I've volunteered to write a column for Clique because I find very little mention of transgender experience in the queer publications I usually see. I know we're out here, you know we're out here, so how about we not be quite so shy about it and talk some transgender? (You don't have to admit to anyone that you read this column. :-)
What is transgender? It could almost be defined as all those things nice queers don't talk about. It's not just transsexual people, the ones like me who modify their bodies. In some circles butch and femme expression is transgender because it goes against the notion that lesbian is its own gender and has nothing to do with those supposedly het roles of masculine and feminine.
How many transgender people are there? Lots. More than you ever dreamed. Unless you live by yourself on an island, there are transgender people in your life. If 10% of the general population is queer, I would bet that at least 10% of the queer population is transgender.
The Intersex Society of North America (www.isna.org) estimates that perhaps 1.7% of the general population is intersexed, born with some anomaly of the genital area, sex organs, endocrine system, or chromosomes. These people do not fit the biological stereotypes of male and female. They do not necessarily identify as transgender, but are one more example that sex and gender are not the simple dichotomies we often pretend they are.
Many transgender people pass as people who are not transgender. This may be their goal, as it is for some transsexual people who desire to live their post transition life with no one aware of their complete history; it may be for safety, or it may be because they fear lack of acceptance from their queer peers.
That last bit kind of sucks. It's hard being in a space that is queer safe, and still having to be on guard because you know people will think you're different if you give true expression to how you feel. I am not a big fan of political correctness.
Sometimes transgender is a surprise. It's like a gift. You don't know exactly what you will find when you remove the wrappings, but you know the gift is presented with love and that if accepted, the gift will enrich you; and perhaps change you.
I suggest that the 'trans' in transgender stands for transcend, and that what we are about is transcending fixed gender roles. Transgender means that you decide how you interact with other people. Some days I feel femme, and some days I feel butch, and that's okay.
There are transgender people who will swear up one side and down the other that they aren't queer. Straight women who are so butch they make your teeth hurt. Guys who crossdress and spend an evening flirting with the boys, but it's all just good clean fun, cause underneath the dresses they're just heterosexual males. I ain't queer, Ma, no, not me. Uh, huh.
An article in The Advocate at the end of 1996 suggested that perhaps all queer people are transgender. I think this is a useful thought. We're called queer because we don't conform to the social expectations for the gender assigned us at birth. That's the root of what 'they' think about us, that it is queer for women to love women, men to love men, and for someone to not constrain love along gender lines.
I dare to suggest that homo-centricity is not a big step forward from hetero-centricity. Transgender is about making individuals more important than classes, it's about letting each person define themselves, it's about letting each person interpret their own history. A transsexual person, for example, does not hide their past, they reinterpret their past; as do lesbian women who once were married to men.
If you want to know more, I recommend the book Lesbians Talk Transgender, by Zachary I Nataf (1996, Scarlet Press). This little book (60 pages) consists of text intermingled with comments from many people, transgender and not. It is a very good introduction to the terminology and the way people feel about and react to all ways in which we trans gender.
In future columns I'll talk more about terminology, the individual experiences of transgender people and of intersexed people, T inclusion with LBG, and about some other interesting books and online resources. I'd be happy to answer polite email and I am always pleased to have people browse my web pages.