Feminist Germaine Greer Goes on Anti-Trans Rant Over Caitlyn Jenner

Prominent feminist Germaine Greer is being denounced for claiming that transgender women “can’t be women.” And in defending her original remarks, Greer has ignited long-simmering tensions between some self-proclaimed feminists and transgender women. 

In an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight Friday, Greer reacted harshly to the news that Caitlyn Jenner would be named one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year. While the magazine has not yet made an official announcement, Jenner and Reese Witherspoon are both rumored to be included in the December issue, which will mark the 25th anniversary of the tradition, according to Gossip Cop.

“I think misogyny plays a really big part in all of this,” Greer told the BBC, “that a man who goes to these lengths to become a woman will be a better woman than someone who is just born a woman.”

When Greer’s BBC comments drew backlash, including a petition to have a scheduled lecture canceled, she responded to the fury both in the media and online, with a statement laced with profanity:

“Just because you lop off your dick and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a fucking woman. I’ve asked my doctor to give me long ears and liver spots and I’m going to wear a brown coat but that won’t turn me into a fucking cocker spaniel.

“I do understand that some people are born intersex and they deserve support in coming to terms with their gender but it’s not the same thing. A man who gets his dick chopped off is actually inflicting an extraordinary act of violence on himself.”

Greer’s response made explicit the transphobia she unleashed in the Newsnight interview, where she suggested that trans women are “not women” because, according to her, many people do not think that they “look like, sound like, or behave like women.”

She also repeated old criticism of Jenner’s transition to womanhood, claiming that it is a media ploy designed to steal the spotlight from her ex-wife, daughters, and stepdaughters and their hit E! reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Jenner flatly rejected that theory in a March interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer.

Greer’s comments are hardly her first public anti-trans statements. Her seminal 1999 book, The Whole Woman, denounced transgender women as “men who believe that they are women and have had themselves castrated,” according to The Huffington Post U.K. 

In 2009, the native Australian academic, long a U.K. resident, suggested in a Guardian article that trans women were “deluded” for “thinking” they are women.

At a Cambridge University speech this year, Greer insisted that trans women do not deserve womanhood because they do not understand what it is like to possess what she called “a big, hairy, smelly vagina.”

Even more worrisome given the rise in anti-trans violence, Greer went on to tell Cambridge students that transphobia does not exist. 

But after Greer’s latest comments on Newsnight, the backlash has been swift and loud.

An online petition with 2,000-plus signatures urged Cardiff University to revoke her invitation to speak at the school November 18 on the grounds that she spreads hate. In response, Greer canceled her lecture, reports The Independent.

Both trans advocates and queer theorists have counted Greer her among the top of so-called trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs, along with figures such as Cathy Brennan, Sheila Jeffreys, and Janice Raymond. 

Whether Greer considers herself radical is open to question, but she is a self-described feminist. She addressed her beliefs March 8 during the “All About Women” panel at the Sydney Opera House:

“I’ve always been a liberation feminist. I’m not an equality feminist. I think that’s a profoundly conservative aim, and it wouldn’t change anything. It would just mean that women were implicated.”

While Greer decries what she terms the misogyny behind Jenner’s rise in the media, Greer’s own anti-trans stance is reflective of what advocates like Laura Kacere at Everyday Feminism call transmisogyny. 

Kacere used that word last year to describe “the confluence of … negative attitudes, expressed through cultural hate, individual and state violence, and discrimination directed toward trans women and trans and gender non-conforming people on the feminine end of the gender spectrum.” 

According to Kacere:

“Trans women experience a particular kind of sexist marginalization based in their unique position of overlapping oppressions — they are both trans and feminine. They are devalued by society on both accounts. …  Understanding transmisogyny is absolutely imperative to our work as feminists, and makes clear just how integral trans issues and rights are to our work around gender.”

Watch Greer’s original comments to the BBC about trans women here.

Cleis Abeni

www.advocate.com/caitlyn-jenner/2015/10/26/feminist-germaine-greer-goes-anti-trans-rant-over-caitlyn-jenner

Mr. Smith Goes to Uganda: International Mr. Leather's Worldwide Mission for Equality
Chicago has been known to have some very cold winters, but one thing’s for sure: Every Memorial Day weekend, the so-called “Windy City” becomes the hottest place in the world for the GLBT’s tight-knit Leather community. That’s because thousands of Leathermen, Leatherwomen, kinksters of all varieties and their admirers from all over the globe convene for International Mr. Leather (IML). The long weekend always kicks off with pre-IML activities on Thursday, and the traditional grand finale is the “Black and Blue Ball” on Monday night. In between, there are educational seminars, meet-and-greets, merchandise marts, silent auctions and many, many parties to represent a wide range of the community’s assorted fetishes and kinks. IML, widely considered to be the “Big Daddy” of all the Leather events in the world, is all about Leather awareness and education, unity in the Kink and the GLBT community at large and… celebration! And, of course, there’s that climactic moment on Sunday evening when one lucky man is selected to be the face of the Leather Nation. What was born as a relatively small annual event in the 1970’s — the “Mr. Gold Coast” Contest held at Chicago’s Gold Coast Leather bar — has gradually became the major happening that it is as we approach 2016. IML has expanded from 12 contestants its first year to 52 in 2015, with men from a large number of different countries who encompass many ethnicities, ages and lifestyles.

Patrick Smith of Los Angeles is International Mr. Leather 2015. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the classically handsome Leatherman had been named both “Eagle LA Mr. Leather 2015” and “Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2015” in March early this year. At his big win in Chicago, his mother and sisters joined him on stage in what was one of the most memorable moments of IML 37. As full-time Ambassador for the Leather Community, Smith is determined to emphasize the “International” in his Title. He is committed to the fight for universal GLBT equality as well as for the unapologetic sexual freedom that characterizes the Leather community. That commitment included traveling abroad.

Prior to winning the title, Smith had traveled to India and to numerous Latin American countries. Not long after IML, he was off to Uganda, the African country which received widespread attention in North America for the law that was nicknamed the “Kill The Gays Bill.” The hard-line stance in that nation was largely stimulated in 2009, when a Member of Parliament introduced The Anti Homosexuality Act. The Act would have broadened the criminalization of same-sex relationships in Uganda, as well as introducing the death penalty for “serial offenders,” HIV-positive people who engaged in sexual activity with people of the same sex, and persons who engaged in same-sex sexual acts with people under 18 years of age. In addition, individuals or companies that “promoted” LGBT rights would be fined, imprisoned or both. A slightly watered-down law (punishment of life in prison, instead of the death penalty, for “aggravated homosexuality”) eventually emerged in 2014. That law was annulled (on a technicality), but not before ushering in the more extreme and even violent spirit of homophobia which exists today.

Homosexuality remains a criminal act in Uganda. In fact, it’s well known that a lot of African countries are not safe spaces for openly gay people– for religious and/or political reasons. Smith offers his own observations on the subject:

There is a deep fear and misunderstanding of the GLBT community among many Africans, which is being stoked by irresponsible church leaders and politicians. And in many ways, it’s not unlike the prejudices that were being spread in the Western world not so long ago. Anti-gay figureheads in Africa speak about the need to ‘protect’ children from GLBT people, which echoes the messaging used by U.S. anti-gay figures such as Anita Bryant in the 1970s. And it’s no coincidence — there is a disturbing amount of cooperation between U.S. anti-gay groups and African politicians to pass the heinous legislation that we’re seeing there. That’s why it’s important we continue to fight these anti-gay groups here at home. Despite our recent domestic victories, people are still in need of our help abroad.

It’s a safe bet that most of us will probably never make it to Uganda! Was the visit a culture shock for Smith? He tells me:

There was a culture shock, but I will say that the people of Uganda are incredibly warm and friendly, and did all they could to make me feel welcome. Day-to-day life is so different based on your socioeconomic status there. On one hand, I visited a church with some of the country’s most affluent citizens all dressed to the nines, who could fit into the Western world without anyone batting an eye. On the other hand, you see extreme poverty with citizens selling their wares on the side of the road just to make enough to put food on the table.

I asked Smith if the natives reacted a certain way to a tall, striking-looking Caucasian stranger visiting their homeland. He responded:

They did. I visited a school in a rural part of the country and I had the incredible opportunity to conduct a lengthy Q&A session with an eighth grade class. I was told that for most of the students, it was their first time seeing a white person face-to-face. Later in the village, I did turn a few heads, but it was nothing threatening– just genuine curiosity. Everyone I spoke with was very pleased that I was visiting. They are very proud of their country, and looking beyond the human rights concerns, it is a beautiful place.

What was the most challenging part of Smith’s visit to the African country?

It was actually a bit of a challenge contacting and getting meetings with the community leaders there, but for good reason. Everything is so underground. They have to be very, very careful about whom they put their trust into to meet with, to disclose their address to, etc. There is the very real risk of entrapment for them there. So it took many conversations over e-mail, Facebook and by phone before a level of trust was built allowing me to visit their homes and places of work.

Smith still doesn’t know if the Ugandan government ever knew about his visit. He tells me:

They certainly didn’t know in advance of my visit; I was very discreet in the lead-up to it. My family actually begged me not to go, and while that wasn’t an option for me, I did commit to not publicizing the trip in advance. The most nerve-wracking part of the trip was going through customs once I landed. I had only one backpack with me, which contained my IML sash, correspondence between me and some of the most prominent gay rights activists in Uganda and a computer full of research on the status of the gay community in the country. I was terrified I would be selected for a random search. I still don’t know what would have happened if they had searched me.

After Uganda, Smith went on to visit the Ukraine. When I asked him about why he chose to visit there, he tells me:

I wanted to learn about how the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict has affected the community there. I was actually expecting a better situation than what I found, which is unfortunate. Despite now living under a pro-European Union regime, things have gotten worse for the gay community since the revolution in 2014. Pro-Russian forces in Ukrainian border communities are terrorizing GLBT people there — assaulting them, driving them out of their homes. I met with four women living in a shelter in Kiev, who had to flee their homes in Donetsk and Luhansk along the Russian border. They had to pack up everything and flee at a moment’s notice, fearing for their safety due to their sexual identity. It was a terribly heartbreaking story to hear.

A lot of American GLBT’s may wonder why they should care about what happens in foreign countries, when we are still fighting our own struggle for equality on a day-to-day basis. What would International Mr. Leather say to them? He answers:

I would ask them to think, next time they’re sipping champagne at a friend’s same-sex wedding, about what life would be like if they had to fear an 18-year prison sentence for having sex with the person they love. I do understand that there are still battles to be fought at home, but we are light years ahead of where these people are in the international community. And the reason I’m going to these places is to hopefully bring some awareness to this. Should we keep fighting for employment non-discrimination and ending the ban on donating blood? Absolutely. But I think we should start focusing more and more resources on our GLBT brothers and sisters abroad, who are fighting for their lives.

I ask him: As individuals, what can each and every one of us in the U.S. and Canada do to fight for equality worldwide on a daily basis on a local level? He tells me:

There are a few things we can do. First: Money talks. The groups I met with are all able to accept foreign donations, and we must be willing to open our wallets to help them. We also must continue to put political pressure on our leaders to call out GLBT rights violations abroad. In Uganda, it worked. Their most recent anti-gay bill was struck down by the courts and activists, and we are optimistic it will never come back thanks to the international backlash it received in the first go-around. Lastly, there are a disgusting number of US-based anti-gay groups that are funding and lobbying for international anti-gay legislation that would throw GLBT people in jail for life, or worse. We need to work to expose these groups here at home, handicap their fundraising efforts and get them listed as registered hate groups.

For many people, Leathermen are seen as the epitome of classic masculinity and overt, unapologetic sexuality. Arguably the most visible member of the worldwide Leather community, Patrick Smith is clearly not content to be solely a sex symbol or a nightlife presence. He tells me, “I love the Leather contests and the parties, but it’s more rewarding for me to learn about– and hopefully, help to influence — the state of our community in parts of the world where GLBT people still live on the fringes of society.” Only five months into his reign as International Mr. Leather, Smith has clearly shown his willingness to venture into unfamiliar (and possibly even unsafe) territory to reach his goals. This is one leader worth following!

You can follow Patrick Smith at www.PatrickJonSmith.com. To learn more about IML, visit www.IMRL.com.

(All photos courtesy of Patrick Smith.)

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Open Question: Should I put my ex girlfriend out of her misery?
I got back in my touch with my ex girlfriend and now we’re good friends. She has definitely changed a lot, and I think it’s some sort of disease that’s poisoning her mind. She started talking about the LGBT community and the 100 different f*cking flags for imaginary genders Tumblr has created, talking sh*t about religions and people like Christians, Muslims, etc. and how she’s a radical atheist. I think some sort of virus has infected her brain with these thoughts and I think she shouldn’t suffer anymore. Should I pull the trigger and put her out of her misery? I can tell the real her is in pain and agonizing because she watches Steven Universe and reads Homestuck. The real her would never be involved with such cancerous things.

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151026184001AAvWOPi

Accenture to Receive Corporate Equality Award at the 2016 HRC Greater NY Gala

Accenture has consistently earned a perfect score of 100 on the HRC’s CEI, a long-term supporter of LGBT equality, and was one of the first companies to sign on in support of HRC’s groundbreaking global workplace equality coalition committed to advancing LGBT workplace equality around the world.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/accenture-to-receive-corporate-equality-award-at-the-2016-hrc-greater-ny-ga?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

WATCH: This Gay Vlogger Is Supporting Trump (Not Ironically)

Whether it’s a play for attention or a sincere claim of devotion, gay vlogger Kyle Kittleson released a video Sunday declaring his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Kittleson cites three main reason for supporting the incendiary candidate, who catapulted himself up the polls through divisive rhetoric about women and undocumented Americans. Trump’s shaky stances on infrastructure, immigration, and equality are the issues that sold Kittleson. 

The vlogger claims Trump will invest in new roads and hospitals that help invigorate the economy (as per his style, the candidate has released few specifics on what exactly will be funded and how). Kittleson also likes Trump’s immigration stance, which has called for a massive wall built between the U.S. and Mexico. The vlogger mentions the number of hungry people in the country and says, “Why would we make [hunger] worse by opening up a stream of illegal immigrants?”

Finally, Kittleson says Trump supported equal rights for LGBT people long before Hillary Clinton did. Kittleson cites a 2000 interview in The Advocate where Trump expressed support for legal same-sex unions and protections against work discriminations.

Kittleson says he’s far from the only gay fan of Trump. “I have a lot of gay friends who totally support Trump but won’t support him publicly. Why? Because they’re afraid they’ll lose their clients, their friends, and their gay card.”

Watch the video below via Towleroad.

Neal Broverman

www.advocate.com/election/2015/10/26/watch-gay-vlogger-supporting-trump-not-ironically

The Evolution of Leadership: Hillary Clinton and DOMA
Today, regardless of lessons learned over the years, it is important that every young person understand that Hillary Clinton is one of the most important global voices on LGBT human rights in our time.

In the past few days there has been a lot of talk about Hillary Clinton and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA was a 1996 piece of legislation designed to deny marriage equality to gay couples. President Bill Clinton opted to support DOMA early to take it out of play in advance of the 1996 election. At the time, I headed the largest LGBT advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign, and was quite literally in the maelstrom of this painful battle.

How DOMA was handled by the Clinton Administration was wrong. It was constitutionally indefensible. It was also a time when so many Americans were still caught in a fog of misunderstanding about LGBT Americans and the issues that affect our lives. That made for foggy judgment.

In recent days, some have been trying to reconcile presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with the first lady Clinton, circa 1996, on this issue. Here is my take. Putting aside the fact that the decision on DOMA in 1996 was not Hillary’s to make, the Hillary of 1996 is not the Presidential Candidate of today. She knows that DOMA was discriminatory and wrong. Her perspective and knowledge on LGBT issues has deepened extensively since those days.

Her views have now been shaped by 20 years of being a serious student of repressive anti-gay global policies around the world; an observer of the devastating effect of anti-gay policies, including DOMA, on friends and family here at home; and, a leader who has had plenty of time to reflect on ways to be very effective in tough political moments. Secretary Clinton has emerged as among the most important global voices on LGBT rights.

This is a Secretary of State that made a historic UN speech, stating simply: “Gay rights are Human rights.” And, she implemented the most LGBT supportive human resources policies in the history of the government as both a Senator and Secretary of state. For all of her leadership, I am grateful.

I trust the more experienced and wiser Hillary Clinton of today to lead on this and many other critical issues, both domestically and around the world. We still live in a country where there are no basic LGBT civil rights protections in areas like employment, housing and public accommodation. With the monumental Supreme Court victory on marriage equality behind us, it is time to finish the job. And to complete that work, I will be counting on President Hillary Clinton.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Open Question: How do you feel about the LGBT Community?
Just wondering

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151026152822AAsjEeH

Here’s Your Chance To Own A Piece Of Rentboy.com

Things aren’t looking good for rentboy.com. In fact, they’re looking pretty bad.

In August, the company’s Manhattan headquarters were raided by the FBI and NYPD. CEO Jeffrey Hurant and six others were arrested on suspicion of promoting interstate prostitution and money laundering. The company’s bank accounts containing millions of dollars were frozen and its website was seized by Homeland Security.

Related: Six Questions About Homeland Security’s Attack On Rentboy

Now, the company is selling its office supplies and furniture on Craigslist in an effort to raise money to pay for its mounting legal fees.

“We are selling the contents of the former offices of rentboy.com,” the ad reads. “This sale has loads of goodies.”

Some of these “goodies” include glass desks, chairs, filing cabinets, and video monitors. Other items for sale include cables, software, books, magazines, artwork, lamps, a copy machine, and “a lot of special, one of a kind rentboy.com ephemera.”

“We are trying to raise funds for our legal defense,” the ad explains, “so please consider your purchases as going to a good cause.”

Check out the ad to see what’s available.

Related: The Reformed Hooker: A Rentboy Explains How His Life Has Been Changed

Graham Gremore

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/ejo7p3kIe5I/heres-your-chance-to-own-a-piece-of-rentboy-com-20151026

What To Watch On TV This Week: GOP Candidates Debate; ‘Supergirl’ Debuts

Check out our weekly guide to make sure you’re catching the big premieres, crucial episodes and the stuff you won’t admit you watch when no one’s looking.

— Halloween comes a few days early when a bunch of ghouls share horror stories about the future of this country on the next Republican Presidential Debate, Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern on CNBC. This showing, subtitled “Your Money, Your Vote,” will no doubt discuss how trick or treating is creating the next welfare generation dependent on Tootsie Pop handouts.

Check out more TV picks for the week below!

— Glee’s Melissa Benoist joins Calista Flockhart and Grey’s Anatomy’s Chyler Leigh in the new comic book-inspired series, Supergirl. Catch the new adventure of the Man of Steel’s cousin Monday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

— The ‘80s are, like, totally to die for on the new series Wicked City, debuting Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern on ABC. It’s a little Bonnie and Clyde meets American Psycho as a couple of killers (Ed Westwick and Erika Christensen) terrorize L.A.’s Sunset Strip in the era of excess.

— If the prospect of GOP leadership isn’t frightening enough, treat yourself to some scares on American Horror Story: Hotel, Wednesday at 10 p.m. on FX. If tradition holds, the last episode before Halloween is always a doozy, so you won’t want to miss this one.

— Lesbian alt rocker Courtney Barnett takes the stage on a new Austin City Limits, Saturday on PBS (check your local listings for time). She’ll be ripping through tunes from her excellent debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit.

What are you watching on TV this week?

The post What To Watch On TV This Week: GOP Candidates Debate; ‘Supergirl’ Debuts appeared first on Towleroad.

Bobby Hankinson

What To Watch On TV This Week: GOP Candidates Debate; ‘Supergirl’ Debuts

26,000 Urge Utah Gov. to Stand Up to Hate Group

More than 26,000 people have signed a petition urging Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to cancel his welcoming address to the antigay World Congress of Families’ conference tomorrow in Salt Lake City — an act that has been characterized as welcoming hate to the state.

The governor, however, has not responded to the petition, initiated by the international LGBT group All Out. Supporters of All Out made sure 40,000 Utahns saw that Herbert will address the meeting, with a targeted ad campaign on Facebook.  

The World Congress of Families is a project of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, based in Rockford, Ill. The center bills itself as “a center for research on the natural family” and calls the congress “the world’s premier pro-family gathering.” Opposition to homosexuality is a hallmark of both the center and the congress, which together are designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

All Out is not the first group to object to Gov. Herbert’s appearance at the meeting; the Human Rights Campaign put out a statement about the matter last month. “It’s astonishing that the governor of Utah would allow himself to be mentioned in the same sentence as the World Congress of Families — let alone be in the same room with them,” said Ty Cobb, director of HRC Global. “To be clear: This is a hate group that’s literally convening thousands of extremists from around the globe to strategize and share information about their nefarious activism. Hate is not an American value, and we call on Governor Herbert to cancel his appearance.”

The list of speakers and panelists for this year’s meeting includes such well-known antigay figures as Rev. Rafael Cruz, father of Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz; National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown; Family Research Council fellow Peter Sprigg; columnist Robert Knight; publicist Frank Schubert, a leader of the campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California; Mark Regnerus, author of a discredited study that disparaged the parenting skills of gays and lesbians; anti–marriage equality activists Janice Shaw Crouse and Jennifer Roback Morse; and minister Rick Scarborough.

Crouse, who is executive director of the conference, has in the past “urged the Ugandan government to take a ‘biblical and cultural stand against the radical homosexual agenda’ and traveled to Russia in support of the regime’s deeply anti-LGBT ‘propaganda’ law,” Cobb noted. WCF managing director Larry Jacobs has acknowledged, proudly, that the group has contributed to the anti-LGBT climate in Russia, Cobb added.

“WCF has praised Vladimir Putin as the standard-bearer for ‘morality’ and honored a Nigerian activist [Theresa Okafor] who claims LGBT advocates conspire with the terrorist group Boko Haram with a ‘Woman of the Year’ award,” said Cobb. “Their advocacy abroad harms LGBT people from Russia to Nigeria and beyond. Try as they may to mask their views, WCF’s positions and support for policies that target and marginalize LGBT people and incite animus around the world are undeniable.”

Speaking to The Salt Lake Tribune in September, Crouse replied that HRC and SPLC have mischaracterized the WCF. “She contends that the WCF gathers ‘scholars, government and religious leaders, health care professionals and advocates’ to share research and discuss issues that affect the family, including health, pornography, addiction and family stability,” the paper reports.

Jon Cox, a spokesman for Herbert, confirmed that the governor will speak at the conference, the Tribune reports. (His wife, Jeanette, is also scheduled to appear, both at the welcome and on a panel.) A statement from Cox defended Herbert’s record on LGBT issues, noting that he signed into law a bill that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Gov. Herbert’s record is clear on the issue of nondiscrimination,” Cox said. “He is proud to have signed into law SB296, which provides unprecedented protections for religious groups and members of the LGBT community.”

However, under Herbert, the state defended its ban on same-sex marriage, and the governor, a Republican, accepted marriage equality — reluctantly — only after the U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling striking down the ban.

Utah’s attorney general, Sean Reyes, who led the state’s defense of the ban, is also scheduled to speak at the conference, as is Utah legislator Kim Coleman.

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politics/2015/9/23/utah-gov-will-welcome-anti-lgbt-conference-state