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Why is there a T in LGBT?

Started by Angel On Acid, June 19, 2010, 07:52:47 AM

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cynthialee

LGBT folks have been targets of hatred long before any orginization of said individules.
I understand you are past the trans thing. Cool, but you have to keep in mind there are people who will hold your medical history against you should they find out. And trust me some one somewhere WILL find out. And if they decide to out you there is little you can do to prevent that. You can be over being trans, there are idiots who refuse to get over it when they find out. So that makes you a potential victim.

Personaly I do not like that we are tied togather with the LGBT. Being trans is not a sexual orientation. But I understand that there are those who lump us in one category and opress us equaly. That opression has nothing to do with anything we have done. It is all bassed on what we are. But as we are opresed as a group we must stand as a group. We can break up into factions and focus groups after we get equality.
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
Sun Tsu 'The art of War'
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Izumi

Quote from: cynthialee on July 19, 2010, 01:33:03 PM
LGBT folks have been targets of hatred long before any orginization of said individules.
I understand you are past the trans thing. Cool, but you have to keep in mind there are people who will hold your medical history against you should they find out. And trust me some one somewhere WILL find out. And if they decide to out you there is little you can do to prevent that. You can be over being trans, there are idiots who refuse to get over it when they find out. So that makes you a potential victim.

Personaly I do not like that we are tied togather with the LGBT. Being trans is not a sexual orientation. But I understand that there are those who lump us in one category and opress us equaly. That opression has nothing to do with anything we have done. It is all bassed on what we are. But as we are opresed as a group we must stand as a group. We can break up into factions and focus groups after we get equality.

Ok, but that doesnt answer my question on why Intersex isnt up there.  Shouldnt it be LGBTI? or does the T imply I?  I dont see as much on intersex being hated as much as we are? why is that? Is it because everyone assumes its a medical condition they are born with and cannot help the way they were born? isnt TS the same?
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cynthialee

actually many LGBT local groups are LGBTIQQA
I will let you puzzle that one for yourself. :)
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
Sun Tsu 'The art of War'
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kyril

It's a historical thing: historically intersex people haven't made themselves a major part of the community (whereas trans people have been present and visible from the beginning of the gay rights movement). There's been some movement toward intersex inclusion (LGBTQQI is the current state of the full acronym), and there's some LGBT community activism on behalf of intersex children's right to bodily integrity, but on the whole there are just fewer ties.

If intersex groups made themselves a major visible fixture at things like Pride celebrations or queer youth centers, or otherwise became more intertwined with the other aspects of queer community and culture in the way that trans rights groups have, then it wouldn't seem quite so rude and paternalistic to tack the "I" on the end.


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trnsboi

Quote from: Izumi on July 19, 2010, 12:55:54 PM
Its like someone having leprosy and calling them a leper, i dont think that nice, and implies that your less then human in some way...  So that also a reason that i hate T in LGBT because now T = Trans and all of us are now Trans to the public, not women or men, just Trans... i hate that.

Post Merge: July 19, 2010, 12:03:12 PM



Why is calling a human being a "leper" any worse than calling a human being a "woman" or calling a human being "white" or calling a human being "tall"? I don't see why "trans" is any worse than any other label we give to people.


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Izumi

Quote from: trnsboi on July 19, 2010, 03:02:20 PM
Why is calling a human being a "leper" any worse than calling a human being a "woman" or calling a human being "white" or calling a human being "tall"? I don't see why "trans" is any worse than any other label we give to people.

Because being called a woman or man or white or anything else doesnt denote a tone that your less then human, but leper and trans does.
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trnsboi

Quote from: Izumi on July 19, 2010, 12:55:54 PM

So just because someone attacks me its a hate crime? what if they dont know, they just see another woman, and target me because of that hoping to steal my purse and mug me.  There are always people who hate other people, all we need to be is different, another religion, weaker then them, etc... Laws are already in place to protect people from that.  If someone attacks me, regardless of what i am, they get in trouble.  Why should the punishment be more or less just because i am someone with TS?  All crimes are hate crimes.

*Not all crimes are hate crimes!* Hate crimes are crimes that are committed against a person because they are a member of a certain group (trans, black, Asian, disabled, etc.) If someone beats me up because I am trans, it is much different than if someone beats me up because they want my wallet or because I cut them off in traffic. In the former case, I am being beat up because of who I am, not because of what I have or what I did. If a guy goes and murders another man for sleeping with his wife, he is doing it out of hatred, yes, but it is hatred towards a specific person for a specific act. If someone murders me because I am trans, they are liable to murder *any* person  who is trans; in other words, they are a threat to an entire group of people, not just one person. It can be said that hate crimes are crimes against groups of people, not just the individual victim.

It is possible that someone may beat you up just because they want to steal your purse and not because you are trans, but the fact of the matter is that trans people stand a MUCH higher risk of being murdered or assaulted than the general population. In fact, one in every eleven MTFs are murdered. One in eleven! That is a huge number, and in fact it constitutes a genocide by UN standards. You can read about it here: http://trans.ilga.org/trans/welcome_to_the_ilga_trans_secretariat/trans_zone/notes/transgender_and_transsexual_identities_the_next_strange_fruit_hate_crimes_violence_and_genocide_against_the_global_trans_communities

The reason that there is a much higher murder rate for MTFs than FTMs is the same reason gay men are more likely to be targeted than lesbians: because of misogyny, and this is exactly why there is a "T" in LGBT. The majority of people who murder gay men and transwomen do it because they are misogynist males ie: they see other "men" acting "effeminately," it challenges their own gender identities, it challenges the patriarchal structure of society, and they solve the problem by assaulting and murdering the "offenders." Of course, transmen and lesbians are targeted, but not to the same degree as MTFs and gay men. So what I am trying to say is that homophobia and transphobia share a common denominator which is sexism, and this is precisely why the "T" is in LGBT, and it is precisely why we need to challenge the gender binary. Without the myth of binary gender there can be no "trans" no "gay" no "other."

Post Merge: July 19, 2010, 03:34:31 PM

Quote from: Izumi on July 19, 2010, 03:13:27 PM
Because being called a woman or man or white or anything else doesnt denote a tone that your less then human, but leper and trans does.

I beg to differ. In a patriarchal society being a "woman" does denote being less than human, the same as being "black" denotes being less than human in a racist society.


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Izumi

Quote from: trnsboi on July 19, 2010, 03:32:22 PM

...

and

I beg to differ. In a patriarchal society being a "woman" does denote being less than human, the same as being "black" denotes being less than human in a racist society.

Ok so labeling something a hate crime does what? give a harsher punishment, is that deterrent enough? I dont think so, whether someone kills me for my money or my being TS, dead is dead.  The end result might mean they get more time in jail or even the death penalty, but that doesnt change the fact i am no more.  A crime is a crime regardless.  There will always be people who hate in society and lash out at everything that isnt them, heck they even fight within their own organizations, how will you deal with these people? no matter what you do they wont go away unless you kill them all, but in doing so , you become just like them... paradox for you.  There are people in this world that want you to die, they dont want anything else, they cannot be reasoned with or appeased.  They will only be happy when you are no more, thats just the sad fact of life, and no law is going to deter them. 

And about that woman thing, yup you got me, you are correct, women were denoted at such historically and in some cultures around the world, but what about men? In today's modern society that is not the case however.  Woman and man share equality under the law and both are viewed as fully human, so yeah, in the past maybe, but now no, except for a few places in the world.
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trnsboi

Quote from: Izumi on July 19, 2010, 03:52:41 PM
And about that woman thing, yup you got me, you are correct, women were denoted at such historically and in some cultures around the world, but what about men? In today's modern society that is not the case however.  Woman and man share equality under the law and both are viewed as fully human, so yeah, in the past maybe, but now no, except for a few places in the world.

First of all, what "few places in the world" are you referring to? And furthermore, do you think that women were at once seen as inferior and then society just all of a sudden made a complete 180? Women may have equal protection under the law (which is still not entirely true--why do you think the ERA never passed?) but they do not have the same privileges. Men can walk down the street without worrying about getting raped. Men, especially straight men, stand very little chance of being battered by a partner. On average, men still get paid more than women for doing the same work (yes, this is true in 2010 in the United States). Men are in control of the world's resources and methods of production and own 90% of the world's property. You can believe what you want, but the truth of the matter is that women are by no means seen as men's equals even in the modern Western world.


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April Dawne

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the T in LGBT does not stand for Transsexual, but Transgender; which is an umbrella term that includes transsexuals, intersex, androgynous, cross-dressers, and even drags... anyone who "crosses established gender boundaries" are lumped into the term.

And it's true that women, even today, are not seen or treated as true equals even here in the Western world where we like to think we are so superior and civilized.

By the way Izumi, you look beautiful in your ava pic =]

~April

~*Don't wanna look without seeing*~

~*Don't wanna touch without feeling*~




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trnsboi

Quote from: Izumi on July 19, 2010, 03:52:41 PM
Ok so labeling something a hate crime does what? give a harsher punishment, is that deterrent enough? I dont think so, whether someone kills me for my money or my being TS, dead is dead.  The end result might mean they get more time in jail or even the death penalty, but that doesnt change the fact i am no more.  A crime is a crime regardless. 

The issue here is that you are seeing the murder of a trans person as a personal problem when in fact it is a societal problem. I'm not sure about you, but if someone were to murder me because I am trans I would want everyone to *know* that it was because I was trans. It is called consciousness-raising. And that is why we have hate crimes laws, because whenever a hate crime is committed the authorities need to report it as a hate crime. It gives us an idea of what the problem is, how big the problem is, who is committing the crimes, and it helps us to figure out ways to ameliorate the problem.


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Izumi

Quote from: trnsboi on July 19, 2010, 04:47:16 PM
First of all, what "few places in the world" are you referring to? And furthermore, do you think that women were at once seen as inferior and then society just all of a sudden made a complete 180? Women may have equal protection under the law (which is still not entirely true--why do you think the ERA never passed?) but they do not have the same privileges. Men can walk down the street without worrying about getting raped. Men, especially straight men, stand very little chance of being battered by a partner. On average, men still get paid more than women for doing the same work (yes, this is true in 2010 in the United States). Men are in control of the world's resources and methods of production and own 90% of the world's property. You can believe what you want, but the truth of the matter is that women are by no means seen as men's equals even in the modern Western world.

Yes its true, but there are also women CEO whether they make more or less money its irrelevant.  Has anyone really worked out why women make less? Is it because they are willing to accept less then men? If a job pays 15/hour but the woman accepts 13/hour and a man says, no i am worth 15, they will give the job to the woman wont they?  So how many women are employed vs men? These figures from the 2009 state the following:

Women comprised 46.8 percent of the total U.S. labor force
The largest percentage of employed women (40 percent) worked in management, professional, and related occupations;

The unemployment rate for all women was 8.1 percent and 10.3 percent for men in 2009, so are they employed more because they are willing to work for less or simply accept less? 

Also take this into account:

"Men have been disproportionately hurt," the Financial Times explains, "because they dominate those industries that have been crushed: nine in every 10 construction workers are male, as are seven in every 10 manufacturing workers. These two sectors alone have lost almost 2.5 million jobs. Women, in contrast, tend to hold more cyclically stable jobs and make up 75% of the most insulated sectors of all: education and health care."

I just want to point out, it maybe the case when someone at an interview says, how much do you want for a job, that the woman gives a lower salary then the man, and that may be why there is a gap.  So if women want more money they have to be more firm in terms of the salary they will accept, but in turn those that get paid the least, but work just as good keep their jobs in recession and those that get paid the most are let go.

As for being attacked, a wimpy look man can get attacked just as much as a woman, you think a built 6'5" woman walking down the street would be the target of an attack or just some average looking guy?  You get attacked if you appear weak, its just that society portrays being thin and undernourished for women as a good thing.... As for rape, yes, i have to agree, women will be the main targets, its just something you accept if your a woman, and it isnt equal, its just reality, there really isnt anything anyone can do about it, but carry some kind of protection on your person like pepper spray, or even a weapon.  There are ways to minimize the risks.  As an MTF i accept the fact i cannot do the same things i used to.  I cant go out at night alone anymore for a jog, it sucks, but there is no amount of equality laws going to prevent someone from attacking you.

Even though in some areas of the world women dont have the freedoms we have here in the US.  I dont feel less equal.  I can follow my dreams just like anyone else, if i dont make as much as a man its because i settled for less, but if i can live a nice life with that amount it really doesnt bother me, and i dont really know what the top range to be offered was anyway.



Post Merge: July 19, 2010, 05:48:54 PM

Quote from: trnsboi on July 19, 2010, 05:22:10 PM
The issue here is that you are seeing the murder of a trans person as a personal problem when in fact it is a societal problem. I'm not sure about you, but if someone were to murder me because I am trans I would want everyone to *know* that it was because I was trans. It is called consciousness-raising. And that is why we have hate crimes laws, because whenever a hate crime is committed the authorities need to report it as a hate crime. It gives us an idea of what the problem is, how big the problem is, who is committing the crimes, and it helps us to figure out ways to ameliorate the problem.

We already know who is committing the crimes, the profiles exist, its the same people that hate everyone else, but thats great, when i die, they wont remember me as the woman i am, they will just remember me as another Trans death statistic.  What a wonderful thought, my life has such a meaning that the content of my life and all its accomplishments are trumped by being TS.... 

When someone picks up the paper, they will read oh, another trans woman was killed, the LGBT community will be appalled and feel sentiment however everyone else who picks up a newspaper gets a flash in their heads of another dead cross dresser with gender issues.  It makes me seem less then human, and i hate it, I hate the term TS.  I am a woman with TS, not a TS Woman.   

Sorry its something that bothers me, i dont mean to sound hostile.... that was not my intent.

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glendagladwitch

QuoteWoman and man share equality under the law

Not in the United States.  The equal rights amendment did not pass.  The Supreme Court said that there are real differences between men and women, and that diiscrimination regarding women is permittted under the Constitution as amended, as long as it is tied to those real differences.  The only clasifications that get the "strict scrutiny" review are race, religion, and national origin.  Sex and gender get the shaft.
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trnsboi

"As for rape, yes, i have to agree, women will be the main targets, its just something you accept if your a woman, and it isnt equal, its just reality, there really isnt anything anyone can do about it, but carry some kind of protection on your person like pepper spray, or even a weapon.  There are ways to minimize the risks.  As an MTF i accept the fact i cannot do the same things i used to.  I cant go out at night alone anymore for a jog, it sucks, but there is no amount of equality laws going to prevent someone from attacking you."

Are you serious? That is so misogynistic saying that rape is just "something you have to accept if your [sic] a woman." I am not talking about laws, I am talking about privilege. Women don't get raped just because. They get raped because we live in a society that portrays women as inferior to men, objects that were put on earth for men's sexual pleasure. It is a social problem. In pre-Columbian Native American societies rape was almost unheard of. Why? Because women were regarded as equals. Even when white women were taken as captives by Natives they were hardly ever raped. Rape doesn't happen because of some natural male need to rape, it happens because of misogyny.

And no, wimpy men are not likely to get battered by their female partners. The vast majority of domestic violence is male-on-female.

And what you were saying about salaries was not true. Men are more likely to get promotions than women and they are more likely to get hired in the first place. They've done studies where they've sent out identical resumes to companies that were hiring, except that half of the resumes had a male name and half had a female name, and guess what? The resumes that had the male name got more replies. My mother has been suing her ex employers for the past three years in a gender discrimination suit, and she has very good evidence. I can send you the news articles if you want, it is very disturbing. Discrimination against women is a very real problem.

Post Merge: July 19, 2010, 04:03:54 PM

"We already know who is committing the crimes, the profiles exist, its the same people that hate everyone else."

Wrong again. The people who kill trans people are insecure males so yes, a profile exists, but they are not going around killing other groups of people at the same rate they are killing trans people (trans women in particular). The current cis-on-trans murder rate is higher than the white-on-black murder rate, higher than the Christian-on-Jew murder rate, higher than any other majority-on-minority murder rate.

Post Merge: July 19, 2010, 06:11:25 PM

"When someone picks up the paper, they will read oh, another trans woman was killed, the LGBT community will be appalled and feel sentiment however everyone else who picks up a newspaper gets a flash in their heads of another dead cross dresser with gender issues.  It makes me seem less then human, and i hate it, I hate the term TS.  I am a woman with TS, not a TS Woman."


Yup, it's a sad reality. But as long as we keep buying into the myth that gender is biological and binary, people are going to keep accepting only two categories of people: men and women. And they will continue to believe that one's membership in either category is based entirely on the genitals one was born with, meaning that trans people will be seen as "other" or, as you said, "not fully human." That is why I am so dedicated to eradicating the binary.


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Miniar

Quote from: Izumi on July 19, 2010, 12:55:54 PM
Well, i just hope everyone still sticks around to help us after they helped themselves. 

I dont know, I just dont see myself fitting in to the LGBT, I am not lesbian, i am not gay, defiantly not bi.  I am a straight woman born with trans sexuality, which i just see is a disorder.  Everyone else identifies as Lesbian, Gay, or Bi, and even Trans, but personally i hate the term TRANS SEXUAL.  It paints with a broad brush and categorizes every Woman and Man living with Transexuality as a TRANS SEXUAL and not a man or woman.  TS implies neither one or the other, between both.  I hate that.... 

Its like someone having leprosy and calling them a leper, i dont think that nice, and implies that your less then human in some way...  So that also a reason that i hate T in LGBT because now T = Trans and all of us are now Trans to the public, not women or men, just Trans... i hate that.  How come I is not up there also? dont intersex people also need rights?  It seems strange that T is up there but no I.... Are intersex people treated with the same stigma as we are? or do we get it more because we are more visible?

Sometimes the acronym is "LGBTQI"

I do not think that the term transsexual "means" you are not a man nor a woman.
I do not think that the term trans takes away from the fact that we're just as human as everyone else.

These are not innate functions of these words, nor found in the meaning of these words.

Labels are merely terms to describe varying aspects of the whole.
Being Trans doesn't make that all you are.
Treating the word as if it somehow robs you of something is a little strange at best.

The problem isn't the word.
The problem isn't that we are "transsexuals".
The problem is the individuals outside the transgender community as a whole who do not know nor understand anything about us.
By continuing to treat the word the same way as they do, we are perpetuating the problem.

We can rant and rave about how the GLB don't and thus we shouldn't be with them, but you know what, if we can't even be active enough in our own cause to teach our allies about us, then how are we going to teach the world?



"Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell" - Nietzsche
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Ghost on the Highway

A lot of the groups are LGBTQI (Q for queer I guess, makes no sense to me)

I've always seen intersex as a separate issue, being that it is a physical, medically diagnosed condition and (at least in theory) cannot be seen as a "choice" by the nutjob religious right groups.
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quincymaureen

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April Dawne

I think at least part of the reason intersex are included is due to pure ignorance by people in the general public. They view intersex, trans, CD's, TV, and even drags as essentially the same thing... freaks. It sucks, but that's the truth. They really do not see any difference. I have known several small-minded ignorant people who don't know the difference between the types of people I listed and aren't even slightly interested in hearing about those differences. To them we are all freaks, and that's that; and bottom line, they don't even CARE about how or why.

It may all seem like common knowledge from our point of view, but that is because we are on the inside of this world. They are on the outside, living in complete oblivion, unaware of any of it because it has no direct impact on their daily lives. We LIVE this every day. They do not. They hear about this stuff mostly in bad porn and on jerry springer, and therefore have a warped view of what our world is like.

Until our people are portrayed in a positive light in the media, and more is done publicly to shed light on who we really are, their view of us is likely not to change any time soon.

~*Don't wanna look without seeing*~

~*Don't wanna touch without feeling*~




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Izumi

Quote from: Miniar on July 19, 2010, 06:44:49 PM
We can rant and rave about how the GLB don't and thus we shouldn't be with them, but you know what, if we can't even be active enough in our own cause to teach our allies about us, then how are we going to teach the world?

Well many reasons really, one is that we are divided as well.  When it comes to treatment some of us feel its better to have TS be medical in nature like intersex, i am one of those people, it would be a birth defect then in medicine.  Some TS dont like being called defective and fight that, with a lot of infighting sometimes nothing really gets done.

In the mean time i teach the world in my own way, through one on one interaction.  Its true i am stealth right now for many reasons, one of which is my fiance who i dont want to see hurt for any reason because of what i have to live with.  Even though  I live this way I do have an effect on people, for the people who know my past they cant believe how well I can be a woman to the point where my friend for 10 years asked me "How do you act like a girl so well, its amazing", to which i just replied, "I just stopped acting like a guy and started living as myself, this isnt the act, my life before was".

Everyone who has remained friends with me from my past sees that this is the way I really work and in so doing get a better understanding of what it means to be TS.  For the people that dont know me from my past I am just like any other woman, on occasion someone finds out and confronts me, i dont deny it, i just state i am the same person you were friends with all those years, does it matter? Have i ever made you think i was anything but what i am before you?  A lot of times they are amazed, and in so also get a better understanding (havent lost a friend yet ^_^b). 

Most of all even if they dont know your TS you can be the voice of reason whenever topics come up dealing with TS issues or even LGB issues.  When topics among friends are just spinning around in rumor and i heard this and i heard that... you can provide facts and stability.  If they ask why you know so much typically I say I wrote a paper in college ^_^b (which i did by the way).

So even without being visible you can alter people's perception one at a time and that has ripples that catch other people and so on and so on.

Post Merge: July 20, 2010, 12:06:32 PM

Quote from: Ghost on the Highway on July 19, 2010, 08:30:07 PM
A lot of the groups are LGBTQI (Q for queer I guess, makes no sense to me)

I've always seen intersex as a separate issue, being that it is a physical, medically diagnosed condition and (at least in theory) cannot be seen as a "choice" by the nutjob religious right groups.

Research has been ongoing but points to an emerging trend which denotes that trans sexuality is also a medical condition like intersex caused by genetics and androgen receptors causing hormones to not bind properly to cells preventing a fetus from fully masculinizing or feminizing during gestation.
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Alyssa M.

Izumi, you keep complaining how the LGB don't accept you. The more I read your posts, the more I get the impression that the real issue is that you don't much care for LGB folk. Are you afraid someone might mistake you for a lesbian? Why should you care if they do?




GOTH, the largest form of "the acronym" I have seen so far is LGBTQQIAA, where the Q's are "queer" and "questioning" and the A's are "asexual" and "ally." Why doesn't "queer" make sense?

Perhaps an example would help: I know a woman who tends to fit in much better with men, but is happy with her body and the way people gender her as female: she's cisgendered, definitely not trans, but that misses something. She dates men exclusively, but she much prefers to have sex with other women: she's straight, but not really. She's bisexual, kind of, but again, not really. She's not a lesbian. She's not pansexual. She doesn't fit into the convenient categories we have made: she's just queer.

So while I see "trans" as the unifying element within "LGBT," I think "queer" is even better: it accounts for all the people those "religious nutjobs" disparage. (Note that plenty of them are not religious at all -- Ayn Rand is a classic nut-case in point.)

By the way, don't underestimate the ability of people to dismiss intersexed people as freaks, in ways similar to the way they dismiss other member of "the acronym." See: "South Park"; hermapholite. See also: Curtis, Jamie Lee.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

   - Anatole France
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