Transmissions From the Transgender Battleground

Responding to a comment about TW in the world of The Handmaid's Tale, I questioned how many men would choose to transition if they knew that it meant certain death. Even in the real world, how many would transition if it truly meant giving up male privilege or entering a society that was more restrictive of women than most Western countries are. Would you still transition if it meant you couldn't have a job? A bank account? An education? If you had to be property of another male relative until you were married to a man and then became his property? I was told there would still be transwomen, they just wouldn't transition. I've frequently said that you aren't a TW if you don't transition. But for some reason this was my "Aha!" moment. Of course I've heard women say that "Being a woman isn't a feeling". I've agreed with it many times. But for the first time it finally hit me: They think being a transwoman is ALSO just a feeling. No ...

Part of this will be familiar to those that read my first post about my transition from TRA to "TERF", but I feel this needs to be said more. Part of why I stand with women and not the "trans community" is that I feel the "community" is trying to erase me too. The "trans community" want to erase women by making the word "woman" mean whatever they want it to mean, and not "adult human female". Do you have to be female to be a woman? "No! Stop reducing women to their biology!" Do you have to medically transition to be a woman? "No! Stop gatekeeping!" Do you have to present in a way that people expect of someone who is a woman? "No! Women can be women however they want! Butch women are women you bigot!" So what makes someone a woman? "They identify as a woman!" So what are they identifying as? "A woman! Why don't you understand you transphobe!" At this point I usually pass out...

 As I've stated before, the views I hold now are not the ones I held a few years ago. I've grown, apologized and hopefully moved on to a healthier viewpoint. However there are some things I'd like to specifically apologize for now. I want to apologize for statements I made in relation to a women's event I attended early in my transition. To be clear, this particular event was inclusive of transwomen, as long as the transwoman was "living full-time as a woman", Also, while the event was predominantly for lesbian and bisexual women, it was not exclusive to women of those sexualities. I did not attend with the intention of anything sexual happening, nor did it. Perhaps you could say that I wanted to attend for "validation", but mainly I just was looking for an event that I could attend to replace the gay men events I was no longer allowed to be a part of. Would I attend this event again in the future, probably not, but I might. I am supportive of events...

The warning is sounded often and loudly. "If you don't let your 'trans child' transition, they will possibly kill themselves.", "Would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son?", "Over 40% of 'trans' kids attempt suicide." Pretty scary stuff, right? All of this is used to support the idea that children should be allowed to socially and medically transition. After all, we don't want children to suffer, and we certainly don't want them dying. Only a complete monster would advocate for the death of children, and you're not a monster, are you? Let's look at some numbers. The Trevor Project did a 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health . This survey had 40,000 respondents age 13-24 who "identified" as either 1 of over 100 sexualities that was not "heterosexual" or 1 of over 100 gender identities that was not "cisgender", or both (Side note: WTF!) I could not find a breakdown of LGB...

I will start each review with a plot summary. I will try not to give spoilers for future chapters. Then I will comment on the aspects of the story and characters that I find relevant to the gender discussion. This means that in addition to my initial listen to the whole book, I will be listening to each chapter two more times. I hope you appreciate my sacrifice.  Summary of Chapter We are introduced to Reese, a 35 year old transsexual woman. Reese is on a ‘date’ with her “Cowboy”, a married man who is HIV+, a result of a previous affair with a different transwoman. While riding to pick up takeout, Reese thinks about her attraction to married men and the new sexual thrill she’s discovered by having sex with an HIV+ man. She compares the potential risk of contracting HIV to the possibility of pregnancy that women face. She has even taken to calling her PreP prescription ‘birth control’. Reese thinks about the fact that as a transwoman she can not have a baby, yet she desperately want...

This isn't about being happy about being transgender, I'll save that for another time, but about whether or not one is allowed to be transgender and be happy with your life. Full disclosure: I am happy with my life. I have a career I want. I have a great boyfriend. I had a wonderful, supportive husband. I own a home. I have friends. I have a few too many cats. I've developed interests in new types of music. I've even learned that under the right circumstances I can enjoy watching a football game. And importantly, I'm comfortable in my body now, give or take the weight that I tend to loose and gain back every few years. But if you listen to the "trans community", all of that is impossible. I'm transgender and to be transgender means that you are oppressed. People hate/fear/mock you wherever you go. We face discrimination in employment, housing, relationships. People want to stop us from existing, Now I'm not going to say that none of those things ev...

OK, don't shoot me, but I'm going to say something positive about "Detransition, Baby". At one point, a character refers to the current generation of transwomen as rampaging baby elephants. She goes into a longwinded explanation of groups of orphaned elephants that rain destruction, even on each other as a result of both their trauma and the fact that there are no adult elephants keeping them in line. This sounds pretty accurate from what I've seen of trans spaces, both in real life and especially online. Most of my online energy is spent on Twitter. But I've recently started looking at other spaces, specifically trans specific spaces. What I'm seeing is shocking. I'm not at all going to excuse bad behavior, but I think I'm starting to understand why it's flourishing. First, I keep forgetting that while a lot of platforms say they have age restrictions, children have and always will get around that. I still can't understand how Twitter can ...