Like plenty of others, I’ll believe it when I see it, and will continue supporting The Task Force and NCTE over HRC, but this, if it turns out to be true, is a very.good.thing.
Gainesville Says No
Unofficial results from Gainesville are that the good citizens of the historic Florida town voted no to turning back the clock and getting rid of LGBTQ discrimination protections.
58% No on Amendment 1 (and 42% Yes) according to Mara Keisling of NCTE & Allyson Robinson of HRC.
Good news! Not only that, but the “keep crossdressed men out of bathrooms” schtick didn’t work. Go Equality Gainesville!
Go MA!
And in the meantime, Massachusetts proves itself the most civilized of all our states, for changing its law on what it takes to change your gender marker on your license:
The new policy requires a person who wishes to change the gender marker on their state issued identification to submit an updated application together with a Gender Designation Change Form, signed by him or her and a medical provider attesting to the gender that the individual considers himself or herself to be. The policy no longer requires a person to submit medical proof of sex reassignment surgery or an amended birth certificate.
Leading me to conclude that the best place to live as a quasi same sex couple when one of you is trans is Massachusetts.
Local Issue
Within a few weeks of me arriving in Appleton, a transgender person named Sierra Broussard filed a lawsuit against a local club for not allowing her in. They checked her ID which still has an M & didn’t let her in. The Post Crescent, the local paper, covered the story.
There were so many comments left on that story that they wrote another story about the lawsuit for Sunday’s paper. The reporter asked for people who were willing to be interviewed, and me and Lynne volunteered.
I wanted to thank Cheryl Anderson, the journalist on the story, for getting across what I had to say. Sadly, however, she called Betty “he.” Unfortunately for Betty, there is enough evidence for me using “he” – from when she had a multi-gendered identity – that I can understand how that happens, even if I said “she” and “partner” throughout the interview. Of course if she met Betty that “he” would never seem appropriate.
I don’t know Ms. Broussard personally, but I do know that the whole “it” thing is unacceptable (as Lynne says in the interview) and that a person who lives as female 24/7 should use the ladies’ room. The legal hocus pocus is what people don’t necessarily understand: that a penis is not really a penis once it’s been on estrogen for even a few months; that genital surgery is not covered by health insurance *and* that it’s very expensive, and to plenty of people it’s just unnecessary surgery – and who wants to have surgery that they don’t have to have? That’s what I meant by education & tolerance; that maybe the average Joe doesn’t know all that’s involved, and that if they knew more, they might not be so quick to criticize the decision not to have genital surgery.
The problem is the legal requirement for genital surgery to change a gender marker on an ID. We have to come up with another way for trans people to change that, because surgery is a ridiculous requirement.
Thanks, NYC
I’m very proud of my hometown for being kick-ass in an emergency, as always. I’ve lived through more than one in NYC – 9/11, the blackout – but those shoes of those people lined up on the plane’s wings in the Hudson – which had to be downright frigid yesterday – is remarkable. They didn’t have a lot of time with the water at 32 degrees and the air at 20; hypothermia would have happened pretty damn fast.
Go ferry operators, coast guard, the NYPD & the FDNY, as usual. The crew of USAir rocked especially.
& I also think it rocks that Mayor Bloomberg gives the news in his stilted Spanish.
& No, this does not inspire confidence in me to fly. I still hate flying.
1st Trans Officer of State Dems
From National Stonewall Democrats:
Washington, DC – Today, the Stonewall Democrats congratulated Laura Calvo upon her election as Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Oregon. Calvo, a seasoned Democratic operative, becomes the first openly-transgender officer of a state Democratic party. A member of the Board of Directors for National Stonewall Democrats, Calvo also serves as Chair of the Oregon Stonewall Democrats and as Treasurer of the Multnomah County Democrats. Multnomah County, which includes the city of Portland, is the largest county in the state of Oregon.
Jose O. Sucuzhanay
I mentioned, in She’s Not the Man I Married, that someone may not be gendered in American way when I wrote about looking around at people on the subway. Tonight I read, in the NYT, that a young Ecuadorean man and his brother were walking home from a night out at a bar with their arms around each other. A group of thugs pulled up in an SUV, yelled slurs about them being Hispanic and about them being gay, and only left when one of the brothers said he would call the cops on his cellphone. The other brother – Jose O. Sucuzhanay – died on Friday night in the hospital.
As GenderPAC regularly points out, anti-gay violence isn’t just a problem for gay people. Anyone who is presumed to be gay, for whatever reason, can be a target. And in this case, the brothers showed affection in ways that aren’t common here in the US – even if that kind of affection is very common between men in other counties – it caused these bigots to assume they were gay men.
That’s about gender: what kinds of affection are appropriate between men, which aren’t.
I’m just so sickened and sad reading about this. For this year and for many years to come, this family will remember this violent, senseless death and this loss right before Christmas.
(h/t to kiri for posting this story in our forums)
Out With the Old, In With the New
While the current US administration is lollygagging in signing a UN statement that encourages non-discrimination against LGBT people, the incoming president has just named lesbian Nancy Sutley to his administration.
I’m thinking we should just wait until January 21st to get the UN document signed, so we can quit wasting everyone’s time.
Tuskegee
Sometimes I’m not sure I care about everything that’s going on in this country when I see reports like this one.
(h/t to Sarahgoat)
Sit-in Stand-up Guy
Is this beautiful or what?
At a news conference Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said the company should follow through on its commitments to its workers, The Associated Press reported.
The NYT article is here, about a sit-in by factory workers at an auto industry-related factory in Chicago, but do you really need to know more? WE HAVE A PRO LABOR PRESIDENT!
(h/t to Betty)