4/18/13

Turkey's First Transgender TV Reporter, Michelle Demishevich. An Amazing Woman.

Demishevich's life is one many transgender woman can identify with in some way. She acknowledges knowing and willingly giving up cisgender male privilege to live her life authentically. One filled with anguish but incredible rewards.

Michelle's first interview did not begin ostentatiously when her request for information was rewarded with: "Are you kidding me? Can a transvestite be a journalist?"

"Bianet" a Turkish English language news source interviews Ms. Demishevich and asks her "It's been a month so far. How is it going?"

"It was challenging actually. Because you are the other and they always make you feel like that. But you have to be strong. For example, we have common space for eating and smoking. The very first days people were poking each other and pointing me out. Women would go past me and laugh, I had no clue. In my opinion, women should have understood me better. Every time I was going through security, guards were causing issues even though they knew where I was working. The very first 15-20 days, I used to cry every time I got back home. But I made up my mind, I wouldn't give up. Security guards can call my boss every single morning. I love my work environment. I am just like everyone now. My gender identity is out of the question now. I love my job. At first, people were so surprised to see me write scripts and make announcements. I can say that people were astonished to see me as journalist. This is so important for me. I don't want to lose my job due to little mistakes. I get up at 6:30am every morning to go to work."



What kind of feedback do you receive from people?

I first reported from Sirkeci Police Headquarters. Officers were informing other journalists but ignoring me. I asked one of them why he was not responding my questions. I said I was a journalist, too. "Are you kidding me? Can a transvestite be a journalist?" he said. "You could be a cop, I can be journalist too," I said. They were handing out bulletins. They passed one to me as well, probably thinking that I was a lunatic or something. Other journalists ignore me, too. I greet them but they never greet back. There are a handful of journalists who don't hold a distance. I guess the rest will get used to it.

If I face discrimination at work, I cry all night and get back to work the next morning. I don't care, I suffered enough for my identity already. I came to this point by struggling. Nothing can bring me down. I learned how to stop fearing.


Please read the whole interview on Bianet Turkey's First Trans TV Reporter Reveals Her Story. So often Turkish news sources revictimize our family after they are murdered in Turkey. Perhaps this will be a new beginning.



4/17/13

The Life and Tragic Death of Transman Robert Eads

By the time Robert Eads found a doctor who would treat him it was too late His ovarian cancer has advanced too far.

Robert Eads ~ “I wish I could understand why they did what they did, why they had to feel that way… And I know in a way they’ve contributed to my dying here. But I can’t hate them. I don’t hate them. I feel sorry for them… What makes me most sad is they probably felt like they did the right thing,”

Southern Comfort is a 2001 documentary film about the final year in the life of Robert Eads, a female-to-male transsexual. Eads, diagnosed with ovarian cancer, was turned down for treatment by two dozen doctors out of fear that treating such a patient would hurt their reputations. By the time Eads received treatment, the cancer was too advanced to save his life. Wiki Southern Comfort



Uploaded on Dec 28, 2008

Trailer/intro do documentário "Southern Comfort", sobre e com Robert Eads, um homem transsexual norte-americano que morreu de cancro depois de vários médicos lhe terem negado assistência médica... por causa da sua transsexualidade.

Read more about Robert Eads at the Journal of Global Health.





Get Equal Texas @getequal_tx Says Expect Arrests: #SB237NOW #LetUsWork

The Dallas Voice headline "GetEQUAL TX expects up to 20 arrests at action in support of state ENDA" got my attention.

Some one's actually contemplating civil disobedience in the Lone Star? Dangerous stuff. As a Soulforce member I will tell you from experience Texas police have been known to up the anty for civil disobedience here making normally nominal charges very expensive.

So whats it all about? What's the ruckus? The bill that would help us live our lives without the discrimination we face on a daily basis, SB237 is being held up in committee.



Michael GetEqual Diviesti, Texas state Lead for GetEqual explained why this is so important to him on facebook he would be willing to be arrested just to bring attention to it. It's a story nearly every LGBT Texan can relate to.

I was fired for being gay.

It's not a story that generally comes up in conversation and, I happen to have the sort of personality where, when I talk about something, I relive it. So I tend not to talk about it often but, I feel it is important to talk about because of what is going on right now in the legislature.

Many of you know that I served in the United States Army and made my way to Texas by way of Ft. Hood. Upon my discharge, I decided to move to Austin. My first job out of the military was working for the Austin State School working with residents that had many different mental disabilities. At the time, the campus was a state funded institution. After working there for the first year, I made the decision to try to go to college. The only issue was that I needed a steady schedule in order to do so, thus, I moved to a different department at the same campus. As usual, I received compliments for picking up the new job quickly and for going above and beyond to ensure that I was carrying out my duties.

Shortly after the switch, however, my relationship with my new boss drastically changed. The events that made that happen were disturbing. My roommate at the time, Jeff, had just received a promotion over my boss. The very next time she saw Jeff, she rushed towards him, slapped him in the face and said, "I can't stand you you little faggot". I was floored. Right in front of me and a few other witnesses, one of which was her boss, and not a single reprimand. She wasn't even sent home for the day to cool down.

For the next several days, I laid low, afraid that she might find out that I was gay and not knowing what she might do... A week went by and I no longer had to wonder. In conversation with friends of hers on campus, she found out that Jeff and I were roommates and inferred from that that I must be gay. She began jabbing me about it and even preaching to me. So a few days later, when she called me into her office, I felt like something was up so, I hit the memo button on my cell phone and recorded the conversation which was very short. "Get your stuff and leave. I can't have a fucking faggot working for me. You're fired".

I took this audio to my ombudsman who assured me that, while it was clear that I was fired for being gay, I had no legal recourse. This is the reason I've been fighting for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and it's why it's so important that we pass anti-discrimination laws. It's not going to save everyone from living this tragic ordeal but, it can give us some legal leverage when we have the ability to prove that we were fired simply because of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

It is why I think it is important that Texas pass Senate Bill 237 which would simply give the Texas Workforce Commission, the ability to flag and investigate workplace discrimination claims. It is why I need for my friends to help me make sure that this doesn't happen to others.

You can help in 1 of 3 ways (or you can do all three).

- You can sign the petition at the bottom of this page, urging senators to vote on, pass, and co-author the bill

- You can call each of those senators, once a day, or once a week, and ask them to support the bill (the numbers are provided in the page)

- you can use the "donate" button at the top right of the page to help us to continue to push for this important bill.



4/15/13

Lisa Vogel Michigan Womyn's Music Festival: Dogs Welcome But Not Trans People


Lisa Vogel's letter to her community never once mentioned the greater trans community's concerns about being excluded from a woman's only space, i.e. public accommodations. Vogel was pissed off about the boycott petition and the subsequent decision by Andrea Gibson to cancel her appearance and the future boycotts announced by Sick of Sarah on facebook and the Indigo Girls in their letter to our community.

*Visiting michfest.com you will find information on accommodating your dogs.
*It has been pointed out this post's title may only be half right since Trans Men are welcome. Lisa Vogel's 2006 press release "set it straight' validates that observation.
"From its inception the Festival has been home to womyn who could be considered gender outlaws, either because of their sexual orientation (lesbian, bisexual, polyamorous, etc.) or their gender presentation(butch, bearded, androgynous, femme - and everything in between).


April 11, 2013

Letter to the Community

On March 28, an activist named Red Durkin posted a petition on Change.org asking artists and attendees to boycott the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival until organizers fully and openly welcome all self-identified women. This petition has intensified a long-running debate about and within the Festival, a debate that has often included intense misrepresentations about the political heart of this gathering. There is no doubt that complex political debate is healthy and necessary within our communities; however, a boycott, within this context, fails to advance resolution and only seeks to exact damage. As the Festival’s producer for her full 38 years, I write today to clarify the festival's herstory, intention and my desire for understanding within our communities, as well as to clarify where I stand on these issues.

I have listened, I have talked, I have struggled, and I will continue to do so. I do not fear our differences. But I do fear the harm being done to the space held so dear by so many – the space known around the world as “Michigan” – by the way this conflict is playing out. And thus I hope you will consider what I have to say with an open heart and open mind, as I pledge to continue to listen to the diversity of voices in this struggle.

Why We Gather
The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival is a soulful gathering of womyn from all over the world, created 38 years ago during the height of feminist organizing. Built from the ground up by womyn’s innovation and womyn’s labor, filled with art, performance, play and discourse – we live together for a week in the woods and create community as we know it in no other form. There’s freedom on that land that womyn living under patriarchy rarely touch; freedom to walk in the woods at night alone without fear; to be clothed or not clothed depending solely on comfort and personal style and without judgment; to move and work and play and love without the socio-cultural constraints that uniquely push down on all womyn, all the time. For these reasons, Michigan remains vital and vibrant even though countless other institutions from that burst of consciousness are gone. For these reasons, there’s no real debate about the value of the Festival – it is precisely why passions run so strong on all sides of this issue.

When we started Festival 38 years ago, we did so to make a home and a space where we could grow our own definition of female identity. At the time, the mere idea of a female identity autonomous of male identity was revolutionary. Over the course of nearly four decades, we have continued to discover, (re)define and live out what it means to be womon-identified and to recognize and honor diverse gender expression among womyn. Every August we do the work of growing into a community inclusive and meaningful for womyn from diverse class and cultural experiences, different abilities and ages - a community alive with a value system grown from the core of radical feminism. Over time, some clear collective values have emerged: communal cooperation; a willingness to show up and listen; an ethos of love, compassion, and active care for others; an undercurrent of strength and fierce resiliency; and a commitment to remain teachable. These values are the foundation of the Michigan community. These values reflect the intention of the space.

About the Intention
The Festival, for a single precious week, is intended for womyn who at birth were deemed female, who were raised as girls, and who identify as womyn. I believe that womyn-born womyn (WBW) is a lived experience that constitutes its own distinct gender identity.

As we struggle around the question of inclusion of trans womyn at the festival, we use the word intention very deliberately. Michigan holds this particular lived experience of womanhood as honorable, meaningful, unique and rich. Our intention has always been coupled with the radical commitment to never question any womon’s gender. We ask the greater community to respect this intention, and to value the complexity and validity of every gender identity, including that of WBW. The onus is on each individual to choose whether or how to respect that intention.

Rejecting Transphobia
I reject the assertion that creating a time and place for WBW to gather is inherently transphobic. This is a false dichotomy and one that prevents progress and understanding. I believe in the integrity of autonomous space used to gather and celebrate for any group, whether that autonomous space is defined by age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, gender, class or any other identity. Whatever spaces we carve out in our community to encourage healing and rejuvenation should be accepted, and we should support each other in this endeavor. Nobody should be asked to erase the need for autonomous spaces to demonstrate that they are sisters in struggle.

Clearly, our community struggles with the wide-ranging opinions that have formed around this question. Womyn who love the Festival deeply have intense feelings on all sides of this issue. There have been a great many good, loving and smart discussions between womyn who profoundly disagree, and there have been disrespectful and dehumanizing behaviors on both sides of the debate that demean all of our feminist political ideals. We all must stand up against hate speech, harassment and threats in any form, against any individual and against all of our communities.

I passionately believe the healing in our community will occur when we unconditionally accept trans womyn as womyn while not dismissing or disavowing the lived experience and realities of the WBW gender identity. Sadly, the extreme voices on this issue have driven much of the discussion, and the aggressive rhetoric leaves little room for building the alliances that are critical to everyone’s survival, growth and integrity.

We must find ways to be allies in this discussion. I know that for some, WBW space seems flatly incompatible with honoring and supporting trans womyn within the larger womyn’s communities. Regardless, we must listen to those who believe in the power of every womon’s voice, and commit to stay in a process with open hearts, open minds, and abiding respect even when that conversation gets incredibly hard. Space for WBW and a true solidarity with the trans community can and does co-exist.

Our Commitment to Each Other, My Commitment to You

The extreme positions being repeated, stoked, and disseminated on the internet do not represent the complex wholeness of the Festival voice, and they overshadow the more measured communication that will heal this divide. I call to each one of us to approach this issue in the purest example of sisterhood, to wrestle with the extremely difficult questions of our relationships with one another, and to do so always with compassion and abiding respect.

I commit to promote, foster and participate in continuing discussion on and off the land in hopes that we can all move towards greater understanding of each other’s perspectives. I will, however, turn my focus away from the destructive voices that do not seek progress, but only stoke division. As Festival works to survive and thrive into her fifth decade, I will do everything in my power to ensure that she continues as something beautiful, more complex than ever and yet true to the principles that spurred me to start this celebration in the first place.

I invite you to join me on this ongoing journey.

Lisa Vogel
MWMF founder



4/14/13

The "Mexican Hockey League" Video Parody of Fallon Fox: Offensive Or Just a Pathetic man Trying To Be Funny?

This video appeared in my daily google 'tranny' alerts along with the inevitable 'tranny' xxx porn placing it at the very bottom of the whatever list. I think the video is supposed to be satire, but it's just to well researched and hurtful to be amusing to me. The topic of trans athletes competing with our own gender is a especially sensitive subject right now.

As a transgender athlete I will confirm after 7 years on HRT I am not capable of anything near what I used to be. Today I did my first five miler of the season and it was all I could do to run half of it. I used to easily run half marathons pre transition with far less training.


Ultimate Fighter 18 Audition - Tranny Cari Cox
Meet the future of women's MMA - transsexual terror Cari Cox. Follow Cari as she trains for The Ultimate Fighter 18, talks about her biggest challenge as a transgendered fighter, and sends a message to Ronda Rousey, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, and the rest of the UFC's 135-pound division.

and gay people out here's something for you from them..





On Leaving TransAction ConVergence Two (TAC2)

Well, I finally did it. I am no longer a admin of the Facebook page "Transaction Two". I have been antagonizing over this for far too long now. A few years ago I invited Stephanie Stevens to be a admin on the original 5000 member group "TransAction ConVergence", which Facebook greedily "Archived" along with most all other large groups.

So after consulting with Stephanie I decided we needed a clean break and began the page "TransAction ConVergence Two" (TAC2) and Invited Stephanie Stevens to become a admin which she accepted.

Why I left TAC2.

I have always had a problem getting planetransgender articles published by Stephanie in the Yahoo Group "Trans News". The reason that I was given was they had 'editorial standards".

 Be it as it may, I have published many quality articles which present  unique views and observations from the trans perspective. Sadly, even those were ignored by Trans News. Since 2007 I have continued to work at becoming the journalist I know one day I will be, hoping one day I would see my article published with the regularity some of the other trans writers are. There were other reasons I was not published by Trans News but I will not expound on that for the sake of the unity of the trans community.

Trans News continues to be my main source of transgender news but I have learned to diversify my media outlet resources and I would invite others to do that as well.

I will continue to publish planetransgender despite being nearly totally ignored by Trans News. I have learned to use other media outlets to increase readership which in the world of google page ranking transforms our opinions into fact by simple multiplication.

I wish all the best to Stephanie Stevens with TranAction ConVergence Two.

If you wish you can 'like' planetransgender on facebook and our articles will appear in your news feed.

planetransgender won't just survive, the planet will thrive.

Thanks for being you,
kelli Anne Busey