Friday, May 31, 2013

I had a dream today, that ALL men are created EQUAL


 
By Sabrina Samone, TMP
 
Coretta Scott King once said “I support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (EDNA) of 1994 because I believe that freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience.” Martin Luther King himself has said, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I have worked too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern. Justice is invisible.” You can’t stand for one group of people and deny it to others.

A growing number of African-American church leaders are growing in numbers to stand against gay marriage and other LGBT legislation. Catholic leader Cardinal Francis George spoke back in April against the “redefinition of marriage” and was joined by a number of Africa-American pastors who are opposed to legalizing gay marriage in Illinois.  Willie James Campbell of the Chicago-based Church of God in Christ said  “We are biblically, spiritually against it. The bible is our guide, our road map.”  According to the Chicago Tribune.

 Shae Addams, a close friend of mine, who was raised by her very religious grandmother, has never wanted to leave her religion as so many in the LGBT communities have because of the bigotry felt.  Over the years as I’ve witnessed through my life in the LGBT world, so many that literally have been forced to find spiritual guidance from a religion other than Christianity. Over the years I’ve watched her go from church after church in rural South Carolina. She’s been flat out told not to attend, to a preacher directing a sermon directly at her by saying things like, “God didn’t make a mistake by making you. You were meant to be who you were born to be.” On many occasions, because of lack of support from a minister, the members of the church would ostracize her. I’d often ask why you force yourself to go through this, she’d always reply, “I’m not letting them stop me from worshiping the lord.” Her faith has kept her, without the guidance of any actual church, from being a statistic many Trans woman of color and Trans people period, have become; suicide victims, drug addiction, extreme depression. She is still loved in the small town of Pamplico SC; on a friendly basis with the local mayor, a favorite volunteer among the elderly who are recipients of the meal on wheels program, yet in the African-American churches of God, she continues her struggle to be herself and worship her lord without being ridiculed.

I really can’t understand the psychological reasons behind why groups of people that have experienced themselves, the most discrimination and denied equality, be the first in line to stand in the way of other persecuted groups. It is the highest form of hypocrisy. Homophobia, Transphobia and biphobia plague our community regardless of nationality, race or religion, but it is especially hypocritically high within the African-Latino-Muslim and Native American communities.

Now the Republican party, which is on a mission to be inclusive of minority groups are pushing their anti-LGBT agenda onto the closed minded sections of the black churches of a America, churches that today even Martin Luther King would now be considered an outcast due to their intolerance to the LGBT community. A culture of people with long roots in the church as far back as the earliest days of slavery are now pushing young LGBT people of color away from Christianity into the arms of other religions where they may feel accepted.


Another Trans-sister that is fighting for her faith in God is Meggan Summerville,  blogger of Trans-girl at the cross, who says, “I think that many in the Christian church on a whole have forgotten that Christ has called us, above all else, to love one another. This is not the love many of us know. It has nothing to do with mutual love, a give and take type of love. It is the love God has shown us, the love of Christ showed when he died on the cross for each and every one of us. It’s called agape, a love that is unconditional. God loves us not because of who we are but in spite of whom we are and many Christians have forgotten that. Christians are humans just like everyone else, we are flawed. Many bow to the ways of society and forget what God has called us all to do and that to love one another.
Whether its hate groups like the Lesbian TERF groups or the churches of racial minorities, I hope we all can learn that there is no freedom until all are free and to practice that the same need and desire to be included in society should be given to others who desire and only wish the same. I had thought with the election of President Obama, the dream has been realized; I’m only beginning to understand it is only the beginning. Dr. King’s dream was not only for us in black America, but for all of mankind, a dream that all men are created equal, Trans-black-Gay-Latino etc., and to actually live equally. Dr. King, I hope one day your dream is finally fulfilled and one day will come, where no man is hated just because he or she is different from another.





 
 

 
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Monday, May 27, 2013

A Transphobic post don’t go exactly as planned


By Sabrina Samone, TMP

We as Trans people today live in some type of post apocalyptic Jerry Springer world at times. After Fallon Fox’s recent admitting to being transgender, months later we are still bombarded by news articles and bloggers who screams her biological gender as breaking news to gain that Jerry Springer show mentality of ‘It’s a man.’  We could wear a T on our head and it still wouldn’t matter to the ignorant audience type of that style of show. They’d still feel the need to point out information that has already willingly been given. In their minds we’re to be ashamed of being Transgender, not realizing we’re not and a growing movement in the Trans* is to own who we are with pride and living visibly.

As a Trans-woman I’ve had more than my share of what are called “Tranny Chasers”, those men who see only a sexual fetish or experiment.  As a young teenage trans-girl, I was only a girl on the inside and had yet to look in the mirror and see the woman I knew I was on the inside. Neither did my mother, aunts, older step-sister or my cis-gender girlfriends. They were aware of my femininity and often responded to me as such but rarely were I given as a heterosexual Trans-woman, the advice most cis-gender girls at a young age receive.  Every young girl is told by parents, older female siblings, teachers and girlfriends, “Men only want one thing and they will say or do whatever it takes to get , just that.” At 20 when I started HRT and began to develop I must admit men’s attraction to me was very shocking, exciting and scary all at the same time. As most young girls began to realize early with guidance the power they have over a man, I had to learn on my own as the estrogen changed and developed me into a sexual temptation for all heterosexual men. 

Every Trans-girl gets the shocking day without even trying, to be perceived as just another female; some call it passing without trying. My day came on a dreary rainy day in Atlanta GA, I had simply brushed back my hair weave, had yet to start electrolysis so I hadn’t shaved yet that morning and only had an A cup at the time, when I walked to my apartment complex laundry room to do my clothes. All of a sudden this handsome smooth dark chocolate brother came up to me, he startled me at first and I lowered my chin, to hide stubble, as he stood in my face asking, “What a beautiful girl like you doing your own laundry, you should have a man doing that for you.”  Being so young, I giggled like a school girl. He offered to take my clothes back to my apartment, it was the middle of the day, and my roommate and her boyfriend were there as well as a few neighbors so I didn’t see the harm in asking him up. Everyone went up stairs as we sat on the couch getting to know one another. I was sure he couldn’t miss the morning stubble on my face and I had only been on estrogen three months at this time, so he just had to know what time it was. I watched in amazement as we talk his manhood fought desperately to escape his tight Calvin Klein jeans. We began to kiss and that’s when he finally noticed the stubble and I finally noticed he didn’t know what time it was as I had innocently assumed he had. I was extremely embarrassed, I had never and have yet in my life intentionally with held who I am if I’m being a little slutty with someone. I apologized and explained I thought he knew, and my roommate’s boyfriend quickly came from upstairs, making me more embarrassed as I now knew all my friends were upstairs listening, but grateful he came to make sure no trouble would occur. The young handsome man left and I realized that day for the first time, I appeared passable to people and of course always made sure I was “together”, from then on.

A year later I had reached a naturally developed 32b cup, my waist was at a lovely 27 inches then and my hips were 38, as a young caramel woman of color needless to say, I attracted an unprepared for, amount of sexual attention from men. During this time I met an older, early thirty, very attractive Caramel complexioned professor at a local college in town. After months of dating, among my other trans-girlfriends, you may say I won the jackpot.  Not only was he intelligent, well off, charming and good looking but he adored me like no other man I had ever known.  Though we went to plays, concerts, dinner, he had yet to invite me over to his place. Finally one week he pulls up to my apartment to surprise me and asked if I’d come stay the week with him.  To me in my young mind I was two steps away from hearing wedding bells. I had kept my older step-sister informed from the day of our first date, never once received words of advice, she only listened.  She did know that after six months of dating him, I was getting serious with this guy.

 At his beautiful home in Stone Mountain Georgia, there were pictures everywhere of him with politicians, actors and oh my god, several pictures of him with Oprah Winfrey, after being on her show several times. I was in heaven as he told me to have a look around while he showered for dinner. Don’t ask me why, to this day I’m not sure why I did, call it my female intuition, but I found myself opening the top dresser drawer in his bedroom.  To my shock they were filled with women’s lingerie everywhere, so I opened the second drawer, it was filled with tons of pictures turned upside down dated only a month ago of him and a very pregnant woman.  When he emerged from the shower, finding me holding the picture of a pregnant woman, he had to admit. He was married and I had never seen a ring because he always took it off before he came to see me. His wife at the time was in the hospital and had just given birth to their first child. Not only did I felt like the great whore of Babylon, but foolish and dumb. How had I not known to ask, it had never occurred to me he could be married or even more with a current pregnant wife. I asked him to take me home, too much in tears to argue and he dared not open his mouth on our way back to my apartment.  I called my step-sister, crying telling her the whole awful story, with little understanding or sympathy.

 Long story short, four years later after moving back to South Carolina, one day while my Mom and I went to lunch together, she asks, unexpectedly as only a mother can, “so why were you dating a married man in Atlanta?”  I was floored, yes all my conversations of hopes for advice from an older step-sister were all being repeated back home, and the entire family knew I had dated a married man. Trans-girl or not, I knew this much at least was frowned upon, especially in my family and only served their image of being Transgender as an overly sexualized homosexual. I explained my innocents to my mother, that I never knew and he had lied to me, but she remains to this day the only one who knows the truth of my innocents. Needless to say my step-sister still to this day don’t understand why I don’t call her like I did back in the days when I lived in Atlanta.

Well what does this have to do with the title right? Well because there are many issues facing being Transgender and dating. Most of us that started transition early without the support of family face a male world as a beautiful woman destined to be devoured. There are men and women who have no preference in dating cis or trans gender, and those that seek out dating transgender people.  As an alone in the beginning most Trans-people feel, as if we are the only ones feeling this way. There are men, who think they are the only men who want to date Trans-women, not everyone is on a Trans dating site or come in contact with other men that have, will or is dating a transgender woman. Recently I found this post titled, “Will you date a Transgender?”  Looking at the comments and the poster’s profile it was an obvious attempt to have a bunch of people bash Transgender people. Surprisingly the opposite has happened. To the answer will you date a transgender, which in itself says a lot, sort of like, would you date a black, or white or a gay, so you know where the poster hopes to lead the conversation, to a big Jerry Springer like spectacle of Trans people, but the answers are nearly 50-50 as of 20 hrs after the post and if you can resist reading some of the negative comments which should not matter to you in this universe, what I did find interesting is the demographics of who said yes.

Of those currently surveyed to say yes, they would date a Transgender person. The most yes in each category is;

Gender: Females 47% said yes (very interesting)

Age group:  25-34 said yes by 57% (so this is the age group I should be focused on, lol)

Religious affiliation:  Pagan’s said yes by 89% (not so surprising)

Political Views: Progressives said yes by 90% (not surprising)

Sexual Orientation: Bisexuals said yes by 90% (not really that surprising)

Relationship status: It’s complicated said yes by 67% (figures, those unhappy in relationship, cheaters lol)

Zodiac: Cancer’s said yes by 73% (this was funny to see)

Education Levels:  Current high schools said yes by 56% (Interesting as this could be a reflection of the future attitudes towards transgender dating)

Employment status: Part-timers said yes by 52% (my man is going to be broke, hooray)

Career:  Advertising/graphic design said yes by 100% (Gives a girl hope, lol)

Income levels:  25 thousand/yr or less said yes by 53% (oh my god, sardines for dinner, lol)

 

And the states coming in the highest that would date a Transgender person all at a 100%; Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia, Minnesota, South Carolina, Alaska, Kansas, Idaho and Louisiana.

Over all after 20 hours into the post 117 vote No and 114 vote yes

 

The reason I find this interesting, even though it’s not a scientific study, but that it was a post, meant to be mean spirited and even in that climate the results are nearly 50/50. Which means little to you if you are Transgender because of course you know dozens of men and women that would be willing to date you, but to those who feel alone and feeling they are the only ones with desires to date a Transgender person, it proves even in a post meant to be humiliating to Transgender people, that there is way more support than not. Imagine if one of us, Transgender people were to post this, the result maybe even more in favor of dating someone who is Trans. I’m glad it has yet to receive the perception the poster intended, but I doubt it will remain up long once he sees that not everyone is as closed minded as he hoped and it would be nice to get a more scientific approach on dating habits of the Transgender community cause as I explained earlier, we all could use some advice.

PS: No fear, I’m a lot wiser these days about men than I was nearly 15 years ago, lol.
 
 
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Tortured Muse: A personal poem by Sabrina Samone




By Sabrina Samone
Copyrights © Tortured Muse, 2005


I rarely share my poetry because most then, realize how morbid I can be. Even attempting to write something romantic, usually ends tragically and dark, but after reading a few poems recently I felt I wanted to share my fictional side, hope you enjoy.

TORTURED MUSE

She’s one of the daughters of the God of the sea,

Being murdered by you,

You fool.

She came to help

But you stone the already battered soul.

That cat even knows,

But you,

You, just go on with your flow.

Go!

 

Or open your soul’s eyes

See the corpse before you

Bleeding,

Rotting flesh

Symphonies of a thousand composers,

                                                                   oozing like pus out of her veins.

The paint of countless artists,

                                                  boils on her skin.

A dramatist tears,

                            flows from her eyes as black as tar,

                                                                                         with the stench of Hades.

Your sins are with her

 

Now rape her body with your eyes

See her radiant,

                           No care,

                                           Beauty, you think undeserving

Untouchable

Fierce control,

Independent and wise

Or

Continue choosing your illusions

Scares dressed in lace so you can feel okay,

Never seeing how the scars grow,

Never seeing how powerful you re to her as well.

So?

Continue!

 

Hammer her head,

More

So that her brains drip off her body,

                                                            like the thoughts of a writer,

                                                                                                             onto his sheets.

That you fool

Was the last daughter

 Of the Great God of the sea

Your inspiration,

Ours,

Your muse if you will.

 

She could walk your soul to the gates of Satan’s door

Rattle your brain

until your thoughts are no longer yours.

 

Lost dreams

Fantasies never fulfilled,

Empty marriages and empty carriages,

A rotting womb and barren tombs

Rejoice for death

Remorse a birth

A blank stare into the abyss

A never ending reach

For the next process

Can be

And still you tempt.

 

Only gifts

She longs to give.

Inspired dreams yet dreamt.

A thousand songs yet sung.

Countless realities,

imagined,

portrayed,

understood.

Endless midnight readings.

Never ending green landscapes,

seen in deserts.

Waterfalls seen in a metropolis.

Fragmented bodies,

connecting,

To a tapestry that never ends.

 

Only when gone will you know

She had been your muse,

With cold

  Blood                                                                                                            (?)  by  Italian artist Deaz
                    Dripping                                                                                        


From your hands.                                                                   
 
 
Ofcourse I believe you should come away with your own meaning, but have had  so many friends think it was just a blood and gore poem, its really meant to symbolize what it means to your inner muse, when you don't follow your dreams and heart.

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Best of Both Worlds


By Sabrina Samone,TMP

There’s so many ways to celebrate the duality that is being Trans and we should.  So often we’re faced with the doom and gloom of living in a world that discriminates against us and may cause us to doubt at times our own self worth, but why should we?   We as Trans-people are extremely special in so many ways. Unfortunately so many words or labels we’ve once accepted we now quickly discard, due to those who have exploited those terms in derogatory ways.  We’ve given those that have distorted the meaning, the power.  When I was a young trans-gal in the mid nineties, just starting HRT, how we loathed the word, shemale. There was nothing more humiliating.  We were more satisfied at the time, with the term Tranny over shemale, but as time has proved, they’ve made that as ugly and as shameful. Now as a community we’ve discarded that from our vocabulary. One I will not let them take is; Best of Both Worlds, because we are just that. We’re a unique special two spirited people with a long history in the human race.

Two spirited people; long before the white Europeans stole the land of the Native Americans, two spirited people existed. In this land we call North America there is nothing more traditional than two spirited people. Two spirit people were considered a third gender of people and were a fundamental institution among mot tribal people. Male and Female two spirit people have been documented in over a 130 tribes in every region of North America. Two spirits usually indicates a person whose body simultaneously manifests both a masculine and feminine spirit. They were highly respected in their tribe and were considered healers, fortune tellers, matchmakers and to have a child named by a two spirit person was to have a lucky name in life.
 
 
In Ancient times we were considered dually-gifted and respected. What we understand as transgender today had often been understood quite differently at various periods in time. In the earliest ages, people who were seen to bridge the genders were often thought to possess wisdom that cis-gender people did not and were often exalted in society for this. Roman historian Plutarch depicts “the Great Mother” as an intersex deity from who the two sexes had not yet split. Transgender depictions of the Great Mother and her priestesses are found in ancient artifacts back to the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylonia and Akkad. In ancient times there were no words such as homosexuality or bisexuality, most just enjoyed sexuality.

                                                         Cybele, mother goddess, known to have trangender priesthood

Probably considered one of the greatest warriors and conquers of all time, Alexander the Great, enjoyed a well known and documented love affair with a Eunuch, Bagoas, depicted only briefly in the Hollywood film, Alexander the Great. Bogas became a eunuch at an early age which had lead to major hormonal changes. Such was the case with young eunuchs who were not castrated due to enslavement; this led to a decrease in testosterone before puberty, which gave them a feminine look pleasing to kings who’d use them as courtesans.  Even, despite what most transgendered people of today have heard from religion, our holy bible does support and accept transgender people, or at the time what was known as eunuchs in Matthew 19:12 “For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb: (most likely referring to those being born intersex) and there are eunuch who were made eunuchs by men; (most likely referring to the practice of enslavement in ancient times) and there are also eunuchs who made themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. HE, WHO IS ABLE TO ACCEPT THIS, LET HIM ACCEPT IT, (More than likely referring too many of us who choose to live without the genitalia born with. Even Kabbalah, believed to be the knowledge from the tree of life, pre dating the Torah states: Shekhinah is the female essence of God. God in the Kabbalah sense is both male and female.
                                         Depiction of Bogas, known eunuch lover of Alexander the Great
 
Today eunuchs or Hijra, as they are commonly referred as in India and other parts of south Asia; perform blessings in the form of dances at birth ceremonies and weddings. Though now, modern bigotry plagues this group as it does transgender people everywhere.
Whether it is two-spirited or eunuchs’, today transgender people are highly sexualized and the classic terminology used in the growing industry of transgender porn is to market us as the best of both worlds. But discarding this term, due to its negative use, is denying the truth, that in fact we are the best of both worlds. It may seem shallow and only sexual when we hear most transgender admirer’s state that we as transgender people posses a rare inner beauty and are indeed the best of both worlds. But just by entertaining their reasoning’s is sometimes really intriguing, cis-gender women who admire trans-men may often say that their masculinity is much more real and unstained and are better at comforting women, many cis-gender men admire trans-women for their femininity and their tenderness to the male ego. Without stating anymore of the obvious in mental and physical changes, because of the great opposition we face in society, transgender people regardless how young or old are known to also have thick skin and become very wise, very fast. We are stronger than I think we give ourselves credit for at times. While society at large seems to continue the gender war between male and female, and sexual wars of heterosexual and homosexual, we have the wisdom to see all the sides, the negative and positive of both. Those of us that due to the drastic physical changes that we receive from testosterone and estrogen and can resist being servants of Narcissus; a fixation with oneself, many are wise beyond our years, make great loyal trustworthy friends and because of a duality in mental thinking make great artist, writers, politicians, business people, psychologist because we are all just a little better at seeing all sides of things that are usually missed by cis-gender people.






Of course, I’m not implying we are better or superior to cis-gender people, but given the facts of history, we are an equal contributor to the human race. Equality for third gender people should be the norm, and should not have to be fought for like crumbs in the streets from people who are as mortal as we are, with no more of a supreme right than we have to dictate the meaning of life. Society today is nothing more than left over debris from the dark ages. A time when people thought it best to punish themselves for any personal pleasure, happiness and believed in so many superstitions that made rational thinking of the time nearly equivalent to the cave man era. We are still living off the residue of that era, limiting the imagination of the human race because of medieval beliefs. We as third gender people, do have a lot to be proud of as a group of people. For those of us alone and felling there is nothing to live for, these are reasons to realize how special you are. We have a spiritual purpose, past and future for mankind. We have attributes that due to our misfortunate birth defects and the way society responds to it, makes us see things in not so rigid ways. A prime example is the bathroom debacle; cis-gender can’t get their minds beyond sexuality and sexual desire. While it is as plain to most of us like the paint on the wall, it baffles many of us why they can’t. I think personally this is part of our gift to the world, our purpose to help all of mankind to transcend to a higher level of consciousness, because we truly are, the best of both worlds.

More supportive scriptures from the Holy Bible supporting the inner beauty of third gender people:

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
Zechariah 12:1
"The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him."


John 7:24:
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment"


                                                         Related Religious Video







 

 
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Saturday, May 18, 2013

May 17th was International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia





By Sabrina Samone, TMP

I have to wonder did anyone outside of the LGBTQI and our allies even notice today was IDAHOBIT.  Driving around, flipping through sirus xm radio, no one was talking about it. Flipping the remote, I never heard it mentioned. Did the world stop anywhere and decided to be kind to the LGBT community?  How many in the community even knew it was such a day, our day of respite from hate.

This day of I.D.A.H. & Transphobia is held every year as a rallying event offering an opportunity for people to get together and reach out to one another, many LGBT organizations have been highlighting this day, as a coming together event. We should also start within the community by acknowledging it’s actually IDAHOBIT day, the b for biphobia.  The fact Biphobia was ignored on facebook post, news articles and blogs, only reminds us that even we, the LGBT community have a way to go with phobias. Totally ignoring a group is a form of exclusion.

The main purpose of IDAHOBIT, is to raise awareness, which in turn provides an opportunity to take action in dialogue with the media. Oh the media, those supposedly college educated, unbiased, free speech journalist like those at the Cleveland Plain, whose coverage of the brutal murder of someone’s child, friend, sister, Cemia Acoff began with their title “oddly dressed body found in Olmsted Township pond identified” and continued on a number of occasions to refer to a trans-female as he and him.  Even after outpours from the Trans community, an apology or any corrective language is still being ignored.

Even today on IDAHOBIT day, the global facebook page for the event experienced a vicious attack on their website causing the page to be temporarily inaccessible.  We face this way too often, and I’d like to say what’s good for the goose is good for the gandor and serve it back at them, but fighting ignorance with ignorance only gives birth to morons. Most LGBTI people have to deal with homophobic or transphobic harassment, verbal abuse and many have been physically attacked just for being who they are.  As a result of homophobia and discrimination, LGBT young people are more likely to start using drugs, self harm or attempt suicide.

There is always hope, last year, very few countries have passed legislation on the federal level that would include fully fledged legal recognition of LGBT couples in marriage, adoption, inheritance, workplace protection and insurance rights.  So far this year, several state have joined the ranks of those offering marriage equality, to date the total is 12.  Many states, and proudly my own here in S.C. are working on laws to protect LGBT people from discrimination in the workplace and in housing.

Yet while we hold our hands out for equality and for an end to homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, there are great divides still within the LGBT communities. Transgender people of color not feeling included in the great gender awakening. There are heterosexual Trans people feeling pushed aside by the gay and lesbian transgender community who view any celebration of Trans-female or Trans-male beauty as overtly sexual and therefore a negative. Also Trans-men who feel separated by gender from Trans-women and vice versa.  Sadly there are still Gay and Lesbians in power who view Transgender as a choice, all while screaming they were born this way and I will add sad when the phobia is reversed and those within the Trans community not being open to LG people and cross dressers and all of us seem to have ignored the B and I and Q today. Don’t you think they view that as a form of phobia?

To me, asking for the world to cease Homophobia and Transphobia just seems to be a very steep hill to climb when we’re not totally being honest and inclusive to all within our community.  Obviously it is a great cause and should be supported, but maybe one of the easiest ways to acknowledge the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), is when you head out this weekend to the clubs, bars or any social events with large gatherings of LGBTQIA friends and give a hug, pat on the back or acknowledgement of your support to someone in the community…that is not like you.


Beautiful Videos supporting an end to discrimination, the second being from the Anti-Defamation League and is powerful and moving to imagine, great peace makers of our time still with us.








 
 
 
 
 
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South Carolina Equality announced the introduction of H.4025: “The Workplace Fairness Act” at a press conference at the State House


The Conservative media: The new bullies of Transgender people

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Parents of Intersex child sues MUSC...Gender is more than what is between the legs…Let this stand as evidence










By Sabrina Samone, TMP

The proof is in the pudding as some will say, for those cis-gender people who oppose Transgender people or think it is a choice that someone makes to change their sex.  Gender is more than what lies between your legs. Currently here in Charleston, South Carolina, parents Pamela and John Mark Crawford are listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against several doctors from Greenville Hospital and the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. According to the Civil Action Complaint filed with the United States District Court for the district of South Carolina, Charleston Division;  The Lawsuit challenges the decision by government officials and doctors to perform an irreversible, painful and medically unnecessary sex assignment surgery on a sixteen month-old child in state custody.
In late 2004, two twin babies were born in Greenville, SC, each with a weight less than two pounds.  After a few weeks the twins’ mother abandoned them and stopped visiting the newborns at the hospital. There was no father present either.  Eventually one of the twins, a girl, died. M.C., as the other minor is referred as, spent nearly three months in the Greenville Hospital. Unbelievably, medically trained doctors viewed the infant as a medical mystery because they could not determine if the child was male or female, totally uneducated in a medical condition called intersex, a condition that can even be Google.

In 2006, the Crawford’s had become the new adopted parents of baby M.C. According to the Intersex Society of North America, a rare intersex condition called ovotesticular disorder of sexual development affects only one out of every 83,000 babes.  According to the Post and Courier, court papers say physicians alternatively identified M.C. as male and female in medical records. Not once in any article regarding this issue does it states once, anywhere I’ve read that medically trained doctors were aware of a medical condition of intersex people.

Doctors at the Greenville Hospital was so ignorant of this condition, the child at some point had been transferred to the Medical University of South Carolina.  Surgeons took upon themselves to remove evidence of M.C.’s male reproductive organs at the unthinkable age of 16months old.  It is still unclear why the doctors decided on assigning the child as female rather than male. Though as Transgender we know that mtf SRS is more common and with less complications than ftm surgery and had these hospitals had any communication with any transgender organizations or intersex groups, they would have known this and to also know, the child will yet let you know in time, their choice in gender.
According to the Advocate, God made M.C. the way he is, but with one unnecessary surgery, the state of South Carolina irreparably injured him,” said Anne Tamar-Mattis, executive director of Advocates for Informed Choice. The parents tried to raise their little girl as a typical girl, but it became obvious quickly that she preferred to be a he and now at the age of eight has become vocal and insistent on being referred to as a male.  Bringing to mind the plight of many intersex individuals as well as Transgender people, who mind and spirit does not match what is between their legs.

When will cis-gender society get it, even at the cost of ignorant doctors who took upon themselves to assign a sex, those assigned genitals became an unwelcomed birth defect, in the eyes of an eight year old boy. Now regardless of an outcome of a lawsuit young M.C., will live his life as a transgender man faced with the discrimination as many do, of our one track minded, bigoted cis-gender society?  A society that attempts to deny him from restrooms he was even born physically to use, forced to carry F for female on his birth certificate denying him chances and opportunities for work, because South Carolina does not allow any transgender person born within its borders to change gender on I.D. without proof of SRS and two letters of recommendation from psychologist. All because a society of ignorant cis-gender, Doctors decided in their eyes and in their minds what sex he was to them and as many Trans American’s know, society does not understand what makes a person male or female, it is not genitalia. 

I hope the pre-historic medical community of this state can learn from this, educate themselves and also educate our political leaders and society to better understand intersex and gender dysphoria people. Maybe the biggest lesson the whole country can learn about Transgenderism from this is, regardless what is or given between a person’s legs, their gender is determined in their mind. Need Proof? Follow this case.

Update:
Video of the Crawfords speaking about their intersex child who now insist on being male;



                                                            RELATED TMP ARTICLES

Defining who we are part IV: A message to Cis-gender people, Transgender is not sexuality

The Rise of the Transgenderation?

TMP's Book of The Month------Peninsual of Lies: A True Story of Mysterious Birth and Taboo Love by Edward Ball



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Friday, May 10, 2013

May’s book of the month; I Rise-The Transformation of Toni Newman


Reviewed for TMP by Sabrina Samone

It’s taken me a minute to finally get this book, then another to finally get the chance to read it.  Half way through I began kicking myself for taking so long.  Its description on Amazon states it’s a true rags to riches of an African American Transgender. It is so much more.

This seems to be the first popular memoir to be written in America by an African American transgender.  Written with a total open book honesty approach, it is a pleasant escape of the usual ‘how I transitioned on hormones’, transgender story.  Even if you choose to ignore that she is transgender, you’d see simply, the struggle of any woman finding herself in a world faced with the obstacle of being born poor and in rural America.  However, this is based on a true story of a gender confused young man into an educated proud African American Trans-woman.
It first sparked my interest because the author is southern and born only three hours north of me in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  Immediately, I thought, here is a girl like me that knows what it must mean being Trans in the south. She faced living in a homo and transsphoic minority group and battling gender dysphoria and plagued in a society filled with drug addictions and prostitution, Toni Newman found a way to rise.

What I loved most about this book is how it’s not simply about her taking hormones, or dwells on how those around her grew to change and accept her, but how she grew to accept herself.  Staying strong in a world that says, you can’t, she understood she could.  While I’ve written about trans-women attitudes towards trans-women who are showgirls, porn stars or in prostitution, she also proves in her memoir that it is not always an easy choice not to make.  Many Transwomen are lead many times unwillingly into the sex industry profession, faced with rejection of family, denied work and unable to afford the basics of life, many turn to satisfying the hypocritical fantasies of cis-gender society.  The society that will not acknowledge you has a human in public but willing to exploit Trans people as their sexual fetishes. Many, as did Toni Newman, used this in life not as a crutch or a way towards self destruction but only as a stepping stone and grows to learn to use the sex industry to become the fullest human they can become. In more ways than one, this book reminds the reader, all is not what it seems.

Also what’s even more exciting, you’ll soon be able to see part of the novel transformed as well, into the feature film Heart of a Woman, Directed by British Film Director Keith Holland and starring Transgender actress, Angelica Ross.

This is a powerful story of a Trans-woman of color that will not become a victim, a statistic or another Trans person for cis-gender society to pity, but about a woman who uses the resources given to her...to rise.
 
The below interview with Author Toni Newman is from proudtobeout.org
 


For more info on Toni Newman the author and link to purchase book:


Visit Toninewman.com

Purchase on Amazon.com


















                                Previous Transmuseplanet's books of the month

April’s Book of the month: the Other Side of Silence Men’s Lives and Gay Identities: A twentieth-Century History

March's Book of the Month: Peninsual of Lies: A True Story of Mysterious Birth and Taboo Love by Edward Ball