12 Months of TWIT — 2014 in Review

After you click a link in TWIT and have read the article use the Back button on your browser to return to this page. Links will no longer open in a new window or tab.

Since it’s the time of year when media outlets and publications all do their year end wrap up features TGF has decided we will not be left out. So here are 12 stories, one or more from each month of 2014, which appeared in the TWIT column. Happy New Year!

1/6/14

Have your RuPaul both ways.

Everyone’s favorite drag queen, RuPaul, has won an award. No, it’s not a TWIT Award. Ms. Charles has beat out Adam Levine, Demi Lovato, Blake Shelton and Howard Stern to be named Best Reality Show Judge Or Host 2013. Of course she’s won for hosting RuPaul’s Drag Race. And as if this win, which was by thousands of votes above the 2nd place award, wasn’t enough the Drag Race won Best Reality Competition Series 2013. Now hold on a minute. You mean the girls on that show are real? We’re confused. Get the straight scoop from the Huffington Post.

Sometimes there’s no predicting what’s going to happen. A transwoman academic from Cambridge University was on holiday in the Scottish Highlands last week. While she was standing with a group of friends outside of the home of a local musician very early on Monday morning a “giant stag” raced out of the surrounding darkness and attacked her with it’s antlers. Her throat was pierced and the antler went through to her spinal column. She is hospitalized in serious condition. Read about what a local gamekeeper described as having “a chance in a million” of occurring in The Sydney Morning Herald.

1/13/14

The bullied transgirl in California who, after heaping helpings of abuse, got into a fight with three cisgendered girls at her school is being charged with battery. She is the only one of the four involved in the fight who has been charged. The other three were suspended from school. Is this a case of the TG being given harsher punishment just because she is TG? Read the story in The New York Daily News and decide.

These kids today. They just can’t leave anything alone. The use of “transgender” as an umbrella term to cover the entire spectrum of cross gender and semi-cross gender behavior has been around for a couple of decades. Now, just when we might be getting people to accept it in that manner we learn that young whippersnappers (whatever that is) have come up with something new to cover the whole community. They’re using “trans*” which has been co-opted from computer language. Find out what the asterisk is all about and who came up with this new word at Slate.com.

1/20/14

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has been in the news a lot. Something about closing a busy bridge…. But he used his veto power last week to shut down something that was important to TGs in New Jersey. Last year the legislature in that state passed a bill that would allow TGs to get new birth certificates without having to have reassignment surgery. Christie said the bill created “opportunities for fraud, deception, and abuse.” Read about his veto on the NCTE website.

McDonald

CeCe McDonald, the transwoman who was convicted of murder after she stabbed a man in self defense was serving a 41-month sentence in a men’s prison, until last week. She was released after serving 19 months. She will be serving the rest of the sentence on parole. Read the story at the ABC News website.

How do you deny people their rights and make it seem like it’s no big deal? If you’re Fox News “Medical A Team” member Dr. Keith Ablow you deny the existence of the people whose rights you wish to deny. In a column for the Fox News website Ablow said he’s not convinced “by any science I can find that people with definitively male DNA and definitively male anatomy can actually be locked in a cruel joke of nature because they are actually female.” We find ourselves unconvinced that Ablow is really a doctor of anything. But upon investigation we learned that he does indeed have bona fide credentials and did not get his degrees off the Internet. Which means when he says ignorant things on Fox News he knows what he is saying is a lie. TGs are not the only thing this clown is wrong about. He’s said unsubstantiated things about many people but we proudly present Ablow with a TWIT Award for idiotic statements about transgendered people. (Story no longer available on Media Matters.)

1/27/14

Here’s an example of twittery begating more twittery. We gave Dr. Keith Ablow a TWIT Award last week for his ignorant statement that he saw no evidence that transgendered people exist. After he put that out there it was picked up by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who pumped some extra stupidity and a taste of evil into it and said TGs are a “lie created by Satan.” If Satan is the “father of lies” doesn’t that mean that brand new TWIT Award winner Bryan Fischer is working for the fallen angel? He is spreading lies and falsehood. Read the story and watch a video in Edge Boston.

2/3/14

Barney’s Models

A few months ago we told you about a casting call for transgendered models, both MtF and FtM, for a major upscale client’s ad campaign. Some people commented on the TGF Facebook page questioning qualifications the models had to meet to be considered for the job. (MtF models had to be a size 2.) But, despite those who thought it couldn’t be done, the campaign succeeded in finding nearly 20 TG models (some with experience and some first timers) to appear in Barney’s New York’s new ad campaign and catalog. That’s right, those achingly thin girls in the Barney’s ads are transgendered girls. And those young men are TG men. Read about how the ad campaign was conceived and what they hope it will accomplish, besides selling clothes for Barney’s in The New York Times.

A “TG student denied bathroom use” law suit file in 2009 has finally wound it’s way through the courts and the high court in Maine has ruled that the school violated state anti-discrimination laws when it kept Nicole Maines from using the girl’s room. At long last Nicole can stop holding it in and go. Read about it at PBS.org.

2/10/14

Janet Mock

As we mentioned last week Janet Mock, professional journalist and TG activist, has written a book that we told you about last week in TWIT. As a consequence of writing a book Ms. Mock is doing the rounds of media appearances to promote the book. Last week she appeared on the Piers Morgan show on CNN. Why bring this up in TWIT? After the appearance Ms. Mock tweeted that she felt that Morgan “sensationalized” her story. Morgan tweeted back. You can find out more in NY Mag. Find out what happened after the tweet counter attack in a story on The Wrap.

An Irish drag performer named Panti Bliss (the creation of Rory O’Neill) has blown up world wide. Not because of her act but for what she said on a recent current events program in Ireland. The subject being discussed was homophobia and when asked to name some Irish homophobes Panti quickly supplied several names. (One of which is John Waters but this Waters is not filmmaker John Waters.) In Ireland they take things like libel and slander seriously so the people who Panti called out promptly sued the station and it paid up to settle without a trial. Homophobia is the basis for transphobia so that makes what Panti did next relevant to us. She appeared at a live event in full drag and gave a 10 minute speech about what it is like to be the brunt of homophobia and how ridiculous it is that LGBT people in Ireland now can’t call their oppressors homophobes without getting sued. The transcription and video are available on America Blog.

Perry holding CBE flanked by Beefeaters.

If you’re being honored as a Commander of the British Empire be aware that they do have certain standards of dress that must be met. Fortunately for “transvestite artist and potter” Grayson Perry subtle but elegant drag is perfectly acceptable. Perry wore a midnight blue frock with a enormous feathered hat when he attended the ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Sadly there was only one queen in attendance and that queen was Perry. Her majesty Elizabeth was not present and it was up to Prince Charles to hand Perry the medal. Read about it in The Daily Beast.

2/17/14

Amazon has gone into the business of producing television programs for their online streaming service. Their first big hit is the pilot of a show called Transparent. It’s not about an invisible dad. It is about a transgendered dad. The show’s producers have taken steps to ensure that it’s respectful of trans people and doesn’t make glaring mistakes in the depiction of the lead character. They have gone so far as to bring in an actual transparent as an adviser. Jennifer Finney Boylan is that adviser and she is also a guest columnist at the New York Times. On Sunday her column was about the only problem she sees with Transparent. The actor who plays the heroine is not TG. Read her column, Transgender, Schlumpy and Human.

Sentence completed

Over 201,000 people signed a petition that was delivered to the Contra Costa County, Ca. district attorney demanding that battery charges be dropped in the case of a trans teen girl who was arrested after she fought with girls at her school who had had harrassed her for weeks. The girls got off with suspension from school but Jewlyes Gutierrez was arrested. The district attorney paid no attention to the petition and her case was not dropped. She was sentenced to through a conflict resolution program. Meaning she will be talking with the girls she fought with and they will have to resolve their dispute without hitting. Read about it in the Mercury News.

Have you been a Facebook user for a while and have been stymied by the question they ask at signup concerning your gender? Some FB users are content being either male or female but there are others who don’t feel they fit either of those categories. They’ve had to make do and pick the gender that they lean toward most. Now all that is a thing of the past. Facebook has launched custom gender options. So many to choose from! Check it out at the Transgender Law Center website.

2/24/14

Not everyone thinks that RuPaul is a wonderful supermodel, glamazon and wants to give her a great big hug. Last year RuPaul told The Huffington Post that she loved the word “tranny.” They do toss it around on Drag Race all the time. Miss Charles’s remarks came in response top a Huffington Post op-ed about the derogatory and hurtful nature of the word to some people. Mostly transgendered people. Now the writer of the original op-ed is back with another op-ed that takes RuPaul and the rest of the t-word users to task. She makes some good points. See if you agree. Read the piece in The Advocate.

Luxuria in Sochi

The woman who was the Italian parliament’s first TG member was arrested in Sochi, Russia for holding a rainbow-colored banner that read “Gay is OK” outside one of the Olympic facilities. Subsequent stories say Vladimir Luxuria was released from custody but she had plans to do more protesting. Read about her first arrest on the McClatchy news website.

3/3/14

The 92-year-old TG widow who was denied spousal survival benefits after her husband passed away has won her battle with the Social Security Administration. Even though the SSA hasn’t informed her that she is eligible for benefits a couple of weeks ago they deposited money into her checking account. Read more in The Advocate.

Also in the news from D.C. is word from the mayor there that health insurance companies doing business in the District are now required to provide full coverage for all medically recognized treatment for gender dysphoria, including gender reassignment surgery. Get all the details on the Washington Blade.

From time to time someone will make the argument that hormones and surgery do not help transsexuals. These people will cite some study. They can’t recall where it was published or what the name of it was but they’re sure they read that somewhere. Never quote a study you can’t fully recall to a part time professor and researcher. A transwoman who meets those two conditions decided to study the studies that have been done on how happy treated transsexuals really are. Read the results of her research at transascity.org.

3/10/14

Tambor in character.

We’ve mentioned the sitcom pilot called Transparent that’s currently available through amazon.com. No, it’s not about an invisible man. It’s the story of a transwoman who has been hiding her true self and being the man of the house. It stars Jeffrey Tambor as the TG character and though the character and her trans-ness are central to the show the plot concentrates on the relationships in the family. How do TGs like the show? Jared Leto’s portrayal of Rayon has generated a lot of heat. What do TGs think of Tambor? One transwoman columnist has expressed her opinion in a review of the show in The Rainbow Times.

Married TGs in Australia have possibly good news. Up until now transgendered people had to divorce their spouses before they could get a birth certificate issued with their updated gender status. A new bill has been introduced that will allow birth certificates to be issued without a divorce. Get the story from lawful.com.

3/17/14

You might think that just being trans was enough of a challenge. Not for everyone it seems. A “third gender” woman from Nepal has announced that she is going to climb Mt. Everest to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the first trans woman to make the climb. Her message to the world is that LGBTI people can handle any challenge. Good luck on the climb to Manoj Shahi Monika. Get the story at GayStarNews.com.

Lahore

Is it okay for Muslims to do drag? Not in Muslim theocracies but they can do it in England. How do we know? We cite the example of Asifa Lahore, a well known drag artist who performs regularly in the British cabaret scene. He (Lahore identifies as gay male drag artist) can’t have a drink after, or during the show, since his faith won’t allow it. Last week the BBC was taping a program called Free Speech at the Birmingham Central Mosque. Lahore got up to ask “When will it be accepted to be gay and Muslim?” The host of the show said that after a chat with the chaps from the mosque it was felt it would be best not to get in to that. Next! Sort of a problem on a show called Free Speech. The Beeb said that the issue would be discussed in March 25th’s edition of the show. Read about Lahore and how he reconciles being a gay drag artist and a Muslim in the Daily Mail. They have video, too.

3/31/14

Women face challenges in the workplace. They often get paid less doing the same work as men. Often their ideas are not listened to and it’s assumed they can’t handle the job competently. These facts are often denied by business owners and politicians who see nothing wrong with the way women are treated in the workplace. A new study has uncovered stunning evidence that these assertions are all true. Trans men, who have worked as women and then as men, were interviewed about their work experience before and after transition. One FtM interviewed for the study transitioned on the job and had a client he had worked with perviously tell him they were glad that a man had taken the job because the woman who was there before was incompetent. Read more about the study in the Huffington Post.

A judge in Oklahoma, who has twice ruled against trans women who wish to change their names, basing his ruling on his belief that people can’t change their DNA so there’s no such thing as a transgendered person, has again had his ruling overturned by the Oklahoma Appeals Court. Both his overturned decisions quoted scripture as supporting evidence that there could be no gender changes in God’s U.S.A. This guy is also a firm opponent of same sex marriage and gay rights. A large TWIT Award is hereby presented to Judge Bill Graves. Get the whole story on just what a twit he is from Think Progress.

4/7/14

Rocero

Last Monday was International Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s an annual event on March 31 each year and was started by a TG activist in 2009 as a positive holiday for TGs to counter balance the only other well known TG day, the Day of Remembrance. This year one well known fashion model used the day to come out to the world as a trans woman. She let the cat out of the bag during a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk. She also announced the creation of the Global Organization for Transgender Rights. Learn more about Geena Rocero and her new organization at CNN.com.

The 2014 GLAAD Media Awards will be handed out on April 12 in Los Angeles. The organization is dedicated to amplifying the voices of LGBT people in the media. This year they are honoring television star and transgender activist Laverne Cox with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award. Cox has come a long way since she first appeared on television in the reality show I Want to Work for Diddy. Check out the story about her GLAAD Award at BET.com.

The suits at Amazon Studios have heard from the viewing public and they’ve given the green light to the family dramady Transparent. That’s the show starring Jeffrey Tambor as a transgender woman who has decided to come out to her family late in life. An interesting note; Tambor played Judge Alan Wachtel on Hill Street Blues and that character was revealed to be a crossdresser. On the show Arrested Development Tambor played George Bluth, Sr., a corrupt businessman who began to show feminine tendencies near the end of the series (the online series) that stemmed from his low testosterone levels. Is there a pattern here? Read about Transparent and view a clip in The Advocate.

4/14/14

Harvey Fierstein has written a play called Casa Valentina. It is about crossdresser weekends in the the Catskills back in the ‘60s. (No, not JoAnn Roberts’ Paradise in the Poconos. That came later.) The Chevalier de Eon Resort, later called Casa Susanna was where the CDs went to be their femme selves with no inhibitions. Among the attendees you could find everyone from men who could only get away once a year to dress up as women, to CD pioneer Virginia Prince. View a video about the play and see rare photos from the ‘60s events in The New York Times.

It is now possible for doctors to grow vaginas in the lab and successfully implant them into women’s bodies. This technique was developed and used as long ago as 2005 to treat young women born with a rare genetic condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome. These women are born with either an underdeveloped or totally absent vagina. Could there be hope for women born with that genetic condition called a penis? The vaginas are grown from epithelial cells taken from the woman’s own body and grown on a scaffold. We bet more research will be needed for this to be adapted for gender reassignment surgery but anything is possible. Get the story at The Verge.

4/21/14

Addams

Calpernia Addams wrote an op-ed piece on her website that was published in The Advocate and then picked up by other online publications. Her subject was the faction of the TG community she refers to as the “online thought police” who demand that people stop using certain words because they find those words offensive. Those folks reacted as you might expect. They jumped all over Addams on Facebook, Twitter and the other social media outlets. You can read what she said about the offending words and the people demanding they be removed from our language at Out.com.

There’s a move in New York City to provide municipal ID cards. Why do we mention this? The cards would display whatever gender the cardholder wanted. This is important for homeless transgender youths who may not have any type of ID after they were thrown out by their parents. With a valid ID they can obtain access to services and assistance. It also means that the city would know how many of its citizens were TG. Is that a good idea? Learn more about the ID movement in the New York Daily News.

4/28/14

Chelsea Manning has gotten a legal name change. No longer will she be called Bradley. Ms. Manning applied for the name change in Kansas since her residence is the prison at Fort Leaveworth. She was so excited about it she wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post.

Jaiyah Saelua

A trans woman from American Samoa was the first TG to take the field in a World Cup Soccer match. That happend in 2011 when Jaiyah Saelua made history, not just for being the first TG to play in a World Cup qualifier but because her play lead the team to victory, their first, ever. Learn more about Saelua, TGs in Samoa and her plans for the next World Cup at Vice News.

5/5/14

The book about the first gender reassignment surgery, not the Christine Jorgenson Story, the story of Lili Elbe titled The Danish Girl, has been promising to become a movie for several years. At various times several name Hollywood actresses were set to play the title role. All those attempts to make the film fell apart. Now we learn that it will be coming to the silver screen with a male actor in the lead role. Find out who will direct and who will star in Pink News.

Courtney Act

Courtney Act is a self proclaimed dweller on the gender divide, equally at home as a beautiful woman or a handsome man. She’s currently a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race and she’s so pretty that Drag Race judges have accused her of relying on her prettiness to get through some of the challenges. In an interview with Michael Musto she talks about competing on Drag Race, her friendship with Chaz Bono and her two night appearance at the end of May in NYC with her cabaret show Boys Like Me. Read the interview and get some other drag tidbits from Musto in his column Musto! The Musical! for Out magazine.

Laura Jane Grace was back in the news last week. The lead singer for the punk band Against Me! first made news by coming out as trans in 2012. Now she’s been given a show at the On Network, AOL’s online video channel. The program is called So Much More and it chronicles her transitition. Get more info on the show at contactmusic.com.

5/12/14

The first trans person to compete in a World Cup qualifier is an American. She’s not a citizen though as her home is American Samoa which is a territory of the United States. That makes Jaiyah Saelua an American national. She is the subject of a new documentary about her and her team’s efforts to win a match after fourteen years of losing. Read an interview with her in PinkNews.

Wurst after winning

Conchita Wurst is the Austrian winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. Small boned with long black hair and beautiful eyes her signature feature is her lush black beard. After causing several countries, including Russia, to call for her removal from the contest due to the discomfort a bearded lady can inspire in conservative cultures, last weekend Wurst took the top prize. You go girl. See photos of Wurst and her performance in the New York Times. (It’s interesting to note that despite the beard all of the media reports about Wurst, that we have seen, refer to her as “her.”)

Around five months ago we reported on the tragic story of a trans scientist on holiday with friends in Scottish Highlands who was gored by a stag while she was walking back from the local pub. We now can report that after several operations and having to learn to speak again Dr. Kate Stone is fully recovered. We can also report that the British press who used every headline to tout her as a “sex swap scientist” have had their hands slapped by the Press Complaints Commission as Stone being trans had nothing to do with the stag attack. Read the whole story in The Guardian.

Yesterday Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that the military should review its ban on transgender people serving. Hagel said that the issue needed to be studied as trans soldiers would not be the same as GLB soldiers in that they would require medical treatments that might not be easily available in some deployments. See what else he had to say at the Reuters news site.

5/19/14

U.K. travel writer, author and trans woman Jan Morris was back in the news last week. When she had her reassignment surgery in 1972 British law said that she had to first divorce her wife. So for the past 50 some years Jan and her ex-wife have lived together without the benefit of a legal marriage. They made the news after disclosing that they had gotten married in a very private civil ceremony and are now legally a couple again. Read the story in The Independent.

5/26/14

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has signed The Fairness for All Marylanders Act into law. That means that not only will discrimination be prohibited on the basis of gender identity or expression in the areas of employment, housing cred and public accommodations for transgender Marylanders, but now the right wing will gear up a massive effort to have a repeal referendum. Why? “Cause phony transgenders is gonna assault our ladies in the restroom.”  Get the detailed from Metro Weekly.

Heklina

What happens when an edgy, transgressive word has been used in a name for over 18 years and the world has gotten older, maybe wiser (or not) and the word has ceased being edgy and become degrading (to some)? You wash that word right out of your name. That’s what the San Francisco spawned party formerly called Trannyshack has done. The party ceased operation in SF in 2008 and started roaming the world, settling into new venues in various cities. (Was it on the run from militant anti-T word people?) The news name for the mobile party will be T-Shack. The change will be phased in slowly with all promo materials using the new name and no reference to the old name by 2015. Read all about it in SFist.

6/2/14

Everyone wants to be a cover girl but not everyone makes it to the cover of a national magazine. Not only is Laverne Cox a cover girl but she is also the first transgender person to grace the cover of Time magazine. This week’s issue of Time features a full length shot of Cox wearing a blue dress and high heels. She is also featured in the cover story, titled The Trans Gender Tipping Point. Learn more about the cover story in The Los Angeles Times.

The U.S. Department of Health and Services review board has issued a decision that recognizes the medical necessity of gender reassignment surgery. This has resulted in a three-decade-old HHS ruling that excluded SRS from coverage under Medicare. Will Medicare start paying for SRS? Not necessarily but at least now trans people on Medicare can start filling out the paperwork and getting the necessary referrals from mental health professionals. Learn more at the Fox News website.

CeCe McDonald is no longer a prisoner and is using her freedom to work as a transgender advocate. She has been appearing around the country with other activists like Laverne Cox, to speak out about violence against trans women and to correct misconceptions about TGs. To that point she recently spoke about the seven lies the media perpetuates concerning trans women. You can read them at PolicyMic.com.

6/9/14

Jayne County

The t-word controversy rages on. At least for the segment of the TG community that gets all worked up about words, confusing (as S.I. Hayakawa said ) the map with the territory. They are, after all, just words. Certainly words can be used to hurt but they are given power by the person who hears them said and is offended. So when people attack RuPaul and waste time and energy fighting amongst themselves about who can say what to whom the real enemy is busy trying to take away or deny your rights and identity (see TWITs below). Last week TG pioneer and activist, singer Jayne County wrote a defense of RuPaul’s use of the t-word. Within minutes of mentioning the unusable words on Facebook County started getting death threats. A bit extreme, no? Read her view of the controversy at Queerty.com.

If you’re looking for twittery there’re no spots more likely to have in in abundance than most religious institutions. One such institution is the Southern Baptist Convention. Two men, one a professor at the undergraduate arm of Souther Baptist Theological Seminary, Boyce College, and the other an ethicist working for the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, have submitted a proposal that the SBC pass a resolution opposing “transgender identity.” How did it work out for that English king who tried to command the tide not to come in? It’s about the same thing to oppose transgender identity. A large TWIT Award to Denny Burk and Andrew Walker, the two religious and ethical people behind this non-ethical resolution. Read about it in the Herald.

6/16/14

With the ruling by the Department of Health and Human Services that overturned the ban on Medicare paying for gender transition surgery a big victory was won by the trans community. But that’s not the end of the fight. The states have a say in who gets what coverage. A trans activist has written an op-ed about it that you can read in The New York Times.

The bathroom issue is still a major problem for trans people. A CBS News poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that trans people should use the restroom that corresponds to their birth gender. Of course that percent might go down if trans woman all started marching into men’s rooms all across the country. But I digress. While this statistic is not encouraging keep in mind that CBS is known as the major networks that has a primarily older audience. If they were polling typical CBS viewers who tend to be older and possible more conservative it might well be skewed since they’re more likely to have an irrational fear of men dressing up to assault women in the restroom. The story can be found on The Huffington Post site.

The American Medical Association has come out with a policy statement saying trans people should not have to have surgery before they are able to get their birth certificates changed. Hopefully, with the A.M.A. weighing in on the issue, more states will begin to change their laws to allow trans people to change their official documents without having surgery first. The story is in Forbes.

We’ve given TWIT Awards to the Fox News Medical A-Team pop psychologist Keith Ablow on several occasions when he has been guilty of spreading misinformation about the trans community. Now we go behind the man to another man who was Ablow’s mentor. “Conservative psychiatrist” Paul McHugh trained young Ablow in how to dis-respect trans people. Recently he wrote an op-ed that was published in The Wall Street Journal in which he called transgendered people confused and maintained that trans-ness met the criteria to be a mental disorder. Poppycock! McHugh not only gets the TWIT Award for this op-ed of anti-trans screed. We are proud to go on record calling him a charlatan and a quack. A TWIT Award also goes to The Wall Street Journal for printing his bull. (The original story was on Media Matters and is no longer available.)

6/23/14

Ennis

The ABC News assignment editor who came out as TG last summer is back in the news. This time it’s for being fired. Dawn Ennis announced last summer that she would be transitioning from Don to Dawn and her employer was supportive. Then, just a few months later Ennis was in the news for having a bout of “transient global amnesia” and heading back to work in male attire. There are many things about the Ennis story that are odd, bedsides the “amnesia” thing. Get more on her firing in New York Magazine.

A trans television producer in Canada is producing a web series called The Switch. It’s a show about transgendered people that uses only trans actors. We’ve mentioned the show in TWIT before. Today we have an interview with the producer Amy Fox. It’s an all TG affair since the interviewer is trans, too. Read it in Bustle.

Here’s a bit of presidential trivia for you. Who was the first president to use the word “transgender” in a speech? That would be the man who has done more for the TG community during his time in the Oval Office than any other, Barack Obama. What’s he done for us? He banned discrimination against TG government workers. He signed hate crime legislation that became the first federal civil rights protections for TGs in U.S. history and his administration has quietly made it easier for TGs to update their passports, get health insurance and get care at Veteran’s Administration facilities. There’s more but you’ll have to read the article in The Porterville Record to find out what else President Obama has done for you. (Original article no longer available.)

Culpepper

A gender non-conforming teen in South Carolina who wears girl’s clothes and makeup daily went to get her driver’s license photo taken. The law in South Carolina (as it is in many states) says that the photo won’t be taken if the applicant has altered their appearance so “the photo could misrepresent his or her identity.” They told Chase Culpepper that she would have to remove her makeup before the photo could be taken since the ID she presented said she was male. Culpepper’s mother maintains that having her trans daughter be photographed without any makeup is a photo of her in disguise since she wears makeup everyday. A TWIT Award to the South Carolina DMV and another TWIT Award to Odd News for calling this young lady by male pronouns throughout the article. You can read it on Yahoo News.

6/30/14

The middle to late 1980s and the 1990s were a crazy time for the New York City drag scene. It was the time of the Club Kids and drag was everywhere on the club scene. From the Pyramid Club to the Limelight, Tunnel, and the Palladium you were more likely to be let in past the velvet rope if you were wearing fabulous drag than any other outfit. Drag personality Linda Simpson came to New York in that time and soon found herself taking photographs of all the drag nightlife. She’s put all the photos together and they’re in her new book titled The Drag Explosion. Read an interview with her and see some of the photos in NY Magazine.

You know big business is paying attention to transgendered people when a major business magazine runs an article on how support TG employees in the workplace. The piece is a good how-to for employers who need to navigate the, to them, strange waters of trans workers. The business magazine it’s in is Forbes.

Jazz

When you were thirteen did you write a book about being a transgender kid? We didn’t think so. But things have moved along so well that one trans teen has done just that. Well, with the help of a co-author. The book is titled I Am Jazz, and that’s the young author’s name. The book will be available on September 4 and all proceeds will go to a foundation that helps TG children. Read about it and watch a video at NBC Miami.

7/7/14

Religious anti-gay protesters tried to disrupt the Seattle Pride Parade last week. They did not count on the intervention of one very large, angry queen. Mama Tits is her name and while a gentle soul at heart she could not abide haters trying to cause trouble. How did she handle it? In a way that will make you cheer. Read her account of the incident in Instinct Magazine.

If you are a federal employee and you’re transgendered, rejoice. President Obama will be signing an executive order banning discrimination against you and all the other TG federal employees. You already were protected from discrimination by a three-year-old guidance memo from the Office of Personnel Management that forbade discrimination against LGBT people in the government’s employ but this executive order gives teeth to the memo by making it a law. Read more about it in Business Week.

7/14/14

Beck

The Warrior Princess, Former Navy SEAL Kristen Beck, is the subject of a documentary on CNN. It’s called Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story. It follows Beck as she tours the country in her small RV and does motivational speeches. The film also shows her attending her 25th college reunion and delves into how her coming out as trans affected her family and former SEAL colleagues. Read about the film in Edge San Francisco.

While the Pentagon here is the U.S. is thinking that it might be a good idea to perhaps initiate a study into the idea of allowing transgendered people to serve openly in the military Britain has been actually allowing all LGBT people to serve openly since 2000. So if the Pentagon would like some information on how that works out perhaps they should give England a call. If you’d like to find out how transitioning on the job when your job is serving in the military read Christina Bentley’s story. Since it’s the military there is a certain amount of red tape but it’s working out for her. You can find the story at Vice.com.

Laverne Cox has just pulled off another first for trans women. She has been nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on Orange is the New Black. That makes her the first trans woman to be nominated. Cox makes the distinction that she’s the first “openly” transgender woman to be nominated. Read about the nomination and her reaction to getting the word in The Los Angeles Times.

7/21/14

Valentjin is on the right.

One of the 17 transgender models who appeared in the Barney’s ad campaign this past spring has been working on camera. Valentjin de Hingh, a beautiful Dutch TG, has been picked for designer Tom Ford’s fall ad campaign. See her modeling Ford’s creations and view a slideshow of The 10 Greatest Transgender Models at out.com.

Belgium has become the third country in Europe to have a transgendered Member of Parliament. Italy had Vladimir Luxuria in their parliament in 2006. (She lost the election in 2008.) Poland elected Anna Grodzka in 2011and now Belgium welcomes Professor Petra De Sutter to their parliament. Professor De Sutter is a member of the Green Party and is the head of the Reproductive Medicine Department of the University Hospital Ghent. Learn more about her in Pink News.

7/28/14

We knew it. Our favorite long legged androgynous super model has admitted she is trans. Andrej Pejic is now officially Andreja Pejic. She announced to the world that she has transitioned and is not a male model working the female side of the business but a proud trans woman. From now on she will only be modeling women’s apparel. Read more about her decision to transition and how she announced it to the world in Yahoo Health.

What is it that attracts (mostly gay men) to become drag queens? There are plenty of gay men who never wear women’s clothes but to some the call of stilettos and short skirts is irresistible. Could they be the same as the heterosexual crossdresser? Well, life is complicated and people’s drives to do drag vary as much as the number of people who do drag. Find out what at least a few of them want the world to know about dragging up in an article at Slate.

Kobayashi

While the majority of men attracted to wearing women’s clothing feel they need to establish a femme identity and do their best to look and act like women there are some who are just more comfortable wearing femme attire and one day decide to throw out all their male clothing and wear what they want in any setting. One such non-passing crossdresser is Japan’s Hideaki Kobayashi. He is a computer engineer and spent most of his young life as an introvert. Now at 51 he dresses like a school girl and is the center of attention wherever he goes. Read about him at CNN’s website.

The Canadian produced YouTube show The Switch, which features a cast of trans actors playing trans roles, is pulling some press in America. It seems that the show has botten so popular on the Web that the Canadian gay and lesbian television channel OUTtv is going to present the series to a wider audience. And there’s talk that there may be a U.S. version of the sitcom in the works. See if you can find the mis-gendering of the producer in the the story run by The Hollywood Reporter.

8/11/14

Has it really been 20 years since The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert hit movie screens? Yes it has, girlfriend. And it’s still going strong with productions being done all over the world and the original film being screened to this day. Read more about how the film was conceived and what it has meant to many over the years on the gaynewsnetwork.com.au.

In Phoenix, Arizona they have a law against “manifestation of prostitution.” It gives the police the right to take anyone they see into custody if that person stops someone on the street to ask for directions, waves at a passing car — or if that person happens to be a trans woman in a sexy outfit. The “manifestation of prostitution” law is clearly unconstitutional, as are several other laws the city passed in an effort to “clean up” the downtown area. Monica Jones was convicted under the law and last week she and her attorneys asked for a reversal of the conviction and challenged the unconstitutionality of the law. Laverne Cox was there to offer her support. Read about it and view a video at AZCentral. And Phoenix, enjoy your TWIT Award.

8/18/14

Many trans people are used to keeping their nature secret from people in their lives. Crossdressers may not tell their family and friends about their “hobby” for free the disclosure will ruin their relationships. Trans women who have transitioned to full time may not tell employers or romantic partners for fear of losing their jobs and their relationships. Geena Rocero kept her gender reassignment a secret for years while she built a successful modeling career. Last week she did an interview and told how she decided to come out to the world. Read about her life and her decision in Glamour magazine.

A trans teen who was attending school last year as a boy transitioned to female over the summer and has been told by her school that she cannot attend if she comes to school dressed as a female. We suspect this is the beginning of a court battle since in all likelihood the girl and her family will win based on established case law that upheld the freedom of students to be the gender they want to be. A big TWIT Award to Middletown, New Jersey’s Thorne Middle School for their regressive decision. Read about it in USA Today.

8/25/14

Rachel Pepe

The trans teen who was told she would not be able to attend school as a girl has won a victory against the school. The school was awarded a TWIT last week over their refusal to allow Rachel Pepe to be herself at school. Now the superintendent for the district has agreed to work with the staff to make sure Rachel has a safe school experience and the staff will undergo LGBT sensitivity training. The story with the update and a video is in The Huffington Post.

It has been a tradition in Castro run Cuba that nobody in the National Assembly votes against any bill that’s introduced. That changed in December when the Assembly voted on a workers’ rights bill that would have normally passed with a unanimous yes vote. Who stood up to the bill and why? The daughter of President Raul Castro, an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, voted against the bill because it held no protections for people with HIV or for trans people. Read about the history making no vote on Al Jazeera America’s website.

BBC2 has commissioned the first transgender sitcom. Well, the sitcom itself is not transgendered. It’s called Boy Meets Girl and it is a romantic comedy featuring a trans woman, and the actor playing the trans woman is herself a trans woman. Hurrah! Her name is Rebecca Root. The program was the winner of a 2013 BBC talent search for scripts that promoted a positive portrayal of trans characters. Read more in The Independent.

Last week Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York came out. That is he came out in favor of adding gender identity and expression to the state’s anti-discrimination law. Cuomo put it in a letter to the Empire State Pride Agenda, an organization that advocates for LGBT rights. Read more about it in LGBTQ Nation.

Michelle Duggar, the “star” of the TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, is getting a TWIT Award. Not because she and her husband seem to be dedicated to creating a football team-sized family and sharing it with the world through reality TV. No, we are awarding this TWIT because Mrs. Duggar is campaigning against a bill in Fayetteville, Arkansas that would give TGs there protections, including the right to use the restroom of their choice. Duggar recorded a robocall that tells the good citizens of Fayetteville that trans people are child predators who will use the new law to go into lady’s rooms and molest their daughters. Thanks for opening your big mouth about something you don’t have a clue on, Duggar. Perhaps you should go back to concentrating on making babies and leave the discussion of transgender issues to people who know what they’re talking about. Read the story and listen to the robocall at the Think Progress website.

9/1/14

Saelua

TWIT has told you before about the trans football (soccer to U.S. readers) player from American Samoa who helped her team to a huge win over Australia in 2011. Her team then went on to compete in The World Cup and history was made when Jaiyah “Johnny” Saelua became the first trans woman to play in The World Cup. On her home island Saelua was accepted as a fa’afaine, the third gender of Polynesian culture. When she stepped on to the world stage she began to experience discrimination. Get an in-depth look at her in The Guardian.

When trans people or gay people are the victims of a murderer who insists that he (always a “he”) freaked out when he was approached by an amorous gay man or trans woman, or had already become sexually involved with a trans woman and then learned she was trans, they call that the “gay panic” or “trans panic” defense. As if it’s somehow okay to murder someone who expressed interest in having sex. A polite, “No thanks” would have been sufficient. Now California has decided that the panic defense is not a defense. They’ve a bill banning the panic defense in court. Read more about it in The Advocate.

Do you believe there is male privilege at work in our society? If you don’t, read on. Many sociologists have felt that there is something that keeps women from advancing as quickly or as far in their chosen fields and many believe that it is due to the way women in the workplace are treated. What has been lacking is any method to actually study and substantiate the suspicions of male privilege. The answer they were searching for is found in trans employee. The difference in treatment trans people experience after they transition on the job is stunning. Read the story in The New Republic.

9/8/14

Andreja

Now that Andreja Pejic is working only as a female model and not an androgynous being who models both male and female attire is her career going to flourish or will she no longer hold any interest in the flighty world of fashion? That is the question posed in an article last week. The article also tells some of Ms. Pejic’s secrets and you may say to yourself, “Ah ha, so that’s what was going on.” Read the revealing article and find out if she and her new agent can keep her status as a top model. The story is in The New York Times.

It’s been 40 years since The Rocky Horror Picture Show hit movie screens. The film starring Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, not to mention Meatloaf, came out in 1975. After a slow start it morphed into a cult classic and certainly gave many crossdressers a good excuse to go to the movie wearing heels, fishnets and a corset. And then their was the makeup. Weren’t Frank N Furter’s lips to die for? In honor of the 40th anniversary of the film MAC Cosmetics is releasing a Rocky Horror Picture Show Makeup Collection. When can you get your hot little hands on it? Check out the story at stylecaster.com.

9/15/14

Conservative radio and TV hosts have been known to call hormone treatments for children to suppress the onset of puberty “child abuse.” Of course they are wrong and suppressing puberty gives a child a chance to think about where they want their gender to go and they avoid developing gender characteristics that will be hard and expensive to alter when they are adults. And if the child chooses not to transition it is a simple matter to stop suppression and let them develop in the gender they were born into. Now a Dutch study of 55 TG young adults appears to confirm the benefits of puberty suppression. Read about it at the CBS News website.

Andreja Pejic wants to produce a documentary about herself and her journey from a refugee boy child to an androgynous male model, to gorgeous female model. She will call the movie Andgrej(a) and she wants your help to get it put together. She has set up a Kickstarter campaign online so her fans can contribute to the $200,000 goal. Find out more about the film and Andreja in The Daily Mail.

Miz Cracker

We will hold off on issuing a TWIT Award for this next story until we see what Facebook decides to do. It seems the social networking site suddenly began enforcing its “real name” policy and locked a number of drag performers out of their Facebook pages last week. Several drag artists capitulated to Facebook and changed their online identities to their legal names but many more are upset that the social networking site that opened up gender identities with over 50 to choose from should demand that people like Miz Cracker and Sister Roman use their legal names. Will other folks using stage names on Facebook have to change their pages? What will Lady Gaga do? And what kind of impact could enforcement of this policy have on crossdressers using Facebook? Read the story at slate.com.

9/22/14

India has its first trans new anchor. She doesn’t report on trans news — she is trans — and it’s a breakthrough for India. Padmini Prakash is her name and she started her broadcast news career on India’s Independence Day. Get her story from The Independent.

The Facebook “real name” policy debate rages on with drag queens in the front lines. After Facebook announced that anyone using a phony name for their profile would have their page deleted unless they added their legal name to the page drag queens realized that that meant the Facebook page they were using to promote themselves could suddenly go away, and in fact many drag queen’s page did disappear with the whoosh of electrons released into the wild. Last week a meeting between many of the top D.Q.s of San Francisco and Facebook executives seems like it was a win since a meeting was held. How often have you ever seen a Facebook executive? But pages could still just disappear. Read about it in SF Weekly.

This next story has a title that makes you feel that the trans rights movement might just be making progress. It’s called 5 Ways to make your business more transgender friendly. If business owners want our business then we must have made them realize we have money to spend. But that’s not the whole story. This article gets its information on how to be more friendly to TGs from the folks who run Southern Comfort. It was during a site visit to Fort Lauderdale that they gave the Convention and Visitors Bureau folks a tutorial on how to make TGs welcome. Read the story in the South Florida Business Journal.

9/29/14

Chelsea Manning, serving a 35 year sentence in Fort Leavenworth, has filed a federal lawsuit against the federal government and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel denying her hormone treatment while she is incarcerated. Manning had been hoping for a transfer to a civilian prison which could meet her gender related needs but the Army has been slow to move. Read about her lawsuit on the CNN website.

Laverne Cox

In the 1990s television viewers got to see gay characters for the first time on several different programs ranging from Will & Grace which featured gay characters every week, to gay story lines on show like L.A. Law and Designing Women. Now gay characters are no longer shocking. Are transgender themes and characters the next big thing? It’s beginning to look that way. Read about the rise of transgender TV in The Hollywood Reporter.

The Facebook “real name” battle with drag performers dragged on last week. The social network won’t back down on requiring users to have their legal names on their profile. Facebook claims it shows a lack of integrity to have a pseudonym on Facebook. Would Mark Twain have had to use Sam Clemens for his Facebook page? The real irony is that you can only be suspended by Facebook for using a made up name if someone complains, and that’s what has happened to the majority of drag queens. Someone, who is masking their identity by using a FB app called Secret has filed all the complaints. Read more about the whole mess in The Business Insider.

In Afghanistan there is much emphasis placed on have a son in the family. Girls are regarded as second class, or perhaps third class citizens in that country so it is important to have a son so that the neighbors will respect your family. What happens when they don’t have a son? The make one of their daughter be a Bacha posh. They dress her and raise her as a boy. Whether she wants to be a boy or not. Then, when it is about to become obvious that the family’s son is growing breasts they make him become a woman and marry her off. The thing is, males in Afghanistan have far more freedom than females so the “boys” who won’t be becoming men sometimes don’t want to give up that freedom. Some don’t want to start being women because they like all the things that go with being man. A large TWIT Award is given to a culture that is so screwed up about the male dominance thing that it makes it’s little girls into boys — and then makes them be women who haven’t ever been taught how to be women. There is a book out now about Bacha posh. Read about it on the RYOT website.

10/6/14

Goggins as Venus

When the biker gang television show, The Sons of Anarchy, brought Walton Goggins in to play a transgender prostitute it seemed like it was just another show trying for some shock value by presenting a trans woman as a hooker hired to pose in explicit photos with an unconscious man the gang wanted to blackmail. But a funny thing happened. The trans character, Venus Van Dam, became one of the most popular characters on the series when she was brought back with a very human storyline concerning her retrieval, with the gang’s help, of her son who was with his abusive mother. There is even a growing romance between Van Dam and one of the gang members. Goggins says he now sees the world from a different point of view because of his portrayal of Van Dam. See what else he said in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Don’t be upset with Grayson Perry. He’s the Turner Prize winning artist from Britain who has a femme alter ego called Claire. He has a new series on identity currently in production. By that we mean he is producing art work which will be explored in a television program and an art exhibit. Talk about multi media. But why do we say don’t be upset with Perry? Because in England the word “tranny” is not as negatively connoted as it in in the  U.S.A. and he uses it in one of his quotes. Don’t hate him cause he’s dropped the T-word. Read the article in The Guardian.

10/13/14

Sage Lovell

A trans teen girl in Georgia has been elected to her school’s homecoming court. The 16-year-old junior was nominated for the court along with around 50 other girls but then her class narrowed it down to her and three other young women. She can’t be homecoming queen since that honor is saved for seniors. Sage Lovell is the first trans girl to be on a homecoming court in Georgia but other trans students in other states have been given that honor. Read the story in The Marietta Daily Journal.

We are sorry there is a need for this next item. Violence against trans people seems to happen frequently and there has been enough of it reported to give you the feeling that it happens more to trans people than it does to cisgendered people. To keep track of just how much violence toward trans people goes on across the world a Trans* Violence Tracking Portal was launched earlier this year. They need volunteers to do various things to keep the portal up and running. Learn more on their website.

The Catholic Church is not known for tolerance of sexual or gender difference. A radio series on public radio features a Catholic woman who calls herself Sister Monica who ministers to trans people. She uses a pseudonym since the Church hierarchy, despite a seemingly more tolerant Pope, does not approve of her activities. Learn more about the radio series and Sister Monica inn the National Catholic Reporter.

10/27/14

Lusardi

A U.S. Army veteran who was working for the Army in Alabama was the subject of discrimination from her bosses and co-workers after she transitioned on the job. Tamar Lusardi was a software specialist at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center when she transitioned in 2010. While this is a TWIT Award worthy degree of discrimination she had to put up with we’re not putting the story in TWIT since she just won a landmark determination against the Army. Read all about it in The Washington Post.

The only trans fire fighter if the Fire Department of New York City is being featured in an ad campaign designed to bring awareness of LGBT issues surrounding gay and transgender rights around the world. Her name is Brooke Guinan and she is a third generation NYC fire fighter. How the Department feel about her appearing on posters for the campaign? Find out in The New York Daily News.

11//3/14

Just a few years ago we reported on a woman from Malta who could not get her gender changed on official documents and was unable to get married to a man. That seems to be changing now as the government of Malta has put out a draft of a law that would allow trans people to change their birth certificate and subsequently their other official documents without having to undergo reassignment surgery. Read all about the far reaching changes in Malta Today.

House ball.

You might remember the film Paris is Burning from back in 1990. It documented the house ball scene and helped inspire Madonna to appropriate voguing and make it into a song. You might also think that voguing and house balls are a thing that died out long ago. After all, it’s been over 20 years. You would be wrong. The “houses” are alive and well and trans and gay house members still walk the balls to compete for prizes and raise money for charities. Read about what’s been going on with the houses at Al Jazeera America.

We mentioned in a previous TWIT column that a school district in Nebraska had provided gender sensitivity guidelines for its teachers that recommended the terms “boy” and “girls” not be used so that any students who were gender fluid would not be offended. The issue raised such a kerfuffle that over 200 parents showed up at a school board meeting. About half were for the training materials and half were against their use. The school board has decided to withdraw the material. We give a TWIT Award to the parents who can’t understand that gender is not “either or” and that all children should be valued no matter what their identity. Another TWIT Award goes to the school board for not introducing the materials in a more reasoned manner, following all the guidelines for any training info. The fact that they were introduce with little explanation or education to parents contributed to the kerfuffle. And another TWIT Award to the website that has the story. They appear to be happy that the conservative faction got their way. Read the story at Nebraska Watchdog.

11/10/14

Lauren Scott, the trans woman running for the state legislature in Nevada was defeated by the incumbent Democratic Assemblyman Mike Sprinkle by a 54 to 46 percent margin. Get more details at towleroad.com.

Christine Bland

If you ask Christine Bland, “What are you? A rocket scientist?” she will answer in the affirmative. She may also let you know she is a trans woman who came out just 3 years ago and she was just awarded recognition as the 2014 LGBT Engineer of the Year by true National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals. Bland works at Lockheed Martin and she has been involved in NASA’s Juno and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions. Learn more about her in the Denver Post.

It seems that younger people are coming to accept, many of them, that trans people are just people and once you see that happening it’s a good sign that someday discrimination against TGs will become more of a fringe activity. The University of Houston’s student paper ran an article last week on how America is becoming a friendlier place for trans folks. Look on the bright side by reading the article in The Cougar.

The first trans woman to have reassignment surgery was a Danish artist who took the name Lili Elbe. She went under the knife in 1931 for the first of a series of operations and the surgery was not a complete success. She died after her doctors tried to transplant a uterus. In the past few years several actresses have been mentioned in proposed projects to make a film of her life. Now we learn that the British actor who portrays Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything will take on the role of Lile Elbe. Learn more in Metro U.K.

11/17/14

Fanning in character.

We reported a week or so ago that Elle Fanning would be portraying a trans teen boy in a film titled Three Generations, which also stars Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon. This has caused consternation within the trans community over the casting of a cisgender female in a trans male role. In some sections of the community they are decrying the practice of “transface.” Not in this section however, as we never heard that term before. Find out what they mean and why Ms. Fanning will be acting this role in The Atlantic.

For some reason the debate over a ban on discrimination against trans people in Miami-Dade County happened in the Public Safety & Animal Services Committee. Should we be worried that our welfare is in the hands of the same group responsible for licensing your dog? The good news for TGs in south Florida was that the committee voted 3-1 to bring the legislation to a vote of the full board next month. The bad news is that the opponents of anti-discrimination against TGs where there in force, banging their “men using the women’s restroom” drum. Read all about the raw emotions and invocations of biblical damnation in the Miami Herald.

Sure, obtaining gender reassignment surgery can be hard to do. Especially in some states or countries where medical services and insurance coverage for the procedures involved are not available or too expensive. But whatever you do don’t do what the subject of this article did. She performed surgery on herself. Obsessed? Quite possibly and definitely not thinking straight. She spent 30 hours operating on her genitals and almost killed herself. Even if you’re a trained surgeon you shouldn’t operate on yourself. That’s why we give a TWIT Award to self-surgeon Jadis Argiope. Read about it at Opposing Views.

11/24/14

We are sad to report the trans activist and author Leslie Feinberg has passed away. Feinberg was the author of Stone Butch Blues (published in 1993) and a tireless advocate for trans people, both ftm and mtf. I had the pleasure of meeting Feinberg while working as executive director of Renaissance. Ze was a nice guy and will be missed. We have to berate the writer who wrote up the story of Feinberg’s passing. Feinberg preferred the use of “hir” and “ze” as descriptive pronouns. The story on the CNN website uses “her” and “she” throughout.

Nicole Maines

The trans girl whose family filed a lawsuit over her school restricting her from using the girl’s restroom when she was in the fifth grade is back in the news. Nicole Maines, who is from Maine, is now 17 and she’s back in the news for being picked to represent her state as one of Glamour magazine’s 50 inspiring women of the year. Winning the lawsuit against her school was a major victory for transgender rights which won Nicole her spot on the list. Learn more in The Huffington Post.

A trans woman in Idaho died suddenly at the age of 32. Since she was so young she had never made a will or given any directions about her funeral arrangements. Even though she had been living as a woman for several years responsibility for her funeral fell to her parents and they buried her under her male name with her her cut short and her body dressed in a men’s suit. A TWIT Award goes to her parents. It seems that they were not to approving of her true gender and took the opportunity to try to change her back into a male for eternity. Read about it in The Miami Herald.

12/1/14

The Arizona trans activist convicted of prostitution under a vaguely worded law that makes it easy for police to profile trans women as sex workers is appealing her conviction. Monica Jones goes to court today to argue that the ordinance she was convicted under is not only vague but unconstitutionally so and it infringes on free-speech rights. Read about it in The Advocate. (They may make you watch a commercial first.)

Drag performer Panti Bliss, who became famous for an impassioned speech she gave about the oppression of gay people in Ireland, is getting the Person of the Year Award (which is much more exciting than getting a TWIT Award) to be presented this coming Saturday. The awards will be broadcast live in the U.K. This marks the 40th year the awards have been given out. Read more in the Herald.

Our Lady J

The Amazon television show Transparent was criticized for not having any trans writers on their staff. The show’s creator had announced that they would find a trans woman to work on the show for the second season and they even had a contest where writers submitted samples of their work. However they arrived at their decision, the trans performer, singer and classical pianist Our Lady J has announced that she will be taking off a year from performing to write for the show. Get more info at the Autostraddle website.

12/8/14

We told you last week that Nicole Maines won her case against the school district that made her use the staff restroom instead of allowing her to use the girl’s restroom. Now comes word that the court has imposed a $75,000 settlement on the school district to cover legal expenses and related costs. Read more from Rueters.

In other TG student news, the U.S. Department of Education has issued a 34-page memo that makes it explicit that federal law protects student’s decisions about their gender identity and makes it mandatory for schools to treat trans students consistent with their expressed gender. If this memo had been in effect when Nicole was being forced to use the staff restroom there wouldn’t have been a need to sue. Her family could have just contacted the Department of Education. Read more on the Time website.

In Minnesota it’s time to pick a team and start playing! The Minnesota State High School League has voted to let transgender athletes join the sports team of the gender they identify with. The vote was 18-1 to let trans student athletes pick their team. The vote for the change came despite a vigorous campaign by opponents who fought tooth and nail to stop boys from calling themselves girls so they could take unfair advantage on a girl’s team. Right. The other objection was that girls would be forced to shower with boys. Their foolish lack of understanding has caused us to hand out TWIT Awards in the past. Today we say kudos to the League for doing the right thing. Read all about it at the Minnesota Public Radio website.

Padmini

India’s first transgender “newsreader” (in the U.S. a news anchor) Padmini Prakashi is the first trans woman to anchor a news cast in that country. She has had a successful career as an actress, is married to a man and is the mother of an adopted son. Her story will be familiar to any trans person who has had to live in a body that doesn’t match their gender but she has come through and landed on top. Now she is speaking out about the plight of many trans people in her country and calling for free sex-change operations. Learn more about Padmini Prakashi in the Daily Mail.

12/15/14

Did you know that New York state law mandates that procedures related to gender reassignment must be covered under health insurance plans? We guess the insurance companies didn’t know that was the case since Governor Cuomo had to send a warning letter to them saying that they have to cover treatments related to gender dysphoria. Get the details in The New York Times.

The U.S. Air Force is going to review its ban on transgender troops sometime during the coming year. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told USA Today last week that “anyone who is capable of accomplishing the job should be able to serve…” The story is on the CBS News website.

America is often referred to as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” The free part works as long as you’re not a FtM teen who wants to use the boy’s room in his southern high school. But the “home of the brave” part does stand up to scrutiny because that Virginia teen has had to bear up under enormous outrage from the community since it was learned that his principal had been letting him use the boy’s restroom. Read about it on the NPR website.

12/22/14

Last Wednesday was Chelsea Manning’s birthday. We don’t imagine her prison routine was much different than it is on any other day but one nice thing for her was the number of birthday messages sent her way. The messages, many from celebs and fellow whistle blowers, have been assembled and you can  find out who wished her a happy 27th and read their greetings in The Guardian.

The case of the Marine who killed a Filipino woman after he discovered she was transgendered will go to trial. Government prosecutors there have charged Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton with murder for strangling Jennifer Laude in October of this year. He continues to be held by the U.S. military which is causing anger among the local population. Read more in the Marine Corps Times.

If you’re a trans person and you have a job, or are looking for one, Attorney General Eric Holder has good news for you. Last Thursday he issued a memo that says the Obama administration’s position is that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against people on the basis of gender identity “including transgender status.” Find out more about the memo in The Washington Post.

Tags: featured, History, news, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender History