On Wednesday, the EU agreed on a new law which establishes the rights of victims of crime, and makes specific provision for the personal characteristics of victims, including sexual orientation and gender identity and expression and whether the crime is a hate crime.

Currently, Ireland has no hate crime legislation in place.

It would seem logical that, if the State is required to support victims of hate crimes, that those crimes are themselves specified in legislation.

In addition, An Garda Síochána maintain statistics only for offences specified in legislation. In other words, the force does not maintain an official record of crimes motivated by racism, homophobia, or other bias.

In response to enquiries by Gaelick.com, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Equality stated that:

The Minister is committed to the introduction of a Criminal Justice (Victims Rights) Bill to strengthen the rights of victims of crime and their families and to give effect to the EU Directive at the earliest possible opportunity.

Preliminary work on the Bill has already commenced, however it is not possible, at this stage, to give a firm date for publication.

In relation to maintaining crime statistics, the Department states that the CSO takes the lead role in compiling this information as the national statistical agency. The Garda Síochána Act 2005 makes provision for this.

The statement added that the CSO can extract certain data on racially and homophobically motivated offences. On foot of Gaelick’s enquiries, the Department has requested that the CSO prepare some recent figures which will be provided at the earliest opportunity.

Homophobic attack on Svyatoslav Sheremet, Kiev.
Image: © Reuters; via All Out and The Daily Mail

The European Parliament adopted the Directive which establishes a set of measures to strengthen victims’ rights in the European Union, by setting minimum standards.

The Directive acknowledges the existence of specific protection needs of victims of crimes committed with a bias or discriminatory motive related to their personal characteristics.

According to ILGA-Europe, this Directive is the first international piece of legislation referring to gender expression. Its significance is that all trans and gender-variant people will be covered as will be all people who do not present their gender in a stereotyped way.

EU member states have up to 3 years to transpose the Directive into national law.

Image: ILGA-Europe

The key section of the EU law establishes the rights of victims regardless of their identity or expression:

(18) – Individual assessments should take into account the personal characteristics of the victim such as age, gender and gender identity or expression, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, health, disability, residence status, communication difficulties, relationship to or dependence on the offender, previous experience of crime, the type or nature of the crime or the circumstances of the crime such as hate crime, bias crime or crime committed with a discriminatory motive, sexual violence, violence in close relationships, where the offender was in a position of control, the victims residence is in a high crime or gang dominated area, or whether the victim is a foreigner.

The Directive also states:

(5) – Crime is a wrong against society as well as a violation of the individual rights of victims. As such, victims should be recognised and treated in a respectful, sensitive and professional manner without discrimination of any kind based on any ground such as race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, residence status or state of health.

In all contacts with any competent authority operating within the context of criminal proceedings, and any service coming into contact with victims, such as victim support service or restorative justice service victims’ personal situation and immediate needs, age, gender, possible disability and level of maturity should be taken into account while fully respecting their physical, mental and moral integrity. They should be protected from secondary and repeat victimisation and from intimidation, should receive appropriate support to facilitate their recovery and should be provided with sufficient access to justice.

The Directive took on board ILGA-Europe’s call for consideration of the situation of LGBTI victims of bias-motivated crimes and of gender-based violence. The Directive makes clear that these elements shall be taken as factors of an individual assessment of potential protection needs, offered to all victims.

ILGA-Europe will monitor the implementation of the Directive within EU member states. In particular, ILGA-Europe considers that the Directive’s provisions on victims support services, training of practitioners and co-operation of services working with victims must be transposed adequately to ensure that the identification of victims’ specific protection needs is really guaranteed.

Related posts:

1. Stand up to hate speech
2. Online Survey on Hate Speech
3. 16th ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference concluded in Dublin

The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) and the Women’s Studies programme in UCC are hosting a meeting on the Constitutional Convention.

The meeting will look at 3 issues:

1. Women in Politics
2. The Role of Women in the Home
3. Marriage Equality – facilitated by Marriage Equality Board Member, Judy Walsh

Why not go along to learn more about the Convention, what it means for women, and what it means for marriage equality?

What?: A Constitution for all women.
When?: 24th of September. Registration at 10.30, meeting from 11.00- 16.00 (including light lunch)
Where?: The Gresham Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street, Cork.
RSVP: aoifec@nwci.ie

The meeting will hear from legal experts and participants in the Convention. You will also have the chance to make sure your voice is heard!

Related posts:

1. Constitutional Convention “historic” endorsement of equal marriage
2. 1000s of lesbian and gay people await outcome of Constitutional Convention
3. Youth of Ireland Call for Marriage Equality

Stone Butch Blues (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Being at a loose end for a good read, I started asking friends what would be on their “essential reading” list. The same title kept coming up over and over again, “Stone Butch Blues”  by Leslie Feinberg. My confession that I hadn’t yet read it caused my dear roommate to actually sprint from the room to retrieve her well-loved copy from her bookshelf, placing it solemnly into my hands as if handing me a rite of passage.

I think everyone knows the feeling of being lost between the pages of an amazing book, but I laughed to break up the seriousness of the moment. After all, when do you expect to be simply handed something that will change your life so profoundly? I embarked on this journey with the scarcest of details about what the story contained, and I can honestly say that, for me,  I don’t think any novel will quite measure up to the emotional rollercoaster contained within these pages.

This fictional account from Feinberg takes inspiration from zer life. The story is an unflinching portrayal of the life of Jess Goldberg, intertwining stories from colleagues, friends, and lovers; men, women, he-shes, butches and femmes alike. Jess “comes out as a young butch lesbian in the pre-stonewall gay drag bars of a blue-collar town” in the 1950s, with their life story laced around profound historical moments, such as the Stonewall riots, the rise of unions, and feminist liberation.

There is an element of aching loneliness in the characters struggling with the complexities of a transgender existence, their gender expression, identity and sexuality; an experience that anyone who has ever felt ostracised or different will resonate with. It is ultimately a wrenching story of survival, giving context to the oppression and alienation felt by those in our community, and those suffering from the criminality of homophobia.

From page one you are welcomed into the brutal reality of Jess’ life, as it opens with a letter full of the raw honesty and familiarity you expect when writing to a lover. The seat-belts are securely fastened, the barrier down, and the rollercoaster has started along the tracks. From that moment you’re caught, locked into this journey however it unfolds.

Many tears were spilled on this journey, and more than once, I was brought to uncontrollably sobbing, forced to put the book down so as not to drench the pages. Set around the time of the stonewall riots, I emoted with those who lived during this integral part of our history. However you just need to look at the news to realise that for far too many people, this is still their present; they’re fighting it every day. To quote a line from the novel, “Imagine a world worth living in, a world worth fighting for”.

Sometimes you need to look at the achievements of those before us to find the passion to keep fighting for what we all deserve. This novel re-awakened that spark in me.

For me, Stone Butch Blues is not just essential reading, but essential to own and have on your bookshelf. There has never been a better time to buy as spring 2013 heralds the release of a special 20^th anniversary edition, with the dedication and proceeds going to the CeCe McDonald campaign. I won’t share any more details; instead I urge you to read and feel that spark ignite in yourself.

Trigger Warning: This story is rife with abuse and homophobia/transphobia.

Related articles

• Leslie Feinberg Arrested in Solidarity with CeCe McDonald (queerd.com)

Related posts:

1. Emigration Blues
2. Review: My Animals & Other Family
3. Review: A Kick Against The Pricks

From Paula of Random Ramblings and Musings, who took a look at our latest poll and had a thing or two to say about it! Her article, which is reproduced with her kind permission, was originally posted here.

I spotted this poll on gaelick during the week and the question intrigued me so I cast my vote and made a note to check back at the end of the day and see what the results looked liked.

I was surprised to see that 48% (the figure has since changed slightly) of those who responded had gone for the ‘don’t be ridiculous, of course’ option.

I tweeted the link, just to see what others thought of it, and replies ranged from men obviously did the voting to they’re just being greedy and wondering whether a gay man could enjoy sex with a woman.

Here’s the thing though, I was one of those who ticked the ‘don’t be ridiculous, of course’ box and my surprise had been at the fact that I wasn’t the only one.

Controversial I know and I’ll probably get some stick for it especially in light of recent posts that I’ve written. But bear with me on this one because I DO think it’s possible for a woman to enjoy sex with a man and still be a lesbian.

Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about dating men or gentle love making where you whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ears. If that’s the kinda thing you’re into then you are, most definitely, bisexual as far as I’m concerned.

I’m talking, solely, about when the desire is so strong that there’s nothing else to be done but rip each other’s close off and fuck, like there’s no tomorrow, right there on the kitchen table. You had a need, that need was fulfilled it seems pretty clear to me that enjoyment would be had.

You can’t help who you are attracted to and if the feeling is mutual then I say work away, have at it and share your kinky side or whatever it is you’re into. You’re both consenting adults after all!

I am under no circumstances saying that women are wired to automatically enjoy sex with men or that this applies to all lesbians. But depending on the lesbian, the man and the situation I can see how it could happen.

On the flip side I also think it’s possible for a woman to enjoy sex with another woman and still be straight. Actually I know this one is true rather than just thinking it!

I’ve been in that situation and yes a great night was had by us both but the following morning we went our separate ways. It was just sex, the fulfilment of a need, and then we both moved on. And no she hasn’t since come out of the closet (I know some of you are thinking it!).

Sex is sex, if the mood calls for you to be shown a good time, by whoever, and fucked senseless while talking dirty and wearing nothing but a pair of killer heels then who am I to judge.

Where things cross the line, for me at least, is if it goes deeper than purely acting on that physical attraction. If it’s more than just a good seeing to you’re after and particularly if you find yourself becoming attached to the other person in more emotional ways and/or you wish to turn it into something more relationship-like, then I do think you’re bisexual.

Equally I would say the same if you found yourself wanting to jump the bones of more than one man.

In both these circumstances it has become more than just the scratching of an itch, so to speak, and that’s something entirely different as far as I’m concerned.

Sex is sex! Relationships are relationships! Love is love! If you want all three of these with a member of the opposite sex, when you’d previously only wanted them with the same sex, then yes…I would say you are bisexual. If, however, it’s just a once off fuck fest that you’re looking for then I think it’s entirely possible for a lesbian to enjoy sex with man!

Related posts:

1. 23rd September: “Celebrate Bisexuality Day”
2. Julie Bindel

• Gaelick’s stalwart, tabula rasa, and newbie, Sinéad, put their heads together to ponder the language we use to self-describe. Here are the results!

“Queer” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

To people like my grandmother, it means odd or strange, and she’ll often tell me that there’s a “Quare change in the weather”. To others it’s just seen as a pejorative term, which has been used to abuse them. To an ever-growing number of people, however, it’s the way they express their identity, and is the umbrella term which can be used to cover a whole host of different sexualities and gender expressions.

The best definition for “queer” as we will use it here actually comes from Wikipedia, which is:

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT communities as being oppressive or assimilationist.

I’ll be the first to admit that up until very recently, I shied away from using the word “queer”. To me, it was what was shouted across the street while people were hurling abuse at me, it was what LGBT people were called when they were being beaten up. In short, it was always negative.

But the more I thought about it, the more important the term became. As we all know, gender isn’t a binary. There isn’t just male and female, there is both and everything in between (and outside of) these binaries. People who represent the larger spectrum of human sexuality and gender expression may not fit into the sometimes “rigidly” defined terms of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. And there needs to be a term for people to use, to identify with, and to unite under.

Sinéad had a different experience from me regarding the Q:

For me, being queer is pretty much the most defining characteristic I have, but because of that, it is also the least noticeable. I pretty much live my life as a political statement, and that kind of behaviour is normalised very quickly.

I never associated the word with anything negative as a child, but I think that has less to do with society and more to do with how many Enid Blyton books I used to read. When I grew up and exploded out of the closet, I did so as a lesbian, but it was apparent that that was not strictly true from day one. It took me until very recently to identify as the Q that I clearly am, but that I didn’t have the vocabulary to express previously.

Saying that, I also think that identifying as Q is something we grow into. I don’t mean that identifying as LGBT is a transitory stage; I mean that, for me at least, it was an identity I could latch on to.

“LGBT” was a thing I could relate to; that accepted me; that I fit into. It provided for me the space to grow into who I am, who I always was but didn’t know it. That space is essential. Adding Q to the acronym is also essential. The idea of identifying as “other”- what an idea that would have been to a teenaged me!

And I don’t think I’m the only one. Sexuality and gender are things that develop as we grow, one way or the other or both, I think, just like everything else about us, they change as we age. Nobody dies the same person they were when they were born. And Q is a nice, simple way of expressing that idea.

For me, queer means, “Let’s just go with this, see what happens. It’s OK.” It gives me the freedom to experiment with who I am, and I love that freedom. I love being Q.

We asked our friends on Facebook yesterday to message us if they felt more comfortable self-identifying under the Q as opposed to other letters of the LGBT acronym. The response was huge. And I have to say, I learned a lot.

Many people have their own definitions for their sexuality, which ranged from pansexual to “Futagirl” (which they went on to explain as a “Feminine external expression of an internally andogenous nature”) and everything in between.

I asked a couple of people to to expand on what they meant when they said “pansexual” and both answers were pretty much identical:

Well pan is when there’s no gender consideration. Unlike bi, which is both male and female, being pansexual means that a person doesn’t have to have a definite gender to be attractive because it’s not part of the thinking process.

I then asked one of these pansexual identified people why they felt that the Q best applied to them rather than anything else, and was told:

I think it’s because “bi” feels a bit limiting […] I mean, I fall for people and although in practice I do tend towards women, in reality their gender isn’t really an issue for me. So male/female/neither/both/whatever, as long as they’re comfortable with their identity, it’s not an issue for me, so queer feels a bit more accurate.

People have many different reasons for using Q to identify themselves. For some people, it is political:

Queer for me is a political label. It tells people that I am interested in the issues of our whole community and not just (for example) in trans issues. Also, as somebody who lived as a lesbian for 10 years, is very camp, and have also been living as transgender and then transexual for the last 5 years, I don’t feel as though one label accurately reflects the total of my experience withint he community.

I also feel that if you say “queer” it tends to invite more questions about your personal journey and experience than a label like trans or lesbian as people hear that and make their own narratives and assumptions.”

For others, the Q is about not having to fit into any defined ‘boxes’:

I identify as queer because it feels very free to me. “Lesbian” always seemed not quite right as a label for me, I never felt like I fit in that mold. I like the radical nature of “queer”, and the almost aggressive nature of it. For me identifying as Q means I don’t have to fit any stereotype or gender role, which is awesome!”

Indeed, not having to fit into any particular mould is the reason most people I spoke to prefer to use the Q. Ariel Silvera told me that:

When I first came out, I used the word “queer” more often to refer to myself. I was basing that usage on understandings I gained from a lot of reading on trans and queer issues and experiences, as well as from my experiences travelling to queer communities in the UK and Germany.

She went on to say:

I did then, and still do now, see “queer” as a place of possibility and a place of flexibility. A place where my sexuality and my gender can be articulated in myriad ways, without being limited to a particular identity.

In other words, it feels like it is something which, growing from LGBT, has the potential of limitless genders and sexualities.

Others all responded in a similar vein:

In some situations it’s better than “gay” or “lesbian”, in other situations it’s easier just to say “I’m gay” and no one looks at you funny. I like queer for it’s lack of specificity: It tells you I fall outside the hetronormative without giving very personal details. (If you say “lesbian” sooo many guys in my age group instantly think “porn”.)

I like that “queer” says I have something in common with people who are trans, poly, gay, bi, anything-a-bit-less-usual because I think it’s important that there is an element of togetherness in LGBTQ, and the Q gives an umbrella we can all stand under even if we don’t have lots of the specifics in common we can still stick up for one another.

I find myself attracted to people’s personalities, who they are, rather than their gender.

I find women, men, trans men, trans women, drag queens, drag kings and all kinds of genders attractive. If I describe myself as “bi”, people - straight and gay – seem to be really keen to push me one way or another. If I had a euro for every time I’m asked, “Which do you prefer, men or women?” I’d be rich.

Being queer for me is about being attracted to anyone of any gender if I feel a chemistry with them. I’m really happy to be queer. I’d  be sad to not be able to feel attraction for someone because of their gender. Not being attracted to someone because they were perceived as female would for me be as arbitrary as not being attracted to someone because their name started with a vowel.

The appeal of the term queer is it’s versatility. It can be molded to suit the sexuality of the individual, and as a result has none of the difficult connotations of other sexuality discourse.

I call myself queer because I identify most closely with the term “lesbian” both politically and sexually, but find myself in a very happy relationship with a cis male. […] Using the term “queer” means taking back my sexuality and defining it for myself without the pressure of trying to slot into a sexuality that I didn’t actually feel.

Queer fits more of my identity than LGB or T.  For me it is considerably wider than the others, which only cover sexual orientation and gender identity.  For me Queer represents a wider rejection of heteronormativity.  It is about deciding for myself when I want to be poly or mono (or indeed whether one of those is an identity for me), what my kink orientation is, what my relationship with my gender is, who I fancy, who I fuck, how I fuck.  It gives me more space to move along continuum of sexuality and gender without being fixed within the confines of boxes that don’t entirely describe me.  It’s also political.  For me queer is politically lefty, and that fits too!

I like to use queer rather than gay because people throw the word gay around so much in a negative sense…by saying things like “OMG my leggings are so gay.” I also like it because it can be used by everyone who feels they fit into the LGBT- it’s less limiting and I think it helps people stop constantly labelling themselves.

I liked that idea – whether I am with a woman or a man I am queer – their gender identity doesn’t change who I am. Queer feels like an identity I can have forever, it’s mine and not contingent on someone else’s genitals.

For others, they use the term queer as they subvert gender norms. One person explained that for them:

“[...] Q suits me best due to my own personal identity. Some days I feel I identify more as male and bind my breasts and dress more masculine. I’m not trans, and don’t suffer any body dysphoria so I feel “queer” best describes me.

Maybe in a world where dressing masculine wasnt such an oddity I wouldn’t need the queer label but.. it is.

CanuckJacq further expanded along this line with:

“Lesbian” seems so specific. It’s just never felt right. And “gay”, that’s not quite right either. My answer to gender is usually “no”, that means I’m not trans or cis, just somewhere in-between. I don’t like the label “bi” because I believe there are more than two genders, and I’m picky like that.

But “queer” is comfortable for me. Like, I belong in the LGBT community, somewhere in between the Ls the Gs the Bs and the Ts; but where might depend on the day. And it’s nice to not feel restricted.

A recurring theme in many of the answers centred upon the area of bisexuality and how at times that term was too limiting for people due to the implied binary, as well as the problem of other LGT or heterosexual people disenfranchising those who labelled themselves as “bi”, by insisting on imposing a sexuality on them based on the gender of their partner.

Lou told me:

“Bisexuality” implies an equal interest in both sexes, which I simply don’t have. I struggled hugely with my sexuality, and found it extremely difficult to find anyone whose sexual experience was similar to mine. It was quite an isolating experience and created a situation where I lacked agency within both the straight and gay communities.

Amiee expanded on this point, except in her case people were disputing her right to identify as queer:

There are those within the community who feel Bs, Qs and quite often Ts as well, don’t belong in “their” spaces. Like any community the whole idea of “inclusiveness” doesn’t always work out so well in practice – we have to work on that.

I was recently told, by a gay man, at my own Thanksgiving party, that if I was seeing a man I couldn’t claim to be queer. I have also been asked by a straight friend why, if I am not in a lesbian relationship, I don’t drop the whole queer thing because it might make people uncomfortable.

It seems a lot of people shared my initial misgivings about the word, due to the implied negativity, and the feeling that we haven’t yet achieved full reclamation of the term. Others weren’t sure about giving up the identity they had originally used for themselves:

I had REAL issues with the use of the word queer when I first arrived at Uni as, like you say, I had only heard it in a pejorative way before then and didn’t feel ready to reclaim the word.

I felt that I was being told to by predominantly white middle-class individuals who had recently come out and, as somebody who had been out since the age of 12 and relatively isolated, I had a real history with the word being used as an abusive insult. Also, I thought to myself, “I like my label and the security of knowing where I fit in the world. ‘Lesbian’ seems to describe me and so why should I give up that hard won label in order to sit under an umbrella term?”

Initially, I didn’t want to use Q. I wanted to be able to function within a sexual sphere in which my sexuality could be considered “normal”. I wanted to be able to be part of a community and not struggle with complex sexual feelings alone. Most importantly I wanted to be able to discuss my experiences and not worry that peoples eyes would glaze over at the mention of “queer”.

I think for political purposes Lesbian is a stronger identity and would use it more.

Throughout the responses, it became to clear to me that in the Irish context, queer is definitely still a term that people are struggling with. Ariel Silvera summed this up nicely:

In the Irish context, there’s the issue that “queer” has not been reappropriated here to the same extent. It is not the same for a German person to use “queer”, a word which is used routinely in Ireland as a beat to stick LGBTQ people with. I have heard from many of my Irish friends that due to the trauma associated with people using the word queer to bully, harass, threaten and enact physical violence on them, it is impossible for them to ever reclaim it.

Others share this experience, and responded with:

I think a lot of the community find it too confrontational or too political. I remember when Queer Spraoi events were on, people saying they didn’t want to go because the name wasn’t nice.

I have encountered many LGBT people who view “queer” as a very negative word, and I can see why they would feel that way. It was used against us for a very long time. But for me I feel like we have re-appropriated it for ourselves. I guess that is a personal thing. I know I have huge problems with the word Faggot, whereas a lot of LGBTQ people I know use it all the time.

I have frequently come across instances where people feel the word isn’t appropriate to describe them and are quite hostile to its appropriation either as an individual or within the wider framework of the LGBT community.

Since Dublin LGBTQ Pride became a Ltd. non-profit company in 2006, the Q has been there. (I couldn’t find more info on whether it had the Q prior to then, so if anyone reading knows, let me know!) This is hugely positive, as for many members of our community, including the Q gives visibility.

For me, it’s a bit like saying please at the end of a request. I know that ‘LGBT’ is intended to include everyone but it does so rather specifically. Adding the Q, to me, is a bit like saying ‘and everyone else no matter how you identify, come join the party’. It’s polite but I don’t feel excluded if it’s not there.

I know several lesbians and bisexuals who feel that the male influence that is associated with the word gay takes from what they identify with. By adding the letter Q, some of the people who are under the LGBT umberella an optional identity that will allow them to just live their lives in alternative setting that is not solely concerned with the gender that they choose to have sex with.

For something such as pride where we are extending acceptance to all of the community i think the Q is very important because as with everything some people just slip through the cracks and its good to have a safety net so no one is left out.

I think having the Q sends a message that you don’t have to declare, you don’t have to be sure, you don’t have to be definitely/just/only LGBT. Q gives breathing space to people.

It is extremely important to me. Extremely important. Queers are invisible, we have no agency whatsoever and we need to be acknowledged and accepted. I’m tired of having to constantly explain myself and “queer” has excused me from that. For me, it is vital.

Writing this piece, we spoke to a lot of people. Like, a lot. So many more than we thought we would be speaking to.

Not only were there more technicoloursuperqueers than we thought, but every one of them was so open about it, so proud of the Q. And yet, quite a lot of them reported originally feeling negative about the word. In fact, quite a lot of LGBT people seem to associate Queer with being insulted.

Why is that? Why are these fantastic, special, totally unique and proud of it people not all over the place? Well, what I discovered is that they are. Out there, Queering up the mainstream, and the gaystream, and they are doing it without causing much of a fuss at all.

The word Queer has been reclaimed by individuals, what needs to happen now is for it to be reclaimed by the community. You may even identify as Q yourself, but you aren’t sure about it. Maybe you are positive in your identity, who knows? The biggest lesson writing this gave us is that you know what, it doesn’t really matter. We are here, we are Queer, and people are getting used to it.

Related posts:

1. Queer mutterings
2. Reconciling Religion
3. Julie Bindel

• This just in from Irene Greene, an Applied Psychology student at University College Cork:

For my final year project I’m conducting research into the effect online support has on the well-being of transgender individuals.

Research in general populations regarding the effectiveness of online social support has found mixed results, but very little research has been carried out looking at the impact of social support on groups such as the transgender community.

We’re interested in examining whether online social support may positively affect the well-being of transgender individuals, as it may provide some people with a greater sense of support than they experience offline.

We hope that this study will lead to a better understanding of the impact of social support on the general well-being of members of the transgender community.

I have a short survey which should only take 15 minutes to complete. It is important for the study to get a large number of respondents in order to achieve reliable results.

If you are willing to take part, you can find the survey here.

Related posts:

1. Online Survey on Hate Speech
2. Targeting trans women, or the pathetic pastime of increasingly irrelevant wealthy people
3. Report on Dublin Trans Health forum

I was never in the Girl Scouts, not really my thing as a kid. It involves being social and talking to people, not the forte of this card carrying geek. My sister was in it though and her daughter now proudly tells me all about her various badges every time I visit, it’s beyond cute. 

Traditionally the organisation is about teaching girls to think beyond the traditional role of the woman by imparting leadership skills and greater respect for themselves.

With this in mind I was delighted with the response the organisation gave to a recent debacle in Colorado.  A 7 year old girl, Bobby Montoya, who was assigned male at birth, was refused membership.  After consideration the group then changed their stance, in a press release they said

Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization…if a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.

Well done, it’s never to late to do the right thing.  However, true to form the Christian right have had a most distasteful response to this progressive stance.

A boycott of the cookies sold by the Scouts was called for by, Taylor, a 14 year old girl in a rant that doesn’t bear repeating.  She takes this opportunity to promote a group called the Honest Girl Scouts – how’s your blood pressure there? Though the roof yet? I mean come on, get over yourself. She talks about a “true all-girl experience”. Your ignorance is showing Taylor.

It gets worse! The notion that trans girls are “boys passing themselves off as girls” in order to hurt the girls is deeply unsettling. What are they saying, that Bobby, who is going through a level of self discovering and expression that is nothing short of inspirational at such a young age, is somehow trying to incite violence against women. Come on! What’s next, a campaign saying that the Girl Scouts are leading kids towards homosexuality? Give me a break.

Taylor is 14, lets hope she grows up and learns a little about life. However, I don’t have any hope for the fundamentalists behind her type of rant. Sadly, they are intent of using this brave little girl in Colorado as some kind of target.

Well done to the Scouts in Colorado for not allowing the exclusion of this brave girl and lets hope many more troops follow suit.

Related posts:

1. International Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012
2. 4th European Transgender Conference
3. Review: A Montreal Girl

Andrej Pejić has been genderfucking his way around the world ever since his family fled the war in Bosnia and eventually settled in the land of Oz in 2000; he says that from around the age of 14 he became aware of gender barriers, and began experimenting with his look.

Andrej Pejić is hot, don’t try to deny it. (Even if you are a homophobic, transphobic, gender-phobic, self-loathing FHM reader and/or staffer. Or Barnes & Noble.)

Strewth! Let’s have a Captain Cook at this antipodean beaut, y’flamin’ galahs:

Image: The Photodiarist

Image: Allison Joyce

Image: Dossier

Image: Getty

Out magazine talks with model Andrej Pejić backstage during Fall Fashion Week 2011 in New York. Video produced by Sara Karl.

A is for Andrej Pejić. And A is for Amazing Androgynous Abilities.

Stunning.

No related posts.

And people thought the BBC’s Sports Person of the Year shortlist was bad?

Katie Taylor has been shortlisted for the Irish Sports Council/RTÉ Sports Person of the Year Awards in 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007.

This morning the 2011 winner was announced, and once again Taylor – undisputedly Ireland’s greatest athlete ever – has been overlooked. This is not a first for RTÉ, which seems to pride itself on almost invariably ignoring Taylor.

The only woman to ever have won the award was Sonia O’Sullivan in 2000.

The other recipients of the award since then have been: Mick McCarthy (who won it as a mangager – as opposed to being an actual sports person); Pádraig Harrington (three times: 2002, 2007 and 2008 – check out the shortlist for those two years); Barry Geraghty (who?); Ronan O’Gara; Seán Óg Ó hAilpín (er..?); Henry Shefflin (wha..?); Brian O’Driscoll; Graeme McDowell; and, this year, Rory McIlroy.

These are just some – some – of Katie Taylor’s achievements:

• She has won every European Amateur Championship title since 2005.
• She has won every EU Amateur Championship title since 2008.
• She has won every World Amateur Championship title (held biennially) since 2006.
• In 2009, she had won 60 out of 61 bouts.
• In 2010, with her third successive world title at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, she saw her 100th career win.

By comparison, professional boxer Bernard Dunne has won 28 out of 30 matches.

Taylor’s only appearance on RTÉ television was as warm-up act to Dunne’s fight at the O2 in Dublin in 2009.

Katie Taylor has probably had more wins in her sporting career than each of the previous RTÉ Sports Persons of the Year combined.

If she qualifies for the 2012 Olympics, she will be a force to be reckoned with and stands a very good chance of doing very, very well. In advance of the Games, she has had to resort to the UK’s Sky Sports for coverage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4vY8VuMLss

and online), mentoring and support.

Katie Taylor is undoubtedly Ireland’s greatest sports person ever. She is one of the greatest female boxers in the world.

Her father, and coach, Peter Taylor has already expressed his dismay at the lack of coverage her achievements receive. The way she is treated by the State’s national broadcaster is a disgrace.

Sort it the fuck out, RTÉ.

See also:

• Not on the box
• Fighting to be seen

Related posts:

1. What a knockout!
2. Home Clash for Taylor
3. Irish women’s boxing documentary screening this Thursday

• This just in: a request for participants for an online survey of sexual minority women:

My name is Sharon Heffernan and I am a student in Applied Psychology in UCC.

I am currently looking for participants to complete an anonymous online survey. You may participate in this study if you are over 18 years of age and identify as a sexual minority woman.

You cannot be identified by this survey and you are not asked for your name or address. All of the information you provide will be anonymous and confidential. The study will involve 20 minutes of your time.

This research project aims to explore possible relationships between factors relevant to membership of a sexual minority group and mental health and well-being of women in Ireland.

The survey can be accessed here. It will remain live until 23rd December 2011.

If you need any further information or would like a copy of the results once they are complete, you can find contact details on the first page.

Related posts:

1. Trans Sexual Health Seminar
2. Well women
3. “A Constitution for all women”: The Constitutional Convention & Marriage

20th November, is Transgender Day of Remembrance.

A Ceremony of Remembrance to mark the GID/TG Year of Hope 2011 takes place tonight, 19th November, at the Unitarian Church in Dublin at 8pm.

To coincide with Transgender Day of Remembrance, journalist Rebekah Curtis wrote for Reuters:

“I knew I was transgendered as far back as memories go,” said the 76-year old, formerly called John, who works at Australia’s Gender Center for people with gender issues. “Four years of age or so.”

Since her 1930s childhood, the lives of transgender people have improved dramatically in many countries. But discrimination remains widespread. Hundreds of transgender people are killed every year and many live in constant fear of attack.

“Transgenders often suffer violence, physical and social, from their families, including spouses, parents, children and siblings,” Cummings said.

She spoke to Reuters ahead of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on November 20 which commemorates those who have been killed because of their gender identity.

Founded after the 1998 murder of transgender woman Rita Hester in Massachusetts, the day now has a global following.

In the first nine months of 2011, 116 transgender people were murdered globally, according to Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM), a project coordinated by non-profit association Transgender Europe.

Their research indicates there have been at least 681 reports of murders in 50 countries since 2008

• The above is an excerpt from an article which was first published by Reuters on 16th November, 2011. Continue reading the article in full here.

• A Ceremony of Remembrance to mark the GID/TG Year of Hope 2011 takes place tonight, 20th November, at the Unitarian Church in Dublin at 8pm.

Related posts:

1. 4th European Transgender Conference
2. Ireland to adopt EU law on victims of crime including hate crimes
3. Trans* equality activists protest Minister’s speech

I was minding my own business on The Twitter last night, when I spotted the following from Katherine Lynch:

So Sinitta is going into I’m a Celebrity. That’s another black woman in the camp who springs to mind when u say the words “So macho!”

(14th November)

It stopped me in my tracks.

The overt gendered and racial sentiments were immediately objectionable. What is more, I had earlier read about Whitbread’s life in her own words. So I read back through Lynch’s tweets to see if she had anything else to say about the I’m A Celebrity opening night.

And boy, did she ever:

I hope Fatima Whitbread has to eat testicles in the jungle….her own

(13th November)

Fatima, the body of tarzan and the tits of Jane. Scary stuff!

(13th November)

Antony Cotton’s going to get bummed by Fatima Whitbread, put money on it!

(13th November)

Where are the bloody celebrities? Willie bloody Carson? Fatima “King Kong” Whitbread and Stefanie “I now look like FreeWay” Powers.Very weak

(13th November)

These pretty much cover the gamut of vile, nasty phobias and -isms that are out there, don’t they? (And as we know Lynch is no stranger to questionable “humour”.)

I try to avoid drawing attentions to haters (as we’ve seen before), but in this particular case, Fatima Whitbread just happens to be an amazing woman who has achieved some of the highest honours in athletics, having overcome what seems to be a childhood that was nothing short of horrific.

Whitbread wrote in The Observer back in 2003 about her life and experiences.

Lynch’s comments (and all those in the same vein that are doing the rounds) are utterly contemptible by themselves.

Katherine Lynch and those who laugh along should read about Whitbread’s life and be especially ashamed.

No related posts.

Previously, we looked at the family home and finance and immigration and legal procedures. Today in the final of our Missing Pieces articles, we examine the issues affecting parents and children, as well as other miscellaneous issues.

• Parent and child

The findings of Marriage Equality’s audit reflects the concerns already raised by the Ombudsman for Children over the Civil Partnership Bill. Marriage Equality describes “a legal vacuum affecting children being raised in same-sex headed families”.

25 differences in relation to the legal relationship between a parent and their child are identified. For example, adoption: same-sex couples cannot jointly adopt, even though individuals may be considered for adoption regardless of sexual orientation.

Another example relates to guardianship and custody: it is not possible for same-sex couples (or a partner of a same-sex couple) to apply to the courts for these.

An additional example is maintenance: all children, including non-biological children, of married couples are covered by maintenance rules, but this is not the case for children raised by same-sex couples.

Marriage Equality states that there is a deliberate omission of existing provisions in family law which recognise non-biological children (for example, step-children) as dependent children, within married families.

The organisation supports the view of the Ombudsman for Children, who has drawn attention to the serious consequences for children that this approach will have and that this differential treatment of children under the Civil Partnership Act – especially when compared with the relationship between children and step-parents under Irish law – could violate international human rights instruments, to which the Ireland is party.

• Miscellaneous

The final section of the audit covered all remaining provisions identified in the review of existing legislation. 17 differences were found, and focus mainly on the age of majority and administrative provisions in relation to the making and keeping of records by the State.

On the age of majority, the report highlights that, as civil partnership is only available to people 18 years and over, the rights which flow to a person under the age of 18 and who is married, are not accessible to young LGBT people in the same situation (for instance, being able to apply for a passport in their own name without a guardian’s signature).

Also revealed is the fact that civil partners do not have the same rights under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), a serious issue particularly following the death of a partner. For instance, a bereaved civil partner cannot apply under FOI to correct personal information, unlike spouses. (See also Office of the Information Commissioner.)

• Some notes:

- A “Constitutional Convention” is due to take place next year to look at various constitutional issues – including, perhaps, the concept of marriage?

- The Supreme Court has yet to rule in the Zappone and Gilligan case, due to be heard later this year.

- Marriage Equality is due to release a separate report on the Social Welfare Code and the differences between civil partners and married spouses next year. Due to the extensive legislation and rules which govern Social Welfare, a separate audit and report is needed.

- MarriagEquality: Website / Twitter / Facebook / YouTube

• Previously:

The Family Home and Finance

Immigration and Legal Procedures

Related posts:

1. Zappone & Gilligan launch fresh legal challenge for equality
2. BREAKING: Minister Shatter makes commitment to children of same-sex couples
3. The Children’s Referendum proposals and equality

Yesterday, we looked at the family home and finance. Today, we examine the issues of immigration and legal procedures.

• Immigration

A key factor in immigration procedures generally is the fact that decisions are made largely on a discretionary basis (i.e. under non-statutory administrative procedures by the Minister for Justice or his officials), rather than based on legislation. In effect, therefore, those in civil partnerships are reliant on discretion due to the absence of legislative immigration provisions relating to civil partnership.

The findings of the Marriage Equality report highlight the gap between official policy – that civil partners will be treated equally to spouses for immigration purposes – and the legislative reality, and reveals over 22 differences in treatment under immigration law and regulations.

Legislation: Only two sections in the Civil Partnership Act relate specifically to the immigration status or entitlements of civil partners:

The first concerns diplomatic immunity, and extends such immunity to civil partners.

The second provision relates to refugees. Under the Refugee Act, a person who is recognised as a refugee has the right to apply for family re-unification. The Civil Partnership Act allows such persons to make an application for family re-unification in relation to a civil partner.

(This is somewhat curious, I think: typically, family re-unification applications relate to family members who are not in Ireland. Ireland’s Civil Partnerships can only take place under Ireland’s jurisdiction, however. So how could it arise that a refugee in Ireland would have a civil partner abroad? Unless the person has entered Ireland for the purposes of the civil partnership ceremony and (maybe) has subsequently left? Or perhaps the couple has been married/partnered/unioned already in another jurisdiction and are seeking to have that recognised by the State as a civil partnership? Is that likely? But I digress..)

A person who does not meet the criteria of being a refugee, may nevertheless qualify for what is called subsidiary protection. (For instance, a person may not be persecuted for a particular reason, but may still be at risk if they return to a situation of armed conflict.) As with recognised refugees, a person who is eligible for subsidiary protection may apply for family re-unification, including their spouse. Notably, this right has not been extended to include civil partners.

So, if I’ve got this correct, this leaves us with the following situation regarding people who are entitled to international protection: heterosexuals can apply to have their spouse join them in Ireland if they are a refugee or have been granted subsidiary protection; homosexuals can apply to have their civil partner join them in Ireland if they are a refugee, but not if they have been granted subsidiary protection.

Lawyers, sharpen your quills!

Ministerial discretion: Apart from the issues of diplomatic immunity and recognised refugees, in all other immigration matters (including the above subsidiary protection issue), the equal treatment of civil partners depends on the exercise of discretion, rather than legislative entitlement.

A significant finding of the audit is the failure to include civil partners in the definition of ‘qualifying family members’ under EU free movement regulations. This may mean the Irish government is in breach of their obligations under this EU directive. (The EU directive is implemented into Irish law by regulations.)

Furthermore, in the event of divorce or annulment between a non-EU and EU citizen, under the same EU directive family members retain their right of residence. The regulations in Irish law are silent, however, when it comes to the dissolution of a civil partnership.

This potentially means that, an ex-civil partner of an Irish citizen is liable to deportation upon the dissolution of their registered civil partnership, and is reliant on discretionary immigration policy to ensure that is not the case.

As a result of the approach taken to deal with civil partnership immigration issues through the exercise of discretion, rather than by amending immigration legislation, the Marriage Equality report highlights that civil partners are left without the protection and certainty of the law.

• Legal procedures

The audit of legal procedures covered a broad range of legislation, including: the formation and dissolution of marital relationships; minimum age; recognition of foreign marriages; gender identity; and testimony during legal proceedings.

The audit uncovered 62 differences between the treatment of married and civil partner couples. Many of the differences have symbolic significance as well as legal and practical implications for same-sex couples who have registered a civil partnership.

Engagement: There is no equivalent legal status to engagement for civil partners. This means that provisions within the Family Law Acts governing disputes in relation to gifts and property of an engaged couple who end their relationship have not been extended to same-sex couples planning to register a civil partnership.

Minimum age: Someone under the age of 18 can marry where they acquire a waiver from the court. There is no provision under the Civil Partnership Act for a person under the age of 18 to acquire a court waiver to enter into a civil partnership.

Foreign marriages and civil partnership: Unlike marriage law, there is no provision allowing the courts to recognise foreign civil partnerships and same-sex marriages. Instead, that power is reserved for the Minister for Justice: the Civil Partnership Act allows the Minister to designate certain classes of relationships entered into abroad as having the same legal effects as an Irish civil partnership. There is no obligation on the Minister to recognise a class of foreign relationship, however; rather (and this is comparable with the situation regarding immigration and discretion), the Minister has a power to do so using statutory instruments (i.e. secondary legislation).

The effect is that if the Minister has not included a certain jurisdiction in the statutory instrument, then a couple seeking recognition of their foreign marriage/partnership/union from that jurisdiction will have to wait until (or, if) the Minister does include it at a later stage.

In any event, a foreign same-sex marriage will only be recognised as a civil partnership (as, for example, in Canada, Spain or the Netherlands, where there is full marriage equality).

Trans* rights: Currently in Ireland there is no legal mechanism to recognise a person’s preferred gender identity other than the gender that was recorded for them at birth.

The Gender Recognition Advisory Group (GRAG) – established to advise the government on gender recognition legislation for Ireland – has recently published its report and proposes establishing a scheme for legal recognition, however.

Disappointingly, their proposals include a recommendation that applicants who are married be excluded from the scheme. This means that an already married transgender person will be required to divorce their spouse before they can have their preferred gender legally recognised.

Likewise, any transgender person who is in a registered civil partnership will need to dissolve their civil partnership, if they wish to apply under the scheme.

Read more about the GRAG report here.

Interestingly, Marriage Equality notes, GRAG stated that registered civil partners acquire less protection from registering their partnership than spouses acquire from civil marriage: In outlining their argument to exclude a civil partner from the right to apply to be recognised in a different gender, it stated that “such a scenario would effectively result in a State-recognised opposite-sex relationship that does not benefit from the full protection afforded to marriage”.

Separation and dissolution: While married couples have the option of executing a separation agreement, obtaining a judicial separation, or obtaining a divorce, the Civil Partnership Act makes no provision for civil partners to apply to court for a judicial separation.

This means that, while civil partners can execute a deed of separation, if no agreement can be reached they have no choice but to apply for dissolution of their registered civil partnership.

In practice, separated opposite sex couples do not always opt for the finality of a divorce and prefer instead to legally separate. This may have to do with the economic dependency of one partner on the other or where children are involved, to avoid further distress or change for them.

Whatever the reason, judicial separation provides these couples with a mechanism to legally sort out the issues surrounding their separation; this is not available, however, to civil partners who wish to separate.

Period of separation: Civil partners must be living apart for 2 of the previous 3 years in order to apply to dissolve their partnership, whereas spouses must be living apart for 4 of the previous 5 years to apply for a divorce.

Marriage Equality’s report notes that while this is not equal treatment, it may be more sensible treatment and partly helps to make up for the lack of option to apply for a judicial separation in the Act. It reinforces, however, the greater importance afforded to marriage by the Irish State, with more onerous criteria to be met in order to dissolve a marriage when compared with a civil partnership.

Mediation requirement: To obtain a divorce there is a constitutional requirement for the married couple to consider mediation, and divorce legislation obliges solicitors to advise clients about what mediation services are available.

There is no such requirement in respect of civil partners who wish to dissolve their partnership and therefore no such obligation on solicitors, again demonstrating the greater importance afforded to marriage by the State.

In fact, when the Civil Partnership Bill was making its way through the Oireachtas, the then Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, justified this difference in treatment by reference to the risk of “upsetting the constitutional balance” and to “maintaining a distinction between marriage and civil partnership”; he did not elaborate on that, beyond referring to (though not specifying) advice received from the Attorney General. He stated that the government was “erring on the side of caution” by taking this approach.

Children: An example of the almost total lack of provisions relating to the children of civil partners emerged in this section under the laws governing dissolution. (Marriage Equality dealt with the overall issue of parents and children separately, however. See our next article on issues relating to parents and children.)

Criminal trials and the giving of evidence: Legislative provisions relating to the giving of evidence in a criminal trial highlight serious differences in treatment of the marital relationship versus civil partnerships.

A legal principle exists that spouses cannot be compelled to testify against one another. Two main justifications for this are: the principle of unity, i.e. the principle that for some purposes (although not all) husband and wife were considered as one by the law; and that there is a public interest in avoiding discord within the marital relationship – a recognition that testifying against one’s spouse, particularly if compelled to do so, would risk disharmony within the relationship.

These provisions have not been extended to civil partners, meaning that a civil partner may be compelled to give evidence against his or her partner, despite the potential problems this may create between the couple.

Next:

• Parent and Child, and Miscellaneous Provisions

Previously:

• The Family Home and Finance

Related posts:

1. Zappone & Gilligan launch fresh legal challenge for equality
2. Trans* equality activists protest Minister’s speech
3. BREAKING: Minister Shatter makes commitment to children of same-sex couples

Yes, Joe O’Callaghan (who you may never have heard of before now) has flagged that he intends to introduce a motion for debate at Cork’s City Hall next month. He’s a Fine Gael councillor and former Lord Mayor, don’t you know?

The proposed motion? That burqas should be banned by the local authority.

The Irish Examiner and The Journal have the story, although neither appears to have questioned anything regarding the motion, the councillor’s motives, or even the grounds for tabling the motion.

In this holy month of Ramadan, apparently O’Callaghan is “leading a call” – although from what I can tell, he’s the only one making it. He thinks that it’s “high time” Ireland copies dangerous and politically motivated laws from France and Belgium. The affront to women, according to him, is in “having to be covered head to toe” – and “in this day and age”! Oh, and he mentions something about “security issues”, about which he fails to elaborate.

But who needs to elaborate when the object is simply to plant a seed of fear in an attempt to simultaneously generate controversy and rebuild your profile?

By the way, has anyone actually seen a burqa being worn on the streets of Ireland? (Pop quiz time! Who can tell the difference between hijab, chador, niqab, abaya and burqa?)

As O’Callaghan intends to follow the examples of France and Belgium, he will no doubt be entirely happy to unburden Muslim women from the yoke of oppression by criminalising them. Its genius is in the law’s simplicity, presumably.

Oh, and just to show that he’s not targeting women from minority communities, O’Callaghan also wants to ban “hoodies”. In light of the recent riots in the UK, you see. Except when it’s raining.

Because before hooded clothing became popular, there were no riots. Ever. Not even in 1930s Ireland. (Careful, Joe. Your Blueshirt is showing.)

I wonder whether Joe O’Callaghan has actually asked any women for their views before imposing his upon them.

Thankfully, the National Women’s Council of Ireland has. Let’s hear from the mná na hÉireann, shall we?

I was born Muslim, in a Muslim country where there is no room for questioning the state’s decisions, a country that was sucked in a vortex of violence. They told us in school that salvation was wearing the veil – to that I shaved my head and whatever hair I still had my mum helped me die it bright red. I didn’t do it because I am against the veil, I did it because they imposed their madness on me and I was raised as an independent individual. I wasn’t ready for anyone to impose anything on teenage me. As a matter of fact, I never wondered why women had or chose to wear the veil. I just remember my grandmother’s large white silk Hayek, we hid under it pretending to be ghosts. I remember my aunties having to lift their Aadjar to eat their ice cream and it made us laugh.

For the last 11 years that I have been in Europe, I have always dreaded the famous question: “What’s your opinion on the veil”?

- Amel Yacef

When I walked into my mother’s house wearing the hijab for the first time, my family were shocked. I remember my mother saying, “Now you have really gone crazy!” I was lucky in a sense that my family were still willing to speak to me. Here was my opportunity to take the chance to talk to them about my new adopted faith and my new lifestyle. It was difficult but worth it.

I came to realize that being an Irish Muslim, it was my duty to make use of many opportunities to explain to the Irish people about Islam. I became aware of a lot of negativity towards Islam and Muslims, especially when I began to wear the hijab. I was told on several occasions by strangers on buses, in shopping malls and coffee shops to “go back to your own country”.  I sometimes said to them “to where, to Coolock?” in my Dublin accent. On another occasion, I was egged and endured verbal abuse on a busy street of Dublin in broad daylight. It also dawned on me that even though I was Irish, as soon as I put on the hijab, I became a foreigner in my own country. I began to think on how hard it must be for my immigrant Muslim sisters and their families coming to Ireland.

- Lorraine O’Connor

I discovered that Irish people are very kind and friendly; they always have time to
smile and greet you in the morning. I made new friends who really helped me to know my way around Waterford as my English was not that good at first.

[…]

I wanted to get involved in community work to know Irish society better. I believe that some similarities are shared between Muslims and the Irish people like the importance of family, and some religious traditions such as giving to the poor.

From here the idea of forming a Muslim women’s group emerged, and to get the group started I contacted all of my friends for a meeting at my house. I explained to them that our aim would be to find ways to co-exist within Irish society but without losing our Islamic identity. Everyone was inspired by the idea and we named the group “Muslim Women Together”.

- Doaa Morsy

People ask Sarah why she does not wear the veil, the hijab. She explains that for her, wearing the veil is a question of choice. She has chosen not to wear it here in Ireland.

She explains that Irish girls are different from Arabic girls; she feels it is important for her to have Irish friends and in fact she has friends of many nationalities. She also explains however, that Arabic girls are also different from each other. She reflects that some of the differences depend on the reason why someone might have come to Ireland. For some, migration was a question of choice. For others, they do not have a choice and their options are different. Depending on your options, you have to make different choices.

Sarah wants to be a lawyer [when she finishes school]. She wants to help people; to help people in a similar position to herself.

- Sarah

“I was happy to move here to a new country and try out something new” says Zainab. “Since I came here I have to say that my experience has been mostly a positive one, people have been supportive of me, friendly and I have had no problem wearing a headscarf.” Zainab did not always wear a veil and discusses the views of her family on her decision to cover her head. “I was not brought up wearing the veil” says Zainab.

“My parents are Muslim but my mother does not cover her head. When I was studying in England I decided to start taking my religion more seriously. I phoned my mother and told her I had started covering. She wasn’t too happy and thought I had become an extremist. I tried not to make a big deal of it and told my parents very casually. It was still a big shock for them when they saw me at the airport. But since then, my mother has always given me my space, though if she had a choice I wouldn’t be covering”, she says.

- Zainab Alamgir

The family moved to Birmingham and then to Belfast. “We didn’t know about the troubles”, she says. “ The taxi driver wouldn’t come here from the airport. We didn’t know why. The rent was cheap here, we didn’t have any choice”.

Zeenat describes the racism which she has experienced in Belfast. “We lived here in the Village for a year” she says. “Once, my son and I were attacked on the street. We were stoned by nine year old boys. Some one from the women’s centre said we should report it to the police and that she would be our witness. They got off with a warning”. Zeenat is worried for her son. “My son is four and bringing him to the Park is always an issue” she says. “We are always told to go back home. When my son sees white boys on the street he says ‘these are bad boys Mommy’, he’s afraid of them but gets on fine with the boys in his school. It is very difficult to explain to him. The moment you leave the house you know you will meet someone who will have a problem with you”.

- Zeenat

To sum up, in the words of Anastasia Crickley, chair of the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA):

Quite clearly their social and economic circumstances affect women’s experiences of their own diverse realities and engagement of integration in Ireland; one size solutions and policies are clearly not adequate.

Social and economic circumstances also affect the nature and extent of discrimination and racism and the ways in which it is experienced. As the women point out, the right to express one’s identity with or without the veil is very important.

Women’s human rights cannot be denied because they are inconvenient. I am reminded also of the double burdens in the struggle for these rights. […]

These are complex issues not helped by the ways in which promotion of women’s human rights in minority communities can be confused with assimilation into the majority population. As [chair of the FRA] and over many years of work with migrants and minority women, I have never seen such strategies lead to realisation of women’s human rights. Women’s rights can and should be supported by all women.

Here’s a counter-motion for Cork City Council to consider: The day that Christian men can dictate how Muslim women can live their lives is the day that Muslim women can dictate how Christian men live their lives. Seems fair to me.

Get informed:

·        Voices of Muslim women in Ireland: New publication from NWCI launched (28 May 2010)
·        Making Our Voices Heard: The stories of Muslim women in Ireland (PDF)
·        NWCI: Muslim women in Ireland

Related posts:

1. Cork City Council votes unanimously in favour of marriage equality
2. Fair City recaps: Roidin’ and the City
3. Crumpet City: Fair City recaps, continued

Does that screen make you crazy? If so, there are a lot of people who agree with you. Since the summer of 2008, you have been required to indicate that you are either male or female. And while the good people at Facebook say you may keep it off your profile, the pronouns it uses to refer to you will be decided by which one you choose. Facebook say the requirement is entirely motivated by a desire for good grammar.

The real reason for it is probably for Facebook Ads — the company’s targetted advertising service. We cannot be allowed to forget, of course, that the users of Facebook are not Facebook’s customers. The advertisers are the customers. We are actually the product.

And the advertisers don’t want unspecified or complicated products. They want to target advertisements for pink snuggies to women and hunting knives to men. So, Facebook have largely ignored the pleas from the queer community to allow people to choose no gender, “transgender” or “other” or to simply define their own.

Enter Diaspora (what is Diaspora?). Diaspora is an open-source, privacy-conscious Facebook alternative. It’s still in alpha, so you can’t just sign up, but I have a few invites left if anyone wants to have a poke around. Just leave a comment.

The emphasis with Diaspora is on making sure that you are fully in control of your own information. You can fully delete your profile. When you accept someone as a contact, you immediately put them into “aspects” or groups. That makes it even easier to control who sees what.

You can even host your own “pod” on a server you control, which means that your information is never anyone else’s property.

The big news, for a lot of people, is that you can write in your own gender. There is no drop down, or check box. They haven’t even put in male or female as options. Everyone will write in what they want, if they want to write anything at all. So there will be males, females, women, men, boys, girls, bois, trans, queers, futches, butches, genderqueer dykes, pangender, androgyne, third gender, and anything else you can think of. You can write in unicorn if that makes you happy.

In fact, the developer who contributed this particular feature to the Diaspora project includes this little image of the various gender identities used by her friends:

image from SarahMei.com

She explains her decision:

Four years ago, at my first rails job, I worked at a company with a mostly-lesbian customer base. It turns out, in that context, knowing if someone is “male” or “female” gives you almost no useful information. The lesbian community has other widely-accepted categories of gender, but the company’s internal order tracking software — a well-known package from a national vendor — offered only male or female.

As a result, the company didn’t even bother to ask for gender when users created accounts.

That was my first real-life experience with the limitations of the gender binary. It was certainly interesting, but it was essentially academic. Not long after I left that job, though, one of my closest family members told me that he’s transgender. That made the whole subject way more immediate.

She also spoke to Sarah Dopp — who identifies as an “Androgynous Queer Girl” — who had written this in her blog:

Now imagine signing up for a cool website, and then being required to select an option from a drop-down menu that doesn’t include anything that represents you.  If you don’t decide to close the browser window right then and there, you’ll probably pick the gender of the restroom you still use in public when you have no other choice (even though people might stop you to tell you you’re in the wrong one no matter what), and you’ll feel defeated. You’ll want to argue that whatever they think they’re learning from that drop-down menu, it’s not really true. You’ll want to tell them that they’re adding to your humiliation by making you do this. You’ll want to tell them that they’re missing a huge part of you by boiling this rich and beautiful characteristic down into a two-option drop-down menu.

Diaspora is still in very early days, but it’s good to see that the services of the future are considering the needs of users who don’t identify with the standard options on drop-down lists. Of course, taking on Facebook is a David and Goliath situation is there ever was one. It remains to be seen if users really value their privacy and right to self-identify as much as they do the convenience of a service they’ve used for years.

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That’s exactly the kind of language we’d heard about Rachel Maddow before from the IdiotNet. The only change is the willingness (which I’m sure she treasures) to “tap that”. And when I say the IdiotNet I mean the websites that couldn’t be bothered looking past their initial reaction to the genius on their TV machine to the real social change that she represents.

They just felt fear, and went with nasty insults. The insults got nastier when they realised that she had once fit into their ideal of “how a woman should look”. Perhaps they’d decided it was ok for a woman to look like a dude if she had no other choice. A bit of patriarchial pity, I guess, goes a long way. But now — NOW — they realise that she wasn’t lying when she said, “It’s not like I’m trying to be girly and failing.”

Where I lived when I first came out, it seemed like everyone wore plaid shirts and doc boots, and I remember saying things like, “I like women who look like women.” It was problematic enough without being a lie. Which it was.

It’s hard to define butch. I may look at a woman and think “butch” when she thinks no such thing about herself. One of my more insightful twitter buds suggested this definition:

doesn’t do make-up but does use hair product
by @JacqKelly

But really, what we call butch or boi runs the whole gamut from women who get called “young man” sometimes to those who get called “sir” most of the time. I’m talking about women who wear jeans and hoodies and baseball caps, women who rock a three-piece suit,  women who haven’t worn an item of women’s clothing in 20 years, women who bind and pack. Even those who still willingly wear skirts sometimes. It can be about identity; it can be just about looks; it can be playfulness too.

Whatever definition or type or degree of boi or butch she is, a woman who spends her life presenting as other than “how a woman should look” is a lightening rod for hate and violent rhetoric.

The queer community has accomplished so much when it comes to acceptance. But when it comes to the trans, cross dressers, gender queer and just plain butch, there’s so much more to accomplish. Society may well be ready for two pretty girls in white dresses to walk down the aisle, but the wider society is still remarkably intolerant when it comes to people whose gender isn’t obvious to the casual observer.

That is why we should celebrate butch and boi  in our midst. Because until we are all celebrated, we’re still losing. If our families become accepted only because we manage to successfully play the straight game, we’re not really accepted.

Without further ado… allow me to celebrate some ungirly girls:

There’s Rachel Maddow, and since I started with her high school photo, I’ll finish with a photo that might be a bit more her style. The Standford and Oxford grad turned brilliant tv news anchor openly describes herself as butch and only wears makeup and “lady clothes” (her words) for television. Is on Twitter.

k.d. lang is iconic. Butch when lipstick lesbians were chic, she was the epicentre of controversy for large parts of the early 1990s. Her being out inspired Melissa Etheridge and Ellen Degeneres to come out, sparking a huge increase in lesbian visibility. Still awesome after all these years.

Model & actress Jenny Shimizu dated Angelina Jolie. But apparently this lesbian is also a pretty fantastic mechanic. I’m not sure I need to add anything here. Is on Twitter.

Samantha Ronson — known as SaMANtha Ronson by the IdiotNet. The bisexual butch DJ is the on-again, off-again consort to Lindsay Lohan. Also known for using language with reporters that would make, well, reporters blush. Is on Twitter.

Alison Bechdel — lesbian author of “tragicomic” Fun Home and comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. Also responsible for the “Bechdel Test” that makes all feminists depressed about our DVD collections.

Annalee Newitz — bisexual technology and science journalist, now editor of Gawker blog, io9. Often rocks a tie and waistcoat with geek accessories. Used to write extensively about sex, sexuality and gender. Has recently expressed a desire for a detachable penis. Is on Twitter.

Skyler Cooper — classically trained actress and personal trainer. Owner of amazing arms about the size of me. Hopes to own a gym someday. Once played a lesbian Othello. Is on Twitter.

At first it seemed like there were so few, I’d have no one to write about. It didn’t take me long to realise how wrong I was. For more celebrating, visit sugarbutch‘s Top Hot 100 Butches.

Also, who did I leave out?

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The Sunday Independent published an “analysis” piece this past weekend entitled, “A scalpel can’t rewrite history, whatever the surgery” which was, predictably enough, an attack on the hard-won victory achieved by Dr Lydia Foy to have her birth certifcate ammended to indicate her actual gender, as opposed to the sex she was assigned at birth.

The author in this case, Eilis O’Hanlon, asserts (between her bewildering stereotypes of women as flighty and indecisive) that the decision was reached because, “nobody wants to lag behind the ayatollahs on liberal issues.” (a reference to the mortifying fact that Iran already allows post-operative transsexuals to have the gender on their birth certificates changed.) She further opines that the victory is an empty one — indicating that the government was fighting a losing battle — not that they were wrong, or that Dr. Foy was right.

Anticipating many may disagree with her thoughtless dismissal of dignity issues affecting trans people everywhere, she pre-empts arguments by name-calling trans allies “melodramatic” and snidely accusing any dissenters of hero-worship.

The language in this “analysis” is so privileged and transphobic it’s hard to know where to start. Ms. O’Hanlon cannot see the forest for the trees in her arguments. She argues that it’s perfectly valid to want accurate historical records of the birth of children. But she doesn’t question whether recording the shape of the genitals on infants is any any way accurate, relevant or of enduring interest, nor is the incredible indignity of having to produce inaccurate documents a concern for Ms. O’Hanlon. She argues that the decision will “unfather” the children of Dr. Foy and her ex-wife. She doesn’t stop to consider how this wouldn’t be an issue if we didn’t have such narrow (and inaccurate) definitions of parenthood.

Ms. O’Hanlon then proceeds to equate transgender people with the mentally ill.

The brain isn’t the most objective judge of its surroundings, after all. The brain sometimes tricks its host into thinking he’s Napoleon; the chromosomes never make him think he’s the Duke of Wellington.

Now, I’m no hero-worshipper. I have never met Dr. Foy. However, I do have a huge amount of respect for trans people. I have that respect because I have seen that path and I know it’s not an easy one, but it is honest. I have had the privilege of witnessing what a person can accomplish in a determined quest for an honest life. It never ceases to amaze me how much effort people like Eilis O’Hanlon can put into putting people down who have no intent to interfere in their lives whatsoever.

Not allowing Dr. Foy and others like her to possess documents that are consistent with their presentation is an affront to basic human dignity. Instead of arguing about changing the gender/sex indicator on official documents, why not do away with state recognition of gender altogether? It serves no legitimate purpose. Let the historians worry about how they’ll segment society from now on. We humans are pretty good at finding ways to divide and exclude.

As a closing thought, “analysis” typically requires some knowledge of the subject at hand and input from both sides of the issue. It says quite a lot about the editorial policy at the Sunday Independent that this un-researched and heavily biased rant was published as anything other than a blooper from the bottom of the letterbag.

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On forms we are rarely asked our hair colour, eye colour, or height but — invariably — we are asked for our sex. It seems to be seen as the primary determinant of our identity. Not only are we asked that, but then we are asked (for those who check the “f” box) to what subset of our sex do we belong? Are we a Miss, Ms or Mrs?

I’m still puzzled about how this has any bearing on my application for a mobile phone, a loan, or an electrical or fuel supply to my home. In what way do my genitals affect my ability to drive a car or travel from one country to another?

And yet, in all these circumstances, we are asked: vagina or penis?

Pick one.

And why? What good, sensible reason could there be for the government to know our sex? I asked on twitter and these were the reasons I was offered up by wonderful people… two more than I could think of.

1. To be able to quantify sex-inequality in order to combat the problem.

2. To predict health care needs and implement sex-specific health services.

As far as inequality is concerned, I can see that, but would there be as much need for it, if we weren’t culturally programmed to determine a person’s value based on their sex.

As for sex-specific medical services, one would think that medicine — a science, after all — would seek to plan and deliver medical services on something more accurate than a visual assessment of what is between a newborn’s legs. As far as I am aware, it isn’t routine to do a chromosomal test on infants. If the government’s interest in recording a newborn’s sex is for medical purposes, surely there would be a push to making this more precise.

After all, estimates — depending on the definition you use — range from 1 in 5,000 births to 1.7 per cent of live births showing some indication of being intersex. Even the smallest of these numbers isn’t insignificant. And that doesn’t include the number of people who simply find that either their assigned physical sex doesn’t fit their brain, and those whose identity isn’t linked to their physical sex at all.

Governments in most developed countries have conceded that there should not be a difference in the way we treat people based on their sex or gender. Non-discrimination policies in workplaces make it clear that our workday world should be gender neutral.

Of course, we as LGBTQ people know the disadvantages of having our genital sex recorded at birth and reiterated throughout our lives. We become ineligible to marry the person of our choosing if they are the same genital sex as we are. Transsexuals cannot yet change their birth certificates to record their post-operative sex.

What do you guys think? Should the government stop recording it altogether?

Would it cause problems, or solve them?

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When asked last year about his transition Chaz said

Gender is between your ears, not between your legs. I’ve felt male as far back as I can remember. As a child it was really clear. I felt like a boy

Having come out publicly as a lesbian at 18, Chaz has spend many years working for LGBTQ rights.  He has been a writer at large for The Advocate magazine, a spokesperson for The Human Rights Campaign as well as being an Entertainment Media Director for GLAAD.

Chaz made his first public appearance at the 21st Annual GLAAD awards over the weekend and looked very smart indeed, he was accompanied by his partner of four years Jennifer Elia.

When Chaz came out to the world it served as a positive beacon for many people, let’s hope that his transition is met with as much warmth and acceptance.

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