How To Respect A Transgender Person

Today I'm not going to say much.  Instead, I'm going to share something I found on wiki How

Steps

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   Respect their gender identity. Think of them as the gender they refer to themselves as and refer to them with their chosen name and gender pronoun (regardless of their physical appearance) from now on. (Unless they are not out, or tell you otherwise. Ask to be sure if or when there are times it is not okay.)
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   Watch your past tense. When talking of the past try not to use phrases like "when you were a previous gender" or "born a man/woman," because many transgender people feel they have always been the gender they have come out to you as, but had to hide it for whatever reasons- or at least be aware of when you do it. Ask the transgender person how they would like to be referred to in the past tense. One solution is to avoid referencing gender when talking about the past by using other frames of reference, for instance "Last year", "When you were a child", "When you were in high school", etc. If you must reference the gender transition when talking about the past, say "before you shared your true gender", or "Before you began transitioning" (if applicable).
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   Use language appropriate to the person's gender. Ask what pronouns the transgender person prefers to have used in reference to them and respect that choice. For example, someone who identifies as a woman may prefer feminine words and pronouns like she, her, actress, waitress, etc. A person who identifies as a man may prefer masculine terms like he, his, etc. Other transgender people have begun using gender neutral pronouns such as ze, zir, sie, hir, singular they, them, etc., but this is a personal preference. ^[1] Use the name they ask you to use.
   • Your friend Jack has just come out as a transgender person, and now wishes to be called Mary. From this point on, you do not say "This is my friend Jack, I've known him since grade school." Instead, you say, "This is my friend Mary, I've known her since grade school." Table any awkwardness you feel for another time when you and Mary can talk privately. Definitely, if you want to remain friends, you will need to respect Mary's wishes and address her as who she is today, not the person you used to know; despite the fact that the transgender person IS the person you used to know, you just know them better now.
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   Don't be afraid to ask questions.^[2] Some, but certainly not all transgender people will answer questions related their identity / gender. Don't expect the transgender person to be your sole educator, however. It is your responsibility to inform yourself. Also, if a trans person doesn't feel comfortable answering your question, don't try and "force it out of them." Lastly, questions about genitalia, surgeries, and former names should usually only be asked if you need to know in order to provide medical care, are engaging in a sexual relationship with the transgender person, or need the former name for legal documentation.
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   Respect the transgender person's need for privacy. Do not out them without express permission. Telling people you are transgender is a very difficult decision, not made lightly. "Outing" them without their permission is a betrayal of trust and could possibly cost you your relationship with them. It may also put them at risk, depending on the situation, of losing a lot - or even being harmed. They will tell those they want to, if or when they are ready. This advice is appropriate for those who are living full-time or those who have not transitioned yet. For those living full-time in their proper gender role, very many will not want anyone who did not know them from before they transitioned to know them as any other than their current, i.e. proper, gender.
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   Don't assume you know what the person's experience is. There are many different ways in which differences in gender identity are expressed. The idea of being "trapped in a man/woman's body", the belief that trans women are hyperfeminine/trans men are hypermasculine, and the belief that all trans people will seek hormones and surgery are all stereotypes that apply to some people and not to others. Be guided by what the person tells you about their own situation, and listen without preconceived notions. Do not impose theories you may have learned, or assume that the experience of other trans people you may know or have heard of is the same as that of the person in front of you. Don't assume that they are transitioning because of past trauma in their lives, or that they are changing genders as a way to escape from their bodies.
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   Begin to recognize the difference between gender identity and sexuality. Do not assume that their gender correlates with their sexuality - it doesn't. There are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, and asexual transgender people. If the person comes out to you about their sexual orientation, use the terms they use.
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   Treat transgender persons the same. While they may appreciate your extra attention to them, they don't particularly appreciate you making a big deal of them. After you are well-informed, make sure you're not going overboard. Transgender people have essentially the same personalities as they did before coming out. Treat them as you would anybody else.
   • Be willing to listen. Many TG people live in small communities where sharing their experience is limited to their own kind. Often, being able to explain and educate people about their experience is helpful to both you and them.
   • Don't obfuscate. If you are finding something difficult, let them know. An honest, straight forward response is a lot easier for them to deal with than cutting them off.
   • Hang out with them. Make it "normal" - get used to them in the way they present and sooner or later you'll find that they aren't a strange person, they are "joe" or "josephine." You might just find you end up with a really good friend.
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   Those who have begun to express a gender different from the one assigned at birth are usually undergoing a major life changing event. Patience, understanding, and a willingness to discuss issues these changes will bring about will help them through a difficult and emotional time. It is best to ask open ended questions that allow the person to share as much as they feel comfortable sharing. Examples: "How are things going?"; "You looked stressed. Care to share?"; "You look really happy. Something good happen?"; "How can I help support you during these changes?"; "I am all ears if there are things that wish to discuss."
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Tips

• Asking about trans peoples' genitals and how they have sex is not appropriate, in the same way that asking cisgender (those whose bodies naturally match their gender preference) people how they have sex is not appropriate.
• Not all transgender people pursue genital reconstruction surgery (GRS). GRS is almost always more appropriate to use than "sex change operation." Don't assume that it's appropriate to ask about a person's plans for surgery, hormones, and so forth, any more than you would pry into someone else's medical affairs. Moreover, don't assume that there is only one "right," path to transition (e.g. that to "really be transgender" or to "finish your transition," you need to have GRS).
• Some trans people will be comfortable answering questions, and some will not. If a trans person is uncomfortable answering, or doesn't want to, then let it go. If you need to know, use the resources below.
• If you slip up early on and say "she" or "he" when you meant the other, don't apologize too much, just follow the mistake with the right term and continue what you were saying.
• Many believe that the word "transgender" is an adjective, and a descriptive word; not a noun or a verb. Others believe otherwise. Just as you wouldn't call an older person "an old" or say they are "olded", it is inappropriate to refer to a transgender person as "a transgender" without adding "person", "woman", "man", or any other appropriate noun. Some transgender people also consider this objectifying and dehumanizing.
• Unless you have a close and personal relationship, it may be rude to ask what their "real" name or birth name was -- they consider the name they have chosen to suit their gender (if they have done so) to be their real name, and they want you to think of them that way.
• It has been widely accepted in the educational community (and others which deal with people with various disabilities/differences) that one not refer to people with their difference first, (i.e., transgender person), but that one refer to the person before the difference (i.e., person who is transgender). It might be a bit more clunky to articulate, but in the mind of the listener it identifies the subject of the communication as a human first and as different from others last. A small but important differentiation, in my opinion.
• Some people believe that the only "cure" for being transgender is to correct the physical appearance (with surgery and/or hormones) to match the mental gender identity. These people believe there is a problem with the body, not the mind. Current medical evidence and authorities support the effectiveness of these treatments (See AMA, APA, APA, NASW and WPATH statements.) Some people believe that it is society's gender expectations and limitations for men and women are the core issue and need to reflect an acceptance of a wider variety of gender expression for males and females.
• Gender Dysphoria is the term used by medical and psychological professionals and is the term used in DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, May 2013). DSM-4 used the term Gender Identity Disorder (GID) but was replaced due to the pathologizing nature of the concept that Transgender is a “disorder”, not a natural part of the variation of human development, although only a small percentage of the population has this variation.
• Websites like My True Gender, PlanetOut or 4chan have transgender groups, or other sections for transgender people; go to them to talk to people or learn more.

 

 

Warnings

• Never tell a transgender person that people will not understand or love them because of their transgender identity. It hurts very badly, and is not true. Many transgender people are understood, accepted and loved.
• Do not compare them to a non-transgender person by calling that person a "real" or "normal" girl/boy. What makes a man a "real" man or a woman a "real" woman is the way they identify themselves, not the way someone else experiences or classifies their body. A transgender man is no less a man than a cisgender man; a transgender woman is no less a woman than a cisgender woman.
• Avoid the use of transphobic slurs like "tranny" and "shemale." These terms are oppressive, objectifying, and dehumanizing.
• Even if you have objections to a person's transgender identity, you should always respect the person and never willfully embarrass them publicly. Embarrassing or humiliating the person does no good for anyone.This situation could also become unsafe for the transgender person.
• "Intersex" is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive and/or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male, ^[3] While some intersex people are also transgender, the two are not the same and should not be conflated. ^[4]
• Be very careful when referring to someone's transgender identity as a "choice". Gender dysphoria is certainly not a choice by its very definition^[5]. Some transgender people describe their identity as a choice, and some do not. For some, the "choice" was to fix their body to match their mind. Find ways to respect a person's identity that don't hinge on whether or not they can "help it".

It Has Nothing To Do With The War. Really.

According to data obtained by the Associated Press, the number of officers forced out of the Army due to misconduct has more than tripled in the past three years.  In the meantime, the number of enlistees who left the Army under similar circumstances has nearly doubled.

Increases in both categories, though not quite as dramatic, were also reported in the Navy and Air Force.  

I am writing about this issue because some of those officers and enlisted personnel resigned, whether on their own accord or under duress, after being charged with sexual assualt.

General Ray Odierno, the Army's top officer, admitted that his branch of the Armed Forces sometimes "overlooked character issues" as it struggled to recruit as many men and women as it needed to fight twelve years of war on two different fronts.  Because of those difficulties, many soldiers and officers were repeatedly re-deployed, which may have pushed some whose stability and sanity were already questionable over the edge.

While General Odierno couched his criticisms in bureaucratic language, as people in positions like his are wont to do, he was at least more forthright than Army General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He insisted, "It is not the war that caused this". 

Oh, really?

So you mean to tell us that war doesn't hype up a military culture based on male domination enforced by violence?  Or that the promotions many female enlistees and officers have earned couldn't have stirred up the resentment of male recruits with borderline personalities?

I also can't help but to feel that in our invasion of Iraq, and our attempt to do the same in Afghanistan, our "enemies"--which is to say, anyone who is or seems as if he or she could be from those countries or any that surround them--have been demonized and even dehumanized in ways that our foes in previous wars never were.  Some of that had to do with the events of 11 September 2011, to be sure. But I think there's also some pure-and-simple bigotry at play:  Germans, Russians and even Japanese never seemed to evoke the visceral hatred too many of my compatriots express at the mere thought of someone who's Middle Eastern or Muslim.

And, of course, when you look closely at racism--or, for that matter, any other form of bigotry--the object of one's hatred is always seen as someone to be sexually subjugated. That is the reason why racism and other kinds of hatred are so intertwined with sexism, homophobia and transphobia.  It's also the reason why there are women--particularly in the ranks of officers--who have behaved just as badly as men:  They know that to survive in such an atmosphere of male domination and repression, the have to behave like such men. 

In brief, as long as there is war--especially if the same people are deployed over and over again to fight it--some of those people will turn on each other.  And, in an atmosphere of brutality and domination, sex will be one of the weapons.

The Company Cathy Brennan Keeps

What do Paula Deen, John Galliano, Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Charles Murray and Cathy Brennan have in common?

After very public expressions of bias against people different from themselves, all of them claimed they aren't bigots.  

The chief difference between them is the kinds of bigotry they denied.  Dean, Richards and Murray claimed not to have hatred toward those whose skins are darker than theirs.  Galliano and Gibson claimed they harbor no prejudice against adherents to the religion borne of the prophet Moses, or their descendants.  And the estimable Ms. Brennan claims she has no beef with transgender people.

In addition to their undeniable loathing of those who make the world uncomfortable for heterosexual cisgender Aryans, there are other commonalities in the ways in which they "outed" themselves, then denied what they wittingly or unwittingly revealed.

Their scenarios all went something like this:  Someone caught them making (or, in Murray's case, implying) a slur against some group of people.  Then they made public "apologies" laced with self-pity over their perceived victimhood--and, of course, denials that they are bigoted.  Some blame alcohol or drugs.  Others use coded language--or, in Murray's case, out-of-context statistics--to say, in essence, that there is some truth in stereotypes.

Really, they are no different from religious bigots who couch their homophobia in  claims that they "love the sinner, hate the sin"--or who quote any number of Bible verses, not only out of context, but also in translation.  You know, the sorts of folks who, as soon as the tables from their prayer breakfasts are folded, change the topic from how God hates the sin to how obnoxious the sinners are when they publicly kiss their same-sex partners.

(At least Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers have the integrity, if you can call it that, to say "God hates fags" whether or not they are in their pews or at the pulpit.)

If you don't believe that Ms. Brennan is transphobic, look at the statement she and Elizabeth Hungerford wrote and tendered to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in August, 2011.   To me, it reads like the "bathroom" argument on steroids.  The irony is, of course, that their statement ultimately disempowers women--including those they define as "real" women--by reducing them to their urinary and sexual organs, as well as to a particular body function most have from the time they're adolecents until they reach middle age.  It also makes the unbelievable assumption that all men are not only capable of impregnating women, but would use that ability to coerce women to their will.

Yet they--like all of the other "second wave" feminists and RadFem ideologues--fail to cite even a single case in which a pre-operative transgender woman raped, let alone impregnated, a cisgender woman in a bathroom.  Moreover, they claim that trans women have experienced the same sort of male privilege as cisgender men and have not suffered from prejudice, or even violence, for not fitting societal stereotypes of males.  

But, in at least one way, Brennan--and Hungerford--are even more mean-spirited than the other bigots I've mentioned.  They submitted their statement moments before the submissions deadline, which prevented trans people or our allies to responding to their misinformation and hateful rhetoric before a UN assembly.

That makes them bullies, pure and simple.

Worst of all, Brennan's behavior continues to amplify her hatred which, I believe, is an expression of resentment.  She's now doing the bidding of the Pacific Justice Institute, a misnamed group if there ever was one.  The PJI is making up, and using Brennan to circulate, stories of trans women attacking "real" women in bathrooms and locker rooms.   Oh, but it gets even better:  PJI staff attorney Matthew McReynolds has asserted that in merely entering a women's facility, a trans woman is committing assault.  On that basis, he, Brennan and transphobic feminists want to prevent states and municipalities from enacting policies that would allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of the gender in which they identify and spare many from harassment, violence and worse.

So...a high-profile bigot and bully is helping the cause of a group of bigots and bullies.  How much lower can someone go than that?  How much more proof do we need that Cathy Brennan is just as bigoted as Strom Thurmond ever was.

 

Gandhi's Seven Sins

Today I came across something that seems at least somewhat related to yesterday's post about Lincoln and Darwin.

You may be familiar with Gandhi's Seven Sins:

1. Wealth without work.

2. Pleasure without conscience.

3. Knowledge without character.

4. Commerce without morality.

5. Science without humanity.

6.  Worship without sacrifice.

7.  Politics without principle .

The Origins Of Emancipation

Today I learned something interesting. 

If you live in the USA, you know that it’s Lincoln’s birthday.  Some argue he was this country’s greatest President:  He led the nation in the Civil War after several southern states seceded from the Union, and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed (but did not end) slavery.

Until I was in high school, the anniversary of his birth was a national holiday.  Schools, banks and other institutions were closed.  The same thing happened on the 22^nd, George Washington’s birthday.  In the 1970’s, the two holidays were folded into one Monday observance known as President’s Day.  However, Lincoln’s Birthday is still observed in New York State.

But I digress.  Today I learned that someone else who changed the world at least as much as Lincoln did was born on this date.  What’s more, he was born in the same year.

The 12^th of February in 1809 witnessed the birth of Lincoln—and Charles Darwin.  As far as I know, the two men never met.  Darwin may have been aware of what Lincoln was doing in office, but I suspect that Lincoln was not aware of Darwin’s work.  Somehow I imagine that had “Abe” read The Origins of the Species, he would have understood its worth and necessity.

In my own uninformed opinion, Lincoln would not have been a “social Darwinist.”  The funny thing is that Darwin himself wasn’t one.  In his writings, he actually said that species, including humans, have to cooperate and even act altruistically in order to adapt and survive.  That leads me to believe that most of those who talk about “survival of the fittest” (a phrase Darwin himself never used until Herbert Spencer coined it) have never read Darwin’s classic work:  They probably learned nothing more than the comic-book summary most kids learn when they’re in junior high school. (At least, that’s when we learned it in my day.)  In my own admittedly amateur reading of Origin, it is a specie’s ability to adapt and reproduce, not its ruthlessness, that determines its survival.

Now you might wonder where this leaves LGBT people.  From my own unbiased ;-) observation, we can adapt to conditions, whether through confrontation or cooperation.  Plus, I think that we have at least our share of altruism:  We are represented disproportionately in the “helping” professions and among paid workers and volunteers for organizations and causes that promote social and economic justice.

So, I think it’s appropriate for us to celebrate this day, the anniversary of the birth of two people who made the world in which we live—and the means we have to improve our lot—possible.

Retreat, But Not Retreating Fom

Over the past few days, I managed to be busy and not do anything at all.

Today was a busy day.  So was yesterday.  Friday, too—most of it, anyway.  In between, I got nothing done.

All right, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.  But I managed not to do anything work-related—at least, according to the ways most of us define work.  I also managed to remain offline.

You see, I traveled about 100 km up the Hudson River from this city for a retreat.  The beauty of the place or the opportunity to be offline would have been reason enough to make the trip—which I hope to make again some day, on my bike.

The most important reason to go on such an excursion, though, is to nourish the spirit and to draw closer to the Infinite, the Divine Power or whatever you want to call him/her/it.  I have said in previous posts, and in other venues, that my journey from living as a man to life as the woman I am has been, above all, spiritual. 

Five other people—members of the church I’ve been attending—and our guide, the church’s rector, would probably give similar reasons for undergoing such an experience.  We talked, reflected, prayed, read, studied and ate together.  And there were long periods of silence.  The real point of the latter, of course, is not simply not to talk.  It’s also about quietude—peace, if you will, of the mind and spirit—or, at any rate, freedom from the distractions that we regard as parts of a “normal life”.

The experience wasn’t just “good for me”:  I actually enjoyed it.  In fact, I remained offline yesterday.  It’s hard for me to believe that three days offline could be such an accomplishment, especially when I considered that it was how I lived my life every day until I was 41 years old.  (Of course, when I was very young, there were no cell phones or personal computers.) I hope to go on another such retreat in the near future.  If time and the weather permit, I’ll even ride my bike there.

Petition: Drop Charges Against Trans Girl Who Defended Herself

It's bad enough that we're bullied as kids--and, sometimes, as adults.  Sometimes the bullying is physical.  

Apparently, it's not OK to defend ourselves:


https://www.change.org/petitions/drop-charges-against-transgender-teen-defending-herself

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Trannie Kills Baby!

The death of a small child is, of course, a tragedy.  It's all the worse when the child died in some brutal, painful way--particularly if he or she was abused by someone who was trusted to care for him or her.

Such is the story of Myls Dobson, a four-year-old boy found dead in a Manhattan apartment a month ago.  Shortly thereafter, Janaie Jones--his babysitter--was arrested and charged with his murder.

The police weren't sure who his legal guardian was:  His mother lost custody of him, which was granted to his father, who was in a New Jersey prison at the time of Myls' death.

Aside from the boy's death, the facts in the previous paragraph are--to me, anyway--the saddest part of this case.  However, those details have been, for the most part, lost in what has passed for reporting on his case.

Every story I've read in print or online, or heard over the radio, regarding Myls' death has led off with this:  The babysitter is transgendered.

She was born in Jamaica as Christopher Jones and, since coming to New York, has worked as a performer under the name Kryzie King.  Little else is known about her, except that she was, apparently, the girlfriend of the boy's father.

In the month that has elapsed since they found Myls' battered body in a bathtub, I have heard almost nothing else about him, his parents or the case.  Moreover, about all I know, to this day, is that Janaie Jones/Kryzie King was a transgender performer.  And all almost anybody else knows is that she's a transgender who killed a child--which, in many people's minds, makes the incident all the more lurid and sensational.

On Ice

I didn't ride my bike to work today. In fact, I'm not riding at all.

Blasphemy, you say.

Well, I took one look out my window and saw ice everywhere. Not just patches; I think the sidewalk in front of my place was the beginning of the Great Queens Glacier. At least the light was interesting:

Forgetful Snow

Snow is falling.  At least, that's what the official weather reports say.

It's really more like white slush.  But, I'll admit it looks pretty until it hits the ground.  

Interestingly, it looks more snow-like when it clings to tree branches.

In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot wrote, "Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow."  It's not hard to see what he meant:  For a moment, I can actually forget that leaves have died and fallen from that tree.

I also can forget, for a moment, that one day this tree, and the one in the first photo, will be green again.  Or, at any rate, I have--however temporarily--no need to remember that. 

Chris Kluwe Didn't Punt On His Principles

You get laid off from a job or your contract isn't renewed. That, in spite of your excellent performance and evaluations.  

You feel--understandably--upset and frustrated, perhaps even angry.  But you can explain it to yourself, at least somewhat:  The economy is bad. Earnings are down.  Enrollment dropped.  The company or organization is changing its focus.  Or some new owners or management team want to bring in "their people". 

However, if you're transgender/transsexual or, for that matter, lesbian or gay--or are even suspected of being so or merely sympathising too much with us--you can't help but to wonder whether your identity has something to do with the fact that today you don't have a job you had yesterday.

Sometimes you just know it's true. And, when you say as much--or merely raise the question--you're accused of being "too sensitive" or "paranoid", or of wanting "special treatment".

Chris Kluwe finds himself in the situation I've described.  For eught seasons, as a member of the Minnesota Vikings, he was one of the best punters in the NFL. A self-described libertarian, he spoke and wrote against a proposed Marriage Amendment in Minnesota which, essentially, would have defined a marriage as a union between a man and a woman and specified the rights that pertain to such a relationship. He also voiced support for same-sex marriage although he is married to the women who has borne his two children.

Kluwe also wrote a letter to Maryland assembly member Emmet Burns, in which he defended Baltimore Ravens' linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo's right to speak up for LGBT rights.

As per the request of the Vikings' owner, he always made it clear that he was expressing his views as a private citizen and not as a representative of the Vikings' organization.  Still, it was apparently too much for his coaches, one of whom openly expressed his homophobia.   

Kluwe, to his credit, didn't let the slurs slip by.  And, as he relates in an article he wrote for Deadspin, it probably led to his release from the Vikings.

Not so long ago, it would have seemed preposterous to use "NFL" and "LGBT rights" in the same sentence.  Thankfully, the situation is changing.  But, as the experiences of Kluwe and Ayanbadejo show, there's still a long way to today, as Super Bowl XLVIII is to be played.

What Happened To Nizah Morris?

Back in the days of the Civil Rights movement, it was not uncommon--especially in places like Alabama and Georgia--for police officers to offer "courtesy" rides to African-Americans who "appeared" to be "inebriated" or who "seemed" to be in "distress."

That would sound benevolent had some of said African-Americans not mysteriously died while in custody, or simply disappeared.  

Apparently, similar things still happen, and not only to African-Americans, and not only in the Deep South.

Three days before Christmas in 2002, transgender woman Nizah Morris died in a Philadelphia hospital from a subdural hematoma, the result of traumatic blows to her head.

Morris had been out drinking when a concerned bar patron called an ambulance for her.  She turned down the opportunity to go to the emergency room and instead accepted a courtesy ride from Philadelphia police officer Elizabeth Skala.     

Morris never made it home.  Skala claims that Morris asked her to drop her off at a corner two minutes away from the bar where she'd been drinking--but 45 minutes from her apartment.  A minute after Skala left her at the corner of Chancellor and South Juniper Streets, a motorist (according to his testimony) found Morris, naked from the waist up and bleeding from her head, lying on the street. 

Now, here's where things get interesting. 

 Another witness reports having seen her body on the street fifteen minutes later and a police officer pulling a jacket over her face as her body was loaded into the ambulance.  The ambulance attendants said they loaded her body at the same time--3:30 a.m.--the first witness (the motorist) claims to have found it.  The officer on the scene says the ambulance didn't depart until 3:45.

If these accounts are even remotely accurate, why was there such a delay in embarking for the hospital?  And why did the officer pull the jacket over Morris's face as if she were already dead?  Finally, why wasn't the police report released until 2011--nearly a decade after Ms. Morris' death?  And why did it take a freedom-of-information request from Philadelphia Gay News to make that document see the light of day?

Are you surprised to learn that her family thinks the police murdered her?  

I agree with them.  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like.  But I've found that people who so label other people have not--or don't want to admit that they have--been subjected to abuses of power.  I know:  I was once such a person.  

Whether I'm proved right or wrong, I hope that the true story of Nizah Morris's death is disclosed, and that her family finds the peace she didn't have in those last moments of her life.

(Thanks, again, to Kelli Busey of Planetransgender.)

 

Out Of The Mists Of The Past

 This may not seem related to gender or LGBT issues, let alone my experience with them.  However, it has to do with the city I have called home for so long and whose history has always fascinated me..

Also, urban mass transportation systems have always interested me. Perhaps those are the reasons I found this photo irresistible and was thinking of an excuse to post it here:

This train is entering the New Lots Avenue station on the Canarsie Line (now the "L" train) of the New York City subway system.  From the light and the condition of the trees, I'd guess it's from early spring.  And, from the style of train cars, I can tell you that this undated photo was probably taken some time before the early 1970's, as these cars were "retired" by that time.

You can find this photo, and more, on www.nycsubway.org. (Note:  The site is not affiliated with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.)