Australian Bill of Rights well overdue!

Well I'm not even halfway through Geoffrey Robertson's book A Statute Of Liberty and it's already prompting me to make Invader Zim style clawing motions in the air at the injustices and utter stupidity detailed in the book from Australias history.

Sure I already realised Australia needs the protection and guidance that the rest of the democratic world enjoys from a Bill of Rights, and sure I knew that racism was a big part of federation and that much of our freedom of speech etc in australia came mostly from assumptions and conventions that could be wiped away ata single penstroke... but when the subject was taught at school and even at TAFE such points are danced around or briefly mentioned. The utter catastrophic fragility and patchwork of flaws just doesn't get emphasised enough by half.

This is a deep problem in Australia. Growing up in the bush I saw it all the time. The 'she'll be right mate' attitude of shut up, don't worry, don't fuss, leave things alone.

It's a deadly attitude. It costs lives. It's the height of utter stupidity. A lazy fatalism. A resignation to negligence.

This is not the only attitude in Australia. We've had plenty of brave folk who have spoken out. But we don't celebrate them. We generally just celebrate sportsman, as if only the physical feats of just men and only in the arena of competative sport is all that matters.

Well this 'young country' has to start to grow up. It's well nigh that we start to take seriously the matter of formal federal protections of Human Rights in Australia.

I urge everyone to get involved in raising this subjects profile while the community consultation is going on. It's media coverage seems to me woefully insufficient, most people have hardly heard about it, have little understanding of the importance of it and have no idea how much the freedoms they expect in life exist only at a whim of government with little if any recourse at all.

Especially considering that Australia was fundamental in the drafting of the now 60 year old UN Decleration of Human Rights that we are the last modern democracy to lack a bill of rights is a profoundly collossal embaressment and we really need to return to our position as a leader in international human rights rather than a straggler right at the very back of the drove!

Is the crossdressing community held back by the concerns of hetero marriages?

This is something I've been pondering for some time.

The standard line is that most crossdressers are 'straight'. Personally i doubt this because I think the degree of 100% heterosexuality of the whole community is I think overexaggerated.

Nevertheless much of the crossdressing world online and in organisations often revolves around MtF CDs Cis wives and girlfriends.

There are the concerns of coming out or being outed on ones future dating prospects, there are those who've kept their CDing a secret from their wives who fear to lose their marriages or to cause upset hurt and harm to their wives by coming out to them. And even those who do share their CDing with their wives make all manner of concessions to their feellings and comfort.

And organisations likewise are concerned with the comfort and feellings of wives of straight crossdressers.

Because of wives frequent concerns that their husbands CDing means they might be Gay some organisations ban or minimise the visibility of Bisexual and Gay crossdressers.

Because of wives frequent concerns their husbands may be Transsexual and transition similarly some ban or marginalise Transsexuals too.

Also the view that the public perception is that all CDs are gay has some reacting with hostility towards Gays and Drag Queens.

Now today I'm not going to discuss the validity of each of those decisions (though feel free to do so in comments), I certainly am not saying that the concerns feellings and needs of CDs wives are not important. It is firstly important to know that much of this is done under the notion of 'protecting' the wives and ensuring they 'don't get the wrong idea' by going to a CD support group meeting and seeing gay people there or hearing mention of TSs transitioning. Which in my view must be rough for those few whose CDing husbands do turn out to be Bi and/or TS!

Instead for the moment I will focus on the consequences of the actions based on these concerns.

Firstly the vast majority of CDs appear to be deeply in the closet. I've seen claims that range from 2% of the population to 10% regularly crossdress. Thats a pretty significant sized minority. It is quite comparable to estimates of the numbers of Gays and Lesbians I've seen. The most common reason for being closeted according to CD forums i've been on appears to be about impact on wives/girlfriends. Sure the rest is there that other closeted groups face: other family, career, friends etc but this one appears to have a major additional impact on the numbers of those willing to be out.

The next is the seperation of groups with otherwise common causes. Fear of being labeled as Gay or blaming Drag Queens for negative views in society of CDs means that CDs have little if anything to do with GLB groups despite similar closeting and discrimination experiences that should naturally have them working hand in hand.

Then of course there is the schism with much of the rest of Transgender. Transsexuals lose out on the larger group which as allies could help them in their many shared and unshared issues. There also ends up an emphasis on passing which tends to isolate the genderqueer. And of course some transsexuals consider themselves for a time crossdressers, often hoping that just the clothes would be enough and ful transition surgery et al would not be neccessary only to find as they gain self acceptance that this is not the case. In some CD groups these TSs get ostracised in case they may trigger wives fears and then some TS groups ostracise them for having been in the CD community.

And there is a substantial hostility amongst many groups for any form of politics.

It is a community largely paralysed by fear. One that if those numbers are correct could have a profound impact if only it could rid itself of it's own homophobia and transphobia and perhaps some of the fear of upsetting or validating the fears of the wives of a portion of the community.

There are some crossdressers who oppose the heterosexist binary-gender views when they are expressed, who try and reform the biased policies of some groups, who try and rouse others to action, who try and assist some in coming out and of course in opposing the negative stereotypes of CDs which are found in the mainstream and GLBT communities. But the crossdressing community still appears to be far behind the rest of LGBT.

But how should the community face the fears and concerns and needs of the het relationships within it?

What if any say should a wife have over a husbands degree of being out? Of how often and to what extent they can express their femininity? How should their fears and concerns be handled? How should the needs of married Het CDs be balanced against those who are Bi etc?

And what about the FtM guys? Do they have these sorts of issues? Because I only hear about this problem from the FtM community. Maybe some of the great guys who have dropped by here could give me their perspective on this?

Quick update

It's been a bit since my last post so I thought It would be a good idea to get something posted.

Most of my time has been filled with social stuff, especially with some of my friends moving away so we had to get the most shared time we could. Miss you both already! Wednesdays especially just won't be the same now.

I also had some writing commitments to work on too. As well as the usual flare up of symptoms that come with sudden changes of temperature so the heatwave and then the rains have seriously impeded my productivity.

As usual I've had some interesting conversations, from comparing the ethics of BDSM compared to the common 'normal' sex practice of the drunken one night stand to the complicated issue of how one defines when a healthy but uncommon sexual variation crosses over to unhealthy. That latter is tricky because usually its based on how close it is to whats common and socially accepted rather than on matters of ethics or a measurable level of harm.

There was also much discussion about punk and goth mods of My Little Pony's, of makeup and manskirts, mohawks and brightly coloured artificial dreds and various subgroups of Goth culture and it's history.

And there was plenty of Anime watching, especially Trinity Blood.

On top of that I had my birthday recently, which was good. I'd not been looking forward to it and the lead up to Valentines Day was filled with far too many reminders of my last relationship. However on the day I got some really quite lovely gifts and touching messages and it really made my day. And theres more to come as I'll also do some celebrating on the weekend.

Anyways I'm a little too vague today to go into detail on any of the many interesting and important topics that have been an issue recently to do them proper justice so that'll do for now.

Because Defiance can be Adorable

I assert my right to cute fuzzy adorable and pretty resistance to the dull and dour unjust rules and expectations demanded of me by those who do not wish me to step outside their narrow catagories. Queen Emily is right http://sexualambiguities.blogspot.com/2009/01/bunny-resistance.html I have happiness and joy and laughter and friendship. Whether my presentation at any given time is wholly female or a genderqueer androgyny all of masculine and feminine expression belongs to everyone to use or not as suits them, as pleases themselves. And all you haters of transgender, especially of non-binary TG cannot stop me Mu-Ha-Ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaaaa.

I am free. I will defiantly express that freedom. Adorably.