Would the World be Better Off Without Any Trans People?

[Allamakee]

Would the World be Better Off Without Any Trans People?
The Bilerico Project (LGBT website)
by Alice Kalafarski
February 11, 2010

http://www.bilerico.com/2010/02/would_the_world_be_better_off_without_any_trans_pe.php

It's fairly common to find trans people who wish they were born cis, but it's particularly discouraging for me to hear that from a smart young trans woman on a progressive site like this. In a post earlier this week, Austen wrote that she felt being trans was a disease and that: "if I'd had my druthers I'd have been born female." I don't accept that being trans is a disease, but I'm going to set aside that argument for now. We can't go back and change how trans people like Austen were born, but what if some day we had the power to make sure every baby was born cis? Being trans certainly seems to make a lot of people unhappy, so wouldn't the world as a whole be a happier place if nobody had to go through that?

[Alyssa M.]

HELL NO!

The world needs more freaks, not fewer. It sucks to be trans in a whole lot of ways, largely (but not by any means entirely) because of the society we live in. But when you start taking away the freaks, society gets really boring and stagnant really fast, and then people who used to be normal become freaks. Bad times.

[tekla]

It's a part of me and I would not be me without it.

[Janet_Girl]

We have a bumper sticker here that is prefect.  "Keep Portland Weird"

[tekla]

Yeah, but Portland stole that from Austin, Texas, which really is weird.

[Janet_Girl]

See how weird we are! 

[tekla]

Hey, I was up there for the naked bike ride (my friends want me to come up and do it this year) and I don't even think Austin would do that.

[Janet_Girl]

Thanks for that image, Kat.  ~shudders~

[tekla]

Hey I'll look cute as hell in my little pink ruffled tutu.  And I can ride like the wind and drink like a fish, which are the two key parts to it I think.

[Cindy]

Sadly I cannot go to Austin, Texas. I'm not sure if my heart could cope with the shock . But I will retain the image, Kat, for days when I feel low

Diversity in people, in what they do and in what they believe - HELL YES.

Just don't like hate people.


Cindy

[tekla]

Hey, the tutu skirt is just like the one in my avatar, and the naked bike ride is in Portland Oregon, not Austin Texas, though both places are very nice, Portland Ore is a lot more 'outdoorsy' but Austin has a music scene that's beyond awesome, and a pretty good university too.

They had about 2000 ride in Portland last year, it took about an hour for it to pass us where we were.
http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Portland

[BunnyBee]

Our lovely shades of gray lend society much needed depth and character.  A 2-bit world of gender would be regression imo.

Even though (separate from having the wrong body, etc.) my mind mostly conforms to the binary, I'm very glad for those who do not.

[Cindy]

Hey, the tutu skirt is just like the one in my avatar, and the naked bike ride is in Portland Oregon, not Austin Texas, though both places are very nice, Portland Ore is a lot more 'outdoorsy' but Austin has a music scene that's beyond awesome, and a pretty good university too.

They had about 2000 ride in Portland last year, it took about an hour for it to pass us where we were.
http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Portland

Sorry Tekla,
We have just had the Tour Down Under and I was thinking it would be great to see the placings in Tutu's. You have just won the yellow tutu, the best sprinter gets the green tutu. And the polka dot (otherwise known as the Maria) is awarded to the best moutain climber .
Sounds fun 

Cindy

[PanoramaIsland]

What if everyone were trans?

Insofar as I think the gender binary is a load of steaming dog poop and that gender is a (subconscious) performance, I think that everyone is in some way "trans." There's just a subgroup of us for whom it is so obvious that we can no longer deny it, and have to spend lots of time and energy adjusting both ourselves and others to our gender variance. If everyone is a gender unto themselves, how can the category of "trans" really exist, except as a descriptor of the entirety of humankind?
Just echoing Kate Bornstein, Judith Butler etc. on this. I guess I'm not too original after all. 

[Silver]

I guess it depends on your point of view, but one certain fact is that the world would be a lot less interesting.

Gray areas are something to think about. As far as I'm concerned, forcing people to think is not a bad thing.

[PanoramaIsland]

As far as I'm concerned, forcing people to think is not a bad thing.

God, true dat. Isn't rethinking previously unexamined foundations the very engine of progress?

[Shana A]

from National Geographic show Bugis' Five Genders

The Bugi culture recognizes five separate genders:
Makkunrai (feminine woman)
Oroane (masculine man)
Calabai (feminine man, or what we might see as M2F) 
Calalai (masculine female, or what we might see as F2M)
Bissu (embodying male and female energies, revered as a shaman).

"All 5 genders must coexist for there to be universal harmony. If one of them is separated, the world becomes out of balance" - quoted from a Bissu priest/ess

The world needs us, whether it knows it or not. I believe our society will be a much better place when we recognize and celebrate the full diversity of gender.

Z

[spacial]

The greatest argument against dogmatism is that it seeks to eliminate ideas and attitudes it doesn't like.

We know that, since the earliest times, there have been people of all types regarding their's and other's genders.

Society developes because of its diversty. It meanders along, favouring one side then another but going forward in a more or less, middle path.

Remove any section and lose the middle way.

The way to defeat those we disagree with is by argument.

[Vision]

Disease = "dis-ease" .... definitely that way for me.

Would I have been much happier being born female and getting to grow up that way?  Damn straight I would have.

For those of you who embrace it, thats great and I am truly happy for you.  But I just cant.  If I could have been changed in the womb, it would have saved a lot of people -- especially me -- a whole lot of pain.

::Shrugs::

Just my opinion on what would have been right for me.

[Dawn D.]

HELL NO!

It sucks to be trans in a whole lot of ways,

Actually, I think it may suck worse to be "normal". I am not a bit unhappy with who I am, yet I see a lot of unhappiness with "normal people".


Dawn