VICTORY: Transgender People Can Now Change Their Social Security Record’s Gender Identity

Today marks an important victory for the transgender community, even though it may appear to be a small paperwork technicality. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that it is now much easier for trans people to change their gender identity on their Social Security records. All that will now be required, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality, is for individuals to submit government-issued documentation reflecting a gender change, or a certification from a physician confirming they have undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition.

This is a significant departure from the previous policy, which required documentation of complete sex reassignment surgery. Many trans people never undergo such procedures, either because they are too expensive, because they do not want to lose their procreative ability, or because it simply isn’t an important change for them to make to find authenticity in their identities. The SSA change eliminates this high standard for trans people to obtain the appropriate documentation for the gender that reflects how they live their daily lives.

(via deerie)

Source: justinspoliticalcorner

The issue is that if society classes you as female, you have to abandon all femininity to be andro enough. In a society where “male” is the default, there is a lot more room for masculinity displayed by androgynous people classed as “male” than for androgynous people classed as “female” and this has been my struggle. I enjoy wearing makeup, but can’t really get away with it if I wish to aspire to androgyny. As someone who is genderqueer, I have about as much desire to be overtly masculine as I do to be overtly feminine, but my simple jeans and t-shirts aren’t enough if I want to be truly androgynous. In order to be that which is genderless, I have to be more masculine. Doesn’t that sound a bit hypocritical?
The Pursuit of Androgyny (via faabulous-agender)

(via howllor)

Source: doesntafraid

...and then they came for the trans* people.

themothking:

tooyoungforthelivingdead:

Transgender people in Greece are now being rounded up and detained in a continuation of the social cleansing of the “undesirables”.

FUCK.

THIS.

Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention.

(via fancybidet)

Source: tooyoungforthelivingdead

oakttree:

can anyone rec me some blogs/tumblr/whatevers that deal with genderqueer and/or trans*feminine stuff? i have a friend who wants tumblr recs but doesn’t know where to start.

also any blogs that post pictures of sexy androgynous people or men in women’s clothing (not necessarily drag as such)?

Obviously genderfuckery, which is the project of myself and Nat, aims to do some of this, buttt: 

Other blogs: 

genderfork

mindfuckandrogyny and fuckyeahandrogynousboys are both good for that sort of thing (though they may drive you crazy occasionally if you aren’t a thin angular pale model: i suggest small doses;); hommequaintrelle is another which i feel like hasn’t updated in forever but has some good things

hisblackdress is the personal blog of michael spookshow, a makeup artist who wears mostly dresses and skirts (and is damn fashionable too), and also posts a lot of other genderfuckery and just cool fashion; and chicklikemeblog is rye, who is genderfluid and posts a lot of femme ootds

…i’m sure there are others i’m not recalling at the moment but those are a few anyway. and i mean, i know from seeing the odd reblog that there are a lot of femme trans guys [edit: also, obviously, in retrospect, feminine trans women, i think i was just hung up on “men in women’s clothing” which is not how i would describe a trans woman but IS how i would describe a trans guy who wears dresses] posting fashion tumblrs, i just don’t know who they are particularly.

(via genderfuckery)

Source: oakttree

SIGNAL BOOST! Click here to support Elijah's Surgery Complications Fund by Alex Grey

projectqueer:

My boyfriend, Elijah, had a top surgery on May 14th with an out of state surgeon. Unfortunately, he developed a hematoma on his right side after we got home and it has double in size in the last 24 hours. We’ve been turned away from two different hospital emergency rooms in the last two days and have yet to have his hematoma drained like his surgeon recommends. Despite having health insurance, we do not have the funds to pay for all the medical bills we’ve accumulated with our ER visits due to multiple ultrasounds, x-rays, and doctor’s fees. We are soon meeting with another surgeon that believes he will have to perform a second surgery since the hematoma has clotted.

We’ve set the goal as $10,000. We obviously don’t think we will raise anything near this amount, but we wanted to set it high in case there is a second surgery performed or some how a miracle occurs we get a lot of responses. Any donation is appreciated, even if it’s a dollar.

Thank you so much in advance.

Alex and Elijah.

(via genderfork)

Source: projectqueer

Five Ways Cis Feminists Can Help Build Trans Inclusivity And Intersectionality

1) Be willing to confront instances of transphobia, cissexism, cisnormativity, cis-centrism, cis privilege and other forms of destructive bias where you find them (especially when you find them within feminist, activist or queer spaces), not through “call outs” or other toxic, self-defeating or abusive strategies, but by taking the opportunity for genuine discourse.

2) Don’t take a purely passive, reactive approach. Rather than waiting for things like someone saying something overtly cissexist, or a trans person bringing up a particular concern, be willing to proactively introduce trans issues, or trans-relevant aspects of broader issues, to feminist discourse. Likewise, proactively treat possible consequences, perspectives and concerns relevant to trans people and trans experiences as being not only significant but essential to all feminist issues and conversations.

3) Don’t assume any given issue is strictly, or even primarily, relevant to cis women. All feminist concerns are also transgender concerns, and vice versa. There are no feminist dialogues in which trans voices “don’t belong”, or to which trans voices have “nothing to add”. There are no social issues related to gender that don’t have consequences for trans people.

4) Proactively seek out transgender voices, perspectives and input on all issues, not simply what you regard as “trans issues” or situations where the value of such perspectives is immediately obvious to you. Come to us, rather than waiting for us to come to you.

5) Don’t treat the larger social conflict of gender as being dialectic or binary in nature. Don’t assume a unidirectional model of gender-based oppression.

If you have a printer, print this out. If you don’t have a printer, befriend someone who does, and print this out.

(via loveisfluid)

Source: loveyourrebellion

thugzmansion: Happy Black History Month!Marsha P Johnson and why she rules She was an American transgender rights activist, Queen of Stonewall and Transgender Revolutionary. She was a co-founder,  Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) in the early 1970s and became the “mother” of S.T.A.R. House along with Sylvia Rivera, getting together food and clothing to help support the young trans women living in the house on the lower East Side of New York.
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thugzmansion:

Happy Black History Month!

Marsha P Johnson and why she rules

  • She was an American transgender rights activist, Queen of Stonewall and Transgender Revolutionary.
  • She was a co-founder,  Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) in the early 1970s and became the “mother” of S.T.A.R. House along with Sylvia Rivera, getting together food and clothing to help support the young trans women living in the house on the lower East Side of New York.

(via mercy-misrule)

Source: iamjudithbutler

littlemisslillykat: dinobearthemighty: ‘Just because I love my body doesn’t mean I’m not trans. Stop gender policing.’  Only tiny part of my self-portrait shoot for Photo II. © 2013 Dino RowanRemove credit and I’ll send the dinosaurs after you.  THIS^^^^^ <3! Yeah, it’s fine to be trans or trans* spectrum and to not be happy with “everyone should love their body” sentiments, but I definitely don’t like the hundred or so times I’ve seen it phrased as though all trans people are the same and have the same story. Not inclusive and not accurate.  For that matter, and granted I fall a little outside the trans community as an agender person, but I have way more shame and self-doubt about NOT having dysphoria than I do on the (much rarer) occasions that I just wish all my sex markers would go away, precisely because of things like that. 
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littlemisslillykat:

dinobearthemighty:

‘Just because I love my body doesn’t mean I’m not trans. Stop gender policing.’ 

Only tiny part of my self-portrait shoot for Photo II.

© 2013 Dino Rowan
Remove credit and I’ll send the dinosaurs after you. 

THIS^^^^^

<3! Yeah, it’s fine to be trans or trans* spectrum and to not be happy with “everyone should love their body” sentiments, but I definitely don’t like the hundred or so times I’ve seen it phrased as though all trans people are the same and have the same story. Not inclusive and not accurate. 

For that matter, and granted I fall a little outside the trans community as an agender person, but I have way more shame and self-doubt about NOT having dysphoria than I do on the (much rarer) occasions that I just wish all my sex markers would go away, precisely because of things like that. 

(via sparkz-achive)

Source: dinobearthemighty

feferi:

mauthedoog:

baras:

miguel-the-sexy-and-powerful-god:

shibakisses:

jackchasejfc:

every time I use “they” to refer to a single gender-unknown person on Tumblr, another piece of my grammar-filled heart shatters, and the pieces scatter at the bottom of hell

“They” has been a singular pronoun for hundreds of years, you melodramatic dipshit.

well… actually… no… they is plural. people use they when they should use he, she, or it.

dense motherfucker, the pronoun “they” is an english equivalent for the third person indefinite singular and has been for literally centuries. it remains morphologically and syntactically plural therefore you don’t need to shit your little pantaloons at compromising your surely rock solid grammar rules.

i guarantee every fuckin time you’ve ever had to refer to a person of an unknown gender you’ve used “they” subconsciously. (“The post clerk gave me a message for you.” “Oh, what did they say?”) but you only have a problem with it when people specify it as a pronoun for themselves because you’re a shitlord i fuckin guess.

grammarized straight into hell

cackles linguistically

(via sparkz-achive)

Source: ginadanielsjfc

queerplusfashion:

werqaholic:

thetestshot:

The Test Shot spent an evening with Open Barbers- a queer haircut social space run by Felix Bear Lane and Gerygory James Vass in Finsbury Park, London. This video is a portrait of the kind of work they do, and captures the essence of why it is so important to feel that your identity is understood by your barber as a transmasculine or genderqueer person. 

“Inclusive, friendly, queer, informal, dapper.”

^^^My ideal queer community. I love this video. 

This is so fantastic! Wish there was a similar shop in my area

This is awesome. The space is awesome, the hair is awesome, the vid is awesome. The whole idea is awesome. Their Ff and Gg shirts are awesome. (The word “awesome” has stopped meaning anything.)

I wish there was a place like this near me. We have some very very cool unjudgy stylists in the city but it would still be nice to not be all pleased getting the haircut I want and feeling right and good and then suddenly having my heart sink when the stylist tells me assuredly that they’ve left something or cut something in some certain way because it adds a little extra touch of femininity to the particularly un-feminine or androgynous cut I’ve selected, which has happened a few times now. (And most of the time it even LOOKS fine, but it’s SAYING it that sucks.)

Source: thetestshot

In Memoriam

stfusexists:

This is a list of trans people that have been killed in the last year. Today is TDOR, or Trans Day Of Remembrance. Please take a moment to remember these innocent people who lost their lives simply for being themselves. This list is far too long, and the losses are far too big to do justice.

This is why all of us - especially us, fellow cis people, because these murderers were no doubt cis themselves - need to keep fighting every day to bring this number down to zero. Nothing short of that is acceptable. Let’s work to make this list shorter next year, and every year after that. 

gqgqqt: mohandasgandhi: jillbiden: occupiedterritories: Have I mentioned lately how much I love Joey B? I can’t recall the last time I heard a politician talk about trans* issues… until now. REMEMBER HOW I KEEP TELLING YOU GUYS JOEY B IS AWESOME YEAH
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gqgqqt:

mohandasgandhi:

jillbiden:

occupiedterritories:

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Joey B?

I can’t recall the last time I heard a politician talk about trans* issues… until now.

REMEMBER HOW I KEEP TELLING YOU GUYS JOEY B IS AWESOME

YEAH

(via vincentvangodot)

Source: occupiedterritories

Gender Neutral Pronouns on Facebook Timeline

mmmajestic:

just used this tutorial to subvert facebook’s SUPER BINARY gender options and it feels good to be tranz right now y’all 

I’ve been sorta stressed out about this since I got my new FB like a month ago but now my GQ heart can rest easy!

Reblogging the link - I think I may have put this tut up before, but I know there are people who follow me who might like to have it!

raevyn-amarantha: sageprinze: This is important to see and understand for everyone. Please, if you see someone in a public restroom that you think might not belong there because they don’t look like you, don’t scream or yell at them, have some compassion and go about your business. Never not reblog. This is important to realize, and it affects a great many people. (And, it&#8217;s worse because those are the assumptions, but women can beat people up too, especially if they feel threatened.) The same goes for housing arrangements, shelter, institutionalization, etc. Trans policy discussions at my &#8220;single-sex&#8221; university was like beating your head against a very reactionary wall. I literally don&#8217;t understand why someone would scream at someone in a bathroom as long as they weren&#8217;t getting in their personal space (and then, it wouldn&#8217;t MATTER what they looked like). It&#8217;s like. I realize people think they have reasons for their irrational hate but sometimes it just baffles me completely. Anyway, this is why I love when places have single stall bathrooms - especially the queer friendly (or even just unintentionally so) places around here that don&#8217;t label them (that&#8217;s EXTRA nice if you don&#8217;t really identify with a gender and don&#8217;t have to feel forced to choose).
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raevyn-amarantha:

sageprinze:

This is important to see and understand for everyone. Please, if you see someone in a public restroom that you think might not belong there because they don’t look like you, don’t scream or yell at them, have some compassion and go about your business.

Never not reblog.

This is important to realize, and it affects a great many people. (And, it’s worse because those are the assumptions, but women can beat people up too, especially if they feel threatened.) The same goes for housing arrangements, shelter, institutionalization, etc. Trans policy discussions at my “single-sex” university was like beating your head against a very reactionary wall.

I literally don’t understand why someone would scream at someone in a bathroom as long as they weren’t getting in their personal space (and then, it wouldn’t MATTER what they looked like). It’s like. I realize people think they have reasons for their irrational hate but sometimes it just baffles me completely.

Anyway, this is why I love when places have single stall bathrooms - especially the queer friendly (or even just unintentionally so) places around here that don’t label them (that’s EXTRA nice if you don’t really identify with a gender and don’t have to feel forced to choose).

(via picturaculminis)

Source: allprideinside