An Open Letter to @KatyMontgomerie from Concerned Transsexuals
Dear Katy,
You parade yourself around as an advocate for trans rights, but what have you ever truly done for transsexuals? The facades and the fronts you’ve put up paint a picture of a crusader, but your actions and words tell a different story. This is not merely a call for accountability but a resounding indictment of your supposed 'advocacy'.
A Charade of Advocacy
Under the guise of 'activism', your tweets, podcasts, and videos have perpetuated misinformation, trivialised our strife, and contributed to the very marginalisation you profess to fight against.
The spotlight you've sought, using our plight as a backdrop, is more about personal elevation than genuine advocacy. You position yourself as a voice for the voiceless, yet drown out and dismiss those same voices when they dare to deviate from your preferred narrative. Your focus appears to be more on personal gain and appeasing mainstream ideologies than on elevating the concerns of transsexuals. Are we just pawns in your game of self-promotion?
You act as if your alignment with the larger 'queer'/'trans' agenda places you on the moral high ground. However, when you sell out transsexuals for the sake of retweets, likes, and internet fame, all you're doing is perpetuating a dangerous and misleading ideology. You commodify and twist our struggle to fit the 'trans' narrative, and in doing so, you've willingly signed up for the erasure of your own demographic.
Your endorsement of documents and medical guidelines that equate 'transgender' and 'transsexual', like those from the American Psychological Association, is a slap in the face. It's more than erasure—it's a flagrant dismissal of our existence. You're not only failing to protect us'; you're actively pushing us into obscurity.
The 'Gender Critical' movement is not the only entity at fault. It's 'trans' influencers like you who toe the line of ideological extremism, ignoring the nuances of the broader debate, that pose an even greater threat. Our problem isn’t solely with the 'GCs' or 'TERFs'; it’s with the likes of you who fail to recognise that standing up for true transsexual identity isn't about feeding any wolf or playing into any hand. It's about maintaining clarity amidst chaos, advocating for a group that’s constantly at risk from multiple sides.
Enough is Enough
We don't need your kind of 'activism', Katy. We need true advocates who recognise the intricacies of our experiences, who are willing to distinguish and not dilute. When you equate a medically transitioned transsexual with someone who casually declares a 'woman identity', you mock our struggles, our surgeries, our hormonal treatments, and the path we’ve tread. Your activism is not a beacon of hope; it's a glaring spotlight on the very issues that plague us.
We don’t want your diluted, misguided version of advocacy. We need genuine representation. Recognise our struggles, our distinct needs, and our specificity. Stop sacrificing our medical reality at the altar of a flawed, oversimplified narrative. Until you can do that, stand corrected or step aside.
In defiance and determination,
Concerned Transsexuals #TranssexualNotTransgender
Tired Transsexual - @tiredtransmed
Do you expect me to thank you for fighting for 'rights' I never needed and an 'inclusion' that erases me?Alexis Naomi - @AlexisNaomiii
You sold out your own.Melissa - @Melissagacious
I think your message is counterproductive, lets talk about it.Jenny Matrix - @HeterodoxTakes
Transsexual separatism now!Lexy - @pleasedontuseme
Aimee Armstrong - @basic_chanel
Trans should mean something.MissTaffBrit II - @MissTaffBrit2
Lady In The Heavens - @Lady_Thy_Heaven
You’re a disgrace to transsexuals. You traded your sisters in for popularity points. Words have meaning and at this point in time, the very word trans which actually means transsexual, is now sacred for us!Charlotte Williams - @charlottes_tale
Placating to the social justice mob hurts everyone.Marnix Witlof - @MWitlof13321
Dolly van Doll - @Capucine_no
Yea Heys - @WritesMyranda
You’ve thrown transsexuals under the bus for queer theory, why?Based Transsexual - @TheBasedTS
Your incessant grifting of gender ideology and utter lack of self-awareness are deeply harmful to the transsexual community, and you should frankly be ashamed.Kev - @kevH_27
Leanne Mills - @Lee20236
I am sick to the back teeth of being ignored. I've sweated my guts out this year trying to get MPs and newspapers to take on our concerns and it's like banging my head against a brick wall. We're all going to hell thanks to helpful 'allies' like you. We are facing the biggest existential crisis in our lives and you are failing us.
Jilted Valkyrie - @jiltedvalkyrie
Identities ebb and flow, and we all have them. However, it's important to distinguish the difference between a medical condition and identifying as one. Conflating the two is dangerous and benefits no one.Rikki Lamb - @lambrikki6
It's because of horrid people like @KatyMontgomerie that genuine trans people face hate crimes. That tweet from Katy is nothing but unmitigated flim flam. 'Transmeds' successfully assimilate into life, cretins like Katy use trans as a way of seeking attention and hurling abuse at genuine transpeople or ‘transmeds’ as we are called who they are trying to erase. It's people like Katy who are likely to detransition because they attract so much hate to themselves and feel unable to lead a normal life. They are the genuine transphobes.Beth Orens - @BethOrens
There's something horrifying about a person campaigning for the rights of a group and ignoring what that group has to say about its own wants and needs. Katy, please stop and listen.
Cactus - @antenacactus
Buck Angel® Transsexual - @BuckAngel
Tracy Coyle - @tracyccoyle
Recognising why we exist and what we need to do to have happy lives is not transphobia.TeeganTandP - @TeeganTandP
Your 'advocacy' has created a space for hatred, ignorance, and bigotry. Your stances have arguably set the stage for legislative erasure of transsexual care for everyone. You had a chance to do some real good for the transsexual community. As small as we are, we do need the help, but what you do and continue to do is not help. Please reconsider what you do.Melissa Damerell - @DamerellMelissa
I hope you'll learn to think outside the ideology.Christine - @ChristineRebst1
Katy, please stop echoing the marxist gender ideology rhetoric, it causes negativity towards us,
Cara - @TheSpookyCara
You do not represent us.Erin Brough - @mbrough330
I will not be erased by you or anyone.Victoria Valentine - @veeayvee1
Your campaining is doing untold harm.Greg Kaye - @finite_planet
Please review your claims which I can't see as anything but bizarre. You're actually saying that the people who have invested most into transition, "to be more likely to become ex-trans". It just looks like baseless attack.Harold Shipman - @haroldshipman56
I approve this message.Twitchmqin2007 - @sqizx735
Get a hold of reality.
I greatly appreciate your efforts to distinguish transsexualism from gender non-conformity, and to re-engage with medical and biological approaches. As someone who gladly accepts they have a diagnosed medical condition, I sought out a diagnoses rather than insisting my own interpretation was correct and I found the medical process of checks, balances, and interdisciplinary support reassuring.
I would therefore make comments from a place of much respect. I would suggest that targeting an individual no matter how well-known may not be the best approach. I wonder would it not be better to put your main focus on the advantages of the medical model rather than risking being perceived as 'against' other people (I know some of the other articles here do this and I appreciate that, but even more of a focus on this would be great). Emphasising that transsexual people experience something very different from a desire to enact particular gender roles and wear particular clothes is valuable, that does not mean that there is anything wrong with being gender non-conformist or wearing the clothes traditional associated with one sex or the other (I am not suggesting you think there is anything wrong with this but it could be misinterpreted).
I also worry a bit about the language used. Is it really necessary to use terms like 'ideology' and 'agenda'? Whether they are correct or not, we know they have also been used by people very hostile to transsexual people and I wonder if other terms could be more valuable. Some change might also signal patience with those trying to figure out where they fit and may be transsexual but have not really heard much positive about the medical model. Would it also be possible to acknowledge that there were some problems with how the medical model was applied in the past? - e.g. they ways in which sexual orientation could be used to limit access to surgery for those who would otherwise met the required criteria (I am thinking of the example of ftm transsexual Louis Sullivan)
Two other points that I suggest just to be helpful:
When thinking about the medical model it is also important to think about what is medically feasible. For many years female to male genital surgery was much less advanced than male to female surgery. Some opted against it not because they were not transsexual or did not want the surgery but because of their specific medical realities (age, medical contra-indications, fear of very major complications). I say this as someone who has had this surgery and whose life is much better for it.
I wonder does the issue of social perception need a bit of refining here. My life has been made much easier by the physical changes I have undergone and this is by far the most important thing to me. I never insist that people refer to me with particular pronouns and if someone decided they were going to refer to me as a woman, I would put up with it. At the same time, the fact that in practice people always assume I am a man is reassuring to me because it helps to confirm that my body has indeed changed in the way that I wanted it to. I know you have thought about this in much more detail than I have so I may well be missing the point here.
Again I understand it may be frustrating to read these comments given all the thought and work that you have put into your writing, but they are made with the intention of being supportive.
Thank you and best wishes
As a parent I greatly appreciate open dialogue on this subject and thoughtful, respectful comments. My biggest concern is the medical field seems to be on the "affirmation" only path instead of exploring other underlying issues. It is heart-wrenching to me that my child ( who is an adult) believes this path will solve all problems and the medical establishment supports that premise. Activists seem to support self- identification and "educating" younger and younger children. More and more activists seem to have extreme ideas in the name of "human rights" destroying families. Again thank you for this insight and pouring your heart and soul into helping others understand the nuanced difficulties.