This year’s celebrations and memorials in honor of Dr. King are likely to gloss over one important fact of his activism: his belief in peace.
This column by Nation writer John Nichols makes a good case in point.
Another column found on the Working Assets site focuses on the Dr. King lost in all our memorials.
And I’d like for all of us in the GLBTQ community to remember that the famous March On Washington was organized by one Bayard Rustin: Quaker, and Queer. The Gay and Lesbian Task Force celebrated Dr. King while also acknowledging what his friendship with Rustin means to us all.
But it’s his Letter from Birmingham Jail that is still the piece that invites us all to look at what social justice is, and what needs to be done to achieve it.
A peaceful day to all,
Helen
Please Donate
Betty & I are planning to do some great events this February and March, but I can’t afford to order my own books to sell! If you can donate, to help us do our outreach work, please do.
Thanks,
Helen
Upcoming Events
Betty and I will be doing a few interesting events this coming February and March that I’d love for people to join us at, and to say hi if they’re attending.
February 18th – 20th we’ll be in Phoenix, AZ, at the Glitz Ball. I’m doing one workshop, participating in another, and will also be the Banquet Speaker.
On Tuesday, February 22nd, I’ll be moderating a forum of crossdressers for Yale’s Trans-Week. It’ll be called “Part-Time Ladies.” The Yale Daily News did a nice piece about my presentation last year.
On the weekend following Trans-Week, February 25th – 27th, I’ll be presenting a workshop on trans-sexuality at the all-kink inclusive Dark Odyssey. Betty & I had a great time at this event last fall, and are excited about going again. This year, with the privacy afforded by hotel rooms, I’m hoping to see a lot more trans-couples attending. The remarkable Kate Bornstein will also be attending, and it will be wonderful to see her again.
The very next weekend, we’ll be going up to Burlington and the University of Vermont. David Houston, an anthropology professor, has asked me to speak to his class; they’re reading My Husband Betty as part of their “kinship and identity” coursework.
While I’m in Burlington, I’ll also be participating in the Translating Identity Conference on March 5th. I’ll be doing a workshop on trans sexuality, as well as teaming up with FTM partner Jill Barkley for a caucus on partners’ rights. I’m very much looking forward to meeting Leslie Feinberg, whose Stone Butch Blues is a seminal work (and which I recently recommended as part of my reading suggestions for Book Television in Canada).
MHB Goes to College!
Since the fall, I’ve discovered that MHB is being taught in a few college classes:
At the University of Vermont, it’s being taught as part of an Anthropology class, for the section of the class about “Kinship and Identity.”
At Columbia, it will be taught this semester as part of a “Feminist Texts 2” class.
At USC, Dr. Richard Docter is teaching it in his course on Transgender Issues.
If you hear of any others, I’d love to know!
Subordinate
Here’s some depressing news from The New York Times:
“A new study by psychology researchers at the University of Michigan, using college undergraduates, suggests that men going for long-term relationships would rather marry women in subordinate jobs than women who are supervisors.”
(The entire article can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/opinion/13dowd.html?oref=login&hp)
I doubt this is going to be big news to any women out there, but it’s kind of frightening that it’s actually supported by a survey.
The implications?
Men choose women who are subordinate to them for marriage.
If you look at it one way, the man with an IQ of 150 who makes $100k a year is most likely to marry a woman who has an IQ of less than 150 and earns less than $100k.
Which also means that a woman with an IQ of 150 who makes $100k a year is either going to end up single or marrying a man who has an IQ that is higher than her own and who makes more money – because the men in this study ARE CHOOSING TO MARRY WOMEN WHO ARE SUBORDINATE.
I’m sure plenty of powerful women are dating younger, less powerful hotties. But that’s not the point. The point is that when those hotties choose to get married, they’re going to marry a woman who is subordinate to them, too.
If this trend continues, every single one of my nieces is going to have two choices: to marry a man more powerful than her or to marry a man more powerful than her (or being single, or a lesbian, I suppose).
The study also indicates that it is also unlikely that the guy even pick someone who is an equal in these regards.
To me, it’s like playing any game or sport you’re good at. The guys in this survey are basically saying that they always want to play with someone they’re superior to. The intimation is that they are stacking the odds in their own favor.
One of the researchers, Dr. Stephanie Brown, is quoted as saying: “Men think that women with important jobs are more likely to cheat on them.”
Men are choosing subordinate partners because they are insecure around powerful women. They are concerned that strong, smart, salaried women might not be faithful. Imagine if women did that: no one would ever get married, both sides standing off to the sides waiting to be the more “dominant” partner.
This report is sickening & depressing to me. Deeply. Because I do have ten nieces, and I thought the world had changed a lot more since when I was a kid, but this survey – and the report about it – pretty much shows that girls are in the same shitty position they’ve always been in: either be okay with being subordinate and married, or be single. Or marry a tranny, I guess.
Since the study was done on undergraduates, I can only that eventually men do wise up – maybe once they’re dating more in their 20s and 30s, and maybe they come to appreciate having an equal, challenging partner.
Still in all, depressing news.
Meeting Miss Vera
As quite a surprise to both me and Betty, the always lovely (& eternally amused) Mariette Pathy Allen decided to bring a “friend” to the New Year’s Day performance of “The Trial.”
Mariette does not have average friends! She brought Miss Veronica Vera, the one and only.
Finally, after these many years, we got to meet Miss Vera. I wanted to thank her for the sex-positive work she’s done, aside from the tranny work she’d done with the “Finishing School for Boys Who Want To Be Girls,” of course. It was her first book that alerted me to the fact that some CDs do have erotic tastes for boys when en femme. I remember reading that, and comparing it to what various websites had to say on the subject, and realizing that Miss Vera had no reason to lie (while websites put up by CDs, well, might – especially if they knew their wives were reading them!)
So we met her: as curvaceous as she is smart, Miss Vera proved to be a lot of fun, just as you’d expect. We accidentally ran into each other on our way into/out of the Ladies’ Room, and compiled about a lifetime’s worth of sex stories into about 11 minutes’ chat. Then we rejoined everyone else; we did manage to take a few pictures, but only with Betty’s camera, & the quality is pretty sucky (though Betty has promised me photoshop’d versions forthwith.)
It turns out Miss Vera is also going to be delivering the Banquet Speech at this year’s First Event, so if you’re in the Boston area (or otherwise have the time and money) don’t miss it. She’s a powerhouse of an ally, indulgent of most sexual proclivities, and absolutely gorgeous.
< < A very blurry picture of Miss Veronica Vera and Mariette Pathy Allen (with us squeezed inbetween).
Illinois Anti-Discrimination Bill Close to Passing
HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES Passes Illinois Anti-Discrimination Bill
Only Remaining Step is Governor’s Signature
The bill that passed the Illinois Senate yesterday, easily passed through the House of Representatives and is on to the Governor’s desk. Sixty-five members of the House voted for the bill.
Upon the Governor’s signature, Illinois will become the fifth state with anti-discrimination protections for transgender people and the fifteenth protecting people based on sexual orientation.
Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on this bill which has been on the works in various forms for thrity years.
For more information on the bill and its passage in the Senate, see the Illinois Gender Advocates (IGA) website at www.genderadvocates.org/TakeAction/TakeAction.html or the Equality Illinois website at www.equalityillinois.org.
(thanks to the NCTE for the press release!)
Board Betty
As some of you may know, Betty was being considered for membership on the board of a nation trans organization.
Tonight, we met with NCTE Director Mara Keisling who confirmed that Betty will indeed be one of the NCTE’s Board Members. NCTE (National Center for Transgender Equality) “is a social justice organization dedicated to advancing the equality of transgender people through advocacy, collaboration and empowerment.” So says their website. We’ve met with Mara Keisling a few times and have been continually impressed by her dedication, political savvy, and her wit.
Please do go check out their website, read more about them, and if you can – make a donation! (Tell them Helen & Betty sent you, too!)
Last Performance
I wanted to take a moment to thank all of your who came to see Betty in The Trial – especially before that stunning New York Times review came out, which said:
This noir reading is at its most effective in a comically creepy scene when Joseph K. visits the garret of the court portraitist, Titorelli, played by a throaty, androgynous Jason C_____.
Androgynous, indeed. It turned out to be a very successful show, and a perfect start for a new theatre.
Thanks again to all who came, and we’ll let you know the next time Betty is onstage!
The Boards are Back Up
The Boards are back up, for your pleasure.
I have no idea what happened, but the good folks at our hosting company fixed it overnight.
Now, onto 20,000 posts!