Muddled Thoughts of Sex and Gender

As I've said before when I write about such things, this is probably a much better topic for my partner and his expertise.  However, as I've also said, I think that an outsider's view is important in the discussion.  It can help bridge the gap between straights/the cis-gendered and LGBT as a lot of the tension is predicated on fear and misunderstanding, not hate.

Breaking: The National Organization for Marriage Exposed

Major news coming out of Maine.  I'll try and breeze through the back story to get to the important bits.  The gist of it is that the National Organization for Marriage has lost court case after court case fighting to keep from revealing more about their campaign financing.  Today in Maine several formerly confidential documents were unsealed.  Ho.  Ly.  Crap.

LGBT: What the Buffalo Sabres Could Do Better

As some of you are aware, one of my pet projects has been opening a dialogue with the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres in respect to what they could do to reach out to the LGBT community. Recently I made the point that the Sabres could do better in this regard, prompting someone to ask, how?  That’s a good question, one I had to take a step back and think about. I don’t like being the type to offer complaints without possible solutions, so here they are.

Rebirth

When I was a child, my mum made us go to church at least every other Sunday. It was mostly for appearance's sake, and I absolutely hated it. It was long and boring and hot and I had to dress up girly and nice and pretend to be a gentle, well-mannered young lady. It sucked. What made it even worse was when there was a baptism. They were usually a surprise and we'd show up expecting an hour and a half to two hours of skull-crushing boredom and then there'd be a baptism that would easily tack on another half hour to forty-five minutes. But one thing sticks out in my mind about all those baptisms that seems relevant to this particular day.

Is the Internet Killing Religion?

I was reading an article earlier today about Gay-Straight Alliances in the southern United States.  One of the things one of the interviewees said caught my attention: "my generation is the first that grew up with the internet -- the ability to gain any piece of information from any source at any times. This gives us an advantage to see what the world thinks, not just what our parents or communities think."  It seems evident that the internet, at least in part, is helping spread tolerance for LGBT individuals.  I also wonder if a similar point can be made about religion.

Retro Post: Sex Education and Parental Rights

One of the biggest talking points of those opposed to comprehensive sexual education in schools is the assertion that such things are up to the parents.  After all, they're the ones responsible for raising their kid to become a productive member of society, they should supply the majority of input that their children receive.

The Dharun Ravi Verdict

In case you haven't been following along, Dharun Ravi was a freshman roommate of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers.  Rhavi filmed Clementi having an intimate encounter with another man without his knowledge.  Many believe the incident led to Clementi's eventual suicide.  Today Ravi was found guilty of some charges of bias intimidation (hate crimes) as well as invasion of privacy and tampering with evidence.

Transition Isn't Destructive

It's been my experience that most people I've come out to have been pretty supportive when it comes to starting to use the correct name and pronouns and treating me as "one of the guys" - the social part of transitioning. But the one thing that consistently seems to make most people uncomfortable is the physical transition - the actual medical intervention that will help me change my body into how I really feel. People tend to see it as destructive - that I will be "cutting off" my breasts, that I will be "destroying" my body's estrogen in favor of pumping it full of testosterone, that I will be "mutilating" my genitals to make them how I want. But it's not that at all. All the medical interventions are reconstructive. Just like refurbishing a building, some things will need to be removed to update and improve the building. To me, my current chest feels like an asbestos-laden back room that needs to be completely torn out and rebuilt. Yes, the process is somewhat violent. There's the cutting of flesh and spillage of blood and removal of parts. But those parts are malignant - maybe not physically, but emotionally. It's hard to explain to cis people how it feels to have a body that you can't identify with and you can hardly stand to look at. I don't see some parts of my body as anything more than a type of tumor. I even have minimal feeling in certain erogenous zones because of my brain/body disconnect. Sometimes I find it hard to believe how much better I feel when I hide these parts with binding or augment them with packing. I think it's just the shock of having my body finally be closer to what I feel it should be. It's healing, it's wonderful and I hate how I feel if I'm not doing it.

Retro Post: No Offense to Christians...

Really this isn't about any one thing in particular, rather about how Christians tend to cherry pick the bible based on their own biases and prejudices.  For lack of a better way of putting it, the Bible is a big old book with a lot of stuff in it that is stupid, outdated, makes no sense, or some wonderful combination of the three.  And Christians are okay with only following bits and pieces selected by a complex process of...???

You Can Play and Homophobia in Sports

Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke (brother to the late and openly gay Brendan Burke) has created a new nonprofit organization dedicated to ending homophobia in sports.  The You Can Play Project will operate with the goal of showing that sports are more accepting than people think.  A more detailed description of the organization, its goals, and those currently involved can be read here.