Star News' contribution to transphobia ..... MAN WITH BREASTS SHOCKS COPS

Give a proper description Star News !!!!!

Another in the series of sensationalist typed stories from the Star News is here again this is not surprising at this time of the year they always keep it coming but it seems this year they are going harder than before or luckily some of the events are happening at a much rapid pace than usual. They usually taper off around easter then re-emerge there after intermittently there was a case of a particular phone in body cavity story though with different characters that was carried two years apart on the same date. We must keep tabs and let them know we are on to them.

see:

Another Phone Another Body Cavity Story 2 Years Later ….

however The present Phobic infraction .........

Here is a case of an obvious trans-gendered Male to female undergoing treatment and possible surgery but the Star of course doesn't use the actual descriptions that are applicable and obviously didn't bother to check with JFLAG, Jamaica Forum for Lesbians Allsexuals and Gays or elsewhere such as this blogger as they are aware of the work and the continued criticisms of their sensationalist tones to homosexuality in general to acquaint themselves with the proper information to furnish a sensible article, however they were saved by the explanation of the alleged man with breasts of his intentions to undergo surgery overseas but clearly or deliberately conflict men who want to do gender re-assignment surgery as gays wanting to be women in an attempt to merge the stereotype and homo-negativity surrounding same sex relations in Jamaica.

The section about removing "private parts" is crucial either the Star is playing with the strong stereotypical views of homosexuality here or the man himself doesn't understand the procedure fully for gender re-assignment surgery, I lean more to the former.

Fading Impact

One thing is clear the effect that stories like this once had on the Jamaican psyche is fading though ever so slowly some persons literally have stopped reading the paper/tabloid all together as it has indeed lost its prestige of being the evening version of the Gleaner from the early days of its now slowed or defunct competitors the X-News previously known as The Enquirer and the Observer Chat both of whom also have awful reputations for over-hyped and embellished anti gay stories. They too have seen decline in sales and output, the Xnews website has been down for some time as at this post it was still not up upon checking while the hard copy version has not been out for a while.

Here is the article in question, have a read and see if it reflects any of the observations made above. You be the final judge:

MAN WITH BREASTS SHOCKS COPS

Police personnel from Spanish Town, St Cath

erine, were left shocked recently when they found out that a sexy woman with bountiful breasts they arrested was in fact a man who is going through a sex change.

Reports reaching THE WEEKEND STAR are that about 3 a.m. on Wednesday a police party spotted a silver Honda Civic motor car driving carelessly.

The lawmen are said to have stopped the vehicle and asked the driver for her licence. She was not able to produce it or any other identification card and was taken to the police station.

It was while she was at the station and plans were being made to transfer her to the Central Village Police Station that it was discovered that she was really a man who was going through a sex change.

The accused reportedly told the cops that he went to the United States where he did hormone treatment to change his body.

"This is how I want to go to court; this is who I am and it's only in Jamaica that it is a problem," the man supposedly told the cops.

He further stated: "I just want to go home and get some needed rest; this is a drag."

The police told THE WEEKEND STAR that the man said that he is scheduled to return to the United States to remove his private parts as his desire to be a woman is overwhelming.

He also reportedly told the cops that he does private parties abroad and travels extensively. "She really look hot with nice clothes and false eyelash and want to teach persons how to dress," a policeman told THE WEEKEND STAR.

The accused man was charged with various traffic violations and granted bail to appear in court later this month.

The Cisgender Privilege Checklist

Thanks to Queers United for this

Cisgender (pronounced /ˈsɪsdʒɛndər/) is an adjective used in the context of gender issues and counselling to refer to a class of gender identities formed by a match between an individual's gender identity and the behavior or role considered appropriate for one's sex.

Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook defined "cisgender" as a label for "individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity", complementing "transgender". A more popular term is "gender normative". However, unlike "cisgender", this term suggests that there is a single, agreed-upon system of gender norms.

There are many derivatives of the term in use including cismale, cisfemale, and cissexual.

"There appears to be little in the way of a comprehensive cisgender (non transgender) privilege list. These lists are generally written in the first person relative to having the privilege. Number #1 speaks to both heterosexual and cisgender privilege. The remainder of the list focuses on cisgender privilege."

Please read and re-post this list to make people aware of the hardships often faced by transgender individuals that cisgender people take for granted on a daily basis.

1. It is unlikely that I will be ostracized by my family and friends, fired from my job, evicted from my home, given substandard medical care, suffer violent or sexual abuse, ridiculed by the media, or preached against by religious organizations simply because of my professed identity or perceived incongruent gendered behaviors or characteristics.

2. I can be confident that people will not call me by a different name or use improper pronouns.

3. I never suffered the indignation of "holding it", when both functional and unoccupied public restrooms are available. In fact, I don't need to be concerned about public facilities segregated by sex.

4. If I am institutionalized, I don't have to worry about being housed in the wrong section of a facility segregated by sex.
5. I am not denied entrance to appropriate services or events that are segregated by sex.

6. My childhood innocence was not interrupted with desperate prayers to a divinity begging to wake up the opposite sex.
7. I never grieve about my lost childhood and adolescence because I was born the opposite sex.

8. I will only experience puberty once.

9. I never worry about potential lovers shifting instantly from amorous to disdain and even violence because of my genitals.

10. I am unlikely to be questioned about my genitals, even less likely to be touched inappropriately or asked to see them.

11. It is unlikely that I would risk my health by avoiding the medical profession for fear of discovery.

12. I never considered hiding my body parts by binding or tucking.

13. It is unlikely that I would consider changing my voice.

14. If I have a professionally recognized and diagnosed condition, I am unlikely to be excluded from medical insurance coverage.

15. As a man, I am more likely to look my age, and have a body similar in size and shape to other men.

16. As a man, I am more likely to be satisfied with the functionality of my genitals.

17. As a man, I am more likely able to father children .

18. As a woman, I am more likely to have a body similar in size and shape to other women.

19. As a woman, I am unlikely to lose my hair before middle age.

20. As a woman, I am more likely able to conceive and bear children.

21. As a woman, I don't have to dilate the rest of my life.

22. I am more likely able to achieving orgasm.

23. I will likely have $50,000 or more to spend or save for retirement.

24. I can't imagine spending months and $1000s of dollars on a therapist so they can tell me something I already knew.

25. If I am physically healthy, I don't think about having a hysterectomy, a mastectomy, massive hair removal, contra hormone therapy, vocal surgery, facial reassignment surgery, or genital reassignment surgery.

26. I have a better chance of reaching old age without taking my own life.

27. At my funeral, it is unlikely that my family would present me crossdressed against my living wishes.

28. I never worry about passing gender wise. I am oblivious to the consequences of someone failing to do so, and consequently loosing my cisgender (non transgender) privilege. In fact, I have the privilege of being completely unaware of my own cisgender privilege.

Crossposted from The Transgender Boards

The Phalloclitoris: Anatomy and Ideology

by Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello

Human Genital Development

We all begin life with genitals that have four basic external elements. At the top is the part numbered 1 on my drawing: the sensitive end of the phalloclitoris, which can differentiate into the head of the penis or clitoris. In the center is structure 2: an inset membrane that can widen or can seal as the fetus develops. It will form the urethra, and the vagina, if any. Around it is structure 3, which is capable of differentiation into either a phallic shaft, or clitoral body and labia minora. And at the outside is the fourth part, the labioscrotal swellings, which can develop into labia majora or a scrotum.

There is a lot of variation in how each of the four basic parts of the genitalia develop from person to person in all of us. For example, we acknowledge with a lot of rib-elbowing the variation in penile size. Variation in the size and shape of genitalia, and in other parts of the body, is part of human diversity. Surgeons are well aware that livers and lungs and blood vessels vary a lot between individuals, and may look quite different from an iconic anatomical diagram. But we rarely care about having an unusually shaped liver. The shape of genitals, however, is given huge cultural weight, because we pin our commitment to dyadic gender roles on them. We look at the shape of a newborn's genitalia and project a future of dresses and diets and talking about emotions, or sports and strength and getting under the hood of a car. We do know that people are complicated. Most of us want to be more than walking gender stereotypes. Still, we understand people through the lens of dyadic gender difference, and intersex people call that into question. When we see a baby born with intermediate genitalia, and can't project a future for them based on our well-known gender narratives, people in our society--including doctors--freak out.

Part of the reason our culture reacts so poorly to intersex people is that doctors have spent the past 75 years or so erasing the bodies of people like me. I'm referring not only to the fact that doctors surgically alter our genitals, nor only to the fact that we're given an "M" or an "F" on our birth certificates, but to the fact that anatomical illustrations don't illustrate our anatomies. Medical drawings and medical language obscure our existence. And since I want doctors and parents and society at large to stop freaking out and erasing us, I want that to change.

Anatomical Illustrations of Adult Genitalia

Variation in the shape of genitalia is a fact of nature. Some genital variations are labeled intersex conditions by doctors, and considered unacceptable malformations that must be "corrected." Other variations doctors insist with equal vehemence not to "really" be intersex. There is little logic to this if you look at it from the perspective of physical health or function. Instead what seems to matter are ideologies: first, an insistence that all people must be "really" male or female; and second, an anxious commitment to associating men with big penises. And this is visible when you examine anatomical drawings.

Let's look at how doctors portray adult genitalia. Anatomy drawings in Western medicine present two and only two types of "normal" genitals. I don't have permission to post copyrighted medical illustrations, but a sample female genital diagram can be see here, and an example of a male genital diagram here. These drawings of dyadic sexual anatomy could be critiqued in many ways, but for now let's consider just one thing: the way the phalloclitoris is portrayed. In the female drawing, it's presented as a tiny clitoral dot, with the label pointing at a spot the size of a small pea. In the male drawing, it's presented as a huge penis, shown in the illustration I've linked as extending beyond the testes, apparently 8 inches or more in length even in its flaccid state. To put it plainly, the "normal penis" in this medical drawing is porn-star sized rather than average, and massive in comparison to the petite "normal clitoris."

Not only do these medical illustrations exaggerate sexual differentiation, they obscure rather than illuminate shared anatomy. Note that only the tip of phalloclitoral structure protruding from the foreskin or "hood" is labeled "clitoris." In fact, the phalloclitoris is similar in size between people at all points on the sex spectrum. In people with genitals that conform closely to the male end of the sex spectrum, the structure I've labeled #3 above merges into one erectile column. "Men" get a "penile shaft." In people with genitals that conform closely to the female norm, the two sides of the structure spread apart and surround the labia majora. "Women" get . . . well, what do you call that? Anatomists call these two feminized sides of the phalloclitoris the "clitoral crura," a term that most laypeople have never learned at school. Just like the penile shaft they are made of several inches of spongy tissue that fills with blood and erects during sexual excitement. You can see an anatomical illustration here (look at the part labeled "crus clitoris," the singular of "crura" in Latin). As you can see, the phalloclitoris is actually quite similar in men and women. The tip bends down in women and the two sides are joined together in men, but the basic structure is the same.

You would imagine that anatomical drawings would illustrate all of our genital structures to increase understanding. But do a Google image search for "female genital anatomy" and you'll see hundreds of images that look like this--and just one image in the first 10 pages that shows the crura. The anatomical illustrations that are used on educational and medical websites conceal rather than illuminate the similarities in everyone's phalloclitoral anatomy.

Do a Google search for just "genital anatomy" and you see dyadic illustrations of two very different types of genitalia. You don't see the shared embryonic anatomy from which we all develop, you don't see how all people have similar phalloclitoral structures as adults, and you don't see the wide spectrum of adult genital forms that exist. You see the ideology of sex dyadism, rather than the fact of the sex spectrum.

read the full post here

Backward Culture Advocate? An open Letter to Babsy Grange from a Jamaican lesbian

Contributed by Nic Ming

REPUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION, addtional article excerpt included.

Today after reading an article in the Jamaica Observer something happened to me, I made a decision to write Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, Jamaica's Minister of Youth, Culture & Sport a letter:

Hon Minister Grange hello:

I write having read the Jamaica Observer article about your announcement that “you intend to lead the advocacy for Bob Marley to be declared a National Hero”

My dear Minister I’m sure you’re well aware that this is not a matter for advocacy but a matter for action and after all this time the only proper thing for the government to do is to make an announcement about WHEN the government will get off its butt and act in actualizing that the status is conferred on Bob Marley. What you ought to have done Minister is make an announcement that come 2012 at the latest, when Jamaica becomes 50, the government will ensure that the status is most honorably bestowed.

Minister, your remarks truly expose the culture of backwardness that continue to plague the blind leaders of Jamaica in both the JLP and the PNP. I beseech you and your fellow Ministers, and others perched loftily in the House, to please step into the light, stop these kinds of backward culture behavior because it continues to make too many Jamaicans, myself included, annoyed and angry; and it does Jamaica no good! Serve the country and the people, and serve them well, don’t serve us crap!

I am,
N (Nickey) Ming,
A gay Jamaican who aspires to be

Jamaica’s 1st openly gay politician,

Member of Parliament,
and Minister of Culture, Youth & Sport.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

Grange for Marley becoming national hero

Culture minister Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, has announced that she intends to lead the advocacy for the Reggae singer Bob Marley to be declared a National Hero.

The order of national hero is Jamaica's highest honour.

Minister Grange told a national radio audience and those gathered at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston today to celebrate the late singer's 66th birthday that Marley was a "great Jamaican" and that she "supported the idea of making him a National Hero."

The Minister said people who believe Marley should be made a National Hero should formally present their case through letters and petitions and that she would advocate on their behalf.

Currently Bob Marley holds Jamaica's Order of Merit, and as such is addressed, The Honourable Robert Nesta Marley, OM.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Grange-for-Marley-becoming-national-hero_8339810#ixzz1DJLEpo9J

I attached a youtube link to Bob Marley's "Rebel Music" to the letter, which I sent as a message to her FB account. I'm going to copy it now to the Jamaica House FB account. I just cant take being quiet anymore...

Petition: Remove Transgender from the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

Deadline: April 15th 2013

Petition site:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/remove_transgender_from_the_dsm-5

The DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is regarded as the medical and social definition of mental disorder throughout North America and strongly influences international psychiatric nomenclature.

On January 10th, 2010, the American Psychiatric Association released proposed draft revisions for the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to be published May 2013.

Transgender people's civil rights advancement has been severely limited by our diagnosis in DSM because we are considered mentally ill by the American Psychiatric Association.

Although the propose changes for the DSM-5 has substituted "Incongruent" a less offensive word for "Dysphoria", the ramifications from this diagnosis still exists as illustrated recently by our exclusion from the DADT repeal.

Anti transgender organizations cornerstone evidence for our dehumanization is the DSM which links our identities with with autogynephilia and pedophilia.

Our diverse gender identities are a natural gift, not a psychiatric disorder.

Petition site:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/remove_transgender_from_the_dsm-5

What we propose as a Standard Of Care (SOC).

This is proposed SOC from Spain's trans advocacy group STP2012. If adapted insurers would have to cover all transitional issues without our being labeled mentally ill.
http://www.stp2012.info/guia/STP_guide_health.pdf

Register HERE with The APA to comment:
http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Registration.aspx

# # # # # # # # #

Back Ground Information

APA's DSM-5 Development Page
http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx

DSM-V 302.85 Proposed revisions

Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults
http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=482#

DSM: Diagnosing for Money and Power
Summary of the Critique of the DSM
http://www.zurinstitute.com/dsmcritique.html

GID Reform.org
http://www.gidreform.org/index.html

GID Reform WordPress
10 reasons why the transvestic fetishism diagnosis in the DSM-5 has got to go


A.E.Brain, Australia
TS, IS, and the US Military
http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2010/12/ts-is-and-us-military.html

As at this post 754 signatures are already in go now to the site if you feel so moved and act now. The Goal is 1000 signatures.

Petition site:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/remove_transgender_from_the_dsm-5

Peace and tolerance

H

February - LGBT History Month UK: William Shakespeare: Was he or wasn’t he?

William Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout copyright National Portrait Gallery, London

William Shakespeare: Was he or wasn’t he?

And if he was how should we describe it?

Shakespeare presents us with all the problems that can occur when we attempt to attribute a hidden sexuality to an historical figure and then complicates it further by being the most famous person in the world about whom we know so little and about which there is so much speculation.

Did he write the plays? All of them? Some of them?
Did he love his wife?

Was he any good as an actor?

What happened during the ten missing years between his leaving Stratford and his arrival in London?
How come he was born and died on the same date? – April 23 rd.

Despite many, many words written about him and two of the very best books just recently published – Peter Ackroyd’s “Shakespeare – the Biography” & James Shapiro’s “1599 – A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare” – there is much we will never know.

So was he or wasn’t he?
A bit of background – homosexuality was illegal and sodomy punishable by death during his lifetime, although there does seem to be some leeway with this. Christopher Marlowe managed to lead something close to what we might now describe as an openly gay life, and, early violent death not withstanding, seemed to do alright. Also there were numerous “happily married men” of a certain class, who seemed able to indulge without causing too much concern.

So far, so good. Shakespeare had a wife and children – albeit at a distance, which is where, it appears, he liked to keep them!
What about his work? (We can discount those who consider the plays written by someone else, particularly that bunch who think Marlowe wrote them after he was dead.) Do the plays and the poems contain any clues?

Well, yes.

Cross dressing, gender identity and issues of sexuality, both implicit and explicit occur in much of his work from the portrayal of Antonio and Bassanio’s relationship in “The Merchant of Venice” to the lesbian themed “Twelfth Night”; from Mercutio’s love for Romeo to Ulysses and Pandarus in “Troilus and Cressida” and including the gender swapping “As You Like It” and the sexual confusion of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

For those of you that think that dramatic depiction of homosexuality began with “Eastenders” and “Brookside” – read the Bard!

However the clearest clues come from his most personal work – the Sonnets.

Written between 1592 and 1609 – yes we are speculating – these 154 poems (not all of them are technically sonnets!) tell a story as dramatic as any of his plays. As we read them we are caught up in the lives, loves and rivalries of the Poet, the Young Man, the Dark Lady and, just for a bit of spice, the Other Poet. It is a gripping tale! There is only one problem – we think that the poems, and therefore the story, were ordered not by Shakespeare, but his publisher, Thomas Thorpe. Thorpe is at the centre of the second confusion – the dedication. The Sonnets are dedicated “TO THE ONLY BEGETTER OF THESE INSUING SONNETS MR. W. H. ALL HAPPINESS AND THAT ETERNITY PROMISED BY OUR EVER-LIVING POET WISHETH THE WELL-WISHING ADVENTURER IN SETTING FORTH”
and is signed “T. T.” See the confusion. The remarks are made by “OUR EVER-LIVING POET” – that is Shakespeare, but is signed “T.T.” – Thomas Thorpe.

And it doesn’t get any easier.

Who was Mr W.H.?

Who was the Young Man written about in many of the poems?

Who the Dark Lady?

And who the Other Poet?

Speculation abounds, but we don’t know!

We do know that Shakespeare did not want the Sonnets as a whole published whilst he was still alive. Were they too scandalous even for him? Perhaps.

What we do know is that our greatest poet and playwright was no stranger to the complexities and duplicities of human sexuality, gender confusion and desire; that he wrote about them regularly; that within the Sonnets he expresses them in a most personal form.

So, was he or wasn’t he?

Read his work, marvel at its depth, its beauty and understanding and wonder why asking the question was so important in the first place.

Anti gay pastor and restorative therapy advocate in trouble with the law again

The Gleaner's headline today bears it all and once again shows the hypocrisy of the church leaders who publicly hit out at more loudly and selectively at certain "sins of the flesh" more so than others. Reverend Al Miller makes the news again, also see the post below where he was mentioned, this is the same man who was present at the sittings of the Charter of Rights debates and sittings in Parliament and was very loud alongside the anti gay legal group the Lawyers' Christian Fellowhsip (LCF) who did all in their power to remove the clauses on anything relating to according rights and recognition to supposed homosexuality.

photo from the Gleaner's archive

Rev Miller is on record as saying homosexuality was inconsistent with fundamentalist biblical values. He said his church The Fellowship Tabernacle was involved in restorative therapy to alter their sexual urges.

"We try to redeem persons and restore them by establishing a personal relationship with them and God so they can overcome soon," he said.

"A number of homosexuals recover, as the power of redemptive work can break free any barrier. It's a reality and though it's contrary to the word of God, persons have to accept it and deal with it," He said this in an interview in 2009 in response to an article that was published on gays worshiping in the underground relating to the Sunshine Cathedral Jamaica which is a chapter of Sunshine Cathedral Miami an inclusive church with gay and lesbian leaders some of whom have visited Jamaica and participated in agitations here most noted was the problem plagued Walk for Tolerance in western Jamaica.

here is the Gleaner story.

Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

NEARLY EIGHT months after he was charged with perverting the course of justice and harbouring a fugitive, head of the Fellowship Tabernacle Church, the Reverend Al Miller, is in trouble again with the police.

"This time he has been charged in connection with the disappearance of his licensed firearm," a senior member of the Criminal Investigation Branch confirmed on Friday.

The officer's statement was further confirmed by a member of the St Andrew North Police Division, who spoke with The Sunday Gleaner on terms of anonymity.

"He is scheduled to appear before the court this week," the member of the St Andrew North Police Division told The Sunday Gleaneryesterday.

While the police remained tight-lipped about the details of the incident, it is alleged that about two weeks ago, in the Shortwood Road area of St Andrew, the well-known pastor parked his vehicle, and on his return, discovered that a pouch with his firearm was missing.

"I was standing just metres away from the vehicle when it happened," Miller told The Sunday Gleaner. He subsequently reported the theft to the police.

He has been a licensed firearm holder from the early 1990s, he said.

It was necessary at that time to have a firearm because of the nature of the family business in which he was involved.

"We were into heavy business - gas stations and auto parts business - so security was important," Miller said.

harbouring a fugitive

Miller was arrested last June after he was found in a car in the company of then fugitive Christopher 'Dudus' Coke along the Mandela Highway in St Catherine. Coke had been on the run after an arrest warrant was issued for him in relation to an extradition request from the United States. Miller was charged with harbouring a fugitive. That trial is scheduled to get under way on February 16.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force weekly crime statistics posted last week disclosed that since the start of the year, at least four licensed firearms - three pistols and a revolver - had been reported stolen. This is two fewer than the number reported stolen in the corresponding period last year.

Section 41 (a) of the Firearms Act says: "Any person who, being the holder of a licence, certificate or permit in respect of a firearm, losing such firearm through negligence on his part shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine of $100,000, with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding 12 months."

During a brief interview with The Sunday Gleaner on Friday, chairman of the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), Errol Strong, disclosed that a prominent journalist and several so-called businessmen and contractors were among 19 licensed firearm holders who had their licences revoked last year.

"The list includes persons whom we considered a threat to public safety. There were also persons who we found negligent in protecting their firearms, plus others who were involved in the improper use of their weapons," Strong said.

"We are currently probing at least 30 cases. These are applicants who, when they had applied, claimed they were legitimate businessmen, but there is no evidence to corroborate their claim," the FLA chairman stressed.

ENDS

other articles of interest:

Rev. Michael Kelly Jesuit Priest takes on controversial issues

Blair warns politicians - Hits at campaigns, abortion, gay marriage

Defending marriage

Other search results (may appear different depending on your location and browser used)

Gay Marriage - An Invented Issue by the christian right movement

Peace and tolerance

H

u