A man who is so far remaining anonymous has begun circulating a petition that aims to exclude trans men and women from the LGBT rights movement. Using the catchphrase “Drop the T,” the petition’s author is demading that transgender rights be considered a separate issue from the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexual people.
In an interview with the right-wing magazine The Federalist, the man–identified only as “Clayton”–said that transgender individuals should no longer be considered a part of the LGBT movement.
In his petition, which can be found at Change.org, Clayton wrote:
“We are a group of gay/bisexual men and women who have come to the conclusion that the transgender community needs to be disassociated from the larger LGB community.”
Clayton also claims that his anonymity must be maintained because he fears reprisal from the trans community.
Additionally, Clayton says that trans men and women would be more welcome in his vision of the “LGB” movement if they weren’t so angry and irrational:
“Any attempt to rationally discuss issues that gays/lesbians/bisexuals are concerned about regarding the trans movement is met with unparalleled vitriol, harassment, death threats, and silencing, demanding that the person commenting contrary to the trans narrative be banned from forums, for example.”
He also believes that transsexuals are unnatural:
“Gay/bisexual men and women just ARE — we don’t need medicine or surgery to help us become who we believe we are, which is the case with the trans community. This is why I think the two groups should separate and fight for our respective rights on the more sure footing of our own ideas rather than conflating two divergent concepts.”
So far, the anti-trans petition has gathered more than 1,300 signatures. It is also interesting to note that the petition closely echoes right-wing anti-trans language that was used to defeat Houston’s anti-discrimination ordinance earlier this month.
And the fact that “Clayton” told his story to a magazine founded by right wing “journalist” Bill Kristol also makes this entire matter more than a bit fishy.
Stay tuned.
Featured image by Wikipedia, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
