the founders of the movement he tries now to force down people's throats.  Even in 1993, the same issues were around.  One of the people most responsible for the modern use of "transgender" acknowledges the possibility of misuse, exactly the misuse that people like "Cristan" Williams and "Autumn" Sandeen, following in the footsteps to Phillip Frye and Arnold Lowman, engage in.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

It's funny to see Williams, the almighty slef-appointed queen of reinventing the past, get called out by her peers. Great that Feinburg disagrees with William's dated and tyranical theories. For all the harm Feinberg had done to the transsexual community, glad to see he is now trying to atone for his mistakes. Let's see if Williams will evolve and show the same compassion and class that Feinberg has in admitting he is wrong. I won't hold my breath though, Williams' over the top self importance won't allow her to admit she is wrong. Williams is just an op-ed writer who manipulates details to create "facts" and "history" to attempt to solidify opinions as reality. Very common in Texas, the wackos. The way Williams bullies and tries to publicly demean and humilate transsexual women on her blog is equivalent to how men used to harass women who wanted the right to vote in decades past. William's typical abusive male behavior makes me question her motives, it's like she really is a Virginia Prince clone fighting for male cross dressers to be seen as the same thing as transsexual women. Good thing is that more and more people are not buying it.

Just Jennifer said...

Hi Deb,

I noticed Mr. Williams took umbrage at your comment. Oh well...

Unknown said...

How so?

Just Jennifer said...

Check out the original article on his blog. He added a snarky, and typically meaningless, comment.

Unknown said...

can you send me the link?

Just Jennifer said...

http://www.cristanwilliams.com/b/2012/12/21/the-life-and-times-of-a-gender-outlaw-an-interview-with-leslie-feinberg/

Unknown said...

can you email me?

Just Jennifer said...

I don't have your email. Blogger doesn't show it.

himself said...

"I never understood anger towards gay people, because a person being gay doesn't affect your life, so it's weird to me that people are just like in their homes going 'Oh, people are gay... dammit!'" ~Louis CK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d63ClccjjE

Just Jennifer said...

Worst straw argument...ever!

himself said...

How is it a straw argument? His point is that you're hating on people for doing something that will never affect you... I have friends who are homophobic but still think gay marriage, transsurgery, and other LGBTQ rights should be LEGAL. You're the one making it your problem.

Just Jennifer said...

How is it a straw argument? His point is that you're hating on people for doing something that will never affect you... I have friends who are homophobic but still think gay marriage, transsurgery, and other LGBTQ rights should be LEGAL. You're the one making it your problem.

Uh, well, first off, it has nothing to do with what I said. That alone pretty much renders it a straw argument. Second, contrary to your use of the the classic response of accusing me of hating people, I don't hate anyone. I may hate the silliness that they spew, but I don't hate them. I may be hated by them, but I don't reciprocate. I don't wish them harm, though I do often wish they would just shut up. But I recognize that they do have a right to express their silly ideas, just as I have a right to refute, and mock, their insanity. And finally, this has NOTHING to do with being gay. Being gay, and being transgender, are two different things. I have rarely, if ever, addressed being gay, lesbian, or bisexual (and them probably to either point out that being transsexual has nothing to do with being gay, or I was mocking so-called "male lesbians," which I would think would be highly offensive to actual lesbians. In fact, I know it is highly offensive.

So, yes, it is a straw argument.

And since my article does not address whether anything should be "legal or not," this comment is also, you guessed it, a straw argument.

Thanks for playing, but I'm sorry, we have no lovely parting gifts for you....