I want to love RuPaul as a drag performer for his trans-positive actions, yet I find I can’t because of his trans-negative statements. I can’t quite reconcile my mixed feelings about him. RuPaul’s Drag Race (on Logo’s basic cable channel) has had three transgender contestants on it. Two of those contestants came out as trans…
Feb. 6 2003, I went to my place of employment as Autumn for the first time. As many already know, I served in the U.S. Navy from 1980 through 2000. I’m a retired, disabled, Persian Gulf War veteran; my disabilities are service connected and my Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability rating is 100 percent….
Many years ago when money was tight I innocently put a “fun roommate wanted” ad in a gay paper. The result was when it came time to discuss a few rules most applicants were less interested in getting a couple of things straight between us than in getting a couple of straight things between us;…
Last September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill protecting LGBT youth from the psychological abuse of reparative therapy (sometimes referred to as conversion therapy). SB 1172, due to a temporary injunction by the federal courts, isn’t currently being enforced. The Liberty Counsel argued for three plaintiffs who practiced reparative therapy that implementation of the law…
The media often facilitates the barriers in the way of tolerance of trans people in broader society, and sometimes are the barriers themselves. One recent example is from Great Britain. Columnist Suzanne Moore wrote an article entitled Seeing Red: The Power Of Female Anger for the British newsmagazine The New Statesman speaking to how women…
There is a measure by which we’ll be able to judge current secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s support for the LGBT community that I haven’t seen mentioned yet in discussions. Should Sen. Hagel be confirmed as secretary of defense, his legacy on open service for transgender servicemembers will be a plumb line measure for…
When she takes the stage Saturday in pursuit of the Miss California USA crown, Kylan Arianna Wenzel will be the first transgender woman to compete in a Miss Universe Organization pageant since officials disqualified 23-year-old Miss Canada Jenna Talackova last year after learning she was transgender. Following the Miss Universe Organization’s announcement of their rule…
Nov. 2 2012 I received a letter from the California Department of Public Health, Vital Records. In that letter came proof that I was “born again.” I was born female. You see, the gender listed on my original birth certificate was male, and my name was my given, male name. The gender listed on the…
(CNN) — The American Psychiatric Association announced this month approved changes in its official guide to classifying mental illnesses. Among the major announced changes to the manual, known as DSM-5, is that Asperger’s syndrome will now be included in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder “to help more accurately and consistently diagnose children with autism,”…
The evening I’m writing this column is an evening after a day spent fishing at Lake Cuyamaca. I haven’t been fishing in more than three years. The last time I went fishing was March 2009, which was the month before I went to Greeley, Colo. to cover the Angie Zapata hate crime murder trial. Before…
