the writing in the margins

i read part of an essay by margaret dierdre o'hartigan in which she argues that lesbians invariably drown out authentic transsexual voices, that lesbians are colonizing transsexualism. i got really sad about that essay because at the time i identified really strongly as a dyke but i also knew that there was something uncomfortable about calling myself a woman. i didn't know how to piece it together and honestly i still have trouble--but this story addresses that overlap & is where i found my voice. currently, i'm ID'ing as genderqueer. i also just had top surgery so i'm no longer binding, but this story is really important to me. it illustrates pretty clearly a large step i took in overcoming a boundary i was forced to begin pretending did not exist: sexuality and gender really don't have that much to do with one another, unless we want them to. in the meantime, i should clarify; i think that o'hartigan makes a good point--we should all remember that some of us have more privilege than others, so when we speak on a topic or more importantly, an identity, we need to think hard about how we say the things we say so that we don't hurt folks who cannot speak & folks who have more invested in these topics & identities than we do. that said, i think that everyone should have a voice, no matter who they are & how they identitfy. and we should all be heard.