Quote Originally Posted by Veronica27 View Post
I believe that there is a tendency among such crossdressers to feel marginalized and they are returning to the privacy of their closets. Where are the efforts of the media and other community leaders to champion the cause of bringing respectability to the activity of crossdressing. The needs of crossdressers are quite different than the needs of the people who are being protected now by the various LGBT rights laws. Crossdressers are seldom in a situation where such rights would be of benefit to them.

Veronica
1) I agree that now is a time of great time for the transsexual community. With people like Caitlyn Jenner, Lavern Cox, Janet Mock garnering attention from the mainstream media, More people than ever before are seeing transexuals, not as deviants, but as human beings with lives and struggles. These are exciting times indeed for the transsexual community.

2) While I'm happy and excited about the transexual communities progress, I do not believe that the successes of the transexual community imply success for crossdressers. I my self have struggled with my identity as a crossdresser, feeling my lack of desire to transition made my claim of a transgender identity less valid. I can see the same question of validity entering the mind of a person who has learned to accept transsexualism through exposure to people like Janet Mock or Jenny Boylan. I don't see the public's acceptance of transsexual identities, whatever that looks like, as equivalent to the public's acceptance of crossdressers identities.

3) I do think, as you seem to believe, that the acceptance of crossdressing as valid and healthy identity requires action, organizing by a visible crossdressing community. I see our friends under the rest of the LGBT umbrella as allies in such a movement. I may be crazy, but I believe crossdressing's acceptance by the public requires public action by crossdressers.