SoVo.com
Trans prostitutes need help, not scorn
Re ?Trans activist smears fellow trans people? (Sound Off, July 28):
A reader suggested that ?we are mostly law-abiding citizens,? challenging activist DeeDee Chamblee?s suggestion that sex work is inevitable for transgender citizens as ?an insult,? and suggesting that Chamblee find alternatives to prostitution for these people. Alternatives are, in fact, what Chamblee is trying to find, but where?s the help from this apparently well-educated, privileged transgender reader? Chamblee?s cogent arguments about the need for social change in the face of rampant discrimination are ignored by this reader, in an apparent attempt to distance herself from ?these people.? Shame on you! I suggest that if everyone who disliked the trans prostitution trade donated time and money to Chamblee?s efforts at La Gender Inc., this problem would be soon solved. As a white, middle-class transgender professor of law, I find that others of my ilk often have no experience of the multiple oppressions that beckon less fortunate trans people into prostitution to keep body and soul together. Stop complaining and pitch in to help!
Re ?Trans prostitutes nuisance to themselves, neighbors? (Letter by Steve Gower, July 28):
Mr. Gower, I feel you don?t have a clue about any aspect, level, or for that fact of anyone who may be part of the transgender community. Your letter shows that you are quite un-educated on transgender issues and the people of the transgender community. Just maybe you would be interested in meeting with myself and a panel of people who are part of it. If you don?t then I guess you just care to remain in a state of ignorance over transgenderism and transsexualism.