Some Lesbians Naturally have Beards but Transitioning to FTM IS NOT LESBIAN!!!

This is my response to Purple Sage Fem's post on Lesbians with Beards vs FTMS who Take Testosterone to get one.  FTMing and taking Testosterone IS NOT Lesbian any longer! Far from it...see my reasoning below!!!

 “LESBIANS WITH BEARDS”
FeistyAmazon on March 25, 2016 at 1:18 pm said:
There ARE Lesbians with beards, naturally hirsute women NOT on testosterone who in strong Lesbian environments felt safe enough to allow them to grow or display them.

I knew one who was QUITE a Radical Dyke and fairly Separatist. I was at a Thanksgiving celebration at Mama Bears bookstore where Lesbians could freely come and celebrate with Sisters at Mama Bears….the trans craze was starting to take hold and some of the women already had that pre FTM uptight look to their dress and bodies, breast binding and rigid male like movements to try to “pass” as more male. 
     Natural Butches dont do that even though some have a bit of macho..because Butches are just being THEMSELVES, whereas the others are putting on a show of their pre-maleness, not wanting to show a chink in their armour..IN ANY CASE we had all sorts of Lesbian women celebrating at Mama Bears and the woman I knew and was friendly with who had a full beard. She had no pretense, no breast binding, wore bright colorful clothes( which most FTMS wouldnt be caught dead in), ect so I couldnt quite read her.

Finally I got up the gumption to ask: are you a Dyke with a beard or an FTM? I asked it very respectfully and she responded she WAS a Dyke with a beard and most DEFINITELY NOT an FTM nor has she EVER taken testosterone.

While FTMs have made a choice to identify with and AS males and go out of their way to appear male, THEY ARE NO LONGER LESBIANS/Dykes, nor do they represent us any longer no matter how long they were in the community, if at all(for the young ones transitioning).

Lesbians ARE Female, love and lust after Females, some are Butch, some are Femme, some naturally have beards. Some do not…Taking testosterone is the furthest thing away from BEING a Lesbian/Dyke one could become..since we HONOR, LUST, PARTNER AND DESIRE both ourselves and other bio WOMEN.

FTMS made their choice beard or not.
Should they choose to detransition, honor their female bodies again and other Lesbian womyn, then they can become part of our ranks again…
-FeistyAmazon/M.A.
. -Lifelong Butch DykeAmazon

FeistyAmazon/M.A.
on March 26, 2016 at 11:40 am said:
As I said, they are no longer Lesbians once they start on T. Their thinking and the powerful MALE hormones coursing through their bodies and the community of Genderqueer and FTM bros changes them. They have made a CONSCIOUS CHOICE to transition and IDENTIFY WITH Males.

As a Butch Dyke it hurt me to my heart on a soul deep level once I heard of or met YET ANOTHER Butch I knew making the switch, going on T transitioning and identifying as MALE. In the Bay Area it happened at a greater and greater frequency vacating so many Butches from the Lesbian/Dyke communities. Their appearance changed, their attitudes changed, they were no longer one of us. It became so bad that every time my partner and I went to San Francisco as a Butch couple others including gay men began referring to us with male pronouns. Lesbians transitioning to male makes the rest of us Butches far more vulnerable and subject to hostility and discrimination or assumptions that we are just waiting our turn to go on T and transition.

Taking that shot is injecting into one’s body literally the Patriarchy, the utter essence of maleness, testosterone. But the thinking changes long before then, as the “trendy” thing to do. Once  they go on Testosterone they experience hypersexual energy and anger and rage much more easily with a deadening of other emotions. I was in the frontlines of this, and a good number these days are identifying as “gay male” as well. They are no longer Lesbians.

Being Lesbian is ALL ABOUT HONORING THE FEMALE, WITHIN AND WITHOUT. Not just sexually, but emotionally and spiritually as well…

Us Butches ARE NOT MEN OR FTMS!!!We are ALL WOMON!!!

In response in a Butch group.in Facebook:

Some of you REALLY dont understand Butch. It is a DYKE sexuality and lifelong Way of Being. My Butchness is not dependent on either a Butch or Femme partner...I enjoy both..yet have a decided preference for other Butches. It IS an Amazon way of Being..at least for Female Proud Butches. We are NOT men..but we want ALL the privileges men so freely enjoy and take for granted. We NEVER CAN!!And when we do they absolutely hate us for it..such as not depending on them or needing them sexually but putting ALL our intimate/sexual energy into loving and lusting after other womyn and rebuffing men.
We compete with them for jobs..but we are hated for it or at least shown disdain. We are still womyn....thus "less than". We are raped and murdered worldwide for not being in a proper feminine role submissive to them.  WE ARE STILL WOMEN.

Dont buy the bullshit that Butches are wanna be men...and close to FTM. They made a decision, crossed the line to IDENTIFYING with males and trying to become one.

We identify with ALL WOMYN and put our lot in with them, not men, even if we appear manly/masculine. To me true Female proud Butches ARE modern day Amazons and we KNOW what happened to the Amazons..but in every era..Amazons band together and are determined to RISE AGAIN!!'

What we Butches face: Response to another trying to shame us for not getting on with it and having feelings

The 55 years old here..Tomboy grew up to be Butch ALL MY LIFE. THE AMOUNT OF DISCRIMINATION FACED IS SOUL WEARING!! I am ONLY honored in Lesbian strong FEMALE environments. Michfest, other womyns Festivals..not even Dyke March with so many trans and men crashing it. We USED TO have Lesbian dances, coffeehouses, concerts, bookstores, play parties, 12 step meetings, karate schools ect ect ect almost ALL of them GONE. Places a Butch could thrive. 

I got beat down in my job year after year in the Trades..AS A BIG BUTCH DYKE..even though I originally went INTO the Trades because thats where I saw the Butches are and I would NEVER be required to wear feminine clothing, could earn a decent salary and get benefits...but year after year and especially the 2008 Recession beat me down so bad they wouldnt hire me. In Recessions they keep the good old white boys working..not Butch Dykes or minorities.

So I was forced to move cross country just to survive and not end up homeless. There is absolutely NO Lesbian community here and what little gay/queer community there is the Queer/Straight Alliance on campus all 20 somethings all identifying as queer, genderqueer or trans. Older Female proud Butches need not apply. And PFlag.

 ONE Butch running the show is just a token. And tokens can be taken out at ANY time.

I WANT a Sisterhood of Butches I can connect with and I did find it at Michfest this past year...true Sister Butches of EVERY stripe. Giovanna S. Capone and I connected in the Disappearing Butch workshop, as we have connected in other realtime Butch groups in the East Bay.

We are a community under siege..all too many want to transition from the pressure, the discrimination, thinking theyd have better opportunities passing as "men". But it is all a lie and has made the Butch community weaker...

So stop shaming us cuz your the big daddy in a certain group...we are FUCKING WORN OUT FROM THE STRUGGLE AND HAVE WATCHED OUR COMMUNITIES OF PROUD BUTCH DYKES BE FURTHER INVISIBILIZED AND DISAPPEAR!!'

Some of us went to Butch Voices too in Oakland and there was NOTHING for us Female Proud LESBIAN Butches..and all our workshops were declined. They'd all rather "genderqueer" or FTM.

I will still continue to teach my Amazon workshops at any womyns Festival I attend as a strong proud Butch DykeAmazon, but this Butch is real real tired of the struggle and very saddened at how much we have lost of our formerly strong proud Dyke communities that INCLUDED Female proud Butches....too many are hearing the siren song of transition...but this Butch DykeAmazon Warrior will not stop trying to weave our Butch Amazon Sisterhood together..and try to convince the young uns you CAN be Powerful in a FEMALE body/mind/spirit, you need NOT transition to have your Power!!!

Impeccable Logic: Guest post Dana Seilhan

I was on a site called "Humans Menstruate". No my response was "Females Menstruate/have Periods. Period." But Dana Seilhan goes much much further...
Her Female/Feminist Logic is Impeccable.

"If you can get periods, you're not a male.  That's just how human biology works.

"Gender identity" is a meaningless term.  Gender is a system of sex-based stereotypes designed to keep males dominant and females submissive, at least in our culture.  Saying you've made a discriminatory system into an identity is like a black person saying they have a slave identity.  And if you were to interview a trans person and ask them how they "know" they're whatever "gender" they "identify" as, their laundry list of reasons will read like a list of stereotypes.

"I'm a man because I never wanted to play with dolls when I was growing up.  I like being tough and I like football."

"I'm a woman because all I ever wanted to wear when I was a kid was dresses.  I love pink.  I love makeup.  I love shopping for clothes."

Stereotype stereotype stereotype.  Check and check.

A woman can wear whatever clothes she wants and go by whatever name she wants.  That's fine.  But personal preferences and personality differences don't determine a person's sex, which is what the trans contingent is really trying to claim.  And I would think the existence of femmey gay men and butch lesbian women would be enough proof that you can "mismatch" your preferences/personality and your sex all you want and it doesn't mean anything's wrong with you.

Feminism's been teaching that for years.  Maybe one of these decades it'll actually sink in."
              -Dana Seilhan

My definition of WITCH:

Yes I am PROUDLY a  Butch DykeAmazon WITCH!!
A Witch pal challenged us to define the word.

Here is mine:  "Wild Womon Working Magic in front of a bonfire in ritual Circle..Wielding energies by tapping into Mother Earth's Power honoring and working with the Cycles of Moon and Sun. True unto herself in hand with Goddess...bringing back the Mysteries and working with them..seeing the numinous Energy and looking into the Background, the depths and the heights, ecstatic Wild and Free. Untamed. One who can make things happen in hidden ways....channel for Goddess Energies..Goddess Incarnate. One with the Spiral point of view...nonlinear. Can tap into ancient Mysteries/Energies  and foretell the future when connected to Source...Different Witches have different gifts and capabilities and DO NOT DENY OR IGNORE THEM!!! -MasterAmazon

No one Womon Can Do It Alone!!

Loss:

NO ONE WOMON CAN DO IT ALONE..MANY INSIDIOUS FORCES like GBTLMNOP, Recessions, Lesbian apathy,  so many Butches transitioning or feeling pressure to do so, ect ect have destroyed MANY aspects of Nationwide Lesbian community..we used to have HUNDREDS of womyns/Lesbian bookstores, coffeehouses, Lesbian specific meeting groups, women only concerts and events, play parties, hot tub places(Osento) Lesbian owned and operated in SF,  conferences and on and on and on...just about every one has been infiltrated and made to serve OTHER than Lesbian and Female specific interests or closed down because they would not,.the LARGEST being Michfest..the Crown Jewel of Lesbian community. No matter how much we lost we could still say "at least we have Michfest" the last harbor of our diverse Lesbian/Amazon culture. Now we dont EVEN have that. 

I cannot tell you how much it hurt me to go to Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Denver, Oakland, Albany and find NO womyns/Lesbian bookstore there any longer...everything LBT as womyn cannot EVEN SAY the word Lesbian anymore with pride..Dyke marches infiltrated by men and nondykes. 

The loss of Michfest is one of our last and greatest losses to the viability of US Dyke community and sensibility...we have suffered 1000 cuts, with EVERY Lesbian centered/womon powered  event  or business we've lost that added to our community, or that sold us out(NCLR, ASTRAE, ect)

And when we LONG for our space we are put down for it by others. The seas are dry at this time and the winds dead. Much less viable Dyke wbw oriented community in ALL her glorious diversity..like Michfest was we have been coopted and infiltrated. Our time is gone...for now. So we may have to organize in small groups with likeminded Sisters underground or over the Internet  till we can meet in open freedom again.....-MasterAmazon
...

I. Am. Woman. by Dee Every GUEST POST

GUEST Post from Dee Every found on on of the Michfest lists...OUR list of demands as womyn!

"Dear trans folk, especially trans activists: I have agonized for several months and years over my feelings about what I feel is the desire of many of you to erase "womanity", in the course of your seeking some semblance of civil rights. This is what I have arrived at. I no longer want to say "female woman". I don't want to say "woman-born woman". I don't want to say "cis woman", nor "AFAB woman". I am a woman, and that is final. You have created all manner of language to ensure your inclusiveness, but in doing so you have started the process of erasing my existence. I have begun to speak out about it, because I'm not going to remain silent any longer. I have been silent in the past, because I was afraid of being perceived or labeled as a bigot. But I am now convinced that your struggle is pushing mine as a woman aside, and that of all of my card- and vagina-carrying sisters. I have proudly claimed the label of lesbian for over 30 years now, but never once did I insist that non-lesbian women change their terminology to fit my worldview - I embraced my specialness with pride, as you do now. But I'm sorry. In many of the things you are demanding there is danger, not the least of which is allowing any male to claim the gender of woman and then gain instant access to traditionally safe female spaces. This is bullshit, it is misogyny (y'know, the *actual* one), it is patriarchy, and it is wrong - the emperor (assigned whatever-the-fuck at birth) has no clothes, and I'm calling you on it. Many articles and reports I have read leave me with the conclusion that surgically altering your body or changing your pronouns is a band-aid solution to what is perhaps going on in your mind. My feminist sisters have fought for years against stereotypical gender behavior or societal expectations thereof. I'm wondering what was so difficult about the kind of man you were that you felt the need to claim the label of woman? I weep for my Amazon sisters who felt so uncomfortable being the type of women they were, that they decided they must actually be men. And now you have convinced children and their well-meaning parents and doctors that, if their behavior or feelings don't fit what is stereotypically male or female, then they must be in the wrong body. I grant that this is probably true in some cases, but not in the sheer volume we are now seeing. Additionally, I'm not hearing about a whole lot of trans men (FtTs) who are insisting that biological-at-birth males change their labels and how they describe their body parts and functions. That tendency appears to come primarily from males who choose to now identify as women... Which translates, for me, as a practice borne of patriarchy whereby males are once again trying to exert power over females. And we have had just about enough of that for our lifetime and multiple generations.

So, as I've been saying for a while now, on my lonely little Facebook page: be who you want to be, have surgery or not, get therapy or not... but stop this insidious erasure of me and my sisters. Yes, Virginia (or whatever name you've chosen to adopt), we get to gather together when we want, how we want, and with whom we want. It is our choice, our power, our safety, to claim our sovereign space and how we call ourselves and our bodies - it is not yours. You had a lot of us going for a while (and still do), believing in our shared oppression. And you were able to shame a lot of us - including myself - into silence about it. But I have found my voice, shaking and all... I and many of my sisters are going to fight back, as we have for many decades now. I do truly empathize with your struggle, but you will have to fight it not at my expense.

I. Am. Woman."- Dee Every

NOT CISGENDER NOT TRANS!!!!

No debate: I am NOT "cisgender" and have NEVER benefitted from.so called "cisgender privilege". NOR do I want hormones and surgeries to correct my lack of conformity to femininity expected of ALL females. Being Female is a WIDE spectrum but some of us are neither seen.nor heard since we make ourselves attractive for other Lesbians but NOT men. And we'd rather men just fucking leave us alone sexually, Hire  us for a job like they would any other dude...but they always prefer when it comes to females "eye candy". We are constantly told we're "less than" or threatened with violence for being "like a man" or refusing them sexually. Or we "just wanna be one". This lifelong brainwashing takes its toll till it has become a self fulfilling prophecy in the young would be Dyke community that are transitioning in droves. Like Pippa mentions..they DO NOT TAKE the Amazon Warrior's Path..instead they take the needle of testosterone..thus directly injecting Patriarchy directly into their bodies..

You cant undo sexism at the point of a needle and injecting Patriarchy/Testosterone into your body, thats NOT Liberation..its conformity. -M.A.

My Experience at Nebraska Democratic Caucus

I have only done a caucus once in Colorado many ages ago when I was a college student, since then, 30 years in California we go to the Polling place and vote in the Primaries. I also worked myself up to Election Inspector in California working the polls with about 4 to 6 working beneath me, from 2008-2012.

Working a Primary is very complicated as there are several partues, not just Dems and Repubs, but Greens, Peace and Freedom, American Independent, nonpartisans ect, at least 6 different ballots in 6 different languages all of which you gotta count and have accurate numbers by the end of the day...

So a Democratic Nebraska Caucus was very different for me and a fun experience. Here is how it went for me on March 5th 2016:

 I went to the Nebraska caucuses yesterday. I deliberately sat with the undecideds in the gymnasium..all the way at the back. On one side were the Hillary supporters on the other side the Bernie supporters..they would have to work hard to get my vote...each group counted off and since undecideds were so small..we werent a viable group...and I was there witnessing the count for both campaigns..around 150 mostly older and elderly folks, obviously more conservative, and onmthevBernie sude a whopping 420, 4 times more people, younger, way more diverse but I am sure many were college students as I recognized them from campus and they had on school logos. This IS a college town which is 25% of the population....
After the count the Hillary campaigners and Bernie campaigners were allowed to come over and talk to us. So a guy from my bank came over and talked about Hillary I asked questions he was very upbeat and positive and well informed. After talking to him I asked a woman if she was a Bernie supporter so she talked to me about Bernie. There are two reasons that stood out in her arguement:
1) he is funded from tge grassroots..as she kept saying "us", and
2) he is for single payer healthcare..and being I tried to get Obamacare but it was outrageously expensive if for your $70/month you got NOTHING till meeting a $6500 deductible!!!And for so long during the Recession I went uninsured because of lack of work.
And
3) The sheer youthful ENTHUSIASM of the Bernie supporters..and greater diversity in constitutents..I walked over to the Bernie side...
All of us who did got counted and clapped and cheered on for doing so!!!

Simply, Hillary cannot win if she cannot engage the youth. People are tired of corporate sponsored candidates, which is WHY both Bernie and Trump are so successful at the moment.

However, I would have IMMEDIATELY chosen the other candidate if the representative spent all their time putting the other one down and NOT talking about their OWN candidate's visions and assets.

Either way, I REALLY would like to see a ticket with BOTH these candidates on it!!!I will support whoever the Democratic front runner ends up being..

Not True Liberation

Not true Liberation:  You cant undo sexism at the point of a needle and injecting Patriarchy/Testosterone into your body, thats NOT Liberation..its conformity.
                    -MasterAmazon

The REAL Difference Between Female and Male Energy Can I/We Feel it???

By M.A.

Ah yes..I do...imagine and FEEL the gynomorphic  ENERGY of 6609 womyn at Michigan Womyns Festival..all that gynergy...something to be experienced..and the greatest diversity of womyn on the Planet..womyn who woulda had NOWHERE else to go since patriarchal religions dont willingly harbor Lesbians....

Now imagine the Promise Keepers..all testosterone fueled maleness or other malegathering...there is a true difference in energy which is not just masculinity(because though the Radical Faeries are the antithesis of the Promise Keepers BOTH are Male). And if it isnt any different then go to Burning Man instead of Michfest. No choice in going to Michfest anymore..though there are other womyns festivals.

Just thinking of all that male testosterone fueled energy tenses me up in fear..even the Radical Faeries who seem harmless and mostly gay, often effeminate..not the hard edged energy of xtian Promise Keepers types..BUT NONETHELESS STILL MALE. And there is ALOT of drinking and using in Radical Faery circles...

There are MANY unique forms and expressions of FEMALE energy from the Butchiest Butch to the highest femme and everything inbetween, but WHERE do I feel safest at 3am in the middle of the woods? In a male or mixed environment or all female? 
Precisely..which is WHY I am AMAZON!!! I will always gravitate to powerful Gynergy....without one male present!!'