News and views for Wednesday, December 17th and Thursday, December 18th …

[PA, USA] “The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is investigating a complaint filed by a transsexual woman against Harrisburg Area Community College, claiming she was suspended for not using a unisex bathroom. Shannon Powers, director of communications for the commission, confirmed a complaint by Jamie Nicole Anderson against the Lancaster campus of HACC was filed Oct. 16. She said the agency began its investigation last month. Because it is under investigation, Powers said she could not reveal details of the complaint. However, according to published reports, Anderson is a male-to-female transgendered student who was studying nursing at HACC.” — HACC student sues over rest room suspension

[USA] From Transadvocate yesterday, “Sources on the Hill confirmed to The Transadvocate that Barney Frank’s office will announce the hiring of Diego Sanchez today. Sanchez will replace outgoing senior policy adviser, Joe Racalto. Sanchez is currently the Director of Public Relations & External Affairs for AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.  He made history this past August as the first transgender person appointed by the  DNC to the  Platform Committee and is also a member of the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Boston Steering Committee and the HRC Business Council.” — Diego Sanchez Named Senior Legislative Adviser To Barney Frank

There’s more on the Sanchez appointment at Bay Windows and at EDGE Boston, and transactivists Becky Juro and Vanessa Edwards Foster offer their thoughts on the hiring here and here.

[USA] The Windy City Times has an interview with Dr. Marci Bowers, who is featured in the documentary drama series Sex Change Hospital on WeTV. Sex Change Hospital will air Dec 23, Dec 24 and Dec 30. — Paging Dr. Bowers: Talking about Sex Change Hospital

[USA] “I am very saddened to learn today of the death of actress/comics writer/friend Maddie Blaustein at age 48. It’s being reported that she died in her sleep after a brief illness. Blaustein started out in the comics industry at Marvel, where he was known as Adam, but gradually went on a path that few could imagine — first as a very successful, talented and well-known voice actress, most notably as the voice of Meowth on the US version of Pokemon. Second, as a transgendered individual. She also wrote several issues of Milestone comics, including a run on STATIC. Aaron McQuade, who profiled Maddie for The Advocate, has more on his blog: ‘Maddie (born Adam Blaustein) might be the most recognizable transgender voice on the planet, from her roles as Meowth on Pokemon, and Solomon Moto on Yu-Gi-Oh, not to mention dozens of other anime and video games … ‘ ” — RIP Maddie Blaustein

[USA] From Media Matters, “On The O’Reilly Factor, Dennis Miller ridiculed Thomas Beatie, a transgender man who recently gave birth to a child, calling him a “nympho satyr” and saying: “[A]ll I know is the guy’s more pregnant than the old woman in the shoe is. And somebody has got to get some protection for this guy, be it a condom or an IUD or a satellite dish or a catcher’s mitt. I don’t even know what he needs down there, but I need an equipment check on aisle five.” Referring to the baby, Miller had video of the polar bear cub at the Berlin zoo aired.” — On O’Reilly Factor, Miller ridiculed transgender man, child he gave birth to

[USA] From The New York Times today on DSM-V, “The book is at least three years away from publication, but it is already stirring bitter debates over a new set of possible psychiatric disorders … The debate over gender identity, characterized in the manual as “strong and persistent cross-gender identification,” is already burning hot among transgender people. Soon after the psychiatric association named the group of researchers working on sexual and gender identity, advocates circulated online petitions objecting to two members whose work they considered demeaning. Transgender people are themselves divided about their place in the manual. Some transgender men and women want nothing to do with psychiatry and demand that the diagnosis be dropped. Others prefer that it remain, in some form, because a doctor’s written diagnosis is needed to obtain insurance coverage for treatment or surgery. “The language needs to be reformed, at a minimum,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equity. “Right now, the manual implies that you cannot be a happy transgender person, that you have to be a social wreck.”” — Psychiatrists Revising the Book of Human Troubles

[Turkey] The latest on Bulent Ersoy, who was facing up to four-and-a-half years in jail:  “A transsexual Turkish pop star has won a free speech case against the country’s powerful army, which accused her of turning public opinion against military service.” — Turkish transsexual star acquitted of insulting army

[Uruguay] “Uruguay’s Senate passed a bill allowing people aged 12 and older to legally change their name and gender on their identity papers, a move that opens the doors to gay marriage. The measure is meant to ease legal difficulties faced by transsexuals and cross-dressers, but would make gay marriage legal since it states that whoever changes their name and gender can “exercise all of the rights inherent to the new condition.”" — Uruguay takes step towards gay marriage

[Thailand] From the Bangkok Post, a feature on Treechada “Nong Poyd” Malayaporn, Miss Tiffany’s Universe 2004 and Miss International Queen 2004: ” … deep down, Treechada admits that she is oversensitive when anybody calls her a katoey. Surprisingly, when people say she’s much more beautiful than a real woman, Treechada does not appreciate it either. She just wants to be recognised to as “Nong Poyd” and live her life like an ordinary person. “I will not become arrogant or forget where I came from, but it hurts when people call me a katoey even though I really am one. As I said earlier, I’ve lived all my life like a woman. My mother is a woman. My beloved sister is a woman. All my best friends are women. So I am not going to compete with them. I do not want anybody to compare me with somebody else because, after all, I just want to be one of those ordinary women.” — Miss Tiffany Queen

News and views for Friday, November 14th …

[VT, USA] “They started out loving me. They thought I was the greatest thing since Grandma’s apple pie,” he recalls. But Tony says things changed once town officials learned he was transgender. “It was like day and night. I went to work one day and no one talked to me,” he says. Tony says he was ostracized, harassed, and officers didn’t respond to calls for backup. On some occasions, he felt his life was put in danger. He was being forced out. “I was a victim,” Tony says. “I know I will never forget it and I will do everything in my power to prevent anyone else from going through it.” – Transgender Discrimination

[CA, USA] In Palm Springs, a restaurant has changed its dress code: “The revised policy no longer forbids male patrons dressed in drag … The owners’ policy change comes more than a month after Dink’s opened and three weeks after Palm Springs entertainer Tommi Rose was turned away from the restaurant because of his attire. Rose, who frequently performs in drag, visited Dink’s on Oct. 18. He had attended the Equality Awards earlier that night and was wearing an evening gown. The doorman told Rose that his “kind” wasn’t allowed there, Rose said. When he asked the doorman what he meant, he was told “‘men dressed in drag,’” Rose said.” — Men in drag now welcome at Dink’s

[OR, USA] From columnist Carol McAlice Currie writing in Friday’s Statesman Journal (alternate link here or here), “Hampton would have been within his rights to pull his son from the child care program. Instead, he took his grievance to the airwaves via the Lars Larson talk show. Larson declared that sexual orientations such as this employee’s are “illegal, disgusting, grotesque and perverse.” Hampton urged the conservative talk-radio fans to call the Y and make sure that other children weren’t “left in jeopardy” … Protect them from what, I asked? A person different from themselves? A person who has enough to deal with as she struggles to reject a gender assigned by genitals, but not borne out by feelings? … Seeking to shame or embarrass the Y and this individual is wrong, and so is the message the other children now are getting: that people who are different are to be despised.” — Father should teach tolerance

[GA, USA] “Is ‘butch’ an outdated word? Maybe. But there are still butch women — of course it’s there.” With the rise of transgender men, however, sometimes there is a blurring of the old-school butch/femme roles that became popular in the 1950s among working class lesbians. “Now we have tranny boys who date gay men, who date femmes, who date other transmen — the rainbow spectrum has really changed in the past four to five years,” Holder said … “A femme is about being a lady, beauty. I like to dress up, smell good, look good. I have always been a girly-girl,” she said. “A femme is the essence of being a lady. I hold myself to a certain standard.” Watson has dated both femmes and studs. She explained that “butch” is the word that tends to be used by white women while “stud” tends to be an African-American term … The hardest part of being a lovely femme is going to clubs and other women telling her she’s not a lesbian. “They think I’m straight because of the way I look. I always ask, ‘Well, what does a lesbian look like?’ I’m very comfortable with who I am.”” — Butch/femme dynamic thrives in Atlanta women

[CT, USA] “The weathered bronze statue strikes the classic Venus de Milo pose — a graceful female figure with rounded breasts and belly, standing in coy contrapposto, covering her genitalia with a casual hand. But the Grecian symbol of womanhood takes a new twist in this photo, sporting a pink tie and short blond wig, with playful orange balloons floating at its feet. Instead of the quintessential feminine image, viewers now face a wacky, whimsical, sexually ambiguous human figure. All of the art on display at the Afro-American Cultural Center gallery’s exhibit of Trans/Genderqueer art and photography seeks to similarly confuse the viewer’s preconceptions of biological, sexual and cultural boundaries.” — Full breasts exposed

[MI, USA] “In a late night session Thursday, the Michigan House passed a package of two bills to expand the state’s ethnic intimidation act. Under the bills, bias motivated crimes would be subject to more severe punishments, including extended prison time and upgrading of misdemeanor criminal acts to felonies … The set of bills expands the current definition of bias crimes to include sexual orientation, disability, and gender identity and/or expression. It also makes it a crime for targeting a person because they are perceived to be a member of a protected class.” — Michigan House passes hate crime package, sends it to Senate

[MI, USA] “Less than twenty-four hours after the Michigan House overwhelmingly approved the passage of a package of bills to expand the state’s Ethnic Intimidation Act, a mother of a murdered transgender teen encourage the State Senate to move on the bills.” — Mother of slain transgender teen speaks out on Mich. house passage of bias crimes bill

[USA] Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality asked about ENDA (Will Congress be able to pass a trans-inclusive ENDA?), “Absolutely. We were so close last fall. Now, there are a lot of people doing a lot of work around ENDA and I am confident that if we all get the grassroots and DC work done that has to be done, we will have sufficient votes to pass ENDA and even overcome any possible parliamentary maneuver from our opponents. That being said, most of us do not expect ENDA to come up right away in this Congress though I wouldn’t want to venture a guess more specific than that.” — We Won, We Lost. What’s Next for 2009?

[USA] Rea Carey of The Task Force asked about her organizations’ legislative priorities, “The Task Force Action Fund has a number of legislative priorities, including expanding and strengthening existing federal hate crimes law and the repeal of ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but our top legislative priority will continue to be passage of an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Leadership will likely move other legislation first, such as the hate crimes bill, and we look forward to working with them on those efforts as well. However, a key focus of our energy and expertise will be on creating federal employment protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” — We Won, We Lost. What’s Next for 2009?

[USA] “These past few years we have seen a number of serious researchers complain that anti-gay and “ex-gay” ideologues are distorting and cherry-picking lines from scientific publications. The cure for this, and the prevention for a repeat of the past eight abysmal years of American history, is, it seems to me, education. People need to learn to read critically, everyone should have a solid background in scientific methods, some statistical literacy would be a nice thing. Listen carefully when you hear them talk about education, about home-schooling and charter schools, and when they complain about our public schools. Some groups benefit when Americans are poorly educated.” — NARTH Misinterprets the Science

[USA] “I keep wondering just how much the many different configurations of body, gender, presentation and behavior (words from the Trans 101: Terms and Concepts workshop yesterday) that fit under the big umbrella of “transgender” are asked to fit there because of the rigidity of the binary gender packages of “male” and “female”, “men” and “women.” As presenter Beth Harrison-Prado noted at the outset, “transgender” is above all a word — albeit freighted with meaning in our culture — and a word required by people’s growing recognition that gender in real life, rather than in the movies, magazines, and the conventional popular cultural imagination, is complex and immensely variable.” — Gender Complexity

[USA] From ABC News, “Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who bore a daughter four months ago, has become the public face of an issue for many other transgender people: having their roles as parents legally recognized. In an exclusive interview airing tonight on “20/20,” Beatie told Barbara Walters that he is pregnant with his second child … As the biological parent, Thomas Beatie has legally secure rights. His wife, on the other hand, is not biologically related to their baby but is granted parental rights by virtue of her marriage to Thomas Beatie. So if the validity of their marriage were challenged, experts say, Nancy Beatie’s parental rights could be in jeopardy. “There is litigation in other states over whether their marriage would be recognized,” said Nancy Polikoff, a law professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Polikoff envisioned a scenario in which the Beaties moved to a state that refuses to recognize Thomas Beatie’s legal sex change in Hawaii. If that happens, his marriage would be revoked as an illegal same-sex marriage and Nancy Beatie’s parental status could be questioned. That would be a nightmare for the Beaties. “Oh, I think we’re very worried,” Nancy Beatie said. “We’re both very worried.” Said Thomas Beatie: “If something were to happen to me, I want to make sure that Nancy has custody over her daughter” … In order to secure Nancy Beatie’s parental rights, lawyers advise the Beaties to do what many same-sex couples with children do — have Nancy Beatie, as the nonbiological parent, adopt their baby. “When there is a slight question whether the marriage will be upheld by a court if it’s challenged, the nonbiological parent will take the step of adopting the child, not because it’s always necessary but just to make absolutely sure that the parent-child relationship is legally protected,” Columbia’s Goldberg said. Polikoff of American University said, “Adoption will guarantee recognition in all states.” The Beaties agree that adoption would protect them, but they don’t want to do that as a matter of principle. They see themselves as a legally married heterosexual couple. They note that they file taxes jointly as husband and wife. “We shouldn’t have to adopt our own daughter,” Thomas Beatie said. The Beaties are seeking legal representation to pursue a change in the birth certificate. “I feel that it’s a flawed document,” he said. “We’d like to see this process remedied for the next child, for the next pregnant man.” — Pregnant Man, Other Transgender Parents Face Legal Questions

[USA] A related article, also from ABC News, “No longer living on the fringes of society, transgender families are quietly raising their children in towns and neighborhoods across the country. Take the case of Andey and Leaf Nunes, and their son Antonio. Even in San Francisco, where the two men live, their relationship raises eyebrows and the questions of, “What is a woman? What is a man?” “We’re a gay male couple that got to have a child the old-fashioned way,” said Andey, a transgender man. “I am Antonio’s biological mother on his birth certificate.”" — Transgender Couples: Changing the Face of Family

[UK] “An Audience with April Ashley takes place in the Small Concert Room at St George’s Hall tomorrow at 7.30pm. Miss Ashley was born in Liverpool in 1935 and lived in Norris Green for all of her childhood. In 1960 she was one of the first transsexual people to undergo gender confirmation surgery in Morocco. She went on to develop a successful career as a model, appearing in Vogue amongst other magazines. She was “outed” as a transsexual by the Sunday People in 1961 and her marriage and subsequent divorce removed the ability of trans people to acquire full legal status. This was not satisfactorily resolved until the passing of the Gender Recognition Act of 2004.” — Out and About

[UK] Where Julie Bindel is scheduled to be on December 5th. — Public Debate: A Feminist Perspective on the Transsexual Debate,

[India/Nepal] ““Sexual minorities should be treated as fairly as other citizens. If a member of our community breaks the law by all means book him but please don’t round up every hijra or transsexual you can find, the activists who support them and brutalise them,” said Manohar of Sangama. ”Also, please stop spreading false and outlandish stories about people being kidnapped and castrated just to sensationalise issues and create more fear and mistrust among the public,” he added appealing to the press and the authorities.” — Reality bites

[Australia] “So say we all.” — In Parliament Yesterday

Well, maybe after the A.C.L.U. takes care of this case, they can take on this issue …

(Anyone for renaming Helena … “Girlsie” … ? )

Frank Rich is still “off today” at the New York Times, not that there’s anything wrong with that … since last week readers had Jenny Boylan in his place, and this week Olivia Judson. Change is good.

In the case of both GID (gender identity dysphoria) and obesity, there’s still much to be learned about nature and nurture and how and what happens in the womb …

Suppose you have two groups of pregnant female rats. Rats in the first group can either eat as much regular lab-rat chow as they like, or they can eat their fill of human junk food — cookies, doughnuts, marshmallows, potato chips, muffins, chocolate. Rats in the second group only get chow, but again, can eat as much as they like. After the rats have given birth, continue the different regimens while the pups are suckling. Then give both groups of pups access to the chow and the junk food.

Experiments like this have found that pregnant females with access to junk food ate, on a daily basis, roughly 40 percent more food (by weight) and 56 percent more calories than rats that just had chow. Moreover — and this is the interesting bit — pups whose mothers ate junk food while pregnant and lactating had a greater taste for food high in fat and sugar than those whose mothers did not. The junk-food pups ate more calories and were more prone to gaining weight.

What goes for rats does not necessarily go for humans. Nonetheless, such results are thought-provoking. As everyone knows, humans are getting fatter and fatter. According to the World Health Organization, 400 million adults around the world weighed in as obese in 2005. In the United States, more than a third of women between 20 and 39 are obese, some of them extremely so. For the first time in history, large numbers of obese women are having children.

Being obese during pregnancy is dangerous for the mother and expensive for the health care system. But does it affect the babies?

There are reasons to think it might. The period between conception and birth is crucial — after all, you’re growing from a single cell into a baby. Your heart is being built; your brain is being wired. Exposure to alcohol during this time can disrupt brain development; lack of iodine may permanently stunt growth. Being starved in the womb can lead to health problems such as heart disease later in life, especially if food becomes abundant. So what about overnourishment? Does an “obese” environment in the womb somehow predispose babies to obesity later on?

At the moment, such questions are difficult to answer. Humans are much harder to study than rats, and the phenomenon of obesity in pregnancy is relatively new, so we don’t know much about it yet. Moreover, many factors contribute to someone’s becoming obese, and picking them apart is tricky. Added to that, an “obese” environment in the womb has two separate elements: the nutrients provided by the mother via the food she eats, and the hormonal environment of someone who is overweight. (Being obese can profoundly alter a woman’s hormonal profile.) Again, picking these apart is hard.

But the results of several studies suggest that the very fact of a woman being obese during pregnancy may predispose her children to obesity. For example, one study found that children born to women who have lost weight after radical anti-obesity surgery are less likely to be obese than siblings born before their mother lost weight. Another study looked at women who gained weight between pregnancies; the results showed that babies born after their mothers put on weight tended to be heavier at birth than siblings born beforehand. Since the mother’s genes haven’t changed, the “fat” environment seems likely to be responsible for the effect.

Why might this happen? Perhaps an “obese” environment in the womb alters the wiring of the developing brain so as to interfere with normal appetite control, fat deposition, taste in food, or metabolism. Studies on other animals suggest that parts of the brain that control appetite develop differently under “obese” conditions. And in humans, one study has found that babies born to obese mothers have lower resting metabolic rates than babies whose mothers are of normal weight.

For most of our evolutionary past, the problem has been avoiding starvation. An environment awash with sugars and fats is, therefore, an evolutionary novelty: in hundreds of millions of years of evolution, this is the first time such foods have been abundant. Giant quantities of fats and sugars have not, historically, been available to a developing fetus, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they do have a harmful impact.

If this is right, it raises the alarming possibility that the obesity epidemic has a built-in snowball effect. If children born to obese mothers are, owing to the environment in the womb, predisposed to obesity, they may find staying thin especially hard. Reversing the epidemic may thus rest on helping women to lose weight before they conceive and helping them to eat a balanced, non-junk-food diet while they are pregnant. The well-being of the next generation may depend on it.

Honey, I Plumped the Kids

Some poetry from Ms. Judson (aka Dr. Tatiana), which you can hear in a 2003 interview with Jackie Leyden of NPR …

Beware, for it’s easy to blunder
And be false in what you aver.

Some creatures change sex before teatime,
Some others find two sexes dull,
And that virile male fish has no free time–
He’s got all his kiddies to lull.

When it comes to the topic of gender,
Mother Nature’s been having some fun.
Take nothing for granted! Remember,
You won’t find any rules–not a one!

A lot of people think I’m crazy. This is important to me - I just want to be comfortable. I just want the option.
–Letter carrier Dean Peterson

The Boston Globe is reporting, in an article entitled Mailman seeks comfort in kilt, about one letter carrier’s effort to make a kilt option available for male letter carriers:

As some 10,000 letter carriers gather in Boston this week for the 66th biennial convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Peterson is on a one-man mission to persuade his colleagues to approve a change in their strictly regulated uniforms. He has proposed a resolution to allow mailmen to wear kilts, which he calls a Male Unbifurcated Garment, or MUG.

Over the past few weeks, he says he has spent the $1,800 he received as part of the federal government’s stimulus package to send about 1,000 letters and photographs of a mockup of the new uniform to postal union branches in every state, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico.

“MUGs are worn all over the world, and have been for thousands of years because they are comfortable,” he wrote to fellow mailmen. “Unbifurcated Garments are far more comfortable and suitable to male anatomy than trousers or shorts, because they don’t confine the legs or cramp the male genitals the way that trousers or shorts do.”

So when creating uniforms for it’s uniformed jobs and uniformed services, is it a function of government to only allow women to wear unbifurcated garments? And even beyond allowing men to wear MUGs, should biological males be allowed wear government uniforms designed for females, and vice-a-versa, should biological females be allowed to wear government uniforms designed for males?

When thinking through your answer, remember that the military services are uniformed services too.

OneNewsNow quotes Dr. David Stevens, the Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) in their piece Transgenderism — purely psychological?, where he makes a patently false statement about what the Bible says about altering the shape of one’s genitalia. He makes his false statement in a call for not treating transgender people with “immoral” treatments:

“Well, the Bible does tell us very clearly that mutilation of the body is wrong, and it’s sad that these people have this psychological disorder — but it should be treated from a psychological perspective,” Stevens contends.

The “psychological perspective” that Dr. Stevens is referring to is obviously conversion therapy, because he’s rejects the American Medical Association’s house of delegates approval of a resolution in June that supports removing barriers to treat and care for transgender people, as apparently he also rejects the Harry Benjamin Standard Of Care (HBSOC) [of which the purpose of the HBSOC is to articulate WPATH’s consensus about the psychiatric, psychological, medical, and surgical management of gender identity disorders (GID)].

Here’s what Dr. Stevens does say about treatment for trans people in the OneNewsNow:

The CMDA spokesman has taken a look at the recent [AMA] resolution. “They’re calling on insurance companies to provide treatment for gender-identity disorder, which actually is a sex-change operation. Those are very expensive and obviously treat something in a way that really isn’t going to solve the problem, just perpetuate it. [It is] sad that this has happened, but we’re increasingly seeing this happen at the American Medical Association and other professional organizations across the country,” Stevens explains

Lovely.

But hey, back to the headline: The real difficulty I have with Dr. Stevens comments on “mutilation” is that he’s either ignorant of what the Bible says — specifically in a quote attributed to Jesus — regarding changing the shape of one’s genitalia, or he’s lying about it. The quote from Jesus that Dr. Stevens should have been aware of:

For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.

The Geneva Study Bible states this about that verse quoted above — Matthew 19:12 — on how one becomes a eunuch:

A man can become a eunuch in one of two ways: the first is by castration or emasculation, and the other by natural causes, such as a rupture.

There were no genital reassignment surgeries besides castration available at the time the New Testament was written.

For Dr. Stevens to indicate he knows what the Christ and the Bible says about genital mutilation when he obviously doesn’t — well, it takes the underpinning out from his and his organization’s stated beliefs. He’s either intentionally lying about what the Bible says about changing one’s genitalia, or he’s completely ignorant about what Jesus said about changing one’s genitalia.

Either way, Dr. Stevens looks a lot more like an ignoramus than a man with such an advanced medical degree should probably look. It certainly speaks loudly to how little knowledge the Christian Medical & Dental Associations must have even on basic scriptural references to changing one’s genitalia if their spokesperson is Dr. Stevens.

And hey, if some peewee, conservative Christian, medical association — with “Christian” boldy included in its name — doesn’t even know what the Bible states about an issue their commenting on, one can only wonder what this peewee, conservative Christian, association — with “Medical” boldy included in its name — doesn’t know about the medical side of issues it comments on.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes, Isaiah 56:3-8

One of the things I noticed about the An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace hearing is that minus the Alliance Defense Fund, there weren’t any conservative Christian organizations speaking at the hearing; minus the Traditional Values Coalition any conservative Christian organizations leaving press materials at the hearing; and minus the ranking minority member of the subcommittee (Rep. John Kline, R-MN) there were no Republicans there to ask questions of the witnesses at the hearing.

So what’s happening now there’s a conservative Christian community characterization of the hearing as if there was serious wave of opposition speaking to trans employment issues — but they didn’t actually have much presense there opposing any future gender idenity and expression inclusive legislation in person.

Some examples of online, conservative Christian commentary:

- PFOX: Congressional Hearing To Push Gender Confusion Upon All Americans

Democrat leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have scheduled a hearing this Thursday on discrimination against “transgendered” individuals in the workplace.

“Homosexuals and their transgender activist allies hope to use this hearing as a way of forcing the imposition of gender confusion upon all Americans,” said Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) Executive Director Regina Griggs today. “Instead of treating transsexualism and cross-dressing behaviors as Gender Identity Disorders (GID) as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Democrats seem determined to make these behaviors into federally-protected minorities.”

“Why should Congress force Americans to provide workplace accommodations for people who are confused about whether they’re male or female? How can Congress force us to make believe that a man is really a woman or a woman is really a man?”

“If Democrats were truly concerned about these gender confused individuals, they’d push for expanded mental health services for GID. A person can’t change his or her sex – and many of these individuals think they’re a woman one day and a man the next day. Why is Congress catering to such insanity?”

[OneNewsNow/American Family Association, Peter LaBarbera, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink, Concerned Women For America, and Traditional Values Coalition commentaries below the fold.]
Read the rest of this entry »

My transactivist friends and I have had some discussion about drag shows over the years, and a significant portion of these transgender folk consider drag shows as a kind of blackface. The reasoning behind that is that there is presumed to be a cissexual privilege*, and that people who have cissexual privilege aren’t fully aware of how cissexual people are often engaged in oppressing transsexual and intersexual people, much as those who experience white privilege aren’t fully aware of how white people in western society are often engaged in oppressing ethnic minorities.

I don’t personally buy into the idea that all drag shows are exercises in cissexual privilege. This is because I’m very aware that although sexual orientation and gender identity and expression are separate structural concepts, there is certain amount of spill over between the two concepts related to gender norms. There are gender norms that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people don’t conform to regarding sexual partners; there are gender norms that feminine/effeminate gay men, masculine/emasculate lesbian women, crossdressing men, genderqueer people, and transsexual people don’t conform to regarding movement, speech, and other behaviors.

And, on top of that is layered a belief among many transgender people and allies that gender is a continuum: male and female are on the end points of a spectrum of gender which includes people who understand themselves to be neither male or female, both male and female, or somewhere between male and female, as well as those who understand themselves to be male but were born female-bodied, those who understand themselves to be female but were born male bodied, and those who consider themselves to be male or female but were born with ambiguous genitalia, or were born with sex chromosomes or sex related genetics that don’t conform to the standard XX or XY dichotomy of sexes. Drag queens and drag kings often express on a personal level how LGBTQQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, ally) folk are all, to some extent, gender outlaws.

Again, I personally just don’t buy into the idea that within the LGBT community, drag performances are exercises in cissexual privilege — or excercises in a kind of transgender blackface — instead I believe our community’s diversity is often beautifully expressed in drag shows. I strongly believe in the embracing and owning of community expressions of gender variance.

So when would, in my opinion, a drag show become like a blackface show?

Well, I don’t know in every case; I can’t tell you exactly all of the elements of when drag performance crosses the line to become an exercise in cissexual privilege. I can; however, give you an example from this past week of a drag show which, in my opinion, was such an exercise.

On June 12, 2008 there was a drag show/benefit for seniors organized by Westchester County legislator Bernice Spreckman. It took place at the Polish Center in Yonkers. There, county legislators Ken Jenkins (in a bra, tutu and something looking like butterfly wings), Vito Pinto (in a blonde wig black bra with white fur, furry miniskirt), and Jose Alvarado (in a bra and a Roman Helmet) appeared to the laughter of an audience of seniors. Per the Lower Hudson Journal News:

Already under siege by gadflys who would abolish their jobs and a district attorney investigating alleged misspending among their staff, Westchester County legislators found another constituency to provoke yesterday: transgenders, who rallied outside county offices today to protest a drag show starring three male legislators the day before.

Dressed in boas, skirts, lace, falsies and twinkling lights, the legislators staged “You Gotta Have a Gimmick” from the Broadway legend “Gypsy” as part of a musical review before about 400 senior citizens at the Polish Community Center in Yonkers.

…Jenkins added that the performance was honest to “Gypsy” as it was written, which he said - incorrectly - featured “cross-dressing men” as female strippers in “You Gotta Have a Gimmick.”

The number traditionally includes only women.

In a quote from a New York Transgender Rights Organization [NYTRO] press release, spokesperson Joann Prinzivalli stated:

“The Westchester County legislature has failed for nearly eight years to amend the county human rights law to explicitly protect transgender people … It is shocking to see county legislators who have dragged their feet on this vital issue doing the equivalent of a KKK blackface show to mock my people.”

[Below the fold, some comparisons between how African-Americans were portrayed in relevant news media and popular entertainment in the Jim Crow south and transgender people are portrayed by conservative Christian news media -- as well as in this recent drag show.]

Read the rest of this entry »

Non Sequitur’s Danae (a kindred spirit) on baboons and booger-brains …

I feel like I’ve been talking about public restrooms way too much of late. Blame the news cycles; blame conservative Christians — LGBT civil rights and public accommodation issues seem to be boiling down to which public restrooms transpeople are going to be using. It’s of special concern, it seems, which public restrooms transwomen are going to use.

It’s the perpetrator thing. Frankly, many women look at men who are strangers to them as potential predators, and these same women (along with their male protectors) perceive visibly transgender women who use women’s public restrooms as potential male rapists. And if these same women (and their male protectors) have female children, they perceive visibly transgender women who use women’s public restrooms as potential pedophiles. There’s hasn’t been any studies that have substantiated or unsubstantiated this fear of crossdressed males abusing women and children in women’s public restrooms, but this fear of crossdressed, male, public restroom perpetrators is being used in an attempt to shape public policy on LGBT civil rights and public accommodation legislation — most recently in Montgomery County, Maryland and Colorado.

But, the predator argument doesn’t work very when we’re talking about male-to-female transgender fifth graders. A ten or eleven year old who knows her gender identity doesn’t match her* natal sex isn’t going through the process of a social transition for sexual reasons. And, whether or not adults accept the idea that a fifth grader is self aware enough to understand when her gender identity and natal sex may not match, most are aware that fifth graders aren’t public restroom predators. Shannon Garcia and Kim Pearson of TransYouth Family Allies have frequently reminded me that transyouth really are the future key to public understanding of how gender identity in transsexuals isn’t directly correlated to sexuality.

So, since the scream of predator won’t work for a fifth grander, Mike Heath (of the Christian Civic League (CCL) Of Maine) and his conservative Christian surrogates are now trying to employ a privacy related strategy. Paul Melanson, a grandfather to a student in the same class as the transyouth, has announced he’s filing a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) — which is seen as a first step prior to filing a civil suit in U.S. District Court at Bangor. From the Bangor Daily News article on the lawsuit announcement press conference:

Jasmine Smith, 13, is concerned that next year the fifth-grader at Asa Adams Elementary School who identifies as a girl will be changing in the girls locker room.

At a press conference Monday night in front of the municipal building, the seventh-grader said that because she has seen the fifth-grader in the girls bathroom after school she assumes the student will be allowed to use the girls facilities at Orono Middle School.

“That would be an invasion of the girls’ privacy and of my privacy,” she said.

Smith acknowledged that no teachers or administrators have told students the fifth-grader would be changing in the girls locker room or using the girls bathrooms at the middle school.

Smith appeared at the press conference called by Paul Melanson of Orono, who formally has objected to the practice of allowing a boy to use the girls bathroom at the school. Melanson said he asked Smith to speak at the press conference to show that although school officials had told him the fifth-grader was using a teachers bathroom, he was using the girls bathroom.

The constitutional right to privacy is the basis right that found abortion legal in Roe v. Wade, so it’s an interesting choice of argument for conservative Christians to employ. But even past that it’s an interesting argument, the CCL choise to employ a privacy argument against this transyouth just doesn’t appear to resonate well with the public in the same way as a predator argument does with regards to older transgender people.

(Below the fold: Excerpts of comments left for the Bangor Daily News article Grandfather plans rights suit over boy using girls bathroom)

Read the rest of this entry »

And it’s a deliciously satirical (but painful) reminder of our last Presidential “election” …

~~~

Related …

Legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent dies at 71

Yves Saint Laurent, Fashion Icon, Dies at 71

~~~

h/t SwiftKids For Truth

In 1973, Homosexuality was was removed as a disorder from the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Second Edition (DSM-II). It was the step that recognized that individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward people of the same sex weren’t afflicted with a psychiatric disorder.

When we flash forward to 2008, we find Gender Identity Disorder — the diagnosis for transsexuals and gender-variant children — is found in DSM-IV TR. When the DSM is revised in a couple of years for DSM-V, Gender Identity Disorder will likely still be there. And, with the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis for children will further the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) approval of conversion therapy for children, used in an attempt to gender norm gender-variant/LGBT children (Think Zach).

The reason for concern is found some of the names in the work group committee — the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group. The press release identifies Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard as members of the group.

Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., is a name that every gay man and lesbian woman should know, especially if they were treated to become “straight” at a camp or a ex-gay affirming psychologist’s office. Sadly, almost no one in the LGBT community knows about the papers on gender identity by Zucker and Bradley, and the broader impact of these papers on LGBT community — especially on LGBT youth.

For those who aren’t aware, Gender Identity Disorder of Children is considered a pre-homosexual condition.

Without reinventing the wheel on the problems with Dr. Kenneth Zucker’s participation in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, let me recommend reading Donna Rose’s blog entry Zucker revisited: The lunatics rule the asylum.

In her piece, Donna refers to National Public Radio’s Two Families Grapple with Sons’ Gender Preferences; Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy. One of the two stories in the article and podcast is about a child having conversion therapy — at the recommendation of Dr. Zucker.

Another of the key players identified in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group is Ray Blanchard, famous for his transsexual diagnosis of autogynephilia. As Madeline Wyndzen, Ph.D., writes,

Blanchard’s model categorizes transsexuals into two types based on sexual orientation: “homosexual” (those attracted to their biological sex) and “non-homosexual.” A mis-directed sex drive causes transsexuality. The mis-directed sex-drive among “non-homosexual” transsexuals is called “autogynephilia.”

In other words, Blanchard believes it’s the mis-directed sexual orientation of men that causes transsexuality…

Several researchers and therapists have been surprised when I mention that Blanchard makes a causal argument: a mis-directed sex-drive (e.g., autogynephilia) causes gender dysphoria. His causal claims are what allows him to form categories of transsexuals based on sexual orientation. This is also the basis of his ability to explain cross-dressing and transsexuality within the same theory even in cases where transsexuals have no history of cross-dressing. That is a very impressive feat. Blanchard’s theory would not be able to account for this if, for example, he meant autogynephilia as a type of fantasy many non-homosexual transsexuals have to compensate for not being able to be their target sex (i.e. a reverse of the causal direction). The following quotations illustrate Blanchard’s causal claims as well as showing how this causal claim is an organizing principle for his entire theory.

For a other takes on the make-up of the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group and what’s at state from an transgender/intersexual perspective, I’d recommend Donna Rose’s GID, DSM, HRC, and more: A cornucopia of TLA’s, and Zoe Brain’s Transsexual Causation, the American Psychiatric Association, and Interpol.

Needless to say, gender-variant LGBT and straight youth, as well as transsexual adults, will likely have to deal with another decade plus of being considered seriously disordered — with its conversion therapy implication for children. Reform models for, or different takes on Gender Identity Disorder in DSM-V aren’t likely to be seriously considered with Zucker and Blanchard on the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group.

~~~~~Update~~~~~
Suggested course of action from Josephine Tittsworth:

It is important that we as a community respond to this news release. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) will be actively working very hard to create the newest version of the “Diagnotic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” version V (DSM V) which is scheduled to be available some time in, or shortly after, 2010. If Dr. Zucker is allowed on the committee to define the guidelines for diagnosing someone as Gender Identity Disorder (GID) then he will do it as a homosexual issue not GID and then implement his Reparative Therapy guide as the treatment. He will not allow the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines be the method on working with GID. Granted there are Pros and Cons as to whether GID should even be in the DSM to start with but as long as it is in the DSM we as a community need to respond to the APA with our comments and concerns. We can join together and write letters to APA stating our concerns and disputes with having a Biased staffing of a committee to determine the criteria for GID. Here is the address to send letters:

APA
1000 Wilson Blvd, Suite 1825
Arlington, Virginia 22209

We need to send letters and lotz of them to APA. We need to address the seriousness of staffing the committee to determine the GID criteria with a biased committee membership. Why for example are there not any Social Workers on that committee; there was one on the committee for the DSM IV?

Please post this notice to all groups across the globe!! This is very urgent!!!

Josephine Tittsworth, LMSW
Ph.D Student Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston
NTAC Board of Directors,Research Chair
PFLAG-TNET Board of Directors, West Sector Coordinator

This is a list (which I posted at Transgender News) of gender, transgender and intersex-related books slated for release from now until the end of the year. (The list of publishers and titles is culled from Publisher’s Weekly’s “Lesbian and Gay Titles May-December 2008: Complete Listings.”) …

ARSENAL PULP PRESS

queersexlife: Autobiographical Notes on Sexuality, Gender & Identity
(May, $19.95) by Terry Goldie is the York University English
professor’s frank and intimate collection of responses to theories of
queer sexuality and identity.

–

CITY LIGHTS

So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (Sept., $16 paper) by Mattilda Bernstein
Sycamore is set San Francisco, where a young gay man struggles to find
hope in the ruins of the everyday. Bernstein Sycamore is the
gender-bending author of the highly praised novel, Pulling Taffy, and
the editor of four nonfiction anthologies.

–

CLEIS PRESS

The Transgender Child (June, $16.95 paper) by Stephanie Brill and
Rachel Pepper is a comprehensive guidebook for parents and
professionals exploring the challenges of raising a transgender child.
Brill is founder of Gender Spectrum Education and Training and Pepper
is coordinator of LGBT Studies at Yale University.

–

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience (Oct.,
$23.95 hardcover) by Katrina A. Karkazis examines contemporary
controversies over the medical management of intersexuality in the
U.S. from the perspectives of patients, parents and clinicians.

–

FEMINIST PRESS AT CUNY

Trans (Dec., $22 hardcover) edited by Susan Stryker, Lisa-Jean Moore &
Paisley Currah explores the meaning of “trans” as it relates to
nationality, culture, race, and gender. Currah teaches at Brooklyn
College; Moore teaches at Purchase College; and Stryker won an Emmy
for her documentary Screaming Queens.

–

FIREBRAND BOOKS

Read My Lips: Second Edition (Nov., $14.95 paper) by Riki Wilchins
weaves theory and personal experience into a story of self-discovery
for lesbians, feminists, queer academics, activists and transpeople.
Wilchins is cofounder of the Transexual Menace and Executive Director
of GenderPAC.

–

HYPERION

Smile as They Bow (Sept., $24.95 hardcover) by Nu Nu Yi was
shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. It’s the
mesmerizing, lush story of a gay transvestite, his young assistant,
and a beautiful beggar girl, set among the gay spirit mediums of
Burma. One of Burma’s leading writers, Nu Nu Yi is the author of more
than 15 novels and 100 short stories.

–

ST. MARTIN’S/GRIFFIN

Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit (Sept. $14.95 paper) by Catherine
James is the former Wilhemina model’s memoir of how, after she had
escaped her miserable childhood, her father revealed himself to be not
just a cross-dresser but a transsexual, and her mother came back into
her life just in time to die, but not to change her attitude toward
her only daughter.

–

SUSPECT THOUGHTS PRESS (dist. by Small Press Distribution)

Dying for a Change (Aug., $17 paper) by Sean Reynolds is set in summer
1965, when Miss Dive, a famous drag queen from Chicago’s North Side,
is murdered, sending fierce drag queen Henrietta Wild Child and sexy
black butch Chan Parker on a mad romp, from low life bars to mob dens,
to find the killer.

–

UNIV. OF WISCONSIN PRESS

The Gendering of Men, 1600–1750: Volume 2, Queer Articulations (July,
$65 hardcover) by Brandeis Univ. Professor Thomas A. Kin looks at the
emergence of male homosexuals in early modern England analyzes the
perception of masculinity and effeminacy in the 18th century.

–

HENRY HOLT

Debbie Harry Sings in French (May, $16.95) by Meagan Brothers. A
troubled teenage boy finds strength in the music of Blondie and in
dressing like the band’s lead singer. (14-up)

–

LITTLE, BROWN

Luna (Sept., $7.99 paper) by Julie Anne Peters is a paperback reprint
of Peters’s 2004 novel about a transgender teen’s transition from girl
to boy. (12-up)

–

PENGUIN/SPEAK

Freak Show (Oct., $8.99 paper) by James St. James. The author’s 2007
novel about a teenage drag queen’s new life in Florida returns in this
paperback reprint. (14-up)

–

RANDOM HOUSE

Cycler (Aug., $17.99 hardcover) by Lauren McLaughlin. For four days
each month, high school student Jill turns into a boy. (14-up)

What I’m referring to here is the tendency of the mainstream media to focus on and give extensive coverage to a certain kind of trans or gender-related news. Generally, it seems these stories invariably involve celebrities (think back many years to Eddie Murphy and the “transvestite prostitute” story, for instance) or “oddities.” Last month, there was the “pregnant man” story. Vying for that media attention this month, there appear to be actually two news stories …

RONALDO, ONE OF the world’s best soccer players, is up to his knee-socks in scandal today after his run-in with a pair of transvestite prostitutes wound up on YouTube.

The Brazilian superstar told cops he had no idea the “ladies” he picked up were men until he brought them to a hot sheets hotel early Monday.

Footage of Ronaldo recoiling from them was taken by the spurned hookers, one of whom is under investigation for trying to extort $30,000 from the superstar, Brazilian media reported.

Andre Albertini, who goes by the name Andrea, denied he tried to blackmail Ronaldo and insisted the soccer star tried to buy his silence.

…

She-male kick in head for Ronaldo

(To say that headline writers often have a bit of fun with these stories is stating the obvious. The Times, on Ronaldo, “Three Ronaldo girls all had men’s tackle,” or The Standard’s “What a balls-up” are examples.)

… and …

Dude looked like a lady.

That’s what has puzzled researchers for years about Akhenaten, the famed pharaoh who introduced radical monotheism to ancient Egypt. While he fathered at least at least a half-dozen children, his body form was distinctly feminine.

Now Dr. Irwin Braverman, a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten, has a new theory on why. He was due to present his findings yesterday at an annual conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the ailments and deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh’s body to convert more male hormones to female hormones, Braverman said. The pharaoh had “an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters. But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique.”

…

Egypt’s pharaoh was king of queens

It was not all that long ago, by the way, that another Egyptian “gender-bender,” Hatshepsut, was in the news.

Many of you know about San Diego’s Third District City Council race because James Hartline is running for the seat. It’s obvious that I wouldn’t vote for Mr. Hartline, but it hasn’t been obvious who I’m for in the race.

So, who I’m for is Stephen Whitburn.

I became aware of Mr. Whitburn a long time ago specifically because of his support of transgender civil rights issues. Mr. Whitburn, as a member of the San Diego Democratic Club, was there supporting the adding of gender identity protections to San Diego’s Human Dignity Ordinance in 2003.

Since the passage of the HDO amendment, I’m aware he’s attended every major transgender event members have put on at The Center. Let me tell you, it’s not because my community has a lot of resources to dole out to his campaign, or have a large population of volunteers that will rush to his electoral assistance, but just because he genuinely embraces civil rights and human equality as values.

His stands on issues — and his priorities related to those issues — pretty much matches my own. Top among his and my concerns are open government — in line with the spirit of California’s Brown Act — and honest budgeting:

Excerpt:

…My name is Stephen Whitburn. I live in North Park, in council district three, and participate in several community groups.

I’m here to ask you to vote in favor of this item.

We — the citizens — have a right to know about plans to change the city services we receive. We also have a right to participate in the decision-making process.

The right to know is at the core of our state’s Brown Act. It requires that deliberations and actions be conducted openly.

Our city is in financial trouble partly because of discussions and decisions that we – the citizens – weren’t aware of. Now, more than ever, our city leaders should embrace our right to know what’s going on…

He’s also taken a pretty stong stand for marriage equality:

His commitment to equality in general, and marriage equality in specific, isn’t just mere words. He and I both worked on the same shift a few Saturdays ago in the Decline To Sign campaign, which was an attempt to keep the marriage initiative off California’s November ballot.

Well, I’ve even donated money to Stephen Whitburn’s campaign too — I’d only donated to the campaigns of transgender candidates prior to Mr. Whitburn’s run for City Council. And, now that I’m pretty much recovered from my gastric bypass, I’m sure I’ll be volunteering some time to his campaign as well.

Thanks Stephen, for giving me a candidate besides James Hartline to focus on in San Diego’s 3rd City Council District.