Paging Fred Phelps: Could Be God on the Phone

If the Westboro Baptist Church family (Phelpses) considers Katrina, 9/11 and soldiers’ deaths in Iraq as God’s expression of anger at homosexuality, I wonder if they’ll consider this God’s just punishment for spreading hate?

Nah. I doubt it.

Destigmatization Versus Coverage and Access: The Medical Model of Transsexuality

In recent years, the GLB community has been more receptive to (and even energized in) assisting the transgender community, but regularly asks what its needs are. One that is often touted is the “complete depathologization of Trans identities” (quoting from a press release for an October 7, 2007 demonstration in Barcelona, Spain) by removing “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) from medical classification. The reasoning generally flows in a logic chain stating that with homosexuality removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM, the “bible” of the medical community) in 1974, gay and lesbian rights were able to follow as a consequence – and with similar removal, we should be able to do the same. Living in an area where GRS (genital reassignment surgery) is covered under provincial Health Care, however, provides a unique perspective on this issue. And with Presidential candidates proposing models for national health care in the U.S., it would obviously be easier to establish GRS coverage for transsexuals at the ground floor, rather than fight for it later. So it is important to note, from this “other side of the coin,” how delisting GID could do far more harm than good.

With Friends Like These…

 In the newest issue of The Advocate, Neal Broverman examines the murder of Lawrence King in Oxnard California, and asks who is to blame for his death.  He writes:

In the months leading up to that morning, King had undergone a metamorphosis. Guided by a welcoming support system at the group home where he lived, the teenager was encouraged to dress as he pleased and live as the person he wanted to be. What King and others didn’t recognize was that this encouragement—and his response to it—placed him on a collision course with a culture that found him repulsive.

Broverman proceeds to point the finger at the foster care facility where he lived, his caregivers, and activists, including those who passed on a “Know Your Rights Guide” entitled “Queer and Trans Youth in California Foster Care Have Rights!” provided by the NCLR to LGBT youth at that and other care centres.  He continues:

As wonderful as this encouragement sounds, did it put Larry in harm’s way by sending him out in a world not ready for him? It may be beyond the capacity of kids to reconcile a tolerant atmosphere like Casa Pacifica with the xenophobic, conformist nature of school. Children like Brandon McInerney are products of their society, one that simply does not know what to do with a boy in heels.

Following classic blame-the-victim logic, Broverman quite clearly asserts that Lawrence King’s gender-defiant and openly gay behaviour is primarily responsible for his own death, as is anyone who had encouraged him to be himself.  Only in the last paragraph does he address the societal perspective fed to McInerney that violence somehow solves everything, in token regard.  I wonder if Broverman would apply the same logic to the murders of many others who we commemorate at the Transgender Day of Remembrance, or likewise feel that folks like Matthew Shepard should have simply lived more in secret than choosing to be themselves?  Perhaps we should be telling transsexuals to satisfy themselves with crossdressing in secret (assuming they can suffocate themselves like that without being driven to suicide) and not bother trying to change their lives into something they find tolerable, for the sake of the society “that simply does not know what to do with a boy in heels?”

One would think that an advocate who was really speaking for us with any form of concern and understanding might consider the possibility that the more we live in secret, the more those who would intimidate and harass us are emboldened and entrenched in the belief that their view (and hate) is “right.”  It’s puzzling that a magazine that advocates one community’s right to come out of the closet is suggesting that another community (trans youth) would be best served by staying in theirs.

Needless to say, more than a few people are upset.  TransYouth Family Allies have started a communal letter, introduced at The Bilerico Project, and already several have emailed them to join the signatories.

I have to wonder who Broverman considers himself an ”Advocate” for.

Hair!

Yay, rich, thick, luxurious hair!

Yeah, I know it’s not typical to want to declare out loud that “hey, I’m not wearing my own hair,” but I know there’s enough people who’ll want to know about this, so f— it.  For those like myself who were unfortunate enough to put off transition until middle age — at which point the forehead had grown very large and the hair damage had become permanent — sometimes it looks like the only option is to wear wigs for the rest of our lives (or else save up thousands of dollars for hair transplants).  But I’ve found (well, actually been pointed to, by a member of the local community) another option.  Right now, there’s only one company that makes this available, and I do risk giving a kind of sales ”plug,” but because I’m not being paid for this, I can give you all the unbiased skinny, including clear indications as to who should not use this method.

Update And New News

It seems that there’s a few things to update and add.

• CTV has pulled the Life Ministries ex-gay advertisement.
• The Canadian Senate is taking some time to mull the Income Tax Act, Bill C-10, and consider the implications of removing funding to anything of a controversial nature or offending to “public decency,” before deciding whether to approve the measure in its current form.  The carefully slipped-in little bit of wording had already passed in the House of Commons, before legislators realized the implications.
• Logo Network has released an advertisement addressing hate crimes, featuring the likes of Calpernia Addams, Andre 3000 (of OutKast), Ashanti, Sarah Bareilles, Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development, Nip/Tuck), international performer Estelle, Janet Jackson, T.R. Knight, Little Sister, Darryl Stephens (Logo’s Noah’s Arc) and Taylor Swift.
• In commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder, the Matthew Shepard Foundation is preparing to launch an awareness campaign to fight hatred and the violence it generates.
• The Day of Silence is approaching, Friday April 25, 2008.  This year, they will be remembering Lawrence King in the process.  Information and organizing manual can be found at dayofsilence.org.

I’m finding myself still emotionally drained from a long cycle of work.  More articles are in the works, but will have to wait until I have more energy.  Take care.

The Christian Gene

Here’s a little something for those who read “Conversion Therapy in the Womb?” or followed the debate sparked last year by Albert Mohler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCzbNkyXO50

To all those out there who think this is serious and that there’s a conspiracy out there to stamp out Christianity, never fear:  we’re usually liberals out here, so it’s far more likely that you’ll work in earnest to eradicate us far sooner than we would organize an attempt to do the same to you.

Some Scattered Thoughts and Reading

I apologize for being quiet this week.  Work has been particularly taxing and leaving me relatively braindead. For the time being, I just wanted to put up some links and comments of things that have happened over the past while.

Counting The Cost

(Crossposted to Transadvocate.com) 

If my previous post seemed a little scattered and emotional, there’s a reason for it.  The first trans community function I ever attended was a TDoR function, as was the first event I ever MCed outside a support group.   I’ve been sensitive to transphobic violence at every step, and my own transition began with violence.  But seeing the settings for it shift to schools was not something I was prepared for.

At or around November 20th of every year, the transgender community commemorates a day of remembrance (TDoR) for transgender folk who have died as a result of transphobic or homophobic violence.  Since that memorial, fifteen more homicides involving transgender victims have occurred:

“Sometimes, We Just Have to Pay Full Price.”

(Crossposted to Transadvocate.com) 

My partner is a nut about sales.  If it isn’t on sale, it doesn’t get purchased.  So sometimes, when we run out of a breakfast staple and such, I have to remind her of that basic fact of life:  “sometimes, we just have to pay full price.”

And then, the phrase comes back to haunt me.  This usually happens around the evenings, these days.  She’s been talking about returning to work in a capacity which would take her out to job sites with contractors and crew, some of whom could know from her previous 20 years of work in that trade that she is trans.  And I’ve been having troubling dreams about both that and my own job, where I’ve been back for several months with no trouble beyond the occasional rude exchange, and now all of a sudden I’m dreaming repetitively about getting shot in the head.  The latter is not something I’m actually afraid of during the light of day, so I’m wondering what is bringing this all on.  Am I sensing something nasty coming, or am I just reading the trans-related news way too much?  And that’s when that dirty little voice says to me, “sometimes, we just have to pay full price.”

And that’s when I start thinking about how far we’ve come… or haven’t as the case may be.  The first GRS surgeries were performed in the 1940s, and with the rise of Nazi Germany and its pogroms, the invention of “stealth” soon followed.  We’ve been in hiding ever since.  Don’t get me wrong — I’m on record as defending a woman’s and man’s right to go stealth if they feel it’s best for them.  We earn that.  But the wholesale movement toward stealth — the lack of barely anybody to stay behind and educate the masses — has meant that we’ve only made small strides during that time.  The first known piece of trans-inclusive legislation didn’t happen until 1993, and most of those strides have been since then.  And without adult transfolk there to lay that groundwork, a crisis has developed.  Because now it is children on the front lines.

Human Rights Tribunal Hears Access-to-Services Case in Ontario

I’d like to draw attention to a recent case in Canada brought to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), which as far as I can see, has so far only made waves with right-wing folk — such as the Ezra Levant crowd and Margaret Wente’s article in the Globe and Mail.  The case involves two complaints of denial of services against a plastic surgeon, Dr. Robert Stubbs, who specializes in tidying up and shaping genitalia.  Both complainants were refused services because they are transsexual.

The first complainant, Michelle Boyce, had GRS (Genital Reassignment Surgery) in 2001, performed in Wisconsin.  The result was flawed: one labial fold was larger than the other, and another intrusive flap of skin made sex painful.  In a consultation with Dr. Stubbs, she received a good price quote and then later in the examination room — when he found out that she is a post-operative transsexual — he abruptly ended the consultation and invited her to leave.

 The other complainant, Jenn Finnan, was refused treatment to augment her breasts.

 Dr. Stubbs’ case states that structure of genitals and chests of post-operative transsexuals differ from those of natal females, and therefore being transsexual was medically relevant.  While there is some virtue to this with regard to genital surgery, it is far less relevant with regards to the difference between a natal female chest and a developing female chest.  And even so, in both cases, there was no explanation given at the time, no discussion with clients of their alternatives, there was just an abrupt end-of-meeting refusal to treat transsexuals that would probably not have happened if the refusal stemmed from some other biological or physical condition — an indication that a personal bias was very likely at work.

 There is some discussion about the right of a doctor who performs elective surgeries to refuse treatment.  It takes on far more serious overtones, however, when other options are not available.  And when my own experience has shown me that refusal to treat is far more common among cosmetic surgeons than willingness (I know of only one doctor in the entire province of Alberta, for example, who will perform breast augmentation, and two others who only on rare occasions have relented in the past), and that those willing doctors tend to charge far more for those services, this does become an access-to-care issue. 

While the lack of treatment is not life-threatening in these cases, there certainly are such precedents in North America, most notably Robert Eads in Georgia (who was profiled in the documentary Southern Comfort), and was refused treatment for ovarian and cervical cancer by over two dozen doctors before finally finding a clinic once the cancer was too far gone to save him.  So the potential implications extend far beyond these cases.

But this story isnt written yet:  I challenge those in the Canadian GLB and T communities to watch this one, and, when / if they can, get involved.