Ah, David Garza: I discovered him years ago & he has been scratching my itches for a long while. His range is amazing, his love songs heart-breaking (or, happily, heart-warming) and his voice is hot hot hot. This is a decent sampler but there are a lot more styles he’s done; if you can find somewhere to hear a song called “One Drop” go do it.
Not too long ago I went to what’s called “the Big Gay Conference” which is a conference for LGBTQIA ETC students who are attending colleges in the midwest. On Friday night, after we’d checked in and gotten Miss Bornstein checked in, I went down to register. As it turned out, there was a wedding going on the same weekend as the conference, so I found myself, name tag and schedule in hand, standing on a landing.
To my left, a cocktail party of the heteronormative variety: men in suits, women in cocktail dresses, hose and heels.
To my right, blue haired, pierced kids; boys in cigarette leg jeans; girls in ties, starched button-downs; trans people of many types.
I stood there for a while, hoping I had Moses’ staff, or at least his gumption, to ask for a parting of the waters that would provide a third, middle path. My life has been spent on that landing, really, popping back and forth between groups, hanging out in one because it’s where I feel more comfortable, but hanging out in the other because it’s the way I desire. Like Superman, I had to change clothes pretty often, and often with my clothes, my gender; I still long for a heterosexual space where I could be a het woman in a suit & tie, or for a queer space where I could be a woman who loves sex with men.
Sometimes, in rare moments, that third space appears: in the music scenes of the late 80s in NYC was one. Fetish clubs are sometimes another. But mostly I have had to decide between being with my people as a queer woman or pretending to be more gender normative than I actually am when I’ve had boyfriends.
The day has finally arrived when the trans community groans collectively: Susan Stanton’s CNN myopic is on tonight. Get out the fifth (or your drug of choice) because this one is going to be worse than the usual; previews are clear about that. We’ll get to see Stanton insult crossdressers and other trans people.
Sigh.
Mostly I would like for non-trans community to know that most trans people are nothing like Stanton: they don’t reek of privilege, for starters. White, wealthy trans women who transition later in life have always gotten more than their share of the media spotlight, and that’s unfortunate if only because it skews the picture of who trans people are, what they need, and what kinds of discrimination they deal with. Most cannot afford GRS, much less FFS (facial feminization surgery) or, alternately, phalloplasty & the like. People like Stanton (Chloe Prince, etc.) also make it seem as if every trans person comes from a heterosexual history and not only gets GRS but needs it; in fact, most MTF spectrum people don’t get genital surgery, for various reasons.
So if you’re not trans, please don’t bother someone you know who is tomorrow. If you really want to know more, try a book.
Milton Diamond, who is otherwise best known for being the person who exposed John Money’s failed “experiement” that was the life of David Reimer, has a new article in The Scientists on the cultural, societal value of porn.
Studies of men who had seen X-rated movies found that they were significantly more tolerant and accepting of women than those men who didn’t see those movies, and studies by other investigators—female as well as male—essentially found similarly that there was no detectable relationship between the amount of exposure to pornography and any measure of misogynist attitudes. No researcher or critic has found the opposite, that exposure to pornography—by any definition—has had a cause-and-effect relationship towards ill feelings or actions against women. No correlation has even been found between exposure to porn and calloused attitudes toward women. There is no doubt that some people have claimed to suffer adverse effects from exposure to pornography—just look at testimony from women’s shelters, divorce courts and other venues. But there is no evidence it was the cause of the claimed abuse or harm.
I’ve always been a fan – mostly because I grew up in a family where we were born fully dressed, and where no one was going to show me photos of what a vagina actually looked like (which, if you’re a woman, is hard to see for yourself). It can also be a useful instruction manual that’s actually fun to watch.
That said, I know there are plenty of feminists, and non-feminists, who hate porn and will only ever see the side of it that degrades women. I think of it more like comedy – sure, a lot of it’s lousy and mean-spirited and serves no cultural function, but the cultural function it does serve can’t really be fulfilled in any other way.
Read more: Porn: Good for us?
The ‘T’ is not Silent: Transgender History and Politics
Unite+Fight EAA Midwest Conference
Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 7:00pm – Sunday, March 14th, 2010 to 10:00pm (CT)
Columbia College Chicago
From TLDEF:
Last week, the New York State Assembly passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). The only remaining obstacle to the bill becoming law is the New York State Senate. The time is NOW to take action and make our final push to get the Senate to vote to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.
GENDA would amend the state’s human rights law to ban discrimination in housing, employment, credit and public accommodations. It also expands the state’s hate crimes law to explicitly include crimes against transgender people.
We need you to call your Senator and the lead Senate sponsor Tom Duane at their Albany offices to tell them that you want them to bring GENDA to the Senate floor and pass it. We’re at a crucial moment and it is vital that they hear from you.
Don’t groan, Sting-haters. Just go somewhere else you can be all superior.
I think these are all really pretty songs: one a Gershwin cover, & the others are by Sting, one with Cheb Mami on vocals. “Mad About You” is from that gem Soul Cages, & inspired by the story of David & Bathsheba.
Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for being the first female Best Director, for The Hurt Locker.
& Then, minutes later, it snags Best Picture, too. I suppose I should go see it now.
For those of you who have never heard me read from She’s Not the Man I Married, the Appleton Public Library put up a clip from my recent presentation there, this past Wednesday March 3rd.
My Husband Betty was published in January 2004, which means it’s been in print for six years.
She’s Not was published in 2007, which means it’s been in print for three years.
Kind of amazing, really, to know there are tens of thousands of copies of my books out in the world.
Fourth Annual Transforming Gender: Transgender Symposium to be Held at CU March 5 and 6, 2010
The Transgender Symposium will offer an array of talks, performances, art, film, and a workshop to increase visibility and education about transgender identities and experiences, and to bring together the local transgender and ally community.
Boulder, CO February 16, 2010 — The University of Colorado at Boulder’s GLBT Resource Center will be presenting its fourth annual Transforming Gender: Transgender Symposium March 5 and 6 at the CU Boulder campus. Offering an array of formats – including talks, performances, art, film screening, and a workshop – the Transgender Symposium seeks to increase visibility and education about transgender identities and experiences as well as to bring together the local transgender and ally community.
Presenters at this year’s Symposium include local transgender Reverend Malcolm Himschoot, local transgender award-winning artist and author Dylan Scholinski, and Tristan Taormino, an award-winning author and sex educator. Among the various topics that will be addressed at the Symposium are the intersections of gender identity and race, transgender sexuality, and the ways people respond to different expressions of gender. There will also be an art show featuring local transgender and ally artists.
This sounds cool:
(IN)VISIBLY AMERICAN – The Personal is Political in Queer Immigrants’ Rights – Thursday March 4, 2010, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM:
A special panel discussion about LGBT immigrants’ rights. We’ll hear stories from LGBT Asian American and South Asian immigrants, updates about immigration policy, and ways we can join the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. Reception and Networking: 6:30 PM. Program: 7:00 – 9:00 PM. Asian American Writers Workshop – 16 West 32nd Street – 10th Floor (between Fifth Avenue and Broadway) New York, NY 10001. See the enclosed attachment for additional information.
If anyone goes, do report back!
Thank you to all of the lovely people who came to my reading tonight at the Appleton Public Library. It was a really lovely crowd, but I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk more with the LU folks who came out to support me. I am determined to read fiction at my Fox Cities Book Festival reading @ the Harmony cafe on April 12th.
& I stand by my claim that I have never yet met a librarian who wasn’t extremely cool.
From the Empire State Pride Agenda:
The New York State Assembly has passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) for the third time. The Pride Agenda thanks the Assembly for once again taking a stand in support of transgender rights. We will post the final vote tally on “The Agenda” blog tomorrow.
Now, it’s time for the Senate to act! The Pride Agenda will be launching a GENDA Call-In Day to Senators statewide next week. Click here to tell your friends to sign up for our Action Alerts today so that they will hear from us next week when it’s time to take action!
The Pride Agenda just released the following statement regarding the Assembly’s passage of GENDA:Today the New York State Assembly voted by an overwhelming bipartisan margin to amend the state’s human rights law to include anti-discrimination protections based upon gender identity and expression. The bill (A.5710), known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), bans discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, credit and public accommodations. It also expands the state’s hate crimes law to explicitly include crimes against transgender people. The Assembly has now passed the bill by large bipartisan margins the past three years; Governor Paterson has also said he will sign GENDA into law should the Legislature send it to him.
“Transgender New Yorkers shouldn’t have to live in fear that they lack basic protections and could lose their job or be denied a lease on an apartment or service in a restaurant just because of who they are,” said Interim Executive Director Joe Tarver. “In passing this bill, the Assembly continues to demonstrate its leadership on civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) New Yorkers. We thank Assemblymember Richard Gottfried for his sponsorship and support of this bill, as well as the Assemblymembers who voted to pass it.”
“The State Senate remains the only obstacle to passing GENDA. It is now time for the Senate to follow the Assembly’s lead and end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers once and for all by passing GENDA,” said Tarver. “Transgender New Yorkers can’t—and shouldn’t have to—wait any longer.”
Transgender people face severe discrimination in New York. A 2009 needs assessment of New York State’s LGBT community conducted for the Pride Agenda found that 20.7% of transgender New Yorkers have incomes of under $10,000 a year, and one-third are or have been homeless at one time; 28.4% have experienced a physical or sexual assault motivated by transphobic or homophobic violence that was serious enough to require medical care.
Twelve states and the District of Columbia have comprehensive laws banning discrimination based upon gender identity and expression, covering public and private sector employment as well as other areas of everyday life. Eight additional states including New York have executive orders covering public employees only.
According to a March 2008 Global Strategy poll, 78 percent of registered New York voters support passing a bill to protect transgender people. This support is strong across the state, including upstate (74%), New York City (79%) and the downstate suburbs (82%); and among Democrats (86%), Republicans (67%) and Independent voters (78%) alike.
Oh, how I love her. She nails that perfect mix of pop cheeriness with clever, cutting lyrics.
but when they bring me back to you
& tell you that I’m shiny new
the girl you see may not be me behind these eyes – anymore
Honestly, how can you not love a band that can work a kazoo unironically?
I’m reading Wednesday night at the Appleton Public Library, 6:30 PM — be there or be square.
