Archive for the ‘Features’ Category

The Riddle of Gender

Wednesday, May 4th, 2005

[Update: I've edit the HTML on this post to make the presentation better. My apologies to Deborah Rudacille!] I am pleased to recommend Deborah Rudacille’s The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism and Transgender Rights [1]. Her book can be filed under the What Is, Is category. A writer of immense talent she owns her assumptions and perspectives, bringing her expertise as a science journalist to the topics of transsexual rights, activism and science. In 2001 Deborah approached me at the True Spirit Conference and asked to meet with me. She had heard me give a keynote speech where I encouraged everyone in attendance to follow their creative voices. Deborah's latest book, The Scalpel and The Butterfly [2] had been recently published, and she was considering a book about transgender and transsexual communities. As a non-trans person she felt that perhaps she should not write such a book. “Write it anyway,” I probably said. I probably told her that we needed to hear from all voices about trans communities. Her opinion and observations were as valid as trans peoples. Then she left and I went on my way. In March of 2005 I happened to see The Riddle of Gender on display at my local independent bookseller. Within the same week, after I sent her my blog address, Deborah and I had exchanged delightful emails . I asked, and she agreed, to be interviewed for this blog. [1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375421629/qid=1115216094/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1180730-2853605?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 [2] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0374254206/qid=1115216094/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/002-1180730-2853605?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Terry Schiavo’s Disability

Monday, March 21st, 2005

March 20, 2005 -- It's time for the press to talk to the real experts on the Schiavo case, the disability rights movement. Not Dead Yet has led the disability community's opposition to non-voluntary euthanasia for a decade. Diane Coleman, the group's founder and president, and Stephen Drake, its research analyst, are available in Chicago to discuss the disability angle on the recent legislative and legal developments in the case. Read more at Not Dead Yet. [1] What is missing from most discussions are the experts.  The issue is not about left versus right but about the systematic exclusion of people with disabilities from any discussions about how to best manage and treat disabilties, even disabilities as severe as Terry Schiavo's. I can say that the left is about as ill-informed as the right.  Neither argument interests me at all.  What does interest me? Putting disability rights activists right square center in the discussion. [1] http://www.notdeadyet.org/docs/schiavostatement032005.html