By Kim Pearson
In the GLBT movement, most of us are familiar with the capital “T” representing Transgender folks, but there is also a lower case “t” beginning to emerge as a bright and shining star of education and advocacy in our community. The lower case ‘t’ represents the trans and gender variant children in our community and the families who love and support them.
Due to the flurry of recent media attention, these children have been thrust into the public eye. Unless you are personally acquainted with one of these children/families, how much do you really know about their lives and experiences? How accurate is the information you may have?
What is transgender? Transgender is a very broad umbrella term, which represents many things to many people. For this article we are going to use it to refer to children who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. This would include children who were assigned female at birth but self-identify as male, children who were assigned male at birth but self-identify as female and children who, regardless of their birth assignment, self-identify as either, neither or somewhere in between. The either, neither or in between children are those whose gender identity or expression differ from expectations for their assigned birth sex, and they are often referred to as gender variant, gender queer or gender questioning. Not all children will identify with our socially constructed binary gender system and will continue to be gender variant into adulthood.
As executive director of TransYouth Family Advocates, Inc. (TYFA), I share the story of raising my pre-school gender variant child with audiences all over the country. It goes something like this: When my child was 4, I was under the impression that I had a daughter who strenuously resisted gender typical dress, toys and activities, would not wear dresses, sported a flat top haircut, dressed in boy’s jeans, tees, shoes and hats, played baseball (not softball), basketball, army men and most other “typically” male activities. My child even cut off eyelashes, offended by folks saying how pretty they were. The explanation was, “I can be ‘cute,’ but definitely NOT ‘pretty.’” This was truly a gender variant child.
We define gender variant individuals as those whose gender identity or expression differs from expectations for their physical sex characteristics or assigned birth sex.
Unlike my child, who did not verbally express his male gender identity until he was 14, many children are clear about having a cross gender identity from as early as two years of age. In the book Caring For Your School Aged Child: 5-12, the American Academy of Pediatrics states: “A child’s awareness of being a boy or a girl starts in the first year of life. It often begins by 8 to 10 months of age, when youngsters typically discover their genitals. Then, between 1 and 2 years old, children become conscious of physical differences between boys and girls; before their third birthday they are easily able to label themselves as either a boy or a girl as they acquire a strong concept of self. By age 4, children’s gender identity is stable, and they know they will always be a boy or a girl.". . .
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Skirt Chasers: Why the Media Depicts the Trans Revolution in Lipstick and Heels
by Julia Serano
--A version of this piece (slightly edited for length) first appeared in Bitch Magazine, issue 26, Fall 2005--
*note: this essay has been recently updated (including new material!) for Julia’s new book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity - find out more!
As a transsexual woman, I am often confronted by people who insist that I am not, nor can I ever be, a “real woman.” One of the more common lines of reasoning goes something like this: There’s more to being a woman than simply putting on a dress. I couldn’t agree more. That’s why it’s so frustrating that people often seem confused because, although I have transitioned to female and live as a woman, I rarely wear makeup or dress in a particularly feminine manner.
Despite the reality that there are as many types of trans women as there are women in general, most people believe that trans women are all on a quest to make ourselves as pretty, pink, and passive as possible. While there are certainly some trans women who buy into mainstream dogma about beauty and femininity, others are outspoken feminists and activists fighting against all gender stereotypes. But you’d never know it from the popular media, which tends to assume that all transsexuals are male-to-female, and that all trans women want to achieve stereotypical femininity.
Trans people—who transition from male to female or female to male and often live completely unnoticed as the sex “opposite” to that which they were born—have the potential to transform the gender class system as we know it. Our existence challenges the conventional wisdom that the differences between women and men are primarily the product of biology. Trans people can wreak havoc on such taken-for-granted concepts as feminine and masculine, homosexual and hetero-sexual, because these words are rendered virtually meaningless when a person’s biological sex and lived sex are not the same. But because we are a threat to the categories that enable male and heterosexual privilege, the images and experiences of trans people are presented in the media in a way that reaffirms, rather than challenges, gender stereotypes.
THE TWO CHOICES
Media depictions of trans women, whether they take the form of fictional characters or actual people, usually fall under one of two main archetypes: the “deceptive” transsexual or the “pathetic” transsexual. While characters of both models have an interest in achieving an ultrafeminine appearance, they differ in their abilities to pull it off. Because the “deceivers” successfully pass as women, they generally act as unexpected plot twists, or play the role of sexual predators who fool innocent straight guys into falling for “men.”
Perhaps the most famous example of a “deceiver” is the character Dil in the 1992 movie The Crying Game. The film became a pop culture phenomenon primarily because most moviegoers were unaware that Dil was trans until about halfway through the movie. The revelation comes during a love scene between her and Fergus, the male protagonist who has been courting her. When Dil disrobes, the audience, along with Fergus, learns for the first time that Dil is physically male. When I saw the film, most of the men in the theater groaned at this revelation. Onscreen, Fergus has a similarly intense reaction: He slaps Dil and runs off to the bathroom to vomit.
The 1994 Jim Carrey vehicle Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, features a “deceptive” transsexual as a villain. Police lieutenant Lois Einhorn (played by Sean Young) is secretly Ray Finkle, an ex–Miami Dolphins kicker who has stolen the team’s mascot as part of a scheme to get back at Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. The bizarre plot ends when Ventura strips Einhorn down to her underwear in front of about 20 police officers and announces, “She is suffering from the worst case of hemorrhoids I have ever seen.” He then turns her around so that we can see her penis and testicles tucked behind her legs. All of the police officers proceed to spit up as The Crying Game theme song plays in the background.
Even though “deceivers” successfully pass as women, and are often played by female actors (with the notable exception of Jaye Davidson as Dil), these characters are never intended to challenge our assumptions about gender itself. On the contrary, they are positioned as “fake” women, and their secret trans status is revealed in a dramatic “moment of truth”. At the moment of exposure, the “deceiver’s” appearance (her femaleness) is reduced to mere illusion, and her secret (her maleness) becomes the real identity.
In a tactic that emphasizes their “true” maleness, “deceivers” are most often used as pawns to provoke male homophobia in other characters, as well as in the audience itself. This phenomenon is especially evident in TV talk shows like Jerry Springer, which regularly runs episodes with titles like “My Girlfriend’s a Guy” and “I’m Really a Man!” that feature trans women coming out to their straight boyfriends. On a recent British TV reality show called There's Something About Miriam, six heterosexual men court an attractive woman who, unbeknownst to them, is transgendered. The broadcast of the show was delayed for several months because the men threatened to sue the show’s producers, alleging that they had been the victims of defamation, personal injury, and conspiracy to commit sexual assault. The affair was eventually settled out of court, with each man coming away with a reported $100,000.
In the 1970 film adaptation of Gore Vidal’s novel Myra Breckinridge, the protagonist is a trans woman who heads out to Hollywood in order to take revenge on traditional manhood and to “realign the sexes.” This apparently involves raping an ex-football player with a strap-on dildo, which she does at one point during the movie. The recurring theme of “deceptive” trans women retaliating against men, often by seducing them, seems to be an unconscious acknowledgment that both male and heterosexual privileges are threatened by transsexuals.
In contrast to the “deceivers”, who wield their feminine wiles with success, the “pathetic” transsexual characters aren’t deluding anyone. Despite her masculine mannerisms and five o’clock shadow, the “pathetic” transsexual will inevitably insist that she is a woman trapped inside a man’s body. The intense contradiction between the “pathetic” character’s gender identity and her physical appearance is often played for laughs—as in the transition of musician Mark Shubb (played as a bearded baritone by Harry Shearer) at the conclusion of 2003’s A Mighty Wind.
Unlike the “deceivers”, whose ability to pass is a serious threat to our ideas about gender and sexuality, “pathetic” transsexuals—who barely resemble women at all—are generally considered harmless. Perhaps for this reason, some of the most endearing pop culture-portrayals of trans women fall into the “pathetic” category: John Lithgow’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of ex–football -player Roberta Muldoon in 1982’s The World According to Garp, and Terence Stamp’s role as the aging showgirl Bernadette in 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. More recently, the 1998 indie film The Adventures of Sebastian Cole begins with its eponymous teenage protagonist learning that his step-dad Hank, who looks and acts like a roadie for a ’70s rock band, is about to become Henrietta. A sympathetic character and the only stable person in Sebastian’s life, Henrietta spends most of the movie wearing floral-print nightgowns and bare-shouldered tops with tons of jewelry and makeup. Yet despite her extremely femme manner of dress, she continues to exhibit only stereotypical male behaviors, overtly ogling a waitress and punching out a guy who calls her a faggot (after which she laments, “I broke a nail”).
While a character like Henrietta, who exhibits a combination of extreme masculinity and femininity, has the potential to confront our assumptions about gender, it is fairly obvious that the filmmakers were not trying to do so. On the contrary, Henrietta’s masculine voice and mannerisms are meant to demonstrate that, despite her desire to be female, she cannot change the fact that she is really and truly a man. As with Garp’s Roberta and Priscilla’s Bernadette, the audience is encouraged to respect Henrietta as a person, but not as a woman. While we are supposed to admire their courage—which presumably comes from the difficulty of living as women who do not appear very female—we are not meant to identify with them or to be sexually attracted to them, as we are to “deceivers” like Dil.
Interestingly, while the obvious outward masculinity of “pathetic” transsexual characters is always played up, so too is their lack of male genitalia (or their desire to part with them). In fact, some of the most memorable lines in these movies occur when the “pathetic” transsexual character makes light of her own castration. At one point during Priscilla, Bernadette remarks that her parents never spoke to her again, “after [she] had the chop.” In Garp, when a man is injured while receiving a blow job during a car accident, Roberta delivers the one-liner, “I had mine removed surgically under general anesthesia, but to have it bitten off in a Buick...” In the 1994 fictionalized biography Ed Wood, Bill Murray plays another “pathetic” transsexual, Bunny Breckinridge. After seeing Wood’s film Glen or Glenda, Bunny is inspired to go to Mexico to have a “sex change” herself, announcing to Wood, “Your movie made me realize I've got to take action. Goodbye, penis!”
The “pathetic” transsexual’s lighthearted comments about having her penis lopped off come in stark contrast to the “deceiver”, who is generally found out by someone else in an embarrassing, often violent way. A Freudian might suggest that the “deceptive” transsexual’s dangerous nature is symbolized by the presence of a hidden penis, while the “pathetic” transsexual’s harmlessness is due to a lack thereof. A less phallic interpretation is that the very act of passing makes any trans woman who can do so into a “deceiver”. Ultimately, both “deceptive” and “pathetic” transsexual characters are designed to validate the popular assumption that trans women are “truly” men. “Pathetic” transsexuals may want to be female, but their masculine appearance and mannerisms always gives them away. And while the “deceiver” is initially perceived to be a “real” female, she is eventually revealed to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing—an illusion that is the product of lies and modern medical technology—and she is usually is punished accordingly. . . .
--A version of this piece (slightly edited for length) first appeared in Bitch Magazine, issue 26, Fall 2005--
*note: this essay has been recently updated (including new material!) for Julia’s new book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity - find out more!
As a transsexual woman, I am often confronted by people who insist that I am not, nor can I ever be, a “real woman.” One of the more common lines of reasoning goes something like this: There’s more to being a woman than simply putting on a dress. I couldn’t agree more. That’s why it’s so frustrating that people often seem confused because, although I have transitioned to female and live as a woman, I rarely wear makeup or dress in a particularly feminine manner.
Despite the reality that there are as many types of trans women as there are women in general, most people believe that trans women are all on a quest to make ourselves as pretty, pink, and passive as possible. While there are certainly some trans women who buy into mainstream dogma about beauty and femininity, others are outspoken feminists and activists fighting against all gender stereotypes. But you’d never know it from the popular media, which tends to assume that all transsexuals are male-to-female, and that all trans women want to achieve stereotypical femininity.
Trans people—who transition from male to female or female to male and often live completely unnoticed as the sex “opposite” to that which they were born—have the potential to transform the gender class system as we know it. Our existence challenges the conventional wisdom that the differences between women and men are primarily the product of biology. Trans people can wreak havoc on such taken-for-granted concepts as feminine and masculine, homosexual and hetero-sexual, because these words are rendered virtually meaningless when a person’s biological sex and lived sex are not the same. But because we are a threat to the categories that enable male and heterosexual privilege, the images and experiences of trans people are presented in the media in a way that reaffirms, rather than challenges, gender stereotypes.
THE TWO CHOICES
Media depictions of trans women, whether they take the form of fictional characters or actual people, usually fall under one of two main archetypes: the “deceptive” transsexual or the “pathetic” transsexual. While characters of both models have an interest in achieving an ultrafeminine appearance, they differ in their abilities to pull it off. Because the “deceivers” successfully pass as women, they generally act as unexpected plot twists, or play the role of sexual predators who fool innocent straight guys into falling for “men.”
Perhaps the most famous example of a “deceiver” is the character Dil in the 1992 movie The Crying Game. The film became a pop culture phenomenon primarily because most moviegoers were unaware that Dil was trans until about halfway through the movie. The revelation comes during a love scene between her and Fergus, the male protagonist who has been courting her. When Dil disrobes, the audience, along with Fergus, learns for the first time that Dil is physically male. When I saw the film, most of the men in the theater groaned at this revelation. Onscreen, Fergus has a similarly intense reaction: He slaps Dil and runs off to the bathroom to vomit.
The 1994 Jim Carrey vehicle Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, features a “deceptive” transsexual as a villain. Police lieutenant Lois Einhorn (played by Sean Young) is secretly Ray Finkle, an ex–Miami Dolphins kicker who has stolen the team’s mascot as part of a scheme to get back at Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. The bizarre plot ends when Ventura strips Einhorn down to her underwear in front of about 20 police officers and announces, “She is suffering from the worst case of hemorrhoids I have ever seen.” He then turns her around so that we can see her penis and testicles tucked behind her legs. All of the police officers proceed to spit up as The Crying Game theme song plays in the background.
Even though “deceivers” successfully pass as women, and are often played by female actors (with the notable exception of Jaye Davidson as Dil), these characters are never intended to challenge our assumptions about gender itself. On the contrary, they are positioned as “fake” women, and their secret trans status is revealed in a dramatic “moment of truth”. At the moment of exposure, the “deceiver’s” appearance (her femaleness) is reduced to mere illusion, and her secret (her maleness) becomes the real identity.
In a tactic that emphasizes their “true” maleness, “deceivers” are most often used as pawns to provoke male homophobia in other characters, as well as in the audience itself. This phenomenon is especially evident in TV talk shows like Jerry Springer, which regularly runs episodes with titles like “My Girlfriend’s a Guy” and “I’m Really a Man!” that feature trans women coming out to their straight boyfriends. On a recent British TV reality show called There's Something About Miriam, six heterosexual men court an attractive woman who, unbeknownst to them, is transgendered. The broadcast of the show was delayed for several months because the men threatened to sue the show’s producers, alleging that they had been the victims of defamation, personal injury, and conspiracy to commit sexual assault. The affair was eventually settled out of court, with each man coming away with a reported $100,000.
In the 1970 film adaptation of Gore Vidal’s novel Myra Breckinridge, the protagonist is a trans woman who heads out to Hollywood in order to take revenge on traditional manhood and to “realign the sexes.” This apparently involves raping an ex-football player with a strap-on dildo, which she does at one point during the movie. The recurring theme of “deceptive” trans women retaliating against men, often by seducing them, seems to be an unconscious acknowledgment that both male and heterosexual privileges are threatened by transsexuals.
In contrast to the “deceivers”, who wield their feminine wiles with success, the “pathetic” transsexual characters aren’t deluding anyone. Despite her masculine mannerisms and five o’clock shadow, the “pathetic” transsexual will inevitably insist that she is a woman trapped inside a man’s body. The intense contradiction between the “pathetic” character’s gender identity and her physical appearance is often played for laughs—as in the transition of musician Mark Shubb (played as a bearded baritone by Harry Shearer) at the conclusion of 2003’s A Mighty Wind.
Unlike the “deceivers”, whose ability to pass is a serious threat to our ideas about gender and sexuality, “pathetic” transsexuals—who barely resemble women at all—are generally considered harmless. Perhaps for this reason, some of the most endearing pop culture-portrayals of trans women fall into the “pathetic” category: John Lithgow’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of ex–football -player Roberta Muldoon in 1982’s The World According to Garp, and Terence Stamp’s role as the aging showgirl Bernadette in 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. More recently, the 1998 indie film The Adventures of Sebastian Cole begins with its eponymous teenage protagonist learning that his step-dad Hank, who looks and acts like a roadie for a ’70s rock band, is about to become Henrietta. A sympathetic character and the only stable person in Sebastian’s life, Henrietta spends most of the movie wearing floral-print nightgowns and bare-shouldered tops with tons of jewelry and makeup. Yet despite her extremely femme manner of dress, she continues to exhibit only stereotypical male behaviors, overtly ogling a waitress and punching out a guy who calls her a faggot (after which she laments, “I broke a nail”).
While a character like Henrietta, who exhibits a combination of extreme masculinity and femininity, has the potential to confront our assumptions about gender, it is fairly obvious that the filmmakers were not trying to do so. On the contrary, Henrietta’s masculine voice and mannerisms are meant to demonstrate that, despite her desire to be female, she cannot change the fact that she is really and truly a man. As with Garp’s Roberta and Priscilla’s Bernadette, the audience is encouraged to respect Henrietta as a person, but not as a woman. While we are supposed to admire their courage—which presumably comes from the difficulty of living as women who do not appear very female—we are not meant to identify with them or to be sexually attracted to them, as we are to “deceivers” like Dil.
Interestingly, while the obvious outward masculinity of “pathetic” transsexual characters is always played up, so too is their lack of male genitalia (or their desire to part with them). In fact, some of the most memorable lines in these movies occur when the “pathetic” transsexual character makes light of her own castration. At one point during Priscilla, Bernadette remarks that her parents never spoke to her again, “after [she] had the chop.” In Garp, when a man is injured while receiving a blow job during a car accident, Roberta delivers the one-liner, “I had mine removed surgically under general anesthesia, but to have it bitten off in a Buick...” In the 1994 fictionalized biography Ed Wood, Bill Murray plays another “pathetic” transsexual, Bunny Breckinridge. After seeing Wood’s film Glen or Glenda, Bunny is inspired to go to Mexico to have a “sex change” herself, announcing to Wood, “Your movie made me realize I've got to take action. Goodbye, penis!”
The “pathetic” transsexual’s lighthearted comments about having her penis lopped off come in stark contrast to the “deceiver”, who is generally found out by someone else in an embarrassing, often violent way. A Freudian might suggest that the “deceptive” transsexual’s dangerous nature is symbolized by the presence of a hidden penis, while the “pathetic” transsexual’s harmlessness is due to a lack thereof. A less phallic interpretation is that the very act of passing makes any trans woman who can do so into a “deceiver”. Ultimately, both “deceptive” and “pathetic” transsexual characters are designed to validate the popular assumption that trans women are “truly” men. “Pathetic” transsexuals may want to be female, but their masculine appearance and mannerisms always gives them away. And while the “deceiver” is initially perceived to be a “real” female, she is eventually revealed to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing—an illusion that is the product of lies and modern medical technology—and she is usually is punished accordingly. . . .
More Details Obtained About HRC's ENDA Poll
11/10/07-11/12/07
As The Advocate reported earlier this week, a strong majority of gays and lesbians supported passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act even though it did not include protections for transgender people, according to a poll commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign. Since then, The Advocate has obtained the full results of the poll questions about ENDA, which passed the House of Representatives Wednesday in a 235-184 vote.
The poll, a random survey of 514 LGBT Americans conducted by Knowledge Networks Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., asked participants two questions concerning ENDA. The first asked which of the following three statements was closest to reflecting their views:
A. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should oppose this proposal because it excludes transgender people.
B. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should support this proposal because it helps gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights.
C. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should adopt a neutral stance for this proposal because while it helps gay, lesbians, and bisexual workers, it also excludes transgender people.
Of those surveyed, 67.7% agreed with statement B, while 15.8% agreed with statement A, 12.8% agreed with statement C, and 3.6% did not answer.
The second question asked people the following: "This proposal would make it illegal to fire gay, lesbian, or bisexual workers because of their sexual orientation. This proposal does NOT include people who are transgender. Would you favor or oppose this proposal?"
In response, 59.1% said they favored the proposal and felt strongly about it, 15.4% said they favored it but did not feel strongly about it, 15.1% opposed it and felt strongly about it, 8.8% opposed it but did not feel strongly about it, and 1.6% did not answer.
Of the 514 people the poll surveyed, 246 respondents identified as male, 262 identified as female, five identified as female-to-male transgender, and one person identified as male-to-female transgender. The poll was conducted October 2-5. The margin of error was +/- 4.3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
More than 300 LGBT organizations nationwide opposed ENDA -- which will next be taken up in the U.S. Senate -- because it did not contain protections for transgender people. (The Advocate)
As The Advocate reported earlier this week, a strong majority of gays and lesbians supported passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act even though it did not include protections for transgender people, according to a poll commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign. Since then, The Advocate has obtained the full results of the poll questions about ENDA, which passed the House of Representatives Wednesday in a 235-184 vote.
The poll, a random survey of 514 LGBT Americans conducted by Knowledge Networks Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., asked participants two questions concerning ENDA. The first asked which of the following three statements was closest to reflecting their views:
A. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should oppose this proposal because it excludes transgender people.
B. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should support this proposal because it helps gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights.
C. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should adopt a neutral stance for this proposal because while it helps gay, lesbians, and bisexual workers, it also excludes transgender people.
Of those surveyed, 67.7% agreed with statement B, while 15.8% agreed with statement A, 12.8% agreed with statement C, and 3.6% did not answer.
The second question asked people the following: "This proposal would make it illegal to fire gay, lesbian, or bisexual workers because of their sexual orientation. This proposal does NOT include people who are transgender. Would you favor or oppose this proposal?"
In response, 59.1% said they favored the proposal and felt strongly about it, 15.4% said they favored it but did not feel strongly about it, 15.1% opposed it and felt strongly about it, 8.8% opposed it but did not feel strongly about it, and 1.6% did not answer.
Of the 514 people the poll surveyed, 246 respondents identified as male, 262 identified as female, five identified as female-to-male transgender, and one person identified as male-to-female transgender. The poll was conducted October 2-5. The margin of error was +/- 4.3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
More than 300 LGBT organizations nationwide opposed ENDA -- which will next be taken up in the U.S. Senate -- because it did not contain protections for transgender people. (The Advocate)
Plenty of Hair, Nary a Mustache
By JENNIFER BLEYER
LUPE’S PLACE is a shoebox-size beauty parlor and barbershop, wedged between a fried chicken shop and a party goods store, underneath the elevated No. 6 train on Westchester Avenue in the Soundview section of the South Bronx.
Thirteen miles from the city’s gay epicenters of Chelsea and the West Village, it seems an unlikely location for a popular salon where four of the eight hairstylists are transgender. Yet the salon is beloved among the men and women in the neighborhood, most of them Latino immigrants.
The salon was opened in 1993 by Lupe Gonzalez, the ninth of 13 children from a family in Puebla, Mexico. Ms. Gonzalez, who is 38, had arrived in New York six years earlier, at first doing deliveries for a Midtown restaurant and living with eight others in a cramped apartment in Soundview.
“I came as a boy, but I was very feminine,” said Ms. Gonzalez, smiling coyly and pushing back a lock of her long dark hair. “I used to have my mustache and short hair. I started changing in 1991 when one of my boyfriends said, ‘Grow your hair and shave your legs.’” She pursued her transition with electrolysis, hormones and makeup.
As Ms. Gonzalez’s business grew, she hired other Spanish-speaking transgender stylists.
On that afternoon, the salon was permeated with bouncy salsa music and a heavy fog of hairspray. One of the transgender stylists, a 45-year-old named Emily Quiñones who was wearing thick mascara and Farrah Fawcett bangs, worked furiously on a customer’s hair with a blow dryer and a circular brush. Nearby, Lily Saldana bopped around in a leather miniskirt and high boots while molding a customer’s updo into heavily shellacked curls.
In the rear of the shop, Ms. Gonzalez brushed highlights onto a woman’s wet hair, while in the front, a handful of people waited their turn, among them a 63-year-old retired maintenance worker named Anibal Garcia. He started getting his hair cut at Lupe’s Place when it opened. Today, he said, he would not go anywhere else.
“Now my wife, my daughter, my sister-in-law, all my family come here,” Mr. Garcia said. “They’re professional. They do it perfect.”
Suicide of transgender youth in Holland raises questions
by Todd A. Heywood
11/08/2007
HOLLAND -
The October 29 suicide of 16-year-old transgender Ian Benson has the LBGT community asking hard questions.
"As parents, this is one of our worst fears," said Collette Beighley, Triangle Foundations West Michigan operative. "Our worst fear is that some of our kids will end up like Matthew Shepard, but sometimes we have to remember the pain is so intense that they take their own lives."
Beighley knew Benson, and her daughter called Benson her best friend. Beighley organized a memorial vigil for Benson last week, but the questions about why Benson took his life remain. Benson was well liked and his family accepted him for who he was. In fact, his mother started a national group to support families dealing with transgender children. Something that did not exist before.
"All I can say is that the Trevor Project statistics are startling," Beighley said. The Trevor Project estimates that one out of two transgenders will attempt to take their lives, with many succeeding. "Supportive parents have a lot to worry about. They have to worry about not only the external forces but the internal conflicts that arise for these kids."
Dr. Julie Nemecek knows the internal conflicts all too well. A year ago, as she was struggling to keep her job at Spring Arbor University and transition into a woman, it almost became too overwhelming. She talks of sitting in her living room with a gun in hand, suicide note written. She stopped herself because she thought of her family and what her suicide would do to them.
"What is terribly difficult is to explain how your mind works differently," said Nemecek. "Not even why, but how."
She said the issues around gender are difficult because American culture is built on a two gender model, leaving little room for cross over. "It makes it difficult and painful when you have to fit into a mold that is not of your making."
Beighley concurs. "I think there is nothing in our society which prepares transgenders. We are taught how to be a boy or a girl, and that is not fool proof," Beighley said. "There is no reference point. . . .
On TV, being gay is so passé; now transexuals are in
The Hartford Courant
PREV
Miriam, of "There's Something About Miriam," has a secret from her castmates.
Gay people on TV are old hat.
By now, Entertainment Weekly reports, 61 percent of college freshmen, who grew up with "Will & Grace," approve of gay marriage. The finding in the national poll is up 10 percentage points from a decade ago.
A turn around the dial will bring you gay story lines in daytime soap operas, same-sex dating on MTV shows such as "Next" and "A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila," and prominent gay characters in ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" and several cable shows — FX's "Nip/Tuck," HBO's "The Wire" and Showtime's "The L Word."
Suspected of being gay is no longer the guaranteed laugh it was on TV anymore, even on macho shows like "Two and a Half Men." And straight characters such as George on "Grey's Anatomy" or Barney on "How I Met Your Mother" can be credible, though they are played by gay men.
No, to add shock to TV shows in 2007, writers have turned to transsexuals.
On prime-time dramas
How surprising was it last season on "Ugly Betty" when Alex, the long-lost brother of Mode magazine editor-in-chief Daniel Mead, returned as Alexis, who was not only a woman but a woman who looks like Rebecca Romijn (exactly like her, as it turned out)?
A story line over the summer on "Entourage" involved Johnny Drama trying to get in good with the mayor of Beverly Hills by hooking him up with what appeared to be a beautiful woman at a trendy bar. Her pre-op secret was revealed in one of those skirt flash shots the paparazzi so love. But the mayor (Stephen Tobolowsky) decided he liked his exotic new acquaintance anyway.
Another politician on a TV series who decided to stick with his transsexual is William Baldwin's Patrick Darling on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." Though a married New York state attorney general running for U.S. Senate, he is determined to continue his illicit relationship with Carmelita, despite entreaties from his family lawyer.
Carmelita, a sultry blonde with a very low voice, is notable because she might be broadcast TV's first recurring transsexual character who actually is played by a transsexual. She is played by Candis Cayne, whose previous credits include "Wigstock: The Movie," "To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" and an episode of "CSI: New York."
A transsexual story line also occurs early on another new ABC series, "Big Shots," in which divorced cosmetics CEO Duncan Collinsworth, played by Dylan McDermott, hooks up with a transsexual prostitute at a rest stop — a tryst that threatens his career when the story gets out.
Even as more daytime talk shows take a more serious look at transsexuals, including an October episode of "Oprah Winfrey," some in the transgender community are not encouraged by TV's tendency to depict transsexual women, especially those of color, as prostitutes. The only transsexual women who so far escape that profession are white. . . .
Friday, November 09, 2007
Tears Dry on Their Own - Amy Winehouse
When Rock Daily caught wind that casting agents were seeking “beautiful Asian transgender women” to star in Amy Winehouse’s David LaChapelle-directed video for “Tears Dry On Their Own,” we had visions of the saucy British soulster making her very own Crying Game. Alas, the finished project is pretty tame — a jilted but resilient Winehouse makes her way past a cast of colorful characters during a particularly harrowing stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. But if Winehouse (who’s partial to flamboyant makeup, herself) had taken a few cues from Hollywood, the plot could have been far more dramatic:
* Winehouse’s car breaks down, so she arrives at the doorstep of a creepy mansion where she sings and dances with a crowd of transgendered folks until everything goes wrong …
* On a road trip to a drag show in California, Winehouse experiences car trouble, so she and her traveling companions fight adversity in the small town they’re stranded in until they’re loved and respected by all.
* A small newspaper names one of Winehouse’s pals the Filthiest Person in the World, which draws the ire of a crazy neighboring family that sells babies on the black market. Somebody dies, somebody chows down on a pile of excrement and … scene. . . .
Comments
The new closet
November 9, 2007
A revolution of indeterminacy or a clever marketing ploy? Either way, ambiguity is back in fashion, writes Guy Blackman.
It was Space Oddity-era David Bowie, with his dazzling orange hair and peroxide eyebrows, who turned ambiguous sexuality into prime pop capital. Back in the early '70s, Bowie and associates Lou Reed, Marc Bolan and Freddie Mercury titillated teen audiences with their daring ambivalence, setting the scene for a decade of glam and glitter in which hairy men in spandex were a disturbingly common sight.
Now, 35 years later, it seems that ambiguity is back. British artists such as Lebanon-born Mika and precocious, flame-haired Patrick Wolf lead a new pop pansexuality making flamboyant, lyrically suggestive music but refusing to discuss their private lives.
With a rich British legacy including glam, new romantic and Morrissey's back catalogue behind them, Mika and Wolf are knowing and referential while in the US a less self-conscious equal is Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons and bearded folk oddball Devendra Banhart.
Hegarty's songs have lines such as "one day I'll grow up, I'll be a beautiful woman" and his personal imagery involves elements of androgyny and transvestism, while Banhart's latest promo shots pay tribute to '70s San Francisco hippie drag troupe the Cockettes. He dresses skimpily in a jewelled bra, plastic fruit pinned to his underwear and colourful make-up lining his eyes and forehead.
None of these artists publicly identify as gay or straight, preferring to shroud their proclivities in mystery and enigma. But is all this ambiguity indicative of a new 21st century sexual fluidity, or does it just reflect a cannibalistic music industry, returning to the playful ambivalence of earlier decades for the sake of sales?
Hegarty takes an optimistic view, believing that youth are discarding rigid sexual definitions and seeking role models who reflect their indeterminacy.
"The new kids are very polymorphous," Hegarty says. "They seem really open-minded. They're not preoccupied with difference or separateness, which I find really refreshing."
For Hegarty, the '80s AIDS crisis put artistic joie de vivre temporarily on hold, and it took another disaster almost 20 years later to shock cultural producers back to vivid life.
"People are moving towards something that's sincere, they're not interested in cynicism, which really differentiates itself from my generation," says the 36-year-old.
"In America with the World Trade Centre, I felt like that was the crack in New York City, and then a year later everything started to weirdly flourish. Everyone woke up again - that's my theory."
But the Gossip's "fat, feminist, lesbian" lead singer Beth Ditto, who famously grew up eating squirrels in Judsonia, Arkansas, thinks differently.
To her, Hegarty's optimism could only exist in a city like New York, a zone of urban tolerance that hardly extends beyond city limits. "It's a really easy way to look at things," Ditto says.
"I know that in small-town Arkansas, it's not like that at all. I have a little sister who's a flaming bisexual and she gets a lot of f---ing shit for it."
She questions whether this decade has seen a new sexual permissiveness in pop music.
"There've always been queers in music," she says. "Little Richard created rock'n'roll - I mean, nothing's gayer than that! In the '80s you had New Wave but you also had hair metal and no matter what you say, that was queer as hell. And the literal meaning of 'punk' is a gay man, so gay is synonymous with punk. It's hard to know if it's any different now than it always has been." . . .
Many in Bay Area call anti-bias measure an act of betrayal
Thursday, November 8, 2007
National civil rights organizations are celebrating the passage by the House of legislation that would add "sexual orientation" to a list of federally protected classes, but some San Francisco groups refuse to take part in the party.
The vote Wednesday on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA, postponed several times, was ultimately revised to remove protection for transgender workers, which upset gay rights groups here and across the country. Democratic leaders said the removal was necessary to get the act passed. But more than 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders opposed the exclusion, saying it is unfair and sends the wrong message.
"People are livid," said John Newsome, co-founder of And Castro for All, a bias awareness group. "If the first step out of the gate leaves people behind, it is an ill-conceived first step."
The Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights supported the revised bill, saying an incremental approach is sometimes necessary, and that the move marks a step forward.
"We are happy for our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters and understand that we are making legislative progress, but we feel that there is a lot of work still to be done," said Cecilia Chung, deputy director of San Francisco's Transgender Law Center. "We are disappointed that this version is not all-inclusive." . . .
National civil rights organizations are celebrating the passage by the House of legislation that would add "sexual orientation" to a list of federally protected classes, but some San Francisco groups refuse to take part in the party.
The vote Wednesday on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA, postponed several times, was ultimately revised to remove protection for transgender workers, which upset gay rights groups here and across the country. Democratic leaders said the removal was necessary to get the act passed. But more than 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders opposed the exclusion, saying it is unfair and sends the wrong message.
"People are livid," said John Newsome, co-founder of And Castro for All, a bias awareness group. "If the first step out of the gate leaves people behind, it is an ill-conceived first step."
The Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights supported the revised bill, saying an incremental approach is sometimes necessary, and that the move marks a step forward.
"We are happy for our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters and understand that we are making legislative progress, but we feel that there is a lot of work still to be done," said Cecilia Chung, deputy director of San Francisco's Transgender Law Center. "We are disappointed that this version is not all-inclusive." . . .
VA system issues memo on treating trans vets
by Ethan Jacobs
staff reporter
Thursday Nov 8, 2007
With little to no fanfare the Veteran Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System issued a patient care memorandum to its staff in September detailing guidelines for providing care to transgender patients. Advocates describe the memo as a landmark achievement in transgender healthcare and say it is the first known case of a VA system demonstrating in writing its commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for transgender veterans.
"The thing is there are other facilities that are doing what is in this policy," said Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA). "The difference is these other places don’t have a written policy, so it’s almost like the doctors that are there who treat transgender individuals, they decided this is how they’re going to do it, and the only difference is Boston decided to put it down on paper."
She said she knows of about a dozen other VA hospitals and healthcare systems that provide inclusive healthcare for transgender patients, but TAVA has been pushing for them to put that policy in writing, and the Boston VA system is the first they know of to do so.
Diego Sanchez, former co-chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), praised the memo’s author, VA clinical psychologist Dr. Jillian Shipherd, for her commitment to ensuring that transgender patients receive adequate healthcare throughout the entire VA Boston Healthcare System. About 10 years ago when he was serving as director of JRI Health’s TransHealth Education and Development Program, Sanchez said Shipherd contacted him and asked him to do staff trainings at the Jamaica Plain VA hospital. Sanchez and Holly Ryan, now co-chair of MTPC, did a series of trainings for the staff focused on three areas: General trans healthcare and barriers to care, HIV prevention for trans patients and mental health and substance abuse issues in the trans community. By about 2000 Sanchez said he began receiving positive feedback from trans patients about the treatment they received at the VA, particularly after the VA added an option for patients to identify as transgender on medical forms and began the practice of referring to patients according to their chosen name and gender pronoun.
Sanchez said by putting basic standards of care for transgender patients in writing, Shipherd has ensured that all providers in the Boston VA system understand their obligation to transgender patients.
"I’m absolutely delighted that she is able to do that at this time, and the reason is because policies require that everyone is competent," said Sanchez. . . .
staff reporter
Thursday Nov 8, 2007
With little to no fanfare the Veteran Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System issued a patient care memorandum to its staff in September detailing guidelines for providing care to transgender patients. Advocates describe the memo as a landmark achievement in transgender healthcare and say it is the first known case of a VA system demonstrating in writing its commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for transgender veterans.
"The thing is there are other facilities that are doing what is in this policy," said Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA). "The difference is these other places don’t have a written policy, so it’s almost like the doctors that are there who treat transgender individuals, they decided this is how they’re going to do it, and the only difference is Boston decided to put it down on paper."
She said she knows of about a dozen other VA hospitals and healthcare systems that provide inclusive healthcare for transgender patients, but TAVA has been pushing for them to put that policy in writing, and the Boston VA system is the first they know of to do so.
Diego Sanchez, former co-chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), praised the memo’s author, VA clinical psychologist Dr. Jillian Shipherd, for her commitment to ensuring that transgender patients receive adequate healthcare throughout the entire VA Boston Healthcare System. About 10 years ago when he was serving as director of JRI Health’s TransHealth Education and Development Program, Sanchez said Shipherd contacted him and asked him to do staff trainings at the Jamaica Plain VA hospital. Sanchez and Holly Ryan, now co-chair of MTPC, did a series of trainings for the staff focused on three areas: General trans healthcare and barriers to care, HIV prevention for trans patients and mental health and substance abuse issues in the trans community. By about 2000 Sanchez said he began receiving positive feedback from trans patients about the treatment they received at the VA, particularly after the VA added an option for patients to identify as transgender on medical forms and began the practice of referring to patients according to their chosen name and gender pronoun.
Sanchez said by putting basic standards of care for transgender patients in writing, Shipherd has ensured that all providers in the Boston VA system understand their obligation to transgender patients.
"I’m absolutely delighted that she is able to do that at this time, and the reason is because policies require that everyone is competent," said Sanchez. . . .
TIME: The Gender Conundrum
Illustration for TIME by James Worrell
Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007 By LAURA FITZPATRICK
It's a parent's nightmare dilemma: experts say there's a fifty-fifty chance your child will attempt suicide before age 20. Should you opt for an experimental medical treatment that might prevent it? Parents of children whom experts call gender variant are faced with just that question. If a child doesn't identify with his or her biological sex, the onset of puberty, says Laura Amato, a youth-suicide counselor who runs an online transgender support group, can make that child feel like "part of a real-life horror story ... because the wrong parts are changing."
No reliable data exist on how many U.S. children are gender variant, although the National Center for Transgender Equality estimates that as many as 3 million American adults are. But studies suggest that gender-variant adolescents are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than other teens. Now, increasingly, hormone treatments that delay physical maturity are being seen as a lifesaving alternative for gender-variant kids, but the remedy is also generating medical and ethical questions about interfering with the natural development process. The treatment--a series of injections to interrupt the brain cascade that launches puberty by regulating gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)--has not yet been submitted for FDA approval for gender-variant children. But it is available from international physicians and some U.S. doctors prescribing off-label. In February the first U.S. clinic for gender-variant children opened at Children's Hospital Boston. . . .
New York Plays Key Role in Fight for Transgender Rights
by Andy Humm
November 2007
As the debate over civil rights protections on the basis of “gender identity and expression” heated up in Congress, five of New York City’s members in the House of Representative voted against the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act on November 7 because it does not cover transgendered people. At the same time, pressure is building in Albany for at least the Democrat-controlled Assembly to add gender identity to the state human rights law, which incorporated protections for gay people in 2002 while defeating an amendment covering people of transgender experience. In New York City, where the city law has covered gender identity since 2002, transgendered people still encounter persistent discrimination, putting this new civil rights measure to the test.
The City Law
New York City was late among major cities in adding sexual orientation to its human rights law. It did not pass what was known as the “gay rights bill” until 1986 and took until 2002 to add gender identity. Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund called the city law “great,” but said, “That doesn’t mean we don’t have a long way to go.”
Silverman said that while much of the discrimination that many New Yorkers experience tends to be subtle, people who are transgendered still are subject to discrimination that is “so obvious and degrading” that it is hard to believe.
He is handling a complaint now from a person whose license was marked “M” for male even though she presents as a woman. When she showed identification to get served in a bar, the manager said, “Your ID says male. I can’t accept that.”
“ It’s certainly OK to ask to see an ID to verify a person’s age,” Silverman said, but it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression. In response to her compliant, a police officer went to the bar on the border of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Although sympathetic, the officer said, “We can’t do anything.”
On the last Sunday in June, Khadijah Farmer, a lesbian with close-cropped hair, was using the women’s restroom at the Caliente Cab Company in the Village when a male bouncer burst in and banged on her stall door demanding that she leave. Farmer said she tried to show the man her license identifying her as female, but the bouncer wouldn’t look at it. He threw Farmer and her friends out, making them pay for food they had just started eating. Ironically the incident took place on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day just south of Sheridan Square where the Stonewall Rebellion launched the modern gay movement in 1969.
Representatives of the restaurant deny Farmer’s version of events, but refuse to offer one of their own. The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund is suing the Caliente Cab Company and transgendered people and their supporters have picketed it. The establishment has not, however, been put out business by an angry community
Melissa Sklarz, a veteran transgender political activist, served on a committee at the City Human Rights Commission that worked on guidelines for implementing the city transgender rights law and believes “more and more people are aware of the law now.” But, she said, “For the law to work, we need courageous people like Khadijah Farmer who are willing to stand up.”
As the Farmer case illustrates, you do not have to be a transsexual or a transitioning transperson to need the protection under the category of gender identity and expression. Farmer says she is happy being a woman, even if her style of dress and grooming lead some people to mistake her for a man. Indeed, we all cross traditional gender boundaries in small and sometimes large ways, from women who wear pants and men who wear makeup to women who fight wars and men who won’t.
Beyond the question of discrimination, these issues have very practical implications, particularly in this era when everyone must constantly show identification. Joann Prinzivalli, director of the New York Transgender Rights Organization and a transwoman, has a driver’s license that says “female.” The license was issued before 2002 when people had to have completed transgender surgery to be identified in accordance with their identity and not their biology. New York State will also change the designation on a birth certificate if one is post-operative.
But Prinzivalli’s passport still says “male” and by 2013, we are all going need a passport or federal REAL ID for air travel even within the United States and to enter federal buildings. In those cases, her gender presentation will not line up with how she is identified on her papers. “I’ll be shut out of air transportation,” she said. In the politically explosive debate over identification documents mostly dealing with undocumented immigrants, the concerns of transpeople are not considered.
Legislature Resists Transgender Protections
The Republican-led New York State Senate finally added sexual orientation to the state human rights law in 2002. But the Senate remains resistant to protecting transgendered people. It will not take up school anti-bullying legislation that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has said he is not interested in protecting, as he put it, “transvestites.” The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act has not so much as had a hearing in his house.
For its part, the Democrat-dominated Assembly voted to open up marriage to same-sex couples earlier this year. However the Assembly, under Speaker Sheldon Silver, has refused to take up amending the state human rights law to add “gender identity and expression.” . . .
November 2007
As the debate over civil rights protections on the basis of “gender identity and expression” heated up in Congress, five of New York City’s members in the House of Representative voted against the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act on November 7 because it does not cover transgendered people. At the same time, pressure is building in Albany for at least the Democrat-controlled Assembly to add gender identity to the state human rights law, which incorporated protections for gay people in 2002 while defeating an amendment covering people of transgender experience. In New York City, where the city law has covered gender identity since 2002, transgendered people still encounter persistent discrimination, putting this new civil rights measure to the test.
The City Law
New York City was late among major cities in adding sexual orientation to its human rights law. It did not pass what was known as the “gay rights bill” until 1986 and took until 2002 to add gender identity. Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund called the city law “great,” but said, “That doesn’t mean we don’t have a long way to go.”
Silverman said that while much of the discrimination that many New Yorkers experience tends to be subtle, people who are transgendered still are subject to discrimination that is “so obvious and degrading” that it is hard to believe.
He is handling a complaint now from a person whose license was marked “M” for male even though she presents as a woman. When she showed identification to get served in a bar, the manager said, “Your ID says male. I can’t accept that.”
“ It’s certainly OK to ask to see an ID to verify a person’s age,” Silverman said, but it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression. In response to her compliant, a police officer went to the bar on the border of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Although sympathetic, the officer said, “We can’t do anything.”
On the last Sunday in June, Khadijah Farmer, a lesbian with close-cropped hair, was using the women’s restroom at the Caliente Cab Company in the Village when a male bouncer burst in and banged on her stall door demanding that she leave. Farmer said she tried to show the man her license identifying her as female, but the bouncer wouldn’t look at it. He threw Farmer and her friends out, making them pay for food they had just started eating. Ironically the incident took place on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Day just south of Sheridan Square where the Stonewall Rebellion launched the modern gay movement in 1969.
Representatives of the restaurant deny Farmer’s version of events, but refuse to offer one of their own. The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund is suing the Caliente Cab Company and transgendered people and their supporters have picketed it. The establishment has not, however, been put out business by an angry community
Melissa Sklarz, a veteran transgender political activist, served on a committee at the City Human Rights Commission that worked on guidelines for implementing the city transgender rights law and believes “more and more people are aware of the law now.” But, she said, “For the law to work, we need courageous people like Khadijah Farmer who are willing to stand up.”
As the Farmer case illustrates, you do not have to be a transsexual or a transitioning transperson to need the protection under the category of gender identity and expression. Farmer says she is happy being a woman, even if her style of dress and grooming lead some people to mistake her for a man. Indeed, we all cross traditional gender boundaries in small and sometimes large ways, from women who wear pants and men who wear makeup to women who fight wars and men who won’t.
Beyond the question of discrimination, these issues have very practical implications, particularly in this era when everyone must constantly show identification. Joann Prinzivalli, director of the New York Transgender Rights Organization and a transwoman, has a driver’s license that says “female.” The license was issued before 2002 when people had to have completed transgender surgery to be identified in accordance with their identity and not their biology. New York State will also change the designation on a birth certificate if one is post-operative.
But Prinzivalli’s passport still says “male” and by 2013, we are all going need a passport or federal REAL ID for air travel even within the United States and to enter federal buildings. In those cases, her gender presentation will not line up with how she is identified on her papers. “I’ll be shut out of air transportation,” she said. In the politically explosive debate over identification documents mostly dealing with undocumented immigrants, the concerns of transpeople are not considered.
Legislature Resists Transgender Protections
The Republican-led New York State Senate finally added sexual orientation to the state human rights law in 2002. But the Senate remains resistant to protecting transgendered people. It will not take up school anti-bullying legislation that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has said he is not interested in protecting, as he put it, “transvestites.” The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act has not so much as had a hearing in his house.
For its part, the Democrat-dominated Assembly voted to open up marriage to same-sex couples earlier this year. However the Assembly, under Speaker Sheldon Silver, has refused to take up amending the state human rights law to add “gender identity and expression.” . . .
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Media Matters
By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
November 1, 2007
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Daan Erikson likes to joke about his musical career: “I was in an all-girl band in high school - until I ruined that.” Coming out as a trans guy may have put an end to his garage band but it’s opened the door to a great deal more. Today, the New York University sophomore - who is majoring in both Entertainment Media and Gender and Sexuality Studies - says his experience with the band continues to influence his endeavors. “My interest in the power of media stems from my love of music and the realization that it has power.”
Erikson, who was recently awarded a Point Foundation scholarship to continue his studies, eventually hopes to improve realistic representations of queer people in the entertainment media world. “Creating awareness is the first step,” he explains. “I’m interested in how the media portrays identity.
I’ve been studying marketing and plan to study entertainment law. I think it’s a matter of getting more queer and trans faces on TV outside of spectacle-style talk shows, both in the form of scripted characters and real people. Generally stereotypes become less relevant when there is more diverse representation of different identities. I think that’s already happening to some extent, but there’s a long way to go.”
Erikson is particular focused on television where he sees real problems in the representations of trans people, especially Max on The L Word’s third season, and “any Jerry Springer episode.” Still, he thinks the producers of The L Word redeemed the Max character in the show’s fourth season; and he’s appreciative of the Sundance’s miniseries TransGeneration. “When I came out to my supervisor… she had some knowledge of what it means to be a young transguy thanks to… that miniseries.”
Erikson came out relatively young, but he contends, “It took so long for me to come to terms with identifying as male, partially [because of] a lack of varied representation in the media. When all I saw were bearded, body builder types, I couldn’t relate.” Now, he says, “I can see that standards of masculinity are shifting.”
He identifies as transgender and transmasculine, and says, “I like the label ‘transguy’ best. I identify…as queer because of my attraction for queer females. It’s always interesting explaining to people why I identify as a guy and like girls yet don’t identify as straight.”
Seeing commonalities with non-trans men, Erikson remarks, “In talking to some of my guy friends who aren’t trans, I’ve found that they share a similar struggle. When does one become a man? I believe we have so many words for our different identities because these ideas are complicated. But not difficult.”
Being trans, Erikson says, has impacted his awareness of gender, identities and privilege. “I’m…more conscious of issues surrounding privilege and multiple identities. It certainly has given me a different perspective into the idea that you never know everything about people by how they appear.”
He thinks assumptions based on appearances often occur across generation too, but insists, “It’s unfair to assume that older generations in the LGBT community don’t know about young people.” However, he admits, there are differences. “I find people of my generation to be more open-minded and willing to consider progressive ideas. People are happy to let people identify however they want, so long as no one else’s rights are infringed upon.”
When it comes to political activism, Erikson says, “Young people in general are used to an entirely different type of activism. We’re coming from a different place. I read about the Civil Rights Movement in a history textbook, but I didn’t experience it first-hand. With the advent of the Internet, we’re more connected in ways that were previously impossible. To get more in touch with the younger members of the queer community, it’s important to remember that.” . . .
House bill bans job bias against gays
Measure would exempt churches and military, doesn't cover transgender
By ANDREW MIGA, November 8, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The House on Wednesday approved the first federal ban on job discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act came despite protests from some gay rights supporters that the bill does not protect transgender workers. That term covers transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose outward appearance does not match their gender at birth.
The measure would make it illegal for employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee based on sexual orientation. It would exempt churches and the military.
After the 235-184 vote, supporters are expecting a tough fight in the narrowly divided Senate, where Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy plans to introduce a similar version.
A veto from President Bush is expected if the proposal does pass the Senate. The White House has cited constitutional concerns and said the proposal could trample religious rights.
Backers of the House bill proclaimed it a major civil rights advance for gays. "Bigotry and homophobia are sentiments that should never be allowed to permeate the American workplace," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C.
The decision by Democratic leaders to exclude protections based on gender identity created sharp divisions in the party and among gay rights activists.
Republicans, meanwhile, said the bill could undermine the rights of people who oppose homosexuality for religious reasons and lead to an onslaught of dubious discrimination lawsuits.
"This is, frankly, a trial lawyer's dream," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn.
Protections for transgender workers were in the original bill. But Democratic leaders found they would lose support from moderate and conservative Democrats by including transgender employees in the final bill.
"That's a bridge too far," said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. "It's better to take it one step at a time."
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, however, said excluding transgender workers was shortsighted.
"As we have seen in many states, the failure to include the transgender community in civil rights legislation from the beginning makes it more difficult to extend protections later," said Nadler, D-N.Y. . . .
By ANDREW MIGA, November 8, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The House on Wednesday approved the first federal ban on job discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act came despite protests from some gay rights supporters that the bill does not protect transgender workers. That term covers transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose outward appearance does not match their gender at birth.
The measure would make it illegal for employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee based on sexual orientation. It would exempt churches and the military.
After the 235-184 vote, supporters are expecting a tough fight in the narrowly divided Senate, where Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy plans to introduce a similar version.
A veto from President Bush is expected if the proposal does pass the Senate. The White House has cited constitutional concerns and said the proposal could trample religious rights.
Backers of the House bill proclaimed it a major civil rights advance for gays. "Bigotry and homophobia are sentiments that should never be allowed to permeate the American workplace," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C.
The decision by Democratic leaders to exclude protections based on gender identity created sharp divisions in the party and among gay rights activists.
Republicans, meanwhile, said the bill could undermine the rights of people who oppose homosexuality for religious reasons and lead to an onslaught of dubious discrimination lawsuits.
"This is, frankly, a trial lawyer's dream," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn.
Protections for transgender workers were in the original bill. But Democratic leaders found they would lose support from moderate and conservative Democrats by including transgender employees in the final bill.
"That's a bridge too far," said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. "It's better to take it one step at a time."
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, however, said excluding transgender workers was shortsighted.
"As we have seen in many states, the failure to include the transgender community in civil rights legislation from the beginning makes it more difficult to extend protections later," said Nadler, D-N.Y. . . .
JEANNE PHILLIPS DEAR ABBY: Let transgender brother have his say
DEAR ABBY: “Anonymous in Arizona” was wondering how to explain to her future children that their father’s brother was born a girl, particularly in childhood photos in which he appears as a girl. While most of your reply was sound — especially how transgendered people are born in the wrong body — I disagree with your advice about the photo albums.
As a transgendered man, I’d be mortified if I knew a photo of me in dresses and pigtails from my youth was included in a family album for my son to see. But I also know many transpeople who wouldn’t mind at all.
It would be reasonable for her husband to approach his brother privately and ask his feelings on the issue. If John doesn’t mind childhood photos in an album, then great. If he does, however, then Anonymous should do her best to find ones of her husband only or have the pictures cropped. — Michigan Transguy
DEAR MICHIGAN TRANSGUY: Many readers agreed with you that the wisest course of action would be to talk to John for his input. Read on:
DEAR ABBY: Although the subject is “something that is never mentioned,” the writer’s husband needs to sit down with his brother and discuss the matter. Surely John has anticipated these things from early on in his new life, and a psychiatrist most likely prepared him for it before he even had the gender reassignment surgery. Ignoring it is probably the worst thing for everyone. — San Jose, Calif., Reader
DEAR ABBY: Anonymous shouldn’t be so sure that John doesn’t know she knows. Most spouses discuss their childhoods with each other, and John probably assumes that his brother had told her about his history.
At some point the children will ask more questions, as will adults. Most transpeople are open about their gender, and Anonymous can use the photo album as an opportunity to teach, as you stated, that John was always male. People need to hear this message so that they, too, can understand. — Libby in Atlanta
DEAR ABBY: I’m also a transman (born in a female body). It was refreshing to read such a sensible reply. Most often, we transgendered folk are treated as freaks, even though it has been proven that gender is determined by what is between your ears, not between your legs. — Mikhail in Grand Rapids . . .
As a transgendered man, I’d be mortified if I knew a photo of me in dresses and pigtails from my youth was included in a family album for my son to see. But I also know many transpeople who wouldn’t mind at all.
It would be reasonable for her husband to approach his brother privately and ask his feelings on the issue. If John doesn’t mind childhood photos in an album, then great. If he does, however, then Anonymous should do her best to find ones of her husband only or have the pictures cropped. — Michigan Transguy
DEAR MICHIGAN TRANSGUY: Many readers agreed with you that the wisest course of action would be to talk to John for his input. Read on:
DEAR ABBY: Although the subject is “something that is never mentioned,” the writer’s husband needs to sit down with his brother and discuss the matter. Surely John has anticipated these things from early on in his new life, and a psychiatrist most likely prepared him for it before he even had the gender reassignment surgery. Ignoring it is probably the worst thing for everyone. — San Jose, Calif., Reader
DEAR ABBY: Anonymous shouldn’t be so sure that John doesn’t know she knows. Most spouses discuss their childhoods with each other, and John probably assumes that his brother had told her about his history.
At some point the children will ask more questions, as will adults. Most transpeople are open about their gender, and Anonymous can use the photo album as an opportunity to teach, as you stated, that John was always male. People need to hear this message so that they, too, can understand. — Libby in Atlanta
DEAR ABBY: I’m also a transman (born in a female body). It was refreshing to read such a sensible reply. Most often, we transgendered folk are treated as freaks, even though it has been proven that gender is determined by what is between your ears, not between your legs. — Mikhail in Grand Rapids . . .
Finding her true self
After difficult metamorphosis, transsexual woman just wants to fit in
Richard Ruelas
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 8, 2007 12:00 AM
It sounds odd coming from a person whose large hoop earrings dangle near her Adam's apple, who brushes her long blond hair away from her face with man-size hands and who, despite the strain to raise her tone, still speaks as a tenor. But Michele de LaFreniere, like other transgender individuals, desperately wants to fit in.
She has become a high-profile symbol for the Phoenix area's transgender community, becoming involved in a possible discrimination action against a Scottsdale nightclub. But she is not looking to be singled out. Just the opposite.
De LaFreniere does not want the public to see her as a man who had surgery to become a woman. She just wants to be seen as a woman.
Unfortunately, I'm 6 feet tall, so people are like, 'Ooooh,' " she said. "Whatever."
De LaFreniere knows people stare. She knows people probably think she's a freak. That she's just a guy in a dress.
She's not. What she is, however, is difficult for people to wrap their minds around. She's a transsexual and, more broadly, a transgender individual.
Transgender people feel as if their body doesn't match the sex their brain feels it is. Transsexuals take the step of getting surgery to correct that mismatch.
The umbrella category of gender-identity disorder has been accepted as a medical condition by mental-health professionals, but not by society at large. It's easier to laugh than to understand.
But for those experiencing it, feeling that you were born the wrong gender is torture.
"I don't like being transsexual," de LaFreniere said.
Since living openly as a woman, she has had a divorce, paid for hours of therapy, had an expensive overseas surgery with plans for at least one more and, most recently, became persona non grata at her favorite nightspot. . . .
Richard Ruelas
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 8, 2007 12:00 AM
It sounds odd coming from a person whose large hoop earrings dangle near her Adam's apple, who brushes her long blond hair away from her face with man-size hands and who, despite the strain to raise her tone, still speaks as a tenor. But Michele de LaFreniere, like other transgender individuals, desperately wants to fit in.
She has become a high-profile symbol for the Phoenix area's transgender community, becoming involved in a possible discrimination action against a Scottsdale nightclub. But she is not looking to be singled out. Just the opposite.
De LaFreniere does not want the public to see her as a man who had surgery to become a woman. She just wants to be seen as a woman.
Unfortunately, I'm 6 feet tall, so people are like, 'Ooooh,' " she said. "Whatever."
De LaFreniere knows people stare. She knows people probably think she's a freak. That she's just a guy in a dress.
She's not. What she is, however, is difficult for people to wrap their minds around. She's a transsexual and, more broadly, a transgender individual.
Transgender people feel as if their body doesn't match the sex their brain feels it is. Transsexuals take the step of getting surgery to correct that mismatch.
The umbrella category of gender-identity disorder has been accepted as a medical condition by mental-health professionals, but not by society at large. It's easier to laugh than to understand.
But for those experiencing it, feeling that you were born the wrong gender is torture.
"I don't like being transsexual," de LaFreniere said.
Since living openly as a woman, she has had a divorce, paid for hours of therapy, had an expensive overseas surgery with plans for at least one more and, most recently, became persona non grata at her favorite nightspot. . . .
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Boy, Interrupted
It can happen wordlessly, as in a women’s restroom, where I sometimes catch a fellow patron’s gaze tracking from my face to my breasts and back again, her attitude one of idle curiosity or confusion, occasionally disgust or hostility.
By Teresa Morrison
November 6, 2007
For days, sometimes weeks at a time, I bask in a cozy headspace where I don’t think about my gender and, more important, no one points it out to me. When the reverie is broken, it is almost invariably by a stranger. It can happen wordlessly, as in a women’s restroom, where I sometimes catch a fellow patron’s gaze tracking from my face to my breasts and back again, her attitude one of idle curiosity or confusion, occasionally disgust or hostility.
It can happen indirectly, as when I was once within earshot of a (gay) man who, indicating me, hissed, “What is that supposed to be?” He happened to be speaking to a friend of mine, who heroically replied, “She’s whatever you need her to be.”
It can happen more directly, as when a clerk quite innocently calls me sir, then, noting his gaffe, showers me in pardons and sorrys, not realizing that his apologies make me far more uncomfortable than any mistaken appellation. Confusion I can take, even hostility, but I resent this notion that how others perceive my gender should -- or does -- matter to me.
Why are we so hysterical about this social construct called gender anyway?
Merriam-Webster defines the concept as “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex.” Which is a little limiting, don’t you think, considering that there are just the two sexes to choose from? And considering that those two options are in turn not widely accepted as optional at all -- unless you happen to have been born intersexed.
Actually, scratch that; intersexuals aren’t given any more slack than the rest of us. Longstanding protocols call for the immediate disambiguation of gender obscurity from the moment of birth. The September 2006 “Consensus Statement on the Management of Intersex Disorders” asserts, “Initial gender uncertainty is unsettling and stressful for families. Expediting a thorough assessment and decision is required.” And so it is that, taking into account a newborn’s genes, hormones, genitalia, potential for fertility, and family’s wishes, doctors make their best guess as to whether the little XXXY will want to live his or her adult life as a man or a woman.
Given the fail rate of explicitly male or female plumbing in predicting whether a child will want to live his or her adult life as a man or a woman, doesn’t it seem a bit reckless to trust the informed guesses of doctors when biology has itself abstained? . . .
Laydee? I’m Wonder Woman
LITTLE Britain star David Walliams has revealed he pretended to be WONDER WOMAN as a child.
David, 36, also admitted he would be a TRANSVESTITE if he did not already get to wear women’s clothes for the comedy show.
While boys often play as male superheroes like Spider-Man, he said: “I embraced my feminine side and wanted to be Wonder Woman in the playground.”
The look, complete with tight shorts, would make Only Gay in the Village character Daffyd hot under the collar.
David is famous as Little Britain’s naff tranny Emily “I’m a laydee” Howard.
And he said: “I might be a transvestite if I wasn’t dressing up on the show.
“A friend has invited me to a transvestite club – and I’ll go, in darkness. I’d like to do it properly with good make-up and a nice dress.”
“I don’t do anything by halves.”
David told Radio Times he has problems convincing women he is straight – despite being linked to beauties including Abi Titmuss.
He said: “I’m camp. It’d be easier to be gay.
“I wouldn’t have to persuade women I’m not.
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