TG being alienated from Chicago community

[Trinique_Fire]

We have a free paper in Chicago called the RedEye...an offshoot of the Tribune. There was an cover story recently about the plight of our TG brothers and sisters, nation and city wide. I'd like everyone to read this article, as I think it's important to remember to keep an open mind and heart.

For transgender people, acceptance is hard to find-even in LGBT community

Some statistics to keep in mind regarding transgender people:

97% said they experienced mistreatment or harassment at work
47% said they were denied a promotion or not hired because of their transgender identity
26% said they lost their jobs because they are transgender
19% said they had been or are homeless
15% live on $10,000 a year or less
13% said they are unemployed


How quickly we forget....

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I just noticed the News and Issues section, so if mods need to move this accordingly, go ahead.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Bumping this up for anyone who hasn't yet read the article/statistics.

 

[Stella_Omega]

When I lived in Chicago, the TG's found the most acceptance in the queer BDSM community-- whether or not they played. Plenty gay folk are as conservative as the het majority, really.

 

[Etoile]

I just noticed the News and Issues section, so if mods need to move this accordingly, go ahead.

I moved it because otherwise it would get lost in the cockmania.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

When I lived in Chicago, the TG's found the most acceptance in the queer BDSM community-- whether or not they played. Plenty gay folk are as conservative as the het majority, really.

There's nothing wrong with being conservative or having conservative values, but what I've seen around is that some gay people are seemingly forgetting that THEY were once put through the wringer because of their sexuality and somehow it makes it okay to put members of the TG community through the same hell.

As a side note: I didn't know you once lived here, Stella!!!

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I moved it because otherwise it would get lost in the cockmania.

Pun intended?

Thanks, Etoile.

 

[Vail_Indigo]

Sadly, this is a perfect example of shit flowing downward.
Every group wants to not feel like they are at the bottom, and so they feel free to discriminate against SOMEONE.
And, of course, they'll find some meaningless distinction that makes their fight for equality reasonable and the other group's fight perverted.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Sadly, this is a perfect example of shit flowing downward.
Every group wants to not feel like they are at the bottom, and so they feel free to discriminate against SOMEONE.
And, of course, they'll find some meaningless distinction that makes their fight for equality reasonable and the other group's fight perverted.

Good to see you.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Damn...just damn but now I have a definition for me....gender queer. I never knew there was a term that fit.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Damn...just damn but now I have a definition for me....gender queer. I never knew there was a term that fit.

I meant to mention it to you and forgot. However love, when I brag about my baby daddi to my friends, I refer to you as gender queer. Makes a lot of sense to me now.

I hope it helps a little.

 

[coastal-boy]

kisses at ya. I've become a daddy since the last time we talked. She's gonna be 6 months next week.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

kisses at ya. I've become a daddy since the last time we talked. She's gonna be 6 months next week.

CONGRATS!!! It's fabulous, isn't it? Awww, PM me if you get a chance.

 

[HarlotMinx]

So, there's a number of things here. First, those statistics are fundamentally way off. Part of the issue with polls relating to trans folk is the inherent difficulty of finding enough trans folk to poll.

Factors affecting polls:

• Transexuals tend to have private doctors and therapists and varied ones so their is rarely a unified treatment center where you can poll trans identifying individuals. Also, their are very VERY few clubs or groups completely dedicated to transfolk unlike gay or lesbian devoted organizations and hence few places that deal with any real number of trans folk.
• As a rule, trans individuals are a bit alienated from LGB community either because they don't identify with them or feel those communities are hostile to them.
• Once a person gets to the point where they can pass (assuming they can get to that point) they tend to go stealth and disapear from anything that can connect them with transexualism (seriously, I know about 40 odd trans identifying people who dropped off the face of the earth as soon as they started passing).
• Transgender is a very wide body of people that tend to compose a lot of sub groups each of which will have varying polls all of which are subject to visibility.
• Trans identifying individuals tend to have an assumption that people's reactions to them are based on the fact they're transexual and so if a person is say fired for a attitude problem it's assumed that they were discriminated on because of their gender identity. It takes years for many trans folk no matter their age to get past the point where they're defined by their transexualism rather than their personality. Many are like gay men who first come out of the closet and go a bit overboard on the gay pride thing for the first few years.

So typically the people constituting polls of the trans community are transgender rather than transexual people (not that they shouldn't be in a poll but they are more likely to be visible as trans and thus more likely to encounter people who will discriminate), people who misconstrue some act as discrimination upon their gender identity when their might be other mitigating factors, MTFs (I know this might get me a flaming but in general FTMs WILL pass better than a average MTF at the same age and this becomes a increasingly more true the older the MTF)

If you were to be able to poll anything close to the true population of transexuals including the vast majority of stealth transexuals, get them to properly identify whether their discrimination was because of gender related issue or some other factor, and manage to factor out the groups of transexuals, transgenders, cis genders, transvestites, etc and so on into their base components and look at them individually I think you'd see varied results based on category and how visible they are to society at large.

That's not to say their is a very real problem that needs to be addressed but just that the results of this poll are likely wildly off what I would expect them to be if say you were just questioning transexual MTF and FTMS or just cisgender people. I guess what I'm saying is that while there is a social issue this poll is likely to represent people who are visible to society and thus more likely to be a target and a tad misleading but looks great to bring up for shocking people. I know their is this idea transexuals are obsessed with looking their gender acting their gender and so on rather then being... well themselves. And while I agree the focus isn't healthy it's also in many ways necessary in the way society is currently structured. In reality I think you'd find that the majority of passing transexuals have the same earning potential and lives as non transexuals. While it could be argued that you'd see the same of gays and lesbians who hide their identity I don't think that comparison would be accurate as passing transexuals aren't hiding their chosen identity but rather being their chosen gender rather then being a transexual.

When I lived in Chicago, the TG's found the most acceptance in the queer BDSM community-- whether or not they played. Plenty gay folk are as conservative as the het majority, really.

Mmmmm that's a tricky area, yes and no. I mean I know the Leather Rose, Galleria Domain and most of the munches in the Indiana/chicago area though I'm active now in DC and I think that in the het BDSM (I know you're talking about the gay BDSM groups specifically) they're fetishized which isn't really the same as accepted not to mention a vast majority of people who appear in the community have a crossdressing fetish more than any real trans interest.

But yeah, I'd agree with the last statement. In some lesbian clubs you'll find FTMs accepted but not MTFs and in others FTMs are seen as traitors as well and still others couldn't give a damn. I mean hell their are lesbian circles who see any sex with men as by definition rape and abhor the idea of penetration. Like I said, many trans folk get a few bad experiences with various groups withing the LGB and tend to get alienated by them as a whole... I think a lot of this tends to either do with a focus on genitals or a focus on the "<insert gender> spirit" which trans folk are seen as having the wrong type of ironically.

Sorry, that was a bit rambling but I tend to get a bit edgy when I see polls that I know for a fact are misleading, even if they are favorable.