2012 and other things

I have been quiet for the last two weeks.  I notice that in December 2011 I did 7 posts before starting on my year-end review.  However not this year.  The year-end review is almost done and will start appearing in a few days.   It does become impossible to complete as there are so many trans-related events.  I have recorded many of the events, but I cannot pretend to have all of them.  As usual readers are invited to add whatever I missed.

 I have been plagued this year by various people or organizations attempting to paste adverts on my blog by mis-using the comments feature.  It will usually be an anodyne comment that has no relevance to the post in question and then a link to something even less germane: a dress shop, a flower shop, a car dealership, vaginal tightness, tooth whitening (this in Turkish), etc.  I cannot imagine why these people think that I would release such an advert, and even more why do they want to attract my readers, most of whom live in different cities and countries.

There were several major steps forward in 2012. The most outstanding is the new Gender Identity Law in Argentina.  This is probably the best in the world now.  

The US has been making several significant improvements but quietly.  Nothing that will add up to the equivalent of a gender identity law, but the ruling that "provisions in the Affordable Care Act prohibiting sex discrimination in health insurance do apply to transgender people"  means that the damage that Janice Raymond inflicted, by giving insurance companies an excuse to discriminate, has finally been reversed - after 33 years of US persons being denied health care, and in some cases dying.

The EU also passed several motions and declarations, continuing past policies.  The unisex insurance rates which come into effect next week will be interesting to see.  The major reason for this is not to solve problems for trans persons, but it does eliminate excuses that have been used to deny life insurance to trans persons.  On the other hand EU members, mainly Hungary and Lithuania, have been passing anti-GLBT legislation, so far with impunity.

The growing practice in Indian states of having a separate welfare board for the trans community is an interesting development.  With advocacy for third gender status, the south Asian countries are developing solutions different from those in Europe and the Americas.

The England and Wales New Prison Guidelines, whereby trans women prisoners are located in women's facilities if they have a Gender Recognition Certificate and neither their current genitals nor their birth gender is relevant, has now been in practice for over 12 months without any scandals at all.  And of course the series of stories in the Daily Mail, appalled that trans convicts were escaping prison because of the problem of where to put them, has ceased.

This year saw the third Olympics since the Stockholm Consensus.  While it feels churlish to point out the lack of success of trans athletes, the bright side is that any reasonable person will now admit that prior androgenization of a person's hormone system does not result in any enduring advantage in sports.

In the laity vote re female bishops in the Church of England, there was a block of women who voted against.  They were organized by Susie Leafe, who self-describes as a radical feminist.  There has been very little comment by other radical feminists about this branch of their movement.


The Rice, Friberg & Gavrilets paper, "Homosexuality as a Consequence of Epigenetically Canalized Sexual Development", is getting a lot of attention.  I have seen other supposed explanations of trans or gay come and go.  However it will be interesting to see what other scientists do with it, whether they can replicate it, and how soon their model will be applied to trans people.

With regard to equal marriage, the most intriguing development was the Mexican supreme court striking down of the Oaxaca law, that denied same-sex marriage, as discriminatory in that it violates the American Convention on Human Rights.  The US and Canada are the most prominent of the American countries that have not ratified the Convention, but most of the others have, and so will the ruling have international ramifications?    (Canada decided not to ratify because it would seem to be incompatible with its abortion law; there is no way that the US could ratify it while continuing capital punishment).

The big negative of course is the ever-increasing murder count.  This is awful even if we attribute the increases to better reporting.  The worst statistics are from Brazil, Mexico, the US and Turkey, but there are several Asian and African countries where statistics are not available and where it is a realistic supposition that the situation is very bad.  

Special mention needs to be made of Iraq, the country where the US and Nato spent a $1 trillion and killed almost 1.5 million to install a new government that is in effect conducting a pogrom against gays, lesbians, trans and emos.  The government authorities arrest GLBT persons and then hand them over to the militias who murder them.  Despite Iraq's military and cultural alignment with Iran, it has not adopted Iran's policy of state supported gender changes.

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Camille Paglia complained this year that some trans people have become"rigidly ideological".  That of course is not new.  However let us note some recent egregious examples of actions by trans persons that lack politeness or common sense or both.

Colleen Francis, who is legally female, has created an understandable fuss at Evergreen College, Washington State, by using the sauna in the women's section of the gymnasium and exposing her privates.  She seems to be unacquainted with the notion that a lady does not expose a penis, even if she is attached to it.

Joy Ladin and Christine Benvenuto were once an heterosexual couple.  Following Jay's transition and the breakup of their marriage, both have written an account of the events, and both have been published.  The two books each reflect the differing perspectives of the two.  For historians and lovers of literature this is fascinating, and one expects a future PhD thesis doing a close comparison of the two accounts. However the attempts to censor Benvenuto in her local paper and a public presentation, for the sin of not writing her own book from her ex-husband's perspective, are reprehensible.  Ironically they are counter-productive in that they will almost certainly increase the sales of Benvenuto's book.  Trans people have been censored for centuries.  Increased censorship is not in out interest.

There is an increasing rift between drag performers and trans women.  As many of the former later become the latter this is unfortunate at least.  Here is a good essay on the topic.

Ashley Love in American imperialist mode condemned Nepali trans persons for advocating for third gender status.