I write about non-binary gender identities and music. I'm a synth musician and netlabel owner at Vulpiano Records. AA grad in LGBT Studies and Library Technology as of this spring. I am an avid reader, post-punk enthusiast, and new aesthetic curator.
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gqid:
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Transcendence: A Positive Trans*, Non-Binary, and Genderqueer Fiction/Art Zine
Edited by Marilyn Roxie and Jacob Milnestein
Release Date: 1st Quarter/2nd Quarter 2013
As achievements in increased awareness of the spectrum of gender identities continue to be made, there is also a growing need for positive representation of trans*, non-binary, and genderqueer people in fiction and artwork; stories and images that can uplift and inspire those in the community, and enlighten our allies. The purpose of the Transcendence zine is to showcase the diversity of our identities and the varied ways in which we celebrate ourselves. We are currently seeking fiction and art submissions.
The zine will be also serve as an effort to generate interest for the anthology on the same topic we plan to release later on in 2013 - any submissions to the zine may be considered for the later anthology. The anthology, unlike the zine (which will be freely available online) will have a cost with all proceeds donated to a charity that works with the trans* community.
- Fiction Guidelines: Short stories - 4,000 to 8,000 word length. All genres welcome - seeking magic realism and speculative fiction in particular. Science fiction, historical, fantasy, straight lit are all acceptable, although perhaps it might be easier to steer away from direct horror due to the positive nature of the anthology. Please feel free to contradict this if you desire, whether it is through the the most breathtaking and life-affirming ‘Final Girl’ scenario within the context of a tale that deals with affirmation regarding gender, or another subversive approach.
- Art Guidelines: Art of uplifting nature (define positivity as you see fit) concerning trans*, non-binary, and/or genderqueer identity. The theme is entirely up to you. Art may be submitted along with or entirely independent of fiction piece.
- Fiction submissions: Submit your fiction work according to guidelines with a short bio and, if available, link to your website / online portfolio to gqid@mail.com as a .doc or .rtf attachment. with the subject TRANSCENDENCE ZINE SUBMISSION. Please include your author name and title of the piece. Content of text files should be presented in 12 point Times New Roman with 1 inch margins
- Art submissions: Submit your artwork according to guidelines with a short bio and, if available, link to your website / online portfolio to gqid@mail.com as a .jpg or .png attachment with the subject TRANSCENDENCE ZINE SUBMISSION. Please include your artist name and title of the piece, as well as any notes on medium or background information you may wish to include.
- The deadline to submit is January 20th, 2013. Authors and editors will not receive monetary compensation for their zine contribution - this will be a free release.
- Queries about the anthology can be directed to gqid@mail.com or tweeted to us @GenderqueerID on Twitter.
ABOUT THE EDITORS:
Marilyn Roxie blogs at Genderqueer Identities (http://genderqueerid.com/) and is a library tech and webmaster for the Center for Sex and Culture (http://sexandculture.org/) in San Francisco.
Jacob Milnestein writes stories. Like most people, he has a website.
gqid:
Is It a Boy or a Girl? Improving Media Coverage Beyond the Binary
Sunday, March 25 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET
Join us for a radio-style program on how the media covers non-binary and non-conforming gender and what we can do to make that coverage better.
Hosted by Avory Faucette of QueerFeminism.com and Radically Queer, and featuring guests with expertise in gender-neutral parenting, non-binary identities, and media coverage of transgender issues, we’ll be looking closely at some misunderstandings the media makes and how feminists can take action to educate and improve coverage. We’ll consider topics including major media coverage of gender-neutral parenting and education in 2011, the media’s refusal to take supermodel Andrej Pejic’s stated identity seriously, and what articles on genderqueer and other identities get right and wrong. We’ll also be talking about the best way to cover less familiar gender identities, how journalists can describe gender in a way that is less harmful to non-binary or questioning individuals, and how blogs and social media are changing the conversation.
Guests will be:
Arwyn Daemyir, creator of Raising My Boychick;Marilyn Roxie, creator of Genderqueer Identities and intern at the Center for Sex & Culture;Gunner Scott, Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition;Nat Titman, creator of Practical Androgyny and the Nonbinary.org wikiTo tune in, join us from your computer at 10 am EST on Sunday, March 25. A live stream of the show will appear when we start. You’ll be able to ask questions or chat about the show in the chat room on that page or call in with a question using the guest call-in number listed there. We hope you’ll join the conversation!
This event is part of WAM! It Yourself 2012, a multi-city event by Women, Action & the Media. For more information about events happening all over the world, check here or email Lexi.
I’m going to be on this! The show is going great so far - tune in: http://www.womenactionmedia.org/events/wamit/beyondthebinary/
gqid:
An incredible passage, ‘Guiding Assumptions’, from Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice 2:
- Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are separate though interconnected identities.
- The binary gender system is limiting to all people (not just transgender-identified and intersex individuals).
- Transgender experience exists in relation to cultural constructions of gender. In other words, we cannot understand transgender without also understanding the sex/gender system.
- Although gender is socially constructed, the experiences of it are very real.
- Language is limiting, but we are nevertheless dependent on it.
- Everyone is an expert on hir, his, or her own identity, and has the right to self-definition.
- There is a diversity of transgender identities, and those identities are always evolving and changing.
- All transgender identities are valid transgender identities. No transgender identity (e.g. transsexual, transgender, or genderqueer) is “more transgender” or more “really transgender” than other identities, and no transgender expression is “more authentic” than another. Rather, they are different ways of transgressing gender.
- Not everyone who identifies as transgender wants or intends to transition physically to a different sex.
- Not every transgender person is an expert on gender theory or gender oppression; not every transgender person is a gender radical or activist.
- The problem with gender oppression is the oppression, not the transgender people.
- There is no end to learning about transgender experiences.
Marilyn, San Francisco, CA
A picture of me/Marilyn Roxie taken by Elle Perez for The Outliers Project, a “project that seeks to photograph people who self-identify as genderqueer”. Special edition book The Outliers: West Coast is now available through Bigcartel. Elle’s journey is still in progress!
gqid:
^ Please click-through to read in full!
Some key revisions:
• Psychotherapy is no longer a requirement to receive hormones and surgery, although it is suggested.
“It used to be a minimum amount of psychotherapy was needed. An assessment is still required but that can be done by the prescribing hormone provider,” Bockting explained.
• A number of community health centers in the U.S. have developed protocols for providing hormone therapy based an approach known as the Informed Consent Model. These protocols are consistent with version 7 revisions of WPATH’s standards of care.
“The SOC are flexible clinical guidelines; they allow for tailoring of interventions to the needs of the individual receiving services and for tailoring of protocols to the approach and setting in which these services are provided,” Coleman explained.
“Access is more open and acknowledges transgender care is being provided in community health centers. This certainly makes it easier to access hormones,” Bockting added.
• There are now different standards for surgery, as well. For example, a transgender man who wants a hysterectomy no longer has to live one year as a male in order to receive the surgery. Likewise, a transgender woman who wants her testicles removed does not have to live one year as a female.
For people who want genital reconstructive surgery, however, the standards of care recommend living a year in the role of the gender they are transitioning.
• Another major change, Bockting explained, is that the standards “allow for a broader spectrum of identities – they are no longer so binary.”
“There is no one way of being transgender and it doesn’t have to mirror the idea of a change of their sex,” Bockting explained.
“These standards allow for a gender queer person to have breasts removed without ever taking hormones,” he said.
gqid:
Genderqueerness, gender fluidity, bisexuality, and pansexuality, quite different identities that they are, are all sometimes are confronted with the assumption that the above are “just phases” on the way to another identity, generally cisgender status and heterosexuality. Perhaps because these identities appear to exist in the in-between or on the outside. However they’re interpreted, I’m sure many of us have had experiences of doubt as to the validity of our identities, not only an initial or continuing lack of understanding but the assumption that we will at some point “grow out of it” or cease being this way. Assumptions that we’re confused or are still questioning ourselves and will at some point figure it all out.
What I say to that is…why should it matter so much if I do drop one identity description for another one that fits me better later on? That doesn’t mean I “never really was” [insert identity here]. Additionally, what if these identities remain valid and important to me for life - does that make mine somehow more valid than someone who acquires them later or drops them? Isn’t that what is most important and powerful about self-description? I certainly think that people should take identity descriptions very seriously, especially in the way of activism and personal fulfillment, while I also acknowledge that not everyone is going to have the same gender and sexual identity forever. The stigma that comes both with the assumption that genderqueer-related identities, bisexuality, and pansexuality are invariably stepping stones to another identity, and also the assumption that if there is change or questioning along the lines ofany identities, it is somehow more spurious, are assumptions that only cause harm.
Why are these identity groups somehow more likely to be seen as confused about themselves than cisgender or monosexual identities? Members of these groups often take some time to question and find out what they want and what they want to be sexually as well. Again, what about people who have such identities for life? Are they somehow more ‘really’ [insert identity here] than those who transition from one identity to another? I don’t think so.
What’s so bad about someone taking some time to figure themselves out anyway, if that’s the case? What about gay men and lesbians who thought they were straight or were encouraged to be straight until they realized it wasn’t for them? What’s so bad about identifying one way and then another way later on? Identifying the same way for the rest of your life? Couldn’t any identity be a step to another later on, a personal exploration? Or not. Neither a fixed nor fluid identity are inherently bad things. It’s the assumptions that certain identities are more changeable than others, and that if changeability exists that it is suspect, that I take issue with.
I personally doubt that, as my life goes on, I will identify much differently than I have since I was a teenager. I have always been attracted to men and as soon as I was old enough to conceive of it and develop a more concrete sexual identity, I have had a very strong gay male identification (while not identifying as a man). I already knew I didn’t identify as a woman when I was younger, and “man” doesn’t fit me either, so genderqueer and androgyne are the most accurate descriptors for me in the way of gender. I feel very comfortable with identifying as an androsexual / gay-male identified gq androgyne. The relief the understanding of these identities brings and knowing that other people out there exist who I share similarities with equals immeasurable comfort. All the same, I can just hear the reactions of people in the future, should I decide other words are more appropriate, or perhaps if I make a transition-related move like wanting hormones and surgery. “Aha! They were really an [insert identity here] all along.” I know that is so, so, so not true. I know I am very much what I am right now and I am prepared for that to either stay very much the same, or even to potentially change, down the road in my life.
gqid:
I had previously posted about the availability of my Genderqueer History and Identities project, prepared for an LGBT American History class, on Google Docs. Now it is available as a direct PDF link as well as on the Genderqueer Identities Tumblr itself via the sidebar. Follow the links!:
What is “Genderqueer”?: Defining genderqueer
Genderqueer History: Includes Beginnings (late 1980s, early 1990s, up to 2001), Popularization and Community (2002 through 2006), Recent Developments (2007 to 2010), and Criticism.
Beginnings focuses on what set the stage genderqueer communities, including postmodernism, transgender and feminist writings challenging and expanding upon the concept of gender, and authors such as Leslie Feinberg, Kate Bornstein, and Riki Anne Wilchins, up through the formation of communities like Genderqueer Boyzz in 1997 and GenderQueer Revolution in 2001.Popularization and Community chronicles the publication of the anthology GenderQueer: Voices from Beyond the Binary (2002) which allowed the word to slip into more mainstream usage and understanding, and news stories throughout the 2000s highlighting self-identification with the term and genderqueer issues (such as gender neutral bathrooms). Recent Developments briefly looks at Kate Bornstein’s revisiting of Gender Outlaws with Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, some news coverage, Jess Five’s genderqueer seahorse symbol, and Internet community activity.Criticism covers some of the relation of genderqueer to politics and feminism.
Identities and Concepts: Quotes sources such as the Trans and Queer Wellness Initiative to provide definitions for terms / identities commonly associated with genderqueerness, including androgyne, bigender, gender fluid, and neutrois.
I will be posting ‘bite-sized’ excerpts from my project and material cited in the project from time to time via Tumblr in the coming days.
Please use the GQID ask box to make suggestions on information to potentially add to the project, particularly if you think that something major was missing! To my knowledge there has not been a thorough resource for genderqueer history compiled - we’re making history by chronicling this history! I’ve become so passionate about this particularly because if this kind of information was out there when I was struggling to figure my own gender and sexual identity out, I would have been joyful and relieved to know that I was not alone, and that there was a history of non-binary identity stretching back farther than I could’ve ever previously imagined.
Cheers,
~Marilyn Roxie
This is a project that was, and is, very important to me that I recently finished. If you’re interested in queer / genderqueer / trans issues and people at all, please do check it out!
An online college seminar on transgender studies that has been made publicly available. Hurray for trans education!
Seminar in Transgender Studies
Below is the syllabus to the Seminar in Transgender Studies taught by Dr. Talia Mae Bettcher at California State University, Los Angeles.
Feel free to “take the class” at your leisure. Comments/suggestions to the syllabus are welcome.
Course Description
This seminar is a graduate-level introduction to the interdisciplinary field of transgender studies. Because it is a philosophy seminar, there will be a particular emphasis on theoretical issues.
Just skimmed through this and there are some great readings here. A wonderful idea!
gqid:
The September 2010 genderqueer flag is a design proposal of mine (Marilyn Roxie | neonsigh on Tumblr), modified from an initial attempt I had made in June 2010. The new design is more clear and is aesthetically similar to the gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual, and pansexual flags - that is, a series of horizontal colored bars, each with special meaning, and intended to unique groups and spread awareness. The meaning of the colors in the genderqueer flag design is as follows:
- lavender - the mixing of blue and pink (traditional male and female colors, also present on the trans flag); meant to represent those under the GQ umbrella who feel they are both male and female in identity, as well as “queerness”, as for example, lavender has been associated with homosexuality and bisexuality
- dark chartreuse green - the inverse of the lavender color; meant to represent GQ individuals who feel they are neither male nor female in identity,
- white - meant to represent GQ individuals falling completely outside of the gender binary.
Feel free to spread this image around and utilize it however you like! For more information, see here, from a newly launched Tumblr on genderqueer identities: http://gqid.tumblr.com/about-flag
Somebody please tell me why most of my outfits/my life are composed of these colors?
Astounded. I’m not genderqueer but I will be using this as my homosexual flag.
That or the pansexual one, considering I prefer all of those colors.What, I sort of hate rainbows.
Aww, that’s really cool to hear! I am amazed and happy this has 100+ notes now, even though it’s a bit of a prototype - going to do some fine-tuning soon, but the colors and scheme will probably stay largely the same.
(Source: gqid, via metacosmic)
gqid:
The September 2010 genderqueer flag is a design proposal of mine (Marilyn Roxie | neonsigh on Tumblr), modified from an initial attempt I had made in June 2010. The new design is more clear and is aesthetically similar to the gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual, and pansexual flags - that is, a series of horizontal colored bars, each with special meaning, and intended to unique groups and spread awareness. The meaning of the colors in the genderqueer flag design is as follows:
- lavender - the mixing of blue and pink (traditional male and female colors, also present on the trans flag); meant to represent those under the GQ umbrella who feel they are both male and female in identity, as well as “queerness”, as for example, lavender has been associated with homosexuality and bisexuality
- dark chartreuse green - the inverse of the lavender color; meant to represent GQ individuals who feel they are neither male nor female in identity,
- white - meant to represent GQ individuals falling completely outside of the gender binary.
Feel free to spread this image around and utilize it however you like! For more information, see here, from a newly launched Tumblr on genderqueer identities: http://gqid.tumblr.com/about-flag
(Source: gqid)
The Genderqueer flag is a new design created by Marilyn Roxie (neonsigh). You can read more info on GQ on Wiki.
—-
As no standard GQ flag appeared to exist (though there are gay/lesbian pride, bisexual, and transgender flags), I decided to create one! The lavender color is to represent the combination of blue and pink (included in the trans flag and also traditional male and female colors), the green is the inverse of this color and meant to represent those who go beyond gender binary identities, white stands for androgynous, as well as neutrality.
The lettering is a GQ symbol (Futura Bk Bold font) I made so the letters intersect. If you like the design of this flag, please like and reblog! I have other ideas about it’s usage (such as how the white strip down the side could be used for individuals / groups of people to insert gender and orientation symbols), though these are still in development. Send your questions, suggestions for alternative designs, and comments to: http://neonsigh.tumblr.com/ask
