Trans-inclusive language in religious texts is SO IMPORTANT. There is nothing in some young people’s lives that can either validate or dehumanize them so quickly as how they see themselves represented in the words of their religion.
May all who need to see these words find them.
I use this book every day as an interfaith hospital chaplain- i highly recommend.
To all the young Millenials about to watch M*A*S*H for the first time, do not be turned off by Max Klinger being a guy in a dress.
For those of you unaware, the character tries several schemes to get out of the army on the grounds of being mentally unfit for service, most notably being a man who wears a dress, which no one buys. It’s played off as a joke but everyone loves him and treats him very respectfully unless it’s a character you’re not supposed to sympathise with.
You might want to call bull on the fact that they’re getting a cheap joke at a man in a dress. But, this man in a dress had a gender identity crisis ON SCREEN (although they couldn’t call it that) and also helped pave the way to allow transgender people into the armed forces.
No, seriously. A congressman who was a fan of the show brought up how Max Klinger cross dressing never was an issue at this M*A*S*H unit and it allowed transgender people to serve in the armed forces!
I’m a trans(masc) millenial and the biggest thing I feel was made fun of was how much some people were bothered by Klinger’s clothes, not the fact that he’s wearing them.
Klinger learns a lot about fashion and sewing and seems to develop a genuine passion for it over time.
There’s even one time when he develops a psychosomantic (spelling?) rash during a short time when he has to wear his uniform. Even after it is clear that he’s not gonna get to go home by wearing dresses, he continues – suggesting either a persistent act of defiance to make him feel better, or a real appreciation of the clothes… or both!
He’s clearly coded as straight, is accepted by his peers, and his character arc and development is barely focused on his clothes (rather it focuses on what he wants to do with his life; his dream future).
For a show made in the 70’s depicting the 50’s, M*A*S*H was a show before its time – with feminist messages and anti-war messages, as well as speking out against homophobia and racism – and Klinger was a groundbreaking character.
This is especially true, I think, if you watch the episodes sans the laugh track. Without the canned laughter, Klinger’s costuming comes off as especially sincere.
Klinger is a good man and a great character and everyone in the camp respects him (and if they don’t, it’s not because of his attire).
Please drink water and eat plenty fruits so you can also taste as good as your partner.
Please Exfoliate both your face AND body.
Please Wash, Deep Condition, AND Detangle!
Please try not use hair care products that say “Men” because they use the same fragrance as AXE which is harmful to both your skin and scalp. And ITSTINKS.
ITS OKAY TO SMELL LIKE FRUITS. SHEA BUTTER OR FLOWERS. SMELL HAS NO DAMN GENDER.
There are ‘masculine’🙄 natural scents also; Eucalyptus, Sandalwood, Sage, Peppermint, etc.
MOISTURIZE EVERY PART OF YOUR BODY. ESPECIALLY YOUR LIPS.
Point is….take care of yourself…damn.
Toxic/hyper masculinity is so bad men can’t even take care of themselves without it being considered “gay” or frowned upon in some form of fashion smh
Exactly! It should be something we should all encourage and not frown up when we see a man doing a facial or getting a pedicure. It’s perfectly normal to want your outside to reflect the inside.
wouldn’t it be cool if sylvia rivera or marsha p. johnson were still alive and you could see what kind of activism they were doing now, and support it, and follow them on social media?
“It sure would!”
Gosh, imaginary reader, I agree! And you know what?
MISS MAJOR IS *ALSO* A TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR WHO WAS AT STONEWALL, AND SHE’S STILL ALIVE AND AMAZING AND I ALMOST NEVER SEE ANYBODY MENTION HER
And yes, that’s her Instagram, @missmajor1. (Image is her holding issue 1 of The September Issues, open to a picture of herself; caption mentions that it “has a feature on House of GGs (and me)”. And yes, you can look her up on Facebook under Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and she even follows back 😮
(Screenshot of her Facebook page. Her header is a picture of Ursula (who was based on legendary drag queen Divine) with the text “my dears – I have reached my Facebook friend limit so please ‘like’ my public page: www.Facebook.com/MissMajorGriffinGracy and I will catch up with you there.” It also mentions that she lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she retired after living in Oakland, CA. In addition to the sites mentioned here, it also listed missmajorfilm.com and tgijp.org.)
Looks like she’s even on Twitter, @immissmajor.
From missmajor.net:
“Miss Major is a veteran of the Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison, a former sex worker, an elder, and a community leader and human rights activist.
Miss Major’s personal story and activism for transgender civil rights intersects LGBT struggles for justice and equality from the 1960s to today. At the center of her activism is her fierce advocacy for her girls, trans women of color who have survived police brutality and incarceration in men’s jails and prisons.
Miss Major is formerly the long-time executive director of the San Francisco-based Transgender Gender-Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), which advocates for trans women of color in and outside of prison. She is also the subject of a new documentary feature film currently showing around the country, MAJOR!”
She even has a GoFundMe, where people make one-time or recurring monthly donations to support this activist legend through her retirement:
and if you can, go and see The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson, which includes this footage as part of a fuller segment on Sylvia Rivera’s life right up until her death. what an amazing person who the world was not ready for.
(Transcription follows🙂 Sylvia Rivera: I may be—
Crowd: [booing]
Sylvia Rivera: Y’all better quiet down. I’ve been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers and your gay sisters in jail that write me every motherfucking week and ask for your help and you all don’t do a goddamn thing for them.
Have you ever been beaten up and raped and jailed? Now think about it. They’ve been beaten up and raped after they’ve had to spend much of their money in jail to get their [inaudible], and try to get their sex changes. The women have tried to fight for their sex changes or to become women. On the women’s liberation and they write ‘STAR,’ not to the women’s groups, they do not write women, they do not write men, they write ‘STAR’ because we’re trying to do something for them.
I have been to jail. I have been raped. And beaten. Many times! By men, heterosexual men that do not belong in the homosexual shelter. But, do you do anything for me? No. You tell me to go and hide my tail between my legs. I will not put up with this shit. I have been beaten. I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment for gay liberation and you all treat me this way? What the fuck’s wrong with you all? Think about that!
I do not believe in a revolution, but you all do. I believe in the gay power. I believe in us getting our rights, or else I would not be out there fighting for our rights. That’s all I wanted to say to you people. If you all want to know about the people in jail and do not forget Bambi L’amour, and Dora Mark, Kenny Metzner, and other gay people in jail, come and see the people at Star House on Twelfth Street on 640 East Twelfth Street between B and C apartment 14.
The people are trying to do something for all of us, and not men and women that belong to a white middle class white club. And that’s what you all belong to!
REVOLUTION NOW! Gimme a ‘G’! Gimme an ‘A’! Gimme a ‘Y’! Gimme a ‘P’! Gimme an ‘O’! Gimme a ‘W’! Gimme an ‘E! Gimme an ‘R’! [crying] Gay power! Louder! GAY POWER!
There’s some really important commentary on this event by several trans women on the previous upload of the video. I’m going to quote it here so it’s not lost; unfortunately the original commenters have deleted their blogs or gone private so I can’t provide full attribution.
lilacbootlaces said:
[[Trigger warning: suicide]]
Sylvia went home that night and attempted suicide.
Marsha Johnson came home and found her in time to save her life.
Sylvia left the movement after that day and didn’t come back for twenty years.
this is incredible, she is incredible, I highly recommend watching it
but I think the addendum re: the effect of this day on sylvia is really important
so often we valorise decontextualised moments of tough, articulate resistance and rage
and
the suffering of the people who embodied them is not acknowledged, it’s
uncomfortable, it’s not inspiring, we want them to stay tough and cool
and stylish forever
which is particularly terrible when I think about how sylvia felt like that because of women like me — women who are now watching this video and feeling inspired and impressed
and maybe a bit pleased with ourselves for finally having watched a
speech by the famous and really cool to name-drop sylvia rivera
girl-assassin said:
rebloggin for the true as fuck commentary (bolding mine)
n
like, on one hand this moment is decontextualized as fuck, but on the
other hand a lot of ppl try to hyper-contextualize it to make it
“history” and a very specific historical moment, so we (cis women) can
be like “oh so sad that’s how it was in the 1970s, radfems were so
awful, but it was only the whole second-wave scene that was the problem,
glad that’s over.”
Like have we forgotten the fact that Sylvia
only died in 2002? And she died young, if she were still alive she
wouldn’t even be 65 yet. I know hella older ppl in NYC who knew her
personally, and hella “leaders” of the NYC queer scene pulled horrific
shit on her constantly in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, like literally
until the day she died (ppl from Empire State Pride agenda literally
went to St. Vincents to beef with her on her death bed) Where are the
video tapes/memorializing of that shit?
N now the Manhattan LGBT
center on 13th st has a room dedicated to her memory, despite the fact
that very center permanently banned her in 1995 for daring to suggest
they should let homeless QTPOC sleep there in sub-zero weather.
N
now there’s a whole homeless trans youth shelter on 36th st named after
her, Sylvia’s Place, that kicked my TWOC friend out on the streets for
testing positive for marijuana; failing to recognize how fucked up that
is in a shelter named after a woman who struggled with addiction all her
life, and was very vocal about the relationship between drug use and
the stress of living under constant threats of violence.
N from
the late 90s onward rich gays and lesbians openly fought against Sylvia
to try to shut down 24/7 access to the piers that she n hella other
QTPOC cruised and lived on bc they were bringing down the property
values of their multi-million west village apartments.
N like 90%
of the individual people who perpetuated fucked up violence against
Sylvia are still alive and high-profile leaders in the NYC LGBT
“community” today.
So like yes, good, remember the oppressive
weight of our history of transmisogyny…but also remember that this shit
specifically ain’t even history, it’s the current reality of the NYC
queer/trans hierarchy today—like not even figuratively, literally the same people
who pulled shit like this on Sylvia are still alive n well n all over
NYC cutting the ribbons to the newest Sylvia Rivera memorial n
eulogizing her like they never tried to fucking kill her themselves.
Sorry for constantly reblogging this but here’s some more info?
In LOTR the word ‘man’ is only used for human men so now I’m imagining like
Someone: are you a man or a woman?
Pippin: I’m a hobbit
Someone: but what’s in your trousers
Pippin: mostly snacks
in case anyone thought i was joking:
‘Man!’ cried Pippin, now thoroughly roused. ‘Man! Indeed not! I am a hobbit and no more valiant than I am a man, save perhaps now and again by necessity. Do not let Gandalf deceive you!’
my favorite running gag in the adventure zone is that taako adheres to this rule and so repeatedly objects to being called a man, but no one else in the entire podcast has this hangup
Solutions Without Problems 