I have been a member here for a year and a half, and I don't think I have ever seen a single drag queen in here. Drag queens are classified among the "transgender" category in a theoretical sense... but if you look at the actual "community" in real life that is self-identified by the name "transgender," you just do not find drag queens. At least I've never seen the two groups intersect at any point in real life. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.) As a social scientist, keep in mind the difference between
emic and
etic points of view: the former means how the people being studied actually see themselves; the latter is the viewpoint imposed by an outside observer. In plain terms, real life vs. theoretical. In an etic sense, it may have some logic to classify drag queens as transgender. In the emic view, they are considered an altogether different species.
From what I've seen of drag queens, they align with the male gay community. I see very little overlap between self-designated "transgender" peoples and the male gay world. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.) Sometimes an individual may shift from identifying as gay male to transgender woman. This would usually cause them to drop their gay male identity in order to embrace transgender womanhood, and thereupon they seek to date heterosexual men. More often, as far as I can tell, transgender women attain self-realization without passing through a gay male stage.
It's different for lesbians, drag kings, and transgender men: it's not at all uncommon to see individuals come out as FTM transgender while retaining their lesbian identification. The lesbian world does not draw such sharp distinctions. It's also different for disadvantaged-class people of color: where according to the dominant narrative many of those who would be classified as transgender women, instead self-identify as gay male, and in this milieu drag queens, transgender people, and gay men really do overlap. So understand those who post in this forum are mostly coming from relatively affluent white privilege in education and socialization.
quant à moi:
Lesbian (transsexual woman) ~ Northern Virginia
In response to the questions:
What everyone else said. Media very rarely ever get it right. They usually sensationalize, stereotype, objectify, and exploit us. We are treated like objects instead of human beings. There have been some signs of progress in the past few years, but on the whole we are objectified and poorly understood. The only print and broadcast media which I feel can be relied on for accurate coverage of our people are the LGBT newspapers like the
Washington Blade (or the
Blade newspapers in other cities), and the TV show
Gay USA. Mainstream media mostly remain clueless about us, though occasionally a few flickers of enlightenment appear... but one of our current media hassles is the
Dr. Phil Show, which promotes an extremely backward view antithetical to our people.
I find it illuminating that this topic is posted in the "Discrimination" forum! And how!
