Category: Editorial

By Monica F. Helms

Veterans Day is one the three most important days in this country when it comes to patriotism and pride. At the eleventh minute, of the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, we start the day honoring all the veterans who have served this country, both in peace and in war. Today, we have 26 million military veterans in America, but sadly, we lose 1500 WWII each day and a similar number of Korean War veterans as well. Soon, the Vietnam War veterans will pass away in similar numbers.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

But It All Seems So Normal!

Here?s a brief overview of my life:

- For the past 13 years I?ve worked for a county agency as a behavior specialist. My job responsibilities include psychological and behavioral assessments, client rights investigations, and the development and monitoring of behavioral intervention plans. I work 40 hours a week and try to cram my other activities and nightly sleep into the remaining hours.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

Sex and Marriage... and Mr. Bailey
A word from the Chair of the IFGE Board of Directors

The challenge in writing a quarterly column is that one is forever locked in a time warp? needing to say something relevant to the current events of, in this case, July ?03, when the world will have danced for four or five more months and set itself in a completely new arrangement by the time this is read. Not only will those July events seem distant, but my words, perhaps, archaic.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #105, Spring 2004.

by Dallas Denny

Pronoun Trouble

Several years ago, I went with a friend to a rainy Pride celebration in Atlanta?s Piedmont Park. Afterwards, muddy and damp, our hair frizzed, we decided to get something to eat. My friend pulled her SUV into the parking lot of a high-dollar Mexican restaurant, where we were greeted by a parking valet. He said to my friend, a transsexual woman, ?Good afternoon, sir.? A moment later, having taken a better look, he started over. ?Good afternoon, ma?am.? Inside the restaurant, my friend sat steaming about the perceived insult. I said to her, more or less, ?He just did what all human beings do?when he saw you, he made an immediate gender attribution. Then, when he looked more closely, he changed the pronoun. Maybe he thought his initial impression had been mistaken. Maybe he clocked you and was courteous enough to call you ma?am. In either case, how did he give offense?? She wasn?t able to tell me.

by Nancy Nangeroni

Monday May 18, 1998. 6:23pm

I returned from my recent west coast visit to bad news: while I was gone, we ran out of money.

This is not earthshattering news, it happens to us regularly.

by Nancy Nangeroni February 2, 1998
I just returned from my first visit to the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association's web site showing the 8th revision of the proposed Standards Of Care. Frankly, I'm stunned.

I'm stunned to recognize (awakening from a pleasant dream, I suppose) that the title of this organization -- the "Gender Dysphoria Association" -- reinforces a view of gender-transgressive behavior that worships the "norm" and pathologizes difference. This organization's name presumes that there is some gender norm to which we've all agreed, and which us crazy gender dysphorics just can't seem to accept. OK, call me a gender dysphoric if you must, but it's not MY gender I don't like, it's society's idea of what my gender ought to be that bugs me. And this "Gender Dysphoria Association," by it's name, presumes that to stray from this norm is unhealthy, indicative of illness of some sort.

Baloney.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

When I was (to be historically accurate) a young man, older and supposedly wiser heads told me my political views would change with age. I told them they wouldn?t.

Now that I?m of an age at which it?s customary to look forward to retirement, I find my views remain unchanged. That magical moment at which I was supposed to become a Republican has come and gone. That?s not to say I?m a Democrat, or that this little chat we?re having, although of a political nature, will be about politics in the partisan sense of the word. I?m here to talk about issues which have concerned me all my life, namely the rights to free speech and assembly, and a right that isn?t in the Bill of Rights but should be and doubtless would have been if the Founding Fathers had foreseen the Information Age?the right to privacy.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

At the recent Transgender 2003, IFGE?s Board of Directors
named Moonhawk River Stone to the position of Chair.
Mr. Stone replaces Julie Ann Johnson, who served as
Board Chair from March 2000 until March 2003.
At the Virginia Prince Awards Ceremony on Saturday,
Mr. Stone gave the following speech.
At his request, we are running it unedited?Ed.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

This year has seen the release of a book that is destined to have the gay and transgender communities up in arms. It?s called The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science and Psychology of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. The imprint is Joseph Henry Press, a division of the National Academies Press, and the author is one Michael Bailey, a sexologist.