In spite of the evil I've witnessed, I still have had hope for this world. That hope was based on, among other things, that folks like Cathy Brennan and Janice Raymond didn't have children.
Actually, I haven't thought that much about them, until recently. Years ago, long before I started my transition, I read The Transsexual Empire and thought it was one of the most ludicrous things I'd ever read. I still do. Next to it, any of Professor Leonard Jeffries' rants about "Ice People" and "Sun People" seem like Nobel Prize-worthy science.
As I read further, one of my suspicions was confirmed: Raymond, Brennan, et al, have no influence outside of a very small circle of so-called Second Wave Feminists. Ironically enough, even though their hatred has more in common with that of folks like the Reverend Fred Phelps and certain members of the College of Cardinals and the Supreme Court, even they would never pay any mind to the nonsense Raymond and Brennan were spewing.
However, as demented as their so-called theories and arguments may be, I simply can't laugh them off anymore. At least, I can't do that to the estimable Ms. Brennan. You see, now she's doing what, in my old neighborhood, would be called some "real bad, real serious shit."
From Kelli Busey of Planetransgender, I have learned that Ms. Brennan has viciously "outed" a transgender teenager. We saw what happened when Dharun Ravi, in essence, outed Tyler Clementi. Making a trans teenager's identity public puts him or her at even greater risk for being subjected to violence, and committing suicide (whether in the way Clementi did or slowly and more painfully through substance abuse or other means) than "outing" a gay or lesbian teenager would .
As vile as his actions were, at least Darun Ravi could claim, and many people would agree, that his actions were childish pranks gone horribly wrong. However, Brennan can make no such claim. In fact, she has no defense at all. The only rationale she has is her own hatred, whatever its sources and purposes.
In other words, it was a purely malicious act. What I find really reprehensible is that she is trying to use the fears and stereotypes some people have about trans people to destroy a young man's life. That stereotype is the transsexual-as-sexual-predator whose modus operandi--in sex and everything else in life--is deception.
Call me selfish, but one of the reasons I think what Brennan did is especially vile is that I have been victimized in the same way. Someone I've mentioned on this blog tried to destroy my life--and succeeded in causing me health problems which are just now coming under control--by falsely accusing me of sexual crimes against other people.
So, when I read about that seventeen-year-old trans boy whom Cathy Brennan "outed," I felt as if she had assaulted me personally. And, I would expect, a lot of other non-cisgender people felt the same way.
After pressure from Busey and others, the courageous Ms. Brennan removed the post in which she "outed" the young man from her website. However, one of Kelli Busey's friends, Stephanie Stevens, saved it, and Busey published it on Scribe. I am grateful to, and for, Ms. Busey and Stevens.
Actually, I haven't thought that much about them, until recently. Years ago, long before I started my transition, I read The Transsexual Empire and thought it was one of the most ludicrous things I'd ever read. I still do. Next to it, any of Professor Leonard Jeffries' rants about "Ice People" and "Sun People" seem like Nobel Prize-worthy science.
As I read further, one of my suspicions was confirmed: Raymond, Brennan, et al, have no influence outside of a very small circle of so-called Second Wave Feminists. Ironically enough, even though their hatred has more in common with that of folks like the Reverend Fred Phelps and certain members of the College of Cardinals and the Supreme Court, even they would never pay any mind to the nonsense Raymond and Brennan were spewing.
However, as demented as their so-called theories and arguments may be, I simply can't laugh them off anymore. At least, I can't do that to the estimable Ms. Brennan. You see, now she's doing what, in my old neighborhood, would be called some "real bad, real serious shit."
From Kelli Busey of Planetransgender, I have learned that Ms. Brennan has viciously "outed" a transgender teenager. We saw what happened when Dharun Ravi, in essence, outed Tyler Clementi. Making a trans teenager's identity public puts him or her at even greater risk for being subjected to violence, and committing suicide (whether in the way Clementi did or slowly and more painfully through substance abuse or other means) than "outing" a gay or lesbian teenager would .
As vile as his actions were, at least Darun Ravi could claim, and many people would agree, that his actions were childish pranks gone horribly wrong. However, Brennan can make no such claim. In fact, she has no defense at all. The only rationale she has is her own hatred, whatever its sources and purposes.
In other words, it was a purely malicious act. What I find really reprehensible is that she is trying to use the fears and stereotypes some people have about trans people to destroy a young man's life. That stereotype is the transsexual-as-sexual-predator whose modus operandi--in sex and everything else in life--is deception.
Call me selfish, but one of the reasons I think what Brennan did is especially vile is that I have been victimized in the same way. Someone I've mentioned on this blog tried to destroy my life--and succeeded in causing me health problems which are just now coming under control--by falsely accusing me of sexual crimes against other people.
So, when I read about that seventeen-year-old trans boy whom Cathy Brennan "outed," I felt as if she had assaulted me personally. And, I would expect, a lot of other non-cisgender people felt the same way.
After pressure from Busey and others, the courageous Ms. Brennan removed the post in which she "outed" the young man from her website. However, one of Kelli Busey's friends, Stephanie Stevens, saved it, and Busey published it on Scribe. I am grateful to, and for, Ms. Busey and Stevens.
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