Speaker Focuses on Gender
Daily Nebraskan March 6, 2000 by Margaret Behm

Gender affiliation, sexism against transgendered people and how the feminist movement can regain its purpse by fighting for transgendered people were the focuses of a presentation by Nomy Lamm on Saturday.

Lamm was one of the several presenters during the No Limits Conference that took place Friday and Saturday on East Campus. The conference was a part of the celebration of Women's Week.

Lamm is a writer, lecturer, performance artist and as a "fat, freaky, one=legged, anarchist, Jew dyke."

Lisa Vanderwerff, a senior psychology major, said she appreciated Lamm's up-front presentation.

"I like her because she is very blunt," Vanderwerff said. "I think a lot of the speakers we have try to be too sensitive."

Lamm said the goal of feminists should not be to put only women in power.

"So often you hear, 'Oh, the world would be so much better if it was run by women, which I think is a pile of crap," Lamm said. "I don't think anyone should be ruling the world."

Feminists today don't have strong goals they want to fight for, she said.

"As feminists, we have to have an agenda," Lamm said. "And I believe that agenda has to be radical."

Many feminists think transgendered people do not experience sexism, she said.

"All the trannies experience sexism on some level," she said. "So to say that they're not woman enough to talk about sexism is ridiculous."

A person's gender is something that can be determined, not something that is decided in the womb, Lamm said.

People can easily change their gender with a haircut or clothes, she said.

"Gender can be a totally fun and awesome thing," Lamm said.

Lamm said people grow into their gender roles in life.

"I personally don't believe I was born a woman," she said. "I was born a baby who grew up to be a woman."

There are many transgendered people who are convincing in their chosen gender, Lamm said.

"I know plenty of people who pass as men every day and have vaginas," she said.

People have to let others choose which gender to live as, Lamm said.

"The heart of the issue is that you have to trust people to come up with their own identity," she said.

Last year at a music festival only for women in Michigan, transgendered people were put in a dangerous situation, Lamm said.

Some transgendered people were let in, but they were surrounded by upset women, she said.

"People were screaming, 'Men on the land! Men on the land!" she said. "It was weird because the women who felt threatened were doing the threatening."

Lamm said she understood why some of the women were upset because of bad experiences with men.

But she also said that just because there aren't any men around, that doesn't mean whomen are safe.

"It should be about a person who did something to you, not about a genital," she said. "The idea that a woman is safe without a penis around is absurd."

"Transgendered people have other difficulties in their daily lives, such as choosing which gender of public bathrooms to use, Lamm said.

Because most public bathrooms are segregated, many transgendered people won't use them, she said.

"Most of the transgendered people that I know won't go into the bathroom," she said. "It's too scary."

One of the ways people can help transgendered people is to purposely go into the wrong bathroom, she said. This will make people more used to the idea of sharing a bathroom with the opposite sex.

Another issue facing transgendered people is the lack of shelters for them when they are in abusive relationships, Lamm said.

Vanderwerff said she agreed feminists should fight for more than themselves.

"I think that she made a good point that to be a feminist doesn't mean you have to be inclusive to one group," Vanderwerff said. "We should try to identify and accomodate."