Not Only a Liar, But An Arrogant One

You can tell when someone has successfully refuted Mr. "Cristan" Williams lies...he makes an immediate response.  For example, Elizabeth at Notes From the T Side posted an excellent article entitled Cis-Privilege or The New Transgender Lie in which she proceeds to refute on of Mr. Williams most persistent lies...that "transgender" is the appropriate term for those who are transsexual.  She provides the following quote, which is typical of Mr. Williams' rhetoric:

Transgender (AKA: trans, trans*, TG) is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of people including transsexuals, crossdressers, drag kings and queens, as well as bigender and androgynous individuals.1 Transgender that came into common usage during the 1970s, but was popularized as early as 1965 as a way to refer to transsexuals who wanted genital reconstructive surgery. Today, the term transgender is used to refer to individuals who are not cisgender.

Now, Elizabeth, who transitioned and had surgery before Mr. Williams was, as my mother used say, "not even a gleam in his father's eye," points out, quite correctly, that this is "complete and absolute lie."  This is something I showed almost a year ago, much to Mr. Williams chagrin.

No, the term was not in common usage in the 1970's among transsexuals, or anyone else.  There are a few very isolated occurrences, that Mr. Williams tries to conflate into "common usage."  This is one of his favorite "complete and absolute" lies.  He does the same thing he tries to accuse others of doing, taking an isolated usage of a word, and making it into something it is not.  Williams is fond of pointing out that Arnold Lowman, aka "Virginia Prince" used the term "transgenderal" in 1969, and then claiming that this is the source of what he likes to label the "Virginia Prince Fountainhead Myth."  But, his entire premise is built on rare, isolated usage of the term, which it can clearly be shown did not come into anything remotely resembling "common usage" until the 1990's.  

Mr. Williams blissfully ignores the first hand testimony of people who were actually transsexuals during this period, and falls back on isolated occurences of the term to show it was in common usage, but then dismisses the use of the term by Lowman as the origin of its current use.  Uh, okay....

In the early 1990's, some time after when Williams claims the term was commonly used, I was introduced to the term "transgenderist" while attending meetings of a support group in Atlanta.  The group was led by none other than Dallas Denny, who would go on to become a major figure in pushing transgender as an umbrella term.  But, at the time, Denny was was still identifying as a transsexual, and explained that "transgenderist" was a term for someone who lived full-time as the opposite sex, but who did not desire SRS.  Transgender was not being used at all.  And there was still a clear division between crossdressers and transsexuals.  This, at a time when Mr. Williams would have us believe "transgender" was in "common usage" as an umbrella term.

When Mr. Williams gets caught in a lie, he tends to dig himself deeper.  He falls back on the same lame tactics, like falsely accusing his opponent of using "straw man" arguments, while doing so with impunity.

For example, in response to Elizabeth's post, he combines the two tactics...

A stwarman (sic) argument is when you want to attack a position, have no logical reason to attack it, and so instead lie about what the other person said. Simply compare what I actually said (blue quote) and what this person claims I said (the first sentence after my quote).

Sounds reasonable, until you look at what Mr. Williams is quoted as saying:

Cis-Privilege (AKA, transphobia, heterosexism, cisgenderism) refers to a set of unearned advantages that individuals who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth accrue solely due to being cisgender.

And what he falsely claims is a straw argument: 

CW claims somehow that the privileges women have and those of us that live as women without being open, out, and proud are not earned but given. Here is a list of cis privileges that are easily identified as the complaints men in dresses have about their transvestite fantasies as women. It is directly aimed at the few rights we women have that provide us comfort or safety or that define us as females and women. What it all comes down to is they as men have the right to do whatever they want, wherever they want, and however they want when they are playing girl in fantasy mode.

Now, let's take this step by step... Is that what Mr. Williams said?  Yes, as "accrued" means "be received by someone in regular or increasing amounts over time..." and he says this is solely due to their being cisgender, so clearly these things are "not earned."  Is the rest of Elizabeth's statement true? Look at the list that is linked to, and you will see that the rest is dead on as well.  

Mr. Williams then claims:

The post drones on and on, creating one fake position for me to take after another, so that she could (presumably) enjoy attacking absurd ideas I’ve never promoted. Apparently lies are the only rhetoric folks like this have left to cling to. IMHO, these folks are the young earth creationists of the trans experience. They seem to have no argument to make that isn’t laughable and yet, their place in this world seems to be predicated upon their fantasy being true: 

• A lesbian transsexual was targeted for not being non-transsexual; cisprivilege isn’t real. 
• Prince didn’t coin or pioneer trans terms; Prince is where transgender comes from.

Just one problem for Mr. Williams...he is not even mentioned again.  So...he is the one who is lying.  And he uses a blatant straw argument by making the comparison to creationism.

There is no straw man here, or even a "stwarman," on the part of Elizabeth Just a simple statement concerning the demands that Mr. Williams, and other transgender extremists, push.  

And that is really what Mr. Williams is about.  It is clear that he makes no attempt to actually live as a woman.  He is completely, as they say, "out, loud, and proud."  Just like his cohort Mr. "Autumn" Sandeen, he clearly has NO desire to be seen as a woman, but wishes to be seen as transgender.  He wants people to know he was not born a woman, and then wants to force them to acknowledge him as a woman, even if it is contrary to what their senses tell them.  It is not about being a woman, but is about control. 

They want to control how people are allowed to use language.  As soon as a man says the magic words, "I feel like a woman," in their view, he becomes not just a "woman," but a female, with all the rights and privileges thereof, and must be fully accepted as such, including the right to enter any, and all sexually segregated area, even those involving nudity.

If a woman is uncomfortable with the presence of this other "woman" then the woman is, in their view, a bigot, and she must be forced into compliance.  Even if that woman is a convicted rapist and registered sex offender.  In a debate with Representative John Kavanagh, he pull out one of his favorite dodges...are transgender people immune from laws regarding rape, sexual assault, and exposing themselves.  Unfortunately he ignores the fact that the pervert "Colleen" Francis was doing just that.  he made no attempt to be discrete, and when people complained, they were told that the laws protecting said pervert trumped the laws that should have protected the children involved.

So, bottom line...once again Mr. Williams is caught lying like a cheap rug.