Your Kind are not Welcome Here!
Jun. 27th, 2009 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaRemember how yesterday I wrote how Pride went without incidence?
Well, if you read the comments, you'll see that it wasn't 100% without incident.
The night after the march there were parties over the city, including a Dress-Up Gender Blender. Four friends left the club, a bunch of thugs caught sight of them and didn't seem to be able to handle the fact that Transpeople and Lesbians were walking around unashamed.
They began to curse and swear at the Transwoman - shall remain nameless as I do not have her permission to put her name here - who tried to reason with them; they demanded that she "fight like a man".
Her friends came to help, and they were beaten up as well.
A bystander came to their help and got them across the street.
At this time no one is placing any charges with the police. Even if they did, it would be unlikely that any good would come of it.
The Transwoman told a friend of hers that this sort of thing is practically a daily occurrence. That this is nothing special.
I cannot begin to imagine living like that. To be targeted because you do not fit an inmage is a person's mind.
Because the idea of gender variance is such a danger to the patriarchal frame in which we live and so few actually question.
The frisking was far more malicious than I first thought. I heard they were very touchy feely with Transpeople, Butch Dykes and people who came cross-dressed.
I got off lightly. As is generally the case.
I'm so pissed off I am barely coherent.
When I spoke about to my sister, regarding the body search, she said it was to cover their asses. There is covering ones ass and there is assault - and yes, as was commented - that kind of groping and humiliation is assault.
But it is soft and for "our own safety", no one who was there to protect us would ever consider us fair game for some identity policing: "It may be fine for you to march, but your right to exist as human beings is still questioned".
I think that because [Southern!Girl] is the first girl I've dated long enough to introduce to the family as my GF and to be public about it without too many closet issues, it has really brought home all the issues I don't think I've ever had to deal with before.
I've been secure in my Bi identity for years, dating men, however, did make me blind to the politics of such an identity - and only when I began to be Queer - which happened after I was discharged from the IDF - did I also become more politically aware in general.
Getting back to my point.
I remember being asked; what is so special about being gay*?
*The mainstream umbrella term for anyone who is not straight. There is a bit of an issue getting LGBT into mainstream discourse... let's not even talk about the word Queer - that's a whole can of worms.
The assumption of heterosexuality is so strong and so destructive. Not only that, the assumption of what is the right kind of heterosexual, what is normative, creates categories so rigid and so suffocating that people literally die from it.
Homo-les-bi-transphobia is not just the violence that those people had to endure as I wrote above.
It is the double standard placed upon such an identity. The policing of when such an identity is approved of (only inside away from the public).
I was told that being Out as a Mother can also cause problems in the workplace.
Sexism is indeed a problem.
The Mother identity is very much a problematic one for women.
However, being a mother makes you automatically accepted as a (re)producer in society. Being a mother is not an illegitimate identity as an identity - the problem is with public expectations from Mothers.
Gay identity is perceived as a threat to the building blocks of society, because it automatically rejects the heteronormative roles forced upon us from fetushood.
Even by becoming parents, which in Israel helps a lot - because a child is a blessing in breeding centric society like mine - who you are still under threat: "you're a real woman now" to a woman, who may very well be in the middle of transitioning to a man.
Not to mention that the assumption still remains hetero, there must be a father somewhere and there must be a mother somewhere.
And of course... there must be Female Mothers and Male Fathers.
My point.
The point it.
There are places in which we can walk without fear, but only a small percentage of us. We are still stated at, gawked at, whispered about, "who is the man? who is the woman", "you just need a Real Man", "Are you sure?", "It's just a phase", "Must you advertise your sexuality".
All that. It's got to go. Not in a while. Not in a generation maybe two. Pronto.
Well, if you read the comments, you'll see that it wasn't 100% without incident.
The night after the march there were parties over the city, including a Dress-Up Gender Blender. Four friends left the club, a bunch of thugs caught sight of them and didn't seem to be able to handle the fact that Transpeople and Lesbians were walking around unashamed.
They began to curse and swear at the Transwoman - shall remain nameless as I do not have her permission to put her name here - who tried to reason with them; they demanded that she "fight like a man".
Her friends came to help, and they were beaten up as well.
A bystander came to their help and got them across the street.
At this time no one is placing any charges with the police. Even if they did, it would be unlikely that any good would come of it.
The Transwoman told a friend of hers that this sort of thing is practically a daily occurrence. That this is nothing special.
I cannot begin to imagine living like that. To be targeted because you do not fit an inmage is a person's mind.
Because the idea of gender variance is such a danger to the patriarchal frame in which we live and so few actually question.
The frisking was far more malicious than I first thought. I heard they were very touchy feely with Transpeople, Butch Dykes and people who came cross-dressed.
I got off lightly. As is generally the case.
I'm so pissed off I am barely coherent.
When I spoke about to my sister, regarding the body search, she said it was to cover their asses. There is covering ones ass and there is assault - and yes, as was commented - that kind of groping and humiliation is assault.
But it is soft and for "our own safety", no one who was there to protect us would ever consider us fair game for some identity policing: "It may be fine for you to march, but your right to exist as human beings is still questioned".
I think that because [Southern!Girl] is the first girl I've dated long enough to introduce to the family as my GF and to be public about it without too many closet issues, it has really brought home all the issues I don't think I've ever had to deal with before.
I've been secure in my Bi identity for years, dating men, however, did make me blind to the politics of such an identity - and only when I began to be Queer - which happened after I was discharged from the IDF - did I also become more politically aware in general.
Getting back to my point.
I remember being asked; what is so special about being gay*?
*The mainstream umbrella term for anyone who is not straight. There is a bit of an issue getting LGBT into mainstream discourse... let's not even talk about the word Queer - that's a whole can of worms.
The assumption of heterosexuality is so strong and so destructive. Not only that, the assumption of what is the right kind of heterosexual, what is normative, creates categories so rigid and so suffocating that people literally die from it.
Homo-les-bi-transphobia is not just the violence that those people had to endure as I wrote above.
It is the double standard placed upon such an identity. The policing of when such an identity is approved of (only inside away from the public).
I was told that being Out as a Mother can also cause problems in the workplace.
Sexism is indeed a problem.
The Mother identity is very much a problematic one for women.
However, being a mother makes you automatically accepted as a (re)producer in society. Being a mother is not an illegitimate identity as an identity - the problem is with public expectations from Mothers.
Gay identity is perceived as a threat to the building blocks of society, because it automatically rejects the heteronormative roles forced upon us from fetushood.
Even by becoming parents, which in Israel helps a lot - because a child is a blessing in breeding centric society like mine - who you are still under threat: "you're a real woman now" to a woman, who may very well be in the middle of transitioning to a man.
Not to mention that the assumption still remains hetero, there must be a father somewhere and there must be a mother somewhere.
And of course... there must be Female Mothers and Male Fathers.
My point.
The point it.
There are places in which we can walk without fear, but only a small percentage of us. We are still stated at, gawked at, whispered about, "who is the man? who is the woman", "you just need a Real Man", "Are you sure?", "It's just a phase", "Must you advertise your sexuality".
All that. It's got to go. Not in a while. Not in a generation maybe two. Pronto.
