I'm reposting this piece by AuntySarah to spread the word into wider circles. If you get your queer on, either in an activist way or you just damn are, give this one a read.

We are a group of trans activists who wish to make known our concerns about a demo, claiming to support the depathologisation of trans people, in London on 17th of October. The facebook group for the demo can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147494409183

The description of the event reads:

"Being transgendered is not a mental illness. We are simply part of the diversity of humanity. Gender Identity Disorder is therefore not a valid diagnosis. Homosexuality we removed as a mental health diagnosis diagnosis in 1987. For us to achieve true liberation and recognition we need to throw off this unjust stigma. We are not ill, just different"

A large number of people were invited by the demo organiser, a non-trans man by the name of Dennis Hambridge, and some of us were initially concerned by the rationale for the demo. In particular, we were worried that campaigning for the removal of Gender Identity Disorder as a medical diagnosis without proposing an alternative mechanism by which transsexual people would be able to access medical transition resources was premature and dangerous, especially in a climate where NHS primary care trusts need only a minimal excuse to deny funding for our hormonal and surgical procedures. We do not support the labelling of our gender identities as disordered, and realise that our relationship with the medical community is far from ideal, but do not wish to support a movement which may give the impression that we seek complete divorce from the medical community.

These concerns were put to the Facebook group by a number of trans activists. Rather than address them, Mr Hambridge entrenched his position, making claims that gender dysphoria was an artefact of society and the medical community, and that removal of any form of classification of gender dysphoria by the WHO was "non-negotiable".

In moves more reminiscent of the actions of transphobic radical feminists than supposed allies of trans people, Mr Hambridge started deleting some of the comments from those trans people who were concerned about our future access to hormones and surgery. Subsequently he banned a number of those trans people from the group, silencing them in that space.

To reiterate - Mr Hambridge, who is organising a demo which is allegedly supporting the rights of transsexual people is using his position as a group organiser to silence and shut out the voices of the very people he claims to support.

In light of Mr Hambridge's intransigence and refusal to listen to the voices of actual transsexual people, we are calling on all activists who support the concept of transsexual people having a say in our own medical care to boycott this demo. We further call on Mr Hambridge, who is not trans himself, to stop claiming to speak on our behalf when he is ignoring our protestations and silencing our voices, and to call off his demo.

Please spread this open letter widely.

Edit

This has now been cancelled ... clearly the community noise has done it's work in this case. I'm not sure I trust this movement in the slightest, it feels like quietly assimilationist rubbish designed to strip what official recognition there is of gender variant people and quietly slide everyone who doesn't fit out of the mainstream and the movement. Depathologisation is potentially useful and powerful ... but also potentially more than a little damaging to many, many people.

So finding this glorious little video linked on Shakesville really tickled me. It's set to 'Fuck You' by Lilly Allen and is gloriously non-worksafe and queer. It's really given a lift to my day.

Which was improved upon even further when a phone conversation between Ezekiel and Captain Horatio revealed that we'd all been big fans of Gauntlet back in the day, so after a wee bit of a nostalgic gigglefest, I dug up this rather nice remake and gave it a whirl ... every time I heard 'you have shot the food' I felt like I was seven and sitting in my friend's conservatory playing Nintendo again. If you were a child of the Gauntlet era as well, go check it out. It's passed the virus and malware checker gauntlet and is exceedingly good fun.

Next up, Ezekiel has introduced me to Sarah Haskins and her info-mania spot, Target Woman, where she gives a very amusing and more than a little satirical commentary on a Gillette advert that we'd been discussing that made me look at it a little differently. If you like what she has to say, the link I've given you there turns into a happy little rss feed when plugged into google reader - you know it makes sense.

After all that levity, a quick finish on something serious. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, or DSM, currently in it's 4th edition (or is it 4.5? it's all a bit dungeons and dragons) is currently under review by the great and good so they can figure out which of us they intend to pathologise and why this time. A rather controversial figure named Ray Blanchard (famed for a lot of appallingly shitty and phobic writing about queers of various stripes) is taking a key role in revising the section on Paraphilias, and seems to be trying to brand everything other than PIV/PIA sex between able bodied, cisgendered adults as being a great big filthy peversion. I never liked the man before, and have even less reason to now.

Read more at Why feminists should be concerned with the impending revision of the DSM by Julia Serano on femilisting.

A few minutes past, a friend sent me some news over msn.

Andrade guilty on 1st degree murder and hate crime charges in Angie Zapata case.

Good.

A confession is not, and should never have been a defense. Seeing this foul little argument rejected by a jury so completely fills me with quiet satisfaction. Seeing a successful prosecution of a bias-motivated crime in a case like this makes me want to cheer. The more clearly the message is sent that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, that none of us are disposable, the safer the world is.

I'm going to go pour myself a drink now.

You'll have noticed by now that I'm pretty sure the purpose of the ID Card system and the national identity database/s is to screw us all nice and hard without even buying us dinner first. As is about par for the course though, some people are getting it that bit harder than others.

Any Trans person who has not been through the rigmarole required to recieve a government Gender Recognition Certificate (through choice, through worries about the central list of trans people they will then be placed on, for financial reasons or because they don't want to divorce a previous partner (a requirement for issuing a GRC) or because they haven't been transitioned for long enough yet) will need to hold two cards, one in each gender. One will be in the details of their birth gender and be used for travel in Europe, the other will be in their actual gender and be used for everything within the UK.

Given that it is currently simplicity itself to recieve correctly named and gendered passport and drivers licence documents without having to obtain a GRC this is a backwards step. One which opens people to harrasment at border checkpoints, suspicion from foreign security services for carrying two sets of ID and, to add insult to injury, will require them to pay two sets of fees as well (yes, the UK government are going to charge all of us to carry these things, doesn't that just add insult to injury?).

I picked up on this one via Helen at Bird of Paradox, who has some very sensible things to say about the whole thing here. She also links to an online petition which, insamuch as these things are of dubious usefulness takes all of thirty seconds to complete and can be found here. The group Gender spectrum UK seem pretty switched on and have issued a press release here, and a suggested template/source of ideas for letters to the home office as well.

Aint you glad we have a government that does all these ... exceptional ... things for us for our own good?

I realised yesterday while I was talking to a good friend just how fucken angry I was about certain things; like the verdict in the Kellie Telesford murder trial and all the fucked up victim blaming dripping with othering that was involved in it, people in the American media spewing foulness about Angie Zapata and others, the mysogynistic bullshit invoked to protect survivors without actually giving us a voice and the absolute bullshit new rules for aviation medicals (you'll need a BMJ/athens type login to read that one).

Then Mish linked me to the video above and everything was better; sometimes the only cure is to post some fuckin cats.

On the good side of things, I went to a fantastic little gathering last night with some good friends which was just what I needed, Amy and I managed to figure out a solution of win to something that was causing friction and fail, I got my shiznit together work-wise, Amy and I met up with another Wegeners patient and his partner which was really quite win and we fell in love with a new musical instrument.

So, the moral of the story? The world can be a shitty place, but there are always cats.