Archive for January, 2011
Hide your Kids! A Gay Couple!
Jan 26th
At the Harps grocery store in Mountain Home, Arkansas, Jennifer Huddleston spotted the cover of Us Weekly — the one with Elton John and David Furnish and their newborn son Zachary — covered up like a common porn rag. Be forewarned, Harps: Sometimes magazines put unmarried pregnant women on their covers! [via] GLAAD has more on the issue.
0
No Dress For You
Jan 25th
Students at King City Public School in Toronto were all set to cross-dress last Friday as part of Opposite Gender Day — and then school officials abruptly cancelled the planned event, which encouraged K-8 students to attend classes in gender-bending apparel. The day, which was actually proposed by the Student Council and approved by the principal as part of a series of "Spirit Days," "has been cancelled in the wake of concerns of parents," school board member Ross Virgo said in a statement. "The idea of (kids) experiencing being people of the opposite gender has offended some people in the community, and the school does not want to do that. … [Students] discussed the fun that the day might generate, plus how the experience might help boys and girls understand a bit more what what it felt like to be a member of the opposite sex…That was the plan." Ah yes, the inevitable debate as to whether Opposite Gender Day helps kids develop understanding of gender roles or reinforces things like transphobia.
"I am 13 and on student council at this school," says a Toronto Sun commenter identifying herself as Jessica. "As a student council group we decided to hold a fun spirit day (opposite gender day). It was only meant to be fun. No one was meant to be offended by it, it was optional. Our school is a great school and please, if you don’t have anything nice to say about our school then please don’t say it at all. I love our school and I’m sure many others who are currently attending or have attended will agree with me." But what might be "fun" for some students might be torture for others. Notably, those whose gender identity doesn’t mesh with the norms of others.
So how do let kids express gender roles in an environment free from mockery? That’s an almost impossible scenario; these are kids, after all. (Not that I’d expect much more from gown adults.) But for the same reasons we should encourage trans students to freely express their gender identity in school, there’s definitely a benefit to encouraging gender normative kids to put themselves in the shoes — literally — of others for a change. The challenge, of course, is doing it in a way that’s responsible, rather than in a way that will have children throwing around words like "prissy," "queer," and "butch" in what’s guaranteed to be a derogatory manner. [via Queerty]
0
Japan’s Earliest Gender Therapy
Jan 22nd
A 12-year-old diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID) is to become Japan’s youngest ever recipient of hormonal gender therapy. The Hyogo prefecture student is in the 6th year of elementary school, and already lives as a girl. The hospital reports treatment will take the form of hormonal injections of “GnRH agonists” in an effort to obstruct the progress of a boy’s natural puberty. A program of monthly injections costs ¥35,000 as they are not covered by national health insurance.
Rather than attempting to change a child’s physical characteristics to conform to those of a particular sex as with traditional hormone replacement therapy, treatment with GnRH agonists aims to suppress puberty until a later date (generally the age of 16), at which time HRT can be begun with a view to eventual surgical alterations.
The diagnosis and subsequent “treatment” of pubescent or pre-pubescent children as having a “gender-identity disorder” itself is extremely controversial. Even amongst supporters of GID as a valid disorder, opinions range from it being a highly desirable measure due to the more complete transformation it allows, to those who criticise it as being ethically dubious or even an outright act of sexism or intolerance against more fluid or non-traditional gender roles. [via Sankaku Complex]
A similar case of hormone therapy started a the age of 12 with sex affirmation surgery eventually done at 16 was the one of German teen pop singer Kim Petras, shown below.
0
