November 14, 2014 - 15:56
After our discussion on thursday we were interested in Gloria Steinem's view on transgenderism so Rosea and I looked up articles about her. We were confused because Gloria Steinem has been portrayed as a very progressive woman who is well-educated and heavily involved with gender issues in the U.S. We found an article that directly addressed what was brought up in class :
http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/10/02/op-ed-working-together-over-time
She wrote this article herself in defense of her views on transgender lives and issues and (coincidentally enough) opens with an anecdote about Iran: "Remember in 2007 when the then president of Iran told students at Columbia University, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country?” The response was laughter, but I had a sinking feeling that something more serious than denial was going on. It did indeed turn out that Iran’s “solution” to freely chosen same-sex relationships was to criminalize them and to subsidize and even compel sexual reassignment surgery. I doubt I would have been so suspicious if his words hadn’t hit memories of four decades ago when I began traveling as a feminist organizer."
Feel free to take a look!
Love Ndifrank and rosea