Upcoming
Group Meetings
Tennessee Vals
Newsletter February 2001
Upcoming
Group Meetings
In This Issue:
Vals Special Events:
Saturday April 7
Pride Ball, The
Parthenon
Saturday April 28 Night in White 2001, Loews Vanderbilt Plaza
The Queens Throne by Marisa
Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
Now that we are in the dead of winter, there is an interesting phenomenon that seems to occur this particular time of each year. Every group tends to receive many new inquiries and a rise in meeting attendance. With better technology available, many groups are able to produce better and more elaborate newsletters and web sites (although many individual writers can still be quite inarticulate....). Among the many features are more and better quality photographs of group members showing of their finest evening gowns or sexiest swimsuits. Every person makes some effort to look their best. What I seem to be seeing more often, however, are readers of those newsletters and sites who are now using the success of others at looking good as their latest excuse of not coming out an joining a group. One constant for many is the ability to find new excuses, and the concern that they will not fit in because of looks is one I am hearing more and more. The claim that everyone in a group looks gorgeous is preposterous, but even if it was not, it is not relevant. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but looking good is not the same thing as being well adjusted. What matters most is how well a person interacts with others. In reading through dozens of newsletters over the years, I can only recall a single criticism made of an individual based on looks, and the writer of that was subsequently ripped apart by me and others for her superficiality. The criticisms are usually based on personality. And yet, people still believe looks are the sole criterion for judging a person within the transgender community.
If a person wishes to look good, they need to Mellow Down Easy and begin interacting with others who project an image they like. That means getting out the door and joining a group. There is no place better to learn how to look good than to talk to a person face to face and ask for tips. I know from my own personal experience that looking good, like getting to Carnegie Hall, takes practice, practice, practice. Claiming you cannot fit in ensures that you will never do so. I hope as you look at all the wonderful photos of people in this newsletter or others, you will decide that you wish to meet certain people in order to learn from them-and are actually willing to walk out the door. Besides, with the nights still long, it is one of the easiest times to get out and build up your confidence. Otherwise, make your excuses to yourself.
As for me, I stopped making excuses over 11 years ago. Right after a trip to Boston, I returned to Washington (where I was living at the time) and just decided the time was right to stop living in a fantasy world. Since I was socializing with friends and relatives on that particular trip to Boston, I waited until I got back to D.C. I have visited Boston one other time since then, and that was for a wedding. So it was with great anticipation that I returned to the city which laid out its streets according to the cows' meanderings. I did not worry about whether or not I would look acceptable or would fit in-I just went. Of course, when a Yankee fan attends college in the heart of Red Sox territory, you tend to be bold anyway.
Speaking of Boston, I was back there the first weekend in January. I was pretty busy most of the time taking care of business and just doing a little personal wandering around. When I lived there, I did almost no sightseeing, and on my previous trips back, I have tended to be there for specific reasons (as I was this time), so I forced myself to play tourist. And I really had a lot of fun doing it. One thing I made a point of doing was eating lunch on Friday at the Bull and Finch Pub (84 Beacon Street, across from the Public Garden). It is supposed to be the place "where everybody knows your name," but nobody screamed out my name when I walked in the door. Still, it was a comfortable little place with a friendly waitstaff (not at all like Carla Tortelli....).
I did intend to get out Friday night,
but a snowstorm kept me in. Fortunately, New Englanders are experienced in
clearing the roads, so I was able to get out on Saturday. I was picked up
at my hotel by Sàra Herwig who drove me to Waltham to see the IFGE
headquarters. I had been in Waltham many times before, but this was my first
visit to their facility. Sàra and I were met there by Yvonne Cook-Riley
and Denise Leclair. Since it was Saturday night, they were officially closed,
but they were kind enough to open the offices to show them to me. It covers
two floors although the library and research material had recently been
sent to Chicago to the new Rikki Swin Institute,
which I will visit in March. The four of us then went around the corner to
a quaint little Italian restaurant for dinner. After that, Denise and I went
back into Boston to visit Jacques, the area's main trans club (79
Broadway at Piedmont, 617-426-8902). They have one show every night except
Monday. The show that night had five performers doing songs by an array of
artists like Donna Summer, Shania Twain, Britney Spears (well, sort of....),
Donna Summer, Dolly Parton, Witless Houston, and Donna Summer. The thing
that surprised me the most about it was how early it closed: Last Dance and
Last Call were at midnight! I am just not used to a place closing so early.
Many of the patrons did go to other clubs, but I was quite tired from all
my activities over the weekend, and Denise had to drive back to central
Massachusetts, so we called it a night and I was back in bed by 12:30.
As you can see, no matter where you are, there are people, groups and facilities available to enjoy. Get out and experience whatever is near you. No more excuses.
Have a Happy Valentine's Day.
A
Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead
byJulie
Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
Stealing from The King: Larry King, that is
Larry King’s column in USA Today has always mesmerized me because it’s not really a column. It’s just a series of random thoughts strung together with these things: ……. Basically, he just seems to type whatever random thought pops into his head, regardless of whether it belongs or not. You want rambling? Well, just keep reading....
The Grammy Awards, known for being behind the times and not, like, you know, in touch with current musical tastes, have chosen to "hip" themselves up this year by saluting our friend Eminem, giving him four nominations including Album of the Year. In a surprising bit of news, an audit by the Recording Institute of America discovered that Eminem was actually the only artist who issued a CD album last year. Ahhh, that explains it………….. I live for the post-holiday sales. I was able to buy three gorgeous gowns for less than a hundred bucks total. Just three weeks earlier, they were each priced over $150 apiece! If you can just hold out until the inevitable mark-downs, you can make off with a lot of loot for hardly any cash. When you’re buying for two, it helps.…………..Isn’t color television just the best thing since black and white television?……....My annual Super Bowl Sunday tradition of completely avoiding the game proved to be quite successful this year. Last year, however, was a different story. Several Vals invited me to watch the game with them. I declined, citing my total lack of interest in the sport. I chose instead to go to one of my favorite restaurants and eat. I failed to take into consideration that, with Nashville in the Superbowl, the game would be everywhere. Sure enough, there it was blaring from big screen TV sets they’d hauled into the restaurant. Who’s at the bar watching? Three of Vals. …………How about that Eddie Murphy. He’s going to be big one day. You heard it here first……...Hello, is the caller there?…………..The film Southern Comfort made it’s debut last year at Southern Comfort 2000 in Atlanta. It’s a moving documentary that follows final days in the life of FTM Robert Eads, a familiar face to regulars at the SCC convention. Robert was dying of cancer and could not find a doctor who would treat him. The film shows his strained biological family relations and the loving people who made up his adoptive family. Southern Comfort was just chosen as Best Documentary at this year’s Sundance Independent Film Festival. Keep your eyes open for it to turn up either on television or tape………...I’d love a delicious bowl of vegetable beef soup right now………….Steve and Edie. Now there are two great entertainers!……...Hello, is the caller there?...……...Your dear columnist recently took to the stage to entertain the masses at The Cabaret here in NashVegas. Perhaps “entertain” and “masses” are not the right words to use, but the 15 lesbians who were there applauded politely when I was done. I hadn’t performed in forever, so I was quite nervous about the whole thing. Thankfully, my friends Mr. Screwdriver and Miss White Russian were on hand to offer moral support. I don’t know if you’ve ever done a drag show before, but it’s a wonderful excuse to wear those gowns you just had to have—but have no place to really wear them. While I’m sure I wasn’t the best performer there that evening, I didn’t fall off the stage, so I’ll mark it in the “+“ column……. Is there anyone more incomparable than singer/actress Rita Moreno? I bet not……..As I lie awake in my bed late at night, my restless mind ponders the many questions that have perplexed humankind for all of its existence: Why am I here? Who am I? What is my purpose? Trying to clear my mind and be soothed into slumber, I turn on the radio and listen to the funky hip-hop sounds of Destiny's Child, only to become vexed by the even greater question they raise--the question I MUST learn the answer to: Charlie, how yo' angels get down like that? I’m stumped………..That Frank Sinatra is one swingin’ cat! Ring-a-ding-ding!……….. Is the caller there??………….Was there ever a better hothead than Gale Gordon on The Lucy Show?…….Half-asleep the other morning, I grabbed a pair of jeans from my closet and threw them on to go to work. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew something wasn’t right about the way they were fitting. I thought I’d seriously put on some weight during the last few days since they fit quite snugly. It dawned on me that night, when I was undressing, that I’d worn a pair of my girl jeans to work. If you start seeing guys wearing bell bottoms again, thank me for re-starting the trend. They did make my butt look great, though...….Hello, Buffalo. You’re on the air!…….
My Closet by Leslie Louise DuPaix lldupaix@hotmail.com
Grieving and Other Things
Tom Golden is an LCSW who specializes in healing from loss and trauma, which includes grieving, and he wrote an interesting article on the process of “grieving” which appeared in “Transitions.” “Transitions” is a newsletter that is sent out by funeral homes to help clients understand the grieving process that accompanies the loss of a loved one. (“Transitions” is published by GW Publishing, PO Box 3428, Ogden UT 84409-1428).
He tells of retrieving a toy from a pond that his small child had thrown in there. To retrieve the toy he must reach deep down into the muck at the bottom of the pond and feel around. The dirty water does not allow him to see what is in the pond and even though he knows what he is looking for, he does not know what he will find. The experience is not pleasant. He compares this to what he calls “intentional and conscious grief rituals” where grieving persons will purposely connect with their grief, “ . . . putting our ‘arm’ into a space where we can’t see the ‘bottom’.” Examples of an intentional and conscious grief ritual would include looking at photos of the departed one, or visiting the gravesite. Things that could be avoided but are not, even though one knows that strong emotions will be triggered and one is not sure what the outcome will be. Through these rituals one becomes open to our parts that are difficult to deal with. “Vulnerable” is a word that comes to mind when we open ourselves up to the unknown because we are no longer in complete control. We move ourselves to a place where we can experience pain and thus “let it out” and start healing. And like feeling around in the muck at the bottom of a dirty pond, you never know what you will encounter.
“So why do this at all?” The article asks, “Why not avoid all of this unpleasantness and attempt to maintain a ‘happy’ mood? The reason is that by sticking our hands into the pond we are slowly diminishing the levels of grief that reside within. By confronting our pain we chip away at it and slowly bring ourselves to a place of transformation.” Tom counsels that it is good to take “samples of your grief on a regular basis . . . . .By doing regular conscious rituals we release the pressure from the unconscious parts and give ourselves a little more breathing room . . . . . Conscious grief rituals are not quick fix cures for grief, they are short term pressure releases with long term benefits.”
I am in Tom’s primary audience, those who are going through the grieving process after the death of a loved one. I am also a twin-spirited person and can see things from two perspectives. My second spirit (your faithful columnist) was also touched by all of this and I think it is relevant to our “T“ journey. I wondered why an article on grieving over the death of a loved one would resonate so with my second self. Without a lot of effort I thought of several things that I had been grieving over for a long time, but had not thought of the experience in terms of grieving.
When the adults in my early life told me that I was not a girl, that I was a boy and I should behave like one, then the adults in my life were no longer available to my female self, and my female self has grieved over that loss for a long time. When my male self attempted to deny his female self, she had yet another thing to grieve over, the loss of acknowledgement, support and protection by her own being. As I began to come to terms with my female self and become conscious of her, I grieved over “what never was“: a female childhood, a female present, socialization as a female and one hundred other things. The grief rituals of dressing and gender exploration, although briefly pleasurable would always end with a profound sadness that I could never put my finger on, and which I now know to have been grief over what I thought should have been, but never was and never would be. The pressure to grieve would build up unconsciously and become a need to sample the grief, first by bringing the loss to the conscious level by my grief rituals of reading, dreaming or dressing or writing in my T-journal, and then the emotional response of profound sadness and grieving over the loss of my loved one, my femme self and her losses.
The purpose of the grieving process is to slowly diminish the amount of grief we carry and bring us to a place of transformation and closer to healing. I do not think “healing” is the same for everyone. For some “transformation” can be taken quite literally and the healing involves transforming the physical person as well as the emotional person. For others healing does not include the physical but leads to what the psyche folks call “integration” which for a M2F transgender I would understand to be the inclusion of the femme self in one’s overall being, not as a separate entity but as a welcome and contributing part of the whole.
If I had to describe the feelings I associate with my “T” experience in a single word I would choose “longing.” Sometimes “desire” would have described the experience. Other times “depressing” and a lack of feeling would fit. Occasionally “happiness,” or “fulfillment” would seen to apply, but always the overwhelming feeling has been an intense longing for things to be different than they were. Sometimes a longing to be as I was told I should be and other times a longing to be as I thought I was or should have been. I was always puzzled at the high/low pattern when I would do what I see now were grief rituals. I was puzzled why I would persist in doing something that might have a momentary “high” but that I knew would always end up in sadness.
Understanding grief rituals and their function in healing and transformation of the person dealing with a profound loss would also seem to apply to a “T” person. So much of the “T” experience, it seems to me, is dealing with the near loss or death of part of you, if not in fact the most important part of you. That in turn would account for so much of the sadness and longing that comes with being “T” - and why we persist in repeating behaviors that seem to always end up making us feel sad, unworthy and all the rest. Now we can entertain the thought that this is all as it should be, that it is part of the healing process and that our silly little rituals are can be a healthy part of growing into a more complete person.
Left
of Center by Pamela DeGroff
Editor's Note: Rhonda White is the guest speaker at the TN Vals February meeting.
Rhonda White is a name that is familiar to most of the GLBT community here in Nashville. She is a past co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice, (LGCJ), has worked with Integrity of Middle Tennessee, and in May of 2000, was elected as the chair person of a new statewide organization, Equality Tennessee.
Originally
from Brownsville, Tennessee, Rhonda came to Nashville in 1984 to study at
Vanderbilt Divinity and Skarritt Graduate School. Her educational pursuits
also took her to Sweden for a year.
Rhonda's optimism and enthusiasm for Equality Tennessee is evident during any discussion concerning the new organization. "We really want to empower people right where they are," she emphasizes. "We will be teaching people how to have an impact in their own community on elected officials, community leaders, and the media for that area."
Equality Tennessee's first goal is to
develop a hate crimes registry. On July 1, 2000, Public Chapter No. 896,
the hate crimes bill, went into effect. For this law to have any real power,
however, people must first be aware of it's existence, and secondly, victims
must be willing to come forward.
According to Ms. White, the registry will be an important tool for the GLBT community. "It's to let people know what's really happening," she explained. "But if legislators don't know or believe that it's happening, if law enforcement officials don't know, or want anyone else to know that it's happening, and if the community doesn't realize that it's happening, then these things will continue. We want these things to stop. We also want the victims to get help."
Equality Tennessee also plans to develop a similar registry to document instances of discrimination in the work place, and in housing.
Equality Tennessee is seeking 501 (c) (3) status as a nonprofit organization. This will make it eligible to receive grants, and donations will be tax deductible. This is important for securing enough funding to eventually hire a full time executive director, and open an office here in Nashville.
To that end, fund raising efforts have already begun. There was a fund raiser in Knoxville this past December. There will be one in Nashville, tentatively scheduled for February, and Memphis will follow up in March.
Equality Tennessee is not even a year old yet, but it's the best opportunity the GLBT community has to grab the attention of our elected officials. "My vision for this organization," Rhonda said, "is to be a group that represents the entire state, that works not only collectively, but directly and indirectly within communities so we have the strongest voice possible for our issues."
For further information: Equality Tennessee P.O. Box 330965 Nashville, TN 37203-7507
news, media mentions, etc...
Possible Hate Crime in GA Investigated in Gay TG Attack
A gay man found brutally beaten on Jan. 7 has been upgraded to serious condition, while law enforcement officials continue their investigation into the assault.
Meanwhile, an Atlanta-based gay civil rights group has retained a lawyer to help the victim's family advocate for a complete investigation in the case, including the possibility that anti-gay hate could have been a motive in the attack.
Robert Martin, 29, was found severely beaten at an abandoned school in Ashburn, a small South Georgia town located near Interstate 75, about 30 miles east of Albany. Martin sometimes dressed as a woman, and family members have said he was wearing a woman's wig at the time of the attack.
At press time Tuesday, no arrests had been made in the case, according to staff in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Perry, Ga., office, which is leading the investigation.
Tom Davis, special agent in charge of the office, said last week that investigators have "no indication" the case is a hate crime, and several leads were being pursued. Davis could not be reached for comment at press time.
Georgia Equality, Inc., a gay rights group with members around the state, sent Field Director Christy Little to Ashburn last week to talk with Martin's family members and discuss the crime with local authorities.
Little met with Martin's mother, aunt, uncle and other relatives at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in nearby Albany, Ga., where Martin remains hospitalized.
Martin has "slightly improved" and been upgraded from critical to serious condition, according to a hospital spokesperson. She declined to give any further details, including whether Martin, who was in a coma following the attack, has regained consciousness.
After Little's meetings with family members and law enforcement officials, Georgia Equality has not taken a position on whether the beating was a hate crime, said Harry Knox, the group's executive director.
"There's no way to say at this point in the investigation," Knox said. "But we do feel good that we have been able to help his family advocate for everything to be done that can be done in the process of finding out what happened."
Georgia Equality has retained Kirby Woods, an attorney in nearby Cordele, Ga., to "advocate for the family" during the investigation and "help them monitor whether or not Robert Martin's rights are being fully protected," Knox said. Georgia Equality also helped provide transportation for Martin's family members visiting him at the Albany hospital, he said.
In addition to working to support the victim's family, GEI has also talked with law enforcement officials about the case, Knox said. Knox said he was assured by GBI leaders that "the hate crime angle as a possibility is being fully investigated."
GBI officials have refused to discuss other possible motives for the case, citing the ongoing investigation. But the abandoned school where Martin was found and authorities believe the attack took place is known as a hangout for drinking and drug use.
According to Knox, the GBI official he talked with "did not imply that Robert Martin was part of the drug activity, but he might have been a victim because of being in the proximity of where that was going on."
In discussions with Little from GEI, Martin's family expressed shock at the attack, Knox said. While they said Martin was sometimes teased by young Ashburn residents for being gay and dressing in female attire, people were generally tolerant and employed him in odd jobs in the community, Knox recounted.
Source: Southern Voice 01/18/01
UPDATE: Iowa's TG and Gay Protections Overturned
A judge overturned an executive order signed by Gov. Tom Vilsack in September 1999 that prohibited the state from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Polk County District Judge Glenn E. Pille wrote that Vilsack's order went beyond the protected categories described in state law. Pille issued his decision Dec. 7.
"The governor exceeded his authority … by purporting to modify the protected classes," Pille wrote. He said the order was "a violation of the separation of powers provisions in the constitution of Iowa."
"The question is not whether the (order) is fair or just, but whether legally, under our system of government and the separation of powers clause in our state constitution, the governor … is exercising powers properly belonging in the Legislature," he said.
Twenty-three Republican lawmakers and a former chief of the Iowa State Patrol sued Vilsack in July, saying the executive order went beyond the governor's constitutional authority.
"This is a separation of powers issue," state Sen. Steve King, one of the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press. "Whenever you start expanding rights to people based on their alleged behavior, then you've gone down a dangerous path."
The legislators who challenged Vilsack's order "believe they have a means for postponing the inevitable," said Jonathan Wilson, a lawyer for the governor. "But equality is heading their way. … It is an inexorable tide recognizing that all citizens have equality, guaranteed by the law."
Vilsack said in a statement he would consider an appeal following a careful review of the ruling. He said his administration would uphold a part of Iowa law providing "equal opportunity in state employment to all persons."
source: HRC press release 01/01
TG Advocate Receives Mayor's Human Rights Award
In public ceremonies to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the prestigious Mayor’s Human Rights Achievement Award for 2001 was presented to a Portland transgender rights advocate, Lori Buckwalter. Mayor Vera Katz, in personally presenting the award, cited Ms. Buckwalter’s work on the recent changes to Portland’s Civil Rights Ordinance to include gender identity protections, and her work for the rights and safety of all the citizens of Portland.
Lori Buckwalter has served as the Executive Director of It’s Time, Oregon!, as the co-chair of the Portland Sexual Minorities Roundtable, and as a public educator and advocate concerning gender identity and gender expression rights.
Lori responded to Mayor’s Katz’s recognition by stating, "I am deeply honored to receive this award on a day which honors the memory of Dr. King, whose dream inspires us still. I feel so fortunate to be a citizen of Portland, where leaders like Mayor Katz nurture all people’s hopes to be a respected part of this city’s future. I want to honor the courage of people in the transgender community, and of all those who strive to live their lives in dignity."
source: It's Time, Oregon! press release 01/15/01
Your Inch would be Angry too if Your Name was Hedwig
Congratulations, Julianne Moore. When the Sundance Film Festival kicks off next week, she will be honored at the Tribute to Independent Vision. We wouldn't begrudge the star of Boogie Nights and Magnolia a thing, but she'd better watch her back in the parking lot. For this year there will be another star on the slopes of Park City, Utah, who will no doubt consider herself worthy of the kudos. She's the fearless, delusional transsexual heroine of the rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and the fact that this unlikely entry has made it into the Dramatic Film competition means that Hedwig must be in fighting form.
It's an
unlikely entry because you just don't see many musicals at this relentlessly
arty independent film festival. But Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the
biopic of a whacked-out East German emigre with Courtney Love's disposition
and Farrah Fawcett's hairdo, seduced the selection committee. "It's burning
with originality and energy," says programmer Shari Frilot. Hedwig
always did. When it opened off-Broadway three years ago, critics raved about
Stephen Trask's songs, and although the show's writer and star, John Cameron
Mitchell, appeared nightly in drag (usually the fastest road to camp
marginalization), his hilarious, moving mock concert became a mainstream
theatrical phenomenon. "In the whole long, sorry history of rock musicals,"
declared Rolling Stone, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the first
one that truly rocks."
Killer Films and New Line Cinema joined to give it a chance on the screen. "We thought it would be a really cool low-budget movie," says New Line's president of production, Michael DeLuca. "John said his inspiration [for the movie] was Bob Fosse, especially All That Jazz, and that was 100% on the right track." With a safe-bet budget of $5 million, Mitchell, 37, was allowed to star, write the screenplay and make his directorial debut. "I was bored with acting," explains the theater veteran, "and I had a lot of strong ideas I didn't want to foist on someone else."
Last summer, after a stint learning his new craft at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab, Mitchell headed to Toronto and directed while wearing Hedwig's heels. ("It was like torture," he says.) He opened up the material by adding flashbacks of Hedwig's bleak Berlin childhood, her rocky romantic history and even her botched sex-change operation (which explains the "angry inch"). "We kept the dramatic structure of the show," says Mitchell, who also kept its heady themes (borrowed from Plato and Ibsen), as well as Trask's irresistible score of country, rock and '70s-style ballads. And Hedwig still bears a striking resemblance to a German baby sitter from Mitchell's Army-brat childhood. "She had so many dates!" recalls Mitchell, who later realized she was also a prostitute. "She was no beauty, but she had poise." Ditto his scrappy but innovative film. Hedwig could leave Sundance a winner, and not just in its heroine's own mind.
source: Time Magazine 01/15/01
UPDATE:The
Sundance Film Festival is proud to announce the winners of the Independent
Feature Film Competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival in Park City,
Utah.
The Documentary Grand Jury Prize was given to Southern Comfort, directed and produced by Kate Davis. (Southern Comfort, documenting the life of FTM Robert Eads and his final days with ovarian cancer, premiered at SCC last year.)
The Dramatic Audience Award winner was Hedwig and the Angry Inch, written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell and produced by Christine Vachon, Katie Roumel and Pamela Koffler.
The Dramatic Directing Award was presented to John Cameron Mitchell, director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
source: Sundance official website 01/28/01
Men aren't obsessed with breasts, beer and ball games, new research claims. Instead, they like and respect women - and nearly half would like to be one.
Forty-six per cent of men aged 18 to 35 questioned for a survey said if they could be born again, it would be as a woman.
The survey claimed men only behaved badly in stereotyped TV shows and adverts.
The researchers found 86 per cent wanted to get married, 97 per cent would happily work for a woman boss and most would forgive infidelity.
The average
man prefers Marilyn Monroe-style curves to skinny bodies, but maintains looks
are not as important as a sense of humour.
And if men really are obsessed with sex, then their needs are being met. Ninety per cent are satisfied with their love life.
There is a definite soft side to the 21st-century British male, according to the survey for Cosmopolitan magazine.
Three in four think a woman could do their job, three in five remain friends with exes and 46 per cent spend free time with their partner rather than mates.
But some old habits die hard. The average man sees five women a day he'd like to have sex with.
Source: Daily Record (UK) 01/16/01
TS Kills Uncle for Insurance $$ for Surgery
Police in Troy, Mich., say that a 74-year-old man found dead in his home last August was killed by a nephew who needed inheritance money to pay for a sex change, The Detroit News reports. The transsexual, Harry V. Titlow, was arrested in Chicago last week and is expected to be returned to face murder charges. Police say the uncle, Donald Rogers, had heart trouble and was initially believed to have died of natural causes. “Shortly after the death, we received information that there might be more to the death,” said Lt. Steve Zavislak, “that it might not have been from natural causes at all and possibly involved a homicide.” Zavislak said the department believes Titlow, who received $100,000 after Rogers’s death, forced a large amount of vodka down Rogers’s throat and then suffocated him. The 33-year-old Titlow, who goes by the name Vonlee Nicole Titlow, has been arrested twice on prostitution charges and has advertised herself for hire in a weekly Chicago newspaper as an escort and dominatrix, Chicago police officials reported.
source: The Advocate online 01/10/01
Oops! Britney Spears did it again.
According to Mr. Blackwell, Hollywood's self-appointed fashion czar for the last 41 years, the bubble-gum popster was the worst dressed woman of 2000.
"Her bra-topped collection of Madonna rejects are pure fashion overkill. Relax, help is on the way!" the former dress designer dished in his 41st "worst-of" countdown of celebrity fashion victims. Spears was the only holdover from Blackwell's list last year.
Also making
the dishonor roll for Y2K: Britney rival Christina Aguilera. "Is she a boring
and body-baring bungle--or just auditioning for Sheena, Queen of the Jungle?"
For singer-turned-actress Björk, Mr. Blackwell thought she must have been dressing, not dancing, in the dark. "Looks like a fractured fashion fairy tale," he says. "Let's dub her Alice in Blunderland!"
Never one to be left off a top 10 list, Madonna earned Mr. Blackwell's wrath for her chameleonic ways. "From Ghetto Glam to Rhinestone Cowgirl to Mrs. Guy Ritchie. Any way you label it, she's still just kitschy, kitschy, kitschy!"
Of Mariah Carey ("her X-rated Baby Doll disasters are laughably low-rent"), Mr. Blackwell could only wonder if her designer was Larry Flynt?
Blackwell also thinks advice queen Dr. Laura Schlesinger could use some advice herself. "When it comes down to fashion horror, no one does it better than Dr. Laura. A turtlenecked Terror!"
Other notables Blackwell bagged on for their sartorial crimes: Angelina Jolie ("Fashion interrupted. Hit by a Gen-X gothic hex!"), Elizabeth Hurley ("Poor Liz: Her barely there fashion bombs have hit a sour note--a word of advice, buy a coat!"), Courtney Love ("When push comes to shove, no one's fashion is tackier and wackier then punky, funky love!") and Florida's math-challenged Secretary of State Katherine Harris ("The pretty, brassy lassie from Tallahassee needs cosmetic direction--her paint-by-numbers make-up screams out for discretion! A recount please!").
Lest you think Mr. Blackwell mightn't have anything nice to say, he points to the 10 best-dressed women of the year. The "fabulous fashion independents" are Juliette Binoche, Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Faith Hill, Liz Smith, Gwyneth Paltrow, Heather Locklear, Ashley Judd, Winona Ryder and Queen Rania of Jordan.
Source: E! Entertainment 01/09/01
SHOWBIZ:
Marilyn's All Out of Love
Was it his fishnet stockings and fake breasts? Shock rocker Marilyn Manson won't bewalking down the aisle with "Scream" actress Rose McGowan. "There is great love, but our lifestyle difference is, unfortunately, even greater," McGowan said in a statement Thursday announcing the couple are breaking off their nearly two-year engagement. Publicist Nicole Perez added, "they're splitting up altogether." She said McGowan, 27, and Manson, 32, had been a couple for about three years. Manson wears women's clothing and lipstick on stage. But McGowan said a year ago that it didn't matter and she appreciated his "sense of calm." There were no other details about the breakup.
source: AP 01/00
You're Perfect for the Job--Except for One Little Thing
A deepening recession and lack of jobs is persuading men in Taiwan that they would be better off as women.
A new report shows an increasing number of men in the country with transsexual leanings are resorting to sex change operations as a way out of economic problems.
A survey by an association which gives care to transsexuals says it is hard for effeminate men in Taiwan to find satisfactory employment during the downturn and more and more are determined to shed their manhood so they can get jobs such as female entertainers.
Most have the operations carried out in Thailand, reports the China Times, and after the surgery almost all keep their original identity secret.
But the association reveals that few are finding happiness after sex change, with some turning to prostitution.
source: Ananova 01/15/01
Britain’s Evangelical Christians have condemned trans-sexuality as "a fantasy and an illusion", arguing that sex change operations should be banned. Instead, says the Evangelical Alliance, which claims to represent one million churchgoers, transsexuals should pray for normality.
The alliance will this week publish a report calling for Britain's 5,000 transsexuals to "reorient their lifestyle in accordance with biblical principles and orthodox church teaching." It adds: "Authentic change from a person's given sex is not possible and an ongoing transsexual lifestyle is incompatible with God's will."
Transsexuals should not be allowed to get married, says the alliance. It is also opposed to church services for the blessing of transsexual relationships, and argues that transsexuals should not be allowed to become leaders in congregations.
The document is a response to the report of the Government's Working Group on Transsexual People, which was published last April.
The Evangelical Alliance's policy co-ordinator, Don Horrocks, who produced the report, said: "Living an overtly transsexual life is not compatible with a Christian life. It is a fantasy and an illusion. We suggest that radical surgery, to manipulate their bodies into line with what they feel themselves to be, isn't right. We feel there is another solution. We would include prayer and psychological counseling in that. We don't accept that God makes mistakes."
However, the report was rejected as "fundamentalist prejudice" by the transsexual lobby group Press for Change.
The EA's conclusions are at odds with conventional medical opinion, which disputes the notion that transsexualism is a "fantasy". The Government's Working Group last year concluded that transsexuals feel an overwhelming desire to live as members of the opposite sex and that, while the origins of transsexualism remain unclear, gender reassignment operations are frequently an effective solution.
Last week it was reported that a teacher at Charterhouse School in Surrey is undergoing a sex change. Nicholas Tee, 51, will return to the pounds 15,000-a-year boarding school later this term under the name Nicola Tee.
Currently, transsexuals are allowed to serve in the Army and the RAF, following a watershed case in 1999. In the same year, a ruling by the Court of Appeal gave transsexuals the right to have sex change operations on the NHS.
However, the marriage of transsexuals is not legal in the UK. Neither is it possible for transsexuals to alter their birth certificates. But since a court ruling in 1999 transsexuals have been allowed to have their new gender recorded on passports and driving licenses.
Civil liberties groups claim that Britain is out of step with the rest of Europe, where - with the exception of Andorra, Albania and Ireland - transsexuals are allowed to marry.
Source: The Limited (London) 01/14/01
SHOWBIZ: Candy Darling comes to the Big Screen
Judy
Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft, who recently produced the upcoming miniseries
Me and My Shadows: Life With Judy Garland, based on her book, is looking
to bring the life of Andy Warhol superstar Candy Darling to the screen.
Variety columnist Army Archerd reports that Luft has secured the rights
to Darling’s posthumously published diaries, My Face for the World
to See. Darling, a cross-dressing starlet who appeared in such Warhol
films as Flesh and Women in Revolt, was an acquaintance of
Garland’s and had met Luft on at least one occasion. Luft, who recalls
Darling as “look[ing] like Kim Novak,” is looking for “a boy
who has to be unbelievably beautiful” to play the lead role. Luft will
produce the film with openly gay producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron...
Source: The Advocate 01/11/01
Trouble at GenderPac
Editor’s Note: A rift has developed over the mission of Gender PAC as it redefines it priorities, amid massive resignations from board members. The following story from the Bay Area Reporter does well to summarize the issues at hand. —jp
If the fight for gender rights could be narrowed into two different camps, those branches might look almost identical: in one corner, there are those who believe in a broad movement that includes people at all points along the gender spectrum; and in the other corner are those who believe in the exact same mission, but want to approach it differently.
It has been almost two weeks since a group of transgendered activists from all around the country sent an open letter of concern in regard to GenderPAC, the national lobbying arm of the gender rights movement that was born from – and until recently had focused upon – trans-identified battles. Within the last year the organization has moved to Washington, D.C., gained a full-time staff, and emphasized its desire to fight for gender rights on a more mainstream scale.
What this means is that GenderPAC now has a strategy that "appears to involve de-emphasizing its connection to the trans community," according to those who signed the letter. Many of those signatures belong to people who were once a part of GenderPAC but left due to irreconcilable differences.
"This new focus has resulted in the dropping of some of GenderPAC's transgender-focused projects," the letter continued. "GenderPAC's call for its 'National Conference on Gender' next spring made it clear that proposals for trans-focused workshops would not be well-received."
These criticisms are unfounded, according to Riki Wilchins, GenderPAC's executive director and a well-known transsexual activist and writer.
Paradigms falling
"Nobody is being squeezed out, they're just being included into a broader spectrum of people who need their right to express their gender," Wilchins told the Bay Area Reporter. Wilchins added that proposals for the upcoming conference must be inclusive in all ways, and that someone presenting a seminar on women's issues was recently asked to revise the curriculum to include transgenders.
"Our mission and vision has always been to build a broad-based inclusive movement. In the early days it was just me and a handful of volunteers, so we took a lot of transgender cases. Nobody else was doing that work. Now we have a budget and staff and resources and we are able to begin fulfilling our mission and working on other cases." Wilchins pointed to two such cases: one that involves a woman who was fired from her job for refusing to wear makeup, and another that addresses the fact that a female athlete who looked "too masculine" was assaulted and injured by security guards after leaving a women's bathroom. Neither victim identifies as "transgender" and yet both were persecuted for not fitting into strict gender expectations.
"I think what we're hearing is the sound of paradigms falling," said Wilchins of the comments directed toward GenderPAC. "I won't build another identity-based movement because I've been locked out of every one I tried to join. I'm not welcome at cross-dressing, feminist, or gay groups, and I'm not going to lock anybody else outside the door. We embrace everyone or we embrace no one."
"It is ironic when people begin portraying inclusion and diversity as bad things," she added. "We think bringing more people to the struggle is the only way to build a vibrant movement for the 21st century. And if you really think we're pulling away from transgender work, just look at our Web site. You'll see all the transgender stuff up there."
But Wilchins's rebuttal misses the point, say the activists behind the open letter, a three-page statement that specifically declares, "We share with Riki Anne Wilchins … a critique of the narrow 'identity politics' that would divorce the concerns of transgender-identified people from a broader politics which recognizes oppressions experienced by all people who express their gender in non-normative ways."
In fact, they say, if transgenders are supposed to be embraced along with others, why are they hardly ever mentioned by name in contemporary GenderPAC statements, particularly on the Web site that Wilchins references?
Although Wilchins says she has reluctantly allowed people to keep their identity labels in GenderPac matters, in fact it is only the transgenders who have not consistently been labeled on the GenderPAC Web site. Posted news items about Brandon Teena (who may or may not have identified as "trans") and others who have referred to themselves as "transgender," for instance, almost never include the T-word, and in fact these stories are hard to recognize as GenderPAC presents them (in regard to Teena's situation, for instance, the story is presented as "a man in Nebraska is beaten and raped by two assailants who want to 'prove' he's really a woman").
To Bay Area transsexual activist and writer James Green, this effort not to use "transgender" goes overboard.
"I hate identity politics," Green told the B.A.R. "And yet to a certain extent these issues are identity issues, and to say we're going to leave identity behind and not address things that have to do with identity is very shortsighted in my mind."
Green pointed to GenderPAC's filing of an amicus brief in the Brandon Teena wrongful death suit as an example of how GenderPAC's de-emphasis on identity could hurt their work.
"Any reference to 'trans' was taken out of that brief, and they were simply talking about Brandon's gender," said Green. "There's also a point at which they went off on some tangent about how gender expression affects everyone. If I were the judge in this case I would say, 'What the hell are they talking about?' and toss it out.
"Not only does their brief not speak to the facts of the case but it takes you into other areas irrelevant to the suit. Many of these paragraphs – if you don't say 'gender identity,' – are meaningless. There are places it would be important to say that Brandon sought medical advice for gender dysphoria … not for his 'gender,'" laughed Green.
"If you take away all of the qualifying language then you lose the specificity, and in law you must have specificity. So while of course I support the broad positions that everyone should be free from gender stereotyping, unless we talk about issues that face individuals, we'll never get to that place."
Once upon a time
In a word far, far away, "transgender" was supposed to be the language that would have solved this conflict. While "transsexual" was exclusive to those who had transitioned to the "opposite" sex; transgender could include everyone in between: the cross-dressers, the butch lesbians, the straight people who did not conform to rigid codes. In fact it was this word alone that was supposed to cover all these people, as witnessed by the national push to tack it on to non-discrimination laws that covered sexual orientation. Even if they did not identify as "trans," these people would be covered by a definition that allowed them to fall anywhere along the gender spectrum.
Yet little by little, transgender began to be interpreted – both by common folk and queers, legislators and judges – as transsexual, or, in simpler terms, as a person who had assumed a life as the other sex. There was no longer an "in between" allowed, or maybe there never was in the first place. Just recently, for instance, the mayor of Portland, Oregon proposed that the city expand its non-discrimination law to cover any person who dresses and/or identifies as a sex different from how they may be perceived. However, she was careful to emphasize that the law would cover only people who are "consistent" with their behavior and not those come to work "dressed as a man one day and a woman the next."
It was recognition of this problem, said Wilchins, that prompted GenderPAC to push for laws to cover more than those people who had fully transitioned.
But just what language should go into broader laws remains to be decided. Wilchins, for one, says that GenderPAC is "agnostic" when it comes to language, but would be biased toward words like "gender," that are "inclusive."
But Green cautions that not pushing for "transgender" or "gender identity" will inevitably mean that the trans population will be left of protections, particularly since "gender" is already a part of most non-discrimination ordinances.
"I don't believe that you can go back to the 1970s and say this ordinance means 'gender expression,' when as it stands that word is universally understood to mean a person's sex," said Green, who believes a better way for GenderPAC to lobby would be to reclaim the original meaning of "transgender" and work to make sure it is translated broadly.
"That was the whole reason we embraced the term to begin with," said Green. "Unfortunately, GenderPAC does not see it that way."
What GenderPAC does see, according to Wilchins, is a new understanding of the group as a result of the open letter.
"No matter how many times I tried to tell people about our mission, nobody believed me. They couldn't see or hear past my body," said Wilchins. "Now that a group of transgender people are saying the same thing, it helps us explain our case."
But the trans activists speaking out emphasize that it is not GenderPAC's mission they have a problem with, but rather the manner in which it is being pursued. As GenderPAC seeks the politics of non-identity, they say, the group may ironically achieve a result of exclusion.
"Quite honestly, when Riki talks about post-identity politics, she doesn't understand the nature of identity politics to begin with," said Pauline Park, a co-founder of New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy. "Identities form in relation to the oppression of marginalized groups. And dropping identity-based labels does not end the oppression of those groups."
Park also took issue with GenderPAC's implication that trans-identified activism is limited to one population.
"Riki is trying to create the impression that her critics are intent on creating a trans-exclusive organization, and that's not the case," said Park. "NYAGRA, for instance, is identified as a trans organization, but our mission is to advocate on behalf of all gender variant people. And unlike GenderPAC, we can advocate for freedom of gender identity and expression without losing trans people – the most marginalized of the groups – along the way."
To GenderPAC, this notion is absurd, particularly since half of its board members are trans-identified.
"I firmly believe in our mission," said Katherine Palmer, a trans-identified activist and co-chair of GenderPAC. "I think this whole thing is an overreaction from within the trans community itself."
Yet when asked to clarify her position on language and identity, Palmer – while touted by Wilchins as someone who "gets it" – seemed to come from an entirely different place, assuming quite generally, among other things, that, "a butch lesbian is not crossing gender, she's making a sexual statement," and "cross-dressers don't consider themselves to be the opposite sex they just know they're dressing differently."
Ahead of its time?
Perhaps, as Wilchins herself has surmised, GenderPAC's lack of identity politics might be ahead of its time, even for those who have remained on board. At times, said Wilchins, it's as if the questions she faces, "are being asked in German, and I'm answering in Spanish."
But although their language may be different, both sides of the debate seem to be arguing the same thing: that gender rights belong to everyone, not just people who live their lives on a binary male/female system. And both sides also agree that GenderPAC may not be the avenue that fulfills all the needs of the trans-identified community.
"We will always do transgender advocacy, because you can't have a gender rights movement without it," said Wilchins, and even people like Green agree that GenderPAC's transgender work will continue.
"But there are issues that remain specifically transsexual which other organizations might do a better job at addressing," added Wilchins.
It is for this reason, said Green, that he signed the letter.
"I wanted to open the dialogue about what we need to create at the national level. There are still people giving money to GenderPAC and thinking they're helping the trans community when they're not going to be able to rely on GenderPAC to meet their needs."
If a national transgender group is started, Wilchins has vowed to support it any way she can. But GenderPAC, she maintains, has always come from a different place.
"The centrifugal forces of 20th century identity politics have in many ways driven us farther apart from one another. We need to try a post identity form of organizing that stresses our commonalties instead of our differences."
Those interested in a transgender movement at the national level that operates outside of GenderPAC can visit a contact link at NYAGRA's Web site at www.nyagra.org. For more information on GenderPAC, visit www.gpac.org.
source:by Katie Szymanski Bay Area Reporter01/19/01
TG Advocate Dawn Wilson to Concentrate on Personal Business
"While I know I am an effective activist, and that there is more left to do, I cannot serve others unless my own affairs are in order. So, over the next two years, I'm making a commitment to myself. It's time for me to move on with my life, and my career." With these words, Dawn J. Wilson, well known transgender and civil rights activist, began the process of retiring from her numerous volunteer positions in order to focus more on her personal life.
Dawn's extensive activities began in the early 1990s
with her work for the Robert H. Williams Cultural Center in Lexington, KY.
She has served as a board member of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, as well
as being a cofounder and current president of the transgender social and
support group, the BlueGrass Belles (BGB).
Dawn has also attended the national Transgender Lobby Days from their inception, as well as conducting seminars at numerous gender-oriented conventions throughout the country. She was integral in the inclusion of transgenders, and then the historic successes of the Fairness initiatives for GLBT non-discrimination in a number of cities and in one county in her home state of Kentucky.
Her commitment to transgender civil rights over the years has made Dawn a driven leader in the national transgender community; culminating in her becoming the first African-American to win the IFGE Trinity Award earlier this year. It was after the various 'Bethesda Roundtable' discussions in 1997 and 1999 that Dawn seized the initiative, did the footwork, and coalesced the team that would later become the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. Dawn's leadership of NTAC, though brief, has been firm when needed, but always focused.
Although she will be spending more time on career and private concerns, Dawn's desire to reach out to others is still strong. As a member of the Edenside Christian Church, she has been asked to work in developing a new Sunday School program. And, Dawn recently hinted, she would eventually even consider a run for public office on the local level...
Source: Judy Forman/ Health and Science/ Boston Globe via 12/05/00
Nominate Someone for 1st OPEN Awards
OPEN (Our Pride Encompasses Nashville) is proud to begin a new tradition in the Nashville LGBT community...to recognize the leaders who are making a difference in our community today and remember those who have died, whose lives made a difference in the past...
These awards will be given for the first time at the Pride Celebration in 2001. OPEN invites everyone to become a part of the award process.... the annual O.P.E.N. MEMORIAL AWARDS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE.
Awards recognizing leaders who are recreating our world as a safer place for ALL people.... lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual, and transgendered.... so that NO ONE has to live in fear of prejudice, discrimination or violence ever again.
In 2001, these awards will be given in memory of Barry Winchell...
There will be one ANNUAL award: THE HORIZON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP (An award recognizing leaders whose courageous work is creating a new and safer future for all of us.)
Three NON-ANNUAL awards (given in special recognition of unique achievements):
1. THE VISION AWARD (An award recognizing leaders whose pioneering work is creating positive new things for the community.)
2. THE CATALYST AWARD (A catalyst is a "person or thing that precipitates an event or change." The Catalyst award recognizes individuals whose work has significantly changed legislation and/or court precedents affecting the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people.)
3. THE LEGACY AWARD (The Legacy Award recognized individuals who, through many years of hard work, have made a difference for current and future generations.)
Nominations come from the community to the OPEN Board of Directors. Anyone in the community can nominate a candidate -- by mail, fax, e-mail, or in person at one of our meetings by a deadline date of June 30, 2001. Nominations need to include the candidate's name, a way of contacting the candidate, and the reason why they should receive the award.
The final list of nominees and which awards will be given in 2001 will be determined by OPEN's Board of Directors and PAT and WALLY KUTTELES. They will prepare an information packet to distribute to OPEN members on each candidate and the reason they were nominated as a candidate.
Get details and info at the OPEN website, link below:
Source: OPEN email OPEN-Our Pride Encompasses Nashville 01/01
TG Murder and Hate-Crime Trial Ends in CA
The 22-year-old hotel worker accused of strangling a transgender youth last year after an evening of drinking and sex in San Jose was convicted of second-degree murder Friday, but the jury failed to conclude that the killing was a gender-based hate crime.
Kozi Santino Scott strangled 19-year-old Alina Marie Barragan -- a biological male who dressed as a woman, wore makeup and had his name changed legally from Manuel Reyes Eredia -- and hid the body in the truk of a car.
Scott faces a possible term of 15 years to life in state prison when he goes before Superior Court Judge John T. Ball on March 2 for sentencing.
He had been on trial for first-degree murder, a more serious crime that carries a stiffer sentence of 25 years to life.
Scott displayed no emotion as the verdict was read. His family, who sat behind him in the courtroom, openly sobbed. So did Barragan's family and friends, who had attended most of the two-week trial.
``My biggest fear in life was that because she was like she was, somebody would hurt her,'' said Linda Barragan, the victim's mother, who described her child as a female trapped in a male's body. ``He took her away because of her gender. I don't feel that the second-degree murder conviction was just.
``I feel for Kozi Scott's mother.''
Scott's family did not want to speak with reporters.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Fletcher said he thought the second-degree murder conviction was appropriate, although he had argued for a first-degree judgment.
Scott was charged with strangling Barragan during a scuffle in Scott's studio apartment on Hester Avenue in January 2000. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Charlie Gillan, argued that Scott never intended to kill Barragan, and that he was defending himself against a bigger, 260-pound opponent when he accidentally strangled the victim.
The prosecution had argued that Scott became enraged after discovering that the victim, who he originally thought was a woman, was male, and that the scuffle started because Barragan refused to acknowledge his biological masculinity, as Scott demanded.
Gillan argued that the death wasn't a hate crime, and put character witnesses on the stand -- including gays, heterosexuals and transgender people -- who knew Scott and said he never demonstrated any bias against them because of their sexual orientation or lifestyle.
On the stand, Scott admitted he was a closeted bisexual.
He and Barragan had met on the evening of the victim's death at a bus stop on The Alameda and had gone together to Scott's apartment, where they had drinks and became intimate. An argument ensued and quickly turned violent with both wrestling each other around the room.
Scott ended up locking Barragan in a neck restraint, cutting off blood flow to his brain. Barragan collapsed. Scott said he did, too, and awoke to find Barragan not breathing.
Authorities said Scott sustained a few scratches and Barragan had cuts and bruises, including five blunt trauma injuries to the head.
Scott told the jury that he panicked after the incident and feared calling authorities, partly because he was afraid of exposing his bisexual orientation. Instead, he stuffed the victim's blanket-wrapped corpse into the trunk of his father's car, which police later found parked near the defendant's home
Source: San Jose Mercury News 01/20/01
A transsexual corrections officer has filed a lawsuit against New Jersey's department of corrections and nine coworkers, The [Hackensack, N.J.] Record reports. Donna Memmer, 36, who was a biological male when she started working as a corrections officer 15 years ago, charges that she was harassed after informing her supervisors and coworkers at Trenton State Prison that she was going to undergo a sex change. She said she received different job assignments and benefits that the other workers had, that coworkers put glue in her car locks and threw trash on her car, and that one coworker once said “Good evening gentlemen, ladies, or whatever” when she was nearby.
Source: The Advocateonline 01/05/00
Nashville News Reporter Demoted: Voice Too High. We've Never Heard of that Problem Before.
A television reporter at WTFV in Nashville was demoted because “his voice tends to be too high” and he “looked slight on air,” Nashville Scene reports. Morning reporter Tom Castaneda was demoted to news writer because his “presentation and delivery” were not up to the station’s standards, station officials said. They cited his on-air appearance and said that “he needed to look bulkier.” The paper said the criticisms were interpreted by some local media observers as “just roundabout ways of saying [Castaneda] appeared gay.” Station officials said that viewer E-mails characterized Castaneda’s presentation as “too robotic, too serious, and not warm and fuzzy in the morning.” Castaneda declined comment.
Source: Planetout 01/27/00
'Two Spirits' Respected in Native-American Tradition
Outside of her friends in the Navajo Indian Reservation town of Chinle, Ariz., few know the striking 5-foot-9 woman is biologically male. Indeed, she once parlayed her shoulder-length, walnut and blond hair and olive complexion into a modeling career in Phoenix before moving back to her native redrock canyons.
Now, she works as a caseworker for the Navajo AIDS Network, helping others who have tested positive for the HIV virus. "Call me by my disc jockey name, 'Darian Phyve,' " she requests, noting that while most of her fellow Navajos are tolerant of gay and transgendered people, a few are not.
The 28-year-old transgendered DJ, who works private parties in her off hours, considers herself a "Two Spirit," which in American Indian lore is a person born with male and female personalities. In her case, the feminine spirit is stronger; she cannot recall when it was not.
It is a view fundamentally different from that in Western white civilization's Judeo-Christian roots -- that homosexuality is sinful. Instead, many Indians have traditions of same-sex acceptance and incorporation of gays into tribal life.
Tribal attitudes toward homosexuality were seldom simply based on sexual orientation, but involved both physical and spiritual attributes, according to Richley Crapo, a professor of anthropology at Utah State University and student of Great Basin Native American culture.
Many tribes recognize three genders: male, female and Two Spirits -- biological males, females or hermaphrodites able to fill both male and female roles. "These distinctive Two Spirit roles usually included some religious responsibilities, such as christening babies, treating women for infertility with religious rituals and conducting funeral rituals," Crapo said. In some tribes, Two Spirit status was extended to females who had adopted male characteristics along with same-sex preferences, and vice versa for males. Thus same-sex couples would have masculine and feminine partners. "Two Spirit persons were not stigmatized. In fact, they were generally thought of as having a very high status," Crapo said. "Individuals with same-sex orientation . . . would have found a very comfortable place in most North American Indian tribes."
Respecting Difference: In the Dine' tongue of the Navajo, Two Spirits are known as "na'dleh" -- literally, "one that changes." The term, in turn, has roots in one of the tribe's oldest legends, the "Separation of the Sexes" story, said Donald Denetdeal, chairman of the Center for Dine' Studies in Tsaile, Ariz. "At this point in the oral narratives there came a time when all the men were over to one side and lived in a certain geographical area and all the women lived in a different area, too," Denetdeal said. "[It was] a time period ... with men having sexual relations with other men and women with women."
The na'dleh in both camps voluntarily assumed sexual roles of the opposite sex. "These people were respected. That respect continues today," Denetdeal said. "Navajos do not promote homosexuality, but in the event there is one who might be a homosexual, they are not looked down upon or treated as bad people ... but as special people due respect. "We are taught as we are growing up that if we should run into a homosexual ... we are not to make fun of them, laugh about them or harass them in any way, shape or form," he said.
That attitude made Phyve's "coming out" much easier. "It's how your soul perceives who you are," she said. "We occupy an inaccurate biological body while our dominant spirit, our mentality and being, are of another individual and sex. "I've known my feelings sexually as far back as I remember, even 2-3 years old. I was allowed to express myself freely with my family, and over time it sort of grew on them. ... They cherish me as an individual who is an intricate part of the family."
Spiritual Powers: In the language of the Utes, a gay man is "tozusuhzooch," loosely translated as "A male who is not quite a male." However, that vague term in no way implied confusion or rejection over acceptance of Two Spirits into the tribal community. "These were special people with certain [spiritual] powers," explained Venita Taveapont, a Ute social-services worker and tribal cultural expert. "They were men who dressed and lived as women. They did bead work and tanned hides, and they were generally the best in the tribe at that."
Traditional tozusuhzooch were revered, but also expected to live alone. "People would go to them to have them bless their children with Indian names. Sometimes, they were looked upon as healers," Taveapont said.
Larry Cesspooch, a Ute traditional spiritual leader, said his tribe has its own story to explain same-sex orientation origins. "As embryos, we were women before we were men, before we grew penises. So, we believe we have male and female sides. [In the case of homosexuals] even though you may have a male body, the female side has taken over," he said.
Much of that respect remains, though tolerance is not what it once was, Cesspooch and Taveapont agree. The tozusuhzooch tradition is remembered, but modern Ute gays are defined more often by their sexual proclivities than the spiritual attributes of the past. "Nowadays, the roles have changed some," Taveapont said. "They have adopted the white man's way of being homosexual rather than how it used to be. Today, they do not have as much respect as they used to; they are more of a novelty."
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune 12/31/00
An analysis of Winnie the Pooh published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal concludes that Christopher Robin may have gender identity disorder and that Winnie has attention deficit syndrome and possibly Tourette’s, Toronto’s National Post reports. The study by pediatricians at Halifax’s Dalhousie University concludes that the characters in the popular children’s books written by A.A. Milne are "seriously troubled individuals." "It’s a load of cobblers, as we say in Britain," Peter Janson-Smith, executive trustee of Pooh Properties Trust, a London group that administers the rights to Pooh, told the paper. In Winnipeg, the city after which Pooh was named, city officials are nicknamed after characters in the book. Glen Murray, the mayor, who is nicknamed Christopher Robin and who is gay, said he now has a deeper appreciation for the books. " have a newfound bonding with Christopher Robin," Murray said. "This is life imitating art imitating life."
Source: The Advocate 12/14/00
QUICK HITS: Media Mentions
Daily News of LA via AP / 1/13/00
You thought you had bad hair days...George Clooney complains about his greased-back hair in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?… "It took a lifetime to get that stuff out of my hair...You can imagine, being in Jackson, Mississippi in July with the stuff scraped off the top of a canned ham piled in my hair...My hair was collecting bugs for weeks."