I don’t normally engage in troll wars, though given that a close friend of mine has been the target of systematic abuse throughout International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (aka IDAHO), I’m going to break that little rule for once.
Throughout yesterday and today, the following transphobic abuse has been hurled at Lt Colonel Catherine McGregor, via a person claiming to be Phillip Maguire. As a lot of you would know, there was a Phillip Maguire at the Herald Sun throughout the 1990’s, who then supposedly went on to be a farmer in the Victorian High Country.
Here’s a taste of what Phillip Maguire has written below, in full.
05/16/2013
The ‘ladyfriend” strikes back.
A few weeks ago I had some words to say about Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his sensitive new age approach to an ‘old mate who has morphed into a new lady friend.”
Today I received correspondence from that new lady friend and I thought I may as well share it with you. The writer is Lt Col Malcolm AKA Cate McGregor or should we call him “cateypie” after his email addy.
Cateypie wrote:
Hey tough guy-see you had a few sneering comments to make about me after the Janet Albrechtsen column. You know nothing of me beyond your prejudice.Feel free to pass this on your six followers. Ever done day’s military service or does culling rabbits represent the extent of your ticker? I’ll run my record of service and decency against you any day. Call yourself a Christian? You make me puke. Hope you get to Canberra some time-unlike you I don’t hide behind hash tags and mons de plume. Drop in a tell me how I should live my life. Good luck with the cattle-don’t see you cutting it as a ‘journalist.” Cate McGregor”
Now that seems a macho brand of correspondence which only serves to reinforce my opinion that McGregor is not remotely female, but is actually autogynephilic meaning he is a man who is in love with the image of himself as a woman.
Needless to say he didn’t evoke any kind of sympathetic reponse. Here is my reply.
You’ve got a problem, girly boy. It’s called a paraphilia and you have never had either the personal strength of character or the guts to face up to it and get over it. You’re a disgrace and an embarrassment to the Australian Armed Forces. What’d they do with your knackers? Stick ’em in a bottle for you to display on your mantelpiece? I don’t hide behind hash tags and noms de plume. I say what needs to be said and I say it in my own name, unlike you who uses a name that belongs to the opposite sex. You love your mirror, girly boy, and that’s essentially all you care about. You’re like a moth to the light. It’s tragic really – such unrequited love of self.
I’ll add this as well. I don’t give a flying fig who McGregor thinks he is or what he is. He can think of himself as Xena The Warrior Woman for all I care. He left the Army at one point, reportedly in a huff, and went and worked for the ALP ending up as Bob Carr’s PR man.
He can rake up as many AO’s as he likes and all it means to me is that his friends in the ALP are rewarding one of their loyal sycophants.
If he thinks he can scare me by donning a pair of prosthetic testicles and screaming abuse he’d better think again.
What makes me sick is that every digger who cares about this country and upholds its proud military traditions has to salute this lipstick wearing moron in a dress.
Care to know more about what motivates such men. Go here
Update. There have been several more emails from this transgendered blowhard but this excerpt is interesting because he claims to have been cleared of suffering from a psychiatric condition by the very psychiatrists who apparently confirmed his diagnosis.
He wrote: “Moreover, never having met me I suspect your diagnosis is less precise than the multitude of qualified professionals who have cleared me of any mental illness and confirmed the gender dysphoria diagnosis. They include three psychiatrists over a thirty year period.”
It’s hard to see how they can clear him of mental illness at the same time they confirm he is suffering from one. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, which is followed by Australian psychiatrists, Gender Dysphoria is a mental illness.
McGregor also falsely accused me of making threats which he stated he would pass on to Defence Security and The Australian Federal Police.
I have kept copies of our correspondence which I will gladly pass on to any authority which requests them. No threats were made by anyone other than himself.
Now it might just be me, though there seems to be a LOT of suppressed rage present within this guy. As recent studies into sexuality by the University of Rochester and the University of California Santa Barbara have shown, people who exhibit extreme homophobic and transphobic tendencies more often than not are just repressing the emotions that they feel inside of themselves. If you don’t like Same-Sex and Gender Diverse people Phillip, just move on. We aren’t going to bug you. If you feel attraction or are just repressing emotions though, seriously…. seek help. There’s plenty of it out there, from sources such as Beyond Blue and Lifeline.
Also just to raise a point, not all cattle farmers, especially Poll Hereford breeders, are like Phillip Maguire. More often than not, a lot of rural people are pretty accepting of Same-Sex and Gender Diverse people, once they’ve had the time to get their head around the idea. That’s one of the reasons why I fully intend on becoming a Rural Reporter like a couple of my personal heros such as Sally Sara, Zoe Daniel and Mark Willacy. These are people who’ve seen it all and aren’t afraid to support others or be themselves. In other words, they are people that I respect dearly.
Supporting Same-Sex and Gender Diverse people doesn’t make you any less of a man either, as shown by the amazing documentary on Warren Entsch (Libs), Sarah Hanson-Young (Greens) and Graeme Perrett (ALP) that I’ve linked to below. What does make you less of a person is attempting to destroy people who are just being honest with themselves, their lives and their humanity. If these three people, plus Katrina Hodgkinson and Barnaby Joyce from the Nationals can come together to support Same Sex and Gender Diverse people who just want to live their lives in peace, then there’s hope for humanity yet.