It’s Over!

It’s over, it’s over!! Dubya is out of office, & so are all his fuckwad cronies. I can hardly believe it: the long national nightmare is over.

(Even if there is a lot of cleaning up to do.)

Go MA!

And in the meantime, Massachusetts proves itself the most civilized of all our states, for changing its law on what it takes to change your gender marker on your license:

The new policy requires a person who wishes to change the gender marker on their state issued identification to submit an updated application together with a Gender Designation Change Form, signed by him or her and a medical provider attesting to the gender that the individual considers himself or herself to be. The policy no longer requires a person to submit medical proof of sex reassignment surgery or an amended birth certificate.

Leading me to conclude that the best place to live as a quasi same sex couple when one of you is trans is Massachusetts.

Local Issue

Within a few weeks of me arriving in Appleton, a transgender person named Sierra Broussard filed a lawsuit against a local club for not allowing her in. They checked her ID which still has an M & didn’t let her in. The Post Crescent, the local paper, covered the story.

There were so many comments left on that story that they wrote another story about the lawsuit for Sunday’s paper. The reporter asked for people who were willing to be interviewed, and me and Lynne volunteered.

I wanted to thank Cheryl Anderson, the journalist on the story, for getting across what I had to say. Sadly, however, she called Betty “he.” Unfortunately for Betty, there is enough evidence for me using “he” – from when she had a multi-gendered identity – that I can understand how that happens, even if I said “she” and “partner” throughout the interview. Of course if she met Betty that “he” would never seem appropriate.

I don’t know Ms. Broussard personally, but I do know that the whole “it” thing is unacceptable (as Lynne says in the interview) and that a person who lives as female 24/7 should use the ladies’ room. The legal hocus pocus is what people don’t necessarily understand: that a penis is not really a penis once it’s been on estrogen for even a few months; that genital surgery is not covered by health insurance *and* that it’s very expensive, and to plenty of people it’s just unnecessary surgery – and who wants to have surgery that they don’t have to have? That’s what I meant by education & tolerance; that maybe the average Joe doesn’t know all that’s involved, and that if they knew more, they might not be so quick to criticize the decision not to have genital surgery.

The problem is the legal requirement for genital surgery to change a gender marker on an ID. We have to come up with another way for trans people to change that, because surgery is a ridiculous requirement.

This Is What?

How hot is this?

You can get a year’s subscription to Ms. Magazine AND this nifty poster for $35.

The other day while writing my Blog for Choice post, I realized it was the first time I wrote one with a pro-choice president in office.

& The Global Gag Rule has already been repealed.

There is nothing sexier than a guy who is a feminist & who backs it up with legislation.

(I promise I’ll stop posting about President Obama soon. Okay, maybe not. But I’ll try not to, promise.)

Friday Cat Blog in WI

Since Betty’s not here to see the boys do their usual goofy stuff, I’ve been taking more photos of them, & thought I might resurrect Friday Cat Blog in order to share them. So here’s the first of a series: