Thursday, April 10, 2008
"She's a Boy I Knew"- Clip #4 - "Initial Reactions"
A short clip from the feature documentary "She's a Boy I Knew" containing the transgender filmmaker's parents recounting their 'initial' reactions when she told them about her female gender identity. Through the film, both parents come a long way in understanding & supporting their child. Check out the film's website at www.artflick.com
Frock 'n' roll
Tokyo's rock scene may leave you questioning your sexuality, Craig Platt discovers.
Normally, wearing a grey shirt and jeans wouldn't make me feel conspicuous in a crowd - but right now I feel distinctly out of place.
I'm standing in a crowd of about 200 Japanese youths who are dressed in the most outrageous costumes I've ever seen - goth kids with white-fright make-up and black fingernails, punk kids with dyed blue hair and a wide and wild variety of piercings, girls dressed in baby-doll clothes more suited to tweens than teens.
In my conservative, smart-casual outfit, I'm by far the blandest person here.
We're all waiting for entry to "Red Carpet Day", a music event at Shibuya O-East, a club in Tokyo. The gig features seven "visual-kei" bands - a genre known more for its over-the-top outfits than for its music. . . .Read More
Children of men
Wednesday, 09 April 2008
The story of Thomas Beatie, the ‘pregnant man’, caused a media storm recently, but what do trans men think about it?
The story of Thomas Beatie, the ‘pregnant man’, caused a media storm recently, but what do trans men think about it?
After Thomas Beatie spoke out publicly recently about his decision as a trans man to become pregnant (SX#375), everybody had an opinion.
Conservative commentators were outraged, while Oprah Winfrey – on whose show Beatie and his wife Nancy appeared – called it “a new definition of what diversity means for everybody”.
But he’s not the first trans man to become pregnant: in 1999, Matt Rice – then the partner of trans male author Patrick (formerly Pat) Califia – gave birth to a daughter.
Califia spoke about the couple’s experiences in the Village Voice, describing how some female-to-male (FTM) trans people wished the baby dead and started to call Rice by his ‘girl’ name.
Nearly a decade has passed since then, so what do trans men think about those in their community such as Beatie, who, having kept their reproductive systems in tact, exercise their right to become a parent by conceiving a child?
“Bringing the child into the world in this way is not about reproductive rights,” asserts Craig Andrews, Coordinator of FTM Australia, a membership organisation that provides resources to trans men. . . .Read More
A Case Of Mistaken Identity
Wednesday, 09 April 2008
The spirit of three intersex subjects rises above titles with shock tactics, notes David Knox.
Television usually prefers to rank our community GLTBi. There are plenty of gay males and lesbians. Transgenders are peppered in comedies, or reality ‘tricks’.
With the exception of SBS docos Sinchronicity and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, bisexuality usually confuses producers. And intersex falls off TV’s radar entirely.
So it was with some trepidation that I approached the UK documentary series My Shocking Story. It’s previously featured medical episodes were called Half Man Half Tree and The Man With No Face. Roll up, roll up for the freakshow!
What Sex Am I? is thankfully not entirely tabloid.
Androgyn Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) is the state in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male.
There are three subjects profiled here. One is Angel, an 8-year-old Brazilian child raised as female by parents, but discovered to have Y chromosomes at the age of 4. Another is 24-year-old Italian Tiziana who confronts her mother about what she thought was an operation on her uterus at 15. . . .Read More
In pilot program, Stanford to offer ‘gender neutral’ housing options for 2008-09
BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN
Stanford Report, April 9, 2008
In an effort to better serve transgender students and to offer more choices to students who want to live with friends of the opposite sex, Stanford will offer "gender neutral" housing options to sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students starting autumn quarter. . . .Read More
Stanford Report, April 9, 2008
In an effort to better serve transgender students and to offer more choices to students who want to live with friends of the opposite sex, Stanford will offer "gender neutral" housing options to sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students starting autumn quarter. . . .Read More
Beatie not meant to be a mirror
ANALYSIS / Many trans men frustrated with media coverage
Well-meaning friends and colleagues assume I identify with — and am concerned about the transphobic reactions to — Beatie's story. In truth I cringe and wish desperately that Beatie would go quickly and quietly away. The more discussion I hear about pregnant men, the more mortified and angry I become. It is a puzzling response considering that I am otherwise so committed to the rights of those who bend the borders of sex and desire. So what is it about Beatie and his desire to bear a child that bothers me? What should the transsexual body look like and who gets to decide?
Although this is a story about Beatie's own sex and body it shines an uncomfortable spotlight on things of which I would prefer not to be reminded. Worse, it invites those who know my history to inquire about my reproductive status and whether I plan to become a pregnant man. It is difficult to articulate how defeating this question is for me, and more difficult to decide upon an appropriate answer. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible not to blame Beatie for inviting this unwanted discussion into my life.
Sensational media representations influence how nontrans people in our lives view us and interpret our experiences. It is demoralizing to have to combat even more confusion about who and what we are when so much misunderstanding already exists.
The story has generated the usual trinity of responses from most nontrans folk of shock, sympathy and outrage. There is, however, an enormous backlash against Beatie among trans men, particularly in the US. Many are rushing to change their legal documents to reflect their post-transition sex. They are concerned that the notion of a pregnant man sensationalized in the mass media will lead US lawmakers to require trans men to undergo the surgical removal of their female reproductive organs before they can become legally male. . . .Read More
Well-meaning friends and colleagues assume I identify with — and am concerned about the transphobic reactions to — Beatie's story. In truth I cringe and wish desperately that Beatie would go quickly and quietly away. The more discussion I hear about pregnant men, the more mortified and angry I become. It is a puzzling response considering that I am otherwise so committed to the rights of those who bend the borders of sex and desire. So what is it about Beatie and his desire to bear a child that bothers me? What should the transsexual body look like and who gets to decide?
Although this is a story about Beatie's own sex and body it shines an uncomfortable spotlight on things of which I would prefer not to be reminded. Worse, it invites those who know my history to inquire about my reproductive status and whether I plan to become a pregnant man. It is difficult to articulate how defeating this question is for me, and more difficult to decide upon an appropriate answer. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible not to blame Beatie for inviting this unwanted discussion into my life.
Sensational media representations influence how nontrans people in our lives view us and interpret our experiences. It is demoralizing to have to combat even more confusion about who and what we are when so much misunderstanding already exists.
The story has generated the usual trinity of responses from most nontrans folk of shock, sympathy and outrage. There is, however, an enormous backlash against Beatie among trans men, particularly in the US. Many are rushing to change their legal documents to reflect their post-transition sex. They are concerned that the notion of a pregnant man sensationalized in the mass media will lead US lawmakers to require trans men to undergo the surgical removal of their female reproductive organs before they can become legally male. . . .Read More
Whoopi Goldberg on pregnant transgender man: 'Uncharted waters'
by PageOneQ
Thomas Beatie, a transgender man, recently talked with Oprah Winfrey about his pregnancy. A profile also appears in the April 14 issue of People Magazine. Born a woman, Beatie is legally a man, but still has an intact reproductive system. Six months into his current pregnancy, the child is due in July; the Beaties' gynecologist expects the baby to be healthy, and ultrasound imaging concurs.
The Beaties have received no compensation for sharing their story. . . .Read More
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