This post was submitted by Vanessa Crowley

Submission by Sylvia Renee, TNG columnist

“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” – A collective effort of Aboriginal Australian Activists

It would seem that there needs to be a debate about where trans people should be included in the string of acronyms. Interestingly, no one has asked my opinion on the matter – though generally the subject is not one that I am inclined to take up.

Still such is life.

For those of you who haven’t been following, it began with Josh Becker asking if trans people were being best served by the current alliance. Then Michael, our webmaster and someone whose opinion I generally respect, felt that the commentators had potentially misrepresented the intent of Mr Becker’s article. I will be the first to admit that I was one of the more hostile comments, for which I will not apologize. I don’t usually take to kindly to having my presence questioned, but in the name of a presumably fair debate I am willing to assume good-faith on the part of both Josh and Michael.

• Argument #1 – We would do better representing ourselves more independently. “But trans people deserve their own spotlight, instead of being stuck in the shadows of their gay peers’ achievements.”

First, as others have pointed out this assumes that trans activism does not already exist on its own. This is patently untrue. There are already numerous individuals, organizations, and movements working very specifically to improve our social condition.

Second, this position also neglects that trans people have spent literally decades fighting to be included. Despite that fact that we were some of the first on the line at the stone wall riots (Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Brown are widely credited as being one of the first to start fighting back) it was not until another generation that trans people were even given a place at the table. Before that we were pretty much ignored completely from all sides.

But the broader question remains vis-a-vis where the spot light shines. Ideals like equality, justice, recognition, liberation, revolution or any other teleological goal are not a matter of zero-sum nor a winner-take-all. Socially, as we all work in our own way toward these ends, we all usually gain something through the successful struggle of others. I may be slightly narcissistic, but at the end of the day I frankly do not care whose in the spot light as long as I am there at the finish line with you.

• Argument #2 – “[D]oesn’t it hinder the trans community to often be the also-ran of gay rights advancements ”

No, it really doesn’t. As Josh rightfully points out gay (and I would go even further to describe a particular section that sits a more privileged position with relation to race, class, and presentation) rights do not automatically equal trans rights in the first place.

However, in those wonderful cases where activists and legislators are able to get the right bill passed the first time there is precious little distinction between trans rights and gay rights on things like the right to work free from discrimination, the right to have your identity validated, the right to not be kicked out of your home, or even the right to be with the person(s) you love.

Movements build off of each other all the time, and while they may have separate goals the sum of our collective actions are often bigger than the collection of its parts. For example, immigrant rights and worker rights have a long and valuable history of working with each other (led by people like Caesar Chavez). The same could be said for women’s rights and racial civil rights. The point is that while there may be some contradictions, generally all of us are much stronger than some of us.

• Argument #3 – “[W]hen we promote the idea of an “LGBT” community, we are consciously and erroneously equating gender and sexuality struggles.”

Yes. And at the same time, no. While I may be trans, I am also among other things, in a lesbian relationship. Should my partner be granted any assortment of rights while I am left to fight for my own?

Beyond personal concerns, while the two are most certainly separate, the ways in which we perform our gender and enact our sexuality are intimately intertwined. For a concrete example, employment non-discrimination laws that are inclusive of gender identity reach far beyond just trans people. They protect everyone regardless of their sexual affiliation – butch lesbians, flamboyant twinks, and even heterosexual people who just don’t quite measure up to the archetypal gender standards salient to wherever they may be.

Regardless, we are the same, at least as far as the dreaded Middle Americans are concerned, because we are all breaking the rules about what it means to be a woman or a man.

• Argument #4 – “The simple fact is that lots of cis-gendered homos don’t identify with trans issues, don’t understand them, and are sick of being denied their rights and refuse to let anything get in their [way] as we move closer and closer.”

Oh, I am sorry about that. Go ahead and get yours, I will be here when you come back for us.

But let’s just imagine a world where this happens, where gay men and lesbian women (of certain types) gain every single civil right that they could possibly hope for. What happens next? For starters, trans people will have to start completely over from scratch – all of the work our activists put towards getting the other members of the identity acronym will have come to an end, and it wont benefit them at all.

How long are we, your “brothers and sisters,” supposed to wait? More importantly how many lesbian and gay activists will pick that flag back up once they have their rights secured? Some will, but those who already don’t care will be hard pressed to all of a sudden start caring. How many ethereal “Middle Americans” will think that the issue has already been settled, or worse that some other group wants “special rights?”

History has shown us time and time again that it is much easier to get legislation right the first time than it is to re-mount an entire campaign around an addition. Throwing the same people under the bus every time is not a compromise, its a codified tactic.

• Argument #5 – Trans Issues are different issues.

If I may offer a brief anecdote. I am getting my Master’s in Gender Studies & Public Policy. Gender studies even played a significant part in my undergraduate degree. You know how many times trans issues were included by an author who was neither trans nor writing a special section on the topic? That is to say, that I was recognized as existing in this world independent of special attention? Once. In six years of radical theory.

Yes, sometimes our concerns diverge. And you know what, we as trans rights activists are generally pretty good at handling those (with solidarity from our allies of course). I wont even bother to evoke the bourgeois lie of “we are just like you, mostly.” But, there is a difference between being different and being completely distinct from some set of human experiences.

I am not asking for every other cis person in the acronym allegiance to stand next to me at the next protest for any of the myriad of “trans issues.” I am asking to live in a world where trans people are acknowledged as even existing and having potentially valuable contributions.

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My arguments have already gone on for far too long already so I will ask a simple question. Who is best served by removing the T?

I sincerely doubt that the answer to that question would be trans people. The simple fact is that we are a minority of a minority, some of us are queer and some of us identify as as completely heterosexual. Some of us are only concerned with passing while others want to be a part of something new and different. The simple fact is (in my mind at least) that there are simply not enough trans people in this country to be able to push for the same kind movement for recognition that we have currently even as tenuous members of the broader LGB coalition.

While the individual reasons may vary, nearly every trans person I have ever spoken with wants to be included in the coalition of identities.

So at the risk of stepping on (even more) toes, why are cis-gay men asking whether or not the interests of trans people are being best served by the current arrangement? Is it for my benefit, or is it really for yours?

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