"Young boys who say they are really little girls, girls who say they want to become men and their families who help cope with their children's extraordinary decisions are the people profiled in this week's edition of "Primetime Nightline."
From a 10-year-old who has felt trapped in the wrong body for years to a "trans-regret," a man who is one of the few people in the world to have changed his gender from a man to a woman and back again, "Primetime Nightline" looks at the issues surrounding transgender:
At 10 years old, with tears in his eyes, Jackie told his parents "I'm a girl and I can't do this anymore." Within months, with his parents help, Jack becomes Jackie.
Vanessa is 19 years old living and working in New York City. Vanessa was born as Pierry. At first, her immigrant family had a difficult time accepting their son as their daughter, but now that she has decided on surgery, they have come to support her.
Five year old Dyson Kilodavis is just like any other little boy except he has loved to wear dresses since he was 2: beach dresses, wedding dresses, disco dresses, cheerleader outfits and especially princess dresses.
Kim Petras, a 19-year-old aspiring teen pop sensation from Cologne, Germany, was born as Tim Petras. Once a boy, Kim started living as a girl with long hair by age 10, and was tormented at school. By the time she was 11 she had found a sympathetic doctor who put her on blocker drugs that suppressed her male puberty.
Charles Kane has what's been called "trans-regret" -- a product of his own extraordinary choices. He is one of the few people in the world to have changed his gender from a man to a woman and back again.
When workers undergo a change in gender, their employers need to address new needs
"IT specialist Brad Sensabaugh can't help but wonder how some of his colleagues at the TD Bank Group in London, Ont., will react when the story of his private life hits the media spotlight.
That he is anything more than the bright, tech savvy 33-yearold man they've come to know and respect in the months since he joined the bank has likely never crossed their minds.Even among those who know his past - that he was once a 'she' - there can be confusion.
'I think I pass very well,' he said in a recent telephone interview about his gender transition.
So unless you get into the nuances of saying, 'I was born female', they don't necessarily know which direction you are going or where you've come from."
Companies in Canada have come a long way in recent years in welcoming diversity into the workplace.
KATHMANDU — Nepal's national census will include a new category for transgender people when counting begins in May, the government said Sunday, in a move welcomed by equality activists.
"Earlier, we had only two categories, men and women. But in the upcoming census, we are including a 'third gender' category," said Bikash Bista, director of the Central Bureau of Statistics in Kathmandu.
Two years ago, the Supreme Court in Nepal ordered the government to enact laws to guarantee the rights of transgender, gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Bista said the court's ruling prompted the new category, though Nepal remains a deeply conservative country.
"We will send supervisors to each household and get the figures of the household, its members and their gender. This is when we count the number of transgenders," he said.
Sunil Babu Panta, Nepal's first openly gay parliamentarian, who runs the Blue Diamond Society pressure group, said that the transgender community was delighted by the decision.
"This shows that the government has started to recognise them. I hope this will help to ensure their rights," he said.
"But challenges remain for the community as they have often been forced to leave their villages and taken refuge in cities due to discrimination."
Nepal plans to complete the census, which takes place every ten years, in two months. About 28 million people live in the mountainous country.
India will also have a transgender category in its 2011 census, the domestic Press Trust of India news agency reported on Sunday, though no government spokesman was able to confirm the plan.
Australia has had gay men and lesbians in the military since 1992, and has recognised their families for spousal benefits since 2008. Now it is going a step further, and will also accept transgender people in the armed forces.
The head of the Australian Defence Force has announced that transgender people will no longer be barred from serving in the nation's military. The move comes 18 years after the ADF repealed its ban on gay and lesbian service members, and two years after it started recognising same-sex relationships for family entitlements.
The chief of the ADF, Air Chief MarshallAngus Houston, has instructed his commanders to “manage ADF transgender personnel with fairness, respect and dignity … and existing medical review provisions; and ensure all personnel are not subject to unacceptable behavior.” Canada, Israel, Czech Republic, Spain and Thailand are amongst nations which are inclusive of transgenders. GayNZ.com is making enquiries of the NZ Defence Force regarding its policies in this area.
I made the fateful decision to go and fight the legal battle to be able to play as a woman and stay in the public eye and become this symbol.
Dr. Renée Richards became a transgender icon in 1977 when she won a lawsuit against the United States Tennis Association. Richards sued the Association for its refusal to let her compete in the U.S. Open women's division following male-to-female gender reassignment surgery. In a landmark decision, the New York Supreme Court ruled in Richards's favor.
Richards started playing tennis at an early age. Ranked among the top-10 eastern national juniors, she won the Eastern Private Schools' Interscholastic singles title at age 15. She captained her high school tennis team at the HoraceMannSchool in New York City and YaleUniversity's men's tennis team in 1954.
In 1959, Richards graduated from University of Rochester Medical School. After serving in the Navy as Lieutenant Commander, she pursued a career in ophthalmology and eye surgery while continuing to compete in tennis tournaments.
At the height of her tennis career, Richards ranked 20th in the nation. In her first tennis tournament as a female, she reached the semifinals in the U.S. Open women's doubles competition. Following retirement, Richards coached tennis star Martina Navratilova. In 2000, the U.S. Tennis Association inducted Richards into its Hall of Fame.
Richards has published two autobiographies: "Second Serve Renée" (1986), also a TV-movie, and "No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life" (2007). She is a renowned eye surgeon and professor of ophthalmology at the New York University School of Medicine.
One of the problems I've long complained about that has had serious repercussion with trans people's levels of acceptance in the African-American community and beyond is our lack of visibility.
Well, the International Day of Visibility wants to to change that.
Too many of us transition, then go into hiding because of the intolerance of society. We grapple with shame and guilt issues instead of being proud of who we are and having the courage to stand up and say 'I am a human being who happens to be transgender, and you will not disrespect me'
Maybe if for one day, we can get transpeople to stand up in large numbers where they don't feel alone, that will subsequently happen.
The International Transgender Day of Visibility seeks to make transpeople less of a mystery to cis folks, point out that transpeople are all around you in your daily lives and have played roles in shaping our culture and history.
This event is also an opportunity for the people who complain about the Transgender Day of Remembrance being 'too somber' to participate in an event that celebrates who we are. It's also another opportunity for our allies to stand in solidarity with us.
As the awareness of this March 31 day increases, it becomes better organized, gets more media attention and people have a year to plan events for TDOV 2011 there will probably be other things attached to the general framework of this day.
I can see future TDOV events with components such as panel discussions on our issues at various venues, trans specific coming out day ceremonies, trans themed pageants or teach ins about our history.
The possibilities and directions this day could take, especially when people put their unique cultural and international stamps on it are endless.
But I hope the overwhelming message that gets out on this day is that we exist, we're proud to be trans people, we are your sisters, brothers and family members.
I also pray that the other message resonating from this day is that as fellow human beings, we deserve to live our lives to the fullest and will not be deterred from doing so.
After a busy Saturday in the Ville that started for me at 8 AM EDT and ended at the Fairness/ ACLU of Kentucky dinner that evening, the TransGriot is once again boarding a flight headed northeast to New York via Philadelphia. This time I'm headed to upstate New York instead of Long Island like I was back in November.
I'm actually traveling to Binghamton, NY, the closest airport to the SUNY-Oneonta campus for my presentation on the campus tomorrow night at 7 PM.
I'm looking forward to finally meeting Dr. Lobdell after months of e-mails and phone conversations and all the SUNY-Oneonta students on campus as well.
I'm planning an interesting, entertaining and informative Trans 101 discussion from a chocolate flavored viewpoint. Of course I'll be leaving plenty of time for questions and answers afterward.
If I can get to a computer while I'm up there, will tell you what's going on during my latest road trip. (No peeps, still haven't purchased a laptop yet)
If you're wondering why I and other trans people spend a lot of time griping about ENDA not moving toward becoming law as expeditiously as possible, this latest story out of New York is evidence why.
A group called Make the Road New York filed a complaint with the NY State Attorney General's office after testing 24 New York City retailers for discrimination.
The group sent a trans and cis person to each one of the targeted retailers to apply for jobs with matching resumes. The resumes matched in respects of age, race, and work experience.
42 percent net rate of discrimination for transgender job applicants... [and] 49 percent of transgender workers surveyed reported that they have never been offered a job in the time that they have lived openly as transgender."
J. Crew was singled out for blatantly violating the New York City Human Rights Law. According to Make The Road NY spokesperson Irene Tung, one of the transgender employment testers, Julian Brolaski, applied at the 5th Avenue J. Crew store and "was treated brusquely, told to fill out an application and was never called.
His testing partner, Leigh Cambre, who entered the store a few minutes later, described a very different experience, 'I filled out an application, was interviewed on the spot and offered a job soon after.'
A separate pair of testers also documented a similar situation.
You can click on the chart to see the distressing results.
One of the things I have consistently complained about ever since I started this blog on New Year's Day 2006 is the GLBT community's glaring lack of inclusion when it comes to African descended transpeople.
My own people can be just as bad. Just as you're sick and tired of being ignored and dissed by the white led GLB community, me and my trans brothers and sisters are sick and tired of being sick and tired of being ignored and dissed by our own chocolate flavored GLB peeps.
For too long you have ignored the 'T' part of the African descended GLBT community. News flash to the GL end of it: some of your trans brothers and sisters happen to be same gender loving people, too.
It's also past time to realize that we can contribute far more to the building and life of the African descended GLBT community than only calling the female illusionists when you want to do an HIV/AIDS benefit show.
Some of us are blessed with skill sets that allow us to be capable of organizing one as well.
Female illusionists, pageant divas or the femme queens of the ballroom community aren't the only part of the chocolate flavored 'T', nor are we defined by our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives to anti-trans violence
There are gainfully employed college educated trans men and women who make up a large chunk of it. We are engaged, politically aware and proud people who are more than willing to step up to leadership roles in this community if given the chance to do so.
I don't want to hear the BS excuse I heard last year when I slammed the trans free 33 Black GLBT leaders list that had no trans people on it that they don't know any trans activists.
Some of you who peddled that weak crap have been too busy partying to get to know ANY GLB activists, much less trans ones. We're out there and it's past time that we start working together to not only help our chocolate flavored GLBT community, but the African descended one as well.
Your trans brothers and sisters take enough crap from society at large and elements of the white run GLBT movement. We don't need it from the GLB people that share our ethnic heritage, too.
With us being three months into the start of a new decade, I hold out hope that my GL community will lead on this issue and finally give us chocolate trans people the recognition, affirmation, help and love that we need from our own people.
As Cyndi Lauper once famously sang, girls just wanna have fun, and trans girls are no different. I like a good party, but as for hanging out in smoke filled nightclubs shaking what mama and hormones gave me, that's an arena for the younglings.
Been there, done that and I've moved on to venues that play live jazz.
Paris back in the 50's and 60's had cabarets that once featured trans performers such as trans pioneers Coccinelle, Caroline Cossey and April Ashley.
So with that history in mind, when I stumbled across these YouTube videos of a Paris nightclub which is billed as a trans hangout, I had Paris' previous trans history in mind.
You may wish to wait until you get home to see it if you're at work.
By now, most people are aware of the Transgender Day of Remembrance that happens every November 20 to memorialize the people we've lost.
Over the years, there have been calls by some trans people to make the TDOR a more happy-happy joy-joy event, to which the founders and others have resisted. TDOR does serve an important function in terms of focusing attention on anti-transgender violence.
Rachel Crandall, the head of Transgender Michigan is one of the people who asked why couldn't the trans community or someone start an event that celebrates who we are?
Then she asked the question that led to the formation of this event, 'Why isn't that someone me?'
Rachel's vision for the Trans Day of Visibility is to focus on all the good things in the trans community, instead of just remembering those who were lost.
"The day of remembrance is exactly what it is. It remembers people who died," she said. "This focuses on the living.
While the event she's organizing will be Michigan centric, thanks to her Facebook page the idea is quickly spreading around the world and other local observances are being organized.
When March 31 rolls around on the calendar, it will lead to an event that we hope will garner just as much or more attention than the TDOR has.
It's Day One of Black History Month. It's the time that we set aside to honor our past, celebrate the present and look forward tom our future.
As the child and godchild of historians I believe that every month is Black History Month, but I've already talked about that in a previous post.
What I wanted to do is focus on the Black History that is being made by people like me, transpeople of African descent.
Some of it sadly has been lost to us because of our invisibility, but there has been a surprising amount of it recorded in unexpected sources like EBONY, JET and Sepia Magazines.
Increasing numbers of blogs like TransGriot penned by African descended transpeople are helping to record the history that Black transpeople are making today for future generations and provide knowledge of role models that African descended transkids can look up to today.
Just like the overall story of our people, we have an interesting one to tell and it's still being written.
I'm more than a little tired of the erasure of the efforts and contributions that Black transpeople have made to the overall GLBT rights movement and making history in the context of living their lives.
We can't allow the contributions of Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major, Alexander John Goodrum and countless others to just fade away. That's a travesty for our transkids who are growing up without knowing that history.
It's also important for cis African-Americans to realize that we trans African Americans are integral parts of the community, not tragic murder victims. We have people who are not only proud to be Black, but are fighting to have our human rights recognized at the same time we fight to advance the entire African American community.
So yes, it's important for cis African descended people to know who our three African American IFGE Trinity winners are. It's important for them to know that Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major were part of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. It's important for people to know who Lorrainne Sade Baskerville is, or what Earline Budd has done to make the lives of transpeople in the Washington DC area a little brighter.
It's important to talk about the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Protest in Philly being not only one of the first instances of a protest organized around trans specific issues. but being a predominately African-American production as well.
And just like I can tick off the top of my head who was the first African-American to do various things or head an organization, cis African-Americans need to know that Zion Johnson was the first African-American head of FTMI.
They need to be aware that Dr. Marisa Richmond was the first African American transperson to be elected a delegate to a major party convention, Dawn Wilson was our first IFGE Trinity Award winner in 2000, and Valerie Spencer was part of the first all transgender performance of the Vagina Monologues in 2004 among the other work she does in the LA area.
African descended people cis and trans need to be aware of Alexander John Goodrum being the founder and director of TGNet Arizona, one of the first statewide transgender organizations in the United States or Avon Wilson being one of the first people to go through the now closed Johns Hopkins Gender Program.
They need to know that NTAC, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition was founded in 1999 with the help of African descended trans and intersex people and the first two chairs of the multicultural organization were African American and Afro Latino.
I've picked up the torch that writer Roberta Angela Dee left when she passed on in 2003. I'll only be able to carry it forward for a certain amount of time before I have to one day hand it off to my successor.
But while it's in my hands, I will do as much as I can to tell our story. It's one of my Prime Directives at TransGriot to document and talk about that history. Because if I don't do it, who will?
Contrary to what some people and our haters may think, African descended transpeople are not only part of the community, we're making Black history as well.
Remember the long and loud bitching I've done over transsisters being ignored when GLBT oriented events or hearings are being held?
Was happy to receive a link to an Edge story about Helena Bushong becoming the first African descended transperson (and the second transperson period) to be invited to and attend a White House strategy meeting.
The invitation was to participate in the Office of National AIDS Policy’s "Women and HIV" discussion. Helena has been an advocate for several years in Chicago. She serves as community co-chair for the HIV Prevention Planning Group, a position with the Chicago Area HIV Service Planning Council and membership with both Illinois ASAP and the Chicago AIDS Foundation.
"For too long, the ’T’ has been silent and I think other parts of the alphabet have attempted many times in litigation and policy-making, to exclude us from this bill or that bill because it’d ’offend’ the religious right," Bushong added. "But now we’re saying we are a community and this is who we are."
Congrats Helena on the history making trip and best of luck in advancing the civil rights of transpeople in the Chicago area and the state of Illinois.
TransGriot Update: Helena recently advised me in an e-mail that she is no longer the chair of Illinois Gender Advocates
It's the first full week of the New Year and the second decade of the 21st century. We in Da Ville have spent the last 48 hours shoveling snow, slip sliding on the highways and byways of Kentuckiana and sliding down the various designated sledding hills since we got dusted with 3.5 inches of snow Thursday.
It's Friday and you know what that means people. Now that I've finished shoveling snow and clearing the sidewalks, time for me to shed a bright spotlight on the fool or fools that embarked and engaged in unleashing a blizzard of BS, buffoonery, idiocy and jibber jabber.
This year, I'm going to put a new wrinkle in the Shut up Fool! awards. From time to time I'll ask the people who are signed up on my Twitter or Facebook page to select the Fool of the Week.
This week I asked the people on my Facebook page who should win this week's award.
The winner this week was David Letterman
Dave did a skit which turned the historic appointment of Amanda Simpson into a stereotypical transphobic sight gag.
Never mind the fact he did so at the same time transphobic reporting on it was happening in the New York Post and the Not Enough Family Research Council was piling on and attacking the appointment.
GLAAD called him on it along with others in the trans community.
“It’s time for us to organize, gather together the clusters of African-American transwomen around the country who are doing positive things in their various communities and talk to each other. We need to befriend and bond with each other. We also need to immediately band together locally while thinking and acting nationally and globally with our transsisters around the world“.
Monica Roberts August 13, 2008
It's time.
I'm envious of the fact that our Asian and Pacific Rim transsisters just formed an organization to do the advocacy and informational dissemination for transpeople across that region.
I would love to see the same thing happen for African descended transpeople, and I'm wondering out loud what's holding us back from doing so?
Yeah, I know we have a lot of issues in the African descended community to deal with. We are taking the brunt of the anti transgender violence plaguing the transgender community as a whole. We have employment issues to deal with. We have faith based haters in our midst that refuse to understand that just because we transitioned does not mean we stopped being Black people concerned about the issues that affect it.
We have medical-health care issues. We have people that feel isolated, powerless and alone. We have self esteem and pride issues that must be addressed.
But addressing those issues and getting to the point where we can solve them will take concentrated teamwork and effort from all of us across the country.
Yes, it will be difficult. There will be disagreements on just how we go about doing it. But do it we must.
The status quo we've been muddling along with for decades is no longer acceptable. We must take charge of our destinies in this decade and not let others speak (or not speak) for the African descended trans community.
For that to happen, it's going to require hard solid thinking, short and long term strategic planning and sustained work it's going to take to make that happen,
If we're not quite ready yet to tackle that project, then my suggestion would be to use the African American Transsisterhood Initiative as a starting point to build a cohesive community.
I would not only love to see better networking capability between African descended transpeople in our various communities come out of that, but also see some genuine friendship from from that as well.
A girl can dream can't she?
But what I would really like to see become a reality is the Black trans community having the same or better community infrastructure that our white sisters have, and do so by the end of the 2K1's.
And I know some of you would like to see that happen as well.
TransGriot Note: Our transsisters in Asia and the Pacific Rim made a little history this month to close out the 2k's. They formed an organization designed to advocate for the rights and the health issues of transpeople across the region.
This is wonderful news not only for transpeople in Asia and the Pacific Rim, but their transsisters on the rest of the planet.
Here's the press release for the Asia Pacific Transgender Network courtesy of Leona's blog.
***
World’s First Asia Pacific Transgender Network Launched to Champion Health and Rights of Transgender Women in the Region
Diverse groups from warias, kathoeys and hijras to be represented
22 December 09, Singapore. Transgender women from 10 Asia Pacific countries and areas are coming together to say “No!” to discrimination and marginalisation by forming the world’s first Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN). After three days of intense meetings, it was decided that the APTN, composed entirely of transgender women across the region, will champion transgender women’s health, legal and social rights.
Ms. Khartini Slamah, Founding Working Group member and Core-Group Chair of the Transgender Programme in Pink Triangle (PT) Foundation, Malaysia, says this represents a milestone in the history of transgender women in the region. She says, “For a long time transgender women have been represented among the MSM (men who have sex with men) sub-population group, but there is now a recognition that we are a distinct demographic with our own unique needs. We wish to be separated from the MSM umbrella and inform The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to stop clustering us under the MSM umbrella. Transgender women are not men – we have different issues and needs. Thus we have formed a network addressing the needs of transgender women only.”
From hijras in South Asia to warias in Indonesia
The group represents a broad spectrum of transgender women from sex workers to career women, from hijras (South Asia), warias (Indonesia), kathoeys (Thailand) and sao praphet songs (Thailand) to specialized interest groups such as youth, Muslims and elderly transgender women.
Ms Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, another Founding Working Group member and one of the most recognizable faces of hijras in India, says she is pleased the community is being represented by the network. She says, “For the first time in history, hijras from Nepal, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are joining hands with our transgender sisters from Asia Pacific to say ‘No!’ to being treated like second-class citizens. We know there is strength in numbers. Together, we can advance and improve the health, legal and social rights of transgender women.”
The network will also tackle issues in the region such as HIV prevalence among transgender sex workers, especially in countries such as Indonesia and Cambodia, where infection rates are extremely high and resources in place are inadequate to ensure access to quality healthcare, as well as to protect the rights of the sex workers.
Outreach activities
The network is developing a workplan for the next two to three years. The Working Group will identify and explore key populations/groups in immediate need of support and plan activities to reach out to these target groups. Transgender representatives have also been appointed from every sub-region and from key sub-populations to rally transgender organisations within their respective sub-regions or areas to become members of the network.
Ms Sitthiphan (Hua) Boonyapisomparn, APTN Coordinator who is based in Bangkok, says, “At this stage, it is important that we develop a comprehensive workplan that addresses the needs of APTN members. We are already in discussion with potential donors and sponsors to explore how they might support APTN programmes.”
For more information about the network or to support its programmes, please contact Ms Sitthiphan at huab2007@gmail.com.
APTN Sub Regions and Key Populations
The APTN is categorized according to seven sub-regions and seven key populations. Each group is represented as follows:
Danisha (Malaysia) for transgender drug users
Jetsada Taesombat (Thailand) for transgender youth
Jin Qiu (China) for China Sub-Region
Khartini Slamah (Malaysia) for senior transgender women
Laxmi Narayan Iripathi (India) for India Sub-region
Leona Lo (Singapore) for Developed Asia Sub-region
Luluk Surahman (Indonesia) for Insular Southeast Asia Sub-region
Manisha (Nepal) for South Asia Sub-region
Prempreeda Pramos Na Ayutthaya (Thailand) for the Greater Mekong Sub-region
Sam Sela (Cambodia) for transgender people living with HIV
Sulastri (Malaysia) for transgender sex workers
Zahida Hijra (Bangladesh) for hijras
Vacant – for transgender Muslims
Vacant – for Pacific Sub-region
About APTN
The mission of APTN is to enable transgender women in the Asia Pacific region to organise and advocate to improve their health, protect their human rights, and enhance their social well-being and the quality of their lives. The network startup is supported by the 7 Sisters Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS, Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM), and Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW)
Boy George has a trans themed song entitled 'She Was Never He' that I like. I finally found a YouTube video of it that y'all can peruse until I catch up on the sleep I lost from my cross country holiday bus ride.
Even though you've digested your Christmas meal by now, returned or exchanged your gifts you didn't like and thrown away the wrapping paper, the struggle continues around the world for trans people to assert and fight for their human rights.
Yes, we are part of the diverse mosaic of human life, and the sooner y'all haters and other people realize that, the better, because we ain't going away.
Keisy and Tamara having a conversation on a Honduras street
Calpernia Addams and Laverne Cox looking lovely at the GLAAD Awards
A protest in Dallas
Trans teen J. Escobar
Transwoman on phone being checked out by 'the menz' during protest in Guatemala
Trans Muslims at a prayer service in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
There have been some recent groundbreaking events taking place for the GLBT community in India that have broken down cultural barriers.
In July the Delhi High Court decriminalized gay sex between consenting adults by declaring a colonial-era ban on homosexuality unconstitutional.
In November eunuchs won the right in a long standing campaign to be listed as 'others', distinct from males and females, on electoral rolls and voter identity cards.
In the wake of the changes in Indian society, the Indian Community Welfare Organization (ICWO), organized and hosted the first annual pageant for Indian transwomen on December 19.
The ICWO is the local organizations that works for the rights of TBLG people in Chennai and drew 120 contestants across India aged 20 to 35 to the city
Besides tiaras for the winners of the 'Miss India' title, crowns were also handed out to victorious contestants in other categories such as "Miss Beautiful Hair," "Miss Beautiful Eyes" and "Miss Beautiful Skin".
So why a pageant? ICWO Founding Secretary A.J. Hariharan told AFP, "We had a meeting of the transgender community some months ago where we discussed various events to bring community members into society,"
After rejecting several proposals including sporting events, "everyone unanimously supported the idea of a national-level beauty pageant," he said.
"We thought it would create an opportunity for the transgender community to showcase their skills, create a platform to address the problems they face - discrimination, marginalization and misconception."
The winner was Karina Shaline, a 25-year-old model from Mumbai. Romi, a 23 year old beautician from the northeastern state of Manipur, was second with local favorite and dance instructor Padmini, 25, grabbing third place.
These ladies are doing wonderful work in the Philippines and in conjunction with transwomen across the Pacific Rim and Asia of doing the work to educate people about trans issues. They also are just openly and proudly living their lives in the process and standing up for their human rights in their homeland.
It gives me great pleasure to share with you the video from Sass' inspiring December 10 UN speech on the occasion of the International Day of Human Rights entitled 'Reclaiming The Lucidity Of Our Hearts'.
It's also another concrete example of what I'm talking about when I say that the fight for transgender rights is a worldwide struggle.
Let me begin by expressing my warmest gratitude to the permanent missions to the United Nations of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, and to the coalition of non-governmental organizations defending the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people. Thank you for making this event possible, and for giving us this opportunity to contribute our voices to this ongoing conversation for change. Our esteemed participants, beautiful beings and profound expressions of this universe. A warm, vibrant and dignified afternoon to each and every one of you.
Burned at the stake, strangled and hanged, raped and shot and stabbed to death. Throats slashed, left to bleed to death. These are just some of the ways transgender people were killed in different parts of the world, in different times in the history of our humanity. These are just the tip, the violent tip, of the iceberg of our suffering. I can go on and on, reciting a litany of indignity upon indignity. But my time is not enough to name all the acts of atrocious cruelty that transgender people experience.
But what is the point of counting the dead bodies of our fellow human beings, of narrating how we suffer, and of opposing violence against us if we don’t challenge the root of our oppression? The sincerity of our intention to address the human rights violations against transgender people rests upon the depth of our appreciation of human diversity, and the breadth of our understanding of why transgender people suffer these indignities.
The root of our oppression is the belief that there is one and only one way to be male or female. And this starts from our birth. Upon a quick look at our genitals, we are assigned into either male or female. This declaration is more than just a statement of what’s between our legs. It is a prescription of how we should live and must live our lives. It is a dictation of how we should think about ourselves: the roles we should play, the clothes we should wear, the way we should move, and the people with whom we should have romantic and erotic relationships. But this belief is so wrong. Very wrong. The existence of people whose identities, bodies and experiences do not conform to gender norms is a proof that this belief is wrong.
Nevertheless, even though the truth of human diversity is so evident and clear to us, we choose to hang on to our current beliefs about gender—a belief that rejects reality and forces people to live a lie. This is the belief that leads to attacks on our physical and mental integrity, the different forms of discrimination against us, and to our social marginalization. This is the belief that led to Joan of Arc to be burned at the stake because she was cross-dressing. This is the belief that motivated the rape and murder of Brandon Teena on December 31, 1993. This is the belief that led to stabbing to death of Ebru Soykan, a prominent transgender rights activist, in Turkey, on March 10, 2009. This is the belief that led to the arrest of sixty-seven Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia for cross-dressing in June this year. This is the belief that keeps the list of transgender people being harassed, killed, and violated growing year after year. And it is very unfortunate that our legal systems, religions, and cultures are being used to justify, glorify, and sanctify the violent expressions of this belief. [Scattered applause.]
So we question, is human life less precious than this belief? Is our right to life, to dignified existence, to liberty and pursuit of happiness, subservient to gender norms? This doesn’t need a complicated answer. You want to be born, to live, and die with dignity. So do we. You want the freedom to express the uniqueness of the life-force within you. So do we. You want to live with authenticity. So do we. Now is the time that we realize that diversity does not diminish our humanity, that respecting diversity does not make us less human, that understanding and accepting our differences does not make us cruel. And in fact, history has shown us that denying and rejecting human variability is the one that has led us to inflicting indignity upon indignity towards each other.
We are human beings of transgender experience. We are your children, your partners, your friends, your siblings, your students, your teachers, your workers. Your citizens. Let our lives delight in the same freedom of expression you enjoy, as you manifest to the outside world your unique and graceful selves. Let us live together in the fertile ground of our common humanity. For this is the ground where religion is not a motivation to hate, but a way to appreciate the profound beauty and mystery of life. For this is the ground where laws are not tools to eliminate those who are different from us, but are there to facilitate our harmonious relationship with each other. For this is the ground where culture is not a channel to express the brutality of our limited perception, but a means to express the [stability?] of our souls. For this is the ground where the promise of universality of human rights can be fulfilled. And we will be in this ground if we let the sanity of our desires, the tenacity of our compassion, and above all, the lucidity of our hearts, to reign in our hearts. Thank you.
