Transwomen who are fed up with being lumped under “the transgender umbrella” are joining through social media and are urging others who feel the same to get in touch, in the hope of creating an independent voice. Post-trans normality New Zealand and Australia is a new Facebook group which was started by women who say recent events have highlighted the vast differences between the many people who are currently being grouped together. “The term 'trans' has shifted to cover a wide range of people, who have little in common,” says spokeswoman Jacquie Grant. “Straight male cross dressers, 'weekend' women, the ill-defined and constantly shifting gender queer and true transsexuals. We are supposed to accept that we are part of a 'spectrum', from sexual fetishist male through. This does not sit well with a lot of us. For us, we are simply women,” she says. “It would be more respectful to include the cis population in the spectrum, or to throw away a frankly insulting concept,” Grant continues. “We find that the gender queer trans community refuses to recognise the gender binary and so they say things that we simply do not agree with, claiming to speak with our voice. Many of us also find the spaces which are supposed to be safe for us are occupied by distinctly hostile or predatory male cross dressers. The 'umbrella' is a distinctly murky space. “The only reason we stay part of these groups is in case there are any transsexuals at the beginning of their journey who join them. “To address these issues, we've made a Facebook group for pre/post op 'true' transsexual women, who have moved through the 'trans' phase of confused gender identity back to a post-trans binary (the place we wish we'd been born in). Ultimately we'd like to have enough of us so that we can have a public voice of sense and normality.” Grant is inviting anyone who wishes to join to get in touch and join the Facebook group. “Personally, we think the surfacing of this old issue again is timely, highlighting a problem with the legal definition of trans women, and drawing attention to the problems that mixing sexual fetish with transsexualism causes for our dream of wider acceptance in the community,” she says. “Repeatedly, male cross dressers are standing on public platforms and claiming to speak for us. These are people who have no belief that they are female and no desire for hormonal or surgical correction. It is time that we had an independent voice so we can stand and speak for ourselves.” Grant says the move is in no way intended to demean or take people away from existing groups, “rather it is to be a space where those of us who want to can feel comfortable”.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 3rd February 2012 - 12:23pm