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Cool Stuff 2009

On a cheerier note: there are a lot of these lists, too, of the major events of 2009, but I thought I’d do my own. It’s an odd mix of public and private, but so is my life.

  • Obama’s inauguration
  • misuse of both “fisting” and “tea bagging” by right-wingers
  • Law & Order‘s “Transitions” episode, because it was one of the best treatments of transgender lives on television
  • I was chosen as a finalist for the AROHO grant
  • getting to teach Gender Variance – and specifically introducing a bunch of students to Truman Capote
  • Angie Zapata’s murderer was found guilty
  • speaking in Milwaukee at the UW Milwaukee campus & at The Tool Shed
  • the TransOhio conference, & specifically, getting to halt my talk for a Kiss-In
  • domestic partner protection for WI
  • turned 40
  • watching the revolution in Iran
  • Sims 3 came out
  • publication of Bear Bergman’s 2nd book The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (I’m a gender geek like that)
  • two weddings of four lovely friends
  • Caster Semenya gets to keep her gold medal
  • passage of gender-inclusive Federal Hate Crimes Act
  • Kalamazoo keeps its rights
  • Amanda Simpson hired by Obama Administration
  • NYS’s new trans rights policy

So, yours? Are there any events you expected me to list that I didn’t?

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Who We Lost 2009

There are a lot of lists of who died last year, but I haven’t seen any specific to LGBTQ and feminist communities, so here goes:

  • Mike Penner / Christine Daniels – transgender sports writer
  • Michele La Freniere – transgender activist
  • Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick = queer theorist
  • Bea Arthur – gay icon/actor
  • Dr. George Tiller – abortion doctor
  • Virginia Prince – crossdressing pioneer
  • Ted Kennedy – key legislator on LGBT rights
  • Dottie Laing – crossdresser’s wife & out trans partner

Stars, all. Rest in peace.

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Year in Review

From Harper’s 2009 Year in Review:

Sea levels continued to rise, and a 40-yard-wide asteroid just missed the earth. The Mediterranean Sea was plagued by blobs. Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa; in Angola he warned against witchcraft, corruption, and condoms. Papal archaeologists in Rome authenticated the bones of Saint Paul the Apostle, and Jesus Christ was dismissed from jury duty in Alabama. Toxic-mining wastes in Idaho were killing tundra swans; a man in Munich received a two-year suspended sentence for beating another man with a swan. Highly aggressive supersquirrels were menacing gray squirrels in England, where the Law Lords were replaced with a new Supreme Court whose justices wear no wigs, and where cosmetic nipple surgery was increasingly popular. A London taxi driver tied one end of a rope around a post and the other around his neck and drove away, launching his head from the car. Anglican hymns were sung at Darwin’s tomb. Two Yellowstone National Park workers were fired for peeing into Old Faithful. Sarah Palin published a book, and Sylvia Plath’s son hanged himself in Alaska. Scientists in San Diego made a robot head study itself in a mirror until it learned to smile.

The whole of it is here.