Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Would the World be Better Off Without Any Trans People?
The Bilerico Project (LGBT website)
by Alice Kalafarski
February 11, 2010

http://www.bilerico.com/2010/02/would_the_world_be_better_off_without_any_trans_pe.php (http://www.bilerico.com/2010/02/would_the_world_be_better_off_without_any_trans_pe.php)

It's fairly common to find trans people who wish they were born cis, but it's particularly discouraging for me to hear that from a smart young trans woman on a progressive site like this. In a post earlier this week, Austen wrote that she felt being trans was a disease and that: "if I'd had my druthers I'd have been born female." I don't accept that being trans is a disease, but I'm going to set aside that argument for now. We can't go back and change how trans people like Austen were born, but what if some day we had the power to make sure every baby was born cis? Being trans certainly seems to make a lot of people unhappy, so wouldn't the world as a whole be a happier place if nobody had to go through that?

HELL NO!

The world needs more freaks, not fewer. It sucks to be trans in a whole lot of ways, largely (but not by any means entirely) because of the society we live in. But when you start taking away the freaks, society gets really boring and stagnant really fast, and then people who used to be normal become freaks. Bad times.

It's a part of me and I would not be me without it.

We have a bumper sticker here that is prefect.  "Keep Portland Weird"

Yeah, but Portland stole that from Austin, Texas, which really is weird.

See how weird we are! 

Hey, I was up there for the naked bike ride (my friends want me to come up and do it this year) and I don't even think Austin would do that.

Thanks for that image, Kat.  ~shudders~

Hey I'll look cute as hell in my little pink ruffled tutu.  And I can ride like the wind and drink like a fish, which are the two key parts to it I think.

Sadly I cannot go to Austin, Texas. I'm not sure if my heart could cope with the shock :laugh: :laugh:. But I will retain the image, Kat, for days when I feel low :laugh:

Diversity in people, in what they do and in what they believe - HELL YES.

Just don't like hate people.


Cindy

Hey, the tutu skirt is just like the one in my avatar, and the naked bike ride is in Portland Oregon, not Austin Texas, though both places are very nice, Portland Ore is a lot more 'outdoorsy' but Austin has a music scene that's beyond awesome, and a pretty good university too.

They had about 2000 ride in Portland last year, it took about an hour for it to pass us where we were.
http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Portland (http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Portland)

Our lovely shades of gray lend society much needed depth and character.  A 2-bit world of gender would be regression imo.

Even though (separate from having the wrong body, etc.) my mind mostly conforms to the binary, I'm very glad for those who do not.

Quote from: tekla on February 12, 2010, 02:00:18 AM
Hey, the tutu skirt is just like the one in my avatar, and the naked bike ride is in Portland Oregon, not Austin Texas, though both places are very nice, Portland Ore is a lot more 'outdoorsy' but Austin has a music scene that's beyond awesome, and a pretty good university too.

They had about 2000 ride in Portland last year, it took about an hour for it to pass us where we were.
http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Portland (http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Portland)

Sorry Tekla,
We have just had the Tour Down Under and I was thinking it would be great to see the placings in Tutu's. You have just won the yellow tutu, the best sprinter gets the green tutu. And the polka dot (otherwise known as the Maria) is awarded to the best moutain climber :laugh:.
Sounds fun  :laugh:

Cindy

Quote from: ativan on February 11, 2010, 09:01:58 PM
What if everyone were trans?

Insofar as I think the gender binary is a load of steaming dog poop and that gender is a (subconscious) performance, I think that everyone is in some way "trans." There's just a subgroup of us for whom it is so obvious that we can no longer deny it, and have to spend lots of time and energy adjusting both ourselves and others to our gender variance. If everyone is a gender unto themselves, how can the category of "trans" really exist, except as a descriptor of the entirety of humankind?
Just echoing Kate Bornstein, Judith Butler etc. on this. I guess I'm not too original after all.  :P

I guess it depends on your point of view, but one certain fact is that the world would be a lot less interesting.

Gray areas are something to think about. As far as I'm concerned, forcing people to think is not a bad thing.

Quote from: SilverFang on February 12, 2010, 03:13:26 AM
As far as I'm concerned, forcing people to think is not a bad thing.

God, true dat. Isn't rethinking previously unexamined foundations the very engine of progress?

from National Geographic show Bugis' Five Genders

The Bugi culture recognizes five separate genders:
Makkunrai (feminine woman)
Oroane (masculine man)
Calabai (feminine man, or what we might see as M2F) 
Calalai (masculine female, or what we might see as F2M)
Bissu (embodying male and female energies, revered as a shaman).

"All 5 genders must coexist for there to be universal harmony. If one of them is separated, the world becomes out of balance" - quoted from a Bissu priest/ess

The world needs us, whether it knows it or not. I believe our society will be a much better place when we recognize and celebrate the full diversity of gender.

Z

The greatest argument against dogmatism is that it seeks to eliminate ideas and attitudes it doesn't like.

We know that, since the earliest times, there have been people of all types regarding their's and other's genders.

Society developes because of its diversty. It meanders along, favouring one side then another but going forward in a more or less, middle path.

Remove any section and lose the middle way.

The way to defeat those we disagree with is by argument.

Disease = "dis-ease" .... definitely that way for me.

Would I have been much happier being born female and getting to grow up that way?  Damn straight I would have.

For those of you who embrace it, thats great and I am truly happy for you.  But I just cant.  If I could have been changed in the womb, it would have saved a lot of people -- especially me -- a whole lot of pain.

::Shrugs::

Just my opinion on what would have been right for me.

Quote from: Alyssa M. on February 11, 2010, 11:17:26 PM
HELL NO!

It sucks to be trans in a whole lot of ways,

Actually, I think it may suck worse to be "normal". I am not a bit unhappy with who I am, yet I see a lot of unhappiness with "normal people". ;)


Dawn

I am glad proud transpeeps exist, I would never choose this path for myself though.

But since this is my reality, I'll choose to find a way to be positive about it.

Well, since the question asked if the world would be better off without ANY such people, and since I'm one such person, and since the world is much better place with me in it - then the answer has to be NO across the board.  All it takes is one person to disprove it, and there are far more than one.

I must disagree.  You forgot about the other side of the ledger.  I mean I alone make up for all bad things trans people have ever done. It's a proven fact. :P

Quote from: Vision on February 12, 2010, 08:43:02 AM
Disease = "dis-ease" .... definitely that way for me.

Would I have been much happier being born female and getting to grow up that way?  Damn straight I would have.

For those of you who embrace it, thats great and I am truly happy for you.  But I just cant.  If I could have been changed in the womb, it would have saved a lot of people -- especially me -- a whole lot of pain.

::Shrugs::

Just my opinion on what would have been right for me.

I feel that pain, believe me. I've attempted suicide multiple times, simply because I saw no way out - I couldn't stand the idea of being an isolated gender minority all my life, but I couldn't deny it or "cure" it. But the fact is that I have also been strengthened by it, and I have unique insights on life that I, like other trans people, have been able to garner by climbing that massive, imposing gender mountain. Just as the world needs adventurers to go to the jungle and deep into the Marianas Trench so that we can learn more about the planet we live on and how we should relate to it, I feel that the world also needs us - gender explorers. It's not easy, but hey - at least the scenery is colorful along the way.  ;D

Quote from: Dawn D. on February 12, 2010, 10:49:10 AM

Actually, I think it may suck worse to be "normal". I am not a bit unhappy with who I am, yet I see a lot of unhappiness with "normal people". ;)


Dawn

Maybe; I couldn't say since I've never been "normal" ...  but that dosen't change the decades of self-hatred on account of my being trans in this society. I think I can safely say that counts as "sucking." I'm quite happy with who I am; I just don't buy into the notion of felix culpa.

Alyssa,

QuoteMaybe; I couldn't say since I've never been "normal" ...  but that dosen't change the decades of self-hatred on account of my being trans in this society

I remember feeling the same as you did and yeah, that did suck. I thought feeling that way was normal; then. Now, if I am considered abnormal, it's okay, I like it! The rest of society can stuff "normal".


Religious dogma is not my cup-O-tea either. However, I do offer to those that are, when they ask how I can "go against God in being this way"? I simply respond with, "I'm not! This is exactly how I perceive God wanting me to be". Makes me happy! Pisses them off!


Dawn


Dawn

I use the same argument about being agnostic.  Hey, god made me a doubter, who are you to doubt god?

Most societies celebrate diversity. It is, after all, what makes that society succesful. They will rejoice in artists, creators and free thinkers of all ilks. But once gender diversity is approached it seems to become a taboo subject. I, personally, think that this has to do with a religous mind set. Gender diversity is not such a problem for example in Asia, unless Islamic Taliban is powerful. In Europe the same. In the USA a whole range of tolerance or lack of it is evident. Again it seem a lot is based on religous perspective, Christian Taliban is intolerant of as much as Islamic Taliban.

People, societies, countries and the world evolve. With the Internet we, as a "world" society are evolving in ways our forepeople could not imagine. I think diversity will be more common (this may be an oxymoron :laugh:) but I think we need as humans to accept and adapt. Difficult for many people.

JMO
Cindy

Hi..

Well  as it stands every one is different . to start with . do we all eat the same food ,play the same sport . join the same clubs , & the list can go on .

  The answer  would be we have over 80.000 people with in the trans community that we have any idear of     not including many more .

  Okay we all have many things that bind us to gether wether female or male yet have so many differences what does that say . we can live to gether  its just a matter of first accepting our selfs for who we are ,
    that to me seems to be the biggest problem ,
   
  Then & only then for others to accept us    haveing said that some people dont & wont accept things that are different . why . take the 2 nd world war & of cause many others,
   
As to the whys & were fors thats another matter .
  the point is we ...can ...if we wont to ,

All so i do understand why some cant accept differences yet i know first hand with my dealing s with 1000.s of people they can  & they have ,

The understanding of is allso another matter . yet in time people will accept that we are born different & still have that same binding or just being human

...noeleena...

Dawn, I wasn't referring to religious dogma, but speaking metaphorically. Pangloss lives on, often in completely secular contexts, and I would like him to die. All is not for the best, and this is not the best of all possible worlds. Il faut cultiver notre jardin. I prefer cultivating to philosophizing.