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Weird Al Has a Big Dictionary

Clever, clever, clever: and his grammar’s all on, too. Also, I’d like to thank him for providing a guilt-free, child-friendly version of one of the catchiest tracks of recent years.

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White House Issues New Guidelines for Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Wow is this overdue, but very, very welcome.

“The American people have kind of woken up to the fact that we’ve got a serious problem when 20 percent of coeds say they’ve been sexually assaulted,” said Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California.

Lawmakers and the White House have condemned the assaults on campuses, but the federal government has largely left it up to college officials and the local authorities. Congress last year passed the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, which requires domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking cases be disclosed in annual campus crime statistics. But victims’ advocates say that does not go far enough.

And a federal law from decades ago that requires colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses, including sex offenses, is rarely enforced, critics say . . .

Last year, the agency fined Yale University $165,000 for failing to disclose four sexual offenses involving force over several years. Eastern Michigan University paid $350,000 in 2008 for failing to sound a campus alert after a student was sexually assaulted and murdered. The department also reach a settlement last year with the University of Montana at Missoula after investigating the university’s sexual-misconduct policies and finding them woefully inadequate.

Under the new crackdown, the White House will urge colleges and universities to conduct “climate surveys,”  in which participants  anonymously report their experiences with unwanted physical contact, sexual assault or rape, and how their schools responded. Some lawmakers would like to see such surveys mandatory and to possibly make federal funds like Pell grants contingent on their being carried out . . .

Ms. Speier would like to see the government do more, liked requiring schools to post Title 9 rights and where students should go if raped.

Under the White House plan, the federal government would also help colleges and universities gain a better understanding of their obligations to protect students and their legal rights.

20% of coeds.  That’s disturbing. (Also, can we stop using the term “coed”? It’s anachronistic, at best, at this point, if not just sexist.)

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CFP: Letters From Our Partners

Call for Submissions: Letters From Our Partners
Deadline: April 1, 2014
Word Limit: 2500
Publisher: Transgress Press
Contact: jess@iamsocialjustice.com

Letters From Our Partners, inspired by the 2011 Lambda Literary Finalist Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect, is an anthology of letters written by partners/spouses of trans* people to their trans* partner(s). We are looking for personal stories from partners who are or have been in a relationship with trans men, trans women, and/or non-binary trans* people.
We are interested in stories related to but not limited to:

• Personal Identity: How is or has your identity been challenged or supported by your partner(s)’s identity? What gender roles and expressions have evolved through these relationships? Has your self perception of your own gender or identity evolved or changed? What about your perception of gender outside your relationship?

• Relationship Disclosure: How has your relationship(s) impacted personal, community, family, work, etc., based relationships, roles, etc.? Do you or your partner(s) disclose your partner(s)’s trans status to people you know in these different circles? What has their reaction been?

• Physical Embodiment: Has your partner(s) chosen to access medical transition? If so, how has this medical transition affected your relationship? Have differences in hormones impacted your relationship emotionally, mentally, spiritually, sexually, etc? How has your partner(s)’s desire or lack thereof for surgical procedures affected your relationship dynamics, your gender role as a partner, or your identity?

• Identity Disclosure: What was/is your partner(s)’s coming out process like personally, professionally, etc? How has this disclosure impacted your life as his/her/their partner?

• Relationship Dynamics: What changes have occurred in your relationship and across relationships? Have you shifted from monogamy to polyamory, or vice versa? Did you ever consider ending your relationship? Have you raised children? Have you connected with or distanced yourselves from extended family? Were these changes related to your partner(s)’s transition or trans status? If so, how?

• Support System: As a partner how have you found support? What supports did or do you need? At what point(s) in your relationship did you need the most support? Has this support brought about success in your relationship or your life? If so, how?

• Self Care: How do you manage your own needs as a partner? Has your own identity ever contradicted or complicated your partner(s)’s social, medical, or internal gender transition? If so, how do you manage this contradiction?

• Identity Intersection(s): How does class, race, ability, religion, education access, immigration, military service, family status, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, and physical embodiment and the like also come up regarding you and your partner(s) before, during, and after a gender transition process or lack thereof?
About the editors:

Jessica Pettitt is a social justice educator and works to connect people to the solution to their problems. As the queer wife of a transman and co-parent to two mutts, Jess calls Northern California home. In between traveling from campus to campus and organization to organization, she also serves as a reader and editor for a lot of publications and has published several articles herself including a reflection journal. The second and third edition of this journal and a huge facilitation guide for this resource will be published within the year.

Jordon Johnson, M.S.W., M.A., is the Coordinator for the McKinley Community PLACE MATTERS team, which seeks to change systems that perpetuate environmental health disparities related to the impacts of institutional racism and multi-generational trauma, by empowering participating communities within the county to impact equitable policy change. He has taught courses in Social Work and American Studies in universities throughout New Mexico. He is currently a PhD Candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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DC Mayor Announces Trans Health Policy

via the DC city blog:

Mayor Gray Announces Steps to Protect GLBT Community from Discrimination in Health Care

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, the District of Columbia advanced the rights of the city’s transgender community by prohibiting discrimination in health insurance based on gender identity and expression. Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced the Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking (DISB) is issuing a bulletin to District health insurance companies addressing the application of anti-discrimination provisions in the insurance code, including recognizing gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder, as a recognized medical condition.

“Last March, the District began the process of removing exclusions in health insurance on the basis of gender identity or expression. Through the hard work of my Office of GLBT Affairs and a multi-agency working group lead by my Chief of Staff, Chris Murphy, we have today taken the necessary steps to completely eliminate these exclusions,” said Mayor Gray.  “Today, the District takes a major step towards leveling the playing field for individuals diagnosed with gender dysphoria. These residents should not have to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses for medically necessary treatment when those without gender dysphoria do not. Today’s actions bring us closer to being One City that values and protects the health of all of our residents.” 

This action follows DISB’s March 15, 2013 bulletin notifying health insurers to remove language that discriminated on the basis of gender identity and expression from their policies and permit those with gender dysphoria to obtain medically necessary benefits. Today’s action goes one step further in protecting this community’s health insurance rights by affirming that gender dysphoria is a recognized medical condition and thereby treatment, including gender reassignment surgeries, is a covered benefit. To view the full bulletin, click here: http://disb.dc.gov/publication/disb-bulletin-13-ib-01-3013-revised-prohibition-discrimination-health-insurance-based

“This action places the District at the forefront of advancing the rights of transgender individuals,” Mayor Gray said. “It also fully implements the District’s Human Rights Act by incorporating gender identity and expression as protected classes in the District’s health insurance laws.” Continue reading “DC Mayor Announces Trans Health Policy”