by JoAnn Roberts - CyberQueen

"Fainthearted animals move about in herds. The lion walks alone in the desert." -- Alfred Victor Vigny

Well, frenz, the time has come for all good things to... change... again. Yes, once again, the fickle finger of fate has conspired to confuse and confound you, the reader. The Boss and I have been having a tête-a-tête over multiple publications of the same material. We've decided I will write about the transgender community and politics for TGForum. So, if you're looking for my fashion and style comments, you need to go offline and sign up for the Transgender Community News .

Cripes, if she ain't preachin', she's meddlin'! Recently, the Texas Gender Advocacy Information Network (TGAIN), put out a notice concerning outside interference in tg Texas politics, to wit: "Over the last year there have been a number of murders [in Texas] reported by the press involving transgendered people... Pressure has been applied on the [Texas] NGLTF by [a] transgendered organization and individual not based in Texas. The implication being that neither the task force nor anyone else is taking action on what are being labeled 'a cluster' of hate crimes." Sarah DePalma, who put out the Press Release, was too kind not to mention that the organization making waves is GenderPAC and the individual is Riki Wilchins. According to DePalma, the murders don't appear to have common motives. In some, drugs seem to be involved. In at least two cases, the motive seems to be robbery. Prostitution is involved in a few cases. At this time there simply is no proof one way or the other that these are hate crimes. What has the Texans boiling under their ten-gallon hats is Wilchins' implication that they don't care about tgs and hate crimes. TGAIN recently hosted a very successful lobbying effort at the Texas capital and they surely don't need GPAC messin' in their back yard.

The Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays (PFLAG) membership voted last Fall to be inclusive of transgendered people and family members and friends. They are committed as an organization to securing basic civil rights for transgendered persons, as well as those of lesbian, gay and bisexual loved ones. To that end, PFLAG is taking the extraordinary step of lobbying Congress in favor of tg-inclusion in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) coming up before the 106th Congress. A letter from PFLAG National President, Paul Beeman, and Executive Director, Kirsten Kingdon, will soon go out to Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Barney Frank encouraging them to include transgender people in ENDA. This now makes two major national GLB organizations (the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, NGLTF, is the other) that are tg-inclusive and support tg-inclusive language in ENDA. Can HRC be far behind? You bet. HRC is still not on-board with trans-inclusion.

I wish I could offer similar good news about local Pennsylvania politics. According to word I received from the NGLTF, Pennsylvania was planning Ignite '99 - A Rally at the Rotunda for the Equality Begins At Home (EBAH) week event. The rally's focus was to lobby for legislative actions such as amending current legislation to be inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity and moving forward the twin Civil Rights bills proposed by the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Unfortunately, I hadn't heard a single word about the rally before it happened, and I haven't heard anything since it took place. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Does anybody have any idea what happened in Harrisburg?

The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) has formed a new Standards of Care (SOC) Committee to consider further revisions to last year's major update of the Standards. The SOC address the medical, surgical, and psychological management of gender identity disorders, and therefore directly affect the lives of many transsexual and transgendered individuals throughout the world. The new committee consists of 17 members -- almost twice as many as the last one. It includes all current Board members, all current Officers except Dr. Richard Green who is president, and eight additional appointees. Two members of the new committee are transsexual (Dr. Anne Lawrence and Jude Patton), and one is transgendered (Dr. Sheila Kirk). Kirk and Patton are also HBIGDA board members, as well. The last committee left quite a few issues on the table including: surgery for HIV positive persons; reproductive technologies for hormonally or surgically treated GID patients; mastectomy and orchiectomy in clients who are not perceived to have a gender identity disorder; how to relate to requests for sex workers to have both breasts and a penis; and more. Members of the tg community were not happy with the final proposal for the SOC last year. Hopefully, this new committee will address many of the community's concerns.

I suppose it depends on what the definition of "thin" is. According to a news item out of Madrid, Spain, models who want to strut the catwalks of Barcelona next year face a new challenge -- fatten up or they may be out of a job. The Salon Gaudi in Barcelona, one of Spain's most prestigious fashion shows, has announced that next year it will not accept models who wear less than a Spanish size 40 (U.S. size 8/British size 10). The step was taken to counter the idea that only thin people are beautiful. "I am aware that if we promote the image of skinny women we are hurting our young people, and I am against that," Paco Flaque, director of Salon Gaudi, was quoted by the El Mundo newspaper. Gaudi's move sparked an immediate outcry, with the health ministry saying it was not fair to "illegalize" thin people. Hey, señor, size 8 es flaca. Size 12 es muchas gratias. Olé! (I included this bit because even the terminally politically correct need to stay fashionable.)

What would this column be without some remarks about IFGE? The news, this time, seems to be very good. The board of directors is turning over and the "old guard" is leaving or being replaced in important positions. Linda Buten resigned as chair and left the board to become the Dairy Queen of Kentucky. Replacing her is Pam Geddes from Canada. Abby Saypen, late of the Winslow Street fiasco, resigned as vice-chair and has been replaced by Julie Johnson. Laura Caldwell returns as Treasurer. New members include Carrie Davis, an activist, NYC street counselor, and Director of Operations of GPAC. (Looks like GPAC is grafted to IFGE at the hip, which could be trouble for IFGE if they're not careful.) Nancy Cain moves from Office Manager to Executive Director. All of these changes are very positive. I respect Geddes and Johnson and expect them to bring a new sense of responsibility and integrity to the organization. One thing they might consider is that IFGE has sorely been in need of an Ethics Policy which would provide crucial guidance on conflicts of interest, a problem the organization has been noted for in the past. For example, some board officers serve as officers of other tg organizations. This is a clear cut conflict of interest. It's hard enough to simply serve as board members of multiple organizations without entanglements; it's impossible to serve as officers on more than one board. These people should make a decision which organization they support and then settle into it. To do less gives short shrift to all the organizations involved. Renaissance has an Ethics Policy and I'm sure they'd lend IFGE a copy.

There seems to be a history-deficiency gene running loose in the community. Some people are claiming "firsts" when others have long since been there. Not long ago I had someone accuse me of positioning my Paradise In The Poconos weekend too close to another major national event. Well, there's been a crossdressing event in the Poconos for nearly 20 years and I believe we're the second oldest event in the community after Fantasia Fair. More recently, a certain website was claiming to be the "first" transgender owned and operated web hosting service. Not bloody likely! Transgender Forum was online years before this pretender. Even more recently, a new commercial magazine popped up on the tg scene (no, not TCN) claiming to be the "first" mainstream transgendered magazine to treat the community with "more respect." Buzzzzz -- Wrong! LadyLike, which was created in 1985 has long been on mainstream newsstands and recently made it into Borders, Barnes & Noble, Tower Books, Bookstar, etc., etc. Ya can't get more mainstream than that. Plus LadyLike was the first commercial tg magazine to have a "no genitals" photo policy which even the new magazine doesn't have. And finally, there have been a number of smaller commercial tg/ts magazines out there for a long time, like the Transseuxal News Telegraph (TNT) and the defunct Transsisters. Ya know, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

(Commentary) I turned 51 this year and I think my warranty has expired! Seriously, I'm taking a long hard look at my femme persona of late. As I move toward the "golden years" there's still stuff I want to do with my life and they have little to do with the transgender community, so I'm in the middle of a rebalancing act. For the first time in 12 years, I've got hair on my arms and legs and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I find myself wanting to do more "guy" stuff like work on my vette, build bookcases, and start a model railroad. I've also come to the decision that I'm done with lectures and workshops as JoAnn. It's time for the next generation to make their mark. I feel secure my contributions will be remembered long after I'm gone, so I'll quit while I'm ahead. I have my writing as a creative outlet and I will be in the background cheering on and encouraging (and slapping around if they need it) the new leaders of the community.