Flying While Trans

It’s been far too long. Admin stuff aside first, I’m going to have to find a better day of the week to do posts and the like than Fridays, as I’m usually working on the weekends. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, as I typically have one of those days off. Either way, I’ll figure it out. On that note, there will probably be no post next week either. I’m going to be spending the latter half of the week on a business trip, and as my laptop is permanently dead, I’m using a desktop to make all my posts. Won’t be bringing it with me. Business trips however bring me to today’s topic of discussion.

If you’ve gone through the news lately, you’ve possibly seen this story about the former Navy SEAL being embarassed by the TSA during her flight screening because she’s trans. Sadly, while this event is new, it’s an old story. More specifically, trans people being harassed by the TSA (or airport security in other countries) simply because we’re trans.

A Blast From the Past

Some of my long time readers may remember back in 2013, in the early days of this blog, when I addressed the Arizona bathroom bill issue. If not, the link is Really Arizona? Really?. Today feels like a repeat of that one, three years later. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to talk about today, aside from not the elections (because that’d be a full time job with all the crazy stuff happening), so I did a google search for transgender news. The first thing that popped up in my feed was various versions of this story. Short version is this: a school county in Virginia went to the Supreme Court to try and overthrow a court ruling that they have to allow transgender students into the restroom of the gender they identify as. The court’s response was basically “we’re not in session, but sure, do what you want until you can bring it before us when we are in session.” It was a 5-3 agreement that the county did not need to follow the ruling of the 4th circuit court of appeals.

So once again, I’m left simply going “really?” We’ve been dealing with the bathroom bills issue for years, but it’s been getting worse and worse, and this is just the newest string of things to worry about. While this isn’t an official stance on the issue, as one Justice who would normally oppose bathroom bills did say he wanted to have this come up in full session, the reasoning behind his siding with the conservatives, it is not a good sign. I really wanted to do something nice and lighthearted today as I still have to go to work, but I’ve got nothing. This is the world we live in. I just hope things go better when this does reach the court when they’re next in session, as even a 4-4 deadlock will support the lower court’s ruling. Until next time.

How an Obscure 90s Anime is Still One of the Most Progressive Shows Around

This post is coming a bit later than I’d hoped, but I am making a post this week as promised. I will get back to my once a week schedule, and hopefully, eventually back to twice a week. Now, I know there’s been a lot going on in the news, most of it having to do with the elections, but I neither feel like discussing that, nor do I feel like most of you want to hear more about it. It’s scary. So instead, I decided I would discuss a more lighthearted issue today: 90s anime. Now, by American standards, I’m probably not considered otaku anymore, though by Japanese standards, I might be, but not for anime. That said, I do love me some good anime, and I actually learned a lot of Japanese from watching anime when I was younger. In the rare hours between working, sleeping, and school (got an A in one course confirmed already, and the other is likely to also be an A, just waiting on the final to be graded), I’ve been rewatching a series I loved as a kid back in the 90s: Yu Yu Hakusho.

Medical Drama

Those who follow the Facebook page for my blog likely saw me make a post yesterday regarding the shooting and denial of medical care of a trans activist in Pakistan recently. Along with that link, I mentioned that I’ve been dealing with a lot of medical drama the past month or so, which I will discuss somewhat today. While I will be explaining why I’ve not made a post in close to a month, I’ll also go into how this is an issue for the community at large as well as some basic educational stuff. Now that the basic “introduction paragraph” that all your professors harp on you about is out of the way, let’s get on with the details!

Diversity in Heroes

Sorry for the late post, but I couldn’t sleep last night and ended up sleeping most of the afternoon and evening instead.

Hero stories, whether powered superheroes or just unpowered vigilantes, have always been a great medium for discussing diversity issues. Sometimes, this is very anvilicious, such as with the X-Men as a whole being a metaphor for various civil rights movements since their inception. Other times, it’s less so, such as Captain America or Superman sticking up for everyone, no matter who they are (though sometimes even those can get anvilicious). That’s one of the joys of these stories, they’re always able to promote actual human rights discussions without being blatantly about that topic.

Heterosexual Fallout

Okay folks, today, I’m going to tackle a touchy subject. You’ve probably guessed from the title of this post that I’m going to talk about the whole forced heterosexuality at the start of Fallout 4. Thing is, that’s only going to be part of it. What I’m actually going to address is the fallout (pun intended) that has come about because of discussions over it. See, here’s the thing, it’s reached such epic levels, that even discussing it now has become a reason for someone to be attacked.

TDoR 2015

Hey folks. As many of you already know, today is the annual transgender day of remembrance in which we honor those who have fallen in the past year. I won’t say much on the subject, because I’ve already said it all. I wish this day didn’t have to exist, I look forward to the year when there are no names, etc. etc.

What I do want to discuss is something of a related note. As I mentioned, I’ve been watching a lot of Arrow and Flash recently, and at the start of season 3 of Arrow, during either the first or second episode, Ollie has a moment where he’s trying to tell Felicity what the five years on the island did to him. It goes something along the lines of “I learned not to trust anymore, and when you can’t trust, you don’t see people. You just see threats. Or targets.”

This stood out to me as it’s an apt description of what PTSD does to you. And while most don’t have the kinds of lived experiences that I have, many trans people have some form of PTSD, simply because in order to survive in this world, we have to think in that sort of way. Any individual COULD be a threat. Especially with the rise of murders brought about by the rise of visibility. To paraphrase from Dr. Van Helsing discussing Dracula in the classic Bela Lugosi film, the trans person’s greatest strength (historically) is that people do not believe in them.

What this means is that in the past, we could walk around and people would write off a guy being shorter, or a woman having large hands, or whatever other subtle physical hints there might be. But now, with trans people everywhere in the media and the news, people are less likely to just gloss over those things, examining harder. Add to this the fact that there’s been an increase in non-binary presentation (such as the individual I’ve seen around campus a number of times who wears either a skirt or a dress while rocking a full beard) and the bigots out there are suddenly more aware that we exist.

This is why the numbers of murders have been increasing dramatically the past few years, and why here in the States alone, we’ve nearly doubled last year’s numbers. Remember that nearly everything is a double edged sword, and the very tools we use for activism can turn around and hurt us as well. Stay safe out there, readers.

Post-Traumatic Life

So, last night, I linked one of my more recent posts to a friend of mine on Steam who plays several of the same games I do. It was my feminist analysis of one of those games, and she decided to read more of what I wrote throughout the blog. We’re both aces, but she remarked that it seems that being trans is far worse than being ace. I remarked that it’s the intersection of those identities, along with all of my other ones (including baggage) that forms who I am. She also remarked that it seemed impossible for anyone to come out of this war without it. I briefly hinted that my PTSD goes further than that, from my childhood, but did not go into specifics. Today, I’m going to go into some specifics so I can make some other things clear. So settle in folks, because this is not gonna be a happy one today.

Far From Over

Those who follow the news have likely seen a number of events lately involving trans issues that seem to have gone in the favor of trans rights. I mentioned last week that the military here in the states is looking to repeal the ban on trans service members. Earlier this week, Brianna Wu wrote a piece about how Samus is most likely trans (which made me so very, very happy). A few weeks ago, when yet another trans woman was murdered, news outlets never once referred to her using her birth name or said “was born a man” or any other form of their typical misgendering. Sadly, those are all just one side of the issue.

Black is Always the New Black

Hey all, sorry I missed last week’s post. Orange is the New Black season 3 came out on Friday, and I’ve spent the last week marathoning through it as best I can to write about it today. There will be spoilers, obviously, so if you haven’t finished it, go do that and then come back. However, before I get to season 3, I wanted to address Orange is the New Black isn’t accurate little article that came through my feed earlier this week. For those who haven’t read it, it’s basically a list of four ways in which OitNB misrepresents women’s prisons in this country. Well, some of these criticisms are accurate, but some are based on information we simply don’t know. So let’s address those before addressing stuff from the new season.