Rules will force some women to undergo hormone therapy that could adversely affect their health; will disproportionately affect women from developing nations who do not conform to Western standards of femininity; and will ultimately lead to some elite women quitting the sport.
So here’s newest in transphobia, misogynoir, & just overall awfulness in sports.
This is directed at Caster Semenya. She is a cis black woman, (who has naturally highish levels of testosterone) and she is an incredible athlete. This is misogynoir and transphobia all wrapped up in one shitty package backed up by shitty science and nowhere near enough data. It is a moral and ethical failure by the IOC, and it cannot go uncontested.
Since the impact of testosterone is understood by most sports fans in
the context of PED controversies, is it any wonder that trans athletes,
especially trans women athletes, are unfairly targeted and discriminated
against? Using performance-enhancing drugs in sports is about
deception, and the cis world still views gender-diverse folks through
that same lens.
[…] Trans women should be able to compete in women’s sports because they are
women. Trans women should be able to make transition-related decisions
about their physical appearance, health, and well-being on the basis of
their desires and needs, not to achieve compliance with arbitrary cis
regulations. Much of the opposition to amab folks participating in
women’s sports is driven by the erroneous and bigoted view that amab
gender-diverse folks, especially trans women, are men wishing to
participate in women’s sports as a method of cheating. However,
regulations about hormone levels stem from the same faulty premise as
those views: that through hormone testing, an essential womanhood can be
defined, and acceptable (lesser) women’s bodies can be achieved that
are distinct from those of cis men.
[…] The biological supremacy argument, which places such value on the
importance of testosterone in athletic performance, actively harms afab
gender diverse athletes as well. Those who argue for the inclusion of
amab gender diverse people in women’s sports if they undergo hormone
therapy use the limiting and binary understanding of the differences
between men’s and women’s bodies that serve to cement cis men’s
undeserved sporting primacy. What follows from this argument is a
paradoxical understanding of afab gender diverse athletes.Consequently, sporting bodies do not develop specific policies
regulating the hormone levels of afab athletes participating in men’s
sports, because of two key assumptions. First, they assume that afab
bodies are inherently lesser than those of cis men, and are therefore
irrelevant in terms of issues of fairness or performance at the highest
levels. This argument relies on the sexism inherent in the binary
division of sport, the purpose of which is to privilege cis men. Second,
“inclusive” sporting bodies don’t regulate the hormone levels of afab
athletes participating in men’s sports because testosterone levels are
only considered to be an advantage when competing against women; the
wide variation in testosterone levels among cis men is irrelevant
because it is deemed to be “natural.”
“Let the rumors be true.” Janelle Monáe is not, she finally admits, the immaculate android, the “alien from outer space/The cybergirl without a face” she’s claimed to be over a decade’s worth of albums, videos, concerts and even interviews – she is, instead, a flawed, messy, flesh-and-blood 32-year-old human being.
And she has another rumor to confirm. “Being a queer black woman in America,” she says, taking a breath as she comes out, “someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.” She initially identified as bisexual, she clarifies, “but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
Janelle Monae Frees Herself, Rolling Stone April 2018 (x)
Some good twitter reactions to the USWNT deciding to go to the Whitehouse. And before anyone thinks they’re being forced to do this, I think we can safely say after #BeBoldForChange and their Olympic gold medal win, that no one can make them do anything right now, many other athletes aren’t going, and I don’t know how else Duggan’s agent saying in an official statement “everyone wanted to go” could be interpreted.
Unfortunately this is very real. Although just to clarify, because this post is circulating mostly among the women’s soccer fandom on here, it is the US women’s ice hockey team. It’s only mentioned at the top and then not again, so it’s easy to miss.
Fun fact: Though being gay in the 40s sucked, being gay in the military was easier, and pretty common. There were apparently, at one point in time time so many lesbians in the military that when they tried to crack down on it, the girls wrote back and said “Look I can give you the names, but you’ll lose some of your best officers, and half your nurses and secretaries.” And they pretty much shut up about it unless you were especially bad at subtlety. (Source: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. A good source for gay history from 1900s onwards.)
Sergeant Phelps worked for General Eisenhower. Four decades after Eisenhower had defeated the Axis powers, Phelps recalled an extraordinary event. One day the general told her, “I’m giving you an order to ferret those lesbians out.’ We’re going to get rid of them.”
“I looked at him and then I looked at his secretary. who was standing next to me, and I said, ‘Well, sir, if the general pleases, sir, I’ll be happy to do this investigation for you. But you have to know that the first name on the list will be mine.’
“And he kind of was taken aback a bit. And then this woman standing next to me said, ‘Sir, if the general pleases, you must be aware that Sergeant Phelps’s name may be second, but mine will be first.’
“Then I looked at him, and I said, ‘Sir, you’re right. They’re lesbians in the WAC battalion. And if the general is prepared to replace all the file clerks, all the section commanders, all of the drivers—every woman in the WAC detachment—and there were about nine hundred and eighty something of us—then I’ll be happy to make the list. But I think the general should be aware that among those women are the most highly decorated women in the war. There have been no cases of illegal pregnancies. There have been no cases of AWOL. There have been no cases of misconduct. And as a matter of fact, every six months since we’ve been here, sir, the general has awarded us a commendation for meritorious service.’
“And he said, ‘Forget the order.’
– The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America
I’ve reblogged this before but it didn’t have these comments and HOLY HOT DAMN DID IT NEED THEM.
So, when someone sits down to write a fiction about Women commandos, and a Dudebro steps in to say “Huh, that is so unrealistic huh.”
Harold… oh, Harold…sit down, shut up, and stay out of our way.
History is infinitely gayer than a lot of people want to admit ❤
To summarize, a vagina can now be constructed from peritoneal tissue, meaning that it will self-lubricate, doesn’t require prior electrolysis, will be stretchier than one made from skin tissue, and doesn’t have any external grafting sites to worry about.
My wife, Zoe, is transgender. She came out to us — the kids and me — last summer and then slowly spread her beautiful feminine wings with extended family, friends, and neighbors.
A little coming out here, a little coming out there — you know how it is.
It’s been a slow, often challenging process of telling people something so personal and scary, but pretty much everyone has been amazing.
However, she dreaded coming out at the office.
She works at a large technology company, managing a team of software developers in a predominantly male office environment. She’s known many of her co-workers and employees for 15 or so years. They have called her “he” and “him” and “Mr.” for a very long time. How would they handle the change?
While we have laws in place in Ontario, Canada, to protect the rights of transgender employees, it does not shield them from awkwardness, quiet judgment, or loss of workplace friendships. Your workplace may not become outright hostile, but it can sometimes become a difficult place to go to every day because people only tolerate you rather than fully accept you.
But this transition needed to happen, and so Zoe carefully crafted a coming out email and sent it to everyone she works with.
The support was immediately apparent; she received about 75 incredibly kind responses from coworkers, both local and international.
She then took one week off, followed by a week where she worked solely from home. It was only last Monday when she finally went back to the office.
Despite knowing how nice her colleagues are and having read so many positive responses to her email, she was understandably still nervous.
Hell, I was nervous. I made her promise to text me 80 billion times with updates and was more than prepared to go down there with my advocacy pants on if I needed to (I might be a tad overprotective).
And that’s when her office pals decided to show the rest of us how to do it right.
She got in and found that a couple of them had decorated her cubicle to surprise her:
And made sure her new name was prominently displayed in a few locations:
They got her a beautiful lily with a “Welcome, Zoe!” card:
And this tearjerker quote was waiting for her on her desk:
To top it all off, a 10 a.m. “meeting” she was scheduled to attend was actually a coming out party to welcome her back to work as her true self — complete with coffee and cupcakes and handshakes and hugs.
NO, I’M NOT CRYING. YOU’RE CRYING.
I did go to my wife’s office that day. But instead of having my advocacy pants on, I had my hugging arms ready and some mascara in my purse in case I cried it off while thanking everyone.
I wish we lived in a world where it was no big deal to come out.
Sadly, that is not the case for many LGBTQ people. We live in a world of bathroom bills and “religious freedom” laws that directly target the members of our community. We live in a world where my family gets threats for daring to speak out for trans rights. We live in a world where we can’t travel to certain locations for fear of discrimination — or worse.
So when I see good stuff happening — especially when it takes place right on our doorstep — I’m going to share it far and wide. Let’s normalize this stuff. Let’s make celebrating diversity our everyday thing rather than hating or fearing it.
Chill out, haters. Take a load off with us.
It’s a lot of energy to judge people, you know. It’s way more fun to celebrate and support them for who they are.
Besides, we have cupcakes.
Thank you. I needed this story today.
What a lovely story.
First happy tears of the day. Read it, let it soothe a little of the ugliness of today’s news.
hot take: hrt, gender therapy and trans surgeries should be free
if cis people don’t have to pay to have a body that doesn’t make them dysphoric, neither should trans people
So by that logic does that mean that I should get anti-depressants and all the other pills for my mental issues for free because the people who don’t suffer from them don’t have to pay to have them?
I despise doing posts where I ask for help, but here we are.
About two years ago I started a new creator owned project. It began as a spin-off of Princeless, but the reality is this – Raven The Pirate Princess is its own thing altogether. I knew this from the first issue and if you’ve been reading, so have you.
Sure, the first few issues of Raven: Pirate Princess had that heroic lady feminist banter for which Princeless has become known both among its fans and detractors. I mean, Raven had this scene:
and issue 1 had this scene:
But perhaps much more importantly, the first issue of Raven had this:
but that wasn’t where that ended. This is a book about a community of diverse queer women actively claiming their place in the world and taking what’s theirs. It’s about Raven, who is desperately in love with her childhood best friend Ximena
It’s about Ximena, a girl who was held captive for years by a pirate king who pretended to be her liberator. Who fell in love with the pirate’s daughter, only to be left behind by that father when she outlived her value.
About Sunshine, the thief that chose the wrong target and ended up falling in love with a woman already hopelessly in love with somebody else.
It’s about Katie, the bisexual second in command who’s motivated by honor…and occasionally beating the snot out of a dude or two
Oh and in case I forgot to mention, Katie is also incredibly muscular:
And Jayla, the asexual science genius who’s tired of being treated like a little sister
and Cid, the deaf engineer who quietly keeps the ship running
and of course, these two:
The socially awkward poet and the angry sword fighter who couldn’t stand her who have somehow become these two:
But here’s the thing: this comic is failing. It has a very dedicated and exuberant but at this point SMALL fanbase. Today I had a hard conversation with Action Lab about the reality of the numbers on this book versus what it costs to produce this book and, suffice it to say, Action Lab isn’t ready to cancel the book, but they aren’t ready to greenlight year 3 either. After Year 2 #13, Raven is set to go on the shelf until numbers can support continuing it.
This is where I need your help
If you care about this book full of queer pirate ladies and you want it to continue, we need to find a way to spread the word about it. We don’t need to sell single issues (it would be nice) but ultimately we need the trades sales that back up the continuation of this big YA Pirate/Revenge/Adventure/Romance thing.
In fact, if you’ve already purchased volumes 1-4, volume 5 is available for preorder there right now!
Maybe you’ve bought all the issues already. Thank you! If you still want to support Raven, you can review the books on Amazon or other retailers, you can share, reblog or retweet this post. You can tell a friend about the book!
If you have a comics review site or, say, a blog where you talk about LGBT media, contact me for review links or interviews. Please, help us save our ship.
Today, in lieu of a regular positive example, let’s reblog this overdue signal boost for the comic made entirely of positive examples!
Steel Phoenix Studios 