Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

As I mentioned in my most recent post, I'm not able to update this as often as I really want to. I absolutely love blogging, but by the time I'm done with my graduate school tasks for the day, I become a collapsed puddle of human, incapable of uttering a single word. But I had to log on this once to share some incredibly exciting news. Earlier yesterday I learned that my insurance (through the marketplace) has preauthorized me FOR A HYSTERECTOMY IN EARLY AUGUST.  For over six years now I've been struggling through years of no insurance coverage as a student and then one trans-exclusive, discriminatory policy after another. Even as a federal employee. Yet finally, at long last, this is actually happening. It doesn't feel real yet, but I'm beyond ecstatic. I'm actually scheduled for surgery!  Whaaaa??? There are a gazillion risks reduced and benefits from having this done, one of which will be lowering my dose of testosterone post surgery, which is ...

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...

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...

Be forewarned: I am about to launch into a whiny spiel about how stressful it has been meeting with trans-unaware OB-GYNs while I'm insured in hopes that they won't a) refer to me as a "post-menopausal woman" and b) will, at the very least, listen to me about my preventative interest in an oophorectomy (removal of ovaries) and a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus). But before said spiel, a brief update is in order. As a reminder since it's been a minute, I am presently living in Maryland to complete my federal service "payback" as an NIH (National Institutes of Health) Undergraduate Scholarship post-baccalaureate (i.e. 4-year college graduate) research fellow. Throughout the duration of my payback I have been nervous about blogging after I signed a gazillion + 1 forms about not representing myself as the NIH or a federal employee. So, quick disclaimer before I proceed: I am not blogging on behalf of the NIH or as a federal employee. Alright, now w...

HRC: Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility

It's been a while since identification documents have been a source of stress for me, but I received an e-mail recently from the NIH informing everyone that our paperwork for employment is now being processed by human resources. This is only the second time since transitioning that I've gone through the employment process, and the first time around was a little bumpy. In a nutshell, my paperwork was flagged , and I discovered that it was due to having gender-incongruent identification. Meaning, my gender is male on my driver's license and birth certificate, but female on my social security record. This put me in a position where my trans status was disclosed without my consent and also significantly delayed my start date and first paycheck. Fortunately, my employer isn't trans-discriminatory and I was able to sustain myself economically longer than I'd anticipated, but the whole ordeal made it clearer than ever how problematic identification documents can perpetu...

I can't wait to graduate and get back to blogging. My writing juice well gets sucked dry every semester. But, I just learned that I graduate on June 1st and as per the awesome scholarship I received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I fly out to Maryland for June 2nd. Then I officially begin my internship with them on June 3rd. A little bit ago I got to head out there for a couple of days to meet prospective mentors - all of whom were wonderful. A couple of weeks ago I learned what lab I'll be working in and I am beyond excited. That's an update in a ridiculously compressed nutshell, but now I need to run off to study for an exam. It's for a course titled "Behavioral Endocrinology", which is just intimidating scaryfancy speak for "How Hormones Influence Behavior". Which is right up my alley. In fact, we're required to watch a film called Sex Unknown prior to the exam, which I'm astounded that I'd never heard of or watched...

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day observed annually around the world to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia - the hatred or fear of transgender and gender non-conforming people. It's a day of mixed feelings for me. Sadness that transphobia is so rampant that a startling number of beautiful lives are lost. It is estimated that transgender individuals in the U.S. today have a one-in-twelve chance of being murdered (Uniform Crimes Reports, 2000) . This is roughly 1500 times higher than the general population and amounts to approximately one murder every three days (National Center for Health Statistics, 2009) . Due to this, the day set aside as a “transgender holiday” is a day of memorializing a long list of murdered victims to raise much-needed awareness. But, this awareness is vital. Transphobia needs silence to survive , and I seriously can't wait for the day when we can have Transgender Pride — a celebration of our lives. ...

Last night the rest of the student government executive cabinet and I had dinner at the college president's home with him and his wife. Well, president mansion , rather. And on the carpool ride there, I was told, "Dexter! Remove your tie! The president requested that we keep this informal!" I kept the tie. It matched my outfit. But, I removed it later. It got hot. Anyway, while we were being given a tour of their home, the president made the comment, "Why is there only one woman in the e-cab?" I've been in the executive cabinet of the student government for three years now, and every year has been pretty "gender balanced" until now. I wanted to blurt out that having two homosexual cisgender guys, one cisgender female, and one transgender person out of 6 individuals in the e-cab isn't too bad. But, I held back, and we resumed our tour. The rest of the evening was interesting in the gendered domain. While sitting at the table of ...

Whoa. Guess who just received an e-mail saying: Congratulations! The Scientific Review Committee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Undergraduate Scholarship Program (UGSP) has identified you as a UGSP Scholar for the school year starting September 2013. As a UGSP Scholar you will receive a scholarship for qualified educational and living expenses up to $20,000 for this academic year, and you will be a paid research trainee at the NIH for the UGSP Summer 2013 Program. The UGSP is a highly competitive program … a nd you are one of 11 nationwide to become a UGSP Scholar. Your selection as a UGSP Scholar and the Committee’s willingness to support your scientific development speak highly of your accomplishments. THIS GUY. I am so excited about this . And astonished. Getting closer and closer to my goal to become a researcher in Social Psychology is so riveting. It wasn’t long ago that I had dropped out of high school and believed that college could never happen fo...

My dad’s Facebook comment about this article : “It’s funny how insecure people are about gender. There was never a question that she was absolutely gorgeous until she publicly announced she was transgender. Then, suddenly she is a freak and unattractive. Face the fact that you are attracted to a beautiful woman who used to be a man. Don’t worry. Your peepee won’t fall off or anything. You won’t be less of a man because she used to be a man. Grow up and get over it children. Trump was absolutely right (as rare as that may be) and this creep is just a nasty person who has issues with losing competitions. Big surprise - didn’t expect anything like that in a beauty pageant.”

UPDATE: A defense fund has been setup for Dr. Nicola Riley! Charges against my doctor, Nicola Riley, have been DROPPED . The prosecution was unable to find a single reputable expert witness to testify at their conveniently timed anti-choice witch trial. A lot of unfortunate damage has been done - but, this is great news.

This semester has been crazy busy. So busy that I have a whole slew of gobblity gook I can’t wait to blog about. Oooooh has it accumulated. At long last, my Spring Break has begun. Am I off in a secluded cabin somewhere? Am I at a beach party trying to escape a prehistoric mutant piranha blood bath?! Well, close… but no cigar. I’m getting school stuff done. Ugh. See, here’s the problem. My academically warped sense of reality compels me to see this “break” as an opportunity to get stuff done. For example, tomorrow I’ll be working on submitting my summer research idea for IRB approval - which is a board that exists to make sure research involving human participants is ethical or not. What fun. My riveting research topic, by the way, involves anti-transgender prejudice and victim blaming. A little while back I came across something called the “just-world hypothesis”, which was developed by a feller named Lerner back in the 1960’s. A bit after Milgram had dabbled in his studies ...

Last week my friend, Andrew, told me about a documentary called Beautiful Darling , which is about the life of a transgender woman named Candy Darling. It is currently playing at The Tower (a wonderful, local independent theatre). I’d learned my lesson about dismissing Andrew’s pop culture entertainment suggestions earlier on when he lent me Barbarella starring Jane Fonda. I let that 1968 gem sit there on my shelf for months gathering dust bunnies until, finally, 90% motivated to put a stop to his relentless, “Have you watched it yet???” harassment, I crumbled and put it in to my DVD player. After watching Jane Fonda run around scantily clad hunting Doctor Durand Durand I was hooked - especially after the scene where she explained to that hairy Catchman that Earth peoples no longer have old-fashioned penetrative intercourse, but instead swallow Exaultation Transference Pills and press palms together when their “psychocardiograms are in perfect harmony”. Bang! Top 10! S...

I participated in a transgender panel in my Sex in the Brain class yesterday. Which, the fact that I'm also a student in that class made it interesting. For 45 minutes we had class as usual. Then our professor released the class for a break before the panel was slotted to begin. I used this time to meet another panelist who is an awesome local transmale police officer. I gave him a guest parking pass, introduced him to my friend, and off we went back to the classroom. We got there about 5 minutes early and took our seats at a table in front of the class. I felt nervous, initially, going from sitting with the class all month to now sitting in front of my fellow students, on a panel. I kind of liked that we were early, as it gave me some adjust-to-sitting-in-front-of-class-adrenaline-red-faced-calm-down time to chit-chat with the other panelist and my professor all cozy for a bit. The third panelist, a local transgender woman activist, arrived right at 1 pm after walking from...

Last week I wrote a blog post about an incident that occurred at a Utah Drivers License Division (DLD) office where a witness stood up for a transgender woman who was mocked, laughed at, and forced to scrub off her makeup before she was allowed to get her photo taken to renew her drivers license. Transgender Education Advocates of Utah (TEA of Utah) hastily became involved. Representatives of TEA met with DLD officials and watched what has been described as a silent and grainy video of the incident. Without consulting either the witness or the victim, TEA began issuing public statements including on-camera interviews with numerous media outlets. To the shock and amazement of many, TEA defended the DLD and discredited both the witness and the victim. “Transgender Education Advocates of Utah” placed themselves front-and-center as representatives of the transgender community. This created a lot of public/community feedback focused around TEA. Not surprisingly, much of this feedbac...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - February 4, 2011 – The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) today released a comprehensive new report, “Injustice at Every Turn,” revealing the depth of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in a wide range of areas, including education, health care, employment, and housing. The study, based on the results from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), was based on responses from over 6,450 participants. The NTDS is the first large-scale national study of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming Americans, and paints a more complete picture than any prior research to date. Study Finds Pervasive Discrimination Against Transgender People  >

Packer says homosexuality second only to murder, denial of holy ghost  > This Boyd K. Packer guy is basically next in line to be the LDS prophet. I most recently mentioned him after he gave a homophobic speech to an audience of millions just two days before 18 year old Alec Henrikson committed suicide on September 30, 2010 here in Utah.

DMV Sits Down With Victim Of Trans-Discrimination, Pledges Improvement … finally today the Drivers License Division sat down with Regina Audette, the witness to the discrimination Amber Anderton, as well as openly gay attorney Chris Wharton and reviewed the footage with them. The victim herself, Regina Audette, tells PRIDEinUtah:  “I want to see the DLD continue their education and understand the respect they need to have for people, so something like this doesn’t ever happen again. It’s more than just education, it’s learning true respect.” She also went on to add, “No matter what, I wake up every day with a smile on my face and I couldn’t care less what any one thinks of me.”