[Last updated on: Tue Jul 25 18:54:09 1995] ************************************************************************ * WELCOME TO THE TRANSEXUAL MENACE MAILING LIST * ************************************************************************ (PLEASE SHARE THIS POSTING WITH ALL WHO MAY BE INTERESTED) =============================================================================== * This Posting is LONG and contains VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION about what you * * need to do to become a member in good standing of the TSMENACE Mailing List.* * Membership on this list is not automatic. If you do not comply with the * * requirements stated below, you will be, respectfully, dropped from the list.* =============================================================================== ! If you have subscribed to this list you may also wish to consider a free ! ! subscription to In Your Face - OnLine, the national journal-of-record of ! ! "Political Activism Against Gender Oppression." Send a message to ! ! majordomo@zoom.com which contains the single line info iyf-online ! =============================================================================== WELCOME!!! The Transexual Menace Mailing List is a closed / non-moderated list which has been set up for the express purpose of provide a common space to learn about, partake in and discuss the gender non-discrimination and education programs of the Menace. My name is Robin Diane Goldstein. I am the Minister of Information. I am also the caretaker of the list. Gender oppression is not about gender. It is about power. On this list you'll learn about power. Regarding this list, I have the power. You'll learn (smile)! Here are the rules: 1. Membership to this list is open to ANYONE regardless of gender expression, current sexual preference or the shape of your skin. 2. No 'discussions' regarding one member of this list 'naming' another will be tolerated. 3. Information about who is a member of this list is open to all who inquire. Membership on this list is about action against gender oppression. You must be willing to stand up and be counted. 4. To be a member of this list you must provide a verifiable Name, Address, E-Mail address and telephone number in order for us to create a nationwide (and international) contact list. This information will be provided to list members on a regular basis to ensure that physical distance does not equal isolation. 5. Whatever your past sins, by virtue of your membership on this list, you are forgiven. Absolutely. You are also loved. Without condition. 6. Appropriate topics of discussion include: upcoming Menace actions; previous Menace actions; proposed Menace actions; relevant Federal, State or Local legislation; personal writings on gender oppression; recipes; fear, depression and loneliness; and other topics of related interest. But please keep your posts short. I'm trying to keep a high signal/noise ratio. 7. Inappropriate topics of discussion include: passing; who is or who is not a real +anything+; hatemongering; depression induced negativity or anarchy or dissing the Caretaker. 8. As an attorney I know that regarding some subjects, such as whether Spiderman could take Batman in a fight, some people will never change their position or point of view, no matter how wrong they are! So, like those famous friday night poker games I used to play in in college (you know, the one's that always ended up with gunplay), this list will follow: THE THREE RAISE LIMIT! This avoids having every hand turn into the last hand. This rule says: "On any subject which is not strictly informational (i e, any post which has the words, I believe or I feel or It is my sincere opinion or Hey Shithead), you only get to post three times. Since NO ONE will ever attack another list member personally, you will never need to defend yourself, but only your ideas and if you can't express them clearly in three posts, then you'll know what it was like to argue with my ex. (hey honey, just kidding! you know I love you, baby...)" So, you get to Post, Reply and Reply again and that's it. Beyond that is bad manners, and you know what that means. With over 90 members currently on this list, that's a limit of almost 300 messages on a subject. If it isn't clear what the competing ideas are in that amount of verbiage, well... 9. As you can see from #8 above, this list is not a democracy. Think of it as my home. I am the hostess. You have all been invited here. I invited everyone because I thought the mix would make it a better party. A party full of everyone just like me would be boring (well, no, not really, but I'm trying to make a point). No one's words or thoughts get controlled, except my own (cause that's what *I* want to do). Say anything you want about yourself. Have a little too much to drink. Even forget to put the seat back down. But don't 'dis' any of my other guests or you're gone. no votes, no discussion. Hasta la, baby. That having been said (and quite nicely, I might add), we would love to have you as a member of this list. There is a national gender rights, anti-oppression movement growing. In October of this year the Menace will be one of a number of groups participating in a national Lobbying Day action in Washington, DC and there ain't gonna' be just two or three of us and we ain't gonna' apologize no mo'! Now is the time to become involved. To dig deep and claim ownership of your fear and pain and loneliness and join a family who already knows that you're weird-as-shit, and doesn't really care as long as you remember to put the seat down. There are places to go and people to see and stories to write and pains to heal and injustice to attack and choices to defend and you WILL feel better about yourself by helping others who cannot help themselves. ================================================================================ There are two version of the mailing list. An immediate version (tsmenace) and a digest version (tsmenace-digest). Regardless of which list you subscribe to, ONLY post to tsmenace@zoom.com ==>To subscribe to the IMMEDIATE VERSION of this list, ==>please send a mail message to: majordomo@zoom.com ------------------ ==>and include the following line in the body of the message: subscribe tsmenace your-full-email-address ------------------------------------------ (sample: subscribe tsmenace robin@zoom.com) ==>To unsubscribe from the IMMEDIATE VERSION of this list, ==>please send a mail message to: majordomo@zoom.com ------------------ ==>and include the following line in the body of the message: unsubscribe tsmenace your-full-email-address -------------------------------------------- (sample: unsubscribe tsmenace robin@zoom.com) mfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmf fmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfmfm ==>To subscribe to the DIGEST VERSION of this list, ==>please send a mail message to: majordomo@zoom.com ------------------ ==>and include the following line in the body of the message: subscribe tsmenace-digest your-full-email-address ------------------------------------------ (sample: subscribe tsmenace-digest robin@zoom.com) ==>To unsubscribe from the DIGEST VERSION of this list, ==>please send a mail message to: majordomo@zoom.com ------------------ ==>and include the following line in the body of the message: unsubscribe tsmenace-digest your-full-email-address -------------------------------------------- (sample: unsubscribe tsmenace-digest robin@zoom.com) ================================================================================ >>>After you have been notified that your subscription has been >>>accepted, and regardless of which list you have subscribed to, >>>you may post mail directly to the list by sending mail >>>to: tsmenace@zoom.com ----------------- >>>Any mail sent to this list will go to ALL LIST MEMBERS!!! >>>Administrative requests, questions, comments should be sent to: owner-tsmenace@zoom.com ----------------------- ================================================================================ Once you have received a notice that you have been accepted to either list, please take care of the following: 1. Within 48 hours of being accepted into the list, you must post an introductory message to tsmenace@zoom.com to introduce yourself, tell us what gender-based-injustice you would like to work against first, share the last time somebody or some group made you feel like shit for feeling you had the right to express your own choice of gender/sexual identity, and tell us anything else you think we should know (like window open or window closed. you know, that kind of stuff). 2. Within 48 hours of being accepted into the list, you must ALSO post a private e-mail message to BOTH Robin Goldstein (robin@zoom.com), Caretaker of the List, and Dora Mitchell (mitchell@interserv.com), Caretaker of the Really Important Stuff, providing ONLY: Your Name(s) Your Mailing Address Your E-Mail Address as used on the list Your Phone Number You may also include this information in the message posted to the whole list, if you like, but doing that DOES NOT relieve you of the responsibility of this paragraph. This is a way for people to introduce themselves and safeguard their 'vitals' from those who are lurking for any reason. 3. If you'd like to receive a copy of the most recent list of names and addresses, please send a mail message to Dora with a cc: to me (Robin). If you have not taken care of both (1) and (2) above, you will not get a response. 4. If you do not take care of both (1) and (2) within 48 hours of receiving your acceptance message from MAJORDOMO, you will be dropped from the list without warning. 5. This is the final policy. I am the highest court in the land when it comes to managing this list. All decisions of the Judges are Final. If you write to hassle me about the policy, you will be dropped from the list. If you come to my home and complain about why there's coke and diet coke and caffeine free coke but NO diet caffeine free coke, you will be dropped from the list. And you will be asked to leave my home. This is going to be the start of something good and positive and healing. I'm glad you're going to be a part of it!!! ================================================================================ Don't Look Back -- By Jan Miller Girando As you travel through life there are always those times when decisions just have to be made... when choices are hard and solutions seem scarce and the rain seems to soak your parade! There are some situations where all you can do is to simply let go and move on... gather courage together and choose a direction that carries you toward a new dawn. So pack up your troubles and take a step forward -- the process of change can be tough... but think about all the excitement ahead if you can be stalwart enough! There could be adventures you never imagined just waiting around the next bend... and wishes and dreams just about to come true in ways you can't yet comprehend! Perhaps you'll find friendships that spring from new interests as you challenge the old status quo... and learn there are so many options in life and so many ways you can grow! Perhaps you'll go places you never expected and see things that you've never seen... or travel to fabulous, faraway worlds and the wonderful spots in between! Perhaps you'll find warmth and affection and caring -- a "somebody special" who's there... to help you stay centered and listen with interest to those stories and feelings you share. Perhaps you'll find comfort in knowing your friends are supportive of all that you do... and believe that whatever decisions you make, they'll be the right choices for you! So keep putting one foot in front of the other and taking your life day by day. There's a brighter tomorrow that's just down the road. Don't Look Back You're Not Going That Way! wishing you peace and love... robin =========================================================================== We wish to thank ZOOM.COM Information Services, Inc of Fremont, California for providing a home for this list. If you live in the SF Bay area and need internet services, please contact kristen@zoom.com or call 1-800-943-8966. =========================================================================== Robin Diane Goldstein robin@zoom.com "Gender is a complexity whose totality is permanently deferred, never fully what it is at any given juncture in time. An open coalition, then, will affirm identities that are alternately instituted and relinquished according to the purposes at hand; it will be an open assemblage that permits of multiple convergences and divergences without obedience to a normative telos of definitional closure." J. Butler "I knew that..." R. Goldstein -- lol@qrd.org, 22 Jan 1996