Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Reason #5: Vote for Obama because he was one of the earliest co-sponsors of the Matthew Shepard Act, which provides hate crimes protections for all LGBT people nationally.
& Here’s his closing argument, a speech Obama gave in Canton, Ohio, a few days ago. If you have been listening, it’s a good re-cap of his ideas and platforms, and if you haven’t, then this is it, in a nutshell.
Kate Bornstein is fired up, and wants our various transgender communities to start working together more, all because she’s dizzily happy about being acknowledged by the Obama campaign. Jillian Weiss is asking similar questions, but more along the “how in hell did this happen?” about the Trans for Obama campaign. I love that she calls me a Transgender Media Empire – that kills me, since I’m really just an underemployed author with a tech-savvy partner. Even on Monday, when I put a lot of energy into Trans for Obama, half the reason was that I had to take the GRE two days later and my best-loved furball was having surgery.
Still, this issue of “community” is one that always frustrates me. Community is about being willing; if you want in, come on in, and if you don’t, please go away. It’s as simple as that, imho: the HBS type are free to do whatever it is they do (and some are active in feminist issues, actually, instead of trans ones), and the homophobic crossdressers, of which there are some, can hang out together by themselves, and – well, you get the idea. I don’t really care, honestly: since my existence as a member of the trans community is always liminal to some people, because I’m a partner & not trans myself, I’m all for defining community by those who want to be there.
But Monica Roberts (in the comments section of Jillian Weiss’ Bilerico post) has brought up the issue of trans POC not being encouraged, or recognized, and I think she’s right that we need to do more. So I’m looking for a trans POC volunteer to take over my blog for a day, to at least raise some awareness.
The body of a transgendered person has been found in the American River in Sacramento, CA. No word yet on how the person died, but we’re bracing to hear the bad news. It’s never a good day when you realize that you’re hoping it’s because of suicide instead of a hate crime/murder.
22 years old, and Latina – which tells me it was a hate crime that put her in that river. Vaya con dios, whoever you are.
Found a useful bit of software for converting .m4a files (Apple’s bullshit) to the .mp3 format, and it’s called dB Power Amp, and it’s pretty easy to use. The only vital thing to know is that you need to install the codec you need – for the type file you want to transfer from – after you install the main program.
In my first round with iTunes, I didn’t know you had to tell it to rip from discs to .mp3; silly me, but I assumed they’d automatically rip to the most popular music file format. So I had a few thousand songs on my recently-deceased iPod still in .m4a format.
The good thing is that you can trade-in your iPod for a gift certificate toward your new player (or iPhone, or whatever) and I got me a Sansa Sandisk Fuze, 8 mg. I’m most pleased that it gives me (1) video (which my 4th gen iPod didn’t have); (2) a voice recorder (which makes it deductible!) and (3) the ability to delete songs from the mp3 player instead of having to do it through my computer’s software, like you have to do with iTunes, which always seemed incredibly stupid to me. (What was I supposed to do – keep a list of stuff I wanted to delete until I got home & made the time to do that? Silly.) After trade-in, and a J&R markdown, I got it for only $80. It’s also Consumer Reports “Best Buy” – which basically means it’ s the best bang for the buck.
So I’m pleased. The thing is so small it fits into that tiny little pocket on the front right bit of your jeans, which means it’ll be small enough for shirt pockets, too.
There are so many other places online, and I’ve been using a few of them. For starters, there’s my Facebook page, where I’ll keep whatever events I’m doing updated, and will send out invites so that you don’t have to find out for yourself.
Then there’s Twitter, which I mostly read & respond to, but don’t post as much myself.
Respond to the survey online at
https://online.survey.psu.edu/endtransdiscrim
WASHINGTON, DC September 11, 2008 — In the wake of one of the most violent years on record of assaults on transgender people, the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (The Task Force) have teamed up on a comprehensive national survey to collect data on discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodation, health care, education, family life and criminal justice.
To date, in 2008, several young gender non-conforming people of color have been murdered, including California junior high school student Lawrence King, who was shot in public during the school day. King’s murder, and the murders of Simmie Williams in South Carolina and Angie Zappata in Greeley, Colorado come in a year in which we are still working to include transgender provisions in a federal bill to protect lesbian, gay and bisexual workers from discrimination in employment.
Hate crimes against transgender people suggest multiple points of vulnerability, which can compound each other: discrimination in employment may lead to unstable housing situations which in turn can leave transgender people at the mercy of public programs and public officials who may not respond respectfully or appropriately to them. These stressors add burdens in a health care system that is often unprepared for transgender people’s needs. The list goes on. “We know that transgender people face discrimination on multiple fronts,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of NCTE. “This data will help us sort out the combination of forces that leave transgender people vulnerable to unemployment, homelessness, and violence.”
Jaime Grant, director of the Task Force Policy Institute noted, “There is so little concrete data on the needs and risks associated with the widespread discrimination we see in the lives of the transgender people we know. This data will help point the way to an appropriate policy agenda to ensure that transgender people have a fair chance to contribute their talents in the workplace, in our educational systems and in our communities.”
NCTE and the Task Force have partnered with Pennsylvania State University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education to collect and analyze the data. Applying rigorous academic standards to the investigation will strengthen any case made to legislators, policy makers, health care providers, and others whose decisions impact the lives of transgender people. A national team of experts in survey research and transgender issues developed the questionnaire, which can be completed on-line at https://online.survey.psu.edu/endtransdiscrim. Paper copies can also be downloaded from the NCTE and The Task Force websites soon.
Keisling notes: “This is an absolutely critical national effort. We urge all transgender and gender non-conforming people to take the survey to help guide us in making better laws and policies that will improve the quality of life for all transgender people. We need everyone’s voice in this, everyone’s participation.”
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DO is upcoming, and so I’ve been wondering: why do I so hate being naked in front of people?
I went to a workshop at a DO summer camp about getting in touch with your body, and you’re meant to sit there naked, and talk about stuff, like what you like about your body, what you hate, problems your body brings you, & pleasures.
& I did it, at long last, only after stripping down piece by piece. A little at a time. Iit was when Ii was at my thinnest (which means it was fall 2006), and now, 20 lbs heavier, I’m thinking I should try that workshop again.
Because there are always people at DO who are fatter, hairier, older; more scarred, more beautiful, thinner, more hairless, with better or worse skin than me. Even if I were judging, which is not my style, I’d still end up somewhere in the middle – not the best, not the worst.
& Then I feel like such a shallow idiot. Because there are people with all sorts of bodies out there – scarred, people who have lost limbs, people with chronic medical conditions, etc. – and really I have a pretty healthy body, all told.
So what is it?
What annoys me most is that plenty of people are not comfortable naked & they’re perfectly okay with being uncomfortable being naked. Others are happy naked and okay with that. Me, I’m not okay with not being okay. *sigh*
The next round of America’s Next Top Model will have a transgender candidate named Isis. I’m sure it will be a big mess, the way ANTM tends to be, with too many dramas & too much revelation about the candidates’ personal issues (issues that have nothing whatsoever to do with their ability to model).
BUT – compared to the recent footage of the recently cancelled Pretty Handsome (which was previously known as 4 oz.) – I’m sure it’ll be better, at least for the reason that the woman’s goal is not to transition on the show or anything like that. The focus will not be on her being trans, per se, but on her desire to be a model.
When transness becomes an aspect of someone’s identity – even an aspect that’s given way too much attention in light of the whole human being – they have a chance to come across as people, first.
edited to add: & I’m not going to dignify the comments made by a dickwad on Fox News about Isis by commenting or linking since it’s just the usual bullshit hateful transphobia you’d expect. GLAAD did demand an apology, but none was received.
The National Stonewall Democrats are doing a cool thing: trying to track transpeople’s donations to Barack Obama. The letter they sent out not along ago is reprinted below the break in full, but the basic idea is that, if you’re trans, & you want to donate to Obama’s campaign, you donate through their website, so that the donations can be “counted” as a bloc.
Excellent idea. Go do it.