On Saturday May 5, 2012 at 6:30 pm the play Hidden: A Gender by Kate Bornstein will be performed at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2945 NW Circle Blvd. The play, a story of two transgender people’s journey to acceptance, will be directed by AJ Bartholomew.

If anyone is interested, I encourage you to check it out!

Have a pleasant evening, Oregonians.

TransFusion: TSA Body Scanning and the Trans Body

(via transgenderstudentlife)

transgenderstudentlife:

freedominwickedness:

The U.S. Customs and Immigrations Service recently issued an official Policy Memorandum stating that USCIS will no longer require proof of sexual reassignment surgery to update an individual’s legal gender on all customs and immigration paperwork. Instead, USCIS will accept either an updated birth certificate, passport, or court order or a letter from any licensed physician stating that the individual has had “appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition”. Furthermore, the new USCIS policy explicitly states that USCIS will issue corrected documents for transgender people regardless of any state, local, or foreign requirements to the contrary.

The new USCIS policy also establishes specific guidelines for marriages in which a partner is transgender. Basically, USCIS will fully recognize any heterosexual marriage which was valid in the jurisdiction where it took place. USCIS will presume all marriages involving a transgender person to be valid unless the originating jurisdiction has a specific law or precedent to the contrary, including both heterosexual marriages performed after a legal change of gender and heterosexual marriages performed before a legal change of gender.

Yet another hugely important pro-transgender policy change by the Obama Administration which is going largely unheralded by the white-centric, cis-centric, marriage-obsessed LGb(t) movement. Obama has done more for us in less than four years than the entire LGb(t) nonprofit complex has done in its entire history.

Please note: ”USCIS will presume all marriages involving a transgender person to be valid unless the originating jurisdiction has a specific law or precedent to the contrary,” means that if marriage involving a transgender person is illegal in the originating jurisdiction, USCIS does not recognize the marriage as valid. 

Mod Note: This is Kitty’s story about her gender change process in Jackson County:

As I walked into the court house this last Friday I was super happy to finally have my gender changed on my birth certificate. I will say there is a bit of a controversy around this all.  First of all you have to have surgery to get your gender changed on your birth certificate. As a MTF I had to have SRS surgery and had to be willing to go through the hoops to have it changed. First step of this is if you had surgery in Thailand you will need to make an appointment with a USA doctor to verify that the surgery was performed. Then get a signed note to show to the judge along with your original certificate from the doctor. *DR. Chettawut= AMAZING* 

After you have done all this….wait…there was no paperwork for gender change….

Yes you will get to this step of having to figure out the legal system. THANK EVERYTHING that the fantastic woman at the window you go to for name change created a document for change of sex. *I have a copy of this form for all those who are looking* It really makes it a lot easier and covers all the legal bases so you don’t have to spend a small fortune on a lawyer. I filled out the forms and turned in a copy of my original Thailand form from the doctor, as well as my USA doctor’s note. I proceeded to pay the 105 dollar filing fee, and in 2 weeks from now I will be able to send for a changed birth certificate if all goes well. Now the fun part……

Though you go through this process of Gender and Name change, you also have to seal your records or as I like to call it: “burying your past name and gender” For this part I will need a lawyer to make sure its all hidden so there are no future problems with my husband. I know it will shock a lot of you, but even if you are married legally, change your gender, live your life as a Woman or a Man, and have a wonderful life with someone. If any form of government I.E Military, Fire service, Police service finds out at any point you were different they will try there hardest to use it to not pay you for anything if something happens to your spouse or you are in the military.

In the Military you lose your housing benefit’s, are kicked off of base, they will remove your health care and will basically somehow release your spouse from duty. Do you think this is wrong? There are 37 cases currently where it has happened in the military mostly solderer’s but there has been some where it was found the non military spouse was MTF or FTM and was outed and booted. There is a case where a woman was denied her survivor benefits when her husband a fire fighter perished and they found her original birth certificate to say male. They used this against her to make a case and denied her survivor benefits. Cases like this make it hard for trans people to live full happy lives when there is a fear that we could be outed and have extreme consequence’s. 

Doing this change is a long process with a lot of legal foot work. there is a great deal of having to fight for your right as an American citizen to be recognized for the hard work you have done to transition and live a healthy happy life. I feel that this may come from the demonization trans people have faced over the years, and the idea we are finally at a happy ending. It really becomes someone else trying to put us in a box when we all along knew which box to check for ourselves. 

Corvallis now offers a group that meets on OSU’s campus, Wednesdays from 3:30-4:30, on the 5th floor of Snell Hall.  

The Corvallis Transgender Support Group is for transgender and questioning people and their families.  The group serves to provide a safe space and share information regarding transitioning, coming out, therapists, physicians, and other aspects of our journey. 

I’m going!  I hope some of you will join me.

-Jesse 

Part 1 located here

Ok! So when we left off, I had turned in forms A, B, and F to the Probate Window at the Jackson County Justice Building on February 28th. I had to wait 14 days before I could return to turn in the remaining forms C, D, and E. *Don’t forget to bring those with you!!*

On March 13th I went back through security, got the form back down that I had posted up on the wall  and brought it to the Probate Window. The nice woman at the Probate Window signed and date-stamped it and put it in the pile to be signed by a judge. *Note: You don’t have to go before a judge to get your name changed in Oregon!* Then she asked me how many copies of my court-ordered name change paperwork I’d like to order. I ordered two, one to take with me to the DMV, Social Security Administration, etc., and one to keep in my fire safe with all of my important documents.
I left my phone number with the woman at the Probate Window, and she called me two days later to let me know that the judge had signed my name change and I could come pick up and pay for my certified copies! I went back to the Justice Building and picked up my two certified copies, paid $5.25 each for them, and was on my merry way!
Stay tuned for part 3, in which I detail the REALLY FUN experience of going to the DMV and the SSA!
If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line, or contact me on my tumblr!
-Lou

From a follower:

“Not sure if you guys were aware of this, but Delta Lambda Psi, the all-inclusive queer ‘frarority’ is opening a chapter at University of Oregon! Spring rush is starting soon (6 April, I believe). If you want more information about the UO chapter, here’s their event page on Facebook: Delta Lambda Psi Spring Rush”