Letters

Dear Editor,

I am writing in regards to your recent headline, HEARD THE ONE ABOUT A SEX SWAP MAN WHO REPLACED A FEMALE COMIC?.
The transgender comic involved in the story is not a man, but a woman, something which you seemed to be aware of when writing the story. Also using the term “sex swap” is derogatory. A better headline would have read, “Have you heard the one about the transgender woman who replaced another female comic?”
The rest of your article seem to be fine and it’s a shame that it had this headline attached. If you have any questions or are in need of advice when writing about transgender people in future, the website for Trans Media Watch has a section in order to advise journalists and editors. http://www.transmediawatch.org/guidance_for_media.html
Thank you for your time.

Here’s an article you can just rerun every few months

Trans People Exist!

Reports in today’s Daily Mail show that there are transgender people in Britain. Their reporters were able to discover that this phenomenon, which effects one in one thousand Britons, appears to be even spread throughout society.
“Some trans people are very old, some are very young and the majority are in between those extremes” said researcher Dr Smith, “Fully half of trans people are less than the median age! Most trans people over the age of 6 have attended school – or are currently doing so.”
“We also found that trans people come from all different races and social classes.” said Smith.
Due to social pressures, many trans people do not feel comfortable talking about their past to national news papers. “Go away and leave my family alone!” said one 45 year old trans person to the Daily Mail yesterday, speaking under condition of anonymity outside his home at 134 Passing Lane, Oxford E1Q 3GL, just around the corner form the Tescos Express.
Still, trans people may be anywhere in the country. “This appears to be random, like left handedness” said Beatrix Jones of Trans United. “There are trans people in cities and in rural areas, from the northernmost bit of Scotland down to the Isle of Wight.”
Jones explained that trans people also may take a variety of jobs from showgirl, to university professor to dustman to “anything you can think of” she said.
There is also diversity in how they establish their personal lives. Many trans people have romantic partners, although a significant portion are single. Also, researchers found that many trans people have children. “As the UK does not mandate sterilisation for trans people, some have become parents post-transition. Also, many trans people forgo any form of medical transition and just transition ‘socially'” said Smith.
“Trans people do have some specific needs, like the ability to live their life without media intrusion” said Jones, shutting her door in the reporter’s face.

Press Release

Download PDF

Birmingham’s first Network Music Festival 27-29th January.

For immediate release: 24th January 2011

Birmingham’s first Network Music Festival presents hi-tech music performances from local and international artists.

On 27-29th January 2012 the first Network Music Festival will showcase some of the most innovative UK and international artists using networking technology. Presenting a broad spectrum of work from laptop bands, to live coding, to online collaborative improvisation, to modified radio networks, audio-visual opera and iPhone battles, Network Music Festival will be a weekend of exciting performances, installations, talks and workshops showcasing over 70 artists!

Network Music Festival are working alongside local organisations Friction Arts, SOUNDkitchen, BEAST, Ort Cafe and The Old Print Works and PST/Kismet in order to bring this new and innovative festival to Birmingham.

With 20 performances, 5 installations, 5 talks and a 2 day work Network Music Festival will be a vibrant and diverse festival presenting musical work where networking is central to the aesthetic, creation or performance practice. Acts include: Live-coding laptop quartet Benoit and the Mandelbrots (Germany); algorithmic music duo Wrongheaded (UK), transatlantic network band Glitch Lich (UK/USA) and home grown laptop bands BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble) and BEER (Birmingham Ensemble for Electroacoustic Research) as well as many more local, UK, European and international acts programmed from our OPEN CALL for performances, installations and talks.

If that’s not enough, we’ll be kicking off the festival early on Thursday 26th January with a pre-festival party programmed in collaboration with local sound-art collective SOUNDkitchen which showcases some of Birmingham best electronic acts, Freecode, Juneau Brothers and Lash Frenzy as well as one of SOUNDkitchen’s own sound installations.

There’s also an opportunity for you to get involved as we’re running a 2 day workshop on ‘Collaborative Live Coding Performance’ led by members of the first live coding band [PB_UP] (Powerbooks Unplugged).

“Birmingham has a reputation for being the birth place of new genres of music,” said festival organiser, Shelly Knotts. “We’re excited to be a part of this and to be bringing the relatively new genre of computer network based music to Brum. Some of these concerts are going to be epic!”

Tickets are available from www.brownpapertickets.com. Day and weekend passes available £5-£25. Workshop £20.

For more information visit our website: networkmusicfestival.org and follow us on twitter: @NetMusicFest. To tweet about the festival use the hashtag #NMF2012. We also have a facebook page: www.facebook.com/networkmusicfestival

Network Music Festival // 27-29th January 2012 // The Edge, 79-81 Cheapside, Birmingham, B12 0QH

Web:networkmusicfestival.org

Twitter: @NetMusicFest Hashtag: #NMF2012

Facebook: www.facebook.com/networkmusicfestival

Email: networkmusicfestival@gmail.com

On Friday will be a sneak preview of an excerpt from Act 2 of the Death of Stockhausen, the world’s first ‘laptopera.’

Writing to the New York Times

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your article on January 12, 2012, “Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?” I have long suspected that the Times was entirely unconcerned with the truth and was slavishly repeating the claims of people in or seeking power, but it’s nice to have it confirmed as the official policy of the newspaper. This will especially come in handy when I am arguing with others about the lack of merit of your newspaper.

As to your question about whether you should bother yourself with reporting the truth, I would say no. You don’t have any credibility anyway and it’s cheaper just to print press releases without doing research.

Thank you for taking the time to solicit reader opinion,
Charles Céleste Hutchins

Recently, I’ve learned that freedom of the press is much, much better protected in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom. Journalists are free to make claims with good evidence without having to be in fear of overly-strong libel laws. In the UK, you cannot make a claim without absolute proof. In the US, you just need good evidence and the occasional “alleged” and you’re good. UK journalists are jealous of the many press protections afforded American journalists.
And yet, with all the freedom to actually point out lies and fraud and corruption and to let their readers know when somebody is obviously lying – with the freedom to look into things and print what they find, with all of the great and wonderful legal protections the US provides to it’s journalists, the newspaper of record wonders if readers actually expect them to do any journalism. Brisbane, the editor, writes, “I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge ‘facts’ that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.”
I wish I could say I was shocked.

Ron Paul says he witnessed a murder and did nothing

In the above video, Paul talks of witnessing an infanticide in progress, in a hospital where he was present as a doctor. When asked about this, ‘Paul was briefly taken aback. “I would have had to have… I don’t know,” he said. “It was probably a fleeting, two minute thing. I walked in, took a peek, saw what was happening, because I was visiting there for an operating room. But I didn’t have the facilities! What could I have done?”‘ (Weigel 2011) I dunno, maybe performed CPR, called for assistance, called the police, reported the murder to an ethics body?
Paul is bragging in an advert that he saw a baby murdered and did nothing. Fortunately, he is lying about this.
Late term abortions are exceedingly rare everywhere in the world, but especially in the US, where, if I remember correctly, only two hospitals still do them. There is no hospital in the US where doctors will abort a viable fetus. In the case a of a medical emergency, they might do a premature delivery to save the life of the mother or the child, but they won’t abort a baby that could live outside the womb. Not only would it violate every kind of medical ethics, but the actions Paul describes are illegal. They are murder, not in the sense of overblown anti-abortion rhetoric, but in the sense of having a duty to alert the police.
I don’t believe that Paul is protecting a hospital that murders children, as this story is almost certainly made up. As Fred Clark notes, this isn’t particularly new or original lie and it’s one that both he and I have heard before. And, as Clark writes, “they never include the kinds of details that would make such stories believable — names or places that could be confirmed, or any other such evidence.” (2012) So Paul isn’t covering for a murdering hospital so much as he is repeating something he heard elsewhere as if it happened to him. In other words, he’s telling a lie and just pretending to have covered for murderers. It’s not actually his story. Much like he now says he didn’t actually write his racist newsletters. (Kucinich 2011)
The thing I don’t get about Paul is not his KKK-levels of racism, in which he signed his name to newsletters calling black people “animals” (Paul 1992), and it’s not his making up fabulous stories in which he idly lets babies get murdered. What I don’t get about Paul is how he has any appeal with anyone at all acquainted with the left. Yeah, he wants to let you smoke pot (maybe, depending on your state) (“War on Drugs”) and I guess if you’re a white, middle class man who is never going to get pregnant or have a partner who deal with an unwanted pregnancy, nor are you ever going to want to buy birth control (Somanader 2011), (which he would happily let Walmart refuse to stock, as well as the AIDS drugs, etc) and are never going to need a ramp to access a building (Alder 2011), and you don’t care about anybody else who is not just like you, well, I can see why you might like him. but that kind of makes you a bad person. Yeah, he’s got some anti-war rhetoric (“Foreign Policy”) and I’d like to see the wars ended also, but I’m not willing to sacrifice the civil rights act (Basset 2012) for that. Also, I’m not sure I’d trust a guy who is bragging he helped cover for murderers.

Alder, Ben. “Three Myths About Ron Paul.” The Nation. 27 December 2011. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://www.thenation.com/blog/165350/three-myths-about-ron-paul>
Basset, Laura. “Ron Paul: Civil Rights Act Of 1964 ‘Destroyed’ Privacy.” The Huffington Post. 1 January 2012. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/01/ron-paul-civil-rights-act_n_1178688.html>
Clark, Fred. “Say anything to take us out of this gloom”. Slacktivist. 3 January 2012. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/01/03/say-anything-to-take-us-out-of-this-gloom/&glt;
“Foreign Policy.” RonPaul.com Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/national-defense/>
Kucinich, Jackie. “Ron Paul’s story changes on racial comments.” USA Today. 22 December 2011. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/22/ron-pauls-story-changes-on-racial-comments/&gt
Paul, Ron. “Blast ‘Em?.” Ron Paul Political Report. 1992. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://www.tnr.com/sites/default/files/PoliticalReportOctober1992.pdf>
Paul, Ron. “Life.” YouTube. 12 October 2011. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkAsLPrnJGc>
Somanader, Tanya. “Ron Paul: Greater Access To Birth Control Makes A ‘Mockery’ Of Christians.” Think Progress. 6 October 2011. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/10/06/338285/ron-paul-greater-access-to-birth-control-makes-a-mockery-of-christians/>
“War On Drugs.” Wed. Assessed 5 January 2011. <http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/war-on-drugs/>
Weigel, David. “The Ron Paul Fetus Rescue Test.” Slate. 29 December 2011. Web. Assessed 5 January 2012. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/12/29/the_ron_paul_fetus_rescue_test.html>

America’s Last Strong Union

Dear Senator Boxer
I am writing to ask that congress take steps to stop cuts to the Postal Service. As you know, the postal service has just announced it plans to reduce service levels and fire 100,000 workers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, these changes will put a drag on the economy, raise the prices of prescription drugs and hurt people living in rural communities. This is the last thing our country needs in a time of recession.
What’s more, as you know, the US Postal Service would be operating at a profit, were it not forced by congress to pre-fund the retirements of future postal workers who are not yet even born. The Post Services budget shortfalls are entirely a result of this mandate. This unprecedented mandate is an attack on one of America’s last strong unions, by forcing cuts where none are needed.
I hope I can count on you to protect these 100,000 jobs and do the right thing for the 99% of your constituents who rely on the postal service.

Anti-LGBT Scapegoating: Why the 99% Should Care

St Petersberg, Russia is on the verge of becoming the third local legislature in Russia to criminalise “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, to minors.” (Gray, Wikipedia) Activists, such as Polina Savchenko, General manager of LGBT organization Coming Out, point out that “Organizers of public events cannot restrict access of minors to any open area; people under 18 can be there just by chance. Consequently, it makes any public campaigns aimed at reducing xenophobia and hate crime prevention impossible.” (Gray)
Why are they doing this? Andre Banks of AllOut.org says, “the beleaguered LGBT community in Russia . . . are being used as a political punching bag in the run up to elections.” (ibid) The ruling party, “United Russia faces a crisis of popularity . . .. A Levada Centre poll released on Tuesday showed that 51% of respondents planned to vote for United Russia – down from 60% just one week before.” (Elder) So they try to boost their ratings by attacking LGBT people.
This is when they are not stealing elections outright. When describing their 2007 victory, “the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that ‘measured by our standards, it was neither a free, fair nor democratic election.’” (The Economist) That election featured “the entire machinery of the authoritarian state—including courts, prosecutors, media and security agencies.” (ibid) This meant that “large lorries with military and riot police surrounded Moscow’s main squares.” (ibid)
An authoritarian state which uses police powers to maintain control is not on the side of the 99%. Using vulnerable minorities as scapegoats to maintain power is also undemocratic. By linking LGBT people with paedophilia, the ruling party is effectively inciting violence against LGBT people. State violence is not on the side of the 99%, whether it’s carried out directly by a cop holding a canister of pepper spray, or by a vigilante, egged on to violence by agents of the 1% trying to hang on to power.
The 99% includes LGBT people. If we are standing together in solidarity with the 99% of OWS and the 99% of Tahir, we should also stand with the 99% of Russia. Already, the international outcry against this unjust law is causing St Petersberg’s legislators to pause. The Pink Paper reports that, “St Petersburg lawmakers are reportedly reconsidering the provisions of a ‘gay propaganda’ law.” (Gray) Now is the time to act, as, “according to Federation Council of Russia speaker Valentina Matviyenko such ban on ‘propaganda of homosexualism’ might also be adopted on federal level.” (Wikipedia) We can stop this now before it gets worse.
Occupy homophobia! We are the 99%

How to Help

Sign the Petition
If you are near London, come to the protest.

Bibliography

Elder, Miriam. “Putin’s United Russia party criticised for suggestive election advert.” The Guardian. 9 November 2011. Web. Assessed 23 November 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/09/putin-united-russia-party-advert>

Gray, Stephen. “Outcry prompts St Petersburg legislature to reconsider ‘gay propaganda’ law.” The Pink Paper. 23 November 2011. Web. Assessed 24 November 2011. <http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/11/23/outcry-prompts-st-petersburg-legislature-to-reconsider-gay-propaganda-law/>

“LGBT Rights in Russia.” Wikipedia. Web. Assessed 24 November 2011. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia>

“The secret policeman’s election.” The Economist. 6 December 2011. Web. Assessed 24 November 2011. <http://www.economist.com/node/10268185>

Protest St Petersber’s new anti-LGBT Law (NEW DATE AND TIME)

Time and Date: 3:45 pm, Thursday, 1 December

Location:
Meet in front of the Nandos by Notting Hill Gate Tube station to walk to the Russian Embassy
6/7 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, W8 4QP

Map: http://g.co/maps/d5tfr

According to the Pink Paper:

The city of St Petersburg has passed a law which puts in place fines for people who promote the LGBT community to minors.

The new law passed by 27 votes to 1, having been introduced by the ruling United Russia party.

It introduces fines for “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, to minors” and “propaganda of paedophilia”.

Fines range from 1,000 roubles (£20) for an individual to 50,000 (£1,000) for a business.

Polina Savchenko, General manager of LGBT organization Coming Out, Russia told LGBT Asylum News while the bill was being discussed: “By combining homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality into one law with sexual crimes against minors, members of the Legislative Assembly indulge in gross manipulations of public opinion.
“Their goal – to pass an anti-democratic law, directed at severely limiting human rights in St. Petersburg.
She added: “Organizers of public events cannot restrict access of minors to any open area; people under 18 can be there just by chance. Consequently, it makes any public campaigns aimed at reducing xenophobia and hate crime prevention impossible.”

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/11/21/st-petersburg-passes-gay-propaganda-law/

Similar laws are already in place in the Ryazan region and Arkhangelsk region. Wikipedia states that “according to Russian media, a similar regional law is being drafted in Moscow city legislature and according to Federation Council of Russia speaker Valentina Matviyenko such ban on ‘propaganda of homosexualism’ might also be adopted on federal level in order to ‘protect the children from destructive influence’.”

The international community must stand up to these attempts to scapegoat Russian LGBT people.
Join us at 3:45 on 1 December to march to the Embassy to protest this anti-democrat homo and transphobic law. Bring signs, banners, etc.

Facebook Event: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178542975572908

This event has been moved to coincide with the World AIDS Day protest of Russia’s treatment of IV Drug Users. See more
about that at: http://russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com/

Explaining the Inexplicable: Gender Dysphoria

I was in my 20’s the first time I ever experienced snow. I’d seen it on TV and distant hilltops, but I’d never been in it, heard it fall, smelled it, gotten it stuck to my clothes. There’s no way anybody could have really explained snow to me.

And yet, I’d seen a lot of TV and movies that featured snow, read books, read descriptions. So If my attempt to explain dysphoria is confusing, imagine that you’ve never seen snow.

I asked on twitter several weeks ago, “If you were going to try to explain dysphoria to a cis person, what would you say?” Nobody replied, except one guy who said, “I’d use the pizza topping example ‘I like pineapple, it just don’t belong in my pizza.’ or something similar…” I’m not sure what he meant.
I was asking because of a particular cis person, but it did get me thinking more generally about the difficulty in communicating something that is outside of most people’s experience. But I thought I could try to explain:

I’m starting to see the convenience of the “in the the wrong body” narrative as a way to attempt to explain the inexplicable. However, I prefer to think of myself as having after-market upgrades. Because who gets the right body? One of the most good looking (cis) guys I know told me doesn’t like his body and meanwhile I wish I looked more like him. Also the “trapped” in the wrong body thing seems alarmingly close to some very problematic ideas about disabled people.
I’ve never had another body than the one I have now, he’s mine, he’s me. I’m male, so every part of my body is male. For example, I have a very manly spleen. This is why I almost always refer to having transitioned in the past tense, dating it back to when I started T. Losing my moobs was a happy day indeed, but it doesn’t make me more of a man.
St Augustine wrote about being freaked out by his private parts, cleverly disguised as a discussion of Original Sin. Adam was the first, last and only guy to get the right body, according to Augustine and then getting thrown out of the Garden of Eden screwed everything up for everyone. Which is to say that I wish I could pass naked, but everybody has issues.
On the other hand, it really does bug me that I have parts that are atypical and how I feel about them is a lot more complex than whether they’re “wrong,” because they are male and they are part of me. And that’s what I can’t explain. My experience of this is not the universal trans experience, because there is no such thing.
Which is why I don’t normally try to explain. All interested parties accept my assertions about myself and I accept their assertions about themselves and we move on.
How much could I even explain? I dunno how I figured out I was a man, just that I know I am. Not that this was an easy conclusion to come to. I spent a lot of time agonising about this, and yet the process is opaque to me now. When I read She’s Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan, I found her glibness on the issue profoundly frustrating. She said she “just knew.” I didn’t know at the time and wished she’d said more about how this came to be. Alas, now I “just know,” and am not sure what more I can say about it. I think that if I asked a cis person how they knew they’re cis, I doubt they’s have a better answer.
It bothers me when cis people get freaked out about this. And despite my happy life in a bubble, it’s clear that they do get freaked out, even the well-meaning ones. Sometimes, I think an easy explanation might help them, but, again, it’s like snow. Well-meaning people will quickly see that they need to just accept that other people have different experiences. They will accept that snow exists without having ever been in a blizzard. Becoming a spokesman for the weather service won’t help.
It seems weird to some people, but it’s my life. It’s my identity. It’s vital. And yet, as the one who is different, I’m socially expected to engage and manage other people’s reactions, in which they are alarmed by a core aspect of my being. It’s interactions like that in which I see the great attraction of going stealth. Instead, here are some words about it.

Writing Letters to Oakland

Dear Mayor Quan,

I just watched an internet video in which an Oakland Police officer at the Occupy Oakland protest had his name taped over, so that it was unreadable.

We ask a OPD officer why he had his name badge covered…. from BLK PXLS on Vimeo.

The officer in question, J. Hargraves, was ordered to remove the covering by his superior officer once members of the public intervened. That he had his name covered at all strongly suggests to me that he was intending to break the law in his policing of protesters. I also find it troubling that he was willing to do this only a few feet away from his superior officer. This further suggests that the department has an informal policy allowing or encouraging this behavior.

I hope you as mayor investigate whether or not this is the case and order the police to issue a clarification to their officers that they are required to follow the law and respect the civil rights of protesters.

Thank you for your time,
Charles Hutchins

You can contact the mayor of Oakland via her website: http://www.oaklandnet.com/contactmayor.asp