Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Equality or Justice? And who's the man in your relationship?

I know I've spoken before on how what the lgbt are asking for is not quite equal rights. I finally found a model that explains it better than I can.
You have three kids at a baseball game, and three crates. One kid is tall enough to see with no problem. One is almost tall enough to see. One is way too short to see.
Equality is when each kid gets a crate to stand on. Justice is when the shortest kid gets two crates and the medium kid gets one, and they can all see the game.
http://slowrobot.com/i/43945
On the theme of explaining lgbt life to those outside it, Ellen Degeneres is quoted as having the best counter-argument  to 'who's the guy and who's the girl in your relationship' that I've ever seen.
Which chopstick is the fork?
http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=69584

More on gender.

Some boys like to wear girl clothes. But they don't want to be girls. The New York Times published a lovely article on the 'middle space' between traditionally feminine and traditionally masculine, one in which girls live with no trouble, but into which boys have to fight for entrance.
One of the blogs I follow is about one such boy, called C.J., and written by his mother. You should read it.
Also check out Twirl and his brother Tornado and sister Firecracker.
In other news, I got into that art show! You should go and check me out! April 1-7, GMU.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Gender

The New York Times posted a very good article on transgender people and pronouns. People tend to think of the pronoun change as happening at the same time as a sex change, but that just isn't true. Gender is gender, regardless of sex.
I do believe that male and female souls are inherently different, and that the soul is what I, at least, and others, are attracted to. Not just female body parts, female souls. It is the only explanation I can think of for several phenomena.
As a junior in high school, I read a very interesting book called Both Sides Now: One Man's Journey Through Womanhood. The author, Dhillon Khosla, was born with the body of a woman and took sexual partners from both sexes before being with women exclusively, and finally discovering the concept of transgender and making a full transition. Even when presenting as a woman, Khosla found that several, if not many, of his female partners were not already in the 'lesbian pool', but had never been attracted to a 'woman' before. They thought of the experience as a change to their sexuality, rather than seeing Khosla as a man. One time in a grocery store, Khosla found himself being stared at by a very young child. The mother apologized and said that 'he usually only stares like that at men.'
This all seems to point to the idea that these people are reacting to something about Khosla that their subconscious recognizes, without him ever having told them about being transgender. I read somewhere that transgender people are found to have brains structured more like the gender they identify with than that of their biological sex. So, you might say, it's their minds that create this attraction.
I find transgender women attractive, and not transgender men, without even knowing them. This baby could not have known what Khosla's mind is like. I once, correctly, identified someone in a serving line as transgender without speaking to them. I can also easily see the duality in a genderqueer person I know. It's like the person gives off gendered 'vibes' that I can sense, and I think other people can, too. They're just far more likely to ignore that and base their ideas of the person's gender off what they can see.

With that in mind, I'd like to encourage everyone in the Northern Virginia area to participate in a Queer Art Show that George Mason University is putting on.


Deadline: March 18th
George Mason University’s TQ Mason, in association with LGBTQ Resources, is looking for LGBTQ* Artists to contribute to an art show. The show will be held from April 1st-7th, with the possibility of some pieces being up more permanently.
This show is exploring the theme of gender, but it is a theme in the broadest sense, and not intended to be limiting.
We are aware that parts of the LGBTQ* alphabet get left out, and this show is aiming to avoid that. We especially want to showcase artists who are part of the ignored and lesser-known letters.
A photo of the submission should be sent electronically to our contact email, or burnt onto a CD and dropped off at the LGBTQ Resource Office. Required information includes: preferred name, contact email and phone number. We will contact everyone before the show about who has been accepted. Accepted submissions have to be transportable to George Mason University in time for the show. It does not cost anything to submit or participate.

Please send submissions, questions, and comments to:  

 tqartshow@gmail.com      


TQ Mason is GMU's trans* and queer inclusive support/action group open to people of all genders, identities, expressions, and sexualities.