Jennifer Usher posted up on her blog a post entitled Slacktivists? ROTFLLMAO!!!!! as a response to my recent Transadvocate post Transsexual Separatist Slacktivism Doesn’t Win Legislatively. I haven't made it a habit of responding to her, but I am doing so this time -- and personally to her at that. Jennifer, I know I'm violating the "don't feed the trolls" axiom about responding to folk who, with intent, try to provoke angry or personal responses, but in this case… Read more.

Back in 2009 I asked the the question if there were a right way to be LGB Or T. As I consider the personal difficulties of my past few years, especially those difficulties relating to community orthodoxies externally imposed on me by others, I find myself revisiting the idea behind my now four-year-old question. And now with Suzan asking a similar themed question in her recent post HBS: Play Ground for Frauds, Bullies and Self-Loathing Transsexual-Transgender People and wannabee Transsexuals,… Read more.

This is part of a lecture given on May 5, 2010 by Prof. Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University. Prof. Sapolsky reviews studies he feels make a compelling case for those who assert that transsexualism is actually a type of intersex condition. More on gender orientation Those interested in gender roles and the brain should read Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender. Fine does an excellent job at debunking pernicious myths while chronicling the history of the way neurology has been used… Read more.

“Tranny” seems to be a contentious term within the GLBT community. For many in the trans community, we’ve known “tranny” to be a term associated with the gay (specifically gay male) community; a term used by gay men to talk about the trans experiences in a pithy, ironic or comical way. The term is usually spelled one of two ways: “Tranny” or “Trannie”. Recently a number of notables have begun experiencing the ire of the trans community when the term is used in a public forum. The… Read more.

Over the last year or so, I have read a number of blog entries and Facebook rants about the so-called “transsexual versus transgender” issue. For those who are unaware of this debate, it stems from a subset of transsexuals who feel that the transsexual community is not served well by being included under the transgender umbrella (some even go so far as to insist that there is a mutually-exclusive dichotomy between transsexual and transgender people). Along similar lines, these transsexuals… Read more.

I recently had a discussion with a person with cisgender privledge about Michfest. I thought feminist/POC theory taught rather early on that a person who isn't in the oppressed category doesn't get to define if they are in fact, an ally. If you support Michfest, you're NOT a Trans ally. This is what I said: "No, we don't share similar viewpoints on Michfest. I wouldn't go to Hammerfest, no matter how 'good' or how much of a "safe space" it… Read more.

I used to be pretty arrogant about the whole stealth vs. out thing.  Today reading Dyssonance's To Stealth Or Not To Stealth, I had to reflect on how my perspective has changed, and not. I've worked jobs where no one knew I was transgender/transsexual and I've worked at places where my entire story was posted on page one of the Indianapolis Star. The bottom line for me is this: I am a woman, but I am not  female (Gender=social construction,… Read more.

Maybe it was my naiveté, but I always thought when I got my documentation changed, I transitioned, and was passable, that I'd be able to live the nice normal life I did before transition. It hasn't quite worked out that way. Recently I was interviewed a few times and offered a job... and then I got that dreaded call. "Marti, we were doing our normal background check and we have a problem. We keep getting a rejection with your gender."… Read more.

Back on Feburary 25, 2009 Kathy Padilla wrote a post over at Pam's House Blend titled "Hate Crimes & ENDA: Bad Bills Come and Bad Bills Go". When it came out I really thought it would be one of those explosive posts that rocked the community down to the bone. She said: "The new definitions can generally be said to cover gender expression but not gender identity. Which in the real world would present the likelihood that gender variant gay,… Read more.

So when I was offered a blog spot I was excited but at the same time I was scared. I love to write and I'm pompous enough to believe that others give a shit about what I have to say. There's a lot on my mind especially with everything going on this past year. As of this month, April , I will have been transitioning for a year. It's been a um... very interesting year. One full of heartaches and… Read more.

"I don't give a shit whether or not they [MTF transsexuals) want to chop themselves up. I don't give a shit if they want to wear dresses. That doesn't make them female. It doesn't mean their issues and concerns are female issues and concerns. So long as female issues and concerns are subsumed to and absorbed by male interests (as they are when male people call themselves and are accepted as female), women will never socially realize our full humanity AS FEMALE PEOPLE." Read more.

Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin and Gay News Blog I was introduced to this lovely piece of transphobia: video under the cut. Read more.