http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanmarie-navetta/becoming-willing-to-tell-_b_6295754.html?utm_hp_ref=transgender

Huffington Post/by Jean-Marie Navetta

' I've been asked to write about my own journey as a gay woman who is out-and-proud trans ally and I feel not brave but kind of useless. Let me explain'.

it's definitely nice to have allys

Nice story, but something really made me sick:

QuoteThat's because this neighbor didn't feel like God had put him in the right body, so, during the winter, he'd had an operation, and now he was in the right body.

I know it wasn't the point of the story, but everytime I see something equating "surgery" with "transition" it just steams me.

I kept waiting for this self-proclaimed wonderful ally to explain her mistake, but she never does, content to leave her readers with this damaging misconception.

Quote from: suzifrommd on December 11, 2014, 07:04:24 AM
Nice story, but something really made me sick:

I know it wasn't the point of the story, but everytime I see something equating "surgery" with "transition" it just steams me.

I kept waiting for this self-proclaimed wonderful ally to explain her mistake, but she never does, content to leave her readers with this damaging misconception.

She didn't make a mistake. She was relating what was told to her at the age of five or six, how it was explained to her by her parents, in a time when the body of knowledge wasn't what it is now. They (her parents) put it in terms that a child might be able to understand. I'm glad she's an ally and demanding an apology where none is needed isn't a good way to keep her as such.

Quote from: Wynternight on December 12, 2014, 10:54:14 AM
She didn't make a mistake. She was relating what was told to her at the age of five or six, how it was explained to her by her parents, in a time when the body of knowledge wasn't what it is now. They (her parents) put it in terms that a child might be able to understand. I'm glad she's an ally and demanding an apology where none is needed isn't a good way to keep her as such.

Not sure where I demanded an apology, but I'm sorry if I came across that way. Bad choice of words.

This story will be read by cisgender people who already have the misconception that surgery is a necessary part of transition. This article reenforces it.

A simple "I now know that transition involves much more than just surgery, and that many who transition don't choose to have surgery" would have sufficed at some point.

Yes I do ask my allies to avoid spreading misunderstanding, even obliquely. If that's too much to ask, then I'm guilty of asking too much.