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Hello. This certainly is a hot-button topic in the lesbian community today! Thank you for giving it a broader forum.

I personally identify as "butch lesbian", which, to the population at large, is hard enough to understand. Those legs and feet in your photo might belong to me. This is how I look and feel when standing in line for the ladies' room. Sometimes I am aware that other people stare at me, most days I don't notice. When I enter the gym locker room, I am aware that other women may feel uncomfortable, so I make sure to avert my eyes and change in the restroom.

Often I experience looks or words of unadulterated hatred from men when I am out with a beautiful woman. There is something about my exterior that really enrages some, as though I am out to steal something that rightfully belongs to them; their ladies their status, their prerogatives. I can only call this base insecurity and I do not attempt to reason with men like this.

I often, jokingly, express the wish that one day, people will be able to look at me without thinking about sex! But it is my intention to be seen as different, and this momentary discomfort is part of that trade-off. As a former teen beauty queen (!) I feel that, having abandoned a traditional standard of beauty, that I am happier being a big fish in a very small pond than being marginally attractive across the board. If you can understand this...!

Let me be clear that I am definitely female and do not plan on ever changing my gender. To some it may appear that I already have. I am a lesbian who wears men's clothes and I am proud of my persona and the way I feel in my skin.

The subject of the 'pregnant man" was one that caused me some consternation. I know that when one goes through the transitional process, there is a great deal of counseling that is mandatory, the best reason I can think of, not having experienced it myself, is to make sure the candidate is really sure he or she wants to go through with it, because it is a big decision and can be, in some ways, permanent. I personally feel that a person should always have the freedom to change their mind and body in any way they see fit, but the media circus that Beatie encouraged was, to me, a shameful display of a person changing his mind and inviting the country to gawk at the spectacle A man did not have a baby.This is, of course, not possible. A person partway through transfiguring, decided to halt the process and create the sensation around himself. Was it for pride or monetary gain? I cannot know. It certainly does make one look at expectations of gender, but what have we learned? Can Beatie have been a man long enough to really feel what that means, thereby challenging the role of "husband" or "father"?

Thank you for your intelligent thoughts on this complicated matter.

Helen E. Amirian

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Wow, I know. I live by the library, so I know what you mean. And the on-air discussion completely skirted the panhandling issue, tried to make it seem as if no one is asking for money downtown, just sitting and grinning. One would think that the problem downtown is a shortage of benches.

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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The same laws, of course! should govern the homeless and non homeless! Are we not all citizens of the same state? Whether or not we pay taxes or contribute in any way but to litter, defecate on sidewalks, and smell up public transit? What bothers me most is the fact that the homeless are above the law. My home was robbed last year by homeless men, whom I caught, myself, and no justice whatsoever was given to me, no retribution for my losses. The police simply shrug and smile, or ask us to show mercy, because "what they WANT is to be sent to jail." Or, "You can't squeeze water from a stone."
As a once-tolerant person who, was, herself also homeless for a short time six years ago, my views today shock even me. Having lived downtown for the past two years, I am appalled at the disgrace of the human condition, the pieces of living filth that we city dwellers are forced to step over, around, and ignore, even at home, at night while we are trying to sleep.
There are, of course, the career homeless men, who are flocking here because we keep building more space for them, and the teenage holiday homeless, who come for the generous handouts form well-meaning tourists. To these I say, "Go home. Ask your mom for money." No longer do they add "color" to downtown, unless it is the color of human waste on the steps of my apartment. There are simply too many to find amusing or pitiable. I know the economy has taken a downturn. I realize that Medicare has been cut. There are many people just looking for a place to sleep. But most of them are not Oregonians. they hear that this is the place to be. Downtown business suffers. Locals are disgusted. I propose a solution! People of Portland, visitors to Portland, "Stop giving them cash! there is so much food to be handed out that the homeless litter the street with it! If you stop paying them they will figure something else out."

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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