Comments on: CNN’s Don Lemon and Transsexual Activist Ashley Love Spar Over Words

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Karen, you did a poor job on this piece, sorry. You diminished what transsexual people say abou the transphobia and exclusion in the lgb”t” coalition. Lemon is not an expert, and it showed. I feel you misrepresented, almost vilified, what this transsexual activist was saying. She was right on all points. And yet you were apologizing for Lemon’s ignorance and arrogance. Many gay and lesbian people resent trans people when they speak out, obviously, you do too. Its a shame you didnt tell both sides of the story, instead, you just defended the gay community’s “right” to exclude and erase trans people. Maybe one day you will get it. Until then, I know more trans people will continue to speak out. You “gay washed” what happened, instead of addressing this woman’s valid and urgent concerns. I give this article (propaganda) a C- or D+. At least you kind of tried, yet it was a disservice to transsexual people, and just giving gays an excuse to repeat the same mistakes over and over again

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:04:00 +0000

“One critical lesson from this exchange is how some LGBTs assume that
non-LGBTs understand us more and better than perhaps they do.”

No, the critical lesson is that there is no such thing as “LGBTs”. A few people dreamed this term up about 15 years ago, and they rely on clueless politically correct bloggers like Karen to keep the myth alive. LGBT doesn’t describe reality b/c LGBs are not defined by their gender identity and Ts are not defined by their sexual orientation. Although there may be some areas of common concern, it is not one community.

Stop promoting a lie Karen.

By: lambda98

lambda98 — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:31:00 +0000

And if he had said “queer” other people would have objected. I understand that visibility is important, but attacking someone like Lemon for not using an alphabet soup is silly. Use “sexual minorities” or some other phrase if you don’t think “gay” is appropriate.

By: Lucrece

Lucrece — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:45:00 +0000

I’m not sure she won any allies in there by being recalcitrant about nomenclature.

At the same time, Lemon represents the problem in the conversation. LGBT has become token. Politically correct because inclusiveness has become another facte of public image, so now everyone uses LGBT for fear of being condemned as exclusive. As if specialization was a bad thing.

So now HRC says LGBT, but they don’t really mean it. And gay men and women say LGBT, but they don’t really mean LGBT either.

When people say gay community, they should not feel obligated to mean anything more than whom they’re talking about. When Morehouse College focuses on black males, they shouldn’t feel obligated to include all other males of historically oppressed minorities (Asian, mestizo, Native American).