my local chapter of the pink pistols has a new website and a new name: valley of the sun pink pistols. check it out.

according to enough non-sense, i’m a so called activist. my mother would be proud.

i been reading lisa’s post over on questioning transphobia that highlights an article published in cosmos magazine entitled “Gene linked to transsexualism”. another link in the comments points to a bbc article covering the same study. in a nut shell:

…some male-to-female transsexuals carry a different form of a gene, called an androgen receptor, which modifies the body’s response to testosterone.
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…the form of the gene found in the transsexual group had a larger number of repeats of a short, repetitive sequence of DNA - making the gene significantly longer than the form found in the control group of non-transsexual men.
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…”This [study] supports the notion that transsexualism has a biological basis rather than being due to psychosocial factors in early childhood…

many of the comments in lisa’s post express many of my concerns. while i support studying gender identity and its causes, i’m not very confident that the resulting data will be used to my benefit, and/or for the benefit of other members of my tribe.

i can imagine that at some point, some biological template will be developed to diagnose “gender identity disorder”, and those who don’t “measure up” will be denied medical treatment or insurance coverage. or worse, that the unborn will be tested for this and either aborted or “cured” while still in the womb.

it’s unfortunate that a culture who has the technology to study and identify the causes of humanity’s diversity, also has the technology to destroy those types of people that are arbitrarily deemed undesirable.

and frankly, i think we’d all be a lot better off studying the cause of bigotry, and working on a cure for that.

in honor of halloween, they offered zombie targets at the range. of course, i had to get one. a few orange stickies and a shoot-n-see made sure this zombie would never walk the earth again.

i had stopped by cabela’s during the week to pick up some ammo for today’s pink pistol shoot, and they had the winchester super x 22LR ammo on sale, for about the same as the regular price for the mini mag ammo i normally use. i picked up a box to try. it worked flawlessly in both my smith & wesson 2206tgt and my walther p22. i really didn’t notice a difference between the two ammo types. that’s good, in that i didn’t waste $6.00. bad, in that at the regular price of $10.00, i’ll stick with the cci mini mag stuff.

david moore, co-owner of crew’s inn in dallas, issued an apology in the dallas voice.

“We at the Crews Inn do not discriminate. We appreciate all of our customers. If anyone has felt offended or discriminated against, we certainly did not intend to do so.

“We believe that all customers should have a good experience at the Crews Inn, and we take our responsibility to ensure that seriously.”

apparently, the women banned accept his apology. personally, when the apology includes language like “If anyone has felt offended or discriminated against, we certainly did not intend to do so.”, that puts a damper on the sincerity. you know, i’m sorry i banned your ass, i didn’t mean to offend you. wtf?

in other news, hospital technician daniel i. alawoya rapes a transgender “male” patient and gets time served and three years probation. (though the article refers to the victim as a “transgender male patient”, i’m inclined to believe she’s a trans woman, despite the pronouns.) i find it interesting that:

“If you scream, I’ll kill you,” the victim said Alawoya told him while choking him. The sexual activity lasted between 15 and 40 minutes.

translates to “committing a lewd act”. of course i’m just a mere trans woman, but to me, that sounds like rape. thank god for plea bargaining.

and finally, if a school is set up to create an environment that’s safe for lgbt people, it’s considered to be all about sex. never mind that the kids can’t attend school without getting their heads bashed in on a daily basis. just “get out of the bedroom” and the head bashing is ok. another wtf moment.

and special thanks to marti for fixing my template and restoring my blog roll and categories!

without any fanfare, it looks like sportwriter mike penner is back at the l.a. times.

Eighteen month after writing a column about becoming Christine Daniels, veteran sportswriter Mike Penner has quietly returned to work at the Los Angeles Times, according to multiple sources close to the LAT’s Sports staff. Penner’s column in April 2007 about his sexual transformation became one of the most-viewed Times’ stories of the year and was followed by a story in the LAT from media writer James Rainey and tons of other media attention. Daniels for a time chronicled her transformation in a blog at LATimes.com; the blog entries have been removed and the Times has so far posted nothing about Penner’s return.

transitioning is hard enough. i can’t imagine de-transitioning, especially in the public eye.

and sorry about that picture - it was the only one i could find.

if i disappear totally, i leave my blog to dyssonance. everything else goes to my husband.

for some reason, i’ve just lost my blog roll and categories. it’s also odd seeing a screen shot of my blog on my blog. maybe i am vain…

there’s been some talk about this episode of bones (as well as the top 15 trans killer movies).

i started watching the bones episode on hulu, but had to turn it off after about 10 minutes.

i suppose it is for all the reasons suggested in the variety of posts listed, and quotes from the show like “Do you think it means anything? She lived her life split in two, then, in death, split in two again.”, that i have it in my will, that i am to be cremated upon my death. if my husband survives me, i trust him to make sure that happens. if not, i am confident that in a hundred years, someone may come across my remains, and gender me male, full stop.

i suppose there are those who would call me vain, or wanting to perpetuate my “deception” or “illusion” beyond death.

if i’m remembered, i simply want to be remembered as my authentic self.

at work, we can win points when we perform well, or win contests. i’ve been using mine to rebuild my beatles collection. especially since their music is still not available on iTunes.