AEGIS Internet News, March 1997
In May, 1995 when I was Executive Director of the nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service, I compiled and transmitted what I believe was the first transgender-specific online news feed. It was called AEGIS Online News. The News initially went out to several hundred AEGIS members and other subscribers as a plain text file over the fledgling internet.
In those days there wasn’t much news to repost. Consequently, the News was initially distributed every other month; it took that long to compile enough material to create a newsletter. Within two years, however, there was almost too much news to handle.
I posted material as I came across it, both from primary sources and from other newsfeeds. Rex Wocker’s LGBT newslist was a valuable resource. Soon, subscribers were sending me material.
In November I moved the News to a majordomo automated list which kept track of subscribers; before that I handled subscriptions, unsubscriptions, and address changes manually and sent out the news via blind carbon copy. The name was changed to AEGIS Internet News and the introductory material about AEGIS was removed because it was available to readers on demand from the server. The list, initially hosted by my ISP (Mindspring) was eventually moved to a server hosted by Kymberleigh Richards, the publisher of the magazine Cross-Talk. This enabled me to send e-mails to the server as I came across news items, yet distribute them as a digest once per day– sometimes twice or three times daily if there was a lot of news. This was easier on both me and the readers, who had been receiving up to eight e-mails a day.
I stopped publishing AEGIS Internet News in mid-1998.
On January 1, 2000 AEGIS was repurposed as Gender Education & Advocacy. Under the supervision of the late Penni Ashe Matz, news went out as Gender Advocacy Internet News.
Many posts have been lost, but we preserved several hundred. Here are issues of AEGIS Internet News from March, 1997:
1997, 3 March
Posted about 3 March, 1997
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AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E04RR; Mon 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Quote Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703032025.E04RR@xconn.com>
Drag Queens were the most visible representatives of gay life before World War II, and drag balls were the largest communal events of gay society. “They admired us– they were dazzled by us!” exulted one black man who frequented Harlem’s drag balls in the 1920’s.
— From “Gay New York” by George Chauncey (BasicBooks 1994).
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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E01NB; Mon 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Chicago Incident Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703032025.E01NB@xconn.com>
The following is from In Your Face. I don’t remember having seen it. Forgive me if this is old news to you.
— Dallas
Chicago 13 January
A 30-year-old transsexual woman was assaulted, robbed, and shot as she disembarked from the Chicago El at the Beryn Station.
The women was taking the train at 2:00 AM when two young men across from her began to make rude comments. As she detrained, the thugs followed her and attempted to grab her purse, swinging her while reportedly yelling, “What are you, what are you?”
In the ensuing struggle the woman broke free and ran, hearing gunshots ring out behind her. It wasn’t until she had run a block that she realized that she had been shot twice in the back. IN this condition, she was able to crawl to the home of friends, from where the police and paramedics were summoned.
It was then, in a bizarre reminiscence of the Tyra Hunter affair (which so discredited Washington, DC), both police and paramedics refused to assist the injured woman onto a stretcher which waited only 40 feet away. One was heard to declare, “If you can run here, you can get in the chair.”
The police reported this sad case as an aggravated assault. However, after a call from It’s Time Illinois reporting this is as a hate crime, an investigator from the Civil Rights Division of the Chicago Police Department was assigned (the thugs have not yet been apprehended).
It is to be noted that complaints lodged with the Chicago Commission of Human Relations and the Office of Professional Standards concerning the woman’s obvious mistreatment by the Police and paramedics have resulted in no action.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E51Af; Mon 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: 3rd FTM Conference of the Americas Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 20:25:44 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703032025.E51Af@xconn.com>
It’s Happenin’ in Boston The 3rd FTM Conference of the Americas
When: August 8th, 9th, and 10th Where: Massachusettes College of Art Boston, MA Cost: $50 before June, 1, 1997 $70 at the door E-Mail: IFGE@worldnet.att.net Snail Mail: Information ATTN: Mykael Boston FTM Conference P.O. Box 229 Waltham, MA 02254-0229
Keynote Speaker: James Green
Both the region’s medical and TG communities will be working together on the conference, a great happening, no only for the F2Ms but M2Fs as well. In keeping with the spirit and the vision that James Green began with the first FTM Conference in San Francisco there will be workshops on legal issues, political activism, medical issues, spirituality, sexuality, and non- operative F2Ms, along with workshops for partners and families, and the opportunity to talk to the medical community in person plus much, much more. With your participation we know it will be a great success. Hope to see you in August.
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 5 March
Posted about 5 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E27ZT; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: FTM needed for Fire Safety Panel in TX Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E27ZT@xconn.com>
Calling for a transsexual man/men in public safety to step forward!
The Center for Gender Sanity is presenting a workshop at the 7th International Conference of Fire Service Women in Austin, Texas May 28-June 1, 1997
Presenters:
Michele Kaemmerer, Fire Captain, Los Angeles City Fire Department, gender and lesbian rights advocate, transsexual woman
Janis Walworth, MS, Gender rights activist, writer, educator, counselor.
Title:
Transsexuals in the Fire Service: Strategy for Managing Effective Transitions
Description:
In recent years, several transsexual men and women have emerged in Fire Departments around the country. We will discuss the phenomenon of transsexualism, experiences of individuals who have transitioned in the Fire Service and other occupations, strategies for successful transitioning, and ways for coworkers and managers to be supportive of transsexuals in the work place.
Format:
Lecture or panel discussion with questions and answers; 90 minutes
We are looking for a transsexual man in public safety service to join with us on the panel to offer their experience and point of view.
Contact us at the Center for Gender Sanity, POBox 451427, Westchester, CA 90045. fax: 310.216.9469 Email: Merkin77@aol.com
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E73sR; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Sandra Golvin’s “Pumpkin Pie” at CSUN Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E73sR@xconn.com>
LesBiGayTrS –The Institute for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Studies at California State University, Northridge– is pleased to announce:
Sandra Golvin will be presenting a spoken word adaptation of her solo performance piece “Pumpkin Pie: A Story of Cross-Gender Transcendence”
Tuesday, March 18, University Student Union Grand Salon, 7:30 pm
This event is free and open to the public
Golvin’s performances of “Pumpkin Pie” have received rave reviews:
“Thanks for your wonderful performance and words–I laughed and laughed. Stay bad.”–Pat Califia
“…forceful and darkly moving…great work!”–Gil Cuadros
“Golvin flashes at us descriptions as vivid as police photos that intrigue, disgust, make us laugh and wonder.”–Connie Monaghan, L.A. Weekly
“The body is central of Golvin’s performance, and the self-assurance with which she uses hers is truly remarkable…a one-two punch or sardonic social commentary and bizarre eroticism…”–Rusty Thomas, L.A. Village View
“I was moved, disturbed, transported–and even offended…packs a wallop!”–Douglas Sadownick
“Sandra Golvin weaves a rich, intricate tale which is at once sexy, funny, painful, and extremely powerful. Her words are riveting, the thought behind them dazzling, and her performance sharp, daring and honest. Her work has the transformative and inspiring qualities of Kate Bornstein, the sexy spirit of Annie Sprinkle, the gender play of Split Britches, and the outrageousness of Roseanne. Her quicky, brilliant sense of humor brings tears to my eyes every time. She’s a gender outlaw, a renegade, and an icon who incorporates the pleasures and perils of ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ into Pumpkin Pie in a magical way.”–Tristan Taormino
Sandra Golvin is a poet, a performance and ceremonial artist, as well as an attorney-mediator. She practiced law in a major international law firm where she was a partner specializing in litigation. She left after ten years to seek means of expressing her passions for art, justice and community. Since then, her journey has taken her in many directions. She has toured nationally as a performance artist, creating solo works as well as a series of collaborative performances with the award-winning group Queer Rites. Her solo show “Pumpkin Pie: A Story of Cross-Gender Transcendence” was featured at the Sixth Annual Ecce Lesbo: Ecce Homo Performance Festival at Highways Performance Space, where it played to sold out houses and rave reviews. Her poems, essays and short stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including *Hers: Brilliant New Fiction by Lesbian Writers* (Faber & Faber 1995), *Best Lesbian Erotica 1996* (Cleis 1996), *Best Lesbian Erotica 1997* (forthcoming Cleis 1977), *Forbidden* (forthcoming Alyson 1997), and the Canadian journal “Fireweed.” She is the co-editor of the ‘zine “Diabolical Clits” and she recently completed her first novel, *Speaking the Language of the Dead (a more of less true story about life, love and linguistics in the City of the Angels at the end of the Second Millenium)*. Her visual art has been exhibited in venues throughout Los Angeles. She is the producer of OutAuction, a week-long series of arts events for the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Community Center, and is past president of the boards of The Woman’s Building and The 18th Street Arts Complex. She has her own mediation practice in which she assists others to resolve disputes and solve problems. As the co-counded of Urban Rituals and a long-time student of Celtic-based traditions, she designs rituals and ceremonies for individuals and communities to honor important occasions and transitions. Her thing is gender, language and the belief in magic.
For more information, contact Jacob Hale at <jacob.hale@email.csun.edu>, <zeroboycjh@aol.com>, or 818-677-2757.
Co-sponsored by Genderqueer Boyzzz: a Southern California social group for people assigned female at birth or in childhood and raised girl-to-woman who have masculine self-identifications some or all of the time.
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E87Wm; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: couple of items Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E87Wm@xconn.com>
For those of you who wish a little information that has been published on the Web check out a few of these sites:
Sex Change Indigo Pages http://www.servtech.com/public/perette/Sc/
Gender Reassignment Surgery – Dr. Menard & Dr. Brassard http://www.sit.qc.ca/grs/welcom.htm
Gender Web Home Page http://www.genderweb.org/
Transgender Community Forum Information Page http://members.aol.com.onqgwen/
FTM International http://www.ftm-intl.org/
When You Love The One You’re With… http://www.genderweb.org/~cirntri
Anti Jen Pages http://www.genderweb.org/~jenstar/
I’m working on another site for FTM’s as we speak, so I just happened to have the information in front of me.
Enjoy,
Jerry Kellen McCracken Opening Soon: FTM On Line Informational Network http://members.aol.com/ftmolinfo/
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:54 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E86Ms; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:54 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: National LGBT Youth Summit Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E86Ms@xconn.com>
From: NYouthAC@aol.com Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 18:24:02 -0500 (EST) Subject: National GLBT Youth Summit
SAVE THE DATE!!!
SUNDAY, APRIL 27 – TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1997 WASHINGTON, DC
You are invited to attend the First Annual Summit of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. The mission of the First Annual Summit is to create a forum for the exchange of cutting-edge information; the development of local, state and national advocacy strategies; and to advance the field of services and advocacy for and with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
To receive information on the NYAC Summit, please contact us via email or call us at 202/319-7596.
—————————————————————————— —————————– The National Youth Advocacy Coalition, sponsored by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, was established in 1993 to address the need for a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of young people facing discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The Coalition addresses issues faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth through the collaboration of a broad range of community-based and national organization members across the country.
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 6 March
Subj: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: 97-03-06 08:20:34 EST 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 Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E27ZT; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: FTM needed for Fire Safety Panel in TX Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E27ZT@xconn.com>
Calling for a transsexual man/men in public safety to step forward!
The Center for Gender Sanity is presenting a workshop at the 7th International Conference of Fire Service Women in Austin, Texas May 28-June 1, 1997
Presenters:
Michele Kaemmerer, Fire Captain, Los Angeles City Fire Department, gender
and lesbian rights advocate, transsexual woman
Janis Walworth, MS, Gender rights activist, writer, educator, counselor. Title:
Transsexuals in the Fire Service: Strategy for Managing Effective Transitions Description:
In recent years, several transsexual men and women have emerged in Fire Departments around the country. We will discuss the phenomenon of transsexualism, experiences of individuals who have transitioned in the Fire
Service and other occupations, strategies for successful transitioning, and ways for coworkers and managers to be supportive of transsexuals in the work
place.
Format:
Lecture or panel discussion with questions and answers; 90 minutes
We are looking for a transsexual man in public safety service to join with us on the panel to offer their experience and point of view.
Contact us at the Center for Gender Sanity, POBox 451427, Westchester, CA
90045. fax: 310.216.9469 Email: Merkin77@aol.com
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E73sR; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Sandra Golvin’s “Pumpkin Pie” at CSUN Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E73sR@xconn.com>
LesBiGayTrS –The Institute for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Studies at California State University, Northridge– is pleased to announce:
Sandra Golvin will be presenting a spoken word adaptation of her solo performance piece “Pumpkin Pie: A Story of Cross-Gender Transcendence”
Tuesday, March 18, University Student Union Grand Salon, 7:30 pm
This event is free and open to the public
Golvin’s performances of “Pumpkin Pie” have received rave reviews:
“Thanks for your wonderful performance and words–I laughed and laughed. Stay
bad.”–Pat Califia
“…forceful and darkly moving…great work!”–Gil Cuadros
“Golvin flashes at us descriptions as vivid as police photos that intrigue, disgust, make us laugh and wonder.”–Connie Monaghan, L.A. Weekly
“The body is central of Golvin’s performance, and the self-assurance with which she uses hers is truly remarkable…a one-two punch or sardonic social
commentary and bizarre eroticism…”–Rusty Thomas, L.A. Village View
“I was moved, disturbed, transported–and even offended…packs a wallop!”–Douglas Sadownick
“Sandra Golvin weaves a rich, intricate tale which is at once sexy, funny, painful, and extremely powerful. Her words are riveting, the thought behind them dazzling, and her performance sharp, daring and honest. Her work has the
transformative and inspiring qualities of Kate Bornstein, the sexy spirit of
Annie Sprinkle, the gender play of Split Britches, and the outrageousness of
Roseanne. Her quicky, brilliant sense of humor brings tears to my eyes every
time. She’s a gender outlaw, a renegade, and an icon who incorporates the pleasures and perils of ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ into Pumpkin Pie in a magical way.”–Tristan Taormino
Sandra Golvin is a poet, a performance and ceremonial artist, as well as an attorney-mediator. She practiced law in a major international law firm where
she was a partner specializing in litigation. She left after ten years to seek means of expressing her passions for art, justice and community. Since then, her journey has taken her in many directions. She has toured nationally
as a performance artist, creating solo works as well as a series of collaborative performances with the award-winning group Queer Rites. Her solo
show “Pumpkin Pie: A Story of Cross-Gender Transcendence” was featured at the
Sixth Annual Ecce Lesbo: Ecce Homo Performance Festival at Highways Performance Space, where it played to sold out houses and rave reviews. Her poems, essays and short stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including *Hers: Brilliant New Fiction by Lesbian Writers* (Faber & Faber 1995), *Best Lesbian Erotica 1996* (Cleis 1996), *Best Lesbian
Erotica 1997* (forthcoming Cleis 1977), *Forbidden* (forthcoming Alyson 1997), and the Canadian journal “Fireweed.” She is the co-editor of the ‘zine
“Diabolical Clits” and she recently completed her first novel, *Speaking the
Language of the Dead (a more of less true story about life, love and linguistics in the City of the Angels at the end of the Second Millenium)*. Her visual art has been exhibited in venues throughout Los Angeles. She is the producer of OutAuction, a week-long series of arts events for the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Community Center, and is past president of the boards of The
Woman’s Building and The 18th Street Arts Complex. She has her own mediation
practice in which she assists others to resolve disputes and solve problems.
As the co-counded of Urban Rituals and a long-time student of Celtic-based traditions, she designs rituals and ceremonies for individuals and communities to honor important occasions and transitions. Her thing is gender, language and the belief in magic.
For more information, contact Jacob Hale at <jacob.hale@email.csun.edu>, <zeroboycjh@aol.com>, or 818-677-2757.
Co-sponsored by Genderqueer Boyzzz: a Southern California social group for people assigned female at birth or in
childhood and raised girl-to-woman who have masculine self-identifications some or all of the time.
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E87Wm; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: couple of items Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E87Wm@xconn.com>
For those of you who wish a little information that has been published on the
Web check out a few of these sites:
Sex Change Indigo Pages http://www.servtech.com/public/perette/Sc/
Gender Reassignment Surgery – Dr. Menard & Dr. Brassard http://www.sit.qc.ca/grs/welcom.htm
Gender Web Home Page http://www.genderweb.org/
Transgender Community Forum Information Page http://members.aol.com.onqgwen/
FTM International http://www.ftm-intl.org/
When You Love The One You’re With… http://www.genderweb.org/~cirntri
Anti Jen Pages http://www.genderweb.org/~jenstar/
I’m working on another site for FTM’s as we speak, so I just happened to have the information in front of me.
Enjoy,
Jerry Kellen McCracken Opening Soon: FTM On Line Informational Network http://members.aol.com/ftmolinfo/
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:54 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E86Ms; Wed 5 Mar 1997 19:09:54 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: National LGBT Youth Summit Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 19:09:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703051909.E86Ms@xconn.com>
From: NYouthAC@aol.com Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 18:24:02 -0500 (EST) Subject: National GLBT Youth Summit
SAVE THE DATE!!!
SUNDAY, APRIL 27 – TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1997 WASHINGTON, DC
You are invited to attend the First Annual Summit of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. The mission of the First Annual Summit is to create a forum for the exchange of cutting-edge information; the development of local,
state and national advocacy strategies; and to advance the field of services
and advocacy for and with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
To receive information on the NYAC Summit, please contact us via email or call us at 202/319-7596.
——————————————————————————
—————————– The National Youth Advocacy Coalition, sponsored by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, was established in 1993 to address the need for a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of young people facing discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The
Coalition addresses issues faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth through the collaboration of a broad range of community-based and national organization members across the country.
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————– Headers ——————————– From listserv@xconn.com Thu Mar 6 07:18:50 1997 Return-Path: listserv@xconn.com Received: from netcomsv.netcom.com (uucp13.netcom.com [163.179.3.13]) by emin02.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id HAA01285 for <thexgrrrl@aol.com>; Thu, 6 Mar 1997 07:18:49 -0500 Received: by netcomsv.netcom.com with UUCP (8.6.12/SMI-4.1) id EAA09135; Thu, 6 Mar 1997 04:07:36 -0800 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E80ou; Thu 6 Mar 1997 03:55:52 From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 03:55:51 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: thexgrrrl@aol.com Message-Id: <9703060355.E80ou@xconn.com>
1997, 7 March
Posted about 7 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E93cH; Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: MURDER TRIAL VIGIL & GENDER LEGISLATION IN CAMBRIDGE Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 21:07:07 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703062107.E93cH@xconn.com>
MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Nancy Nangeroni NRN@world.std.com
MURDER TRIAL VIGIL FOR CHANELLE PICKETT =======================================
[Cambridge, MA: 27 Feb 97] Approximately 35 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender activists gathered today outside the Middlesex County Courthouse in a peaceful vigil for slain transexual Chanelle Pickett as the trial of William Palmer, Pickett’s alleged assailant, was to begin inside.
During the quiet gathering activists handed out leaflets and carried banners proclaiming, “There’s No Shame in Loving Transexuals” and “Not Dressed to Be Killed.” Members of New England’s television, radio, and print media covered the event, and by and large were accurate and sympathetic in their coverage.
New Evidence and a Continuance ——————————
Mr. Palmer allegedly knew of Ms. Pickett’s gender status and had a history of seeking out pre-operative transexuals for liaisons. Yet, Palmer denies knowing that Ms. Pickett was transgendered, and his attorney has hinted that he will claim self-defense in the slaying.
The court’s proceedings were continued by the judge to an April date at the defense counsel’s request, because of new evidence.
The judge also remarked on the potential effect of the demonstration and leafleting of prospective jurors. Vigil organizer Nancy Nangeroni of the Transexual Menace later spoke with a representative of the DA’s office assuring him that, “The last thing we want to do is bias the jury or impede proceedings. We’re confident that justice will be done.”
###
CONTACT: Nancy Nangeroni NRN@world.std.com
CAMBRIDGE PASSES GENDER LEGISLATION =================================== Unanimous Vote Victory for Activists
[Cambridge, MA – March 3, 97] The Cambridge City Council voted unanimously Monday to incorporate protection for freedom of gender expression into the city1s Human Rights ordinance. The new law prohibits discrimination against any person on the basis of gender.
The amendment adds gender to the list of protected classes, including, sex, race, religion, etc. by redefining gender as “the actual or perceived appearance, expression, or identity of a person with respect to masculinity and femininity.”
Since the ordinance provides for the establishment of same sex facilities such as dormitories, the amendment also adds the following definition of “same sex”: “Same sex means occupying the same social or identity roles as another with respect to being male or female.”
A First, But Not “Special Interest” Legislation ————————-
This measure is the first legislation in Massachusetts which protects freedom of gender expression and identity. It is also the first legislation which defines “same sex” as based on something other than physiology.
Said Nancy Nangeroni, author of the amendment, “This isn’t about protecting some special interest-group. It infringes on no one else if I’m more masculine or feminine. This legislation expands the scope of everyone’s personal freedom. Any woman who’s been harassed because she looks too butch, and any man who’s been harassed because he looks too effeminate, is protected by this. It1s a huge step towards equal rights and respect for transgendered people everywhere.”
###
Online Editor: Clare Howell, clareq@idt.net
(c) 1996 InYourFace An on-line, news-only service for gender activism. When re-posting, please credit InYourFace.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E40Cu; Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Queering the South Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703062107.E40Cu@xconn.com>
Queering the South, a gathering of LGBT activists, academics, and artists, will be held 25-27 June, 1997, the three days before Atlanta Pride weekend.
What does it mean to be queer in the South? What particular challenges does living in the South pose for queer political organizing? Is it contradictory to be both queer and southern? How has living in the South shaped queers, individually and as communities? how do power and privilege shape definitions of “southern” and “queer”? How are definitions of “southern” raised– or is “southern” identity implicityly a “white” identity?
This three-day gathering seeks to explore how sexuality, race, religion, region, class,and gender shape our relationship to the South and “southern” identity. It will incorporate both reflecdtion and action, thus encouraging a variety of voices. We will begin the gathering with the analysis of our past and present experiences as bisexuals, lesbians, gays, and transgendered persons in the South and then move into workshops and panels which offer “how to’s” for organizing, coalition building, and creating practical strategies for challenging the various institutions and practices which threaten us as individuals and as communities.
We are looking for presentations, workshops, papers, and panels– academically, politically, and/or artistically oriented– which address any aspecdt of this broadly-conceived theme. Proposals should be attentive to the specifics of race, class, and gender, and be presented in a language acessible to a wide audience. Additionally, workshop proposals will be chosen for how clearly they are conceptualized, including plans for audience participation. Financial assistance may be available, including reduced housing rate, free housing, and registration fee waivers.
For more information or to submit an abstract, write to: Queering the South, P.O. Box 15470, Atlanta, GA 30333, or qtsmail@learnlink.emory.edu or call 404-727-4367. Abstracts should be 1-2 pages and are due March 15, 1997.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E66oV; Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: MENACE PROTESTS PSYCHIATRISTS’ PRESENTATION Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 21:07:08 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703062107.E66oV@xconn.com>
MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Riki Anne Wilchins (212)645-1753, Riki@Pipeline.COM
MENACE PROTESTS PSYCHIATRISTS’ PRESENTATION ===========================================
[New York City – 21 Feb 97] EIGHT MEMBERS of the Transexual Menace demonstrated outside the New York Academy of Medicine tonight as Psychiatrist Dr. Judith Chused presented a paper on the diagnosis and “treatment” of a 5 year old gender-variant boy identified only as “Jimmy,” who was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder.
Why CAN’T Jimmy Be a Girl? ————————–
“The Analysis of a Boy With Gender Identity Disorder: The Search for Why Jimmy Wants to be a Girl,” was attended by approximately three dozen people who entered the building by passing through a gauntlet of demonstrators handing out leaflets and carrying banners proclaiming, “Gender Identity is NOT a Disorder!” and “Why CAN’T Jimmy be a Girl?”
Attendees, most of whom were psychoanalysts and doctors, reacted with bemusement to the flyers which were formatted to look like those of the meeting. Headed “The Analysis of an Analyst with Gender Patho-Philia: The Search for Why Judith Wants to Enforce Gender Norms,” the leaflets went on to define “GenderPatho-Philia” as “an unnatural need or desire to pathologize any gender behavior which makes you uncomfortable.” Several of the attendees stopped to engage the protesters in light banter. [Flier text follows.]
Less amused was Dr. Barone, a representative of IPTAR, the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, which sponsored the event. Although the program announcement stated, “No Registration Required, All Are Welcome,” Dr. Barone refused to allow protesters to enter the meeting room following the demonstration, despite their polite assurances that they intended no disruptions. She did offer to arrange a forum at a later date to discuss GID reform with activists, an offer which is being vigorously pursued by Menace representatives.
Psychiatric Abuse of Gender-variant Children ——————————————–
Members of the queer community pursuing the reform of Gender Identity Disorder have increasing begun referring to its use against children as PAGC — the “Psychiatric Abuse of Gender-variant Children.”
Declared Shannon Minter, Senior Staff Attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which provided GID information kits for protesters to distribute, “PAGC hurts children as young as 3 and as old as 18 across the country. Psychiatrists must stop using GID as a weapon against gender-variant children and youth, and start responding to the genuine needs and concerns of the transgendered community.
Continued Minter, “It is a tragedy that children and youth are being forced into unwanted and damaging psychiatric treatments while so many transsexual people, including transsexual youth, are unable to obtain basic medical care.
“NCLR continues its firm commitment to GID reform, and this week we will be sending a letter to that effect to the president of the American Psychiatric Association.”
[Release Ends]
[Flier Text Begins]
IPA Institute for the Psychoanalytic GC Abuse of Gender-Variant Children —————————————— Scientific Meeting
The Analysis of an Analyst with GENDERPATHOPHILIA “an unnatural need or desire to pathologize any gender behavior which makes you uncomfortable.”
The Search for Why Judith Wants to Enforce Gender Norms
Judith C, a psychiatrist in private practice, presented with complaints of an irrational fixation on other’s gender displays, complicated by uncontrollable urges to police gender norms. As in advanced cases of GenderPatho-Philia, her symptomatology included an obsessional need to “fix” gender-variant children. Tonight’s presentation by top psychiatrists from The Transexual Menace will focus on the etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of Judith C’s condition, as well as her overall prognosis (which, we might ad, isn’t all that rosy). Refreshments and a healthy dose of gender-tolerance will be served following the presentation. (Donations to the “Save Judith C!” treatment fund are welcome.)
Did you know. that Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is used to inflict “corrective treatment” on “sissy boys” and “butchy girls” as young as 2 or 3 years old?
Did you know. the only thing “wrong” with most gender-variant children is that their parents are uncomfortable with them and their psychiatrists are fixated on “correcting” them; the problem isn’t gender-variant kids, it’s a gender-intolerant society.
Did you know. Just as with the “disease of Homosexuality,” psychiatrists are once again pathologizing sexual difference and trying to “treat” it. Don’t you guys learn anything from your mistakes?
Hey Judith!
Get a Life!
Better yet… Get Your Diagnoses Off Our Bodies and Off Our Kids!!!
The Transexual Menace: Just your average group of genderqueers with poor impulse control and really bad attitudes.
[Flier Text Ends]
###
Online Editor: Clare Howell (clareq@idt.net)
(c) 1996 InYourFace An on-line, news-only service for gender activism. When re-posting, please credit InYourFace.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:09 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E22yF; Thu 6 Mar 1997 21:07:09 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: MN GLBT Educational Fund Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 21:07:09 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703062107.E22yF@xconn.com>
The Minnesota Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Educational Fund announces its annual awards.
Eligibility requirements:
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender identified Planning to attend post-secondary educational institution during the next academic year Not a prior winner of the Educational Fund award A resident of Minnesota, or attending a Minnesota educational institution
For information, contact MN GLBT Educational Fund Awards Committee P.O. Box 7275 Minneapolis, MN 55407-0275 612-220-4888
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>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 7 Mar 1997 02:35:30 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E25Vh; Fri 7 Mar 1997 02:35:30 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Cambridge Passes Historic Legislation Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 02:35:30 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703070235.E25Vh@xconn.com>
Cambridge Passes Historic Legislation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Nancy Nangeroni in New Orleans 3/7-3/11: 504-529-7269 in Cambridge after 3/12: 617-497-6928, nrn@gendertalk.com
On Monday, February 24, by unanimous vote of the City Council, the City of Cambridge enacted legislation protecting freedom of gender expression and identity which is the most inclusive, comprehensive, and straightforward of any such legislation passed anywhere. The ground breaking amendment to the city’s human rights ordinance protects the right of all people to express and identify with whatever combination of masculinity and femininity suits them. It also provides for determination of sex, when required for application to same sex housing, to be made on “social and identity roles” rather than anatomy. As such, it is the first legislation to recognize that for some people, gender and social role do not follow anatomy.
The amendment was sponsored by the Cambridge Lavender Alliance, a GLBT political action organization, and introduced by city councilor Katherine Triantafillou. To the amazement and delight of the measure’s proponents, there was no opposition to the amendment at any time during the process of bringing it before the city council, to a public hearing, and then back to the city council again for the final vote. In passing the amendment, one councilor remarked “It makes you wonder why we haven’t done this before now.”
According to Nancy Nangeroni, author of the amendment, “This isn’t about protecting some special interest group. This is about expanding the scope of everyone’s personal freedom. It’s no infringement on anyone else if I’m more masculine or more feminine, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t have that freedom. Any woman who’s been harassed because she looks too butch, and any guy who’s ever been harassed because he looks too effeminate, is affected and protected by this.”
The new law prohibits discrimination against any people on the basis of gender. It is the first gender-protective legislation passed in Massachusetts. It adds “gender” to the list of protected classes, including sex, race, religion, etc. It also adds the following definition of gender:
“Gender” means the actual or perceived appearance, expression, or identity of a person with respect to masculinity and femininity.
Since the Cambridge Human Rights Ordinance provides for the establishment of same sex facilities such as dormitories, the amendment also adds the following definition of “same sex”:
“Same sex” means occupying the same social and identity roles as another with respect to being male or female.
The amendment is accompanied by extensive notes which provide detailed explanation of the intent and guidelines for it’s interpretation and implementation.
NOTES ON THE AMENDMENT TO THE CAMBRIDGE HUMAN RIGHTS ORDINANCE
1) There is no significance to the proposed location of “gender” between “sexual orientation” and “marital status”. Any other position within the same list of protected classes would work as well.
2) The definition of gender is intended to provide protection from and recourse against harassment of any individual because they are perceived by others as not sufficiently masculine or feminine, or too much of that which is expected to be opposite to their nature. It is intended to establish and protect the right of all individuals to behave as “masculine” or “feminine” without predisposition or censure because of their particular physiology.
3) The definition of “same sex” is provided as guidance for situations where a person’s gender appears in conflict with their physiology, calling into question their actual “sex”. Culturally, we tend to determine a person’s “sex” by inspection of their gender. However, we are learning that there are significant numbers of persons whose gender is at apparent odds with their physiology. Since we have until now defined sex by physiology, but determined sex by gender, a conflict exists which demands redress. Furthermore, as some persons exercise greater variation of gender expression, there arises greater difficulty in applying conventional standards as a guide to determine if a person is man or woman. Yet there remain those desirous of segregation by sex for the purposes of housing and education, who need a sound basis for determination of a person’s inclusion or exclusion.
Thus a means for determining “same sex” is needed. It should provide for the winnowing out of pretenders or others who would take hurtful advantage, while providing for the inclusion of those whose admission brings no harm to others, and who would be themselves harmed by exclusion.
There are significant numbers of persons whose physiology is opposite to what one would expect for their gender. We need to provide reasonable conditions for their inclusion in “same sex” categorizing in order to avoid their hurtful and inappropriate exclusion. Such persons include the transsexual who has not obtained (and may not intend to obtain) genital surgery. Also included is the intersexual, a person born of mixed male/female physiology, whose identity is often at odds with their apparent sexual polarity or that imposed on them by well-meaning doctors and parents.
The offered definition of “same sex” provides two tests of a person’s “sex” for use as an admission test for housing, schools and programs.
The first test is social role. If a person generally and with reasonably consistency relates to others as a member of the “same sex” to which they desire admission, they should be regarded as such. However, it should be noted that relating “as a man” or “as a woman” is subject to a wide range of interpretations, and there is at this time a growing social movement to eschew or confuse such categorization. It is not the intent of this writing to in any way contribute to the exclusion of persons who blur their apparent male/femaleness. However, this writing does intend to protect the right to exclude from same sex categorization for the purposes expressed in the commission document a person who currently appears sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman. At the same time, a person’s past appearance should not be used as a basis for exclusion.
The second test, identity role, allows for the buttressing of a person’s claim to be “same sex” by virtue of their professed identity. A woman may appear as manlike as she wish, however, if in her mind she is clearly a woman, she should be allowed admission to women’s “same sex” facilities. Thus the test of identity allows for changing expression of gender, including transgression of an established norm. Should this same person feel herself – himself, in this case – to be, in fact, a man, then admission to men’s “same sex” facilities would be more appropriate. Likewise, a man may appear as feminine as he wishes, without giving up his claim on manhood, but one who identifies as a woman and interacts as such, may not be categorized as a man despite physical characteristics which would appear to contradict.
The intent of this definition of ‘same sex” is to protect those transsexuals, intersexuals, and others who do not “pass”, that is, they are regularly perceived as opposite to their self-image and identity. For example, a person born with a penis but identifying as a woman may be possessed of an appearance which is “unmistakably male”, such as coarse facial features, facial and body hair, broad shoulders, deep voice, narrow hips, etc. When such a person identifies as a woman, and makes obvious attempts to be perceived as such, however ineffective, it is generally hurtful to categorize such a person as other than a woman, whereas categorizing this person as a woman does not in and of itself hurt others. Rather than traumatize the individual by exclusion, it is intended that we honor their obvious visible attempts to be womanly, and their self-identity as a woman, despite our expectations of how a woman should appear. The same is true for the similar but opposite case of a person born with female genitals but identifying as and making an obvious effort to be perceived as a man. We should regard such people for all intents and purposes as men. This approach is recognized and supported by leading medical and psychological experts in the gender field.
4) It is implied by this proposal that the gender appearance, identity, or expression of any individual should by itself warrant no presumption of unhealthy deviance, guilt or malfeasance whatsoever.
————————————————- Nancy Nangeroni, GenderTalk Host & Exec. Producer nrn@GenderTalk.com Web site: www.GenderTalk.com ————————————————-
**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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 8 March
Posted about 8 March, 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 Sat 8 Mar 1997 02:11:57 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E26bK; Sat 8 Mar 1997 02:11:57 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: TCF – Tuesdays With Gianna Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 02:11:57 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703080211.E26bK@xconn.com>
The TCF is proud to announce that gender-specializing counselor (and author) Gianna E. Israel will be hosting her second regular chats in the Gazebo chat room on March 11th. This time, hot on the heels of Valentine’s Day, the topic is “Romantic Relationships”
Each chat will have a specific theme or topic for the first hour, and will follow-up with an open topic hour. These chats will be held in protocol, with the protocol queue handled by a TCF staff member. These will be held from 6-8 pm, on the second Tuesday of the month.
The topics and their dates are as follows: March 11 – “Romantic Relationships” May 13 – “Employment” July 8 – “Dealing With Prejudices” September 9 – “Experiences Being Closeted” November 11 – “Family”
The Transgender Community Forum is available during all America Online operating hours, and there is no screening process used to limit access to the area. The forum area includes two 48-person conference/chat room (The Gazebo and the Support Conferences room), several file libraries with topics ranging from informational texts and newsletters to members pictures and crossdressing fiction stories, six message boards, a daily updated news area for the latest media on the T* community, and over 1000 individual resource files, including regularly updated information on most transgender organizations worldwide, newsmagazines, gender therapists, and websites. As always, there is no additional fee above AOL’s standard user fees to utilize the Transgender Community Forum, or any of it’s services.
For more information, send E-Mail to “On Q Gwen@AOL.com”, the TCF Area Leader.
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 9 March
Posted about 9 March, 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 Sat 8 Mar 1997 13:47:33 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E26QB; Sat 8 Mar 1997 13:47:33 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: TG Raises Technical Issue With Florida Same-Sex Marriage Bill Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 13:47:33 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703081347.E26QB@xconn.com>
Transgender Raises Technical Issue With Florida Same-Sex Marriage Bill
Wednesday, March 5, 1997
TALLAHASSEE – On Wednesday, the Florida House of Representatives’ Governmental Operations Committee met to vote on the state’s Same Sex Marriage Bill. The bill, introduced by Plant City Republican Rep. Johnnie Byrd would bar Florida from recognizing same-sex marriages performed legally in other states or nations.
While the debate between speakers testifying before the committee turned into a lesbian and gay centered issue, Jessica Archer fired the first round for transgendered and intersexed people who desire to marry or have their marriage recognized in the sunshine state.
“This is not a moral issue, ” said Archer, who is a male to female transsexual. “This is a medical and biological issue.”
Ms. Archer testified in front of the committee explaining the plight of transgendered and intersexed people who have “mixed” genders. She asked the legislators to look out in the room and pick out people who may be members of these two groups.
“You can’t pick them out,” she said, scanning the packed chamber. “Because many transgendered and intersexed people present themselves as one gender, but may psychologically identify or have (or had) the physical anatomy of the other.”
“If you pass this law, then every person who wants to get married will be forced to have their gender verified by a medical doctor. Otherwise, it is unenforceable.”
Religious conservatives argued that the bill would protect the sanctity of marriage. One conservative even argued that lesbians and gays have enhanced rights and are better off financially than the average non lesbian/gay person. Representatives of the state ACLU and National Organization of Women spoke against the bill.
Despite impassioned opposition, the committee voted 5-0 in favor of the legislation. The bill now goes before the majority Republican House where it is expected to win an easy victory.
“This is just the beginning,” quipped Archer, who attended as a representative of the Panhandle Transgender Alliance (PANTRA) and as a board member of the Family Tree, a community center serving the north Florida lesbian, gay, bisexual, and gender communities.
“The next step is the Senate committee, and you can bet the gender community will be represented. Also, it is so important that we work together with the greater Lesbian and Gay community on these efforts. A united front takes both of our voices, and makes them louder.”
*For more information concerning this legislation, please contact Jessica Archer at PANTRA FL@aol.com. GET INVOLVED!
**Provided by Jessica Archer (PANTRA FL@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 Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E05TN; Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: SIGNS CFP Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703090235.E05TN@xconn.com>
(Just forwarding.–Jacob Hale)
*PLEASE POST*
Call for Papers Signs Special Issue: Institutions, Regulation, and Social Control
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society seeks submissions for a special issue on “Institutions, Regulation, and Social Control,” slated for publication in summer 1999. At every historical moment, contemporary life is shaped by multiple, intersecting systems and processes of social, psychological, cultural, and political regulation. How is lived experience influenced by social, political, economic institutions, by the diverse discourses whereby social impulses are created, shaped, narrowed, regulated? How do processes and experiences of regulation differ by genders, races, ethnicities, classes, sexualities, nationalities? How do artistic and cultural representations produce and/or respond to regulation, broadly conceived? What regulatory work is performed by artistic and critical traditions, forms, and conventions? Are there processes and experiences of regulation that transcend difference, in the context of power inequalities? What can we learn about the shifting meanings of feminisms by exploring processes of regulation? This special issue will address concerns such as the organization and enactment of particular social institutions, including militaries, prisons, schools, religious institutions, and families; the regulation of physical bodies through codes of sexuality and technologies that limit physical freedoms; political and cultural regulations through the rise to power of conservative forces such as the religious right; conflicts and complicities between state regulatory practices and situated ethnic nationalisms and allegiances; institutional processes of social control; transnational systems of regulation of populations and their migrations; influences of this multitude of systems of regulation on daily lived experiences. This special issue will also address not only resistances to this regulation and social control but also new and more complicated and nuanced thinking about resistance itself. We encourage multidisciplinary analyses that explore the dynamics of interaction between everyday actors and communities on the one hand and regulatory systems on the other. And, importantly, this issue will address intersections among systems of regulation and social control, as they reinforce, undermine, and contradict each other. The editors welcome submissions that are based on either collaborative or independent scholarship. They also welcome submissions from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, disciplines, and approaches to this complex and multifaceted topic. The special issue editors will include Professors Christine Di Stefano (Department of Political Science) and Priscilla Wald (Department of English) of the University of Washington and the Signs Board of Associate Editors. Additional editors will be announced shortly. Please submit articles (five copies) no later than October 31, 1997, to Signs, “Institutions, Regulation, and Social Control,” Box 354345, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-4345. Please observe the guidelines in the “Notice to Contributors” printed in this issue of the journal.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E15LM; Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Body Alchemy Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703090235.E15LM@xconn.com>
Body Alchemy Transsexual Portraits Photographs by Loren Cameron Cleis Press, 1996 110 pages $24.95
At once a beautiful art book of black and white photographs and a social documentary of female-to-male transsexuals, Cameron’s Body Alchemy is in a class by itself.
Photos of Cameron’s transition to living as a man after being born and raised female are interspersed with his story, and the stories of other transsexual men. He has photographed his process of changing his body, including becoming a body builder, and has photographed other FTMs in their process, as well. (The “Emergence” section of Body Alchemy shows before- and after-transition photos of several transsexual men. Those photos and he interviews with the guys about how they have evolved their identities is one of the highlights of the book.)
One of the most intriguing parts of the book is the essay of conversation and words that Cameron and his intimate partner Kayt have created in “Duo”. Kayt, an FTM-identified, female-bodied person who is not in transition, and Cameron reflect the sameness and difference in their photos together, and discuss their relationship.
The impact of Body Alchemy, though, is in the way these men have constructed their masculinity. Is it the fact that transsexual men have made a choice to be masculine, and therefore their masculinity seems to fit them so well? Or is the skill of Cameron’s art that the nature of these men seems so easy to perceive?
Previously sorely under-documented, the FTM section of the greater queer community finally has someone to bear witness and make their stories into art. Body Alchemy is a monumental book.
On Q Arts Staff
Note: AOL people; This area can be reached by using Key Word: ARTS ONQ
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>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E93Tn; Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: WOCKNER/INT’L NEWS #147/19 Feb 97 Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 02:35:36 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703090235.E93Tn@xconn.com>
Reprinted with permission of Mr. Wockner…
============================================= = INTERNATIONAL NEWS #147 – Feb 19, 1997 = = (c) Rex Wockner = =============================================
>> GAYS, TRANSVESTITES PICKET ARGENTINE JUSTICE MINISTRY
Thirty gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people picketed the Palace of Justice in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb. 10, protesting against routine police abuse of transvestites. The six-hour action launched a new “anti-transphobia campaign … to get all citizens involved in defending the right to free sex/gender choice and also to help them link the violence endured by transvestites with that suffered by other groups the system needs to keep under control [such as] young people, women, indigenous communities, elders [and] poor people,” said a spokeswoman. The protesters denounced “systematic human rights violations committed against transvestites in Argentina and the absolute indifference/complicity shown by the ‘democratic’ powers — the justice system [and] Internal Affairs Ministry.” The palace’s entrance was blocked by large dolls bearing names of some of the 64 transvestites allegedly killed by police in recent years. A dozen protesters chained themselves to the stairs as others handed out 4,000 flyers to passers-by. Media coverage was heavy. Police watched from the sidelines. “The public’s response was highly positive: nobody was aggressive and … several people showed their agreement when corruption and police brutality were mentioned,” said correspondent Alejandra Sarda. “Almost nobody rejected the leaflets.” Lohanna Berkins of the Fight for Transvestite Identity Association (ALIT) told the crowd: “Those policemen who kill us are not the only ones to blame. It is also the legal system that does not listen to our claims, the authorities sending the police to annihilate us and society as a whole, for being silent and thereby issuing a license to kill.” Participants in the groundbreaking demo included ALIT, the Argentina Transvestite Association (ATA), the Argentine Transvestite and Transsexual Organization (OTTRA), ACT UP/Buenos Aires, Lesbian Menace (Amenaza Lesbica), Biblioteca GLTT (the Gay, Lesbian, Transvestite and Transsexual Library), Escrita en el Cuerpo (a lesbian archive and library), Gays for Civil Rights, the Gay and Lesbian Youth Group, and Lesbians on Sight (Lesbianas a la Vista).
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>From listserv@xconn.com Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:37 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E16hf; Sun 9 Mar 1997 02:35:37 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: From MEDIAlert! – 03.1.97 Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 02:35:37 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703090235.E16hf@xconn.com>
>From “MEDIAlert!” for 1 MARCH 97 By Al Kielwasser
*** NATIONAL NIGHTMARE . . . Given the medium’s unique standard, tabloid coverage of queers has always been sensational — but not always bad. Unfortunately, however, recent editions of the country’s most popular weekly have only gone from bad to worse.
Boasting the “largest circulation of any paper in America,” the “National Enquirer” manages to defame gay youth, transvestites, rock musicians, and Cher — all in one issue (Feb. 18). A two-page spread, headlined “Cher’s Nightmare,” the newspaper alleges that: “Cher’s bad-boy son Elijah Blue has become a transvestite — and he viciously broke his mother’s heart by hissing ‘Let’s face it, I’m far prettier and more talented than you!'”
Riddled with cliches, this article is the real “nightmare” — a conflated blend of sensational references to “kinky sex,” “gay lifestyles,” “satanic rituals,” “prostitutes,” “makeup-and-lipstick-wearing transvestites,” “porno queens,” “useless drug addicts,” “party animals,” and (for good measure) “wild three-way scenes.”
Typical of this animus in prose, the “Enquirer” reports that another transvestite “led Elijah into experimenting with a gay lifestyle.” Thereafter, the 20-year-old musician not only “immersed himself in cross-dressing, drugs and a gay lifestyle,” but also “studied the occult” and “influenced other boys to wear lipstick and feminine clothing.” The “Enquirer” portrays Cher as a “tortured mom,” but never mentions her public acceptance of another queer child (lesbian daughter Chastity Bono).
A side-bar to the article fares no better, offering “expert” advice from “Dr. Anthony Pietropinto, a New York psychiatrist who has treated many children.” “Children often get back at their parents for real or imagined neglect by behaving in shocking and outrageous ways,” Pietropinto says. “What better way to hurt a famous parent than by becoming a transvestite, a drug-taking rock-and-roller?”
C o n t a c t : Malcolm Hayes, Managing Editor, “National Enquirer,” Lantana, FL 33464, tel. 561-586-1111 (Florida) or 310-657-9872 (Los Angeles), e-mail letters@nationalenquirer.com; Dr. Anthony Pietropinto, 2 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011-8835, tel. 212-674-6375.
———————————————————-
ABOUT MEDIALERTS
Distributed as a community press service since 1992, “MEDIAlert!” [TM] is a biweekly, advocacy-oriented column of media criticism, primarily focused on lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender issues. Recipients may print, publish or post this material, in whole or part, under this or any title, without prior permission. When appropriate, attribution can be made to “Al Kielwasser” and/or “MEDIAlert!” File copies of publications using all or part of any “MEDIAlert!” are always appreciated. Next “MEDIAlert!” = March 16, 1997. Contact: A. P. Kielwasser, MEDIAction, 163 Park Street, San Francisco, CA 94110-5835, voice-mail/fax 415-826-5203, e-mail mediaction@aol.com.
**As posted in the Transgender Community Forum **On America Online (Keyword: TCF) **TCF Info: http://members.aol.com/onqgwen **MEDIAlerts available at AOL keyword: News onQ
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 11 March
Posted about 11 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 11 Mar 1997 11:09:30 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E71FK; Tue 11 Mar 1997 11:09:30 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Xena Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 11:09:30 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703111109.E71FK@xconn.com>
Reprinted from Queery, 1/31/97, by way of TN Vals newsletter
“Xena” Plays Hostess to a Drag Queen
There she is, Miss Known World…
MCA-Universal Television’s Xena: Warrior Princess featured a transgendered character in a recent episode.
Drag superstar Karen Dior plays Miss Artiphys, a transgendered contestant in the Miss Known World beauty pageant who saves Xena from certain death and goes on to win the contest. Xena goes undercover at the pageant to keep it from being sabotaged, and discovers early on that Miss Artiphys is a man in drag.
Xena is unfazed by this discovery, and states her hope that “the best person [will] win.”
During her coronation ceremony, Miss Artiphys pulls Xena from the sidelines, dips her, and giver her a big kiss to gasps in the audience as Gabrielle (Xena’s sidekick) looks on in jealousy.
Xena, a cult favorite of many lesbians, celebrates drag in this beauty, and plays off the generally adverse reaction of society to same-sex kissing.
In a fun way, the show gives a transgendered character depth and allows him to be a hero while conveying the more serious message that many of society’s assumptions about gender and sexual orientation are both groundless and absurd.
Congratulate MCA-Universal and Renaissance Pictures (Xena’s production company) for a fabulous and smart episode dealing with transgender issues and sexual orientation.
Contact: Tom Thayer, President, MCA-Universal Television, 100 Universal City Plaza, University Plaza, CA 91608-1085, e-mail: tv@mca.com. Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi, Executive Producers, Xena: Warrior Princess, Renaissance Pictures, 100 Universal City Plaza, Bungalow 415-A, Universal City, CA 91608.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 11 Mar 1997 11:09:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E27Xw; Tue 11 Mar 1997 11:09:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: LETTER TO RENO ON ATLANTA BOMBING Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 11:09:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703111109.E27Xw@xconn.com>
MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dana Priesing (703)578-0903, DanaP@WaOnline.com
LETTER TO RENO ON ATLANTA BOMBING =================================
Cross-section of Gay Groups Sign-on
[February 28, 1997 – Washington DC] ALTHOUGH REPORTS of the recent hate-crime bombing The Otherside identified it as a “gay and lesbian” Atlanta bar, it was well known to residents for its prominent transgender and bisexual clientele, who were also potential targets of the blast.
Today GenderPAC took the step of sending a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno highlighting this information, and requesting a meeting to discuss the bombing as a hate crime related to gender, as well as a sexual orientation. [Letter text follows.]
The letter was countersigned by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Bisexual Nework of the USA (BiNet USA ), and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). The National Center for Lesbian Rights sent their own letter, endorsing GenderPAC’s request.
Erasure at a Sensitive Moment —————————–
The issue of transgender and bisexual erasure from coverage of the bombing comes at a particularly sensitive time, as gender activists are poised to return to Capitol Hill for the 2nd National Gender Lobbying Day, May 6th, 1997. High on their agenda will be amending the recently-reauthorized Hate Crimes Statistics Act to include “gender identity.” Many feel the bombing presents a perfect opportunity to show why such amendment is necessary.
In addition, GenderPAC is set to publish the results of it’s first National Survey on TransViolence, for activists to distribute at Lobby Day. The study was developed with the help of the Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, and is believed to be one of the first large-scale studies of its kind.
Noted BiNet’s Stephanie, Berger, “Any G/L/B/T person can be a victim of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, regardless of their actual gender or sexual orientation. We need an inclusive political vision, one which addresses the true diversity of oppressions this community faces.”
Support from HRC —————-
HRC had originally written its own letter to the Attorney General which identified the bombing as a gay and lesbian hate-crime, and asked GenderPAC to endorse it. Their Congressional Advocate, DC attorney Dana Priesing agreed to endorse the letter, but inquired about the invisibility of bisexual and transgender people in the description of The Otherside’s clientele. After discussions with HRC’s Senior Lobbyist Kris Pratt, an additional letter from GenderPAC — endorsed by HRC — was agreed upon as a suitable measure.
Said Priesing, “We’re glad we are beginning to work constructively with HRC, and that they are willing to support all the populations who may have been the possible targets of this vicious bombing. Kris has been very helpful; we’re looking forward to working with her on a more inclusive Hate Crimes bill.”
Responded Pratt, “Violence affects all kinds of people across this community – gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. We want to see everyone protected from the effects of hatred, and educating Congress and the Administration on hate crimes is the right place to start.” [Press release ends]
###
[Letter text begins]
February 28, 1997
Via Facsimile
The Honorable Janet Reno, Esq. Attorney General of the United States U.S. Department of Justice 10th Street & Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20350
Attorney General Reno:
No doubt you are aware of the bombing that occurred last Friday at The Otherside, a bar in Atlanta, Georgia. Some press and other accounts — including a letter recently sent to you by a number of concerned civil rights organizations — describe the bar as a “gay” or “lesbian and gay” bar. According to local activists in Atlanta, however, The Otherside actually was popular not only with gays and lesbians, but also with bisexuals, transgendered people (and heterosexual women). In order to counter the somewhat common misperception that bisexual and transgendered people are really just gays or lesbians, we concluded that it was important that we bring to your attention the actual breadth of diversity that existed among The Otherside’s patrons. We note this point because it underscores the apparent invisibility of hate crimes against bisexuals and transgendered persons.
The Need for Greater HCSA Compliance.
The invisibility of bisexuals and transgendered people in accounts and reporting of bias crimes ostensibly based on animosity toward “homosexuals” is a problem we would like to bring to your attention. For example, the incidence of reported hate crimes against bisexuals is rising. In a 1995 survey publicized by San Francisco’s Community United Against Violence, 146 bisexual people reported hate incidents — more than double the number reported in 1994 in the same 11 cities monitored. Although violence against bisexuals remains vastly underreported, we suspect these numbers will continue to rise. We believe that if efforts were made (i) to increase voluntary compliance with the Hate Crimes Statistics Act (“HCSA”), and (ii) to make reporting agencies more aware of the diversity that exists in the communities at risk, we might be able to gain a clearer picture of the actual incidence of bias crimes against bisexuals and other groups. We would like to see the Department of Justice devote additional resources to training and compliance advocacy in this area.
Hate Crimes Against the Transgendered.
Transgendered people are not even identified specifically in HCSA statistics, despite the fact that bias crimes against transgendered people are frequent and tend to be among the most brutal. The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (“GenderPAC”) has collected anecdotal information concerning nearly a dozen apparently bias-motivated murders of transgendered persons since 1990, and believes that the actual number of hate crimes against this group is much larger. Christian Paige’s March 1996 murder in Chicago, Illinois is illustrative: Christian, a young pre-operative transsexual, was bludgeoned about the head, strangled, and stabbed many times in the chest; the body then was burned. Local police reportedly did not consider the murder a bias crime, although the ferocity of the attack suggests otherwise.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you, and appropriate members of your staff, the bias crime problems encountered by gays and lesbians, as well as bisexual and transgendered people. We would like to help the Department understand the hate crimes risks that these groups face together, as well as the hate crimes risks to which each is particularly susceptible. Accordingly, we ask to be included in any meeting with representatives of the civil rights community arising from or related to the Atlanta bombing. Dana Priesing, GenderPAC’s local representative, will contact your office to inquire further about this matter. If you or your staff have any questions in the meantime, Ms. Priesing can be reached at 202-347-3024.
Sincerely,
Gender Public Advocacy Coalition
BiNet USA
Human Rights Campaign
National Coalition of Bi and Trans Activists
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
[Letter text ends.]
###
(c) 1997 InYourFace An on-line, news-only service for gender activism. When re-posting, please credit InYourFace.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 11 Mar 1997 11:09:31 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E14mC; Tue 11 Mar 1997 11:09:31 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Survey Sez… Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 11:09:31 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703111109.E14mC@xconn.com>
Reprinted from Tennessee Vals newsletter, March, 1997; taken from a posting sent to them by Phyllis Frye of ICTLEP
Poll Results: 64% of L/G say YES to TG Inclusion!
On December 10, 1966, The Advocate ran a poll with the following question:
“Should gay and lesbian civil rights groups make an effort to support the cause of transgender rights?”
The pull results were in the February 4, 1997 issue of the Advocate (and on the web page at www.advocate.com). Result were:
64% Yes 23% No, it’s not our struggle 13% I’m not sure
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 12 March
Posted about 12 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 12 Mar 1997 19:03:33 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E93wh; Wed 12 Mar 1997 19:03:33 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Toronto Double Suicide Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 19:03:33 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703121903.E93wh@xconn.com>
Toronto Sun March 11, 1997
CYBER DATE ENDS IN DEATH
SUICIDE PAIR HAD TRANSSEXUAL AFFAIR ON NET
By ROBERT BENZIE, IAN HARVEY And Scot Magnish A bizarre transsexual affair spawned on the Internet ended with a double suicide at a Yonge St. hotel, police said yesterday. The bodies of Orillia’s Brian Lagace, 21, and a 25-year-old she-male from Chicago were found entwined in the bed of their downtown Howard Johnson Hotel room Sunday afternoon. A signed suicide note referring to the Internet was discovered nearby. “I don’t know what to say,” Lagace’s older brother, Paul, said from his home north of Metro last night. “Some things are just to painful to utter.” Lagace said his little brother was “obsessed” with computers and spent hours surfing the ‘Net. Family members didn’t know he was advertising for a suicide-pact partner until they checked his computer for messages when he failed to come home Friday night. “How could something like this happen over the computer?” he asked. “How can you post ads like this without someone saying something about it?” SEX-CHANGE OPERATION At the morgue, close examination revealed the young man’s partner in death – initially thought to be a woman — was in fact a man undergoing a sex-change operation. Police are withholding the Chicago man’s identity until family can be notified. A hotel worker who made the grim discovery Sunday evening said he’s been unable to sleep since. “Once you see something like that, it’s in your mind. You can’t forget it. When you close your eyes, you see it,” said the employee, who asked not to be named. The concerned staffer broke open the locked and chained ninth-floor suite — with a “Do Not Disturb” sign dangling on the door — and saw the couple. Thinking they were asleep, he tried to waken them but when he touched their cold bodies, he realized with horror what he had stumbled upon. “The two bodies were lying on the bed and there were some pills spilled all over the place and a little blood because one of them was bleeding from the ear,” said hotel general manager William Durnford. “That Internet thing is a scary thought,” he said. Durnford said they checked in Friday and paid cash for two night’s stay at the hotel, near the Maple Leaf Gardens. The pair had apparently met last year on a World Wide Web “chatsite” and the long-distance relationship blossomed over the past few months, said Det. Barry Wilkinson. `FIRST REAL MEETING’ “This was the first real meeting they’d had,” Wilkinson said. He stressed there was no evidence to suggest the pair had culled the information on how to commit suicide from the Net. But he added detectives will be probing the computers of both people and the suicide note to cast more light on the deaths.
————————————————————————–
Toronto Sun March 11, 1997
SINGLES SURFING FOR LOVE AND LUST
By IAN HARVEY Toronto Sun The Internet is the world’s largest singles bar, a place where the lustful and the lonely alike troll for that someone special. For a 21-year-old Orillia man and a 25-year-old Chicago transsexual it was also the conduit for the “deeply troubled” pair that ended in a strange suicide pact at a downtown hotel. The pair had apparently “met” online, presumably on a “chatsite,” one of thousands of places in cyberspace where people worldwide “talk” by typing in their comments. Last January, Marlene Stumf was stabbed to death by her husband in Philadephia after a local sportscaster sent her a dozen red roses in response to her e-mail to his website. In October, Sharon Lopatka died in North Carolina after a bout of kinky sex with a man she had met online. In his e-mail, he described his desire to sexually torture and kill her. It’s the Net’s ability to create a niche for almost any speciality, mood, interest or fetish coupled with the anonymity that attracts participants. However, despite the millions of cyberencounters that end harmlessly, or the relationships that blossom, with some leading to marriage, it’s the negative that get attention, said Jim Carroll, co-author of the Canadian Internet Handbook who is working on a solo effort, Surviving the Information Age. “I think perhaps that people are afraid of the technology — and when they see something like this — it reaffirms that they were right not to get involved with it,” he said.
—————————————————————————-
Toronto Star March 11, 1997
Pair meet on Net, then die here in suicide pact
By Philip Mascoll – Toronto Star Staff Reporter
A relationship that started on the Internet has ended in a double suicide.
The pair met in cyberspace but saw each other for the first time just two days before their deaths in a downtown Toronto hotel.
A Chicago man and a 21-year-old man from Orillia were found dead just after 5 p.m. Sunday at the Howard Johnson Hotel at Carlton and Yonge Sts., said Metro police Sergeant Nigel Fontaine.
The pair used a “suicide chat room” on the Internet, where they also got a recipe for the deadly cocktail of drugs used in the double suicide, he said.
Officers were checking the pair’s computer files and e-mail.
During an autopsy yesterday, pathologists and Metro police discovered the Chicago man was undergoing a sex change.
Investigators in Metro have discovered through interviews with the Orillia man’s family and through notes found in the hotel room that the couple started a relationship on the Net “two or three months ago,” Fontaine said.
The Orillia man was obsessed with computers and spent hours on the Internet, his brother said.
He had been depressed for about two years and had attempted to kill himself before.
On Friday, the pair met for the first time in Toronto and booked into the hotel about 5:30 p.m.
Fontaine said as far as police can determine the pair spent “normal Friday and Saturday evenings.”
Police are still trying to trace their movements.
“The room was cleaned and made up on Saturday afternoon at about 5:30 (p.m.) and there were no indications that anything was wrong.
“However on Sunday, when a staffer went to clean the room, the door was double bolted,” he said.
The staffer called management and a bolt cutter was used.
Fontaine said the pair were lying hand in hand with soft music playing.
“There were some writings in the room and pills, medication,” Fontaine said.
Police monitor the Internet for such things as hate literature and pornography but not suicide, he said.
“Suicide is not an crime,” he said.
“It’s a tragedy, very sad, that these people were not able to get help.”
Police are waiting for toxicology tests to determine what drugs were used, said Sergeant Marilyn McGann.
Neville Twine of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention said the Internet, “as an uncontrollable medium, is a serious issue.”
It can be “a breeding ground for suicidal ideas with little or no way of either monitoring or preventing the act,” he said.
“It brings people together in an anonymous way to talk about various ways to deal with the issue of suicide and their own pain.”
The association will today open a new website – http://www3.sympatico.ca/masecard – designed to deal with suicide in an on-line world.
Neville is unsure just how effective the website will be.
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. Forwarded courtesy of Mikki Gilbert: The following appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail today [12 march 97.] Note the aggressive use of ‘man’ and ‘he.’
Transsexual Part of Death Pact [Canadian Press] Orillia, Ont. – A man who said he wanted to commit suicide in the arms of a woman probably did not know his paretner in a bizarre death pact was a transsexual, his brother says.
The bodies of Biran Lagace, 21, of Orillia, and a 24-year old man from Chicage were found on a bed in a Toronto hotel. The Chicago man had been undergoing a sex change.
Police believe Brian Lagace had posted an ad on the Internet sayiong he was looking for a woman to spend an evening with – one that wold end in a double suicide.
The man from Chicage responded, signing his messages with the names Shelly or Michelle.
Mr. Lagace’s brother, Paul, said he is still struggling to make sense of it all. “It’s like some really demented *Romeo and Juliet,* he told the Orillia Packet and Times. “There’s no way Brian wold have known it was a man. The police didn’t know until they did an autopsy.”
He said his brother had become obsessed with suicide and spent hours on the Internet talking to strangers about self-destruction.
“The thing he wanted was to die in somebody’s arms. He was afraid of dying alone. He tried to kill himself a couple of times. He always talked about suicide.”
When Paul saw TV footage of the hotel room where his brother died, he broke down and cried.
He said he doesn’t blame the Internet for his brother’s death. “He was going to kill himself anyway.”
-end-
1997, 14 March
Posted around 14 March, 2001
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 14 Mar 1997 13:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E48IE; Fri 14 Mar 1997 13:50:28 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Hot from Missouri! Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 13:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703141350.E48IE@xconn.com>
St Louis Post Net Web Site: http://www.stlnet.com:8080/postnet/home.nsf/NewsBriefing/8625642000654DF986256 45800300689
Transsexual Divorced Dad Denied Custody Wednesday, March 12, 1997 By Tim Bryant Of The Post-Dispatch Staff
A divorced transsexual father, who is now a woman, lost joint custody of her two sons Tuesday after a ruling by a state appeals court panel in St. Louis.
The woman, now called Sharon, also may not see the boys again, unless a St. Charles judge decides that the visits would be in the children’s best interests, according to the 2-1 ruling.
The appeals court, at the mother’s request, uses initials to identify the parents. Some stories in the Post-Dispatch have used Karen as a pseudonym for the mother, at her request, to protect the children’s privacy.
One boy is 10; his brother is 7.
Karen and the boys’ father met in 1982 while she was in college and he was in the Air Force. They married in 1983.
Karen has said that their relationship was always strained. In 1991, the father refused to go with his family to visit Karen’s relatives. When she 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. The father underwent a hair transplant, electrolysis, hormone treatments and psychotherapy. Karen filed for divorce in June 1993.
The father underwent sex-change surgery 71 days before the divorce trial. The couple divorced in St. Charles County in 1995.
Tuesday’s appeals court ruling dealt with the divorce decree by St. Charles County Circuit Judge William T. Lohmar Jr.
Lohmar gave Karen primary custody of the couple’s sons but gave the father joint legal custody, which allowed the father unsupervised visitation for two weeks in the summer and on alternate holidays. Lohmar had said visitation could begin a year after the date of the decree.
But the children have not seen their father in four years. Karen lives in St. Charles, and Sharon lives in suburban Washington D.C.
“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 the father,” Judge Paul Simon of the Missouri Court of Appeals wrote in the majority opinion.
Simon, joined by Presiding Judge Mary Rhodes Russell, gave the boys’ mother sole legal custody and returned the case to St. Charles County Circuit Court for a hearing regarding visitation.
“If the trial court decides, after the hearing, that the children are not emotionally and mentally suited for physical contact with their father, then the trial court should not order visitation until such time as the parties demonstrate it is in the children’s best interest to do so,” Simon wrote. Efforts to reach the father’s lawyer were unsuccessful Tuesday. The father can appeal the ruling to the full appellate court or ask that the case be transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Karen’s lawyer, Susan Hais, applauded the court’s ruling.
“I think that in today’s environment, when you have so many policy decisions that say gays have rights, everyone has rights, it takes a lot of courage to say these little boys have the right not to be exposed to a transsexual unless they have the capacity to handle it, regardless of the fact that this is their parent,” Hais said.
In his dissent, Judge Kent Karohl noted that Lohmar had found the father “loving and caring” toward the boys, who “had a significant bond with their father.”
Karohl added that he would have returned the entire case to St. Charles County for a trial on the issue of the parents’ joint legal custody.
When told of Tuesday’s ruling, Karen cried, said Hais.
“I think she is very relieved for the boys.”
Related Mo. Court of Appeals Opinion on this injustice! <http://www.state.mo.us/sca/eojls.htm
Posted by: <In2Chnge@aol.com> Renee White Transgendered Activist (Under Construction) St Louis, Mo
**As posted in the Transgender Community Forum **On America Online (Keyword: TCF) **TCF Info: http://members.aol.com/onqgwen
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 14 Mar 1997 21:41:57 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E11vq; Fri 14 Mar 1997 21:41:57 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Transsexual Part of Death Pact Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 21:41:57 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703142141.E11vq@xconn.com>
Forwarded courtesy of Mikki Gilbert:
The following appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail today [12 march 97.] Note the aggressive use of ‘man’ and ‘he.’
Transsexual Part of Death Pact [Canadian Press] Orillia, Ont. – A man who said he wanted to commit suicide in the arms of a woman probably did not know his paretner in a bizarre death pact was a transsexual, his brother says.
The bodies of Biran Lagace, 21, of Orillia, and a 24-year old man from Chicage were found on a bed in a Toronto hotel. The Chicago man had been undergoing a sex change.
Police believe Brian Lagace had posted an ad on the Internet sayiong he was looking for a woman to spend an evening with – one that wold end in a double suicide.
The man from Chicage responded, signing his messages with the names Shelly or Michelle.
Mr. Lagace’s brother, Paul, said he is still struggling to make sense of it all. “It’s like some really demented *Romeo and Juliet,* he told the Orillia Packet and Times. “There’s no way Brian wold have known it was a man. The police didn’t know until they did an autopsy.”
He said his brother had become obsessed with suicide and spent hours on the Internet talking to strangers about self-destruction.
“The thing he wanted was to die in somebody’s arms. He was afraid of dying alone. He tried to kill himself a couple of times. He always talked about suicide.”
When Paul saw TV footage of the hotel room where his brother died, he broke down and cried.
He said he doesn’t blame the Internet for his brother’s death. “He was going to kill himself anyway.”
-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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 15 March
Subj: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: 97-03-15 07:10:11 EST 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 Fri 14 Mar 1997 13:50:28 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E48IE; Fri 14 Mar 1997 13:50:28 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Hot from Missouri! Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 13:50:28 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703141350.E48IE@xconn.com>
St Louis Post Net Web Site:
http://www.stlnet.com:8080/postnet/home.nsf/NewsBriefing/8625642000654DF986256
45800300689
Transsexual Divorced Dad Denied Custody Wednesday, March 12, 1997 By Tim Bryant Of The Post-Dispatch Staff
A divorced transsexual father, who is now a woman, lost joint custody of her
two sons Tuesday after a ruling by a state appeals court panel in St. Louis. The woman, now called Sharon, also may not see the boys again, unless a St. Charles judge decides that the visits would be in the children’s best interests, according to the 2-1 ruling.
The appeals court, at the mother’s request, uses initials to identify the parents. Some stories in the Post-Dispatch have used Karen as a pseudonym for
the mother, at her request, to protect the children’s privacy.
One boy is 10; his brother is 7.
Karen and the boys’ father met in 1982 while she was in college and he was in
the Air Force. They married in 1983.
Karen has said that their relationship was always strained. In 1991, the father refused to go with his family to visit Karen’s relatives. When she 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. The father underwent a hair transplant, electrolysis, hormone treatments and psychotherapy. Karen filed for divorce in June 1993.
The father underwent sex-change surgery 71 days before the divorce trial. The
couple divorced in St. Charles County in 1995.
Tuesday’s appeals court ruling dealt with the divorce decree by St. Charles County Circuit Judge William T. Lohmar Jr.
Lohmar gave Karen primary custody of the couple’s sons but gave the father joint legal custody, which allowed the father unsupervised visitation for two
weeks in the summer and on alternate holidays. Lohmar had said visitation could begin a year after the date of the decree.
But the children have not seen their father in four years. Karen lives in St.
Charles, and Sharon lives in suburban Washington D.C.
“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 the father,” Judge Paul Simon of the Missouri Court of Appeals wrote in the majority opinion.
Simon, joined by Presiding Judge Mary Rhodes Russell, gave the boys’ mother sole legal custody and returned the case to St. Charles County Circuit Court
for a hearing regarding visitation.
“If the trial court decides, after the hearing, that the children are not emotionally and mentally suited for physical contact with their father, then
the trial court should not order visitation until such time as the parties demonstrate it is in the children’s best interest to do so,” Simon wrote. Efforts to reach the father’s lawyer were unsuccessful Tuesday. The father can appeal the ruling to the full appellate court or ask that the case be transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Karen’s lawyer, Susan Hais, applauded the court’s ruling.
“I think that in today’s environment, when you have so many policy decisions
that say gays have rights, everyone has rights, it takes a lot of courage to
say these little boys have the right not to be exposed to a transsexual unless they have the capacity to handle it, regardless of the fact that this
is their parent,” Hais said.
In his dissent, Judge Kent Karohl noted that Lohmar had found the father “loving and caring” toward the boys, who “had a significant bond with their father.”
Karohl added that he would have returned the entire case to St. Charles County for a trial on the issue of the parents’ joint legal custody.
When told of Tuesday’s ruling, Karen cried, said Hais.
“I think she is very relieved for the boys.”
Related Mo. Court of Appeals Opinion on this injustice! <http://www.state.mo.us/sca/eojls.htm
Posted by: <In2Chnge@aol.com> Renee White Transgendered Activist (Under Construction) St Louis, Mo
**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 Fri 14 Mar 1997 21:41:57 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E11vq; Fri 14 Mar 1997 21:41:57 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Transsexual Part of Death Pact Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 21:41:57 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703142141.E11vq@xconn.com>
Forwarded courtesy of Mikki Gilbert:
The following appeared in the Toronto Globe and Mail today [12 march 97.] Note the aggressive use of ‘man’ and ‘he.’
Transsexual Part of Death Pact [Canadian Press] Orillia, Ont. – A man who said he wanted to commit suicide in the arms of a woman probably did not know his paretner in a bizarre death pact was a transsexual, his brother says.
The bodies of Biran Lagace, 21, of Orillia, and a 24-year old man from Chicage were found on a bed in a Toronto hotel. The Chicago man had been undergoing a sex change.
Police believe Brian Lagace had posted an ad on the Internet sayiong he was looking for a woman to spend an evening with – one that wold end in a double suicide.
The man from Chicage responded, signing his messages with the names Shelly or Michelle.
Mr. Lagace’s brother, Paul, said he is still struggling to make sense of it all. “It’s like some really demented *Romeo and Juliet,* he told the Orillia Packet and Times. “There’s no way Brian wold have known it was a man. The police didn’t know until they did an autopsy.”
He said his brother had become obsessed with suicide and spent hours on the Internet talking to strangers about self-destruction.
“The thing he wanted was to die in somebody’s arms. He was afraid of dying alone. He tried to kill himself a couple of times. He always talked about suicide.”
When Paul saw TV footage of the hotel room where his brother died, he broke down and cried.
He said he doesn’t blame the Internet for his brother’s death. “He was going to kill himself anyway.”
-end-
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>. ———————– Headers ——————————– From listserv@xconn.com Sat Mar 15 07:09:49 1997 Return-Path: listserv@xconn.com Received: from netcomsv.netcom.com (uucp13.netcom.com [163.179.3.13]) by emin36.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id HAA08729 for <thexgrrrl@aol.com>; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 07:09:48 -0500 Received: by netcomsv.netcom.com with UUCP (8.6.12/SMI-4.1) id EAA08377; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 04:08:24 -0800 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E53fo; Sat 15 Mar 1997 03:49:12 From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 03:49:10 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: thexgrrrl@aol.com Message-Id: <9703150349.E53fo@xconn.com>
1997. 17 March
Posted around 17 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 17 Mar 1997 21:11:18 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E98hm; Mon 17 Mar 1997 21:11:18 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Hate Mail – Bigotry still exists Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 21:11:18 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703172111.E98hm@xconn.com>
The following was sent to the transgendered academics mailing list by Stephen Whittle:
Dallas
dear All, Just so we know why we continue to fight the battles I have included below a verbatim copy of a piece of hate mail that has been sent to at least 100 people in our neighbourhood. It refers to my house, and though much of what is said is factually incorrect – I tell you it is still incredibly frightening when it happens. The letter was not sent to us, but was brought to us by a very shocked neighbour – shocked that anyone should consider writing such a letter! We are OK, but as I’m sure you realise we are very disturbed by this – not least because we have 4 kids to care for and protect. Do I give up work, do we move house or do we fight back – or do we just do nothing. It’s Sarah who is stuck at home with the kids and an 18 year old Czech au pair, and they feel very vulnerable. Please keep us in your thoughts. All the best Stephen ************************************************************** The Stockport Family Values Society Mauldeth Rd 10th March 1997
Dear Friends and Neighbours,
It has come to my attention that we have a group of transsexuals with children, living in our community, on this very road at number twenty four. I wish to state that I have absolutely no prejudice against the gay community but it is a well documented medical fact that transsexuals are suffering from a form of schizophrenia so where is the wisdom in allowing these children to be brought up in a household boasting three transsexual women and two lesbians? One’s mind can only boggle at what dubious activities that are going on, polluting these childrens’ minds.
I certainly do not relish the thought of my children attending the same school as the offspring of this commune.
It is time to stop this moral degradation and return to decent family values where a child is brought up with one mother and one father. How many couples would raise a family in these conditions, and what effect will it have on these innocent children in later life irrespective of how much love the “parents” give?
What on earth are social services thinking of?
I know many gay couples who lead a normal decent hard-working life but transsexuals do not or cannot integrate into normal society because of the nature of their mental disease, I understand that they are obsessed with sex with men, women and even each other.
I genuinely feel sorry for these people and I know that they have to live somewhere but I know that I and many other neighbours do not want then to reside in Mauldeth Road, if you have any opinion, either for or against then please attend our meeting at: The Crown Inn, Didsbury Rd, Wednesday March 19th 7.30pm ************************************************************ The letter was not signed, or an address given. We have reported it to the police – but what now.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Mon 17 Mar 1997 21:11:19 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E58dx; Mon 17 Mar 1997 21:11:19 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Gender REserch Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 21:11:19 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703172111.E58dx@xconn.com>
Return-Path: mag@nexus.yorku.ca Comments: Authenticated sender is <mag@nexus.yorku.ca> From: “Michael A. Gilbert” <mag@nexus.yorku.ca> Organization: York University To: Dallas <aegis@gender.org> Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 10:04:24 +0000 Subject: Gender REserch Reply-to: Gilbert@YorkU.CA Priority: normal
Dallas:
You might have this already, but:
Sexual identity predominates
Case of boy raised as girl underscores importance of prenatal events, MDs say Friday, March 14, 1997 By Natalie Angier, The Globe and Mail Company New York Times Service
A case of a surgical accident and its consequences that was long used as evidence of the pliability of sexual identity turns out, in follow-up, to suggest the opposite: that a sense of being male or female is innate, immune to the interventions of doctors, therapists and parents.
In 1973, researchers published an account of an infant boy whose penis had been accidentally cut off and who was subsequently reared as a girl. The child appeared to have accepted the new identity and to be happy with life as a female.
Reported by the sexologist Dr. John Money of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the case became famous and entered the textbooks as proof that infants are more or less sexually neutral at birth, establishing sexual identification only with socialization and exposure to the binary world of boys and girls, blue and pink, guns and Barbies.
Now, Dr. Milton Diamond of the University of Hawaii-Manoa in Honolulu and Dr. H. Keith Sigmundson of the British Columbia Ministry of Health in Victoria have presented a followup that refutes the initial reports of success. They report that far from being satisfied with his reassignment to girlhood, the boy renounced his female identity at the age of 14 and chose to live as a man, even undergoing extensive surgery to attempt a reconstruction of his ablated genitals.
The patient, whose identity is being kept secret, is now in his 30s and married, and is as well adjusted as can be expected in one who has been through such an extraordinary ordeal, the two researchers report in the current issue of The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
In recounting the case of a patient variously referred to as Joan or John, Dr. Diamond and Dr. Sigmundson say they seek not only to set the record straight, but to argue that the case underscores the importance of prenatal events such as hormone exposure in building a sexual self.
“Despite everyone telling him constantly that he was a girl,” Dr. William Reiner of Johns Hopkins Hospital said in an interview, “and despite his being treated with female hormones, his brain knew he was a male. It refused to take on what it was being told,” Dr. Reiner wrote in an editorial to go with the report.
Dr. Dean Hamer of the National Cancer Institute, who has studied genes that may influence male sexual orientation, said: “It’s a fascinating case in the history of gender theory. It offered one of the strongest arguments for the extreme view that adult gender identity was purely a product of upbringing, and now that’s gone.”
At this point, Dr. Hamer said, “most researchers, including John Money, generally agree that gender identity is partly innate and partly cultural.”
Dr. Money’s secretary said yesterday he could not discuss the case because he did not have the patient’s consent.
Yet the debate remains as to how much of sexual identity is instilled by nature and how much by nurture, experts said, and the current paper does not settle that issue. Moreover, few agree on what it means to talk about “maleness” or “femaleness” to begin with.
“From a distance,” said Dr. Barbara Mackoff, a psychologist who studies gender issues and is the author of the new book Growing a Girl, “this looks like a paradigm to address the question that people seem so preoccupied with,” that is, the origins of male and female differences. “But I don’t see this tragic story as a way of helping us to define gender identity or what it means to be a boy or a girl in our culture.”
Dr. Diamond and his colleague use the case study to call for changes in the treatment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia, a condition found in about one in every 1,000 births, which results from a variety of chromosomal and hormonal abnormalities. As it is now, the majority of such infants are designated female, largely because it is considered surgically easier to turn ambiguous genitals into a vagina than into a penis.
But the scientists propose that many of these constructed females may be unhappy with their enforced identity, particularly if they have a Y chromosome–the most overt mark of a male–and were likely to have been exposed to male hormones in the womb. In these infants, the scientists write, “the psychosexual bias” from prenatal events may bias them strongly in a masculine direction, and they would be better off being raised as boys.
Debate over the medical treatment of ambiguous genitalia in infants has grown fierce, as an increasingly vocal group of intersexuals protest that many of the surgical techniques used in an attempt to correct anomalous genitals can be mutilating and harmful in the long term.
“Diamond’s recommendations aren’t going to help this problem,” said Cheryl Chase, founder of the San Francisco-based group, Intersex Society of North America. “Instead, clinicians who treat intersex children will start assigning more of them as males, and doing a different sort of horrible intervention,” for example, by trying to construct a phallus from a small amount of tissue. “They can’t conceive of leaving someone alone,” Ms. Chase said.
Whatever its wider impact, the case of Joan/John has the force of allegory. The patient, born a normal male with a twin brother, lost his penis when it was accidentally cut off at eight months by a surgeon attempting to repair a fused foreskin. Convinced that it would be impossible for a boy to adjust to the loss, the doctors recommended that the parents rear him as a girl and keep his past a secret.
The infant’s testicles were removed and a preliminary attempt to fashion a vagina was made. The parents did their best to regard their child as a daughter, choosing feminine clothes, toys and activities. In an attempt to encourage female identification, Joan was put in the care of female psychiatrists.
As the current report relates the case, through recollections of the parents and of the adult John, the new identity never took. Joan would tear off her dresses, reject dolls and seek out male friends. Her mother would try to get Joan to imitate her makeup ritual; instead, she mimicked her father shaving. She often tried to urinate standing up, despite the mechanical difficulties. But her rebellion was uneven, and sometimes, the mother said, Joan would be quite “feminine,” keeping herself “neat and tidy.”
In Dr. Diamond’s view, the intermittent attempts at girlish behaviour were to be expected from a child who was desperate for parental approval. Her classmates teased her mercilessly, saying she looked like a boy, calling her “cave man” and “gorilla,” and they refused to play with her. She spent a lot of time having her genitals scrutinized by doctors and not understanding why.
At the age of 12, Joan began receiving estrogen treatment and grew breasts. But she disliked the hormone and its feminizing effects and stopped taking it. She was not attracted to boys. She had no friends and considered suicide. At 14, still unaware of her past or her Y chromosome, she refused to continue living as a girl or to have any more vaginal surgery.
Finally confronted, her father broke down in tears and told her of the accident and its sequels. Rather than being devastated, Joan was relieved. “For the first time everything made sense,” the article quotes her as saying, “and I understood who and what I was.”
Joan became John, requested male hormone shots, had a mastectomy and began phalloplasty to try rebuilding his male genitals with skin grafts. After the various treatments, John was accepted by his peers as Joan had never been. “He got himself a van, with a bar in it,” Dr. Diamond said in an interview. “He wanted to lasso some ladies.”
At 25, John married a woman and adopted her children. Surgical reconstruction was only partly successful; much of his penis is without sensation, and although John is capable of having intercourse and orgasm, he admits that his wife is more interested in coitus than he is. Of greater importance, John says, he is happy with life as a man.
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 20 March
Posted around 20 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 20:26:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E69GH; Thu 20 Mar 1997 20:26:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Hizzonner NY Mayor Rudy Giuliana in Drag Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 20:26:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202026.E69GH@xconn.com>
>From The Advocate, 1 April, 1997
New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is one of the true butch bad boys in politics. So who knew he’s make such a fabulous drag diva? Dressed to thrill in blond wig, pink gown, and bosoms galove, Hizzoner– or rather, his drag alter ego, Rudia Giuli-Andrews– wowed a crowd of 2000 at New York’s annual Inner Circle dinner, stepping out with a tuxedo-clad Julie Andrews and her co-stars from the play Victor/Victoria. Of course, the mayor had to suffer to be beautiful: He went through at least five rehearsals of his musical numbers– twice in heels and once in full drag. “He has a lot of courage,” Andrews observed. Still, said one source who saw Giuliani dancing, “it was like moving a refrigerator on wheels.”
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 20:26:53 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E72RG; Thu 20 Mar 1997 20:26:53 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: CrossGender “Hoaxes” in Austrailia Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 20:26:53 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202026.E72RG@xconn.com>
CrossGender “Hoaxes” in Austrailia By Paul Tait
SYDNEY, March 13 (Reuter) – A white Australian author who wrote an award-winning novel and claimed to be an Aboriginal woman kidnapped as a child and raised by a foster family is the latest hoax to rock the nation’s art community.
Leon Carmen, a 47-year-old Sydney man, on Thursday admitted he wrote “My Own Sweet Time” under the name Wanda Koolmatrie, a part-Aboriginal woman who was kidnapped as a child from outback South Australia state and raised by foster parents in Adelaide.
The semi-autobiographical book won an Australian award for the best first novel by a woman in 1995 and was used as a text for senior high school examinations in 1996.
But the revelation has provoked more outrage among Aborigines who were shocked last week to learn that prominent Aboriginal artist Eddie Burrup was the fabrication of an elderly white woman.
Lydia Miller, arts director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Australia’s peak Aboriginal body, described Carmen’s work as “trickery and deceit.”
“It surprises me that non-indigenous people need indigenous people to validate their existence,” said Miller, who added she had accepted the 1995 award on Koolmatrie’s behalf because she believed the explanation that the author was overseas.
“If this writer…is claiming that they’re doing it for altruistic reasons, then they should return the money that they got from being so deceitful. It’s a cynical exercise,” she said.
Carmen told The Daily Telegraph newspaper he had written the book because he wanted to be published for the first time.
“I wanted to see a book on the shelf. I didn’t care if it had my name on it,” he said.
Carmen’s agent and co-conspirator, John Bayley, told the Telegraph they had invented Koolmatrie because they thought publishers were not interested in “white Anglo male” authors.
Carmen’s mother, Lily Carmen, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio she was surprised by her son’s deception.
“He’s always been pretty brainy, but I used to say to him you don’t do much with it. He never talks very much,” she said.
Bayley said a sequel was given to Magabala Books, publishers of “My Own Sweet Time,” who would not publish it until they met Koolmatrie.
Bill Ashcroft, head of English literature at the University of New South Wales, said Carmen had followed a long tradition of Australian writers who used noms de plume.
Australia’s top literary award, the Miles Franklin Award, is named in honour of Stella Franklin, a female Australian author who wrote most of her work using the male name of Miles Franklin.
White artist Elizabeth Durack, 81, was last week accused of stealing indigenous culture when she revealed she had invented Eddie Burrup, an Aboriginal farm worker who won acclaim for a broad portfolio of paintings, photographs and writings.
In 1995, author Helen Darville admitted making up her family history to match a book, written under the name Helen Demidenko, about the slaughter of Ukrainian Jews during World War Two.
Reuters/Variety
03:44 03-13-97
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E39LV; Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Hermaphrodites Speak! video available Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202118.E39LV@xconn.com>
ISNA has produced a thirty minute video in which eight intersexuals simply discuss their lives and their opinions about more humane treatment of intersexuality. The video is of amateur quality, but the speakers are eloquent and articulate.
Send a $30 donation to ISNA with a request for a copy.
ISNA PO Box 31791 San Francisco CA 94131
Cheryl Chase Intersex Society of North America
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E57eg; Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: ISNA on radio Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202118.E57eg@xconn.com>
Last week, on Wed or Thur, a short documentary piece by independent radio journalist “Robin White” <beano@well.com> ran on San Francisco’s radio station KQED (an NPR affiliate). Includes narratives by Jeff (assigned male, 16 surgeries), Helena Harmon-Smith (resisted female assignment of her son, founded support group HELP), Cherie Sintes (resisted female assignment of her son, founded Ambiguous Genitalia Support Network), Dennis Stein (ped endo at UC Davis) and Grumbach (grand ole man of ped endo, student of Lawson Wilkins).
Below are some samples of feedback. We expect a longer version to play nationally on NPR affiliates later.
Cheryl Chase Intersex Society of North America
Heard your KQED piece on intersexuals. Good work. I had never heard of those folks before.
Reese Erlich
Hi Robin
I just happened to turn KQED on at 6:50 am on my way to work on Thursday to listen to the traffic report at 6:59 when what do I hear first? Your report on intersexual people. It was really well-written. I was very impressed and intrigued. Pretty horrified to by all the stupid things that happen to people. The woman, ?? Chase who started the group–how horrible for her to have had her clitoris removed. What a nightmare. And that mom today whose son’s testicle was removed. Oh! I don’t know if you know it, but before your report began, there was a disclaimer announcing that the following program contained language and content that may be offensive to some. I was pretty outraged. Is it so horrible hearing penis, vagina, uterus, testicle, clitoris and orgasm? And so what if the content disturbs people. They should be disturbed by the abuses that intersexual people have been subjected to. Anyway, I’m off my soapbox now. Bravo for you!
Hi Robin,
Great to hear your piece on KQED while driving to work this AM – very clear, forthright, groundbreaking (I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything, let alone anything so thoughtful, about intersexed persons on the radio – or maybe anywhere). Thank you!
Robin; heard your piece on KQED yesterday – Bravo!!
Tried to reach S. and Peter, both weren’t at the end of their phones, but S. heard it anyway.
What a lot of hard work, and your interviews were great, very diverse and *very* interesting.
Bobbi
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E68VY; Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re: NGLTF State Legislative Update 3/20/97 Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202118.E68VY@xconn.com>
____________________________________________________________________________= ___ Subject: NGLTF State Legislative Update 3/20/97 From: “ngltf” <ngltf@ngltf.org> at Internet Date: 03/20/97 4:13 PM
********************************************************************* National Gay and Lesbian Task Force PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Mark Johnson 202/332-6483 ext. 3314 mfjohnson@ngltf.org Pager 1-800/757-6476
2320 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
Accompanying maps and charts available at http://www.ngltf.org
*********************************************************************
=20 TASK FORCE RELEASES LEGISLATIVE UPDATE; =7FGAY-RELATED LEGISLATION LOOMS= LARGE
Washington, DC—March 20, 1997—-The year started off with a barrage of= gay- related activity at state capitals around the country, and the action= continues. Nearly 150 gay-related and HIV/AIDS-related measures have been introduced= since state sessions began in January according to the latest survey by the= National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). For the second year in a row, marriage measures dominate in number, though activists are taking the offensive in= many states with anti-discrimination measures. History may also be made in 1997= where for the first time a statewide pro-gay civil rights initiative may be on the ballot.
“The numbers once again illustrate the most important work occurring in= the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality is being done= by activists at the state and local level,” stated NGLTF executive director= Kerry Lobel.
MARRIAGE:
Approximately 46 bills banning same gender marriage have been introduced= in 28 states. This includes two bills pre-filed in Kentucky where there is no= 1997 legislative session. In two states, Alabama and New Mexico, any person performing a same-gender marriage ceremony would be fined. As same gender marriage is not legal anywhere in the country, all ceremonies performed are private, not civil, ceremonies. Montana’s bill has passed the House and soon will be up for a vote in the full Senate.
Four marriage bills passed the full legislature. Those in Mississippi= and Arkansas were signed into law, while those in Virginia and North Dakota are awaiting action by the Governor. Virginia’s Governor Allen is expected to= sign the bill. It is unclear what action Governor Schafer of North Dakota will= take, though he has stated he believes the legislation is not currently necessary.= =20 =20 Four states – Maryland, New Hampshire, Washington, and Wyoming -= defeated their anti-gay marriage measures. 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.
Hawaii and New Mexico both have bills calling for state constitutional amendments. In Maine, an anti-gay group has gathered enough signatures to= put the measure on the November ballot. The measure will only reach the ballot= if it is not passed in the state legislature.
Five states introduced pro-same gender marriage bills – Maryland,= Nebraska, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. Three remain alive, after= Maryland’s measure died and Nebraska’s was indefinitely postponed.
CIVIL RIGHTS:
Approximately 17 bills favoring basic civil rights for lesbians and gay= men have been introduced in at least 14 states. These measures remain alive in= 10 states – Arizona, California, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, and Washington – and are dead in four= states – Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, and Virginia. These measures include adding= “sexual orientation” to existing and comprehensive civil rights laws to specifically addressing employment discrimination.
New York’s measure, introduced for the 27th year, passed the assembly= with a record 90 yes votes. In New Hampshire, the Catholic diocese of Manchester= spoke out in support of the bill.
In Washington, activists have begun a new chapter in the quest for= equality. Last week the group Hands Off Washington kicked off a campaign 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.=20
DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP:
At least five measures have been introduced in four states. They remain alive in Hawaii and California, while Colorado and Virginia’s bills were defeated. In Colorado, activists are battling a bill that would prohibit University of Colorado regents from extending domestic partnership benefits= to the same-sex partners of faculty and staff.=20
In Illinois, the Senate is reacting to an ordinance passed yesterday by= the Chicago City Council to extend employee benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian city employees. The Senate bill would require municipalities that= try to extend government employee health benefits to the domestic partners of gay= and lesbian city employees to provide them to the unmarried partners of= heterosexual employees as well. The motivation of the bill’s sponsor is not to support= the provision of domestic partner benefits, but to undermine such benefits to= gay and lesbian employees.
HATE CRIMES:
Hate crime bills that includes crimes based on sexual orientation were introduced in at least nine states – Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Montana,= New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia. The Virginia and Montana bills are dead. Ironically, in Georgia, the scene of three recent bombings, including those against a lesbian bar and a women’s health clinic,= the bill is being tied up in committee because it is considered “too= controversial.”
Georgia currently has no hate crimes law.
Legislators in Arkansas and South Carolina, neither of which have a hate crimes law, are considering bills that exclude crimes based on sexual orientation. The Virginia legislature passed a resolution calling for a committee to study hate crimes in the state. Sexual orientation is not= listed among the bias crimes to be studied. A number of gay men have been killed in Virginia by a serial killer and last June two lesbians were killed while= hiking on the Appalachian trail. The murder has not been solved, and many people= fear it may have been a hate crime.
FAMILIES:
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 provision for gay and= lesbian families.
In Tennessee, activists are fighting a bill that would ban gay and= lesbian people from becoming foster parents.
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.
Meanwhile, at least three bills adversely affecting gay, lesbian,= bisexual and transgender youth were introduced. Two of these measures are what is= known as “parental rights” bills. Such legislation is aimed generally at making it harder for schools to teach children about diversity, including about gays.= In Washington state, the bill would explicitly ban the teaching of= homosexuality as “positive, normal behavior.”
Also in California, a bill that would prohibit the removal or phase out= of armed forces training units or recruiters from public university campuses is pending. A few of California’s public post secondary campuses have removed= =20 armed forces training units because those programs engage in discrimination= on the basis of sexual orientation.=20
SODOMY:
Measures to repeal sodomy laws were introduced in Arizona and Virginia. Arizona’s bill is still alive, while Virginia’s died in committee.
HIV/AIDS:
Numerous bills addressing HIV/AIDS issues have been introduced in at= least eight states. The measures range from repealing the compassionate use of= medical marijuana to establishing needle exchange programs.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force coordinates a national= federation of statewide groups working on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues.= “The Federation has allowed for increased communication and the sharing of experiences between groups,” said Tracey Conaty, NGLTF Field Organizer.= “Because of the strength of working together, we expect greater sucesses in the= future.”
-30-
Contact information for state activists and organizations working on= legislative issues is available from NGLTF at 202/332-6483. For additional information= on the Washington Employment Non-Discrimination ballot initiative, contact= Hands Off Washington at 206/323-3560.
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.=20
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.
_________________________________________ =20 This message was issued by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Media Department. If you have any questions regarding this post, please direct= them to one of the contacts at the top of this message =20 If you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, please send an email with “UNSUBSCRIBE PRESSLIST” in the subject and body of your email message to <listserv@list.ngltf.org>.
=20
_________________________________________ =20 This message was issued by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Media Department. If you have any questions regarding this post, please direct= them to one of the contacts at the top of this message =20 If you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, please send an email with “UNSUBSCRIBE PRESSLIST” in the subject and body of your email message to <listserv@list.ngltf.org>.
=20
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E49Qx; Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Re; European Decision Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202118.E49Qx@xconn.com>
Stephen Whittle (S.T.Whittle@mmu.ac.uk) posted the following:
Wednesday 18th March 1997
The European Commission on Human Rights has today announced that it will refer the UK transsexual cases of Kristina Sheffield and Rachel Horsham to the European Court of Human Rights.
In a 15 to 1 decision, the commission have held that the UK’s treatment of transsexuals contravenes European Convention Articles: 8 – respect for privacy and the right to found a family 12 – the right to marry 14 – the right not to be discriminated against on grounds such as race, sex, birth etc.
This is a ground breaking decision in that for the first time all 3 articles have been tied together by the Commission, and the majority verdict is the largest ever.
The case will now be sent to the European Court of Human Rights sometime in the next year – unless of course the new UK government (after May 1st) decides to pre-empt the almost certain to be unfavourable decision in the Court.
This case will follow on from the decision in the case of X, Y and Z v UK, which is expected some time in early summer.
A more complete report will be posted next week.
Stephen Whittle
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>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E39cy; Thu 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Interesting genetic study Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 21:18:00 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703202118.E39cy@xconn.com>
>From the March 17th Business Week:
Are You in Love or is it Your Genes?
Could the glint of desire in your lover’s eyes just be a reflection of some DNA? Metaphorically, that’s what researchers at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, are proposing. They’ve found a gene that regulates sexual behavior in fruit flies. When it’s inoperative in female flies, they reject sexual overtures from males, fleeing from and sometimes even kicking their suitors. In males, damage to this love gene triggers indiscriminate mating attempts with males as well as females. Researchers have wryly dubbed the gene “dissatisfaction”.
The discovery, says Salk researcher Michael McKeown, “lays the groundwork for understanding the relationship between genes and sexual behavior.” In this case, the gene affects both pathways in the brain and the ability of females to release eggs. What are the implications for humans? Social and cultural factors are obviously key, but McKeown thinks that genes influence human sexuality as well. The human version of “dissatisfaction” is probably one of them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ___ “Engage.” ___….—–‘—`—–….___ ======================================= “Oh, Jean-Luc! I knew you’d come ___`—…_______…—‘___ around! I’ll have Troi start (___) _|_|_|_ (___) the arrangements immediatly!” \\____.-‘_.—._`-.____// ~~~~`.__`—‘__.’~~~~ <exit a humming Dr. Crusher> ~~~~~
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 21 March
Posted about 21 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 21 Mar 1997 13:30:48 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E17Uh; Fri 21 Mar 1997 13:30:48 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: TCF Special Guest: Dr. Sheila Kirk! Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 13:30:48 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703211330.E17Uh@xconn.com>
Greetings!
This week in the Sunday Gender Conference:
Sunday, March 23rd, 9-11 PM Eastern “Special Guest: Dr. Sheila Kirk!” ________________________________________________
Dr. Sheila Kirk is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a member of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoris Association. Amongst her writing credits are two books on hormone therapy (one for female to males and one for male to female individuals) and a regular column in Transgender magazine (formerly Tapestry). She currently works on a volunteer basis with the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) as a medical consultant to the TG community and as a liaison between that community and the medical community.
We are proud to add Dr. Sheila Kirk to our ever-growing list of guests to have graced the Gazebo chat room, and will welcome her on Sunday, March 23rd, from 9-11pm EST, for a protocol chat.
Protocol is used in chat rooms to keep order and facilitate a discussion. When you have a question, type only a “?” to the screen, and when you have a comment, type “!”: by doing so you will be added into the queue of those waiting with questions and comments, which is displayed at regular points. Members will be invited to speak. When you are finished, type “/ga” to inform the speaker that you are finished, and they may respond. It is considered impolite to break protocol.
________________________________________________
This is the presentation of the TCF and the Sunday Gender Chat, the only weekly conference for the transgendered, transsexuals, transvestites, crossdressers, the intersexed, significant others, family, supportive friends, as well as medical and legal professionals, without regard to race, sexual orientation, or lifestyle. It is an topiced discussion group and serves as our “Town Hall,” where we discuss issues and ideas important to the entire community. All are welcome to participate or observe in this meeting.
To get to the Sunday Gender Conference, use keyword: TCF, select Conference Rooms, then The Gazebo.
We look forward to seeing you there! 🙂
On Q Cybel and On Q Gwen (On Q Rose will be absent)
Photos and biographies of Cybel, Gwen, and Rose are located on the Transgender Community Forum’s main screen, within the “Staff Bios” area.
P.S. If you wish your name to be deleted from this list, just click on the “Reply” button and type “Remove me.”
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>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E53jF; Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Estrogen: The “Manly” Hormone Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703212104.E53jF@xconn.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 03:30:52 -0500 From: Dionisio <dionisio@INFINET.COM> Subject: Estrogen: The “manly” hormone To: GLB-NEWS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
>From the February 22, 1997 Science News:
Most people have been taught to think of estrogens as female sex hormones and androgens as male sex hormones. “But that’s simply not true,” notes Donald W. Pfaff.
Indeed, a pair of studies by Pfaff, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York, and his colleagues has unveiled estrogen’s previously unrecognized depth and breadth in establishing gender-specific behaviors in both males and females.
Estrogen and other hormones operate by binding to receptors on or in cells and triggering the production of one or more chemical products. Pfaff’s team worked with mutant mice born without the normal receptors for estrogen.
These males, which don’t respond to estrogen, had trouble mating in adulthood. Their reproductive organs “looked all right,” Pfaff notes. Moreover, the animals tried to mate, he says, “so their motivation was not affected.” What had been compromised was their ability to penetrate the female and release sperm, suggesting that their problems trace to some neurobiological defect, Pfaff says.
This wasn’t their only behavioral peculiarity, observes coauthor Sonoko Ogawa, a behavioral neuroscientist at Rockefeller. The mutant males proved far less aggressive and exhibited less stereotypical masculine social behavior than their male littermates, which responded normally to the presence of estrogen. The team reports its findings in the February 18th Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the December 1996 Neuroendocrinology, the same team reported a suite of comparably atypical behaviors in female mice possessing the same genetic inability ro respond to estrogen. Not only did they eschew the pup-nurturing behavior characteristic of females — and evident in normal littermates — they also exhibited the territorial aggression toward males usually seen only in males. In fact, Pfaff says, “a donnybrook ensued” whenever one these mutant females was introduced to a normal male.
Clearly, Pfaff concludes, estrogen appears to be “a basic contributor to normal sexuality in both genders.”
The sexual behavior of the estrogen-insensitive males is “very similar to what Earl Gray, in our lab, reported in rats prenatally exposed to dioxin,” notes toxicologist Linda S. Birnbaum of the Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, N.C.. Gray found “that the little boys get just as excited [as normal rats] but then have a heck of a time doing it — and they’ve got real bad aim,” Birnbaum observes (Science News: 7/15/95, pg. 44).
Pharamacologist Richard E, Peterson of the University of Wisconson-Madison also has seen similar effects in rats exposed to dioxin (Science News: 5/30/92, pg. 359). He now now predicts that the data from these studies with estrogen-insensitive rodents will open up new areas of research on the behavioral effects of weak estrogen mimics — pollutants that may block the far more potent estrogen’s access to its receptor during critical periods of development.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ___ “Engage.” ___….—–‘—`—–….___ ======================================= “Oh, Jean-Luc! I knew you’d come ___`—…_______…—‘___ around! I’ll have Troi start (___) _|_|_|_ (___) the arrangements immediatly!” \\____.-‘_.—._`-.____// ~~~~`.__`—‘__.’~~~~ <exit a humming Dr. Crusher> ~~~~~
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>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E32bE; Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Florida Same-Sex Marriage Bill: Technical Issue Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703212104.E32bE@xconn.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 20:15:32 -0800 To: “ISNA News” <cchase@isna.org> From: Cheryl Chase <cchase@isna.org> Subject: Florida Same-Sex Marriage Bill: technical issue
Transgender Raises Technical Issue With Florida Same-Sex Marriage Bill
Wednesday, March 5, 1997
TALLAHASSEE – On Wednesday, the Florida House of Representatives’ Governmental Operations Committee met to vote on the state’s Same Sex Marriage Bill. The bill, introduced by Plant City Republican Rep. Johnnie Byrd would bar Florida from recognizing same-sex marriages performed legally in other states or nations.
While the debate between speakers testifying before the committee turned into a lesbian and gay centered issue, Jessica Archer fired the first round for transgendered and intersexed people who desire to marry or have their marriage recognized in the sunshine state.
“This is not a moral issue, ” said Archer, who is a male to female transsexual. “This is a medical and biological issue.”
Ms. Archer testified in front of the committee explaining the plight of transgendered and intersexed people who have “mixed” genders. She asked the legislators to look out in the room and pick out people who may be members of these two groups.
“You can’t pick them out,” she said, scanning the packed chamber. “Because many transgendered and intersexed people present themselves as one gender, but may psychologically identify or have (or had) the physical anatomy of the other.”
“If you pass this law, then every person who wants to get married will be forced to have their gender verified by a medical doctor. Otherwise, it is unenforceable.”
Religious conservatives argued that the bill would protect the sanctity of marriage. One conservative even argued that lesbians and gays have enhanced rights and are better off financially than the average non lesbian/gay person. Representatives of the state ACLU and National Organization of Women spoke against the bill.
Despite impassioned opposition, the committee voted 5-0 in favor of the legislation. The bill now goes before the majority Republican House where it is expected to win an easy victory.
“This is just the beginning,” quipped Archer, who attended as a representative of the Panhandle Transgender Alliance (PANTRA) and as a board member of the Family Tree, a community center serving the north Florida lesbian, gay, bisexual, and gender communities.
“The next step is the Senate committee, and you can bet the gender community will be represented. Also, it is so important that we work together with the greater Lesbian and Gay community on these efforts. A united front takes both of our voices, and makes them louder.”
*For more information concerning this legislation, please contact Jessica Archer at PANTRA FL@aol.com. GET INVOLVED!
**Provided by Jessica Archer (PANTRA FL@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 Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E56AW; Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Boys Will Be Boys Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703212104.E56AW@xconn.com>
Return-Path: cchase@isna.org X-Sender: isna@holonet.net Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 00:13:29 -0800 To: “ISNA News” <cchase@isna.org> From: Cheryl Chase <cchase@isna.org> Subject: Science weighs in on John/Joan
http://www.sciencenow.org/html/970313c.htm
Thursday, 13 March 1997, 7:00 p.m.
Boys Will Be Boys
Despite all the efforts of psychiatrists, surgeons, and parents to feminize a boy who was accidentally deprived of his sexual organs, “John” is now happily married and living as a man. The unique long-term case study of a boy raised as a girl, described in the March Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, could rewrite psychology textbooks on the influence–or lack thereof–of environmental factors on sexual identity.
John’s penis was accidentally burned off in 1963 during circumcision when he was 8 months old. John’s parents brought him to Johns Hopkins University, where experts recommended that John be turned into a girl. This meant snipping off his testicles, excavating a vagina, and, later, pumping him with estrogen and other female sex hormones. John become “Joan.”
The story has long been ballyhooed as the “classic” demonstration of how environmental factors can override nature to form gender identity, says report author Milton Diamond, a sexologist at the University of Hawaii. But despite years of being treated as a girl, “Joan” was never comfortable in that role or accepted by other girls, the report says. John rebelled at 14, after 2 years of estrogen therapy, and confessed to his doctor that “I suspected I was a boy since the second grade.” He eventually got a mastectomy and was put on male hormone shots. At age 25, he married a women with children.
Diamond says the case history is the first long-term follow-up of a male with the normal allotment of XY chromosomes who was raised as a female. And it could have major implications for the treatment of any baby born with ambiguous genitalia. The textbooks, Diamond says, tell you “If you can’t make a good penis out of it, make a vagina.” Now it’s clear, he says, that the policy should be “Keep your knife away. Let the kids make a decision when they get older.”
“It’s big news,” says psychologist Michael Bailey of Northwestern University. “This case was heralded by many as the pinnacle of proof that psychosocial factors can override biological factors” in determining gender. And textbooks have continued to cite Joan’s successful adjustment despite evidence, which has been accumulating since the early 1980s, that the sex reassignment was not working–despite research showing many aspects of sexual differentiation are biologically influenced, says Bailey. Indeed, he says, Diamond’s report “suggests that, if anything, how you’re reared matters little.”
(c) 1997 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
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>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E73ZP; Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Herm controversy makes Urology Times Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703212104.E73ZP@xconn.com>
Return-Path: cchase@isna.org X-Sender: isna@holonet.net Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 00:17:54 -0800 To: “ISNA News” <cchase@isna.org> From: Cheryl Chase <cchase@isna.org> Subject: Herm controversy makes Urology Times
“Is Early Vaginal Reconstruction Wrong for Some Intersex Girls? As intersex surgery enters social debate, pediatric urologists rethink some medical aspects.”
“Urology Times” of 2/97, starts on page 10.
It mentions the picketing of the American Academy of Pediatrics at their annual convention in Boston last October and cites a David Thomas, MD, a pediatric urologist from St. James’s University Hospital and Infirmary, Leeds, England — Thomas argues there are problems.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E06WD; Fri 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: John/Joan: The NY Post Weighs In Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:04:13 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703212104.E06WD@xconn.com>
Return-Path: cchase@isna.org X-Sender: isna@holonet.net Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 18:31:45 -0800 To: “ISNA News” <cchase@isna.org> From: Cheryl Chase <cchase@isna.org> Subject: John/Joan: the NY Post weighs in
The following editorial appeared in the NY Post–and yes, the emphasis was in the original headline. They underlined the word *is* in “Anatomy *is* destiny.”
Cheryl Chase Intersex Society of North America
New York Post Monday 17 March 1997 page 22
Letters: editor@nypostonline.com
or
The Editor New York Post 1211 Avenue of the Americas New York NY 10036.
Anatomy *is* destiny
In the late 1960s, an infant’s penis was accidentally amputated by a sur geon during a botched operation. His parents feared he wouldn’t be able to come to terms with his injury as an adult. No problem, the MDs said: Raise him as a girl and he’ll never know the difference.
Of course there were a couple of de tails that might tip the boy off. So instead of attempting to repair the damage, they proceeded to chop off his testicles and pump him filll of female hormones.
Psychiatrists attempted to reinforce his “femininity.” His parents treated him as a girl in every possible way. They gave him girls’ toys, girls’ clothes and girls’ books. They even gave him a surgically constructed vagina.
It’s no more pleasant for us to describe these barbaric events-which, if not for their medical imprimatur, would surely be considered the vilest child abuse- than it is for you to read it.
But we believe this boy’s story demands to be told, because his torture was not only not condemned, but actu ally cited for more than 20 years as evi dence to support a radical theory about the nature of human sexuality.
This theory rejects the conventional notion of male and female in favor of the ambiguous concept of “gender.” Its advocates’ motto can be described as “anatomy is not destiny.”
No one is intrinsically male or female, they argue. These concepts are “gender roles” which society artificially “constructs” and brutafly forces innocent children to assume.
The “genderists” view seemingly harmless practices like letting boys play with toy soldiers and girls with dolls as society’s subtle tools for forcing people into gender roles with which they might otherwise be uncomfortable.
The idea that gender is in great part socially determined led doctors to perform the boy’s second mutilation. It has in the intervening years flowered into a reigning dogma in such academic twilight zones as Gender Studies and its cousins.
It is used to attack “social constructs” like motherhood (for females) and fatherhood (for males). Practices like homosexuality and transsexuality are seen as liberating-sloughing off socially defined roles and realizing one’s true self.
By this account of gender, the young boy’s conditioning in a female role would ensure that, as an adult, he would function happily as a woman.
But this was not the case. A recent report in The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine refutes the premature paper of 1973 that enshrined the case as a study in the malleability of sexual identity. As it turns out, the feminizing influence never took hold. When the unfortunate boy reached puberty, he became suicidal, until he learned the secret reason behind the feeling he had that he was male.
Since then, he’s had surgery to partially reverse the earlier procedures. He has married a woman, and leads a normal–but badly scarred–life. The “genderists” have long labored in a psychological-literary arena in which their claims could not be tested empirically. It’s sad that it took so much suffering to demonstrate that in an age when society’s medical advances permit genitalia to be constructed almost from scratch gender is still not constructed.
— end —
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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 listserv assistance, send the message HELP to <listserv@xconn.com>.
1997, 25 March
Posted around 25 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 10:34:58 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E67hJ; Tue 25 Mar 1997 10:34:58 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Loren Cameron: Boston Mar. 29, 1997 Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 10:34:58 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703251034.E67hJ@xconn.com>
UPDATED INFORMATION – SATURDAY MARCH 29 – BOSTON AREA
Hanarchy Now Productions and Eventworks at Mass. College of Art in conjunction with Enterprise and Cleis Press present:
THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION: AN EVENING WITH LOREN CAMERON & CELEBRATION OF FTM CULTURE
WHAT: A Boston first! A multimedia show, open to all, dedicated to celebrating FTM culture. Featuring San Francisco based photographer Loren Cameron, author of _Body Alchemy_ (Cleis 96), presenting a slide show of his nationally acclaimed work.
WHO: Loren Cameron, local leader Mike Kirk hosts, Late Bloomers will play folk-rock/jazz, Patrick Skater and Adrian will read poetry, Jessica Rylan sings a cappella, and there’s more, to be announced!
WHERE: Tower Auditorium, Mass College of Art, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA. Near corner of Huntington and Longwood. Take Green line E train to Longwood stop. On street parking.
DATE: Saturday, March 29th
TIME: 8:00 p.m. sharp. Seating at 7:45
TICKETS: $6 – Available in advance at Grand Opening! 318 Harvard St. Ste 32
(in the Arcade Building) in Coolidge Corner, Brookline 731-2626;
$5 student with proper ID. Call Hanarchy Now if you can’t afford the price, or to volunteer.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Please call Hanarchy Now to make arrangements.
CONTACT: Hannah Doress at Hanarchy Now Productions (617)629-4727 hdoress@sph.harvard.edu
PRESS: Please contact Hanarchy Now. We are happy to arrange interviews and provide gorgeous photos and press passes. Press will not be permitted to take photos, videos or otherwise identify members of the audience without permission. Let us know what you need/prefer and we’ll do our utmost to accomodate you.
Please save Saturday eve, March 29th, as Hanarchy Now Productions and Eventworks at Mass College of Art join Cleis Press and Enterprise to bring you the awe-inspiring Loren Cameron, author of _Body Alchemy_. The San Francisco based FTM (Female to Male Transexual) photographer, oft compared to Mapplethorpe, will present his aesthetically sumptious and evocative self-portraits and documentary work about the FTM community. His slide show BODY ALCHEMY: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION has been well received nationally.
Local leader Mike Kirk, of Enterprise, a Boston-based FTM support group, will host. Enterprise will sponsor a reception with Cameron following the event.
Concept: A Boston first! A multimedia show, open to all, dedicated to celebrating FTM culture. Loren Cameron is the highlight of the show & guest of honor. The evening will be grounded in & supportive of the local FTM community. Allies are welcomed to participate, cosponsor, etc. (Both Cleis & Hanarchy Now are allies)
Tickets: Advance purchase is recommended. Tickets will also be sold at the door. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.
Cosponsors:
American Boyz: (an organization for tomboys, butch women, f2ms, transmen, drag kings, intersexuals and others; for info about your local affiliate, contact: American Boyz, P O Box 1118, Elkton, MD, 21922).
Bromfield Street Educational Foundation
IFGE (International Foundation for Gender Education)
GenderTalk Radio Show (on WMBR 88.1 Weds. at 8:30pm)
Grand Opening! Sexuality Boutique
WFNX 1 in 10: interactive queer radio (101.7 Mondays at 10pm)
Genital Access Productions
Mass. College of Art GALA
Harvard BGLTSA and Harvard Transgender Taskforce
Tiffany Club
Middlesex Group
More to be announced.
A WEEK OF RELATED EVENTS THAT CELEBRATE FTM CULTURE ! :
***Saturday March 29 2-4pm Loren Cameron signs books at Grand Opening! Sexuality Boutique 318 Harvard St. Ste 32 (in the Arcade Building) in Coolidge Corner, Brookline 731-2626
***Monday March 31st 10pm Loren Cameron is interviewed on 101.7 WFNX 1in10: interactive queer radio show. Call in and ask your questions, discuss your issues on the air!
***Tuesday April 1st 7pm at Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline YOU DON’T KNOW DICK: COURAGEOUS HEARTS OF TRANSEXUAL MEN (A Northern Light/Candance Schermerhorn Production) premieres at the 22nd Annual New England Film and Video Festival. Meet the filmakers and some of the men in the movie including Loren Cameron and Mike Kirk! Tix and info Boston Film & Video Foundation: 536-1540
***Wednesday April 2nd 7pm Loren Cameron: a discussion of the artist’s work 8:30pm Public forum on FTM identity: activism and theory. Stories told, projects described, and visions shared by folks from many walks of life. Cosponsored by Harvard BGLTSA, Hanarchy Now Productions, Bromfield Street Educational Foundation, Harvard/Radcliffe Education for Action, Harvard School of Public Health LGBA, Harvard Law School Lambda and Harvard Transgender Taskforce. Location at Harvard University to be announced. Information will also be posted on the web at: http://hcs.harvard.edu/~queer/announce/LorenC (this might end .html)
general info on Harvard events during their queer month (April) http://hcs.harvard.edu/~queer/announce/bglam.html ****************
EXCERPTS FROM CLEIS INFO ABOUT LOREN CAMERON & HIS BOOK _BODY ALCHEMY_:
Body Alchemy
TRANSSEXUAL PORTRAITS
by Loren Cameron
“Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus among many others have all trained their lenses on the transgendered figure. Never have the transgendered seriously photographed their own. Not until Loren Cameron, that is.” — Kate Bornstein, author, Gender Outlaw
“Loren Cameron’s razor-sharp vision compels us to focus on the complex transition from which transsexual men emerge. Cameron’s photographs are as exquisite as they are meaningful.” — Leslie Feinberg, author, Stone Butch Blues and Transgender Warriors
Cleis Press is excited to announce publication of Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits, a unique and extraordinary photographic collection by artist Loren Cameron. Body Alchemy is Loren Cameron’s intensely personal photo documentary of female-to-male transsexuals (FTMs). A transsexual himself, Cameron brings a sensitive, sophisticated insider’s eye to his subject matter.
Using documentary style, a series of before-and-after photographs documenting the transformation of a number of FTMs in Cameron’s transsexual community, his own striking self-portraits, and intimate autobiographical text, Loren invites the viewer to experience this transformational rite of passage.
Loren Cameron’s work strikes a warm, familiar tone that invites the viewer’s participation — even when the subject matter is quite startling.
Cameron’s work has been praised by art critics and scholars like Diane Middlebrook and Barbara DeGenevieve. The Advocate called Body Alchemy “amazing.”
Loren Cameron was born in 1959 in Pasadena, California and grew up in rural Arkansas. His early love for photography was inspired by pictures of depression-era America… “My father had stories of his own about what it was like to grow up in Iowa near the end of the Great Depression…Through Dorothea Lange’s photographs, I gained a visual understanding of my father’s stories about working-class survival. Her images touched me deeply and helped me understand his tough attitude about living and his generation’s no-nonsense work ethic, as well the universality of the human condition of pain, strife and the will to persevere.”
In 1979, Cameron moved to San Francisco, where he lived in the lesbian community. By the late 80s, Loren identified as a female-to-male transsexual, a journey through which Loran has evolved to the man he is today, sporting a beard, abstract cat-striped tattoos on legs, forearms and chest, and a well-muscled body. Cameron began taking pictures to document his own transformation. “What was initially a crude documentation of my own personal journey gradually evolved into an impassioned mission. Impulsively, I began to photograph other transsexuals that I knew, feeling compelled to make images of their emotional and physical triumphs. I was fueled by my need to be validated and wanted, in turn, to validate them. I wanted the world to see us, I mean, really see us.”
Body Alchemy will fascinate readers interested fine photography, documentary, transgenderism and gay and lesbian studies. We hope you’ll share our excitement for this remarkable collection consider it for excerpt or review.
Photography/Gender Studies
120 pages 8.5″ x 10″ two-color text
Paper $24.95 ISBN: 1-57344-062-0
Available in bookstores and from Cleis Press (800) 780-2279 Felice Newman, Publicity (412) 937-1555; Fax (412) 937-1567 pghcleis@aol.com, sfcleis@aol.com (write to both) **************** -END
**As posted in the Transgender Community Forum **On America Online (Keyword: TCF) **TCF Info: http://members.aol.com/onqgwen
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E06iz; Tue 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Phila HRC Threatens Trans Activists Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703251408.E06iz@xconn.com>
*****Please Disseminate and/or Publish*****
contact: Ben Singer <bensinge@eden.rutgers.edu>
[Philadelphia, PA – March 22nd, 1997]
Three transpeople and two SOFFAs handed out educational leafletts to a black-tie HRC benefit crowd outside the Philadelphia Transit Museum last Saturday night. Almost immediately upon arrival they were confronted by an agressive HRC head of security who began accusing them of “loitering and blocking the entrance to a private party.” When one of the leafletters explained this was not a protest, but an educational effort, the HRC security said he was going to call a “paddywagon” and went back inside. Within minutes, the protesters were confronted by five HRC security personell who began taking leaflets from the attendees as soon as they were handed out.
According to Ben Singer who helped organize the educational action:
“It’s ironic, to say the least, that the gay liberation movement was built upon free speech, educational actions and protest, and the local HRC has responded to our effort as if we were a menace to queer society.”
While HRC and transactivists may be cooperating on a national level, trans inclusion and/or cooperation at the local level in Philadelphia has yet to occur. In the next few months, HRC is targetting the Philadelphia gay community as a political fundraising zone, and the leafletting was organized, accoding to Singer, because the local gay community remains blissfully ignorant of trans political needs and concerns. The benefit provided a perfect opportunity to educate the more mainstream sectors of gay Philadelpia.
After the dinner, trans activists returned to leaflet the “Moving Toward Equality” Dance Party, sponsored in cooperation with the “Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Awareness Days” at the University of Pennsylvania. This was the first year UPenn added “transgender” to the event title in an act of inclusion, meanwhile, after over a year of working with HRC, trans activists still have not achieved inclusion of transgender protections in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Many of the activists said they simply wanted to point out the contradiction around inclusion/non-inclusion to the HRC party attendees, and were told by security they were “ruining their fun” as this was an entertainment event and not an appropriate venue for education or protest. When asked by a local newspaper reporter if the trans activists were against HRC, they resoundingly said “no, all we want is full inclusion of our communities, and the oppportunity to let people know this is still not the case.”
**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 Tue 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E53tt; Tue 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: TCF Adds “Our Gender Family” To List of Features Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703251408.E53tt@xconn.com>
“Much has been said about the gender community and whether it really exists. We have a wide variety of people with significantly different views that sometimes leads to bickering and fragmented actions. The best of families bicker, but they also have strong, common bonds that unite them and like any family we share powerful ties.” – Rachel Miller
Rachel Miller is a heterosexual, male cross-dresser whose “feminine side” began emerging at age five and has been a significant part of her personality ever since. Her column, Our Gender Family, is an exploration of the transgender community and it’s members, and sends a powerful message to those who vie for exclusion rather than inclusion.
We in the TCF are proud to provide Rachel Miller’s column as a regular feature, alongside Gianna Israel’s GenderArticles, our daily new update, and the TCF’s own newsletter, within our “In The News” area.
You need to be a member of America Online to use the Transgender Community Forum. The TCF is available at keyword: TCF, amongst others. Our Gender Family is also available via e-mail by writing to the author at RachelMill@aol.com.
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E83WD; Tue 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 From: OnQGwen@aol.com Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Two Event Announcements Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 14:08:14 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703251408.E83WD@xconn.com>
SPICE 1997
The fifth annual Spouses & Partners International Conference for Education, SPICE, is scheduled for July 16-20, 1997 Ontario, California. For information write to Dr. Peggy Rudd, SPICE, PO Box 5304, Katy, TX 77491 or email melpeg@phoenix.net.
Dignity Cruise VIII
The eighth Dignity Cruise for crossdressers and their significant others is scheduled August 3-10, 1997 sailing to Alaska. For more information see http://www.pmpub.com/cruise.com or email melpeg@phoenix.net
Information provided by Melanie & Peggy Rudd (MelaniePeg@aol.com)
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 20:39:29 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E61Xl; Tue 25 Mar 1997 20:39:29 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: re:AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 20:39:29 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703252039.E61Xl@xconn.com>
List members, please note: the following, which was posted several days ago, is available only to AOL subscribers.
— Dallas
This week in the Sunday Gender Conference:
Sunday, March 23rd, 9-11 PM Eastern “Special Guest: Dr. Sheila Kirk!” ____________________________________
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 20:39:29 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E80Vk; Tue 25 Mar 1997 20:39:29 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Hormone FAQ available in Italian Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 20:39:29 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703252039.E80Vk@xconn.com>
Return-Path: confluence@savina.com Date: Thu, 20 Mar 97 11:33 PST From: confluence@savina.com (Confluence Publications) To: aegis@atl.mindspring.com Subject: Transsexual Hormone FAQ Available in Italian Translation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — REDISTRIBUTE WIDELY VIA GENDER NEWS CHANNELS
CONFLUENCE PUBLICATIONS ANNOUNCES TRANSSEXUAL HORMONE FAQ AVAILABLE IN ITALIAN TRANSLATION
Potenza, ITALY — March 20, 1997 — The world’s most complete and popular source of transsexual hormone therapy information is now more accessible to those whose native tongue is Italian.
The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): Hormone Therapy for Transsexuals document, a distillation of hundreds of anecdotal and medical articles, has been downloaded into more than eighty countries. Of course, the ‘net is still English-centric: most of the information troves indexed into the major search engines are not easy to browse for those whose first language is not English. Until this month, the hormone therapy faq was no exception. Now, thanks to the volunteer work of Giorgia, it is available in Italian, and will continue to be maintained in parallel to the English version.
The hormone therapy faq is available in separate F2M and M2F versions. There are comparisons of treatment philosophies, justified rankings of drugs, wholesale pricing data, endogenous hormone level data, an online book nook (as an Amazon Books associate), and a few links to other technical hormone web pages.
Also, there is opportunity to place sponser advertizement billboards to help offset research and publishing costs. The hormone therapy faq has received more than 60,000 hits from more than 20,000 domains (excluding polite mapping robots) since October 1996. To help offset research and publishing costs, for U.S. $20/month, or $100/6 months, you can rent billboard/link space in the F2M or M2F version of this document to advertize certain directories, services or products to transsexuals.
The web version is at <http://www.savina.com/confluence/hormone>; the flat files are at <ftp://ftp.savina.com/users/confluence/hormone>.
CONTACTS
Confluence Publications confluence@savina.com
Giorgia giorgia@geocities.com
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 21:29:16 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E63eB; Tue 25 Mar 1997 21:29:16 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Genders, Bodies, Borders Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 21:29:16 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703252129.E63eB@xconn.com>
Return-Path: trans-academic-request@mailbase.ac.uk From: ZEROBOYCJH@aol.com Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 02:41:49 -0500 (EST) To: trans-academic@mailbase.ac.uk Subject: CFP: Genders, Bodies, Borders X-List: trans-academic@mailbase.ac.uk X-Unsub: To leave, send text ‘leave trans-academic’ to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk Reply-To: ZEROBOYCJH@aol.com Sender: trans-academic-request@mailbase.ac.uk
I’m just bouncing. Contact info in post below.–Jacob Hale
>> **********CALL FOR PAPERS********** >> >> GENDERS, BODIES, BORDERS >> GRADUATE STUDENT-ORGANIZED CONFERENCE >> UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN >> OCTOBER 24-26, 1997 >> >>The Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of >>Michigan invites proposals for presentations at the graduate >>student-organized conference entitled “Genders, Bodies, Borders.” This >>conference will bring together scholars from a range of disciplines and at >>all stages in their careers (faculty, graduate and undergraduate students) >>for a conference of mixed form, such as paper presentations, round-table >>discussions, pre-read panels, and poster sessions. We encourage >>submissions from scholars at all levels and from all disciplines. We >>would welcome applications for complete panel proposals and/or individual >>papers. >> >>The goal of this conference is to bring together gender studies and >>international studies. By “genders, bodies, borders” we mean the >>following: the term “genders” often implies cultural constructions which >>can contrast with the term “bodies,” more suggestive of biology. The last >>term, “borders,” refers to national boundaries, the not-so-constructed >>geographical and topographical distances, and the fluidity and interaction >>of these. Borders also encourages awareness of the relationship between >>the socially constructed and the ‘real.’ >> >>Suggested topic areas include, but are in no way limited to: >> >> –how are nationalisms gendered? >> –crossing borders: economic, generational, geographical, legal, >>racial, >> religious, sexual, social… >> –the politics of international and national health >> –explorations of the changing roles of women and men in post-Cold >> war societies >> –how has religion shaped women’s and men’s political >> participation in various cultures? >> –cultural and/or political constructions of sexualities >> >> –how are bodies made, contested, and experienced? >> –how have the representations of genders and bodies change over >> time? >> –artistic representations of genders, bodies, borders in various >> international and national contexts >> >> >>Since space is limited, please submit a 250-500 word abstract by MAY 15, >>1997 to: >> Jayne London >> Rackham School of Graduate Studies >> 172 Rackham >> University of Michigan >> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070 >>Submissions via electronic mail are encouraged (jplondon@umich.edu). If >>you have any questions, please feel free to contact Jayne London by email >>or by phone (313-647-6341).
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>From listserv@xconn.com Tue 25 Mar 1997 21:29:16 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E78nT; Tue 25 Mar 1997 21:29:16 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: HRC Fascists Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 21:29:16 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703252129.E78nT@xconn.com>
Return-Path: bensinge@eden.rutgers.edu Date: Tue, 25 Mar 97 13:46:56 EST From: Ben Singer <bensinge@eden.rutgers.edu> To: TSMenace@apocalypse.org, FTMOLInfo@aol.com Cc: 104357.2361@compuserve.com, afleck@dolphin.upenn.edu, 102670.3662@compuserve.com, Towanda123@aol.com, Rica@netaxs.com, nancyf@netaxs.com, KM30FM@aol.com, iannozzi@underground.irhe.upenn.edu, bkhhijras@aol.com, Bartlett@critpath.org, hmdm@voicenet.com, shocke@asc.upenn.edu, 11jmarlo@gallux.gallaudet.edu, TheXGrrrl@aol.com, SBBlues@aol.com, PRIDEWK@POND.COM, MASCO@aol.com, qzine@pobox.upenn.edu, maggie@critpath.org, giophilp@netaxs.com, LDFollins@aol.com, LF@hmi.org, emc@csd.uwm.edu, jdavids@critpath.org, kholt@astro.ocis.temple.edu, clglpp@aol.com, PRFrye@aol.com, DeeMcKellr@aol.com, aegis@mindspring.com, ifge@world.std.com, cyberqueen@cdspub.com Subject: PHILA HRC THREATENS TRANS ACTIVISTS
*************Please Disseminate and/or Publish********************
contact: Ben Singer <bensinge@eden.rutgers.edu>
[Philadelphia, PA – March 22nd, 1997]
Three transpeople and two SOFFAs handed out educational leafletts to a black-tie HRC benefit crowd outside the Philadelphia Transit Museum last Saturday night. Almost immediately upon arrival they were confronted by an agressive HRC head of security who began accusing them of “loitering and blocking the entrance to a private party.” When one of the leafletters explained this was not a protest, but an educational effort, the HRC security said he was going to call a “paddywagon” and went back inside. Within minutes, the protesters were confronted by five HRC security personell whoo began taking leaflets from the attendees as soon as they were handed out.
According to Ben Singer who helped organize the educational action:
“It’s ironic, to say the least, that the gay liberation movement was built upon free speech, educational actions and protest, and the local HRC has responded to our effort as if we were a menace to queer society.”
While HRC and transactivists may be cooperating on a national level, trans inclusion and/or cooperation at the local level in Philadelphia has yet to occur. In the next few months, HRC is targetting the Philadelphia gay community as a political fundraising zone, and the leafletting was organized, accoding to Singer, because the local gay community remains blissfully ignorant of trans political needs and concerns. The benefit provided a perfect opportunity to educate the more mainstream sectors of gay Philadelpia.
After the dinner, trans activists returned to leaflet the “Moving Toward Equality” Dance Party, sponsored in cooperation with the “Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Awareness Days” at the University of Pennsylvania. This was the first year UPenn added “transgender” to the event title in an act of inclusion, meanwhile, after over a year of working with HRC, trans activists still have not achieved inclusion of transgender protections in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Many of the activists said they simply wanted to point out the contradiction around inclusion/non-inclusion to the HRC party attendees, and were told by security they were “ruining their fun” as this was an entertainment event and not an appropriate venue for education or protest. When asked by a local newspaper reporter if the trans activists were against HRC, they resoundingly said “no, all we want is full inclusion of our communities, and the oppportunity to let people know this is still not the case.”
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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>.
1997, 26 March
Posted around 26 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Wed 26 Mar 1997 18:34:19 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E10gE; Wed 26 Mar 1997 18:34:19 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: (Fwd) Fwd: Lavender Language Call for Papers Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 18:34:19 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703261834.E10gE@xconn.com>
Return-Path: talex@social-sci.ss.emory.edu From: “Tamara Alexander” <talex@social-sci.ss.emory.edu> Organization: Social Sciences, Emory Univ. To: maxyxo@mindspring.com, medicmc@aol.com, aegis@mindspring.com Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 09:33:04 EST5EDT Subject: (Fwd) MORE ON Lavendar Language Call for papers (fwd) Priority: normal
hello people,
didn’t know if this would be of interest to any of you… maybe to announce info at AGE meeting?
tamara
——- Forwarded Message Follows ——- To: emoryglb <emoryglb@emory.edu> From: George Loud/Norcross/EMTEC <George_Loud@emtc.com> Date: 20 Mar 97 15:14:10 EDT Subject: MORE ON Lavendar Language Call for papers (fwd)
To: biversity@blank.org From: bryant@tdint.com (Wayne Bryant) Subject: Call for papers (fwd) Sender: owner-biversity@pop.sneaker.net Precedence: bulk
Call For Papers for Special Panel at the 5th Annual Conference on Lavender Languages and Linguistics Sept. 19-21, 1997 American University, Washington. DC
Talking Sex: Sexual Practices, Politics and Identities
An exploration of the problems in defining sexual categories, practices and identities. What happens when sexual identity collides with sexual practices? Does identity politics leave room for sexual desire? Is queer (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered) what are or what we do? Have our identity labels forced our sexuality into the closet? Can you fight for the right for sexual expression without them?
Panel organizers: Dawn Atkins and John Heywood
To submit a proposal (abstract, 250 words max) by April 10, 1997. A preliminary conference program will be available by the middle of June 1997.
Send proposals via email or regular mail to: Dawn Atkins email: dawn-atkins@uiowa.edu mail: Dawn Atkins Anthropology, 114 MH University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242
For more information about the 5th Annual Conference on Lavender Languages and Linguistics contact the Planning Committee, Lavender Languages V: email: wlm@american.edu mail: Department of Anthropology American University Washington, DC 20016 phone: 202-885-1831 fax: 202-885-1837
*************************************************************
tamara alexander undergraduate programs assistant department of psychology
instructions for the previous announcement.
——- Forwarded Message Follows ——- To: emoryglb <emoryglb@emory.edu> From: George Loud/Norcross/EMTEC <George_Loud@emtc.com> Date: 20 Mar 97 15:11:17 EDT Subject: Fwd: Lavender Language Call for Papers
————— Forwarded Message ————— From: 71612.340 @ compuserve.com Date: 03/20/97 03:03:22 PM Subject: Fwd: [Maine] Lav. Lang. general call for papers (fwd) ————— Forwarded Message ————— From: Wayne Bryant, INTERNET:bryant@tdint.com To: Barbara Keppel, 71612,340 Date: Wed, Mar 19, 1997, 10:43 PM RE: Lav. Lang. general call for papers (fwd) ————— Forwarded Message ————— Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 22:44:59 -0500 To: biversity@blank.org From: bryant@tdint.com (Wayne Bryant) Subject: Lav. Lang. general call for papers (fwd) Sender: owner-biversity@pop.sneaker.net
5th annual American University Conference on Lavender Languages and Linguistics
Friday-Sunday, September 19-21, 1997 Butler Pavilion, 6th Floor Conference Rooms American University, Washington DC
CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT / CALL FOR PAPERS
The Planning Committee for Lav Lgs V invites proposals for papers, panel discussions, workshops and performance pieces which explore the significance of language, broadly defined, in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people’s lives. Suitable proposals explore l/g/b/t-related communication through spoken, written, manual, visual or other types of media and text formats. The committee encourages proposals which explore intersections of l/g/b/t communication, race, ethnicity, class, history and power.
The committee is eager to receive proposals from graduate students and undergraduates, from persons of color, and from persons working with l/g/b/t issues outside of academe.
This year’s special events include two Friday (September 19th) workshops: Linguistic analysis of lavender text (organizer: Birch Moonwomon birchm@humanities1.cohums.ohio-state.edu) and Lavender issues in the ESL classroom (organizers: Bill Schweers and Frank Bramlett (fbramlet@parallel.park.uga.edu); a Saturday afternoon plenary session, Language and Black Sexuality organized by American U’s Alliance of Black Graduate Students (swise@american.edu) and a Sunday workshop on Language and gay male pornography (organized by John Heyood, j.heywood@lancaster.ac.uk).
For more information about the conference or to submit a (250 word max.) proposal for a presentation or other conference event, please contact the Planning Committee, Lav Lgs V by e-mail (wlm@american.edu), s-mail (Lav Lgs V c/o Department of Anthropology, American University, Washington DC 20016), telephone/v-mail (202-885-1831) or fax (202-885-1837).
The deadline for receiving proposals for conference presentations is April 10th, 1997. A preliminary conference program will be available by the middle of June, 1997.
The Butler Pavillion is a fully accessible conference facility. ASL interpreters will be available for all conference events. Participants with special needs should contact the Planning Committee conference before August 15 to arrange for appropriate services.
Conference Sponsors include: Department of Anthropology (CAS), Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Lambda Graduate Students Association, Alliance of Black Graduate Students, Office of the Vice Presiudent for Student Affairs, Office of Intercultural Services, Sexual Minority Resource Center
tamara alexander undergraduate programs assistant department of psychology
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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>.
1997, 27 March
Posted about 28 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E06in; Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Transsexual Case Wins Arguments for Gays in UK Armed Forces Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703270536.E06in@xconn.com>
<< Subj: If ever anyone doubted … Date: 97-03-14 18:39:16 EST From: Christine_Burns@compuserve.com (Christine Burns)
Transsexual Case Wins Arguments for Gays In the UK Armed Forces _________________
Introduction to UK News cutting by Christine Burns, Press for Change
_________________
If any soul ever doubted for one moment the far reaching implications of what our community is capable of achieving, then perhaps it’s time they opened their eyes this week.
As we have predicted since long before the case was even heard, over two years ago, the implications of the P vs S and Cornwall County Council case are now bearing fruit for a much larger community which once didn’t want to know us.
P vs S is the case by a UK transsexual woman which outlawed employment discrimination against transsexuals in Europe last Sping. Now, as you’ll see from the newspaper article reproduced below, it is promising to bear fruit for the gay community too.
(Hey .. it’s OK folks .. don’t mention it. Just remember to learn to put that meaningful suffix T after the LGB in everything you write from now on though .. won’t you ?)
Personally I think it’s rather poetic of course …
An establishment that’s cynically ignored the pleas for justice from that funny little group of folk whom nobody wanted to be caught supporting a few years ago may now be about to see the the entire ceiling come down on its’ head .. when it could have so easily taken us out of the equation.
One of society’s least powerful minorities .. for long the most maligned and least understood in western societies .. has become the instrument for a sequence of events far more significant than the modest administrative concession which it has sought for itself all along.
Just think if the government had gotten us out of their hair way back when …
One of the greatest ironies, of course, is that we now get to witness ministers and counsel for the crown intoning learnedly that, “gender and sex are very different things .. and that transsexuality isn’t to be confused with sexuality.”
Well, better late than never, I guess …
But, does that mean that if discrimination against transsexuals in employment is “different” from discrimination against gay people all of a sudden (because “transsexual” does not legally equal “gay” in that context), the same can be argued when it comes to marriage ? …
… Can they argue now with a straight face that “we can’t enable transsexuals to marry in their correct gender because that would open the door to homosexual marriage” ????
(Relax folks, I support homosexual marriage .. I’m just playing law games)
Hmm .. I can’t wait.
It all goes to show though that you don’t have to all suffer the *same* discrimination to be able to campaign effectively *against* discrimination together. You don’t have to be the same colour .. or the same religion .. or the same sex .. or the same sexual orientation .. or the same anything else .. to fight discrimination. For discrimination, itself, makes no distinctions. By devaluing strangers on one arbitrary basis, the bigot devalues ALL of humanity. We are all diminished by each and every occasion when a person is robbed of their right to be who or what they are.
But if we cannot recognise that .. if we cannot see that the discrimination against our neighbour has the same outcome as an act of discrimination against some part of *our* existence .. then we are no better than the bigot.
So let us profit from the experience of our two communities in working together .. in cooperating on the basis of what we share rather than isolating ourselves by the pointless and destructive effort to draw lines and divide ourselves. We don’t need to PROVE we’re different .. for in truth we’re all UNIQUE anyway.
And what better way to celebrate our uniqueness than to defend our neighbour’s
Good luck Tim .. the transsexuals who’ve been dismissed from the forces they were proud and happy to serve will doubtless be cheering you on when you get to court. And so will I.
Christine Burns Press for Change ______
Court threat to forces’ gay ban By Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent
(The Electronic Telegraph and Daily Telegraph – Friday 14th March, 1997)
THE ban on homosexuals serving in the Armed Forces may have to be reviewed after a High Court judge referred a test case concerning a sacked Royal Navy medical assistant to the European Court of Justice yesterday.
In his judgment Mr Justice Lightman said “homosexual orientation is a reality today which the law must recognise and adjust to”. The judge agreed to refer the case of Terry Perkins to Luxembourg for a ruling – probably in about 18 months – on whether Britain was breaking the EU’s Equal Treatment Directive in the light of a recent European judgment giving transsexuals the same protection as other men and women from discrimination and unfair treatment at work.
Mr Perkins, 28, was discharged from the Royal Navy hospital at Gosport, Hants, in 1995, despite an exemplary five-year service record, after investigators discovered his homosexuality. If the ruling goes against the Government, hundreds of former service personnel dismissed for being homosexual could claim millions of pounds in damages.
In his 34-page ruling Mr Justice Lightman said the decision to apply the directive to transsexuals could be extended to homosexuals as both were “states of mind relating to sex”.
“It may well be thought appropriate that the fundamental principle of equality and the irrelevance of a person’s sex and sexual identity demand that the court be alert to afford protection to them and ensure that those of homosexual orientation are no longer disadvantaged in terms of employment, save and unless the discrimination is justified.
“After the decision in the Cornwall case [concerning transsexuals], it is scarcely possible to limit the application of the directive to gender discrimination, as was held in the Smith case [an earlier case turned down by the Court of Appeal], and there must be a real prospect that the European Court will take the further step to extend protection to those of homosexual orientation.” The judge said he believed Mr Perkins had a “significant prospect of success” in the European Court.
The ban, which is supported by ministers and senior officers, would have to be scrapped if the court ruled it contravened European law. Nicholas Soames, Armed Forces minister, said the Government would continue to fight the case by arguing that the directive was not applicable in cases of sexual orientation and that military effectiveness required the ban to be maintained. “Homosexuality is not compatible with the trust that must exist between comrades in arms,” he said.
An MoD spokesman said: “The MoD continues to believe that the directive applies only to discrimination against men or women on the grounds of gender and not sexual orientation. The MoD will be arguing in the European Court that the exclusion of homosexuals from the Armed Forces is purely for the reason of combat effectiveness and incompatibility and such key defence decisions are outside the scope of the EC treaty from which the directive derives and so are outside the scope of the Court of Justice.”
Mr Perkins’s legal team had argued that his dismissal contravened the directive as it applied to sexual orientation as much as it applied to gender. Such an argument had been dismissed in a different case last year when the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled the directive could not be extended to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
But in a subsequent ruling in the “Cornwall case” the European Court extended to transsexuals the full protection offered by the directive
At least 30 other claims for damages are being held pending the conclusion of the Perkins case. If the ruling goes against the MoD all members of the services who have lost their jobs on the grounds of homosexuality since 1979 would have grounds for compensation. Campaigners said there could be more than 1,000 claimants.
Mr Perkins said he was “over the moon” with the referral and had “no doubt” he would win. “It is a very significant ruling. The stance of the MoD is so narrow minded. I could have said I was not gay and stayed on but I wanted to be open. They wanted me to leave very quietly. In the end I was booted out and left with nothing.”
Copyright (c) Telegraph Group Limited 1997
“Electronic Telegraph” and “The Daily Telegraph” are trademarks of Telegraph Group Limited. These marks may not be copied or used without permission.
Details – http://www.telegraph.co.uk >>
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E83cr; Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Urology Times Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703270536.E83cr@xconn.com>
Return-Path: <cchase@isna.org> X-Sender: isna@holonet.net Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 11:18:15 -0800 To: “ISNA News” <cchase@isna.org> From: Cheryl Chase <cchase@isna.org> Subject: Urology Times notes growing social controversy re intersex tx
Is early vaginal construction wrong for some intersex girls?
As intersex surgery enters social debate, pediatric urologists rethink some medical aspects.
Urology Times February 1997 p 10-12, illustrated
American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Urology
* * * * * * * * * * * * I wonder whether we shouldn’t be rethinking the philosophy for early vaginal reconstruction for adrenal hyperplasia.”
David Thomas, MD * * * * * * * * * * * *
Protesters? Pediatric urology gained some notoriety at this year’s meeting as the target of a street protest.
Intersex demonstrators hoisted signs charging that most intersex children are victims of inappropriate surgery. The group distributed leaflets alleging that aggressive surgical intervention means a loss of genital sensation for most of them and leads to suicide later in life.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) countered with a position stating that management of the condition has improved over the last few decades, that successful early surgery minimizes these children’s problems, and that 6 weeks to 15 months is the optimal time for surgery. And to most pediatric urologists, the need for surgery is a given.
Some merit in the protest?
But in certain situations, “the people who are picketing the AAP at the moment do have a point,” said David Thomas, MD, a pediatric urologist who practices at St. James’s University Hospital and Infirmary in Leeds, England.
“I feel like Daniel stepping into the lion’s den. I recognize this may not be a popular message for this audience,” Dr. Thomas told his colleagues. “But I wonder whether we shouldn’t be rethinking the philosophy for early vaginal reconstruction for congenital adrenal hyperplasia.”
Dr. Thomas’s old assumptions were challenged by his review of the cases of some dozen girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia who had undergone early surgery to create a cosmetically satisfactory clitoris and external genitalia as well as to separate their “high vagina” from the urogenital sinus. He noted that very few studies have been done to gauge the long-term results of this early feminizing procedure.
The girls, aged 11 to 15 years, were assessed by a pediatric urologist, a gynecologist with extensive knowledge of vaginal reconstruction, and a plastic surgeon. Urogenital sinus was still present in six of the girls, despite the previous vaginoplasties. Two of the six girls who had begun to menstruate showed signs of hematocolpos [accumulation of menstrual blood in the vagina]. Clitoroplasty was deemed unsatisfactory in six girls, with atrophy apparent in five. Several of the clitoral reconstructions were quite visibly different from the original cosmetic result: withered and obviously nonfunctional. “Every girl required some additional vaginal surgery. The results are indifferent and, frankly, disappointing,” Dr. Thomas said.
Surprisingly, some of the poor outcomes shouldn’t have been the result of surgical inexperience. Although the poorest results were in girls whose original surgery had been performed by nonspecialists, Dr. Thomas pointed out that 70% of the original surgeries had been performed by full-time pediatric urologists in three specialist centers.
Rethinking traditional views
The findings caused him to re-evaluate some of his own views on the surgery. “We would certainly not advocate deferring procedures that provide a girl with normal-appearing external genitalia. . . . but no girl in her childhood needs a functioning vagina,” he asserted. Because every girl required some sort of further surgery later, Dr. Thomas thinks waiting until after puberty to do definitive vaginoplasty is a good idea. He noted problems and the need for revision especially in the case of girls who had undergone aggressive attempts to repair a “high vagina.” Currently, both genitoplasty and vaginoplasty are usually undertaken in infancy at the earliest, and toddlerhood at the latest.
“Scarring and fibrosis ensuing from early vaginal surgery may preclude tissue expansion,” Dr. Thomas warned.
Today’s surgery is better
Antoine Khoury, MD, chief of pediatric urology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, countered that the anatomy on review belonged to patients who had undergone surgery at least a decade earlier, before current refinements became available. He worries that in the climate of debate, parents may opt for delaying any surgery. Today, with the latest surgical techniques, there is far better preservation of nerve endings. “We have a lot more ability to dissect out the nerves,” said Dr. Khoury.
And the idea of waiting till later probably has its own set of adverse consequences, he pointed out. The girls at his center who undergo the surgery have had careful genetic screening — tests that demonstrate a clear XX profile, with no ambiguity. “These are girls — they will always be girls,” he said.
What about the effects on a little girl when her parents and care givers see her spend her early life with “a big huge phallus in the lower end of the abdomen,” he asked.
“I am pushing [for this surgery] at 6 weeks to 8 weeks of age,” he said. “We have started [at our center] to move the date earlier and earlier.”
Dr. Thomas concurred that the psychological issues are “poorly researched and understood.” The initial surgery for a normal appearing glans and external genitalia is justified, he said. And, he agreed, newer surgical techniques probably have made significant gains in preserving function. But he stressed that “great care” is needed to ensure that the vascularity of reconstructed clitoris is not compromised with early intervention.
“So many of these patients are lost to follow-up. If we do this surgery in infancy and childhood, we have an obligation to follow these children up, to assess what we’re doing,” he stressed.
Social issue sharpening
Questioning of intervention for intersex is beginning to move from the cultural fringe into the mainstream. General-interest magazines have recently carried stories on changing attitudes about intersex conditions and the debate over surgeries typically performed on intersex infants and children.
Intersex individuals have formed their own organization, the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA). This peer-support and education group publishes an international quarterly newsletter and offers information about intersex conditions.
The organization boasts a board of directors that includes three professional sexologists. And, like so many other consumer-advocate groups in medicine, its reach now extends globally, via a site on the World Wide Web. One of the pieces of advice on a recent website posting: “Vaginoplasty surgery is problematic, with many failures. ISNA advocates against vaginal surgery on infants. Such surgery should be offered, not imposed on, the pubertal girl.”
With growing public consciousness, it’s all the more important for urologists not only to refine their surgical techniques, but also to follow up these patients over the long term.
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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>.
1997, 29 March
Subj: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: 97-03-29 16:34:57 EST 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 Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E06in; Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Transsexual Case Wins Arguments for Gays in UK Armed Forces Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703270536.E06in@xconn.com>
<< Subj: If ever anyone doubted … Date: 97-03-14 18:39:16 EST From: Christine_Burns@compuserve.com (Christine Burns)
Transsexual Case Wins Arguments for Gays In the UK Armed Forces _________________
Introduction to UK News cutting by Christine Burns, Press for Change
_________________
If any soul ever doubted for one moment the far reaching implications of what our community is capable of achieving, then perhaps it’s time they opened their eyes this week.
As we have predicted since long before the case was even heard, over two years ago, the implications of the P vs S and Cornwall County Council case are now bearing fruit for a much larger community which once didn’t want to
know us.
P vs S is the case by a UK transsexual woman which outlawed employment discrimination against transsexuals in Europe last Sping. Now, as you’ll see from the newspaper article reproduced below, it is promising to bear fruit for the gay community too.
(Hey .. it’s OK folks .. don’t mention it. Just remember to learn to put that meaningful suffix T after the LGB in everything you write from now on though .. won’t you ?)
Personally I think it’s rather poetic of course …
An establishment that’s cynically ignored the pleas for justice from that funny little group of folk whom nobody wanted to be caught supporting a few
years ago may now be about to see the the entire ceiling come down on its’ head .. when it could have so easily taken us out of the equation.
One of society’s least powerful minorities .. for long the most maligned and least understood in western societies .. has become the instrument for a sequence of events far more significant than the modest administrative concession which it has sought for itself all along.
Just think if the government had gotten us out of their hair way back when …
One of the greatest ironies, of course, is that we now get to witness ministers and counsel for the crown intoning learnedly that, “gender and sex are very different things .. and that transsexuality isn’t to be confused with sexuality.”
Well, better late than never, I guess …
But, does that mean that if discrimination against transsexuals in employment is “different” from discrimination against gay people all of a sudden (because “transsexual” does not legally equal “gay” in that context), the same can be argued when it comes to marriage ? …
… Can they argue now with a straight face that “we can’t enable transsexuals to marry in their correct gender because that would open the door to homosexual marriage” ????
(Relax folks, I support homosexual marriage .. I’m just playing law games)
Hmm .. I can’t wait.
It all goes to show though that you don’t have to all suffer the *same* discrimination to be able to campaign effectively *against* discrimination
together. You don’t have to be the same colour .. or the same religion .. or the same sex .. or the same sexual orientation .. or the same anything else .. to fight discrimination. For discrimination, itself, makes no distinctions. By devaluing strangers on one arbitrary basis, the bigot devalues ALL of humanity. We are all diminished by each and every occasion when a person is robbed of their right to be who or what they are.
But if we cannot recognise that .. if we cannot see that the discrimination
against our neighbour has the same outcome as an act of discrimination against some part of *our* existence .. then we are no better than the bigot.
So let us profit from the experience of our two communities in working together .. in cooperating on the basis of what we share rather than isolating ourselves by the pointless and destructive effort to draw lines and divide ourselves. We don’t need to PROVE we’re different .. for in truth we’re all UNIQUE anyway.
And what better way to celebrate our uniqueness than to defend our neighbour’s
Good luck Tim .. the transsexuals who’ve been dismissed from the forces they were proud and happy to serve will doubtless be cheering you on when you get to court. And so will I.
Christine Burns Press for Change ______
Court threat to forces’ gay ban By Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent
(The Electronic Telegraph and Daily Telegraph – Friday 14th March, 1997)
THE ban on homosexuals serving in the Armed Forces may have to be reviewed after a High Court judge referred a test case concerning a sacked Royal Navy medical assistant to the European Court of Justice yesterday.
In his judgment Mr Justice Lightman said “homosexual orientation is a reality today which the law must recognise and adjust to”. The judge agreed
to refer the case of Terry Perkins to Luxembourg for a ruling – probably in
about 18 months – on whether Britain was breaking the EU’s Equal Treatment Directive in the light of a recent European judgment giving transsexuals the same protection as other men and women from discrimination and unfair treatment at work.
Mr Perkins, 28, was discharged from the Royal Navy hospital at Gosport, Hants, in 1995, despite an exemplary five-year service record, after investigators discovered his homosexuality. If the ruling goes against the Government, hundreds of former service personnel dismissed for being homosexual could claim millions of pounds in damages.
In his 34-page ruling Mr Justice Lightman said the decision to apply the directive to transsexuals could be extended to homosexuals as both were “states of mind relating to sex”.
“It may well be thought appropriate that the fundamental principle of equality and the irrelevance of a person’s sex and sexual identity demand that the court be alert to afford protection to them and ensure that those of homosexual orientation are no longer disadvantaged in terms of employment, save and unless the discrimination is justified.
“After the decision in the Cornwall case [concerning transsexuals], it is scarcely possible to limit the application of the directive to gender discrimination, as was held in the Smith case [an earlier case turned down by the Court of Appeal], and there must be a real prospect that the European Court will take the further step to extend protection to those of homosexual orientation.” The judge said he believed Mr Perkins had a “significant prospect of success” in the European Court.
The ban, which is supported by ministers and senior officers, would have to
be scrapped if the court ruled it contravened European law. Nicholas Soames, Armed Forces minister, said the Government would continue to fight the case by arguing that the directive was not applicable in cases of sexual orientation and that military effectiveness required the ban to be maintained. “Homosexuality is not compatible with the trust that must exist
between comrades in arms,” he said.
An MoD spokesman said: “The MoD continues to believe that the directive applies only to discrimination against men or women on the grounds of gender and not sexual orientation. The MoD will be arguing in the European Court that the exclusion of homosexuals from the Armed Forces is purely for
the reason of combat effectiveness and incompatibility and such key defence
decisions are outside the scope of the EC treaty from which the directive derives and so are outside the scope of the Court of Justice.”
Mr Perkins’s legal team had argued that his dismissal contravened the directive as it applied to sexual orientation as much as it applied to gender. Such an argument had been dismissed in a different case last year when the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled the directive could not be extended to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
But in a subsequent ruling in the “Cornwall case” the European Court extended to transsexuals the full protection offered by the directive
At least 30 other claims for damages are being held pending the conclusion of the Perkins case. If the ruling goes against the MoD all members of the services who have lost their jobs on the grounds of homosexuality since 1979 would have grounds for compensation. Campaigners said there could be more than 1,000 claimants.
Mr Perkins said he was “over the moon” with the referral and had “no doubt”
he would win. “It is a very significant ruling. The stance of the MoD is so
narrow minded. I could have said I was not gay and stayed on but I wanted to be open. They wanted me to leave very quietly. In the end I was booted out and left with nothing.”
Copyright (c) Telegraph Group Limited 1997
“Electronic Telegraph” and “The Daily Telegraph” are trademarks of Telegraph Group Limited. These marks may not be copied or used without permission.
Details – http://www.telegraph.co.uk >>
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E83cr; Thu 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: Urology Times Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 05:36:34 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703270536.E83cr@xconn.com>
Return-Path: <cchase@isna.org> X-Sender: isna@holonet.net Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 11:18:15 -0800 To: “ISNA News” <cchase@isna.org> From: Cheryl Chase <cchase@isna.org> Subject: Urology Times notes growing social controversy re intersex tx
Is early vaginal construction wrong for some intersex girls?
As intersex surgery enters social debate, pediatric urologists rethink some medical aspects.
Urology Times February 1997 p 10-12, illustrated
American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Urology
* * * * * * * * * * * * I wonder whether we shouldn’t be rethinking the philosophy for early vaginal reconstruction for adrenal hyperplasia.”
David Thomas, MD * * * * * * * * * * * *
Protesters? Pediatric urology gained some notoriety at this year’s meeting as the target of a street protest.
Intersex demonstrators hoisted signs charging that most intersex children are victims of inappropriate surgery. The group distributed leaflets alleging that aggressive surgical intervention means a loss of genital sensation for most of them and leads to suicide later in life.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) countered with a position stating that management of the condition has improved over the last few decades, that successful early surgery minimizes these children’s problems, and that 6 weeks to 15 months is the optimal time for surgery. And to most pediatric urologists, the need for surgery is a given.
Some merit in the protest?
But in certain situations, “the people who are picketing the AAP at the moment do have a point,” said David Thomas, MD, a pediatric urologist who practices at St. James’s University Hospital and Infirmary in Leeds, England.
“I feel like Daniel stepping into the lion’s den. I recognize this may not be a popular message for this audience,” Dr. Thomas told his colleagues. “But I wonder whether we shouldn’t be rethinking the philosophy for early vaginal reconstruction for congenital adrenal hyperplasia.”
Dr. Thomas’s old assumptions were challenged by his review of the cases of some dozen girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia who had undergone early surgery to create a cosmetically satisfactory clitoris and external genitalia as well as to separate their “high vagina” from the urogenital sinus. He noted that very few studies have been done to gauge the long-term results of this early feminizing procedure.
The girls, aged 11 to 15 years, were assessed by a pediatric urologist, a gynecologist with extensive knowledge of vaginal reconstruction, and a plastic surgeon. Urogenital sinus was still present in six of the girls, despite the previous vaginoplasties. Two of the six girls who had begun to menstruate showed signs of hematocolpos [accumulation of menstrual blood in the vagina]. Clitoroplasty was deemed unsatisfactory in six girls, with atrophy apparent in five. Several of the clitoral reconstructions were quite visibly different from the original cosmetic result: withered and obviously nonfunctional. “Every girl required some additional vaginal surgery. The results are indifferent and, frankly, disappointing,” Dr. Thomas said.
Surprisingly, some of the poor outcomes shouldn’t have been the result of surgical inexperience. Although the poorest results were in girls whose original surgery had been performed by nonspecialists, Dr. Thomas pointed out that 70% of the original surgeries had been performed by full-time pediatric urologists in three specialist centers.
Rethinking traditional views
The findings caused him to re-evaluate some of his own views on the surgery. “We would certainly not advocate deferring procedures that provide a girl with normal-appearing external genitalia. . . . but no girl in her childhood needs a functioning vagina,” he asserted. Because every girl required some sort of further surgery later, Dr. Thomas thinks waiting until after puberty to do definitive vaginoplasty is a good idea. He noted problems and the need for revision especially in the case of girls who had undergone aggressive attempts to repair a “high vagina.” Currently, both genitoplasty and vaginoplasty are usually undertaken in infancy at the earliest, and toddlerhood at the latest.
“Scarring and fibrosis ensuing from early vaginal surgery may preclude tissue expansion,” Dr. Thomas warned.
Today’s surgery is better
Antoine Khoury, MD, chief of pediatric urology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, countered that the anatomy on review belonged to patients who had undergone surgery at least a decade earlier, before current refinements became available. He worries that in the climate of debate, parents may opt for delaying any surgery. Today, with the latest surgical techniques, there is far better preservation of nerve endings. “We have a lot more ability to dissect out the nerves,” said Dr. Khoury.
And the idea of waiting till later probably has its own set of adverse consequences, he pointed out. The girls at his center who undergo the surgery have had careful genetic screening — tests that demonstrate a clear XX profile, with no ambiguity. “These are girls — they will always be girls,” he said.
What about the effects on a little girl when her parents and care givers see her spend her early life with “a big huge phallus in the lower end of the abdomen,” he asked.
“I am pushing [for this surgery] at 6 weeks to 8 weeks of age,” he said. “We have started [at our center] to move the date earlier and earlier.”
Dr. Thomas concurred that the psychological issues are “poorly researched and understood.” The initial surgery for a normal appearing glans and external genitalia is justified, he said. And, he agreed, newer surgical techniques probably have made significant gains in preserving function. But he stressed that “great care” is needed to ensure that the vascularity of reconstructed clitoris is not compromised with early intervention.
“So many of these patients are lost to follow-up. If we do this surgery in infancy and childhood, we have an obligation to follow these children up, to assess what we’re doing,” he stressed.
Social issue sharpening
Questioning of intervention for intersex is beginning to move from the cultural fringe into the mainstream. General-interest magazines have recently carried stories on changing attitudes about intersex conditions and the debate over surgeries typically performed on intersex infants and children.
Intersex individuals have formed their own organization, the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA). This peer-support and education group publishes an international quarterly newsletter and offers information about intersex conditions.
The organization boasts a board of directors that includes three professional sexologists. And, like so many other consumer-advocate groups in medicine, its reach now extends globally, via a site on the World Wide Web. One of the pieces of advice on a recent website posting: “Vaginoplasty surgery is problematic, with many failures. ISNA advocates against vaginal surgery on infants. Such surgery should be offered, not imposed on, the pubertal girl.”
With growing public consciousness, it’s all the more important for urologists not only to refine their surgical techniques, but also to follow up these patients over the long term.
————————————————————————
———————————————————————— 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 Sat Mar 29 15:32:59 1997 Return-Path: <listserv@xconn.com> Received: from netcomsv.netcom.com (uucp13.netcom.com [163.179.3.13]) by emin04.mail.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-2.0.0) with SMTP id PAA19619 for <thexgrrrl@aol.com>; Sat, 29 Mar 1997 15:32:57 -0500 (EST) Received: by netcomsv.netcom.com with UUCP (8.6.12/SMI-4.1) id MAA02446; Sat, 29 Mar 1997 12:19:57 -0800 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E90gO; Sat 29 Mar 1997 11:01:14 From: aegisnws@xconn.com (List Server) Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: AEGIS-NEWS Digest Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 11:01:12 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: thexgrrrl@aol.com Message-Id: <9703291101.E90gO@xconn.com>
1997, 30 March
Posted around 30 March, 1997
=============================================================================
AEGIS-NEWS DIGEST
A service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc.
=============================================================================
>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 29 Mar 1997 11:01:03 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E42WX; Sat 29 Mar 1997 11:01:03 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: transgender health conference Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 11:01:02 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703291101.E42WX@xconn.com>
Hi Dallas!
Just got my copy of Chrysalis and the AEGIS calendar of events. This is to inform you of another upcoming event, the Gender Identity Project’s Transgender Health Conference on 25 and 26 April 1997. It will take place at the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, 208 west 13th Street, NY NY 10014. Contact is Roz Blumenstein 212/620-7310 fax: 212 924=2657. You could also put my email as a contact: dqb6745@is.nyu.edu.
Hope all is well in Atlanta: it’s getting warmer by the day here!
Best David V. — David Valentine dqb6745@is.nyu.edu Department of Anthropology NYU
Ain’t no font size big enough…
————————————————————————
>From listserv@xconn.com Sat 29 Mar 1997 11:01:03 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E85vM; Sat 29 Mar 1997 11:01:03 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: In Your Face March Roundup Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 11:01:03 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703291101.E85vM@xconn.com>
Return-Path: <riki@pipeline.com> X-Sender: riki@pop.pipeline.com Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 12:06:35 -0500 To: RIKI@pipeline.com From: Riki Anne Wilchins <riki@pipeline.com> Subject: InYourFace – March News RoundUp
InYourFace! March GenderNews Roundup ==================
. State Court Holds Against TG Parent . Response to New Yorker Brandon Article . NY Times, Time Magazine & Newsweek Cover Gender Identity . GenderPAC Board Endorses GID Reform . Queer Groups Support Call for APA Meeting . GenderPAC Board Diversifies . European Court Finds UK in Violation Over TG Issues . LCCR and AVP Speak Out on TransViolence . On the Lighter Side
TRANSEXUAL DENIED CUSTODY OF CHILDREN ======================================
[St. Louis, MO: 12 Mar 97] A DIVORCED transexual father, now legally female, lost joint custody of her two sons, ages 10 and 7, after a ruling by a state appeals court in St.Louis. The woman, Sharon Boyd, also may not see the boys again unless a St. Charles, MO judge decides that the visits would be in the children’s best interest.
“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 the father,” said Judge Paul Simon, writing for the 2-1 majority in the Missouri Court of Appeals.
The original divorce decree granted primary custody to the mother, but allowed the father telephone contact with the children and unsupervised visitation for 2 weeks in the summer and on alternate holidays. However, the boys’ mother, who lives with the children in St. Charles, has not allowed Sharon, who lives in suburban Washington, D.C. any contact with the boys for 4 years.
In his minority opinion, Judge Kent Karohl noted that the trial judge who granted the divorce had found the father “loving and caring” toward the boys, who “had a significant bond with their father.”
Ms.Boyd said that she will appeal the ruling to the full appellate court, adding, “If we cannot win this case, it will set a dangerous precedent for gender-variant parents. The onus will be on us to prove that we aren’t an endangerment to our children.”
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GLAAD AND FTM RESPOND TO TRANSPHOBIC NEW YORKER PIECE ============================
[San Francisco, CA: 7 Feb 97] THE GAY & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and FTM International today sent a letter to the editor of the New Yorker Magazine, responding to John Gregory Dunne’s transphobic feature article which appeared in the January 13th issue. The letter was written by Don Romesburg of GLAAD, and Jamison Green of FTM, and was also signed by GenderPAC.
Taking Dunne to task for perpetuating gender stereotypes, as well as treatment of Brandon Teena as a lesbian, the letter reads in part, “John Gregory Dunne’s story, ‘The Humboldt Murders,’ perpetuates harmful stereotypes about lesbians and transgendered people… Next time Dunne wants to write about something he so clearly does not understand, the editors might suggest he ask someone who does. People in Brandon’s situation need education and to know that they are not alone. No one is served by Dunne’s vilification of Brandon Teena or his stigmatization of transexual people.”
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DESPITE SURGICAL INTERVENTION, GENDER IDENTITY PERSISTS ==============================
[New York City: 14 Mar 97] IN A front page article in the NY Times, Natalie Angier writes about a follow-up study of a case that has long been used to demonstrate the pliability of sexual identity. Results of the follow-up study contradict the original findings by suggesting that sexual identity is innate, that one’s identity as a male or female is impervious to surgical pocedures, psychotherapy, and parental influence.
The case involves an infant whose penis was accidently severed by a doctor. The individual was then raised as a female. The original study published in 1973 suggested that sexual identity is neutral at birth and is determined by socialization and exposure to the binary world of boys and girls. The study reported that the child appeared to have accepted the new identity and was happy in the female role.
The follow-up study, which involved the individual as an adult, reveals that the patient did not accept his female identity. “Despite everyone telling him constantly that he was a girl…and his being treated with female hormones, his brain knew he was a male,” said Dr. William Reiner, who wrote an editorial to go with the report.
At the age of 14, Joan, unaware of her past, refused to continue living as a girl. Finally, confronted, her father broke down in tears and told her of the accident and its aftermath. Rather than being devastated, Joan was relieved. She became John, requested male hormones and began phalloplasty to try rebuilding his male genitals. At 25, he married a woman and adopted her children. Surgical reconstruction was only partially successful, resulting in little sensation in his penis; but, John says he is happy with life as a man.
“[The study’s findings] aren’t going to help this problem,” said Cheryl Chase, founder of the Intersex Society of North America. “Instead, clinicians who treat intersex children will start assigning more of them as males, and doing a different sort of horrible intervention… They can’t conceive of leaving someone alone.”
Other professionals quoted in the article cautioned against inferring too much from this isolated case. Said psychologist Dr. Barbara Mackoff, “From a distance, this looks like a paradigm to address the question of… male and female differences. But I don’t see this tragic story as a way of helping us to define gender identity.”
This story was also featured in Time, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.
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GENDERPAC BOARD UNANIMOUSLY ENDORSES POSITION ON GID REFORM ===============================
[New York, NY: 22 Feb 97] THE GENDERPAC board today unanimously endorsed the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s (NGLTF) recent statement calling for reforming the mental diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (GID).
The statement, which draws on a position developed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the transgender Law Conference, attempts to chart a middle-course, stating: “NGLTF is sensitive to the differences of opinion within the transgender community on GID and the implications of GID on insurance payments, civil rights and other issues of concern to transgender people. Thus, instead of supporting wholesale GID eradication, we support GID reform. Reform means another diagnosis — possibly medical — that does not pathologize transgender people or gender-variant youth and children.”
The statement concludes “…we believe no one — whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex (hermaphrodite) — should have to accept being pathologized as mentally ill in order to attain wholeness, completeness and civil equality.”
The letter sent from NGLTF’s Executive Director, Kerry Lobel, to APA President Dr. Harold Eist, also called for a meeting to discuss the issue which has drawn fire from queer activists because of its use to stigmatize gender-variant adults and to force treatment on gender-variant children.
Said GenderPAC Board President, Tonye Barreto-Neto, “Some of us count on a medical basis for treatment to get surgical reimbursement. Others feel strongly that they shouldn’t be forced to accepted a diagnosis as mentally ill just because of who they are. We think NGLTF’s statement has carved out a balanced approach to a sensitive issue.”
[The NGLTF statement, from Executive Director Kerry Lobel, is available on request from TContagy@ngltf.org]
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QUEER ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT CALL FOR APA MEETING ON GID REFORM =================================
[San Francisco, CA: 14 Mar 96] BOTH THE National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission confirm that this week they have sent letters to the APA supporting National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s call for a meeting on GID Reform.
Said IGLHRC’s Syndey Levy, “We have not fully developed our position yet, but it is apparent to us that GID is also used to stigmatize and ‘treat’ gender-variant children. In our view, a meeting with the APA on this issue is entirely appropriate.”
Continued NCLR’s Shannon Minter, “The use of GID as a back door to ‘correct’ pre- homosexual and pre-transgender children is a terrible abuse, one which often damages the young people for life. And while treatment is being forced on unwilling children, trans-youth and adults who desperately need help are routinely denied medical care, insurance, or reimbursement based on the same ‘disorder.'”
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GENDERPAC BOARD DIVERSIFIES ============================
[New York, NY: 10 MAR 97] IN A bid to diversify its board in pursuit of its goal of “gender, affectional, and racial equality,” GenderPAC has invited BiNet USA, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the National Gay & Lesbian Task (NGLTF) to join its board. All three have now accepted.
Representatives from the three organizations will be: BiNet USA Stephanie Berger
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Betsy Gressler
National Center for Lesbian Rights Shannon Minter
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Contact:Stephen Whittle, S.T.Whittle@mmu.ac.uk
EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS MAY HEAR TRANSEXUAL CASES =======================================
THE EUROPEAN Commission on Human Rights has announced that it will refer the cases of Great Britain transexuals Kristina Sheffield and Rachel Horsham to the European Court of Human Rights. In a 15 to 1 decision, the commission has held that the UK’s treatment of transexuals in name and sex change cases contravenes the European Convention Articles 8 (respect for privacy and the right to found a family), 12 (the right to marry), and 14 (the right not to be discriminated against on grounds such as race, sex, birth etc.)
This is a ground-breaking decision in that, for the first time, all 3 articles have been tied together by the Commission, and the majority verdict is the largest ever.
The case will now be sent to the European Court of Human Rights sometime in the next year, unless the new British government (to be chosen May 1st) decides to pre-empt the most probably unfavorable decision of the Court.
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LCCR AND AVP SPEAK OUT ON TRANSVIOLENCE =======================================
The Leadership Conference for Civil Rights (LCCR) in their omnibus Hate Crimes Report has now formally included transviolence. The report reads in part:
“Another sexual minority that is subject to violence is `transgendered’ people, an umbrella term that includes transsexuals, cross-dressers, intersexed people (also known as hermaphrodites), and others whose sexual identity appears ambiguous. Transgendered people have been assaulted, raped, or murdered; these crimes should be included in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act.”
Said GenderPAC’s Washington representative, Dana Priesing, “LCCR includes among its members most of the established civil rights organizations. It is a milestone that LCCR now recognizes the problem of trans-hate crimes, and is willing to speak out on it, and GenderPAC applauds them for this step. Those in our community, who — through their advocacy and support — have helped humanized and depathologized us, have helped make this happen.”
Meanwhile, the National Coalition of Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Projects issued its annual report, highlighting gender- based violence and declaring” “NCAVP believes that violence against transgendered persons is pervasive and grossly under-reported.”
The report went on to state: “During 1996, incidents involving 117 transgendered persons were documented, representing 3% of all victims. 105 of the 117 victims were living as females and 12 as males. NCAVP is presently working with GenderPAC, a national advocacy and action group for transgendered communities, on the distribution of a survey specifically focusing on violence against transgendered individuals.”
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On the Lighter Side… AND THEN THERE’S “HERSHE LEPUMPS” ===================================
THE CAMP-POP movie “Escape From LA,” starring Kurt Russell, reprising his role as “Snake Pliskin” from “Escape from New York,” is now out on video. It co-stars the remarkable Pam Grier as “Hershe LePumps,” aka “Carjack Malone,” now the baddest dudette left in the prison island of LA.
Both have a lot of fun with her role, including their first scene in which Russell, recognizing his old friend, grabs Grier’s crotch, not for the magic wand, but for the derringer Malone always hid there.
This is a trans-positive portrayal of a strong woman from beginning to end, thanks to veteran director John Carpenter. Maybe Holiday Inn should have hired Grier and added a few Uzis to their high school reunion ad.
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1997, 31 March
Posted around 31 March, 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 Sun 30 Mar 1997 16:42:57 Received: from xconn by xconn.com with uucp id E98ww; Sun 30 Mar 1997 16:42:57 From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org> Reply-to: aegisnws@xconn.com Subject: City moves to protect TGs Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 16:42:57 X-Sender: UUPlus Listserver 2.03 for DOS To: anechoxc Message-Id: <9703301642.E98ww@xconn.com>
Return-Path: DAINNA@aol.com From: DAINNA@aol.com Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 13:45:04 -0500 (EST) To: DAINNA@aol.com Subject: Fwd: City moves to protect TGs
——————— Forwarded message: Subj: City moves to protect TGs Date: 97-03-28 18:28:48 EST From: ModMajor96 To: morrigan@aa.net,DAINNA
City council adds ‘gender’ to bias law CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Cambridge City Council unanimously amended the city’s human rights ordinance Feb. 24 to prohibit discrimination based on gender and gender expression. The amendment adds the word “gender” to the 1984 ordinance, which also prohibits discrimination based on several factors, including sexual orientation, in the areas of employment, housing, public education, recreation, and city government. The amendment also defines gender as one’s “actual or perceived appearance, expression, or identity,” ensuring that women who act “too masculine” or men who appear “too feminine” cannot be legally harassed or discriminated against, said activist Nanci Nangeroni. Similar ordinances also exist in Pittsburgh and San Francisco. Transgendered people have protections from discrimination in four states through either disability laws or civil rights ordinances, according to the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy. The states include Minnesota, Florida, Oregon, and Indiana.
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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>.