Quote Originally Posted by Mirya View Post
The common thread between all these movements was/is visibility. People who were a part of these marginalized groups put themselves out in the public eye. They laid bare their real names, real reputations, careers, and families to fight for acceptance and legal rights. I'm sorry, but I don't see crossdressers ever doing that. So many CDs can't even leave their house! And even for the ones who do go out - are they willing to risk everything, as women, blacks, gays, lesbians, and transsexuals have done? Are CDs willing to proudly and publicly declare their existence, baring their entire lives to the public, as individuals in other marginalized groups have done? How many women, blacks, gays, lesbians, and transsexuals sacrificed blood in order to fight for their rights? How many of them were willing to sacrifice their very lives?
Even if they did, Mirya, there aren't enough crossdressers. Women during the suffrage movement? Fifty percent of the population stood to benefit. The civil rights movement? A whopping twelve percent of the US population is black. Both these groups are not only visible, they cross our paths every day.

The gay-rights movement? LGB demographics in the US is about 3.5%. Now we're getting down to very few people but still, 3.5% is enough to be on people's radars. This means that one of every 30 people is L, G, or B and so the chances there are extended families that have one LGB member are favorable. But "T"s account for less than one percent of the population, one third of one percent specifically, which is one out of every 3,333 individuals.

So because statistically there are very few people who are not comfortable in the gender assigned at birth, no matter how visible they are, they cannot be compared to the numbers of people involved in the suffrage, civil rights, or even gay-rights movements.

Some people may argue that there are many more crossdressers than transsexuals and if all the CDers came out, the overall "T" demographics would be more robust. But the difficulty here is that by definition, crossdressers don't dress for identity reasons. They identify as men and they dress for leisure. And it is difficult to convince society that dressing for leisure is serious.