Thursday 27 December 2007

...but This is.

Funny, I mean. Funny-peculiar of Funny-Ha-ha? Well, yes.

Crossposted over at TransAdvocate, in response to the lines
Just a bitter old lesbian trying to make the man look bad!? That’s an easy way to smear anyone that wears the label feminist. To someone that’s been told that they are “supporting a patriarchal society ” by transitioning, the irony is almost more than I can stand.


Ironic? Yes. But also utterly hilarious.

Let’s see… we’re gay men to some, even the lesbians. Except for the guys (some of whom really are gay, therefore perceived as straight rather than lesbian). We’re insane, which is why we need certificates to show we’re not insane before we can get treatment for our insanity. We’re attention-seekers, which is why so many of us are stealth. And depending on the jurisdictions of residence and birth, two transpeople could be deemed both men, both women, one man and one women, or one woman and one man (respectively) for the purposes of marriage. Regardless of whether they’re trans-men, trans-women, or one of each.

I’m married and have dual citizenship. If we get divorced, we couldn’t re-marry, because the Family Court where we live goes by medical reality, regardless of documentation, and same-sex marriage or civil unions are absolutely forbidden. In Australia, I could only marry a man. But in the UK, where I was born, I could only marry a woman, because my BC (Birth Certificate) says "boy" (as same-sex marriage is absolutely forbidden there too). In the UK, non-ops can have their BCs changed, but post-ops like me who are married cannot - and we can’t convert to a Civil Union to allow it because UK courts don’t have jurisdiction on overseas marriages (where both partners live overseas).

You have to laugh.

Oh, but it gets better in my case. The 1985 diagnosis at a fertility clinic after a physical examination was "undervirilised male". The 2005 diagnosis, after goodness knows how many MRI scans, ultrasounds, blood and chromosome tests was "severely androgenised woman". I transitioned shortly thereafter, the natural changes (the reason for the testing) pretty much made that mandatory. Had I not been TS it would have had to be FtoM rather than "going with the flow", but as it was it was a wonderful relief, a “get out of hell free” card.

Now under those circumstances, the whole gasbagging by the Raymondites, the Concerned Women of America (and their male spokesman), Barney Frank’s bathroom obsession, they’re all so terribly, terribly funny. Accent on the "terrible" too of course, but still something out of Monty Python.



"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever" - George Orwell, 1984.

Only without the boot.... as I said, you have to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. I find it very difficult to remember how serious the situation is, how much the bigots and the ignorant are hurting me, when they so beclown themselves.

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