Box Turtle Bulletin

“Super Uncle” theory gets support from study

Timothy Kincaid

February 4th, 2010

Those who study the etiology of sexual orientation know that genetics is not fully responsible for whether or not a man is gay. Other factors which are hypothesized to play a roll including either biological conditions (e.g. in utero hormone levels), natural environmental influences (early childhood infections), psychological influences, and many others.

But the results of twin studies have long since indicated that for at least some gay men, part of the causation of their orientation is due to genetics.

However, evolutionary biologists have been uncertain as to why this would be. Knowing that men who are primarily same-sex attracted and not opposite-sex attracted are less likely to reproduce, what evolutionary advantage would these genes have and how would they have carried for millions of generations without dying out?

One theory is that the advantages of having a small number of men without children of their own would be adequate to advantage the shared genes of their siblings, “super uncles” as it were. Now it appears that at least one study provides some credibility to that idea. (Montreal Gazette)

Interestingly, the study was conducted by someone who set out to prove it wrong. Paul Vasey, associate professor in the University of Lethbridge’s department of psychology, went to Samoa to study the fa’afafine [men who were raised female] to provide the conclusive evidence that the “super uncle” theory could be discarded. He found the opposite.

Researchers conducting similar studies in the U.S. and England did not find any supporting evidence for the theory, said Vasey. “So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll do it in a non-Western culture and chances are I’m going to find exactly the same results and it’ll be the nail in the coffin for this hypothesis,’” he said.
…
Vasey found that the fa’afafine said they were significantly more willing to help kin, yet much less interested in helping children who aren’t family — providing the first evidence to support the “kin selection hypothesis.”

It would be ill advised to draw too many conclusions based on this one study. And directly equating of fa’afafine to gay men in the West is a rather large leap.

However, this does provide additional data to inform the ongoing question as to why some people find themselves attracted to the same sex and others do not.

“Being the First Sucks”

Jim Burroway

January 6th, 2010

Amanda Simpson, credited with being the first openly transgender presidential appointee, said that to ABC News. “I’d rather not be the first, but someone has to be first, or among the first,” she continued. “[There will be] questions like: Is this a token? Are you here to do a job or just to fill a quota or appease other people?”

Well, one thing I know in my own personal dealings with Amanda, you know, back when she was a nobody like the rest of us back here in Tucson, is that she is certainly no token. She was well-recongized in the community for her many accomplishments. And to add to that, by all accounts her professional accomplishments were well respected by her previous employer, a major missile contractor, where her job was to make sure missiles flew and where tokenism doesn’t. But yes, it sucks to be the first, and along with that having to see yourself on late night television like this:

GLAAD and HRC have both condemned the skit, and for good reason. Transgender “panic” has too often been excused as justification for brutally beating and murdering countless numbers of people. One high-profile case was that of Angie Zapata. Her killer, Allen Andrade, said he was provoked into beating her to death with a fire extinguisher because Angie smiled at him. Late night comedians aren’t the first people we turn to for serious reflection, but this is a very serious problem and, all too tragically, it’s not a joking matter.

In related good news however, the Obama administration’s Office of Personnel Management has added gender identity among the classes protected by federal Equal Employment Opportunity policies.

Congratulations Amanda Simpson

Jim Burroway

January 4th, 2010

President Barack Obama has named Amanda Simpson as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department, where she will be working in the Bureau of Industry and Security:

“I’m truly honored to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me. And at the same time, as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

Simpson brings considerable professional credentials to her new job. For thirty years, she has worked in the aerospace and defense industry, most recently serving as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration along with an extensive flight background. She is a certified flight instructor and test pilot with 20 years of experience.

As a fellow Tucsonan, I have had the rare privilege of knowing Amanda. She is not only a truly amazing, dynamic woman, but she’s a genuine trailblazer as well. She’s as been a local activist and former member of the City of Tucson Commission on GLBT Issues, and in 2004 she became the first transgender person to win the Democratic Nomination for the Arizona House of Representatives. She was recognized that same year as one of the YWCA’s “Women On the Move.”

Several of us gathered for a Christmas party on the Friday before Christmas. It was a bittersweet party since it was also our good-bye party for Amanda. We will all miss her here in Tucson, but we are also immensely proud and excited for her new opportunities in D.C. I can’t think of a more qualified person to advise the Commerce Department on the technical issues surrounding technology exports. Break a leg, Amanda!

Ft. Worth Adds Transgenders to Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Jim Burroway

November 11th, 2009

Ft. Worth City Council last night expanded the city’s non-discrimination ordinance to include transgender people by a 6-3 vote. City council also discussed a broader range of issues important to the LGBT community, including offering domestic-partner benefits and expanding the city health insurance plan to cover gender reassignment procedures, including sex changes. Discussions were contentious, both inside the packed hall and outside, where protesters from both sides had gathered. The Dallas Voice reports:

There were no arrests or major physical altercations, but there was plenty of taunting and some heated verbal exchanges. Participants from both sides later accused the other of elbowing and pushing, and one of the counterprotesters admitted to ripping a gay Pride flag.

We Condemn Maurice Schwenkler / Ariel Attack

Timothy Kincaid

August 27th, 2009

Early Tuesday morning Maurice Schwenkler and another accomplice took hammers and broke eleven windows in the Denver Democratic Party headquarters.

What followed was the usual round of speculation and political nonsense in which first Democratic Party representatives accused the right of stirring up hate and then a Republican legislator accused the left of manufacturing a victim status for sympathy. It seems neither explanation fits. (Denver Post)

Schwenkler, who also goes by Ariel Attack, is a anarchist activist and is affiliated with Bash Back! (the group behind the disruption of morning services at a church in Lansing, Michigan, in May) and other anarchy groups.

Bash Back! is calling Schwenkler “transgendered”, though I do not know if Schwenkler has specifically identified as female and is seeking to live accordingly. It appears to me that perhaps Schwenkler has adopted a gender-queer identity which denies the binary nature of gender recognition. Such identity may have less to do with internal association with a female gender and have more to do with a political ideology that seeks the destruction of conventional norms.

But whether Schwenkler is gay or transgender or both or neither is not relevant. The action s/he took is indefensible. It is reprehensible. And we strongly condemn it.

Ultimately, taking action of this sort is not “revolutionary”. It is not based in a real sense of seeking justice for indignity. It is not the brave work of those seeking a better world. Rather it is the immature acting out of an individual that sees the world through the prism of their own self-assigned martyr status and who selfishly tries to destroy anything they cannot own or control.

Angie Zapata’s Murderer Found Guilty

Jim Burroway

April 22nd, 2009

It has just been announced that a Colorado jury found Allen Andrade guilty of murdering 18-year-old Angie Zapata. He was also found guilty of the additional hate crime enhancement as well as vehicle theft and identity theft. The charges carry a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Angie Zapata was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher on July 17, 2008 when Andrade discovered that she was a transgender woman. Andrade then stole her car, a 2003 PT Cruiser. It was that stolen car which led investigators to Andrade.

During the trial this week, jurors heard a tape of phone call Andrade made from jail to a girlfriend. In that phone conversation, Andrade said that “gay things need to die.” He also joked about his “celebrity” status which should fetch him $50,000 for his life story. That phone call was made just days after his arrest.

Colorado added gender identity to its hate crime law in 2005, making it one of only eleven states to include transgender protections. This is the first case in which Colorado’s hate crime law has been applied in a case involving a transgender person.

Transgender Vets Featured In Arizona Daily Star

Jim Burroway

February 23rd, 2009

Transgender people are often referred to as the silent “T’s” of the LGBT community. But Tuscon, for whatever reason, is home to a very active and comparatively visible transgender community, with many of them making up the most enthusiastic roles of community service via the Wingspan LGBT community center and the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA).

But despite all that, transgender people aren’t as visible in the general community as you might think. So it was such a pleasure to see Tucson’s hometown morning paper, the Arizona Daily Star, feature on its front page the first part of an amazing two-part series by military reporter Carol Ann Alaimo on the hidden lives of transgender military veterans. The first part provides a look in the lives of four veterans, three of whom transitioned to women and one who transitioned to a man. The second part today focuses on the inconsistent medical care these veterans face in the VA health care system.

This invisibility in the military is an especially important story because experts believe that the proportion of transgender people in the military is higher than that of the civilian population:

A study titled “Transsexuals in the Military: Flight Into Hypermasculinity” — a classic still cited in college texts on gender issues — was written in 1988 by Dr. George R. Brown, then an Air Force captain and psychiatrist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Brown found it curious that in a three-year period at the Midwestern base, he came across 11 men — eight current and former military, the rest civilians such as Defense Department staffers — all seeking treatment to become women.

Transsexuality is an issue “believed by many not to exist” in the armed forces, he noted. Yet each veteran told him nearly the same thing: He had enlisted hoping to “become a real man.”

A copy of Brown’s study from the prestigious Archives of Sexual Behavior is available on the Star’s web site (PDF: 676KB/11 pages). Brown’s findings on why transwomen might be attracted to the military was perhaps best illustrated by Erin Rus, one of the three women featured in the Sunday article:

Transgender people often sense their predicaments at a young age, Vanderleest said. That’s how it was for Russ, the former Army captain who has been living full time as a female since 2001. Even as a preschooler, she said, “I knew something was different about me.”

Joining the military was one action in a long list of things — playing football, becoming an Eagle Scout, getting married and becoming a father — that Russ hoped would still the inner sense of being born with the wrong anatomy. “You think if you do enough things of a male nature, then you will become male, and the female thoughts will go away.”

As with gay people, transgender people are barred from serving in the military. Erin’s military career came to a sudden end when she was pulled over for a routine traffic stop while dressed as a woman. The police officer wrote “a page long report on how I was dressed” and sent a copy to the military. The following Monday, Erin was called in to her commander’s office and threatened with a court-martial for conduct unbecoming of an officer. She was allowed to resign honorably.

That loss of talent in the military is a loss to the nation, as many of these vets typically served their country with distinction:

[Mick] Andoso, 51, retired in 1995 as a first sergeant. Back then, Andoso’s name was Master Sgt. Brenda Weichelt — who in 1994 was named one of the service’s top airmen for her work at the military’s Defense Language Institute in California.

Andoso still has a copy of an Air Force Sergeants Association magazine describing the award, and photos taken with the service’s top brass. Also among the keepsakes is a letter from Brenda’s last commander.

“You are among the few rare exceptions whose absolute dedication to duty, commitment to excellence and genuine concern for your service and your fellow airmen, set you so far apart that I can never forget your outstanding achievements,” it said.

The second part of the Star’s series goes more in depth on how the Veterans Administration deals with transgender veterans who come into the system for care. The U.S. bans transgender people from serving in the military, and that policy greatly influences the VA’s health care policies, where transgender vets are often denied treatments that experts say could help them most. (A few other countries, like Canada and Great Britain allow transgender people to serve, and will even pay for treatment, including sex-change surgery.)

Last June, the American Medical Association approved a new policy on the care of transgender patients, which calls gender-identity disorder a “serious medical condition … which causes intense emotional pain and suffering.” Untreated, it can lead to stress-related illness, depression and suicide. The AMA calls for all public and private medical providers to cover the cost of mental health care, hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery.

But the VA medical system does not conform to that policy. The National Department of Veterans Affairs specifically forbids VA hospitals from performing or paying for surgery, hormone treatments, psychotherapy, and other measures. Those policies are now under review.

The VA;s current policy also prohibits “any process or procedure involving genital identity revision,” an open phrase that is subject to wide interpretations from one VA hospital to the next or even one doctor to the next, resulting in huge disparities in patient treatment. Some hospitals have refused to treat transgender veterans for even routine medical conditions unrelated to their transgender status. VA hospitals in Tucson and Boston are seen as more generous in their treatments. Boston’s VA hospital even has a memo which specifies their policy on treating transgender vets (PDF: 176KB/5 pages), the only VA hospital to do so.

But even in Tucson’s relatively generous VA hospital, treatment can be uneven. Mick Andoso is happy with his care at the Tucson VA hospital, but others continue to experience problems:

[Diane] Steen, on the other hand, said she was denied hormone therapy at the local VA as she prepared for her privately obtained sex-change surgery. That forced her to find an outside doctor and cover the cost herself. “It all depends what doctor you get,” Steen said of VA care.

Erin Russ of Tucson, a former Army officer who is transgender and a VA patient, agreed. Tucson VA staffers “are mostly accepting. But there are a few who basically hold the line that we are crazy, and they refuse to deal with us on any other basis,” said Russ, who teaches transgender awareness workshops at Wingspan, the local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender resource center.

Advocates for transgender veterans are working to change that policy soon.

A Truly Stupid Example of Transphobia

Timothy Kincaid

January 10th, 2009

Gainesville, Florida, has an ordinance allowing transgender persons to select whichever bathroom they find most appropriate. The haters and the fools have come up with a campaign to overturn this ordinance and to require transgendered persons to… well, I’m not sure exactly.

This is the television ad they are running:

Transgender persons – like any group – are too complex to make many absolute statements. But I’m willing to say with absolute confidence that there is not a single solitary male-to-female transgender out there that lurks around in public looking like this guy. And there isn’t a police force on the planet (much less Gainesville) that wouldn’t arrest this dude.

Ironically, however, this appearance would not be out of the question for a female-to-male transgender. And I just wonder just which bathroom the Citizens for Good Public Policy would want him to use.

Of course, their effort have nothing to do with where a T-girl pees. It’s just a cover for an anti-gay, anti-trans agenda.

The proposed amendment, if approved by the voters of Gainesville, will require the city’s civil rights categories (contained in the Code of Ordinances) to match the State of Florida’s civil rights categories. This action will remove two current categories—sexual orientation and gender identity disorder—as well as nullify current laws, such as the Gender Identity Ordinance, that specifically pertain to these categories.

The Good Citizens just want to have the right to discriminate.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Jim Burroway

November 20th, 2008

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day set aside to remember those who were killed due to anti-transgender or anti-gender-variant prejudice.

Transgender Day of Remembrance began in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, who was stabbed to death on November 28th 1998. This year will mark the tenth anniversary of her death. The event has grown over the past decade to include memorials in more than a hundred cities in all over the world.

The Remembering Our Dead web site contains profiles of some 353 people who have lost their lives around the world — some of them, their names are unknown. In fact, we really don’t know the full extent of hate crimes motivated by prejudice against variant gender identity and expression. As imperfect as the FBI’s statistics of hate crimes based on sexual orientation are, they provide even fewer clues to what’s going on against transgender and gender-variant people.  Federal law only mandates the collection of statistics for crimes based on sexual orientation, not sexual identity or expression.

To find a memorial event near you, please visit the Transgender Day of Remembrance website.

Arizona Republic Says No to Prop 102

Jim Burroway

October 20th, 2008

This is huge. The Arizona Republic is the state’s largest, most influential newspaper. It is also generally a conservative one. But in this morning’s edition, the editorial board of the Republic strongly urges that Arizona voters reject Prop 102. And they did so in surprisingly strong terms:

One of the best arguments against a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is this: Secretary of State Jan Brewer blocked ballot language that would have told voters that state law already prohibits such marriages.

If voters were clear on existing law, many might decide there’s no reason to adopt the amendment.

The Republic also doubts the sincerity of the “Yes” side’s claim that this is a “simple” amendment:

Refusing to recognize another state’s contracts brings up federal constitutional issues. What about other types of same-sex legal partnerships?

Lawyers could use up a lot of billable hours parsing the exact meaning of “union” and “marriage.”

Arizona must get beyond the acrimony fueled by the fight over Proposition 102.

…

Arizona could use strong advocates of marriage. They should spend their time and energy hunting for real ways to shore it up. Proposition 102 is a needless distraction. Voters should reject it.

The Republic joins these other Arizona newspapers in urging Arizona voters to reject Prop 102:

• Arizona Daily Star
• East Valley Tribune
• Marana Explorer
• Sierra Vista Herald
  
• Tucson Citizen
• Tucson Weekly
• Yuma Sun

The fight isn’t over, nor is it won. We can defeat this so-called marriage amendment again, but only with your help. Our opponents are on track to raise more than ten million dollars, and if they win this time, they will most assuredly decide to go after California again in a couple of years. We need to send a message: when voters say no, they mean it. They’re not dumb.

Please give as generously as you can today.

National Transgender Day of Rememberance

Jim Burroway

November 19th, 2007

With all this talk about hate crime statistics, now’s a good time to mention that tomorrow, November 20, is the annual Transgender Day Of Remembrance. This day is set aside to remember those who have been killed due to anti-transgender violence. Those deaths, by the way, don’t show up in the FBI’s hate crime statistics because the current federal Hate Crime Reporting Act doesn’t address gender, gender identity or expression. You can learn more about transgender hate crimes at the Remembering Our Dead web site.