Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Craig Russell, My First Inspiration

How I Made a Gender Transition on the Job

How I Made a Gender Transition on the Job

By Ina Fried

Winter 2007

Deciding to transition at work was one of the toughest decisions of my life.

I had known I was transgender for more than a decade, but I was unsure whether I would be able to bring together my work life with who I knew myself to be. After three years of working as Ian, a male, at CNET News.com, would my co-workers and sources be able to accept me as Ina, a female? And how would readers and viewers react? Although the bulk of my job is writing print stories for our Web site, a part of it is appearing in broadcast media to talk about technology issues as well as conducting video interviews of top executives.

But while there were lots of reasons to be worried, there were also things urging me to push forward. I was tired of wearing floppy sweatshirts at the grocery store out of fear that I would run into a colleague or source. I also felt that I was in a unique position, having had access to education and financial security that so few in my community possess. Who was I to stay hidden?

For a while, I tried to wait until I was sure that things would work out. But, in the end, that just wasn’t possible. I thought things would be manageable, but there really weren’t any guarantees. I didn’t think I would get fired, but I wasn’t sure if it would hamper my ability to do my job. I worried that my gender would become the story, rather than the story being the ones on which I was trying to report. Eventually, though, I decided it was more important to be who I knew myself to be.

I thought my managers would be understanding, but not necessarily knowledgeable, on what to do. So by the time I approached them I had come up with a plan. First I would send an e-mail to my colleagues in the newsroom. Then, after they (and I) had a week or two to adjust, I would reach out to my contacts and sources, hundreds of them.

I had planned to wait a little longer than I did, maybe work on making my voice a little less deep, or be more sure of how I would present myself at work. When a new opportunity as Microsoft beat reporter came open, I was forced to speed things up. I didn’t feel right accepting a new assignment without telling my co-workers what I was planning. I accepted the new beat, and they accepted my new gender. . . .


My life in fashion: Grayson Perry

December 12, 2007




The transvestite ceramic artist Grayson Perry says he loves to dress in frills, lace, leather and rubber – but he also likes a nice headscarf. . .



The artist Grayson Perry, 47, won the Turner Prize in 2003 for his ceramic work. He received his prize dressed as his alter-ego, Claire, wearing a pink dress embroidered with bunny rabbits. In 2005, he received a Royal Television Society award for his Channel 4 documentary Men Wear Frocks, in which he examined transvestism and masculinity. Perry is married and has a teenage daughter.

I get my ideas from sexual fantasies. These are mainly about the clothes that would be most embarrassing for me to wear. I imagined myself winning the Turner prize dressed as a little girl and, hey presto.

I have been dressing up for 34 years. It started when I was 13. It was a secret then; it’s not something you brag about in the playground or to your parents. I started dressing like my mother – well, I used her clothes, I couldn’t do much else. When I was a student I dressed like an off-duty nurse in hippy dresses. When I had more money I was high street, so Marks & Spencer and quite conservative. I wore prosthetic bosoms; I was a 36B, I think. When I was in my twenties I would go to Oxford Street dressed as a woman and no one would notice. I worked out that that was a bit boring. So I got into the fetish scene and wore a lot of corsets and rubber. . . .

Transgender Veterans Survey

1. Introduction


This survey is for Transgender Veterans, Intersex Veterans and Transgender-Identified Active Duty Service Members only, so if you did not serve in the American military or currently serving, then we request that you do not take this survey. The purpose is to get an idea of various problems facing transgender veterans, intersex veterans and military people, whether it is with the VA, finding and keeping work, and life in general. Since our veterans and military people are unique within the transgender/intersex community, they face problems that are also unique to them, as well as the problems all transgender people face. We would like to see if the transgender/intersex veteran and military population have more or less problems that the general transgender and intersex population faces. Based on the answers of this survey, many of us involved in helping veterans will be able to form a positive direction to help resolved some of these problems. . . .

Gay and the Masculine Mystique

Dave Muskera, M.A.


E.M. Forster’s novel “Maurice” (written in 1913 but not published until 1971) tells the story of a young lad of good family and upbringing who discovers himself to be homosexual. Raised in the behaviorally rigid social structure of Edwardian England, he later works - as expected - in his families London brokerage firm. But he is greatly distressed by seeing himself as an “unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort”. Early in the story, he seeks treatment for his sexual “malady” - first from the family doctor who tells him his feelings are “rubbish” and then from a hypnotherapist who advises him to exercise and “stroll about with a gun”.

Maurice came to the big screen in 1987. It’s a lush and well done Merchant-Ivory production with Hugh Grant and Ben Kingsley who plays the part of the hypnotherapist. You can find many reviews of the book and the movie on the Internet.

I begin this article with these bits of book and movie trivia because Forster’s line, delivered by Kingsley in the movie, advising his homosexual client to go strolling about with a gun as an antidote for his “gayness” unfortunately still reflects much of today’s thinking about what constitutes homosexuality. Here we are nearly one hundred years later and confusion about the differences between the concepts of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender role performance still abounds. In this same 100 years of scientific advance, we have gone from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and from wind-up toys to Play Stations, but our cultural views on homosexuality have, in some quarters, not progressed much beyond the late 1800s.

In the advice given Maurice, it’s implied that going strolling with gun (a presumed masculine activity) will somehow re-ignite his manliness and rid him of his dastardly homosexual urges. In essence, the view expressed is that male homosexuality is the opposite of manliness. That all gay men are soft or effeminate - utterly devoid of typical masculine characteristics. This view also extends to cultural expectations that gay men are mostly found in certain feminine identified occupations: hair dressers, nurses, home decorators and others of a similar nature. Yes I know, it’s silly and out of date but you might just be surprised at how many folks still think this way. . . .

Intersex American's illegal marriage to NZer

By GayNZ.com News Staff - 11th December 2007

A New Zealand woman who married an intersex American has had her marriage licence quashed and been refused permission to stay in the United States.

The woman, who has not been named, married Stephan Thomas Calewarts – also known as Stephanie Tia Calewarts – in September 2006.

According to court records, Calewarts was born with "ambiguous genitalia" – tissue for both a penis and a vagina – but his birth certificate identified him as male.

Stephanie Calewarts – whose name was legally changed in 2000 – asked a Brown County, Wisconsin circuit judge in October 2006 to change his birth certificate back to a male gender.

When the judge refused, the county revoked the couple's marriage licence because his birth certificate listed him as female and same-sex marriages are illegal in Wisconsin. . . .