Reminder of the serious nature of transphobic reactions.

Last Thursday, I was minding my own business, as I recall dressed en homme over and under other than maybe some femme jeans.

I heard some incredible bigotry coming out of my radio as some local Disc Jockeys went on about their revulsion with "sick" or "mentally ill" or having a "mental disorder" speaking specifically about "those kind of people" referring to a local transwoman semi-reluctant activist as "it".

Had those statements been made about Blacks, Jews, or Gays, they would be fired.

Mostly they just displayed their ignorance. I mean that literally as one who has not learned the basics of a subject and really don;t know even what it is that they don;t know.

Some of the things they said included:

"We used to have attics we could like crazy relatives like that up in."
(joking after the sidekick expressed sincerely that trans persons should have 'thier own place to go') "I am not advocating Nazi round-up like my associate here, I don;t want to put them on their own island or anything."
Many comments about how genitals dictate which bathroom one uses always.

Their rant was brought out by a picture of a transperson in an attractive dress and pose. They stated that a GG in such sexy presentation would draw fire as being too sexy for a local newspapers magazine insert. I went to the paper's online publication and scrolled down to the comments on various trans related articles of late.

The vitriol was visceral. Including one from a self identified gay (cis male) reader. He felt that the "trannies" should just drop it and find their own place or use the separate (just added) bathroom.

As I searched and read and followed links through the gay community I was astounded at the level of bigotry and hatred from gays for transgendered persons. Not all of course, but those that did express revulsion did it with at least the fervor of what you'd find in the average fundamentalist Christian congregation towards gays for example.

I get that when gay men do drag performance to mock GG's (that they don't of course find sexually desirable) that it is camp and fun and vaguely misogynistic. I never thought they in some cases would be so transphobic themselves. I don;t prefer to see a hot GG in dumpy overalls any more than they like seeing a handsome slender man in a dress, but I don't find a girl in drab disgusting or cause for revulsion.

My reading took me away from the insulated world of crossdressers discussing cute clothes and into the rough and manly in a contrived sort of way of the comments sections on some otherwise thoughtful posts in the homo-blogger community. This week the amputation of the T in GLB-T in the pending employment discrimination legislation ( ENDA ). This I had been neutral about not because I agree with leaving those with alternate gender expression behind, but because it doesn't matter to me personally. I have no intention of presenting in a public way in a manner that would likely lead to discrimination in my self employed workplace. What brought home to me their disgust with gender-queer issues was that they seemed not to care at all about their gay and lesbian and bisexual brothers and siters who present in any other way than the CIS (as you were born) way. Their attitude seemed to be, who cares about drag queens and the bull dykes. They are on the fringe and not worthy of our love and support since they only bring down the image that CIS presenting gays want to present.

Good that came of this is I am seriously rethinking any plans I have and to patronize or provide background entertainment for a local gay bar. It also has led to a desire to be more up to date and informed on the broader world of GBL and Separately T. Ironic really because one of the things that kept me closeted for 38 years is it seemed "gay" to wear women's nylons. Only when i finally got my mind around the fact that gays like manly expression and that gender and orientation are really not even connected was I able to come out to my wife to such wonderful results. I was working hard to put aside my learned and maybe in-bred prejudices about the gay community and to see all persons as worth knowing. Now I am thinking I fit in at a gay bar as much as a lovely monogamous gay couple belongs sitting next to me in church.

As a white guy, Ive never had trouble finding persons of color in my circle of friends and laugh at the idea that having a "black friend" insulates one from charges of bigotry. I could really use a "gay friend" about now. He would make a good beard. I actually do have a number of gay and bi friends. The problem is they are all crossdressers and most are a bit confused about their orientation so I'm not sure I get to "count" them.

I hadn't figured out where to fit these into this entry so in no particular order this post was inspired by 98 KUPD mid morning, AZCentral.com, joe.my.god his comments section on a post, and a nice response on joe.my.god's by maine gay.