Every year dozens of individuals are brutally murdered because they are transgender or simply perceived as gender variant. Rather than decreasing, the number of these deaths has increased in the last few years, possibly as a backlash against gay-marriage legislation.  In order to memorialize those who have died for their gender presentations, activists founded the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20^th.  This year, Oregon Governor Kulongoski proclaimed the day a statewide day of remembrance; and the entire month of November has been dedicated to transgender awareness.

In this episode of Gender Blender, co-hosts Jacob Anderson-Minshall and Laura Calvo spoke to the organizers of some of those events including:  Allison Cleveland, Executive Director of Eugene’s Gender Center and a key player in eliciting the governor’s proclamation; Natalia from Portland State University’s Queer Resource Center, which is sponsoring the local Transgender Day of Remembrance events, including a concert by trans musicians Katastrophe and Athens Boys Choir (aka Katz); and queer performer Peterson Toscano who will be presenting his one-man play, “Transfigurations—Transgressing Gender in the Bible,” Thursday, November 19^th at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1333 SE 28^th Street in Portland.

Three songs were played on the show, “Mourner’s Prayer,” by Athens Boys Choir; “Just a Girl” and “Living in America” both by the all trans woman band Lipstick Conspiracy.

CORRECTION:  In discussing a denomination that had recently reaffirmed its anti-gay stanch, Jacob accidentally said Unitarian, which was not correct.  He was actually referring to the United Methodist Church, which, at its 2008 General Conference reiterated its anti-gay language while allowing a transgender man to retain his ministry.  Jacob apologizes for infering that the Unitarians aren't tolerant of lesbians and gay congregations, which they are.

Have you been discriminated against when seeking medial care? When does a health care professional's transphobia rise to the level of discrimination?

With the nation's attention on health care reform, Gender Blender is examining gender discrimination in health care. Women face unfair and discriminatory policies that charge women more than men and consider reproductive health elective and therefore not covered by insurance. Meanwhile, transgender individuals have faced all kinds of discrimination including medical professionals actually refusing trans individuals medical care.

Hosts Jacob Anderson-Minshall and Laura Calvo speak with Pauline Park, the co-founder and chair of New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA); Lisa Codispoti, a Senior Advisor on the Health and Reproductive Rights team at the National Women’s Law Center and several other guests.

Across this country there are dozens of women forced to serve time in mens’ correctional institutions. Our sex-segregated facilities aren’t the friendliest places for those with non conforming genders. Transgender women, especially those who haven’t undergone a total physical transformation including sex reassignment surgeries, are still regularly housed with male inmates. What is that experience like? What can be done to improve the situation? What happens to a trans person who is arrested in Portland? What other ways does gender impact the experience of inmates?
 
Gender Blender co-hosts Laura Calvo and Jacob Anderson-Minshall address these issues and more on this hour-long program. They will be speaking with a number of guests including a former police officer who now consults with correctional facilites on managing trans inmates; Ruth Kovacs, host of KBOO’s Prison Pipeline; and a representative from Multnomah County—one of the first localities to develop protocols for dealing with transgender inmates in their facilities.

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

It's the first question asked after the birth of a baby.  But sometimes the answer isn't obvious?  In about one out of every 1,500 births a child is born so noticeably atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist is called in. Out of every thousand birth one to two children have traditionally been exposed to surgery to "normalize" the appearance of their genitals. Even more people are born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations some of which won't show up until later in life.
 
Since the 1990s intersex activists have been fighting for an end to unnecessary surgeries, especially those performed at an early age when the person can’t make their own decisions.
 
Gender Blender co-host Jacob Anderson-Minshall talked with three intersex activists about their experiences and what it can teach us all about gender, sex and the medialization of natural diversity.  We also featured music from Lipstick Conspiracy.