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Today, there are countless ways to identify as trans, with new ways being created all the time, mostly by younger trans people. Gender was never a binary, and that has become especially evident in recent years.

The post Transgender culture and community, now and then appeared first on OUPblog.

by Jo Knowles    Henry Holt  2011   When fifteen year old Pearl (aka Bean) loses her grandfather, the one person she felt knew and loved her best, a whole world of secrets open up that forces her to question everything she's ever believed about her world.   Pearl, who goes by the nickname Bean, and her best friend Henry are self-separated outcasts. Henry's mom Sally spends her days watching

Neuroscientist Simon LeVay has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and is well-known for a 1991 study in which he reported on a difference in brain structure between gay and straight men. His forthcoming book Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation examines the evidence that suggests sexual orientation results primarily from an interaction between genes, sex hormones, and the cells of the developing body and brain. In this original post, LeVay explains how he initially reacts to new reported findings in this field.

I often lecture on the topic of sexual orientation. When I do, I sometimes mention research on finger lengths: according to several studies, the index fingers of lesbians are slightly shorter than those of straight women, when measured with respect to the other fingers. As I describe this research, I invariably see audience members examining their own fingers, as if doing so might reveal something unexpected about their sexuality. I hasten to make clear that the findings on finger lengths are based on statistical analysis of data from hundreds or thousands of subjects—they can’t be used to assess the sexual orientation of any particular individual.

Yet I myself use the “me test” as a gut reaction to any reported findings in the field. Not to figure out whether I’m really gay—I’ve been confident on that score since puberty—but as a quick, involuntary assessment of whether I believe that particular finding or not. As a teenager, for example, I read Freud’s theory of how close-binding mothers and distant or hostile fathers drive their sons toward homosexuality. This seemed to correspond to my own childhood experience: I was my mother’s favorite son, whereas I got on badly with my father. So I thought Freud must have been right. Now I believe that the direction of causation is the reverse of what Freud imagined: “pre-gay” boys tend to elicit adoration or protectiveness from their mothers, but rejection from their fathers.

Recent research has focused on gender-related traits in gay people. There have been over ninety such findings in the last couple of decades, covering personality, cognitive traits, behavior, anatomy (including the finger-length studies), physiology, and brain organization. Most have reported that gay men are shifted in the feminine direction in some traits, whereas lesbians and bisexual women are shifted in the masculine direction. As each study appears, I can’t help asking: is it true for me? Gay men (like straight women) have higher verbal fluency than straight men—check! Gay men have lower visuospatial abilities that straight men—check! Gay men have slightly shorter arms—check! I seem to be a pretty stereotypical gay man in many of these traits. Most researchers interpret these findings in terms of a biological predisposition to become gay or straight—a predisposition that results from an interaction between sex hormones and the developing brain and body. I certainly buy into that.

Other evidence has po

Scars by Cheryl Rainfield. Westfield Books, 2010. ISBN 9781934813324. $16.95 250 pp Grades 8 -adult. Read reviews about Scars here. 

In Scars Cheryl Rainfield  has created a vibrant character, Kendra,  who realistically deals with an unbelievable number of issues in just 250 pages. Fifteen year old Kendra experiences flashbacks as she tries to recall the identity of her abuser. Since she suppressed these painful memories, attempting to deal with them causes her emotional pain which she then attempts to release through cutting, or self-harm. Her mother is unsupportive of Kendra’s artistic efforts, individuality, and sexual orientation. To make her therapy more difficult, Kendra must deal with a stalker who seems to be trying to prevent her memory from returning.

The strands of these issues weave together an amazing story until suddenly they form a tapestry of betrayal with a shocking conclusion.

Scars was difficult for me to read and I have struggled over sharing with you about this title.  Unfortunately, like the author, I was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and can relate to the emotions of her character. Like Kendra, the abuse was not addressed until I was much older. During Kendra’s remarkable journey of uncovering her memories of who her abuser was, we are given flashbacks to the actual incidents. These were very hard for me to read because I tried to suppress my own memories growing up. Until there was a confrontation between family members who had known of the abuse  and myself at age 18, I did not know that anyone had ever been aware the abuse had occurred. 

They thought they had managed to shame the abuser into stopping and that I wasn’t left alone with him from that point until his death when I was just 7. When the confrontation occurred at 18 years of age, I shared some of the flashbacks and memories of what had happened in the intervening time, which then shocked the family members into revealing some of their own abuse. Suddenly I was dealing with their grief and remorse at not having adequately protected me at the same time as I was battling my own anger with everyone’s silence at their own abuse. How did I handle this at 18? I suppressed it again to mention it casually through the years as if I had dealt with it and moved on. I played the role of good girl who didn’t discuss it with any other family members who might be hurt by any tarnishing of the memory of this person.

It wasn’t until I was reading Scars that I faced the fact that I have not managed to forget or move on. I have made choices in my life based upon my fears and situational similarities to memories of the past. In the past I have either reacted with stiffness at men’s attempts to casually display affection or I have gone to the other extreme.

One of the best parts of this book is the resource section at the back for others who are dealing with any of the issues involved in Scars. This is the most comprehensive list I’ve seen. I have had a student come to me to request more information and access to these titles particularly titles on cutting. While I cannot be a counselor for all 1000 students, I can connect them to good counselors, websites, books, and more. I have resources for a counselor for myself if I choose to learn how to handle these memories.

After reading Scars, I was looking for an opportunity to share the ARC with a student to get his or

Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, and is appointed in the Law School, Philosophy Department, and Divinity School.  She is the founder and coordinator of the Center for Comparative Constitutionalism. Her book, From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation & Constitutional Law argues that disgust has been among the fundamental motivations of those who are fighting for a variety of legal restrictions affecting lesbian and gay citizens. In the excerpt below Nussbaum uses religious history as a metaphor to inspire us to treat all citizens as equals regardless of sexual orientation.

Many of the first American colonists came to the New World in search of religious freedom.  Dissenters of many types from the Anglican orthodoxy of Britain…they sought both the freedom to express their beliefs without penalty and the freedom to practice their chosen forms of worship.  Often, they failed to connect their search to politics of respect and toleration inclusive of those who disagreed with them…

Gradually, however, the very experience of living – often in taxing physical conditions – with people whose religious convictions differed from their own led many colonists to the realization that a good common life, and perhaps survival itself, required protecting religious liberty for all, and doing so with an even hand. Such policies had practical sources: people needed one another’s help if they were going to flourish in the new land…They began to notice that it was possible to live together on the basis of a moral consensus about values such as fairness, honesty, and impartiality, without necessarily agreeing on theological principles…

The trend in favor of religious liberty emerged, then, from the very experience of living together.  It also had a theoretical foundation, in the idea of conscience that many if not most of the new settlers brought with them…According to this view, all human beings have a capacity for searching for life’s ultimate significance and moral basis – for the meaning of life, we might say.  This capacity is a key part of what constitutes our dignity as human beings.  Conscience is present in all human beings, regardless of their beliefs, and it is present equally…

The early settlers were very far from having a view that many if not most Americans now have – namely, that many, or even all, religions are legitimate paths to salvation.  Virtually none of the early colonists accepted such a view.  They all though that many of their fellow citizens were damned…We should not delude ourselves into thinking, then, that the policies of religious respect and fairness that gradually came to dominate in the colonies, shaping our Constitution, were inspired by respect for differing religious beliefs and practices.  Rather, they were inspired by a more basic underlying idea of respect for persons, for our fellow citizens as bearers of human dignity and conscience…Because human beings are of equal worth, conscience is deserving of equal respect.

…The American tradition…argues that respecting conscience involves granting ample liberty to each person to pursue his or her own way in matters of conscience.  Roger Williams used two illuminating metaphors.  Conscience, he said, must not be imprisoned – meaning that people must be given plenty of space to practice their religions, including acts of worship that