Posts

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Coming Out to Kids as Trans

I was asked recently for resources for trans people with children. Honestly, there’s never very much, but here’s the list I sent her:

If anyone has any newer resources I haven’t yet seen, please do add them!

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Trans Families Needed to Take LGBT Families Survey

I know the lovely group of people doing this research, and can personally recommend them, so please, trans families with children, take their survey. We complain all the time that the T is left out of LGBT studies, & these folks are making sure we’re part of it this time.

Here’s how they explain it:

Our online survey explores the ways in which LGBT parents and their children manage social policies and pressures within their communities. The survey is kind of long—it may take you an hour to complete. However, we want to learn about each family’s perspectives, experiences, and opinions. Parents are asked questions about topics such as attitudes in your community, parenting and family relationships, social pressures and sources of support, as well as questions regarding your child(ren). Children are also welcomed to participate in our study.

At this point, over 150 LGBT families from 24 states have participated, but we want to hear more voices and perspectives. So far, we only have small numbers of gay dads and trans-parents–we need your help! We want families from ALL backgrounds: economic, ethnic, spiritual, and disabled diverse families. With your help, we hope to better understand challenges facing LGBT families and promote social policies that support all families.

If you would like to participate or to learn more about us, please check out our website: www.lgbtparents.org

If you have questions, ideas, or comments please feel free to email Beth Haines (hainesb@lawrence.edu ) or Julie Konik (konikj@lawrence.edu).

Thanks again for your help!

Warmly,
Beth Haines, Julie Konik, and Siobhan Brooks
Sarah Bruemmer and Erin Henzi

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For Veterans’ Day, Equality Please

This message just came in from AVER (American Veterans for Equal Rights) and TAVA (Transgender American Veterans’ Association):

American Veterans For Equal Rights president Danny Ingram and Transgender American Veterans Association president Monica Helms have made a joint YouTube video appeal to President Obama and Congress to Lift the Ban on LGBT military service by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

On this Veterans’ Day, as President Obama considers sending more patriotic American troops to Afghanistan, AVER and TAVA remind the President of his campaign promise to repeal DADT.

Go to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QkRcAcya30

Send the link to others and your Congressional reps.

Danny Ingram
President AVER

Monica Helms
President TAVA

Thank you, veterans, for your service.

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11/9

It’s been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. (20 YEARS. damn.)

I’d embed the Jesus Jones video of the song “Right Here, Right Now” but EMI doesn’t allow it. Here’s the link, though, so you can go watch it. My friend Lara once told me that no song had better summed up someone’s personality; she was talking about mine. Yeah.

Just watching that, reading the article too, makes me wonder if it’s even possible to get out from under the nihilism anymore. I still hope so., and have hoped so for more than these 20 years.

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Dress Codes in High School

A decent article in the NYT about high schools, crossdressing, and identity:

At Wesson Attendance Center, a Mississippi public school, just that sort of fight erupted over senior portraits. Last summer, during her photo session, Ceara Sturgis, 17, dutifully tried on the traditional black drape, the open-necked robe that reveals the collarbone, a hint of bare shoulder.

“It was terrible!” said Ms. Sturgis, an honors student, band president and soccer goalie, who has been openly gay since 10th grade. “If you put a boy in a drape, that’s me! I have big shoulders and ooh, it didn’t look like me! I said, ‘I can’t do this!’ So my mom said, ‘Try on the tux.’ And that looked normal.”

Shortly thereafter, students were informed that girls had to wear drapes for yearbook portraits; boys, tuxedos.

The Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote to the school. Rickey Clopton, superintendent of Copiah County schools, did not return phone calls. Last month he released a statement affirming that the school’s decision was “based upon sound educational policy and legal precedent.”

Last month, Veronica Rodriguez, Ms. Sturgis’s mother, paid for a full-page ad in the yearbook that is to include a photograph of her daughter in a tuxedo.

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US Guns

(Our condolences to any of the family & friends of those who lost their lives in the two shootings that have happened in the past 24 hours.)