Gaia: TransAction

Comprehensive national survey on transgender discrimination launc

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:43:13 GMT

Comprehensive national survey on transgender discrimination launched by National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Respond to the survey online at https://online.survey.psu.edu/endtransdiscrim

“This is an absolutely critical national effort. We urge all transgender and gender non-conforming people to take the survey to help guide us in making better laws and policies that will improve the quality of life for all transgender people. We need everyone’s voice in this, everyone’s participation.”
— Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality

In the wake of one of the most violent years on record of assaults on transgender people, the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force have teamed up on a comprehensive national survey to collect data on discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodations, healthcare, education, family life and criminal justice.

To date, in 2008, several young gender non-conforming people of color have been murdered, including California junior high school student Lawrence King, who was shot in public during the school day. King’s murder, and the murders of Simmie Williams in South Carolina and Angie Zapata in Greeley, Colorado come in a year in which we are still working to include transgender provisions in a federal bill to protect lesbian, gay and bisexual workers from discrimination in employment.

Hate crimes against transgender people suggest multiple points of vulnerability, which can compound each other: discrimination in employment may lead to unstable housing situations that in turn can leave transgender people at the mercy of public programs and public officials who may not respond respectfully or appropriately to them. These stressors add burdens in a healthcare system that is often unprepared for transgender people’s needs. The list goes on. “We know that transgender people face discrimination on multiple fronts,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of NCTE. “This data will help us sort out the combination of forces that leave transgender people vulnerable to unemployment, homelessness and violence.”

Jaime Grant, director of the Task Force Policy Institute, noted, “There is so little concrete data on the needs and risks associated with the widespread discrimination we see in the lives of the transgender people we know. This data will help point the way to an appropriate policy agenda to ensure that transgender people have a fair chance to contribute their talents in the workplace, in our educational systems and in our communities.”

NCTE and the Task Force have partnered with Pennsylvania State University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education to collect and analyze the data. Applying rigorous academic standards to the investigation will strengthen any case made to legislators, policy makers, healthcare providers and others whose decisions impact the lives of transgender people. A national team of experts in survey research and transgender issues developed the questionnaire, which can be completed online at https://online.survey.psu.edu/endtransdiscrim.

Keisling notes: “This is an absolutely critical national effort. We urge all transgender and gender non-conforming people to take the survey to help guide us in making better laws and policies that will improve the quality of life for all transgender people. We need everyone’s voice in this, everyone’s participation.” –30–

The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. We do this by training activists, equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.
© 2008 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 1325 Massachusetts Ave NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005. Phone 202.393.5177. Fax 202.393.2241. TTY 202.393.2284. theTaskForce@theTaskForce.org.

The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people. The National Center for Transgender Equality is a 501(c)3 organization. For more information, please visit www.nctequality.org .

Fall 2008 Trans Conferences

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:31:49 GMT

Labor Day Weekend in Seattle - www.genderodyssey.org (mostly FTM)

Sept. 30 - Oct. 5 in Atlanta - www.scatl.org (mostly MTF)

Gene behind female-to-male transsexuality identified

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:26:53 GMT

Gene behind female-to-male transsexuality identified

London, Wed, 30 Jul 2008 ANI

Source: http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/9047

London, July 30 (ANI): Women who are not comfortable in their skin and believe that they belong to the opposite sex, should blame the feeling on a gene variant say scientists at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.

Such complex behaviour is mainly attributed to multiple genes, environmental and cultural factors, but researchers claim that this gene may be responsible for female-to-male transsexuality.

The researchers found that the variation occurs in the gene for an enzyme called cytochrome P17, which is involved in the metabolism of sex hormones.

The presence of this variant causes higher than average tissue concentrations of male and female sex hormones, which in turn affects early brain development.

The variant was discovered by a team led by Clemens Tempfer, after they examined samples from 49 female-to-male (FtM) and 102 male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals, as well as 1669 non-transsexual controls.

The variant was found to be more common in men than women. However, it doesn't seem to be implicated in male-to-female transsexuality (MtF) as the proportion of MtF transsexuals with it was similar to that in non-transsexual men.

However, in women they did encounter were some differences: 44 percent of FtM transsexuals carried it, as against 31 percent of non-transsexual women.

Though there are many women with the variant who are not transsexual and many FtM transsexuals who lack it, the results indicate that the variant makes women more likely to feel that their bodies are of the wrong sex. The findings also raise the possibility that this is a result of their brains having been exposed to higher than average levels of sex hormones during development.

"It may increase the likelihood that people will become transsexual," New Scientist quoted Tempfer, as saying.

However, he also stressed that their cultural environment also plays an important role.

"The present study found that a mutant gene that ultimately results in higher testosterone levels is overrepresented in female-to male transsexualism.

This is in line with what we previously know about masculinisation of the brain and is therefore less likely to be a chance finding.

Hence, the study is important and adds to the notion that gender identity is influenced by sex hormones early in life, and that certain gene combinations make individuals more vulnerable to aberrant effects," said Mikael Landén of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

However, Janett Scott, former president of the Beaumont Society, a UK support group for transgender people, has raised concerns that linking transsexuality with biology may encourage people to try and cure it.

"Nature may have made us the way that we are, but nurture is what gives us a problem," she said.

However, Tempfer strongly denied any such motive for his research, saying: "That is completely out of the question," he says.

Nevertheless, he said that if other gene variants with a stronger association to transsexuality are identified, it can be easy to establish a diagnosis. This might allow gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy to start earlier in life. (ANI)

WPATH & AMA Agree

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:25:35 GMT

In recent months the American Medical Association (AMA) and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) have released statements supporting and advocating unfettered access to medical transitions for transsexuals.

AMA Resolution 122, Removing Financial Barriers to Care for Transgender Patients, - http://www.gires.org.uk/assets/AMA122.pdf

WPATH Clarification on Medical Necessity for Sex Reassignment Surgery - http://www.wpath.org/documents/Med%20Nec%20on%202008%20Letterhead.pdf

Speaking on the topic, Jamison Green and Donna Rose have recorded their discussion.

The recording is 70 minutes long but worth listening to, in my opinion.

The article: http://duzdonna.podomatic.com/

Direct link to the recording:
http://duzdonna.podOmatic.com/entry/2008-07-31T10_27_40-07_00

From Donna Rose's blog:
"posted the audio from the first Transgender Town Hall Call: Removing
Barriers to Trans Health Care from Tuesday evening. The recording is
an hour and ten minutes long and features both Jamison Green (talking
about recent WPATH statement on the medical necessity of trans-related
procedures -- SEE BELOW) and Dr. Becky Allison (talking about recent American
Medical Assoc. statements regarding Barriers to Care for transgender
patients)."

Zander, Pod Mod

Dr. Brownstein on You Tube

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:01:29 GMT

Link - http://www.youtube.com/v/5WEA3p1Eq3U

Zander

Re: Laurence Michael Dillon - The World's First Transsexual Man

http://yeshesdevi.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:13:59 GMT

There was also an interesting article about him in last summer's issue of *Tricycle* magazine (issue #64), focusing more on his
relationship with Buddhism.

DIllon first studied Theravadin Buddhism in India under a British monk named Sangharakshita, the same Sangharakshita who later founded of the "Friends of the Western Buddhist Order." Dillon apparently considered Sangharakshita to be his guru and confided in him 100%. However, when he requested ordination, Sangharakshita told him that the Vinaya (the monastic codes established by the Buddah) forbade ordination of "third gender" individuals and refused.

Later Dillon travelled to Bodhgaya and sought out ordination with the Tibetan tradition. Apparently Sangharakshita protested to the Lama who offered to ordain DIllon, in a letter in which he betrayed Dillon's confidences and outed him, preventing him from attaining full ordination. Dillon's ordination was never able to progress beyond the novice stage due to restrictions on persons of the third gender.

(As best I remember, anyway, as I can't seem to find my copy of that issue. :|)

Do you know someone who transitioned 30+ years ago?

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:58:28 GMT

Hello,
I've begun working on my next book, with the working title "Hidden Pioneers." I have already interviewed one person, an elderly transman who lives in the country outside Corvallis, Oregon. He started taking hormones the year I was born - 1955. I want to tell the stories of 6-8 people (both FTM and MTF) who transitioned long ago and have never told anyone. (For instance, this man's 40-something daughter has no idea he's not her biological father, and he never wants her to find out) I want to tell the stories of those who did NOT write their autobiographies in the 1960s. The challenge will be finding them. Please spread the word that I'd like to interview people in this kind of situation, with a guarantee of total anonymity, and the further guarantee that they will be able to read the final draft and make any changes that further guarantee their privacy. Their perspective will be completely different from that of people who transition today. Not only is that valuable, but their stories will also inspire others. Please forward this post widely, particularly within the medical profession, as it may be that their doctors are the only people who know these elderly men and women once transitioned.

--
Thanks,
Reid Vanderburgh, MA, LMFT
319 SW Washington #701
Portland Oregon 97204
(503) 341-7001
For info on ordering my book "Transition and Beyond," please visit my website: www.transtherapist.com

Laurence Michael Dillon - The World's First Transsexual Man

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:14:25 GMT

Laurence Michael Dillon

The World's First Transsexual Man

Born on the 1st May 1915 in London Laura Maud Dillon, daughter of Robert Dillon of Lismullen, County Meath, was anatomically a healthy female child.

Her mother died two days later and her father rejected her and sent her with her brother to his three unmarried sisters in Folkestone, England.

In 1925 her father and grandfather died and her eleven-year-old brother became Sir Robert Dillon, eighth baronet.

She was educated at an exclusive girls' school and at St Anne's College, Oxford, winning her rowing blue in a women's crew and graduating in 1938.

She spent her summer holidays with a housekeeper on the family estate in County Meath.

Facial hair and a deep voice confirmed her feelings of being physically and emotionally a man, and she took a job as a garage hand, living in loneliness and anguish for four years.

A Doctor Foss agreed to give her male hormone pills, she had a mastectomy in 1942, and in 1944 she had her birth certificate amended, changing 'daughter' to 'son' and 'Laura Maud' to 'Laurence Michael'. Sir Robert reacted with disbelief and horror and cut him out of his life.

Michael, as he now called himself, entered medical school in Trinity College Dublin in 1945 under his new name.

During the long holidays he had protracted and painful operations at the hospital of the plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillis to complete the physical changes.

Sir Harold Gillies, internationally renowned as the father of modern plastic surgery, played a pioneering wartime role in Britain developing pedicle flap surgery. Gillies later performed surgery on the United Kingdom's first male-to-female transsexual - Roberta Cowell.

What is not so well known is that Sir Harold was also one of the pioneers of sex change surgery.

Michael Dillon Movie View Movie 2.07mb

In 1945, he and his colleague Ralph Millard carried out the world's first sex change of a woman into a man on the young aristocrat, Micheal Dillon.

Micheal is also believed to be the first woman to have taken the male hormone testosterone in order to look like a man.

Within months of starting testosterone, he had grown a beard and was living as a man. It was the dramatic transition in his appearance that finally persuaded Gillies to operate.

Michael later showed his amended birth certificate to Debrett's Peerage, who agreed to change their entry, thus acknowledging his claim to the baronetcy as the next male in line after his childless brother.

The editor assured him that changes in Debrett were automatically followed by Burke's Peerage. He won his rowing blue, this time as a man, graduated in 1951, and became a ship's doctor, serving on voyages to Asia, Australia, and America.

Burke's Peerage failed to change their entry, and the discrepancy with Debrett's was discovered in 1958 by the Sunday Express, which investigated further and publicised the change of sex.

Michael was devastated at this revelation of a secret he had sedulously concealed, and he fled to Calcutta, then took refuge in a Buddhist monastery at Sarnath, Bengal.

He was ordained a monk of the Tibetan order, taking the name Lobzang Jivaha, and spent his time studying Buddhism and writing.

He gave what money he had to help struggling students.

The hardships of life in primitive conditions, made worse by the meagre vegetarian diet required by Buddhism, took their toll; his health failed, and he died in hospital at Dalhousie, Punjab, on 15 May 1962, aged 47.

Two books by him were published in London in 1962: The Life of Milarepa, about a famous 11th Century Tibetan yogi, and Imji Getsul, an account of life in a Buddhist monastery.

From: http://www.transgenderzone.com/features/michaeldillon.htm

DHS Drops New "No Match" Enforcement Procedures

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:47:29 GMT

DHS Drops New "No Match" Enforcement Procedures

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dropped its attempt at enforcing their new "No Match" enforcement procedures, issued in mid-August. The enforcement procedures encountered obstacles from the beginning with a lawsuit by labor and immigration groups blocking the rule's progress only a couple weeks after their issuance. During the rule's open-comment period, many organizations, including NCTE, filed comments opposing adoption of the rules, arguing that the procedures would unfairly jeopardize workers' jobs. To read NCTE's comments, click here.

The DHS rules would have required employers to either fire employees or face stiff penalties when employee records do not match information in the Social Security Administration (SSA) database, such as name, Social Security number, or gender. Transgender employees who are listed as one gender in SSA records, but who live and work in another gender, would have been one of the groups at greater risk of losing their jobs as a result of the DHS enforcement procedures.

Last month, on October 10^th, the enforcement procedures were dealt a severe blow when the presiding judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rules, finding that the rules would cause irreparable harm to both innocent workers and employers. DHS signaled its abandonment of these rules on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, by requesting that a judge put the lawsuit on hold until March 2008. DHS plans to introduce new, replacement enforcement procedures, which DHS believes will have a better chance of standing up to legal scrutiny, in December 2007.

Though the DHS enforcement procedures have been pulled, SSA will continue to compare their database against employer-submitted information, as it has for years before the issuance of the DHS rules. SSA has stricter standards for changing gender markers than many departments of motor vehicles, which has lead to employers of some transgender workers receiving notification of gender no-matches. For many of those transgender workers, this notification has effectively unwillingly revealed them as transgender in their workplace.

NCTE provided expertise on No-Matches to the groups who brought the lawsuit blocking the DHS procedures. NCTE will continue to monitor the situation and is working to stop "gender" as a category for data comparison in SSA records.

The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people. The National Center for Transgender Equality is a 501(c)3 organization. For more information, please visit www.nctequality.org.

Re: College Experience

http://joannatsf.gaia.com — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:06:53 GMT

The gold standard for defining disability is does it qualify for benefits under Social Security (SSDI). While GID is an Axis I psychiatric disorder, it will not, like schitzophrenia or bipolar disorders, qualify a person for benefits. There is in fact a specific statuatory exclusion of GID and all other Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. There is a movement to remove Adult GID entirely from DSM V. I think at the least it will be moved to an Axis II disorder. So enough of my psychiatric babbling! I've never thought of my transness as disabling. Transition has been for me an enabling experience. You seem to be doing a great job of it though. I wish I had been so thorough in laying the ground work. I know coming out is hard but it will pass. Transition can be enjoyable. It was for me and I hope it will be for you! Blessed be, Joanna

Re: College Experience

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:09:18 GMT

Totally makes sense!

Re: College Experience

http://gray-quill.gaia.com — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:04:59 GMT

I understand and agree with what you've said, though I stand by my former revelation, enforced by the differences in our experience. Being pre-transitioned as of now, my transgender status does significantly "handicap" me in many situations. Embracing the fact that I have to go out of my way sometimes to be "normal" has made these times much easier, and also helps others accept my situation.

You mentioned being husky; I'll juxtapose that with height. In a world designed for even the average female being at least 165cm, and my being rather less causes difficulties not only in passing as a male, but in basic things like using the toilet or shopping for food. It's not impossible to overcome, but it's something that comes with the package. I've got to ask for help, or adjust my needs/wants.

Perhaps I should adjust my wording so as not to make it seem that I consider the state of being transgendered as being a handicap by default. For me it is, and may or may not remain so. For you and many others, it is not, and I understand that completely and would not argue otherwise.

I too would like to add that the revelation of treating my transgender state as a handicap was also influenced by earlier similar experiences with coming to terms with (as a child) being legally blind (gah!) and, more recently, partially deaf. To make the comparison more clear - learning to ask someone which bathroom it's appropriate for me to use is similar to learning that it's okay to ask someone to repeat themselves four or five times and do you mind if I stare at your mouth a bit? Here's hoping that makes sense.

Re: College Experience

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:50:07 GMT

I used this definition of handicap/disability to reflect upon when replying to your post,

"A disability is a condition or function judged to be significantly impaired relative to the usual standard of an individual or their group."

What strikes me in this definition is the comparison element. One has a disability if they have a condition (GID for example) or are judged to have a condition that is outside the standard norm (is usual).

So, in a cissexually dominated society, transsexuality is deemed a condition that is outside of the standard. My opinion is that no such cissexual standard exists and therefore transsexuality is not a disability for me.

After a few years into physical medical transition one's limiting experiences may be radically changed. The ways in which I maneuver in society and are treated by society are radically different two years on T. When I was pre-T and for the first year on T, as a more androgynous person, I was treated harshly regularly. I am no longer treated harshly for being gender ambiguous. That does not mean that I am no longer treated harshly though.

Now that I am a man, seen as a man and treated like a man, I have found myself bumping into all kinds of nifty new experiences. Experiences that I would never have been aware of prior to walking the planet as a man.

My transness is not a disability nor a handicap, because my life is touched in many ways, by many people, for many reasons in negative ways and they are not handicaps either. Being husky is not a handicap, yet it has meant that I am now deemed more aggressive and therefore better able to defend myself against physical violence, which means that I am much more susceptible now to random male on male attacks.

p.s. I want to state that I am a person with a physical disability that is a result of a childhood brain illness and the handicap I experience as a result of that illness could never compare to my life as a transsexual, which is a beautiful living-into my authentic self that does not in any way limit my mobility or my ability.

Just another rambling 2 cents.

Zander

Re: College Experience

http://gray-quill.gaia.com — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:34:11 GMT

Thanks, I definitely will!

p.s. In response to a comment in your first paragraph, “Naturally, as with any handicap…”, I must chime in and say that I do not regard my transness as a handicap or disability. I regard it as a natural part of who I am and who I was meant to be.

I wondered if that line would get any responses; I'm surprised that thus far yours was the only one.
Over the orientation weekend I had a lot of revelations and one of the big ones regards the word "handicap" and its application. The result of that was a long but unrefined essay, which I hope I'll share later. But to summarize: whether being trans is a handicap is up to the individual - unlike, say, being blind. For you it may not place you in any kind of disadvantage at all, may never have, and never will. For myself, and in my experience for the majority, it does, in a lot of ways. Physically, mentally, socially... like being blind, it doesn't mean I can't have a happy and successful life, but I'd be stupid not to recognize it for what it is and the difficulties it presents.

I guess if you define "handicap" just as some purely negative thing that there's can be done about, sure, I don't have one of those either. Maybe the main thing that changed for me was my understanding of what having a handicap is, and I've embraced it.

Re: College Experience

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:03:50 GMT

Hey Aaron,

Way to go! I'm glad that it is all working out so well for you. Keep us posted!

p.s. In response to a comment in your first paragraph, "Naturally, as with any handicap...", I must chime in and say that I do not regard my transness as a handicap or disability. I regard it as a natural part of who I am and who I was meant to be.

Zander
Pod Mod

College Experience

http://gray-quill.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:29:58 GMT

I've shared the following post on just a few blogging communities and it suddenly occured to me to bring it here on Zaadz...

---------

Something I've been really concerned about since beginning the process of getting into college is how being transgendered is going to affect my scholarly career. Naturally, as with any handicap, none of us wants it to rule or ruin our lives, but one can't just ignore the obvious problems that present themselves.

When I got accepted to my university and started filling out paperwork on things like meal plans and such, I started to get really worried about living in a dorm. As with many colleges, freshmen are required to house on campus and are limited to the halls they can stay in.

I just wanted to share with everyone how awesome my school is, and how they've really come through for me already.

The first thing I did was locate and contact the campus GLBT support group. Not that I intend to spend a whole lot of time with them (I'm not a big activist and I never got much out of "support groups" of any kind) I did want to make sure that someone knew I was coming and that there might need to be preparations of some kind. I knew that this school has the usual generalized non-discrimination policy, but other than that I wasn't sure what the real attitude was. Since "transgender" gets lumped in with sexual deviancy of all kinds, I wondered what kind of non-heterosexual populace my school had, and how people tended to respond. (Asking if SMU is "liberal" or "conservative" turned out to be fruitless, because I got both answers 50% of the time.)

This was actually before I'd even been accepted. When I did finally get my acceptance and start getting the loads of other paperwork and such, that's when I decided to get in touch with the Residence Life and Student Housing office myself. I emailed back and forth a few times, explaining the situation, and then I called and discussed what I thougth my needs were, and what I should fill out on the papers.

I honestly didn't know what to say on the paperwork. It seemed obvious to me that I couldn't mark "female" because then I would end up among females, and nothing would "out" me faster. But I wasn't comfortable with marking "male" because technically [legally] that was still a lie. I came to find out that all the halls at my school are co-ed, and not divided by floor or wing or anything. Your neighbors could be anybody. Also, the housing people told me I could mark "male" and that would be alright, especially since they had my name and notes about my situation now.

So next we had to deal with the matter of roomates and bathrooms. I told them that the ideal situation would be a private room, and that I wasn't comfortable with the idea of a communal bathroom. Of course I'm pretty complacent, and understand that with a school this size it might be a little difficult to give me everything I wanted. I would be okay with a male roomate, I said, and planned exactly how I was going to explain to him my situation. And I could survive sharing a bathroom; hell, I do it in public, I'd just have to take showers late at night and very carefully or something.

Then I actually got into a scholarship program which dictated the hall I'd be staying in. That hall in particular has entirely communal bathrooms, I knew, so I was mentally preparing for that. Then my mother told me she'd talked to RLSH and they'd told her I had a private room! (one of 9/80 available) So this was the situation I was preparing for - no roomate, but communal bathrooms.

Well, I recently returned from an Orientation weekend, having been enrolled, gotten my classes, reserved my books, etc. And at an info expo we got to talk to someone with RLSH who said basically said "Yes, we've taken care of him, and actually he has a private bathroom for his room."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure if I hugged the woman or cried or what, I was really stunned.

Apparently what's happened is they've given me a room normally reserved for Residence Assistants. Wow! I don't have to worry about ANYTHING!

All this because I was open and frank about my situation, honest about what I felt I needed and what I could live with. My school is awesome.

Yes, I could have survived with a roomate, or sharing a bathroom with three other people (in suite-style room situations) or even the communal bathrooms. In fact, I did so during the orientation weekend; initially I was placed with a female roomate on the top floor which had temporarily been reserved for females only (because a high school cheerleading thingy was being hosted at the same time). When I came up the stairs and saw the big yellow "NO MALES PAST THIS POINT" sign I decided to just go down stairs and tell them "hey, this is kind of awkward, but they put me here and with a girl and I don't think that's exactly right" and they took care of it. I shared a room with some guy I only saw twice, for two minutes each (I went to bed before he got back and left before he woke up) and used the men's rooms whenever I had to go. (Note: men's rooms have stall-protected urinals AND there are unisex restrooms all over campus - this place is GREAT!) So it's not like I would have died.

But my school is wonderful.

They've also made some other provisions for me. They'll change my ID card and transit pass and such to have my chosen, rather than my [decidedly feminine] legal name, and I'm also looking at getting the health care I need through the university health plan. (I was extremely close to starting hormones with a local doctor before Tricare shut me down. So if I can still get my letter from him they might accept it on campus... we'll see what happens.) Stuff like the post box they assigned to me was on the top row (and I'm way shorter than average) and I couldn't reach into it, so they put me on a lower one with nary a question. My financial and academic advisors are amazing too.

Have I mentioned I love this place yet? I really do, and I can't believe how well it's going for me already. Move in is in a couple of weeks.

Hey guys, it's possible. Things can go perfectly for you too!

Additional note: In case it wasn't clear, I'm a pre-everything FTM (though right on the edge of starting hormones... those last few damned hurdles are the highest) and I guess I might as well say I'm going to SMU - Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, TX. (Got 'stangs!)

-Aaron

Trans Man You Tube Video (9min)

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:33:39 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w9ygLnAt34Y

Trans Owned Publisher

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:27:57 GMT

From their website - http://www.homofactuspress.com

Homofactus Press, LLC began as a concept of Jay Sennett, noted filmmaker, writer, speaker and blogger and has emerged as a small, digital publishing company. Homofactus Press primarily publishes books directed at female-to-male transsexuals / transmen / transgenders (FtMs) throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. The mission of Homofactus Press is to publish the highest quality of books that discuss meaningful experiences by, for, and about FtMs, with particular emphasis towards communities of color and communities with disabilities.

Our mission is:
Publish the best books for FtMs in the world.
Promote a sense of community through word-of-mouth and blogging (obligate our authors to hold themselves accountable to their community of readers.
Enhance the well being of readers with visible impairments and learning disabilities by publishing all books in XML format, available for free download.
Enhance the well being of poor readers in developing nations and developed nations by publishing all books using a creative commons license and having PDF versions available for free download.
Enhance the well being of our authors by providing robust royalty payments and limited rights.

Keys to Success:
Achieving sales goals without going into debt.
Doing what we say we are going to do.
Containing costs and honoring all our financial commitments.
Publishing unusual titles geared to communities of color and communities with disabilities.
Publishing the highest quality books known to humankind that discuss meaningful experiences by, for and about FtMs.
Having fun.
Sharing profits with all who helped to make them.
Finding success and happiness in our microbranding strategy (i.e remembering we never set out to be Alyson Publications or Simon and Schuster).

How We Work
The work of Homofactus Press is collaborative in nature. Authors are expected to remain engaged with their community of readers as well as the staff of Homofactus Press during and after the publication of their work.

Readers also have a responsibility to become active participants by providing ongoing feedback to the authors and to Homofactus Press. By valuing the experiences of both writers and readers, the success of Homofactus Press lies not only with the books it publishes but also in its interactions with the people involved at all stages of a book’s publication and readership.

What We Publish
While the primary work of Homofactus Press is to publish works for and about female-to-male transsexuals / transmen / transgenders (FtMs), Homofactus Press has also created several imprints for other works. One imprint, “Homofactus History,” is designed to publish works of history-making in the lgbt community, both the process of creating history as well as the writing of it. We are also currently considering Homofactus Kids to publish children’s books.

Newsweek's Transgender Edition - May 21, 2007 Issue

Wed, 16 May 2007 21:22:13 GMT

(Rethinking) Gender

A growing number of Americans are taking their private struggles with their identities into the public realm. How those who believe they were born with the wrong bodies are forcing us to re-examine what it means to be male and female.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18618970/site/newsweek/

Re: Louis Graydon Sullivan

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:36:49 GMT

Bri Smith, “’Sullivan’s Travels’: Living and dying as a gay female-to-male transsexual” (I attended this workshop at the 2007 FORGE Forward FTM Conference in Milwaukee)

In the 1970s, gay female-to-male transsexuals were invisible in both transsexual and gay discourses. Louis Graydon Sullivan strove to educate others about the existence and validity of a gay FTM identity – to make himself and others like him visible. Sullivan’s words and experiences both challenge and support existing theoretical notions of identity formation. Part of a comprehensive biographical work on Lou Sullivan, this presentation highlights Sullivan’s intersections with contemporary social movements and articulations of identity, including: Sullivan’s unique challenges to 1970s feminist consciousness, a comparison between the gay liberation movement in Milwaukee and the beginnings of a transsexual community in San Francisco, the struggle for agency between transsexual individuals and university-based gender clinics, Sullivan’s transition from female transvestite to gay man, and how Sullivan was able to negotiate being a gay FTM with AIDS in the 1980s.

Bri Smith is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and zirs dissertation is the biography of Lou Sullivan. Bri is also a queer activist in the Milwaukee community, and jokes about researching history by day and making history by night. Trans scholars, activists, and anyone in between can email Bri at SMITHB@UWM.EDU