2017. Chile. Dir: Sebastia?n Lelio. With Daniela Vega. 104 min.
A transgender waitress who moonlights as a nightclub singer must confront the sudden death of her much-older boyfriend, and the suspicion of his surviving family towards her. In her neon-tinted breakthrough role, Vega fights for the right to be seen as she is: a strong, complex woman and a human being deserving of decency.
Tonight / 8 p.m. / Goldsmith Family Cinema / Free
From Adam David Jacobs ’15:
Please join us for a Memorial Service in honor of transgender activist and author of Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg, who died last week,on November 15. There will be space for student sharing, followed by a final ritual. Please bring words, memories, stones, and flowers.
Date: Friday, December 21st
Time: 5:00-6:00 PM
Place: Foyer, Olin Library
NOTE FROM BZOD: About a month ago, a group called the Pissed Off Trans* People pulled down a number of gendered bathroom signs around campus, replacing them with paper all gender bathroom signs and a manifesto entitled “All Gender Bathrooms Now.” Two days ago, an anonymous poster published the following article on tumblr under the title “Complete Bullshit: An Update on the Trans* De-Gendering Bathroom Situation.” I was contacted by the author of the post and the students being SJB’d and confirmed the story. The complete text of that tumblr post is reproduced below.
So, a few weeks back, there was an outpouring of trans* activism. I mean that like when you put a lot of pressure on a water balloon and then the water bursts out of a hole. Yeah, the water made the hole and hurt the balloon. But the water only gushed out because of all the fucking pressure being put on the damn balloon. (and why was this water being trapped in a balloon in the first place?)
My point being, yes, fed up trans* students and angry cis allies took down and broke the single-gender bathroom signs around campus. They did this because they were sick of the system that marginalizes and endangers trans* folk. This move was pretty controversial on campus. But that’s not what I want to write about today.
Today, the issue at stake is the University’s response. Now, students taking part in this action knew they were doing something illegal/against the rules/risky. As such they have remained anonymous when participating in media coverage and the action was instigated under the anonymous Facebook account PissedOff Trans* People. They provided materials on Facebook for marking bathrooms as all-gendered. These materials have been downloaded 200 times, which gives you an idea of the scale of interest and possibly participation in this action.
I’m sitting right now in 41 Wyllys Room 112 for the Open Forum on Gender-Neutral Bathrooms and Trans* Activism. This forum is co-hosted by WesDEF, Wesleying, Open House, and QueerWes, and will be facilitated by WesDEF – specifically, Mariama Eversley ’14 and Leah Bakely ’16.
This will be a safe space for people to discuss their thoughts, concerns, and opinions of the recent trans* activism that has been de-gendering bathrooms in the last few weeks. Given that this is a safe space, Wesleying (in this case, hermes, sneeze, and I) will not be recording the names of participants. This will also be a serious liveblog. We will be providing an as-close-to-verbatim-as-possible record of what is said in the forum without critiquing opinions with which we may not agree.
We’ll be going over definitions and vocabulary surrounding trans* issues at the start of the forum, but check out TransWhat if you’re interested in a short glossary of relevant terms and information on what it means to be trans*. If you’re bewildered by the fact that this discussion forum exists or are wondering why all the bathroom signs have vanished recently, read my post “All Gender Bathrooms Now” – Pissed Off Trans* People on the DIY Gender-Neutralizing of Wesleyan’s Bathrooms. I’ll also be putting a few more features related to this up in the next few days.
Click past the jump for the liveblog.
BZOD UPDATE, 11/5/13, 4:09 PM: We’ve officially moved this across the hall from 41 Wyllys Room 115 to 41 Wyllys Room 112 due to space concerns.
On Tuesday, November 5 at 7:00 PM in 41 Wyllys Room 112, WesDEF (Wesleyan Diversity Education Facilitators), Wesleying, Open House, and QueerWes, will be hosting an an open forum to discuss people’s thoughts, concerns, and opinions about the recent trans* activism on campus – including, but not limited to the gender-neutralizing of bathrooms. The forum will be facilitated by WesDEF and will include vegan snacks.
Wesleying will be doing a liveblog of the discussion (which will, of course, not log names of anyone speaking). Anyone who has opinions about gender-neutral bathrooms or trans* activism, or wants to better understand trans* issues, should attend. We’d love to have as many sides as possible represented in the discussion.
The sign that has recently been appearing on bathroom doors across campus. Sign courtesy of MyDoorSign.com, which has been making, marketing, and donating these awesome inclusive bathroom signs
If you have been on campus recently, you have likely seen the above sign. In the last week or so, the plastic or wooden bathroom signs that normally read “Men” or “Women” have been torn down and replaced with paper signs like the one above. In many cases, these paper signs were accompanied by a manifesto titled “Desegregate Wesleyan Bathrooms,” which explains the logic behind the replacing of the bathroom signs. Unfortunately, the manifesto was not posted with every gender-neutral sign, and has frequently been torn down when the bathrooms were re-gendered. For those who are confused about why people have started gender-neutralizing the bathrooms, the text of the manifesto is reproduced below:
We demand that Wesleyan University stop segregating bathrooms along gender lines and provide all-gender bathrooms in all buildings in the University.
We believe gender-segregated bathrooms create uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situations for trans and gender-variant presenting people.
We believe gender-segregated bathrooms reinforce trans* invisibility at Wesleyan.
We resent statements by Wesleyan Administration that all-gender bathrooms are widely available on this campus, when they are in fact often difficult to find or unmarked, in inconvenient locations, or simply not available.
We acknowledge that some people, particularly women, may feel unsafe in bathrooms that are no longer gender-segregated. We invite further discussion about this issue, but are currently not aware of any studies suggesting women are more likely to experience harassment or harm in all-gender bathrooms. (Citation: Rothblatt, Martine Aliana. The Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender. New York: Crown, 1995.)
We believe it is not the duty of trans* or gender-variant students to self-advocate for all- gender bathrooms on their hall/place of residence, and that residential bathrooms should be all-gender.
We want to remind white and documented people and people with class privilege that those most likely to experience violence and increased surveillance from gender- segregated bathrooms are people of color, poor people, and undocumented people.
Slamming ’13 has been killing it since before I had the perspective to appreciate. Proof:
Internationally acclaimed Cute Roulette connoisseur Emily Kianka ’13 writes in:
Brought to you by the Interfaith Justice League and Interfaith House, Thy Will Be Done is a brand new documentary about the first transgender minister in the Presbyterian Church. There will be free pizza and a lively discussion afterwards! Here’s the blurb:
“Thy Will Be Done follows Male-to-Female Transsexual Sara Herwig in her journey to ordination in the Presbyterian Church. The Church’s conservative groups do not recognize Sara as female and challenge her fitness and eligibility to be a pastor. In addition, it is crucial to Sara’s success that she has support from friends and family. The documentary explores the way in which alternative lifestyles and permanent choices of identity have the power to tear a family completely to pieces, only to bind it back together again, more closely but differently, than it has ever been before.
From Ray Edwards ’10:
My name is Ray Edwards and I am graduate student in Psychology at Wesleyan. I am currently researching everyday experiences of disrespect and devaluation towards gender non-conforming individuals on campus. I am looking for participants to take part in a two week study in which they will carry a Palm Pilot at all times and record meaningful experiences related to their gender presentation and identity. There will be a $25 reward for those that return all the materials given to them in good condition upon completion of the study.
Do you identify as a queer person of color? Come meet others who do! Spectrum, the group for queer people of color, is meeting this Friday for conversation and fun!
Any questions? Email imitchell(at)wesleyan(dot)edu
Date: Friday, Jan. 29
Time: 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Place: Usdan comfy couches
