Words that kill.Why is gender driving people crazy this summer? * A New York Times Magazine article rifled "An Inconvenient Woman" declares in its subtitle, "In order to mm the murdered soldier Barry Winchell into a martyr for gay rights, activists first had to turn his girlfriend, Calpemia Addams, back into a man." Servicemembers Legal Defense Network The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) is a non-profit legal services, watchdog, and policy organization in the United States. SLDN is dedicated to ending discrimination and harassment of gay and lesbian U.S. cries foul, though it has covered this "antigay" crime for a year without once noting in 17 alerts and press releases that Winchell was killed for dating a transwoman. Conveniently MIA MIA n. A member of the armed services who is reported missing following a combat mission and whose status as to injury, capture, or death is unknown. [m(issing) i(n) a(ction). from her own tragedy, a grieving Addams is not invited to the Millennium March on Washington Millennium March on Washington was a controversial LGBT event held April 28 through April 30, 2000 in Washington, DC.[1] A march from the Washington Monument to the front lawn of the Capitol took place on April 30, where the crowd was addressed by several members of . * Mistaken for a man, heptathlon heptathlon: see under decathlon. heptathlon Women's athletics competition. Contestants take part in seven different track-and-field events: 100-m hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, javelin throw, and 200- and 800-m runs. star Apasha Blocker is assaulted by security guards shouting, "Can't you freakin' read?" as she exits a women's room. Her lawyer announces injuries may end her career. * Lucas Rosa, a gay man who prefers feminine clothes and pronouns, wins the right to sue under sex discrimination laws after she's refused a bank loan. * Apparently eager to become the gay Dr. Laura, The Advocate's Norah Vincent attacks transsexuals for "reinforcing oppressive stereotypes" by "mutilating their bodies." She recommends transpeople forgo medicine to "live androgynously," a suggestion indistinguishable from the Right's exhortations that gays live as straight. * Gay activist Jim Fouratt fires off a series of tormented E-rants imploring recipients not to "help those gender-variant gay men and women who are under siege to save their pennies to mutilate mu·ti·late tr.v. mu·ti·lat·ed, mu·ti·lat·ing, mu·ti·lates 1. To deprive of a limb or an essential part; cripple. 2. To disfigure by damaging irreparably: mutilate a statue. their bodies to gain [heterosexual] acceptance." New York's Heritage of Pride nonetheless invites him to keynote their Pride Rally. * The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, often referred to as "Michigan" or "MWMF" or "Michfest", is an international feminist music festival occurring every year in August near Hart, Michigan. reaffirms its ban on women failing its "womyn-born womyn Womyn is one of a number of alternate spellings of the word "woman", which insane lesbian feminist nazi-communist bitches use to describe themselves. Commies? LET ME AT THEM Background The original meaning of the English word "man" (from Proto-Germanic mannaz " test. * The Traditional Values Coalition The Traditional Values Coalition is a Christian Right organization that claims to represent over 43,000 conservative Christian churches throughout the United States of America. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. publishes its first attack on transpeople as victims of fantasy, childhood molestation molestation n. the crime of sexual acts with children up to the age of 18, including touching of private parts, exposure of genitalia, taking of pornographic pictures, rape, inducement of sexual acts with the molester or with other children, and variations of these , and feelings of rejection who should be "cured." Whether we are gay or straight, patriarchal oppressor or lesbian-feminist, right-wing nut or left-wing radical, gender produces one inevitable constant: We all police it, and those who offend us we invariably condemn as oppressive, deluded, sick, or self-hating. I was first called "mutilated mu·ti·late tr.v. mu·ti·lat·ed, mu·ti·lat·ing, mu·ti·lates 1. To deprive of a limb or an essential part; cripple. 2. To disfigure by damaging irreparably: mutilate a statue. " in 1978 when the Cleveland women's community was busy kicking me out of groups, events, and eventually even my own apartment. Since then I've witnessed femmes derided as "oppressive to women," soft gay boys ridiculed by macho gay men as "nelly fags," butches rejected as "male-identified," drag queens dismissed as "woman-hating," butchfemme lovers ostracized for "aping heterosexual stereotypes," transwomen rejected by cross-dressing groups for not being "really men," "pre-ops' rejected by "post-ops" for not being "really women," and more gays gender-bashed and gender-baited by bigots than I can count. Transcending narrow gender stereotypes can cost you your community, your job, your family, your life. I lost only three out of four, but others aren't so lucky. As I was writing this, Amanda Milan was murdered while entering a New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. cab. Her assailant shouted, "You're a man!" and, "I know that's a dick you have in between your legs!" while, according to several accounts, nearby cabbies applauded. He then slit Amanda's jugular, and she fell dying to the pavement, choking on her own blood. The terrible hate crime appalls but no longer amazes. The victim may be Amanda Milan, Brandon Teena, or a slender, gentle young man in a Wyoming bar attacked because his killers perceive gay men as unmanly fags, but isolated individuals will still kill to enforce gender rules. The real stow here is the onlookers' laughter--because the immense violence against an Amanda Milan, a Brandon Teena, or a Matthew Shepard is not born in a vacuum. It's born out of the smaller social violence that first robs us of our social legitimacy and full humanity. And it is this smaller violence that is facilitated by gay groups, activists, and writers who--by their insistence that those of us who transcend narrow gender stereotypes are sick or embarrassing or ought to be kept safely invisible--help to lend the gender bashing of queer bodies a civilized and respectable face to show the world. Wilchins is executive director of GenderPAC, a nonprofit working to ensure all Americans their right to express their gender orientation. |
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