Nicole Kidman to play trans as ’The Danish Girl’

Actress Nicole Kidman (left) will play transgender painter Lili Elbe (right).









Nicole Kidman to play trans as ’The Danish Girl’
by Hannah Clay Wareham
Tuesday Sep 22, 2009

Nicole Kidman will take on the role of Danish painter Lili Elbe for 2011’s ’The Danish Girl.’ Elbe, formerly known as Einar Wegener, was one of the first known recipients of a sex change surgery (male to female), occurring in the early 1900’s in Denmark.

Prior to her physical transition, Elbe met and married illustrator Gerda Gottlieb. Actress Charlize Theron had been slated to play Gottlieb in the film, but dropped out of the project. Gottlieb often used Elbe as a subject for her illustrations, and more often than not included lesbian overtones in her work.

In 1930, Elbe managed to successfully change her sex and name, and the King of Denmark invalidated her marriage to Gottlieb.

Elbe passed away in 1931 as a result of complications from her fifth and final operation.

’The Danish Girl’ is based on the 2003 book by the same title, written by David Ebershoff. The film will be released in 2011.

Gender Blender | Cover Story | Colorado Springs Independent

Gender Blender | Cover Story | Colorado Springs Independent

Helena prodigal son returning as woman

Story Discussion by MARTIN J. KIDSTON
September 24, 2009



Shown is the DVD cover of the documentary 'Prodigal Sons' by Kim Reed.

..When Paul McKerrow was the star quarterback for the Helena High School Bengals in 1985, he thought throwing the perfect spiral would make him a better man.

Now that McKerrow is Kim Reed, a New York City filmmaker and magazine editor, her perspective on life has changed, although she's still looking to reconnect with the person she left behind.

"Being back in Helena reminded me of how conflicted I used to be about my gender," Reed says in her new film, "Prodigal Sons," which will be screened Friday night at the Plymouth Congregational Church.

"I experienced so much frustration with the body I was born into," she adds. "But I always knew I could rely upon my mind."

The documentary film, shot largely in Helena, revolves around the struggles of a local family and the bond that keeps it together.

At its base, the family consists of three boys, including the oldest, Marc, who suffered a brain injury in a car crash and struggles throughout the film with behavioral issues. The youngest son, Todd, is gay and works as an architect.

The middle child, Paul, was a Helena High School quarterback and voted the most likely to succeed. After school, he attended University of California, Berkeley, and when he returned to Helena, he did so as a transgendered woman looking to reconnect with her past and gain acceptance in the city she grew up in.

"I thought the film was very good," said Joy Bruck, who helped bring the documentary to Helena. "I have known this family since the '70s, and my kids grew up with their kids. But mental illness and sexual identity are things that people really don't understand."

Bruck, along with another Helenan, Jennifer Thompson, traveled to Missoula to attend a documentary film festival being held there. While there they viewed "Prodigal Sons" and thought it would be well received in Helena.

Their instincts were spot on. The film, which has been viewed at festivals around the country, has already sold out.

"On the way back from the festival, we began talking about the film," said Bruck. "Jennifer (Thompson) had this vision of possibly doing a whole event here at the church around the film. The first thing we did was check with Kim (Reed), and she thought it would be a good idea."

Both Bruck and Thompson are members of Plymouth Congregational Church.

Reed, who directed and co-produced the film, was in Iceland Tuesday for a showing. She's expected to be in Helena to discuss her movie and the impetus behind its creation.

Reed will also take questions from the audience regarding the issues raised in the film, including mental illness, sexual orientation, personal identity and family.

"I really think there are lot more people in our society that deal with these things in their own lives, who have friends and family members who have some aspect of what this film depicts," Bruck said. "Doing this event lets them realize it's OK to tell, that it's OK to talk about it, that it's OK to let people know."

The film also touches on the story of the Prodigal Son, a parable of Jesus recounted in the Gospel of Luke. It relates to a man's two sons, one who abandons the family only to return years later, fearing that his father would no longer accept him.

Upon the son's arrival, however, his father accepts him with open arms, throws a feast on his behalf, and slaughters a fatted calf to celebrate his return.

"(My father) had known about my transition for years," Reed says at one point in the film. "It amazed me, how easily he accepted me."

Reed will speak Sunday morning at worship from the perspective of the prodigal returning home. She attended the church with her family as a boy growing up in Helena.

"This is the prodigal's home church," said Thompson. "I liked how that all came together and I was really pleased and surprised that the Humanities of Montana agreed."

Ken Egan, executive director of Humanities Montana, a nonprofit group based in Missoula, called the Helena screening and the breakout sessions to follow an impressive and highly relevant humanities program.

It's not very often, he noted, that a church applies for a grant to tackle the complicated issues of sexual identity, mental illness and family.

"My first reaction was that this was a sophisticated and thoughtful idea," Egan said. "It's a film that analyzes, diagnoses, and reveals complex family dynamics, and it gives the community a chance to think about how we treat one another."

On Saturday, Plymouth Congregational Church will also host a series of discussions, starting at 8:30 a.m. when facilitators meet privately with the Rev. Gary Hawk, who used "Prodigal Sons" in his class on forgiveness and reconciliation at the University of Montana.

At 10 a.m., the facilitators will then lead breakout sessions with the small public groups to discuss mental illness, sexual identity, the power of family and having difficult conversations.

"We're putting ourselves out there to continue to offer counseling and research for people who have questions on family situations that are provocative or difficult, whether it's mental illness or sexual identity, or just family secrets," Thompson said. "How do you talk about it? The church needs to be a resource."

The screening has already sold out, but copies will be available for purchase after the viewing. For more information, call 442-2642.

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston@helenair.com

The Endocrine Society Unveils New Clinical Guideline Addressing The Endocrine Treatment Of Persons With Gender Identity Disorder

The Endocrine Society Unveils New Clinical Guideline Addressing The Endocrine Treatment Of Persons With Gender Identity Disorder

The Endocrine Society has released a new clinical practice guideline for endocrine treatment of transsexual persons. The guideline, "Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual Persons: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline," appears in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of The Endocrine Society.

Transsexualism, or gender identity disorder (GID), is defined as a condition in which a patient experiences clinically significant distress due to strong and persistent cross-gender identification combined with a discomfort with their sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.

"Transsexual persons experiencing the confusion and stress associated with feeling 'trapped' in the wrong body, look to endocrinologists for treatment that can bring relief and resolution to their profound discomfort," said Wylie Hembree, MD, of Columbia University in New York and chair of the task force that developed the guideline. "It is the purpose of this guideline to make science-based recommendations that will enable endocrinologists to provide safe and effective treatment for individuals diagnosed with GID."

The clinical guideline recommends:

- The diagnosis of GID be made by a mental health professional;

- Against endocrine treatment of prepubertal children because a diagnosis of transsexualism in a child who has not yet gone through puberty cannot be made with certainty;

- Treating transsexual adolescents when they first exhibit signs of puberty by suppressing puberty until the age of 16 years, after which cross-sex hormones may be given;

- Treating transsexual adults by suppressing endogenous sex hormones, maintaining physiologic levels of gender-appropriate sex hormones and monitoring for known risks.

"The medical field will need further rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of all endocrine treatments of transsexual persons," said Hembree. "Of specific concern are the effects of prolonged delay of puberty on bone growth and the long-term medical and psychological risks of sex re-assignment."

Other members of the task force that developed this guideline include Peggy Cohen-Kettenis and Henriette Delemarre-van de Waal of VU Medical Center in The Netherlands; Louis Gooren; Walter Meyer of the University of Texas in Galveston, Tex.; Norman Spack of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.; Vin Tangpricha of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.; and Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Source
The Endocrine Society

City Brights: Joe Quirk : Is homosexuality natural?

City Brights: Joe Quirk : Is homosexuality natural?

What Makes a Woman a Woman?

The Way We Live Now
What Makes a Woman a Woman?
by Elinor Carucci




There is a painting by Richard Prince hanging in the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, a purple canvas bisected by one line of chartreuse type that reads : “I met my first girl, her name was Sally. Was that a girl, was that a girl. That’s what people kept asking.” That refrain echoed in my head as I pored over the photos of 18-year-old Caster Semenya, the South African track star whose biological sex was called into question last month after she annihilated her competition, winning the 800-meter world championship in significantly less time than her own previous finishes.

Semenya’s saga was made for the news media. A girl who may not be a girl! That chest! Those arms! That face! She was the perfect vehicle for nearly any agenda: was this another incidence of people calling into question black female athletes’ femininity (the Williams sisters, the basketball legend Sheryl Swoopes)? Was it sexist to assume women were incapable of huge leaps in athletic performance? Should all female athletes be gender-verified, as they were in Olympic competition until 1999? (The practice was dropped because no competitive edge was proved for the few women with rare disorders of sex development — it served only to humiliate them.) Should the entire practice of sex-segregating sports be abandoned?

Was that a girl, was that a girl. That’s what people kept asking.

I had my own reasons to be fascinated by Semenya’s story: I related to it. Not directly — I mean, no one has ever called my biological sex into question. No one, that is, except for me. After my breast-cancer diagnosis at age 35, I was told I almost certainly had a genetic mutation that predisposed me to reproductive cancers. The way I could best reduce my risk would be to surgically remove both of my breasts and my ovaries. In other words, to amputate healthy body parts. But not just any parts: the ones associated in the most primal way with reproduction, sexuality, with my sense of myself as female. Even without that additional blow, breast cancer can feel like an assault on your femininity. Reconstructing the psyche becomes as much a part of going through treatment as reconstructing the body.

In the weeks that followed my diagnosis, during that heightened, crystalline time of fear and anxiety, I was not, I, admit, at my most rational. So I began to fret: without breasts or hormone-producing ovaries, what would the difference be, say, between myself and a pre-op female-to-male transsexual? Other than that my situation was involuntary? That seemed an awfully thin straw on which to base my entire sense of womanhood. What, precisely, made me a girl anyway? Who got to decide? How much did it matter?

When I was in college, in the early 1980s, the gospel was that the whole enchilada of gender was a social construct: differences between boys and girls were imposed by culture, rather than programmed by chromosomes and chemicals, and it was time to divest ourselves of them. That turned out to be less true than feminists of the era might have wished: physiology, not just sisterhood, is powerful. While femininity may be relative — slipping and sliding depending on the age in which you live, your stage of life, what you’re wearing (quick: do tailored clothes underscore or undercut it?) even the height of the person standing next to you — biology, at least to some degree, is destiny, though it should make no never mind to women’s rights or progress.

Even as I went on as a journalist to explore ideas about gender, I took the fact of my own for granted: as for most people — men and women alike — it was so clear to me as to be invisible. I was unnerved, then, to discover not only that it could be so easily threatened but also how intense that threat felt. That, too, gave me pause: why should being biologically male or female still be so critical to our self-definition? Is it nature — an evolutionary imperative to signal with whom we can reproduce? Is it nurture? Either way, and regardless of our changing roles and opportunities, it is profound.

Was that a girl, was that a girl. That’s what people kept asking.

And yet, identity is not simply the sum of our parts. That’s what makes Semenya — whose first name is usually conferred on a boy but happens to be Greek for “beaver” — so intriguing. Science may or may not be able to establish some medical truth about her, something that will be relevant on the playing field. But I doubt that will change who she considers herself to be. According to Sheri Berenbaum, a professor of psychology and pediatrics at Penn State who studies children with disorders of sex development, even people with ambiguous biology tend to identify as male or female, though what motivates that decision remains unclear. “People’s hormones matter,” she said, “but something about their rearing matters too. What about it, though, no one really knows.”

There is something mysterious at work, then, that makes us who we are, something internally driven. Maybe it’s about our innate need to categorize the world around us. Maybe it arises from — or gives rise to — languages that don’t allow for neutrality. My guess, however, is that it’s deeper than that, something that transcends objectivity, defies explanation. That’s what I concluded about myself, anyway. Although I have, so far, opted to hang onto my body parts (and still wonder, occasionally, if I would feel differently were, say, a kidney or an arm at issue), I know that my sex could never really be changed by any surgeon’s scalpel. Why not? Perhaps because of the chemistry set I was born with, one that Semenya may or may not share. Perhaps merely because . . . I say so. And maybe that will have to be enough.

Peggy Orenstein, a contributing writer, is the author of “Waiting for Daisy,” a memoir.

Programa Brasil Sem Homofobia reúne-se com as Forças Armadas

10 de Setembro de 2009

Programa Brasil Sem Homofobia reúne-se com as Forças Armadas

O coordenador do Programa Brasil Sem Homofobia, Eduardo Santarelo, da Secretaria Especial dos Direitos Humanos da Presidência da República (SEDH/PR), reuniu-se no dia 02/09, em Brasília (DF), com representantes do Ministério da Defesa para discutir ações do Plano Nacional de Promoção da Cidadania e Direitos Humanos GLBTs.

O encontro teve dois objetivos: abrir o debate sobre a revogação do Art. 235, do Código Penal Militar, que cita atos libidinosos e Homossexuais, como impróprios, e alterar o Estatuto dos Militares para reconhecimento de companheiros Homoafetivos de militares como dependentes.

Além de Santarelo, participaram da reunião o diretor do Departamento de Organização e Legislação do MD, Rubens Sakay e representantes das Forças Armadas (Exército, Marinha e Aeronáutica).

Sobre o Código Penal Militar, o diretor do Ministério da Defesa Rubens Sakay entende que o termo “pederastia” é desatualizado e passa uma imagem de discriminação.

Segundo ele, o artigo tem o objetivo de punir quaisquer atos libidinosos, independente de ser Homo ou heterossexual. Como solução, o MD se comprometeu a, imediatamente, pesquisar a possibilidade jurídica de atualizar os termos na lei.

Em relação ao Estatuto Militar, Sakay afirmou que deve haver um aprofundamento das discussões para a atualização a legislação para uma versão que represente o novo contexto da sociedade brasileira, com reconhecimento legal de novos arranjos familiares, entre outras atualizações que também se fazem necessárias.

Segundo Sakay, o Brasil é um dos países que tem a legislação das Forças Armadas mais inclusiva do mundo: “países considerados mais avançados e progressistas impedem formalmente o ingresso de Homossexuais assumidos em suas Forças Armadas, no Brasil não temos nenhum documento que discrimine os candidatos em decorrência de sua orientação sexual“, explicou.

Com a implementação do Ministério da Defesa, finaliza-se a fase de consulta a todos os ministérios que compõem o Plano Nacional GLBT. Após a consolidação da redação final, a minuta do decreto presidencial, que institui o Plano, deve ser encaminhada à Casa Civil para considerações finais.

Fonte: CNG

Solicitud buenas prácticas en relación con la identidad y la expresión de género

----- Original Message -----
From: Marcelo Ferreyra
To:
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 9:12 PM
Subject: Solicitud buenas prácticas en relación con la identidad y la expresión de género


Se agradece difundir

***

El Programa para América Latina y el Caribe de la Comisión Internacional de los Derechos Humanos para Gays y Lesbianas (IGLHRC) se encuentra realizando una investigación regional acerca de buenas prácticas en relación con la identidad y la expresión de género –tales como, por ejemplo,

- aquellas que aseguran el reconocimiento de la identidad de género en los servicios públicos de salud y de educación.

- aquellas que desmantelan formas institucionalizadas o comunitarias de discriminación basadas en la expresión de género.

- aquellas que posibilitan el cambio legal de nombre y sexo/género en condiciones de respeto por la integridad corporal y la autonomía decisional de las personas.

- aquellas que visibilizan, con respeto y celebración, la diversidad de identidades y expresiones de género.

Estamos entrevistando a grupos de activismo y a activistas; a integrantes de espacios académicos, a artistas, a quienes trabajan en la función pública y, en general, a tod*s quienes quieran compartir sus experiencias en relación a estas prácticas. Si ese es tu caso, envianos un mail a esta dirección electrónica: buenaspracticas2009@gmail.com, indicando tu interés en ser entrevistad*, así como tu información de contacto (email, teléfono, dirección de msn o de skype, etc), y la práctica o práctica sobre la cual te interesaría informar. Esperamos tu correo!

Equipo Buenas Prácticas 2009 - IGLHRC

Vestibular: Bacharelado em Gênero e Diversidade

(clique na imagem para ampliar)

"Não será a cirurgia que me fará mulher", diz pedagoga

"Não será a cirurgia que me fará mulher", diz pedagoga
Por Marcelo Hailer 7/9/2009 - 15:59

O 7º Encontro Nacional Universitário de Diversidade Sexual (Enuds) em Belo Horizonte está perto do fim, mas os seus debates e personagens não. Letícia P., 21, formada em pedagogia pela Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), está no evento "para saber o que o mundo acadêmico está discutindo a"respeito das travestis e transexuais", disse.

A moça, que no momento faz a sua segunda graduação em Letras pela Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), nos conta também um pouco do seu processo de adequação que está fazendo no "Hospital Universitário Drº Pedro Ernesto (HUPE-UERJ) desde julho".

Muito simpática, Letícia fala um pouco de sua vida pessoal e avisa que está "dando um tempo" do namorado. Ainda sobre o mundo do saber ela reclama e diz que sente falta de um debate voltado para a questão "biológica", pois, segundo ela, muitas amigas trans "acreditam que são doentes".

Confira a seguir o bate papo realizado com a moça no último sábado (05/09) no 7º Enuds, que acontece na imensa Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Por que você está participando do Enuds?
Essa é a primeira vez que venho. Vim porque acredito ser um espaço interessante para mim, já que eu teria contato com debates sobre a questão trans. Vim também para saber o que se está falando sobre as travestis e as trans, pois, eu sinto falta disso.

E como está o debate sobre a questão trans?
Eu ainda não vi muito, a primeira seria essa (debate sobre o filme "Glen ou Glenda" do diretor Ed Woods com base na teoria de Berenice Bento) e agora a tarde vai ter um GT (Grupo de Trabalho) de Travestilidades e Transexualidades que eu irei participar. Mas, eu sinto falta do embate teórico. Nós temos hoje a Berenice Bento que é pioneira nessa questão, mas voltado para questão da política de identidade. Sinto falta do debate biológico. Eu tenho amigas trans que acreditam que são doentes e eu não consigo debater com elas. Fica parecendo que o discurso patologizante (que considera a transexualidade uma doença) convence mais.

Você chegou a pensar que era doente?
Sim. Eu fui pesquisar o tema e a primeira coisa que apareceu no internet é que eu sofria de disforia de gênero. Depois vem o estereotipo, que se você é trans tem que ser de um jeito. Depois que eu descobri outras teorias, eu mudei.

Quando que você se entendeu como mulher?
Desde pequena, mas nessa época eu pensava que era uma guei feminina que saía com héteros. Foi com dezessete anos que eu comecei a perceber que era uma mulher trans.

Na primeira faculdade você ainda era menino?
Sim.

A adequação foi durante o curso? Como foi o processo?
Eu fazia parte do diretório estudantil, tinha amigos gays e fui descobrindo. Eu conversava muito com as pessoas e comecei a conhecer outras transexuais. Na primeira faculdade eu era a guei e agora, do último período pra cá, que eu comecei a contar para os meus amigos. E, isso não tem muito tempo, tem dois meses que eu comecei com o processo hormonal.

Você está participando de algum núcleo de hospital ou universidade?
Estou no programa do Hospital Universitário Drº Pedro Ernesto (HUPE-UERJ) desde julho.

Você concorda com a história de um laudo médico para dizer se você é mulher ou não?
Não concordo. Eu já nasci mulher.

Você teme passar por todo o processo (dois anos) e no final dizerem que você não é mulher?
No começo eu temia, pensava que tinha que ter o laudo de qualquer jeito. Mas antes de ir para o UPE eu fiz um laudo em uma clínica particular. Ele disse que eu era trans e eu fique aliviada. Mas, hoje em dia não tenho mais paranoia com a questão da cirurgia, como se ela fosse resolver os problemas da minha vida. Se disserem no final que eu não poderei operar, não será isso que me fará deixar de ser mulher.

Você sente repulsa pelo seu órgão?
Não. Se eu quiser e sentir vontade, vou a um lugar reservado e me masturbo, não tenho esse tipo problema. Eu escondo por que não dá pra sair com roupa de menina... você entendeu né? Eu consigo viver com isso. Mas quando eu olho (o pênis) eu sinto que aquilo não faz parte de mim.

No primeiro curso você era chamada pelo nome de registro?
Sim.

Te fazia mal?
Não. Eu tenho uma cosa que é assim: quando eu estou vestida de menino eu me sinto mulher, mas não me incomodo, tanto que eu não gosto de ser confundida com gay. Quando acontece de me chamarem de gay, estão me confundindo com algo que não sou. Então é assim: mesmo com roupa de homem eu quero ser vista como mulher.

E na matrícula, está o nome de registro ou o feminino?
O masculino. Ainda não mudei.

Você não pensa em mudar?
Não. É tranqüilo. Eu falo com o professor, explico para ele que sou uma trans, que estou no processo de adequação e que se ele puder me chamar pelo nome social... E até agora não tive problema. Eles riscam (o nome masculino) e me chamam (pelo nome feminino). Não tenho aquela coisa, "não vou dizer o meu nome masculino de jeito nenhum!". Não é o nome que me faz homem ou mulher. O que mais me incomoda é ser confundida com guei ou travesti. Não sou travesti e nem guei, sou uma mulher. Mas não quero dizer que me acho melhor que a travesti, pois existe esse tipo de preconceito entre algumas trans.

Você está namorando ou ficando com alguém?
Estava namorando até umas duas semanas e agora a gente está dando um tempo.

Ele lidava numa boa?
Ele era super legal, tinha 28 anos, aceitava a questão da minha transexualidade. Saíamos juntos, ele me levava pra festas, os pais deles sabiam... Nós tínhamos uma relação ótima.

E a sua família?
A minha mãe sabe. Ela ficou abalada no começo, mas agora está aceitando numa boa. Agora com o meu pai, a gente ainda não conversou. Eu escondo dele. Quando vou sair, saio vestido de menino com a roupa de menina por baixo e tiro na rua. E eu vou vivendo assim. Em um momento não vai ter como esconder, como ainda estou no começo do processo de adequação ainda não dá pra perceber nada.

Fonte: A Capa

Milton Diamond's latest

Clinical implications of the organizational and activational effects of hormones.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Horm Behav. 2009 May;55(5):621-32

Debate on the relative contributions of nature and nurture to an individual's gender patterns, sexual orientation and gender identity are reviewed as they appeared to this observer starting from the middle of the last century. Particular attention is given to the organization-activation theory in comparison to what might be called a theory of psychosexual neutrality at birth or rearing consistency theory. The organization-activation theory posits that the nervous system of a developing fetus responds to prenatal androgens so that, at a postnatal time, it will determine how sexual behavior is manifest. How organization-activation was or was not considered among different groups and under which circumstances it is considered is basically understood from the research and comments of different investigators and clinicians. The preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that the theory of organization-activation for the development of sexual behavior is certain for non-human mammals and almost certain for humans. This article also follows up on previous clinical critiques and recommendations and makes some new suggestions.

Full article as a PDF via TS-SI

Transsexuals According To The Mainstrem Media: Either Deceptive or Pathetic

Posted by Ampersand | September 8th, 2009 Aqueertheory at Below The Belt, nutshelling Julie Serano,1 writes:

…one of the main problems that trans women face is the common belief that their femaleness and femininity are somehow fake or inauthentic. This view is constantly (re)emphasized in the mainstream media. Transsexual women are routinely portrayed “in the act of putting on lipstick, dresses, and high heels, thereby giving the audience the impression that the trans woman’s femaleness is an artificial mask or costume” (41). Their desire to be female is reduced to the pursuit of “stereotypically feminine appearance(s) and gender role(s),” which emphasizes that they are not real women, but men who are simply parading as women (41).

This notion is reinforced in movies that feature trans women characters. Serano identifies two major cinematic archetypes: the “deceptive” and the “pathetic” transsexual. The former successfully pass as women, but their trans status (usually signalled by the presence of a penis) is eventually revealed in a dramatic fashion as an “unexpected plot twist” (36). This pattern is evident in the Jim Carrey movie, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. At the end of the film, Ace Ventura strips Lois Einhorn, a female police lieutenant, down to her underwear so that the audience can see her penis and testicles tucked between her legs. All of the characters present in the room with Einhorn proceed to retch in disgust – the “deceptive” transsexual has been revealed and everybody is expected to exhibit shock, horror and disgust at the “fact” that she is “really a man.” [...]

In contrast, the “pathetic” transsexual is portrayed as completely unable to pass as a woman, even though she strongly insists that she is female. She is given obviously masculine mannerisms and characteristics, such as the five o’clock shadow, and openly makes references to the absence of a penis or to her intention to eventually “ha[ve] the chop” (41). According to Serano, this “extreme combination of masculinity and femininity does not seem to be designed to challenge the audience’s assumptions about maleness and femaleness… [the ‘pathetic’ transsexuals’] masculine voice and mannerisms are meant to demonstrate that, despite her desire to be female, she cannot change the fact that she is really and truly a man.”
I agree with all that. Unfortunately, even some of my favorite performers, like the brilliant British comedy group The League of Gentlemen, engage in exactly this sort of bigotry.

I have to admit, I can’t think of a single mainstream media presentation of transsexuality that doesn’t fall into one of these two categories (unless you could the psycho serial killer trans stereotype). Even relatively progressive films still tend to contain the “transformation” scene, usually shot in an almost fetishistic style (close-up of lipstick being applied, etc.).

Comics don’t do much better. I think there was a good trans character in Dykes to Watch Out For, who wasn’t presented in these ways. There was a major trans character in Sandman, but although she was also presented respectfully, she wasn’t able to be genuinely female, rather than “fake,” until after she died and was in Heaven.

Aqueertheory does misstep a little, I think, writing:

The situation is unfortunately not that much better in the allegedly more progressive feminist, academic and transgender/queer circles. Serano notes that, “there are numerous parallels between the way trans women are depicted in the media and the way that they have been portrayed by some feminist theorists.”
Serano seemingly took care to make it clear she was talking about some, not all, feminist theorists (at least in what Aqueertheory quoted). Unfortunately, Aqueertheory seems to ascribe transphobia to all feminist, academic, and transgender/queer circles. There are bigotries and problems in all these communities, true, but it’s a wild overstatement to claim that the transgender community is only marginally better at avoiding transphobia than Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. And it’s a wild overstatement that denies the hard work some people in those communities have put in to address exactly these issues.

I am definitely not saying that transphobia in the feminist community shouldn’t be acknowledged and criticized (past “Alas” posts have criticized feminist transphobia), and Aqueertheory makes many points I agree with. But I don’t think that we should pretend that the transphobes own all of feminism, either. Certain transphobic feminists may think that their views represent the One True Feminist Viewpoint, but I don’t think those of us who aren’t transphobic should concede feminism to them.

TransGriot: Prodigal Sons

TransGriot: Prodigal Sons

Garland? Streisand? Peggy Lee? Jim Bailey's career drags on

But don't call him a drag queen!
September 6





It’s been 40 years since Judy Garland slipped over the rainbow . . . 40 decades since the 47-year-old performer was found dead, slumped on a toilet in her London flat.
Yet Judy’s spirit lives on . . . through her recordings, her films, her TV appearances.
And through Jim Bailey.
For the past 43 years, Bailey has been donning his best Garland garb and voice, bringing her to life in performances that have earned him critical acclaim and fame and fortune, but perhaps more importantly, the seal of approval from Judy herself, who caught Bailey’s act when he first began performing as her back in 1966.



Judy’s daughters, even her ex-husband Sid Luft, always have praised the familiar facsimile, with Liza going as far as performing with Jim/Judy in a curious Las Vegas recreation of the famous Judy/Liza London Palladium concert of 1964.





Bailey’s voice grows quiet when he recalls what Liza once told him: “Don’t ever stop doing what you’re doing. If you do, how will I ever see my mama again?”
Bailey is also known for other illusions---Peggy Lee, Barbra Streisand, Phyllis Diller come to mind---but it’s Judy that has earned him a place in show business history.


We caught up with the 60+-year-old Bailey at his townhouse in Southern California, where he lives with his two rescue mission cats, Patches and Cuddles. Here, the master illusionist, who’s currently writing his autobiography (“and I am telling everything, kid!”) and working on a Broadway show and a new CD, chats about his life, his career and, course, Judy! Judy! Judy!










Some people think a man who wears a dress is a drag queen. Does that phrase anger you?
Of course it angers me. It’s slang. It’s a bad term, like shit. It should not be applied to me. I don’t even know what a drag queen is. And what does ‘drag’ mean? You drag race, you drag a chair, but when you say ‘drag queen,’ I don’t have a clue what it means, unless it’s slang for a man who wears a dress. I would rather be called a female impersonator than a drag queen, and I don’t like being called a female impersonator because I am not one. I am an illusionist. When I do Judy, I become Judy. I am Judy.

You have met, and worked with, so many famous folk. Is there a favorite?
There have been several. My relationship with Lucie Arnaz means a lot to me, and that happened through my relationship with her mother. Lucy was one of the celebrities who came backstage after my first big concert in Los Angeles. She pushed her way through the crowd, pressed a card in my hand and said, ‘I can’t deal with this. Call me.’ After I said hello and goodbye to everyone, I read the card. It said, ‘Dear Jim, Call me. I love you. Lucy,’ and it had her phone number.



I called her the next day and we began a friendship. I’d go to her house and watch movies with her when her husband was out of town or playing golf. She’d sit in her special chair, I’d sit on the couch and I’d think, ‘I cannot believe this! I grew up on I Love Lucy, and now I am in her den!’ Sometimes I’d spend weekends in her guest house. I remember one day she called and asked, ‘What are you doing tonight? The studio sent me this new Woody Allen movie. Wanna come over have dinner and watch it with me?’ That was Lucy’s way of saying, ‘Jim, I’m very lonely.’
We had dinner and the film was Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex . . . But Were Afraid to Ask. We were sitting there, and the scene with Gene Wilder and the sheep came on, and Lucy was sitting there, chain-smoking, making these sounds . . . 'Ugh! Oh! Eww!‘ She finally said, ‘Honey, I can’t take this anymore. If you want to watch the rest of this you can. I am going to bed.’ I watched the rest of the movie which I thought was very funny, but it wasn’t Lucy’s cup of tea. That was the only time she walked out of a movie we watched together.

What about Princess Diana? You performed for her at a Royal Command performance. Do dish!
Before the show, they told all the artists that Diana was in the Royal Box and that no one was to look up at her---that was the protocol. That’s all I had to hear. At one point, I looked up and Diana had this huge smile on her face. After the show, I changed into a tuxedo and there was a receiving line. Charles said something brief, and we shook hands. Then Diana gets to me. She's standing in front of me with the greatest skin I have ever seen in my life. ‘You are brilliant! I know Judy isn’t with us anymore, but she was here an hour ago. I really believed I was watching her. Tell me, when you are home, do you ever become these people?’ I said, ‘No. I think I have it pretty well pulled together. I want to tell you something Your Majesty . . .’
She interrupted and said, ‘Call me Diana, please.’ I said, ‘You must be congratulated on your work with people and the way you put yourself out in mainstream and care about unfortunate people. You love humans . . . you are such a human . . . you love human beings.’ I got all flustered and she said, ‘You are getting all loused up, but I do know what you mean. You are so kind to pay me that tribute.’
Here we are having this conversation, and her aide came up to her to push her along and she gave him this look. I was supposed to take her hand and kiss it, but Diana shook my hand like a real human being. Her aide freaked out because when you are royal, you don’t shake a man’s hand. She shook and said, ‘It’s such a pleasure meeting you. I hope we meet again.’

Did Diana wink and say, ‘Now don’t do me?’
[Laughs] No. But I’ve people ask me over the years, ‘Why don’t you do me?’ Bizarre people I couldn’t do in a million years.

Like who?
Let me think. [Pauses] Rosemary Clooney was one. I am looking at this woman who weighs 500 pounds and thinking, ‘Do you?’ I adored her. I loved her, loved her music. But I could not do her.




How long does the Judy transformation take?
I always allow three hours. I have it all paced out---when I eat, when I do makeup, when I do this or that. I do not want to be rushed. The people who work with me know when it’s time to get Miss Garland dressed. I don’t like to have any time to pace while the overture plays---I always have it down to the second. I get up and am ready because she’s wants to go on stage and work.

How has your illusion of Judy changed over the years?
As you grow older and you experience more and more of life, you understand songs that perhaps before you might have been acting. Now when I sing a particular song, I know exactly what it means. I have lived the lyrics.

You appeared as Barbra for the real Barbra. What was that like?
My manager got a call from a woman who said she was Carole Bayer Sager. She said that she was planning a private party for Barbra and asked if I would consider appearing as Barbra. My manager is telling me the story and I say, ‘You have been put on by someone who is very, very clever. Do you really think Carole Bager Sayer would call to ask me to do Barbra Streisand for Barbra Streisand?' So I called the phone and some maid answered, “Miss Bayer Sager’s residence.” I thought, ‘Uh-oh. This isn’t a joke.’
Carole told me about the party and what would happen.
At the end of dinner, Carole had it planned that someone would ask Barbra to sing, and that I would come out. Carole told me that Barbra would be way in the back of the room and that no one would notice her. This was a Hollywood-elegant party, on the beach in Malibu. At the end of the show, the audience stood up and went crazy. I walked off stage, shaking.
The real Barbra walks on stage, and a big-wig from Warner Brothers says, ’This is the real Barbra. That was Jim Bailey!’ [Laughs] Now everyone is thinking, ‘This is insane! Where’s the booze? Where did I put that cocaine?’ Barbara said [Bailey impersonates her voice], ‘Isn’t he great? If I’m tired, I can always call him up.’"



When I was in the dressing room, Barbra pushed the door opened. She said [again Bailey impersonates her voice], ‘You’re something else!’ She complimented me on my hair, dress, talk and make-up, but never mentioned the voice. She never said, ’You sound just like me.’ I waited, but she avoided the entire issue. She sat down and we chit-chatted and had our picture taken. She could not have been sweeter. What a night that was!

Those nights alone! What do you look for in a partner?
I am picky. Oh yes! Oh yes! I’ve had relationships on both sides of the fence, but for several years, I have been on my own. I would like to meet someone who’s not intimidated by me, who’s strong enough to deal with the fact I am a successful person and I do something that no one else does which makes me special. Someone who has their own money---God! I’ve supported people my entire f------ life!. Someone who is intelligent, giving. Someone who’s got to have a sense of humor. Age? I don’t know . . . not 23. . . no, no. They’ve got to be in their 40s.

And male?
No. Well . . . I don’t know. I don’t know. There are women I see who I am very attracted to, and if the moment was right, I’d probably be having an affair with them. It’s not like I think, 'OK. I’m not to be straight anymore. I’m exclusively gay.’ But right now, I prefer the companionship of a man.

My book, Morbid Curiosity: The Disturbing Demises of the Rich and Infamous, is getting RAVE advance press!

A Transgender Inquiry

Monday, 7 September 2009
Article: Salient
A Transgender Inquiry
Meet Max

“A lot of people who are trans experience body dysmorphia,” says Max, from across a table in one of Wellington’s finest bagel establishments. “I don’t personally feel that. Perhaps that has a lot to do with both my politics and the fact that I have been able to access transitional therapies easily.”

“For me, being trans is an identity, not an illness. I definitely see myself as genderqueer as opposed to a traditional transsexual. That said, I’m having surgery to remove my breasts.”

Max Prendergast, 23, is a genderqueer Maori Honours student, has a killer set of glasses frames, and loves his body. He began his transition this year, with the help of a doctor at Student Health.

“I just rocked up there, super nervous,” he remembers. “It was probably the first time I’d said ‘I’m trans’ to a person in authority. It’s not so bad saying it to friends or family, but a medical practitioner has power over you. So to have the courage to sit there and say it, that took me a while.”

Max is glad he did. “My GP was amazing, really friendly and amazing. She admitted to me that she’d never seen a trans student before and had no idea what to do, but in a way that was kind of great because we got to do it together.”

As part of his transition, Max has taken out a $16,000 loan to pay for his ‘top chop’, has outed himself to his employer, friends and family, and now faces the physical and emotional turmoil of what is essentially a second bout of puberty.

He says he has it easy. “I haven’t got any problems accessing trans therapy. I started hormones within two months of asking, and I’m having my chop surgery in another two months.”

Max has no illusions about the reasons for his easy transition. “I’m white. I come from a good family. I’m on my second degree, and I’m articulate. I’ve got a good job so I can manage my debt repayments.”

And the less fortunate, those who lack the resources to transition to their chosen gender?

“If you’re experiencing hardcore gender dysphoria,” explains Max, “if you’re really upset and depressed and you can’t access hormone treatment or surgery, that’s like every time you leave the house you do it without clothes, without shoes. That’s what it feels like when we deny trans people the therapies that they need to transition.”

An Invisible Minority

In 2006, the Human Rights Commission launched the Transgender Inquiry, the world’s first inquiry by a national human rights institution into the discrimination experienced by transgender people.

This was an ambitious assignment on several levels. Not only was there no template for the commission to follow, but the trans community in New Zealand is incredibly diverse. Around 200 people made submissions over the 18 months of the Inquiry: farmers, business-people, tradespeople, academics, artists, sex workers, health professionals, economists, managers, parents and grand-parents.

The people who made submissions referred to themselves as transgender, Male-to-Female (MtF) and Female-to-Male (FtM) transsexuals, cross-dressers, intersex, androgynous, genderqueer, takatāpui, fa’afafine, fakaleiti, whakawahine and others.

A trans student at Victoria, who asked to remain anonymous, pointed out that the sexuality of trans people is equally varied. “You can look at it like a graph with two separate axes, gender and sexual orientation,” she said. “You can be anywhere on that graph, anywhere you want. You can be as straight as they come, or completely genderless and asexual.”

Culture could be considered the third axis on the graph. Elizabeth Kerekere and Peri Te Wao help run the Tiwhanawhana Trust, and are acutely aware of the additional decisions faced by takatāpui, a reclaimed term used to describe gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and other genderqueer Māori.

“One of the reasons we set up Tiwha-nawhana,” explains Kerekere, “is the issue of takatāpui always having to choose between being Māori and following some quite strict roles in terms of male and female roles, particularly in performance and protocols. If you want to be queer and your gender is fluid, how do you express your sexual and gender identity inside the Maori community?

“We try to get out and about so queer youth know there are takatāpui out there living their lives, and that we’re available to help out.”

Te Wao knows that he and other takatāpui advocates are the minority. “It’s a small community and hard to gauge, because we don’t have that box that we can tick and identify as. Not all of the trans community would want to tick that box, even if they could.”

Kerekere agrees. “I find with younger people that, more and more, they’re not wanting to identify as trans. They’re more likely to call themselves genderqueer. They’re not wanting to transition from the physical body they’ve got now but want to be able to present as the opposite sex without having to change it, to be a bit more fluid about it. It’s quite difficult for older people to handle that.”

Identifying Abuse
After two years of research, the findings of the Transgender Inquiry were published as a 100-page report entitled ‘To Be Who I Am/ Kia noho au ki toku ano ao’. The report identified four areas for urgent attention: increased participation of trans people in decisions that affect them; stronger legal protections against discrimination; improved access to health services; and simplified processes for change of sex on a birth certificate, passport and other documents.

Many of the stories shared in the Inquiry report are harrowing. Trans youth reported being harassed by teachers and students and being afraid to ask for health or social support. Many trans people find it close to impossible to gain and keep employment, even when they possess all the appropriate skills, qualifications and experience.

“One restaurant fired me because a customer complained I could give them AIDS by touching their plate (my HIV status is negative),” wrote one trans woman. “They didn’t fire the out gay maitre d’, however.”

“I have been punched in broad daylight on a busy street with no one coming to my aid,” said another. “I have been called names and put up with staring and people talking about me behind my back, often within my hearing.”

Access to health services and barriers to changing sex and gender information on legal documents is often effectively one and the same. Until recently, the only way to ensure a sex change on a birth certificate was to have had full gender reassignment surgery. Not all trans people want to have surgery and, for those that do, the financial and medical barriers can be huge.

Trans men felt particularly hard done by. “We can’t get [‘lower’ surgery] done in New Zealand,” wrote one, “most of us don’t have the $50-$100K needed to do it overseas, it can involve as many as five risky operations with a variable outcome, and many of us will never choose to have it.”

Thankfully, the barriers to a sex change on a birth certificate have been relaxed. In a major victory for the Transgender Inquiry team and trans advocates, a June 2008 Family Court decision set a new precedent for interpretation of section 28 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995. Each application will now be judged subjectively. The degree of permanent physical change required now depends on the circumstances of each applicant.

Getting to the point of any permanent physical change is difficult. In somewhat of a vicious cycle, without documentation that matches their chosen gender, trans people are forced to out themselves each time they apply for a job or enrol in a tertiary course. Without an appropriate level of income, paying up to $300 per hour for a psych assessment may be an insurmountable barrier. Without a psych assessment, access to hormone therapy is difficult, and a positive Family Court ruling to get new documentation is unlikely.

Trans On Campus

The Inquiry report identified discrimination in tertiary education as an area of concern. At least three trans people struggled to gain entry to tertiary courses due to staff concerns that they “wouldn’t fit in” or would not cope with study while transitioning. Others complained about their inability to change their gender details on student records. After constant harassment, one trans student took bed-wetting medication so he wouldn’t need to use the toilets at his polytechnic.

Post-graduate student Max has not personally experienced problems as a trans person at Victoria. “As a whole, my experience has been quite positive. It depends on who you are and how confident you feel.”

He doesn’t feel the need for a separate representative group for trans students. “I really don’t think you can lump trans people together and provide one service for all. I think what we need to do is break down barriers across the board so that trans people can access services that they want to.”

Max admits that the curiosity of the general public can become a burden. “My body has become public property now that I’m transitioning. People think it’s okay to come and ask me really personal questions.

“I can see why people have that morbid curiosity, I did before I transitioned, but people expect you to answer their questions all the time. You’re an ambassador, like it or not… I struggle with that quite a lot.”

Another trans student at Victoria, who preferred not be identified, liked the relative anonymity of campus life. “The university is a brilliant place to be because most people just don’t care, so you can get on with being yourself.”

Lifting The Burden

The Assume Nothing project is an ongoing body of work about gender diversity founded by Auckland-based artist Rebecca Swan in 1995, published as a book in 2004, developed into a feature documentary by Kirsty MacDonald in 2008, and currently in the middle of a two-year exhibition tour of New Zealand galleries.

Assume Nothing aims to reveal the “extraordinary and often very ordinary worlds” of the New Zealand trans community. One of the most famous images from the project features activist and educator Mani Bruce Mitchell, born with both male and female genital tissue, the words ‘I am not a monster’ scrawled across her chest.

“I’m drawn to [gender diversity as a subject] because gender androgyny or fluidity is almost a spiritual thing for me,” explains Swan, over the phone from Auckland. “I feel our souls are androgynous, so when somebody embodies both male and female elements, there is something quite magical about it for me. There are other reasons, political and everything else, but that’s what sustains it for me.”

The Human Rights Commission offers three workshops in tandem with the exhibition, run by Transgender Inquiry project manager Jack Byrne as panel discussions with a focus on trans diversity, trans youth and trans creativity.

Free copies of the Inquiry are available for people to take and read at home or at the workplace.

Swan has embraced her partnership with the Commission. “One of the intents [of the exhibition] was to create social change around gender diversity and this felt like the most appropriate way to harness it.”

“I read the comments books every time we go to a gallery,” she says. “The people who’ve been photographed and filmed are very open with the intimate details of their lives and, because of that, people really respond.”

Swan is awed by the generosity and perseverance of the trans and genderqueer participants in the exhibition. “They’ve got a strong motive to make a difference, and telling their stories or being photographed is a great way to do that.

“I’ve been blown away by how generous and giving they are of themselves. Mani [Bruce Mitchell] comes to every show, every venue. She’ll do anything to get other people talking about gender issues, and she’ll be there on the front line because she has a strong motive for change.”

The stories shared by the Assume Nothing exhibition help to break stereo-types and lift the burden of ‘morbid curiosity’ often experienced by trans people who just want to get on with their lives. Swan, aware that not everyone is happy to be ‘outed’ in every city, checks with participants every time a show goes up.

A Work In Progress

“We’ve seen huge leaps and bounds in the last 20 years,” says Joanne Clarke, president of national support group Agender and host of radio show TransSister Radio. “People have started to stand up and be counted, and people can see that we’re a diverse community with a lot of talent.

“There are so many people out there who you wouldn’t even know are trans,” she points out. “We’re everywhere but it’s still very hidden, a very hidden journey.

There’s a lot of guilt and shame. People have got to realise that you’re born like this, you can’t help it.”

She feels that the Inquiry set an important benchmark for trans rights. “[The Inquiry] tried to be as thorough as possible in the consultation process and a lot of our community felt as though they had been heard for the first time.”

Clarke also appreciates the ongoing nature of the Transgender Inquiry project.

“Three of us [from Christchurch] went up for a national hui last March up in Wellington, and people came from all over the country,” she says. “I’ve interviewed Joy [Liddicoat, Commissioner], Rosslyn [Noonan, Chief Commissioner] and Jack [Byrne, Project Manager] on TranSister Radio, and we talked about how things were going and what’s happening, how to keep moving forward on the Inquiry recommendations. It’s a document that hasn’t just been produced and left.”

The discrimination and human rights abuses identified by the Transgender Inquiry will take a long time to address. The Human Rights Commission does not have the authority to simply step in and pass their recommendations into law, and the long-term impact of the Inquiry remains to be seen. For now, at least the discrimination faced by trans and genderqueer people in Aotearoa is finally, and firmly, out of the closet.

http://www.salient.org.nz/columns/a-transgender-inquiry

This story was syndicated by the Aotearoa Student Press Association via Salient www.salient.org.nz

Dottie Laing Passes :: The International Foundation for Gender Education & Transgender Tapestry :: Promoting Acceptance for Transgender People

Dottie Laing Passes :: The International Foundation for Gender Education & Transgender Tapestry :: Promoting Acceptance for Transgender People

CFEMEA Informa - Agosto de 2009 - Número 03

---

From: cfemea@cfemea.org.br
To: cfemea@cfemea.org.br
Subject: CFEMEA Informa - Agosto de 2009 - Número 03
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 18:23:56 -0300

CFEMEA Informa Setembro de 2009 - Número 03

CFEMEA lança o Orçamento Mulher no DF Lançado pelo CFEMEA nesta quinta-feira (03/09), no Ministério Público do Distrito Federal (MPDF) o estudo “Análise da execução do Orçamento Mulher do DF”. O estudo é um grande instrumento para os movimentos de mulheres e o primeiro de muitos esforços que serão empreendidos para ampliar os caminhos para o enfrentamento da violência contra as mulheres e a promoção da igualdade de gênero e raça no Distrito Federal. II Oficina “Descobrindo caminhos para o enfrentamento à violência contra as Mulheres do Distrito Federal” Nos dias 12 e 13 de agosto, o CFEMEA em parceria com a ONG Criola realizará em Brasília mais uma oficina “Descobrindo caminhos para o enfrentamento à violência contra as Mulheres do Distrito Federal”. Mulheres de várias cidades do Distrito Federal participam da oficina em busca de troca de experiências e construção de articulações para o fortalecimento do combate à violência contra as mulheres no DF. Trabalhadoras domésticas defendem criação de convenção internacional para regulamentação da profissão Trabalhadoras domésticas do Brasil, Bolívia, Guatemala e Paraguai se reuniram entre os dias 21 a 23 de agosto, em Brasília para defender a criação de uma convenção internacional para a regulamentação do trabalho doméstico. O encontro intitulado “Oficina Nacional das Trabalhadoras Domésticas: Construindo o Trabalho Decente” intensificou a mobilização da categoria nos países da América Latina e Caribe para assegurar a igualdade de direitos trabalhistas na 99ª Conferência Internacional do Trabalho, que acontecerá em 2010, em Genebra. A Fenatrad (Federação Nacional de Trabalhadoras Domésticas) se posicionou pela criação de convenção internacional - instrumento com equivalência de legislação nacional nos países signatários. A Federação é porta-voz de oito milhões de profissionais e pretende encaminhar ao governo federal suas demandas trabalhistas, para subsidiar uma Proposta de Emenda Constitucional de equiparação de direitos com as demais categorias profissionais. Com representação da Confederação Latino-americana e Caribenha das Trabalhadoras Domésticas, a Oficina Nacional das Trabalhadoras Domésticas: Construindo o Trabalho Decente vai encaminhar o posicionamento da categoria para as centrais sindicais brasileiras. Essa é a instância da sociedade civil consultada no processo da 99ª Conferência Internacional do Trabalho. O encontro contou com o apoio do UNIFEM Brasil e Cone Sul - por meio de assessoria técnica e política do Programa Gênero, Raça e Etnia -, OIT (Organização Internacional do Trabalho), SPM (Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres), Seppir (Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial) e CFEMEA (Centro Feminista de Estudos e Assessoria) Câmara aprova ameaça à democracia brasileira No último dia 26/08/09, a Câmara dos Deputados aprovou o Projeto de Decreto Legislativo nº 1736/09, que trata do acordo entre o Brasil e o Vaticano relativo ao Estatuto Jurídico da Igreja Católica no Brasil, assinado em novembro de 2008, e, em função de acordo com outras igrejas, o Projeto de Lei nº 5598/2009, que estende às demais religiões benefícios concedidos à instituição católica, agregando também outros. As matérias seguem agora à apreciação do Senado Federal. No entendimento do Centro Feminista de Estudos e Assessoria - CFEMEA, que corrobora a opinião dos movimentos feministas e de mulheres e tem correspondência com o que já se manifestou outros setores da sociedade, tais como a Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência - SBPC e Associação dos Magistrados Brasileiros - AMB, trata-se de proposições absolutamente inconstitucionais e contrárias ao ordenamento jurídico brasileiro e, principalmente, maculam a perspectiva de aprofundamento da democracia em nosso país. Esperamos que o Senado possa redobrar a atenção ao tema e possibilite oferecer pareceres e votos qualificados que aprofundem o entendimento dos temas tratados e que os argumentos políticos que sustentem a defesa do Estado Laico e dos Direitos Humanos prevaleçam sobre os demais argumentos de tradição, e que haja a rejeição dessas medidas legislativas pois assegurar vinculações, obrigações e compromissos de Estado com os interesses de instituições religiosas impede o livre exercício do potencial interesse público e social que deve subsidiar e justificar as ações de Estado e de governos. Reforma política: mulheres garantem mais recursos do fundo partidário A reforma eleitoral passou ontem (02/09) nas comissões de Constituição, Justiça e Cidadania (CCJ) e de Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação, Comunicação e Informática (CCT) do Senado e deve ser votada em Plenário na próxima semana. A novidade é que se ampliou de 5 % para 10% o percentual do fundo partidário destinado à participação política das mulheres, graças à emenda apresentada pela senadora Lúcia Vânia (PSDB-GO) e defendida verbalmente pela senadora Serys Slhessarenko (PT-MT). O parecer dos relatores também acatou emenda que determina que cada partido ou coligação “preencherá o mínimo de 30% e o máximo de 70% para candidaturas registradas”, reforçando o caráter obrigatório das cotas por sexo nas listas de candidaturas. Além disso, os relatores rejeitaram emendas que reduziam o tempo de propaganda partidária destinados às mulheres (10%). Ou seja, as conquistas que as mulheres garantiram na Câmara (reserva de percentual do tempo de propaganda, reserva de parte do fundo partidário e ênfase no caráter obrigatório do cumprimento das cotas por sexo) foram garantidas e aprimoradas no Senado. Essas conquistas só foram possíveis graças à atuação firme da Bancada Feminina, da Comissão Tripartite para a revisão da Lei de Cotas (instância de composição plural criada pela Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres que elaborou e defendeu propostas de reforma com recorte de gênero) e do movimento feminista. A reforma, como já citado, deve ser votada em Plenário, semana que vem, já que a pauta está trancada pelo projeto de conversão 13/09. Esperamos que os senadores confirmem lá esses avanços tão necessários. As propostas, articuladas e defendidas pela Comissão Tripartite, receberam o apoio do presidente do Senado, José Sarney, em audiência com a ministra da Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres, Nilcéia Freire, e outras representantes da Comissão.

CFEMEA - Centro Feminista de Estudos e Assessoria SCS, Quadra 2, Bloco C, Ed. Goiás, Sala 602 - Telefax: (61) 3224-1791 Website: www.cfemea.org.br - E-mail: imprensa@cfemea.org.br

Campanha: Alto a la Patologización Trans - 2012

----- Original Message -----
From: Stop Trans Pathologisation 2012
To:
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 11:42 AM
Subject: Alto a la Patologización Trans - 2012


Compañerxs,

En el marco de la campaña "Stop Patologización Trans, Objetivo 2012", estamos invitando a las instituciones, organizaciones, grupos, colectivos y asociaciones, etc., de todo el mundo, a participar y apoyar esta campaña adhiriéndose al manifiesto que adjuntamos abajo. Como ya es de su conocimiento, esta campaña pretende que el Trastorno de Identidad Sexual sea eliminado de las listas de trastornos mentales del DSM y, de esta manera, avanzar en el combate a la patologización y estigmatización de las identidades transexuales y transgénero.
Para adherirse a esta petición, les pedimos enviar un correo electrónico a esta dirección, especificando la organización o grupo que se suma a la causa. Esperamos su respuesta y les pedimos que hagan circular esta invitación a quien crean que puede interesar.
Más información en http://stp2012.wordpress.com/


MANIFIESTO
Red Internacional por la Despatologización Trans

L*s activistas y grupos que firmamos este documento y formamos la Red Internacional por la Despatologización de las Identidades Trans denunciamos públicamente, una vez más, la psiquiatrización de nuestras identidades y las graves consecuencias del llamado “trastorno de identidad sexual o de género” (TIG). Del mismo modo, queremos hacer visible la violencia que se ejerce sobre las personas intersexuales mediante los procedimientos médicos vigentes.
Con “psiquiatrización” nombramos la práctica de definir y tratar la transexualidad bajo el estatuto de trastorno mental. Nos referimos, también, a la confusión de identidades y cuerpos no normativos (situados fuera del orden cultural dominante) con identidades y cuerpos patológicos. La psiquiatrización relega a las instituciones médico-psiquiátricas el control sobre las identidades de género. La práctica oficial de dichas instituciones, motivada por intereses estatales, religiosos, económicos y políticos, trabaja sobre los cuerpos de las personas amparando y reproduciendo el binomio de hombre y mujer, haciendo pasar esta postura excluyente por una realidad natural y “verdadera”. Dicho binomio, presupone la existencia única de dos cuerpos (hombre o mujer) y asocia un comportamiento específico a cada uno de ellos (masculino o femenino), a la par que tradicionalmente ha considerado la heterosexualidad como la única relación posible entre ellos. Hoy, denunciando este paradigma, que ha utilizado el argumento de la biología y la naturaleza como justificación del orden social vigente, evidenciamos sus efectos sociales para poner fin a sus pretensiones políticas.
Los cuerpos que no responden anatómicamente a la clasificación médica occidental vigente son catalogados bajo el epígrafe de intersexualidad, condición que, “per se”, es considerada patológica. La clasificación médica, por el contrario, continúa aún hoy en día sin ser interrogada. La transexualidad también es conceptualizada como una realidad en sí mismo problemática. La ideología de género que actúa la psiquiatría, por el contrario, continúa aún hoy sin ser cuestionada.
Legitimar las normas sociales que constriñen nuestras vivencias y sentires implica invisibilizar y patologizar el resto de opciones existentes, y marcar un único camino que no cuestione el dogma político sobre el que se fundamenta nuestra sociedad: la existencia, única y exclusiva, de solo dos formas de ser y sentir. Si invisibilizar supone intervenir a recién-nacidos intersex (aquell*s con genitales ambiguos funcionales) con violentos tratamientos normalizadores así se hará, si de lo que se trata es de borrar la posibilidad de estos cuerpos y vetar la existencia de las diferencias.
El paradigma en el que se inspiran los procedimientos actuales de atención a la transexualidad y la intersexualidad convierte a estos en procesos médicos de normalización binaria. De “normalización” ya que reducen la diversidad a sólo dos maneras de vivir y habitar el mundo: las consideradas estadística y políticamente “normales”. Y con nuestra crítica a estos procesos resistimos también a tener que adaptarnos a las definiciones psiquiátricas de hombre y mujer para poder vivir nuestras identidades, para que el valor de nuestras vidas sea reconocido sin la renuncia a la diversidad en la que nos constituimos. No acatamos ningún tipo de catalogación, ni etiqueta, ni definición impuesta por parte de la institución médica. Reclamamos nuestro derecho a autodenominarnos.
Actualmente la transexualidad se considera un “trastorno de identidad sexual”, patología mental clasificada en el CIE-10 (Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades de la Organización Mundial de la Salud) y en el DSM-IV-R (Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de Enfermedades Mentales de la Asociación de Psiquiatría Norte-americana). Estas clasificaciones son las que guían a los y las psiquiatras de todo el mundo a la hora de establecer sus diagnósticos. En ellas se comete un error poco casual: la confusión de los efectos de la transfobia con los de la transexualidad. Se invisibiliza la violencia social que se ejerce sobre quienes no se adecuan a las normas de género. De este modo, se ignora activamente que el problema no es la identidad de género, es la transfobia.
La revisión del DSM-IV-R es un proceso que comenzó hace ahora dos años, y tiene por fin determinar los cambios en la lista de enfermedades. En estos últimos meses se han hecho públicos los nombres de los psiquiatras que decidirán el futuro del trastorno de identidad sexual (TIG).
Al frente del grupo de trabajo sobre el TIG se encuentran el Dr.Zucker (director del grupo), el Dr. Blanchard y el Dr. Bailey, entre otros. Estos psiquiatras, que son conocidos por utilizar terapias reparativas de reconducción a homosexuales y a transexuales y que están vinculados a clínicas que intervienen a intersexuales, proponen no solo no retirar el trastorno sino ampliar su tratamiento a l*s niñ*s que presenten comportamientos de género no-normativos y aplicarles terapias reparativas de adaptación al rol de origen. En este sentido, el movimiento trans norteamericano ha hecho un llamamiento solicitando su expulsión del grupo encargado de la revisión del DSM. La Red Internacional por la Despatologización de las Identidades Trans se une sin reservas a la citada denuncia.
La patologización de la transexualidad bajo el “trastorno de identidad sexual” es un gravísimo ejercicio de control y normalización. El tratamiento de este trastorno se lleva a cabo en diferentes centros de todo el mundo. En casos como el del Estado Español, es obligatorio el paso por una evaluación psiquiátrica en las Unidades de Identidad de Género que, en algunas ocasiones, va asociada a un control semanal de nuestra identidad de género a través de terapias de grupo y familiares y todo tipo de procesos denigrantes que vulneran nuestros derechos. En el caso del Estado español, hay que resaltar que cualquier persona que desee cambiar su nombre en la documentación o modificar su cuerpo con hormonas u operaciones debe pasar obligatoriamente por una consulta psiquiátrica.
Por último, nos dirigimos directamente a la clase política. Nuestra demanda es clara:
Exigimos la retirada de la transexualidad de los manuales de enfermedades mentales (DSM-TR-IV y CIE-10). Paralización de los tratamientos a bebés intersex.
Reivindicamos el derecho a cambiar nuestro nombre y sexo en los documentos oficiales sin tener que pasar por ninguna evaluación médica ni psicológica. Y añadimos que pensamos, firmemente. que el Estado no debería de tener ninguna competencia sobre nuestros nombres, nuestros cuerpos y nuestras identidades.
Hacemos nuestras las palabras del movimiento feminista en la lucha por el derecho al aborto y el derecho al propio cuerpo: reivindicamos nuestro derecho a decidir libremente si queremos o no modificar nuestros cuerpos y poder llevar a cabo nuestra elección sin impedimentos burocráticos, políticos ni económicos, así como fuera de cualquier tipo de coerción médica. Queremos que los sistemas sanitarios se posicionen frente al trastorno de identidad sexual, reconociendo la transfobia actual que sostiene su clasificación, y replanteen su programa de atención sanitaria a la transexualidad haciendo de la evaluación psiquiátrica una paso innecesario y del acompañamiento psicoterapéutico una opción voluntaria. Exigimos también el cese de las operaciones a recién-nacid*s intersex.
Denunciamos la extrema vulnerabilidad y las dificultades en el acceso al mercado laboral del colectivo trans. Exigimos que se garantice el acceso al mundo laboral y la puesta en marcha de políticas específicas para acabar con la marginación y la discriminación de nuestro colectivo. Exigimos, además, condiciones de salud y seguridad en el desarrollo del trabajo sexual y el fin del asedio policial a estas personas, así como del tráfico sexual.
Esta situación de vulnerabilidad se acentúa en el caso de las personas trans inmigradas, que llegan a nuestro país huyendo de situaciones de extrema violencia. Exigimos la concesión inmediata de asilo político en estos casos a la vez que reivindicamos la plena equiparación de derechos de las personas migrantes. Denunciamos los efectos de la política de extranjería actual sobre los sectores socialmente más vulnerables.
A la vez que gritamos que no somos víctimas sino seres activos y con capacidad de decisión sobre nuestra propia identidad, queremos recordar también todas las agresiones, asesinatos y también los suicidios de las personas trans a causa de la transfobia. Señalamos al sistema como culpable de estas violencias. El silencio es complicidad.
Finalizamos evidenciando la extrema rigidez con la que se impone el binomio hombre/mujer, como opción única y excluyente, binomio que es construido y puede ser cuestionado. Nuestra sola existencia demuestra la falsedad de estos polos opuestos y señala hacia una realidad plural y diversa. Diversidad que, hoy, dignificamos.
Cuando la medicina y el Estado nos definen como trastornad*s ponen en evidencia que nuestras identidades, nuestras vidas, trastornan su sistema. Por eso decimos que la enfermedad no está en nosotr*s sino en el binarismo de género.
Anunciamos que la Red Internacional por la Despatologización de las Identidades Trans surge para consolidar una coordinación mundial en torno a un primer objetivo: la descatalogación de la transexualidad del DSM-TR en el año 2012. Un primer paso por la diversidad, un primer golpe a la transfobia.
¡Por la diversidad de nuestros cuerpos y nuestras identidades!
¡La transfobia nos enferma!
RED INTERNACIONAL
POR LA
DESPATOLOGIZACIÓN
TRANS

Más información en http://stp2012.wordpress.com/ - stp2012@gmail.com

"Minha linda vagina está muito ofendida", diz Lady Gaga sobre rumores de hermafroditismo

"Minha linda vagina está muito ofendida", diz Lady Gaga sobre rumores de hermafroditismo

Por Redação
04.09.09

Divulgação

Contrariando o que havia dito anteriormente, a cantora Lady Gaga negou ser hermafrodita. “Minha linda vagina está muito ofendida. Eu não, minha vagina está ofendida".

Segundo o site do blogueiro Perez Hilton, a cantora ainda disse que não fica envergonhada com os comentários a seu respeito e que "a ideia de que estamos ficando fortes como homens" pode incomodar muitas pessoas.

A polêmica sobre Lady Gaga ter ou não um pênis surgiu há pouco mais de um mês, depois de um show no Glastonbury Festival. As imagens que circulam na internet "apontam" um volume extra sob o microvestido que usava.

Na época, Gaga fez questão de confirmar a suspeita. "Sim, eu tenho um órgão sexual masculino e um feminino, mas me considero uma mulher. É só um pouco de pênis que não interfere em nada na minha vida. Eu sou sexy e gostosa", revelou. Seu assessor, no entanto, desmentiu a declaração: "Isso é completamente ridículo".

Fonte: G ONline

Rogéria revela que saía com famosos na época dos programas do Chacrinha

Rogéria revela que saía com famosos na época dos programas do Chacrinha

Por Redação
04.09.09

Divulgação

A travesti Rogéria é um dos destaques do documentário Alô Alô Terezinha!, de Nelson Hoineff. A atriz é uma das entrevistadas entre várias ex-chacretes, ex-calouros, familiares, equipe de produção e artistas que foram importantes na biografia do célebre apresentador de TV. Entre eles, ícones como Ney Matogrosso, Cauby Peixoto, Agnaldo Timóteo, Elke Maravilha e Dercy Gonçalves.

No bloco em que chacretes contradiziam-se em dizer se saíam e não saíam com os famosos, Rogéria assumiu que na época em que frequentava o programa foi "comida" por muitos artistas, porém não quis revelar nomes. O longa deve entrar em cartaz dia 30 de outubro em circuito nacional.

Fonte: G Online