I saw TransAmerica last night and must report that the only thing I liked about the film was Dolly Parton's Oscar-nominated (but losing, natch) song.
It did drive home, however, just how different transgendered people are from gay people. Sorry, but the desire to obliterate your born-gender identity (and, specifically, your detested sexual equipment) in order to live, usually, as a heterosexual has little to do with the gay experience-or simply with same-sex attraction. But "LGBT" activism thrives on obscuring this difference as if it were merely one of degree, further confusing the public regarding the nature of homosexuality.
More. Some impassioned debate in the comments,
as in this excerpt:
Bobby: I'm sick of transsexuals saying "we fight for the same cause." No we don't. You people fight for transgendered bathrooms, birth certificates that say "male, female, other," and the elimination of sexist terms like "him" or "her." Your problems are not my problems, your issues are not my issues.
Anonymous: We're not all Kate Bornstein any more than all gays are Harry Hay or all blacks are Malcom X. We're not trying to destroy the notion of sex any more than gays are trying to destroy the notion of marriage--some radicals certain want each of these things, but most of us do not, in both cases.
Still more. Interestingly, queer theorists and many LGBT activists push for the "T" because, for them, it represents the "transgressive" edge of gender rebellion. Yet for many actual transgendered people outside the hothouse of academic-inspired activism, aligning their gender identity with physically reconstructed bodies allows them to better conform to normative gender assumptions.
There is a huge disconnect here between radical fantasia and
reality (what a shock!).