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Chad A. Mirkin, Northwestern University, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Photo by Bill Arsenault. 

DNA Blueprints Guide The Construction Of Specific Human Structures

Chad Mirkin discusses using DNA to build a three-dimensional structure out of gold, likening the process to building a house. Starting with basic materials such as bricks, wood, siding, stone and shingles, a construction team can build many different types of houses out of the same building blocks.
 
The article includes an audio recording of the full interview. Photo courtesy of the UCSD School of Medicine.
The Transgender Gender Spectrum Cell Block Problem Print E-mail
Opinion - Global Warning
Lisa Jain Thompson   
Saturday, 19 July 2008 17:00
Eyes on the prisons.
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Springfield, VA, USA. In an earlier column, I discussed the uproar among the District of Columbia’s transgender community over proposed revisions of the rules and regulations governing gender identity and expression.
 
The stated purpose of the change is to clarify how the gender identity or expression regulations apply to transgender individuals in District Government custody (e.g. trans folks who have been arrested for violating the law).
 
The rulemaking also repeals the requirement for gender neutral signage (“restroom” vice men or women), clarifies the types of accommodations that may be provided in gender-specific facilities where nudity is customary (e.g., a shower room or locker room), and establishes the name requirements for identification badges of District government employees.
 
The outrage from the D. C. transgender community is astonishing. You’d have thought that the District Columbia had proposed setting up death camps to store trans folks. The howling protests and public wailing!
 
Of course most of it sounded like
 
Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.
 
I want I want I want I want.
 
ME!
 
So when I wrote the last column, I had to figure out best I could what all the commotion was about. The rule changes seemed reasonable. Most of them were just clarifications, something that rule making bodies do all the time.
 
Luckily, since I wrote that column, a representative of the D. C. transgender community has clarified their concerns and, more specifically, identified the root causes of the transgender problem. What follows is a summary of their protest agenda, the best I understand it.
 
This is what they protest. This is the
 


Trangender Gender Spectrum Manifesto

  The trans folks and only trans folks have the self-evident right to determine the standards for what is safe and secure for trans folks in the District of Columbia Jail.

  We oppose the proposition that the D. C. Department of Corrections will determine jail cell accommodations by type of genitalia. External genitalia have no relationship to physical sex. A penis is a vagina is a penis is genitalia but not sex.

  We object to the possibility that the D. C. Department of Corrections will not necessarily take arrested trans folks at their word and might even subject inbound inmates to medical examinations to confirm transgender assertions of sex and legal identity.

  The word of newly arrested members of the transgender community must be respected and believed without further confirmation by a corrupt system. Trans folks who have violated the law must be given humane treatment that does not question transgender statements of transgender gender spectrum fact.

 
So, if I have it straight, the core problem is that the District transgender community wants to write the laws, make the arrests, and run the jails. Anything less would be inhumane and evidence of a corrupt District government disrespecting the transgender community.
 
A declaration of Transgender Infallibility can only be a handful of years away. Trans sainthood is eminent. Ascension has occurred. I am led to believe that the transgender world exists as pure energy on a much higher plane of existence than this mortal earth, an eternal world full of knowledge, wisdom, and power.
 
Damn.
 
I could have been transgender instead of female, an ethereal wisp floating along the gender spectrum, flitting in and out of jail cells at will and avoiding the consequences of my actions.
 
Double damn.
 
But before we jump headlong into this transgendery stargate, perhaps we should discuss the basis of the original transgender howls and protests, the manifesto. Let’s start with
Only trans folks have the self-evident right to determine the standards for what is safe and secure for trans folks in the District of Columbia Jail.
Perfectly reasonable. Let’s have the inmates make the rules. I’m certain that Charlie Manson, John Wayne Gacy Jr, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy have had some fine ideas about how jail should be run. I know when I am down in D. C., I always ask for advice from the muggers before I make a decision concerning my welfare (which normally includes AVOIDING getting arrested and spending time in jail).
 
Hell, if sex workers could have their way, I’m certain that the girls would just as soon run their business out of a nice safe jail cell as risk their lives walking the street. Cuts out at least one of the middle men as an added bonus.
 
Who could argue against letting the inmates run the asylum? This is a perfectly reasonable demand from our transgender advocates.
 
They probably think that children should set the rules for family too.
We oppose the proposition that the D. C. Department of Corrections will determine jail cell accommodations by type of genitalia. External genitalia have no relationship to physical sex. A penis is a vagina is a penis is genitalia but not sex.
Personally, I think tea leaves and patchouli incense should be used to determine sex. What’s the difference between an erect male penis and a bleeding vagina anyway?
 
As far as I can tell, it’s all the same to the transgender community.
 
Penis. Vagina.
 
Makes no never mind if you are transgendered.
 
Vagina. Penis.
 
Show and tell is a corrupt patriarchal conspiracy to suppress the masses. Children of the world unite!
 
Pagina or Venis, who cares?
 
Throw off your old boss, accept the transgender boss as your new lord and master (lordess and mistress?). Seize the new world reality!
We object to the possibility that the D. C. Department of Corrections will not necessarily take arrested trans folks at their word and might even subject inbound inmates to medical examinations to confirm transgender assertions of sex and legal identity.
Why should anyone doubt the word of a transgender with five o’clock shadow?
 
No need to double check anything. No need to pat them down for weapons. No need to search for drugs.
 
Transgenders are truthful.
 
Transgenders are good.
 
Glory be to the Transgender Community.
 
Through Them, and with Them, and in Them, in the unity of the Gender Spectrum, all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
 
I took the Nigerian’s letter at face value when he offered me money and look what it got me.
 
I guess we might as well believe everything any transgender tells us, what can possibly go wrong?
 
And remember, Penis, Vagina, who really gives a damn anyway?
The word of newly arrested members of the transgender community must be respected and believed without further confirmation by a corrupt system. Trans folks who have violated the law must be given humane treatment that does not question transgender statements of transgender gender spectrum fact.
Newly arrested trans folk have earned our respect, for they are truly transgendered.
 
Freshly handcuffed trans folk are always trustworthy, for they are truly transgendered.
 
Recently detained, about to be charged trans folk are always honest and correct, for they are truly transgendered.
 
And we are not.
 
So blow it out your ear.
 
Our ear.
 
Transgender Rules!
 
We must not oppose transgenders. Opposition is the mind-killer. Questioning them is the little-death that brings total obliteration. We must accept transgender.
 
We must permit them to pass through our jails and not incarcerate them, no matter what crimes they may have committed.
 
And, when a transgender has past, we will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the transgender has gone there will be nothing.
 
Then only the rest of us will remain.
 
And the crossdressers, of course, but that’s another column or two, isn’t it?
 
Ms. Lisa Jain ThompsonMs. Lisa Jain Thompson is the Co-Founder & President of TS-Si, Inc. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website.  Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Lisa welcomes your comments. You can use the public form below or send private correspondence via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
 
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Last Updated on Saturday, 19 July 2008 17:32