Posted here, reposted on QT with permission:

Dear Cissexual Queer/Gender Theorists, Feminists, and Trans Allies:

We need to talk. That’s not quite accurate, actually. I need to talk, and you need to shut up and listen for a minute. Because some of y’all have been talking about me, and you’ve been talking so loudly that you haven’t been hearing what I’m saying. Some of you haven’t even noticed that I’m in the room.

You probably don’t know me. But a few of you seem to think you know everything you need to know. Enough to fill up chapters in academic texts or pages on your blogs. Enough to make fetishistic jokes or webcomics. Enough to name my genitals for me.

To be fair, y’all probably didn’t even realize you were talking about me specifically, most of the time. Thanks to testosterone and chest reconstruction surgery, you couldn’t pick me out of a crowd. But, make no mistake—you’re talking about my identity and my experience, too. And I’m tired of being made to feel invisible, or like I shouldn’t speak up about this stuff. So I’m going to offer a few suggestions, and give you yet another chance to respect my identity, and the identities of other people that you’ve been (unintentionally, I’m sure) stomping all over.

Now take a seat, because this might take a few single-spaced pages.  Maybe take a few notes this time, since you obviously forgot about the last thirty times we’ve had discussions like this.

First, in order to respect me, you need to work on completely deconstructing the conflation of masculinity and maleness. A lot of y’all have done some great and much-needed work around dismantling the bullshit idea that masculinity is the sole property of male people. But almost in the same breath, some of you seem to forget that there is nothing inherently masculine about maleness.

I’m male, but I’m not masculine-identified. At all. I don’t care how I look to you. I don’t care if you know that I’m trans. I don’t even care if you know that I identified as an andro dyke for a minute. I’m still not masculine. My experience is not a masculine experience. Period. If, for any reason(s) you think that I am, or if you don’t find it to be a big deal when my femme identity is invalidated, or if you know that I’m feminine, but—goshdarnit—you just keep forgetting? Then you need to check your shit.

Part of respecting me has to include calling bullshit on things that imply, whether directly or indirectly, that male people have inherent masculinity. At the very least, it requires that you notice when it happens. In case you’re confused, here are a couple of examples.

What about when people point out to y’all that it’s problematic to use the word “trans-masculine” to mean all female-assigned people who are masculine-identified, genderqueer-identified, and male-identified, and to exclude all male-assigned people—even masculine- or genderqueer- identified trans female people? I know, I know—“It’s impossible to find a word that will please everybody!” We’ve all heard that one before, right? Be quiet, you’re being divisive. Not to harsh your mellow, but I don’t want to be silenced any more than you do, especially when I can think of several alternatives to “trans-masculine” off the top of my head.

And, I know that lots of female-assigned-at-birth (FAAB) trans people use “transmasculine”. The trans community is only in the beginning stages of trying on new, accurate, and empowering language. We’re going to evolve, and you’re going to have to keep up, and listen to the discussions we’re having.  But, while we’re working on that, how about you stop saying “transmasculine”, if what you’re really trying to do is build a community around what you assume is in the pants of “transmasculine” people (or rather, what you assume isn’t in their pants). And that is what you’re doing, 95% of the time.

It’s important to a lot of folks (for various reasons of variable worth) to have an umbrella term to unite butches to genderqueers to trans guys and everything “in between”. But to say that “trans-masculinity” necessarily encompasses trans maleness is to shoot your trans-feminism in the foot.  Not all cis men are masculine. Many trans women are masculine, and there are many MAAB genderqueer folks who would fit comfortably under the “transmasculine” umbrella. And trans genders are as complex as, and deserve as much respect as, cis genders.

Of course y’all all know that in theory, but I need to see some action.

And when I say “action”, I definitely don’t mean like when “Top Hot Butches” showed up, and it included a metric shit ton of people who were assumed to be masculine, just because they’re male-identified? Oh, and one Riki Wilchins. I’m not sure what Riki Wilchins’ identity is currently, but how—when doing a project about “rejecting compulsory femininity”—is Wilchins the only MAAB person on that list?

Seriously, why there weren’t way more masculine-identified and genderqueer-identified trans female people on that list? If anybody’s strength and beauty should be celebrated for “reject[ing] compulsory femininity”, in my opinion, it’s them. How many masculine cis female people do you know who have had their femaleness challenged in a meaningful way because they choose to exhibit “intentional masculinity” (and, no, being called “sir” in the checkout line does not count)?

I mean, if the primary criterion for “butchness” is “reject[ing] compulsory femininity”, I’m not sure why male people should even be on a list like that, since there’s nothing “compulsory” about male femininity. Even if the male person is trans. And there’s nothing necessarily “intentional” about trans male masculinity. I’m not even really sure what “intentional” means in that context, actually. How is FAAB masculinity more of a performance than any other gender expression (which can either be “not a performance at all” or “completely a performance”, depending on your views). If it’s not, then why is it mentioned?

The original “Top Hot Butches” appeared to be a celebration of what its author perceived as “butchness”. And—to me at least—it was damn clear that the author’s idea of “butchness” is about female masculinity—specifically, about FAAB masculinity. I hope I don’t even have to go into how fucked up it is to practically go out of your way to praise the masculinity of [trans] male people, while overwhelmingly ignoring the masculinity of [trans] female people.

And, you know what’s not a good excuse? This:

I would love suggestions for more butch transwomen to include; I’ve been asking, and looking around, and I did include #84 Riki Wilchins, but surely there must be more than just her. I’m just not familiar with them. It’s so hard to include people you don’t know about, you know? Impossible, in fact. And who I know is completely related to my own standpoint. It’s a huge challenge to get a range of diversity on a list like this.

I find it hard to believe that they were personally familiar with all the FAAB folks they listed. And, even if they were, I think it says volumes about whose and what genders they perceive as “butch”, if they have just happened to never have stumbled upon the writings, activism, contributions, and hotness of masculine-identified MAAB trans people.

It’s a side step, and it avoids something that many folks in the “trans inclusive” queer women’s community need to own up to. If you don’t make space for MAAB trans people in your community, and none show up, whose fault is that? And whose responsibility is it to fix it?

But I don’t even believe for a second that “Top Hot Butches” was really about masculinity, anyway. Because no cis guy (feminine or masculine) would’ve been put on that list, but I have no doubt that—were I a semi-famous openly-trans guy—I’d have been considered for that list without a second thought. I think it’s a safe bet, since I’m pretty sure (at least) one of the guys included in the original list wouldn’t even identify his gender as masculine.

But trans genders are as worthy of respect as cis genders, right? Fortunately, I’m not naïve enough to have dared to hope that the Feministing community would back me up. Instead of calling out cissexism, y’all posted what seemed like a billion comments in which you didn’t notice that there was anything busted going on, or attempted to silence trans people who pointed it out, or—and this was my personal favorite—said shit to the effect of “I can see that this is problematic, but damn that list is hot”. Who doesn’t like their cissexism with a side of fetishism?

The link between masculinity and maleness may have been broken—but only for cis maleness and cis masculinity. I believe that a lot of y’all quietly believe that there is something intrinsically masculine about trans maleness—something that doesn’t exist in cis maleness. And, whatever that thing is, it apparently ties me to this idea of female[-assigned-at-birth] masculinity. And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that it’s my hypothetical vagina.

That’s not respecting trans genders. That’s cissexism. And there’s no excuse for it. Not “we need more butch visibility”. Not “that’s not what they meant”. Not “[some] trans guys are a part of the community”. And definitely not “ think of it more as a celebration of bending gender norms, rather than a celebration of masculinity” (if you haven’t caught on, that’s fucked up, too). The fact that folks who consider themselves to be trans allies glossed over what amounts to blatant cissexist bullshit. . . it’s disgusting. Even more so because so many of y’all seemed to be overly willing to do so, simply because they liked the eye candy.

Why is it so important for y’all to claim a connection between “butchness”/female masculinity and trans maleness? Sure, connections often exist.  But you never seem to be talking about individual people’s experiences, and their unique relationships to their genders.  That is something to celebrate and honor within your community.  Instead, you’re conscripting all trans male people into your ideas of “butchness”, “trans-masculinity”, and “female masculinity”, without even considering the identities of those of us who are not masculine.

Just because you don’t see us, it doesn’t mean we’re not there. And it definitely doesn’t mean you can generalize the [valid] experiences and identities of the trans guys you know onto the trans guys you don’t.

And, yes, after the outrage, the trans men were removed from the list.  Last I heard, they were being asked individually whether they’d like to be included.  The non-consensual gendering was an important issue that was appropriately addressed.  But the whole thing still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Just because many of the trans guys listed happen to be okay with being included doesn’t change the facts of why they were included to begin with.  Instead of being carefully chosen in a way that showed respect for their unique identities, they were chosen simply because they’re trans.  They would’ve been chosen even if they wouldn’t have wanted to be.

Perhaps all’s well that ends well?  But if you make a fucked up assumption about a group that I’m a member of, even if that assumption happens to be true for me?  I’m still going to think you’re an asshole.

This might also be a good time to mention that I’m genderqueer-identified. Does that surprise you? It seems like it should, considering that FAAB trans people who object to this shit are often portrayed as binary-identified, male-identified, cisgender, not-radical, and “stealth” men of transsexual history. Many of whom don’t even consider themselves trans, much less queer.

But, no. I’m genderqueer. I’m genderqueer, and I’m telling you there’s a fucking problem. And one of these problems is subversivism. This shit is said with an eye roll. It’s a way of recognizing, but essentially dismissing concerns. Because all those things—male identities, nondisclosure, cisgender/binary identites—are automatically assumed to be backwards. Or, if not backwards, at least less evolved.

Lots of y’all seem to imagine that cisgender transsexual men are all so wracked with body dysphoria and internalized transphobia that they couldn’t possibly understand or respect other trans guys’ non-binary identities. Of course those guys have a problem with “transmasculine”, or that stupid list, or the creepy bullshit Margaret Cho has been spewing, etc. Most of the time, even when you admit that what you said/did/wrote was fucked up, it seems insincere. As if dissenters should be humored and shushed, so that everybody can go back to universalizing the experience of some trans people at the expense of others.

I’m not saying that cisgender trans men are all innocent victims; cisgenderism is a prevalent and serious problem among binary-identified folks (cis and trans). But there’s a difference between cisgenderism and people being pissed that you consider respecting their identities less important than drawing the lines of community where you want them, no matter who it hurts.

Since I’ve got your attention, we also need to talk a bit about the way some of y’all have been treating the complexity of genderqueer identities. Since it’s still so fresh in everybody’s minds, let’s take the “Top Hot Butches” list, for example. Some genderqueer people have butch or masculine identities. But many genderqueer people—even FAAB genderqueer people (me, for example)—wouldn’t identify their genders as “masculine” at all.

I highly doubt that the author of the list took the time to check to make sure that the genderqueer-identified folks on they included actually identified as butch/masculine. What seems to have happened is that they looked at the confetti of identities that make up genderqueerness, and decided, “Okay, so I know that some of y’all identify outside the binary and all that, but in reality you’re presenting as masculine (or male, which is really just hyper-extended masculinity), so we’ll just say that you ‘present in a way that rejects compulsory femininity, and display some sort of intentional masculinity.’ For short, we’ll call that butch.”

Maybe it goes without saying that, when y’all say “genderqueer”, it’s usually pretty safe to assume that you mean FAAB genderqueers. You mean those genderqueers you pretend to humor, but quietly consider women/female (despite the fact that many explicitly reject those labels). I’ll start believing that y’all respect my genderqueer identity once you start respecting (or even acknowledging) the genderqueer identities of MAAB genderqueer people.

This shit? It’s Not Okay. What you’re doing here—it’s Not Okay. And you’re doing it over, and over, and over again. And it’s exactly why I find so much of gender and queer theory to be a bunch of appropriative bullshit. My identities, my experiences, and my life is not an illustration in some cissexual exploration of “radical” gender and sex. Y’all need to work your transmisogynistic, biological-deterministic shit out, and then we can talk about the social and political implications of my transition. Maybe.

With hope, but no love,

Caleb

About the email exchange I posted.  You’ll notice I apologized to NOWHC for posting my initial post.  This is not an apology to the general blogosphere,  because I’ve already apologized to the people whose work I have affected.  Still, I need to make something clear.

I fucked up. 

I shouldn’t have posted up on here before NOWHC responded to me directly.  But I was just so angry, about this being round eleventy billion of transphobia for me in health care, and scared, because I don’t know what to do here.  I’m terrified of getting sick, cos I know from experience that I have a slim chance of getting treated properly by anyone who’s not my regular doctor. 

So I lashed out, didn’t give them time to respond, time to let me know what was going on.  In my white privilege, I thought my anger was justified, that my need was the only important thing. 

The problem is not primarily that this one health clinic, built for populations that desperately need it, excluded us trans women but that practically every other health care facility does it too, not necessarily in terms of policy (most people don’t think enough about us to put one in) but certainly in terms of practice.  It’s easy to look at one particular place, which seems so tantalizing close to being what you need, and not at the whole, fucked-up picture. 

I do not take responsibility for the actions of others, but I regret beyond words my role as catalyst in starting this. 

Queen Emily

New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic has allowed me to post their response to my query about health care and their policy of excluding trans women.  It’s pretty depressing reading all round – they’re not able to sustain care because of the difficult of finding non prejudiced doctors here, not only with trans women but women of color, women with disabilities, and GLBTI etc.   This raises serious questions with me about the possibility of finding more than the odd good doctor on trans health care anywhere. 

They’re currently evaluating the possibility of providing any health care at all.  I have offered to work with them to educate any doctors on trans women specific care, and to work on fundraising to help achieve that, however we’ll have to see if that pans out. 

ETA: NOWHC have requested I post the entire exchange, in the name of transparency.   Because of privacy concerns, I have removed my email address from the exchange. 

The email exchange in full:

Queen Emily —-

Hi y’all.
 
I’m a young trans woman moving to the area and I’m looking for good, safe health care (something that is almost an impossibility in many areas).  Your website says you do not provide services for (“male” assigned) transgendered women.  I’m wondering:
 
1.  Is this still the case? (sometimes people can be slow on the website updating)
2.  If so, why is this the case?  I don’t understand how providing hormones (or the contraceptive pill to post GRS women) is any different from caring for menopausal cis women.   This seems especially arbitrary given that you state you care for female assigned people with DSD who may have had similar operations.
and 3.  If so, do you have any referrals for trans women friendly clinics? 
 
Regards,
Emily.

NOWHC —-

Emily,
 
Thanks for emailing us your request.  We apologize for the delay in getting back to you.  We receive hundreds of emails a week about services, volunteer and internship opportunities, and tons of junk mail unfortunately.  As a result, and due to our capacity, we have about a week-turn-around rate with email responses.
 
Currently, we are not providing medical services, as these services have been suspended since late last Fall.   We are in transition as we seek a new Medical Director, while continuing all of our other programs.  Unfortunately, we have not had an opportunity to update our website detailing all of our programs and our current list of services. 
 
As you have accurately noted, few health care resources exist for trans women in general, and this is particularly true in New Orleans, despite the fact that New Orleans had the largest Black queer population in the country pre-Katrina, with trans women of color, almost exclusively working class and low-income New Orleans natives, struggling to get decent affordable health care in the city for decades.  The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina took a terrible toll on our health care system and it has been very difficult for us to not be in a position to provide trans affirming medical services to women in our community who need them, despite our local efforts.
 
The following resources may be of some help to you as relocate to the area:

The Drop-in-Center Clinic ? located at 428 N. Rampart Street.  The Drop-in-Center provides trans-affirming care.  The Center provides medical and social services to youth between the ages of 13 and 24 years-old. Services at the Center are geared toward homeless, at-risk, and queer youth.  They can be reached at 504-897-948-6701.
Planned Parenthood of Louisiana ? located at 4018 Magazine Street.  Their number is 504-897-9200.

You may also consider contacting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of New Orleans, which is located at 212 Decatur Street in the French Quarter.  The Center?s number is 504-945-1103.  The St. Thomas Community Health Clinic is also a local resource to contact.  St. Thomas is located Uptown in the Lower Garden District at 1020 St. Andrew Street, and they can be reached at 504-529-5558.
 
We agree that the questions and concerns you raise are very important.  The priorities we hold in providing safe, accessible, and unbiased care to women regardless of their race, income, sexuality, gender identity, body type, citizenship status, work sector, legal history, ability, age, language, and family size and status are often regarded as a “risk” and “liability” by many medical professionals.   This reality has delayed our efforts to hire a new Medical Director and created many barriers for many members of our community, including you, in seeking safe, quality, and respectful services.
 
In making the statements “we are currently not able to provide care to trans people who were male assigned at birth or who have had genital sex reassignment surgery. Please call for referrals,” we were referencing the lack of experience and training that our former medical staff had in providing trans affirmative care to all women regardless of their body types, and gender identities and expressions.   We recognize that the current language on our website marginalizes trans women in particular, even though it says elsewhere that we provide services to “all women.”  Although “services” provided at the Clinic are not restricted to our medical programs, we recognize that the way it is written implies that we offer no services at all to trans women, which is marginalizing and confusing.   It would be more accurate to say that our goal is to provide medical services to all women, though we are having a difficult time reaching it.   We take responsibility for this inaccurate representation, and for the ways in which the language is disrespectful, and we sincerely apologize.
 
Collectively and organizationally, we are committed to creating institutions and environments that challenge gender-policing and trans and homophobia by dismantling racist, heterosexist, patriarchal, classist, and xenophobic ideologies of exclusion, discrimination, hatred, and violence, which creates barriers for many members of our community, particularly those persons who are women of color, poor, LGBTQ, immigrant, differently-abled, homeless, heads of households, disabled, sex workers, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, young, and living in racially and economically segregated communities.   Our website doesn’t reflect this politic effectively and we are currently in the process of modifying it.
 
Besides language, we share the concern about the core issue of offering safe, quality, and respectful services to all women.  Since our founding, we have struggled to hire medical staff who don?t pathologize, demonize, and criminalize the bodies of undocumented women, women with disabilities, l/b/t/q/i women, women of color, low-income women, homeless women, and women working in the sex industry because of our sexuality, reproductive decisions, and gender expressions.  Currently, we are evaluating if we can realistically find medical staff that meet this expectation, particularly given the current conditions of the city.
 
We hope the resources we have shared are helpful.  If not, please contact us at 504-524-8255 or via email again and we will work with you and do our best to find the resources that you need. 
 

New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic
1406 Esplanade Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70116
504-524-8255 (Office)
504-524-8285 (Fax)
www.nowhc.org

Queen Emily —

Hi, thanks for that.  That’ll be very helpful.
 
I’m sorry to hear about the lack of medical services.  I may have inadvertedly started a blog firestorm when I posted a rant on my blog (questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com) about it.  I’m sorry about that, I should have waited for a response.  Do you think I could let people online know about the situation?  I don’t want to break confidentiality, but obviously there’s a lot of people online interested, and a good many trans women and/or women of color feeling hurt and angry about the policy.
 
About the situation, is there anything I can do to help?  If medical services are to return (which I really hope that they do), I’d be happy to lend my time to educating medical personnel on trans women specific needs. 
 
The second is, if there’s a need for more funds to pay doctors and nurses, I’d be happy to use my contacts in the trans and radical women of color blogospheres and organise through social media to conduct a fund-raising drive directing people to your website to donate.  I’ve seen people raise thousands of dollars with just a little Paypal button, so that’s one option.   
 
Regards,
Emily.

Queen Emily —

Oh, just to clarify, the fundraising drive offer is conditional on trans women inclusion if/when the medical services become available.  No trans woman is likely to get behind that, otherwise.

NOWHC —

Emily,

Thank you for reaching out.  There is a lot going on right now as we determine whether or not we can sustain the kind of clinic we want, so we will have to follow up with you about your offer of support in the future.  In the meantime, it would be alright with us if you posted this entire e-mail exchange on your blog.

Queen Emily —

Ok.  I hope you can work out something sustainable, and once again do keep me in mind for later. 
 
Regards,
Emily.

NOWHC —

Emily,

Thank you for posting our email response to you on your blog.  We also appreciate your apology and taking responsibility for not allowing us the opportunity to follow up with you before you posted your original blog post.  Because of the nature of this matter and all of the blog posts that have circulated, we feel that it is important to communicate not just our response, but the entire email exchange as we confirmed below.  We want to have an open process about this and we think it’s important to be transparent about all of the communication between us.

Queen Emily —

Oh ok, no problems.  I’ll post the rest up now.

A regular (a cis gay man) at Pam’s House Blend expresses that he feels “cis” is offensive and demeaning, and that trans people who use it are basically bad people (plus we’re bad people if we’re unhappy with John Aravosis’ transphobic remarks):

For the record, I find cis- to be offensive. In general, I thought our community (I mean the whole LGBT rainbow here) uses terms that are acceptable to those being described. That is, we use the preferred gender of trans people, we call someone bi if they identify as bi, we don’t say tranny, etc.So why is it okay for (some of) the trans community to call us cis-? If members of the trans community said “stop calling us trans, we find it offensive” would we here at PHB continue to say “trans”? I doubt it very much.

Cis is a neutral term applied to people who aren’t trans. It’s intended to decenter the notion that not being trans is the natural, default state for human beings and that being trans is a deviation, and that trans people are other. Most terminology that cis people use to define themselves as cis generally reifies cissexism and cissupremacy.

As much as I disagree with Autumn’s fairly rapid agreement with this statement, despite the reams of material written about what cis actually means, her invocation of the tone argument, and her comparing the use of “cis” to violence and hate:

To begin with, I’m giving up on the words cissexual and cisgender. I saw these as neutral terms, and now I see these are not. Thank you for your reasoned explanation as to why.And yeah, civil tone matters, and thinking in terms of broad communities matter. I see these as being more and more as important as time goes on.

One more MLK Jr. quote:

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

I, for one, want to see the stars through my very real rose-colored glasses — $50, pink-shaded, prescription glasses I actually bought from Zenni Optical to make that personal point about looking for a brighter, more beautiful world.

I am perhaps more concerned by the threat to ban anyone who defends “cis” terminology from commenting at Pam’s House Blend:

This is going nowhere, and is starting to offend people at The Blend.And in a post that’s theme is about behaving civility, I’m not having any of it.

Public warning in this thread — next person who uses this thread to make comment defending “cis” terminology gets a trap door drop.

Message received, Autumn. It is vitally important to protect the cis commenters at PHB from those dangerous trans people who dare to label privilege.

Edit: Just to be clear, it’s not that Autumn disagrees with “cis” terminology. It’s the tone argument (used at least twice), and the threat to ban anyone who defends “cis” usage.

Edit edit: Comments back on

Just wanted to let y’all to know that New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic have gotten back to me.  I’m not sure what I can really make public right now (an email is not a press release yeah?), but we are talking.  Some alternatives for possibly trans friendly health care in NOLA that they’ve given me are:

The Drop-in-Center Clinic:  located at 428 N. Rampart Street.  The Drop-in-Center provides trans-affirming care.  The Center provides medical and social services to youth between the ages of 13 and 24 years-old. Services at the Center are geared toward homeless, at-risk, and queer youth.  They can be reached at 504-897-948-6701.
Planned Parenthood of Louisiana:  located at 4018 Magazine Street.  Their number is 504-897-9200.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of New Orleans, which is located at 212 Decatur Street in the French Quarter.  The Center’s number is 504-945-1103. 

The St. Thomas Community Health Clinic, located Uptown in the Lower Garden District at 1020 St. Andrew Street, and they can be reached at 504-529-5558.

Voz_latina has a RFC out in connection with a media piece she plans to make on trans women speaking out on healthcare, tentatively titled:

Our Lives Matter Too! Holding Cissexually Privileged Women’s Healthcare Accountable To All Women.

She’s asking for initial thoughts and ideas, etc and the details are up at her LJ – link here.

As she says, all our experiences matter, so click over to hers to sign up.

—————

Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

I’m not much for the energy at the moment, but passing this along via GLAAD:

GLAAD Reaches Out to Blog That Dehumanizes Transgender People

// June 26, 2009 by Andy Marra, Senior Media Strategist @ GLAAD

As the result of constituents contacting GLAAD, we have reached out to the site owners of a blog that dehumanizes transgender people and their experiences. Tranny Alert is a website that posts pictures of people who are perceived to be transgender and encourages readers to submit photos of perceived transgender people for the blog to publish and provide commentary. It is unclear whether the site’s subjects have provided consent to have their pictures taken and published in this context.

Lateisha Green

GLAAD has reached out to the blog about the defamatory nature of their content with their problematic language including the words “tranny,” “trannie” and “he/she.” We also expressed our concerns about the potential danger the site’s subjects could face as a result of having their gender identity and gender expression shared without their consent.

Given that transgender people are disproportionately targeted for violence, willfully subjecting them to this kind of online scrutiny could very well put their lives in danger. We need not look far to know how violence disproportionately impacts transgender people. Recent examples include Angie Zapata and Lateisha Green.

A Call to Action against Tranny Alert was started by a Livejournal user named gudbuytjane and it appears to have been quite effective. The blog’s Facebook page has already been taken down.

Tranny Alert remains active on Twitter. Some Twitter users have been tweeting #trannyalertfail to express their alarm and concern for the site’s questionable content.

Initially, @TrannyAlert tweeted the following in response to readers submitting their concerns:

Tranny Alert will be releasing a statement in the next 24 hours regarding the recent backlash.

Later, the blog sent out another tweet about readers concerns:

Wow people really need to get a f*cking sense of humor.

If you would like to share your own concerns about Tranny Alert and their content, you can email them at:

mayday@tranny-alert.com

You can also share your concerns about their problematic language and content with Blogger, the blog service that currently hosts Tranny Alert. You can contact them with your concerns here.

Blogger’s policy specifically states:

Blogger strongly believes in freedom of speech. We believe that having a variety of perspectives is an important part of what makes blogs such an exciting and diverse medium. With that said, there are certain types of content that are not allowed on Blogger. While Blogger values and safeguards political and social commentary, material that promotes hatred toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity is not allowed on Blogger.

Please stay tuned for more details. Please check back with us for updates on this developing story.

Have an update to share with GLAAD? Send Senior Media Strategist Andy Marra a Tweet at @andy_marra

via Monica Roberts:

The day the transgender community has anxiously been awaiting this session has finally arrived. A trans inclusive ENDA was introduced in the House today by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) with bipartisan support.

I’m extremely cautious at this point about expressing any optimism, although the thought of rehashing the last ENDA debacle just leaves me feeling tired.

I’ll just say that I would really like to see things go down differently this time than we saw last time.

There was a fairly heated discussion about this at flipfloppingjoy yesterday. I’m trying to write my own response to it, but voz has a post about it here, which is 0ne place where the conversation about accountability and transparency should be happening at the moment. Also posts at Raven’s Eye here and here.

I’ll have more later.

Comments disabled here. Discussion is available at Voz’ journal.

Okay, moderation’s off.

Just to reiterate – I’ve added my e-mail address to my “About Lisa” page. Please, if something comes up and you feel comments are getting out of hand, don’t hesitate to e-mail me.

I would like people to take a couple steps back from going nuclear before commenting as well. I don’t mean that if someone says something oppressive that I don’t want them called out – I do. I would rather see this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

than just see someone get flamed to a crisp.

I’m not trying to talk about tone. Anger is fine. I think we deserve anger when someone says something busted. But I want to maintain a clear separation between “this is what you said” and “this is who you are,” and I’d rather see less of the latter. This is in reference to any oppressive statements or actions, not just transphobia or trans misogyny. No one should be immune to being called out.

ETA: If you’re a cis person reading this blog, and a trans person describes his or her experiences of being trans, please try to resist the urge to explain why our experiences are wrong because they don’t match your assumptions.

This is a trans blog and it centers trans perspectives. Cis people are absolutely welcome to participate, but I don’t want to see half of a comment thread turn into a back and forth about whether trans experiences or cis assumptions about trans experiences are more valid. Please just understand that we are, as trans people, experts on our own experiences and lives.

Also, the comment rules.