The intention of this paper is two-fold. First, it makes explicit a little known and poorly understood area of human experience: transgender. Second, it explores curriculum possibilities opened up by recent legitimating of transgender people through the Gender Recognition Act (2004). The Act foregrounds the necessity for a forum in schools to debate, reflect and understand the full implications of changes to legislation. This paper proposes that, rather than approaching transgender issues through biological science or through the levelling gaze of citizenship, issues of gender identity can be understood without censure through the visual arts. Moreover, the visual arts offer a 'safe place' to discuss issues around the body because they allow distance and, in offering visual representations rather than text-based work, make visually concrete what science ethically cannot.
Although the political and social climate has changed substantially in recent years, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual young adults still face a vast array of challenges. Discrimination, homophobia, lack of family support, depression, substance abuse, homelessness, and low self-esteem are only a few of the many factors that may compromise GLBT students' chances of success in college. In this interactive workshop, learn more about the lifelong coming out process and the issues affecting GLBT students. The workshop will also explore how GLBT persons have been represented in young adult literature over the past three decades and how this literature can be used to support GLBT students and to inform the broader student population. Finally, the workshop will provide information on BSC's new GLBTA Pride Center and the services it provides to the entire BSC community.
Smoking prevalence in the lesbian and gay community exceeds that in nearly all other demographic groups. In 2001, we undertook a four-year research project to study tobacco industry targeting of the lesbian and gay community. We researched formerly-secret tobacco industry documents, analyzed tobacco content in the gay press, interviewed leaders of LGBT organizations, and conducted focus groups with LGBT smokers and nonsmokers. We found that tobacco companies began to advertise in the gay press in the early 1990s, initially wary of unfavorable publicity and quick to deny doing so when confronted. At the same time, the tobacco industry began to sponsor community organizations and events, especially those for AIDS-related causes, which helped burnish the industry's reputation. Many leaders and members of the community viewed this attention from major corporations as a sign that the community was becoming visible and more acceptable. Our study found that most LGBT leaders did not consider tobacco a "gay issue". Focused on gay-specific concerns, such as homophobia, they saw tobacco as irrelevant or even a distraction from their missions. Twenty two percent of organizations we studied reported accepting financial support from the tobacco industry. Only 24% thought tobacco was one of the top three health concerns of the community. Many believed that smoking was solely a personal choice, not an issue of concern for the community as a whole. The queer press normalized smoking. Images of tobacco, most conveying positive or neutral messages, were common. We found that many ads for products other than cigarettes glamorized smoking, and many articles having nothing to do with smoking were illustrated with tobacco use images. Only 11% of all non-advertising items we found (images and text) imparted a negative message about tobacco use. Very few LGBT publications had policies against accepting tobacco ads. By the time the study ended, an increasing number of LGBT advocates were working in tobacco control. We recommend activities that promote a community dialogue about the real costs of accepting tobacco industry advertising and funding. For example, some groups are urging LGBT politicians and organizations to sign pledges not to take tobacco industry money. As mainstream tobacco control has begun to recognize the need of the LGBT community for services, we recommend that LGBT organizations apply for funding, perhaps using the infrastructures the community has developed to provide services for breast cancer and HIV. Additional research to develop models for getting tobacco on the community's agenda would be useful. For example, understanding how alcohol and other drugs became seen as gay-specific community concerns—even though, like tobacco, they affect everyone—could be helpful. Finding ways to challenge the views of some young gay people—that most queers smoke—might make it easier to help them remain smokefree. Perhaps a greater understanding of the coming out process—in which one's authentic self challenges societal norms—could help arm young people with the strength to resist tobacco. Finally, one of the lessons of the larger LGBT movement itself—the importance of holding institutions accountable for the harm they cause—might help the community stop thinking of smoking as a personal issue, and think of it instead as a systemic issue, with a culpable industry at the heart of the problem. * Many community organizations define themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). When possible, we included bisexual and transgender people in our study. Throughout this paper, the terms LGBT, queer, and gay are used interchangeably to acknowledge the diversity of the community and to respect the variety of ways in which LGBT people identify themselves.
The literature on male-to-female transgender (MTF) individuals lists myriad problems such individuals face in their day-to-day lives, including high rates of HIV/AIDS, addiction to drugs, violence, and lack of health care. These problems are exacerbated for ethnic and racial minority MTFs. Support available from their social networks can help MTFs alleviate these problems. This article explores how minority MTFs, specifically in an urban environment, develop supportive social networks defined by their gender and sexual identities. Using principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), 20 African American and Latina MTFs were recruited at a community-based health care clinic. Their ages ranged from 18 to 53. Data were coded and analyzed following standard procedure for content analysis. The qualitative interviews revealed that participants formed their gender and sexual identities over time, developed gender-focused social networks based in the clinic from which they receive services, and engaged in social capital building and political action. Implications for using CBPR in research with MTFs are discussed.
Transgender identified athletes have competed at all levels in sports, though most remain hidden and silenced. In the Spring of 2003, USA Hockey banned a transsexual male-to-female (MTF) athlete from participating in the Women's National Ice Hockey Tournament. By deeming her ineligible, USA Hockey demonstrated how tightly they aim to control sex and gender in women's sport. A series of four open-ended interviews were conducted with a trans-identified hockey player who was banned from competition. The reading of sex and gender through a feminist lens is employed to further view the subjectivity of transgender bodies in sport. Through the voice of one transgender athlete, we confront ideas of body policing, identity marking, and identity self-maintenance within ice hockey in the United States.
Bei der Beschäftigung mit queeren Lebensformen taucht immer wieder die Frage danach auf, wie "queere Räume" zu beschreiben sein könnten und was sie ausmacht. Eine Möglichkeit, queere Räume zu erkunden, wird in nachfolgendem Bildessay über Bildassoziationen versucht. Die Bilderserie spiegelt die Schwierigkeiten wider zu definieren, was ein queerer Raum ist und was ihn ausmacht. Die vorgeschlagenen Antworten auf die Frage sind so unterschiedlich wie die Akteur_innen, die sie formulieren, und die politischen und theoretischen Perspektiven, aus denen sie sprechen. Ich möchte mit diesem Essay zum Nachdenken und Diskutieren anregen. Es enthält einige Versuche, queere Räume einzukreisen, reflektiert Zwischenergebnisse, die ich zum Teil wieder verworfen habe, und viele offene Fragen. Bilder bieten sich dazu an, den Raum für Assoziationen zu öffnen, und ermöglichen neue Zugänge. Zugleich ist die Auswahl der Bilder beschränkt (und subjektiv); dadurch wird der Blick in eine ganz bestimmte Richtung gelenkt. So ist dies ein künstlerischer und persönlicher, nur hintergründig wissenschaftlicher Versuch, sich dem Thema zu nähern. ; In the engagement with queer forms of living the question often arises as to how "queer" spaces can be described. The subsequent visual essay offers one possibility for examining queer spaces through image associations. The series of images reflect the difficulties in defining and identifying queer space. The suggested answers to the question are as different as the interpreters who formulate them and the political and theoretical positions from which they speak. I would like to highlight this essay for further reflection and discussion. It contains attempts at encircling queer spaces, reflections on initial results that I have in part already disregarded, and many open questions. Images provide the possibility to maintain a space for associations and new approaches. At the same time the essay's selection of images is constricted (and subjective) and guides the gaze in a particular direction. Thus this is an artistic and personal but only marginally academic attempt to approach this topic.
These edited Keynote remarks from the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review Symposium on transgender law address how questions of law reform strategy relate to critical understandings of neoliberalism. The paper addresses questions of administrative governance, identity documentation, the relationship between law and social movements, and questions of economic and racial justice as applied to transgender politics.
Identificarse como "latino" en los Estados Unidos es instaurar una diferencia política radical que intenta contrarrestar las nocivas asociaciones socio-raciales que conllevan los apelativos "illegal", "spic", "greaser", u otros aún menos apetecibles, tanto como las vivencias marcadas por la subalternidad política de los sujetos que habitan estas designaciones en la esfera pública de la contemplación nacional. Cuando se trata de latinos que a su vez se identifi can como queer1 la aseveración es aún más complicada, ya que esta sobreidentidad califi cativa se articula privilegiando el hecho de que lo signifi cativo de semejante postura identifi catoria es contrarrestar la heteronormatividad y sus diseños racializados en el entorno estadounidense. Entendido así, "ser" un latino queer implica una postura política que enfrenta una hegemonía que rehúsa califi car lo "latino", mucho menos un "latino queer", como algo cuyo signifi cado podría designar algo más que su asociación con la "ilegalidad" en la esfera pública. Y si esta aseveración sorprende, vale recordar las observaciones del conocido periodista Frank Rich que estallaron en la blogosfera después de que aparecieran en las páginas del The New York Times: "Gay people [.] aren't the surefire scapegoats they once were. Hence the rise of a jucier target: Hispanics. They are the new gays, the foremost political piñata" (12, énfasis mío).
The podcasting movement is frequently described as "Democratization of the Media." This case study research about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) podcasters from late 2004 to early 2008 reveals and characterizes how podcasting has yielded results of empowerment, voice, and a new media force.
The podcasting movement is frequently described as "Democratization of the Media." This case study research about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) podcasters from late 2004 to early 2008 reveals and characterizes how podcasting has yielded results of empowerment, voice, and a new media force
The podcasting movement is frequently described as "Democratization of the Media." This case study research about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) podcasters from late 2004 to early 2008 reveals and characterizes how podcasting has yielded results of empowerment, voice, and a new media force.
In the course of less than forty years, the Spanish political and cultural scenario has changed drastically, particularly in relation to civil rights. Social movements, especially feminist and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) organizations, have been successful in putting demands on the political agenda that have translated into gender equality, same-sex and transgender laws. Looking at definitions of equality, this article explores the implications of some postmodern theories that promote the analysis of political intersectionality for some of the recent laws that are presented as progressive and transformative in Spanish policy making. The analysis will explore two case studies: samesex marriage and equality policy law texts, discussing the conception of intersectionality and equality. In addition, the definition of the feminist political strategy in which these policies are framed is addressed. Both case studies show that the policies are conceptualized within a liberal and assimilationist framework, since neither the male norm nor the sexual order is profoundly questioned.
Die vorliegende Studie zum Thema "geschlechternormen–inkonforme Körperinszenierungen" ist die theoretisch fundierte, empirische Überprüfung der These von Judith Butler, daß eine mögliche Verbindung zwischen queer Praxen und der Subversion der herrschenden Geschlechterordnung bestehe. Die Arbeit untersucht die Beziehung zwischen Körperpraxen und anderen Praxen, insbesondere Arbeit und politischer Praxis. Der Begriff "geschlechternormen-inkonforme Körperinszenierungen" bezieht sich auf drei Praktiken bzw. drei Arten des Verhaltens von Personen in Bezug auf deren eigenen Körper: Er bezieht sich erstens auf Transsexuelle, die ihren Körper mit medizinischen Mitteln haben verändern lassen; zweitens auf transgender Personen, die zeitweise oder permanent cross dressing praktizieren ohne physische Veränderungen an ihrem Körper vorgenommen zu haben; und drittens auf drag kings und drag queens, die auf der Bühne ein anderes Geschlecht als im Alltag darstellen. Alle Personen inszenieren eine geschlechternormen-inkonforme Geschlechtlichkeit, d. h. eine Geschlechtlichkeit, die nach hegemonialen Kriterien nicht mit dem 'wahren' oder 'ursprünglichen' Geschlecht dieser Person übereinstimmt. Die Methode des empirischen Teils der Studie besteht aus der Datengewinnung durch das "Problemzentrierte Interview" nach Witzel und der Datenanalyse durch die "Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse" nach Mayring. Die Studie geht davon, daß die Überwindung der Herrschaft das Verschwinden der sozialen Gruppen (hier: Männer und Frauen), zwischen denen eine Herrschaftsbeziehung besteht, einschließt, denn diese Gruppen sind die Produkte der Praktizierung von Herrschaft. Die Studie zeigt, daß im interviewten sample – statt einer Subversion von Herrschaft – eine kontinuierliche Reproduktion von Geschlechtern und Geschlechterhierarchien stattfindet. Die .pdf-Datei mit der vollständigen Arbeit enthält Zusammenfassungen in englischer, französischer, kastilischer und deutscher Sprache, die länger als das vorliegende abstract sind. ; The present study dealing with the topic 'geschlechternormen-inkonforme Körperinszenierungen' (approximately: body styling / body formation which is contrary to the hegemonic gender rules) is a theoretically based, empirical scrutiny of Judith Butler's thesis, that there exists a possible connection between queer practices and the subversion of existing gender hierarchy. The thesis explores the relationship between body practices and other practices, especially labour and political practice. The term 'geschlechternormen-inkonforme Körperinszenierungen' refers to three practices or three different ways of a person's behaviour towards his or her own body: it refers firstly to transsexuals, who changed their body physically; secondly it refers to transgender people, who occasionally or permanently do cross dressing in everyday life without having changed their bodies physically; and thirdly on drag kings and drag queens who show a different sex on stage than in everyday life. All people stage a 'geschlechternormen-inkonforme Geschlechtlichkeit', that means a gender that doesn't coincides with their "true" or "natural" sex due to hegemonic criteria. The method of the empirical part of the study consists of obtaining data through the 'Problemzentriertes Interview' (problem-focussed interview) invented by Witzel, and the analysis of the data through the 'Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse' (qualitative content analysis) invented by Mayring. The study assumes that the deconstruction of domination includes the disappearance of the social groups (in the case at issue: men and women), between whom exists a relation of domination, because that groups are products of the practices of domination. The study shows, that – far from this – there happens within the interviewed sample a permanent reproduction of genders and gender hierarchies. The .pdf-file of the entire thesis consists summaries in English, French, Castilian, and German language longer than the present abstract.
Antoinette Pezet is a transgender woman and founding member of the Circle of Hope spiritual community and Metropolitan Community Church affiliate in Portland, ME. She attended Bangor Theological Seminary and is ordained in the Church of Spiritual Humanism. Prior to moving to Portland, Pezet lived in New York City was a devout Catholic. In this interview, Pezet discusses her spiritual and coming out journeys, as well as her family history and political organizing work in fighting poverty. ; https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/usmlgoh/1015/thumbnail.jpg
The importance of offering a lesbian and gay American history course was initially impressed upon me in 1986. A newly minted Ph.D., I was teaching my very first class: a U.S. history survey at San Francisco State University (sfsu). The course required each student to review a book of his or her choice on any topic in U.S. history. One student chose John D'Emilio's Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970 from my list of suggested titles and wrote a thoughtful, enthusiastic review.1 At the bottom of the review was a handwritten note: "Thanks for recommending this book. As a gay man, I didn't know I had a history." Didn't know he had a history?! My fellow historians will share my sense of dismay and my determination to remedy this unthinkable state of affairs. I have always included the history of gay men and lesbians in my various classes, not as a sop to "political correctness" and not because it is an amusing/interesting "add on" to "real" history, but because it is a vital component of a more complete understanding of American political, economic, social, legal, military, and religious history. For example, my courses that focus on the twentieth century include the significant role that the campaign against homosexuals played in McCarthy-era persecutions; in "U.S. Historical Geography" (which examines the role physical geography has played in the development of the United States), we study how and why the coastal cities of New York and San Francisco emerged as major centers of homophile populations; in women's history courses we examine the controversy and contributions lesbians brought to various feminist movements.
