Queer Ressources

Here, I list conferences, essays, books, movies, videos, articles, songs and essentially anything queer-related that I deem relevant and helpful. I apply an inclusive interpretation of queerness, including, besides gender and sexual orientarion, essentially anything that I find interesting and deem a ressource that I'd like to see more widely disseminated, whatever the topic might be and regardless of why it interests me. This site is permanently under construction. More to come.

Ressources are in English. Ressources in other languages are at the bottom of the page.

Ressouren auf deutscher Sprache finden Sie/findet Ihr am Ende der Seite.

Conferences

• Queer and Trans Mathematicians Conference
  This year in Toronto at the Fields Institute.
• Crossfyre
  International workshop on cryptography, robustness, and provably secure schemes for female young researchers
  One of the goals of the conference is to promote gender awareness within the community and people of all genders are welcome. The conference was founded in 2011 by Cristina Onete at TU Darmstadt and takes place yearly since then. Cristina and I were office mates back then, and I admit that I had reservations about the event at the time. I was wrong, and I am grateful to Cristina for initiating this brillant event that has helped build a community of people who return to the event and exchange experiences. By now, I have attended 4 out of the 8 Crossfyre workshops and had the honor and pleasure to be an invited speaker twice, once before I gender-transitioned and once after I gender-transitioned to male. Crossfyre 2020 will be co-located with Eurocrypt in Zagreb, Croatia.
• UNIT
  The International LGBT+ Tech Summit SUMMIT is organized by UNICORNS IN TECH The Global LGBT+ Tech Community.
  UNIT 2020 will take place in Berlin (probably around September).
• WIT
  Women in Theory was founded in 2008 by Tal Rabin and takes place bi-annually.
  WIT 2018 took place in Harvard, next WIT takes place in 2020.

Books

• Outspoken
  Julia Serano
  Collection of essays by Julia Serano, collected over a bit more than a decade of trans-activism. This book is my favorite book by Serano. One essay usually corresponds to one idea, and her ideas build onto each other. I found reading her essay collection a very insightful learning experience.
• Ace
  Angela Chen
  ISBN 9780807013793
  Intersectional perspective on (a)sexuality. Chen's analysis is brillant, critical and not shy of addressing controversial topics.
• Men speak out
  Editor: Shira Tarrant
  Collection of essays by men. I appreciate this book for the diversity of male perspectives.
• Manning Up
  Editors: Zander Keig, Mitch Kellaway
  Collection of essays by trans men. I appreciate this book for the diversity of trans male perspectives.
• Trans Homo.GASP!
  Editors: Avi Ben-Zeev, Pete Bailey
  Collection of essays by trans men who date men and cis men who date trans men. I appreciate this book for the diversity of gay trans male perspectives and the perspectives of their partners.
• The Danish Girl
  David Ebershoff
  Novel based on the life of Lili Elbe, one of the pioneer trans woman.
• I know what heaven looks like
  Lawrence Richardson
  Autobiography of Richardson who is a pastor and pioneer Christian trans man of color
• Redefining Realness
  Janet Mock
  Autobiography of Mock who is a model and trans woman from Jamaica
• Penis envy and other bad feelings - on the emotional cost of everyday life
  Mari Ruti
  The book describes and explains the emotional costs that our current society generates for its members. In particular, being underprivileged (generally or in specific domains) leads to higher emotional cost. The book is brillant, full of insights and stories and easy to read. It is also an easy start into Foucault and Lacan (including readers who have never heard of these two). While some followers of Freud like to take Freud's notion of penis envy litterally, Ruti (in her reading of Lacan) reads this notion as privilege envie. She then explains Lacan's notion of lack, namely, that even very privileged people are not born with a fulfilled life and a sense of meaning. Each of us needs to seek meaning in life, in our own ways (and this is a highly non-trivial task). This in-born feeling of void/lack that needs to be filled is, according to Lacan, what makes us human. And according to Ruti/Lacan, wholeness is an illusion. Ruti is of Finnish origin and moved to the US at age 20 and then to Canada where she currently lives.
• A Room of One's Own (1929)
  Virgina Woolf
  This books flows nicely, is easy to read and a good start into understanding gender, if you are fairly new to this topic.
• Schadenfreude: The Joy of Another's Misfortune
  Tiffany Watt Smith
  This book explores the mechanism of the somewhat difficult feeling of Schadenfreude. It is fun to read and helps to self-reflect. It is particularly helpful to those who spontaneously feel that this emotion is outside their own experience, since the book gives good examples that help explore variants of Schadenfreude mechanisms within oneself that one might not readily admit.
• Escape from Freedom
  Erich Fromm
  Psycho-analysis-informed approach to characterizing German society around the reformation and the nazi times. Many of the insights/approaches are still interesting and relevant today. E.g., Erich Fromm writes about the appeal of submitting to authority where authority can be something abstract such as public opinion.
  
• Was ist Aufklärung?
  Immanuel Kant
  Encouragement to make life-relevant decisions one-self and not delegate them to authority. (The phasing is quite provocative and especially, the word 'guild' is maybe a bit ill-suited for an encouragement for learning, i.e., it would be better to state that if one does not learn to make life-relevant decisions, then the learning will not happen. I.e., regardless who bears the responsibility, it is a very pragmatic observation that each human is the only person who can decide to learn the decision-making.)
  
• Thinking, fast and slow
  Daniel Kahneman
  An encouragement to improve one's thinking/choices by paying attention to certain typical mistakes, such as a human tendency to be risk-averse to 'very bad' events and to overlook the importance of many small bad events. A nice complementary book is 'Risk' by Gerd Grigerenzer who, e.g., advocates to trust intuition when it builds on substantial experience. The books are not necessarily consistent in their views, but often, they come to similar observations, based on different methodology. E.g., both authors investigate the phenomenon of defensive decision-making where a decision-maker does not make the best decision (in the interest of some other person or entity) but rather minimizes the risk for suffering negative consequences themselves.
  

Movies, Series

• Lola sur la mer (2019)
  Lola's mother dies, causing Lola and her father to interact which is a really tough love interaction since her father rejects her gender and blames her for various of his own life decisions. It's a movie about Lola standing up for herself, others standing up for her, and even her father standing up for her. Mya Bollaers is great in the role of Lola.
• Transparent
  This series is fantastic. Most importantly, there are not only many trans people involved as actors, but also behind the scenes. Thereby, the story is often actually told from a trans perspective. In the early production, the presented perspective was rather white and at times problematic in terms of race - the later seasons reflect broader perspectives.
• The Danish Girl (2015)
  I find the movie beautiful. The beauty is interrupted by some odd scenes on conversations with psychologists and also some violence. I am not sure, why those scenes are in the movie, but they are few, and one can ignore them and simply enjoy the beauty of the love story told in the movie and the gender exploration of Lili. Lili is played by a Eddie Redmayne who I learnt to appreciate seeing him in this movie. The movie has been criticized for only consulting trans people but not sufficiently involving trans people, as, e.g., the movie does not star a trans woman as main actor. Regardless, I like the movie a lot for its beauty... ...but it's really more a piece of art that's a little simplistic when it comes to the trans topics. We now have more accurate movies on the topic of gender exploration. Still, in 2015, it was quite something.
• Miesten Vuoro (2010)
  English title is "Steam of life", but the pun of the Finnish title "The men's turn" is lost in translation. The men's turn refers to the men's turn in the (case of gender-segregated) sauna and also refers to the need for male norms to change, i.e., female norms have been discussed much but male norms less so, and in the movie, men have personal conversations in the sauna and talk about their needs, pains, emotional life experiences - it's a very intimate movie, touching, a good movie to challenge one's own ideas about male norms.
  
• Moonlight
  
• Blue is the warmest color
  
• Three generations
  
• Call me by your name
  
• A raisin in the sun
  
• The color purple
  
• All my life (2008)
  Toul omry (original title)
  About gay life and feminism in Kairo.
• Show me love (1998)
  Fucking Amal (original title)
• The Intouchables (2011)
  Intouchable (original title)
• The Blindflyers (2004)
  Die Blindgänger (original title)
• La Famille Belier (2014)
  
• Room (2015)
  Room shows Joy's experience of living in a tiny shed where her kidnapper held her and the strategies she develops to survive. With the help of her 5-year old son, she escapes. Joy of freedom mix with the processing of the events. A story about willpower, strength, respect and grief. A somewhat similar story (willpower, strength, respect and grief are certainly topics in it) is told by Natascha Kampusch (in German).
• L'Auberge Espagnole (2002)
  

Videos

• Stand-Up Comedian James Lorien MacDonald
  On societal attitudes towards gender and gender transitions Link
  
• Reverse Interview with Janet Mock where Mock helps her interviewer/interviewee understand/feel how it is to be treated as "other" in an interview.
  
  
• I'm from driftwood: Collection of stories by LGBTQIA+ people Link
  
• Susan Cottrell discusses religion and the power of parental love in her TED talk 'Why I chose my LGBTQ daughter over the Evangelical Church'. She draws on a foundational religious rule to treat others like you'd like to be treated and discusses it to be in severe conflict with negative attitudes towards people seen as 'other'. Link
  
• I've lived as a man and a women -- here's what I learned
  Reverend Paula Stone Williams
• Call me maybe (2017)
  Drag performance by Asis d'Orange
• Asexuality (2015)
  David Jay
• YouTube Channel of Jamie A. Raines providing a trans perspective on various topics (also beyond trans). His statements are usually accessible and inclusive which makes them a good (and popular) ressource.

Essays

• LGBTQIA Cryptographers Meeting 2018
  C. Brzuska
  On Luca Trevisan's blog
  On Omer Reingold's blog
  
• In Theory Celebrates the Turing Centennial
  Collection of essays by theoretical computer scientists who are lesbian or gay
  Link
  

Music

• I am her
  I'd love to change the world
  Shea Diamond
• Home
  Charlie Peck
• Miss Venyl Envy My song (trans girl rap)
  
• Eli Conley Music, Lyrics, Videos
• The Axis of Awesome The Elephant in the Room
• Laura Jane Grace Transgender Dysphoria Blues
• Brave Man
  Will Young
• Naked
  Ryan Cassata
• Marc Sokolson YouTube Channel
  
• Second Puberty
  Jake Edwards
• Wo (I am what I am in Mandarin)
  Leslie Cheung
• If you want to sing out
  Cat Stevens
• Tous les memes
  Stromae
• Rinnsteinprinzessin
  Tim Fischer

Ressourcen auf deutsch

• Erfahrungsbericht der Mutter eines trans Sohns
  Miriam Haerer
  Video
  
• Tessa Ganserer
  Webpage
  
• Nicole Faerber
  Webpage
  
• Mein bunter Schatten
  Pari Roehi
  Ein grossartiges Buch ueber Immigration, Frausein, Transition und vieles mehr
• Was ist Aufklärung?
  Immanuel Kant
  Ein Plaedoyer fuer Selbstbestimmung und Autonomie.
• Meine Sichtweise auf Geschlecht (Entwurf)
  Diese Sichtweise habe ich entwickelt, um Raum zu schaffen fuer Diskussionen ueber Geschlecht auf eine Art, die diverse Perspektiven und Erfahrungen zulaesst.
  
  Es gibt zwei Aspekte von Geschlecht. Das eine ist der Begriff (Label). Welcher Begriff fuehlt sich fuer mich als richtig an - weiblich, queer, maennlich, kein Begriff etc.. Das zweite ist die Bedeutung (Meaning) von dem Begriff, mit der ich mich identifiziere (wenn ich mich mit einem Begriff identifiziere). Die Bedeutung eines Begriffs, mit dem sich ein Mensch identifiziert, ist fuer jeden Menschen persoenlich und anders als bei anderen Menschen. Viele Menschen haben auch gar keine fassbare Bedeutung fuer das Geschlecht, mit dem sie sich identifizieren. Es fuehlt sich einfach richtig und wahr an. Wieder andere empfinden gar keine Relation zu einem Label, haben aber trotzdem das Gefuehl, dass ihr Geschlecht irgendwie "richtig" ist. Sicher gibt es noch Hunderte andere Arten, ueber das eigene Geschlecht zu denken und zu fuehlen. Hier sind einige Anregungen fuer Menschen, die sich gern mit diesem Thema beschaeftigen moechten.
  
  Neben Selbst-Identifizierung (Das ist etwas positives, eigenes, von innen), gibt es auch noch Zuschreibung (ungewollt, von aussen, kann passen, tut es aber oft nicht). Zuschreibung gibt es sowohl auf der Ebene des Begriffs (Labels) als auch auf der Ebene der Bedeutung des Begriffs. Die meisten Menschen finden den Begriff, der ihnen zugeschrieben wird, okay, weil er mit der eigenen Identifizierung fuer viele Menschen zusammenpasst. Was hingegen fuer (fast) niemand passt, sind die Gesamtheit der Zuschreibungen. Hier kommen Zuschreibungen von aussen, von Menschen ausserhalb der Gruppe (z.B. von Maennern an Frauen oder umgekehrt) oder von Menschen innerhalb der Gruppe (z.B. von Frauen an Frauen oder von Maennern an Maenner), aber in jedem Fall von ausserhalb der eigenen Person. In beiden Faellen machen Menschen generische Aussagen, die mit einem selbst nichts zu tun haben, und deshalb passt es haeufig nicht, weil es nicht mit dem uebereinstimmt, wie eine Person sich selbst und die eigene (geschlechtliche) Identitaet, die Bedeutung des Labels, sieht und wie man sich selbst sieht. Und das kann unangenehm sein. Fuer manche sehr, fuer manche weniger.
  
  Zuschreibungen sind nicht nur explizit, sondern auch implizit z.B. durch Gespraechsthemen, die andere Menschen waehlen und die Angebote, die sie machen, ob sie einem Sachen abnehmen, erklaeren, wie ein Reifen gewechselt wird, einen kochen lassen oder mithelfen, um Hilfe beim Reifenwechsel bitten etc..
  
  Wenn Du Dir ein Label (oder Labelfreiheit) ausgesucht hast (oder ueber das Dir zugeschriebene Label nachdenkst und ueberlegst, ob es passt), dann finde ich eine gute Frage, ob Du fuer Dich eine Bedeutung von diesem Label hast, die Du magst, die Dir gefaellt, mit der Du Dich identifizierst. Das muss ueberhaupt nicht fuer andere passen, sondern nur fuer Dich. Wenn sich diese Uebung unangenehm anfuehlt, dann passt dieser explizit artikulierte Ansatz fuer Dich vielleicht nicht so gut. Ein weiterer alternativer und/oder komplementaerer Ansatz ist experimentell: Z.B. bittest Du Menschen, denen Du bei Deiner Selbst-Exploration vertraust, einen bestimmten Namen oder bestimmte Pronomen zu verwenden. Du kannst auch Kleidung aendern und/der binaeres oder nicht-binaeres Crossdressing/Drag ausprobieren und schauen, wie es sich anfuehlt. Neben Freunden sind queere Gruppen potentiell gute Moeglichkeiten fuer Experimente, weil in queeren Gruppen in der Regel eine Awareness besteht, dass diese Experimente wichtig sind und nicht hinterfragt werden.
  
  Interessant finde ich auch, welche Erlebnisse mit impliziten/expliziten Zuschreibungen durch andere Du gemacht hast und wie sehr diese Zuschreibungen Dich gestoert haben, ob Du Dich an viele erinnerst, wie sehr sie Dich bewegt haben etc..
  
  Eine Freundin hat mich darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass (ungewollte) Zuschreibung (von aussen) und (freiwillige) Selbstidentifikation (von innen) zwei Extreme sind, und dass vieles dazwischen liegt und sich nicht so klar zuordnen laesst. Man koennte sogar sagen, dass die besonders interessanten Themen dazwischen liegen, bei denen man nicht so genau weiss, wieviel (un)freiwillig ist, wieviel von aussen/innen kommt. Dazu gehoeren z.B. Dinge, bei denen man sich wuenscht, mehr der Geschlechternorm zu entsprechen, oder Dinge, die manchmal freiwillig und manchmal unfreiwillig sind, oder Dinge, die nur fast wahr sind.

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Last update: 2020-12-27