Santorum is for the rights of LGBT Americans, so much so he’ll sign a statement attesting to the fact.
But, um, wait a second. He might need to re-think that one. Someone might not vote for him if he supports the queers. Checks with aides.
Um, right: constituents are not for the queers: Santorum takes it all back.
Dan Savage Strikes Again
An amazing op-ed by Dan Savage in yesterday’s NY Times.
“What the New York and Washington opinions share — besides a willful disregard for equal protection clauses in both state Constitutions — is a heartless lack of concern for the rights of the hundreds of thousands of children being raised by same-sex couples.”
I’ve been embarassed to be a resident of NY State since the ruling. We can do better.
When the Media Gets It Wrong
I was researching some issues tonight concerning journalism and the proper use of pronouns and discovered that the NLGJA (National Lesbian & Gay Journalists’ Association) have a Rapid Response Task Force whose job it is to target any form of media that’s getting a story wrong about LGBT people.
From their site:
NLGJA’s members and staff work daily with our colleagues in the news industry to fulfill the organization’s mission of fair and accurate coverage. Sometimes, though, a more targeted response is required to promote greater understanding about how to fairly and accurately cover the LGBT community.
NLGJA’s answer to this is the Rapid Response Task Force. This panel of working journalists from mainstream and LGBT media answers complaints about reporting seen as unfair and/or inaccurate by readers, viewers, listeners and our peer journalists around the country. Since its inception, the Rapid Response Task Force has not only informed countless newsrooms about appropriate terminology and the appearance of bias, but has also used these contacts to spread awareness about issues facing the LGBT community.
And they encourage you to submit stories that you feel included unfair or inaccurate coverage. So you can do something besides gripe on the message boards!
Three More Ways
Three more ways you can help the larger trans community, according to NCTE:
#26: Make a Restroom More Accessible to Trans People
&
#27: Collaborate with another group on a community project or social event.
&
#28: Work to pass an anti-discrimination policy at your workplace
Eventually there will be 52 suggestions, one per week, listed at the NCTE website.
Gay Marriage in NY – Not a No-Brainer, Apparently
Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Brooklyn Democrat, said, “This must be the way people felt when the Dred Scott decision came down.â€
and
Out gay Senator Tom Duane, also a Chelsea Democrat, was perhaps the angriest speaker of all. “I guess the best legal minds in our community cannot go up against a bunch of Neanderthals,†referring to the court majority.
and
West Side Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, said, “We must not vote to confirm any judge who does not support same-sex marriage,†a question that doesn’t seem to have been raised by anyone in the 12 years Republican Governor George Pataki has been packing the courts with right-wing judges.
(All courtesy of Gay City News, and thanks to Andrea for supplying the link.)
Happy Independence
“Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder.” – George Bernard Shaw
We forget sometimes that July 4th is the celebration of a revolution, I think. It would be nice if our current government occasionally remembered what the point was, but I fear our president shares more than a namesake with the English king we shook off.
Happy Independence Day!
(& Please don’t drink & drive.)
Ah, Long Island.
ABC news did a story not long ago about a Long Island real estate company that seems to be showing African-American folks where they’re “allowed” to live, and the reporter mentioned that Nassau County is the third most-segregated suburb in the country.
I used to amaze people from NYC that I went to high school with exactly one African-American, and that was in a class of 800. But as a woman they interviewed for the story said, “That’s Long Island. There are black towns and white towns. Everyone knows that.”
17-25 Things You Can Do
I’d been cross-posting NCTE’s 52 Things You Can Do For Transgender Equality, but the numbers started to get a little screwy & then I plumb forgot.
So, for the end of pride month, here’s #s 17 – 25!!
#17: March as a trans contingent in the Gay Pride Parade
#18: Educate a local homeless shelter about how to be trans inclusive
#19: Pass a non-discrimination ordinance in your community
#20: Visit the offices of your congressional representative and educate them about trans issues
#21: Start a local support or education group
#22: Volunteer with an LGBT Advocacy group
#23: Start a Speakers’ Bureau
#24: Break a Gender Rule
#25: Make a Restroom More Accessible to Trans People
You can see the whole list at NCTE’s site, of course.
Dear Mike
Dear Mike Papantonio,
Enough with the ‘Anne Coulter as transsexual’ crap, please. I work with transwomen all the time and believe me, the trans community doesn’t want her.
But the thing is, you’re sinking to her stupid levels by insulting her that way. Whether or not she’s masculine or feminine doesn’t matter; what matters is that she’s full of hate, opportunism, and idiocy.
There are some damned cool trans people in the world, and some damned cool masculine women, neither of whom wants to be insulted by being compared to or having anything in common with Anne Coulter.
Helen Boyd
author, My Husband Betty
Review: Leslie Feinberg's Drag King Dreams
Murdered Crossdressers, and Other Facts of Trans Life
review by Helen Boyd
June 3, 2006
Drag King Dreams
Caroll & Graf
by Leslie Feinberg
I’m not sure Leslie Feinberg has an actual fan club, but if there is one, I want in.
When I first read Stone Butch Blues, it blew my mind. A lesbian friend – since transitioned – made me read it. Made me, and for good reason: it’s like a sledgehammer of experience for anyone who has ever lived in the world as queer, or working class, and especially for anyone who has lived in the world as both. My friend knew it would speak to me, as it spoke to him.
Transgender Warriors was equally great, full of information, rage, inspiration. I remember practically pointing out passages to strangers on the subway when I was reading it.
But Drag King Dreams is like something from another world. Leslie Feinberg is not just remarkable as a person, and activist, but as a writer. Or as a radical, righteous soul. When I met hir at TIC (UVM’s trans conference), zie came up to thank me and Betty for what we were doing, and I could have been knocked over with a feather. I’m still astonished. Leslie Feinberg thanking me? For anything? Absurd. But now I know why. Leslie Feinberg was thinking about crossdressers, and zie was thining about crossdressers a lot, and in deep, empathetic ways.
Crossdressers: buy this book. You think I’m your friend? Leslie Feinberg is the mensch you want at your back, believe me.
The book starts with Max Rabinowitz (transman, drag king, genderqueer, bulldagger – it’s not really clear and doesn’t matter) talking to hir friend Vickie. In a moment of frustration, of ‘transer than thou’ anger, zie says something about how Vickie can take the clothes and the wig off and go back to being normal.
The next day Vickie is found brutally murdered.
And the rest of the book is Max’s meditation on friends, community, activism, family; it’s an insider’s view into being queer, being outside, being “other†while also being well-loved, deeply loving, and sorry. The book is Max’s apology to Vickie, for that moment of assumption and hierarchy that a crossdresser’s life is somehow “easier†than anyone else’s.
Throw in some amazing scenes about being ungendered online, a lovely exchange between a “tough as nails†femme and an “suit and tie bulldagger,†a remarkable speech by Vickie’s communist uncle; a chilling scene of an apartment break-in by mysterious and angry visitors, and one scene – an exchange of sweet, light coffee and flags – that was so touching, so genuine, and so intense that I could taste the coffee and jonesed for a smoke right along with Max.
The cast of characters is a veritable melting pot of transness and their empathizers: Estelle’s surviving wife being one. I’ve never seen myself in a novel before, and though I have no interest in living Estelle’s reality, some of her words rang out in ways that were profound to me. I cried a lot just thinking about her, who she is, who she is to me.
But it’s the delicacy that this book really thrives on: Feinberg doesn’t say “Max doesn’t feel solidarity with this asshole transman because he’s middle-class†but zie makes the point. Zie shows, not tells: the first lesson in fiction writing, and the one most writers get wrong.
Leslie Feinberg, THANK YOU.
You can find a discussion about Drag King Dreams, and Leslie Feinberg’s other books, Stone Butch Blues and Transgender Warriors, in our Reader’s Chair Forum. I’ve also got a list of books I recommend on gender/trans issues on my Recommended Reading page.