An example of how the dialogue has changed:
30 years ago, the Girdle of Gender Change was one of the most infamous cursed items in D&D.
This year, Paizo published an adventure for Pathfinder with a transgender lesbian as a major NPC and potential party ally.
As a trans woman who was trying her hardest to attend a women’s college, only to find unexpected barriers being thrown in her way at every opportunity, the fact that trans men are perfectly willing to game the system and gain access to these spaces while having transitioned in every aspect except for legal documentation sits very painfully with me.
Hey folks!
Okay so I usually don’t do this kind of thing but we’re starting to get down to the deadline and I need all the help I can get.
Me and girlfriend Amber have had our housing situation change quite suddenly and we need to move to a new place for February!
We’re seeking a room to rent in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that’s LGBT friendly (and preferably 420 friendly as well). We’re a quiet, tidy, easy-going transgender couple - both employed full time and own our own vehicles. We’re looking for a safe, welcoming environment.
Please send me or Amber an ask if you have any questions/concerns. Even if you’re in the area and you can only ask around your friends, your help is greatly appreciated!
Reblogging this since the place we were looking at fell through…
Source: tybaar
There were a couple of odd things I noticed in Being Emily. One was trans-issues-related and one wasn’t.
The trans-issues-related odd thing was… premarin? Um… nobody’s prescribed Premarin for trans HRT for years; all I’ve ever gotten was 17-b-Estradiol.
And there’s a local-stuff odd thing as well… Southdale is a weird mall to choose for kids hanging out. It’s an older mall and not nearly as well-stocked with shops (both obvious and oddball) as the very nearby Mall of America, plus it’s declined quite a bit in the last few years as smaller nearby shopping complexes have increased in prominence in the area.
Maybe they couldn’t get the proper permits to film at the MoA. You wouldn’t believe how pissy some businesses are about photography.
Oh, for context, this is a book, not a movie. My bad ^^;
Source: widdershinsgirl
There were a couple of odd things I noticed in Being Emily. One was trans-issues-related and one wasn’t.
The trans-issues-related odd thing was… premarin? Um… nobody’s prescribed Premarin for trans HRT for years; all I’ve ever gotten was 17-b-Estradiol.
And there’s a local-stuff odd thing as well… Southdale is a weird mall to choose for kids hanging out. It’s an older mall and not nearly as well-stocked with shops (both obvious and oddball) as the very nearby Mall of America, plus it’s declined quite a bit in the last few years as smaller nearby shopping complexes have increased in prominence in the area.
Salem College transgender student wants to stay on all-female campus as man
Sensationalist article with gross mis-representation, starting with this sentence:
An undergraduate at all-female Salem College is asking to remain on campus after undergoing an operation in February to complete his transition to a man
The comments are surprisingly coherent and do a good job of mitigating the ignorance around this issue. I’m glad to see more widespread awareness and understanding.
I’d like to hear the thoughts of the individual, as to why they would rather stay at an all-women’s school even after transitioning.
But then, maybe this isn’t even about an individual…
And meanwhile, trans girls and women are systematically excluded from women’s colleges on a nationwide basis.
Source: chronicle.com
This video was picked up by some news sources. It’s a video of the first 3 years of a trans woman’s transition.
This is really neat :3
Honestly, I made a timeline up to about 9 months and then just kinda forgot about it
I think I topped out at about month 15 or so.
Source: write-on-red
1: Despite the mystique regarding the “Suporn technique,” all top-level SRS surgeons now use the penile-scrotal inversion technique. In the Americas and in Asia both (I haven’t studied European surgeons, sadly).
2: Top-level Thai surgeons cost enough that when you throw in the additional costs from flying halfway around the world and staying in not just another city but a foreign country, you’re even-stevens either way (about $18-22k).
3: The only way to save a substantial amount by going to Thailand is by going to a doctor who doesn’t have as much of a reputation. There are two ways for that to happen - either the doctor is the next undiscovered Big Name in SRS, or the doctor is, well, not so good at it. I am thinking, specifically, of Dr. Pichet, who still uses a sigmoid colon section to get depth in the vagina. Still. In 2012. This is unacceptable.
Let’s not kid. The reason to go to Dr. Suporn or Dr. Chet is because you want to turn your SRS into a vacation halfway around the world - and THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. But my experience suggests that you can get the same level of care and the same end results with Dr. Rumer, Dr. Brassard or Dr. McGinn here in North America.
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR OUR MARCH BENEFICIARY!!DEADLINE for March 9th beneficiary: Application due by Feb 26th @ midnight.
Beneficiary will be announced March 1st
- Door proceeds($500 to $1000) and a $2000 discount towards surgery from Dr. Kathy Rumer are given to the beneficiary chosen.
- You do not have to live in the Philadelphia Area, you just have to be able to attend our March 9th Event!
MixTape is a live performance event held at Tabu Lounge in Philadelphia, featuring queer, trans* and gender non-conforming performance artists.
This event is BLITZ, Gender Reel, and Dr Rumers way to give back to the trans* and gender non-conforming community in a very direct way by helping one individual per event raise funds for their much needed Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS).
Download Application:
Application (word format)
Application (PDF format)
(via transdrescher)
Oh, the hu-manatee!: kattgroda: eiravalkyrie: Group demands payout for forced…
Group demands payout for forced sterilizations - The Local
Thing I did not know:
Sweden forces trans people to be sterilized in order to get SRS.
:(
Most of the genital surgeries are…
Actually forced sterilizations in Sweden will continue until at least the middle of 2013, when the changes in law are set to take effect, although the government is still doing its best to further postpone this change (other changes, such as that you no longer need to be unmarried or a Swedish citizen to qualify for juridical sex change, will come earlier).
However, and this is vital to understand, there’s no guarantee that this change in law will lead to a change in medical and juridical praxis — specifically for trans women.
This is because of a double standard in Swedish trans care, which the current activist campaign against sterilization, a campaign dominated by trans men, other CAFAB trans people and cis LGB activists, not only refuse to address but actively suppress any discussion of, since it exclusively targets trans women — and trans men don’t want their progress to be weighed down by CAMAB concerns.
You see, as it stands now, there is already a gap between law and practice: according to law only sterilization is required, but in practice this always means surgical castration — and, if you’re a trans woman (but not if you’re a trans man), mandatory gender reconstructive surgery (GRS).
If you’re a trans man, you only need to apply to the legal council (Rättsliga rådet) once, to receive authorisation to a) change your juridical sex and b) undergo sterilization — which may include GRS, but for trans men GRS is entirely optional. This is mostly in accordance with the law.
If you’re a trans woman, however, you need to apply twice — once to receive authorization to perform sterilization and GRS (there is no option to do one without the other; they hardly seem to do orchiectomies) and then once more, this time with a document from the surgeon confirming you have performed GRS and sterilization, to have your juridical sex changed.
This is not in accordance with the letter of the law, and there are many stories of trans women, sometimes very young women, being heavily pressured and extensively lied to by gate-keepers, surgeons and the legal council to undergo GRS. No such cases really exist with trans men, who are instead often encouraged to take their time to make a decision on their own.
Also, from what I have gathered, they often require trans women to have undergone (and have the proper documentation of) GRS in order to access other surgical treatments, such as breast implants or voice-related surgeries — and they frequently refuse to recognize, much less provide any after care for, any GRS performed abroad. Meanwhile, trans men can often receive top surgery shortly after having started hormones.
All this amounts to the fact that there is most probably not one single trans woman in Sweden who have gained correct juridical sex status without having undergone GRS — but very many trans men.
As I mentioned, this double standard in which trans women are at great disadvantage is not something the current (and quite successful) LGBT activist campaign against forced sterilization want to address. In fact — and there are examples of this even at their own Facebook site — trans men and cis LGB people go to some lengths to silence, derail or de-center on trans men any discussion trans women try to raise about these and related issues, in part because they see their own successes as being threatened by trans women ‘complicating’ the issue, since it is not an issue /to them/.
Even worse, this double standard is, by these very activists, used against trans women. In pretty much every LGBT or feminist publication I have read on this issue, the old myth that GRS for trans women is a perfected, flawless and complication-free procedure (“not even a gynecologist could tell the difference!”) is parroted again and again, and held as proof that trans women are privileged — and it’s always “male privileged” — over trans men, whose options for GRS are unquestioningly seen as always entirely unsatisfactory (no matter recent medical advances) — which is something the medical trans care community in Sweden also states as the reason why GRS is optional for trans men.
In this way, the current campaign against sterilization not only perpetuates a false and transmisogynistic understanding of the power relations between trans women and trans men, in general and with regards to standards of medical care, as well as a false understanding of the actual GRS possibilities for trans men, but also actively suppress any discussion of the risks, complications and dissatisfactions with GRS for trans women.This hits especially hard when the Swedish medical system in general and the trans care system in particular is exceedingly opaque — meaning the only information available to most trans women on how exactly the Swedish surgeons perform GRS, and what their rates of success are, are through word-of-mouth or guesses based on information on how GRS is done in other countries.
For example, from what I’ve been able to find out, it seems Swedish GRS surgeons do not construct inner labia, that they have not until recently (if at all) been able to properly construct urinary openings (I heard a number of trans women who have already done GRS have been called back for extra surgery to correct the effects of the earlier method used for this), that they do not show any great concern with hair removal on the relevant tissue, and are a lot less effective than say American surgeons at achieving vaginal depth (which is extra worrying since depth seems to be the one and only thing they actually care about), etc. etc.
And, by the way, forget applying any kind of feminist analysis on how this kind of invasive surgical policing of (trans) women’s bodies is yet another instance of a patriarchal society going to great lengths to control women and especially women who are also part of other oppressed groups (that is, women who have historically been and to this day remain the major targets of Western eugenics) — in a Swedish context, if such a feminist analysis is ever applied, it’s entirely focused on those poor CAFAB men.
Now, all this amounts to the not insignificant risk that, no matter the changes in law regarding sterilization, the praxis of forcing trans women, but not trans men, to undergo GRS (which in effect most often also means sterilization, as genderbitch pointed out) may remain unchanged. The changes in law may have no effect for trans women, since mandatory GRS for trans women is already not required by law.And after the changes in the law have been finalized, the issue will be seen as over, victory achieved, meaning it might be very difficult to garner any kind of momentum for a further campaign protesting the forced GRS for trans women, especially as the current campaign against sterilization seems to be doing its utmost to undermine this and all other trans women-specific medical and juridical issues.
TL;DR: there’s a definite risk this will only amount to trans men and cis LGB people throwing trans women under the bus with regards to medical care standards and bodily autonomy.
(reblogging this because I couldn’t see this post of mine in the notes?)
(via freedominwickedness)
Source: biyuti
The radscum trolling the various trans* tags looking for people to “save” make me feel physically ill and afraid. Do we not have enough to worry about with conservative Christians pressuring us to adopt heteronormativity? Why do you gross fucks have to invade our space too?
And how interesting that most of them admit to being “ex-trans”. They’ve just lifted the philosophy of “ex gays” wholesale and applied it to gender identity. I am legit scared that these are the kind of people who would send children to conversion camps and aversion therapy.
Society, you don’t get to melt people down and pour them into the molds you like just because who they are is inconvenient.
How many times have you heard this?
If you haven’t, you’ve probably heard it about Lady GaGa. Or, hell - a whole host of other female pop icons.
It’s a common recurring joke - and, one that is rehashed quite often for good reason: It gets laughs effectively and consistently. It gets to the point that if someone even mentions Ann Coulter to me I can pretty much do a mental countdown on how long it takes them to make a “joke” accusing her of being trans.
People tell these jokes to me cheerfully, expecting I’ll get as big of a kick out of them as the rest of their friends. And it utterly astounds me that no one else seems to completely miss why this is so disgusting. “But, why Zoey?” You might be asking. “It’s just joking around!” or, “You’re being too sensitive.”
Well, let’s pull back for a moment and deconstruct this:
The problem here is the joke in itself is literally, “this person is transgender”. That’s it. That’s the whole joke. That’s what’s supposed to be so funny. And it utterly amazes me that it still seems to constantly fly past everyone and, more to the point, is considered a completely acceptable way to “insult” someone.
Because it literally comes down to - and directly states - the fact that, by and large by society, us trans women are considered to be inherently shameful in our existence. So shameful in fact, that the complexity of a joke made about us needs to have no greater depth than simply mentioning the fact that we exist.
This - people, this is transphobia. This is transmisogyny. This is cissexism. When you encapsulate someone in their incidental minority status and then proclaim it to be so vile that it’s considered inhuman enough to be used as an insult to hurl at someone you decide is worse enough for it.
This is what needs to stop. It’s not an issue of being “too PC” or “just joking around” It’s an issue of the fact that the person who I happen to be - and can’t change - is still a completely acceptable vehicle of vilification, let alone ridicule.
Let me be clear here, Ann Coulter is an incredibly hateful person and she absolutely deserves your ire. But accusing her - or anyone you dislike - of being trans AS an insult is not only utterly disgusting but completely ludicrous.Because - and I’m gonna introduce a radical concept here - There is nothing shameful about being trans.
Nothing.
When I first heard, I was very pleased, but I just went about my day. Didn’t really pay much attention.
But I’ve just read her speech when she received The HRC Visibility Award, and it really really touched me.
Having someone like her, someone successful, and famous, and normal that I can look up to, that means a lot. There are many many successful business people, writes, filmmakers, and etc. But they’re all (at least perceived to be) cis. And most of them are also straight.
So when I think about being successful, or making a lot of money, or being promoted in a company, or just being accepted in some profession other than menial labor or sex work, I don’t have a lot of reason to believe it’s possible. Cis people can be successful, and famous, and rich, and professional, and well liked. Not trans people.
But with having an out and proud role model in the film industry, even though it’s not a career I’ll ever pursue, it means that their are possibilities. Trans people can have the same opportunities as cis people. It’s going to take a while still, and that hurt, but it’s changing. The opportunities are opening up. The possibilities are emerging.
And that makes me hopeful.
I need a suggestion for roles for FtM/AFAB trans people in my novel ‘verse. I suspect there are going to be a wider variety than for MtF/CAMAB trans people (who are primarily religious figures - priestesses and paladins) simply because it’s easier for a short, baby-faced man to pass unnoticed than for a tall woman with a more angular face.
The way that trans men and other CAFAB trans people constantly claim that they are “underrepresented” within the LGBT community and deserve more resources is literally a textbook example of CAFAB trans people exhibiting male privilege over not only CAMAB trans people but also cis women.
Because the reality is that the overwhelming majority of Western transphobia specifically targets CAMAB trans people (including a staggering 98% of all anti-trans violence), and yet substantially more resources already cater primarily or exclusively to CAFAB trans people. And yet trans males constantly demand more, even to the point of demanding that women’s spaces exclude trans women and decenter cis women.
Moreover, the behavior of CAFAB trans people in this regard precisely mirrors the behavior of cis males, whom studies have shown consistently perceive women as “dominating the conversation” anytime we speak more than 30% of the time. So when CAFAB trans people claim that they are “underrepresented” in trans spaces, what they are really expressing is anger that they are not being permitted to monopolize and dominate trans spaces the way cis men monopolize and dominate mainstream spaces.
Question: since when did our CASABs dictate our gender? Cuz, last I checked, I am not male based solely on my assigned sex. Lulz, do you know who do believe casab = gender? radscum. Jussayin. There is a way to talk about fucked up shit without being erasive and misgendering. For instance:
- Trans spaces are dominated by trans men.
- Trans men access male privilege and get away w/ it by saying that being trans negates male priv.
- Too many spaces and materials rely on asab, and focus attentions on cafab trans folks (which is binarist and cissexist, as well as being transmisogynistic)
These sentences convey the same sentiment without being fucked.
But when you use “cafab” and “trans males/men” interchangeably, you ignore the fact that non-binary people ARE NOT MEN. They are no more men when they are CAFAB than when they are CAMAB. And if you want to talk about casab within non-binary communities, I will gladly talk to other non-binary folks, fuck off you binary trans folks sticking your noses where they don’t belong.
TLDR: Yes, trans guys, fuck off. Actually think about what male privilege means. Trans spaces need to stop focusing on CASAB, and especially privileging CAFAB over CAMAB, and at the complete erasure of intersex trans folks as well. And we need to stop saying cafab = male, camab = female.
First and foremost, you are grossly and offensively incorrect in assuming that I am a binary gendered trans person.
Second, you are also grossly and offensively incorrect in assuming that I believe that all CAFAB trans people are trans men. I am fully aware that CAFAB trans people do not necessarily identify as male. What you are ignoring — perhaps ignorantly, perhaps willfully — is that CAFAB trans people have male privilege even when they do not identify as male.
And third, because of the second point, a CAFAB trans person silencing a CAMAB trans person about CAFAB privilege is still fucking oppressive, regardless of whether either of the two is binary. Childhood invisibility is still a fuckton better than the sexualizing, pathologizing bullshit that CAMAB trans people go through.
My fanfic. Star Trek and Dragon Age. I am a selectively-latreic, omnitheist with a strong intellectual and spiritual interest in new and emerging pantheons and unusual syncretisms of old pantheons.
Rapidly turning into a mostly Dragon Age blog. Will be rarely NSFW. Sometimes fiction will be written.
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