What is "Transgender"?

What Is "Transgender"?



DVDs of this video are now available at

Gender Identity Project (GIP)

Transgender Basics is a 20 minute educational film on the concepts of gender and transgender people. Two providers from the Center's Gender Identity Project (GIP) discuss basic concepts of gender, sexual orientation, identity and gender roles. Three transgender community members share their personal experiences of being trans and genderqueer. The film targets service providers and others working with the LGBT community, but it also provides a fascinating glimpse into gender and identity for the general public. "Our culture likes to make things simple, and gender isn't." Carrie Davis, Transgender Community Organizer, in Transgender Basics. For more information contact the Gender Identity Project at 212-620-7310 or at

Gender Identity Project (GIP)

She's a Boy I Knew

wwwartflickcom, youtube

'She's a Boy I Knew' is a comic, heartbreaking, and uplifting autobiography, in which filmmaker Gwen Haworth documents her gender transition through the voices of her anxious but loving family, best friend & wife. The film refreshingly looks at a family whose bonds strengthen as they re-examine their preconceptions of gender and sexuality.

The film is currently on the film festival circuit. Check for a screening in your area on the film's website at

She's a Boy I Knew

Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.

Lambda Legal

The Transformation of a Wachowski Brother

"
As we first mentioned almost two years ago, the Wachowski brothers, famous for creating The Matrix franchise, were going through some changes. Primarily Larry Wachowski was transitioning to become a woman.

And, by the looks of things, Larry, who goes by Lana now, seems to have transitioned well!

Lana was recently spotted departing the Los Angeles International Airport looking nothing like she did a few years back.

She's now sporting blonde hair and has opted to get rid of her glasses.

And despite what anyone says, you know if you saw her at the airport, you would have never guessed she was born a dude.

You're looking good Lana. Go on with your fierce self!

Hopefully Wachowski will use his celebrity to create more awareness for transgender people and issues.

And, by the way, we spotted a wedding ring on her finger.

Is she hitched or engaged?"

Texto retirado de perezhilton.com

Two-Spirit

Two-Spirit (also two spirit or twospirit) people are Native Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. Traditionally the roles included wearing the clothing and performing the work of both male and female genders. The term usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body and was coined by contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Native Americans to describe themselves and the traditional roles they are reclaiming. There are many indigenous terms for these individuals in the various Native American languages as "what scholars generically refer to as 'Native American gender diversity' was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples"[1].

As of 1991, male and female bodied Two-Spirit people have been "documented in over 130 tribes, in every region of North America, among every type of native culture".[2]


Terminology

The older term berdache is a generic term used primarily by anthropologists, and is frequently rejected as inappropriate and offensive by Native Americans. This may be largely due to its pejorative etymology as it is a loan from French bardache via Spanish bardaxa or bardaje/bardaja via Italian bardasso or berdasia via Arabic bardaj meaning "kept boy; male prostitute, catamite" from Persian bardaj < Middle Persian vartak < Old Iranian *varta-, cognate to Avestan varəta- "seized, prisoner," formed from an Indo-European root *welə- meaning "to strike, wound" (which is seen in English as vulnerable). It has widely been replaced with two-spirit.[3][4][5]

Two-spirit originated in Winnipeg, Canada in 1990 during the third annual intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference. It is a calque of the Ojibwa phrase niizh manidoowag (two spirits). It was chosen to distance Native/First Nations people from non-natives as well as from the words berdache and gay.[6]


Definition and historic societal role

These individuals were sometimes viewed in certain tribes as having two spirits occupying one body. Their dress is usually a mixture of traditionally male and traditionally female articles. They have distinct gender and social roles in their tribes.

Two-spirited individuals perform specific social functions in their communities. In some tribes male-bodied two-spirits held specific active roles which, varying by tribe, may include:

healers or medicine persons
gravediggers, undertakers, handling and burying of the deceased (Bankalachi, Mono, Yokuts)
burial festivities (Achomawai, Atsugewi, Bankalachi, Mono, Tübatulabal, Yokuts, Oglala Lakota, Timucua)
conduct mourning rites (Yokuts)
conduct sexual rites
conveyers of oral traditions and songs (Yuki)
nurses during war expeditions (Cheyenne, Achomawi, Oglala Lakota, Huchnom, Karankawa, Timucua)
foretold the future (Winnebago, Oglala Lakota)
conferred lucky names on children or adults (Oglala Lakota, Papago)
weaving and basketry (Zuni, Navajo, Papago, Klamath, Kato, Lassik, Pomo, Yuki)
made pottery (Zuni, Navajo, Papago)
made beadwork and quillwork (Oglala Lakota, Ponca)
matchmaking (Cheyenne, Omaha, Oglala Lakota)
mediator between lovers or married persons (Navajo)
made feather regalia for dances (Maidu)
special skills in games of chance
ceremonial roles during and leading scalp-dances (Cheyenne)
fulfilled special functions in connection with the Sun Dance (Crow, Hidatsa, Oglala Lakota)

In some tribes female-bodied two-spirits typically took on roles such as:

chief, council
trader
hunter, trapper, fisher
warrior, raider
guides
peace missions
vision quests, prophets
medicine persons
Some examples of two-spirited people in history include accounts by Spanish conquistadors who spotted a two-spirited individual(s) in almost every village they entered in Central America. There are descriptions of two-spirited individuals having strong mystical powers. In one account, raiding soldiers of a rival tribe began to attack a group of foraging women. When they perceived that one of the women, the one that did not run away, was a two-spirit, they halted their attack and retreated after the two-spirit countered them with a stick, determining that the two-spirit would have great power which they would not be able to overcome.

Native people have often been perceived as "warriors," and with the acknowledgment of two-spirit people, that romanticized identity becomes broken. In order to justify this new "Indian" identity many explained it away as a “form of social failure, women-men are seen as individuals who are not in a position to adapt themselves to the masculine role prescribed by their culture” (Lang, 28). Lang goes on to suggest that two-spirit people lost masculine power socially, so they took on female social roles to climb back up the social ladder within the tribe.

Cross dressing of two-spirit people was not always an indicator of cross acting (taking on other gender roles and social status within the tribe). Lang explains “the mere fact that a male wears women’s clothing does not say something about his role behavior, his gender status, or even his choice of partner…” (62). Often within tribes, a child’s gender was decided by depending on either their inclination toward either masculine or feminine activities, or their intersex status. Puberty was about the time by which clothing choices were made to physically display their gender choice.

Two-spirit people, specifically male-bodied (biologically male, gender female), could go to war and have access to male activities such as sweat lodges.[7] However, they also took on female roles such as cooking and other domestic responsibilities. Today’s societal standards look down upon feminine males, and this perception of that identity has trickled into Native society. The acculturation of these attitudes has created a sense of shame towards two-spirit males who live or dress as females and there is no longer a wish to understand the dual lifestyle they possess.

Two-spirits might have relationships with people of either sex.[8] Female-bodied two-spirits usually had sexual relations or marriages with only females.[9] In the Lakota tribe, two-spirits commonly married widowers; a male-bodied two-spirit could perform the function of parenting the children of her husband's late wife without any risk of bearing new children to whom she might give priority.[10] Partners of two-spirits did not take on any special recognition, although some believed that after having sexual relations with a two-spirit they would obtain magical abilities, be given obscene nicknames by the two-spirited person which they believed held "good luck," or in the case of male partners, receive a boost to their masculinity. Relationships between two two-spirited individuals is absent in the literature with one tribe as an exception, the Tewa.[11] Male-bodied two-spirits regarded each other as "sisters," it is speculated that it may have been seen as incestuous to have a relationship with another two-spirit.[12] It is known that in certain tribes a relationship between a two-spirit and non-two-spirit was seen on the most part as neither heterosexual nor homosexual (in modern day terms) but more "hetero-gender," Europeans however saw them as being homosexual. Partners of two-spirits did not experience themselves as "homosexual," and moreover drew a sharp conceptual line between themselves and two-spirits.[13]

Although two-spirits were both respected and feared in many tribes, the two-spirit was not beyond reproach or even being killed for bad deeds. In the Mohave tribe for instance, they frequently became medicine persons and were likely to be suspected of witchcraft in cases of failed harvest or of death. They were, like any other medicine person, frequently killed over these suspicions (such as the female-bodied two-spirit named Sahaykwisā).[14] Another instance in the late 1840s was of a Crow male-bodied two-spirit who was caught, possibly raiding horses, by the Lakota and was killed.[15]

According to certain reports there had never been an alternative gender among the Comanche.[16] This is true of some Apache bands as well, except for the Lipan, Chiricahua, Mescalero, and southern Dilzhe'e.[17][18] One tribe in particular, the Eyak, has a single report from 1938 that they did not have an alternative gender and they held such individuals in low esteem, although whether this sentiment is the result of acculturation or not is unknown.[19][20] It has been claimed that the Iroquois did not either,[16] although there is a single report from Bacqueville de La Potherie in his book published in 1722, Histoire de l'Amérique septentrionale, that indicates that an alternative gender existed among them (vol. 3, pg. 41).[21] Although all tribes were influenced by European homophobia/transphobia,[22][23][24][25][26][27] certain tribes were particularly so, such as the Acoma, Atsugewi, Dilzhe'e (Tonto) Apache, Cocopa, Costanoan, Klamath, Maidu, Mohave, Nomlaki, Omaha, Oto, Pima, Wind River Shoshone, Tolowa, and Winnebago.[28]

It has been claimed that the Aztecs and Incas had laws against such individuals,[29][30][31] though there are some authors who feel that this was exaggerated or the result of acculturation as all of the documents indicating this are post-conquest and any that existed before had been destroyed by the Spanish.[26][32] The belief that these laws existed, at least for the Aztecs, comes from the Florentine Codex. According to Dr. Nancy Fitch Professor of History at California State University,

There is evidence that indigenous peoples authored many codices, but the Spaniards destroyed most of them in their attempt to eradicate ancient beliefs. [...] The Florentine Codex is unquestionably a troubling primary source. Natives writing in Nahuatl under the supervision of the Spanish Fray Bernardino de Sahagún apparently produced the manuscript in the 1500s. The facts of its production raise serious questions about whether the manuscript represents the vision of the vanquished or of the colonizers [...] colonization of the natives’ minds loomed large in the Spanish project [...] To make matters worse, while it appears that the original manuscript was completed in Nahuatl some time around 1555, no evidence of it remains. Authorities in New Spain confiscated his manuscripts in 1575, and at various times, the Spanish monarchy ordered him to stop his work. The earliest known version of the manuscript is, thus, Sahagún’s summary of it written in Spanish. In 1585, he published a revised version of the codex, which, he argued, corrected some errors and integrated some things ignored in his earlier summary. Sahagún’s revised version is the manuscript commonly known as the Florentine Codex.[33]

– Nancy Fitch, The Conquest of Mexico Annotated Bibliography


Modern societal role

The term "Two-Spirit" is most comfortably applied to contemporary individuals and groups who identify as such, and Two-Spirit men may distinguish between spiritual and cultural practitioners, or "Two-Spirits", and "gay Indians". Modern Two-Spirit activities include:

Knowledge in ritual, ceremonial, religious, and culture
Knowledge and skill in crafts, especially women's
Teaching
Child-care for family and community
Two-Spirit and gay Indian men often report accepting female relatives and communities willing to enforce the closet. Native cultures may be considered to have "indiscriminately" adopted European values including sexism and homophobia and it is commonly argued that being "gay" or "cross-dressing" is not "traditional" or not "Indian". The re-adoption of Two-Spirit roles may be seen then as a healing for both Two-Spirit individuals and Native cultures, and modern Two-Spirit identity is fundamentally concerned with tradition.


People

Historical "Two-Spirits"

Hosteen Klah
Kaúxuma Núpika
Osh-Tisch
Pine Leaf
We'wha
Yellow Head


Modern Self-identified Two-Spirits

Beth Brant
Alec Butler[34]
Chrystos
Carole LaFavor
Rod Michano

Two-Spirit

Gender Identity Disorder: Has Accepted Practice Caused Harm?

As transgender activists protested outside the American Psychiatric Association (APA) meeting, speakers at the meeting were presenting on the same topic: gender identity disorder (GID). Some of their words would add clinical weight to the political slogans.

Some of the speakers are activists themselves, including Rebecca Allison, MD, cardiologist who is transgender, widely published author Sarah Hoffman, whose son is gender variant, and Hewlett-Packard engineer Kelley Winters, PhD, founder of GID Reform Advocates. Winters1 has called on the APA to use the DSM-V revision to affirm that “in the absence of dysphoria, gender identity and expression that vary from assigned birth sex are not, in themselves, grounds for diagnosing a mental disorder.”

Some mental health professionals made the same point in their own presentations. Sidney W. Ecker, MD, a former clinical professor of urology at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, and chief of urology at the Washington DC VA Medical Center, was scheduled to review studies documenting that factors that influence gender identity are present before birth. While social and hormonal influences act later during childhood, he wrote, “gender identity is determined before and persists despite these effects.”2

Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, a professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, Calif, had a message more difficult for psychiatrists to hear. “The mental health profession has been consistently doing harm to children who are not ‘gender normal,’ and they need to retrain,” she told Psychiatric Times. Ehrensaft has specialized in therapy for foster children as well as for children with gender issues.

When she trained in the late 1960s, Ehrensaft said, the attitude of psychiatrists who taught her about such matters was that “children with gender identity issues other than normative are confused and are suffering from dysphoria” and need to be reoriented. That is “diametrically opposed” to what has been found since, she added.

To document the harm that has been done, she cited a January 2009 article in Pediatrics that found homosexual and bisexual young adults to have highly significant increases in a history of depression, illegal drug use, unprotected sex, and attempted suicide if their parents had rejected their sexual orientation.3 That study, in turn, cites numerous others over the prior decade with similar results, although none had previously examined parental rejection.

Ehrensaft said she would advise psychiatrists at her presentation that their role today is to help children understand their gender identity—which may not be what the birth certificate says—and to support rather than pathologize or malign their parents. “There’s more evidence of harm now than even 10 years ago,” she added, “and also a developing field of practice that clearly demonstrates means of helping these kids.”

Protestors are also focusing on the fact that the DSM-V Task Force on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders is being led by Kenneth Zucker, PhD, psychologist-in-chief and head of the gender identity service in the child, youth, and family program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as well as professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto. Zucker has been on the record as saying that parents and clinicians should work to socialize very young children who behave in ways discordant with their physical gender so that they come to identify with it—but that teens who have not done so should be helped to adjust to their discordant gender identity.

A program at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, takes a different approach, offering in-person and online support groups to help families adjust to and help their children work through their own gender identity issues. Edgardo Menvielle, MD, MSHS, director of the program, was curious whether children seen in Washington have different mental health profiles than kids involved with the Toronto program. Based on Child Behavior Checklist ratings, he reported that the Washington youth showed “less pathological tendencies,” suggesting that peer support may “lessen manifestations of pathology in the child.”4

Speaking by telephone before the conference, Menvielle hastened to distance himself from that conclusion. “The implications are not very clear,” he said. “We’re dealing with a population that appears healthier overall, but it could be that we attract different families.”

Menvielle also said there is “a lot of anger about these issues,” and added, “I hope I don’t receive any tomatoes.”

Psychologist Ehrensaft said she’s eager to see studies that compare adults who received treatments intended to “normalize” their gender identities as children with those treated in more accepting environments. Meanwhile, she said, there is a move afoot to change the membership of the Task Force so that it is “more balanced.” She added that she hopes the protests do succeed in reorienting psychiatrists’ thinking about GID.

“We got homosexuality out of the DSM because of protests at the APA,” she pointed out. “Now it’s time to do the same with GID.”


References
1. Winters K. Beyond conundrum: strategies for diagnostic harm reduction. Abstract presented at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting; May 18, 2009; San Francisco.
2. Ecker SW. Brain gender identity. Abstract presented at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting; May 18, 2009; San Francisco. 3. Ryan C, Huebner D, Diaz R, Sanchez J. Family rejection as a predictor of negative health outcomes in white and latino lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults. Pediatrics. 2009;123:346-352..
4. Menvielle EJ. Psychopathology and gender variance in a clinical sample of children. Abstract presented at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting; May 18, 2009; San Francisco.

Gender Identity Disorder: Has Accepted Practice Caused Harm?

What it Feels Like for a Boy: As a Girl

Facial Feminization Surgery (FFS)

Uma pseudo continuação do post Illusion of Sex




E um site muito completo virtual ffs com informações sobre processos de FFS "virtuais" e como obter um aspecto mais feminino sem recorrer à cirurgia.Este site fornece tambem dada uma foto e a um preço definido um aspecto possivel após a FFS.
Por exemplo

Johnny Depp

Antes



Depois


Keannu Reaves

Antes



Depois

Murders of Gay People in Just ONE YEAR After Matthew Shepard

The world is dangerouss for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
trans-gendered people. Please take appropriate precautions and fight
against the hatred!

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs lists the victims as:

Rita Hester, Boston, MA - November 28, 1998 - Stabbed multiple times

Clay Jacquin, Detroit, MI - December 13, 1998 - Beaten to death

Harold Jack Eisenhuth II, Eldora, CO - January 9, 1999 - Bludgeoned to death with a hammer

Lauryn Paige (Donald Scott Fuller), Austin, TX - Stabbed multiple times in the head and torso

Steve Dwayne Garica, Houston, TX - February 6, 1999 - Shot to death

Billy Jack Gaither, Sylacauga, AL - February 19, 1999 - Throat slashed, head fractured with an ax handle, body burned on a pile of kerosene-soaked tires

Alden Hill, Lansing, MI - February 21, 1999 - Died of gunshots to head and chest

Unknown Male-to-Female Transgender, Houston, TX - February 25, 1999 - shot to death

Tracy Thompson (AKA Tracy Turner, Billy Joe Turner), Cordele GA - March 30, 1999 - Struck in the head with a baseball bat

Paul Meroski, San Juan, PR - April, 1999 - Multiple stab wounds in the head, inflicted with an ice pick

Murders of Gay People in Just ONE YEAR After Matthew Shepard

TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation

TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation Mission Statement & Goals

TKPRF is committed to the premise that Gender Identity Disorder is something a child can't control and it is society that needs to change, not them.

TKPRF will strive to encourage families to allow their children the ability to grow-up free of gender roles.

TKPRF is committed to enhancing the future lives of TransKids by educating schools, peers, places of worship, the medical community, government bodies, and society in general, in an effort to seek fair and equal treatment of all transyouth.

TKPRF is committed to supporting TransKids in their school systems so they may receive equal rights in order to ensure a safe and bully free education.

TKPRF is committed to funding research to study the current plight and challenges of the transchild. There are currently no formal studies, books or data that can help guide parents when making decisions for treatment. Families are often met by resistance and healthcare professionals that give them incorrect, and at times, detrimental medical advice. There is an urgent need for curriculum changes in universities and medical school to meet the needs of all transgender individuals.

TKPRF plans to reach out to the homeless youth and those that have no where else to turn. Funds for healthcare, surgery and scholarships can be made available to transyouth in need.

TKPRF is aware that sex and gender are seen and used interchangeable in legal arenas. These two entities are very separate and need to be divided. It is time for the politicians to listen and for the medical professionals to speak up. It is time for the young voices of TransKids to be heard.

TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation