The "b" and the "t" in LGBT.

    This is Andrej Pejic, a model from Bosnia. He also happens to be an androgynous man, who's been named a lot of things and is sometimes called a gender-bender. Today, CNN headlined their article about him by labeling him a "transgender" model. I read the article, and it didn't necessarily scream "Trans" to me. They have the definition of Transgender that GLAAD uses in the article, and I have to admit that it's not what I always heard the 'T' in LGBT defined as.
     GLAAD includes cross-dressers and genderf*ck individuals as "Transgender". I don't know if I agree with that definition. To me, trans generally means people who are physically born one sex, but their brainwaves and person have the identity of the opposite gender. Pretty much, your physical sex and gender identity don't match. (Sex is physical, gender identity is defined as how your mind/emotional system is wired, or what you perceive yourself as.)
     I'm not really sure how the trans community is going to respond to this article. It is nice to see high fashion embracing alternative presentations of gender, yes. But is the novelty of this model insulting to the people who struggle everyday to live as who they are? I can't begin to fathom the response I'd have if I were transgendered, because frankly I'm incapable of fully stepping into those shoes. I could never fully understand.
      One of the most insulting things I have ever heard, and one of the nastiest things I have ever regretted saying, is that Bisexuals should be happy that Transgendered people exist because we can have "the best of both worlds in one person". If you look in the back of the CityPaper on any given day, there are tons of ads for TG escorts for "guys on the DL" and "questioning" guys. Some people who are into TG pornography talk about how they aren't queer because the T Girl stars "look too much like women".
     To me, both seeking out TG escorts and checking out TG themed porn is both dehumanizing and self hating. Dehumanizing because the people being made into fetish objects are just that- people. TG individuals aren't freaks of nature and don't deserve to be treated like a sideshow or fetish toy, especially when just living a normal life feels damn near impossible sometimes. It's self-hating biphobia at the same time. I'd go so far as to say a lot of the guys who are into TG as a fetish are probably in denial about their attraction to certain..aspects...of their escorts. Otherwise, why would they be watching explicit scenes that are rather phallic-focused? That "little bit of both to check out" mentality is extremely bisexual! But yet, they'll go ahead and say something like: "It's not gay! It's the uber-feminitity that attracts me!" I'm sorry, but that's a crock if I ever heard one. That sounds like denial to me. That sounds like the guys who buy the huge trucks and try too hard to be super masculine because they're trying to chase away their thoughts about Matt Damon.
     Seriously, all these DL bi guys should just come out already. They've got that famous self-loathing down to an art.