Quote from: Kassandra on January 03, 2008, 10:44:08 AM
Not to put too fine a point on it, folks, but can we stop with the Stanton bashing?
I'm not excusing her for her public opinions nor am I in favor of all she says or does.
BUT! She is one of us! She is a woman with a transsexual condition like myself and so many of us. We are hard pressed right now to find allies and friend in the, now segmented, LGB & T community. We should not be turning on our own sisters or brothers just because they have a differing opinion than others of us!
Get a grip ladies, PLEASE!
-Sandy
I absolutely agree, Sandy. That "We should not be turning on our own sisters or brothers just because they have a differing opinion than others of us!"
And, to be very honest, what Susan Stanton says and doesn't say does not affect my life in a direct way. I imagine she didn't have me in mind when she said those things.
The difficulty with public statements by public persons is that they are seen and heard by way more people than 'just us." If she were here on this board I would say she has a right to say what she thinks, as long as she thinks before she says it where others can read it.
There is always some limitation to 'free speech.' We all like to declare that we are "honestly speaking," but there are points where we leave honesty in the main to be honestly peevish and even derogatory. And those are the times we need to think before we say something that is going to be terribly hurtful to others we know are reading/listening.
O, I get angry too, and do not always take into myself a consideration for others who might be hurt by what I do say or write. I do say things occasionally I absolutely KNOW are going to hurt someone else. And I mean to do it because I am angry or spiteful with them or because i am simply frustrated at being badgered myself. I imagine we all do that.
So, in some ways I do understand the 'why' of why she might have said the things she did say. But, if I 'go-off' at some public forum and lambast an entire group of people in my frustration I would expect to not only be 'called' on it, but to have them retaliate in kind toward me.
That, Susan is TS I have no doubt. That she is a public figure is beyond argument. But with the public figure also comes public accountability. And she is being called to task not for making statements in private that might hurt me or you or other people she has no clue even exist. She is being called to task for making sweeping and hurtful statements about people who, just like herself, have no say in who and what we are. And she is doing so to reporters and interviewers who she absolutely KNOWS are going to publicize the remarks.
Again, her naivete in these matters calls her judgement into question. That she is going to be raised up as a 'leader' with naivete and callous disregard intact is more the pity. Just as the raising up of Quisling in Norway in the 1940s was a pity.
I understand saving oneself. It's a pretty natural part of being human. But to openly and meanly disregard the faces you are walking over as you 'save yourself' is not the way to win 'support' from those you are trying to walk over.
From her remarks one suddenly gets the impression that she is saying "I am not one of THOSE people." Or "I am not a ->-bleeped-<-." Well, it's fine with me she thinks that way, if she does. For her to have her opinions is not the question.
For TSes to have opinions about her is something she has invited. Now, she, and we, need to live with that. I think we misplace our senses of who owes or acknowledges whom in this instance. She has sown the wind, that the whirlwind rises out of the earth before her should not surprise anyone at all. Nor should the whirlwind be condemned. THAT she has brought about herself.
Nichole
