Declaration of Transsexual Independence ...
Activist Teresa Ellen Reeves issued the text below on the Web this past 4th of July. A student at my university who is active in the LGBT Coalition sent me an email about it a few days ago.
Reeves is declaring independence from the "dictatorship" of what she calls the "LGBTransgender Variant Umbrella." It's a very interesting document. She takes issue with the attempt to subsume transsexualism within the LGB community and with efforts to define transgenders as something other than woman or men.
I wonder how others feel about it. I think this would make for a good discussion topic, especially with our cherished trans members.
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The Declaration of Transsexual Independence, Secession & Liberation from the Dictatorship of the LGBTransgender Variant Umbrella
by Teresa Ellen Reeves
July 4, 2011
We, the transsexual people, hold these truths to be self evident.
We are an independent and distinctly different people who were born of a mind in contrast with our physical bodies. We have a neurobiological imperative to seek a congruence of mind and body, and through our transition we relentlessly pursue the remedy and correction of our birth defect through hormonal and other therapies and sex reassignment and other surgeries.
It is this quest for congruence and wholeness that makes us who we are, who we must be, and that which drives us to do what we must do to attain what we seek.
Today we announce our Independence, Secession and Liberation from our captivity as an assimilated people who have been subject to the erasure of our identities, the silencing of our voices and the rendering of us as invisible and powerless in the service of a group of people collectively called Transgender.
And also we announce our Independence, Secession and Liberation from our subjugation as less than equal partners in a coalition known as Lesbian Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (L G B T) who have also endeavored to erase our identities, silence our voices and render us as invisible and powerless.
To be continued in next post ...
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