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VA issues directive on care for transgender veterans
This is good news. The Veterans Administration has issued a new directive on providing care for transgender veterans.
From On the Issues Magazine:
The Veterans Administration released a new directive on transgender veterans in June 2011, “Providing Health Care For Transgender And Intersex Veterans.” This directive recognizes the reality of many service members’ lives: the intersection of trans women’s and women veterans’ experience, and the specific needs that they encounter. It’s no surprise that women’s experiences intersect with multiple personal identities and that they are not confined to the traditional sex and gender binary of western society. Earlier in 2011, the National Center for Transgender Equality, a national social justice organization in Washington, D.C., released a 221-page report that created a demographic portrait of transgender people in the U.S., based on an extensive study sample of 7,000 and a rigorous survey review. Released in conjunction with the D.C.-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, one of the findings of the report, Injustice At Every Turn was that 20 percent of the adult, transgender people in the United States are military veterans, as compared to 10 percent of the adult population of the United States who are military veterans. The “Injustice” report had other significant findings, as well. For example, 30 percent of the transgender adult respondents reported having a physical disability or mental health condition that substantially affected a major life activity. By contrast, the overall U.S. population reports a disability at a rate of 20 percent.]]> -
Transgender woman touring Kansas in awareness effort this 4th of July weekend
It’s Manhattan . . . Kansas, where Stephanie Mott on Friday started a statewide tour to raise awareness of transgender issues.
From KTA.com:
Topeka — In an effort to raise awareness about transgender issues, a kick-off rally was held in Manhattan Friday morning. The Kansas Transgender Education Project executive director Stephanie Mott will be traveling throughout Kansas to spread the word about transgender and sexual orientation issues. In particular, Mott will address some misunderstandings people have about lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgendered. “This is wrong. It is wrong to terminate somebody’s employment because they happen to be LGBT. It’s wrong to deny somebody housing because they are LGBT. It’s wrong to say someone can’t come in this place just because they’re LGBT. There’s nothing about who I am that has anything to do with whether or not that I can do a good job or whether or not I’ll be a good tenant or whether or not I’ll come into a place and be an inappropriate customer,” says Mott. From the group’s Facebook page (it may be archived by the time you read this): My name is Stephanie Mott. My dream came true today. Interested persons from the across Kansas gathered to birth the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project (K-STEP) What is K-STEP? It is a group of transgender people, their families, all supporters, and interested professionals (psychotherapy, human resources, education, the faith community) who are dedicated to providing transgender education across Kansas. Thanks to all have supported K-STEP to this point in any way. Get ready, here we come. And last but not (to me) least, see a separate article about Stephanie “finding her way back to Christ” at the Topeka MCC. I repeatedly maintain that one of the greatest harms done to lgbt youth and adults is the lie that our lives are not compatible with faith. That’s not an advertisement – it’s probably easier being gay than being an atheist in a lot of places – but many churches welcome us with loving arms. And don’t you let anyone tell you otherwise!]]> -
Doctors see rise in number of transgender youth
Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf, Postmedia News, Postmedia News The reality of being transgender wasn’t something that ever occurred to me growing up. I was dealing with being a self-aware gay child and the stresses of being openly gay as a teenager, so the fact there were kids going through something even more challenging wasn’t in my consciousness. I think it’s only been in the last decade or so that transgender and gender identity issues have come into the broader public consciousness, and we still have a long way to go. From the Vancouver Sun: At age five, Shamai was a boy in a little girl’s body. He remembers demanding a short haircut and when a lady on the street “mistook” him for a boy, turning to his mother and saying: “This lady knows better than you. She knows I’m a boy.” In her first recollection that something was wrong, Samantha had this vague sense it didn’t feel right to be in a boy’s body. “I didn’t know what it was. I prayed for a while for things to work out.” She was four years old. James was three years old -and a girl on the outside -when he blurted out to his family: “I was a boy before. What happened?” For years it was a family joke. They are transgender youth, all in their 20s now, from different backgrounds but with stories that are similar: moments of childhood clarity when they realized they weren’t who they appeared to be. [SNIP] National statistics are impossible to find, but counsellors and doctors say they’ve been seeing a steady increase over the last five years in the number of young people seeking advocacy groups, hormone therapy and finally surgery for maleto-female (MTF) or female-tomale (FTM) changes. That increase is attributed in part to greater awareness and support within the community, and better access to sex reassignment surgery. B.C., Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland cover costs of the procedure, which is most often performed in Montreal at the Centre Metropolitain de Chirurgie Plastique. While some professionals continue to see gender identity issues as psychological, ongoing research is moving toward the hypothesis of biological changes that take place in the womb rather than environmental influences.
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Transgender woman in England told to use disabled bathroom
A transgender woman who regularly goes to the stadium in Poole, UK, was recently told to use the bathroom for disabled people following a complaint.
From Pink News:
Victoria Saxe-Coburg, 55, was watching a speedway event between Poole Pirates and Wolverhampton Wolves on June 8th when security staff told her in front of other fans that there had been a complaint about her. She was told that another spectator had complained about her using the women’s toilets and was told to use the disabled facility instead. Ms Saxe-Coburg, who transitioned 20 years ago and has been a speedway fan for 40 years, said she burst into tears. “I felt humiliated,” she told the Bournemouth Echo. “There were quite a few people nearby. I always stand in exactly the same place. I felt so humiliated and angry that I felt as if I had to go to the opposite side of the stadium.]]>