12/8/12

Suspended Teacher Reinstated after Showing MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - SAME LOVE feat.

Could you imagine a teacher being suspended for playing this video requested by her students?

Well nether could she and she talks about that in the next video. Its about human rights. Its about love. It's about equality, hope and freedom.



Facebook Cause "Gay Rights are Human Rights" would like to know what you think... More about this at Huffington Post

Video: NY Post Slams US With "Tranny" But Balks At F__ot


This "Article" by the NY Post has to be without a doubt the most hurtful and incendiary transphobic pieces of shit ever published by one of Murdoch's media maggots.

GLAAD,who's article brought this to my attention claims it was they who were responsible for the NY Post's gay awareness. GlAAD says they stopped using the F word because of their efforts during the AIDS crisis.

However GLAAD is apparently unable to stop them from using the T word. I think it may also have something to do with the assailant being associated with the NYFD and everyone knows there's no gay firefighters. (The Mahmoud Ahmadinejad syndrome)

So you might ask, why bother then? Glaad with all its might is seemingly powerless to stop that trash heap of a rag, Kelli what could you do with your little planetransgender bloggy thangy?

Although I have not been a big fan of the duplicitous GLAAD in the past I have seen some major changes in them recently. And a TRUE Ally against transgender defamation is our ally.

And if need be, the next time one of there runway cisgender money making queens utters the T word in public claiming he is 'reclaiming' it on our behalf I will be the first to remind GLAAD of the snip to the right from there own blog.

This video from the NY Post appeared in my daily google 'tranny' alert after I wrote the post and thought I'd include it. Don't buy the NY Post. Really.






APA DSM-5: The D word Switcharoo


The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association APA, contains descriptions, symptoms, and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders.

These criteria for diagnosis provide a common language among clinicians and mental health professionals who treat patients with mental disorders. The APA is currently developing the latest edition, DSM to be published May 2013

There are extremes in all communities and ours is no exception. Being radical it seems right that I occupy the one on the far side advocating for our removal lock, stock and barrel from the DSM-5.

I'm also open to others opinions and since it's such a hot button issue, one I felt needed our attention I created a Facebook event that was joined by five thousand people for conversation. Some against some for our removal and some in the middle, but all respected.

Did those of us who wanted our removal succeed?  No, most likely we failed despite my best efforts at getting local people out from behind their keyboards. That was somehow my fault. Not the gay communities.  We didn't take to the street at key moments and gain the spotlight as they did twenty years ago.

The facts.

The December first 2012  press release from the APA announcing the next bureaucratic step needed to publish the DSM-5 had been taken by the board voting it's approval.

And the world fell over themselves to announce trans people were no longer listed as "disordered" by in the DSM.

Did I miss something in that press release?

The  Message From APA President Dilip Jeste, M.D., on DSM-5 offers no specifics, only justifications and denials regarding the process.

So whats up?

The often quoted Med Page published in May following the last public meeting reports what may not up:

"Gender identity disorder. Individuals who believe their biological gender doesn't match their gender identification will no longer be labeled with a disorder. Instead, if they seek psychiatric treatment, they can be labeled with "gender dysphoria."

The workgroup responsible for dealing with the hot-button issue considered a variety of other approaches, addressed later in this article. Ultimately they settled on a formal diagnosis -- potentially qualifying a patient for insurance-paid treatment if they want it -- but with a less pejorative name than "disorder."


So the name might change but what is the difference between the two words and what does it mean to trans people? The free medical dictionary defines....

Gender Identity Disorder:

"The psychological diagnosis gender identity disorder (GID) is used to describe a male or female that feels a strong identification with the opposite sex and experiences considerable distress because of their actual sex."

Gender Dysphoria:

"unhappiness with one's biological sex or its usual gender role, with the desire for the body and role of the opposite sex.

Not much difference between the two words is there?

Please understand this is just conjuncture since no further official information available untill the DSM-5 is published in May 2013.
But given that one D word is being substituted for another what's the end result?

We remain pathologized by the APA

pa·thol·o·gize

/pəˈTHäləˌjīz/Verb

Regard or treat (someone or something) as psychologically abnormal or unhealthy

Which in my opinion denies  us our rightful place among the worlds well adapted productive citizens.

So try as hard as I may I failed, kind of. Who knows. I did give space to those who wanted conversation. But most importantly, those who wanted our total removal from the DSM as well.

 But now its just a waiting game. The APA has what it wants, our undivided attention, our money, the guidelines to normality, acceptability and our chances at success in life.
















12/6/12

Gabrielle Ludwig: Transgender Basketball player At Center Court


"Come out and be Gabrielle the player," head coach Corey Cafferata tells her. "You worked hard to get here. This damn team in here, everyone has your back!"

Ludwig nervously runs her hand over the sock approaching the tattoo on her leg. She has long been eager yet apprehensive about this moment. Can she still play? What will she hear from adults in the stands? What will her opponents on the court whisper? And can she keep her emotions in check? Glancing up from the dirty rug, she says she is calm. She didn't know if this day could ever arrive: Tonight, before spectators who will cheer and curse her, she hits the reset button on her life.


Read more of this celebration of life on USA Today



Twenty Tennessee Equality Organizations to Rally Dec 9th


"Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community—it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall.
My understanding is that it is virtually—not completely, but virtually—impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex."


Michelangelo Signorile interview with TN Sen. Stacey "Don't Say Gay" Campfield 


Why should the rest of us care? The weakest Link, Tennessee has the most oppressive Anti LGBT Legislature in  the USA.

Twenty Equality Organizations will gather December Sunday 9th rallying for the full range of equality issues--for safe schools and against bad legislation like the Don't Say Gay and License to Bully bills, for legal recognition of our relationships, and safety for our community from violence and hate, including hateful legislation like the Police the Potty bill that targets transgender people.








12/5/12

Video: Islamic Thugs Shut Down Jakarta Festival Waria Berbudaya [Cultural Transgender Festival]

JAKARTA – A transgender festival was forced to shut down on Monday night after an Islamic group armed with sticks turned up at the event to protest against it.

UPDATE  Festival Organizers claim police are in cohorts with the Islamists leaving them unprotected. Source: Jakarta Post


The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a fundamentalist group that aims to implement shariah law in Indonesia, claimed the organiser of the Miss Waria contest in Pasar Festival, South Jakarta, did not have a permit from the police.

“The local community did not want the contest to be held in their area. They asked the police if there is a permit for the contest, but there is not,” Salim Alatas, chief patron of the FPI’s Jakarta chapter told the Jakarta Globe.

“We will deny if there is such thing as a transgender contest in our country. It’s morally destructive and not educating.”

Witnesses said that FPI members wore helmets and were armed with sticks, but Mr Salim denied the claims, saying that his men were unarmed and came in peace.

South Jakarta’s Setiabudi Police precinct head AKBP Lalu Muhammad Iwan confirmed that police did not issue a permit for the event.

Festival organiser Merlyn Sofyan, winner of Miss Waria when the event was first held in 2006, denied the show was a transgender beauty contest.

“It’s called Festival Waria Berbudaya [Cultural Transgender Festival], not a pageant where contestants are judged by their looks,” Merlyn told the Jakarta Globe.

“Festival Waria Berbudaya is an attempt to answer the wrong perceptions in our community by producing decent human resources of waria [transgender people]. It’s not going to be instant, but we’re trying to nurture them.

“If we’re talking about religion, who has the right to judge other people?”

All 20 contestants left the contest peacefully and continued the event at the Legal Aid Foundation in Central Jakarta.

Source: Bangkok Post