Another Clueless Man in a Dress

I sometimes get taken to task for referring to, uh, "trans women," as men, using male pronouns, and what some refer to as "scare quotes."  (Hmm, does that quotes around scare quotes make them scarier?)  But, here is another example of complete cluelessness and total disregard for the rights of members of the same group that they want to claim member ship in.

The story, by a transgender man who calls himself "Zinnia" Jones, concerns complaints at a women's shelter in Maine about two men who the women believe are posing as women simply to get into the shelter.  Hmmm, don't the transgender extremists claim that no man would ever do anything like that?  Or have they stopped since the number of such cases has been climbing?

Mr. Jones, in classic transgender style, attempts to dismiss the very real concerns of the women in the shelter.  Here is how he presents a quote from this article.

But the women who complained said they believe that in at least one case, it was a ruse. They believe one of the people in question is a man who occasionally dresses as a woman to get into the shelter, perhaps for voyeuristic reasons. That person did not have any feminine mannerisms and often dresses in a T-shirt and jeans, sporting a 5 o’clock shadow of male facial hair, they said.“If they’re really living as a woman, I think they have every right to be there,” said one of the women who complained. “But he wasn’t wearing makeup or wearing eyeliner or anything. Just a man wearing a skirt. It was just odd.”
Now, here in San Francisco, the local shelters admit, uh, "trans women," as well as transsexuals. In fact, it is required by City law, so there are few, if any complaints made, though believe me, there are complaints. I know of what I speak...

The emphasis was not in the original article.  But I find it curious that Mr. Jones seems to focus on the part about how they were dressed and makeup, but glosses over the part about facial hair.    Now, I realize that someone living in a shelter might not be able to afford electrolysis, but I find it hard to imagine anyone who truly identifies as a woman being comfortable being seen with a beard shadow.  Shoot, I often dress in a t-shirt and jeans, so I agree, that is silly.  But I suspect that the real issue for the women was probably more the beard shadow, and the mannerisms.

Ten years ago, when I first arrived in San Francisco, I spent some time in the shelter system. Even though I was pre-op, I did not openly identify as transsexual except to a few close friends.  On one occasion, when I assumed that someone who was, well, quite frankly transgender, probably had read me, I was shocked to heae that person state that they had thought about it, and finally decided I was not a transsexual, but had been born female.

At this particular shelter, one was initially given an overnight bed.  Theoretically, beds were assigned by lottery.  If there were openings for a long-term bed, they were assigned to the first people on that night's list.  After that, the overnight beds were assigned until they ran out.  Anyone left over was taken to whatever shelter had space.  Of course, there was not really a lottery.  It was rare that they didn't have enough beds, at least in the women's section, so most nights everyone got in.  And on most nights, a few people got a long term bed.  What was really going on was that they observed people, and decided who to admit.  Most people waited about a week.  And some people never got anything except overnight beds, like one woman who would show up with a cart full of junk.  She was there, night after night, week after week, but never anything but an overnight bed.  One of the staff told me, off the record, that she never would get one either.

When I was admitted to a king term bed, there was an uncomfortable moment when the person doing my paperwork looked at me, paused, seemed to ponder a few things, and then, without asking, marked my paperwork as female (male, female, and transgender were the options).  I knew he was thinking about the fact that I am a bit tall, at 5'10".  

But, there were occasions when we did have, uh, "trans women." who were problems.  There was one, rather obvious man, who would show up wearing absolutely clownish lipstick sort of smear around his mouth.  I mean, there was no effort to even try to put it on properly.  And his behavior was extremely male.  He made a lot of us uncomfortable.  He also never got more than an overnight bed.

There was another, uh, "trans woman," very obvious, who did get into a long term bed.  And who, very publicly, and rather disturbingly, proceeded to lie on top of his bunk and masturbate.  Yeah, another example of the sort of thing the transgender kooks claims, never happens.

The bottom line?  There needs to be some balance.  Like requiring evidence that the person is seeing a therapist, is on hormones, and that they behave appropriately.  But, of course, the extremists will never go for that.  And that is why the extremists really are, just "clueless men in dresses."