It's the same shit. It's bullshit. It was bullshit when we did it 10 years ago and it's still bullshit now.
I'd like everyone to read the short essay "Gender, Identity Politics, and Eating Our Own" by Alexander John Goodrum, published in 2001:
I come late to organizing as a transgender activist. In doing so, Iāve learned a lot. Iāve learned transgendered people truly are everywhere and not just in New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. Iāve learned many want to quietly assimilate into the white, heterosexual, middle class status quo that is the dominant culture of our nation. Iāve learned quite a few of us have no wish or desire for such assimilation ā that for some of us, our greatest desire is to shake up that dominant culture, to question gender and identity on every level ā social, biological, political and personal. Iāve learned that perhaps right at this moment there is a transgendered person ā most likely an MTF transsexual or crossdresser, most likely a person of color, being brutally murdered. Iāve learned people much younger than I are coming out as transgendered in ways I never believed possible when I was their age and are challenging not only the status quo, but also calling on āoldā activists like me to take another look around and see the world through their eyes.
And Iāve learned that, perhaps like all other communities, we love to eat our own. [...]
Being the baby TG activist I am, I come to this drama late. Long after the battle lines were laid down. Long after sides were chosen, opinions formed and set in stone. Long after wounds (both real and imagined) were inflicted.
Iāve watched carefully for the past couple of years as the battle has played out online, in internet chat rooms, and on mailing lists. Iāve read statements from individuals and organizations that have taken a stand on the issue. Iāve received press releases and announcements from one camp or another; a battle of media propaganda that would make the veterans of the Cold War proud. And through it all, Iāve tried to be a rather casual observer, if one can be casual as they watch some of the best and brightest of their community consumed in an internal battle that threatens to tear the entire community apart.
Of course my being a casual observer hasnāt stopped a few folks from demanding to know where I stand. Iāve been pulled aside at conferences and been given āinformation,ā primarily innuendo and accusation, so I am up to speed on the situation. Iāve been directed to websites that were little more than character assassinations in badly laid-out HTML. And Iāve been emailed privately and off-list by those concerned I was going to make the āwrong choice.ā
Want to know what my answer to these people is? Okay, here it is ā I really donāt care. Thatās right. I DONāT CARE. You see, I believe almost everyone entangled in this controversy is acting in what they believe are the best interests of the community with which they feel most closely aligned. I believe theyāre doing the best they can with what they have. I believe mistakes have been made by everyone involved, that the personal has become political in the most destructive of ways. I also believe in change and evolution; that even organizations that have had to be forced to listen to me and to consider my issues can learn from their mistakes and realize they must make a seat for me at the table if they are to truly realize the dream of civil rights for themselves and for others. But most of all, I believe in hope.
I was asked point-blank whose side I was on. This is my answer: I am on the side of whoever has the guts and initiative to end this thing and make a real effort to move our community forward out of this debilitating and destructive conflict. Iām on the side of anyone who is more interested in healing the wounds than in proving who is right. Iām on the side of those who have the ability and the willingness to put aside their personal and political animosities and seek some way to bring together everyone involved to begin a healthy dialogue, one without finger-pointing and name-calling.
Until that happens, I guess Iām on the side of those who are the most negatively affected by this dysfunctional family feud. In case anyone needs a refresher course as to who those folks are and the issues they are dealing with, allow me to introduce just a few of them. The transsexual FTM who has lost custody of his child when he began transition; the butch lesbian who lost her job because she refused to wear makeup or shave her legs; the crossdresser whose wife is seeking a divorce and custody of the children he adores; the effeminate gay man beaten to death and crucified on a fence on a lonely Midwestern plain; the 17-year-old MTF doing tricks in the back alleys of San Francisco because her parents kicked her out when they found āhimā wearing dresses; the FTM who died of uterine cancer because he couldnāt get insurance approval for a hysterectomy after he had completed sexual reassignment.
Ultimately, it is these transgender, transsexual and gender- variant people who have the most to lose if someone doesnāt step up to the plate to end this.
Goodrum was a trans activist who founded TGNet Arizona, a vital advocacy organization in Arizona, as well as being on the City of Tucson Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Commission. He was a Black trans man, bisexual, disabled, low-income, and he died by suicide a year after this essay was published.
For those of who you know about the recent loss of Ansel @transfaguette, I'm sure the similarities are as harrowing to you as they are to me.
Nothing will change unless we change ourselves. Queer discourse is often myopic and becomes self-perpetuating, but treating it as immaterial or something to be brushed off as irrelevant, in my opinion, only obscures how deeply rooted and harmful it is. Clearly, these issues are not the product of social media or the pandemic or sheltered teenagers or whatever excuse one wants to make. We keep fucking doing this. We will keep doing this until demand a change, a love ethic (in bell hooks' terms) that puts us on the path to join each other, and other communities, in fighting for true liberation.
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