Friday, June 22, 2007
The Task Force: Transgender Issues
There are many issues that affect the transgender part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. In 2001, the Task Force established the Transgender Civil Rights Project to work for transgender equality. The Task Force strives to make all of its work transgender-inclusive and also believes that working on transgender-specific issues is critical to meeting our mission of achieving freedom, justice and equality for all LGBT people.
Why it Matters:
Transgender people are and have always been an integral part of our community, and the struggle to establish civil rights protections for transgender people cannot be separated from the struggle to win freedom and equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
What We’re Doing:
The Task Force leads national efforts to broaden the definition of our communities to include transgender people in the public policy debates on civil rights, hate crimes and health.
- We work in coalition with other groups devoted to ensuring transgender equality. A primary goal is to educate members of Congress about discrimination against transgender people to lay the foundation for a transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination bill. We also work for transgender-inclusive hate crimes legislation at the federal level.
- Our Transgender Civil Rights Project provides legislative, policy and strategy assistance, including evaluation of legislative and policy language, to activists and organizations working to pass trans-inclusive or transgender-friendly laws and policies. Although the primary work of the project centers on nondiscrimination laws and policies, the project can provide assistance to policymakers and activists working to pass any legislation or policies regarding transgender equality. The Transgender Civil Rights Project's primary goal is to increase the number of state, local and federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Prohibiting discrimination based on "gender identity or expression" ensures that the entire range of transgender and gender non-conforming people are protected.
- The Task Force has published two transgender-specific publications: Transgender Equality: A Handbook for Activists and Policymakers and Transitioning Our Shelters: A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People.
Why You Can Do:
- Support the work of the Task Force.
- Get involved! Check out our Activist Center.
Nurses call for end to homophobia and heterosexism in health care
TORONTO, June 21 /CNW/ - As Toronto's Pride Week marks a series of events
across the province to celebrate diverse sexual and gender identities, the
Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is calling on nurses and
health-care organizations to eliminate discriminatory attitudes and practices
which create barriers to inclusive and appropriate health care.
Today, RNAO released a position statement entitled 'Respecting Sexual
Orientation and Gender Identity' to address homophobia and heterosexism in the
health-care system which can limit access to health-care services and
compromise health. Up to 1.25 million people in Ontario identify themselves as
members of gender or sexual minority communities. A Health Canada survey found
that the rates of unmet health-care needs among gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people were nearly double those of heterosexuals.
One reason this diverse population doesn't always receive the care it
needs is because some avoid traditional health-care settings for fear that
they will experience discrimination or be refused care, explains RNAO
President Mary Ferguson-Paré. "We have to confront these issues head on and
ensure that nurses and other health-care providers treat all patients
respectfully," she says.
"Nurses want to provide the best care possible for all their patients. To
meet the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, it is
essential to understand the complexities of their lives. By issuing this
position statement, we are asking nurses to examine their own attitudes and
beliefs and to learn more about providing holistic care to members of diverse
communities. As frontline health-care providers, nurses can play an important
role in fostering respect for sexual diversity and making our health-care
system inclusive," says Ferguson-Paré.
Health-care organizations must also adapt in order to meet the needs of
diverse clients and the RNAO's position statement outlines steps they should
take. "Organizations must assess the services they provide to determine
whether members of all communities have equal access to care. The next step is
to develop, implement and monitor policies to ensure that services, procedures
and environments are respectful of sexual diversity. It is essential to
include members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in
this process," says RNAO Executive Director Doris Grinspun.
The position statement also stresses the importance of creating work
environments where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender nurses and other
health professionals do not experience discrimination from colleagues or
clients. "Genuine respect for diversity is essential to building workplaces
and societies where all people enjoy health and well-being. Nurses of diverse
sexual and gender identities must feel as comfortable at work as their
heterosexual colleagues and must have the same opportunities for professional
development and career advancement," says Grinspun.
To read 'Respecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity', please visit
www.rnao.org
The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is the professional
association for registered nurses in Ontario. Since 1925, RNAO has lobbied for
healthy public policy, promoted excellence in nursing practice, increased
nurses' contribution to shaping the health-care system, and influenced
decisions that affect nurses and the public they serve.
Religion at forefront of this year’s LGBT Pride March
By Audrey Tempelsman
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender synagogue, has attended New York City’s Gay Pride March for 20 years — and each time, the experience takes her breath away.
“It’s always so moving when we turn down Eighth St. in the West Village from the park at Fifth Ave.,” she said. “You see the crowds and feel such a tremendous outpouring of love and energy and excitement.”
This Sunday, Rabbi Kleinbaum will be among the first marchers to take in the view. She and Reverend Dr. Troy Perry of Metropolitan Community Churches, a worldwide ministry with a special outreach to the L.G.B.T. community, are the march’s grand marshals. Not only will they lead thousands of celebrants downtown, they will be the first religious figures in the march’s 38-year history to do so.
“We’re going to stand at the front in a united float with choruses from both our communities singing together,” Kleinbaum explained.
Though the choice of this year’s grand marshals may come as a surprise to some, Dennis Spafford of Heritage of Pride, the organization behind the march, considers it complementary to the event’s agenda:
“People often forget that this is not a party, it’s a march. It’s a political statement,” Spafford said. “Religious groups around the world have been so negative toward the idea of homosexuality and transgender identities. Rabbi Kleinbaum and Reverend Perry will send the message that we’re as much a part of the religious community as others are.”
Both Rabbi Kleinbaum and Reverend Perry have long struggled on behalf of the L.G.B.T. community.
Before joining Beth Simchat Torah in 1992, Kleinbaum served as the director of congregational relations for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C.
She has stood before the U.S. Congress and in federal court to argue for the legalization of same-sex marriage and attended the conference of U.S. religious leaders at the White House in 1999.
In March, Kleinbaum was arrested in front of the Times Square military recruiting station for protesting comments by General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the immorality of homosexual behavior. Less than a month later, she was named one of Newsweek’s “Top 50 Rabbis” in America for her work at Beth Simchat Torah.
OPINION: LGBT Solidarity
By Nancy Wohlforth and T Santora
But as hopeful as this moment is, it’s important to remember how we’ve grown as a movement, and to be aware of pitfalls that remain before us. We should guard our hard-won unity and solidarity, which has paid handsome dividends in recent years. And we must also step up efforts to educate allies about our “cutting edge” issues.
In Washington, the hate crimes bill, now fully inclusive of transgender people as well as gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, passed the House of Representatives this month by a strong majority (237-180), and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), now similarly inclusive, has been introduced in the House.
At the state and local levels, LGBT equality is moving forward at a record pace. Anti-discrimination bills covering sexual orientation and gender identity have been enacted this year by the legislatures of three states (Oregon, Colorado and Iowa), while the Vermont legislature has extended civil rights protection to transgender people (gay, lesbian and bisexual Vermonters have been covered since 1992).
Gay, lesbian and bisexual people are protected from discrimination in jurisdictions covering 52 percent of the U.S. population, and transgender people in jurisdictions covering 37 percent of the population. And about 20 percent of the population live in jurisdictions that offer broad rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples.
All of these gains didn’t come without painful internal struggle. We’ve made mistakes as a movement, corrected them and learned and grown in the process. The most important of these lessons concerns the danger of disunity and the necessity of solidarity in diversity.
In his 2004 book, “Stonewall,” David Carter points out how the synergy of different groups of queer people helped make the Stonewall riots of 1969 the decisive moment for the modern gay movement.
When the Greenwich Village bar was raided, a small number of transsexuals and drag queens set the tone by refusing to cooperate with arresting officers; a few butch lesbians resisted physically when the police began dragging them to patrol wagons; and effeminate gay street youth bore the brunt of the confrontations with law enforcement. Meanwhile, more conventionally gendered gay people, who had already begun organizing politically well before Stonewall, provided leadership that could ideologically challenge the pervasive homophobia of that time and turn a street confrontation into a sustained movement. Queer people of color such as Sylvia Rivera and Marcia P Johnson offered a strong example of courage and militancy during the three-day uprising. . . .
Chicago-area library to add transgender collection
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Transsexuals of Brazil
Monique, Karlesa, and Wanessa, October 2006.
This photo is from Barry Michael Wolfe's slideshow of transgender people in Brazil, "the country's single most marginalized group." His presentation is a special feature for www.glbtq.com (click on the title above).
Community pushes for TG health coverage
by Zak Szymanski
Recently, an employee of an East Coast LGBT health organization was asked to assist in preparing one of the organization's trans-related grant proposals. Just weeks before, he said, a male co-worker was denied insurance coverage for a medically necessary procedure that is routinely covered for other subscribers. The reason for the denial was that the man has a transsexual history, and the insurance policy excluded anything that could be construed as related to sexual reassignment – in this case, a hysterectomy, a procedure often sought by transsexual men for nonfunctioning organs and related pelvic pain, and typically covered for women without question.
The man, who was in dire need of the procedure, eventually had to hire an attorney to help him secure proper care. But the irony of such an exclusion was not lost on the man's co-workers, whose organization is known for providing healthcare to the transgender community.
"I had to write back to my organization and say I was sorry, but I could not help to bring in more funds for a place that makes a lot of its money on the perception that it's trans-inclusive,� said John, an HIV prevention worker for the organization. "I would hate to have to find a lawyer before I found a doctor."
John was one of several people who declined to give his last name and asked that his organization not be identified for this article. Many LGBT organizations are currently grappling with how to handle transgender health benefits, and identifying these groups could upset the delicate nature of negotiations, advocates said.
Six years after the city of San Francisco passed its groundbreaking transgender healthcare benefits package, progress across the country has been somewhat slow to follow. As a result of the 2001 legislation – which mandated trans healthcare and sexual reassignment coverage for all transgender city employees in need – regional private insurance companies such as HealthNet, Blue Cross, and Kaiser developed the infrastructure that would allow them to offer such benefits to other employers' healthcare plans, and some employers – like the entire University of California system – quickly adopted packages with full coverage. Other employers – from the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign to corporate entities like Microsoft have offered full hormonal and surgery coverage to their employees through "self-insuring," or what amounts to a separate fund for employee health costs.
But unlike the surge in domestic partner benefits that was seen nationwide after San Francisco passed its landmark 1996 equal benefits ordinance – which mandated that companies doing business with the city provide equal health benefits to their employees with same-sex partners – the issue of transgender healthcare remains misunderstood – both in terms of medical necessity and potential cost. And even employees who do have trans-related healthcare may find that adequate care remains difficult to secure.
The biggest problem, according to Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who authored San Francisco's legislation when he was a city supervisor, is that the insurance industry itself remains broken. Discriminatory exclusions and exorbitant costs mean "so many small employers have a problem trying to give any of their employees coverage," though he added that San Francisco has proved that transgender benefits as part of an existing health plan need not be cost-prohibitive. . . .
Looking Back: Late trans leader honored
Transgender people emerge from closet
| Posted on Thu, Jun. 21, 2007 |  | ||||||
| Hartford Courant
A disgruntled playboy becomes a female fashion magazine editor. A rock star born biologically male finds her true self. A boy is scripted freely adding a pair of girl’s shoes to accessorize his outfit. Transgender people have become the new go-to characters on TV shows including “Ugly Betty” (on which supermodel Rebecca Romijn plays an erstwhile man), “All My Children” and the “The Riches.” They also have become the topic of more news reports in recent months. A Florida city manager is fired seemingly for disclosing his plans to have a sex-change operation. A male sports reporter in Los Angeles decides it’s time everyone learns who she really is. A sibling in the famous Arquette family has brought the struggles that a transgender person faces to the big screen in the documentary “Alexis Arquette: She’s My Brother,” which made its debut this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary follows other indie favorites, such as “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Transamerica,” to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender stories to the forefront. Fiction and reality have brought an increasing presence in the media of transgender people in the past six months. This is all positive for transgender people and society, say those who are active in the transgender community. Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality, partly credits the Web and medical advancements with allowing people to express themselves physically. That outlet, she says, has created a domino effect. “There’s so many trans people out that more and more people do have trans people in their lives, and that’s going to cause more trans people in the media,” she says. “... When the entertainment media stories happen, they really have a dramatic impact. When they’re done sympathetically, they make people feel safe and more willing to come out. When they’re done maliciously, that has a chilling effect, makes people feel less willing. It’s really that simple.” The country saw both sides in recent months when, in February and March, the Largo, Fla., city commission voted to fire Steve Stanton as the city manager after 14 years on the job. Commissioners have said it was Stanton’s judgment and not his decision to have a sex-change operation to become Susan Ashley Stanton that cost him his job. When Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner wrote a first-person story in April, formally coming out to readers and co-workers about what his life had been like and what it would turn into by becoming Christine Daniels, the reaction was mostly favorable, says Daniels. Since coming out in the article headlined “Old Mike, New Christine,” Daniels has been inundated with supportive e-mails and phone calls, received a promotion and keeps a blog at latimesblogs.latimes.com/womaninprogress/. “For some reason there’s an acceptance or openness right now that wasn’t there a year ago,” Daniels says. During the years that Daniels, 49, waited to come out, the Jerry Springer phenomenon – as she refers to it, where transgender people are portrayed as freak shows – caused her to grind her teeth in frustration. Daniels says so many people are closeted because of years of that kind of media portrayal. But high-profile outings and more positively portrayed characters on television are all beginning to push the stigma aside, she says. “It’s just created a lot of discussion. There’s a curiosity right now; it’s opened the door for people. Between the e-mails I’m getting and the interview requests I’m getting, people want to know about this. I think that’s what people can take away from 2007,” Daniels says. Damon Romine, the entertainment media director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, agrees that increased visibility creates an increased acceptance, he said, of “a community which has been misunderstood and misrepresented for far too long.”. . . | |||||||
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A real dialogue on trans issues
Intolerant film "The Gendercator" brought out the best in community response
By Zak Szymanski
OPINION What I love about the queers in this town is just how messy and offensive we allow one another to be in our unified goal of relentlessly trying to strengthen our community. In some circles, the evolution of dyke space into a multigender population of transsexuals, genderqueers, femmes, tg-butches, bisexuals, lesbians, and men of all birth sexes has led to tension about queer visibility and discussions about misogyny, privilege, and appropriation. I am frequently pissed but never lacking for a group of people who will continue to engage the issues and attempt imperfect solutions no matter how hurt they have become in the process.
And yet, during Pride season there will be countless potentially offensive voices we will not hear. The ex-gay and right-wing Christian movements — arguably homosexual communities in their own right — will not be given unchallenged space at our events, and there won't be an uproar that these views should be included for the purpose of "fostering dialogue." As many journalists and artists can attest, ensuring the free exchange of ideas often means knowing what to leave out.
Still, it was predictable that supporters of lesbian director Catherine Crouch's film The Gendercator would claim censorship and blame transgender community allies for "silencing dialogue" when the Frameline International LGBT Film Festival decided last month to pull this film from its June schedule. It was a setup; victims could either remain silent during an attack or speak up and "prove" that they have malicious intentions to take over the world.
For those unfamiliar with The Gendercator, a quick look at Crouch's film summary and deliberately defamatory director's note says it all: Trans people are the product of "distorted cultural norms" who uphold antigay values and change their sex "instead of working to change the world." Male-identified trans people are altered lesbians, despite the fact that many have never held that identity. And not even the femme dykes are safe, considering Crouch's tomboy-or-else definition of acceptable queerdom.
Crouch says the film comes from her anxiety about what she perceives as the loss of gender-variant women and the rise of binary gender norms. But the film itself strikes a different note, depicting trans bodies as sci-fi horrors and trans characters as coercive perpetrators of nonconsensual body invasions — all the familiar rhetoric used to justify antitrans violence and deny basic civil rights. . . .
India: A boon to members of third sex
MADURAI: Now, transgenders can be allowed entry into co-educational colleges, with the Higher Education department expected to issue an order for the same within a week.
Educationalists and the student community here have appreciated the move, as it could pave the way assimilating members of the third sex into society.
According to educationalists, the decision to provide a third entry for transgenders while specifying the sex of the candidate on the college application forms is revolutionary.
"They are like any other human beings. Giving their sexual identity an official recognition will help people understand them better," said P Marthamuthu, Vice-Chancellor, Madurai Kamaraj University.
"Though their physical appearance and behavioural patterns are different from those of other sexes, the transgenders are in no way less competent in the knowledge sphere," he added.
R Raja Govindasamy, Principalin- charge, Thiagarajar College, said that the Government could provide reservation benefits to encourage them to pursue their education.
They might face discrimination at the initial stage, he said, adding that regular counselling for both transgenders and other students could bridge the psychological gap between them. . . .
Tattle | Kit Kat Dolls' 'talent' not welcome on this show
By Howard Gensler
At least they were the front-runners until Friday. That's when the Dolls got the boot after News of the World reported three of them actually were prostitutes. The problem arose when the group's transvestite lead singer Vanilla Lush (aka Cindy) invited a News of the World reporter up to the group's hotel room for a little pay-for-play. "I can only see you for a short time," "Cindy" said. "It's going to cost you £1,000 in cash if you want to (bleep) me tonight darling. I have to be up early because I'm performing live tomorrow . . . in the semis of 'Britain's Got Talent.'
Who knew the talent?
News of the World also reported transvestite band mate Alekssandra offered "her"-self for spanking and whipping and band mate Toni (aka Eva) claimed on the Internet to be an "active pre-op transsexual with very soft skin and natural pert breasts."
The Kit Kat Dolls last wowed the nation and judges Simon "the Scowl" Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden with their version of "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls, who merely writhe like prostitutes. After that performance, Cowell said, "Great act. Love the attitude!"
He was not so happy when he learned of the Dolls' second jobs.
"[Simon] considers it a serious blow to the integrity of the contest," said an insider. It was the show's second scandal. Earlier an impressionist quit after he was found to be on Britain's Sex Offenders' Register.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Transsexuals of Brazil
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Transgender people in Brazil are the country's single most marginalized group. Fear, ignorance, and hypocrisy lead to discrimination and lack of education, which in turn render transgender people--more specifically, people who were born male but present themselves as female--subject to violence, social exclusion, drug abuse, crime, prostitution, exploitation, and severe health risks, each of which results in further discrimination.
Brazilian sexual culture contains deep and severely repressed androgynous elements. Transvestites, as many male-to-female transsexuals prefer to be called, are the personification of this cultural equivocation. . . .
Looking Back: Jazz musician Billy Tipton's life in photos: A timeline
http://www.dianemiddlebrook.com/tipton/btexcerpt.html
21 January 1989
- Drag queen RuPaul, Lettin' it All Hang Out
ONE SATURDAY MORNING in January 1989, an emergency call summoned paramedics to a trailer park on the outskirts of Spokane, Washington, the home of Billy Tipton, an aging white jazz musician. Tipton had been very ill, too weak to leave his bed, but had resisted all attempts to get him to a doctor. His adopted teenage son, William, had been looking after him. That morning, after carrying Billy to the bathroom, William had closed the door and, out of earshot, telephoned his mother, Kitty. They hadn't spoken for nearly a year. Divorce had dispersed the family almost a decade earlier, and Kitty had remarried, but she could still be counted on in a crisis. She advised William to dial 911 and have Billy moved to a hospital. William made the call, then went to carry his father to the breakfast table. Billy Tipton gave a deep sigh and slumped against his son, unconscious.
That sigh was a secret escaping. The medics arrived almost immediately, lay Tipton on the floor of the trailer, squatted over him, and opened his pajamas to feel for a heartbeat. One of them turned to William and asked, "Son, did your father have a sex change?" William stepped forward and caught a glimpse of his father's upper body, then stumbled back against the screen door and down the trailer's steps. What had he seen? "I was in awe. I had no thoughts--just looked up at the sky, thinking it was some hallucination from drugs. If my father had lived as a woman, she would have had big breasts."
Nobody but Billy had seen that nude torso for about forty years, not even the women who had lived with him as wives. Billy was a very private person, they explained later. He invariably locked the bathroom, where he washed and dressed. People who knew his habits knew that he always wore binding on his chest to support the ribs that had been fractured when the front end of a Buick had plowed into his body--or so he said.
And many, many people knew Billy Tipton. Spokane had been one of the regular stops on his trio's circuit in the early 1950s, during the brief heyday of legal gambling in private clubs in Washington State, when a band could make a good living backing strippers, magicians, jugglers, tap dancers, any sort of variety act that would draw customers into the clubs to drink and play the slot machines. In 1958, Billy settled in Spokane, and the Billy Tipton Trio became the house band at a downtown nightclub called Allen's Tin Pan Alley. Billy bought a house in the Spokane Valley and started earning a second income as an agent in the Dave Sobol Theatrical Agency, booking the musicians.
In Spokane, out of professional respect, Billy Tipton was referred to as a jazz musician. He referred to himself as an entertainer, for he had long before given up trying to make a living at jazz, though he smuggled it into floorshows he worked up with other members of his trio, playing a repertory of swing standards on saxophone and piano. Oklahoman by birth, he was attuned to the stingy provincial audiences he had to please in Spokane, and he had a flair for showmanship. As an emcee, he adopted the gregarious style of the businessmen who were regular customers at the clubs, and female fans were attracted by his boyish good looks and his meticulous style of dress. . . .
Hormone effects: How having a twin brother can leave a girl single
How having a twin brother can leave a girl single
By FIONA MACRAE
Girls with a twin brother tend to be only too aware that their sibling can be an occasional pain in the neck.
But it seems that having a male twin may have far more serious and long-lasting consequences - harming a girl's chances of settling down and having children.
A study has shown that women who have a twin brother are 15 per cent less likely to marry and 25 per cent less likely to give birth.
Even when they do become mothers, they tend to have fewer children than other women.
Sheffield University researchers explain the pattern - discerned from studying the lives of almost 400 sets of twins - on exposure to the male hormone testosterone in the womb.
They say this masculinises the developing girl, affecting not only her appearance but her personality, attitudes and behaviour. . . .
Thailand: Transsexual beauty queen buys buffaloes to help poor
Former beauty pageant entrant, Sararat "Arf" Klinthai, who was born Sawek Klinthai, now 30, said she underwent a sex-change operation at 17 and had entered nearly 700 beauty contests. She enjoyed considerable success including the Miss Alcazar runner-up at Pattaya and the Miss Siam Contest in Bangkok, and has 200 trophies.
After retiring, Arf returned to her hometown in Tambon Tai Talad in Muang Lop Buri and raised some 100 Brahman cattle, on which she also conducted artificial insemination without help from veterinarians.
Arf said she spent her prize money - and donations from fellow transvestite contestants - to save 50 buffaloes and cows bound for the slaughterhouse and gave 30 of them to the locals and let them sell the calves. . . .
