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Keeping Up with Buck

I’ve always been a fan of Buck Angel’s – because he comes from an industry where genitals couldn’t be more important (porn) and yet he managed to make having a vagina work, and that as a person who is undoubtedly male. He also did the first trans-on-trans porn, with Alannah Starr, waaaaay back in 2005, and taught an entire porn crew how not to stutter when saying “her penis” and “his vagina”.

But the cool thing is that he’s now decided to do sex ed, as because he’s retiring from porn. Do also check out this interview with him by Tristan Taormino. Right now he’s down at Southern Comfort (oh, the irony of the name for a trans man with a famous vagina) which happens this fall weekend annually.

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Gaga Feminism Blog Tour

J. Jack Halberstam’s new book, Gaga Feminism, is out, and it is a fascinating read; I highly recommend it. For those of you who are turned off my academic writing but like gender theory, give this a try. It’s funny, first of all, but it’s also the kind of book that leads you to think in new ways and to ask new questions. I had a revelatory moment thinking about the inter-generational quality of queer culture, and honestly, that’s only mentioned in passing. This one sends off really useful sparks.

I asked the author to comment the intersection of basic legislative issues that have been in the news – saying “vagina” in the state house, “legitimate rape”, issues of choice/abortion, etc., in the context of gaga feminism, and here is Halberstam’s response:

When did “vagina” suddenly become a fashionable term? First Lisa Brown, a state representative for Michigan, shocked her Republican colleagues when she used the word “vagina” to try to debate anti-choice legislation in her county. When Brown and another colleague were silenced for supposedly turning a polite conversation into one lacking in decorum, Eve Ensler pulled into town to save the town with another long speech on vaginas – The Vagina Monologues!! Meanwhile, Republicans got into their own hot water while debating vaginas – Republican Rep. Todd Akin called upon an apparently vast and deep reservoir of knowledge about the female body and its reproductive potential when, in defense of his indefensible position that rape victims should not have access to abortion, he suggested that in a “legitimate” rape, the female body would mysteriously reject the offensive sperm and protect itself from pregnancy. And then of course, feminist writer Naomi Wolf put out her own take on the suddenly hot topic and provided us with a “biography” of the vagina.

Wow! How to make sense of all these vaginas, some of them with brains (Wolf), some of them with primal prophylactic powers (Akin), some of them with so much to say (Ensler). In my new book, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal, I do not use the word vagina at all! Instead of pitting bodies with vaginas against bodies with penises, I argue that we are living in a new world where the categories of male and female are rapidly being updated all around us. In this world of sperm banks, IVF, queer families, butch daddies, transgender men and women, heteroflexible women, pretending to be offended by the use of the word “vagina” in a public speech or making insupportable claims about rape and pregnancy are not just quaint and old-fashioned, they signal a deep ignorance about the world we live in and the enormous changes that have taken place within it in the last two decades. So rather than making the vagina talk back to the idiocy of Christian or Republican hypocrisy by giving it a biography or a monologue, it is time to move on from simple, genital genders and start actually engaging the many forms of gendered embodiment that are moving us out of the age of normativity and into a new era of going gaga!

The next stop on the tour is at Queer Fat Femme, who is generally and specifically amazing, so do go check that out.

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NYC

Just go ahead & bite me if you have a problem with NYC being the best place in the world.

(Thanks to my colleague Monica Rico for the suggestion.)

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Wendy Carlos at the DNC?

A reader sent this along:

Didn’t Wendy Carlos (Switched on Bach, The Well Tempered Synthesizer, A Clockwork Orange, etc.) sing / preform the National Anthem at a DNC? I think it was one of the Jimmy Carter Conventions which would be 1980 or 84. There was a bit of an uproar since the Convention Program listed . . . her former first name . . . but out came Wendy.

Can anyone confirm this?

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Trans Delegates at the LGBT Caucus

This is too cool. Historically cool.

That said, one of my readers has pointed out that a trans person served as a delegate as early as 1968. After that, not until 2002 (as far as I know). And now: 14.

And one delegate is from Wisconsin, even.

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President Obama’s Accomplishments for Transgender Americans

President Obama’s Accomplishments for Transgender Americans is a new document (pdf) that you can download to print or send to your friends & family.

In honor of these accomplishments & to celebrate President Obama’s speech tonight, do consider donating to his campaign.

President Obama has taken unprecedented steps to expand rights, benefits, and resources for transgender people. From jobs and health care to veterans’ benefits and safer working, learning and traveling environments, the well-being of transgender Americans has been a priority of this Administration.

PRESIDENT OBAMA TOOK PIVOTAL STEPS TO ENSURE THAT TRANSGENDER AMERICANS HAVE STRONGER PROTECTIONS AGAINST HATE CRIMES AND DISCRIMINATION

  • On October 28, 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law, making it a federal crime to assault another individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. This is the first time gender identity has been protected by federal law.
  • Obama Administration Officials have collaborated with transgender advocates to discuss strategies to prevent bullying and end gender-based violence.
  • The State Department now includes an evaluation of the state of LGBT citizens in its annual country reports, in order to better identify abuses, state-sanctioned homophobia and transphobia overseas.

PRESIDENT OBAMA TOOK STEPS TO HELP MAKE SURE THAT PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENTS ARE SAFER FOR TRANSGENDER EMPLOYEES

  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission clarified that Title VII sex discrimination law covers transgender workers.
  • The Obama Administration ended the Social Security Administration’s gender “no-match” letters, helping to protect the privacy of transgender workers.
  • President Obama sent the first U.S. Executive Branch official to testify before Congress in support of the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • President Obama banned employment discrimination based on gender identity in the federal government.
  • President Obama‘s Office of Personnel Management produced and distributed guidance to promote safer federal working environments for transgender employees.

PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS WORKED TO SAFEGUARD TRANSGENDER YOUTH FROM BULLYING AND HARASSMENT IN SCHOOLS

  • President Obama worked with educators across the nation to prevent bullying and his Department of Education clarified that laws enforced by the department include protections against gender and sexual harassment of transgender students.
  • President Obama’s Secretary Of Education reaffirmed federal support of young people forming Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) under the Equal Access Act.

FROM VETERANS TO FAMILIES, PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS IMPROVED ACCESS TO RESPECTFUL, QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR TRANSGENDER AMERICANS

  • The Department Of Health and Human Services confirmed that federal health care programs and those receiving federal funds are barred from discriminating against transgender people.
  • President Obama required all hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds to recognize a patient’s designated partner, both for hospital visitation and decision-making rights, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services is collecting health data on LGBT populations in an effort to help researchers, policy makers, health care providers, and advocates identify and work to reduce health disparities in the community.
  • Under President Obama’s leadership, the Veterans Health Administration established policy to ensure comprehensive and respectful health care to the transgender and intersex Veterans enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system or who are otherwise eligible for VA care.
  • The Veterans Health Administration now allows transgender veterans to update their medical records according to their gender identity.
  • The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced grant opportunities to address HIV health care quality specifically for transgender women of color, a demographic disproportionately limited by quality care.
  • The Affordable Care Act bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity in operating insurance exchanges.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO ADDRESS THE UNIQUE DISCRIMINATION FACED BY TRANSGENDER AMERICANS SEEKING SAFE, EQUAL HOUSING

  • The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced new anti-discrimination rules in federally funded housing prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • HUD’s Live Free fair housing education and outreach campaign specifically targeted the transgender community, to inform them of their resources and rights to report discrimination.
  • The Obama Administration has set a goal of ending youth homelessness, including LGBT youth homelessness, by 2020, and has awarded a $3.3 million grant to the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center to begin to address LGBT youth homelessness.

UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA’S LEADERSHIP, TRANSGENDER AMERICANS AND THEIR INTERNATIONAL LOVED ONES ARE NOW ALLOWED PASSPORTS AND IMMIGRATION DOCUMENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR GENDER IDENTITY

  • The State Department now allows transgender Americans to update their passport gender markers without requiring invasive medical procedures.
  • The Obama Administration updated the nation’s immigration procedures to allow transgender people to update and record their gender on immigration documents without being required to undergo invasive medical procedures.

PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS EXEMPLIFIED ACROSS HIS ADMINISTRATION HIS UNPRECEDENTED COMMITMENT TO INCREASED VISIBILITY, DIGNITY, AND RESPECT FOR THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY

  • President Obama appointed three openly transgender people to serve in his administration, making him the first president ever to do so.
  • The U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan became the first U.S. Cabinet Secretary to address a transgender-specific community event.