All Entries in the "Transgender Topics" Category
Doing Trans 101, The Basisc, Over and Over Again
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist— This month, by way of illustrating a common occurrence many trans people have to deal with on an all too regular basis, I thought I’d share with you my answers to a series of questions I got from a friend I knew as a teenager who recently stumbled across me online. […]
Are You Ready for the Holidays? For Trans People, It May Not Be The Same
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist— Happy Holidays! Yes, it’s that time of year again. It’s time for gift buying and giving, shopping, decorating, baking cookies, and doing general preparations for events, especially those events which include family. If you are involved in these kinds of family festivities, I am happy for you and I hope […]
Should We Boycott the 2014 Sochi Olympics due to Russia’s Anti-LGBT law?
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist— There’s this question I’ve been getting a lot for the last few months, and until a couple of days ago, I honestly didn’t have an answer. The question is: should we boycott the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in response to Russia’s anti-LGBT “propaganda” law? Since you’re reading a paper called The […]
For Our Deceased Brothers & Sisters in Honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist— Every November, we hold a Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). It’s the day we memorialize all of the transgender people who have lost their lives, especially those within the past year. Many of these transpeople were brutally beaten, stabbed multiple times, shot, stoned until their skull was crushed, beheaded, burned, […]
Op-Ed: Why is Gay Inc. Ignoring Chelsea Manning & CeCe McDonald?
By: Keegan O’Brien— CeCe McDonald and Pvt. Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Pvt. Bradley Manning before recently coming out as transgender) are queer freedom fighters and political prisoners. The movements to free and defend them are two of the most significant queer struggles of our time, but have remained largely sidelined from the mainstream LGBTQ […]
The dominance and demonization of genitalia: an imbalance of power
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist— Strictly speaking of physical sex, we all start out the same, as female, which is the natural default sex. Inside the womb, a hormone wash will turn some of us from the female sex to the male sex. The rest of us will remain female sexed. This is our physical […]
Getting back to my roots, old school advice columnist style
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist You may have noticed some disparity between the name of this column and the content lately. You might reasonably ask: “If it’s called, ‘Ask A Transwoman,’ where are the questions?” Well, since by some miracle nothing personally traumatic happened to my personal transworld this month, I thought I’d briefly return to […]
Detransition or Stand Your Ground? Transpeople Grapple with the Decision
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist— It is estimated that approximately 1 percent of transgender people detransition. That is, they return back to their birth gender. It may seem strange to think that someone who has put so much effort into transitioning would suddenly detransition. Questions arise, such as: why do folks detransition? Why did they […]
Ask a Transwoman: On Grandmothers, Granddaughters & Being Trans: A Tribute to my Nana
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist— To some extent it’s always been the aim of my writing, as well as my activism, to personalize transgender people, to take “transgender people” from just an idea, a “phenomenon” you have heard about, and make us real to you. I’ve aimed to paint a picture of us as not simply […]
The (not-so) Subtleties of Facing Discrimination in a Very Public Space
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist— As I’m sitting here writing these words, I am angry. I tried to write something fun this month. I wanted to write something fun, something that wasn’t a call to arms or a dissection of tragedy. I started out as a comic after all. However, sometimes things happen that I cannot, and […]
What’s It Like Being Trans? The Good, the Bad, & the New Way of Thinking
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist— Being trans involves living your life, but with more questions, unusual situations and new thoughts than the average person. One question people frequently ask is: Why are we trans? Many transwomen will tell you the theory of the trickling hormone wash. You see, female is the default gender for the […]
DOMA, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell & the Transgender Community: No More Waiting
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist— As you will know dear readers, this is a monthly publication, which often prevents me from being able to comment on current news cycles. This is not wholly bad, as it leaves me free to effectively “wait and see” on some issues and process events in a more thoughtful fashion than […]
On Moving Forward: Exploring This Year’s Boston Pride Theme
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist— The Boston Pride theme for 2013 is “Moving forward … Proud, Strong, United!” This signifies the struggle that LGBT people have faced and how they are moving together to make things better. I find that this is a wonderful and true message—every word of it. Congrats and thank you to […]
Navigating the Activist Cycle: Six Rules for Effective Activism in Human Rights
By: Lorelei Erisis*/TRT Columnist— This time of year more or less denotes the start of the season I like to think of as the “speaking and marching season. During this season, I make the rounds of various Pride Festivals through the summer months and then, as the weather begins to cool down and political passions […]
Transgender Rights Are the Key to the Future for us All
By: Deja Nicole Greenlaw*/TRT Columnist– Fighting for transgender peoples’ rights is fighting for the rights of everyone. For every gain that we transgender people make, the world gets a little better. Not convinced? Then please read on. Let’s get right to the current, big issue — public accommodations. First of all, it’s kind of silly […]
