-
Phyllis Austin 09/25/2007 10:02:00 AM
Here's another one of those who will call himself a "Transgender" in the article that follows my post: It pisses me off, this lumping of all into a category under one title. We can't accept amongst our ranks every idot who will don a dress, simply as a political strategy to raise our numbers of strength. That is a problematic position that will haunt the trans community if they continue to bury their heads in the sand. I, personally and medically, am not a transgender, I am a transsexual, and it will not be in the best interest of any community to "make legal by statuates" that contain the terminology "transgender". It will however, behove any community to improve civil rights protections for transsexuals of the LGB-Transsexual people, but draw a conclusion of who in a skirt will fall under such legislation and is why I call on "the process of transition" to clarify the destinction from a "transsexual" and any riff raff running around in a dress that may be "under the influence" of mood altering substances such as alcohol or other varieties, that may also include "gender benders" just out for kinks, ahh, I mean kicks.
This melding of any who fall under an "imaginary" umbrella, or under an "imaginary rainbow" into the civil rights protections for transsexual and for the politicalism of the LGBT folks is wrong and it is going to haunt the LGB"T" communities that have embraced it simply for political reasons. The bathromm issue is going to be the dividing line in the sand between the "us and them" and if the present trans-communities and the LGBT political branch continue to blindly barrel on through with this, it will be to our detriment.
I am even shy of the "bi" inclusion in the LGBT label, since most of these are silent and in secret in employment ranks and never speak up for fear of losing that male status and being stigmatized by fellow employees as being "gay", which is a tactic of the macho male fraternity with their bigotry, and practices of harassment and hazing of fellow employees and not only but in the social aspects of the community as well. Bi-sexuals are also eliminated largely from the 'pool" of availiable women who are looking for the societal image of a "Marlboro Man" or the Limo type man of the world, successful. Don't let any "one of the boys" who are construction or macho titled in the work community be caught in a "gay" bar at any time or he will be black balled with slander that will ruin his and his family. It's a practice of rabid dogs to "tear one to pieces" and this practice of character assignation and slander is not "American" you who practice discrimination and wave your star and stripes. But, bi-sexuals do need this protection for those who have or are not ready to come out as yet and I do support the LGBT community.
Phyllis Austin
The Age - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Cross-dresser wrecks Austrian ministry
September 24, 2007 - 7:04AM
Austrian police arrested a man dressed in women's clothes who laid
waste to a part of the country's Education Ministry.
A 39-year-old man, barefoot and only wearing an orange dress, broke
into an office building belonging to Austria's Education Ministry in
the city centre of Vienna and wrecked the building's first floor,
Austrian media reported.
The arriving police officers found the place flooded, toilet paper all
over the place and all toilets blocked.
The cross-dressing vandal told police he had come there to "wash his
laundry." He was institutionalised.
(c) 2007 AAP
-
Phyllis Austin 09/23/2007 2:21:00 AM
Let's give all those Fetishwear Fiend's a free ticket to the girls bathrooms too. Let's just give anybody who wears any clothing besides clothing considered male clothing, a free ticket to use the womens restroom,oh excuse me, did I forget that it's also the "girls" bathroom, a place of refuge and privace for persons who consider themselves female who under the age of 18? Does anyone speak for them besides myself? How about that? How about that, fetish fiends will be alright using the "girls" bathroom won't they Ms. De LaFreniere?
Phyllis Austin
-
wezze 09/06/2007 9:48:00 PM
The funniest part came when Arpaio said, "I have compassion for the Mexican people, but I'm torn between that and doing my job."
How about limb from limb?
-
Phyllis Austin 08/31/2007 1:51:00 PM
Yes, we do have stupid idiots like that which I posted above and they are not in any way relative to "Transsexuality". They are stupid idiots, that same kind of stupid idiot you have in the straight world, those of you who like to call yourselves a member.The kind I speak of might "CLAIM" to be transgender but they are no relation to transsexuals and usually they do not claim to be transsexual, it's always "transgender" and that's my reason I say what I do. Most everyone of us transsexuals, want to live as us, women, without all the hulla balloo. On a regular basis we are not dressed in stelletto 6 inch heels, fish net stockings, black mini skirt, extravagant long bright red fingernails, bodacious hair and gobs of makeup but for the "transgender" they do adorn on any number of occasions as though it's halloween or as if they are a "female sex image out of hollywood". Transsexuals on the other hand generally live within the boundries of a socially adaptive society, people respecting others, tolerant, and productive members of the community. We don't generally stand out except for the "rainbow" flags flying on a house or a "rainbow" sticker on our cars. We are just people but, they're are stupid idots out there that will wear womens clothes but they are "not" transsexual, they are imposters, actors, because at a time, they can relocate and "present" themselves completely different. But they can't if they change their legal identity, change they're name to susan, Karen or hilda, and partake in the process of transitioning their life as male to a female and live life as a woman. I live as a woman 24 hours a day. That is a transsexual, but the transgender, "that political branch", they want to take in any range of people who claim they are "transgender" in any degree and that is wrong, in my opinion. If they want to play dress up, let them play dress up, they all go back to their "man world" anyway when they go to work, but don't change the laws of society to allow those to use the public womens restroom just on occasion for a few nut and bolts. Transsexuals want to live as women, nothing else, we feel life females.
Phyllis
-
Erica 08/31/2007 1:45:00 PM
An addendum to my previous post:
The a report on the study showing that men who are homophobic and transphobic are dealing with unresolved issues of their own sexual orientation can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-7AoxFEJA. It was done in Georgia, not Indiana (I was close. They both end in an A).
Just cleaning up my footnotes.
Erica
-
Phyllis Austin 08/31/2007 12:37:00 PM
Well, this kind of stuff happens all over and it is my reasoning to separate from those who call themselves "transgender" ! If they don't know yet if they are transsexual, that is something that will take time with a therapists, a year or two, and you'll have to "pay" and if your serious you'll stay the course, and if not you'll just continue to play "girl" but I don't intend to stand by and be lumped in with such as these. Read the following...
[News] [OH,USA] WARNING: Man Dressed as Woman Attempts to Abduct Wom
Posted by: "Meryl Sizemore" merylsizemore@gmail.com merylszmore
Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:32 am (PST)
Fox 8 News WJW - Cleveland, OH, USA
WARNING: Man Dressed as Woman Attempts to Abduct Women
Last Edited: Wednesday, 29 Aug 2007, 10:40 PM EDT
Created: Wednesday, 29 Aug 2007, 5:53 PM EDT
CLEVELAND -- Police are warning woman that a man dressed as a woman is
stalking women on the east side.
Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath issued a warning Wednesday to
Cleveland woman about a man who dresses as a woman and attempts to
abduct them.
Police say the man has attempted to abduct at least three women in
Cleveland's Union-Miles Park neighborhood.
Fourth District Commander Roy Rich alerted Chief McGrath to a series
of encounters involving women en-route to or waiting at bus stops on
Miles Avenue between East 93rd Street and East 116th Street.
In each instance, a male wearing women's clothes with a scarf wrapped
around his head approached women who were either walking or waiting
alone. The male, in some cases, attempted to lure the women into his
car. In the latest and boldest incident, the male chased the victim on
foot, failing to abduct her as she ran into a nearby home, police say.
Police are asking for your help in identifying the man or his car.
Police say the man being sought is described a black male,
approximately 35 to 40 years old, 6 feet tall and weighing 200 to 250
pounds with a muscular build.
In each instance, the man drove an older, dark blue Buick LeSabre with
a license plate that may include DPS75, police say. The car is known
to frequent the area of East 116th Street and Miles Avenue.
Anyone with information on this male or vehicle is asked to call 9-1-1
or contact Cleveland Police Fourth District Detective Bureau at
216-623-5418.
http://www.myfoxcle veland.com/ myfox/pages/ News/Detail? contentId= 4209047&version= 1&locale= EN-US&layoutCode =TSTY&pageId= 3.2.1
-
She-Ra 08/24/2007 9:46:00 PM
Erica, I'm not saying that transgenders or transsexuals are not human, and I'm not saying they don't face discrimination. The point is, certain people were banned from Anderson's Fifth Estate for the way they acted and treated other patrons, NOT because they are transgender, transsexual, or however you want to qualify it. You and others have made Anderson's decision out to be about discrimination, when it was really about protecting his patrons, who were complaining about the intimidating behavior they received from Michele and Co. Bottom line: Saying Anderson's a bigot is just their way of trying to deflect blame off them for acting in an unacceptable fashion toward other people.
-
Phyllis Austin 08/24/2007 9:16:00 PM
Correction...
It should read:
Erica's attack on my person:
["Well missy, you don't rise to my level of transsexualism. I've had FFS. It's obvious from your picture at azcentral that you haven't. You look like what you are. An old transsexual."]
Well, Erica, I haven't needed any knife carvings to staighten up my face.
Phyllis
-
Phyllis Austin 08/24/2007 9:12:00 PM
Gee Erica, that's sounds hypocritical, you defending Ms. Michele, de La Freniere's looks. You don't like it when someone attacks your "friends" looks but you felt it was perfectly alright to attack mine.
Quote from Erica's attack on my person.
["Well missy, you don't rise to my level of transsexualism. I've had FFS. It's obvious from your picture at azcentral that you haven't. You look like what you are. An old transsexual. I haven't needed any knife carvings to staighten up my face.
ROTFLMAO, Sooo immature Erica, so high school of you. Evedently your much younger than I am and you still had to have FFS OMG !( for those who don't know,"Facial Feminization Surgery ) Anyway Erica, it's not becoming of someone if they make fun of other people's looks, their shape, their gender expression or their sexual orientation. I don't need to know your age. Immature says it all. It's not who you are on the outside Erica, it's who you are on the inside that counts.
I won't be replying to you personally anymore since you can't carry on a civil and intelligent conversation, but I will continue to attack and refute your personal prejiduce's and distortions of the issues at hand, use of a public womens restroom by anyone within the variations of the "40 miles wide swath" that the term "transgender" encompass's of the male to female variety, just on the fact that a person said "I'm transgender", puts on a skirt and prances in any women's restroom they want to. Absurd ! Ridiculous !!! And any transsexuals who fall for that political agenda needs to reevaluate their convictions and if they still agree with that cock and bull story then, "I have some ocean front property in.... .... ...."(LOL)
-
Erica 08/24/2007 5:56:00 PM
She-Ra:
Well, I�m impressed that you came up with that link so soon. You�ve obviously been burning up the internet to find that. The problem is that you failed to meet the challenge. The word "restroom" doesn�t appear in this person�s bio anywhere. The restroom is your issue, not mine, remember? The whole point of the exercise was for you to show even one example that legitimizes your irrational fear that you are somehow placed in danger by having a transsexual in a public restroom with you. As I expected, you failed to do that. All you�ve managed to show is that once upon a time, there lived a transgendered murderer who died 16 years ago, and whose crimes all happened 41 years ago, when Bobby Kennedy, MLK, and Malcolm X all still walked the earth, but Neil Armstrong had yet to walk the moon and the Beatles had yet to release Sgt. Peppers. Have there been any since then? Are there still transgendered murderers today? There appears to have been one a long time ago, and there may be one somewhere today, but in spite of your best efforts, you couldn�t find one. There are thousands of transsexuals interacting with millions of genetic women in women�s rooms all the time. If you are in such real danger having a transsexual in the restroom, doesn�t it stand to reason that there would be examples of restroom attacks happening?
Are there genetic female murderers? Most certainly. They have prisons where they keep the ones the catch. Should I then assume you are capable of murder because you have a vagina? Once again, you are taking one example of the very worst person in a group and applying that person�s worst qualities to all members of that group. That is the heart and soul of discrimination. That fails to see each of us as individuals. That fails to see us as human.
Of course my saying you might kill me in a restroom was stupid. That was the point. I was holding up a mirror to show just how ridiculous your argument looks to me by turning it around and showing you what it looks like from the other side. You saying I might rape you in a restroom is even more stupid. My challenge is getting you to realize that.
Even though your return didn�t to make it over the net, I did start this game, so I�ll serve up the next round.
Nationwide, the murder rate of transgender persons is 17 times the national average - the highest rate of any minority group (www.tsroadmap.com/los-angeles/day-of-remembrance.html). We face the threat of harassment, violence, and even death every time we leave the house.
Transgender death statistics, 1970 to 8/15/02 as found at http://www.tgcrossroads.org/news/archive.asp?aid=410:
Totals:
242 total -
199 Domestic,
43 International, as of 8/15/02
Deadliest years:
1997 - 18
2000 - 18
Deadliest months:
6/90, 10/91, 12/92 - 4 each.
As of August, 2002, there are 15 names on the list for this year alone. This is one more than the total for 2001.
Averages per month (only the 1990s):
1990 through 1994 - 1 per month.
1990 to 1999 - 1.09 per month.
1995 to 1999 - 1.17 per month.
2000 to 8/15/02 - 1.41 per month
Causes of Death:
Shot - 86
Stabbed - 54
Beaten - 40
"Murdered" - 35
Strangled - 18
Drowned - 7
There are another 17 other causes of death, and 19 individuals have died from multiple causes. Additional city and state statistics available at the site referenced above. Names of murdered transgenders can be found at www.rememberingourdead.org. These statistics appear to have been collected in 2002, and the list has been growing by around 20 to 30 names in the years since. Last year, a transgendered youth named Maurice/Melissa Green was shot and killed on the street in the area of 35th Ave and Indian School. We had a transgendered woman physically attacked here in Phoenix with an apparent intent to kill a couple of weeks ago who thank God survived, but was injured.
So who is killing all these transgenders? Is it those genetic female murderers mentioned above? Not likely. 94% of this country�s prison population is male. The people killing us with the rarest of exceptions are men. You and I have a couple of things in common. We are both women, and we both fear men.
Boys in this country, most especially in years past but probably still true today, are taught from an early age that it�s OK to pick on a sissy. In fact, they�re taught that you are obligated to pick on a sissy, and if you don�t, then you may be called a sissy. We�ve raised our boys to hate the transgendered. Most by the time they reach adulthood have learned enough social graces to leave them alone, but you can bet that some of that old childhood conditioning comes to mind whenever they see one of us. However, some still act on that old training and have no hesitation to harass a trangender they encounter in public. You can see some of it when you read some of the hate filled posts spewed out by men over at azcentral with regard to Susan Staton�s application for Tempe city manager. It�s especially bad when there are two or three young men together, and they each feel a need to impress their friends of how masculine they are by picking on the sissy.
There also exists in many men a deep seeded fear of homosexuality. They may at first be instinctually attracted to the femininity we present, but when realizing that we�re not genetically female become terrified that their initial attraction may mean they are gay. This can incense them and lead them to violence either because they are furious at us for making them question their own masculinity, or because by attacking us they suppress those thoughts more quickly. There are also men who have unresolved issues in their own sexual orientation, but through years of practice have learned how to suppress their homosexual urges with little mental tricks like convincing themselves that gays are evil and he can�t be gay because he�s not evil. There was a study done at a midwestern university (the specific one escapes me right now, but I think Indiana) which demonstrated this. When someone like that encounters someone like me, their delicate mental balance can be thrown out of kilter, and this can be so upsetting to them and so disruptive to their entire world that they can convince themselves that getting violent or even killing me is the only way to get their world back into balance.
Transsexuals are all aware of the danger they face as they move through the world, and the primary way they mitigate that danger is by trying to blend in and avoid having anyone notice that we�re not genetic females (what we call �passing�). Passing in many situations is critical to a transsexual�s survival. One estimate I got from a knowledgeable person is that there are about 800 transsexuals in the Phoenix metro area. Yet, you rarely if ever see them because they�ve all out of necessity learned the tricks to pass very well. The number one passing trick is called �blending�, which means you try to keep people from scrutinizing you in the first place by dressing and acting like all the other women around you. Transsexuals who are unable to blend are in constant risk of stumbling upon the disturbed male who can be moved to anything from simple harassment to violent murder at the sight of us.
Making a transgendered woman walk in a men�s room is a dead give-a-way. It�s obvious as hell she is transgendered when she walks in a men�s room. Anyone in the restroom is going to intensely scrutinize anyone appearing to be a woman entering that environment. There is no passing in a men�s room. She is stripped of her primary source of protection and left completely vulnerable to attack. Now, not only has she been outed, but it happens in a confined area where she may be alone with a man who will take issues with her gender expression. Forcing transgenders to out themselves in public just to use a restroom is exposing them to far more danger than you face from rape in any situation, including having a transgender in the women�s room. You are safer in a men�s room than I am. And our risk doesn�t end at the restroom doors. Once we�ve been outed, we are outed everywhere. The disturbed male doesn�t have to attack us in the restroom. He can follow us out into the street. He can attack us in the parking lot. He can follow us home.
My problem with women with your attitude is that you think your irrational, unjustifiable fear is paramount above all else, and you don�t care how many of my people have to be killed in order for your imaginary fear to be eased. You don�t see us as human. You have no hesitation throwing my people into the lion�s den just so you can feel a little more comfortable. This is not a game. Your attitude will get people killed, and I am trying to save lives. I am trying to reduce the REAL risk to personal safety, not your imaginary risk.
But again, this is not about the restroom issue. That is a fight for another day. We are just trying to walk through the front doors.
I am not sure if you have noticed it or not, but Stephen Lemons' writing style is mean spirited, sensationalistic, and rife with hyperbole. You can't believe anything he writes and you certainly can't believe anything his cartoonist draws. He has grossly mischaracterized Michele deLaFreniere's physical appearance. She is not "well over six foot tall". She is right about dead on six foot, six-one tops. She is not huge. She is a normal weight for someone her height. She is not "built like a brickhouse". She is 51 years old, and her muscles are all soft and smooth because she has been on estrogen for over 10 years. The only real exercise she gets is bicycling, because that has been her passion and her business for much of her life, but she doesn't get out and do much of that lately because she is plagued by recurring aches and pains from old injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident decades ago. She is not an imposing figure. She has a good heart, she has great passion, she has a warm sense of humor, she is faultlessly generous, she is a woman of great courage, she is an asset to our community, and she is committed to improving the lives of others. I have the highest admiration for her, and I am honored to call her my friend.
What have you done with your life lately besides sit at your computer trying to research ways to oppress a harmless minority and hurt people you have never taken the time to get to know?
Erica
-
Phyllis Austin 08/24/2007 9:49:00 AM
So immature Erica, just like hating your rival football teams fans, other students, just because they're your opponent.
The difference between you and I is that I attack a concept and you attack me personally.
If you really had something to say about my stand on certain issues, you would address those issue's, one on one, rather than attacking me personally but you don't, which makes your argument completely invalid, since you have no other recourse except to attempt to "trash" me on a personal basis. That's alright, I've treated like trash all my life, I'm use to that and your kind.
If I couldn't take the heat I wouldn't be in the kitchen, but I am, and after my experience in military school, the Marine Corp, including being a combat veteran, my growing up and being picked on all the time because of my gender "expressions" and mannerisms, the discrimination I've lived through during my "coming out", you don't bother me one bit. I welcome your futile attempts, you only discredit yourself, because people see you have no fight against my points of interests.
I wish you the best girl,
A Transsexual, born the way I am,
Phyllis Austin
-
Erica 08/24/2007 4:34:00 AM
Phyllis, what is your problem? You sit at home alone all day long at your computer trying to find ways to annoy people. You just can't stand the idea that this might not be all about you. You want to hate anyone who doesn't rise to your level of transition, while at the same time thinking people like Anderson shouldn't hate you. You can't have it both ways dear. If you want the world to accept you then you need to learn to accept others. You're not unemployed because of transgender discrimination. You are unemployed because you are a negative, complaining, annoying old narcissist who gets on people's nerves.
Go to www.dictionary.com and type in "transgender" and these are the definitions you get:
trans�gen�der:
1. a person appearing or attempting to be a member of the opposite sex, as a transsexual or habitual cross-dresser.
2. being, pertaining to, or characteristic of a transgender or transgenders: the transgender movement.
trans�gen�dered:
1. Appearing as, wishing to be considered as, or having undergone surgery to become a member of the opposite sex.
2. Of or relating to a transgendered person or transgendered people.
transgender:
involving a partial or full reversal of gender
Accept it Phyllis. While you sat alone in your little room this word acquired a new meaning, and it now means all people who cross the gender barrier, which includes transsexuals, and includes you. What you keep calling a transgender the rest of the world calls a transvestite. Get in step with the times and learn what these words mean.
You are cut off and isolated from any one else in our community and you think you are the supreme expert on all stripes of gender variant individuals. You don't know a damn thing. You want to use "transgender" as a derisive label to condemn people you hate, while thinking that the word "transsexual" makes you God's gift to the earth. Well I've got news for you sweetheart. Other people will hate you for having the Transsexual label just like you hate people you want to label as Transgender. You think you can feel so Goddamn superior over people who don't go as far in their transition as you do like you're the gold standard of transsexualism. Well missy, you don't rise to my level of transsexualism. I've had FFS. It's obvious from your picture at azcentral that you haven't. You look like what you are. An old transsexual.
Who am I to speak for this community? I'm active and involved in this community. I participate in and organize transgender groups and activities. I'm a bona-fide leader in this community. Last year, I was the board chair at Transgender-Harmony, and this year I'm one of the leaders at Arizona Transgender Alliance. I know and interact with dozens of transsexuals all the time. I know all the major players in the trans-community of this city. I know Donna, Becky, Margeaux, Maria, JJ, and even Toby. Do you even know who these people are? Do you know who I am? If you were a part of the trans-community you in all likelihood would. My name doesn't carry the clout of a Donna or a Becky, but people generally know who I am. You challenge me to post my last name? Why? The people who matter all know my last name. If you were a part of this community, you would know my last name. Have you ever even gone to a DOR? Do you even know what that is? I haven't missed a DOR since I started my transition. If you haven't been to a DOR then you are not a real transsexual in my book.
Get over yourself Phyllis. You are hurting your own people and the efforts of those trying to improve your life just to indulge your narcissistic compulsion to be the center of attention. This is not about you.
Erica
-
She-Ra 08/24/2007 4:06:00 AM
Erica -- I'm not going to wrangle with you over your definition of "transsexual" (though I still think you are wrong), but here's the example of a predatory transgender you asked for:
http://www.nndb.com/people/608/000110278/
Of course, none of his offenses occurred in the restroom at Anderson's Fifth Estate, but hey -- what're eight murders compared to not getting to piss in the ladies' loo?
As for the question of how you'd know if I was going to pull out a gun and shoot you, that's stupid. You can't tell me you feel intimidated in the women's bathroom, and neither can DeLafrewhatever, because I've met "her," and she's huge -- well over six foot tall, weighs twice as much as I do, still built like a brickhouse MAN. Really -- what the hell is the problem with people with penises using the men's room?
-
Phyllis Austin 08/24/2007 1:56:00 AM
The following statement is a complete fabrication by someone who is speaking for all transsexuals.
["Transsexuals in transition typically don�t know who they find attractive, or even if they find anyone attractive. They ponder endlessly on if they�re gay or strait with no sense of attraction to serve as a guide".]
Pretty bold to speak for all of transsexuals and those who have gone stealth and have husbands. Seems maybe "she" doesn't know who "she" finds attractive because many transsexuals go on to have husbands. She makes this biased statement because those claiming transgender still are attracted to women, just as their male identity tells them, they're not trans anything. They are men, who practice life as males and are not even in the same medical catagory as transsexual and they admit as much, that's why they call themselves transgender rather than transsexual. They don't identify as female as transsexuals have since early childhood, unlike transgenders, who still lives their lives as men, just like Ms. Prince wanted to keep her male anatomy.
Transsexuals in transition typically don�t know who they find attractive, or even if they find anyone attractive. They ponder endlessly on if they�re gay or strait with no sense of attraction to serve as a guide.
Utterly ridiculous !
Phyllis Austin
-
Phyllis Austin 08/24/2007 1:34:00 AM
The following statement is completely false.
["Transsexuals are one subgroup within the spectrum of the transgendered"]
Transexuals were, long before someone anyone decided to use a term called "transgender", which didn't even exist but was hatched to describe those who considered themselves not Transsexual. That's the truth of the matter, otherwise why didn't they identify as Transsexual. They are attempting to nudge their political head above all and dominate the spectrum for political aspirations, pushing laws into legislature that will cover every kind of gender bender you could imagine.
Transsexuals are not transgender, nor is any transgender anthing near a transsexual, but a great gulf lies between them.
Phyllis Austin
-
Erica 08/23/2007 6:03:00 PM
Binocularbabe:
It is perfectly valid to compare what the Nazis in Germany did to the Jews to what the whites in America did to the blacks, or to the Native Americans, or to the Hispanics, or the Irish in the 19th century, or to the Mormons in the 19th century, or to the gays, or the handicapped, or for that matter to the genocide in Darfur, or the massacres in Bosnia, or the Palestinians in Israel, or the Catholics in Northern Ireland, or the aborigines in Australia, or the Sunnis and Shias in Iraq, or the Christians in the Coliseum, or the treatment of transsexuals by Tom Anderson. They are all examples of the same basic human capacity to fail to see another human as a human. This is the root of all discrimination, however great or small. The fact that the gassing of the Jews was history�s most vivid example of this simply makes it an effective metaphor. I am not comparing the plight of the transsexuals to the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany. I am comparing the attitude and mindset of the Nazis to the attitude and mindset of Anderson, Lemons, and people like you. If someone rounded up all the transsexuals and gassed them, there wouldn�t be a peep of protest from Anderson or Lemons. They don�t see us as human. However, they don�t realize they don�t see us as human. If they did, they wouldn�t be able to hang on to that assumption. Of course they don�t say they don�t see us as human. They are so comfortable in their fundamental paradigm that we are non-humans that they have never even paused to consider it. They don�t have to say it. Their actions speak louder than words. No bigot thinks he�s a bigot. He just assumes he�s right.
Anderson�s statement on Psychic TV was that he would allow transgenders in for one night so that he could salvage his profits for that one night. The night before and the night after, he won�t let us in. Further, his statement was that he is going to post a guard on the restrooms to force anyone who looks transgendered to use the men�s room, regardless of their legal or physical gender status, which he has no way of verifying. That is discrimination based on a person�s physical appearance. That is gender stereotyping, and is just another example of the specific complaint on which he is currently under investigation. He is saying that if you don�t look like what he thinks a real woman looks like then he is entitled to humiliate you by making you go in a men�s room. His assumption that he is entitled to do that is rooted in his mindset that we are not human, and he doesn�t have to show any respect for our identities, our privacy, or our dignity.
You didn�t even try to visualize transsexuals as human, did you?
Erica
-
Erica 08/23/2007 5:48:00 PM
She-Ra:
The gender barrier is a sociological concept. In ours or any culture, there are societally imposed expectations of roles, behavior, and dress attached to each gender. Men are expected to act, talk, and dress a certain way, and women are expected to act, talk, and dress a different way. Men are expected to play certain roles and perform certain kinds of jobs, and women are expected to play certain roles and perform certain kinds of jobs. It varies from culture to culture, but these distinctions exist in every culture. They are defined by expectations, not by anatomy. Those distinctions make up the gender barrier.
In our culture, when someone of one gender behaves, dresses, or plays a role associated with the other gender, they are subject to labeling, criticism, humiliation, and sometimes outright discrimination. Effeminate boys are called sissies. Girls who play boy�s games are called tomboys. Men with feminine manors are called fags, and masculine women are called dykes. Compassionate men are viewed as week, and practical women are called bitches. These are small examples of crossing that gender barrier. People who spend significant parts of their lives either crossing or straddling that gender barrier are transgendered. The most extreme example is someone like me who completely crosses the gender barrier, lives every aspect of her life in the other gender role from what she were born into, and totally changes physical sex as much as modern medical technology allows. Transsexuals are one subgroup within the spectrum of the transgendered. They are not exactly the same. One is a subset of the other. These are semantic differences, not scientific. These concepts are created by society, not by biology.
The distinctions that make up the gender barrier are not defined by genitalia. Genitals are a very intimate, private part of your gender identity, and are not subject to public scrutiny in any sort of decent society. The gender barrier is defined by public presentations and behaviors. Most female to male transsexuals never get sexual reassignment surgery because it�s wildly expensive and the results of currently available procedures are disappointing at best. Yet, women become men extremely well. You could work shoulder to shoulder with a transman for years and never suspect for a second that he wasn�t born a boy. That�s why you hardly ever see or hear of them in spite of the fact that they make up about 45% of transsexuals. They blend into society and disappear. However, non-op transmen are men without penises. Do you think they should be forced to use the women�s room? Would you feel comfortable with someone who by outward appearances is indistinguishable from a genetic male walking into the women�s room? Society expects him to use the restroom according to the gender he presents. The same is true for me. The gender I present is that of a woman, so it�s the women�s room I use.
When a genetic male takes estrogen, it immediately starts attacking the testicles. Within days, sperm counts drop so low that they would have no hope of conceiving a child. At around nine to twelve months on estrogen, the damage reaches a point that the individual is permanently sterile. If estrogen is continued beyond that, then over the next several years, the testicles will begin to break down, be absorbed into the body, and ultimately disappear. With the attack on the testicles comes a precipitous drop in testosterone levels. Transitioning transsexuals also take a testosterone blocker to further deplete what testosterone is left in their system. A transsexual on hormone therapy has less testosterone in her than you do, because you are still getting testosterone produced in your adrenal glands, where the transsexual blocks out even that. Along with that loss of testosterone comes an almost complete loss of sex drive. Transsexuals in transition typically don�t know who they find attractive, or even if they find anyone attractive. They ponder endlessly on if they�re gay or strait with no sense of attraction to serve as a guide. In most cases, they also become completely impotent. They are chemically castrated. They are eunuchs. You have nothing to fear from a transsexual in a restroom, regardless of their surgical status.
I understand the anxiety of someone who was raped, but imparting on a transsexual the qualities of the very worst of men, the sociopathic rapist, just because they might, repeat, might have a vestigial penis is crass stereotyping in the worst. I am not a man. How dare you not only call me a man but associate me with the worst of men. You�re afraid of me in a restroom? How do I know you�re not going to pull out a gun and rob me in a restroom? Heck, you�ve even expressed open contempt for me. How do I know you�re not going to shoot me out of pure spite? In the transsexual autobiography "Canary" by Canary Conn, she recounts an incident where she was violently attacked by a woman in a restroom who was trying to rob her. She was left bloodied and terrified by the experience. It was the transsexual in danger, not the genetic female. Now you give me a real world example of a woman being attacked by a transsexual in a restroom.
But that all continues to be irrelevant to the issue at hand. Anderson has single stall locking restrooms. When someone is in there, they are alone in there. No genetic woman is in that restroom with a transsexual or any transgendered person. We�ve said all along we are willing to use those restrooms. Anderson has not banned us from his restrooms. He has banned us from his club. Our issue with him is not over restrooms. The restrooms are a smoke screen. He is discriminating against a harmless minority just because he doesn�t like us.
Erica
-
Bob Dylan 08/23/2007 4:28:00 PM
Whoa, Erica just got owned by She-Ra and Binocularbabe.
As for me, I think the answer is blowin' in the wind...So get blown. I'll betcha Erica does.
-
binocularbabe 08/23/2007 6:28:00 AM
Erica writes, "I don�t care if she was puking, peeing, smoking a joint or dancing naked in there."
Pardon me, but was it he or she? In a straight club, in the women's bathroom, that makes all the difference in the world.
"Why would I lie about this?"
No one is saying you are in this instance, but Michele de LaFullofherself certainly said something different at her little press conference.
"Instead of taking it up with that one person, he with a sweeping hand just banned all people who happened to share some external quality with that person."
Considering Mr. Anderson's comments regarding the appearance of Psychic TV at his club, I'd say this statemet is inaccurate.
"Did you ever see Schindler�s List?"
Comparing what happened to the Jews at Auschwitz (they were gassed, you idiot!) to someone 86'd from a club for acting like a shithead in the women's room is a disgusting, trivial, and false comparison. Keep making it. You will lose more supporters than you gain.
"Anderson and Lemons are lashing out at us, because we are challenging their assumption that transsexuals are not human."
When did either Lemons or Anderson say that transsexuals, or transgenders (which is what Delafullofherself is), "are not human." That is a falsehood, just as is the very false analogy between the Jews in the Holocaust and trannies peeing upright at Anderson's Fifth Estate.
Keep it up. Keep alienating people with your rhetoric. Initially I felt sympathitic to you, though I disagreed. I can tell you, just through this last post of yours, you've completely lost me. With an attitude like that, you're doomed to fail. I want no compromise with you, and I hope Mr. Anderson will continue to avoid it.
-
She-Ra 08/23/2007 1:31:00 AM
I'd like to respond to this statement by Erica:
"A transgendered person is anyone who at some time crosses the gender barrier, and a transsexual is someone who has commited to living the remainder of their lives in the other gender from the one into which he or she was born."
First, what the hell is the "gender barrier"? Seems to me that having a penis (especially if you keep it, and continue to use it on women who have actual vaginas) is a pretty big fucking barrier. As a woman, I don't want people with penises who are attracted to women haning out in the women's bathroom. Period. If you had ever been a biological woman who'd been raped, you'd understand. It's worse than being a victim of "discrimination."
As for the rest of Erica's statement, it makes no sense. Is that the scientific definition? Because you sure try to make transgendered and transsexual sound like the exact same thing, and they are NOT. If I'm physically attacked by someone who was born as a man but has had a full sex change and is taking estrogen, I can defend myself. But someone who's still got a member that dresses up as a woman is still producing testosterone, still biologically stronger than I, in short: STILL a threat. No matter how "feminine" you feel.
-
Erica 08/21/2007 9:45:00 PM
binocularbabe:
Why would I lie about this? As far as I am concerned, this is an utterly trivial point. I might as well lie about the color of the walls in that restroom. The real issue here is that this man has felt entitled to ban an entire minority of people because of the actions of one person. I don�t care if she was puking, peeing, smoking a joint or dancing naked in there. It was one person on one night. Instead of taking it up with that one person, he with a sweeping hand just banned all people who happened to share some external quality with that person. How can any reasonable person find that excusable? Would you be OK if he denied you entrance because someone with the same hair color as you once got drunk and smashed the place? Would you be totally cool if a restaurant refused to serve you because someone with your eye color once walked out without paying the tab?
The only way that you can find Anderson�s actions excusable is if you don�t see us as human beings. That is at the very nexus of what this entire dispute is about. Are transsexuals human beings? Are they citizens of this country? Do they have the same rights as everyone else?
Did you ever see Schindler�s List? In it there is a Nazi prison camp commandant who killed Jews for sport. He killed hundreds. Nazi propaganda taught him that Jews were not human. He had a Jewish woman working in his house as a servant who he found very attractive. He was torn apart by this. How could he find her attractive if she�s not human? If she is human, and she�s Jewish, doesn�t mean that all the Jews he�s killed were human? To accept her as human, he would have to admit to himself that he was a murderer, and he couldn�t let himself do that. So instead, he lashed out at her and beat her, much like Anderson and Lemons are lashing out at us, because we are challenging their assumption that transsexuals are not human.
I dare every one of you reading this to just try to close your eyes and visualize for just a moment that inside of the body of a transsexual is a real thinking, feeling human being, with hopes and dreams, loves and losses, pains and joys, friends and family, careers and hobbies, a past, a present and a future. Are you able to visualize that? Then you�ve finally glimpsed the truth. How can you deny these people the privilege to move through society like any other citizen of this country? Are you not able to visualize it? Did you not even try? Then you are no better than that prison camp commandant.
Erica
-
Erica 08/21/2007 2:20:00 PM
Ms. deLaFreniere said in an interview some months back that her friend stood to urinate because that is what her friend told her at the time. As far as we know, there were only two people in that restroom at the time, a transsexual and a genetic female in the stall next to her. We don't know who the other woman was, so our only source is the transsexual. It only came out within the past month that she is bulimic, and she is only now telling her whole story. I'm giving you the best information available. Sometimes it takes time for all the facts to come out. That's life.
-
binocularbabe 08/21/2007 6:33:00 AM
From Erica:
"It has only very recently come to light, but the transsexual who was seen with her feet pointed backward in a toilet stall at Anderson's was not urinating, she was vomiting. A few weeks ago, her roommate discovered that she is bulimic, but she has been embarassed to admit it. At that time she admitted that she was not standing to urinate at Anderson's, but went into the restroom to purge her dinner."
So much drama. Then why did DeLaFreniere tell the Arizona Republic in a news conference,
One evening, she said, one of her friends asked the bouncer which bathroom to use and he said to use whichever one made the friend comfortable.
The friend chose the women's room, but found the toilet too gross.
"So, she stood up," de LaFreniere said, "and there was a complaint."
This peeing standing up story is not an "extrapolation." It's the story DeLaFreniere has been telling to the media! Aaaaagh! (sound of me pulling my hair out)
Why should we believe anything you gross guys in dresses have to say? Stop lying. Please.
-
Phyllis Austin 08/20/2007 2:39:00 PM
I have received an apology letter from Cocomment.com explaining technical difficulties with some sort of beta program that prevented me from establishing a login and posting comments at "The Arizona Republic". I thank them for the letter and I take back my claim of censorship at "The Arizona Republic". I apologize to "The Arizona Republic" for my misunderstanding. I thank them for being expedient to correct this problem.
Phyllis Austin
-
Phyllis Austin 08/20/2007 11:48:00 AM
This story of what happened keeps changing, well, not exactly, but it's chronology, events, and actors are twisted and pulled and stretched depending on who is telling it. I've heard several different scenario's. The transgender's will do anything, say anything, that will support their position and they "hate" anyone who gives opposition. They are not one for free speech ! I am censored at "The Arizona Repuplic", evidently my IP address is. But that's alright, some in this country still feel and believe that "free speech" is an important and viable means to an end ( Thank you Mr. Lemons and thank you "Phoenix New Times" ), or at the least, a meeting of the minds, which the transgender are not will to attemp not settle on any agreement in between, but make no mistake about it, those who claim transgender are "men" and they will go to any length. What saddens me is this is all about a bar room, when in fact this issue strikes at the core of American society and to the exclusion of young minor girls who don't seem to have a voice here, mothers of daughters and fathers (and me) who are concerned about opening the doors of the womens restroom to predators and every kind of "gender benders"( mostly males who get a thrill out stretching the boundries of male and female dress for a "kick", A.K.A., "fun" ) roaming the streets. It's not about rights anymore, it's become the fact they want to do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it and push it on the whole of society. I am not one of these, and is why I distance myself from them. They are willing to take in any person they can on their political rolls( gender benders, transvestites, cross dressers, any man who will wear a skirt and I don't know what else) and call it "rights" on the one front and then call it "discrimiination" on the other and as a transsexual I oppose this, for reasons stated above, and not one has yet to address this "point" of the issue. Those peoples who will effected, also who are citizens with rights, especially young minor girls unable to speak for themselves on this platform, and I don't hear the ACLU jumping up to defend their rights nor do I see the Transgender Law Center or WPATH. I will stand for my beliefs, even if I have to stand alone, I'm not afraid to stand apart. I am proud of what I am, a transsexual woman, and I want to be a part of society, not constantly opposing society and apart from it, as the transgenders. No, I am not one of those, a transgender, I am a transsexual woman.
Phyllis
-
Erica 08/20/2007 4:47:00 AM
binocularbabe:
Ms. deLaFreniere did none of the things that Anderson is complaining about. It was a friend of hers who was very early in her RLT. Ms. deLaFreniere has been the front person in this fight, but she never did anything which caused a complaint in Anderson's club.
It has only very recently come to light, but the transsexual who was seen with her feet pointed backward in a toilet stall at Anderson's was not urinating, she was vomiting. A few weeks ago, her roommate discovered that she is bulimic, but she has been embarassed to admit it. At that time she admitted that she was not standing to urinate at Anderson's, but went into the restroom to purge her dinner. This is constent even with what Anderson says, who reported that a woman complained of seeing feet pointed backward in the stall next to her. Urinating while standing was always an extrapolation based on that. The incident which is being used to condemn the entire transgender community never happened. I don't know of any transsexual who wasn't shocked at the accusation of one of us standing in a women's room, and this revelation makes much more sense. We simply don't do that. I certainly recognize that writing this will bring on a litany of "Yeah, right!", but this is the best information I have available.
Erica
-
Phyllis Austin 08/20/2007 2:33:00 AM
At TLC, Quote:" we strongly believe that this means that you must be able to use the bathroom that corresponds to your gender identity." Unquote
If you are with the TLC (Transgender Law Center) would you please identify yourself? You wouldn't have a porblem with that would you? I have identified myself and posted my url. I'm old fashioned, I like if "straight from the horse's mouth". Just want a quick look at your teeth, please.
Phyllis
-
binocularbabe 08/20/2007 12:53:00 AM
Responding to I go to California all the time and I have no idea what you're talking about. The only unisex bathrooms I've ever seen have been in San Fran. Maybe West Hollywood. Everywhere else they have Male and Female. I was attempting to find info. about California laws online and found,
http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/publications.html#bathrooms
Their guide to "Peeing in Peace" says,
"In San Francisco and Oakland, it is clear that you have a right to use the bathroom that corresponds to your gender identity (for instance, if you are male-to-female, you have the right to use the women�s bathroom). You have this right because local laws in each city either clearly address the bathroom issue or some city agency has already decided what a general non-discrimination law means in that city. Of course, if you do not identify as male or female, this still doesn�t really solve your problem. However,
in San Francisco at least, the Human Rights Commission recommends that all businesses have at least one gender-neutral bathroom. But, if you live outside of one of these cities, what are your rights? Clearly, you can not be discriminated against in employment, housing, education, and public accommodation (this means using a business
like a hotel or clothing store or a government building like a court house, for example) simply because you are transgender (along with a number of other characteristics). At TLC, we strongly believe that this means that you must be able to use the bathroom that corresponds to your gender identity."
This passage doesn't say there's a universal solution in place.
They also have this section on strategies for peeing in peace,one of them is,
"Strategy #3: Invisibility
In some places, the best bathroom strategy is simply to avoid potential conflict altogether by just not being seen. In order to use the bathroom quickly without attracting anybody�s attention use the bathroom when it is empty; use the stall or urinal closest to the door; don�t look at or speak to anyone; wait until everyone leaves before coming out of the stall; dry your hands on your way out the door."
Delafreniere didn't choose this option, even though she was then in a straight club.
You complain about Lemons' slang, but it is pretty tame stuff. Even Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender) lists "third gender" as an acceptable term:
"A transgender individual may have characteristics that are normally associated with a particular gender, identify elsewhere on the traditional gender continuum, or exist outside of it as "other," "agender," "intergender," or "third gender"."
When did "tranny" become a slur? Trans use it all the time to describe themselves. they use a lot more colorful language too.
Finally it's obvious delafreniere has not had the operation. Shes pre-op.
-
Lynn 08/19/2007 6:49:00 PM
Stephen Lemons should do even the most basic of research next time, and perhaps the next article wouldn�t come off as so ill-informed, slanted, and bigoted.
There are plenty of states, counties, cities, fortune 500 businesses, public institutions and college campuses across America that have already successfully dealt with the �restroom issue� when it comes to trans-folks, and Scottsdale is being left behind. Three of Arizona�s four neighbors - California, New Mexico and Colorado � have passed statewide transgender anti-discrimination legislation that includes allowances for public accommodations (ie. situations like public restrooms). Even somewhat conservative places like Dallas, Texas are ahead of Phoenix and Scottsdale on this one. Tucson has already passed legislation, too. For an example of what one of these says, you can read San Francisco�s policy here:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/sfhumanrights_page.asp?id=6274
In particular: �Individuals have the right to use the bathroom/restroom that is consistent with and appropriate to their gender identity.� And �Requiring proof of an individual�s gender is prohibited, except in situations where all persons are asked to verify their gender.�
But do we really want a police state where everyone is asked to show their �papers�, to �prove� their gender? There was an incident in New York recently where a butch lesbian is suing a restaurant for discrimination for kicking her out � apparently another patron claimed there was �man� in the women�s room, and the staff didn�t believe her protests that she was not a man but merely a very butch woman. Are places like Anderson�s going to start requiring butch women to start carrying papers proving they aren�t transsexuals? You see how this can quickly get complicated if you start policing some people but not others. The answer is to allow everyone to use the restroom appropriate to their presentation and identity. Tolerance is all about accepting people who are different than you, even if it makes you a little bit uncomfortable.
But my biggest complaint with Lemon�s article is his use of clearly bigoted slurs like �tranny� �chick with a stick�, �transgendered dood� �his/her� and �third-genders�, when talking about women who are clearly transsexual (ie. have permanently transitioned), and should be referred to as women, period. This is the equivalent of using the �n-word� while arguing that blacks should have to use a separate restroom, then ending your article by saying �but I�m cool with black people, I really am!� Or homophobes saying that gays should use a different restroom because they�re afraid �some AIDS faggot might hit on me in there�.
And as for Lemon�s snide implication that DeLaFreniere isn�t a �real woman� yet because she hasn�t had some arbitrary operation, let me introduce you to a fact you may not know: the vast majority of trans-people haven�t had genital surgery either. Reason include the fact that the procedure is cost-prohibitive (most insurance providers blatantly discriminate and refuse to cover what they consider a "non-essential" procedure), or because of medical complications (in the case of female-to-males, the process of closing up a vagina and creating a penis is still so imperfect that most choose not to undergo the harrowing procedure) or because they are still in transition. A person�s genitalia is no one's business but their own, especially inside a locked restroom stall.
Genitalia is a poor litmus test for restroom usage anyway. If Stephen Lemmon lost his penis in a tragic car accident, would he then suddenly be a woman? No, he wouldn't. What then makes a man a man and a woman a woman? Your ratio of estrogen to testosterone? The number of ribs you have? Your chormosomes? Are you suggesting a chromosome test anytime someone questionable wanted to use the restroom? Gender is in the hypothalmus, not between the legs, and so it is highly inappropriate, invasive and arbitrary to use genitals alone as a guideline when dealing with transgender people, because they view their bodies as incorrect or incomplete markers of their true gender. It is also discriminatory to single out transgender people and question them about their genitalia, when no one else is being questioned. Arizona is just going to have to join a growing swath of the rest of the country and get used to the fact that some men have vaginas and some women have penises.
-
Phyllis Austin 08/18/2007 2:44:00 PM
Well, when the transgenders shut up these blogs come to a standstill, because thats when all the fighting stops. Thats what happened at the East Valley Tribune blog and one day someone abruptly remove the blog on the transgender issue. I hope the bird will allow this to stay here long enough for others to view.
Maybe thats what the transgender community needs is a good look from the outside in, by one of their own "kind" because I'm not a transgender, but a transsexual. If you want a good taste ( no pun intended ) of the trangenders "attitude" about femininity take a tour through yahoo 360 land and see the photos of those who consider themselves "Transgender" and see for your self the crude and crass photos these men think are "sexy" in their naughty poses. They are Gross.( defination by Websters dictionary: having or indicating such grossness of mind as precludes delicacy and discrimination b : being beneath one's dignity). See the photos of the "Transgenders" in their sexy outfits and tell me I should want to be a part of this community. If the general public doesn't have a starting point on yahoo 360 they can go to my yahoo 360 and start from there (http://360.yahoo.com/phyllis_ts), from one "friend" to another "friends" profile, from profile to profile to profile. Most are naughty crap and of the lewd photos, most everyone are transgenders. If you research long enough and read some of their profiles you'll find that most of the girls protraying decency, femininity beauty and "class" are the Transsexual who live as females and they give honor to females, a complete contrast of the males who claim to be Transgender, The transsexuals and the transgenders are like night and day. They're are photos of girls, (the transsexuals), who show sexy photos but most everyone is in taste such as the girl magazines that men find to have taste in their photos, showing artful beauty but transgenders tend to be the lewd. Here's my post on the subject in my yahoo 360:I am soooooooooo tired of cross dresser's sex pot photographs. If that's all you got, get the **** out of here. I want nothing to do with you. With GG's, those who post those photo's are usually college girls or young girls trying to sell web cam time, single mothers with mouths to feed, or similar reason, not just for the hell of it. In general, "women" do that in the minority but with cross dresser's and the so called "transgendered" it's a majority, which actually shows your male identity (looser sexual morals than most females), draped with feminine attire. Females will cut up at times, but they keep it in context and with sobriety. Seems with crossdresser's and the so called "transgendered" it's like alcohol, the more the merrier. Stick your butt with your lace panties in your own damn face, because once I see that photo, we aren't friends, dude
Phyllis Austin
-
Phyllis Austin 08/18/2007 2:57:00 AM
A first wonderful day of my transsexual life, I was eight years old and my mother asked me one day "what do you want to be for halloween?" and I said "I don't know" so she said "well, do you want to be a ghost?" and I thought and said "no" and then she offered something else "you want to be a monster?". I thought about it and said "no" so she said, "well, you think about it and you can be anything you want to be", because my mother sewed a lot and made us costumes and when I heard that, rays of joy and hope light up mind thinking I could go as a girl and I thought I gotta ask her, I can't let her go without asking her now, I've got to ask her and before she left me I questioned her again "I can be anything I want to be for halloween?" just to make sure I understood what she had said and she reassued me again, "yes, you can be anything you want to be". I thought again, I've got to asker her right now, I've got to get up the nerve and I built up strength from somewhere and I got up the courage and finally blurted it out "well, can I go as a girl?" and she said "yes, if you want to go as a girl, you can go as a girl". I was so happy, and my mother and the neighbor who had two daughters put together something for me to wear, but I told them I didn't want the girls pants they were getting for me on halloween day, I said "no" I want to wear a skirt. And I did, I wore a skirt and I was so happy as "me". Trick or treat ! No one said anything bad until the end of the night going home with my older brother, his friend said something, laughing at me and I hollered back at him in defense "IT's just a costume!", but I knew it was me somehow,because it felt perfect.
-
Phyllis Austin 08/18/2007 2:34:00 AM
A First Worst day of my transsexual life, I was in the fourth grade on the first day of school and little recess came and I had this card I was going to fill out in class with my name and stuff. I was at a new school so I brought the card out to recess with me to see my older brother to ask him a question. So when I found him I ask him about the card, I said "what's this mean right here?" and he looked at the card where I was pointing and it said "sex". He replied "thats whether your a boy or a girl" and I said "oh?, well, what am I?" and he said in shocked questionable manner, "you don't know if your a boy or a girl?" and I said "no", and he laughed and turned to his friends, 6th graders, and said "Hey ya'll, he doesn't know if he's a boy or a girl" and everybody laughed. I didn't laugh but he looked back at me and said "your a boy, mark this one right here." I turned and walked away devastated, my little world fractured at that moment and I walked back towards class in a daze, my heart destroyed, not that I was a boy, but that he said I wasn't a "girl"...thats what hurt me...
Phyllis
-
Phyllis Austin 08/18/2007 12:22:00 AM
"Your a nobody" It's this kind of attitude that fills me with "hate" as you call it just because I state my opinion. I lost my job where I made $51,000.00 last year, because there are too many "closeted" so called "transgender's and "closeted gays" who look the other way because they are afraid they may be "outed" if they stand with someone like me, that's why I don't like those who want to be "part time", usually they claim to be "transgender". I'm unemployed now and trying to attend college for a new career, different from the macho, male dominated industry I was a member, where my American freedom was trampled, right over my back. I'm not much of an American if I'm afraid to disagree with someone and anyone who doesn't think I should have my say just because I disagree with "them", is living in the wrong country. I do support all of you girls who are as you say, meets my defination and the public community needs to be educated about Harry Benjamin Syndrome. I support you, but I have seen too many who claim "transgender" that are a far fetch from anything like me, some even dress in female clothes to be a male "prostitute", and I ain't nothing like none of them. Distance myself, yes, from those kinds, yes I do.
I say here, that you have every right to use the womens facility in any establishment as a transsexual woman, meeting the requirments for transitioning to female as you said HRT, under the care of a therapist, living full time as a woman.
I carry with me a letter from my therapist but I have never been questioned, I behave accordingly, if some "transgender" have forgot what that is. I have been transsexual since birth and knew it before 8 years old.
I will march with you in front of city hall if need me be. I marched across Vietnam in 1969 and I will for my rights here and your rights too, and they should no different than your aspirations. We, have a medical condition and the general public needs to know what a transsexual is and that we're not just people "playing around" wearing womens clothes, like many I have seen. There are places I don't go because there are people there I don't want to be in association with. I don't want my mother saying "that's what my son has become"?
I condemn those who "practice life as males" but claim to be transgender or cross dressers. They don't care about my reputation, because when people see them it reflects on me, what I am, a transsexual.
No, I don't know you nor do I know the particulars of the story behind the place called Andersons and only those who can testify to the facts, the participants, do know. Let them speak out,each and everyone.
They call it elitism, but it isn't. I'm no better than anyone, and probably a "nobody" and I'll stay one, thats fine with me. But I don't need cross dressers who live as men and they won't speak for me for fear of being ostracized as a "gay" when it comes to discrimination. I stand alone, but they, cowardly, hide behind their male clothes and that goes for you closeted male "gays" at my previous employment too. There's many a
so called "straight male" who have played around with other males sexually, but be it far for them to admit it. They will be the loudest to condemn all LGBT's to give that outward appearance that they're the farthest thing from "gay" when in truth, they're are homosexual.
I want to lift you up as women, which you are. You are not men who dress as women, and I would hope you hold that standard.
I have already "dropped out of the trans community", into community of "women".
Phyllis Austin
I'm not afraid, I'm former USMC and I was willing to die for my country and I'm willing to die for my rights.I'm an American and I'll stand in public,
proud of who I am, a transsexual, that some little boy 10 years old somewhere who has all his life thought he was a girl maybe will not have to live the life I did. That he can see me and think, there's "someone like me", and believe there is hope he can one day be a girl, just like he has always thought he was, because that person is a girl.
I'm "out" everyday, in the library, in the grocery, at the gas station, at school, at the court house, everywhere as a woman and that's where we need to be and get our
reputation out of the bar rooms and the seedy street corner,if we want repectability.
-
Erica 08/17/2007 9:02:00 PM
Phyllis:
Every person involved meets your definition of a transsexual: legal name change, HRT, licensed therapist, living full time, both at work and off work. Every one. You know nothing about us, yet you are trying to condemn us every way you can. What so filled you with hate for your own people? Your brand of arogant intra-community elitism is no good for anyone. We are all subject to the same bigotry from the outside, any subgroup within our community is too small to exert much authority, and we all need to stick together if we want to live better lives. You are trying to tear us down, just because you don't like the idea that we might lift up someone you look down on.
I have no intention of responding to your points. I'm not here to argue with you. You're nobody. I'm only here to represent my community and set the record strait.
I do use my real legal name, but I'm not so foolish as to use my last name if I can avoid it. Being a politically active transsexual, I am the target of hate groups, and I wouldn't be so stupid as to lead them to my doorstep. It's easy to do. 17850.
I take back what I said. Feel free to drop out of the trans-community.
Erica
-
Phyllis Austin 08/17/2007 7:59:00 PM
For the edification of Ms. Erica, (since you don't, as far as we can tell, use your real name)...
If everyone involved in this story is a transsexual then let them be "papered" to use the ladies restroom, ( legal name change, on Hormone Replacement Treatment (HRT), under the care of a licensed therapist and living "life time experience" as a woman
( at your employment, in the daylight hours as well as the nightime hours )
Transsexuals are not a subset of transgenders as some would like to confuse the general public. Transvestites are not transgender nor is the cross dresser and "transgenders" are akin to both of these.
If I am cut off from the transgender community it is because I don't enjoy association with "males" who behave as males but portray as female and just hanging out at the local "secret hide out" dressed up in womens clothes. If you enjoy theatrics, that's fine but bringing all these peoples the freedom of using the public restrooms at the mall or at any place young girls must use the facilities I oppose. If an establishment wishes to cater to these and allow their restroom to be used as such, that I believe is his free right as at so called "tranny bars". But giving freedom to use any and all ladies restrooms just because someone is wearing female clothes and professes "I am transgender" I don't support. Thats like saying "I'm a Theologian" just because I read the bible a lot, or I'm a plumber because I know how to cut the pipe with a hack saw and glue it together. Thats why people are licensed, to protect the general public from those who would fraud and I support protecting vulnerable young girls right to privacy using the facilities provided for women from being defrauded of their feeling of safey and I just don't want to allow some man in a skirt the ability use womens facilities just because they claim to be "transgender". Let me ask you Ms. Erica, would you like to be represented in court by someone who "claims" to be an attorney? Likewise I don't want to support those who "claim" the term "transgender" just on their say, and is why I support what I do. I'm just not one to fall for any cock and bull story I hear ( no pun intended ). "I'm transgender", yea, I bet you are, going in the ladies restroom at the local mall, with teen girls and mothers and daughters in their, like getting to roam around in the vault at the local bank without supervision. And that's my point,supervision will be a therapists letter, Hormone Replacement Treatment and life time experience, full time living as female, the stop gate requirement for those who profess and those who really are.
All transsexuals are not transgenders ! And you need to have papers just like a doctor or an attorney or anyone who professes to be something they are not, this should be the law.
I notice Ms. Erica, you never address "points" I bring up. You only attempt to discredit me but I seek the general public's support since folks like you don't want to have intelligent dialogue and a logical and agreeble amends to this problem for all who are involved, which includes biological females, husbands of women and fathers of daughters. It's not only your way, we have laws that protect peoples rights and your omitting the rights of others too in your fight and this will leave the entire community "unpopular", so I have my reason for protecting public perception of transsexuals ( Harry Benjamin Syndrome ).
This is further support that one does not choose their sex gender as some transgender might argue for themselves, but it is already established in the brain before birth.
study.pdf
Let us make a distinction and police ourselves. This "in your face" attitude is destroying us in the view of the general public.
And my legal name is...
Phyllis Austin
-
Eve 08/17/2007 6:56:00 PM
Even the illustrator of picture attached to this article, Molly Crabapple, has washed her hands of it, denouncing it as a piece of "anti-transgender bigotry." She feels duped, as the editors didn't tell her that the illustration she was being paid to draw was going to be attached to such a grossly bigoted and painfully insulting article. She's donated the money she made to the National Coalition for Transgender Equality.
You can read about it on her blog: http://mollycrabapple.livejournal.com/119860.html
-
Erica 08/17/2007 4:59:00 PM
For the edification of Ms. Phyllis Austin,
Everyone involved in this story is a transsexual. Each lives full time as a woman, all are committed to living the rest of their lives as women, and each are at different points in their journey from starting out to having completed full sexual reassignment surgery. Disagree with the use of vocabulary all you want, but this is the simple fact.
Phyllis appears to be cut off from the transgender community as a whole, but in current conventional usage, transsexuals are a proper subset of transgenders. A transgendered person is anyone who at some time crosses the gender barrier, and a transsexual is someone who has commited to living the remainder of their lives in the other gender from the one into which he or she was born. I know of no one in our community who wants to say that transgenders and transsexuals are separate and distinct groups. All transsexuals are transgenders, just as all French are Europeans. We at Arizona Transgender Alliance are working for the rights of all transgendered people, which certainly includes transsexuals, but is not limited to transsexuals.
If you are a transsexual, then I suggest you connect and be a part of the transgender community we have in this city, which is one of the best in the nation.
-
Phyllis Austin 08/17/2007 4:49:00 PM
Transsexual or Transgender
IS IT CHOICE OR IS IT INBORN
It has been found through such cases as that of David Reimer that to surgically transform a male child to be female can have very dire consequences. The child's brain does not become female; it remains male. In later years even after being socialized and hormonally treated the child might well desire to be a boy and act out those feelings. And when the opportunity arises may seek out a surgeon to perform the necessary operations that would make 'her' a male. This is exactly the argument that those born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome, (transsexualism), have been arguing over the years. They do not choose to be the opposite sex, it is inherent and the brain is already hardwired to reflect the sex no matter what the body might otherwise indicate. This is further support that one does not choose their sex gender as some transgender might argue for themselves, but it is already established in the brain before birth.
study.pdf
In conjunction with our belief that Harry Benjamin Syndrome is not a learned condition may we suggest the reader access the following link which gives credence to this contention: http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/diamond1/
-
Phyllis Austin 08/17/2007 4:42:00 PM
Transgenders have not theraputic support. Are they in therapy? Probably not. Are they prescribed female hormones? Probably not. Are they living life experience as a woman, living as a female at all times under supervision of a therapist? Probably not. They are just "males" with a skirt on and they're back to work as a male. If they want to use the restroom, they "must" have paper, a therapist's letter that the person is in transistion to female and is living life time experience as a woman and they are on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) You can get the mental health practictioners behind your cause. Nothing says you have to allow males wearing feminine attire to use restrooms. Someone in transition to female, a "Transsexual" sheds a different light on this issue, but those who claim Transgender have no foundation for their claims nor does the ACLU. You don't have to let anyone dressed as female use the ladies rest room. I paid thousands of dollars on therapy, and thousands of dollars for my Hormone Replacement Treatment (HRT) and I live and work as female, dressed as female at all times, day and night. This is called lifetime experience and it is a requirement for SRS (sexual reassignment surgery) and it should be a requirement to use the ladies rest room.
Let these who claim "Transgender" pay what I pay for my transition to female. They will not nor will they show up at work in a skirt. They are nothing more than males, practicing life as males, who don feminine clothing for sport.
http://www.harrybenjaminsyndrome-info.org/choice.html
Phyllis Austin
A Transsexual
-
Phyllis Austin 08/17/2007 4:33:00 PM
The Fraternity of Males
Maybe I feel resentful they want to claim to be as I, yet they hide. Why do they feel they must hide when I feel I must be "out", seen by everyone everyday, at all times dressed "feminine", living as female? I can't help it, I had to do it even at the risk of losing my job and I did. They're just playing around but living as males, but usually I say, practicing life as males, but if they are transsexual their practicing is for naught and is not practicing at all, but portraying as male. I surmise you didn't read all my posts about cross dressers because in one I made a statement to the effect, I do not believe they ever will come "out" in public, because they don't want to or can't live with the fact their personal peers [business associates, business contacts, employers, fellow employees, their straight friends, and here I will say their's of macho braggadocio, of the persuasion and personification that males are above women, and I've wonder if they get this notion from the fact they stab women with their shaft and in the traditional sense they mount women from above her, will perceive them as " a "faggot" or a "queer" or a "homo", as we "transsexuals" suffer the discriminatory. We live with that stigma, whatever others want to think of us, we live with that and as women on a daily basis. But cross dressers? They'll lose their "masculine" status and that swagger that goes with it, that "machismo", that essence of maleness, that proud status of being virile, that strength, that vigor, that force we used to portray so we could hide our femininity, all the things I hated about me, because I used to believe it was the feminine I hated about me, but it wasn't, it was the portrayal of masculininity vexing my true spirit. As transsexuals we live in truth and hide not. I must think they want to make claims they cannot substantuate with their hiding, with their clubs these cross dressers. I've have yet to have someone identify with me in a public setting save a suitor seeking sexual rewards and a male married friend cross dresser from out of state who felt "safe". I've never had a male or female step up to me in public and introduce themselves and say anything like "Hi, I'm a closeted cross dresser and my name is" etc, etc., or any that profess gay, lesbian, f2m who made my acquaintance by introducing themselves in public. I walk alone out here, in the daytime, in a dress. No, I am made to feel by every one as some sort of "outcast", only the "general public' treats me as others and "out" here in public is where I'll stay. Why do they ask that I come into their realm and accpect it, these who claim "transgender"? I ask them to come "out" and into my realm, "out" here in public but they do not, they stay in secret and hide and I am not one of those. I always find something sinister about secrecy. I felt it too when I was 10 years old putting on girls clothes in the woods in 1960, but, I was compelled and it felt so wonderful, it was then when I really felt I was me, as now. In these times of LGBT awareness, the legislation we have, the laws we have supporting us, why still live hiding? Why still live in secrecy and fear? It is these cross dresser's, "transgender" that perpetuate this and hinder, in my opinion, "our" progress into societal acceptance. We've got to make a stand, but if they won't stand with me in public, I'm not going to stand with them in secrecy. No, I'm not one of those, and for others to start name calling is derogatory, discriminatory. I'm not a cross dresser and I'm not transgender, I don't go back a forth between the two, I'm transsexual, my sex identity and my gender identity is female and always has been. I made many an audition for the other role (male) and would have been the star of the show but I lost my billing because I was "one of those" (queer) . No matter I out played, out worked, and out performed the "perceived" straights, I lost all rewards because I was a "queer", a "faggot". Maybe thats why I feel as I do, because I know in public to keep their "male status" in the "male fraternity", they must deny us, they must discriminate or suffer a "faggot" status, they must slander "LGBT's" or be castigated with the stigma as one of them, "he must be a "homo too", so I know that's what the secrecy is about.. That's what hurts too, they won't stand with us "transsexuals" or gays publically and will, if the situation would "out" them to the public or at their employment, discriminate, in the secret fraternity of the straights males, they will speak of you disdainful to shirk any association with LGBT's.
Phyllis Austin
A Transsexual
-
Phyllis Austin 08/17/2007 4:28:00 PM
Phyllis Michelle wrote:
The Transgender Advocates
Thanks to the "transgender" advocates, transsexuals lose status, condition with respect to circumstances. Transgender and Transsexual are not even close to being the same but the "transgender movement" ignorantly would have you believe they are, and they adulterate common sense, logic, and understanding with their ploy to cater legislation for their own folly.
I have always said and it is a fact,
"there is a great gulf between those who want and need that between their legs removed and those who only want to dress up as female but they practice life as males".
They are nothing more than males in all ways but their little hobby of putting on feminine attire to parade before one another in devious pompous manners in their secret annals with the sole intent to invade the sanctity of the female in an attempt to equate themselves with the opposite sex. An attempt and an almost successful one, not to gain equality, but bring into their possession the last respite reserved for women, to appease themselves some notion they are not of any difference, pulling down femininity to a level perceived only in their minds, that of beasts.
I am happy to see people waking up, but to the detriment to the transsexual unfortunately, but maybe not, with New York requiring a regimen of hormones, life experience of living full time as female and required to have a licensed therapist for the tenure. Yes, let them pay what I have to pay, not only monetary but that price of loss of manhood, that status in society, and suffer that stigma by the fraternity of males and many women too that they are "faggots", "queers", "homo's" etc., that we who are "out" and live our lives honestly and openly experience on a daily basis. Yes, let them pay that price and then they may be equal to what I am, a transsexual, not a transgender. If they talk the talk, let them walk the walk.
Let us support these requirements and separate ourselves from these foolish men, who also are invading us, those of us who are compelled to express themselves in all manners and all activities as a female, from the female mind that abodes within.
Phyllis Austin
A Transsexual...
-
Mara 08/17/2007 3:11:00 AM
You guys just crack me up. Have any of you been to Anderson's? I have and what the Trannies say is true there should be no issue, there are 2 tolites in the Area 51 side that every one uses who party there including having sex and doing drugs.
This is not the first time girls have been tossed over a similar issue a few years ago girls name Patty and Georga were threatened not to come back. It's all such BS Anderson is a bigot to Trannies as the KKK is to Afros Americans.
-
Biff Douglas 08/17/2007 12:43:00 AM
Whether or not Miss Frigidaire one day pays a team of Swiss doctors to prune her bollocks, we'll be stuck with whatever precedent Terry Goddard sets. My guess is he'll try to push unisex bathrooms on us. I hear it's a great way to meet chicks. But so is slipping on some rouge and high heels and heading for the female shitter....
There's an Eddie Izzard joke in there somewhere.
-
StillObviouslyM 08/16/2007 10:40:00 PM
When I say cut cock off, I of course mean your transgender operation, if you ever finally get it, Michele. Sorry I was crude. I dont hate you. I just think the womens room should be for women. If you decide to become a woman, I have no problem with you using the womens room.
-
StillObviouslyM 08/16/2007 10:30:00 PM
Obvious says shes not Michele, and "I actually have no idea what their drivers' license say but I rather assume it's against the law to have a fake ID so either they're breaking the law with a fake ID or the state says they're women, which is good enough for me because I certainly wouldn't want to check for real. Would you?"
Michele knows DMV doesnt check privates. If you have a wig on and you put down youre a woman, they dont challenge. Michele knows a lot of people dont know this, so when they ask her if shes had the operation, she says she has a drivers license that says shes a woman and thats all that matters. If you persist she talk about how you want to look up her skirt. This is what she does here. That's why I know its Michele.
"no one can tell you aren't sitting or if they can, they spend WAY too much time listening to the sound of other people pee. Duh"
Theres a big difference between the sound made when a man pees standing up and the sound made when a girl pees sitting down. The fact that you think theres no difference shows you are a man. Once they cut your cock off, then its ok for you to come into the womens restroom to pee. Until then no.
-
Erica 08/16/2007 9:43:00 PM
I am one of the people Tom Anderson has banned from his club. The Bird once again continues his campaign of hate against a harmless minority while in the hip pocket of Tom Anderson. Anderson has grossly exagerated everything he's said about this situation. There was only one transsexual who used the larger women's restroom at Anderson's, and it was not Ms. deLaFreniere. It was only on one night. Every single incident which Anderson claims as a basis for banning the entire transgender community was done by one person on one night. Instead of addressing his issues with the one person giving him problems, he banned all people who happened to share that person's most salient personal trait. That is discrimination no matter how you look at it. He's banned me from his club, and I have never used a restroom in his club.
This case is not about the restroom issue. Tom Anderson has made no attempt to deal with the restroom issue. He had at his disposal an available solution to the restroom issue all along which would have cost him nothing. He has two single stall restrooms in the side room of his club with individual locking doors. If he had asked us to use those, we would have. A single sentence request from Anderson and none of this dispute would be happening. In fact, all but one of us used those restrooms exclusively. He would only have had to ask one person.
Anderson is the only person who has ever brought up this idea of making a third restroom for transgenders. No one on our side has ever proposed such a thing. We are perfectly willing to use the single stall restrooms he already has in his club. He has fabricated this story as a way of exaggerating his potential damages.
The event which triggered Anderson to take the action he did has nothing to do with anything that happened in any of his restrooms. What motivated him was Ms. deLaFreniere bringing her friends to his club. Ms. deLaFreniere had been going to the club regularly for over a decade, starting before her gender transition up until the incident with Anderson. For a long time, she was the “token transsexual” at the club. Anderson was able to tolerate one transsexual. However, when she started bringing several of her friends, he�s the one who started freaking out, and he went scrambling for an excuse to get rid of us. This restroom issue is his red herring, which he�s throwing up to gain public sympathy and distract people from the truth.
This case is about access to business. He is being investigated for his violation of non-discrimination laws in public accommodation on the basis of gender stereotyping. This is about securing the rights of a harmless, discriminated minority of people to walk in to a place of business with the same rights as anyone else. If Anderson is allowed to do this, other bars may do this. Then restaurants may ban us. Then clothing stores may stop us at the door. Next it will be our employers. We can�t let stand a culture that says that it�s all right to kick out the transsexuals. There really isn't that big a difference between a sign at a business entrance saying, �No Trannies!� and a sign reading "No Blacks!" or "Nein Juden!" This is what we are. This is our community. We are fighting for our rights and our survival.
Erica for Arizona Transgender Alliance
-
Obvious 08/16/2007 9:38:00 PM
Sorry. I'm not who you imagine. I actually have no idea what their drivers' license say but I rather assume it's against the law to have a fake ID so either they're breaking the law with a fake ID or the state says they're women, which is good enough for me because I certainly wouldn't want to check for real. Would you?
About hovering, I just have to add: I didn't mention it because unless you're 8 feet tall from the waist up, no one can tell you aren't sitting or if they can, they spend WAY too much time listening to the sound of other people pee. Duh. All the other things you might do facing the lieu.
Sorry grandma. Should I have been more lady-like and said 'when they go tinkle'?
Honestly. I'm assuming the stalls have doors and they aren't staring in through the cracks, and if they are, I'd call the police regardless of whether they were a man or a woman. So what's the big deal?
Anyhow, they can't be any more odious than hoverers that pee all over the seats or criers who tie up a stall for an hour, or the ones who talk on their cell phone the entire time they're in the restroom. If we're going to ban someone, how about cell-phone users? I really really hate that!
-
obviouslyM 08/16/2007 4:39:00 AM
Obvious is obviously Michele. Everyone knows she has a drivers license that says shes female. The DMV doesn't check.
Michele looks like a man in a dress. She doesnt pass. Her line about standing up to pee is from a guys perspective. Girls squat over toilets if theyre gross or they wait for the next one. Guys just pee no matter how disgustuing the seat is.
Ive got nothing against her. Maybe the club can let her use a port a poty or something. Ive heard she still likes women. If she has a penis she should not be in the womens room.
-
obvious 08/15/2007 11:23:00 PM
*psst* Women stand in the bathroom all the time. Putting down seat covers, changing tampons, repeating prayers not to kill the next idiot guy that hands us a bad pick-up line, etc. There are even some women who pee standing. Ever seen 'The Full Monty'. Seriously. Would YOU want to sit on a toilet seat in a bar if you could avoid it? It's not as if our legs fly off and we start floating in mid-air the second we enter the chamber.
Now... Based on rather stilted tone of your article, I'm guessing here. Aren't you taking a weensy bit of liberty with the truth? Were they actually just 'mannish' looking and that made someone throw a fit. That's my bet. I've got a couple of girlfriends who positively hate women's bathrooms because they get accused of being men and unless they stab themselves in the crotch on a fairly regular basis, I'm pretty sure they are in fact women.
Of course, you can't strip-search everyone entering the bar but you need ID to order drinks, so what's their driver's license say? That's probably all that matters to anyone who isn't an obnoxious bigot.
