Earlier I posted a Mother’s Day message from Jennifer Finney Boyan. Here we have a Father’s Day musing from transman Mitch Kellaway.
Mitch Kellaway: Father’s Day as a Transgender Man
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Monthly Archives: June 2013
Brynn Tannehill: The Canary in the Coal Mine
Brynn Tannehill takes a look at the recently-released Pew Research report on LGBT attitudes and acceptance, and brings forward four excellent points:
- Trangender acceptance is still abominably low.
- We are at risk of being “left behind” by the LGB community after said community gains same-sex marriage and workplace protections.
- If the trans community has to “go it alone” against the mass of hate groups and transphobes, fundamentalist Christians, an unsympathetic press and media, and eugenics proponents, then we will be in for a long fight.
- If most other groups were subjected to the same mistreatment and marginalization as transgender persons are, it would be a national crisis. And yet…
Embracing Transgender Equality, Inside and Outside Religious Communities
The transgender community has made huge strides in acceptance among less-popular and so-called “sidestream” religions and denominations. This article by Kayley Whalen discusses some advances, and focuses on progress, but also tells some sad stories:
One Catholic trans woman I befriended recently had devoted her life’s work ministering to prisoners and youth, and when she came out to her priests privately, they said they supported her transition. However, when she came out publicly, her parish stripped away all of her ministries, and she is now working to re-build them independently. A gay transgender man I met had spent decades as a devout Baptist, but when he came out as trans he was publicly shamed, humiliated and thrown out of the congregation his family was part of. He then joined another congregation who accepted him as a gay man, but once they found out he was transgender, he was again publicly shamed and rejected.
Huffington Post – Embracing Transgender Equality, Inside and Outside Religious Communities
Warren J. Blumenfeld: Revolution vs. Reform: Moving Beyond the Assimilationist ‘4 Ms’ of the LGB Movement
This is a lengthy but interesting essay on the 4 M’s of the LGB movement, and with a prominent note about how transgender people are being excluded from the LGB movement.
The 4 M’s are:
- Marriage Equality.
- Military Inclusion.
- Media Visibility.
- Making Money.
Jury Convicts Man in Killing of Transgender Rapper in Milwaukee
Some posthumous justice for 22-year-old Evon Young, a transgender rapper who also was known as Yung LT, killed in a gang-related killing with allegedly a hate crime motive.
Rev. David Weekley, One Of First Transgender Methodist Clergymen, Shares His Story
An interesting video about a transman Methodist clergyman, giving a perspective of religion and being trans.
Rev. David Weekley, One Of First Transgender Methodist Clergyman, Shares His Story.
Jennifer Finney Boylan: What Makes a Mother? Suffering
I know there are many followers of Ms. Boylan, so I thought this article from last month would be good to include (although it’s a little late here relative to Mother’s Day, but the only person who can fix that is Dr. Who, and he doesn’t read my site – yet)
Janet Mock Discusses Transgender Barriers On HuffPost Live
Janet Mock gives an interview which is not especially unique, but again, I know several of my friends love her, so I thought I should link to this.
Trans Film: Laurence Anyways
From the article:
Melvil Poupaud stars as the titular character; a transsexual man entering both his 30s and the 1990s (Dolan’s long-form scrawl – the film, running over 160 minutes, was the longest to play at Cannes last year – stretches from the last gasps of the 1980s towards the glimmer of a new millennium.) An early-in-the-film announcement to his girlfriend that he’s a “woman trapped in a man’s body” – and that he wants to begin dressing and externally behaving as this woman – goes over about as well as you’d expect.
Pride Week 2013: Transgender NYers Fight Discrimination In The Workplace
At least New York has a workplace anti-discrimination law for the benefit of transpeople. The abuses reported in the story come down to manager-level abuses. Bad, but at least the transpeople have a basis for protection, unlike in Kansas and Missouri.
Pride Week 2013: Transgender NYers Fight Discrimination In The Workplace – NY1.
Transgender Artist Arrested After Baring Breasts on Plane
Making the news in a bad way…two transgender artists were arrested on a WestJet flight from Edmonton, Canada, on June 20, while heading for a friend’s wedding. From here the story becomes complicated.
Virago added that Sanfino allegedly bared her breasts while Arsenault filmed her for an art project on the relationship between trans bodies and public spaces.
“They were trying to create a piece on the demystification of trans women’s bodies in a public space,” Virago told Xtra.
The Toronto Star, however, reports a different story. The Canadian newspaper writes, “the incident was provoked by questions from the flight attendant, which they deemed inappropriate.”
“She came over and said, ’You guys have to teach us how to do our makeup,’” Arsenault, 39, told the Star. “And then they were like, ’You know, because you used to be guys, right?’”
Sanfino then allegedly took her top off and “walked down the aisle with quite a bit of grace and flamboyance and had her arms out,” Arsenault continued. “And then the flight attendants came and covered her up, saying ’Think about the children!’”
Because God forbid children should ever see breasts…
Transgender Artist Arrested After Baring Breasts on Plane :: EDGE San Francisco.
Trans Women Battle Rising Rates of HIV Infections
Transgender women are 49 times more likely to have HIV compared to other populations. That makes them one of, if not the fastest, growing population of HIV-positive people in the country. Both facts are virtually unknown to the American public. The reason? Transgender women have been mostly left out of the HIV narrative.
To tackle this issue, we have the good works of the TGI Justice Project, a San Francisco-based advocacy organization that fights for the rights of transgender, intersex, and gender-variant people who are in prison or have served jail time.
Trans Women Battle Rising Rates of HIV Infections :: EDGE New York City.
Coy Mathis, Colorado Transgender First-grader, Wins Civil Rights Case
Finally, this psychodrama is over, despite the “oh, waily, waily, waily!” of “concerned parents.”
Coy Mathis, Colorado transgender first-grader, wins civil rights case – Longmont Times-Call.
NAACP boss: Voter ID laws put Transgendered Americans at Disadvantage
A couple of interesting quotes from the article.
A 2012 “news flash” at the George Soros-funded Think Progress claims that two out of every five transgender citizens do not have identification that matches their correct gender, due largely to state regulations. “Many of the policies require documented proof of gender reassignment surgery, which not all trans people choose to undergo,” Think Progress said.
Skepchick | 13 Myths and Misconceptions About Trans Women: Part One
A very good explanation of many of the facts and misconceptions about transwomen.
Skepchick | 13 Myths and Misconceptions About Trans Women: Part One.