Trans vs. Feminism : Video footage of Queer/Trans activists at the ‘Law and Disorder’ conference following last weekend’s Portland attack

The following is the first video to emerge of events that took place at last weekend’s Portland University “Law and Disorder” conference, where two feminists were assaulted by angry transgender and “queer” activists who were enraged that women were offering materials which presented the feminist belief that sex-roles or “gender” are harmful to women and girls. The attackers believed that sex-roles must be supported and that women should not be permitted to voice opinions or write books critical of gender.  The queer/trans politic (as seen in this video) believes that uttering such opinions is so offensive that feminists who express them should be silenced by any means necessary, including threats, censorship and violence. In Saturday’s attack the feminists were threatened and terrorized, their books were destroyed, and one of the women was marked up with a magic marker by one of the men. Read the previous post here: http://gendertrender.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/feminists-assaulted-in-transgender-attack-at-portland-conference-for-social-change-womens-books-destroyed-and-bodies-defaced-with-permanent-magic-markers/

This two-part video captures some of the events that took place at the conference the next day, when feminists and some of the male members of DGR attempted to again present materials from Deep Green Resistance – including feminist materials critical of gender.

Again: this is NOT footage of the violent attack. This is footage of queer/transgender activists surrounding the table of Deep Green Resistance the day AFTER the Saturday attack. Footage from Saturday has not yet emerged. To GenderTrender’s knowledge, NONE of the people in this video are accused of committing the violent attack and destruction of feminist books the day before. (More information including the identity of those attackers is emerging and will be posted shortly.) Regardless, this video shows the timbre of the male-centric queer/trans community’s approach to feminist theory and activism which is critical of sex-based social roles or “gender”.

Deep Green Resistance have issued a public statement about the attacks. Here it is:

Three incidents occurred at the “Law and Disorder Conference” in Portland May 11 and 12 concerning DGR and transgender/queer activists. A lot of lies have been told about these incidents. We need to tell the facts of what physically happened.

Two women were tabling, handing out DGR literature and selling books. A group of five transgender/queer activists came up to the table. One of the male queer activists began shouting at the women, using aggressive language. This man made threatening gestures toward the women. He grabbed and defaced table materials. When one of the women went to protect the materials, he marked her arm and hand as well.

 This conference states it has a policy of safe spaces, but “safe spaces” evidently doesn’t apply to women, because although most people in the room had no choice but to hear the shouting, no one, including the organizers, intervened to stop this man and his aggressive behavior.

A half an hour later, a male DGR member tried to engage in respectful conversation with these queer activists. They began chanting at him and insulting him, culminating in them throwing trash and food at his head.

 The next day, Sunday, the DGR crew went back, for more tabling, and an angry mob of queer activists again approached the table, yelling and cursing at them, and demanded that they leave. You can watch the video of this. Once again, for all their talk of “safe spaces,” the organizers did not intervene, nor provide a safe space.

 You will see that throughout all of this, the DGR members were respectful and courteous. They tried to de-escalate. Nonetheless, they were the recipients of bullying, threats, and silencing.

One of the organizers, Brandon Speck, witnessed much of this, and at least pretended to express concern for the women. He originally said that the perpetrators would not be invited back next year. He also promised that he would write up a statement of solidarity with the victims condemning the attacks. He further promised to run this statement by the victims before publishing it. He was not telling the truth. He did not run the statement by the women, and the statement he did publish indeed blames the DGR members for their own victimization. Women from all over responded en masse to this by pointing out that this was the classic victim-blaming that characterizes patriarchy and misogyny. The thread was deleted, and the organizer falsely claimed this was because of “violently transphobic comments.” This was as much a lie as their original release blaming the victims. The only violence in the comments was directed at DGR members.

DGR has never threatened anyone, and has a code of conduct that disallows making threats against people. Any DGR person who behaved as violently as any of the queer activists did at this conference would be immediately banned from DGR. Instead, what has happened is a barrage of threats against DGR members, up to and including mass beheading. And yet these comments are allowed to remain.

 We ask everyone to stand in solidarity with all victims of patriarchal, male-pattern violence, starting with the women who were subjected to this at the Law and Disorder conference.

Feminists assaulted in Transgender Attack at Portland conference for Social Change: Women’s books destroyed and bodies defaced with permanent magic markers

Prescient conference graphic: women blindfolded and having arms chopped off

Breaking News: In what has been described as a “horrifying” incident two women were attacked  by a group of men who identified themselves as “transgender women” at the Portland State University “Law and Disorder Conference” which billed itself as a “provocative space for comparative critical dialogue between activists, revolutionaries, educators, artists, musicians, scholars, dancers, actors and writers”.

The women were attacked in a coordinated assault as they sat at a table which sold feminist books and literature. The men destroyed the books and marked up the table display with permanent markers. One of the women was also marked up by the men. Predominantly male conference onlookers by all reports allowed the attack to take place, watching in stunned silence. Two males affiliated with the same group as the feminists -Deep Green Resistance- were also in attendance and the “trans women” threw a projectile at the head of one of them.

According to reports, the transgender males or “trans women” took issue with the feminist content in the Deep Green Resistance materials. Specifically, a portion of the materials reflected the feminist position that social roles based on sex are undesirable and harmful to women.

The transgender males believe that social roles based on sex are natural and innate and that it is instead the unchanging nature of biological sex that is undesirable. They believe that women should not criticize social roles based on sex, in deference to the feelings of men like themselves who embrace such roles. The men reportedly stated that all feminist writing and voices should be silenced by males with force if necessary, and they then proceeded to do just that.

Conference organizer Brandon Speck posted a statement on Facebook today following yesterday’s attack. He claimed that women should not be able to disseminate materials that might offend those men who support sex-roles. He claimed that the women deserved to be attacked for offering materials that contained feminism. He stated that no feminists should be permitted to sell books that men might not like. He said that as a man he had no authority to dictate the behavior of other men who might choose to assault women who offend them. Here is his statement:

Conference statement condoning attacks

Here is the link to the page where his statement is posted:

https://www.facebook.com/lawanddisorderconference?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline

The attached comments include threats by transgender activists to continue violent attacks against women who promote feminist thought.

I am withholding the names of the women who were attacked until they issue a public statement, which will be published here. The feminists are reported to be terrorized but did not require medical care. No arrests have yet been made. Stay tuned for updates.

*UPDATE* the statement and thread referenced above have been entirely deleted. Here is a link to the page where the former statement was posted:

https://www.facebook.com/lawanddisorderconference

State vs. Feds: California assembly rolls back Title IX protections for female athletes, codifies sex-stereotypes into state law

Tom Ammiano: Rollback for Women’s Rights

The California assembly approved a measure that upends federal equality protections for government-funded sports programs based on sex. Bill 1266, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano,  replaces female equality measures with a “gender” based sports program which allows athletes of either sex to compete in women’s sporting programs based on their willingness to conform to, and proclaim adherence to, stereotypical social norms which the California government legally redefines as the definition of female-“ness”, regardless of actual sex. In doing so the state removes sex-based equality protections for female athletes and replaces them with state-mandated guidelines for behaviors, feelings and stereotypes that the state defines as “female”, regardless of sex.

Ammiano believes that reproductively female persons are a disposable class, and as such require no government representation or protection, despite vast objective data showing overwhelming systemic discrimination and marginalization of females socially, economically, and legally. The assembly approved Ammiano’s replacement of female as a protected class with a newly created class defined as individuals of either sex who claim to possess what lawmakers define as “female feelings”. In accordance with this premise the assembly ruled that facilities such as urinals and locker rooms should be used by students based not on anatomy – but on their willingness to adhere to the sex-based stereotypes, which are illegal under federal law Title VII.

Assemblyman Phil Ting explained his vote for the measure by citing the sex-based social role change of his (apparently courageous) staffer Heather: “This courageous person is a part of a courageous community. … We have to do everything possible to make sure we are supportive of that and support their courage.” [sic]

The California Assembly also approved in tandem a measure that provides state secrecy in name changes if those changes involve social sex-role change, due to the “humiliating” nature of such name changes. According to bill 55-16, name changes including those of convicted felons can bypass normal channels as long as such changes are attached to a claimant’s self-reported change in social role.

Men who state they are willing to adopt a female social role will now have their name changes bypass regular procedures used by name change applicants, as such changes will not appear in any legal court record or in media ledgers. “…the measure’s provisions are similar to the privacy options available to domestic violence and sexual assault victims,” Reports the Sacramento Bee.

Both bills will now head to the Senate.

Cristan William’s Huge Sweaty Balls

…and your little dog toto too

Cristan Williams is a man who hates women, who hates lesbians and gays, who hates feminists most of all. He hates them because he feels they interrupt his relationship with the object of his greatest desire: His sexualized image of himself “as a woman”.

Cristan is what is known as a “Men’s Rights Advocate”. Such men believe that women prevent men from realizing their true potential. In Cristan’s case, that “potential” is his right as a man to become a sexy lady. Women get in his way because their existence- as actual female humans- interferes with the male definition of woman as “person who embodies sexualized porn stereotypes of females”.

Cristan has spent years authoring various widely unread blogs and vlogs where he posts overly-long MANifestos explaining how women, lesbians, gays, and feminists have deprived him of his entitlement to womanhood. Also trolls reddit under various names including “GroovemasterGeneral”, “Two”, and “I’mNotanMRAbut”.

He recently inherited the TransAdvocate website from retiring trans MRA Marti Abernathey. TransAdvocate is an aggregator site for anti-woman, anti-lesbian, anti-gay, anti-feminist trans bloggers. The site is entirely male except for occasional re-posts from sole token female Matt Kailey, a heterosexual “ex-fag-hag” F2T.

This hilarious exchange took place in comments on this post, and is illustrative of the total lack of awareness of actual women’s lives so prevalent in today’s trans politic. Not only is this funny (in a sad and awful way) but exposes the ignorance and disconnect from actual women’s lives and experiences that informs the “womanhood” of the sexual fetishists like Cristan who are spokesmen from the men’s transgender rights movement. Also on display in the rest of the exchange (not quoted here- hit the link for more) is the incredible mean-spiritedness of transgender males towards female reality: a reality that would destroy the male-centric entitlement and fantasy of “womanhood” if such everyday truths of female lives were ever acknowledged and respected.

Without further adieu. GH in this exchange is the sister of a Canadian transgender pioneer now profoundly disabled due to blood clots caused by his pharmaceutical estrogen “treatment”.

gh : stop this nonsense with the prefix, cis. a woman is a human being born with the reproductive capacity to reproduce, intersex people are a rare and wonderful exception. i was born a woman. pure and simple, my transsexual sister was not born a woman. she is a MtF woman. no need to address or apologize for what you are when you are born. it is the trans community that makes the addition…. the number 1 is not 2 minus 1, just 1…we get to 2 by adding. we do not get to 1 by subtracting. don’t apologize for the way you are born….

 

Cristan Williams : I’m guessing that you’d assert as fact that there’s no cis-privilege, amirite?

gh : so what is cis-privilege? this is not about privilege. i remember telling a friend about my brother/sister and her reaction was: who the hell wants to CHOOSE to be a woman??? sexual harassment from a young age? menstrual pain and bleeding (and embarrassments) when we are twelve? worry about birth control? pregnancy? lower pay at work? sexual harassment at work? no promotions because we need to go home to the kids? childbirth, which is a wonderful miracle but takes a toll on our mental and physical health? excessive bleeding? worries about breast and ovarian cancers? other womanly health concerns like yeast infections, std’s, aids, infertility, or fertility? sexual harassment and assault on the streets, even as we age? menopause for years, night sweats, hot flashes, depressions? sexual disinterest as we age from our lovers? rape on buses, in parks, in our homes, in public washrooms? domestic violence? the beauty industry making us feel insecure and ugly? anorexia? all of these are privileges? to you maybe….but then when a man becomes a woman she does not have to deal with the same types of problems…they are kind of edited out of the equation for you??

Cristan Williams : Cis-privilege refers to a set of unearned advantages that individuals who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth accrue solely due to having a cisgender identity.
Cisgender (AKA: Cis, cissexual) is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of people who are not transgender. For example, this term is used to refer to someone who was sexed male at birth, subjectively experiences their sex to be male, identifies as a male and expresses his identity in a manner consistent with a cultural male gender role.

     gh : 
rubbish. this is an invented term by translobbyists…bullying in the washroom does not imply that another group enjoys a privilege…it only says that one person is bullying another. designating a washroom for example for the sole use of one sex or another, (after the fight for women to have bathrooms in certain workplaces, dining establishments, schools, etc.) does not imply that women enjoy a privilege…it was fought as a right, and won as a right….it is not beyond the advantage of most…there are men’s washrooms, so there is no special privilege….this was about equality, not privilege. this is only one example….i am never cis-gendered…i am a woman. transpeople are the “deviation” from the norm, thus are the transsexual, intersex people are not included as they have their own considerations…why have political interests muddied the waters and made this issue into a binary?
priv·i·lege [priv-uh-lij, priv-lij] Show IPA noun, verb, priv·i·leged, priv·i·leg·ing.
noun
1.
a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most: the privilegesof the very rich.
2.
a special right, immunity, or exemption granted to persons in authority or office to free them fromcertain obligations or liabilities: the privilege of a senator to speak in Congress without danger of a libel suit.
3.
a grant to an individual, corporation, etc., of a special right or immunity, under certain conditions.
4.
the principle or condition of enjoying special rights or immunities.
5.
any of the rights common to all citizens under a modern constitutional government: We enjoy theprivileges of a free people.

Cristan Williams : Here’s a few real-world examples of cis-privilege:

1. You can use public restrooms without fear of verbal abuse, physical intimidation, or arrest.

2. Strangers don’t assume they can ask you what your genitals look like and how it’s possible for you have sex.

3. If you are murdered (or have any crime committed against you), your gender expression will not be used as a justification for your murder (“gay panic”) nor as a reason to coddle the perpetrators.

4. You have the ability to walk through the world and generally blend-in, not being constantly stared or gawked at, whispered about, pointed at, or laughed at because of your gender expression.

5. Strangers call you by the name you provide, and don’t ask what your “real name” [birth name] is and then assume that they have a right to call you by that name.

6. You have the ability to flirt, engage in courtship, or form a relationship and not fear that your biological status may be cause for rejection or attack, nor will it cause your partner to question their sexual orientation.

7. If you end up in the emergency room, you do not have to worry that your gender will keep you from receiving appropriate treatment, or that all of your medical issues will be seen as a result of your gender.

8. Your identity is not considered a mental pathology (“gender identity disorder” in the DSM IV) by the psychological and medical establishments.

9. You are not required to undergo an extensive psychological evaluation in order to receive basic medical care.

10. You’re able to assume that everyone you encounter will understand your identity, and not think you’re confused, misled, or hell-bound when you reveal it to them.

gh  : Here are a few real-world examples of women’s experiences in
the world:

1. 
You can’t use the public restroom without fear
that a sexual predator is waiting in the stalls. If you live in the developing
world, you fear going out to collect water, or using the outhouse, or taking a
public bus because you fear rape.

2. 
Strangers come up to you, from infancy onwards,
all the time, and ask to have sex with you, or wolf whistle or touch you
inappropriately because you have a female body.

3. 
If you are murdered or have any crime against
committed against you, the likelihood that the perpetrator is a close relative
or friend is increased monumentally because you are a woman. You learn to trust
no man.

4. 
You walk down the street and are victimized
because you are a woman.

5. 
If you are like me and have a foreign name, you
are constantly assumed to be a Mr., or if you are young, a Miss, or old, a
Mrs., but you learn to deal with it!! Boy named Sue.

6. 
If you are a woman and are having a heart
attack, your case is not taken seriously because you are a woman…or if you
suffer from migraines that look like a stroke, you are considered by the neurologist
that you are like other of his female patients to be fat, housewives with
nothing better to worry about….BTW, I was having a stroke.

7. 
You go our on a date and because the man thinks
you are flirting because you want sex, he rapes you….your sex has everything to
do with it…you learn to question your sexuality, or repress it so as not to be
victimized again….

8. 
Hysteria is/was thought to be caused by a
woman’s uterus and other physical attributes. Women have been categorized as
crazy for suffering the hormonal storms that accompany menstruation,
childbearing, menopause….look at the so called humour industry….

9. 
“Mother’s little helper” aka Valium was given to
women who faced the daunting task of staying to care for and cook for men in
the suburbs. Maybe they need to fight for equality? We were not crazy, just
victims of a paternalistic society.

10. I
was told to leave the law school studies to my brothers. My identity as a
strong and intellectual woman was not understood and was denigrated. I have
been put down numerous times by men and women for wanting the liberation of
women in the world…

Cristan Williams :  
Eh, Oppression Olympics? Nope. Won’t play.

Lawrence University invokes shocking last minute BAN on Earth Day Keynote Speaker Lierre Keith due to her Feminist views on Gender

In a shocking last minute decision Lawrence University representatives no-platformed Deep Green Resistance founding member Lierre Keith from her scheduled Earth Day appearance due to previous feminist comments she has made about gender. Specifically, she was banned from speaking at the university due to her belief that Gender is socially created and not biologically innate.

Keith is the author of The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability and a well known writer, Radical Feminist, food activist and environmentalist. Her scheduled speech “Stopping Civilization’s Violence to the Earth” was booked as part of Lawrence’s Greenfire Earth Week Speaking Series.

An event organizer contacted Keith on April 11 with the disturbing news that Lawrence University faculty lecturer Helen Boyd (pen name of Gail Kramer) who is identified in emails as “Professor Helen Boyd-Kramer, a well-known transadvocate” was organizing a campaign to censor Keith’s environmentalist lecture. Boyd-Kramer is the heterosexual wife of transgender and long-time crossdresser, actor Jason Crowl. Boyd-Kramer is the author of “My Husband Betty: Love, Sex and Life with a Crossdresser” and appears on the transgender circuit as a paid speaker describing her experiences as the wife of a transgender man, as well as lecturing in the Gender Studies and Freshman Studies departments at Lawrence. The organizer informed Lierre Keith that Boyd-Kramer was threatening to mount a public protest at the Earth Day event as well as publish an article in the Lawrence University newspaper damning the event unless Lierre agreed to meet with her “in order to have a private conversation about the issue”. Although Keith’s scheduled Earth Day talk had nothing to do with the transgender issue, the organizer stated his fear that “They would diminish the impact of your talk by making you look close-minded and mean, and by shifting the focus of discussion and re-framing your appearance completely.” Lierre was repeatedly asked if her feminist views on gender had “changed”: “we’d love to hear that and the issue will end there.”

Gail Kramer/Helen Boyd with husband Jason Crowl/Betty Crow

No stranger to controversy, and with the strong support of those in the Wisconsin environmentalist community Keith intended to proceed with her appearance as scheduled on Sunday April 21. Two days before the event she was informed that her environmentalist program had been no-platformed at Lawrence University due to her unwillingness to retract her previous, unrelated feminist statements expressing her belief that gender is socially constructed and not biologically innate.

Lawrence University Earth Day organizer Adam James Kranz posted the following message on the event Facebook page announcing that he would personally replace Keith as speaker and present the aspects of Keith’s ideas that he finds “compelling”:

————————————

Why Lierre Keith is Not Speaking at Lawrence

by Greenfire (Notes) on Friday, April 19, 2013 at 2:06pm

From their website “Deep Green Resistance is an analysis, a strategy, and a movement being born, the only movement of its kind.”

DGR’s writings have strongly influenced my perspective on environmental issues, and I think their ideas have a lot of valuable contributions to make. 

They draw deep connections between violence against the land and violence based on class, race, gender, etc.

Their analysis puts modern ills in historical context, comparing the tribulations of agricultural life to the hunter-gatherer systems dominant for most of human existence.

They make incisive critiques of mainstream modes of activism and reform. 

Their appraisal of reform-based activism asks us whether we can afford to wait, and, if not, whether we have any alternatives.

There are plenty of intellectual critiques one can and should make of DGR – I did two independent studies last Spring doing just that. However, I feel that DGR’s perspective is very valuable and poses some tough questions to the conventional brand of activism. Lierre is one of the three main leaders and authors behind DGR, and I hoped her lecture would provoke some interesting discussion. 

The broad, inclusive resistance to oppression and hierarchy that DGR advocates was my own entry point into activist causes beyond environmentalism. I largely relied on their positions on issues I hadn’t bothered to study myself – especially feminism.

This is why I was so disappointed and betrayed to learn that Lierre doesn’t support the trans community in their fight against the same oppressive forces Lierre spends her life combating. In fact, Lierre’s views are deeply offensive and actively transphobic. If anyone is interested in reading her hate-speech, it is quoted here:

http://vanillaxlight.tumblr.com/post/3748949864/lierre-keith-is-blatantly-transphobic

and a deconstruction/rebuttal:

http://quinnae.com/2010/10/27/outside-an-exodus-from-patriarchy-on-the-backs-of-women/

Lierre’s views are products of an old trend in eco-feminism that I can’t claim to understand. However, it is not defensible under the shield of intellectual freedom of thought. Her statements go well beyond an analysis that is merely wrong to a level that is actively offensive and disregards the lived experiences of millions of people.

Greenfire is committed to maintaining a safe space for everyone on campus. Hosting Lierre, knowing her opinions and knowing that members of the community know them as well, would disregard the feelings of members of our community, and this is unacceptable. I personally apologize for not making this decision sooner.

Instead of Lierre’s lecture, Greenfire will now host a lecture and discussion forum on radical environmental activism. I will present aspects of DGR’s ideas that I find compelling and try to ask questions that create a productive dialogue about our own tactical choices and analyses. Everyone is welcome to join us. The event will still take place on Sunday, 4/21, at 1 PM, in Steitz 102.

Adam Kranz

—————————————

Lierre has issued the following statement directed at the President of Lawrence University:

jill.beck@lawrence.edu

Cc:

“xxxxxxxx” <xxxxxxxx@lawrence.edu>

Dear Dr. Beck,

 

I am writing to tell you about an incident on your campus about which you should be concerned.

 

I am the author of multiple books on environmentalism. A student at Lawrence, xxxxxxx (cc’d here), invited me to speak for Earth Day. The lecture was scheduled for tomorrow, April 21. Yesterday, I received an email from Mr. xxxxxx (pasted below), canceling my appearance because some students take issue with my ideas.

 

I will get into the content of this disagreement later. My overwhelming point of concern is the purpose of higher education and the defense of the liberal tradition itself. I don’t know if I can state this strongly enough. Universities are supposed to be institutions founded on the bedrock principle of an open and robust exchange of ideas. I am appalled that anyone would be barred from speaking at your school over a disagreement. Intellectual engagement is the entire reason universities exist. It’s also why institutions of higher learning are vitally important to a pluralistic society. The young adults in your care need to understand this principle. If they learn one thing at your school, it should be this: ideas qua ideas are our only defense against the human tendency to fundamentalism with all its attendant horrors.

 

Mr. xxxxx’s email (pasted below) stated my appearance would be “threatening” and “offensive” to some students. Given that I have threatened no one, and that I am a middle-aged woman with a degenerative disease and no upper-body strength, I think we can set aside the notion that I pose a physical threat to anyone. What they mean is “uncomfortable.” But people don’t go to college to feel comfortable. They go to be challenged. They go—or, they should go—to learn to engage with new ideas, to examine themselves and the world, to interrogate their beliefs and the society around them as deeply as possible. Some of your students are not preparing themselves for citizenship in a pluralistic democracy, which by definition means a civic society of people who hold differing–often, profoundly differing–beliefs. The entire project will rise or fall on how we as a society negotiate those differences. That some of your students don’t understand this–and are, in fact, actively rejecting it–leaves me gravely concerned for the future. That is why I am bringing this to your attention. I hope you share my concern.

  

To the details of the disagreement. I will try to be brief. I am a feminist. I have spent three decades fighting male violence against women. My analysis is informed by a century and a half of feminist theory and activism. My views are in no way unique. I believe that a social system of male domination starts with human beings who are biologically male or female and creates two social classes of people: men and women. Socialization to either group can be a brutal process.

 

Men are made by socialization to masculinity. Being a man requires a psychology based on emotional numbness and a dichotomy of self and other. This is also the psychology required by soldiers, which is why I don’t think you can be a peace activist without being a feminist.

 

Female socialization is a process of psychologically constraining and breaking girls—otherwise known as “grooming”—to create a class of compliant victims. Femininity is a set of behaviors that are, in essence, ritualized submission.

 

I see nothing in the creation of gender to celebrate or embrace. As a feminist, I am an abolitionist. Patriarchy is a corrupt and brutal arrangement of power, and I want to see it dismantled so that the category of gender no longer exists. This is also my position on race and class. The categories are not natural: they only exist because hierarchical systems of power create them (see, for instance, Audrey Smedley’s book Race in North America). I want a world of justice and equality, where the material conditions that currently create race, class, and gender have been forever overcome.

 

There are, of course, people who disagree with feminism. In their view, men and women display domination and submission, respectively, not because of social conditions, but because we have different brains. Gendered behavior is natural, they say, a function of our biology. Boys are naturally aggressive and active, while girls are naturally emotional and passive. The claim is often that prenatal hormones create these propensities, and that the wrong hormones can produce the wrong brain. Hence it is possible to have a man’s body with a woman’s brain (which adherents like to call a “lady brain”). Cursory research will reveal the variations and disagreements amongst the genderists. Some, for instance, believe that gender is a matter of costuming—what they call “presentation.” The problem with gender isn’t gender per se, but that there are social constraints on what men can wear. On the other extreme are people who argue that their genitals are a “birth defect” that require surgical removal.

 

I can’t do justice to the range of genderist beliefs in an email. My point is that I disagree with them, and because of that disagreement I was disinvited from your school. I don’t know what could be more important in a college environment than an examination of social reality and ideas about justice, but that examination has been shut down at Lawrence.

 

I would urge you to encourage the opposite in your students, for their sakes, certainly, but more importantly in defense of the values central to the liberal tradition. Encountering ideas that differ from one’s own has never hurt anyone; indeed, it is the only way to a better world.

 

I would be happy to send the text of the talk (which frankly had nothing to do with the subject discussed above) I had planned to give if you have further interest.

 

Sincerely,

Lierre Keith

http://www.lierrekeith.com

———————————————————-

Please take a moment to show your support for Lierre Kieth and your support for the great tradition of academic free speech by dropping your own message to Jill Beck, The President of Lawrence University expressing your concern at the following address:

jill.beck@lawrence.edu

Thank you.

How to Masculinize Your Room

From a transgender Forum:

How to masculinize my room- how can i masculinize my room ive gotten rid of all the feminine things but its still rather androgynous looking.

How to Transgender Your Automobile

Hang some trinkets with feathers or fuzzy (pink) from you rear view mirrorhang things from the center inside rear-view mirror. Any kind of trinkets or flowers will do nicely.Steering wheel covers–can’t be burning your tender fingers on a hot wheel or freezing them on a frosty one. Leopard print is a good choice.Little bitty small stuffed animals–tucked into an open door panel, cup holder, corner of the dash or rear shelf.

PCC rules against the criminalization of Trans-Critical feminist Julie Burchill

Burchill, taking no shit- and loving it!

The Press Complaints Commission has issued its ruling following an inquiry into the Julie Burchill article.  Transgenders called for the criminalization and censorship of Burchill when she described trans activists who use threats of rape and murder against feminists as “bedwetters in bad wigs”. The title of the article “Transsexuals should cut it out” referred to the ubiquitous harassment, violent threats, and bullying against feminists by transgender activists. You can read her censored article in full HERE.

The Ruling:

Commission’s decision in the case of

Two Complainants v The Observer / The Daily Telegraph

 

The complainants were concerned about a comment article which responded to criticism of another columnist on social networking sites. The article had first been published by The Observer. Following The Observer’s decision to remove the article from its website, it had been republished on the website of The Daily Telegraph. The Commission received over 800 complaints about the article, which it investigated in correspondence with two lead complainants, one for each newspaper.

The complainants considered that the article contained a number of prejudicial and pejorative references to transgender people in breach of Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors’ Code of Practice. They also raised concerns under Clause 1 (Accuracy) that language used by the columnist was inaccurate as well as offensive, and, furthermore that the article misleadingly suggested that the term “cis-gendered” was insulting. Additionally, concerns had been raised that the repeated use of terms of offence had breached Clause 4 (Harassment) of the Code.

The Commission first considered the complaints, framed under Clause 12, that the article had contained a number of remarks about transgender people that were pejorative and discriminatory. It noted that the Observer had accepted that these remarks were offensive, and that it had made the decision to remove the article on the basis that the language used fell outside the scope of what it considered reasonable; however, the Observer denied a breach of Clause 12 because the article had not made reference to any specific individual. Clause 12 states that newspapers “must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability”. However, the clause does not cover references to groups or categories of people. The language used in the article did not refer to any identifiable individual, but to transgender people generally. While the Commission acknowledged the depth of the complainants’ concerns about the terminology used, in the absence of reference to a particular individual, there was no breach of Clause 12.

The Commission also considered the complaint under the terms of Clause 1, which states that “the press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures”. Complainants had suggested that the terms used in the article to refer to transgender people were inaccurate or misleading. Whilst the Commission acknowledged this concern, it was clear from the tone of the article that these terms were being used to express an opinion. Whilst many people had found this opinion deeply distasteful and upsetting, the columnist was entitled to express her views under the terms of Clause 1(iii), so long as the statements were clearly distinguished from fact. The same was true in relation to the columnist’s assertion that the term “cis-gendered” is offensive. Viewed in the context of the article as a whole, particularly in light of the fact that the article had been deliberately identified as a comment piece, this was clearly distinguishable as an expression of her opinion about the term rather than a statement of fact about how it is perceived more broadly. This did not constitute a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article, for the purposes of Clause 1(i), and neither was there any significant inaccuracy requiring correction under the terms of Clause 1(ii). There was no breach of Clause 1.

The Commission turned to consider those concerns raised under Clause 4, which states that “journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit”. It made clear, however, that the publication of a single comment piece was not conduct which would engage the terms of Clause 4. There was no breach of the Code.

The Commission acknowledged that the complainants found much of the article offensive. Nonetheless, the terms of the Editors’ Code of Practice do not address issues of taste and offence. The Code is designed to address the potentially competing rights of freedom of expression and other rights of individuals, such as privacy. Newspapers and magazines have editorial freedom to publish what they consider to be appropriate provided that the rights of individuals – enshrined in the terms of the Code which specifically defines and protects these rights – are not compromised.  It could not, therefore, comment on this aspect of the complaint further.

Too bad, bedwetters.

[bolding by me-GM]

-

The Cotton Ceiling This Week

It’s been a year since I first spotted a small listing for a Planned Parenthood male-only seminar curiously titled “The Cotton Ceiling”. If you’ve never heard of it you can read about it here: https://gendertrender.wordpress.com/tag/the-cotton-ceiling/

A lot of lesbians were sort of shocked by the Cotton Ceiling- a series of closed-to-females seminars designed for transgender males to tackle the “problem” of lesbian refusal to have sex with males. Lesbians were shocked, but not surprised. Dykes had long been aware of the male takeover of lesbian spaces- it’s been going on for years. Every public womon-space, from book groups to dances to music festivals to record companies to bars has witnessed the “transition” of the same creepy straight dudes who imposed themselves and haunted, sentry-like, the corners of our spaces,  into “transwomen” who now claimed they “were” lesbians.

In 1981 Victoria Brownsworth described the emergent phenomenon of transgender males who demanded entry into dyke spaces, followed by demands that such spaces should revolve around them and their “male lesbian” wants and needs: “ When we talk about the role of male-to-female transsexuals in the women’s movement as a whole and the lesbian movement in particular I feel we are talking about the ultimate in male power-tripping.”

It happened incrementally. First some male would show up in women’s space woefully in his earrings and afghan, speaking in his soft falsetto. Lesbians, like most women socialized to be care-taking and non-confrontational, did not have the heart to kick him out. The air in the room changed with his presence. Women did not talk and joke in their usual relaxed manner. He didn’t know the difference. But the women did. They hoped he would not return. But he always did. Of course he did.

Gradually women’s meetings and groups stopped being advertised. They were moved to private homes. Public dances became private house parties. Women’s bars, record companies, spas, festivals, book stores closed. Lesbian websites were taken over until they were all run by “male lesbians”. Inch by inch, yard by yard, real lesbian culture went underground, private, smaller. Cultural pundits speculated this happened because we were integrating into the larger society where homosexuality was no longer taboo. Integrate! Integrate! Integrate! Who needs womon-space anyway? It will always be there if we want it. But inch by inch, yard by yard, men took over. Until it actually wasn’t there if we wanted it. Until we actually weren’t allowed to have lesbian space: women’s space. Males protested lesbian space, often physically.

They tried to shut down Michfest Womyn’s Music Festival by setting up an occupation where men (“male lesbians”) slashed tires, cut water lines, terrorized women by stalking the perimeter with illegal weapons, and blanketed the festival with pictures of their dicks inscribed with the phrase “A hot load from my monstrous tranny-cock embodies womanhood more than the pieces of menstral [sic] art your transphobic cunts could ever hope to create”. Transgender “male lesbians” tried to shut down rape crisis services. They tried to shut down the Take Back The Night marches. Male transgender “lesbians”, ten years ahead of the curve of real women in internet access and organizing, formed attack groups against lesbian and feminist websites and news outlets long before most real women even knew how to get online. They attacked lesbians at Dyke Marches carrying banners stating that homosexuality is “wrong”.

Anti-Lesbian Dyke March protest: “Gender is Greater Than Genitals”: Accept the Male Genitals you dumb dykes!!!

A male transgender named Ida (formerly Daniel) Hammer forced his way onto the organizing committee of NYC DykeMarch even though he was partnered with another male. He then proceeded to organize a posse of other men and non-lesbians to surround and threaten lesbian feminists who were targeted for their history of advocating for lesbian gatherings and events without men. Hetero male trans successfully had lesbian films removed from film festivals (before they had even viewed them). They wrote to book publishers calling for censorship of lesbian feminist books that had not yet been published- or written. They joined forces with the same anti-woman“Men’s Rights” groups that Anders Behring Breivik was a member of to shut down feminist seminars. They stalked and harassed any women who performed or attended lesbian or women’s festivals or conferences and tried to get them blacklisted from other venues. They tried to destroy vendors servicing lesbian events. And the rape and death threats. Holy shit. The death threats, the stalking.

My first post here at GenderTrender never even mentioned trans but I had my first death threat from a “male lesbian” within 5 minutes of posting. Any post, any gathering, any group, any seminar, for lesbians or from a lesbian or female perspective will be assaulted immediately by heterosexual males that fancy themselves as “lesbian”. The lesbian community is ground zero for the men’s movement we call transgenderism because the number one goal and priority of the gender movement is the elimination of lesbian voices and culture. 

Riki Wilchins and Denise Morris, the hetero white male “lesbians” who founded the Transexual [sic] Menace proudly claim the male attacks on the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival as the galvinizing moment for the gender movement, and also the single largest organized pro-gender political action in history.

So. The Cotton Ceiling shocked lesbians but it did not surprise them. What was shocking was the dropping of all pretense. All the bullshit about hetero male transgenders being sad sacks born in the wrong body. All the suicide threats and appeals for female care-taking. All the complaints about sex-exclusive meetings (lesbian-reparative Cotton Ceiling seminars were male-only). Just as every male-incursive inch turned into a mile in the lesbian community- as these men destroyed the very thing they claimed to want access to (and never knew the difference), so the “male lesbians” blatantly stepped forward to organize for the rights of their base agenda- the male “human right” of their penises to penetrate the ceiling of the human beings whose minds and bodies were getting in the way of their “male lesbian” fantasies: dick-noncompliant Actual Lesbians.

What shocked lesbians about The Cotton Ceiling was the honesty. What shocked lesbians is that the men we’ve been dealing with since forevahhhh saw no need to bother disguising their corrective-rape agenda any more. Every nagging feeling in our gut since that first hetero male lurker sat in the corner of the dyke bar staring: confirmed. No more double talk. No more queer theory. No more manipulation. Just plain old fucking corrective lesbian rape.

Shocked but not surprised.

The Cotton Ceiling was the shot heard round the world in the lesbian community, even among the integrated “who needs lesbian culture anyway” wimmin. Yet (like the clueless male in the lesbian book group who has no idea how his presence eliminates the space he wishes to occupy) the autogynephillic male “lesbians” have failed to ascertain this reality. Which brings us to: The Cotton Ceiling This Week.

Two of the premiere leaders of the white hetero male transgender penis rights movement which represents the “T” in LGBT have, in their rapetastic male arrogance, gifted us with new missives outlining corrective measures for the pesky “L”.

The first, from the middle-aged hetero white male physicist calling himself Savannah/Lefty T-Girl who is best known in the transgender activist community for coining the term “Lady-Stick” for his beloved cock.

T-Girl wants lesbians to know that the term “Sausage Fest” is offensive to the lady-sticks of male lesbians. Some lesbians have sausage too: The male ones! Lesbians should refrain from verbally disparaging the sausage! Because: Male lesbians have dicks and lesbians should STFU about not liking them. Also, not liking dicks is bigotry against dicks. He very generously advises that he will not use force to make us service his dick, but admonishes us that failing to do so is against our own best interests because:

Female humans are groomed and socialized from birth that we are to be raped, murdered, enslaved by men en masse worldwide due to our reproductive ability to bear labor-producing offspring.

By failing to pretend his sperm ejaculating ladystick (penis) is female we support our own oppression and create the reality that females are to be defined by our reproductive status and we enable and cause our own oppression as females. Because if we would only support his assertion that sperm ejaculating peni are “female” we will erase reproductive slavery because we will reject biological reality. And it is reproductive biology that men use to enslave women.

How incredibly offensive is this to women?

Supportive male comments in thread:

• there is no such thing as female humans, reproduction does not exist
• acknowledging biological sex in humans means there is no defining feature to humanity except for biological sex
• there is no such thing as human sexual dimorphism
• homosexuality is oppressive
• lesbians oppress males by rejecting them sexually
• Etc etc ad nausea

The second “Cotton Ceiling This Week” missive offered by a white male autogynephillic “T” leader is from Julia Serano. Serano is considered the premiere authority on transgender rights and authored the book “Whipping Girl” which asserted that sex-based oppression against females does not exist and that feminists oppress men when we claim that “femininity” and “masculinity” are terms culturally assigned to submissive and dominating behaviors and enforced according to sex in order to codify male dominance over females.

Serano’s “Cotton Ceiling This Week” piece goes way beyond T-Girl’s claim that lesbians cause our own oppression when we decline a male transgender’s dick. Serano claims that the “mentality” of females in general is the cause of male oppression and the “ugly head” of female reality must be stopped. Not kidding. Wish I was. From his post titled “Faab Mentality”:  “…one can see FAAB-mentality rear its ugly head in radical-feminist blogs, butch/femme settings, and trans events. I’ve even seen queer folks wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the word FAABulous.”

Faab is short for “female assigned at birth”- terminology created by individuals with disorders of sexual development/intersex (usually children who had congenital anomalies or “birth defects” that caused them to have atypical reproductive characteristics). This terminology of “assigned sex” described the experience of intersex children who were medically “assigned” a sex absent of- or in spite of- diagnostic testing. Sometimes surgeries were (and are) performed on these children in attempt to make their atypical reproductive anatomy conform. To “normalize” them. This practice is unethical and now considered a form of medical “torture” under new UN guidelines. Transgender activists have politically colonized the intersex language of “sex assignment” because in the transgender belief system reproductive biology does not actually exist. Trans activists believe that all individuals – even those who are reproductively normal- have been medically “assigned” a sex arbitrarily at birth because they believe that human reproduction is a subjective mental- not objectively physical- state regardless of actual objective reproductive function.

So what is male trans leader Serano’s issue with females and what he describes as our “Faab Mentality”?

-Serano complains that because he believes that reproductive biology does not exist and that human sex is wrongly assigned based on the objective reproductive anatomy we are born with, it follows that our “assignment” is an infantile experience. Following from this premise, any discussion or acknowledgment of our sex-specific human experiences – either physical or cultural- is also infantile.

-He proposes that all female-specific discourse (I say female-specific and not sex-specific because he directs his critique solely at females) is therefore infantile “Baby Talk”: a play on words likening the voices of women to pre-verbal gibberish.

-Serano proposes that female discourse around sex-based experience be dismissed -and shamed- by the transgender movement as infantile pre-verbal gibberish. By doing so, he hopes to erase or at least silence females who organize politically or socially around female sex-specific oppression. His reasoning is that such feminist organizing undermines the absurd  transgender platform that human reproduction is non-biologic. (It is interesting that biology-denying Serano reports that he has undergone a radical plastic surgery procedure to modify his penis and testicles into something that attempts to visually approximate the appearance of biologically female reproductive structures.)

-He expresses dismay that even homosexual females who have been successfully indoctrinated into genderist jargon and theory continue to partner with females. Not only that, but lesbians who have been successfully trained to echo transgender discourse have subverted the trans colonization of “sex assignment” and converted said discourse into a new form of female power and pride. From his essay:

“I read blogs. And an unfortunate consequence of reading blogs is that sometimes you stumble upon statements that make you upset. Lately, I’ve been dwelling over one single sentence from a blog postthat I read a few months ago. The author was a femme-identified cis woman who described her identity this way:

“I only say I’m queer to steer clear of sex acts with cisgender men whilst simultaneously accommodating my devout lesbianism and propensity towards dating trans men when the butch pool feels too shallow.”

I have become preoccupied with this quote, not because it is unusual or extraordinary – on the contrary, these are very commonplace sentiments among queer women these days. Rather, my interest in this quote stems from how perfectly it illustrates the subtle ways in which exclusion transpires in today’s queer women’s communities.

First, she defines “queer” in terms of her “devout lesbianism” and “steering clear of cisgender men.” Given her definition, a bisexual [male] woman (such as me), who sometimes does have sex with cis men, must automatically be *not* queer—aka, straight. Ah, the decades old lesbian tradition of erasing the B out of LGBT.

Second, she describes trans men as though they are not *really* men, but just another variety of butch woman. Indeed, trans male acceptance and desirability in queer women’s spaces often hinges on this assumption, which is partly why so many FTM-spectrum folks who are on “T,” prefer the pronoun “he,” and move through the world as men, nevertheless disavow any male-identification.

But from my perspective, the most poignant aspect of this quote is that there is absolutely no mention of trans women. We are absent, irrelevant, just as we are in most queer women’s spaces. I suppose that this isn’t surprising. If, like the author, most cis queer women believe that trans men are really butch women, then trans women must really be men. And, given this, if they believe that dating men disqualifies them from being queer, then trans women aren’t even going to be on their radar.

Lately, I’ve begun calling this mindset the FAAB-mentality. FAAB is an acronym for female-assigned-at-birth. Both FAAB and its counterpart MAAB (male-assigned-at-birth) were originally coined by trans activists in order to challenge invalidating concepts such as “birth sex,” “bio boys” and “genetic girls,” and to stress that our gender identities are far more relevant than how the straight world nonconsensually categorized us when we were babies. Yet somehow, over the last few years, FAAB has been appropriated by many cis queer women who wish to convey their affiliation with trans men, and to distance themselves trans women as well as cis men.

For instance, the musician Bitch recently wrote an “open letter” explaining why her support of trans woman-excluding women’s spaces is not “transphobic.” She begins her letter by dismissing cis/trans terminology, then she reframes the issue in terms of FAABs versus MAABs. Again, this is not an isolated incident—one can see FAAB-mentality rear its ugly head in radical-feminist blogs, butch/femme settings, and trans events. I’ve even seen queer folks wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the word FAABulous.”

-As the above quote illustates Serano (like all trans activists) believes that male “gender identities are far more relevant” than sex-based oppression against women.

That all women are raped, assaulted, beaten, threatened, impregnated like livestock, child-brided, female genital mutilated, sex-selected aborted, acid-attacked, honor-killed, “domestic” violenced, face-painted, prostituted, whored, slut-walked, forced to show our teeth, corrective raped, underpaid, unpaid, silenced, censored, harassed, stalked, crimes against us unprosecuted and even unrecorded, dismissed, ignored, uneducated, shamed, shunned, humiliated, discounted, infantalized, Etcetera because of our reproductive biology is irrelevant compared to the “rights” of transgender male fantasists to access lesbian bodies.

This is the Transgender Rights Movement and this is The Cotton Ceiling This Week.

‘Transilience’ – Joelle Ruby Ryan University of New Hampshire Harassment Campaign Against Women : Call For Action

I am writing this today out of a deep concern for the rights of women, feminists and lesbians to speak publicly about issues that effect us. Specifically, I would like to address the actions of Dr. Joelle Ruby Ryan and his ongoing attempts to harass, bully, censor and silence women and feminists on the internet, and the University of New Hampshire’s apparent complicity in his outrageous and illegal actions which Ryan claims to perform under authority of UNH.

You may notice that this week’s post -where we discussed ‘Transilience’, Joelle Ruby Ryan’s new University of New Hampshire Health sponsored video- is no longer visible. Also missing are your comments in the discussion that followed. The reason for this is that UNH’s Dr. Ryan has filed a false, perjured, harassing copyright claim that he apparently hopes will re-write all previous first amendment rights. Here is a screen cap of the post in question:

Here is the entire text of that post, none of which Dr. Ryan had a problem with. It was succinctly titled “Transilience – Hilar!” and read:

“Joelle Ruby Ryan’s new autobiographical spoken word/stand-up routine.

Joe is the guy who teaches Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire who claims the word “female” is outdated and offensive, that there is no shared experience of oppression among women, and thus no class basis for a feminist movement. Joelle believes all female gatherings and spaces should be outlawed as discriminatory against males. More about Joe here:http://gendertrender.wordpress.com/?s=joelle+ruby+ryan

In this looong monologue, the 6 foot 6, 350 lb Ryan shares his youthful experiences being called a “fag” which somehow translates into discovering the sexxay of pantyhose on his shaved legs and a love of stilettos. He shares tales of blowing chunks of sushi all over during drunken binges, and reveals the peace he achieves taking long 4am walks around town alone.

Excerpt: “Mother Nature is a great teacher. I am continually amazed at the kindness and cruelty of the natural world. And by the breadth of diversity to be found within it. When I gaze at flowers I see so many different colors. When I look at trees I see so many different leaves and barks. When I look at stones, I see many different shapes and sizes. Some smooth, some rough. At the ocean, I marvel at the teeming life to be found in it’s depths. Each individual creature so unique, diverse, and crucial, to the well-being of the whole eco-system. Human beings come in many different colors, shapes, and sizes too. They also come in many different sexes, genders, and sexualities. And yet, the very vibrant diversity we can see so easily in the natural world, becomes much harder to see when it comes to human gender. Black or white. Either/Or. One or the other. Why can’t we transpose the brilliant hues we see in flowers to the myriad of genders we know exists in humans? I am an audacious orange flower blooming in the sun and delighting in the soft summer rain. I am also a person who demands the right to be ambiguous, fluid, and defiantly, boldly, queer. I almost never for instance wear breast prostheses. And while I wholeheartedly support the choice to do so, made by many of my sisters, I do not wish to wear silicone mounds on my chest to make others feel more comfortable.”

FORTY MINUTES of this, folks! ENJOY!

Posted by GallusMag

Here is a copy of the University of New Hampshire’s Dr. Ryan’s false DMCA claim [sic]:

Email Address: Joelle.Ryan@unh.edu
Location of copyrighted work (where your original material is located):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ7eeRCdX9k
First Name: Dr. Joelle Ruby
Last Name: Ryan
Company Name: Univesity of New Hampshire (UNH)
Address Line 1: 73 Main Street
Address Line 2: 203 Huddleston Hall
City: Durham
State/Region/Province: NH
Zip/Postal Code: 03820
Country: USA
Telephone Number: 603-862-0272
Copyright holder you represent (if other than yourself): Self and UNH
Please describe the copyrighted work so that it may be easily identified: The film itself is embedded without my or the university’s permission, along with a copyrighted still from the film, and both are placed on a vicious hate blog which has a long history of defamation, hate-mongering, bigotry and threats against members of the transgender and transsexual community. I would never give permission for my film or stills from said film to be used on a hate site. Please remove the blog entry immediately.
Location (URL) of the unauthorized material on a WordPress.com site (NOT simply the primary URL of the site – example.wordpress.com; you must provide the full and exact permalink of the post, page, or image where the content appears, one per line) :http://gendertrender.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/transilience-hilar/
If the infringement described above is represented by a third-party link to a downloadable file (e.g. http://rapidshare.com/files/…), please provide the URL of the file (one per line):
I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.: Yes
I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.: Yes
Signed on this date of (today’s date, MM/DD/YYYY): 03/09/2013
Signature (your digital signature is legally binding): Dr. Joelle Ruby Ryan

–

You will immediately note a few things.

1. Joelle Ruby Ryan identifies himself as a designated representative of the University of New Hampshire who is acting on authority of that institution.
2. Ryan claims that using the “embed” function on YouTube videos is a form of copyright infringement. That is simply false. Not only false, but absurd. When University of New Hampshire Health (or anyone else) posts an embeddable public video: anyone, anywhere can embed that video on any site for any reason. You can read about that in an article titled “Court Rules That Embedding A Video Isn’t Copyright Violation” here: http://www.geekosystem.com/embedding-video-copyright-infringement/
3. Dr. Ryan also claims that a still image from a public video, used for purposes of critique and discussion of that public media, is a form of copyright infringement. Again, an absurd claim that runs in opposition to all known First Amendment law. You can read about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

You can also read YouTube’s standard terms of service which state:

http://www.youtube.com/static?gl=US&template=terms

Section 6 (C)

6. Your Content and Conduct

You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service.

————————————————————————————

I know, I know. You’re thinking “even a twelve year old knows these things Gallus”. And I agree. They do. We all do. We don’t need a PHD to know that folks- even those we disagree with- are allowed to post about and discuss public media campaigns issued by University of New Hampshire Health, or any other entity. Even your uncle sam’s wedding video could end up “going viral” once he authorizes it’s publication- it happens all the time. Free Speech!

So why is a self-declared agent of the University of New Hampshire filing perjurous, false, ABSURD legal documents against a small Lesbian Feminist blog?

The only conclusion I can reach is that Dr. Joelle Ruby Ryan may be falsely representing himself as an agent of the University of New Hampshire. I reach this conclusion because I think UNH attorneys would not authorize false and frivilous, perjurous claims against Lesbian Feminist bloggers. They might, wisely, consider such actions a form of stalking and harassment- actions which the University of New Hampshire may well be liable for.

I look forward to the impending legal proceedings which were initiated by an agent of the University of New Hampshire on the basis of their claim that posting a YouTube video on a blog is an actionable copyright infringement. I also look forward to the upcoming legal proceedings initiated by the University of New Hampshire against a Lesbian feminist blogger for publishing a still from a UNH Health video for purposes of critique and discussion.

When a publicly funded university mounts such an incredible First Amendment challenge to the rights of bloggers to embed, screen-cap, write about, discuss, and critique the media campaigns published by them one can only wonder in awe which of the University of New Hampshire attorneys authorized such an action. This promises to be a fascinating – even surreal- legal exercise. One which I suspect will not end in favor of the civil liberties restrictions being litigated by the University of New Hampshire and it’s agents.

In the meantime, while the attorneys do their work, I would like to ask for your help.

I would like your help in celebrating our most basic first amendment rights: as bloggers, as women, as feminists and feminist allies, as lesbians and as gays.

I call on you to protest the University of New Hampshire sanctioned harassment of GenderTrender and all other feminist, lesbian, and gender critical bloggers and blog readers by making a post that includes either the video ‘Transilience’ or a screencap of such.

That’s right!

Feel free to copy and paste this post on your own blog or tumblr blog. Feel free to make your own post sharing your thoughts and impressions of Joelle Ruby Ryan’s UNH Health video. Feel free to create amusing and charming memes featuring these materials. The key words here are “Feel Free”. Because it is legal, it is our right to do so, it is protected speech (University of New Hampshire claims notwithstanding). Let’s enjoy and EXERCISE our free speech rights as Feminists and Women and say NO to infringements of our civil liberties.

Thank you for your support.

The link to the fully and legally embedable ‘Transilience’ is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ7eeRCdX9k

Unfinished Business

Massachusetts State Education Board issues unprecedented Gender Guidelines : enforcing legal sex-stereotyping in all public schools across the state

The State of Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education released late Friday ( in a classic move used to avoid news cycle coverage) an 11 page document containing mandated guidelines on the implementation of legal “Gender Identity” which effective immediately- replaces legal sex of children with state-mandated sex “roles” based on outdated sex stereotypes, a practice which the Federal government has already rendered illegal and discriminatory(see Price Waterhouse).

It’s no wonder the Governor-appointed Board timed the release of this document to avoid media and public scrutiny: it contains possibly the most widespread state-sanctioned codification and enforcement of sex-role stereotyping enacted on the populace by a government body since the passage of Federal Title VII regulations which were specifically designed to prevent such a practice.

Specifically, as of Friday, legal sex of all primary and secondary students is eliminated and replaced with a legal category based on student adherence to sex-role stereotypical behaviors classified as feelings, thoughts, behaviors that the State of Massachusetts deems “male feelings” or “female feelings”. “Male behaviors” and “Female behaviors”, “Male thoughts” and “Female thoughts”. Truly remarkable.

“A gender marker is the designation on school and other records that indicates a student’s gender. For most students, records that include an indication of a student’s gender will reflect a student’s assigned birth sex. For transgender students, however, a documented gender marker (for example, “male” or “female” on a permanent record) should reflect the student’s gender identity, not the student’s assigned sex. This means that if a transgender student whose gender identity is male has a school record that reflects an assigned birth sex as female, then upon request by the student or, in the case of young students not yet able to advocate for themselves, by the parent or guardian, the school should change the gender marker on the record to male.”

The State of Massachusetts now officially subjects all students who fail to conform to sex-role stereotypical feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, to the state classification “transgender”.

“Transgender: an umbrella term used to describe a person whose gender identity or gender expression is different from that traditionally associated with the assigned sex at birth. “

Further, the guidelines eliminate all Federal sex-based protections for female students (example: Title IX which guarantees equal funding of educational programming based on sex; female rights to sex-segregated showers, locker rooms, toilets).

The guidelines mandate that female students must shower with and undress in the presence of male students during mandatory physical education programs. If the girls refuse, they are to receive state-mandated counseling sessions designed to overcome their resistance. Should the girls persist in refusal to shower and change clothing in the presence of male students or if they fail to pretend a male is female they will receive state-sanctioned disciplinary actions against them which will effect their participation in the public educational system.

“In all cases, the principal should be clear with the student (and parent) that the student may access the restroom, locker room, and changing facility that corresponds to the student’s gender identity. “

“Some students may feel uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same sex-segregated restroom, locker room or changing facility. This discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student. School administrators and counseling staff should work with students to address the discomfort and to foster understanding of gender identity, to create a school culture that respects and values all students. “

“The student John Smith wishes to be referred to by the name Jane Smith, a name that is consistent with the student’s female gender identity. Please be certain to use the student’s preferred name in all contexts, as well as the corresponding pronouns. It is my expectation that students will similarly refer to the student by her chosen name and preferred pronouns. Your role modeling will help make a smooth transition for all concerned. If students do not act accordingly, you may speak to them privately after class to request that they do. Continued, repeated, and intentional misuse of names and pronouns may erode the educational environment for Jane. It should not be tolerated and can be grounds for student discipline. “

All female sports teams in the State of Massachusetts will henceforth be open to male students, on the condition that the male student professes an “earnestly felt belief” that he conforms in some way to stereotypical sex-roles traditionally assigned to females (at least sometimes: his sex-role feelings may wax and wane throughout the day and the guidelines explicitly support this).

“Where there are sex-segregated classes or athletic activities, including intramural and interscholastic athletics, all students must be allowed to participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity. “

“The statute does not require consistent and uniform assertion of gender identity as long as there is “other evidence that the gender-related identity is sincerely held as part of [the] person’s core identity.” “

“Confirmation of a student’s asserted gender identity may include a letter from a parent, health care provider, school staff member familiar with the student (a teacher, guidance counselor, or school psychologist, among others), or other family members or friends. A letter from a social worker, doctor, nurse practitioner, or other health care provider stating that a student is being provided medical care or treatment relating to her/his gender identity is one form of confirmation of an asserted gender identity. It is not, however, the exclusive form upon which the school or student may rely. A letter from a clergy member, coach, family friend, or relative stating that the student has asked to be treated consistent with her/his asserted gender identity, or photographs at public events or family gatherings, are other potential forms of confirmation. “ [Photographs illustrating what? One presumes illustrating the child engaged in some form of culturally sex-stereotypical dress or behavior-GM.]

The guidelines mandate and codify differential social role treatment of girl and boy students by all teachers and administrators based on sex and on student adherence to sex-role stereotypes.

“In most situations, determining a student’s gender identity is simple. A student who says she is a girl and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day and throughout every, or almost every, other area of her life, should be respected and treated like a girl. So too with a student who says he is a boy and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day and throughout every, or almost every, other area of his life. Such a student should be respected and treated like a boy. “

This government document explicitly equates legal protection from sex-based discrimination for women and girls as “discriminatory” to those who “profess a strongly held belief” in sex-role stereotyping and discrimination.

The government of Massachusetts, in accordance with the above premise, removes and eliminates all sex-based protections (both state and federal) for females against sex-discrimination. This policy is a stunning example of how the new legal category “Gender Identity” or “Sex-Role Identity” is directly in opposition to female legal protections and recourse against discrimination based on sex. It elevates discrimination against females to a protected category while eliminating all hard-won feminist gains against the practice of mandating legal status based on sex stereotypes.

These new guidelines, which apply to all public primary and secondary students in the public school system, are based on the Massachusetts State Legislature policy giving special legal status to individuals who profess a strongly held belief in stereotypical “Sex-Role Identifications” in its 2011: An Act Relative to Gender Identity (Chapter 199)

That law held that individuals should not be discriminated against based on their “consistent and uniform assertion” and “sincerely held belief” in sex-role stereotypes or “gender”. That is what the law states. But what it actually DOES, if one looks at the statute, is create a legal status based on stereotypical sex-based (and discriminatory!) social ROLES as a REPLACEMENT for legal sex. See the laws related to sex which were amended to replace biological sex with “sex-role” or “gender”:

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SECTION 3. Section 89 of chapter 71 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “sex”, in lines 91 and 320, in each instance, the following words:- , gender identity.

SECTION 4. Section 5 of chapter 76 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “sex”, in line 10, the following words:- , gender identity.

SECTION 5. Section 12B of said chapter 76, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “sex”, in line 185, the following words:- , gender identity.

SECTION 6. Section 3 of chapter 151B of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “sex”, in lines 17 and 61, in each instance, the following words:- , gender identity.

SECTION 7. Section 4 of said chapter 151B, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “sex”, in lines 3, 69, 82, 87, 96, 103, 136, 163, 169, 179, 226, 233, 243, 339, 349, 353, 359, 485, 495, 505, 661 and 670, in each instance, the following words:- , gender identity.

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The Massachusetts law does not explicitly define “Gender”. Here is the World Health Organization definition:

What do we mean by “sex” and “gender”?

Sometimes it is hard to understand exactly what is meant by the term “gender”, and how it differs from the closely related term “sex”.

“Sex” refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.

“Gender” refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

To put it another way:

“Male” and “female” are sex categories, while “masculine” and “feminine” are gender categories.

Aspects of sex will not vary substantially between different human societies, while aspects of gender may vary greatly.

Some examples of sex characteristics :

• Women menstruate while men do not
• Men have testicles while women do not
• Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of lactating, while men have not
• Men generally have more massive bones than women

Some examples of gender characteristics :

• In the United States (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work
• In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate
• In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not
• In most of the world, women do more housework than men

http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/

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The definition of“Gender” is sex-role stereotyping. Gender is “the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”.

“Gender Identity” is “Sex-Role Identity”.

While all Massachusetts citizens are entitled to their personal sex-role beliefs or identifications, the State has no business promoting sex-role beliefs, which are by their very nature stereotyping and inherently discriminatory against women.

Sex role stereotyping is bad for women and girls. Many of the legal protections for female students that are being eliminated state-wide by this document were designed to counter some of the negative effects of sex-role stereotyping, for example the lack of equal funding given to girl athletes based on the sex-role stereotype that females are not athletic, or that females should not exhibit behaviors that are competitive. Title IX was created to counter sex-based discrimination policies enacted for decades by public educational institutions.

Feminists support the abolition of sex-role stereotypes. Feminists do not support social policies which conflate sex-role stereotypes with reproductive sex.

When the state mandates that children should be treated differently based on arbitrary, sexist stereotypes, when the state educational system declares against all known science and fact, that those who do not abide sex-role stereotypes must not actually be male or female sexed, when the government disciplines children for acknowledging biological reality and scientific fact in an educational system, when the government mandates that girls – at least one quarter of which will be sexually assaulted by a male in her lifetime- receive state-mandated psychological counseling to impress upon her that her discomfort showering with male high school students is evidence that she has a psychological dysfunction (!) and that the state will discipline her if she continues to express fear (!!) FEMINISTS DO NOT SUPPORT THIS.

Women, Women’s Rights Activists, Concerned Parents, Feminists call on the State of Massachusetts under Governor Deval Patrick to:

1. Compel the State Board to develop guidelines that protect the rights of students and parents to hold strongly held sex-role beliefs
2. WITHOUT codifying those personal, private sex-role beliefs into state law,
3. WITHOUT eliminating sex-based protections and rights of female students (Title IX protections, right to sex-based changing rooms, restrooms and other spaces sex-segregated for female safety)
4. WITHOUT inflicting state-sponsored discipline or punitive psychological “counseling” treatments on children who do NOT share the strongly held sex-role beliefs of others, and who do NOT believe that biological sex is maleable,
5. WITHOUT forcing children through power of the state to comply with sex-role stereotypes,
6. WITHOUT mandating that teachers, administrators, and others acting under authority of the state treat male and female students differently according to “the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”, many of which are designed to restrict female equality.

You may contact Governor Patrick here:

Boston Massachusetts State House Office of the Governor Office of the Lt. Governor Room 280 Boston, MA 02133 Phone: 617.725.4005 888.870.7770 (in state) Fax: 617.727.9725 TTY: 617.727.3666

Springfield Western Massachusetts Office of the Governor State Office Building 436 Dwight Street Suite 300 Springfield, MA 01103 Phone: 413.784.1200

Washington, DC Office of the Governor 444 N. Capitol Street, Suite 208 Washington, D.C. 20001 Phone: 202.624.7713 Fax: 202.624.7714

http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituentservices/contact/

Read the full 11 page PDF by clicking here:

http://www.doe.mass.edu/ssce/GenderIdentity.pdf