lorisir's blog

This is a very moving poem from Emmanual Ortiz, originally published in "The Roots of Terror," a publication of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, a US-based organization working to create popular education to build grassroots leaders. Project South provides opportunities for organizers to learn and develop movement building tools and strives to build a stronger movement for social & economic justice by connecting local organizing efforts to consciousness, vision, and strategy. It reminds me of how all oppression is interconnected and none of us are truly free until we all are. As we plan for this year's Trangsgender Day of Remembrance event, we can keep these lessons in mind...

The Children's National Medical Center through their Outreach Program for Children with Gender-Variant Behaviors and their Families has published a booklet.

Even though this booklet is primarily geared to parents with young children, several of the issues it addresses pertain to older children as well. Every parent, teacher, social worker... anyone who works with children should read it.

Some pearls of wisdom inside:

Question traditional assumptions.
Do not automatically accept traditional
assumptions about social gender roles and sexual orientation. Learn to separate society’s judgments from the love you have for your child. Do not let other people’s critical opinions of what is right and wrong come between you and your child.

Examine your feelings and learn to accept your child.
You and other family members may feel uncomfortable and ashamed of your child’s interests and behaviors. This is common early on. Take time to figure out where your feelings are coming from. You may have to adjust your dreams of how you expected parenting and your family to be.

Well, we added 6 more people to the tranny road show this week as the INTRAA field ops team (now 13 strong) trekked to Columbus, Indiana for the annual picnic of the Gay/Straight Alliance.

So I was having dinner with Bil and some other folks after the IE Region 8 Steering Committee meeting tonight, totally diggin' on the cool web browsing feature of my new LG "The V" phone that my boy Evan hooked me up with when Jerame commented on how nice he thought the INTRAA logo looked.

Bil chimed in with, "Yeah, but what's up with the water?"

To which Jerame replied, "It means we're all drips!" And well, he's not too far off-base.

I just got back from a very long day in Bloomington, spent with friends, several of whom are fellow activists in INTRAA, networking at the Bloomington Pride Picnic.

It was hard work. It rained. It was hot, muggy, etc. But ultimately it was all worth it...