Trans News/ Issues

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Nadeest

I found this very interesting: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_N...ss_DMV_Fiasco/

I, too, wish that they would make up their tiny little minds. How on earth can they arrest her for performing a female-specific crime, when they claim that she is a male?

Lol, for sure. Honestly, if there is any logic in the American legal system she should be able to win her case easily...but that not to say that there is any such logic when it comes to how legal systems deal with trans people.

Those laws forbidding women to go topless are ridiculous anyways, imo. They should just get rid of it. They do not protect women as the law claims it does, and neither are topless women "obscene" as such a law suggests they are.

Originally Posted by msW8ing

Why didn't the cab driver call 911?? Is the cab since he is the only witness giving a description of these animals to the police?? It said that this cab driver was one that she used regularly. Why wouldn't he have walked her to her door to make sure she was safe?? I personally would never allow a young lady to get out of my vehicle with 3 men standing there. I don't understand how some people can live with themselves.

Yeah, the cab driver's story is really fucked up, too, imo. I haven't seen much follow up on him online, unfortunately, other than police say they were going to re-interview him. That he didn't even call 911 when he heard her being attacked over the phone is pretty ridiculous. Not to mention that he only called her mother after some time had passed. Even if he hadn't waited around to make sure she was safe, he should have called the cops after hearing her being attacked.

[Sparkle]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1097476.html

Massachusetts will become the 16th state to treat transgender citizens as a protected class after legislature passed the Transgender Equal Rights Bill, which not only adds protections to the state's civil rights laws against employment, education, housing and credit discrimination, but also adds gender identity and expression to the state's hate crimes law.

http://www.masstpc.org/

Senate Passes Trans Rights Bill
November 16th, 2011

By a voice vote, the Massachusetts State Senate this morning passed the Transgender Equal Rights bill. Exactly when the Governor, a strong supporter of the bill, will sign it is not yet known. But transgender people across the Commonwealth – approximately 33,000 in number, according to the best available estimates – have cause for celebration today. And advocates can take pride in a broad coalition effort that brought about this significant victory. MTPC is grateful to all who helped make this happen, especially including those legislators who supported the bill’s passage.

[EnderD_503]

Danann Tyler, who was born male but now dresses as a little girl and has long hair, says she was bullied at school and felt hurt by other children telling her she was a boy. These stories of transgender children never cease to amaze me. See photos and watch the video of Danann here…

Follow us @MomsDirtySecret

The eight-year-old MTF (male to female) from Orange County, California, is the subject of a new feature length documentary about transgender people. In a special edition of the Anderson talk show, ‘Children &Teens Caught In The Wrong Bodies’ which is scheduled to air on Wednesday, she told journalist Anderson Cooper: ‘My school, people were telling me that I was a boy and it made me really sad.’

Danann’s parents, Sarah and Bill Tyler, who also appeared on the show, said they did not know what was wrong with their son when, from aged two, he insisted he was a girl. He never had any interest in the toys his elder brother Liam had loved. His sippy cup had to be pink. When a family friend playing dress up put him in a princess gown, he refused to take it off.

Sarah, a yoga instructor, wrote on her blog:

‘When I picked Dana up at Daycare, he was always with a group of girls, playing in the fabulous faux kitchen or with dolls, dressed in one of the many worn princess costumes that had been donated by parents from the past.’

He insisted on being bought, and wearing a pair of Target high heeled slippers -just like hers, she remembered. The family pediatrician dismissed it as a phase. But for her parents the child’s angst was heartbreaking.

Sarah said:

‘Aged about four she [Danann] said, ‘I don’t think God is so great because God made a mistake when he made me.’ Shortly after she talked about cutting off her penis and that concerned me a lot.’

By age six Danann was so unhappy she was threatening to hang herself. Doctors diagnosed the child as bipolar, dyslexic and ADHD and prescribed various medications. The Tylers consulted gay friends, who said that she was probably more than just a gay child.

Eventually the Tylers took the troubled child out of school, as she was getting bullied and was not getting the support she needed from teachers. Bill Tyler, a police officer, said:

‘They would say things like, ‘She has to stop bringing princess backpacks to school, lunch boxes. It’s confusing the kids, and it’s causing a distraction.’

When a therapist eventually showed them a DVD and told them that their child could have gender identity disorder, the Tylers were relieved. The diagnosis immediately rang true, they said, and despite her young age, the concerned parents made the controversial decision to let Danann live her life as if she were female.

Now, a year and a half on, they say it’s like parenting a new little girl. Danann said she is much happier now:

‘I am who I want to be, and that’s well, how I want it.’

The understanding parents say they want to tell their story for two reasons, to educate people and to support those who are dealing with a similar situation. The hardest part is dealing with other people’s reactions when they find out, the Tylers told Anderson. But parents should not feel personally responsible, according to Sarah.

It’s vital that transgender children are given the freedom to be themselves, Danann’s parents believe. Sarah has begun writing a blog about being a transgender parent.

The special episode saw Danann meet other transgender children for the first time. Jackie formerly Jack, Singer, and Tammy, formerly Tom Lobel.

http://mommysdirtylittlesecret.com/2...ing-as-a-girl/

There's also a short video of her at the bottom of the link.

I think this is so great how accepting her parents are. I wish the article was more consistent with pronouns, though. Media still has the annoying tendency of referring to trans people pre-"transition" as the pronouns they were assigned at birth. Especially when she even says in the interview that it hurts when people at school bully her and call her a boy. Notice how her parents use female pronouns no matter what age they refer to her, but yoga teacher and reporter use male pronouns. But overall good to see a more positive reception of trans children! I love that we are now seeing more and more cases of accepting parents.

[Linus]

*GASP* Happy employees are productive employees! Who'd thunk it?!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...ef=transgender

[DapperButch]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1125662.html

[Ebon]

Neil Patrick Harris Apologizes for 'Live!' Tranny-Wreck

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...96637320111202

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Ebon

Neil Patrick Harris Apologizes for 'Live!' Tranny-Wreck

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...96637320111202

Don't really care if he apologised or not, personally. If he and GLAAD think the only problem with what he said was his use of the word "tranny" then we've got a problem. The entire joke itself, even if he hadn't used the slur, would have been just as offensive without it.

[Nadeest]

Originally Posted by EnderD_503

Lol, for sure. Honestly, if there is any logic in the American legal system she should be able to win her case easily...but that not to say that there is any such logic when it comes to how legal systems deal with trans people.

Those laws forbidding women to go topless are ridiculous anyways, imo. They should just get rid of it. They do not protect women as the law claims it does, and neither are topless women "obscene" as such a law suggests they are.



Yeah, the cab driver's story is really fucked up, too, imo. I haven't seen much follow up on him online, unfortunately, other than police say they were going to re-interview him. That he didn't even call 911 when he heard her being attacked over the phone is pretty ridiculous. Not to mention that he only called her mother after some time had passed. Even if he hadn't waited around to make sure she was safe, he should have called the cops after hearing her being attacked.

Has anyone heard more about this transwoman's arrest, and what is happening to her now, and her lawsuits?

[Nadeest]

The above question is for woman mentioned in this link: http://news.advocate.com/post/128941...ess-dmv-fiasco

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Nadeest

Has anyone heard more about this transwoman's arrest, and what is happening to her now, and her lawsuits?

I haven't heard anything about her since November. Even a google search didn't really turn up anything about her since November, and haven't heard of any talk about her elsewhere.

[EnderD_503]

I also wanted to make a separate post to briefly come back to the previous discussion of Neil Patrick Harris and his comments. I'm sure by now people will be rolling their eyes, but his comments are really the tip of a greater iceberg. That people think his comments were limited to a certain character or certain people within the transgender spectrum is something that I still feel denies even general awareness of transphobia in the film industry, and how even representations that transpeople view as inaccurate continue to play off general public anxiety. In that sense, not only are the issues I mentioned before important, but also the cinematic tradition he was catering to...which is what leads to the greater issue of representation.

I ran across these links recently, thought of this thread and thought I'd come share them. They discuss the frequent use of transgender (or, as far as their contemporary terminology, "transvestite" or "transsexual") villains in horror films (or villains in general), including popular films like Psycho and Silence of the Lambs:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/film-quotations.html

http://www.glaad.org/2008/10/23/nega...-film-explored

http://www.horroryearbook.com/544026...-killer-movies

[weatherboi]

by STEPHEN IRA on JANUARY 23, 2012





http://www.originalplumbing.com/2012...either-please/



Trans brothers, dear dear dear men, whom I respect and look up to and adore, allow me to quote noted gender theorist Inigo Montoya:

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I’m writing this because there’s been tons of talk about this slur recently. Trans men, some of them high profile, using tr*nny, trans women calling them on it, trans men demanding that they have a right to say it, et cetera. So before I start the serious stuff, I want to say that I’m not who you should listen to. This is really a trans women’s issue. You should listen to trans women. But they are already talking, and from your reactions, it’s clear we need to talk about this. From one trans guy to a bunch of others.

I’m not mad, guys. Well, ok, I’m a little mad. But mostly I just want to help fix this. We’ve made some bad mistakes. I used to use this word too, and I own that. I fucked up. We fucked up. Now let’s work to make this better.

Tr*nny is a slur. I think we’ve all agreed on that. Diverse sources, from Julia Serano to Kelly Osbourne, all agree. But for whom is it a slur? We know what image is summoned when we hear n*gger–a Black body. When we hear fag–a queer male body. When we hear d*ke–a queer female body. These words evoke certain identities. There are clear images associated with them. Fags are effeminate. D*kes are too masculine to be proper women. What clear image is evoked by tr*nny?

You know as well as I do: it’s the image of a trans woman. A “male” body, or rather, a body doctors would assign as male, in women’s clothing. A person attempting–and always failing, in these images–to be female. That’s what the image has historically been, and with only a few tiny changes, that’s what the image is now.

Whenever I have this debate, I suggest people google “tr*nny.” I stand by that suggestion. Click over the image tab and you’ll see trans women and drag queens galore, a few car parts, and fabulously enough, a picture of Kate Bornstein with a photoshopped mermaid’s tail, but almost never a trans man. When you do see trans men online associated with the slur, they’re almost always calling themselves tr*nnies. They’re not having the word pinned on them by cis people. This distinction is excruciatingly important.

The fact that cis people don’t call trans men tr*nnies very often illuminates two important things about trans male experience: the degree to which are and have been invisible, and what a weird place we stand in as female-assigned men in a patriarchal world.

The invisibility is a big part of what’s scary about being a trans man. We’re so unspeakable that there isn’t even a common word used to degrade exclusively us. When we look into history for gender variant people, we see trans women, and we see this word used against them. We see few trans men, and just like those historical trans men are mostly invisible, so are the structures of oppression used to keep them down.

Reclaiming tr*nny feels like a way to have a history. But that word was never our history. It feels like a way to name and confront those invisible oppressive structures. But it doesn’t do that work, because while the structures that oppress trans women have many elements in common with the ones that oppress us, they’re not the exact same ones.

That’s because, like I said, trans men are in such a weird position in relation to patriarchy. To the patriarchal eye, we seem to following the sexist imperative that being a man is better than being a woman, which of course the patriarchy is all for. But we’re doing it by violating another central patriarchal imperative: that people with vaginas are women.

So we move through this sexist world in a peculiar manner–able to wield our male privilege when we’re allowed to function as men, but subject to a particularly painful brand of transphobic and homophobic sexism when we’re understood as women.

Sure, sometimes trans guys get called tr*nny. But let’s please be real: It’s not that often, and it’s a recent phenomenon. Maybe we’ll get to the point where it’s a common enough slur against trans men that we can start to have the reclamation conversation. But man, I hope we don’t. It’s depressing and comical, us wanting our very own slur.

Sure, you might have a trans woman friend who doesn’t mind you calling yourself a tr*nny. This is because women, like men, don’t always agree with one another!

Sure, you may be very attached to the word “tr*nny” as a part of your identity. You can identify as anything you want! But if it is absolutely imperative for you to use that word, and you using that word makes trans women feel unsafe around you, I’m not sure what to tell you. Maybe you should do some work within yourself, trying to discover why you have such an intense need to own a word that makes people feel unsafe. All of which is to say that, ultimately, your identity is your identity, but you don’t need to share all of it with everyone if it makes them feel unsafe.

Raise your hand if you’re a young white trans guy who went/goes to a liberal arts college and is reading this on his Macbook. (My hand is raised.) Please know that most people who get tr*nny used against them on a daily basis are poor trans women of color. Please try to remember that working to include poor trans women of color in our movement is like, one of the most important things we need to do right now.

Which is more important, working to make trans women feel comfortable and safe in our community, or using a word that makes us feel all tingly and transgressive?

Resist transmisogyny. You do not need someone else’s slur to connect with your own history. Stop using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.

Stephen Ira is a writer and an activist who was assigned West Coast and showbiz but identifies as East Coast and books. He writes poetry, fiction, and essay-shaped objects which have been published in Spot Literary Magazine, 365 Tomorrows, and can be found on his own blog, Super Mattachine.

[Nadeest]

I can tell you that I'm a transwoman and I don't like or want that term applied to me. I'd be upset, in fact, if someone called me that. Mind you, I'm not a transwoman of color, nor am I young. I am, however, poor (at the moment) and in late middle age. When I hear the word 'trannie' I tend to think of an automobile transmission. I hope like hell that I don't look like one of those!

[1ladyface]

Hi All,

A close friend of mine is blogging for

originalplumbing.com

as Inmate 12004. He's a transguy and is in jail for 3 months because he recently got his 3rd DUI. He's an alcoholic and is currently in recovery. He's writing to shed some light on the transmale incarceration experience and to open up a dialogue around the issue of substance abuse in the queer community.

I think of OP as a really supportive community but there have already been a couple comments from epic DBags who have made some unfounded and spectacularly inaccurate assumptions about him. Regardless, what Inmate 12004 needs right now is love and support, not d-baggery. Are you a transguy? Or an ally? Have you or a loved one struggled with substance abuse? Please take a minute to contribute something meaningful and kind to the discussion.

lots of love (sans d-baggery),

a somewhat saddened ladyface