Dina’s Diner 12/27/09

Apparently the Obama Administration solicited artistic contributions for the Christmas tree decorations in its first yuletide season in the White House. One of the contributions included decoupaged Christmas balls with images of Chairman Mao and semi-famous drag personage Hedda Lettuce. The professional Obama haters saw this as yet another signal of national descent into the abyss. (I don’t know why the Administration allows these lapses that allow the nuts to seize upon them — unless they are purposely trying to mess with their heads.) The real question for this readership is whether we want our drag heroines despoiled by being paired with Chairman Mao. I mean, really, where will it all end? With health care for all?

And doesn’t anyone remember that great conservative songwriter John Lennon who sang, “If you go painting your Christmas Balls with Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow”? There’s no sense of history anymore. And perhaps we need to update that great Lennon anthem with this verse: “If you go hanging your tree with Hedda Lettuce, doesn’t it mean that you’re gonna cross-dress-us?” You know it’s gonna be…all right. At least I hope so.

WALL STREET: GREED IS GOOD, CROSSDRESSING MIGHT BE TOO — OR MAYBE NOT

Andrew Tong

I guess everyone is a little fried on the stories of financial chicanery and excess on Wall Street and when that happens, the ante must be upped. Along came a news story on December 4, 2009 that just might get some of us interested in reading about the mess again. A fired Wall Street trader alleged in a lawsuit that his superior had personally supervised a “training program” that included crossdressing, female hormones and sexual acts.

Andrew Tong worked for the firm SAC (which is now under scrutiny for its founder’s alleged insider trading activities) back in 2005-6 and the lawsuit was filed in 2006 but it was recently unsealed and the allegations made public. His supervisor Ping Jiang and the management of SAC refuted the allegations. Here is a summary of Mr. Tong’s allegations found online at the www.finalternatives.com website: “Not only did Jiang make him cross-dress at work, Tong’s lawyer wrote, “on more than one occasion, Mr. Jiang summoned Mr. Tong into an empty conference room after business hours and forced him to disrobe and model various feminine outfits as well as put on make up.” Jiang allegedly told Tong that he looked “cute” and “sexy” during the “humiliation sessions.”

Not content to leave the humiliation in the conference room, Tong claimed that Jiang would openly refer to him as “miss,” “whore,” piece of shit” and “stupid girl” in front of co-workers. A picture of Tong in “feminine attire and makeup” was allegedly posted on the SAC Intranet in the fall of 2005. And Tong said that Jiang would also pinch his buttocks in front of other employees. Tong’s lawyers allege that senior executives at SAC, including President Brian Cohen, knew what Jiang was up to. What’s more, the late Ari Kiev, the psychologist hired by Steven Cohen to train his traders, “observed Mr. Tong wearing feminine attire during business hours but did not say anything to him or to Mr. Jiang.” Tong’s lawyer depicts the alleged sexual relationship between the two men as little short of rape. “Mr. Jiang forced Mr. Tong to perform oral sodomy,” the letter states. “In or about the beginning of March 2006” a month before Tong’s dismissal “Mr. Jiang committed assault and battery, as well as false imprisonment, upon Mr. Tong by restraining him with ropes and forcibly introducing certain foreign objects into Mr. Tong’s rectum.”Later that month, the letter alleges, “Mr. Jiang again restrained Mr. Tong with ropes and forcibly urinated in his mouth.” On at least one occasion, Jiang allegedly made oral sex a condition of authorizing a trade Tong wished to make. “You’ll have to give me a blow-job if you want to make that trade,” Tong’s lawyer quotes Jiang as saying.

Mr. Tong’s 9-page legal brief is available on the internet at http://www.scribd.com/doc/23665374/Andrew-Tong-s-Court-Filing. It mentions that he was scorned at work by co-workers because of his visibly effeminate style at work. Mr. Tong was a married man who was afraid that the hormone therapy could damage his ability to have children. Why would anyone put up with this type of abuse in a workplace setting? The legal brief mentions that success at SAC was assured to bring a million dollar paycheck within two years.

ANOTHER GENIUS BOSS

I saw the item about Vandy Beth Glenn’s workplace troubles in Ronnie Rho’s TWIT feature a couple of weeks ago. Vandy Beth was fired from her job with the Georgia state legislature after she transitioned at work where she was formerly known as Glenn Morrison. After discussing it with her immediate supervisor, Beth Yinger, they jointly decided that Halloween would be a good starting point. You know, that seems like a thoughtful approach by the supervisor (making it a little easier for Vandy) and a considerate compromise by Vandy (to make a serious life change on a whimsical holiday) to make it easier for her co workers to handle it.

Vandy Beth Glenn

But then Vandy’s boss’s boss got involved and simple human understanding, empathy and tolerance was sucked into the black hole of a genuine American asshole: Georgia Legislative Counsel Sewell Brumby. But listen how Brumby’s own words expose his sexual and political hangups: “It makes me think about things I don’t like to think about, particularly at work — I think it’s unsettling to think of someone dressed in women’s clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing.”Does he spend a lot of time brooding on the sexual organs inside his fellow male co-workers’ clothing — and feeling better about things? He also said, “I think some members of the legislature would view that (Vandy’s transition) taking place in our office as perhaps immoral, perhaps unnatural, and perhaps, if you will, liberal or ultra-liberal.” In a litany of objections, one generally puts the most important one at the end. “Immoral,” “unnatural,” perhaps, but “ultra-liberal” is the last straw. No self-respecting Legislative Counsel in Georgia could stand for any taint of “ultra-liberalism” in his office.

I’m sure that Brumby’s the kind of conservative who talks a lot about freedom and individual liberty. Yes, people are free to be whatever they want to be in America…as long as Brumby approves.

VOCATION: CAGE FIGHTER, AVOCATION: CROSSDRESSER

Alex Reid

Two stories out of Merrie Olde England combined crossdressing and cage fighting. Yeah, no kidding. In early October, two crossdressers were caught on street surveillance video in Wales beating on two drunks who tried to rough them up. The story, according to the British tabloid press, is that the crossdressers were, in fact, two (un-named) cage fighters out for an evening of “fancy dress.” Fancy dress is an English term used to denote costumery. The way the article is written it’s as though being out in “fancy dress” is not the same as being out in drag. No reason was given for why two cage fighters would be out for a night of fancy dress many weeks before Halloween. And the blurry surveillance video shows that the two “fancy dress” aficianados were dolled up like a pair of nightclub tarts. I guess that is the “fancy” part. Maybe they “fancy” dressing like women, but that is just my supposition.

Meanwhile, a real cage fighter in the UK, Alex Reid, was photographed in “fancy dress” at a celebrity Halloween party in London. And Alex also seems to like being the tart while in “fancy dress.” He wore a fishnet dress, over-the-knee boots, and seamed sheer stockings. Mr. Reid has also been photographed previously in drag with his then-girlfirend, party girl Katie “Jordan” Price.

Maybe next Halloween, we should go out in “fancy dress” as English cage fighters.

WHEN YOUR DOGS ARE BARKIN’ IT’S TIME FOR A SHOT

I saw this news item in a web search at www.4to40.com, which is one of those “weird news” compilation sites. The brief item from the UK is given below in its entirety .

“Women executives are having Botox injected into their feet to cope with wearing high heels through the Christmas party season. The Harley Medical Group, one of Britain’s largest cosmetic surgery chains, says more and more women in London are injecting Botox into the soles of their feet. It says many women are happy to pay £240 for the new technique, called foot-fillers’, instead of buying a £2 gel-filled pad to put in their shoes.
The company said that it was common in the run up to Christmas to see a rush of bookings for Botox, reports the Daily Telegraph. However, facial injections used to be the only area clients requested, until last year when one or two asked to have their painful feet sorted out. Dr Nick Milojevic, the main doctor to supply the injections, said: “This year we have received increased inquiries for foot fillers. “Facial fillers last for three months and Botox lasts up to six months, but on the foot area fillers will often only provide cushioning for around two to three months.”

Two things occurred to me when I read this blurb: that cosmetic surgeons are marketing geniuses and that foot fetishists can have a whole new focus to obsess over, the softness and depth of the ball of the female foot.

WHAT WAS THAT YOU SAID?

Here is another quick item that I saw was in a different website devoted to fractured news stories and headlines at www.probablybadnews.com/tag/freudian-slip. They had an except from a story about a woman who was deciding on career choices in California’s Senatorial offices. The excerpt ran as follows: “When she looked around the offices of the California Senate, the picture was bleak for women in government. Out of 40 women in the Senate, only two were female.”

One commenter said that this means that 38 of every 40 women must be transvestites.

AND IT BROUGHT OUT THE ROSINESS IN HIS CHEEKS, TOO

A short Reuters wire story caught my attention on December 7, 2009. The brief article in its entirety reads:

“The judge ordered the state to pay for a cosmetologist to apply makeup before trial each day to cover up the tattoos on John Ditullio’s face and neck, which include a swastika, barbed wire and an obscene word. Ditullio, 23, is charged with stabbing to death 17-year-old Kristofer King in 2006 in New Port Richey, north of St. Petersburg.

His lawyer argued in a pretrial motion that the tattoos, which Ditullio acquired after his arrest, could prejudice a jury. The judge agreed but ruled that any tattoos Ditullio had before his arrest should not be covered. Ditullio could face the death penalty if convicted.”

I hope all of your present and future cellmates got a chance to read about your foray into the fabulous world of cosmetics, John. And don’t drop the soap.

Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Opinion