[Discussion] Trans Issues and Rights

This thread is for the discussion of current events relating to trans rights, for discussion of the lives of trans people and difficulties they face, and for basic questions about the lives and experiences of trans people. (If basic questions become dominant we'll look at making a Q&A thread at that time.)

Yeah that makes total sense. I’m probably irrational (not sarcasm) in thinking it’s a foot in the door to broader-minded policies. There is so much evidence to the contrary.

Yeah, I read your post as humor. But the thing is, these people are dangerous and if they had their way, they would simply erase trans folk from existence and that’s not acceptable. I can’t stand by, and there’s just no half measure with these people: either they wise up and get on board, or we condemn firmly and absolutely their hate speech.

Catherine is being ported to PS4 and Vita and will add a third romance option. Sounds good, right?

That's gross.

Maybe this is better news? There is a stark physical transformation here but the real thing is, as the first comment points out, that the person looks startlingly happier.

Reddit post "Denial beard? Check. One year HRT? Check. Still waiting on that choker."

ugh.... I thought that was already in the game from the start though?

*oh no, apparently that was a different Trans character they misgendered and generally made fun of. Got it.

muraii wrote:

That's gross.

Maybe this is better news? There is a stark physical transformation here but the real thing is, as the first comment points out, that the person looks startlingly happier.

Reddit post "Denial beard? Check. One year HRT? Check. Still waiting on that choker."

Bad link, bud.

garion333 wrote:
muraii wrote:

That's gross.

Maybe this is better news? There is a stark physical transformation here but the real thing is, as the first comment points out, that the person looks startlingly happier.

Reddit post "Denial beard? Check. One year HRT? Check. Still waiting on that choker."

Bad link, bud.

Keeping the old one because funny (and maybe you use Sortd and want to get to your Gmail settings):

https://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/commen...

pyxistyx wrote:

ugh.... I thought that was already in the game from the start though?

*oh no, apparently that was a different Trans character they misgendered and generally made fun of. Got it.

Yup, already bad precedent in the game, but if this is what it appears to be then it's likely taking things to a whole new level...

For what it's worth, I don't agree with Laura Kate Dale's take on that footage at all. I don't think the trailers and artwork are suggesting that the new character, Rin, is trans, especially in context of the game. That team absolutely has a bad track record of dealing with trans folk, but in this case I think it's a bit of hearing hoofbeats and thinking zebras.

I did note that a few people are saying that the character has the transgender symbol attached to it on the official website when...i don't think it does? unless I'm missing it somewhere.

It DOES have a button containing both the male and female symbols connected together though. Maybe that's unrelated (or maybe they just couldn't be bothered researching the real symbol). We shall see I guess...

pyxistyx wrote:

It DOES have a button containing both the male and female symbols connected together though. Maybe that's unrelated (or maybe they just couldn't be bothered researching the real symbol).

Something like this?
IMAGE(http://static3.depositphotos.com/1005917/250/i/950/depositphotos_2505199-INTERLINKED-MALEFEMALE-SYMBOL.jpg)

Interlocked gender symbols are commonly used to identify couples, not individuals. Linked male and female symbols would indicate a heterosexual couple.

IMAGE(http://fullbody.jp/resources/img/sp/top/pv_play_0a246ef840b7d3dd273c9a1e52af32c2.png)

That's the one, yeah. Unless there's a symbol on there I couldn't see, I think that's the one everyone seems to be mistaking for the trans symbol.

Number 1- Rest In Power, Christa (TransGriot, Monica Roberts, Jan 06 2018)

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, 42, North Adams, MA

This one hits close to home. Christa was an organizer and well known in the community.

I just found out (as in today) that my friend's youngish adult child (19) now identifies as male. When I found out, my reaction was mostly "well that makes sense". Anyway, I still catch myself saying "she", apologizing, and having to correct myself.

I feel bad about it because I know how important it is to him, but changing his gender association in my own mind is probably going to take longer than a couple hours.

Keep working to do better, and remember that a simple self-correction is better than a stumbling apology.

Hypatian wrote:

Keep working to do better, and remember that a simple self-correction is better than a stumbling apology. :)

I will. Like I said, I know how important it is to him. It's just that I have known him since he was 4, so there is a lot of history to overcome in a few hours. His dad says he trips up from time to time too and he's had quite a bit more time than I have.

I suspect it will be easier when I talk to him because the second person pronoun is gender neutral.

I struggled with this a bit when someone in my social circles transitioned a while back. It was someone I only ever saw or interacted with infrequently so it took me a while longer before the change to her preferred pronoun became automatic for me.

I think that's normal to take a bit longer for someone you don't see every other day. Just keep making the effort.

Cross-posting from the Questions You Want Answered thread.

PaladinTom wrote:

I've been tasked with updating our old database which currently only includes the options 'M' or 'F' for gender.

What are the best and/or most respectful options that are inclusive of all gender identities? I've not found any general standards with my Google-fu. The purpose of the database is to recruit volunteers to test products that are marketed at either men or women.

Broadly, the most inclusive solution when gender is information that needs to be collected is a free-form text entry field, but you actually have a reason here to want something easier to parse. (Marketing at either men or women is a little side-eye worthy. But this is the world we live in. :>) Another alternative is to include M/F/Other with a free-form field if they'd like to give their name for how they're other. And finally, you could do M/F/Other (with or without a free-form field)/prefer not to say.

A way to handle the marketing goals might be to instead of asking for the participant's gender to ask them for whether they would like to participate in testing items marketed towards men or towards women.

Or maybe bonus points to ask which marketing they'd prefer to participate in, plus include one of the more inclusive gender options. This potentially gives you some interesting additional information. For example: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a substantial set of lesbian women who might be interested in items and marketing aimed at men.

Paleocon wrote:
Hypatian wrote:

Keep working to do better, and remember that a simple self-correction is better than a stumbling apology. :)

I will. Like I said, I know how important it is to him. It's just that I have known him since he was 4, so there is a lot of history to overcome in a few hours. His dad says he trips up from time to time too and he's had quite a bit more time than I have.

I suspect it will be easier when I talk to him because the second person pronoun is gender neutral.

This is normal. You've already formed a spot for someone in your brain, and in conversation you'll automatically access that unless you're constantly being mindful of the change. For a while what's there is going to be incorrect.

It's worse when your own kid transitions, and 2 months later you catch yourself having said, "she" and "her" at least 5 times in what you've just said while your wife and kids are all looking at you like you're a clueless idiot.

Like I did last night.

Of course I stopped mid-sentence, exclaimed, "sh*t! Sorry." and they laughed themselves to tears. 17 years is a long time for those mental pathways to form. I'm proud of not using his old name by mistake for nearly a month now.

Hypatian wrote:

Broadly, the most inclusive solution when gender is information that needs to be collected is a free-form text entry field, but you actually have a reason here to want something easier to parse. (Marketing at either men or women is a little side-eye worthy. But this is the world we live in. :>) Another alternative is to include M/F/Other with a free-form field if they'd like to give their name for how they're other. And finally, you could do M/F/Other (with or without a free-form field)/prefer not to say.

A way to handle the marketing goals might be to instead of asking for the participant's gender to ask them for whether they would like to participate in testing items marketed towards men or towards women.

Or maybe bonus points to ask which marketing they'd prefer to participate in, plus include one of the more inclusive gender options. This potentially gives you some interesting additional information. For example: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a substantial set of lesbian women who might be interested in items and marketing aimed at men.

How the products are marketed are not my call sadly. For a fairly progressive company such as ours, our marketing department sure can be somewhat sexist, racist, and ageist at times.

I love the idea of asking folks the type of products they would be more interested in testing though!

Thanks for the help Hyp.

In less nice news:

Trump's Latest Transgender Rights Move Could Be Devastating For Trans People's Health
(Morgan Brinlee, Bustle, 2018-01-17)

Transgender people face significant barriers to medical care, and a proposed rule from the Trump administration may make things even more difficult for them. The administration may soon allow health care workers to object to treating transgender patients in a move framed as protecting the religious rights of those workers, according to a new report from POLITICO. The White House reportedly is reviewing a proposed rule that would enable health care workers to deny services and care to certain individuals — including, but not limited to, transgender patients — on the basis of religious or moral objections.

This of course, has tons of potential to cause harm to people seeking abortions or other birth control services, to queer people in general, to women, to Black people, to muslims, etc.

Yay. :l

Hypatian wrote:

Or maybe bonus points to ask which marketing they'd prefer to participate in, plus include one of the more inclusive gender options. This potentially gives you some interesting additional information. For example: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a substantial set of lesbian women who might be interested in items and marketing aimed at men.

That's perfect. Actually asking the question you want answered, rather than a tangential question whose answer will be interpreted to answer the original question, is always a better plan.

Ugh.


Transgender woman sues over ordeal in male prison

One of Britain’s most prominent transgender activists is embroiled in an extraordinary legal battle with the Ministry of Justice, in a landmark discrimination case.

Tara Hudson, a trans woman, was sent to a male prison in 2015, prompting a national outcry with more than 150,000 people signing a petition calling for her to be moved to a women’s jail. Hudson is suing the MoJ for damages, alleging that her status as a woman was ignored when she was imprisoned, that she suffered sexual assault during her incarceration and that she was placed in an atmosphere that was “intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive”.

But just to add insult and injury to...insult and injury....

In court papers seen by the Observer, the MoJ and government lawyers argue that they do not consider Hudson to be a woman despite the make-up artist reassigning her gender and living as a woman for her adult life. They state Hudson “is as a matter of biological fact a man” and add that the term “transwoman” has no legal significance. They say they have adopted female pronouns when referring to Hudson only “out of respect for her wishes”. In response, Hudson’s legal team accuse government lawyers of adopting “transphobic, unnecessarily abrasive, aggressive and insulting” language towards Hudson, who has breasts and has used hormones for years but does not have a gender recognition certificate.

remind me to never get arrested

also f*ck the MoJ and Westminster.

CN: Suicide, self-harm

Spoiler:

On Tuesday night, a very good friend of mine—a one-time lover, primary partner of one of the people I love beyond belief—took hir own life.

Ze was not someone known to more than a couple of the people on these forums, but ze touched my life deeply. I think it's fair to say that ze shaped the entire last year of my life. So I want to memorialize hir here and share some of my memories and hir experiences with you.

Hir death has sent us reeling, and sent shockwaves through my community—through my chosen family. It's revealed a deep strength in how we are tied together.

Aria wrote:

Queer culture is grieving as a family no outsider would recognize, a haphazard landslide of lovers & friends. The ones who bring the tequila & gin, the ones who bring the casseroles, the ones who bring the cookies and apologize about the butter, the ones who make a big thai curry

But the hurting doesn't stop. Today I returned to work for part of the day. I haven't really been effective, but I wanted to try to do something normal. But it's not really normal. We're still bleeding. We will be for a long time.

Hir name was Amelia Perry, hir pronouns were ze/hir or she/her, and ze was brilliant, courageous, wonderful, talented, and young. So, so young. Ze brought a light into every room ze stepped into. Ze would have finished hir Ph.D. in mathematics this year. Now we'll never get to call hir Dr. Perry.

Ze also lived with mental illness, and was let down greatly by the mental health system. Ze had been struggling for months, and dealing with hir illness for longer.

Daria wrote:

I’m angry at the state of mental health care in this country, in this commonwealth, in this area. We have better options than a lot of places, and in spite of that the sorry state of it lost me my partner.

None of this is news. Amelia actively campaigned to receive effective treatment for hir trauma. In spite of the hopes we had at that point, of a medication tweak and ongoing forward progress, things never moved forward again.

I don’t want anyone else to go through what Amelia did trying to get treated, or what we did watching failure after failure. I know I don’t have the fortitude to deal with it today, but I need to amass it, so Amelia did not die for nothing.

Ze also chronicled many of hir struggles with the mental health system—as well as brighter parts of hir life—on hir twitter account.

Amelia's loss has hit all of us so very hard, and I hope beyond hope that we don't lose anyone else to the despair of that loss.

Ze is missed, and will be missed long into the future. Hir absence will be a wound in our hearts and souls for years to come. The world is a lesser place after hir passing.

Rest in power, Amelia Perry. We will not forget you.

I saw the post on Facebook, but wasn't sure if it was appropriate to comment there. I'm so sorry for your loss, Hyp.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Katherine. [hugs]

I'm so sorry for your loss, Hyp

That's heartbreaking.

*hugs*