Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

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...

In Arcade Fire's new music video, "We Exist" with Andrew Garfield. Makes me teary eyed every time.

Why We Need More Than Two Genders While the array of gorgeous human skin colors and ethnicities and sexualities is increasingly embraced as a matter of human rights, we are slower to celebrate multiple genders.   I would like to make clear right at the start that breaking out of a male-female gender dichotomy isn't some 21st century liberal-progressive agenda, as it is sometimes painted.  Spending some time with this interactive map shows that fluidity in gender roles is and has been evident in societies around the world. A nonbinary perspective is neither new nor Euro-American. Read more  >

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 need to learn Swedish. Stat. Swedish School’s Big Lesson Begins With Dropping Personal Pronouns STOCKHOLM — At an ocher-color preschool along a lane in Stockholm’s Old Town, the teachers avoid the pronouns “him” and “her,” instead calling their 115 toddlers simply “friends.” Masculine and feminine references are taboo, often replaced by the pronoun “hen,” an artificial and genderless word that most Swedes avoid but is popular in some gay and feminist circles. Read more >

A few days ago I was asked by a sociology professor to be a panelist in her Gender and Sexuality class. Given that I'm committed to rambling on about my experiences to any poor sap who will listen, including a captive audience of hapless college students, I enthusiastically agreed. Most of this enthusiasm stems from knowing first-hand how unsettling transgender and gender-nonconformity can be for many - and how vital knowledge and interaction are for dismantling prejudice and discrimination. Openness is particularly vital given how corrosive assumptions about “normalcy" manifests in incredibly dangerous ways for anyone who strays from the fabricated norm. It's particularly exciting to have so many cisgender allies who are so supportive, and help to educate away the ignorance through whatever means are available to them. Speaking of, I stumbled across an interesting article just the other day regarding the controversy around the gender of Caster Semenya, the 18-yea...

Thanks for sharing, Natalie! "A German father said that he sometimes wears skirts to support his son, who also prefers to wear skirts and dresses." The Advocate: Dad Wears Dress in Solidarity With Dress-Loving Son >

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 ...

Look what I found. Neat!

Emerging from the depths of finals for a moment to share an article that a fellow trans student and I were interviewed for. It was published last week in our school’s paper. I was also interviewed last year for this student paper, but this time I dragged poor Mikki into the muck with me. Gender Boundaries: Room to Explore at Westminster >

I’m now in Berkeley! It’s so nice here. There is green vegetation stuff galore, humidity, a cool breeze, I can breathe, bicycles all over the place… and, best part, when we went to Trader Joe's earlier there were shoppers wearing backpacks . In Utah? 99 times out of 100 I am the only person in the market with a pack - meaning, I either walked or peddled there. Here? I’m drowning in a sea of pedestrians and cyclists! Not to mention — aside from veg-friendly and veg places GALORE — there’s also an all-vegan cinnamon roll place and soul food place super close. Oh my. Food shouldn’t be so exciting - but, eating new vegan food is pretty much my #1 favorite thing to do when I travel. The flavors are always so new and exciting; and the neighborhoods harboring veg places are always havens for a slew of other awesome local cozy things. Oh, and I have a dorm room all to myself! It’s such a life saver. So, in general I switch between two binders — one for walking long distances or to ea...

Impulse buy for my mother from my excursion to Farmers Market yesterday: This was my first chance to go to the Farmers Market this summer and it was a lot of fun. And I just couldn’t resist splurging on this little guy who had mother written all over him. He is now known as Sammy. Yesterday I got to peruse the market with my friend, Rachael, who beelined to every jewelry shack on the block - which was, literally, probably every 2nd or 3rd vendor cart. In years past I’d had absolutely no idea there were so many jewelry vendors. I was aghast. The closest I’d ever get to noticing jewelry otherwise is if someone had stuck Sammy (above) on a necklace. Which, by the way, would be an incredible necklace. Ooo, tonight, Athens Boys Choir (i.e. trans dude named Katz) is touring through Salt Lake City again! I’m excited and shall blog about it after. In other news, guess who has surgery next month, AUGUST 11TH ??? I’m so excited it pains me.

Photos from my DANCE YOURSELF TO DEATH! TRANIMAL PARTY (May 12th 2011) top surgery benefit! See more, courtesy of Viola Photography :

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  >

Group photo from a friend’s schnazzy birthday par-tay I attended last night. Dapper!