Stonewall and Pride – A Proud Transman’s Perspective

(This is a repost of my Facebook Note posted yesterday, June 9, 2009. I believe the subject is important enough that it must be shared with those not on Facebook).

Among my endeavors is the title of Webmaster of the modern-day Gay Activists Alliance International website. (http://www.gayactivistsalliance.org). The GAAI have taken a stance along with other organizations to boycott London Pride for their lack of support of the trans-identified community. The GAAI is FULLY INCLUSIVE of trans-identified individuals.

I am a trans male. I was born female-bodied, but having the gender identity of a man. I have medically and socially adjusted my body to match my gender identity.

I’ve been around the GLBT community for 30+ years. I have seen many changes. I have seen the acronyms grow from just G to GL to GLB to GLBT and continuing on with the Q and the I ….

Forty years ago, we were ALL part of the “Gay” community. There were no separatists (*see Note below). Whether we were male, or female, nellie, flaming, butch, dyke, queen, crossdresser, transvestite, transsexual (a medical term, btw), liked men, liked women, liked both, or even were simply gender-variant – we ALL made up the Gay community.

Remembering Stonewall today requires knowing the TRUTH. The truth has been skewed and warped through the years, as our ONE community has split into its smaller fragments of acronyms.

The truth is, Stonewall was initiated by what we would NOW term the gender-variant people, or “TRANS”. There would be NO PRIDE if it weren’t for TRANS men and women.

Let me repeat this. THERE WOULD BE NO PRIDE IF IT WERE NOT FOR TRANS MEN AND WOMEN.

The truth is, the FIRST riot where we all protested has now become a forgotten piece of history – The Compton’s Cafeteria Riots”. These riots were initiated by TRANS people in San Francisco, three years BEFORE Stonewall, in 1966.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton%27s_Cafeteria_Riot and www.comptonscafeteriariot.

org/main.html and lastly, http://www.screamingqueensmovie.com/.

Now read the truth firsthand about Stonewall from someone who was THERE.

http://transpolitical.blogspot.com/2009/06/play-i-survived-stonewall-interview.html

There’s more out there, research it if you question it.

I personally fully support the boycott of London Pride.

Michael Brown
Executive Director
TransMentors International
www.TransMentors.org

Note: Vanessa Edwards Foster, a well known activist and advocate in the trans community, author of Transpolitical Blogspot spotted an incorrect statement I made in my above note. She is correct in what she wrote in the following comment on the original note (found Here). Here is her comment:

Great post, Michael. One point of note though: Gay was the popular nomenclature that all-encompassed the community to the outside world. Even trans terminology hadn’t evolved at that point. However, to state there were no separatists was incorrect. There was much more of the mixing within the community overall, but many in the more connected (and what would be considered today more closeted) gay and lesbians were quite in effect at that time. They were the ones trying to detach themselves from the “queens” and street level “dykes”. They felt they were the lowest form of their community and wanted no connection to them, or to what they were quietly trying to achieve in the back rooms – gay rights. They worried we would sully their image. That night was a spontaneous flashpoint and all street level folks joined in. But typically most gay clubs (including Stonewall) notably limited, if not outright banned, any gender variant folks from entry. Stonewall was not a “queen” bar.

Stonewall and Pride – A Proud Transman’s Perspective

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