Open Letter to the Board of Stonewall Columbus

To the Board of Stonewall Columbus,

It is past time that the issues of trans-inclusion at Stonewall Columbus
be addressed.  While it is a seemingly nice gesture adding a
"transgender board seat" specifically for transgendered people who
identify as neither male nor female, this is actually a further
indication that Stonewall Columbus doesn't "get it" when it comes to
trans issues.

Dr. Sarah Fox just resigned her seat on the Stonewall Board because of
the lip service only nature of Stonewall's inclusion of transfolks.  She
made it quite clear, for example, that the continued support and
outright sponsorship of hag drag sporting events is a direct slap in the
face of transsexual women yet the board chose to ignore her over and
over. One board member went so far as attacking the statistical models
she used in a survey she conducted at her own considerable expense of
time and energy to show that level of insult perceived by transwomen.
Dr. Fox is a respected internationally known researcher who's
statistical modelling is above reproach.  She bent so far to the pro drag
event side in her wording of survey questions as to seriously annoy some
of us.  She did so as to remove any possibility of bias in her survey.
That survey still showed that transsexual women overwhelmingly found
drag sporting events insulting and demeaning.   While most transsexuals
I know have no problem with drag shows, myself included, hag drag
sporting events, or bearded men in dresses done as "humour" is an open
and direct insult to womanhood in general and very pointedly to
transsexual women who all too often are taunted with being "men in
dresses".  Over the past several years, I personally, have discussed
these types of events with literally hundreds and hundreds of
transsexual woman and not a single one didn't find the concept insulting
in the extreme.  Most used the same analogy of minstrel show blackface.
Stonewall's financial gain from these events is so small as to be nearly
undetectable in the annual budget, yet Stonewall steadfastly refuses to
see deadly insult to an entire group of the GLBT community, transsexual
women, as a problem.

Dr. Fox also has had to repeatedly remind the board that It's Time
Ohio was a statewide TBLG (the reversal of the order deliberate)
organization when they repeatedly did not include ITOh in listings of
relevant groups in the state during their meetings.  Again, she was
continually ignored.  She headed up EBAH 2000 GLBT lobby event only to
have the representatives of Stonewall even deny it was taking place.  As
a direct result of Stonewall director Jeff Redfield's actions, no one
from central Ohio took part in that event besides Dr. Fox even though
the event was otherwise successful with wide support from other parts of
the state.  This is the "support" of trans-activism Stonewall has shown
to date.  Deliberate slaps in the face and outright sabotage of
transwoman led GLBT events and organizations.

I personally took great offence at the announcement of the new
transgender, not male, not female, seat.  I, and most transpeople I
know, have a decided gender/sexual identity.  This pushing and shoving
of transpeople into a third category is the justification for excluding
us from womyn only space, of denying the femaleness and maleness of
transwomen and transmen, of denying even our basic humanity.  Knowing
Stonewall's history of choosing to openly insult transwomen with drag
sporting events in the clear knowledge that we see it that way, this
announcement was a further indication of the level of misunderstanding
between G and L and Trans in Columbus.  I never felt as unwelcome at a
local Pride event as I did this year.  Apparently I was not alone as I
did not see hardly any of the other local transsexuals who have been
there in years past.  If I had not known differently, I would have
assumed that this year's Pride was an HRC event.  That was all I saw
anywhere I looked.  HRC has actively campaigned against transgendered
civil rights for more than five years now.  This is not an accusation,
it is a fact.  I myself have sat in congressional offices and been told
about the pre-lobby visits by HRC representatives prior to transgender
Lobby Days events.  I listened when both congressmen and legislative
assistants told me the clear message of those visits was to ignore the
"trannys" and their requests for inclusion in basic civil rights bills.
This is not a subject open to debate, I and others were there, heard and
have spread the word.  Imagine how I felt, knowing HRC is the avowed
enemy of trans-civil rights, that HRC head Elizabeth Birch announced
last year that transgendered people would NEVER be included in ENDA
(Employment Non-discrimination Act), to be confronted at every turn of
the Columbus Pride with a bright blue and yellow equal sign.  At being
told by an HRC worker that the very meetings I attended with
congressional members never happened.  Now you would have me believe I
am welcome?

From the beginnings of the very movement your group is named after,
elements of the gay and lesbian community have attempted to erase the
identity of transpeople while taking it for themselves.  Stonewall was
"drag" bar!  The revolt you even named yourself after was started by a
transwoman, Sylvia Rivera.  Janice Raymond called transsexual women
"agents of the patriarchy" and claimed we (transwomen) mutilate our
bodies to "infiltrate" womynspace.  her report to congress about
transsexuals (a total work of fiction by someone with no understanding
of us at all and her own personal axe to grind) was used as the basis to
lump transsexuals with pedophiles in our exclusion from the Americans
with Disabilities Act.  This past year alone has seen the attempted
co-oping of the very identity of the transwoman lover of Pvt. Barry
Winchell, Calperia Addams, into a "gay man" (she is a transsexual woman
who happens to be pre-operative) and the hate speech of Jim Fouratt at
the nation's largest Pride event calling transsexual women, "gay men in
denial".  Lesbian activists have attempted the co-oping of Brandon
Teena's identity as a transman into a butch lesbian after the success of
"Boys Don't Cry". Last year Lizzy Birch, head of HRC, announced in
Chicago in no uncertain terms that transgendered people will never be
included in ENDA.  Transsexual women continue to be told they are not
welcome at events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival because
they are not women.  This is only the tip of an iceberg of total
misinterpretation of transpeople's identities by those who should be our
natural allies.

Gays and lesbians all to often "know" all about trans-issues and so they
refuse over and over again to listen to us.  A recent conversation with
your own director, Jeff Redfield, had him getting indignant with me when
I asked if he knew the definition of a term relating to transpeople, yet
the conversation indicated clearly to me that he did not.  This is
always been the problem.  Our issues overlap.  We bear the brunt of
homophobia way out of proportion because we are identifiable as
different, as gender transgressors, yet the GLB community repeatedly
attempts to erase our very existence and even tell us they know us
better than we know ourselves.  Even our proud history is taken and
claimed as yours by gay male historians who name transgendered
individuals throughout history as "gay" when no such identity even
existed at the time, the only evidence of "gayness" being their very
gender transgressions, their transgenderedness!

Brandon Teena was a transman...a female to male transsexual, not a butch
lesbian.

Calpernia Addams is a transwoman...a male to female transsexual, not a
gay man who does drag 24/7

Almost all transgendered people KNOW which box to check when asked sex.
Very few of us identify as some mysterious "third gender"

Gender identity and sexual orientation are NOT related.  This one cannot
be restated enough. It forms the core of misunderstanding between Trans
and G and L groups all the time.

Gender and sexual identity in transsexuals is NOT related to birth
genitalia.  Further, sexing of transsexual individuals by those outside
our own community is insulting and demeaning.  Our identities are not
subject to debate anymore than yours are.

Transsexual women are not "gay men in denial",  We are women.
Transsexual men are not "lesbians in denial" they are men.  Transsexual
women are not agents of the patriarchy send to infiltrate womyn only
space.  No one, I repeat, no one, pays a higher price for her womanhood
than a transsexual woman.  It's far past time that was understood.

Transgender is a slippery term even within the trans-community.  There
has never been consensus on it's meaning among us, yet Jeff Redfield, a
gay man, knows exactly what this and other equally slippery trans terms
mean.  What's wrong with this picture?  Third gender identity is very
very very uncommon in the trans-community, yet once again, this is the
trans-identity you decide to have on your board, this what you decide to
call transgender.

You clearly don't "get it".  I personally would never consider a
position that forced me to denounce my womanhood.  I know no other
transwoman or transman who would.

Cathryn Platine,
woman of transsexual background,
board member, National Transgender Advocacy Coalition,
founding member, Midwest Transsexual Alliance,
former president, Crystal Club,
former chair, It's Time Ohio,
founder, First Church of the Goddess (a reclaiming church of
trans-clergy)
****************Below is the announcement referred to********************

> NEWS RELEASE
>
> For Immediate Release
> Contact: Jeff Redfield - Executive Director, Stonewall Columbus
>                 (614) 299-7764
>
> Stonewall Columbus adds Transgender Seat on Board of Trustees
>
> September 21, 2000
>
> Columbus, OH - In its continued support of transgender individuals, the
> Stonewall Columbus Board of Trustees added a twenty-first seat designated
> for a transgender individual.  The seat was added by a unanimous vote at the
> Board meeting on September 20.
>
> Only an individual who identifies as transgender may fill this seat.  This
> measure is to insure that at least one individual is on the board who has an
> understanding of transgender experiences and a commitment to the issues
> specific to those experiences.  Some current members of the Board do
> self-identify as transgendered but occupy either male or female seats. This
> seat allows for individuals who find that the male or female designation is
> not reflective of their identity, or who feel that their identity as
> transgendered is more primary than their biological sex.  If other
> transgender individuals were selected for the Board, they would fill either
> a male or female seat as he or she self identifies.
>
> In 1999, Stonewall Columbus added transgender to its mission statement
> officially proclaiming its commitment to transgendered individuals in
> central Ohio.
>
> Stonewall Columbus is currently seeking individuals to fill this new seat on
> the Board.  Like all Board seats, it is a three-year commitment and the term
> of the position is through September 2003.  Those interested in applying for
> the position should submit a letter of intent and a resume or vita to Cheryl
> Carter, Stonewall Nominations Committee Chair, 751 Northwest Blvd.,
> Columbus, OH 43212.