Hello, Pride Month!

African homophobia does not exist, nor does European homophobia, Asian homophobia or South American homophobia. Acts of homophobia occur in each of these spaces.

…African conceptions of homosexuality are shaped by factors including nationalism, globalisation, migration, ethnicity, and religion. They are shaped by labour practices and national politics, by participation in sports and watching movies…

Homophobia in Africa is a problem, but not as African homophobia, a special class that requires special interventions. And certainly not the kinds of special interventions that reconsolidate old, ongoing and boring oppositions between a progressive west and an atavistic Africa.

Indeed. Enough primitivization and infantilization of the other peoples of the world. We are all here, in the current “modern” era. All people, together, trying to figure this dumb old world out.

Not that it’s always easy to figure things out. I’d not heard the story of Agnes before.

It’s worth reading the whole story, if you’re not familiar with it. I wasn’t, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the twist ending. Suffice to say, Agnes was a transgender person who encountered the medical science complex in the late fifties, and was written about in depth by a Dr. Garfinkel. Quoting from his book, eastsidekate writes:

[Agnes] wanted to know as well whether [further research] would help “the doctors” to get to the “true facts.” I [Dr. Garfinkel] asked Agnes, “what do you figure the facts are?” She answered, “What do I figure the facts are, or what do I think everyone else thinks the facts are?” [emphasis original]

Agnes’ question, in a nutshell, summarizes the key dilemma that I think LGBTQ people have faced, (that I have faced) for generations. I know very well that I’m a woman, but I have to manage myself very carefully, as other people are prone to think otherwise… Furthermore, there are often seriously good reasons why I may not want them to understand the facts as I do.

We have spent generation after generation “passing”, painstakingly manipulating and carefully disclosing bits and pieces of the way we “really” are. A lot of time, people don’t see us, and sometimes, that’s because we know it’s not safe for us to be seen. This is a particularly troublesome proposition for transsexual people– to the extent that we’re out as such, cissexual society often views us as somehow “not really” the men and women we claim to be.

…My dream, for Pride month and beyond, is for all of us to envision a world where passing isn’t necessary. I can’t imagine living in a world where simply being one’s self is sufficient grounds for full membership in society. That said, I can’t imagine a more beautiful goal.

Hear hear.

And this post is already too long, but let’s throw this in: Faustus at Erosblog takes note of a book about a New Jersey woman who found herself joining a Malay prince’s harem — more than once. It seems a fascinating story, and I couldn’t help thinking of Faustus’ highlighted passage when reading the above stories and pondering the murky waters of identity, including my own:

There’s a persona you create to fill in for you on the strangers’ laps all day, or to lie forgotten about between the black silk sheets in a prince’s office bedroom. The persona is sexier, bolder, wilder, and inevitably feels less pain than the real you. If she doesn’t, you haven’t done a very good job inventing her. So maybe you start to visit that persona once in a while when you’re not at work. On weekends, you know, just when you’re being socially awkward at a party, or when a friend hurts your feelings or you’re out on a date and feeling vulnerable. And you find out that she helps you, that brazen stripper, that sophisticated call girl.

…that girl who wears the thong so effortlessly in public might not be the one making the major life decisions for you.

I’m not making any sort of strict comparison here, for such would be unfair. The cis person drawing on a specific alter-persona as needed has the privilege of not having to “pass,” having her “real” self accepted much more readily and more often than does the LGBTQ person. Still, it speaks to the need for more queer discourse, feminist discourse, more stories told and awareness of the variety of possibilities available within the human experience. Perhaps one day there will be little to no need to adopt a persona or a wall to be accepted as valid.

It bears repeating: “I can’t imagine living in a world where simply being one’s self is sufficient grounds for full membership in society. That said, I can’t imagine a more beautiful goal.”

Hear hear.