5:24 a.m. - Friday, Jul. 19, 2002
Ms Leslie Names The First Honorary Transsexual Ever
I�m back to the title of Honorary Transsexual idea. Goodsandwich put an unexpected and in my opinion, brilliant spin on the idea when she suggested that not every recipient of the award need feel comfortable with it. I love that idea but the reality is, I need to be careful about who I offend. It�s a strange truth that as I become worth more to myself, I become worth less to society as a whole. Some of this comes as a normal part of accepting life as a woman. We all know that a woman�s opinion is often less valid, her advice less compelling, and her physical strength inferior when compared with men. For me, however, it goes even beyond that. Most women don�t �choose� to be women. As a transsexual woman, the overwhelming majority of people assume that I chose to be what and who I am. This puts me into one of the last groups in this country against which it�s perfectly legal and even morally acceptable to discriminate. Even the murder of a transsexual is somehow less of an affront to society than the murder of a more respectable citizen. We are specifically excluded from hate crimes legislation. Did you know that? So anyway�. I hesitate to step up and be the TS who pisses some redneck goofball off. I�m not that well hidden. Anyone who is determined can find me. All of this is just to say hey!� I better play nice or I could get a bump on the head.
Well�.. with one possible exception.
I�ve been trying to decide, if I am to seize the privilege of naming honorary transsexuals, to whom should I give the first award? I can think of several people in my own life who are deserving. But numero uno should, I think, be somehow more symbolic or significant somehow than the rest. But, how am I to elevate one above the others? Every friend I have is precious to me. I can�t say any one person should be put ahead of any other. I was wrestling with this when Goodsandwich�s idea came back to me in a flash of inspiration. If anyone needs to be a transsexual, it�s Jerry Springer. There�s a guy who is not only ignorant about TS issues, but is ignorant in public about them. He spreads more hate and misinformation in one hour than most commie agitators could spread in a decade. Just because I have too much time on my hands, I actually wrote Jerry Springer a letter recently. Here�s what I said:
�Hi Jerry;
It's my problem, I know. If I had half a brain, I'd just not watch your show. It's demeaning... but democratically so. The Jerry Springer show demeans neraly every guest and each audience member who participates in it equally. But I keep watching. Only my therapist could ever help me understand why.
But since I DO watch, I'd like to see if I can make a point about transsexuals, transvestites, and drag queens. All of these are described by the general term 'transgendered', but they are each very different one from the other. A Drag Queen is typically a gay male who impersonates a female in order to get attention or sometimes to attract other gay men. Drag Queens consider themselves men, even while they are in drag. Transvestites are normally heterosexual men who enjoy dressing and acting as women for the sexual excitement they gain from it. The majority of transvestites live as men and express their feminine side only occasionally.
Transsexuals are a very different category. A transsexual person considers herself (or himself) to be of the gender opposite from their physical sex. There are several possible reasons for this but so far, no single reason has been demonstrated to cause transsexuality. Most, but not all, transsexuals seek and eventually obtain surgical revision of their genitals to make them congruent with their emotional sex, or gender.
As a transsexual, I watch your show quite regularly, and I watch especially closely when I see guests who are touted as transsexual. The majority of these so-called transsexuals are really either drag queens or transvestites. I suppose it's technically correct, although obnoxious, for the audience to chant that these are men. For those few true transsexuals who have the bad judgement to appear as guests on your show, however, you do your audiences and guests a great disservice when you encourage the 'you're a man' chant. In truth, these people are not men. They may appear as very poor approximations of women, but neither are they men. They're women. In the case of female to male transsexuals... they are men.
I know it's futile to point any of this out to you. There's zero probability that you'll change anything about the JSpringer show simply for the sake of human dignity or (gasp!) education. I don't expect ever to see that. But I felt moved to write this to you personally in hopes that you, Jerry Springer, will at least not be operating from a basis of ignorance about the guests on your show. When you ask a transsexual guest when 'he' knew 'he' was gay, I'll have the knowledge at least that you know better than to refer to your guest as 'he', and you'll know that being transsexual doesn't necessarily imply homosexuality. I'll know you're doing it only from a sense of showmanship and with no regard for your own cruelty. I won't respect you any more or less than before. I'll just know that you're being intentionally mean. I can't explain it, but somehow, I think it's better if your mean on purpose than if your mean because you don't know any better.
My condolences on your late self-esteem
Leslie Smith�
There was no reply of course. Voices in the wind and all that. But I did at least make the attempt to express my feelings about his version of trash TV.
So�� I�m pretty much decided that, in a reversal of the true intent of the whole Honorary Transsexual concept, the honor of the first award should go to Jerry Springer. Over the next few days, I�m going to figure out how best to notify him and how to recognize him in my diary, on my site, or both. Shoot� if I didn�t have enough on my plate already, I�d love to see if I could get some kind of publicity for him. Wouldn�t THAT be fun?
0 comments so far
�
�
