Category: Columns

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

by Monica F. Helms


?OK, class. Take your seats. It?s time to begin. My name is Ms. Monica Helms. I?ll be your instructor for Transgender 101 this semester. Let me start off by asking all of you to put your hands down. I already know what your first question is, because it?s the same one I get every semester. No, I am NOT related to Senator Jesse Helms. However, I would like to meet him one day and tell him I?m his long-lost niece/nephew and watch him keel over. If he has a heart attack, he?d better not expect mouth-to-mouth from me.?

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

Miqqi Alicia Gilbert

The name you will find on my birth certificate, driver?s license, and other official documents is Michael A. Gilbert. I?m a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy of York University in Toronto, Canada. York is the third-largest university in Canada, and I?ve been there for a very long time. In addition to the aforementioned name, I have another, which can be found on my IFGE membership card, numerous event badges, and the articles and columns I write for the transgender community. That name is Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, and it?s been my chosen femme name for over 15 years now (before that I was known as Shelley). I?ve taken the name Miqqi Alicia because I?m a lifelong crossdresser who, unusually, is out and public about his pastime. I?m 56 years old, have been married a few times, once for 14 years and divorced, once for two and widowed, and currently for 13 and neverending.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

? Arlene Istar Lev 2003, Rainbow Access Initiative, 518-471-9080
info@rainbowaccess.org, www.rainbowaccess.org

Assumption: Sex and Gender is the same thing
The terms ?gender? and ?sex? are often used interchangeably and conflated in common usage. People are as likely to say, ?There is a man,? as they are to say, ?There is a male,? not identifying any salient differences in the terminology used.

Reality Check:
Sex is the physiological makeup of human beings, referred to as their biological or natal sex, which includes a complex relationship of genetic, hormonal, morphological, biochemical and anatomical determinates that impact the physiology of the body and the sexual differentiation of the brain.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

by Li Anne W. Taft

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