Saturday, October 3, 2009

Gay or Trans?

Several days ago, Monday I think, I saw the latest episode of a TV show called Glee on Hulu.com. It was hilarious. I don't know how many times I watched the beginning. It started out with one of the characters, a boy, doing the Beyoncé Single Ladies dance, wearing a unitard. A boy doing a girly dance to a girly song in a girly outfit. You can imagine why it was so funny.
However, all praise aside, it wasn't entirely accurate. The point of the dance was to emphasize the character's femininity, since the character was gay. Except a guy doesn't have to be girly to be gay. That whole stereotype is more indicative of trans people.
I wasn't offended or anything, I could appreciate the humor, but I decided to use it to make a point.
Again, a few definitions are needed here. All these are defined as adjectives, but 'gay', 'transsexual', and 'transvestite' can all be used as nouns. That is, I write the definitions as descriptions (a gay person, a transsexual person), but you can also use them as definers (a gay, a transsexual) though that's not entirely polite.

Gay--to be solely attracted to people of the same biological sex.
Transsexual--to have had sex reassignment surgery. Some people don't identify as transsexual, rather they feel that they have become the opposite gender.
Transvestite--to dress as the opposite gender.
Transgender--to feel that one is actually a separate gender from one's biological gender. It can also include transvestite, transsexual, and intersex. When I say 'trans', I mean transgender.
Femme--feminine, girly.
Butch--masculine.

Trans people can be gay, bi, or straight. People happy with the gender they were born with can be gay, bi, or straight.
The guy on Glee (season 1, episode Preggers) was stereotypically femme, which ended in just about everybody knowing the truth without his telling them. But although it's certainly true that gay men can be femme, they can just as easily be butch. All the same, I do recommend the episode, and the previous one, Acafellas. Most any of us can identify with his difficulty coming out, even if not with his dress sense.
Who would have guessed I was anything but completely straight, the way I talk about guys? I do like to dance with them, and I do find them handsome, but a girl can get into my blood the way no guy so far has. I'm not taking a definitive label yet, but that's okay. I know who I am. I'm Phoenix Tawnyflower.

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