Transgender student, SUU face dilemma

Appropriate housing debated; application remains incomplete

Samantha Arnold

1/7/08

Kourt Osborn, a sophomore sociology major from Kanab who has been living as a male, does not qualify to live in male on-campus housing because of failure to provide medical information defining him as a transgender person as well as his neglect to turn in the required application fee.

Born a female, Osborn previously attended SUU from fall 2004 to spring 2005 and lived in female on-campus housing.

Osborn then left SUU to start his transition in Philadelphia at a health center that specializes in transgender care, he said.

Upon his return to SUU, Osborn wanted to live in the male dorms, but said that after being open about his transgender situation, his housing application was denied by housing authorities because he was not able to fulfill certain medical criteria.

Dean O'Driscoll, SUU director of Marketing & Public Relations, said Osborn was not denied the right to live in male housing. His application was not considered because he failed to pay the required application fee.

However, Osborn said he did not turn in the money with his application because he did not want to be "promptly denied."

"I was afraid this would happen, and it did," he said. . . .

Storm Florez

"Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Storm Florez is an FTM, genderqueer singer/songwriter, poet, duct tape and performance artist, and live tranny porn producer who now lives in the Bay Area.

Storm has performed his music and spoken word across the US and co-produced and performed in the pornarific cabaret Trans as Fuck in San Francisco in 2004 and in West Hollywood in 2006.

Storm has featured at the National Queer Arts Festival: Intercourse (2001), Viva La Joteria (2004), Home Queer Home and Transforming Community (2007)."

A man in lipstick, high heels?

New county law says its OK

January 4th, 2008

By John Johnston

County Commissioners have unanimously approved new rules that prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on gender identity or expression.

The amendments to county ordinances add gender identity to a list of protected classes that include race, sex, color, religion, national origin, handicap, familial status, sexual orientation and marital status – in sum, so-called “transgendered” or “transsexual” persons are now protected.

Which would, according to Commissioner Mary McCarty, permit a man to come to work in high heels and lipstick, and not be subject to any official reprisals.

What will upset opponents is that the rules apply to both the public and private sectors. The new laws cover most real estate transactions, together with both public and private employers with 15 or more employees. And it went into effect New Year’s Day. . . .

Bolivia to protect gays in constitution

January 2008

by Rex Wockner

Bolivia is set to become the sixth nation to ban anti-gay discrimination in its constitution.

Article 14 of the finalized text of the planned new constitution states: "The State prohibits and punishes any form of discrimination based on sex, color, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin, culture, nationality, citizenship, language, religious creed, ideology, political affiliation or philosophical beliefs, marital status, economic or social status, type of occupation, level of education, disability, pregnancy, or other factors that have the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of the rights of everyone."

Once ratified, the constitution will become the first in the world to protect transgender people. . . .

A Tale of Two Susans

January 4, 2008

(cross-posted at Pam’s House Blend)

I’m spending part of my winter break getting rid of piles of paper. Those in the trans community who have had the pleasure/misfortune of entering any place I’ve lived know how, umm……, out of hand my piles of research can get (ask Gwen Smith; she saw the original Casa de la Kat a decade ago - and none of the succeeding Kat Boxes have been less paper-laden.)

Well, I’m trying to get them out of the physical space of my office and into my computer - via scanner.

I am getting there….

Trust me.

Now - on with our regularly scheduled rant:

One of the scraps o’ paper I just ran across is an article about a transsexual named Susan - who had a rather public, political life prior to transition and who has had occasion to say some things trans since her transition that have rubbed some trans folks the wrong way.

Unlike Susan Stanton, however, Susan Kimberly earned the right to mouth off.

No, she doesn’t need my approval on that point - and I imagine I’ll get an e-mail to that effect at some point. However, I’ve earned - in my own way - the right to mouth off. . . .

OPINION: Educating our children

Dale O’Leary

January 2008


The state-funded Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Youth recently met in Brockton to plan how to present the gay activists’ view of sexual identity in public schools of the state.

Students will be exposed to pro-GLBT programs at every level from kindergarten to the graduate school. Since the programs challenge in various ways Catholic teaching, it is important for parents to be in possession of the facts necessary to answer their children’s inevitable questions.

First, persons with same-sex attraction may believe that they were born that way, but there is no scientific evidence that same-sex attraction is genetically pre-determined. If it were, one would expect that identical twins would virtually always have the same pattern of sexual attraction. In the largest study of sexual attraction patterns in identical twins (287 pairs of male identical twins), there were 24 pairs of men where only one had predominant same-sex attraction and only 3 pairs in which both did (11 percent). This precludes a purely genetic cause.

Each person with same-sex attraction has his or her own unique personal history. It is therefore unlikely that we will find a single cause for same-sex attraction. We do know that many, but not all, suffered from a gender identity disorder as children. This failure to identify with one’s own sex leads to loneliness and isolation. According to experts in the field Dr. Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley, these children have many other problems beside gender identity disorder. When gender identity disorder is identified early and treated, it can be resolved. . . .

Transgender woman sues hospital

CATHOLIC-OWNED SETON WON'T LET HER GET BREAST SURGERY

By Barbara Feder Ostrov
Mercury News

01/05/2008

"God made you a man."

That's what Charlene Hastings said she was told when she called to inquire about breast enlargement surgery at Seton Medical Center, a Catholic hospital in Daly City.

Now the San Franciscan is suing the hospital, claiming officials there discriminated against her because she had a sex-change operation.

Hastings, 57, had already had the major surgery she needed to become a woman. She had chosen a San Francisco plastic surgeon with privileges at Seton to perform the breast augmentation in October 2006. But the surgeon, Dr. Leonard Gray, told her that Seton no longer allowed him to operate on transgender patients, Hastings said.

When Hastings called Seton to learn more, a surgical coordinator said the hospital would not allow its facilities to be used for transgender surgery, according to the lawsuit, "She was saying, 'It's not God's will,' " Hastings said. "I couldn't believe it. It's a blatant case of discrimination."

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 21 in San Francisco Superior Court, pits the rights of transgendered people against the hospital's rights to operate according to its religious principles.

State law allows religiously affiliated hospitals to refuse to provide abortions, but there is no specific religious exemption allowing hospitals to deny elective surgery to transgender people. . . .

Susan Stryker

"Susan Stryker is a researcher, writer, queer historian, artist, and a filmmaker. She is the former executive director of the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California, and a former history columnist for Planet Out. She has written and co-authored books like Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and edited "The Transgender Issue" of The Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Vol 4, No 2, 1998. She recently discovered and made a film about the Compton's Riot - riots by transpeople in San Francisco that pre-date Stonewall - and turned that discovery into a documentary film, Screaming Queens."

A desire for amputation?

By Paul Decelles

December 28, 2007

While traveling to Disney World the other week, I picked up a copy of Scientific American Mind to keep myself from being too bored on the flight. One by Sabine Miller called "Amputee Envy" concerns what she terms "Body Identity Disorder" (BID). People with this extremely rare disorder desire to have one or more of their appendages removed, and some actually have such discomfort that they request that the appendage be removed. A summary of the article is here.

I had heard about this sort of thing and chalked it up to being a sexual fetish. The reality appears to be much more complex. Some appear to be seeking attention rather than any sort of sexual gratification. But most interesting to me is that at about two thirds of the disorder report that amputation will enable them to express their "true" identity. Thus, there may be a parallel between this disorder and Gender Identity Disorder (GID), which is of personal interest to me. Indeed there are some interesting parallels-both disorders arise early in life, and sometimes the discomfort (which can be extreme) is only resolved through surgery. . . .

Queen Biggins: 'I was insulted when they first asked me to do panto!'

27th December 2007


Nobody knows more about the magical ingredients that make a successful panto-mime than Christopher Biggins.

For almost 40 years, this happy-golucky I'm A Celebrity . . .winner has starred as one of the most popular panto dames up and down the country, playing such famous characters as Widow Twankey, Sarah the Cook and Baroness Hard-up.

He would have been strutting about the panto stage once again this year in one of those over-thetop disguises if it hadn't been for his decision to accept an invitation to go into the jungle. . . .

Willard: The buildings they left behind

January 3, 2008

State hospital near Ithaca has ties to Binghamton asylum

For a column that covers buildings of historic interest in the Southern Tier, Willard State Hospital is a stretch. OK, more than a stretch -- not in the Tier at all, Willard is on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake, about 25 miles from Ithaca.

But an article on Willard seems appropriate for a couple of reasons. For one, there are some parallels to our Binghamton asylum. Both facilities were constructed in the 1860s. Similar in purpose, construction and operation, over the years they would respond identically to changing societal attitudes toward mental health. They would grow fast to keep pace with increasing demand, reach their peak in the late 1950s, then experience a steady decline in population. Twenty years ago many of their buildings were closed and abandoned.

Over recent years, several of Willard's buildings have been rehabilitated and reused. Today, the campus is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections as a drug treatment center, correctional facility and training academy. Unfortunately, like the Binghamton campus, many of the original buildings have been demolished. The few that remain vacant are deteriorating; some are unsalvageable.

There are other local connections: After Binghamton's short-lived New York State Inebriate Asylum was converted to an "asylum for the chronic insane," many patients were transferred from Willard to the Binghamton facility.

One of those was Lucy. In today's terms, Lucy would be described as a transgender individual. But in 1879, because she chose to dress and behave as a man, Lucy was committed to the Willard asylum for the insane. Shortly after that, she was transferred to the asylum at Binghamton, where she remained for more than 30 years until her death. Lucy was buried here in the asylum cemetery, and as is the case with most graves at both the Binghamton and Willard cemeteries, her nameless, numbered grave marker has long since been lost. . . .

Treasures of the Tier is a monthly column covering historic preservation issues in the Southern Tier. Luther may be contacted at rluther@nysLandmarks.com.

Losing Male Privilege

Jan 3, 2008

Pam's House Blend. . .always steamin'

As a WBT who came out at 21 in 1969 my first awareness was that when I looked for work now I was going to have to look under the "Help Wanted _ Women" ads. For jobs that paid less than those offered to men.

I didn't protest that this was treating me as a lesser human because I was in transition. I was in SDS and I developed a feminist consciousness. So I marched on the SF Chronicle and Examiner offices with several hundred other women to demand the end to sex segregated ads.

In her book "Whipping Girl" Julia Serano points out that much of what TG/TS people think is transphobia is actually misogyny.

The goal of the process of transition is to become female or male and to live in society as a member of the sex to which one is being surgically reassigned. It isn't to move to some sort of third status of "Transgender". Most of us who enter treatment for TS/HBS recognize that. For us transition is a period of life transformation during which time we come to realized "Hey, this is the way women are treated in society". We then either embrace the feminine mystique or we become feminists even if we are the sort that say, "I'm not a feminist but I believe in equal pay."

Embracing the identity politics of transgender is a way of saying, "I want to dress as a woman, not get SRS and keep all my male privilege but be treated like a woman." . . .

Drunken flies get hypersexual

Chronic boozing sends male flies chasing after any and every potential mate.

Heidi Ledford

Fruit flies get amorous under the influence of constant booze.GETTY

From the annals of insect biology comes a cautionary tale for those recovering from their post-New Year’s celebration: heavy boozing has been shown to send male fruitflies, like their human counterparts, into a lusty fog.

In the flies, hypersexuality caused by chronic alcohol exposure has the effect of making the males chase anything with wings — other males included. Although sexual preference in humans is obviously a complex phenomenon not replicated by the fly work, the findings could be used to further establish a fly model system for the study of alcoholism, observers say. . . .

David (The current Dr. Who) Or Davina Tennant Part 2

Trans teacher changing lives in SF jail

01/03/2008

by Heather Cassell

Life is different for transgender teacher Dana Rivers, who lost her high school teaching job in Sacramento nearly 10 years ago. The media spotlight that was her life for nearly three years has faded, she now lives in the Bay Area, and while she still teaches at the high school level, her students are different.

Rivers, 52, an award-winning educator, knows she's fortunate and is happy to be teaching again.

"I always thought that [I] would teach again because it's what I do," said Rivers, who teaches social studies and history at Five Keys Charter School in San Francisco's county jail. "There was a period of time when I thought that the activist part of my world would kind of dominate things for a while, and it did for a couple of years, but when that quieted down, I just went back looking for another teaching job and went back to doing this." . . .

Dirty Sexy Money has 2007's Most Memorable Transgender Character

January 03, 2008

BuddyTV

By many accounts, Candis Cayne's portrayal of Carmelita on ABC's Dirty Sexy Money has been considered as 2007's most significant transgender character. Cayne herself made it to Radar Magazine's list of the New Radicals, which names "the year's most notable rogues, renegades, and rule-breakers."

Ironically, Cayne had just about given up on getting her acting career going when Dirty Sexy Money fell onto her lap and turned things around for the transformed former Brendan McDaniel. . . .

OPINION: Trans activist crosses the line

by Kevin Naff, Washington Blade Editor | Jan. 3, 2008

The recent remarks by Meredith Bacon, president of the board of the National Center for Transgender Equality, denouncing the Human Rights Campaign’s handling of the ENDA debate, serve as a vivid and disappointing reminder of why the trans movement hasn’t progressed as far as the gay rights movement.

“[A]s the chair of the NCTE Board of Directors, I can assure all who read this blog that NCTE will not work with HRC in the foreseeable future, until the current leadership is completely purged, and until we are convinced that, unlike its predecessors, any new HRC leadership is totally committed to working for transgender rights,” Bacon wrote.

“As long as HRC is controlled by and is dependent upon white, rich, professional gay men, such collaboration may never occur,” she wrote. . . .

Standing tall for AIDS victims.

A Vietnam vet puts on her big-girl outfit to take care of fellow sufferers.

By BY JIMMY FOWLER

2 January 2008

At a recent Wednesday night benefit show at the popular gay bar Stampede, a crowd of 30 or so had wandered out on a week night to catch a Fort Worth legend — albeit one that most Fort dwellers have never heard of.

This legend didn’t need an ornate theater full of dazzling lights and extravagant costumes. More fittingly, the Stampede was just as laid-back as ever — pictures of Santa Claus exhorting “Merry Christmas!” mingled with illustrations of shirtless, hairy-chested men in cowboy hats. A twinkling Christmas tree sat next to the DJ booth. And there wasn’t even a stage — just a brightly lit patch of wood floor in front of the bar near the restrooms.

She strode into the bar, microphone in hand, at 9 p.m. sharp—all her Wednesday-night benefit shows start with military punctuality — looking at least 6’5” tall in heels. As the hostess for the Fort Worth “Wall of Food” shows, whose earnings benefit the food pantry at the city’s AIDS Outreach Center, Rhonda Mae was not so much regal as charmingly down-home and self-deprecating. She never dominates these shows, preferring to emcee the proceedings with a maternal touch. This night she favored a simple knee-length black skirt and black short-sleeved blouse with glittery golden swirls. Perched on her aquiline nose were a pair of thick-lensed suburban-mom glasses that covered the top half of her face.

She sidled up to one good-looking Latino man at the end of the bar, ran her long fingers playfully through his hair, and declared in a very deep, cigarette-honed voice, “You know what I want for Christmas: diamonds. But honey, sapphires will do, too.” . . .

Not all lost with defeat of transgendered bill

January 2, 2008

Jennifer Madden M.D.
Amherst


House Bill 711 did not make it past the committee hearing stage. This is the bill that would have required insurance companies in the state of New Hampshire to cover physician-prescribed hormone medications to individuals regardless of assigned sex at birth.

Am I saddened by this decision? Do I think it's discriminatory? The answer for me is yes, of course, but I am a transsexual and a physician who cares for transgendered patients.

Was the fight useful? Did we accomplish anything? Have we done anything to change societal attitudes toward transgendered people?

Yes, I believe we have. The fact that this letter is being printed is proof of that.

Gender variance is not something new to society, but it is something that Judeo-Christians have trouble accepting, even when science supports it.

Vern Bullough, the author of "Science in the Bedroom," once wrote: "The main obstacle to understanding our own sexuality is realizing that we are prisoners of past societal attitudes."

How can the majority of human beings understand something that's foreign to them, that they don't experience? If it's not true for them, then they must either act on faith believing what I and other transgendered individual's sense about ourselves is true or take the alternative course and say we're all crazy. . . .

Fruit & Fly Trailer