After expressing my discomfort with the newly popularized LGBT acronym that is used to refer to the lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals as one community under one big tent; I was informed that the reason for lumping everyone together was to being people together that have common concerns and struggles. I believe that this is a noble effort, so long as we do not lose sight of the many differences that exist and the unique struggles that each group faces. All of these groups struggle against hate, prejudges, and bigotry. Many within these groups experience marginalization, threats to their safety and welfare, direct bodily harm, and harm to their property and legal rights. But, I must assert that even in these common issues and struggles there are profoundly important differences in how each group is forced to deal with these issues.
One issue, or struggle that all groups within the LGBT acronym have in common is the pressure their members face to disavowal their individual sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This has been a well-known and historic struggle faced by the gay community, as they have faced many oppressive and damaging techniques to cue them of their homosexuality. One of the more infamous and destructive of these procedures is "reparative therapy," or "conversion therapy" that through, what is commonly thought to be, a profoundly dangerous psychiatric reprogramming procedure, gay men can be cued of their homosexuality. Many gay men have face great psychiatric harm do to this procedure being illegally and inappropriately forced on to them. Their scars may not be visible, but for those that have lived through this and other forms of corrosion, will be scared for a lifetime.
There has been much written about reparative therapy that gay men have and continue to struggle against, but there has been little public mention of this issues in regards to it being forced on to transgender individuals. For that matter, there is no public mention of any significance that discusses the techniques and procedures, whether psychiatric or surgical, to compel transgender individuals to relent, and disavowal their gender identity and accept their original gender of birth.
For transgender individuals, and for those that oppose them, the issue is not just a matter of sexual preference; it is also an issue of gender identity and outward public appearance. In this regard, the most important issue to a transgender person is the physical ability to successfully appear as a female, if the individual is a male to female transgender person. The number one, most important, standard of success for a transgender person is to be able to live in stealth. This does not begin to address the intense emotional need of many transgender women, like most other females, to be physically attractive. This issue is completely absent in the homosexual male community and cannot be exploited in a reparative therapy process targeted towards them, but is most likely used as a very powerful tool in a reparative therapy processed designed for transgender females.
Among the most destructive things that can be done to any woman, whether transgender or not, is to destroy and scar their face and female genitalia. This is an extremely persuasive concept that probably has and will continued to be used to forcefully discourage some from completing a surgical sex change. This does not begin to address the issue that some; simply out of a profound malice towards transgender individuals would scar a girl's face "to make them look more like a man that they should look like." Another issue, in this regard, that is unique to the transgender community, and is not relevant to the gay community is that transgender females are profoundly dependent are the medical community and medical doctors to successfully medically and surgically transition. At this point, it is important to remember that many responsible for forcing destructive reparative therapy on to gay men have been medical doctors in the medical community. So, I must ask, can all medical doctors that claim to want to help you medical and surgically transition, around the world, be trusted with a scallop and anesthesia? Is there, in practice, and not spoken of, a reparative therapy procedure for transgender females? There are profoundly important issues that separate the transgender community from the gay community that should not be forgotten.
Icarus wings
