This piece is in solidarity with the Wellington based group the Queer Avengers who protested outside the Dominion Post Wellington offices last week. Their protest was organised in response to an article “Why I feel for the kids of ego-trippers” written by columnist Rosemary McLeod. I know, I know. Haters gonna hate. But I expected more of Rosemary, she has ice cool hair and collects vintage linen. I thought she would be a total (trans)fag hag and up with all of this stuff. But alas, no.
Boiling it down the article is an exercise in meanness and ignorance directed toward trans people. McLeod herself admits she is a “bit lost” in this territory. Next time she wanders into queer/trans issues, I suggest she brings a map, or at least consults a local. Throughout her article, McLeod continually imprisons the masculinity of the trans man she peaks of (who has just given birth) within quote marks. That is rude, and mean. I do not want to give her shitty article a profile it doesn’t deserve, but I will respond to some of the most offensive parts to stop the rot her article spreads.
- The most obvious stuff. A trans man is someone who was assigned female at birth and has since transitioned. He may have surgery, or undergo hormone treatments, or not. He may start playing rugby or become a ballerino, or not. He may be queer or straight, or bi, or asexual, or any other sexual orientation.
- It is not OK to purposefully use incorrect pronouns for a transman. The correct pronoun is he not he/she. Most reasonable people can work out that you refer to people in the ways in which they want to be seen in the world.
- It is not OK to speak about a trans persons genitals as a “penis thingy”.
- It is not OK to tell someone what their gender identity really is, as if you could ever know this better than they do themselves.
- It is not OK to assume that when transmen give birth they are simply doing so to become famous. Shocking as it may seem some queers and trans folk simply want to reproduce. Our fertility is really none of your business.
I have lots of insults I have been storing up to spit at you Rosemary. But I have decided not to print them. I will end this article with grace and dignity – something you denied the trans folk in your article.
<3 La Di Da