In a message dated 10/13/2000 1:40:04 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< I encourage passing. Being stealth like a ninja and only being out to
friends
and other safe people.
It has worked for me.
All this outness seems self defeating.
I'm not a third gender.
Suzan Cooke >>
Hi Suzan,
I don't mean to argue with you, and I'm leaving on a long trip tomorrow so
may miss much email, but I just wanted to say that I understand your point,
yet I hope you will reconsider it. I am a man (albeit one who was born with
a female body). I, too, am not a third gender; I am masculine and male. I
pass completely, and am virtually invisible socially. However, my body is
different from that of other men, and it always will be (even though I am
post-op and legally male). Pretending that this difference does not exist
would be harmful to me as a person, and potentially harmful to my physical
health. Making no effort to educate society at large about our existence
does not serve us when we are hospitalized, or jailed, or in transition (when
we appear gender-variant), or when we cannot afford surgery (as many FTMs
cannot), or when we are victimized or incapacitated in any way. I would hope
you would consider this in your resistance to the concept of advocacy for
safety for transpeople.
Jamison Green
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|