Our Genders, Our Rights
NEW YORK, NY - - - The Issues Magazine launched “Our Genders, Our Rights,” its Summer 2009 edition. A unique combination of articles, poetry, art and videos focus on a topic that is both utterly fundamental and wildly revolutionary: gender norms and gender identity.
Top writers discuss sex-selection abortion, gender expression, “Intersex” self-identification and a first-hand account of forced sex roles inside a polygamist compound in Texas.
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Merle Hoffman’s editorial, “Selecting The Same Sex,” provides philosophical and personal insights into the issue of sex-selection abortion.
“There is one place where the definition of gender remains binary — in the womb. When it comes to sonograms, amniocentesis and standard pre-natal testing, there are no nuances. Here, the pronouncement, ‘It’s a girl,’ can translate into fierce and instant parental rejection. The fact is that when the issue is ’sex selection abortion,’ the same sex is always being selected — female.” For Hoffman, this issue highlights questions of ethics, human rights and the moral autonomy of women.
“It’s about separating the chooser from the choice,” writes Hoffman.
In “Busting Bogus Biology and Beliefs” Mahin Hassibi notes: “For centuries, social constructs held that women owed allegiance and obedience to their husbands; children were the property of their fathers, who owned the children’s mothers.” Today, Hassibi says, discoveries in biology and reproductive technology may soon trump historical and cultural restrictions that wrongly limited women’s lives.
“My children would have undoubtedly been among the 439 seized in the raid,” writes Carolyn Jessop of the sweep through the polygamist compound. In, “American Taliban: Sect Controls Women’s Destinies,” Jessop gives an inside view of the abuse, misogyny and control of women’s bodies that continues today.
Writers also plunge into transgender concerns. “Asylum Pitfalls May Await the Transgender Applicant” by Victoria Neilson discusses the difficult process for trans applicants in the U.S. Eleanor Bader’s “Trans Health Care Is a Life and Death Matter” describes a pioneering feminist health program for trans patients in the South.
Photographic performer Tammy Rae Carland visualizes gender fluidity as the featured artist, and art editor Linda Stein conducts an interview with Elizabeth Sackler, whose passion for feminist art resulted in a new center at the Brooklyn Museum.
ABOUT US
On The Issues Magazine (www.ontheissuesmagazine.com) is a progressive, feminist, quarterly online magazine. Read more at the site — free and with archives from 1983. Merle Hoffman is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-genders-o…
Bisexuality 101: Am I bisexual?
Some people would say that everyone is bisexual, but I’m not going to buy into that line. That’s the easiest way to confuse those of you who may be on the fence.
And no, just because you thought about doing something with a friend of the same sex—or maybe even did a little fooling around at one time—it doesn’t mean that you’ve got the “B” label branded on your forehead forever. Nor, does it mean if you’ve never actually had sex with both a man and a woman that you cannot declare yourself a bisexual.
In fact, many people who identify as bisexual have yet to experience full sexual relations with a man and a woman (and it doesn’t have to be at the same time, either!)
Bisexuality, in its simplest form, is the understanding or awareness that you can be attracted physically and emotionally to either gender at some point.
It doesn’t mean that you have to be equally attracted to both, and it doesn’t mean that you have to have regular sex with both genders to be happy or satisfied. And yes, bisexuals can be monogamous, and have one only one partner at a time and be very content. See Bisexuality 101: Am I bisexual?
Examiner.com -
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/bisexuality-1…
In UK RC Church rejects gay parents claims
The Roman Catholic Church has reacted angrily to comments endorsing gay parenthood from a charity with strong links to the Church.
Terry Prendergast of Marriage Care, which is partly funded by the Church, said there was no evidence children were harmed by having same-sex parents.
But the organisation representing Catholic bishops said children need parental role models of both genders.
It said Mr Prendergast, a former priest who has since married, was wrong.
Mr Prendergast made his comments to a gathering of gay Roman Catholics in Leicester.
He told the audience at the Quest conference that same-sex families, along with single and cohabiting parents, suffered discrimination and denigration because they fell short of the Vatican’s definition of what constituted a real family.
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 The views expressed by Terry Prendergast about the definition of family and marriage are clearly not a reflection of the Church’s teaching, nor those of the Bishops’ Conference  Catholic Bishops’ Conference
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Instead, he said, they should be held up as role models and an advert for Catholicism.
Mr Prendergast also claimed that there was no evidence to show that children of same-sex parents suffered in any way, and that the elements that made for successful child-rearing were stable relationships.
But the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales has insisted that Mr Prendergast is wrong.
In a statement, the organisation acknowledged that although it was difficult to define what a family was, the Church still believed that stability for children came from having parents of opposite genders who could provide different role models.
See Church rejects gay parents claims
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/in-uk-rc-chur…
11 transgenders granted bail
Chennai , May 14 Eleven transgenders, who allegedly abducted a minor boy recently at Kovalam near here and forced him into prostitution after castrating him, were granted bail by a sessions court here today.The court also granted bail to the doctor who had allegedly performed the operation on the boy. He was arrested from Cuddapah district in Andhra Pradesh in April.
They have been directed to furnish personal bonds of Rs 10,000 each with two sureties each for like amount and to report before the police whenever required. See 11 transgenders granted bail
Indopia* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/11-transgende…
When a staffer switches genders
Tony Ferraiolo will never forget his first day back at work after surgery. The 46-year-old supervisor’s knees trembled as he entered the windowless headquarters of Madison Co., a switch and sensor manufacturer in Branford, Conn.
Under the curious gaze of his colleagues, Ferraiolo crossed the plant floor and settled into his office. A few minutes later, Madison owner and president Steve Schickler walked in and sat down. “So you’re a ‘he’ now, right?” Schickler asked. Ferraiolo nodded. “Good enough,” Schickler said briskly. “I’ll let the managers know.”
For Schickler, 50, there was no question about what would happen next. Ferraiolo would continue to supervise more than half of the plant’s 50 employees. Life would go on as before, with one small difference: Ferraiolo would no longer use the ladies’ room.
Schickler describes his decision to support the transgender employee formerly known as Ann Ferraiolo through the transition as a no-brainer.
“If you start limiting your choices in staff based on this kind of thing, you’re cutting yourself off from a lot of good people,” he says. “We could have lost a valuable manufacturing supervisor - it was as simple as that.” See When a staffer switches genders @ CNN
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/when-staffer-…
