News and views for Sunday, December 7th …

[UK] A UK environmental group has released a report on the feminizing effects of “gender-bending” chemicals (endocrine disruptors) in our environment on the animal world: “They say wildlife is being ‘feminised’ by a host of common man-made pollutants which escape into the environment and mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen. The chemicals – found in food packaging, cleaning products, plastics, sewage and paint – trigger genital deformities, reduce sperm count and even turn males into females. Dozens of species – including polar bears, fish, bald eagles, otters and whales – are suffering, they say. Although the report, published by the environmental group ChemTrust, only looked at the impact of gender bending chemicals on the animal world, its authors say the findings have disturbing implications for human health.” — Evolution under threat as ‘gender bending’ chemicals are turning males into females

[USA] At Kelley Winters’ GID Reform Weblog, trans activist Dr. Dana Beyer describes her own experience with the paradigmatic endocrine disruptor, DES: “I spent the first half century of my life searching for the reason I was assigned, reared, and living as a man even though I knew I was female. As a child it was utterly confusing, and when coming out to my parents led to threats of incarceration in the state mental hospital, being the smart little kid that I was, I went silent and focused on trying to determine the causes of my misery. I could never imagine, in my wildest dreams or fantasies, ever transitioning and living full-time as myself; I couldn’t even imagine spending even a day in public as a woman. So I focused my attention on an academic future, scouring all the major libraries in the northeast, reading everything I could about gender variant behavior, trying to understand how I became who I was.” — DES’s Other Daughters: Neglected Evidence of Prenatal Gender Development

[UK] The Sunday Mercury reported yesterday that a “clinic” in Birmingham’s Chinatown area is advertising sex change operations for just £1,500: “Horrified transsexual support groups say the ultra-cheap Birmingham surgery is the lowest-priced operation anywhere in the world, and is half the price of the cheapest surgeries in Thailand. When the Sunday Mercury tried to contact Shangri-La & Surgeon by phone and e-mail, we were unable to reach them … Janett Scott, from transgender group The Beaumont Society, said: “The cheapest operations are in Thailand for about £3,000, “I can’t believe there is somewhere in England offering it for this price. i would be very concerned about the quality of this clinic and the aftercare on offer. A lot of people are very depressed and may be desperate enough to go for this cut-price option. The thought of a place like this operating in Britain horrifies me.”” — Cut-price sex change!

[UK] Sarah offers her reactions to the “Trans/Feminist Debate” in Manchester last Friday between Susan Stryker and Julie Bindel: “Friday’s debate between feminist academic, Susan Stryker and Guardian journalist, Julie Bindel, hosted by Stephen Whittle of Press for Change was a more or less predictable affair, and I think nobody came out of it well. Susan Stryker opened and started to take apart various things Bindel has said in a rational and scientific way … Bindel responded true to previous form, by ignoring anything inconvenient and restating her ideological agenda … Bindel brushed aside specific points she found inconvenient. As well as dismissing any possible biological involvement in gender identity and sexual orientation by stating that such things are “impossible”, without explaining why, she waved such inconveniences as the scientific method and studies on sexual dimorphism in the brain out of the way, stating that she didn’t believe them, or “wasn’t convinced”. Science doesn’t work like that … I think that Stryker fell into the trap that biologists arguing with early creationists fell into. Like Bindel, the creationists were not interested in perusing the truth – it was unpalatable to them. Knowing they couldn’t win the debate on an academically level playing field, they resorted to dogma … I’ll end where I came in. Nobody came out of this well. Stryker was dragged across the Atlantic to be the “straight-woman” in a cringeworthy double act, Bindel got to alienate a few more people, Burns and Whittle got to reassert their roles as focal points for the anger and disillusionment many in the grass roots trans community feel right now. Most of all, though, the trans community are the loseWeight Exercisers. Bindel gets new ammunition to write about how, on her crusade to eradicate our identity (at one point she tried to appropriate a “transgender” identity for herself, presumably because of her “regulation dyke” approach to her own gender presentation). Look forward to a divide-and-rule column in the Guardian soon about how she found “common ground” with the “more reasonable” members of the trans community, and uses that favoured tactic of the misogynist down the ages to silence the rest of us – that we’re shrill.” — Review of the Bindel/Stryker Debate

[UK] Sophia Siedlberg of OII (Organisation Intersex International) also has some thoughts on the “Trans/Feminist” Debate: “When Stephen Whittle and Julie Bindel held a debate at Manchester University of Law, Whittle started about Julie’s “excellent work dealing with violence against women and trafficking”. Well in 1978 I deserved to be raped and in 2008 I deserve to be raped, why? Because even though I have a “female anatomy”, I am someone with 5 alpha and it is my fault. What I am saying is that I am stripped of any viable legal rights just as a transsexual person would have been about 20 years ago … I think that a few people need to “clean their act up”, not just Julie Bindel. In fact I regard Bindel as a symptom of the two sex system. I don’t even hold her responsible for anything. Stephen Whittle, however, knows the issues a little better than Julie Bindel does, and he stood by and saw “Klinefelters and 5 alpha” consigned to the dustbin, where they get abused and that is considered “acceptable”. This is my problem. Julie Bindel is someone who has an argument with transsexual people. She does not entirely agree with transsexual people having surgery. My problem is a little different; the law regards me as little more than a circus freak to be abused by vivisexuals, rapists and nonces. And Whittle, whether he likes it or not, was involved with the discussions that led to this vile situation. Will he ever try to make “friends with this enemy”? No, because I am less than human. Julie Bindel is human, but I am not. You see, I am motivated by resentment and I am honest about it. I resent the way society has dealt with intersex people.” — I am out of the box

[OR, USA] TransNation columnist Jacob Anderson-Minshall talks with Portland artists Smitty Amabilis and Jack StockLynn: “[Collective of Geniuses’ new play] Denial of Self opens this week and StockLynn says ze hopes audiences won’t hate hir “too much” for implying you’re all narcissists. “I hope that they will,” Amabilis counters. “Hate is a powerful motivator. I hope that they’re motivated to do something.”Amabilis defines a narcissist as, “a person of privilege [who] doesn’t see that their excess means that someone else is lacking.” … Although the content of Denial isn’t specifically LGBT-oriented, Amabilis argues, “To me this work is queer because we’re really talking about what privilege and oppression are. It’s a lack of compassion, a lack of empathy, of altruism that creates the hate and oppression minorities have to live through.” As a trans man, Amabilis recognizes that he’s coming to a point in his transition where he can pass as a bio boy and is “stepping into this different realm of privilege. [Still], I haven’t un-learned my oppression enough to actually reap any benefit. Moreover… I want to blur those lines between the oppressed and the oppressor; between the us and the them.” — TransNation: Collective Denial

[Thailand] Bangkok’s “ladyboy” entertainment establishments are suffering as a result of Thailand’s ongoing political turmoil: “The go-go bars are empty and sex is on sale at half price as Bangkok’s infamous red light districts suffer from a blockade of the capital’s airports … Although anti-government protesters have ended an eight-day siege of Bangkok’s airports, the effect of Thailand’s ongoing political chaos on the tourism industry is devastating … The airport closures also hurt Bangkok’s other entertainment options, such as the famous “ladyboy” cabaret shows. “The shutdown of the airports seriously affected our business,” said Nipon Boonmasuwaran, sales and marketing manager of the Calypso show in Bangkok, where flamboyantly-dressed transvestites lip-sync and dance to famous tunes.” Our guests have dropped 90 percent — we have less than 50 guests in our 350-seat theatre,” Nipon said.” — Bangkok’s red light district suffers from political chaos