Friday, August 12, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The Beginnings of Gender Creative Children

The book, Transgender to Transhuman, explains that each of us has a gender identity as unique as our personality.  There are billions of people in the world and billions of unique gender identities.   Thanks to pioneering parents in Canada, and a trailblazing kindergarden in Sweden, the transgender future is starting to take root.

The Egalia Preschool in Sweden avoids shackling children into gender stereotypes.  "No Him or Her at Preschool."Male and female pronouns are replaced with a gender-free neologism when the gender of a person is undeclared.  The children are free to select gender identities without regard to anatomy and without the strictures of a male-or-female duality.

The Canadian parents have allowed their new child, named Storm, to choose one or more genders rather than be labeled as male or female.  Canadian Parents Raise Genderless Baby.

The media is incorrect to label the Canadians' efforts as raising a "genderless" baby.  Instead, they are raising a gender-free baby.  The opposite of male-or-female is not no gender, but it is creative gender.  We all have way too much gender to be forced into male or female pigeonholes.  It is a multi-gender, multi-sexual society awaiting us in the future.  One that is fun and full of creative choices.  

As we leave gender duality, and gender conformity, we begin accepting a spectrum of gender, not an absence of gender.  Only the infinite shades, hues and intensities of an ultimate color wheel could label the gender choices before us.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Passing of Dana Turner, Esq, Transgender Rights Activist



Dana Turner uniquely navigated the worlds of civil rights law, public theater activism and computerized research.  She was born October 13, 1954 in Gary, Indiana, grew up in California and graduated from Georgetown Law School.  After working at the Library of Congress she moved to New York City to practice law on behalf of the transgender and HIV+ communities.  

She used her lively sense of humor, magnetic personality and strategic insight to pioneer the use of public theatre for civil rights activism.  This was famously achieved with her organization of, and starring in, the first ever Drag Show on the Mall at the 1992 March on Washington for Gay & Lesbian Rights.   She later starred for several years as the “Mz Liberty” persona on behalf of oppressed people in New York City Gay Pride events.  

Her work for the International Conferences on Transgender Law & Employment Policy helped put the “T” in the GLBT alliance, as well as deepen its sensitivity to issues of race, class and gender.   Ms. Turner was an expert in online research, often finding key information that other lawyers missed.  She also served on the board of the World Against Racism Foundation, provided legal support to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and starred in the award-winning 2006 documentary Cruel and Unusual about transgender women in men’s prisons, several of whom she represented.


Dana was admitted to Roosevelt Hospital in New York City on April 26th with atrial fibrillation and passed in her sleep at 4:11AM on April 28th .  Her warmth, charm and generosity created a large family of loved ones in Oregon, San Francisco, New York City and beyond.  

A public visitation will be held at the Terasem Movement Transreligion Ashram at 2 Park Place, in Bristol, Vermont (30 miles south of Burlington, VT on Rte 116), from Noon – 1PM on June 19th, 2011, followed by a 2PM burial at the nearby Maplewood Cemetery in Lincoln, Vermont.  Donations in honor of Dana Turner, Esq. may be sent to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, 147 W. 24th St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011, www.srlp.org.