who only by moving can balance

I decided this morning that I was sufficiently upset about the vile autism-bashing in a panel description to send an e-mail about it. Within two hours I'd had an actually useful response. Details below the cut!

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Interestingly, this is one of the relatively few things my father got right in bringing us up - for values of "right" that do not include "actually expressing it well or compassionately", in that he tended to phrase it not as "intent isn't magic" but "intent doesn't matter".

I think this plays into some of what I've been working through. To use the treading-on-toes example, how badly something affects me has two components: the direct physical effect ("someone trod on my toe") and my emotional response ("and I'd repeatedly told this specific person that it's currently broken, and trusted them to be careful of that" has very different impact to "and they're a stranger on the tube").

Intent can't fix the direct damage (it isn't magic), but can be taken into account in modulating the emotional response of the person suffering it (intent can matter). However, whether it matters and how much it matters is entirely up to the person damaged: it does not automatically absolve the person who caused the damage.

It's about agency and respect and all that good stuff.

... How'd they get there?

(I'm going to be away from the Internet for much of Saturday daytime for family stuff, so let's have this now in an attempt to calm me down enough to sleep.)

Yes.

Lots.

• cavalier cookery: see question 12.
  
• flamboyant socks: in my secondary school, the only piece of clothing that might ever be visible that wasn't regulated was socks. I got into the habit. Having stripy feet makes me happy. Having rainbows up to my knees makes me happy. Having dinosaurs up to my knees makes me happy. They are a way for me to pretend to be formal, pretend to be adult and sober and sensible, and hide a little of myself away.
  
• gender geeking: because it helps me understand myself. Because it helps other people understand themselves. Because gender expression versus gender versus oppositional sexism is fascinating. Because sociology.
  
• history of theology: because it was reading about the history of the Bible that set me free, that made me realise I didn't need to feel guilty for not believing.
  
• lumps of rock: see question 12.
  
• male-coded formalwear: because, for a long time, it was the only way I knew how to express my gender, to be legibly myself. I'm learning other ways, these days, but I owe a debt of gratitude.
  
• mantle melting and plate tectonics: rocks. This is what I love most: that I can look at a single volcano, a single region, and if I've chosen it well it will inform global models. Because it's what's underneath us.
  
• other people's libraries: no faster way, I'd argue, to get to know someone; because it's a fantastic way to be introduced to new things; because being permitted to browse feels like an expression of trust, an extended hand; because I love seeing how other people organise them.
  
• proper chemistry labs: because for years I thought I'd be a chemist working in total organic synthesis, and though I love that my laboratory is the planet, I still pine, sometimes, for clean benches and fume hoods and proper pipettes and lab coats and jars of solvents and glassware and the magic that is coaxing clear colourless liquids and white crystalline powders to behave just so. On the plus side, I'll likely be working in something pretty similar again in the near future, and it won't be the same, but it won't be awful either.
  
• snail-racing: because snails are lovely, and yellow-and-brown striped ones especially so (Cornish beaches in the summer, and Mama who never had her hair unhenna'd when guests were staying, even when she was an in-patient), and because childhood.
  
• stompy queer activism: because well-behaved women rarely make history, and the same is true of queers. Because asking nicely rarely works. Because I'm allowed to make noise, to take up space. Because the more I do, the more okay I make the world for kids like me. I'm not likely to ever be a biological parent, but this: this is a thing I can do; this is a gift I can give you.
  
• stories with dragons in: see question 12.
  
• sun dials: because I love the ways we've devised to tell time and to track the skies. Because of Frank King. Because of the beauty and ingenuity of design. Because of the ways we try to tame our world, try to slice it into pieces we can manage, and how large - and how gently amused - it remains in spite of us.
  
• tenor envy: because I knew I wished I were a tenor long before I understood anything else about my gender.
  
• trilobites with eyes on stalks: trilobites are extinct marine woodlice. They lived in shallow oceans; most of them were benthic - they lived on the surface of the ocean floor. Some were infaunal: they burrowed. Most infaunal trilobites were blind. Some, however, had periscopic eyes on stalks. (Also? Trilobites' eyes have lenses made of calcite. Minerals have three optical axes; along two of them, calcite exhibits double refraction. Trilobites very carefully grew their eye-lenses so that the calcite crystals were oriented along the single optical axis that results in them not seeing double. If you don't think that shit is cool, I'm afraid we can't be friends. :-p)
  
• unopened art supplies: because colour and joy and potential are waiting.
  

This is a good and important article about the vigil held this evening for Lucy Meadows. Content notes: suicide; Lucy's birth name is given in the body of the article.

I note that this is way, way better than I typically expect the Guardian to be on the topic of trans* people (and wish I weren't so cynical about the fact that they're being ~this good~ because it gives them a chance to have a dig at the Daily Mail).

... however, I also note that if they are going to insist on getting a vox pop from a token straight cis white professional dude in his early 30s? They should maybe think twice before quoting his surname as "Mudkipz".

Sent to Local Secrets just as holiday season was kicking off:

Sender: kaberett
Message: I tried to sign up today - I've been meaning to for quite a while! - and was very disappointed to find that I can't, purely because "Title" is an obligatory field. (1) You offer only Mr, Mrs and Miss. (2) You offer no gender-neutral titles (e.g. Msc/Mx - both in common use by the NHS, the Co-op, and the Identity & Passport Services) (3) You do not offer the option of "no title" (relevant to e.g. Quakers) It would be fantastic if you could introduce a wider range of options. Thanks so much! -Alex (Msc [Surname])

Rec'd today:

Hi Alex

Thanks for alerting us to this issue. We have talked about it and decided to remove the 'title' field entirely and instead put a drop down where the visitor will select from

Male
Female
Rather not say

This information may be used for our marketing to help us target information. I hope this is a satisfactory solution.

Neal

Not perfect, but definitely an improvement :-)

This post is a translation of an article originally found at taz.de. A petition is available at change.org, with over 22,000 signatures at time of writing. I believe my translation is true to the tone of the original article; where I've made additional notes, they're in square brackets. Feel free to link wherever.

Alex is transsexual – she feels she's a girl, and indeed lives as one. Now a court has decided that her mother “induced” the transexuality, and the child is being placed in psychiatric care.

The Berlin superior Court of Justice decided on Thursday that the transsexual [feminine pronouns!] Alex Kaminski (name changed) can legally be admitted to psychiatric care. The mother of the eleven year old appealed against the decision of the Children's Welfare Office and lost. Her lawyer announced that they will be taking this ruling to the constitutional court.

The child, who has felt like a girl for her entire life and is currently living as one, may now be forced to be committed to the Berliner Charite [a university hospital]. The Children's Welfare Office was enabled to make this decision because the child's parents, who live separately, have contradictory opinions about appropriate medical management. As such the responsibility for the child's healthcare is transferred to the CWO. A CWO carer [poss. nurse] came to the decision that Alex should be taken into inpatient care in the Charite, and eventually be moved to a foster family.

The carer was of the opinion that the mother had “induced” the child's transsexuality, and that Alex therefore needed to be removed from her influence. In the Charite, the aim of the therapy would be to bring Alex closer to his “biological” sex and to “suppress” [prohibit/disable/eliminate...] the “atypical gender presentation” [nb the original refers to sex presentation], explains the head doctor Klaus Beier. A sexual sciences expert from Hamburg, Herta Richter-Appelt, describes this as an “antiquated point of view”. A forced admission [to hospital] strikes her as unwise. As for the question of whether the mother induced the transsexuality – that can be addressed perfectly well in an outpatient setting.

No expert opinion required

Mother and daughter are pleading for expert psychiatric advice. The superior court of justice has however now refused the option of an expert opinion. An assessment is not necessary, quotes the family's lawyer from the ruling. The assessment performed by the carer [nurse] is documented, and the target inpatient diagnostics are at her discretion [?? - not sure I've got this sentence right]. In counterpart, the mother is accused of aiming to take the child to the university clinics in Hamburg and Frankfurt-am-Main – the only places in Germany specialising in transsexuality in children and young adults.

The Kaminski's lawyer calls the ruling “shocking”. “The notion that transsexuality can be 'induced' over the course of years without resistence or protest is nowhere to be found in the scientific literature on the subject. This is an invention of this particular nurse.” The nurse has only talked to the child on one occasion, for just one hour - but this point was ignored.

Both lawyer and family now wish to go before the Federal Constitutional Court. In matters concerning rights of care this court can make very rapid decisions, according to the lawyer – and in Karlsruhe [location of the court?] the rights of children are generally taken very seriously.

International campaign

Alex is also getting support from human rights activists. At 3pm on Monday the “Action Alliance Alex” will hold a demonstration in front of the Berlin Administrative Headquarters for Children, with the motto “put an immediate end to the forced psychiatric pathologisation of Alex!” “This isn't a solitary story,” reads the call to action. “Institutes like the CWO and Charite practice violence against people using force and psychological pressure! Every sex and every gender identity is a right – not an illness.”

There is also a petition underway, started by the British transsexual activist Katrine Swales on Change.org. Addressed to the Klaus Wowereit, mayor of Berlin, it reads: “This young girl will be told that her feelings are wrong. and pushed even further into the denial that has already claimed the lives of so many transsexuals.” Over 9,000 people have already signed [22,000 at time of translation!].

And Alex? Just wants to get through this crisis with the help of a therapist. But the Youth Welfare Office won't even let her do that.