Talisa Garcia - transgender actress - expresses concern about wider trans umbrella and militant tactics

[Needmoresleep]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6735491/Transgender-star-BBCs-hit-drama-Baptiste-reveals-plot-amazing-life-story.html

'I think the whole transgender thing has gone too crazy for me,' she admits. 'I find the umbrella of "transgender' troubling. I mean I can't keep up. I don't understand these militant transgender people, who seem to be hating women, yet shouting 'CALL ME A WOMAN'.

'Why? I had a sex change operation. I went to court to get my birth certificate changed, so legally I am a woman. But do I get cross when people refuse to see me as a 'real' woman? No. That is their right. We have freedom of thought and freedom of speech in this country.

'Everyone is walking around on eggshells not knowing what to say in case we offend someone. It's ridiculous. We should be equal in everything — men, women, black, white, gay, straight — but we need to stop with the labels. I can't keep up with the labels.'

What does she make of those who say they identify as another gender, but don't want the surgery? Or those who come late to the process? 'I don't want to judge, but I can't understand how someone can get to 50 and then say 'I want to be a woman now?'. I think we need to be careful. I could not have lived as a man, literally.

'There are men I've met who have said: 'Oh I put on my wife's clothes and I just KNEW'. No! That is a fetish. Be a transvestite. Do whatever makes you happy, but don't call it transgender.'

Yet this is controversial territory. Does it mean there are degrees of trans? 'Maybe there are different levels. That's for doctors to decide.'

She is pragmatic about her own situation. She would love to have a baby, but without a womb, accepts it cannot happen biologically.

'I'm as close to being a woman as I can possibly get. But I wasn't born a woman, and when I die my body will be that of a man because, realistically, my skeleton is a man's.

'But I'm not bothered what words people use. Call me a woman. Call me a man. Just give me respect. All I want is a bit of respect.'

Brava that transwoman!

Sanity. Respect.

Brilliant - the voices of reason from the non-biology-denying and genuinely brave transsexuals/transwomen who dare to speak out are so important 👏👏👏

I have to say the whole "child needs illegal drugs or will kill self" will always seem an odd thing for a Dr to tell parents.

First do no harm.

The idea that we are surrounded by TW and don't know it is also odd. Of course people can tell the difference between men and women, even those who had their endocrine system messed with as children.

It is refreshing to see someone acknowledge their sex factually and the damage being done by fetishism and harmful activism. It's unfair to ignore that suicide and childhood medication tropes are part of that damaging activism, although I appreciate this is first person account.

Simple, sane and makes sense. Bravo.

I didn't realise she was trans. She speaks so much sense I have nothing but admiration for her.

It's another tale of child being pushed into stereotype boxes isn't it? The father who'd rather have a beautiful daughter than "encourage" a beautiful non-sporty son. The kids calling him a girl and "sissy" for liking tap dancing not rugby. Poor kid. No wonder they ended up feeling their body was wrong. Liking tap dancing and lipstick is not a symptom of female-ness FFS. Or I'd be male.

Halle-fucking-lujah! Someone speaking utter sense.

It's just another example of how stereotypes make a woman. As far as I can see they are just policing who is a woman, claiming that surgery and a misogynistic legal process makes them closer than other males.

Good for them for being so honest. It must be hard to stick their head above the parapet in today’s climate. We need more transsexuals to speak out like this.

It’s refreshing to see such sense spoken.

And identifying the fetish side in AGPs is BRAVE. That won’t go down well.

Forgot to say, yes, agree it is very brave of her to speak out like that in the current climate.

As far as I can see they are just policing who is a woman, claiming that surgery and a misogynistic legal process makes them closer than other males.

The question I always want to ask is: do you use women's spaces and services? If the answer is yes, I won't be cheerleading for you.

Why is this person being applauded for for saying what we have been saying over and over? Truth. Common sense. Do we get a star on the star chart for simply being trans and talking sense? It carries more weight because they are trans?

Also agree with Lang. Do you use female spaces? Yes - then shut up.

Telegraph interview: 'Baptiste star Talisa Garcia: 'I don't expect everyone to accept me as a woman'

concludes:
"Garcia also forthright in her belief that, in recent years, transgender rights activists may have done more harm to the cause than good. “This is where we get into the really hard bit,” she says. “Nowadays, we have to be very careful with what we say and what’s politically correct”. Although she won’t elaborate much further, she does say that transgender toilets are “the worst thing that could ever happen”.

“When will it stop?” she says. “We need to drop the labels. There are so many labels, people don’t know what’s what any more.”

While she thinks her appearance in Baptiste will help move the needle of public opinion on the issue of transgender, she hopes her next big role will be motherhood: she would love to start a family “if the right person comes along”. She knows she can’t have children of her own, but, having been adopted herself, doesn’t mind.

Until then, Garcia is keen to play a parent on screen. “When you cast a transgender woman who happens to be a mother, people will start looking at it for what it is: normal.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/talisa-garcia-like-character-baptiste-transgender

worth unpicking this?

current thread, OP TinselAngel wrote:

"By respecting pronouns are we complicit in the abuse of women?
I'm currently reading Shiela Jeffrey's book, “Gender Hurts”, and pennies have started to drop for me as to why I feel it like a blow, when somebody refers to my ex husband as "she".

There’s a great chapter about trans widows, which concludes:

Feminists who accept a man as “she”, when his wife, children, mother, cannot and feel abused by the demand that they should are abandoning an increasingly large section of womankind and expunging them from the community of women who deserve respect in favour of supporting men in the exercise of their prerogatives.

Shiela says that a man trying to make his wife believe he is a woman when all her experience makes her know he is a man should be seen as a form of psychological violence."
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3515543-by-respecting-pronouns-are-we-complicit-in-the-abuse-of-women

Yes, R0wan. I read the Telegraph interview with Baptiste and she (I usually use this pronoun with early-transitioning, old-school transsexuals, just as I write "Reverend" on envelopes of Christmas cards to my vicar friend, even though I don't believe in God) comes across as a decent sort, though like you, I more than raised an eyebrow at the bit at the end about transwomen "mothers."

But your point about "she" as an insult to the wives and families of late-transitioners is well made.

It reminds me of a comment an Irish friend of mine made (early 90s, Troubles still ongoing). "There is no neutral language. As soon as you refer to a certain town as 'Derry' or 'Londonderry', you've picked a side." The debate over pronouns is becoming like this - so polarised that any politeness (using "she") is weaponised to erode women's boundaries.

Although she won’t elaborate much further, she does say that transgender toilets are “the worst thing that could ever happen”.

The worst thing.

It reminds me of a comment an Irish friend of mine made (early 90s, Troubles still ongoing). "There is no neutral language. As soon as you refer to a certain town as 'Derry' or 'Londonderry', you've picked a side."

Indeed! My daughter lives in the NI border village or Roslea (Irish spelling) but if you spell it Rosslea (the official spelling) you're dead! :)
All the shops, pubs etc call it Roslea but the village sign is Rosslea, with the second S scratched out.
Vocabulary matters. I will never call a man "she/her", not even to be polite. If he passes so well that I can't tell, then I would; otherwise it's they.

"Some people who have transitioned from male to female carry hints of their previous life"

More than a hint in some cases.

This thread is totally beyond me.

The responses on the daily mail are very positive towards Talisa. I think there's a massive difference between a respectful person such as this and bullies who scream their points and need constant validation.