Japan: Man sacked over gender disorder settles lawsuit

Jan. 11, 2008

OSAKA (Kyodo) A man with gender identity disorder whose work contract was not renewed has settled his lawsuit against the employer for ¥1.8 million, his lawyer said Thursday.

In the settlement at the Osaka District Court, the social welfare institution also expressed regret for causing the man hardship on the job and said it will work to deepen its understanding of the disorder, the lawyer said. . . .

Girl watcher

by Brian Jewell

arts writer

Jan 9, 2008


Some photographers accumulate fuzzy photos of sunsets. But when you’re a professional photographer who covers the music and queer scenes in and around Boston, you tend to accumulate photos of drag queens. So when the gallery at The Paradise Lounge approached Kelly Davidson about an exhibit of her rock and roll photography, Davidson had a better idea.

The result is Drag Me In, Drag Me Out, a selection of some of Davidson’s best shots of drag artists. Shot on assignment for a number of local publications, including Bay Windows and The Boston Phoenix, the photos capture the backstage preparations that Davidson has been documenting over the years, from the drag ensemble in the American Repertory Theater’s 2006 production of Island of Slaves, to many productions of the drag theater troupe The Gold Dust Orphans.

Although the out photographer hasn’t always been interested in makeup personally, she’s long been interested in the process of putting on a face and constructing an identity.
"My mother could put on her makeup while driving," recalls Davidson. "I was fascinated and always watched her." She adds with a giggle, "Of course, I also kept an eye on the road." . . .

Opinion: Mario's trans-positive ending

Imprint (Univ. of Waterloo), Canada

January 4, 2008

Volume 30, Issue 21


I'm going to be frank when I say that Super Mario Bros. 2 was a weird
game that nobody really liked all that much. I mean, how can I be
expected to like something that's different?

None of the usual Super Mario bad guys were there, and the game play
consisted of picking things up and throwing them — so weird. But, the
reason the game was so abnormal was because it wasn't always a Mario
game. See, I heard that back when it was in Japan the game was known
as "Doki Doki Panic," and instead of having Mario parts, well they
were different if you know what I mean. These elements were changed,
however, before the game came overseas, sporting a new name and some
flashy new Mario characters too.

Not too surprising then, is it? Super Mario 2 never really felt too
much like a Mario game to begin with. For instance, since when is it
Mario's style to have a character explore a social issue? Don't
follow? Well, you remember Birdo, don't you? At the end of the first
level, that pink dinosaur thing with the big pink bow that shoots eggs
at you? That was Birdo. Her first appearance at the end of that first
level was unforgettable for a couple of reasons: it brought you one
step closer to finishing that god-awful game, and it was the first
time gender identity disorder went 8-bit.

Birdo's summary in the manual reads that "he thinks he's a girl and he
spits eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called Birdetta." This
wasn't a translation typo from the Japanese version either: this was
the real deal. In fact, Birdo has since appeared in over 15 Mario
games and every manual seems to have something different to say in
terms of gender specific pronouns. . . .

Trans Musician Rolls Across Country

by Jacob Anderson-Minshall

January 10, 2008


Over the last seven years, country singer Rae Spoon has toured relentlessly, crisscrossing his native Canada, and traveling by Greyhound bus for 17 months straight. He’s parlayed those endless road shows into dozens of music festival performances, appearances with stars like Natalie Merchant, Emmylou Harris and Ani Difranco and accolades including the Galaxie Rising Star Award for Best New Artist and Penguin Eggs magazine’s “Favorite New Discovery” of 2003.

Spoon (raespoon.com) released his debut album Throw Some Dirt On Me in 2003, following it two years later with Your Trailer Door. In 2006 he released a solo album, White Hearse Comes Rolling, and a duo with Rodney Decroo, The Trucker’s Memorial. The latter was named one of the year’s top ten albums by Left Hip magazine and the Calgary Herald.

Last year, Spoon collaborated with gender-bending storyteller Ivan Coyote and visual artist Valerie Salez in a multi-media project, You Are Here, based on Coyote’s tales about his family’s immigration to the Yukon. “I do get tired sometimes,” Spoon says of his constant touring. “But I like playing shows enough that that it doesn’t seem to get in my way. I’ve discovered that energy drinks can be helpful…and that I can sleep pretty much anywhere.”

Spoon is currently living in Germany, utilizing the country as a base for an ongoing European tour. “Things are a lot closer together here, so I can go out for a weekend—to another country to play a few shows—and then be home for the weekdays. I’ve built up a following by playing a lot of shows. There are a lot of amazing queer collectives in Europe that have brought me to their towns and made me feel very welcome.”

Although Spoon’s music is an amalgamation of styles, he finds his contemporaries in country—a genre he is simultaneously helping to change. “I decided that, because I grew up on country, it belonged to me as much as anyone… [but] I wanted to make country music that wasn’t right wing and normative. I took old themes and tried to reclaim them. I took the hate out of it.” . . .

28th First Event to take place Jan. 16-20

by Ethan Jacobs

Jan. 10, 2008


Long Island activist Juli Owens, keynote speaker for the 28th annual First Event conference, said she plans to talk about the choices that transgender people are forced to make to balance their transgender identity and the need to survive in an often hostile world. Owens speaks from experience; she is openly transgender, but in some parts of her life she presents herself as male, her biological gender, and in other parts she presents herself as female. First Event, organized by the Tiffany Club, is one of the largest transgender conferences in the country, and it runs from Jan. 16-20 at the Boston Marriott Peabody.

"From a definition standpoint I’m called bi-gendered, which means I have two separate lives running at the same time," said Owens, who has been a First Event regular since 2003. "There’s a work and family life I carry on in male mode if you will, and there’s the work I carry out as an activist and an advocate that I carry out in my Juli life. ... One of my choices was I’ll continue to live this double life until I don’t have to anymore."

Owens, who has worked as a manufacturing manager for 30 years, said that presenting herself as male at work has allowed her to maintain a rewarding career and to put her daughter through college. But when she is off the clock she has a second life as a transgender activist, working as co-chair of Gay and Lesbian Democrats of Suffolk County and working with a number of transgender support and advocacy groups in the Long Island area. . . .

Stopping gender bias at school

Critics of legislation that protects school kids from discrimination for sexual orientation don't get it.

January 10, 2008

Some social conservatives are campaigning to "save our kids" from a new California law prohibiting discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgendered students in public schools. But their rescue operation -- which involves both a ballot initiative that has stalled implementation of the law and a suit in federal court -- is at best premature and at worst an exercise in fear-mongering.

The target of the campaign is Senate Bill 777, signed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which amends the state education code to provide protection for students from harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Proponents see SB 777 as a mostly technical clarification of existing laws against bias in the classroom, including the 2000 California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act. For opponents, the legislation is a Trojan horse for the "homosexual agenda."

Critics have focused on language in the law recognizing that a student's gender identity might not be "stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth." They offer dark scenarios in which teenagers will whimsically assume and discard gender identities, and in which a 250-pound linebacker will feign transgenderism to enter the cheerleaders' locker room. Critics also say that, by prohibiting "bias" against gay, lesbian or transgendered students, the law might make it dangerous for teachers to refer to "Mom and Dad." The real purpose of the law, according to one opponent, is "to disregard the traditional family, and its beliefs, and respect for a mom and dad raising the kids." Then, presumably, heterosexual students will be ripe for "recruitment." . . .

An advocate for gender equality

Professor Christa Orth's activism helped alter PSU's discrimination statement

by Carly Nairn

1.10.08


Six years ago, Portland State Women's Studies Professor Christa Orth was performing around Portland as a drag king with Come Out Against the War, a queer group with a political edge.

Today, she is co-chair of the Sexual Gender Equality Task Force at PSU, the group that recently helped add protections for the transgender community in the office and classroom. Orth has not gone far from her days as an activist.

"I have been involved in queer activism my whole adult life," Orth said.

On Jan. 1, the Oregon Office of Affirmative Action and Equality Opportunity added the terms "gender identity" and "gender expression" to the list of factors protected by PSU's anti-discrimination and affirmative action statements, in response to state anti-discrimination legislation that also took effect Jan. 1.

The Sexual Gender Equality Task Force (SAGE) met with the office of affirmative action last year to discuss the addition of language that would protect transgender individuals at PSU, Orth said. Both SAGE and the Office of Affirmative Action agreed the language needed to be added to the university's anti-discriminatory policy. . . .

Cross-dressing groom turns up at his own wedding in a bride's dress and tells guests 'I'm a transvestite'

10 January 2008

A cross-dressing factory worker's family only found out he had a secret double life as a transvestite when he arrived at his own wedding - wearing a bride's DRESS.

Dean Dudley, 35, has been dressing up in women's clothes and make-up since the age of six but never even told his mother.

And he kept his alter-ego 'Deanne' a secret from his macho workmates at an engineering factory for fear of being teased. . . .

Fathers & Sons, Men & Women. From I'm Looking Through You

"Jennifer Finney Boylan, bestselling author of SHE'S NOT THERE, reads from her new book about growing up in a haunted house. In this video, she encounters her father, with whom she has a conversation about men and women, father and sons, and spirits."

28th First Event to take place Jan. 16-20

by Ethan Jacobs

Jan 10, 2008


Long Island activist Juli Owens, keynote speaker for the 28th annual First Event conference, said she plans to talk about the choices that transgender people are forced to make to balance their transgender identity and the need to survive in an often hostile world. Owens speaks from experience; she is openly transgender, but in some parts of her life she presents herself as male, her biological gender, and in other parts she presents herself as female. First Event, organized by the Tiffany Club, is one of the largest transgender conferences in the country, and it runs from Jan. 16-20 at the Boston Marriott Peabody.

"From a definition standpoint I’m called bi-gendered, which means I have two separate lives running at the same time," said Owens, who has been a First Event regular since 2003. "There’s a work and family life I carry on in male mode if you will, and there’s the work I carry out as an activist and an advocate that I carry out in my Juli life. ... One of my choices was I’ll continue to live this double life until I don’t have to anymore."

Owens, who has worked as a manufacturing manager for 30 years, said that presenting herself as male at work has allowed her to maintain a rewarding career and to put her daughter through college. But when she is off the clock she has a second life as a transgender activist, working as co-chair of Gay and Lesbian Democrats of Suffolk County and working with a number of transgender support and advocacy groups in the Long Island area.

As part of her activist life Owens has worked to increase awareness about transgender issues within Long Island’s gay and lesbian community. She said she began that work by going to LGBT meetings and events, and before long she found herself the go-to trans person within the local activist community. By being active in politics she said she has raised the profile of transgender people in Suffolk County, a relatively conservative part of the state. Earlier this week she attended a swearing-in ceremony for an out lesbian judge for whom Gay and Lesbian Democrats of Suffolk County had actively campaigned. . . .

Transgender Teens/Sex Change

Jan 10, 2008

Qualinesta


I was watching Transgender Teens on Discovery Health, and the subject of the show was a male to female transgender who was beginning the sex change process.

She was very upset that because she had a small frame, she couldn't have the size breasts she wanted. She mentioned not feeling "complete" without the size breasts she had in mind.

At this point, to me, it seemed to become more than an issue of not being the correct sex.

I'm having a hard time understanding exactly why that bothered me, but it did. . . .

She’s still here

by Ethan Jacobs

Jan 10, 2008


Jennifer Finney Boylan’s new memoir, I’m Looking Through You, is a bit of a departure from her 2003 memoir She’s Not There. While the latter book catapulted her to the top of the best sellers list and onto the Oprah show with her comic, intimate account of her transition from male to female, the new book takes a turn for the supernatural, recounting her experience growing up in a suburban house in Philadelphia that, according to local legend, was haunted. As part of her research for the book Boylan brought a team of paranormal investigators with her to go ghost hunting in her childhood home and had them moderate a conversation between herself and the ghost of her father. But Boylan, a skeptic about things that go bump in the night, spends much more time in the book writing about ghosts in a psychological sense, as pieces of her past that continue to haunt her. She said that while the new memoir is not as focused on transgender identity as She’s Not There, the idea of being haunted is one that has special resonance for the transgender community.

"I’ll say that I’m less interested in the Scooby Doo variety of ghosts than I am in the other kind, the psychological kind. ... If you’re a trans person you really do feel like sometimes it’s very hard to make sense of your life and really feel like there was a before and an after. Many trans people I know are kind of haunted by the ghosts of their younger selves, or, if you’re a young person, by the ghost of the person you might become but can’t quite figure out how to undergo that transformation," said Boylan. "So how do we find peace with the ghosts of our younger selves or the ghosts of our future selves? It’s a memoir not only of growing up in a haunted house but a memoir of someone who lived in a haunted body. Issues of gender are right there at the heart of the book as well."

Boylan will read from I’m Looking Through You, which will be in stores Jan. 15, at a special Jan. 19 luncheon during the Tiffany Club’s annual First Event conference, one of the largest and oldest transgender events in the country, which runs Jan. 16-20 at the Boston Marriott Peabody. Boylan will also present a workshop at the conference that afternoon on how to tell one’s personal story through memoir writing.

For readers of She’s Not There, the new book fills in some holes in Boylan’s history, focusing on her relationships with two people who were largely absent from the first memoir. One of those people is her father, who died long before she transitioned.

"If you’re a transgender woman the figure of your father does kind of loom above you," said Boylan. "And my father never got to see me as an adult and so never really knew me, and certainly never knew me as a woman. And so there’s a sense of sorrow and of guilt, like, ’Oh my God, did I disappoint him? Did I let him down?’"

While Boylan went into the research for I’m Looking Through You feeling more than a bit dubious about the paranormal, she said one of the most surprising moments was when she had what she believes may have been a conversation with her father’s ghost, courtesy of the paranormal investigators she invited to scope out her childhood home. . . .

THE PEOPLE SPEAK: Bill would approve of aberrant lifestyles

January 8, 2008

Catherine White

Muskogee

There have been stories and editorials supporting or condemning Miss Oklahoma’s appearance at the Okay High School assembly in October. Part of her engagement included a skit in which male students cross-dressed.

According to the Phoenix Oct. 15 story, students “loved the skit.” The paper was right that “our society always has found cross-dressing amusing, despite its disapproval from the general public.” One reason underlying public disapproval is that such action reflects an attempt to make gender differences disappear.

God did not think such disappearance was appropriate as his word tells us he made “them male and female.” There is an admonition not to wear attire which is opposite to one’s gender. . .

BAM: OUR 1ST WOMAN PREZ?

By LUCY BERRINGTON & JEFF ONORE


January 7, 2008 -- Barack Obama's win in Iowa was the latest upset in the long, discredited history of gender assumptions. A large and apparently decisive bloc of voters widely thought to be Hillary Clinton's - young to middle-aged women - preferred Obama.

This may prove critical. Women are more likely than men to turn out to vote - and more likely to vote for a Democrat. In Iowa, that Democrat was more likely to be Obama, giving him a victory and momentum going into other states. In a Lifetime/Zogby poll last month, a quarter of New Hampshire female voters said they'd base their choice on the Iowa results.

Yet it's not only Obama's policies and strategies that appeal to women. He is like a woman: slim, good looking, with long elegant fingers, appealingly dressed - all terms more typically ascribed to female candidates. . . .

WOMAN ALLEGES DISCRIMINATION AFTER COLLEGE JOB REJECTION

8 January 2008


Sex-swap woman Sandra Leslie is taking a further education college to an employment tribunal claiming she was passed over for a job because she is a transsexual.

Ms Leslie, 59, claims City College Plymouth is guilty of sexual discrimination in turning down her application for a post.

She is due to tell a tribunal in the city on Thursday that she was qualified for the job of student union assistant but college managers decided to re-advertise the post rather than give it to her.

Ms Leslie said it was not the first time she had been turned down for a job because of her sex-change status.

She is unemployed but has an honours degree in social policy and administration and more than 30 years' experience of community work.

Ms Leslie, who lives on the Barbican, said that she was well qualified for the 'subordinate' role promoting events among the students on a pro-rata salary of £13,500 a year.

But she claimed that of the four people who applied for the post in July one was appointed, one withdrew and the other was offered the job but turned it down. . . .

MTF SRS 1/2

Ｗarning:

This is a clip of male to female sex re-assignment surgery and involves bloody scenes. If you are under your local legal age, please don't watch it.

Part 2: MTF SRS 2/2

How to Understand Transgender Issues

by Nancy Larson

Introduction

Imagine that you had a debilitating birth defect and no one understood or even wanted to hear about it. That’s how many transgender individuals feel--that their body is a mistake. Inside they feel like one gender but the world perceives them as another. It’s a sensitive issue that’s only just being explored in popular discourse.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You'll Need

• Empathy
• Willingness to take in new information

Steps:

Step One

Know that being transgender is a medical condition called gender dysphoria. Transgender persons are not mentally ill, any more than any other segment of the population, though they may struggle more with a lack of support. Being transgender is not something that people “make up.” It is a lifelong disability.

Step Two

Be aware that coming out as transgender is often a gradual process. Hormones are a first step for many transgender persons. Another early move is to begin dressing as their true sex in situations they perceive as safe.

Step Three

Understand that transgender persons can undergo sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), but not everyone does. SRS is a good solution for many people, but it is expensive and usually not covered by insurance. Some male-to-female transgender persons have only the “top surgery,” or removal of their breasts.

Step Four

Know that coming out as a transgender person is risky business. Transgender persons are not protected in the area of employment by federal or most state laws. A boss can fire them for simply being who they are. They are often targeted as victims of abuse and even violence. . . .

Anyone For Some T?

10 January 2008

What does my mum not get? She’s insisting on cutting my hair tomorrow. She said in front of my sister so I couldn’t say “No, don’t cut my hair, I want it long” because my sister would get suspicious. My mum knows I can’t tell my sister and it seems to me like she’s using that against me.

Ok, it may need tidying, but I can just imagine my Mum going crazy on my hair as soon as she got the opportunity, making it look boyish. I don’t trust her in that respect. I wish she would give me more room, more of my own life. Yes family is important, and of course I love then all, but I’m 20 now, I need a life of my own, and a life I want to lead more importantly.

Since telling my parents I’ve thought about the possibility of moving out a lot more. I’ve even thought about moving out the country. It is a good time to move to the US after all with this Dollar to the Pound being so high. But, of course, I have things that still need doing in this country. Not all of my friends know, and neither do any of my family except my parents. Also if I’m going to go through with the SRS and everything, this is certainly the right country to be in, with the ‘free’ treatment. The ‘free’ treatment that seems nigh impossible to get from where I’m standing. I think I’d prefer to earn the money to do it right. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure British doctors are capable, but I’d just feel better in the hands of someone who’s done this sort of thing many times before. I don’t want to look like a freak and not work properly after this! I also don’t want to look like I’ve had any surgery, I want to keep as much of my own body as possible. As much as I hate aspects of it, I have to realise that it’s the body I’ve been issued with and if I don’t respect it, then who will?

I wish my parents understood more, but I knew it would be difficult for them. They are both in their 50’s, so are a little out of touch with the modern mindset. They are also very reserved people generally. They have probably never thought more than a minute about transgendered people simply because they’ve not needed too. There’s not a whole lot of need to know about it if you’ve never come across it before. That could do with changing. Everyone knows about gay people, and everyone has an opinion about gay people, but transgendered people are forgotten about. They are the mysterious misunderstood T of LGBT. . . .

Audrey Conrad: Outside The Box

Those In The Transgender Community Find A Warm Embrace At Real Art Ways

By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ |Courant Staff Writer

January 10, 2008

The doors have been open for barely half an hour, but a strong crowd has already gathered at Real Art Ways. They stand inside the gallery space of the Arbor Street arts center and cinema with arms crossed, cocktails dangling and noses reaching toward the wall — all the better to inspect the intricacies of the exhibited photographs.

It's the third Thursday evening of the month, which means it's Creative Cocktail Hour, a regular event that melds art, music and mingling — and for the past five years has given people good reason to venture out on a "school night."

"The interesting thing about it is it isn't the same group of people every month," says Audrey Conrad, among the minglers this December evening. She wears a knit mini and black knee-high boots.

"There are some hard-core Creative Cocktail Hour addicts who you'll see every month. But depending on what [art or music] is being featured, you get … a whole different contingent of people," she says.

Conrad is one of the event's "hard-core addicts" — self-proclaimed and such an advocate of Real Art Ways that the folks there had the good sense to ask her to join its board of directors about a year and a half ago.

If you've gone to a cocktail hour, fundraising event or art happening there, you've likely seen her. That's her in the short blond bob, chatting up old faces and welcoming new ones. . . .

TransNation: The Trans Year to Come

by Jacob Anderson-Minshall

2008-01-09


With presidential elections looming, 2008 promises to be a politically contentious year. At least this summer's Olympic Games promise to distract us from American politics, and there's some hope—via trans cyclist Kirsten Worley ( nominated as one of the most influential women in Canadian sports in 2007 ) —of having an openly trans contender. To get through the rest of the year, there's plenty of trans-themed material coming your way in 2008.

Books

When it comes to academic works, Haworth Press may cement its position as the leading publisher of nonfiction addressing trans subjects. Several of their new books address medical professionals, like Principles of Transgender Medicine and Surgery and Guidelines for Transgender Care; the latter written and edited in part by trans activist/health educator Joshua M. Goldberg. For a psychological and sociological perspective Haworth, offers Head Over Heels: Wives Who Stay With Cross-Dressers and Transsexuals and Male Bodies, Women's Souls: Personal Narratives of Thailand's Transgender Youth.

Duke University Press addresses a similar audience with Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, which documents the rise and development of ‘transgender' as a category of collective identity and political activism. The Lives of Transgender People, a collaboration between genderqueer college administrator Brett-Genny Beemyn and feminist scholar Sue Rankin will be published by Columbia University Press later this year. . . .