The “just like you” argument is about as old as time, dirt, and me. It probably emerged with the first person to be marginalized by a group in power, and there was likely enough of a difference between this person and that group that the group was able to justify shutting him or her out. [...]
Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category
Trans People: Are We ‘Just Like You’?
Posted in Commentary, Observations, tagged assimilation, being trans, discrimination, gender expectations on January 26, 2012 | 23 Comments »
Thin Mint Morality Wars: The Girl Scout Cookie Boycott
Posted in Commentary, Information, News, tagged discrimination, gender expectations, gender expression, gender identity on January 19, 2012 | 24 Comments »
Last year, I wrote a guest post for the excellent blog Womanist Musings called “Leave the Kids Out of It,” about a brouhaha over gendered Halloween costumes. Now we’ve got another situation where kids are being dragged into adult morality wars. The Girl Scout Cookie boycott, organized to protest the admission of a trans girl [...]
Ask Matt: So Are You Single?
Posted in Ask Matt, Commentary, Information, Observations, tagged community, identity, relationships, transition, transsexual on January 5, 2012 | 36 Comments »
A reader writes: “So are you single?” Yes. Short question, short answer. But if you’ve been reading for a while, you know that I can’t just give a short answer to anything. I think being single is an important thing to talk about, because relationships, while a primary concern of many people in general, are [...]
A Little Gentle (I Mean Genital) Holiday Humor
Posted in Commentary, Information, tagged bodies, holidays, trans men on December 22, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Many years ago, about one or two years into transition (circa 1998-99), I wrote a Christmas carol parody. I don’t think it’s actually ever seen the light of day (or the light of the holidays). I sent it in to FTM International at the time for their newsletter, but they likely just scoffed. So this [...]
Twins Reinforce What Trans People Know About Gender Identity
Posted in Commentary, News, tagged bodies, family, gender expression, gender identity, gender roles, transition on December 19, 2011 | 12 Comments »
The latest news about a trans child receiving legitimate help for a legitimate medical condition has the I-Know-What’s-Best-For-You-To-Do-With-Your-Own-Body crowd coming out of the walls again. A recent story in the Boston Globe reports on twins who were both assigned male at birth, with one expressing a female gender identity about as early as she could [...]
‘Mom, I Just Can’t Take the Crying’
Posted in Commentary, Observations, tagged femininity, gender expression, gender roles, hormones, masculinity, testosterone, trans men, transition on December 1, 2011 | 20 Comments »
When my nephew was about four or five, his best friend was a little girl of the same age. My sister and the girl’s mother were friends, so the two kids grew up together. My nephew was and is a sensitive child in many ways. He has always shared his toys, stopped to help other [...]
You Can’t Have It Both Ways, Tennessee DMV
Posted in Commentary, News, tagged bodies, legal, surgery, trans women, transition on November 23, 2011 | 10 Comments »
This isn’t my usual posting day, but this infuriated me so much that I had to say something. It seems that Andrea Jones went to a Tennessee DMV office to have her driver’s license gender marker changed from “M” to “F.” The office refused because she didn’t have paperwork documenting proof of genital surgery. But [...]
Transgender Day of Remembrance in Fort Collins, Colorado
Posted in Commentary, tagged community, International Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I was honored to be asked to speak at Transgender Day of Remembrance in Fort Collins, Colorado, on November 19. Below is the video and transcript of my speech. The event was sponsored by the Lambda Community Center in Fort Collins. We are here tonight to remember and honor our transgender and transsexual dead. We [...]
Transgender Day of Remembrance: Small Reasons for Hope
Posted in Commentary, Information, Observations, tagged community, crime, discrimination, International Transgender Day of Remembrance, LGBT, transphobia on November 14, 2011 | 7 Comments »
As International Transgender Day of Remembrance grows near, it appears that this year will, unfortunately, be no different from years before – we will be adding names to the list right up until the actual memorial services take place. Our society reinforces these heinous acts of violence in many ways – through misogyny, institutionalized racism, [...]


Ask Matt: Do Both Trans Men and Trans Women Prefer Female Partners?
Posted in Ask Matt, Commentary, Observations, tagged gender expectations, LGBT, relationships, sexual orientation on January 30, 2012 | 26 Comments »
A reader writes: “I’m a trans woman. Recently I have wondered why there seems to be a much greater percentage of trans women who seek relationships with women than trans men who seek relationships with other men. “Stephen Ira’s (Warren Beatty and Annette Bening’s son) story of having a boyfriend started me thinking. He is [...]
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