"We are seeing the emergence of a new variation on an old, cissexist theme: 'No, it’s not a good time for you to transition. This is going to be so hard on us. Oh won’t you wait or reconsider this choice for us normal people?'. Their subtext is plain and unambiguous to nearly every trans person: '
Maybe you should never transition.'"
[more inside]
posted by cp311
on Jan 22, 2012 -
186 comments
Today, November 20, is the
Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to remember all the people who've been killed in the past year out of transphobia. As
before, the vast majority are poor trans women of color. Also as before, the
true numbers are almost certainly far higher than the reported numbers.
Ceremonies are being held around the world; see the website for details.
posted by jiawen
on Nov 20, 2011 -
82 comments
Amp Radio Calgary's controversial "Breast Summer Contest Ever", which provoked complaints to the Ad Standards Council and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, has
awarded its prize of $10,000 towards breast augmentation surgery to Avery Mitchell, a 23-year-old transgendered woman. Mitchell received 76% online votes in the contest, supported by notorious "boobies"-loving website
FARK.com.
posted by Zozo
on Jul 21, 2011 -
27 comments
Earlier this week, the Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives
asked Bradlee Dean to give the morning prayer.
[more inside]
posted by jiawen
on May 21, 2011 -
80 comments
This week, Rockstar Games released
L. A. Noire, a video game that's--perhaps not unusual for a Rockstar game--getting
stellar reviews. One review, and one reviewer in particular, though stands out. Carolyn Petit, a new member of the staff at
GameSpot, made her video game review
debut yesterday. Carolyn is
transgender.
Note: if you're not a GameSpot member, you'll have to do an age check on the video [more inside]
posted by PapaLobo
on May 17, 2011 -
117 comments
"I never was one to like to be intimidated. So I just take it off the table. If it's not on the table they can't use it."
Charlie, not a man for small gestures, took his secret off the table and put it on the front page of the Houston Post, whose October 7, 1988, edition carried the headline
"Transvestite Now Claims Probe Linked to Lifestyle" and a color photograph of McGuire in full drag.
[more inside]
posted by rtha
on Feb 7, 2011 -
24 comments
"
Casey Plett is a twenty-something dude who has dressed in women's clothes with gently increasing frequency over the last six years. He is taking estrogen and testosterone-suppressers, and will probably transition to being a woman in the next year or so. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we're going to put about a 90% probability on this one. Casey's genitalia is not the focus of Balls Out, but it does perennially show up uninvited and eat all the Nutella."
posted by jnaps
on Feb 4, 2011 -
33 comments
Growing Up Gay (
Part 1,
Part 2) is a two-part documentary series exploring the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people growing up in Ireland.
As recently as 1993, homosexuality was illegal in Ireland. As the first generation born after decriminalization comes of age, this series seeks to establish how much has changed in Irish society in the intervening years. For young people, whose lives revolve around school and the family, is it any easier to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender today than it was 17 years ago?
posted by minifigs
on Jan 14, 2011 -
27 comments
Do you use Boy Words or Girl Words? My point is that kids get it. That this world is changing and that kids GET it. There are kids being raised to simply ask about gender if they are uncertain. Have you ever heard a person refrain from using a pronoun for an entire conversation instead of asking? It’s one of the most awkward things ever. Kids aren’t OK with that nonsense. They just ask. Via.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero
on Dec 15, 2010 -
188 comments
Yesterday was the
Transgender Day of Remembrance. In the past year, at least 29 people have been killed out of transphobia. The vast majority were poor trans women of color. One was a baby, killed because the father perceived the child to not be masculine enough. It's almost certain that
the real numbers of dead are much, much higher.
posted by jiawen
on Nov 21, 2010 -
38 comments
Transgender Man Plays on Women's College Team. A guard for George Washington University's women's basketball team is a transgender man.
Kye Allums, who was born female and has not undergone any hormone treatments, changed his name from Kay-Kay to Kye within the last year and was relieved not to lose his scholarship. "When people refer to me as 'girl' or 'she,' it doesn't sit well with me," Allums said. "That feeling you get when someone pisses you off, that feeling you get when your stomach gets hot and it aches, that's what it feels like. And that's how I know I'm not supposed to be a girl." On Nov. 13, he will be the first transgender person to compete in Division One college basketball, according to
OutSports. Opposing fans used to taunt Allums about his masculine build, but it backfired. "I love it," he said. "It makes me feel better about myself to hear them call me a man."
posted by rcade
on Nov 2, 2010 -
187 comments
Oak Reed was a write-in candidate for homecoming king who won with a majority of the votes. The
school administration took away his crown, saying that since Oak is biologically female, he isn't eligible to win the title. Well, his classmates didn't
like that.
posted by domo
on Sep 30, 2010 -
86 comments
We are princesses in a land of machos. "They drink beer, they are part of local governement and they are symbol of good luck for their family: they are Muxes, homosexuals of the “pueblo oaxacaqueno de Juchitan”, more than 3000 homosexuals who enjoy respect and admiration in all the country... they walk proudly in the streets, dressed as women with huipiles and enaguas, typical dress of the Tehuantepec Isthmus." Photo essay by Nicola Okin Frioli.
More at Flickr.
[more inside]
posted by madamjujujive
on Sep 16, 2010 -
28 comments
A Series of Questions is an ongoing photo project that "
explores the power dynamics inherent in the questions asked of transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and gender-variant people."
posted by lullaby
on Aug 17, 2010 -
38 comments
"Melissa" (name changed for privacy) is a transwoman who was badly injured in a car accident and is in hospital in critical condition. While in treatment, some of the medical staff and her family decided that since she still had a "male" body, to make things "less confusing", they will
erase 4 years of her female identity by referring to her as a man and taking her off her hormone therapy. (Warning: possible triggers) As little light puts it:
And if she woke up as from a deep sleep, she’d wake up into a world where her best friend was dead, where her body had been forcibly edited back to its pre-transition state and given a few more years of the influence of testosterone to boot, where her memory and self were hazy and confusing and nobody was calling her by the right name and pronouns, they were in fact pretending four years of her life, the four years she finally got to be honest and true to herself, those had never happened, and shh, she’s just confused, shhhh, calm down, let’s work on fixing your memory some more.
[more inside]
posted by divabat
on Jan 13, 2010 -
147 comments
Transphobic feminism makes no sense, argues Laurie Penny For decades, the feminist movement has been split over the status of trans people, and of trans women in particular. High-profile feminists such as Germaine Greer, Jan Raymond and Julie Bindel have spoken out against what Greer terms “people who think they are women, have women’s names, and feminine clothes and lots of eyeshadow, who seem to us to be some kind of ghastly parody”. Some prominent radical feminists have publicly declared that trans women are misogynist, “mutilated men”.
posted by parmanparman
on Dec 21, 2009 -
322 comments
Part short story forum, part attempt to reach out to isolated teens struggling with their sexuality.
I'm from Driftwood; true stories by gay people all over.
posted by piratebowling
on Apr 1, 2009 -
19 comments
"In Loveland, Colorado -- population 61,000, 92 percent white and heavily evangelical Christian -- Michelle didn't know what to expect when she began to work with the school to facilitate her daughter's transition from a boy to a girl. At first, it was difficult. The school 'freaked out when I told them,' Michelle says. 'When we started with M.J.'s transition, I was envisioning riots.' And so Michelle became an advocate for transgender people -- those who identify as a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Michelle organized trainings for the faculty and staff and prepared 'cheat sheets' in case any of their students asked prying questions.
But on the first day of school, nothing happened." -
Trans in the Red States by Jeremy Bearer-Friend and Daniel Redman.
[via Obsidian Wings]
posted by Kattullus
on Nov 13, 2008 -
21 comments
The November
Atlantic on
transgender children: "Since he could speak, Brandon, now 8, has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one. His case, and a rising number of others like it, illuminates a heated scientific debate about the nature of gender—and raises troubling questions about whether the limits of child indulgence have stretched too far."
[more inside]
posted by dgaicun
on Oct 27, 2008 -
117 comments
In 1974 - or 1976, depending who you ask -
Armistead Maupin began writing "an extended love letter to a magical San Francisco” in the form of a serialized, fictional drama published originally in the Pacific Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, originally called
"The Serial" which then became collectively known as
Tales of The City.
It is a suprisingly beautiful, deep, emotional, cosmopolitan and
lasting tale about life in San Francisco in the turbulent, heady days of the 1970s and 1980s.
Widely credited with and cherished for helping spread a little of the openess, tolerance and acceptance that San Francisco is now famous for. It then became a series of books -
Tales of the City,
More Tales of the City,
Further Tales of the City,
Babycakes,
Significant Others,
Sure of You - and lastly, the spin-off tale of
Michael Tolliver Lives. Almost exactly twenty years after first publishing, it then became
an excellent miniseries from the United Kingdom's Channel 4, which
aired in the United States on PBS, but not without
protest or limitations.
[more inside]
posted by loquacious
on May 4, 2008 -
39 comments
The
Michigan Womyn’s Festival (“Michfest”) is an annual “womon-built” and run music festival. “Forty performances, a film festival, an artisan/craft show and a full roster of
workshops, parties and dances are all slated for one glorious week in August on 650 lush green acres in Michigan.” The festival is open to WBW (women born women) only.
[more inside]
posted by prefpara
on Mar 30, 2008 -
188 comments
Up for consideration is the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been written to provide a comprehensive Federal prohibition of employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Last week, Barney Frank
released a Statement saying that it is a mistake to continue seeking inclusion of "gender identity" as part of the Act. Or to put it in other words, there'd be protections for only the "GLB" part of the larger "
GLBT community".
[more inside]
posted by AccidentalHedonist
on Oct 5, 2007 -
149 comments
