Life is often about family, and many of us who have pets know that they’re family. I have two feline family members named Kitty Bon-Bon and Maggie. Kitty Bon-Bon is 7-years-old and Maggie is 8. Both of these cats have had health issues of late that have been pretty expensive, and it’s not like they…
Transprogressive BY AUTUMN SANDEEN What is the “My Family. Together.” campaign that was launched in February 2012? According to Immigration Equality: “For couples facing separation, exile or undocumented status, the president’s inaction has serious, immediate consequences. Today, we are telling the president: We can’t wait. Today, we’re launching a new campaign – My Family. Together….
From an LGB, but especially T perspective, there are three pieces of legislation that have been of interest to me, as well as Equality California (EQCA) and/or the Transgender Law Center (TLC). The first is SB 1172, Limiting Sexual Orientation Conversion “Treatment” Act. According to Gov. Jerry Brown in his signing statement, “This bill bans…
In June of 2011 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) changed its policies for transgender veterans who access veterans’ services, especially the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) portion of the VA system. When the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) announced the policy change, they stated that transgender veterans would be allowed to change their genders…
I surrendered use of my name given at birth, Stephen Mark Sandeen, in 2003 because that name no longer fit me. At age 44 I finally embraced what I first knew about my sex and gender at age fourteen – yet at 14 I was not able to fully accept that personal truth, in large…
Brian Eichenberg, M.D. is a board-certified plastic surgeon specializing in female-to-male (FTM) chest contouring surgeries – commonly referred to in the FTM community as “top” surgeries. He completes approximately fifty of these surgeries each year, and that works out to about a tenth of his surgical practice. Essentially, “top” surgery is the removal of breasts…
What has come clear to me in nine-plus years of activism is that modern transgender/transsexual history has two significant, distinct beginnings. There are other trans beginning points, for sure, but I’m going to focus on two particular beginnings that have often been in conflict. The two beginning points I want to focus upon are these:…
There were five community leaders selected to be speakers at the San Diego Pride Stonewall Rally. I was personally honored to be one of the two San Diego LGBT Weekly sponsored speakers at the podium; the other speaker, LGBT Weekly sponsored, was keynote speaker Dr. Clarence Jones, who served as a draft speechwriter, personal counsel…
Here we are in San Diego, Calif. a city on the U.S. border with Mexico. We live within a nation of immigrants in a state that used to be a part of the country of Mexico. And here we are, as LGBT Californians – as LGBT Americans – aware of how we aren’t granted the…
Most folk who aren’t part of the T of the LGBT community aren’t aware of the divides between some of those who identify as transsexual, but not as transgender, and those who identify as both transsexual and transgender. To me, the divide seems to be about whether or not one embraces diversity as a value…
