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.}

 

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 TERF and TRANS* War Continues

Recently the war between transgender exclusionary radical feminists and transgender women has ratcheted up.

There have been doxxings and verbal violence flying around from both sides.

At heart of the battle is that TERF activists refuse to accept that TS women are indeed women and TS women asserting that they are indeed women.
Now one would think that such a disagreement would remain academic and reserved for the halls of philosophers but at the insistence of certain feminist voices {Trans* and TERF} this issue is worth going to war over.

TERF activists want spaces for women born women to remain transgender free. Now that seems a sticky subject. Ok, fine I wasn’t socialized as a female during my male days, but I sure as hell wasn’t treated like one of the boys. Sure go ahead and have your bonding experiences with other like minded women. Go to the Michigan Women’s Music Fest and your private group, get together activities. Not exactly very welcoming to all women…
But it isn’t that simple. TERF voices are calling trans* women men. That trans* women should not be allowed into any woman only space, like public restrooms and locker-rooms. They maintain that transgender females are somehow intrinsically dangerous to natal women and children. Some go as far as to say we rape women virtually; using our transformed bodies as a ticket into women’s spaces. The entire premise of their argument is very fear of rape mongering.

See now I have a problem. Trans* women are women. Period. Transgender females are much more likely to be attacked in a restroom. When we ask TERF Henie Penny’s to cite the evidence for the alleged dangers TS women pose, we are treated to a new round of circular logic and argument. No real evidence is presented.

I ask:
Would you really send me and my trans* sisters to the men’s facilities?!
Not only is it dangerous for trans* women to go to the men’s facilities, it also would be disruptive to society at large.

Let me say this loud and clear to any TERF reading this: Your ‘discomfort’ at seeing a TS woman does not trump a TS woman’s right to pee in peace. Your misplaced fears are not justification to send her into the men’s spaces. Transsexuals have the medical and psychological community’s on our side in these matters. The science is on the side of the trans* community. We are the gender we say we are.

 

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.

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.

Why am I calling for a split locally?

When Spokane Trans* People started it was a program of the LGBT center. There was no doubt about that. Unfortunately that information was not communicated properly by Matt it was claimed by those who said we were not. So basically I was called a liar and Matt’s promises to the group were not honored in his death.
When Matt passed away and a clarification was needed as to whether Spokane Trans* People was a LGBT center program or not, the center chose to distance itself from the group. In spite of the fact that we were and still are listed on their website as a program of the center. It wasn’t even going to cost the center a dime to say yes. It was just a matter of saving themselves of an uncomfortable situation that they disavowed the trans* group.

The center is ineffectual in the pursuit of it’s’ mission. The city of Spokane does not have an LGBT center. The city of Spokane Valley does, but this center is small, does not serve Spokane well at all and does not have proper phone, or computer services or a proper staff. Staff that are there are often unprofessional in demeanor and attire. When I would go to the center and it was obvious a man was living in the center counter to the city’s zoning regulations, it was very off putting. The center smelled of this man in every corner.
Now the center is not even accessible to the average Spokanite; out in Valley is not serving us. Maybe it serves Valley, but it isn’t doing much for Spokane. And it does nothing for Spokane Trans* People.

The leadership in the local center is stagnant. It would serve the community far better to dissolve the center and the people of the center to join other healthy queer organizations in the town.
Since Matt passed away the center as a leader in the community has been in a slow death rattle. The ball has been dropped a number of times. If it hadn’t then we wouldn’t have to go to Valley to have a center.
Focusing more on politics and relationships than getting business done isn’t helping us. Making constant excuses on how the followers have failed the leaders is ringing hollow.
If you folks are going to lead, then lead. This half assing I see isn’t sufficient.

I know this is going to anger some folks and I know that the center will not be closed but I do think it is time that the Transgender/Transsexual community stand on its’ own and request that the LGBT center change its name to the LGB center. They are not serving the transgender community. Spokane Trans* People does that and rather well. We do not need the LGB center doing our work.

We want to divorce the LGB.

A great document was once written that was the manifesto of freedom. If I had such a document in my pen to share with you I surely would do so. For the call to freedom and self determination is a noble calling and one all should strive to achieve.
Currently there is a toxic atmosphere in the halls of the LGBT. Gay men who have long held the reigns of power have recently en mass let transsexual women know just exactly what they think of us. We have been ridiculed and attacked numerous times over simple issues of respect. Where we have asked for the dignity to designate for ourselves what we find to denigrate us, we have been ridiculed, shamed and told to grow thicker skin. The problem is that most TS women I have known do not have thick skin enough to take betrayal. We can handle the slurs and bigotry of the outside world. We have been fighting it since the beginning of patriarchy. But to have ones supposed allies turn on you in the midst of battle is an untenable situation.
Now to be clear, I understand that there are many wonderful gay men who have our backs and have gone to bat for us. It is these far too few men who have been able to keep the alliance united up to this point.

But it isn’t enough. When we were recently attacked en mass by gay males over the RuPaul/Carmen affair there were very few gay male voices attempting to call their brothers to task over this horrendous treatment. If you do not have enough voices calling for respect for TS women and the voices of disunity are not drowned out, then your group is transphobic and there is no way that TS women are going to remain in the LGBT.

The rally for dissolution of association of the T from LGB needs to sound loud as a clarion call across the lands.
At PRIDE this year let it be known we are not a part of the LGBT anymore. Form local TS groups.  Form regional groups. Form national and international groups and fight for our rights as a group and not let us rely on the good will of others. This is not to say we should not accept the good will of others, just that we should not rely on them. It is long past time that we stand on our own two feet anyways.

Why 'born this way' should be thrown away.

When we perpetuate the 'born this way' concept it buys into the idea we should have to justify or account for being queer. That makes it OK only because it is innate. Born this way steals agency from queers in this debate. Screw that noise!
What if the sole reason people had gay sex was to piss off the pope and make baby Jesus cry? What if every act of gay sex was specifically to give a spiritual black eye to the religious types? Even then the anti queer ...types would have no right to try and take rights away.
What if being gay was a choice? Would that give any amount of credence to those who say it is abomination? No. But the argument 'born this way' buys into the idea that the only reason queer is ok is nature. This buys into the idea that if we could chose to be straight we should do so due to society as a whole having hang ups.
Nope, not buying into that crap.
If and when I have sex of any type it is because I CHOOSE TO HAVE SEX THAT WAY! I am not at the mercy of my genetics or destiny, I am the master of my mind and body and if I decide to have sex in non heteronormative ways... the religious right can kiss my ass.

Is TERF a slur?

If you are not familiar with the term TERF, it stands for Trans* Exclusionary Rad Fem. If you are not familiar with the term Rad Fem, then you need to do some catching up and you should likely spend some time with a search engine of your choice. Go ahead, I'll be here when you get back.

Caught up now? Spiffy.

So there are members of the Rad Fems who are not very friendly to trans* women and some of them are not too easy on trans* men either. As a result of this treatment, a number of trans* folks have taken some exception to the way we are spoken of by these folks. As a way to make it easy to distinguish between the Rad Fems who accept trans* women in their midst and those who do not, the term TERF was coined. It is simply an anagram for trans* exclusionary Rad Fem. So it is a spot on designator. Now that the term TERF has made it into the vernacular of the queer populace, some of those who would be obvious candidates to be referred to as TERF have taken the public stance that it is a slur and not polite.

Well with my current stance on the RuPaul verses Carmen fiasco and general stance on slurs for trans* women perhaps I should stop using TERF. If I want currency in this conversation I must walk the talk eh? Well as these thoughts crossed my mind I was also almost listening to the TV that was droning on in the back ground on a news channel. I don’t know what story came up as I was deep in my thoughts but the word “terrorist” came through floating on the air at just the right moment. I do not think many terrorists would like being called that term, but it is what it is. Sometimes a term is spot on and ugly. Like TERF.

OMG!!! Did you just conflate TERF with terrorist? Probably a little. There are people in our society that hold ugly beliefs and cause hatred to increase and thus the chance at increased violence. >Racist, Bigot, Misogynist, Terrorist, Murder, Thief all these words are designator words that are useful in our vocabulary to denote an evil person in simple to use language we all understand.

It is my position that TERF is in this pile of words that we use to designate an evil person who holds dangerous, outdated and vicious views that stigmatize and threaten others.  Add this to the fact that it was coined as an anagram to designate Trans* Exclusionary Rad Fems it does not come to the level of slur. Now maybe if TERFs start being killed and beaten with TERF chanted at them as it is happening we can call it a slur. 

As it stands attempts to get this spot on word designated a slur is just an attempt to take currency in the conversation away from TS women. Which is just pathetic.

Defending slurs can only rip us apart.

Lately I have been hearing more calls for dissolution of the LGBT than usual from TS women. The thing that is different this time around is that I am hearing this call from women who were staunch defenders of the alliance.

The fuel of this call for the T to divorce the LGB is on the surface a small issue; we want a few words relegated to the heap of slurs not acceptable in polite company. We do not want words that have a history of use as slurs to be used. Our collective request has been belittled by an army of fans of the ever popular RuPaul who has become the standard bearer of those who say they wish to reclaim or own some of these words (Tranny in this case) seen as slurs. On every comment section of every article about the issue TS women are being attacked and belittled at every turn. Mostly we are being attacked by gay men who seem to have no true argument and some trans* folks who do not want energy wasted on this battle.
Now to be honest this issue is not even on the radar of most LGBT types. Not every one of us follows the gay press. But those who are involved have made it clear that TS women have no right to complain or check RuPaul. We are being told that because RuPaul is such the advocate we should shut up. I call bullshit! RuPaul is not being an advocate when he says he is going to continue to use Tranny. TS women are calling for this to stop!

Is it asking the community to much when we ask that slurs synonymous with trans* woman should not be used? Changing your language and maybe how you think of us is a small request. We have not asked for something that will cost society money or lives or even any honor or dignity. In fact we are offering the LGB and the rest of society an opportunity to show that they do support and respect the T. We are offering an opportunity to display honor and raise the dignity of trans* folks.

Please join the right side of history. At every turn in our history the side of inclusion and proper decorum has won. There is no reason to think that the defenders of transphobic slurs will win this culture war.
So it stands to reason that those of you who support RuPaul in this issue are indeed standing on the wrong side of history.

RuPaul needs to change his tune.

RuPaul is not a proper spokesman for the community. However it is what it is...He is famous and in the spotlight.

There is enough overlap of TS and Drag that we can not just wholesale say that drag is not under the TG umbrella. I know a number of girls who got started with drag and then came out as women and completely transitioned. There are national level awareness semi famous drag performers who have transitioned yet maintain their financial ties to the drag community.

Drag Queens sometimes are TS women. TS women are sometimes "drag queens".

So with that we have RuPaul saying his 2centavos which is complicating the message we are trying to get across.
So the next question is simple: how do we exert the pressure on him to alter his tone?
He is on the wrong side of this issue.

Stop with the transphobic slurs please.

Lately there has been a kerfuffle over transsexual women requesting that the word “Tranny” be removed from the name of an event in Australia. The event is called “Tranny Bingo” for those who do not already know.

Some folks are acting like this is a new thing but it isn’t. Transsexual women have been asking that this slur be removed from the polite lexicon and be relegated to the same heap that other slurs are placed. This word should not be used in any context in polite conversation. Personally I can see no use for the word except in one situation, porn; and only because it makes the search easy for the porn sellers and buyers. (I am not an unreasonable person.)

If you are sitting behind your keyboard taking it to town and want to search for some porn of your choosing then go ahead and shamefully type it into the search bar. Otherwise you should just not say it, type it or otherwise cause the word to be used in a polite conversation.

Why?

Because we asked you to do so as we see it as a slur for trans* woman. That should be enough. I shouldn’t have to debate you that this term is OK. It isn’t! If you are not a trans* person you have no currency in this conversation. None. Zero. Zip. NADA! So just stop using slurs. It is simple really.

An open letter to the Spokane Trans* Comunity

An open letter to the Spokane trans* community:


I am asking everyone to re-unify and put aside differences.

Consider the troubles that have drove us apart over the last year. Every one of them is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. Not a single one of the issues has been of the magnitude of a really serious issue. We never needed law enforcement to interfere and we haven't gone to blows. Nothing like those things has happened. Mainly we have had personality conflict that was informed by misunderstandings and hurt egos.

We can fix this. The rifts are repairable as they are not based in any major betrayals. Sure there has been some petty infighting, gossiping and back biting, but that is minor stuff.

I want to point out that it has been said many times (and it seems very obvious): You don’t go through life trans* and not come out with some amount of PTSD. Just the trauma of living in the wrong body, or in a society that does not accept us will result in PTSD. You don’t have to even transition to have this problem.
A large amount of us have issues with boundaries. A large amount of us have issues socializing in groups.

Every one of these things that we have issues with can cause friction. We are all dealing with varying levels of personal issues. We are a fragile community and as such we can break. But when you have something beautiful that breaks, you try and glue it back together and treat it better.

Also, we have to take into consideration that people tend to have trouble dealing with others who have the same flaws they perceive they have themselves. 

These things do make for a tough battle and have for us. But we can prevail and stay a strong force for the community.

 ~~~~~~~
Proposal:
We come back together and get back to the mission of supporting each other and saving lives, which I can assure you, we have saved lives.
We work with the understanding that most of us are flawed. There will be disagreements and issues in the future. But we have to work past those issues. Lives are literally on the line.
 ~~~~~~

I own my part in the troubles. I am not perfect and I do not fight fair at all. It is one of my flaws.
But nothing happens in a vacuum. I had my own reasons and I felt pretty passionate about them and my feelings were hurt also a few times down the road this last year.

I am totally committed to letting that go and moving forward for the community. My precious and tender ego will just have to get over it as I move on. I do not have time to let my hurt feelings take over my mission. Not over small shit. I can't stay mad over small shit. Can I talk you into letting bygones be bygones so we can move forward?

Now that Pride week is over we have a simple easy summer ahead of us. Due to Pride we will see a number of new people trickle in over the next couple of months. With visibility we attract more of our own.


In two weeks we will have our standard issue get together. I hope to see you there.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow,
Cynthia Lee