Newsletter - May 2008
MAY 2008 NEWSLETTER
MAY 3, 2008 PROGRAM
The New Jersey Support Group, Inc. will hold its May Buffet at the same location where we held the Holiday Banquet in December 2007. Those of our members who also belong to the Saturday Night Regulars (SNR) know right where it is. Members are encouraged to bring food, though the group will provide certain items as we did before. Our vice president has graciously agreed to donate the changing room. Charge will be $20.00 per person. The buffet site is unfortunately unmentionable as it is the meeting site of another transgender support group. Please contact us by e-mail or leave a voice mail message at 206-600-7860 should you wish directions or have any other questions. Watch the website for further announcements.
Personal notes
Members should note that our treasurer has recently been hospitalized and released. The mother of our Open Forum facilitator died on April 18. We will observe a moment of silence at the May Buffet. The facilitator and her father are still both ill. It would be difficult to send get well wishes, but please be mindful of their suffering and that of their relatives. We thank our Vice President for updates on their conditions.
THE MERRY FEW AT THE APRIL 5, 2008 MEETING
Eight people showed up for the April meeting. This is the lowest attendance I remember since I began attending meetings here on January 3, 1998, and no one else present could remember such low attendance. Only our Support Group Mother remembered lower attendance on our first meeting in Washington Crossing, in August 1996. Those who came had a good time with a social evening. But the Support Group will fold if such low attendance continues. Nonetheless, the meeting did convince me that I have to make a statement I had hoped to avoid. It concerns, of course, the cancellation of the April program. The decision was made with the advice and consent of the Board of Trustees, and since advertising was an issue, the advice of the Web Mistress. But it became apparent at the April meeting that the general membership wants an explanation, and what follows is a summary of what I stated there.
THE CANCELLATION OF THE APRIL 5, 2008 PROGRAM
I was preparing to post the April 2008 newsletter on March 23, 2008 when I received an e-mail from the speaker which contained a lot of rather negative and unfair statements about myself and the support group, for which the speaker eventually apologized. A major contention seemed to be that I had failed to post publicity materials the speaker had e-mailed me more that a week before that date, and that the announcement in Upcoming Programs contained errors regarding the speaker (stating that she is a cross dresser when she is a non-operative transsexual, and failing to list her specialty as urology, for which I apologize). The disputes over publicity could have been resolved, and the question of the behavior possible challenges to the talk raised by members with advanced degrees in science could have triggered would never have led to the cancellation of the program had it not been for negative statements and ultimatums in the speaker’s e-mails. We cannot force and do not wish to force speakers to come who express the sort of reluctance about our group the speaker did in her e-mail of March 23.
In the past, we have had good attendance at meetings at which there was no announced program. Fortunately we have had a spate of superb programs for more than a year. Discouraging members from attending the Support Group on an Internet site or though e-mail would interfere with the operations of a support group which does benefit some transgenders. If you know of any such material discouraging people from coming to our meetings, please notify us immediately.
Members who wish to hear the program originally scheduled for our April meeting should be advised that transgender Cerise Richards, M.D. will speak on "Brain Gender Identity, or why we are who we are" at 8:00 p.m. at the May 3, 2008 meeting of the TransCentral PA Support Group, Metropolitan Community Church of the Spirit, 2923 Jefferson Street, Harrisburg, PA. Consult http://www.transcentralpa.org/speaker_series.htm.
I intend to find a speaker on gender and the brain. Very recently, a biologist from a nearby university gave a program on gender and the brain at South Jersey NOW: The Alice Paul Chapter, which meets in Moorestown, NJ. In fact, I encouraged members to attend the meeting at which he spoke. I will try to identify and schedule him, if he will agree to come. Nonetheless, he is not familiar with research on transgenders, and his conclusion is rather modest, that at present it is impossible to determine the significance of numerous correlations between brain structures and natural gender.
The biologist mentioned in the preceding paragraph is non-transgendered. It may be necessary to invite a non-transgender to speak on a very serious issue for transgenders, medical care other than transitioning. Whether we ever transition, we probably all at some times have been ill with colds and the flu, and many may have required hernia operations and the like, many may undergo colonoscopy, or may contract severe illnesses such as pneumonia or suffer from conditions like asthma. Being transgendered can be an impediment to obtaining proper medical care, and transgenders cannot rely on transition specialists for all their medical needs. I am glad that I have participated in outreach programs to train medical students in dealing with transgenders. It is regrettable that many older physicians and care givers have not benefitted from such programs, particularly male physicians.
OUTSIDERS REACHING IN
More and more non-transgenders are contacting us by voice mail or e-mail to express a desire to attend our meetings. In addition to the journalism students mentioned in last month’s newsletter (who never showed up-too far to travel-but two interviewed me by phone), recent contacts include a couple with a young transgendered child, and two counselors, one who deals with transgendered adolescents and the other who is treating a wife lost in transition. Contacts in the past have included, in addition to tranny chasers, butch lesbians. Some support group are allowing persons other than transgenders and their significant others to participate and become members if they truly have an interest in transgenderism and wish to promote it. We must decide which of these we can admit while preserving membership confidentiality. I say which not if, for if we decide to admit none, I fear we may die on the vine.
We were at one time a Renaissance chapter (and affiliate, our desired status). Outreach was a basic duty of all such organizations. Now I gather the Renaissance Speakers Bureau is a mere memory. We are not going to be able to use the rights we have gained in the state if we and similar organizations do not reach out and let outsiders reach in.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
I am going to preface the program listings with informal statements on our program advertising policy. These statements were in part engendered by cancellation of the April program.
For security reasons, only two persons have the passwords to edit the website, the web mistress and myself. I am the one who ends up doing a lot of the posting. I had some ambitions for the website, but little time to realize them. I realize that the fact that I often do not post upcoming meeting notices until the week before the meeting makes some members and speakers unhappy. Any speaker who feels that her/his talk would benefit from more extensive publicity earlier should contact me immediately. I generally write up a short notice under the rubric of Upcoming Programs months in advance. Speakers are advised to check such short notices for accuracy.
Nonetheless, we do want to improve publicity. The web mistress has raised this issue several times. Though we wish to continue to exercise caution in posting photos, we do wish to spiff up the website with some graphics. Those appearing therein must express their consent by signing a model release form. Please consider this and communicate your ideas to the web mistress in particular.
Any changes we undertake in program announcements will apply equally to all speakers. This is out of fairness. Though speakers have differing qualifications, and some talks are long remembered while others are quickly forgotten, we are grateful all who have expended the time and effort to entertain and enlighten us, and thus publicity notices are of relatively equal size, with some variation. We also adhere to membership confidentiality provisions in our bylaws. And though we are grateful for information from speakers regarding themselves and their presentations, we reserve the right to edit publicity materials submitted by speakers or to compose our own publicity materials.
JUNE 2008 MEETING
The Rev. Charles Stephens, pastor of the church in which we meet, will speak on transgenderism and Unitarian-Universalism. Watch future announcements for further details. This program is part of a series designed to acquaint members with the views of denominations which signed petitions favoring the passage of transgender anti-discrimination legislation. The focus will be on their views of the role of transgenderism in their respective denominations, methods for promoting transgender tolerance, and on finding welcoming congregations for those who are religious.
SNR PICNIC-JUNE 28
The Saturday Night Regulars, also known as Sigma Nu Rho, will hold its annual picnic at our regular meeting place on June 28, 2008. Charge per person will be $10.00. See our vice president for further details.
JULY 2008 MEETING
Can you believe it? A vendor recently wanted to speak on July 5, but had to switch to a different date due to other commitments. I suggest we do the following. Why not make the most of the fact that we rent two rooms? Why not show a feature film in one room and have a social evening or all night Open Forum in the other-or even combing film and Open Forum? Think about it. I have several candidates for feature films should we choose to show one.
AUGUST 2008 MEETING
Election night. Prove that a sucker is born every minute and run for office! We reserve the right to schedule a short program for the remainder of the evening.
SEPTEMBER 2008 MEETING
Betty Ajamian of Artistry Cosmetics will speak on adapting cosmetics to changing seasons and weather conditions. She will also be available for individual color coordination consultations. In the past, the Support Group has tended to invite Mary Kay consultants to speak, but the Support Group cannot endorse any particular brand. An Estée Lauder representative has spoken to the group, and we may invite representatives from this firm, or from Mary Kay, Artistry and other cosmetics firms to speak in the future. I consider cosmetics programs to be mixed educational/vendor functions because the more you pass, the less transphobes are likely to harass. And skin care is a big element in passing.
OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2008 MEETINGS
Still open. Suggestions welcomed.
DECEMBER 2008 MEETING
A holiday banquet of some sort. Think it over. Do we want another buffet, or are we ready to go back go a restaurant? If we do, it will cost more, and we are not subsidizing banquets any more.
Jennifer Mae Barnes, President
April 23, 2008
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