Transsexualism: Will it end the gay lifestyle?

Originally posted 2017-11-07 19:57:03.

It’s clear that there is a deal of brouhaha about the extent to which transsexualism is impacting on the lesbian and gay, and to a lesser extent bisexual, lifestyle and political hegemony in the West. This is contributing to an increasingly bitter spat about young transitioners — people transitioning gender before they reach their majority.

There is no doubt that political activists are operating on this body of young people, some with laudable motives, others not so; but why is the lesbian and gay community so exercised?

I first published this article on 5 May 2018 and while my thinking has evolved since then, the article remains sound and particularly in an era of increased transphobia, especially in the UK, on point. Today I would perhaps use some different terms but the sense is correct.

Proper Concerns

Some, again, are motivated by proper concerns. One of these is a reservation that I share about major surgeries in the pursuit of transition. Permanently remodelling or removing a person’s sex and reproductive organs is not to be taken lightly and all due checks should be available.

But it is clear from the tone of the Lesbian and Gay (L&G) response that this is a fall-back that they will retreat to when challenged. It is obvious that what they would prefer is for young Gender Non Conforming (GNC) people to be either gay or lesbian but not transsexual.

This is only the most recent efflorescence of this attitude. We should not forget Jim Fouratt, 15 years ago, asserting that ‘trannies will destroy the way we live our lives’. What Jim meant was the accommodationist or assimilationist New Gay Man lifestyle, in which men attracted to other men appear to be men.

But this is a political movement that only become dominant since the 1960s, as I have discussed in my New Gay Man series on my YouTube Channel. This model has always been around; in fact it is described in the Hindu Vedas, written between 3000 and 1500 bce. What was new was the absolute suppression of all other forms.

So the effeminate gay men were bullied into appearing to be masculine by the more masculine gay men around them. Something similar occurred with women, though it has never been as intense. Noticeably masculine lesbians have always been present and were not suppressed in the way that feminine gay men were.

Simple observation in places where homosexuality is more tolerated than in the West should shed light on what is going on. And we see, in places like SE Asia, that there is a very obvious and diverse range of GNC expressions, from quasi-masculine gays, through effeminate ones, to intermediates who could either be girls or boys to full-blown HomoSexual Transsexuals (HSTS) who could not live as anything else.

It is only the relentless historical homophobia of the West and particularly Anglo-Saxon culture, that ever suppressed this range of expressions.

Many people think that homosexuality, for both sexes, is innate; I think that is true. But not all ‘gays’ are actually homosexual. I am going to take a break with the vague and woolly language that this debate is often couched in and state that when I say ‘homosexual’ I am using a rigid technical definition. This is a person who is exclusively attracted to the same sex from childhood. So for males, they will typically be effeminate GNC boys who grow up to show the typical homosexual clusterings of slight build, fine bones, neoteny, naturally feminine speech and behaviour, feminised digit ration and so on.

Other forms of gays

These are NOT the sole occupants of the ‘gay’ territory. Firstly, there is a scale, so some homosexual males are quasi-masculine and can pass as men fairly easily. Then there are many who call themselves ‘gay’ but who are actually bisexual. Westerners seem to forget that a bisexual is not obliged to have sex with both sexes. He or she might be attracted to both but can get sexual satisfaction and romantic reward with either. Since there is much social intolerance of people who do have partners of both sexes, many simply fix on one. The married mature father who comes out as ‘gay’ is not homosexual; he is bisexual, who has been satisfied with a woman, but now wants to try something else.

So there are many ‘gay men’ who do exclusively have sex with other men but are actually bisexual. Unsurprisingly, they do not show the clustering of characteristics that genuine homosexuals do.

It is these two latter groups, the genuine homosexuals at the opposite end of the scale from HSTS, and the bisexuals, which have, for 50 years, completely dominated the gay world in the West. HSTS, as a result, have been caught between savage homophobia from the straight world on one side and relentless intimidation from the conformists on the other.

An HSTS friend, Melissa Manchester, writing on YouTube, put it like this:

‘HSTS are taking the brunt of abuse from all ideologically motivated groups .We have the trans (AGP) “community” who wishes to transition every single GNC child, as young as 3 years old. They don’t want us (HSTS) to grow into women socially, as we did out of necessity in past generations; they want us to be “trans women” socially, so they can use us indefinitely to advance their f****d up political movement. We have the gender critical feminists who oppose transition at the onset of puberty; they want to make us into lifelong “gender warriors”. We have the gay male rights brigade who wanted us to remain “gay boys”, all the while deriding us for our femininity. We have the religious right, who accurately quote desistance rates, but conveniently leave out the reality that kids who desist do not go on to become normal heterosexual adults.’

Similarly, in an exchange on Twitter, a well-known autogynephilic (AGP) activist stated that HSTS transition ‘because of homophobia’ which is either a blatant lie or a complete failure to understand the nature of HSTS. Unfortunately, Western AGPs, even the more pleasant ones, have no understanding of HSTS at all.

HSTS get in in the neck

So there is no doubt at all that HSTS get it in the neck, from just about everyone — except the men attracted to them, like me. And I would say to those men that the transwomen we love are under attack and it is about time we did something; and stopped hiding our orientation.

There is a strong case to be made — and this was recently made by Dr James Cantor here, that feminine gay men are just ‘not fully formed HSTS’.

When you look at it like this, then the resilience of HSTS, and the fact that even after 5 decades of relentless suppression they still bounce back, becomes clearer. They are not ‘gay men’; actually a significant number of gay men are transwomen. This was backed up by Juno Dawson’s piece , which expressed her view that many gay men suffered from Gender Dysphoria; I agree with her and have often seen it.

Transing Children

The ‘transing’ of children presents a problem. We have, thankfully, gone from a position wherein carers, psychologists and everyone else would do anything they could to prevent a GNC child from transitioning to HSTS. Dr Ken Zucker famously held the opinion that it was a better result for a GNC boy to turn into a gay man than to be HSTS. Well, leaving aside the obvious question ‘and why should that be?’ it was not Zucker’s position to make that decision. It is for the individual to decide, in the light of knowledge.

Today, we are at the other extreme; AGP transactivists like Julia Serano, a dangerous individual, are campaigning for every GNC child to be transitioned. Clearly this is as bad as the opposite approach.

The upshot, I think, will be a marked increase in the numbers of transitions, but the success remains unpredictable. We might be setting up a lot of distressing ‘detransitions’ with accompanying regret in the short to medium term. We are already seeing some of this. Where sexual and reproductive organs have been radically modified or removed, these individuals, especially the females, will have deprived themselves of the chance to be parents. This is likely to cause extreme distress and unfortunately a backlash — and as ever that backlash will hit HSTS the hardest.

Gays and transsexualism in South East Asia

Looking at the situation in SE Asia I think I can make some predictions. As the levels of social intolerance fall, we will see both more HSTS and AGP transitions. Further, these AGP transitions will be much younger. This is already happening.

The extent to which this will impact the L&G ‘community’ remains to be seen. In the past, HSTS had nothing to do with this culture, or at least, they did so only rarely. Staying invisible was much more important. There might be some relaxation here but there are still far more high-profile AGPs than HSTS in the West.

HSTS then, do not appear to be a threat to the ‘gay’ community, so why are its members exercised, as Fouratt was? That is because the community depends for its survival  on the influx of young feminine gay boys whom the older males can pursue as partners. This is what troubles men like Fouratt; if all the gay boys turn into women, will this not put an end to gay male culture as it exists today?

Evidence from the Phils, however, says differently. Here, there are huge numbers of out gay males. Yes there are also large numbers of transwomen but if anything, they divert attention away from the gays. Everybody notices them — if they notice at all, and this is a culture wherein TS are literally everywhere. It ceases to be a subject worthy of interest.

Gay males are everywhere across SE Asia. Across the region, tolerance of homosexuality, even in Muslim areas, has always been high and remains so. Filipino television has numerous gay stars and anchors of popular shows. I think the gay male community in the West should look at this and calm down. While the number of boys who transition will probably rise, it will not be more than the increase in numbers coming out as gay because of the reduced social intolerance.

What about lesbians? Well there are plenty of those too and they present in a range of forms from the classic butch and transman to just wearing a boyish haircut and clothes. There’s certainly no evidence that those transmen who do exist are causing a problem.

Take a deep breath

Gays in the West, then, should take a deep breath. Transsexualism won’t wipe out their lifestyle. They are not obsolete yet and, given that they have been written about for 5000-odd years, I do not predict their disappearance any time soon.

However, at the same time I do predict a significant rise in the numbers of HSTS. I think that horse has galloped, boys, and it ain’t coming back. What this might mean in terms of society and culture, dating and the relationships of men to women I will deal with in a future piece.