I hear your pain Sister!!!I lived in the SF/Bay Area 30 years till 2013 when we had to move. BOTH have enormous narcissism and I saw so many Butches I know transition. I got run outta a few communities I valued cuz of this, till I got on the Michfest lists and connected with some SANE Dykes and Proud Sister Butches..
Trans undermined ANY womens or Lesbian space we tried to build in the Bay Area and we lost all our womyns bookstores, dyke bars and coffeehouses and Osento women only hottub ran by a Dyke. She HAD IT.
I got sick.of 20 somethings all over with bound or shorn breasts, testosterone induced voices, and uptight body postures and male attitudes should they reveal a chink in their newly acquired testosterone fueled armor.
As LONG TIME Butches it broke my partner and my heart EVERY time we saw yet another FTM, especially if we had known her.
I felt no more free as a Butch in the world and some of us female proud Butches began organizing, but the onslaught was too great in so many of the young ones hearing the siren song of transition and putting on peer pressure for the others to do so...we became more and more invisible and we are OBVIOUS Butch Dykes.
At least here in rural Nebraska its not in my face everyday like the Bay Area...and some of us Michfesties ARE rebuilding, like our little 2 Gatherings of Farmfest for Females, on Solstice and Fall Equinox weekends. Down to earth, Lesbian wbw only, and I realized predominately Butches fully grounded in their bodies and their Female selves. I was Home again, and realized I hadnt been in a Lesbian only environment in ages where NOT ONCE did I feel that squick in my gut with mtf intrusion or ftm betrayal. MY OWN. True blue Dykes.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Witches: Guest Post by Rosemary Stehlik
".......A witch is an individual who has a sense of personal sovereignty in accordance with the cosmos; someone who chooses to make that alliance with the universe as a self-empowered bender and shaper of reality. It’s a place of power that you choose to engage with, a relationship that allows you to take personal responsibility with the cosmic and mortal self, working in accordance with the greater mystery of nature. It is someone who engages with the inherent magic that is our birthright, and tries to manifest it to its true potential.”
--- R.Stehlik, October 28, 2016, The Toronto Star
--- R.Stehlik, October 28, 2016, The Toronto Star
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
How Women Are Treated By Other Women: GUEST POST by C. T.
Solidarity and Sisterhood are the bottomline for me. Here's my Sister Butch pal's share:
"The issue, here, is and always has been (at least for me), how women are treated by other women. Any group of women, that consistently denigrates another group of women because they don't fit neatly into their dogmatic box IS BANKRUPT. In these discussions, it's been butches and femmes, but it might as well be hetero women, mothers, or women in tutus. A very negativistic and cruel strain of "RFism" is being plied these days. It does nothing to improve the lot of women. It's reactionary, divisive and destructive. It's "Feminism" in name only. I will warrior on against it to my last breath. Though it will likely result in me being, again, accused of chauvinism for being literate, this: "For what will it profit a (wo)man if [she] gains the whole world and forfeits [her] soul?' "- C.T.
"The issue, here, is and always has been (at least for me), how women are treated by other women. Any group of women, that consistently denigrates another group of women because they don't fit neatly into their dogmatic box IS BANKRUPT. In these discussions, it's been butches and femmes, but it might as well be hetero women, mothers, or women in tutus. A very negativistic and cruel strain of "RFism" is being plied these days. It does nothing to improve the lot of women. It's reactionary, divisive and destructive. It's "Feminism" in name only. I will warrior on against it to my last breath. Though it will likely result in me being, again, accused of chauvinism for being literate, this: "For what will it profit a (wo)man if [she] gains the whole world and forfeits [her] soul?' "- C.T.
Adopting a Butch/Amazon Stance
In response to a Lesbian who excuses her criticisms and dislike for Butch identity(she's NOT Butch but her partner is, and in denial about it)with "Radical Feminism is whats best for women", so THIS IS MY RESPONSE:
I am a woman, and personally I think adopting an Amazon/Butch stance would be best for WOMEN AS A WHOLE. Drop long hair, makeup, dresses, high heels, nicey nice pleasing behaviors, tight clothes, long fingernails, plastic surgeries, be pleasing to.men in appearanxe or nonthreatening to them.
Take up Butchy and Amazon behaviors, a Warrior dont fuck with spirit, make your body into a deadly weapon(martial arts training), your manner direct and straightforward, no nonsense, not too overly emotional and ALWAYS ALWAYS HAVE SOLIDARITY WITH YOUR SISTERS AND WEAR SENSIBLE SHOES OR BOOTS.
Learn to be self sufficient, know to use power tools, repair things around the house as well as able to cook and sew. Know you ARE competent, and stand your ground. These things would be so much better for the majority of women, we would be taken more seriously cuz WE TAKE OURSELVES more seriously and dont put up with bullshit. And as a Sisterhood of Butchy Amazons, we would be a REAL Force to contend with!! THAT is what I think.would be best for womonkind, and I 'd have all kinds of Butch Sisters to choose from!!!
But hey, I'm not running the world...yet.
I am a woman, and personally I think adopting an Amazon/Butch stance would be best for WOMEN AS A WHOLE. Drop long hair, makeup, dresses, high heels, nicey nice pleasing behaviors, tight clothes, long fingernails, plastic surgeries, be pleasing to.men in appearanxe or nonthreatening to them.
Take up Butchy and Amazon behaviors, a Warrior dont fuck with spirit, make your body into a deadly weapon(martial arts training), your manner direct and straightforward, no nonsense, not too overly emotional and ALWAYS ALWAYS HAVE SOLIDARITY WITH YOUR SISTERS AND WEAR SENSIBLE SHOES OR BOOTS.
Learn to be self sufficient, know to use power tools, repair things around the house as well as able to cook and sew. Know you ARE competent, and stand your ground. These things would be so much better for the majority of women, we would be taken more seriously cuz WE TAKE OURSELVES more seriously and dont put up with bullshit. And as a Sisterhood of Butchy Amazons, we would be a REAL Force to contend with!! THAT is what I think.would be best for womonkind, and I 'd have all kinds of Butch Sisters to choose from!!!
But hey, I'm not running the world...yet.
Butch Tradeswomen Pioneers
Ah, I KNOW ALOT of Tradeswomen, and almost all the original ones who helped me get in were DECIDELY BUTCH. Short hair, not "sporty" no ponytails. Out and out BUTCH. Groundbreakers, pioneers, absolutely fearless, stand up to men, and THEY were my mentors and WHY as a Butch I got into the Trades. I could wear the clothes I felt comfortable in, jeans, boots, flannels, tshirts, work clothes, no frilly stuff, be myself!!
The closety ponytail types came AFTER our fearless out in your face taking up our space AS BUTCHES broke ground. We go where other women fear to go, because we dont GIVE A DAMN if accussed of being masculine or we wannabe a MAN. WE WANT THE RESPECT MEN GET. But we ARE NOT THEM nor do we allow them to intimidate us. Since we ARE Butch Dykes, they cant strike fear into us like they can with straight or more closety women for not being feminine or for being Lesbian!! ONCE we break ground, the sporty and ponytail types came AFTERWARDS.
And as I was told by one of my Butch mentors, the Tradeswoman Movement LARGELY STARTED BY BUTCHES IS A PART OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT!!!
Just so you know I was in the Trades 23 years, now retired and recieving my Union pension..
The closety ponytail types came AFTER our fearless out in your face taking up our space AS BUTCHES broke ground. We go where other women fear to go, because we dont GIVE A DAMN if accussed of being masculine or we wannabe a MAN. WE WANT THE RESPECT MEN GET. But we ARE NOT THEM nor do we allow them to intimidate us. Since we ARE Butch Dykes, they cant strike fear into us like they can with straight or more closety women for not being feminine or for being Lesbian!! ONCE we break ground, the sporty and ponytail types came AFTERWARDS.
And as I was told by one of my Butch mentors, the Tradeswoman Movement LARGELY STARTED BY BUTCHES IS A PART OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT!!!
Just so you know I was in the Trades 23 years, now retired and recieving my Union pension..
Unrepentant Dyke
I wont put up with Butch bashing, our fucking lives are HARD ENOUGH, we are already under siege as it is, and you just REFUSE to "get it" or try to put yourself IN OUR SHOES for a minute. Really HEAR what WE are saying about OUR LIVES. Bad enough the straight world invisibilizes us, ignores us, tries to get tomboy girls transed to boys and so many of us shamed for rejecting femininity at a young age, young butchy women transing in droves, discrimination in the workplace, "corrective rape" or threats of directed at us. We have been the Amazon Warriors of our communities, yet here, Lesbians want to claim.we are not part of the Sisterhood when we been here all along!!!We EXIST, our lives are REAL, we are NOT GOING AWAY and we have been some of the fiercest Warriors for Dykes and womyn as a WHOLE. And yet you want to claim.we dont really exist!
We get shit on as Butches cuz we are UNREPENTANT DYKES. Straight Feminists and women fear us or fear being associated with us because we ARE Lesbianism made visible and other Lesbians think we wanna be dudes and transition, or deny OUR unique contributions cuz we seem too scary, too overt, too direct, too Warriorlike and hold our ground against men and those who would deny OUR Womonhood and humanity!!!
We get shit on as Butches cuz we are UNREPENTANT DYKES. Straight Feminists and women fear us or fear being associated with us because we ARE Lesbianism made visible and other Lesbians think we wanna be dudes and transition, or deny OUR unique contributions cuz we seem too scary, too overt, too direct, too Warriorlike and hold our ground against men and those who would deny OUR Womonhood and humanity!!!
Monday, October 24, 2016
Anger by Miriam Ben-Shalom GUEST POST
From my Sister in the struggle Miriam Ben-Shalom:
Anger
by Miriam Ben-Shalom
"I am thinking about anger today. Because I am angry about the co-opting of women-only spaces, because I am angry about the fact that women and children are placed at risk by "inclusive" legislation, I am called 'terrified', retarded, a failure, 'passive-aggressive', a bigot, an entitled bigot, and a whole host more of names.
Argumentum ad hominem aside, what is it about the demagogic Left that seeks to destroy anyone who disagrees with them? In order to have a tolerant world, they say, we will fight intolerance; it seems that this means being INTOLERANT towards anyone who does not agree 100% with them and bullying those who disagree by casting pseudopsychological diagnoses upon them.
It is true that I do not think there is such a thing as a person who, by use of chemicals and surgical alteration of the body, becomes the SEX opposite of what s/he was born. I do not think women can become men or men become women. I think people feel uncomfortable in their bodies because they do not meet the "established" gender conceptions for what a woman or a man ought to be. Not meeting established gender conceptions does not mean, however, that one is another SEX.
So because I disagree and because others like me also disagree, we are pilloried and defamed publically. Seems to me that the demagogic Left is no better than the demagogic Right. But at least the Right concerns itself with the safety of women and children [for whatever reasons] and hopes to protect them from sexual predators who now can enter women's spaces with impunity.
The demagogic Left and the trans community want to make it all about them as opposed to the real issue which is MALE violence. [May I add one observation here? There doesn't seem to be as big a difficulty with women who 'beome' men as there is with MEN who 'become' women. What might that say about MALE VIOLENCE and the tendency of men TO WANT TO TAKE OVER?]
And their constant refusal to sit down and work together with women born of women on this issue says a universe about their world view and how they consider the value of women and children. As a recent study pointed out, this society, the medical profession, and pharmaceutical companies all work to anesthetize the anger of females to keep us complaisant and malleable.
And women do not want to be called "bad girls" so they swallow anger and do what they will to avoid such designations. And it seems that the demagogic Left feeds right into this by bullying and demonizing those who disagree with their dictates about sex and gender.
As one who has been so demonized, let me serve notice: if being a "Bad Girl" means I serve to protect women and children, if being "retarded" means I serve to protect women and children, then to those who place such labels upon me: I will wear your words with pride and I will be the demon you say I am. I refuse to be a Handmaiden and I refuse to bow to your bullying. I shall continue to use my anger well. And your vociferous responses tell me I must be doing something right." -Miriam Ben-Shalom
Anger
by Miriam Ben-Shalom
"I am thinking about anger today. Because I am angry about the co-opting of women-only spaces, because I am angry about the fact that women and children are placed at risk by "inclusive" legislation, I am called 'terrified', retarded, a failure, 'passive-aggressive', a bigot, an entitled bigot, and a whole host more of names.
Argumentum ad hominem aside, what is it about the demagogic Left that seeks to destroy anyone who disagrees with them? In order to have a tolerant world, they say, we will fight intolerance; it seems that this means being INTOLERANT towards anyone who does not agree 100% with them and bullying those who disagree by casting pseudopsychological diagnoses upon them.
It is true that I do not think there is such a thing as a person who, by use of chemicals and surgical alteration of the body, becomes the SEX opposite of what s/he was born. I do not think women can become men or men become women. I think people feel uncomfortable in their bodies because they do not meet the "established" gender conceptions for what a woman or a man ought to be. Not meeting established gender conceptions does not mean, however, that one is another SEX.
So because I disagree and because others like me also disagree, we are pilloried and defamed publically. Seems to me that the demagogic Left is no better than the demagogic Right. But at least the Right concerns itself with the safety of women and children [for whatever reasons] and hopes to protect them from sexual predators who now can enter women's spaces with impunity.
The demagogic Left and the trans community want to make it all about them as opposed to the real issue which is MALE violence. [May I add one observation here? There doesn't seem to be as big a difficulty with women who 'beome' men as there is with MEN who 'become' women. What might that say about MALE VIOLENCE and the tendency of men TO WANT TO TAKE OVER?]
And their constant refusal to sit down and work together with women born of women on this issue says a universe about their world view and how they consider the value of women and children. As a recent study pointed out, this society, the medical profession, and pharmaceutical companies all work to anesthetize the anger of females to keep us complaisant and malleable.
And women do not want to be called "bad girls" so they swallow anger and do what they will to avoid such designations. And it seems that the demagogic Left feeds right into this by bullying and demonizing those who disagree with their dictates about sex and gender.
As one who has been so demonized, let me serve notice: if being a "Bad Girl" means I serve to protect women and children, if being "retarded" means I serve to protect women and children, then to those who place such labels upon me: I will wear your words with pride and I will be the demon you say I am. I refuse to be a Handmaiden and I refuse to bow to your bullying. I shall continue to use my anger well. And your vociferous responses tell me I must be doing something right." -Miriam Ben-Shalom
We are "Not Just Calling Ourselves Butch", We ARE Butch Dykes, a Tribal Sisterhood!!
Not just "calling oneself Butch", this is who we are, and we have a long and proud HERSTORY!!!My Butchness has nothing to do with whether I have a Femme partner or not, I enjoy BOTH... but it has EVERYTHING TO DO WITH what kind of womon loving womon Female I am, and have been from a very young age, ALWAYS defiant of femininity and wanting to be a boy because of the greater freedoms and opportunities, NOT BECAUSE I WANTED A PENIS.
Most Butches I know shared a very similar herstory from a young age. They GET IT. Either you get it, or you dont. If you dont dont tell us how to be as Dykes..we get ENOUGH OF THAT from the straight world and GBT. And its one reason many Butches felt the original Lesbian Feminist movement did not include them. We are a long lasting underground Tribe as Judy Grahn, Butch Lesbian author writes about.
I came out partly cuz it wasnt working with me and men, and found who I truly was..a Dyke, but ALSO for the first time in my life, I met womyn LIKE ME, who were strongly Radical Feminist AND BUTCH. This was 1981, they were my role models and mentors!!!They taught me things I never imagined. Brought me into womyns ritual circles and Goddess worship, brought me out into a female affirmative Lesbian world I never imagined...
Most Butches I know shared a very similar herstory from a young age. They GET IT. Either you get it, or you dont. If you dont dont tell us how to be as Dykes..we get ENOUGH OF THAT from the straight world and GBT. And its one reason many Butches felt the original Lesbian Feminist movement did not include them. We are a long lasting underground Tribe as Judy Grahn, Butch Lesbian author writes about.
I came out partly cuz it wasnt working with me and men, and found who I truly was..a Dyke, but ALSO for the first time in my life, I met womyn LIKE ME, who were strongly Radical Feminist AND BUTCH. This was 1981, they were my role models and mentors!!!They taught me things I never imagined. Brought me into womyns ritual circles and Goddess worship, brought me out into a female affirmative Lesbian world I never imagined...
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Our Ongoing Struggle.....
The ongoing struggle I ask myself this over and over again. I have followed all of the LGBT Movements for all the years I been out(35 years)and the Lesbian community been under siege by trans for at least 25 years.
I been a Feminist since age 9, (1969) tomboy since 7, came out as a Butch Lesbian at 21 (1981) fought for my rights all my life as a Female, a Tradeswoman, a Lesbian, and for Marriage Equality from 2004 on. Each win was incremental, slow with steps backwards and forwards...trans mtfs were at the absolute fringes of the Lesbian community, barely tolerated cuz all too many recognized them as male. Tolerated but not necessarily accepted. The drag queens who sometimes transitioned were far more colorful figures based in the gay male community, like the Sisters for Perpetual Indulgence. They had a place. They didn't coopt Lesbian culture and were part of the camp of gay male culture.
Then incrementally certain key Butches began to transition to "men" and others followed along in the mid 90s. We thought it was a phase like many phases and styles that would blow over, but it never did..it just kept expanding.
Not till the 2000s did they start going after transing kids. Used to be the gay community, except LYRIC which catered to gay/lesbian youth, did NOT advocate much for Lesbian/Gay kids, we didnt want to be seen as recruiting, something that we were often falsely accussed of, gay men especially, so it was hands off the kids, unless they organized BY AND FOR THEMSELVES.
But the autogynophilic men(mtfs) werent happy. Whether its another way to seek validation, or another set of customers and patients to make money off of, the trans kid thing started happening, the clinics, the doctors, the clinicians ect and trans mtfs believing if it was a a thing since early childhood, then maybe they'd be seen as more ordinary and ok.
All I know is it sickened me in Chaz Bono's video when s/he is hanging out with a trans kid in a hottub who wasnt any more than 9, "boy bonding". More for Chaz's sake than the kid's at the gender space. Making it all seem so normal.
But boundary after boundary for a part of the population much much smaller than the Lesbian community, they bowled over EVERY boundary. And the numbers of FTMS kept increasing, along with the peer pressure to trans. Nothing could stop the juggernaut. Nor were our boundaries ever respected.
Even gay men began complaining in the gay press of FTMs in some of THEIR sacrosanct sex spaces, but this was years if not 2 decades AFTER mtfs especially had infiltrated the Lesbian communities....and many Butch Lesbians then transitioned and DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE the Dyke communities, while some courted the gay male communities as well...
And then all of a sudden they got more rights than women as a whole do, EVERYTHING we worked a lifetime for? All smashed to bits? Villified every time we say no? Ignored if we mention our fears, or dont buy the smoke and mirrors, the glitz and glam 6 foot 4 males tottering in high heels and hyper feminine clothes that they are Lesbians too??
No is a complete answer, and I will NOT concede my spaces, my sexuality, my identity or my very Femaleness to born males so they can feel good about their illusions at OUR EXPENSE AND SAFETY!!
I am SICK of this battle and it seems a losing proposition. But so be it. I will not stop, because for me the company of WOMEN is so powerful.
And I will NOT concede THAT for ANY MALE!!!
I been a Feminist since age 9, (1969) tomboy since 7, came out as a Butch Lesbian at 21 (1981) fought for my rights all my life as a Female, a Tradeswoman, a Lesbian, and for Marriage Equality from 2004 on. Each win was incremental, slow with steps backwards and forwards...trans mtfs were at the absolute fringes of the Lesbian community, barely tolerated cuz all too many recognized them as male. Tolerated but not necessarily accepted. The drag queens who sometimes transitioned were far more colorful figures based in the gay male community, like the Sisters for Perpetual Indulgence. They had a place. They didn't coopt Lesbian culture and were part of the camp of gay male culture.
Then incrementally certain key Butches began to transition to "men" and others followed along in the mid 90s. We thought it was a phase like many phases and styles that would blow over, but it never did..it just kept expanding.
Not till the 2000s did they start going after transing kids. Used to be the gay community, except LYRIC which catered to gay/lesbian youth, did NOT advocate much for Lesbian/Gay kids, we didnt want to be seen as recruiting, something that we were often falsely accussed of, gay men especially, so it was hands off the kids, unless they organized BY AND FOR THEMSELVES.
But the autogynophilic men(mtfs) werent happy. Whether its another way to seek validation, or another set of customers and patients to make money off of, the trans kid thing started happening, the clinics, the doctors, the clinicians ect and trans mtfs believing if it was a a thing since early childhood, then maybe they'd be seen as more ordinary and ok.
All I know is it sickened me in Chaz Bono's video when s/he is hanging out with a trans kid in a hottub who wasnt any more than 9, "boy bonding". More for Chaz's sake than the kid's at the gender space. Making it all seem so normal.
But boundary after boundary for a part of the population much much smaller than the Lesbian community, they bowled over EVERY boundary. And the numbers of FTMS kept increasing, along with the peer pressure to trans. Nothing could stop the juggernaut. Nor were our boundaries ever respected.
Even gay men began complaining in the gay press of FTMs in some of THEIR sacrosanct sex spaces, but this was years if not 2 decades AFTER mtfs especially had infiltrated the Lesbian communities....and many Butch Lesbians then transitioned and DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE the Dyke communities, while some courted the gay male communities as well...
And then all of a sudden they got more rights than women as a whole do, EVERYTHING we worked a lifetime for? All smashed to bits? Villified every time we say no? Ignored if we mention our fears, or dont buy the smoke and mirrors, the glitz and glam 6 foot 4 males tottering in high heels and hyper feminine clothes that they are Lesbians too??
No is a complete answer, and I will NOT concede my spaces, my sexuality, my identity or my very Femaleness to born males so they can feel good about their illusions at OUR EXPENSE AND SAFETY!!
I am SICK of this battle and it seems a losing proposition. But so be it. I will not stop, because for me the company of WOMEN is so powerful.
And I will NOT concede THAT for ANY MALE!!!
Our Ongoing Struggle.....
The ongoing struggle I ask myself this over and over again. I have followed all of the LGBT Movements for all the years I been out(35 years)and the Lesbian community been under siege by trans for at least 25 years.
I been a Feminist since age 9, (1969) tomboy since 7, came out as a Butch Lesbian at 21 (1981) fought for my rights all my life as a Female, a Tradeswoman, a Lesbian, and for Marriage Equality from 2004 on. Each win was incremental, slow with steps backwards and forwards...trans mtfs were at the absolute fringes of the Lesbian community, barely tolerated cuz all too many recognized them as male. Tolerated but not necessarily accepted. The drag queens who sometimes transitioned were far more colorful figures based in the gay male community, like the Sisters for Perpetual Indulgence. They had a place. They didn't coopt Lesbian culture and were part of the camp of gay male culture.
Then incrementally certain key Butches began to transition to "men" and others followed along in the mid 90s. We thought it was a phase like many phases and styles that would blow over, but it never did..it just kept expanding.
Not till the 2000s did they start going after transing kids. Used to be the gay community, except LYRIC which catered to gay/lesbian youth, did NOT advocate much for Lesbian/Gay kids, we didnt want to be seen as recruiting, something that we were often falsely accussed of, gay men especially, so it was hands off the kids, unless they organized BY AND FOR THEMSELVES.
But the autogynophilic men(mtfs) werent happy. Whether its another way to seek validation, or another set of customers and patients to make money off of, the trans kid thing started happening, the clinics, the doctors, the clinicians ect and trans mtfs believing if it was a a thing since early childhood, then maybe they'd be seen as more ordinary and ok.
All I know is it sickened me in Chaz Bono's video when s/he is hanging out with a trans kid in a hottub who wasnt any more than 9, "boy bonding". More for Chaz's sake than the kid's at the gender space. Making it all seem so normal.
But boundary after boundary for a part of the population much much smaller than the Lesbian community, they bowled over EVERY boundary. And the numbers of FTMS kept increasing, along with the peer pressure to trans. Nothing could stop the juggernaut. Nor were our boundaries ever respected.
Even gay men began complaining in the gay press of FTMs in some of THEIR sacrosanct sex spaces, but this was years if not 2 decades AFTER mtfs especially had infiltrated the Lesbian communities....and many Butch Lesbians then transitioned and DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE the Dyke communities, while some courted the gay male communities as well...
And then all of a sudden they got more rights than women as a whole do, EVERYTHING we worked a lifetime for? All smashed to bits? Villified every time we say no? Ignored if we mention our fears, or dont buy the smoke and mirrors, the glitz and glam 6 foot 4 males tottering in high heels and hyper feminine clothes that they are Lesbians too??
No is a complete answer, and I will NOT concede my spaces, my sexuality, my identity or my very Femaleness to born males so they can feel good about their illusions at OUR EXPENSE AND SAFETY!!
I am SICK of this battle and it seems a losing proposition. But so be it. I will not stop, because for me the company of WOMEN is so powerful.
And I will NOT concede THAT for ANY MALE!!!
I been a Feminist since age 9, (1969) tomboy since 7, came out as a Butch Lesbian at 21 (1981) fought for my rights all my life as a Female, a Tradeswoman, a Lesbian, and for Marriage Equality from 2004 on. Each win was incremental, slow with steps backwards and forwards...trans mtfs were at the absolute fringes of the Lesbian community, barely tolerated cuz all too many recognized them as male. Tolerated but not necessarily accepted. The drag queens who sometimes transitioned were far more colorful figures based in the gay male community, like the Sisters for Perpetual Indulgence. They had a place. They didn't coopt Lesbian culture and were part of the camp of gay male culture.
Then incrementally certain key Butches began to transition to "men" and others followed along in the mid 90s. We thought it was a phase like many phases and styles that would blow over, but it never did..it just kept expanding.
Not till the 2000s did they start going after transing kids. Used to be the gay community, except LYRIC which catered to gay/lesbian youth, did NOT advocate much for Lesbian/Gay kids, we didnt want to be seen as recruiting, something that we were often falsely accussed of, gay men especially, so it was hands off the kids, unless they organized BY AND FOR THEMSELVES.
But the autogynophilic men(mtfs) werent happy. Whether its another way to seek validation, or another set of customers and patients to make money off of, the trans kid thing started happening, the clinics, the doctors, the clinicians ect and trans mtfs believing if it was a a thing since early childhood, then maybe they'd be seen as more ordinary and ok.
All I know is it sickened me in Chaz Bono's video when s/he is hanging out with a trans kid in a hottub who wasnt any more than 9, "boy bonding". More for Chaz's sake than the kid's at the gender space. Making it all seem so normal.
But boundary after boundary for a part of the population much much smaller than the Lesbian community, they bowled over EVERY boundary. And the numbers of FTMS kept increasing, along with the peer pressure to trans. Nothing could stop the juggernaut. Nor were our boundaries ever respected.
Even gay men began complaining in the gay press of FTMs in some of THEIR sacrosanct sex spaces, but this was years if not 2 decades AFTER mtfs especially had infiltrated the Lesbian communities....and many Butch Lesbians then transitioned and DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE the Dyke communities, while some courted the gay male communities as well...
And then all of a sudden they got more rights than women as a whole do, EVERYTHING we worked a lifetime for? All smashed to bits? Villified every time we say no? Ignored if we mention our fears, or dont buy the smoke and mirrors, the glitz and glam 6 foot 4 males tottering in high heels and hyper feminine clothes that they are Lesbians too??
No is a complete answer, and I will NOT concede my spaces, my sexuality, my identity or my very Femaleness to born males so they can feel good about their illusions at OUR EXPENSE AND SAFETY!!
I am SICK of this battle and it seems a losing proposition. But so be it. I will not stop, because for me the company of WOMEN is so powerful.
And I will NOT concede THAT for ANY MALE!!!
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Lesbianism IS an ENTIRE WORLDVIEW!!
To ALL my Lesbian Sisters Lesbian is an ENTIRE WORLDVIEW...goes BEYOND mere "identity". Cracks open the World in that I see EVERYTHING THROUGH Lesbian eyes. I give ALL of my Self to the Sacred Female, within and without, sexually, emotionally, politically,intellectually, spiritually. Females come first and foremost in my World, my love and lust for them,kindred Spirits and Souls, weaving together Dyke and Amazon Nation, as has been done at Michfest our Spiritual Home..we Rise again and Again...but the Patriarchy fears and villifies us...BECAUSE WOMYN COME FIRST in our lives, both ourselves, our lovers, spouses, paramours, and Female friends, and for many of us Goddess as well. We do not hold back on our Love for the Female. It is Sacred. It goes WAY beyond mere "identity". We are a Nation under siege....
Cooptation, Infiltration of Lesbian Community
Rant against a rightwing woman who would lump us in with the rest of the alphabet soup:
Dont include US ________. I am GLAD my Lesbian spouse and I are married, I can access her health insurance, she can access my pension benefits, I can visit her in the hospital no questions asked.
WAYYYY before the het world had to deal with BOTH MTFS and FTMS, us Lesbians and our communities were coopted and infiltrated. Young Butches, and even older ones pressured to transition to male, and we couldnt get away from the autogynophilic males who never even pass as "women", claiming they are Lesbians, penis or not. Way before they went after the het world, bathroom, locker room, womens prisons and homeless or battered womens shelters, they went after MICHFEST where us Lesbians set boundary after boundary, THIS IS FOR BORN FEMALES ONLY. WE refused to date them or pick up the pieces for those mtfs of the het womens lives and marriages they ruined.
Now we cannot EVEN have a place in GBTQIAAMNOPXYZ, AS LESBIANS. Or have a place of OUR OWN without being coopted or called bigots, transphobes or terfs.
We cannot gather in ANY capacity amongst OUR OWN without being targeted by GBTMNOPQRSTUV.
WE fought this fight LONG BEFORE IT WAS ON YOUR RADAR. So dont dump us Lesbians HERE in with your hatred of the gay community.
We are trying to organize amongst our own, and we want OUT of GBT because it no longer represents US or OUR INTERESTS. And we REFUSE to accept "penis can be Lesbian, just get over your penisphobia" as they tromp on and into OUR communities, many from the het world. The Lesbian communities are largely in tatters around this, and WE FEEL JUST AS STRONGLY that children should not be transed and keep those with penises OUT OF OUR BATHROOMS, LOCKER ROOMS and all nonfemale OUT of our WBW spaces. We no longer want to affilate with other Lesbians who would sell us out, or bi or straight women for that matter to these interlopers. The loss of Michfest has angered MANY of us Lesbians and WE ARE ORGANIZING!!!
Dont include US ________. I am GLAD my Lesbian spouse and I are married, I can access her health insurance, she can access my pension benefits, I can visit her in the hospital no questions asked.
WAYYYY before the het world had to deal with BOTH MTFS and FTMS, us Lesbians and our communities were coopted and infiltrated. Young Butches, and even older ones pressured to transition to male, and we couldnt get away from the autogynophilic males who never even pass as "women", claiming they are Lesbians, penis or not. Way before they went after the het world, bathroom, locker room, womens prisons and homeless or battered womens shelters, they went after MICHFEST where us Lesbians set boundary after boundary, THIS IS FOR BORN FEMALES ONLY. WE refused to date them or pick up the pieces for those mtfs of the het womens lives and marriages they ruined.
Now we cannot EVEN have a place in GBTQIAAMNOPXYZ, AS LESBIANS. Or have a place of OUR OWN without being coopted or called bigots, transphobes or terfs.
We cannot gather in ANY capacity amongst OUR OWN without being targeted by GBTMNOPQRSTUV.
WE fought this fight LONG BEFORE IT WAS ON YOUR RADAR. So dont dump us Lesbians HERE in with your hatred of the gay community.
We are trying to organize amongst our own, and we want OUT of GBT because it no longer represents US or OUR INTERESTS. And we REFUSE to accept "penis can be Lesbian, just get over your penisphobia" as they tromp on and into OUR communities, many from the het world. The Lesbian communities are largely in tatters around this, and WE FEEL JUST AS STRONGLY that children should not be transed and keep those with penises OUT OF OUR BATHROOMS, LOCKER ROOMS and all nonfemale OUT of our WBW spaces. We no longer want to affilate with other Lesbians who would sell us out, or bi or straight women for that matter to these interlopers. The loss of Michfest has angered MANY of us Lesbians and WE ARE ORGANIZING!!!
Cooptation, Infiltration of Lesbian Community
Rant against a rightwing woman who would lump us in with the rest of the alphabet soup:
Dont include US ________. I am GLAD my Lesbian spouse and I are married, I can access her health insurance, she can access my pension benefits, I can visit her in the hospital no questions asked.
WAYYYY before the het world had to deal with BOTH MTFS and FTMS, us Lesbians and our communities were coopted and infiltrated. Young Butches, and even older ones pressured to transition to male, and we couldnt get away from the autogynophilic males who never even pass as "women", claiming they are Lesbians, penis or not. Way before they went after the het world, bathroom, locker room, womens prisons and homeless or battered womens shelters, they went after MICHFEST where us Lesbians set boundary after boundary, THIS IS FOR BORN FEMALES ONLY. WE refused to date them or pick up the pieces for those mtfs of the het womens lives and marriages they ruined.
Now we cannot EVEN have a place in GBTQIAAMNOPXYZ, AS LESBIANS. Or have a place of OUR OWN without being coopted or called bigots, transphobes or terfs.
We cannot gather in ANY capacity amongst OUR OWN without being targeted by GBTMNOPQRSTUV.
WE fought this fight LONG BEFORE IT WAS ON YOUR RADAR. So dont dump us Lesbians HERE in with your hatred of the gay community.
We are trying to organize amongst our own, and we want OUT of GBT because it no longer represents US or OUR INTERESTS. And we REFUSE to accept "penis can be Lesbian, just get over your penisphobia" as they tromp on and into OUR communities, many from the het world. The Lesbian communities are largely in tatters around this, and WE FEEL JUST AS STRONGLY that children should not be transed and keep those with penises OUT OF OUR BATHROOMS, LOCKER ROOMS and all nonfemale OUT of our WBW spaces. We no longer want to affilate with other Lesbians who would sell us out, or bi or straight women for that matter to these interlopers. The loss of Michfest has angered MANY of us Lesbians and WE ARE ORGANIZING!!!
Dont include US ________. I am GLAD my Lesbian spouse and I are married, I can access her health insurance, she can access my pension benefits, I can visit her in the hospital no questions asked.
WAYYYY before the het world had to deal with BOTH MTFS and FTMS, us Lesbians and our communities were coopted and infiltrated. Young Butches, and even older ones pressured to transition to male, and we couldnt get away from the autogynophilic males who never even pass as "women", claiming they are Lesbians, penis or not. Way before they went after the het world, bathroom, locker room, womens prisons and homeless or battered womens shelters, they went after MICHFEST where us Lesbians set boundary after boundary, THIS IS FOR BORN FEMALES ONLY. WE refused to date them or pick up the pieces for those mtfs of the het womens lives and marriages they ruined.
Now we cannot EVEN have a place in GBTQIAAMNOPXYZ, AS LESBIANS. Or have a place of OUR OWN without being coopted or called bigots, transphobes or terfs.
We cannot gather in ANY capacity amongst OUR OWN without being targeted by GBTMNOPQRSTUV.
WE fought this fight LONG BEFORE IT WAS ON YOUR RADAR. So dont dump us Lesbians HERE in with your hatred of the gay community.
We are trying to organize amongst our own, and we want OUT of GBT because it no longer represents US or OUR INTERESTS. And we REFUSE to accept "penis can be Lesbian, just get over your penisphobia" as they tromp on and into OUR communities, many from the het world. The Lesbian communities are largely in tatters around this, and WE FEEL JUST AS STRONGLY that children should not be transed and keep those with penises OUT OF OUR BATHROOMS, LOCKER ROOMS and all nonfemale OUT of our WBW spaces. We no longer want to affilate with other Lesbians who would sell us out, or bi or straight women for that matter to these interlopers. The loss of Michfest has angered MANY of us Lesbians and WE ARE ORGANIZING!!!
Climate Change
Sheeple want a dictator to take over with NO political experience.
Climate change is ONE issue against many, but it is THE ISSUE that no matter how much folks bury their heads in the sand about it, WON'T GO AWAY. Crops burning up, stronger and more violent and devastating storms, die offs of entire species and coral, melting of ice caps and raising of seas, insect infestations, desertification and drought, its a WORLDWIDE problem due largely to overuse of fossil fuels.
Only fossils keep INSISTING on using these fuels which eventually WILL run out without putting in new infrastructure any way we can, from Wind on every Farm to Solar on every rooftop , would GREATLY reduce our need for poisoning, dangerous fossil fuels, and this ties into the economy as well..either we want alot of new Green jobs, or keep on going the way we are..tie it all in with the economy and THAT is an issue affecting us all on the most personal level.
Climate change is ONE issue against many, but it is THE ISSUE that no matter how much folks bury their heads in the sand about it, WON'T GO AWAY. Crops burning up, stronger and more violent and devastating storms, die offs of entire species and coral, melting of ice caps and raising of seas, insect infestations, desertification and drought, its a WORLDWIDE problem due largely to overuse of fossil fuels.
Only fossils keep INSISTING on using these fuels which eventually WILL run out without putting in new infrastructure any way we can, from Wind on every Farm to Solar on every rooftop , would GREATLY reduce our need for poisoning, dangerous fossil fuels, and this ties into the economy as well..either we want alot of new Green jobs, or keep on going the way we are..tie it all in with the economy and THAT is an issue affecting us all on the most personal level.
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