While the House of Representatives finally managed to pass DADT, Canada has already come up with its dress codes for transsexual soldiers.
“My Person”
Here’s a nice article by a trans partner about the interminable search for the right thing to call our “persons.”
Sex Survey: Women, Trans
Here’s an interesting survey that is trans friendly and asks good questions. I took it.
Two Tune Tuesday: KT Tunstall
I got to hear her newest track “Madame Trudeaux” over at NPR, & it’s so lovely, like old school glam. Suzi Quatro would be proud.
But Think of the Children
A lesbian soccer coach gets fired by a university after admitting that her partner is pregnant.
I’m not sure I can even count how wrong that is or in how many ways. How incredibly Christian of them, to fire the partner of an expectant mom.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
I’ll admit: I was worried about this one because it’s my favorite book of the series but also because I’d heard a long time ago they’d added a character that wasn’t in the book. That scared me. I’m also, of course, always nervous that they’re going to Christian up these stories the same way everyone else seems to, which, imho, is poor scholarship. They’re pagan books, not (only) Christian ones.
But the film is really beautiful, deeply satisfying to the 9 year old me who lived in these books year after year. It’s nice, at 41, to see the Narnian world come alive – it’s really well-done and looks damned near what I always imagined. There are some inventions for the sake of plot – like the three new characters and the green mist and some slicing & dicing of the islands – but still it holds up, very well in fact, and yes do bring tissues if you’re the type to cry.
For me, the really uncanny bit is that two of the three new, invented characters are named Gail and Helen. I didn’t catch the father/husband’s name, but how’s that for weird? It’s the kind of detail that makes me wonder if I’m only dreaming it all, this blog included.
Now please go see it, in the theaters, too, so that they can make The Silver Chair. If i don’t get to see a marshwiggle up on a big screen I’ll be very sad indeed.
Nadler Introduces Fair Housing Act Amendment
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New Jersey introduced a bill yesterday that would ban housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or source of income. The bill would amend the Fair Housing Act to include these categories and would impact the sale and rental of housing, home financing and brokerage services.
“Transgender people urgently need protection from discrimination in housing. It is unconscionable that people are being forced out of their home and onto the streets because of prejudice,” noted NCTE’s Executive Director Mara Keisling.
A survey of transgender and gender non-conforming people conducted by NCTE and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force last year found that 19% of the 6,450 respondents reported having been homeless at some point in their lives because of their gender identity. People of color reported even higher rates, with an alarming 41% of African Americans and 29% of Latina/os in the study having been homeless because of bias.
Continue reading “Nadler Introduces Fair Housing Act Amendment”
Illinois Gets It Right
Illinois is about to become the nation’s 11th state, plus the District of Columbia, to provide some kind of legal recognition to same-sex couples.
which is from a nice article from a Chicagoan at St. Louis Today.
NYT: 2010 Year of the Trans
The New York Times does a “year in review” on trans media presentations in the Fashion & Style section, and it’s not a bad article at all.
Not since the glam era of the 1970s has gender-bending so saturated the news media. The difference now is that mystery has been replaced with empowerment, even pride. Consider a few happenings that have blipped recently on our radar. The blog of a young mother whose 5-year-old son had dressed like Daphne on “Scooby-Doo” for Halloween went viral, initiating a nationwide discussion on the fluidity of gender. (The mother ended up on “Today.”) The performance artist Kalup Linzy became a downtown phenomenon in Manhattan for his gender-bending portrayals of soap-opera divas. Oprah Winfrey welcomed transsexual men to her program.
In November, a transgender student pledged a sorority at Trinity University in Texas. Original Plumbing, a zine for trans-guys, came out with a fashion issue.
This month, Simon & Schuster will publish “My Princess Boy,” a children’s book about a boy who wears pink gowns. “It’s not acceptable for us to sit back when children are taking their lives because they’re not accepted for who they are,” said the author, Cheryl Kilodavis, who based the book on her 4-year-old son.
That said, they make no attempt to distinguish crossdressing – and various types of it – from trangender or transsexual. That is, the article’s subtitle – “bold crossing of the gender line” should have been the main title — instead of “transsexual are edging into the mainstream,” but what else is new?
Two Tune Tuesday: Liz Phair
Because it’s my BiL Ian’s birthday, there can be no other choice. By last count, he’s seen her about the same number of times I’ve seen Rufus Wainwright (which is saying something):
