The International Foundation for Gender Education

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



With great sadness, I must relate to you the death of Helen Garfinkle on November 7th after a long illness. Helen was a tireless worker bee and longtime organizer of the Washington DC Transgender Community. She was best known as the President and Vice-President of the Washington-Baltimore Alliance, the oldest continuous transgender support group in the area. She was a volunteer for many, many national transgender conferences, including Fantasia Fair, Southern Comfort, the IFGE and True Spirit Conferences. She also was a staunch member of It?s Time, Maryland!, lobbying openly as a crossdresser from 1995 to 1998 for four different pro-transgender bills introduced in the Maryland General Assembly.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



A Word from Les



My warmest thanks to all the staff for the tremendous work you do putting out Transgender Tapestry.
I appreciate the opportunity toclarify something I read in issue #97. I am quoted on the issue of ?passing.? But in my quote, I clearly specify that I amtalking about the plight of transgender individuals?gender variants forced to live as ?outlaws? by passing as a sex that does not feel like home in orderto survive.



I would never use the term ?passing? to describe the life of a transsexual woman or man who is home.

Leslie F

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



Making a Transition: A Guided Journey



? Have the participants get comfortable and close their eyes.

? After they have gotten settled, read them the following:



Your imagination is the key instrument in this exercise. We will be taking a journey through your mind?s eye of what life might be like if you were transsexual. You may experience a variety of feelings as you take this tour, but try not to let your feelings distract you from participating in the exercise. The goal is to help you understand some of the feelings and experiences of someone who is transsexual. The specific experiences I am about to guide you through are not universal for all transsexuals, but the general themes are representative.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



?2003 Center for Gender Sanity

www.gendersanity.com



The ?sex? scale refers to biological sex and includes external genitalia,
internal reproductive structures, chromosomes, hormone levels, and secondary sex characteristics such as breasts, facial and body hair, and fat distribution. These characteristics are objective in that they can be seen and measured (with appropriate technology). The scale consists not just of two categories (male and female) but is actually a continuum, with most people existing somewhere near one end or the other. The space more in the middle is occupied by intersex people (hermaphrodites), who have combinations of characteristics typical of males and those typical of females, such as both a testis and an ovary, or XY chromosomes (the usual male pattern) and a vagina, or they may have features that are not completely male or completely female, such as an organ that could be thought of as a small penis or a large clitoris, or an XXY chromosomal pattern.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



Introduction to the Transgender Education Section of this Special issue of Transgender Tapestry



The transgender community?s educational nonprofits have always had a difficult time finding the money necessary to do education on the scale they would like. A number of reasons have been cited for this: our community is too small to support national organizations; many of us are in the closet; many of us transition and abandon the community; many of us purge and abaondon the community; community members give disproportionately to the jazzier political groups; the internet has changed everything; and, my favorite (just kidding)?transgendered people are basically selfish and would rather buy another pair of shoes or attend another conference than donate to a nonprofit. Whatever the reasons, nonprofits like FTM International, Gender Education & Advocacy, IFGE, and Renaissance are and have been chronically underfunded, and this situation is unlikely to change.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



? Transgendered youth often face enormous hardships when they acknowledge

and express their gender identity.



? They may be thrown out of the house when their family discovers they

are transgendered, often forcing them to live on the streets.



? They typically face harassment and abuse in school to such an extent that they quit,

which makes it hard for them to get a decent-paying job (for example, a survey

of more than 250 transgendered people in Washington, D.C. found forty

percent had not finished high school and another 40 percent were unemployed).

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



by Li Anne W. Taft



The right to define ourselves and live how we choose has been guaranteed by the U.S.constitution for more than 220 years, and is supported by numerous United Nations decrees. Yet in reality, our right to the pursuit of happiness is limited by others who want us to conform to rigid sex stereotypes. Transgendered, transsexual, and intersexed people of the 21st century can achieve happiness only with equal opportunity in the workplace and equal access to government, medical and social services?including marriage licenses.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



Maine Gender Resource and Support Service

Jean Vermette, Director (207) 862-2063

PO BOX 1894, BANGOR, ME 04402-1894

http://personalpages.tds.net/~megress/

megress@tds.net

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.



By Jamie Hunter, Program Director

New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy



NYAGRA has a loose speaker?s bureau of board members, members and allies, but most of its TG 101 trainings are given by staff. I have given nearly two dozen on behalf of the organization. I start with NYAGRA?s basic template and alter it a bit to cater each presentation to the audience. For example, training Positive Health Project staff and Kean University?s Medical Ethics course for postgraduate nurses, the emphasis was much more on health and risk factors. In a Bronx high school, I focused more on understanding the gifts and challenges of differently gendered students and hate crimes in the classroom.