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Cool Stuff 2009

On a cheerier note: there are a lot of these lists, too, of the major events of 2009, but I thought I’d do my own. It’s an odd mix of public and private, but so is my life.

  • Obama’s inauguration
  • misuse of both “fisting” and “tea bagging” by right-wingers
  • Law & Order‘s “Transitions” episode, because it was one of the best treatments of transgender lives on television
  • I was chosen as a finalist for the AROHO grant
  • getting to teach Gender Variance – and specifically introducing a bunch of students to Truman Capote
  • Angie Zapata’s murderer was found guilty
  • speaking in Milwaukee at the UW Milwaukee campus & at The Tool Shed
  • the TransOhio conference, & specifically, getting to halt my talk for a Kiss-In
  • domestic partner protection for WI
  • turned 40
  • watching the revolution in Iran
  • Sims 3 came out
  • publication of Bear Bergman’s 2nd book The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (I’m a gender geek like that)
  • two weddings of four lovely friends
  • Caster Semenya gets to keep her gold medal
  • passage of gender-inclusive Federal Hate Crimes Act
  • Kalamazoo keeps its rights
  • Amanda Simpson hired by Obama Administration
  • NYS’s new trans rights policy

So, yours? Are there any events you expected me to list that I didn’t?

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Who We Lost 2009

There are a lot of lists of who died last year, but I haven’t seen any specific to LGBTQ and feminist communities, so here goes:

  • Mike Penner / Christine Daniels – transgender sports writer
  • Michele La Freniere – transgender activist
  • Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick = queer theorist
  • Bea Arthur – gay icon/actor
  • Dr. George Tiller – abortion doctor
  • Virginia Prince – crossdressing pioneer
  • Ted Kennedy – key legislator on LGBT rights
  • Dottie Laing – crossdresser’s wife & out trans partner

Stars, all. Rest in peace.

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Just Say Sorry, David Letterman

Ox Freeman of the Alabama Gender Alliance just posted the info from GLAAD about the stupid joke that was made on David Letterman about Amanda Simpson, and with it he commented that, “Trans people will not be safe from hate violence until it is safe to be attracted to us, to love us, and to regard us as human.”

He’s entirely right, of course, and it’s nice to have someone else articulate exactly why I do what I do.

Betty and I are both for trans people having more of a sense of humor, but we both agree: this joke is not even a little funny, exactly because this reaction to finding out a woman is trans is the same reaction that causes the heart-breaking violence trans people — and especially trans women — face.

As Allyson Robinson of HRC put it in an article by ABC News:

“Your skit affirmed and encouraged a prejudice against transgender Americans that keeps many from finding jobs, housing, and enjoying freedoms you and your writers take for granted every day,” HRC’s Allyson Robinson wrote in the letter.

Robinson said the punch line of the bit has “been used as a defense in nearly every hate crime perpetrated against transgender people that has come to trial.” She cited two cases in which individuals suspected of murdering transgender people claimed they did so in a rage after learning about their victims’ gender identity.

So now go to GLAAD.org and bug CBS, or do the same thing via change.org.

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No Discrimination Based on Gender Identity

From today’s NYT:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has inserted language into the federal jobs Web site explicitly banning employment discrimination based on gender identity.

More here. But yeah, let’s keep criticizing the guy for not doing enough fast enough. Honestly? This blows my mind, though lately I’ve been wondering if the LGBT community has general amnesia.

(h/t to SJ)