Just yesterday, I wrote about how bisexual women, straight women, and men claiming to be women were co-opting the word lesbian in their effort to twist and distort it until it means nothing; and I wondered if the patriarchy, with the help of the “I hate labels” and the “sexuality is fluid” crowds, would swallow the term whole, taking lesbians’ identity away, once and for all. Of course, that is a hard pill to swallow and the majority of lesbians will fight tooth and nail against people who think they can co-opt our words and spaces, bully us into silence, and shame us into having sex with trans women and their accompanying penises by calling us transphobic and bigots because we do not want to have relationships or sleep with men.
So imagine my horror when I was sent this screen cap of a visit to the doctor recently. A butch lesbian, a woman who does not fit society’s definition of what a woman should look like or how a woman should dress, behave, or present herself went to the ER. She checks in, sees the doctor, and before leaving, takes a peek at her chart to see something so unbelievable, for a second, I thought I was being punked when told about it.
Posted with her permission,
including leaving her name visible.
This doctor decided that the butch lesbian in front of her was not actually a butch lesbian but a trans man in denial. In the chart, she writes that this butch is a 48 year old trans man but adds that the “chart will say female.” There was no conversation, there were no questions about whether or not this woman believed she was trans, there was nothing but an assumption; and that assumption was based on this butch woman’s appearance.
Instead of inquiring, instead of taking a good look at the person in front of her and seeing the woman inside the butch, instead of accepting that a woman can look and dress in a manner deemed by society to be masculine while still being a woman, the doctor assumed this butch lesbian was a trans man and put forth that assertion into the woman’s chart without even so much as a by your leave.
I can tell you, as a butch, that having something like that happen: the complete erasure of the woman that you are in order to appease a group of people with such a debilitating disorder, they cry “bigot” at the slightest foul, is nothing short of humiliating. In induces a rage that, to be honest, I have no analogy for at the moment. I get irritated when I am mistaken for a man, sure, but when the person hears my voice or takes a more-than-glancing look at me, they realize their mistake, see the woman that I am, and, most of the time, apologize for not paying enough attention to the person in front of them so as to see more than a hat, t-shirt, and pair of jeans that led them to their erroneous assumption in the first place.
This is different; and, no, it isn’t the same thing as a trans person being “misgendered.” That’s silly, actually, when you take into consideration that gender is a social construct that, with so many people, changes with the wind. No this is the obliteration of butch women.
Worse than that, this is a person, a doctor, proclaiming that the patriarchy, that men mean so much to her and her conditioning is so complete, she has decided to, without consent, assign maleness to the woman standing in front of her; and she expects that gross misjudgment to be rewarded with thanks and praise for being such a good sheep in the gender pasture.
This is why we must band together and stop this madness, this trans epidemic, this erasure of women, and this annihilation of butch lesbians. Butch female lesbian visibility is a feminist issue, one that is much more important, and vitally so, to women; more so than prioritizing men’s issues. Lesbians should not be erased for the sake of men’s “delicacy.”
Our words are important. Our spaces are important. Our sex is important. Every time we take another step back to readjust the lines that should not be crossed, we get closer and closer to the cliff leading to our extinction.
BigBooButch 
Reblogged this on Gender Fatigue and commented:
Gender nonconforming Women are told we are men in this age of Transgender. Transgender is making things worse for Women; not better.
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This is so enraging! I would find a new doctor if I were her. Its a complete abuse of power and so bigoted to write that kind of shit. In fact I might even report it to her superiors. She doesn’t have the right to designate that shit and you can bet for sure if it were a trans person who she wrote “man in denial” or “woman in denial” about you’d see a lawsuit.
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Wow, that is a dreadful doctor response. As a bi-het-leaning-tomboy, I have occasionally been mistaken for a male when I was young, but not in the last two decades, since fat deposits created more feminine lines. Just wow, I guess in my teens and twenties, I was a transM too by these standards, wow. Do you know the correspondent personally?
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This is just appalling. Female is female. Transgender activism is hurting women.
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Reblogged this on firewomon.
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That is so sad and makes me so angry! I hope this person corrected the doctor!
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Reblogged this on There Are So Many Things Wrong With This and commented:
Welcome to the United States of Iran.
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Reblogged this on Privilege Denying Tranny.
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Actually, it’s not all that surprising given the level of arrogance, self importance, and/or patronizing assumption (take your pick) that seems to be clouding many doctors’ thought these days. I have taken to having my partner accompany me as a silent witness to my Doctors’ appointments and it has helped. Docs tend to be hyper-conscious that I – the patient – have a witness to their behaviors. And still, I have had to (gently) correct my very good general practitioner (not about lesbian stuff). We worked things out okay, but I still remain vigilant. It is so incredibly amazingly appaling that Transgender-women-trans-people treat Lesbians with such disrespect and don’t affirm womyn-born-womyn space (for example – at Michigan Festival), or the name WE CHOOSE to call ourselves – womyn-born-womyn….under the same sky…peace.
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If I’m not mistaken, the patient has a right to ask for corrections in medical records if they are incorrect. I think they must then be corrected. If there are any pro-bono lawyers who might wish to be involved, that might be even better.
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This is so wrong on so many levels. This breaches every known medical ethics guidelines in the book.
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Realized I didn’t finish a significant statement at the end of my first post: It is so incredibly amazingly appaling that Transgender-women-trans-people treat Lesbians with such disrespect and don’t affirm womyn-born-womyn space (for example – at Michigan Festival), or the name WE CHOOSE to call ourselves – womyn-born-womyn > GIVEN THAT TRANSGENDERS ARE SO SENSITIVE ABOUT HOW THEY ARE ADDRESSED F tranny sound person going off on my band during a sound check due to pronoun issues. She then proceeded to ruin our sound during the entire show for about 1000 people, or so. I have come to realize that there is a grave lack of study about/dissemination of information about/communication about the effects of female hormones on men. In several other experiences as well it is clear that m>F trannys are given these hormonal drugs without being coached on PMS, coached about the increased emotions and increased sensitivity to everything – AND THEIR NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL psycho-drama. Thank you for the various articles on transgenders. Many of them – who have a sense of self-responsibility – are wonderful folks. Those who have been blaming, raging people who didn’t have an awareness of self-responsibility have eagerly and almost gleefully hurt me desperately. They are a third category and they ARE NOT womyn.
P.S. – Maybe at some point f>M transgenders can be discussed. They are a whole ‘nother smoke from f>M’s…completely different issues. I ask because I had a lover back in my 20’s who, several decades later, looked me up and made contact with me as a “man”. We wrote back and forth for awhile, but I got tired of the “What past issues??? I don’t remember…come on – Look at ME-NOW …look at me…I’m a man now and I have FACIAL HAIR!!!” (she’s a performance artist also – a bearded lady – see the vagina AND facial hair!)…It’s just so sad…anyway…thanks.
…same sky…peace.
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Sorry…in the PS it should read: “Maybe at some point f>M transgenders can be discussed. They are a whole ‘nother smoke from m>F’s…completely different issues”.
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I just gotta say…Butches are beautiful…we are a strong, beautiful, and wild tribe…we know who we are. In the fifties, I and my partner and many of our friends may have been called “Kiki” – which I believe is a dyke that is a mix of fem and butch. We are womonly, strong and very butch(expert) in the ways that we are, which changes from womon to womon. Goddess bless fems, and Kiki’s… and especially Goddess bless the womyn who most of the time walk in warrior – butch – spirit and energy and protect her in this life. peace.
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This is worse than butch erasure, it’s medicalization, which theoretically opens the door to forcible “treatment.” Important story, thank you for sharing
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Thanks for your comment and welcome aboard.
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[…] people being mislabeled in situations where it’s actually important, like medical treatments. BigBooButch reports of a butch woman being mislabeled as a trans […]
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I had to reread this, and didnt realize about the Butch labeled by a Dr. As a “transman”. FUCKING DISGUSTING!!!!
This happenned to.my psrtner in Berkeley CA at 5he homeless shelter she wasworking at. Some visiting psychologist observing the homeless women, asked my partner “when are you transitioning?” She said very emphatic “I AM NOT TRANSITIONING I.AM.A BUTCH WOMAN, A MASCULINE WOMAN!!”. The woman kept insisting and questioning her about it as if she had NEVER HEARD of a Butch Lesbian before.
My partner came home in tears and was VERY UPSET ABOUT IT!ars in moo!!
How is it that our rich Butch herstory has become so.invisibilized when there is documentation.of Butches going back at least 100 years, including many photographs?
As a Jew I can.o ly say it is just like Holocaust Revosionism but instead it is Lesbian revisionism, where the Trans movement and FTMs invent their history out of whole cloth, and make every one of our Butch sheris who ever wore a suit or tux or male clothes INCLUDING Joan of Arc into a trans or FTM figure.
I find it disgusting that this movement has basically ripped Lesbians, Butches, Gays off. And given nothing back instead of creating THEIR OWN cultural inatitutions instead of piggybacking on ours…it shows a REAL Lack of creativity and initiative as well as HUGE disrespect.
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Reblogged this on FeistyAmazon.
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UN-BE-FUCKING-LIEVABLE …I hope she feels she can report this pathetic excuse for a healer.
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This is appalling. Words fail me.
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[…] reading BigBooButch at: “Ass”uming Butches Into Extinction « BigBooButch […]
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Reblogged this on Adventures and Musings of an Arch Druidess.
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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