Dismantling Fear

Many transsexual people I have encountered over time have chosen to introduce themselves to friends or acquaintances as being more than "just" transsexuals. 

Instead of just being honest about having been biologically male or female, and having changed that, they invent stories about having been born intersex - presumably because in their minds, the audience will somehow view them more sympathetically that way than if they were just honest to begin with.

 

Why can't they just be honest?

 

Well, as it turns out, there may be some very good reasons why they do this.

NMB Pride Was Our Heritage Day!

This past Saturday saw a first for my home town: Almost 20 years into our new democracy, Port Elizabeth still had not had a Pride parade or Pride event, in fact it was sometimes a pit-stop for travelers on their way from somewhere else, to Pride events being held - well, somewhere else. 

 

All that changed last Saturday, when the very first Nelson Mandela Bay Pride was held - and I was so very proud!

Rainbow Unity

Last week I noticed for the first time that people refer to the rainbow flag as "the gay flag". I have often heard it referred to as such, but for the first time I really thought about it. Is it really?

We have quite a diverse community, consisting of gay men, gay women (or lesbians), bisexual people, transgender people (including transsexuals, drag queens, transvestites, she-males) and intersex people. There are also other sub-groups such as pansexuals, panromantics, the gender-queer and asexuals. And if you think that's all there is to us, you're mistaken. There are also some lesser-known sub-cultures within our community, such as the bear and leather groups.

And yes, while we may be gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex, we can also be part of more than one of these groups at the same time. 

Rainbow Flag = Cohesion

It is a simple fact that if members of a community stop socializing together, we soon stop co-operating and standing together as well. Pretty soon we stop thinking of ourselves as being part of the same community - and not long after that, we start acting like rivals - or worse yet, enemies.

Out, Damned Spot!

Here in SA our Pride events are sponsored by the community, businesses and not councils or government. This means that while their funding is independent (and often hard to come by) all they require is the co-operation of the local authorities and that at least their financial eggs are not all in one basket, and the cancellation of one sponsor will usually not mean disaster.

Municipalities often just show us support through granting of permits, assistance with advertising or press releases and statements and so on. Mostly they realize how much revenue and tourism these events bring into their towns - one such instance saw a campaign by religious radicals to ban such an event thwarted, mainly due to the fondness of the residents for the festival - and also their fondness for the pink money it brings in - which exceeds their December holiday takings.