The Week In Transgenderism 10/22/12

Bad news Asia travelers. The Thai airline that featured transgendered flight attendants has been grounded by financial difficulties. The TG attendants are out of work. One would think that such an airline would be able to flourish. Just think how many round trip tickets TG admirers would buy in a month. But apparently it takes more than a small but dedicated fan base to pay for the jet fuel. Read the sad details at channelnewsasia.com.

The school district giveth and the school district taketh away. The East Aurora School District in the Chicago area had done the right thing and put a policy in place that gave transgender students the right to go to the bathroom of their identified gender. After approving the policy on Monday of last week the School Board met again on Friday and rescinded it. There has been an outcry from supporters of the policy. Get the facts in the Chicago Tribune.

Now a dude.

Those of you with male genitalia may take for granted the way you are treated when you’re out and about in your male persona. Most of us do. That’s why crossing the border to a feminine role is so scary at first. You don’t know how to act or what the rules are. Think about it from the perspective of a lipstick lesbian who has come to realize that “she” is actually a FtM. Read his story at vice.com.

There’s a bird down under that is being touted as the world’s first transgender bird.Yes, a real bird with feathers and wings, not slang for a female. For some reason this bird makes both male and female bird calls and has the plumage and coloration of both genders. Could it be an intersexed bird and not a transgendered one? Read the story on The Huffington Post and decide.

If you’re transgendered in Northern Ireland you will need to rely on the luck of the Irish to keep you safe from violence. There has been a rise in incidents of violence directed at TGs in that country but there is no hate crime protection for transgender people. If you’re beaten up the perps can only be charged as if they had beaten up a cisgendered person. While harsher penalties for hate crimes won’t help you heal faster after you’ve been attacked maybe they would keep the perps off the street longer and possibly make someone think twice about attacking a TG. Read about it at the BBC website.

Would a Republican administration, made up of people who oppose gay rights and women’s rights, be good for transgendered people? Emphatically not. Whose administration has made great strides in equality for LGBT people? President Barack Obama’s. Read about the TG advances realized in the past four years in the Wisconsin Gazette.

Florez as zombie.

Readers of our music columns Perpetual Change and TransVocalizers will recognize the name StormMiguel Florez. Florez is a Mexican-American singer/songwriter who is beginning to attract greater attention. He’s in the news for his nomination for Best Video DIY and Fan Favorite in the Right Out Awards. Check out the story and view the video in The Advocate.

The Filipino TG who was arrested in the United Arab Emirates for molesting an undercover health inspector and burning her with a laser hair removal treatment has been sentenced. The story is at GMA News.

Why is it that the countries that are the most repressive about sexuality are the ones where a hooker can make the most money? And not just a regular hooker. TG sex workers are very much in demand in the Arab Emirates. But being well paid and popular is the upside of working for the Arabs. The downside is having to worry about being beaten, tortured and killed. Get one sex worker’s story at foreignpolicy.com.

TG teen in Arkansas

Speaking of repressive areas; Arkansas is not a place you’d like to grow up transgendered. There’s a documentary film coming out about the life of a TG teenager who lives in Arkansas. Her name is Ali and she is one of the subjects of the film which is called FRIEND. Read about the film and view a trailer at ontopmag.com.

Portland, Maine is heading into the election with a drag queen candidate running for City Council. The queen is Taffy Pulls, a.k.a. Shawn Boyington. Taffy is running against the incumbent and we don’t give her much of a chance to win the election since she’s philosophically opposed to the kind of things you have to do when campaigning. She doesn’t even like lawn signs. She think they’re “trashy.” A drag queen who thinks something is trashy? Read all about her and he run for office in the Bangor Daily News.

The reviews are in, or at least the review from The Chicago Tribune. The musical Kinky Boots opened in it’s out-of-town premier and the Tribune reviewer has filed his impressions of the show. He predicts that it will do well on Broadway. Read the review in the Chicago Tribune.

Sharon Needles in PETA spot.

Another more well known drag queen is donating her services to PETA. Sharon Needles is appearing in an ad campaign that’s timed for release in the Halloween season. The ad stars Needles as a blood smeared, flesh eating zombie. It’s enough to put you off your dinner. At least PETA is hoping it will put you off eating flesh. Get the story in The Huffington Post.

What’s a transgender Jew to do? Where do you meet other TG Jews? Is it asking so much that you should find some brothers and sisters? Well bubbie, you’re prayers are answered. November 2-4 there’s a conference in Berkeley, California you should know about. It’s called the Jewish Transgender Gathering and it’s happening at the Pacific School of Religion. There’s a nice rabbi in charge. You should dress nice. Maybe you would meet someone. The details are at Jweekly.com.

Xelle turns music upside down.

Xelle, the girl group with something extra — a drag queen member, is making a push to break into the mainstream. They’ve teamed up with Janeane Garofalo, Michael Musto and singer Martha Wash to produce an hour long “music video” called Hologram. The news here is the attempt to get mainstream press is working. Read about it and view the trailer at CBSNews.com.

So you think crossdressing has only been around and practiced openly in the last half of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st? You would be wrong. Decades and decades before RuPaul hit the scene, way back at the turn of the 20th century, there was a black man in Northampton, Massachusetts who sashayed and shantayed through the town in full drag. His name was Marion Turner. Read his story in The Republican.

TWIT

The British TS who stole the identity of model Katie Price and conned Price’s bank out of thousands of pounds is back in the news. This time Kerry Marshall, the TS, applied for a job using the name Katie Price. The job she was trying for was a a home care assistant. It’s probably time the authorities in England came to realize this person is mentally ill. TWIT Awards for everyone in this case. (Except Ms. Price who has done nothing wrong.) The story is at thisislincolnshire.co.uk.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News