BGB BelleView January 1999
(Sorry, people, we're late with the newsletter this month - it'll be distributed at the meeting, after I adjust the attendance attitudes of a few of my employees- Anne)
Next Meeting: Saturday, January 16, 8PM
We=ll be meeting at the First Unitarian Church, corner of 4th and York, Louisville. Doors open at 6, and meeting will start at 8. Meeting agenda is TBA.
News From & For It=s Time, Kentucky!
2 upcoming dates warrant the attention of all those who are working for civil rights. The Fairness Amendment will be introduced January 12, and a date will be set for votes on that date. The chances look favorable at this time. The Community Strategy Session For Fairness Reintroduction >99 will be held Thursday, January 14, 7-9PM, at the Metro United Way Community Room, 2nd Floor, 334 E. Broadway (near Preston), Louisville. There is ample parking behind the building. Put on your thinking caps and share your best ideas for getting a trans-inclusive Fairness Amendment passed in >99 - it will take all of us to make it happen! Mark March 21-27 on your calendar. Equality Begins At Home is a nationally coordinated set of actions that will focus the spotlight on the organizing challenges and legislative battles faced by the GLBT community in State Legislatures and in city government. Those who attended the December Party will recall that Mandy Carter mentioned this event, which is being held simultaneously across the country. ITKY will be coordinating with the Fairness Alliance to be a part of this, and since the AStanding United@ conventions coincides with the dates, any coordinated effort that we can offer is just fine. Contact KFA at 502-897-1973 for details.
Register Now For Standing United
The AStanding United@ Conference is Off and Running
By Alison Laing
Having a neat facility with a very amiable and competent staff is really a good start. I was thrill as I toured the conference meeting rooms, the party areas and the overall quality of the Holiday Inn Louisville Downtown. The management and staff were obviously very TG friendly as we had already signed the contract and they still treated us all royally. Congratulations on having done such a good job.
As we now move out into the details of planing the program, inviting special speakers, arranging for the entertainment, it is apparent that this conference promises to one of the best ever. But, and it is a BIG BUT !, we need to remember, that no matter how great it is, if no body comes then it is a bomb!
Each one of you, who is a member, or even just a friend the BGB, IFGE, or other local TG group member, please consider you self as a marketeer for this even. Talk it up. We need to really pump up the local TG community as we have had a late start. One of the good reasons that IFGE moves the convention to a different place each year, is to make it possible for those who cannot travel, to be able to attend at least one conference every decade or so. In addition, and I can speak from personal experience, having a convention in your own back yard will increase your local membership and strengthen your leadership. If you have even a modicum of general local publicity, you will have local
closeted TG persons who will finally step out to attend a once in a lifetime gathering of kindred spirits. It can be expected that we will have national leaders and experts on various areas of interest in attendance. You will also have a chance to get to know local experts who may in fact become part of your own personal support team.
SO mark the big weekend, March 17 through 20, 1999 on your calendar. Plan on being there. Plan on helping. Plan on making new friends, meeting old friends and getting to know TG persons from around the continent. Plan on getting some real education; and plan on having the time of your lives! It was great to be there in December. I enjoyed spending time with Dawn, Anne, Angela, and Marjorie. H A P P Y 1 9 9 9 ! & caring love to you all. See you at Standing United!
Our Time In Eden, By Anne Casebeer
On A Foggy Night
Most people take time this time each year to try to figure out where they are headed for the next 12 months. I really admire people who can proceed with no plan, but I can=t live that way. Unfortunately, the best laid plans go awry, and as a result, some of the plans I=m committing myself to are pretty murky. I=m at a personal crossroads in a lot of life=s areas right now, and happen to be a bit anguished about all of the facets of my life. 1999 looks like a year of turmoil, to be truthful.
December 12th, Amy McCorkle and I attended the Tennessee Vals= Holiday Party in Nashville. It was the usual fine event that I=ve come to expect from our Tennessee friends, and Dallas Denny gave a thought -provoking talk. It was a nasty, rainy night, and Amy had the passenger seat reclined on the trip back to Louisville, leaving me alone with the faces coming out of the rain. She had a wonderful time, loved meeting everyone, but she=d taken a 13-mile training run that morning and was exhausted, so I let her slumber in peace. I actually enjoy driving through a dank, foggy, rainy night; it conjures up a certain mood that is personified by the long, mellow wail of a tenor saz and the croak of a rough voice. On this night, the wipers were keeping time, the cruise control was set at a slow 53 mph because of the foul driving conditions, and Tom Waits was croaking out of the speakers. Wonderful, except for all the dark thoughts of the future. I can=t disguise the fact that the past few months have not been very pleasant for me personally, and I was very worried about future prospects. We can go through life=s daily slams, but we don=t often get the time to figure out why, and I finally had that time, or at least 3 hours, to deal with life. The major dilemma is the fact that we can=t add hours to our days or days to our weeks, so things have to be removed from the schedule instead, and limits set.
I have a tendency towards dark moods, and I guess that=s why I feel a certain comfort on a foggy night.
Alison's Visit/Taking The Ball
On December 16 and 17, Alison Laing and her wife were in town to help with organizing the convention, and it was a real pleasure to meet with them. The more dealings I have with Holiday Inn Louisville - Downtown, the more convinced I am that we=re in good hands. Alison shared our opinion, and helped us get organized for the next legs of convention planning. We will soon have a lineup of presenters and vendors, and the entertainment and events are already arranged. Now, promotion is paramount. We must sell this to our friends and acquaintances, and all of us are the salesmen. After our talks on the 17th, Alison, Dawn, Angela, Marjorie and I traveled to Cincinnati for CrossPort=s holiday bash, which was fun and well-attended. We participated in the ritual Apassage of the football,@ in which the Nerf football that each group hosting an IFGE convention has signed is passed to the next hosting group. It=s now being stored in a silver icebucket in my parents= china cabinet, and one of these days, the convention logo will be there. Anyway, Alison Laing called the signals, Linda Buten snapped the ball, and it was then passed in the general direction or a certain trollop. Angela took a dive at it, but she does not have the hands of Keyshawn Johnson or the balance of Cris Carter. It rolled under a nearby table, but she showed remarkable second effort by recovering the fumble before any opposing teams could take possession. It never left her grasp the rest of the evening. I have dibs on the bomb to be thrown to the next hosting group, and warning: I still can throw a football very deep, even closing in on 40 as I am!
I was generally pleased with how BGB=s holiday party went, and it was very nice to be able to welcome Mandy Carter as our speaker, as well as our friends Ann Thomas and Jennileigh Love from Nashville, and Emily Singleton, who is becoming a regular. I hope all of you can come when you can. The food was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed Mandy=s talk. It was also very nice to see the large number of S/Os who came, and I hope that also becomes a regular occurrence. I=d like to encourage those of you who support us TG folk to meet amongst yourselves and talk at times, and also let us know what we can do to support you. Without you, we=re nothing.
Emotional Weather Report
Many people really enjoy the holidays. For me, they are to be endured rather than enjoyed. I work twice as hard as normal, and get half the satisfaction for doing so. In addition, it seems that I am constantly refereeing the disagreements of others, and I take these things to heart, the minor arguments that become major. Added to my normal load, it became too much to handle. Impetuously, I dropped my load on a couple friends via email. A couple years ago, nobody would have been there but ESPN. Instead, on Christmas Day, I received a couple of very uplifting calls from Dawn, Marj, and Sarah Fox, wonderful people, one and all. After escaping the store, RuthAnn and Angela insisted that I go to the movies with them, AWind in the Willows@ to be exact. With the help of these people, the cold front and major winter storm that was traveling across the western regions of my mental health passed well.
Being as busy as I have been has caused an elegant situation to arise; I=m actually so busy with TG matters that I haven=t had the time to be femme as much as I need to be. It=s caused real problems, so much so that I=m questioning my gender status again. Is it crossdressing, or is it more? I=m going to get past the convention, then later in the spring, I=m going to take the time to speak at length to a good gender therapist. I=m no stranger to therapy, but up until now, I was okay being an out CD, but I=m not so sure anymore as I near Apocalypse 40, and, like most CDs, I=ve asked myself plenty of times if I=m really a TS in denial. It=s something that I=m either going to begin to pursue or rule out permanently in 1999. I wouldn=t go full time until my parents pass on, but transition is a long process. We=ll see. In the meantime, I think I=ll go on a diet again, and get these rotten knees in shape again.
There=s a certain mood that strikes on acold, rainy night on the open road, and this year is shaping up as being a murky mess. However, rain passes, clouds disperse, and the sun brings warmth and light. My friends are like the warmth of the sun, and I count many of you in this group as rays of sunshine.
Flip Wilson Passes On
LOS ANGELES -- Flip Wilson, who became the first successful black host of a television variety show with his turns as sassy Geraldine, the Rev. Leroy and other characters he mined for ethnic humor, died Wednesday, November 25. He was 64.
Wilson died of liver cancer Wednesday night at his Malibu home with his daughter, Michelle, by his side, said Angie Hill, the comedian's assistant. He had undergone surgery Oct. 2 for a malignant tumor that was close to his liver.
"He passed very peacefully in his sleep," Ms. Hill said.
NBC's hit "The Flip Wilson Show" showcased the comedian's talents and brought a rare black voice, if sometimes stereotypical one, to TV during its 1970-74 run. While breakthrough actors like Bill Cosby on "I Spy" and Diahann Carroll in "Julia" had roles that downplayed their racial identity, Wilson reveled in such characters as Leroy, pastor of the "Church of What's Happening Now," who Wilson said was based on a preacher he listened to as a child. "I was very impressed with him, and I was always amazed that he wasn't well educated," he said in a 1971 New York Daily News interview. "But in his simple way, he was dynamic and exciting."
Geraldine, with Wilson in wig, high heels and a colorful minidress, was perhaps his most famous character. Her spunky catch phrases -- "The devil made me do it" and "What you see is what you get!" -- became part of the national language. "The secret of my success with Geraldine is that she's not a putdown of
women," he once said. "She's smart, she's trustful, she's loyal, she's sassy. Most drag impersonations are a drag. But women can like Geraldine, men can like Geraldine, everyone can like Geraldine."
As for racism in the world of television, he said in 1971, "It would be ridiculous for me to say anything negative regarding blacks having an equal opportunity on TV. After all, I was number one in the ratings four times last year and twice this season."
Clerow Wilson was born into poverty on Dec. 8, 1933, in Jersey City, N.J., and raised in foster homes, quitting school at 16. He served four years in the Air Force, and earned the nickname "Flip" for his irreverent humor when he began entertaining the troops. Discharged in 1954, Wilson spent more than a decade working at odd jobs and developing a comedy act in small clubs. When Hollywood began to seek out black entertainers in the '60s, his career took up an upward turn. Wilson made his TV debut on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in 1965, and that led to frequent appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Laugh-In" and on comedy series including "Love, American Style." A variety special in which he starred in September 1968 led to his own series, which earned him an Emmy for performing and one for writing in 1971. It took competition from a new drama, "The Waltons," to knock Wilson's show down in the ratings and off the air.
The comedian was divorced about the time his show ended and he won custody of his children. "I wanted to devote the same amount of time to my kids as I had to the show," he said in a 1985 interview with The Associated Press. He ended his absence from TV with guest appearances and then with two series: the 1984 quiz show "People Are Funny," on which he was host, and
the 1985 CBS' sitcom "Charlie & Company," which co-starred singer Gladys Knight. Both shows were short-lived.
He is survived by sons Kevin and David, and daughters Stacey, Tamara and Michelle.
Associated Press, 11-27-98
HRC To Finally Support TG Issues
The Human Rights Campaign's Board passed the following resolution expressing strong support for public and private initiatives that counter discrimination based on real or perceived gender identity:
"The Human Rights Campaign strongly supports public and private initiatives to counter discrimination based on real or perceived gender identity. We acknowledge the extraordinary work of transgender organizations and leaders and view them as important friends and powerful allies. The Human Rights Campaign is committed to a mutually beneficial relationship with the transgender community. It is our hope that such a relationship will help inform and craft a shared vision of a world that honors and respects all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."
TRANSFORMATION
How Transgendered Issues Have Become a Part of HRC's Work
By Shannon Minter
When I began working for the National Center for Lesbian Rights in 1993, transgender and transsexual issues were scarcely a blip on the screen of national lesbian and gay groups. Most lesbian and gay leaders would have been hard-pressed to discuss trans issues in any meaningful way, or even to
clearly define the word "transgendered." Although much remains to be done before trans people are fully accepted and included in the gay rights movement, trans activists have done an extraordinary job of propelling transgendered issues into the forefront of lesbian and gay policy discussions and political debates.
The questions we have confronted are important and not yet fully resolved. Should transsexual women be allowed to participate in women-only lesbian events? Should lesbians who transition to become female-to-male (FTM) transsexuals be allowed to remain in lesbian organizations? Should lesbian
and gay legal groups represent transgendered and transsexual clients? Should laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation be drafted to include, where possible, gender identity as well? It is probably safe to say that every national lesbian, gay or bisexual group has been profoundly affected by these debates, or has at least begun to consider how to include trans issues in its organizational work.
As the largest lesbian and gay political organization in the country, the Human Rights Campaign is an influential participant in these discussions.Given HRC's visibility and national role, it is not surprising that it has come in for a large share of criticism from trans activists who are frustrated at the pace of change and fearful that trans people will be left to struggle on our own, without the support of the very communities and
organizations we have helped to build. These criticisms have ranged from demanding that HRC add the word "transgender" to its mission statement to protesting that "gender identity" is not included in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
As a transsexual person, I understand on the most visceral level why the trans community feels left out, but there is a great deal of misinformation about HRC's efforts on behalf of trans issues and its commitment to including transgendered people in its work. In the past three years, HRC has taken a number of steps to educate itself about trans issues, to establish an alliance with trans activists and trans groups, and - most importantly - to work with trans people to develop and implement a long-term strategy for advancing transgender and transsexual rights.
In September 1995, HRC flew a number of transgender community leaders to Washington for a meeting with Executive Director Elizabeth Birch and senior staff. At this meeting, HRC committed to support an amendment to ENDA that would add protections for the transgender community and to work with the
transgender community on hate crimes legislation. A month later, HRC ran the first of several lobby skills trainings for
transgendered activists. HRC also provided the services of Chai Feldblum, an HRC consultant and highly respected Georgetown University law professor, in drafting legislative language on gender identification. The next year, HRC invited GenderPAC to join the Hate Crimes Coalition, which takes the lead in passing federal hate crimes legislation. Jessica Xavier, a well-known trans activist, made a presentation to HRC staff. That March, Elizabeth Birch submitted testimony on behalf of HRC to the Senate
Judiciary Committee on the Hate Crimes Statistics Act stating that the bill should include the transgendered community. She also met again in November 1996 with representatives of the transgender community to listen to our concerns about ENDA.
In January 1997, HRC set up and attended, with representatives ofGenderPAC, a series of meetings with ENDA cosponsors in Congress to begin educating them on transgender issues and to assess the level of support for a transgender-inclusive ENDA. Every office visited indicated that the general educational work needs to be done on transgender issues before such
legislation would be viable.That April, HRC invited me to a luncheon to discuss discrimination against transgendered and transsexual youth. HRC staff attended along with representatives from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National
Organization for Women and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Among its other transgender-related work last year, HRC attended congressional meetings and a press conference as part of a national transgender lobby day and helped get members of Congress to sign a letter to the Justice Department asking it to provide all assistance possible to the trans community on hate crimes. HRC Senior Policy Advocate Nancy Buermeyer attended the annual International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy in Houston in 1997 to learn more about transgender issues and to hear the thoughts and concerns of participants. HRC has continued to expand its work on behalf of trans people in 1998.
This past March, HRC invited me and Nancy Nangeroni, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, to make a presentation on trans issues to its boards - a session that I believe was well-received. And I continue to meet with HRC staff and other trans leaders to discuss opportunities for us to work together. HRC was also instrumental in getting gender identity in the Hate Crimes Prevention Act currently before Congress. And, this past spring HRC cosponsored a legal roundtable on gender and sexual orientation with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GenderPAC.
My point is simple: While HRC isn't doing everything the trans community has asked, we should give it credit for the trans-inclusive work it has done and continues to do. It's important to change a group's name and mission statement, and I hope HRC will do that in the future. But those changes are meaningless if they are only cosmetic. Words are certainly powerful, but the proof is in the action.
Minter is staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. He is also a former board member of the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy and a member of Female-to-Male
International.
$2.8 Million Award in
Tyra Hunter Wrongful Death Suit
A Victory for Transgendered People Everywhere
By Sarah Fox, PhD.
[QUILL: Washington, DC, December 12, 1998] On August 7, 1995, Tyra Hunter, a preoperative transsexual woman and highly successful hairstylist, was critically wounded in an automobile accident when a motorist ran a stop sign and broadsided her car. Finding today that she died in part because of negligence by the DC Fire Department and malpractice by the DC General Hospital, a jury awarded $2.8 million in damages to Margie Hunter, Tyra's mother.
When three DC Fire Department EMTs, including
Adrian Williams, removed Ms. Hunter's slacks to assess her bleeding at the 1995 accident scene, they discovered her male genitalia. One of them exclaimed, "This ain't no bitch. It's a nigger. He's got a [phallus] and balls." Treatment was immediately discontinued. The EMTs ridiculed the still-conscious
Ms. Hunter, allowing her to bleed profusely on the pavement while horrified onlookers begged them to render aid. Treatment was resumed only after Fire Chief Otis Latin arrived at the scene.
Still conscious upon her arrival at DC General Hospital, Ms. Hunter was given a medication to paralyze her. She died about an hour later from blood loss. According to expert testimony, Ms. Hunter would have experienced "sheer terror" from
feelings of intense suffocation. That, combined with drug-induced paralysis and the probable memory of the EMTs hateful remarks, paints a macabre picture of Ms. Hunter's final moments.
A deposition by attending physician Joseph Bastian
states that while Ms. Hunter lay dying in the ER, the EMTs continued ridiculing her in a nearby visiting area. They became so disruptive that the hospital staff reported them to the police.
The jury attributed Ms. Hunter's death in part to the
EMTs' refusal to administer critical first-response aid and in part to the malpractice of Dr. Bastian. According to expert testimony, Ms. Hunter would have had a 71-88% chance of survival with prompt, competent attention. The trial was riddled with unlikely testimony and missing evidence: EMT Adrian Williams testified he assumed Ms. Hunter was a man as he approached her and rendered aid, failing to notice that she had breasts, makeup, women's clothing, a woman's hairstyle, and white nail polish. One subpoenaed DC General employee disappeared to Africa until late December. Important patient records were physically altered. Blood gas results and X-ray films were all lost.
Ms. Hunter's treatment has so incensed the American
transgender population that activists have discussed it prominently when lobbying the US Congress for hate crimes protection. Tyra's story is surprisingly commonplace and speaks to the fears of most
transsexuals, who sometimes feel pressured to undergo expensive sexual reassignment surgery and to alter their legal documents specifically to avoid such nightmares. It is disappointing that criminal action was not taken and that the offending EMTs were neither disciplined nor reprimanded, despite widespread complaint from Washington citizens. Still, the victory today is a
milestone. Today a jury ruled that a transgendered person's life is worth protecting. Today the transgendered population became a bit more human in the eyes of the public.
In the words of transgender activist Jessica Xavier, "I
think they came to see Tyra as an ordinary human being, just trying to make her life work, when it was taken from her by the proven negligence of city health care professionals whose duty it was to treat her. This is a victory for transpeople everywhere."
Dr. Fox is a transsexual woman, neurobiologist, and
Communications Director for the transgender/bisexual/lesbian/gay education and advocacy organization, It's Time, Ohio!.
Sherrie Speaks
Hello. You all do not know me, so let me introduce myself. My name is Sherrie. I am Angela's oldest, and most favorite teddy bear. I've been with her for a long time now. This month, I am writing her article for her, because she cannot seem to stop crying long enough to get the job done, so I am pinch-hitting for her this month. Don't tell her that when she isn't around I read her diary!
Even without reading her diary, I know a lot about her, I am smarter than the average bear, as my friend Yogi always liked to say. When Angela adopted me, she was still Rick, and Rick lived with her parents....that's a long time I have been in her life. And because I have been in her life for such a long time, I tought perhaps I would give you all an insider's look at the person you know as the Trollop. Some of this I gleaned from her diary, much is written in there about her past before she adopted me, much of it, I gleaned from her web page...yes, I also use her computer when she isn't here. A lot of what I will tell you about, though, come from first-hand, personal experience. I have seen a lot in the time since Angela became my mommy.
When Angela first became my mommy, she was known as Rick. And Rick was not a very happy person. I could tell that she was not happy by the way she would talk to me, sometimes, the times I would see her crying, and, yes, she also does talk in her sleep. At the time, Angela was very unhappy, because she was forced to present a mask to the world...a mask which hid her entire being. You see, Angela is the child of an alcoholic, and this has caused her to deal with many problems that, thank God, few of us ever have to face.
The adversity she faced all those years living with her father built up a lot of anger in Angela, and this was not helped by the fact that Angela could not be Angela. I have seen her father hit her, kick her, and push her through closet doors and walls. I have heard Angela cry herself to sleep at night after her father verbally abused her all night, while she continued to serve him drink after drink. On more than one occasion, Angela wished aloud that she were dead.
When Angela moved out of her parents home, I came with her. I thought that perhaps she now would find happiness. It didn't happen that way. She was carrying around with her a lifetime worth of abuse and horror, and even she did not know the full extent of it then. As a result of this lifetime of abuse and horror, she had built up a substantial reservoir of anger. Anger manifests itself in strange ways, often causing the person to hurt the people she cares about. Sometimes, this anger comes out at the worst possible times. She had not learned to control her anger, and I do not think she has even to this day.
Shortly after we moved out of her parents' home, Angela began to be around more often, since she was no longer restricted. I thought perhaps this would find her happiness, but it did not. She began therapy for her gender issue, and shortly therafter, began taking hormones. Two months after that, Angela became a woman all the time...I would never see Rick again. Some months after that, in the course of her therapy, Angela uncovered the darkness of the horror she had undergone...memories she had blacked out...Angela was a victim of incest, at the hands of her own brother.
I thought that perhaps with this revelation, and the help of her therapist, perhaps Angela could come to terms with her past, and perhaps then she would find happiness. However, that did not seem destined to come to pass. She began having trouble with her jobs, because of her gender transition, and money becsame very short. Eventually, things got so bad for her that she and I were forced to move yet again, this time, to another state, Kentucky. And I am glad that during that trip, Angela was nice enough to place me on top of all the junk she managed to cram into her little Pontiac, which never quite made the whole trip!!
We finally arrived in Kentucky, in June of 1997. She quickly joined another gender group, in fact, it was the Bluegrass Belles, now BGB. It seems that over that period of time, she was not always happy, she had job troubles, and the pains of leaving her home. All the while, her anger continued to manifest itself in ways which conspired to give some people the very worst impression possible of her.
She told me last night that she is going to try to get some help in dealing with her anger. She is going to start with Adult Children of Alcoholics. But, nonetheless, she is still crying. We talked about this a bit last night...and the reason she is crying is because, just lately, the transgender community, over the past three months, has been causing her more heartache than joy, and she is considering getting out, and not hanging around anymore...she told me that she feels like no one wants her there, anyway.
Let me tell all of you something, and you can take this from me, Sherrie. Angela is not a bad person, she is a person with problems...problems that, thankfully, few of us ever have to face. The definition of a support group is a group of people who will stand by a person when she needs help. They do not expect immediate results, and they should expect some setbacks. She will not change overnight, and anyone who expects her to is being unreasonable...right now, what Angela needs is for everyone to back off, and quit criticizing her for every little thing she does wrong. This is not helping her, it is only making her feel worse, and continuing a vicious cycle. If you truly want to help Angela, then you need to be patient, and be there for her. If you cannot, or will not do this, then the best thing you can do, at this point, is simply to leave her alone.
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