(no subject)

[aubreycolors.livejournal.com]

The Drudge Report loves to link to articles regarding transgender people... especially when it makes trans* people look ridiculous.

Today they have a link to this article... Italy Opens First Prison for Transsexuals on telegraph.co.uk.

Today's article is not one to make trans* people look ridiculous, but Drudge changes the headline at http://www.drudgereport.com to be "Italian Prison for Transvestites...".

Nowhere in the article is the word "transvestite" mentioned.
Oh the politics of it!!!

I need to rant a little + Spanish names?

[espreite.livejournal.com]

Okay, sorry in advance, this is a bit of a despairy rant, but I'm just feeling really frustrated.

I just started a Spanish-language course last week, and this semester I've been using my preferred name with all my teachers. My maestra was really awesome, as I introduced myself as Kai and she figured out my legal name without mentioning it to me and kept using Kai. Until today, when she realized that I have no Spanish name. This is apparently an urgent problem, so she grabbed the list of Spanish names and immediately started reading off possibilities on the girl's list.

At one point she said, "See, you get to pick the name you've always dreamed of having!" while inside I'm kind of screaming, "But I only just got to START using the name I've always dreamed of having!" :( Then she suggested, "Well, your real name is [girlname], so how about we use [Spanish version of girlname] for now?" And then I started panicking and just shouted "No!" *facepalm*

This also comes on the heels of having to participate in an sociology class experiment where we were told to interact with people "of the opposite sex first," and upon asking what that meant, was told that meant I should go talk to boys first. Incidentally that led to me pretty much coming out to the teacher, because when the kid with a girl's legal name wearing boy's clothes and short hair says "There are people who don't identify as a man or woman..." it's pretty obvious who they're talking about. Amusingly this led to the GSA advisor from the same department AND that teacher to check in on me repeatedly for the next two days, thinking I'd been offended, but at least she was willing to listen and adjust future activities.

So I need to come up with some sort of androgynous Spanish name in the next day. At the moment she's just calling me "La Sin Nombre," which would actually be sort of okay or even cool except for the "la" at the beginning. So....yeah. Grr.

mental meanderings on sperm storage and usage

[elizabeth1010.livejournal.com]

So banking the 'ol squigglies has become a more pressing issue now that I should be starting hormones in the coming months. However, in order to properly store my sperm, I can't be on hormones right? Ok, assuming that, it means I'll have to put off the 'mones until I can save up about $1500+, not an easy feat on 8.50 and hour and 16 hours a week. My question is, with the expense of I.V. fertilization, how often do people actually go through with it? I know only I can decide if it's worth it to me, but considering how expensive a proposition it is, I'm wondering if it will even be possible financially. So, I guess I'm curious to hear about anyone's experiences with in-vitro and storing sperms and stuff.