Category: trans

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Bathroom Salon

& Here’s some more (not) good news: a group called Mass Resistance took video of First Event, the annual trans party/conference that takes place up in Boston in January of every year. They cobbled together some footage (badly) in order to show very tall trans women & crossdressers using the ladies’ room at the Radisson where the event was held.

What’s funny about the video is how horrendously boring it all looks. I mean, video footage of people going into & leaving a bathroom is exactly that. You may as well watch paint dry. With any luck, at least some of the people who viewed it thought, “um, yeah. People using a bathroom. Nothing horrible happened.”

On a positive note, Salon’s Broadsheet actually covered the horror of the bigotry being expressed. It’s good to see Salon start to cover trans issues with compassion and even some regularity.

(to to Jean)

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Happy 100th Anniversary, Die Transvestiten

It’s been a hundred years since Magnus Hirschfeld published The Transvestites. The earliest bibliographic entries Ray Blanchard tracked down are these:

Die Transvestiten – Eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb [Transvestites – A Study of the Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress], Pulvermacher, Berlin, 1910.

Co-authored with Max Tilke: Die Transvestiten – Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb [Transvestites – The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress], Illustrierter Teil, Pulvermacher, Berlin, 1912.

How cool is that? I couldn’t help but think that Virginia Prince died only last year, at the age of 96. Imagine, she was born only a few years after that book was published, when the idea of anyone being “out” about crossdressing was – to borrow from Hirschfeld’s language – verboten.

It’s hard to imagine what might have been, if the Nazis had not destroyed Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sex.

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Move ENDA Now

Take Action: Demand LGBT Employment Rights Today

Note from Helen: (en)gender is participating in a blogswarm today with Bilerico Project, Daily Kos, Open Left, Towleroad, Pam’s House Blend, Joe My God, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Daily Gotham, Culture Kitchen, Taylor Marsh, Page One Q, and Dan Savage, among others. Contact Speaker Nancy Pelosi and ask that she move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3017) to a floor vote.

ENDA is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and would prohibit job discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Hearings were held in the House and in the Senate to demonstrate the need for the bill, and testimony was heard on the severe unemployment, underemployment and harassment experienced by LGBT workers. Witnesses testified to the scientific studies demonstrating this.

A clue to the inaction: Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly told Democrats that she would not move controversial bills. Meanwhile, the House Committee has stated its readiness to move, but is waiting for a signal from Speaker Pelosi. She doesn’t move it, & we can’t wait any more: there is a majority in both Houses of Congress in favor of ENDA. Now is the time to move it.

Please call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965. Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote. Please be polite, but firm.

More at Bilerico, and especial thanks to Jillian Weiss.

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Drinking Game Redux: Stanton Biopic on CNN

The day has finally arrived when the trans community groans collectively: Susan Stanton’s CNN myopic is on tonight. Get out the fifth (or your drug of choice) because this one is going to be worse than the usual; previews are clear about that. We’ll get to see Stanton insult crossdressers and other trans people.

Sigh.

Mostly I would like for non-trans community to know that most trans people are nothing like Stanton: they don’t reek of privilege, for starters. White, wealthy trans women who transition later in life have always gotten more than their share of the media spotlight, and that’s unfortunate if only because it skews the picture of who trans people are, what they need, and what kinds of discrimination they deal with. Most cannot afford GRS, much less FFS (facial feminization surgery) or, alternately, phalloplasty & the like. People like Stanton (Chloe Prince, etc.) also make it seem as if every trans person comes from a heterosexual history and not only gets GRS but needs it; in fact, most MTF spectrum people don’t get genital surgery, for various reasons.

So if you’re not trans, please don’t bother someone you know who is tomorrow. If you really want to know more, try a book.

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NYS GENDA Call-In Day!

From TLDEF:

Last week, the New York State Assembly passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). The only remaining obstacle to the bill becoming law is the New York State Senate. The time is NOW to take action and make our final push to get the Senate to vote to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.

GENDA would amend the state’s human rights law to ban discrimination in housing, employment, credit and public accommodations. It also expands the state’s hate crimes law to explicitly include crimes against transgender people.

We need you to call your Senator and the lead Senate sponsor Tom Duane at their Albany offices to tell them that you want them to bring GENDA to the Senate floor and pass it. We’re at a crucial moment and it is vital that they hear from you.

Continue reading “NYS GENDA Call-In Day!”

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CO: 4th Annual Transforming Gender Symposium

Fourth Annual Transforming Gender: Transgender Symposium to be Held at CU March 5 and 6, 2010

The Transgender Symposium will offer an array of talks, performances, art, film, and a workshop to increase visibility and education about transgender identities and experiences, and to bring together the local transgender and ally community.

Boulder, CO February 16, 2010 — The University of Colorado at Boulder’s GLBT Resource Center will be presenting its fourth annual Transforming Gender: Transgender Symposium March 5 and 6 at the CU Boulder campus. Offering an array of formats – including talks, performances, art, film screening, and a workshop – the Transgender Symposium seeks to increase visibility and education about transgender identities and experiences as well as to bring together the local transgender and ally community.

Presenters at this year’s Symposium include local transgender Reverend Malcolm Himschoot, local transgender award-winning artist and author Dylan Scholinski, and Tristan Taormino, an award-winning author and sex educator. Among the various topics that will be addressed at the Symposium are the intersections of gender identity and race, transgender sexuality, and the ways people respond to different expressions of gender. There will also be an art show featuring local transgender and ally artists.

Continue reading “CO: 4th Annual Transforming Gender Symposium”