AEGIS Internet News, April 1997

Posted around 1 April, 1997

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AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E08WS; Mon 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Message-Id: <9703312208.E08WS@xconn.com> Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06

Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: <receipent!address!incerted!here>

Reprinted (with permission) from Etcetera magazine, 28 March, 1997

Transsexual Leslie Nielson pleaded guilty March 11 to killing two police officers and wounding a third in Haddon Heights, NJ. Police had gone to the home to investigate reports of child abuse.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E45RT; Mon 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Theoretically Genetic Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 22:08:06 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703312208.E45RT@xconn.com>

Reprinted (with permission) from Etcetera magazine, 28 March, 1997

Theoretically Genetic

by Simon LeVay, Ph.D.

Several lines of research, including family, twin, and molecular-genetic studies, suggest that a person’s sexual orientation is in part inherited. But if “gay genes” exist, how come they haven’t been eliminated during human evolution? People who are “genetically gay” would be expected to have fewer descendants, so their genes would die out. But there’s no evidence that homosexuality has become less common over the ages.

A number of theories have been put forward to explain this apparent paradox. First, it’s been pointed out that gays and lesbians do often have children, either out of pressure to conform, of simply out of a desire to be biological parents. Still, it seems likely that, over the span of human evolution, a lack of sexual interest in the other sex would in general have led to fewer children. For males especially, reproduction is a highly competitive affair in which sexual attraction is the prime motivator.

Another possibility is that gay genes do tend to die out, but they are replaced by new, spontaneously-arising mutations. This is known to be how certain disease-causing genes such as the gene for homophilia B) are kept in the gene pool. It is unlikely, however, that this could be the explanation for the persistence of gay genes, simply because homosexuality is so common.

A third theory depends on the fact that, for most genes, we carry two copies, one on each of two homologous chromosomes. Sometimes a particular variant of a gene is harmful to a person’s reproductive success when it is present in two copies, but beneficial when present into one copy. A well-known example is the gene for sickle-cell anemia: having two copies causes sickle-cell disease, but having one copy confers protection against malaria. Similarly, it is possible that having two copies of a gay gene makes a person gay and lowers their reproductive success, but having one copy has some benefits that helps to keep the gene in the gene pool. What that benefit might be, we don’t know.

A variant on this theory concerns genes on the X chromosome (You’ll remember that Dean Hames and his colleagues at the National Cancer Institute reported a possible “gay gene” on this chromosome). men have only one X chromosome, but women have two. It’s possible that this gene has some benefit in women that outweighs its reproductive cost in men. For example, if the gene promotes sexual attraction in men, then in women it might actually increase reproductive success, making them, as it were, hyper-heterosexual. Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has pointed out, the fact that women have two X chromosomes and men only one means that, over time, the survival benefit of a gene on this chromosome in women outweights its effect on men.

Finally, there are theories that explain gay genes by saying that they promote the reproduction of a gay person’s close relatives. Let’s say that a woman, by virtue of her gay genes, has one child fewer than she otherwise would have had, but she uses her freed-up energy and resources to help her siblings rear a total of two more children than they otherwise would have had, and she uses her freed-up energy and resources to help her siblings rear a total of two more children than they otherwise would have had. Since her siblings share about 50 percent of her genes, those two extra nephews or nieces are about as good (in evolutionary terms) as one child of her own. Thus, seemingly altruistic behavior towards one’s brothers and sisters could, in the hard-nosed world of evolutionary psychology, be as selfish as reproducing oneself.

These theories allow for the possiblity of interactions between genes and the environment. For example, if a boy had a childhood accident that left him small or weaker than his peers, he might have a lesser chance of fathering children himself. In this case, it might take good evolutionary sense for him to devote himself to helping his siblings rear children, since he has little to lose.

One problem with this kind of theory is that it doesn’t really explain homosexuality, in only explains the lack of heterosexuality. Why, in other words, should gay men waste so much time on gay sex time that, according to these theories, would be better spent baby-sitting their nephews and nieces?

None of these theories are overwhelmingly persuasive. It may be that when the genes themselves are identified, their survival value will be better understood. In the meantime, I like to think that evolution has created us simply because we’re so fabulous.

Simon LeVay, Ph.D., is well-known for his research on the “gay brain.” He is the author of “Queer Science” (MIT Press, 1996) and the forthcoming gay techno-thriller, “Albrick’s Gold” (Richard Kasak/Masquerade Books). He is also the co-founder of the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Education in West Hollywood.

Note from Dallas:

Dr. LeVay’s weekly articles are most excellent; he is well-rounded, enabling him to call on evolutionary theory, social science, and neurobiological research for his articles.

Dr LeVay may be unaware of two papers presented in Van Nuys, respectively, by Frederick Whitham and William Dragoin in 1995 by the First International Congress on Crossdressing, Sex, and Gender Issues. These papers recently (along with two chapters by Yours Truly) appeared in book form in the book Gender Blending, [Bullough, B., Bullough, V.L., & Elias, J. (Eds.) , 1997, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press].

Whitham has done cross-cultural studies on gay people, finding in his travels throughout the world a highly visible commuity which includes many crossdressing males (he seems less interested in FTMS). Whitham has suggested that these communities serve a valuable social function, with their members being entertainers (he cites the high level of gay men in the entertainment industry). Dragoin has gone one step further, postulating that there has been active selection for genes that cause males to be flamboyantly gay and/or transgendered, for the functions they serve are important to the species. This is explainable in evolutionary terms, using Robert Trivers’ kin selection hypothesis, which Dr. LeVay mentions.

Dr. LeVay could have pointed out that for most peole sexual orientation is variable across the life span; surveys have shown that even most “exclusively” gay men have sex with women on occasion (and vice-versa), simply because they want to. However, his article otherwise lives up to usual excellent standard.

Dallas Denny, M.A., Executive Director

American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc. A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation P.O. Box 33724, Decatur, GA 30033-0724 (770) 939-2128 Business (770) 939-0244 Information & Referrals (770) 939-1770 FAX aegis@gender.org E-Mail

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Posted around 2 April, 1997

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AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 1 Apr 1997 04:34:47 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E17Fv; Tue 1 Apr 1997 04:34:47 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Argentine GLBT Conference Date: Tue, 1 Apr 1997 04:34:47 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704010434.E17Fv@xconn.com>

Return-Path: <apc@wamani.wamani.apc.org> To: lista-ales1@wamani.wamani.apc.org Subject: II LGTTB National Conference, Salta, Argentina From: ales@wamani.apc.org (Alejandra Sarda) Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 22:45:59 ARG Organization: Red Wamani – APC Networks – Argentina

Escrita en el Cuerpo – Lesbian and Different Women’s Archives and Library Electronic News Service

II LESBIAN, GAY, TRANVESTITE, TRANSEXUAL AND BISEXUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE. Salta, Argentina – 28 y 29 de Marzo de 1997

When last year at the I Conference, Salta was chosen as host for the II, we all knew it was a challenge. And we were right. A few days before our arrival, a local conservative newspaper wrote about the perverts ready to invade the city, while pro-family and christian groups threaten with a human chain to impede our entrance to the hotel.

In that climate, about 50 activists from Buenos Aires and Rosario arrived in a very movilized town. Local media covered the conference all the time; to our surprise, newspapers and TV were serious, res- pectful and informative. The promoted human chain never materialized; on the contrary, people everywhere showed us solidarity and affection. As trans activist Lohanna Berkins said to a local media, Salta’s socie- ty proved to be a long way ahead of its leaders. Police participation was reduced to following our bus wherever it went and being on duty in front of the bar where workshops were held.

Political pressures made the University to back off at the last moment. leaving us without a place for workshops and plenaries. The Conferen- ce was then held at a local gay bar, Nosotros. It was not at all the most suitable place (several workshops had to be reformulated) but everyone’s good disposition soon made it seem fitted.

Overcoming their fears, local lesbians, gays and tranvestites attended in growing numbers, and that was one of the Conference’s main achie- vements. By the end, they almost outnumbered those coming from o- ther provinces.

Workshops were suitable for all tastes. Young Gays and Lesbians Group (Buenos Aires) invited us to a generational exchange, where the elders told how our young days had been. Marcelo Ferreyra (CHA, Buenos Ai- res) promoted the Argentinean gltt movement’s history. Lohanna Berkins and Paula Rodriguez (ALIT, Buenos Aires) used maks to con- nect everyone with their “inner tranvestite”. We, Escrita en el Cuerpo, shared a warm and deep collective reflection on activists’ private and public lives, their conflicts and potentials. Nestor Talento (Lugar Gay, Buenos Aires) analized gay couples; Cesar Cigliutti (CHA, Buenos Aires) facilitated an analysis of new strategies to be implemented be- fore the media, while Pedro Paradiso (Arco Iris, Rosario) made us face AIDS and our excuses.

For the first time, a workshop brought together lesbians, bi and trans women; it was facilitated by Lesbianas a la Vista and its subject was the diverse constructions of sexual identity. Two workshops awoke po- werful and deep emotions in us all: 100 years of conscience (Diana Mi- nes, Mujer y Mujer, Uruguay) – a collective dramatization stating with the dawn of homosexual movements in Germany and ending with Sto- newall and today’s pride statement in each one of us- and Zapatos taco aguja (Belen Correa, ATA, Buenos Aires) an impressing monologue on daily violence forced upon tranvestites, with later debate.

Two “out of schedule” actions became an unforgettable experience for us all, but mostly for locals. On Friday night, several of us went to O’Clock, the most elegant gay disco in town. The owner did not allow local tranvesti- tes to enter, while not applying the same rule to those from Buenos Aires. The answer was a very noisy demostration outside the bar, inviting the pa- trons to join in -which they did. It all ended with Conference lesbians, gays and tranvestites at the disco’s stage, using microphones to invite everyone to attend next day’s workshops. On Saturday night, Salta witnessed for the first time in its history a Pride Parade. We all marched embracing each other, preceded by the rainbow flag, first in silence but soon with chants and slogans. It was very moving to see local gays, lesbians and tranvestites who just the day before spoke of their panic to be visible, and now were proudly marching.

Several important resolutions were agreed upon at this II Conference: * To organize a national campaign towards an Antidiscriminatory Law espe- cifically mentioning sexual identity and orientation, coordinated by a natio- nal coalition of groups and individual (meetings will be held in Rosario -July- and Buenos Aires- November). * To celebrate Tranvestite and Transsexual Day, on the date a trans group stood up for the first time to defend their rights in Dictatorship times. Nadia Echazu (OTTRA, Buenos Aires) would like to invite other countries to orga- nize similar celebrations. It will probably be a picnic that we all will attend cross-dressed. * Principles for the next Conferences: horizontal practices are the rule for the organizing committee, that is to be open to any glttb group or individual wishing to join; equitative inclusion of glttb individuals and issues; autonomy from political parties and national institutions; straight participation to be limited to an specific workshop, upon invitation by a lgttb organization/in- dividual, PFLAG groups are excluded from this limitation; scholarships for people living outside Buenos Aires, lesbians, different women and people with special needs (HIV/AIDS, dissabilities, old age, etc.); decision to be taken by consensus and not vote.

Now, Cordoba ’98 waits for us. The balance is more than favorable. This II Conference found us much more mature, better inclined towards dialogue and consensus, with more pride and achievements. We close this chronicle with a beautiful statement from Marlene Guayas (OTTRA, Buenos Aires) capturing the spirit of the Conference: “Respect is not enough, diversity is to be enjoyed”. And we did it.

Alejandra Sarda

Avenida San Martin 2704 4to. C (1416), Buenos Aires, Argentina Phone: (54 1) 581 01 79 E.mail: ales@wamani.apc.org

Groups attending the Conference:

ACODHO – San Martin 666, Cordoba, Argentina ALIT (Struggle for Tranvestite Identity Association) AMENAZA LESBICA – C.C. 12, Suc. 27B, Buenos Aires, Argentina ATA (Argentinean Tranvestite Asociation) COMUNIDAD HOMOSEXUAL ARGENTINA (a fussion of GLTT Library and Gays for Civil Rights) Parana 157, F, Buenos Aires, Arg. COLECTIVO ARCO IRIS – Pte. Roca 663 Of. 5, Rosario, Santa Fe, Arg. COLECTIVO EROS – Puan 480 PB, Buenos Aires, Argentina COMUNIDAD HOMOSEXUAL DE JUJUY – 18 de Noviembre 230, Barrio Alte. Brown, San Salvador, Jujuy, Arg. ESCRITA EN EL CUERPO ESPACIO LATINOAMERICANO PARA LA PUBLICACION LESBICA c/o Amenaza Lesbica. GRUPO DE JOVENES GAYS Y LESBIANAS, C.C. 117 Suc.2B, Buenos Aires, Arg. HOMOSEXUALES UNIDOS – Venezuela 1491, Montevideo, Uruguay. LESBIANAS A LA VISTA – Piedras 1170 1ero.B, Buenos Aires, Arg. LUGAR GAY, Libertad 443, 3ro. A, Buenos Aires, Arg. MUJER Y MUJER, C.C. 15122, Distrito 5, Union, Montevideo, Uruguay. OTTRA (Tranvestite and Transsexual Organization of the Argentinean Republic), Hipolito Yrigoyen 2219 8vo.39, Buenos Aires, Arg.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 1 Apr 1997 04:34:47 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E55Do; Tue 1 Apr 1997 04:34:47 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: Electrolysis (new title, was RE: Is Anyone There?) Date: Tue, 1 Apr 1997 04:34:47 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704010434.E55Do@xconn.com>

The citations I mentioned in my comment on Dr. Levay’s article are:

Dragoin, W. (1995). The gynemimetic shaman: Evolutionary origins of male sexual inversion and associated talent? Paper presented at the International Congress on Gender, Cross Dressing, and Sex Issues, Van Nuys, CA, 24-26 February, 1995.

Whitam, F. (1995). Culturally universal aspects of male homosexual transvestites and transsexuals. Paper presented at the First International Congress on Gender, Cross Dressing, and Sex Issues, Van Nuys, CA, 23-26 February, 1995.

They appear in the book Gender Blending with the same titles:

Bullough, B., Bullough, V.L., & Elias, J. (Eds.). (1997). Gender blending. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press.

— Dallas

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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 1 Apr 1997 17:09:38 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E60nn; Tue 1 Apr 1997 17:09:38 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: NGLTF Legislative Update 4.1.97 Date: Tue, 1 Apr 1997 17:09:38 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704011709.E60nn@xconn.com>

See the brief transgender section.

— Dallas

********************************************************************* National Gay and Lesbian Task Force PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Mark Johnson 202/332-6483 ext. 3314 mfjohnson@ngltf.org Pager 800/757-6476

2320 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 http://www.ngltf.org ngltf@ngltf.org *********************************************************************

TASK FORCE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 4.1.97

MEASURE IN KANSAS FORCING GAYS TO REGISTER AS SEX OFFENDERS DEFEATED

TWO CALIFORNIA NON-DISCRIMINATION MEASURES TO BE HEARD THIS WEEK

CONTACT:

Mark F. Johnson mfjohnson@ngltf.org 202-332-6483, ext. 3314 Pager: 800-757-6476

Washington, DC—April 1, 1997

Kansas legislators backed off this week from including in a sex-offender registration bill persons convicted under the state’s same-sex sodomy law. As originally drafted, any person engaging in sex with a person of the same gender would be guilty of committing a sexually violent crime and therefore required to register with their county sheriff. The removal of those convicted under the state’s sodomy law from the bill occurred only after outcry from local activists. “You could say we won a great victory by preventing this insanely discriminatory bill from passing, but until legislation such as this is not even considered, the victory is not complete,” said Kansas activist Scott Curry.

The attempt to include sodomy in the category of sexually violent crimes is a chilling reminder of how sodomy laws are used to target and persecute gay men and lesbians. Sodomy laws, like Kansas’, that apply to same-sex situations only, are explicit in their function as public policy weapons against gays. “This Kansas measure, as originally drafted, is deeply alarming and an unneeded reminder of the insidious dangers of sodomy laws. Even when not fully enforced, these laws classify us as criminals and are used as justification for policies that deny gay people our rights and dignity,” stated NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel. Kansas is one of 21 states with a sodomy law and one of six states with a sodomy law targeting same-sex sodomy only. (For more information on the Kansas measure, contact Scott Curry at 316-267-8634. For a map of sodomy laws in the U.S. contact NGLTF.)

Along with this activity in Kansas, the Maine legislature passed its anti-gay marriage bill, averting the issue being put on the November ballot. New Mexico finished its legislative session while Louisiana began theirs. In Louisiana, an anti-marriage bill was pre-filed along with an employment non-discrimination measure and a hate crimes bill that includes sexual orientation. In New Jersey, Rutgers University professors are appealing to the State Supreme Court a decision denying them health insurance coverage for their domestic partners. The plaintiffs argue the denial is a violation of the state’s anti-discrimination law specifically as it applies to discrimination based on marital status and sexual orientation. For more information on this case, contact the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey at 201-642-2086.

California activists gear up this week for hearings on three bills of great importance to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. On April 2, hearings will be held on a measure to ban discrimination based on marital status in state adoptions, a bill that would provide a statewide domestic partner registry, and a bill that would add “sexual orientation” to the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. For more information on these measures, contact Ellen McCormick of LIFE Lobby, a state lesbian/gay and AIDS lobby group.

While much of the legislation seen this year is a repeat of previous years, new to the effort to both fight hostile measures and win measures securing basic civil rights for gays is a newly formed network of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered (LGBT) statewide political groups. The Federation of statewide groups was formed in November in a move to bolster efforts by individual state groups and simultaneously create a more unified national strategy for securing the rights of LGBT people. The Federation is being spearheaded with the assistance of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “We fight the Right and we also learn from them,” said NGLTF Field Organizer and federation coordinator Tracey Conaty. “The Right wing has been very successful in linking local and state activities to a coordinated national agenda, thereby making their efforts all the more effective. The Federation of LGBT statewide groups marks a new level of organizing and activism in the struggle for LGBT equality,” added Conaty. For more information on the Federation, contact Conaty at extension 3303 or Paula Ettelbrick of New York’s Empire State Pride Agenda at 212-627-0305.

Media Note: Contact information for state activists and organizations working on legislative issues is available from NGLTF at 202/332-6483.

This information was gathered by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from a variety of sources, including news reports, state activists and organizations, state legislative libraries and other organizations. Due to the large number of bills introduced, it is virtually impossible for this data to be completely accurate and comprehensive. These legislative updates are intended to provide an overview of the type of pro- and anti- gay activity happening in state capitals. They are not intended to represent every bill and its current status. NGLTF will release a final accounting of pro and anti-gay bills later in the year in our 1997 edition of Capital Gains and Losses. Individuals with information on legislative activity not in this report should contact the NGLTF Field Department at 202/332-6483, extension 3314

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April 1, 1997

As of April 1, 1997, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force tracked 200 gay or HIV/AIDS- related state legislative measures. Over half, 105, are considered favorable to the LGBT community. The remaining 95 are considered unfavorable or hostile. Both the largest and the smallest state in the country, California and Rhode Island, accounted for the most favorable measures in a state, with ten each. Four of the Rhode Island measures relate to hate crimes, while California’s are more diverse, ranging from employment non-discrimination to domestic partnership benefits. Along with Kansas and its 12 sodomy-related bills, Virginia ranked second highest in anti-gay measures, including two marriage bills, both of which the Governor signed. A detailed breakdown of these measures, is available on NGLTF website at http://www.ngltf.org/pub/chart41.gif or http://www.ngltf.org/downloads/ chart41.pdf.

MARRIAGE

Approximately 52 bills banning same gender marriage have been introduced in 32 states. This includes two bills pre-filed in Kentucky where there is no 1997 legislative session. Though the Kentucky Fairness Alliance reports that hearings may be held as early as this year. In proposed legislation in two states, Alabama and New Mexico, any person performing a same-gender marriage ceremony would be fined. Alabama’s bill remains alive while New Mexico’s has been stopped. As same-gender marriage is not legal anywhere in the country, all ceremonies performed are private, not civil, ceremonies.

Thus far this year, marriage bans passed the full legislature in five states (AR, ME MS, ND, VA). Maine is the most recent state to pass an anti-gay marriage bill in the legislature. The governor stated he will not veto the bill, though he believes the measure “has very little to do with marriage and nothing to do with love.” Passage of the measure precludes it from being put on the November ballot. The North Dakota bill awaits action by the governor. It remains unclear whether he will sign the measure, though he has stated he believes the legislation is not currently necessary. Including Arkansas, Virginia and Mississippi, marriage bans have become law in 19 states since 1995.

Four states (MD, NH, NM, WY) successfully blocked their marriage bans, New Mexico being the most recent. In Washington, the bill made it to the Governor’s desk where it was vetoed. The bill has since been amended to provide for a ballot measure on the issue and if passed, could be on the ballot as early as June of this year.

Anti-marriage bills remain pending in 23 states (AL, CA, CO, CT, FL, HI, IN, IA, LA, ME, MN, MT, NE, NJ, NY, OH, OR, RI, TX, VT, WA, WV, WI). In five states (IL, MD, NE, RI, WA), pro-marriage bills were introduced. Maryland’s bill was rejected and Nebraska’s has been indefinitely postponed.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Approximately 25 bills favoring basic civil rights for lesbians and gay men, including making discrimination in areas such as the workplace, housing and public accommodation illegal, have been introduced in at least 18 states. These measures remain alive in 12 states (AZ, CA, IL, LA, ME, NE, NH, NY, OR, TX, WA, WV), and are dead in six states (AR, CO, MD, MT, NM, VA). Maryland’s bill died last week, just one vote shy of making it out of committee.

In Washington, the group Hands Off Washington continues its signature gathering to put an anti-discrimination measure on the ballot. The measure is similar to the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Activists are hoping to gather upwards of 200,000 signatures by July 3 to put the measure on the November ballot.

DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP

At least 13 measures have been introduced in six states (CA, CO, HI, MA, MN, VA). These measures range from providing a mechanism for lesbian and gay couples to register as domestic partners, providing at most hospital and prison visitation rights, to extending benefits such as health insurance to same-gender partners. These bills remain alive except in Colorado and Virginia. In Colorado, activists continue to battle a bill that would prohibit University of Colorado regents from extending domestic partnership benefits to the same-gender partners of faculty and staff. In Illinois and Massachusetts, bills have been introduced by legislators whose intent is to undermine or impede the extension of benefits to same-gender couples.

HATE CRIMES

Twenty six hate crime bills that include crimes based on sexual orientation were introduced in at least 18 states (AZ, CO, GA, IN, LA, MA, MN, MT, NE, NM, NY, PA, RI, SC, TX, VA, WV, WY). The Indiana, Virginia and Montana bills are dead. Of the bills still being considered, five states (CO, NY, PA, RI, WV) would add sexual orientation to existing hate crime laws, while seven of the states (GA, IN, LA, NE, NM, SC, WY) have no hate crime laws on the books. In Texas, while there is a hate crimes law on the books that includes sexual orientation, the law is crafted such that prosecutions under it are nearly impossible.

South Carolina legislators are considering a hate crime bill that do not include anti-gay hate crimes. A bill in Arkansas excluding crimes based on sexual orientation died.

FAMILIES

A total of 3 pro-family bills were introduced thus far. All three remain alive. In California, a bill is pending to prohibit discrimination on the basis of marital status in state adoptions. In Georgia, a bill strengthening the role of durable power of attorney was introduced. In the absence of marriage rights, the durable power of attorney is an important legal protection for gay and lesbian families.

Four anti-family bills were introduced so far in Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee, and all remain alive. These bills generally concern adoption and foster parenting. Missouri has two bills, the second of which declares gays and lesbians unworthy of the custody of children under 16 years of age.

SCHOOLS/CAMPUS

In California, a bill banning discrimination against gay students in public schools and colleges was introduced. The Dignity for All Students bill would prohibit bias based on sexual orientation in school employment, curriculum and the treatment of students on campus. In Rhode Island there is a measure that would repeal a law passed last year that lets parents take their children out of AIDS education and sex education classes.

In three states (WA, NH, FL) anti-gay bills concerning curriculum were introduced, and in two states (CA, NC) anti-gay bills concerning military recruitment on campuses are being considered.

SODOMY

Five sodomy repeal measures were introduced in four states (AZ, MA, RI, VA). Virginia’s bill is dead.

Twelve anti-gay measures involving sodomy were introduced in Kansas. By far the most alarming would have made persons convicted of sodomy register as a sex offender. Activists were successful in having the bill amended to exclude sodomy. The two other types of bills, one making the limitation on prosecutions of criminal sodomy 5 years and the other making sodomy unable to be expunged from a criminal record did not meet deadlines and will be held over until next year. Kansas has a two year legislative session.<p>

Sodomy laws, even when not fully enforced are used to classify gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders as criminals. To that end, Indiana legislators are considering a measure that would extend the definition of voyeurism. Missouri activists believe the measure is purely an attempt to harass the gay community.

TRANSGENDER

Missouri is considering a measure hostile to transgendered people. It would make transgender status of a parent an issue in determining child custody.

HIV/AIDS

At least 38 bills addressing HIV/AIDS issues have been introduced in at least 16 states. The measures range from repealing laws allowing the compassionate use of medical marijuana to establishing needle exchange programs.

=============================================================================== This information was gathered by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from a variety of sources, including news reports, state activists and organizations, state legislative libraries and other organizations, including the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Due to the large number of bills introduced, it is virtually impossible for this data to be completely accurate and comprehensive. Individuals with information on legislative activity not in this report should contact the NGLTF Field Department at 202/332-6483, extension 3303.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is a progressive organization that has supported grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since 1973. Since its inception, NGLTF has been at the forefront of virtually every major initiative for lesbian and gay rights. In all its efforts, NGLTF helps to strengthen the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement at the state level while connecting these activities to a national vision for change.

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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is the oldest national gay and lesbian group and is a progressive organization that has supported grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since 1973. Since its inception, NGLTF has been at the forefront of virtually every major initiative for lesbian and gay rights. In all its efforts, NGLTF helps to strengthen the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement at the state level while connecting these activities to a national vision for change.

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Posted around 9 April, 1997

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>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 9 Apr 1997 18:24:06 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E73Wb; Wed 9 Apr 1997 18:24:06 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: SF Internship Available From COLAGE Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 18:24:06 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704091824.E73Wb@xconn.com>

Please post and forward and dissminate as widely as possible

Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere is looking for interns for our national headquarters near San Francisco’s Castro district.

COLAGE is a national, non-profit, support and advocacy organization for daughters and sons of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents. We have 1,500 members and 15 affiliate groups around North America.

Deadline: applications must be received in our office by April 30th, 1997

Description:

Our office is wheelchair-accessible, and meaningful work is available which accommodates many disabilities.

We are an up-and-coming organization presenting a unique perspective on g/l/bi/trans issues, and providing a unique opportunity for interns: You will work with the Director on a single program, but you will also learn about many areas of non-profit management, queer communities and gay and lesbian family issues. No more than 40% of your work will be purely administrative.

COLAGE is run on a shoe-string budget in a tiny office with one full-time staff, some part-time staff, and a bunch of volunteers. Time, space and resources are scarce, but energy, enthusiasm and intelligence are common.

Compensation:

Interns receive $1000 for an eight-week, full-time (40 hours a week) internship. We can accommodate special schedules, however.

The Projects

We are especially looking for people interested in heading up one of three projects:

* Assist with establishing an SF Bay Area chapter of COLAGE, separate from the main office * Assist with our Roots and Wings campaign, an outreach and fundraising campaign. * Help establish a national grassroots network of gay and lesbian families to respond to G/L family issues.

Requirements

* Must make at least an 8-week, full time commitment * Must be 16 or over * Must be at least lesbian/gay positive, and open to learning about our commitment to bisexual and transgender issues and families

Preferred qualifications:

* Computer literate (especially on PC’s), knowledge of Microsoft Word, FileMaker Pro a plus. * Experience with phone-based organizing and networking * Self-motivated. * Daughter or son of a lesbian/gay/bisexual or transgendered parent(s).

How to Apply:

Please send/fax/email us the following information 1. resume 2. dates which you are available to work 3. A letter on why you are interested in working for COLAGE

For more information, please contact Felicia Park-Rogers, Director of COLAGE. (415) 861-5437, fax (415) 255-8345, email: KidsOfGays@aol.com

**As posted in the Transgender Community Forum **On America Online (Keyword: TCF) **TCF Info: http://members.aol.com/onqgwen

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>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 9 Apr 1997 18:24:06 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E69Ey; Wed 9 Apr 1997 18:24:06 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Chattanooga Crossdresser Sues Cops Again Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 18:24:06 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704091824.E69Ey@xconn.com>

>From the Nashville Banner, 3/5/97

Chattanooga Crossdresser Sues Cops Again

A crossdressing mechanic who won a lawsuit against three city police officers has now filed another case.

Michael “Michelle” Weaver is suing officer C.M. Haley and the city of Chattanooga.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Weaver charges discrimination, malicious prosecution, harassment, abuse of process and violation of his constitutional rights.

Two weeks ago, a federal jury found three officers guilty of arresting Weaver without probably cause. Weaver had filed suit against six officers and asked for $1 million in damages and was awarded $2,261.

Weaver is taking hormones and dresses as a woman, but is legally a male. In his lawsuits, he contents he is being harassed for his alternative lifestyle.

“It now looks like he (Weaver) is going to file a suit against anybody who’s ever arrested him,” said Assistant City Attorney Phil Noblett. “He’s been arrested oodles of times.”

According to Hamilton County Sessions Court records, Weaver has been arrested six times on 11 misdemeanor charges in the past two years. Eight of the charges were dismissed.

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———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.

Posted around 11 April, 1997

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AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 11 Apr 1997 17:16:12 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E95qC; Fri 11 Apr 1997 17:16:12 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Vancouver Sun on Intersex Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 17:16:12 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704111716.E95qC@xconn.com>

(Originally Posted by Cheryl Chase of ISNA)

PAPER The Vancouver Sun PDATE Monday, April 7, 1997 EDITION Final SECTION News PAGE A1 / FRONT LENGTH 1508 words STOTYPE News ITYPE Colour Photo Black & White Photo ILLUS Color Photo: HOLLY DEVOR: Victoria sociologist is an expert on gender issues

Photo: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun / DR. GEORGE SZASZ: specialist in sexual medicine says children can be born intersexual. He says how they are raised can influence the gender of the adult.

LKW SEX; CHILDREN; SURGERY; MEDICAL RESEARCH; PSYCHOLOGY

HEADLINE Controversy over intersex treatment: Activist concerned that a majority of sexually ambiguous babies are turned into girls.

BYLINE * Ian Mulgrew SOURCE Vancouver Sun DNOTE Ran with sidebar “Relatively few intersexuals out of the closet” on page A2

A mother gazes up at the new-born held before her and asks: “Is it a boy or a girl?”

What she doesn’t want to hear is, “I don’t know.” But every day new mothers hear those words.

And the medical response — however humanitarian in conception, however compassionate in intent — in most cases is medieval and monstrous in actuality: sexually ambiguous children are turned into girls.

It is the beginning of a very real Crying Game.

Six or more children a day across North America, Cheryl Chase says, are subjected to clitorectomies.

“Surgery fixes the problem they can see, which is the parents’ emotional distress,” Chase said in a telephone interview from her San Francisco home.

“It worsens the problem they can’t see, which is the child’s entire sexual future.

“You know what they do,” she fumes. “They measure the phallus — a medical word that refers to penises and clitorises and everything in between. If it’s longer than 2.5 cm, you get to keep it and be a boy. If it’s shorter than that, they cut it off and call it a girl.”

Dr. George Szasz, a recently retired West Vancouver specialist and author of a text given to parents, considers Chase “very, very militant” and says physicians don’t really have a choice — it’s too tough to rear a boy without a penis.

“They call themselves Hermaphrodites with Attitudes and they parade through hospitals and try to shame doctors into not performing surgery,” Szasz said dismissively of the support group Chase established.

A major hospital such as Vancouver’s Children’s Hospital would see about one case a month, he added, and a team of doctors from various specialities is on hand to help and support parents.

Victoria sociologist Holly Devor says medical science is wrestling with the idea that there can be more than two sexes, more than two genders.

The author of such works as Genderblending: Confronting the Limits of Duality, Devor thinks the we better get used to the idea that Dame Edna isn’t an Australian anomaly.

Until recently, the prevailing medical theory — its main champion Dr. John Money at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore — held that human children were born with sex but without gender. That we were blank slates.

But Mooney’s work was broadsided in a follow-up study of his most celebrated case — a disastrous attempt to turn an eight-month-old boy into a girl through surgery and hormone treatments after his penis was irreparably damaged in a medical mishap.

Although a small group of people within the sexual medicine specialities knew John/Joan as he wants to be known had reverted to his male identity once he became old enough to speak his mind, the news was not brought to wider attention until this month.

“This story has been misrepresented at best — that information has been largely suppressed,” Devor says emphatically. “For 24 years, this story has been repeated over and over as some kind of proof that you could create a gender completely out of socialization.”

The attention devoted to John/Joan is like the visible part of an iceberg — below the mainstream media, a great discussion is occurring.

The Internet has sites devoted to support groups such as the Intersex Society of North America. The Medical Post last month highlighted the work of researchers who have identified a gene responsible for girls being born with ambiguous genitalia, so in utero treatment soon may be possible.

The British Columbia Medical Journal devoted an entire issue to the subject and recent publications aimed at general practitioners urged family doctors to educated themselves about the needs of these adults.

Just as the atomic bomb exploded ideas about the physical universe thought as natural as common sense, so current research into human sexuality is shaking widespread notions of what makes us men and what makes us women.

The sad truth is that John/Joan isn’t alone — as many as one child in every 500 is born with some form of genital disorder, and invariably those who require surgery are turned into girls.

Devor explained: “They say, `Well, there’s only two possibilities here. You’ve got to be one or the other and if you are going to be a male, you’ve got to have this equipment or you don’t qualify.’ By no means will we allow anyone to grow up as a maybe. Absolutely not. The whole thing is rife with politics.”

By the end of the 1960s, treatment protocols were fairly standard. In manuals, the condition was described as “a tragic event” and such a child as a “hopeless psychological misfit doomed to live always as a sexual freak in loneliness and frustration.”

There was no real empirical evidence to support such a near-hysterical assertion, although there was plenty of anecdotal support.

In Devor’s view, the male-dominated U.S. medical establishment, particularly the AMA, is responsible for the pervasive paternalism.

Surgical decisions are often made not on the basis of medical necessity but rather because of the psycho-social necessity perceived by parents and doctors.

“In many parts of the world they are far less concerned with this,” Devor said. “We have this social idea, that in order to be a boy, a man or a male, you have to have a particular body. And an absolutely essential part is to have a penis.”

For much of human history, people simply had to live with what they got.

“There are a lot of traditional societies who made space for those with ambiguous genitalia and allowed people to live that way; a special category, but they recognized it as a special category.”

They used to be called hermaphrodites — a word whose root is a combination of Greek names for the gods Hermes and Aphrodite. Their child, Hermaphroditus, fell in love at 15 and was fused with another semi-divine being, a nymph, and became half-male and half female.

Early biblical scholars held that Adam began life as a hermaphrodite and later divided into two people, male and female, after falling from grace.

Plato said there were three sexes but the third sex was lost with time. The Talmud stipulates the place and obligations for people with mixed sex.

In the West, since the Middle Ages, those with ambiguous genitalia were expected to chose between living as men or woman, but physically they were left alone.

In China, while sexually anomalous children were considered inauspicious omens, as many as 100,000 eunuchs labored as gate-keepers in imperial palaces, menial servants in the imperial harem and messengers among royalty.

And in India today, a colorful, 2,400-year-old religious order of intersex individuals called Hijras often adopt and raise intersex children.

Here in North America, four years ago, Chase founded the Intersex Society of North America, one of the most significant support groups for children who receive such treatment.

To describe her as angry is wrong. She is enraged.

Chase is an articulate, passionate and dedicated 45-year-old woman who feels betrayed and mutilated.

Genital surgery leaves scars in a part of the body that is supposed to be the most sensitive. Some are left with no sensitivity and, for others, there is just a little.

In some cases, surgery leaves malfunctions that are worse than if the child had been left with genitalia that was ambiguous looking but functioned fine.

“Because intersex people and their families have been so traumatized by their treatment that we have been silent, these people have been able to operate without any scrutiny at all,” Chase said.

“The first large group of people they did this to now is about 40 years old. That’s how long it’s taken people to do enough growing up, get enough emotional healing, get enough practical skills and money and facts to be able to organize and say this is not an okay way to treat anyone. And we are going to try to stop you from continuing doing this to infants because it’s horrible.”

Chase works tirelessly to have doctors and the public address the issue.

“At B.C. Children’s Hospital,” Chase said, “they don’t do research there. All they do is cut off clitorises there. We shouldn’t lose sight of what’s happening to kids every day. Different genitals are not harmful to health or people. There’s no reason to fix them. It’s based on the view of a bunch of Victorian straight white men.”

Dr. Szasz sighs when he hears Chase. He wishes she could be more tolerant in her rhetoric, because she is contributing greatly to the field.

“These people make a very good point and they cite examples that nurturing people into a male or a female is not successful,” he conceded.

“The fact is, the answers are just not in. We don’t actually have satisfactory answers for this enormously complex and incredibly human dilemma. That is one of the most significant moments, when a mother looks up and the person who helped her deliver her baby says, `You could have a boy, you could have a girl.’ This is an enormous puzzle, an enormous puzzle.”

*** END OF DOCUMENT ***

PAPER The Vancouver Sun PDATE Monday, April 7, 1997 EDITION Final SECTION News PAGE A2 LENGTH 533 words STOTYPE News; Sidebar LKW SEX; INTERSEX SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA HEADLINE Relatively few intersexuals out of the closet BYLINE * Ian Mulgrew SOURCE Vancouver Sun DNOTE Ran with sidebar “Controversy over intersex treatment” on page A1

They call themselves Hermaphrodites With Attitudes and the Intersex Society of North America.

But the number of “out” intersexuals in the world is relatively small — a situation the support groups such as the ISNA hope to change that through discussion.

Here are a selection of comments taken from internet postings, discussion groups and interviews with intersex individuals:

Kira: “When I was 13 I learned that I was not a boy, I was actually a girl. Now I know I am an intersexed person . . . The intense awareness of my life and the implications of being intersexed ripped through my existence and the implosion hurt . . . most of all I wanted to find others who were intersexed and talk to them so that I would not feel so terribly alone.”

David: “Though we are physically healthy and psychologically sound (at least before we are broken by medicine and the culture), we somehow terrify and threaten the culture to the extent that we are almost universally destroyed as infants. `Fixed’ and made to fit in. But we cannot be made to fit in! That’s the whole point! We are who we are and no amount of surgery and hormones and even conditioning (to the point of brainwashing can change that . . . What is done to these children, what was done to me, is legally and scientifically sanctioned, traumatic sexual abuse.”

Lee: “Finally I can say, `I’m a hermaphrodite, I’m intersex, I’m transgender, I’m queer and damn proud . . . ”’

Randy: “It’s the afflicted person who has to live with the condition, not the parents or doctors. Far too many people allow social `stigma’ to cloud their judgment. It’s OK to be different. The parents should wait until the child, health permitting, reaches a level of maturity so he can decide for himself whether or not to opt for surgery.”

Jane: “I have been locked in a closet for 36 years. But from this moment I am committed to dedicating all my resources, emotional and financial, to ensuring that no one suffers a lifetime of emotional neglect because of a ridiculous social taboo.”

Lynn Edward Harris was raised as a girl and crowned 1968 Junior Miss of Newport Beach, Calif.: “Why do I go out of my way to seek this kind of publicity? In one way, it’s a kind of reaction to the years, the decades, of denial and repression. But more importantly, I believe that it is my mission to educate and enlighten both the general populace and especially the medical profession. Intersex children should be protected and loved and allowed to assume whichever gender they like . . . On a number of occasions, parents of intersex children have approached me for advice. I tell them that they should certainly have their child examined, but to stay away from genital surgery . . . I’ve met several other hermaphrodites who had surgeries during infancy, and I can tell you that they are miserable. The surgery is just barbaric.”

Morgan Holmes, president of the Canadian chapter of ISNA: “Sexuality is something to be celebrated for its subtleties and not something to be feared or ridiculed.”

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Posted around 12 April, 1997

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>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 12 Apr 1997 20:48:49 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E61zy; Sat 12 Apr 1997 20:48:49 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: TRANSCUSTODY CASE GETS NATIONAL ATTENTION Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 20:48:49 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704122048.E61zy@xconn.com>

MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Riki Anne Wilchins Gpac@Gpac.ORG, (212)645-1753

TRANSCUSTODY CASE GETS NATIONAL ATTENTION ====================================== TransParent Fights to See Her Children

[St. Louis, MO : 7 April 1997] THE CASE of transgender parent Sharon Boyd, who was recently dealt a resounding setback in her battle to see her own children, has emerged as national news. A Missouri Court of Appeals held last month that Ms. Boyd constituted “an endangerment” to her own children, simply because of her transgender status. Her story was published Monday morning in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and quickly picked up by the AP wire service, and appeared in a number of newspapers nationwide. It was followed by a live interview on ABC Radio. [Post-Dispatch story follows.]

Leading Edge for an Assault on Gay Parents ——————————————

Ms. Boyd’s case has taken on added significance because of three bills introduced in the Missouri State Legislature. One of these, HB640, closely follows the ruling in Ms. Boyd’s case, and would deny custody or adoption rights to anyone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Another targeted directly at transparents, SB51, has already passed the Missouri Senate.

Remarked Ms. Boyd, “Gay groups have told me transparents `aren’t our problem.’ But these bills prove that these fine-line distinctions are lost on the conservative right. As long as gay activists leave us as the exposed edges, right-wing groups are going to seize on us to attack parenting across the board. As far as they’re concerned — gay, bi, lesbian, transgender — we’re all queer.”

“Sqeaky Clean” — Army, Air Force, and Military Intelligence ——————————–

Ms. Boyd’s case is all the more remarkable because, although fundamentalist groups from the “Christian Coalition” to “Focus on the Family” have united against her, she is a self-described “squeaky clean” evangelical Christian herself, who met her ex-wife at a Bible study group. In addition, Ms. Boyd is an honor’s graduate of the US Air Force Academy, who went on to serve in the Army, the Air Force, and military intelligence, before emerging as a much-decorated Major following 12 years of military service.

Ms. Boyd had initially been awarded visitation and joint legal custody by a lower court. However, with the backing of fundamentalist groups, her ex-wife successfully appealed the ruling. Ms. Boyd has described the recent decision against her by the State Court of Appeals as “discriminatory,” and plans to appeal the case as long as her limited funds hold out. Her ex-wife has denied Ms. Boyd even telephone contact her two sons, aged 7 and 10, and she has had no contact with them since 1992.

Said Boyd, “I’ve lost out on precious, irreplaceable years of my children’s lives. But this case isn’t just about me: it’s about the scores of transgender parents who are denied the most basic contact with their own children every year simply because they are gender-variant. We must start fighting back.”

###

(c) 1996 InYourFace An on-line, news-only service for gender activism. When re-posting, please credit InYourFace.

[TEXT BEGINS]

(Courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch All Rights Reserved)

Transsexual Plans To Fight Custody Ruling She Contends Her Sons Need Her ========================================== Monday, April 7, 1997 By Tim Bryant Of The Post-Dispatch Staff

A father who underwent a sex change and lost custody of two sons in the process says the boys should still have a relationship with the parent they will always know as Dad.

“There are things only a parent can provide,” said the father, now known as Sharon, in a recent interview. “That is unconditional love, guidance and wisdom. There is no reason I can’t give that to my kids.”

Sharon, who has had no direct contact with the boys since late 1992, said that the children – now 7 and 10 – needed both their parents. She plans to ask the Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis to reconsider its decision March 11 giving the boys’ mother sole legal custody.

Hundreds of battles similar to Sharon’s are waged nationwide each year, but nearly all are fought outside public view, a national advocate for transsexuals said.

“Most cases don’t display the courage of Sharon, who was willing to go public,” said Riki Anne Wilchins, executive director of Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, or Gender PAC, in New York. “Most people are quiet and well-behaved. Any attempt to go public is portrayed as unstable behavior. A lot of these cases are decided quietly.”

Even so, such custody battles are seldom conducted “on a level playing field,” she said. “Usually, the preferred mode of attack is to portray the transgender parent as, by definition, deviant and an endangerment to their own kids, even in the absence of any evidence to support the claim.”

In Sharon’s case, the appeals court in St. Louis ruled that a St. Charles County Circuit Court judge must decide whether visits with Sharon would be in the boys’ best interest. The appeals ruling overturned a joint-custody decision by another judge in St. Charles County in 1995.

“This is a unique situation, and it is imperative that evaluations of the parents and children are made prior to the children’s face-to-face reunification with (their) father,” wrote Judge Paul Simon. The boys’ mother lives in St. Charles County. Sharon lives in suburban Washington.

“If you asked them, I know they would want to talk with me,” Sharon said, referring to her sons. “I have never, ever presented myself to my children as anything other than their dad. I do not need my children’s validation of myself as a woman.”

Reconciliation Plan ——————-

Sharon acknowledged last week that both boys would need counseling before they could resume a relationship with their father. Sharon said her original plan for reconciliation with her sons called for phone calls and counseling leading up to visits. But she added: “There is very little I can’t do with my kids today. All I want to do is be involved in their lives. “I know they would recognize me as their dad. I would never do anything that would harm them. I just can’t believe that them seeing me as a woman could distort their sense of reality.”

(At the mother’s request, the appeals court decided last year to use initials in identifying the parents. In Post-Dispatch stories, the paper used Karen as a pseudonym for the mother, also at her request, to protect the children’s privacy.)

Sharon, 38, is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and a former officer in the Air Force and Army. She describes herself as “squeaky clean” and an evangelical Christian. Sharon and Karen met in a Bible study group in a town near the Air Force base in Missouri, where Sharon, who was a man at the time, was stationed. The couple married in 1983.

Karen has said the couple’s relationship was always strained. In 1991, the father refused to go with his family to visit Karen’s relatives. When Karen and the boys returned three weeks later, the father told Karen that he had spent the time living as a woman.

The couple separated in 1992. Sharon underwent a hair transplant, electrolysis, hormone treatments and psychotherapy. Karen filed for divorce. The father underwent sex- change surgery 71 days before the divorce trial. Sharon and Karen were divorced in St. Charles County in 1995. A judge there had given Karen primary custody of the boys but allowed Sharon unsupervised visits for two weeks in the summer and on alternate holidays.

Sharon never got to visit the boys. Karen’s court petitions indicate that she believed visits would harm the children.

Boys Have Seen A Picture ————————

The boys have seen a photocopy of a picture of Sharon taken after her sex-change operation, Sharon said. “I believe they still want to see me,” she added. “I’m the same person. I’m better now because something with which I had been struggling has been treated, and I’m over it now. These children aren’t going to look at me and keel over dead.”

Many people misunderstand gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder, in which a person believes his or her anatomy and true gender are a mismatch. Transsexuals believe that their true gender is imprisoned in the body of the other gender. They regard their genitals with repugnance. It is estimated that 6,000 to 11,000 people have undergone sex-change surgery.

“This is a medical condition; there is nothing moral or immoral about it,” said Sharon, adding that she was not a cross between “Uncle Miltie and Dennis Rodman.”

“I’m a person with high moral standards,” she said. “I’m an intelligent person.”

Gender PAC submitted a brief in favor of Sharon in her appeals case. The recently formed group is a coalition of about a dozen organizations, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Wilchins said Gender PAC pushed in Congress for the rights of transgender people and might consider a similar lobbying effort before the Missouri Legislature.

On a personal level, Sharon said she was disappointed by the opposition to her having a relationship with her sons. “People who don’t even know me have reacted emotionally to my situation and are patting themselves on the back and thinking they are doing good,” she said. “I love my kids. That’s really what this is about.”

(c) Copyright, 1997 St. Louis Post-Dispatch All Rights Reserved

[TEXT ENDS]

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>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 12 Apr 1997 20:48:49 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E17MJ; Sat 12 Apr 1997 20:48:49 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Ob.Gyn News addresses intersex Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 20:48:49 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704122048.E17MJ@xconn.com>

Reposted from the ISNA mailing list.

Johnson, Kate. “Doctors Asked to Delay Sex-Assignment Surgery.” Ob.Gyn News, 1 March 1997, 30.

Doctors Asked to Delay Sex-Assignment Surgery

*************** Some say the baby should be allowed to reach the age of consent and make an informed decision about surgery and which sex to choose. ***************

Immediate sex-assignment surgery for babies born with ambiguous genitalia may not necessarily be the most appropriate medical care, according to Dr. Bruce Filmer, chief of pediatric urology at Alfred I. Dupont Institute in Wilmington, Del.

Dr. Filmer, who performs such surgeries, says there is need for follow-up studies to assess the sexual and psychological ramifications of the treatment.

“There is a definite, quiet concern amongst the surgeons [who perform these surgeries] that there is more going on with our decision making than we’ve realized and that some patients are dissatisfied,” he told this newspaper.

That dissatisfaction has been expressed by the San Francisco-based Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), which is opposed to immediate sex-assignment surgery.

“We believe that most people would be better off with no surgery,” said Cheryl Chase, founder of ISNA. “Those of us who have had this done to us don’t consider it reconstructive surgery. There may be such decreased sexual sensation that orgasm is impossible, and scar tissue makes sexual friction painful,” she said.

According to ISNA, 1 in every 2,000 babies is born with ambiguous genitalia, with over two dozen variations on the basic etiology.

True hermaphrodites have both ovarian and testicular tissue. Pseudohermaphrodites have either ovaries or testes but look ambiguous — in that they have what could be considered either a large clitoris or a small penis; in these patients there often is a discordance between the appearance of their external genitalia and their sex chromosomes.

According to ISNA, there are more than 2,000 surgeries performed each year in the United States aimed at surgically assigning a sex to intersex patients.

In the vast majority of cases — about 90% — the child is made female due to the fact that most of them have a condition called adrenal hyperplasia.

“In adrenal hyperplasia the overproduction of androgens, particularly testosterone, means that a female can fully masculinize to the point where you would actually believe this XX girl is a boy, with undescended testes,” explained Dr. Filmer.

In a case like this, what appears to be a small penis is actually an enlarged clitoris, and there is a partial vagina as well as ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Most hospitals have a committee of specialists that meets to decide what to do about such cases. “In our hospital the overriding factor in making the decision is what we regard as the potential development of the external genitalia,” he said.

With current surgical techniques, it is much easier to convert a small penis into a clitoris than a large clitoris into a penis.

“Penile reconstruction is very difficult. It is highly complicated surgery resulting in a nonerectile organ with possibly impaired sensation,” Dr. Filmer explained. Vaginal reconstruction also carries a high risk of vaginal stenosis.

But ISNA believes that rather than having a committee decide on how to treat an intersex baby, the baby should be allowed to reach the age of consent and make an informed decision about whether or not to undergo surgery and which sex to choose.

But Dr. Filmer says there are medical difficulties involved in performing some intersex surgeries on older patients. For example, in the case of severe hypospadias, where the urethral opening lies back near the scrotum, surgery performed near puberty can be dangerous. “There is the risk of erections, which can tear out stitches, and increased penile flora and bacteria, which can cause infections.”

###

ISNA would like to correct several errors in this article.

First, ISNA does not recommend that intersex babies simply be left alone. We do recommend that a committee evaluate the baby and assign a sex, based on both medical evaluation and input from qualified mental health professionals and intersex peer support/advocacy groups. However, we oppose early genital surgery, which is damaging to sexual function. When the patient is old enough to understand sexual function, and to speak candidly with mental health and intersex peer counselors about realistic expectations for surgery, including the likelihood of damaged sexual function, s/he should be allowed to choose or reject surgery. If the patient desires, s/he should also be allowed to change sex-role, and to choose whether or not to use surgery in the process.

The article seems to imply that we are calling for a delay until the legal age of consent. In fact, we believe that children approaching adolescence have a well-formed sense of their own gender identity, and that a request for change of sex-role should be honored, not delayed until legal age of consent (by which time irreversible pubertal changes in the direction opposite the patients’ identity will have occurred).

The article indicated that the reason 90% of infants with ambiguous genitalia are assigned female is that they all have adrenal hyperplasia. This is incorrect; the major factor governing the assignment of most cases as female is the surgeons’ notion that it is easier to feminize than to masculinize ambiguous genitals. We do not concur; surgeons measure the success of feminizing surgery according to whether or not the phallus has been rendered sufficiently invisible. We believe that there is more to female genitalia than the mere absence of a visible protrusion, including sexual sensation, orgasmic capacity, a vagina capable of pleasurable penetration and lubrication. Early genital surgery does not provide these.

The article states that over-production of testosterone masculinizes the body of XX individuals with adrenal hyperplasia. In fact, the adrenal product responsible for masculinization is androstenedione.

###

————————————————————————

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.

Posted around 13 April, 1997

=============================================================================

AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

=============================================================================

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E97ct; Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: Gay Brains, Gay Genes, Human Rights Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131850.E97ct@xconn.com>

The following is from Cheryl Chase at ISNA.

— Dallas

An article by Simon LeVay, posted recently on AEGIS-NEWS, prompts me to write about the recent popularity of biological theories of sexual orientation.

Many gay activists, including Dr. LeVay, have embraced the idea that scientific demonstration of a simple biological explanation for sexual orientation (rather than a complex biopsychosocial one) will lead to full civil rights for gay people. The transgendered community has similarly welcomed “transexual brain” studies. I believe that this strategy is badly mistaken.

Biological arguments have historically been used to oppress, not to liberate, women, people of color, and poor people (see Fausto-Sterling’s book Myths of Gender for biological theories about women). Since the mid-nineteenth century, homosexuality has been studied as a biological phenomenon both by those who wished to depathologize it, *and* by those who wished to condemn it.

Neuroanatomist William Byne has written, “A requirement that an unconventional trait be inborn or immutable is an inhuman criterion for a society to use in deciding which of its nonconformists it will grant tolerance.”

The biological origin of sexual difference in intersexuals has never been questioned. That fact has not prevented intersexuals from being subjected to a medical policy of shame, secrecy, and surgical mutilation. Indeed, the fact that our difference *is* biological has been used as justification for such treatment. When the intersex movement has tried to bring the attention of activists campaigning against traditional African genital cutting to the fact that some 2,000 modified clitorectomies are performed each year in US hospitals on intersexed infants, we have been ignored or told outright that “We are not interested in biological exceptions.”

Transgender Nation pioneer Susan Stryker says that she has no interest in scientific demonstration of a “transexual brain.” “What if the test shows that I’m not transexual?” Likewise, imagine that a “gay gene” were to be demonstrated. Should a man who has sex with men, and who tests negative for the “gay gene” be considered sick or criminal?

I believe that an appreciation of the long history of biological theories of homosexuality might dampen enthusiasm among sexual minorities activists for “gay brains,” “gay genes,” “transexual brains.” An excellent collection of essays on this subject, titled Science and Homosexualities, has just been issued by Routledge.

Cheryl Chase

References

Byne, William. “The Biological Evidence Challenged.” Scientific American, May 1994, 50-56.

Rosario, Vernon ed. Science and Homosexualities. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men. 2d ed. New York: BasicBooks, 1985.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E35Pz; Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: More on Valerie Nicole Taylor Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131850.E35Pz@xconn.com>

>From Etcetera, 11 April, 1997. Reprinted with permission.

A transsexual female charged with murder in Gaffney, SC will claim self-defense, her attorney says. Valerie Nicole Taylor is charged with shooting and killing Billy Posey at a motel in 1979. Taylor was named Freddie Lee Turner at the time. Taylor was arrested in California in May and charged with manslaughter in November. Her attorney, Usha Bridges, said Posey struck Turner after drinking and was shot in the groin with his own gun. A trial is expected this summer.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E11iS; Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: “Transgender Warrior” Organizing National Protest Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131850.E11iS@xconn.com>

Reprinted with permission from Etcetera, 11 April, 1997

“Transgender Warrior” Organizing National Protest

by Rob Nixon

New York City. Leslie Feinberg certain does her best to live up to the title of her latest book, “Transgender Warriors” (Beacon Press, 1996). A noted author and activist for the rights of the transgendered, gay people and the poor and working class of the U.S. for many years, Feinberg has bounced back from a life- threatening illness to help organize a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) contingent in a mass protest planned for later this month.

In Philadelphia on April 27, a progressive coalition called the National Peoples’ Campaign (NPC) plans to be out in force to protest President Clinton’s “Presidential Summit for America’s Future.” The event will be attended by former presidents Bush, Carter, and Ford, General Colin Powell and other political and economic leaders to propose increased private charity and volunteer labor as more and more social services fall under the federal budget ax.

“They’re attempting to put a bi-partisan face on the Contract on America,” Feinberg quips. “Charity and volunteer organizations are already understaffed and underfunded. When every social service we’ve won over 60 years of mass struggle is being threatened, there needs to be a national response.”

And Feinberg is very clear about why LGBT communities need to be part of that response, pointing out that it’s no accident that a reactionary economic and social program is being promoted at a time when civil rights are under attack. For Feinberg, the line is very think between “assaults on our standard of living” and attacks on black churches, women’s health workers, and bars like The OtherSide, the Atlanta club bombed in February. And she say such attacks have spurred a “breathtaking” response to NPC’s cal to action. The Philadelphia march has been endorsed by, among many others, a large number of gay and AIDS organizations and individuals like Sylvia Rivera, one of the original combatants of the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969.

“Embattled people search the horizon for allies. I think our communities instinctively know the need for coalition,” Feinberg says. “In a time when so many are being hit by economic reaction and scapegoating and bigotry, people are ready to make connections.”

Feinberg will be promoting those connections and participation in the march during an appearance at Atlanta’s Abundant Grace Community Church, April 12. She and local activist Pat Hussain will also be discussing the rise in racist and anti-gay attacks and the official rhetoric and response that surrounds such incidents. One thing that rankles Feinberg is the use of the term “deranged individual” to describe hate-crime perpetrators, a term used by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and others after the OtherSide bombing.

“To talk about the organized rise of fascist violence as being the work of a mentally deranged individual is really an insult to the mentally disabled community,” Feinberg retorts. “It’s not disabled people bombing bars or burning down churches. It’s racists and bigots, and they get their money and the green light not from people in mental institutions but from people in the highest institutions of power.”

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E12gw; Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: ****IMPORTANT NATIONAL MARCH IN PHILA**** Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131921.E12gw@xconn.com>

PLEASE FWD TO ALL APPROPRIATE FORUMS:

APRIL 27 NAT’L MARCH IN PHILADELPHIA: Protest Bigotry, Racism, Budget Cuts & Repression!

Help build powerful Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans contingents!

Thousands of activists nationally are building an April 27 mass protest to challenge the bipartisan attacks on our social services and standard of living. The White House and Congress have united to throw millions of people off welfare; reduce millions of women and children to poverty; attack immigrants; downsize workers, and slash SSI. AIDS funding and public housing subsidies are being gutted, and affirmative action abandoned. Medicaid is on the chopping block, and Wall Street is trying to hijack Social Security. Hundreds of lesbian, gay, bi and trans activists and groups are working hard to build this national march. Although we will eventually all feel the effects of these and upcoming cuts, the most oppressed will be affected first: people of color, people with AIDS, youths, elders, unemployed, students, immigrants, welfare and SSI recipients. It’s no accident that this reactionary program is coinciding with a simultaneous rise in racist, transphobic and homophobic attacks, like the bombing of an Atlanta lesbian bar that welcomed gay, bi, trans and straight allies, attacks on women’s abortion clinics, Black and interracial churches, and the right of same-sex marriage. But these attacks have just begun. In Philadelphia on Apr. 27, Clinton will join George Bush, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Gen. Colin Powell, Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson and other political and economic figures for a “Presidential Summit for American’s Future.” They plan to propose to replace social services with our unpaid volunteer labor and private charity. Underfunded and understaffed charities are already unable to meet the overwhelming needs of poor people. And replacing wage workers with unpaid volunteers is part of a corporate drive that threatens millions of jobs of federal, state and municipal workers, and public sector unions. Our civil rights and social programs were won by struggles of millions of people over the last six decades–from the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion and almost 3 decades of our liberation struggles, to the great unemployed marches to factory sit-down strikes, to citywide work stoppages. It is time to build a new mass movement! It is time to say no to “lesser evil” politics! We can’t wait for “damage control” from the Clinton administration, which did much of the damage in the first place. We must break with the corporate stranglehold on politics in Washington by reviving the spirit of mass struggle. Activists from lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities across the country will join thousands in a massive protest to say NO to racism, bigotry, repression and poverty!

Partial list of lesbian, gay, bi and trans endorsers include: Kerry Lobel, Exe. Dir., Nat’l Lesbian & Gay Task Force*; Sylvia Rivera, Stonewall Rebellion combatant, co-founder STAR: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, former Young Lord; Pride at Work, National Org. for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Labor; GALAEI, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Donald Suggs, Writer & Activist; Gay & Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, Philadelphia, PA; Gay Activist Alliance of Morris County, NJ; Alice Walker, Author; A Slice of Rice-Asian gay/lesbian/bi/trans youth, Boston, MA; Lesbian Avengers of Great Barrington, MA; Queer Nation, Houston, TX; ACT-UP, Philadelphia, PA; Leslie Feinberg, Author, Transgender Activist; Emergency Comm. to Stop Anti-Gay Police Violence, LA; La Sarmiento, Washington, DC; Susan Hollinshead, Whitman-Walker Clinic, WA, DC; Ben Singer, Transgender Health Action Coalition*, Phila.; Judy Greenspan, HIV/AIDS in Prison Project, Oakland; Minnie Bruce Pratt, Lesbian Author, Anti-racist Activist; Mykael Hawley, Boston FTM Conference, Cochair; Letta Neeley, writer, Queer activist, Boston, MA; Wellesley Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transgenders & Friends, Wellesley College, MA; Gary Bowen, Coordinator-in-Chief, The American Boyz; Kira Triea, Intersex Society Of North America*; Johnathon I. Thunderword, By The Way, Norfolk, VA; Drago Renteria, Deaf Queer Resource Center, WA, DC; Jessica Xavier, Transgender Nation, Silver Spr., MD; Robin McCubbin, faculty advisor, Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Transgender Student Union, Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA; Kevin O’Mallley, Michigan FTM Support, MSU, MI; Jack Bragdon, Co-Founder Maine ACT UP; Gerry Scoppettuolo, AIDS Prevention Activist, Lifeguard Project*, Portland ME; Tania Hammidi, University of CA Davis, GLBT Center, CA; National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Student Caucus, Kevin Horwitz, Trans activist, San Diego, CA, Sarah Schulman, Author & Activist, NYC, Holly Hughes, Lesbian Preformance Artist.

Volunteers and funds needed, for more information on how you can help, contact: National Office: 39 W. 14th St., Rm. 206, NY, NY 10011; (212) 633-6646 e-mail: npcny@peoplescampaign.org WEB PAGE: http://www.peoplescampaign.org Philadelphia Office: (215) 724-1618

Union labor donated 3/97

National Peoples Campaign 39 West 14th Street, #206 New York, NY 10011 212-633-6646 212-633-2889 fax email npcny@peoplescampaign.org Web Page: http://www.peoplescampaign.org

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E17HM; Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: SNL Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131921.E17HM@xconn.com>

SNL Strikes Again; this is a message that was sent to us…

Dallas

Saturday Night Live just had another fucked up “the fake news” news report.

They talked about the custody battle in the public eye right now involving a transsexual.

Norm said “hmm…I wonder whose going to win this one, the mother of the two children, or the guy who had his penis twisted into a fake vagina”.

There was not much laughter in the audience at least.

Sigh….

————————————————————————

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.

Subj: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: 97-04-14 09:13:41 EDT From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com To: thexgrrrl@aol.com ============================================================================= AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

=============================================================================

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E97ct; Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: Gay Brains, Gay Genes, Human Rights Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131850.E97ct@xconn.com>

The following is from Cheryl Chase at ISNA.

— Dallas

An article by Simon LeVay, posted recently on AEGIS-NEWS, prompts me to write about the recent popularity of biological theories of sexual orientation.

Many gay activists, including Dr. LeVay, have embraced the idea that scientific demonstration of a simple biological explanation for sexual orientation (rather than a complex biopsychosocial one) will lead to full civil rights for gay people. The transgendered community has similarly welcomed “transexual brain” studies. I believe that this strategy is badly mistaken.

Biological arguments have historically been used to oppress, not to liberate, women, people of color, and poor people (see Fausto-Sterling’s book Myths of Gender for biological theories about women). Since the mid-nineteenth century, homosexuality has been studied as a biological phenomenon both by those who wished to depathologize it, *and* by those who wished to condemn it.

Neuroanatomist William Byne has written, “A requirement that an unconventional trait be inborn or immutable is an inhuman criterion for a society to use in deciding which of its nonconformists it will grant tolerance.”

The biological origin of sexual difference in intersexuals has never been questioned. That fact has not prevented intersexuals from being subjected to a medical policy of shame, secrecy, and surgical mutilation. Indeed, the fact that our difference *is* biological has been used as justification for such treatment. When the intersex movement has tried to bring the attention of activists campaigning against traditional African genital cutting to the fact that some 2,000 modified clitorectomies are performed each year in US hospitals on intersexed infants, we have been ignored or told outright that “We are not interested in biological exceptions.”

Transgender Nation pioneer Susan Stryker says that she has no interest in scientific demonstration of a “transexual brain.” “What if the test shows that I’m not transexual?” Likewise, imagine that a “gay gene” were to be demonstrated. Should a man who has sex with men, and who tests negative for the “gay gene” be considered sick or criminal?

I believe that an appreciation of the long history of biological theories of homosexuality might dampen enthusiasm among sexual minorities activists for “gay brains,” “gay genes,” “transexual brains.” An excellent collection of essays on this subject, titled Science and Homosexualities, has just been issued by Routledge.

Cheryl Chase

References

Byne, William. “The Biological Evidence Challenged.” Scientific American, May 1994, 50-56.

Rosario, Vernon ed. Science and Homosexualities. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men. 2d ed. New York: BasicBooks, 1985.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E35Pz; Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: More on Valerie Nicole Taylor Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131850.E35Pz@xconn.com>

>From Etcetera, 11 April, 1997. Reprinted with permission.

A transsexual female charged with murder in Gaffney, SC will claim self-defense, her attorney says. Valerie Nicole Taylor is charged with shooting and killing Billy Posey at a motel in 1979. Taylor was named Freddie Lee Turner at the time. Taylor was arrested in California in May and charged with manslaughter in November. Her attorney, Usha Bridges, said Posey struck Turner after drinking and was shot in the groin with his own gun. A trial is expected this summer.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E11iS; Sun 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: “Transgender Warrior” Organizing National Protest Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131850.E11iS@xconn.com>

Reprinted with permission from Etcetera, 11 April, 1997

“Transgender Warrior” Organizing National Protest

by Rob Nixon

New York City. Leslie Feinberg certain does her best to live up to the title of her latest book, “Transgender Warriors” (Beacon Press, 1996). A noted author and activist for the rights of the transgendered, gay people and the poor and working class of the U.S. for many years, Feinberg has bounced back from a life- threatening illness to help organize a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) contingent in a mass protest planned for later this month.

In Philadelphia on April 27, a progressive coalition called the National Peoples’ Campaign (NPC) plans to be out in force to protest President Clinton’s “Presidential Summit for America’s Future.” The event will be attended by former presidents Bush, Carter, and Ford, General Colin Powell and other political and economic leaders to propose increased private charity and volunteer labor as more and more social services fall under the federal budget ax.

“They’re attempting to put a bi-partisan face on the Contract on America,” Feinberg quips. “Charity and volunteer organizations are already understaffed and underfunded. When every social service we’ve won over 60 years of mass struggle is being threatened, there needs to be a national response.”

And Feinberg is very clear about why LGBT communities need to be part of that response, pointing out that it’s no accident that a reactionary economic and social program is being promoted at a time when civil rights are under attack. For Feinberg, the line is very think between “assaults on our standard of living” and attacks on black churches, women’s health workers, and bars like The OtherSide, the Atlanta club bombed in February. And she say such attacks have spurred a “breathtaking” response to NPC’s cal to action. The Philadelphia march has been endorsed by, among many others, a large number of gay and AIDS organizations and individuals like Sylvia Rivera, one of the original combatants of the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969.

“Embattled people search the horizon for allies. I think our communities instinctively know the need for coalition,” Feinberg says. “In a time when so many are being hit by economic reaction and scapegoating and bigotry, people are ready to make connections.”

Feinberg will be promoting those connections and participation in the march during an appearance at Atlanta’s Abundant Grace Community Church, April 12. She and local activist Pat Hussain will also be discussing the rise in racist and anti-gay attacks and the official rhetoric and response that surrounds such incidents. One thing that rankles Feinberg is the use of the term “deranged individual” to describe hate-crime perpetrators, a term used by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and others after the OtherSide bombing.

“To talk about the organized rise of fascist violence as being the work of a mentally deranged individual is really an insult to the mentally disabled community,” Feinberg retorts. “It’s not disabled people bombing bars or burning down churches. It’s racists and bigots, and they get their money and the green light not from people in mental institutions but from people in the highest institutions of power.”

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E12gw; Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: ****IMPORTANT NATIONAL MARCH IN PHILA**** Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131921.E12gw@xconn.com>

PLEASE FWD TO ALL APPROPRIATE FORUMS:

APRIL 27 NAT’L MARCH IN PHILADELPHIA: Protest Bigotry, Racism, Budget Cuts & Repression!

Help build powerful Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans contingents!

Thousands of activists nationally are building an April 27 mass protest to challenge the bipartisan attacks on our social services and standard of living. The White House and Congress have united to throw millions of people off welfare; reduce millions of women and children to poverty; attack immigrants; downsize workers, and slash SSI. AIDS funding and public housing subsidies are being gutted, and affirmative action abandoned. Medicaid is on the chopping block, and Wall Street is trying to hijack Social Security. Hundreds of lesbian, gay, bi and trans activists and groups are working hard to build this national march. Although we will eventually all feel the effects of these and upcoming cuts, the most oppressed will be affected first: people of color, people with AIDS, youths, elders, unemployed, students, immigrants, welfare and SSI recipients. It’s no accident that this reactionary program is coinciding with a simultaneous rise in racist, transphobic and homophobic attacks, like the bombing of an Atlanta lesbian bar that welcomed gay, bi, trans and straight allies, attacks on women’s abortion clinics, Black and interracial churches, and the right of same-sex marriage. But these attacks have just begun. In Philadelphia on Apr. 27, Clinton will join George Bush, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Gen. Colin Powell, Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson and other political and economic figures for a “Presidential Summit for American’s Future.” They plan to propose to replace social services with our unpaid volunteer labor and private charity. Underfunded and understaffed charities are already unable to meet the overwhelming needs of poor people. And replacing wage workers with unpaid volunteers is part of a corporate drive that threatens millions of jobs of federal, state and municipal workers, and public sector unions. Our civil rights and social programs were won by struggles of millions of people over the last six decades–from the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion and almost 3 decades of our liberation struggles, to the great unemployed marches to factory sit-down strikes, to citywide work stoppages. It is time to build a new mass movement! It is time to say no to “lesser evil” politics! We can’t wait for “damage control” from the Clinton administration, which did much of the damage in the first place. We must break with the corporate stranglehold on politics in Washington by reviving the spirit of mass struggle. Activists from lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities across the country will join thousands in a massive protest to say NO to racism, bigotry, repression and poverty!

Partial list of lesbian, gay, bi and trans endorsers include: Kerry Lobel, Exe. Dir., Nat’l Lesbian & Gay Task Force*; Sylvia Rivera, Stonewall Rebellion combatant, co-founder STAR: Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, former Young Lord; Pride at Work, National Org. for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Labor; GALAEI, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Donald Suggs, Writer & Activist; Gay & Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, Philadelphia, PA; Gay Activist Alliance of Morris County, NJ; Alice Walker, Author; A Slice of Rice-Asian gay/lesbian/bi/trans youth, Boston, MA; Lesbian Avengers of Great Barrington, MA; Queer Nation, Houston, TX; ACT-UP, Philadelphia, PA; Leslie Feinberg, Author, Transgender Activist; Emergency Comm. to Stop Anti-Gay Police Violence, LA; La Sarmiento, Washington, DC; Susan Hollinshead, Whitman-Walker Clinic, WA, DC; Ben Singer, Transgender Health Action Coalition*, Phila.; Judy Greenspan, HIV/AIDS in Prison Project, Oakland; Minnie Bruce Pratt, Lesbian Author, Anti-racist Activist; Mykael Hawley, Boston FTM Conference, Cochair; Letta Neeley, writer, Queer activist, Boston, MA; Wellesley Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transgenders & Friends, Wellesley College, MA; Gary Bowen, Coordinator-in-Chief, The American Boyz; Kira Triea, Intersex Society Of North America*; Johnathon I. Thunderword, By The Way, Norfolk, VA; Drago Renteria, Deaf Queer Resource Center, WA, DC; Jessica Xavier, Transgender Nation, Silver Spr., MD; Robin McCubbin, faculty advisor, Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Transgender Student Union, Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA; Kevin O’Mallley, Michigan FTM Support, MSU, MI; Jack Bragdon, Co-Founder Maine ACT UP; Gerry Scoppettuolo, AIDS Prevention Activist, Lifeguard Project*, Portland ME; Tania Hammidi, University of CA Davis, GLBT Center, CA; National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Student Caucus, Kevin Horwitz, Trans activist, San Diego, CA, Sarah Schulman, Author & Activist, NYC, Holly Hughes, Lesbian Preformance Artist.

Volunteers and funds needed, for more information on how you can help, contact: National Office: 39 W. 14th St., Rm. 206, NY, NY 10011; (212) 633-6646 e-mail: npcny@peoplescampaign.org WEB PAGE: http://www.peoplescampaign.org Philadelphia Office: (215) 724-1618

Union labor donated 3/97

National Peoples Campaign 39 West 14th Street, #206 New York, NY 10011 212-633-6646 212-633-2889 fax email npcny@peoplescampaign.org Web Page: http://www.peoplescampaign.org

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E17HM; Sun 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: SNL Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 19:21:45 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704131921.E17HM@xconn.com>

SNL Strikes Again; this is a message that was sent to us…

Dallas

Saturday Night Live just had another fucked up “the fake news” news report.

They talked about the custody battle in the public eye right now involving a transsexual.

Norm said “hmm…I wonder whose going to win this one, the mother of the two children, or the guy who had his penis twisted into a fake vagina”.

There was not much laughter in the audience at least.

Sigh….

————————————————————————

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————– Headers ——————————– From listserv@xconn.com Mon Apr 14 08:27:22 1997 Return-Path: <listserv@xconn.com> Received: from netcomsv.netcom.com (uucp13.netcom.com [163.179.3.13]) by emin14.mail.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-2.0.0) with SMTP id IAA04942 for <thexgrrrl@aol.com>; Mon, 14 Apr 1997 08:27:20 -0400 (EDT) Received: by netcomsv.netcom.com with UUCP (8.6.12/SMI-4.1) id FAA04947; Mon, 14 Apr 1997 05:17:42 -0700 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E88Ba; Mon 14 Apr 1997 04:02:51 From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 04:02:49 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: thexgrrrl@aol.com Message-Id: <9704140402.E88Ba@xconn.com>

Posted around 17 April, 1997

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AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E36AW; Thu 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Another Politician Drags it Up Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704172033.E36AW@xconn.com>

According to The Advocate, gaybashing syndicated columnist and television commentator Robert Novak, following the lead of NY Mayor Giuliani, cavorted in drag at the march 15 Gridiron Club dinner, “an annoual event staged by Washington’s journalistic elite for the town’s highest-profile politicians.” Novak did not, like Giuliani, dance with Julie Andrews, but he was introduced by Health & Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E13Vb; Thu 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Transsexuals on CBC Newsworld Sunday 97 04 20 Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704172033.E13Vb@xconn.com>

Those who can get CBC Newsworld may be interested to tune in to “The Passionate Eye” this coming Sunday , 1997 04 20.

This episode will be the North American premiere of “You Don’t Know Dick”, which tells the story of several female-to-male transsexuals: Michael (an artist), Stephan Thorne (a police officer in San Francisco), Loren Cameron (you know, that photo guy), and Ted (a businessman).

I’ve heard “Passionate Eye” airs at 9 Eastern, but check local listings.

Joshua

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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E39HB; Thu 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Offensive Renault Ad Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 20:33:46 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704172033.E39HB@xconn.com>

AEGIS For Immediate Release 16 April, 1997

Renault Ad Anti-Transsexual, Spanish Transsexuals Say

Kim Perez of La Association de Identitad de Genero, a transsexual political organization, is asking Americans to write the Spanish devision of the auto manufacturer Renault in protest of a television advertisement in which a young man whose girlfriend is transsexual must renounce her in order to get the keys to his brother’s Renault Clio. “Your woman of the evening is not really a woman…” The relationship with the transsexual is portrayed as shameful.

To protest, contact

Renault Espaine Departmente du Publicidad Fax 397 767 2680 e-mail www/renault.esp/jaup (this was difficult to decipher in the handwritten letter from Ms. Perez).

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Posted around 20 April, 1997

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>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 20 Apr 1997 12:12:55 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E14hj; Sun 20 Apr 1997 12:12:55 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: ECHR decision – XYZ case – Tues 22nd April Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 12:12:55 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704201212.E14hj@xconn.com>

The following is adapted from a posting to Compuserve’s UK politics forum which, in turn, is adapted from PFC’s official press release. Apologies, for the “kindergarten” explanations in the text, therefore !

Keep your fingers crossed for the family on Tuesday won’t you. Our hopes and best wishes are with them and, regardless of the outcome we shall *all* owe them a deep debt of gratitude. (I think you’ll all know where to direct it <grin>).

We’ll let you know the result as soon as someone has time to get to a keyboard.

Kindest regards

Christine

ECHR decision – XYZ case – Tues 22nd April ==================================

I am delighted to be able to announce on behalf of Press for Change and the individuals concerned that the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in the case known as “XY&Z v UK Government” is to be promulgated at 7am (BST) on the morning of Tuesday 22nd April.

XY&Z, as some of you may recall, concerns a transsexual man (X) who sought the court’s judgement on his right to be named as father on his children’s birth certificates in a hearing last August. (See references below).

X, a university lecturer, and Y, a nurse, are giving exclusive interviews to the Guardian Newspaper and to BBC News, and will not be available for other interviews during this coming week. Many other Press for Change activists will be on call to give interviews and answer questions, however, and to comment on the significance of the case. Details of how to contact us are given below.

First, the background ================

X , who was registered as a girl at birth, underwent gender reassignment treatment in the 1970s and started to live as a man in 1975. He has lived with his female partner Y for 18 years. In 1992, Y gave birth to their first child, Z, after donor insemination treatment at a licensed clinic.

X, who had agreed to be the father of Z for any social and legal purposes (which is a requirement under the regulation of licensed fertility clinics) then asked the Registrar General for Births and Deaths if he could be registered as Z’s father on her birth certificate, as would be the case for any other non-biological father whose children were conceived using fertility treatment. The Registrar General refused this permission and Y received a letter from the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mrs Virginia Bottomley) that she would for all legal and welfare benefits purposes be considered a single parent.

As a result, X has no right to information about Z from her school, nor can he approve medical treatment, and if Y died then he has no automatic right to bring up Z as his child.

The application made by X and Y on behalf of their daughter Z argued that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that “Everyone has a right to respect for his private and family life” was being contravened by the UK Government, in their refusal to respect that their was family life between X,Y and Z, and that Z was being penalised because her right to privacy as regards her origins as a child of fertility treatment was being contravened.

What is the significance ? ====================

If the European Court of Human Rights decides in favour of the applicants then that decision will be of great significance, not only to families like those of the complainants, but to transsexual people throughout the United Kingdom. In stating that Article 8 has been contravened it will then be up to any future government to consider how the current inadequacies in law are to be addressed in order to ensure that transsexual people and their close family members have their privacy after reassignment protected.

The decision will be limited to the circumstances of the case, but if X is allowed to put his name as father on Z’s birth certificate, it would seem an obvious step to allow him to be considered a man in law, and to allow him the rights of marriage afforded to other men.

Such a move would have great beneficial repercussions for all of the UK’s 5-6000 reassigned transsexual people, allowing them the benefits of protection under law from discrimination.

X and Y say that they will be very pleased if this is the decision and will look forward to steps being taken by government to amend the anomalies they have faced under the current legal position.

On the other hand, even if the court holds that, in these circumstances, Article 8 has *not* been contravened, the judgement will almost certainly state that it is the responsibility of future UK governments to monitor the rapidly changing social and medical advances made in this area and to consider how the current inadequacies in law are to be addressed in order to ensure that transsexual people and their close family members have their privacy after reassignment protected.

Further the decision will greatly inform the future decisions in the ECHR transsexual cases of Sheffield and Horsham v the UK, which will be heard in 1998, and we feel certain that those decisions will move the law forward in this difficult area .

X and Y will naturally be disappointed with the decision if it is a negative one. However, they *do* see themselves as simply being a small part of a much larger movement, and they have felt honoured to have taken one more step up the ladder on behalf of other transsexual people and their loved ones. They would hope that despite a ruling against them that a future Labour government will take steps to amend the anomalies they face under the current legal position.

Press for Change, the campaigning and lobbying group for transsexual and transgender rights have arranged for a countrywide team of activists to be at the ready to comment to local and national news media the moment the decision is made known.

Bona fide journalists in this forum can email Christine_Burns@compuserve.com for a list of contacts in Glasgow, Huddersfield, Kent, Oxford, Torquay, Humberside, and London. I, too, will be available by mobile phone.

NEWS RELEASE ENDS

Christine Burns comments … ======================

In many ways it’s rather unfortunate that the court’s judgement should occur just nine days before the General Election. The date is something which we cannot control. If the court rules in the plaintiff’s favour, however, then it will be the result of a decade’s patient and reasoned legal debate, backed by a growing body of medical evidence, that substatiates X’s claim for recognition as a man. It obviously doesn’t benefit our campaign for such a significant ruling to be interpreted simplistically as an assault on the sovereign right of Britain’s establishment to plough its’ own narrow-minded furrow .. or to have our supporters on either side of the house put on the spot for a cheap point or two. Our instruction to the campaign’s activists is to stick to the facts of the case. Whether the rest of the world sees it the same way is out of our hands.

Mind you, if we find ourselves misrepresented and maligned for cheap political point-scoring then we’ll defend ourselves vigorously as I’ve indicated many times before.

The decision is obviously going to be a very significant one for the campaign though. Having made significant strides in the European Court of Justice last year with P vs S, this will be the first proper test of how far we’ve advanced in the European Court of Human Rights since the Caroline Cossey case in 1990. The indications are encouraging of course. The almost unanimous (15 to 1) support for Horsham and Sheffield a few weeks ago in the Commission of Human Rights (which decides which cases go forward to the full court) shows that there has been a significant advancement in understanding of the issues .. but the court is the arbiter that matters. And a win for X,Y and Z in just nine days time would set a very strong basis for the full court hearing of the more general Sheffield and Horsham rights case when that comes next year.

In a less politically charged environment this isn’t an issue which should normally divide the parties and we certainly won’t be seeking to imply that it should. Press for Change has support across the parliamentary spectrum for the transsexual rights campaign and the European Court of Human Rights is not a part of the EC. It is a part of the much larger Council of Europe, to which 32 states belong.

Britain was the first country to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in March 1951and opted to let citizens petition the court in 1966. By and large successive governments have, since then, respected the rulings of the courts where UK citizens have sought redress. Consequently we would expect, in this case, to work closely with *whichever* party forms the next administration to implement a favourable ruling.

If some think it “controversial” to be told by sixteen judges drawn from 31 other countries that the treatment of a citizen is unfair then we should question the basis of their claim to authority. I hope that representatives of all parties will greet a favourable result more intelligently and with better grace than that however. Politicians who wilfully ignore or denigrate the considered judgement of outsiders forfeit the moral authority to reciprocate. And without that special moral authority, which we’ve always held so dear, what is Britain on the world stage ? Our stature derives historically from our integrity as a nation, not from our size. A politician who brings that integrity into disrepute diminishes our entire society in the world’s eyes.

Needless to say, of course, if the decision goes against the applicants then we’ll be sad, but we’ll continue campaigning patiently for an eventual understanding that we seek no more than to be respected for seeking honestly to resolve the challenge that life has posed us, and to be treated on equal terms with others. We won’t bomb. We won’t kidnap. We won’t shout down or denigrate our opponents. We won’t indulge in cheap attention-seeking stunts or twist the truth for our advantage. We don’t think we need to do these things, for our claim is fair and reasonable and we seek our *part* in society, not its’ dissolution.

When we *do* win, however, our success should stand as an indictment on those with lesser moral justication to their case, who happily resort to such tactics to make up for the shortcomings in their arguments.

I hope you’ll wish our good and fair cause the outcome it deserves therefore, and that all players in the election campaign will respect this attempt to handle an issue of complex arguments with care, at a time when reasoned and intellectual debate is well nigh futile to hope for.

Kindest regards

Christine Burns Vice President Press for Change

Christine_Burns@compuserve.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Press_For_Change

More information on THIS story : =========================

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/abcxyz.htm http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/xyzwait.htm

Other references : =============

Transsexualism : The Current Medical Viewpoint (ISBN : 0 9527842 0 3) http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/mediview.htm

A psychologist’s affidavit http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/reidafdt.htm

Professor Louis Gooren (XXIII’rd Colloquy, Council of Europe, Apr 1993) http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/Lgooren.htm

European Court of Justice – Advocate General’s Recommendation (Dec 95) http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/PFCecjr1.htm

The Press for Change Debate (Edited from UK Politics Forum, Autumn 1995) http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Christine_Burns/pfdebate.htm

Annotated Bibliography http://www.cdspub.com/Biblio.html

The Press for Change web site contains over 100 articles and links to over 30 other sites worldwide. Some articles and a photograph of the Press for Change team are also published in the “Lobby” and “Interest Groups” sections of Compuserve’s UK Politics forum library too.

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———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.

Posted about 21 April, 1997

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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 21 Apr 1997 14:13:43 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E06ls; Mon 21 Apr 1997 14:13:43 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: From AOL’s News Profiles… Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 14:13:43 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704211413.E06ls@xconn.com>

(Gwen’s Note: This week’s television listings. I am not responsible for any possible errors in terminology (i.e.: drag queen))

`NYPD BLUE’: A drag queen seeks the squad’s protection when her boyfriend threatens to kill her for not having a sex change, on Tuesday’s edition of “NYPD Blue.” Meanwhile, skeletons from Simone’s past threaten to resurface, and Simone and Russell keep a secret from Sipowicz. The series, which airs at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC, stars Jimmy Smits as Detective Bobby Simone, Dennis Franz as Detective Andy Sipowicz and Kim Delaney as Detective Diane Russell. Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates directed this episode, which is rated TV-14.

. . . . /\\//\ Gwendolyn Ann Smith **** On Q Gwen@AOL.com /\\//\ > () < Director of Programming > () < \/()\/ onQ, A Division of Q-View (AOL Keyword:onQ) \/()\/ 1997 GLAAD Media Award Winner * AOL’s Member’s Choice “I want this to be a harmony of voices” – Lauren D. Wilson

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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 21 Apr 1997 19:09:19 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E02ID; Mon 21 Apr 1997 19:09:19 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: HONK IF YOU’RE SCOTTISH Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 19:09:19 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704211909.E02ID@xconn.com>

Here’s something from the N.Y. Times. They held a competition in which they asked competitors to change one letter in a familiar non-English phrase & then re-define it. It’s not gender-related, but what the hey…

Repondez, s’il vous plaid. Honk if you’re Scottish.

Harlez-vous Francais? Can you drive a French motorcycle?

Veni, vipi, vici. I came, I’m a very important person, I conquered.

Rigor Morris. The cat is dead.

Que sera serf. Life is feudal.

Felix navidad. Our cat has a boat.

Haste cuisine. Fast French food.

Apres Moe le deluge. Larry and Curly get wet.

Ivh liebe rich. I’m crazy about having dough.

Merci rien. Thanks for nothing.

L’etat, c’est Moe. All the world’s a stooge.

Cognito eggo sum. I think, therefore I’m a waffle.

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———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.

Posted around 23 April, 1997

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>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 23 Apr 1997 00:14:56 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E48zr; Wed 23 Apr 1997 00:14:56 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Newsflash Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 00:14:56 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704230014.E48zr@xconn.com>

Originally from Christine_Burns@compuserve.com (Christine Burns) writes:

This is just to let everyone know that, sadly, Stephen, Sarah and their four children lost their case in the European Court of Human Rights Today.

More follows when we recover.

Christine Burns Press for Change

***As posted in the Transgender Community Forum ***on America Online (Keyword: TCF) ***TCF Info: http://members.aol.com/onqgwen

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———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.

Posted around 26 April, 1997

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>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E10VN; Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: European Court of Human Rights Rules Against FTM Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704262145.E10VN@xconn.com>

Return-Path: <FTMOLInfo@aol.com> From: FTMOLInfo@aol.com Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 02:13:06 -0400 (EDT) Subject: ECHR Case lost

In a message dated 4/23/97 6:27:05 PM, Stephen wrote:

Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against ftm Stephen Whittle’s and his partner’s Sarah Rutherford, application to have Stephen legally recognised in the UK as the father of their donor inseminated children

Comment and Background to the “Transsexual” European Court of Human Rights judgement: X, Y and Z v UK Govt. given on Tuesday 22nd April .

Background: X (Stephen Whittle), who was registered as a girl at birth, underwent gender reassignment treatment in the 1970s and started to live as a man in 1975. He has lived with his female partner Y (Sarah) for 18 years. In 1992, Y gave birth to their first child, Z, after donor insemination treatment at a licensed clinic.

X, who had agreed to be the father of Z for any social and legal purposes (which is a requirement under the regulation of licensed fertility clinics) then asked the Registrar General for Births and Deaths if he could be registered as Z’s father on her birth certificate, as would be the case for any other non-biological father whose children were conceived using fertility treatment. The Registrar General refused this permission and Y received a letter from the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mrs Virginia Bottomley) that she would for all legal and welfare benefits purposes be considered a single parent.

As a result, X has no right to information about Z from her school, nor can he approve medical treatment, and if Y died then he has no automatic right to bring up Z as his child. In fact if Z died, as he is not her next of kin, or even any relative, he could not register her death.

The application made by X and Y on behalf of their daughter Z argued that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that “Everyone has a right to respect for his private and family life” was being contravened by the UK Government, in their refusal to respect that their was family life between X,Y and Z, and that Z was being penalised because her right to privacy as regards her origins as a child of fertility treatment was being contravened.

Comment on the decision

The decision, albeit very disappointing, will still be of great significance to, not only families like those of the complainants, but transsexual people throughout the United Kingdom. Even though holding that, in these circumstances, Article 8 has not been contravened the judgement states that it is the responsibility of future governments to monitor the rapidly changing social and medical advances made in the areas of transsexuality and families created through infertility treatment, to consider how the current inadequacies in law are to be addressed in order to ensure that transsexual people and their close family members (and other alternative families) have their privacy protected.

The court did hold that there was family life between the applicants, something the UK government had consistently denied, but the court held that as there was no consensus in Europe as yet as to whether non-biological fathers should be allowed to have their names on their children’s birth certificates, then nation states must be afforded a wide margin of appreciation in the rules they had in this area.

However the decision will greatly inform the future decisions in the ECHR “transsexual” cases of Sheffield and Horsham v the UK, which will be heard in 1998, and we feel certain that those decisions will move the law forward in this difficult area .

Stephen and Sarah are naturally very disappointed with the decision, however they do see themselves as simply being a small part of a much larger movement, and they have felt honoured to have taken one more step up the ladder on behalf of other transsexual people and their loved ones. They would hope that despite a ruling against them that a future Labour government will take steps to amend the anomalies they face under the current legal position.

The press coverage of the case has been astonishing with universal and overwhelming enthusiastic support for Stephen’s fight to be the children’s father. Even “Youth Concern and Family Rights”, a right wing family values group has expressed its total support for the family.

As he and Sarah have said: “we may not have won this battle, but we have certainly won the battle for hearts and minds. If our publicity has made life better for one other transsexual it will have been worth it”. Sarah also said “it is a truly liberating experience to know that the whole country knows I live with a transsexual man, and that I am proud to love him – and we have had the most amazing support and messages of sympathy – with absolutely no one being horrid”

THE END

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E22AW; Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: Boston Conference Programming Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704262145.E22AW@xconn.com>

In a message dated 4/25/97 2:22:27 PM, Henry Rubin wrote:

An Open Letter to the FTM Community

The third annual FTM Conference of the Americas in Boston, Massachussetts (August 8-10, 1997) is looking for you! The conference committee is in the process of establishing the workshops, panels, and participants for the conference program. If you have an idea for a workshop, some art you would like to exhibit, a trick you would like to teach us, or a story you want to tell, now is the time to step up to the plate. We already have a tentative set of workshops (see list below) and would like to encourage you to call or write us about participating on one of these panels. This list is a work-in-progress, so if there is something you don’t see but would like to see, we’d be interested in hearing about it.

Write to Henry <hsrubin@fas.harvard.edu> or Mykael <IFGE@worldnet.att.net> or call Henry <617-441-5165> to volunteer yourself. We would like to include as many people as possible, but some slots may already be filled.

Please try and get the word out to other guys who are not on-line.

Tentative Programming for “The Hero’s Journey”

Gay men’s workshop Tricks of the Trade Racism and Transsexuality Show and Tells Men’s Health Issues Living Long Term Relationships Coming out No-op/No hormone options Legal issues Parenting as an FTM Being a man/being feminist Spirituality Becoming a pro-active health care consumer safer sex big brother/little brother body image/sex political activism straight relationships s/m, leather, body modification

also, a track of workshops on parents, friends, allies, and significant others is being planned by Jeannette Hawley.

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>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E20Tx; Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: A few ways to be … transvestite and Argentinean in the ’90s Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704262145.E20Tx@xconn.com>

Posted by <apc@wamani.wamani.apc.org>

Escrita en el Cuerpo – Lesbian and Different Women’s Archives and Library. Electronic News Service

A FEW WAYS TO BE … TRANVESTITE AND ARGENTINEAN IN THE 90s (Second part)

Lohanna Berkins (Fight for Tranvestite Identity Association)

Situation of tranvestites in Argentina is very serious. The government maintains very hard laws that police are very devoted to implement, condemning us to absolute marginalization. We are arrested at any time of the day, in any place, no matter what we are doing; we are forced to get out of taxis, kidnapped in restaurant or cinemas, and then taken to police stations where we spend at least 24 hours and in most cases are victims of violence.

For a 90% of us, the only work affordable is prostitution. We have housing problems: many hotels charge us double fare and to rent a flat is impossible because landlords reject us. Many times a girl is arrested and once free she goes back to her hotel to find out the owner took all her property and left her homeless.

We are being forbidden access to health, education and work. Ours is not an identity or civel rights claim, it’s more basic than that: we are being denied the right to live. There is no law that protect us, and no strong institution either, not even so called “human right organiza- tions” take a step forward and denounce our situation.

Three years ago we founded ATA (Argentinean Transvestite Associa- tion) and from then on placed ourselves in a position to demand our rights from this perverse state. We also work to raise transvestites’ self-steem, to talk our sisters into not accepting anything and everything. Fifteen transvestites sued the police forces in 1995 … the cause already includes hundred of pages in testimonies and documents, but nothing is happening.

The media makes good use of us, in a yellow fashion, of course. Values are completely subverted in this country: if you call the media to tell you fucked a famous businessman, everyone comes because that sells, but if you denounce the murderer of a sister, you are rejected: nobody is interested. Anyway, it’s a positive thing to have the subject already our there, that people talk about us and acknowledges our existence. It does not matter if they are against us or for us, what is important right now if that they see us.

Now we are talking about transphobia; for us it means fear of the unknown. I think people feels overwhelmed before us, we appear as something terrible, like the end of the world, and very few are courageous enough to sit with us and see who we are.

Our first big battle was inside the lesbian/gay community (bisexuals were not visible when we started). Today I can say we won, after lots of explanations and fights, we are included.

We are also starting to work on the issue of identity, we do not want a physician or a psychologist, a police officer or a priest telling us who we are. In support groups we get to say we are proud of being who we are, to have been born with a masculine organ and then have built a feminine identity. I call myself a different woman. Some people tell me every woman is different; right, but we are the utmost difference because we are physically different and we build a different life too. I can not say I am a wo- man, because I am not, but I say and I love saying that I want to live as a woman and nobody can prohibit me to do so. It’s my right. The group I am facilitating right now is for people who are in transition … the hardest part is guilt, that guilt inoculated in us since childhood.

We have started an AIDS prevention and support programme specially for transvestites. The campaign is doing by ourselves with a transvestite language and obviously aimed at our sisters. It’s another step in the path to taking care of ourselves. We are aware of the risks but the subhuman conditions we live in shape our whole life. It’s impossible for me to speak without taking police into account, they are the owners of my time: I decide to go somewhere but I never know if I will arrive or not, because they might stop me and I will spend the night in a police station. That is whay for us sometimes life and death have the same value. We are constantly fighting against the idea that “what is the use of organizing a support group or fighting against AIDS or anything like that if tonight the police car might take me and I might be dead by tomorrow”. That is serious, really serious. It’s very hard for us to envision a future, to make plans about anything.

There is an organized campaign for our disappearance in Argentina; they want us finished as people and as culture. Last year, Police Edicts were repealed in Buenos Aires but it meant nothing, no change at all. The point is that we do not add power or prestige to the authorities or the Human Rights peple, that is why nobody takes our situation seriously. The violence against us is institutionalized and every single case we bring to the Courts is doomed from the very beginning.

My activism allows me to change that pasive role of a punished little girl who is to accept everything and say yes to everybody. No: now it is us who are right, because we are entitled to our growth as human being. I see the change in my sisters, they are demanding for more and are submitting less, and that is great. They want to build new ways of being, and that is good. We do not want crumbs, we want what we deserve: to be res- pected as people with soul, feelings and a wish to live. In the Movement we have already proved we can do the same as everybody else; in police stations sisters asked me how the fight is going, and that makes me feel we are doing the right thing, opening up possibilities for the new generations. For me it is important to feel that they have not won and never will: I will die proud of having my prick and my tits, proud of being a transvestite, proud of being Lohanna. The system did a lot against me, policemen have been beating me for years but nobody has managed to change me into a bitter person. And that is my victory. ###################################################### Marlene Guayas (OTTRA – Transvestites and Transsexual Organi- zation of the Argentinean Republic)

I reject the place of cultural and economical power enjoyed by men in our society. That is the reason why I do not want to be a man. Call me anything, except “man”.

Up to my 20s I was a gay like any other. I attended Art School and did not have any trouble with the other students; they knew who I was and accepted it. But when I decided to become a transvestite it was like, suddenly, I had ceased to exist. People passed by my side as if nobody was there. I do not know if people can understand how it feels like, to suddenly become a non-existent entity for everyone. #######################################################

Paula Rodriguez (ALIT)

I felt as a woman my entire life. Society took good care to discri- minate against me, to tell me my feeling was wrong. If to be a trans- vestite is to dress with the other sex’s clothes, I am not that because the clothes I wear are my own sex’s. The word “transsexual” feels more acceptable to me, because it means “somebody who trans- forms her/his sex”, not necessarily through an operation. I also like to introduce myself as a “different woman”. Womanness emanates from us, it can be felt, it is visible. It does not come out of a gay man; at best, he can be “effeminate” which is different. Women have a different energy. I feel a very special tenderness towards women; I do not like them sexually, but emotionally, and I feel a lot closer to women than to men. There is a certain pleasure in being toge- ther and that is hightly erotical too. I have to educate men to love me the way I want them to; that is not needed with women, and I love it. I have to teach men it is wrong that they expect me to cook or iron for them. They think transvestites are like “good old times women”, and they are deeply wrong.

Third part: Gay men

Avenida San Martin 2704 – 4to. C (1416) Buenos Aires, Argentina Phone: (54 1) 581 01 79 E.mail: ales@wamani.apc.org

————————————————————————

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.

Subj: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: 97-04-27 08:10:11 EDT From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com To: thexgrrrl@aol.com ============================================================================= AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

=============================================================================

>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E10VN; Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: European Court of Human Rights Rules Against FTM Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704262145.E10VN@xconn.com>

Return-Path: <FTMOLInfo@aol.com> From: FTMOLInfo@aol.com Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 02:13:06 -0400 (EDT) Subject: ECHR Case lost

In a message dated 4/23/97 6:27:05 PM, Stephen wrote:

Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against ftm Stephen Whittle’s and his partner’s Sarah Rutherford, application to have Stephen legally recognised in the UK as the father of their donor inseminated children

Comment and Background to the “Transsexual” European Court of Human Rights judgement: X, Y and Z v UK Govt. given on Tuesday 22nd April .

Background: X (Stephen Whittle), who was registered as a girl at birth, underwent gender reassignment treatment in the 1970s and started to live as a

man in 1975. He has lived with his female partner Y (Sarah) for 18 years. In

1992, Y gave birth to their first child, Z, after donor insemination treatment at a licensed clinic.

X, who had agreed to be the father of Z for any social and legal purposes (which is a requirement under the regulation of licensed fertility clinics) then asked the Registrar General for Births and Deaths if he could be registered as Z’s father on her birth certificate, as would be the case for any other non-biological father whose children were conceived using fertility

treatment. The Registrar General refused this permission and Y received a letter from the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mrs Virginia Bottomley) that she would for all legal and welfare benefits purposes be considered a single parent.

As a result, X has no right to information about Z from her school, nor can

he approve medical treatment, and if Y died then he has no automatic right to

bring up Z as his child. In fact if Z died, as he is not her next of kin, or

even any relative, he could not register her death.

The application made by X and Y on behalf of their daughter Z argued that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that “Everyone has a right to respect for his private and family life” was being contravened by the UK Government, in their refusal to respect that their was

family life between X,Y and Z, and that Z was being penalised because her right to privacy as regards her origins as a child of fertility treatment was

being contravened.

Comment on the decision

The decision, albeit very disappointing, will still be of great significance to, not only families like those of the complainants, but transsexual people throughout the United Kingdom. Even though holding that, in these circumstances, Article 8 has not been contravened the judgement states that it is the responsibility of future governments to monitor the rapidly changing social and medical advances made in the areas of transsexuality and families created through infertility treatment, to consider how the current inadequacies in law are to be addressed in order to

ensure that transsexual people and their close family members (and other alternative families) have their privacy protected.

The court did hold that there was family life between the applicants, something the UK government had consistently denied, but the court held that

as there was no consensus in Europe as yet as to whether non-biological fathers should be allowed to have their names on their children’s birth certificates, then nation states must be afforded a wide margin of appreciation in the rules they had in this area.

However the decision will greatly inform the future decisions in the ECHR “transsexual” cases of Sheffield and Horsham v the UK, which will be heard in

1998, and we feel certain that those decisions will move the law forward in this difficult area .

Stephen and Sarah are naturally very disappointed with the decision, however they do see themselves as simply being a small part of a much larger

movement, and they have felt honoured to have taken one more step up the ladder on behalf of other transsexual people and their loved ones. They would

hope that despite a ruling against them that a future Labour government will

take steps to amend the anomalies they face under the current legal position. The press coverage of the case has been astonishing with universal and overwhelming enthusiastic support for Stephen’s fight to be the children’s father. Even “Youth Concern and Family Rights”, a right wing family values group has expressed its total support for the family.

As he and Sarah have said: “we may not have won this battle, but we have certainly won the battle for hearts and minds. If our publicity has made life

better for one other transsexual it will have been worth it”. Sarah also said

“it is a truly liberating experience to know that the whole country knows I live with a transsexual man, and that I am proud to love him – and we have had the most amazing support and messages of sympathy – with absolutely no one being horrid”

THE END

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E22AW; Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: Boston Conference Programming Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704262145.E22AW@xconn.com>

In a message dated 4/25/97 2:22:27 PM, Henry Rubin wrote:

An Open Letter to the FTM Community

The third annual FTM Conference of the Americas in Boston, Massachussetts (August 8-10, 1997) is looking for you! The conference committee is in the process of establishing the workshops, panels, and participants for the conference program. If you have an idea for a workshop, some art you would like to exhibit, a trick you would like to teach us, or a story you want to tell, now is the time to step up to the plate. We already have a tentative set of workshops (see list below) and would like to encourage you to call or

write us about participating on one of these panels. This list is a work-in-progress, so if there is something you don’t see but would like to see, we’d be interested in hearing about it.

Write to Henry <hsrubin@fas.harvard.edu> or Mykael <IFGE@worldnet.att.net> or call Henry <617-441-5165> to volunteer yourself. We would like to include

as many people as possible, but some slots may already be filled.

Please try and get the word out to other guys who are not on-line.

Tentative Programming for “The Hero’s Journey”

Gay men’s workshop Tricks of the Trade Racism and Transsexuality Show and Tells Men’s Health Issues Living Long Term Relationships Coming out No-op/No hormone options Legal issues Parenting as an FTM Being a man/being feminist Spirituality Becoming a pro-active health care consumer safer sex big brother/little brother body image/sex political activism straight relationships s/m, leather, body modification

also, a track of workshops on parents, friends, allies, and significant others is being planned by Jeannette Hawley.

————————————————————————

>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E20Tx; Sat 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: A few ways to be … transvestite and Argentinean in the ’90s Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 21:45:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704262145.E20Tx@xconn.com>

Posted by <apc@wamani.wamani.apc.org>

Escrita en el Cuerpo – Lesbian and Different Women’s Archives and Library. Electronic News Service

A FEW WAYS TO BE … TRANVESTITE AND ARGENTINEAN IN THE 90s (Second part)

Lohanna Berkins (Fight for Tranvestite Identity Association)

Situation of tranvestites in Argentina is very serious. The government maintains very hard laws that police are very devoted to implement, condemning us to absolute marginalization. We are arrested at any time of the day, in any place, no matter what we are doing; we are forced to get out of taxis, kidnapped in restaurant or cinemas, and then taken to police stations where we spend at least 24 hours and in most cases are victims of violence.

For a 90% of us, the only work affordable is prostitution. We have housing problems: many hotels charge us double fare and to rent a flat is impossible because landlords reject us. Many times a girl is arrested and once free she goes back to her hotel to find out the owner took all her property and left her homeless.

We are being forbidden access to health, education and work. Ours is not an identity or civel rights claim, it’s more basic than that: we are being denied the right to live. There is no law that protect us, and no strong institution either, not even so called “human right organiza- tions” take a step forward and denounce our situation.

Three years ago we founded ATA (Argentinean Transvestite Associa- tion) and from then on placed ourselves in a position to demand our rights from this perverse state. We also work to raise transvestites’ self-steem, to talk our sisters into not accepting anything and everything. Fifteen transvestites sued the police forces in 1995 … the cause already includes hundred of pages in testimonies and documents, but nothing is happening.

The media makes good use of us, in a yellow fashion, of course. Values are completely subverted in this country: if you call the media to tell you fucked a famous businessman, everyone comes because that sells, but if you denounce the murderer of a sister, you are rejected: nobody is interested. Anyway, it’s a positive thing to have the subject already our there, that people talk about us and acknowledges our existence. It does not matter if they are against us or for us, what is important right now if that they see us.

Now we are talking about transphobia; for us it means fear of the unknown. I think people feels overwhelmed before us, we appear as something terrible, like the end of the world, and very few are courageous enough to sit with us and see who we are.

Our first big battle was inside the lesbian/gay community (bisexuals were not visible when we started). Today I can say we won, after lots of explanations and fights, we are included.

We are also starting to work on the issue of identity, we do not want a physician or a psychologist, a police officer or a priest telling us who we are. In support groups we get to say we are proud of being who we are, to have been born with a masculine organ and then have built a feminine identity. I call myself a different woman. Some people tell me every woman is different; right, but we are the utmost difference because we are physically different and we build a different life too. I can not say I am a wo- man, because I am not, but I say and I love saying that I want to live as a woman and nobody can prohibit me to do so. It’s my right. The group I am facilitating right now is for people who are in transition … the hardest part is guilt, that guilt inoculated in us since childhood.

We have started an AIDS prevention and support programme specially for transvestites. The campaign is doing by ourselves with a transvestite language and obviously aimed at our sisters. It’s another step in the path to taking care of ourselves. We are aware of the risks but the subhuman conditions we live in shape our whole life. It’s impossible for me to speak without taking police into account, they are the owners of my time: I decide to go somewhere but I never know if I will arrive or not, because they might stop me and I will spend the night in a police station. That is whay for us sometimes life and death have the same value. We are constantly fighting against the idea that “what is the use of organizing a support group or fighting against AIDS or anything like that if tonight the police car might take me and I might be dead by tomorrow”. That is serious, really serious. It’s very hard for us to envision a future, to make plans about anything.

There is an organized campaign for our disappearance in Argentina; they want us finished as people and as culture. Last year, Police Edicts were repealed in Buenos Aires but it meant nothing, no change at all. The point is that we do not add power or prestige to the authorities or the Human Rights peple, that is why nobody takes our situation seriously. The violence against us is institutionalized and every single case we bring to the Courts is doomed from the very beginning.

My activism allows me to change that pasive role of a punished little girl who is to accept everything and say yes to everybody. No: now it is us who are right, because we are entitled to our growth as human being. I see the change in my sisters, they are demanding for more and are submitting less, and that is great. They want to build new ways of being, and that is good. We do not want crumbs, we want what we deserve: to be res- pected as people with soul, feelings and a wish to live. In the Movement we have already proved we can do the same as everybody else; in police stations sisters asked me how the fight is going, and that makes me feel we are doing the right thing, opening up possibilities for the new generations. For me it is important to feel that they have not won and never will: I will die proud of having my prick and my tits, proud of being a transvestite, proud of being Lohanna. The system did a lot against me, policemen have been beating me for years but nobody has managed to change me into a bitter person. And that is my victory. ###################################################### Marlene Guayas (OTTRA – Transvestites and Transsexual Organi- zation of the Argentinean Republic)

I reject the place of cultural and economical power enjoyed by men in our society. That is the reason why I do not want to be a man. Call me anything, except “man”.

Up to my 20s I was a gay like any other. I attended Art School and did not have any trouble with the other students; they knew who I was and accepted it. But when I decided to become a transvestite it was like, suddenly, I had ceased to exist. People passed by my side as if nobody was there. I do not know if people can understand how it feels like, to suddenly become a non-existent entity for everyone. #######################################################

Paula Rodriguez (ALIT)

I felt as a woman my entire life. Society took good care to discri- minate against me, to tell me my feeling was wrong. If to be a trans- vestite is to dress with the other sex’s clothes, I am not that because the clothes I wear are my own sex’s. The word “transsexual” feels more acceptable to me, because it means “somebody who trans- forms her/his sex”, not necessarily through an operation. I also like to introduce myself as a “different woman”. Womanness emanates from us, it can be felt, it is visible. It does not come out of a gay man; at best, he can be “effeminate” which is different. Women have a different energy. I feel a very special tenderness towards women; I do not like them sexually, but emotionally, and I feel a lot closer to women than to men. There is a certain pleasure in being toge- ther and that is hightly erotical too. I have to educate men to love me the way I want them to; that is not needed with women, and I love it. I have to teach men it is wrong that they expect me to cook or iron for them. They think transvestites are like “good old times women”, and they are deeply wrong.

Third part: Gay men

Avenida San Martin 2704 – 4to. C (1416) Buenos Aires, Argentina Phone: (54 1) 581 01 79 E.mail: ales@wamani.apc.org

————————————————————————

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list. ———————– Headers ——————————– From listserv@xconn.com Sun Apr 27 08:09:42 1997 Return-Path: <listserv@xconn.com> Received: from netcomsv.netcom.com (uucp13.netcom.com [163.179.3.13]) by emin43.mail.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-1.0.1) with SMTP id IAA28172 for <thexgrrrl@aol.com>; Sun, 27 Apr 1997 08:09:41 -0400 (EDT) Received: by netcomsv.netcom.com with UUCP (8.6.12/SMI-4.1) id FAA03387; Sun, 27 Apr 1997 05:02:13 -0700 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E12Sq; Sun 27 Apr 1997 04:49:25 From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: Sun, 27 Apr 1997 04:49:23 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: thexgrrrl@aol.com Message-Id: <9704270449.E12Sq@xconn.com>

Posted around 30 April, 1997

=============================================================================

AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST

A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.

=============================================================================

>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 30 Apr 1997 03:15:29 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E85Qw; Wed 30 Apr 1997 03:15:29 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: New Jersey TS News Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 03:15:29 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9704300315.E85Qw@xconn.com>

>From New York Times, Sunday, 27 March, 1997

JUDGE THROWS OUT CHARGES AGAINST SEX-CHANGE OFFICER

A set of 45 departmental charges against a transsexual Hoboken police leutenant was thrown out by a Superior Court judge, according to transcripts the officer’s lawyers made available last week.

The office, Lieut. Janet Aiello, had been suspended for six days for ignoring orders from the chief and for neglect of duty in an escalating disagreement over the date and conditions of her return to work in 1995, after she took eight months off and legally changed her gender.

But Judge Maurice J. Gallipoli ruled this month that what the city called orders were more like requests, and that in any case Lieutenant Aiello’s failure to answer then was not unreasonable considering the difficult circumstances surrounding her return.

Hoboken plans to appeal the ruling, a city attorney, David Corrigan, said. The lieutenant, formerly known as John Aiello, a 24-year veteran, did come back to work in 1995, but she has been on sick leave since October.

————————————————————————

———————————————————————— NOTE: The AEGISNWS list is a one-way newsfeed. You may not post to it. Your comments and news items should be sent to <aegis@gender.org>. For assistance with subscribing and unsubscribing, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————————————————————— You are invited to visit CROSS CONNECTION, host of the AEGISNWS list. Use your modem to call (818) 994-8887 (all lines 14.4 capable) for a free account, and please consider a paid upgrade for enhanced access. Your support helps Cross Connection provide services to the transgender community such as the AEGISNWS list.