A stronger community, not stronger words

[Shana A]

A stronger community, not stronger words
   
Transmissions
Published 12/02/2010

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

http://www.ebar.com/columns/column.php?sec=transmissions&article=152

It is seductively easy to use the slurs that one might otherwise fear being called, isn't it?

Like a seemingly endless string of hard right-wing, anti-gay politicians and preachers being forced out of their closets, it takes little work to find transgender people trying to denigrate one another using the same sort of language one might view as hate speech if it wasn't another example of horizontal hostility.

While I'm sure that any community can point to its own examples, I oftentimes feel that the transgender community is particularly susceptible to this and other forms of self-sabotage. In the world of identity politics, it is very common for us to eat our own.