Cartoon: Leave Caster Semenya Alone!

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Seriously, screw gender testing, and screw those IAAF jerks telling this world champion runner she's not a real woman. The only reason she was tested was because she didn't match some visual standard of European femininity. I'm not sure how much to trust the media on any of this, but I read reports today that she is "shattered" by the humiliation of the gender testing and possibly on suicide watch.

More reading and background on this:

• "An Intersex Perspective on Caster Semenya"
  
• Feministe: "Caster Semenya Case Opening Old Wounds"
  
• Feministe: Essentialism, gender and Caster Semenya
  
• The Root: "Caster Semenya's Race and Sex Struggle
  
• Feministing: South African Runner's Makeover
  

(Thanks to the Transadvocate feed for many of these links).

"Free speech" doesn't equal "free from criticism and consequence"

Great post by Barry (which he calls "horribly earnest") about the bigoted radio DJs who called for violence against transgender kids.

My only small quibble is that I don't see why we have to support the pencil manufacturer if we don't like his/her views (why couldn't we buy pencils from someone we like better?) See my cartoon "Victims of Gay Rage" for more on this.

Angie Zapata's killer found guilty

Justice won't bring her back, but it's better than nothing. Thanks to reader Brenda Ann for the link.

P.S. Much more coverage from Autumn Sandeen of Pam's House Blend.

Toon: The Friend of My Friend is... (On Transphobia)

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This cartoon has been brewing in my head for a while--it really depresses/irks me that in 2009, there are still numerous people in feminist and queer circles who actually think it is acceptable--even REASONABLE or RIGHTEOUS or FEMINIST--to be transphobic or to "debate" the inclusion of transgender and other gender non-conforming folks in LGBT and women's spaces.

Equality is SO not up for debate, sorry! It's one thing if someone genuinely is a bit confused on proper respectful gender terminology or genuinely doesn't know much about gender identity or transgender issues--it's another if someone has had ample opportunity over a long period of time to ditch their bigotry and emphatically chooses not to.

Anyway, the actual final cartoon came together after a fantastic panel at the WAM 2009 conference, "In/Out of Focus: Gender, Non-conformity and the Media," featuring Jack (Angry Brown Butch), Julia Serano (Whipping Girl), Miriam (Feministing) and Kate Bovitch. I asked the panelists what their opinion was on non-transphobic feminists/activists who continued to be close with transphobic feminists/activists, etc.

Julia Serano's take (and I apologize if I misquote, since this is based on scribbled notes) was that while some people are willing to listen, at this point it's clear that some people just aren't--which is just ridiculous in this day and age. "In 2009 there are very few feminists and LGB folks who haven't been exposed to trans people." Still, "a lot of times there's a lack of calling out. They want to give feminist friends the benefit of the doubt."

But "there needs to a shift from 10 years ago. People should know better."

Jack commented that this has all happened before, and gave the history of the exclusion of queer women from the feminist movement as an example.

And then my handwriting degenerated into illegible scribbles. Still, you get the idea. I'm reading Whipping Girl now and it's fantastic.

_ is not the new black and other thoughts from Holly at Feministe

My carpal tunnel problems keep my blogosphere browsing time to a minimum, but I wanted to highlight two recentish posts by Holly over at Feministe: What's in a Name?" (regarding some good news for transgender folks seeking name changes in New York State) and Really? The last? Really? (about the Advocate's awful "Gay is the New Black" cover).

By the way, the good news about name changes is due to the hard work of the excellent Sylvia Rivera Law Project, in case you're looking for worthy causes for year-end donations.

Belated Transgender Day of Remembrance Post

The annual Transgender Day of Remembrance was November 20, but rather than just apologize for my belatedness, I think it's fair to say that we should remember those murdered in hatred and bigotry every damn day. Here's last year's cartoon:

Toon: A Few Reasons Why (We Need a Transgender Rights Bill)

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We need it NOW. Or yesterday, preferably.

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2007

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2007 Cartoon

November 20 is an annual day for remembering those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. See http://www.gender.org/remember for more information.

Toon: Barney Frank and the Slippery Split-ENDA Slope

Barney Frank and the Slippery Split-ENDA Slope

Regarding Rep. Barney Frank's divisive and disgusting decision to kick transgender people out of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Spotlight on Astrid Lydia Johannsen: Perfectionist Cartoonist Claims I Inspired Her to Start Graphic Novel

Panels from an episode of "Absolutely True Tales of Lesbian" Drama in which Aziza tries to defend Astrid from a transphobic woman... click to see full comic on Lydia's site.

Do I ever have the warm fuzzies! I first discovered the cartoons of Astrid Lydia Johannsen back in 2003, when she was drawing AstroGirlX2, a comic about her coffee-drinking transsexual lipstick lesbian drag king cartoon alter-ego, Astrid. I was sad when she took a hiatus from drawing (apparently she was busy studying Unix and religion in Oregon) and much cheered when she began posting her current strip, "Absolutely True Tales of Lesbian Drama."

Lydia is an amazingly talented illustrator and cartoonist whose lush color vector drawings inspire fits of jealous rage. But she has a problem common to many artists: insane perfectionism. I was getting really sick of her posting beautiful drawings and then commenting that they looked like crap, so I electronically browbeat her into entering Lambda Legal's Life Without Fair Courts Contest--in which she was named one of five finalists!

Well, now Lydia says being a finalist has given her a boot in the ass to start her graphic novel! But she says she's still worried about perfectionism, to which I say, hogwash! Go show Lydia some love by leaving nice comments in her blog. Tell her perfectionism is silly--you just have to draw your cartoons, and not worry if they're perfect, cause you can always draw another cartoon tomorrow.

Three new toons: Trans workplace discrimination, NYPD spies & predatory credit-card lenders

My goodness, I don't know what I was thinking but I did three this week (four if you count one for Lambda Legal that will be up soon)! Yikes! Here we go:

This cartoon was inspired by the recent re-firing of longtime Largo, Florida City Manager Steve Stanton after Stanton announced he planned to transition to life as a woman and change his name to Susan. (I only say "he" because Stanton is, as I understand it, still using that pronoun for now.) I say "re-firing" because the Largo City Commission held a hearing after its initial discriminatory decision to fire Stanton, and made the same bad decision again despite testimony in his favor.

Stanton's firing is far from unusual, so I decided to make the cartoon about anti-transgender workplace discrimination in general, rather than focus on that case. I'm not sure how many people realize that in most places in this country, employers are legally permitted to fire transgender and gay employees on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation. We need a national ENDA (employment non-discrimination act) and now!

I haven't seen the new documentary "Maxed Out" yet, but I did just read a terrifying must-read investigative series in the Boston Globe, "Debtor's Hell: Preying on Red-Ink America", that takes a close look at unscrupulous debt collection practices.

Finally, it came out in the New York Times last week that the NYPD spent tons of time and money placing spies in non-violent peace groups around the country before the 2004 RNC. The cartoon was inspired by this bit:

Marco Ceglie, who performs as Monet Oliver dePlace in Billionaires for Bush, said he had suspected that the group was under surveillance by federal agents — not necessarily police officers — during weekly meetings in a downtown loft and at events around the country in the summer of 2004.

“It was a running joke that some of the new faces were 25- to 32-year-old males asking, ‘First name, last name?’ ” Mr. Ceglie said. “Some people didn’t care; it bothered me and a couple of other leaders, but we didn’t want to make a big stink because we didn’t want to look paranoid. We applied to the F.B.I. under the Freedom of Information Act to see if there’s a file, but the answer came back that ‘we cannot confirm or deny.’ ”

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Stand up against workplace discrimination!

In case you're wondering, my next cartoon is going to be about employment discrimination against trans people, with particular regard to two major recent discriminatory firings. In Largo, Florida, long-time city manager Steve (now Susan, I believe) Stanton was fired less than a week after coming out as trans. In Spring Arbor, Michigan a university dean's contract was terminated when she legally changed her name from John to Julie. Pam's House Blend has a thorough roundup of details on the Largo, Florida case.

I touched on this issue in a recent Lambda Legal cartoon as well. We need a national employment non-discrimination act for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people, and we need it YESTERDAY. It may be 2007, but millions of Americans can still be fired without recourse for being gay or trans, and it happens every day in much less high-profile cases.

Update: Yet more on the case from the Blend.