Troy's opinion and discussion of body dysphoria and issues with his own body and how being trans has influenced his body dysphoria.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
MTM6 -- Body Dysphoria and Body Image
Troy's opinion and discussion of body dysphoria and issues with his own body and how being trans has influenced his body dysphoria.
Hate crimes, ENDA seen as top legislative priorities
Activists hopeful that Democrats will push gay bills
By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade | December 2, 2008
Officials with the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are hopeful that Barack Obama’s administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will help orchestrate the passage next year of two gay rights bills that enjoy widespread support.
The Matthew Shepard Act, which would authorize federal authorities to prosecute anti-gay hate crimes, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, are considered high priorities among gay-supportive lawmakers, officials with the two groups said.
“For the first time ever, we will have a president who has been a co-sponsor of both of these bills,” said David Stacy, HRC’s senior public policy advocate.
President-elect Obama sponsored the two bills during his tenure as a U.S. senator from Illinois.
During his campaign for president, Obama expressed support for nearly all other gay rights legislation pending in Congress, including bills that would provide domestic partnership benefits to federal employees, repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Other pending bills would provide U.S. immigration rights to foreign nationals who are domestic partners of American citizens; provide a tax exemption for employee health insurance benefits for domestic partners, similar to the tax exemption on health benefits given to employees’ married spouses; and grant access to Medicaid coverage for people with HIV who don’t have AIDS.
“We are trying to assess the best legislative strategy for moving these bills,” Stacy said. “But the key people who will be overseeing this in the administration are not in place yet,” which has prevented gay advocacy groups from finalizing their plans. . . .Read More
By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade | December 2, 2008
Officials with the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are hopeful that Barack Obama’s administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will help orchestrate the passage next year of two gay rights bills that enjoy widespread support.
The Matthew Shepard Act, which would authorize federal authorities to prosecute anti-gay hate crimes, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, are considered high priorities among gay-supportive lawmakers, officials with the two groups said.
“For the first time ever, we will have a president who has been a co-sponsor of both of these bills,” said David Stacy, HRC’s senior public policy advocate.
President-elect Obama sponsored the two bills during his tenure as a U.S. senator from Illinois.
During his campaign for president, Obama expressed support for nearly all other gay rights legislation pending in Congress, including bills that would provide domestic partnership benefits to federal employees, repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Other pending bills would provide U.S. immigration rights to foreign nationals who are domestic partners of American citizens; provide a tax exemption for employee health insurance benefits for domestic partners, similar to the tax exemption on health benefits given to employees’ married spouses; and grant access to Medicaid coverage for people with HIV who don’t have AIDS.
“We are trying to assess the best legislative strategy for moving these bills,” Stacy said. “But the key people who will be overseeing this in the administration are not in place yet,” which has prevented gay advocacy groups from finalizing their plans. . . .Read More
Poll: Majorities of U.S. adults favor legal protections for gay and transgender Americans
Steve Rothaus
December 3, 2008
GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has released a Harris poll that shows most Americans favor marriage or civil unions/domestic partnerships for gay couples, allowing gays to serve in the military and adopt children.
December 3, 2008
GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has released a Harris poll that shows most Americans favor marriage or civil unions/domestic partnerships for gay couples, allowing gays to serve in the military and adopt children.
Pulse of Equality Survey, Conducted by Harris Interactive, Reports that 75% Favor Either Marriage or Civil Unions/Domestic Partnerships for Gay and Lesbian Couples
New York, December 3, 2008 – A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive in the wake of the passage of and protests against California's Proposition 8 reveals that majorities of Americans favor a broad range of policies and legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
The Pulse of Equality survey, commissioned by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), shows that majorities of Americans favor either marriage or civil unions/domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples, as well as gay- and transgender-inclusive hate-crimes laws and non-discrimination laws, and allowing openly gay service members to serve in the armed forces, while a majority opposes laws that would ban adoption by qualified gay and lesbian couples. . . .Read More
Monday, December 01, 2008
me before I transitioned
I made this video nine years ago at the high school I was teaching at, Hononegah High School in Rockton Illinois. I left mid year so I wanted to say good bye somehow to everyone. Obviously I was the art teacher. I am posting this because I am now a transgender or transsexual female. I am still teaching art.
I transitioned 2 years ago- I left in June as Michael and came back to the same school in August as Michelle. I met this awesome Australian film producer, Rohan Spong, that is making a documentary about teachers that transition in American schools. He asked me to be in the film and we just finished up shooting over the summer. The film should be out by the end of the year.
In this video I paint a landscape on a piece of plexus-glass with "angel" as the background music. I had just come from the staff Christmas party and was very depressed as my wife and kids had already moved to Nevada ahead of me. It was about 12:30 at night and I made this with just 2 takes in the art room that I would never see again. The ironic part of this video is that we ended up moving to the bottom of Hope Valley on the back side of Lake Tahoe. The view from our house looked up the valley through two mountains just like this. It was our dream home. This was the last residence I shared with my wife and kids as my transition was too much for them to handle. The idea was, as I painted you would see less and less of me until I was gone. I was headed to the mountains so I just painted a simple and quick landscape. . . .Read More
HRC Praises Obama’s AG Nominee Eric Holder
Dec 1, 2008
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, today praised President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States.
The former deputy attorney general in the Clinton Administration proved himself to be a strong advocate for fairness and basic rights and an unswerving proponent of fully-inclusive federal hate crimes legislation.
"In Eric Holder, President-Elect Obama has chosen an attorney general who has demonstrated his dedication to civil rights, protecting communities from hate violence, and the fair and equal application of our laws," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
"Eric Holder has recognized the deleterious effect that hate and bias crimes have not just on victims, but on entire communities. President-Elect Obama’s appointment continues to prove his commitment to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community." . . .Read More
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The former deputy attorney general in the Clinton Administration proved himself to be a strong advocate for fairness and basic rights and an unswerving proponent of fully-inclusive federal hate crimes legislation.
"In Eric Holder, President-Elect Obama has chosen an attorney general who has demonstrated his dedication to civil rights, protecting communities from hate violence, and the fair and equal application of our laws," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
"Eric Holder has recognized the deleterious effect that hate and bias crimes have not just on victims, but on entire communities. President-Elect Obama’s appointment continues to prove his commitment to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community." . . .Read More
Dale Belino
November 30 2008
If I'm on a day shift in the hospital, I start work at 8am. For this, I usually get up at 5.30am. I get up early to make myself beautiful. I have to wash my hair and straighten it. I want to look great for my patients. I work in the orthopaedic surgical ward. The patients are sick and they can be down, so I want to build them up. When I don't fix myself up or have make-up on, they're surprised. They ask me if I am sick, and I tell them that it's just that I have been lazy that day. I have a coffee before I leave the apartment, and I have breakfast later on at work.
I used to shave in the mornings, because I used to be a man. I had stubble and all those problems, but then I went to a laser clinic in London and got rid of all my facial hair. I went through a transformation. At first I was gay, then I started dressing up in women's clothes and becoming effeminate. But I suppose I was always effeminate. I think it's an environmental thing. I'm the youngest in my family -- I have two older sisters. I wasn't allowed to try on their clothes, but I was always playing with their dolls. My father was out working all day, so there wasn't a strong male influence at home. I was with my sisters and my mother and I tended to imitate them when they were doing their hair and make-up. My family is into this whole Catholic thing, and they had all these expectations -- you have to do this, you have to do that -- but eventually I achieved my own expectations by transforming.
I let my hair grow long. I got my eye bags removed and I had my tits done at the same time. I think I'm addicted to surgery. I had my lips plumped with injections, and I've had implants into my bum and hips to make them look curvier. I also had two jobs done on my nose and got my chin fixed too. My pain threshold is very high. . . .Read More
Trans community demands justice!
Ryan Radclyffe-Brown, Canberra
3 December 2008The following article is based on a speech given at the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance in Canberra.
In 1995 a man named Brandon was assaulted in front of his girlfriend, and then later he was raped and murdered, along with his two housemates. The local police force did nothing. Men like Brandon didn’t deserve an investigation, or justice.
Brandon was a transman.
An activist organisation called Transsexual Menace flew 40 people out to Brandon’s home town in Nebraska. They held a candlelit vigil outside the police station and courthouse every night to draw attention to the injustices done to Brandon. They stayed until his killers were tried and found guilty of murder.
Transsexual Menace started holding vigils every time a transperson was murdered or killed by neglect. It demanded justice for our fallen brothers and sisters. As time went on, the number of deaths became too much for a volunteer organisation like Transsexual Menace to hold a separate vigil for each death. . . .Read More
Monday, November 24, 2008
17 m T 2 m p (update!)
"17 months on T (cant believe its been that long!) and 2 months post op!! Hope you guys and gals have a great Thanksgiving!!!"
A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity.
- 1: Brain. 2008 Nov 2. [Epub ahead of print]
A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity.
Garcia-Falgueras A, Swaab DF.
Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Netherlands and Departamento de Psicobiología de la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain.
Transsexuality is an individual's unshakable conviction of belonging to the opposite sex, resulting in a request for sex-reassignment surgery. We have shown previously that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc) is female in size and neuron number in male-to-female transsexual people. In the present study we investigated the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus, which is composed of two subnuclei, namely interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH) 3 and 4. Post-mortem brain material was used from 42 subjects: 14 control males, 11 control females, 11 male-to-female transsexual people, 1 female-to-male transsexual subject and 5 non-transsexual subjects who were castrated because of prostate cancer. . . .Read More
Silverton rebuffs protest of transgender mayor-elect
by Kimberly A.C. Wilson, The Oregonian
November 24, 2008
November 24, 2008
SILVERTON -- The counterprotesters outside City Hall in this Marion County town today significantly outnumbered the protesters who inspired them: three young women and a man from a Kansas church, here to register their disdain with the recent election of the nation's first openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen.
The quartet spread out along one side of North Water Street, feet planted on American flags spread on the sidewalk and hoisting large laminated posterboards on each arm. Double-sided and easy to read from passing vehicles and local television trucks positioned half a block away, the signs offered assorted damnation -- "Barack Obama = Antichrist," "God Hates You," "You're Going to Hell" and "Fag Media Shame."
Protest in Silverton
It wasn't the first time anti-gay evangelicals from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., had come to Oregon to protest. That was two years ago, when followers picketed the funeral of Navy Seal Marc Lee, killed on patrol in Iraq. Among other right-of-center beliefs, Westboro's Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers claim U.S. combat deaths are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. . . .Read More
Doraville won’t discriminate against transgender employees
by APRIL HUNT
November 20, 2008
November 20, 2008
Doraville has become the latest Georgia city to add transgender employees to its nondiscrimination policy.
The move means transgender workers — those whose biological and gender identity are not the same — cannot be fired or mistreated in the northern DeKalb County city. “We have never discriminated against anyone, and we never will,” said Mayor Ray Jenkins. “We want to stay ahead of the issue.”
The policy puts Doraville in rare company. Atlanta and Decatur are the only other cities in the state that protect transgender workers.
In fact, while the protections have become more common in private business, they are more unusual at the municipal level. That is why, to advocates, it’s symbolic for a former industrial city of just 10,000 to approve the policy.
The change comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit by Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, a transgender woman who said she was fired from her job at the Georgia General Assembly because of her decision to change her gender from male to female.
Jeff Graham, who heads Georgia Equality, consulted with city leaders when fashioning the policy.
“Businesses have understood it for years, but it’s important to see a city make the statement that, as a public entity, they will protect all of their citizens,” Graham said. . . .Read More
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Dr. Phil: Gender Confused Kids - Part 1/4
"Dr. Phil tackles the sensitive topic of children who identify more with the opposite sex. What do you do if your son wants to wear dresses and play with dolls? Or if your daughter tells you she wants to be a boy?
Melissa and Tim's son declared himself to be a girl when he was just 3 years old. Now he's 8, and they allow him to live life as a female. They want to know when and if they should start hormone therapy?" therazorsedge28
Tyra to Transform Transgender 'Top Model'
Banks Sets Up Transgender Contestant's Sex Reassignment Surgery
By SHEILA MARIKAR
Nov. 18, 2008
After making her a reality TV star, Trya Banks is making her a woman -- a real woman.
By SHEILA MARIKAR
Nov. 18, 2008
After making her a reality TV star, Trya Banks is making her a woman -- a real woman.
Banks announced Monday she found a doctor to pay for Isis King, the first transgender contestant on "America's Next Top Model," to undergo sex reassignment surgery. King, 22, was born male and went from a homeless shelter to cycle 11 of Banks' reality competition show after producers discovered her at a photo shoot. Now she's eager to be known for more than her gender.
"I look at it like, 'Yes, I'm the first transgender contestant, but OK, lets move past it now," King tells Banks in today's episode of "The Tyra Banks Show." "I try not to think about [being transgendered] because ... I feel like I really was born in the wrong body, and it's just the one thing that makes me feel uncomfortable.". . .Read More
The mayor-elect's new clothes: Silverton, Oregon, elects a transgender leader
After a major makeover, including breast surgery, the longtime public servant is still just Stu Rasmussen to residents of this small Willamette Valley town.
Reporting from Silverton, Ore. -- Stu Rasmussen promised a new administration if he was elected, and he's as good as his word: Silverton residents not only are getting a new mayor; they're also getting a new Stu.
Rasmussen, longtime manager of the local cinema, was also elected mayor in 1988 and 1990, and served four years -- but that was when he was wearing slacks and sport shirts to council meetings. The new Rasmussen -- who got breast implants a few years ago and began calling himself Carla Fong -- wears skirts, lipstick and high heels.
Rasmussen, longtime manager of the local cinema, was also elected mayor in 1988 and 1990, and served four years -- but that was when he was wearing slacks and sport shirts to council meetings. The new Rasmussen -- who got breast implants a few years ago and began calling himself Carla Fong -- wears skirts, lipstick and high heels.
The thing is, Rasmussen's been a fixture in this small former lumber mill town so long, people tend not to pay much attention to what he's wearing.
Earlier this month, Rasmussen became America's first openly transgender mayor. His constituents say they elected him not for his looks, but because he promised to put a halt to the rapid development that has threatened Silverton's small-town charm. . . .Read More
Earlier this month, Rasmussen became America's first openly transgender mayor. His constituents say they elected him not for his looks, but because he promised to put a halt to the rapid development that has threatened Silverton's small-town charm. . . .Read More
BECOMING, PART 3 Transgender Discrimination
Darren Perron - WCAX News
"I try to be cautious so not to put myself in a situation that is going to be dangerous or draw attention to myself," Michele Todd explains.
Michele wants to blend in with the crowd-- go unnoticed-- to avoid violence. She's transgender and always on alert.
"I'm not an evil person. But a lot of people would look at it that way," she explains.
So many trans people live in the shadows, hiding from a world that sees them as freaks.
"I have not met one trans person who didn't have that fear in the back of their minds at all times," psychologist Nancy Judd says.
Last year, 11 trans people in Vermont reported cases of hate or violence to Safe Space in Burlington, an organization providing services to victims. Officials say that number is highly underreported due to fear of retaliation and coming out. . . .Read More
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Transgender Day of Remembrance 2008
Tribute for the Transgender day of Remembrance, 2008
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the Remembering Our Dead web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hesters murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.
Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people. . . .Read More
unmeasuredinstances
HRC observes National Transgender Day of Remembrance
"On November 20th HRC observes the National Transgender Day of Remembrance as an opportunity for communities to come together and mark the passing of transgender people who have died because of hate." hrcmedia
Sweden removes transvestism and other 'sexual behaviours' from list of diseases
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • November 19, 2008
The National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden has decided to remove a range of 'sexual behaviours' from the official disease registry.
30 years ago the board removed homosexuality from list, which is primarily used to gather statistics on healthcare but is also viewed as an official list of diseases.
Some felt that the inclusion of transvestism, sadomasochism, fetishism, fetishistic transvestism, sexual preference disorders and gender identity disorder in young people led to social stigma.
"We don't want to contribute to certain sexual behaviours being thought of as diseases," Lars-Erik Holm, head of the national board, told Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
"These individuals' sexual preferences have nothing to do with society."
Maria Sundin from Sweden's Trans Oresund network said:
"The demand for the exclusion of certain diagnostic criterias such as transvestitism, sado-masochism and fetishism from the Swedish verison of ICD-10 (KSH97) has been supported by the GLBT community for quite a while.". . .Read More
Transgender community seeks end to violence, discrimination
Tara Sawyer was punished as a small child for acting like a girl so she tried to live as the boy she appeared to be at birth.
But four years ago, the 32-year-old admitted to herself what she knew instinctively as a toddler. Despite her male physical characteristics, Sawyer said, she isn't a man.
Coming out cost her family and friends, the Santa Cruz resident said. But after years of being detached from any emotion, she said she's regained her ability to feel and she can't go back.
"It's about being who I am. I'm just a woman. There's nothing I can do about that," said Sawyer, who will speak today at the Watsonville City Plaza during a candlelight vigil commemorating transgender people who have lost their lives to violence. . . .Read More
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