NPR:
Deb Barth is raking leaves for Lesley Jones. But Barth isn’t earning money for her yardwork, at least not in physical currency. She’s earning “time dollars” — for every two hours she spends doing odd jobs, she’ll earn a free visit with her doctor.
Let’s see, figure $150 for an hour-long doctor’s visit (without insurance), $15000 for a cunt (with insurance), so that’s 100 hours of yardwork at $75 per hour, 45 minutes to mow a small lawn, which works out to 130(ish) lawns. That seems doable.
From NCAA.org:
* A trans male (female to male) student-athlete who has received a medical exception for treatment with testosterone for gender transition may compete on a men’s team but is no longer eligible to compete on a women’s team without changing the team status to a mixed team. A mixed team is eligible only for men’s championships.
* A trans female (male to female) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for gender transition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of documented testosterone-suppression treatment.
Sure. There’s always room for debate on these issues, but this sounds good to me.
Meanwhile, either the AP or ESPN.com need a biologist, stat:
The NCAA says athletes who have testosterone in their systems from medical treatment will not be allowed to compete against women’s teams in gender-specific sports at NCAA championships.
Ummmmm….
Via @TGworldNews and GABblog
[Trigger warning for rape, stalking, and other violence]
You might have heard that a cisgender attendee of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival posted pictures of trans women who attended this year’s festival, along with various personal tidbits that she was able to dig up. She also floated the idea of starting a website devoted to outing trans women at MichFest, along with suggesting that festival goers post pictures of trans women in order to be able to harass them.
I am so not going to wade into Ye Olde Michigan Wars any more than I already have. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said.
What I am going to do is talk about the use of the Internet to threaten people. In this case, WordPress.com hosts the blog in question. WordPress makes all users agree to terms of service, including agreeing that:
“the content [of your blog will]… not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and [shall] not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party”
The blog in question is clearly outing people as trans, thus violating the privacy rights of third parties. The blog also refers to trans women as “predatory males”, and calls for them to be escorted off the festival grounds. This is clearly a threat, and in the context of the post I’d say is fair to interpret as inciting violence.
WordPress has refused to remove the offending blog, despite its being in violation of the terms of service. As far as I know (feel free to fill in the details for a writer who’s busy hunting for textbooks), WordPress effectively requires someone to get a court order before they’ll remove content from a WordPress.com hosted blog. I see this as, um, problematic.
Permit me to talk about cyber-enabled violence, notably violence against women, and to spell out why WordPress.com’s inaction horrifies me. Read more…
[Trigger warning for depression and anxiety]
Dear The Internet,
It’s quite possible that you’ll notice a continued drop-off in my posting here (and at Shakesville) over the next month or so. I’m not abandoning the Internet (like it would exist without me, right?) or my fundraising, but merely making a more concerted effort to deal with mental health junk.
Due to any number of personal and professional issues (most of which I suspect are familiar to most Americans these days), I’ve been having one hell of a time with anxiety this past year. The good news is that I’m on tons of drugs totes corporate-approved medications. Rather than having good years and bad years, I’m at the point where I have good days and bad days. That’s pretty sweet.
The irony here (in a literally unironic sense) is that writing is one of the ways I process things, and one of my comforts. Unfortunately, anxiety screws with my brain to the extent that I can have occasional lapses in clarity. When I’m in a bad place, it writing takes longer than it otherwise might.
The thing is, I can’t change my professional responsibilities or my obligation to my family (which I rather enjoy fulfilling, natch). If I fall behind on those scores, I just end up more depressed and anxious.
I can cut back on my hobbies. At some point, that might mean re-examining my involvement roller derby. However, I’ve made a commitment to my team, and damn it if exercise doesn’t help improve my mental health.
This leaves writing. I’d like to think that I should be able to find an hour a day to write, but that’s not necessarily healthy at the moment. Besides, having gone through a Russian literature phase once in my life, I’m pretty sure my “insights” on mental illness aren’t as exciting as I’d like to think. (Seriously Fyodor, STFU already.)
This isn’t to say that I’ll be abandoning writing until things start looking up, but rather that I’m going to pull back a little bit. Instead of writing what I need to when I have to, I’m going to write what I really need to when I really have to.
Kisses,
Katie
I can’t watch documentaries on trans* people without crying and/or getting angry.
Last night, ABC’s Primetime Nightline was about trans* kids. You’ll have to Google it, because I didn’t make it past the 30 second mark. The host opened with something along the lines of ‘J. Crew! Did you see J. Crew!’ and went on to ‘What would you do if your son wanted to wear a dress?’
I know, right? Why are things always so complicated?!?
Anyhow, I shut off the TV at that point. I’m not sure why I bother. Some people like watching train crashes, I like watching the media talk about people that have something in common with me. Well, not actually.
Most cis people are pretty clueless when it comes to trans* people’s lives. I’m always hearing folks talk about “education” as a starting point for addressing the burden of transphobia (never mind the serious intersectional oppression going on in a lot of our lives, too).
Sure. Fine. Whatever. Educate yourselves.
Here’s the thing: in the popular media, “educating” cis people about trans* lives pretty much always takes the form of letting strangers gawk at the freaky non-normals. Also, it involves telling both sides: ‘trans people, are they people, or are they not?’
Yawn.
It’s like the intermediate value theorem. You can’t go from abhorrent object to acceptable person without passing through “controversial thing to talk about while pointing.”
Fuck continuous functions. If you want to educate yourself about trans* people, I suggest reading about our own words, which tend to assume we’re people.
—
ETA: When I wrote my confession (which I haven’t actually sent to the Tumblr of the same name), the crying part also involved the media parading incredibly privileged trans* people in front of me. Look! This trans* person went to the doctor/surgeon/whatever! As if it’s that easy for most of us.
