In the most recent GLCC newsletter, the organization announced that Celebrate the Night has become an official committee of the organization.  Celebrate the Night is a variety show that benefits the GLCC.

As you may recall, CTN generated a firestorm last year by refusing to audition a transwoman and pronouncing that she was not woman enough to meet their criteria.  At that point, the CTN website described the event as celebrating all women.

They've since updated it to state:

For the purpose of this event, if a person is legally recognized as
a woman or living full-time as a woman, she is a woman.

No such requirement that to be a lesbian, you must be legally recognized or living full-time as a lesbian.  Which is good since there are many, many women who participate in CTN that are not 100% out of the closet and I would hate for them to feel excluded just because they aren't lesbian enough.

Well, at least if the GLCC is going to formally associate itself with an organization that openly discriminates against transwomen,things are a little more out in the open.  The GLCC has historically been a little weak on transinclusion and I don't really think this is going to come as a shock to anyone.  The truth is that Pittsburghers who are L, G, B and Q really have a long way to go when it comes to lifting up and including our trans brothers and sisters.

For a complete herstory on this situation, click here.

Yesterday, I thought, was a tremendously sad day.  Our beloved Mona who had fought cancer for 10 months and three days reached her final day.  All the way to the vet, I kept hoping there was some alternate explanation, but no.  We put her to sleep and I have all the usual comforting thoughts about her being "across the Rainbow Bridge" with her best friend Jack and her beloved veterinarian, John.  She only had one bad day out of 10 months and three days and that wasn't painful, just her way of telling me it was time to let her go. 

Today is a tremendously more sad day.  There are reminders everywhere, in the most unexpected ways.  The thump of her jumping off the bed.  I didn't hear it today.  Playing "Our Lady of the Bedcovers" (she made a cute Madonna) when I make the bed.  The 300 minutes in the backyard deciding exactly which spot needed a spot-o-Mona.  Her unparalled excitement, just quivering with anticipation, at the leftover canned catfood -- even if the cats were still eating the pre-leftover portion. 

She fought a really good fight.  She kept her weight up (even gaining a few pounds) through the whole chemotherapy.  She was her usual self 99% of the time.  She visited with her goof friends, Brenda and Michelle, last Friday and snagged some salmon. 

Mona was a stray dog that had been hit by a car and taken to the vet clinic where John worked.  Her hip was broken, but not her spirit.  She came to be a foster with my family while I was in grad school and living with my parents.  She "moaned and groaned" a lot because she was crated -- hence, Mona.  She was a very vocal dog.  I came home from class one day to find our family dogs locked in the backyard and Mona laying on my Dad as they ate some Saltines and watched the Cooking Channel.  She was there to stay.  And she never got over her fetish for saltines.  Thanks, Dad. 

Miss Mona had a brief career as an advice columnist and then became a blogger http://pghmona.blogspot.com.  My dog behavior friend urged me to keep blogging about the adjustments of the other pets.  So I'll try to do that.  Amadeus and Alexander are confused.  I let them sniff her collar and my clothes that I wore during the procedure.  I know that gives them information, but they really are quite lost.  Mona was definitely top dog.  Debby (behavior friend) doesn't think either one will want to assume leadership so we are hoping that Simon Le Bon, the cat, is up to the challenge.

Considering he stretched out on the dog bed and wouldn't share with Deus, we might be on to something.  Simon has now taken over Mona's bed in the corner of the room.

I had Miss Mona for nearly 10 years.  She was the brightest, bestest dog ever.  I hope everyone experiences that type of love and loyalty.  I gotta go now. 

Miss Mona   1997 - 2008

In his brand spanking new blog, Slag Heap, the man called Potter critiques media coverage of the recent rescue of Rebecca Hare from being ensnared in the Allegheny River.  Rebecca, who is homeless, had been staying along the riverside of the David Lawrence Convention Center and became trapped.  She was rescued thanks to an astute convention center worker who heard her cries for help.

Thankfully, she was unharmed in the ordeal.

What's yet to be determined is how the ensuing media focus on her identity as a transwoman will impact her well-being.  As Potter puts it:

Some reporters who covered the incident, however, were apparently still at sea.

The ensuing media hue and cry ranged from idiotic (referring to Rebecca as both a man and a woman in the same article) to the oh-so-obvious stupid (WDVE cackling about the price of a sex change versus the price of a home). 

What I think Potter missed is a pretty critical point, namely that Pittsburgh media outed Rebecca Hare as a transwoman.  However inadvertant, the bungling on the coverage of a story involving a person who happens to be a transwoman resulted in the entire region being informed of pretty intimate details of her life.  Details that, on the face of it, have pretty much nothing to do with the story of saving a person who was living alongside the Convention Center.

Or do they?

A research study from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force indicates that LGBTQ kids -- yes, kids -- are disproportionately present among the general homeless population.  It is not a big stretch to imagine that coming out to your family as trans might lead to being unwelcome in your home. 

Similarly, an adult transitioning might experience unwelcomeness at the workplace or even the loss of a job in states that don't protect people based on gender identity or gender presentation.  Loss of a job is a factor leading to homelessness.

An adult might experience similar unwelcomeness among family, even spouses, who aren't receptive to the news about their loved one.  Loss of a support system is a factor leading to homelessness.

An adult might also cope with societal transphobia by turning to drugs and alcohol, also factors leading to homelessness.

My point is that the reasons Rebecca Hare ended up living alongside the David Lawrence Convention Center may very much indeed be connected to her identity as a transwoman, but none of the media coverage was intended to explore that connection, was it?  Any follow up stories on the trans-friendliness of local homeless shelters, especially those administered by faith based organizations?  Nope.  We just get stupid jokes reducing gender transition to a sex change operation and comparing it with rising property rates. 

What if Rebecca's family doesn't know she's living as a woman?  What has happened to her since her rescue -- is she okay?  Is she somewhere where she's being treated well?  Is she okay with the repercussions that everyone in the tri-state area knows she is a transwoman?

One almost thinks the Post-Gazette should pick up the tab for a safe place for her to stay. 

ps:  I have been in touch with people that have connected with Rebecca to ask if there's anything we can do to help her.  If you want to help, email me. 

Ledcat really wants one of these ...

Apparently, you can bend his feet into all sorts of positions ...

Last year it was this ...

She is once again bound for disappointment. 

From today's Post-Gazette, a letter written by Kurt Colborn of Swisshelm Park:

I have to agree with Sen. Larry Craig's claim that he is not gay. People have forgotten that "gay" is a term of liberation. Being gay means having the maturity to accept yourself as you are. It also means having the courage to represent yourself honestly to the world. Not all homosexual men are deserving of the term "gay."

Sen. Craig is not gay. He's just a coward. He should spare us bearing witness to his thousand deaths by reversed pleas and canceled resignations ("Craig Vows to Remain in Senate," Oct. 5). He should slink quietly away to be forgotten.

While I agree that Craig is a coward, the gay v homosexual debate is the interesting point.  Homosexual is the preferred term utilized by the right wingnuts (especially the Christian wingnuts) to demonize persons who are LGBTQ.  They've taken a rather scientific term, skipped right over the "human" syllables and loaded it with all sorts of sexually inappropriate connotations to make us less human and more "other."

In reclaiming the terms "gay" and "queer", the LGBTQ community has made tremendous strides liberating ourselves from a heteronormative society that does often, in fact, demonize us.  Being gay is different that identifying as gay.  I've heard this theme pop up in quite a few different contexts in the recent past here in my day to day queer life.

Hipster heterosexuals appropriating the term queer when queer identity does not include heterosexuals.  Queer is not about being hip (or ironic).  It is politco-cultural identity. 

A related issue is heterosexual women identifying as bisexual for the purposes of fitting in (and hooking up) with queer women.  This blurs the lines for actual bisexual women (see below).  However, there is also the issues around using women for sexual gratification and/or exploration which is a patriarchal tool especially icky in the hands of other women.

Bisexual women have a tough time laying claim to being part of the LGBTQ community because of our long-standing division into the gay men and the lesbians.  There's a suspicion that bisexual women partnered with a man (straight or bisexual identified themselves) are just "playing" at being gay or trying to have their cake and eat it, too.  I'm not sure if gay men feel the same way about bisexual men, but I suspect it is not so much an issue.

Read a few recent posts for an example of the challenges of gay identity for transgender men and women. 

The battle over amending ENDA to eliminate gender identity and gender orientation goes far beyond political expediency to tap into notions of who "deserves" to be part of the gay club.

For our local community, the inherent issue truly is about identity and there's a heightened scrutiny of the motives and even the legitimacy of assuming gay identity solely based on sexual preferences. 

Personally, I haven't been victimized in any sense by someone pretending to be gay.  The closest I came was one date with a bisexual woman who decided she had to date a man to please her parents.  I have no clue about the "validity" of her identity as bi and, frankly, didn't care b/c she was a double-dipper <gross!> and that meant no second date from my point of view anyway.  I have three friends who are bisexual - two are with men and one with a woman.  It never occurs to me to question their gay identity and knowing them makes me a bit more sensitive to making sure of the B in titles and terms.  As for the men, the only thing that bothers me is their reluctance to accept the whole bisexual identity thing. That only happens in one case.  That makes me feel sad, but it doesn't impact the authenticity of the woman. Nor does it make me feel like the dates I had with her were less than authentic.

I would be annoyed by the hipsters, but I gotta wonder how blurry the line can be between heterosexual supporters and those questioning if they might be gay. It certainly seems blurry in the opposite direction, with plenty of women exploring life as a heterosexual women while working through our identities.  At least, that more closely mirrors my own experience, rather than saying I was simply closeted or in denial or some other explanation that solidly defines my sexual orientation during the years I lived as a heterosexual woman.   I would say hanging around gay people, spending time at their events and being supportive is completely different than soliciting sex in a bathroom stall or crawling through a bar looking for a woman to deceive. 

That being said, it makes sense that queer men and women resent their identity being co-opted.  If that were my scene, I might feel differently.  But my scene is very hetero-mixed and filled with lots of straight men. 

So, the gay identity is hotly contested even within the community.  Those of us on the inside understand how nuanced and diverse we are, but, to the larger population, it is one big mass of homosexuals - supporters and opponents alike.  I sort of like identifying Craig as a homosexual man, be he bi or gay, while stating that he has not claimed identity as a gay man (or a bi man).