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By MAN8791 · Posted
SIGHTLINES I worship at the point of a gun On Friday nights and Sunday mornings. I pray for peace under the watchful eye of hired men With guns holstered on their hips Who laugh with us Eat with us Pray with us - Dear God, not tonight Not this morning Not my friends Please, not on my watch And I'm fully aware of the irony of the statement Because too often, our ancestors were forced to pray At the point of a gun because they said the wrong prayers In the wrong languages Loved the wrong person Identified the wrong way But today, I do so of my own free will. When I leave, I say thank you - That it wasn't tonight It wasn't this morning It didn't happen while I sang It wasn't my friends Because this week the guns stayed silent. But next week and next week and weeks afterward Could be the week that guns point in, not out And I can't will myself to believe it could never happen here because Someone tried to bomb my Temple, Someone set it on fire, Someone shot up the clinic where I go for healthcare Someone shot up the club my friends danced at So when I pray, I offer a wish to the universe That guns be melted into musical instruments and works of art. If someone wishes to shoot me, They will have to beat works of art into tools for the hand Before they can become instruments of war again. -
By MaeBe · Posted
This is important for us all to keep really close to our hearts, especially as we go through a doubting phase or anxiety wave. I always go to the joy I have found being who I am, a person that does not conform with my birth assignment and the gender I defaulted to for many years. That places me under the trans umbrella and I need to feel comfortable and confident about that. I am so glad you were able to deal with this person and others that confronted you with grace and poise. It seems like this person targeted your session specifically, they didn't want anything from it but to be a thorn in your side. I highly doubt she was there to expand her worldview. It is hard when your goal is to get through the content and someone wants to make the session a dialogue with them only. Challenges to our worldviews are important, they help us shape and define our beings, but that doesn't mean we have to deal with gatekeeping and hate. I wish there was more content like your session available out there. I understand recording such content is a touchy subject, with the speakers and audience being general targets, but gosh it would be nice. I volunteered at the Time to Thrive event for HRC and got to sit in a few sessions, both as a moderator and a couple just as a participant, and it was very energizing. Thank you for being out there any speaking your truth, @Sally Stone! -
By Ivy · Posted
There are all kinds of us. My situation at the time enabled me to begin living full time as a woman, and get onto hormones. I realize everyone doesn't have that option - or want it. I also realize there are people who would consider me not truly transgender because I haven't had the surgery, and probably never will. Whatever… -
By Vidanjali · Posted
Yeah. Trans folk still cannot update or renew FL drivers licenses. Florida part of the lawsuit against updated trans student Title IX protections. Florida suing Biden admin over ban on discrimination in healthcare based on gender. Despite injunctions for individuals of some things including trans youth healthcare and using affirmed pronouns in school, bans still in place. The list goes on. Honestly I have stopped keeping up with news as much as I used to for the good of my mental health. Peace, y'all. -
By Sally Stone · Posted
Post 14 “I’m not Trans Enough” I have mentioned in other posts my affiliation with the Keystone Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. For several years, I facilitated a conference workshop titled “Making the Most of Part-time Womanhood.” Each time I ran the workshop, it was standing room only, so I know for a fact, the idea resonates with many. When I originally planned the workshop the target audience was geared towards girls like me, those who weren’t planning permanent transition. I also expected to attract girls who may have been on the path to permanent transition but because of timing or life circumstances couldn’t. What I didn’t expect as part of my attracted audience were hecklers and naysayers. Thankfully, I only had to deal with a couple of those, but it only takes one to ruin everybody’s day. Sadly, there exists a radical fringe that has permeated our community from the beginning. The fringe mindset holds to the idea that being a trans woman means you were born a woman trapped in a man’s body, and the only recourse is to live as a woman fulltime. Anything or anyone not fully aligned with this idea, is a threat to real trans women. Apparently, my lifestyle choice, and my workshop were just the kind of threats that needed to be eliminated. I was several minutes into the workshop, had just given a short overview of what I was going to cover when one person told me I should make certain everyone in attendance knew that I wasn’t speaking on behalf of trans women, that instead, I should be quite clear that I was speaking as a crossdresser. The comment caught me off guard initially, but I rallied pretty quickly and tried to remind this person that the term transgender was an umbrella term that covered a wide spectrum. Of course, she wanted to argue the point and went on to point out that since I was not going to live my life as a woman on a fulltime basis, I couldn’t be transgender, and then adding cruelty to her rhetoric, she reminded me and my audience that I was nothing more than a man in a dress. I’m pretty non-confrontational most of the time, but her comments really pushed my buttons. I could feel my defensive hackles raising and I knew I had to be careful not to stoop to her level. So, instead of any stinging retorts, and believe me, I was thinking of many, I took the high road and as politely as I could, informed her that if she continued to disrupt the workshop, I would have her removed. She responded by telling me she was going to report me and my workshop to the conference organizers. I told her reporting me was her prerogative, and actually encouraged her to do it immediately as a way of getting her out of the room. She didn’t take the bait and stayed for the entire workshop. Thankfully, there were no further outbursts, but she used all sorts of overt body language to show her displeasure with my blasphemous views. When the workshop ended, she cornered me and continued to berate me, insisting I was a simple crossdresser that tended to make real trans women look bad. I wanted to just let things go, but her cruel comments had pushed me too far, so I reported her to the conference staff. I figured if she had targeted my workshop, it was likely she would target others. Conference officers informed her that her views were outdated, bigoted, and not in keeping with the conference’s commitment to inclusiveness. She was reminded that by persisting in voicing those kinds of views and being disruptive, she wouldn’t be welcome at the conference. I facilitated this particular workshop for four-years, and thankfully, this was the only serious confrontation I experienced. However, there were others that espoused similar views, only they didn’t raise their disagreements to a confrontational level. It bothers me immensely that some within our own community, would seek to marginalize another trans person. Of course, I’m not naïve enough to think our community would be any different than society as a whole. Sadly, there will always be some (only a few, thankfully) who inflate their sense of self-worth by putting down others. It's difficult enough dealing with a general population that doesn’t understand us, but when we are attacked by our own, it tends to hurt even more, and it can cause us to question ourselves. Ultimately, we cannot let others tell us who we are, and certainly, we cannot let them decide if we are trans enough. Being transgender is being transgender, period. Yes, we can be different, but we must remember there is no measurement that ranks how trans we are. Hugs, Sally -
By MaeBe · Posted
I read the postulation as: “what if <insert social media company> was charged by government agencies or congress to create algorithms to identify, collect information on, and for reporting on LGBTQ+ people? So as to target them for “reasons”.” This would be infringement of a few protections in the Constitution & Bill of Rights, but given government’s history with shady surveillance practices we wouldn’t know anything about it until it was likely in use. Probably in the realm of a suspense novel, but we know algorithms used for suggesting content already can identify people’s proclivities—even when they don’t have a clue themselves. So the tech is there, it’s just the dark room conspiracy that would be missing. -
By MaeBe · Posted
How insidious would it be for them to take it easy on the LGB as a strategy to try to create a fracture between the TQ+? There’s enough of the “drop the T” nonsense out there that they could leverage. I’m happy the FLA folx are getting some reprieve though! -
By Carolyn Marie · Posted
I note that most of the "backing off" touted in the article concerns Gay and Lesbian rights. Nothing so far about the anti-trans laws and regulations that DeSantis and his ilk have gotten approved. The only saving graces for our community in Florida have been in the courts. So, as the saying goes, I'll believe it when I see it. Carolyn Marie -
By Vidanjali · Posted
It's kind of like the very slow recovery after a devastating hurricane (which mercifully I've not lived through). Rainbows do tend to appear post-storm. About the Don't Say Gay settlement. Teachers are now allowed to talk about LGBTQIA+ stuff & to be LGBTQIA+, as long as it's not part of the curriculum. So still no formalized education allowed. The overall impression on the culture of Florida and its influence on US and world culture has had its effect. I do consider myself an optimist and a realist, and do not mean to seem pessimistic. It is good that DeSantis has cooled his jets to whatever extent he has. But the collateral damage here (and by extension elsewhere) is palpable. Yes, people rejoice - we can gather once more and celebrate pride. But it seems to require more guts than just a few years ago bc so many h8ers have been enabled and empowered by policies and demonizing rhetoric over the last few years. The wonderful thing about hurricane recovery, returning to that comparison, is that it often brings out the very best virtues in people such as compassion, kindness, generosity, and a deeper sense of fellowship and goodwill. -
By VickySGV · Posted
Seems like they caught him pumping gasoline onto a political fire for sure. I do think that for the time being he has been cooled down a bit. -
By Davie · Posted
It was Fran Jeffery, manager of The Animals, who signed Jimi Hendrix and brought him to England—launching the career of the best guitarist of all time. -
By VickySGV · Posted
I am not completely sure what you mean here. To be "held responsible" means that they have been investigated and brought to justice by any number of legal and financial means. That would be a good thing, and has been done recently in a case for slander and libel where the organization agreed to pay its victims many millions of dollars. In that case the victims were NOT Trans, but the platform was "held responsible". If you mean simply "found to be responsible" by evidence obtained from various credible sources, then of course there are options for the victims to pursue to "hold them responsible" in monetary or terms of personal freedom of the officers. There are many such organizations that do foster hatred of our community and we have taken different forms of action which includes exposing their hatred and intentions to other public media. It is not a "what if" the groups do this, it is done regularly. As long as they are deemed to be private and not government supported, the best we can do is avoid such places. If the site is Government Supported, then there is a chain of legal events that one or many legal organizations that support the Trans Community can bring actions to have corrected via the Courts or other agencies as dictated by law. -
By Davie · Posted
RIP, Doug Ingle, front man of rock band Iron Butterfly, dies aged 78. Singer and organist wrote 17-minute classic In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, -
By Davie · Posted
Florida’s LGBTQ+ residents relieved after easing of DeSantis’s anti-gay laws Past 12 months show evidence of radical change in political climate, starting with judge again allowing children at drag shows. Leaders of Florida’s much-embattled LGBTQ+ communities say the worst of Governor Ron DeSantis’s three-year onslaught against them may be over, with the official start of Pride month celebrations only days away. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/27/florida-lgbt-law-ron-desantis -
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