A
WORD ON SPRINGER
This is the view of a well known New York transsexual,
,
a friend of mine and which I thought was brilliant
and share entirely so it is published here -
What is your view ?
" I am so sick of festering sleaze bags like
Jerry Springer who've made a career out of denigrating
Transsexuals and Transgender people. In addition
to bashing Transsexuals regularly Jerry exploits
poor, ignorant and uneducated people of color
and poor white people. What Jerry Springer is
actually doing is reinforcing stereotypes and
hatred among minorities.
On
a regular basis, Springer labels pre op transsexuals
as 'men living as women.' This is a black and
white and simplistic approach to putting labels
upon a misunderstood group of people. Jerry
constantly beats to death the theme of "she's
really a man who fooled some poor, stupid allegedly
straight guy into thinking she was a 'real'
woman". By doing this Jerry Springer is contributing
to Transgender bashing and murders. This feeds
old Homo and genderphobic fears in the uneducated
and sexually insecure people.
 Just recently, I saw a
show that had a panel of street pre op transsexuals
incapable of defending themselves from the scathing
attacks of audience members, most of who seemed
to be hostile, disenfranchised, uneducated people.
The sad thing is that the audience members are
looking for other people to bring down because
they themselves are oppressed and have horrible,
institutionalized, low self-esteem. There was
one poignant transsexual who was with a man
who supported his own position declaring he
fell in love with the person inside. His partner
was the only articulate, dignified transsexual
woman on the panel. For enforced negativity,
the final panel member was a post op transsexual
who was portrayed as yet another "scary freak"
who was then clipped off when she attempted
to explain that the girls on the panel were
women. Audience members, booed, whooped and
hollered while big graphics kept flashing MEN
LIVING AS WOMEN.
Imagine
the damage that this does to a young transsexual
out there. What about the older transsexual
who is attempting to transition on the job?
This kind of rubbish gives an implied permission
to people using the wrong pronouns and continuing
to refer to someone who is a SHE as a he! This
also gives that judge in Jackass Flats license
to deny the transsexual who has been married
for 20 years her deserved, spousal rights. This
gives the green light to the disgruntled, sexually
conflicted youth to kill a transsexual. He can
cop the plea that hey, she deserved it, she
was a man, he heaven forbid got a hard on and
he felt deceived. The defendant can say he saw
the same thing on Jerry Springer and she was
wrong for deceiving him. Therefore she deserves
to die and he should get off with a slap on
the wrist. What about the fact that this person
will get all the dick he really wants in jail?
Ultimately this kind of show reinforces the
public's right to vilify, degrade and assault
Transsexuals.
The
sad issue was that the other Trannies on the
show were young girls looking for love and afraid
of the men knowing what their situations were,
fearing rejection. This is a common problem
young and not-so-young transsexuals face. Society
forces us into assimilation if only for safety.
Many men deliberately drawn to pre op transsexuals
are really looking for a penis covered by feminine
illusion. For true transsexuals who are completely
female identified we have a tragic, complicated
situation. When they meet a man who is truly
attracted to their woman within, the TS feels
fearful of exposure and rejection.
My
answer to this dilemma is to be truthful and
up front if there's an inevitable rejection
get it out of the way fast. Everyone fairs better
when the truth is declared. While Jerry Springer
was an advocate for the truth will set you free,
he had better face his own truth. My opinion
is that Jerry Springer has a choice. He can
either educate the public, or poison the public.
Reinforcing stereotypes is giving a license
to bash and kill out of prejudice. On a larger
political scale, Mr. Springer is promoting human
rights violations. You can't give a psychology
class to an audience of people who have been
sociologically stilted from a lack of education.
You can however make them connect with humanity
and the concepts of human rights.
Mr.
Springer and all talk show hosts have a responsibility
to educate the public and promote positive human
rights. Instead I see this rich white man with
a mostly minority and low income audience who
laughs his way to the bank at the expense of
society's disenfranchised. For an allegedly
straight man Mr. Springer certainly spends plenty
of time around downtrodden pre op transsexuals.
Being born transgender is not like making a
choice of cheeseburger, or fish sandwich. We
have no choice any more than a person has choice
of their skin color. Jerry Springer and some
of the other talk show hosts are committing
regular systematic violations of the human rights
of the transgender community. Their message
is simple and it is that we are sick freaks
who have made a choice to be different and therefore
everyone else has a right to violate our human
rights for doing so. I say this is unacceptable.
As
a Transgender and human rights advocate I urge
my readers to write to the networks, the talk
show producers and all of your political leaders.
Petition that Jerry Springer should be held
responsible for the results of his promotion
of small minded attitudes and be required to
encourage transgender understanding and education,
not just cheap sensationalism. If Jerry portrayed
an African American person, or a Jewish person
as capriciously low as he portrays transsexuals
and transgender people, Jerry would be lambasted
by the NAACP and/or the JDL. Why should we in
the transgender community tolerate such injustice
? "
Thank
You Gloria
Glossary
of all Transgender terms What
does T this & that actually mean ?
So
Lets Go and Explore but First....
There
are 1000's of Resources Links throughout this
Library. If you are not sure where to begin
you should always try to start at
The
Main Index the
epicentre for all new stories and sections.
I
constructed this site to assist others like
me and those interested to find their way
around some of the available resources and
to help bring positive awareness into our
society. Thanks therefore to all of you who
assisted in the construction of this site
or who contributed information and links.
Thanks also to the long patience of my web
team at Crisy Wild Media especially Timo and
Paul.
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are originally Scottish and Dutch although I
was born in London at some point during the
second half of the last century. My earliest
recollections of crossdressing are when I was
about 12 years old. Of course feelings of guilt
went with that so I tried to settle down as
much as possible to the stereotyped male upbringing.
Boarding school set aside the ability to crossdress
until I went to live in London and on to University.
I remember reading about such people as April
Ashley and Cochineal and wondered what it would
be like to be a girl so many times. I even sat
next to April in a restaurant once in the Fulham
Road and thought hey she looks great and asking
myself if could it be possible for me. I had
a string of attractive girlfriends but somehow
that wasn't enough. Changing sex was a taboo
subject then and there was no one to talk it
over with and worst of all there wasn't anywhere
to really go. Spare time was spent driving around
as Crissy ( the younger version !) and I loved
it.
therefore
emerged in November 1998. There
is never a right time in one's life to come
to terms with one's true gender feelings. I
have discovered some extraordinary aspects of
life and on this new website I intend to recount
more of them. It also may help assist those
of you out there who are too frightened or worried
to take the plunge and just be your true self.
It isn't easy I know but my experience has shown
me that all things are possible even if you
come from a fairly conservative background as
I did. Going from expensive city suits to even
more expensive designer dresses inside 18 months
takes some doing !! - actually to be fair it
did take somewhat longer (about four years)
to set the process going.
It really can happen to anyone .....
but finding courage to come to terms ..... thats
a whole different ball game.... any transsexuals
whether male to female or female to male who
undertake such a transition have more guts than
the average.
I
enrolled at the 
