LGBT youth face significant difficulties with discrimination, harassment and lack of family support.
It also happens that they face more harassment online–a place where many youth go to feel as if they’re more part of a community, receive support, medical information, and other opportunities . One study by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) found that LGBT youth faced cyber bullying three times more than non-LGBT youth. The study points out that those living in more rural areas experience even higher levels of harassment online and shows that 42 percent of LGBT youth face a higher level of online bullying, compared to 15 percent of those who are straight/cisgender. Part of the study resulted in findings that show LGBT youth were twice as likely to report bullying through text messages.
This study, called “Out Online: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth on the Internet”, included results from a national survey which included 5,680 middle and high school students, grades 6-12. It was found that lower grade point average and self-esteem, and a higher chance of depression were linked to youth affected by bullying.
Dr. Eliza Byard, GLSEN’s Executive Director said, “LGBT youth continue to face extraordinary obstacles in their day-to-day lives whether at school or online, but the Internet can be a valuable source of information and support when they have no one or nowhere else left to turn to. As social media evolve, so must our efforts to serve LGBT youth to ensure their safety, health and well-being.”
It is important for LGBT youth to have access to resources available on the Internet that they either would not be able to find elsewhere, or that they don’t feel comfortable seeking offline. For example, this study shows that LGBT youth (particularly those who are transgender) are twice as likely to look up medical information online than their straight/cisgender peers. It is vital that LGBT youth know they have a safe place to be themselves online, especially if they don’t feel that support elsewhere.
It is a rare disease, but anal cancer does exist and deserves our attention.
The cases of anal cancer are a lot more prevalent in gayand bisexualmen or, “men who have sex with men” (MSM). Unfortunately, most MSM’s have not been tested or know that any screenings are out there, and do not know much, if anything about anal cancer. Medical professionals are actually divided on whether they should even screen for it and how they would do so. Currently, there isn’t any standardized protocol for anal cancer screening.
Facts about anal cancer:
Anal cancer is diagnosed in approximately two out of every 100,000 people in the general population every year.
MSMs who are HIV negative are 20 times more likely to receive an anal cancer diagnosis (about 40 per 100,000 people)
MSMs who are HIV positive are up to 40 times more likely to receive this diagnosis (about 80 per 100,000 people)
The same strains of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that cause cervical cancer in women also cause anal cancer
In MSMs, HPV is transmitted through both protected and unprotected anal intercourse and skin-to-skin contact. HPV is very common– approximately 75 percent of all sexually active adults acquire HPV; not all HPV infections lead to cancer.
A number of men don’t have any apparent symptoms of HPV, but possible symptoms include:
Genital warts affecting the anus, penis and/or peritoneum
Abnormal discharge from the anus
Bleeding from the anus and rectum
Itching of the anus; pain or pressure around the anus
A sore or sores that do not heal, around the anus
Since the cervix and anus are similar, biologically, and both are target areas for HPV infection, a pap smear can be used test the anus for pre-cancerous cell changes and cancer. More and more health activists and gay physicians believe this procedure could reduce the incidence of anal cancer as significantly as it has with cervical cancer in women.
It is recommended by them that all MSMs, especially those who are HIV positive, receive testing every 1 to 3 years, depending on their CD4 count and immunology wellbeing. Their recommendation for HIV negative MSMs is for testing every 3 years. Other physicians don’t believe all MSMs need to be tested due to the small number of cases, facility shortages for follow-up procedures, and the cost, pain and fear of looking at small changes in cells (dysplasia). In addition, the number of insurance policies that would cover pap smears for the anus is low.
Even though the AIDS Institute of New York recommends that HIV positive gay men “and others with history of HPV disease” be tested annually, there appears to be little agreement about the importance and practicality of offering all MSM clients this testing.
The discussion of homophobia and the actual risk of HIV to the population is always a heated debate, but it becomes a muddier and more frustrating topic when words like “men who have sex with men” (MSM) and “bisexual” are used—and these words are used frequently in studies conducted by the Center for Disease control on AIDs and HIV. The statistics on diagnoses of HIV in 2010 indicate that gay, bisexual, or MSM men whom comprise about 2% of the population account for about 63% of diagnoses in the United States. But the word “about” is the confusing part. It is not exactly clear how many of these men are straight men that have engaged in homosexual acts, and perhaps one might wonder if these men are admitting to homosexual behavior because they are seeking treatment for HIV. Are we certain these men were included in the estimated 2%? Most new diagnoses of HIV occur in young men between 13-24 years of age… they comprised a jaw-dropping 72% of the gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV in 2010. Of these individuals, an incredibly large percent of them are African American male youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Their reported sexual orientation is not the reason that they have contracted the disease, but rather a lack of sexual education and resources for gay men and youths is to blame.
HIV is not a consequence of homosexual behavior, but a consequence of risky sexual behavior (and in some cases drug use). Is that what men who have sex with men are doing, inflating the CDC’s estimates of homosexuals and bisexuals with HIV? Perhaps, but not because MSM are given to more wanton sexual behavior. This term can describe a situation where a man is sexually attracted to another man for any number of reasons but still identifies as straight. He isn’t bisexual because he doesn’t judge himself to be bisexual, and from a positive psychological perspective of identity this is what matters. He may think he is only capable of committing to a woman in a romantic way, or he may not feel equally attracted to both sexes, but either way he is not homophobic and in denial of his identity. In all probability these men have diverse sexual habits because of the broad category of relationships it can describe.
Obviously some high-risk sexual behaviors, particularly those occurring between men under the influence of drugs or alcohol, are being thrown into this category of men who have sex with men. These encounters would probably not meet most standards for “romantic” behaviors between men, and it is horribly unfair that they are counted among the estimates for new diagnoses of HIV in gay and bisexual men. The rampant homophobic attitudes that prevent awareness campaigns and resources from being accessed in some communities would like us to think that all gay men are having random encounters. The bitter irony is that this fear-mongering promotes carelessness, especially in younger people who need to be educated on what exactly “high-risk sexual behavior” is.
It’s an unsavory topic, but teenagers are having sex. The academic world has come a long way in its attitude towards homosexuality recently by including LGBT alliance and awareness groups in schools, but we need to take a more aggressive attitude towards sexual education in schools. Sexual education needs to be taught in every classroom, and the earlier that teens get it the better off they are. The LGBT community is not taking up enough time in classroom discussions of sexuality. The education system cannot tiptoe around topics like “men who have sex with men” and “homosexuality”. There is no end to the number of mistakes a teenager can make without appropriate guidance from the education system. We were all there once… we have to be honest with ourselves. Blaming stupidity and thinking that the actions of wayward teens don’t affect us is our right, but the astoundingly high numbers of new HIV diagnoses portray the denial of these youths by our culture—they are parallel minds that we just won’t accept responsibility for. Rather than scapegoating the underprivileged communities that raise them, efforts to raise LGBT awareness need to expand beyond home. Community effort needs to mean national effort and then global effort. Bridging the gap between LGBT communities and underprivileged communities created by HIV is the key to fighting this epidemic. If there is anything you can do, don’t hesitate.
MSM, Gay, and Bisexual Men and HIV Risk: Should the Education System Feel Responsible? Dr. M. Mirza – lgbt health wellness .com – 2014
Rabbi Daniel Asor told his followers in a recent sermon that they should avoid being vaccinated against COVID-19 as doing so could “turn them” into homosexuals, according to Israel Hayom.
The Rabbi shared conspiracy theories with his followers, claiming that the vaccines are manufactured by a “global malicious government,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Daniel Asor’s claimed that the “malicious government” is a mix of “secret societies,” including the Illuminati, and the Freemasons.
The secret societies seek to establish a new order in the world, he claimed.
Israeli media criticized the Rabbi, who urged his followers to not receive the vaccine at the time when other religious authorities ask people around the world to respond favorably to the vaccination campaign.
Several countries received COVID-19 vaccines, including the UK, Saudi Arabia, among other.
Rabbi Daniel Asor’s assertion goes against decrees issued by leading rabbis in Israel and around the world, who have called on ultra-Orthodox society to take every precaution against the global pandemic, including getting vaccinated.
Transsexuality is when a person adopts a different gender identity by not feeling belonging to their assigned gender. Transsexuality refers to a person’s gender identity, so it should not be confused with sexual orientation. A transgender person may have sexual orientations such as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual.
Transgender people, if they wish, can get medical help when making a permanent transition to the gender they define. During this transition period, practices such as hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery aim to adapt their bodies to the gender they are defined.
Transsexuality is seeing and feeling as a different gender in the inner world rather than one’s behavior. Therefore, it is not possible to determine transsexuals by their appearance. Because they do not always reflect on their external appearance that they feel different sex. Unlike transvestism, other than clothing, physical appearance and behavior, some of the transsexuals undergo gender reassignment surgery and switch to different gender socially and legally.
Trans man, The term used for transgender men. It is the name given to people who were born female but identify themselves as male.
Many transgender people share their photos before and after the gender transition process.
I am sharing some of the before and after trans men photos I found on the internet.
Transgender are not uncommon in our societies throughout the world. However, often they fail to attain a respectable and much deserved comfortable life in the world of the two predominant sexes of the society.
Transgender people are present in every country including US, Russia, Mexico, Britain, India, China etc. Yet, societies often discard them as unwanted. In some countries, transgender are allowed to be a part of the society, however, they find it difficult to mix up within the society freely and often they suffer humiliation, discrimination and poverty.
The major issue that a transgender faces is the difficulty in expressing their gender and the related issues. However, in some countries, like India, transgenderare provided a special societal position, they often live in groups and there are some successful transgender in professional and political mainstreams of India.
Yet, except a few successful transgender, the majority of people belonging to this third sex suffer discrimination, humiliation and hatred.
How to Deal with a Transgender?
A man or woman may find it difficult and confusing to mingle with a transgender. The basic problem that you will face is the uncertainty about how to act in the presence of a transgender without doing anything that may hurt their feeling or emotions or may cause them to feel humiliated.
In general, people do not want to hurt them, yet, our general confusion, awkwardness and uncertainty becomes a reason for their humiliation. The Issue of the Gender of a Transgender Officially, only male and female are considered as the two present sexes. Hence, a transgender find it difficult to try to seek proper education, job or official help.
This is because most of the official papers demand gender identity while transgender is not an officially recognized gender while the only two gender identities mentioned in official papers are male or female. In such a situation, a transgender find if forced on them to lie about their gender identity and to present themselves either as a male or a female.
It would be better if government organizations and in fact private corporate firms also try to solve out this issue by either providing valid identification for the third gender as transgender, or by making it optional to declare the sex identity of a person. This issue is pretty similar to the issue of allowing free choice of either to mention someone’s sexual behaviour or not to mention it.
Just like a bisexual or homosexual person finds it difficult to announce his or her personal sexual orientation, a transgender also may find it humiliating to announce about their gender. If you come in contact with a transgender, you should try not to show your confusion about how to react in such a situation.
Use appropriate language while conversing with a transgender and try not to make an issue of “by what gender should they be recognized?” Transgender people are cool and friendly and often they love to converse with males and females without any hesitation while trying to answer all possible queries or curiosities a person may feel about them.
However, while asking questions and trying to know more about them, you need to be respectful and patient while giving them enough space and proper time to answer your queries appropriately. Just like a male or female, transgender are human beings and they deserves every individual right along with proper respect and humanly love.
Students of Istanbul’s Bogazici University defied President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appointment of Melih Bulu as their school’s rector for a third day in a row, accompanied by more police officers than the previous demonstrations. Students marched to the ferry docks after a protest on campus, crossed the Bosphorus and joined a crowd of hundreds more in Kadıköy.
Melih Bulu was appointed rector on January 1 by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is a member of his ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP. He was rector of Halic University in Istanbul before assuming his new post.
“We do not want an appointed rector. Melih Bulu is not our rector,” student representatives said in a press statement, demanded his resignation and that of other politically appointed rectors.
“It is not a crime if a rector has a political identity,” Omer Celik, the spokesperson of the AKP, told a press conference on Tuesday.
The first protest, on Monday, was held at the Bogazici University campus. Dozens of students were detained during and after the protest by police.
LGBTI+ students attended the protests with rainbow flags.
In this article, I would like to talk about the products that make life easier for us as much as I can and the products we use / will use. I think it will be a little long but it is worth your reading.
Most of us have body dysphoria, and it is obvious that we have difficulties in our daily lives. The “binder” comes first among the items that facilitate this. There are those who suffer from severe posture disorders due to chest dysphoria. Many things are used in order not to reveal the breast, but the safest and healthiest of them is binder.
What should be considered when buying a binder?
First of all, the fabric quality of the binder that is not removed for a long time (actually this is wrong) is very important. It should be a breathable fabric, it should not cause allergies. Frankly, there is no place that produces locally produced products with very pleasant qualities. If your budget is not enough to buy from abroad, you can review and buy the products on the “fmtsmalls” page. “Underworks” and “gc2b” companies from abroad are among the best. Many trans people prefer these companies. Apart from that, there are many sellers’ products on Aliexpres, you can choose by looking at their comments here. When using binder, you should try not to wear it for a long time. This is important for your health, in order to avoid allergic reactions on your skin and to prevent serious deformations in the breast structure. In addition, you should not use methods such as bandaging.
If you are still hidden from your family and want to use binder, you can keep it safe by keeping it between your clothes when you are not wearing it.
Our second product, called packer, is used instead of under-pants penis. When you want to show yourself as a man among people on the street, if you don’t want feminine lines to stand out, you can use what is called packer. Before the products sold, you can get help from the videos of making a sock packer at home, which you can easily find on Youtube. When you write How to make a packer, you will see many videos. Even if you don’t speak English, you can easily learn while watching. In addition, domestic and foreign companies produce packers that are realistic. I recommend that you pay attention to the fact that it is not too big when choosing.
Another product after Packer is realistic penises. These are divided into two or three functions for standing peeing and for intercourse. I think there may be many more details, but I do not have very detailed information. Especially if you are going to buy it for a relationship, I recommend that you allocate a good budget and buy a quality product. In addition, if you use lubricant during contact with these products, you should be careful that it is water-based, others damage the product. Using condoms is beneficial for your partner’s health, again, it must be water-based. You can also find many review videos on Youtube, and you can find hint articles on foreign forums. Just start looking for a great paradise for us on Google and ask to learn. I have to say that in realistic products, if you want double-sided pleasure, which is an important thing, there is an apparatus called the pleasure rod developed abroad to enjoy not only your partner but also yourself. You can get an idea by looking at the company’s products and their Youtube reviews. Copies of this product were published recently as a domestic production, but I always favor the original purchase of such things. My first suggestion for Packer and realistics is Peacock firm, RealMagik, TransGuySupply and FTMShopping are others. In addition, many underwear manufacturing companies also sell packers and realistic products. In Turkey, “transfromturkey” account and the newly established tugrealistic I would recommend to you. You can also find many product recommendations on trans pages on Instagram.
Unfortunately, there are no local companies for packers and realistics, as well as comfortable underwear use in our daily lives. There is no sector for trans people in our country yet. The firm that I recommend and my favorite is Rodeoh. You can see all products on their own sites and instagram. It has really high quality and helpful products. Pocket compartment for packer, special hole for intercourse, convenient use. You can understand when you look at the models. Unfortunately, the prices are a bit high for us, but you can talk and request a discount coupon. Another company only for boxer is Woxer. It is a company that started out and manufactures on the female body. Unfortunately, there is no domestic counterpart, but you can look at the models for the relationship and find solutions yourself at home. I guess you can achieve this by buying a narrow boxer, making a hole the size of the penis and stitching the edges? In normal boxer use, I recommend the brands John Frank and Jack Jones, whose designs I like, in terms of comfort and quality. They are really comfortable and do not bother the fabrics.
I want to say a few things about your relationships. Put ourselves in certain patterns
When you have lost all your expectations, you can only care about your life; I mean “breathing, eating and sleeping” without any feeling, like an animal.
I am a gay man from Turkey, the vacation paradise for most Europeans and tourists. I don’t know if we can calculate an “average human lifetime”, but if it were 75 years, I already spent 1/3rd of it hiding myself and begging for respect and acceptance in this paradise. I gladly accept that, okay, my country is geographically heavenly, but nobody should forget this: a place could only be livable when you know and love everyone who lives there.
I am a young gay who is not able to feel young anymore. I wasted 25 years of my life for just acceptance of others. I heard this kind of advice a million times from Swedes: “why do you care what others think, it’s your life…” But trying to get this acceptance is not for love, it’s about surviving.
Discrimination gets in the way of pride in daily life, and I experienced every kind of it. I was never able to be who I am in public, in school, with my family. I tried to live in different cities in Turkey before coming to Sweden. It was not easy to say goodbye to everything I had. Every city in Turkey has different kinds of people, who mostly think the same about gays. Some of them assessed me as a sinner, some of them as a pervert, some of them as a shame, some of them as worthless, but it was the very rare person I ever met in my life who assessed me as a human.
“But then, I was moving less to win their love and more to avoid my family.”
Swedes have also asked me many times “why is it such a big deal for the families, it’s none of their business”. Yes, in my paradise it is a big deal. “Disowning” and “discrimination” – these words sounded lovely to me, because at least they would have meant I wasn’t going to get murdered.
The police are liable to protect everyone in the country; I experienced that their “everyone” does not include me. Once I went to a police station after being attacked by four people in Istanbul – which is a metropolis and which should be more accepting than other cities – because for a moment I walked hand in hand with a man. They laughed at me, “what did you expect, of course they will throw bottles at you; you didn’t expect them to throw flowers did you?” … Did I?
Another time I spoke to police on a street in Istanbul in the early morning hours. They stopped me without any reason and one of them started to humiliate and bully me, saying the usual things. I was scared, but then I suddenly also was furious and I answered him “yes I am gay, I am a faggot, why – do you want to test what I am for yourself?”; I was up against a car the moment after that under the policeman’s hands. After these two lovely meetings with policemen, trusting the police is over for me.
At the Swedish migration board they asked if the Turkish courts can protect me. This is a country where a 13 year old girl, N.Ç., was raped by 26 different men, most older than her father. She had to have four surgeries because of it. The judge told her, “oh my daughter, why did you seduce these men?” He didn’t punish these men for rape. The court only sentenced them for having (consensual!) sex with a girl under the age of 15. It’s still kind of a nightmare for me. I can’t imagine the girl’s nightmares.
But think about it for a moment: if they can’t see that a 13-year-old girl is innocent and needs protection, how do you think they view an adult man like me, having sex with men?
I was studying to be a teacher, but it became impossible because of gossip spreading. Nobody saw me with a man, but gossip is enough to ruin you and put your life at risk. A career would now be impossible because according to them, nobody wants to work with a “bad role model, perverse, abject teacher”.
I will never be able to demand my family’s protection and love; their traditions and their religion are both on me. I am a dirt stain on their family tree, the family’s blood; the only way to clean this blood is by killing me. They can survive without me but they can’t survive without their priceless honour.
I tried to change these people, but their minds didn’t allow me; it goes too deep. I wasted 25 years just hiding reality. I need a little bit freedom, I need hold a man’s hand while I am walking, I need a measure of respect.
Now, tell me: how can I call this country a paradise, as lovely European vacationers did? Don’t speak about life in Turkey based on what travel guides say.
Below are books recommended for children of LGBTI+ parents that cover a range of issues.
Heather Has Two Mommies
Heather Has Two Mommies / Newman, Lesléa; Souza, Diana, ill. — Boston, Mass. Alyson Wonderland, c1989.
Ironically, though this children’s book could not be gentler in tone or kinder in spirit, it became the focus of fierce censorship battles at local libraries across North America following its publication in 1989. Fundamentalist critics accused Newman and Souza of creating radical propaganda designed to destroy American “Family Values.” Nothing could be further from the truth as even a cursory reading of Heather’s tale will confirm. After learning how her two mommies fell in love and decided to conceive her by alternative insemination, Heather goes to nursery school at Molly’s house. When Heather hears other kids talking about their daddies, she starts to cry because her family is not like theirs. Molly wisely has all the children draw pictures of their families, and what these comfortingly reveal to Heather (and to young readers) is the wide range of alternative family structures existing in American society today. The illustrator has cleverly juxtaposed the kids- “naive” sketches of their families with her own soft charcoal drawings of Heather, Mama Kate, Mama Jane, Gingersnap the Cat, and Midnight the Dog.
Pugdog
Pugdog / URen, Andrea. — New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
This amusing lesbian-feminist fable about mistaken gender assumptions is just right for reading to an elementary school child (especially a girl) whose gender identity is manifestly “unorthodox” and likely to become more so with the onset of sexual self-awareness. The apparent “hero,” an extremely active puppy named Pugdog, loves chasing squirrels, rolling in the dirt, digging big holes, playing tug-of-war, chomping on knucklebones, and receiving a rough belly scratch from “his” master Mike. A trip to the vet to remove a splinter in Pugdog’s paw reveals to Mike the surprising fact that his pet is not a he but a she. Projecting the dominant cultural gender system with its stereotypes of masculinity and femininity onto the animal world, Mike proceeds to impose ultra-femme behaviors, activities, and even outfits on his poor little baby-butch. He even points out a swishy poodle to her as a feminine role model. Though Pugdog tries hard to conform to Mike’s new vision of her identity, she soon grows depressed and runs away to the park to resume her old “lifestyle.” When Mike finds her, he is delighted that she is happy again. “No more dainty outfits or fancy salons for you,” he promises, “You’re my Pugdog. You’re perfect as you are.” This reassuring message about parental acceptance of a queer offspring is delivered with a gentle touch of irony when Mike and Pugdog discover that the ultra-chic poodle is really a he not a she. The full-colour illustrations on every other page hilariously capture Pugdog’s many emotions in her journey towards self-affir.
One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads
One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads / Valentine, Johnny; Sarecky, Melody. Boston, Mass. Alyson Wonderland, 1994.
This amusing tale, told in Dr. Seuss-style rhyme, is designed to teach young children an important lesson about social, racial, and sexual diversity. Though the dads in the story vary in number and colour – even a green dad pops up in the final pages — these observable facts turn out to be completely irrelevant to their parental function. This moral is, of course, applicable to gay dads and straight dads, but the complexities of sexual identity are not dealt with directly in this tale (as they are in Michael Willhoite’s Daddy’s Roommate) because the target audience of Valentine’s work is kindergarten-age or younger. The illustrations by Melody Sarecky are appropriately bright and colourful.
Asha’s Mums
Asha’s Mums / Elwin, Rosamund& Paulse, Michele; Jordan, Dawn Lee, ill. — Toronto: Women’s Press, c1990.
Co-authored by a lesbian couple who are also “mums” of colour like Asha’s parents, this gentle cautionary tale is designed both to warn kids like Asha that they may encounter teachers and schoolmates whose idea of family doesn’t correspond to theirs, and more importantly, to provide them with effective strategies for dealing with homophobia in the school system and in society at large. Asha (who appears to be around six or seven years old) is excited by the prospect of a school trip to the Science Centre, but when her teacher Ms. Samuels rejects the girl’s signed permission form on the grounds that, despite the two signatures on it, she can’t have two mums, Asha stalwartly refuses to identify which mum (Alice or Sara) is the “real” one. The heterosexist assumptions lurking behind the form are exposed not just by the mums in a parent-teacher interview but also by Asha’s friends Rita and Diane who stick up for her right to go on the trip when it is challenged by classmates Coreen and Judi. The class discussion of Asha’s “case” becomes an opportunity for educating the prejudiced kids as well as their teacher on the social reality of lesbian family life and the social virtue of family diversity. The potentially “hair-raising” conflict is peacefully resolved through dialogue, and Asha has a great time at the Science Centre playing “porcupine” with a popular static electricity device which makes her hair stand on end. The water-colour illustrations for the story are by Dawn Lee, who knows this hair-raising device well since she designs exhibits like it at the Ontario Science Centre.
Newman’s widely acclaimed (and still controversial) classics Heather Has Two Mommies and Gloria Goes to Gay Pride were designed simply to celebrate the social fact of lesbian and gay parenthood in the post-Stonewall era. In this less upbeat work, dating from the disillusioned 1990s, Newman tackles an emotionally difficult topic for any children’s book: the impact of divorce on family dynamics. Frankie is the young son of lesbian moms Allie and Patty, whose bitter fighting keeps him up at night worrying about their future. Not even his pet dinosaur, Doris Delores Brontosaurus, can console him when his moms split up and Patty moves out into her own apartment. Though Allie and Patty don’t seem to be on speaking terms yet, Frankie is able to speak with Patty everyday on the phone and gets to visit her every Saturday (which gets renamed in her honour). The legal distinction between his biological mother and her ex-partner has clearly not distanced him from Patty emotionally or stripped her of her mom status in his heart. His continuing love for her is shown by his decision to leave his beloved Doris over at her house as a sign of his continuing presence in her life.
Morning Light
Morning light : an educational storybook for children and their caregivers about HIV/AIDS and saying goodbye / Merrifield, Margaret; Collins, Heather. — Don Mills, Ont. Stoddart, 1995
Following the niche-market success of Come Sit by Me, a children’s book about a boy with AIDS, Dr. Merrifield (who used to work in the UWO Student Health Services) produced this therapeutic tale about children coming to terms with the AIDS-related death of a parent. Max and Maggie are twins. Their mother, who is apparently single, is diagnosed with HIV-disease. Mom obviously is too tired to join an AIDS activist group to protest the gender-bias in the treatment of female PWAs. She just goes to bed and wastes away. When she gets too sick to take care of her kids, Uncle Dan and Auntie Beth move into their pastoral cottage on the grassy edge of a village to look after them. Mom dies. Everyone at the funeral is “very, very sad.” The twins grieve but are consoled by the memory of Mom singing a lullaby to them: “In the sky, a twinkling light/ Good night, star bright./ Soon will come the morning light,/ Good night, sleep tight.” Though these allegorical lyrics are deeply religious in their apocalyptic implications, Merrifield’s text offers no overtly Christian consolations. The “morning light” isn’t the Son of God rising over the New Jerusalem after the Resurrection of the Dead – at least not explicitly. Yet Collins’s illustrations (especially on pages 22-23) situate the crisis of Mom’s death within the comfort zone of a traditional Protestant chapel nestled in the glades of a highly aestheticized forest. Despite all the matter-of-fact advice on children’s grief and what adults can do to alleviate it (e.g. “Phrases to avoid: passed away, went to sleep”: page 29), the narrative topologically foreshadows Mom’s awakening in heaven after she has gone to “sleep” in the Valley of the Shadow. Old allegories die hard.
Grandma, What’s a Lesbian?
Amy asks a question, Grandma, What’s a Lesbian? / Arnold, Jeanne; Lindquist, Barbara, ill. — Racine, WI: Mother Courage Press, c1996.
Grandma Bonnie and Grandma Jo have been in a lesbian relationship for more than two decades when they decide to come out to the world by marching in a gay pride parade. This decision prompts their granddaughter Amy to wonder not only about what a lesbian might be but also what “gay pride” means. Grandma Bonnie “is an author, a musician, a computer expert, and a woman who owns her own business,” Amy muses (page 10), “And she’s proud of all that. She’s proud of all her four children and eight grandchildren. Why does she want to go to a gay pride parade to feel proud?” This complex question is answered with tact, humour, and sensitivity to the family implications of the word “pride.” From her beloved grandmas, Amy learns about the social diversity of lesbians and gay men, their interconnected histories of resisting discrimination, and their emergent cultural rituals such as marching and “handfasting” (“it’s kind of like a wedding ceremony with their woman friends at what they call “their moon circle”: page 22). As a result of this new knowledge, Amy feels even closer to Bonnie and Jo than before and experiences her own sense of pride in the harmonious openness and unity of her family.
Two Moms, The Zark, and Me
Two Moms, the Zark, and Me / Valentine, Johnny; Lopez, Angelo. — Boston, Mass. Alyson Wonderland, 1993.
Winner of a Lambda Literary Award for his first book (The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans), Valentine has specialized in writing children’s books celebrating social and sexual diversity and promoting open-mindedness about family life on the queer side. This tale, his fourth, is written in rhyme and vibrantly illustrated by Angelo Lopez. The plot – a queering of the quest fable familiar from Dr. Seuss – turns a young boy’s trip to the park into an allegorical encounter with homophobic “familialism.” When the boy’s two moms lose him in a crowd, he wanders into a small zoo containing a large fabulous beast named the Zark. An overbearing couple, the McFinks, try to reunite him with his parents, but when Mr. McFink learns that the boy has two moms instead of a “proper” mother and father, he launches into a bigoted attack on lesbian motherhood and tries to persuade the boy to abandon his family. Fortunately the Zark (whose fabulousness is clearly gay, despite his Jurassic Park “look”) springs to his aid, and Mr. McFink gets a well-deserved dunking in a nearby fishpond. Then another couple, Don and his wife MJ, notice the boy’s plight and win his trust by singing the praises of family diversity (“For real families come / In all forms and sizes”). Under their cheerful guidance he locates his two moms at the Lost and Found, and his close encounter with the Dark Side of American Family Values ends happily.
Uncle What-Is-It is Coming to Visit!!
Uncle What-Is-It Is Coming to Visit!! / Willhoite, Michael, 1946. — Boston: Alyson Wonderland, c1993.
The author of Daddy’s Roommate (the cause of many a censorship battle at local libraries across North America in the 1990s) strikes again with this hilarious tale of two youngsters who wonder what a “gay man” is when their mom tells them that their gay uncle Brett is coming for a family visit. On learning from a pair of oafish teenage neighbours that gay men are either silly drag queens or sinister leathermen, the kids develop a bad case of homophobia. In their simple ignorance, they transform these common homophobic stereotypes into nightmare images of Uncle Brett as a gender-bending monster. Fortunately their fears vanish when Brett turns out to be a nice, unthreatening guy who shares their sense of fun and their loathing for brussels sprouts. “He told us that some gay men do dress up like women and some do wear black leather,” they report, “But that’s all right too.” This simple lesson about gay diversity is as important a moral as the complex lesson about family values and homophobic stereotyping.
“We are always in a political movement, but not always in a political movement phase of a political culture” (Sarah Hoagland, 1996).
Lesbianism as resistance:
“For a woman to be a lesbian in a male-supremacist, capitalist, misogynist, racist, homophobic, imperialist culture, such as that of North America, is an act of resistance” (Cheryl Clarke, 1981)
Lesbian Chic:
“The recent flurry of articles on hip lesbians…isn’t about documentation…it’s about creation: building a better lesbian, one palatable enough for mainstream consumption…to gain legitimacy and be taken seriously in the 1990s, cultures outside the mainstream must prove they are free of the disruptive nature and threatening intent of activisms past…” (Judith Schwartz, quoted in Cragin, 1997)
Lesbian Feminism:
“Lesbian feminism proceeds from an analysis of gender interests which situates lesbians primarily as women rather than homosexuals, thus distinguishing it from gay theory which proceeds from an analysis of sexual identity and interests (a difference noted by Eve Sedwick). [Lesbian feminism] also bases itself in the primacy of identity, distinguishing it further from queer theory which lays primary emphasis on actions and performance.” (Bonnie Zimmerman, 1996).
Lesbian Feminists
“Lesbians of the 70s, can be divided into lesbian feminists and feminist lesbians. The former usually ‘came out’ after being exposed to feminism and had a history of heterosexuality. The latter were usually lifelong or long-time lesbians with little or no heterosexual history, who integrated feminism into their identity. These differing paths to lesbianism were an important factor behind the ideological contests and the lesbian civil wars of the 70s” (Y. Retter, 1998).
“Lesbian feminists are the bad girls who fail to love the male frame of mind that currently dominates gay and lesbian studies” (Sheila Jeffreys, 1994).
Lesbian History
“As a woman, as a lesbian, as a Jew, much of what I call history, others will not. But answering that challenge of exclusion is the work of a lifetime” (Joan Nestle, 1987).
“Lesbian history is under-researched and undertheorized” (Martha Vicinus, 1994).
Lesbian Invisibility:
“Between the time of Sappho and the birth of Natalie Clifford Barney (between ca 613 bc and 1876 ad) lies a ‘lesbian silence’ of twenty-four centuries” (Bertha Harris In Our Right To Love, 1978).
“Without a visual identity, we have no community, no support network, no movement. Making ourselves visible is a political act, making ourselves visible is a continual process.” (Joan E. Biren in Visual Communication, 1983).
Lesbian Persistence:
“Lesbian supression is so strong that if it weren’t inherent in some, it would have dissappeared [!]” (Marilyn Frye, 1996).
Lesbian separatism:
“Separatism is an exhausting act of faith and because of insistent pressure on [one] to repent, it requires almost daily reaffirmation” (Janet Dixon in Hemmings and Cant, 1988).
Lesbian intensity:
” One year as a lesbian is like three years in the het world” (Leslie Rand, recovering heterosexual, 1996).
Cultural Feminism/Lesbianism:
“Cultural feminism represents a retreat from the difficulties of political struggle into the self-validation that community-building offers. It further substitutes the fantasy of a united sisterhood for political theory” (Alice Echols, quoted in Howard, 1997).
Queer Theory and Politics:
“The wholesale embracing of theatrical metaphor [in queer theory] denies the historicity of all lesbian roles, and their specific meanings at different historical times” (Martha Vicinus, 1994)
Related Thoughts
Intersections of Oppression:
“The concept of the simultaneity of oppression is still the crux of a Black feminist understanding of political reality…and is one of the most significant ideological contributions of Black feminist thought” (Barbara Smith, 1983, xxxii).
“The modifier ‘multiple’ refers not only to several, simultaneous oppressions, but to the multiplicative relationships among them as well” (Deborah King, 1988).
About Lesbians:
“In Anglo-Saxon Countries it seems…that female homosexuality means rather more than Sapphic lyricism, since it somehow acts as a stimulus to the social and political organization of women…” (Carl Jung in Civilization in Transition, 1922).
By Lesbians About Women:
“As a writer, I am not defferential. Writing without apology and without trivializing the writing because one is a woman is a major contribution” (Andrea Dworkin, in Jenefsky, Without Apology, 1998)
About Resistant Women:
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat…” (Rebecca West)
Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTI+ advocate. Featured as Sophia Burset in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in any acting category. She is the first open transsexual shown.
In 2015, Laverne Cox won a Daytime Emmy Award for the Outstanding Private Class Special as executive producer of Presents: The T Word, becoming the first openly transgender woman to win this award.
In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender character on the TV broadcast as Cameron Wirth on CBS’s Doubt series.
The ‘Orange is the New Black’ star talks to The Hollywood Reporter about nearly quitting acting and why she’s chosen to use her latest awards nod to spotlight other trans performers.
When Laverne Cox turned 40 in May 2012, she was knee-deep in debt and ready to trade in the title of “actress” for “grad student.”
After 20 years of grinding out a career as a performer in New York, Cox had a conversation with a onetime co-worker from Lucky Cheng’s Restaurant & Bar, where she was working at the time. “They had just gone to school and were about to graduate from graduate school and they were like, ‘You need to go to school,’ ” she recalled. She agreed. “When I moved to New York City in 1993, I thought I would be a superstar in two, three years tops. That didn’t quite happen.”
Though she had some film and TV credits on her resume, it felt like the time had come to close the curtain. “It was a devastating realization. It’s like, OK, you’re 40 years old. Maybe that’s all God wanted for me in this business. Maybe this is all I’m supposed to do. Now I should just listen to what the universe seems to be telling me about this acting thing and try something else. Then I got this audition. It turns out that God had a different plan.”
That blueprint included a seven-year run playing Sophia Burset on the Netflix prison series Orange is the New Black, a role that has garnered the now-47-year-old three Emmy nominations for outstanding guest actress. It’s a historic feat — Cox was the first transgender performer ever nominated for an acting award — and one, she admits, she’s still processing. “The day it happened, I cried,” Cox told The Hollywood Reporter during a recent In Studio visit. “I was in London shooting a film [Jolt with Kate Beckinsale]. I was even more surprised about this one than the other two. If this is happening now, there has to be a bigger reason.”
Cox has decided that the reason should be for her to help shift the spotlight to other transgender performers in Hollywood. “The year when a show like Pose is on the air and I honestly thought I would no longer be the only trans person nominated for an acting Emmy. No other trans actors were nominated this year, I thought, okay, this is an opportunity to lift up those performances to talk about this,” she said. “Like, invite the Television Academy members to consider the brilliant work of some of the trans actors who are working on television. Certainly, you know, an Emmy should be about the work and the talent and what you’ve brought to the craft, but, you know, in 2019, why should there just be one trans person who’s been nominated for an acting Emmy?”
Even though it is her, Cox is not content claiming all the credit. “I share this nomination with everyone in our cast, in our crew. I love all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for seven incredible years,” she said. “Thank you, Jenji Kohan.”
Elliot Page, the Oscar-nominated star of “Juno” and Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” has announced he is transgender.
Elliot, formerly known as Ellen Page, addressed his social media followers saying:
“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self. I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place. I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society,” he wrote.
“I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive. To all the trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse, and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you, and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better,” Page continued.
Page uses both he/him and they/them pronouns, and describes himself as transgender and non-binary, meaning that his gender identity is neither man nor woman.
Call for morality to Rectorate of Hacettepe University for their unlawful behavior!
The call for action which addresses Hacettepe University Rectorate’s oppression and censorship towards queer research and LGBTI+ students is published.
The call for action which we also signed is as follows…
We are in solidarity with our fellow students against systematic oppression and censorship policy of Hacettepe University Rectorate towards Queer Studies Community. We condemn Rectorate’s position which disregards equality, human rights and academic freedom.
Our call to Rectorate of Hacettepe University: It is imperative for the order of a democratic society that you act accordingly with universal ethical principles, fulfill your duties arising from the constitution and laws, and comply with fundamental human rights. We demand that you abandon your discriminatory and unlawful attitude towards your LGBTI+ students and fulfill your obligations properly.
We stand by the Queer Studies Society and our friends in their struggle for rights.
SIGNTORIES
17 Mayıs Derneği
Aydın LGBTİ+ Dayanışması
Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi Renkli Çatı Kulübü
Bilkent Üniversitesi Kadın Çalışmaları Topluluğu
Çöpsüz ODTÜ İnisiyatifi
Genç LGBTİ+ Derneği
Hacettepe Eşitlik
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Biyoloji Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Dayanışma Ağı
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Hayvan Hakları ve Doğayı Koruma Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Kadın Çalışmaları Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Marksist Fikir Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Model Birleşmiş Milletler Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Münazara Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Sanat ve Mimari Topluluğu
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Toplumsal Araştırmalar Topluluğu
Hevi LGBTİ+ Derneği
İstanbul Kültür Üniversitesi LGBTİ+ Topluluğu
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi Cinsiyet Kimliği ve Cinsel Yönelim Çalışmaları Kulübü
Kaos GL Derneği
Lambda İstanbul LGBTİ+ Dayanışma Derneği
Marmara Üniversitesi İnsan Hakları ve Anayasa Hukuku Araştırmaları Topluluğu
Marmara Üniversitesi Kadın Hakları Kulübü
MEF Üniversitesi LGBTQ+ Kulübü
ODTÜ Amatör Astronomi Topluluğu
ODTÜ BİYOGEN Topluluğu
ODTÜ Doğanın Çocukları
ODTÜ Emek Gençliği
ODTÜ Eşitlik
ODTÜ Kampüs Cadıları
ODTÜ Kavaklık İnisiyatifi
ODTÜ Klasik Gitar Topluluğu
ODTÜ LGBTİ+ Dayanışması
ODTÜ Marksist Fikir Topluluğu
ODTÜ Medya Topluluğu
ODTÜ Mimarlık Topluluğu
ODTÜ Münazara Topluluğu
ODTÜ Müzik Toplulukları
ODTÜ Öğrenci Kolektifi
ODTÜ Öğrenci Sendikası
ODTÜ Özgürlükçü Gençlik
ODTÜ Serüven Kültür
ODTÜ Sinema Topluluğu
ODTÜ Siyaset Bilimi Topluluğu
ODTÜ Sosyoloji Topluluğu
ODTÜ Toplumsal Cinsiyet Çalışmaları Topluluğu
ODTÜ Üniversiteli Kadın Kolektifi
ODTÜ Vegan
Özyeğin Üniversitesi LGBTİQ+ Kulübü
Sivil Alan Araştırmaları Derneği
Sunflowernet Sosyal Platformu
Türkiye LGBTİ Birliği
Father Julio Lancellotti, a Catholic priest from São Paulo in Brazil, shared a photo of trans women on his Instagram account and spoke in favor of inclusion and equality.
“The fight against discrimination and prejudice is a never-ending struggle. We are all children of God. We must always admit and never discriminate ”
Father Julio Lancellotti’s support for the Brazilian trans community is nothing new, with more than 345,000 subscribers on Instagram.
The priest is known as a strong advocate of equality in Brazil. He has spoken many times in favor of the rights and equality of the LGBTI + community.
The 72-year-old priest has worked tirelessly for the homeless throughout his career. In 2018, she made a splash on social media by sharing a video of a homeless trans woman asking for forgiveness for all the horrors the Brazilian society has experienced.
Father Julio Lancellotti was praised by his supporters for promoting love and equality for the trans community, and even appreciated for his work by the Brazilian Bar Human Rights Committee in the past.
Nicholas Yatromanolakis has made history by becoming Greece’s first openly gay minister in a cabinet reshuffle in the center-right government.
Nicholas Yatromanolakis, 44, has been promoted from the position of general secretary at the ministry to become the new minister of culture.
Alexis Patelis, the Greek Prime Minister’s chief economic advisor said in a tweet that, it was a “historic day for LGBTI+ representation, a big win for meritocracy and better decision-making through diversity”.
“Congrats to Nicholas Yatromanolakis for showing you can be yourself and still succeed,” he added. “May others draw strength to live their life openly.”
Nicholas Yatromanolakis’ Political Life
Before entering politics in 2014 as a founding member of the now-defunct centrist party Potami, Yatromanolakis worked in marketing and communications for companies including Microsoft and has a masters in public policy from Harvard.
“For a long time … I felt I had to choose and that there were identities that could never be compatible with one another,” said Yatromanolakis, who left To Potami in 2016 and joined the government in 2019.
He rejected the suggestion that his appointment to the culture ministry might be viewed as tokenism.
“People do not understand and see that the (cultural) sector… creates jobs, creates opportunities,” said Yatromanolakis, who used to work for a cultural center housing the country’s national opera and library.
He said his priorities in the job included channeling state financial aid to people working in the arts during the pandemic.
Asked what measures the government could take to support LGBTI+ people, Yatromanolakis said he wanted better implementation of existing anti-discrimination laws, including training in private companies and government bodies.
“No person growing up should feel they have to choose between who they are and what they want to become in life,” he said.
“I wish someone else was first before me … (but) if this helps people who have problems because of who they are … then it’s worth it.”
Which application should LGBTI individuals use as communication application, Telegram, Whatsapp or Signal, which one is safe? Tamer Şahin evaluated messaging applications for the daily Hurriyet.
Cyber Security Specialist Tamer Şahin commented on the data privacy management of chat applications that have been the subject of discussion recently and the heavy user transition from WhatsApp to Telegram.
The most important issue that has occupied the agenda of the country lately is the changing confidentiality agreement of the WhatsApp application, which provides free services such as messaging, audio and video calls and is installed on almost everyone’s smartphones today. The new confidentiality agreement, which is mandatory in our country by WhatsApp, a Facebook organization and announced that the program cannot be used if it is not accepted, opened the issue of data security to discussion. With this latest move of the WhatsApp application, there was a “flock” to similar messaging and speech applications, especially Telegram.
What does the news privacy agreement bring?
Şahin said that many applications we have installed on our phone also request data from us, but among them, the ones that make money stand out.
Stating that companies such as Facebook and Google make money from data, Şahin explains the details of the new WhatsApp confidentiality agreement as follows:
“Actually, we have to look at this; We share a lot of data from daily messaging apps. And these messaging apps are now evolving, entering the business world. WhatsApp is preparing for this. In his last statement, İT says: ‘You can continue to correspond with your friends and family as before, but I reduce encryption and increase data sharing in accounts used for work. Because I provide free service, I provide service in return. ”
Mobile Apps like Facebook Messenger contain trojan
Reminding that we have shared many of our personal data so far, Şahin says that it will be a problem for us not to know how long the institution will process this data after today, and he describes Facebook as a “criminal” institution in this regard.
Stating that Facebook can benefit from all commercial data with the last confidentiality agreement; “Especially if you use Facebook Messenger, all your videos, photos and contact lists on your phone are completely open, so it’s something like a trojan.” he adds.
How Safe is The Telegram Shown as an Alternative?
After WhatsApp‘s latest confidentiality agreement, many users in our country reacted to this situation and announced that they would start using Telegram, a similar application. As a matter of fact, Telegram’s number of active users reached 500 million with millions of new users, according to Telegram‘s records recently. Well, what awaits users who switch to Telegram, worrying that WhatsApp will not protect their data.
Is Telegram more secure than WhatsApp?
Şahin comments on this subject as follows:
“Now there are different projects. Some of them are created as closed source code and the data in these projects are completely owned by that company. However, some of them use open source code and anyone can access them. Telegram stands out, it has so many features. You can reach 100 thousand people with the group feature. Of course all of this comes at a cost and is closed source. So we have no information about what is working on the server. ”
“The Most Balanced Application Signal in Terms of Safety”
Stating that those who want to communicate securely should stay away from the Telegram application, Tamer Şahin says that the application does not provide end-to-end encryption and that the most stable application in terms of security is signal.
“In Telegram, there is no user-to-user encryption and this is worse than WhatsApp. So Whatsapp; He says, “I cannot read the speeches.”However, conversations can be read on Telegram. Therefore Signal can be used. Signal is the most stable application in terms of usability and security. ”
Acquired gender: The gender role that a trans person achieves through the process of transition. It is the legal term in relation to the issuing of a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) which gives a trans person full legal rights in this gender.
Androgyn: A person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society.
Attributed gender: The gender and sex that one is taken to be by others. This is usually an immediate, unconscious categorisation of a person as being a man or a woman, irrespective of their mode of dress.
Bisexual (Bi): Person capable of sexual and/or romantic attachment to person of either gender.
Charing Cross Hospital (CHX): Principal centre in UK for treating Gender Identity Disorder/Transsexuality.
Cisgendered: Person whose gender-presentation matches their birth gender i.e. typical man or woman.
Civil Partnership (CP): Marriage of same sex couples, legal in the UK, those that have transitioned and still with their partner have to annul their marriage and then have a Civil partnership.
Crossdresser (CD): Person who wears the clothing of the opposite gender on a part-time or full time basis.
Drab: Dressed As a Boy Wearing male clothing.
Drag: Wearing clothing of opposite gender (usually in theatrical context).
Drag King: Male impersonator Cross dressed female (usually in theatrical context).
Drag Queen: Female Impersonator Cross dressed male (usually in theatrical context).
En femme: From French term, meaning “in female mode”.
F2M: Female to male transgendered person aka FTM.
Facial Feminisation Surgery (FFS): Facial surgery to alter a MTF transsexual’s face to make it look more feminine.
Gender Identity Disorder (GID): Official medical diagnosis of transsexuality, usually prior to ‘transitioning’.
Gender Recognition Act (GRA): Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows transsexual people to change their legal gender. It came into effect on April 4, 2005.
Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC): Legal document to change sex on birth certificate.
Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS): Surgery to change physical sex i.e. ‘sex change”. aka ‘SRS’.
Genderqueer (GQ): Person with a non-binary gender identity i.e. not male or female.
Genetic Girl (GG): Genetic female/natal woman. Please note: term may be offensive to MTF TSs as it implies that they are not genuine in terms of being considered real. aka ‘RG’.
Intersex (IS): General term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.
In role: Term used for TS’s, for MTF living as a woman or FTM living as a man, prior to transitioning treatment.
M2F: Male to Female Transgendered person. aka ‘MTF’.
Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC): LGBT accepting denomination of churches.
MTF: Male to Female Transsexual aka. ‘M2F’.
Non-op TS: Non-operation transsexual TS who has transitioned socially to their new gender, but cannot have GRS (possibly due to medical reasons) or does not want GRS.
Passing : Perceived to be the gender you are presenting, rather than your birth gender.
Post-op TS: Post-operative transsexual – A transsexual person who has had Gender Reassignment Surgery.
Pre-op TS: Pre-operative transsexual – A transsexual person who has not yet had Gender Reassignment Surgery (may not be intending to do so due to factors such as health).
Purge: Term often used in TG community for transgendered people getting rid of their preferred gender role clothing & accessories.
Queer: Person with atypical gender/sexual identity.
Real Girls (RG): Genetic female/natal woman. Please note: term may be offensive to MTF TSs as it implies that they are not genuine in terms of being considered real.. aka ‘GG’.
Real Life Experience (RLE): Period in which a TS lives ‘in role’, prior to undergoing surgery. Is also known as ‘RLT’.
Real Life Test (RLT): Period in which a TS lives ‘in role’, prior to undergoing surgery. Is also known as ‘RLE’.
Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS): Surgery to change physical sex i.e. ‘sex change”. aka ‘GRS’.
SOFFA: Significant Other, Friend, Family, or Ally of a transsexual, transgender, intersex or other gender-variant person.
Testosterone (T): Male hormone for Female to Male Transsexual. Is also the hormone that is reduced as part of transitioning for MTF Transsexuals.
T*: Transgender Often used to avoid confusion with ‘T’, which is used for testosterone in FTM community.
T*Girl: Transgender girl Transvestite or MTF Transgendered person, aka ‘TGirl’.
Transgender (TG): Transgender issue, also, to be transgendered.
TGirl: Transgender girl, Transvestite or MTF Transgendered person, aka ‘T*Girl’
TS: Transsexual Person with Gender Identity Disorder.
Trans: Term used to abbreviate transgendered, the umbrella term for trans people.
Transition : Medical/social process in which a TS changes to their new gender.
Trans man: Female-to-male TS living in male role.
Transvestite (TV): Person who wears the clothing of the opposite gender on a part-time or full time basis.
Trans Woman: Male-to-female TS living in female role.
A study released out of Melbourne University in Australia found that children raised by same sex couples are healthier and enjoy a better sense of well-being than their peers. This study, called the biggest of its type so far, sought to “describe the physical, mental and social well-being” of children raised by gay and lesbianparents. It also sought to understand “the impact that stigma has on them.” In terms of family cohesion and general health, children of gay parents scored 6% higher than their heterosexual counterparts. Researchers also found that in terms of behavior, self-esteem and mental health, gay parent’s children were about the same as those raised by hetero parents.
Speaking on CNBC, Dr. Simon Crouch said, “It appears that same-sex parent families get along well and this has a positive impact on health.” Crouch is from the Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program, Centre for Health Equity at the University of Melbourne. Crouch thinks the focus gay parents have on skill building rather than on traditional gender roles may account for the conclusion of the survey. Certainly, a more accepting and less discriminatory attitude in Australian society, as in other Western societies, may also play a role.
“So what this means is that people take on roles that are suited to their skill sets rather than falling into those gender stereotypes,” Crouch said. “What this leads to is a more harmonious family unit and therefore feeding on to better health and wellbeing.”
315 parents and 500 children participated in this study. Previous research has also found that children raised by same-sex couples grew up healthy with a solid sense of well-being. In fact, an earlier report out by the Williams Institute found that children raised by lesbian couples had higher self-esteem and less disciplinary problems. Another study conducted in 2012 entitled “Adolescents with Lesbian Mothers Describe Their Own Lives,” found that those teens raised by two moms maintained good GPAs. They also have strong bonds to their moms.
There are some questions you’re better off knowing will likely be annoying to queer women.
Who’s the man in your relationship? Who is the man in your relationship? Lesbian relationships involve two women and this question assumes that one of the women is acting as a man. Even if the relationship involves a more feminine woman and a butch woman, this doesn’t mean that one of them is roleplaying as a man. It’s rude to assume so.
How do you have sex? Is this a question you would ask anybody? Why would you think that it’s appropriate to ask a lesbianor bisexual woman? And, there’s more than one way to go about having sex no matter your sexual orientation. Are you really expecting anybody you choose to provide the details of their sexual activities?
If you’ve never had sex with a man how do you know you’re a lesbian? Answer this question yourself by asking: how do I know my sexuality if I haven’t engaged in sex with someone of the same sex?
Are you up for a threesome? Many queer women are affected by this question– especially bisexual women. Just as many, if not more, queer women choose to be in a monogamous relationship and have no interest whatsoever in inviting anybody else to join.
You must not be bisexual anymore since you married a man Just because a bisexual woman enters into a monogamous relationship with a man doesn’t mean that she has lost her sexuality. Although she may not continue to have sex with women, it’s very possible she’s still going to be attracted to women. The fact that she doesn’t act on it doesn’t make it less so.
You just haven’t found the right man This assumes that queer women exist just because they’ve had unpleasant experiences with men. While it may be the case that some of them have had bad relationships with men, the same would apply to heterosexual women. Does this mean that they are going to become lesbians suddenly? No.
Life would be so much easier if I were a lesbian Really? Probably not, especially due to the hate crimes, higher suicide rates, harassment, workplace discrimination, stigma, possible isolation from your family, and the list goes on. This is an insensitive comment to make to a queer woman. Do you really think life would be easier? Choose sensitivity; think before you speak.
Gay News, Lesbian News, Bisexual News, Transgender News, Intersex News, LGBTI News 