Sep 23Liked by LeAnne Owen, LGBT Courage Coalition
So much YES!!! I’ve been thinking this for years! The current gender wars, are really just taking a huge step back in progress. They are ultimately saying if you don’t fit into the stereotype of the gender you were assigned at birth then you must change your gender to fit into the stereotype of the opposite gender. Our culture needs more open definitions of gender identity, not more surgery & medications.
Sep 23Liked by LeAnne Owen, LGBT Courage Coalition
Thanks, LeAnne. The story of your upbringing reminded me of 'Stephen' in The Well of Loneliness. Not once in the book is it suggested that Stephen can have an operation or drugs to make her into a man.
Sep 23·edited Sep 23Liked by LeAnne Owen, LGBT Courage Coalition
Hi LeAnne, YES. Excellent, touching, inspiring story. Thanks for sharing. I too was a little lesbian feminist "gender-nonconforming" athlete, determined to live life my way and also, as we all are, 100% female. Perhaps of interest: My "I Would Have Been Trans'ed" story: https://strongerwomen.substack.com/p/i-would-have-been-trans
The personal history presented here is very common among girls who grow up to be lesbians. When I came out in 1971, I looked around at what was, for me, a new and surprising world, and discovered that about half the lesbians I met were butch.
Cross-sex presentation is common among homosexuals of both sexes, and it probably has a biological component for some, but not all, gay people. At very least, a natural attraction to the clothes, affect, and interests of the opposite sex is so common in the gay community that I consider it a feature, not a bug.
An ex of mine says it's a good thing she was born before the trans craze, because she would have been a perfect candidate for transition due to her deep discomfort with the feminine clothes and hairdos imposed on her by her conservative, religious mother. She had an older brother whom she emulated, also not uncommon for tomboys. It was not until the physical changes of puberty landed on her like a ton of bricks that she was forced to give up the hope of growing up to be a man. But the story had a happy ending, because approximately ten minutes after she had her first period, she developed a crush on a girl, and the rest, as they say, is Herstory.
The tragedy and the crime of transgender ideology is that it thwarts the natural maturation process of future lesbians and gay men. The trans movement uses lesbians and gays to legitimate themselves, falsely conflating two different life experiences with each other. The feminists call it "forced-teaming," meaning that we LGBs are assumed to be just another flavor of trans (or "queer") and we're all part of one big, happy team. Which we are not.
We're losing our butches to mastectomies, phalloplasties, and horrific biochemical injuries resulting from taking testosterone in place of the estrogen that our bodies require. Where have all the butch lesbians gone? They've gone down the trans road to liver cancer, heart disease, uterine prolapse, atrophied vaginas, premature menopause, dementia, and osteoporosis.
Even more, they've sacrificed the gorgeous experience of two women in love and lust with each other, expressing that love through the exquisitely sensitive and beautiful women's bodies in which we were born. Many crimes accrue to the transgender context, but the theft of gay identities before children know who they are, is one of the worst.
I congratulate the author for not abandoning her true self, which is just as hard, or even harder to do, than it was back in the mid-20th century.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
Thank you for sharing your story. My daughter wasn't so lucky. She was a lesbian, or gay as she called herself, and she was accepted in our family. It wasn't enough though, and she lost herself in trans ideology and disassociated from her body and herself as a lesbian. She fully medicalized and her beautiful body has been dismantled. It breaks my heart.
So much YES!!! I’ve been thinking this for years! The current gender wars, are really just taking a huge step back in progress. They are ultimately saying if you don’t fit into the stereotype of the gender you were assigned at birth then you must change your gender to fit into the stereotype of the opposite gender. Our culture needs more open definitions of gender identity, not more surgery & medications.
I hope she hears. It’s okay to be a tomboy., I had a great life growing up and am so grateful transition wasn’t an option.
Thanks, LeAnne. The story of your upbringing reminded me of 'Stephen' in The Well of Loneliness. Not once in the book is it suggested that Stephen can have an operation or drugs to make her into a man.
Strong and clear !
Thank you it was from the heart.
The only prerequisite to womanhood is being female. That’s it.
Gender is nonsense.
Hi LeAnne, YES. Excellent, touching, inspiring story. Thanks for sharing. I too was a little lesbian feminist "gender-nonconforming" athlete, determined to live life my way and also, as we all are, 100% female. Perhaps of interest: My "I Would Have Been Trans'ed" story: https://strongerwomen.substack.com/p/i-would-have-been-trans
Yes, I believe I read one of yours that Martina Nav reposted.
Cool. Former tomboys unite. :-)
Thank you for sharing your story and perspective!
This is so beautifully written. Thank you for putting into words what I want my daughter to hear.
Every line of this piece is pure gold. Thank you so much!
It came from the heart. Thank you so much.
The personal history presented here is very common among girls who grow up to be lesbians. When I came out in 1971, I looked around at what was, for me, a new and surprising world, and discovered that about half the lesbians I met were butch.
Cross-sex presentation is common among homosexuals of both sexes, and it probably has a biological component for some, but not all, gay people. At very least, a natural attraction to the clothes, affect, and interests of the opposite sex is so common in the gay community that I consider it a feature, not a bug.
An ex of mine says it's a good thing she was born before the trans craze, because she would have been a perfect candidate for transition due to her deep discomfort with the feminine clothes and hairdos imposed on her by her conservative, religious mother. She had an older brother whom she emulated, also not uncommon for tomboys. It was not until the physical changes of puberty landed on her like a ton of bricks that she was forced to give up the hope of growing up to be a man. But the story had a happy ending, because approximately ten minutes after she had her first period, she developed a crush on a girl, and the rest, as they say, is Herstory.
The tragedy and the crime of transgender ideology is that it thwarts the natural maturation process of future lesbians and gay men. The trans movement uses lesbians and gays to legitimate themselves, falsely conflating two different life experiences with each other. The feminists call it "forced-teaming," meaning that we LGBs are assumed to be just another flavor of trans (or "queer") and we're all part of one big, happy team. Which we are not.
We're losing our butches to mastectomies, phalloplasties, and horrific biochemical injuries resulting from taking testosterone in place of the estrogen that our bodies require. Where have all the butch lesbians gone? They've gone down the trans road to liver cancer, heart disease, uterine prolapse, atrophied vaginas, premature menopause, dementia, and osteoporosis.
Even more, they've sacrificed the gorgeous experience of two women in love and lust with each other, expressing that love through the exquisitely sensitive and beautiful women's bodies in which we were born. Many crimes accrue to the transgender context, but the theft of gay identities before children know who they are, is one of the worst.
I congratulate the author for not abandoning her true self, which is just as hard, or even harder to do, than it was back in the mid-20th century.
Thank you for sharing this. There is no “right” way to be a boy or girl!
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
Thank you for sharing your story. My daughter wasn't so lucky. She was a lesbian, or gay as she called herself, and she was accepted in our family. It wasn't enough though, and she lost herself in trans ideology and disassociated from her body and herself as a lesbian. She fully medicalized and her beautiful body has been dismantled. It breaks my heart.
Keep hope alive that she will come back to you. Seeing families broke up breaks my heart
So we should shut up and let them continue to do experimental pseudoscience on children?
I’m not right wing .