(Source: manderz88, via weddingequality)
Asexy Trans Folks: A Discussion About the Intersection of Trans and Asexual Identities -
What a pleasant surprise to find this workshop in the lineup for the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.
It’s free, and it’s coming up soon. You should all register now and attend! (And don’t forget to stop by my workshop, Non Binary Transition).
(via transqueery)
“I owe the gay community an apology.” — Dr. Robert Spitzer, the author of a 2003 study claiming gays could be “cured” through reparative therapy. Now nearly 80 years old, Dr. Spitzer has acknowledged that reparative therapy actually harms more than it helps. More. (via officielhomme)
(Source: gaywrites, via fsgsa)
Transgender Playlist Courtesy of Bitch Magazine -
[TW: T-word]
In reaction to the recent coming out of Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, the always wonderful Bitch magazine has released a “Genderpocalyptic Playlist” of 11 transgender and gender non-conforming themed songs for you to enjoy:
- “Fagette” by Athens Boys Choir
- “In the End” by Justin Vivian Bond
- “Bluesman” by Novice Theory
- “TN Tranny Two-Step” by Actor Slash Model
- “A Guy Named Joe” by Coyote Grace
- “Got Monsters” by Mina Caputo
- “Third Gender” by Good Asian Drivers
- “Revolution” by All the Pretty Horses
- “I Ain’t Taking No Shit” by Big Freedia
- “Shark Attack” by Schmekel
- “She Walks Away” by Lipstick Conspiracy
(via transawareness)
Gender Expression Is Not Gender Identity -
From the Article:
One of the chief confusions about transsexuality and the decision we make to transition is how, from an outside perspective, with limited or superficial understanding, it can seem that the reason we transition is because we’ve determined ourselves to be female or male on the basis of our personalities fitting better into a female or male identity than into the gender that we’d been assigned, and that therefore we “ought” to be the sex that matches our personality.
That is not how it works, how we came to realize our gender identity, or why we transition.
From this basic misunderstanding a whole host of common confusions and misconceptions arise. This is what motivates people to say that we ought to simply learn to accept ourselves instead, or that if we lived in some kind of post-gender utopia without rigid binaries there would cease to be any need for transition, or that trans people are buying into or enforcing gender binaries and stereotypes, or that trans women are “appropriating” female stereotypes and trans men are simply experiencing “internalized misogyny”, or that we ought to learn to simply be happy with being feminine men or masculine women.
(via genderwarriors)
Brazil Senate committee OKs gay civil unions -
by The Associated Press
A measure allowing same-sex civil unions passed its first legislative step in Brazil’s Congress, where it has lingered for 16 years.
Click the link above to read the full article.
Colorado legislators kill civil unions bill -
In the closest the state has come to legalizing civil unions, a special session in Colorado’s legislature effectively killed a bill that would have granted the right to same-sex couples before it even reached the House floor:
A measure allowing same-sex civil unions that prompted Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to call a special session after Republicans killed it last week may be defeated again later today.
On the first day of the new session, Colorado Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty assigned the bill to the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, a panel dominated by conservative members.
McNulty “sent it to state affairs, unfortunately known as his ‘kill’ committee,” said Democrat House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino, the bill’s sponsor. “I’m going in knowing we don’t have a committed ‘yes’ vote.”
McNulty said the reason why he sent it to the kill committee was to “dispense with divisive issues as quickly as possible so we can get back to the business of creating jobs.” Additionally, GOP Rep. Don Coram said the reason why he voted against the bill (he has a gay son) was because, ”I’m concerned that the gay community is being used as a political pawn.”
So you’re voting against a bill granting rights to the gay community…for their own well-being? This kind of argument by the right that civil liberties for gay couples (or Obama’s support for marriage equality) is some kind of political ploy or diversion from the “real issues” is a political ploy in itself (not to mention completely trivializes LGBTQ rights) — and not one that will work come November.
WATCH: Activist Says Family Dinner Might Soften Antigay Leader's Attitude -
Jennifer Chrisler, head of the Family Equality Council, told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin today that antigay leader Tony Perkins might “open his heart” if he accepts her invitation to dinner with her family.
Chrisler extended the invitation after Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, discussed his opposition to same-sex marriage and denounced gay parents in an interview with Baldwin last week, and Baldwin challenged him to justify his views, asking him among other things if he had ever been to the home of a same-sex married couple.
Baldwin noted that Perkins, queried by CNN, told the network today that he and his wife “will be glad to respond when we receive the invitation to find a time that works.” Chrisler isn’t holding her breath, but she thinks spending time with her family, which includes her same-sex spouse and 10-year-old twin boys, would do Perkins some good. “I don’t think that I’ll change his mind, buy I do think that we might be able to open his heart a little bit,” she told Baldwin.
Click the link above to read the full article and watch the interview.
(Source: baffledking, via transawareness)
Letters to Judge in Ravi Case May Have Influenced Sentencing -
The judge in the Dharun Ravi case received more than 100 letters pleading for leniency in sentencing Ravi, convicted of bias intimidation and other charges after his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide.
Ravi was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail, plus a fine, probation, tolerance counseling, and community service, a sentence that prosecutors say they will appeal because they consider it too light. Clementi killed himself in 2010 by jumping off the George Washington Bridge between New York and New Jersey after learning that Ravi, his roommate at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, had used a Web cam to view Clementi in an intimate encounter with another man.
After Ravi was convicted in March of 15 criminal counts, Judge Glenn Berman began receiving letters, some from hate-crimes survivors, urging him to be lenient in sentencing the young man, the Associated Press reports. During the sentencing hearing, he displayed a folder of the letters and later quoted one of them, which called Clementi’s suicide the “pink elephant” in the room.
At least a third of the letters came as a result of a campaign organized by Ravi’s supporters. More than 30 of the letters contained a preprinted message along with space for personal comments, according to the AP. The campaign “had probably some influence,” said Sandeep Sharma, a friend of Ravi’s family who was involved in the effort. “I think the judge himself did not believe that this case belonged to the criminal court system to begin with.”
Now Available: Transgender Family Law Book by GLAD -
(Source: oqueerwc, via transawareness)
Ryan Scout_FTM: Manny Pacquiao -"I'm not against gay people." -
So yesterday I posted a petition started by the Courage Campaign in response to a quote from world-famous boxer Manny Pacquiao which basically came down to saying gay people should be killed.
Today, after 25,000 people signed the petition in less than 24 hours, I received a message from the…
WATCH: Florida School in Antigay Bullying Investigation -
Zephyrhills High School in Florida, which saw a student try to take his own life because of antigay bullying a year ago, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.
The department’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating based on a complaint by the mother of Zachery Gray that he and other students “have been subjected to harassment based on gender stereotypes,” Tampa Bay–area TV station
There seems to be more and more people posting pictures of transgender people who “pass.” But to me this doesn’t seem to help. It’s almost like “see, we conform to your gender standards too, so can we be equal now?” Gender is a spectrum and we shouldn’t be teaching people that we can conform, we should be teaching people not to judge based off of what they see.
Yes.
(via loversintransition)
Newark Man Acquitted in Murder of Transgender Model -
A New Jersey man was acquitted Friday of the 2010 murder of transgender lingerie model Victoria Carmen White.
A jury in Essex County, N.J., found Alrashim Chambers, 25, of Newark, not guilty of murder, bias intimidation, and two weapons charges, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger newspaper reports. Chambers, who took the stand in his own defense, denied having anything to do with the killing and painted another man, Marquise Foster, who took a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Chambers, as the perpetrator.
Click the link above to read the full article.