Why the "T" in LGBT

I get where you're coming from honestly. But the way I see it, for me it all goes back to gender and what's expected of gender roles. I mean, if you're born with a penis in traditional society, you're expected to be a man and to be masculine and to marry a woman and raise a family with her.

When we ally with LGB people, ideally we're all fighting for that same right to be ourselves in the face of traditional gender roles and expectations.

 

When the LGBT community first rose to public awareness, a lot of people thought trans and gay people were one and the same. After all, a trans woman who likes men but has not transitioned and still dresses/looks like a man might seem the same as a gay man.

Because of this they were sort of "lumped in" with LGB as another minority group with a (seemingly) different sexuality than most. I understand that a trans woman who likes men is straight, however in the 50s when the LGBT community started growing, a lot of people weren't so understanding and, thinking of them as gay, included them.

 

It's a historical thing. Prior to medical transitioning, the distinction between drag queens and kings and trans people was a lot less obvious, and also almost all trans people have the experience of being read as gay or bi, either prior to transitioning or after it.

 

This! ^

Plus, what about LGB trans people? The groups do overlap in that regard.

And also, all of us have to come out eventually. Sharing those similar experiences, and not meeting the highly gendered expectations of society... it just makes sense.

 

Pretty much. I think the groups all had to (and still do today) work against gender roles, so they worked together for this goal. Unfortunately, trans* clearly has further to go and it seems like often people will talk about LGBT rights without mentioning trans* rights when that's such an important part of it.

 

It is for solidarity too, we are all being oppressed by a much larger force than any of us individually. Joining together, being a family, building a community, all of that helps us fight back on a more equal terms.

 

I've wondered this myself too. I think of the LGBT+ as being an collective for people with alternative orientations/identities that differ from what society has traditionally thought of as being the norm. I have to admit that I do get a little irked when the term "transsexual" gets used. Basically, this term is categorizing us as being an sexual orientation. Perhaps it was in this vein, that people felt that the "T" should be added to the "LGB".

 

I personally hate the term transsexual. I always tell people I'm transgender, even though I plan to take hormones and have surgery which makes me transsexual by definition. The reason I hate it is because like plant soul says, it sounds like a sexual orientation. If I tell people I'm transsexual, I feel paranoid that they are thinking about me in a sexual way which may lead to questions about my genitals and sexual preferences such as 'How do you have sex? (truth is, I don't) 'Would you use a strap on?' 'Are you going to have genital reassignment surgery?' etc, you get the idea. My genitals and sexuality are nobody else's business. This is why I prefer the term transgender because being trans is about so much more than sex and genitalia. Whether we choose to go down the route of HRT and surgery or not, all of us are striving to become comfortable in our 'wrong' bodies so that we can function normally in everyday life. I think this is what people fail to understand and instead see us as some kind of sexual deviants.

 

What transgender actually is is not widely known, and is instead confused with sexual orientations even now.

 

i figure it this way, the T, the Q, the A, the 2, + etc. is there with the LGB because we're all in this together. not "us verses the Hetro normative society" but rather us bringing each other up, supporting each other, helping each other. and in addition to this we should be reaching out to the rest of society because we are ALL in this together.

just my .02

 

So it's my opinion that our gay rights movement really had its roots in the 1920s. But a very important milestone in our fight was the stonewall riot in 1969. I really think anyone interested in this question should read up a little on what happened then, it answers a lot of questions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

But yeah, I mean T is first of all a letter that includes a lot of people, not just folks like me, but a lot of gay men and women more strongly tied to their birth sex except for one or two things. And transitioners, we're either seen as gay before transition, or struggling to be accepted as gay after, or bisexual.

And you know bisexual people have been dealing with a lot of the same strain the LGB and T have for a long time with some LG folks. Most of us are more than happy to show some solidarity, but you know, we all come into all this from ordinary straight lives. A lot of the time, we'll come to accept ourselves, and that is awesome, but we take kind of a shortcut when we do it. We decide it's okay to be "normal" and okay to be "us" now, but still not okay to be "them". Or we start saying things about how we have it harder than this other group of people without walking in their shoes.

Sometimes we go too far in the other direction of course and don't respect our differences and struggles, but really it's the same shortcut; you're just expanding "us" a little by saying "people exactly like me... and I guess a little like me 'till they figure it out".

But the truth is, we do have a lot in common. We all risk our jobs when we come out. A straight relationship is every bit as much a mistake for me as it is for a gay man. Whether it's to our parents, or our spouse, or our boss, coming out is just plain hard, and more to the point, harder than it needs to be. We all get crap just for being us, for stuff we can't change, and a lot of the time we let that crap in.

And I mean who knows how many people are out there living gay lives that have mismatches just like mine? And there are tons of us who only truly discover our sexuality after we begin to live more authentic lives, and tons and tons of trans people who struggled with what they considered "gay" sexuality at the time.

I think what seals the deal for me, is that gay sex by itself, violates a gender stereotype. And since that's all it takes to be trans, we're all in this together by definition anyway

 

Jess, you are truly a lady of words. well said.

 

Homophobia and transphobia all come from the same places, the gender role policing present in our patriarchal society.