Sexuality Class

This week we have a few classes covering the topic of transgenderism. While the first class dealt with the issues, terms, and definitions of transgender and me and a transguy answered questions, the second class spoke about other factors regarding the transgender arena.

Two discussions that really got my attention was the negativity about us being included in the "LGBT" acronym an the other discussion was about how our terminology changes, literally, month after month or where we do not agree on certain issues as transgender people.

The first being the "LGBT" acronym. It was suggested that some transgender people who do not want to be associated with this acronym do so because of the social negative outlook on gay and lesbian people and because they have had bad experiences with the gay or lesbian population. It was suggested that a good amount of transgender girls have identified as lesbian but still would not want to be included in the LGBT spectrum. Being associated as a gay or lesbian is something they don't want even though they identify as a lesbian if they date another female. Statistics also show that transgender female are more passionate about not being part of the LGBT spectrum than transgender males. Some people would contribute this as transgender girls not wanting to be labeled anything that would alienate themselves from people that relationships have already been strained by coming out as transgender. Studies have also shown that Straight transgender females have a more accepting view of the LGBT acronym than Lesbian transgender females.

The second viewpoint is the way we change the acceptance of certain words that identify the transsexual or transgender. Allies have discussed how confusion it is when they approach a transgender person because one transgender person would be offended if the Allie called them transgender and not transsexual; others will be offended if an Allie called them a transsexual and not a transgender and others would be offended if they were called anything but female. Also, it was shown that transgender females have a more "passionate mentality" of their label than a transgender male. The most recent source of this evidence is from Chaz Bono's documentary. While the allies thought that Chaz's documentary was incredibly successful in promoting transgender equality and information, many transgender people went back and forth about how much of a success he was in his documentary while others thought it was an utter failure.