dys4ia is an autobiographical game about the period in my life when i started hormone replacement therapy. it’s a story about me, and is certainly not meant to represent the experience of every trans person. - Anna Anthropy
This game only takes 10 minutes of your time. Play it.
(via lgbtlaughs)
People being angry about ~dem gays~ on Target’s Facebook.
I just want to give my two cents on this and tell you a story.
A couple weeks ago, I was hired at Target. I have a job at Target. Not a big deal right?
It is a big deal because i’m a transman.
It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that it’s hard for me, my brothers, and sisters to get a job. There are legal restraints regarding the job and if you don’t pass, it’s hard to be taken seriously at a job interview.
Right on the application, it asks what your preferred name is. It also asks if there is anything that target should know. I put the fact that I am a transman, expecting not to get a call because usually when you put that down, people will throw out the application. I got TWO interviews.
At the interview, they asked me about it. I told them I am on hormones and they told me that they didn’t care. Not in the sense that they don’t emotionally care, but that it didn’t matter. I was male and that’s all that mattered. They also told me that they give sex same couples benefits in states that do not recognize them as a married couple.
At my job orientation, I was not misgendered once. Even my supervisors who weren’t sure of my gender avoided pronoun use, which I found only happens when you’ve had pronoun training. They gave me a name tag with my preferred name and didn’t ask questions. I felt safe and respected, which is huge for a trans* person.
TLDR: Target is amazing not just for the LGB, but also the T. Shop there for the rest of your life.
(via rory-thee-romann)
The public gallery broke into a traditional Maori love song after the announcement that the same-sex marriage bill had passed for New Zealand.
Excuse me while I go cry
(via climbinmyboughs)
(TW: Transphobic language)
Ashley Del Valle, a 38-year-old transgender woman from New York, was arrested in Savannah last week for allegedly exposing her breasts. But after her arrest, a nurse examined her genitals and decided that she was male, and Del Valle was placed in a holding cell in the men’s prison ward.
She was in custody for three days, often alone in various cells, before her family could bail her out. During that time, she says she experienced a slew of harassment and slurs from deputies.
The chief deputy at the jail says his employees followed existing protocol to keep Del Valle in a private cell, but did admit to misgendering her.
“First off, Ashley is still a man,” chief deputy Roy Harris told WSAV. “I think he’s had some surgery, breast implants. But technically he is still a male which poses a problem. We do have a policy in place. Typically we put them in isolation.” …
Del Valle is considering legal action, which might have some weight, especially given that Del Valle was arrested for a charge that can only be committed by a woman — since a man exposing his nipples does not qualify as indecent exposure — but then jailed as a man. Del Valle also contests the claim that she exposed herself at all; she told WSAV says she was just wearing a sheer top, and says she did not argue with the arresting officer, despite also being charged with disorderly conduct.
Unbe-friggin-lievable.
You gotta be kidding me. This, pardon my words, sh*t needs to end now!
Kenneth Weishuhn, a freshman at South O’Brien High School in Paullina, Iowa, took his own life recently after his peers tormented him for being gay.
Members of Kenneth’s family say some of his classmates created anti-gay hate groups on Facebook and added his friends as members, and that some even called his home with death threats. The students who made the calls were given warnings, but the school never contacted Kenneth’s family.
According to his family, Kenneth’s favorite quote was “Be buddies, not bullies.”
“He says, ‘Mom, you don’t know how it feels to be hated,’” Jeannie Chambers told KTIV.
Weishuhn’s torment began after he reviled his sexuality to fellow students he considered to be his friends. “People that were originally his friends, they kind of turned on him,” his sister, Kayla Weishuhn, said.
My heart is broken. If you or someone you know needs help, please, please, please call The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. You are loved, you are not alone, and you will get through this.
Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp introduced a bill to the House of Representatives last week that would protect members of the military who express homophobic views and also ban same-sex weddings at military facilities.
The Military Religious Freedom Protection Act, a version of which was introduced last year as well, would create the following provisions:
The legislation has two parts. The first states that the religious and moral beliefs of service members and military chaplains concerning human sexuality won’t be the basis of adverse personnel action or discrimination in the armed forces. The section section states chaplains may not be forced to perform a rite that is contradictory to their religious teachings, which would include same-sex marriages.
The second section states that a military base can’t be used for any marriage or marriage-like ceremony other than the union of one man, one woman.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may be gone, but its hostile culture is still thriving.
(via boringprocrastination)
Feel-good story of the day:
Residents of Everman, Texas held a “fence-painting party” this weekend to restore a fence that was covered in homophobic graffiti targeting their gay neighbors.
The couple in question was turned away from a catering hall recently because they are gay. The story received a fair amount of publicity, and their fence was vandalized a week later. But their neighbors united to help them out:
First, the graffiti that said “Burn FAG” was turned into Born FABulous. But then the wood fence was painted white.
The police chief and the fire chief and his wife also stopped by to show their support. The police chief assured the couple that the department is keeping an eye on the house.
About 20 friends and neighbors helped with the painting. Hudgins said additional people who were walking or biking stopped when they saw the group painting — withe some having a hot dog and a drink and painting for five or 10 minutes.
Stories like this warm my heart. There really are good people everywhere.
(via skarletfyre)
Apple, Facebook, eBay, Intel and dozens more American corporations will submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court today defending marriage equality in light of the upcoming cases on Prop 8 and DOMA.
According to a copy of the brief obtained by Fortune, the companies signing on say that laws like Prop 8 “send an unmistakeable signal that same-sex couples are in some way inferior to opposite-sex couples, a proposition that is anathema to amici’s commitment to equality and fair treatment to all.”
They also made the argument pro-marriage-equality folks bring up all the time, but that conservatives never seem to hear: same-sex marriage is good for business.
Fleshing out that contention, the companies argue: “By singling out a group for less favorable treatment, Proposition 8 impedes businesses from achieving the market’s ideal of efficient operations — particularly in recruiting, hiring, and retaining talented people who are in the best position to operate at their highest capacity. Amici are competing domestically and internationally with companies inside and outside the United States in places where all couples, regardless of whether they are of the same sex, are afforded equal access to marriage.”
Specifically, it suggests that when “potential recruits or employees are members of a same-sex couple,” they “may forgo the opportunity to work in California, and prefer other states (like Iowa, New York, and Massachusetts) or other nations (like Spain, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Belgium) where they can be married and obtain equal treatment and respect under the law.”
Laws like Prop 8 “leave companies in the untenable position of being compelled implicitly to endorse the second-class status to which their gay and lesbian employees, clients, customers, and business associates are relegated,” the brief argues. “Until the law no longer relegates same-sex couples to second-class status as inferior “domestic partnerships,” our adherence to the law compels us to abide by a distinction that stigmatizes and dehumanizes gay men and lesbians.”
Basically, this is a very wordy way of saying that equality is the only way to go. Everyone’s starting to realize it. It’s only a matter of time before we don’t even have to ask this question anymore.
Meet Noah Alvarez, a liaison from within the community and one of the iTrans* highlighted personalities/life stories.
Noah Alvarez is a 20-something afro-latino transman, residing in Los Angeles, California who has a passion for writing, speaking, and mentoring on equality and the state of today’s youth. Noah’s love for people and passion for healthy, whole living has influenced his mission of fresh outreach within the trans* community and in his every day life.
Along with being a dedicated partner to his wife, Ryder and a loving companion to their dog Shaka, Noah is dedicated to bringing light and exposure to successful, positive LGBT* individuals who are building their empires and changing the way society relates to, and interacts with transgender people. Noah is a dynamic empowerment speaker and youth life coach who helps individuals reach and maintain a 100% life. He is actively speaking and teaching on the mind and hearts of transgender youth, and pursuing work with LGB* groups to help them become more earnestly involved in the movement towards total equality for trans* people.
Noah is also co-founder and contributor for WeHappyTrans.com and runs the Men of Excellence weekly prayer conference call for all masculine-identified persons within the transgender community. He runs his own blog where he offers open mentorship for young transmen and also uses Youtube as a way to share his personal journey as a man of the trans* experience.
(Source: itransthefilm, via projectqueer)
The Indiana teacher who told reporters that gays have no purpose in life has reportedly been suspended.
Although the school district will not identify the teacher, it’s a safe bet that it’s special education teacher Diana Medley. In the past few weeks, as some students at Sullivan High School have pushed for a “traditional prom” that bans LGBT students, Medley made strikingly homophobic comments that generated intense backfire across the country. In case you forgot:
“We don’t agree with it (homosexuality), and it’s offensive to us,” Medley told reporters. “Homosexual students come to me with their problems, and I don’t agree with them, but I care about them. It’s the same thing with my special needs kids. I think God puts everyone in our lives for a reason.”
When asked if she thinks gays have a purpose in life, Medley said, “No I honestly don’t. Sorry, but I don’t. I don’t understand it.”
“A gay person isn’t going to come up and make some change unless it’s to realize that it was a choice and they’re choosing God,” Medley told WTWO.
In a released statement, the superintendent said the unidentified teacher was being placed on leave “as a precaution” because of the aggressive responses she and the school received after her comments.
SERVES HER RIGHT. That woman has no place in the educational system and needs to be as far away from students as possible. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Or do. Either way.
(via projectqueer)
