Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Fascinating

There have been a number of fascinating things going on....

One is coverage of various trans "topics" and events in the media.

There was an article about Chaz Bono in the NY Times on Sunday that I found fascinating for a number of reasons (read it here).

One particularly telling snippet:
The operation is so graphic, and such a commitment — physically, emotionally and financially — that as a wincing viewer you come away with a palpable understanding of how unendurably he must be suffering in his body to want to have his own sex characteristics amputated.

Yet despite being a lifelong liberal from San Francisco and friendly with a number of transgender people, I found the film as unsettling as it was inspiring.

I came away forced to confront a whole swag-bag full of transphobias that I didn’t know I’d had.

Some people will never get this. Other people come away from it with this kind of profound recognition of this journey.

Not coincidentally, Chaz was on Oprah yesterday (details here) and his moving will be on the OWN Network tonight at 9ET (review here).

Another was the passage of a state-wide ENDA in Hawaii (details here), progress of a similar bill in Nevada (details here).

A third was the release of the 911 tapes in the savage beating at a Baltimore area McDonalds a couple of weeks ago (details here - video is embedded).

How about this take on a recent meeting between trans political folks and White House staff (read it here)?  Somebody not happy...

I was at the Empire Conference in Albany over the weekend and was interested to learn first hand that the conference website was blocked in the conference hotel Business Office because it contained a banned word: Transsexual.  How funked up is that?

As for me - I've been busy.  It's amazing to get comfortable that every day starts with a number of critical unknowns that have yet to be settled but by the end of the day they're settled.  Even for someone used to going with the flow it can be a bit unsettling to accept some of these huge things but all the pieces seem to keep falling into place.  I hope it continues.

The pups and I drove 600 miles yesterday.  Today is a down day, but tomorrow involves another 700 miles.  No rest for the weary...

The good news is that new opportunity seems to crop up when you least expect it, or when you're most open to it.  That's not meant as a bunch of Positive Thinking mumbo-jumbo - it's just about being aware and flexible.  Anyway - I'm very much both of those at the moment and I'm surprisingly comfortable with it all right now.  The pessimist in me knows that things can always change in a moment, but for now - we're good.

1 comment:

Sophie Lynne said...

As you well know- take the moments when you get them! :)