Category Archives: Queer & Transgender Activism

4 Opportunities to Participate in Doula Research

Posted on April 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

There are four exciting opportunities to participate in research on the full spectrum & radical doula movements!  Each of these studies presents a chance to spread the word about the value of doula support throughout the whole spectrum of pregnancy outcomes.

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Posted in Birth, Doula, Full Spectrum Doula Work, Queer & Transgender Activism

Call for Birth Stories from LGBTQ parents

Posted on February 5, 2011 | Leave a comment
In the world of pregnancy and birth, there’s not much space devoted to the voices of queer or trans birthing folks.  When’s the last time you read a transman’s birth story, or noticed a lesbian couple’s birth photos floating around the ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ world of Facebook?

Kristen Ethier of Chicago’s Kaledioscope Doula wants to change that!  Here’s her call for submissions of birth stories from lesbian, queer, gender non-conforming, or FTM transgender parents:

What’s this all about?

There are vast collections of birth stories written by heterosexual folks.  It is time for your stories to be heard & recorded as a part of our queer history.  I am asking you to share your story with me because I am passionate about your story of the day you welcomed your child to the world being heard, in your own words. Send me your story whether you were the parent who gave birth or the co-parent who supported your partner when your baby was born.

I am not certain about the direction this collection will take & I will respond to your e-mailed story to ask permission before posting/publishing it.

Who’s asking?

Hi. I’m Kristen. I’m a queer feminist birth doula and childbirth educator in Chicago. I am passionate about the power of queer voices in pregnancy & birth culture. You can learn more about me at www.kaleidoscopedoula.com

All submissions can be e-mailed to kaleidoscopedoula@gmail.com

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Posted in Birth, Birth Stories, Doula, Oppression, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Smiling at Fred Phelps

Posted on January 26, 2011 | 2 Comments

How the fuck do you smile at Fred Phelps?

Scotty Weaver was an 18 year old gay Alabaman who liked to dress in drag. He was brutally tortured & murdered by 3 teenagers in 2004. Fred Phelps is glad he's dead.

I’m watching the documentary Small Town Gay Bar, and there’s this loooong interview with the infamous Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church.  He’s smiling and happy and cheerful as he describes the wrath that God is bringing down on us all for our acceptance of “fags.”

And the kicker is, you can hear the (liberal, LGBTQ friendly) filmmakers chuckling along with him as he spews his hate to their camera with a huge grin on his face.

I get that they did what they had to do to get the interview.  I can identify with having to compromise yourself for a moment in order to accomplish a larger goal.

But imagining myself sitting across a table from Fred Phelps, smiling and chuckling along with him–EVEN just for a few minutes, for a fantastic purpose–makes my skin crawl.  My head is spinning at the thought of it.

End rant.

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Posted in Activism, Gender, Oppression, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Gendered Language in this Safe Space

Posted on December 27, 2010 | 2 Comments

This post originally appeared today at the Full Spectrum Doula Network, so the language is directed toward that particular community.  But the message applies to the larger reproductive health community as well–and is a key element to the work we have to do to create an inclusive movement that fully represents the vibrance and diversity of this world.

One of the core goals of this community is to create a safe space for the full spectrum of doulas and other reproductive health workers.  For transgender or genderqueer folks working in the reproductive health world, part of feeling safe is not being asked to constantly, on a minute-to-minute basis, identify within the conventional gender binary of male and female–and not constantly, on a minute-to-minute basis, having your gender assumed as female because of your work as a doula or midwife.

This post is just a gentle nudge to remind folks here that your language matters.  To remind folks that part of creating a safe space lies in challenging ourselves to change our behaviors that might be alienating or denigrating to folks we really don’t mean to oppress.

Here, in this safe space, you don’t have to be a ‘lady’ or a ‘she’ or a ‘woman’ (or even a ‘womyn’ for that matter) to be a doula or a midwife or an advocate.

Many of us have talked about how Continue reading →

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Posted in Activism, Doula, Feminism, Gender, Oppression, Queer & Transgender Activism

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this is THE conference to be at. see you there!

Posted on December 17, 2010 | 2 Comments

The annual conference ‘From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom’ is the closest thing to a major radical reproductive rights conference out there.  I suspect that a good number of you have already been to it before, and I’ll be there in April 2011.  Come! 

Every year 1,000+ reproductive health advocates gather for an Abortion Speakout, plus workshops on incredible topics like:

  • Expanding the Doula Model of Care: Training and Being Abortion Doulas
  • Abortion Care
  • Abortion Access Internationally 
  • Abortion Funding and Access in the U.S. 
  • Mothers Among Us 
  • Empowering Birth 
  • Politics of Family Creation 
  • Healthcare for All
  • Translating the Gender Landscape: Creating Awareness and Activism 
  • Trans Feminism
  • Beyond the Gender Binary: A Trans 101
  • Blogging for Reproductive Justice
  • Self-Help/Self-Exams
  • Demystifying Reproductive Health
  • International Reproductive Rights Roundtable 
  • Organizing for Health Care Access

These workshops are from last year, but this year’s schedule promises to be even more ridiculously great–it’s the conference’s 30th anniversary.  It’s hosted by the Civil Liberties & Public Policy program at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. 

The real kicker is that this amazing event is free.  Yeah, I said free.  So, no cost for the conference, plus a bunch of meals are included, plus free transportation around the area, means this is probably one of the most accessible (as well as the most fly) conferences around. 

So join me!  Come and share and learn and grow and network!  Who’s in?

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Posted in Abortion, Activism, Birth, Birth Activism, Doula, Feminism, Gender, Oppression, Pregnancy, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Supporting Trans Folks in the Childbearing Year

Posted on November 13, 2010 | Leave a comment

One of the growing areas of interest (and need) for doula support is the birthing population of trans folks.  This great post from RHRealityCheck.org discusses the specific needs of transmen during conception, pregnancy and birth, but there’s a serious lack of resources for both the transfolk experiencing the childbearing year, AND the care prodivers (doulas, in this case) looking to support them.

The list below is from the new Resources page at the Full Spectrum Doula Network.  The page is private and only openable by FSDN members, so I wanted to go ahead and make the list of resources available to you, too.  The info below provides a wealth of information for and about the birthing trans community:

Many, many thanks to Abigail, Danny, and everyone else who contributed to compiling this list!  And it’s only a beginning…

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Posted in Activism, Birth, Birth Activism, Doula, Pregnancy, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Call for Submissions on Transgender Pregnancy & Conception

Posted on November 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

Stephanie Brill is currently calling for submissions for a book about transgender pregnancy & conception. This book will include:

• Using transwomen as donors
• Transmale pregnancies
• Transmale partners of biowomen
• Transmen/transwomen parenting together

Please send submissions to: info@genderspectrum.org.

The back story on this call for submissions is pretty interesting.  This upcoming trans book follows Stephanie Brill’s previous book, The New Essential Guide to Lesbian Conception, Pregnancy & Birth.  When it was being published, evidently the publisher, Alyson Books, ditched out on Brill’s trans-pregnancy & conception topics. 

Brill is co-founder and director of Maia Midwifery and Preconception Services, which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered and heterosexual families.  Here’s the statement from Mai Midwifery’s website about the exclusion of trans material from her book:

Stephanie Brill's previous publisher excluded her chapters on transgender issues

This Book is Trans Inclusive

and inclusive of all gender expressions and identities. However, the publisher declined to include the two new chapters dedicated to issues of transgender conception and pregnancy. They also declined to use a more inclusive subtitle to reflect the breadth of this book (bisexual, single, trans and gender queer parents). For this we apologize. However, Stephanie is now calling for submissions for another book in the works specifically addressing trans issues. To contact Stephanie Brill, click here.

 

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Posted in Call for Submissions, Pregnancy, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Announcing the Full Spectrum Doula Network!

Posted on October 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

There are unique challenges to being pro-choice, feminist, queer, or a person of color in a doula world that is predominantly none of those things. FullSpectrumDoulas.com seeks to change that!

This website is a brand new online networking community for Full Spectrum Doulas and Radical Doulas. Create a profile (don’t worry, it’s all free!) and take a look around–there are forums, blogs, photos, videos, and event announcements, all filled with engaging information.  From critical analysis of the state of reproductive health care, to processing and debriefing from your experiences as a doula, to weekly blogs on placenta medicine and herbs for reproductive health.  FullSpectrumDoulas.com is the place to develop your understanding of doula support and create community with other radical reproductive health advocates.

The intent of FullSpectrumDoulas.com is to create a safe space to share insight and experiences of our work within the whole continuum of reproductive health care. This site also serves to build community within the radical doula movement, embracing the diversity of our own personal identities as doulas and reproductive health advocates.

Let’s get this radical doula party started!  Check out the website, and consider doing the following:

1) Post about yourself in the ‘Introductions’ forum
2) Add yourself to the ‘Member Map’
3) Upload Photos & Videos - of your amazing birth experience, you with clients, your volunteer doula group doing a training, etc.
4) Comment on or add a Blog Post
5) MOST IMPORTANTLY, Participate in a few discussions in the Forums, or post a couple new ones, etc.  This is where the real action is!
6) Join or start a Group
7) Add Events

Please disseminate this announcement far & wide!  Forward, re-post, blog about it, and join us on Facebook.

FSDN’s current sponsor is Confluence Media Collective, an independent radical publisher.  We need more sponsors!  For a $30 donation, sponsors have their ad/logo and link placed on the site for a month.  Please consider sponsoring this fantastic community resource.

www.FullSpectrumDoulas.com

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Posted in Abortion, Activism, Birth, Birth Activism, Doula, Feminism, Full Spectrum Doula Work, Homebirth, Midwifery, Placenta Medicine, Pregnancy, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Disability Justice in Practice

Posted on September 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Mia and Stacy are two self-described “interdependent queer disabled korean diasporic radical women of color” looking for collective support as they combine their households and move to Berkeley. 

I ran across their story courtesy of Guerrilla Mama Medicine, and I feel like I’ve just encountered two inspiring, powerful women with more resting on their shoulders than I will ever understand. 

Mia Mingus and I [Stacey Milbern] have decided to live together and create/cultivate interdependent queer disabled korean diasporic radical women of color home together. We are embarking on a journey together to put pieces of disability justice into practice, love each other and live on the other side of dreaming. A huge part of this is our need, as crips, as queers, and women of color, as korean (and all) diasporic people; we need each other and we need you.

Their task is formidable; they have to gather the financial, physical, and social resources to find affordable, accessible housing, to make the actual move, and to establish a careshift collective to provide daily routine assistance until disability & medicaid start up in their new home state.

So  how can you help?  If you’re in Berkeley, help look for housing, or send any referrals their way.  If you’re not in Berkeley, send them a donation toward housing/moving costs, or participate in Thaura Distro’s book sale fundraiser  to benefit Mia & Stacy.

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Posted in Activism, Oppression, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Falling for ‘The L Word’

Posted on July 20, 2010 | 3 Comments

Please don’t tell my boss, my partner, my professors, or anyone else for that matter, but in the past week I’ve watched a season and a half of The L Word. And I think I’m in love.

Where in the world can you listen to three full minutes of women throwing back & forth different names for the cunt on a major television network?  The very end of episode 1, season 3, that’s where.

And yes, I am full aware of the pettiness of this post, and the obnoxious, disgusting privilege of the women in this show.  But I’m also stricken by how good it feels to watch nine lesbians just be out there in the world as beautiful, hip, successful, socially acceptable AND socially rejected women. 

I love knowing that my father could be flipping through the channels and might happen to end up on this show without realizing it.  I love that there are young queer girls in their bedrooms somewhere out there in the Midwest studying this show as an introduction to their own sexuality.

I clearly missed the boat when this show came out in 2004, seeing as I’ve never had cable or satellite in my life.  But now I can watch all the L Word I want on Netflix.  A blessing for me, but probably not so much for my boss or my partner.  Remember, folks, there are only six seasons, so the marathon will be over soon.

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Posted in Feminism, Queer & Transgender Activism

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Am I a mama, or an activist, or can I be both?

Posted on April 15, 2010 | 5 Comments

The days leading up to this past weekend were marked by a ridiculous level of personal turmoil for me, around an issue that on the surface doesn’t seem to be of immense importance.  But for me, I felt torn and desperate and confused about my life and my identity. 

I had the opportunity to attend the fantastic “From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom” conference  hosted by the Civil Liberties & Public Policy Program at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and I turned it down to the spend the weekend with my daughter.  For days, my mama self and my activist self seemed to be at odds.  Does it have to be this way?

This is a conference, mind you, that embodies my passions and my work more than any other annual conference I’ve heard of.  It brings hundreds of women together from around the country and the world to work toward a more comprehensive understanding of reproductive rights, that encompasses everything from abortion to birth control to childbirth and beyond.  It’s the closest thing to a ‘radical doulas’ conference yet.  It fits perfectly, in every way, with who I am, what I do, and what I’m trying to accomplish in my life.

And I didn’t go.  Again.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Abortion, Activism, Birth Activism, Doula, Feminism, Queer & Transgender Activism

Tranny Roadshow on Tour in Pacific Northwest

Posted on April 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

Support the Tranny Roadshow by checking out their 2010 Tour of the Pacific Northwest!

The Tranny Roadshow is a multimedia performance art extravaganza. It is composed of an eclectic group of artists, each one self-identified as transgender. This is a unique variety show where the expression of gender and the expression of self are inseparable. The show is a fluid entity, changing to suit the artists and the crowd, but always it is full of intelligence, fun and humor.

Although the Tranny Roadshow is done entirely by transpeople, it is not exclusively for transpeople. It is a raucous evening of entertainment, open and accessible to people of all backgrounds. Most of us are experienced performers, and while our goals do include challenging people and making them think, our most important goals are to entertain them, make them laugh, and make them dance.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Feminist Art, Queer & Transgender Activism

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