Sarah McBride TEDx Talk

I met Sarah McBride during the 2012 NBJC Out of the Hill conference when she was a White House intern and I was there for a policy briefing being conducted by the Obama Administration.

I remember saying to Laverne Cox and Janet Mock that day this young woman was going to do great things for our community, and she has lived up to that prediction.

She now running for a seat in the Delaware State Senate, and if she's successful next year, she will become the first out trans person ever elected as a state senator.

This is a 2016 TEDx talk she was part of in which she expounds on the subject that the gender assigned to us at birth should not dictate who we are.

  

Kansas Trans People Suing State For Right To Change Birth Certificates

Kansas is one of three states  (Ohio and Tennessee are the other two) that obstinately refuse to allow trans people born there  to change their birth certificates under any circumstances. 

It's BS, so four Kansas trans residents filed a federal lawsuit on October 15 to change that unjust policy.   I was happy to discover but not surprised to find out that two of the four people suing are my Kansas based BTAC fam in Luc Bensimon and Nyla Foster

The lawsuit argues that the Kansas policy violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution.   It's also arguing that the policy violates the plaintiff's free speech rights.

The other plaintiffs in the suit are a transperson person identified as C.K., Jessica Hicklin, and the Kansas Statewide Education project (K-STEP)

The defendants are Jeff Anderson, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment; Elizabeth W. Saadi, the Kansas state registrar; and Kay Haug, director of the state’s vital statistics office, a unit of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Bensimon said the state's unjust policy made it easier for people to discriminate against him, “on top of the discrimination I already confront based on my disability.”

“I’m here to seek justice,” said Nyla Foster, a transgender woman and one of the plaintiffs. “My birth certificate does not reflect the gender I identify as, and I’m here to correct it so I can move forward with my life.”|

At a press conference in front of the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas, Lambda legal attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan explained why it was challenging the state's transphobic documentation stance.

"A birth certificate is more than a piece of paper.It's the quintessential identity document that follows a person from birth to death.  It must reflect a person's identity."

Gonzales-Pagan also pointed out that birth certificates can determine access to education, employment, healthcare, travel and impact the ability to obtain other identity documents.

Good luck to you in overturning this unjust policy.  Thanks Lambda Legal for having our backs again.

More Chromosomes Than Just XX and XY

Lately I've been hearing this talking point from the evilgelicals and the transphobically illiterate that goes 'you can't change your DNA'.   The other variant of it they like to throw is 'you can't change your chromosomes'.

They will then follow those initial attack comments up by saying, "If you have XX chromosomes, you are a woman.  If you have XY chromosomes, you are a man."

Not so fast my transphobic friends.   Humans come in far more chromosomal varieties than XX and XY.   There;s XO, XXY, XYY, XXYY, XXXY, XY/XO, XX/XO, XX/XY....

Biology is not a nice, neat binary.

And that's before I get to blow your feeble minds by pointing out an intersex condition that occurs in one in every 20,000 births called androgen insensitivity syndrome that ends up producing women with XY chromosomes like my homegirl Alicia.

She blew some minds in the Texas Lege last year when they were trying to pass SB 6 and came out as intersex     So when you faith based fools ignorantly assert that 'women have XX chromosomes', not all women do.

Another FYI for you scientifically illiterate peeps.  Medical science is rapidly advancing to the point where humans will be able to edit the DNA code in vitro and create 'designer babies'.

Chinese genetics researcher He Jiankui has claimed he helped create the first gene edited babies.  That news is causing controversy in the international scientific community.

So there goes your 'you can't change your DNA' talking point.

That's why I and other scientifically literate peeps in Trans World laugh at you transphobes and call you ignorant when you start spouting those inaccurate talking points.

We know that our trans lives are not subject to debate.  We know better than anybody that gender is between your ears, not your legs.  We also know that the scientific research backing this point up is increasingly on our side as well. 

We also know that science and biology blow up whatever faith based lies you come up with.

20 Years To The 'F' On My License

One of the necessary tasks that we embark on during a gender transition is changing our identity documents to make them match the person we are.    It is a costly and time consuming process to get the name, gender markers and other identity documents changed, and how fast it happens depends in large part on how much money you have in your wallet or purse to do so.

When I started my transition in 1994, money wasn't a problem.   I was an airline employee making a nice living, so it was just a matter of getting the process started and if I incurred fees for doing so, reaching into my purse, pulling out my wallet and pulling out the cash to cover it.

But I also didn't think at the time I started the process it would take me nearly 20 years and living in two states to complete it.

I started with getting my Social Security card changed in 1998 since it is pretty much next to your drivers license a de facto national ID card. While the Social Security Administration won't change the SSN number for numerous reasons, they will change the gender marker and name on it.  

Since Clinton was president when I did so, it was a no drama situation.   During GW Bush's presidency, a problem arose with the SSA starting in 2002 to send 'No Match' letters that had the effect of outing trans people to their employers.

My next task was my Texas voter registration card.   I was determined to be voting in the upcoming 2000 presidential election as Moni, and I successfully completed that in October 2000 just a month before that election.  .Little did I know at the time that less than three months after I got that voter registration changed that I would be bounced from that airline job I'd been at for 14 years and was planning to retire from.

It was a seismic change to my life and my finances, and I now had to adjust to making half of the $40K a year I was making.   While I was upset about it at the time, the September 2001 move to Louisville produced an unexpected blessing that happened two weeks after I moved there.

In Kentucky the name change process in Jefferson County where I now lived was a simple, one page administrative form in which I filled out the info, swore it was accurate and true, and when I was done signed it and paid my then $10 fee.  It was then mailed to me a few days later stamped and signed by the court.

However, while my name now was officially Monica, the only way the gender marker was getting changed under Kentucky law at the time was if I had a 'gender altering surgery'.  Because of my loss of the airline job and using the money I'd saved for surgery to pay bills in the six months I was unemployed in Texas prior to the move to Kentucky, SRS had now become a back burner luxury item

I knew I was going to need to change my birth certificate and file the name change I'd received in Kentucky back in Texas, but that also got put on the back burner as I spent time getting adjusted to my life in Da Ville and dealing with far less discretionary income in my bank account.

I moved back to Houston in May 2010 to help take care of my grandmother, but that still meant that my income was limited to deal with the paperwork issue.  I still had my Kentucky drivers license in my possession that wasn't expiring until June 2013 with correct name but wrong gender marker, but my Texas voter registration was correct.  

But two events in June 2013 would galvanize me to get serious about completing my documentation and infuse it with a sense of urgency.   The unjust ruling in the Shelby vs Holder SCOTUS case gutting Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act meant that the unjust Texas voter suppression law could be enforced, and if I wanted to vote in the upcoming November Houston city elections, I now needed a Texas drivers license.  

We also had a family reunion coming up in Denver in June, when my Kentucky license was scheduled to expire.  That process to simply renew my license in the time I'd been away from Texas had been made more difficult by our Texas GOP majority and it took me nine months to get my Texas drivers license.   I also spent a very nervous trip every time it was my turn to get behind the wheel on our 1700 mile drive to that reunion that took us across Texas through Dallas, Oklahoma, Kansas and eastern Colorado to get to Denver and back

The urgency to have the Texas driver's license in my possession before the November Houston mayoral election did force me to get moving on filing my Kentucky name change in Austin.  I ended up as a result of that nine month Lone Star bureaucracy battle with a new Texas birth certificate and a TDL with correct name but incorrect gender markers.

But it was a driver's license I didn't receive until two months after the election in January 2014, which meant I was voter suppressed out of it..

Fast forward to the 2016 election, the next event that ratcheted up my concern for finishing the process I'd started in 1998.  Because I'm a frequent flier, I was also getting tired of showing my mismatched ID at TSA security and other locations and getting jacked up at times because of it.

But as a native Texan, I was going to need to go to court to change that gender marker, and in Harris County, many of our judges are Republicans who routinely deny name changes to trans people.   Thanks to the blue wave that swept many of those regressive Harris County GOP judges out of office and replaced them with diverse Democratic judges, I hope that reprehensible pattern changes.  

But it still costs money to make that name and gender marker process happen, and here's where another unexpected blessing happened that got me closer to completing that process.

The Trans National Alliance held a New Year's Eve Great Gatsby themed fundraiser party at Nikki Araguz Loyd's home in which the TNA was raising money to do name changes for trans people who are on limited incomes.

They raised enough money at that fundraiser to fund two name changes, and I was shocked and surprised to find out moments after we counted down the start of 2017 that I would be one of the people receiving that name change assistance along with Dee Dee Watters.


Two weeks ago Nikki, Dee Dee and I rolled to Austin.  We made happen in the span of five hours getting Dee Dee's name and gender marker change process started, getting me fingerprinted at a nearby Passport Express location from the courthouse, the court order for the gender marker change, getting the request for my new corrected birth certificate submitted, and taking the photo for my new Texas drivers license with the only 'F' I've ever wanted at an Austin DPS office.

And before heading back to Houston, we celebrated the accomplishment while waiting for ATX rush hour traffic to die down with dinner.

Transgender National Alliance is having a dinner and drag bingo fundraiser on March 14 at Hamburger Mary's, so check it out, reserve a table and help TNA raise some money to make happen for other trans people with their identity documents what happened for me and Dee Dee.

Yesterday I received my new birth certificate and Texas driver's license in the mail.  I cried joyful tears when I pulled them out of their respective envelopes and saw my full name with the 'F' and 'female' in the gender marker box on both documents.

Have a trip coming up at the end of the month to Orlando for the LGBT Media Journalists convening, and can't wait to show my drivers license to airline employees, TSA security and hotel desk personnel without having a sense of dread or acute embarrassment happening when I reluctantly pull it out of my wallet.

Now it's just getting my passport so I can finally do some international travel and some other records, and the journey will be complete.   But the major mountain in terms of my identity documents has been climbed. .

It was a long journey to get to this point full of twists, turns, frustration and drama, but seeing and knowing that my documents finally line up with the person I know I am and the world sees me as is priceless.
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Gender Revolution: Working For Change

The National Geographic Katie Couric documentary Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric  later this evening at 8 PM CST, and I'm looking forward to watching it on the National Geographic Channel.

The show if you missed it will repeat at 11 PM CST and have an encore presentation on Friday

But if you do have it, I urge you to watch the documentary that will give you some Gender 101 education  

Hopefully Dan Patrick and Lois Kolkhorst will be watching it, too.

The January National Geographic 'Gender Revolution' January 2017 issue is also a fascinating read.

Here's the Working For Change segment of that documentary. It features one of my Houston homegirls who now lives in Los Angeles in Marie, who I met when she was a student at UHD.

It talks about a program that Michaela Mendelsohn has instituted in the six El Pollo Loco restaurants that she owns there in which she is hiring transpeople in her stores.

Support The Brazilian #NomeSocialEDireito Campaign

Our Brazilian trans family are fighting to keep a policy alive that allows them to use their social names in dealings with the Brazilian federal government.

The backstory starts with embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff issuing before she left office for an interim president pending the result of her impeachment trial issuing Decree n.8.727 that allows trans folks to use their social  names in federal government situations and settings.

But a Brazilian politician unfortunately is pushing to have the Rousseff issued decree invalidated, and that would cause problems for many of our Brazilian trans cousins.

The attempt to invalidate Decree n.8.727 is instead serving to galvanize the Brazilian trans community in a 'we're fed up and not gonna take it any more' way.  A social media campaign has popped up #NomeSocialEDireito with the goal of keeping the decree in place.

Brazilian trans people and their allies are asked to take photos with the #NomeSocialEDireito hashtag which translates in English to 'My Name Is My Right'.

Here's hoping my Brazilian trans fam is successful in keep Decree n 8.727, and success in doing so leads to more wins in Brazil for our trans family.

So When Does it Become 'Offensive' For A Trans Woman To Bare Her Chest?

Back in 2011 I wrote about the case of Andrea Jones, who bared her chest to protest Tennessee's refusal to change the gender marker on her driver's license despite despite having genital surgery and was arrested for indecent exposure despite the state of Tennessee's refusal to change the gender marker on her birth certificate.

The police report when Ms. Jones was arrested at the time misgendered her. “Mr. Jones continued to yell that he had the right to show his breasts in public,” it read, “and wanted to be recognized as a female.”

The issue also cropped up when supermodel Andreja Pejic, during the androgynous modeling phase of her career, was bare chested on a 2011 cover of Dossier magazine that Barnes & Noble stated they would only stock on its shelves if the magazine was in an opaque cover

Well, the passage of four years hasn't made the issue go away. It's a question that is being asked again because of that sexist double standard on Facebook and Instagram that allows men to bare their nippled chests but women cannot show theirs.

The exceptions to the policy are women breastfeeding, showing breasts with post mastectomy scarring, and sculptures and art featuring nude bodies

And it's being challenged by 24 year old Canadian trans woman Courtney Demone.   In a Guardian interview she asks, "So at what point in my breast development do I need to cover my nipples?  I already feel shameful about them being visible, but at what point does society say it's unacceptable for them to be out?"

The Facebook and Instagram community standards policy removes images of genitalia and of women's breasts, but not of bare chested men.

Demone campaign is another arm of the #FreeTheNipple movement started by actor and producer Lina Esco, that seeks to challenge societal and social media censorship of women's bodies and desexualize the portrayal of women's nipples in Western society.

It's a campaign that public figures such as Naomi Campbell, Rihanna, Cara Delevigne, Rumer Willis and Miley Cyrus have lent their support to.

For transkind, it's a question that goes to the core of our identities, and it is one that both trans men and trans women face.  At what point does it become acceptable for a trans man to bare his chest, and at what point does the societal script flip for trans women and it becomes unacceptable for us to not be able to?

10 Things You're Saying When You Ignore Someone's Gender Pronouns

One of the quickest and easiest ways to show a trans person that you respect them is to use their preferred pronouns.  But there are people who for various reasons, either continue to use the wrong pronouns to the irritation of the trans person in question or willfully do so.

I like this meme, and while I didn't create it, I visualized its ten points as a way to expound on the importance of cis folks using the  pronouns that match our gender presentation,

When you're done reading it, I want y'all to realize that when you deliberately fail to recognize a trans person's preferred pronouns, it is taken by the trans person as a sign of blatant disrespect. You are also  subliminally sending a message to the trans person in question you don't care about or recognize them as the |human beings they are now.

Shall we begin?

1.  I know you better than you know yourself

We see this smug attitude crop up far too often in social media and elsewhere.

Naw cis homies and homettes, you don't.  Neither do you have the ability to tell what my chromosomes are or figure out my trans status just by looking at me.  Just get it through those skulls that trans men are men, trans women are women.

2.  I would rather hurt you repeatedly than change the way I speak about you.

We understand in Trans World that it takes time for family and friends to get used to your transition. But when we're pushing five, ten, twenty years post transition and you still are misgendering and deadnaming the trans person in question, you're being a microaggressive azzhole

3.  Your sense of safety is not important to me.
This is a pet peeve of many trans people, and especially trans women.  When you cis women mad because a trans woman is performing femininity better than you in the 'hood or the club sashay over to the cis male she's talking to or is making goo goo eyes at her and whisper 'That's a man' in his ear, you are setting that trans woman up not only for a hate crime, but legal trouble for yourself if the trans woman gets hurt or killed.  Some of us trans women just got it like that, so chill with that shady (and dangerous) crap.

And it's not cool to do this to a trans man either.  It opens them up to a beat down or worse.

4.  Your identity isn't real and shouldn't be acknowledged.

I don't care what your pastor, the TERF's, the GOP or other assorted haters said, a trans person knows their gender identity better than you and you need to respect and acknowledge that.  If you can't, as far as we trans peeps are concerned, you aren't a decent human being.

5.   I want to teach everyone around me to disrespect you.

The TERF's have been trying to do that since 1973 and now the right wing trans haters are doing so for political purposes.  They will fail because of the increased visibility of trans people.

6.   Offending you is fine if it makes me more comfortable.

When you are willfully offending me for your own selfish reasons, don't get mad when I diss you or start crying foul when I call you out for being a transphobic azzhole.

7.   I can hear you talking, but I'm not really listening.

And if you're not listening, then what's the point in me trying to educate you on my issues or tell you my trans story?

8.   Being who you truly are is an inconvenience to me.

I've spent a lot of time engaged in hard solid thinking about being trans, lots of money, and gone through hell to be me.  If it's an inconvenience for you to respect that and use the correct pronouns, then you need to step out of my life.

9.  I would prefer it if you stopped being honest with me.

If you can't handle my trans truth, buh bye.   Can't help it if you're insecure about your own gender identity or being our unapologetic selves bothers you.

10.  I am not an ally, a friend, or someone you can trust.

We don't need toxic frenemies in our lives because we get enough crap from the rest of the world about our lives or who don't have our backs.  There are others out there who are loving and kind enough to be ride or die friends for us, and those are the people I'd rather spend time with.

Italy Becomes Sixth Nation To Allow Trans Self Identification Without Surgery

Thanks to a recent Italian Supreme Court ruling, Italy has now become the fifth nation to acknowledge that trans people have the right to self identify without requiring genital surgery or medical intervention.

Italy now joins Argentina, Denmark, Malta, Portugal and Ireland in doing so.

The landmark ruling overturned adverse lower level  court cases and makes it clear that the official gender record can be amended without surgery or sterilization.

The plaintiff in the case was a now 45 year old trans woman who in 1999 was granted permission to undergo genital surgery but decided over time that surgical intervention wasn't necessary.to get social recognition as a  woman.

Burt a tribunal in Piacenza and the Appeal court in Bologna both said no prior to her win at the Italian Supreme Court level.

The Court stated:   The desire to align body and spirit is, even in the absence of surgical intervention, the result of a very personal journey to gender identity, supported by a range of medical and psychological treatments that will vary according to individual personality and need.

‘The moment of truth is deeply influenced by individual characteristics.

‘Ultimately, it can only be the end result of a process of self-determination towards the goal of a change of sex.’

The Court also stated in their landmark ruling: ‘The complexity of the route, which encompasses a plurality of medical treatments (including hormonal and aesthetic) as well as psychological further illustrates how that right is central to the expression of individual and social personality and social, insofar as a proper balance is to be struck between the public interest… and the limits of our legal system.

The Italian Supreme Court ruling comes one week after Ireland passed legislation to allow trans people there to self identify without surgical intervention.   It is also increasing pressure on France and Great Britain to follow suit.

At any rate, it's a wonderful day for our Italian trans cousins.   As for when it will happen in the United States, I'm not holding my breath with science denying Republicans in control of Congress right now. 

TransGriot Note:  Initial photo is of Italian girl like us actress Vittoria Schisano.  She wasn't the plaintiff in this case, but is the most well known Italian trans woman right now.

The Case For Edwards Being A Trans Murder Victim

Shaking my head at the ongoing dispute over S Edwards and whether this person IDed as a mister or miss at the time of death.

Since BuzzFeed stuck my name in their post attempting to gayjack this situation, time for me to present the case for why I initially IDed MS Edwards as trans in my January 28 post and why I'm sticking with that.

Unlike BuzzFeed's Dominic Holden, I am a Black trans woman who has written about the issues of the off the charts murders of trans women and all the issues surrounding them for years. 

I also lived in Louisville for nine years.

One of the points of contention is the Facebook page versus Indianapolis mugshot photo that shows Edwards in femme attire at the time it was taken. 

In my two decades of lived experience as a Black trans woman, I have seen more than a few young gay males who liked doing drag, claimed it was 'a hobby', only did it for pageants or gay nightclub talent nights and swore up and down they were gay men and had no intention to transition.

But a year or two later after having that gender epiphany, those same gay males were declaring they were trans, swallowing hormones, answering to feminine names and transitioning to live full time as female.

I received a January 29 e-mail from a Louisville area trans woman who asserts she talked to the EMT who picked up Edwards at the Fern Valley motel at the time of the January 9, shooting, and said in that e-mail the EMT told her the person they picked up ' was not in what you consider standard drag' .

That EMT would know because LMFD EMT's are trained to know the difference between a trans woman and a cis male dressed in drag.

Police departments across this country have a long sorry history which has aggravated me and other trans advocates for years of misgendering trans murder victims as male, even when they have developed feminine bodies and been transitioned over a period of years.  They are still unfortunately stuck in that mentality of looking at genitalia and not gender presentation.

And yes, this is still an active LMPD investigation.

Did Edwards ID as male or female at the time of the murder?   The only person who knows the definitive answer to that question has had their voice permanently stilled by Henry Richard Gleaves.

The rest of us are left to speculate about it or how Edwards' all too brief life would have progressed if not for that fatal January DaVille encounter with Gleaves.

But one thing that isn't up for debate is that trans women of color, and especially Black trans women are under assault.  Stopping trans murders and the off the charts violence aimed at trans women of color is what all of us in LGBT world need to be focused on.

This case also points to the necessity of police departments accurately IDing trans victims of these crimes.   They need to cease and desist with their practice of IDing trans victims based on genitalia, and telling media outlets when they release that news they are men.

GenderProud ID Video

Identification documents that matches who we are as people is vital to us navigating the world with as little drama as possible.

ID that matches our gender presentations is a human right and transpeople shouldn't have to go through bureaucratic hoops and surgical or medical intervention to get it.   ID that matches our gender presentation is also needed so that we can avoid being outed and greasing the skids for anti-trans attitudes and discrimination.

This GenderProud video makes some valid points as to why ID that matches our outward presentation of our deeply held internal gender identities is a human rights issue.

Denmark Becomes First European Nation To Pass Progressive Gender Identity Law

Over six decades ago Denmark was the nation in which Christine Jorgensen underwent her hormonal transition.   Now Denmark becomes the first nation in Europe to pass a progressive gender identity law that removes obstacles to legal gender recognition. 

On June 11 the Danish Parliament passed a law modeled on the one passed in Argentina in 2012 that removes the requirement of a Gender Identity Disorder (GID), Gender Dysphoria or any other psychological assessment or opinion is not necessary    The Danish Parliament also removed requirements for medical intervention, mandatory surgical intervention and mandatory sterilization.

Under the new law an application for legal change of gender is submitted to a relevant authority and after 6 months the applicant simply needs to confirm their application for it to happen..

The passage of the first in the European region law was hailed by European TBLG organizations and activists.

"This is ground-breaking for trans persons in Denmark and elsewhere. We hope that other countries will follow the Danish example and pass quick, accessible and transparent legal gender recognition legislation based on self-determination swiftly. Nevertheless, for the young generation of trans people in Denmark we hope that the minimal age of 18 years will be dropped eventually..” comments TGEU Executive Director Julia Ehrt 

Paulo Côrte-Real, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe, added: “We are very pleased to see the Argentinian model for legal gender recognition being introduced in Europe by Denmark today. The benchmark is set high now and we encourage other European countries to follow suit and to remove unnecessary, humiliating and degrading requirements which hinder people across Europe to fully enjoy their lives in preferred gender.”

The new law will take effect in Denmark on September 1.   Here's hoping other governments in Europe and elsewhere role model it in their own trans ID policies.    

UH Josephine Tittsworth Act Town Hall Meeting

I've been saying to the UHD Gators during my last several visits on their campus that I've spent more time visiting One Main Street than I have on my alma mater's campus since I came back home in 2010.

Well, seems like that imbalance of visits to the UH campus versus UHD is starting to rapidly change in the other direction.

Last week I was honored to be invited to speak at the Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson vigil held at the AD Bruce Religion Center on campus.  

This week I got a chance to finally see the newly renovated UH Student Center and attend a town hall meeting yesterday afternoon in a packed SGA Senate Chambers.

The town hall was called to give the UH community an opportunity to discuss the Josephine Tittsworth Act.  The UH SGA proposed this piece of legislation that seeks to have the University of Houston follow its existing EEO and non discrimination policy by allowing trans* UH students to update their university identification with their preferred name, discerned gender and titles. 

Shouldn't be that controversial, right?   Well, one unidentified UH senator has been spreading lies and falsehoods about the Tittsworth bill and gotten the frats and sororities stirred up in the process.

A panel comprised of UH LGBT Resource Center head Lorraine Schroeder, UH SGA senators Guillermo Lopez and James Lee, UH SGA President Charles Haston, SGA Senator emeritus Josephine Tittsworth and 2014 Trans 100 honoree and UH senior Lou Weaver spent two minutes each making initial statements dispelling the myths and lies that had arisen concerning the Tittsworth bill before opening the floor to written questions.  

While the town hall was surprisingly civil, two of the questions asked were the highly offensive to the trans community bathroom predator and sexual offender ones I hear far too often from GOP operatives opposing trans human rights laws.  It not only made my eyes visibly roll and loudly scoff upon hearing them, it also made me wonder if there were campus Republicans in the room trying to stir up 'fear and smear' transphobic trouble.

Before the town hall concluded after 30 minutes,  Haston reminded everyone that diversity on the UH campus is not just ethnic diversity, but also includes diversity of opinions and thought and LGBT diversity.

Since I wasn't in any hurry to head back home right away, I consented to an interview along with Josephine about the Act with Daily Cougar reporters Kelly Schaffer and Cara Smith.  We talked about Houston and UH trans history, and discussed the positive effects UH could expect from the Tittsworth Act should it gain SGA approval.  

I also had a chance to talk to several cis and trans UH students and talk a walk around the newly renovated building that is way different from the 1967 UC I was familiar with before heading home.

Will keep you posted on the developments concerning the Josephine Tittsworth Act as it moves toward a final vote.      
 

Netherlands Passes Groundbreaking Trans Identity Law!

In the Netherlands, trans rights advocates are celebrating a major win in that western European nation with the passage of a Gender Identity Law that does not require sterilization, court orders or genital surgery as prerequisites to change gender markers on documentation. 

It passed with a lopsided 51-24 vote of Dutch lawmakers in The Hague on Tuesday, and when the new law takes effect July 1, Dutch citizens aged 16 and older will only require a statement from an expert attesting to the trans person's desire to do so to match their gender identity.

The move to do so was driven by a report on the human rights of trans people in European states which called out The Netherlands over their previous unjust law and demanded a modification of it.
  
Despite the major win, there were trans rights groups who felt that the proposals pushed by Justice State Secretary Fred Teeven and enacted into law didn't go far enough.  Some parties wanted to lower the age consent threshold for SRS from 16 to 12.  Teeven said that he considered that too early and pointed out that boys in puberty often wrestle with their identity. 

"This law is a victory for transgender people in the Netherlands," the chairpersons of Transgender Network Netherlands and COC Netherlands say in a statement. "There is an end to all the humiliating situations that transgenders still daily deal with because the sex designation on their paper is different from the gender in which they live."   

There were elements of the Dutch trans community who pushed for an Argentinian style Gender Identity Law provision in which you don't need a doctor's statement to change identity documents.

Human Rights Watch also hailed the new law as a positive step.

“The new law is an important step toward equality for transgender people in the Netherlands,” said Boris Dittrich, advocacy director in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “It puts people in a much stronger position to change their gender identity without intrusive and abusive medical requirements.” 


It's a huge improvement from the previous status quo in which a transperson seeking to change their documentation to match their gender identity not only had to be sterilized, but undergo genital surgery or other unwanted gender modification operations, followed by having to get judicial permission to do so.

That created situations in which Dutch transpeople who objected to the sterilization, genital surgery requirement or judicial intervention chose to live their lives with official documents that didn't correspond with their current gender presentation.    That created problems for them as they applied for jobs, tried to access healthcare, traveled and otherwise had to use that documentation to officially identify themselves.

Since the law had already passed the other Dutch parliamentary chamber, all it needs is King Willem-Alexander's signature to become official.

The new law when it goes into effect in July will go a long way toward solving some of those problems  .

Taiwan To Allow Legal Gender Change Without Medical Or Surgical Intervention

After three hours of heated debate on December 9, Gay Star News is reporting that the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare has decided to allow trans and intersex people intending to change their legal gender to do so without transitioning or surgical intervention.

Taiwan back in 2008 took steps to make it easier to change gender identity, but it required compulsory genital surgery, removal of all relevant sexual organs and evaluations by two psychologists before they would approve any document changes. 

Even if you did go through with all of that, you had to be unmarried and your efforts could be undone by your parents having veto power over the process.   

Taiwan's Ministry of Interior will come up with the new regulations and policy necessary to implement the of the Ministry of Health and Welfare after further discussions. 

But it is a decision that is being hailed in the trans and intersex communities there as a major step forward and more progressive than their Asia-Pacific Rim counterparts. 

‘The Interior Ministry’s household registration system is linked with all our legal documents, so the sex registered at birth will have to change for other legal papers to change,’ said intersex rights activist Hiker Chiu to Gay Star News. 

‘The Interior Ministry’s household registration system is linked with all our legal documents, so the sex registered at birth will have to change for other legal papers to change,’ said intersex rights activist Hiker Chiu - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/taiwan-allows-legal-gender-changes-without-transitioning091213#sthash.sLmOm975.dpuf

Here's hoping the new regulations are compiled swiftly and their implementation for our trans an gender variant cousins in Taiwan goes as smoothly as possible.

TransGriot Note: photo is of Taiwanese trans model Alicia Liu. 

'Boys From Brazil' Documentary

This 1993 documentary introduces us to the world of Brazilian travestis Samira, Luciana and their friend Gaspar.   It discusses their lives in Brazil, their first failed attempt to enter Italy and follows Gaspar as he later does so alone and hooks up with another another group of Brazilian travestis living in Rome named Claudia, Sabrina and Marcela. 

There's also a segment of it in which we see Luciana in the hospital getting silicone removed from one of her hips.   Yep, injecting silicone is a problemn for the Brazilian girls too just like it is here in the States..

Some of the video is NSFW, so you'lll probably need to wait until you get home to watch it.. 

But once again it drive home the point of trans people being part of the diverse mosaic of human life and how in many case the issues of transpeople in different parts of the world sometimes has a common thread running through them. 




Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part4


Part 5

Is It Something I Said?-More Musing About B.Scott

Been an interesting 48 hours since I wrote the B.Scott post that included the tweet I made hours after Scott's 'I'm trans' announcement

The reason I wrote the post in the first place is because I'm quite aware of the fact as a longtime Twitter user you cannot covey the nuances of a constantly evolving subject like transness in a 140 character tweet and I felt the need to further clarify where my head was at when I typed it. 

I'm not retracting or deleting the tweet because it's exactly what I was thinking at the time.  I also wrote almost eight years ago on these electronic pages:

There are times that what I write on an issue is going to be in lock step with your worldview and other times it's going to piss you off.  But the goal in either case is I want people doing hard, solid thinking and talking about the subject.

And boy have I gotten what I wanted to happen in this case and then some.  It triggered this interview one from Janet Mock.  Some folks are annoyed to pissed with moi because I did say it.  Others are congratulating me for having the guts to say what they were thinking as well in terms of asking the valid question that's percolating in many trans people's minds about the timing and sincerity of his 'I'm transgender' declaration.' 

I've gotten comments on my Facebook page and e-mails pro and con about it (mostly pro).   But for those of you criticizing me over the post that I included the Tweet in (and really didn't have to when I composed it), you also keep missing the money paragraph in which I said this. 

I'm quite aware of and know evolution and shifting along the gender line segment happens with people as they gain self-awareness and knowledge about where they fall under the trans umbrella.  I'm also quite aware of the fact that sometimes it takes years to get comfortable with the spot you're in under the trans umbrella.  But it's the timing of the 'I'm transgender' declaration that has my 'things that make you go hmm' antennae up.

So hello, I'm not 'erasing genderqueer identities', 'doing gender policing', 'hatin' on B. Scott' or some of the other specious charges that have been leveled in my direction.  

The post was not an attack on B Scott as I presumed I made crystal clear on August 7 or is debating whether he belongs under the trans umbrella or not.  I believe B.Scott does on the drag-genderqueer end of the umbrella.

I am amenable to the idea of having a discussion with B. Scott in the near future about his 'I'm transgender' declaration and exactly where he sees himself. 

I also want to make it clear to him why there are transpeople who have issues with that August 7 declaration 

Many of us on the end of the trans umbrella and gender line segment who live our lives as African descended transfeminine women have been in some cases for decades out there taking the slings and arrows of being trans as we live and fight for recognition of our humanity and human rights. 

Some of the people we've have to battle in that struggle for recognition of our humanity are sadly same gender loving people in our community.  Some of those SGL haters have been self identified effeminate gay men who bristle or get offended if you call them 'Miss', conflate them with transsexuals or ask them when they are going to have SRS. 

There's a sentiment fueling this 'yeah, right' reaction that's encapsulated by something that activist Nadia Belinda Roberts wrote (no relation) in a Facebook discussion on the issue.
"Everybody wants to be Trans, but they don't want to BE Trans!"  

In other words, what Nadia is saying is that some trans women are of the opinion that some of the peeps under the trans umbrella want the benefits and perks of being able to perform femininity under the protection of it but don't want the other negative baggage that comes with taking on the trans feminine label. 

And when it comes to Black trans women, that baggage includes the horrific levels of anti-trans violence and 'unwoman' negativity we deal with inside and outside the Black community.    

That's a discussion for another day.   Why Scott is getting some skeptical reaction is driven by that sentiment and the fact that before August 7, 2013 Scott lived his life as a self-declared androgynous gay man.  If B. Scott had made the "I'm transgender" announcement before the BET incident and now subsequent multimillion dollar lawsuit, I submit there would be less controversy in Trans World about it and more 'welcome to Team Trans' sentiment about it instead of the 'yeah, right' sentiment prevalent in sections of it.     

Now I can't or don't have the ability to read B. Scott's mind, and can only go by what he has stated in Janet's interview or future ones as to whether his epiphany concerning his gender journey is valid and led him to make the declaration at this time.

But only future efforts to reach out to those of us on the transsexual-trans feminine end of the umbrella and the passage of time will reveal the next chapter in this unfolding B. Scott gender saga 
 

Is B.Scott Genuinely Embracing The Trans Umbrella?

Well, well, well.  As many of you are aware of  BET got itself in some seriously hot water when they hired gender bender B. Scott to be the red carpet fashion commentator for the recent edition of the BET Awards and publicly disrespected him. 

They approved the outfits he wanted to wear, but after one interview the show producers yanked him off the red carpet, demanded he tone down his makeup, pull back his hair and don male clothing.

After doing so he returned to find out he'd been replaced on the red carpet by actress Adrienne Bailon.

It was jacked up and after the outrage ensured over it from B.Scott's love muffins, the Blackosphere and amongst other peeps in the community BET put out a half-azzed spin filled apology that B. Scott rejected.

Now it's being reported by TMZ that B.Scott is filing a multimillion dollar lawsuit against BET and Viacom for what transpired on that jacked up evening.   He's requesting $2.5 million dollars in damages and an apology for the damage the incident did to his reputation  

In a post on his website yesterday he explained why he did so.  

“I’m sure by now you’re aware of an unfortunate incident that occurred while I was serving as Style Stage Correspondent for the 2013 BET Awards Pre-Show. After sharing my open letter with the world I’ve received tons of support from family, friends and love muffins for which I’m truly grateful.
While I want nothing more than to put this incident behind me and move on with my life, I still wholeheartedly believe that I’m entitled to a true public apology. BET’s non-apology statement added more insult to injury. What happened to me was not a ‘miscommunication’ nor was it ‘unintentional’. It was wrong. I have been vehemently trying to come to a resolution with BET and Viacom behind the scenes. After a few weeks of back and forth dialogue with no foreseeable resolution, I have filed a lawsuit against BET and its parent company Viacom for discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation..
Over the years my love muffins and strangers alike have questioned me about my gender identity. What IS B. Scott? As a society we’ve been conditioned to believe that a person has to be ‘exactly’ this or ‘exactly’ that. Biologically, I am male — as my sex was determined at birth by my reproductive organs.
However, my spirit truly lies somewhere in between. It is that same spirit that has allowed me to become so comfortable in my skin, choose how I express myself, and contributes to how I live my day-to-day life.
It is by that definition that I accept and welcome the ‘transgender’ label with open arms.
It is also by that definition that BET and Viacom willingly and wrongfully discriminated against my gender identity during the 2013 BET Awards Pre-Show.
Let’s be clear — I’m suing BET and Viacom for a true public apology and to be fairly remunerated for the time lost, humiliation and emotional distress this entire situation has put me through.”
- See more at: http://madamenoire.com/290080/b-scott-stings-bet-and-viacom-with-multi-million-dollar-lawsuit-for-forcing-him-to-wear-mens-clothing/#sthash.Qu0U4GUp.dpuf

I’m sure by now you’re aware of an unfortunate incident that occurred while I was serving as Style Stage Correspondent for the 2013 BET Awards Pre-Show. After sharing my open letter with the world I’ve received tons of support from family, friends and love muffins for which I’m truly grateful.

While I want nothing more than to put this incident behind me and move on with my life, I still wholeheartedly believe that I’m entitled to a true public apology. BET’s non-apology statement added more insult to injury.

What happened to me was not a ‘miscommunication’ nor was it ‘unintentional’. It was wrong. I have been vehemently trying to come to a resolution with BET and Viacom behind the scenes. After a few weeks of back and forth dialogue with no foreseeable resolution, I have filed a lawsuit against BET and its parent company Viacom for discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.
.
Over the years my love muffins and strangers alike have questioned me about my gender identity. What IS B. Scott? As a society we’ve been conditioned to believe that a person has to be ‘exactly’ this or ‘exactly’ that. Biologically, I am male — as my sex was determined at birth by my reproductive organs.

However, my spirit truly lies somewhere in between. It is that same spirit that has allowed me to become so comfortable in my skin, choose how I express myself, and contributes to how I live my day-to-day life.

Transgender is the state of one’s gender identity (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) not matching one’s assigned sex (identification by others as male, female or intersex based on physical/genetic sex). [source]

It is by that definition that I accept and welcome the ‘transgender’ label with open arms.

It is also by that definition that BET and Viacom willingly and wrongfully discriminated against my gender identity during the 2013 BET Awards Pre-Show.

Let’s be clear — I’m suing BET and Viacom for a true public apology and to be fairly remunerated for the time lost, humiliation and emotional distress this entire situation has put me through.

It's the declaration that B. Scott is embracing the transgender umbrella after resisting it for years that is problematic for me and elements of the trans community. 

Many of us trans people have dealt with the slings, arrows, anti-trans hatred, crushing unemployment-underemployment and murderous anti-trans violence aimed our way as B Scott defined himself as a proud gay man. 

Now it seems to elements of us in the African-American trans community that alter all the years of ducking and dodging the question of whether he was trans or not, it's now happening as a multimillion dollar lawsuit suit has been filed. 

I'm quite aware of and know evolution and shifting along the gender line segment happens with people as they gain self-awareness and knowledge about where they fall under the trans umbrella.   I'm also quite aware of the fact that sometimes it takes years to get comfortable with the spot you're in under the trans umbrella.  But it's the timing of the 'I'm transgender' declaration that has my 'things that make you go hmm' antennae up.

The timing of this announcement also drove me to tweet this several hours ago after hearing the news about his justified suit.

When B Scott starts taking hormones and calling himself Brittany (or another femme name starting with 'B') and declares he's transitioning then I'll consider him part of Team Trans.

And I'll start using whatever pronouns B.Scott considers respectfully appropriate to his particular situation at this point in time.

Let me make it crystal clear, I have no beef with B.Scott.  What BET did to him earlier this summer was seriously fracked up and pissed me off as someone who fights for the human rights of everyone inside and outside the trans and SGL community. 

But as a proud African descended trans person who has discussed and written about trans issues for over a decade and does seminars, speeches and collegiate level education on this subject,  you can bet I'm going to be keeping an eye on this situation to ensure it doesn't drift into conflation territory or misrepresentation of a trans community that is still quite misunderstood in the African-American cis and SGL community.
 
Until I get and see more evidence that B.Scott's embrace of the transgender umbrella is genuine, permanent and not just related to this legal case, call me skeptical.