Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
“English Only” advocates at their own conference standing under a banner where the word “conference” is spelled wrong.
Maybe that explains why they’re so adamant: they need to master their first language, first.
(via Think Progress and The Atlantic, & thanks to Betty)
My friend Willow directed me to this narrative written by a woman on Father’s Day. I’ve heard too many similar stories for one lifetime.
It made me think of that line uttered by Dmitri Karamazov: “There are fathers and there are beasts who only sire you.” That’s probably a paraphrase from the novel, but it’s a direct quote from the film version (in which Dmitri is played by Yul Brynner. Really.)
Wow: Jonanthan Ned Katz & David Carter filed an FOI (Freedom of Information Act) to get NYPD documents for the days of the Stonewall uprising, and has put those documents up at OutHistory.org. The New York Times has done a great article about those documents. They’ve also posted photos taken on the last day of the uprising.
This is very cool stuff. Get your queer history geek on, & go see the police documents & the photos.
Not only is it Father’s Day, but it’s the Solsitice and my friend Lara’s birthday! At least here in Appleton, Wisconsin, the weather is great for celebrating any and all of these.
So happy father’s day to the dads out there (male female or otherwise), and a peaceful Solstice, too.
I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?†one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!â€
Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!†and “We want liberty!†accompanied her.
From Roger Cohen’s Op-Ed in the NYT (which is worth reading in its entirety), & via Andrew Sullivan. If you haven’t seen the photo of the woman who is becoming the trigger point for this revolution, you can see it on Sullivan’s blog. But I’m warning you, it’s hard to see. She died on the street.
I hope the Burmese can see what’s going on, I really do, just so they know they aren’t alone. June 19th was Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday, which she spent in jail. Their next elections are in 2010.
There are so many articles about the protests in Iran, but in a sense, this photo says it all for me. (Image from the TimesOnline.)
Pixar shows the world how it’s done:
Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old girl suffering from terminal vascular cancer, told her mom that she wanted to live to see Pixar’s Up. But before she could visit the theater, her condition became too unstable for her to be moved. Colby’s family called Pixar, guessed a name of an employee to break through the automated operator and explained the situation to the first person they reached. A Pixar employee flew out immediately with a DVD, toys and posters in hand.
What a story, no?
No kidding, we bought a car. I don’t even drive, which makes it kind of hysterical, but we were tired of spending a buttload moving back here & returning to NYC, & it had grown increasingly difficult to live here without one. Since Betty is moving here next year to live with me – so that our whole family can be together! – neither of us could imagine a year asking friends to take us to buy groceries.
So, a car. A Honda Fit Sport in bluish purplish black, for those who need to know. It’s a stick, which means I’ll be learning to drive x2.
(The post title is from an Adam & the Ants song, which I’ve been humming under my breath for a few weeks no.)
Someone who I know and like is conducting a survey of transgender people who are 18 or over.
Please do go help him out (& maybe win $100!)
JD Freeman of the Alabama Gender Alliance sent me a copy of a letter he wrote to The Advocate:
Dear Editor –
Regarding this article:
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid90450.aspHere you have a self-identified transgender person, and you have refused to honor that person’s affirmed gender, making the bigoted editorial choice to call Kimah a man and to apply the masculine pronouns “he” and “him”.
You should know better. How are we to achieve liberation when our own publications mistreat us?
It’s time for me to renew my subscription. Guess you don’t need my money after all.
I’m copying GLAAD. Clearly, you need to re-read their media guide. I’m also copying NCTE and every major trans blog.
You owe Kimah an apology.
J D ‘Ox’ Freeman
President
Alabama Gender Alliance