A composer brings music, joy and trans visibility to her church - Beehaw

> There are congregations that would brand her a sinner. But here at St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church in Boston, Rachel Burckardt gives voice to the angels. > > She’s 71, transgender, a civil engineer by day, and a composer of spiritual music by nights and weekends. > > While religion has been used for decades to ostracize many transgender people, Burckardt has found that faith drives acceptance in her community. It has been the bedrock on which she has formed her closest friendships, found moral clarity in challenging times and built radically inclusive communities in greater Boston. > > Burckardt’s music is not unlike her life. She aims to produce something bright and whole, but what makes it good, she thinks, is an element, maybe a minor chord or note, that hits the ear differently, that gives it depth or sadness. > > “It’s kind of like what goes along with some gender ambiguity,” she said. “It starts out off in unison and breaks into these not too difficult, but just unexpected chords.”

I’m Supposed to be Visible Today — But Why? - Beehaw

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There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series - Lemmy.World

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The Olympics Has a New Sex Testing Policy. The Evidence Doesn’t Add Up - Beehaw

> What most people likely don’t realize with today’s news is that sex testing is as old as the modern Olympics. As soon as women were allowed to compete in the games, there were rumors and complaints that the women on the track were simply not womanly. In the 1930s, sports organizations forced women into what are now known as the “nude parades,” in which they asked every woman to get naked in front of a panel of doctors so that they could decide if they looked womanly enough. > > Covering sex testing is a lot like documenting a twisted and deeply unethical game of whack-a-mole. The same bad ideas, incorrect assertions, and misguided policies pop up over and over and over again. Today, the mole that has popped up is genetic sex testing. We last saw this particular policy emerge in the 1960s, when every woman who competed in the Olympics was forced to go through an unreliable genetic test looking for Y chromosomal material — a test that about 1 in 500 women failed. (Surprise! Lots of women have Y chromosomal material in their cells.) The women who passed this test got a “femininity certificate” they had to carry with them to every single competition. Those who “failed” were told to fake an injury and leave. > > We have no idea how many women that happened to. They were sent home quietly and told to give up their dreams. Researchers, doctors, ethicists, and athletes spent decades fighting these policies, and in 1999, the IOC finally dropped genetic screenings for female athletes. > > Today’s test is different, but it’s not necessarily more reliable. Even the scientist who discovered the gene that the IOC is using for this new test has spoken up against this type of policy.

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