Topic: Generic

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

The following list is a glossary from the Rainbow Access Initiative to help those interested in learning more about the terms most frequently used in reference to gender and identity issues.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

?2003 Center for Gender Sanity
www.gendersanity.com

The ?sex? scale refers to biological sex and includes external genitalia, internal reproductive structures, chromosomes, hormone levels, and secondary sex characteristics such as breasts, facial and body hair, and fat distribution. These characteristics are objective in that they can be seen and measured (with appropriate technology). The scale consists not just of two categories (male and female) but is actually a continuum, with most people existing somewhere near one end or the other. The space more in the middle is occupied by intersex people (hermaphrodites), who have combinations of characteristics typical of males and those typical of females, such as both a testis and an ovary, or XY chromosomes (the usual male pattern) and a vagina, or they may have features that are not completely male or completely female, such as an organ that could be thought of as a small penis or a large clitoris, or an XXY chromosomal pattern.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

? Transgendered youth often face enormous hardships when they acknowledge
and express their gender identity.

? They may be thrown out of the house when their family discovers they
are transgendered, often forcing them to live on the streets.

? They typically face harassment and abuse in school to such an extent that they quit,
which makes it hard for them to get a decent-paying job (for example, a survey
of more than 250 transgendered people in Washington, D.C. found forty
percent had not finished high school and another 40 percent were unemployed).

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

Maine Gender Resource and Support Service
Jean Vermette, Director (207) 862-2063
PO BOX 1894, BANGOR, ME 04402-1894
http://personalpages.tds.net/~megress/
megress@tds.net

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #99, Fall 2002.

Nancy Nangeroni wrote the following in response to Juli Goins? letter in the Vitale online newsletter.

As J?Noel Gardiner now knows all too well, it?s all a lie. The surgery that was supposed to bring happiness, that was supposed to make her a real woman, the surgery that was supposed to change her sex, didn?t. The Supreme Court in Kansas, following the lead of the Supreme Court in Texas, has now ruled on that question, and they both agree. The sex that was assigned to you at birth is your sex, period. No ifs, ands, buts, or changes.