Queer Korea Festival speech & Seoul Pride Parade 2015 (6.28.15)
(퀴어문화축제 & 퍼레이드)

I’m Pauline Park and I’m honored to have been invited to speak to you today. I would like to thank the march organizers for the invitation and especially Kahye and Candy from the Queer Korea Festival and I would like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to address you as the LGBT community in Korea marks an important milestone — not merely the celebration of LGBT pride but also the victory over those reactionary forces that tried to prevent this event from taking place at all.

But movements are like that: one step backward, two steps forward. I speak from personal experience, having been involved with LGBT activism for 21 years now. If I had had a child the year I first became involved with LGBT activism, he/she would be old enough to legally drink in New York state. And speaking of which, sadly, our campaign for a transgender rights law in New York state is still stalled in the New York State Senate 13 years after it was first introduced.

But the good news is that we have made tremendous progress in the United States since I first became involved with activism back in 1994, including enactment of the transgender rights law by the New York City Council in 2002 after a successful campaign that I led through the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA).

Our most spectacular victory came earlier this week, when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality, guaranteeing same-sex marriage rights in all 50 states. It is my sincerest hope that the next time I return to Korea that all of my Korean brothers and sisters will enjoy the same right to marriage.

But of course, both here as well as in the US, there are so many other items on the community’s agenda that deserve just as much attention as marriage. Youth and elders, police and criminal justice system reform, bullying and bias-based harassment in school, health care access, immigration, etc., etc. There is so much more work to be done, but we’re making progress in the US just as here in Korea. And it thrills me to see the LGBT community come of age in the country of my birth. And what a truly great honor it is to address you on the occasion of my first return to Korea since I left here at the age of seven months.

Even if I had had an memories from back then, I would not be able to recognize the city of my birth after half a century of dramatic change. When I left here, it wasn’t long after the popular uprising that overthrew Rhee Syngman and it’s even possible that my birth father participated in that revolution. So perhaps I was born to make revolution.

Less than a month after I left Korea, Park Chung-hee came to power in a coup d’etat. I ronic that I return for the first time in 54 years only to find his daughter living in the Blue House. So maybe there’s another agenda item for change to consider. We need fewer princesses and more queens in power. We also need someone more willing to support the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and less willing to be complicit in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. And the LGBT movement — which is becoming more global by the day — needs to embrace a global agenda of social justice for all rather than confining itself to a limited agenda of legal rights for some.

And Koreans need to embrace their LGBT brothers and sisters to make Korea truly a national family and home for all. So my message to the people beating drums out there to protest this event is that they should be beating drums for freedom and not for oppression for acceptance and not prejudice. They worship a God I don’t recognize — a judgmental, homophobic and transgenderphobic God who is the opposite of the Gold of love I know. Their hate may be strong, but our love is stronger, and love will ultimately vanquish hate. I t is my hope that the next time I come to this event, the ajima in hanboks waving their Bibles at us and beating their drums will be joining us to celebrate LGBT pride. And it is my hope that on my next visit to Korea, the  Seould city government and the National Assembly will have enacted LGBT rights legislation protecting everyone from discrimination. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has said, the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. Thank you. Kamsamnida.

Pauline Park is chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA).

You can watch a video of this speech on YouTube as well as Cory May’s video of the speech and the festival and pride parade.

Korean translation by Joanne Lee:

콜린 박입니다.

이자리에 서게 되어 영광입니다 기획단 여러분께 감사인사를 드리며 특히 캔디와 가혜님께 감사드립니다

제가 여기서 발언하게되어서 기쁘고 이 축제는 한국의 LGBT 여러분에게 중요한 이정표입니다

LGBT 자부심 뿐만 아니라 반대하는 사람들에 대한 승리라고 봅니다

하지만 운동은 그렇습니다 한걸음 뒤로 가면 두발자국 앞으로 가는 것입니다

제 경험을 토대로 말씀드리면 LGBT운동에 21년간 몸담고 있습니다

제가 처음 LGBT 단체에 몸 담았을 때 아이가 있었다면 그 아이는 뉴욕주에서  합법적으로 술을 마실 수 있는 나이가 되었을 것입니다

하지만 슬프게도 뉴욕주의 트렌스젠더 인권법은 여전히 13년 전 트렌스젠더 인권법이 소개됐을 때부터 지금까지 제자리입니다. 하지만 좋은 소식은 제가 처음 활동에 몸담기 시작한 1993에 비해 엄청난 진전이 있다는 겁니다.

가장 놀라운 성과는 이번 주에 일어났죠. 바로 미국연방대법원이 동성결혼에 합헌이라는 역사적 결정을 내린 것입니다.

제가 다시 한국에 돌아오게 되면 꼭 한국의 모든 분들도 같은 권리를 누릴 수 있었으면 좋겠습니다.

하지만 동성결혼만큼 주목 받아야 할 사회적 이슈가 아직 많이 있습니다.

우리의 청소년들과 형사정의체제개혁, 학원폭력, 편견과 차별, 의료법 이민자 문제 등이 그 예입니다.

한국과 같이 미국도 앞으로 나아가고 있고 제가 태어난 이곳에서의 LGBT커뮤니티 진전을 보게 되어 기쁩니다.

제가 이곳을 떠났을 때는 이승만 정권이 끝났을 때였고, 아마 저의 친구도 이승만 정권에 저항하기 위해서 싸웠을 겁니다.

그래서 제게도 그런 저항의 피가 흐르고 있는지도 모릅니다.

그 후에 박정희 전 대통령이 쿠데타를 일으켜 정권을 장악하였고, 아이러니하게도 54년이 흐른 후 한국에 돌아왔더니 그의 딸 박근혜가 정권을 이끌고 있었습니다.

지금 이 사회는 공주님들보다 리더십 있는 여왕들이 더 필요합니다.

또한 팔레스타인 이슈에서 많은 관심이 필요합니다. 팔레스타인 땅에 이스라엘이 점령하고 있는 것에 더 많은 사람들의 비판의 목소리를 해야한다고 생각합니다

LGBT운동 또한 단순히 어떤 하나의  아젠데에 묶여있는 것이 아닌 동성혼 합법화와 같은 다양한 이슈에 집중할 필요가 있다고 생각합니다.

여기 계신 모든 분들도 다같이 앞장섰으면 좋겠습니다.

지금 저 멀리서 북을 두드리며 이 행사에 반대의 목소리를 내고 있는 사람들을 보십시오.

그들은 내가 알지 못하는 신을 추앙하며 포비아적이고 혐오로 가득 찬 메세지가 하나님의 메세지라고 외치고 있습니다.

저들의 메세지는 강렬하지만 저희의 사랑이 훨씬 위대하고 강력합니다

그리고 결국 저들의 혐오는 우리의 사랑으로 정복되고 말 것입니다.

제가 다음에 이 행사를 다시 찾게 되면 지금 한복을 입고 북을 두드리는 저분들이 LGBT를 응원하고 있으면 좋겠습니다.

한국 정부가 LGBT 인권을 보장한 법안을 발의했으면 좋겠습니다.

예전 마틴 루터 킹이 연설했듯이 역사는 길지 모르지만 그 혼은 정의의 방향으로 굽어있다고 했습니다.

감사합니다.

The post Queer Korea Festival speech & Seoul Pride 2015 (6.28.15) appeared first on Pauline Park.

TRANSGENDER
Tragic Trans? Nope!

The American series “Transparent” makes the subject gender identity now also popular in Germany. In America, the debate is far more. A visit to the transgender center in Queens, New York.
By Claudia Steinberg
Die Zeit
9 April 2015

A rainbow flag between Isabel’s Hair Salon and the mini supermarket shows the way to Pride House: the center for queers and transsexuals on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. There sits on voluminous sofas and office chairs a group of transsexuals, lesbians and bisexuals. The atmosphere is relaxed. Until a woman of indeterminate age dressed in black with a glamorous Chinese shawl draped around her shoulders, takes her place. Pauline Park is the founder and director of Pride House. The group discussion includes dramatic tales of family disputes and unease with their assigned gender identity that feels wrong.

Everyone has known for a long time about Laura’s attempted suicide. Gene reported on the visit of his beloved grandmother from China and how she did not understand the transformation of her granddaughter into a boy and the difficulty she was having accepting his new gender identity. Dylan is computer programmer and longs for acceptance from his ex-wife and his children as he contemplates his transition. June wants to find a new job as a woman, but her doctorate and all her excellent work experience is under her male name.

Since the debates of the 1970s, gays have been able to integrate into the mainstream, leaving transgendered  individuals as an exotic community of outsiders. Their stories of redemption still have entertainment value in a way that the story of a gay couple with a dog and a house in the suburbs has lost. Meanwhile transgender has become the new hot topic, even among the general public, as a civil rights issue, as glamor factor, as a television series. In universities, transgender is challenging gender boundaries under the flag of queer studies. In October of last year, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the ability to change one’s gender on birth certificates without sex reassignment surgery. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has demanded that health insurance companies pay for sex change operations. The New York City jail, Rikers Island, one of the largest prisons in the world, set up a special department for transsexual inmates because prisons are dangerous places where they often have to endure violence and sexual attacks. Ten years ago a film like “TransAmerica” – in which heroine Bree transitions from man to woman – was still exceptional. Beginning this week, you can go to Amazon.com to find a German-language version of the series “Transparent” (as in, a parent who is transsexual); it has already won a Golden Globe award and has a good chance of attaining cult status.

The writer and director of “Transparent,” Jill Soloway, was inspired by the gender metamorphosis of her own father to create a funny and empathetic call for gender freedom: As Mort’s three daughters are grown up, he risks his coming-out and suddenly comes through the door as a woman with a long hair, in high heels and in a pretty dress. The astonishment is great, especially since Papa Mort surprises his daughter in an intimate embrace with her girlfriend. The series celebrates not just “the birth of a new mother from the female I of the Father,” but also “boygirl, girlboy, macho princess and officer slutty sweet bear,” encouraging them to affirm the identity of their choice. With this anti-dualistic conception, Soloway has wiped away the stereotype of the tragic tranny, the audience of millions demonstrating the possibilities of bold self-determination.

Pauline Park has situated her Pride House in one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world: In the school kitty corner, 84 languages are spoken. At Pride House, there are clients from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Each year, the site provides approximately 6,000 interactions with residents from throughout Queens, New York’s second largest borough in population. Pride House has a database of lawyers and doctors accumulated over the course of two decades from whom transsexuals can hope for respectful behavior, working with psychotherapists or psychiatrists together. Immigration and health care are the most important issues. Pride House provides HIV tests, distributes 50,000 condoms a month, and helps homeless clients to find accommodation. “Transsexual teens often end up on the street,” says Park.

Pauline Park’s compassion for people like Laura or Gene is based on her own complicated biography. In 1960, American adoptive parents took two malnourished twins from Seoul. The boys were only eight months old and were the only non-white children in their elementary school. They found themselves in a Christian fundamentalist Republican family. In the first semester of her philosophy degree at the University of Wisconsin, to Park came out as gay. But that was only half the story. The other half came to light when Park took a scholarship to London and there increasingly appeared as a woman. She calls it the most liberating experience of her lives: “For the first time, I presented myself as I saw myself.” Finally, there was her reading of Michel Foucault, through which Park freed herself from the burden of supposedly inauthentic Korean identity and the sex/gender binary, unmasked as a social construct. “I started to accept me as” a male-bodied woman “and as Korean adoptee.”

At home in the sexual and cultural ambiguity, Pauline Park makes a radical theorist and activist who is at loggerheads with the “transgender establishment” in America and the “classic transsexual transition narrative.”

Page 2/2: The gender identity disorder still has the status of a mental illness

After conducting hundreds of training sessions and workshops at universities, hospitals, government agencies and companies Pauline Park is very familiar with all the prejudices that circulate about transsexuals. “Most participants expect me to tell them something about hormones and surgery. But while I begin by talking about that, I focus on trying to explain how many barriers a transsexual must overcome in a hospital visit.” Since 9/11, almost every public building has required showing an identity card. If one’s ID is in a male name, but the person appears as a woman, she will not be able to get beyond the guards. The next hurdle is the form on which you have to check ‘male’ or ‘female.’ If the patient Joanna is sitting in the waiting room, but the name John is called, it can expose her to astonished glances.

The linear transformation from male to female and vice versa is presented to the public on countless talk shows, from Oprah Winfrey to Barbara Walters – with guests who talk about being trapped in the wrong body and want to corrected that state of affairs through hormones and surgery. A change in legal sex designation can actually reinforce the sex/gender binary if it is based on the disease model of transsexuality. In 1974, homosexuality was removed from the diagnostic manual of mental disorders, which instantly ‘cured’ millions of gays. At the same time, the American Psychiatric Association introduced the diagnosis of gender identity disorder, which was recently changed to gender dysphoria, but which retains its status as a mental illness. Consequently, all transgendered individuals are still considered mentally ill.

Park conceded that the dissonance between the assigned gender identity and internal feeling, especially coupled with transgenderphobia, can lead to depression. But that would implicate a diseased society rather than the individual. She wants more than a few crumbs from the table at the Department of Health and isn’t willing to accept them at the cost of pathologizing the community. She regards transgender identity rather like left-handedness, with transsexualism as a natural variant of the dominant gender identity, not a form of deviance. Whoever would like sex reassignment surgery should have the opportunity to get it, says Park. But in contrast to the traditional transgender discourse only a tiny minority would undergo these serious interventions. The majority is situated on some point in the wide spectrum between masculine and feminine. A subversive concept that can result in open conflict in the choice of a public toilet in New York as elsewhere.

NB: This article appeared in the 9 April 2015 issue of Die Zeit under the title, “Tragische Transe? Nö!.” The original German text is below. The above English translation is mine. ~Pauline Park

TRANSGENDER
Tragische Transe? Nö!

Die amerikanische Serie “Transparent” macht das Thema Geschlechtsidentität jetzt auch in Deutschland populär. In Amerika ist die Diskussion längst weiter. Ein Besuch im Transgender-Zentrum in Queens, New York.

Von Claudia Steinberg
Die Zeit
9 April 2015

Eine Regenbogenflagge zwischen Isabels Haarsalon und dem Minisupermarkt zeigt den Weg nach Pride House: ins Zentrum für Queers und Transsexuelle auf der 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. Dort sitzt auf voluminösen Sofas und Bürostühlen eine Gruppe von Transsexuellen, Lesben und Bisexuellen. Die Atmosphäre ist ausgelassen. Bis eine schwarz gekleidete Dame unbestimmten Alters, glamourös einen chinesischen Schal um die Schultern drapiert, Platz nimmt. Pauline Park ist die Gründerin und Direktorin von Pride House. Sie weiß, gleich wird die Stimmung abstürzen, mit dramatischen Erzählungen von Familienstreit, dem Aufflammen von Unbehagen an der zugewiesenen Geschlechtsidentität, die sich falsch anfühlt.

Alle wissen längst um Lauras Selbstmordabsichten. Gene berichtet vom Besuch seiner geliebten Oma aus China, die über die Verwandlung ihrer Enkelin in einen Jungen so verzweifelt war wie er über ihre Unfähigkeit, seine neue Identität zu akzeptieren. Dylan ist Computerprogrammiererin und sehnt sich nach einer “Rückwärtskompatibilität” mit der Ehefrau und den Kindern aus ihrem früheren Leben als Mann. Ihre Kollegin June sollte sich bei der Suche nach einem neuen Job einfach als Frau vorstellen, findet Dylan – doch Junes Doktortitel und ihre ganze exzellente Berufserfahrung laufen unter ihrem Männernamen.

Seit sich die Schwulen nach den Debatten der siebziger Jahre in den Mainstream eingliedern konnten, sind Transgender-Individuen als exotischer Rest der Außenseitergemeinde übrig geblieben. Ihre Erlösungsgeschichten besitzen noch immer jenen Unterhaltungsfaktor, den ein schwules Paar mit Hund und Haus in der Vorstadt längst verloren hat. Inzwischen ist Transgender das neue heiße Thema, es ist sogar in der breiten Öffentlichkeit angekommen, als Bürgerrechtsproblematik, als Glamour-Faktor, als Fernsehserie. An den Universitäten rüttelt es unter der Flagge von Queer Studies an den Geschlechtergrenzen. Im Oktober des vergangenen Jahres plädierte der New Yorker Bürgermeister Bill de Blasio für die Möglichkeit, das Geschlecht auf Geburtsurkunden ohne operative Umwandlung ändern zu können. Der New Yorker Gouverneur Andrew Cuomo hat verlangt, dass Krankenversicherungen für Geschlechtsumwandlungen aufkommen. Das New Yorker Gefängnis Rikers Island, eine der größten Strafanstalten der Welt, richtet eine Sonderabteilung für transsexuelle Häftlinge ein, weil Gefängnisse für sie zu den gefährlichsten Orten zählen, wo sie oft Gewalttätigkeit und sexuelle Attacken erdulden müssen. Vor zehn Jahren war ein Film wie Transamerika mit seiner vom Mann zur Frau transformierten Heldin Bree noch eine Ausnahme. Von dieser Woche an kann man über Amazon auch auf Deutsch die Serie Transparent sehen (parent wie Eltern und trans wie transsexuell), sie ist schon ausgezeichnet mit dem Golden Globe und hat beste Aussichten auf einen Kultstatus.

Die Autorin und Regisseurin von Transparent, Jill Soloway, hat sich von der Gendermetamorphose ihres eigenen Vaters zu einem witzigen und empathischen Aufruf für die Geschlechterfreiheit inspirieren lassen: Als Morts drei Töchter erwachsen sind, wagt er sein Coming-out und kommt plötzlich als Frau mit langer Haarmähne, auf Stöckelschuhen und im hübschen Kleid durch die Tür. Das Erstaunen ist groß, zumal Papa Mort dabei seine Tochter in inniger Umarmung mit ihrer Freundin überrascht. Die Serie soll nicht nur “die Geburt einer neuen Mutter aus dem weiblichen Ich des Vaters” feiern, sondern auch “boygirl, girlboy, macho princess and officer sweet slutty bear” zur Identität ihrer Wahl ermutigen. Mit dieser antidualistischen Auffassung hat Soloway das Klischee der tragischen Transe mit Schwung hinweggewischt und einem Millionenpublikum die Möglichkeiten kühner Selbstbestimmung vorgeführt.

Dieser Artikel stammt aus der ZEIT Nr. 15 vom 9.4.2015.

Dieser Artikel stammt aus der ZEIT Nr. 15 vom 9.4.2015.  |  Die aktuelle ZEIT können Sie am Kiosk oder hier erwerben.

Pauline Park hat ihr Pride House an einem der ethnisch vielfältigsten Orte der Welt angesiedelt: In der Schule schräg gegenüber werden 84 Sprachen gesprochen. Im Pride House erscheinen Klienten aus Kolumbien, Ecuador, Mexiko, China, Indien, Pakistan, Bangladesch oder von den Philippinen. Die Einrichtung verzeichnet jedes Jahr rund 6000 Interaktionen mit Bewohnern aus ganz Queens, New Yorks zweitgrößtem Stadtteil. Pride House hat in zwei Jahrzehnten einen Katalog von Rechtsanwälten und Medizinern angesammelt, bei denen Transsexuelle auf respektvollen Umgang hoffen können, man arbeitet mit Psychotherapeuten oder Psychiatern zusammen. Immigration und medizinische Versorgung sind die wichtigsten Themen. Pride House vermittelt HIV-Tests, verteilt pro Monat 50.000 Kondome oder hilft obdachlosen Klienten, eine Unterkunft zu finden. “Gerade transsexuelle Teenager enden oft auf der Straße”, sagt Park.

Pauline Parks Mitgefühl für Menschen wie Laura oder Gene ist in ihrer eigenen komplizierten Biografie begründet. Im Jahr 1960 nahmen amerikanische Adoptiveltern zwei unterernährte Zwillingsbrüder aus Seoul in Empfang. Die Jungen waren erst acht Monate alt und wuchsen nun auf als die einzigen nicht weißen Kinder der Umgebung. Sie waren in einer christlich fundamentalistischen, republikanischen Familie gelandet. Im ersten Semester ihres Philosophiestudiums an der University of Wisconsin offenbarte sich Park als schwul. Doch das war nur die halbe Wahrheit. Die andere Hälfte kam zum Vorschein, als Park mit einem Stipendium nach London zog und dort immer häufiger als Frau auftrat. Sie nennt es die befreiendste Erfahrung ihres Lebens: “Zum ersten Mal präsentierte ich mich so, wie ich mich sah.” Schließlich war es die Lektüre von Michel Foucault, die Park von dem vermeintlichen Fluch einer inauthentischen koreanischen Identität befreite und die binäre Geschlechtsbestimmung als gesellschaftliches Konstrukt entlarvte. “Ich begann, mich als ›körperlich männliche Frau‹ und als koreanisches Adoptivkind zu akzeptieren.”

Dass sie sich in der geschlechtlichen und kulturellen Ambiguität so beheimatet fühlt, macht Pauline Park zu einer radikalen Theoretikerin und Aktivistin, die mit dem “Transgender-Establishment” Amerikas und seiner “klassischen Version der Geschlechtsumwandlung” auf Kriegsfuß steht.

Seite 2/2: Die Geschlechtsidentitätsstörung hat immer noch den Status einer Geisteskrankheit

Nach Hunderten von Schulungen und Workshops an Universitäten, in Kliniken, Regierungsstellen und Unternehmen ist Pauline Park bestens mit allen Vorurteilen vertraut, die über Transsexuelle kursieren. “Die meisten Teilnehmer erwarten, dass ich ihnen etwas über Hormone und Operationen erzähle. Aber das Thema berühre ich kaum. Ich versuche zu erklären, wie viele Barrieren ein Transsexueller etwa bei einem Krankenhausbesuch überwinden muss”. Seit dem 11. September verlangt nahezu jedes öffentliche Gebäude das Vorzeigen eines Ausweises. Wenn der auf einen männlichen Namen lautet, die Person jedoch als Frau erscheint, wird sie möglicherweise nicht über den Wachtposten hinauskommen. Die nächste Hürde ist das Formular, auf dem man “männlich” oder “weiblich” ankreuzen muss. Wenn die Patientin Joanna im Warteraum sitzt, aber als John aufgerufen wird, ist sie verwunderten Blicken ausgesetzt.

Die lineare Transformation vom Mann zur Frau und umgekehrt wurde der Öffentlichkeit in zahllosen Talkshows von Oprah Winfrey bis Barbara Walters nahegebracht – mit Gästen, die sich im falschen Körper eingesperrt fühlten und diesen Missstand mit Hormonen und Operationen behoben. Mit der Umkehrung der genitalen Vorzeichen bleibt aber nicht nur die Weltordnung der polaren Geschlechtsidentität erhalten, sondern die Transsexualität weiterhin dem Krankheitsmodell verhaftet. 1974 wurde die Homosexualität aus dem diagnostischen Handbuch psychischer Störungen gestrichen, das führte mit einem Streich zur “Heilung” von Millionen von Schwulen. Gleichzeitig definierte aber die American Psychiatric Association eine gender identity disorder, Geschlechtsidentitätsstörung, die zur gender dysphoria abgemildert wurde, ohne jedoch ihren Status als Geisteskrankheit zu verlieren. Demzufolge wären alle Transgender-Individuen geisteskrank.

Park konzediert, dass die Dissonanz zwischen der zugewiesenen Geschlechtsidentität und der eigenen Empfindung, vor allem aber Transgender-Phobie zu Depressionen führen kann. Das wäre allerdings eher eine Krankheit der Gesellschaft als eine des Individuums. Sie will mehr als ein paar Brotkrumen vom Bankett des Gesundheitsministeriums um den Preis der Pathologisierung eines Zustands, den sie als so natürlich betrachtet wie Linkshändigkeit. Transsexualität ist für sie eine Varianz der dominanten Geschlechtsidentität, keine Devianz. Wer eine operative Geschlechtsumwandlung wünsche, sollte die Gelegenheit dazu haben, meint Park. Doch im Unterschied zum klassischen Transgender-Diskurs wolle sich nur eine winzige Minorität diesen gravierenden Eingriffen unterziehen. Die Mehrheit siedele sich einfach an irgendeinem Punkt auf dem breiten Spektrum zwischen maskulin und feminin an. Ein subversives Konzept, das bekanntlich schon bei der Wahl einer öffentlichen Toilette Konflikte eröffnen kann, in New York wie überall.

In der Serie “Transparent” wählen “MaPa” (Jeffrey Tambor” und seine Töchter die Damentoilette.

The post Tragic Trans? Nope! (Die Zeit, 4.11.15) appeared first on Pauline Park.

Israel, Hobby Lobby, transgender & the Family Research Council 

I was fascinated to see the most recent ‘prayer targets’ message from the Family Research Council. FRC “bills itself as ‘the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,’ but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. The FRC often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science,” the Southern Poverty Law Center says of the religious right group founded in 1993 and run since 2003 by the abrasively bigoted Tony Perkins.

On March 20, FRC posted on the home page of its website a set of ‘prayer targets’ that included “Hobby Lobby; Israel; Transgender; Mississippi; Military Religious Liberty; SPLC; UN” (see full text below). FRC’s support for Hobby Lobby is hardly surprising, since this case currently being heard by the US Supreme Court is arguably the most important case to come before the court in terms of its implications for fundamentalist Christians to use the notion of religious freedom to exempt themselves from non-discrimination law. Also in the message is an attack on the Southern Poverty Law Center, also not surprising, given SPLC’s attempts to inform the public about FRC’s activities. FRC uses its March 20 message to attack the Maryland transgender rights bill, which it mischaracterizes as the ‘Maryland Bathroom Bill.’ FRC further informs its members that “a panel led by former President Clinton’s Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders has recommended that the Department of Defense allow transgendered persons to serve in the military.” And FRC calls on its members to ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem,’ declaring, “Palestinian terrorists have demonstrated no inclination toward peace. Past presidents have used diplomatic pressure, but many say President Obama has bullied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by behaving rudely and demonstrating a sometimes thinly veiled, sometimes open hostility. Just over a week ago, President Obama told Prime Minister Netanyahu that if he did not move quickly to comply (with Secretary of State John Kerry’s artificial “April deadline” for an agreement), that the U.S. might not be able to protect Israel from the consequences.”

So there we have it – support for Netanyahu’s Israel, Hobby Lobby, and laws giving Christian fundamentalists the right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation as well as gender identity and expression go hand in hand with opposition to human rights for transgendered people and Palestinians. For Tony Perkins and his ilk, all Palestinians are terrorists conspiring to destroy the Biblically instituted state of Israel, while all transgendered women are nothing but rapists in drag lurking in ladies’ rooms. The bizarre lumping of all of these bigotries into one long rant is instructive about the world view behind these ‘prayer targets’ messages.

Of course, liberal Zionists will no doubt protest that one can support transgender rights and the Israeli government at the same time, as many do; but I think that Tony Perkins is actually onto something in his own crazy bigoted way, because the cause of justice for transgendered people both in the United States and in Israel/Palestine and everywhere else in the world is in fact part and parcel of the fight for human rights for all people everywhere, including Palestinians in occupied Palestine. So thank you, Tony Perkins, for connecting the dots for us so seamlessly~!

__________________________

Prayer Targets: Hobby Lobby; Israel; Transgender; Mississippi; Military Religious Liberty; SPLC; UN

March 20, 2014

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor 3:17

Dear Praying Friends,

Dr. Erwin Lutzer has served as Senior Pastor of Chicago’s Moody Church since 1980. His three radio programs are broadcast across America and around the world. Author of 30 books, Lutzer, in his When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany, documents shocking parallels between German society in pre-WWII Germany and America today:

In the People’s Republic of China in 1985, we asked a tour guide about freedom of religion. She replied, “The people in China have freedom of religion … they can be as free as they wish within their own minds!” Freedom of religion, then, has a new definition: we are free to practice our religion with our thoughts and perhaps in private conversation. In our own country one of our chief justices lamented that the court would have religion be like “pornography,” indulged only in private. When God is ousted from government, transcendent values are replaced by: 1) the raw use of power; 2) eroticism 3) arbitrary judicial rulings; and 4) the morality of personal pragmatism. Without overarching absolutes, the unity of society is threatened in the face of fragmentation and the quest for personal “rights.” Civility, long a characteristic of American life, has degenerated into name-calling and a desire to destroy the opposition… Political correctness has now affected the general culture and created an aura of censorship and a climate of fear…Malcolm Muggeridge said, “The whole structure is now tumbling down, dethroning its God, undermining all its certainties. All this, wonderfully enough, is being done in the name of the health, wealth, and happiness of all mankind.” [Under current federal] hate crimes [laws] certain classes of people receive special treatment…

From “Hate Crimes” the next step is for the courts to prosecute those who are deemed guilty of “Hate Speech” … stating an opinion that the government thinks should not be expressed… Europe has already lost the freedom to criticize Islam… As the state encroaches on our liberties, the spiritual “sphere” will continue to shrink, and our freedoms will be slowly curtailed. Statism, the notion that there is no power above the state to which it must be subject, will always work toward the diminishing of individual freedoms. No one is able to run and hide… Today our government has tools of manipulation that the world has never known before, from mass communication resources to faceless computerized bureaucracies to the ability to nationalize banks and companies… C. S. Lewis was a prophet when he wrote: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive… We must face the possibility of bad rulers armed with a Humanitarian theory of punishment…. One school of psychology already regards religion as a neurosis. When this particular neurosis becomes inconvenient to government, what is to hinder government from proceeding to “cure” it? Such a “cure” will, of course, be compulsory; but … it will not be called by the shocking name of Persecution” (Erwin W. Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany (2009); Ch. 1).

If you missed it last week see the brief video about Arlene’s Flowers. See also “Undeniable: The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America” and “Clear and Present Danger.”

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem – Despite America’s many problems at home and abroad, Bible-believing Christians understand the importance of God’s covenant with Abraham to bless those who bless Israel and to curse those who curse her. Many believe America’s firm friendship and support for God’s covenant land have brought immeasurable benefit to our own nation. The Scripture repeatedly promises that when God regathered the Jewish people to the Promised Land, they would never be removed again. He warned hostile nations that harm would come to all who harm Israel or seek to divide their land (Joel 3:2; Zech 12:3). Yet, presidents, Republican and Democrat, have pursued a “two-state solution,” and have pressured Israel, together with the international community, to embrace a “land for peace” strategy… Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorists have demonstrated no inclination toward peace. Past presidents have used diplomatic pressure, but many say President Obama has bullied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by behaving rudely and demonstrating a sometimes thinly veiled, sometimes open hostility. Just over a week ago, President Obama told Prime Minister Netanyahu that if he did not move quickly to comply (with Secretary of State John Kerry’s artificial “April deadline” for an agreement), that the U.S. might not be able to protect Israel from the consequences. Some interpret that to mean the U.S. could no longer be counted on to use its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to support Israel. Even more troubling, a growing number of American evangelicals are pulling back from supporting Israel, some openly and others unwittingly joining with the terrorist-led Palestinian Cause. Israelis are no longer confident that they can count on the U.S., under Obama. The only certain supporters the Jewish people have had have been evangelical Christians. Now, some say, that support is eroding (see Obama Warns Netanyahu; Anti-Israel Evangelicals?; Where do Americans Stand?; U.S., Israel, Iran).

Lord, Your people perish for lack of knowledge! Please rule in the hearts of our leaders to support Israel and to cease from threats and pressure to force Israel to do what Your Word says they must not. May the American people, especially Christian leaders, preach and proclaim the Word of God regarding Israel. May we be true to God’s Word, our relationship and commitments to Israel! Grant peace, Prince of Peace, to the Holy Land! (Gen 13:15; Ex 14:8; 32:13; 2 Chr 20:7; Is 48:20-22; Jer 6:14; Hos 4:6; Pr 21:1; Mt 5:37)

Transgender Bathroom Bills & Military Policy – The Maryland Senate has already passed and it is predicted that the Maryland House will pass what has come to be called the “Maryland Bathroom Bill,” HB1265. The bill, like many around the country, is supposedly intended to prevent discrimination against people who identify as transgendered and transvestite, but would extend a “right” to some biological males to appear nude before females (and vice versa) in bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers — invading privacy rights and unnecessarily exposing businesses to lawsuits. But this would do far more. It would mandate the employment of people who identify as transgendered in inappropriate occupations and disregard the fact that sexual conduct may in fact be relevant to employment. Under such legislation, employers in the area of education and childcare would be denied the right to refuse to hire transgendered individuals or persons undergoing gender reassignment treatment, even if they consider such persons to be inappropriate role models for children and youth. Meanwhile, a panel led by former President Clinton’s Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders has recommended that the Department of Defense allow transgendered persons to serve in the military. Reports are that President Obama may use his “pen and phone” to implement this change (see MD Bathroom Bill; Military Transgender Ban Faces Scrutiny).

Intervene, Lord, for your Law is being broken! We have defied your created order replacing your laws with confusion. Cause, we pray, legislators in Maryland and other states, and the Obama administration not to add confusion to confusion as they could do. Cause your people, led by their pastors, to say, “Enough is enough!” and to exercise their voices and authority as citizens and voters to stop these and similar lawless actions (Ex 23:2; 2Ki 17:17; Ezra 9:6-7; Ps 119:126; Jer 23:4; Jas 4:7; Jude 7).

Finally, more prayer issues: In last week’s Prayer Targets, I warned that activists would continue to use the tactics of misinformation and disinformation used to bully Arizona’s Governor into vetoing a bill passed to strengthen Arizona’s Religious Liberty Reformation Act. They are doing so, now, in Mississippi (MS was not on my list of vulnerable states). The news media, predictably, has entered the fray in favor of the anti-religious freedom activists. Pastors and Christian leaders from Mississippi and other states are signing a letter urging Mississippi legislators not to be fooled by these tactics. Urge your pastor to add his name. Pray, too, over religious liberty challenges in the Air Force (Fight & Flight); the DOD decision to continue consulting with the SPLC despite a new study showing that their “hate group” designations are political, not scientific (see also Hate Smears; Paid pro-homosexuality teacher training program); videos: United Nations v. the Vatican; Changing Faces of Persecution; Hobby Lobby-Conestoga Wood oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, March 25; Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day, March 29. Thank you for joining us in crying out to God in prayer for our nation!

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Trans-Form the Occupation

Pauline Park

at

Occupy Wall Street

13 November 2011

Thank you for the opportunity to speak here. I’m Pauline Park, chair of NYAGRA, the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, and president of the board of directors of Queens Pride House, an LGBT community center in the borough of Queens.

I’m honored by the invitation to speak here at Occupy Wall Street, which I think is one of the most exciting recent developments in American politics. People are finally standing up to corporate greed and the powers that be. And that includes transgendered people. I’m a transgendered woman who was born in Korea. I’ve lived in New York since 1995 and I’d like to talk about the people who make up my community.

1) The diversity of the transgender community.

We need to recognize the full diversity of the transgender community. There are as many different ways of being transgendered as there are transgendered people. Do not assume that sex reassignment is the end point for every transgender transition; most transgendered people do not want sex reassignment surgery, and most people who do never get it.

2) ‘Transgender’ as an umbrella term.

There are literally hundreds of descriptors and self-descriptors that people use to identify or self-identify. But don’t confuse the label with the person. ‘Transgender’ is an ‘umbrella’ term that is widely used to bring together a wide variety of different subgroups within the community, including transsexuals, crossdressers and genderqueers. The term ‘transgender’ can be used in three different ways: as a term of self-identification, as an analytic term, or as a political term. There are many people who don’t identify with the term ‘transgender,’ including a lot of immigrants and transgendered people of color.

3) Sexual orientation vs. gender identity.

It’s important to understand the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity. Sexual orientation refers to who you’re attracted to; gender identity refers to how you identify and express your gender. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with gender identity per se. There are transgendered people who identify as heterosexual as well as those who identify as lesbian, gay and bisexual. Don’t assume someone’s sexual orientation from their gender identity or presentation. What do you know about someone’s sexual orientation if you know that they’re transgendered? Nothing~!

4) Discrimination.

In this society, transgendered and gender-variant people face pervasive discrimination, harassment, abuse & violence. Even with a transgender rights law in place since 2002, transgendered people regularly report discrimination in this city. Fortunately, the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002 prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and expression in employment, housing, public accommodations, education and credit. If you experience discrimination, contact NYAGRA through nyagra.com or the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund through the TLDEF website at transgenderlegal.org.

5) Bullying, harassment & violence.

Transgendered and gender-variant youth face pervasive bullying and bias-based harassment in our public schools; and the rate of teen suicide among trans and genderqueer youth is astronomically high. Many trans and genderqueer youth drop out of school because of such bullying; and without even a high school diploma, the chances of finding a well-paying job are very slim. Last year, the New York state legislature enacted the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA), which prohibits bullying and bias-based harassment in public schools throughout the state.

6) Housing & homelessness; health care.

Many transgendered people find themselves homeless because of discrimination and abuse, including domestic and intimate partner violence. Many are forced into sex work, with heightened risk of HIV infection, police brutality, and street violence. Many transgendered people lack health insurance and even access to basic health care.

7) GID.

Many transgendered people access hormones and surgery through the diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID). But the GID diagnosis pathologizes everyone who is gender-variant as a gender deviant. As I like to say, I do not have a gender identity disorder; it is society that has a gender identity disorder. We need to eliminate the pathologizing of transgender and gender variance.

We need to create a society in which no one is denied employment or housing or health care because of their gender identity or expression. We need to recognize the multiple oppressions that face transgendered people of color, including immigrants of color. We need to recognize that the root of our oppression as transgendered and gender-variant people is the sex/gender binary — the policing of rigid gender norms by the police and public authorities, corporations and other employers, and conventionally gendered people in our society. We need to bring feminist consciousness to the project of challenging, deconstructing and dismantling the sex/gender binary.

We need to create a society characterized by social and economic justice, not governed by rigid gender norms and corporate profits. And as a step towards that goal, we need to make sure that this space is safe for everyone, including our transgendered brothers and sisters. As the Mahatma Gandhi said, we need to be the change that we want to see in the world.

Thank you.

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Transgender Rights

editorial
New York Times
29 August 2000

People who have had sex-change surgery, cross-dressers and others whose gender identity does not conform to societal norms are often targets of violence and bias that force them to live in fear for their safety or the loss of their jobs and shelter. A bill now before the New York City Council would give this marginalized population basic protection against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.

The city’s human rights law has long barred discrimination based on gender. Since the 1980’s, the law has also prohibited discrimination based on ”sexual orientation.” But that provision focuses on issues of heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. It does not protect those who identify themselves as transgender. The new legislation, which has 28 sponsors in the City Council, would broaden the definition of ”gender” to include not only a person’s sex, but also a person’s expression of gender identity, self-image and appearance.

Similar anti-bias laws have been enacted in nearly two dozen cities, including Atlanta, San Francisco and Minneapolis. The proposed measure has strong support from civil rights groups and political leaders, including Public Advocate Mark Green and City Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Council Speaker Peter Vallone, however, has not taken a position on the measure. Mr. Vallone should move swiftly to get the bill passed, and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani should sign the measure.

This was the first editorial published by the New York Times endorsing transgender-specific legislation — in this case, Int. No. 24, the transgender rights law ultimately enacted by the New York City Council in April 2002; the editorial originally appeared in the 29 August 2000 issue of the New York Times.

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New Yorkers Join National Fight for Trans Equality
By Brett Krutzsch
NY Blade
Friday, May 18, 2007

Personal stories of harassment and discrimination were a uniting theme Tuesday night at the LGBT Center in Chelsea during a panel titled “Clock In/Speak Out: Gaining Momentum for Workplace Equality in New York and the U.S.”

Almost 50 people attended the discussion on transgender rights, sponsored by the LGBT legal advocacy group Lambda Legal. The debut program was one of seven flagship events across the country that took place on Tuesday to raise awareness for the  Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Introduced in Congress on April 24, ENDA could make it illegal to fire, prevent promotion, or refuse to hire anyone based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

At Tuesday’s event, the panel discussed key issues facing the transgender community, including problems with the healthcare system, workplace discrimination, and harassment of transgender youth in New York City schools.

“As an American citizen, I can work just like anyone else,” said panelist Elizabeth Rivera, Program Coordinator of TransJustice at the Audre Lorde Project. Rivera, who is transgender, said it can be very difficult to get a job when you are in an “in-between state” of male and female.

New York is one of 17 states that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, explicit statewide employment protection for transgender individuals does not exist.

Transgender youths are also at risk, and are not protected under New York State  law. Truman High School student Andy Santana, who identifies as “gender queer,” has been verbally and physically assaulted by other students, and said complaints to school officials have fallen on deaf ears. Santana said that when he was jumped by another student in a stairwell, “There was a security guard who saw me screaming, and walked away.”

“Fear of going to school harms people,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. “You are less likely to be hired if you don’t have the skill set you need.”

Panel moderator and chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights and Advocacy (NYAGRA), Pauline Park, said that, “Since so many transgender people are forced out of high school, they don’t go to college. It’s no surprise that so many transgender people are forced into sex work or extremely low-paying work.”

Santana’s experience at Truman High School in the Bronx captured the attention of the audience and became a focal point for much of the evening.

“Gay bashing definitely happens,” Santana said. “Gay and transgender students in my school get their names posted on a wall by other kids. After a student gets jumped, their name gets crossed off.”

Park said her group has sponsored trainings related to transgender issues at Truman High School, but, “The principal has been hostile since day one,” and that the “Department of Education doesn’t do anything to take these issues seriously.”

Hayley Gorenberg, the deputy legal director of Lambda Legal, wanted the audience to know that transgender people can still take cases to court in states such as New York where there aren’t specific laws to protect transgender individuals.

“People are discriminated against all the time without knowing we have tools to fight,” she said.

The evening ended with a call to action. People were encouraged to sign a petition in support of ENDA. Everyone was also given information about New York State’s Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) that would protect against discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education. Those present were given phone numbers of State Assembly members on the Codes Committee who will be voting on the issue.

Marcy Farrell, who volunteers with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that panel gave “all of us enough courage to be public about our transgenderness and to advocate for understanding, to be seen as human beings, despite our gender issues.”

Maurice Harrison, who was also in the audience, wished that the event could have been held somewhere other than the LGBT Center. “We have problems with the heterosexual community,” Harrison said. “And they have no idea about these meetings.”

Leslie Gabel-Brett, director of education and public Affairs at Lambda Legal, said she hopes Santana’s and others’ stories “raise visibility of transgender issues, and generate more activism on the state and national level.”

As Santana said before the panel ended, “If I had transferred out of the school, I would have shown my bashers that they had won.”

Now Santana’s story is inspiring others to fight for transgender individuals.

This article originally appeared in the New York Blade on 18 May 2007; the Blade is now defunct.

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Hillary Mann Leverett, apologist for murder

Flynt & Hillary Mann Leverett are the voice of Iran in Washington — not the voice of the Iranian people, mind you, but the voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran — apologists for the repression, torture, and murder of the Iranian people by a tyrannical regime; as such, they are the very worst sort of self-appointed ‘experts.’

Before the violent suppression of the Green Movement by the Revolutionary Guards on the orders of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei after he stole the presidential election last year, the Leveretts were little more than an embarassment; but since the imprisonment, torture and murder of unarmed Iranian citizens by the Leveretts’ friends in power, the Leveretts are looking more like apologists for authoritarianism and murder.

Neither Flynt nor Hillary have any discernible credentials on Iranian affairs, other than their close friendship with the mullahs who run the country. True, both were once on the policy planning staff of the U.S. Department of State, but Richard Armitage, a former deputy secretary of State and once Flynt Leverett’s boss, has publicly questioned the origins of the fax that the Leveretts cite as evidence that the Iranian government was eager to reach a ‘grand bargain’ with the United States over nuclear proliferation. The provenance of the ‘Grand Bargain fax’ that the Leveretts tirelessly cite as conclusive evidence of the pacific intentions of the Iranian regime has been questioned even by the editor of Kayhan, an Iranian newspaper under the supervision of the Supreme Leader’s office, as Lee Smith points out (Grand Bargainers, Planet Iran.com, 2.24.10). “We are even a bit suspicious that the Swiss ambassador wrote that fax himself,” the newspaper’s editor has said. In other words, the central piece of evidence in the (very weak) case that the Leveretts make for a policy of engagement with Iran may well be a hoax, and the Leveretts themselves (who have close connections with the regime) may very well know that it’s a hoax.

Another senior policy maker from the same administration in which the Leveretts served, Richard Haass, has explicitly disavowed the Leveretts’ rosy view of the regime, writing in Newsweek in January 2010 that “we can no longer remain on the sidelines in the struggle for regime change in Iran.” Contrary to the Leveretts’ insistence that there is no evidence that the election was stolen, Haass (who has enormously more sense as well as experience in foreign policy than the two Leveretts put together) puts it quite simply: “The authorities overreached in their blatant manipulation of last June’s presidential election, and then made matters worse by brutally repressing those who protested.”

In stark contrast to the clear analysis of Richard Haass, the Leveretts offer clever non-statements that are impossible to call outright falsehoods, such as Hillary’s declaration that “It was eminently plausible that Ahmadinejad could win the election,” as Leverett stated in an interview with Charlie Rose on March 29. Such a statement is clever because it does not commit either Hillary or Flynt Leverett to an explicit assertion that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually won the presidential election last year, but nonetheless creates the impression that he did, though the Leveretts offer no evidence to support such assertions, other than referencing public opinion polls that they claim indicate popular support for Ahmadinejad both before and after the election at levels that ‘track’ with the vote tally announced by the government in the wake of the stolen election. But no credible public opinion survey can be conducted under an authoritarian regime when that same regime is imprisoning, torturing and executing those who dispute the poll results.

The nicest thing that one could say of them are that Flynt & Hillary Mann Leverett are ‘influence peddlers,’ as Lee Smith of Planet Iran.com called them, trading on their connections with the regime in order to advance their own peculiar and entirely self-interested agenda. As Smith points out in “Grand Bargainers,” the ‘background dinners’ which the Leveretts present as a kind of salon,” help to generate business for an energy and consulting firm called Stratega, whose CEO happens to be Hillary Mann Leverett.” In other words, the Leveretts have a direct financial stake in the business they generate with U.S. and Western companies operating in Iran and which they promote through their public statements on the current state of affairs there — hardly a disinterested analysis of the politics of the Islamic Republic.

Flynt Leverett, shameless influence peddler

But the Leveretts are shameless in promoting an image of a benign regime with a smiling and popularly elected president as they take their talking points from press releases issued by the Iranian embassy in Washington and defend with as much gusto as they can the regime that has murdered its own people in a so far successful attempt to cling to power. The Leveretts’ key source of information about Iranian government and politics is apparently their co-author, Seyed Mohammad Marandi, “who has emerged as the Iranian government’s chief spokesperson in the English-language media,” as award-winning journalist Omid Memarian has pointed out. The reliance of the Leveretts on Marandi as a news source is no more credible than Judith Miller’s reliance on Scooter Libby — Vice-President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff — as her primary news source for stories about the nuclear threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, plastered on the front page of the New York Times as the Bush administration beat the drums for war in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It is important for me as an openly transgendered woman of Asian birth to point out that the Islamic Republic of Iran has also executed gay teenagers for having engaged in consensual sex — acts of unjustified judicial murder that are not only profoundly immoral and that have prompted international condemnation, but which would seem to belie Ahmadinejad’s assertion that there are no homosexuals in Iran. The problem is not merely the homophobic Ahmadinejad, of course; the power of the president is limited by that of the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, who cannot be challenged in any election or removed by the judiciary or the people. Paradoxically, his predecessor, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, actually issued a fatwah approving of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) for transsexuals in Iran; but the logic behind it was not at all transgender-supportive; Khomeini issued the fatwah because he was persuaded that surgical procedures could be used to change gay men into heterosexual women. Obviously, the fatwah was based on a number of serious misconceptions about sexual orientation and gender identity, but even though SRS is officially sanctioned in Iran, the reality of the lives of transsexual and transgendered people remains bleak, as portrayed in the documentary “Be Like Others,” about transgender life in Iran, where the regime of the mullahs persecutes transgendered and gender-variant people despite the option of SRS available to at least some.

What is particularly shameful about the Leveretts is that they give a bad name to those who argue against the growing drumbeat of war against Iran; while it is absolutely clear to me that the regime is incapable of reform as long as Khamenei and his cohort are in power, I also oppose military action against Iran by the United States or by Israel, which would only strengthen the regime now in power in Tehran. But neither the government of the United States nor the government of any other state can make effective policy unless it is informed by an accurate and probing analysis of the situation in Iran, including a comprehensive documentation of the massive human rights abuses committed by the regime; the influence-peddling Leveretts, trading on their connections with the mullahs to make money off the misery and oppression of the Iranian people, can do nothing but misinform policy-making.

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On Friday, November 20, Iowa will commemorate the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in the history of the state. I am honored to have been invited to speak at a number of events that have been organized as part of that commemoration.

On Wednesday, November 18, there will be a welcoming reception at The Center, followed by a private meeting with TransformationsIOWA, the transgender support group at the LGBT community center.  On Thursday, Nov. 19, from 8:30–9:30 p.m., there will be a  screening of “Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman” at The Center.

Friday (Nov. 20) will include the key events commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance:

12–1 p.m.:  Iowa State University (ISU) TDOR event in Ames
2–3:30 p.m. Grandview University TDOR event in Des Moines
5:15–6 p.m.:  Iowa State Capitol (west side)
6:30–8 p.m.:  potluck at The Center

The events have been organized by Equality Iowa‘s executive director, Sandy Vopalka and Jayden McCurnin, the Transgender Outreach Coordinator at The Center, where the potluck dinner and the screening of the documentary about my life and work will be held. There will be a second screening of the film on Saturday:

10 a.m.-12 p.m.: screening of “Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman” at The Center; coffee & donuts

And on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 21), I will be participating in Iowa’s First Annual Summit of LGBT Families & Allies, organized by Lambda Legal:

1-2:10 p.m.: Transracial Adoption in LGBTQ Families:  The Challenges of Traversing Boundaries: workshop with Sandra Patton-Imani, Associate Professor of American Studies at Drake University and author of “BirthMarks:  Transracial Adoption in Contemporary America”

On Sunday (Nov. 22), I will be speaking at a forum and lunch:

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.:  forum and lunch at the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines

As a member of All Souls Unitarian in Manhattan, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak with fellow UUs, including members of the Interweave (LGBT affinity group) chapter at First Unitarian.

This will be only my third trip to the Hawkeye State, and I’m excited to be participating in all of these events. I am especially gratified to have the honor to speak at events commemorating the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in the history of the state.

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