Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
I woke up today to a cool, windy, rainswept kind of day, with a truckload of cats sleeping with me, one of them (my Aeneas) with his back curved around touching the curve of mine. What a lovely way to wake up.
& Tonight, because Neil Gaiman asked us to, we’re going to see Stardust.
& Then, of course, she does eventually notice the secretive sniffing and give Endymion what-for. She will boldly bite him in the ass, too, & then wonder why it is he pounces and she finds herself pinned by 18 lbs of Russian Blue. She may be a princess, but she’s not always bright.
There’s a small clip about Samoa’s Fa’afafine third gender on a current episode of National Geographic’s Taboo. I haven’t seen the whole bit yet, but it’s an interesting slip.
(Thanks to Eileen for the lead.)
Tonight on Logo, a few of the presidential candidates will be asked questions specifically concerning LGBT Issues. It’s the first ever LGBT-specific debate that will be televised, and I’m quite curious as to what the media response will be – if there is a media response.
As of late July, the candidates participating are:
So are there any other The Soup fans out there? I don’t catch this show a lot, but every time I do it cracks me up. McHale’s delivery is spotless. He’s kind of bitchy but with a kind of post- post- take on the media and the stupidity of television.
A recent favorite, about Drew Carey being chosen as the new host of The Price is Right: “They didn’t have a problem with Rosie being gay, they were just looking for a butchier lesbian.”
But you can’t really get the full impact until you watch it with the clips. It’s just too damn funny. & He was just on my other favorite host’s show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
We’re right on the border of Sunset Park, one of the neighborhoods here in Brooklyn hit hardest by the storms. I was woken up at 6am or so by lightning & thunder that seemed to be in our bedroom with us; I sleep next to the window with the air conditioner, & half asleep, turned the AC off & pulled the curtain closed. When one loud crack of lightning seemed to go off right next to our bed, poor Endymion dashed out, wide-eyed with fur bristling, from under my night table where he often sleeps. Aeneas sat at the foot of our bed. & Aurora, being Aurora, was sitting in the living room window watching the show.
Our own beautiful trees are stripped of some leaves but otherwise standing; there are a few hundred trees down otherwise, some into buildings & cars, & one woman on Staten Island lost her life. The flooding caused commutes to double in time this morning, with all three subway lines down. They say a tornado funnel touched down in Bay Ridge, even.
The Mayor was just on TV telling everyone that they should call 311 for information about having buildings inspected for safety & the like, & someone asked a question about immigration status & languages. & After clarifying that the City will not ask for someone’s immigration status when finding them a shelter if their home has been destroyed/deemed unstable, he then mentioned there are 150 languages spoken by the operators at 311.
150. Love this town.
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to Amy and all of the people who helped organize tonight’s meeting in Norwalk, and all the people who came. It was a great meeting, with lots of good questions and conversations. I wanted to thank the folks at the TCC, too, for making a point of having an LGBT Center that really recognizes the T.
Again, thanks to you all. We had a wonderful evening.
Just a reminder that at 7PM tonight I’m speaking in Norwalk, at the Triangle Transgender Society, which meets at the Triangle Community Center.
& Yes, I’ll have books.
2 in 3 subway riders have been sexually harassed, and 99% of them are women. Why am I not surprised? Because just about every woman I know can tell you a story of a groper or a lewd comment or some other form of sexual harassment.
What’s surprising is that someone actually wants to do something about it. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer conducted the survey and has suggested changes that would help prevent these kinds of crimes:
Stringer recommends an increase in NYPD presence on subway trains and in subway stations as well as brighter lighting, more pay phones, a hotline for attack victims, and the installation of additional digital security cameras.
He also wants a public education campaign to change “a culture that has been allowed to fester for generations.”
About damn time. You can thank Scott Stringer via his website.
From The New Yorker:
(thanks to Joanne for sending it.)