Gender and Life's Paths: Sep 11, 2008

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Shedding The Light on Vampires in America (HBO)

(Might this be viewed as a metaphor for LGBT Rights? R.A.)

"Watch an exclusive exposé on the vampires living among us. For more information about True Blood, log onto HBO.com" HBO

'Transvestite toilet' for transgender people

September 10, 2008

by ANI

A Thai school has added a third option to the standard'boys' and'girls' bathrooms' a 'transvestite toilet'.

The Kampang School unveiled a unisex restroom designated by a human figure split in half' part man in blue and part woman in red with words "Transvestite Toilet" written below, after 200 students said they considered themselves to be transgenger.

Although most rural Thais are conservative in many ways, the initiative at the school reflects Thai society's tolerance for transgender communities. "These students want to be able to go in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped. . .Read More

What Has Sex Got to Do With It, Ex-Man Asks Court: Ann Woolner

11 September 2008

Commentary by Ann Woolner

Bloomberg.com

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- For a manly man, you could do worse than David Schroer, if you will pardon the sexual stereotype.

A full colonel when he retired from the Army in 2004 at the age of 47, Schroer qualified as an Airborne Ranger with 450 parachute jumps and won too many medals to name. He had commanded Special Forces in Haiti and southern Africa.

After the terrorist attacks on the U.S. seven years ago today, he was picked to create and direct a classified, interagency group to track terrorism and plan U.S. responses. He briefed officials up the line to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Schroer seemed a perfect fit when, in retirement, he applied for a job at the Library of Congress analyzing terrorism and international crime for Congress.

His high-powered references praised him and he wowed the Library of Congress interviewers. His qualifications made him ``significantly better'' than the other applicants, Charlotte Preece, the library manager who decided to hire him, told Schroer over lunch in 2004. . . .Read More

Transgender leader Rachel Crandall to receive prestigeous community award

by Jessica Carreras

9/11/2008

Just over ten years ago, Rachel Crandall was married, living as a man and unhappy. Then, she made the choice to be true to herself and lost her marriage, her job, her home and her life. But in the end, she says, she got all her happiness back - and then some.
On Sept. 17, the Michigan Bar Association will celebrate not only everything Crandall has gone through, but everything she has given. That night, she will become one of only two LGBT people - and the only transgender person - to receive the Liberty Bell Award, honoring her work as co-founder and executive director of TransGender Michigan.
The Liberty Bell Award is given to local citizens who have excelled in providing service within the community. It honors non-lawyer citizens who have donated their time and resources to help further the rights of others. They have been given out since 1986, but only once before to an openly gay man - Jeff Montgomery - in 2006.
"What was going was 'Wow,'" Crandall said of hearing that she had been chosen to receive the award. "I mean, it's really quite an award. It's quite prestigious. I was thinking have I really done things to really earn this award." . . .Read More

TransNation: Doubly Triggered

By Jacob Anderson-Minshall | 9/11/2008

Visual artist Georgette Freeman titles her current exhibit, Up From the Depths: Triggered. When I reach the sixty-one-year-old artist by phone in the same 275-square-foot San Francisco apartment she’s resided in for 33 years; she suggests, “We both know the word triggered. Mine was retirement. What was your trigger?”

When Freeman talks about things surfacing and about awareness—and actions—being triggered by significant life events, she’s speaking not only about her transgender identity but also her creative spark.

The duality is ironic because the aptly titled exhibit features Freeman’s collection of stereo card photographs. Captured by a single camera with two lenses set the same distance apart as the human eyes, the black and white stereo photographs offer dual images of the same subject that, when viewed through a stereoscope or special glasses, produce a 3-D image. . . .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

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Shedding The Light on Vampires in America (HBO)

'Transvestite toilet' for transgender people

What Has Sex Got to Do With It, Ex-Man Asks Court: Ann Woolner

Transgender leader Rachel Crandall to receive prestigeous community award

by Jessica Carreras

9/11/2008

TransNation: Doubly Triggered

Gender variance or nonconformity is found wherever one finds people.

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