In Response To Stating The Goal Of Trans People Is Blending In

[xchrom]

http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/02/19/in-response-to-stating-the-goal-of-trans-people-is-blending-in/

Hi Jill,

I take a different POV than the POV you put forward in your piece “Transgender Issues: Media Undermined by Some Readers,” in which you wrote:

The ultimate goal of trans people is to blend in with society, and not to draw any special attention to themselves. I think we are getting to the point where the less said to the media, the better, especially about such personal things like having babies. I mean, whose business is it, anyway?

Yes, there are times when we need to raise trans awareness in the media — when there is a real news story about discrimination, for example. But we also have to stop giving transphobes and bigots forums to unfairly and ignorantly attack trans people or anyone else. Sadly, those bigots are undermining the very publications they are commenting in.

At PHB I wrote the piece “It’s Time For Trans People To Be Out Of The Closet,” and a more abbreviated posting on the same thought at LGBT Weekly entitled “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are.”

As a trans woman, my ultimate goal isn’t to blend in with society, but instead to challenge society — to create tension for the purpose of creating social change. To quote Martin Luther King Jr. from his “Letter From A Birmingham Jail“:

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.