Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
There are so many ways to gauge your own green, but one of the ways I think many of us conveniently “forget” is the impact our cool new gadgets have. The NYT gives us the stats on whether old-fashioned books are more environmentally sound that an iPad (or other forms of eBooks).
The short version: walk to the library. Books win, really. If you read at least 100 books on your eBook, you don’t suck entirely.
(found here: http://catandgirl.com/archive/2010-03-30-cgname.gif, h/t to Lynne)
More than 16,000 people have signed the petition to get Nancy Pelosi to move ENDA to the House floor for a vote.
There are growing indications that ENDA will move to a markup and a vote in the next two weeks. It is important that we have as strong a showing as possible on the petition in order to demonstrate to wavering members of Congress that there is support.
Please add your name before the petition is delivered by hand next week:
Dear Speaker Nancy Pelosi —
With health care legislation passing, now is the time to institute workplace protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Rep. Tammy Baldwin says she believes that we have the votes to pass ENDA, and Rep. George Miller has said the bill is ready to come out of committee now that the health care bill has passed. As Speaker of the House of Representatives, we call on you to act boldly and decisively and bring ENDA to the floor for a vote now.
Paul Weller‘s still around & doing cool stuff, but ah, The Jam — in some ways the ultimate British band. Yet it’s just a short stroll from “Beat Surrender” to Philly Soul, no?
“Going Underground” is about as close as I got to a manifesto when I was 18. Much thanks to Hillary, Melissa, Chris, Peter, and my brother Joe = all of whom played some part in making a Jam fan of me. Hear more here.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s cool these PSAs for LGBT – even specifically T!! go Mara! – have been made. But they should have been out a month ago, at least. I know we received our forms & sent them back long before I had this information. I did put my Task Force sticker on it (although even that didn’t have a “queer” option).
But if you haven’t filled yours out yet, you can watch others too: one with Harry Knox, another with Ben de Guzman, another with Bret Camp, Earl Fowlkes, or George Takei, for the geeks, or you can just check out all the PSAs made for the LGBT communities. Thanks to GLAAD for the heads up.
Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People (MAGNET)
Press Release: For immediate release April 4, 2010
Protest/rally Against Tribeca’s Decision to Premiere Transphobic Film “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives
What: A protest/rally demanding that Tribeca Film Festival remove the transphobic film “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives (TOTWK)”. Melissa Sklarz- Director of New York Trans Rights Organization, celebrities, elected officials & LGBT activists will be speaking. A candle light vigil for trans victims of hate crimes will also be held.
When/Where: Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 6:30-8:00pm @ Tribeca Cinemas @ 54 Varick Street, NYC
Why: The movie makes light of violence and rape against trans women, exploits the high-profile murder of teenager Angie Zapata, includes the pejorative term “trannies” in its title, inaccurately depicts trans women’s identities as drag queen “performers” and “caricatures” and misrepresents the lives of an extremely disenfranchised group who suffer violence at alarming rates.
Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” = nothing like a gay musician covering a Jewish songwriter’s song for a big Christian holiday.
(h/t to my BiL Ian)
At long last, some good news: U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert Jr. declared a law banning hormones from transgender inmates unconstitutional. The law was passed in response to an inmate who sued when denied genital surgery:
State law makers passed the Sex Change Prevention Act in 2005 in reaction to the case of a Wisconsin inmate who had been receiving the hormones for years, but sued when the Department of Corrections would not pay for sex-change surgery. Similar challenges were mounted in other states.
What’s interesting to me is that there is no mention of why an inmate might want genital surgery aside from being transgender: inmates are housed based on their genitals. That is, if a transgender woman has been living for 10 years in the female gender, but has not had genital surgery, she can be housed with male inmates.
Amazing how they never mention that in the light of “cruel and unusual.”
I’m not “for” taxpayers paying for surgeries for inmates, either, to be honest, but I am if the law is too dumb to understand and recognize an individual’s right to self-determine his/her gender. The same people who are concerned about taxpayers paying for these surgeries should get behind lightening the requirements to legally change gender identity on ID cards (but they won’t, since their objection is usually not based at all on making the lives of transgender people humane).
With all the competition in journalism, you’d think the NYT could find a journalist who hasn’t been living under a rock, who’d maybe read something about trans people, and who, um, kept up to date on terminology.
Not even “used to be a man” but “was a man.”
I think the punchline is supposed to be along the lines of “even this nice Catholic girl with ashes on her forehead is really one them sinful transsexuals.” Wow. What a hipster this guy is. Some people really need to get out more, maybe look around, ask questions, and take a minute to actually learn something instead of coaxing beautiful women into a hotel room with the sleazy promise of taking their photograph for the NYT.
