Gender Queer Me

An attempt at describing my gender identity, which, now I have had the surgery, I can finally be open about!

Hopefully this will be of value to those of you questioning your own?

This is an understanding that took me many years to feel comfortable with and in, never mind being confident enough to share publicly! xenokyle

Students go out in style - drag style

Jody Pollock

3.26.2008


It was all about the purple fishnets.

College sophomore Cameron Clark spent the past few weeks preparing for his debut as Britney Spears last night, and he couldn't have done it without the "proper purple fishnets."

In towering black lace-up boots and a pink miniskirt, Clark was just one of the many Penn performers who participated in the second-annual gender-bending drag show last night. The show was part of QPenn, the annual lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender pride and awareness week.

"This is a drag show," said the emcee of the night, MC Liza, who hosts a weekly drag show at Bob and Barbara's, a bar downtown. "So don't be conservative. If you're going to be conservative, we'll send you somewhere else."

But the audience wasn't shy, and the five drag acts, which included a group of PennQuest leaders and a contingent from alpha Kappa Delta Phi, were met with a great reception. . . .Read more

Transgender adults seek congressional support in workplace

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 3/26/2008


Transgender activists will descend on Capitol Hill next month to lobby members of Congress to include "gender identity and expression" in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which bans workplace discrimination based on "sexual orientation," passed the House last November, but the homosexual employment bill still awaits a vote in the Senate. In preparation for the lobbying effort, the National Center for Transgender Equality will be holding "lobby training" and policy briefings on April 14 in Washington. The following day, transgender activists and their supporters plan to meet with members of Congress and urge them to back special workplace protections for transgender adults. They will also hold a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol. . . .Read More

In first, black trans woman headed to Dem convention

Richmond, a Clinton delegate, would be happy with Obama as nominee

By REBECCA ARMENDARIZ, Washington Blade | Mar 26, 2008


Marisa Richmond has been involved in national political conventions since 1980, when she worked on Sen. Edward Kennedy's bid for president.

But this election year will likely be more memorable for Richmond, as she is set to become the first black transgender delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

This year, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean also named Diego Sanchez from Massachusetts to one of the convention's standing committees. Sanchez is the first transgender person to be selected by the chair of the DNC and the first to serve on the platform committee.

Richmond, a college history professor at Middle Tennessee State University, transitioned in 2001 at age 42. Though she knew since age 7 that she felt like a woman, she said she didn't know the terminology — or what was possible — until later. . . .Read More

Transgender Man's Baby May Have Health Problems

Experts Debate the Long-Term Effects of Testosterone on Eggs

By AINA HUNTER
March 26, 2008


Among the important issues raised by the pregnancy of Oregonian Thomas Beatie is whether a female-to-male transgender person who becomes pregnant might be endangering the fetus, especially someone like Beatie, who has been taking testosterone for at least 10 years.

There's very little research on the subject to date, and some experts are at odds about it. Dr. Charles Garramoni, a Florida plastic surgeon who specializes in female-to-male transgender surgery (but was not involved in Beatie's case), said the chances of complications are probably slim. . . .Read More

Author Jennifer Finney Boylan emerges as public face for transgendered

Jerry Harkavy, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 25, 2008

BELGRADE LAKES, Maine - Jennifer Finney Boylan never set out to be the public face for the transgendered.

But the novelist and English professor at Colby College was thrust into that role by her 2002 best-selling memoir about the transition to womanhood that freed her from the decades-long torment of being a female trapped in a male body.

With three appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," two on "Larry King Live" and numerous other interviews and public appearances, Boylan, 49, has become a sunny-faced activist for the transgendered and one of the most widely recognized transsexuals of recent years.

"Activism for me takes the form of living a normal life and doing so very publicly," she said. . . .Read More