Year: 2012

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Argentina Raises the Bar

Argentina set the new standard for changes in gender markers on identity documents for trans people:

“The fact that there are no medical requirements at all — no surgery, no hormone treatment and no diagnosis — is a real game changer and completely unique in the world. It is light years ahead of the vast majority of countries, including the U.S., and significantly ahead of even the most advanced countries,” said Eisfeld, who researched the laws of the 47 countries for the Council of Europe’s human rights commission.

In the US, you can get your passport changed with a letter from a doctor but no genital surgery is required, at least. The problems arise in the different ruling of the different states, so in Texas, for insance, a trans woman is always legally male, but she can legally marry her (cis) girlfriend there. Not quite how they expected the law against transness and against same sex marriage to play out, but there you go.

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NC

North Carolina looks to pass a law that will make it impossible for same sex couples to have anything that even resembles marriage – a law that’s referred to as a super DOMA. Wisconsin has one in place, too, and I understand, for some, they are meant to uphold a traditional Christian marriage of one man + one woman.

What they do, sadly, is make LGBTQ feel less welcome, cause an increase in bigotry and violence against queer people, and put many children of LGBTQ people further into legal limbo when their parents separate, amongst other things.

I do not understand why civil recognition of my partnership offends people so deeply that they would pass this kind of law.

I don’t understand why people hate gay people so much.

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WI, VOTE! Tomorrow (is one step closer to Recalling Walker)

Fair Wisconsin PAC has announced their 2012 Recall Primary Election Endorsements. They are committed to advancing and achieving equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Wisconsinites through strategic electoral activity, by working to elect pro-fairness individuals in local, state and federal races in Wisconsin.

So get your butt out & vote! Checking your polling place & registration status here.

YOU DO NOT NEED A VOTER ID TO VOTE ON TUESDAY. Due to recent court injunctions on the voter photo ID requirement, citizens will not be required to show a photo ID in order to vote in the May 8 election. Please note that this situation is subject to change. For more information on what you will need in order to vote on Tuesday, please visit the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin website for more information.

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Not Lovelier Than Lilacs, — no.

Some of you know she’s where I got my name. But really, how much more punk rock could a 1920s poet be?

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,–no,
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair
Than small white single poppies,–I can bear
Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though
From left to right, not knowing where to go,
I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there
Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear
So has it been with mist,–with moonlight so.
Like him who day by day unto his draught
Of delicate poison adds him one drop more
Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten,
Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed
Each hour more deeply than the hour before,
I drink–and live–what has destroyed some men.

Lots more here.

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RIP MCA

Another era over. Goodbye Adam Yauch. Thanks for making NYC the coolest fucking place in the world.

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May 3rd, 1952

Today would have been my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary.

My sister flew down to make sure my mom is with someone, & she’s telling stories. My mom was never really the talker of the two; it was my dad who was the social one, who could talk to anyone, anywhere, about anything.

My mom said to me recently “I know I should be getting over it by now because it’s nearly a year” but I didn’t let her finish. I actually laughed out loud, laughed at her, lovingly, because it was exactly predictable of her to think she, of all people, should be able to get on top of mourning, do it efficiently, magically. The funnier part of course is that it hasn’t even been a year; it’s barely been 9 months. (But I didn’t learn how to be hardest on myself from nowhere. )

It was a good reminder for me too: that mourning, of all things, of all change, takes a while, but the loss of a great love probably takes longer than anything.

< This is them on their 35th wedding anniversary, 25 years ago. I was 18. My mom was 57, my dad 59. The dogwood is in full bloom, the way it would be every May.

It will be a rough month of dates: Mother’s Day falls on my birthday this year, and my dad’s 84th birthday would have been on the 19th.

What doesn’t kill you, as they say, just leaves you bereft, broken-hearted, exhausted, and a little bit quieter than you used to be.

So I’m glad mom is talking.

I hope she talks about how much his eyes lit up every time he saw her, no matter how old they got, no matter how angry she was, no matter what she looked like. It’s an amazing thing to be around two people who light each other up like that – effortlessly and wondrously, as if their posture gets straighter, their eyes get clearer, and they seem to have a song on their lips. I feel very thankful to have grown up in the midst of a love like that.

 

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Mammogram Covered

I’m happy to report that Aetna is now covering Beth Scott’s mammogram, but honestly, does it have to be like this?

Ms. Scott underwent the mammogram in June 2010 at her doctor’s recommendation. Aetna denied coverage for the mammogram on the grounds that it fell under her policy’s exclusion for treatments “related to changing sex.” As a transgender woman, Ms. Scott was assigned male at birth and developed breasts after undergoing hormone therapy. Aetna refused to alter its position throughout the lengthy appeals process.

Aside from the fact that men get breasts and develop breast cancer, I am so tired of hearing about insurance companies getting in the way of care that a doctor ordered. Still, congrats to TLDEF and to Ms. Scott.