The Week In Transgenderism 3/4/13

Donnie’s bros got his back.

When you think of fraternities you are likely to conjure up images of Animal House partying or up tight conservative types wielding power over lowly freshmen and tormented pledges. What you don’t think of when you think of fraternities is frat guys who would start a fundraising campaign to help an FtM frat brother get his top surgery. Heck, you wouldn’t think a frat would have an FtM brother, so it’s really feel good news to learn that one frat in Boston has done just that. Get the story in The LA Times.

They used to say in the world of show biz, “Will it play in Poughkeepsie?” Meaning would a show that was written by someone from New York City be to sophisticated for the other side of the Empire state. Well that end of New York seems to have gotten sophisticated enough to view all kinds of shows that incorporate crossdressed characters. The theater scene in Buffalo is packed with drag musicals and one man theatrical productions. Does this mean they’re more tolerant in the outlying counties of the Empire state? Read the article in The Buffalo News and decide.

Meanwhile, over in Rochester, New York they’re having a transgender health conference. The event is for doctors and other medical professionals and it’s called Transgender HealthCARE: Transitioning, Transcending and Teaching Our Community. The goal of the event is to make more medical professionals aware of the different needs of transgendered people, both female to male and male to female. Read about it in the Democrat and Chronicle.

“Special treatment”?

Not all students are supportive of a TG classmate as the frat guys. Students at Batesville high school in Mississippi showed up for class dressed in gym shorts and sweats — a clear violation of the school’s dress code. Why ? They were protesting the TG student getting “special treatment.” The special treatment was being allowed to dress like a female. To the protesting students allowing the transgender girl to dress like a girl violates the school dress code. School officials have asked how a girl dressing like a girl violates the dress code but those protesting can’t seem to grasp the concept of gender identity. The story is in the Huffington Post.

Coy

And the students just get younger. A six-year-old TG girl in Colorado is the new darling of the media. Coy Mathis has been appearing on national television shows after her parents sued her school because they wouldn’t let her use the girl’s restroom. Read all about Coy and the legal battle on Yahoo.

Heading back to Massachusetts we learn of a possible setback for transgender students. The recent expansion of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s 2011 anti-gender discrimination law to include provisions that would allow TG students to use the locker rooms and restrooms appropriate to their gender identity has brought out a hoard of ignorant people opposed to children being able to have a gender that doesn’t match their genitals. One “pro-family” group called the concept of gender identity “medical quackery.” We call that stupidity. Get the whole scoop on supporters and opponents of the expanded law in the Lowell Sun.

Could those all riled up about the Massachusetts law possibly be loyal viewers of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News? That might factor into their opposition since on his February 26 show O’Reilly called the policy on transgender students “insane” and “madness.” He thinks that male students will start saying they’re girls so they can go into the girl’s locker rooms and restrooms with sexual intentions. It’s another case of O’Reilly giving a clue about what he would have done if the rule was in effect at his high school. Get all of his screed and a video clip at Equality Matters.

Domaine

In California a Baptist college found out that one of their new students, who was supposed to start classes as a woman, had been born male. They learned this by watching a show on MTV called True Life in which the TG student came out as transgendered. Domaine Javier had been living and presenting herself to the world as a woman for years and if she hadn’t gone on television perhaps the school would have been none the wiser. She wanted to attend California Baptist University to study nursing and when the school threw her out she lost a lot of scholarship money. She’s suing the school. Get the story at Salon.com.

While some universities have problems with gender issues some schools are cool with guys being girls and girls being guys. On stage at least.  One such school is Syracuse University. This year the school had a drag show hosted by a RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant as part of its Winter Carnival. The show was called Totally Fabulous Drag Show featuring Shangela. Along with Shangela it featured a drag king names Spikey Van Dykey and several student drag performers. Get the story in The Daily Orange.

Cassar

The transsexual in Malta who has been fighting for the right to marry her (now ex) fiance is in the news again this week. Joanne Cassar was denied the right to marry in 2007 when officials said that Maltese law did not allow her to be recognized as a woman. In the years since then Ms. Cassar has been fighting the government of her country and now comes word that the Prime Minister made a statement that the government is going to address the “void in the law” concerning legal gender status. Cassar is upset because they have been fighting her for years and now they’re talking like they support legal gender change. Get the facts in the Times of Malta.

A husband and his queen.

What is it like to have a drag queen as your spouse? One gay man shares his story about being married to a drag queen and it’s not all lip gloss and wigs. It’s corsets and feather boas and jewelry and . . . Well, it’s an awful lot. So much that they had to move his husband’s drag persona into her own studio space so they would have room to live in their house. Find out what it’s like being a drag husband in the Huffington Post.

TWITs

They say Virginia is for lovers but if you’re transgendered the love might be hard to find. A California TG used a spa in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and was asked to leave by the spa staff. The spa says that they got complaints about the woman from other women in the bathing and changing facilities and they refunded her money and asked her to leave. They dd so because they do not “accept any kind of abnormal sexual oriented customers.” The TWIT Award today goes to Spa World for not knowing that being transgendered is not sexual and has nothing to do with homosexuality. Which they consider abnormal. Get the story from LGBTQNation.com.

TWIT Award number two goes to Haddonfield Child Care, a private organization in Haddonfield, New Jersey that provides after-school care for kindergarten through eight grade students. A supervisor for the organization invited a local drag performer to rad to children as part of the National Read Across America Day. The performer, Martha Graham Cracker, accepted the gig but higher ups in the the child care organization called the engagement off as “unacceptable.” Their anti-gay, anti-drag queen attitude is what’s not acceptable, girlfriend! It’s not all bad though as Martha did read for children, just not in New Jersey. Find out where she appeared on the NBC10 website.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News