First Openly Gay Member of Obama's Administration

Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, will chair the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Washington post article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003681.html?hpid=topnews

Well, not a really major job, but not bad.

Transgender Traditions in another culture...

I just found this article in the New York Times.

"A Lifestyle Distinct: The Muxe of Mexico"

It's about a specific area in Mexico, near a town called Juchitan, where males decide they want to live as females, and are termed "muxes". The article mentions that there are references to cross-dressing Aztec priests and a god that was both male and female.

These muxes are apparently celebrated and considered special. There are apparently quite a few different societies or cultures thru the ages that felt there was something special and valuable about transgendered folk.

I've heard several trans-folk that I respect greatly talk about the unique viewpoint that we have on human interactions and society. I do believe it. I would bet that most people are not aware of how they have "bought into" being either a guy or a gal. Do you yourself realize how you let your conceptions of what it means to be male or female, in our society, affect what you do? If those hidden internal assumptions weren't there, how would you act?

Transfolks study the differences between male and female behavior as a matter of survival. If you want to be taken as a woman, and don't learn the mannerisms, you're asking for trouble.

I got interrupted, I had to run an errand, and now I've lost the train of thought....

Oh well. the "+" is about an interesting realization that my therapist helped me with last Friday.

I've always worried that I wanted to be trans for the wrong reason, or my reasons werent valid, or this or that. I was talking about that with her, and she made a key observation: "Most people come in here and they're terribly worried that they ARE transsexual. You're worried that you're NOT!". I remembered then I was having a conversation with another trans person (who runs a meditation center near San Diego), and she commented "you worried whether you're trans enough".

I think I'm worried because I do fear the alternative - if I'm not trans, then I'm a really screwed up guy, and that to me is horrible compared to being what I feel I am - a pretty well adjusted transsexual. I just found that interesting.

Okay, it's too late, we were up till midnite last nite at our trans group's Holiday Gala, and it's time for bed. I'll post some of the pictures tomorrow. We brought our own camera this time, so we don't have to wait for some photographer to get around to mailing us CDs.

talk to you soon

-Jude

PS: got over the "i'm screwed up" phase. Back to "joy of being trans" state. ;-)

Anti "Splenda with Fiber" Rant

Okay, if you watch tv at all, you've probably seen the ads for this new variation of Splenda (the artificial sweetner) that has 1 gram of fiber in every little envelope. Here's the company page on it

Splenda with fiber



I have a big problem with this, and it has to do with the underlying motivation here.



Okay, I completely realize that a lot of folks don't get enough fiber in their diet. Fruits and vegetables, whole grains. And that lack of fiber in our diets has been implicated in higher risk of colon cancer. So the motivation for some manufacturer of something to say "hey, let's put fiber in our product" is pretty obvious.

But I don't think it's a good idea. For several reasons:

1) The psychological: It leads to this idea that we can substitute artificial, pill, supplement based chemicals for actual food. Read their page - one apple contains like 3 grams of fiber, and their little packet contains 1. Folks need to change their eating habits, not find more supplements to allow them to "be healthy" while subsisting on a diet of twinkies and starbucks.

2) Real vs artificial: i guess it was back when I was a kid (or maybe before), Wonder Bread was advertising this awful stuff - bleached white flour, lots of sugar, over refined and stripped of natural nutrition (then re-loaded with artifical vitamins) "Wonder Bread - builds strong bodies 12 ways". Right. Not compared to whole wheat bread it doesn't. And vitamins -- One-A-Day vitamins. An excuse to continue to not eat right. i am firmly convinced that eating a balanced diet will do things for your nutritional condition that no amount of artificial supplements could do. The supplements may provide the major chemical compounds that have been analyzed so far, but I seriously doubt that we really understand all of the complex chemistry in an apple, and how the thousands of compounds in an apple actually interact with our body chemistry to provide us nutrition.

3) "Expediency" -- in other words, hey, this is easier. It's actually one of the words in the English language that I actually hate. Probably the one I hate most. Not so much the word itself, but what it's come to mean. it means "oh, yeah, I know doing this would be better for me, but doing this other thing is more expedient." yeah, I should eat whole wheat bread, more fresh vegetables and fruits, but it's more expedient to eat the crap that tastes good even though I know it's bad for me. Oh, and I'll pop this pill too, that'll make it alright.

No it wont. I'm sorry to sound like the nasty old lady who lives down the street, but we're not taking this crap seriously enough. It goes into a lot of other areas as well, like our obsession with big trucks and SUVs. Now, I completely understand that a lot of folks do need space, folks who do construction do need pickup trucks. But come up to DC and drive on the roads with me. Come to the Pentagon parking lot. Thousands of folks who have desk jobs at the Pentagon driving Ford F-350s (or only an F-150, you get the point). One of the other archery parents works for one of the mapping agencies, doesnt do any construction or farming, but boy does he love his big red truck. It's an F-350, and it's frickin' huge. He's married with one teenage son, he only got it because he likes it. Is it good for the environment? Does he really need it? No, but he likes it.

I think I'm sounding pretty strict here. Fine. We need to have a stronger sense of responsibility, both towards ourselves and caring for ourselves, and towards our community, and caring for our neighbors. Listening to myself, this almost sounds unAmerican - I'm arguing against "every man/woman for themselves". yes, I am.



We do need stronger and more permeating sense of responsibility to ourselves and our families and our communities.



I'm ticked off today. Watch out.

Registration for IFGE 2009 Is Now Open!

Registration for IFGE 2009 Is Now Open!

In just a few months, the
International Foundation for Gender Education, with the help of the local group
TGEA, will hold its annual
conference in the Washington, DC area. We are planning for great speakers,
stimulating and useful workshops, entertaining evenings, and lots of networking
and socializing. The conference is for anyone and everyone who is part of,
allied with, or of service to the Transgender Community.

Our headquarters
hotel will be the Hilton Alexandria at Mark Center, just across
the river from the heart of Washington, DC. The room rate for the conference is
just $132 a night, less than half the regular price. Make sure you use the
registration code IFGE when reserving your room. Additional
information about the conference and room availability will be posted here
soon. Meanwhile, you can visit the hotel website .

This is THE only conference this year
sponsored by the IFGE – Don’t be fooled!!

What is an IFGE Conference like?
For a sense of what our annual conference is all about, look over some pages
about our last conference — IFGE 2008 in Tucson, Arizona »

Keith is becoming my hero

Keith Olberman is getting a record for standing up for morale issues (and against immoral positions) that is earning a lot more than just my respect.



Here is his special commentary from last nite (10 Nov) on his show. It was so emotional and so touching that I had tears of pride that someone would stand up and make such a case on such a national, public forum.


Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love
Everyone deserves the same chance at permanence and happiness



take care, everyone.

hugs

Jude

Really Inflammatory Subject Within

hey there,

(Just for those who don't know me, I'm mid-50's, white, southern background, and a mid-transition MtF.)

Well, I know a lot of us, myself and Sweety included, were disappointed when all the anti-gay-marriage issues failed (from our point of view) last week.


There were several reports on different trans blogs sites about how the black vote was significantly in favor of these amendments. Some of these other bloggers expressed shock, anger, disappointment.

Then, I heard this interview on NPR today with a black lesbian activiitst (Writer Jasmyne Cannick), and how she felt what a poor job the No on Prop 8 folks did in contacting the black community and also in general, how, she charges, the white gay communitydoesn't pay much attention to the black gay community.
Op-Ed: Why Black Voters Didn't Fight Prop. 8

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96817462

I heard the whole interview (about 20 min or so, I think), and I can really agree with some of the lady's points, but I'm wondering what other folks think. I don't live in California, and so have little real information on what sort of campaigning was done there. Was the No campaign disorganized? Was the No campaign too exclusively white?


Please don't shoot me. Thanks

Detransitioning and Genetic Tests

Hi all,
Well, unless you track this sort of stuff, you may have missed a couple of interesting stories related to transgender life.

One: You might not have known that, last year, April ‘07, one of the name sports reporters for the LA Times, Mike Penner, came out and publicly declared that she would begin living life as Christine Daniels (“Old Mike, New Christine”). The LA Times was very supportive, she continued to work, posted a blog for a while called “Woman In Progress”. Then, she fell silent around the beginning of this summer.

It was recently revealed that she would be “de-transitioning”, and returning to life and the LA Times as Mike Penner (Bilerico write-up and another here). There has been no real explanation, nor are we owed one. Mike’s life is his own.

Why this is big news in the trans world in a moment. First, the other news story.

Two: Researchers in Australia have evidence of a “transsexual gene”. The researchers found that male-to-female transsexuals were more likely (not guaranteed, just more likely) to have a very interesting long gene. This was hailed by some transsexuals on their blogs as “validating” them. The rationale here is worth talking about a bit.
Now, this is my understanding – I’m no psychologist, I’m just one of the thousands of trans folk out here with access to a computer and some proficiency in speling.
Those of us who consider transitioning, and those that go further and choose to do so, usually worry at some point whether we “need” to do this. Different folks are convinced by their internal state to different degrees. For some, it literally becomes a matter of life and death. For others, it becomes a matter of significantly improving their quality of life. We get comments and criticisisms like “are you nuts?” It can be a difficult path. Many of us have been discriminated against, beaten up, killed, because of our choices. Luckily, I have not had these negative reactions (yet), and I owe this good fortune in no small part to the fact that these others have gone before and sacrificed so that the rest of us will have an easier time. Many non-trans folks (“cis-gendered” as opposed to “transgendered”) see our actions as a “choice”, many trans folk do not see it as a choice, more of a life necessity.
So, if one were to prove that transsexualism (or homosexuality) was “caused” by a gene would make some people feel “validated”. This is exactly the word I’ve seen used. I would guess that in some folks, there is a need for them to say in essence, “see, it’s not my fault! It’s genetic, I can’t help it!”. And, as valid as this may be, it also seems to have an aspect of abrogation of responsibility. The other avenue of argument is that a genetic cause would then be a basis for getting insurance companies to cover transition expenses, as well as additional legal ammunition in defending against discrimination.
So, some folks were really glad to see the transsexual gene research.
Odd Thoughts and Connections:
Now, here’s where my fevered brain starts wondering about a connection. When someone “de-transitions”, there’s a little cold spike that can go thru a trans-person’s heart. It’s like if anyone changes their mind and goes back, it de-ligitimizes the rest of us a bit. I don’t feel that way, but it sure was apparent to me that those thoughts at least ran through folks’ minds.
There has also been an air of almost sadness around this news, and that I don’t understand really. There is the aspect that Mike/Christine has been going through a lot of turmoil. I do hope, as do we all, that he finds a good road for himself, whatever that may be. Although I can see that transitioning and de-transitioning would be extra difficult, the experience would be incredibly unique and his viewpoints might be completely fascinating, should he ever choose to write about them.

So, does de-transitioning invalidate the decisions made by the rest of us? I’m getting the feeling that that is what some folks think. Me, I don’t think so. Our paths are very unique, and some of our paths are, by chance, more complex than others. So be it, respect it, observe it, and don’t judge it. It’s very tricky, actually, for us human beings to simply observe and not judge – we’re so used to jumping from the observation to the “story” (the story we make up in our head about what’s going on that we just observed).

I think a lot of us T folk get very enmeshed with having external justifications. For me, there was a stage of self-acceptance where I didn’t care anymore about the causes. I used to care a lot, I worried a lot about what could have caused this. It was like I couldn’t give myself permission to keep going unless I could find external justification – some outside authority or reason that would make it okay for me to transition.

I don’t think I ever would have found sufficient external justification. So, I would have been forever miserable. As it is, something happened about 3 years ago – if you want my guess, I think the acupuncture treatments on the Spirit/Mind level (as opposed to the Body level) helped in some way. It was a few days after the first ones where I began to realize that I was okay with being trans. It’s developed to being more than okay, I’m prouder of myself now than I’ve ever been in my whole life.

And, I don’t think I’d have achieved this level of self-acceptance had I still been depending on external validation.

So, that’s a hell of a long rant. It was actually written over several days (multiple events interfered, more on that later). If you’ve stayed in this long, wow, well, thank you very much.

Hugs to all
Jude