Can A Leopard Change Its Spots? (Part 1)

That is the question; can a person who denied our existence now embrace us? Feminist activist Gloria Steinem says she want to set the record straight about what she said about trans-people.

Op-ed: On Working Together Over Time
Journalist, feminist, and political activist Gloria Steinem says transgender identities should be celebrated, not questioned.
Advocate
BY Gloria Steinem
October 02 2013

In 1974, Ms. Magazine published a long excerpt from Conundrum, the autobiography of the writer Jan Morris, and her transition from her life as James Humphrey Morris, a British army officer. Hers was a brave voyage to authenticity and a story I was glad to play a role in bringing to this country.

The reaction was mixed. It caused some to think that Ms. or I was recommending sexual reassignment surgery as a way of dealing with bias, and others just to be reaffirmed in their idea that we were unnatural women. I remember an outraged professor at a Catholic university standing up in a lecture hall and reading aloud the closing lines of our excerpt: “I do not for a moment regret the act of change. I could see no other way, and it has made me happy."
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Such stories led me to write a 1977 essay reminding us that, in addition to supporting informed choices like those of Jan Morris, Renee Richards, and others in the news at the time, we also needed to change society to fit individuals. It asked the question: If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?

Ms. Steinem says that what she was writing about back then were gay men who were having Gender Confirming Surgery to make them “normal.”

Feminists must be right up there with bartenders and therapists as recipients of personal stories, because I also began to hear from gay men and lesbians surrounded by such lethal homophobia that they were considering — and in a few cases proceeding with — transitioning, not to align their bodies with their internal identities, but because of society’s bias against their sexual orientation.

She says that overtime and with the advent of the internet her words have been taken out of context.

So now I want to be unequivocal in my words: I believe that transgender people, including those who have transitioned, are living out real, authentic lives. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned. Their health care decisions should be theirs and theirs alone to make. And what I wrote decades ago does not reflect what we know today as we move away from only the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine” and begin to live along the full human continuum of identity and expression.

What she meant back then I think is not as important as her actions now. For me a leopard can change its spots, people can admit their mistakes. I think that she is now on probation and that I will judge her by her actions now. I hope that she has changed because she can make a great ally.