There is a big difference. Many times you see about a tour being LGBT friendly but really what they mean is gay and lesbian friendly especially if you are able to assimilate into sociality as a heterosexual. It is those who fall outside of the gender norms that feel the greatest discrimination.
There was a cruise line that offered a Drag cruise but said that,
The Southern Comfort conference is moving to Fort Lauderdale next year, it should be interesting to see just how trans-friendly the city will be. The conference will be held at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa and I wonder just how those who venture outside of hotel will be treated at restaurants, bars and other public accommodations.
I will be doing an outreach this afternoon at a local medical college so there will be no afternoon post.
There was a cruise line that offered a Drag cruise but said that,
These functions will be private and only the performers are permitted to dress in drag while in the theater. Guests are not allowed to dress in drag for the performances or in public areas at any time during the cruise.Fort Lauderdale bills itself as “Gay Friendly” but according to an article in Sun Sentinel it is not trans-friendly,
In August, some 700 members of the transgender community across 48 states participated in the online survey conducted by Community Marketing & Insights, a San Francisco-based specialty marketing and research firm.I know someone who was down there with her girlfriend when they were harassed by some straight teens, guest who the police focused on, my trans-friend and her girlfriend. The police advised to go back to their hotel and stay out the area.
Only 10 percent of participants perceived Fort Lauderdale to be very trans-friendly, the study revealed.
Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents polled perceived Fort Lauderdale as not being transgender-friendly, while 43 percent said it was somewhat trans-friendly, according to the study commissioned by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.
"We know a lot about gay and lesbian travelers, but little if anything has been known about the transgender traveler, until now," said Richard Gray, the bureau's managing director of the LGBT market. "Now is the time for the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB to emphasize the importance of the T in LGBT. The forgotten T, I'm saddened to say."
The Southern Comfort conference is moving to Fort Lauderdale next year, it should be interesting to see just how trans-friendly the city will be. The conference will be held at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa and I wonder just how those who venture outside of hotel will be treated at restaurants, bars and other public accommodations.
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I will be doing an outreach this afternoon at a local medical college so there will be no afternoon post.
I hope your outreach goes well. It seems to me that to a large extent the gay community is not all that much better informed about T issues than the civilian population at large.
ReplyDeleteWhen I dress to go out I do my best to look my best to fit into the venue that I will be attending but I do not delude myself that with a body much better designed to play professional football or WWE style wrestling and a face that looks like I had spent more than my fair share of time in a wrestling ring I do not harbor any delusions that I will be perceived as anything other than a large man in a dress. Most of my outings are to LGBT friendly places which, as you note, are primarily gay and lesbian. i do what I can to educate those that I encounter that there is a full spectrum of T folks.
It is easier for gay and lesbian people to find acceptance since they present as looking like their natal gender.
Pat
The problem with the cis-gendered community and TG's, is that we're about 30 years behind in the education effort than the gays are. Due to the AIDS crisis, Gays had to become militant, and expose themselves to their families and friends - they could no longer stay in the shadows if they wanted to survive. As a result, people learned to fear them less, and accept them more. Over time, the cis-gendered majority learned that they have nothing to fear from Gays.
ReplyDeleteCompare this with where we are. We threaten a different part of a person's world view - something also considered "basic" - that people are born as one sex or the other. We must get out there, show the world that we are a "normal" variant on the human condition, as if we were born "intersex".
Now, we do have a long term problem that affects people in our generation - TG is being diagnosed much earlier in life, and puberty suppressant drugs are making it possible for TG youth to identify their "real" gender at legal maturity, so that they can develop most of the sexually dimorphic characteristics appropriate for that real gender with controlled medications and treatments. (F2Ms may have problems with fully functional genitalia, but even that may be resolved in time.) The youth will never experience standing out as TGs as we do, and that may be both a blessing and a curse....
M