Why Not Transgender Activism?

Gender Fascist "Autumn" Sandeen has been on a tear lately...  First, he viciously attacked transsexual activist Ashley Love.  I considered doing a post on that disaster, but so many others covered so well, I didn't really feel the need.  Then Mr. Sandeen followed up with a post asking, "Why Transgender Activism?" in which he rather pompously claims the right to speak for post-op transsexuals, whether we like it, or not.


I guess Mr. Sandeen learned nothing from the angry responses to his attacks on Ashley Love, who had the unmitigated gall to actually question the infallibility of kooks like Mr. Sandeen.  He was seriously taken to task, even by some of his allies.


So, what is wrong with what Mr. Sandeen calls "transgender activism?"


First off, it is largely unwelcome.  Mr. Sandeen claims, in another post, that the rights of transsexuals is a major focus of transgender activism.  And yet, a majority of those who are transgender identified are not remotely transsexual, and worse, many, if not most, of them actively attack transsexuals as elitist, irrelevant, essentialist, and separatist.  To their mind, we have sold out.  We have given in to the "binary paradigm."  In another time, we would have been called "counter revolutionary."  So why would we want these people speaking for us?  


Mr. Sandeen claims a commonality amongst crossdressers, transvestites, drag queens, transgender people and transsexuals.  He says this commonality is a violation of the gender norms of Western Society.  But that is where his analogy fails.  Transsexuals, by and large, as already pointed out, don't wish to deconstruct the binary.  We are attempting to fit into gender norms, not to violate them.  This is what separates transsexuals and the transgender.  They want to be known, and seen, as men who are pretending to be women, or perhaps as they will claim, as women with penises.  They want to flaunt their behavior.  And this leads into the next point.


Second, it is harmful to the interests of transsexuals.  Transsexuals want to simply correct their bodies, and their lives, and move on.  We are seeking normality.  The transgender movement is about being "different."  They don't want to live quiet lives as their appropriate sex.  They want to live as a gender at odds with their correct one.  They want to be women with penises, or men with vaginas.  They want to be at odds with society, unless they can bend society to their way of thinking.  That is certainly their right, but it is not their right to force this paradigm on those who don't desire it.  And when they do, gains that transsexuals have made become endangered because of backlash.  Years ago, every state made provisions for the correction of driver's licenses for post-ops.  All but about three allow birth certificates to be corrected.  Post-ops rarely had problems with marriage.  But, because of transgender activists this is all being threatened in some locations.  


Will transgender extremists like Mr. Sandeen that the hint?  Will they stop trying to speak for transsexuals and insisting that they are working for our rights?  I doubt it.  They need transsexuals to hide behind.  They try to claim to be transsexual in order to advance their extremist agenda, failing to recognize the damage they do.  They have done nothing to actually advance our cause, and much to harm it.


Ideally, the whole transgender fad would fade.  But that won't happen soon enough.  In the meantime, they will continue to cause harm to women, both transsexuals, and those born women.