1/12/11

Vote for Claire Buffie First Pro LGBT Miss America Contestant!

Source: Queers United "Ms. Claire Buffie a contestant for Miss America is the first ever pageant queen to campaign on an LGBT rights platform. Having won the nomination for Miss New York the beauty queen/photographer and activist now vies for the top crown."

"Ms. Buffie has been active in educating students about respect and acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. A straight ally herself, Buffie has a lesbian sister whom she wants to see have equal rights in her lifetime."

"Visit the Miss America site to vote for Buffie, or text MANY to 24470."

Be sure to tune in on January 15th to see if she is selected to the top 15!

Thank you E at Queers United and my appoligies for cliping the entire article I didn't have time to write one myself:)

1/10/11

Honduras Three Transsexuals Murdered in Two Weeks Demand Justice!

Three Honduran travesti or transgender woman, have been murdered in three separate incidents in the past two weeks. There bodies found raped, burned and thrown into ditches.

Source the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC):

"On December 22, 2010 in Comayagüela, a 23-year-old travesti named Lorenza(legal name: Luis) Alexis Alvarado Hernández (crime scene above picture) was found dead, her body visibly beaten and burned. Bloody stones near her corpse indicate that the bruises covering her body were caused by stoning. Her body was set on fire. Used condoms found nearby have led to the suspicion that she may also have been raped. After her death, the assailants threw her body into a ditch. News reports indicate that severe injuries to her face rendered her corpse virtually unrecognizable."

"The same day, another travesti, Lady Oscar (legal name: Oscar) Martinez Salgado, age 45, was found burned to death in her home in Barrio El Rincón of Tegucigalpa. Her body showed multiple stab wounds. Neighbors report witnessing two suspicious individuals running from her house as the fire ignited."

"Less than two weeks later, on January 2, 2011, a young travesti known only as Cheo was found murdered on the main street of Colonia Alameda in Tegucigalpa. Her body was left without legal documentation. She appears to have died from a severe stab wound to her chest."

Take Action Now Sign the IGLHRC letter to Honduran officials demanding justice!

12/31/10

Breaking the APA's chains pathologizing transsexuals for power and wealth

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Tobi Hill-Meyer answers to a "T" What's up with "Tranny"



I highly recommend Tobi Hill-Meyer's three part series on Bilerico Project. She sets the standard defining transsexuals views on the "T" word!

Part one examines Let's Talk about "Tranny" - Meanings

"To begin with, it's important to recognize that "tranny," like most slurs, is used to say more about someone than simply whether they are trans or not. Just as how "this homework is so gay" is less about identifying sexual attraction to other homework of its own gender and more about being generically bad. Similarly, being called a faggot or a dyke is often about being too feminine, a sissy, a manhater, or just being unwilling to accept sexual harassment. So what's the implication of being called a tranny?
So what does the media's role in presenting transgender as a simplified one dimensional plaything have to do with anything? Answered in part two "Let's Talk About "Tranny" Media Criticisms"

"If you are using the term over other people's objections, then be prepared for the consequences. People may think you are ignorant or insensitive to the oppression of trans women. They may more closely examine your behavior for transphobia and/or misogyny. They may find it. They might not want to be exposed to your irresponsible use of term (or other transphobia and/or misogyny) and decide to avoid your events, your writing, or your film. They might tell their friends. So if you want to cultivate an audience that includes trans women and those who care about them, or even just a reputation as trans friendly, keep that in mind.
(Tammye Nash, John Wright and the whole Dallas Voice crew should pay particular attention to this paragraph.)

Part three talks about the effects of using "tranny" has on transgender people. It explores the rational cisgender people us in defending there cavalier use of the word.

"Similarly, I've heard people suggest that because of the overlap in the trans feminine spectrum between trans women, drag queens, and sissy faggots, that gay men should therefore be free to toss the slur around without being criticized. I can understand the point if you're a gay man who walks the streets in drag, facing harassment, being called a tranny, and getting profiled by police for walking while trans. However, that doesn't give all normatively gendered gay men carte blanche to rebuke any criticism for using the term just because they went to a few drag shows. That doesn't give all gay men carte blanche. It certainly is no excuse for OUT magazine the justification to claim that the term is powerful and liberating just because they (predominantly cis men) are the ones saying it."
It is my belief that that Tobi's three part dissertation correctly articulates the current transgender sensitivities regarding the word "tranny". These three articles should be used as a guide post for cisgender media regardless if it is a gay or hetreosexual publication.

Mercedes has a wonderfully insightful commentary on Tobi's article over at Dented Blue Mercedes

12/30/10

Tammye "trannye" Na$h, Editor Dallas Voice Hates on Transsexuals, ad nauseum.

NEVER GIVE UP IN THE FACE OF TYRANNY!

When you as trans activist regularly face unrelenting attacks on your dignity by media giants simply for standing up, hold your head up, face the battle bravely and what ever you do, never allow them to see your pain.

Do not believe there lies. Know that as we hold the high ground and refuse to lower ourselves to the level of these despicable attackers by refusing to use the hateful names they do know in the long run people will recognize your integrity and admire your courage.

The continued venomous attacks by the Dallas Voice on myself, dehumanizing singling me out despite being knowledgeable of trans peoples sensitivities with hated pejoratives require me to ask you Tammye Nash, what is your true motivation?

What is you investment in the word "tranny"? You are a cisgender gay woman for gods sake!

Is it you wish to hurt me personally? Our do you just hate transgender people in general?

When will Tammye Nash at the Dallas Voice learn that "Tranny" and "Faggot" hold the same negative connotations as "Nigger", Kike, "Towelhead"?

Surly our attempted education of Nash of the media guide which the Dallas voice adheres to when gay people are attacked verbally as was a dismal failure.

Nash, you are by definition a transphobic bully.

I am crying. Are you happy now? What Will it take for you to stop?

12/27/10

Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender & Queer Jamaica: Ten Reasons Why the Transvestic Disorder Diagnosis in the DSM-5 Has Got to Go

Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender ; Queer Jamaica: Ten Reasons Why the Transvestic Disorder Diagnosis in the DSM-5 Has Got to Go
Kelley Winters, Ph.D.
GID Reform Advocates
www.gidreform.org
kelley@gidreform.org

Click title or link for Queer Jamaica: "Ten Reasons Why the Transvestic Disorder Diagnosis in the DSM-5 Has Got to Go"

The classification of gender diversity and nonconformity to birth-assigned gender roles as mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has drawn growing protest and outrage from transpeople and and allies worldwide. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the APA, is regarded as the medical and social definition of mental disorder throughout North America and strongly influences international diagnostic nomenclature. The fifth edition of the manual, the DSM-5, is in development and scheduled for publication in 2013. While the diagnostic category of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) has garnered most of the controversy, a second category of so-called Transvestic Fetishism (TF) has harmed transwomen, including transsexual women, as well as male-to-female crossdressers, dual gender and gender nonconforming people since the earliest days of the DSM. Trans and LGB advocates have been inexplicably quiet about the TF category, even after the APA proposed to expand the category in the DSM-5, renamed Transvestic Disorder, to implicate gender nonconforming people of all sexes and all sexual orientations.

The proposed DSM-5 diagnosis of Transvestic Disorder, even worse than its predecessor Transvestic Fetishism, labels gender expression not stereotypically associated with assigned birth sex as inherently pathological and sexually deviant. The diagnosis is punitive and scientifically capricious, serving to punish social and sexual gender nonconformity and enforce binary stereotypes of assigned birth sex. Here are ten reasons why the Transvestic Disorder diagnosis should be eliminated entirely from the DSM-5."

Click the the link or post title for Kelley's Queer Jamaica' complete incredible article.