Halley is the Project Director of The Healing Well and a long-time Queer activist.
Some people would like for us to believe there is little or no relationship between gender expression and homophobia. Some say discussing things like transgender during a sensitivity training about gays and lesbians only complicates matters. Some are so busy acting straight they are uncomfortable with the idea of gender variation, and would prefer if we just went away. That will not happen because the relationship between gender expression and homophobia is concrete.
An honest evaluation of queer-related discrimination and violence throughout history would demonstrate that a disproportionate part of this bigotry is gender based. When we talk about someone having been attacked because they were "perceived" as gay, what is often being said is that the individual's manner or affect was, to whatever degree, seen as not conforming to culturally appropriate gender behavior. We must acknowledge the reality that the choice of victim is often based on behavioral expression that is gender "non-conformist". This is why "perceived" gay attacks can happen to a heterosexual should his/her genderal affect not be in conformity with cultural standards. Some assimilationist gays may wish to dismiss this reality because of their own gender-phobias; and I might add that some transsexuals may also wish the same, but not to address gender expression is not to recognize a major aspect of homophobia. Some may wish to simply put another label onto gender-based aspects of bigotry, like trans-phobia. But placing another label will not erase the historical inter-relatedness of the phenomena, nor comfort the victims, nor unify our call for justice.
When we realize that gender "dysphoria" is a sociological creation, and not a psychological condition, the break-through has begun. Most contemporary academic/medical/psychological attempts to define and deal with transgender issues are based in heterosexist gender didactic cultural assumptions, and are not reflective of the true life experiences of transgender/ gender variant individuals. The very words used to label and discuss our lives and our bodies come from this alienated mindset and are imposed on us the "authority". Only recently have the TG communities begun to speak for ourselves; searching for words to develop a vocabulary that is an honest expression of our individual and communal identity and experience, and that is free of cultural gender-sex relatedness norms. We are beginning to define ourselves in the light of our true reality and history, instead of buying into inadequate and pathological definitions of self, fostered by a culture that refuses to recognize the naturalness of gender variance, and the reality of the gender continuum within the human condition.
When we realize that the TG community is not a pathological group, any more so than homosexuals were pathological before 1973, we will no longer fear association with those who are differently-gendered. As legitimate members of the larger Queer community, and the even larger global community, we are part of the process of life. As individuals and as a people we will be stronger, and proud recognition paid to those ancestors who have always been at the forefront of Queer bigotry and liberation.
Q-zone
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Last modified: 5/27/98