Transgender people in Greece are now being rounded up and detained in a continuation of the social cleansing of the “undesirables”.
FUCK.
THIS.
"
Whether nonbinary people would identify as trans (or trans*) is a different matter. It’s quite common for nonbinary identified people to be uncomfortable with the label ‘trans’ and not feel ‘trans enough’ to use it.
Trans and transgender are often (problematically) defined in terms of concepts such as gender dysphoria or transition that may not map well to the experiences of some nonbinary people. Nonbinary people may find themselves pushed into the liminal space between transgender and cisgender or feeling that they qualify as both transgender and cisgender in different ways."
Trans and transgender are often (problematically) defined in terms of concepts such as gender dysphoria or transition that may not map well to the experiences of some nonbinary people. Nonbinary people may find themselves pushed into the liminal space between transgender and cisgender or feeling that they qualify as both transgender and cisgender in different ways."
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oh my this is me it’s my life right there it’s me
Transgender people who are binary-identified find comfort on the other side of the spectrum: if they were born male, they see themselves as female, and are at home looking like and being seen as girls or women.
However, some trans* people find distress or discomfort when putting themselves in the female side as well as the male side. Neither box feels quite right. Other people feel like they belong on both sides, or more on one side than the other. This is just a sliver of how genderqueer people experience their gender.
lovely article for explaining genderqueer-ness in plain English.
may be useful one day (if I ever come out to anyone bar close friends)
Richard O’Brien: ‘I’m 70% man, 30% woman’
Richard O’Brien, writer of hit musical The Rocky Horror Show, delighted in shaking up the conservative sexual attitudes of the 1970s.
His most famous creation, Dr Frank N Furter, brought the house down with his song Sweet Transvestite.
But the show’s creator was ashamed about his own long-held desire to be more feminine.
“I was six-and-a-half and I said to my big brother that I wanted to be the fairy princess when I grew up. The look of disdain on his face made me pull down the shutters. I knew that I should never ever say that out loud again.”
For 50 years, O’Brien repressed the feeling. But “you can’t just put the lid on things and pretend that they don’t exist”, he says.
So a decade ago, he started taking the female hormone oestrogen - and is happy with the results.
“It takes the edge off the masculine, testosterone-driven side of me and I like that very much. I think I’ve become a nicer person in some ways, slightly softer. For the first time in my life, I’ve started to put on a little bit of weight, which I like.”
He has also developed small breasts. But O’Brien is not intending to go further and have sex reassignment surgery.
“I don’t want to pretend to be something that I’m not. Anton Rodgers, the actor, said ‘you’re the third sex’. And I thought that’s quite nice. I quite like that position.
“It’s my belief that we are on a continuum between male and female. There are people who are hardwired male and there are people who are hardwired female, but most of us are on that continuum and I believe myself probably to be about 70% male, 30% female.”
Fuck yeah genderqueer heroes!
“The first question any new parent asks… ‘Is it a boy or a girl?’ But what happens when doctors cannot answer that question?”
Watched a great film yesterday called Intersexion, about intersex people and the shit they have to deal with.
1 in 2000 people are born “intersex”, an umbrella term for a variety of medical conditions that - even now - are still treated crappily by the medical community… normally along the lines of “crap this kid looks different let’s slice and dice them until they look more normal regardless of the consequences”.
People are still nowadays told they’re broken, still told they need to be fixed, and still told they’re “nothing bcs [they’re] not a boy or a girl”
Some people are forced into “male” or “female” boxes with surgery/socialisation, and some people are lucky enough to escape the years of surgery and are just allowed to be who they are, no medical interventions
It’s a well heart-warming film though, lots of personal accounts from people you don’t generally hear from!
I am a gay woman of colour. I have studied Gender and Sexuality for four years, am getting my Masters in the same, have acted for many years in drag, and want to eventually write a book about Drag and Gendered Performance.
And here is what unnerves me a little about the androgyny on Tumblr. I feel alienated by it. For the simple reason that my body/mind/sexuality is left out. Androgyny is an aesthetic. But it is also gender performance, an intellectual perspective and a sexual identity. I am androgynous. Not by aesthetic always. My clothing may reflect it sometimes. I spend a lot of time in drag, and my gender identity encompasses every breast-bind, every change of shadow on my face. But it is not my only body. And I have many bodies, and many mental states, and many bedroom moves – and they are androgynous.
Don’t get me wrong. Aesthetically androgynous women are GORGEOUS. Aesthetic androgyny is GLORIOUS. I am uber attracted to androgynous ladies. Have dated quite a few. But it is not the only androgyny. And sometimes, I want people to remember me. To recognize that you don’t need to know me to consider the possibility of a particular identity. To remember that this identity lies in my stride, in my gender performance, in my mind. To know that I can bend my gender to match you, to contrast to yours, and to fit my will. And all of it is authentic, is genuine, is mine.
I use my makeup to gloss my mouth and shade my eyes sometimes, and to texture my facial hair and draw on a mustache sometimes. The same tools on the same body. The same mind in the same body. A combination of masculine and feminine in the same body.
See me. I can be anything from femme to super butch to quite a motherfucking sexy drag king. I’m not going to wax Foucauldian about gender identities, because I want to break it down to this – androgyny is more than its popular representation. It is something that is visceral, and I do not want it underrepresented. And I am nervous because I don’t want to encroach on the aesthetically androgynous groups, but I want to make myself heard. ANDROGYNY IS OF THE MIND. Beyond all else.
Sometimes it looks like me. Like this.
um I was about to write something just like this. coincidence!
I don’t wanna appropriate/override the story of a woman of colour with my own, but just bcs it’s similar feels I thought I’d share…
…I’ve been feeling a lot recently that the image-driven content on tumblr massively promotes one and only one form of androgyny and/or genderqueerness as being valid, which is the high-aesthetic: lipstick and bearded cheekbones with fancy-schmancy lighting, that sorta thing.
I’ve definitely noticed that I’ve felt less and less confident about my gender identity, and I think it’s because shit like this keeps happening. I don’t present as “woman-y” (in the hegemonic sense) and the more time I spend in this environment the more I feel I’m failing at being genderqueer because I don’t put on pretty make-up and I don’t feel fabulous. I feel boring and a bit shy regardless of the clothes I wear most the time
I shouldn’t need to feel valid only if I’m dragging up as a woman and/or man. I should feel valid just for existing. I don’t write well like the post above, but I still wanted to say something. yeah.
‘Domestic Violence: A resource for trans people’ was produced in 2009 by The Greater London Domestic Violence project, in collaboration with the LGBT Domestic Abuse Forum and NHS Barking & Dagenham.
The resource has been written primarily to assist trans people who experience domestic abuse. There is information as well as links to UK resources.
To view the full booklet, click here.
well this is a good thing
(via petitsirena)
just remembered this song
Toby Foster - Tennessee
will always reblog, one of my fave Toby Foster songs
"On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community’s successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage. We are ashamed of ourselves for causing you to have what the media refers to as an “illicit affair” with your staffer, and we also extend our deepest apologies to him and to his wife. These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tactics have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society."
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Minnesota gay people apologize for ruining adulterous Senator’s marriage
oh my god this letter is amazing! another excellent paragraph:
“Forgive us. As you know, we are not church-going people, so we are unable to fully appreciate that “gay marriage” is incompatible with Christian values, despite the fact that those values carry a biblical tradition of adultery such as yours. We applaud you for keeping that tradition going.”
Tough Love: Britain Will Cut Aid to ‘Anti-gay’ Nations
The British Prime Minister has vowed to get tough on African countries with poor records on gay rights by slashing millions of pounds from their aid payments.
In a sign that Britain is no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to nations that victimize sections of society, David Cameron will tell African leaders they will receive funding “fines” if persecution of gays continues, the Daily Mail reports.
The UK government has already taken steps against Malawi, cutting aid by $30 million after two homosexuals who held an engagement ceremony were sentenced to 14 months hard labor. And payments could be cut further to the southern African nation, which has received $312 since 2008, if it proceeds with plans to bring in tough anti-lesbian laws.
Uganda (due to receive $109 million this year) and Ghana (due $56 million) could also face sanctions if they refuse to drop antiquated anti-gay laws. The possibility that these countries will see their aid slashed seems increasingly likely as Uganda has plans to punish same-sex couples with the death penalty, while Ghana’s president has promised to “check the menace of homosexuality.”
A UK government spokesman said it is committed “to combating violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in all circumstances, in this country and abroad.”
Reiterating Britain’s threat of aid withdrawal, the spokesman added, “We only provide aid directly to governments when we are satisfied that they share our commitments to reduce poverty and respect human rights.”
Last month, the leaders of Britain’s three main political parties pledged their support for a new London-based gay rights organization, called Kaleidoscope, hoping to modernize gay rights in former British colonies.
The organization, which plans to leverage the UK’s political clout by encouraging countries to revoke discriminatory legislation, was strongly backed by Prime Minister Cameron who said “I want Britain to be a global beacon for reform.”
Well played Britain!
Is this really “well-played”? I don’t know if:
(a) seems like this could be quite detrimental to a lot of people from a lot of nations if they don’t conform - is this the best way to do it?
(b) given how we openly give arms deals and military aid to countries with shitty human rights abuses, I can’t help but feel this isn’t at all genuine
(via projectqueer)
