Thank You For Flying Bilerico Airlines
11Dec09

http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/thank-you-for-flying-bilerico-airlines/

Thank you for flying Bilerico Airlines.  We'll be arriving shortly in G&L, USA.  The time is 1973.

Ironically, I was getting ready to compose a draft for posting when I came across this stunningly and monumentally mind-numbing steaming pile.  The URL betrays the original planned title: "Transgender: A Disease That Doesn't Exist" (and no, as it turns out, Ronald Gold is not referring to the state of the current diagnosis of GID in the DSM).  Some highlights:

(sarcasm warning)

"This is your captain speaking, it's all clear flying from this point on..."


It's really an old problem with Bilerico Project in that like Advocate.com, they focus on gay males because they tend to be the most socially and politically visible (and not always in good ways) group, so it's a case of feeding the hand that scratches them.

(and trans peeps will be ignored unless there is a focus on how gender identity and expression affect more then just us)

Add to that they also are the most involved, the most supportive and the largest money givers - them that pays the gold, gets to make the rules.

Transgender rights in California would be about as advanced as those in Mississippi if it were not for the gay community and those people they worked to elect, and then support once they got into office.  Mark Leno in particular.  I'm sure its the same everywhere such protections have been enacted.

You should learn the history of the movement before making such proclamations.

Ironically, a similar story is often told to gay men who want nothing to do with the trannies. See: Stonewall.

Regardless, I'm all about LGBTQIAetc. The thing is, the whole lot are transgendered in some sense; the whole alphabet soup transgress gender norms in one way or another, and other than internecine bickering, all discrimination based on any of those identities comes down to straight people not liking the queers. So some of us might not like it, but we're all on the same boat when it comes to bigotry.

All are in some ways 'gender transgressors' so there is common ground.  Besides, working with people can get you part of the way there, doing it on your own gets you nowhere.

Heather, please stop. It's just as unbecoming for you to bash gay men as it is for gay men to bash trans people.

There will be ignorant people and disputing factions within any movement, and the LGBT rights movement is no exception. Please get over it, or try to do something positive about it. Reinforcing the divisions within the movement just makes everyone sore.

I don't think Telka was talking about any "microcosm," but rather using California (which is hardly "micro") as an example. You are the one who is extrapolating from your own personal experiences. I would note that your experience with gay men does not reflect mine.

You know you can go skiing and not really ski?  Many people do.  They drive up, they park, then they put the skis up against the wall of the Lodge, head in, snuggle down with a nice hot toddy and that's skiing to them.  The mountains beyond, the free falls, the jumps, the moguls, the steep and the deep, the trees and all that - they never see it.

So its possible to spend a lot of time in the gay community at sleazy bars working on quick sex pick-ups or just outright paying for it and never see the parts of the community that are made up of a different type of people altogether, bank vice-presidents, entrepreneurs, business people, doctors, lawyers and a host of others who were not cruising the bars for quick sex, but attempting - and succeeding - to work toward respectability.  In my time I've watched them get 'gay' out of the DSM, get openly gay people elected - first to city positions, then to state positions and work, not just for gay issues, but for the entire progressive agenda. I've watched and walked as Gay Liberation turned to Gay Freedom Day, to Gay Pride.  I watched as those parades went from a few thousand to the largest attended event in SF.  I've watched and worked with people who got TG protections passed in the Twin Cities and in SF, and in lots of other places.  Most of the heavy lifting, the calling in of political chips and the rest was done by those gay and lesbians who were elected, and not by any sort of "TG Community." 

That's the mountains beyond the resort.  It's hard to know until you go.