Trans & Intersex marches

Saturday, 11th of october (that is, this saturday), a number of trans&intersex demonstrations and gatherings will take place in various cities of Europe: Paris, Madrid, Bruselles, Barcelona, Lisbon, Zaragoza, Bilba, Vitoria-Gasteiz,…

The global punchline is “Neither men, nor women, binarism make us ill”, but there are variations according to cities (e.g. Paris is centered on the question of “rights”). While I personally quite like the radical tone, I am, with the reflection, afraid it could be wrongly interpreted and not the easiest way to gather all trans’ people (it’s like “lesbians are not women”, I like the sentence but I wouldn’t necessarily put in the head of a lesbian demonstration), but well, we’ll see.

The common revendications (there are, again, variations between cities and countries, as they have different situations) are the following:

• Removal of transsexuality from lists of mental illnesses
• Access to hormons and surgery without requirement of psychotherapy
• Removal from the mention of “sex” (or “gender”) from official documentations
• Suppression of the reassignations at birth of intersex people

Here are some visuals for Barcelona, Paris, Bruselles and Vitoria-Gasteiz:

For some history, Existrans – a demonstration for the rights of trans people – has taken place in Paris since 1997, and it is the 12th time this year.

Last year, there were also demonstrations in Madrid and Barcelona, and this year it has spread to more cities.

I hope there will be many people present in those demonstrations this year, and that they continue spreading in other cities and countries for the following ones :)

Effects of transition on salary

I found what looks like an interesting article about the effects of transition on salary in the workplace. But I could only get the abstract.

Before and After: Gender Transitions, Human Capital, and Workplace Experience

Abstract

We use the workplace experiences of transgender people – individuals who change their gender typically with hormone therapy and surgery – to provide new insights into the long-standing question of what role gender plays in shaping workplace outcomes. Using an original survey of male-to-female and female-to-male transgender people, we document the earnings and employment experiences of transgender people before and after their gender transitions. We find that while transgender people have the same human capital after their transitions, their workplace experiences often change radically. We estimate that average earnings for female-to-male transgender workers increase slightly following their gender transitions, while average earnings for male-to-female transgender workers fall by nearly 1/3. This finding is consistent with qualitative evidence that for many male-to-female workers, becoming a woman often brings a loss of authority, harassment, and termination, but that for many female-to-male workers, becoming a man often brings an increase in respect and authority. These findings challenge the omitted variables explanations for the gender pay gap and illustrate the often hidden and subtle processes that produce gender inequality in workplace outcomes.

Submitted: August 8, 2007 · Accepted: July 29, 2008 · Published: September 11, 2008

There is also a NYT article that talks about it.

Via Feminist Law Professors.

Edit: I found a PDF version of the article freely downloadable.

Because, yeah, trans people reinforce gender binary…

Trans demonstration in Barcelona

Neither men, nor women, the binary makes us ill

Demonstration of Transgender, Transsexual and Intersex struggle

11 of octobre in Barcelona

They have a more extended leaflet available on their website in castellano (spanish) and catalan.

I quite like the headline even if I understand it could be wrongly interpreted (saying trans men and women are not real men/women).

And I don’t know what the specific headline each city will take (in Paris it will be “right, laws, that respect our choices”), but there will be demonstrations for trans’ rights on the 11th of october in :

• A corunha (Galicia / Spain)
• Barcelona (Catalonia / Spain)
• Bilbao (Basque Country / Spain)
• Bruselles (Belgium)
• Donosti (Basque country / Spain)
• Gasteiz (Basque country / Spain)
• Lisboa (Portugal)
• Madrid (Spain)
• Paris (France)
• Sargoza (Aragon / Spain)

News on Angie Zapata’s murderer’s trial

So, we have what I think is quite a good news: a judge refused to remove the first degree murder accusation.

Charge stands against transgender-murder suspect

By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post

Article Launched: 09/18/2008 10:07:24 AM MDT

GREELEY — A judge today refused to lower a first-degree murder charge against a 31-year-old man accused of beating to death a transgender woman he had oral sex with the night before her death.

Weld District Judge Marcelo Kopcow cited evidence that Allen Andrade hit 18-year-old Angie Zapata several times with a fire extinguisher in her Greeley apartment in July after he confronted her about her sexual orientation.

Kopcow said he also considered several statements Andrade allegedly made while in custody that showed his anger toward Zapata and gays in general. In one conversation, he allegedly told his girlfriend that “all gay things need to die,” said Greeley Police Detective Greg Tharp.

Andrade also allegedly told his girlfriend that he was trying to put the murder behind him and that there was “no use crying over spilled milk.”

Kopcow made his ruling in a preliminary hearing for Andrade, who faces several charges, including first-degree murder and a felony bias-motivated crime.

Andrade’s lawyer, Annette Kundelius, argued that the murder charge should be reduced to second-degree murder because there was no deliberation in Andrade’s acts.

When Andrade confronted Zapata about her sexual leanings, Zapata told him she was “all woman” and smiled at him, Kundelius said. “This was a highly provoking act and would cause someone to have an aggressive action,” Kundelius said. “At best this is a case of passion.”

But Kopcow said Andrade could have left the apartment rather than attacking Zapata. “There was a period of time when reason and humanity could have been heard,” the judge said.

Kopcow also declined to set bail for Zapata, citing the capital nature of the crime. Another hearing in the case is set for November.

But well, on the other hand, the lawyer makes me really want to smash his head against a solid brick (or a solid brick against his head, I don’t care), in a case of passion, of course. Seriously:

When Andrade confronted Zapata about her sexual leanings, Zapata told him she was “all woman” and smiled at him, Kundelius said. “This was a highly provoking act and would cause someone to have an aggressive action,” Kundelius said. “At best this is a case of passion.”

Oh my god, she smiled. How provocative is that? No wonder he had to kill her, then…

About “femme”

I quite like the “femme” thing and, well, I wouldn’t say I fit 100% with it (I would be quite a butchy femme), but it probably corresponds more to me than either “woman”, “butch”, or any other gender subcategory.

What I like in “femme” identity is what I see as a notion of “constructed feminity”, in opposition to a natural mainstream feminity.

The term in itself shows this: it means “woman” in a foreign language (french), so how I see it is that you’re quite feminine in a “foreign way”.

The term “female-to-femme” that I have seen used sometimes (see femmes as trans identity on Sugarbutch Chronicles) also goes in this sense: there is a transition to “go femme”.

And now… well, those two terms actually puzzle me a bit.

Let’s start first with the trans’ thing. I can understand that some femmes feel as “transgender” and I think indeed the “femme” identity goes out of classical gender norms. I can understand also the
feeling of “transitionning”. But :

• first, there is the sort of “appropriation” of trans’ “vocabulary” even if, honestly, I don’t care much personally, I see trans’ as quite open and anyway I don’t think that the fact of defining as “female-to-femme” means that this person will consider having faced the same thing as a trans person.
• second, which is a bit paranoid but, well, after being excluded and excluded I think it’s quite natural to become it a bit, I am afraid that redefining “femme” as “female-to-femme” could be a way to exclude trans’ femmes. Now there again, I don’t think that if an individual defines as “female-to-femme” (as I can define as “male-to-femme”) it’s a problem, but it would become  excluding to trans femmes if “female-to-femme” started replacing the “femme” term.

And now, since that was about the “female-to-femme” term, let’s talk a bit about the “femme” term itself.

As I said, it means “woman” in french. Obviously in french, we don’t use the term “femme” since it would be indistinguishable from “woman”, so we say “fem” (I think it also exists in english, but I think it is less frequent). Which is quite ironical, because it is pronouced the english way. So in the two languages, the terms sounds a bit “foreign”, crediting there again my theory of “non natural feminity”.

But, well, I wonder: why is it “femme” ? It is not “mujer” or “mulher” or “frau”. Now maybe it is because of pronunciation issue, but I wondered if it was because of some kind of… well, french women reputation, or something like that ? Does someone knows the origin of the term ? The truth is, I’m not even sure of the reputation we have. I know there is the term “french kiss” and I think some sensuality associated to french women, and on the other hand I think we are also thought to be dirty with hairy armpits. Already a femme/butch dichotomy, I guess :)