RE-BLOG — A Statement from Gender Identity Watch

No matter if we are gay, straight, or bi, we women really need to start standing together and standing up for one another in this.

So transgenders and transsexuals deserve to be protected under the law from discrimination and violence? Of course! But where a line needs to be drawn is: not at the expense of women. For people born male and socialized with male privilege to DEMAND entry into women’s private spaces, it is not just disrespectful, it is misogynistic.

If you are male bodied and you truly want to call yourself a woman, then do what we women do for each other: respect women, put women first, listen to women’s lived experiences, support women.

When you can do THAT, then we can talk.

4 responses to “RE-BLOG — A Statement from Gender Identity Watch”

  1. Rebecca Furtado Avatar
    Rebecca Furtado

    Yes and no ‘trans’ man can experience the social, psychological , or physical reality of having a women’s reproductive system. I often get the feeling that transmen appear to be like white men putting on black face. While other men who are just cross dressers or drag queens protray women as silly , catty, and sex objects. Women are so much more and what we give is so much more. We are the care takers of not only our children but others. We have traditionally cared for the sick and fragile without compliant. We have the gift of creating home out of virgin wilderness. Yet, the majority of women in the world have no right over their own bodies. Until a man can be raped and forced to give birth to a child they do not want or worse be killed because they are raped and their male relatives considered them “damaged goods” they can not understand what it means to have a female body.

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  2. BigBooButch Avatar
    BigBooButch

    I think you mean transwomen, or what some people call male trans; a biological man transitioning into some facsimile of a “woman.” A transman is a biological woman transitioning into some facsimile of a “man.” But I got what you meant and agree with you. That’s one of the biggest disconnects here: that these men completely ignore all of our shared experiences that we have had as girls raised in this patriarchal society and they therefore still don’t respect out opinions or our lived experience because they are too filled with male privilege. All they want is what every man believes he is entitled to: our words, our spaces, and our bodies.

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  3. Wildsang Roots-Blues Avatar
    Wildsang Roots-Blues

    I wish there was a way for all of us Womyn-Born-Females and/or Womyn-Born-Lesbian/Feminist/Females to get together our womyn-consciousness and pull back and meditate on these issues in a manner that is NOT INCLUSIVE. I believe we have gotten off on the wrong foot – we have allowed some folks – folks with male origins – to frame and name and control the discussion, the language used in the discussion, the parameters of the discussion, the results of the discussion, and the consequences of the discussion and in some cases others have attempted to Name us. We have fallen into the behavior of being – REACTIVE TO – what others do, or say, or threaten, or tantrum. We have displayed a deep fear of not being included in other folk’s “community”. We have shown fear of being threatened with being trash-talked-about all around town, or fired from our supposedly “inclusive community” jobs for our beliefs and identity. As a WBF-LFF-WOC, there IS life after turning one’s back on biological man and in walking away from a community that disrespects and scapegoats WBF-LFF’s. There is value in stepping back and allowing oneself the time to clarify one’s analysis and position. There is value in re-membering a radical-Lesbian point of view, politic and analysis and deciding if it still works for us, or if one chooses to adapt and change and evolve other ideas from a WBF-LFF perspective. It is my hope that we will not allow ourselves to continue to be led around by the nose as a Brahma bull, but that we will define, determine and choose for ourselves our beliefs, our community, our support systems, and our strengths and only then, when we are ready, will we inform others and others’ “communities” of our decisions.
    *
    I have never experienced a situation where a WBF-LFF of any color, once she has made up her mind, EVER needed a man of any feather.
    *
    Just read and wish to address the aspect of Nedra’s post: “men marching with signs that said “you don’t have to be a woman to be a dyke.” Well, You DO have to be a womyn-Born-woman to be a DYKE. Someone or some people are obviously misinformed…DYKE IS ANOTHER WORD FOR LESBIAN…woman-born-female-lesbian. Someone, or some people gonna have to go back to the drawing board. I don’t have issues and am not “phobic” about anybody. Don’t think much about men or trans folks at all. But I am FIERCE about my Womyn-Born-Female, FBLFF community, power and territory. DYKES must let folks know – do not cannibalize the WBF community, culture, or names while you’re building your Trans community. We DYKES-LESBIANS-Female-Born-Lesbians claim, name and retain our names and our Herstory. The W-B-Lesbian community has been established for centuries before we all got here.

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  4. BigBooButch Avatar
    BigBooButch

    All very good points. Thanks for your comments.

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