I'm the mother of a trans kid, and trans issues and gender expression issues are hot topics of conversation in my house. Even though I am a sexologist by trade, training (and inclination), I can scarcely keep up. I keep learning more from my son and I look forward to this constant learning process. 

Even so, I was moved to write this column on Carnal Nation, to pay tribute to some people I knew personally, and others I gaze at from a distance.

I think it's a good read, and if you have comments, please let me know!

http://sf.carnalnation.com/content/39286/999/reflections-gender-mandala

This past weekend, I volunteered during the Folsom Street Fair at the transmen4men (tm4m) booth sponsored by Eros, TRANS:THRIVE, and Trannywood Pictures. Tm4m is a discussion, event, and resource program for transmen who play with men. A call for volunteers went out a few weeks ago and I’d been looking forward to participating ever since. All in all, the event was really fun. I spent most of the time handing out flyers promoting tm4m. On the flyer was a sexy cartoon transguy with the words ‘Top 5 reasons to fuck a transguy’ (that’s another blog entirely). When I handed out the flyer, I received lots of positive responses like “I only need one” and “Hell yeah!” What I wasn’t ready for, or rather, was naïve enough to think that at a sex positive space like the Folsom Street Fair wouldn’t occur, were the disgusted looks and inappropriate questions from some people. Mostly, once I handed someone a flyer, they’d read it, and maybe look back and smile, laugh, or give a thumbs up. Others took the flyer and read it, then scrutinized me with some the rudest stares I’ve ever encountered. Most of the stares, and subsequent questions, revolved around...

On Monday, June 22 the National Sexuality Resource Center sponsored a panel discussion of the film Still Black:A Portrait of Black Transmen after the film’s Frameline debut as a part of the NSRC’s Summer Institute on Race, Gender, and Sexuality. Panelists included JayR Rosemon from Dimensions Clinic; Zion Johnson founding member of the Lou Sullivan Society; Shawn Demmons, an MPH Candidate San Francisco State University and a Point Foundation Scholar; and Amy Sueyoshi, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University.

Amy Sueyoshi agreed to share her comments from that panel in my blog. Her comments are a valuable resource for sexuality educators interested using Still Black in the classroom as a tool for teaching about sexuality, gender, and race.

Photo: My friend, Ginger, expressing himself at Pride (photo by Tom Kern)

Well, make that my first FULL San Francisco Pride.  Last year, I was in New Orleans for the annual meeting of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists up through Saturday night, but I was in town for the big Pride event at the Civic Center on Sunday.  In 2009, however, I was able to be part of the full experience of Pride in San Francisco – what is really a week long (some would say month long) series of parties, rallies, marches, and parades.  Quite frankly, it blew my mind.

Maybe it was the heat (85F  - I’ve gotten soft since I left Texas) or maybe it was feeling worn out after months of being beaten down by the constant fighting against the right wing or the infighting among the different segments of the queer community or maybe it was the consistent feelings of disappointment we’ve experienced with the Obama Administration’s lack of action regarding LGBT civil rights that made everything feel so intense and real.  Even my seasoned SF Pride friends said that something seemed different this year.  Maybe despite the events of the last twelve months, we feel a sense of real hope that there is the real possibility of change – and not just regarding marriage,...

I have begun collection of data for my dissertation. Anyone who identifies as transgender and is at least 18 years old is eligible to participate. Here is the information:

Please click the link shown below to participate in my dissertation research project.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/124285/sknovI am a doctoral student at the University of North Dakota. I am collecting data on an important mental health topic. I appreciate your taking time to complete this online study. It should take from 20 to 40 minutes to complete. As a means of saying thank you for the time you put into this study, I am offering twenty $100 cash prizes in a raffle that will be conducted after the study closes (Fall 2009).

This study has been approved by the University of North Dakota Institutional Review Board. Further information about that approval can be found at the study web site.

If you need further information please contact me at (701) 885-1125 or by email at: lmdickey.research@gmail.com.

Please feel free to forward this message to others who may qualify for participation.

- lore m. dickey

Here is a listing of the upcoming presentation I will be doing:

May '09, Phoenix, AZ. AASECT Conference. Gender Identity Disorder: What is in the Diagnosis

June '09, Philadelphia, PA. Philly Trans Health Conference. GID & the DSM: Academics to Advocacy. With Dan Walinksy, Michele Angello, and Kate Richmond

June '09, Oslo, Norway. World Professional Assn. for Transgender Health. Sexual Identity Development in Female-to-Male Transsexuals. With Anneliese Singh & Theo Burnes

August '09, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.American Psychological Assn. The Intersections of Transgender and Racial Identities. With Shana Hamilton, Anneliese Singh, Barry Chung, Vic Munoz, and Seth Pardo

In Judaism, there is a tenant called ‘”Tikkun Olam”, which translated from Hebrew means “repair the world”.

Last Thursday, eighty high school sophomore students from Emery/Weiner, a Jewish Community School in Houston, Texas descended upon the San Francisco LGBT Community Center to hear a panel of local community activists talk about social and health issues impacting LGBT people. The goal of the panel was for students to learn about issues facing LGBT people as well as to begin to develop tools they could use to promote greater equality for LGBT people back home.

When the Youth Program of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center called me to see if I would be interested in representing NSRC on the panel, I was thrilled (and a bit surprised too) to hear that an event like this was even...

The Institute for Welcoming Resources (IWR), a program of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, recently released transACTION: A Transgender Curriculum for Churches and Religious Institutions. This is the very first curriculum of its kind aimed at helping inclusive religious institutions to arm their congregants and members with training on how to welcome, understand and recognize the contributions of transgender persons within their faith settings. 

According to Reverend Rebecca Voelkel, IWR's Faith Work Director, "Of the 3100 or so welcoming congregations we list on our website, somewhere between 75% and 90% are welcoming of lesbian, gay and bisexual (lgb) people but haven't done anything on transgender work. This is true in non-Christian settings too. So, both for the intra-religious world and for any hopes to help religious folks advocate for a trans inclusive ENDA, this curriculum in crucial." 

Barbara Satin, a transgender Christian and IWR Faith Work Associate has had first hand knowledge for decades with regard to the lack of congregational resources addressing transgender inclusion. Barbara is the author of the curriculum and is now working with pro-lgbt religious organizations, particularly Christian ones, to get...

(Crossposted on Equality Loudoun)

This has got to break some sort of record for stupid.

Yesterday, I heard a man equate the sacrifices made by Thomas Beatie so that he and his wife could have children, with the crowd of idiots who trampled a man to death so they could get inside a Wal-Mart to go shopping. No kidding, this was on (OMG!) "Janet Parshall's America" (see here for more on that). The man is named Wesley J. Smith, and he writes a blog about bioethics and "the importance of being human." Bioethics is a big subject, and Wesley J. Smith may well have something insightful to say about some aspect of it, for all I know. But that possibility now seems remote to me, given that he knows so little and displays absolutely no inquisitiveness about something as central to being human as gender.

Here is the "reasoning" involved in his placing those two completely opposite events in the same category, something he calls "coup de culture": He thinks they are both illustrations of "hedonistic people" who are self-centered and think they should get what they want when they want it, no matter what it takes. He may have a point with the Wal-Mart shoppers; as I recall, they refused to stop shopping even after learning that they had trampled a man...