Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

Here's the documentary I referred to in my previous post. It is about the case of David Reimer, who as a baby boy suffered a botched circumcision and unsuccessfully raised as a girl. He eventually committed suicide. This was the recommendation of a doctor named John Money, who believed that gender identity is entirely socially determined and malleable.

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...

How cute! I received this little postcard in the mail today from The Self Made Men , and it's my 4 year (seriously??) tranniversary on the 11th!

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. ...

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 >

I just self-injected! Finally! It's been a little over 9 months that I suddenly, for no reason, couldn't self-inject . It was bizarre, because I'd been self-injecting testosterone cypionate into my thigh for almost three years with no fear and very little problems. And then, bam! - I just, couldn't . Confused and frustrated, I assumed that maybe I was just off my game that week. But then it happened that following week. And the week after. And for over nine months, I've discovered that it's an incredible inconvenience to have to rely on someone else (usually my father) for my injections. I started to develop additional anxieties around what's going to happen when someone isn't around to help, like when I move to Maryland next summer and don't know anyone who could help. I've also been irrationally hard on myself about it. I woke up Friday morning determined to do my it myself. I decided not to do it in the morning, when there's a lo...