Category: Gender Identity

Religious Colleges Obtain Waivers to Law That Protects Transgender Students – The New York Times

Religious Colleges Obtain Waivers to Law That Protects Transgender Students – The New York Times:

“More than two dozen religiously affiliated colleges and universities across the United States have received exemptions from the federal civil rights protections provided under Title IX since 2014, documents show, waivers that activists said allow them to discriminate against students and employees on the basis of categories like sexual orientation and gender identity.”

(Via.)

Mummy, what does cisgender mean? – Macleans.ca

Mummy, what does cisgender mean? – Macleans.ca:

“Silverberg is posing big questions at a crucial time. In the age of Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce) and Orange is The New Black’s trans star, Laverne Cox, trans awareness is slowly filtering down to younger ages; Stealth, the story of a 12-year-old transgender girl, screened this year at the TIFF Kids Film Festival. This week TLC launched I Am Jazz, a show starring 14-year-old transgender activist and author Jazz Jennings.”

(Via. Macleans)

Illinois House passes conversion therapy ban, moves to Senate

(As much as I acknowledge this as an important issue for LGB youth, I find I am disappointed to see “Gender Identity” being used interchangeably with “Sexual Orientation.” I see this as an example of the continued confusion one finds when talking about “Trans” issues.)

 

Illinois House passes conversion therapy ban, moves to Senate:

“Springfield, IL — A bipartisan Illinois House majority on Tuesday approved a measure to protects minors from anti-gay ‘conversion therapy.’  “

(Via. Chicago Pride)

 

Court Rules That Affordable Care Act Bans Gender Identity Discrimination | Human Rights Campaign

Court Rules That Affordable Care Act Bans Gender Identity Discrimination | Human Rights Campaign:

“LGBT advocates are cheering a court ruling this week that has important implications for transgender people seeking competent and appropriate healthcare.  A federal district court in Minnesota confirmed that a section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)  specifically prohibits gender identity discrimination in healthcare under the umbrella of sex discrimination.  “

(Via. hrc.org)

Gender Reassignment

From the Illinois Department of Public Health:

Gender Reassignment

An individual born in Illinois, with an existing Illinois birth record, may submit an application to the Department requesting to have the gender changed on his or her own birth record after undergoing an operation(s) having the effect of reflecting, enhancing, changing, reassigning or otherwise affecting gender. Genital reconstructive surgery is not required to obtain a change in the sex designation on an existing Illinois birth certificate. (emphasis mine.)

Every individual must complete the “Affidavit for a New Birth Certificate After Completion of Gender Reassignment”. The applicant must be of legal age or the parent/co-parent or guardian if not of legal age. This form must be completed in its entirety and notarized.

For individuals who have had an operation(s) in the United States, the “Affidavit by Physician After Completion of Gender Reassignment” must be completed by the physician who performed the operation(s). This form must be completed in its entirety and notarized.

For individuals who have had an operation(s) outside of the United States, the “Affidavit by Physician Verifying Completion of Gender Reassignment Operation” must be completed by an examining physician duly licensed to practice medicine in Illinois or any other state in the United States. This form can also be used if the physician who performed the operation is no longer practicing, is unavailable or his/her license has been revoked or expired. This form must be completed in its entirety and notarized.

For individuals seeking to also have their name changed, a certified copy of the Court Order of Legal Name Change must also be submitted to this office.

The $15 fee to create a new birth record due to gender reassignment includes one certified copy of the new birth record. Additional copies of the same record requested at the same time are $2 each. Please make check or money order payable to the “Illinois Department of Public Health” and send everything to:

Illinois Department of Public Health Division of Vital Records 925 East Ridgely Ave. Springfield, IL 62702-2737  

Please include a copy of your non-expired, government issued photo identification card. If not provided, unreadable or expired, the request will be returned to the individual.


(I need to check, but it seems if I get breast implants, it should be enough to meet the requirements.)

 

A name change is another matter and I will post more information when I’ve researched it more. It does seem the process is the same for everyone, even if you choose a name opposite of your current gender markers.

 

Another issue is going to be insurance. We go through A’s workplace for our health insurance and I wasn’t even thinking what might happen if I change my birth certificate. She will need to see what if anything might change. Of course our marriage would remain valid even if IL hadn’t approved same sex marriage because we were opposite genders at the time of our marriage. Still, it’s good to know it is no longer an issue.

Conservative group considers petition drive on Md. transgender protections legislation – The Washington Post

Conservative group considers petition drive on Md. transgender protections legislation – The Washington Post: “”

(Via. The Washington Post)

Unexpected

(I’m sorry to have to mention a warning with this post, I certainly hope my words are soft enough to not become a trigger for anyone, but the possibility exists. So I am adding a trigger warning for suicide.)

 

Sometimes life goes a step further than we expect.

 

From the beginning I was surprised and yes, a little worried, about the seeming lack of pressure on me to change things sooner than I was. (It is true I kept things going as slow as possible to give my partner and children a chance to adjust, yet there was more to it. Every step has been filled with a combination of fear and guilt. I sometimes think overcoming them has been the most difficult part and will be a part of my life in one form or another from here on out).

I have, sometimes to my surprise, found myself pushing beyond anything I believed possible even a few months ago. There always seems to come a point where trying to stay or stop is simply impossible. Whatever fears I have don’t disappear, yet they become less significant compared to my need to take another step. The same has happened now, only it is going further than I expected…

At first I thought to slam on the breaks, to refuse to take the final step through a door I knew was going to shut behind me forever. There was fear, I will not deny it, but more than that was guilt. An oceans worth of guilt and the belief I never deserved to be in a position to be truly happy. In many ways it has taken more strength than I realized to overcome them this time, but at the same time there was never really a question I would do so because there simply wasn’t any other choice I could make…

Well, I suppose that isn’t entirely true…

Not so long ago I told Jodi there were options I had long held onto which needed to be taken off the table; then last week I realized they were still very much in play… I hesitate to talk about this…

As I stood outside one night looking at the few stars which cut though the lights of the city and from them to the overlapping shadows which turn the world into shades of black; I remembered the times in my youth when I would send all night out walking. My mind in an endless cycle of chaotic thoughts and emotions and wanting more than anything to be swallowed by the night. To simply pass into shadow to never return.

With this came a realization, all options were still on the table. Stopping. Going back. De-transitioning…. Everything…. Including simply ending it here and now. After all, I have long felt as though I have been living on borrowed time.

It became bad enough I started to fantasize about how I would do it. Pills again or maybe an insulin overdose. I even considered eating a bullet… Not a very good time for me to say the least but it did lead me to finally speaking to A about things… just not the suicide part…

It was only through speaking to her and understanding there really wasn’t a choice to be made; that it was step through the door or die never knowing what was on the other side.

I knew I wanted to live. As much as it may hurt sometimes, I want to live.

So I took a step.

Here is where I come to the ‘Sometimes life goes a step further than we expect’  statement. 

You see, today I thought we were going to take our youngest with us shopping. Knowing this has caused issues before, I decided to go out “Plain Jane”. 

The longer I was out the more bothered I became. It was my voice first, then my chest and finally everything together. It was an itchy feeling of wrongness, almost like the feeling you get when you think someone is watching you even when they’re not.

It didn’t take very long to admit I’m not going to be able to have lazy days, where I just throw on whatever and head out the door. There isn’t really going to be any more acting as if I’m like everyone else. 

So it is I find myself stepping further into a new phase of my life… just a little faster than I expected.

A Work In Progress

Fair warning, I didn’t have therapy today so I’m going to use this post as a surrogate.

 

Alright, this past week has been trying, confusing, upsetting, and any other adjectives you can tack on, most of which is my own fault. As I so often do, I have been overthinking things and searching for the worst possible reasons behind everything. I have said before I think things into a total mush which I then shape into something I can use to punish myself… It really is something I have to come to terms with, I’m just not sure how to do so yet.

There is also another issue, which is trying to take responsibility for the feelings of those around me. Thinking somehow it is my fault for any negative feelings anyone around me might be feeling. It is even worse when the people in question are loved ones.

This is something I spoke to A about and she pointed out a lot of this stems from my mother constantly seeking to blame me for anything and everything and making me feel as if I can never be good enough for praise of any type. I know this sounds almost Freudian, but it is also true.

I guess having lived so much of my life under a cloud of disappointment, both silent and spoken is a legacy I am still dealing with.

Then there is another issue, which she told me is all part of our “work in progress,” which is our relationship… 

I mentioned before, she is not comfortable with certain things, especially referring to me as Kira because in doing so she cannot see me as her husband… Yet such is a title I have long felt didn’t describe me. Not in the sense she, or most people, think of it. I am and wish to remain, her partner. For us to continue having a meaningful relationship… I just don’t think it can be in a traditional sense of marriage… This then leaves me, in my mind at least, in a form of limbo. If I cannot claim the title of husband, nor of wife, then what am I? 

I simply don’t know yet and it makes things difficult to say the least.

For A, she thinks of it in the same way as my relationship with the kids. I have told them over and over, no matter what, I am still “Dad.” I guess for her, no matter what I will be her “husband.” Unless I were to physically transition as well… 

This past week I slammed on the breaks, such as it were… again. I made no effort to present as other than male. It wasn’t a matter of punishing myself, but rather, of thinking if as someone pointed out, someone was going to get hurt; I would rather it be me… After all, I’m use to living in such a manner; I’ve done so for more years than I want to remember. I honestly didn’t think of in the terms of martyrdom, just as being something which I was use to. Not surprisingly, A didn’t see it the same way. As she said, trying to be something I’m not turns me into someone she doesn’t like very much and if it happened again she was going to beat some sense into me because she wasn’t going to put up with it.

So, after our talk there was no question but I am going to continue forward. The path ahead my not be more than a fuzzy outline lost in the fog of uncertainty, yet it the path I need to take. As for how we, A and I, deal with our relationship… well, one day at a time.

It is after all, a work in progress

What “The Church” Thinks Of Transgender Equality

In this case, “The Church” means the Catholic Church in Europe, though I see no reason to think other arms of the Church don’t follow the same thoughts and teachings as the Pope himself has said the same thing on at least one occasion and can therefore be taken as the official stand of the entire Catholic Church.

Bishops attack dangerous “Gender” ideologyand redefinition of marriage.And from where else? Polonia Semper Catholica

(This is copied and pasted directly from http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/, where the entire English translation has been posted. And yes, I did so without their knowledge or consent.)

 

Pastoral letter 

of the Bishops’ Conference of Poland 

Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers!

As each year in the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord, we are celebrating the Sunday of the Holy Family [according to the Calendar of Paul VI]. Our thoughts go to our families as we contemplate the situation of the modern-day family. Today’s Gospel tells us that in difficult and unclear situations, the Family of Nazareth tried to understand and fulfil God’s will and by so doing came out renewed of such situations. This behaviour tells us that today like in the past, obeying God and His sometimes impenetrable will guarantees family happiness.

[MARRIAGE AND HUMAN NATURE]

Blessed John Paul II, whose canonisation we are now awaiting, recalls that the truth about the institution of marriage “is above the will of individuals, the whims of particular marriages, as well as decisions of social and government bodies” (23.02.1980). This truth comes from God, for “God himself is the author of marriage” (GS, #48). God created the human being as a man and a woman and made the existence – in flesh and in spirit – of a man “for” a woman and a woman “for” a man a great and irreplaceable gift and task of married life. God based the family on the foundation of marriage joined for life by the unbreakable and exclusive bond of love. He decided that such family will be a suitable environment for bringing up children that the family gives life to and ensures their material and spiritual development.

This Christian vision is not an arbitrarily imposed norm; it transpires from an interpretation of the human nature, the nature of marriage and the family. Non-acceptance of this vision inevitably leads to the break-up of families and the defeat of the human being. The history of humanity has demonstrated that disregarding the Creator is always perilous and threatens a man’s and the world’s happy future. Hence attempts to impose a different definition of marriage and the family on us by supporters of the gender ideology, among others, that we hear in some media must raise the highest concern. Confronted with increasing attacks against different aspects of family and social life coming from this ideology, we are compelled to speak out clearly in defence of the Christian family and the fundamental values that support it, on the one hand, and, on the other, to warn against threats stemming from propagating new forms of family life.

[“GENDER” IDEOLOGY AND CULTURAL MARXISM]

 
The gender ideology is the product of many decades of ideological and cultural changes that are deeply rooted in Marxism and neo-Marxism endorsed by some feminist movements and the sexual revolution. This ideology promotes principles that are totally contrary to reality and an integral understanding of human nature. It maintains that biological sex is not socially significant and that cultural sex which humans can freely develop and determine irrespective of biological conditions is most important. According to this ideology, humans can freely determine whether they want to be men or women and freely choose their sexual orientation. This voluntary self-determination, not necessarily life-long, is to make the society accept the right to set up new types of families, for instance, families built on homosexual relations.

The danger of gender ideology lies in its very destructive character both for men, people contacts and social life as a whole. Humans unsure of their sexual identity are not capable of discovering and fulfilling tasks that they face in their marital, family social and professional lives. Attempts to form different types of relations de facto seriously weaken marriage as a community created by a man and a woman and the family built on marriage.

We see different attitudes formed in reaction to actions demonstrated by advocates of the gender ideology. A decisive majority has no idea what this ideology is about and consequently does not feel threatened by it. A small group of people, particularly teachers and educators, as well as Catechists and pastoral ministers, tries to find their own constructive ways to counter this ideology. Finally there are those who, seeing the absurdity of this ideology, believe that Poles will reject the utopian visions they are presented with. Meanwhile, without public knowledge or Poles’ consent for many months now the gender ideology has been slowly introduced into different structures of social life: education, health service, cultural and education centres and non-governmental organisations. Some media portray this ideology in a positive way: as a means to counteract violence and to aim for equality.

[HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITIES DEEPLY DISORDERED – MARRIAGE CANNOT BE COMPARED TO HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIP]

The community of the Church advocates an integral view of man and his sex, recognising his flesh/biological, mental/cultural and spiritual dimensions. There is nothing wrong with research on the impact of culture on sex. What is dangerous, however, is to argue on the basis of ideology that biological sex has no* significance in social life. The Church unequivocally opposes discrimination on the grounds of sex, but at the same time recognises the danger of eliminating the differences existing in the sexes. The fact that there exist two sexes is not the source of discrimination; it is the lack of a spiritual reference, human selfishness and pride that need to be continually overcome. The Church will never agree to debasing persons with a homosexual inclination, but at the same time it strongly underscores that homosexual activity is profoundly disorderly and that marriage as a community of a man and a woman as a social phenomenon cannot be put on par with a homosexual relationship.

On the feast of the Holy Family we fervently appeal to Christian families, representatives of religious movements and Church associations and to all people of good-will to courageously engage in actions that will disseminate the truth about marriage and the family. The need for education in the formative environment is now greater than ever before.

We also appeal to institutions responsible for Polish education not to yield under pressure from the few but very loud groups with not inconsiderable financial resources, which in the name of modern education carry out experiments on children and young people. We call on educational institutions to engage in the promotion of an integral vision of man.

We ask all faithful for their impassioned prayer in the intention of marriages, families and the children they are bringing up. We ask the Holy Spirit for continuous light to let us understand and see the truth in what amounts to a danger and a threat not only to the family, but also to our Homeland and humankind. Let us also pray for the courage of being people of faith and courageous defenders of the Truth. May the Holy Family of Nazareth that brought up God’s Son Jesus Christ be our model to follow and our spiritual assistance in undertaking this effort.

In this spirit we give our pastoral blessing to all.

*minor correction to mirror Polish text.

(Note: All Bold text is from the original.)

 

I think the text speaks for its self. Yes, this is addressed to the Polish Church, but I believe it represents the over all doctrine of the Catholic Church as seen throughout the world today. If I would point out any one thing, it is in the last paragraph, where not only the LGB community but Transgenderism/Transsexualism is considered a danger and a threat not only to the family, but also to our Homeland and humankind.” I cannot see this boding well for anyone who disagrees with this Church doctrine as seen in Russia, Uganda, and Nigeria.