Cobb Judge Denies Transgender Name Change (1999)
Cobb County, as Charles Dickens might have said, is a ass.
Read MoreNew Survey Changes Trans Politics, Activists Say (2002)
My feeling about the survey in questions was—and remains—that HRC hoped to gather data to back up their “we’ll come back and get you later, we promise” approach to ENDA—and it blew up in their face.
Read MoreThe WPATH Standards of Care (2005)
My readers, please note—much changed with the introduction of Version 7 of the Standards of Care. This presentation, and any criticisms I may have had in the past, are obsolete.
Read MoreCounseling Transgender Youth Workshop, Southern Comfort Conference (1999)
As information and support have become more widely available, young people with transgender issues, both male-to-female and female-to-male, have begun to come forth in increasing numbers. The concerns of transgender youth are in some ways similar and in some ways strikingly different from those of adults. In this, the third year of the Counseling Professionals’ Workshops, we examine the difficult issues faced by transgender youth and their families.
Read MoreDeath From Silicone Injections in South Georgia (2004-2005)
In this century police and prosecutors have begun to pay attention to deaths from illegal injections of silicone. They occur with depressing regularity.
Read MoreWho’s Who & Resource Guide to the Transgender Community (1994-1995)
I was flattered to have an entry in JoAnn Roberts’ Who’s Who and Resource Guide to the Transgender Community.
Read MoreAEGIS Provides Protective Shield (1990)
I believe this text from the community newsletter Renaissance News reproduces the text of the press release announcing AEGIS’ formation.
Read MoreA Stranger in My Pants (2002)
Today, transgender advocates are working to overturn not only rigid gender stereotypes, but the fundamental assumption—understood and accepted intuitively by any child— that there are only two sexes, and if you’re not one, then you’ve got to be the other.
Read MoreAEGIS Given 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Status by IRS (1993)
In a letter dated 13 July, 1993. the Internal Revenue Service notified AEGIS of exemption from Federal income tax as a 501(c) (3) organization.
Read MoreRoberts Named to AEGIS Advisory Board (1992)
The late JoAnn Roberts was a founder of Renaissance Education Association, owner of Creative Design Services, and served as board chair of the nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service Inc. Here’s an announcement of her appointment to the AEGIS Advisory Board.
Read MoreFor Transssexuals, 1994 is 1969 (1994)
As organizers for the Stonewall 25 march were completing their preparations, they found themselves facing a potentially embarrassing threat from an unexpected source. Angry at having been excluded from the march’s formal title— the International March on the United Nations to Affirm the Human Rights of Lesbian and Gay People— transgendered activists were planning to stage civil disobedience actions on the march route.
Read More“Transsexual” Challenges Tri-Ess (1996)
I took continuing exception to the exclusionary membership policy of Tri-Ess, The Society for the Second Self. Gay men, bisexuals, and transsexuals were barred from full membership. I repeatedly asked the national leaders to open their membership to anyone would supported the organization’s focus on heterosexual crossdressers and their female partners.
Read MoreTranssexualism: Sex and Gender Dilemma (1991)
Between 1990 and 1998, I mailed many thousands of these tri-fold brochures.
Read MoreSpeech at Kappa Beta’s Magnolia Ball (1999)
Transgender is an all-encompassing term which is understood by many people, including academics, the Gay and Lesbian Community, and we ourselves. To us it means there are no failures because of not following “traditional” paths. Transgendered people are those who express gender differently from the traditional two roles.
Read MoreNTL&A Dedication Ceremony Program Book (2004)
In 2004 the University of Michigan held a dedication ceremony for the National Transgender Library & Archive.
Read MoreRupert Raj’s Review of Current Concepts in Transgender Identity (2001)
I was happy to come across this review by FTM clinician Rupert Raj.
Read MoreShifting Paradigms? Making the Move to Transgender Clinical Practices (2004)
My chapter in the edited text Transsgender Subjectivities rated a paragraph from reviewer Karl Bryant.
Read MoreA Room of One’s Own (2004)
“There is a genre of transgender fiction that is primarily wish fulfillment. Such works are about seeing in the mirror a person (crossdressed) who approximates to some extent the internal reality of the individual. I believe many of our readers would just love for us to stuff this sort of thing between the covers, but I won’t do it. I want to expose the readers to good work.”
Read MoreKeynote at Tennessee Vals Christmas Banquet (1998)
In 1998 I was asked to give a keynote at the Christmas Banquet of the Tennessee Vals Transgender Support Group.
Read MoreReading at Outwrite Bookstore (1997)
I did several readings by invitation at Philip Rafshoon’s Outwrite bookstore in Midtown Atlanta. HOn 27 April, 1997, I read Chapter 3 from my novel The Problem.
Read MoreHBIGDA Standards of Care, V. 5 (1998)
I was a consultant for Version 5 of the Standards of Care of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. They were published in 1998 and were replaced by Version 6 in 2001.
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, The Journal of Sex Research (2002)
Dr. Robinson writes that the various points we made about the Standards are unsubstantiated. This is not true; with one exception, our reference section contains citations which corroborate our various points. The exception is our assertion that the Standards place restrictions on access to body-altering medical treatment “without empirical evidence that such restrictions are necessary or even advisable”. We are not sure just what source we could have cited to confirm this lack of data. We believe the burden of proof here is on HBIGDA and Dr. Robinson. Where are the data?
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, Femme Forum (2001)
In her interview in the October issues of Transgender Community News, Jane Ellen Fairax dodges the question of Tri-Ess’ exclusionary membership policy by making it appear that it is the focus of the organization which is under attack. No one, to my knowledge, challenges Tri-Ess’ focus on heterosexual crossdressers and their female partners
Read MoreTranssexuals Just Want to Feel Comfortable in Their Own Bodies (1997)
It’s offensive when heterosexuals attempt to explain homosexuality, having never been there, and it’s equally offensive when nontranssexuals attempt to explain transsexualism. I’m sure Mr. Varnell’s intentions were good, but his opinion is ill-informed and in my opinion should never have seen print. Quite frankly, transsexuals neither need nor want facile analyses of transexualism by nontransexuals.
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, Out Magazine: Response to Biberpeople (1995)
Elizabeth Cohen’s article “Biberpeople” in the May, 1995 issue of Out reminds me of nothing so much as a 1920s National Geographic piece in which white North American journalists try to convey the essence of being African to other North Americans. My goodness!
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, Psychiatric Times (1994)
It’s very like the old Sufi parable of the blind men and the elephant, but with all of the blind men standing in the same spot, experiencing the same part of the elephant. Until outdated notions about crossdressing and transsexualism are discarded, we’re never going to see the elephant
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, San Francisco Bay Times (1995)
Having been out for so long, perhaps Ms. O’Hartigan has forgotten that most post-process transsexuals become woodworkers and assimilate into mainstream society. While stealth transsexuals are fueled by shame, it is arrogant and harmful to not respect their decisions to leave anonymous lives. For this reason, it is incumbent upon others to be damn sure that someone is out before putting their names in print.
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, Southern Voice: Response to Chris Crain (2001)
Chris Crain has it backwards. Transgendered people will not be protected by an Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) without language protecting gender variance—nor will any gay man or lesbian whose dress, speech, or mannerisms vary from the ideal heterosexual norm.
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, Southern Voice (2002)
The results show great similarities in attitudes toward transgendered people and gay men and lesbians. In plain language, the same people who dislike you also dislike us, and your supporters are our supporters. These results significantly weaken arguments that the transgendered are a political liability for the movement. It would be an injustice to ignore them.
Read MoreLetter to SEXNET e-group RE Posting by Ken Zucker (1995)
Now that I have vented my spleen, I would like to urge you to be a good scientist and look at the biases reflected in your posting, and think about how your assumptions have impacted your work with transsexual and transgendered persons. And I would like to invite you to swim out to the boat before it completely leaves the harbor.
Read MoreLetter to APA Monitor (1998)
The murder of San Diego therapist Rita Powers by one of her clients and the subsequent suicide of the client was a tragedy, and we deplore the actions of the client. However, we find insensitive and unprofessional the Monitor’s use of male pronouns and descriptive terms like “gunman” and “the man” to describe the client.
Read MoreLetter to the Editor, RE Michael Alvear’s He Said, She Said, Washington Blade (2003)
Michael Alvear should be called to task for his bigoted “He Said, She Said” column of April 11, and the editor of the Washington Blade should think twice about allowing any more such transphobic drivel in future issues.
Read MoreLetter to Editor Myrna Blyth, Ladies Home Journal (1997)
I happened to channel-surf onto C-Span a week or so ago as you were speaking on women in the twentieth century. You were talking about the internet, dismissing it by saying that in your opinion people primarily turn to and will continue to turn to print sources (i,e, I suppose, LHJ) for information and entertainment, and that electronic forms of communication will never replace them.
Read MoreLetter to Editor Jack Pelham, Etc. Magazine (1995)
There is an unfortunate tendency for female-to-male transsexuals to be reclaimed as lesbian after their deaths. In Brandon Teena’s case, as in Billy Tipton’s, who was discovered to have a female body only after his death, there is no room for doubt that they identified as men. It does them, and all transsexual people, a grave disservice to dishonor them after death by turning them back into women.
Read MoreLetter to Cincinnati City Beat: Got it Backwards (1997)
Mr. Hunter shows his true colors when he writes, early in his article, ” I believe in equal rights for all. But…” There is no such thing “equal but.” Either we are all equal, or a privileged elite looks down on and exploits the rest of us
Read MoreLetter to Boy’s Own (1998)
Under the Benjamin model, it is easy for those who consider themselves to be “true transsexuals” to disparage those who do not profess a desire for those technologies as frivolous or non-serious or unsure of their identity.
Read MoreReview of Transgender Emergence (2004)
Lev does her peers in the helping professions a great service by giving them strategies and case histories that will help them work with gender-variant clients without unconsciously maneuvering the client into an outcome the therapist favors.
Read MoreNTL&A Holdings at The LGBT Historical Society of California
When the Board of Gender Education & Advocacy, Inc. donated the National Transgender Library & Archive to the University of Michigan, we requested duplicated be awarded to the LGBT Historical Society of California.
Read MoreThe U-M’s Labadie Collection Now Includes a T-Shirt That Reads, “Boys Will Be Girls.” (2004)
Highlights from the NL&A will be on exhibit at the Hatcher Graduate library through May 29. Denny’s own favorite item is a 1953 program from Madame Arthur’s the Parisian transvestite cabaret. Herrada points out a pair of narrow, black high-heeled sandals with peach rosettes that were worn by Virginia Prince.
Read MoreLibrary Acquires Materials on Transsexual/Transgender Movement (2001)
The National Transgender Library and Archive (NTL&A), a vast repository of materials documenting the history of the transgender movement, is now part of the University of Michigan Library.
Read MoreThe AEGIS Catalog of Publications (1994)
The nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service maintained a mail-order bookstore with more than 60 products, many of which we produced ourselves. I edited and laid out this booklet, which dates from 1994 or so, and had thousands of copies run on newsprint. I would fill orders every other day or so and drop boxes and envelopes off at the post office on the way home from work.
Read MoreTula: I Am a Woman (1992)
International model Caroline Cossey, also known as Tula, has been in the news a bit lately. Actually, she’s been in the news a lot, ever since a British tabloid exposed her transsexual status. Before this “outing,” she was a very popular model, and had even appeared with Roger Moore in the James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.
Read MoreHBIGDA Standards of Care (1990)
In my capacity as Executive Director and person-in-charge-of-the-mails at the nonprofit American Educational Gender Information Service, I mailed thousands of copies of the 4th revision of the HBIDGA Standards of Care to those seeking information. It was economically feasible to do so because the document required only three sheet of paper! Version 7 of the WPATH Standards of Care, released in 2011, is 112 page long!
Read MoreTransgender Rights: A Continuing Story (2004)
Diversity is not for the squeamish. It means making (and taking) a space at the table that includes people you don’t like, don’t agree with, or who you think are just plain wrong.
—Alexander John Goodrum, disabled African-American bisexual FTM transsexual activist, 1960-2002
Read MoreLibrary Opens Transgender Collection (2004)
Yesterday, Dallas was present at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, where her personal collection of more than 1,500 titles related to transgender issues —the National Transgender Library and Archive — was officially unveiled as part of the University’s Labadie Collection.
Read MoreTwenty-Nine Linear Feet! (2013)
Twenty-nine linear feet! If you’re a book geek, if you’ve spent a lot of time in libraries and archives, you’re already excited. If not, let me the space a collection takes on a library’s shelves is described in linear feet. In this case it’s the cumulative length of the pamphlets, flyers, and correspondence of The National Transgender Library & Archive materials at the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Thousands of books and hundreds of journal titles are housed elsewhere in the archive and aren’t counted in those twenty-nine linear feet.
Read MoreGEA’s Request for Proposals for Award of National Transgender Library & Archive (2000)
Gender Education and Advocacy (GEA) is in search of a permanent home for its National Transgender Library & Archive (NTL&A), a large collection of books, magazines, catalogs, flyers, personal papers, and ephemera about transsexualism and transgenderism currently located in Atlanta, GA.
Read MoreThe Origin of the National Transgender Library & Archive (2004)
When I was fourteen years old, I went to the card catalogue of the public library in the small (pop. 30,000) southern town in which I lived and looked up the words transvestite and transsexual. I was scared to death.
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