Category: politics & causes

politics, both trans & otherwise

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Five Questions With… Gwen Smith

gwen smithGwen Smith, Transmissions columnist and originator of the Remembering Our Dead project, answers five questions. Thanks, Gwen, for being willing.
1) Since you’re famous for having created the TG Day of Remembrance, what do you think is the best thing to come out of this holiday?
When I began the Remembering Our Dead Project, out of which the Transgender Day of Remembrance was born, I did it with the full knowledge that I was but one voice crying out in what seemed to be a wilderness.
I’ve long been pleasantly surprised to have been proven wrong about that, and to see the event has become as big as it has. Last year there were 212 events that I know of. There was an event in the small town I live in, that I had no direct hand in: it sprung up on its own. I simply never expected it to grow like it has.
As such, I’d have to say that the best thing to come out of this is a moment where we are all together, showing our strength, and that our community can truly be as one.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Gwen Smith”

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Our Old Friend Mike Bailey

Well, he’s done it again. Like a child you’ve told to quit putting beans up his nose, we’re once again in the emergency room, this time having a fava bean extracted.
Professor J. Michael Bailey, infamous for The Man Who Would Be Queen, finding no fault with parents who’d abort a gay foetus, and sleeping with his clients/research subjects, is in the pages of The New York Times with a study on bisexuality, where he concludes – big shocker! – that bisexuality is suspect. That is, that bisexual men, specifically, are either really straight or gay.
It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Blanchard & Bailey have made names for themselves with stating that TSs who aren’t autogynephilic really are, or might be, and that crossdressers really are turned on by crossdressing, even when they say they aren’t. And all this, thanks to a fabulous little device called a plethysmograph.
I’m not the only one who is fed up with this guy getting funding and coverage. It’s not just the trans community he’s misrepresenting anymore. It never was, really, considering he has audiences listen to recordings of men speaking and asks them to guess which speakers are gay, and that his whole judgement of transwomen was based on how attractive they are to him is pure, unadulterated sexism. He didn’t have much nice to say about crossdressers, either.
Anyway, I’ve written a Letter to the Editor of the NYT, as has our own newish board member Megan Pickett, and I’d encourage more of you to do the same. You can send emails to letters@nytimes.com, but remember two things: 1) less than 150 words, 2) include your full name, address, and phone #.
Much thanks to Donna for several important links, and to the rest of the MHB Board Members who added useful insights and much-needed facts.

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Independence Daze

Yesterday I got an email from a CD up north who had this to say:

I wondered today if you are aware that yesterday (June 28/05) the Canadian federal parliament passed an amendment to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms allowing for same sex marriage rights across the country? The vote was 158 yes to 133 no with several members from each side of the house voting against their party position.
Marriage is a provincial jurisdiction in Canada and 6 out of the 10 provinces had already legalized same sex marriage in the past 2 years anyway as a result of losing supreme court challenges based on constitutional rights arguments. This newly passed bill amends the Canadian Charter to reflect that and redefines the definition of marriage to include more than just the union of one man and one woman. This makes Canada the 3rd country in the world to have legalized same sex marriage laws. The issue is still out on protecting religious rights as certain churches are against same sex marriage and of course will refuse to preform them regardless. I never saw that as an issue myself since churches could always refuse to marry anyone they wanted based on their religious views. The new law doesn’t attempt to change that from what I can see. You never did have to be married in a church for it to be considered legal so this law is not forcing any church to marry anyone it chooses not to because of its religious beliefs. I just gives people the right to legally marry and enjoy the rights that entails. This argument was still a major one many anti-gay people used to try and oppose the passing of this new law.
Johanna,
A (married) CD in Vancouver, BC, Canada

and before I had time to put this up, and thank Canada for having the wisdom those of us below them don’t have, Spain went and legalized same-sex marriage as well.
It saddens me, that this weekend when we break out the flags and the hot dogs and the cold beer, that America hasn’t worked this one out yet – and not only hasn’t worked it out, but is steadily building a backlash against same-sex marriage, like in Ohio, where they’re now working on preventing GLBT folks from adopting children.
But it strikes me that this weekend, Canadians do really have an independence day to celebrate (today, July 1st) while GLBT Americans look longingly to the north.

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Roving Idiot

Rove, in a speech Wednesday evening to the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, said, “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.” Conservatives, he said, “saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.”

source: MSNBC news
Rove should resign. He is divisive, hateful, and offensive.

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Reader Privacy

Rep Bernie Saunders of Vermont is once again going to try to get the Freedom to Read Amendment passed. The Amendment would cut off funding for library and bookstore searches that came with the USA Patriot Act.
You should contact your House Representative and urge him or her to vote yes on the Freedom to Read Amendment. You can find your Rep by checking the House’s website.
For more information, check the boards, and these organizations.
American Library Assocation
American Booksellers Association
Association of American Publishers
PEN American Center.

www.readerprivacy.org for more information.

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Think-Tank

Tonight Betty and I did a presentation on trans/GLBT issues for an emerging lefty think-tank. It was formed just after the last presidential election, formed out of frustration, anger, and a sense of outrage – not just at who won, but at how the right had stolen words like “morality” (by which they really mean heteronormativity), “family” (again, only heteronormativite families need apply) and “family values” (when they meant, keep those freaks out of my neighborhood).
A lot of the conversation was just trans 101, which Betty and I rushed into and interrupted each other and circled around and back and forth. (The poor guy keeping notes gave up at some point, I think.) We got some of the basic points across, and of course the group got to meet Betty – not your average tranny, but who is?
One of the pertinent questions asked – and this is a smart group – was Where are the Surveys? Where’s the equivalent of the Kinsey Report on trans stuff? and, in a more tactical sense, How many are you, and how do we count you?
There weren’t any good answers for these good questions. Aside from Lynn Conway’s numbers on the prevalance of transsexualism, which doesn’t include crossdressers or drag kings or any of the rest of the gender-variant community, I don’t have any. How many of us are there? More importantly, how many of us are there who will stand up and be counted? What are our issues? Who will lead us? Who are our allies, and to what other (non-trans) causes can we lend our weight?
These are only some of the questions currently being discussed on the message boards, of which I’m very proud.
Come join the dialogue.