via cutter:
The average person who calls themself a transsexual does not change sexes. She/he corrects documents.
i totally agree with this one.
and via the bilerico project, where waymon talks about homosexuality positioned as a disease, well, being transsexual is still considered a mental illness. so i’ll be calling in to work tomorrow:
“hello boss? can’t come in to work today. still trans.”
I’m honored by your quoting me, but…
Don’t call in, just relieve yourself in the “wrong” restroom and let them send you home sick.
Comment by Jon/Cutter — March 16, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
Very attractive proposition but. If it were in an article on Wikipedia, it would warrant the tag about “regional”.
In most of the world outside the US, documents are an afterthought. The only reason people need them is so they avoid the embarassement of having to exhibit their original ones, not as an affirmation of their correct gender.
Also, in many places around the world, you can only correct documents after surgery. Yet, there are plenty of transgendered people who choose not to have the surgery. Though I will give you that there must also be some at least who have it in order to get the legal recognition.
Still, far from a universally appliccable definition.
Comment by Stassa — March 21, 2008 @ 4:25 pm
I mean, far from “average” in any case. Sorry, I’m a sloppy poster lately…
Comment by Stassa — March 21, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
you mean there’s a world outside the u.s.?!?!?!
actually, i was under the impression that outside the u.s., documents are a necessity in order to achieve any level of mobility. obviously, i’m mistaken.
i guess i’ve heard too many people here compare the u.s. real id thing to how it is in the rest of the world.
Comment by nexy — March 21, 2008 @ 5:45 pm
Sure there’s a world outside the US. What else would you need an army for?
Mobility? Do you mean travelling abroad? In the EU, you can use a passport or a European ID card, which holds much less information than a passport. Outside Europe you need a passport, obviously. In Greece, there was a time when you’d need papers to go around, but that was during the Junta, the military dictatorship that fell in 1973. Freedom to move and settled is actually enshrined in our 1975 constitution, I’ll have ye know… because of the Junta.
In the UK most people use their driver’s license as identification, for whatever purpose, inside the country. Police definitely don’t ask you to produce any papers to go around. It would make the headlines if anyone did!
But my point was more about how where I come from, papers are rarely seen as the kind of societal validation of transpeople’s gender identity that it seems to me they are in the UK and in the US. I mean, like in the quote above.
For example, I mentioned to a couple of UK transwomen that I don’t really care about changing my legal name and gender and they were really shocked. They actually started explaining to me why you must have your papers changed. And it didn’t really have to do with “what if you go to the bank to open an account?” because, actually, I can open an account and fullfill any other function with my current papers. So it seems to me it was more of a matter of ideology than practicality. And I haven’t seen that ideology in Greece, which I know is culturally much closer to the rest of the Mediterrannean countries than to the West. So I’m saying- the average transperson no. The average American or British transperson, maybe.
Comment by Stassa — March 21, 2008 @ 9:09 pm
Wait. That:
is a tongue pulling smilie? And what’s the smily-smilie?
Sorry, I have to see this
Comment by Stassa — March 21, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
Darn. I thought that red bit was lipstick!
Comment by Stassa — March 21, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
interesting. i guess us americans are a bit obsessive about our paperwork.
and yeah, the smilies are a bit weird. i’ve been considering turning them off altogether.
Comment by nexy — March 22, 2008 @ 9:51 am