Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Gendercast's First Survey!!!

Do you have any experience taking testosterone and/or supplements? Do you have an experience you feel might differ from the “typical vlog transition”? Or do you just want to have a part in Gendercast’s next episode?

Gendercast is conducting a survey about testosterone/supplement use, dosage, going off it, going back on, types, etc. We’d love for you to fill it out and pass it on to your peers. It’s completely anonymous and only takes five minutes max to complete.  We’re trying to get a sense of the actual diversity in hrt availability and choices out there, and better represent the community, so join in and share your experience!


Click here to visit the survey.
 
Here’s the link for the survey to send your friends/peers/co-workers/enemies… :  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QGFY3QP


Cheers,
Gilligan 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Vote for Gendercast!

VOTE Here for Gendercast for best facebook page on Transguys.com!  VOTE DAILY!



We have been NOMINATED FOR BEST FACEBOOK PAGE IN THE 3rd ANNUAL TRANSGUYS COMMUNITY AWARDS.  

You can vote once per day,   Gendercast works to share articles and resources relevant to our platform of social justice to center information (articles and events) about gender AND race, class, ability.  

The TransGuys Community Awards are the only International web awards that honor excellence and achievement by transgender men on the Internet."Nominees like GENDERCAST are setting a standard of excellence and leadership in the online trans male community," said Joshua Riverdale, editor and publisher of TransGuys.com, the website that presents the awards. About the TransGuys Community Awards:Established in 2010, the TransGuys Community Awards acknowledge the tremendous growth of the Internet as an important tool for FTM transition, community building, and raising awareness about issues that affect the lives of transgender men. Honors are presented in numerous categories, including Best Blog, Best Business and the Phoenix Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

TDoR 2012



         -by Gilligan

         For centuries, gender non-conforming individuals have been the target of prejudice, exclusion, and violence.  Some have had a supporter or a few, but many have passed on outcasted, abandoned, and alone. In the last few decades, the LGBTQ, etc. community has started to mark these tragedies in our own way.  And over the last 15 years, the Transgender Day of Remembrance has been established to unify our community, and beyond, to honor the memories and brave lives of all of those who have been murdered for their gender and their strength.

       Gendercast would like to recognize this year’s Day of Remembrance by sending our thoughts to anyone affected by these terrible crimes, honoring those trans*folk who have been killed, and continuing to work to raise comprehensive awareness and compassion for the distance between many trans*people and life in a stable, safe environment. Here, we’ve provided a list of locations, times, and descriptions for anyone who would like to participate in the day’s events.

      

Seattle Events - Nov. 20th 5m-8pm


Meet at Queer Youth Space:
911 E Pike, 202
Seattle, Washington 98122
[QYS is a youth-led and youth-run nonprofit organization that provides the space, tools, and resources queer young people need to be effective leaders, organizers, and advocates.]

  • Food will be! served
  • Creating an altar where we can remember people who we’ve lost to institutional violence as well (lack of access to healthcare, mental health svc, housing, mistreatment in services/ schools/ jobs, etc)
  • Healing Circle– Sound Healing with Zenyu Director Christine Guiao
  • Lighting candles to close and walking/rolling/driving over to Cal Anderson (for community visibility)
  • Folks are welcome to bring item donations or monetary donations for QYS
 
Cal Anderson Park
1635 11th Avenue Seattle, Washington 98119
  • The shelter house is open for folks to stay warm, warm beverages and hand warmers will be provided
  • Resource table will be available– to table, sign up
  • Candle light vigil
  • Reading of names– to volunteer, sign up
  • After the reading of the names, we will let flowers go in the Cal Anderson fountain
Facebook Event Page

UK Events List

International Events List

Are you a student? Remember to check your school/college/university's website for events. Or head up your own!


Cheers,
Gilligan

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Localizing the Movement!



(by Gilligan)
In the coming months , several states will be voting on marriage equality, and at this critical time we want your help to… 

STOP.

Sound all too familiar?

We think so, too. 

We’re looking to put focus on local organizations that work for INCLUSIVE trans* and queer rights and resources – safety, job, health, youth, and more.  And we need your help.  Do you work with a group or project we haven’t talked about on the podcast, or feature on our resource page?  Have you heard of something in your area that you think you might like to get involved with, but you haven’t yet? Now is the time! (I mean, it’s as good a time as any, right?)


Send us your organizations, stories of involvement, and help us build a comprehensive list of trans* and queer support and rights initiatives in the US and beyond.  Hopefully, we can spread the word about these fantastic projects (and the people working with them!) and encourage people to contribute, volunteer, and educate one another, together.  Because every step taken for someone’s right to be safe, healthy, and supported being and doing who and what they want, is a step in the right direction. (And NOT one towards an exclusive, hetero and cisnormative society. Who wants that?)  

E-mail us at gendercast@gmail.com, and be part of the movement that’s working for ALL of us.

Cheers,
Gilligan

Monday, October 1, 2012

Queer Youth (Space)



- by Gilligan 
      This summer I worked at a summer camp. Apart from my many mixed feelings about the intersections of my queer identity (queerity, perhaps?), I had a goal – to start discussions around queer youth experiences at school, at home, with friends, and at camp.  When I was initially assigned to a younger group of kids, I decided to aim for at least ensuring that the hall was a safer space. Luckily, I was added on for another session, and transferred to the West Coast to work with upper middle and high school students.  With a co-worker, I started a discussion group that met three times during the run of the camp.

           I was truly surprised and encouraged by the discussions that were held in those three 50-minute sessions.  I expected that the discussions there might go a little farther than a “typical gsa”-type conversation (if there is such a thing), and I was optimistic that the combination of location and reputation of the camp for social support and openness would foster generally positive and constructive conversations.  And I was realistically predicting that if we got enough participants to continue that far and if they came with respectful and open attitudes, then we might get into one or two really open and helpful conversations, by the last meeting.  By the end of the first meeting, we were talking about fluidity of identity, the variation of queer identities and terms from person to person, and a few students even opened up and shared some coming out stories.  

                Not only were these students able to hold a mature and respectful discussion, without things devolving into a policing war or an entirely unrelated line of conversation (and without much moderation) but they were honest.  They very quickly became able to trust each other, the other leader and myself, and themselves.  They believed in the importance of having such a group, and of making it as safe a space as possible, and they maintained that environment.

                Certainly not ever group is like this and even a majority of high school students today might not be equipped to carry on a civil, relatively safe discourse about LGBT, etc. issues.  But there seems to be a trend towards education, acceptance, and reframing discussions and creating space in a progressive way, at a surprisingly quick rate.  Which is fantastic, as well as critical.

                If we are to work towards a society of compassionate, open, listening adults, then we have to give youth examples to look up to, and environments in which to learn how to do that in a world far from acceptable, let alone ideal.  We have to give them space to feel safe.  We have to guide them into building their own community, so they can own it and continue to foster and recreate it for themselves, as they lead the next generation into their own stage of the revolution.

                In my rather small (about 13 per session) group, in the span of just three weeks, I had a student approach me about a situation in which he felt unsafe and unsure of what to do. Keep in mind, this was in a setting with a strict honor code and very specific policy relating to LGBT, etc. bias and harassment.  This student felt safe to approach me because of the space that had been made and the experiences in that space I, the other leader and, most importantly, the other students, had shared.  I know that this need is much greater throughout the country (and in others); in public and private schools, outside of school, in social groups and academic groups and activist groups and artistic groups and much more.

I’d like to thank the thousands of adults who dedicate themselves to leading and making these spaces available.  Your work is truly invaluable.  You are a gift to our youth and to us, and an inspiration.

                As always, I’d love to hear your experiences and opinions, whether you’re someone who partakes in that space or would like to have one; as a youth, friend, family, leader, or anyone else.  What trends have you seen in youth discussions of LGBT, etc. topics around you? What kinds of queer youth space exist near you?  What are some helpful and not-so-helpful parameters of that space?  Most importantly, why is queer youth space important to you and those you care about?

Cheers,
Gilligan

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Writing About Trans* Loved Ones


Susan Grier (right, with her partner, Trish, left) is a writer specializing in creative nonfiction, and has been published in Dear John, I Love Jane, Trans Forming Families: Real Stories About Transgendered Loved Ones, Thanksgiving to Christmas: A Patchwork of Stories, Women Writers Read, and more.  She lives not far from me (Southern Maryland), and has done some great work to advocate for lbgt, etc. rights in the state. Combined with the fact that she's just an awesome person...this makes her fantastic candidate for the first Gendercast blog interview!  


Enjoy, and many thanks to Susan for sharing her time and reflections with us.  -Gilligan


Gilligan: Can you introduce yourself and tell us your gender identity and anything else you’d like us to know?

Susan:  My name is Susan Grier and I identify as female and lesbian, although the lesbian part was late coming. At the age of 51 and after two marriages to men, I fell in love with a woman and we've been together for almost seven years. My interest in gender identity stems from having raised an FTM transgender child, and I think being a lesbian heightens that interest.


Gilligan:  What sort of projects/writing do you do related to gender identity and exploration?

Susan:  I write from the point of view of being the mother of a trans person. I've written and published essays that touch on the subject, but the story is too large to be contained in a single essay. I'm working on a memoir originally intended to be my story as the mother of a trans child: the bewilderment of having a daughter who didn't act like a daughter; the anguish of watching her suffer and not understanding why as she entered puberty; the shock of finally learning, when she was 15, that she had discovered the word for how she felt, and the word was "transgender"; the process of dealing with the loss of my daughter while simultaneously striving to be a good mother and do everything I could to help my child become the person s/he was meant to be; watching her become him - the voice deepening, body hair increasing, seeing him through chest surgery, and learning to use the appropriate pronouns; and finally, witnessing his courage and strength, which continues today, as he finds the full expression of his whole self as a male and as a human being.
As I've written bits and pieces of this story, though, I've realized that I cannot tell it without also telling the story of my own transformation, from southern debutante living out the traditional roles of wife and mother to a woman prompted, by the experience of raising a transgender child, to examine the origins and unspoken rules of both female and male roles and to ultimately discover my own inability to follow the prescribed path I had followed as a heterosexual female. The story of the two transformations - mine and my child's - are parallel and intertwined.


Gilligan:  How did you come to do this work?

Susan:  What got me started was pursuing an MFA in creative writing, which I completed in 2006. Through the work, I began to write more authentically about my experiences as a female. Ultimately, I wrote myself out of my second marriage and into something else entirely, which I can only describe as a kind of opening beyond those narrow boundaries I'd been raised with to other ways of being, including loving a woman. I began to find my voice as a memoirist. I had been wanting to write a book about raising a transgender child. In fact, the mother of another trans child and I were going to write a book together, but it didn't pan out. In graduate school, I developed the vision and confidence I needed to write the book myself, in a way that most made sense to me.

Gilligan: How does that influence/been influenced by your writing?

Susan:  The MFA was invaluable to me. I realize not everyone needs one, and now they seem to be almost cliché, but I learned so much about good writing, gained the confidence to call myself a writer, and the confirmation that I have a really valuable story to tell.


Gilligan:  How has writing about your experiences impacted how you process and perceive gender identity and transitions, and connect with trans* folk and their friends and family?

Susan:  For me, writing equals examination. Writing about my experiences has forced me to examine so much about gender and gender identity - mine and those of others. I once perceived gender identity as black and white - either you are a male or a female. Now I know there is a gender spectrum, along which are many variations of gender expression. My son found his place as a heterosexual trans man. But others are content in a less-defined place on the spectrum. For example, my partner is a female who identifies with many male qualities but stopped short of being trans. There are people who don't identify as either gender.  I'm perfectly okay with all of this in a way I never would have been if I wasn't a writer.

In addition, writing about my experience as the mother of a trans child allows me to feel that I have something to contribute to the larger community of trans folk and their friends and families. After having an essay published in the anthology Trans Forming Families: Real Stories About Transgendered Love Ones, my son and I were invited to sit on a panel on dealing with one's family at an FTM conference. Afterwards, all these sweet young FTMS came up to me, so hungry for advice and maybe also some mother-love. Having that opportunity to interact with them meant so much to me. At that same conference, I was invited to participate in an evening reading so I got to read my essay in an environment of mutual appreciation, which felt powerful for all concerned.


Gilligan: What are some of the most important things learned from your experiences?

Susan:  I used to think that there was a "normal" way people and families should be; Some call it the "hetero-normal" way of being, which has been defined by heterosexuality. Without thinking of it that way - I had nowhere near the awareness I have now - I see now that I once subconsciously prided myself in being "normal" and could not even conceive of being any other way. I hate to admit it, but I used to look somewhat askance at people who deviated from this normalcy. I thought I was somehow better or superior to them. Now that both my child and I live outside the margins of hetero-normal acceptability, I have much greater compassion for others, regardless of who they are, how they live, or the circumstances they find themselves in. I've learned that the most important thing in this life is connecting with others; we are all floating on that same great sea of humanity. 


Gilligan:  Is there anything you especially want readers to take away from your writings?


Susan:  For general audiences, I hope that as an honest, non-sensationalized account of a mother and child who could be anyone's next-door neighbors, my story helps humanize trans people and create compassion and understanding for their experiences. I believe the story contains some universal truths that apply to any parent or family member struggling to deal with the disappointment of having a child who is not what they expected or hoped s/he would be. My story brings to life the challenges of learning to see and accept those children for who they are, the difficult process of offering them unconditional love and support in becoming the person they were meant to be, and the ultimate reward of being enriched beyond measure by that experience.

For parents of trans kids, I hope the story helps them feel less alone or isolated. I hope those who feel unable to tolerate their child's differences can find comfort and the strength to love and support their child instead of rejecting their child. I hope that they will see that staying connected to their child is more important than anything else.


Gilligan:  Are there any pieces on gender identity and gender-related experiences that you’d like to work on in the future?

Susan:  I think the book is going to keep me busy for the foreseeable future.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Symbols of Identity



 -by Gilligan

Rainbows. Pink. Blue. Circles and sticks with arrows or crossbars. Triangles. Equal signs. Sporks. Green Carnations. 
For centuries, queer/lgbt etc. people have tried to signal safe spaces, identify themselves, and seek out others like them to find understanding, security, love, and support.  The specific symbols have changed from time to time, and so have the parameters of the meetings and discussions that have occurred. 

What hasn’t really changed, however, is our desire as a community to come together to better understand and claim our own place in a world in which we are often invisible, or told to be so.  These symbols thus play an important role in the ways in which we redefine our own identities and set up the discussions and actions we want to have and take.

Not only do they enable us to identify ourselves within our community and to outsiders, but they can establish distinctions between movements within our community.  However, their ability to do so effectively has often been skewed by levels of resources and information available to those both inside and outside of it.  To those not able to be very well connected to queer resources and information, some signs may be unknown, while others may signify a safe person or space (even if others looking for the same thing might shy away from that symbol entirely).  The same diversity in levels of awareness, accessibility, and community involvement that gives those with access to them options, is that which can also lead to identity competitions and isolation (ie. the famed “I’m queerer than you” competition) and miscommunication.

When attending the Philadelphia Trans* Health Conference a month and a half ago, I reached for an unused water bottle that my mother had bought me a few months before.  At that point, I had heard whisperings of the more negative sides of HRC (Human Rights Campaign). But, to me, it had been one of the few established resources I had been able to find, and which I had seen advocating on a broad scale for some of my interests.  I had even printed out a copy of their “transgender guide to coming out” a couple years before, as one of the few pieces of literature I had seen on the subject. Soon after visiting the store on a trip to DC, I learned more about the downsides of the organization and the actual targets of their activism, along with the gaping holes in their policy and practice.  

At that point, I was torn. I thought to myself, should I use that bottle at college, to identify myself as a possible safer resource to other students, in a somewhat subtle way? Or would some students get the wrong idea and shy away from me? I faced a similar choice before PTHC.  Should I take it?  Should I just leave it, because HRC really has done very little to help the trans* community? Should I take it and tape a black “T” over it to signify myself as a resource and acknowledge to combine these three into one the greater work that should be done for the trans* community?  

I chose the latter option.  

But in making that choice, I realized that, just like using labels for our identities, the use of symbols can be useful and make us feel proud and strong, while pointing to differences in perspective.  What one word or symbol means to someone will differ from what it means to someone else.  And the people with whom we’ll be interacting, how we feel, and how we want to be perceived all have to fit together in a tiny space inside that triple ven diagram.  In a world filled with school, work, friends, family, partners, prospective partners, and alone time, that small space becomes a rapidly shifting target.

I don’t really have an answer for the best way to choose.  While I personally like to use certain symbols to identify myself as a potential resource and friend, using those in stealth job situations, or when working with kids (as I’m doing both currently), could out me or jeopardize my job. Do I risk it? Do I use them anyway and prepare for a possible confrontation with my supervisors? Or do I decline, and find ways to let people know I’m open-minded and willing to help, without using queer-specific symbols? There can’t be a right answer – just as with choosing labels and an identity, if one even wants to do so, each person has to find what’s right for them, and do their best to understand, learn about, and respect what others choose to use and why. 

I’d encourage you to really reflect on those choices, though.  What do those labels and symbols say about you now? Five years ago? What might they say ten years from now? What conflicts, fears, exciting moments, and struggles did those choices mark for you?  And, in doing so, those symbols and words become all the more meaningful and powerful.  Which, in the end, is the point.

-Gilligan

Monday, July 30, 2012

TransMission, August 3 and 4, 2012 in Seattle!


Press Release

Queer Social Club’s TransMission Brings the Best of Trans and Queer Art to Seattle and Your Mouth!

TransMission is a showcase of trans and gender queer artists being held at Seattle’s Washington Hall on August 3 and 4. Presented by Queer Social Club, doors are at 8:30 with both shows starting at 9pm.  Each evening  is totally unique,  featuring the best of queer performance art, film, poetry, burlesque, puppets and aerial  artists.  Not only can you feast your eyes on nearly two dozen performers over two nights, you can also actually feast on them! The Kitchen Sink Project will be providing concessions packs each evening, small bites and sips designed to allow the audience to taste the essence of each performer and Eat The Show.  Each evening will culminate with a dance party and several special bonus performances.

TransMission is inspired by an amazing and diverse group of performers and community organizers that want to bring Seattle thoughtful and experimental work produced and performed by the queer and transgender community. The stage show will be hosted by Neon and Leon Beige with Queer Social Club’s Logan Bruch and the dance party to follow will be reigned over by the fierce Lilith Von Fraumench.  Featuring performances by Athens Boys Choir, The Cherdonna and Lou Show, Paris Original, Amber Flame, Max Voltage, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Zusha Rouge, Finn Cottom, Violet Deville, Amaryllis Brindamore, Cory Cunnilingus, Shaktease, Eli Steffen, and Mateo Cruz with films by Olive-or-Oliver, Clyde Petersen, Syniva Whitney and the Seattle Premier of Malic Amalya & Max Garnet’s experimental 16mm  Gold Moon Sharp Arrow and more!

Some people have asked, why TransMission? The answer is simple; Because the gender binary hurts everyone.  It’s fine to be a man or a woman, if that’s what you choose.  But we all get to make that choice for ourselves.  And we get to make up new categories to describe our particular perspective, identity or our general awesomeness.  And we get to change our minds.  We get to change our bodies, but we don’t have to.  We get to change our names, if we want to.  And most important (and most liberating), if we change our minds, it doesn’t mean what we chose before was wrong.  We are ever evolving, ever changing. TransMission is here because revolutions start, in part, with the space art gives us to celebrate the diversity of possibility; to revel in the hard found, hard won identities and voices of the individuals and pieces on a magnificent stage in front of us. So join us for a riotous celebration, an evening of profound perspectives and ideas-both new and old.  It’s a chance to see something amazing, feast, and then set aside our seats so we can kick up our heels. TransMission exists to remind us that there is no one right way to be, just that you can be yourself, whoever that is.  And that’s a revolution. ((Also, a couple of really fun evenings.))


So join us for two very special and amazing evenings of art, food, drink, dance, identity, possibility and community.  Bring your friends, your co-workers, your family and anyone else that enjoys amazing art!  You can get tickets online (and cheaper!!!) at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/254395.  


Accessibility info:
TransMission is an 18 and older show.  
Washington Hall is located 153 14th Ave Seattle, WA 98122
The closest bus lines are: #3, 4 and 27


The show and event will take place in the Washington Hall main stage, located on the second floor.  There is no ramp or elevator to this level.  QSC is committed to finding any possible solutions and offering assistance to overcome impediments this may cause for any and all individuals interested in seeing this show.  If you think you will require assistance please contact the producers at queersocialclub@gmail.com as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly.  


Other QSC Events coming up soon:


Event in anticipation of TransMission!  Small preview party at Studio Current on July 27th (Friday) 8-10 pm.  Space is VERY limited.  RSVP at queersocialclub@gmail.com to reserve your spot.


QUEER SOCIAL CLUB MEET UP 
The 4th Thursday of every month, this is an opportunity to meet people, have conversations and actually hear them!  From 5-8pm at High 5 Pie, located on the corner of 12th/Madison/Union.  The next QSC Social is Thursday, August 9th.