Does the LGB community hate transexuals?

[Something Amyss]

You what I'm more concerned about? Asexuality never comes up. People who aren't sexually attracted to either gender. Pansexuality and Demisexuality are the same way. I'm tired of gays getting all the freaking spotlight, frankly.

I'm concerned with that, too.

Or I would be, if they never came up.

While assexuality and pansexuality may be dismissed or ridiculed by the GBLT community (as a whole), that's a far cry from not being brought up.

Considering I've only recently heard of demisexuality and read nothing on it, I have trouble commenting.

Still, discrimination is discrimination and it's stupid regardless.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

I had assumed that LGBT stood for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered.

Yeah, it does (sometimes the T is just "Trans" to enco pass any degree of transgender, pre-op or post-op, or hermaphrodite).

People make the mistake of thinking that since Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals are a "progressive" movement, they must therefore be totally liberal and have an empathy for all people of a non-heteronormative nature. Not so; as in any "community" there are the gate-keepers and the old guard who are fiercely opposed to what they see as change or subversion to their cause.

I've seen people express similar surprise when they learn that some atheists are homophobic - shouldn't that be the exclusive reserve of the big bad deists? After all, atheists and gays are both Left-wing Liberals, right? Not necessarily. Real Life (tm) doesn't function like the US political system: it's not a one-dimensional spectrum with clearly defined polar extremes.

Wait... hermaphrodite? How?

I may not be a biologist, but I've studied enough human biology to have gone over a chart of every possible combination of X and Y chromosomes a human being can end up with and none of those variations produce functional male and female reproductive organs. Please explain, this is fascinating.

 

[willbailes]

As a part of the community, I'd like to say my disgust for transgenders is that they came to a complete different conclusion that we LGB did. We accepted ourselves, took with pride who we were born as, I was born a gay man. alright. But Transsexuals didn't accept themselves, I view them as running away, of wanting to be someone (something) else. That's not the loving accepting message we strive for.

On a side point I'm against all changing of the body that way, fake breasts, butt, anyone taking "enlarging" pills, I simply cannot see a honorable or respectable person do that to her or himself.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Afterthought: A lot of transsexuals would have it easier if they didn't run around yelling "WHOO I'M A TRANSSEXUAL", much like many gay people would. I can sympathize with it being exciting to come to the realization, but the more you present it as unusual and strange (which is what you're doing by calling attention to it, whether you realize it or not), the more willing people will be to see it as such. Just throwing that out there. Feel free to replace "transsexual" with any unusual lifestyle, by the way. Works just as well.

Of course, it's entirely possible to bring it up naturally and without awkwardness... when it's topical or relevant. Finesse is a necessary skill in all things social, you know.

The issue often arrises here with why should lgb people have to hide when straight people are allowed to openly celebrate their lives. where there is much more acceptance than i think the showing off about it will reduce.

I didnt include trans people here, because many trans people dont want to yell out about it, but we have to make i know because of the struggles we face

"Openly celebrate their lives" nothing; they don't run around yelling "OH MAN LOOK HOW STRAIGHT I AM" either, and if they did, people would wonder what they're on. If someone held a straight pride parade, I'd think they were idiots, too. So would you.

The point is that straight people just mind their own business and don't think it's a big deal, because it isn't. But neither are relations that aren't solely between a man and a woman; we've had them in our history probably as long as we as a species has existed, and in many points in many cultures' history (the Greeks, the Romans, the Japanese, so forth), it's been an integral part of their society.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

You what I'm more concerned about? Asexuality never comes up. People who aren't sexually attracted to either gender. Pansexuality and Demisexuality are the same way. I'm tired of gays getting all the freaking spotlight, frankly.

what is demisexuality

In lamens terms, you can't get it up, unless you're in love with the other person.

Yeah, that's an actual sexuality.

This is what I was bitching about. That's completely ridiculous.

Not that sex is a non-issue unless you're with someone you love; I can get behind that, and on the practical side of things, we wouldn't be overpopulating if everyone were that way, that's for damn sure.

What's ridiculous is that someone had to insist it needs its own categorization so people didn't feel insecure about it and/or got to feel like a special snowflake because of it.

I wasn't actual Demisexual people who coined the term, it was a psychiatrist. He reasoned that it was halfway between sexuality and asexuality. Their reaction was the same as yours now, along the lines of "We need to have a word for this?"

I never claimed the people it refers to are the people that came up with it. I actually suspected it was the work of a psychiatrist; people something doesn't pertain to are often among the first to rally to its cause, even if the subjects themselves don't think there is a cause.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Afterthought: A lot of transsexuals would have it easier if they didn't run around yelling "WHOO I'M A TRANSSEXUAL", much like many gay people would. I can sympathize with it being exciting to come to the realization, but the more you present it as unusual and strange (which is what you're doing by calling attention to it, whether you realize it or not), the more willing people will be to see it as such. Just throwing that out there. Feel free to replace "transsexual" with any unusual lifestyle, by the way. Works just as well.

Of course, it's entirely possible to bring it up naturally and without awkwardness... when it's topical or relevant. Finesse is a necessary skill in all things social, you know.

actually most transexuals dont do that.. for the simple fact that walking down the street minding your own business can be enough to provoke abuse or an attack

It wouldn't be if the attackers didn't know they had a perceived reason to. There are more ways to advertise your status than with words.

Of course, there are some people that just pass really, really poorly, and I feel badly for them, as their genetic makeup isn't their fault, but everyone else has to work with what they have, and transsexuals aren't an exception. There are some really masculine biological women out there, for example, but they haven't been subjected to any hate crimes that I know of. But if a transsexual woman ends up in that category, it's probably not in her best interest to run around in pumps and a miniskirt either, you know what I mean?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Wait... hermaphrodite? How?

I may not be a biologist, but I've studied enough human biology to have gone over a chart of every possible combination of X and Y chromosomes a human being can end up with and none of those variations produce functional male and female reproductive organs. Please explain, this is fascinating.

Doesn't work in the really really world, yeah.

The point is that straight people just mind their own business and don't think it's a big deal, because it isn't. But neither are relations that aren't solely between a man and a woman; we've had them in our history probably as long as we as a species has existed, and in many points in many cultures' history (the Greeks, the Romans, the Japanese, so forth), it's been an integral part of their society.

It isn't a big deal because people assume it to be the norm.

Many cultures have accepted othwr sexualities (pigeonholing them apparently is a recent thing), but currently only heterosexuality is truly accepted.

Being something other than heterosexual means alot of people, often very violent and/or well connected will want you not to exist.

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

I've got nothing against LGB or T, but I've always thought that T's don't belong in the same category as the other three.

 

[jesskit]

As a part of the community, I'd like to say my disgust for transgenders is that they came to a complete different conclusion that we LGB did. We accepted ourselves, took with pride who we were born as, I was born a gay man. alright. But Transsexuals didn't accept themselves, I view them as running away, of wanting to be someone (something) else. That's not the loving accepting message we strive for.

this is exactly what i was saying before, many lgb people cannot understand why a trans person does not feel right in themselves. By saying were not loving and having a go at our understanding of ourselves you really are furthering the transphobia. Try to put ur self in the shoes of someone who 100% feels they are the opposite gender to their birth sex, then imagine how it would feel to look at your body and see that it does not match. further to this then imagine people are telling you to just be happy with what you have, and that if you did that you know u would never feel right in your self. This is the experience of almost every trans person out there.

 

[Something Amyss]

As a part of the community, I'd like to say my disgust for transgenders is that they came to a complete different conclusion that we LGB did. We accepted ourselves, took with pride who we were born as, I was born a gay man. alright. But Transsexuals didn't accept themselves, I view them as running away, of wanting to be someone (something) else. That's not the loving accepting message we strive for.

On a side point I'm against all changing of the body that way, fake breasts, butt, anyone taking "enlarging" pills, I simply cannot see a honorable or respectable person do that to her or himself.

We do accept ourselves. What you seem to expect is for us to live up to your assessment instead of our own, which is every bit as bigoted as homophobes.

actually most transexuals dont do that.. for the simple fact that walking down the street minding your own business can be enough to provoke abuse or an attack

dont confuse internet posers and drag queens for transexuals

But casual transphobia is so much easier when you can run with the "rubbing it in our faces" argument.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

As a part of the community, I'd like to say my disgust for transgenders is that they came to a complete different conclusion that we LGB did. We accepted ourselves, took with pride who we were born as, I was born a gay man. alright. But Transsexuals didn't accept themselves, I view them as running away, of wanting to be someone (something) else. That's not the loving accepting message we strive for.

On a side point I'm against all changing of the body that way, fake breasts, butt, anyone taking "enlarging" pills, I simply cannot see a honorable or respectable person do that to her or himself.

I'm going to call bullshit here. This reeks of someone sitting astride a high horse, and if you don't actually have a chip on your shoulder because of your stance, I owe you an apology, but am going to call the stance bullshit regardless. Would you criticize someone for trying to overcome a birth defect? For trying to cure their blindness, or deafness, triumph over being crippled, or mentally addled, or anything of the sort, because they "didn't accept themselves"? I'm willing to doubt it.

Gender dysphoria can be every bit as destructive to a person's life, potentially moreso because the subject doesn't necessarily have a clear indication there's a problem, or how to deal with it. A blind person knows they're blind; they know they can't see. They know what their issue is, and have more ability to come to terms with it, because it's right there in front of them. This is not necessarily such an easily identified, diagnosed, or easily (if such a word as "easy" can be used in this context) coped with issue, and because it's not as obvious, or not as widely recognized, it can be seen as not as important, and thus can be allowed to run its potentially destructive course, unabated, throughout a person's entire life. Yes, there are more than enough people who use it as an excuse for attention, or hell, even a change of lifestyle for the hell of it. But for some people it's like being crippled, often with having no way of knowing what's wrong, and having no way of coming to terms with it.

And if you really just don't understand that, that's... well, understandable. But if you're using the fact that it's not your problem as an excuse to look down on it, then truly, shame on you, and all others like you.

 

[MrCalypso]

I'm not really involved with the community but a very good friend, and my employer, has been heavily involved for over twenty years. He used to manage a gay bar until a disagreement with the owner caused him and my other boss to leave. It was over a new policy where transgender people had to show an photo ID of themselves exactly as they looked that night in order to get into the bar. Unfortunately not a lot of them had photo ID's like that since they only usually dressed when they went out. So he lost a lot of business on both sides from this but didn't care cause he'd gotten rid of the transgenders. The owner apparently really really hated transgenders, and he was gay, and I guess a lot of the younger guys who went to that particular nightclub hated them as well. So I guess, like anywhere, you'll find a minority of people who can't stand another group of people. Here it just happens to be two groups that are closely associated with each other by the public.

 

[phylline]

I don't doubt it exists, but I've never come across it.

The only form of intolerance in the LGBT community I've come across is that sometimes the gay community can be quite bi-phobic.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Out of the few LGB people I've gotten close enough to know something like this about them, most of them are not particularly fond of transsexuals, they don't hate them, but there is no love either.

 

[xmbts]

As I understand it it's not hatred but rather LGB are all sexuality based, Trans is different from them in that it has nothing to do with sexuality, it's just lumped in with them.

Though I could be wrong and they might just not like trans people that's just as likely.

 

[Daverson]

Yup. They think that Transsexuals are really just gay people who can't bear the stigma, so change their sex in order to fit with society's ideals. Then there's the hardcore Lesbain/Gay lot, who hate bisexuals, reckoning they're either straight folk who want to be in with the gay crowd, or gay folk who can't "come out of the closet" properly.

And then you've got nations like Iran, which reckon that Lesbian/Gay folk are actually just transgender and force them into surgery. (or at least men, considering how they treat women over there...)

Madness if you ask me. We should reserve hatred for legitimate reasons, like people who differing political beliefs!

 

[Lhianon]

As a part of the community, I'd like to say my disgust for transgenders is that they came to a complete different conclusion that we LGB did. We accepted ourselves, took with pride who we were born as, I was born a gay man. alright. But Transsexuals didn't accept themselves, I view them as running away, of wanting to be someone (something) else. That's not the loving accepting message we strive for.

On a side point I'm against all changing of the body that way, fake breasts, butt, anyone taking "enlarging" pills, I simply cannot see a honorable or respectable person do that to her or himself.

the thing is, this is only "true" if you are not well informed on the subject;
for instance, if a person is MtF, trying to life the live of a male would be not accepting what she is, while going trough with it is accepting it. runing away in this example would be to try to fit as much as possible into a traditional role-model.

and to the "changing your body"-part:
if you loose a leg in an accident, would you refuse an artifical limb which would allow you to walk because "it changes your body"?

 

[Aerius]

To be honest, I've got an issue with this being an issue. Some gay people might identify with an "LGBT community", but like what NPH mentioned with regards to being a role model, this isn't something that you sign up for by being gay. Bigotry is terrible, of course, as is discriminating against people who are transgender, and you would hope that one minority would understand the difficulties faced by others. But I find it a bit obscene to expect that people who identify as gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, to connect with and have special support for people who are transgender just because society happens to like grouping them all together under LGBT. As far as I'm concerned, it is no more appalling (and I don't think it's an issue at all, really) for a gay celebrity to use the word "tranny" than anyone else - it's hardly fair to thrust the fights of other groups upon them just because.

Just like there are plenty of women and non-white people who are anti-gay rights, or apathetic about them, there are some gay people who aren't particularly engaged with transgender rights issues. And that's okay - it's their prerogative to choose which movements they do and don't want to be involved in without being lambasted for it. So yes, people who are anti-transgender should be criticised, but I hardly think that criticism should be any greater just because they happen to be gay.

 

[Video Gone]

As a gay person who isn't transphobic at all, I think it's a bit silly to assume a broad group of people have certain worldviews simply as a result of being attracted to the same or both sexes.
I also don't identify as being part of the "LGBT community" at all though, so what the hell do I know?

 

[jackalblue3141]

I can't speak to the whole of the gay and lesbian community, but I have some friends who are of the alternate persuasion and from their friends I've noticed some trends I at least find kind of weird and disturbing. Now I'm not generalizing this to ALL gays and lesbians but I think it does resonate with a broad spectrum in their community.

They seem to have a hate on for Bisexuals (especially bisexual women) on the grounds that bisexuals are either really homosexuals who won't admit it or are heterosexuals just fooling around. When it comes to Transexuals they're even more dismissive and discriminatory. I knew at least one gay friend of a friend who referred to them as "freaks" and I know a few of them who think it's a mental disorder that can be "cured". I don't win a lot of points when I tell them that a lot of people think the same thing about homosexuality.

I think that in any minority that's been discriminated against (and God knows, if anyone who wasn't heterosexual over the last 50 years hasn't been discriminated against it's not for lack of trying), there's a tendency to want to get into the mainstream and, God willing, do some discrimination of your own. Again we've got to be careful about taring everyone with the same brush, because "the gay community" encompasses as many view points as there are members, but as an outsider looking in... yeah it does look like some of them are not as inclusive as I'd hope they'd be.