(I couldn’t find a trans ally or trans partner one, so this will have to do. But there are a bunch of others.)
No DOMA
A second court has ruled DOMA unconstitutional, as per the Equal Protection clause.
This rocks.
SRLP Turns 10!
Help the Sylvia Rivera Law Project celebrate its 10th anniversary by making a donation.
They do cool work.
The guy in the middle is the inimitable Dean Spade, btw.
Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde!
“We are all in the gutter; some of us are looking at the stars.” – Oscar Wilde
It’s Oscar Wilde’s birthday. I put this cool hour-long video tribute up to him back in May when I was reminded of it, and it’s worth repeating.
LGBT Americans for Obama
What a cool new clip. Check it out. Spread the word. And tell everyone about Trans United for Obama, too. There’s another national call coming up on 10/19, so sign up for it now.
University of Victoria Trans Archive
How cool is this? University of Victoria has an archive of transgender materials – from Reed Erickson, Ari Kane, Virginia Prince, and other people who collected significant trans history.
From the Archivists:
The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria holds the world’s largest collection of archival material related to modern transgender activism and research.
The University of Victoria is committed to preserving the history of pioneering activists, community leaders, and researchers working for the betterment of transgender people. Our collection began in 2007 with the generous donation by Ms. Rikki Swin of the entire contents of the extensive Rikki Swin Institute. Included were almost 500 transgender newsletters; papers and memorabilia of Virginia Prince, one of the founders of transgender activism; twenty years of history of Fantasia Fair, the longest-running TG convention (37 years and counting); key documents from activist Ariadne Kane; and papers from the founders of the International Foundation for Gender Education. Other major holdings include the personal papers of transgender pioneer, philanthropist, and activist Reed Erickson, founder of the Erickson Educational Foundation; legal documents from the Kimberly Nixon vs. Vancouver Rape Relief case; records of Vancouver transsexual support organization the Zenith Foundation; and more.
We would like your support in building our collections and making them more easily accessible to people throughout the world. If you have material that you think might be suitable for the transgender archives, or if you would like to support our work through a financial donation, please contact Academic Director Dr. Aaron Devor (ahdevor@uvic.ca) or University Archivist Lara Wilson (ljwilson@uvic.ca).
The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria are open to the public, faculty, students, and scholars. For more information about the collections, and about supporting the Transgender Archives at UVic , please visit: http://transgenderarchives.uvic.ca/
And yes, I’ve already offered them one of those (manuscript) copies of My Husband Betty I found when we were moving this past summer.
Trans United for Obama: Next National Call 10/19
The campaign is in full gear now, and we are excited to invite all of our Trans United for Obama supporters to our next national call.
The call will take place on October 19th at 3:30 PM EST, and our featured speakers are Dr. Marci Bowers (an innovator and pioneer in surgery), Mayor Cory Booker (the renowned and outspoken mayor of Newark, NJ), and Kylar Broadus (one of the fourteen trans delegates who went to the DNC this year).
To join the call, visit this link. Once you register, you’ll get an email with all the information you’ll need to call in. Then send this email to others you know!
Here are the details:
What: National Trans United for Obama call with Mayor Cory Booker, Dr. Marci Bowers, Delegate Kylar Broadus and YOU!
When: Friday, October 19th at 3:30 PM Eastern Time
Who Should Join: Transgender people and allies interested in helping to re-elect the President. This is an organizing call closed to bloggers and press. Continue reading “Trans United for Obama: Next National Call 10/19”
A Thousand Words
(But I’ll add a couple anyway: vote Obama, who believes in a woman’s right to choose.)
Lying Ryan
Abagond does the short and sweet summation on Ryan.
Upworthy gets you the facts on Ryan’s policies and women and choice. (In other words, don’t believe all of what he said during the debate. He is distinctly against reproductive technologies and a woman’s right to choose.)
HRC’s got his anti-LGBT track record: voted against ending DADT, is against marriage equality, voted against hate crimes enhancements twice, and voted to keep same sex couples from adopting in Wisconsin.
Still, he’s a really good liar. And he does have, in my opinion, a way of selling a kind of heartfelt earnestness that really pisses me off.
Happy Coming Out Day!
So it’s already National Coming Out Day again, and this year I’ve been thinking that it’s unfair that only queers come out every year.
As many of you might realize, I try to think about something new I can come out about – own up to, admit in public, or to a few people close to me – every year. I don’t have a whole lot left, or at least I don’t at this point in my life. But there are two things in my life that have made me feel deeply dishonest over the past year or so. I’m not coming out here about them. But I will, I have decided, own both of them, and tell them to at least a few people who don’t know what they are yet.
And I will think a lot about what it has meant to be dishonest with most of the world about these things.
As with many queer people’s lives, sometimes there are really good reasons not to come out. Some days I think it’s miraculous that there are out LGBTQ people. But culturally we have put the burden on queer folks to do so, and the same kind of thoughtful process seems like it could be a valuable one to everyone.
I don’t mean, either, this bullshit about “coming out as a chocoholic”. I mean own something deeper, something that bothers you, something you lie to your relatives and loved ones about. But more importantly, it should be something you’ve been lying to yourself about. Because really, ultimately, that’s what coming out of the closet is for queer folks – it is not always “i’m here and queer and get used to it” but “i’m here and queer and i think i can live with that about myself”.
Maybe by next year I’ll tell you what my two things were. By next year, who knows? Maybe I’ll have written a book about them.
Finally: be gentle with yourself around anything like this you might confront. Dragons are dragons, and even when you acknowledge them, and know they’re there in the road, they still breathe fire.
Happy Coming Out Day.