FORGE Survey: Helpful or harmful?

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Submitted by think aloud on Tue, 07/25/2006 - 4:40pm.

Since I heard about this survey earlier today, I have been trying to decide what the possible impacts of a study like this could be on the trans community. While I can foresee very positive impacts such as increased visibility of problem spots in the larger queer community and fostering discussion between trans and non-trans members of the queer community, I am much more afraid of the negative impacts of the data this survey may produce.

The spin possibilities include the LGB community discovering how few trans people actually feel comfortable in the queer community and using that to further distance the communities from each other. Furthermore, I can see the queer community using this information to legitimate ceasing to offer trans-educational, trans-inclusive, and trans-focused programming. In places where there are large trans populations, this may not be a huge problem, but in Indiana, it is my belief that the trans community needs allies as much as it needs to participate in trans-only activities. A community this small cannot be left to fend for itself.

While the goals of the LGB and trans populations are often divergent to the point of immiscible, well-educated allies are worth their weight in gold. And I don’t mean SOFFAs. SOFFAs, in my view, are part of the community. What we need are unconnected allies with enough education to speak eloquently on trans issues and to know the right answers when the tough questions come up. It has been my experience that the LGB community is ripe with individuals ready to learn but as yet unlearned.

Thus I have conflicting feelings about filling out this survey because I know what kinds of experiences I have had in queer spaces, and honestly they have been much more negative than I’d like to admit in public. I feel that it is very important, both as a person who has experienced these situations and as a human subjects researcher myself, to share my stories and increase the amount of data available. In the end, do I want to tell the world about my painful and distancing experiences with the LGB community, or do I want to send out a plea for solidarity, for allies?

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#32 On Tue, 07/25/2006 9:19pm pennyjane said,

i hear you. it isn't pc to pull away from the gay community, and as you say might just turn out to be counterproductive. personally i think it's worth the risk. sexual orientation and gender identity are unrelated. i feel that i have been cast into the lgb community just to have a place for people to put me. i share no more with the gay community then i do with the straight one. and i do feel like a third class citizen in this community who often it seems welcome me only to move themselves up one notch on the feeding chain. i find myself much more comfortable in the straight community once people get to know me. the most overt bigotry i encounter comes from the lesbian community. i guess they sometimes are so threatened by me that they lose all perspective. that's not to say that all lesbians are that way, i also have some very very good friends of that persuesion. it has been my experience though that in the straight community once people get a basic idea about what transgenderism is they are generally less offended by my presence. it takes time for all to get past the stereotype and see me as more then just one faceted. once though they begin to see me not as a transexual person but as a person who is transsexual it gets easier and i find more acceptance. gays it seems don't get past that hurdle as often as do straights. i guess the point i'm trying to make is this: if we can get more support from the straight community by consciously moving ourselves away from the gay community it might be in our best interest to do so. i'm just speaking of this as a pracitical matter. i hold myself superior to no one but if i'm not going to be a full citizen in one community i think i'd like to move to where i might have a chance. we often gravitate towards the gay community because they don't start out by throwing rocks but there is a glass ceiling in that community that i'm not sure really exists in the straight one. of course my experience is simply ancedotal and may have more to do with my own personality and presentation then with the community at large, but at least i hope this is food for some thought. love ya all, pj

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