From the Executive Director

Ladies' Room

It seemed like just another quiet dinner at the TGIFriday's in Laurel, Maryland when TK - proud nose-guard for the women's professional football team DC Divas—got up to use the women's room.

But it wasn't. As she went in, another woman said "This is the women's room." TK, unfazed, replied simply "I know it is." (more)

Passing Interest

"I could have just tumbled out of bed, my hair's a mess, and I've hardly brushed my teeth," Queer as Folk's Peter Paige said at a recent GenderPAC reception. "But when people see me on the street, they always say how much better I look in person. Yet on the set I have a hair dresser, makeup artist, and a wardrobe designer all working to make me look my best." Could it be that the people on the street are reacting less to "how much better" Paige looks in person than how much less feminine he is than his QAF character, Emmett?. (more)

Do You Believe in Fairies?

I was recently speaking with a power couple from Los Angeles whom I was hoping would donate to GenderPAC. Neither was saying very much, and I finished with the distinct impression I had blown it. I was disappointed, as these are two men whose work I respect. Gender rights is such a new idea that it sometimes takes more than one presentation for people to connect with it. Yet I like to think that the idea of ending discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes is something everyone can get. (more)

Teenage Terrorists

As another school year is getting under way, I want to propose a lesson plan for teachers and administrators. It deals with three stories of gender stereotyping against four teenagers. It's also about the five victims who were lost in the wake of those stereotypes. Too often we shrug off stereotypes and name-calling as just another part of growing up. But these stories prove that nothing could be further from the truth. (more)

Medically Fatal: A Time to Act

Robert Eads could be alive. Ovarian cancer is deadly; in fact, many estimates show only a one-third chance of survival. But he had enough time to visit over two dozen doctors to seek early treatment. (more)

Homophobia's Gender Roots

Over the last months, we've been inundated by a sea of troubling new images. None will stay with me longer than those of Afghani women, who simply appear as dark, covered blurs moving silently across the screen. (more)

Gender on Celluloid

Yes, Hedwig, there is a new gender in cinema. Appearing from around the edges of Hollywood, a new wave of movies—both narrative and documentary—is bringing to the fore not only transsexual and transgendered protagonists but also average heroes and heroines whose only crime is transcending narrow gender stereotypes. (more)

Male-on-Male: the New Face of Workplace Sexual Harassment

When I graduated from high school in Ohio in 1970, it was still considered normal for boys to snap girls' bra-straps and make pointed, public comments about their developing bodies. No one thought it worthy of mention, with the possible exception of some private, tearful exchanges between mothers and daughters. (more)

Boys DO Cry

I heard the news of the ruling in JoAnn Brandon’s wrongful death suit in the murder of her son, Brandon Teena. It was just days after the Human Rights Watch broke the news on their survey on male prisoner rape, and only weeks after still another school shooting involving a student who had reportedly been routinely intimidated and genderbaited. (more)

On Guns, Genderbaiting, and Youth

It is a place few of us would willingly live. Females approaching puberty are expected to put away their comfortable clothing, boyish activities, and most athletics, concentrating instead on making themselves attractive to males who may be future husbands. (more)