(found here: http://catandgirl.com/archive/2010-03-30-cgname.gif, h/t to Lynne)
Petition Pelosi to Move ENDA
More than 16,000 people have signed the petition to get Nancy Pelosi to move ENDA to the House floor for a vote.
There are growing indications that ENDA will move to a markup and a vote in the next two weeks. It is important that we have as strong a showing as possible on the petition in order to demonstrate to wavering members of Congress that there is support.
Please add your name before the petition is delivered by hand next week:
Dear Speaker Nancy Pelosi —
With health care legislation passing, now is the time to institute workplace protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Rep. Tammy Baldwin says she believes that we have the votes to pass ENDA, and Rep. George Miller has said the bill is ready to come out of committee now that the health care bill has passed. As Speaker of the House of Representatives, we call on you to act boldly and decisively and bring ENDA to the floor for a vote now.
Census PSAs for LGBT Communities
Don’t get me wrong: it’s cool these PSAs for LGBT – even specifically T!! go Mara! – have been made. But they should have been out a month ago, at least. I know we received our forms & sent them back long before I had this information. I did put my Task Force sticker on it (although even that didn’t have a “queer” option).
But if you haven’t filled yours out yet, you can watch others too: one with Harry Knox, another with Ben de Guzman, another with Bret Camp, Earl Fowlkes, or George Takei, for the geeks, or you can just check out all the PSAs made for the LGBT communities. Thanks to GLAAD for the heads up.
Protest & Rally Against TOTWK
Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People (MAGNET)
Press Release: For immediate release April 4, 2010
Protest/rally Against Tribeca’s Decision to Premiere Transphobic Film “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives
What: A protest/rally demanding that Tribeca Film Festival remove the transphobic film “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives (TOTWK)”. Melissa Sklarz- Director of New York Trans Rights Organization, celebrities, elected officials & LGBT activists will be speaking. A candle light vigil for trans victims of hate crimes will also be held.
When/Where: Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 6:30-8:00pm @ Tribeca Cinemas @ 54 Varick Street, NYC
Why: The movie makes light of violence and rape against trans women, exploits the high-profile murder of teenager Angie Zapata, includes the pejorative term “trannies” in its title, inaccurately depicts trans women’s identities as drag queen “performers” and “caricatures” and misrepresents the lives of an extremely disenfranchised group who suffer violence at alarming rates.
WI: Hormones Can’t Be Banned for Inmates
At long last, some good news: U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert Jr. declared a law banning hormones from transgender inmates unconstitutional. The law was passed in response to an inmate who sued when denied genital surgery:
State law makers passed the Sex Change Prevention Act in 2005 in reaction to the case of a Wisconsin inmate who had been receiving the hormones for years, but sued when the Department of Corrections would not pay for sex-change surgery. Similar challenges were mounted in other states.
What’s interesting to me is that there is no mention of why an inmate might want genital surgery aside from being transgender: inmates are housed based on their genitals. That is, if a transgender woman has been living for 10 years in the female gender, but has not had genital surgery, she can be housed with male inmates.
Amazing how they never mention that in the light of “cruel and unusual.”
I’m not “for” taxpayers paying for surgeries for inmates, either, to be honest, but I am if the law is too dumb to understand and recognize an individual’s right to self-determine his/her gender. The same people who are concerned about taxpayers paying for these surgeries should get behind lightening the requirements to legally change gender identity on ID cards (but they won’t, since their objection is usually not based at all on making the lives of transgender people humane).
“While I was watching Alec Soth’s video, I realized he was a dick.”
With all the competition in journalism, you’d think the NYT could find a journalist who hasn’t been living under a rock, who’d maybe read something about trans people, and who, um, kept up to date on terminology.
Not even “used to be a man” but “was a man.”
I think the punchline is supposed to be along the lines of “even this nice Catholic girl with ashes on her forehead is really one them sinful transsexuals.” Wow. What a hipster this guy is. Some people really need to get out more, maybe look around, ask questions, and take a minute to actually learn something instead of coaxing beautiful women into a hotel room with the sleazy promise of taking their photograph for the NYT.
It Has To Stop: Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar
Fuck this: I am so tired of reading these stories, so tired.
A transgender woman was found dead in her ransacked Queens apartment on Tuesday, her naked body sprawled across the bed, police said.
Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, 29, born Edelbuerto, had not been heard from since Friday.
Feeling grateful that, at least, that the NY Daily News got her pronouns right, is not enough:. The NYT has a piece on their blog about the murder as well. Gina of Skip the Makeup reports that in fact, as usual, that the NYT and WABC both got it wrong first, & later corrected themselves.
You know, people always used to envy us for living in NYC because it’s the uber-liberal city, but it only takes one violent transphobic asshole to ruin your day. Or take your life.
(h/t to Matty)
ENDA Petition
Sign the petition to Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the Courage Campaign and GetEQUAL.
Dear Speaker Nancy Pelosi —
With health care legislation passing, now is the time to institute workplace protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Rep. Tammy Baldwin says she believes that we have the votes to pass ENDA, and Rep. George Miller has said the bill is ready to come out of committee now that the health care bill has passed. As Speaker of the House of Representatives, we call on you to act boldly and decisively and bring ENDA to the floor for a vote now.
Christine Daniels Follow-Up
The LA Times has a new story about Christine Daniels which says much of what many of us expected:
Daniels, who had been writing a sports-media column called Sound and Vision, had her last byline in The Times on April 4, 2008, then went on extended disability leave. She was despondent — close friends knew she was manic depressive — failing to eat and stricken with esophageal pain.
Daniels told Amy LaCoe, her transsexual friend, that she had ruined her marriage and made a mess of her life. LaCoe insisted that Daniels stay with her for a couple months. “She stared at my bedroom ceiling for a long time,” LaCoe said. “She had stopped caring about herself.”
Daniels stopped taking hormones and began getting rid of the physical trappings of Christine, LaCoe said, giving the jewelry and shoe collection to friends, donating the wigs, carting the clothes to Goodwill. In a matter of months, the whole identity had been banished . . . . When the sportswriter returned to work as Mike Penner in late October 2008, co-workers noticed that his manner was remote, his handshake unsteady. His face was changed, the jaw line permanently smooth from electrolysis. He did not want to talk about his experience, much less write about it.
When a transsexual friend asked what had happened, Penner responded, “Well, that’s why there’s a real-life test.” Friends said he held out hopes of saving his marriage, but by year’s end, his divorce was finalized.
Such a sad story.
Ongoing GLAAD Battle
I can’t say I’m surprised, but people are upset with GLAAD for starting a petition that asks Tribeca Film Fest not to show Ticked off Trannies With Knives. There are a couple of objections being made in various corners of the comments sections of the blogosphere:
1) The free speech argument: this is art, a film, and GLAAD shouldn’t be trying to censor it.
2) This is a camp film, and earnest people (trans or otherwise) obviously don’t get it.
3) Earnest trannies need to get over themselves.
So here’s my response.
1) Free speech goes both ways. One group has the right to make a film; the other has a right to protest it. I’m not big on censorship; in fact, I hate it. But there are days and times when the sheer violence committed against a community is enough to make you want to shut down one more bad joke calling itself art.
2) Camp is only funny when you’re making it about your own gang.
3) Fuck you. Honestly, does it ever work to tell someone that the real problem is their lack of a sense of humor? Um, no.
As I said elsewhere, when you work in the trans community, it is a relief to hear that someone you know has died of cancer because they didn’t die of violent means. That is the reality of trans life.
It’s true that not all trans people ‘get’ camp, just like all gay men don’t. It’s an acquired taste, like drag. Assuming that camp is readily understood and appreciated is a huge mistake to make. It is very apparent that the makers of this film don’t seem to know the difference between drag queens and trans women, or only know a subset who identify as both. While I agree that the title of the flick – Ticked Off Trannies With Knives – does signal camp, the trailer actually used images of actual trans people who have actually died of violent crimes. That is not camp. That’s not even bad taste. That’s exploitation – and not the cool, hipster variety – of others’ suffering. If that is only the fault of whoever made the trailer, then they need to fix that. But honestly, I doubt it’s just the trailer.
I have been working in and with the trans community for something like 10 years now. I am beginning to understand the incredible variety of lived trans identities. So if you think you’re hip to trans identities and trans lives, you probably aren’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t be an ally. That doesn’t mean you don’t care about the trans community. But what it might mean, and often does mean, is that when you have an entire community reeling in horror from a phrase (“hot tranny mess”) or a film (like this one), then maybe, just maybe, you need to shut up & listen & not pull this patriarchal bullshit. Being gay (or a member of whatever other oppressed group) does not give a person instant knowledge of and deep compassion with other people’s suffering. What it gives you is a chance to empathize — a chance that you will waste entirely if you always think you’re right.
It may be that people with friends who call each other tranny – and there’s plenty of trans people who do use the term tranny – doesn’t mean it’s acceptable in the public realm. It may be that your trans friends have already decided that you are so beyond the pale that there is no point in trying to explain. It may be that the trans people you know are simply exhausted from dealing with this bullshit ALL THE TIME.
I know I am. So maybe, for once, we can let the people who the joke is about decide if it’s funny or not. In this case: that joke isn’t funny anymore. (& Neither was Dan Savage, btw, of whom I expect far better, and who posted this piece, as if penance.)
Really, is it worth the joke? Is a movie like this really such great art that an entire community – a community that gets more than its fair share of violence, discrimination, and general shite – be reminded that even people who are their supposed allies don’t get it?
Sign the petition. And please, STFU about how unfair it all is.
A P.S. for my gender communities: some of the people who say transphobic shit are gay, and some of them aren’t. Some of them are cis, & some of them aren’t. Please try to avoid the sweeping generalizations about who is saying transphobic things, and instead name the actual people who are doing so, or call out actual comments that have been posted. Generalizing that “gay men / cis people are transphobic” is counter-productive and, oh, totally false.