TresSugar

Gender Bending: Are Girls & Boys More Alike Than We Think?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:45:12 -0700

I've always thought that gender is more of a sliding scale than a binary choice - you're not just one or the other, but that everyone falls somewhere in the spectrum between fairy princesses and Hulk Hogan. It's a snips, snails, and puppydog tails day in the news - gender, and our perception of it, is hot.

Ever wanted to know what gender your computer thinks you are? With a tiny click you can find out what your browser history says about your skirt or pant-wearing habits (gross generalization, noted.) Using data from the web demographic wizard Quantcast, the tricky program will analyze you in a second. Perhaps proving my sliding scale theory (apologies to the scientific theory) I scored 50 percent male and 50 percent female. How about you?

Really who wouldn't want a tutu and a wand? To see what else is happening in the world of gender (hint: Third-Sex toilets and naked parades!) read more.

A school in rural Thailand discovered that a full 10 percent of the boys consider themselves to be transsexuals, and are uncomfortable with using the boys' bathroom. The solution? A third-sex toilet was installed to serve the middle of the spectrum population. I'm sure you're wondering - the little picture on the door is split down the middle, half boy, half girl.
The Olympics gender-testing is underway. A throw-back to the 1960s when (gasp!) women athletes had to parade naked in front of judges to prove their girlihood. It's a scientifically dicey practice, as some women do test more masculine than others due to a chromosomal birth defect. The tests have never uncovered a gender switcheroo, but one case in the modern Olympics exists. In 1936 a German athlete was forced by the Nazis to compete as a woman. He/she scored fourth.

Maybe like the US is embracing the purple-state from the melding of red and blue, gender is moving lavender from the girlie pink and the little boy blue? Is that some sugar, spice, and everything nice?

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Greece Grants Gay Marriages, Japan Awards Gender Rights

CitizenSugar — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:00:41 -0700

With a Greek mayor who presided over outlawed gay marriages yesterday saying, "The laws on marriage simply do not specify any genders. To me, therefore, if something is not banned by law it is not illegal," now facing jail time for his actions, Japan's government is actually moving toward broader gender ideas.

Japan’s House of Councillors (like the US Senate) has unanimously passed legislation which will allow people with gender identity disorder to officially change their sex, giving Gender Identity Disordered (GID) people the ability to change the way the world perceives them - on paper. To see how, read more.

Gender identity disordered people (someone who sees themselves as having a different psychological make-up than their biological sexual orientation) must agree to live as the opposite sex physically and socially to take advantage of the law. The bill states that this condition must be confirmed by two separate doctors, the applicants must also be over 20 years of age, have no children, be unmarried and have non-functioning reproductive organs due to sex-change surgery.

If this law passes their House of Representatives those with GID will have less difficulty finding employment, voting and traveling as their appearances are obviously not in accordance with official documentation.

Are ideas on a strict gender binary, softening worldwide? Will the difference between male and female someday be seen as a sliding scale? Are rights a step in the right direction?

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Australian Court Grants Teen Breast Removal

TresSugar — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:58:02 -0700

A teenager in Australia, born a biological female, has recently been given permission by a family court to get a double-mastectomy in order to more resemble the gender he identifies with - male. Alex, a 17-year-old, has been on hormone treatment since he was 13 to prevent menstruation, and he had to petition the court because he is a minor.

Family Court chief justice Diana Bryant showed great sensitivity to Alex's situation. If he's going to live as male, she argued, his breasts would obviously be a problem. "Overwhelmingly, the evidence was that it was in his interests. And I made that order." Want to hear Catholic groups' responses as well as mine? Then read more

Catholic groups view the decision as irresponsible, and to this day, "gender identity dysphoria," which describes the feeling transgendered people have that their biological sex is incompatible with the gender they identify with, is often spoken of as a "disorder," or even in this news story, as a "psychological condition."

Theorists of gender like Judith Butler argue that all gender identities are dysphoric - that none of us inhabits them as comfortably as we think we do. (Some women don't feel "feminine," some men don't think they're "manly," and every other discomfort in between.) Transgenderism, in a way, just makes all of our gender dysphoria more obvious. What are your thoughts on this issue? Have you ever known anyone who transitioned, or who didn't feel they were born the "correct" sex?

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Transgender Americans: We're Not Mentally Ill

TresSugar — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:00:00 -0700

The American Psychiatric Association considered homosexuality a mental illness until 1974. Today it still considers transgender Americans mentally ill. According to the authoritative Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), transgendered people suffer from Gender Identity Disorder. Activists argue that the diagnosis reinforces false stereotypes about people who are not "gender normal" and in some cases is used to deny people civil rights.

During this year's APA conference in San Francisco, activists are working to make the classification a thing of the past. They say:

It is time for culturally competent psychiatric policies that recognize the legitimacy of cross-gender identity and yet distinguish gender dysphoria (which often requires a sex-reassignment surgery) as a serious condition, treatable with medical procedures.

Members of the ADA, some transgender themselves, are also arguing that identifying with or expressing a gender different from assigned birth sex is not, in itself, grounds for diagnosing a mental disorder.

Do you think it's time the APA stops considering people who don't identify with conventional gender mentally ill?

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Do You Identify as Bisexual?

TresSugar — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:30:00 -0700

Woody Allen once joked that being bisexual doubled your chances of getting a date on Saturday night.

Part of the problem bisexuals have is that lots of people (even in the queer community) don't take bisexuality all that seriously. It's a phase, some say; just choose already, command others. What does it mean to choose a sexual identity that is fluid and nonfixed, something that contradicts the idea of identity itself?

According to researcher Lisa Diamond, an associate professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah who followed
79 nonheterosexual women for a decade, a woman's desire for both sexes endures throughout the years. "These findings are therefore more consistent with the model of bisexuality as a stable identity," she argues, "than a transitional stage." (Granted, Diamond had a small pool of research subjects, and they were disproportionately white and middle class.)

There's no question that we're living in a time when young women feel less of a stigma in desiring women or having sex with them, but for some it is just a phase of faux-mosexuality. Do you identify as bisexual? (Notice you don't get a "not sure" option!)

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Gender, Law, and Marriage: We've Got a Ways to Go

TresSugar — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:00:00 -0700

"How do we define legal gender? By chromosomes? By genitalia? By spirit? By whether one asks directions when lost?"

A fascinating essay written by a transgendered woman underscores the complexity of gender identities in the US along with analysis of how the arbitrariness of marriage laws ignores that reality.

Jennifer Boyland and Deirdre Finney got married in 1988, at which point Boyland identified as male. By 2000, Boyland had begun transitioning to female. Deirdre remained married to her, which meant that, technically, they were in a same-sex marriage in a state that didn't recognize them at the time. (Maine has since became the fifth state in the US recently to recognize same-sex marriages.)

Imagine, if you will, basically being unrecognized by a government you elect and pay taxes to. To find out some of the more absurd cases, read more.

Some states don't recognize sex changes. So if Boyland moved to such a state, she would only be able to wed another woman. (Try getting your head around that for a moment.)
J’noel Gardiner in Kansas, a postoperative transsexual woman, married her husband, Marshall Gardiner, in 1998. When he died in 1999, she was denied her share of his $2.5 million estate by the Kansas Supreme Court on the grounds that her marriage was invalid.
A 1999 ruling in San Antonio (Littleton v. Prange) allowed marriages only if the parties had different chromosomes. This meant that a lesbian could marry a transgendered male-to-female or a woman with androgen insensitivity syndrome. (People with AIS are genetically male, with one X chromosome and one Y chromosome in each cell, but because their bodies are unable to respond to certain male sex hormones, they may have mostly female sex characteristics or signs of both male and female sexual development.)
Her lawyer drew up this dizzying hypothetical regarding the law's absurdity with respect to her identity: ". . . Mrs. Littleton, while in San Antonio, TX," he mused, "is a male and has a void marriage; as she travels to Houston, TX, and enters federal property, she is female and a widow; upon traveling to Kentucky she is female and a widow; but, upon entering Ohio, she is once again male and prohibited from marriage; entering Connecticut, she is again female and may marry; if her travel takes her north to Vermont, she is male and may marry a female; if instead she travels south to New Jersey, she may marry a male.”

It seems about time that citizens with gender identities that don't fit into the rigid binary male or female are recognized with respect by the law. Here's to hoping we get there soon!

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Writer Boldly Goes Where No Mother Has Gone Before

TresSugar — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:30:00 -0700

I've had a love/hate relationship with Ayelet Waldman for some time, but the more I read her work and listen to her speak, the more I realize that my ambivalence is with the subjects she discusses more than it is with her: motherhood, work, feminism, and the idea of "having it all."

Waldman, whose husband is writer Michael Chabon, caused a bit of controversy a few years ago when she declared (in a rhetorically bold and questionable move) that she loved her husband more than her children. She said she wanted to contrast herself from the women in her circle she noticed were no longer sexually involved with their husbands because they'd subsumed their identities to being mothers. Although she loved her children, she wanted to make a point she wouldn't sacrifice her identity and sexuality on their behalf. (Needless to say, if I were her kid, I'd have been pretty hurt by that statement!)

To find out more about Waldman and her relationship to feminism, read more.

In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, she discusses her new book Bad Mother and the dissonance between the feminism she inherited from her feminist-consciousness-raising mother and the one she and her generation of women inhabits where the lines of choice are blurrier. Particularly, she talks about the abortion she had after a bad amniocentesis result.

"I’m 44 years-old, and I think I’m part of the first generation of women raised with feminist mothers, and when I first was feeling frustrated, angry and depressed about being stuck at home, I really kind of turned on that message. I said this was a lie, this whole thing was a lie. We can’t have it all...

At a very basic level we have the same idea of what it means to be a feminist. I absolutely call myself a feminist, and what I mean by that is that I think your opportunities should not be constrained by your gender, that women should be offered the same opportunities as men, and my mother feels that way too. I think the difference is...a kind of gradation and shades of grey.”

Did your mother teach you, directly or indirectly, about feminism? What lessons did you learn and do you think they're relevant to your life now?

Do Pride Parades Hurt the Gay Rights Movement?

TresSugar — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:30:00 -0700

June is Gay Pride Month, a time when the LGBT community and its supporters celebrate its heritage, culture, and liberation. Cities around the world typically hold festive "pride parades" where members of the community show that they are proud of their sexuality and gender identity. But some supporters believe that the spirit of such parades furthers the stereotypes that homosexuals are flamboyant, sex-crazed deviants.

Writing in the Root, Cord Jefferson makes the point that the LGBT community should take cues from Martin Luther King, Jr. during this crucial moment in the struggle for equal rights. He points out that MLK dressed in gentleman's clothes, practiced his oration, and advocated nonviolence, because to do otherwise would have played into his detractors' expectations.

Jefferson thinks that the pride parades either entertain those who already support equal rights or feed into dangerous stereotypes. He writes:

Knowing that there are people - voters who have the power to deny them rights - who will judge them based on the flamboyance of their appearance in one parade, why hasn't the gay community decided to tone down the pride festivals?

It's impossible to compare civil rights struggles as perfect parallels. For more on this, read more.

While the civil rights marches of the last century were somber occasions, pride parades are typically celebrations during which gay people proudly assert: "We're here, we're queer, get used to it." In addition, the parades are characterized by their diversity - one float may feature proudly, flamingly flamboyant dancers in skimpy outfits, and the next one could be the PFLAG float with gay parents and their children all dressed in khakis. (PFLAG is Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.)

Ass-less chaps and thongs might not be appropriate at a rally protesting Prop. 8, for example, but does the LGBT community have to get rid of them altogether?

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Sonny and Cher's Child Transitioning From Female to Male

TresSugar — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:30:00 -0700

"Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity. He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his 'coming out' did nearly 20 years ago."

- Chastity Bono's spokesperson, Howard Bragman, in a written statement about Bono's decision to identify as male. Transitioning doesn't always mean gender reassignment surgery. According to Mara Keisling, executive director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality, "It's sort of a general term that encompasses both or either a social transition or a medical transition." Although Keisling said she didn't know Chaz's case specifically, to transition means that he will now be "known, seen, viewed" as male.

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Matthew Shepard's Mom: Hate Crimes Bill Is Necessary

TresSugar — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:00:00 -0700

"I hear that argument all the time: special rights for special people. It's not even the point. What this does is bring us up to a level of equality in prosecution . . . Personal bias in officers and prosecution is absolutely indicative of what's going to happen sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. And we need the vehicle to be able to address it somehow. And the crimes that are committed as hate crimes? They're meant to send a message to a community, not to an individual. It's a totally different type of crime."

-Judy Shepard on The Rachel Maddow Show. She was asked how she would respond to those who think that the justice department shouldn't get involved in hate crimes or that those protected under hate-crime laws are being "privileged" over victims of violent crimes that weren't committed because of bias. Shepard also responded to North Carolina Republican representative Virginia Foxx's claim that Shepard's son Matthew wasn't killed because he was gay.

To watch the video to find out what the bill that may become a law actually does, read more.

The Matthew Shepard Act (officially, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, or LLEHCPA) expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The bill also:

Removes the current prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected activity, like voting or going to school
Gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue
Provides $10 million in funding for 2008 and 2009 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes
Requires the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people (statistics for the other groups are already tracked)

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