The Week In Trans 10/11/21

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Jenn Burleton

Jenn Burleton, who runs the Transactive Gender Project in Oregon, is the Hometown Hero of the Year according to LGBTQ Nation.

A group of U.S. senators signed a letter to the Secretary of Health, urging the creation of national guidelines regarding the mental health of transgender and gender-expansive youth. It is a subject that has not been addressed by the government before, and the letter was sent to the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Rachel Levine. NBC News has this story.

Kier Lapi Kartier, a Black transgender woman, was found murdered in Arlington, Texas. Police are looking for the person who shot her while she was in her car. This story comes from Metro Weekly. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

A gender fluid person in Shrewsbury, England, was attacked viciously while returning home from a night out with friends. Will Falshaw was wearing a dress and high heels when attacked. The Shropshire Star has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to the story.

Kendall Martinez-Wright was the first transgender person of color to announce as a candidate for the Missouri House of Representatives. On September 24, she suspended her campaign for the legislature. She sat for an interview with St. Louis On The Air.

Marisa Richmond

The Bay Area Reporter informs us that Marisa Richmond, Ph.D. will not be reappointed to the DNC as an at-large member. No reason was given by the DNC for her removal but this leaves the DNC with no representation for Black trans women. Thanks to Ms. Bob Davis for the story tip.

Ruby Corado, the founder or Casa Ruby in Washington, D.C., has resigned, following the loss of a large federal grant. She blamed the loss of the grant on “the system.” The Advocate has this story.

A court has ruled against CSL Plasma of Minnesota, which had a policy that prevented transgender and non-binary people from donating plasma. This story comes from KMSP-TV.

The father of a transgender male in North Carolina says his son was told he couldn’t use the men’s room at a Lady A concert. Live Nation, the company which presented the concert, says they are looking into the incident, which gives the impression that this was a decision made by an individual, not something that the production company requested. North Carolina did have a bathroom law, but it has expired, and it is questionable if it would apply to this situation. Port City Daily has this story.

JD Supra has an article about the importance of lawyers using the preferred name and pronoun of their client.

Dr. Rachel Levine

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund in New York City will hold its annual Trans Advocacy Awards on October 27. Dr. Rachel Levine will be presented with the Legacy Award. This year the festivities will include a sit-down dinner. Learn more about the event on the TLDEF website.

A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute finds that the vast majority of Americans support laws which protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation, but are more reluctant to support adding gender identity as a protected class. Metro Weekly has this story.

Dylan Brandt, who bravely spoke to the press about his lawsuit challenging Arkansas’s new law banning medical care for gender dysphoria in minors, and those who helped him to file the suit are the recipients of the Hero Defending Children award from LGBTQ Nation.

Researchers at the Seattle Children’s Gender Clinic looked at statistics from their patients, and came to the conclusion that patients who received gender-affirming care for gender dysphoria were 73% less suicidal than those who did not receive gender-affirming care. Fatherly has this story.

Transgender youth under the age of 16 were the subject of a study by Western University in London, Ontario. Their conclusion was that those presenting at gender clinics were generally healthy, but with anxiety and depression, and in need of support. The study can be found here.

Jamie Clayton

Hellraiser is getting a remake, and transgender actress Jamie Clayton will play Pinhead. The Hollywood Reporter says that the film will appear on Hulu next year.

The Cleveland Clinic reminds doctors that transgender patients should get cancer screenings of the parts they were born with.

Transgender and gender-expansive individuals are more likely to smoke cigarettes than are cisgender people. A team from the Annenberg School of Communication tried a new approach to encourage transgender and gender-expansive people to quit smoking, and they seem to have achieved positive results, according to News Medical.

During the pandemic, many transgender people found that they could not continue fighting the urge to transition. Helen Santoro wrote of her wife’s transition, and her fight with the insurance company, in The Denver Post.

Despite much testimony about the dangers of a bill restricting transgender athletes (as reported by KXAN-TV), and the lack of necessity of such a bill in Texas, the bill advanced out of committee. The Austin American-Statesman has this story.

US Quidditch has announced that they have removed West Virginia from consideration as they choose a site for their next tournament. The reason West Virginia will not host the tournament is their new law on transgender athletes. Presumably this same decision will apply to other states that ban transgender females from competing in girls or womens sports. This story comes from The West Virginia Gazette Mail.

Roz Kaveney

Roz Kaveney is a transgender writer who has won several awards. She talked about her life in an interview with PinkNews.

Joyce Carol Oates explained in a tweet why she thought that the singular “they” would never catch on. People pointed out that it went back as far as Shakespeare, and supplied some other facts. The writer and professor said that she will use the singular “they” if someone asks her to. She also stated her support of transgender people. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Yungblud, who has expressed support for transgender people in the past, invited a trans man who just had top surgery to come on stage and sing with him. This story comes from PinkNews.

PinkNews has a list of works of art that celebrate transgender people.

Jaclyn Moore, the showrunner for Dear White People, quite the show because the network it airs on, Netflix, allowed Dave Chappelle to make insulting remarks about transgender people during his new special. (We will have more to say about Mr. Chappelle later.) This story comes from Out.com.

Veronica Green

Veronica Green, a fan favorite, was eliminated on only the third episode of the new season of Drag Race U.K. PinkNews has an interview with the former contestant.

Five winners from RuPaul’s Drag Race came together on VH1 to discuss LGBTQ History Month–or LGBTQ Herstory Month, as the case may be. Out.com has this story.

Pattie Gonia is a drag queen who is bringing environmental awareness to TikTok. She sat for an interview with Vogue.

RuPaul released a new song entitled, Blame It On The Edit. She seems to be getting a bit touchy, according to Out.com.

A Canadian court has ruled that deliberate misgendering in the workplace is a human rights violation. This story comes from them. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The Guardian newspaper was picketed on Thursday, in response to a couple of recent transphobic incidents. One was the removal of a comment by Judith Butler, in which she linked TERFs with fascism. The other was a story in which the killing of a transgender woman by a police officer, in which the writer included a comment about the controversy regarding transgender women using “single-sex” spaces such as restrooms. This story comes from PinNews. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

In Liverpool, a transgender woman agreed to become the tenth male Jew to make up a minyan, the minimum number of males needed to hold a service at a synagogue. This happened on the first day of Succot. This story appeared in Jewish News.

Carrie Johnson, the wife of the Prime Minister, urged the Conservative party to support transgender rights. The Guardian has this story.

At the request of the Prime Minister, Poland’s highest court ruled that Polish law supersedes the law of the E.U. This decision could lead to Poland leaving the E.U., which would allow it to impose laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people. This analysis comes from PinkNews.

Rev. Remington Johnson

The Reverend Remington Johnson is a transgender Presbyterian minister who has been active in the fight against the bills in Texas which would reduce the rights of transgender people. She is profiled by NBC News.

A trans man in Japan named Gen Suzuki has filed a request that he be legally considered a male, despite the fact that he has not undergone sterilization. PinkNews has this story.

In South Korea, a court ruled that the Army should reinstate Staff Sergeant Byun Hee-Soo, who was discharged for undergoing gender confirmation surgery without permission. The decision is late, as she was found dead in March. This story comes from The Korea Herald.

More than 50 nations signed a statement by the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling on nations to adopt “concrete measures to combat harmful practices, violence and discrimination based on sex characteristics.” Included among the sex characteristics is intersex conditions. This story comes from them.

Tori Cooper

Tori Cooper is a transgender activist who is on the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS as well as the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative. She talked about those groups and more in an interview with Georgia Voice.

LGBTQ Nation has a brief explanation of what Queer Theory is and why it matters.

A mother writes anonymously for Insider about her experiences with her child expressing gender variant thoughts as a preschooler.

TWITs

The Washington Examiner wrote a piece in which comments by Dr. Marci Bowers and clinical psychologist Erica Anderson were chosen to make it seem that these two disapprove of medical treatment of gender dysphoria in minors. While the comments may be accurate, they were chosen to give a distorted view of a controversial subject. This is not too uncommon for The Washington Examiner, which is a far-right publication. However, the article was given a platform on Yahoo News. For spreading an article which is biased, Yahoo News gets a TWIT Award.

Professor Kathleen Stock is well-known for her gender-critical views. Supporters of transgender rights have been known to protest at Sussex University, where she is on the faculty. The Telegraph describes these protests as “bullying” in both a headline and lead paragraph of an article which is hidden behind a paywall. For the use of loaded language, and for taking a position that protects discrimination, The Telegraph gets a TWIT Award.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the Spring Branch Independent School District banned a graphic novel called The Breakaways from its elementary school libraries. The complaint was that one of the characters comes out as transgender while in eighth grade. For showing the phobia in transphobia and for not doing unto others as you would wish was done unto you (imagine a movement to ban a book in which a grade-school student comes out as Christian), the Spring Branch ISD gets a TWIT Award.

Liz Truss, the U.K. Minister for Women and Equalities, said, “You see the absurdity of identity politics last week at the Labour Conference, which ended up saying, ‘women don’t have cervixes,’ or whatever.” What they actually said was that some people with cervixes do not identify as women, which is entirely different from what the minister said. For twisting what was said into something else, in order to make fun of it, and for showing disrespect for trans people and for anyone who disagrees with her, Liz Truss gets a TWIT. This story comes from them.

UK Health Minister Sajid Javid claimed using gender-inclusive language about cervical cancer “could literally kill people,” as he envisions men asking to be tested for cervical cancer. While this may happen in a few isolated instances, it is ridiculous to paint it as so common it would overwhelm the system. On the other hand, not using inclusive language may cause transgender men to think that they do not need this screening, when in fact they still have cervixes. For ignoring a serious problem while promoting a non-existent problem, and for falsely invoking “biology” as a justification, Health Minister Sajid Javid gets a TWIT Award. PinkNews has this story.

TJ Montemer is the publisher of a less-well-known LGBTQ newspaper called The Pride L.A. He recently criticized a teacher for asking students to state their pronouns. He claimed that teachers should not let “kids in middle school decide anything without parents,” which apparently means that middle-school students can’t attend a sporting event without their parents’ permission. He also said, “In the real world, no one gives a hoot about your gender identity,” a statement which is certainly in conflict with what has happened in several state legislatures this year. For being out of touch with reality, TJ Montemer gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from The Los Angeles Blade has this story.

As we mentioned above, Dave Chappelle made a string of anti-transgender comments that he thinks are jokes in his new Netflix special. He declared his support for J.K. Rowling on transgender issues, and said, “I’m Team TERF.” He claimed, “Gender is a fact,” which shows his inability to separate gender from sex. He also appealed to biology, despite the fact that biologists see a distinction between sex and gender. Mr. Chappelle has a history of supporting men accused of sexual harassment, showing him to not be in league with feminists, despite his appeal to being a TERF. For disrespecting human rights, and for bad logic, Dave Chappelle gets a TWIT. The Daily Mail has this 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.

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Category: Transgender Community News