No Variant from R*E*S*P*E*C*T
Submitted by Barbara on Sat, 09/12/2009 - 10:43am
As an aging curmudgeon, I am but one voice on the board, and therefore do not set policy — not that I would want that much responsibility. For myself, I labor with the many labels we put on ourselves. I am probably the only voice in the wilderness that still absolutely HATES the word “transgender” or even worse “transgendered.” English is my second language (I am native German) and the word “transgendered” sounds to me like something you do with a food processor. I lived with the basic “transsexual” description of myself throughout my transition. Kim Elizabeth Stuart in the Uninvited Dilemma taught me that once that transition was over I was a woman. But then, most of us in this Ingersoll community — especially in this 21st century generation — don’t want to be restricted by those gender barriers.
For all the confusion about gender identity-related terms and how we color the picture we send out to the world, there is one word that often gets lost in the sniper fire. It’s an English word my German self discovered in its most beautiful form as described by Aretha Franklin in music and by my Ingersoll support group in the gender identity battle. That word is R*E*S*P*E*C*T. It means that we know best who WE are, but should celebrate and honor where everyone else is. Except for the occasional whacko Congressman who shouts down the President of the United States, it can work in Washington, DC or Washington state. We have enough disagreements in our community that we don’t need to get hung up on a battle of words.
It’s time to celebrate our stuff. I know just the guy with the Louis Armstrong voice who can help you celebrate.
Yesterday, September 11, was a day that will live not only in infamy. For me, it is a day of celebration — not only for my life — but for the work of Ingersoll Founder Marsha Botzer and other pioneers in our upheaval of the gender binary. As the very funny Travis Simmons serenaded me with his best Louis Armstrong voice marking the 20th birthday of my SRS surgery, (You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Louis What a Wonderful World Armstrong sing “Happy Birthday to Your Stuff”) at a local comedy club, I tried to bring my thinking out of the box.
We who defy the determinations of medical professionals at our birth still sit uncomfortably in the waiting room of life glancing over long-expired publications that carry words like “gender dysphoria,” or “gender variant,” or the more preferred “illegal mutant from outer space.” Even here in the upper echelons of the 100-story, gender neutral Marsha Botzer Tower where the Ingersoll Gender Center board chews on issues surrounding identity documents, DSM-V, and whether we should pass out chocolates or Broccoli florets at national conferences, we suffer our own identity crisis.
Apparently, there is some apprehension about the term “gender variant” being used as one of the first descriptors of the Ingersoll community on this Web site. An asterisk on the page notes a definition as”a person who identifies with non-polar (male/female) gender identity, a mixed or fluid identity.” The fear is that a Sarah Palin-like observer of our community will either take this to mean someone who can’t commit their own minds and therefore should be committed, or, in the Palin-tradition take up arms against this strange species — polar or non.
As an aging curmudgeon, I am but one voice on the board, and therefore do not set policy — not that I would want that much responsibility. For myself, I labor with the many labels we put on ourselves. I am probably the only voice in the wilderness that still absolutely HATES the word “transgender” or even worse “transgendered.” English is my second language (I am native German) and the word “transgendered” sounds to me like something you do with a food processor. I lived with the basic “transsexual” description of myself throughout my transition. Kim Elizabeth Stuart in the Uninvited Dilemma taught me that once that transition was over I was a woman. But then, most of us in this Ingersoll community — especially in this 21st century generation — don’t want to be restricted by those gender barriers.
For all the confusion about gender identity-related terms and how we color the picture we send out to the world, there is one word that often gets lost in the sniper fire. It’s an English word my German self discovered in its most beautiful form as described by Aretha Franklin in music and by my Ingersoll support group in the gender identity battle. That word is R*E*S*P*E*C*T. It means that we know best who WE are, but should celebrate and honor where everyone else is. Except for the occasional whacko Congressman who shouts down the President of the United States, it can work in Washington, DC or Washington state. We have enough disagreements in our community that we don’t need to get hung up on a battle of words.
It’s time to celebrate our stuff. I know just the guy with the Louis Armstrong voice who can help you celebrate.
<3
Thank you, Barbara <3