MLK Jr Memorial In DC Opens To Public Today

The dedication ceremony for it won't happen until this weekend, but the MLK Jr. National Memorial opened today for public viewing.

There will be events occurring in Washington all week celebrating Dr. King's legacy, his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and the first memorial ever dedicated to a person of color and a non-president.  

Those events will build up to the August 28 dedication ceremony in which President Obama, 'the Revs' (Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr),  Dr. King's family members and key people in the Civil Rights Movement will attend and say a few remarks. 

August 28 is also the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and the 'I Have A Dream' speech at the nearby Lincoln Memorial.   The new MLK Jr Memorial is on the Tidal Basin next door to the FDR one.   It's blended in with the cherry blossom trees and is placed in a direct line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial on the opposite side of the Tidal Basin.

Looking forward to seeing it on my next visit to Washington DC.

It Takes A Village To Enforce The Gender Binary

An old African proverb states that it takes a village to raise a child.  I've tweaked that proverb to reflect a truism I've observed when it comes to the gender binary.

It takes a village to enforce the gender binary.

That societal village enforcement of the gender binary starts the millisecond you come out of the birth canal.

The doctor does that cursory check of genitalia to decide whether you get an 'M' or 'F' on your birth certificate complete with masculine or feminine name and you are presented to your eager parents wrapped in either a blue or pink blanket.  

Everything from the clothing you wear to how you are socialized by your family and society reinforces that gender binary, and anyone who deviates a millmeter from what society thinks is proper behavior or appearance for a man or woman gets serious pressure from society to be pushed back on either the 'M' or 'F' side of the gender fence.

Think I'm kidding?   Ask Sam Saurs about getting suspended  from school because he wore feminine attire to class.  Little boy sees his mother polishing her nails, asks her to do the same for him, but asks her to take the polish off before he goes to school on Monday morning because he gets misgendered and teased by his peers for that.  

When it comes to sports, ask any boy what he gets called or derisively told if he doesn't measure up to showing an acceptable to his peers level of sports performance.   He plays like a girl.

If a boy prefers playing with Barbies to playing with trucks, likes wearing dresses or is in a print ad having his toenails polished in pink, oh my God it's a full blown societal crisis because he isn't expressing masculinity the way society thinks a masculine child should..    

Don't even get me started on what transpeople have to deal with. 

It's just as hard on women and girls in terms of the ways femininity is expressed and enforced.   Peer pressure kicks in to tease you about your breast size if you're a card carrying member of the IBTC or your puberty kicks in late.  Don't sit with your legs open.   If you're a little more worldly than your peers in the dating game or assertive, out come the gender based slurs to tag you with.

If you have ultra short hair, a slightly muscular build, or don't wear makeup on a regular basis along with dresses or heels you are derided as 'masculine'.   

If you play sports as a girl and exhibit the types of skills that women allegedly aren't supposed to be capable of such as power dunking a basketball, hitting a tennis ball at 130 mph or run eye popping times in races, you get 'that's a man' shade thrown at you too.   Ask Brittney Griner, the Williams sisters, and Caster Semenya about that.

Let's not forget popular culture and how it plays a role in gender policing.  A tagline for a beer commercial is to 'man up' and not be 'unmanly'.   Women tell each other they need to 'get their girl on'. 

Does it take a village to enforce the gender binary?   Sure does.
 

Family Worried About Transwoman's Transfer To Male Prison

Jovanie Saldana has been transitioning since she was 12.years old, but unfortunately has spent the last 14 months incarcerated in the Riverside Correctional Facility in the Philadelphia area.

The 23 year old Saldana was arrested and charged on June 11, 2010 according a Philadelphia Daily News story for several felonies including an armed robbery that she is facing a court date for next Monday..

As you can see by the photo in which her face is blurred out so that she isn't facing the prospect of sexual assault while being locked up with the 'menz', it's understandable how she ended in the RCF facility.

Saldana is in the news because the Riverside Correctional Facility people only discovered last week that she hasn't had SRS yet.   

She filed a complaint on a corrections officer that she alleges forced her to perform oral sex on him.  In the process of investigating that complaint, while eavesdropping on a three way phone conversation in Spanish between herself, her mother and an unnamed female cousin, her mother was overheard urging her to come clean about her trans status.  As a result she was transferred to a men's prison and an investigation has been launched into how she ended up at RCF.

"We're not quite sure how this mistake originated," said prison spokeswoman Shawn Hawes, adding that "the entire process" is now under investigation by prison and police officials.  Hawes declined comments about the investigation of the guard.

Saldana's mother believes that the transfer to a PPS male facility was a retaliatory and punitive measure because Jovanie filed charges against the corrections officer and her pre-operative status was a cover excuse for doing so.

She might be right.  And judging by previous developments elsewhere, when it comes to transwomen interacting with the penal system, she's got damned good reasons to be concerned about her trans daughter..
 
Will be keeping an eye on this, because long story short, despite the allegations that's she's had two fights in Riverside Correctional Facility in the 14 months she's been there, y'all should have left her in the female prison.   She's in even more danger of being sexually assaulted since y'all transferred her over to a male facility, and if I were Jovanie's mother, I'd be keeping an attorney on retainer if something bad does happen to her while she's there.

Gaddafi's Goin' Down

The Arab Spring rolls on as the list of authoritarian rulers in the Middle East gets shorter.   Less than a week after we see pictures of Hosni Mubarak standing trial in Egypt and Bashir al-Assad channeling Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman as calls for him to step down and end his family's 40 year rule of Syria get louder, there was stunning news coming out of Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya since he and a group of military officers led a September 1, 1969 coup d'etat that toppled King Idris I and set up an authoritarian regime.  After the people power led revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt toppled long time leaders of those countries, the Libyan people rose up in revolt starting on February 17.   A National Transitional Council was organized on February 26 to organize the anti-Gaddafi resistance and govern the areas under rebel control with France becoming the first nation to recognize it as the legitimate Libyan government on March 10.   That list of countries recognizing the Libyan Republic is now up to 32 nations.

On March 17 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 on a 10-0 vote with five abstentions that set up the legal basis for international military intervention in the Libyan civil war.  It established the no-fly zone, demanded an immediate cease fire, and to use all means necessary short of foreign military occupation to protect civilians. 

Two days later the NATO air attacks began supplemented with with Tomahawk cruise missile strikes from US naval ships to secure the no fly zone

After six months of inconclusive fighting, things have been breaking the rebels way on the battlefield.

The Libyan rebels while dealing with dissension in their ranks, have expanded control from Benghazi, the eastern sectors of the country and the Nifusa mountains, broke a siege of the western rebel held city of Misrata, and captured Zawiyah which contains a critical oil refinery.    

It's why the speedy dash the Libyan rebel forces conducted into Tripoli was such a surprise.  Quickly advancing 20 miles under cover of NATO airstrikes, they captured the base of the elite Khamis Brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son, surrounded the key Mitiga airbase and pushed into the capitol city meeting little resistance while doing so   They captured Martyr's Square and allegedly two of Gaddafi's sons in the process.

As to the whereabouts of Muammar Gaddafi, he's suspected to be holed up in his sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound surrounded by loyalist troops.

Of course the National Transition Council wants him taken alive, and that might not be what Gaddafi wants to happen seeing that he's facing international indictments and a potential trial for crimes against humanity.


But it looks like the Libyan civil war has reached a decisive turning point, and i's going to be an interesting few days to see how the endgame plays out.