Damn Skippy We Have The Right To Dream

I read Laverne Cox's recent HuffPo article which talked about the Jenna Talackova Miss Canada Universe controversy and a transwoman's right to dream.

But like Laverne, I'm troubled by the arrogant presumption of cis people that they have the right to interfere with our human rights by any mean necessary.

We struggle to achieve the first dream in terms of making our minds and bodies match and being able to live our lives in the gender role we present to the world.   That task is difficult enough without having a vast array of haters eagerly working to place barriers in our way so that we can't achieve our dreams we had for our post transition lives.

We transwomen must push back just as hard against the people determined to kill our dreams and aspirations and fight to make them a reality.

I want to see more transpeople in a position where they can fearlessly go after what they want to achieve in their lives, no matter what they are.   The fears I had about transition in the context of the information I had available to me in the late 70's and 80's caused me to defer some of mine, which in hindsight I shouldn't have done. 

I don't want transkids in the 2K10's and beyond to make that mistake.   I want you to realize that you not only have the right to dream big dreams as Laverne stated in her article, we have to do everything possible to put ourselves in the best position to make them a reality.

That means we have to get our educations. We have to develop a sense of pride in ourselves as transwomen that is so solid no one can make us feel ashamed and guilty about who we are as people.  We have to develop unshakeable faith that we can not only do anything our minds can conceive, we can get it done if we're willing to put in the work to make it happen. 

We've already demonstrated that ability around the world with the people who are trans politicians, actors, models, flight attendants, teachers, college professors, business persons, activists, singers, ministers, athletes and parents raising children.   I want to see that expanded to where I see trans people breaking new ground that people considered impossible for us or weren't even thinking about when Christine Jorgenson stepped off the plane over 50 years ago.

We transpeople are part of the diverse mosaic of human life.   We deserve every opportunity to live happy, healthy and productive lives.  We deserve to be able to safely walk the streets in our various nations without the fear that someone is going to aim transphobic violence at us.

And your damned skippy we not only  have the right to dream, but we have the right to expect that our human rights will be respected, protected and codified into the laws of our various nations so that we can defy the anti-trans dreamkillers out there and focus on making our dreams come true.

If Reparative Therapy Didn't Work On GL Peeps....

What makes you misguided folks think its going to work on trans people?  

One of the things that pisses me and other transpeople off is this trend, whether it's coming from Kenneth Zucker and other like minded educated fools, the Malaysian government with their forced masculinization camps , transphobic monks in Thailand setting up an ex trans monastery, or fundies urging us to turn away from our 'lifestyle' (sarcasm meter on maximum when I say that word) and pray the girl away, is cis people thinking that you can 'change' us. 

Just like sexual orientation, gender identity hardwired in the brain.  If you think I'm selling you woof tickets on that, you may wish to peruse in addition to the increasing medical evidence supporting that view, the New York Times best selling book As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto.

It focuses on the story of a Canadian boy named David Reimer, who was born in Winnipeg as a healthy male identical twin named Bruce in 1965. After a botched April 1966 circumcision, his parents were advised by Johns Hopkins Gender psychologist John Money to have an orchiectomy performed on the child and raise him as a girl named Brenda.        
  
Money believed that gender was learned behavior rather than innate, Bt the way Brenda's life turned out says otherwise.   Brenda didn't identify as a girl, was teased and bullied, had a difficult relationship with her parents and grew up angry, depressed and confused in that gender role   With Brenda's threatening to commit suicide if she was taken to visit Money again, her parents revealed her birth gender to her.

After transitioning at age 15 to become David which by 1997 entailed testosterone injections, two phalloplasties and a double masectomy, he eventually got married and told his story to John Colapinto who published it in a Rolling Stone magazine article.

Colapinto's article was later expanded into the book.   He split the profits with Reimer, which gave him  financial security but unfortunately he was still battling a combination of problems that led to his suicide in May 2004.

The transphobic Buddhist monks in Thailand trying the trans reeducation route haven't had much success either in flipping the gender script of the people that have been urged by their families to go to this ex-trans monastery. . 

I predict the money the Malaysian government spent on their forced masculinization camps will be a waste of time as well   


So you still think forcing someone to live in a gender role not comfortable to them because you have a problem with it is a good idea?

No, it isn't.

Every Day Should Be An International Transgender Day Of Visibility

March 31 was the third annual observance of what its sponsor hopes becomes a counterbalance to the Transgender Day of Remembrance in November  

There are a few people who have expressed their concerns that the TDOR is 'too somber' in their words or have issues with it being the one day that the media seems to focus on our community.

But my belief is that every day should be an international trans day of visibility.  We need to have the cis public see more out and proud transpeople doing mundane things like playing sports, attending church, running for public office, working and running businesses...

You know, just living our lives. 

We definitely need to do so as we make the push around the world to have our human rights respected,  protected and codified in to laws with teeth for violations of them.   As we struggle to get the lawmakers of the various nations we inhabit to pass those laws, one thing we must do is let those legislators know we exist. It's hard for legislators to discriminate against someone they see or hear from on a regular basis, lives in their district, and you let know votes and has a sphere of influence around them that does the same..


It's even more important to be visible to counter the falsehoods and lies pimped by our right wing opp9nents and the fundamentalist strains of various religions.

And yes, for every person that's proudly living their lives, you give strength and courage to people who may be a little reticent about doing the same. 

So yes, every day should be an international trans day of visibility.   We need to strive for that in order to honor the sisters we have lost around the world who fell victim to anti-transgender hate violence. 

But never forget we are part of the diverse mosaic of human life, and we need not be ashamed of that.  The people who are opposing us do.
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Showing My Black Transsisters Some Love On International Women's Day

Since it's the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, I was determined to shower some love upon one group of women who definitely need some directed their way.

My African descended trans sisters have to deal with not only the brunt of the anti-trans discrimination and violence directed at us as we painfully get reminded of every November, but with erasure from inside and outside our community.

And like our African descended cis sisters, we have to deal with the 'unwoman' meme disproportionately deployed against all women of color.

So on this centennial International Women's Day know that I'm thinking about you.   I wrote this open letter back in July 2010 to my young African descended transsisters, and it's even more apropos on this day to repost it.

I'm a Phenomenal Transwoman evolving to be the quality Black woman I strive to be.    I'm aware that many of you consider me a role model, and it's a role that I embrace with pride.

As you continue to embark upon your various feminine journeys, keep these words from a 1988 Diana Ross ESSENCE magazine interview close to your hearts.

 'I never considered it a disadvantage to be a Black woman. I never wanted to be anything else. We have brains. We are beautiful. We can do anything we set our minds to.'

So stand tall, embrace being you and your evolving Black womanhood.   You are beautiful, intelligent, talented women who have had to fight tooth and nail just to get to this point in your lives.   We may not have been born with female bodies at birth, but we tried to get here as fast as we could.

Love and embrace that beautiful woman you see staring back at you in the mirror.  Know that for every hater that surfaces spouting ignorance, we have more cissisters who are supportive of us and cognizant of the fact that we are their sisters, and are willing to help us become those finer specimens of Black womanhood we strive to be.

Happy International Women's day, my African descended trans sisters.