Members of the island’s LGBTQ+ community are pushing for a Jamaica where transsexuals are allowed to “affirm” their gender choice islandwide and without reproach.
Affirmation for men who have transitioned into women means wearing heels, dresses and generally taking on female personas in public spaces. The alternative for women who identify as men – the two groups reportedly fighting the hardest battles in the local LGBTQ+ community.
According to transwoman Renae Green, executive director of rights group Transwave Jamaica, it is ridiculous that any Jamaican would be affected by such displays.
“I would like to see for Jamaica a space where transpeople can be affirmed and allowed to exist without fear or discrimination and stigma,” argued the 30-year-old, who has been donning dresses, eye shadow and lipstick since age 21.
“I’ve always been transgendered,” Green said last Wednesday.
“Us affirming doesn’t stop any member of the general population from eating, existing, working or surviving, but, for us, affirming is literally a matter of life and death,” argued Green, citing widespread fear of being attacked in public while dressed as a woman.
“When I affirm, it is for myself and I am not a danger to anyone else. I’m not trying to influence anyone. I’m just trying to exist,” he continued in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Being trans is new to people, but new doesn’t mean that it is bad or harmful,” Green argued. “This idea that my existence will inflict some form of mental trauma on someone makes no sense … . To even insinuate that my existence provides trauma is ridiculous and preposterous at best.”
Green and Glenroy Murray, interim executive director of Equality for All Foundation Jamaica – formerly Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) – were among panellists at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum looking at the impact of mental illness on the LGBT community and the physical and psychological trauma inflicted on them by Jamaicans who are not in support of their lifestyles.
Murray said persons who feel oppressed by such open displays of transsexual activity need religious intervention.
Opposing Jamaicans need to find themselves safe spaces, he recommended.
“We have talked about safe spaces that are not inclusive to LGBT people, they (opposing Jamaicans) can always go there,” he said. “Whether it is a gay man or woman walking in heels, you can always go to your pastor and let him know how you feel about it.
“I don’t think it is the responsibility of the LGBT community to assuage your own feelings based on your own upbringing,” explained Murray, who at the forum graphically outlined the mental implications from public isolation and discrimination for the LGBTQ+ community, especially transpeople.
The forum highlighted a study by clinical psychologists Dr Kai Morgan and Tiffany Palmer, released earlier this year, that reported that 69 per cent of respondents said they felt anxious and depressed; 40 per cent reported having trauma symptoms; 27 per cent attempted suicides; and 23 and 21 per cent, respectively, resorted to alcohol and drug use or to cutting and burning themselves as ways of coping with mental issues.
The study employed qualitative and quantitative analysis via online surveys and one-on-one interviews, among others. It featured the input of members of the LGBTQ+ community, medical practitioners, counsellors and other stakeholders, and noted that “healthcare providers felt that they lacked training in dealing with the community but more so the transgender community”.
Although more accepted in the United States, the transsexual debate and its implications still thrive in that country.
Professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Rhode Island, Donna Hughes, came under fire from the school and the public for her article, ‘Fantasy Worlds on the Political Right and Left: QAnon and Trans-Sex Beliefs’, which likened transsex beliefs to fantasies affecting “real children”.
“The biological category of sex, particularly women’s sex, is being smashed. Women and girls are expected to give up their place of privacy such as restrooms, locker rooms, and even prison cells,” Hughes wrote. “When biological males identify as transwomen, they compete in women’s and girls’ sports. There are now cases of women being injured, some severely, by biologically larger and stronger biological men competing as transwomen.
“Basic biology words like breast and vagina are replaced by misogynistic trans-sex/transgender language so that a female has a “front hole” instead of a vagina; females “chest feed instead of breastfeed,” she continued. “… people are losing social media accounts or being fired for ‘misgendering’ someone or not ‘affirming’ a person’s claimed gender identity.”
It was not fully outlined the extent of local affirmation for Transwave Jamaica, but, for now, access to proper physical spaces and mental health treatment, proper customer service, and an end to discrimination are the common calls, even as Green admitted that improvements have been made.
“Members of Transwave Jamaica have already been affirming in public spaces. We go in our heels, we go in our nails, our wigs and our lashes. We utilise the spaces that we can and we are also aware of the spaces we can’t go because of the stigma and discrimination,” Green said, noting from experience that local call centres have been accommodating to this lifestyle.
They have allowed transmen to wear female attire some days and even at a staff party.
Asked which bathroom is used when affirming, Green was dumbfounded, responding: “I use the women’s bathroom because I’m a woman! Why would I be using the men’s bathroom?” the Transwave Jamaica executive director asked, noting that other women do not feel threatened when this is done.
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It is such a shame that you guys want people(us ) to accept who you are and what you want to transition into, but you cannot accept who you really are and who god wanted you to be. i am not a christian BTW
Your statement is contradictory. You want the community to accept who they are or not? They are telling you who they are and you want them to tell you how they “really” are?
Just state that you don’t want to accept who they are.
This is about JAMAICA. Why is it not in the “Regional” section of your news?
EXACTLY …….MAYBE THE PERSON WHO RUNS THIS PAGE IS A TRANSGENDER…..Y THE IDENTITY OF THE PAGE OWNERIS HIDDEN IN SECRETCY….ANTIGUANS NOT AGAINST TRANSGENDER….WE JUST DNT LIKE THE OVER FLAMBOYANT …THE UGLIER THAN SIN TRANSGENDER MALES.
Because that’s the region you, Smh love to hang out in. It’s right up your alley, so to speak. Does your woman know you have outside love poles?
I beg to differ.irregardless of how you feel or dress you’re not a woman you’re still biologically a male genitals and all .
I don’t want a grown ass male using the same restroom as my 12 year daughter .
What you feel and how you dress doesn’t equate to you being in the bathroom with women and young girls.
Let’s have an open mind and be more receptive of how people identify themselves. It does no harm to you or me but when they are their true self in public we tend to harm them? Why? We are so quick to quote the Bible and say what they’re doing is a sin but you’re casting the first stone. I think if this bothers you that you need to see a therapist cause why you so salty? I’m glad they’re taking a stance! Stand for what you believe in even though the world may be against you.
So if a person is TRIGGERED by trans they need a therapist ..
I think transgender are the ones who really NEED A THERAPIST since they cant ACCEPT themselves .
Its like the AUDACITY OF ANYONE WHO DOESNT ACCEPT YOU ALL…..HOW DARE SOCIETY DNT ACCEPT US ….
Why should you be bothered by the way someone chooses to live and identify themselves? How does their action affect YOU? Why does it affect YOU? and why do you let it affect YOU?
One life to live and you do whatever you please. Y’all pick and choose when you can do whatever you want with your body!
For example: Majority don’t want to be vaccinated because it’s “their body” & many do because it’s “their body” so why can’t trans people live the life they want to because it’s “their body”?
People get tattoos cause it’s “their body” some don’t cause it’s “their body”. Whether they get vaccinated or not get a tattoo or not it nah affect you in no way shape or form. You do you and I do me. #humanrightsforeveryone
To get vaccinated or not does not affect a person’s gender. So that’s not even a comparison to begin with. Sex organs have nothing to do with vaccination status. A man is a man is a man is a man is a man and he CANNOT CHANGE that. Same goes for a woman. You can try to twist it, spin it, flip it over in your warped mind, but MAN & WOMAN are distinct beings with distinct sex organs and chromosomes. Is science lying to us?
Like everything else, the plight of these people is being used as political leverage. No one speaks about the ones who irreversibly changed the configuration of their body then later realized the issue was something much deeper. There are multiple forms of help but apparently some seek to push their favourite method (just like another problem facing society).
Do they have a right to do whatever they want with their body?
Be who you want to be I KNOW GOD MADE NO MISTAKE.
I NEVER HAD APRONLEM BUT THESE TRANSGENDEREDMALE ARE ON ANOTHER LEVEL ITS LIKE THEY WANT TO ERASE GAY ….LESBIANS …AND IT JUS BE THEM…IF YOU DNT ACCEPT THEM OMGGGGGGG THE OUTRAGE ….. THEY LABEL THE UNACCEPTANCE you …AS HATE OH YOUR HATING ….NO ITS not HATE …ITS UNACCEPTANCE..SIMPLE!
Ever notice how the transgender women more flamboyant than a BIOLOGICAL WOMEN…..THE ATTITUDE OF MOST IS ACCEPT THIS
Nobody cares about these Jamaican antiman.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Prejudice much?
Smh does. That’s his outside love poles
When God made man he sat back and look at his work of perfection.. He made the haven,
earth and all within it … NOW I HAVE MY BELIEFS AND I WILL NOT SHIFT FROM THEM .. GET BEHIND ME SATEN … an yes just like you shared this it’s my right to share how I feel also👈🏾👍🏾..
no such thing as TRANSgender according to science.
XX or XY
and XXX and XXY and XYY and XXYY and XXXY and XXXX and XXXXY and XXXXX
if you’re going to say “according to science” you better have a good understanding of the available science. even biological sex is not a binary. and gender is clearly socially constructed (as made obvious by the MASSIVE variation in genders recognised in different human societies throughout history). it was the colonizers who made us afraid of third genders, which existed in our various african ancestral cultures. just let the go tru nuh, are you so insecure in your own sexuality that you have to regulate everyone elses?
Nice try, but NAR!!! You pulled that from thin air. Doesn’t work like that in the real world where there is only MALE & FEMALE, XX & XY. Please don’t tell me that you blame the “colonials” for your delusional, daft, wishful thinking.
XX & XY
XX & XY
XX & XY
XX & XY
You don’t get to “identify” your gender. You are BORN with the natural body parts. I see how much you and others desperately wish you could “explain it away” and get to make up your own twisted version of reality. But it does not work like that. The TRUTH will always stand the test of time, lies, and wishful thinking.
I see 2 MALES in the photo. What’s so confusing about it?? Last time I checked, vaginas and penis come original from only the Creator. These young men need to turn to their Creator and discover His will for their lives. Don’t accept the lies of media (controlled by Lucifer). If they can’t accept themselves then why force others to do so?? I wish them all the best in discovering and fulfilling their God-given purpose.
“Stock has said she believes gender identity is not more important than biological sex – “particularly when it comes to law and policy” – and that PEOPLE CANNOT CHANGE THEIR BIOLOGICAL SEX.” [Kathleen Stock, fmr Professor at University of Sussex, a respected “gender critical” feminist philosopher]
The Bathroom issue is rather perplexing to me. It should be rather obvious as to the reason why transgender females should not use the female bathroom. There are men who exist who are twisted enough to put on a dress and affirm the lifestyle all the while plotting on raping a woman/child in the bathroom. Are we so depraved as a society that we’ll allow that to happen. Listen, affirm your beliefs as you see fit. I don’t discriminate against the personal beliefs and rights of an individual. I do not use the f word to describe homosexuals. I love them as people because at the end of the day we all bleed the same colour. However, if there is something that even puts my wife or daughter in danger, expect a fiery response. More discourse on the matter should be engaged.
Why put this ja article in we news
They can’t even accept themselves for what God created them as much less. . .look. . .ah fed up. These people are fighting for the wrong things! Fight for respect! Everyone deserves respect but everyone doesn’t have to accept your lifestyle!
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