There is a old saying ” The same people you see going up is the same people you will see going down.” I love that saying because it reminds me that along your path in life you should alway treat people good. You never know when those same people might show you kindness in return in a time of need. No, I’m not talkin about 82-year-old grandmother nice(even though that fine too). I am talking about general respect and kindness. Now of course, you can not be nice to everyone, some people wont let you be nice to them. They are alway in defense or attack mode. They make it hard to be nice and kind. So sometime you’re forced to burn that bridge, but for the most part, most social damage is avoidable with a little respect or kindness
Triumphalism is at the epicenter of the cause of each of every isms in LGBT community lives (i.e. racism, sexism, class-ism, etc) . Triumphalism is defined as the attitude or belief that a specific doctrine is superior to all others. These doctrines, like the Bible and Qur’an, rules people lives and decisions. They have been used in the past to justify thing like slavery, bigotry, capital punishment, even murder. These doctrine are followed maniacally. In some instances, people commit suicide based on strong belief of these doctrines. This supposedly happen in the 9/11 attack and is still happen over in the MiddleEast during this religiously charged war. These doctrines play a major role in how individual who follow those doctrines perceive and treat others. Three major religion that have a strong hold on what is acceptable living in society as it pertains to gender: Christianity, Muslim, Catholicism. The followers of these three religious superpowers populate over 50% of the world. In the United States, the percentage rise to 75% of the population follow these doctrines. These doctrines are use to justify discrimination, hate, and even violence toward transgenders.
If a person was a transgendered minority like myself, that person would live in a world where the majority of the populations was against them and how they identify themselves. That person would not be happy. Chances are the individual would not have a job. The individual would be in a world in which triumphalism reigns supreme. Triumphalism motivates a world full of discrimination based on race, sex, and class in society. I am not against the Bible, Qur’an or any other spiritual doctrine. I feel if they are use to empower someone to be a better person and move them to bring peace and love to the world then they are doing their intended jobs. The problem come with manipulation of the words to ignite radical harmful action. If they are use to fuel hate and discrimination, then they should be the #1 failure on FailBlog because I doubt that their purpose was to hinder others pursuit of happiness. Our society should separate the church and State like the Constitution dictates, then amend the laws to be fair to everyone who live in the land.
Sexism effect transgender because they are not seen as their desired gender. Constant pressure to conform to gender norms are evident in minority transgenders’ lives. Society want men to be men and women to be women. Transsexuals are living their live in their desired gender, which is opposite of what they were born. Because of this transition, people who do not understand the transgender plight, tend to judge transsexuals on a hyperbolic standard of characteristics of that transsexual’s desired sex. For example, the social norm is that women are submissive and passive. So if a male-to-female transsexual shows aggression, that aggression is perceive as her biological traits shining through. Even though women act aggressive at times. Transsexuals’ desired gender is validated based on them following unrealistic rules and social stereotypes of men and women. They are not taking seriously because of this exaggerated standard.
Sexism is all about male domination; therefore the effects of sexism on both types of transsexuals are different. In a male dominated world, misogynistic views are prevalent. Female-to-male transsexuals are seen as weak because they were born women. Male-to-female transsexuals are seen as weak because they are transitioning to be the weak gender, female. The simmering anger from the male population toward lesbians and female-to-male transsexuals in Africa fuels the rise in corrective rapes. The majority of males believe that by raping, they correct the mental thinking of the lesbians or female-to-male transsexuals. They believe that a woman should be a woman and man be a man, so they usurp authority and enforce it through rape. Many times these criminal acts of sexual violence goes unpunished and swept under the rug by local authorities.
In the documentary Raped for Who I Am by Lovinsa Kevuma, an African man says this when ask his feelings on corrective rape:
“Those people, we must stay away from them. They are not normal people like us……. My idea is to turn their minds to be normal because right now they are being inhuman. If someone is trying to rape them, I can appreciate that because it is showing them the right way to be. They are suppose to live as women.(Kevuma, 2005)”
This way of thinking is sexism at is purest form. Rape is not, and never will be, a cure for transsexualism or homosexuality. Click the picture to watch excerpt from the documentary
This is email that I sent to a lawyer that I want to share with you all. Yes it exposes my birth name which has been changed, but I think the story is more important than my shame of that old name. Im to old to care about that…lol. The letter will fill you in on the details….Here we go
Hello Mr. Lee, http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=10597“Sometimes it’s difficult to take the First Amendment seriously.
Recently, such as, amid important stories about v-chips and X-rated videos, two reports came out of Indiana about people who had won the First Amendment right to look silly.
One report was from Indianapolis, where a federal judge upheld a male student’s First Amendment right to wear a dress to his high school prom. The other originated in Goshen, where a different federal judge preserved the constitutional right to wear masks.
Both rulings undoubtedly are solid First Amendment decisions, based on fundamental free-expression principles. I’d probably be one of those screaming the loudest if either had been decided the other way. I can’t help but think, though, that the First Amendment deserves cases better than these two.
Dale Stewart might be a fine young man. But if my son announced that he planned to wear a black formal dress to his prom, my primary concern would not be whether someone might attempt to interfere with his First Amendment right to do so. Rather, I probably would be relieved to learn that the school administrators had adopted a dress code that prohibited such juvenile behavior. And I can’t imagine any circumstances in which I — no matter how devoted I was to my son or to his First Amendment rights — would allow him to file a federal lawsuit to challenge the school administrators’ decision.
What disturbs me most about this case is that, to me, First Amendment cases should be based on issues of principle. When a speaker asserts free-speech rights, he should do so because he believes the speech is important. When a speaker instead uses the First Amendment to prove only that his right to speak is superior to someone else’s right to stop him, the right of free expression is trivialized. There might be something about Stewart that I don’t know, but it seems that he cared about the First Amendment only to the extent that it allowed him to openly defy school officials.”
That is an interesting point of view. One thing you had right was that there was something about Stewart that you did not know. Let me fill you in, since I am, formerly, Dale Stewart. Not that you care but I just want to vindicate myself even if it just to your inbox.
Prior to this case, I had been living as a teenage tgirl since 13. I was emancipated, graduated early from high school, and I was living in my place when this incident occurred. Only thing left to do was wait for was my prom and graduation; two things teenage expects and prepares for their whole high school life. During high school, I was dressing in female appropriate attire and using female bathrooms with no problem from the student body or the faculty. I compete in school competitions and other events where I represented my school with pride as a tgirl. In my whole 4 high school years never once were there any expressed opposition to how I was living my life or my style of dress from school faculty.
A week before prom, I still was apart of school productions with drama club and the highest level of choir. I was in the hallway practicing some music when the principal and the superintendent of IPS approached me and other students with smiling faces. The principal asked us to sing one of our songs we sung for competition. We gladly obliged. After the song, the principal clapped and kissed me on my cheek. In response, I said something about her leaving an odor on my cheeks . She was known for horrible breathe. I said something about it just to get a laugh from my fellow classmates in front of her and superintendent . That was my immature teenager mistake. The next week (2 day before prom) after posing for the class picture in a dress and heels. The principle forced me off the front row of the class picture. I was called over the intercom to the principal’s office. I walked in. She sat me down and told me she had something to talk to me about but I would need a parent present. I told her I was emancipated so she could talk to me as an adult. So she did. She asks me if I was going to the prom. I said yes. She said “Well, We can’t allow you to go to the prom in girl’s clothing.” My heart dropped. This was her revenge. I had spent money on a dress and made an hair appointment and arranged for limo like the other high school girls around the country were doing for some time and NOW she is going to tell me that I have to go in a tuxedo two days before the prom. I felt anger. I felt there was an injustice going on. I didn’t know what to do. I spoke to some teachers and they secretly gave me the number to the ACLU and I called the local news stations. The news came out and covers my case that next day before the prom. The same day I met with the ACLU lawyer. The next morning, day of the prom, I was in court fighting for my first Amendment rights. I was not fighting for the right to defy school official or to be silly and dress like a girl for some shock value as you implied. This was how I lived because I was transgendered. This was not new to my school officials. This actually was expected of me which is why she felt the need to tell me not to come as my normal self. Due to the expectation, it made me vulnerable to the abuse of power. Excuse the pun but, at the time, I had the balls to fight for my rights so I did. I won the case. I enjoyed my prom like a normal high school teen.
I understand that some people use the first amendment to do silly things and prove silly points. I was not one of those people. I was just trying to do what I had done for my whole four high school year: live and dress in a way that was right for the identity I wanted to project to the world. If the First Amendment allows me to do that, then I will use it to protect my expression of that identity. You may not understand that because you are a white heterosexual male and hold the advantages that comes with that accepted identity. Historically, apathy for the marginalized has never been your identity’s strong point. Thank you for your time.
Diamond Stylz
One reoccurring aspect of an oppressed people is their inability to control their own image. African Americans during slavery, Jews during the Holocaust, Native Americans during American colonization all were victims of propaganda. How transgendered people are shown in the media plays a big part is why they are not taking seriously. In the media, transgenders are depicted as comic relief. Comedians like, Martin Lawrence, Jim Carey, Jamie Foxx, Benny Hill, have made people laugh at their cross-dressing antics for years. To Wong Foo, a movie that show three super masculine male actors cast as drag queens on a comical cross country trip in which the drag queens’ car breaks down in a hick town. The drag queens turn this small town upside-down in a colorful gender-bending way. This perpetuated the idea that transsexual are playing dress up; therefore should not be taking seriously. The media commonly depicts transgendered as crazed lunatic. There are many movies made with this image. The Norman Bates character, in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho, made his way into pop culture as a gray wig-wearing, knife-wielding slasher. The character, Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, skins his female victims so he can don a suit sewn from their skins to become a woman. In another film, Sleepway Camp, the plot is: the girl in a boy/girl set of fraternal twins died in a boat accident, so the parents raise the boy twin as a girl, Angela. Angela terrorizes a campground with a killing spree induced by sex crazed boys and taunting teenaged girls. More propaganda that solidifies the idea that transgender are mentally-ill. Like most minorities, the transgendered community is a slave to how the majority shows who they are in the media. So the importance of telling our stories should be at the forefront of our motivations
Even with the supposed separation of church and state , the attitude that the majority has the superior belief system results in transgender individuals feeling the wrath of these attitude in the laws of the lands. For example, laws in most country do not support marriage of transgender individual. Specifically in the United States, states like Texas do not even consider sex-changed individual to be their new sex, shown in the 1999 case of Christie Lee Littleton. Littleton married her husband after her sex change operation in 1992. They live happily married for seven years. Sadly, her husband died due to the malpractice of a local doctor. Littleton brought the doctor up on a malpractice lawsuit as her husband’s wife. The Texas court through the case out on the bases that ,by Texas law , Christie and her husband’s marriage was invalid. Her marriage was invalid because Texas does not recognize a transgender desired identity regardless of surgeries but recognizes only the birth sex. So since Texas, did not recognize her a female, she was a he ; therefore could not be legally married to “her” husband. Marriage is define in the Bible as a spiritual union between man and woman. That is the basis of all argument against Christie and granting her marital rights. Texas, other states, and many other people, have the attitude that their beliefs are superior and give them the right to deny or grant basic human rights to others. This is a shining example of triumphalism and how it plays a part in all aspect of transgender’s lives
Wharton firefighter Thomas Araguz died July 4 battling a four-alarm egg farm fire. According to court records the firefighter’s wife is a man.
“A certified copy of her birth certificate indicates she’s a male and in Texas two men can’t be married” says Frank Mann III the attorney of Thomas’s 2 children from a previous marriage. Thomas’s mother is now finishing what she says her son started, having the marriage between Thomas and NIkki declared legally void.
In late April it was Mann who says he broke the news to Thomas Araguz that his wife was born a boy. Mann showed Thomas the birth certificate and the request for a name change. As if he did not know.
“(Nikki) admitted in an affidavit she was working toward getting a sex change operation and that she’d been living as a woman for over a year” says Mann.
Two months later on July 4th, the firefighter died in that massive blaze.
The firefighters mother is trying to have the marriage between Thomas and Nikki declared legally void. Nikki’s in-laws have been granted a restraining order to keep Nikki Araguz from collecting any benefits until this can be sorted out in court.
The first court hearing is Friday as the Araguz family tries to have the marriage legally void.
Attorneys trying to keep the estate for the Araguz boys point to the Christie Littleton case out of San Antonio from 1999. The court ruled a marriage between a man and a transsexual woman who was born a man was not valid.
At the end of the day Nikki is the one in the bed mourning alone for the lost of her love. Like any other new widow, she is in a house remind of him everyday, and now she has gto deal with people calling her tranny faggot on her facebook page in the midst of this emotional time.
I will be discussing this farther with Meiko Love on TeaTime. Wednesday July 21,2010 @ 10 central/11 eastern Click picture below to listen to the show
Marsha’s Plate Podcast
Diamond Stylz 