DURING MY RECENT illness which is lingering like it's a new way of life, for me, I started looking at ancient LGBTQ+ history I remembered and somewhat earlier Including seeing what I could see about the sadly lost Lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis. There is something that saddens me about their too early demise. Maybe someday I'll write about that.
Before going on I will come out and say I am an LGBTQ+ Person and I consider a wrong to one of us is a wrong to me, even if I can't claim to speak for all of us. Writing against those wrongs is a moral obligation I take seriously.
That reading mentioned above, in a long chain of followed links, led me to the generally viciously anti-trans ideology of some, hardly all, of Women who identify as "radical feminists." From what I can see those radical feminists who are furious about Trans Women who identify as Women, center their anger on their assumption that those assigned male gender at birth cannot possibly have suffered the kind of discrimination and pain that those assigned female gender have suffered.
Which strikes me as a rather odd criterion to base such a choice on. While I wouldn't presume to tell any Women, and I will include TransWomen in this statement what to think, my first question is:
1. How does anyone know that either in the reality of any individual person's life experience, which is real, or in the entirely imaginary and artificial fiction of any group's experience? People experience pain, groups are imaginary constructs, they don't experience anything, the individuals placed into groups do. AND I WILL POINT OUT THAT IS A REAL QUESTION, AND ONE WHICH I'M SURE WILL NOT HAVE ANY UNIVERSALLY AGREED TO ANSWER. And, if that's the determining criterion, how do you measure it? It's a question that certainly has figured in the history of the feminist movement, in general, whether first or second wave or in whatever wave feminism is in now.
Black Women certainly pointed out that White Women, in general, had an importantly different experience than that of Women who had been doubly targeted for discrimination and violence due to their gender and their race. Women who grew up in poverty, in destitution, among the working poor certainly had different experiences than those who grew up with a very significant differential in experiencing pain, rivaling those of gender and race, affluence and even great wealth.
In all of those importantly different ranges of experience there are certainly commonalities, a wealthy white woman who grew up in great wealth was still subject to legal discrimination against women, could be crushed in spirit and soul by the role they were expected to play, THEY COULD CERTAINLY BE THE SUBJECT OF VIOLENCE INCLUDING DEADLY VIOLENCE THAT IS PANDEMIC - Women are still murdered every single day due to their being Women in exactly the same way that People of Color are murdered every day because of that fact. I've controversially called that the most significant lynching campaign that never ended, one which makes women live under a reign of terror so pervasive many don't even notice it. I'm sure that many Women would deny that's the case, especially those living according to traditional gender roles. And here I will note that TransWomen of Color have one of the highest murder rates and other experiences of violence and discrimination in the country.
I would never, ever claim that there was any such a thing as a uniform experience of being a Gay Man, I've certainly and repeatedly condemned many a Republican-fascist or affluent faggot who made common cause with the fascists, I did just the other day.
I have to wonder if the idea that such assumptions could be made and uniformly asserted about the experience of TransWomen and those assigned female identity at birth is a product of the pseudo-sciences of sociology, anthropology and psychology which create such non-existent abstract "persons" that are talked about in such universal and reality denying ways. The assumption of that perhaps minority of radical feminists who hate TransWomen that such false, fictitious persons are real and their make believe and imaginary "experiences" and "traits."* I will note that one of the most vocal of the extreme anti-Transwoman voices comes from the writer of the Harry Potter books, J. K. Rowling. Someone who created a huge number of entirely imgainary characters living in an entirely imaginary world. I couldn't possibly know her inner mind but I have to wonder if perhaps her work habits don't inform her thinking about this issue. I have to wonder how may Transwomen she knows or has any knowledge of. I haven't looked but wonder if someone has asked her about the surprisingly large number of People born without a standard set of genitals whose gender assignment was arbitrary on a biological basis, often leading to conflicting experience and, yes, enormous pain for some of those PERSONS.
2. Considering the enormous differential in the experience of pain due to apparent identity within any group, does that mean that those who experienced more pain are "more" Woman or Gay or whatever group than those who experienced little to no such pain? Again how do you measure that? And who gets to decide how much pain qualifies you entrance or authenticity, if that's the measure?
I would certainly not make "pain felt," pain in childhood adolescence, adulthood such a determination among men classified as Gay. I would certainly reject the idea that just being a Gay Man either includes or excludes any given Gay Man from the presumptions of male privilege, which is a real thing which is important but which is hardly distributed equally ANYMORE THAN THE PRIVILEGE OF AFFLUENCE IS AMONG THOSE WHO HAVE ANY MONEY. And which is hardly guaranteed to men who are perceived to be gay or who have always been honest about being gay. And, having lived in the same community I grew up in, IT OFTEN TURNS OUT TO BE THE CASE THAT SOME OF THOSE WHO MADE OUR LIVES MOST MISERABLE TURNED OUT TO HAVE SEX WITH OTHER MEN. I can think of several of the most straight-identifying anti-gay jerks turned out to be gay, themselves.
All this gives me little to nothing in common with the FAGAs in Trump's cabinet or among the Tech bros or those Republican-fascists in Congress and on the Supreme Court. We may, to my regret, get classified as having a same gender orientation but we have nothing in common apart from that. I oppose them every chance I get and make chances when those are missing. I certainly doubt that those who spend their lives passing as straight, white, affluent, ruling class Republican-fascists share the same level of pain due to discrimination or endangerment as a young, poor, effeminate Gay male of Color who spends time living on the street due to the discrimination against them, sometimes with the rejection of their family. I put my lot in with the underclass, not the Republican-fascist faggots and even the wealthy Democratic ones.
3. I have absolutely no problem with anti-trans radical feminists making rules of who gets to be part of their clubs, their events, their circle but I have every problem with them making common cause with the anti-LGBTQ+ fascists in targeting the tiny number of often very young, very vulnerable Trans People for legal discrimination and pointlessly hurtful treatment. I DON'T FOR A SECOND BELIEVE THE REPUBLICAN-FASCISTS CARE ABOUT SUCH TRANSWOMEN IN SPORTS- GOD KNOWS THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT WOMEN, ESPECIALLY GIRLS IN GENERAL - THEY WANT TRANS PEOPLE FOR THE TARGET OF THE POLITICALLY OPPORTUNISTIC HATE CAMPAIGNING, they have a group they target for fearing and hating every political season. And any anti-trans radical feminists who make common cause with them are part of that AND THEY CAN GO TO HELL WITH THEM.
Again, I don't think what they do privately in venues which are in no way public accommodations by way of bigotry and discrimination is the business of anyone else. Though it is fairly considered open for commentary. That commentary will be made, in any case.
I don't know why TransWomen would want to have anything to do with them anymore than LGBTQ+ People would want to pay those who hate us for making a cake, though if it's a business the issue of public accommodation makes that fair for action. I doubt their politics will ever amount to anything except helping the fascists. Seeing the total nut-job Ti-Grace Atkinson (Good Lord, is she still alive?) being among the names I recognized among them did nothing to dissuade me of that suspicion. I remember reading her scribblage in the early 1970s or late 60s and realizing she was a total waste of eyesight because there was absolutely no way she would ever accomplish anything except impeding any group she was involved with. Luckily, she faded into total obscurity only to recently rise from the crypt.
I think many of the ideas and goals of radical feminism are extremely important and valuable and have since the late 1960s when such Women started writing and speaking in public. I have repeatedly written about my agreement with some of the most vilified of them, especially around the issue of pornography. I doubt that the anti-Trans minority among them will contribute anything to making real change for the better in real lives, though they may make some Trans People's lives more painful and worse. They are like the pointless play-lefties whose only accomplishment was to thwart real progress. The irony of that is that THEY ARE INFLICTING THE SAME KIND OF PAIN ON TRANS WOMEN THAT THEY CONSIDER THE CRITERION OF AUTHENTICITY OF MEMBERSHIP IN THEIR GENDER. They are become what they claim to exist to fight against. Only not for "their people." No wonder they're making common cause with the Republican-fascists.
* Which risks me getting into the foremost creators of such imaginary and abstract, sometimes entirely unevidenced creatures, those who believe in natural selection, Darwinism. Which I will be writing about again in the near future.
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