Hate 101: Gay and Lesbian Transphobia – Introduction

[Butterfly]

Hate 101: Gay and Lesbian Transphobia – Introduction
Standing Watch
By CA_Medicine_Woman
10 February, 2010


http://standingwatch.net/2010/02/10/hate-101-gay-and-lesbian-transphobia-introduction/


I'm not sure what one reason suddenly spurred me to write this article.

Perhaps it was more than one. Like when I read Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about how Ted Olson claimed he has been named an honorary lesbian by a large lesbian group.

Maybe it was David Letterman's latest transphobic skit, intended to insult and degrade the newly appointed Senior Technical Adviser to the Commerce Department, which wasn't long after Letterman's slam at Thomas Beattie, referring to the then pregnant transman as "an androgynous freak show." While the response from HRC and GLADD was swift and clear regarding Simpson (I believe because she is an Obama appointee, and for no other reason), the silence surrounding Letterman's remarks about Beattie was deafening. Even then, many gay and lesbian blog sites insisted we who fall under the umbrella term "transgender" should get over it, after all it was only a joke, right?