Jane and John are both transgender. They are an opposite-sex couple who have been in a relationship for over a decade. In Dec. 2009, they attempted to marry in the Bronx. They fulfilled all of the requirements for receiving a marriage license in New York City and presented their government-issued photo identification - the only identification required by the City Clerk's office. Rather than issuing the marriage license, the City Clerk refused and instead demanded that Jane and John produce their birth certificates before they could be married - something not required of other marriage license applicants.

Under the terms of the new policy, issued on Feb. 7, 2011, once a marriage license applicant produces the required photo ID, the City Clerk may not request additional proof of sex. Moreover, City Clerk employees are forbidden from considering the applicant's appearance or preconceived notions related to gender expression when deciding whether to issue a marriage license.

Between all the marriage battles, the commercialization of the "It Gets Better" campaign, the continued assault on our visibility as valid and acceptable members of society, and the neverending victim train that is activism, the bad news keeps rolling on and on - kids killing themselves, bullies getting away with it, Mucinex-fueled gay panic, transphobia ahoy, etc., etc., We're stuck in a holding pattern. We always focus on the suck and rarely encourage people to participate in the awesome goings-on in our queer little corner of the universe.

I've tried for months to articulate this but somebody beat me to the punch: I happened upon this video from the vlogbrothers youtube channel. There, Hank Green justified the money spent on the James Webb Space Telescope with the following:

Beautiful World follows a group of developers, administrators, and hackers in the world of Irokai, a fully-immersive virtual landscape owned and managed by a large corporation. There are three kinds of people in Irokai: visitors, who don skullcaps and blindfolds to induce their brains into the world, AIs, who are built on large repositories of experiences and are advanced enough to pass Turing Tests, and Immigrants, who have their brains scanned and "moved into" Irokai, destroying whatever body they may have had to begin with. Travelers pay for their experience ala carte - flight comes with a fee, as does teleportation, developing new worlds, buying new items, and pretty much anything that would make a world in which imagination was the only boundary.

The brainchild of two trans women, FYCTC started from a simple question: "What sites exist to show how awesome trans women can be?" When few sites came to mind, they started a Tumblr. In the span of two months the site has exploded in popularity; over a thousand people now follow the blog. Their mission:

Too often trans women are berated on our appearance or told that we're ugly. Those of us that blend in are often treated with such phrases as "But you're so pretty, how can you be trans?" or "You're really cute, for a trans girl."

Well it's time to show the world the cuteness that trans women can achieve. Fuck Yeah Cute Trans Chicks dedicates itself to showing that our cuteness and sexiness does not match cisgender expectations and those expectations can fuck right off.

We talk to the blog's creators after the jump.

This doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that she posted this in response to my advice on stepping up and demanding to be treated like the woman she is. The article was her hamstring. It was her reason to be afraid.

This may seem remedial for some but it's important to revisit Conflict 101 from time to time. Conflicts about identity can get extremely heated; when one aims to erase an identity, or insist that a form of expression is against the will of God or the people, feelings are bound to be hurt. That's just how the game is played. In order to maintain our sanity we have to remind ourselves to identify the stakes of an argument. Since this whole "people are mean to trans folk" meme seems to be such a common theme in our world I figured it was best to post it here.

So some hater just spit in your cornflakes. What's at stake? The short answer is usually "not much at all."

In Fenton's world, some kids are toons.

Some think the change is biological.

Others say the change is social.

But some kids turn into toons, and Fenton's father just wants it to stop. He's even built a Realist political movement to ban toons from the real world, hoping that it will keep his own children from following in their estranged mother's cartoon footsteps.

Tensions rise as the Realists lobby to get their ban set into law, and toons fight for their right to be themselves, and Fenton's father knows that he can count on his two sons to stand behind him as his dream of a toon-free reality comes to life.

It's just too bad that Fenton's becoming a toon...

Please consider picking up a copy, as every dollar I make from this book goes right into my surgery fund. That, and I think the book's pretty darn cool, so that's something.

Look, it sucks that the Dems lost. It was expected, and in many ways necessary to put the Dems in check. But it's not all bad in the end; with conservatives slowly moving toward equality we might even stand a chance at holding our ground. Hell, given the recent spat of court cases we may even gain more territory in the next two years than we ever did through congress alone. Gotta look on the bright side of life, you know.

I know a lot of people are despondent about the last two years. This Republican victory may even serve as a capstone on many an advocacy career. ("Screw it! I give up if that's how the game's going to be played!") I know; I'm frustrated and teetering at that "I quit" point. Just because you're so frustrated with politics that you consider laying low, however, doesn't mean you can't do something really useful for the community. LGBT activism is about more than politics, alphabet-soup bills, and stories of discrimination.

Here's three things you can do right here and right now that will probably do more for LGBT people in general than the fight for equality can ever achieve on its own. We may be in political remission, and our civil equality may be stalled, but that doesn't stop the world from turning nor does it mean we should stop tending to our local queer communities.

I know there's some guff coming toward this project from all comers - both inside and outside the community - but I think it's a worthy cause if for nothing else than creating an easily searchable, public repository of LGBT people talking frankly about the lives they live. Not the negative issues, or the headline-worthy discrimination we face in our lives - just a flat-out affirmation of "I made it, and you can too."

Are there still problems in this world for LGBT people? Absolutely! Are there some cynical remarks that could be made about celebrities just now realizing that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender kids are bullied to suicide daily? Sure, if you want to go that route. I'm not here to throw stones, though.

No punches are pulled. This book presents the trans* community in all it's glorious, infamous, funny, angry, sexy, ugly, empowered, debilitated, and otherwise blazing glory. These are our stories - they do not ring of sensationalism, or apologism, or attempts to pander to the "outsiders" to our trans* world - and yet they remain accessible to everyone. The book is at once a liberating and empowering experience for anybody who has either thought about the gender spectrum or lived in the nooks and crannies between "boy" and "girl."

Best of all, the book is fantastically entertaining.

Remember Halloween? Sure you do. There was that one Halloween where your crew made a game of getting guys to go in drag to Rocky Horror. You loved Halloween! It was that magical time where you could let me out for a while and blame it on costuming. Not the bunny - he was a different guy entirely, little more than a substitute and a stand-in - but honest-to-god step out of your closet as me, even if only for that one night.

Do you remember how excited you got while you were running around and talking to all your friends? How you drove them to Goodwill, or shopped a friend's closet, or raided the prop room in the theater for clothes? Remember how they tried to talk you into crazier getups, or corsets, or more makeup, and you just said no thanks, this is fine, no really, I like being a little confusing?

Really? I remember that part plenty well.

Even with all the bad blood I think we can agree that Mehlman has unique connections most LGBTQ folk can only dream of creating. He just happens to have been Republican at a time of anti-gay animus, and despite his stated desire to help the marriage equality movement people in the blogosphere are putting significant effort into slinging mud his way.

One thing I've noticed in the LGBTQ community is an almost religious fervor in its Democratic ties. Yes, the loyalty is sometimes warranted, and right now the GOP isn't a friendly place for LGBTQ people. However, as a former Republican myself I have to caution against slinging mud at the folks across the aisle just because of the "R" in front of someone's name. As far as I'm concerned, GOProud and the like are on the bleeding edge of increasing our acceptance, working behind enemy lines to create sympathizers and pro-equality agendas.

A trans woman looking for answers asks if her transition - done in the face of certain death from stress - is justified and what she should do regarding practical matters such as bathroom usage, showers, jail accommodations, etc., and gets the following in response. Mind you, the response is a rare gem in its honesty, and something everybody should read. But it is somewhere between pragmatic, cold, and callous, but at least she says it with a smile (emphasis mine):

Now I am going to say something that may seem harsh but remember I am talking to you about objective reality - where the rubber meets the road. It is better to die than to offend God. It would have been better for you to have given your life to stay in obedience to God, than to break His law and to drag along into sin your poor spouse. At some point -- along with those who denied Christ under persecution and later felt remorse, you will have to say, "It would have been better for me to have died instead." That is hard, but really everyone of us should feel that way about every serious sin we have committed. We should prefer the death of our bodies to the death of our souls, shouldn't we?

Working in collaboration with Erin, INTRAA and IE are engaged in ongoing discussions with key leaders at Ball Memorial, a Clarian Health facility, to respond both to the specific barriers Erin and her family faced and to traditional barriers to care faced by LGBT patients.[...]

Mr. Haley and his team have already discussed making immediate changes in non-discrimination policies and practices, instituting trainings for all staff on best practices in serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) patients, ensuring inclusion of LGBT issues in the hospital's long-term diversity plans, exploring changes to internal systems and policies that create unintentional barriers to care for LGBT patients, and identifying training for Ball Memorial physicians on medical issues specific to transition related care.

I want to thank you for dropping by. Really. I mean it. I know you read this blog. Let's face it - y'all aren't stupid and must do at least as much research on our side as we do on yours. At the very least I hope you've been entertained by what you've read here; despite our differing political opinions I like to know that everybody's having a good time. (Call it "Hoosier Hospitality.") I know I've been enjoying watching your tour unfold over the past few months, and I figured I'd try to give you a chance to explain yourself further.

Look, I'm gonna be real frank when I say I want to understand your position better. That's politics, right? Coming to an understanding, finding compromise, exploring issues, all that stuff. My only problem right now is this: I don't understand the details of your side's position on marriage.

Please don't take that as an insult, and don't downplay my confusion: I know you hold up "one man, one woman" bonds as super-special and keen and all that, but you haven't been entirely forthcoming and clear on the how for all this.

Erin Vaught: Last week I was in Indy to see my doc and told him I was coughing up a lot of blood, and without divulging what possible conditions could have caused it (privacy reasons) he told me to call him if it gets worse and that I had to figure out how to pay for an MRI and various other tests. On Sunday I coughed almost a cup of blood and decided to go to the E.R. The doc told me if I had to go to the E.R. to go to Muncie rather than New Castle, as they would be more tolerant being a bigger city and a university hospital.

So my partner and I got our son ready and drove to Muncie. We went into the hospital - not too busy considering - and the familiar looks started. I am used to them. So I go to the desk, my partner and son with me and start giving them my info. There were two people at the desk doing my intake; I think one was training. When they got to the surgery question, I told them all my surgries, and she kept pressing, "Are you sure you haven't had any other surgeries?" I said that I didn't.

They completed my regestration and I saw that had put "M" as my gender. I pointed out that my ID says female. She looked annoyed and the lady next to her snickered. She told this jock type triage person to take my vitals; he glared at me for a second and turned his head and said, "Remember payback sucks." I looked at him with a slightly angry look; he said, "Not about you, something from earlier."