Trans News Week 30 – 31 2014

I didn’t write any news last week, so this week is a two week round up. The reason? I got married. Yep, life got in the way.

Not a lot of Canadian news in the last two weeks, if you have any please let me know via Twitter (@marcyjaynecook) or the forums, thanks.


Vancouver Pride

The Vancouver Pride Parade was granted civic status last year in 2013 and is one of the city’s flagship events!
Attracting crowds of more than 650,000, the Pride Parade is renowned on the international stage as one of the largest and most successful LGBTQ events in the world.

The largest pride event in BC takes place in Vancouver on August 3rd, though it’s a shame I’ve never been as it’s an expensive ferry ride away. (Yes I’m grumpy at the high ferry prices.)
A list of events in and around Vancouver is here: http://vancouverpride.ca/events/category/vps_events/upcoming/
August 1st was the ‘Trans, two-spirit, and genderqueer people’ march.

Photo is via: http://transpridevancouver.wordpress.com/

Source: Vancouver Pride

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Pronouns don’t hurt people’s feelings

Supposedly invented by the Chinese, there is an ancient form of torture that is nothing more than cold, tiny drops falling upon a person’s forehead. On its own, a single drop is nothing. It falls upon the brow making a tiny splash. It doesn’t hurt. No real harm comes from it. In multitudes, the drops are still fairly harmless. Other than a damp forehead, there really is no cause for concern.

The key to the torture is being restrained. You cannot move. You must feel each drop. You have lost all control over stopping these drops of water from splashing on your forehead. It still doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But person after person, time and time again—would completely unravel psychologically. They all had a breaking point where each drop turned into a horror. Building and building until all sense of sanity was completely lost.

“It was just a joke, quit being so sensitive.”
“They used the wrong pronoun, big deal.”
“So your parents don’t understand, it could be worse.”
Day after day. Drop after drop. It builds up. A single instance on its own is no big deal. A few drops, not a problem. But when you are restrained, when you cannot escape the drops, when it is unending—these drops can be agony.

People aren’t sensitive because they can’t take a joke. Because they can’t take being misgendered one time. Because they lack a thick skin. People are sensitive because the drops are unending and they have no escape from them.

You are only seeing the tiny, harmless, single drop hitting these so-called “sensitive” people. You are failing to see the thousands of drops endured before that. You are failing to see the restraints that make them inescapable.

Pronouns matter. Names matter. Respect people and get them right.

This is a great copy/paste way of explaining to people online what it is like.

Source: QueerPolitik – Tumblr

 


Necessary transition

As acceptance and understanding slowly grow, more trans people – those who have changed the sex they were “assigned at birth” – are willing to share their stories and their struggles. Now you can count Jude Harrison among them.
Is he a hero? Maybe to some. But perhaps that’s making too big a deal of his life. On more basic terms, he’s a person trying to fit into a world that doesn’t always make sense. That’s something to which everyone ought to relate.
“The discordance between how you view yourself and how society views you builds up to where it’s intolerable,” he explained. “And the only way to survive and the only solution to that is to transition.

Given the awful suicide rate (PDF) under the trans* umbrella survival is an important talking point.

Source: Durango Herald

 

 

Comic Con to Hold First-Ever Trans Panel This Year

This year’s Comic Con will hold the first-ever trans-specific panel, Breaking Barriers: Transgender Trends in Popular Culture, marking a positive step forward in comics, film, TV, and pop culture.
While there have been LGBT panels in the past, there have never been one that was solely created for trans panelists. Breaking Barriers will be moderated by trans female comic Tara Madison Avery. Joining Avery on the panel is Dylan Edwards (Transposes), Milanie Gillman (As the Crow Flies), J.D. Saxon (Mahou Shounen Fight!), Elizabeth Lain (F*** the Limit!: The 30-Day Art Project), Ashley Love (Trans Forming Media), and Michelle Nolan (Love on the Racks: A History of American Romance Comics).

I hope this went well, I need to see if any of this is online, will look later as I’m busy writing this now.

I went to Pax Prime in 2013 and the Trans panel there got bumped by a day – security issues – and they didn’t let people know, so I missed it.

Source: SheWired

 

 

Uganda court invalidates anti-gay law

A Ugandan court on Friday invalidated an anti-gay bill signed into law earlier this year, saying the measure is illegal because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum.

Activists erupted in cheers after the court ruled the law “null and void,” but some cautioned that the fight was not over: The state could appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court and legislators might try to reintroduce new anti-gay measures.
The law provided jail terms up to life for those convicted of engaging in gay sex. It also allowed lengthy jail terms for those convicted of the offences of “attempted homosexuality” as well as “promotion of homosexuality.”

Although the legislation has wide support in Uganda, it has been condemned in the West and rights groups have described it as draconian.

I doubt the situation will improve anytime soon for LGBT people in Uganda but this is a required step in the right direction. Now LGBT people get legal protections again.

Source: Global News

Female geek, author and blogger. Non-cis, non-straight, non-single, non-asshat.

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