LETTER TO EDITOR: No to transgender exclusion

John Cohen’s Cause (GScene July 2014 p69) terribly misrepresents transgender experience to wrongly justify transgender exclusion.

He states: “I am happy with my sexuality [a gay man]” but that that “transsexuals […] consider their condition a medical problem.”

No. It is western culture that considers “transsexuals” a “medical problem”.

In other times and places “transsexuals” were considered a blessing to ALL the community, with no medical intervention needed to be accepted. If the grounds for kicking us out are a specific “medical problem” then what about the specific “medical problem[s]” such as suicide and depression and broken bones from being beaten up suffered by LGB people BECAUSE they are LGB in a culture that bullies and harasses them?

Is that grounds to kick them out of the LGBT umbrella? By the way, lets use the word WE chose for ourselves: Transgender, not the medical term “transsexuals” a subset of Transgender, the T in LGBT.

Stonewall UK has already stolen Stonewall from the T. Shame on anyone who uses a “medical problem” as reason to politically exclude a tiny minority.

Natasha Thoday