Today Sandeen wrote a blog entry on Pams House Blend concerning Nikki Araguz, the widow of a recently fallen firefighter in Texas. Nikki's in-laws are trying to steal her benefits, claiming Nikki was "born a man". Sandeen goes on a rant yet again that inaccuratly paints an intersex and transsexual issue in a way that makes it about "gay issues", just like when she used the word "homosexuality" in the title of a blog entry she did about trans women Tiwonge and her lover Steven.
There is a difference,(equal, but different), between a woman with both intersex and transsexual birth challenges, and this social political term "transgender" that all of a sudden encompasses gender queer identified individuals, gay and lesbian gender non-conforming people, cross dressers, drag queens, etc. One noted transgender blogger employed by Gay Inc. was uncomfortble with the discussion of diversity in the transsexual, transgender umbrella and intersex communities, for reasons she knows. The high majority of intersex people are not even remotely transgender (intersex people are of a biological condition, not an "identity or expression"), and neither do a lot of transsexual people (many them with an intersex condition).
Apparently the marriages of transsexual, transgender & intersex (TTI) people aren’t a priority for the gay & lesbian organizations. The media continues to misreport the facts pertaining to Nikki Araguz's case. The TTI communities supported the gay and lesbian community’s fight for marriage rights. It’s a disappointing slap in the face tp see all the gay groups being silent about this potentially historical case in Texas. Don't heterosexual intersex and transsexual people also deserve advocacy from the LGBT leadership?
At least Sandeen was honest enough to write "alleged transgender" in the title of her propaganda filled blog entry about Nikki Araguz. That is more then most gay and lesbian media outlets have done, who sometimes co-opt the medical condition transsexualism either out of ignorance, or because it uplifts gay people over transsexual people.
The reason we feel compelled to discuss the often silenced topic of diversity in the sex and/or gender diverse communities is because the epidemic of women and men being denied their medical rights to treat their intersex and transsexual birth challenge is a crime. These attacks on their human rights could be remedied more so if the media would not aide in the miseducation that continues to marginalize many transsexual, transgender and intersex people.
MAGNET's Media Advisory:
MAGNET asks all media outlets, especially our own LGBT media outlets, to stop misgendering and declassifying Nikki Araguz's birth challenge status, and ask the gay and lesbian organizations to help the intersex, transsexual and transgender communities defend themselves from these media assaults.
Nikki Araguz was born with a variation of female and male biology. She was not born a "man", yet is being falsely reported so by numerous media outlets (even some LGB"T" ones). This inaccurate reporting causes fear and miseducation about intersex and transsexual human beings, which unethically and irresponsibly sways the future jury from seeing things clearly because of this sensational false media. This hype could cause propaganda which could strip Nikki of her constitutional rights and security. This woman deserves the right to grieve for her brave and loving companion who she has lost, without this humilating and public assault on her right to privacy. -----------------------------
This is a tragic love story made even more tragic by ignorance, hate and greed. It's shameful that the mother of the fallen firefighter would choose her desire for money over her respect for her son’s memory, and the love of his life, his wife, Nikki Araguz
I'm not sure what you mean by the second half of this sentence - the pigeonhole part, I mean.
ReplyDelete"It has become common for many transsexual advocates, allies and writers to protest Sandeen's misrepresention (many of whom Sandeen banned from commenting on the Pam's House Blend site for thier truth telling) of many trans issues in a way that caters to Gay Inc, yet pigeonholes transsexual and intersex people who do not subscribe to Sandeen's and Gay Inc's transgender/3rd gender/crossdresser political strong arming of the medical condition transsexualism."
This may be a sad by-product of a winner-take-all legal system in which 'precedent is everything.' There's no conceivable way that recognition of the gender status of T and the marital status of LGB come in one fell swoop, so someone has to come first. I don't care which, so long as one doesn't have to be at the expense of the other. Unfortunately that is a long shot given the right's skill at divide-and-conquer tactics, the right's lock on the judicial branch for generations to come, and most tragically, the fact that (all?) people have a price.
ReplyDeleteGreat post...well said. I live in the area the Nikki Araguz case is taking place...and written about it a couple of times.
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