Transgender Extremists Have Completely Lost It

The latest "feature article" on Mr. "Cristan" Williams' Transadvocate site is so absurd, even I was embarrassed for the poor fool who wrote it.  Talk about not getting…

It is basically a hissy fit about a video that was featured on the Huffington Post's Gay Voices section.  The headline of the article shrilly claims…

Transmisogyny masquerading as parody: HuffPo’s Gay Voices promotes disturbing video from former Drag Race contestant

There is a warning…

Trigger warning: video linked portrays a trans woman being murdered

And then the lead paragraph…

A trans woman activist portrayed with a moustache and a bad wig being murdered by a drag queen is the kind of imagery that would come with a trigger warning on most sensible online information outlet, not hailed as “hilarious” by one it’s editors. But, it would appear that Huffington Post editor James Nichols believes that the death of trans activist at the hands of an angry drag queen is a laugh-out-loud situation.

You can watch the video for yourself here but unfortunately you can't read the article on Huffington Post because they decided to cave to the protests of outraged transgender kooks who took it all too seriously.  Update: I have learned that it was preserved as a PDF here.

Now, let me start by saying that personally, I find a lot of "drag" offensive, not because of the issues raised by the humorless transgender kooks, but for a reason that is totally lost on the men in dresses crowd…it is insulting to women.  Drag is often comparable to the blackface performers that were often a major part of the minstrel shows that were so popular in the 1800s.  In fact, as people grew tired of blackface, it was replaced by female impersonators.  Now, I have seen some drag acts that are quite good, but much of drag involves insulting examples of the worst stereotypes of "bitchy women." 

Yeah, the foolish men who whine constantly about "transmisogyny" (their favorite neologism) could care less about real misogyny.

But, the growing tension between drag queens, like RuPaul, and the transgender nut cases, like Mr. "Cristan" Williams, Mr. "Autumn" Sandeen, Mr. "Dana" Taylor, and most significantly,  Mr. Parker "Marie" Malloy who started this who thing with his article on the Advocate website, and worse, his Twitter post in which he expressed his outright hatred of RuPaul in rather vulgar terms (See Andrea James' excellent response here.  BTW, the transgender kooks have now turned on Andrea James and Calpernia Adams for the unforgivable crime of actually disagreeing with them, and, well, pointing out some of their absurd positions.)

The video is over the top, but the obvious point is completely lost on the humorless men in dresses crowd.  It is not, as one commenter on Williams' site claims, a threat of violence, implied or otherwise.  It really not about "murdering a transwoman."  It is a humorous slap at a self-righteous little man who has started hormones, and suddenly thinks he knows it all, and is going to set everyone else straight.

I mean, seriously, the supposed murderer uses a BLOW DRYER.  It is over the top satire.  After attempting, several times, to modify his language to satisfy the transactivist complaints, he becomes frustrated and opens fires…again, with a BLOW DRYER.  The people offended by this are the same sort of people who actually think Jonathan Swift actually advocated eating poor children when he was really mocking heartless attitudes towards the poor.  It is called hyperbole, and the message is actually that some of these humorless fools should get a life.  Not, of course, that there is any chance of that.

Another Example of Transgender Extremists Just NOT Getting It

Recently, I learned about the suicide of someone named Essay Anne Vanderbilt.  Vanderbilt was the developer of a rather bizarre looking putter that was apparently quite revolutionary.  It could help golfers sink putts, and it had attracted the attention of a golfing writer who became someone obsessed with tracking down the inventor.

As he investigated the story, he found more and more inconsistencies.  Suspecting some sort of possible fraud, he dug deeper, but what he eventually found was that Vanderbilt was a post-op transsexual who was quite stealth.  When he made it clear that he planned to expose her, she committed suicide.  Naturally, a few transgender kooks have jumped on this to cluelessly blather about how rough it is for transgender people…mostly completely missing the simple fact that she was almost certainly not one of their ilk.

Another author, again completely missing the point, has taken a slightly different approach…but still misses the point entirely.  "Dana" Beyer, one of several transgender extremists who have found a home at the Huffington Post, has written an article whining about  Vanderbilt being in the closet.  Of course, Mr. Beyer is quick to point out that Vanderbilt had a history of being suicidal, and had a history of "emotional struggles."  He also makes the obvious error of referring to her as a "trans woman."  Vanderbilt was nothing like Mr. Beyer and the rest of the cadre of kooks who pontificate at the Huffington Post.  Vanderbilt clearly had no desire to be anything other than simply a woman…something the transgender crowd blanches at the thought of.

This is one several things that are lost on the transgender crowd in their rush to force transsexuals under their umbrella.  We are not the same.  Transsexuals have an absolute need to correct their bodies, and an equally absolute need to simply live as the women (or men, in the case of FTM transsexuals) that we really are.  Transgender people have a need to be, well, "transgender."  For them, the idea of not being "out, loud, and proud" is as equally offensive as the idea of being such is to a true transsexual.  They want people to know their history.  It is central to their identity, just as being simply a woman is to mine.

And that brings us to the core of what this article is about….Mr. Beyer's clueless drivel…  For example, he utters this ridiculous bit:

When any life is lost, it is a tragedy. When it is lost because of unbearable social pressures, it is an unnecessary tragedy. Her story is, unfortunately, still way too common.

Obviously, this poor woman killed herself because she feared something kooks like Mr. Beyer embrace with total enthusiasm.  While I believe that Vanderbilt overreacted to the situation, I can understand what she felt.  She would have been outed in, at least from her view, a very public manner.  Now, in truth, the situation might well have been ultimately manageable, it would have been difficult.  She no doubt had a lot invested in the product she had invented, and her future income probably depended on building on that success.  Simply picking up and moving somewhere she was not known would not have been an option.  

How one deals with being outed depends, in part, on the nature of the outing, and on where one lives.  For some, it can be hard to escape public scrutiny.  For others, it can be as simple as packing up and moving to a new town, or even a new part of town.  What she was threatened with (as best I can tell, she was not actually outed until after her death, but she should have been assured that her private life would remain private.  And, it is possible, if she had simply explained her situation to the person planning the article, that would have been respected.

But, I suspect that kooks like Mr. Beyer, and a long litany of others I won't bother naming, contributed to her death by pushing the concept that "transgender" people have no problem being "outed."  After all, I suspect some of them should probably be more likely to be suicidal if people didn't know their history.  After all, where is the fun in bullying people into ignoring reality and referring to you as a woman, if they are not fully, and unquestioningly aware that you were, and in many cases, still are, a male.

Some of the crap spewed by Mr. Beyer is just incredible…  For example, he exhibits both the cluelessness of a man, and a complete disregard for the safety, perhaps, of those who don't share his love of the spotlight:

Leaving the closet of her pre-transition male life, she created a new closet, with a narrative that clearly was flawed when she presented as a highly successful engineer and inventor. I'm amazed that her story didn't immediately raise eyebrows, as she was a middle-aged 6-foot-3 woman with a low-pitched voice, degrees from MIT and Penn, and a résumé of work on the stealth bomber and Bluetooth technology. Maybe we've progressed sufficiently that many are no longer aware of the profound sexism that infected the realm of science and technology back in the '70s and '80s. Few women received those degrees and worked on those projects. The ignorance evinced by the author and his editor tell me we still have a long way to go.

First off, Mr. Beyer would have kicked Vanderbilt right back into that first closet, where he still resides.  Mr. Beyer continues to, effectively exist as a man.  He may demand, and even force people to "acknowledge" him as a female, but they do it only by suspending reality.  He continues to exist as, in effect, a man.

Second, he ignores the fact that, yes, some women, not many, but some, did manage to have careers in those fields.  But he also makes sure to emphasize things that might clue his readers in on how to play "spot the tranny."  Yes, folks, that tall woman, with a voice that is perhaps not quite as high pitched as you think it should be…she just might be a man, so don't hesitate to make that assumption.  Especially if she has the "wrong" degree…  Talk about ignorance…Mr. Beyer exhibits it in bulk.

Worse, Mr. Beyer goes on to not only absolve the author of any guilt, but to actually suggest that he was justified in what he put Vanderbilt through…

The LGBT community pounced on the writer and his editor, blaming them for causing her death, even though she had killed herself before the story had been published. There were complaints that she should never have been outed, even though her gender history was clearly pertinent to the mystery that was her life. It was implied that there was no compassion for her, a claim we have no way of evaluating. Causation was implied where there was only correlation, and the trans community lashed out at what it saw as a miscarriage of justice and vicious cyber bullying.

After all, how dare she choose stealth.  She must join behind those like Mr. Beyer, in transgender lockstep.  Anything else is unacceptable.  Besides, what Vanderbilt was subjected to was not unlike what many, including myself, have been subjected to by transgender extremists seeking to punish those who refuse to be assimilated.  One blogger was literally driven into hiding because she dared speak out.

The question that haunts me is how we, as trans persons, can become full and equal citizens as long as we keep our true selves from our friends and neighbors. How can we overcome the need to reinvent ourselves in a manner others might consider deceptive when those others create such pressures that some trans persons see no way out? How can we be free as long as we stay in the closet or create new closets?

What Mr. Beyer really wants to do is force people into the closet of being what they are not, because, quite frankly, he can never be what they are. Mr. Beyer would deny to those who are truly transsexual the life they seek, because he finds it "deceptive."  What he actually demands is deception, not the other way around.  What he really means is, if the truth gets out that transsexuals are not transgender, and that the idiocy spewed by the extremists is, well, idiocy, then he might not be able to successfully bully people into ignoring reality.

My answer is that we simply must come out. The risks may be great, and the act of coming out may be fraught with peril, but as our gay allies have learned, the only way to acceptance and affirmation is to first accept and affirm yourself.

Mr. Beyer is a classic "gender fascist."  He thinks he has a right to dictate what is right for me, and those like me.  I do accept and affirm myself…as the woman I am, not a man in a dress like Mr. Beyer would have me be.

The Comic Stylings of Mr. "Autumn" Sandeen...

Yes, once again, the clown prince of transgender silliness has posted another hilarious bit of humor.  Unintentionally, of course.  "Autumn" Sandeen's latest, can be found at the Huffington Post, which has, of late, become a major source of transgender propaganda.  Entitled, "Violating Sex And Gender Norms While Traveling," it contains some of Mr. Sandeen's classic jokes, as well as some new material that will have you rolling on the floor, convulsed with laughter.

He starts off with his classic joke of saying, "I'm a transsexual who also identifies as transgender."  Now, that's a real knee-slapper right there.  I mean, seriously, Sandeen?  A transsexual?  Seriously, how does he make this stuff up?  Claiming one is a transsexual while writing an article on violating sex and gender norms is classic absurdist humor.  The whole point of being a transsexual is to conform one's sex to one's innate gender, and to fit within society's norms.  Granted, he does add that bit about being a transgender, but in order to really fit what he describes, a transsexual would have to act in accordance with their birth sex.  In fact, what a transsexual does, when he/she transitions, is to stop violating sex and gender norms.  But hey, this is Mr. Sandeen, so we have to expect truly absurd, off the wall silliness.

Next up, Mr. Sandeen delights us with another of his classic lines, "Let me begin by saying that I "pass" as female in almost all settings -- that's including in bathrooms."  Mr. Sandeen, as well all know, does not "pass" at all.  That is, there is no more chance of him fooling anyone into believing he is anything more than a silly man in a dress, than there is of any other crossdressing comedian, say "Benny Hill," or "MIlton Berle" to name a couple of classics.  To add to the hilariousness of that claim, Mr. Sandeen does not offer his readers a clear recent photo of him, so they can judge the veracity of such a claim.  That is a shame, as I am sure they would love to compare it to him in typical attire that looks nothing like what a woman his age would actually wear.  Better yet, would be a video, so they could get the full effect of him flouncing about in his unique parodying of a woman.  He does, however provide  a picture of him being dragged away in his female Navy uniform that does not really show his face very well, and this older picture of him.  I apologize in advance if it leave any readers with nightmares.  

The new humor includes this rather bizarre bit:

When going through a body scanner I actually left seven cents in my right front pocket. So, the TSA officer who was at the scanner station said I was going to be given a full body search. I was taken to a separate room with two female TSA officers. Before they began the search, I disclosed that I was transgender and that they may feel something that wasn't normally expected by to be on a female body when they touched my crotch. They asked me then if I wanted male officers to conduct the search, and I said no: I said I'd prefer female officers to do the search. I was pleasant and smiling when they did the search, and they were pleasant in return.

All joking aside, I honestly feel sorry for the two female officers who were subjected to Sandeen's perversity.  I can just imagine his excitement at the idea of a couple of women being forced to grope him.  I bet he really loved getting to tell him about the "special surprise" waiting for them in his crotch.  Had I ever had such an experience, I would not have been all smiles.  I would have been completely mortified, and would have had the decency to ask them if they would be comfortable performing the search.  But for a freak like Sandeen, it was a "teaching moment."  Yes, he got to leave them with a false impression of what a transsexual really is, as I am sure he emphasized the lie that he is a transsexual.

Thankfully, on the occasions I flew before I completed my transition, I never faced such a situation.  I did have my purse searched once, because a handful of Hershey's Miniatures showed up on the X-ray, and looked like they might be explosives.  The officer who conducted the search and I had a good laugh over that.  But, even though it was not a primary reason, never having to worry about such a mortifying experience played a very small roll in my need for surgery.   I imagine for Mr. Sandeen, he would not want to miss out on future teaching experiences....

Extreme Transgender Silliness

Sometimes a transgender kook will publish something that is so incredibly silly it seems beyond belief.  This mornings round of silliness over at Women Born Transsexual brought just such an example.  Now, as you may know, Suzan Cooke mostly republishes stuff from other sites.  There is very little original content, and today is no exception.  One of Cooke's favorite sources of late has been the Huffington Post, which seems to have become a major mouthpiece for the transgender extremists.

This morning there was an article entitledTrans* Invisibility, by "JamieAnn" Meyers that has to be one of the best examples of what makes "transgender" completely distinct from both transsexualism, and well, from sanity as well.  The second paragraph pretty much sets the stage for this:

My wife and I were visiting with a cisgender heterosexual couple, and our conversation began to focus on personal relationships. Because we wanted to be authentic about our life experiences, we came out to them as a couple, and I came out as a trans* woman. Almost immediately, both of them said, "That doesn't matter to us." The intent of their statement was to be affirming, but the statement's impact on me was profoundly different. Though it's important to know that people respect and accept you, it's also important that they honor the lifelong struggle that you have faced as a trans* person.

Now, think about this.  The normal couple, and yes, relative to to the kook writing here, they are normal, basically says "Okay, no problem..."  Sounds reasonable, at least to a sane person,  But this is a transgender kook.  No!  Of course that is not example.  They have to honor the struggle of someone choosing to play dress-up and pretend to be a woman.  This is wrong on some many levels.  It is insulting to women who often face very real struggles.  It is insulting to gay and lesbian couples who have had to deal with discrimination.  Simply put, it is outrageously insulting to anyone who has faced real discrimination for something that was not, quite literally, a lifestyle choice.  

This person shows the true nature of transgender.  It is not, as we are so often told, about being who you really are.  It is about being transgressive.  It is about being at odds with societal norms, and it is about rubbing society's nose in your misbehavior.

Seriously, this person is complaining about people being accepting.  He, and yes, this is another person I refuse to pander to and call by female pronouns, is complaining because they are not making a big fuss over him being transgender.  Give me a break.

I have a few friends who know my history.  I have more who I am not sure know or not, and then quite a few whom as far as I know, have no idea.  Out of the friends who know, there is basically one who I discuss it with much,  And even then, he pretty much understands not to bring it up.  He might rarely ask a question, but I am generally the one who broaches the subject.  For example, on Monday night, we were talking and I suddenly realized something. asked what the date was.  He thought and said, "I'm not sure, why?"  I pulled out my smartphone, and saw it was the 11th.  I realized that the day before had been the 7th anniversary of my SRS.  I hadn't even thought about it.  Not that is not a significant day for me, but as time has passed, surgery has ceased to be a major focus for me.  Before I had it, getting to that point was very significant.  Now, looking back, it simply marks the point where my life got a lot better.  

Somewhat ironically, four days before that was the "anniversary" of "Autumn" Sandeen's showing up for work in drag.  A day he makes a big deal of, especially this year because it marked 10 years of him pretending to be a woman.  He has no idea, of course, what being a woman is like, and he never will.  Ironically, his making a big deal out his "anniversary" is one of the indications of this.

But for me, the past becomes more and more distant.  When I first started dealing with my problem (as opposed to making up an excuse like Sandeen and other transgender kooks have) I wondered if there would come a time when it would be easy to forget.  The answer is yes.  Outside of this blog, and the occasional conversation with my friend, being transsexual is not a major part of my life.

Funny, but I find it highly offensive when someone tries to remind me that they know that I am  transsexual.  It is not something I care to discuss with most people.  The one person I do discuss it with holds a special place in my life, as my spiritual director.  But in most cases, no, I don't like to talk about it.

And I find it rather silly that the original author makes a big deal out of comparing all this to "race."  Now, just think about this for a second.  A lot of humor has been made out of how people react to having the fact that they are a certain race pointed out.  If you are a complete fool, you might feel it necessary to let someone know you are okay with them being black, or Asian, or Native American, etc., but most of us would consider that a bit gauche.  And we would also consider it odd if someone got made because we didn't make an issue out of their race or ethnicity.

If you meet someone who is gay, do you feel it appropriate to make an issue out of it?  Do you go out of your way to "affirm" that you accept their gayness?  Not very likely.  I find it amazing that the Huffington Post would publish such an absurd article, but then again, this is about the idiocy know as "transgender," where making sure everyone knows you are a "man in dress" is part of the fun.