The Week In Transgenderism 7/16/12

We told you last week about Harisu the Korean TG pop star and how she has released a new single after five years out of the public eye. Now she’s released a video for the song. You can check it out on allkpop.com.

An attack on a hijra lead a movie director to make a film about the life of transgendered people in India. The plot revolves around a hijra who falls in love with a Hindu boy. While the love affair does not go that well, Common Gender is playing to packed houses and may be picked up for distribution in the U.S. Indians seem to love the Romeo and trans Juliet story. Read all about it and see a trailer at the ABC News website.

Last Monday the Episcopal Church took a giant step when its House of Deputies voted to allow transgendered people to be ordained as priests. The story and all the facts are available on The Huffington Post.

Activists in Michigan are working on the media and police departments to be more respectful of trans people. Stories in the news there often identify TGs who are arrested by their birth names and genders rather than the gender they are living. Get the story in Pride Source.

McGinn

New Hope, Pa. plastic surgeon and transgender advocate Christine McGinn is one of the TGs featured in the film we told you about last week, Trans. On July 14 she spoke about why she agreed to appear in the film when she is suspicious of the way transgender people are usually treated by the media. Get the story at Philly.com.

The Howard and Kojo Show on WAMU radio in Washington, D.C. featured transgender people in the workplace for their July 9 show. Thanks to Jamie Roberts (for telling us about the broadcast) and for Internet audio streaming so you can listen to the show online. Visit the WAMU website to tune in.

Sensitive signage?

Ya know how sometimes the desire to do the right thing, to be inclusive and provide for diverse populations doesn’t work out just the way the people taking the action intend? That may be the case in Nova Scotia where the Capital District Health Authority wanted to let transgender people know that they could use the single person restrooms in their headquarters. The signs they put up could, possibly, be offensive to TGs. Read the article at CBC.ca and decide.

Wanting to get married is a pretty common urge among humans. You would think that if two people loved each other and wanted the bonds of matrimony to seal their love it shouldn’t matter if one of them happened to be a transwoman. The country of Malta would beg to differ. Joanne Cassar, a transwoman, was denied the right to marry there back in 2006. She has been fighting a legal battle with Malta ever since. Now, her simple desire to be a missus is being used to try to influence how the European Court of Human Rights rules. Some say it’s gotten to progressive and needs to uphold Malta’s right to deny Ms. Cassar her rights. Complex — and yet stupid. Read the story in The Times of Malta.

Choi Han Bit

In South Korea another transwoman is also battling the establishment. Her desire is to become Korea’s next super model. Choi Han Bit has been turned down at many modeling auditions because she is trans so now she is taking her fight to Top Model Korea, a television show. They aired her audition for the show last weekend. Keep checking TWIT to find out if she made the competition. Read her story at Yahoo Philippines. (Demerits to Yahoo for putting the story in  their OMG! section.)

What does former Tonight Show band leader Doc Severinson have to do with the TG world? He was one of the early allies of transgender musician Jennifer Leitham when she decided to transition. (In the past TGF has covered Leitham in our music column Perpetual Change.) She’s the subject of a film called I Stand Corrected, now making the rounds of the film festivals, and that means she has been interviewed by The Advocate. Nya, nya Advocate. We did it first! (She’s also in the film Trans.)

Guilda

Canada’s oldest female impersonator passed away on June 28. Jean Guida,  who worked for over 50 years in Montreal as Guilda, was 88. Read about his fascinating life, from doing drag for German soldiers during the occupation of France to creating his own place in drag entertainment in Canada. Get the story in The Globe and Mail.

Fans of vintage impersonators will recognize the name Danny La Rue. La Rue passed away in 2009 after a career that took him from cramped stages in small, smoky nightclubs to a performance for the Queen of England. (Queen performs for Queen. Film at 11!) La Rue was one of the first mainstream drag acts who paved the way for the many impersonation artists who came after. He even helped inspire the glam rocker of the ’70s. Now his life story is being turned into a film. No word yet on who will portray La Rue. Get the details that are available from Sky News.

The Blood Thirty Vixen

Our favorite TG lady wrestler, Amanda The Blood Thirsty Vixen, made the news last week for being the the only transgendered pro wrestler. On July 20 Amanda, whose outside the ring name is Mariah Morena, will be competing in a Women’s Tree Way Dance Match near San Diego that pits her against two other women. Good luck Amanda. Read an interview with her in San Diego Gay & Lesbian News.

TWITs

The transwoman who somehow obtained a genetic female’s identity and used it to get over $100,000 worth of medical care in emergency rooms over the past 13 years has been sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to participate in a rehabilitation program. Perla Aldama Serrano was sleeping outside and that attracted the police who took her into custody and discovered that she was an identity thief. Our TWIT Award today goes to a society that can force a TG to steal someone’s identity so they can get medical treatment. Other awards go to the commenters on the story for their anti trans attitudes and their assumption that Serrano is in the country illegally. There’s no indication that she was an illegal. The story is in The Orange County Register.

TWIT Award number two goes to the police department in Teso, a town in Kenya. When they came across a 25-year-old man dressed as a woman they promptly detained him. There are no laws against crossdressing in Teso but the police “suspect he was up to mischief.” Good luck to our sister Eddy Wandera and a big TWIT to the constabulary in Teso. The sparse facts are in The Star.

Our last TWIT Award goes to the country of Jamaica. Sure, we all love jammin’ to da Reggae music, but behind all that laid back front you will find homophobia and transphobia that is easily expressed in violence toward gays and TGs. Last weekend police there raided a party and arrested 130 people. Over 70 of the women taken into custody were actually crossdressed males. When the news broke on TV “thugs” from Montego Bay threatened that the CDs had better not return to their homes after the police let them loose. The story is a bit hard to understand since the reporter faithfully reproduces the “thug’s” deep Jamaican accents but the picture is clear that crossdressing is not accepted on the island. The reason for the raid is also hard to understand. Apparently it had something to do with illegal lottery scamming. Try to read the story in the Jamaica Star.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News