Daily Dose of Queer needs a dose of perspective.

Separatism is good, apparently.

I expect this sort of thing out of Chris Crain, but I didn't expect to hear his views uncritically endorsed by Maria of Daily Dose of Queer. Was I just being naive?

Here's the comment which I tried posting. Apparently the commenting system works with no browser known to human kind, however— or just not for people who disagree.

I find this editorial disingenuous.

"Trans-jacking"? As if protection from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression doesn't protect lesbians, gays, and others whose gender presentations are not necessarily as society expects, as well as trans people? As if the "gay rights organizations" trans groups were lobbying— HRC, NGLTF, among others— do not themselves say they are for the LGB*T* communities? Do we not have a right to speak our minds to organizations who claim to represent us as well? What about trans people who are also gay or lesbian?

Asking trans people to wait for protection until it has been achieved for gay people is also wrongheaded, and make no mistake, if we did not insist on inclusion, we would be excluded by people of an assimilationist bent who are as ashamed of certain portions of the gay and lesbian community as they are of trans people. It is demoralizing and dehumanizing to be told that our rights are less important, we should "take one for the team" and continue to suffer employment discrimination and hate crimes with no legal protections while supporting bills which protect our allies and exclude us.

Crain has no understanding of trans issues. How is qualified to comment on how trans people should organize on our own issues, as he does twice in this editorial? He is hopelessly confused about the spectrum and complexity of gender variant individuals, conflating the genderqueer movement with transgender rights advocacy, which are two separate issues. His case rests on a fundamentally flawed understanding of transgender issues and it saddens me that it should persuade others whom I consider allies.

I've read this blog with great pleasure for a few months now, but your uncritical endorsement of Crain's agenda here just makes me sad.

Clearly, in Crain's world, there are good gays and lesbians— just normal folks who deserve for their rights to be protected *right now*, and bad queers— trannies and leatherfolk whose agendas will spoil everything for the good gays and lesbians if they aren't carefully excluded. Do you endorse this kind of separationist strategizing? If so I'm afraid we have to disagree— I think it will be the destruction of us. It turns my stomach to see it glorified here.