Transphobia Hits Heinous Low in Scotland as U.S. Queers Hold Breath
Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 3 November 2024
by James Finn
Even though statistics show transgender women are at especially high risk of sexual assault, trans women have just been barred from services at Glasgow’s rape crisis center. In the U.S., we queer people are holding our breath, knowing a Trump victory on Tuesday could put us on that same hateful road — though we’re already mostly there in states run by Republicans.
This week’s Prism & Pen isn’t a U.S.-election edition, though stories by Jonny B and James Patrick Nelson hit that subject hard. And LibrariAnna, a queer library-services director for a school district in a conservative area, lays out how the politics of queer book banning are hitting her hard.
In culture, we feature a story by Eki, a queer Chinese filmmaker who reviews a film beloved by gay people in his country — but that you might never have heard of.
In fiction, our gay detective paints Halloween red, and a 19th-century Polish academic falls in love with a younger man.
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Glasgow Rape Crisis Service Will Now Exclude Transgender Women
Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis (GCRC) will now exclude from its services transgender women and girls who have experienced rape and sexual violence.
The service previously included trans women and girls, along with most rape crisis services that are part of the federated Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) network.
The move to exclude trans women coincides with GCRC’s decision to leave the RCS network because of its trans-inclusive stance, which GCRC says “no longer meets the interests of our organisation”.
Pariahs and Paradise — The Final Days of a Gay American Immigrant
Growing up in the Flatlands of Johannesburg, a block away from the train station, he could hear the rumble of arriving steam engines out his window every night. He felt a potent wanderlust and a strong sense of adventure.
Like many queer kids, he had an active imagination, longing for the allure of far off places with other people like him. He fell in love with theatre at a very young age and wanted desperately to go to England to be an actor…
The first time I visited Graham’s apartment in New York was the day after the Pulse massacre. And the summer we agreed to work on his memoirs was just a month before the white-supremacist riots in Charlottesville.
As his body deteriorated with age and illness over the next few years, all he could do was sit in his chair and watch the country crumble on the news.
Revisiting One of China’s Most Beloved Gay Films
Lan Yu is adapted from Beijing Story, a novel serialized by the anonymous author ‘Beijing Comrade’ in 1998 on the Chinese LGBTQ+ forum BOY2MAN.
Rooted in reality, the novel gained fame for its straightforward style and bold depictions of gay intimacy, sparking heated discussions online since its release and placing both the author and the novel’s main character in the spotlight. The novel was later translated into English, titled Beijing Comrade.
Directed by renowned Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan, the film is set in late 1980s and early 1990s Beijing. It tells the story of Chen Handong, the son of a high-ranking official, and Lan Yu, a young man who comes to Beijing for college, spanning over a decade of their love.
I’m a Queer School Librarian, and This is How Book Bans Challenge Me
It’s never a good thing when your boss calls you at 3:30pm on a Friday …
I’ve been a school librarian for over twenty years, and I’m the head of our district-wide department. I led my team in developing selection policies to ensure that our collections are not only appropriate, but rich in both quality and diversity.
Just a few years ago, I helped update policies for handling challenges from parents who object to certain books — well aware of the political climate.
The so-called Moms for Liberty are leading the charge on these challenges to certain titles in our school libraries. This group encourages their conservative women members to access our library catalogs, search for specific titles, and then raise a huge fuss.
The Quiet Defiance of a Queer Refugee’s Pilgrimage to the Polls
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported in 2022 that of 116,481 refugees they submitted for resettlement in countries they would be safe, only 306, or 0.2% of refugees disclosed an LGBTQ+ identity. This small and unrepresentative proportion could imply a lack of trust in systems, insufficient safe pathways for disclosure, or a lack of awareness about LGBTQ+ asylum protections…
The polling station itself was just a building, but the journey there had been a pilgrimage. The line was longer than expected and the stoic faces of the neighborhood’s citizens were filled with resolve. When the line moved forward, sunlight flickered off a few falling leaves in the corner of Frances’ vision.
When it was their turn to approach the polling booth, Frances held the ballot folder tightly.
* This Week’s Essays & Creative Non Fiction *
Gender-Affirming Care: The Perils of Medical Gatekeeping for Trans People
Gender-affirming care — often the center of political debate — has become a frequent target of ‘gender-critical’ circles. But beyond the noise, this care includes treatments similar to those that many cisgender people seek to feel more comfortable in their bodies and enhance their well-being.
For transgender people, however, accessing gender-affirming healthcare often becomes a grueling obstacle course blocked by gatekeeping policies that delay, restrict, or deny access altogether. Treatments that a cisgender person might receive after a single GP visit can take a transgender person years to access.
In this article, I explore how gatekeeping in gender-affirming care affects transgender people, especially in places where informed consent models are not the norm.
To My Family: I’ve Always Been Your Daughter
To my family,
There’s something that needs to be said, as you talk about “when he was little” or mention my “old self” as if that person was a stranger who’s now gone. I have sat by, correcting pronouns and quietly reminded you of my name, but that alone hasn’t changed the way these memories get told. Each time, it feels as though the little girl I once was is being erased, as though I have to defend her place in the world. She deserves more than that — she deserves to be seen as she truly is, and always has been.
A Story about a Closeted Trans Woman (not) Building a House
My wife looks longingly out the window, trying not to let on. And yet, it hits me like a paving rock.
Apart from the fact that foundation engineering work with an excavator has to be done first, I could only do it myself afterwards. I could go out, dig, level, vibrate, lay kerbstones, mix concrete and so on. I could do all that, and I wouldn’t want to reduce it to the work of a man. But it actually is, according to general opinion.
The wives of the two men are at home. They step out of the house from time to time, point their fingers at what could be done better and then go back inside.
This Gay Writer Is Motivated by a Reader’s Comments on White Privilege
I have often argued that the term privilege is not entirely accurate in describing me because it feels to me to be a pejorative, and I become emotionally defensive. I want to argue: “It is not my fault that I was born white. That I have had a good career and life.”
At the same time, I realize that my bias is that of a white man. I can never truly understand what it might be like to be a woman, an immigrant, or a black or brown person, all of whom, in one way or another, are unjustly subject to discrimination.
Being homosexual does complicate things and, in some ways, is comparable.
Balancing LGBTQ+ Group Dynamics with Personal Uniqueness
Gay Pride in Palm Springs is a big deal. An I’ve-been-there-done-that attitude is the first thought that comes to mind.
Look at the photograph above — the person who is different, unique, and proud…and unafraid. Standing between a group of angry men, a smile among frowns, he holds on to his puppy.
He appears angelic in contrast to the haters.
But… wait.
The Other Side of Pride: Homeless and Forgotten on Empty Streets
Gay Pride in Palm Springs is a big deal. An I’ve-been-there-done-that attitude is the first thought that comes to mind.
Look at the photograph above — the person who is different, unique, and proud… and unafraid. Standing between a group of angry men, a smile among frowns, he holds on to his puppy.
He appears angelic in contrast to the haters.
But… wait.
A Transgender Woman Stuck in a Guy HAZMAT suit:
For very personal reasons I continue to straddle my gender presentation between my female soul and the male façade that I wear to survive. As time has progressed in my transition, my male persona seems less and less real and my natural female gender becomes more dominant.
It feels like an entirely natural progression.
It should be.
I was misgendered by the doctors at birth, by my parents who raised me, and the society I grew up in… but what did they know?
How I Came Out to My Wife
Then came the question: how would I break this to my wife? What would she say? How would she react?
For the next two months, I asked questions, devoured coming-out stories from both trans people and their cis partners, dug into statistics and data. I gently probed for her reaction to LGBT-related topics and media depictions.
I wrote countless coming-out letters and practiced prepared speeches. I had a list of resources to offer her, options for information, and ways to find support.
I thought I was as prepared as anyone could be for such a step, and I believed I had a fair chance of a non-negative reaction.
Or so I thought.
My First Real Gay Love Relationship
Rick and I had a long history. A history that unfortunately was cut short when he died of a heart attack. He had just completed medical school, had opened a new practice, and suddenly left us. I had lost touch with him since our college days and, on hearing of his death, regretted not keeping in contact and that I was not able to say goodbye.
We first met in grammar school, grade 5, at approximately age 10. In the beginning, we were just classmates, but over time, we developed a friendship that continued to grow through elementary school, high school, and then college at the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana Campus.
* Fiction Shorts *
The Gay Detective: The Last Pirate King of Hangman’s Hollow
Fifteen men an a dead man’s chest,
Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle o’ rum;
Drink and the devil had done for the rest,No doubt, drink and the devil had a part in Fred Buncombe’s demise. A regular fixture at his local watering hole and notorious con artist, he specialized in scamming gullible tourists.
But, killed the night before Halloween or not, no demon had wielded the antique sword pinning him to the trunk of a massive oak.
I gazed up at the silver-grey tendrils of Spanish moss draping the oak tree in a shredded veil. Thick, early-morning mist rolled in off the sea to shroud the world in cotton wool. It hung in the trees, muffled footfalls and caused sounds to carry in strange ways.
A Love Story Of Two Scholarly Men From Different Generations
Afternoons were spent discussing paleography records, drinking floral tea and smelling dust. He could talk for hours, about everything and nothing, and even though I was a man of many years, around him I felt like a child that knew nothing.
He’d call me Misha, which I didn’t really like in the beginning, but he argued that my parents had come from Russia, so it just made sense that Mikhail would be shortened to that.
There was something about the soft, whispery and whimsical way he said it that made me fall in love with the word.
“Misha, do you see how dissimilar this writing is compared to the last manuscript? Certainly someone new was brought in to finish this list.”
“Misha, notice that tiny doodle on the margin — someone was bored.”
That’s it for this week!
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