Tag: sexual orientation

I’m not usually a follower of celebrity news.  I don’t belong to Twitter, don’t watch Entertainment Tonight except by accident, and would rather eat worms than read a National Enquirer or People Magazine.

In recent weeks, Stephen Ira Beatty has caught the attention of the international press.

Stephen Ira has a blog, called Supermattachine.

His most recent post is “I’m sorry, I just can’t get your pronouns right!” Yes, you can. You just won’t.

I once had a long conversation with a highly educated cis man about pronouns.  I know him to be absolutely brilliant.  He was an official at a school.  He told me that I had to understand, that the cis people (everyone else) at my school couldn’t get my pronouns right because I wasn’t “masculine” enough for them to associate male pronouns with me. As I do now, I dressed like a cute gay boy.  As I do now, I gesticulated often and acknowledged the fact that I was capable of bending my wrists and hips.  I talked openly about my interests in dance, poetry, and cute boys.

He acknowledged that this was fucked as hell, albeit in nicer language, because he was at least gender-positive enough to believe that men shouldn’t have to like football and beer and women shouldn’t have to like pink dresses and fluffy bunnies.  But instead of attempting to educate these people-which he could have done, as he was in a position of extremely high authority-he asked me to accept their sexist, homophobic, and cissexist perspective on gender.  I was the one who needed to change, not them, although he openly acknowledged that they were wrong.  During this conversation, I was in tears, because I was having regular panic attacks during the school day.  They were happening because of persistent and unapologetic mispronouning.  (Keep in mind, I was a sixteen-year-old kid.  Sixteen-year-olds are not known for their emotional maturity, and we shouldn’t ask them to be as mature as or more mature than adults.)

A new Harris poll shows that even the majority of heterosexual Americans believe that job performance is what is important, not sexual orientation or gender identity.  The pdf of the press release and report is here.

The 2011 Out and Equal in the Workplace Survey reveals that 74% of heterosexuals somewhat agree (9%) or strongly agree (65%) that employees should be judged on how well they do their job rather than their sexual orientation.  54% either strongly agree (38%) or somewhat agree (16%) to the same statement with regards to gender identity.  For sexual orientation 4% disagree, 7% neither agree nor disagree and 16% believe the question to be not applicable or declined to answer.  For gender identity 11% disagree 21% neither agree nor disagree and 14% believed the question not applicable or declined to answer it.

That might not sound as good for transpeople, but wait.  When transgender was defined before asking how one stood, the numbers rose from the numbers for “gender identity,” a concept which those surveyed may have found nebulous.  74% of heterosexuals, 92% of gays and lesbians and 91% of GLBT people agreed with the following statement:

How an employee performs at their job should be the standard for judging an employee, not whether or not they are transgender.

5% of heterosexuals (3% of gays and lesbians and 2% of GLBT people) disagreed with the statement.  11% of heterosexuals (3% of G/L, 5% of GLBT) neither agreed nor disagreed.  The remainder either thought the statement not applicable or declined to answer.

I’m at a total loss as to what “not applicable” means here.  Would that be people who do not believe in the existence of transpeople or what?

Third-wave Feminist thinker, political consultant, and author Naomi Wolf published a recent column in Harper’s Bazaar regarding the subject of female rivalry.  I assume this was drafted in response to Susan Faludi’s inflammatory piece about intergenerational conflict within the movement itself.  The underlying issue here is how the mainstream media gets lazy, referring to the same few designated “experts”, who are believed to represent any minority or identity group in totality.  It’s insulting, but also far too commonplace.  No single voice can speak for everyone and closer examination would reveal that no movement needs or desires a designated spokesperson.  

Today I scheduled an appointment with a GP for my yearly checkup. I’m not physically sick or injured at the moment, but I figured it would be worthwhile setting up an appointment anyway. While on Medicaid here in the District, an insured person is required to establish a particular primary case physician.  This PCP is based at a specific location and is, of course, the person one sees in the event of a serious illness.  I had meant to do this long before now and finally got around to it.

I would be a fool not have doubts about posting some of the things I write.  I would be more of a fool if I let that stop me from posting them.

I’m a lesbian.  I’m not a gay man.  I’m not a man of any sort, though I am aware that there are many people who disagree with me on that.

Because I am a lesbian, I have the social liberty to speak out.  It’s really hard to find a straight transwoman who will speak up.  Did you ever wonder why?