[Seattletech] Comments not showing up

[Christine Beatty]

I have posted the below comment three times to the thread
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/249545.shtml yet it has not shown
up. I completely filled out the form each time, so I don't know what else to
do. Suggestions? Can you post it for me?

Thanks!

Christine Beatty

=======================

As the woman whose website ( http://www.glamazon.net ) hosts the above
jane-n-me photo, I feel obliged to make a few observations.

#1. While the link to my website was done without my consent, as a woman
with a transsexual past I feel that several excellent points may be made
about the photo and the history surrounding it. Thus, I retroactively cede
permission to link to the photo.

#2. As has been pointed out, Maggie's "gaydar" is way off. One of the
"genuine" females is Calpernia Addams, a transsexual woman whose boyfriend
was murdered by bigots, a story dramatized in the movie "Soldier's Girl."
That is Calpernia's Goddess-given face; she had no surgery on it at the time
the photo was taken.

#3. One of the stars in that movie, Troy Garrity, is Jane Fonda's son, which
is how Jane and Calepernia met. Through Jane, she met Eve Ensler and got
Eve's blessing to produce the Vagina Monologues with an all-transgender cast
(I was also a cast member). The above photo is from the VIP party after that
performance.

#4. Eve Ensler met with and interviewed many transsexual women and wrote a
brand new monologue just for us, which was debuted at this performance
(V-Day, 2004). Of transsexual women, Ms. Fonda says "I am so moved by the
women who have forfeited Penis Privilege for Vagina Power. It's certainly
the road less traveled but it's the road of courage and you are not alone."
Eve Ensler is even more effusive, saying "I stand in solidarity and strength
and tenderness with women who have fought for the girl in them not to be
beaten or silenced or ignored. I am awed by the courage and vision of
transwomen who held to their authentic nature in the face of everything
including shame and violence. May this V-Day be a day of liberation,
celebration, and kindness."

#5. Ms. Fonda and Ms. Ensler are true feminists. The angry, embittered women
who jumped all over the obvious satire of the initial post to vehemently
agree with it have mistaken self-pity and resentment for activism. While it
is good that anger inspires action, it is merely destructive when anger
*directs* activism. The demagoguery of these women is on par with Rush
Limbaugh. They should pop a few Vicodin, hop in bed with him and spread
their legs. At least he has the sense to get *paid* for perpetuating willful
ignorance and hatred.

#6. The rallying cry of feminism used to be "biology is not destiny" and yet
all of the shrill, transphobic harpies seem to forget that tenet when they
denounce transwomen. Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence that
transsexualism may be contributed to, if not caused by abnormalities in the
limbic system of the brain. See http://www.symposion.com/ijt/ijtc0106.htm
for more info on this. If one's gender is merely a matter of genitals, does
that make a woman with a hysterectomy less of a woman? How about a woman
born without a uterus (estimated between 1 in a 4,000 and 10,000 women)?

#7. The woman who used male pronouns to identify me in the photo is entitled
to her opinions about my gender. However, all of my women friends, including
in my support groups, accept me as a sister. Furthermore, the State of
California also recognizes me as legally female; my birth certifcate was
amended after my sex reasignment surgery. I am free to marry a man in CA, if
that were my orientation. However, I can can still go to Kansas, Texas or
Florida and legally marry my girlfriend. All I have to do is lie and write
in my name under "Husband."

#8. The kind of bigotry I've seen shamelessly paraded on this board is the
same hatred that drove me -- an honors student in Computer Science --
underground at 27 years of age into a life of prostitution and addiction
that nearly killed me. That same dynamic still exists today. Tell me again
about the "free ride" that transwomen have been getting.

Christine Beatty
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