Affirming Trans Identity Online
From digmovements
In week two, we did a blog post critiquing two websites, one big and one small. I chose the personal web site of a friend, http://nikaaskini.com/index.php#, and the website of The Center for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Community of Seattle, http://www.seattlelgbt.org/.
[edit] Taken from my blog
The Seattle LGBT Center uses their website to post information about their programs, provides a discussion forum, lists upcoming activities, events, and workshops, lists resources for the LGBT folks in Seattle and in this region. The website is representative of a large organization whose mission statement is to provide opportunities and tools to LGBT individuals and communities, as well as organizations in order that their voices can be heard and affirmed, and to provide a place to organize, and affect change. The website presupposes that LGBT individuals and communities face discrimination and therefore the change that is being affected is of the changing society in order to lessen and irradiate this discrimination. The effect of having a marginalized identity is often to be isolated and in need of a community center, which is what the LGBT Center provides both in the real world and in cyberspace. Their website is well designed, and well organized.
The homepage's header contains the logo of the center, and links the major destinations on the site (i.e. resources, forums, events, etc.). Under the header, there is a space for announcements and updates. To the left is the calender of the month with the Center's events posted, and to the right is a place to donate online, with volunteering information. From the homepage a viewer can go to the relevant spot, and there is no confusion about where that spot might be. Under the Info tab is info about the Center. It states that the Seattle LGBT Center is the face of Queen City Community development, which is the country's only LGBT development Corporation. It also states that the Center has 501C3 status and has been operating since 1996.
Nika Askini's personal webpage, while also concerned with the identity of trans folks is much more individual (logically as it is a personal website). She has photos of herself on the homepage, and provides a brief introduction to the site as something that she is working on. Her approach is graceful to the site-under-construction status of some of her pages. She also has a menu bar on the top of the pages that lead viewers to home, bio, contact, forum and login. Along the right side of the page she has links to her bio again, photos, writing, transgender, professional, and links pages. The site is easily navigated, and provides a space for folks who need info on transgender topics can look. It also opens up Nika herself for folks to contact and question. She has been doing social work around GLBT issues for many years, and therefore is something of an expert on the subject; if she doesn't know, she knows who does!
I suppose these two websites are not directly involved in online activism beyond discussion forums and event postings. However, I have seen the LGBT center post links to online petitions, and the events that are highlighted on both sites encompass Pride, fundraisers, and protests. Part of maintaining an identity is also having the space to connect, and having lived in the queer and isolated part of queerness, I can attest to the fact that having online websites that affirm my identity is quite revolutionary especially when no one else does. So in my opinion that is the activism that these two sites do.
Both websites constitute meaningful outreach and updates to the community. I think that they are both designed to speak both to the LGBT Community and to the general society. However, in the case of the Center's website there is more direct evidence of what is going on in the community. This is a place that serves a specific population in Seattle, and therefore most of the activism that they do is multi-pronged, and often in the streets.
[edit] Links I found doing research
This is the website for the Transgender healthcare movement. The theory behind this movement is the continued patholigization of Trans identity under the title Gender Identity Disorder, complete with an entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV edition. The movment is a pro-healthcare for trans people under the diagnosis of GID.
http://www.genderawareness.com/index.php
This is the website of Samuel Laurie, who singlehandedly does awareness and acceptance trainings for the public, especially in classrooms and workplaces:
http://www.tgtrain.org/
This is a personal blog that deals with "Race Gander an Sexuality from a Sociological Perspective" (quote taken from the website)
http://www.rachelstavern.com/?p=838
This is a site for teachers, parents, essentially the lgbt and allies community, dedicated to achieving tolerance through education: http://www.tolerance.org/teach/current/event.jsp?cid=398
Donor site: "eQualityGiving's mission is to grow and support an online community of donors by providing free services and strategic advice to achieve legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans." on about page. http://www.equalitygiving.org/
This is a London Based site, devoted to compiling lgbt heritage and history in the UK: http://www.proudheritage.org/home/content, They just launched an online Pride museum, complete with a virtual walking tour of London.
A Serious Blog by Steven, mainly concerned with glbt culture in the US : http://bandofthebes.typepad.com/bandofthebes/2008/04/index.html
Site dedicated to media by GLBT People of color: http://jengotv.com/index.php
This is the website of the gay tv on demand, a cable network: http://www.herenewsletter.com/APressArticle.php?type=release&id=73
Tranny blog out of Austin TX: http://planetransgender.blogspot.com
"People With a History"~ an online guide to LGBT History. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/
ONE : Ntl. Gay & Lesbian Archives: http://www.onearchives.org/
Logo online (logo is a cable tv network, devoted to glbt media) http://www.logoonline.com/, with link to Lambda legal.
Lambda Legal's website: http://www.lambdalegal.org/ Lambda Legal: founded in 1973, to create a "legal defense organization for the lesbian and gay community". Involved in the struggle for queer civil rights. They are involved both from the ground up, by providing legal help lines for every region of the country, and from the top down, by lobbying on the federal level, and state level.
http://www.jewishmosaic.org/page/links ~ website of links, info, and advocacy for folks who are LGBT and Jewish.
Frameline LGBT media since 1977, form SF, CA. http://www.frameline.org/index.aspx
Monica Roberts's blog: http://transgriot.blogspot.com/ African-American Transwoman from KY
http://www.gendertalk.com/radio/programs/550/gt577.shtml audio archives of the radio show & website, trans news, etc.
User:Cueluc29
