PrideSource.com – By Gwendolyn Ann Smith
A few weeks ago, I saw that Loren Cameron, a transman, author, and photographer, was producing a new project focussing on gay and bisexual FTMs. In hearing about it – once I got past wondering why someone hasn’t focused on this topic before – I realized an important fact of this and other transgender-based projects. They produce a truth that seems lacking in so many projects done by those outside of the transgender community.
Consider a couple of examples: In 1979, Janice Raymond published The Transsexual Empire, a book that set the stage for some of the issues still going on today with events like the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Her hypothesis seemed focused on transgender women as male usurpers of women’s space, and her studies seemed designed to prove her point, excluding any information that would contradict it. From a very small pool of people, she formed a text that is still causing harm today.