some years ago, i went to see a movie in nyc with some dear friends. it was called 'junior', and it starred the governator as a pregnant man. i did not enjoy the film. it so happened that at that time i was writing my senior sermon, and it was all about infertility. the movie made me cry. anyway ... some fancy newspapers have now picked up the story first broken in the advocate magazine (you may read it here) about thomas beatie and his wife nancy who live in bend, oregon. i read it today in the indy - 'we just want to be a family,' says oregon's pregnant man. Thomas is a ftm transexual who kept his reproductive organs. When his partner was unable to have children, having had a hysterectomy, thomas stopped taking his testosterone until he began to menstruate, and with fertility treatments became pregnant.
is there anything wrong with this? religious groups and so-called family values groups are going mental about it. the situation is certainly a mind-bender. it doesn't particularly bother me. the question that i have is, particularly since a previous attempt by thomas resulted in an ectopic pregnancy that nearly killed him, why go to such lengths to be a birth parent when there are so so many children in the world available for adoption? families are great. families need children. and children need families. it is a great story, guaranteed to make world-wide news and poke with a stick myriad pressure groups. meanwhile, myriad children sit and wait for someone to take them home and give them the family life for which they yearn. that is what upsets me about this story.
Showing posts with label transgender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transgender. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Transgender MP in toilet fracas
just read this on the bbc news site:
"An Italian opposition MP and former showgirl has expressed outrage after meeting a transgender colleague in the parliament's ladies' toilets. Elisabetta Gardini, spokeswoman for former PM Silvio Berlusconi's party, said she felt ill after the encounter during a break in Friday's session. The incident led to heated debate about which toilet the transgender MP, known as Vladimir Luxuria, could use. Ms Luxuria says she has been using ladies' toilets for years. Using the men's would have created even bigger problems, she said. The matter has now been passed to parliamentary procedural officials to resolve.
'Sexual violence'
Ms Gardini said she had been horrified to find Ms Luxuria in the toilets. "It never entered my mind that I'd find him in there", she said. "It felt like sexual violence - I really felt ill." Centre-right MPs backed her call for the creation of a third "transgender" toilet, Reuters news agency said. But ruling coalition deputies accused Ms Gardini of discrimination tantamount to racism. Ms Luxuria said she had not expected such aggression in the parliament.
Born Wladimiro Guadagno, Ms Luxuria wears women's clothes but has not had sex-change surgery. A 40-year-old former drag queen and prominent gay rights activist, she was elected MP for the Communist Refoundation, a member of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition, in April."
one of my sisters, if she ruled the world, the first thing she would do would be to give each human being their own toilet.
having grown up in bottom-obsessed britain, and lived many years in a hypoallergenic america; my objection to sharing toilets has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with some kind of fear of being contaminated by, well ... i'm not really sure but it has something to do with the smells and unsavoury nature of bodily waste products. enough already!
so why did this catch my eye? i think because, while i think the complainer is totally over the top, i also had to acknowledge that my path to thinking that had to go through my own initial reaction of yuck a guy in the bathroom. this was followed by but wait a minute this is not a guy it is a woman, and then it was ok. i was just interested that i had that yuck reaction in me. i hope and trust i would not act on it. however, knowing that it is in me too (even if i choose not to act upon it), may help me to be a bit less judgemental.
"An Italian opposition MP and former showgirl has expressed outrage after meeting a transgender colleague in the parliament's ladies' toilets. Elisabetta Gardini, spokeswoman for former PM Silvio Berlusconi's party, said she felt ill after the encounter during a break in Friday's session. The incident led to heated debate about which toilet the transgender MP, known as Vladimir Luxuria, could use. Ms Luxuria says she has been using ladies' toilets for years. Using the men's would have created even bigger problems, she said. The matter has now been passed to parliamentary procedural officials to resolve.
'Sexual violence'
Ms Gardini said she had been horrified to find Ms Luxuria in the toilets. "It never entered my mind that I'd find him in there", she said. "It felt like sexual violence - I really felt ill." Centre-right MPs backed her call for the creation of a third "transgender" toilet, Reuters news agency said. But ruling coalition deputies accused Ms Gardini of discrimination tantamount to racism. Ms Luxuria said she had not expected such aggression in the parliament.
Born Wladimiro Guadagno, Ms Luxuria wears women's clothes but has not had sex-change surgery. A 40-year-old former drag queen and prominent gay rights activist, she was elected MP for the Communist Refoundation, a member of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition, in April."
one of my sisters, if she ruled the world, the first thing she would do would be to give each human being their own toilet.
having grown up in bottom-obsessed britain, and lived many years in a hypoallergenic america; my objection to sharing toilets has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with some kind of fear of being contaminated by, well ... i'm not really sure but it has something to do with the smells and unsavoury nature of bodily waste products. enough already!
so why did this catch my eye? i think because, while i think the complainer is totally over the top, i also had to acknowledge that my path to thinking that had to go through my own initial reaction of yuck a guy in the bathroom. this was followed by but wait a minute this is not a guy it is a woman, and then it was ok. i was just interested that i had that yuck reaction in me. i hope and trust i would not act on it. however, knowing that it is in me too (even if i choose not to act upon it), may help me to be a bit less judgemental.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)