As a 70 year-old lesbian, I heard your FAIR interview with a mixture of empathy and sadness, as you explained that you transitioned not because you thought you were a man, but in order to eliminate the constant homophobia and sexism you were subjected to as a result of your masculine presentation. I understand. I remember with great fondness some of my earliest lesbian role models, the stone butches I met when I came out in 1971. They passed as men as often as they could, because they felt most comfortable that way. I'm positive that many of them would have transitioned for the same reason you did if they'd had the opportunity. Terrifying encounters with the police (including backroom rape), assaults by random, hostile men, loss of jobs and family affiliation, being committed by their parents to mental hospitals where they were given shock therapy…My god, it was hard to be a butch lesbian in the first half of the twentieth century when these women came out.
And now I read your article, in which you describe how members of the trans community, the same people who should have your back, are stabbing you and other trans individuals in the back because you don't conform to their ideological views. How infuriating.
I'll be honest with you. It breaks my heart when lesbians who KNOW they're lesbians decide to transition. Sometimes it feels as though we've lost a whole generation of young butches. Life can really suck for masculine women and it takes a thick skin to carry on, especially these days when the lesbian community I grew up in and helped create has all but disappeared. On the other hand, it's clear that for you, transitioning was the right choice, and ultimately choice is what it's all about. We only live once, and we must make it our best life.
Our society needs candid and caring trans people like yourself, who refuse to endorse the pseudo-scientific ideology of transgenderism or to target gender-nonconforming children, most of whom would grow up to be gay and lesbian if simply left alone. My beefs with the trans movement are its focus on children, its erasure of women, its denial of human biology, and its embrace of authoritarian cancel culture. The way you've been marginalized and abused because you refuse to adhere to the trans movement's cult-like aspects is frankly disgusting. Fortunately, you know who you are. You have carved out a niche of excellence in which you strive — and succeed — to make the world a better place.
I'm grateful to you and other public-facing trans people (e.g., Blaire White, Corinna Cohn) who are secure in their identities and courageous in their willingness to speak the truth in the service of a better world for women, children, and everyone who is marginalized or different.
I'm an old white straight male and 'identify' that way. I have never read a more impassioned plea for a rational approach to trans issues. The section on medical needs of trans people is especially important for those who deny sex dimorphism in humans. Thank you.
We have overturned decades of work bringing people together, only to create new division with a national focus not on the war in Ukraine, nor China's emergence as the dominant player globally, nor even the inexplicable illegal immigration of millions of people of color into a country that it supposedly hopelessly racist and overwhelmed by white supremacists, but on transgederism, a phenomenon occurring no more than in 1.3% of the population.
The only transgender person I ever met knowingly was a woman who was scary smart and impossible to work with. I fired her. HR called and ordered me undo the firing because she would claim discrimination; I refused. If we failed to fire her because of her gender identification, that would be discrimination.
Thank you! I appreciate your candor and for the reminder that no group is a monolith. Just because some voices are loudest doesn't make them right, or representative.
The pronoun edict for everyone regardless is the height of virtue-signaling madness and frankly anyone who LOOKS female but insists on being addressed by male pronouns will, no matter what, beget disrespect. There was one such narcissist in our department years ago, when an announcement was made that people aren't the gender we necessarily think they are. So I would go into the department looking for some butch woman who looked so butch she'd be mistaken for a male but lo and behold, the culprit turned out to be this imposing black woman dressed head-to-toe in raspberry, ballet flats, and jangling jewelry, who insisted on being addressed by male pronouns. Puh-lease. Drama queen all the way. Control freak all the way. Narcissist being encouraged and vaunted all the way. Yet everyone complied with this literal interpretation of the Emperor has no clothes. And that's what coercing people to announce their pronouns is: the narcissist is controlling and gas lighting you and you're walking on eggshells, playing along. The truth is this: We always know what's in someone's pants. Even if you've had your gender reassignment surgery, we know what WAS in your pants. You're not fooling anyone. If it makes you feel better to go through all of that hell on your body, that's your prerogative. But the viewer can still see what the truth is, and nothing can change that. Certainly not pronouns on everyone's bio.
Thanks much for the article. Any chance to know what group you are referring to that recognizes that biological sex doesn’t disappear when people transition ?
Thank you for this:) I find your perspective and your thoughtfulness so heartening. I'm glad you've been able to persevere through the backlash. So many of us, from every walk of life, have had to do the same in order to be true to ourselves.
Has FAIR provided input on any of the legislation to protect women's sports ? We are advancing a bill in Alaska and would be interested in a perspective that showcases the diversity within the trans community. Thanks !
Thank you for this powerful lens to a world that has been very confusing to me. I feel a huge sense of relief in finally getting a glimpse of the trans world that makes sense to me.
This was eye-opening. Your writing here has me reconsidering a few things.
I personally appreciated the part about not being ready to declare identity/pronouns. I'm in that state right now and this made me feel like it doesn't have to be a stressful thing.
As a 70 year-old lesbian, I heard your FAIR interview with a mixture of empathy and sadness, as you explained that you transitioned not because you thought you were a man, but in order to eliminate the constant homophobia and sexism you were subjected to as a result of your masculine presentation. I understand. I remember with great fondness some of my earliest lesbian role models, the stone butches I met when I came out in 1971. They passed as men as often as they could, because they felt most comfortable that way. I'm positive that many of them would have transitioned for the same reason you did if they'd had the opportunity. Terrifying encounters with the police (including backroom rape), assaults by random, hostile men, loss of jobs and family affiliation, being committed by their parents to mental hospitals where they were given shock therapy…My god, it was hard to be a butch lesbian in the first half of the twentieth century when these women came out.
And now I read your article, in which you describe how members of the trans community, the same people who should have your back, are stabbing you and other trans individuals in the back because you don't conform to their ideological views. How infuriating.
I'll be honest with you. It breaks my heart when lesbians who KNOW they're lesbians decide to transition. Sometimes it feels as though we've lost a whole generation of young butches. Life can really suck for masculine women and it takes a thick skin to carry on, especially these days when the lesbian community I grew up in and helped create has all but disappeared. On the other hand, it's clear that for you, transitioning was the right choice, and ultimately choice is what it's all about. We only live once, and we must make it our best life.
Our society needs candid and caring trans people like yourself, who refuse to endorse the pseudo-scientific ideology of transgenderism or to target gender-nonconforming children, most of whom would grow up to be gay and lesbian if simply left alone. My beefs with the trans movement are its focus on children, its erasure of women, its denial of human biology, and its embrace of authoritarian cancel culture. The way you've been marginalized and abused because you refuse to adhere to the trans movement's cult-like aspects is frankly disgusting. Fortunately, you know who you are. You have carved out a niche of excellence in which you strive — and succeed — to make the world a better place.
I'm grateful to you and other public-facing trans people (e.g., Blaire White, Corinna Cohn) who are secure in their identities and courageous in their willingness to speak the truth in the service of a better world for women, children, and everyone who is marginalized or different.
I'm an old white straight male and 'identify' that way. I have never read a more impassioned plea for a rational approach to trans issues. The section on medical needs of trans people is especially important for those who deny sex dimorphism in humans. Thank you.
Very well done piece! You make a lot of sense out of something that is very blurry to me. thank you.
Thanks for this article. Lots of common sense. It should be shared everywhere!
We have overturned decades of work bringing people together, only to create new division with a national focus not on the war in Ukraine, nor China's emergence as the dominant player globally, nor even the inexplicable illegal immigration of millions of people of color into a country that it supposedly hopelessly racist and overwhelmed by white supremacists, but on transgederism, a phenomenon occurring no more than in 1.3% of the population.
The only transgender person I ever met knowingly was a woman who was scary smart and impossible to work with. I fired her. HR called and ordered me undo the firing because she would claim discrimination; I refused. If we failed to fire her because of her gender identification, that would be discrimination.
Thank you! I appreciate your candor and for the reminder that no group is a monolith. Just because some voices are loudest doesn't make them right, or representative.
The pronoun edict for everyone regardless is the height of virtue-signaling madness and frankly anyone who LOOKS female but insists on being addressed by male pronouns will, no matter what, beget disrespect. There was one such narcissist in our department years ago, when an announcement was made that people aren't the gender we necessarily think they are. So I would go into the department looking for some butch woman who looked so butch she'd be mistaken for a male but lo and behold, the culprit turned out to be this imposing black woman dressed head-to-toe in raspberry, ballet flats, and jangling jewelry, who insisted on being addressed by male pronouns. Puh-lease. Drama queen all the way. Control freak all the way. Narcissist being encouraged and vaunted all the way. Yet everyone complied with this literal interpretation of the Emperor has no clothes. And that's what coercing people to announce their pronouns is: the narcissist is controlling and gas lighting you and you're walking on eggshells, playing along. The truth is this: We always know what's in someone's pants. Even if you've had your gender reassignment surgery, we know what WAS in your pants. You're not fooling anyone. If it makes you feel better to go through all of that hell on your body, that's your prerogative. But the viewer can still see what the truth is, and nothing can change that. Certainly not pronouns on everyone's bio.
Thanks much for the article. Any chance to know what group you are referring to that recognizes that biological sex doesn’t disappear when people transition ?
Thank you for this:) I find your perspective and your thoughtfulness so heartening. I'm glad you've been able to persevere through the backlash. So many of us, from every walk of life, have had to do the same in order to be true to ourselves.
Keep going. This is the kind of considered, thoughtful discussion we need to move forward.
Has FAIR provided input on any of the legislation to protect women's sports ? We are advancing a bill in Alaska and would be interested in a perspective that showcases the diversity within the trans community. Thanks !
Thank you for this powerful lens to a world that has been very confusing to me. I feel a huge sense of relief in finally getting a glimpse of the trans world that makes sense to me.
Bravo. Well said.
This was eye-opening. Your writing here has me reconsidering a few things.
I personally appreciated the part about not being ready to declare identity/pronouns. I'm in that state right now and this made me feel like it doesn't have to be a stressful thing.