and I think I should open a “special” kind of store *wink, wink*.
From the Village Voice:
A classic from the Pucker Up vaults
“It’s an open thread and let’s hear those reactions folks!”
I now crawl back into my lair.
February 13, 2008
February 8, 2008
An Open Letter On Trans and Intersexed Issues
Dear Sir or Ma’am,
I writing this because I’m part of a community, and an activist for, those who are continually forgotten or legislated against in this country. This community is called Transgendered. Yes, those of us who have Gender Identities that don’t match our Birth records.
I’m doing this because I am one example of the most extreme versions of this community: I was born with all of the parts. I have ovaries, a uterus, a sewn-up vagina, and a man-made penis. My “role” in Life was determined by people that never asked me who I saw myself as. I didn’t get to state my preferences. I got “assigned”.
Now I’m living my life as I should have… as myself and female.
I’m also doing this because I believe the values that our Founders enshrined in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I believe each and every citizen of this Country is endowed with Rights to be who and what they are. There is no middle ground on this. These are our rights as Human Beings under our country’s Constitution and our Bill of Rights. This is the gift of the Founders to each and everyone of us. I respect their work greatly. It is why I can wake up everyday… and can know that I live in the greatest country on the planet.
To support my belief in this country and the reasons for our kind of Culture, I gave 9+ tears of my life to the Military. I’m am very skilled in Physics, Chemistry, Fluid Flow Dynamics, Geology, History and Anthropology. I became everything that was asked of us decades ago. We were asked to become the best and the brightest. I lived up to that, not just because I had interests, but because I believed in our Nation. My Homeland asked for this and I felt that I could not ignore the call.
Now, there are two Bills floating through Congress concerning citizens such as myself.
The bills are labeled as ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. One is H.R. 3685 (covering only the LGB folks), the other is H.R. 3686 which covers us Trans folks. Both of these bills deal only with employment issues. Originally both were covered under H.R. 2015, but certain interests didn’t want my kind in the bill.) Right now, institutionalized discrimination is a hurdle that these bills must pass, but the one that deals with Trans folks has the worst chance of passing.
More is needed: like housing issues, and safety in Public. You see, coming out as Gay or Lesbian involves only who you sleep with. There is no L, G or B on your I.D.s. Unless you announce it to the world, nobody really notices, but for a Trans person, we change our clothing, gender and our names. We must, by the criteria of the Benjamin Standards, live in our chosen gender for at least a year, and that means employment and housing discrimination. During what we call Transition we cannot hide. Every one can see what we are doing, and we get hurt.
That’s the danger for our folk: there are so many people out there that cannot accept our Realities. Religionists curse us, others just think we are freaks or child-molesters. Using the restroom in public can be a horrible adventure. Getting pulled over for a traffic infraction can make things even worse. Much of this boils down to intolerance of the “different”, or a lack of education concerning Biological realities. (More info on the biological situation and history, is here. I’m rewriting my site right now so this will have to suffice.)
Many of my sisters work in the biggest corporations in the country… some work for companies that are involved in National Security, many are engineers and others are in the financial markets. The bulk of us just work “normal” jobs. Our community is valued for it’s intelligence and tenacity. When one has to survive and become under the B/S Societal norms, you’ve got to be the best. (Many of our kind never make their 30th B’Day.)
I have been hurt because of being Trans in the Past, but that hasn’t been the case for several years. I am here in New Orleans, a very tolerant place, and my partner and I own our home. We have good friends, and no they aren’t all LGBT folks. We live up to my statement of years ago; “Prove who we are, and what we are not”. That has earned us respect.
To heal the wound of Gender Identity, we have had to become ourselves, and that means understanding what it means to be Human. Our little tribe is usually kind and thoughtful. We work our tushes off to just BE in the face of ignorance-based discrimination. It’s all that we can do.
In summary, what I’m asking you for is to come to an understanding of Trans folk, and maybe let your Congresspeople know that we do need protections against prejudice and hate. To speak out when some people condemn us. To not be afraid of us. “Only Humans cry… only Humans sing and laugh and bleed and dream”. That’s exactly what my tribe does.
We are not a threat, but we are being threatened. Please think about this. It’s the Human thing to do.
Be Blessed!
Morwen Madrigal,
The GentillyGirl
February 1, 2008
“Thank We Free?”
This comes from two weeks ago (so shoot me… I’ve been occupied.)
If you read my Blog, you’ll understand why I like this piece.
January 23, 2008
Why I Talk About These Things
This is in answer to the Nightmare Returns.
Thanks everyone. This is the kind of poop many of us having running in background in our OS’s. It’s the kind of stuff we need to ferret out in order to become US. (Have no ferrets, but tons of catz, but they are useless in this query except for loving us as we are.)
Who stated: “Know thyselfâ€? Oh yes… the Pythoness of Delphi. Socrates engraved it in stone, but it comes from the Old Mystery Tradition. “Know Thyself.â€
(There is more to this, but I will only do it privately… not meant for the great unwashed.)
Interesting the connections and scenarios most of us can conjure up looking at that statement. How many of us cannot understand ourselves and why we do what we do?
So horrible, but how many of us can walk those final steps to the Abyss to be able to finally understand that phrase? I do know… been there, done that, but now I understand the voices.
The voices didn’t promise anything except to pull me from the brink, just as what I’m experiencing now. Been there and done that poop.
We have the power to become Transformative agents. Many of us see the dicotomies of culture and philosophy. We “see†the New World. We crave it, in fact.
It’s the freakin’ damn goal of being Human.
As much as I’d like to see a World with a majority of folks like me, endocrine disruptive chemicals and estrogens in the environment can and will make us the inheritors of the New World. Look at the sea-life based studies.
I don’t wish to be the majority. I wish to be considered Human, with a twist. I don’t wish to see children more conflicted as me.
Yes, I’m more than most, female and male, and a mentality that can encompass it all, but what I really wish for is children that do not have to fight my battles of the Past.
Maybe we have reached the tipping point on this shit. Maybe I’m too late. If I am too late, treat them kindly and accept what the Future many bring. I’m just the first of many.
Years ago I wrote about the possibilities of our chemical pollution of our planet. No one seemed to care, but the agents I referred to are still active, and they will continue to do their thing.
I can never change my chemical/biological/genetic past. I didn’t do it… it just happened. Though I can speak about the wonders, the epiphanies of being Intersexed/Trans I can’t wish my life upon any child. I’m not a fool… it’s a hard life to live
Yes I fight for my kind, but I pray for the day this doesn’t need to be: whether we are Trans or not, or there is no Trans really. Get me.
Now I’m back in the fray fighting for my sisters and brothers. I stand in a “Place†that has no judgement upon what I am, only who I am. I am myself.
I spent my life trying to live up to a dictum: “Prove who we are, and what we are notâ€.
One thing I have learned over the years: I am what I am, and fuck those who will refute that. I AM a woman, and fuck anyone who disputes that fact.
I take care of the folks around me. I hold them in my arms and thoughts. I am kind to others. I CARE.
I’m a woman, and that’s what women do: we take care of folks. We are what we are. This is biological destiny.
Anyone who wants to prove my words different, you come face-to-face with me, and we will hash it out.
January 20, 2008
January 18, 2008
The Nightmare Returns
Most of us have had bad things happen in our lives. I’ve seen bodies shattered by disease, corpses with their brains blown out… homeless people frozen to death in front of heated buildings. I seem to be able to deal with those things intellectually and emotionally, but I am powerless when facing my own demons.
Usually I can keep them in the background… hidden, leashed, but the other night they escaped my control, and I scared the Hell out of very good friend. Thank goodness Betts was there to drag me to the car and get me home. I’ve been a basket case since then, but I finally got the clue that I had been searching for: the “Dark Lord”.
That’s what the man who raped me for 8 hours 24 years ago called himself. He slipped me a mickey whilst we were watching a movie, and I woke up to being chained to eyebolts in a floor and laying on a filthy mattress. During all that time, outside of the pain he delivered, I was constantly wondering when and how he would kill me. Would my body be found in a dumpster or China Basin?
He let me go in the late morning. Congratulated me for entering the Gay lifestyle. All I could think of was that I’m not Gay. “Power over another”. I remained holed up in my apartment for a week crying, and then got the courage up to go back out into the World and try to live. (My rapist died four years later of AIDS, and though I visited and helped many of the boys who were dying of the same disease, I never entered his room. I couldn’t find it within me to show any form of kindness to him.) The power of forgiveness wasn’t coming through my soul.
I thought that I had dealt with this shit years ago, but I didn’t realize that this was riding piggy-back on the events of 50 years past. Genital mutilation, negation of beingness, all in the name of societal norms. I can still see them coming for me, to lay me on a cold stainless steel table and then they start carving my body apart so that I would fit their visions of normalcy. I couldn’t speak… had no power. All I could do is lay there and take the injustice that they did to my body.
The rape was a violation of my body, but this earlier event was a violation of my very being. Right now I’m feeling the physical and emotional pain of the first year of Life. Somehow I’ll get through this. Finally I’m not letting intellect to deal with this. I’m using my heart, and it really hurts.
I have many friends around the world that are victims of these treatments. I’ve watched them struggle with the same memories and then become themselves. I guess it’s my turn to face the demon and slay it. This isn’t going to be easy, but it must be done. The nightmare cannot eat my soul.
I refuse to live under the dictates of others. I will not let the bastards win. This is MY LIFE. My friends, my world. I see a Sun shining on the flowers in my garden, and I will again be the blythe spirit that I entered this incarnation as. My World will be filled with Light, Life and Love. Friends are around… there’s so much to do and learn.
This coming March I won’t be 51… it’s MY first B’Day. I’m reclaiming my life.
Brothers and sisters, “the Sleeper has awoken”. It’s a new day.
January 1, 2008
The New Year
The New Year, 2008… The pork loin is cooking, the black-eyed peas are done, the cabbage will be done later.
Our return to the house is three weeks away. I’m trying to figure out how we move back into our home.
I’m tired. Just got over a cold. I have no energy. Cooking New Year’s dinner right now. Have friends coming over.
I’m tired.
And I have a battle to fight for my community… this year will see our fight for our rights as Trans folk. It is time for us to get our protections and our rights. I have my rights, my life, but my sisters need their safe places too.
Now this is the battle for 2008. And I’m tired, but I can’t stand away from the fray. I have New Orleans to fight for and I have my brothers and sisters to protect.This may mean going to D.C. I’m not up for this. I need back-up.
So this is my New Year…Â and I’m tired.
November 29, 2007
Transsexual CAN Sue the Library of Congress
Back in the Summer of ’05, prior to the Federal Flooding of New Orleans, I was raging on the Trans E-Lists concerning the Library of Congress’ B/S treatment of Diane Schroer when it came to an offered, and accepted, job.
She sued.
The Library of Congress contended that she wasn’t protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and a Federal judge just ruled that Schroer’s suit can go forward because the actions of the Library of Congress amounts to sex discrimination under Title VII. Once again Title VII covers Trans individuals by decree of the Courts.
When will people stop trying to hurt us?
The decision we have to make in our lives as Trans is to accept the bio-chem nature of our Reality and go with it. It can take years and a great amount of personal pain and personal loss. Often times we are destroyed because of all of the Societal poop that surrounds the perceptions of our lives.
This case is another that can equal the playing field for my brothers and sisters that are discriminated against each and every day. (Especially from that sub-Human group known as the Jezoids.)
October 25, 2007
October 18, 2007
GLBT Minus “T” = “Barney the Dinosaur’s” ENDA
“You see here tonight a man named John Aravosis, a Gay man, totally divorced from Reality and History, vainly trying to understand why his world is not what it is. He is confused and afraid. Past the STOP sign, next turn to the left and ahead… there stands the Trans-woman. AIYEEEE!” Welcome to the AAA Gay Zone. (Also called the Balls of Confusion.)
(No… I’m not going to play nice. Being PC to thine enemies is the worst form of hypocrisy and lunacy.)
My desire at this point in time is to go “postal” and not stop for days and days. The fight for Gender Identity has gone on for over a century and a half, and just as this recognition under law comes almost to our finger tips (yes, the Bushite’s gonna veto either version of the bill), it is being yanked away by men who do not want us around.
Here’s the opener for an opinion piece by Susan Stryker in Salon a few days ago:
“Pity poor John Aravosis, the gay rights crusader from AmericaBlog whose “How Did the T Get in LGBT?” essay, in reference to the controversy over gender identity protections in the pending Employment Non-Discrimination Act, was published on Salon a few days ago. To hear Aravosis tell it, he and multitudes of like-minded gay souls have been sitting at the civil rights table for more than 30 years, waiting to be served. Now, after many years of blood, sweat, toil and tears, a feast in the form of federal protection against sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace has finally been prepared. Lips are being licked, chops smacked, saliva salivated, when — WTF!?! — a gaunt figure lurches through the door.
It is a transgender person, cupped hands extended, begging for food. Seems somebody on the guest list — maybe a lot of somebodies — let this stranger in off the streets without consulting everyone else beforehand, claiming he-she-it-or-whatever was a relative of some sort. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a fabulous dinner party starts surreally morphing into one of those OxFam fundraisers dramatizing third-world hunger whose sole function is to make the “haves” feel guilty for the plight of the “have-nots.”
And this:
“Aravosis isn’t questioning the place of the T in the GLBT batting order; he’s just concerned with properly marking the distinction between “enough like me” and “too different from me” to merit inclusion in the categories with which he identifies. His position is a bit like those kerfuffled astronomers not too long ago, scratching their noggins over how to define Pluto’s place in the conceptual scheme of the solar system. Sure, we’ve been calling it a planet for a good number of years because it’s round and orbits the sun just like our Earth, but now it appears that if we keep doing so we’ll have to let a bunch of the bigger asteroids into the planet category, as well as some other weird faraway stuff we only recently learned about, which stretches the definition of “planet” into a name for things we don’t really think of as being much like good ol’ Earth, so let’s just demote Pluto instead. In Aravosis’ homocentric cosmology, men may not be from Mars, nor women from Venus, but transgender people are definitely from Pluto.”
And this:
“Transgender people have their own history of civil rights activism in the United States, one that is in fact older, though smaller and less consequential, than the gay civil rights movement. In 1895, a group of self-described “androgynes” in New York organized a “little club” called the Cercle Hermaphroditos, based on their self-perceived need “to unite for defense against the world’s bitter persecution.” Half a century later, at the same time some gay and lesbian people were forming the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, transgender people were forming the Society for Equality in Dress. When gay and lesbian people were fighting for social justice in the militant heyday of the 1960s, transgender people were conducting sit-in protests at Dewey’s lunch counter in Philadelphia, fighting in the streets with cops from hell outside Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, and mixing it up at Stonewall along with lots of other folks.”
In summary:
“Aravosis and those who agree with him think that the “trans revolution” has come from outside, or from above, the rank-and-file gay movement. No — it comes from below, and from within. The outrage that many people in the queer, trans, LGBT or whatever-you-want-to-call-it community feel over how a gender-inclusive ENDA has been torpedoed from within is directed at so-called leaders who are out of touch with social reality. It has to do with a generation of effort directed toward building an inclusive movement being pissed away by the clueless and the phobic. That’s why every single GLBT organization of any size at the national and state levels — with the sole exception of the spineless Human Rights Campaign — has unequivocally come out in support of gender protections within ENDA, and has opposed the effort to pass legislation protecting only sexual orientation.”
Me and mine may be from Pluto or the Oort Cloud, but with people like the AAA Gays on this planet, I think the Oorts are wonderful, especially this time of year, but I’d rather spend my time in New Orleans.