Stealth versus Invisibility
I have re-written this post several times as I try to include all of you who are still living in your closets. Finally, I decided to go ahead and publish it because hopefully there will come a day when you too can live freely as your authentic selves. Now, here is the post:
I used to resent quite a few of the transgender women I knew who underwent gender realignment surgery then promptly went stealth. By "stealth" I mean they went away to simply live their lives away from the remainder of the transgender community. Before you say the often irritated and jealous transgender community...I agree. In fact, in many ways, I don't blame them.
Even so, to a large degree, there were very few trans women and men to follow.. No one to tell us it was perfectly OK to feel and act the way we do.
Over the years, I have battled the urge to go stealth even though for the most part it has been available to me. Much of being able to go stealth has much to do with my partner Liz as it does with me and any so called passing ability. Since I so rarely go anywhere without her, I am so very used to letting her lead the way with calling me the proper pronouns.
Sometimes I wonder if being too invisible as a transgender woman once again is letting the community as a whole down. Or what the subject even means to the average transgender person just trying to get by.
As I try my best not to be too in depth about the topic at hand, recently I had a chance to unfortunately witness yet another ugly episode of transgender infighting. To make a long story short, in the transgender - cross dresser support group I am in (or used to be), a disturbance erupted between two members basically concerning who was more trans than the other.
Once again it seemed to me, the more things change over the years, the more they stay the same. I mean really, what does it mean if a person is more trans than another.
Maybe on the other hand, as a community we should protect the out and proud leaders we have gained such as Laverne Cox.
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