Tuesday, November 07, 2006

DykeTees, Gender in NY, So Long Santorum!

I wish I had owned this teeshirt during my Smith career, and especially this summer in P-town, because it's hard to be a queer woman with a boyfriend sometimes! DykeTees actually has a lot of awesome teeshirt designs -- and if your friends are like mine, these tees would make great ramakwanzhanumastice presents!

New York City is moving towards the separation of sex and gender; the city's Board of Health will be voting in December on a proposal that would allow an individual to change the gender marker on his or her birth certificate without having had what is usually clinically termed "sex reassignment surgery". The costs of surgery are prohibitive for many and this alone is good enough reason to change the way gender assignment legality is handled. Many don't feel that they need surgery in order to live as their true gender; that the NYC proposal reflects this ideology is a major step forward. Those wishing to change the gender marker on their birth records (which opens the door to changing all legal IDs) will still need affidavits from a psychiatrist and a medical doctor. They will need to have lived in their gender full-time for two years. The Times article on the subject ("New York Plans to Make Gender Personal Choice", Damien Cave, 11/7/2006) is relatively well done, although I strongly dislike the term "gender of choice". In any case, good work New York City!

It is now 11:15 PM, and the pundits et. al. have called Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Ohio for the Dems. I'm reluctant to get too excited until more of the votes have been counted, but I can't resist the moment: So Long, Santorum! We'll be seeing you (in our bedrooms).

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