Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Dr. Maxwell Anderson, who was a close friend of Robert Eads’, and who was in the documentary Southern Comfort with his friend, is ill and in the hospital this holiday season.
You can get updates on his health on his blog, but the news is not good.
Please do pray / send good vibes to him depending on how you think of that sort of thing.
There is a message from him here, a short video shot by Monica Helms when she visited him.
In about 20 minutes, or 7PM EST, we’ll be calling into Ethan St. Pierre’s annual TransFM holiday live broadcast.
This Wednesday, December 16 at the LGBT Center in New York City, Governor David Paterson will announce a major policy affecting transgender civil rights in New York. The Pride Agenda has been working on this issue since Governor Spitzer was elected and has continued to work on it with Governor Paterson. Please join us for this important event if you are able.
What: Governor Paterson to announce major policy on transgender rights
Where: LGBT Community Center , 208 West 13th St. ( Manhattan )
When: This Wednesday, December 16 at 10:30 AM (doors open at 10:00 AM)
Having our community and our allies show up in large numbers for this significant moment is the best way we can thank Governor Paterson for his work moving LGBT equality forward. We hope to see you there! If you can join the Pride Agenda at this event, please RSVP to Matt Brunner at mbrunner@prideagenda.org or (212) 627-0305.
Equality Maryland is Maryland’s largest LGBT civil rights organization. They recently sent out this information about the proposed changes to the rules for changing gender on MD driver’s licenses.
The Maryland Vehicle Administration (MVA) is currently considering an update to their policy regarding changing the gender marker on a driver’s license. The new policy would go into effect on January 1, 2010.
The current policy allows for a change to the gender marker, so long as an applicant is able to provide a physician’s or psychologist’s report to confirm that the applicant is in active treatment. The MVA requires annual re-evaluations until the applicant meets requirements for permanent gender change. The primary criterion for a permanent change is for the person to have undergone SRS or sex reassignment surgery.
Continue reading “New MVA Policy Detrimental to Trans Marylanders”
While I’m sure it can be difficult for some trans people to comprehend, there are a ton of us out there who were incredibly offended by Gold’s piece for Bilerico. One of those people is Peter Toscano, who asked for other allies to post on his blog in support of all the trans people we know & love.
Damn is that cool.
A graduate student in journalism at CUNY recently wrote a cool article / multimedia presentation on the recent changes to the name change laws in New York State. Our own Caprice Bellefleur, the veteran mod of the mHB forums, who works with the Name Change Project, was interviewed.
A New York County appeals court ruled on October 21 that a transgender person does not need a doctor’s note to change his or her name. This decision reversed a Civil Court denial of a name-change petition. (See here for more information.)
The decision could impact all of New York state, Caprice Bellefleur said by email. Bellefleur is a volunteer lawyer for the West Village Trans-Legal Clinic, which provides pro bono legal assistance to transgender people seeking to legally change their names. “Any decision that eases the [name-change] process can be used to argue for the same result across the state,” said Bellefleur.
The editors of Bilerico fired Ronald Gold & took his post down.
I firmly disagree with the opinion that posting his screed had anything to do with website hits or publicity, and I disagree emphatically.
The only remaining dilemma, in my opinion, is that Ronald Gold is not the only one, & is in fact representative of some people with queer genders who don’t understand that trans people are categorically different, in their experience of gender, than those who are not trans.
It took me a long fucking time to understand that. It was only when I met stone butches who transitioned to femmey gay men and former straight men who transitioned to geeky tomboys that I realized it had nothing whatsoever to do with gender conformity.
Trans people do not, as a whole, reject gender non-conformity. They are not trans because they are invested in the binary. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I mean, really, this isn’t a joke?
I’m going to say again: those of us with queer genders who aren’t trans seem to have a beam in our own eye on this one. We just don’t get it, over & over & over again. No, female & male personalities don’t exist. But male & female people DO — wither social construction & all.
It’d be laughable for a man who actively resisted being pathologized to turn around & pathologize others if it weren’t awful. Shame on you, Ronald Gold. You should know better than to distrust the narratives of people who are a minority & misunderstood, but perhaps you’ve forgotten you are one, too.
So Mr. Gold, try to dust off your brain & remember when people told you that you just hadn’t met the right woman, because the argument you make concerning trans people is about as uninformed, inexperienced & myopic. & I say that with utmost respect for what you’ve achieved.
It’s always so good to hear when another partner support group starts! Go Madison!
Just to let you know there is a SOFFA support group starting in Madison.
It will meet every other Tuesday evening, 7p-9p, beginning January 19.
It will meet at Outreach, 600 Williamson Street.
We will be focusing on the SOFFA experience and narrative.
It is a drop-in, peer support group.
It’s good news: Ireland has a possible law going before Parliament that will recognize the chosen gender marker/identity of trans individuals. The Green Party is pushing for it.