Trans Guys: Lesbians in Men's Clothing?

http://tranifesto.com/2010/11/11/trans-guys-lesbians-in-mens-clothing/
Matt Kailey
11/11/10

When I told my sister that I was going to transition from female to male, the first thing she said was: "Are you sure you're not just a lesbian?"

Having been with men all my life, having been attracted to men all my life, and having attempted, unsuccessfully, to be a lesbian in early adolescence as a way to explain what I was feeling, it was fairly easy for me to say "no" to that question – and to be believed.

For trans guys who have come out of the lesbian community or come out in the lesbian community, it's often a different story. For these guys, who may have identified as lesbian (as I attempted to do) because they didn't know what they were feeling, or who knew that the identity didn't fit, but had no other community that made sense to them, their eventual transition to male is sometimes seen in an entirely different light.

This is an excellent point:

QuoteAnd until others can stop seeing our transition as a rejection of who they are, until others can stop feeling threatened and denigrated by something that we do that has nothing to do with them whatsoever, until others can stop defining our transition by their interpretation of it, we will continue to suffer the repercussions of their agenda – which has nothing to do with us whatsoever.

We seek to change because that is who we are. Not a rejection of who they are. Their presumption is, essentially, self centred, that what we do, we do to attack them.

Equally, the notion that we are attempting to invade their gender territory is an indication of their own insecurities.

I don't want to invade women's gender territory because I'm already in it. Because of my appearance, I am forced to invade men's gender territory where my perfirmance is poor to say the least.

Like so many in human history, I am forced to contrive a personality and attitudes which are alien to me. But unlike those unfortunates before me, there is a solution.

Sadly, those that don't expereince what we all feel, find us confusing and threatening. So they have put up yet more barriers.

We stand at the crossroads of gender balanced on the sharp edge of a knife.