Dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, & legal protection of individuals in the process of correcting the misalignment of their anatomical sex, & supporting their transition into society.
HBS & ENDA. Let's be clear about on one thing when we talk about the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Whatever the drafter's intentions were, the "gender identity" clause in the inclusive version of ENDA did NOT include men and women born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS). The gender identity (brain sex) of HBS men and women is set at birth and does not change. What changes is our anatomical genitalia and the sex marker (male or female) on our birth and legal records.
HBS is a congenital intersex biological condition that develops before birth, involving the differentiation between male and female. The physical appearance of the body is not in agreement with the physical structure of the brain. Those who are diagnosed as born with HBS should not be linked in any way with those who suffer from Gender Identity Dysphoria. For further discussion, see Do Not Link HBS With Gender Identity Dysphoria: Letter to American Psychological Association by Diane Lynn Kearney.
ENDA defined gender identity as "the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth. What does that have to do with HBS men and women? Our gender and characteristics don't change. We are who are. Only our external genitalia changes, not our gender.
Springfield, VA, USA. What is a transsexual? Is there such a thing as a non-op transsexual? What is the difference between a non-op transsexual and a full time crossdresser? Are transgender and transsexua...
Springfield, VA, USA. A strong current of post-modern fundamentalism runs deep in the Transgender movement, leading to an outright rejection of science and lubricating a preference for the safe, non-intel...
Springfield, VA, USA. Well we have heard from the Transgenders again. I'm not talking about the rank and file transgenders, but the capital "T" sort who act like they can make a serious li...
Springfield, VA, USA. There was a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about a pre-op transsexual (an HBS woman) who wanted to use the woman’s locker room, just like any other woman. (What woman wants to u...
Springfield, VA, USA. Uh, oh. In the midst of unfinished wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an election in full swing for the presidency of the United States and the direction the country will take, and a lame duck, incoherent president suffering from stack overload, we are asked to believe that the most momentous issue before us is the inclusion of cross-dressers, transgenders, and transvestites in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
Perhaps the all-includers are right, but if so, they need to be honest about their objectives and quit using Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS) men and women as their stalking horse.
The political transgender movement, when presenting arguments for the legal protection of gender, almost always implies the protection is intended for transSEXUALS (e.g., Harry Benjamin Syndrome [HBS] men and women). When transgender special interest groups approach their elected representatives, they seldom emphasis the all-encompassing Big "T" transgender umbrella, preferring the elected officials be left with the inference that transgender is the equivalent of transsexual.
The transgender hue and cry that arose when gender was not included in ENDA was deafening. The angry examination of the resulting bill included the restatement of the arguments against inclusion and the rationale for why gay rights should take priority over trans rights (which I paraphrase for brevity):
There are more gays than transsexuals in the general population.
Gay are more socially accepted than transsexuals.
Transsexuals have not been involved in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bi-sexual movement as long as homosexuals have.
When arguing for extension of individual rights, the political transgender movement almost always refers to HBS men and women (fna transsexuals) not the bigger "T" that includes cross-dressers and transvestites as well as the few transgendered women and men who live full time as the opposite sex without feeling the need for surgery. This is painfully obvious in the first explanation of transgender victimhood.
There are more gays than transsexuals in the general population.
This assertion is only true if we are comparing the number of HBS men and women in the world to the number of gays and lesbians. If we count all the closeted transgendered men (the basement cross-dressers, the weekend-women, and the bedroom panty-wankers), the number of the transgendered meets or exceeds the eight to ten percent of the population that is gay. By limiting the discussion to HBS men and women, the transgender political movement purposely hides the meaning of transgender, most of whom are straight men who want protection for their fantasy lives.
The second explanation of victimhood is an outright distortion of reality:
Gays are more socially accepted than transsexuals.
Untrue. The general experience of HBS men and women is that, post surgery, they are accepted by society, possibly because HBS men and women are who they say they are and do not pretend otherwise. Male homosexuals most certainly have more difficulty being accepted by the heterosexual male population in other than selected, socially liberal pockets within society as a whole. Very few post-op HBS men and women are physically assaulted for simply being who they are. Not so for homosexual males for whom the threat of gay bashing is a daily reality.
Crossdressing men, transvestites, she-males (men with silicon breasts and a working penis or prostitutes who work in drag), for the most part, are society’s outriders, subject to ridicule and violence from angry heterosexual males — but they are transgendered, not transsexual. If the statement was written to
Gays are generally more socially acceptable than crossdressers and transvestites
who could argue? But then there would be no way in hell for a bill specifically protecting crossdressers and transvestites would pass Congress, so its proponents talk transgender and imply transsexuality, not the Big T umbrella.
The third transgender explanation for why transgender was not included in ENDA
Transsexuals have not been involved in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bi-sexual movement as long as homosexuals have.
is obviously a misstatement of history. Stonewall, the turning point for the gay rights movement, included visibly HBS women, some of whom were among those who sparked political resistance. HBS men and women have been involved from the beginning.
Not so for the heterosexual weekend crossdressers and transvestites. This statement only works if it is limited to the transgendered. When the violence occurred straight transgenders were safely home in their closets. When talking about ENDA, however, the political transgender movement cloaks itself in the science and medicine of HBS to hide its true scope.
When speaking to congress, the state and city assemblies, or the media
The political transgender community needs to be honest about who they are. Using the medical condition of HBS men and women as the public rationale for including gender as a legal protected category but silently extending the definition to include the Big T transgendered umbrella is dishonest, if politically expedient — a classic case of bait and switch.
The heterosexual transgender who says that
I am feminine and I simply wish that to be available to me without forcing my choice on surgery or divorcing my partner.
is categorically not an HBS man or woman and should not be using HBS as their political justification. Talking about
coming to terms with my gendered subjectivity
is an intellectual defense of crossdressing, not the physical struggle of being born with HBS.
Whether a man can wear a dress to work is not the most important thing on the list of what needs to be done in the world. It might not even be in the top one thousand. The inclusion of gender identity in ENDA is not the American civil rights movement working to overthrow the vestiges of Jim Crow nor does it feed a single starving child in Africa, stop a war, or win a presidential election.
Crossdressers, transvestites, and the rest should able to live their lives without feeling threatened by physical violence. They should be able to live openly in society if they wish.
But they need to quite hiding behind HBS men and women. When the time comes to count votes, they need to stand up, publicly announce their political presence, and speak for themselves.
Where are the transgenders, the closeted cross-dressers and transvestites on all the other issues — the war, the economy, the presidential election? Why are they invisible?
Perhaps they would just like the rest of us to do all the hard work while they stay safely at home watching football or making love to their wives.
Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is the Co-Founder & President of TS-Si, Inc. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates.
Lisa welcomes your comments. You can use the public form below or send private correspondence via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
Leveled out now in graveyards, the dead of our ancestry bivouac at the edge of our vision. They are the dead in fellowship, reminding us that we must not love a life that excludes liberty.
Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson
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