Hop Against Homophobia 2013 – Post 1

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HAHAT 2013 2 logoGreetings, all! Welcome to my first post for the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia!

In conjunction with the International Day Against Homophobia, the hop runs from May 17th through the 27th. Over 170 LGBTQ authors, publishers, reviewers and artists have joined together to increase awareness of the ongoing issues regarding homophobia and transphobia. Visit everybody throughout the Hop for great information and cool prizes!

So I’ve been racking my brain about what to write for this Hop post. What can I add to the mix that is new or informative or interesting? I mean—come on—everything that has needed to be said has been been said, right?

Well, apparently not…

Today (Thursday) I came across this article on glo.msn (yes, it’s originally from Cosmopolitan) about punk rocker Tommy Gabel from Against Me!, who is now Laura Jane Grace. Great articles, both on glo and Cosmo, with lots of supportive comments and brouhaha about pronouns (the Cosmo article uses “he” when referring to pre-transition Tommy and “she” when referring to Laura–some people didn’t catch on to the chronology.)

cos-04-laura-jane-grace-mdn

Tommy with daughter, Evelyn.

cos-01-first-year-as-a-woman-mdn

Laura Jane Grace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet, the VERY FIRST comment on glo reads as follows:

Norman Nonnweiler · Concordia University Chicago

Woopie! Another mentally ill person being coddled by the medical industry. The people who perform this surgery are the real criminals. Is this man so despirate(sic) that he needs to become a fake woman to advance his music career? Well yah got your name in the news. Let’s hope it never appears there again. A man can not become a woman even if you do turn his thing inside out. It’s sad that this nonsense even is news.

So apparently we do need to continue to educate, inform and generally shout down the ignorant people of the world. It was nice to see the number of scathing reactions to Norman’s comment (if you scroll down far enough, you’ll see mine).

Many best wishes to Laura as she continues her journey…

Now part of this Hop is, of course, PRIZES! Leave a comment below with how you would respond to Mr. Norman (along with your valid email address) to win an e-copy of my most recent release, Side Effects, a contemporary M/M romance. The winner will be chosen from comments to this post (other prizes will be forthcoming on other posts) and notified through their email, following the conclusion of the Hop on the 27th.

Good Luck!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Hop participants—and enter to win other fabulous prizes—here:

‘Til next time!

UPDATE: (05/27) – I have a second post with its own drawing here.

19 thoughts on “Hop Against Homophobia 2013 – Post 1”

  1. A reply to someone who generously shared the university where he either teaches or is a student. His remark left me at a loss for words. I would hope the university found the words needed to slap some intelligence into him. Oh wait…. I have a feeling Norman and intelligence is a category mistake

  2. last week I read the first ever article from a mainstream newspaper about a trans person that didn’t show before/after pictures or feel the need to use old names. and I was so happy that finally someone understood how to write respectfully, without the ‘freak’ aspect. but the comments were exactly complaining about that! like somehow they had a right to know the ‘real’ name and were entitled to comparison pictures and my heart sank. this is how media taught people to treat trans people and it’s how some of us are still treated. like we should be happy if they ‘play along with a fantasy’ and they are entitled to know the ‘real’ (pre-transition) person. whenever you tell people that what they see now is real and that other story (in my case ) never was and is a painful memory best left alone you’re told you’re being unfair and asking too much.

  3. Thank you for taking part in the hop!

    In order to combat hatred, we must spread love. Educate others, bring awareness, because every person who has their mind opened is one person closer to a world where homophobia and transphobia doesn’t exist. I would try to take this approach with Mr. Norman, even if it proved to be impossible…we’ve always got to try.

    kimberlyFDR@yahoo.com

  5. Thanks for sharing this, C.C. A fantastic article for the hop and IDAHO. An interesting and encouraging read, and I love how her wife responded. I hope that their daughter can adjust to having two hot moms. 🙂

    In response to Norman’s comment, I would say… What would I say? It sounds as if he didn’t even read the article. A “fake woman”? I guess he missed the part where Tommy/Laura (sorry, I’m not sure the best way to make the reference) had been struggling since a very young age. I don’t think Norman understands gender and sexuality at all. Being a man or a woman doesn’t mean the same thing as being a male or a female. It had nothing to do with Laura’s mental state and it certainly had nothing to do with her career.

    bloodandfires (at) yahoo (dot) com

  6. Dear Mr Nonnweiler,

    In examining our records we have discovered a discrepancy in your files. To whit, instead of being a sound and well rounded member of the genus homo sapiens, you are actually a specimen of homo noxus, sub species illiteratis bigotii and, as such we will require you to attend a summer school at your own expense, where, it is hoped, you may achieve sapientis status. Failure to attend will result in lost of tenure. Meantime, you suck.
    Yours
    The Dean
    Concordia University Chicago

    Joking aside, props to Laura Jane for having the courage to be interviewed and thanks to you for a thought provoking post.

  7. I always remember what my late father used to say…’keep your mouth shut and people can only guess you may be a fool…but open it and you remove all doubt’. It applies to this Norman I think.
    Good luck to Laura Jane in her future.

    gooseone@hotmail.co.uk

  8. There is really nothing you can say to change their mind. So I would just tell him to stuff it and not waste my time on him.
    DEbraG
    debby236 at hotmail dot com

  9. I think that that the only thing to try and tell Norman is that not all life choices are made to further a career or get money. Some people make decisions like this because it is who there are and what they need. This is who she is and she is not mentally ill.

    I only wish that it was that that easy to convince a person. Maybe i am being pessimistic, but I feel like some people will never change their views. There are still racists, after all. I guess all we can hope.

  10. I would point out to Norman, that possibly as either a student or lecturer at Concordia, he is likely an educated person and point him to studies showing how crass his comment is.

    I thought Jay’s comment above was very correct – we all have that voyeur aspect of wanting to see ‘the before’ but really we should just see the now.
    And loved Jessie’s response!

  11. This vicious ignorance happens every minute of every day in my experience. That’s why I think it’s great that we counter it every minute of every day through posts like yours. Hate speech enables discrimination, violence, and murders. I’ve seen that happening much too often here in New York City, supposedly the cosmopolitan and tolerant center of the world. Thanks for participating in the Hop and posting about this jerk from Concordia to counter his bigotry.

  12. Norman, I suspect you are very protective of your “thing” and can’t imagine the poor little bit of flesh being “turned inside out”, just wouldn’t be enough to do the job. Even as small as it is it is larger than your brain which you hardly use at all. Wake up and educate yourself, after all you are at a college of sorts.

  13. If Norman doesn’t know that gender has always been a societal construction by now, I have a feeling he’ll never join the 21st century…

    vitajex(at)aol(dot)com

  16. Pingback: Hop Against Homophobia 2013 – Post 2 | C.C. Williams Online

  17. I wonder how many people who say things like those negative statements realize how poisonous their words are? That saying things like that make they themselves very unappealing, unattractive people.

    Thanks for participating in this great hop!

    penumbrareads(at)gmail(dot)com

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