Caution:

This series of articles might Piss You Off!  These might be subjects you don’t want to talk about, you want to ignore, or you might hope no one suspects they exist.

But these subjects do exist, and we get letters on them and in-person questions when we are at nightclubs, gatherings, meetings or conventions.

This is an Interactive article – meaning we want you to leave comments below! But if you think you’ll get flack from doing so, or your friends might not like your answers if they see them, or your wife/S.O. might pop you in the head if she sees your answer, then don’t leave a comment!

The Warning is now over!


Hi, in case you don’t know me I’m Gina Lance, Editor of TG LIFE.  I also have a book out called GET DRESSED! which I’m sure you’ve seen ads for on TG LIFE.  I conceived this series of articles, TABOO Subjects, because there are certain thoughts and feelings that transgendered people, crossdressers to be specific, just don’t talk about. Sure they think about them, because they tell me via email or in person.  But usually these people are even afraid to express their opinions vocally, because we as a TG group are somehow supposed to fit into a mold.






So here goes with TABOO Subject Number Six…

Do TG Activists Truly Represent Us? Or Are Some Just A Bunch Of Hot Air?

My answer is… Some activists are great, but there is definitely is a whole lot of Hot Air out there!

Here’s a great Hot Air story: A few years back an article comes out on the Associated Press service that a TG activist group stated that nearly 100% of all transgendered people have been physically assaulted at one time or another.  I’m not talking about the horrific murders we hear about once in a while, I’m just taking about your average pushed, jostled, harassed kind of assaulted. I reread the story twice in amazement, and then proceeded to pick up the phone and call my friends. I knew I had to find out if maybe I was way off base, and maybe all TG’s were getting assaulted. After two dozen phone calls I could only find one person who had been jostled by the police, a decade earlier.  Some of my friends thought they had remembered hearing of someone once but that was about it. I personally have met a few people since then, but still the number is rare.

So being the snoop for details I am, I located the TG group in the news story.  I spoke to one of the leaders who told me, yes, 95% of the TG’s she talked to had been physically abused in public.  I asked her how many people she had talked to.  She told me 20 – all members of her group.  I asked where her group had encountered these problems and she told that they all occurred during different protests where they were picketing.  People had bumped into them, or they were pushed in a crowd. I kindly replied that I believed that was a skewered sample, because at protests, no matter what you might be protesting, or who you are, that’s an unfortunate common occurrence.  I told her that when I questioned people, my figures were exactly opposite.

My new best friend, the TG activist, said I was crazy, called me a liar and hung up the phone. I will save this group the embarrassment of telling you their name, because this story is TRUE and they really are a bunch of dumb asses.

You see, many people, especially many activists, want you to so badly believe their views, and their points that they make, no matter how much, they stretch the truth.  That’s why I think many of these groups don’t really represent us all!

Now there are some great people out there, Pauline Park, Melissa Sklarz and Diego Sanchez, to name a few, and some good groups getting things accomplished – I give them credit for that. But a lot of the time, I believe other activists, in their quest for fairness and equality, seek to put us as a whole in a group that wants special rights, not just equal rights. They insist on lobbying for laws that affect very few of us, and laws that I think are overblown and useless.

I always get heat from a lot of these types.  I’m called too lofty, too glamour oriented and not in touch with reality. But I often wonder who’s really in touch with reality?

So what do you think?  Do TG activists really represent us and are they doing a good job? Or are some way out in left field, sometimes fighting for a cause, while society in general is slowly accepting us anyway?  Are they representing you? Or do you live your TG LIFE just fine and have the same feelings I do? This is an Interactive Feature so please add your comments below! I can feel the HEAT coming my way on this one!