Perhaps I give too much mental effort towards bemoaning the lack of civil rights for the transgender population. There is a far larger population, children, who have no option to get a job or save money for health care. They are at the mercy of the resources of their parent(s) and/or the state. I am referring to Bush's veto last week of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
How can I expect civil rights and health care in a nation that can't even manage to take care of the kids?
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Selling my spaces
I've read blogs where the authors agonize over whether or not to put ads up. I shall do no such thing. Someday I may have more than 3 readers. Stranger things have happened.
Yes
I am
another tranny trying to raise funds
I have what is considered excellent health insurance, but it's substandard for the transgendered. Don't be surprised if you see T-shirts for sale at some point.
Yes
I am
another tranny trying to raise funds
I have what is considered excellent health insurance, but it's substandard for the transgendered. Don't be surprised if you see T-shirts for sale at some point.
disgusted
So much has been going on I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg. There is just so much I can take in at once. Turns out, the thing about SCC I've been skimming over and not paying attention to is actually quite pertinent.
Less than a month ago HRC went to a major trans gathering in Atlanta making promises of keeping the T in ENDA. They also raised a lot of money there too.
The more I find out the more disgusted I am. It's no wonder that Donna Rose has resigned her position on the board of directors at HRC(minusT). http://www.donnarose.com/Community.htm
It's going to take more than empty promises to get us back.
Less than a month ago HRC went to a major trans gathering in Atlanta making promises of keeping the T in ENDA. They also raised a lot of money there too.
The more I find out the more disgusted I am. It's no wonder that Donna Rose has resigned her position on the board of directors at HRC(minusT). http://www.donnarose.com/Community.htm
It's going to take more than empty promises to get us back.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
ENDA this HRC
enda/genda what exactly is your agenda?
Yes I read the "back story" http://www.hrcbackstory.org/2007/10/in-our-previous.html
Yes I think it's rather lame.
Listen up.
HRC is missing the point.
Separating the trans from the homo
is cutting us off at the knees.
If the Human Rights Campaign is in fact working
for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights"
they must keep the "transgender" in there.
Like it or not the "T" has been around at the "front lines"
since way before the stonewall riots.
We will be around long after HRC crumbles into dust.
Whether one id's as trans aside:
it is how well one can or cannot conform
with the "norms" of gender presentation
that will bring out what most folks consider
homophobia from the phobes out there.
I cannot imagine separating these issues.
It's certainly not productive.
Our communities may be incredibly diverse
but they are also intertwined.
Does HRC only advocate equal rights for the gender conforming,
the straight acting and appearing?
How assimilationist of you HRC.
If a homosexual were to conform gender wise
in appearance, affect and dress...
then most folks wouldn't know you were a homosexual
until and if you told them so.
Clearly it is the cultural obsession with
binary gender mania slash transphobia
that is the root of it.
Leave the T behind and
not only are you counter to the goals
you profess to aim for
but you cut yourself off at the knees
you deny the reality of the history of the queer community
you deny the reality of the present
it is not equal rights you are fighting for
if the qualifier is one must look, act, and present like everyone else
Are you an advocacy group
or do you merely exist to assuage corporate guilt
and provide a healthy tax break.
Yes I am disappointed
Yes I am angry
Yes I shall send donations elsewhere
Yes I read the "back story" http://www.hrcbackstory.org/2007/10/in-our-previous.html
Yes I think it's rather lame.
Listen up.
HRC is missing the point.
Separating the trans from the homo
is cutting us off at the knees.
If the Human Rights Campaign is in fact working
for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights"
they must keep the "transgender" in there.
Like it or not the "T" has been around at the "front lines"
since way before the stonewall riots.
We will be around long after HRC crumbles into dust.
Whether one id's as trans aside:
it is how well one can or cannot conform
with the "norms" of gender presentation
that will bring out what most folks consider
homophobia from the phobes out there.
I cannot imagine separating these issues.
It's certainly not productive.
Our communities may be incredibly diverse
but they are also intertwined.
Does HRC only advocate equal rights for the gender conforming,
the straight acting and appearing?
How assimilationist of you HRC.
If a homosexual were to conform gender wise
in appearance, affect and dress...
then most folks wouldn't know you were a homosexual
until and if you told them so.
Clearly it is the cultural obsession with
binary gender mania slash transphobia
that is the root of it.
Leave the T behind and
not only are you counter to the goals
you profess to aim for
but you cut yourself off at the knees
you deny the reality of the history of the queer community
you deny the reality of the present
it is not equal rights you are fighting for
if the qualifier is one must look, act, and present like everyone else
Are you an advocacy group
or do you merely exist to assuage corporate guilt
and provide a healthy tax break.
Yes I am disappointed
Yes I am angry
Yes I shall send donations elsewhere
Sunday, September 23, 2007
No Civil Rights for Transsexuals
United States Federal Appeals Court has ruled that transsexuals have no civil rights.
African-Americans fought a long and hard for their civil rights. Litigation only took it so far, it took enormous grassroots action to get things going.
At what point will we finally just agree that ALL citizens get civil rights? Must we really spell it all out in the supreme court? Yes you Ma'am who were born male and transitioned to female, and you Sir born female, and you too who are intersexed having features both male and female... all of you get to have the same rights your parents and grandparents take for granted.
Meanwhile good ole' HRC (that's Human Rights Campaign) keeps transhealth on the back burner for fear of pissing off the insurance companies. If it WERE on the front burner major corporations wouldn't be able to get near the list of "cool" companies without providing full transhealth coverage... which, in my book means a whole lot more than transsexuals don't get denied coverage outright. Health care or lack thereof is another subject all to itself. The topic of the day is civil rights.
Does ANYONE ELSE out there remember this song? It's the same old song and same old sad sad song and sorrier dance my friends. All minorities get it at one point or another. The old don't ask for too much, just be grateful for what little you've got. That dish of slop has been handed around for way too long already. It doesn't taste any better cold.
Sam's written ruling said that a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling banninghttp://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/09/092107bus.htm
discrimination against people who do not meet the stereotype of their gender
- an effeminate man or a butch woman - does not apply to the transgendered.
African-Americans fought a long and hard for their civil rights. Litigation only took it so far, it took enormous grassroots action to get things going.
At what point will we finally just agree that ALL citizens get civil rights? Must we really spell it all out in the supreme court? Yes you Ma'am who were born male and transitioned to female, and you Sir born female, and you too who are intersexed having features both male and female... all of you get to have the same rights your parents and grandparents take for granted.
Meanwhile good ole' HRC (that's Human Rights Campaign) keeps transhealth on the back burner for fear of pissing off the insurance companies. If it WERE on the front burner major corporations wouldn't be able to get near the list of "cool" companies without providing full transhealth coverage... which, in my book means a whole lot more than transsexuals don't get denied coverage outright. Health care or lack thereof is another subject all to itself. The topic of the day is civil rights.
Does ANYONE ELSE out there remember this song? It's the same old song and same old sad sad song and sorrier dance my friends. All minorities get it at one point or another. The old don't ask for too much, just be grateful for what little you've got. That dish of slop has been handed around for way too long already. It doesn't taste any better cold.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Outside the Gender Box
Some say gender is a simple binary equation
XY chromosomes and a penis equals male
XX chromosomes and vagina equals female
Some say it's a continuum
female at one end male at the other
the space between all shades of pink to purple to blue?
My tendency is to resist the usual gender norms
I think of it more as a splatter
it's not a neat and tidy equation
it's nature it's messy
elegant splatter closeup
when properly in focus quite beautiful
God help you if you have two X's and a phallus
or a vagina and a Y
or any other of the myriad variations found in nature
God help you if your brain has been telling you all your life
that you are a boy if you weren't born with a penis
yes God may help you - your culture will not
Society as it is now has no room for anything different
if it is outside the neat little box of binary
then it's judged "unnatural"
'God doesn't make mistakes'
I know that I am definitely NOT a mistake
I have a place in this world
I am not a birth defect
I have been given the will and the strength to walk this path
regardless of society's disdain
I am not alone
I am not the first
and I certainly am not the last
so you may as well make room
in your brain and your world
for those who don't fit neatly into the box
because we're here
we always have been
we're not going away
XY chromosomes and a penis equals male
XX chromosomes and vagina equals female
Some say it's a continuum
female at one end male at the other
the space between all shades of pink to purple to blue?
My tendency is to resist the usual gender norms
I think of it more as a splatter
it's not a neat and tidy equation
it's nature it's messy
elegant splatter closeup
when properly in focus quite beautiful
God help you if you have two X's and a phallus
or a vagina and a Y
or any other of the myriad variations found in nature
God help you if your brain has been telling you all your life
that you are a boy if you weren't born with a penis
yes God may help you - your culture will not
Society as it is now has no room for anything different
if it is outside the neat little box of binary
then it's judged "unnatural"
'God doesn't make mistakes'
I know that I am definitely NOT a mistake
I have a place in this world
I am not a birth defect
I have been given the will and the strength to walk this path
regardless of society's disdain
I am not alone
I am not the first
and I certainly am not the last
so you may as well make room
in your brain and your world
for those who don't fit neatly into the box
because we're here
we always have been
we're not going away
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