In my travels through the web this afternoon, I found that one of Canada's more notorious anti-gay extremists has begun associating the images of Colonel Williams with transgender people as a whole by adding Williams' pictures to his posts on Bill C-389.
Okay, Whatcott's off his rocker to begin with - it's not like he has a track record of sane and reasonable public utterances. That's not the issue here - it's the linking of a violent psychopath's actions to transgender people as a whole. Unfortunately, the media's coverage of the Williams court proceedings was so lurid and vivid that it is hardly surprising that Canada's wingnuts would pick up on this as a reason to fight against Bill C-389. (Mercedes has a great summary of what Bill C-389 is really about on her blog)
However, let's be clear about one thing - Col. Williams is closer to a rapist than he is to the broad spectrum of people who are transgender.
Yes, there are aspects of Williams' crimes which involve cross dressing, but most important is that those crimes ultimately involve control and violence aimed at their victims. This is not typical of transgender people in any way shape or form.
The media has unfortunately published the most lurid pictures of Col. Williams, and in doing so given those who are most hostile to transgender people as a whole another club to use against that population.
Even if Col. Williams was a closet crossdresser before he started on his crime spree, he hardly stands as a representative of crossdressers - the vast majority of whom are perfectly peaceful people who never commit a violent crime of any sort. Col. Williams turned down a path to becoming a violent man. We may never know precisely what led him to that place, but it is unlikely that it had anything to do with crossdressing.
(as an aside, there are plenty of serial murderers out there who got some kind of sexual thrill out the underwear of their victims ... they are still serial killers - and as such live in a class all of their own)
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4 comments:
Agreed, it is our worst fears come true. I hate taking a 'ignore him and he will go away' attitude because it feels like putting my head in the sand.
Sadly giving a person like Whatcott any sort of attention is good from his point of view.
As for the former armed forces person who started all of this, I refuse to use his name or former rank. He is a convicted murderer and psychopath, and whatever else he might have been in a 'previous life' really does not matter now.
I share your concern for that legislation, but stuff like this background noise is bound to come up and giving it 'air time' is not going to help the cause IMHO. People who hate us do so without any real knowledge of the subject as we know. Education and a clearer separation of church and state might help in the long run.
Do you mind if I repost this at DBM (with full credit / link)?
@Mercedes: Go ahead - I'm flattered!
@Halle:
On one level, I agree with you. However, as a group, we need to bring pressure to bear on media to balance their reporting when it has this kind of 'collateral damage'. (a process that I have started - I may be one lone voice in the wilderness, but I will try)
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