Attack: "Bisexual women just can't admit they're actually lesbians."
Response: We need to respect how other people define their own identities.
Anything else is arrogant, disempowering, and destructive.
Attack: "Lesbians have fought for years for our rights. Now bisexuals are
taking over."
Response: Bisexual women have always been active in the movements for queer
and dyke liberation, but bi contributions have been erased by historians who
can only think in dualistic either/or terms.
Attack: "Bisexuals expliot heterosexual privilege."
Response: The real issue here is the closet, not bisexuality. Closeted
lesbians benefit from heterosexual privilege, and out bisexuals are
vulnerable to queer bashing, job discrimination, loss of family...
Attack: "Bisexual women can't be true feminists."
Response: Sexual orientation is not the same as political perspective.
Lesbianism does not equal feminist consciousness, and bi identification does
not automatically make you a male-identified dupe.
Attack: "Bi women bring AIDS and other STDs into the lesbian community."
Response: Unsafe behavior, not sexual identification, spreads HIV/AIDS and
other STDs.
Attack: "Bisexuals undermine lesbian groups."
Response: Biphobia undermines our ability to fight the homophobia all dykes
face.
Attack: "Bisexual women are ______." (Fill in the blank with various gross
generalizations.)
Response: Bisexual-identified women are just as diverse as the population
at large--culturally, racially, ideologically, economically, physically,
behaviorally...
Attack: "Transsexual women aren't really women."
Response: We need to respect how other people define their own identities.
Anything else is arrogant, disempowering, and destructive.
Attack: "MTF transsexuals are just straight men trying to sneak into
women's spaces and drain the lesbian community of its energy."
Response: Can anyone realistically believe that a straight man would cut
off his balls just to hang out with a bunch of lesbians?
Attack: "Transgendered women play up hyper-feminine behavior and make real
women look bad."
Response: Policing the "appropriate" ways to be a woman--for new women or
"women-born-women"--is a ludicrous waste of energy.
Attack: "Transgendered women weren't raised as women. They've lived their
whole lives with male privilege."
Response: Many transgendered women felt uncomfortable with their assigned
gender at very early ages and did not conform to male behavioral norms.
Their ability to partake of male privilege was therefore partial, at best.
And what male privilege they may have received was lost forever when they
began their transition.
Attack: "Transsgendered women are ______." (Fill in the blank with various
gross generalizations.)
Response: Transsgendered women are just as diverse as the population at
large--culturally, racially, ideologically, economically, physically,
behaviorally...
Created 10-21-94. Last Modified 11-16-94.
libndc@gsusgi2.gsu.edu