Today's Messages (OFF)
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| Forum: Trans Political Issues |
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| Topic: Conneticut overturns Gay Marriage Ban |
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| Conneticut overturns Gay Marriage Ban [message #42664] |
Fri, 10 October 2008 10:44 |
 CarolynnL 
Messages: 1820
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member |
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Conn. court overturns same-sex marriage ban
Court finds law discriminates by limiting Marriage to heterosexual couples
HARTFORD, Connecticut - Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making that state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions.
The divided court ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry under the state constitution, and Connecticut's civil unions law does not provide those couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples.
"I can't believe it. We're thrilled, we're absolutely overjoyed. We're finally going to be able, after 33 years, to get married," said Janet Peck of Colchester, who was a plaintiff with her partner, Carole Conklin.
Justices overturned a lower court ruling and found in favor of the plaintiffs, who said the state's marriage law discriminates against them because it applies only to heterosexual couples, therefore denying gay couples the financial, social and emotional benefits of marriage.
"Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice," Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote in the majority opinion that overturned a lower court finding.
"To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others," Palmer wrote.
Gov. disagrees, but won't fight ruling
Connecticut already permitted same-sex civil unions that grant largely the same state rights as to married couples, but lack the full, federal legal protections of marriage.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Friday that she disagreed with the court's ruling, but will not fight the ruling.
"The Supreme Court has spoken," Rell said in a statement. "I do not believe their voice reflects the majority of the people of Connecticut. However, I am also firmly convinced that attempts to reverse this decision — either legislatively or by amending the state Constitution — will not meet with success."
Because Friday's decision was based on the state constitution, the ruling cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, NBC News reported. The ruling is to take effect shortly.
Eight same-sex couples sued in 2004, saying their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process were violated when they were denied marriage licenses.
The plaintiffs wanted the court to rule that the law discriminated against them because it applies only to heterosexual couples, therefore denying gay couples the financial, social and emotional benefits of marriage.
The only U.S. states that allow same-sex couples to marry are Massachusetts and California.
Peck said that as soon as the decision was announced, the couple started crying and hugging while juggling excited phone calls from her brother and other friends and family.
"We've always dreamed of being married," she said. "Even though we were lesbians and didn't know if that would ever come true, we always dreamed of it."
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| | Topic: Georgia transgender politician wins legal battle |
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| Georgia transgender politician wins legal battle [message #42419] |
Mon, 06 October 2008 11:24 |
nancy
Messages: 230
Registered: October 2007 |
Senior Member |
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http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/10/06/ge orgia_transgender_politician.html
The Georgia Supreme Court found a transgender Riverdale city council candidate did not mislead voters when she ran as a woman last November.
The court unanimously ruled in favor of Michelle Bruce Monday.
Two unsuccessful city council candidates, Georgia Fuller and Stan Harris, filed suit against Bruce and the city of Riverdale last year. Fuller and Harris accused Bruce of lying to voters when she ran as a woman and Riverdale City Clerk Stephanie Thomas of tampering with voting machines.
Today, Supreme Court Justice Hugh Thompson wrote that the candidates did not produce any evidence of "fraud, misconduct, irregularity or illegality."
In their suit, Fuller and Harris allege Bruce's name is Michael Bruce. Their attorney, new Clayton school board member Michael King, argued that Bruce's birth certificate lists her as Mickey Dwayne Bruce and a man.
Bruce, who identifies herself as transgender and a woman, said she changed her name in Clayton County Superior Court in 1980 to Mickey Michelle Bruce and goes by Michelle Mickey Bruce.
Fuller and Harris had asked the court to overturn the November election and halt a December runoff. The two went to the Supreme Court after a Spalding County Superior Court judge threw out the suit, allowing the runoff to be held.
Bruce, who was elected to the Riverdale City Council in 2004, lost her bid for a second term to Atlanta firefighter Wayne Hall.
Bruce could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
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| | Topic: Australian Human Rights Commission Report on TG Documentation |
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| Australian Human Rights Commission Report on TG Documentation [message #41852] |
Fri, 26 September 2008 22:36 |
ZoeB 
Messages: 1921
Registered: September 2007
Location: Canberra, Australia |
Senior Member
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Original available online here
Introduction
The Commission's Sex Files project was established to conduct research and consult with the sex and gender diverse community in Australia on the issue of legal recognition of sex in documents and government records.
During the Commission's project, members of the sex and gender diverse community raised concerns about the legal recognition of sex, particularly in relation to the ability of a person to change the sex recorded on their birth certificate. The Commission has been told that a desire to identify legally as a particular sex may be due to psychological sex or gender identity reasons.
This document outlines proposed reform to the legal recognition of sex in Australia. Its purpose is to stimulate discussion and input to assist in shaping the Commission's reform agenda in relation to legal recognition of sex. The Commission will also seek further input from the sex and gender diverse community on the details of the proposed reform in due course.
What is the identification system in Australia and how does it effect people who are sex or gender diverse?
Australia has a common framework for confirming and protecting the identity of its citizens. This framework classifies types of official documentation as evidence of a person's identity. Information about sex or gender is an important component of a person's identity. Most official documents and records contain information about a person's sex. However, some documents and records contain information about gender not sex.
The most important identity documents are known as cardinal documents, which are seen as the most trusted evidence of identity and citizenship. Usually cardinal documents contain information about a person's sex. For persons born in Australia, cardinal documents are birth certificates or name change certificates. For persons not born in Australia, cardinal documents are citizenship certificates or the information contained in the database held by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
People who are sex or gender diverse may seek to change the information that is recorded on these cardinal documents and records. Once those cardinal documents are changed, a cardinal document can be used to amend the sex or gender noted on other documents and records.
However, there are currently some significant limitations. Reform of the process for changing cardinal documents and other related areas dealing with gender-identifying documents and records would enhance the rights of the sex or gender diverse community to identify as a particular sex.
What is the current system for changing information on cardinal documents?
The current system by which a person can amend a cardinal document will depend on whether that person was born in Australia or elsewhere. Changing a cardinal document is important as it provides an official identity and enables the alteration of other documents and records.
For a person born in Australia, state and territory legislation enables a person to change their legal sex on their birth certificate if they satisfy certain criteria. Different processes exist depending on the state or territory, although throughout Australia certain categories of people who are sex and gender diverse are excluded from accessing those processes.
For a person not born in Australia, the process for changing information on a citizenship certificate or in immigration records will depend on several factors. Some of those factors include when and where the person underwent sex affirmation surgery.
The current system generally excludes:
* married persons
* persons who have not undergone genital surgery or other sex affirmation surgery
* persons who have undergone genital or other sex affirmation surgery overseas
* children and young people under 18, and
* persons who wish to be identified as intersex.
The key reform features for the legal recognition of sex
In order for persons to legally identify as a particular sex, several reforms to the current system for altering documents and records would be useful. The main focus of the reform is to ensure that cardinal documents and records can be altered to appropriately reflect the sex with which the person identifies.
The key features of the reform proposal being developed by the Commission are as follows:
1. Married persons: a person's status as married would not impact on whether a person can request a change in sex.
2. Persons who have not undergone sex affirmation surgery: a person who cannot or chooses not to undergo surgery would not be automatically ineligible to request a change in their legal sex. (Note 1)
3. Persons who undergo sex affirmation surgery overseas: a person who undergoes sex affirmation surgery overseas would be able to have that change appropriately recognised, without necessarily requiring supporting documentation from the overseas surgeon who performed the procedure.
4. Children and young people: children, young people and their parents would be able to seek a birth certificate and passport that match the identity of the child or young person.
5. Recognition of intersex: persons who cannot or do not identify as either male or female would be able to choose to be identified on their birth certificate and passport as intersex.
6. Centralised and uniform system: a central body would be created with the function of co-ordinating and facilitating changes of sex in official documents and records. In addition, or in the alternative, state, territory and federal processes would be made consistent in order for persons who seek to identify as a particular sex to be treated equally.
7. Clarity in definitions: current Australian law uses different terminology and definitions for persons who require their sex to be legally recognised. There is debate regarding the meaning of terminology such as transsexual, transgender and intersex. Reform would focus on the process for changing legal sex rather than seeking to define persons. This will promote a more inclusive system. (Note 2)
Who would be able to request a change in sex under the proposed system?
Under the proposed reform, a request for a change in sex could be made by a person who:
* is 18 or above, and
* is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia, and
* has undergone or is undergoing 'sex affirmation treatment', and
* seeks to be permanently recognised as another sex.
Under the proposed reform, the parent(s) of a child or the guardian of a child could also make a request for a change in sex on behalf of a child who:
* is under 18, and
* is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia, and
* has undergone or is undergoing 'sex affirmation treatment', and
* seeks to be permanently recognised as another sex.
The definition of 'sex affirmation treatment' under the proposed reforms would mean a surgical procedure or medical treatment to alter the sexual characteristics of a person. Alteration of genitals or reproductive organs would not be required to satisfy this definition.
Will the proposed system provide for an option to identify as intersex?
Under the proposed reforms a request to be identified as intersex could be made by a person who:
* is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia, and
* seeks to be permanently recognised as intersex.
The definition of 'sex' in the proposed reforms would mean the attribute of male, female or intersex.
Who would determine whether a change in sex is accepted under the proposed system?
The preferred model would include the establishment of a national board as part of the proposed reforms.
Appropriate appointments to the board could be outlined in legislation. For example, legislation could provide that the board include a person with a transsexual or intersex condition and a medical specialist working in the area of sex and gender diversity.
Legislation would provide the national board with functions to liaise with other departments to change records, including state/territory birth registries and to provide advice and publicly available information about the policies and procedures concerning the legal recognition of sex. The board would also have the function of receiving and determining applications for official recognition of a change in sex.
If a national board is not created, a uniform scheme could still operate with determinations about sex made by state/territory births registries (Note 3) , state/territory magistrate courts (Note 4) or a specialist board established at the state/territory level (Note 5).
What documents would be required to support a request for a change in sex under the proposed system?
Legislation would outline what documents are needed to support the request of a change in sex under the proposed reforms.
For example, legislation could state that a request for a change in sex must be supported by:
* one statutory declaration by a doctor or medical practitioner stating that a person has undergone or is undergoing sex affirmation treatment, and
* one statutory declaration from the person requesting the recognition of sex that they identify as a particular sex and intend to do so permanently. In the case of a child and depending on the age of the child, the legislation could stipulate that the parent(s) or guardian must make a statutory declaration in relation to the child's desire to identify as particular sex.
Legislation could also outline different supporting documents for a request to identify as intersex.
How would documents and records other than cardinal documents be changed under the proposed system?
The national board as described above would be tasked with assisting the alteration of other documents and records.
The national board could also advise on inconsistent policies and procedures and any future reform if necessary.
How would the proposed reforms be implemented?
In order to support these reform features, a combination of legislative and policy reform would be necessary. Harmonisation of state, territory and federal systems would also be required to ensure that the systems were consistent and streamlined.
Legislative reform could occur either through the enactment of federal legislation or by uniform state/territory legislation.
Notes:
1. The Commission notes that views and opinions vary on the necessity of surgery to request a legal reassignment of sex. The Commission has heard from people who require or required psychological and anatomical harmony achieved through surgery to alleviate their condition. For others surgery is not required for a person to live, identify and present as a particular sex. The Commission acknowledges that access to affordable sex affirmation treatment is of concern to many in the sex and gender diverse community. The Commission also believes that a person who genuinely lives as a member of a particular sex should not be prevented from legal recognition on the basis that they have not undergone genital or reproductive surgeries alone.
2. Much of the research and consultation conducted by the Commission during the sex and gender diversity project has focused on the issue of terminology. The Commission will use this research to determine the use of affirmative language in any reform proposals.
3. As currently occurs in some states/territories in Australia.
4. As currently occurs in South Australia.
5. State/territory specialist boards could be modelled on the existing Western Australian Gender Recognition Board.
Comment
Australia has a Constitution that borrows heavily from the US model. It is a Federation of States and Territories, each with their own legislative framework. The main difference is that Marriage is a Commonwealth (ie Federal) issue, not a State one.
This document could be useful as a framework for a similar home-grown made-in-the-USA solution.
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| | Topic: Water the issue not included in the energy issue |
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| Water the issue not included in the energy issue [message #41521] |
Sun, 21 September 2008 18:37 |
lisagurl
Messages: 2131
Registered: October 2007
Location: inside |
Senior Member
BL3D |
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One sixth of the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water. More than 2 million people, most of them children, die each year from water-borne diseases.
People in India, where millions don't have access to clean drinking water, fill buckets from a supply pipeline.
Water-related problems aren't restricted to the developing world. A harmful pesticide, banned by many European countries, remains widely used in the United States, where it runs into rivers and streams.
And one expert estimates California's water supply will run out in 20 years.
These sobering statistics come from "FLOW," a new documentary film about the world's dwindling water supply. The filmmakers and their sources argue a combination of factors, including drought and skyrocketing demand, have created a looming global crisis that threatens the long-term survival of the human race.
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| | Forum: New Beginnings |
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| Topic: Deceit and Betrayal at IFGE |
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| Deceit and Betrayal at IFGE [message #162812] |
Sat, 05 May 2012 15:45 |
Katie
Messages: 14663
Registered: October 2007
Location: La La Land |
Senior Member
Administrator
Bitch Queen of Palolo
BL3D
Frequent Flyer |
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| Quote: | Deceit and Betrayal at IFGE
© 2011 by Dallas Denny
Twenty years ago the International Foundation for Gender Education was seen by many in the fledgling transgender community as the bright shining star of the universe. I didn't share that opinion nor did JoAnn Roberts, who penned an article in Renaissance News titled "The International Foundation for Gender Education: None of the Above"-- but many community leaders were enthusiastically supportive.
With IRS 501(c)(3) educational status, an annual budget of $325,000, a headquarters in suburban Boston, a bookstore, a perfect-bound four-color magazine, an annual conference, and an endowment worth some $100,000, IFGE was a formidable entity in a day when every other community organization had an income of $25,000 or less. IFGE was clearly doing a lot of things right.
IFGE's goal was to educate and provide support to professionals, transgendered and transsexual people, and the general public. This was accomplished with a variety of well-funded educational activities.
First and perhaps most important, IFGE held an annual conference at which all transgendered and transsexual people were welcome, and which allowed budding activists and educators and helping professionals from all around the world to meet one another face-to-face, often for the first time. Encounters in the lobbies, restaurants, and hallways led to any number of friendships, new organizations, publishing and research endeavors, and social justice projects, and played a huge role in making the transgender community what it is today.
Second, IFGE's house journal Transgender Tapestry provided space for discussion of all things trans. In its perfect-bound pages ideas were floated and terminology discussed, helping both individuals and various subgroups define and consolidate their identities. Resource lists at the back of the magazine steered individuals to support groups, conferences, and helping professionals.
Third, the Congress of Transgender Organizations served a role in setting priorities for the community and allowed trans organizations of every description to work together on mutual projects and address mutual concerns. (The Congress ran out of momentum in the mid 1990s and died a slow death.)
Fourth, IFGE had an actual base of operations: a walk-in center in Waltham, Massachusetts with paid staff and volunteers. It was open every day from noon until late in the evening. Community members could walk in and change their lives. Those not in Boston could phone the IFGE help line and get advice and referrals.
Fifth, IFGE had a bookstore which mailed materials all over the world and was hauled around to almost every community conference.
And lastly, IFGE's Winslow Street Fund functioned as an endowment that was designed to grow in perpetuity and fund various transgender-related projects and endeavors.
The Winslow Street Fund was named in honor a street in Provincetown, where, in 1989, Joni Chrissman met Merissa Sherrill Lynn for the first time. Out of that meeting the Fund was born. It was fully operational by 1990.
IFGE actively recruited donations for the Winslow Fund, promising the money would never be used for internal operations of IFGE itself (I heard Executive Director Merissa Sherrill Lynn say this in public). The Winslow Street Fund soon grew to about $100,000 and throughout the 1990s and the first decade of this century awarded small sums to community organizations to help fund worthy projects. A Board of Trustees, appointed by IFGE, oversaw the fund's growth and selected award recipients.
IFGE Today
In 2006, all of IFGE's services were intact. Today, only one survives-- the Winslow Street Fund--and it is, I believe, in grave peril.
IFGE's annual conference is dead. This year's conference was cancelled and there will apparently be no conference in 2012. According to a source within IFGE, the cancellation occurred because of heavy financial losses at the 2010 conference.
The esteemed Transgender Tapestry is no longer being published. The last issue appears to have been #115, which appeared in 2009 with a fraction of the usual content.
The bookstore is still listed on IFGE's dormant-since-2009 web page, but the content is severely dated and it no shows up at only a few community conferences. My IFGE source told me the bookstore is now at back-of-the-van / broom closet status--in other words, for all practical purposes dead.
Most recently, and sadly, IFGE's long-term walk-in center in Waltham, Mass has been closed, presumably in favor of new and smaller offices in Washington, D.C. Well, probably not offices--think a desk or two in another nonprofit's space.
That leaves the Winslow Street Fund. I have great concern for its well-being. I fear it is being used or might soon be used to fund IFGE's internal operations--something IFGE swore to the community it would never do. IFGE has broken this promise at least twice before and I fear it has broken it or is about to break it once again. And if it happens, unlike the previous two occasions, there will be no way to pay the money back, for there is no longer any substantive cash flow. Go HERE to see my press release.
How it Happened
The advent of transgender political organizations and in particular the National Center for Transgender Equality severely impacted IFGE's budget--primarily by siphoning off high-dollar donors who had previous kept the organization riding high. IFGE's management had concerns about this as early as 1999, when editing and layout for Transgender Tapestry were outsourced, doing away with two full-time in-house paid positions. The bookstore manager position was also eliminated.
Clearly a change in finances requires organizational restructuring, but this does not seem to have occurred in any coherent way in this century. Instead, the organization was hijacked. Change was forced upon the organization by a single individual, who acted with relentless and deliberate malice to dismantle and destroy IFGE and its services. I watched it happen.
Shortly after IFGE Acting Director Denise Leclair was made Executive Director in 2004 or so, she began to slowly and systematically dismantle the organization. Her initial target was Board Chair Hawk Stone. She slyly undermined the board's confidence in him, putting pressures on him that led to his resignation in July 2005.
Leclair next got rid of the editor of Transgender Tapestry. That happened to have been me. She did so by overriding me, forcing publication of an article solely for political purposes, to appease the bruised ego of a contributor whose solicited article I had rejected because she had web-published it on the same day she had submitted it to the magazine. Leclair also made it clear I would not be allowed to publish an editorial warning the community about the then-missing collection of the Rikki Swin Institute. And so rather than have my name on the masthead of a magazine that had lost its integrity, I resigned.
Leclair next went after IFGE's board, forcing through an amendment that removed long-serving members Kristine James, Yvonne Cook-Riley, Alison Laing, and Abby Saypen. They were replaced by a new and naive board with little experience with the organization or knowledge of its history and politics.
The next obstacle was Trans Events USA, a team consisting of Kristine James and Alison Laing, who had been running IFGE's conference for more than a decade. Leclair fired them in 2008 and took responsibility for the conference.
Having rid IFGE of its Board Chair, editor, and conference planning team, and having expelled long-term supporters from the board of directors, Leclair was free to do as she pleased with the organization. Suddenly IFGE's focus was on politics rather than education, and suddenly the focus was on Washington, D.C. Leclair relocated the conference and then the corporate offices (if there actually are any) to D.C.
There was only one obstacle to Leclair's complete control of IFGE: the trustees of the Winslow Street Fund. In April 2011 Board Chair Bree Hartlage told the trustees via e-mail they were fired, retroactively--in fact, they had been dismissed but not informed of that dismissal one year and eight months earlier!
A Trust at Risk
Last October at Fantasia Fair, two Winslow Street Fund trustees came to me--separately--to tell me they were concerned about the fund. They cited a lack of coherency at the IFGE offices and told me they feared Leclair and Hartlage would drain the fund, killing it. They asked me to inform the community. I said I would look into it.
In April one of those trustees told me she had just been told of her retroactive dismissal. Yesterday--24 June, 2011--I learned from an IFGE source that the IFGE Board of Directors held a special board meeting in August of 2009 for the purposes of exerting control over the Winslow Street Fund by dismissing its directors.
There can be only one reason for this--IFGE had its eyes on the monies in the fund and wanted to remove the last obstacle to obtaining them. And so I am doing as requested by Winslow trustees and letting the community know what is about to happen--or perhaps has already happened.
With the Winslow Street Fund bereft of trustees, with a gutted, secretly repurposed organization, and with a compliant board of directors, the Winslow monies are within Leclair's easy grasp. My fear is she will plunder the fund, if she hasn't already, using the monies to pay her salary and IFGE's expenses. If that happens, I'm morally certain the money will never be recovered, for IFGE's financial status is beyond bleak.
So here it is in a nutshell: Through mismanagement, and by deceit and betrayal, Denise Leclair has single-handedly dismantled the transgender community's largest educational resource, turning a once large organization with a conference, a magazine, and a walk-in center into a desk in Washington D.C. and a pathetic hope that she will be allowed to play politics with the big girls and boys.
Now, with an imploded budget and with nothing else to plunder, Leclair has turned her eye to the monies in the Winslow Street Fund.
In a press release, I have called upon the IFGE Board and especially Leclair and Hartlage to inform the community about the disposition of the monies in the Winslow Street Fund and to immediately separate the fund from IFGE, establishing it as an entity of its own, overseen by a board of experienced and trusted community leaders.
Will that happen?
Of course it won't.
I'm afraid the monies are already gone.
Call to Action
I call upon the IFGE Board of Directors, and specifically upon Executive Director Denise Leclair and Board Chair Bree Hartlage to inform the transgender community of the state of the Winslow Street Fund, and specifically to answer these questions via a press release:
* What is the balance in the Winslow Street Fund?
* When was the last Winslow grant to another organization?
* Has IFGE borrowed against the fund in this century?
* If so, was the money paid back? Was interest collected?
What safeguards are in place to protect the fund?
I moreover call upon the Board to take immediate and decisive steps to fiscally and administratively separate the Winslow Street Fund from IFGE, making certain the Fund has a board made up of trusted and honest community members who will safeguard the Fund's monies in perpetuity.
If IFGE has withdrawn money from the Winslow Street Fund, I urge the Board to do whatever is necessary to return all funds.
I ask others in the community to contact IFGE and ask these same questions. And please, make sure your donations go some place where they will be honored.
Postscript
The monies in the Winslow Street Fund were solicited in mailings and at IFGE conferences, where envelopes were left on tables at the final banquet. Hundreds or thousands of community members--myself included--stuffed tens or twenties into those envelopes. Many people wrote checks--repeatedly--for hundreds of dollars. And a few folks, perhaps even someone who will read this, gave thousands of dollars. The clear promise was the fund would be used for the betterment of the community--and so any raid into the fund for IFGE's private good is a betrayal of trust--of yours, of mine, of the community's. It will be a long time before there is another Winslow Street Fund.
What's even more tragic is Leclair has destroyed all sorts of valuable educational services: the conference, Transgender Tapestry, the walk-in center, the bookstore, and the website.
There has been, of course, in late years an explosion of web-based educational materials, but they don't have the warmth, the humanity of a hug to a newcomer at the walk-in center in Waltham. For that's what IFGE was best at-- making frightened transsexual and transgendered people feel comfortable, assuaging their fears, letting them know they had finally come home.
I wrote this article not as a journalist, but as a community advocate--one who unfortunately waited too long before speaking up. And so I made no attempt to contact Leclair or Hartlage for their comments. I merely wanted to get the word out. Too late, too little, possibly, but here it is.
I expect a certain amount of vehemence, character assassination and denial in response to this article, but I'm tough. I can take it. And I can back up what I've said. It's substantively true.
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http://dallasdenny.com/chrysalis-quarterly/deceit-and-betray al-at-ifge/
[Updated on: Sat, 05 May 2012 15:46]
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| | Topic: Passing |
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| Passing [message #155989] |
Sun, 15 January 2012 12:54 |
Katie
Messages: 14663
Registered: October 2007
Location: La La Land |
Senior Member
Administrator
Bitch Queen of Palolo
BL3D
Frequent Flyer |
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Don Lemon: It only takes one drop
(CNN) - For years, the woman on the left in the photograph below could not be friendly to her own husband in public. She would pretend she didn't know him or tell people he was her driver. She didn't want him to be beaten in public as he had many times before.
She learned that particular survival technique from the woman in the photograph on the right, her mother and my grandmother, who had to use it from the 1930s until my grandfather died in the 1960s. Both women were often mistaken for white. And for whatever privileges my aunt and grandmother might have received for their light skin, their husbands paid for it by beatings or threats from white men. One handed-down family story that sticks with me is how my uncle was lucky to have survived a savage throttling in the 1950s after exiting a ferry crossing the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to Port Allen. Apparently, he and my aunt had let down their guard. They never did it again.
Heck, as a child, I wasn't even sure about my grandmother or my aunt. "Is Aunt-ee Lacy white?" I'd ask. "Lacy's black," an adult would say. Of course the reply was followed by a big laugh and a phrase I'd never forget: "It only takes one drop." Meaning it only takes one drop of "Negro" blood to make you black.
I heard that phrase all the time as a child growing up in the South. And it wasn't until I moved away from Louisiana as an adult that I recall anyone asking what it meant. As I wrote in my book, "Transparent", "Black America used to be, and perhaps still is, a pigmentocracy, which means that the social hierarchy is based largely on colorism." I wrote about growing up in Louisiana, a state ruled by pigmentocracy and is at the pinnacle of color consciousness. It was borne out of slavery.
Black slaves impregnated by white slave masters bore children whose skin was so light and hair so straight that they could "pass" for white. Long story short, many of them did "pass," and so did their offspring. The ones who chose to stay on the plantation created the light skin to dark skin hierarchy that helped shape black culture. The ones who ran north toward freedom, opportunity and life as a white person, never looked back.
The alternative was to stay with the people you loved and depending on the time in history, either work on a plantation, in the field, as a maid, a driver or be relegated to some menial job with very little opportunity to advance beyond that.
If you did pass, back then, you didn't dare tell anyone. If your cover was blown, you faced death. Imagine having to concoct a made-up history of either being an orphan or a product of an estranged family, or the only child of two parents who had already died. Even if your family were alive back home in the South, they may as well be dead because you didn't dare contact them, except to send home an anonymous envelope with no return address containing a money order or note that read, "I'm OK. I'm alive. I love you."
To this day, the true identities of most of the people who passed are still a well-kept secret. But sooner or later, it turns up in their offspring's DNA. Occasionally, it's a dark-skinned child from two light-skinned, fair-haired parents. Sometimes two straight-haired parents produce a mysteriously curly-headed baby. When it does happen, the joke is often that there must be a "dark" person somewhere in the family tree. The reality is that there probably is a "dark" person in that tree, a black one who "passed" and quite possibly avoided a worse fate with a southern tree.
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| | Topic: ATTENTION NEW REGISTRANTS |
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| ATTENTION NEW REGISTRANTS [message #153023] |
Mon, 28 November 2011 09:48 |
Derrie
Messages: 21579
Registered: October 2007 |
Senior Member
BL3D
Chief Instigator
First Officer |
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Once in a while we will have someone to register for membership and give an email address that can't be confirmed.
This has occurred recently and there is no way that we can contact a person without a correct Email address.
PLEASE, when you register make sure that your Email address is correct.
The system sends you an automated message to confirm that you have registered AND administration needs the address to contact you!
Thank You!
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| | Topic: Free from Sexual Secrets |
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| Free from Sexual Secrets [message #149480] |
Thu, 29 September 2011 20:28 |
Diana
Messages: 1089
Registered: October 2007
Location: Colorado |
Senior Member
BL3D
BLF Moderator |
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FREE from Sexual Secrets...
Mar 21st, 2009 by Dr. Neil Cannon
This is going to be the only lengthy blog post I have ever written, so pull up a chair and I will share a story that is not only amazing, but important. This is a story I hope you will share with your friends, family, colleagues, and your children; especially your children, because they are indeed our future.
When I went back to school, I did so with an innate passion to help people heal sexually. During the first day in the program to earn my masters degree in San Francisco there was a panel of transsexuals. A post-operative male to female (MtF) transsexual told us that before undergoing gender reassignment surgery, every morning she looked down at her penis with self hatred contemplating suicide. Then she began to sob. It broke my heart and I remember tears running down my own cheeks as I felt her misery. It was at that moment that I knew I wanted to work with transsexuals. Fast forward to one year later -- the first day of my clinical internship. Patients were assigned to us interns arbitrarily and we took whoever came in the door. As the universe would have it, my very first patient turned out to be a transsexual contemplating suicide because she could no longer stand the misery of living a lie. If I wasn't sure before, I knew then that working with the trans community and other sexual minorities was going to become a passion.
Today, this first day of spring was one of the most rewarding days I have ever experienced as a sex therapist. A wonderful patient of mine has given me permission to share this story.
My patient has Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Many people have heard about Gender Identity Disorder (GID) on television shows such as Barbra Walters, Dateline, 20/20 and Oprah. My patient is transgendered and one of the many people who have been diagnosed with GID. Depending on which statistics to believe, approximately every 1 in 10,000 people are transgendered. Transgender is the umbrella term for transsexual which is not to be confused with transvestite. In the case of my patient she was born anatomically male however she identifies as female. Many transsexuals describe GID as a life of misery. We are not certain of the cause of GID however we do know GID is not a choice that people make any more than people make the choice to have cancer or heart disease. Some people have referred to GID as "nature's trick." The best possibility for many people with GID to live a peaceful and fulfilling life is to transition from their birth sex to their identified sex. Not surprisingly, living life in the wrong body eats away at the heart of one's very soul. Life is very difficult for most transsexuals. In fact, it can be so miserable that approximately 19% of transsexuals commit suicide.
In the case of my patient she has known from the age of 4 that she felt different. When she was a child, little was known about GID. Her family didn't know what was wrong, however something was different enough about her that when she was very young she overheard her parents discussing electric shock therapy for her. If kids today seem affected when mom runs out of Lucky Charms, imagine the horror and shame my patient must have felt as a small child to hear her parents talking about her as being a freak of nature.
Transsexuals are at great risk from a small minority of ignorant and hateful people. Last year, right here in my beloved State of Colorado, a transsexual by the name of Angie Zapata was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher because she was transsexual. The alleged murderer was pleased with himself saying that he "killed it."
Like Angie, my patient could have just as easily been killed. As if living life in the wrong body wasn't enough, last spring my patient was the victim of a vicious hate crime as a result of being a transsexual. She was viciously beaten to within an inch of her life. Considering the severity of her injuries my patient is fortunate to be alive.
(Parenthetically speaking, since the purpose of this blog post is to educate and help people to embrace sexual diversity I want to clarify the difference between transsexuals and transvestites. A transvestite is a person, generally male, who is sexually aroused by dressing in women's clothing. On the other hand, a transsexual is not aroused by wearing women's clothing any more than an anatomical woman would be aroused by wearing women's clothes. My client is a transsexual who was born anatomically male, but identifies as female. Said another way, she is a woman trapped in a man's body. Confusion also often exists about the difference between sexual identity and sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is who we are attracted to, i.e., being heterosexual or homosexual. Sexual identity is who we are, i.e., a male or female).
People also have a natural curiosity about people who are transgendered. A common question tends to be about surgery. One way to think about it is by considering the very term, "transition." Most people start their transition by taking massive doses of hormones. Within two days of starting on hormones my patient felt like a new person the woman she was born to be. Thankfully, much of her pain finally eased.
When a person transitions, one of the most important things for a transsexual is that they are referred to by their new name and the proper pronouns, i.e., "her" and "she." Anything else is tremendously hurtful. Compassionate people go out of their way to honor trans people in this way. I believe that the people who follow my blog are compassionate, and the very people who can help to influence and educate our culture about GID.
Two years ago my patient took the courageous step to begin living her life as woman every place except at work. Today, one of the bravest, and most beautiful women I have ever met took the courageous step to do something the rest of us take for granted; fully living as the gender we identify as. Yes, she announced her transition at work. The last step for her to live a fully authentic life.
On this first day of spring I am truly humbled and inspired by my patient; and I wish peace to every child of the universe who does not conform to sexual norms of society.
http://doctorcannon.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/free-from-sexua l-secrets/
If you enjoyed reading what the good Doctor had to say, then please click on the link and let him know!
Live your Dream, I know I am now! 
Are you living with depression, have confusion and white noise over who you truly are internally, then please do something about it. We're here to help and guide you through your journey if you so choose it's the path you need to take. If you have questions, then please... ask.
[Updated on: Fri, 30 September 2011 07:17]
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| | Topic: When a Husband becomes a Wife |
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| When a Husband becomes a Wife [message #147422] |
Fri, 19 August 2011 08:51 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1820
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member |
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This is a rather long article, but it relates two peoples experience with transition as a married couple. The author claims that about 45% of transitioning couples divorce over the issue and 55% who either stay together or divorce over other issues. There are other statistics that would say the 55% estimate is rather high and the 45% estimateis rather low. There are salient points about who they feel are able to stay together after transition, and what characteristics in a relationship make it possible.
Transgender Love: When Husband Becomes Wife
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Aug. 15, 2011
When Diane Daniel met her husband Wessel, she was attracted to his smile, quiet humor and gentleness -- "and of course his Dutch accent." Though it shocked her, she dismissed the occasional cross-dressing as they dated and lived together as just part of his nerdy nonconformity.
But two months into their marriage in 2004, her husband revealed at dinner that he wanted to live as a woman, and the couple embarked on a long wrenching jouney to stay together.
Wessle is now Lina and has transitioned from male to female.
Diane, now 53 and a freelance writer living in North Carolina, describes in a recent story in the Boston Globe, "Goodbye Husband, Hello Wife," how her life was turned on its head when she learned her husband was transgender.
"I detached emotionally and physically," she writes. "I cried every day. I wondered what else he hadn't told me. I feared something was wrong with me to attract this kind of mate. I was angry and ashamed."
Lina was in exactly the opposite place psychologically.
"For me, it was a big, 'phew,' --- I had finally made a choice and a big burden was off my shoulders," said Lina, who works for a medical diagnostics company. "But her whole world collapsed."
"Diane needed to grieve and say goodbye to the old me and the things that were left behind," she told ABCNews.com. "I had the strange realization that I was at a birthday party and she was at a funeral."
The turning point for Diane was when Lina told her, "What I fear most is that you will see me as a monster or some kind of a freak. That everyone will, but mostly you.''
Slowly, Diane was able to open her heart, and their story illustrates the complex world of sexuality and gender and the power of love.
But it is also a call for acceptance for the 750,000 Americans who identify as transgender -- about .3 percent of the population, according to the Williams Institute, an LGBT think tank at the UCLA Law School.
A 2011 landmark report, "Injustice at Every Turn," concludes that "nearly every system and institution" in the United
States -- education, employment, housing and healthcare -- discriminates against transgender Americans. The report was conducted by The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which surveyed 6,450 Americans who were transgender or non-gender conforming.
An estimated 45 percent of those surveyed said that their relationship with a spouse or partner ended because of their transgender identity.
Surprisingly, 55 percent, stayed on or their relationship ended for other reasons, according to that report.
But those like Diane who have gone through transition with a loved one, say it is a long and painful process -- and most spouses leave the marriage.
Helen Boyd, author of the 2003 book, "My Husband Betty," had a similar experience to Diane.
When her theatrical husband went from dabbling in drag to asking to wear an ordinary denim skirt, she thought, "This isn't fun anymore."
"I was shellshocked. I took a bath and just cried," said Boyd. "I knew that I would lose my male husband."
Boyd stayed with Betty, whom she had married as a man, "because I love her," and the couple just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.
"She is still as charming and still the person who can make me laugh when I don't want to laugh about anything," said Boyd. "We still share the same world view and she knows me better than any other human being."
She said not enough partners and families of loved ones speak out about the experience, one that can be like "walking through fire, but once it's done...can be a deep bond."
Boyd, a professor of gender studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, said her work in the field indicates that far more partners split.
"I would not wish transition on anybody," she said. "All major life changes are difficult, but the lack of understanding is triple -- dealing with all the prejudice and bias, and even the sensationalism and prurient interest."
Such was the case with Diane, who said the six years leading up to Lina's living as a woman were gut-wrenching.
"One hour I was processing one thing and the next something else," said
Diane. "It would start with what does this mean for our relationship and how will you look and what will the neighbors say, and will we be legally married?"
They were, and according to Diane, no state reverses a marriage between a man and a woman, even after transitioning to a different gender.
"In the trans world there's a saying that 'one person's transition is everyone's transition,' " she said. After the initial shock, Diane and Lina went into therapy.
Transgender Couple Viewed as Lesbians
In 2007, Lina began hormone treatment. The following year, they began to tell friends and family, all of whom were supportive. Finally, they picked a day when Lina would "leave work as a man and return to work as a woman."
Then, just last November, after telling all her co-workers, Lina officially transitioned to a woman. Lina said she will likely "complete the picture" and have genital surgery, but international medical guidelines require that she live for
at least a year as a woman. There are also financial considerations.
By June of this year, the couple stopped seeing their therapist because, said Diane, "we no longer had anything to talk about."
Their worries about public acceptance never materialized.
Sometimes co-workers slip their pronouns, but immediately correct themselves, and most have been supportive. "I am basically the same, with a few improvements, " said Lina.
Both say that not having children has helped them cope better with the
transition. They also don't have religious beliefs that would be in
conflict with Lina's choice.
Today, Diane and Lina say they are more guarded in public, where they are often perceived as lesbians, even though Diane is straight.
"But if I really want to hold hands, then I do," said Diane. "I think it's a little easier for me than for Lina, but that's mostly because she still feels awkward about drawing any attention to herself."
As for their sex life, Diane said, "We don't talk about with anyone but us... We are a romantic and affectionate married couple. We don't live as siblings."
"I am very attracted to men," said Diane. "Does this mean I look at men and feel sad? No, because I love Lina."
Lina said that even though her gender identity is female, she is not attracted to men.
"My attraction to women hasn't changed," she said. "Mine is a gender issue, not my sexual orientation."
But, it's hard to let go of the gender notions and Diane said Lina still makes some male accommodations.
"She still kills the roaches and carries the heavy stuff, but same-sex couples have those divisions of duties as well," said Diane. And Lina's "essence" is still there.
As for Lina, she said, "I feel like I can be more myself than I have ever been and enjoying every minute of that at home or at work. I am embracing life to the fullest."
Since writing her story, Diane has received more than 300 e-mails, many from readers who say they have never written before.
One praised her for helping her better understand in "a more real and compassionate way."
"I am an educated person and quite liberal, but while superficially being accepting, have found the transsexual issue rather difficult to absorb," she wrote. "I am sure it took a lot of courage, and I applaud you and want you to know that you most certainly contributed to the world in a very positive way."
Diane said she feels a "deep gratitude" for how they have sustained their marriage, but would never suggest their decision be right for everyone.
"You have to be open-minded and not fixate on what other people think," said Diane. "And have a strong sense of self, and some degree of flexibility. "
"Look at the person who is transitioning as a human being and try to understand their side of it and don't look at them as a monster," she advised others in a similar situation. "If I had love in the beginning, I still have it."
For more information and support go to:
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.
National Center for Transgender Equality
Human Rights Campaign
PFLAG: Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/transgender-love-husband-transi tions-wife/story?id=14280850
http://tinyurl.com/3epcuru
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| | Topic: Optimist? Pessimist? |
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| Optimist? Pessimist? [message #134944] |
Tue, 15 March 2011 19:30 |
Derrie
Messages: 21579
Registered: October 2007 |
Senior Member
BL3D
Chief Instigator
First Officer |
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| Optimism/Pessimism[ 11 vote(s) ] |
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| 1. | I am generally Optimistic |  5 / 45% | | 2. | I am generally Pessimistic | 2 / 18% | | 3. | I bounce Back and Forth | 4 / 36% |
Life is a Rollercoaster and we all go thru Good Times and Bad Times.
We all have bad days, weeks, even years and then turn around and have Good times...but Generally speaking, would you consider yourself to be an Optimist or a Pessimist?
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| | Topic: Patient folders from VUmc for young transsexuals |
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| | Topic: Having a good cry |
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| Having a good cry [message #103162] |
Sat, 05 June 2010 19:55 |
| Anonymous |
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I just watched The lovely Bones for the first time, dear Lord what an emotional roller coaster ride. I have not cried this deeply for quite a while.
What movies bring you to tears, yet you watch them over and over again?
What Dreams May Come does every time.
sighs...
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| | Topic: Industrial Silacone Pumping |
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| Industrial Silacone Pumping [message #102127] |
Sun, 30 May 2010 08:20 |
| Anonymous |
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Who sick in one's mind and desperate can a person get that they would do such a thing?
Being born gender dysphoric is not a mental illness, but the risks and and extreme behavior that some exhibit to mutate their body, well, that is where the mental illness comes into the picture.
sighs in great sadness...
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| | Topic: A request |
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| A request [message #99007] |
Sat, 01 May 2010 05:00 |
Hilary 
Messages: 5534
Registered: October 2007
Location: 2, Camberwick Green, Trum... |
Senior Member
BL Administrator (Retired)
BL3d |
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We have been approached by a researcher looking for volunteers who meet the following criteria:
1) Only Male to Female participants are being recruited.
2) Participants are required to be 30 years old or above.
3) Participants must have undergone gender reassignment already at least 5 years previously.
As always, BL advises caution in these matters. We have done what we can to verify that these people and courses are for real, but cannot be held responsible for misrepresentations.
| Quote: |
My name is Anna Wachowska, I am a third year Psychology student at Thames Valley University in London.
I am currently recruiting participants for the research project tittled: Within The Frames of Transsexual Identity - Qualitative Exploration of Gender Consciousness, Gender Identity Formation and Gender Embodiment.
The study has been approved by TVU Departmental Ethics Comittee and obtained ethical clearance on the 29rd of March 2010.
The study is Psychology dissertation project and is conducted for educational purposes only.
I am writing to you as I wish to ask whether you would be able to offer me some form of assistance or advice in terms of finding participants for current study? Any help would be highly appreciated.
Below, as well as attached file, you shall find detailed information about the study and its aims. That includes Info Sheet for participants and Consent Form.
I am looking forward to hearing from you in due course,
Yours Sincerely,
Anna Wachowska
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RESEARCH STUDY
INFORMATION SHEET for Participants
&
CONSENT FORM
Title of Project: Within The Frames of Transsexual Identity - Qualitative Exploration of Gender Consciousness, Gender Identity Formation and Gender Embodiment.
Name of Researcher: Anna Wachowska
You are asked to participate in a research study conducted by Anna Wachowska, who is an undergraduate student in Bsc(Hons) Psychology (Faculty of Health and Human Sciences) at Thames Valley University.
Taking into consideration research's aims and its methodological concerns:-
1) Only Male to Female participants are being recruited.
2) Participants are required to be 30 years old or above.
3) Participants must have undergone gender reassignment already at least 5 years previously.
If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact Anna Wachowska via email address: - wachowska@yahoo.co.uk
Or via telephone number 07929264720.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The broad goal of this research study is to explore how transsexual individuals experience and view their body and their gender identity throughout life-course issues.
The study is Psychology dissertation project and is conducted for educational purposes only.
PROCEDURES
Estimated start date: April/May 2010
Estimated duration of the project: April 2010 - December 2010
A qualitative approach is proposed for this study. The theoretical perspective most often associated with qualitative research is phenomenology which seeks to understand meanings in human interactions and events. Qualitative design aims to study the subjective objectively.
If you volunteer to participate in this study, I would ask you to answer approximately seven questions.
The interviews will be face to face, informal, open-ended and carried out in a conversational style. Length of time for participation is difficult to estimate as it will depend on participants.
All interviews will be audio- recorded in order to be transcribed and analyzed inductively, (see: CONFIDENTIALITY section below)
Questions will focus on issues related to social interactions, self-definition, well-being and quality of life.
Preferable location for the interview will be in a building of a transgender/transsexual organisation or support group via which participants are recruited.
Participants will be provided with a brief explanation of the study at the end of their participation.
Research findings will be available to participants on request in December 2010.
POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
It is anticipated that there will be no any realistic risk of participants experiencing psychological or physiological distress.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO PARTICIPANTS AND/OR TO SOCIETY
What may be seen as a potential benefit is that the study provides participants with an opportunity to express and share their experiences.
Literature has provided limited insight into issues of gender identity formation and gender embodiment among transsexual individuals and this study is hoped to enhance such knowledge by focusing on individuals' subjective experiences in the light of social construct and social influences.
PAYMENT FOR PARTICIPATION
Participation in this research is not subject to any payments.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Every effort will be made to ensure confidentiality of any identifying information that is obtained in connection with this study.
All interviews will be audio- recorded in order to be transcribed and analyzed inductively. Participants will have the right to review and edit the tapes of transcripts at any time. Data will be used for educational purposes only; tapes will be erased shortly after transcription process is completed.
Participants' names will not be linked with the research materials. All data will be treated with full confidentiality and even if published will not be identifiable.
PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
You can choose whether to be in this study or not. If you volunteer to be in this study, you may withdraw for any reason at any time without consequences of any kind. You may exercise the option of removing your data from the study. You may also refuse to answer any questions you do not want to answer and still remain in the study.
RIGHTS OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
You may withdraw your consent and discontinue participation at any time of the study. This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through the Thames Valley University Departmental Ethics Committee.
If you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant or if you have any comments or concerns about the ethics procedures employed in this study, you can contact researcher's supervisor at TVU-Victoria Guitierrez via e-mail: VictoriaGuitierrez@tvu.ac.uk
CONSENT FORM
SIGNATURE OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANT
Please tick to confirm
I have read the information provided for the study Within the Frames of Transsexual Identity - Qualitative Exploration of Gender Consciousness, Gender Identity Formation and Gender Embodiment as described herein.
I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily.
I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time without giving any reason.
I have been given a copy of this form.
I agree to take part in the above research study.
______________________________________
Name of Participant (please print)
____________________
Signature of Participant
__________________
DATE
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| | Topic: Dr. Marcie Bowers to speak in Tulsa on Friday evening. |
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| Dr. Marcie Bowers to speak in Tulsa on Friday evening. [message #97138] |
Tue, 13 April 2010 08:20 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1820
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member |
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Dr. Marcie Bowers (the famous SRS surgeon from Trinidad, Colorado) will speak in Tulsa on Friday. I thought that I would post it here just in case someone in the Oklahoma, Arkansas or Kansas area reading or lurking on the board might be interested. Dr. Bowers will speak at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center this coming Friday, April 16th at 8:00 pm. The center is located in downtown Tulsa at 621 East 4th Street.
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| | Topic: My own site |
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| My own site [message #66573] |
Sun, 06 September 2009 11:30 |
JoannaM
Messages: 168
Registered: April 2009
Location: Socorro, New Mexico |
Senior Member |
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http://joanna.thepumas.net/forum
basically a small startup right now. Open to all members of the spetrum, fully moderated to make it more difficutlt for prevs and naredowells to harass our memebers.
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| | Topic: A letter to my friend |
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| A letter to my friend [message #40605] |
Tue, 09 September 2008 15:41 |
| Anonymous |
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The following is a letter I wrote to my friend. I share it because I think the subject speaks to us all. It also raises issues about leading blended vs. open lives, and just what reality awaits for us. Some statements you will disagree with. I left them in anyway, so you can see the whole letter.
FYI, I am post-op and live a largely blended life, and recently had someone from my past appear to maliciously wreak havoc in my present. The person is a woman who was attracted to me as a man -- which in my life were often the people least accepting of my transition. Here is the letter:
Yeah, you were 100% right: anything said by [Jane Doe] shouldn't bother me. That's absolutely correct and I agree. It "shouldn't." It totally should not. I mean, in a perfect world, we would all be immune to the slings and arrows of others. No one would be bothered by anyone else's words or deeds. But no matter how desirable that would be, that's not the world I actually live in. I'm not a perfect enough person to be unaffected by [Jane]'s words and deeds. Oh, most of what she says ... doesn't bother me one bit. But this thing about attacking me as a human being, denying me equal human status, that does bother me. "Should" it? I don't know. It's easy to say no, but in some ways, I think it definitely should.
Let's face it, we don't like to admit it out loud, but I am a member of an oppressed minority. I know we like to talk about how I'm not, and functionally I am doing my best to be just another woman. But in real world terms my relative lack of current oppression has everything to do with my success at hiding the cues of my minority status, and not from any great strides by humanity in recognizing me as "real." And while we can all cheerfully agree that I am "simply a real woman," and no longer a "transwoman," there are about six billion people walking the earth today who would disagree with us if they read me. Some would disagree to the point of murder and obliteration. And that is a reality I can't ignore. [Jane] is one of those people, and since she arrived from the past I can't "hide" my status from her.
Crimes against transwomen are on the rise, which is due to our increased visibility. We can't be immune from the hatred, we can only hide ourselves from it. When we are discovered, we make people uncomfortable...we pull the rug out from under people's assumptions. We're catalysts for a changed paradigm, and most people don't want to change their views of the world. They'd rather kill the catalyst, obliterate it. And when transwomen are killed, they are not simply shot or stabbed, their faces and bodies are mutilated in an attempt to erase their humanity. That is a reflection of how people feel, even in 2008, and that is the silent reality I live with that I can never discuss. I don't think we can stop the people from feeling that way. I think we can only hide when we can, and stand up for ourselves when we are confronted with it.
Aside from the very palpable shame and damage to our sense of self that is caused by haters, failing to stand up for ourselves when confronted with hate simply emboldens the haters. If I can go this far, they wonder, how much farther might I be able to go? Some go as far as killing and mutilating. Others take more hidden actions against us: denying us jobs, spitting in our restaurant food, puncturing our tires, excluding us from groups and snickering behind our backs.
[Jane Doe] is a symbol of the hidden hatred that is all around me. If I didn't pass well – if I looked and talked like [name deleted], for instance – I could see and feel that hatred on a daily basis if I were aware enough. And even when I did not see it, even when good and decent people encountered me, the discomfort would still be there. When we don't blend in well, we make people uncomfortable, sometimes enough to turn them to rage and an attempt to obliterate us in order to save their concept of an orderly world.
[Jane Doe] is doing what she can to obliterate me. If she was the killing kind of person, I have no doubt that she would kill me. She would not just end my life, she would smash my face with a rock until it was nothing but a pile of red mush, unrecognizable as a human being. She would dismember me, cutting off the offending parts, and obliterate them, as well.
That's what [Jane] means to me: the person who would obliterate my humanity from the face of the earth. If you think that is an exaggeration, I say you're wrong. It is exactly what she would do literally if she could bring herself to, and is what she is trying to do figuratively and functionally, instead. [Jane] is the face of hate in my life.
I understand that there are possible hidden consequences to sending the letter I wanted to send. You are wise to caution me that it is risky to poke a grizzly bear, even when you think it can't reach you. If the bear is sufficiently motivated, you might find that it discovers a way to get at you. And so, despite the strong desire to stand up for myself and give her as good as she gives me, I demur.
And that leaves the effects of hatred poured all over me like sticky honey. Covering me. Difficult to get off. Making me feel dirty. And it evokes the feelings of all the people in my transitioning past who have ever hated me for who I am: The man who raped and beat me. My parents. My brother. My ex. [My customers] who left me and complained about me. The teens in the gas station who yelled threats and threw beer bottles at me, and scared the shit out of me. The many people who stared and snickered. The waiter who made a point of calling me "sir." The religious nuts who said I am an abomination before God and who threatened me with eternal torture. The politicians who want to take away what few rights I have. The jokes we transwomen are made of on TV. And the asshats in the [organization]. All these things are real. All these things inflicted a collective hurt that lingers, even though I really, really, really want to be able to wish the hurt away, just like people suggest. "Just don't let it bother you. What do you care what they think?" (Sigh...) If only I could. You have no idea how badly I want to be able to do that.
You may discount those things I mentioned. You may believe them unimportant or unworthy of acknowledging, or simply drama from the past. But their effects are real and unavoidable for me, as is the case for each one of us who have undertaken this path. I am one of the lucky ones. For me, all that stuff means only emotional remnants, and those relatively minor. But for 75% of us, it means chronic unemployment. Uncounted numbers of us suffer neuroses and psychiatric disabilities because of it. A third of us are killed or take our own lives. The vast majority of us suffer marginalization and varying levels of exclusion from the mass of society. And there are many other effects. I could not run for political office if I wanted to. Because I don't think I "pass" (i.e., "hide") flawlessly, there are hundreds of jobs I could not hold. (There goes my career as a weather bimbo on the local news!) And as much as I try to carve myself out from the collective of transwomen, when I think of them I realize that there, but for the grace of god, go I.
And so, when caution and fear command that I not stand up to [Jane Doe], I am left with little outlet for my hurt and rage, save for a ceremonial blood-letting with someone who knows and understands. A shared event of meaning, like a wedding or a funeral or a church service. Or perhaps more like an exorcism. A chance to rail together and shake our fists at the air, to give the evil a name and to give it voice and recognition. To shake it loose from inside, and send it out into the universe where it can no longer do me harm. A ceremonial venting.
So that's what I was going for. But it was brought up short in the form of loving but premature advice to "get over it" being poured on my vent like cold water. I get that not everyone understands or enjoys this process, and that you may be one of them. Some don't see the need for it; some see it as a waste of time and energy. Some don't understand why the person in need can't just cut to the chase and do the "obvious" healing thing. I'm not sure where you stand, but you certainly do not see the same necessity for it that I do. People all over the planet seek the process out, though, for myriad reasons, from a bad day at work, to break-ups, to murders, so I'm pretty sure there is some validity to my feeling of need.
I actually don't disagree with you about sending the letter. I don't see the potential harm, but I recognize that there could be some somewhere that I don't see, and I acknowledge the wisdom of your caution, even if it seems to go against everything you've told me about standing up for myself. I'm not disagreeing with you. I accept the truth of what you said, or at least the wisdom of it. I accept it even if I don't like it. You convinced me, and that's why I deleted my letter and didn't save it.
So, you see, I listen to you. I didn't get angry because you said things I didn't agree with. I agreed with you, albeit reluctantly about the letter. And the proof of that agreement is that I deleted my letter when I could have saved it or sent it. You did, in fact, convince me. And I absolutely agree with you that I shouldn't let [Jane] bother me. Believe it or not, that concept wasn't new to me last night, and I was not shying from it. I want very much to feel as you say I should feel. My inability to do so may be a failure on my part, but it is not to ignore you, or disagree with you, or be angry with you. I do agree that doing that would be a wonderful resolution. Absolutely. I'm just not sure how to get there from here without going through the venting process. But I heard you, and I agree with you.
Anyway, I just thought you should know that I agree with you, I heard you, and I was just looking to vent.
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| | Topic: Introducing Queers United |
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| Introducing Queers United [message #40351] |
Fri, 05 September 2008 10:37 |
| Anonymous |
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As a trans and Queer activist I want to say hello and take the opportunity to share my activist site Queers United with you all.
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
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| | Topic: A Movie About Trinidad, CO |
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| A Movie About Trinidad, CO [message #39855] |
Fri, 29 August 2008 06:37 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1820
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member |
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US - Film - "Trinidad" - A fascinating visit to the 'sex change
capital of the world...' [2008-08-28 Austin 360]
http://www.austin360.com/movies/content/movies/stories/2008/ 08/0829agliff.html
A fascinating visit to the 'sex change capital of the world'
In their documentary 'Trinidad,' Austin filmmakers PJ Raval and Jay
Hodges look at Colorado's transsexual underground that is very much
above ground
By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILM WRITER
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Gracefully does the small town of Trinidad, Colo., wear its title as
the "sex change capital of the world." It's a fact of life, taken
with a shrug here, the random wrinkled nose there. Mostly, the
population of 9,000 coolly accepts the designation with even,
perhaps, a ray of pride.
File the phenomenon under: "When very progressive things happen to
small rural towns."
It began when a Dr. Stanley Biber conducted the area's first genital
reassignment surgery in 1969 and took off from there. In 2003, after
performing almost 6,000 sex-change operations, Biber, then 80, handed
over his practice to Dr. Marci Bowers. Marci used to be Mark, and she
became the first transgender surgeon to perform these operations.
Two of her patients are Laura and Sabrina, and the three of them and
their captivating life dramas are the focus of Austin filmmakers PJ
Raval and Jay Hodges' documentary "Trinidad," which screens Thursday
at the Alamo Ritz during the Austin Gay and Lesbian International
Film Festival. The festival runs Wednesday through Sept. 7.
Avoiding "before and after" sensationalism — part of a sex-change
operation is tastefully depicted — Raval and Hodges trace the women's
personal stories with curiosity and sensitivity, using quaint, rural
Trinidad as a mountain-girdled backdrop. As in any documentary worth
its video stock, universality about the human condition is the
subtext of "Trinidad."
"It makes (viewers) think about their own lives, if they're living on
their own terms and really expressing who they are," Raval says. "If
anything, it will give them the courage to be who they are."
The film's directors met five years ago as co-workers at Cinematexas.
While Hodges is new to filmmaking, Raval has cultivated a long résumé
that's made him something of an Austin film star. He's best known as
the cinematographer on the features "Room" and "The Cassidy Kids" and
the recent Sundance Film Festival documentary winner "Trouble the
Water." He also shot "Trinidad."
Much of the crew on "Trinidad" boasts strong local connections,
including editor Kyle Henry (the director of "Room") and executive
producer Matt Dentler (former South by Southwest Film producer).
Hodges and Raval express breathless gratitude to the Austin Film
Society, City of Austin, AGLIFF and fellow filmmakers for aiding the
production.
"It's about a town in Colorado, but it's really an Austin film,"
Raval says.
Earlier this summer, "Trinidad" enjoyed a well-received world
premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, followed by screenings at
Outfest. (Raval says they're negotiating for a distribution deal.)
Playing it for Austin is something else, though. It's a homecoming.
American-Statesman: Why Trinidad?
Hodges: We heard about Trinidad at a dinner party from a psychologist
of one of the patients there, because patients have to go through a
year of psychological evaluation to make sure they really identify as
a transgender. We were like, "Wow, there's this town in the middle of
nowhere with tons of transsexuals in it?" It was built up with all
this mythology created around it.
Raval: It sounded like a town where you walk down the street and
there's transgender women everywhere. We saw articles that made
claims that there were size-12 pumps in all the stores and lots of
big women clothing stores all over.
Was there a lot of de-mystification once you got there?
Raval: Absolutely.
Hodges: We contacted Marci Bowers, the main surgeon in the film, and
she invited us out to check it out and to talk in person. Our first
trip was about five days in 2004.
Raval: It was initially a "research trip," but we brought our cameras
and started shooting a little bit, met people and got the feel for
the town. What interested us is that there really is this universal
idea of acceptance and self-expression, which is something everyone
goes through. This is just a particular form of it.
Hodges: Usually this subject is treated voyeuristically.
Raval: We were coming at it as personal stories, portraits of these
women and what they've gone through to express who they are.
Hodges: We shot over two and a half years and spent about four months
out there, so we really got to know the characters, and they opened
up to us and let us in.
With the pickups, strong religious foundation and cowboy culture,
there seem to be parallels between Trinidad and, say, any small town
in Texas. Except, of course, for the transgender population.
Hodges: I grew up partly in West Texas and I was, like, "There's no
way this could possibly happen there!" But it's been part of
Trinidad's landscape for more than 30 years.
Raval: It's a small town and everyone has a stereotype about a small
town, especially in America. That intrigued us. It defied the
stereotype of small-town America. Generally you think of that as very
conservative, very unaccepting.
Yet you show that side of the town in the film. Some of the interview
subjects express distaste.
Raval: The question is: Can people coexist? And they do. That's what
we set out to explore. Fine, we meet these people who say they're
very religious and have a very specific value system. But does that
mean they're going to actively impose their thoughts on someone else
in the town? For the most part they don't. They're respectful.
Hodges: It's "live and let live." We heard that a lot: "Trinidad's a
live and let live place."
Raval: "To each their own." "Who's to say?" We heard that one a lot,
too.
What did you learn about people and life making the film? Any
epiphanies?
Hodges: That my problems are really minor. (Laughs) I learned a lot
of confidence from the women. They're incredibly strong people who've
been through a lot. Look at Sabrina, who's been knocked down time
after time. But she's still great, happy and confident.
Raval: They're incredible women who inspire both of us. They really
know who they are and are committed to finding out who they are. They
understand what the consequences are, but they also understand the
importance of expressing yourself and being true to yourself.
Something that's a little sad is how most of the transgender patients
are deep into middle-age and only now fulfilling their dream of
complete transformation.
Raval: I think that all of them tried for several years to suppress
what was in them.
Hodges: Sabrina actually says in the film that when she met her wife,
she told her she was a cross-dresser. It became more of an identity
issue, not just something she did on the side.
Raval: They come from a different age and generation. Transsexual and
transgender issues are at the forefront now. You can read about kids
who are 12 or 13 who identify themselves like that. There's a greater
understanding of it, and people like Marci, Laura and Sabrina are out
there educating people. That's something we're hoping to do with the
documentary. Transgenders are part of every community. All the women
in the movie were fathers, husbands, brothers. It's not like a small
community tucked away somewhere. This is someone you might actually
know.
'Trinidad'
SCREENING
'Trinidad' screens at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Alamo Ritz (320 E. Sixth
St.). Directors Jay Hodges, below left, and PJ Raval will be there.
The 21st annual Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival
When: Wednesday through Sept. 7
Where: Alamo Ritz, 320 E. Sixth St.
Cost: $10 per movie; all-access badges and film passes are also
available
Information: www.agliff.org
--
Copyright 2008 The Austin American-Statesman.
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| | Topic: Thank You! |
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| Thank You! [message #37025] |
Tue, 22 July 2008 19:34 |
Derrie
Messages: 21579
Registered: October 2007 |
Senior Member
BL3D
Chief Instigator
First Officer |
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Well......the New Beginnings page finally got a little action.
About time.
Ok Peps....we need to keep a little action going on out here.
It's our "Face" on the web......
There are people out there seeking answers.....
WE have them.
Let's get their attention.
If YOU are new to this site.....stick around.
Questions? Stress? Anxiety? This is the place to find comfort..
This is where I found hope.....you can to.
Show Up
Don't Worry
Bring Your Sense of Humor!
[Updated on: Fri, 23 April 2010 10:17]
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| | Topic: Rebirth: A Transgendering Surgery Creates a New Life |
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| Rebirth: A Transgendering Surgery Creates a New Life [message #34860] |
Fri, 20 June 2008 16:59 |
| Anonymous |
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If you like astrology, you may be interested in this:
http://ayurastro.com/astrology/?p=28
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| | Topic: Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. |
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| | Topic: Being whom but just being you thats what it's all about ? |
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| Being whom but just being you thats what it's all about ? [message #23315] |
Mon, 17 March 2008 17:45 |
Diana
Messages: 1089
Registered: October 2007
Location: Colorado |
Senior Member
BL3D
BLF Moderator |
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How do you feel about yourself?
How do you feel about others?
Really do you really care and you should?
What do you feel about life in general?
I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)
The New Seekers
You know are you hiding within yourself I know I did for many years so now its time to come out and celebrate but for everyone so enjoy be apart of everyone both new and old and that includes you!!!
I'd like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love!!!!!!
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves!!!!!
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony!!!!!
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company
I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And hear them echo through the hills "Ah, peace throughout the land"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(That's the song I hear)
I'd like to teach the world to sing (that the world sings today)
In perfect harmony
(Lead singer and background singers singing simultaneously)
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
Id like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves
Sorry but it is the real thing about what but all of us so lets all just love and be caring about one and everyone!!!!
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| | Topic: A pointed reminder |
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| A pointed reminder [message #3400] |
Wed, 07 November 2007 15:54 |
Nicole_Joy
Messages: 436
Registered: October 2007
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA |
Senior Member |
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About three months ago, an author at BigCloset-Topshelf was killed in an accident. Monday, her partner/spouse posted a question to the site, trying to understand.
The post, plus some on-line responses, is here.
It's a pointed reminder that letting family know what we're struggling with is important.
And yes, I'm putting myself on the "Talk to them, silly girl!" list.
Nicole Joy
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| | Forum: Casa BL.....the Fashion Forum |
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| Topic: Sex, lies and media: New wave of activists challenge notions of beauty |
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| Sex, lies and media: New wave of activists challenge notions of beauty [message #158972] |
Sat, 10 March 2012 01:17 |
Katie
Messages: 14663
Registered: October 2007
Location: La La Land |
Senior Member
Administrator
Bitch Queen of Palolo
BL3D
Frequent Flyer |
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| Quote: | (CNN) -- Here's the fantasy: A half-naked women lies across a couch, lips pouty and cleavage prominent as her sultry gaze implores you to buy this bottle of perfume.
The reality: Women make up 51% of the United States yet only 17% of seats in the House of Representatives. They're 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs and 7% of directors in the top 250 grossing films.
What's the connection? We live in a sexualized society where the gap between fantasy and reality is vast and harmful, director and activist Jennifer Siebel-Newsom says.
"Women are aspiring to do great things in leadership, yet the glass ceiling is still there because of the way media depict women," Siebel-Newsom said. "It influences our culture and dictates our gender norms and values."
Siebel-Newsom's documentary, Miss Representation, is the latest cinematic foray in the movement to challenge portrayals of beauty in "the media," a term used to describe all forms of mass communication, from the internet, TV, film, magazines, radio and advertising.
It may sound like some tired feminist rant to anyone who grew up with a smartphone. In fact, women are objectified more than ever, experts say, thanks to a constant barrage of images from all forms of media, many of them connecting products to a pair of breasts and a coy smile.
"The number of images out there means advertisers have a much more difficult time breaking through the clutter, causing the content to be much more violent and sexualized to get consumers' attention," said Occidental University associate professor Caroline Heldman, who specializes in media, gender and race.
"Meanwhile, the research to come out in the last 10 years shows just how damaging this idea of self-objectification is, the idea that your value of self-worth is dependent on the amount of sexual attractiveness you have to the outside world."
Amid the noise, modern-day watchdogs are emerging online and behind the camera to create their own brand of fast-tracked social activism. Documentaries like Miss Representation and the America the Beautiful series start discussions on the big screen and drive audiences to social media to keep it going.
"We're part of a larger movement that's been ebbing and flowing over time. But what I think is propelling us is the fact that people are fed up," Siebel-Newsom said. "They know media is everywhere, and it's communicating hyper-sexualized, pornified images at an unprecedented rate, and they're fed up with the status quo."
It's not just a woman's issue, she said. It's a topic that resonates with fathers and brothers of little girls, with boys and young men who don't want to conform to macho standards on the other side of the coin.
Since airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network in November, MIss Representation has evolved into a call-to-arms with more than 50,000 Facebook fans and 2,268 "social action representatives" as far away as Israel and Pakistan. They receive weekly action alerts on how to spread the message, from calling out sexist Super Bowl ads on social media under the hashtag #notbuyingit or talking to men in their lives about the social impact of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
The catalyst is the film itself, which has been screened more than 700 times since November in 46 states and 25 countries in venues from schools, homes and bakeries to the World Bank headquarters and Britain's House of Parliament. More than 2,000 schools have purchased curricula based on the film for classroom discussions.
The short-term goal is to create media literacy so that even if ideals of beauty don't change, we change how we react to them. The bigger goal is policy reform on several fronts, from stricter regulation of images proliferating mainstream media to labor policies that allow mothers or fathers to stay in the workforce and care for their families at the same time.
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appears in the film Miss Representation.
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appears in the film Miss Representation.
While Miss Representation connects the media's impact to leadership, another documentary examines its influence on perceptions of health and body image.
As with beauty, they're not always accurate, says Darryl Roberts, the director behind the America the Beautiful series. His second film, The Thin Commandments, follows his progress as he explores a variety of fad diets in an effort to lose weight and lower his body-mass index, or BMI.
Along his journey, Roberts speaks with dietitians, dieters and politicians including Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to get the skinny on whether it's possible to be overweight and healthy, exploring "the fallacy of BMI." Under its formula, LeBron James, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Christian Bale are all obese, he claims.
Like Miss Representation, Roberts is spreading his message in screenings across the country, mostly on college campuses, followed by a panel discussion.
A recent screening at Atlanta's Emory University drew mostly women, many of whom revealed in the Q&A session that they'd struggled with eating disorders in an effort to look good. One women disclosed that she had an eating disorder throughout her years as an Emory student.
"It's kind of surreal to be here watching this movie in the same auditorium where I had a lot of my classes while I was sick," the woman said, voice trembling. "I just want to thank you for making this movie. More people need to see it."
Roberts takes pride in the cathartic quality of his film. Attendees often have a personal connection to the topic, which means displays of emotion at the screening are fairly frequent.
"I enjoy connecting with people on an emotional level through a common passion to change the status quo." he said. "We have to stop looking at these quick fix tools and start looking at health crisis."
Other forms of social commentary take a lighter tack. Jesse Rosten, a California-based commercial director and filmmaker, was flipping through channels one sleepless night when he came across a beauty product infomercial. The spot featured before and after photos of models, but to him, they looked like the same photo photoshopped. Et voila, he had an idea for a video spoof.
It took about a day to shoot with friends and a few more weeks for him to edit in his free time. It didn't take long for his fake commercial Fotoshop by Adobé to go viral after he posted it on vimeo in January. It was shared multiple times on Miss Representation's Facebook wall and now has 3.5 million views.
"There's some obvious social commentary in the video, but my No. 1 goal was to make people laugh," Rosten said in an e-mail. "I'm kind of a snarky guy, and I'm happy that I've been able to use that snark to spread an important message: Go easy on yourself. We are all human, and it's OK to look like a human. Nobody will ever measure up to a beauty ideal that is, literally, physically impossible."
Digital alteration is a hot button issue within media activism. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty highlighted the practice in its groundbreaking viral video, Evolution, which showed the transformation of a woman into a model with rounds of makeup, grooming and a bit of digital cheek shaving. Since then, numerous sites and blogs featuring retouched ads and editorial spreads have emerged, as consumers grow more aware of the practice.
Recently, a bill introduced in Arizona's House of Representatives proposed requiring advertisers to add a disclaimer on digitally altered photos. The proposed legislation is modeled after laws in Britain, where the Advertising Standards Authority monitors companies for egregious acts of Photoshopping. It also has the power to ban ads.
Miss Representation brings all these threads together and connects them to politics, highlighting the media's treatment of women in the 2008 election coverage, the year in which Michelle Obama was called a "slut," Sarah Palin "masturbation material" and Hillary Clinton a "haggard"-looking 90-year-old.
The connection has added relevance in the current election cycle, especially when female representation in American politics is at its lowest since 1970, said media critic Jean Kilbourne, who first began examining images of women in media in the 1960s.
"We are hurting because we don't have more female politicians. It's very important for people to be aware of the connection between the degrading images around us and the fact that it's so difficult for women to be taken seriously as politicians," said Kilborne, whose renowned film series, Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women, has been remade four times since the 1970s.
Kilbourne and other leaders in media activism appear in Miss Representation along with Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson, Condoleeza Rice, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Gloria Steinem and Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker to make the argument at the heart of the media activist movement, that society measures a woman's value by her physical attractiveness and not in her capacity for leadership.
By weaving together slick montages of babes in bikinis and reality TV catfights with hard-hitting stats and interviews, the film is a crash course in media literacy for the Internet generation.
"It's a good 101 for how sexism in media affects women across the board, whether those women are high school girls dealing with eating disorders or women trying to be effective politicians and facing media coverage that focuses more on their hair and clothes than policy positions," said journalist and media critic Jennifer Pozner, founder of Women In Media & News.
Indeed, clips of pundits on mainstream news outlets endlessly disparaging Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin drew audible gasps at a recent screening at Auburn University in Alabama.
Most members of the packed audience were there for class credit and free Chik-fil-A. Freshman Allie Mullen already had seen the film and wanted to share it with her Delta Gamma sorority sisters.
"It's crazy to see how imbalanced it is. We have 87% of the buying power yet we still don't really have a voice," said Mullen, 18.
The foursome admitted to their fair share of obsessing over appearance and putting in extra hours at the gym to prepare for spring break. They were guilty of secretly hating the girl who had the looks, the boyfriend and the high GPA, even though she'd done nothing to them.
One of the girls related to Siebel-Newsom's experience of being told to take her Stanford MBA off her resume while she sought acting gigs. For a while, 18-year-old Leanne Fouts stopped telling guys she was a civil engineering major.
"They'd be like, 'no way, a girl?' It just seemed easier to not say anything," she said. "The movie made me think about how I have to change the way I act and the image I project if I'm going to affect how others see me."
Actor Rosario Dawson appears in the film Miss Representation.
Actor Rosario Dawson appears in the film Miss Representation.
While it may take years for the film to create a real impact at the policy level, for now progress occurs one person at a time.
Hilary Tone has already seen results. After seeing the film on the Oprah Winfrey Network, she felt empowered to send a letter to the editor of "Washingtonian" magazine to criticize its use of a naked woman on the cover. A few weeks later, her boyfriend pointed out that her letter had been published in the magazine.
"People who ignore unrealistic portrayals of women are just as guilty as those who propagate them because you're not doing anything about it," said Tone, who received Miss Representation's weekly action newsletters. "But there are simple things I can do to make a difference."
From there, she was on a roll. On Super Bowl Sunday, she took up the challenge to call out commercials she found offensive. GoDaddy.com, Teleflora, Kia and Fiat turned out to be the big offenders of the evening.
"I've always been vocal about my views. Ask any of my friends. But online, I was more reserved for fear of offending someone or saying the wrong thing. I guess I've just stopped being apologetic, the 26-year-old Alexandria, Virginia, woman said.
"Since I've stopped worrying, I'm finding that I get a lot more 'likes,' comments and shares. More of my female friends are taking notice, and are sharing what I share, sometimes copying my captions verbatim, liking new pages and organizations, especially Miss Representation, and are generally more in tune with these issues than they were before. Or maybe they were before, and they were just too afraid to speak up, like I was."
None of this implies the film is complete. While MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow shares an anecdote about receiving vitriolic hate mail for being a lesbian, otherwise, race and sexuality are scarcely discussed.
That didn't stop Isis Yisare, a black lesbian, from hosting a screening in Seattle through Sistah Sinema, a movie night she started a year ago dedicated to showing black women in lesbian roles.
"I definitely feel like if women are negatively portrayed in the media, black queer women have that much more to overcome," said Yisare, who organized a screening in January in a bookstore owned by two black lesbians.
"If your value is based on sexual attractiveness and youth, and now you add in being queer, you're not sexually available to men, you may not fit the stereotypical definition of beauty, you become worthless and don't exist in society and don't bring anything to society."
It would be better if the film addressed those dual handicaps, but their absence doesn't discredit the film, she said.
"Miss Representation articulates steps on how we as women can overcome burdens. That's a message worth sharing regardless of your race or sexual orientation."
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http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/09/living/beauty-media-miss-repre sentation/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
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| | Topic: Life-size Barbie has 39" bust, 18" waist: |
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| | Topic: Givenchy Puts Transsexual Model In Fall Ad Campaign (PHOTOS) |
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| | Topic: Lea T., Transsexual Model, Talks Sex Change & The Night She Found Herself |
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| Lea T., Transsexual Model, Talks Sex Change & The Night She Found Herself [message #120134] |
Fri, 12 November 2010 17:12 |
Teresa
Messages: 9342
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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Lea T., Transsexual Model, Talks Sex Change & The Night She Found Herself
First Posted: 08- 3-10 01:21 PM | Updated: 10- 3-10 05:12 AM
Lea T., the star of Givenchy's autumn/winter ad campaign, recently opened up to several magazines and newspapers about being a transsexual supermodel, even posing nude in French Vogue "in the name of all my transsexual friends" (NSFW photos here). The Guardian UK traced Lea's rise to the top, from her birth as Leandro in 1981 in Belo Horizonte Brazil to soccer hero Toninho Cerezo and a Catholic family to becoming Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy's muse.
According to the Guardian a Rio gossip column contacted Cerezo and reported, "We got in touch with the former star but, irritated, he limited himself to saying that he had four children, one of them called Leandro...When asked if the boy had starred in the Givenchy campaign, Cerezo hung up the phone." However, Lea's brother Gustavo said, "It's Lea's success, not the family's. All I will say is that we are on her side and we support her."
The Guardian also reports that:
In the Vanity Fair interview, moreover, [Lea] said she "never spoke directly" to her father about undergoing the hormone treatment that will, eventually, give her the body of a woman. Conversation, she said, was limited to trivialities.
Lea has credited Tisci with her ability to be comfortable with herself. She remembered for French Vogue, "One night [Tisci] encouraged me to wear pumps to a party. We went shopping for 'drag queen' shoes and we bleached my eyebrows. It was a revelation."
ABC News reports that Lea is set to undergo a full sex change from male to female and is currently undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Lea told June's Italian Vanity Fair, "The choice is between being unhappy forever or trying to be happy."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/03/lea-t-transsexual-m odel-t_n_669027.html
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| | Topic: Lea T, Transsexual Model, Scores Magazine Cover (PHOTO) |
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| Lea T, Transsexual Model, Scores Magazine Cover (PHOTO) [message #120133] |
Fri, 12 November 2010 17:03 |
Teresa
Messages: 9342
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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Lea T, Transsexual Model, Scores Magazine Cover (PHOTO)
Posted: 11-12-10 04:30 PM
Transsexual model Lea T, best-known for her work with Givenchy, nabbed the next the cover of Lurve magazine. She's clad in one of Ricardo Tisci's latest designs.
Lea started off as Tisci's personal assistant and fit model, and has always credited him with her ability to be comfortable with herself. She once recalled to for French Vogue, "One night [Tisci] encouraged me to wear pumps to a party. We went shopping for 'drag queen' shoes and we bleached my eyebrows. It was a revelation."
(Via Models.com)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/12/lea-t-transsexual-m odel-s_n_782955.html
Attachment: LEA-T.jpg
(Size: 60.81KB, Downloaded 1965 time(s))
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| | Topic: from-a-beautiful-woman-to-a-plastic-surgery-addict |
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| | Topic: 'Top Model' contestant to walk runway for children's hospital benefit |
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| 'Top Model' contestant to walk runway for children's hospital benefit [message #119427] |
Fri, 05 November 2010 16:45 |
Teresa
Messages: 9342
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
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'Top Model' contestant to walk runway for children's hospital benefit
Prince George's native makes time to support cause that hits home
Isis King, a Prince George's native who appeared on America's Next Top Model, will hit the runway as part of Catwalk
For A Cause. (Tony Veloz, Baltimore Sun / November 7, 2010)
By John-John Williams IV, The Baltimore Sun
November 7, 2010
Isis King is usually fielding questions about being the first transgender contestant named as a finalist on "America's Next Top Model," the time she spent as a homeless teen, or even about her latest hairstyle -- she recently switched to a fire-engine red hairdo.
Somehow, the heart-wrenching story about the death of her baby sister, Channel, gets lost in the shuffle.
One-year-old Channel died in 1992 after being born with her organs on the outside of her body. She required a number of medical procedures during her short life, King explained.
"They couldn't save her," she said.
King immediately thought about Channel when she was asked to participate in Catwalk For A Cause, a series of fashion shows sponsored by KIS Agency, an Annapolis-based events management and promotions company.
Each fashion show benefits a different cause. Proceeds from the Nov. 14 event, which will be held at the Tremont Hotel, will help support Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore.
"I have a special place in my heart when it comes to children," said King, a Prince George's County native who now lives in New York City as she pursues a career as an actress, fashion designer, and other artistic endeavors. "Helping children and giving them the proper medical information is really important."
King will headline more than 60 models during the fashion show that will feature 11 designers, and a 55-foot-long runway. Davanna Brooker, a 10-year-old modeling phenom who appeared on "America's Next Top Model" two seasons ago, will also be in the show. Booker is also known as "Davanna Diva" or "Baby Naomi (Campbell)" because of her strong runway walk.
"This is a show in Baltimore, but it is not a quote-unquote Baltimore show," said Lana Rae, event organizer. "And it's all for a great cause. You can't ask for anything more."
Rae, the mother of two children, said that the Children's Center made sense to her.
"I'm lucky," she said. "My children are healthy and beautiful. I don't know what I would do if something happened to them... . This is a great cause. Johns Hopkins does a great job. I couldn't' think of anything better."
The event will fund items typically not covered by insurance, such as clothing for children in the Pediatric Emergency Department, programs and camps for children with chronic illnesses, meal tickets for families in need who come to the center unexpectedly, and support groups for cancer patients and their families.
Johns Hopkins Children Center has been open since 1912, and typically treats 120,000 children each year. The hospital runs the gamut of services and attracts patients from across the globe.
"We see it all," said Kristen Porter, assistant director of development for Johns Hopkins. "We see the sickest of the sickest children."
Third party unrestrictive funds, which are the items not typically covered by insurance, are dependent on charity events such as Catwalk for a Cause, Porter said.
"It is our bread and butter," she said about the funds. "It is very important to us. We appreciate anyone who is willing to do such an event."
King is excited to help out with the cause and to return to Maryland for a fashion show.
"Of course it is a fashion show, but by me showing my support hopefully others will show their support," King said.
john-john.williams@baltsun.com
Copyright © 2010, The Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bs-gl-goodworks-isis-20 101107,0,1925887.story
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| | Topic: Cher Talks Politics, Transgender Son In Vanity Fair |
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| Cher Talks Politics, Transgender Son In Vanity Fair [message #119171] |
Wed, 03 November 2010 09:16 |
Teresa
Messages: 9342
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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Cher Talks Politics, Transgender Son In Vanity Fair
11/3/2010 10:10 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Cher has opened up about her daughter Chastity's decision to change genders and live out her life as Chaz Bono. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the "Turn Back Time" star also speaks out against a few of her least favorite political figures.
"If I woke up tomorrow in a guy's body, I would kick and scream and cry and f***ing rob a bank, because I cannot see myself as anything but who I am - a girl. I would not take it as well as Chaz has. I couldn't imagine it," Cher says in the interview.
She adds that while she completely supports Chaz's lifestyle, there has been a period of adjustment.
"Well, she's a very smart girl -- boy! This is where I get into trouble. My pronouns are f***ed. I still don't remember to call her 'him.' She's really cool about it -- such an easygoing person," Cher adds.
She continues on to confess her dislike for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Cher admits that the last presidential election had her glued to the television.
"I got so obsessed with it that it was kind of interfering with my life. Sarah Palin came on and I thought, Oh, f***, this is the end. Because a dumb woman is a dumb woman."
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/EntertainmentNews.aspx?Sectio n=2&Id=1467759&SM=1
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| | Topic: Vintage looks |
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| | Topic: A couple of resourses |
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| | Topic: What's this all about? |
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| What's this all about? [message #86923] |
Mon, 25 January 2010 18:24 |
Hilary
Messages: 5534
Registered: October 2007
Location: 2, Camberwick Green, Trum... |
Senior Member
BL Administrator (Retired)
BL3d |
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This is a public forum intended to be a place to post fashion thoughts. It is open to members and non members; anonymous posting is fine.
Copy and paste links and pictures to well know magazines and news items but please give them full credits if possible.
Posts can be TS or not; just remember a good women needs a good wardrobe.
Otherwise the usual BL rules apply. Enjoy.
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