When more women like her come out, the teeth of transphobia will fall out. What an amazingly cool decision she made.
Something Like Justice?
The former cop who beat Duana Johnson when she was brought into the police station has been charged and sentenced. It turns out they got him on tax evasion as well. He’ll serve two years.
What The Advocate column didn’t mention is that Johnson was shot, execution style, on the corner she normally worked not long after pressing the charges against him.
I don’t know if her murder was investigated, but this whole story has always left me feeling terrifically angry and sad because her murder looked and felt far too much like someone wanted her to keep quiet.
Keith Ablow Goes to Hell
Dr. Keith Ablow recently wrote a piece about Chaz Bono that is hateful. I won’t link to it – fuck Fox News – but I did want to say something about it because Betty and I were on his show.
At the time, he was compassionate and even-tempered. I remember reading his articles about pedophiles and how sane & sensible he seemed about such a difficult topic — and which gave me the idea we would be treated even-handedly on his show. I was right. We were.
Apparently somewhere along the way, Ablow sold his soul to the devil. It’s a shame to see someone LCD* like this, but it won’t be the first or the last time I’ll see it. I don’t know what happens to people – they get just enough of a taste of celebrity that their humanity departs, maybe – but it’s always pathetic.
Ablow sold out, sold his soul. I think that’s 7th Circle, right?
He’s not a quack. He is an actual doctor with actual credentials. But what I want to know what he thinks “do no harm” means these days and how, or why, he has switched from understanding people to judging them and condemning them. It is not an easy world for trans people – not even for trans people like Chaz Bono, for all his privilege. I don’t understand how anyone could make a decision and use a public pulpit to preach condemnation; the kind of language he uses, the lack of respect he shows, directly contributes to why trans people’s lives are as hard as they are.
I’m not sure I can even explain the depth of the betrayal I’m experiencing. Ablow was one of the good guys, or at least one of the guys who looked good when everyone else sucked so much. He should be deeply ashamed of what he’s written, and owes Chaz Bono – and the rest of the trans community – an apology.
Don’t hold your breath.
Gender Neutral Pronouns
Thanks to Sarah Wagner (go partners!), who is currently helping plan the Trans Ohio conference, here are some resources on gender neutral pronouns.
First, a fact sheet – with grammatically correct chart – of how to use the various gender neutral pronouns, including possessives and pronunciation. I’d love it if someone wanted to write a sample sentence so that the syntax of them could be demonstrated.
Second, a list of rules to practice good manners with other people’s pronouns and genders.
The only other thing I would point out is that all of us have pronoun preferences. Every single one of us, so please don’t get all “ugh, trans people” about it unless you’re a woman who doesn’t mind being called “he” or “sirred” when out to dinner.
JAC Stringer on Chaz Bono
“And speaking of wake up calls, he needs one about misogyny. He blatantly talks about how he believes in “biological differences” in men and women because T made him dislike small talk and has lost a lot of his “tolerance for women.” That’s not T, dude, that’s your misogyny! Lots of people get irritable for a couple months when they first start T, so if something kinda annoyed you before T, those first few months it might make you super annoyed or worse. Chaz probably just never liked certain things and now his “tolerance” is gone cause he’s got hormonal mood swings. He’s claiming its some “biological differences” in men and women, when really it’s his sexist stereotypes. Feministing gives Chaz the benefit of the doubt, assuming they were taken out of context via a known to be transphobic interviewer. But he wasn’t taken out of context when he repeats himself almost word for word on Oprah. Dudes got some demons over there, and none of them are feminists. Thanks for making all of us transguys on T look like macho jerks, Chaz, but at least it bought to a ticket as a socially acceptable “normal” guy.”
I couldn’t agree more. You can read more at Midwest Genderqueer.
Check this other critique by Nick Krieger, author of Nina Here Nor There.
Becoming Visible: Homeless Trans Teens
I am waiting to hear back from the photographer as to which charity or non-profit he’d like to direct donations to now that he’s achieved his goal.
If anyone has any suggestions for directly helping trans teens, please let me know.
Writing About Bodies
Dean Spade recently wrote a short piece about how we might use language to de-gender bodies. It’s smart and concise – just as you’d expect from Dean Spade.
About Purportedly Gendered Body Parts
I have been thinking about how much I would like it if people, especially health practitioners, exercise instructors and others who talk about bodies a lot, would adjust their language about body parts heavily associated with gender norms. Lots of people who identify as feminists and allies to trans people still use terms like “female-bodied,” “male body parts,” “bio-boy,”and “biologically female.” Even in spaces where people have gained some basic skills around respecting pronoun preferences, suggesting an increasing desire to support gender self determination and release certain expectations related to gender norms, I still hear language used that asserts a belief in constructions of “biological gender.” From my understanding, a central endeavor of feminist, queer, and trans activists has been to dismantle the cultural ideologies, social and legal norms that say that certain body parts determine gender identity and gendered social characteristics and roles. We’ve fought against the idea that the presence of uteruses or ovaries or penises should be understood to determine such things as people’s intelligence, proper parental roles, proper physical appearance, proper gender identity, proper labor roles, proper sexual partners and activities, and capacity to make decisions. We’ve opposed medical and scientific assertions that affirm the purported health of traditional gender roles and activities and pathologize bodies that defy those norms. Continue reading “Writing About Bodies”
Anti-Non-Discrimination, or Legal Discrimination
What the hell is going on in this country? While I find most of my students are surprised – and appalled – that there is no federal non-discrimination legislation that includes LGBTQs, states are now passing amendments to prevent any cities or towns in that state from passing any.
That is, states are passing legislation that makes it illegal to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
What?
Bill Headed to Vote in State Senate Would Gut Nashville’s Anti-LGBT Discrimination Ordinance
In a letter to Tennessee state Senators, TLDEF and the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) raised concerns about the constitutionality of a proposed bill that would make it unlawful for any city or town in the state to pass a law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Tennesseans from discrimination. If this sounds familiar, it should. We recently faced a similar bill in Montana.
Senate Bill 632 – which today passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee by a vote of 6-3 – would strike down local legal protections from discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tennesseans, and would make it impossible to pass such protections in the future. It previously passed the House of Representatives (where it was known as House Bill 600) on April 25 by a vote of 73-24. It is expected to be voted upon in the full Senate shortly.
On April 5, 2011, the Nashville and Davidson County Metropolitan Council passed an anti-discrimination ordinance which bars the Nashville government from doing business with any entity that does not prohibit discrimination in employment against LGBT workers. Mayor Karl Dean signed it into law three days later. SB 632 was immediately rushed through the Tennessee House of Representatives by opponents of Nashville’s anti-discrimination ordinance. Their goal was to strike down Nashville’s ordinance and ensure that no city or town in Tennessee could ever enact a law protecting LGBT Tennesseans from discrimination again.
SB 632 is motivated by bias, which is a constitutionally impermissible basis for legislation. It would deprive LGBT Tennesseans of their right to participate in the political process and seek help from their local governments. It would turn lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tennesseans into strangers to Tennessee’s government and would violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection under established United States Supreme Court precedent.
“Tennesseans have spoken through their local governments and have stated clearly that they want to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tennesseans from discrimination,” said TLDEF executive director Michael Silverman. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tennesseans want the same right to live and work free from discrimination that everyone else enjoys. It is unconstitutional for Tennessee to target them by taking away their right to pass local laws that protect them from the discrimination that they face in the cities and towns where they live,” he added. “Tennessee must treat all Tennesseans equally. It violates the Constitution when it closes its doors to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tennesseans simply because some people do not like them.”
“This bill is blatantly discriminatory,” said TTPC President Dr. Marisa Richmond. “It is an attempt to deny basic rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tennesseans and we hope that the Senate will defeat it when it comes up for a vote.”
I’m really starting to wonder if I live in the US anymore. This kind of thinking seems antithetical to what I was always taught was American.
We need a national ENDA, and we need one with teeth.
Two Trans Lives
There’s the celebrity version of Chaz Bono and a puff piece about him and the documentary of his transition in The New York Times which is unsurprisingly vapid, predictable, and full of gender essentialism and stereotypes about trans people.
This other article, however, in a Madison alt weekly called Isthmus, focuses not so much on Rhiannon Tibbetts’ transition but on her activism and the inequalities and injustices in trans people’s lives.
I prefer the latter, especially as the journalist actually spoke to someone who knows about the trans: Anne Enke, who teaches Gender Studies at UW Madison. It’s not just that, either — it’s that the focus is on what the trans person in question does much moreso than about who she is, per se.
You’d think The New York Times might not suck occasionally, but they keep doing godawful coverage of trans stuff: not just Chaz Bono’s story but the recent Renee Richards myopic was covered in a sloppy article by Maureen Dowd that presents every old saw about the unhappy, regretful trans person, and somehow connects it to the recent abuse suffered by Chrissy Lee Polis in that Maryland McDonald’s. As a writer, what I see in this article is Dowd at her desk, a press release from Richard’s producers on her desk, and the viral video of the attack on Polis on her laptop. Brilliant, Dowd: that took about 12 seconds of research. Maybe you should forward the check to Mary Ellen Bell who actually did some work.
Williams on Trans
Here’s a brief meditation on the legal issues ignited by transgender identities by none other than Patricia Williams. I liked this in particular:
Transgender identities challenge us to think about the morphisms of “sex” and “gender,” “woman” and “man,” “real” and “not real.” This is a hot topic in academic circles: for example, attempting to disambiguate the notion of “identity” as a matter of legal subjectivity, when, say, a man with a heap of warrants is finally arrested—but by the time the police catch up, he has become a she, and in the name of that transformation asserts as a defense that “he” was a different person. It’s easy to dismiss this sort of discussion as funny or unimportant, but I think it’s necessary, not merely because it directly affects the lives of the transgendered but because it tests and expands the thinking of those of us who are not transgendered yet whose collective responses shape the social environment.