2012: The Year In Transgenderism — TWIT Highlights

Much was covered in our 2012 The Week In Transgenderism columns relating to transgendered issues and transgendered people. As the new year begins we take a look back at some of the highlights of the column. Our journey begins in . . .

January 2012

A TG woman riding the New York subway put the beat down on a man who shouted out that she was a man. The video of the incident was pulled from YouTube for violating their policy on “shocking and disgusting” content. That must have been pretty disgusting.

Andrej Pejic

Andrej Pejic took a vacation from the runways of Paris, Milan and New York to commune with nature in the Amazon jungle.

Vandy Beth Glen won the court case she filed when she was fired for announcing that she was going to transition. The settlement let her go back to work at the Georgia General Assembly.

Lance Bass use the word “tranny” on Access Hollywood and LGBT organizations jumped all over him. Lance is an old gay man (with a stereotypical gay name) and yet he had no clue that the word was offensive. He apologized and urged others not to use the nasty word.

ABC TV debuted the “comedy” Work It. The bad, bad show featuring two guys who dress up as women to make it in what they consider a woman’s world — as pharmaceutical reps — bombed. Deservedly so. Bad writing. Bad premise and the drag was semi-bad as well.

A tampon company in New Zealand ran a television spot promoting their product with the premise that a cisgendered girl and a trans girl were equal in all ways — except the trans girl had no use for a tampon. That let the cisgenderd girl win their “who’s the most femme” competition. The company got mucho negative viewer reaction from TGs and the ad was pulled.

Some people, those of little brain, were confusing presidential candidate Ron Paul with famous drag superstar RuPaul. To put and end to the confusion RuPaul went to New Hampshire to let people know she was not running for the presidency.

Nikki Araguz

The transgender widow, Nikki Araquz, was supposed to appear in court over her arrest for stealing another woman’s watch but she failed to show up on time and did show up forty minutes late. Sorry didn’t cut it for the judge and she was jailed for two weeks for contempt of court.

There was ongoing controversey over a young TG who wanted to join the Girl Scouts. People boycotted Girl Scout cookies, Scout troops decertified when the Scouts let Bobby Montoya join. It was a mess. But it ended happily with Bobby in the Colorado troop.

The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club in San Francisco elected a drag queen as their new president. Anna Conda was the people’s choice.

The Thai airline PC Air made a bold move that got them much publicity. They decided to hire only ladyboys as flight attendants. As we said the publicity was worldwide but by the end of the year the airline was grounded and the attendants were out of work.

Rick Santorum was glitter bombed by a transgender activist during a campaign appearance.

Allegations were made that Bruce Jenner, house husband of the Kardashian matriarch, had a closet full of ladies attire and went in there to dress up like a woman. We can’t think of any other reason for him to have that awful face lift. So Jenner being a CD sounds plausible to us.

Sable Scities won the Miss’d America contest in Atlantic City.

February 2012

An 11-year old TG girl in Germany was threatened with being institutionalized by her father who convinced authorities there that his “son” was crazy for wanting to be raised as a girl.

The candidate

Mexico saw it’s first ever TS candidate for office when Diana Sanchez Barrios ran for office in Mexico City. The attackers of the TG at the McDonald’s in Maryland were sentenced for the attack. The older girl got five years in prison and the younger girl was remanded to juvenile detention.

One of the Backstreet Boys posed for a photograph in extreme heels and a black tulle dress.

New York City police arrested a TG woman for using her father’s transit pass then kept her chained to a pipe in the police station with her arm raised over her head for 28 hours. She sued.

There was rising fear over the steadily increasing murder rate of transgendered people in our nation’s capital.

Over a million viewers tuned in for the premier of the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Gloria Estefan told the Village Voice that she greatly appreciated drag queens.

The Suffolk School Board in Virginia reacted to safety concerns of transgendered students by proposing a ban on crossdressing.

Racquel Welch, now a purveyor of fine wigs, talked to the media about her acting work in the film Myra Breckenridge. When asked what it was like working with Mae West Miss Welch said as the filming went on she began to get the feeling that West was an old drag queen.

Cyndi Lauper announced that she and Harvey Fierstein were collaborating on a stage production based on the 2005 film Kinky Boots.

People in Britain appear to be easily fooled, if you read two TWIT Award stories from February. In the first story an overweight TS convinced a bank that she was a famous model and accessed the model’s checking account. She looked nothing like the model. The second story from England told of a 71-year old TG who posed as her former business partner and his daughter (who would be much younger than 71) to scam thousands of pounds from their bank accounts.

March 2012

Susan Stanton

The fired city manager Susan Stanton, who lost her job when she transitioned, got a new job working as an accountant for Fort Lauderdale.

A TG student was elected head of The University of the Phillippines student government. The big surprise was that the runner-up was also TG.

Black Madam, the silicone pumper who killed a British woman by filling her butt with industrial grade silicone and sealing the hole with Super Glue was arrested by Philadelphia police.

President Obama’s former TG “nanny” was found living as a woman in squalor in Indonesia. Later it was revealed that she did not dress as a woman when she was working for the President’s mother but did go out at night as a woman.

Sean Bean, known for macho roles in Lord of The Rings and Game of Thrones took on the role of a crossdresser for a British TV series called Accused.

Transvestite rapper Mykki Blanco appeared on the rap music scene. Her raps are more annoying than Nicki Menaj’s.

Dame Edna Everidge announced that she was hanging up her sequined frocks, kicking off her high heels and bringing her decades long drag career to an end — after one more more tour of Australia and the U.S.

Willam Beli

Drag performer Willam Belli who appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race, produced a video in which drag queens sing a parody of the Wilson Phillips song Hold On that featured lyrics praising Chick-Fil-A.

April 2012

Charles Barkley did an ad for Weight Watchers wearing a dress, high heels and a wig. The point of the ad was that if he could look that good (and he didn’t look that bad) then think how good you would look if you went on Weight Watchers and dropped those extra pounds.

A teacher in New Mexico was put on leave after his student’s parents saw a YouTube video of the teacher doing a drag show performance. A petion to get the teacher reinstated was started.

Prop 5 was on the ballot in Anchorage, Alaska. it would extend existing protections under to law to transgendered people by adding gender identity to the law. Opponents of the bill brought out all the usual boogie men to stop it. They succeeded in defeating the bill with the image of men in the ladies room and transgendered people getting jobs at day care centers.

Jenna Talackova was told she would be allowed to compete in the Canadian Miss Universe pageant after all. This caused the unprecedented occurrence of Donald Trump, owner of the pageant, to be praised by TGF.

A man who married a transgendered woman was surprised to learn that as far as his health plan was concerned he was gay married and they wouldn’t cover his wife. In fact they sued him for fraud.

Jill and Jack

The Adam Sandler movie Jack & Jill won in all ten categories of the Razzie Awards for 2011. The film which had Sandler playing a male character and his sister deserved every Razzie it got.

Baseball player Alex Rodriquez was approached about playing a drag queen in a film about the artist Salvador Dali.

Ozzie’s daughter Kelly Osbourne and Andrej Pejic won an award from Logo in that channel’s NewNowNext Awards. They got to share the Beyond Style Award. Maybe Kelly will be able to get Andrej to appear on Fashion Police.

The Justice Department honored a TG domestic violence counselor who works for New York City’s Anti-violence Project. Vicki Cruz won the National Crime Victim’s Service Award.

May 2012

John Irving, the author who wrote The World According to Garp, wrote another book titled In One Person. Again, it has transgendered characters. A common theme with Mr. Irving.

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to pass a Gender Identity law that gave TGs GRS and hormones treatments as part of their health plans.

Laura Jane Grace

The lead singer of the punk band Against Me! announced that he was becoming a she and would hence be known as Laura Jane Grace.

A transgendered teen girl made it to the semi-finals of the Miss England beauty pageant. She didn’t win but went on to a modeling career.

New Zealand starting paying for it’s citizens gender reassignment surgery. However there’s only one place to get the surgery in that country and the average wait time is seven years.

Lea T made her first runway appearance after having reassignment surgery.

Chloe Sevigny starred as a MtF contract killer in a British television show. In May it was announced that the show would be carried in the U.S. by DirecTV.

Sharon Needles won RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Lady Gaga took some time off from her tour to attend Bangkok’s top transvestite review, Calypso Cabaret.

Swinton

A glammed up Tilda Swinton appeared on the cover of Candy magazine.

A transwoman who defended herself with a pair of scissors and ended up killing her attacker was sent to prison to second degree murder.

What would be the last Be-All conference ever was held in the last week of May.

June 2012

Justin Vivian Bond starred in a show about the Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis.

Miss Pennsylvania USA resigned her crown saying that she couldn’t stand that the pageant was now going to allow transgendered women to compete. She went on the say the whole thing was rigged. Donald Trump, the pageant owner, sued her for five million dollars and won.

Janet Jackson announced that she was producing a documentary on transgender issues. It was to be titled Truth. We haven’t heard anything about the project since. And that’s the truth.

Grayson Perry

Potter, artist and noted transvestite about town Grayson Perry hosted a television show in Britain. He traveled around the country in fabulous drag and reported on what people wore and surrounded themselves with. Then he would make a tapestry depicting them.What fun.

A professor at the University of Georgia thought it might be fun to moonlight at a TG hooker. It wasn’t. Her first john was a cop and she was arrested.

British transsexual April Ashley was awarded the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Cake Boss, a reality show about cake, used a transgendered woman as a joke. They told Carmen Carrera they wanted to do something to promote transgender awareness and equality. Instead they introduced her to one of the show’s regulars and filmed his disgusted, homo/transphobic reaction when he learned she was a TS.

Sharon Needles not only won RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2012, she was honored by the Pittsburgh City Council when they declared an official Sharon Needles Day.

July 2012

Chaz Bono appeared on an episode of the Canadian TV show, DeGrassi. He played a talent show judge who offered advice and support to the show’s TG teen.

The first transgendered people in Argentina to get their new government ID cards with their proper gender marker got them from the president of that country.

Harisu

TS singer Harisu returned to the music scene with a new single called Shopping Girl. It was no Gangnam Style.

A young British TS was told to go home and put on a boy’s uniform or she wouldn’t be allowed to “sit for” an important exam at her school. The girl showed the headmaster the UK law that prevents such discrimination and was then allowed to take the test — 40 feet away from all the other students.

A TG from Ohio spent ove $70,000 on cosmetic surgery to make her look like Britney Spears. Huh?

Willam Belli announced that he would be having a flash mob at Chick-Fil-A in August after the owner of the chicken chain came out with homophobic statements.

The silicone pumping Black Madam was charged with an additional count of murder in the death of another dancer who wanted a bigger butt.

We learned that in June that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee finally held a hearing on ENDA and they actually heard testimony from a transgendered man.

The Pet Shop Boys released a new album containing the tune Winner, a song about a transgendered woman on a women’s roller derby team.

Lithuania teased transsexuals with a new law that made it easier for them to get proper ID but took away their state subsidized reassignment surgery.

August 2012

Lana

Filmmaker Lana Wachowski, formerly Larry, officially came out as trans and introduced Lana to the world in a video promoting her next film project.

Illinois decided to let TGs change the gender marker on their driver’s license without having to have surgery first.

Oxford University students were allowed to wear the school uniform they found appropriate to their gender identification.

RuPaul announced that the next season contestants on Drag Race would be all stars from past seasons.

We learned that the Chinese have a word for men who dress up as women. Weiniang is what they’re called and they were becoming more prevalent in Chinese society in August 2012.

The New York Times Magazine featured a crossdressing boy on its cover. The story was about how New Yorkers, at least, were letting their male children explore different gender expression.

We learned that Obamacare, The Affordable Care Act, was good for TGs. Under the Act health care providers can’t discriminate against TGs who “fail to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.”

A TS woman ran for Commissioner of Orange County in central Florida.

Ron Perlman took on a transsexual role in the film Frankie Go Boom. It was not pretty.

A transman won the big prize on Big Brother U.K.

It was revealed that transgendered pilots had been forced to take additional psychological testing that non-TG pilots could skip. The FAA fixed that when it issued new guidelines. The new guidelines came in response to a lawsuit filed by a TG pilot.

TG author and activist Kate Bornstein hit the promo trail to push her new book, A Queer and Pleasant Danger.

It was reported that Mattel commissioned two gay fashion designers to create a drag queen Barbie. Not quite the whole story but it made headlines for a few days.

A drag queen cruise was announced that would feature 40 queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race. The ship would set sail in December. Later in the year it was learned that the cruise line wouldn’t let people walk around the ship in drag since there were straight passengers who might get scared.

Lady Bunny had a birthday party and admitted to 50 years. That’s possible.

Stav

Another androgynous male model made waves in high heels, red panties and a raincoat. Stav Strashko appeared in a foreign Toyota television spot.

September 2012

Transgendered bassist Jennifer Leitham was the subject of a documentary film title I Stand Corrected.

The Democratic National Committee elected its first transgender member, Babs Casbar Siperstien.

“Tan Mom” was being roasted (irony there?) by drag queens in New York City and she became highly intoxicated, attacked the drag queens and had to be thrown out of her own party.

RuPaul truly became the mistress of all media when she starred as a cartoon character in a graphic novel about her life.

Michelle Kosilek, the TS convicted of murder in Massachusetts, won her lawsuit against the state and the judge ruled that she should receive her GRS at state expense. A rather large controversy was generated.

There were thirteen transgender delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

Anders

Charlie Jane Anders, a transgendered science fiction author, won the Hugo Award, one of SF’s highest honors, for her novelette Six Months, Three Days.

TG author and activist Leslie Feinberg was arrested and charged with a gross misdemeanor while attending a rally in Minneapolis in support of CeCe McDonald, the TG who was sentenced to prison for killing a man who was attacking her.

The TG who claimed that hair restoration medication made her trans appeared on Anderson Live. Baldness cure made her trans? Really?

Brazil became noted as a breeding ground for transgendered fashion models.

A judge in Oklahoma refused to grant a transsexual a name change based on his religious beliefs.

Washington D.C. took steps to combat transgender discrimination by mounting a billboard ad campaign featuring TGs.

A contestant on The X Factor sang a Lady Gaga song, Born This Way, while wearing a mini bridal gown.

There’s an app for that! A company introduced an app to help transgendered people find TG friendly toilet facilities. It’s called TranSquat.

We learned about a TG from Missouri who has been dressing up in that small town down south for most of his adult life and getting acceptance from the townsfolk. You go Miss Burt Peacock. Show off those pretty feathers.

Lea T

October 2012 TS model Lea T walked the runway in Milan for Swiss Designer Phillip Plein.

A parody of the musical Annie drew heat when it was presented in Australia with a drag entertainer playing the lead role. Why? The show was called trAnnie.

An art exhibit in Serbia had Christians up in arms over the depiction of Jesus in high heels surrounded by drag queen apostles.

A star of the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race has passed away from from heart failure. Sahara Davenport was just 27.

The tenth aniversary of the murder of TG teen Gwen Araujo was in October.

We reported that the remake of The Munsters starring Eddie Izzard as Grandpa Munster was not going to be produced after all. We were wrong about part of it. Mockingbird Lane did become a pilot which did air but the series was not picked up.

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars show premiered on October 22.

Goggins in character. (L)

Walton Goggins, an actor who made a name for himself playing bad men appeared in an episode of the FX network show Sons of Anarchy as a transgendered hooker.

Black Madam went on trial for killing people by injecting them with industrial grade silicone.

Chaz Bono hosted a fundraiser event for a Republican lawmaker. Turns out the lawmaker was a friend of Bono’s father who was a Republican lawmaker after he was a pop singer.

We learned that the ladyboy flight attendants were looking for work after their airline ceased operations.

A drag queen in Portland, Maine ran for City Council.

The musical Kinky Boots opened to good reviews in Chicago.

Sharon Needles appeared in a ad campaign for PETA playing a flesh eating zombie.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Fund mergerd with OutServe and elected a transgender woman to lead the new organziation. Allyson Robinson is a West Point graduate and former missle unit commander.

Lana Wachowski was given the Human Rights Campaign’s Visibility Award.

Roseanne Barr tweeted herself into a TWIT Award with a 145 character tirade against TGs in lady’s rooms.

November 21012

Vice President Joe Biden stated that transgender discrimination is “the civil rights issue of our time.” Yay Joe.

We learned that the University of Victoria has an extensive transgender archive that is preserving our printed history.

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox starred as a disabled TG woman in the film by Susan Seidleman titled Musical Chairs.

A Flipino TG with a boy’s name won the Miss International Queen contest on November 2. Kevin Balot hoped that her win would help her father accept her as a daughter.

The Federal Government issued a transgender diversity guide giving general advice to government agencies on what transgender is and how to deal with it in the Federal workplace.

A pre-op TG in Washington state made waves when she was allowed to use the women’s locker room and her junk was glimpsed by a 17 year old female swim club member.

Sharon Needles was featured on the cover of Out Magazine.

TG residents of San Francisco must be provided with GRS as a part of their city provided healthcare.

A transgender woman in Cuba became that country’s first elected official.

Rock singer/actor Jared Leto played an HIV infected ‘80s prostitue in an upcoming film titled The Dallas Buyers Club.

Grand dad?

A 72-year old grandfather in China became a modeling sensation by appearing in ad campaign’s for his granddaughter’s company modeling fashions for teenage girls.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced that over the past ten years over 50% of the depictions of TGs in television programming has been negative.

We learned that while Michelle Kosilek was going to get reassingment surgery on the house she will not get hair removal treatments paid for by the state.

The Oklahoma judge who refused to let a transsexual change her name was overruled by the appeals court.

The United Nations passed a resolution condeming extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killing and added sexual orientation and gender identity to the language.

December 2012

The transgendered mayor of Silverton, Oregon will be the subject of a play to be produced in Los Angeles in 2013.

The first TG woman elected to the New Hampshire legislature resigned before she got started after news that she was a convicted felon surfaced. She later said she might not step down but then did. Just last week we learned she is going to run for the seat she resigned from in the special election that is being held to replace her.

The BBC announced a contest asking writers to come up with a comedy scrpt that presents TGs in a positive light. The price is around $8000 but you’ll need the money to produce your pilot episode. The real prize would be having your show picked up.

It was announced that the DSM-V will move TGs out of the disorder category and change us from Gender Identity Disorder to Gender Dysphoria.

Claudia Charriez

Claudia Charriez a TG who appeared on America’s Top Model went to court to testify against her ex-boyfriend who became her ex by assualting her on the street. He was convicted of several counts but exonerated on the charge that he strangled her.

A 50-year old TG woman joined the women’s basketball team at her college. Controversy ensued. Radio hosts dissed her and were suspended.

A girl in New Jersey started a campaign to get the toy maker Hasbro to make a gender nuetral version of its Easy Bake Oven and feature boys on the box and advertising. She was successful but we have to ask what’s so wrong about a boy having a regular Easy Bake? Everyone loves cake.

Conservative lawmakers in Canada used the filibuster to stop a bill that would given transgendered Canadians more rights.

Fleming

A transgender model, Connie Fleming, appeared on the cover of Candy magazine impersonating First Lady Michelle Obama.

A diminutive British crossdresser who would dress up as an old woman and approach young women at bus stops to touch and cuddle them appeared in TWIT several times in 2012. In December he was caught at his old tricks again and they’re not going to put up with him much longer. He’s violated the order against his activities 15 times.

Andrej Pejic was featured on the cover of Elle Serbia dressed in Gaultier and sporting a black wig.

The former Miss Pennsylvania who resigned her crown becuase she didn’t think the pageant should let TGs contestants enter, and said that it was fixed anyway, lost a lawsuit to Donald Trump and was ordered to pay him $5 million.

Talackova

Jenna Talackova, the TG contestant who got Trump to admit TGs to the contest, is pitching a reality show about her travels around the world.

The website same same asked if drag queens get laid.

We awarded Kuwati, Turkey and Dubai with multiple TWIT Awards for the way they treat their transgendered citizens and foreign workers.

And those are the TWIT Highlights of 2012. Don’t miss your TWIT in 2013!

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Category: Transgender Community News