Are There Transphoblic Gays And Lesbians?

I have to say yes, but…

But there are also homophobic trans people.

However, I have found that there are not many transphobic gays and lesbians that I have met. I have found many more gays and lesbians .

I bring this up because of a Facebook post.

Where the person described and meeting she had and the pushback that she received from lesbians and gays at the meeting.

I've been feeling troubled lately by what feels like transmisogyny from certain gay and lesbian friends. Is that true? Is it me? How is this possible?

Well one reason is that it conflicts with their goals and another reason is that they are transmisogyny.

In my limited time in being out (some 18 years) I have encountered some transmisogyny.

One time when I was in grad school for my MSW senator Lieberman came to the LGBT center on campus to talk about ENDA, and DADT. Well the talk started to center around DADT and I brought up us being excluded from serving in the military. Well about a dozen gays complained that I was sidetracking the discussion, but the senator answered my question.

Another time it was at a bar in of all places LGBT friendly Ogunquit ME, they were having a women’s ”T” dance (“T” as in tea dance because it is held at 4 PM, tea time). They didn’t want to let us in and after staring at each other for what seemed like 5 minutes (which probably was only about 30 seconds) she backed down and this is in a state with the same gender non-discrimination law as Connecticut (the draft version of the law was written by the same person).

I was invited once to a focus group by the representative, now senator Murphy to talk about LGBT issues (I believe that I was their token trans person) and they were all interested in the plight of the trans community. I had positives comments

So this brings me to an article in Bilerico Project written back in 2009 by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss,

Transphobia In the Gay Community

Q: What are the sources of transphobia? Is it best combatted by telling it to go away?
A: Its source is not mere prejudice, but old and complex power relations that must be changed, a task that is neither quick nor easy, and is not accomplished by adding a letter to an organization's name. It is based in heterosexism and heteronormativity masked as "radical" critique. Gold [Ronald Gold, posted a transphobic diatribe on The Bilerico Project.], and the many others of his ilk, are sheep in wolf's clothing. This needs to be called out and addressed by the gay community. It should not be up to the transgender community to battle alone, thus furthering the divide.

I see many such opinions like Gold's, often in the averted eyes and cold demeanors of gays and lesbians I meet. Just a week ago, I was invited to join a meeting of gender and sexuality scholars. When I told them of my research on a possible constitutional right to have a legal transgender identity, some of them derided the idea. What if I said I was 6'2", one asked. Another suggested that it would be better to avoid the idea of rights, and just hope for policy makers to do the right thing. No one seemed to think these opinions problematic in any way, although I was left squirming in my chair. No one said a word to me at the end of the session. I thought about it all the rest of that day, and into the next, when I wrote one of my detractors, hoping to politely clue him into an understanding that this was not on. He said we'd have to agree to disagree. It was as welcoming as an iceberg.

I know there has been much progress and the LGBT community has come a long way. But we are not yet at the promised land where we judge each other by the content of our characters, rather than the color of our skin or, I might add, the stripe of our sexuality or gender.
[…]
Too Queer, And Not Queer Enough
Transsexuals violated the tacit social understandings of the homosexual community in the U.S. both by failing to pass and passing too much. Transsexuals, and later transgenders, were disparaged because some were "passing" as straight through embrasure of stereotypes of gendered behavior, i.e., effeminacy for MTFs and hyper-masculinity for FTMs, and embrasure of heterosexual practices and privilege by identifying their same-sex practices as heterosexuality, thus rejecting homosexual identity. They were also looked down upon because they violated cultural norms of sexual behavior through gender ambiguity, visible androgyny and genderqueerness, thus violating the accommodationist idea that they are "just like you." The resulting split has incorrectly been attributed to fear -- "transphobia," rather than social and political forces.

Gold might argue that he is not one of the accommodationists, because he is fighting for the right to act in ways that violate gender norms. He ignores the context of the times, however. In the 1960s, such an argument was radical and liberating. The argument is no longer a radical one. It is now a regressive argument. By arguing that those born male must retain identification with maleness, even if not with masculinity, his critique lags well behind the radical curve, and begins to merge with the opinions of conservative traditionalists. At one time the use of bronze tools was the latest in technology. To advocate their use today would be silly.

I move around in LGBT community a lot, I attend many events for the LGBT community and I have never had any problems. I am a member of a senior LGBT and lesbian social groups, I have been to many a house party at the homes of lesbians, the Connecticut chapter of a national gay philanthropic organization raised money for CTAC (CT TransAdvocacy Coalition) and I went to all of their events without any problems.

I think the animosity between us stems back to when the lesbians and gays political organizations were trying to show… “See we are just like straight people” and they didn’t want anyone who wasn’t gender conforming.

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I am up in Maine for the weekend so my posts are going to be limited... instead of writing I willbe out having with family and friends