The Public Scrutiny of Bruce Jenner’s Gender Identity

Bruce Jenner is changing. Yep we all know that. It does in fact even look like he might be in transition. Now as he is a ‘public figure’ people feel entitled to know more about him than he has released. He is mercilessly hounded by paparazzi and rumors are posited on TV shows about his changes. I hear this snooping into his business as justified as he is on TV. No. People are not entitled to all the information they can squeeze about their celebrity obsession. People are only entitled to watch the TV shows the Kardashians put on the tube, and only if they have paid for the cable or satellite, or they are viewing from a set that a friend has paid for the privilege of viewing said shows. That is it. He has a contract of some form with a production company to be part of a TV show. What they show you on the show is all you are entitled to know about this family. If Bruce is going through a private transition that he is not comfortable speaking on publicly, then it is a violation of his humanity to pry and speculate publicly about his private life.

I hope Wendy Williams and all the other gum flappers who have the audacity to speak on this personal private issue, feel like scum for how they are treating Bruce. He does not owe any of us any explanations. We are not entitled to gossip maliciously about him just because he is on our TV sets. It is not healthy and it is hurtful when we pry into people’s private lives. I know humans are prone to gossip but we need to strive to be better.
Sure go ahead and discuss all the stuff you see on the shows that Bruce is part of and have fun. But whatever is being kept private should not be violated.

If Bruce is in transition I feel for them with all my heart. I cannot imagine the personal hell it must be to go through something so personal and intrinsically private as transition, and then to have the gossip sharks circling all around the issue. Transition is not a public mater. Transition is a personal issue and it is not your business to pry into another person’s privacy.

My advice to Bruce Jenner if they are in transition: Just jump in and get it over fast. Come out with a statement from your publicist and move away for awhile; transition in a country where you will not be hounded by the paparazzi and gossips. When you are ready for public life again, come out with a fabulous splash and a new reality show. {Hey you gotta pay bills like the rest of us right? And a reality show is easy money for you and your family.}

 

The Acquaintance Relationship

What is an acquaintance? According to the dictionary it is in most cases {and of which this is all about}: a person known to one, but usually not a close friend.

There seem to be many types of acquaintances we encounter in our lives. Let us divide them up in a few categories so we may delve into the topic I am reaching for more clearly.

Situational Acquaintance: these are the people you meet and have contact with due to life circumstances. Such as the various service and goods providers one comes into contact with as a consumer. Ranging from the butcher who is always at the counter the days you show up to the market to the police officer who gives you a ticket.

Family Acquaintance: these are the people who you know due to their proximity to a family member.

Friendly Acquaintance: these are the people you are connected in some fashion be it work, friends, family or indeed any other social connection, but your relationship is not what one could classify as a friends relationship. Let us divide them into two subcategories:

               A} People who you know but have no friendship feelings for
               B} People who you are almost friends with but due to many reasons you are not friends

It is the Friendly Acquaintance {B} relationship I wish to discuss, so now that we have that out of the way:

I have been thinking that perhaps this is the most vital of our social relationships in some ways. You know who these people are.
They are the people who you may have contact with on occasion, they are one of your friends other friends or they are connected to you via work, or a social group. You recognize each other and know each other by name. You will stop and exchange pleasantries and then move on about your day. You do not often initiate contact with these people and when you see them it is a pleasant surprise. You like these folks but for some reason you are not friends.
So what is the role of this social position in a healthy social circle? Support of the social structure would be my guess. If it is your friends’ best friend, or your study buddy in some class, the best role one can fulfill is the moral and social support role.
When you are in the role of friendly acquaintance you are part of the backdrop of another’s life and they serve in this capacity for you in return. They are your peers and they are in some ways part of the defining characteristics of your personal social circle. You are in return the same for them.

The nice thing about these relationships is they tend to honesty. Now I am not talking about those people who one may have rivalry with. Enemies and rivals is a completely different social structure system than what I am talking about. A friendly acquaintance is not a rival.
A friendly acquaintance typically has no reason to bullshit you and often you can count on them for a neutral point of view when you need to talk something out but talking with friends or family is either not possible or would be socially awkward.

There seems to be an aversion to admitting that a person is not a friend but is actually an acquaintance. Everyone must be friends, especially in the FaceBook era with the social media site referring to all of one’s social contacts as friends. This aversion to referring to people as an acquaintance is doing us all a disservice.
Enjoy your acquaintances and be the best acquaintance you can be for your society. Approach these relationships with best of intentions.

Why Trans* Women Should Reject HRC’s Apology

Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin gave a tepid, sort of apology at the Southern Comfort Conference Atlanta today for HRC’s lack of working with TS women.
Here is his speech as reported by The Advocate:

Hello! Thank you! I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without strong Arkansas women like that. Love you, mom.

It’s an honor to be here with all of you at Southern Comfort, where so many transgender people find strength and fellowship, and where so many allies can come to listen and learn.

I want to thank the organizers for the months and months of hard work that went into making this conference the success that it is — the Southern Comfort board members Lexie, Stefanie, Blake, Phyllis, and Christy, and special thanks JoAnn and Lisa for all your leadership as well.

I want to cut right to the chase here today. There’s an elephant in this room, and, well, it’s me.

Some of you may be wondering what I am doing here. Some of the more skeptical among you, particularly those I don’t yet know, may think I’m lost. I promise you I’m not. I’m here for a pretty simple reason. I’m here because I want to be here. And I’ll tell you why.

A few months ago, I was at the Ohio State University in Columbus for an HRC event — our Columbus annual gala, as a matter of fact.

Anyone here from Columbus might know that the Student Union at OSU is this big open building with this huge atrium that stretches all the way to the top floor, with event space on each level.

Our dinner was on the second floor. And when I arrived the HRC crowd had already turned out.

But when I looked up through the atrium to the third floor, I saw that there was a conference going on. Some of the attendees had noticed the activity below; they were clustered around the balcony, looking down at us.

It was a trans conference. The largest in Ohio. The 6th Annual TransOhio Symposium, organized by the courageous Shane Morgan. They were gathering after a string of trans women were murdered in Ohio last year. Another murder took place shortly after that conference was over.

And I’m going to tell you the honest truth: I had no idea the conference was happening before that night. And here all these committed transgender advocates and allies were—scholars, educators, everyday folks and their families there to support them. And instead of all of us working together, taking stock of all of our progress and the challenges ahead, and finding comfort in each other’s company, “they” were upstairs, and “we” were downstairs.

And, in that moment, despite all the progress the LGBT movement and HRC in particular have made on transgender issues in the past couple of years…

No matter how many brilliant, new transgender and allied board members, volunteer leaders and staff members are helping HRC broaden our work…

Despite every inclusive state non-discrimination bill we’ve fought for…

No matter how many thousands of hours and millions of dollars we put into the campaign for a fully inclusive ENDA…

There that divide was, for all to see. Plain as day.

I knew in that moment in the Student Union that something was deeply, profoundly wrong. I went up to that third floor. Introduced myself to as many people as I could. I felt like the biggest jerk in the world, because I knew that gesture wasn’t nearly enough. It wasn’t anything, really. I promised next year we would work more closely, that we would coordinate for the 7th Annual Symposium to ensure HRC had a deeper presence and a real partnership.

But all throughout that evening I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. We all know why that divide between the trans community and HRC exists, and taking a big step toward closing it is my responsibility.

So I am here today, at Southern Comfort, to deliver a message. I deliver it on behalf of HRC, and I say it here in the hopes that it will eventually be heard by everyone who is willing to hear it.

HRC has done wrong by the transgender community in the past, and I am here to formally apologize.

I am sorry for the times when we stood apart when we should have been standing together.

Even more than that, I am sorry for the times you have been underrepresented or unrepresented by this organization. What happens to trans people is absolutely central to the LGBT struggle. And as the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, HRC has a responsibility to do that struggle justice, or else we are failing at our fundamental mission.

I came here today in the hopes that we can begin a new chapter together. But I also came here to tell you the truth. We’re an organization that is evolving. We may make mistakes. We may stumble. But what we do promise is to work with you sincerely, diligently, with a grand sense of urgency, listening and learning every step of the way.

And I also want to be clear that I’m not asking you to be the ones to take the first leap of faith. That’s our job. My mom taught me that respect isn’t given, it’s earned.

Over the past two years HRC has dramatically expanded the scope of all of our programs to reach more trans communities than ever before, and I want to take just a few minutes to talk about that work.

First things first: an inclusive ENDA. It’s an absolutely essential piece of legislation. It will change millions of lives for the better. And as an organization, HRC will continue to invest in and fight for an inclusive ENDA.

But even a broad, inclusive ENDA isn’t enough.

If you’re trans, a fully inclusive ENDA doesn’t do much good if you’re living on the street because you’ve been kicked out of your apartment…if you haven’t been able to finish school…if even getting a job interview in the first place seems light-years away.

That’s why, in the next session Congress, HRC will lead the campaign for a fully-inclusive, comprehensive, LGBT civil rights bill. A bill with non-discrimination protections that don’t stop at employment, but that finally touch every aspect of our lives—from housing, to public accommodations, to credit, to federal funding, to the education we all need to succeed and thrive.

And I’m going to keep being honest with you, this is not going to be an easy fight.

We’re going to need everyone working together, arm in arm, and even then it could take years. As we’ve seen in non-discrimination fights from the city of Houston to, most recently, Fayetteville, Arkansas, our opponents will stop at nothing to halt our progress with their scare tactics and lies. Let me tell you what… The haters have got bathroom fever, and they’ve got it bad.

But I want to say something here today. Whenever the inevitable chant about “bathrooms” begins, they’re not just attacking you, they’re attacking me, they’re attacking us. We can’t let them win. We must hold the line. We will tell the truth. Because these are our lives, and this is the moral thing to do.

But even that’s not enough, is it? After all, it was less than two months after a Maryland coalition, including HRC, helped enact a statewide non-discrimination law that two trans women, Kandy Hall and Mia Henderson, were brutally murdered in Baltimore.

That massive disconnect … the disconnect between legal protection and lived experience … is what too many in this country don’t understand or, quite frankly, even realize. We can’t afford to just change laws.

In rooms like this one, for years, you have been making the case that we’ve got to change society at a fundamental level by lifting up more trans people, your lives, and your stories.

You’re right. And if there’s one thing we’ve all learned in this movement, it’s that once Americans come to really know us, it starts to become impossible to discriminate against us. And at our best, HRC offers an unmatched communications and public affairs platform to amplify LGBT stories across the country.

In just the past few weeks we have demanded stronger efforts from local and state authorities to protect transgender people, particularly trans women of color ...

We’re proud to support Casa Ruby and Ruby Corado’s courageous work to support trans youth on their path to employment …

We’ve lifted up the stories of transgender Southerners like Andrea through our expanded work in the Deep South …

And yes, we joined a group of national LGBT organizations in telling the Michigan Womyn’s Festival that transwomen are women too.

But we’re committed to doing more than just speaking out. It’s essential that HRC be meeting transgender people where they are, listening, and acting to create positive change. And we have an incredibly important foundation to build on.

Over 10 years, for instance, our Corporate Equality Index has helped shift trans-inclusive healthcare plans from a rarity in corporate America to a best practice that is the policy of more than 340 major companies.

Our Healthcare Equality Index has helped bring transgender competency training and patient and employee nondiscrimination policies to hospitals from the heart of the Deep South to each and every Veterans hospital in the country.

Our Welcoming Schools program has brought safer schools and well-trained teachers to thousands of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth.

But we’ve got to do even more.

Over the past two years I have worked directly with HRC’s staff to dramatically expand our work that distinctly impacts transgender people. From the workplace, to the schoolhouse, and from the hospital, to the church pew.

Think about it this way. Everywhere you’ve ever seen an equal sign sticker on the back of a car and even pick-up trucks — every small town in the heart of a red state—we can touch that place. We can change lives there, for the better, for good.

Andrea mentioned HRC’s newly expanded work in the Deep South, work that is reaching more people than ever before. Today, we are also significantly expanding and modernizing our HIV/AIDS efforts, because we know that so many communities — including communities of color, LGB people, and especially trans women, battle silence and stigma because of this epidemic. So many have done so much to change that, and we want to lift up that work and expand upon it however and wherever we can.

But we can’t stop there, either.

I talked a bit earlier about antitrans violence. Horrific and senseless murders that stain every state in this country and too often go unnoticed and unsolved. It’s time to call it what it is: Antitrans violence is a national crisis.

Look, this is a complicated issue that brings in race, employment, poverty and so many other factors, and none of us in this room have the solution today. But what we do know is we can never, ever accept this violence as a given. And together we have got to turn the tide.

I’m here today to declare that a core aspect of our work moving forward will be to work with you to develop a national response to the epidemic of antitrans violence in this country.

Some of our senior team members, folks like our director of foundation strategy Jay Brown, our senior legislative counsel Alison Gill, and our new deputy chief of staff Hayden Mora are central to this work. And of course, our Board of Directors, including the tireless Meghan Stabler, who spoke to you here last year, and Mollie Simmons, who is here with us today, is working with us every step of the way. All of us are undertaking conversations with movement leaders, community organizers and individuals who are already at the forefront of tackling this issue.

We need all hands on deck.

They are supporting our trailblazing State and Municipal Equality team in undertaking conversations with movement leaders, community organizers and individuals who are already at the forefront of tackling this issue.

None of this work would be possible without trans advocates. I am so grateful for those who have been fighting for trans equality, literally, for decades and decades. From Shannon Minter, Mara Keisling and Ruby Corado, Lourdes Hunter, to Diego Sanchez, Monica Roberts and Masen Davis, and every single one of you in this room. You are not simply movement leaders, you’re an inspiration. You’re an inspiration to me personally.

Look, by now it should be clear that I didn’t come here today to tell you that HRC is perfect and that you’re wrong for not seeing it. Because we’re NOT perfect, and you’re NOT wrong.

What I am here to say is what a young trans man told me in the heart of Mississippi. It was a meeting with a bunch of local LGBT people in a church community center outside Jackson. There must have been 20 folks in that room, everyone telling their stories, sharing their struggle. But his story sticks out most of all.

You see, Bryson’s a city worker. Transitioned on the job. And almost overnight, he began to face unprecedented harassment. They made him shave his dreadlocks, even though his other male colleagues wore their hair long. They even went after his wife at her place of work, so much so that she was forced off the job. He was just completely run-down, with only his family standing beside him.

I couldn’t believe it. Why did he come to that meeting in the church that day? Why risk so much to tell me his story, despite all he’d been through and was still going through? He looked me in the eye and said, “there’s always going to be hope for a change.”

On that night in Columbus, Ohio, standing on that third floor balcony, I thought about Bryson. I thought about that young man in Mississippi. How can we, all of us, ever make that change happen if this divide between us persists?

My friends, please continue to hold HRC accountable. Hold me accountable.

Please be in conversation with us as we do more than we’ve ever done before.

We have come too far together not to share our progress.

We have come too far not to share the fight against the obstacles ahead.

There are a lot of people like Bryson out there hoping for a change.

And I promise you here, with my sweet Southern mom and all of you as my witness, that we won’t stop fighting until everyone in this room and everyone across this country has the equal protection, equal opportunity, and equal dignity that we all deserve as human beings.

Thank you very much.

 

My main issues with his speech is that he gave no indication that he saw HRC as anything other than the only logical leader in the LGBT to spearhead and advance the causes of trans* people. There are a number of National level TS/TG organizations that HRC should be working with in a secondary role. HRC has messed up too many times in the past for TS women to ever feel we can let HRC lead. If HRC wants to truly work with TS women then they should partner without trying to assume the leader position.

My second issue is that he never apologized for specific slights and insults. He generalizes and glosses over some real issues. The structure of his speech reads like an executive telling his subordinates that ‘yes I messed up, but WE are going to move on and I am the boss’. That just doesn’t work for this activist.
How about we just take one example of recent behavior by HRC that demonstrates the hubris and self importance of the HRC… the issue where HRC held a fundraiser in Seattle but none of that money went to the local activists:

An Open Letter to HRC on the eve of their HRC Seattle Dinner

 Greetings Dean, Christine, and Scott,

 I was recently asked by a prominent LGBT community leader if I was planning on attending the HRC Seattle dinner next weekend- I told her there was no possible way. You probably haven't heard my name before, I wouldn't be surprised - but a quick rundown of who I am. I work as the Policy Director at Basic Rights Oregon, I also was the founder of Gender Justice League in Seattle, a Seattle Pride Grand Marshall this year, and the founder of the Coalition for Inclusive Healthcare with Marsha Botzer at ERW/Ingersoll. My work has lead to the repeal of Transgender Healthcare exclusions in all private and public insurance (including Medicaid, all major insurance carriers, and for state employees) in both Washington and Oregon in the last 3 years, New prison in jail policies for the housing of Transgender people both states, both trends that I have helped to spread nationally. I'm not tooting my own horn - I just want to contextualize my email and where I am coming from as a largely unfunded activist. I also designed and taught the second Transgender Medicine class in the country at University of Washington - that is to say, I am no slouch.

 As an activist over the last 4 years before joining BRO - I worked on a shoe string budget. GJL's annual budget is $44,000 - not even enough to pay a minimum wage salary. I worked 2 part time jobs - as program manager for Q-Law (the LGBT Bar Association) and as the ED at Gender Justice League in our first 3 years of forming. I took a position in Oregon because it was the only LGBT activist job in the northwest that paid a living wage - I continue to live and work in Seattle 3 days a week, a far from ideal situation.

 All of this is to say - while I know HRC was substantively involved in the Ref 74 campaign. I was feeling mightily resentful and "what have you done for us lately" in Seattle when asked if I would attend. Particularly given the fact that ERW has all but fallen apart with no staff and no agenda to speak of, our efforts to remove exclusionary health insurance policies have gone completely unfunded (we have not received a single grant) -- and our donor base - the Transgender community is largely living in poverty, unemployed, and thus unable to contribute significantly to local organizations stunting our growth for work that if it were around marriage would have been far more well funded given how effective we have been. It landed hard to see HRC hosting a large-ticket fundraiser in our back yard; all while not sending a penny back to our state or community.

 I feel a bit disappointed that you have chosen to highlight Joe Manganiello - great a True Blood celebrity, plaintiff couples in a Prop 8 case (nothing to do with Washington), A couple from Georgia (finally you are trying to work in the south, but where were you for the last decade - I was working with folks there in 2005 onward) .... but not a single relevant regional activist in recognition of the actual work that is happening in Seattle.

 It feels a bit like HRC are a vampire who has swooped in to suck the blood from the largely untapped major donors of Seattle (without ERW around)-- while giving essentially nothing back to our community, and while highlighting NOT A SINGLE piece of actual work happening in our state. I realize you all are local Seattle folks - that's awesome, but where is the recognition of the work happening on the ground here?

HRC has a huge stage. A megaphone compared to organizations like Gender Justice League or LGBT Allyship, or Gender Odyssey. Queer Youth Space - the only LGBT youth led organization in our state just shut their doors for good. Only 11 shelter beds are available on any given night for LGBTQ youth.... and yet - none of this will be discussed on your stage to donors in our state.

 I wish you all had taken this opportunity to elevate local work - not done by HRC.

 But then again, that might not empty the pockets of your donors; hell it might even benefit local activists who do not have a well oiled development machine, and we can't have that!

 I met Fred recently in April in Denver at the Equality Federation Communications Bootcamp. He seems nice enough. I wonder though - how will HRC ever move past it's troublesome community reputation as a rapacious insidious national organization that shoves aside Transgender people, Queer and Trans people of color, and local activists to suck the blood, life, and in particular MONEY out of our communities to fund a rather luke-warm Trans exclusionary national agenda?

 I wish I could attend - but on an activist salary actually doing the work, I cannot afford luxuries like a $225.00 a plate dinner to hear about work completely irrelevant to my community.

 I wish you the best of luck with your event -- I apologize if my words sting or seem harsh. It is disappointing to see HRC making the same mistakes perennially and to have failed to learn from the past. I wonder - with the $200,000 you all raise next weekend - how much of it will come back to Seattle to fund the seriously important work happening here? Not a penny I suspect, and that is deeply disappointing and only builds ill will among influential community leaders such as myself -- it does nothing to mend the fences with the Trans community. A disappointing choice, but then again - you all have the cash to continue to make so many disappointing choices these days.
With warm regard & best of luck on your event next weekend,
 Danielle Askini

TS people have a long and rather bitter history with HRC. I have not even scratched the surface of the list of grievances TS folks have with HRC. So long as HRC insists that it is the leader in the fight for trans* rights, and it refuses to not ‘just’ apologize for mistakes and insults but correct past issues, I cannot in good faith encourage my trans* brothers and sisters to support them.
Now how do they fix things? Well ‘sorry’ is a start, but opening up their coffers and giving some of the money they have to local organizations working on queer causes is a good start. And I am not even talking Grants…I mean direct donations to the general funds of Trans* organizations without stipulations, riders or expected reports.

Basically I am saying “HRC, put your money where your mouth is.”

Sorry HRC, but this TS activist and advocate politely declines your apology. I think we deserve more as a class from you guys at this point.

You can not have a perfect society if you walk away from it.

Sometimes hurt people lash out.

Recently we had a kerfuffle in the TS community. A prominent TS woman and another semi prominent TS woman had a go at each other.
This devolved into a camps forming matter.

But this is not what I wanted to talk about. A comment I saw in one of the posts about this fight prompted this post.

I want to talk about the people who decide that because the TS community is fractured and doesn’t get along that they will not help anymore.

Well excuse me!

This is a community that is in allot of pain, and has suffered trauma after trauma. We are incapable of functioning as a cohesive unit. I saw one TS person make the comment this morning “I too have left the trans community to wither and die on its own ... the community is a creature that will surely consume itself, tail first.”

This last sentiment was the most privileged and bullshit thing I have read in a month of Sundays!
If you want to fix a community you do not do it by blowing it off; the idea that only functional people deserve respect and to be worked with is anathema to the cause of equal rights. The idea that you are only willing to work with people who get along perfectly is a self defeating idea that is more poisonous than the evil the perpetrator of inequality gives out.

You take the community as is. If it is not up to your personal standards you do not walk away shaking your head and decrying how they will never get it. Of course they won’t! The people who could help walk away out of some idea that life needs to be perfect.

You do not get a perfect world. You do not get perfect people. You get to work with the same bag of dysfunction as the rest of us. I am sorry we are not perfect and up to the standards some of you may hold as dear.

 

We are a dysfunctional lot. There is no way in hell that yelling at us how ‘screwed up we are’ is going to fix it. You fix it by rolling up your sleeves and accepting that your work is cut out for you. If you truly want to heal the community you accept that there are some seriously hurt and dysfunctional people in the community and you trudge on.  

Fallon Fox: A Woman at War

I will be honest and lay it out there:
If Fallon Fox was not a transgender woman, I wouldn’t be a fan. I only know about her because she came out of the closet as a TS woman who is involved in mixed martial arts. She pretty much was forced out as there were members of the press ready to go public with her private information.  As I pay attention to all things trans* I paid attention to Fallon. It certainly isn’t the fights; I do not watch the fights.

When she first came out it was a little obvious she had no desire to be a poster girl. But it seems society had different plans for Ms. Fox and the role of advocate and TS role model was thrust on her.

In the time since she was forced out by unscrupulous members of the press, she has represented and really come up to task in the capacity of a role model for TS rights advocates.
She has written articles, made public appearances and been active on social media all for transgender rights. All while maintaining her training and participating in the fighting world, she has been a stalwart social warrior.

Well, as fighters are prone, she has a fight upcoming soon. She will be fighting Tamikka “Boom Boom” Brent’s on September 13^th in Illinois.

Well cool, so big deal, she is fighting…it is what fighters do.
Ah but see there is a bit of a rub to all this:
Tamikka said some shit. {I know, that is part of the game…fighters talk smack about each other, but this time it is different.}
This is a quote from Ms. Brents
“I am tired of Fox getting all this publicity just for being a transgender fighter rather than having great skills. I think it’s unfair anyway but as long as the opponent knows and accepts the fight then go ahead… I mean Allana took her to the third and she’s not even a 145er; she’s a more of a 135er who can probably go even lower to 125 pounds. She’s using all that attention as a good publicity tactic – go ahead and ride that free publicity train as long as you can. I’ll gladly derail that s#*t quickly so the world can go back to giving the publicity and notice to the female fighters who earn it. It just pisses me off that Women’s MMA has fought to get away from being seen as a side show. She’s using that to further her career while setting Women’s MMA back in the process.”

I know, pretty petty and downright disrespectful of Fallon and all transsexual women. But wait….
It gets even better:
Ms. Brents is known for walking into the ring with an LGBT rainbow PRIDE flag draped about her proud shoulders as a cape, and she is a lesbian.

So yet again we have a lesbian woman playing the trans-women are not real women card. This is a bugaboo that pokes its biased head up allot and it really needs to be retired.  

Had Tamikka not said the transphobic stuff and just kept her smack talk in the realm of normal fighter trash talk I might not find myself automatically rooting for Fallon. I would have been very invested into the fight on both sides. I have a lesbian mother and identify as lesbian myself. I might have leaned to Fallon. She is well known and well loved in the circle of TS advocates and activists I like to consider friends. Fallon has been a public face of TS women and a good advocate, whereas Tamikka has only walked into the ring with a flag on her shoulders a couple times.

With all that in mind, I hope Fallon Fox wins by a first round KO. Oh and Ms. Brents needs to leave the PRIDE flag in her locker for this fight. She is not the champion for LGBT rights. That distinction belongs to Fallon.  

 

 

The End of Prohibition in the Marijuana Era

First off I want to dedicate this article to the memory of my father A. Kent Bussell. For better or worse, for right or for wrong my father gave me my taste for marijuana and a sense of being a weed aficionado.
Now my father did not smoke me out my first time. The name of that person shall sit with me in secret as that person really should have not been smoking out a 7 year old. But it is what it is.
At about 10 or 11 years of age my dad gave up on fighting with me over the weed I was swiping from him and he gave me some rules of use and we slowly over the years became stoner buddies. See dad was a weed dealer and the stuff was always around. Weed put me through school, put clothes on my back and food on the table pretty much the entire time I lived with my father as a kid. For years I was his protégé, his mini me partner in crime; we would scale up more pot in a month than most people will see in a life time. Early on I developed a delicate palate for marijuana and I would grade the weed for dad. I probably shouldn’t go into to many details of these felonies my father committed, but he has long passed on and I am pretty sure the D.E.A. already has a much larger file on my father than I do, it is no big deal. Everyone who knew Kent, knew he was a drug dealer. This is no big revelation.

Dad was of two minds on the entire idea of marijuana prohibition repeal. On the one hand he wanted to be able to go into a store and be able to buy it without any worries about getting busted. Before being a weed dealer Kent was a weed smoker. He might sell you all the pot in the world, but he would never sell his last bag. On the other hand he knew that weed prohibition repeal would put guys like him out of work and it would take away the single best tool in his tool box for selling coke. (Yeah, dad sold coke, and some other heavy drugs.)
See the best way to build a coke or meth empire is to already have access to the local black market. You can show up 'Johnny Come Lately' in just about any town or city and start selling weed in one day and very few eyebrows are raised. But if you are new to a town and you try to start selling coke or meth you raise eyebrows, you step on toes and it gets a person busted fast or in a grave.
But with a weed empire in place it is much easier to ferret out whom is into the harder stuff.
I won’t go into the details of how to do it as I don’t want to give ideas to people, just trust me on this. You NEED marijuana to safely set up a hard drug empire. Weed is the key.

Daddy also used to say many times “the day someone figures out how to get the government to accept tax money on a weed sale, is the day weed becomes legal and I am out of a job.”

Personally I never thought I would see the day. I am not the only one who knows the dirty ins and outs of the drug trade. I am not the only one who knows the prominence and importance of marijuana to the black market. Big players, scary people who would kill for profit, who have pull and power know this stuff and make money from weed and from the black market that was created on the back of weed.
So I was rather surprised that Washington and Colorado have turned a new leaf in this department and they are now allowing the sale of marijuana in proper stores.

This morning Sevan and I were driving in Spokane to see a friend and on the way we spotted a marijuana store. I noticed there was an open sign and people were going in and out.
Well we did a u-turn after talking about it for a few seconds and we scrounged together our dollars. As I walked into the store and saw the meager over priced offerings I remembered my father and how we would talk about this day and if it would ever come or not.
I remembered the stress of so many back alleys and in the park weed deals over the years. Memories of going to the bad part of town and entering a building I knew for a fact was a front for a well known gang with international name recognition just to get some weed ran through my mind. The worry if I may get robbed, sold bunk weed, or laced weed was ever present when making a new connection. But there were none of those elements of danger. As it dawned on me just how momentous this moment really was I started to feel wonder and awe. The emotions started to whelm up in me. Until the last election when we legalized I never thought I would see this day. Even though we had passed the referendum part of me still doubted I would ever see this day.
Eventually it came up to my turn. The young man asked me what I wanted in the friendly manner one is accustomed to in other stores. It took a monumental effort to not burst into tears as I stood ready to make my request. I made my selection and paid my money then made my way out of the store quickly because I could feel the tears coming.
By the time I got to my car I was a blubbery, snotty, tear stained mess. Years and years of waiting for this day culminated in a small purchase of only a gram of mid grade marijuana that I paid more for than it was worth. Honestly I really didn’t even need the marijuana as I have a little bit of my medical grade crispy treats left over from last year’s harvest. But that gram of weed wasn’t about need; it was solely so I could do it. I bought that marijuana wishing my father was standing next to me, imagining how he would be joyful to be in that store. I bought it because this day has been so long overdue. I bought it because I want desperately to see the end of black market marijuana. No one knows better than me the price the drug wars have exacted on this society. I grew up at the knee of a drug lord seeing first hand how brutal it got over the years. I want the illegal trade to end.

As we drove off and I was composing myself I found myself wondering if back when alcohol prohibition was repealed if some woman had a tearful moment as she bought her first legal bottle of gin or whiskey. The feeling that a long hard righteous battle had been won is a feeling of anti-climax in a way. Since the day I bought my first bag of pot I have been part of the drug wars. Many times in the past I got involved in the marijuana trade simply out of a sense of duty and honor. The idea that the government was trying to eradicate this plant set wrong with me. That people were going to prison for a substance with so much potential while holding so few side effects was an injustice. I knew prohibition was wrong and I did my part to make sure that when prohibition was repealed we would have marijuana available.

What didn’t happen as I bought my marijuana is the most important part and the message society really needs to hear:
As I walked into the store I didn’t need to worry the marijuana dealer might have a gun, it didn’t even cross my mind. As I said hello to the store tenders I was greeted with a smile and in a professional manner and I was not intimidated. No body guard of questionable repute was guarding the dealer and weed. As I handed over my money for my package I was not offered a line of coke, a puff of meth or a dose of acid. There was no chance of that as no reasonable business would risk such idiocy. I was not pressured into buying more marijuana than I could afford. I was not invited to participate in any form of felonious activities. And that is the most important thing! No crime was involved, and no one conspired to commit a crime. It was a simple government sanctioned and TAXED transaction. It was just like going to any other store selling a specialty product.

Now at the exorbitant price of $25 a gram there is no way you can put a dent in the black market. The price is too high. If the local businesses can get the price down to $12.50 then the black market will start to slowly diminish. The reason why I say $12.50 is the magic number is because the average street price of a gram of high quality marijuana is $10.00. At $12.50 that is only two and a half bucks higher than the street price. This is two and a half bucks spent to not get busted buying black market weed. I am pretty sure the majority of pot smokers would gladly pay a $2.50 fee to not get busted. As it stands at $25.00 a gram for moderate grade weed it is a no brainer for the pot head already accustomed to breaking the law. It is a no brainer, the stoner is going to go to the black market dealer who will sell the pot head 2 grams for $20.00 and the criminal marijuana buyer has 5 bucks left over for Cheetos, Pepsi and Funyuns. The legal sellers are not going to be able to compete with the criminal sellers at these prices. Now sure you will see legal store sales to plenty of novelty buyers, marijuana tourists and people who do not smoke regularly as they do not have a dealer, but the heavy marijuana user is not going to be your customer. The person who is used to paying $10.00 is not going to be willing to pay $25.00; it is just simple economics here.
My advice to the powers that be in Washington State and the providers is if you are serious about putting an end to black market marijuana is to lower the price and open a bunch more stores. For the first 5 years completely undercut the black market. Drop the local price and you will squeeze out the black market dealer. As it stands, with folks having legal right to smoke, the black market will only get larger. I can tell you that a grower can make a enough money to make it worthwhile by selling as low as $5 a gram, at $10 a gram they are comfortable. Now that the prices are so high in the legal stores the black market dealer can safely push his product price up to $15.00 a gram and cut out the legal store from the loop and live very well.

But let us not bury the lead with negativity.

Today I walked into a professional marijuana store and bought marijuana. It has finally happened daddy. I wish you were here to see this day.
So as I spark this next doobie I dedicate it to the memory of my father who would have been just tickled pink to smoke a joint that has been taxed.

What Now?

What Now?
{a post Pride rumination}

Pride month has come to an end. Now that we are properly into July we can take all of the last couple months in and consider what to do now…

Tranny Bingo is still a thing, the name hasn’t changed.
The entire LGBT internal war over slurs has died down until the next major offender says something stupid.
The negative things that happened to trans* women at a few PRIDE events across the nation have slid away to be forgotten.
Radfems are still rabidly anti TS women.We have not reached a place of agreement between gay men and TS women over the use of transphobic slurs. The word war seems to have simmered to a dull mutual disdain. There are no major flame ups between the groups at this moment, but there could be a spark set it off at any time.

From the vantage point of this writers view of the world, stagnancy seems to best describe the state of the queer world.
Yes we are making gains in the courts with marriage rights being affirmed for all people, but there is not the normal atmosphere of exuberance one used to see when these judgments were handed down. Sure the various LGBTQQAI…etc/Queer organizations make a public post on FaceBook or an article on their respective webpage’s but there is no fire in the ranks.
It is a done deal; it is just a matter of time for the last of the hold outs to equality fall before the onslaught of judicial righteousness we have seen over the last few months.

Now what?

Where do we as a class turn our energies?

To what shall we turn to next?

There are many things left undone, but there seems to be little motivation left in the queer universe.
Now I am not talking about the organizers and ‘usual suspects’ in the various groups. Those people have their own needs to do the work that are always individual to the advocate and do not apply to the mass populace. I do appreciate the work of our leaders, but without people to lead we are left with skeleton crews keeping the lights on so to speak.

Perhaps the people need a break from the cause. I understand that, I really do. But as we rest on our laurels there are still some major issues in our society that directly impact people of color and trans* people that must be addressed.
We can not just sit back and enjoy the break we feel entitled to when there is still so much left to do.

Sheila Jeffreys Strikes Again: or, How a Cisgender person decided Trans* lives are her property to evaluate.

Ms. Jeffreys' a long time denouncer of trans* women has struck again with her newest book, "Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism".

My first feelings on this matter are: How the hell does she feel entitled to critically analyze the politics of “transgenderism”, why does she keep railing against transsexual women, why does she feel she has any currency in the topic? {Transgenderism?!! WTF is that?}

She has forced her way into the discussion of trans* lives and bodies for a long time. Trans* women have been dealing with her telling the world we are vile for a long time. It is getting to the point with her that she is making her money on the backs of transgender lives and this is unjust. She rails against us and says vile things, then writes a book and makes money from our suffering?! NO!! If she was any sort of decent human she would donate every cent of the proceeds from that book to charity. Preferably a trans* one, but we all know that isn’t going to happen.
When she isn’t writing about “transgenderism” and instead is focusing in on real women’s/womyn’s issues she is smart and articulate. She proposes things to contemplate on that take some tough work. You will check your privilege at the door and think deep when you read her works. She is a true feminist and she is respected in many circles.
However that respect is then transferred to a topic she is not qualified to speak on and many feminists take her every word as gospel. This really harms TS women when such a prominent figure in the feminist world takes such a hard and vile stance on them. Transgender people of all stripes are a marginalized community and we really do not need prominent public figures making our lives more difficult.  

To get a little idea of the Ms. Jeffreys’ opinion on the matter let us turn to a wiki section on her views on trans* people:

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Jeffreys

{Jeffreys has received attention for her views on transgenderism, transsexualism and gender reassignment. In an interview, Bindel explains that Jeffreys believes transsexual surgery "is an extension of the beauty industry offering cosmetic solutions to deeper rooted problems" and that in a society without gender this would be unnecessary.[5] Jeffreys has presented these views in various forums. In a 1997 article in the Journal of Lesbian Studies, for example, Jeffreys contended that "transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights." Jeffreys also argued that "the vast majority of transsexuals still subscribe to the traditional stereotype of women" and that by transitioning medically and socially, trans women are "constructing a conservative fantasy of what women should be. They are inventing an essence of womanhood which is deeply insulting and restrictive."[

Jeffreys' opinions on these topics have been challenged by transgender activists. Roz Kaveney, a trans woman and critic of Jeffreys, wrote in The Guardian that Sheila Jeffreys and radical feminists who share her views are "acting like a cult." Kaveney compared Jeffreys' desire to ban transsexual surgery to the Catholic Church's desire to ban abortion, arguing that both proposals bear negative "implications for all women." Finally, Kaveney criticized Jeffreys' and her supporters for alleged "anti-intellectualism, emphasis on innate knowledge, fetishisation of tiny ideological differences, heresy hunting, conspiracy theories, rhetorical use of images of disgust, talk of stabs in the back and romantic apocalypticism."} 

Ms. Jeffreys has stood against the entire idea that gender in some ways may be innate. She clings to this notion like a religious fanatic clings to their outdated beliefs.
We need only look to the case of David Reimer to see that there is indeed something innate to gender.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
 Admitting that there may be something to the entire idea of gender being innate does not take away from humanity.

I think that the fear that some of the clingers on of outdated ideals is that, in admitting that there are innate gendered differences, this will in some way invalidate a century of hard work by feminists. That is not a realistic fear. The ideal that all people are entitled to equal treatment will not go away. The fact that patriarchy oppresses women will not become untrue if gender may be innate.  The need for legislation to protect women and give them a fair shake will not go away with such a truth.
All it is saying is that there is something special and unique to being male or female that we have not yet pinned down.
Ms. Jefferys’,
I know that you must know that there is something about women that men do not have. There is a special something that other women recognize in other women. When we see each other there is the knowing smile and beaming of eyes, recognition of one woman to another that says, ‘I recognize my sister’.  

There is nothing wrong with saying that the sexes are different in some ways. No difference justifies patriarchy or oppression.

Back to her book:
From the book description on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Gender-Hurts-Feminist-Analysis-Transgenderism/dp/0415539404
{It is only recently that transgenderism has been accepted as a disorder for which treatment is available. In the 1990s, a political movement of transgender activism coalesced to campaign for transgender rights. Considerable social, political and legal changes are occurring in response and there is increasing acceptance by governments and many other organisations and actors of the legitimacy of these rights.
This provocative and controversial book explores the consequences of these changes and offers a feminist perspective on the ideology and practice of transgenderism, which the author sees as harmful. It explores the effects of transgenderism on the lesbian and gay community, the partners of people who transgender, children who are identified as transgender and the people who transgender themselves, and argues that these are negative. In doing so the book contends that the phenomenon is based upon sex stereotyping, referred to as 'gender' – a conservative ideology that forms the foundation for women's subordination. Gender Hurts argues for the abolition of ‘gender’, which would remove the rationale for transgenderism.


This book will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, feminism and feminist theory and gender studies.}

Ms. Jeffreys seeks to some way abolish gender and “transgenderism” which she calls a human rights violation.
Well that is very presumptuous of her. I am a transgender person and my human rights were not violated. I put the hormones in my body, not someone else. I begged the doctors to help me with my medical needs.
They agreed because they KNOW that transsexuals who do not transition kill themselves in high numbers. It has been reported that upwards of 41% of transgender people have attempted suicide. That is just the percentage of us who are still alive to report. The suicide rates of trans* people is sky high. No amount of criticism of policy will change the fact that trans* people who do not get treatment have a high mortality rate.
It has been shown that transition is the only cure for gender dysphoria. Until Ms. Jeffreys finds a cure for ‘transgender ideation’ that equals or exceeds the survival/success rate of current best practices, she should not be calling for the abolition of the treatment. If we did things her way then trans* people would never have the option to transition and we would wallow in misery.

Also, transgender people who live true to self report overwhelmingly that they are more content with life post transition. They go from depressed and unable to be productive in society, to productive members of society. That alone should be reason enough to just let us live in peace without feminist leaders labeling us as a sickness symptom of society.

So I have yet to read this book and the price tag associated with it is a little steep for my pocketbook. I will eventually get my hands on a second hand copy. I suspect that there will be nothing of new substance offered from her previous writings.

Have a great day,

Cynthia Lee

PRIDE Spokane 2014 in 2 days

In two days we will have PRIDE in Spokane. Our annual event dedicated to all things queer has been both work and fun for me for the last 5 years.
But this year is a bit different. This year I will walk in with fear of my peers.
Why?


The recent online wars over unacceptable trans* slurs between gay men and transsexual women has already spilled over at PRIDE in Los Angeles. In private spaces and here on this blog women have shared stories with me that describe negative behavior.
Trans* women have always reported being treated as less than at various PRIDE events.
These stories float through the community and as a result a large number of TS folks refuse to participate.
Which hastens the eventual split of LGB and T I see on the horizon.
Now I am not particularly thrilled that it is coming to it. Not at all. Just I feel I have read the tea leaves so to speak and they say the LGBT is going to go the way of OutServe-SLDN.


Back to PRIDE.
I know trans* people locally who will not go to this years PRIDE due to years of reported abuse and the recent on-line abuse of trans* women. I know a much larger number of trans* people across the nation who will not participate in their local PRIDE due to these issues.
Now there will be trans* people at the various PRIDE events this year and well into the future.
Trans* have been associated in the common with gay. It is a very wrong association but it is what it is.


Just because you see trans* people at your local PRIDE event does not mean that the T is on board with the LGB. It is not a signal that all is well.
When you go to PRIDE this year, look for the old guard T people and see how few of us are there. The newbie with the bright eyes and full of passion for the greater cause is nothing of an indication of how the T feel about the LGB at this time. That is called shiny bright newbie syndrome and it wears off fast.
Look to the social war weary eyes of the few old guard trans* people for the real answer. The guarded conversations with formerly gung ho human rights warriors may be a hint of wear our hearts are at.


Now I am a firm believer in community and working together, but I also understand human nature. Sometimes you have to tear down and re-build. As it stands we have a completely shaky structure. I understand those who are madly trying to shore up the structure. If you get the right braces in place you might just make things solid enough to withstand the test of time. I get that. But I do not think the building can ever be saved at this point.
A complete tear down and re-build is in order. Then we can get back to work as a community. Until then we just have a clusterfuck and no one likes a clusterfuck.