The Bilerico Project

Rocky Horror and the Holy Grail, or: The Problem with Defining to Exclusion

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0500

As communities rise from the margins, they undergo a process of introspection, microscopic self-examination and self-definition. It's a process of healing, throwing off the ill-fitting definitions that had been imposed previously by a majority that didn't experience and most often didn't understand what it was building a box around. It's a process of finding pride in oneself and one's identity. It's an important and necessary step in emerging and finding one's strength and will. It is this process that the trans community (or communities?) is evolving through.

But history shows that when left to happen without agreed-upon parameters, this newfound freedom to self-define has a tendency to exclude and marginalize others that share some fundamental common purposes. I'll try not to belabour the point as it's been made many times before, but it seems to need regular repeating, so I'll do so and move forward to (I think) a more substantial solution.

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The Fundie's Handbook

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0500

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's the way I see it, and with the steamroller momentum of birtherism, teabagging, speechies, marriage protection and the like, one can't help but just want to take the easier road of rolling with it. Even my home Province of Alberta, Canada is swinging to the right like never before, cutting GRS funding, refusing to add protections for gender identity to human rights legislation, passing a provision to ensure that children can be evacuated before tolerance / evolution / Shakespeare / anti-bullying discussions can take place, and now handing a byelection over to a party that tells the Progressive Conservatives that they're not nearly far right enough. So I say, hey, roll with it, nobody likes the humiliation of losing. For those who'd like to join me, here's a few pointers.

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Alberta Teacher Fired For Gender Change

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:30:00 -0500

In early October of 2008, substitute teacher Jan Buterman was informed that he was being dropped from the teacher list and should not report to a scheduled class that day. Jan had spoken with the Deputy Superintendent at the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division No. 29 the previous June about his transition from female to male and that he would be returning to work after the summer break as Mr. Buterman -- a minor change, since he had a mostly masculine gender presentation as it was.

But in the start of October, the Archbishop of the Edmonton Diocese of the Catholic Church objected, and directed the school board to end his employment. The Archbishop felt that Jan "would create confusion and complexity with students and parents as a model and witness to Catholic faith values." This from the organization that felt that the best way to deal with pedophile priests was to give them a free ride to a faraway diocese and a get out of jail free card... and help other pedophile priests cut a deal with the victims.

In Alberta, Canada, the Catholic School Board is publicly funded, and therefore subject to the same standards as any government entity. Nevertheless, the Archbishop and School Division felt so strongly about the need to fire him for transition -- even though there is no quantitative reason to believe that students are in any way negatively affected by the presence of trans teachers -- that they put it in writing.

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IAAF Official Wants to Sweep the Caster Semenyas Under the Rug

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Sprinter Caster Semenya has been placed on suicide watch in the wake of leaked tests apparently showing evidence of intersexuality as well as the negative press she's received. The news of this has prompted Lord Coe, a vice-president of the IAAF (which oversees the World Championships), to push for mandatory pre-emptive gender testing, to ensure that intersex athletes can be screened out before they arrive at the public stage.

Coe will be discussing this issue with the other IAAF vice-presidents on the federation's advisory board and their recommendations will then be presented to the IAAF Council at its next meeting in November. There is a suggestion also that Coe may travel with Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, on his proposed forthcoming visit to South Africa to resolve the situation in which Semenya now finds herself.

Because it's more humane to dash an athlete's dreams out of sight than to possibly get egg on your face for doing it publicly.

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Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:30:00 -0500

The panic machine is in full swing, from far-right conservatives trying to terrorize Americans out of wanting universal health care. There are half-truths, such as the story of Ontarioan Shona Holmes who had to abandon Canada's public health system and go south for surgery because of wait times, but without mention of how the cyst was inactive, that she was born with it (which would have made it a pre-existing condition to American insurers) and how upon return she had the remainder of the issue dealt with in a timely manner at Canada's expense. And then there are outright lies, such as citing a line that is meant to help patients in end-stage situations put together an advance directive, and making it sound like the Obama administration is intending to encourage genocide of seniors.

The question isn't "How do you want to die?" The question is simply: "What kind of care do you want, and what measures do you want taken if - at the end of life - you are unable to speak for yourself?"

And in there, of course, we have the trans bogeyman resurrected, with WorldNetDaily, OneNewsNow and others raising the panic that if universal health care is implemented, Gender Reassignment Surgery might be covered.

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Lu's Womyn-Born-Womyn-Only Policy: The Ongoing Discussions

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:00 -0500

On July 6th, I noted the story of Lu's: A Pharmacy for Women, operated by the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC) , and noted how the Vancouver pharmacy's policy to serve only "women who were born as women and live as women" excluded anyone transsexual or of transsexual history. At that point, I'd recommended opening dialogue as a first step solution. After some initial protests and media attention, that dialogue has begun, involving several advocates. The outcome is still uncertain, but two things that are becoming apparent are that 1) both sides want to talk, and 2) no one wants to see a valuable resource for women close -- they only wish to see only the reassessment of a bad policy.

Lu's is currently screening people via a locked door, something that began after a public protest on the 11th. A visual inspection and a short discussion must be passed before a person is allowed admittance to the pharmacy. There is no signage about the womyn-born-womyn only policy -- it is not needed in these circumstances.

Tuesday July 7th

On the day Lu's opened, Shannon Blatt entered and expressed support for the concept of Lu's and that she wished to move her prescriptions to the pharmacy. A discussion of the women-born-women policy followed.

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REAL Women Selectively Oppose Human Rights?

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:30:00 -0500

Before being deposed by the current minority Conservative government, the federal Liberals began work on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, to be built in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As the building is underway and the Advisory Committee is being developed to oversee what is to be included, an organization called REAL Women of Canada has rushed to conservamedia to complain that 11 of the 16 advisors chosen have been linked to feminism and may also not be homophobic. We wouldn't want womens' rights and LGBT rights to be considered human rights, after all.

To this end, they're pushing far right organizations to flood the museum administration and Conservative Government with letters and emails, "to take part in the consultations to ensure that a wider diversity of human rights concerns are included," such as:

the rights of the unborn,

the rights of non-conformist family-oriented women and girls who don't adhere to radical feminist ideologies,

the rights of men who have been marginalized while feminist special interest groups have taken center stage in Canadian policy.

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Canadian Minister Tries to Salvage a Little Pride

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:30:00 -0500

Canada's Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, Diane Ablonczy, recently saw the Marquee Tourism Events Program (an economic stimulus package designed to encourage major tourism events such as the Calgary Stampede and the Montreal International Jazz Festival) taken from her portfolio and turned over to Industry Minister, Tony Clement.

The spin from the reigning Conservative government, of course, says that this is because Ablonczy is just too busy, while Clement, who is looking at forecasts of a serious surge in unemployment in an economic crisis, has nothing better to do than administer the program.

This all happened silently, a few weeks ago, without fanfare... shortly after Ablonczy announced a nearly $400,000 grant to the Toronto Gay Pride festival.

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The Prerequisites to "Woman"

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:30:00 -0500

A women-only pharmacy -- according to reports, possibly the first of its kind in North America -- is opening in Vancouver on Tuesday. This pharmacy is designed to offer a comfortable, open environment, woman-specific information and non-judgmental counseling. They are also planning to add a "resource centre behind Lu's to get more health information from volunteers and peruse the library, which includes clipping files and Internet access.... a nurse practitioner .... a big couch at the back where visitors can join support groups for addictions and to stop smoking."

I'd love to applaud this, I really would. I know all too well the unpredictability of the biases of the person you seek medical information from, the inconsistent quality of that information, the questions about your body that you don't dare ask anyone, the denial of reliable information on medications, the way that the health system and society in general have medicalized women's bodies. But in the end, it doesn't matter whether I applaud or not: my business is not wanted. Lu's: A Pharmacy for Women very specifically caters only to "any woman who was born a woman."

This shouldn't be a surprise, as Vancouver was also the site of the Kimberly Nixon v. Rape Relief battle. That controversial legal case threatened to estrange the trans community from the feminist and lesbian communities, and if this is any indication, not much has changed.

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The Cisgender Everyone Else Standard of Care

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:30:00 -0500

Every so often, I receive an email through the albertatrans website feedback form that challenges me with something I hadn't thought of before. Recently, a query came in from a cisgender male who thought that I might be a good person to ask about finding a surgeon willing to do an "enhancement phalloplasty."

Now, FTM phalloplasties I'm fairly familiar with, having dated a post-operative transmale and having had some pretty frank discussions with others. Enhancement phalloplasties are something altogether different though, designed to lengthen and/or widen existing tissue, and weren't really something I'd ever had occasion to look into or care about. But ultimately, the conversation brought up some interesting and troubling thoughts about social preconceptions, the existing transsexual standards of medical care, surgical intervention and, well, human nature.

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Parental Rights Clause Gives the Right a New Weapon Against Diversity

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:30:00 -0500

On Thursday May 28th, The Alberta Government passed Bill 44, which makes changes to the Province's Human Rights Act. Bill 44 includes a proposal to extend to parents the right to exempt their children from any teaching about "subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation," something that the religious right has been sporadically lobbying for for nearly 20 years, but has not accomplished anywhere until now.

The clause adversely affects the rights of youth, whose rights to learning and critical thinking are now legally subject to a parental veto, as well as those communities pushed into the closet by this legislation. Although legislators promised modifications in the 11th hour, those modifications do little to alleviate concerns about the effect on teachings about evolution or Shakespeare (what with all those references to occultism), and clearly single out teachings that touch on diversity, tolerance and non-Christian beliefs (although not specified in such a way to make Christianity immune either) as something that must be preceded by enough warning for children to be evacuated first.

I urge GLBT organizations across North America to take notice and, if you will, let the Provincial leadership such as Premier Ed Stelmach and Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett know how backwards and appalling this is to the global community in this day. After all, you can be sure that now that it has been accomplished once, the push for "parental rights" will be coming to a conservatopia near you.

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Alberta Tops Itself (and North America) Again With Bill 44

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:00:00 -0500

On the heels of delisting Health Care funding for Gender Reassignment Surgery without consultation with the medical community, the Government has taken further ridiculous steps to alienate the closeted moderates in the Province. A small concession is being made in Human Rights legislation to finally include Sexual Orientation in the list of protected classes (which was ordered 11 years ago by the Supreme Court of Canada), but with regards to Gender Identity and Expression, we're being told, "Hey, this took 11 years, so you'll just have to wait your turn." (In other words, under current direction, it won't happen in my lifetime.) Plus, the Province is proposing legislation to sue criminals for the Health Care costs that result from crime, which violates the Canada Health Act, is probably unenforceable, and is completely oblivious to the fact that poverty is what drives many people to crime in the first place.

And then, we have Bill 44. A provision in Bill 44 would require teachers and schools to give out prior notice so that parents have the option to remove their children from class without penalty every time anything that might violate their religious beliefs or opinions on sexual orientation or sexuality is to be discussed. And the entity that is being used to enforce this? Alberta's Human Rights Commission.

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Disposable

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:30:00 -0500

It's not really "murder" if the victim is disposable.

That's the theme that keeps resurfacing when trans panic defenses are used to effectively stave off any chance of serious sentencing for the murder of a woman who happens to have a penis or a man who happens to have a vagina. We're supposed to accept that the victim was asking for it, or even maliciously deceiving people in such a way as to deserve the outcome.

In watching comments to the Angie Zapata murder trial (yes, I know she was the victim, but she also appears to be the person on trial), Zoe Brain observes:

It's not enough that the killer go free: the victim's family must pay compensation, and the victim "charged posthumously."

This is a paraphrase of some comments being made at one of many locations where the trial -- said to be the first in North America to test hate crimes law protections of transgender people -- is being reported.

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Alberta Finance Minister: "I Didn't Know We Covered That"

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:00:00 -0500

When Finance Minister Iris Evans discussed the Province's decision to delist Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS) on the day after the budget was handed down, she said, "I didn't even know we covered that." Reportedly, there was a look of hate in her eyes as she said it (I didn't see the report, but have heard this from many in the trans community who did), offset by that bright bubblegum pink power suit of hers.

Health Minister Ron Liepert has said that we were not targeted for "moral" (as defined by conservative Christians) reasons. And yet in a budget where spending was increased, and where the ministries reportedly went through everything line-by-line with the notable casualties in health funding being essentially chiropractic and GRS coverage, even our detractors see through that statement. Also notable was the fact that the cut was made without consulting with the Province's lead GID specialist, in order to be aware of any negative ramifications, learn of any concerns there might be about how it affects our community -- he'd been left completely unaware of what was to come.

The Conservatives later said that the combined total cut from chiropractic and GRS coverage was being used to provide a facility and/or services for seniors, a disadvantaged portion of our society (that they also chose to cut drug benefits for). Now, I'm not the kind of person who likes to argue who is most marginalized, and certainly support programs for seniors (and strongly oppose their drug cuts), but to make it sound like we're a privileged and affluent subset of society that doesn't need medical care support is absurd.

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Ruthie Johnson Is Confuzzled

mercedes@bilerico.com (Mercedes Allen) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:30:00 -0500

Ruthie Johnson seems to be a little confuzzled. Back on April 3rd, when asked about equal rights for gay and lesbian people, she remarked, "If someone comes to work dressed in drag, they should be able to fire them."

Now, it's not unusual for LGBT-unaware people to conflate sexual orientation with gender expression, although it does show a serious lack of understanding when coming from a public official. But on top of that, in clarifying her remarks, she says she was speaking only about dress codes, and said, "I have not discriminated against anyone."

This should probably concern the people of Idaho, especially because she's been reconfirmed to the Commission on Human Rights.

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