(The worst I experienced personally was when one particular male homosexual accused me of being a Nazi because I failed to see the merit of painting pink triangles on the campus buildings and sidewalks. Now, people who know me know that I'm not homophobic -- this one guy had apparently been through some rough times and was lashing out. But that's a tangent we don't really need to explore right now.)

From what I've heard (second- and third-hand), it got really bad in some places, and I'm sure there are still residual effects that won't be cleared up for years. The linguistic shock troops were out in full force, especially in California. People were no longer allowed to use perfectly good words that they'd been using for years. You couldn't be "handicapped" or "black" any more -- you had to be "physically challenged" or "African-American". The list goes on and on....

So are there any gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or transgendered out there willing to hijack this thread for me and bring it back on-subject? Or are we doomed here?

There was someone who asked a similar question, if there were any gay geeks, his name was William, he didn't get many responses, not as many as we both thought he would.

And guys, I didn't mean to male bash, I was asking Lil what her perspective was on how she's being treated. Lil's point of view is unique and very interesting, and personally, I'm glad that she's managed the negative stuff with so much style and grace. Talk about survivor! Bravo Lil, you are very strong and we all can learn from you. I think everyone has wondered what it's like to be the opposite sex.

As for false-rape accusations, it is a definite and increasing problem, and thoughtful women I know are very worried about it, because the natural outcome of prevalent false-rape charges is for there to eventually be a lashback, and the progress being made now in reporting rapes and having a fair chance of being believed will be entirely undone. Of course, the sort of person that would hurt someone that way probably doesn't spend a lot of time reading forums on social issues...

Mmmm. As for getting back on topic, I will mention that I've noticed there's a whole lot of bi-polys in the scifi-geek community, if not so much in the computer-geek community; not a lot of transgenders, but a couple. Probably more in the Gaylaxians society, which holds a Gaylaxicon convention, by the by. (scifi, by the by, is pronounced 'skiffy' by those of us geeky enough to care. The pendantic geeks refuse to use the term under any pronunciation, and refer to it as 'SF' or 'Speculative Fiction' ... )

Parity None

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Originally posted by Nitrozac:
heh, I was thinking about how to help get this thread back to its original topic!

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A rocket crawler, maybe?

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There was someone who asked a similar question, if there were any gay geeks, his name was William, he didn't get many responses, not as many as we both thought he would.

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Well, here in Seattle I've known more than a few GLBT geeks. But they're career geeks, rather than one of us lifers; many hadn't even touched a computer before 1991! AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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And guys, I didn't mean to male bash, I was asking Lil what her perspective was on how she's being treated. Lil's point of view is unique and very interesting, and personally, I'm glad that she's managed the negative stuff with so much style and grace. Talk about survivor! Bravo Lil, you are very strong and we all can learn from you. I think everyone has wondered what it's like to be the opposite sex.

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AW! Thanks, Nitrozac! I'm sure you'll hear lots more as I negotiate this path. Especially as I begin my job hunt as female in the next few months.... WHEE!!!

I don't really think of the two recognized sexes as "opposite". For one thing, it implies there really are only two. By sex chromosomes, there's actually five--XX, XY, XXY, XYY, and X0. By pathology, there's a different group of five--male, female, male pseudohermaphrodite, female pseudohermaphrodite, and true hermaphrodite. And we haven't even got to secondary sex characteristics yet...!

So I tend to say "complimentary" instead of "opposite". Besides being a bit more accurate, I think it avoids some potential antagonism.

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I used to live in the gay ghetto of a large city, and there were lots of transvestites. I did a lot of observing and it was my impression that what these guys liked about being female was the cosmetics and fashion and flash of femininity. They wallowed in lace and sparkles. To me, they were missing the point of being truly female.

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Now, were these drag queens, crossdressing heterosexual men, or what? It sounds like it's the former, in which case they weren't trying to be female but were instead parodying femininity.

To be more clear, Drag queens are more interested in performing (whether on-stage or socially). They have a drag persona but do not necessarily identify in any way as female. They are not anti-female, usually, but there's definitely an element of irreverent camp to what they do.

Crossdressing men are more interested in "passing" as female, but aren't interested in changing their bodies. Crossdressers usually do have a persona identified as female, but consider that persona an outlet for their female feelings, so they can still function as male. Such people are considered by modern psychology to suffer from "Gender Identity Disorder, Non-Transsexual".

Crossdressers also tend to be fairly respectful of women, in part from having a deeper appreciation of what women go through, albeit not as deep as what a MtF TS goes through. Still, many TSs--myself included--identify as male crossdressers for a period of time until they have a better understanding of their own gender feelings.

Also, there's always a period of experimentation in any transgendered person's life. It takes a while to find out what works personally and socially, and to figure out how much pull their gender feelings really have.

Hope this clarifies a bit, and I'm looking forward to hearing more....

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Her Ladyship The Prophet
Rev. Dkr. St. Popess
Lilith von Fraumench,
Esquire, H.o.t.S.F., Inc.
--"Lil" for short
http://lilith.foolspress.com/

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Originally posted by Greg Wooledge:

From what I've heard (second- and third-hand), it got really bad in some places, and I'm sure there are still residual effects that won't be cleared up for years. The linguistic shock troops were out in full force, especially in California. People were no longer allowed to use perfectly good words that they'd been using for years. You couldn't be "handicapped" or "black" any more -- you had to be "physically challenged" or "African-American". The list goes on and on....

believe this was all instigated by agitators funded by the Soviet Union. But perhaps we shouldn't go there....)[/B]

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