The Other Sarah

Tag: Trans

  • The American justice system is rockin’ the suburbs

    Let me tell y’all what it’s like 
    Being male, middle class and white 
    It’s a bitch, if you don’t believe,
    Listen up to my new cd, shamone

    –Ben Folds, “Rockin’ the Suburbs”

    First off, I apologise to Mr. Folds for using his song about nu metal bands in a blog post about racism.

    A common meme in the political systems is that “racism is over”, because Barack Obama was elected in 2012. It’s pretty patently bullshit, though, because Obama is subject to a lot of racist shit that Bush, Clinton, Reagan, et cetera, did not receive as President, and it’s all sugar-coated in the guise of “I’m just asking questions” or “I’m just a concerned citizen”. Take a look at the birth certificate conspiracy theories, for example. Where are the people demanding Romney’s birth certificate? When you consider that the only other President to have received such questions was Chester A. Arthur, who was a) born close to the border and b) was Irish by descent (and therefore, the argument goes, Catholic, a political suicide in the 1800s), it’s seen in a different light. It runs through American conservatism, where the patriarchy of straight cis white Christian men must be upheld: look at their erasure of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement as racial conflicts, which they claim was about “state’s rights”, when it was about keeping the black population as second class citizens. (more…)

  • Transgender health in Leeds: An addendum

    Last month I wrote a post about the state of transgender health in the NHS in Leeds. However, I realise that the post, written from the perspective of a cisgender ally, misses out the most important aspect of all: the transgender perspective. I hence asked on the LUU LGBT Society’s group page for said perspective, which kind of confirmed what I thought: that the doctors at the student medical practice are really accepting of a person’s trans status, but it’s lagging in some areas: the lack of publicity and literature in the student practice, a lack of support groups, and a perceived slowness in the NHS (although that may just be the NHS’s inertia, and not just limited to transgender health).

    That said, other than the lack of awareness of these issues, I’m left with a slightly higher opinion of how Leeds treats trans people. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I don’t shut up about LGBT issues, and, of the people I know (although, given the circles I associate with, this may be skewed), nearly all of them are trans-positive. Especially the university’s LGBT society, who are absolutely brilliant. I did go back to the GP the other day, though, and there isn’t any literature I could find on gender issues, but, again, it may just be inertia. I hope that, even with the NHS changes coming through, that trans people will get better treatment (as it does needs to improved), and not worse over time. I personally think it will.

  • Transgender people and NHS Leeds

    Just a short post, based on something I came across today while waiting for an appointment at the GP’s today. As you would, while waiting for the appointment I had a flick through some of the leaflets on display, and one of the leaflets was rather conspicuous in what was – or was not – present: (more…)