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Chaz Bono, whose mother and father Cher and Sonny Bono made sixties television fun for so many of us, explains to Chris Cuomo on Good Morning America the transition from being Chastity Bono. This is as good an explanation I have ever seen in the mass media of the process, thinking, and feelings of this extraordinary journey — from the viewpoint of the person.
I have often advocated at FireDogLake that my fellow progressives eschew silly jokes about our opponents and their alleged transgender nature. (Well, one opponent in particular. There’s nothing wrong or funny about being transgender, while there’s lots wrong with being Ann Coulter.) I hope everyone who has backed me up on this position — and those who’ve learned from it or not understood it — will have a look at this brief segment from Good Morning America.
I’m no expert, but I learned a thing or two from this sensitive and encouraging mainstream media interview. Congrats to Chris Cuomo and GMA for handling this really well.
Chaz Bono, as Chastity, was an outstanding spokesperson for the lesbian community, and all LGBTs. It will be wonderful to see him in a new public role as the face of transgender Americans. It can’t be easy to make such a transition as a public person; he is to be commended.
(Note: per the GLAAD stylebook, transgender persons deserve to be referred to and provided the pronoun of their destination gender. Therefore, please refer in comments to Chaz as he and him. Thank you.)
91 Comments
wow. thanks for this teddy. recommended
Thank you Suzanne! This topic has always created a struggle for our moderators, as the trollish and confused nature of the commentary can quickly get out of hand. I wanted to put this segment up as kind of a reward to everyone for “getting it.” Isn’t Chaz brave?
He is very brave and I think it’s a very good thing for the LGBT community. I wish him all the happiness and joy possible in the future.
We’re going to have another big debate about ENDA (non-discrimination in employment) early next year. Last year’s debate foundering on the inclusion of transgenders, and I hope Chaz can take a role in that debate this year. Many states still don’t have laws protecting gender expression and gender identity, even those that protect lesbian and gay citizens.
Teddy – I see only one problem with this interview – it was not long enough. Chaz did not get the opportunity to really explore with the interviewer what this means. I’m sure there are many people who watched this and are still saying to themselves that being transgendered is a choice. This is not a topic that is easy for most people to get their brains around.
You are absolutely right! “Getting our heads around” transgender is exactly the issue for those us who aren’t. I hope this excellent, though brief, interview will be the first of many for Chaz. He’ll have longer form opportunities in other venues, and will take advantage of them. But for its length, I thought this segment hit all the right notes.
People tend to focus on the “surgery” aspects of transgender, and that’s why Chaz’s quote rings so true: it’s not between your legs, it’s between your ears. Also, Chaz managed to touch on the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation, which is another discussion completely for many people.
I look forward to many more chances to see Chaz in mass media.
It is difficult to “get your head around” but it’s not MY business. It’s their business and bless them.
Thanks to everyone at FDL for their support on this issue. It’s quite the thing on progressive blogs to make fun of that certain opponent for being transgender; I don’t think people understood quite how hurtful that was for our transgender allies in the LGBT community.
But we’ve made real progress around these parts in helping people understand that there’s nothing funny or wrong about being transgender, and that accusations of being transgender are insulting not to the target, but to all transgender persons. I hope people will be advocates for this viewpoint elsewhere when they encounter less enlightened blogs.
You have been passionate in your advocacy and have been patient with many of us here on our journey of understanding. Thank you and Chaz for this wonderful segment.
I was lucky to have some wonderful friends who helped me on my journey on this very topic. It isn’t anything people should be expected to understand intuitively; the best thing I ever was ask a work colleague who I thought was transgender, “What pronoun do I use when I speak with you?” The world opened up then.
teddy, i remember your posts from, i think, a couple of years back. about not leaving anyone behind re edna. i’d love to see chaz be able to help that happen — for himself and for us all (lgbt&s)
thank you.
Life is short and life is precious–he is so right.
Thanks for this post Teddy. I hope we can continue to progress beyond the days when all the comedians would be confused by Christine Jorgenson and went for the yuk yuk with Renee Richards.
Good luck to Chaz as he moves on with his life.
Even some LGBT allies — are you listening, Chelsea Handler?? — find the cheap easy joke at the expense of Ts. People need to realize there wouldn’t have been any Stonewall without gender-bending, gender-variant queens. Knocking down the gender duality is at the center of gay liberation. It should always be respected by LGBT activists. No matter what their “cred” it’s never okay to make jokes that put down a part of our coalition.
An insult to one is an insult to all.
You know what’s amazing to me as I watched the video? I heard Sonny Bono. Chaz is most definitely Sonny’s boy; he has his dad’s voice. It’s the voice he was supposed to have all along, like part of an inheritance denied until now.
Watching again; you are right!
Teddy – your comments from the halo scan days really helped to deepen my understanding – especially your poignant comments about courage
right on Chaz !
I thought the line “gender is what between your ears, not what’s between your legs”
Is probably the best explaination I have ever heard.
He is an excellent spokesperson for the complicated issue.
BTW, how much do I think that Chris Cuomo is growing into being the next Walter Cronkite?
He is on the fluff show, yet he consistently covers really difficult issues that never get enough press (Iremeber a really well done report he did on brutality in hazing several years back) and he really has developed into a voice that America can trust.
I think by the time his career is over, he will end up being an American icon and will be better remembered than his father or brother.
am having an a-ha moment – thinking about his partner Jennifer, a lesbian, right ? – clearly deeply in love with Chaz, a man – and what it should teach us all about how, not whom we love – delicious
I don’t make any assumptions about Jennifer’s orientation or gender identity without explicit information. I know FTMs whose partners are women and FTMs whose partners are men. A lot depends, I guess, on when in the transition one enters the person’s life. Had she been attracted to Chastity, I suppose one would guess she’s a lesbian. Now, though, that she’s partnered with a man (FTM) that’s more complicated, isn’t it?
Just another example of the lack of duality in everyone’s world.
One of my colleagues transitioned a few years ago, but remains married to her wife whom she still loves. Montana law is occasionally wonderfully chaotic libertarian. She is now legally a woman and still legally married to a woman. I do think this could make some rightwing heads explode in the ste (we also have large Catholic and Mormon populations).
Thanks TP, this is indeed a great segment and a great entry into the issue for, I’d imagine, a lot of people.
I personally am confused by gender dismorphia. Lots of males who want sex changes claim they feel that they are females yet few seem to identify what it is about being female that they feel they are.
Is it the desire to look like a female or have the body of a female?
Being a male I haven’t a clue what is the difference in feeling like a female. I am aware of gender discrimination and so forth, that women play a different role in society, and even in most relationships, they have a “maternal instinct” and so on.
I observe a spectrum of gender manifestations from mucho macho males to delicate dainty females and everything in between. It’s all “normal” and so who cares???
Can anyone shed some more light on this condition?
My personal understanding, not from research but from people I know, is that those who identify as transgender cannot identify any particular aspect of, say, femininity they want to claim. They are women, inside their brains, but their physical bodies turned out “unmatched” to their psychic gender.
Most everyone I know says they’ve almost always known this about themselves. It’s that absolutism that puzzles us non-transgenders, perhaps. Can you explain what it is about being a man you most like? Can you identify any particular aspect of your masculine nature that makes you most want to be a man? Can you recall realizing you were a man? Of course not.
Now imagine having this sense of certainty in your head aout being a man, while in a woman’s body.
Understanding “what it’s like” isn’t a prerequisite to granting full legal equality and civil rights, of course. That should be unquestioned. But I applaud anyone who, in addition to acknowledging the necessary civil rights of all, makes an attempt to understand as well. Thanks.
I’m tring to attempt to understand. I get off wearing dresses with high heels, sometimes. I also get off wearing jeans and boots. I happen to have the kind of straight lined body that can go either way successully.
I can only ask questions, and if you choose not to answer, I shall remain the same, Demi.
If I don’t answer your question, it’s probably because I don’t know the answers. But I appreciate your questions, always.
This is tough stuff, Teddy, and I appreciate your honesty and your advocacy for those who have it tougher than me.
Being able to dress either way and not have a problem in the head about it must be easier, but you know I have other loved ones that I’m trying to figure out. Not that I necessarily have to, considering the unconditional lovey dovey I have for said loved one. And, I do.
I suppose my own gender identification had to do what how I was treated as a child, what toys and games I played with… I was socialized to identify with maleness and male things.
When I came to adolescence I was mysteriously attracted to females, which made sense to me as a male. I was not terribly aware of homosexuality nor exposed to it. There were femininelike guys but it wasn’t until I entered college was I exposed to “out” homosexuals. I found them perfectly OK and never had an issue with homosexuality. I had one friend who I believe was gay and probably “in love” with me. He wasn’t a gender bender, but I got the vibes he was digging me more than as a friend.
I still don’t understand gender bending. I’m content with who I am, Well, who’se content with who they are?
Does this have anything to do with cross dressing males who also want to be “seen” or look like females?
Why is this such an obsession/compulsion?
What does lack of duality mean? I’m trying to get this and am having difficulties. Help, please?
I mean that there are two genders, one male one female and that everyone has a body that matches the gender in their head, and that there’s never any crossover for any human. In other words, there is a spectrum of gender just as there is a spectrum of sexual orientation, but our culture recognizes only two genders. So people who don’t “fit” our culture’s expectation of being in either one or the other (“duality”) are not understood, are feared, and are isolated.
For more discussion of this aspect, and the dangers for transgender Americans, Lisa has a great post up at LaFiga about Chaz too:
Thank you. I’ll take a peek. I don’t know which is more comfortable…confused or not understanding. Still, want to know. Damn my ass. :O
Stunning.
“Spectrum” — yes, an excellent word to describe gender, particularly in terms of genetic expression.
Remember the recent hubbub over athlete Caster Semenya who competed as a woman, but whose genetic testing revealed they were something other than a double-XX woman? I have felt so bad about that situation; how awful to find out so publicly after living from birth as a woman, identifying as a woman, that you were not ever going to have children because you were intersex and more male than female. I think some of us might actually understand this kind of situation, identifying with the shock of revelation, rather than the omnipresent knowledge of one’s internal gender identity.
What’s important for us to know at this point in time is that this kind of situation in the workplace is no longer legal. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act went into effect recently (a legacy of Teddy Kennedy), forbidding discrimination against persons based on genetic information. There is not a body of case law yet, but cases like that of Joanne cited by SanderO above might be those covered under the act.
I’ve had a theory that the human race must have this spectrum of gender identity and expression as part of its inate “disaster recovery” system. What if as Frank Dune wrote speculatively in his novel, White Plague, there was a disease which was communicated exclusively to one gender? it is the LGBT portion of our genome which would save us; it is absolutely necessary to have this full and complete spectrum of identify and expression as insurance.
It’s already proven essential in terms of memetics; portions of human culture would have been lost without preservation by smaller segments of whole spectrum of our population. Until we grasp how very important and necessary this diversity is to our species, we are truly at risk.
Rita Mae Brown wrote beautifully on this about 20 years ago and it made so much sense (Venus Envy ?) I have trotted it out to more than one ‘phobe – sexuality and evolution ?!?
makes their heads explode twice :D
My contribution to the panel was to talk about gender in cross-cultural perspective and point out that a very large number of the world’s cultures recognize more than two genders, with the Chukchi of eastern Siberia holding the title with seven. 3-4 are quite common. The best known examples are the Thai kathoeys and the Indian/Pakistani hijras. Here there biology is definitely not destiny.
My only personal experience with this topic is a colleague of my wife from her work. This person calls herself Joanne and dresses as a female and is married. She claimed to have had sex reassignment surgery. She dresses very provocatively, not like your average female. And then it turned out that she was still a he, ie a full time cross dresser. Can’t even imagine if she/he is actually married or what’s going on there. She got fired, I suppose for lying about her gender.
Not a shining example of gender re assignment.
Maybe she was fired for not wearing a burkha?
“Lying about gender” is one of the canards people face regularly, especially in the workplace. Part of a successful pre-surgical transition is living for a year, or more, in the destination gender 100% of the time, completely and entirely. Because many people change *everything* in their lives as they begin their transition, including their work, they are, by definition, telling people they are the destination gender. That’s not lying about gender, that’s following doctor’s orders.
If gender is irrelevant to job performance (and, by law, it is) what difference does it make what gender people are, or present as?
To further complicate things, there is also rather a generation conflict. Many people my generation transitioned, changed everything about their lives, and have no interest in being “outed” as transgender. They are accepted in their communities, their workplaces, and their lives as either women or men. No one is the wiser.
There are, of course some younger people like this too, who’ve up-and-left, transitioned, then up-and-left again to make a life for themselves without a look back. These people, regardless of age, are sometimes understandably nervous about public advocacy for transgender rights. They don’t want anyone near them suddenly looking askance at them: “Hey, maybe….?”
On the other side are (sometimes) younger trannies who actively live in the transgender life, as people who want acknowledgment as transgender persons but don’t particularly want to “become” something else wholly physically. These folks sometimes have some of the surgery, but not all, and don’t intend to have all the surgery, ever.
This is reaching past my competence, though, as well as my cultural competence. I should probably think about having someone with actual firsthand advocacy experience on the blog sometime to talk about this.
You are a wonderful supportive community, that’s for sure. No wrong questions, no wrong answers: just an attempt to learn and understand.
That would be very enlightening. Jane’s right you’ve really taught us a lot Teddy, opened many a mind and heart.
My son’s wife has a gay uncle. He and my daughter-in-law’s mother are twins. What floored me was that he is roughly 50 years old, and just came out this year. And his twin was pissed. She is not homophobic — I think it just was that he never told her. Now, for me, I think, “If he was 50 years old and had never married or dated women, didn’t you have a suspicion?”
But there you have it — my DIL wasn’t bothered at all — her mother was. I don’t know if it was her age, or her status as his twin….. Maybe it had to do with his profession. He is the manager of a restaurant, and he no doubt remembered all the hysteria over AIDS when it first came out in America.
This was in a hospital so I think they would understand these issues. I don’t know the details.
I am still not sure what the body and feeling of gender is all about.
Look at all the gender bender androgynous types who could care less about gender.
By the way… ever notice that almost all “sex cues” in humans is given to the female – she primps preens, dresses, make up, fashion and so on to “attract” and hold a mate.
Sander, if you want to know more, you should read the thread I linked above
http://firedoglake.com/2007/09/30/well-pick-you-up-later/#comment-1006435
And, the story about Barbara/ Ben Barres.
Thanks, I may read, it, but I don’t want to know more. I don’t discriminate against anybody and I don’t care to struggle around gay issues as I have other issues which are higher priority.
I must say, though, that you are quite engaged here for someone who says they don’t care. Spending lots of comment time and energy while continuing to say it’s unimportant is a little bit of an oxymoron. And that’s okay!
Do you want to preach to the choir? This is not a topic I normally advocate about. But I am aware and have thought about it and don’t “get it” but don’t discriminate either.
Wife and I have socialized with Joanne and her “husband” and both of us found her very troubled and confused and appeared to be a “sex addict” which made it even more confusing. I don’t need to go into the details, but it was a very close encounter with someone who had “gender issues”.
There was a hotel across from my loft many years ago which had lots of TGs or gender benders living there and so I couldn’t avoid seeing them when I walked my dogs. Greenwich Village around the time of the Stone Wall rebellion.
I won’t comment further then. But it must be hell to have to live with such confusion in one’s life.
Just as you say, and as you wish.
Sander, I don’t know if you are using TG and “gender benders” to mean the same thing, or not. I think “gender bender” is a catch-all term, and not that helpful, imho. It could mean all sorts of things. For TG people, as far as I understand, speaking as a biologist, the dilemma is that they are born with a body of one gender, and a brain of the other gender.
What is a female brain?
And to Rayne… all people/genders groom themselves… females are the gender which “advertises” sexuality in 99.99% of the time.
This might be a topic worth some meditation, SanderO.
I’m pretty certain the man to whom I’m married advertises he’s a straight male all the time, as do nearly all of his peers. He spends a helluva lot more on clothes and hair than I do to maintain that look of not-primping-not-preening.
Perhaps a question to ponder: what would be the significance in terms of genetic success for a gender to appear not to need to primp or preen?
Does the appearance of not needing to primp/preen suggest stronger genes? or is it intended to attract a specific kind of result?
Some of this stuff we are talking about is very, very deep in the human system — nearly at the bios level, wet-wired as it were, reinforced by our cultural software.
Perhaps even admitting there is primping or preening necessary is considered a fault in that cultural software…
Go read up on other periods of history, when men primped and preened every bit as much as women, and wore flashy clothes, too.
Not true at all. Look what Chaz has done in the migration from identifying as a woman to identifying as a man.
The man in my life shaves or grooms facial hair; he has his hair cut in a fashion which is currently accepted in straight, corporate culture among others like him. He makes sure his hands are manicured in a fashion acceptable among his peers, wears cologne which is pleasing to the women in his life but not offensive to the men he socializes with. He selects clothing which is acceptable again to his peer group. The effort to conform is very strong; you won’t see him in pink even though pink business shirts look phenomenal on him. Nor will you see him in purple except for small amounts in one or two of the 50 or so ties he owns.
Men in American culture certainly do preen and primp — it’s just different from that women do since men have different genetic dispersion objectives, and primping techniques have been communicated less openly among straight men because much of our culture has labeled negatively any obvious, open efforts as not acceptable. Men also primp not just to attract and keep a mate, but to get and keep a job. Show up in an interview groomed or dressed inappropriately for the targeted job and see how that works.
My daughter loves and lived with a transgendered female to male for a year. Nick was very unhappy as a woman. When he started his transition he became much happier. I learned a lot about transgendered people and about myself. At first it was difficult for me to accept and this surprised me.
Thank you for this post Teddy. Beautiful advocacy.
Small matter, but Sonny & Cher were on TV mainly in the 70s, not in the 60s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_&_Cher
Thank you for the post and for speaking for all who can not raise their voices yet.
I’ve known several people who have transitioned. For them the alternative was living death. Godspeed to Chaz and all his fellow bravest souls on the planet.
Thank you for this Teddy. One of my friends is pretty far along in transition from male to female, she has wanted to do this for a long time.
Teddy, with your permission, I’d like to go off topic for just a moment. Any firepups in the general area of Bethlehem PA, Princeton NJ, Pougheepsie NY, or New Haven CT?
If you can get hold of it, I’d recommend She’s Not There By Jennifer Finney Boylan. It’s about m-f reassignment; you get a feel for the whys, more than the hows, of the process.
Thank you, I should have found some books to recommend too; I’ve heard good things about this one.
Teddy- thanks for this great post.
As you may remember, the issue of transgender is something that I feel very strongly about, and the ignorance surrounding this topic is astounding.
I remember the thread re: ENDA and transgenders, and went back and found it. It is a discussion worth re-reading for all (Tho I’m sure Teddy remembers it well):
http://firedoglake.com/2007/09/30/well-pick-you-up-later/
Late Sunday Nite: “We’ll Pick You Up Later”
By: Teddy Partridge Sunday September 30, 2007 8:05 pm
one of my many comments on that thread:
http://firedoglake.com/2007/09/30/well-pick-you-up-later/#comment-1006473
It’s misunderstood because it’s so uncommon and even those who claim to understand it don’t do much with their understanding.
You don’t need to understand it unless it’s up close and personal. Why should someone who has no contact with TGs have any interest in the topic?
Sander, I had a student in a class who was from the school of public health, specializing in transgender issues.
One of the things I learned from her is that while it may seem “uncommon”, that might just mean one has no way of recognizing those around you who are transgenders, in what ever stage of transition.
Yes, exactly…my first experience with members of the transgendered community was more than 30 years ago, when I did some research for a paper on the same for my high school psych class. I attended a forum at which a transgendered woman spoke about the experience of resolving one’s outward gender with one’s internal identity. I sat shoulder-to-shoulder next to a young man for several hours; it wasn’t until we were ready to leave that I realized he was in the midst of migrating from woman to man. Never occurred to me to think of him as anything but a young man; his entire affect or vibe was male.
Totally cracked my young head wide open. Much of gender is really between our ears, as Chaz said.
We’re gonna have another ENDA round soon, and I hope we’re past the “Pick You Up Later” mentality. Lots of work’s been done in the past two years on Capitol Hill, and I hope we get iENDA this time (Employment Non-Discrimation Act, inclusive of gender identity).
I don’t see the point in advertising one is a TG. Once you have a sex reassignment just live your life in your new gender and not get in the face of everyone else. Do they want to be their new sex or to be ID’d as TGs all their life?
Well, that’s one thing: see my 42. Some people want to live between, sort of. Others want to get to their destination and live there peacefully, with no identification of their transition. I think it differs for different people, but it makes the politics of activism somewhat fraught, since there are people who might hesitate to be active for fear of being outed.
Not everyone completely transitions physically or feels the need to transition completely to the “other” gender — there isn’t the clear duality you seem to accept as the norm.
I hardly think that most who are transgender exactly want to “advertise” it. This is an exceptional case of someone necessarily in the public eye.
I’m liberal on about 90% of all issues but I’m not jumping on this bandwagon. Anyone who would have a surgical procedure to alter their gender/sexual identity clearly has deep psychological issues. It’s sad. Not someting to be celebrated.
Your world must be very simple. Every one I know has deep psychological issues. And, that’s just from my perspective. Ha!
Yes but most people don’t pay a doctor to cut their dick off or vice/versa.
“I have often advocated at FireDogLake that my fellow progressives eschew silly jokes about our opponents and their alleged transgender nature.”
I agree strongly with this. It’s why the “Miss McConnell” jokes about Mitch McConnell drive me up the wall.
The TG community also faces more health risks than do others.
Below is quoted from a .pdf-
Ovarian Cancer:
· Female-to-male transgendered and transsexual individuals are at a higher risk of ovarian cancer because of the amount of testosterone ingested. Excess testosterone can be converted into estrogen, contributing to an elevated risk for ovarian cancer.
· Medical monitoring of HRT could prevent an excess of testosterone and estrogen. Unfortunately, it is common for hormones to be acquired through means other than licensedphysicians (M.D. or .D.O.).
· Due to discomfort with revealing transgenderism, transsexuals may not undergo screening procedures essential for detecting gynecological cancers, including ovarian cancer.
Okay, that was a workable but unsightly link in 71. Let me try again: .pdf link
Thanks, VG. Bet the previous one will be fixed shortly.
And yes, good point about the health challenges unique to the transgendered/transsexual community. Hard enough to get straight XX women to regular testing; add the element of discomfort and shame and it’s really sad.
I rarely post on blog comments but I agree with this article when it states that people should “eschew silly jokes about our opponents and their alleged transgender nature.”
This goes for all the homophobic comments I see on left leaning blogs as well. I just had a pointless “discussion” on the Huffington Post with a commenter who couldn’t see how insulting Republican politicians by suggesting they eat “tubesteak” was homophobic and bigoted. Allies like that the left hardly needs.
I see posts of this nature, DAILY. It’s tiresome to be the punching bag of everyone. Trying to combat it seems like standing in front of a tidal wave…
You are right, as was the previous poster who mentioned the Miss McConnell comments, which I am also guilty of, now that I think about it. Within gay culture, of course, there is a sexist and self-hating homophobia that equates gayness with being a woman, but our own self-referential “jokes” don’t read that funny at ALL, especially when seen by a wider audience that might not know we are “inside.”
I will be more careful, myself. Thanks for standing up, sometimes alone, in the progressive space for LBGT people. It isn’t always easy, but it’s the right thing to do.
Definitely powerful. I had the opportunity on Friday to participate on a panel as part of the campus Transgender Day of Remembrance. All of the other panelists were transgender, one a therapist who works with other transgenders making the transition. Some really powerful testimony there as well and great discussion afterward. Surprisingly large turn out for Missoula, MT, as well. Great audience response.
Thank you for the work you do in your community, DrDick. It’s always startling for me to realize this is happening in Montana. Thank you.
As someone who often walks a line with hot button issues as a matter of inclination, thank you, Teddy and Chaz for reminding us of the human face that lies beneath the nekulturny stereotypes of gender and sexuality undeservingly imposed from without upon people through ignorance and malice.
Live, love, and let others be free to do the same…forever.
;>)
Teddy, thanks for this great educative piece.
You are welcome.
I’ve dealt with Chaz numerous times in the past. Very nice individual — carrying an enormous load in being a celebrity spud. That’s something few can handle without the added weight of gender identity. But he’s got a good outlook and will be a very valuable spokesperson for the trans community.
Thank you, David, I hope so.
I don’t know much about it, but Chaz seems like a nice guy.
Teddy – I went all hippy-dippy love thang upthread wrt Jennifer – I just saw the situation as a real time signpost to the universe’s bottom line – we love who we love period
As a transgender law professor deeply involved in the effort to get the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed, I am disturbed by the fact that most progressives have no idea what the transgender community’s issues are, how marginalized we are even in the LGB community, and how essential ENDA is for the transgender community. There is no understanding of how we were thrown under the bus, having been stripped out of the bill in 2007. What makes the biggest splash? An interview with a celebrity. We are dying out here, people. And now, reading the tea leaves – ENDA is in big trouble. See http://www.bilerico.com/2009/11/enda_reading_the_tea_leaves.php
Dr Weiss – couldn’t get your link to work – takes me to the page but wont open the link (could easily be a problem on my end) so I’ll go and google it
would it be insensitive of me to ask you to cross post your work at The Seminal ? forgive me if you have done so already(I’ll keep a closer eye on it). surely you can see this community’s willingness to learn more in this very thread – a voice from the trenches would be valuable
It’s not that big an issue.