Why The Trans Community Hates Dr. Janice G. Raymond

“I contend that the problem with transsexualism would best be served by morally mandating it out of existence”

Before there was an HRC and its various leaders pissing us off, the Religious Right, Jim Fouratt, The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Rep. Barney Frank, Dr. Paul McHugh, the Catholic Church, the Tea Klux Klan, The WWBT's, or Julie Bindel and a long list of radical feminists hating on transpeople, there was the trans community's original Public Enemy Number One.

She is radical feminist UMass professor Dr. Janice G. Raymond. While she focuses her time on her award winning work combating prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women, back in her disco era collegiate days her rhetorical sights were trained on transwomen.

The animus between the trans community and her starts in 1977 while she was being supervised in her Boston College Ethics and Society doctoral studies by Mary Daly, the same transphobe who called us 'Frankensteinian.'

That doctoral thesis was turned into the infamous 1979 book entitled The Transsexual Empire-The Making of the She-Male.

In that transphobic waste of trees she stated among other things:

All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves .... Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women, so that they seem non-invasive

"Transsexually constructed lesbian-feminists show yet another face of patriarchy. As the male-to-constructed-female transsexual exhibits the attempt to possess women in a bodily sense while acting out the images into which men have molded women, the male-to-constructed-female who claims to be a lesbian-feminist attempts to possess women at a deeper level, this time under the guise of challenging rather than conforming to the role and behavior of stereotyped femininity”.

This book sowed the seeds for the anti-trans attitudes prevalent in radical feminism today, the 1980's anti-trans attitudes in the feminist movement, and the sometimes bitter acrimony that transpeople of my generation and the one that preceded me feel toward feminism.

It also inspired transwoman Sandy Stone, who was attacked in Raymond's book, to write an essay entitled The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto.

It's sad because both transwomen and cis feminists should have been playing on the same team. Thanks to the book affirming the transphobia that existed in some feminist quarters, they didn't.

While The Transsexual Empire was bad enough to the trans community, another anti-trans screed she penned had more devastating effects for us in American society.

In 1980 Dr. Raymond wrote a paper entitled Technology on the Social and Ethical Aspects of Transsexual Surgery, for the US Government. This not well publicized tome discussed the topic of federal aid for trans people seeking rehabilitation and health services.

This paper effectively eliminated federal and state aid for indigent and imprisoned transsexuals. It has forced incarcerated trans people to file federal court cases to get back trans related medical treatment they lost as a result of Raymond's transphobic pen.

When the federal and state governments dropped funding for indigent transpeople, it was used as a pretext by private health insurance companies to follow the federal government’s lead and deny or disallow services to trans patients for any medical treatment remotely related to being trans, including breast cancer or genital cancer. The cancer denials were extrapolated to be a consequence of treatment for transsexuality.

The resulting decade long negativity toward Janice Raymond was so strong it took the 1995 rise of Elizabeth Birch and some publicized anti-trans remarks by her as head of HRC to supplant Raymond as Trans Public Enemy Number One.

For you folks who are wondering why you can't use the insurance policies you pay for to cover much of the medical work you need done or wonder why the Medicaid and Medicare taxes you pay doesn't cover SRS or any trans related care, you have Dr. Janice G. Raymond and her unleashed disco era transphobia to thank for that.

Kern Supporters Start The Transphobic Attacks Against Novotny

When it came to this Oklahoma state legislature race Brittany Novotny was running against homophobic Rep. Sally Kern, I felt that if it were close, Brittany looked like she was building a lead, or was running away with it, out would come the transphobia.

Well, one of those three conditions must be occurring in the Oklahoma legislative race, because the transphobic hate is flowing from the alleged 'christians' in the Kern camp.

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Rep. Kern Supporters Begin Personal Attacks

Oklahoma City, OK – The Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC), longtime supporters, contributors and allies of Representative Sally Kern have begun personally attacking Kern’s opponent in the race for House District 84.

In an e-mail to OCPAC members on Sept. 7, 2010, Charlie Meadows, OCPAC founder, personally attacked Rep. Kern’s opponent, Brittany Novotny, calling her “a confused ‘it’” and accused Novotny of having “hatred toward God.”

In addition to attacking Novotny, Meadows also raised questions about the character of Oklahoma voters.

“In November, we will see which set of values the voters in HD 84 care most about,” Meadows said. “Remember, all elections are first about the quality and character of the voters.”

Novotny said she believes this election should be about solutions—not personal attacks.

“If Rep. Kern and her allies spent as much time focusing on Oklahoma’s future as they seem to spend worrying about my past, maybe we could keep teachers in the classroom and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure,” Novotny said. “This type of personal attack is what Oklahomans are tired of, and it shows why Kern and her political allies continue to be out of touch with mainstream Oklahoma values.”

Novotny said statements claiming she has “hatred toward God” are ridiculous. Novotny attends services at United Church of Christ.

OCPAC is a state-level political action committee led by Charlie Meadows, who founded the group in 1999 after meeting for several years with friends in a group called “the Right of Rush Bunch.” Since 2006, OCPAC has made a concerted effort to defeat moderate Republicans it believes to be “Republican in Name Only.” OCPAC has contributed $2,250 to Rep. Kern in the last two election cycles, and voted her their “Outstanding Lawmaker of the Year” in 2005.

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Y'all know what to do. Help Brittany win and drop a buck or two toward her campaign. If you're fortunate enough to live in her district, vote for her on November 2.

Simon Cowell Unleashes Transphobic Comment At Sistah Contestant

I've never like American Idol or Simon Cowell, and seeing this story made me like him even less.

Simon has a new American Idol style show he produces in Great Britain called X Factor.

A former contestant maned Annastasia Baker was making a return to the show after nreaking down on stage during a 2008 performance.

During this latest edition she performed Tina Turner's 'Proud Mary' during an audition.

Then came Cowell's critique of her performance, in which he stated: "I have seen trannies do better versions of the song".

Her father Ian Baker, still majorly pissed about what happened to her in 2008, fired back.

“Annastasia spent a lot of money on her image and had poured time and effort into it. No father wants to hear his daughter being called a tranny, ­especially after everything she has been through with the show in the past.”

Amen, Mr. Baker. At least you defended your daughter. That's more than I can say for most Black men who condone and even use transphobic slurs against Black women.

While there are lots of things we transpeople can do quite well, Simon, find some other way to slam the singing abilities of cis women contestants besides calling them 'trannies'.

Gay People, Chill With The Transphobic Hatin' On Ruth Johnson

One of the things I really get tired of is transphobia. It's especially galling when the phobic reactions are coming out of the mouths of your own people or so called allies.

Towleroad has a post about transphobe/homophobe Ruth Johnson winning the five person race last weekend at the state convention to get the GOP nod for Michigan Secretary of State.

Check out the reactions of some transphobic Towleroad readers in the comment thread.

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I feel so sorry for the transgendered man in the picture. The Secretary of State should be ashamed!
Posted by: candideinnc | Aug 25, 2010 9:17:05 AM

Looks like Brian Brown in drag.
Posted by: Brian in Texas | Aug 25, 2010 11:54:02 AM

Wait, that blond in the photo is a CHICK?
Posted by: ManPuppy Gay Social Network | Aug 25, 2010 7:27:33 PM

Ruth Johnson has a johnson. Chrissakes, the b***h looks like a fuckin' dude! And, an ugly fuckin' dude at that... This is what the word irony was invented for. And michigan is a shit state for gay rights...it's full of trash, esp, the upper peninsula.
Posted by: TANK | Aug 25, 2010 10:23:58 PM

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Okay, Ruth Johnson's hatin' on the community for political gain, so y'all want to strike back and hate on her. I get that. I understand the underlying frustrations in that stance. I know that she once received a 2002 endorsement from the gay community and note that you wish to express your disdain and sling shady insults at her via your First Amendment free speech rights.

But one of the major issues the trans community has a problem with right now and for decades with gay men is the rampant transphobia in your ranks.

It ain't funny, it ain't cute, and it's disrespectful to us as your allies to do so.

But then again, since when did some of y'all ever care about what we thought, even if it turned out later that we were right?

Bottom line is that you need to treat people the way you wish to be treated. If the script was flipped and a trans blog's commenters were using anti-gay epithets in the comment thread to demonize a cis opponent, y'all would be screaming bloody murder.

I'm not a fan of hers nor of any Republican. I'm not saying stop flinging insults at Miss Thang. What I am saying is find other attributes you can creatively attack her for and refrain from using transphobic insults to do so.

Michigan GOP Secretary of State Race To Be Decided At GOP State Convention

Michigan held their primary election on Tuesday. If you were perusing the election results online and looking to see who won the Republican nomination for Secretary of State, don't bother.

It wasn't on the ballot because the GOP nominee for Michigan Secretary of State will be decided August 29 at the Republican party convention on the Michigan State University campus.

So why am I posting about this on a left of center trans blog? Keep reading.

One of the six GOP candidates vying for the Secretary of State position is a young 'African-American' half term state legislator named Paul Scott.

He got my undivided attention by using transphobia to get a leg up in the crowded GOP field to replace current term limited Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land.

Back in January Scott had this to say about what he would do if he was elected Michigan's Secretary of State:

I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance.

Did you see that, trans Michiganders? If Paul Scott becomes the nominee and beats Democratic nominee Jocelyn Benson on November 2, he will make it policy that you and future trans Michigan residents will not be allowed to change the gender codes on the drivers licenses you pay for.

Jocelyn Benson is a Harvard Law School graduate who in 2004 helped develop a nationwide election protection program for the Democratic National Committee. In 2007, she worked to block closure of a Secretary of State branch office in Buena Vista Township. Prior to Harvard Law, Benson worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center investigating white supremacist organizations.

Damn, wish she was running in my state.

So y'all know what you need to do. If you are a transperson or a trans ally who lives in Michigan, you need to be doing whatever it takes to ensure that Jocelyn Benson is elected as Michigan's next Secretary of State.