Monday, June 25, 2007
Looking Back: Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria
This clip is from the excellent documentary by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman about "transgenders and transvestites fighting police harassment at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco's Tenderloin in 1966, three years before the famous riot at Stonewall Inn bar in NYC."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464189/
Southern Comfort. . .offers female-to-male transgender individuals access to healthcare services in a supportive, trans-friendly environment
FtM's face unique challenges in the area of healthcare needs, and are often unable to identify or access healthcare providers with an understanding of these issues. SCC organizers believe the Men's Health Project is a first step toward better healthcare services for transmen. We have teamed up with an Atlanta feminist health clinic, and will provide transportation from the hotel and back, along with significantly discounted exams and lab work.
Those who have attended in the past found that the clinic provided a comfortable environment staffed with caring people. The clinic accepts Mastercard, Visa, Discover and ATM check cards; they do not accept personal checks. If you would like to reserve a space for this event or if you need additional information regarding clinic services and fees, please contact the event organizer at MHP@sccatl.org.
The Men's Health Project was created in 2000 in honor of our friend Robert Eads.
Never quite male or female, it's her decision now
Houston woman born intersexual is getting the surgery she's dreamed of
A doctor hurried from the delivery room following the early morning C-section at Houston Northwest Hospital — the sounds of infant screams rising from inside.
"Congratulations," he told the young man and his mother-in-law, both waiting just beyond the door. "You have a healthy baby boy."
It was the man's first child. Excited and giddy, he and his young bride called friends and family with the good news. Soon the hospital room filled with flowers and relatives.
But by that afternoon, doctors were urging caution. One mentioned the need for hormone injections. That night, the family's pediatrician called the young woman in her recovery room. He asked her whether she had named the baby yet, and she said yes: Dan Jr., after his father.
The doctor paused.
"I think you better wait a few days to name it because we don't know if it's a boy or a girl," he said, according to family members' accounts of that conversation.
Taking the phone, the baby's father listened to the same message as he watched his wife cry. The next day, doctors advised that Dan Jr. needed a new name. The new parents chose Jessica.
One or 2 in every 1,000
Jessica, now 21, was born intersex, meaning as an infant she fell somewhere in that gray territory between male and female. Babies like her arrive in hospitals every day, their confusing bodies confounding parents in an estimated one to two of every 1,000 births, according to a 2000 survey of medical literature.For decades, these babies were treated as secrets. Often, doctors alone picked their sex and prescribed the surgeries and lifetime of hormones. Parents were rarely involved in the decision-making process, and their children even less so.
But in recent years, this has begun to change. Emboldened by the Internet and patients' rights movements, adults classified as intersex at birth have begun sharing their stories of botched surgeries and childhoods filled with shame. And some doctors are listening. Within the past five years, many have begun delaying irreversible surgery until later in a child's life, seeking more parental input and following up on the results of the treatments they recommend.
In other words, they are realizing that gender is complicated. . . .
Boyish Girl Meets Girlish Boy
By Eleanor J. Bader
Helen Boyd’s fascinating memoir-cum-social analysis, She’s Not the Man I Married, turns a personal dilemma into fodder to discuss what we mean — or don’t mean — when we pin gender labels on each other.
For starters, there are those pesky terms, “male” and “female.” By way of introduction, Boyd informs readers that the book is the story “of how a tomboy fell in love with a sissy, how a butch found her femme, how a boyish girl met a girlish boy. Who is who is not always clear and doesn’t always matter. In some ways, that’s the heart of this book: the idea that a relationship is a place where people can and do and maybe even ought to become as ungendered as they can.”
Sounds great in theory. But again, there’s that pesky thing: reality. Here, we smack head-on into the blues and pinks of childrearing and the homophobia that undergirds the sexuality we develop.
Boyd wasn’t raised in a bubble, and understands the obstacles that make complete “ungendering” a utopian fantasy. Like all of us, she carries ideological baggage and is unabashedly honest about her heterosexual preference. Nonetheless, when her husband, “Betty,” whose male name is never revealed, announced his interest in crossdressing, Boyd was nonplussed. In fact, she found it something of a turn-on and enjoyed helping him primp, apply make-up and shop for female attire. But shortly thereafter, when Betty opted to move from the boudoir to the streets, spending more and more time as a woman, things got increasingly thorny. To wit, Boyd had to confront both public perceptions and her own deep-seated ideas about sexuality, propriety and physical appearance.
Casual observers watching the pair toddle down the street, for example, saw them as an attractive lesbian couple. Was that okay? Did it matter? What’s more, Boyd has had to ask herself if she will stay with Betty if he opts to surgically alter his body. Will she still desire him if he physically becomes she?
It’s not your standard boy-girl stuff and Boyd admits that she vacillates about the answer. On some days, Betty is the love of her life, regardless of which genitals she possesses; at other times she is far less certain. Luckily for both, it is a non-issue since Betty is currently not pursuing medical intervention. . . .
Transgender may KO Barack dinner
Helen Kennedy
Barack Obama
When Florida Firefighter Jennifer Lasko told Barack Obama's campaign she wanted to have dinner with the candidate, she mentioned that she used to be an Army soldier and an active Republican who had become an anti-war Democrat.
The campaign, which loves to highlight support from former Republicans, picked her as one of four small donors it is flying to Washington on July 10 to meet Obama at a restaurant.
But Lasko, 42, didn't mention another big change: Until 2005, she was John William Lasko.
Now, after the Palm Beach Post unearthed her past life, Lasko thinks she should skip the dinner.
"I'm just a citizen who wants to discuss issues. I was foolish to think I could keep it under wraps," she told the paper. "There are a lot of close-minded people who'll make an issue of this."
Lasko, who underwent the sex change while working at Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department, says it's not a secret, but she doesn't want to cause trouble for Obama.
A campaign spokeswoman said if they had known she used to be a he, it wouldn't have mattered.
"Sen. Obama would love to have her attend the dinner. If she chooses not to attend, Sen. Obama looks forward to meeting her and hearing more about her thoughts on how we can change this country," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Trans editor of 'Baseball Prospectus' tells her story
By Ronit Bezalel
Outsports.com
Christina Kahrl, one of the founding five members of Baseball Prospectus, made news by coming out as transgender in 2003. For Christina (who grew up as Chris), coming out was relatively easy once she had made the decision to do so. It was the journey getting there that was the challenge.
"From an early age, I knew I was different," Kahrl told Outsports. "I knew that I wasn't like the other boys. I knew I wasn't like the other girls; I couldn't put my finger on it. I grew up feeling like an ‘odd duck.’ I didn't stress out about it. I didn't mind being different. I just knew that I was."
It wasn't until college that Kahrl began to make sense of her experience when she came across information about transgender issues while browsing the stacks in The University of Chicago Library.
"It was sort of a revelation, and something I could finally understand was a pretty well-understood phenomenon," Kahrl said. “This was in 1990, the year that I graduated. I worked on campus subsequent to my graduation and spent considerable time reading about transgender issues from there, but I really couldn't say that I knew what to do about it at the time; it was simultaneously reassuring and terrifying." . . .
Outsports.com
Christina Kahrl, one of the founding five members of Baseball Prospectus, made news by coming out as transgender in 2003. For Christina (who grew up as Chris), coming out was relatively easy once she had made the decision to do so. It was the journey getting there that was the challenge."From an early age, I knew I was different," Kahrl told Outsports. "I knew that I wasn't like the other boys. I knew I wasn't like the other girls; I couldn't put my finger on it. I grew up feeling like an ‘odd duck.’ I didn't stress out about it. I didn't mind being different. I just knew that I was."
It wasn't until college that Kahrl began to make sense of her experience when she came across information about transgender issues while browsing the stacks in The University of Chicago Library.
"It was sort of a revelation, and something I could finally understand was a pretty well-understood phenomenon," Kahrl said. “This was in 1990, the year that I graduated. I worked on campus subsequent to my graduation and spent considerable time reading about transgender issues from there, but I really couldn't say that I knew what to do about it at the time; it was simultaneously reassuring and terrifying." . . .
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Tranny Travolta's all woman
JOHN Travolta really enjoyed dressing up and pretending to be a woman for his latest film role in Hairspray.
The devout Scientologist has made a return to musicals after almost 30 years, in the role of Edna Turnblad in the cult classic.
And Travolta fills the screen – literally.
"I wanted (Edna) to look like Sophia Loren if you added 200lb," says Travolta. "I wanted her to be a sexy bombshell who was fun to look at."
"The criteria for Edna was it had to be a woman, it could not be a man dressed up as a woman, and that meant big breasts, big ass, little waist and a full prosthetic where you really visually believed there was not a man in there," he told the Daily Mail.
The film's other stars include Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah and Christopher Walken (as Travolta's husband Wilbur Turnblad).
"I showed the screen test to other people and I didn't tell them it was me. I showed about 10 people and I said, 'Tell me what you think of this broad that they're thinking about playing one of the parts in 'Hairspray',' and I'd play them the DVD and they said, 'Woah, she's something.' About five minutes in, I'd say, 'You know, that's me'."
The role also gave Travolta the chance to learn to appreciate the daily struggle women face to look feminine.
"Being Edna was fun, but becoming Edna was not fun," he says. "I loved the effect the look had on people when they would see me on set as Edna, but I did not love the process involving the prosthetics and the fat suit. It was very hot.
"I knew from Robin (Williams, who starred in Mrs Doubtfire) and Martin Lawrence (from Big Momma's House) that it was hell on wheels! It was like wearing seven layers of very uncomfortable clothing and I remember thinking I would never want to be a woman if that was the case.
"I know my mother had a girdle, bra and sometimes a cinch, but, wow! How do they endure stockings and high heels? The discomfort level was astonishing, but losing the suit was like coming out of a prison. . . .
Transgender Italian Congressperson Plays Helena
OK, not exactly opera bu relevant nonetheless, and Opera Chic has a soft spot for the first transgender Congressperson in Italy's (and Europe's) history (the New Zealenders have already elected the first transgender member of Parliament EV4R111), the honorable Vladimir Luxuria (and, to be fair, with the exception of a shameful incident provoked by a center-right, Catholic colleague, Luxuria's tenure in Camera dei Deputati has been so far free of ugly incidents of discrimination, a credit to Italians and a testament to this very strangely Catholic nation, so easily outraged by smalltime stuff but also so basically tolerant at the same time).
Anyway the honorable Luxuria, a human rights activist and a former actress, after undergoing what seems to be a nice amount of plastic surgery (the old nose really HAD to go, girl) -- and pretty good surgery by Italian standards at that -- is now cranking up the awesome on stage, too, not just in politics.
Luxuria will appear tomorrow night at 930 PM in Trieste, at Teatro Romano, in a production of Euripides Helena, Giuseppe Rocca director and author of the translation into Italian.
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
A Chicago suburb's public library received a $3,000 grant enabling it to develop the country's first transgender resource collection. Oak Park Public Library will acquire materials aimed at educating and serving transgender people.The collection consists mainly of nonfiction materials and includes medical and legal information as well as coverage of social issues. With its own resources, Oak Park Public Library has augmented the collection with popular and lesser-known fiction titles as well as films. . . .
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. . . .
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