Like I Knew I Would

The full list of how MPs voted - or were absent from the vote - on Bill C-279, the Bill to protect trans*folks in Canada.

transfeminism:

Tatiana Pineros (Photo-Publimetro.com)

THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — The newly elected mayor of Bogota, Colombia has appointed trans woman Tatiana Pineros to lead the city’s social welfare agency. As head of one of the largest government agencies in the Colombia, Pineros will oversee a couple thousand employees and a budget running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. This position will make Pineros be among the most powerful non-elected government officials in Colombia.

Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro: “[Pineros’ appointment] is a sign this mayoral administration recognizes diversity and doesn’t discriminate based on sexual orientation, ethnicity or age.”

The lack of religious backlash against the appointment from the country’s mostly Catholic population  indicates a gradual acceptance of trans and GLB people holding high office in Colombia and other Latin American countries.

pflagmom:

I often get asked about resources and information suggestions and I have this listed on my main page. I thought I’d post it all here so readers will be aware of exactly what I have available. Hope you find some things that are helpful for your situations.

Education and Advocacy

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is a national non-profit organization with over 200,000 members and supporters and over 500 affiliates in the United States. This vast grassroots network is cultivated, resourced and serviced by the PFLAG National Office, located in Washington, D.C., the national Board of Directors and 13 Regional Directors.

While PFLAG provides support, education, and advocacy for the whole LGBT community, PFLAG’s Transgender Network – or TNET – specifically focuses on support for transgender people and their parents, families, and friends. It provides education on some issues unique to the transgender community, and focuses on issue advocacy to ensure equal rights for the transgender community at local and national levels.

PFLAG group in Greensboro, NC. They have a lot of great information on their site.

Trans Youth Family Allies, educating families of transgender children and their schools, about safe supportive environments for these children.

Children’s National Medical Center (Gender Variance Issues Research)

The Family Acceptance Project™ is the only community research, intervention, education and policy initiative that works to decrease major health and related risks for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth, such as suicide, substance abuse, HIV and homelessness – in the context of their families. We use a research-based, culturally grounded approach to help ethnically, socially and religiously diverse families decrease rejection and increase support for their LGBT children.  

Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) this organization works to end bullying and support GLBTQ and ally youth in school settings

Safe Schools Coalition is another group that works to prevent bullying and create a safe environment for all of our children.

School Bullying: to report it in Missouri - School Violence Hotline

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a wonderful resource for legal problems you may encounter. They help people with safe schools, anti-bullying, and generally can give advice on your rights in various situations.

HeartStrong (HeartStrong is a truly unique organization. You will not find another place solely for students from religious educational institutions who are struggling with feeling that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT).)

National Center for Transgender Equality (The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people)

The Trevor Project 866-488-7386 (866 4-U-TREVOR) Suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth

TransHealth article from UCSF 4/11

The Art of Transliness: Advice on Life for the Modern Transman (two transmen sharing a large variety of information- my son Zak is a co-moderator)

Transboys (two transmen share their personal stories)

PROMO (Missouri’s statewide organization advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality through legislative action, electoral politics, grassroots organizing, and community education)

All Mixed Up: Madeline H. Wyndzen, Ph. D., a transgender professor of psychology, discusses her personal experiences with gender dysphoria and critiques the mental illness model of “gender identity disorder”.

EX-GAY, reparative therapy- the truth about it, the dangerous truth. RESOURCES

nonfictionalgender:

acrosstheborderofmyheart:

Before Tom Forrister transitioned to male, no one asked him to fix a broken car or a jammed printer. Now he’s the go-to guy.

“I’m in the computer lab on campus, absorbed in a project. I don’t notice the pretty commuter student ask me a question until she’s practically in my lap. When I look up, I realize I’m the only guy in the lab.

‘Do you know anything about computers?’ she says, her voice rising in a flirtatious lilt before her smile turns into a slight pout. ‘My paper won’t print.’

I glance to my left. The woman next to me seems to know her way around a computer, typing away furiously at complicated Java code that to my eyes reads as a migraine-inducing page of scrambled symbols. Another young woman, far down the row of machines, looks like she works here. She is busy helping another student.

I slide back in my chair. ‘I’ll do what I can, but there are probably people here who know more about this stuff than I do.’ She flashes a wry smile, like she doesn’t believe me. She has every confidence that I, the only male in the room, can solve her printer problem.

This is not the first time I’ve been singled out since transitioning. It even happens with people who knew me before and after the physical changes began to take effect. As a young woman, coworkers and friends never asked for my advice on anything mechanical or technology-related.

After I began to appear more masculine, these same friends suddenly started requesting my assistance in many areas in the field of ‘man jobs’: car trouble, broken copy machine, wiring lighting in an apartment, even plumbing.

I am still the same person inside, with the same skills and abilities as before, but society’s expectations have dramatically changed based on my ‘new’ gender.”

I liked this article, and I’ve had the exact opposite of this happen to me.

I can fix almost anything that’s wrong with a computer and I have taken apart and reassembled all three of my laptops, but people tend to assume I’m just some girl who is technologically inept and can hardly type a word document. And I can weld three different ways, have actually used a forge and anvil…and I’ve had guys offer to help me use a box cutter. A safety box cutter.

On the other hand, while my transition hasn’t changed my knowledge or skills, ithas changed my physical strength, which in turn has changed some of what I can and can’t do. For better or worse, for me to be able to operate comfortably in society, I have to buy into some of the biases and stereotypes that exist, and that’s okay - sometimes I enjoy it when a guy offers to lift something heavy. It tells me I’m being perceived as female.

As Tom says, gender is both social and biological, and these aspects of gender are entwined in a way that is not easy to separate. Some social biases have arisen from biological differences, but over time have grown to become plain condescending to both genders. Can my small arm reach behind this book shelf? Yes. Can I lift that air conditioner? Probably not. But does that mean any woman’s arm should be able to reach behind that bookshelf? Of course not. Does that mean no woman can lift that air conditioner? Absolutely not.

To overcome stereotypes, you have to respect and acknowledge the individual. That boy over there might not be able to lift that air conditioner and that’s okay. It doesn’t reflect on his value or masculinity at all. That girl over there might not be able to fit her arm behind this shelf and that’s okay, too. It doesn’t reflect on her personal worth or femininity at all. But when it comes to me and this air conditioner, right now, the fact is that no matter how hard I try, I might not be able to lift it, and I’ll need help. And needing help is okay. And so is giving help. What’s not okay is assuming that I’ll need help just because I am a woman. Help is okay, patronizing, condescending, and sexist assumptions are not and that applies to both gender’s assumptions about the other gender.

I really liked the conciseness and simpleness of this post.  It reflects a lot of my own transition experience of ways in which I knew I was being perceived as a guy (as opposed to a butch lesbian; I have no idea how really femme women are treated).

(Source: jezebel.com)

The California state Senate Tuesday passed the Gender Nondiscrimination Act to strengthen existing protections against discrimination based on gender identity and expression, with the bill headed to Gov. Jerry Brown next for his signature.