TG Or a Rose by any other name...

It always disheartens me when I read the vitriolic rants of many groups who try and divorce themselves from other groups of people.

From Julie Bindel to the writings of many amongst the HBS groups and many many others.

When people write about Transgender in this vein they either attack it as some form of ideological theory or they try and justify one group of people being considered legitimate and others not.

It's saddening and its nonsensical.

After all it does not matter if there is or is not a causal relationship between Intersex and Transexuals biologically when it comes to the Human Rights Issues of both groups.

It does not matter if 'behaviourists' as us crossdressers are being called by some are biologically determined as such (please, please read up on the genetic connections to behaviour you folk because you seem to think that no behaviour is biologically determined and thats just not borne out by nature at all, and there is even transgender behaviours in animals) and transexuals are biologically determined or if neither is or both is.

Because Human Rights do not stem from Biological causation. They stem from presumptions of intrinsic equality and liberty. Nothing more is needed.

As an ideology which it does not seem to be except in the arguments of opponents of its existence, Transgender should be as subject to all the riguers of science as all other ideologies... which often enough is none at all rather unfortunately.

As a theory used to explain a phenomenon indeed science can and should be involved.

As a social and political movement it needs no other justification than Basic Human Rights and must also be judged and modified by those rights equally.

As a culture the same is true.

So at the end of the day we should all be judged by our adherance to the basic principles of human rights. Its not so hard really.

No amount of slinging the word 'behaviourist' at crossdressers, drag queens, pre-ops, non-ops or what-have-you will ever reduce the real legitimacy of any one of those people or the legitimacy of the way they dress or the way they identify themselves or what basic civil rights they have.

No Cissexual Straight Man or Woman, No Gay or Lesbian Straight-Acting or otherwise, No Transexual of any level or form of opperations or age of transition is in any way better, more real, more legitimate than any crossdresser. And no crossdresser no matter how conservatively dressed is in any way better than a fetishist or genderqueer or drag queen.

The hair-splitting bigotry is truly pathetic.
Every single person who practices such arguments of exclusion delegitimises their own claims to equal rights if they are correct or successful in their arguments. They all shoot themselves in the foot because to justify their bigotry they toss out the very principle of equality which is the only valid reason they too have human rights.

We are all human. We all deserve the same rights. The same protection from abuse. The same access to healthcare including body-modification if we decide that is best for us and to protection from body modification if we decide (or before we are able to decide) that it is right for us. We all deserve protection from discrimination. The same access to essential servics, public amenities, safety, the law, public office and representatio and on and on.

No matter what differences you can point to our blood is still red.
And where our issues are the same, similar, related or intersecting we all are still equals. We all are as legitimate as each other.

Transgender, by any other name, by any causation, would still be legitimate.