Irish trans people's right to their identity delayed by a year
The Transgender Equality Network Ireland are urging supporters to take action after being refused right to request new birth certificates
5 Simple Rules For Understanding Trans People
5 Simple Rules For Understanding Trans People - Getting all 101 on you. Back to basics!
1. Every trans person is different.
I really, really cannot stress this enough. Every trans person is going to have their own experiences, opinions and feelings. There’s no universal experience and I can’t speak for everyone. I can’t really even speak for…
Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender: COMMENT SOUGHT
The Australian Government has developed draft national guidelines to ensure consistent processes for changing gender in Commonwealth records, and the way sex and gender information is collected.
These guidelines build on the amendments to the passport policy for sex and gender diverse applicants announced in 2011. They are also a commitment under the National Human Rights Action Plan, which outlines the actions the Australian Government is taking to implement and improve human rights protection. These include actions to address discrimination against people who are transgender or intersex.
The Australian Government seeks views from interested parties about the draft guidelines available HERE
LGBTQ* Petitions Currently Circulating
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Recognize non-binary genders.
Legal documents in the United States only recognize “male” and “female” as genders, leaving anyone who does not identify as one of these two genders with no option. Australia and New Zealand both allow an X in place of an M or an F on passports for this purpose, and the UK recognizes ‘Mx’ (pronounced “Mix”) as a gender-neutral title.
This petition asks the Obama administration to legally recognize genders outside of the male-female binary, and provide an option for these genders on all legal documents and records.
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As of March 18th, 2013, 79,000+ signatures are still needed.
Should you wish to add your signature to this petition, click HERE.
(via theselfmademen)
Source: knowhomo
New state bill on transgender students
Sacramento —
California public schools would be required to allow transgender students to use school facilities and participate in activities and on sports teams that match their gender identity under a bill introduced at the Capitol.
State law already prohibits schools from discriminating on the basis of gender identity, but backers of the measure, AB1266, say some schools and school districts don’t provide access to restrooms, locker rooms or sports teams that align with the identity of transgender students.
The bill would make it clear that the law requires that, they said.
“Transgender boys are boys, and transgender girls are girls, and this bill ensures they are treated as such,” said Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Service, which is backing the bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.
Barring a transgender student from using a locker room that aligns with his or her gender identity can create barriers to achieving needed credits for graduating, backers said, and stopping a student from participating on a sports team diminishes involvement in school.
They said some students feel unsafe at school when they are required to use a restroom that doesn’t match their gender identity. The proposed law includes the phrase that the access to programs, facilities and activitiesshall be granted “irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”
Opponents say the proposal is extreme and could result in male and female students sharing locker rooms or showering together.
Karen England, executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute, a Sacramento-based organization that opposes many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights bills at the Capitol, said there is no legal requirement for how one determines a gender identity, and that leaves the school situation open for abuse.
“It is solely at the discretion of their opinion of themselves,” she said. “We should not be mandating state law based on that.”
Current law does not specify how schools should accommodate transgender students, and England said that’s a good thing because it allows local districts to make their own determinations.
Several school districts already have policies that mandate the kinds of access specified in the bill, including the Los Angeles Unified School District and the San Francisco Unified School District.
S.F.’s longtime policy
The San Francisco policy has been in place since the mid to early 1990s, and district officials know of about 150 current middle school students and 300 high school students who identify as transgender, said Kevin Gogin, the program manager in school health programs for the district. Those numbers come from a yearly survey the district gives to students and represent about 1.5 percent of those enrolled.
San Francisco Unified, Gogin said, is the only public school district in the country to survey whether students identify as transgender as part of a larger risk behavior questionnaire funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Students must identify as a certain gender “exclusively and consistently” and officials work with them to ensure they have access to the same activities and facilities as other students of that gender, Gogin said.
He said there have been no problems with students claiming to be transgender when they are not, nor have there been complaints from parents.
“These are students who have a sense that their gender identity is not matching the sex they were born with,” he said.
What kind of assistance a transgender student receives depends on the individual’s needs, he said.
Elsewhere in California, transgender students have sought policies like the proposed state law.
Let me talk to you about books.
Specifically, one book. This book.
This book should be a best seller. This book should be required reading for graduating from high school. Before you get that diploma, you read this book.
This book deals with debunking “Neurosexism,” which is a very fancy term for all of that evolutionary psychology bullshit that people spill about those “brain differences” between boys and girls.
This book debunks such myths as:
- Boys are better at math than girls
- Women make crappy lawyers/business CEOs/etc, as their brains are not cut out for aggression.
- Men make crappy counselors/primary school teachers/primary parents/etc, as their brains are not cut out for empathy.
- MEN ARE BUILT FOR GOING OUT AND HUNTING WHILE WOMEN ARE BUILT FOR STAYING HOME AND BABYMAKING IT’S NOT SEXISM IT’S JUST BIOLOGY
- And many other such myths.
Furthermore, this book covers topics such as:
- Neurosexism and gender perceptions in multiple races (as this is not a singularly white experience, just as the western world isn’t a singularly white experience)
- Sex discrimination in the workplace, and how women are (or, more often, are not) allowed to behave
- How science is used (badly) to support many of these claims
- Experiences of trans* people, both through interviews and empirical studies.
AND FINALLY - It is all brilliantly researched, cited, compiled - and it’s easy to read! Cordelia Fine actually manages to be funny while writing this, which I think is important, because it makes all of this information infinitely accessible.
Delusions of Gender has reinforced what Oberlin taught me: The gender binary is stupid and arbitrary, and dangerous. And it is a self-perpetuating bias that needs to be addressed to be overcome.
(via socialistexan)
Source: faetrouble
Here are the first two of my “Ask me about my pronouns” design! These will be available for purchases as t-shirts and other products, if enough people are interested!
(via pinkpanthers)
Source: petrichoriousparalian
New study finds genderqueer people face unique patterns of abuse and discrimination
The study, A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, was just published by the LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School. It examines the experiences of genderqueer individuals and others who clearly identified as neither a man nor a woman.
You can find the summary and full report at the link above or at the Williams Institute website.
