The Week In Trans 10/12/20

| Oct 12, 2020
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Monica Roberts

We start off with sad news. Monica Roberts, transgender rights activist and keeper of the TransGriot blog, has died. While it was thought she was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in her native Houston it has been revealed that she dies of natural causes. She is missed already. KTRK-TV has a sampling of the praise she received.

On a much happier note, the LGBTQ Victory Fund reports a record number of LGBTQ candidates running for office this year, including transgender candidates such as Sarah McBride and Rosemary Ketchum. This story can be found in Out.com.

Unfortunately, while LGBTQ candidates are running, transgender voters are finding it harder to vote. The William Institute has a PDF on transgender voting, which is referred to in stories from many sources, such as WTKR-TV.

Felycya Harris, a Black transgender woman, was found dead in a park in Augusta, Georgia. She had been shot. Stories, such as on CNN, note that 2020 is now the deadliest year for transgender people, with almost three months of the year left. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this and many other stories.

KSLA-TV reports that Brooklyn DeShauna Smith, a 20-year-old Black transgender woman, was found shot to death in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Daniela Hernanadez

A transgender woman whom friends identify as Daniela Hernandez was stabbed repeatedly in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. She is recovering in a hospital, according to The Los Angeles Times. KCBS-TV reports that there was a demonstration of support for her.

A stabbing in Puerto Rico left 33-year-old transgender woman Nicole Lopez in a hospital, according to The Week. Her skull was fractured, and she needed reconstructive surgery.

Violent attacks on transgender people, especially transgender women of color, are the subject of the first video from the Human Rights Campaign, noting the ways in which Donald Trump has been neglecting LGBTQ people. The Advocate has this story.

Shaun Simmons is a transgender man, and he has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, claiming he was harassed and denied a promotion after he informed his boss that he is pregnant. At least seven women have said that they were denied promotions after they became pregnant, according to the story in NBC News.

In the two months since federal Magistrate Judge Candy Dale struck down Idaho’s new law that forbids updating the gender listed on a birth certificate, the state has not filed an appeal of the decision. The deadline to file an appeal has not passed, but it still seems significant that the state did not file an immediate appeal. The Idaho Falls Post Register has this story.

The Birmingham Times has an article about what it is like to be a Black transgender woman in Birmingham, Alabama.

Marty Brown

Marty Brown was a plumber who also spent time mentoring other transgender people. He died of COVID-19 back on March 31, a battle complicated by some other health issues. The Las Vegas Review Journal had a profile of him as one of the people lost to COVID-19.

A Swedish study has found that transgender job applicants were indeed distinctly less likely to get called back, but the transgender applicants did receive about 3/4 of the number of callbacks that cisgender applicants got. The results are summarized in The London School of Economics and Political Science blog.

75% of transgender youth reported increased loneliness since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There also has been an increase in anxiety in that time, according to a study released by the Trevor Project. Pink News has this story

A doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital has proposed transplanting the penis from a deceased individual onto a transgender man. The hospital has not yet given its approval to this idea, and the doctor does not currently have a specific patient in mind, but the fact that this concept has reached this point of discussion is significant in itself. This story comes from Medpage Today.

Rebecca Quinn said that there was no particular thing which caused them to come forth with their gender identity, but rather, it was a feeling of confidence in their self. Outsports has this story.

Shakina Nayfack

Shakina Nayfack is the first trans woman actor to appear as a regular in a network show due to her work in the new sitcom Connecting. . . The show, about friends staying in touch via streaming services, had its debut last week. She is profiled in Out.com.

First Day, the limited series about a transgender student’s return to school in her preferred gender, is now available in the U.S. on Hulu. The Advocate has a review.

Angelica Ross is on the cover of Self magazine. In the accompanying interview, she discusses new projects, both as an actress and as an activist. She also has stories to tell about working on the set.

Janet Mock is working with Ryan Murphy on a new miniseries about Jeffrey Dahmer, showing incidents in which he was almost caught. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Zoey Luna

The Craft: Legacy has a transgender witch in the cast, played by transgender actress Zoey Luna. This story comes from Pink News.

Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, and other authors, as well as publishers and editors, signed a letter opposing the anti-transgender views of J.K. Rowling. This comes a week after 58 other authors and literary people signed a letter supporting Ms. Rowling. The number of signatures on the new letter is significantly more than those on the old letter. Pink News has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

While many are concerned about how J.K. Rowling’s expressed views on transgender people will affect ongoing Harry Potter projects, the newest Harry Potter video game, Hogwarts Legacy, is still on track for release next year. This story can be found in LGBTQ Nation.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction announced that transgender women are eligible for their award. A non-binary author was nominated this year; that is acceptable because the nominee is “legally female.” Pink News has this story.

Jaremi when she was known as Phi Phi O’Hara.

RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Jaremi Carey and her friend Jackie Huba are spearheading a venture called Drag Out The Vote. They also did an interview with The Acvocate.

Jon McClure, lead singer of Reverend and the Makers, said that the group’s song Mermaid is about a transgender child. The song was released a decade ago, but the meaning has just been confirmed, according to Pink News.

Channel 4 in Britain has removed one episode of The IT Crowd from its streaming archive. The episode has long been called “transphobic” by people calling for its removal, and now, the network seems to agree. The creator of the series, Graham Lineham, does not agree, and says he won’t work with Channel 4 until they return the episode to its streaming service. (That’s a pretty empty threat, since he is too busy writing anti-transgender propaganda to bother writing comedy.) Pink News has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Kim Horton has engineered pieces of jewelry that stealthily allow the wearer to identify as trans in the most safe way possible. The jewelry is geometric, yet has the trans-sign included. It is alterable, and the sign would only be noticeable by someone who is looking for it. Kim’s jewelry is 3D printed, hand painted, and produced to order. You can find her product on Etsy.

Valentina Sampaio

Trans model Valentina Sampaio is on the cover of Out magazine. She is also profiled inside.

RuPaul appears in a new episode of Finding Your Roots. He learns that his great-great-grandparents were among the first Blacks to be legally married after the Civil War. You can read about it in The Advocate.

Executives of RuPaul’s Drag Race are suggesting the possibility of drag kings and trans performers in the future, but some are saying, “Don’t tease us, show us.” Out.com has this story.

The High Court of the U.K. heard a case this week about whether transgender children should be allowed to receive puberty blockers. Transgender Trend was allowed to give testimony, which is not that odd, since the court is supposed to hear from both sides. Pink News has this story.

Pink News also has an opinion piece from the legal advisor to Mermaids, who warns of the consequences from ruling for the plaintiffs.

The idea of making a family get the approval of a judge before receiving the treatment that medical associations recommend for children with gender dysphoria was described as “radical” and “preposterous” by the attorney opposing the plaintiffs. Pink News has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Petra De Sutter

Petra De Sutter was sworn in as a Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium. In her inauguration speech, she promised to fight transphobia. Pink News has this story.

Children with gender dysphoria who receive puberty blockers are less prone to depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation than children who do not get puberty blockers. That is why medical associations recommend them, according to Pink News.

The General Pharmaceutical Council paid a “targeted visit” to ClearChemist. After the visit, ClearChemist told GenderGP that they will no longer dispense prescription medicine for gender dysphoria to patients under age 18. GenderGP says that this will leave 3000 patients without their medicine. GenderGP is a private clinic which has shorter waiting lists than the NHS. Forbes has this story.

A new study by the University of Exeter found that half of the transgender and non-binary people surveyed suggested just abolishing legal gender categories rather than reforming the way to change from one to another. This story comes from Pink News.

Mosley as Maya.

In 2013 the soap The Bold and the Beautiful introduced Maya Avant — the first regular transgender character in the history of American daytime TV. The character did not “come out” on the show till 2015. While that was a step forward for trans people the character was portrayed by a cisgender female actor, Karla Mosley. She has announced that she is leaving the show. Learn more from TVLine.

A story in The Huffington Post says that several major sponsors of Pride festivals do not have any non-binary options on their sign-up forms.

More than 500 students at Oxford University have signed a letter objecting to the appointment of anti-transgender feminists to run the new women’s studies program. Pink News has this story.

Jaguar Land Rover has agreed to pay £180,000 to a gender-fluid engineer who was called “it” and other negative terms when they came out at work. This story can be found in Pink News.

Last year, the Olympic committee announced that the next European games would be in Krakow, Poland. Some politicians are now asking that the game be moved, as Krakow is in one of Poland’s “LGBT-free zones.” This story comes from Pink News.

Police in Berlin evicted all 57 residents of Liebigstrasse 34, a “archeo-queer-feminist” commune whose new owner wants to gentrify it. In their statement decrying the action residents mentioned it as a place that welcomed “[p]eople who do not conform to binary gender norms, or want to transition.” Deutsche Welle has this story.

Okan Sengun is a gay man from Turkey who immigrated to the United States. He is now a lawyer, and he has been defending LGBTQ asylum-seekers in the U.S. He is profiled by LGBTQ Nation.

Japan Airlines has joined the movement to replace “Ladies and Gentlemen” with more gender-neutral greetings. Pink News has this story.

TWITs

She the People reports that a new film called Laxmmi Bomb, produced by Fox Studios, is full of alleged comedy that demeans transgender people. The film comes from India, so it may not find much of an audience in the U.S., but it will be streaming by Disney. For making fun of others in such a nasty manner, Laxmmi Bomb gets a TWIT Award.

The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed two lawsuits seeking to overturn Virginia’s new anti-discrimination laws. The suits are on behalf of a photographer and a church, neither of which were charged with breaking the law, but who simply want to defend their “religious freedom.” For thinking that discrimination is their “religious freedom,” the plaintiffs of these suits get a TWIT Award. The Advocate has this story.

Zoe Ashley Watts, a survivalist who made an act of smashing watermelons with the faces of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump on them, was arrested on charges of possessing illegal weapons and explosives. For giving transgender people a bad name, this transgender YouTuber gets a TWIT. This story comes from Pink News. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

South Carolina State Representative Nancy Mace is challenging for a seat in Congress. She has a new attack ad based on her opponent’s support for a bill to overturn President Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military. The ad claims that overturning the ban on transgender people will force the military to close a Marine Corps base in the state, though the ad never shows how the two would be connected. For making a baseless claim to incite fear, Nancy Mace gets a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A transgender man tried to donate blood in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., but staff at Inova Health System told him to write down that he was female on his form. He tried to inform them that he is male, but he got nowhere with them. For bureaucracy over accepting people, Inova Health System gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from NBC Washington.

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

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Every week Cecilia Barzyk diligently scans the internet to assemble as much trans-related information from the weekly news as possible.

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