A rather lovely quote - trans infighting

"All of us, "trans" or not, are on a journey - to find our authentic selves and find courage to live the lives we want. The word "transition," normally used to denote the transition from one gender role to another, ought to instead refer to a continuous process where one keeps finding, and implementing, one's true, self-identified identity, away from prevailing social expectations."

http://destrantalk.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/transgender-infighting.html

The first TV/CD Support night presented by Support U.

Welcome to the first TV/CD Support night presented by Support U.

This evening is aimed at those wishing to explore the fem-side of their gender expression in a safe and inclusive environment. Come along, meet others in a similar(ish) situation, get some helpful hints and tips from people that can help you out and enjoy some tea and biscuits.

We have space for you to change here if you wish, or come as you are. Partners and supportive allies welcome if you want to bring them along. Don't feel that you have to dress up, coming drab is completely fine.

DATE: 17th December 2015

TIME: 19:00 - 22:00

WHERE: Support U - Resource service for LGBT in Thames Valley

ADDRESS: 15 Castle Street, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 7SB.

MORE INFO: SUPPORT U TV/CD NIGHT

Crossdreamers: Felix Conrad Talks about Transgender Research, Crossdreaming and Beach Clubbing

Crossdreamers: Felix Conrad Talks about Transgender Research, Crossdreaming and Beach Clubbing

Coming Out transgender at work.

Guardian readers and Charlotte Seager

"I got a standing ovation – it was the most amazing day of my life

I worked for the City of Los Angeles and transitioned near the end of my career. I told my HR chief, who brought together a team of managers and we spent a year planning my transition.

When the day came for the announcement, we brought together every manager in the department along with my staff and I got up to tell my story. My colleagues listened, transfixed, and when I got to the end they gave me a standing ovation. It was one of the most amazing days of my life.

I didn’t come to work en femme for about a week, but when I did I got lots of compliments and support. Many people expressed admiration for what I did and called it courageous. I called it necessary. A couple of gay and lesbian co-workers said that I served as an example, and gave them courage for their own coming out. For me, that is the best result of all. – boots4me

A customer shouted: ‘I’m not having my kids exposed to this!’While working in retail it became noticeable that my assistant manager didn’t agree with, as she called it, “my lifestyle”. Things became more awkward when, during Bristol pride, another co-worker said that they didn’t believe “those people” should share equal rights.It wasn’t just my co-workers. Once, while working on the tills, a large gentleman and his family became aggressive. He leaned down to look at my face, gave me an ugly stare and shouted: “Are you a woman?” I looked up, startled. He continued: “Are you a man dressed as one? Are you a man?”

I was stunned. He was incredibly loud and caught me off guard. I replied quietly: “I’m female transgender”.

“For fuck’s sake! Do you see this?’’. He flung his arm in the air and motioned aggressively at my co-workers. “I’m not having my kids exposed to this!’’

What followed was a blur of obscenities and shouting, the customer argued with my manager and it was difficult to get him to leave. He was moved to the next till but continued to spout abuse.

A few months later I was let go. It was clear the decision was partly based on the fact that I’m LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer]. I didn’t fight it, the workplace was unpleasant. I hope that no one in future has to experience anything like this. – Abigail WardI am proud to be the first person to change gender in the RAFWhile working in the RAF for 18 years I had to keep my gender identity a closely guarded secret. It was a personal battle I struggled with all my life, but in 1998 I made the decision to live my own life, not someone else’s.

It took a year to get everything in place before I told the RAF I was transitioning. No one had been allowed to remain in the service as an openly transgender person before, so I expected the worst. Fortunately the people I told were amazingly supportive and I was allowed to stay. I became the first transgender woman to serve openly in the RAF.

We worked everything out together. I moved to a headquarters staff team to transition and adjust to my new military life. To be fully accepted I knew I had to prove I was more capable of doing my job than ever, so I asked to rejoin a frontline squadron. I became highly valued at my job and an atmosphere of respect and support grew with me. Throughout 16 years of service as a trans woman I always felt I was part of a tremendous team, I had their backs and they had mine. Transgender issues in the workplace

 It is the people around you who make or break you. I knew I had a big part to play to earn their respect, and by achieving that I paved a pathway for other transgender people to follow in my footsteps. I have just retired from the RAF and I am proud of my achievements – but I am prouder still of the people I worked with. – CarolineRP

To get a job, I had to give in and apply as a fake male

After coming to terms with being transgender, I applied for hundreds of jobs, and got zero call-backs. I had to throw my hands up in the air, give in, and apply as a fake male. If I was only responsible for myself I wouldn’t have done this, but I take care of my disabled mother so I had to think of her.

I applied for a job to become a teacher for adults with developmental disabilities, and wouldn’t you know it, the first job I applied for as a male, I got. I am now hesitant to come out, because as part of my current role we provide personal care to people, and there are students who have gender preferences. I am scared that being transgender may become an issue with my students – and if they have a problem (or their families do) what is to happen to me? – Aileen Everlast

My opinion at work now counts for a fraction of what it once didI changed gender fine at work, but since transitioning things have altered. I work in a male environment and my opinion counts for a fraction of what it once did. I am routinely excluded from discussions, not informed of meetings and denied equal training. Despite requests, I have been given nothing but unrewarding and unpopular tasks since I transitioned, while new starters are assigned high-profile work.

I don’t know if this is discrimination, but it feels like it. I can’t tell if it’s because I’m trans or a woman. I have no idea what to do about it. Despite this, transitioning is still the best thing I have done in my life. I now have a future. –AnnaKays"

Coming out & being transgender at work.Real life experiences

For transgender men and women, coming out at work can be a nerve-racking experience. So, as cities around the world host LGBT pride events this summer, we want to hear your stories of being transgender at work. Whether you had a supportive workplace or faced intrusive questions, share your experiences.

Transgender child

Part 1: Transgender in Cincinnati

A WEBSITE WORTH READING

Crossdreamers

What Caitlyn Jenner's Story Means for MTF Crossdressers, Crossdreamers and Transgender

Crossdreamers

Countries with most transphobic murders

Examples of Transphobia.....

Being transgender in a transphobic society

Being transgender in a transphobic society leads to moments of sheer desperation

Meredith Talusan

"Imagine that, after having taken the most difficult step of deciding to live as your authentic gender, you find yourself losing the support of family members and friends just as you’re trying to adjust to a new social role. Then you walk out on the street and are discriminated against in various ways, from being referred to as the wrong gender, to being prevented from entering bathrooms or dressing rooms, to being verbally and even physically attacked.

Even if you’re fortunate enough to “pass” so that people can’t tell you’re transgender – which few trans people do early in transition – you must reveal your assigned gender when you present identification, and then deal with people’s often extreme reactions when they feel like you’ve “fooled” them simply for being who you are. If you try to change your name, let alone your gender marker on your ID, you’re told that you can’t do the former without a court order or the latter without surgery. But you can’t have surgery without money, and you don’t have money without family support, especially when people won’t hire you because you’re trans. You can easily find yourself homeless when you have neither a job or a support system, even as the shelter system also discriminates against trans people.

Germaine Greer is not on my list of positive feminists. In Fact, I dislike most of her speeches and most of her views. Why? She is a TERF. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist - a loosely-organized collective with a message of hate and exclusion against transgender women in particular, and transgender people as a whole. They have attached themselves to radical feminism as a means to attempt to deny trans women basic access to health care, women's groups, restroom facilities, and anywhere that may be considered women's space.

My article about TERFism can be read here

Hunted: Gay & Afraid. The rising bigotry

ELLEN E JONES - The Independent 

"Last night's Hunted: Gay and Afraid was a documentary about the recent global wave of regressive anti-LGBT legislation – and not the first, either. The excellent 2012 documentary, Call Me Kuchu, explored similar territory in 2012, as did BBC2's Stephen Fry: Out There in 2013 and Reggie Yates' Extreme Russia, earlier this year.
 All of those documentaries benefited from compelling personal insights into how individuals in the LGBT community have been affected. This Dispatches film, fronted by the former Newsnight reporter Liz MacKean, took a different tack.
 MacKean's film focused not on the victims but on the "villains", specifically the World Congress of Families, an organisation which, though based in the US, has tentacles stretching into Europe, Africa and beyond. View footage of any high-level meeting to draft draconian, homophobic legislation, anywhere in the world, and it seems you'll find a WCF member or affiliate lurking in the corner of the frame.
 Figures such as the WCF managing director, Pastor Larry Jacobs, and Brian Brown, president of the National Organisation for Marriage, were tracked down by MacKean and confronted with the accusation that the effect of their lobbying can be to legitimise violence.
 This isn't news to viewers of the above-mentioned documentaries. It was striking to note how the same lobbying tactics have been replicated from country to country: First, select a biddable local politician as a frontman, then falsely conflate homosexuality with child abuse, spuriously blame gay people for public health issues and repeat as necessary.
 Sadly, MacKean's strategy of pointing out the logical flaws in these arguments seemed to have little effect. Bigotry rarely responds to reason."

The episode ' Gay and afraid' by Chanel 4's Dispatches can be viewed here:

 

 

DISPATCHES

I'm Transgender - I'm Still Human! - Talulah-Eve Brown

"As a transgender woman I have been a victim of transphobic hate crime for a very long time now. When I tell people about my experiences of hate crime their reactions are "OMG. Why don't you report it?", well... if I was to report every single hate crime I faced then I would be in court every single day!

It's not that I don't want to report it because obviously I would love to see justice over this kind of abuse, but over time it has just become something that I'm used to so It just makes my life easier to brush it off.

Police fire at #pride march in Istanbul with water cannons and rubber bullets

"Is Turkish society overtly homophobic and religious? Or have these attitudes been fuelled by the religious regime of Erdogan's New Turkey?"

Police in Turkey blasted water cannons and fired rubber bullets at a pride march on Sunday as people celebrated in the city streets under rainbow banners, according to eye-witnesses in Istanbul.

For many Turks, Gezi symbolizes protest against injustice. And Sunday was no different.

— www.huffingtonpost.com

Homeless ex-con is charged with hate crime after 'pushing transgender woman onto NYC subway tracks

Rolan Reid, 32, was seen on surveillance video pulling a plastic bottle from the garbage and throwing it at a transgender woman before shoving her   

By PETE D'AMATO FOR DAILY MAIL ONLINE

 

A homeless man is charged with attempted murder as a hate crime after pushing a transgender woman onto the subway tracks, authorities said Saturday.

Rolan Reid, 32, was arrested Thursday at Bellevue Hospital, where he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation after approaching and assaulting a woman at the Bleecker Street station in Manhattan.

Reid was originally charged with second-degree attempted murder and second- and third-degree assault, though these charged were upgraded to hate crimes, NBC reports. 

The victim, a 28-year-old woman referred to as Danny by neighbors from Harlem, was standing on the downtown 6 train platform on Monday the morning of the assault, according to police.

She saw Reid spit into a garbage can, after which the man, who was 'acting erratically' according to the police report, asked her, 'What are you looking at?'

Surveillance video shows Reid rushing to a garbage can and grabbing a plastic bottle, which the victim claimed he threw at her, authorities said.

Reid then pushed the woman into the subway tracks and fled, police said, as other riders helped her back onto the platform. She was taken to Bellevue for treatment for scratches and cuts before being released.

Cops caught up to Reid on Thursday night after spotting him on an uptown 6 platform at Canal Street wearing the same shirt and khakis he was wearing on Monday.

Though Reid originally denied pushing anyone onto the subway, he changed his story and told officers, 'I’m going to throw you guys onto the tracks as well.'

The New York Daily News reports Reid has a long history of dangerous outbursts and erratic behavior, with 28 prior arrests on his sheet.

In February 2014, Reid was arrested with a knife on him, and when police asked why, he replied, 'To stab you,' sources told the Daily News.

He was charged with menacing in 2011 after trying to strike someone with a garbage pail, and in 2009 was arrested for hurling bricks around a homeless shelter in Brooklyn.

Man charged with hate crime for 'attempted murder of trans woman'

Transgender Tinder Users Are Being Temporarily Banned For 'Misconduct'

The Huffington Post UK  |  By Sophie Brown

Transgender Tinder Users Are Being Temporarily Banned For 'Misconduct'

Transgender people are apparently being banned from dating app, Tinder, after being reported for 'misconduct'.

The banned users have taken to social media to express their frustration at having their accounts suspended, with many believing that they're being discriminated against because of their gender identity.

The app has a 'report' function, that gives all users the option to flag inappropriate messages or photos, bad offline behaviour and spam accounts.

It appears that transphobic users are misusing the report function to alert Tinder to the accounts of transgender users, who subsequently have their accounts locked while Tinder investigate.

In a statement about the banning process, Tinder said: "Each banned account is individually assessed. If we find that a user has been wrongfully banned, then we ‘unban’ their account."

"This includes instances when transgender users are reported by others, but haven't violated any of our community standards."

Tinder currently only has male and female options for users to select when they sign up, and there's no feature for trans preferences. A spokesperson for the app said: "Unfortunately, [only being able to select male or female] can lead to some users reporting other users when they unexpectedly appear in their recommendations."

"Tinder recognises and believes in the importance of being inclusive of all gender identities and is working towards optimising the experience for everyone."

It's hard to imagine anyone going as far as reporting someone for being transgender, but according to Twitter, there's a huge number of transphobic people who think that it's ok...

9 questions about gender identity and being transgender you were too embarrassed to ask

9 questions about gender identity and being transgender you were too embarrassed to ask

6 Ways to Not Be a Terrible Trans Ally - Tips for LGBT organizations and activists

Tips for LGBT organizations and activists BY BRYNN TANNEHILL

Originally featured in Advocate.com

When our oldest daughter was 2 years old and in day care, she had a habit of taste-testing everything. Thankfully, nothing in the day care room was toxic, but we found ourselves dispensing oddly specific advice in the morning like, “Please don’t eat the green Play-doh today.”

I'm a Trans Man Who Doesn't 'Pass' — And You Shouldn't Either. Trans people aren't 'passing' as men or women. We're being.

Janet Mock

I'm a Trans Man Who Doesn't 'Pass' - And You Shouldn't Either

Out of all the words in the transgender lexicon, “passing” is the one I hate most. And that’s no small feat.


In our rapidly evolving digital world, language is changing faster than ever. Words that seemed to be standard terminology as little as four years ago are now out of fashion, or even taboo. When I began my gender transition in 2011, for example, I called myself a “transsexual,” a word I no longer use because of its implied connection between gender identity and sexuality. Yet as words like “tranny” slink out of circulation, “passing” remains frustratingly well-used, even among the trans* community.


The term “passing,” when applied to transgender people, means being perceived as cisgender while presenting as one’s authentic gender identity. There’s a lot of power in that. When people meet me and assume that I am a cisgender man, I am afforded the privilege of choosing whether I disclose my transgender identity, and when. Many trans* folks pursue this power through clothing choices, hormones, surgery, voice training, or even etiquette lessons, and I’m all for that.


For many of us, the goal of transition is equally balanced between feeling comfortable in our own skin and showing the world who we really are. The problem is that when trans* people use the word “passing” for what we’ve achieved, it diminishes everything that we’re fighting for.


To “pass” for something immediately connotes deception and untruth. Think of plagiarists passing off someone else’s work as their own, a look-alike cousin who could easily pass for his relative, or the mocking lines of Shakespeare’s Portia in Merchant of Venice: “God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.”


To look at trans* people expressing their authentic selves and say that they “pass” for men or women is to diminish their identity by implying that it’s an act. Telling a trans* woman that she “passes” is like saying “You’re not a real woman, but good job faking it.”


If that sounds like a slap in the face, well — it is. Yet both transgender people and their allies continue to use this term, despite prominent advocates like Janet Mock speaking out against it. Even articles that call out the term for being controversial and negative will turn around and use it throughout. The problem is that despite the terrible word we use for it, the concept of “passing” is very real, and creates a hierarchy of privilege that can’t be ignored.


We have to talk about the divide between trans* people who have the privilege of choosing disclosure and those who don’t. It’s a divide as stark as any racial barrier, and erasing the conversation about that difference would be a step backward. But we need to change the words that we use, because the term “passing” perpetuates harmful stereotypes that cast trans* people as imposters.


The idea that transgender people are inherently deceptive is not only insulting, it’s dangerous. Perhaps the most famous example of this danger is the case of Gwen Araujo, who was killed after men who had consensual sexual relations with her discovered that she had “male” genitalia. The murderers mounted the “trans panic” defense in court, claiming that this “crime of passion ... did not merit a charge of first degree murder.” And it worked. The men were convicted only of second-degree murder. Although Araujo’s case may be the most famous, it’s far from the only instance of trans* women being attacked by cisgender men who claim they were deceived.


This leaves trans* people stuck in the middle of an impossible divide: If we are easily, visibly identifiable as transgender, we may be insulted, ridiculed, denied jobs or housing, harassed, attacked, or killed. But if we are not so easily picked out of the crowd, we risk an even more vitriolic reaction if we are “discovered” — now we’re not only trans*, we’re liars too.


At the heart of this problem is the word “passing” itself. Language has power. When people tell us — or worse, when we tell ourselves — that we’re only “passing” as men or women, that our identities are a sham or a mask meant to trick the rest of the world, the narrative of deception takes hold. “Trans panic” murders are the most horrifying consequence of this narrative, but it also seeps into everyday life in subtle ways.


This narrative of deception remains a part of public policy, even though transgender people are gaining acceptance and visibility like never before. I came face-to-face with this stereotype the last time I donated blood through the American Red Cross. The volunteers themselves were very kind and helpful, but when I explained that I am transgender, the Red Cross computer system forced the volunteers to go through the entire blood donation questionnaire with me out loud, in person. Normally these questions would be completed by the donor alone, through the computer, which both increases privacy and allows the volunteers to take donations more efficiently.


My volunteer was flummoxed. “I’ve never seen this before,” she told me apologetically. “I don’t know why it’s making you answer all of this out loud!”


I knew why. “Because trans* people are inherently deceptive,” I said with heavy irony. It was humiliating to be treated that way — as if my gender identity, which I had just voluntarily disclosed, meant that I couldn’t be trusted to answer the questions honestly.


The volunteer missed my ironic tone. She turned to me with a concerned, albeit hesitant look. “Oh ... Is that true?”


If I’d answered yes, I’m sure she would have believed me.


This is the stigma that we’re fighting. Transgender people and our allies must not buy into the idea that we are liars, that we’re putting one over on the world, that we can’t be trusted. To paraphrase Janet Mock, we’re not “passing.” We’re being.


Trans* people need a new word to replace “passing.” I prefer "being recognized."


When I’m recognized as male, it means that the people around me can see who I truly am — thanks in part to the hormones, clothing, name, and pronouns I’ve chosen. Being recognized still acknowledges that work on my part and the changes I’ve made to align my gender presentation with my internal gender identity, but it also leaves the power to define that identity in my own hands. I have always been male, even before I knew it myself. When others correctly recognize my gender, they’re not being misled. They are respecting the person I am and the way I choose to show myself to the world.



Transgender people, please: Stop “passing.” Leave the outdated, insulting, and dangerous terminology behind, and let the world recognize your authentic, courageous lives.

TERF - their campaign against trans people - #TERF quotes to make your blood boil.

The TERF movement is particularly effective in their campaigns against trans people and trans equality as they consistently couch their actions as political/feminist/lesbian/radical/womanist critiques of gender and are therefore welcomed in spaces that would reject the same rhetoric from right wing organizations. TERFs routinely enjoy acceptance in progressive environments such as academia and radical left-wing organizations.

So, when these radical criticisers of gender, speak out against trans individuals, our ears burn...and burn...

(LINK TO BELOW: theterfs.com )

Bev Jo: They expect we’ll be shocked to see statistics about them being killed, and don’t realize, some of us wish they would ALL be dead.

Luckynkl: SCAMs (Surgically and Chemically Altered Males) are nothing more than MRAs (Men’s Rights Activists) in dresses.