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DADT likely to be repealed in next defense bill. Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 04:41 pm
[info]mercurychaos
Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” will likely be included as part of next year’s Department of Defense authorization bill in both chambers of Congress, Congressman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday.

“Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill,” Frank said, insisting that this has been the strategy for overturning the policy all along. “'Don’t ask, don’t tell' was always going to be part of the military authorization.”

Frank said he has been in direct communication with the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and other congressional leaders about the strategy for ending the 1993 ban on gays serving openly in the military.

Full article )

Source: The Advocate (I know the article is confusingly titled, but I think they mean a repeal of DADT.)

for British citizens. Sep. 28th, 2009 @ 05:27 pm
[info]mercurychaos
Number10: Petition for a legally-recognized third gender option.

Sep. 23rd, 2009 @ 09:18 am
[info]mercurychaos
House ENDA hearing will take place today.

linked from ftm@LJ Sep. 18th, 2009 @ 02:33 pm
[info]mercurychaos
There is a bill which is of interest to trans people who were born in California that is being considered by Governor Schwarzenegger. It basically would allow people who were born in California to have their birth certificates reissued in the county they were born in to reflect their reassigned gender, even if they currently reside in another state. This would be immensely helpful to people who were born in California but moved to another state where changing the gender marker on your ID requires a new/amended birth certificate.

Contact the Governor at:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160

Transphobia from FOX news program. Aug. 4th, 2009 @ 06:00 pm
[info]mercurychaos
Queers United: Fox New Show "Red Eye" Bashes Pre-Op MtF Boxer

You can contact the program at redeye@foxnews.com and tell them that you don't think this is funny.

Australia: Transsexual takes to the footy field Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
[info]ftmichael
http://theage.com.au/national/transsexual-takes-to-the-footy-field-20090606-bz7v.html

Transsexual takes to the footy field
Jill Stark
June 7, 2009

Will, 25, who has been living as a man for two years, hopes to play competition football.
Will, 25, who has been living as a man for two years, hopes to play competition football. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

LIKE many young Victorian males, Will loves his footy. He dreams of joining the thousands of men who lace up their boots every weekend and play in amateur competitions. He's just like them in every way but one — he was born female.

When the 25-year-old takes to the field he will become Australia's first female-to-male transsexual to play competitive football in a men's team.
Read more... )
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

Swedish parents keep 2 year old's sex secret Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
[info]ftmichael
Sex, not gender. Pop will make Pop's gender known pretty clearly at some point, whether or not it aligns with Pop's sex. Either way, this reminds me strongly of Baby X - A Fabulous Child's Story, which I think is fantastic.


http://thelocal.se/20232/20090623/

Swedish parents keep 2-year-old's gender secret
Published: 23 Jun 09 16:24 CET

A couple of Swedish parents have stirred up debate in the country by refusing to reveal whether their two-and-a-half-year-old child is a boy or a girl.

Pop’s parents [see footnote], both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few – those who have changed the child’s diaper – nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information.

In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction.

“We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”
Read more... )
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

Local activists among 40 ’transgender heroes’ honored at Stonewall bar Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
[info]ftmichael
http://baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=92846

Local activists among 40 ’transgender heroes’ honored at Stonewall bar
by Ethan Jacobs
Bay Windows staff reporter
Thursday 25 June 2009

Gunner Scott, Nancy Nangeroni and Grace Sterling Stowell
Stonewall’s legacy: (from left) Gunner Scott, Nancy Nangeroni and Grace Sterling Stowell will be immortalized as ’Transgender Heroes’ at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. (Source: Marilyn Humphries)

Historians have long credited poor and working class drag queens, bull dykes and other transgender and gender-non-conforming people as key participants in the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, but within the wider LGBT community that defining moment is all-too-often remembered as a gay, rather than LGBT, milestone. The International Court System and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force hope to change that. On June 25, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the riots that marked the birth of the modern LGBT rights movement, the two organizations will hold a dedication ceremony at the fabled New York City bar to unveil a plaque featuring the names of 40 transgender heroes past and present.

The plaque will go on permanent display at the bar, and Bay State visitors will likely recognize a few familiar names on the list. Among the 40 heroes are Gunner Scott, director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC); Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of the Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth (BAGLY); longtime activist Nancy Nangeroni, former president of the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), former co-host of GenderTalk Radio and current host of GenderVision; and Cole Thaler, an MTPC founder who is now the transgender rights attorney for New York’s Lambda Legal.

"It will be permanent, so people going into the Stonewall Inn will be able to see this plaque and see the names of these, to me, true heroes of our community," said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, a longtime San Diego-based activist who presides over the International Court System as Empress Nicole the Great. The International Court System was founded in 1965, four years before Stonewall. Member courts in the United States, Canada and Mexico, including the Imperial Court of Massachusetts, hold events in which members don campy and outrageous costumes and adopt royal titles, all while raising money for LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations.
Read more... )
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

US: Chaz, 'Good luck, brother!' Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
[info]ftmichael
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/12/chastity.bono/index.html

Commentary: Chastity, 'Good luck, brother!'
By Jamison Green
Special to CNN

Jamison Green is an educator, adviser and advocate on transgender issues, and the author of "Becoming a Visible Man" (Vanderbilt University Press, 2004).

Welcome, Chaz!

Before the word "transsexual" had been coined in English, an intrepid young person whose family belonged to the British nobility set out to transform herself from female to male. He received a medical school education, obtained hormones -- relatively new substances that were poorly understood at the time -- and independently began living as a man in the early 1940s.

Eventually, he found a plastic surgeon to help him, and his physical changes were complete by 1949, but his family rejected him. The British tabloids hounded him. To escape publicity, he was forced to carve out a life for himself virtually alone. He became a Buddhist monk, and died in Tibet in 1962 at the age of 47.

His name was Michael Dillon, and he one of the Western world's first transsexual people, that is, someone who changes sex and/or gender by medical means. His extensive writings were suppressed and destroyed by his family -- only fragments survive.
Read more... )
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

US: Chaz Bono Gives Voice To An Often 'Invisible' Community Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
[info]ftmichael
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7827428&page=1

Chaz Bono Gives Voice To An Often 'Invisible' Community
Trans Activists Say Chaz Bono Could Be Rare Face for Transgender Issues
By LAUREN COX and RADHA CHITALE
ABC News Medical Unit
June 13, 2009

Transgender men fighting for legal protections say Thursday's announcement by Chastity Bono, child of Cher and the late Sonny Bono, that she will be transitioning from female to a male as Chaz Bono is a welcome break from an all too common "invisible" paradox.

For reasons that are part biology and part society, transgender men say in some ways they have an easier time being accepted and recognized as masculine than transgender women have being perceived as feminine.

Yet at the same time, there has been a virtual black hole in public awareness of female-to-male transgender people.
Read more... )
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

Call for Submissions – ‘Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation’ Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
[info]ftmichael
From [info]q_transphobia.

Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman are co-editing a new book, “Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation“, which aims to:

[...] collect and contextualize the work of this generation’s most forward-thinking trans/genderqueer voices—new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world’s most respected mainstream news sources.


Kate and Bear have issued a call for submissions from “non-normatively gendered/sexed voices” but add that they will “include all the good stuff we can, regardless of current identifiers of the author”.

The deadline is 01 September, and payment will be $50 and two copies of the book on publication by Seal Press later next year.

The full text of the call for submissions may be found over at Bear’s LJ – link here.
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

US, TN: Trans person shot in Memphis Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
[info]ftmichael
From [info]transgriot.

TransGriot Note: This news is courtesy of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, and it's less than 24 hours after several Shelby County Commissioners loudly said there was no need for an anti-discrimination ordinance in Memphis.


We were contacted by a reporter with Channel 3 (WREG-TV) who provided a copy of an affidavit of a shooting that occurred in South Memphis on Wednesday, May 27. The man arrested for the shooting, Terron Taylor, told police that he did it because the victim “misrepresented his gender.”

The victim, identified as Kelvin Denton, is in critical condition after being shot in the nose and throat.

At this point, we do not know any details about Denton’s life, but regardless, we abhor this sort of violence for any reason. Our thoughts and prayers of everyone in the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition go out to Kelvin, family and friends, for a speedy recovery.

We urge Shelby County authorities to prosecute Taylor aggressively and not permit the use of the trans-panic defense.

We also urge members of the Tennessee General Assembly to pass HB0335 by Rep. Jeanne Richardson (D-Memphis) and 21 others, and SB0253 by Sens. Beverly Marrero (D-Memphis) and Ophelia Ford (D-Memphis), as soon as they return in January. This bill would add “gender identity or expression” as a hate crimes sentencing enhancement factor to Tennessee Code Annotated 40-35-114. Passage of this bill will make it easier for state and local authorities to track and prosecute hate crimes against all LGBT Tennesseans.

If you do not know the names of your state legislators, go to http://capitol.tn.gov .

Federal Legislation:

In addition, we urge swift passage in the United States Senate of S.909, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The House of Representatives has already passed this legislation, which is supported by President Obama, by a vote of 249 to 175.

Please contact both of Tennessee’s Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and tell them you want to them to support S.909.

We also ask everyone to continue talking to both Representatives and Senators about the importance of the fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We anticipate that ENDA will be introduced in the coming weeks. It is time to end job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. If LGBT people can find, and hold, decent paying jobs, then we are less likely to end up on the streets where we become vulnerable to hate crimes.
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

Call for Submissions: FTMs Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
[info]ftmichael
From an e-mail.

Hello,

Megan Rohrer and I are putting together a book: Letters to my Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect.

We are making a number of strategic asks to get some of the most respected members of the Trans community in this book and we invite you to send a submission. The book will feature essays from respected Trans men mentors who share the wisdom they wish they would have known at the beginning of their journey into manhood. More specifically, we are inviting you to write a public letter to yourself (the you before you decided to transition) for the book.

Proceeds: 30% will be divided among the authors, 20% will be given to the National Centre for Transgender Equality (NCTE), and the rest will enable us to ensure more stories can be told in the future.

Full details of the call for submissions is posted at http://wilgefortis.com/submissions/brothers/

While we are probably familiar with many of the same members of the Trans community, please feel free to let us know the names of individuals you think have a diverse, humorous or unique story that we may not know about.

Zander Keig
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Absolute Radio

Hi I'm new Sep. 5th, 2008 @ 01:10 pm
[info]lachattenoire13
So a series of events occurred in my life recently that I'm looking for advice on. In essence, a friend of mine came out to me as trans and I'm looking for advice on how to help her through this. She's already in therapy and has made the decision to undergo transition. It turns out she can fit into my clothes once one ignores the fact that she's a foot taller than me.

But seriously. I admire her bravery and I know I'm nowhere near as strong as her. I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do other than just be there for her.

Thinking Gay Jun. 13th, 2008 @ 08:00 pm
[info]metall_wing
This is not very deep or thoughtful, just something that popped into my head.

I'm a fan or slash, which is basically fan-written homosexual stories of romantic/sexual nature, starring characters from television shows and movies. I go for the slightly more japanese variation, yaoi and yuri. This got me thinking, because I take great pleasure from yaoi stories as well, even though, after some thinking, I've come to the conclusion that IRL I would prefer a woman as my partner. Still I enjoy guy on guy action.

I think men can be pleasing to the eye as well but that's not the point. The point is, that if I imagine that I am a man, I can imagine a relationship WITH a man no problem. I can love him and lust after him so that makes me wonder if there isn't such a thing as homosexual brain after all? I feel comfortable when I'm surrounded by similarity.

The search for similarity is very strong in me. The only good hetero relationship I've ever seen is between Victor and Victoria in Corpse Bride and they're just dolls... but, of they are so similar, like two children together, neither stronger than the other, both against the world together.

Usually when I see a guy (on tv or IRL) who makes me think that he appears really, really nice or almost like someone I could imagine liking, he turns out to be gay. It's like there's a special friendliness I'm drawn to, one I haven't so far seen in heterosexual men. Is it the similarity? Or is it the lack of threat because of the lack of interest? I wonder what it's about.

Well, this was just a post for pondering, not very civilized and cooked up mainly to keep this community alive. Answer if you like, if this raised any thoughts in you. :)
Current Mood: thoughtful

Stereotypes Apr. 14th, 2008 @ 07:57 am
[info]metall_wing
I read a wonderful little story. It was about two teen aged guys who were gay and seeing each other. They were sort of normal (as opposed to all of the angst-y, self-destructive or emotionally unavailable characters out there) and normal looking, maybe even good looking. Just two guys who were best of friends and in love too.

I started thinking about how I would go about it if I wanted to write a similar story with female characters when I suddenly realized that I couldn't. I could not even imagine it. I couldn't imagine two completely ordinary and normal girls, together and in love happily and securely. I couldn't imagine them growing up together and staying together without this feeling like something was missing. I couldn't imagine an ordinary female character without thinking that she needs a man to be complete. Even if the man was wrong for her.


I'm shocked by this discovery, as I am a bisexual female myself. A straight girl might need a man, as everyone needs love, or so I believe. A gay girl won't. She'll need a woman. Somehow my mind is locked in this lie that a woman cannot be complete without a man. I have no problems seeing these two male characters together and picturing the happily ever after, though. They shine and I think they have everything and more.

Perhaps I can imagine a big, manly, robust, alcoholic and abusive dyke-type of lesbian with her small, frilly and resigned companion, unhappily together ever after. I am completely chained by the stereotypes and they're yanking me around as they please.


I've always thought of myself as a very independent and strong woman. I don't even truly believe in this lie about your gender making you weak. I don't apply this kind of thinking to any other areas of my life. It's only love that is suffering from my hidden prejudices, prejudices I didn't know I supported.

Now I would like to ask you, has anyone of you ever been a prisoner to this kind of sexist thinking and if you have, how did you overcome it?
Current Mood: pensive

US, CO: 'It's me in a different way' Apr. 5th, 2008 @ 10:05 am
[info]ftmichael
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/01/its-me-in-a-different-way/

'It's me in a different way'
By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Photos by Matt McClain, Rocky Mountain News

Originally published 12:30 a.m., March 1, 2008
Updated 03:13 a.m., March 1, 2008

On the first day of eighth grade, Melaina Marquez wore a polo shirt, wedge shoes and denim skirt with ruffles.

The year before, that outfit would have been out of the question. At that point, Melaina was a boy known as Manuel.

Melaina, now 15, is considered to be transgender: a person who does not identify with the sex based on his or her genitalia. She decided to tell her story after news reports last month about a 7-year-old Douglas County girl who attended school last year as a boy.

At age 2, Melaina recalls playing with Barbies and her favorite toy, a kitchenette. When she played house in pre-school, "I would always want to be the mom."

Melaina says she never struggled with her identity. But her mother, Michelle Benzor-Marquez, cannot say the same.
Read more... )
Current Location: Boston, MA, United States

Gay Trans guys in Out magazine Mar. 15th, 2008 @ 09:45 am
[info]ftmichael
http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=23533

The Trans Fags
They're like any other gay men. Except born female.
by T Cooper

On a cold winter night I take my 20-year-old friend Hunter to an East Village gay bar -- his first time in a New York City watering hole where he could wade among other cute gay men like himself. I convince the bartender to let us in by pretending that Hunter is my little brother who just turned 21 and came out but had his wallet and ID stolen on the subway. The barkeep grudgingly lets us stay, and we take a seat in the rear. It’s a pretty empty weeknight, but a few guys start throwing looks over shoulders and cruising Hunter, and he whispers that he thinks one of them is cute — the straightest-looking dude in the room.

Then, as if called in from any-gay-bar central casting, a lanky dark-haired guy starts unbuttoning his fly and pulling out a soft dick, then lets it flop around outside his jeans as he struts around the bar. Both Hunter and I try not to stare, but we start betting on whether it’s real. For 20 minutes we’re convinced it is, but then someone pulls the thing, and it stretches to a skinny foot-long before snapping back wildly. Hunter laughs and mouths, “Totally fooled me.”

Despite handling the often rugged and unforgiving testing ground of a gritty downtown gay bar with aplomb, Hunter -- like the rest of the men you see on these pages -- is the kind of guy some online gay hookup sites don’t want you to meet. But I do. So let me introduce you to Trystan, Cole, Kelly, and Hunter, all trans fags -- Transgender men who date other men.
Read more... )
Current Music: Virgin Radio

Press Release from Equality Texas Feb. 25th, 2008 @ 07:35 pm
[info]emilie_burns
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release


Governor Perry Preoccupied With Sex; Misses the Point of Scouting

Equality Texas Invites Gay Former Scouts to Attend Perry’s Book-Readings This Week


Read more... )

US, MA: MTPC Monthly Newsletter and HB 1722 update Feb. 4th, 2008 @ 02:00 pm
[info]ftmichael
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition Monthly Newsletter - February 2008

Remember to vote tomorrow!
Tuesday, Feb 5th is Massachusetts Primary Day
Don't know where your polling place is?
Visit http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php to find out where to vote in your community.

HB 1722 Updates
Hearing for bill coming up very soon:
Read more... )

MTPC Updates
New Message board
Read more... )

Going to NGLTF's Creating Change Conference in Detroit this week?
Read more... )

Next MTPC Boston General Meeting
Read more... )

Next Free Legal Clinic for Low-Income Transgender People is 21st February
Read more... )

Your tax-deductible donation makes our work for in advancing gender identity and gender expression rights and access possible.
Read more... )

General Community Message:
Read more... )
Find out how you can support HB 1722 - "An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes"
visit http://www.masstpc.org/
Current Music: Virgin Radio
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