Gender Now Activity Book:School Edition is coming….OUT! (and we want the world to know)

"an indispensable tool in our work to create more gender inclusive and accepting schools"
-Joel Baum, Director, Education and Training, Gender Spectrum

This October 11th celebrate National Coming Out Day with the release of our newest book:
Gender Now Activity Book: School Edition

Our new activity book contains all the great info from the original coloring book adapted for the public school environment. Meet the Gender Team and learn that there are many ways to feel on the inside no matter what body you have on the outside through stories from nature, history, and different cultures. Did you know that clown fish can change their bodies from boy to girl? Or that in some countries they know there’s not just boys and girls? The Bugis of Indonesia have 5 genders!

Read more or view inside>>>

And, in case you need a little background music while you’re perusing the pages, here’s a classic by Diana Ross:

Filed under Events, General, LGBTQI Families | Tags: acceptance, book release, empowerment, family, fun, gender, GENDER NOW, lgbt | Comment (0)

An Open Letter from Sylvia Guerrero urging acceptance of diversity

The time is now to make a difference. Our children must be supported to be who they are without fear of harrasment and bullying. We can change things, opening our minds to all the ways to be in this world is a start, empowering our children is the beginning of change. Change begins within each of us. When we are truly authentic to ourselves there is no need to judge or condemn others. Read Sylvia’s powerful words below and then ask yourself what can you do today to be more authentically you? Then go out and do it! Let these children’s deaths not be in vain, let it be a catalyst for change.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2010

CONTACT: Kristina Wertz, Legal Director, Transgender Law Center
PHONE: 415-865-0176
EMAIL:kristina@transgenderlawcenter.org

Sylvia Guerrero, Mother of Slain Teen Gwen Araujo, Addresses LGBT Youth Suicide

San Francisco – Today, on the eighth anniversary of her daughter’s murder, Sylvia Guerrero, mother of slain transgender teenager Gwen Araujo, released the following open letter addressing suicide and violence experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth:

Dear friends of the Transgender Law Center,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you today. It has been eight years since my beautiful daughter Gwen Araujo was brutally killed because she was transgender. Gwen was the light of my life. She was taken from us at the young age of seventeen; she was a victim of a culture where people react with violence when faced with difference. It is this same culture that led to the suicides of at least six lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in the last week.

My heart goes out to the families of these young people. I know what it is like to be the mother of a teenager who endured constant bullying. I cannot count the times that I held Gwen in my arms while she cried at the end of the school day. My Gwen was so smart. She could have grown up to be anything she wanted. But her opportunity was taken from her. Years of bullying forced her to stop going to school. She was harassed and threatened every day. At the time, I didn’t know that harassment based on gender identity and expression was against the law in California. My calls to the school went unanswered, and Continue reading »

Filed under LGBTQI Families | Tags: acceptance, courage, gender, GENDER NOW, lgbt, transgender | Comments (5)

The Blessing of a Ban

This week we celebrate Banned Books Week. Banned books are insights into a culture’s deepest fears. They speak to what we’re trying not to face, what we’re in total denial of or what we feel we must suppress to maintain and protect the current order. Clearly these books hold power. For one, a book like this has become visible enough to be a problem and two, its contents are so powerful they must be controlled. These are books to pay attention to.

I imagine one day we will look back as a planet and be impressed with how limited our thinking was during this time. I imagine in this future day, we will generally think many more thoughts than we do now and we will feel completely free to do so. This is a natural future to me because in my imaginary world, thought and awareness always expand.

I have a professor friend I work with in Alabama. Last year during an interview I told him I didn’t think my new coloring book, Gender Now, would be banned despite the fact that it has naked children showing multiple gender expression. He said I should be so lucky to have my book banned. I laughed. Yesyes. I should be so lucky! Lucky enough for my book to join the list of those books that in their mere existence present the great opportunity for us to expand our minds to the point of freedom.

Here’s to all the banned books, the good, the bad, the brilliant and the brave. To you I show respect by happily falling through the dark, out of my clothes and into the dough of the night kitchen! In salutation of all those who have helped expand our minds…I play. I expand. I know. I am free.

And I sing into that night…You will never imprison my mind. (Gandhi)

About Banned Books Week: Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. More at: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

Filed under Events, General, LGBTQI Families | Tags: acceptance, ban, courage, gender, lgbt, library | Comment (0)

Tales of the Gender Spectrum Conference

We began the Fall with the Gender Spectrum Conference that took place throughout Labor Day weekend. We had jumped on presenting at this conference as soon as we heard it was going to be here in Berkeley. Since we had spent the spring and summer deeply focused on creating our Gender Now Coloring Book, when we finished, we were very eager to join in community with others who were supporting our children in multi-gender expression. In just a few years, the conference has grown from 30 attendees to a couple of hundred. There were numerous presentations, some covering the medical, legal and social aspects, others supportive and insightful.

In my presentation I focused on being aware of the multi-gender expression all around us, how to see it and talk about it with all of our children, not just transgender children. Sharing examples from nature, history, cultures different from our own and even our current world, I talked about how Continue reading »

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Fabulous Femmes love Gender Now!

What a weekend!! Two very full days of connecting and talking with lots of fabulous femmes and allies at the Femme Conference in Oakland.

Not only was it the debut of our Gender Now coloring book but we sold out of every copy! We even met Kate Bornstein, author of My Gender Workbook which is referenced in the coloring book. Kate bought a copy and graciously signed our copy as well, even posed for a photo.

Maya had some of her new jewelry available which, from what we could tell, was a big hit. Zai helped us vend on Sunday and even set up her own stand. She was a great helper!

After the awesome response to the coloring book, we’re even more looking forward to Gender Spectrum coming up in Berkeley September 3-6th! We just found out today that Maya will be presenting her workshop on Saturday at 9:40am. We are definitely looking forward to connecting with even more fabulously creative folks!!

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