Trans activists expressed outrage over a recent article quoting Susan Stanton as calling trans people ‘men in dresses.’ Stanton says the article misrepresented her views. (Blade photo by Henry Linser)
The following essay was written by Susan Stanton’s 14-year-old son, Travis, and supplied to the Blade:
Throughout my whole life, I thought my Dad was a really tough guy. He went out with the cops and busted bad guys. He shot guns, fought fires and was an aggressive driver. He liked football and lots of sports.
Then one day my thoughts changed about him when we had a family meeting and he told me how he felt about himself. He said he felt like a woman on the inside and was going to change into one. He said he tried his best to be a manly guy but he couldn’t stop his feelings to become a girl.
I was very surprised to hear this. At first I thought I was in a dream, it was very hard to believe such a thing. I thought he was a manly man — more manly than most guys. After a few days I thought about it and I knew he was making the right choice to become a girl.
Although I can’t relate to his feelings, it must be really hard to hide something like that. It would be like having $1 million and not being able to spend it. After a while, your feelings would take over and you’d spend it.
Now, though, I am very proud of my Dad, after I saw him and saw that inside he was the same Dad as he always was. He still likes football. He still likes to be an aggressive driver. He is still the same person but just different on the outside. I am very happy for him now that he is who he wants to be. I think that everyone should be who they are and not try to be the same as other people.
If you ask me, this has got to be the manliest thing he has done in his whole life. It takes a real man to come out of your shell and say, “Hey, I am who I am” and take the responsibilities of doing that.
In conclusion, I thought my Dad was a man, gender-wise, but now he is who he is meant to be. He is himself.
Less than one year after being fired from her job as city manager of Largo, Fla., because of her status as a transgender woman, Susan Stanton has come under fire from transgender activists, who have called her a sell-out to their cause.
In a series of developments that would have been unthinkable just months ago, Stanton’s perceived status as a positive role model for the transgender community has soured, with transgender activists expressing outrage over a recent newspaper article quoting her as calling trans people “men in dresses.” Stanton says the article misrepresented her views.
But Stanton remains firm in her support for gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and the Human Rights Campaign, over their controversial decision to back an employment non-discrimination bill (ENDA) for gays that excludes protections for trans people. Frank and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have said there weren’t enough votes to pass a trans-inclusive bill and that moving ahead with a gay-only version would make it easier to pass a trans-inclusive bill sometime later.
“I think we need to do a whole lot more educating before we’re going to be able to realistically have the support on the national level to get this passed,” Stanton said of a trans-inclusive measure. “I personally don’t feel denying the rights of one group should be perpetuated unless everybody has those rights,” she told the Blade.
Stanton became the subject of international news coverage last February when then Steve Stanton, 48, a husband and father of a teenage boy, announced he was transitioning into a woman. At the time, Stanton presided over 1,000 employees as city manager of Largo, a conservative, Republican-leaning town of 76,000 on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Stanton had held the position for 14 years.
The announcement came after Stanton learned that the St. Petersburg Times was about to publish a story exposing him as a transgender person. His announcement prompted the Largo City Council to fire him last March from his $140,000 a year job for “cause,” saying his secret plans to change his gender represented a breach in trust and would prevent Stanton from being able to carry out his duties.
Stanton began appearing in public in women’s clothes shortly after the firing. The newly emerged Susan Stanton became an instant face for the transgender community, appearing on television talk shows and network news broadcasts as an advocate for transgender rights.
She insisted her change in gender would not hinder her ability to continue to work as a city manager and argued that she and other transgender people should not be targeted for discrimination.
Stanton upset transgender activists and nearly all of the nation’s transgender rights groups by siding with Pelosi and Frank, saying she believed passing a gay-only version of ENDA as a “first step” would help open the way for passing a trans-inclusive bill. The House passed the gay-only measure in November by a vote of 235 to 184.
Stanton’s association with HRC fueled criticism against her by many trans activists, who accused HRC of betraying the trans community by failing to oppose a non-trans-inclusive ENDA.
HRC spokesperson Brad Luna said Stanton spoke before HRC functions, including a board meeting, but that she has “no formal role” with the group.
In an interview with the Blade this week, Stanton said she understands the frustration and anger many trans activists have toward HRC. She said she, too, believes HRC made a mistake by committing itself to oppose a gay-only version of the bill and to later back down from that commitment.
“The politics changed,” she said. “I know people want to take their ball and bat off the ball field. I think that’s a mistake. I do understand the anger with the Human Rights Campaign. But I also understand that, as someone who used to have to be responsible for making those types of decisions, sometimes you’ve got to be pragmatic and sometimes the importance of being at the table is in conflict with the need to have a sense of community.”
Stanton said her years as a city manager, where she had to juggle competing political interests, made her acutely aware of the need for achieving objectives on an incremental basis rather than taking an “all-or-nothing” approach.
She said that while she was stung over her position on ENDA, she was startled and hurt over the attacks that came after the St. Petersburg Times published a Dec. 31 feature story entitled, “Susan Stanton’s lonely transformation.”
The article, which was based on a lengthy interview with Stanton, quoted her as saying she was “totally unprepared” for the rejection and hostile reaction she had encountered from her straight friends and associates in Largo following her coming out as a transgender person.
“People I’d known for 20 years won’t even talk to me,” the article quoted her as saying. It noted that she lamented the fact that, although her wife and son have remained loyal and supportive, her only remaining friend was the woman who gives her weekly electrolysis treatments to remove body hair as part of her transitioning process.
“Susan has said all along that she’s not like other transgender people,” feature writer Lane DeGregory wrote in the St. Petersburg Times article. “She feels uncomfortable even looking at some, ‘like I’m seeing a bunch of men in dresses,’” DeGregory quoted her as saying.
That quote triggered a firestorm of criticism from transgender bloggers, who said Stanton appeared to be perpetuating the stereotypes of transgender people that anti-gay and anti-trans bigots use to put them down.
She said the intensity of the hostility she received from transgender people was “far worse” than the hostility she encountered from straights who demanded she be fired from her city manager’s job.
In a commentary in the Blade, transgender activist and writer Monica Helms referred to Stanton as an “Aunt Tranny,” a term Helms said was similar to the term “Uncle Tom,” which blacks use to characterize fellow blacks who collaborate with racists or segregationists.
In a three-page response on her own web site, SusanStanton.com, Stanton said she was “shocked and disappointed” over the article, which she said misrepresented her views on a wide range of subjects.
“Contrary to the St. Petersburg Times article, I do not see members of the transgender community as ‘men wearing dresses,’” she wrote. “However, I do feel there is a fundamental misunderstanding by the general public that being transgender is simply a matter of men wanting to ‘dress up as women.’”
She told the Blade that Times reporter DeGregory misconstrued something that Stanton has been saying repeatedly to anyone who will listen: A large percentage of the American public considers transgender people largely as men dressing up like women because the public doesn’t understand the issues surrounding gender identity and transgender people.
“When you reveal something as fundamental as the fact that your gender is not what they’ve known it to be, there’s an absolute feeling of deception and fraud,” she said. “And there’s that human reaction to say I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“It’s up to us and our supporters to educate the people about who we really are,” she told the Blade. Until that happens, she said, it will be difficult to persuade Congress to pass a transgender rights bill.
“Since the publication of this story, I have received hundreds of e-mails from people all over the nation expressing their disappointment and anger for the hurtful and insensitive statements that have been attributed to me,” she wrote. “Simply stated, this article is not an accurate representation of my beliefs concerning the transgender community or my experiences as a transgender person.”
Mike Wilson, assistant managing editor for news and features at the St. Petersburg Times, said the paper stands by its story.
The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by the Washington Blade. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed.
GaryS on 3/8/081:20 AM:
i completely support jennifer ushers use of harry benjamin syndrome to descrive herself. since it was only two years previos to her sex change surgery that jenifer was posting transvestite porn on the web ("jennifer's story") and had an extensive public picture collection of himself in dresses on his yahoo page, i think that some sort term is needed to distinguish this sort of prson from an actual transexual. harry benjamin syndrome is as good as any.
pennyjane on 1/21/0811:59 AM:
no, old trannie, not all of us mangage to be invisible nor even aspire to same. we "visible" ones bear the brunt. we are the out, non-stealth transsexuals who are working for dignity. you can't do that from the closet. it's a choice we have made, some more consciously then others, and we are willing to take all the honest criticizm. bugs us, though, to take the criticizm for those who climb back in the closet each day and leave us holding the bill for their fun. good luck and God bless. pj
Old trannie 99 on 1/21/081:40 AM:
Susan needs to learn that she is only one of nearly a million transpeople. From CD's to wives and husbands we manage to be invisible. When one person takes it upon herself to be a spokes person for the invisible she better know her stuff, or the woodwork will surround her.
The hiring of two media consultants, Making snuggles with Barnie the trans fear person she stepped into the twilight zone. Not of reality but rather of her own mind.
Go back and start over Susan, your help not needed.
pennyjane on 1/18/083:41 PM:
i don't know if hbs is the proper term or not, but we do need to find a way to differentiate those of us with incongruent gender and sex markers from those with sexual needs for feminine expression. for us who have signed on to hbs it simply means that our physical and mental genders out diametricly out of allignment. we don't want to become women, dress up like women or express our "feminine side". we want to express ourselves as the women we already are, all the time and all the way.
pennyjane on 1/18/081:33 PM:
i would quote from some of the "debate" on the house floor during the enda fiasco....."it is always the right time to do the right thing."
i can't speak for ms stanton's motivations but if she thinks she can speak for any transgendered person she needs to quit smoozing up to that political hack, joe solomese. hrc has become the enemy! backstabbing, lying monsters. if she alligns herself any further with them i hope she ends up in the same very hot place they will be. throw hrc out!
Rebecca Cohen on 1/14/0810:36 AM:
I cannot agree with Jennifer Usher and her advocacy of the term 'Harry Benjamin Syndrome' to be used for trannsexual people. Harry Benjamin considered transsexual people to be pathetic, mentally ill individuals who should be castrated to shut them up. He considered transsexualism to be a form of mental illness. He held white supremacy ideas and considered black people to be mentally inferior to whites. I don't want to be labeled 'Harry Benjamin syndrome'.
jeri . on 1/12/082:10 PM:
monica, an inclusive ENDA is not a cure-all for transgender unemployment, it is only a beginning. we will never realize any form of equality, including employment, as long as people refer to our members as "trannies" under any circumstance. sue stanton isn't working against the community so much as expressing her opinion. no matter how much i may disagree with her opinion, no one has the right to refer to her as a tranny for any reason. even you. your derogatory remarks reflect badly on us all.
Vanessa Edwards Foster on 1/12/081:09 PM:
Not all transgender activists engaged in an automatic bash-fest of Susan Stanton. My blog editorial (http://transpolitical.blogspot.com/2008/01/desperately-seeking-susan.html) pointed out that Ms. Stanton clearly holds very parochial views on transgender issues, sentiment and the community as a whole. Only 9 months being out? We didn't push her to be leader. Rather, it was Barney Frank and HRC embracing simply for their own political cover. Stanton is their device to silence and fracture us.
AnnieSocial on 1/12/081:05 PM:
Even before she was fired, Susan Stanton was asked to attend local support groups and become a part of the local community, and she consistently refused, saying, "I'm just not a group person".
She has no knowledge of the trans community outside of those who can afford to attend Lobby Days and other events around the country. She has no clue what it's like to have been unemployed or underemployed for years, for surgery to be nothing but a far-off dream.
She needs to experience the real world.
havasumoma on 1/12/0812:18 PM:
I think one very important aspect of this siutation has been entirely overlooked here. There is one other HUGE reason folks are upset with Susan Stanton. Folks who are trans and folks who are not trans are upset because Susan has been offered help and wise counsel. Help to understand the needs and politics of this community. She refused and continues to refuse. Susan doesn't want and doesn't need our help because she sees herself as not needing it or us. She has set herself up as an island.
MonicaH on 1/12/0811:13 AM:
Jeri, The term "Aunt Trannie" is meant to be a derogatory term, the same as "Uncle Tom" is a derogatory term when an African American says it to another. If a TG person openly works against the welfare of the rest of the community, then they need a strong message from the rest of us. What do you suggest? "Oh, please, you must stop hurting us. We are so disappointed. Boo-hoo, boo-hoo." We are talking about people's lives here. I've buried 3 friends and long unemployment was the cause.
reginanjus on 1/12/0810:13 AM:
She is a transsexual! Her own words! Like us in more ways than not! Susan has been asked and urged to do interviews with the trans press by many people, including me!I personally have asked her within the last few days to have interviews with Angela G. (TG-Forum) and Beckygrrl (Trans-radio). Susan's response was to say she published here, have a good life and she ended our friendship! Susan, when you dispose of people that are truly friends then you will be left alone and isolated! Good Luck!
Dalmax on 1/12/089:07 AM:
Anyone who had been in the fight to remain included felt the sting of that 11th hour dismissal by the ad hoc committee that made the decision. More than that is the fact that Susan Stanton got caught up in it, failed to recognize her own fragile position and was swept away by the rush of political waters.
While I am righteously pissed off at SS for her role in this, it is more because her ego got the best of her and she convinced herself that she could even be the role model.
jeri . on 1/12/082:22 AM:
first, i find the term "aunt tranny" used in reference to susan stanton highly offensive. the term by itself represents a trans-phobic ignorance. sue stanton deserves, and has received, praise for her very public transition. her statements concerning ENDA and HRC reflect her personal opinion. unfortunately, the media attention she has received as a victim of discrimination has also provided her with a platform to make gross errors. her opinion reflects her experience as an ousted city administrator from largo city, florida - not as a spokesperson for the transgender community. HRC is reaching out for anyone in the transgender community who will publicly support them – they have rightfully lost all credibility. HRC was publicly espousing that they would not support exclusive legislation at the same time they were prompting congress to support it. do any of you who are criticizing stanton really believe HRC has made her aware of the depths of their duplicity? she is an intelligent woman – she will learn. she will come to understand the desperate need for validation that an inclusive ENDA would only BEGIN to realize for our community. she will come to understand the depths of despair experienced by so many, but especially by our disadvantaged youth. she will come to understand why HRC’s duplicity has enraged so many in our community. she will come to understand that her opinions on these subjects would better serve her and the transgender community if stated privately. in the meantime, i hope never to hear the term “aunt tranny” again - it demeans us all. oh, and maybe HRC can get larry craig to serve as a spokesperson for gay men.
StillLiT on 1/11/085:08 PM:
I agree that this is not a transition issue but instead an issue where someone with very little knowledge of a situation has walked in thinking she knows better than those of us who have been fighting this fight for the past decade. Often against HRC. Not because we want to but because they continue to align themselves against the transgender community.
AnneBarlow on 1/11/084:18 PM:
Susan, it may help if you actually write the St Petersburg times and tell them what you said at the end of this article. “Simply stated, this article is not an accurate representation of my beliefs concerning the transgender community or my experiences as a transgender person.”
Kelly Moyer on 1/11/083:59 PM:
Imagine a woman who discovers that she has breast cancer. Shortly after diagnosis, an insurance company with an a reputation for botched breast cancer care starts using her to promote a treatment that most women with more experience have found to be ineffective and traumatizing. This woman only sees her own experience, and looks down on the multitude of women who disagree with her. She keeps publicly pushing her beliefs while those who disagree are portrayed as the enemy.
Sound familiar?
Kelly Moyer on 1/11/083:45 PM:
The issue here is that the media and the HRC are portraying Susan Stanton as something she is not: a representative of the transgender (transsexual, whatever) community. She has limited experience with her own transition, apparent internalized shame about trans people in general, and very little background working with the community. We have plenty of competent and experienced representatives, but the media prefer a spectacle, and Susan can't seem to comprehend her own inexperience and shame.
MonicaH on 1/11/083:40 PM:
xrk9855,
This is NOT a transition issue. This is an issue of a person who has very little knowledge acting as if she is the Transgender Messiah. Our early mistakes only hurt ourselves. Her "mistakes" are hurting thousands of others and giving ammunition to the trans bigots to justify hurting even more.
A 14-year-old taking steroids is hurting themselves. Barry Bonds taking steriods has the potential of harming thousands if they follow his lead. This is exactly the same thing.
Beckygrrl on 1/11/083:17 PM:
Also worthy of note is the fact that while Susan Stanton agreed to be interviewed by the Blade, she has refused to speak to transgender community media.
She'll talk to the biggest LGBT paper in the country, but she won't agree to be interviewed in media that is specifically transgender-relevant and created.
Personally, I think her refusal to address the trans community directly, in and of itself, speaks volumes.
xrk9855 on 1/11/082:56 PM:
This is just sad. She's a relative newbie to transition. We all made
mistakes, and grew from those mistakes, as we transitioned. But
somehow Susan isn't allowed to make mistakes. Shame on all of you. I
think this speaks more to YOUR own internalized transphobia, not
hers. Just look how vociferously you're all trying to distance yourself
from her. We all have our own unique paths and need to respect to
respect the paths of others. Give her room to breath, she'll do fine,
you'll see.
AnneBarlow on 1/11/082:33 PM:
I don't know many that saw her as a role model or a leader. She was someone with a tragic story to tell. I don't envy anyone who starts their transition with such a spectacle. I am put off by her arrogance and astounded at the original article statement "Eventually, she decided it was too early for transgender people to be federally protected."
Too early for rights? Sub "Too early for women to be protected" and see how well it goes over.
Jennifer Usher on 1/11/081:32 PM:
Personally, I think Susan Stanton showed great courage in what she said. She simply declined, as more and more of us are, to follow the "transgender" party line. Personally, I am tired of being saddled with label of transgender. I am not. No one changes their gender. Gender is immutable. You are either born with a male brain, or a female brain. If it does not match your body, then you are a transsexual, or as I prefer, you have Harry Benjamin Syndrome.
Autumn Sandeen on 1/11/081:08 PM:
Dlampo, I know I'm much more upset at Susan Stanton's use of the derogatory phrase "men in dresses" to describe transwomen who don't "pass" in their target sex. It's same offensive language used by religious right orgs arguing against employment equality for transgender people. Imagine a gay leader saying "fags haven't done the education work for anti-discrimination protection" -- it's the language that's more offensive than the sentiment. When combined with the sentiment, the slur stings.
Boo on 1/11/081:07 PM:
dlampo- no one said she isn't sufficiently TG and no one is promoting a victim identity. And yes, no one is screaming and yelling. We're just tired of being told to get in the back of the bus while HRC handpicks lapdogs to be the "community" role models. Give it a rest. Stanton has the right to whatever views she wants, but nobody elected her to be the face of all things transgnder. Or is the idea of a community actually picking its own leaders just too radical?
dlampo on 1/11/0812:29 PM:
Susan Stanton has more courage than all the professional whiners below combined. Apparently, she's not sufficiently TG for them and doesn't share their victim identity to the proper degree. In fact, she has a much better grasp of the public's perception of the TG community than the self-appointed spokespeople below, as well as how much work remains to be done to increase public acceptance. The lazy ones just want to scream and yell.
Claire64 on 1/11/0811:56 AM:
I'm in agreement with Ms. Stanton. I would have preferred a
transgender inclusive bill but what's done is done. Reps. Frank &
Pelosi have promoted the interests of all queer people for decades. I
participated in a vigil outside Speaker Pelosi's San Francisco office,
wrote letters to my Senators and fought the good fight, but lost. It's
time to move on with a new strategy and stop belittling this woman for
her views.
Claire,
San Francisco
Christibyte on 1/11/0811:51 AM:
Susan Stanton is not one of "our own" she is someone very new to Transgender issues and the only reason she is famous is because she got fired from a public service job. She doesn't know a lot of about transgender issues or the Transgender community. She does not speak for the community nor can one person speak for a whole community. I find this piece nearly as offense as the St Petersburg Times article. If you are going to report on the issue, tell the whole story.
jllie on 1/11/0811:37 AM:
I hope that the producer in charge of the CNN News crew that has been following her for months now will use some common sense when broadcasting her misstatements and insults. I'd like Stanton to just stop. Stop talking. We don't need your help. And as for Joe Solmonese and the HRC - Why not just remove the T from LGBT in your agenda and be done with it? Everyone says we need them. I say we don't. I'd rather they were honest about their non-support of trans people than be hypocritical.
Sue on 1/11/0811:30 AM:
Once again we get to see the many faces of Susan Stanton TransGender sellout...
National polls tend to indicate little or no education is necessary. Frank and Co are just Transphobic If they were to support TG/TS rights they would have nobody to walk over or anybody to hold up as oppressed people.
The business of Civil Rights is just that a business a racket to keep the money flowing to groups like HRC and to keep little toadies like Frank in power.
Sue on 1/11/0811:29 AM:
Once again we get to see the many faces of Susan Stanton TransGender sellout...
National polls tend to indicate little or no education is necessary. Frank and Co are just Transphobic If they were to support TG/TS rights they would have nobody to walk over or anybody to hold up as oppressed people.
The business of Civil Rights is just that a business a racket to keep the money flowing to groups like HRC and to keep little toadies like Frank in power.
jdg1965 on 1/11/089:55 AM:
Ms. Stanton has become the chosen poster child for transgender community by Barney Frank and HRC, not the community she says she thinks she is the face of.
Instead of expressing her thoughts about her own journey, she has chosen to make comments on everyone elses, despite being out less than a year.
Her transgender experience is her transgender experience, not everyone elses. Maybe she should try working a job well below her education or be forced to live on the street as many transgender.
Boo on 1/11/087:42 AM:
Score another one for the gay community's ignorance of transpeople. With all due respect to Ms. Stanton, I don't know anyone in the trans community who saw her as a positive role model. Sure, we're sympathetic that she lost her job, but she has no obvious qualifications to be any kind of role model or spokesperson for trans people. For HRC to simply anoint her as one was adding insult to injury. How would the gay community like it if transpeople took it upon themselves to crown your leaders?
