Quickies: Blood Donation, Gizzy Fowle, OKCupid
By - The US to Consider Allowing Queer Men to Donate Blood – Men who have sex with men are currently banned from donating blood in several countries including the US. The Obama Administration will be holding hearings starting Thursday to consider easing or lifting the ban.
- Obama Appoints New LGBT Liaison – “Indian-American Aditi Hardikar – who helped run voter outreach and finance for Obama’s presidential campaign in 2012 – will take up a liaison role for LGBT, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander communities.”
- Men’s College Basketball Has First Openly Gay Player – Derrick Gordon became the first openly gay man to play in a Division I game during Friday’s U Mass Vs Siena game. (I don’t follow sports, but a quick search shows that women’s college basketball has had open lesbian players for at least a year.)
- Nashville Trans Woman of Color Murdered – 24-year-old Gizzy Fowler was the tenth trans woman of color to be murdered in the USA this year. Police are investigating November 12th murder and ask that anyone with information to call the hotline listed in the link.
- Rachel Maddow on Late Lawmaker’s Secret Same-Sex Marriage – Maddow profiles IL Senator Penny Severns, who died in her 40s of breast cancer, and interviews Terry Mutchler, former partner of Sen Severns who wrote a book about their secret relationship.
- OKCupid Introducing New Sexuality and Gender Options – A subset of users are now able to chose from twelve different sexualities, including “asexual” and “homoflexible,” and 22 different genders. Users will be able to select up to five of each.
Update 12:30pm:
- American Atheists PR Director Comes Out as Transgender – In a guest post on the Friendly Atheist, Danielle Muscato said, “For all practical purposes, very little will change as far as my work. The only real difference for now is that, going forward, I prefer to be called Danielle instead of Dave, and I prefer the use of feminine personal pronouns (she/her rather than he/him). I have the full support of my bosses, American Atheists President David Silverman and Managing Director Amanda Knief, as well as my other co-workers.” You have our full support too, Danielle!
Featured Image: Gizzy Fowler
Re: Nashville Trans Woman of Color Murdered
In our local TG group, when discussing our TDOR ceremony, it came up that when a transgender person is killed, all you ever hear about is how they were murdered. For TDOR, we thought it would be nice, rather than telling about their deaths, we might say something about who they were when they were alive, but Google has not been helpful with the names I have tried.
Does anyone have any suggestions for finding out more about what the victims were like in life?
BTW, the linked article says 10th trans woman of color this year; the count of all trans women murdered is probably higher.
Thanks for pointing out that oversight. I fixed it in the OP. I’m with you: it would be nice if we spend more time on the lives of the victims rather than just focusing on their deaths. Unfortunately, I don’t have any special insights as to how to find this information. The factors that put trans WoC are at higher risk of violence also make it less likely that they will have been survived by loved ones who accepted them and could eulogize them appropriately. That is one of the reasons TDoR is so important, to ensure that these people are acknowledged and mourned for who they were.
Jac,
The shear fact that perfectly healthy gay men still are forbidden to donate blood simply because they’re gay, is one of the most shameful things about America today. I hope they do change that soon.
Yeah, I hope their decision will be based in science rather than irrational fears.
Jac: I’m having trouble with the Rachel Maddow link. Could you check it please?
Also: not only has women’s basketball had out players for quite a while, but the WNBA has too. I think it might have something to do with the fact that playing sports is already subverting gender norms, and playing basketball as a woman brings with it an additional expectation, so that the further subversion of heteronormativity isn’t as big a deal as it is for a man in a similar position. Regardless, women’s sports are way ahead of men’s in terms of being welcoming places.
OK, the Maddow link should be fixed. Regarding basketball, there are a number of issues at play. There’s probably less pressure on staying in the closet in women’s basketball because the players are already stereotyped as queer, there is probably a higher percentage of queer players, and there’s less revenue involved. But like I said, I don’t follow sports, so these are just uneducated guesses. I didn’t want to give men’s basketball the “first queer player” title when women have beat them to it. At the same time, I do want to recognized the significance that men’s Division I finally has an out player. This is good progress for them. Hopefully, people who follow sports will say more about this.