Stop Blaming Caitlyn For Our Unwillingness to Organize

[suzifrommd]

Stop Blaming Caitlyn For Our Unwillingness to Organize

By Suzi Chase, Dec. 20, 2015

https://www.susans.org/2015/12/20/stop-blaming-caitlyn-for-our-unwillingness-to-organize/

The faces of transgender, those on whom the task falls to educate the world about who we are and why change is needed, are typically entertainers. Jenner, Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox, and teen star Jazz Jennings are among those who've made their voices heard. Their paid jobs in no way include being spokespeople for the trans community. They earn money if people watch their television shows, they are out of a job if they don't. Their public appearances need to be geared in that direction. If they choose to represent us and our causes, that's purely an extra thrown in on their own, out of the goodness of their hearts..

The root cause of the problem is that trans people have been remiss at establishing and supporting analogous organizations to the NAACP and the National Organization of Women.

[Deborah]

Part of the problem is that outside this forum most teams people want to assign labels and decide who is trans enough.  People like me at this stage are excluded.


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[Tysilio]

Great article, Suzi. You're on the money about our lack of our own spokespeople -- in the long run, we can't rely on others to speak for us.

The root cause of the problem is that trans people have been remiss at establishing and supporting analogous organizations to the NAACP and the National Organization of Women.

It may be worth remembering that the founding of both those organizations was problematic in some ways. White people played a critical role in founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The vast majority of the people who founded NOW were straight, middle-class white women. In the early years of the organization, they made systematic efforts to exclude lesbians and lesbian issues. The latter mirrors, in some ways, the problems we have with the divisions produced by things like arguments over who's "trans enough." Both groups illustrate how hard it is to start large, powerful organizations without the help of people in positions of power.

At the moment there are few trans folks in such positions, and as you rightly point out, those we do have are mainly entertainers -- they do some great things to raise awareness of trans folk, but doing the grunt work of organizing a large, grass-roots movement isn't a priority for them. (That's understandable -- it's work that's a thankless pain in the butt.)

Right now, I think we need allies who are willing to follow our lead more than we need a big umbrella group to somehow give birth to leaders.

Many LGBT groups are finally making the "T" more of a priority, and are also collaborating with trans organizations to get things done: a good example is the work of GLAAD with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project to overturn New York's ban on transition-related health care for Medicaid recipients.

As more of us are able to be out, as more of us become activists, the easier it will be to build the kind of base that will support larger, more comprehensive trans organizations. But we have to start where we actually are and work with what we have.

[iKate]

I'm kind of disgusted at how people do like she is lesser and somehow not worthy to be a woman because she still rides motorcycles, shoots guns and does macho stuff.

Her political views are also her political views. Don't try to fit all of us into one box. I won't support certain political ideologies no matter what. I have my reason and my personal experiences including near death experiences. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.

And for chrissakes stop playing "gotcha" with every single move she makes or thing she says. She's new to this. She'll learn. I was against gay marriage at one point in time, but I came around. And she's not really against it, she just seems not to be fully behind it. My view is that being married is your decision and you should be free to marry whoever you want, and this is a fundamental human right. I'm not a marriage activist and I don't care who gets married to who (I will discourage my son and daughters from marrying bad people who will abuse them though). In fact if someone wants me to be a bridesmaid at their same sex wedding, I would be more than happy to.

That said, I don't think she deserves nearly the amount of adoration and awards she is getting. Sort of like how Obama never should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize simply for being elected. 

I want to see women and men who struggle being celebrated. You know, those who get kicked out of their homes, who are forced into conversion therapy, who have to engage in sex work to survive, who might be arrested or killed by religious zealots or who simply don't have the means to live as their authentic selves. Those are the real stories and reality of our community.

[Dee Marshall]

That said, I don't think she deserves nearly the amount of adoration and awards she is getting. Sort of like how Obama never should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize simply for being elected. 

What bothers me is that people treat the awards and adulation like a bad thing THEY did. Awards and adoration are given, for the givers own motives. Blame the prize committees not the awardees.

[iKate]

What bothers me is that people treat the awards and adulation like a bad thing THEY did. Awards and adoration are given, for the givers own motives. Blame the prize committees not the awardees.

You have to accept an award. You can refuse it.

I haven't won things on the level of NPP but some smaller things I shared credit with other people or told the awarders to give it to someone more deserving. I think in both their cases their ego overtakes everything else.

[RobynD]

Good points. I hate to see people being too hard on her. Her politics i don't understand either, but she is a celebrity and in the entertainment business. To expect too much out of her is begging for disappointment.

People showing lots and lots of trans people in popular entertainment is a positive thing. Entertainment drives acceptance in the culture. This has repeated itself time and time again.

[Deborah]

I understand her politics very well I think.  Until fairly recently I shared them and was probably more extreme.  Part of my coming to terms with myself was intense self examination to identify what was me and what was part of the elaborate avatar I had developed over the years as a coping mechanism.  Extreme conservatism got dumped along with a few other things.

Maybe due to her privileged status and money she hasn't had to go through that same process.  Maybe she really believes it all.  I don't know but I do know how a trans person over the years can come to adopt a whole range of beliefs that seem totally at odds and counter to the state of being trans. 


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[Jill F]

The people who want to see us fail and remain marginalized love to see the discord amongst us.  When they see a fire like this burning, they make a point of throwing gas on it.

Don't fall for it.  Cait has blown it quite a few times for sure, but us fighting over it is senseless.  I have chosen to ignore her until she "gets it".

Spending your time and efforts doing something positive for the community is much more constructive than lobbing grenades at each other. 

[Tysilio]

Well said, Jill!

[Squircle]

If anyone thinks a multimillionaire republican American celebrity is in any way representative of the global trans community then more fool them. I think Caitlin has certainly encouraged people to view her as a figurehead, what with all of the interviews, tv shows etc, and I would have preferred she use some of her vast resources to educate herself a bit before doing so, because she really doesn't get it sometimes.

But I think it's unfair to snipe at the trans community for what's going on with her. Here in the uk, we have plenty of people speaking out, such as, to name a few, Paris lees, Ayla Holdom, Hanna Winterbourn, Fox Fisher, Lewis Hancox. None are entertainers, and they work hard to promote trans voices and rights. The problem is that they lack the sensational aspect that the press crave, so instead the focus is put in people like Caitlin Jenner and Kellie Maloney, both of whom have some problematic views on gay people. It will be very difficult for anyone to match the fame of Caitlin Jenner right now, because someone who is trans before they enter the public eye simply isn't given the same kind of opportunity. The next most famous person to transition in the public eye is Laura Jane Grace, who is nowhere near as famous but seems to have a much better grasp of the issues. Note I excluded Lana Wachowski because she stays mostly out of the limelight, as is her right.

Transitioning is difficult enough without the pressure to be a spokesperson or activist. Those that chose to do so take on a certain responsibility, and it's not easy. The people I mentioned above have a fraction of the platform that Caitlin Jenner has but they certainly have a lot more of my support, and that's true for a lot of my friends here. I won't do anything to shoot down Caitlin but I won't support her either until she starts to get a grasp of the issues at hand and stops saying harmful things.

For my own part, lacking the confidence to be any kind of public figure, I'm going to put my efforts into volunteering with a local LGBT group, and trying to help support others going through transition.