Quickies: Hate Crimes, PrEP, and the Facebook Real Names Saga Continues
By - The Push to Include Orientation in PA Hate Crimes – Following the Sept 11th attack on two gay men in Philadelphia, activists and politicians are working to get sexual orientation to the identities covered by PA hate crimes legislation. Suspects in the attack have been identified through video social media as alumni of Archbishop Wood High School. So far, no arrests have been made.
- Cis Man’s “Maternity” Photos Go Viral – On the urging of his pregnant wife, this man took her place in the obligatory maternity shoot. The popularity of the photos speaks to the broad appeal of drag, and that it doesn’t take wigs, makeup, or heels to do drag. Note: linked video will autoplay.
- Activists Push for Free PrEP in San Francisco – “The day after San Francisco supervisor Scott Wiener came ‘out of the PrEP closet’ on The Huffington Post as a user of the revolutionary HIV-prevention drug, activists gathered outside of San Francisco City Hall to rally in support of an initiative to make it more available for everyone in the city, regardless of income.”
- Facebook Continues its Dangerous and Discriminatory Push for Real Names – Facebook has met with prominent drag queens targeted by the real names policy enforcement, but so far they are sticking by their policy. Forcing people to use their real names on online profiles isn’t just an inconvenience to celebrities or performers. Especially hard hit by this policy are transgender people who’s legal names often do not reflect their true genders, and stocking and abuse victims who wish to hide from their attackers.
- Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Historic Photos – Keystone Gallery in Los Angeles will be exhibiting three decades of photos form the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an order of drag clown nuns who do charity work in major cities around the world. You can check out some of their photos in the link. Full disclosure: I used to volunteer with the Sisters.
Featured image: “Sisters,” Mark Harvey via The Advocate
Chelsea Manning’s attempts to get appropriate medical treatment continue:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/chelsea-manning-sues-military-gender-dysphoria-treatment
Could someone look at that story and tell me what they think of the coverage in terms of language? There are a couple of points where I felt like they fell down, but mostly it was pretty good, but I’m trying to learn, and would appreciate any help.
Thanks, and hugs to Jac for another interesting quickies post!
I can’t speak for all trans people, but I’ll give my opinion of their language. They got the name and pronouns right, but describing gender dysphoria as “the innate sense of being female even though her sex at birth was male” isn’t good. They could say she was born with male-typical physiology or that she was assigned male at birth. Otherwise, most of it was pretty decent. It’s outrageous that they’re still withholding life-saving medical treatment from Manning. I hope this lawsuit finally prompts them into action.They need to transfer her to a woman’s prison at any rate. It’s not like she’s a violent criminal at high risk of escaping.
Yes, this is total nonsense. Facebook (like any other online service) doesn’t have a right to any of your personal information that you aren’t willing to share, including your name. Furthermore it’s grossly insulting and generally harmful to tell people what they can or can’t call themselves.
I’ll probably have my account dumped one day because I use a false name, but I can live with that. It wouldn’t really be that hard for me to reconnect with all the people I want on a new account (I’m going with John Smith or somesuch if I need to create a new account).