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Opinion -
Editorials
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TS-Si
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Friday, 13 June 2008 17:00 |
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Washington, DC, USA. "In a time to come, people born transsexual shall shake the conscience of our nation. During the Pride season, let us take joy in who we are and embrace the responsibilities imposed on us by that knowledge." We said something like that in our first Pride editorial: the statement holds true.
We are still here in the Washington, D.C. area, on the eve of another Capital Pride, and continue to consider Pride from an American perspective. After all, the search for ways to perfect our liberties, and dissatisfaction when we fail, animates much of our American history.
TS-Si has always been committed to equal rights for all before just laws enacted for all: our position applies without regard to the views or social station of others. We support the inherent rights and dignity of disenfranchised people without regard to race, class, gender, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, transgender presentation, and other distinctions.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 06 May 2010 21:16 |
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Opinion -
Editorials
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TS-Si
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Saturday, 22 September 2007 19:02 |
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Metro DC community and Mautner host memorials
 Washington, DC, USA. Cheryl Ann Spector delivered far more than she ever promised. Ms. Spector worked ceaselessly to secure equal rights, to the great benefit of anyone who values a just and civil society.
While her work had immediate benefit to our neighbors who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and transgendered, she was loved for her personal qualities and over a generation of dedicated community service.
We at TS-Si were privileged to know and work with Cheryl, experiencing her special charm and resolve at first hand. The world lost a great friend when she died on the morning of 4 September 2007 after a protracted battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML).
Ms. Spector's brother committed suicide in 1985 following his diagnosis with AIDS. After a year of mourning, Spector channeled her grief into action. She spent over 20 years attending and videotaping virtually every significant GLB event in the Washington Metropolitan Area, including the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance (AGLA), DC Capital Pride, funerals of AIDS victims, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the Mautner Project, and many others.
Spector was a past Vice Chair of the Rainbow History Project and most recently served on its Board of Directors. Her home was full of videos, photos and memorabilia of gay events that she has attended, planned and founded over the years.
Cheryl received many important awards for her community service. The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance gave Spector their 33rd Annual Distinguished Service Award in 2004. The Mautner Project will bestow their Unsung Hero Award - long overdue - for her service to the community at Mautner's 17th Annual Gala (29 September 2007).
Ms. Spector had a supportive family, some very long-term and close friends, and many admirers. Even if Cheryl did not know you, she cared about you.
We urge all who can to attend the events planned for her memorial on the weekend of 29-30 September 2007 (see the front page for details).
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Last Updated on Sunday, 11 November 2007 18:45 |
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Opinion -
Editorials
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TS-Si
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Saturday, 18 August 2007 19:30 |
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Ms. Soto was mistreated; who is next?
Springfield, VA, USA. We would be remiss if we did not address the latest fiasco involving the Washington, DC corrections system. The District's officers strip searched a female bodied person and then assigned her to facilities with male bodied persons.
This episode raises troubling questions — yet again — about the DC system and the safety of anyone ensnared by its incompetence.
The errors were system-wide and compounded from an initial mistaken report. The problem began on 28 April 2007. Police arrested Virginia Grace Soto, 47, on suspicion of prostitution. Although she told the two arresting officers she was a woman, officers thought her to be a man. Following an interview by a female officer from the city's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU), she was booked as a transgender man.
Soto then faced arrest on 14 July 2007. Police consulted her prior arrest record with the mistaken data and she was booked once again as a man.
Some observers say that Ms. Soto's appearance could be interpreted as that of a big boned woman. The basic problem was that officers could not distinguish between her anatomical sex and her appearance.
The D.C. correctional officers did the strip search when they were up close and personal. Must we provide them with target acquisition imagery and an elementary text on the physical differences between females and males?
After all, Ms. Soto was naked! She has a vagina and uterus, working ovaries, and breasts (size irrelevant) — aren't some of the officers themselves female? How hard could it have been to figure out that Ms. Soto is female?
Perhaps the problem is that for them, Ms. Soto was not a person, merely an object of curiosity.
It makes us wonder: were the boys having fun with a woman because she didn't meet their male expectations of what a woman should look like? If so, that would suggest a corollary: if a woman doesn't turn on a man's sexual expectations, is she then a target for male derision?
The inmates identified Ms. Soto as female as soon as they saw her naked but apparently the DC correctional officers are not as educated in these things as the inmates they supposedly guard.
We have long supported the efforts of DC's pioneering Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU). Sadly, the unit got this situation very wrong at the outset and failed to follow up.
If a woman born and raised can be placed in the wrong detention cells, what hope is there for someone with Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS — aka Transsexuality)?
Both the GLLU and DC Corrections should wake up and smell the estrogen.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 11 November 2007 19:00 |
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Opinion -
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TS-Si
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Saturday, 11 August 2007 22:00 |
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Springfield, VA. USA. Transsexualism belongs in the scientific and medical mainstream. The time has come for the scientific and medical community to take up the study of the long term effects of  hormone treatment on transsexual women. There could be considerable benefits to all women, without regard to their birth condition.
When it comes to Hormone Treatment (HT), the medical establishment ignores women with a history of transsexuality. The past few decades have seen a systematic interest in the effects of HT that omit the valuable experiences of transsexual women.
Existing research is off the mark. For example, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), launched in 1991, was a major 15-year research program funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). It focused on post-menopausal women.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 15 May 2010 14:27 |
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Opinion -
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TS-Si
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Tuesday, 05 June 2007 20:00 |
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What Needs to be Done
 Springfield, VA, USA. After transition and surgery, those born transsexual should fall under the laws appropriate to their post-surgical sex. They do not need rules and regulations that give them protected status. They should be legally identified as their post-surgical sex.
Transsexuals in transition are another matter. Rules and regulations can and should provide protected status during transition. This is a good time to stop and consider what should be done to ensure the acceptance, medical treatment, & legal protection of transsexuals as they transition into society.
Our current list of priorities follows. Your comments, as always, are welcome.
Standard medical and insurance coverage for Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS, aka transsexuality)
Board Certification for Surgeons
- Plastic Surgery
- Reconstructive Surgery
Board Certification for Therapists
- Gender Identity Disorder (GID)
- Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS)
Professional self-policing of unqualified surgeons and therapists
Standardization of medical and legal protocols
Standard legal framework for transsexuals in transition
- Legal recognition of HBS and medical protocols, including
a standardized “carry letter” identifying the person as transsexual.
- Recognition of HBS status at retention facilities so as not to subject the transsexual person to harassment or physical harm from an inmate population other than the target gender.
- Interim legal identification that includes the name and post-transition sex of the person in transition for long as they remain under the medical protocols.
- Streamlined processes for final name and gender/sex markers on identification after sex reassignment surgery.
- Access to appropriate public restroom facilities for the target sex prior to surgery for those receiving hormone treatments and actively following medical protocols.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 11 November 2007 18:59 |
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Washington, DC, USA. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts breached what had become a polite protocol in Washington that exempts the US Supreme Court from partisan wrangling and personal attacks, by referring to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as a "homophobe" during an interview with 
The TS-Si News Service
and the TS-Si Research Service are collaborations of TS-Si officials, staff, contributors, and corresponding institutions. The contents do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si or its owners, participants, partners, or affiliates.