Category: LGBTQ

Posted on

Two Bits

Two bits of good news: Khadijah Farmer won the suit against Caliente Cab Company, & not just that:

Among the workplace practices that Caliente Cab agreed to adopt in the settlement was to add gender identity and expression to its corporate nondiscrimination policy; to adopt a gender-neutral dress code for its employees; and to amend its employee handbook to state “persons patronizing or employed at Caliente have the right to use the bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression.”

The second piece of good news – well we’re hoping it will end up being good news – is that California’s Supreme Court just lifted the Same Sex Marriage Ban. There are a few potential downsides – like gay marriage becoming a presidential election issue again – but for now I’ll leave you with Shannon Minter:

Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights said same-sex marriage advocates could not have hoped for a more favorable ruling by the Republican-dominated court. “It’s a total victory,” Minter said.

I just love that a trans person was the one who argued the case, and won.

Posted on

GID Group

For those who are astounded by the news that Blanchard has been appointed to the Work Group for Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, consider this: the chair of that group is Dr. Ken Zucker, who believes transgender kids can be cured with reparative therapy.

Read this story, from NPR, about the difference between therapists in how to treat children who are brought in with gender issues. And then consider that Zucker is in charge of the work group working on GID for DSM V.

If you are a psychologists or know any, please ask them to contact anyone they know at the APA to advise against Zucker as chair of this work group.

Posted on

How To Be an Ally

Over at Bilerico, “Guest blogger Rev. Ann Fontaine, of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, keeps the blogs Green Lent and what the tide brings in and writes for Episcopal Cafe. She is the author of Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible.”

Here’s her “Code for Allies”:

  • We listen to those with whom we work without judging the perspectives, experiences, and feelings of the members of the marginalized group, even when the words feel accusatory towards us. These perspectives, experiences and feelings reveal what we do not know about those with whom we seek to become allies.
  • We seek to learn from those with whom we ally in order to educate ourselves and others about the culture and concerns of those with whom we are allied. We examine our fears of “the other. We recognize the interconnectedness of “isms” and other examples of individual and societal prejudice.
  • We understand the commonalities and the differences among the various expressions of prejudice and isolation of groups.
  • We identify and work to change our prejudicial beliefs and actions as well as to change the beliefs and actions of others, both individual and institutional.
  • We build relationships with other discredited, marginalized, oppressed, non-privileged groups.
  • We work for the equalizing and responsible use of power and authority.
  • We advocate for policies and activities that support those affected by injustice.
  • We use appropriate language.
  • We confront inappropriate language.
  • We ask questions rather than assume we know the answer.
  • We take risks.
  • We appreciate the efforts by members of our ally group to point out our mistakes.
  • We combat the harassment, discrimination, and physical assault that marginalized groups experience in our society by speaking out, by our presence and by working to change the systems that continue oppression and give one group privilege over another.
  • We appreciate the risks taken by our allies for their own freedom.
  • We recognize that groups need to work on their own and with others – even when that means we may be left out of the discussion and work.
  • We support other allies.
  • We act as allies with no conditions attached.

Now that’s a plateful, but do go read the whole post.

(via Lena, via Bilerico)

Posted on

The Lesbian Hotel

Does anyone else ever see the Doubletree Hotels logo and think it looks like a lesbian symbol? I do. So much so that every time I pass one I think, “and there’s the lesbian hotel.”

It’s not, of course. Not as far as I know, anyway. But still, just one little cross-stroke, & it could be.

Posted on

PFLAG

There was a very recent kerfuffle about a local PFLAG chapter voting for Safe Schools legislation that was not gender identity inclusive. A few people emailed a few people from PFLAG National and they made sure that the local would not support gender identity exclusive language in the bill, and reassured me that PFLAG will only support legislation that is trans inclusive. National will be working with the local to write inclusive language for an upcoming Op-Ed.

PFLAG rocks.

For those of you who don’t know, they also have a special transgender division, called TNET.

(Thanks to Ethan St. Pierre and Diana for bringing my attention to it.)

Posted on

Race + LGBT

I heard Jasmyne Cannick speak at the Bodies of Knowledge conference at USC Upstate, and the focus of her talk was race and the LGBT community. She made a couple of important points about the failures of the white LGBT set in dealing with black LGBT people. I use “black” because she did; she mentioned that she dislikes the phrase “people of color” but didn’t explain why exactly.

One of her main issues was that minorities are often used to trump up “diversity” numbers for primarily white LGBT organizations but aren’t then given any real power to choose issues within those organizations. Gay marriage in particular was way down on her list of priorities, after things like universal healthcare, jobs, access to education, immigration, access to power/politicians, and other issues of poverty. Her point was that in LA, it’s the white LGBT who live in West Hollywood, but that black LGBT people tend to live in their neighborhoods of birth: Compton, East LA, etc., exactly because of the issues of dicrimination and access.

As she put it: “Just because someone doesn’t agree with you that gay marriage is the most important issue doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be at the table.” Continue reading “Race + LGBT”

Posted on

Whipping Girl

The Lambda Literary Foundation’s list of finalists for the 2007 Lammies is out, and She’s Not the Man I Married didn’t make the cut. And I’m okay with that; it can be a little tiring to see how even trans people don’t seem to care, often, about how loved ones see/relate/deal with transness, but I’m getting used to it. Besides, I got my props the first time around, when My Husband Betty made finalist.

That said, Whipping Girl didn’t make the cut and that is absolutely 100% wrong.  & I’ll tell you why.

Whipping Girl is, to date, the only book to address, theoretically, the uneasy relationship between trans people – specifically MTF transsexual women – and feminism, and that work was long overdue. It addresses sexuality, media representations, the historical pathologization of trans people by psychologists, the fetishization of tans women’s sexualities, the inherent misogyny of a feminist politics that mocks femininity, and then some.

It has been personally & politically important to me in confronting what remained of my own “natural attitude” toward my own gender, what Serano calls cissexism (and rightfully so) and proposes the concept of “subconsious sex” which did more to explain transsexualism to me than anything ever has — outside, maybe, of Betty’s “because” model.

It’s a real shame that this book was not recognized by the Lambda Literary Foundation. It will be considered a classic, revelatory and ground-breaking book in time; it’s just sad the Foundation’s judges don’t have the foresight to give it its due now.

Julia, personally: thank you. I always appreciate when anyone, with their words and logic and anger, can make me a little less of an asshole, and Whipping Girl did that in spades.