Thoughts on the Stanton affair
Jan 6th, 2008 by Rebecca
I’m disappointed, but not surprised, at the fiasco that has erupted around Susan Stanton in the last week or two. Stanton was only newly out when she was plunged into the national spotlight last year by a discrimination case so bleedingly obvious it was bound to cause a stir. Thus, she became essentially a spokesperson for the trans community without any real knowledge of the trans rights movement or its history, and as this last week has shown, probably without much of a chance to work out her own issues with being trans. Monica Roberts had been suggesting for weeks that Stanton was being groomed by HRC as their new spokestranny after Mara Keisling stopped toeing the party line, which seems pretty clear now, in the latest massive public relations stuffup for HRC.
So, considering her willingness to work with HRC after the ENDA sellout, I wasn’t too surprised when Stanton came out with those self-hating, transphobic comments in an interview in the St Petersburg Times this week. There was her Renee Richards-esque attempt at justifying the discrimination meted out against her, the attempt to distance herself from those icky other trannies, the “men in dresses”, her Camille Paglia-worthy “I’m just speaking out! How dare all those trannies get angry?” effort, and comments that oozed internalised misogyny and homophobia. In light of the suggestions that’ve come out since about her record with regard to LGBT staff in her time as Largo town manager, perhaps I should have been even less surprised.
But as much as I’m irked, I really can’t help but feel for Stanton. I’ve had six years of being out to deal with my issues about being trans. Stanton had, what, two weeks, before being plunged into the national spotlight - a role in which she’s been continually asked to fill since? Her comments were damned offensive, but I do think she deserves some sympathy. As a few folks have said this week, the discrimination in her case was so blatant that some of the national LGBT organisations showed little hesitation in shuffling her out before the press when she probably wasn’t nearly ready for it. Thus, we wind up here - Stanton’s credibility in tatters, and her employment prospects further damaged, HRC’s credibility reaching an even closer point to zero than it already was, and another damaging fiasco in the media that the trans community really didn’t need.
This said, I hope Stanton follows through on her promise in her not-apology to stop trying to represent the trans community. The last thing we need is another upper-class, privileged, middle-aged, pliable white transwoman willing to do the bidding of HRC.