Home » The Week In Trans 1/3/22

The Week In Trans 1/3/22

ceciliab | Jan 3, 2022

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April Ashley in the ’60s

April Ashley passed away on December 27 at the age of 86. She was a fashion model and club performer in the 1950s and ’60s. In 1960 she became the second person from England to have gender confirmation surgery. Her life is profiled in People magazine. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The Magnolia Independent School District, in the Houston area, has agreed to a settlement with the ACLU of Texas regarding a policy on the length of males hair. One of the points of disagreement had been the classification of a non-binary student as male. While the district continues to treat that non-binary student as a male, at least now the student is exempt from this particular rule. The Texas Tribune has this story.

Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois announced a new guidance for school boards to create policies which protect transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students. This story comes from Fox 32 Chicago.

2021 set a record for the number of bills in state legislatures aimed at limiting the rights of transgender people. Several states passed laws forbidding transgender students (or transgender females) from participating in school sports. Arkansas and Tennessee passed laws forbidding the medical treatment of gender dysphoria in minors. The PBS News Hour has this story.

As the bills were introduced, anti-transgender rhetoric rose in 2021. It was also the year of the most murders of transgender people in the U.S., although the increasing number of people who are known to be transgender may have been a factor in that. This caught the attention of Time magazine in their review of the year.

Ke’Yahonna Stone

Ke’Yahonna Stone died of a gunshot wound in Indianapolis, two days after she was shot while trying to break up a bar fight. Metro Weekly has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Lazarus Rise is a transgender activist in Colorado, who makes it a special mission to keep open unsolved missing person cases of transgender and queer people. has this story.

A federal judge has ordered the Transgender Executive Council of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to evaluate the case of a transgender prisoner who wishes to have gender confirmation surgery. If approved, this would be the first time that a federal prison was given GCS. This story comes from The Chicago Sun-Times.

Four of the five stories in North Carolina Policy Watch’s list of top stories of the year have transgender themes.

Among the top stories of the year according to LGBTQ Nation are the return of LGBTQ rights that were lost under President Trump (including many for transgender people), Gavin Grimm winning his case, and the introduction of gender-neutral passports.

Several transgender stories were among the most clicked at LGBTQ Nation.

Two of the five LGBTQ political candidates being tracked by LGBTQ Nation who are running next year are transgender candidates.

We just mentioned Gavin Grimm. Although he won his court case, he only received one dollar of the settlement. The rest of the money went to his lawyers. He is in a bad financial state, and a fundraiser is trying to help keep him from becoming homeless. PinkNews has this story.

Compared to being homeless, finding appropriate and properly fitting lingerie is not that big a deal. Still, it is a problem that a lot of transgender women have. To help solve that problem, Karen Bello created Zhe, a line of lingerie for transgender people. She and her company are profiled in Forbes.

Dr. Gavin Shumate, an obstetrician-gynecologist, is suing his former employer, the Women’s Health Clinic at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport, Oregon, for discrimination, not only of himself but of his transgender patients. The Newport News Times has this story.

Alana McLaughlin

Alana McLaughlin of MMA is Outsports Transgender Athlete Of The Year.

LGBTQ Nation has an article about transgender voice training.

PinkNews has a tribute to the late Maddie Blaustein, a voice actress who happened to be transgender.

A selfie posted by Elliot Page on Christmas Eve caused People magazine to pay attention to him again.

Out.com has a list of 15 celebrities who came out as transgender or non-binary this year.

There are several trans and non-binary women on Out.com‘s list of women who came out in 2021, as well as on the list of celebrities who came out as LGBTQ in 2021 that was compiled by PinkNews.

Demi Lovato, who came out as non-binary in 2021, ended the year by posting a picture of themself with a shaved head. PinkNews has this story.

Ely Percy

Ely Percy has finally got their second novel, Duck Feet, published. The book was written 16 years ago. It was named Book of the Year at Scotland’s National Book Awards. They are profiled by PinkNews in the Trans Joy series.

Abhishek Kapoor, the filmmaker whose latest film depicts a romance involving a transgender person, says that the problem is not with the transgender community but with society in India. This story comes from Outlook India.

Drag Race judge Michelle Visage is not afraid to tell people what she thinks about various things, as she shows in an interview with them.

A new guidance in the U.K. tells judges it is “common courtesy” to use preferred personal pronouns in writings about court cases. The Guardian has this story.

Switzerland is the latest nation to announce that it will allow citizens to self-identify their gender, with no medical requirements. They can also change their legal name at the same time. This story comes from PinkNews. Alyssa Washington supplied a link to the story.

A new poll finds that only 18% of Swiss people believe that there are “only men and women.” PinkNews has this story.

Russia now lists LGBTQ organizations as “foreign agents,” and uses this designation as a reason to block their websites. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Chimera Comstock

Chimera Comstock, who has gained fame as a storm chaser, has come out as transgender. She says that she “lost most everybody” who meant something to her when she came out. NBC News has this story.

A transgender forest ranger in the Adirondacks is featured in an audio story on North Country Public Radio.

A mother, whose transgender daughter took her own life, blames Republicans and health insurers for her daughter’s suicide. The obituary she wrote has attracted a lot of attention, according to LGBTQ Nation. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to the story.

Jennifer Chen of Los Angeles used her family’s Christmas card to announce to friends and family that her child Clark is non-binary. PinkNews has this story.

A woman who deliberately did not invite her transgender sister to her wedding asked the “Am I An A**hole forum on Reddit to rate her action. She attempted to defend herself by pointing out that their parents are known to oppose transgender people, and points out that the parents complain about her, the cisgender sister, using the correct pronouns and preferred name of her transgender sister. Even so, many on the subreddit thought that she is not supportive enough of her transgender sister. Newsweek has this story.

Internalized transphobia is a problem, and can keep some transgender people from getting the help they need. LGBTQ Nation has some steps for both recognizing and overcoming internalized transphobia.

If you are looking for some new year’s resolutions, LGBTQ Nation has “5 queer New Years resolutions to make your 2022 merry and bright”.

Amy Schneider

Amy Schneider continues her historic run on Jeopardy!. She is now the winningest female contestant, both in terms of money earned and in terms of games won. The woman who used to hold those records, Larissa Kelly, tweeted a gracious message of congratulations to Amy. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Transgender youths are not “confused.” They know who they are, as is seen in a story from PBS NewsHour.

TWITs

The start of the new year means that part-time state legislatures will begin their new sessions. These legislatures took up anti-transgender bills last year, and many will likely do so again this year. The Arizona Mirror reports that the Arizona legislature will see bills that would keep transgender athletes off school sports teams and forbid doctors from medically treating gender dysphoria in minors. For failing to recognize good science, and for feeling superior to others, all state legislators who sponsor or co-sponsor such anti-transgender bills get a TWIT Award.

The state of Oklahoma has a new bill which would allow parents to object to LGBTQ books in a school library, and to sue the school if it does not remove the books. For the foolish notion that forbidding information about a topic will make it go away, and for overwhelming the courts with lawsuits, the sponsors of this bill get a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

While the topic of transgender athletes competing against cisgender women deserves much more study and needs more data, many continue to think that they already know more than enough about the topic, and insist that transgender athletes have “unfair advantages.” Folks such as Swimming World, The Washington Examiner, and The Heritage Foundation continue to use Lia Thomas as definitive proof that a transgender athlete has a unique biological advantage over a cisgender athlete, while ignoring the many times that transgender athletes have lost to cisgender athletes. For the logical failure that is confirmation bias, and for condemning a whole class because of the achievements of one person, all who insist of overusing this example get a TWIT Award. As PinkNews points out, “Protesting trans athletes isn’t about fairness or safety. It’s about transphobia.”

Abigail Shrier, the author of the logic-challenged book Irreversible Damage The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, has accused two California teachers of “recruiting” students for the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and wants them fired. Now, the point of a gay-straight alliance is that it is not just a club for gay students, but also for allies. So no, by suggesting that certain students join the club, these teachers are not asking the students to come out as gay, much less turning them gay. For a massive failure of logic, and for engaging in the sort of activism that she claims to oppose, Abigail Schrier gets a TWIT. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

A group of transgender people, the Knights and Orchids Society, was harassed by a visibly drunk person as they met at a hotel in Montgomery, Alabama. The group complained to the hotel about the disturbance, and found themselves kicked out. For blaming the victim while letting the abuser get away, the management of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott gets a TWIT Award. Metro Weekly has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to the story.

TWIT is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner. Care to make a comment on this post? Login here and use the comment area below.