In case there are those foolish enough to think my gender rant from the other day (c.f. Never Enough Gender Rants Department, 4/14/02) was nothing more than whiny complaints, let me assure you that the points I raised were valid. However, the general trans situation is actually even worse than I let on; from that perspective one might say I am whining. But you can't make that claim without knowing just how bad it gets. Hopefully these articles from Alternet will help clarify the issues at stake:
Nightmare in Miami--the story behind a Mexican transsexual who applied for asylum, only to be incarcerated... and raped twice.
On the Back of the Bumper--while many gay rights groups give public lip-service to the transgendered, they rarely back trans-inclusive legislation, and this situation is causing ever-growing rifts between gay-rights advocates and trans activists.
Girls Will Be Boys--Women's colleges are grappling with the issue of transgender students, mostly by retrenching themselves in their traditional gender role and causing problems for female-to-male (FtM) transgendered students.
Dicks, Damsels and Dilemmas--A member of the National Organization for Women comes clean about how FtMs are causing complications for feminist theorists.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of New Genitals--a sneering article regarding the decision by the City of San Francisco to cover sexual reassignment surgery as part of their health care coverage for city employees.
And if that isn't sobering enough, there's always the Remembering Our Dead site, which lists a depressingly large, and growing, list of people who died as a result of trans phobia. The worst part is, the list is incomplete and only includes those deaths that can be verified. Imagine how many people were ignored utterly.
Believe me, I might complain about my lot, but ultimately it's only a note in a chorus of growing agitation. You haven't heard the last from us, to be certain. It'll only get louder.
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