HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is changing its policy on how transgender people identify themselves on driver’s licenses.
The department and Equality Pennsylvania announced a settlement Wednesday that allows people to change the gender on their licenses if they are living full-time in the new gender and it can be verified by a licensed medical or psychological caregiver.
The previous policy only allowed changes in gender for drivers who could prove they’d had sexual reassignment surgery.
PennDOT says about half the states already have adopted a similar policy. The new policy takes effect immediately.
Category: news
PA Changes Gender Marker Rules
Posted by – August 31, 2010
Man Kills Toddler for Acting Like A Girl
Posted by – August 6, 2010
How terrifically sad. That poor family. 17 months old, for fuck’s sake.
He said, “I never struck the kid that hard before.” I’m overwhelmed by this guy admitting he hit the toddler before this incident, and because of why he hit him.
Lawful Spouse
Posted by – July 23, 2010
Still & again, echoes of the Christie Lee Littleton case:
The family of a Wharton firefighter who died battling a massive egg farm blaze is fighting to keep his widow from receiving death benefits, arguing that the 37-year-old had found out his bride of two years was born a man.
Feh. Here’s another take.
The Vegas 8
Posted by – July 22, 2010
Eight protestors stopped traffic on the Vegas strip in order to get Harry Reid to act on the pending ENDA legislation:
Fantastic, all of you & thank you for a creative, cool way to do it.
(via The Advocate)
Leak Plugged
Posted by – July 15, 2010
It’s about damn time.
BP Says New Cap Has Stopped Oil Leak
The company says oil has stopped gushing after all valves were shut on a new cap over the broken Gulf well in an experiment to stop the spill. Engineers are now monitoring the pressure to see if the busted well holds.
More at NPR.org:
http://n.npr.org/NPRI/jN116755398_519735_519734_Z.htm
Breeding Out Tomboys
Posted by – July 1, 2010
So what do you call it when a female doctor walks into a gene lab & doses all the pregnant mothers with a drug to prevent their daughters from wanting to work in “masculine” careers? Hypocrisy? Insanity? Female chauvinism? Pulling up the ladder under you?
I call it bullshit, but it’s happening. Dr. Maria New, an endocrinologist, is trying to prevent CAH in female infants, but as it turns out, the drug that prevents this masculinizing intersex condition in XX infants seems also seems to decrease incidents of lesbianism and bisexuality while simultaneously decreasing girls’ other “natural” impulses like playing with dolls and fantasizing about pregnancy and childbirth.
(Do little girls fantasize about pregnancy & childbirth? I had no idea. I never did, and I did play with dolls.)
From an article by Alice Dreger and two colleagues:
And it isn’t just that many women with CAH have a lower interest, compared to other women, in having sex with men. In another paper entitled “What Causes Low Rates of Child-Bearing in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?” Meyer-Bahlburg writes that “CAH women as a group have a lower interest than controls in getting married and performing the traditional child-care/housewife role. As children, they show an unusually low interest in engaging in maternal play with baby dolls, and their interest in caring for infants, the frequency of daydreams or fantasies of pregnancy and motherhood, or the expressed wish of experiencing pregnancy and having children of their own appear to be relatively low in all age groups.”In the same article, Meyer-Bahlburg suggests that treatments with prenatal dexamethasone might cause these girls’ behavior to be closer to the expectation of heterosexual norms: “Long term follow-up studies of the behavioral outcome will show whether dexamethasone treatment also prevents the effects of prenatal androgens on brain and behavior.”
In a paper published just this year in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, New and her colleague, pediatric endocrinologist Saroj Nimkarn of Weill Cornell Medical College, go further, constructing low interest in babies and men – and even interest in what they consider to be men’s occupations and games – as “abnormal,” and potentially preventable with prenatal dex:
So dex might have prevented Dr. Maria New, which right about now looks like it would have been a good idea.
I’d also like to point out right about here that, for the record, for all the people who pooh-pooh non-trans, gender variant women when we talk about being “third sexed” along with trans women, that it looks like us dykey, tomboy, uppity types are the first on the chopping block.
Still & all, Dan Savage asks an important question:
Gay people have been stressing out about the day arriving when scientists developed treatments to prevent homosexuality . . . Well, here we are—the day appears to have arrived. Now what are we going to do about it?
So what are we going to do about it?
Moratorium!
Posted by – June 15, 2010
It’s about damn time, but a six-month moratorium on deep water drilling is a start.
& To hell with the Minerals Management Service: ask any coal miner. I’m glad to hear there will be some attempt to get them to get their act together.
New Guidelines for Gender Marker Changes on US Passports
Posted by – June 10, 2010
This just in from NCTE:
Last night the US Department of State announced new guidelines for issuing passports to transgender people. Beginning today, applicants for a gender marker change on their passports will need to submit certification from a physician that they have received “appropriate clinical treatment” for gender transition. Most importantly, gender reassignment surgery is not required under the new policy.
The new rules will also apply to changing a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) for US citizens who were born outside of the United States. CRBA’s are the equivalent of a birth certificate.
For years, NCTE has been advocating with the State Department to change their rules about gender markers on passports and CRBA’s. Previously they had required proof of irreversible sex reassignment surgery before the gender marker could be changed, although there were exceptions for temporary, provisional passports to allow someone to travel for surgery.
NCTE and other advocates have stressed with the State Department that this policy unnecessarily called attention to transgender travelers whose appearance and gender marker were at odds. In some destinations, this had the potential to create an extremely dangerous situation when a traveler is outed as transgender in an unwelcoming environment or in the presence of prejudiced security personnel.
Fortunately, the new rules represent a significant advance in providing safe, humane and dignified treatment of transgender people. There are details in the guidelines about what information a physician must provide and we will communicate those to you as soon as possible. However, the State Department notes that applicants will not need to supply any additional medical documentation and that there is no SRS requirement.
“We want to extend our thanks to the Obama Administration, and particularly to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, for understanding the need for this change and then responding to make travel safer for transgender people,” commented Mara Keisling, Executive Director of NCTE. “This shows how changes in government policy directly impact people’s lives, in this case, for the better.”
In the next few days, NCTE will be issuing a definitive resource that fully explains the new guidelines and outlines the ways in which transgender people can make changes to their passports and CRBAs.
Many people-from elected officials to LGBT advocates-have worked for years to change these policies and deserve credit and thanks. Particularly important work was done by Rep. Barney Frank as well as Rep. Steve Israel in the House of Representatives; Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA), which represents LGBT employees and their families working in foreign affairs offices for the US government; all of our allied LGBT organizations who have been committed to this work, including the Center for Global Equality, The Task Force, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign; and those working on medical policies, including the American Medical Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
NYS GENDA Defeated
Posted by – June 8, 2010
Senator Lanza apparently takes his marching orders from Senator Diaz. Tell him how you feel about him retracting his yes vote at the last minute, ask Tom Duane why the hell he wasn’t there.
Vote: 12 ayes, 11 nays, 0 abstentions
Sen. Diaz: (unintelligible)
(Senator Lanza retracts his yes vote.)
New tally: 11 ayes, 12 nayes, 0 abstentions.
Speaker 8: Where is the sponsor, Senator Tom Duane? I thought the idea of the new committee rules was to make this a better process. If the sponsor isn’t here to hear our thought process, how can this bill be made better?
It’s just sad all around.
Fordham Gets Hip
Posted by – June 3, 2010
I went to Fordham for a split second, and it’s cool to see the university is finally giving health benefits to same-sex partners:
Faculty members fought for four years to extend equal benefits for every member of the faculty, regardless of sexual orientation. Previously, legally domiciled adults (LDAs) were not recognized in the faculty’s benefits package. This means that same-sex marriages and partnerships, including relationships between two men, two women, or between an unmarried man and woman, were not afforded the same benefits as marriages between heterosexual individuals.
What’s more interesting to me, & more precedent-setting, is the final sentence of the same paragraph:
LDA benefits also extend to faculty members who may be responsible for caring for an elderly parent or another dependent adult in their household.
Which is how it should be: anyone should be able to name their own dependent.
DADT House Vote
Posted by – May 27, 2010
The US House of Reps voted today to repeal DADT.
The Senate’s next.
Thailand Protests
Posted by – May 15, 2010
Just in case any of you are on your way, or have friends there, Thailand is a big mess at the moment:
The United States warned Saturday against all travel to Bangkok and authorised the evacuation of non-essential embassy staff and families.
Thailand has been riven by years of political turmoil since Thaksin was ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006.
Thai society is deeply divided between the urban elite and rural poor, with most of the Red Shirts from the north and impoverished northeast.
(via Ashley Altadonna)
Autumn Sandeen Update
Posted by – April 26, 2010
Pam of Pam’s House Blend has a post up at Daily Kos about Autumn Sandeen’s treatment in federal lock-up. I wish I could say I’m surprised. Autumn, in the meanwhile, is home safe & sound.
Per Ardua ad Astra
Posted by – April 26, 2010
The RAF has a pilot who is transitioning on the job, & nutty them, they think it doesn’t matter as long as she can still do her job.
(“Per Ardua ad Astra” is Latin for “through adversity to the stars” which is the motto of the RAF and which certainly be the motto of the trans community, no?.)
Guns, God… and the Trans?!
Posted by – April 23, 2010
Wow. A Republican trans woman named Donna Milo is running against an incumbent Democrat in Florida, which makes two trans women who don’t seem to understand politics.
Sorry, folks, but the Family Values crowd isn’t pro-transsexual, and if you actually think the old school Conservativism has any pull just now, you haven’t been paying attention. Trans or not, here’s hoping Milo loses (but I still hope her transness isn’t used to undermine her).
Autumn Sandeen Chains Herself to WH Fence
Posted by – April 20, 2010
No kidding – you go Autumn!
From GetEqual’s website:
Our hopes swelled when President Obama promised at the State of the Union to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the policy that discriminates against lesbian and gay servicemembers. But his words mean nothing without action. And he has an opportunity to take action right now. The Defense Authorization Bill (DAB) provides funding for all military operations, and it will soon be up for renewal.
President Obama knows that the DAB provides a way to repeal DADT immediately. And he knows that repealing the policy quickly and decisively is the right thing to do for LGBT servicemembers and for all of the armed forces. But recent reports suggest that the Administration is trying to delay any law change until December or even later.
Join us in supporting Lt. Dan Choi, Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, Petty Officer Larry Whitt, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Cadet Mara Boyd, and Cpl. Evelyn Thomas as they take action at the White House to demand that DADT be repealed through this year’s DAB
However:
Posted by – April 18, 2010
What happened to Harold and Clay is one of the many reasons same sex couples need more than visitation rights and ALL the same legal rights as anyone who is civilly married:
Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.
Read the whole brutal story, if you can stand it, at Bilerico.
Mourning Miners
Posted by – April 16, 2010
Thank you, President Obama, for saying what you’ve said about the miners’ deaths. I’ve been maybe uncharacteristically silent on their massacre, because I’ve had no words.
The owners of Massey should be responsible, forever, for the financial well-being of all the families those miners left behind, and they should have to provide for them all on miners’ wages.
It is amazing to me that anyone could ever think companies could be responsible & not need government oversight. Massey is what you get when you even relax safety standards.
Missive from Missoula
Posted by – April 14, 2010
Missoula, Montana passed an ordinance preventing their citizens from discriminating against other citizens on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It seems so sane, and simple, really. I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, those of us in places that don’t have such an ordinance might shame our neighbors: Really, we’re gonna be beaten out by Missoula?!
RIP Malcolm McLaren
Posted by – April 8, 2010
Oh, punk impressario: you put a 14 year old naked on the cover of an album, ripped off cultures in the great British imperialist tradition, & stole the Ants from Adam.
But punk wouldn’t have been punk without him.
The impressario is dead.
Love live the impressario.
