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brendalana

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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #630 on: August 25, 2008, 10:28:49 AM »

US - British intersexed geneticist Sophia Siedlberg: "I am not Disordered, I am Human..." [2008-08 25 Political Affairs]

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7302/

Intersex: I am not Disordered, I am Human

By Sophia Siedlberg

08-25-08, 9:36 am

Editor’s note: Sophia Siedlberg is a geneticist and the U.K. spokesperson for the Organization Intersex International.

Recently, I read an article {BLS 2008-08-25: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7284/ ] in which Amy Hinton was discussing her work as an intersex activist. I found myself needing to respond to a few of her points.

The main issue for me is how a lot of intersex variations (I prefer to use "intersex variations" instead of "DSD" [ed. note: disorders of sex development]) seem to be underrepresented in the media. Often the discussion seems to be about Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, not that there is anything wrong with that, but for some reason the discussion goes into genetics, with the statement: "They are women with male DNA." or "They are women with male chromosomes." The first statement is untrue. In genetics there are "Male Specific Regions," some of which do lie on the X and Y chromosomes. But what needs to be understood is that there are more MSRs and also more genes that are involved in sex differentiation in the autosomes, that is, in the other chromosomes. In the case of AIS the gene involved that codes for Androgen Receptors does however lie on the X chromosome, but in a sense this illustrates the point – "Male DNA" on a "Female Chromosome." It does not make much sense when you talk of "Male" and "Female" DNA.

Amy Hinton stated that "Intersex can mean someone whose chromosomes are the sex opposite to their physical sex." Well, as we have already established, chromosomes are not clear markers of sex and genetically speaking sex differentiation is more complex than this. Many people with CAH (Congenital adrenal hyperplasia) have "XX chromosomes" and are often female, but there are some who end up as male. Does reducing people with CAH or AIS to chromosomes mean anything? I suspect not.

The point here is that you cannot define sex by genetics alone. In genetics there is no "Male" or "Female" DNA. Rather there are regions of DNA which are likely to result in a more male or more female anatomy, and also an intersexed anatomy. This brings me onto the next point where Amy Hinton says:

"Yes and no. Women's equality and LGBT rights should be fundamental rights we get at birth. I personally think it is sad that we live in a country where we have to define the rights of the citizenry to ensure proper equality while some groups are guaranteed freedoms just by winning some sort of genetic lottery (right gender, right sexuality, right color etc.)."

I think that defining sex on the basis of genetics alone, or stating that someone has a physical sex that does not match the chromosomes sets up the notion of a lottery in the first place. Amy Hinton correctly points out that treating what you inherit as a lottery is fraught with inequality, and yet there she is describing genetics in a way that lends itself to being described as a lottery in terms of legal status, etc. I find that confusing.

With many intersex variations the underlying genetic factors are complex and often contrary to the social "understanding" of the subject. (Male DNA on a Female Chromosome for example). I also wonder about this business about women's equality and LGBT rights. When you look at it in more detail, you see that inequality is built into the language. To begin with "Woman" and Man" set up a binary model. Lesbian: "Woman who sleeps with women." Gay: "Man who sleeps with men." Bisexual: "Man or woman who sleeps with men or women." Transgender: "Man who lives as a woman or woman who lives as a man." Transsexual: "Man is really a woman and becomes such or woman who is really a man and becomes such." You will notice that so far there is this adherence to "Man" and "Woman" running through the terms.

It is worth noting that for "Intersex" we read "Disorder of Sex Development." Look at the nomenclature in question. "46XY DSD" (Meaning "46 XY but is female and is thus Disordered"). When you look at the language that way, you are looking at an extremely arbitrary view of what male and female are supposed to mean. "Women" and "LGBT" are terms that stay within these arbitrary definitions, reducing people to bits of sexual meat. "Intersex" gets singled out because the arbitrary definitions are thrown into confusion because the arbitrary definitions are motivated by irrational thinking. I am not saying that Amy is being irrational. Far from it. It is the terminology and language she and all of us have been forced to use by society which is irrational. My main objection is that I do not see myself as a "Disorder" or a "Special problem" or "Someone in need of special protections." I would not be in need of "Special protections" if I was regarded as human, like Men, Women, and LGBT people are.

While people say that because I, as an intersexed individual, do not fit some arbitrary definitions (Male or female or some label that fits in with male or female) and deem me as being a "Disorder of Sex Development," then the incentives to regard me as less than human or subject to a genetic lottery inevitably remain.

The truth is that whatever form we take, we are human beings, and the human genome is a distinct entity that tells us we are human. You have to see the whole picture and not define people by bits like chromosomes or the genes they contain, or the enzymes that are coded by the genes that are involved in the synthesis of "sex" hormones, or even the hormones themselves. We also need to see people as people, not "Lesbians" or "Gays" or "Bisexuals" or "Transgenders" (These are cold labels being applied to lives being lived by human beings, that reduce these lived lives to little more that an act or a characteristic.)

Perhaps we need to rethink how we describe the world around us.

END


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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #631 on: August 25, 2008, 07:48:13 PM »

US - Study: Transgender vets face discrimination... [2008-08-25 Air Force Times]

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/08/military_transgender_veterans_082508w/

Study: Transgender vets face discrimination

By Rick Maze
Staff writer

Monday Aug 25, 2008

A new study by a California research center finds that transgender veterans — people who changed their sex after getting out of the military — believe they are facing discrimination and disrespect at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

Transgender people also complained they had a difficult time while in the military, with repeated inquiries about their sexual orientation. Such questions were more likely to be faced by men planning to become women than for women planning to become men, according to the study by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The survey is based on interviews with 660 people identifying themselves as transgender veterans who were asked about their military and nonmilitary experiences, including 18 who said they began their gender transition while still in uniform.

Navy veteran Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association, said most of those who began a gender change while in the military were near the end of their service obligations and worked in isolated assignments so they did not call attention to themselves.

Only about 30 percent of those surveyed used VA hospitals, most of them men who became women, were 46 or older and had annual incomes of $30,000 or less.

VA does not cover sex changes, and usually does not cover related hormone therapy or counseling. But the survey says transgender veterans reported problems even getting care routinely provided to other veterans, such as pap smears, prostate exams, hysterectomies and mastectomies.

Another complaint was that VA medical staff often refused to use the gender-appropriate pronoun he or she for the new sexual identity of a transgender veteran and sometimes would not even look at them.

The survey quotes one transgender man as saying he was “told by a religious clerk that I should just go away because I was an insult to the brave real men who there for treatment.”

Transgender veterans also complained their privacy was violated by medical staff, including one incident in which a nurse pulled a veterans’ partner into the hall to ask if the partner knew that the veteran was born a man.

Helms said the study would provide ammunition for getting VA policies relaxed and to force cultural changes to reduce discrimination.

Transgender veterans are not asking for special help, just equal treatment, Helms said.

“We did our time,” she said. “What happened to us after we got out doesn’t have anything to do with whether we deserve care. We are aware that times are tough for veterans programs and that it is difficult to get care at some VA facilities. We would just like to be treated just as crappily as everyone else.”

Among the survey respondents, 38 percent were Army veterans, 28.5 percent served in the Navy, 23.5 percent in the Air Force and 11 percent in the Marine Corps, with the rest in the National Guard, Reserves or Coast Guard.

Eighty-six percent received honorable discharges. Forty-eight percent were junior enlisted, 39 percent were noncommissioned officers or petty officers, and 13 percent were officers.

Fifty-two percent were men who transitioned to women, 28 percent were women who transferred to men, and the rest fell into other variant categories depending on the current state of their transition, or did not want to be identified with either gender.

--

© 2008, Army Times Publishing Company


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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #632 on: August 26, 2008, 02:23:33 AM »

US - Post-operative M2F gender variant Susan Ashley Stanton's (nee Steve Stanton) marriage comes to an end... [2008-08-26 TPA Bay Times]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article784680.ece

Susan Stanton's marriage comes to an end

By Lorri Helfand
Times Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Largo city manager fired after revealing plans to become a woman has ended her 18-year marriage.

Susan Stanton 2008-08-26

Susan Stanton, who served Largo for 17 years as Steve Stanton, has agreed to pay alimony and child support to her ex-wife, Donna Stanton, according to court documents filed this month.

Since leaving her post, Stanton, who turns 50 next month, has changed her name to Susan Ashley Stanton and has undergone gender reassignment surgery.

She also has taken part in a CNN documentary about her journey. A 10-minute cut of the film was screened by about 50 people at the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association national convention Friday, said Bud Bultman, CNN managing editor. The segment showed who Susan was before she became Susan, Bultman said.

Stanton declined comment for this report. But she told the convention group in Washington, D.C., that she participated in the project because she wanted people to "see the transition — not the physical transition on the Discovery Channel — but the psychological, spiritual, social transition, the impact on friends, family and community," according to a posting on the convention Web site.

A CNN crew plans to finish the project this fall, but no broadcast date has been set, Bultman said.

Stanton said she has a good relationship with her ex-wife, but she has lost most of her friends. Stanton agreed to pay Donna Stanton $4,756 a month in alimony and $800 a month in child support for their son, Travis, 15, according to their marital settlement agreement. Because Susan Stanton has been unable to find work, she agreed to pay a lump sum of $50,000 to cover alimony and child support from April through the end of the year. The money will come from one of her International City/County Management Association retirement plans.

Donna Stanton, 57, will get their Largo home and primary custody of Travis. Susan Stanton will retain 42 percent equity in the home, share parental responsibility and have liberal visitation. Susan Stanton moved to Sarasota but plans to leave the state.

-

Lorri Helfand can be reached at lorri@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4155.

--

© 2008 · All Rights Reserved · St. Petersburg Times


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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #633 on: August 26, 2008, 02:42:15 AM »

Rep of South Africa - Gay and gender variant refugees meet hostility in ‘liberal’ SA... [2008-0826 Business Day]

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A830049

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Gay refugees meet hostility in ‘liberal’ SA

Kenichi Serino

SA IS one of only seven countries in the world that grants refugee status on the basis of sexual orientation. But people seeking that relief are battling as much as other refugees in the country.

In Uganda, homosexual acts are punishable with life imprisonment; in Mozambique with three years’ imprisonment, and with seven years in Botswana.

In SA, the constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexuality and the country is the only one on the continent that permits same-sex marriage.

Unsurprisingly, many African gay people are coming to SA not only to enjoy freedom from sexual persecution, but also to apply for refugee status based on that persecution.

“It’s a healthier atmosphere,” says Cary Johnson, senior specialist for Africa with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Council. They can build lives here.”

Gays and lesbians are entitled to apply for refugee status as they are classified as being part of a “social group”. But the process of applying for asylum, like for so many other refugee applicants, can be long and difficult.

Lawyer Abeda Bahmjee represented Azu Ubongu, from Nigeria, who in 2002 was one of the earliest applicants for asylum in SA on the basis of sexual persecution.

“It was very rare,” she says. “In my experience they (sexual refugees) are more willing to put forward a political case, though it is more weak.”

To successfully apply, refugees must have evidence of persecution they would face in their home countries or proof of their activism.

Ubongu had been arrested more than once in Nigeria. Homosexuality is illegal under civil law and carries a jail sentence. In northern Nigeria, where Islamic law holds sway, the penalties are more severe.

But Ubongu had never actually been charged with breaking the law. According to Bhamjee, this was only because of bribes paid to Nigerian officials. Ubongu was denied asylum in SA, but the decision was changed after a legal challenge.

“I think what is interesting about the decision is the way (they) construe the right to be gay,” says Bhamjee. “They basically say that it is a private right and that if gay people express themselves privately it is sufficient. It’s a very narrow view.”

The fear of potential homophobia from individual home affairs department officials is also a factor in dissuading refugees from making their applications.

“The problem is when you get in front of a h ome a ffairs official,” says Johnson. “Does he hate queers? Does she fear lesbians? Their application could go to the bottom of the pile.”

Gay refugees also face obstacles in their own communities . When they first arrive in SA, they often depend on networks established in SA by people of their own countries, who often bring their homophobia with them.

Liezel Theron, of Gender DyamiX, represented a transgender person, Morgan, in her bid to get asylum status. Morgan’s problems started in the queue at h ome a ffairs, with other refugee applicants.

“When they found out she’s transgender, they pushed her out of the queue,” says Theron. Morgan was also evicted from her home.

“Today, she doesn’t mix with other African refugees,” says Theron.

Johnson says the possibility of being ostraci sed is enough to keep many gay and lesbian refugees in the closet, and stops them from applying for asylum status on the basis of their sexuality.

Their isolation from refugee networks means that finding a home and a job is difficult.

Corrine Bachile left her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo in November last year.

“I love my country, but it’s not easy to live there when you have made a different choice and when you are dreaming of a new sun,” Bachile says, “In my country people look at you like a witch. They will tell you to pray to God because you have some bad spirit or trouble in your mind.”

Bachile is unable to associate with Congolese people in SA. “They treat me like in my home country. Just today I met a lady from my country who asked me why I was a lesbian. Why am I not trying to date white men?”

Bachile has given up applying for refugee status and plans to move to Europe.

Morgan’s asylum application is being processed. Theron says home affairs officials took Morgan more seriously after she had representation, and she recently had her status renewed.

Not all applicants are that lucky. Daisy Dube, a drag queen who emigrated from Zimbabwe in 2001, was murdered in SA.

“She came here because she thought it was better for gays and lesbians,” says her mother, Ntsikikeleo Dube.

As a transgender person, she wasn’t able to live “as she was” in Zimbabwe. From an early age she dressed up in women’s clothing and wore make-up.

She settled in Yeoville where she lived with other drag queens and worked as a hairdresser.

Last June, she was shot dead outside a nightclub. According to witnesses, her murderers shouted: “Shoot lezitabane (shoot the lesbians)!”

--

© 2005 BDFM Publishers (Pty) Ltd.


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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #634 on: August 26, 2008, 11:08:53 PM »

Britain - Fly-past tribute to late M2F gender variant RAF veteran Lynne Janine Braithwaite BEM (nee Lawrence James Braithwaite...) [2008-08-26 Lakeland Echo]

http://www.lakelandecho.co.uk/morecambe-news/Flypast-tribute-to-RAF-veteran.4426962.jp

Tuesday, 26th August 2008

Fly-past tribute to RAF veteran

By Greg Lambert

A FLY-PAST of a lone Vulcan bomber across Morecambe on Friday was a fitting tribute to a leading transgender activist, author and RAF veteran of 40 years.

Lynne Janine Braithwaite BEM

The life of Lynne Janine Braithwaite BEM, who died on August 12, was celebrated at a packed Lancaster Crematorium where friends and family said their farewells to a remarkable person.

They included the Deputy Chief Constable of Lancashire police force, who gave a speech outlining Lynne's involvement as a volunteer advisor on transgender issues, who toured the country speaking at various seminars and workshops – fighting for the rights of all transgender people.

The fly-past of the Vulcan bomber was in honour of the work carried out by Lynne as an engineer on the Vulcan to the Sky project – a campaign to get the Vulcan airborne again which was only achieved months before Lynne passed away.

Lynne, of Westfield Grove in Morecambe, certainly led an inspirational life.

She was born Lawrence James Braithwaite on July 1, 1934 in one of Beatrix Potter's houses at Near Sawrey in the Lake District.

She left school to join the RAF in September 1949, retiring as a Flight Sergeant on July 1 1989.

Lynne was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen's Honours List in 1976.

Her expertise was maintenance of Vulcan bombers. It was with this experience that she was called out of retirement as engineering consultant to the Vulcan to the Sky Trust.

In early 2008 the Vulcan bomber XH558 passed its airworthiness tests and flew once again. Lynne was very proud of this achievement and it was therfore entirely appropriate that the plane was present at her funeral.

After leaving the RAF Lynne ran her own business making silver model aircraft until 1992, when it went bust during the recession.

Not long after her transition to female in 1994 aged 60, she contacted Lancashire Constabulary asking what policies and procedures they had regarding transgender people.

Lynne had significant input advising on best practice for trans people as service users and employees in the police service.

Until July 2008 she remained an active member of Lancashire Northern Police Division's Independent Advisors Group where, over the years, she was consulted on a number of policing issues and policies. At the time of her death she was also an active member of Trans Lancs group – an advisory team for the constabulary, keeping them up to date with the legal and social issues affecting trans people.

She wrote several books including 'Diaries of a Transfemale' and 'From Brigands to V Bombers'.

The Press For Change website, which campaigns for respect and equality for all transgender people, paid tribute to her: "Lynne was a vibrant, indefatigable person who was always active and approach-ed life with the enthusiasm of someone decades younger. She will be greatly missed."

Lynne, who passed away suddenly but peacefully in Royal Lancaster Infirmary, is survived by her children Karen, Vicky and Mark, and grand-daughter Emma.

The commital service was led by Rev Canon Brian Pithers, chair of the Morecambe and Lancaster Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) where for two years Lynne was secretary.

--

©2008 Johnston Press Digital Publishing


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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #635 on: August 26, 2008, 11:10:57 PM »

US - Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember? [2008-08-25 TS-Si]

http://ts-si.org/content/view/135/993/

TS-Si News Service

Monday, 25 August 2008

TS-Si Living

Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember?

Dana Point, CA, USA. Christine Jorgensen (30 May 1926 - 03 May 1989) was one of the first people widely known to the public for undergoing a surgical procedure that would become widely known as Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS). It had been done since 1930, but with public exposure, she became a spokewoman for people born transsexual.

The New York Daily News created a media sensation on December 01, 1952, when it ran a front page story that Jorgensen became the recipient of the first successful SRS following an operation in Denmark. (Ex-GI Becomes Blond Beauty).

Jorgensen graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in Bronx, New York in May 1945. Perceived as a man by the U. S. Army, she was drafted and served honorably for two years.

After discharge, she returned to New York and researched the available information on what she understood as a discordance between her mind and body. Jorgensen self-prescribed the female hormone ethinyl estradiol for feminization and found help from Dr. Joseph Angelo, the husband of one of Jorgensen's classmates at the Manhattan Medical and Dental Assistant School.

Surgical Correction

Jorgensen had originally intended a trip to Sweden, the location of the only doctors in the world performing this type of surgery. However, on a visit with relatives in Copenhagen, Denmark she met Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish surgeon who had begun a specialization in sex reassignment surgery.

Under Dr. Hamburger's direction, she began hormone therapy that culiminated in a series of surgeries that were consistent with the techniques available at that time. She was 26 tears old. Jorgensen chose Christine as her first name to honor Dr. Hamburger (Christine is the feminine version of Christian).

The American ambassador arranged or a change of her passport idenitification to "female" and Christine began a new life. Two years later, she broke the news to her parents, writing that "Nature made a mistake, which I have corrected, and I am now your daughter."

Throughout this time, Ms. Jorgensen appeared not to know that Hamburger and his colleagues, Georg Stürup and Dahl-Iversen, would later claim that the procedures were a humanitarian measure designed to help "a man who suffered from his homosexual impulses". The surgical team had become anxious about what they perceived as homosexuality, viewing Jorgensen from a eugenic point of view. They figured "it would do no harm if a number of sexually abnormal men were castrated and thus deprived of their sexual libido". [C1]

Hamburger and colleagues argued against the creation of a vagina in a post-operative transsexual. The scholar Christine Crowle sees this as evidence of reassignment surgeries designed to "produce a gender performance not a sexual performance". [C2] Several years later Jorgensen obtained a vaginoplasty under the direction of Dr. Angelo and a medical advisor Dr. Harry Benjamin.

Public Life

Conventional employment was out of reach for Jorgensen, due to her celebrity. In 1967, Jorgensen published her autobiography, Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography.

During the 1970s and 1980s, she toured university campuses and other venues to speak about her experiences. She was known for being direct and wielding a polished wit.

Jorgensen is the subject of a 1970s film, The Christine Jorgensen Story. She is referred to in the 1994 movie Ed Wood as the film-maker works on Glen or Glenda.

She had a particularly friendly interview with Tom Snyder [BLS 2008-08-26: Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 1 (of 2)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM</a>

Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 2 (of 2)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls</a> ], but some other interviews did not go as well.

Jorgensen once appeared on The Dick Cavett Show. She walked off the show when Cavett insulted her by asking about the status of romantic life with her "wife". She was the only scheduled guest on that day, so Cavett spent the rest of the show in an extended monologue, talking about how he had not meant to offend her.

On the other hand, New York radio host Barry Gray asked if 1950s jokes such as "Christine Jorgensen went abroad, and came back a broad" bothered her. She laughed and said they did not at all.

Looking back From The Later Years

Although never married, Jorgensen was twice engaged. She once said in an interview: "I have been engaged twice and I've been deeply in love twice. I was never engaged to the men I was in love with, and I was never in love with the men I was engaged to."

In her later years, Jorgensen worked as an actress and nightclub entertainer. In summer stock, she played Madame Rosepettle in the play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Locked You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad.

In her nightclub act, she sang "I Enjoy Being a Girl" while dressed as comic-book heroine Wonder Woman. She closed the act when faced with legal action by the publishers who owned the copyright on the Wonder Woman character.

On the eve of her death, Jorgenson said that she'd given the sexual revolution "a good swift kick in the pants."

Christine Jorgenson died of bladder and lung cancer on May 03, 1989 at age 62. She was remembered by friends as a warm and loving person. Most of the interviewees or people who had worked with her, regarded Jorgenson as fine woman and a "lady".

Following a private ceremony and cremation, Christine Jorgenson's ashes were scattered off Dana Point, California on June 9, 1989 by her two nieces and two of her closest friends.

The mourners wept.

-

[N1] This article is an update of a work that first appeared here at TS-Si.org on May 3, 2006. The editors invite readers to share their memories and appreciations of Christine Jorgensen in our comment area, located at the end of this article.

[N2] Portions of this article have been adapted with permission from Wikipedia sources and private correspondence.

[C1] Transvestism: hormonal, psychiatric and surgical treatment. Hamburger, C, Stürup, GK, Dahl-Iversen, E. JAMA 1953 152: 391–396.

[C2] Deviant Desire: Gender Politics and the Cultural Metamorphosis of George/Christine Jorgensen. Christine Crowle. Australian Humanities Review. Currently available online.

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Comments:

..., Having been privileged to have been Christine Jorge 26 August 2008 : 07:36 EST

Having been privileged to have been Christine Jorgensen's housemate and confidante during the terminal six months of her life I have a problem with—first:

"On the eve of her death, Jorgenson said that she'd given the sexual revolution "a good swift kick in the pants."

While the statement may correctly attributed to Chris... it was a rightfully justified boast made (many times) by her in her retirement days... but not on her San Clemente General Hospital 1989-05-03 death bed... for having hospitalized her Monday 1989-05-01... in the wake of my having applied my power of attorney for her health care to decline proffered hospital life support systems... I recall inwardly begging my comatose housemate make a speedy transition... and... while seeming occasionally semi-comatose... Chris never regained sufficient consciousness to utter any death bed statements...

and secondly with:

"Following a private ceremony and cremation, Christine Jorgenson's ashes were scattered off Dana Point, California on June 9, 1989 by her two nieces and two of her closest friends.

"The mourners wept."

Borrowing from my own copyright archived musing here:

2008-08-26 extracts from “a’top a dung-hill...” © Brenda Lana Smith R. af D., 2008

pages 111 - 113:

Poorly as she was in her dying days... I soon became familiar with a belying "It's show time" change in her whenever she beat her face into shape—as she was wont to wisecrack when applying her make-up—to entertain our visitors... or... leave home... poorly as she was—her near daily trip to the Mission Viejo Hospital's oncology department was to her just another starring gig... pure... utter "the show must go on" professionalism...

Trust me... Christine was a past-master when it came to the art of applied thespian pretense...

Much as she might be poorly and mope around our apartment... once she'd patiently made up her face, touched up her carefully coiffured hair (in her late days—a professionally styled wig), and suitably dressed and bejeweled the hands of her always manicured nails for the occasion... beyond our front door and or in front of visitors she was on stage—center stage... she never merely walked into a room—Christine Jorgensen "Entered..."

She was however saddled with the fact that Christine Jorgensen and her initial apparent uniqueness were synonymous from day one of her stepping into the critical world limelight...

Christine Jorgensen... no matter what her artistic talent... or... valuable unsung behind-the-scene contributions to the entertainment world... had been irrevocably typecast for life "Christine Jorgensen..." and... that is whom her audiences paid good money to see... no matter how hard she later tried to break out of the mold...

Even so... I believe Chris should have a "Star" on Hollywood Boulevard's walk of fame for her unique talent and unsung contributions to the entertainment industry...

A posthumous accolade I was exploring as the result of Chris and myself having three months before death pragmatically... in the company of two of Chris' younger gay Hollywood fans—Chris Basinger, Chris' trusty Hollywood gopher, who'd years before introduced Chris to Mae West, and his friend Gary Edwards, an amateur drag-artiste... quite gaily inspected all of Hollywood's famous memorial parks vainly looking for a suitable memorial niche befitting "Christine Jorgensen..."

After one hectic weekend mix of living it up and mulling her memorial park options over with Virginia Chenoweth—an old Hollywood drinking-buddy of hers—with whom we were staying... a very weary Christine announced out of the blue on our drive home that she would go ahead with her original funeral wish of having her ashes scattered at sea... the pros and cons of which we had but idly discussed a day or so before her getting a bee-in-her-bonnet about us... and... her... our... beloved little dog "Bonnie..." traipsing up all the way from San Clemente to Hollywood...

"Not by the Neptune Society..." of which she had long been a member... "but by my friends in Hawaii..." she contentedly let be known with a nostalgic smile...

Christine Jorgensen's final wish was that her ashes be respectfully scattered by friends from an outrigger at sunset... with all the melodious Hawaiian funeral pomp she nostalgically recalled having once seen... and considered she well deserved...

However... despite having reiterated her desire for a Hawaiian send-off to her attorney Donald Segretti—in the presence of another attorney friend Terry Kling and myself—four days before she died… it was a burial wish rudely thwarted not only by her supposed friends in Hawaii... but... many in California... too... who felt slighted that she had not made them privy to her final wishes...

Having Chris' power-of-attorney I might have legally forced the issue... but not wishing to take Chris where—in Oahu resident Art Koppen's no uncertain telephonic terms—in death she was not wanted... I diplomatically opted against doing so... and... fell out of the pot into the fire endeavoring to dampen the fire that... in retrospect... I had loyally but unwittingly kindled in the first place by endeavoring to effect Chris' unpublished Hawaiian burial wish...

Determined that Chris' burial be thwarted no longer by her attorney Donald Segretti's failure to dutiful record her dying Hawaiian burial wish and the consequent meddlesome negativity stemming from a seeming vexatious coven of Chris' now "Brenda" hostile friends... exactly one exasperating month to the day after Christine Jorgensen's cremation with the gladly given unquestionable matriarchal blessing of Chris' family probably gotten by omission—in the rush of things I might have neglected to make Dolly Cudworth (Chris' sister) privy to my having heard mentioned somewhere that it was probably illegal to scatter cremated human remains on the shoreline waters of California's coast—Christine Jorgensen's ashes were discreetly scattered on the darkened deserted Californian Pacific shoreline waters of Dana Point at 20.10 hrs Friday 1989-06-09 by a wading foursome... Chris' two nieces—Connie Jenkins and Wendy O'Malley—and close confidants Stanton Bahr and myself... clandestinely scattered under the cover of dark through purposeful cut holes I had made in the base of Chris' favorite Martini promo beach bag that camouflaged the kitchen knife that I used to rupture the beach bag's sealed inner plastic bag containing the ashes that I had jimmied with great difficulty with a hammer and chisel a top a 4ft circular dinette table in Chris' San Clemente apartment's kitchen from the Neptune Society's intended tamper proof cubic metal urn ... the sealed bag was labeled:

"Cremation No. 33554
Cremated Remains of
Christine Jorgensen
Cremated at
CREMAR CREMATORY
2299S MANCHESTER
ANAHEIM, CA 92802
Phone (714) 634-3836
On 5-9-89"

(SNIP)

While Chris' ashes might not have enjoyed the Hawaiian-like funeral send off that she had wishfully envisaged... apart from a general sense of relief that her ashes had finally been interred it was a brief sombre affair... I don't recall there being any tears or other undue signs of emotion among our odd Dana Point wading foursome...

For me—probably alone in my knowledge of their possible unlawful committal—there was a joyous comedic relief in their riddance as I quietly shook loose the contents of the knife slashed Martini beach bag's inner plastic bag and bade Chris' contentious ashes defiantly find their own way to Oahu... there was an inner satisfaction too in the realization that at least in line with Chris' and my jocular agreement that her ashes had most certainly not ended up—despite all the untoward hurdles engendering thoughts of my resorting to such—being unceremoniously flushed down some toilet... especially as they were scattered in the wake of one hellish comedy of frustrations surrounding not only Chris' and my attorney friend Terry Kling's never-to-materialize funeral boat that she had volunteered to carry Chris' ashes for scattering at sea in the august company of a "tidily" group of Chris' intimate circle of friends... but... in arranging a gala Christine Jorgensen memorial get-together...

UNQUOTE...

Ciao...

brendalana...
Brenda Lana Smith R af D

--

© 2005-2008 TS-Si, Inc.

[2008-08-26 BLS: Christine Jorgensen videos

Christine Jorgensen

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/D5ht4vv-JRo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/D5ht4vv-JRo</a>

Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 1 (of 2)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM</a>

Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 2 (of 2)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls</a>

Christine Jorgensen Iin Denmark Part 1 (of 2)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cd2-IhPyziU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Cd2-IhPyziU</a>

Christine Jorgensen Iin Denmark Part 2 (of 2)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/qBU9G4wO2eM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/qBU9G4wO2eM</a>

Christine Jorgensen Reveals (1957)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zrOnss_ZjMU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/zrOnss_ZjMU</a>

The Christine Jorgensen Story 1970 Trash Movie Trailer

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ufsJn63CMmw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ufsJn63CMmw</a>

Christine Jorgensen on adoption

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/t4sYhZCYtKA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/t4sYhZCYtKA</a>

Christine Jorgensen arriving at Idlewild airport(1952)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/M9Q50y5IsJU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/M9Q50y5IsJU</a>

...]


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"To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform." — Theodore H. White

brendalana

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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #636 on: August 27, 2008, 11:18:49 PM »

Britain - Professor Richard Green: Young transsexuals should be allowed to put puberty on hold... [2008-08-28 The Guardian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/28/sexeducation.gayrights

Comment is free
Response

Young transsexuals should be allowed to put puberty on hold
Halting development allows teenagers time to consider their potential treatment, says Richard Green

Richard Green
The Guardian, Thursday August 28 2008

Your article ('My body is wrong' < http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/aug/14/children.youngpeople >, G2, August 14) sensitively reports the anguish of the young teenage transsexual as the body changes in the direction of the wrong sex. That anguish is medically treated in other countries. But in the UK the "wrong puberty" is allowed to progress for years before treatment. Not only are these unwanted body changes traumatic as they develop, but if the teenager goes on to live as an adult of the other sex, they pose additional hardship. Aptly, the article tells of a mother whose (now) daughter was denied hormone treatment "until the age of 16, by which point she already had an Adam's apple, a deep voice and facial hair".

Having spent a decade heading the adult gender identity clinic at Charing Cross hospital, the world's largest treatment programme for transsexuals, I have interviewed many patients who regretted not having treatment during their early teens. Clinicians in the Netherlands, the US and Canada, among others, have begun treatment programmes that block the earliest signs of unwanted puberty. But the UK's conservative approach will dominate the conference on gender identity disorder in adolescents at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) that your article mentions. As you point out, "some parents whose children have gender-identity issues are already angry about the fact that few professionals have been invited from abroad".

However, your article fails to mention the fact that, in response to this shortcoming in the RSM event, I have organised an international conference at Imperial College on September 28. Medical experts from the US, Canada and the Netherlands who treat young teenage transsexuals with puberty-blocking medications at the first signs of body change will discuss their programmes. Teenage Dutch transsexuals and their parents will discuss their positive experiences with blocking puberty. A UK family will report how their desperation led to them travelling to the US for treatment.

It is difficult for someone who is not a parent of a very distressed - perhaps suicidal - young teenage transsexual to empathise with what appears to be such a radical treatment. This is similar to the situation 40 years ago with sex-change surgery for adult transsexuals. In 1969, when I endorsed the first transsexual surgery for the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, not only were most physicians opposed, but I was, with my surgical colleague, concerned about the possibility of prosecution for mayhem, punishable by 14 years in prison.

Medically suspending puberty for a year or two provides breathing space for the teenager and those providing care to find the best way forward. The adolescent may conclude that it would be better to live as a person of their birth sex. If so, puberty can be allowed to resume.

There are arguments against early puberty suspension. Your article quotes Polly Carmichael of Gender Identity Development Service as saying: "The Dutch data [on gender suspension] looks promising. But they have not been doing it for so many years that you have long-term follow-up." Perhaps. But we do have long-term follow-up of the consequences of denying timely treatment.

• Richard Green is a visiting professor of psychological medicine at Imperial College London

richard.green@ic.ac.uk

-

Recent comments (Total 4 comments)

thetrashheap
Aug 28 08, 12:20am (about 4 hours ago)

We can't turn a man into a woman or visa versa it is solely cosmetic and it ridiculous that we keep up the pretense we can. Why sell the lie to transgender people that we can change their sex?

Weaselmeister
Aug 28 08, 12:25am (about 3 hours ago)

How many people used to commit suicide because their body was the "wrong sex"?

Malchemy
Aug 28 08, 12:38am (about 3 hours ago)

The problem is not with the body but with the head. Sometimes if you care for someone you have to tell them NO.

PrincessPam
Aug 28 08, 2:15am (about 2 hours ago)

It seems that some people who have already posted need a brief, abridged version of genetics.

For the first six weeks of pregnancy, all foetuses are female. Then they either stay female or change to male. It is believed (medical viewpoint) that in the case of a transsexual person the gender goes off in a different direction to the sex so that when a child is born it is already transsexual and nothing can be done to undo natures error. This may also explain intersexuality too.

These people are not born, or do not develop a mental illness unless their condition is left untreated. It should not be up to people with their own hangups to say what somebody may or may not do with their body. Psychiatrists are just there to ensure that a person doesn't have a mental illness such as schizophrenia which can display similar symptoms. No Psychiatrist can know if somebody is or is not transsexual, or whether a person is a transvestite so immersed in their own fantasies that they want the operation.

The Gender Recognition Act 2004 means transsexual people can have the right to a new birth certificate if they have lived in role for at least two years and are unmarried. Would the government accept this if people were mentally ill? Or would we need one hundred more psychiatric hospitals.

But what are your inner demons? Are you a necrophiliac, a bestialatist, or maybe a paedophile?

Live and let live. If it's not harming you then keep your nose out and let transsexual people get on with their lives.

Go to all comments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/28/sexeducation.gayrights?commentpage=1

--

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008


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brendalana

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Re: From brendalana's Archives...

« Reply #637 on: August 28, 2008, 01:13:13 AM »

US - Further to Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember? [2008-08-28 TS-Si]

http://ts-si.org/content/view/135/993/

TS-Si News Service

Monday, 25 August 2008

TS-Si Living

Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember?

(SNIP)

Comments (3)

(SNIP)

..., Sharon... I should have mentioned, too, that I hav 28 August 2008 : 00:48 EST

Sharon...

I should have mentioned, too, that I have a problem with “Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish surgeon who had begun a specialization in sex reassignment surgery...”

So... again borrowing from my own copyright archived musing:

2008-08-28 extracts from "a'top a dung-hill..." © Brenda Lana Smith R. af D., 2008

pages 103-104:

Christine Jorgensen's notorious "sex-change" was performed in Denmark... a noteworthy fact because in 'fifty-two such surgery violated the mayhem statutes... the religious mores... and... medical ethics of most countries…

In 1935 little Denmark... not George Dubya Bush's second favorite American lap dog after Britain that it has politically allowed itself to become today, but a socially progressive world leader then... amended an experimental law on its statutes that for six years had permitted the voluntary rehabilitative sterilization of certain sex offenders over twenty-one years of age to embrace people experiencing considerable mental conflict, or social devaluation caused by their sexual drive...

Rehabilitative surgical castration was only availed those males on whom voluntary chemical or hormonal castration had already proven beneficial... and... it was under this statute's therapeutic umbrella... with typical Danish pragmatism... that in psychiatrist Georg Sturup and endocrinologist Christian Hamburger’s firm opinion that the already successfully chemically castrated feminized twenty-five-year old gender distressed Danish-American Georg Jorgensen would—in all probability—experience considerable psychological relief from not only surgical castration, but the complete removal of incongruent male genitalia and the plastic sculpturing of a vulva, and the consequent thereafter full socio-legal recognition of her chemosurgical facilitated womanhood in Denmark... that plastic surgeons Poul Fogh-Andersen and Erling Dahl-Iversen first operated on an already chemically feminized Georg Jorgensen at the Denmark's state operated Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen, on September 24, 1951... in essence... contrary to the reports in New York's Daily News... Georg Jorgensen had been rehabilitatively de-sexed...

And... with my former Danish consul's tongue-in-cheek... no matter what the Daily News' or the world's interpretation of the startling news out of Denmark... it was to be one of the few times that the Danes could not export "Danish Know How..." the major snag being a legal requirement... candidates for such therapeutic surgery needed to be domiciled nationals of Denmark...

A then a more lucky than a farsighted decision when it comes to surgical sex-reassignment... for it has since been proven to be in the best interest of all concerned that candidates for genital conversion surgery are evaluated... rehabilitated... and... integrated in their chemosurgically facilitated gender in a society where they legitimately may and will permanently reside...

Christine told me that... as "Georg" Jorgensen... she had loosely passed muster as to being a domiciled Danish national through having declared that she was in the process of exercising her right to patriality... and... had shown intent of permanent domicile not only by taking up gainful employment... and... dutifully filing tax returns... but... also by acquiring a funeral plot...

Despite Chris having in all probability previously filed Danish income tax returns to cannily substantiate Georg Jorgensen's Danish patriality intent... with that and the resultant Danish state provided genital reassignment done and dusted... as a legal resident of Denmark suddenly negatively impacted by the fact that income tax in Denmark was then—as probably now—notoriously higher than that levied in the United States... I cannot imagine this canny born and bred American vacillating very long before deciding not to halve her financial windfall by astutely upping sticks for the United States... she was not about to dutifully or otherwise declare and pay tax on her windfall's American sourced mega amount—payable for the exclusive media rights surrounding her alleged sex-change... ergo... in my eyes... Danish tax evasion in all probability was the major motivating factor behind Chris' hasty flit... made as soon as she considered her now comparatively wealthy self well and perceptibly womanly enough to optimistically be able to market itself in—what was for her—the then more tax hospitable environment of the United States...

It was only after the Danes were inundated with hundred upon hundreds of beseeching applications from all four corners of the earth seeking similar surgery to Christine's that the letter of the law was stringently adhered to... the state considered that surgery performed on other than a resident nat

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