Queer is many things. It’s a critique of identity– critiquing/questioning the boxes and categories we are given to cage ourselves with. Example, we can be gay, straight, or bi. These are the choices we have. But they don’t describe reality and they do more to contain us than to liberate us. (Although, I have to note that people do find empowerment and community within these identities and I don’t mean to downplay that.) It’s a critique of the construction of sexuality– formed by the ideas we have to conceive of it. If who you fuck is what you are (i.e., “gay”) — then that’s a sexual identity. Or we can do sexuality differently– it’s not who we are but what we do– our acts. I may engage in homosexual acts, but what does it mean to say “I am gay”? And how does that identity restrain me? (Also, many argue that asserting an identity like “gay” or “bi” actually uphold the binary of “hetero/homo” and, as with all binaries, one will be privileged over the other. Therefore it can be argued–and I agree with this–that upholding a gay identity can actually work against liberation by reinforcing heternormativity and asserting, rather than destabilizing, the hetero-homo binary.) If you’re interested in that, read Jagose’s Queer Theory: An Introduction (I love this book but it’s dense and heavily theoretical and some people hate theory). Also, the notion of the “homosexual” was actually invented in the mid 1800s. Gay people didn’t exist before that. I’m not saying women didn’t fuck women and dudes didn’t fuck dudes, but they were engaging in *acts* and didn’t label themselves something because of it– they didn’t *identify* by what they did erotically. [Read more →]
This post would have appeared earlier, but I only just now got the gore and debris cleaned up. I allude to the obstreperal lobe tissue dripping from the bunkhouse rafters. That’s right, I blew another lobe, and no doubt you did, too, when you heard about the insane bill that just passed in Missouri.
Missouri’s state legislature, like that of many states, has invaded the personal bodies of its citizenry and enslaved their uteruses. Without compunction of any kind, this cruel and bloated governing body swaggers around the countryside, snapping its fingers, yelling “jump,” and smirking when the captive uteruses ask “how high?”.
There was already an extremely obnoxious law in Missouri forcing women seeking abortions — 24 hours in advance of the procedure — to sit through a lecture (bring a book) on the supposed mental and physical devastation that abortions supposedly cause. The idea being that, after a heartstring-tugging indoctrination with patriarchy-replicating, godsick disinformation about the certainty of a post-abortion lifetime of regret, cancer, depression, infertility, desperate yearning and insanity, women would voluntarily abdicate their personal bodily sovereignty in order to incubate fetuses for the state, which state would then abandon all parties concerned at the conclusion of gestation.
So things were bad enough in Missouri before, but with this new law they’re even worse. Instead of being forced to endure this patronizing abortion-is-bad-for-you crap via telephone, women are now required to audit in person. Providers must also describe the adorable little fingers and toes, the teensy little heartbeat, the precious little turned-up nose of the “unborn child.” Then they have to offer the woman an ultrasound and a chance to hear for herself how adorable the teensy heartbeat is. Then — no shit — they have to hand over “a state-produced brochure proclaiming: ‘The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.’” If the woman is pretty young, they have to show her a couple of seasons’ worth of “Gilmore Girls,” because that’s such a realistic portrayal of the long-term results of teen pregnancy. Then they lock her in a room for an hour or two with a statue of the Blessed Virgin who weeps tears of blood. [Read more →]
Copied from http://libcom.org/news/war-zone-athens-three-people-dead-many-buildings-burning-general-strike-march-turns-battle-#279 | An employee of the burnt bank speaks out on tonight’s tragic deaths in Athens – please spread
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tonight’s tragic deaths in Athens leave little space for comments – we are all very shocked and deeply saddened by the events. To those (on the “Occupied London” blog even) who speculate that the deaths might have been caused purposefully by anarchists, we can only reply the following: we do not take to the streets, we do not risk our freedom and our lives confronting the greek police in order to kill other people. Anarchists are not murderers, and no brainwashing attempted by Greek PM Papandreou, the national or the international media should convince anyone otherwise.
That being said, and with developments still running frantically, we want to publish a rough translation of a statement by an employee of Marfin Bank – the bank whose branch was set alight in Athens today, where the three employees found a tragic death.
Read the letter, translate it, spread it around to your networks; grassroots counter-information has a crucial role to play at a moment when the greek state and corporate media are leashing out on the anarchist movement over here in Greece.
I feel an obligation toward my co-workers who have so unjustly died today to speak out and to say some objective truths. I am sending this message to all media outlets. Anyone who still bares some consciousness should publish it. The rest can continue to play the government’s game.
The fire brigade had never issued an operating license to the building in question. The agreement for it to operate was under the table, as it practically happens with all businesses and companies in Greece.
The building in question has no fire safety mechanisms in place, neither planned nor installed ones – that is, it has no ceiling sprinklers, fire exits or fire hoses. There are only some portable fire extinguishers which, of course, cannot help in dealing with extensive fire in a building that is built with long-outdated security standards.
No branch of Marfin bank has had any member of staff trained in dealing with fire, not even in the use of the few fire extinguishers. The management also uses the high costs of such training as a pretext and will not take even the most basic measures to protect its staff.
There has never been a single evacuation exercise in any building by staff members, nor have there been any training sessions by the fire-brigade, to give instructions for situations like this. The only training sessions that have taken place at Marfin Bank concern terrorist action scenarios and specifically planning the escape of the banks’ “big heads” from their offices in such a situation.
The building in question had no special accommodation for the case of fire, even though its construction is very sensitive under such circumstances and even though it was filled with materials from floor to ceiling. Materials which are very inflammable, such as paper, plastics, wires, furniture. The building is objectively unsuitable for use as a bank due to its construction.
No member of security has any knowledge of first aid or fire extinguishing, even though they are every time practically charged with securing the building. The bank employees have to turn into firemen or security staff according to the appetite of Mr Vgenopoulos [owner of Marfin Bank].
The management of the bank strictly bared the employees from leaving today, even though they had persistently asked so themselves from very early this morning – while they also forced the employees to lock up the doors and repeatedly confirmed that the building remained locked up throughout the day, over the phone. They even blocked off their internet access so as to prevent the employees from communicating with the outside world.
For many days now there has been some complete terrorisation of the bank’s employees in regard to the mobilisations of these days, with the verbal “offer”: you either work, or you get fired.
The two undercover police who are dispatched at the branch in question for robbery prevention did not show up today, even though the bank’s management had verbally promised to the employees that they would be there.
At last, gentlemen, make your self-criticism and stop wandering around pretending to be shocked. You are responsible for what happened today and in any rightful state (like the ones you like to use from time to time as leading examples on your TV shows) you would have already been arrested for the above actions. My co-workers lost their lives today by malice: the malice of Marfin Bank and Mr. Vgenopoulos personally who explicitly stated that whoever didin’t come to work today [May 5th, a day of a general strike!] should not bother showing up for work tomorrow [as they would get fired].
- An employee of Marfin Bank [greek original]
KKE/SYRISA:
1. In Parliament the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has accused the government for the deaths, claiming it was a result of agents provocateur fascist groups. The claims of the Communist Party are based on the fact that 50 fascists tried to enter the PAME demo bearing the flags of the union earlier in the morning. The fascists were spotted, chased and sought refuge behind riot police lines.
2. Accusing the extreme-right as being behind the deaths, the Coalition of Radical Left (SYRISA) has declared in Parliament that the government cannot pretend to be in grief for the loss of life, as it has been attacking human life by all means possible.
Parents have a new and welcome option this summer for their transgender or gender non-conforming child — a weeklong, overnight summer camp called Camp Aranu’tiq. Its organizers recently held a reception in the Boston area to introduce the program. In attendance were several new-age parents who, instead of rejecting their child’s persistent gender non-conformity, are seeking ways to be understanding and helpful.
Parents have traditionally been told gender non-conformity is “just a phase,” and psychiatric studies back that up assessment. Yet the research comes in part from the work of Dr. Kenneth Zucker, whose Toronto clinic provides treatments that encourage the child to accept their natal sex and associated gender. One has to wonder if Zucker’s research is truly without bias.
New-age parents, frustrated at seeing their child become even more miserable after trying this approach, have begun looking elsewhere for help. And they have good reason to. Dr. Caitlin Ryan, head of the Family Acceptance Project, says that gay and transgender children rejected by their families were three times more likely to use illegal drugs, six times more likely to report high levels of depression and eight times more likely to have attempted suicide. No parent wants this for their child.
The professional consensus on how to treat gender non-conforming and transgender children comes from The World Professional Association for Transgender Health. WPATH’s Standards of Care require significant involvement and guidance of a behavioral health professional to treat the trans child. But Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a new breed of sympathetic psychiatrist working at Children’s Hospital Boston, points out that no process exists to train and certify professionals to play this role.
Fortunately, there are an increasing number of resources to help. Trans Youth Family Allies will work with organizations and individuals to help identify the services and support needed, and to provide the education and training useful to parents. TYFA’s tireless Executive Director and Founder, Kim Pearson, is herself the mom of a transgender son.
Parents may also find their way to the free Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, which this June will have expanded programming for children, youth and families.
Another great resource for parents is the groundbreaking book The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper.
A child may become even more distressed when sex characteristics start developing that don’t align with the child’s sense of gender. New-age parents are increasingly turning to programs like the Gender Management Service clinic of Children’s Hospital Boston to delay puberty, and if indicated, start cross-hormones to trigger the right puberty. GEMS founder and endocrinologist Dr. Norman Spack recently observed:
We are beginning to see great success. Patients aren’t trying to commit suicide, they’re bullied less at school, relationships are better and mammoplastic surgery may not be necessary.
Armed with these new resources, parents are becoming more visible and vocal in advocating for their children. Brave parents and their children first appeared on television in 2006 in an episode of 20/20 that Barbara Walters devoted entirely to the subject of transgender children. Others have since appeared on Oprah, Maury Pauvich, and, in the last few months, on the Tyra Banks Show and the Doctor Oz Show.
Unfortunately, parental support does not free a child from discrimination by the world at large, but caring parents have become powerful non-transgender allies in the drive for change. Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, recently spotlighted the poignant testimonies of three parents in the hearing for proposed transgender non-discrimination legislation in Massachusetts:
Listen to the words of Ken and Marcia Garber, of Quincy, whose 20 year old son died after years of harassment based on his gender identity. Ken, a square-jawed fire fighter with a grey crew-cut, spoke at the State House today about how hard it was for their son to live as a second class citizen. “When you discriminate against transgender people, you discriminate against everybody who loves them,” said Ken.
A mother, Marion Freedman-Gurspan, said “In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I’d have to stand here and beg for basic civil rights protections for my child. I thought that went out in 1964!”
Another father, David Hardy, spoke about his concern for the safety of his three kids: the one who is on duty in Kabul, the one who is a rock-climber and the one who is transgender. “We really worry about him,” said Hardy.
Transgender people have had a tough time being recognized as ordinary citizens. The presence of supportive parents changes everything. These parents lend critical third-party credibility to our quest for basic human rights and dignity. With them leading the way, there is no doubt that we’ll see social advances for transgender people at what feels like warp speed compared to what we have seen so far.
Are you coming to the Bash Back! 2010 convergence in Denver?
We’re still looking for workshops and people to be on panels! The deadline to submit a workshop proposal is this Friday! Email bbworkshops (at) gmail (dot) com. For more info on the convergence check out http://bashback2010.org/
Submit workshops for anything, really! This is YOUR convergence and we want YOUR voice heard! We are also looking for people to be on our panels. One panel in particular that needs folks is an Older Queers panel.
Also, we are looking for people to facilitate the caucuses. The format is a little complicated so here’s the explanation: http://bashbacknews.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/bash-back-convergence-caucus-proposal/
Three homeless LGBT youth who need you, or someone like you, with room in their hearts and their homes.
Youth need homes in Danbury, Putnam and Waterbury/Prospect
M* is an 18 year old gay boy, currently in hair design school in Danbury. When he came out to his mom, she threw him out, threatened to out him at school and physically assaulted him. The intimate partner violence shelters don’t accept boys over 18. Do you have a safe place that he can stay for a while, as he finishes school and gets on his feet? For more information this young man, please call Nicole Sabel at the Danbury Women’s Center at (203) 731-5200 or on her cell at (203) 313-1509.
T* is a transgender 16 year old boy who was assaulted by his step dad because of his refusal to wear ‘girl’s’ clothes. He currently goes to school in Ansonia and is in a foster home in Prospect. The foster home is not a good fit and the foster parents have asked that he be moved. English is not T’s first language but he is growing in fluency every day. For more information about T or to inquire about becoming a foster parent, please email Ann Dileone at Ann Dileone
S* is a 19 year old lesbian, in the Putnam area, whose family rejected her due to her orientation. She is a sweet young woman, a hard worker and would love to work on a farm in exchange for room and board. For more information about this young woman, please email Ann Adams
If you, or anyone you know, would like more information about any of these youth, please email or call the contacts listed above, call me at 860.232.0050, ext 302 or email me at:
PS: Want to find out more about foster parenting or mentoring in general?
Join us at our open house, Thursday, May 6th, 5:30 - 7:00 PM at Casey Family Services, 777 Main Street, Bridgeport. We will have light refreshments, lots of information and time for you to get your questions answered.
Street Trans Action Revolutionaries (STAR) was founded as a caucus within Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in 1971 to put forth trans demands in the gay liberation movement. The co-founder of STAR, Sylvia Rivera, was a Puerto Rican trans woman who led the Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969 along with other trans of color. Yet gradually, the gay liberation movement was co-opted by white middle-class folks who are gender-conforming and became conservative. Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), a New York based gay rights group was founded by ex-members of GLF who did not appreciate its radicalism and wanted to form a single-issued organization that only focused on reformist gay rights. GAA’s conservatism and transphobia showed when they dropped the trans demands while advocating citywide anti-discrimination rights in the 70s. They saw actions put on by STAR and Sylvia Rivera as too “dangerous,” “crazy,” and “extreme.”
We are Israeli queers trying to bring about an end to Israel’s apartheid and occupation of the Palestinians in any legitimate non-violent way open to us, including supporting the Palestinian-led BDS campaign. We are appalled by attempts made at the City of Toronto to use censorship measures against the pride parade’s participation of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA). We wish to pledge our support to QuAIA in this time of unjust political persecution for their courageous standing for Palestinian rights and against any form of oppression.
It has become custom among pro-Israelis to falsely accuse BDS promoters of practicing censorship, while actually all BDS promoters do is ask artists and intellectuals to act on their own conscience and political motivation. On the other hand, BDS promoters and other human rights solidarity groups and activists are the ones who face real threats and acts of censorship, directed against them, involving authority and budgeting mechanisms. Perhaps people at the City of Toronto are taking their lead from the Israeli Knesset, who recently has passed another one of its apartheid laws against Palestinian citizens of Israel, known as the Nakba law. The Nakba law prohibits government budgets or sponsorship for organizations who commemorate the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Israel.
In this atmosphere of silencing and denial, in Israel and across the Western world, it is of vital importance to remind people the atrocities that are performed by Israel and encourage them to get involved, as done by QuAIA. Israel still rejects the Palestinian refugees’ right of return as stipulated by UN resolution 194. It violates numerous international laws and court of justice decisions in its settlements and apartheid wall enterprises, confiscating Palestinian lands and resources and segregating populations. Israel applies a cruel siege on Gaza which puts the population on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. It executes Palestinians without trial, imprisons thousands, destroys homes and terrorizes communities.
It is due to these crimes and atrocities that QuAIA is desperately needed in Toronto’s pride parade, doing their indispensable solidarity work against all forms of censorship and oppression. QuAIA’s work is in line with queer struggles going on also within Israel. These struggles join the struggle of the Palestinians, a struggle that should be shared by all queers to end oppression and injustice.
An annual report by the US State Department on human rights in Zimbabwe has said that gays and lesbians in the country face harassment and rape by people trying to ‘cure’ them.
It said that lesbians were sometimes raped, even by their family members, to try and turn them straight, while gay men were forced into heterosexual sex.
Associated Press reports that Amanda Porter, political officer at the US Embassy in Harare, said yesterday: “Some families reportedly subjected men and women to corrective rape and forced marriages to encourage heterosexual conduct.”
Sodomy is illegal in Zimbabwe and punishable with up to a year in prison or a heavy fine. [Read more →]
CALLING ALL GENDERVARIANT/ GENDERQUEER/ AND TRANS HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONERS! !
The time has come. Jacoby Ballard (trans health educator, herbalist and yoga instructor) and Devynn Emory (trans health educator, healer, massage therapist) are preparing an anthology about the vast and varied approaches to trans healthcare. This collection will include excerpts written only by gendervariant, genderqueer and trans practitioners/ providers; we are often written about, but rarely get to represent our own communities, wellbeing, and healthcare. This anthology is a resource for both healthcare providers and the trans and gendervariant community that includes first hand experiences of what its like to work with the community, information to empower trans people about our own bodies, facts and tips on how to get the healthcare you need in a safe environment, and will offer insight to other practitioners about what questions arise in our work with trans and gendervariant people and how we approach or resolve such questions. Our goal is to open
up the conversation of trans healthcare to include more than just the medical system, and to integrate other issues that inevitably affect our bodies and wellbeing, such as legal issues, the prison industrial complex, trauma and abuse, and more.
Where you come in:
We need YOU, as a practitioner with experience working with genderqueer/ gender non-conforming/ trans health to offer your wisdom, facts, tips and experience. We are seeking a more clinical perspective, rather than a personal narrative, although we do wish to hear your struggles and joys. We are in search of acupuncturists, Chinese Medicine practitioners, voice specialists, hormone specialists, yoga instructors, massage therapists, healers, fertility specialists, midwives, surgeons, psychotherapists and the like. If you are trans or genderqueer identified and provide healthcare for these communities, we want YOU! We are interested in topics such as: augmenting the side effects of hormones, treating the physical effects of binding and tucking, trans pregnancy, psychotherapy from a trans-positive and -affirming perspective, treating the effects of abuse and harassment, and more!
please spread widely!
we can’t wait to hear from you!
feel free to inquire with questions and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: AUGUST 15, 2010
My favorite quote so far: “There is still an overall presumption of heterosexuality,” the biologist Bruce Bagemihl told me. “Individuals, populations or species are considered to be entirely heterosexual until proven otherwise.” While this may sound like a reasonable starting point, Bagemihl calls it a “heterosexist bias” and has shown it to be a significant roadblock to understanding the diversity of what animals actually do.
The Laysan albatross is a downy seabird with a seven-foot wingspan and a notched, pale yellow beak. Every November, a small colony of albatrosses assembles at a place called Kaena Point, overlooking the Pacific at the foot of a volcanic range, on the northwestern tip of Oahu, Hawaii. Each bird has spent the past six months in solitude, ranging over open water as far north as Alaska, and has come back to the breeding ground to reunite with its mate. Albatrosses can live to be 60 or 70 years old and typically mate with the same bird every year, for life. Their “divorce rate,” as biologists term it, is among the lowest of any bird.When I visited Kaena Point in November, the first birds were just returning, and they spent a lot of their time gliding and jackknifing in the wind a few feet overhead or plopped like cushions in the sand. There are about 120 breeding albatrosses in the colony, and gradually, each will arrive and feel out the crowd for the one other particular albatross it has been waiting to have sex with again. At any given moment in the days before Thanksgiving, some birds may be just turning up while others sit there killing time. It feels like an airport baggage-claim area.
Yo, we SERIOUSLY need some workshop proposals for the 2010 Bash Back convergence!
BB! Denver is seeking workshop proposals for the 2010 Bash Back! convergence this May 27-30. We hope this weekend is more than just a couple days with our favorite radical queermos–we want to talk about cool things with awesome people, and build new connections between our struggles. Workshops are one way to do that, and are an integral part of the convergence planning this year. Several workshop proposals have already arrived, but lets get some more!
We are seeking workshop proposals for this year’s convergence especially on the following topics: Anti-Oppression, Mental Health, Palestinian Solidarity, Strategies for Physical Well Being, Response to Sexual Assault, DIY Sex Toys, DIY Other Sexy Things, Sex Work, Direct Action (including Bloc Tactics, Mobile Soundsystems, Analysis/Theory), Anarchist and Queer Theory, Prison Abolition, Prisoner Support, Kink, Spirituality, Group Presentations, Films made by Anarchists, Queer Films, and Permaculture. Your workshop idea doesn’t fit into any of those categories? Awesome, submit it anyway! And we want to hear what you queermos are doing in your communities, so send that too!!!
Please include: workshop title, presenter(s), description, ideal time length, and your material and logistical needs. Including blackboard needs–this convergence will probably not be at a school! The deadline for workshop proposals is May 2nd at 10:32 pm EST, and a materials deadline for accepted workshops is May 9th at 8:59 pm PST. Workshop proposals should be sent to: bbworkshops |at| gmail |dot| com. Questions about workshops are welcome as well.
For more info on the convergence, check out the website @ http://www.bashback2010.org/
Loved it!