The Week In Transgenderism 8/24/15

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan

There’s a new employee working on the White House staff and that employee is a trans woman named Raffi Freedman-Gurspan. She was a policy advisor to the National Center for Transgender Equality before she stepped into the role of outreach and recruitment director for the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Learn more about her and her new job on Yahoo News.

Raffi’s old employer, The National Center for Transgender Equality, has placed a survey on the Web and they would like as many trans people in the United States as possible to go to the webpage and complete it. NCTE says that the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey will provide a clearer picture of our community’s diverse experiences and tell them how the Center can better meet the needs of trans people in the U.S. You can find the survey here. Thanks to TGF reader Josy C for letting us know about the survey.

Amiyah Scott

If you know who NeNe Leakes is then you are probably a fan of the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Leakes has been on that “reality” show for several years but she is not going to be on the show for its next season. Caitlyn Jenner may have started a trend in reality show programming. Leakes will be replaced by trans woman Amiyah Scott. Ms. Scott will be the first trans woman to be featured as one of the housewives on any of the numerous Housewives shows. Read more about it in The Advocate.

Have you had trouble finding medical care because you’re trans? Never fear, MyTransHealth will soon be here! That is it will be available to help trans people in New York City, Miami and Sand Francisco. Those cities were chosen for the startup since they have large trans communities. Find out more about MyTransHealth on the Tech Crunch website.

Root

The first BBC comedy to star a trans actress playing a trans woman character has released a trailer. The show is called Boy Meets Girl and the idea for the show won the BBC’s Trans Comedy Award. Will it be as good a comedy as some of the classic BBC fare? Folks in Britain have to wait till later this year to see it and here in the U.S. we can only hope it runs on BBC America. Learn more and view the trailer on The Guardian website.

As great as it is to be recognized and have the general public educated about trans issues it means that trans people are more likely to be noticed. Not all of the attention we attract is going to be good. That’s the reason a Muslim drag performer in Britain is concerned that after she and others appeared on television in a documentary titled Muslim Drag Queens there may be a backlash of violence against them. Read about it in the Daily Mail.

Willam

What do you do to inform the public that a major street in your district is going to be closed to traffic for several weeks? If you’re the West Hollywood area (WeHo) of Los Angeles you hire a drag queen to do a YouTube video. The queen in question is the lovely Willam Belli and the videos she did are spoofs of the Saturday Night Live skit, The Californians. Check it out on the KPCC website.

The wonderful people who brought you the first photos of Caitlyn Jenner have decided to put out a special issue with coverage of several other trans folks. Vanity Fair’s Trans America issue is on newsstands now. It features stories about Renée Richards, Chaz Bono, Laverne Cox, Fallon Fox, and others. Read about it on the Vanity Fair website.

Brains! No, that’s not the rantings of a hungry zombie. Our brains are where the need to be another gender occurs. A study done by the Medical University of Vienna found there is a difference between the brains of cisgender folks and transsexual folks. But the rate of suicide and depression in the transsexual population is much higher than it should be if matching the brain and body was all that is necessary. Learn more in an op-ed in The New York Times.

One side effect of the increased awareness of the existence of trans people is a rise in the number of claims of discrimination and other legal cases as trans people realize they don’t have to put up with people’s crap anymore. Read the story in the Star Tribune.

Landon Patterson

Another trans girl has been nominated for homecoming queen. This young lady, Landon Patterson, is making history at her Kansas City, Mo. area school by being the first trans nominated for homecoming queen. She has only been out as trans for a year. The title will be bestowed on the winner on September 12. Read her story and watch video on the Fox 4 website.

Trace Lysette as Gisele

The man best known to television viewers as Captain Jean Luc Picard, actor Patrick Stewart, has a new show on Starz which premiered Saturday. It’s called Blunt Talk and Stewart portrays Walter Blunt, a television news show anchor who is having a personal crisis and self medicating with alcohol and marijuana chocolate. While driving he sees a woman in distress and stops to ask her if she is okay. She is a trans sex worker and ends up in his car. She is portrayed as a real person and Blunt is respectful in his interaction with her. The character’s name is Gisele. Learn more about her and the trans actress who portrays her on the Zap2it website.

Ashwini

A trans woman in India is working to change the perception of trans people as beggars and sex workers. Ashwini Bose’s chief action in the perception change effort is to arrange and serve a feast for homeless children in Chennai. Read more in The New Indian Express.

Back in February Caitlyn Jenner, at that time still presenting as Bruce, was involved in a fatal accident. Jenner was reportedly driving “too fast for conditions” and rear ended another vehicle which was pushed into the oncoming traffic lane and struck. The driver was killed. There is a 50-50 chance Jenner will be charged with vehicular manslaughter. Learn more in Inquisitor.

Here’s a Caitlyn related story that might have to be put in our TWITs section. You decide. Spirit Halloween, one of those costume stores that pop up overnight right before Halloween, like mushrooms on your lawn, are planning to sell a Caitlyn Jenner costume this October. Read a little more about it in The Whig.

Never been out but is “out” to the world.

Before the advent of the Internet being a transvestite was a solitary occupation for many. If you were lucky you found a transvestite magazine in a dirty bookstore. Then you could engage in correspondence through the U.S. Mail with people who had placed ads. It was a long process. Now, even if you are a closeted bisexual transvestite in Australia you can announce that to the world on a website. That’s what Dan in Melbourne did. He also says he hasn’t been out and about dressed. Well now that you’ve told the whole world —  it’s time to get out of the house, Dan. Read his story on the SameSame website.

Madison Montag

This story is either an historic break thru for human rights equality or a darned shame, depending on how you feel about sex work. The Bunny Ranch, the Nevada brothel featured in the HBO series Cathouse, has hired the first licensed trans prostitute. Her name is Madison Montag and she is a XXX transsexual porn star who will see clients at the Bunny Ranch on an appointment only basis. The 5’1” 22-year-old says that it’s her “dream job.” Learn more, if you’re so inclined, from the PR Newswire.

If you like to keep up with the latest in research on sexual orientation and gender identity have we got an article for you. UCLA has a Center for Gender-Based Biology and it’s director explains the spectrum that exists between male and female. Get your scuba gear. This stuff gets pretty deep. You can find the article in Medical Press.

Vietnam is working on an amendment to its Civil Code that is supposed to affirm sex-reassignment as a civil right in that country. But the amendment is worded in such a way that it contradicts itself. Learn more about this attempt to fix a problem with a contradictory amendment on the Tuoitrenews website.

There’s a lot to be learned by crossdressing and making your way through the world in women’s clothing. The lessons are both bitter and sweet. It’s about time some crossdresser stepped up and wrote an article about the things you learn when you walk a mile, or two, in her shoes. Just as I was preparing to write said article along came Vera, a married crossdresser with a kid who went ahead and got her article published first. It’s called 7 Things You Learn As A Straight Guy Who’s A Crossdresser. At least she’s a Doctor Who fan. That makes it less painful to be scooped. The article is on Cracked.com.

For those just starting out wearing bras the world of breast elevation garments can be confusing and hard to navigate. Fortunately we live in the age of the Internet when there is always someone, somewhere online who can give us wise counsel and all the information we might require on titty containment. Thanks to Jan Brown for pointing us to 17 Ridiculously Good Tips For Anyone Who Wears A Bra. It’s available for your perusal on BuzzFeed.

TWITs

Over two years ago Quebec, Canada passed a law that removed the requirement that trans people had to have surgery before they can change their gender on their provincial identification. While it was hailed as a great stride for trans people in Quebec at the time, time has passed and the province has not put the changes into effect. It’s heel dragging like that that gets a Canadian province a TWIT Award, eh? Learn more about it on the CBC website.

Too many trans women, particularly trans women of color, are being murdered. Some are killed by strangers while others are killed in domestic violence by people they know. Of course people kill people everyday but the murder of trans women of color is disproportionate. Though it is a very light weight scold in light of the severity of the problem we issue multiple TWIT Awards to the killers who take the lives of these women. Jennifer Finney Boylan had some thoughts about the killings in last Saturday’s edition of The New York Times.

From time to time we feature stories in TWIT about charity events where men wear high heels and run a race or play baseball in drag. These events are certainly meant to evoke laughter and they are not meant to be taken as a serious “trans” event. We’re certain though that oftentimes the men who participate may be using the event as a chance to actually wear feminine clothing in public without anyone thinking they might be enjoying it. Today we have to give a TWIT Award to the U.K.’s Chrysalis Transsexual Support Group. The group is trying to stop an event called Dames on the Run, a footrace in drag. The “dames” would be dressed as the Dame characters of British Pantomime. The race benefits a children’s hospice. The transsexual group claims that this race will confuse people about what transgender, transsexual and transvestite means and that it is “dehumanizing.” In our opinion there’s nothing more human than dressing up in funny clothes and raising money to support sick and dying children’s care. The Chrysalis group actually reported the event to the police as a hate crime. The crime is that they have gotten entirely too touchy and taken this too far. Read more about it in The Telegraph.

Tags: Amiyah Scott, Blunt Talk, crossdressing, featured, Gisele, Identity, Landon Patterson, news, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, Transgender, TWIT, Willam

Category: Transgender Community News