Whooping It Up With The Woop Woopers…What?

My colleague and friend Meike Watzlawik is a doctor of psychology who specializes in GLBT issues. We met in the late 1990s, when I was a youth peer leader at Tobacco Education for GLBT Youth (TEGLY) and she was an intern for that and the affiliated youth health education programs ELITE (tobacco ed for East Boston students and other youth) and Healthy Strong & Proud (sex ed for GLBT youth). A native of Germany, she lives there and travels; I see her maybe once a year when she visits the States.

Last Summer, she came to live in Worcester and work and study at Clark University for a year contract. It’s been good to have her in the same state! She and the other ‘internationals’ live in the same apartment building (a former corset factory – I love corsets!) and have been getting together as a varying group one night a week to eat, share their work and lives, and socialize. They call themselves the Woop Woop Society or Woop Woopers, after the Australian wine they drank at their first gathering. During most of their weekly gatherings they watch a movie recommended by one of their members, then discuss it.

At Meike’s suggestion, the Woop Woopers invited me to be their guest speaker to help them discuss transgender issues. Tonight was the night – despite the snowstorm, I traveled to and from Worcester and the experience was well worth the trip. I gave a brief talk, showed the film “Toilet Training” (the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Tara Mateik’s documentary about transgendered people and others and their restroom and other issues), and led a question and answer and discussion session. Six of the Woop Woopers attended, from Brazil, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. We were also joined by their professor, from Estonia. Everyone asked excellent questions and contributed to the discussion – I especially appreciated their sharing their experiences of GLBT people and issues in their home countries.

Thank you for having me, Meike and fellow WWs! And thank you Keshet for loaning me your DVD.

Meike has another contract, and we hope to work together again – perhaps by co-teaching one of the sessions of a class she hopes to teach.

Happy Chinese & Lunar New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! And the rest of the Lunar New Year. I’m a Dragon (1976); the last Dragon year was 2000, the next will be 2012. This year, 2009, is the year of the Ox.

This holiday is meaningful to me because Asia and its culture (especially Japan) was very important to my late mother, and so part of my and my brother’s education from her and the Brookline and Newton public schools. Also, my stepmother is Hakka tribe (one of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan).

I chose the image because I’m a lifelong Hello Kitty fan (like me, she came to this country in 1976). This one can even looks like a Jewish and social justice message.

ICTE / Keshet event “An Act Of Faith”!

I’m a founding member of the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) and Chair of Keshet’s Transgender Working Group (TWiG), and tonight we held an event called “An Act Of Faith (Massachusetts Communities Of Faith Speak Out For Transgender Equality)”. AAOF was actually the first interfaith transgender event in Massachusetts and perhaps beyond! How long overdue, and yet how timely.

AAOF was the campaign 'kickoff' for ICTE’s and my primary work this year -- helping people and communities of faith support An Act Relative To Gender-Based Discrimination And Hate Crimes. That's the bill that we came close to passing last year; it would add "gender identity and expression" to the state's discrimination (housing, employment, education and credit) and hate crime laws. I and all other transgender people in Massachusetts would finally truly have civil rights (we still have them only in Boston, Cambridge and Northampton)! And everyone else's gender would finally be fully protected too. The bill was refiled on Wednesday, January 14th, in the Massachusetts House and Senate, and we plan to pass it into law this year.

I was one of the two Event Co-Chairs and MCs (Masters of Ceremonies) – the other was Sean Delmore (Program Coordinator - LBGT@MIT; Candidate for Ordination – Deacon - United Methodist Church; Member - ICTE;). I’d never chaired or MCed an event before, but I couldn’t have had a better debut! The event was so wonderful and successful! I am so happy about it and hopeful about our work this year! I’ve never been prouder of ICTE, Keshet, and everyone else involved! AAOF literally meant the world to me as an interfaith transgender person and leader.

We had a Welcome from Rabbi Daniel Judson (Director of Professional Development and Placement - Hebrew College Rabbinical School; Member – ICTE), Sean and I, Gunner Scott (Executive Director - Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition), and Matthew O’Malley (Political Director – MassEquality).

We had Songs from Judah-Abijah Dorrington (Chair - Boston Area Black Pride, Director of LGBTQI Programs - Wellesley College, Executive Director - People to People / Dorrington & Saunders Assoc.) -- Lift Every Voice And Sing and the Battle Hymn Of The Republic.

We had a time called Planting A Seed – Judah spoke, as did Jennifer Levi (Director - Transgender Rights Project – GLAD).

We had a time called Growing Roots -- Rev. Tiffany Steinwert (Pastor - Cambridge Welcoming Ministries - United Methodist Church), Reverend Father Toni Amato (Order of Saint John the Divine; Director & Founder - Write Here Write Now), and Marla Marcum (Co-Chair - Reconciling Ministries - New England United Methodist Church; Candidate for Ordination - Deacon; Member - ICTE) spoke, Rabbi Judson spoke again.

We had a time called Branching Out -- Representative Denise Provost (Massachusetts House), Representative Carl Sciortino (Massachusetts House, co-sponsor of the bill), and Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge (Priest - St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church; Founding Member - TransEpiscopal and ICTE) spoke.

We had a Call To Action – a ritual in which attendees filled out commitment cards about how they would work to support the bill this year; the cards were printed as colored paper leaves and hung on a bare Tree Of Life until it was beautifully foliated.

There was a Closing where Sean and I spoke again. And then there was “schmoozing” – refreshments, talking, photography and more.

For the flyer as a PDF, click here.
For the program as two PDFs, click here for the outside and click here for the inside.

For my speech (given during the Welcome) as a Google (Word) Document, click here.

For Ethan Jacobs’ Bay Windows article, click here. AAOF was also in the Keshet enewsletter, on the ICTE blog, and elsewhere.

One of our many blessings was being photographed by three professionals:
Ethan Halainen, Keshet Communications Assistant – for Keshet’s Flickr page of his AAOF photos, click here.
Marilyn Humphries, Bay Windows photographer – for her Flickr page of AAOF photos, click here.
Bill Wasserman, my father – for my Picasa Web album of his AAOF photos, click here.

Thank you oh so much, ICTE, Keshet, our cosponsors, our speakers, and everyone else who worked on, attended and participated in this event!

2 Websites Recommend Mine!

Two websites recommend mine!  Probably more do, but I don’t know about them yet
(if you do, please let me know).  The first is the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition’s
(MTPC) Wikipedia page about blogs – click here.  The second is one of Michael Alexander’s
websites – he’s a local trans Jewish colleague – click here.  Thank you to them!    

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year 2009!

If, like me, you’re Jewish, you celebrated New Year’s in September -- at Rosh Hashanah, when year 5768 ended and 5769 began. So happy new year again. If you use yet another calendar, happy that year too.

May this year be our best yet. May we find better ways to live and work together, furthering tikkun olam, (a transliteration of a Hebrew phrase for) "world healing".

Happy Holidays 2008 / 5769!

Happy Holidays 2008 / 5769!

Merry Christmas and Happy 5^th night of Hanukah! Those are my primary celebrations. Happy Solstice and everything else you celebrate.

May your holidays and year be your best yet.

The image is from friend of the family Niel Kropp -- thank you!

I’m distributing smaht cahds at Hahvad Univehsity

(“I parked my car in Harvard Yard” => “I pahked my cah in Hahvad Yahd” is an old joke – about the Boston accent, how difficult it is to drive and park here – especially in Harvard Square, and how it’s forbidden to drive into the college's quad.)

Transgender work is my life’s work; yet alas, I'm still rarely given money for it.

So I’ve been searching for a paid job, and have become an employee of Spherion, the agency that provides temps to Harvard University. Harvard is one of the best places for me to work, and Spherion is the way.

Harvard decided to upgrade their ID cards to “smart cards” (with a computer chip inside), and so they are "recarding" all of their cardholders. They’ve replaced the 12,000 undergraduates’ cards and given the incoming freshmen (frosh? freshpeople?) smart cards. They’ve also created smart cards for the other 56,000 people who have Harvard IDs.

I’ve mostly worked on the Smart Card ID Project, primarily the “production” of the cards. I’ve also worked for Harvard Yard Operations, and for my longtime GLBT colleague Robyn Ochs (bisexual leader) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

Today I started working on the Project’s “distribution” of the cards. Between now and March, I’ll be one of the managers that travels with all 56,000 cards to several sites on the Harvard campuses so that the cardholders can visit us to exchange their current IDs for smart cards.

My previous post about this is "I’m working on Smaht Cahds at Hahvad" (September 22nd).

Thanks Giving

Today is Thanksgiving Day.

I’ve always wanted to go to the National Day of Mourning at Plymouth – perhaps next year.

One of my TWiGs – Keshet Transgender Working Group members – had my best friend / transister / colleague Laurie Wolfe and I to their family’s celebration. And we’re very thankful for that.

All of us have things to be thankful and give thanks for. Indeed, those who have – or seem to have – least are often the most aware and expressive of what they do have. May we all be mindful of and give thanks for all our blessings, today and every day.

Congregation Am Tikva / Temple Sinai Healing Service

Congregation Am Tikva is the GLBT synagogue of Boston, and where I’m a member. Temple Sinai is the Reform synagogue in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner (and is GLBT welcoming). CAT rents space at and has an interactive relationship with TS.

Seven years ago, CAT and TS created a joint Healing Service, held every other month or so and on Yom Kippur. Each is an hour of guided meditation, song, prayer, poetry and more. The Services are followed by an oneg (Hebrew "joy") -- refreshments and social time. At least once a year, the Service ends with havdalah, the ritual for the end of Shabbat (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday).

I started attending a few years ago. I’m especially glad of this one because this is the eve of the international Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Transgender Resolution --> Episcopal Church

Two of my colleagues on the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) are Episcopal priests -- Reverends Cameron Partridge and Christopher Fike. With Reverend Canon Ed Rodman, they wrote and submitted a resolution in support of trans civil rights and of adding gender identity and expression to the National Episcopal Church non-discrimination canon. This weekend, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts voted in a landslide to support the resolution. So, the diocese has now petitioned the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to add that language.

Cameron is also a founding member of TransEpiscopal – for his post about the resolution on the TE blog, including the full text of the resolution, click here. For his similar oon the ICTE blog, click here.

This is particularly meaningful for me, as I am Episcopalian on my late mother’s side. Mazel tov!!

My 6th surgery anniversary!

Today is the 6^th anniversary of my chest surgery (I had my chest changed from more female to more intersex / alien)!

I celebrated by sponsoring the oneg ("joy", refreshments after the service and bread and wine / grape juice) at my synagogue, Congregation Am Tikva. (It’s common at synagogues for members to sponsor onegs and other things in honor of special occasions, and I’ve occasionally done it at CAT.)

I brought Trader Joe’s cakes, mini pastries and fruit salad. I decorated with TJ’s gelt (chocolate coins wrapped in foil to look like real coins, usually a Hanukah thing) and roses, and my own Jewish decorations. As always, I also wanted to be symbolic / thematic and funny – so I bought two more things at the Sweet N’ Nasty, a sex-themed bakery and ‘novelty’ shop here in Boston. On top of each cake, I placed and lit a votive candle -- dyed and molded to look like a breast. I also put out a plate of nickel-sized white chocolate truffles – also dyed and molded thusly.

As I’d thought, it was a good way to do something I should do anyway while creating a “teachable moment” about transgender issues.

Today is Election Day

Happy Election Day!!! In a word, VOTE. (Every four years on this date, we elect the President, Congress, et al.)

I want to share the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition’s (MTPC) latest awesomeness – they’ve created a “Transgender Communities and Voting Access” guide. Also, the National Center for Transgender Equality has created an “Overcoming Voting Obstacles” guide. Both of these guides are primarily intended to help transgender voters vote -- and to educate about trans voters' challenges.

If you experience a problem at the polls because you're transgender, please let MTPC know, as they are tracking these experiences and working with local organizations to address any issues. You can fill out a form on their website, email info@masstpc.org, or call them at 617.778.0519.

Photographer Richard Chase's show "The Mask"

Warning: Richard Chase's sites include nudity.

I met photographer Richard Chase when he advertised in the Queer Agenda (a local GLBT et al enewsletter) for trans and other models and I emailed him; we’ve done a few shoots of me.

One of his most recent collaborations is with maskmaker Eric Bornstein, Founder and Artistic Director of Behind The Mask – Richard photographed models wearing some of Eric’s masks, then Photoshopped the images. Some of the photographs are the Cambridge Center for Adult Education’s (Harvard Square) show “The Mask”.

Tonight was the show's opening reception, and I attended.

Coming soon, more about me and photography in my entry “Me & Photography”.

GLAD's Transgender Rights Project

GLAD is Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the New England legal organization which works to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status and gender identity and expression -- their motto is “equal justice under law”. Recently they realized they needed to have a program dedicated to trans legal issues, especially basic civil rights – which we transpeople still don’t officially have in Massachusetts! The bill adding “gender identity and expression” to the state law (against discrimination and hate crimes) should pass next year, but even after that we’ll need GLAD’s help. And so at New England Trans Pride on Saturday June 7^th (in Northampton), GLAD officially launched their Transgender Rights Project.

In July, GLAD announced that they were looking for transpeople to be in the photographs for TRP’s publicity materials. I responded and was chosen for one of the photo shoots, and then for the brochure! (They chose which photo of me to use, and it was a good one.) They hired local trans photographer Jess Dugan, who I’ve known since he was a teenager.

Tonight GLAD held a reception to officially introduce the TRP publicity materials, and I attended. There were speakers, a gallery of the framed photos, and food.

I can’t yet link to the brochure, but the links above include the content. And hopefully you have access to the hard copy or will soon.

Coming soon, more about me and photography in my entry “Me & Photography”.

Islam and I

Fellow Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) member (and blog author) Richard Juang talked me into an unusual outing tonight, and I’m glad he did. (No, not that kind of “outing”!) I've known Islam a bit longer and better than many people, but I still don’t know enough. Yesterday, a few of Richard's acquaintances of invited him to the Boston Muslim Film Festival, and he invited me.

The BMF Festival is a program of the American Islamic Congress and its Project Nur. The AIC is a civil-rights organization promoting tolerance and the exchange of ideas among Muslims and between other peoples, working globally with offices in Washington, Boston, Egypt and Iran. One of AIC’s student-led initiatives is Project Nur (“Enlightenment”), which helps to build bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim students on university campuses by promoting co-existence, tolerance, and understanding.

This year’s BMF Festival theme is “Art Under Fire”. We attended the premiere, Nina Davenport’s documentary Operation Filmmaker at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA). “OF” is the story of Muthana Mohmed, an Iraqi film student. Liev Schreiber, an American actor, saw Muthana featured on MTV and invited him to intern on the set of Everything Is Illuminated in the Czech Republic. What follows is a long, strange trip through ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, Hollywood, Europe, England and more.

Before the film, the audience was given Festival goodie bags of informational materials and candy, spoken to by the organizers, and treated to a show of bhangra dancing (the folk music and dance created by the farmers in Punjab region of Pakistan and India to celebrate Vaisakhi, Spring) by Boston University’s group to promote an upcoming collegiate competition.

Our after-party was at least as interesting. In keeping with the theme of the evening, we dined at Algiers (next door to the theatre! it seems they don’t have their own website, but I hope I’m wrong, because it’s a wonderful place and that link doesn’t do it justice). And one of our party turned out to be a Swedish woman here as a fellow at Harvard University, working on the philosophy of the ethics of stem cell research. Yes, we both exchanged contact info with her.

Thank you to all our hosts for a night of much figurative and literal food for thought!

(This entry is crossposted to the ICTE blog. I’ll be emailing it to the Festival as a thank-you card.)

Happy New Year 5769!

Shana Tova (year good => good year)! Or as my friend Chris says, Shannen Doherty!

‘Tis the Jewish high holiydays, the Days of Awe (and Aww).

I had a lovely time last night, this morning and afternoon at Congregation Am Tikva's Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah and Tashlich services and am looking forward to attending the rest of CAT's hi hol services (CAT is the GLBT synagogue of Boston, and my shul).

I'm giving the dvar (sermon) at CAT’s Kol Nidre service (erev Yom Kippur) next Wednesday, October 8th!

May you and yours spend this time in ways that are meaningful to you.

I’m working on Smaht Cahds at Hahvad

(“I pahked my cah in Hahvad Yahd” (I parked my car in Harvard Yard) is an old joke – about the Boston accent, how difficult it is to drive and park – especially in Harvard Square, and how it’s impossible to drive into Harvard University.)

Transgender work is still my life’s work; yet alas, there still doesn’t seem to be funding for me to do it. And I don’t think I’m ready to start my own business (consulting and/or art), even part-time.

So I’ve been job searching for a paid job. As usual, it’s been a ‘long strange trip’. But I have become an employee of Spherion, the agency that provides temps (temporary employees) to Harvard University. I’ve long wanted to become an employee of Harvard (how much more so since I started temping), and Spherion is the way.

During the second half of August and first half of September, I worked for the Smart Card ID Project, Yard Operations, and on making the freshmen (freshpeople?) student ID cards. I also worked for my longtime GLBT colleague Robyn Ochs (bisexual leader) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. The Project and ‘Yard Ops’ were so pleased with me that they each offered me a three-month gig.

I chose to join the Project team. Harvard has been upgrading their plastic ID cards to “smart cards” (like the MBTA Charlie Card). Since January, they’ve replaced 12,000 cards. Between today and the end of November or so, we’ll be replacing the other 50,000 – 60,000.

I’ve done some unofficial and informal GLBT (especially T, of course; and interfaith) education with my fellow temps, Harvard employees and others; that and the rest of my queer experience here has been excellent. One of my favorite moments was when I walked by the entrance to the Harvard College Women’s Center and saw their chalkboard: “ALL GENDERS Are Welcome at the Harvard College Women’s Center”. I went in and told them why I appreciated it, and they appreciated that.

Coming Soon – My 2008 Work

“That’s a very noble story.”

"Noble?”

"Stories can be whimsical, or frightening, or melancholy, or many other things. But noble stories are the ones that can most affect our lives. May I have your permission to tell others this story?”

“Sure. It’s no secret.”

“But stories are an essential part of every person’s being. I would never share one without permission.”

Eudana and Ensign Harry Kim
Star Trek : Voyager
Season 1, Episode 10 – “Prime Factors”
March 8, 1989

I want to summarize my work during 2008 here, but am still writing it up and deciding how to present it. I probably won’t be able to do create and post an entry for each workday -- for one thing, there's too much backlog. I may create a Word document that’s a summary and update this entry with that link (a link to the document in my Google Docs).

My Friend Annette the Awesome

My friend Annette sent me a email forward today about great question and answer quotes from Hollywood Squares (television game show) episodes of decades ago. It included this:

Peter Marshall, Hollywood Squares Quizmaster: “You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?”

Don Knotts: “That’s what's been keeping me awake.”

Thanks muchly, A!

Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality

The Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) was founded last summer by Richard M. Juang (Masachusetts Lesbian & Gay Bar Association), Keshet (myself included), Dr. Alex Coleman, and a few others. The other current members are Rev. Michael Cooper (Metropolitan Community Church / Boston), Sean Delmore (United Methodist Church), Rev. Christopher Fike (Christ Church / Somerville, Episcopal), Orly Jacobovits (Keshet Senior Organizer & Community Educator) and Elyssa Cohen (Keshet Community Organizer), Rev. Cameron Partridge (St. Luke’s & St. Margaret’s, Episcopal), Robyn Robbins (MCC/B, ICTE webmistress).

We are transgender and allied people and organizations working for transgender inclusion in faith communities. Our primary goal is to help pass the bill formerly known as House Bill 1722, An Act Relative To Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes – it came close to passing during the legislative session that ended July 1st, and will be refiled with a new number and perhaps name early next year. ICTE increases and mobilizes faith-based support for the bill, much like similar organizations did for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

One of ICTE’s projects is our declaration of faith-based support for the bill. To see a PDF of ICTE’s declaration with its current signatories, click here. To sign, click here (you can also sign by email, phone, fax, or hard mail). To apply for membership, work with us otherwise, or for more information: InterfaithCoalition@GMail.com / 617.524.9227 (Keshet office).

THANK YOU to “my” signatories (those who signed primarily because I asked them to):

Angel(a) Buonopane
Michael Burggren
S. Glass
Christopher Hannon
Louise Kittredge*
Mary Madsen
Zev Michelson
Suzanne Morrison
Jessica Solomon

Your signature helped and will continue to, and you won’t have to resign. If you haven’t signed, I’ll be asking you to. If you’re not asked, it’s because we only need Massachusetts voters.

*Mrs. K also left the best comment: “Transgendered people are a smaller minority than gay and lesbian people, and are therefore more likely to be seen as “strange” and somehow unworthy of protection. That is why they must be protected by law.” There aren’t actually fewer trans people than gay/lesbian/bisexual people – and there’s a great deal of (perhaps even complete) overlap between the identities -- but there do seem to be fewer of us because even fewer of us are visible.