Posted on

Two Tune Tuesday :radiohead:

A friend recently admitted, shyly, that he can’t seem to “get into” Radiohead and asked me what, exactly, I like about them. My first thought was “What’s not to like?” but then I said things about their unusual rhythms, the layers of sound, the density of the expression. Good lyrics. They are, in a nutshell, a lovely electronic tilt at a quixotic world. They’re also the first band Betty turned me onto; I returned the favor with Elvis Costello.

The first song I heard was the first one here, “High and Dry.” “No Surprises” was probably my next favorite.
“There There” is my favorite song in the world to dance to. Really. (Followed closely by “Idioteque” which seems to be one of Thom Yorke’s favorites to dance to as well.)
“Stop Whispering” is the perfect angry but exhausted song ever.

So, yeah. (There’s plenty more Radiohead I could add, but theoretically, at least, it’s one thing to double “two tunes” another to make it “Twelve Tune Tuesday.”)

Posted on

Pelosi Doesn’t Have Balls

Fantastic rant from ultrageek over at Daily Kos:

She has courage. She has guts. She has a spine. She has tenacity. She has fortitude. BUT, she does NOT have balls. The inner feminist in me, long hidden in my workaday world, has been getting more and more irritated all day by the continual reference to Speaker Pelosi’s non-existent testicles.

Let me be clear: ONE DOES NOT NEED TO BE MALE IN ORDER TO GET THINGS DONE IN WASHINGTON . . .

It took someone with a uterus to make this happen, to bring this home.

And, while I’m at it, can we please stop talking about what a good looking woman she is? How she looks so young, and vibrant, and HOT?

JESUS CHRIST! WHAT DOES A WOMAN HAVE TO DO TO BE JUDGED ON HER OWN MERITS?

This woman brings home one of the most progressive pieces of legislation in 45 years, and we talk about her HOTness? Are you shitting me?

No, they are not shitting you, ultrageek; a woman’s hotness is still, surely, far more important than her accomplishments. (& We wonder why we can’t get more women into office.)

Posted on

Bathroom Salon

& Here’s some more (not) good news: a group called Mass Resistance took video of First Event, the annual trans party/conference that takes place up in Boston in January of every year. They cobbled together some footage (badly) in order to show very tall trans women & crossdressers using the ladies’ room at the Radisson where the event was held.

What’s funny about the video is how horrendously boring it all looks. I mean, video footage of people going into & leaving a bathroom is exactly that. You may as well watch paint dry. With any luck, at least some of the people who viewed it thought, “um, yeah. People using a bathroom. Nothing horrible happened.”

On a positive note, Salon’s Broadsheet actually covered the horror of the bigotry being expressed. It’s good to see Salon start to cover trans issues with compassion and even some regularity.

(to to Jean)

Posted on

Happy 100th Anniversary, Die Transvestiten

It’s been a hundred years since Magnus Hirschfeld published The Transvestites. The earliest bibliographic entries Ray Blanchard tracked down are these:

Die Transvestiten – Eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb [Transvestites – A Study of the Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress], Pulvermacher, Berlin, 1910.

Co-authored with Max Tilke: Die Transvestiten – Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb [Transvestites – The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress], Illustrierter Teil, Pulvermacher, Berlin, 1912.

How cool is that? I couldn’t help but think that Virginia Prince died only last year, at the age of 96. Imagine, she was born only a few years after that book was published, when the idea of anyone being “out” about crossdressing was – to borrow from Hirschfeld’s language – verboten.

It’s hard to imagine what might have been, if the Nazis had not destroyed Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sex.

Posted on

Rant On

Sometimes, only a rant will do. This one is called “I’m just a Bundle of Sticks… I’m Meant to Be Aflame.”

The thing about being a fag is that it’s tiring. I am tired of your ignorant comments that you are too thick to get are ignorant. I am not a woman, so please, stop treating me like one. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with being a woman, just that my sexual orientation does not change or even affect my gender identity. Stop treating me like “one of the girls,” I can assure that I am a guy. And that works conversely for all of your lesbian friends who, by the way, are not all on sports teams! Once again: sexual orientation and gender identity not conflatable.

It was written by a gay college student who was “born in the south, raised in Colordao Springs (the Evangelical capital of America… did I mention that I am a Jew), and did high school in New York City.”

Posted on

Move ENDA Now

Take Action: Demand LGBT Employment Rights Today

Note from Helen: (en)gender is participating in a blogswarm today with Bilerico Project, Daily Kos, Open Left, Towleroad, Pam’s House Blend, Joe My God, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Daily Gotham, Culture Kitchen, Taylor Marsh, Page One Q, and Dan Savage, among others. Contact Speaker Nancy Pelosi and ask that she move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3017) to a floor vote.

ENDA is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and would prohibit job discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Hearings were held in the House and in the Senate to demonstrate the need for the bill, and testimony was heard on the severe unemployment, underemployment and harassment experienced by LGBT workers. Witnesses testified to the scientific studies demonstrating this.

A clue to the inaction: Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly told Democrats that she would not move controversial bills. Meanwhile, the House Committee has stated its readiness to move, but is waiting for a signal from Speaker Pelosi. She doesn’t move it, & we can’t wait any more: there is a majority in both Houses of Congress in favor of ENDA. Now is the time to move it.

Please call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965. Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote. Please be polite, but firm.

More at Bilerico, and especial thanks to Jillian Weiss.

Posted on

US Nuns Rock the House (& the Church)

It’s rare that a bit of political news actually makes me tear up, but the efforts by the Catholic US nuns today did:

Their numbers and influence may be declining, but American nuns demonstrated Wednesday what generations of schoolchildren already knew: They are a force to be reckoned with.

By sending a letter to Congress in support of the Senate healthcare bill, a wide coalition of nuns took sides against not only the Republican minority but against their own church hierarchy, as represented by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes the bill. The nuns’ letter contributed to the momentum in favor of the legislation, despite opposition that is partially rooted in a disagreement over abortion funding.

“We agree that there shouldn’t be any federal funding of abortion,” said Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice advocacy organization that spearheaded the effort. “From our reading of the bill, there isn’t any federal funding of abortion.”

Rock on, ladies.