To O'Keefe and any others, who are using law in an attempt to force lesbians to do your will,
If you asked . . . if you needed us to . . . we would stand beside you and defend your right to choose your gender identity and express yourself as if a woman if this is what you need in order to feel in harmony with your internal sense of self. And we would do this simply because we believe that lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender people have the same right as heterosexuals to love and live as they choose and according to each of their own personal and community beliefs, norms and values systems.
If you asked . . . if you needed us to . . . we would stand beside you and fight anything or anyone who denied you equal access to employment, housing, health care and social services. And we would do this simply because these are your basic civil rights - they are your entitlement.
Even if you didn’t ask . . . we would not stand by and let another abuse, ridicule or violate you. And we would do this simply because, like you, we are often the targets of fear, ignorance and hatred and we do not accept that only heterosexual people have the right to feel safe and to be treated with respect and dignity.
If you asked . . . if it was a matter of life or death . . . we would stand beside you and support your right to use synthesised sex hormones, electrolysis and plastic surgery to reconstruct your genitals even though it goes against everything we believe in - politically, morally and ethically. And , although this may seem like the most extreme manifestation of internalised self hatred resulting from heterosexism - not biology - in our eyes, we would do this because your right to life is paramount . . . it overrides everything.
If we asked. . . if we needed you to . . . would you stand beside us and support our right to say no to any person - male or female - who wishes to enter our private space created specifically for and by woman, born and raised, who are connected by similar life experiences, their own spiritual and political belief systems, cultural norms and values? And would you do this simply because the right to say no to any personal request for something from us, which we have only gained in your lifetime, is such a basic human right?
Of course we already know the answers to these questions. You
asked - we said no - here we are. Only someone born and raised as a man has
such a complete
sense of entitlement in regard to having their needs met by women, despite,
in this case, what our own needs might be, how we identify, or our politics.
And only someone born and raised as a man would then demand that the law uphold
their right to have their needs met by us at the expense of our own and against
our will. This is the difference and this is why we said no. We are not here
to deny your right to identify however you choose, nor to deny your right to
ask to attend one of our gatherings, but to protect our right to respectfully
say no, if we choose.
In Peace and Community from K. Heart