1) New SoCal Genderqueer group; 2) Quest to find API trans/queer folk

[alejandromagno.livejournal.com]

1) NEW GENDERQUEER GROUP: Southern California Genderqueer Revolution
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/genderqueer_socal

•My life and the lives of others around me tell me that genderqueer folks have been searching, desperate for a truly GENDERQUEER ACCEPTING AND GENDERQUEER SAFE SPACE, I have become more of the opinion that we genderqueer folk, both in and out of the trans community, need our own space.

•Have you ever had people question your gender choices? Tired of hearing, "You're just confused." Have people asked you many times when you plan to have surgery or take hormones? Meanwhile, you already know who you are, or, you're comfortable with not knowing, yet everyone around you seems so agitated.

•Here, no one will force you to choose a label preemptively or prematurely. No one will oppose weekly, daily, or even hourly changes of name, pronouns, gender identity, gender expression, or style. You can choose to "wear" a particular gender, or identify as trans, or revel in confusion, by choice or by circumstance, or not.

•Many genderqueers, even those who ID as trans, may not feel comfortable in trans space, even in those that claim genderqueer inclusion. People in spaces designated as "genderqueer safe" may with good intentions inadvertently make genderqueer folks feel uncomfortable, both those who identify as trans and those who do not.

•Just as some often use the LGBT acronym without paying any attention to T (an afterthought to the G & L), the genderqueer community has similarly become an afterthought within the trans. Rather than trying to make every space inclusive, let's collaborate with others as equals. No more tokens, but a meeting of equals. Avoid tampering with issues you know nothing about because you end up looking desperate. Instead, work with others recognizing their expertise or the uniqueness of their experiences, separate from your own.

•Whether you consider yourself still in process, percolating, if you will, or completely and totally settled in your ambiguity, you have a place here.

•Words that may or may not fit at any given moment, all at once, at some times and not at others, etc.: Girlfag, guydyke, no/post/pre-op, no/post/pre-ho, she, he, man, woman, FTM, MTF, CD, FTMTF, transsexual, transgender, straight, gay, queer, pan, bisexual, leather, fetish, polyamorous, polyfidelitous, genderqueer, genderfuck, effeminate, soft, feminine, somewhere between male and female, man and woman, androgynous, butch, masculine, male, bigender, intergender, and many more.

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2) On a quest to find Asian/Pacific Islander Trans/Queer People

I have been searching for what has become almost myth and legend to me, for their rareness and invisibility - API trans and queer people (especially Asian FTMs, but ANYONE Asian and trans and/or queer). I began my search in a message I sent to a Yahoo group for transmen (most of whom live in Singapore, a little out of my geographical range as a resident of Los Angeles), as part of my personal journey, and also as part of my work in the trans/queer/API communities. Basically, can anyone please help me find more API trans people (on any gender spectrum, but especially the guys) in the Southern California area? If you know anyone who would enjoy meeting other API transfolk, please tell them that a cute, and not at ALL psycho Korean/Filipino transguy with very ecumenical and diverse spiritual, philosophical, and academic influences in Los Angeles would love to meet them and create a community for us. See, I've found connections in, say, the Trans and also Jewish, Christian, academic, political, spiritual, queer, poly, ghic, or leather/BDSM communities - all these other facets of my life, but I know virtually no ASIAN transpeople, and that makes me sad.

I've been trying to find more resources for Asian transpeople, FTMs especially, and in my search I have found so very, very little. We are blessed/cursed with invisibility on more than one level as trans men and as Asians and Asian Americans. It weighs especially heavy on my heart, this impetus to find and help other Asian FTMs, but it's so damn hard to find them, for a number of reasons, as I'm sure you all can understand. I'm involved with FTM Alliance of Los Angeles, www.ftmalliance.org, which in itself is a groundbreaking organization in that it focuses on the social, community, and educational needs of Southern California trans guys. I also have recently joined the new Transgender Advisory Board at
APIHR, Asian/Pacific Islanders for Human Rights (www.apihr.org) as part of my personal and professional endeavors to find ways to simply FIND Asian transfolk, especially trans guys, and create community. I'm one of the only Asian FTMs I know, and though I have many friends and community based on other attributes of myself, I have found an increasing tug of loneliness in this respect.

So, my question to all of you, and anyone else whom you know who might have some info: Do you have any suggestions as to how to do outreach among Asian trans guys, and if you know anyone in the Southern California area who identifies as API (Asian/Pacific Islander), would you please pass this message on to them? Do you have a cousin, perhaps, or a long lost step-brother? Anyone with ties to the Asian and trans communities? Just throwing it out there. Thank you.

Thank you for your time and help with this,

Alexander Alejandro Dmitri Roberto Jose