The
Queens Throne by Marisa Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
Tennessee Vals Newsletter
January 2000
Upcoming Group Meetings
In This Issue:
The
Queens Throne by Marisa Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
Well, if you are reading this, it means you made it to the other side and survived the End of the World. We have now entered a new centennial period and have only 11 more months until the end of the millennium. Of course, that means we now have to experience a revival of 80s music. We will all have to wait and see if it includes nostalgia for the Solid Gold Dancers.
With that in mind, regardless of your own political views, it is worth remembering that we will elect a successor to the National Party Dude in the year 2000. Despite the popular myth that there are never any choices in American elections, we always have plenty. In 1996, there were 21 different candidates in the November general election nationwide, 10 of which were on the ballot in Tennessee. This year, it is our duty, as both citizens and oppressed people, to educate ourselves about the candidates and participate in the system. So, in the public interest, I figured I would help you a bit by informing you of your choices. For those who are Democrats, there may or may not be Warren "You're So Vain" Beatty of California; former Senator Bill "I'm Not as Boring as Al Gore" Bradley of New Jersey; Vice President Al "I'm Not as Boring as Bill Bradley" Gore of Tennessee; Reverend Charles "The Dog Breeder" Doty of Oklahoma; Elvis Club President Michael Tracy Miller of Florida; and Cybill "If I Can Handle Bruce Willis, Saddam Hussein Will Be a Breeze" Shepard of Tennessee. On the Republican side, the impact of money has already forced out four candidates: former Governor Lamar "Lamar!" Alexander of Tennessee; Elizabeth "Don't Call Me Liddy" Dole; U.S. Representative John "Aggressive but Ingratiating" Kasich of Ohio; and former Vice President Dan "Hees Noe Intellectuale Pipsqueek" Quayle of Indiana. Fortunately, Republicans still have plenty of choices: Gary "The First Amendment is a Satanic Plot" Bauer of Texas; Governor George "Dubbayuh" Bush of Texas; Lawrence James "Let's Fry All the Criminals" Clark of North Carolina; magazine publisher Steve "I'm Not Trying to Buy This Election" Forbes of New York; Senator Orrin "Longest of the Long Shots" Hatch of Utah; Alan "A Black Conservative is Not an Oxymoron" Keyes of Maryland; and Senator John "Bob Dole Will Vote for me Now that Liddy has Dropped Out" McCain of Arizona.
Of course, your choices are not limited to the two major parties. There are still plenty of other options, and as former Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs said: It is better to vote for that which you want and not get it, than to vote for that which you don't want and get it. The Reform Party has four potential candidates: Political Pundit Pat "The Cultural Warrior" Buchanan of D.C.; Businessman Ross "I'm All Ears Except When I'm Talking" Perot of Texas; Real Estate Developer Donald "The Donald" Trump of New York; and maybe even former Governor Lowell "I Can't Believe I'm In the Same Party With Those Three" Weicker of Connecticut.
Ahh, but that's not all. There are at least four other parties with announced candidates at the present time. The Libertarian Party has both Harry "First Alaska, Then the World!" Browne and Larry "I'm Running for Personal Growth" Hines of California. The Green Party has Stephen "The Guru" Gaskin of Tennessee and Ralph "The Raider" Nader of Michigan. The U.S. Taxpayers Party has Senator Bob "The Liberals Have Taken Over the Republican Party" Smith of New Hampshire. The Natural Law Party has John "Let's All Meditate" Hagelin. There are five additional candidates with no party affiliation: Robert William "I Have Lived Long" Gottier of California; Al "I Have Two Children Who Are Unknown to Me" Hamburg of Wyoming; Leslie "No Taxes" Lummis of Guam; Michael "Agent for Jesus" Mannichewitz of New York; and former 2nd Grade President Randy "I'm Not Overloaded Right Now" Owens of Virginia. After looking at this list, I am especially sorry that my number one choice, Senator John "Blutto" Blutarsky has chosen not to run this year, but When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around. Hopefully, you can find someone you like and will support their campaign. That way we can be assured that those we elect will be aware of the concerns of transgendered people.
Whatever you do, however, get involved by voting, stuffing envelopes, donating money, or just picking up the phone on behalf of someone you support. You owe it to yourself to stand up and be counted this election year. The people we elect across the country, for both President and Congress, will be responsible for the policies, like the blatantly unconstitutional "Defense of Marraige Act" or the hypocritical "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which did nothing to protect the life of Barry Winchell at Fort Campbell. They will write our laws and select the federal judges who can extend equality to all, or deny it to all.
Shifting topics a bit...I had a rather unusual experience in early December. On the morning of our Banquet, I made a quick trip to Outloud. When I got there, I discovered the front door had been smashed in and there was glass all over the floor. Another person arrived about a minute after me, so she called the police to report the incident. Once the officer arrived and determined there was nobody inside, I had to fill out a crime report while the officer tried to reach the owner by phone. While it may have been a hate crime, one person there speculated it may have just been the work of a former employee. She said that several had been fired recently because of theft. If it was a hate crime, it shows how far we all have to go in overcoming ingrained prejudice. But if it was simply an act of vandalism by a disgruntled employee, it shows that GLBT people can be just as stupid as everyone else, therefore the myth that we are different somehow just does not hold.
The banquet itself was a lot of fun. The keynote speech by Dr. Bill Turner was inspiring, and all three award recip- ients seemed genuinely moved by their honors. I hope that we can make the next banquet an even bigger and better affair. Be sure to mark your calendars for December 9. After all, it will be our last meeting of the 20th Century!
Left of Center by Pamela DeGroff
By now, everyone has read at least one "year in review" column or article. Depending on your reading habits, you've probably seen more than one. I'm going to do something different with this first installment of "Left Of Center" for the new year/century/ millennium. This is a "Year In Preview" column.
Before you think I've tripped over my high heels one too many times, I'd like to clarify that I do not believe I can forecast the future. No, let's leave that up to the journalistic geniuses at the "National Enquirer" and to the Psychic Friends Network. And, even though I finally have a membership in the Beer Of The Month Club, I am writing this with a clear head.
I feel compelled to do this for two reasons. First of all, there are a lot of changes in my personal life which are going to happen over the next year. Secondly, after some of the events I've been involved with just recently, I feel it's not too far off base to predict where some of this involve- ment will lead.
Let's talk about the second reason first. I plan to continue my activities with Soulforce. We've been told that in September, Soulforce is planning to go back to Lynchberg, VA, to actually build a home with the Habitat For Humanity organization. We raised over $22,000 on our end, and the rest of the money needed will come from churches in Lynchberg. Even Rev. Falwell's church is going to be involved. Volunteer physical labor is what makes this work. So expect to hear about my mutilating a body part or two with a power tool. And you know, anything Soulforce does attracts media attention.
There are other Soulforce actions that are just now in the planning stages. It's too early to be specific at this point, but Rev. Mel White eventually wants to go Rome (Italy, not Georgia, bubba), to confront some of the rhetoric coming from the Catholic Church. It's just an idea at this time, but if I know Rev. Mel.......
I truly expect the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition to finally get off the ground and make a real dent in the political realm. I don't know how many of you are aware of this organization, but it's being put together to do the work that GPAC and Rikki Anne Wilchins is supposed to be doing on our behalf. Anne Casebeer and Dawn Wilson of he Blue Grass Belles in Kentucky are two of the driving forces behind it.
There's been a lot of heated e-mails and online bickering over simple things such as the Mission Statement for the group, but things are starting to settle down, and some very talented people are working to put a strong organi- zation together. I might be going out on a limb by saying this, but I really think this will work.
The online service that I write for, TGForum, is planning a few changes for the new year. New features that will involve input from people outside of the Gender community are in the planning stages. I plan to keep my columns, "The Pamela Principle", and the music column, "Perpetual Change", up and going. With the music column, I keep finding more and more interesting music and musicians to write about. Why, there's enough stuff out there to do an entire book on transgendered representations in music...hey, now there's an idea.
On the local level, I expect to see the Vals explode this year. I don't mean that literarily because of some our members consumption of food and beverage, I'm speaking of our membership. There are very few meetings where at least one new person doesn't show up. Now, if we could only get everyone together in one room at the same time, we might have to move the meeting site. (Which has even been discussed, but who knows what the rest of the year will bring in this area?)
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict that there will be more political battles on both the individual state levels and in the halls of Congress. We're gaining head- way, but a lot still needs to be done. I also expect to see more nonsense from the Religious Reich. But, they know we're here, and that we know their tactics and we're taking names. I expect to see more confrontations on this front.
I hope to God I'm wrong about this next one, but I truly expect to see more hate crimes committed against people of gender. The media used to just lump these together with gay/lesbian bashing incidents. Now, because of some of the more unfortunate things that have happened recently (Traci Ranta; the attack at the Creating Change conference), safety concerns of the gender community are being brought to light by the national news organizations. Although this is the wrong kind of publicity, it does build awareness of our needs as people.
More and more businesses and corporations are starting to be gender inclusive with employee benefits and on the job issues. I really expect to see more of this.
In my personal life, it's kind of a good news/bad news situation. I write a lot about my daughter, Sara. She's 21 now, and recently informed me that I am to be a grand parent sometime this summer. God, what a stretch for the imagination-me, a grandma, (or whatever.) I just picture it about six or seven years from now. The kid will be in school, and teacher will ask, "Little Tommy, what did you bring for show and tell today?" "...Uh, I brought a hippie. Sometimes it's grandma, sometimes it's grandpa. I'll bet no one else has one!" This will be truly interesting.
The bad news concerns my mother. She's 84 years old and was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few months back. She's holding her own, but the chemo has been rough on someone her age. I'm mentally prepared for the worst, but also putting a lot of miles on my car to spend as much time with her as possible. It's my real prayer that she can see her great-grandchild, and that my 91 year old father holds out as well. The reason I am sharing this is because if I seem a little distracted and somewhat distant at times, you'll know why. I'm not pissed at anyone, just worried. I really need your prayers, and a good mechanic wouldn't hurt either.
Well, I think I've covered about everything for now. It will be interesting to see how close I was next year at this time. The one thing I can predict for sure, my shoe collection will grow for sure.
Happy Millennium, girlfriends.
A Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead by Julie Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
Earth Invaded by Disco Balls!!
We're All Doomed to Dance!!
On a doomsday trajectory, with the Earth in the bulls- eye, something evil is "out there" and it's pelting our planet with giant disco balls! Falling from the heavens, these mirror-covered thingys that made disco what it was are flying into our atmosphere and crashing to Earth, threatening life as we know it!!
Even worse, "they" seem to be seeking out us girls--yes, I mean crossdressers!!
Scoff if you will--I hear you scoffing, but you can't come in--but they are
after us make-up loving sisters. Pop-music's most famous femme, Boy George,
was almost killed in mid-December when one plunged to the stage during
a sound check. Thankfully, George escaped with just
bruises and a lost lash. This mascara-hating disco ball was apparently
pre-programed by hideous beings to destroy us all, starting with the 80's
greatest pop diva!
Why, oh why, do these disco balls from alien worlds hate us so intensely that they would target our biggest, most fabulous singer? OK, it could have something to do with that lousy Karma Chameleon song--but barring that, why oh why our Boy George? Leave George alone, you excessively reflective dance-inducing orbs from Studio 54 hell! Go back from whence you cameth!
Oh, the humanity! Somebody call Art Bell!!
Annie Comes To Town
The touring company of the Broadway musical Annie is coming to town in February (at TPAC). I have been to see quite a few shows there, ranging from the wonderful (Rent--twice) to the "I don't quite get it" (Will Rogers Follies) to the dreadful (Grease, starring noted songbirds Mackenzie Phillips and Adrian Zmed). Before I plunk down any money to see this one, I want one thing to happen: please, somebody, get that Annie girl a makeover.
Let's start with that hair: Annie can keep the curls, just let them grow out a little. But the color on that mop needs to be wrenched down a shade--or five. I have some intentionally attention-getting wig colors, but they're not for daytime wear. They're strictly Saturday-night club-hopping hair.
Take her to Cato or Dillards. That poor child only has one outfit. Ginger Grant was stranded on Gilligan's Islandfor three seasons and still had more clothes.
Next time she's in New York, have her run over and see Maury Povich. He does makeovers on his show every other day. (On alternate days, Maury sends unruly kids to boot camp. Hey, now that's an idea.) Or have her come see me; I'll lend her some hair and a couple of outfits for her Nashville stay. OK, maybe not the leather number, but certainly I have something she can wear.
Not to confuse musicals, but---drumroll please--- Annie, Get Your Makeover.
Tell Me What Part I'm Missing Here
The Pentagon is now doing spot-checks of military bases to make sure the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is being followed.
The President has finally admitted the policy failed. Of course, he admitted it a week after his wife said it was a sucky idea to start with. Presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley both have said the policy should be done away with entirely and queer folks of all types should serve openly. The Pentagon's leaders, naturally, think this is a horrible idea.
Here's the part of the story I'm missing: Everybody knows gay people serve in the military. Everybody knows gay people have always served in the military. It's not exactly a secret or little-known fact.
So why is it important that no one speak those three little words? By someone not saying "I am gay", does that make him or her un-gay? The guy in the unit they all think is gay is OK as long as he doesn't say he is, even if everyone knows he is, but he doesn't say he is. (A flow chart is being drawn up right now to help us follow this logic.)
I realize denial can be is a powerful thing, perhaps even useful at times, but denying the obvious just makes you look foolish.
Let's take the military's love of the "don't ask, don't tell" idea and apply it to real life. It's really quite a simple premise: if you simply don't admit to something being true, it's not.
I'd love to be able to squeeze into a juniors 5/6 dress, but I'm a bit larger than that. But if I refused to concede that I'm bigger than a 5-6, theoretically, I would be a 5/6. Next time I run into Al Bundy at the shoe store I'm simply going to say to him, "Al, put those size nine pumps away. I never said I was a 9." Voilia! Suddenly, I'm a 4!
Hey! I like this denial premise!
I never said that my favorite old blonde wig was looking ratty, so it must look as good as the day I bought it. Nobody ever said I looked like hell in mauve stripes, so it must not be true.
I've never conceded that I'm tone deaf, so book me for a one-woman concert in Madison Square Garden.
If you happen to run into me some Saturday night, and I'm wearing a size 5/6 mauve-striped Annie dress, with size 4 pumps, a deeply-fried ratty five-year-old blonde wig and singing The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow, don't give me any shit about it. I'm just following the military's policy.
...Not Too Blonde by Holly D. Storm hollytenntv@hotmail.com
My name is Holly Storm and I've been wanting to
contribute to the Vals in some way since I became a member months ago. I
believe people should contribute in some way to help advance this little
(but ever growing) community of ours, whether it's in a literary sense or
in some other form. Later on, I'll probably receive this column back, marked
and graded in red ink, so please be merciful on my grammar.
Now, I'm no therapist; I couldn't even play one on TV. But, we all need to vent our feelings in our own way. I'll try to relieve some of my own anxieties by writing about the things that I feel strongly about in and around the transgendered community. The other Val writers run the gamut of topics from sports to tawdry dates. In columns to come, I'll probably just put my two cents worth in about current events, how I'm feeling, or some juicy fashion tidbits. Perhaps I can raise important topics for discussion. In this first column, I'd like to address the speech and rhetoric from commentators of the far right.
While working at a project site in Alabama, I was teamed up with a co-worker to perform tests in and around Huntsville. I've worked with this particular individual quite often in the past and we would often use his privately owned vehicle. We'd listen to the radio in order to break up the monotonous tasks of the day. This co-worker (let me refer to him as, Ummm, I don't know, how about Mussolini) insisted on listening to conservative radio talk shows, like Rush Limbaugh and that Dr. Laura chick to name a few. I am a very soft spoken person and remain for the most part reserved with my opinions. But, there are particular things that really upset and tick me off like intolerant, narrow people (well, Rush isn't exactly all that narrow). These conservative radio hosts did hit a bad chord with me. They often encourage "homosexuals" and "those weird crossdressers" to get back in the closet where they belong, and to take all of those other "liberals" with them. Their commentaries obviously do have an agenda. I believe they are trying to close the closet door on you and me. They are trying to gain political clout from the radical right in order to turn the key. I feel the progressiveness of the current government and the overall growing social acceptance of minority groups like us will eventually prevail, much like the civil rights movement in the ‘60's. But as you can see, the African American community is still having problems with discrimination and equal rights despite the laws that were enacted to prevent this. I feel that our time is due, soon!
Geez, talk about mean spirited people! After listening to their rhetoric, I became so befuddled as to why people want to think like this that I lowered my head in disgust. I know it's a free country and all, but somebody throw me a friggin‘ bone here! The negative feelings that I had after a day's work were so incredible. I was so angry because of their negative, discriminating speech. I just wanted to kick my door in and let the whole world know exactly how many profane words I knew, but I know this would not have been very ladylike. I eventually relaxed as my senses came down from a boil.
This was not a good environment for me to be in, so I started to walk around the vehicle (with my earplugs in). Mussolini kept that radio loud and kept saying "RUSH is so right man!". Mussolini refused to change the station and then my politeness went right out the window. I let Mussolini know how I felt about the constant daily bombardment off these repetitive, narrow minded, and cynical broadcasts. A dialogue began between Mussolini and me, (which was quite convenient, because he had to turn the radio off so we could hear each other.) Mussolini restated to me what the radio hosts so often mentioned in earlier broadcasts, that the homosexuals and transgendered community were trying to push their hidden agenda into to the public schools and convert our children. Talk about ridiculous!
We did have some very meaningful debates about the homosexual and transgendered communities, (he didn't know that I had first hand knowledge about these subjects, heh, heh, heh). Mussolini was quite adamant about his beliefs and he tried to justify the comments made by these ultraconservative radio hosts. He was trying to base his opposition to these lifestyles solely on his biblical beliefs, which was difficult for me to comprehend. We do not belong to the same religious faith and this may have contributed to my inability to understand his beliefs and values. Regardless of some persons faith, shouldn't typical religious values like "Love thy neighbor" and similar phases like that be followed. I won't mention cults, because they sometimes adhere to the phase "Eat thy neighbor". I'm not trying to knock anyone's religion, but is faith taking a particular religious text verbatim and not questioning its content? Please excuse my ignorance on this subject. I know religion is a powerful and strong felt thing for many people, but I just hated to see these commentators referring back to what they call "true Christian values" which were supposed to support their commentaries. Many of my friends have mentioned to me that they are religious and often feel isolated because their particular religion discourages this "deviant behavior". I think that must an awful feeling, to be isolated from something you feel so strongly about.
Sorry, I kind of got away from the subject at hand. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there is no one good reason or multitude of reasons to hate or discriminate against any person or group that have only good and harmless intentions. Now, I'm not too blonde not to notice that there are indeed mean people out there, so be careful girlfriends! And when I hear those conservative radio hosts, I think of them as just another ill-conceived form of entertainment like Professional Wrestling. Except I think wrestling has a bit more credibility--and then I quickly change the station.
Believe it or not, I have my second column in mind. But for columns to follow, I was thinking that it would be neat to include funny stories from other members. I would appreciate the submittal of any tales from the day in the life of a crossdresser. Send your comments and stories to me.
The TG Top Ten by Bonnie Brown
The Top Ten Best-Selling Transgendered Holiday Toys (from the home office in Trinidad, Colorado)
10. The Kenner Drag Race Enchanted Speedway.
9. Insert your own Tinky Winky joke here.
8. Furbee's Black Sleep Brother: Fembee!
7. Mr. Potato Head, Party Version: comes with Mrs. Potato Head's accessories.
6. New board game: Transvestial Pursuit.
5. G.I Skipper (If she was under your tree, don't ask, don't tell!)
4. New Phantom Menace item: Drag Bar Jar-Jar ("Who-sa, me-sa?")
3. The J. Edgar Hoover Paper Doll Punchout book.
2. Dennis Rodman's Courtside Wedding Chapel
...and the number one best selling transgendered toy...
1. Five O'Clock Shadow Barbie!
NEWS TRANS-missions news, media mentions, etc...
UPDATED 1/9/00: Winchell Murder Trial at Ft. Campbell, KY
A hearing was held in a military court at Fort Campbell in Kentucky on November 9 for Private Calvin Glover, who is charged with premeditated murder in the fatal July 5 baseball bat attack on Private First Class Barry Winchell. Winchell was believed to be gay by a number of his co-workers; many view Winchell's death as the first military gay-bashing murder since the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy went into effect, and the case spurred the Pentagon to issue clarified guidelines on the policy.
Glover's counsel asked for a change of venue for his court-martial on grounds of prejudicial publicity, but that motion was denied. Also denied was a request for a new "Article 32" hearing, a military procedure combining elements of civilian grand jury and preliminary hearings. Glover has yet either to enter a plea or to select who will decide his case: a military judge, a panel of five officers, or a panel of five including both officers and enlisted personnel. Glover's court-martial is scheduled for December 6.
source: PlanetOut 11/16/99 AOL Keyword: PlanetOut
Source: from The Tennessean 1/9/00
The beating death of a gay soldier here last summer proves that the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for homosexual personnel doesn't work and should be repealed, the victim's mother said yesterday. Pat Kuttles said that the 12 1/2-year sentence imposed yesterday on Spc. Justin fisher, the man she blames for provoking the murder of her son, Pfc. Barry Winchell, "is a travesty."
Fisher has sexual identity problems of his own, including a history of wearing women's underwear and a fascination with transvestites, according to testimony during his sentencing hearing yesterday. His mother testified that Fisher was often abused during his childhood by his demanding and alcoholic father.
Fisher, 26, admitted yesterday that he often "teased" Winchell, 21, about being gay.
But, he said, "I'm no better. Who do you think brought him to the gay bar (The Connection)? It was me."
Kutteles said after the sentencing hearing that she and her husband "don't understand why Fort Campbell's leaders granted such a lenient plea bargain to Spc. Fisher...While ultimately we hold Pvt. (Calvin) Glover and Spc. Fisher responsible for the death of our son, the Army and Pentagon must also bear some responsibility."
Kutteles, of Kansas City, Mo., blamed military leaders for "the four months of anti-gay harassment out son faced" at Fort Campbell before his death, and for the "excessive drinking" in the barracks that contributed to the attack on her sleeping son early last July 5.
She said her 21-year-old son, who "loved the Army," had nowhere to turn to stop the harassment or get help " because of the policy requiring homosexuals in the military to keep quiet about their sexual orientation...
Other soldiers testified last summer that Fisher started rumors about Winchell being gay, and that Winchell's immediate supervisors asked him about his sexual orientation, but did noting to stop other solders' harassment of him.
But the Army post's commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Robert Clark, decided to drop the most serious charges against Fisher and allowed him to plead guilty yesterday only to charges of obstructing justice, giving false statements and providing alcohol to a minor.
Prosecutors asked yesterday for a 20-year sentence for Fisher--the maximum possible on those charges--but a military judge, Col. Kenneth Pangurn, decided to sentence him to 14 years, and Fisher will wind up being sentenced to no more than 12 1/2 years, since that is the maximum recommended by Clark...
Fisher spoke in a matter-of-fact tone as he answered a series of questions from Pangurn yesterday morning about the night of July 4th and the early morning hours of July 5th...
Fisher said he played the soundtrack from the movie Psycho and "started teasing (Glover) about how does it feel to get your a.. kicked by a faggot," referring to Winchell, who was sleeping on a cot in a hallway.
He said Glover, who was making chopping motions with is baseball bat, said, "I ought to go out and f..k him up."
"I was like, go for it," Fisher told the judge.
He said Glover left the room, returned with the bat covered in blood and said, "Help me clean it up; it's your bat."
"I panicked and I got scared and I washed it off," Fisher said.
But Fisher wept when he took the witness stand yesterday afternoon to read a prepared statement and to apologize to Winchell's parents for the death of their son and to his former colleagues for "bringing discredit on the Army by my actions"...
Leaders of the Servicemembers Legal Defense network, a private agency that monitors problems with the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, expressed disappointment in the resolution of the charges against Fisher...
Sound More Feminine by James Earl Jones---NOT!
"I'm applying for sex reassignment surgery," Cameron Diaz announces to her stunned spouse halfway through the new film Being John Malkovich.
That's easy for her to say: She's a woman. Transsexuals typically want to change their voices as well as their bodies, and long medical experience shows it's far easier for a female-to-male transsexual to acquire a masculine-sounding voice than for a male-to-female transsexual to acquire a feminine-sounding voice.
But now, new therapeutic techniques are helping male-to-females to sound convincingly feminine - and without necessarily undergoing surgery on their vocal cords, a University of Washington speech therapist said at a San Francisco conference Friday.
For decades doctors have successfully lowered the pitch or frequency of female-to-male transsexuals' voices by giving them injections of male hormones. By contrast, female hormones do not raise the voice pitch of male-to-female transsexuals, or "transgendered persons" as many call themselves.
Consequently, many male-to-females have chosen to have their vocal cords surgically altered. Surgeons stretch the vocal cords in hopes of raising their frequency to a more female-like pitch.
Unfortunately, the results are sometimes terribly unconvincing, as if the surgeons had tried to make Barry White sound like Minnie Mouse.
Alternative, non-surgical techniques should also be considered, speech therapist Michelle Mordaunt, of the University of Washington, said Friday at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association at Moscone Center.
To successfully "pass" as women, male-to-female transsexuals can exploit the differences between male and female speaking styles, explained Mordaunt, who over the last three years has given speech therapy lessons to 10 transsexuals, nine of them male-to-females.
She cited numerous ways in which even a male-to-female transsexual cursed with low pitch could sound remarkably feminine. They include:
-Speaking over a wider range of frequencies than do men. Mordaunt explained that when a woman talks, her voice tends to range across a wider frequency band, from high to low, than do men's voices, which are usually more monotone. "Pitch variability is greater for women," said Mordaunt.
- Speaking at varying rates. Female speech tends to vary in speed, with slow patches followed by "short rushes of speech," Mordaunt said.
-Talking more "from the head" than "from the chest." When men speak, a higher percentage of air comes from their larger chest cavities, giving their voices more of a foghorn quality.
By contrast, Mordaunt said, women's speech tends to have a "lighter" sound because they generate more sounds using smaller body cavities, namely the upper portion of their "voice boxes" around the throat and head.
So she trains her male-to-female clients how to rely more on talking "from the head." "It's one of the best things for my clients, and it takes stress off their vocal cords," she said.
Women also tend to use characteristic gestures while speaking, Mordaunt noted. She advises her male-to-female clients how to deploy similar gestures, such as brushing one's hair backward or using her hands in an "animated but subtle" way.
Such gestures shouldn't be overdone, she cautions. "You shouldn't flip your hair backward 100 times a minute," she said with a laugh.
One of Mordaunt's success stories also spoke at the hour-and-a-half session titled "Voice Treatment for Transgender Clients: Clinical and Consumer Perspectives." Judy Osborne, a male-to-female transsexual in Seattle, gave a witty speech about her experiences as a man who became a woman -in voice as well as body.
source: San Francisco Examiner 11/20/99
So??? Are We In or Are We Out???
Elizabeth Birch, Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), publicly acknowledged that she favors adding 'transgender' and 'bisexual' to HRC's mission statement. HRC is the nation's largest Gay and Lesbian advocacy organization, and any change in their mission, a topic hotly debated by bi- and trans-activists for years, could signal an important shift in the organization's emphasis and constituency.
What effect her thoughts about trans-inclusion will have in persuading HRC's Board of Directors to amend the mission statement remains unknown. The Board passed a 1998 resolution acknowledging the bisexual and transgender communities as "friends and allies," but it stopped well short of acknowledging them as part of HRC's primary constituency.
Said David Smith, HRC Communications Director, "Many people on staff share Elizabeth's view on inclusion as do many people on our board. There is without question an ongoing discussion within the organization as HRC continues to grow and evolve."
GenderPAC's Riki Wilchins added, "Over the past five years we've developed from virtually no relationship to a firm and productive working relationship with HRC. We've taken some heat for this, and I don't doubt they've taken some heat for it. But GenderPAC believes that constructive interaction is the only way groups get to know each other, understand each other's concerns, and change. Good for Elizabeth Birch and her statement."
source: In Your Face, GenderPac 11/23/99
Boy Almost Beaned; Ball
Busted
Boy George, the flamboyant frontman of pop band Culture Club, was nearly killed when he was hit by a giant disco ball that plunged from the ceiling of a British concert hall. "It would have been both ironic and glamorous to be finished off by a four -foot glitter ball," he told the Sun tabloid today.
"But I have survived and I'm still here, although my back is aching like anything. It caught my ear, which is really sore as well."
Boy George, who is also a top dance DJ, was doing a sound check with the rest of the reformed 1980s band at the Bournemouth International Centre in southern England when the wire holding the 62-pound mirrored ball snapped.
Despite being treated for shock and severe bruising, he insisted on performing the show.
source: Reuters via Gain 12/16/99
Canadian Prisoner to Get Reassignment to New Prison and Gender
Corrections Canada's decision to let a transsexual, maximum security prisoner undergo sex-change surgery and complete her sentence in a women's prison is a major victory, say her supporters.
Others are worried about Synthia Kavanagh and her future cellmates.
Kavanagh, 37, has settled a human rights complaint against Corrections Canada. Under the terms of the confidential agreement, Kavanagh has had breast augmentation surgery and is awaiting further sex- reassignment surgery before being transferred to the British Columbia Correctional Facility for Women.
"This is a great victory for all transgender people, inside and outside the prison system," Kavanagh's attorney, Barbara Findlay, said in a statement.
Kavanagh, born Richard Chaperon and formerly known as Richard Kavanagh, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years for the 1987 hammer slaying of a transsexual prostitute in Toronto.
Kavanagh, who had already started hormone therapy when she was arrested, launched the complaint with the human rights commission panel because Corrections Canada refused to send her to a women's prison, refused her sex-change surgery and, until recently, refused her hormone therapy.
Lee Lakeman of Vancouver's Rape Relief and Women's Shelter said the case raised several questions.
She said she had concerns about the transfer of a convicted murderer, who was housed until recently in a maximum- security male prison, to a women's facility.
"It's certainly clear to me that if I were in a male prison, I would be willing to transform into pretty much anything to get out of there," she said.
The agreement with Kavanagh may set a precedent for 11 other prisoners who have asked for sex-change operations and hormone-replacement therapy. Three of the 11 have lodged formal complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Corrections officials have said inmates in women's prisons must have female genitalia.
Findlay said her client was "routinely taunted, harassed and sexually assaulted by the male prisoners" at the Kent prison, east of Vancouver. Kavanagh was eventually put in isolation.
While at Millhaven penitentiary in 1991, Kavanagh was taken to a hospital after trying to sever his penis with a knife...
The settlement follows four recent human rights decisions that upheld the right of transsexuals to choose their gender identity, two in British Columbia and two in Quebec.
According to the terms of the settlement, Corrections Canada will work with the human rights commission to develop a policy for the treatment of transgender prisoners...
source: Miami Herald 11/23/99
Details on March on DC in March 2000 Washington, DC -- March or rally?
That's been a key question about the Millennium March on Washington for Equality, the 4th national march for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights scheduled for Sunday, April 30, 2000. Now it's official.
Like past marches, the Millennium March will feature both a civil rights march through the streets of Washington, DC and a massive Rally on the National Mall.
"An actual civil rights march through the streets of Washington, DC has been an integral part of every previous LGBT national march and the Millennium March will follow in this tradition," Malcolm Lazin and Dianne Hardy-Garcia, co-executive directors of the event, announced this week.
During the 1993 March on Washington, many marchers waited more than five hours to march and some at the end of the march arrived at the Rally as it was closing, due to the size of the crowd and the length of the march route.
"We have worked with DC officials and representatives of the US Parks Department to devise a shorter and more direct route to the March," said Duane Cramer, a Co-Chair of the March and a member of the MMOW board of directors. "The new route will allow more than one million GLBT people along with our friends, families and allies to participate in both the March itself and the Rally on the Mall," Cramer added.
The March is scheduled to begin at 11 AM on April 30, 2000, and the procession will be led by state, regional and national GLBT leaders and organizers.
Under the plans unveiled this week, marchers will gather at The Ellipse, located behind The White House between 15th and 17th Streets NW. The March will proceed down Constitution Avenue, turn right onto14th Street and then left onto the National Mall to 3rd Street, where the Main Stage will be located.
"The Rally event will be framed by the Washington Monument at one end of the Mall and the US Capitol building at the other," noted Cramer.
The Rally will feature an impressive array of GLBT leaders, grassroots organizers, unsung heroes of the GLBT justice movement, political leaders, and ntertainers, according to Lazin and Hardy-Garcia.
The Millennium March on Washington for Equality is the 4th national GLBT civil rights march and the first human rights march of the new millennium...
For more information on the March on Washington for Equality, visit the official website at www.mmow.org.
source: March on Washington for Equality press release 11/23/99
Former Stripper Elected to New Zealand Govt.; Monica Lewinski Future Senator?
A transsexual former male prostitute was elected to New Zealand's legislature on Saturday in the vote that swept a new Labor-led coalition into power.
Georgina Beyer, 42, was elected under the country's complex proportional representation system under which parties hand out the seats they've won in lections. She also looked likely to capture the Wairarapa electorate 40 miles north of Wellington.
"It's looking like we are there, but whatever comes we have done an extraordinarily good job," she told cheering supporters in the small rural town of Carterton, where she is mayor.
Beyer, born George Bertrand in 1957, was more than 2000 votes ahead of her National opponent.
Beyer, who is part Maori, will be one of a group of 18 Maori legislators in the 120-member Parliament, the largest representation by Maori this century. Six of the group were elected to Maori seats, specially set up last century to give Maori, New Zealand's first inhabitants, a voice in the ruling Parliament.
In her recently-published biography, Beyer described her life as a stripper and male prostitute in Wellington and Sydney before she underwent a full sex change operation.
Since then she has worked as an actor, publicist and mayor.
source: AP report via GAIN 11/27/99
Rusty is Flawless Thanks to Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman, his face for the moment more famous than his name, recalls a piece of advice a director once gave him. "When you work on a part, don't watch a movie. If you're going to play a gangster, don't go rent a movie about gangsters. Go find gangsters. . . . Don't copy someone's inter
pretation of something." "Because that's what we do as people," the actor said. "Form ourselves through somebody else's interpretation of the real thing."
It's a telling recollec tion for Hoffman, 32, for several reasons. For one, it articulates his actor's ethos of creating characters, if necessary, "from scratch"--as he did with Rusty, the drag queen who teaches paralyzed ex-cop Robert De Niro to sing in Joel Schumacher's Flawless, which opened last week. It's a character that may deliver him permanently from the ranks of character actors to . . . . well, character actor with clout.
But it's also one more unconventional part in a film career that includes Twister and Patch Adams but has become much more closely identified with the kind of roles he's played in Todd Solondz's Happiness or Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. Characters, in other words, who defy the cozy conformity people have come to expect from the movies.
And it's these characters that illustrate the other point of Hoffman's recollection: that as people, rightly or wrongly, we understand the world through how it's presented in the media. And anything that strays from that immediately is labeled bizarre. "Seriously," Hoffman said, the terrace window in his Manhattan hotel room swinging back and forth in the breeze. "The only part of mine that's really uncon- ventional is Rusty, 'cause he's obviously unconventional. The other guys I don't see that way--I think that's us wanting to make ourselves feel better. Because I think all of us are pretty damned unconventional. And that's what great writers, great films, great plays do--show us something we didn't really want to see. Or turn perceptions on their heads."
Hoffman, in a Carolina Softball T-shirt, looking
much leaner and even blonder than he does on screen, had just done four days
of interviews--many of the questions, not unexpectedly, dealing with this
perception of his supposedly dysfunctional characters. "I was talking to
someone the other day who asked me this kind of question," Hoffman said,
"and I looked at him and thought, 'Hey, buddy--you're normal?' The way he
looked and was talking, I'm thinking: Listen to the rhythms of the way you
talk. Do you know how high your voice sounds? The quirks you have? The way
that you look? Do you think if someone portrayed you accurately in a film,
people would be like, 'Hey, that guy--he's playing a leading man role!' Nobody's
like that. Humans aren't like that."
And humans aren't usually represented in the movies. "That's exactly what I'm saying. And, hopefully, that's what I try to do--with some artistic sense--because, again, we find out what humans are through film and TV and advertising, which is usually a very, very nice interpretation of what we are--usually a very polite, nice, commercial interpretation of our race."...
"So I proceeded to look at it some more and saw there were things to key into, but it was all . . . work. Practice. One of those kind of roles you're practicing all the time, so when the time comes, you're ready."
Practice. And research. "I did a lot of research about how this guy would act and talk. There's a lot of stuff out there about transgender guys. And women, too. And also some good documentaries about these fellas who work in the drag world--'Paris Is Burning' is a big one. There are a couple of guys in that who are transgender. They're not post-op, they're mostly doing the hormonal stuff, some augmentation, they still have their penises. So I watch them, and the thing I was most blown away by was how feminine they were. It's a real life choice; they work at it. When they talk about their
life, they don't talk about it in a sexual way; their dreams are not dreams of sex or anything of that nature. Their dreams are dreams of . . . .lifestyle; one guy wants to get married in a white dress, in a church. Their aspirations are kind of about a normal heterosexual lifestyle. Becoming women, being with men and having families.
"So it's not really about being a drag queen and being gay or anything like that. I had to really look at this and saw that I wasn't playing a man who was affected--I was playing a man who was that."
Hoffman agrees that in Rusty there's a streak of tragedy--not because he's gay, but because he can't find his place in the kind of world in which he wants to belong. The theatrical aspects of Rusty, Hoffman says, are being
overblown entirely. "I really don't find him that theatrical," the actor said. "I find him--compared to some people in the drag world, at least--I think he's really kind of subdued. He's not overly theatrical at all. I find him calm and serious. He has that one speech about theater and his childhood, and how he feels about this. But I see him as me in that way.
That he just loves the theater. I don't see it as anything other than that."
source: by John Anderson, Newsday, Los Angeles Times
NE County Negligent Protecting Teena
Earlier this week, a Nebraska District Judge found Richardson County, Nebraska, negligent in the death of Brandon Teena, whose murder sparked national outrage over discrimination against transgendered people.
District Court Judge Orville Coady ruled that the county was negligent in failing to provide protection after Brandon Teena reported being raped by two men on Christmas Day 1993. The same two men murdered Brandon Teena six days later and were convicted of the crime. Judge Coady also awarded damages of $17,360 to the Brandon Teena estate - a small sum, given the county's failure to do its job, Brandon Teena's pain and suffering as well as youth and loss of earning potential.
Kerry Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said the Brandon Teena tragedy demonstrates the need for strong civil rights laws that include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.
She also said the case poignantly points out the need to teach law enforcement officials how to recognize and respond to hate crimes.
"Had Richardson County done its job, Brandon Teena would in all probability be alive today. But Richardson County sent the message that transgendered people don't matter," Lobel said. "Transgendered people do matter, and we are going to remember this tragedy as we fight for sensitivity training, civil rights laws and the recognition that all of us, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, are cut from the same human cloth."
Brandon Teena's story, documented by the award-winning film Boys Don't Cry, helped create awareness in the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities and their allies about the oppression of transgendered people. Today, transgendered people increasingly are seen as an integral part of the GLBT movement for social justice.
"We are pleased that Richardson County finally will be held accountable for its failure to protect Brandon Teena," Lobel said. "However, to assess the value of Brandon Teena's life at $17,360 is a chilling judgment. To find the county negligent and then to set such a small judgment sends a sorry signal about the worth of a human life."
Editor's Note: Herbert Friedman, the lawyer representing Brandon's family, says they're considering an appeal as "the amount of the verdict was inadequate and trivializes this whole issue."
source: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force press release 12/9/99
Braves Pitcher is Quite the Bigot
Atlanta Braves Pitcher is Quite the Bigot Volatile Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, already no fan favorite in New York, insulted gays and foreigners in a tirade against the city in an interview published Thursday.
Rocker, 25, a wild-eyed and sometimes caustic reliever who was jeered and reportedly had batteries and bottles thrown at him by fans during the 1999 playoffs in New York, was quoted by Sports Illustrated as saying the ``Big Apple'' was a ``hectic and nerve-wracking'' place.
That sentiment was followed by a searing assault on the city and its diversity in a rambling discourse that ignited a public furor and prompted a sharp rebuke from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
``Imagine having to take the (No.) 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're (riding through) Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids,'' the magazine quoted Rocker as saying.
``The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners,'' he reportedly said. ``I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get into this country?''
Rocker later apologized, saying he went too far.
But an angry Giuliani said Rocker was way out of line. ''Something should be done about this so Mr. Rocker is held accountable for his vicious and bigoted remarks,'' Giuliani said.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the league is reviewing Rocker's statements and threatened ``appropriate action.''
source: Reuters via PlanetOut 12/27/99 AOL keyword "planetout"
RuPaul, Spokesmodel of the World--You Better Sell!
What's a dot-com to do to rise above all the hype that lingers over Internet start-ups like bad cologne?
Hire RuPaul, of course.
The high-profile drag queen touched down at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday afternoon to take her position as celebrity spokesperson for WebEx Inc., a San Jose, Calif. -based start-up that provides meeting services on the Web.
In Silicon Valley, where hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital are chasing too few good ideas, start-ups are known for brash, off-the-wall advertising to lure customers.
But this may be the first time an Internet start-up
has hired a 7-foot-tall drag queen to draw attention to itself.
WebEx said RuPaul will be the company's official celebrity spokesperson in a nationwide advertising campaign, which will consume the majority of the $25 million in venture capital financing it also announced on Tuesday.
The tagline for the WebEx ad campaign will be: "Meetings used to be a drag."
"It quite literally takes a seven-foot in heels -- towering glamazon to stand out in the crowd of Internet companies vying to capture consumer attention today," said David Thompson, head of marketing for WebEx....
source: Reuters via GAIN 12/8/99 website: www.webex.com/webex/site/default.htm
Welcome to Biology Class. Today, Scientists Explain Intersexed People
Melbourne scientists have made an international break- through: identifying a gene that is critical in ensuring male babies do not end up developing female sex organs.
The discovery will help explain why up to 60 Australian babies are born each year with ambiguous gender, requiring surgery and other treatment.
Dr Andrew Sinclair, head of the Royal Children's Hospital and University of Melbourne research team, has identified a critical gene responsible for normal testes development in male babies.
The absence or malfunctioning of the gene, DMRT1, causes genetically male children to be born with female sex organs. The findings are published today in the prestigious international science journal Nature.
About one child a month is identified at the Royal Children's Hospital as being an "intersex" or "sex reversed" patient, leaving their parents traumatised and having to decide what sex to bring the child up as.
Dr Sinclair said sexual ambiguity had crushing social and emotional effects on a child and implications for the family.
"Knowing the cause helps people to cope but it will still be a long time before we understand how all the genes and proteins come together to build something as complex as the testes," he said.
"But if you understand how the normal development process occurs, you have a better chance of dealing with any disease process because you can point exactly where it goes wrong."
Worldwide, an estimated one in 4000 live births is of indeterminate sex. Australia is on par with the rest of the world.
In contrast, juvenile diabetes prevalence is one in 1000 and one in 4000 babies are born with thyroid problems. The causes of most cases are malfunctioning genes or hormone production but in a third of cases the cause is unknown.
The Children's Hospital's Research Institute and University of Melbourne team have worked out that a male fetus only begins developing testes when the DMRT1 gene is "switched on" fully.
If the gene is absent or only switched on partially, the male fetus will develop ovaries rather than testes.
In genetically female children, the DMRT1 gene still needs to be switched on partially to allow the normal development of ovaries.
Dr Sinclair's team is also studying whether females who have two copies of the DMRT1 gene end up developing male sex organs.
Dr Sinclair said they had also found the gene in mice, chickens and alligators, indicating that the gene dates back at least 300million years.
"This suggests that DMRT1 is an ancient, critical sex-determining gene in all vertebrates."
Dr Sinclair's team gained international acclaim and the front cover of Nature in 1990 when they discovered the SRY gene, another sex-determining gene, which they now believe is of more recent origin than the DMRT1 gene.
The research provides insights into all organ develop ment and will help clinicians such as Professor George Werther explain to distressed parents why their child has no clear-cut gender.
Professor Werther, director of the hospital's Centre for Hormone Research, said after consultation between the family and doctors, recommendations were made as to whether the child would be best brought up as a girl or a boy...
source: The Age, Melbourne, Australia 12/9/99
Violence Against TG Community Has Our Leaders Alarmed
Trans activists across America say they are alarmed by a yearlong upswing of violent acts committed against transgendered people, claiming at least 12 lives in the past 12 months. The most recent victim was prominent transgender activist Tacy Raino Ranta of It's Time, Maryland!, who was slain in Baltimore during a crime spree that began the night of Nov. 22 and ran into the early hours of Nov. 23.
"It's like being in a horror movie, and all your friends around you are being murdered and no one notices," San Francisco transgender community historian Candice Brown Elliott told the Blade. "That's what our lives are like."
Using estimates on the number of transgendered people living in the country, as well as FBI statistics, Elliott, who teaches "Transhistory" at the Harvey Milk Institute, estimated that transgendered people living in America today have a 1 in 12 chance of being murdered in their lifetime.
Elliott also cited an unpublished study which claims that only 1 out of every 17 male-to-female transsexuals weds after transition, which she said indicates that there is a greater chance for them to be murdered than get married.
"We are considered disposable people in this society," observed Clare Howell, a transgendered activist living in Brooklyn.
"It's open season on transgenders in Texas," said Sarah DePalma, director of the Texas Gender Advocacy Infor- mation Network. DePalma lives in Houston, a city that saw murders of two transgendered people this past February.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, there had been another murder in Austin the previous month.
Murders of transgendered people have been reported in the states of California, Illinois, Georgia, Ohio, Florida, Massachusetts, and New Jersey in the last year alone.
Still, DePalma said, it is not fear of murder as much as fear of assault, especially rape, that haunts transgendered people everywhere. Elliott said, she herself has been raped three times, once at knifepoint, and has also been threatened with a gun.
"For every single death of a transgendered person, there are hundreds who were attacked, sexually assaulted, or beaten," said DePalma. As an openly transgendered radio talk show co-host, she said she has heard many tales of violence against transgendered people.
"I do not know of one single crime that has actually been reported to the police," she lamented. "The unfortunate result is that crimes against us only become public when one of us dies."
Activists said they believe that transgendered people do not generally report crimes committed against them because of widespread doubts that the justice system, especially the police, will treat them with respect or investigate potential crimes.
"We can't count on the police," said Tamlyn Boswell, who sits on the board of D.C.'s Transgender Education Association, Inc. "We really need a federal law to make the local police respond."
Many told the Blade that even the medical establishment has proven itself hostile to transgendered people. They cited the Tyra Hunter case, in 1995, when D.C. paramedics were accused of interrupting emergency medical treatment for Hunter after discovering the person they saw dressed as a woman had male genitals. Hunter's name has become synonymous with hostility in the medical community towards transgendered people.
"Paramedics are poorly trained on gender issues and often make unkind remarks," said DePalma. "Once the victims make it to the hospital, they are treated as ‘specimens' and become the butt of jokes."
As if loss of life, limb, and dignity were not grim enough prospects, many transgendered people also fear the accompanying loss of identity.
"There's a fear of erasure of one's identity in being murdered," explained Spencer Bergstedt, a transgendered lawyer living in Seattle. "Look at Brandon Teena and see how his identity has been erased, both in mainstream and queer media."
Male transsexual Jamison Green, a longtime activist in the San Francisco Bay area, noted, "Transsexual and transgendered people's identities are often obliterated by the media or by law enforcement personnel who simply
do not comprehend it, or who do not wish to dignify it." In such cases, Green said, "she" becomes "he" in an obituary or article and the use of traditional gender paradigms distorts crime reports.
Dana Preising, an attorney and D.C. liaison for Gender PAC, a New York-based national movement for gender civil rights, believes that hostile acts towards transgendered people, and hate crimes generally, are committed with the intention of eradicating the targeted group or behavior. Whenever she hears about the latest murder, Preising said, "I usually cry for a while. I internalize it and think to some extent they're coming after me. That's the purpose of a hate crime, to send a message to other members of the targeted community. It works well with me. I get the message."
Fear of murder and violence has clearly taken its toll on the transgendered community. Green says feelings of defensiveness, reclusion, shyness, nervousness, anxiety, paranoia, and "a general reticence about interacting with others" are not uncommon.
Most seem to agree that male-to-female transgendered people have the most to fear. Prominent transgender activist Jessica Xavier estimated that two-thirds of male-to-female transgendered people have certain characteristics -- like big hands and feet, height, a deep voice, and certain facial featuresthat make it very difficult for them to "pass" as female. Others noted that, while they were transitioning and going through hormone treatments that gave them characteristics of both sexes, they experienced quite a bit of negative attention.
In order to avoid harassment and potential violence, Tamlyn Boswell opted to have plastic surgery, a step she said she would not otherwise have taken.
"The primary motivation behind the facial surgery was more about fear than it was about self-gratification," she said, "because those of us that don't pass are the ones that are generally singled out to be attacked or murdered."
Transgendered people are often saddened when they find that certain segments of the Gay community, with whom they are so often identified, most notably while they are being assaulted ("faggot," "queer," and "dyke" are commonly heard during such attacks, activists said), are not particularly sympathetic or supportive.
"Some of the most strident hostility we face comes from the Gay community," said Howell, who said she is particularly irritated that the Gay media does not cover transgender issues.
Activists like Gender PAC executive director Riki Wilchins would like to see not only Gay people, but everyone who deviates from their prescribed gender roles, recognize that hostile responses toward transgendered people hurt everyone.
While acknowledging that transgendered people "are the ones most often on the anvil of oppression," Wilchins was quick to assert, "I don't think what happens to us is unique. Everyone is afraid when they cross gender lines. All of us cross those lines sometimes, and all of us get shit for it. Trans people are just the most egregious example."
source: by Nick Napolitano The Blade 12/10/99
Vermont Supreme Court Say Same Sex Couples Have the Right to Marry
The Vermont Supreme Court handed down a monumental decision today, ruling that that same-sex couples must be offered the same "benefits" and "protections" that married heterosexual couples now receive. In its ruling, the court directed the Vermont Legislature to decide whether these benefits will come through traditional marriage or through a similar arrangement such as domestic partnerships. Today's historic victory assures that same-sex couples in Vermont will receive the legal rights and protections they deserve. It also continues the trend towards offering equal benefits and protections to gay and lesbian couples....
According to the court justices: "We hold that the state is constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law...."
The court also ruled that the state legislature will have the final say in how these benefits will be administered. The court ordered the legislature to act in a timely manner, which leaves the possibility of the legislature taking up the issue in the next session.
The impact of this decision on the nation is still unclear and much will depend on whether or not the Vermont Legislature approves marriage or a separately constructed system, says HRC...
The Vermont case is part of a fast-growing trend where same-sex relationships are receiving legal recognition and equal benefits. Earlier this month the Hawaii Supreme Court dropped a case -- following a divisive referendum in November -- that would have declared same-sex marriages constitutional. While the ruling was a blow to efforts to bring legalized same-sex marriage to Hawaii, the court found that the state has no legitimate reason for excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage.
source: HRC press release 12/20/99
MOVIES: The Best of 1999
A number of TG-themed movies are racking up the awards in film critics' Best of 1999 lists:
All About My Mother
The films of Spanish director Pedro Aldomavar have always featured very strong women, and very often transgendered women. This film tells the story of a Madrid nurse Manuela (Cecilia Roth) who, upon the surprise death of her son, fulfill's the boy's wish of contacting his long lost father. The father now is a transsexual named Lola. She meets Lola's former roommate, trannie La Agrado (showstopper Antonia San Juan), who hasn't seen Lola either in quite some time.
Among the critics awards so far:
Time magazine's Best Film of 1999
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Foreign Film
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Foreign Film
Toronto Film Critics Association: Best Actress, runner up, Cecilia Roth
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Foreign Film
Golden Globe Nominee: Best Foreign Film
-website: www.spe.sony.com/classics/allabout mymother/
Boys Don't Cry
This movie drama about the life and death of Brandon Teena is earning rave reviews for the film, director, and it's star Hilary Swank. Her performance as real-life FtoM crossdresser Brandon is making her the current front-runner in the Oscar race.
Among the critics awards so far:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle, the Toronto Film Critics Association have all named 25-year-old Swank as the best actress of 1999, along with a Golden Globe nomination in that category.
The L.A. film critics group also named Swank's co-star (who play's Brandon's love interest) Chlöe Sevigny as best supporting actress; also, a Golden Globe nominee in the supporting actress category. -jp
QUICK HITS: Media Mentions
Time / December 13, 1999
Time magazine does not have a clue as to 1) what gender means or 2) who Calpernia Addams is . Witness this misguided except from their article on the Barry Winchell murder...
"...A native of Kansas City, Mo., Winchell enlisted in 1997 and dreamed of becoming an Army helicopter pilot. But the 21-year-old also had a recurring nightmare: that someone would find out he was gay and end his Army career. Winchell had a girlfriend during basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., but after transferring to Fort Campbell in May 1998, he began spending time with a man who performed as a woman at a Nashville, Tenn., nightclub. He acknowledged to the wife of a fellow soldier that he was gay.
One night last March, Winchell and his barracks roommate, Specialist Justin Fisher, drove to Nashville and visited the Connection, a mostly gay dance club. It was there that Winchell met Cal ("Calpernia") Addams, an ex-Navy medic and female impersonator. Winchell's regular trips to the club led soldiers in his unit to whisper about the "drag queen" he was dating. The talk depressed Winchell. He had struggled in school with dyslexia, and he was succeeding at something for the first time in the Army. He wanted to make it his career..."
News of the Weird / November 14, 1999
"Australian biologist mark Norman of James Cook University reported in July that small male cuttlefish that ordinarily are too puny to attract females have the ability to change colors and shape so as to resemble females. According to a report in New Scientist magazine, this allow them to swim harmlessly with male-female pairs and then to steal the female as soon as the male is distracted."
USA Today / November 30, 1999
"...Four-time Olympic diving gold medalist Greg Louganis, having jumped out of the swimming pool and into the theater world, stars in the musical comedy Nunsense A-Men at the Hollywood (Fla.) Playhouse. He's getting rave reviews for his role as Sister Robert Ann, a streetwise nun who always wanted to be a star..."