Transphobic?
Dear Editor,
Hey folks, I would appreciate no one use the term “transphobic” to describe the editorial folk at San Diego LGBT Weekly. They may disagree with you personally on what should or shouldn’t be acceptable commentary in the comment threads for my columns, but the publisher is giving a platform to folk who disagree with my point of view. What I believe is at issue here is if the commenters are engaging in civil discussions of the issues or just making personal attacks regarding members of our community or me.
But whatever Steve Lee and Stampp Corbin are, they’re definitely not transphobic. They’re actually being an example to LGBT publishers across the nation by having a trans person writing for their publication; most LGBT publications across the U.S. don’t have any regular input by trans reporters or trans opinion journalists. I consider myself fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to write for a publication I love. Transphobia would be LGBT Weekly engaging in antitrans namecalling actively attacking trans members of the LGBT community.
And remember, Steve and Stampp aren’t the ones making the comments on my columns – it’s transsexual separatists who don’t identify as trans, trans* or transgender. The commenters are our hateful peers, and we get to own that t-people are not always very kind to each other.
Please remember to be as civil as you want others to be to you and me. Civil discourse is what we want; ad hominem discussion is something none of us should want – calling Steve or Stampp transphobic is ad hominem discussion, IMO.
I so appreciate y’all “having my back” here; but just so you know, I personally follow the writers rule on these comments on my columns: “Don’t read the comments.” I don’t even know what those folk are writing about me at this point. Frankly, I care more that the way they talk about me is how these same commenters would talk about each of you “tee-gees” (to quote one of the commenters) if you were writing a column for LGBT Weekly, or responding in the comment threads to them.
AUTUMN SANDEEN
San Diego
