Night Off

I need a break for at least one night. I’ll post something tomorrow.

AGs Want to Strip Transgender Anti-Discrimination Protection | News Blog

AGs Want to Strip Transgender Anti-Discrimination Protection | News Blog:

Tennessee’s chief law enforcement official wants to make it easier for employers to fire employees because of their gender identity.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in March that transgender status was protected in federal anti-discrimination law. Title VII says only that an employee can’t be fired “because of sex.”

But the court counted gender identity among Title VII’s protections in a Michigan case, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. RG & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc.

A little less conversation, a little more close reading please: on D’Angelo and Marchiano’s…

A little less conversation, a little more close reading please: on D’Angelo and Marchiano’s…:

Lisa Littman’s study on rapid-onset gender dysphoria, initially published as a poster abstract in the Journal of Adolescent Health, recently came out in full-form in PLoS ONE. The article is making waves, because it purports to show the existence of a new developmental pathway for gender dysphoria, termed rapid-onset gender dysphoria, which would be distinct from traditional presentations of late-onset gender dysphoria and raise doubts as to the appropriateness of gender-affirmative care for a significant subset of transgender teenagers and young adults.

Ouchie

Twisted my hip today trying to fix one of our kitchen chairs 😱

Now it hurts if I move around or sit too long.

Everything You Need to Know About Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria

Everything You Need to Know About Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria:

“Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD) also seems science-ish on the surface. After all, it’s a four-word technical-sounding term — seriously, who but scientists would have come up with such an esoteric-sounding name?! And I can easily imagine how laypeople who may have come across this term in The Globe and Mail, National Post, or National Review (all of which have recently published ROGD op-eds) might mistake this for an authentic medical condition or diagnosis, even though it is not rooted in actual science.

An Honest Conversation

There seems to be a constant discussion from certain quarters regarding someone de-transitioning or discontinuing their transition. Possibilities of regret. The unquestioned threats of rejection, ostentation, violence, even death.

Looking in from the outside there seems to be little incentive to be Transgender at all, never mind trying to live an honest, authentic life every day. Of course, when you find yourself looking the other direction you understand it isn’t a decision made lightly. There is nothing spur of the moment. Every step is taken only after long deliberation, sometimes to the point of a physical pain. Only after there are no more questions except if you’re going to live or die.

These thoughts and so many more have filled my waking hours and restless dreams for a long time. Sometimes they are little more than whispers, others they are the screaming winds of the storms which threaten to tear me to pieces. I have made every excuse, listened to more opinions than I can count. I have read the articles and buried myself in hateful comments looking to embrace the condemnation, the hate, the spite hoping they would finally break me and thereby set me free. Here, in the end, I am once again left facing myself, stripped bare with no where left to hide.

Do you know what I have found?

The truth.

It doesn’t matter how much I try to deny myself, the truth always rises to the surface. Time and time again I have tried to convince myself I could maintain a masquerade, that I could continue simply surviving from one day to the next while fooling those around me into believing I was fine when I was anything but. Of course it never worked regardless of what I told myself.

The wrong name or pronouns became like physical blows. My dysphoria a constant blade cutting to the depths of my soul. Going out lead to my becoming hyper aware of everything. The feeling of my clothing, the movement of my hair, the stride of my walk, the tone of my voice. Everything is wrong and it feels as though anyone who sees me is either whispering or laughing. All things which disappear when I’m in the world as my authentic self.

It’s not a costume or a lie or a deception. It is me finally being honest with myself and the world.

Equality Illinois’ Response to Column Denigrating Transgender Peoples’ Experience « Equality Illinois

Equality Illinois’ Response to Column Denigrating Transgender Peoples’ Experience « Equality Illinois:

On August 16, 2018, the Chicago Sun-Times published a column by Mona Charen, a nationally syndicated columnist, that denigrated the experiences of and belittled the challenges facing transgender people in society. Mike Ziri, Director of Public Policy at Equality Illinois, submitted the following letter to the editor in response to the column: