Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

I was so ecsactic when I heard that Laverne Cox would be the first transgender person to grace the cover of TIME Magazine earlier this month. The second I heard about this, I knew that I absolutely had to have a copy. Custom framed, preferably signed by Laverne Cox, prominently displayed on my wall. I imagine myself still having it in my elder years, explaining to youngins what this represented to me as a young transgender person in 2014. As Kat Hache put it: It is validation not only of Laverne Cox’s work, but the work of the entire transgender community.  It is a visible, tangible representation of our existence. It’s a really, really big deal. After not stumbling upon a copy by mid-June, a friend and I started really digging around for it. Baffled, we couldn’t find a single copy anywhere. After finally landing ourselves at a Barnes n Noble, an employee explained that their magazine stock was limited due to a major magazine distributor in the east coast shutting dow...

Dissident Voice published my response to Robert Jensen's article! http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/06/gender-and-sexual-diversity/

Update: A more concise version of this was published on Dissident Voice titled, " Gender and Sexual Diversity " on June 21, 2014.  The recent article by Robert Jensen, “ Some Basic Propositions about Sex, Gender, and Patriarchy ,” espouses concepts that both reflect and perpetuate cissexism and transphobia. Jensen correctly anticipates that readers will recognize much of his article as unabashedly transphobic. He reacts by preemptively dismissing any such observations as mere “tactics.” In the third to last paragraph he writes,  "Labeling a radical feminist position on these public policy issues as inherently “transphobic” or describing radical feminist arguments on the issues as “hate speech” are diversionary tactics that undermine productive intellectual and political discussion. A critique of an idea is not a personal attack on any individual who holds the idea." An online search for terms like “hate speech” and “diversionary tactic” leads one to any numb...

A few weeks ago I received an orientation packet for the graduate program I’m starting this Fall, which referred to the availability of a subsidized insurance plan for graduate students. We were sent a link to the Student Health Insurance Policy brochure for review and told to let them know if we want the health insurance coverage. If so, they “simply put you on the tuition waiver list and check yes or no for coverage.” As a student who’s well aware of the fact that many transgender people are denied health insurance coverage altogether solely because we are transgender, I knew it probably wouldn’t be that easy. While it's really great news that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) now bans discrimination that has prevented many transgender people from having health insurance coverage (Section 1557), there are still many problems - most notably, interpreting what is and isn’t discrimination has been left to the states. For instance, insurers have, "used the exclusion to justify de...

I had the opportunity to attend the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference for the first time this past weekend. It was incredible, to have the privilege to experience such an indescribable sense of connectedness among so many trans* and cisgender persons. I heard from the grapevine that 3,000+ people were in attendance, which is apparently up from around 2,000 last year. I was particularly impressed by the vast spectrum of activities offered. There was youth programming, all day programming with specific schedules (e.g. community space, spirituality space, native/first nations/indigenous gathering space), evening events, vendors galore, a gazillion different workshops, and so on. There was something for everyone! For instance, I attended the conference with two friends who wanted to learn more about how to become better cisgender allies. One chum is a pastor living in Kansas and the other is a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While my researcher friend an...