Posts from — October 2009

Don’t miss the Spartan Daily article about Women’s Studies student Ari Eldridge, a terrific young transgender student who is enjoying her first year of college, appreciating the SJSU community, and helping educate others about transgender issues.

Ari Eldridge finds comfort in being a transgender student, but believes that too few students are knowledgeable about what transgender is.

“The definition of transgender has different meanings to people in the LGBT (lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender) community, but it means a person who does not identify one’s gender with one’s birth sex,” said Eldridge, whose male birth name no longer works for her.

Eldridge said she is assimilating at SJSU, and is enjoying her first year of college, which includes being a secretary for the transgender support group she is involved with at SJSU.
Though it was difficult for Eldridge to label herself as transgender to some friends and family, she said she is more confident because of it.

“SJSU is my safe space,” Eldridge said. “I feel more comfortable here then I ever did in my high school.”

She said that in high school, it was difficult for her to express herself, because there was not a specific group of people she identified with.

“I wasn’t a very social person,” Eldridge said.
She said high school was a challenge, but despite her insecurities, she tried to seek support groups. She said opening up to her friends and family was still not an easy task.

“In high school, there was a lot of self-suppression,” Eldridge said.” I told one of my friends and it was really hard for me to say it out loud.”

Eldridge said that when she was younger, she was quite feminine, but didn’t know that the word “transgender” existed.
“I’ve always felt different,” she said. “I had a girlfriend, but it felt like I was the more emotional one, like the female in the relationship. When she would call me handsome, I would tell her to call me pretty.”

Eldridge said the LGBT Resource Center helped her adjust to her new life as a student on campus, and that it’s comforting to know that there are people who understand her struggle, and what it means to be transgender.

Article continues here

Don’t miss the upcoming photo exhibit “Mujeres y el Fruto de su Trabajo” / “Women & the Fruit of their Labor”, Friday, November 13 from 7-8:30 at the Biblioteca Latino Americano at 920 S. First Street.  Organized by a local Mexican womyn’s group named Cihuatl Tlatocan, the exhibit is the first part of their new “Hungry for Justice Campaign” focusing on women’s vulnerability in the current economic situation.

The group is also accepting applications for a new scholarship for survivors of gender violence, and seeking submissions for an upcoming zine publication.   For more info, contact cihuatl.tlatocan@gmail.com or call 408.250.9245.  Cihuatl Tlatocan is a member organization of the MAIZ Alliance (Movimiento de Accion, Inspirando Servicio).

In 2006, US Congress passed a law to build a 700 mile fence on the Mexican Border…

THE WALL

They didn’t plan for human nature.

Morris Dailey Hall
Thursday, October 15, 2009
4-6pm

Meet director Ricardo Martinez
Viva Zapata Productions
See attached flyer

Cosponsored by Mexican American Studies, Cesar Chavez Community action Center and the Culture Heritage Center of MLK Library

Tomorrow! 7pm Wednesday in MLK 550

Prof. Catherine Ramirez of UCSC American Studies will do a reading and discussion of her book, _The Woman in the Zoot Suit_!  This is exciting work in gender, ethnic, and American studies that explores the meaning of this historic conflict at home in the shadow of WWII.

STOCKHOLM – Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer

.It was the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize.  The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.

The Nobel citation said the laureates found the solution in the ends of the chromosomes — features called telomeres that are often compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoe laces that keep those laces from unraveling.

Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme that builds telomeres — telomerase — and the mechanism by which it adds DNA to the tips of chromosomes to replace genetic material that has eroded away.

The prize-winners’ work, done in the late 1970s and 1980s, set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in some illnesses.

“The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,” the prize committee said in its citation.

Ten women have won the prestigious medicine award since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901, but it was the first time that two women were honored in the same year.

Nobel judges say women are underrepresented in Nobel statistics because the award-winning research often dates back several decades to a time when science was dominated by men. Still, critics say the judges aren’t looking hard enough for deserving women candidates.

“We don’t give Nobel Prizes because of gender,” medicine prize committee member Goran Hansson told The Associated Press. “We give it for scientific discoveries. As more women participate in research and make scientific discoveries, more women will win Nobel Prizes.”

via 3 Americans share 2009 Nobel medicine prize – Yahoo! News.