Quote from: PanoramaIsland on May 15, 2010, 10:22:27 PM
It's not really constructive or fair to try to achieve one-upmanship by how bad our diagnosis is. We need to spend less time HBSing ourselves and more time looking out for each other; queers, trans and gender variant people have all been thrown in the boat together, and we need to fight together for the rights of every one of us, instead of fighting each other.
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While I can agree with this, the method by which such would be achieved is difficult for me to see. I honestly would like to see everyone included...but haven't a clue as to how such would ever be written into law, much less passed through Congress.
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The factor we're talking about here isn't really about "how bad" a diagnosis is...the issue is really all about
consistency, and about how John/Jane Q. Public can
identify whether or not someone belongs in a designated space.
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Transexuals are easy. They identify and present consistently as the opposite of their physical sex. Medically, whether through HRT or Psych letters, there is a way that they can be identified.
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Everyone else is tricky. There isn't a medical way to identify them. It's all based upon their word. (And when was the last time anything in business was done with the trust of someone's word and a handshake rather than a 100 page legal document or a formal decree?) And even if we assume that we can convince the public at large that all TG people aren't fetishistic freaks to be feared and scorned, we also have to consider that there are Non-TG people that could and would take advantage of poorly written legislation.
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First, we have to start off by acknowledging and respecting the concerns of those who oppose such legislation.
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Namely: People feel
vulnerable in the bathroom. Seated with your pants around your ankles isn't exactly a position of strength. Knowing that only other women are allowed in that space does give some a feeling of
security, and of a certain amount of
privacy. While these are often overstated by the opposition, and such feelings may not match the reality, they are still the perception that we must deal with. There's also social "
decency" factors: Where many men really couldn't give a damn about who hears/smells their bodily functions, women tend to be a bit more reserved/embarassed about such things...especially when it comes to the opposite sex. These are a few of the things that we are seen as taking away from people by passing fully inclusive legislation. Poo pooing these concerns doesn't help our cause. We need to deal with them directly to assuage their fears if we hope to gain their support.
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Which brings us back to the first two issues: consistency, and identification. The easiest way to deal with the above concerns, is to define a group effected by such legislation that can be seen as "safe" that contains both of the above criteria.
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Without some sort of medical or psych diagnosis...or some sort of voluntary registration process...identification is impossible.
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With the gender fluid, or the part-timers, consistency is completely absent.
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Personally, I would love to see anyone who identifies cross-gender as covered. But because we as a community can't define ourselves adequately, or delineate specific boundaries, we are unable to address the two main concerns that the public at large has with such legislation.
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Alternate solutions could involve the construction of an additional type of bathroom, but I don't see any of these as adequately and fairly addressing the concerns of both sides.
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Which...unfortunately...leaves us right back where we started.
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If you have suggestions for how to resolve these issues, I would honestly love to hear them. I'm sure our legislators would too.
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While I never thought I'd actually say this...I'm actually with Laura on this one...for probably the first time ever.
While I think she could have phrased things more delicately to begin with, the issues she's writing about are the same as I've addressed above. A lot of this debate seems to be 'much ado about nothing'...In a way, it's the dreamers vs. the practical...and while we all need a bit of both, laws and regulations are the business of taking those dreams...and making them as real as is possible in a given framework. I think Laura was trying to make a line of distinction in the beginning, and was clubbed a bit over the head for her troubles. Which is a definite problem in this debate. In law, we need to have a definition of who is...and who isn't...covered. This means defining what "transgender" means in such concerns. When anyone in the community who tries to define and delineate that term is criticized/attacked out of habit for attempting to use that very necessary scalpel, it's a disturbing trend indeed. And one that is not at all helpful in furthering the goals of the trans-community in the legal realm.