I WAS BORN HUMAN!!!

 

 

“I am a boy. A boy who was born a girl. No, that can’t be right. I wasn’t born a girl anymore than I was born with a name-both labels were stuck onto me by others. Maybe I should say that I am a boy who was born into a girl’s body. But did I have a girl’s body at that point? I didn’t have hips or breasts yet. Someone once asked me if I had been born with with boobs, but I haven’t met anyone who was born with breasts. All right then, I am a boy who was born with a girl’s genitalia. A girl’s genitalia? Nuh-Uh! They were definitely my genitalia—thus, a boy’s genitalia. That would make me a boy with boy parts. (I’m also a boy with boy toes and knees— I wonder why no one has ever asked me about those.) Yes, I am a boy with boy parts, so that makes me trans.” -This is a quote from an essay by trans MAN Francisco Fernández.

 

[armpit hair]
(mammally factual)
©2001 Alix Olson.

There were no seats on the subway
so I had to grab a strap
As I lifted up my arm I heard a scream “what’s that?”
I took a look around,
I thought “there must be something scary”.
Like a lion or a tiger or the Virgin Mary?
But then, I noticed they were looking at me.
I heard “oh my gawd! They’re hairy!”

You turn thirteen, they put a razor in your hand
To teach you the difference between a woman and a man.
You see, chicks smooth their pits
so boys can smooth the chicks.
But I was different, I wanted to smooth the chicks,
I wanted to lick their pits!

Armpit Hair! Armpit Hair! (I like it)
Armpit Hair! Armpit Hair! (spike it, spike it!)

I was walking around brooklyn
when these cool guys drove by
They said “we’re looking for a good time baby,
wanna ride?”
I flashed my biggest smile,
I said “hey, sounds like fun”
Then I flash my armpit hair. They turn. They run.

Armpit Hair! Armpit Hair! (it’s a weapon)
Armpit Hair! Armpit Hair! (use discretion)

Well, I hear that the Senate is planning a convention
to pass an amendment
On body hair prevention. I’m planning on attending,
I’ll be sitting in the front row.
I’ll have chains on my pits screaming
“Hell no, it won’t go!”
I’m like Inspector Gadget, when I unfurl my curls
I lasso all the bad guys, then I rope in all the girls.
Well, I figure I owe ‘em cause they saved me
From the clueless and the hairless Patriarchy!

Armpit Hair, Armpit Hair! (you know it)
Armpit Hair! Armpit Hair! (grow it, grow it!)

Well, I want to go to Europe, the land of Brave and Free
Where it’s considered natural for girls to be hairy.
Where gillette don’t make a profit off of
keeping womyn busy
As pleasers with their shavers
and their razors and their tweezers.

So to all the boys and the men
with the furry, furry masses
With the ape like backs
and the very hairy asses.
I don’t find that particularly pretty
So get your opinion out of my hairy pitty.

Armpit hair! (forget..) Armpit hair! (gillette)
Armpit hair! (don’t cut it) Armpit Hair!
(rapunzel swung from it!)

They say, “cut your clits and shave your pits,
and cover your tits!”
We say- bullshit.
Cause I use my curls to be at one with the world
like when I’m out camping
And I lay myself to rest
I sleep with my arms up
so the birdies can nest.
So stop and reconsider just what they consider natural
Cause armpit hair is simply
Mammally Factual.

 

BJ almost didn’t make it safely to work this morning. I almost wasn’t able to sit here to type this. We had a very very very close call. Someone pulled out of the road at Martin’s Bike Shop making a left when I was heading down through. They pulled out when I was right there. Not when I was almost there….I was right there. They couldn’t have looked. I slammed on my brake pushing down as hard as I could….not even enough time for the thought “shit” to even cross my mind.

I almost wasn’t here right now to post this. All because someone drove like an idiot and that someone wasn’t me. I didn’t hit the guy but it was less then an inch from it. He just kept going…tires screaming. He continues to drive like that and he will get someone killed yet. I almost wasn’t here to type this right now…all because some person drove like an idiot.

And for all the people who know the road I am talking about at Martin’s bike shop….I still say they should make that a one way and people shouldn’t be allowed to make a left out of there…they should have to come out at the light…it would be much safer.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is preparing to outline details for a bid for full membership of the United Nations during the UN’s 66th General Assembly session.

 

 

 

In 1947 the United Nations mandated the partition of the Palestinian territory, envisaging an autonomous Palestinian state emerging alongside the Jewish state of Israel. Nearly 64 years later, this vision remains unfulfilled. The Palestinian territories are fractured and subject to Israeli occupation.

 

The expansion of Jewish settlements has eaten up land and Palestinians, along with their property, are increasingly the target of settler violence. Twenty years of negotiations toward a Palestinian state have gone nowhere, even as the number of Israelis in the West Bank has tripled in that time to 300,000. “A few more years and practically nothing will remain.”

 

Obama has spoken of the suffering of the Palestinians. Now he can “provide the Palestinian people with the same sense of dignity that Harry Truman gave Israel 60 years ago.”

 

Myth           Palestine was unpopulated before Israel took control of the land
Fact           Palestine was intensely populated for millennia before Israel was founded

 

Myth           Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East
Fact           Israel is not a true democracy; its Muslim and Christian citizens do not have equal rights or protections

 

 

 

 

Thoughts?

 

Hir by Alysia Harris and Aysha El Shamayleh

Melissa sits in the back of the classroom afraid to speak up,

She pulls awkwardly at her extra loose khaki cargo pants,

She doesn’t want the boys to notice her.

James finds himself at the back of a classroom,

His baseball cap casts a shadow on his pimple stained forehead,

A wide shirt hangs from his broad shoulders,

But no one ever noticed him.

Melissa

The teacher asks,

And she says nothing because she is not here,

And Melissa has never been here,

Because Melissa is just some abstract jumble of syllables that doesn’t fit her position,

She is not what she seems,

She doesn’t want to have to explain to her mother for the 232nd time why she doesn’t want to wear a dress to prom,

Doesn’t paint her face it’s cause her whole body is painted on.

Melissa, Melissa

James doesn’t want to have to explain where he came from,

Cause with the exception of Melissa he has been deemed an abstract reality by everyone,

All he wishes for is to get to wear a tuxedo to prom.

And Melissa has been tucking in breasts that will be growing for three years now,

Been using duct tape to press them down and mold them more into pecs,

She just wishes that people would understand that at birth her genitals didn’t know which way to grow,

Mad at God who couldn’t relay a message directly to her hormones that they should produce more testosterone,

The only person who understands her is James,

And they have been playmates since the age of four,

Around the time girls notice boys and boys notice girls,

See James’ family wanted daughters instead of sons,

And Melissa was always like that male beetle that everyone called a ladybug,

Melissa, Melissa where is she?

Sometimes she wishes she could rip the skin of her back,

Every moment of everyday feels trapped in the flesh of a stranger,

Melissa,

As she stands to her feet wanting to say

“I’m here, I’ve been here since I was born, so quit asking me if I’m a him or a her, Cause when you combine the two pronouns you get H.I.R,

Hir,

And God combined the two genders and put me in this body transgendered,

I’m here so quit talking about me like I’m not here.”

James falls back into Melissa’s skin,

And the two comfort each other in a syncopated heartbeats,

Waiting for the day when Melissa can finally scrub off this made up genetic make up,

When the teacher asks for James and he can say “I’m here.”

What to do with those pesky male/female boxes…..

 

 

 

….And I am too big for these boxes they give,
Too real for this Gender Toyland
Built over soiled contradictions
With Barbie bricks and Ken cornerstones
Built over the skulls and bones of our Transgendered Ancestors.
Danger:
She-men working above. And beyond. You.

 

 

In 2000 Bill Gates created what is now the largest transparently-operated aid foundation in the world. Its contributions toward fighting infectious diseases is comparable to the UN World Health Organization. Unlike other magnate philanthropists, the Gates family is ensuring that the lion’s share of the $1.5 Billion (minimum annual donations) spent each year goes to the world’s poorest and most afflicted peoples such as those in impoverished African nations. The foundation has given a total of almost $1.2 billion to the Global Polio Eradication Foundation (source) and $750 million for immunizations of children in developing countries (source). Additionally, it has supplied major funding to AIDS research and agricultural research aimed at alleviating famine and poverty.

In 2006 Warren Buffett announced he would give it all to charity- almost $40 billion, according to Fortune Magazine. Although many wealthy people have donated their fortunes to charity upon their death Buffett has gone several steps further. First, he isn’t waiting that long. Each year hundreds of millions in stock are donated according to a set donation schedule. Second, eventually virtually all of it will be given either at his death or sooner depending solely on which happens first. Buffett’s children will inherit a tiny fraction because he believes that money rightly belongs to the people, and should not be used to construct a familial corporate dynasty. Third, both he and Gates have formally asked other super-wealthy individuals to donate half of their own fortunes to charity via The Giving Pledge. According to wiki, as of 2010 forty billionaires have taken the pledge meaning minimally $125 billion in donations.