Posts tagged queer
Fierce...Flawless...
OUTNEWS: Sweden ends sterilisation of transgender patients
Sweden will no longer sterilise transgender
edpatients after a law banning the practice entered into force on Thursday, but many who have already undergone a sex change are now seeking damages from the state. The Stockholm administrative court of appeal recently ruled that the practice of forced sterilisations, which dated back to a 1972 law on sexual identity, was unconstitutional and in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.In its December 19th decision, the court said the law did not respect civil liberties as guaranteed by the constitution, and was discriminatory since it solely targeted transgender people. The law stated that a person who wanted to change sex legally must be infertile. In practice, this lead to transgendered patients being sterilised, as they had to go through with the entire process including gender reassignment surgery in order to have their ID documents changed.
Some Swedes chose to wait to change sex legally in order to have their own biological children. LGBT rights organisation All Out hand delivered 80,000 protest signatures to the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in January 2012, the Global Post reports.
The new ban on the practice entered into force on Thursday after an appeal period ended, judge Helen Lidö said. The government had planned on removing the sterilisation requirement on July 1st, 2013 but the ruling sets legal precedent from now on.
i hope they get sued to high hell.
What this article doesn’t mention is they weren’t allowed to keep any frozen sperm or ova either.
(via mattachinereview)
He is currently the only one in jail for the attack.
The local news media is reporting him as going on a “stabbing rampage.”
This is the roommate of a dear friend of mine. I urge you please to read this and spread it far and wide.
it looks like the atlantablackcross site is down for bandwidth issues. go to http://letlukego.com/ for all the information you need.
Activist and Poet William Brandon Lacy Campos Dies at 35
Poet, writer, and activist William Brandon Lacy Campos has died. He was discovered on Friday night in his apartment in New York. The cause of death has not been announced. Campos was 35.
Campos authored the poetry collection “It Ain’t Truth If It Doesn’t Hurt,” was a contributor to the anthology “From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction,” and authored a blog called “Queer, Poz and Colored: The Essentials” at TheBody.com. He was also the former co-executive director at Queers for Economic Justice, a non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation.
Campos was born in Minnesota and became an activist in his teens, becoming the co-chair of the National Queer Student Coalition at age 20. He wrote and spoke passionately about not only the broader political landscape, but also about his own emotional journey and challenges as a queer person of color.
According to Rod 2.0 a Facebook status update made by Campos’ father confirmed his son had passed away. The news rocked LGBT and progressive organizing and artist circles this weekend, prompting an outpouring of support and grief on Facebook pages.
Campos was multi-racial and as Rod 2.0 points out, discussed the intersections of race, colorism, sexuality and gender just days before he passed away in a keynote address he delivered at Tuft University’s annual Black Solidarity Day on Monday, Nov. 6. The speech was called “A New Kind of Blackness.”
An excerpt from “A New Kind of Blackness” is published below.
“I’ve spent a long time thinking about blackness. About, roughly, all of my 35 years walking around this planet. I guess that makes me some sort of an expert, but mostly it makes me confused, angry, celebratory, conflicted, colonized, dehumanized, aggrandized, powerful, vulnerable, righteous, and a whole host of other adjectives.
“I am standing in front of you a black, white, Ojibwe, Afro-Boricua, HIV positive, queer man. And I am just as black as any of you. You are my community, you are my salvation. I am in community with my queer and trans black family and being queer or trans doesn’t make you less black than anyone else. It’s time for us to realize that HIV stopped being a white gay disease a long time ago, it’s now a black and Latin[o] disease and it’s time to hold up our positive brothers and sisters as our own. No more high yellow and midnight blue conversations when talking about skin unless its to talk about how that high yellow or midnight blue person rocked your socks last night.”
The video at the top of this page is of William Brandon Lacy Campos delivering a speech on reproductive justice and HIV at CLPP & PopDev’s 26th annual activist conference.
[Source: Colorlines]
Rest in power, William Brandon Lacy Campos.
Available here. Enter code “tumblr1” at checkout for free shipping!
(via ovulationconstipation)
Available here. Enter code “tumblr1” at checkout for free shipping!
A selection of my current patches. all are hand sewn, on a backing of black wool. Materials include wool, cotton, poly and silk. I also have a Dyke patch and a Trans* patch that I will post pics of tomorrow.
Message me if you want to order one :) Any ideas for possible patches or special orders are welcome too :D
Reblogging for the day crew.
(via ovulationconstipation)
A selection of my current patches. all are hand sewn, on a backing of black wool. Materials include wool, cotton, poly and silk. I also have a Dyke patch and a Trans* patch that I will post pics of tomorrow.
Message me if you want to order one :) Any ideas for possible patches or special orders are welcome too :D
Is it just me or do burlesque queers pretend they are better than stripping/sex worker queers?
In my experience, a lot of people who get into burlesque do so because they want to strip while still acting morally superior to sex workers.
(Source: dansphalluspalace)
I am offering hand embroidered sew-on patches for sale. Help me buy groceries and look sassy at the same time!
Right now I have “Riots not Diets,” “Queer as in Fuck You,” “Butch,” “Femme,” and a Trans symbol. I can also take requests for short phrases or other simple images.
Since I am making them with available materials each one will be different, with different color selections. If you have something specific in mind, let me know and we can work it out, just know that if I have to buy materials to do it, that will add to the cost of the piece.
Single color thread patches are $5 and two color thread patches are $7, plus shipping. Shipping will be first class mail, USPS, unless otherwise indicated since its the cheapest. Shipping prices will be determined by where you are.
Prices are negotiable depending on how many patches you want. It will take me about a day to fill any orders that are less than 5 single color patches, and shipping will probably be 2 to 3 weeks. I can accept payment through paypal or via money order.
Message me if you are interested, and signal boost if you can!
Doing it Again: In Depth Kickstarter Campaign
Tobi Hill-Meyer is following up her intimate look into the sexual live of trans women with a new erotic documentary. The project currently has some preliminary sample content but needs the support of the community to be fully realized.
The goal of $6,000 is the minimum to get this project off the ground, but more will be required for things like music, subtitles, a travel fund for performers, a dedicated assistant editor, and perhaps amazingly a third volume with a specific non-binary/genderqueer perspective! Details on those additional funding milestones on the kickstarter page.
I know the trans* community is systemically not the most well off money-wise to say the least, but there are enough of us that giving even at a low amount is extremely helpful.
Please re-blog this far and wide, trans women’s sexualities need to be reclaimed, told by us and for us.
are we really doing that whole bisexuals are binarist and are therefore made up slash not real queers
are we really
how about you let me be attracted to what im attracted to and you mimd yr own business unless yr one of the ppl i love, k?? thnx.
ugh. I was hoping that wasn’t where that conversation was going to go. In hindsight, I should have seen it for what it was at the beginning.
I don’t think that being bisexual is inherently binarist. Not a bit. And anyone claiming that you can’t be attracted to only two genders without erasing anyone else is assuming that bisexuality is defined as attraction only to cissexist categorizations of men and women. While that may be the larger cultural understanding of bisexuality, we must keep in mind that there is a larger cultural understanding of bisexuality as illegitimate, “cheating,” “greedy,” or a fake front for not wanting to admit to True Queerness(tm). So we have to remember that any argument made that is dependent on the wider cultural understanding of bisexual identities is probably going to have some big fucking flaws in it.
Bisexuality can definitely be framed in a cissexist way, but that is a problem stemming from a transphobic and binarist culture as well as transphobic and binarist people, not from bisexuality itself. Almost any sexual orientation can be framed thus, even ones like pan- and omnisexual. Lesbian can be framed in a cissexist way if a cis woman frames it as only being attracted to cis women. That doesn’t make lesbians who recognize trans* women as women and potential sexual partners automatically cissexist because they consider themselves lesbians.
What many people mean when they call themselves bisexual is busted, binarist and transphobic. That doesn’t make the orientation itself busted, binarist or transphobic. Its the larger framework about sex, gender, desire and what we desire about others that has some serious issues.
tl, dr: bisexuals are still queer, being bisexual is not enough to declare someone as binarist and erasing.
gqid:
Genderqueer Links and Books
The following are link and book recommendations, all evaluated myself, as helpful resources that relate to genderqueer and non-binary concepts and identities. If there is a resource you would like to suggest, please use the GQID submit form (select Submit a Link from the drop-down or copy and paste a list into the default text box). See also Marilyn Roxie’s genderqueer tag on Delicious. If you are instead looking for the bibliography for the Genderqueer History and Identities project, click here.
Links:
Genderqueer-friendly Tumblrs
Androgynites Unite, Anything But Binary, Ask a Non-Binary, Break the Binary, LGBTQ Advice, Fat Genderqueers!, Fuck Yeah Androgyny!, Fuck Yeah Bigender!, Fuck Yeah Genderless, Fuck Yeah Gender Studies!, Fuck Yeah, Genderqueers!, Fuck Yeah, Transitioning GQs, the gender bender agenda, The Gender Book, Genderforkr, GenderPanic, Gender Queeries, Genderqueer, The Genderqueer Activist, GenderQueer Confessions, Genderqueer Fashionista, Genderqueer Problems, GQ Moments, KNOW Homo, LGBTQ Connections, Neutrois, Nonbinary, Non-binary Artists, Nonbinary Autistics!, Non Binary Confessions, Non-Binary Folk, Non-Op, no gender rules, nullgrade, Practical Androgyny, Queer Dictionary, Smashing the Binary, spectrumofgenders, STFU Binarists, T.R.A.N.S., Transcending Anatomy, Trans*Opinions, Trans* Transgressions, Trans* Tumblr Directory, transbears, TransFess, TRANSPRIDE, ygender[queer]
GQ-friendly Livejournal Communities
Androgynes, Bigender, Birls, Gender Blur, gender_fluid, Genderqueer, Gender.queer_FTW, Girlfags and Guydykes, Transgender
Websites and FAQs
Androgyny Rarely Asked Questions, Chroanagram, Crossdreamers, Genderfork, Genderology, Genderpedia, Genderqueer in the UK, GenderQueer Revolution, Gender Sphere, The Midwest Trans & Queer Wellness Initiative, Nonbinary.org, Non-Op: Another Option, pipisafoat: FAQ on Genderqueers, Gender Expression, and Gender Variance, Practical Androgyny, Questioning Transphobia, T-Vox, We Happy Trans, World Professional Association for Transgender Health, YGender
Organizations and Events: Click here for a list
Forums and Groups
AVEN: Gender Discussion, Forum GenderQueer (Russian), Last.fm: Genderqueers Group, Laura’s Playground, Scarleteen: Gender Issues, Susan’s Place, TransYada, What is Gender?
Identity Sites
Androgyne Online, Bigender, Bi-Gender the Bisexual Partner, GirlFags, Neutrois.com/Neutrois Outpost, Neutrois Nonsense
Prounouns and Titles
Art of Transliness: Gender Neutral Relational Terms, Freelance Writing: The History of the Indefinite Singular Pronoun, Gender Neutral Pronoun Blog, Gender Queeries: Gender Neutral/Queer Titles, Genderqueer in the UK: Misc, or Mx: A Gender-neutral Title, MIT’s Ally Toolkit: Gender Neutral Pronoun Usage, Warren Wilson: Using Gender-Neutral Language in Academic Writing
Articles: Click here for a list
Fun, Videos, Podcasts, & Performance
Agender Earthworm, Facts About Queers (Humor), Fuck Yeah Non-Binary Seahorse, Genderqueer Chat, Gendercast: Our Transmasculine Genderqueery, Gender Queeries,Kreative Korporation: Yay genderform! (a comprehensive and fun-to-play-with list of gender, sex, orientation, and more identities), Midwest Genderqueer, regender: A Different Kind of Translator, Trans Parrotfish, Trans Parrotfish’s Significant Other
Education
Gender Diversity Project, Gender Spectrum: Resources, Queer Teaching Tips, Safe Schools Coalition, TRANScending Identities: A Bibliography of Resources on Transgender and Intersex Topics, Transgender Student Rights, Trans What?: A Guide Towards Allyship
Sex Ed: Click here for a list
The Trevor Project: “The leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services” to LGBT youth: 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386) Also available for matters of less pressing urgency, Dear Trevor is an “online, non-time sensitive Question & Answer resource for young people with questions surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity.” A directory of previous questions in the category of Transgender/Genderqueer is also available.
Social Media
Fashion and Transitional Gear: Click here for a list
Banner: This Journal is Gay/Lesbian, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Intersex, Genderqueer, Asexual Positive banner (with flags; without flags). Designed by nethdugan.
Books:
Note: Use Worldcat.org, the world’s largest global library catalog, to see if the book you’re seeking is available at a library near you!
Gender Now Coloring Book - Maya Christina Gonzales
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us - Kate Bornstein
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation - Kate Bornstein
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws - Kate Bornstein
My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely - Kate Bornstein
Books and essays by Ivan Coyote
Grrl Alex: A Personal Journey to a Transgender Identity - Alex Drummond
GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary - Joan Nestle, Riki Wilchins, Clare Howell
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
PoMoSexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality - Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimel
Queer Theory, Gender Theory - Riki Anne Wilchins
Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender - Riki Anne Wilchins
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves (in-progress) - Laura Erickson-Schroth
whatever.odt (free!) - JD O’Meara
Feeling Wrong in Your Own Body: Understanding What It Means to Be Transgender - Jamie A. Seba
That’s Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation - Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men - Lori B. Girshick and Jamison Green
Transition and Beyond: Observations on Gender Identity - Reid Vanderburgh
(Looking for a list of books concerning gender, sex, and orientation that aren’t genderqueer specific instead? Click here)
Book lists compiled by others:
Bibliography of Books Concerning Androgynes and Androgyny
I’ve updated this yet again on site and used the reblog post format that subtlecluster had put up to share it - keep sharing and suggesting more resources that I should include!
Choosing queerness
I think I need to clarify some of my thoughts on what I find wrong with “political lesbianism” while talking about choices.
Basically, I don’t care if someone chose to be queer or not. Choosing it does not make it illegitimate and appealing to “nature” as a reason why orientation is legitimate creates another hierarchy of identity. It allows us to police who is “truly” queer and who is not based on certain narratives of self-discovery and self-knowledge, and in the end enforces a normative story of how queer identity must function. It also ignore the potential for ways of expressing sexuality that fall outside of even the dominant paradigm that creates categories of straight and queer in the first place. These categories are the products of specific cultural contexts and power dynamics. They are not universal. I don’t care if you chose to be queer or if you feel that it is a natural part of your being. As long as you are not hurting anyone else or using your choices to attack others within the community, you do whatever you like with your body.
No, the choice itself is not the problem that I have with political lesbianism.
The problem I have with political lesbianism is that it is framed in a coercive way, making the choices of the people participating in its community a policing yardstick for determining someones dedication to certain limited “radical” ideals. Its policing the sexual choices of a marginalized group and insisting on a normative ideal of sexual behavior as a prerequisite for proper consciousness. Basically, the idea that women with a “correct political consciousness” MUST choose lesbianism or they are betraying the ideals of the movement is just another form of sexist bullshit. Its telling (cis) women that they don’t know their own minds unless they fuck in a specific way. That shit is sexist. Its like slut shaming dressed in feminist jargon.
If you use your choice to be queer as a way of pressuring other people to follow your lead, you are also edging on predatory if not outright jumping over that line.
(content notice: mention of violent death)
The Village Voice asks “Who started the Stonewall Riots?”
In 1969, the Stonewall riots—precipitated when cops burst into the famed gay bar and started being their usually abusive selves—defined the modern gay movement.
Well, every eldergay on earth claims to have not only been there, but to have started the riot—even more people than claim to have seen the original Carrie musical.
But a documentary about “the Saint of Christopher Street,” transsexual legend Marsha P. Johnson, has uncovered some interesting info.
Director Michael Kasino interviewed Stonewall author David Carter for the documentary, and here’s what Carter said:
“When Jerry Hoost, who was a cofounder of the Gay Liberation Front, got to the Stonewall Inn on the evening of the uprising, John Goodman told him that Jackie Hormona was the one who started the riot, and that soon after, Marsha Johnson andZasou Nova quickly joined in. ”Later, Marty Robinson, and later Morty Manford told Robin Souza, who was one of the founders of the Gay Activists Alliance, that Marsha Johnson was involved in starting the riots.”The story that Robin Souza told me, that Morty Manford told him, was that Marsha Johnson said: ‘I got my civil rights!’ and then Marsha threw a shot glass into a mirror. And that’s what started all the riots.
“This was later know as the ‘shot glass’ heard round the world.”So I think when you look at the mythology, with the few known facts that withstand scrutiny, I do not think that there is any doubt that she was there the first night. And I think if we had to conclude, in all probability, that she was probably among the first to resist the police in a physical way.”
Want to know more about Marsha? Then you might want to help kickstart the movie. Here’s how. By the way, yes, I’m in it. But I didn’t start Stonewall!
Marsha P. Johnson is an American hero. I’d love for her to finally get the recognition she deserves.
Dear every single queer person (that includes any lesbian identifying radscum [like Cathy Brennan,] and people like teamwesnatchwigs,) who want to be nasty assholes to trans* folk:
A trans woman of color started your precious fucking stonewall riot.
A TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR
A TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR
A trans woman of color who was found dead, her body floating in the Hudson river, with no attempt at investigation by the police.
If you think that any trans woman owes you anything, even if its just shutting up and going away, you better be prepared to kiss not just my ass, but the ass of the entire community. Be prepared for some extra kissing for the trans women of color.
Because your entire movement exists because of a trans woman of color. And your movements at best ignore and exclude them, at worst work actively to make sure they die and are forgotten.
Who wants special rights now, assholes?