Okay, I can't help but chime in now as I have to agree totally with Jamison. Having met him I can assure you that he is 110% passable male (and cute!) and that living in complete stealth would be an easy step for him to make. Passing perfectly is my fortunate experience as well...so I definitely see the allure of going stealth. A student from our school news magazine recently asked if I would do an interview in regard to my transition...I turned him down on the basis that though many people have at least heard that someone transitioned here, for those who don't know me I'm just another woman on campus. I don't want to suddenly become known as the University's transsexual. My life is not my gender and mostly it has nothing to do with how I became what I am.

But as Jamison said, and it's true for any of us who go through this, our bodies *are* different than those born natally in the gender of our choice. There *are* unique areas of concern to us in terms of medical care and legal issues. And so long as ignorance and prejudice remain with regard to transgendered people our lives and safety are more at risk than the non-tg populus. I do not see myself as a third gender, I am a woman. But I am not and will never be exactly the same as if I had been born this way.. To completely dissapear is a disservice to all who are differently gendered. I don't see it as greatly different than racial equality. I'm not a proponent of transgender rights, I'm a proponent of *human* rights. By positively influencing indiviuals and educating where possible, we make the world a better place for everyone. Others can learn we're not weird of freaks and we're just people, too.

I don't want to tell anyone else how to live their life, and being effectively stealth in one's local community may be necessary to have any sort of normal existance...it's how Jamison lives and how I live. But at some level, I think it's essential that we join together and take a stand so that one day incidents like what Christine Littleton or Dana Rivers or so many others experienced become things of the past. Too many of us are still vicimized by ignorance and intolerance. If we completely slip into the woodwork of society we do nothing to stop the perpetuation of such misunderstanding.

Deborah Oakley


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