Tag: transgender

Last week I shared the first four of five episodes of a series called Transformation, produced by Canada’a Global News BC.

My first objective for tonight was to share the last episode.

What struck me about this short video was the acceptance of Nikki that we see she has gotten from her mother, Michelle Buchamer.

During the troubles of last weekend, a few people asked why I identified as a transwoman (or trans woman or transsexual woman) and not simply a woman.  Well, the truth is that I do identify as a woman.  Trans is simply a modifier, transsexual is an adjective.  The noun is “woman”.

Then I guess the question becomes, “Why do I add the modifier?”  The question strikes me in a couple of ways.  I wonder if the person is implying that everyone would be so much more comfortable if all the transpeople would just disappear into the closet after transitioning.

The truth is that many do…maybe even most.

But the serious question is,

El’Jai Devoureau was hired for a part time job by Urban Treatment Associates in Camden, New Jersey.  The treatment referred to in their name is substance abuse and addiction treatment.  El’Jai’s job was to observe clients as they created their samples.  That’s right, his job was to watch men pee in a cup.

Sometime between the day of his training and the next day, someone outed him to his supervisor as having been born female.  Now, El’Jai began hormone treatment suitable for transitioning to a male in 2005 and had sex reassignment surgery in 2009, but that, apparently, was beside the point.

His supervisor asked him if he was a man.  When he said he was, the supervisor asked him if he had ever had any surgeries.  El’Jai responded that it was none of her business…and was promptly fired.  El’Jai wasn’t, in her mind, man enough for the job.

So where are we?  Well, a few weeks ago, things were sort of looking up, but last week they seem to get into the well-known hand basket.

For instance, the Maryland House passed a bill disallowing many, but not all, forms of discrimination against people based on gender identity or expression.  It wasn’t unanimously applauded by the trans community since there were no protections in public accommodations, but there it was.

But only a week or so earlier, the Maryland House had tabled the marriage equality bill that had already passed the Senate, to someone in the Senate decided that the House need to be taught a lesson, so sent the gender identity/expression protection bill to the Senate Rules committee, expecting it to languish and die there.  After all, who do those House members think they are?  We’ll show them!  We’ll kick this transpeople right where it hurts.

Wasn’t that just very cool?

Occasionally there is a concurrence of news items that just nest together so well that it’s impossible not to comment on it.

First off, let me say that Wednesday night I finished reading the Kindle edition of the novel I am J, written by Cris Beam.  The book was Amazon’s Best Book for Young Adults for the month of March.  I’ll be back later with my thoughts on the book.

Next up, yesterday was the first annual International Transgender Day of Visibility, coming to us out of Transgender Michigan, with promotional assistance from Monica Roberts at TransGriot.

Becoming Chaz is coming to the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on May 10 at 8pm.  Immediately following the show will be a special discussion hosted by Rosie O’Donnell including interviews with Chaz and his girlfriend, Jennifer Elia, directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato and assorted transfolk.

Becoming Chaz first aired at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Here’s a review:

The last time many of us paid attention to Chaz Bono, he had recently transitioned from a life as a woman to that of a man, and the tabloids and comedians were having a field day. Viewers of Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey’s wildly engaging documentary “Becoming Chaz” might be surprised, then, to see the complicated and often touching story behind the late-night snark.

—Steven Zeitchik, Los Angeles Times

Scarlet Letter

Since I turn 63 in 16 days, I have found myself reflecting on my past history.  This essay has grown out of that.

As a young lad I was very unhappy.  I didn’t know totally why that was so, but there were conditions that I knew contributed to it.  My parents never seemed happy with their lives.  Even times where celebration was the expected, like Christmas, turned into times of strife.  In later years I have wondered if my father didn’t suffer from some sort of PTSD, having been a B-17 bombadier during WW II.

Whatever.  I guess I turned to my dream life to escape the unhappiness.  I mean, it wasn’t an intentional choice, but I discovered that I really never wanted to wake up in the morning…to cease being who I was in my dreams and resume being the me who was so dismal.