Category: trans

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LGBTQ Immigration Stories Needed

From NCTE:

The U.S. Senate is close to announcing its plan to reform our immigration system. But as we’ve learned from this Congress, we’ve got to build up our tools to fight against attempts to exclude LGBT people from immigration reform.

We can do that by sharing the stories of LGBT people whose lives have been affected by our dated immigration laws.

Share your immigration story here or post this on Facebook to encourage your friends to submit theirs.

It really matters that we all come out for immigration reform and the fact that there are transgender immigrants is just one reason to do so .

NCTE is prioritizing immigration reform because it’s a moral issue to address all of the indignities that every immigrant in our country faces, including everyone who is without documents, faces inhumane treatment in detention centers, or is in deportation proceedings because their relationship isn’t recognized by our government.

If we are able to collect the stories of LGBT immigrants, we can build the public education campaign we need to get real reforms that help real people.

Join us in collecting these stories now.

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Mara Keisling Comes to Appleton

She’ll be coming here to Lawrence University in 8 days, that is, & I’m very please that LU’s Gender Studies program and Government department, as well as the Fox Valley INCLUDE initiative AND the LU student group GLOW are all helping co-sponsor.

Mara is one of my favorite people, an amazing speaker, funny, wonky, and deeply compassionate.

Here’s the FB event page, and more info:

Thursday, April 11th
7PM

Changing Minds, Changing Policy: Lessons from a DC Activist – NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling will discuss creating alliances in order to achieve policy and legislative changes that benefit marginalized communities.

This event is free and open to the public, so please, invite anyone who may be interested.

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Why Trans People Need Marriage Equality, Too

So it turns out that Thomas Beatie is not being granted his divorce, for the worst possible reason: his marriage has been declared invalid, and a marriage that never existed can’t end in divorce.

This is one of the many reasons trans people need marriage equality: so that we do not have to exist in a this legally unclear environment where a judge can decide whether or not we were ever married, even if we were for 20 years, like Christie Lee Littleton was.

That said, Beatie’s case is a little different – not that it does him much good – in that what Beatie had or had not done to establish his identity as male at the time of the marriage was unclear:

“The decision here is not based on the conclusion that this case involves a same-sex marriage merely because one of the parties is a transsexual male, but instead, the decision is compelled by the fact that the parties failed to prove that (Thomas Beatie) was a transsexual male when they were issued their marriage license,” he wrote in Friday’s ruling.

What’s more interesting to me as a gender studies person is this detail:

Beatie is eager to end his marriage, but the couple’s divorce plans stalled last summer when Gerlach said he was unable to find legal authority defining a man as someone who can give birth.

precisely because it involves the definition of a “man” – which, as any good gender studies student knows, is a cultural construct in the first place. (So is male, but far fewer people seem to understand that sex, or biological gender, is also culturally constructed.) As a feminist, I’m particularly concerned when the ability or inability to bear children starts getting involved in definitions of who is or isn’t a woman or a man.

But same sex marriage would, at least in some way, prevent this kind of bullshit at least in part, as it wouldn’t matter if Beatie was or was not a man at the time of his marriage. The issue of whether he could be a man and also give birth to his own children is, effectively, a different issue altogether.

(Interestingly, Beatie lives in AZ, where he could also, very shortly, be facing the fact that he may be legally required to use the ladies’ room, depending on what it does or doesn’t say on his birth certificate.)

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Time to Boycott AZ (Again)

and here’s a quick bit with Masen Davis of the Transgender Law Center explaining on MSNBC:

They’ve tied it to birth certificate gender, which is the hardest one to change (and, for that matter, is not likely to be carried around, either).

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GLAADBT?

In all seriousness, this is why I went to the GLAAD Media Awards this year: their president announced that they will no longer use the actual words of the acronym because it doesn’t represent all the groups they are working for. They are just GLAAD now – the LGBT media advocacy organization.

Cool beans.

And can I just repeat for the 8 millionth time that I love Janet Mock? Mel Wymore was on the Melissa Harris Perry show, too, when they made this announcement, and I was happy to get to meet him that night as well – he’s the guy who is running for City Council on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in a hotly contested race.

Mostly, though, I have watched as GLAAD became more hip to trans issues over the past few years, and I’ve been happy to see it. So congrats to them and their name change, of course. And a word of advice? Trans community politics change fast, so keep up.

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“Goes Without Saying”

It’s been a while since I’ve griped about the petty bullshit involved in being the partner of a trans person, hasn’t it? I recently posted a photo of me and my wife at the GLAAD awards, and many, many people have said lovely things about how we both look, which we’ve both appreciated. But I did notice – how could I not? – a pretty common refrain that goes something like this: “Your wife looks amazing and of course you do too” or, alternately, “your wife looks great and it goes without saying that you do too.”

And you know what? Actually, it doesn’t. I understand the need for people to validate a trans woman’s attractiveness. I really do. But when (1) you married a man who is no longer a man, and/or (2) you’re in your 40s, and/or (3) you’re not a size 4, and/or (4) people consistently think that trans bodies are somehow publicly owned and so can and should be regularly commented on, it gets a little tiring to hear how remarkably gorgeous my wife is. I mean, I know that. I live with her and see her every day. I’m the one she shares makeup with, and hair products, and pajamas, so yes, I’m aware she’s a hottie, and a gender normative hottie at that.

So what I want to ask you married people: is it common for people to come up and tell you that your husband or wife is attractive? That they’d do them? That their first sighting of your spouse made them wonder if your spouse was single? I mean, is this a normal thing, or is this somehow part of the trans validation thing, or do I just have the bad luck of running into a lot of people who are wildly inappropriate?

My guess is that it’s a trans validation thing. Because I can’t imagine walking up to a woman whose husband was attractive and saying any of these things. I can’t imagine saying it to a woman whose wife is hot. I really can’t. And maybe that’s me, my usual unflirtatious self, but I find it disturbing that people constantly feel the need to tell me that my wife is a hot prospect.

Continue reading ““Goes Without Saying””

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RIP Lucy Meadows

What a terrifically sad story:  Lucy Meadows transitions and is supported by her school and community but then excoriated and hounded by the press because of her transition.

She has since committed suicide, it’s reported.

This has to stop. There’s a petition to get the journalist fired who said all this crap about her – regendering her with male pronouns like the class act he is – and I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not but something’s got to give. I won’t like his hateful, transphobic screed.

She didn’t deserve this.

It’s especially sad to read this after just having attended the GLAAD Media Awards – which covers only the US but which has renewed its mission for trans people and coverage. But in the UK, do check out Trans Media Watch.