Gender and Life's Paths: Aug 19, 2008

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Transgender Army veteran Diane Schroer

"CNN News reports on transgender Army veteran Diane Schroer and her discrimination case against the Library of Congress (Jan. 5, 2008)" StephanieKayStevens

Transgender Army Veteran Sues Library of Congress for Discrimination

August 19, 2008

by Anne Szustek

Retired Col. Diane Schroer claims the national library rescinded a job offer after she disclosed that she was receiving gender therapy.

Trial Begins on Potentially Landmark Employment Case

A federal court in Washington, D.C., is set to start hearings today as to whether the Library of Congress was in violation of legal precedent on sex discrimination when revoking Col. Schroer’s offer of employment.

David Schroer served 25 years in the Army, and was an Airborne Ranger and headed a classified national security operation. The retired officer was recently hired as a senior terrorism research analyst with the Library of Congress. . . .Read More

Teenager acquitted of murdering transvestite

August 19, 2008

SKNVibes.com

Kellie Telesford

KINGSTON, Jamaica - AN 18-year-old Jamaican who was charged with the murder of a transgendered woman, Kellie Telesford of Thornton Heath, United Kingdom, was found not guilty on August 14, 2008.

According to the Met Police press release, on November, 21, 2007, officers in Thornton Heath responded to reports of concerns from friends for the occupant of 81 Leander Road, Thornton Heath.

After arrival and forced entry they found the body of the 40-year-old who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The release also went on to say that a post mortem conducted at the Mitcham Mortuary the following day revealed that death was caused due to strangulation.

Shanniel Hyatt, 18 of Northborough Road, Norbury, was subsequently charged with Telesford’s murder.

The trial had begun on August 1, 2008 and, according to the prosecution, Hyatt’s motive for the murder came after Telesford performed oral sex on him and he became angry after discovering that she was a transsexual. . . .Read More

Gender games

BY CECIL ADAMS

August 19, 2008

If a man has a sex change, can he compete in the Olympics as a woman? —Stephanie Ketchum

In our enlightened age, when science has made it possible to be the sex you feel like rather than the one nature stuck you with, some think it stuffy to insist on doing things the old-fashioned way. Why not let transsexuals compete as the sex they change to? Obvious rejoinder: Because it’s no fair letting a hulking genetic male go up against smaller genetic females just because he now calls herself Kathy. But as always it’s not that simple.

There’s a history of men sneaking into women’s sports, typically ordinary guys trying to take advantage. One was German high jumper Hermann Ratjen, who competed in the 1936 Olympics under the name Dora Ratjen, placing fourth. Soviet gold medal-winning sisters Tamara and Irina Press, sometimes called “the Press brothers,” were widely suspected of being males in disguise. . . .Read More

Gender variance or nonconformity is found wherever one finds people.

A closer view reveals many variations in gender expression. Note “sex” refers to biology, genes, hormones, body development, whereas “gender” is social role, cultural expectations for appearance and behavior. Gender expression varies over time and throughout cultures and may vary in the lifetimes of individuals. We sometimes hear “male or female”, “masculine or feminine”, as defining “the binary”. Typically, many want males masculine and females feminine, in a world where being androgenous or a hybrid may actually work better. Yet many individuals, for example, parents, teachers, and friends, including some with gender issues, crave the binary. In the case of a significantly gender variant person, gender expression often does not match the social or binary gender role assigned at birth. Nevertheless, the person's expressed gender may feel correct or natural. Thus a gender nonconforming person, maybe someone who even sees themselves as “non-binary”, may feel very uncomfortable with the gender expression expected by parents and significant others. Fortunately, there are a growing number of resources to help those interested understand gender, development, change and adaptation. And there are creative paths one may explore to hopefully find comfort, experience a measure of peace and happiness, and in the process find the gender expression that works best. Here I offer some news, information, resources, opinions and POVs to help you learn more about gender expression and life situations. We now know there are a variety of paths individuals discover that may contribute to positive life changes.

Books you may find interesting:

Benjamin, Harry. (1966). The Transsexual Phenomenon. New York: The Julian Press, Inc. Full text and photographs available as an electronic book: http://www.symposium.com/ijt/benjamin/

Blanchard, Ray and Steiner, Betty W. (1990). Clinical Management of Gender Identity Disorders in Children and Adults. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc.

Bolin, Anne. (1988). In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey.

Boenke, Mary, (Ed). (2003). Trans Forming Families. Hardy, VA: Oak Knoll Press.

Bornstein, Kate. (1994). Gender Outlaw: On men, women and the rest of us. Routledge: New York & London.

Brill, Stephanie & Pepper, Rachel. (2008). The Transgender Child. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Brown, Mildred L. & Rounsley, Chloe Ann. (1996). True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brownmiller, Susan. (1984). Femininity. New York: Linden / Simon Schuster.

Buss, David M. (1994). The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating. New York: Basic Books.

Califia, Pat. (1997). Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Cameron, Loren. (1996). Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Colapinto, John. (2000). As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York: HarperCollins.

Cromwell, Jason. (1999). Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders and Sexualities. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Devor, Holly. (1989). Gender Blending: Confronting The Limits of Duality. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Devor, Holly. (1997). Female to Male Transsexuals in Society. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Docter, Richard F. (1988). Transvestites and Transsexuals: Toward a Theory of Cross-Gender Behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Ehrensaft, Diane. (2011). Gender Born, Gender Made. New York: The Experiment, LLC.

Green, Jamison. (2004). Becoming a Visible Man. Nashville:Vanderbilt Univerrsity Press.

Griggs, Claudine. (1996). Passage through Trinidad: Journal of a Surgical Sex Change. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co.

Griggs, Claudine. (1998). S/He: Changing Sex and Changing Clothes. Oxford: Berg.

HBIGDA, Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders, Sixth Version. (2001). http://www.hbigda.org/socv6.html#top

Kessler, Suzanne and McKenna, Wendy. (1978). Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Serano, Julia. (2007). Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Women on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. San Francisco: Seal Press.

Stuart, Kim Elizabeth. (1983). The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender. Portland, Oregon: Metamorphous Press, Inc.

Available from Metamorphous Press, Inc. P.O. Box 10616, Portland, Oregon 97210-0616. Fax (503) 223-9117 or Toll Free 1-800-937-7771

Sullivan, Lou. (1990). Information for the Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transsexual. Seattle, Washington: Ingersoll Gender Center.

Available from Ingersoll Gender Center. 1812 E. Madison Seattle, Washington 98122-2843. (206) 329-665

Williams, Walter L. (1986). The Spirit and The Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon Press.

Zucker, Kenneth J. and Bradley, Susan J. (1995). Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents. New York: Guilford.

Gender and Life's Paths

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Transgender Army veteran Diane Schroer

Transgender Army Veteran Sues Library of Congress for Discrimination

Trial Begins on Potentially Landmark Employment Case

Teenager acquitted of murdering transvestite

Gender games

Gender variance or nonconformity is found wherever one finds people.

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