Comments on: Transforming our views of transgender

By: katieinthehat

katieinthehat — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:07:34 +0000

I think this is a brilliant post! I was discussing this with my friend last night when I got home from RTN. She wasn’t able to come but she said there had been a lot of discussion on The F Word about whether or not transgendered people that identify as women should be allowed on the march. I haven’t read the discussion yet, but I say Yes. Absolutely. When we held RTN for the first time in Birmingham this year we avoided all worries about this by applying two simple words: self-defining. If you view yourself as a woman you identify with problems that affect women. If you are transgendered and you march along side other women at a RTN march and crowds of people see you they will not think “oh look, there is a man fighting these women’s battles for them”, it isn’t even likely that an onlooker will particularly notice unless they pay specific attention that the person they are looking at might not be someone who was female at birth. To me the reason to not have men at RTN is because it dilutes the message (but a transgender woman is not a man), and the women-only aspect of the march is symbolic of it being women, not men, who have to worry about walking home alone, or ‘getting themselves’ raped. To me those worries apply just as much to transgendered women, because regardless of the t-word, women they are…

/rant over!

katie

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:06:19 +0000

One of my sons classmates father has undergone gender realignment surgery this year and is now living as a woman. I have tried to be open and honest with my son about what has happened and answer his questions. He is very accepting of the situation now he understands, as children are, because they are born without prejudice- this has to be learnt. My sons main concern was that his friends father was ill- another classmate sadly lost their father earlier in the year, so this is understandable. I hope he will grow up to be a kind and caring man with compassion for others and to see beyond a persons gender or sexuality. Sadly, fear and igorance are to blame in most cases.

By: Dad Who Writes

Dad Who Writes — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:01:20 +0000

I can only agree with this and add my own determination that no-one will ever be discriminated against in any organisation I work for on grounds of difference.

By: Heather

Heather — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:48:22 +0000

162? I am shocked and stunned…and feeling very ashamed of my fellow man. 162? One would be too many, 162 is unbelievable, horrifying.

By: Irene

Irene — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:34:50 +0000

It speaks for itself that we see people first and gender secondly or third or fourth or way down the line somewhere. I frankly don’t care what anybody is, nor do I judge or devalue a person because of it. I do not belong to that group of small minded people that want to put people in tight little boxes where they have to fit in, whether they belong there or not. I think it is very sad that people need to go into the streets to fight for the basic rights of a group of people that should just be accepted as any other human being, because that is what they are first and foremost. It is a ridiculous situation that they need to fight for their lives and others for them as well. I sincerely hope that bigotry is outmoded in the shortest amount of time and that the bigot will be prosecuted by law.