The Week In Trans 10/5/20

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Sophia Hutchins

Caitlyn Jenner is angling to get included in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, along with her partner and manager, Sophia Hutchins. The story on Page Six seems to indicate that Sophia Hutchins would be the primary cast member, although other sources such as Out magazine play up Caitlyn Jenner as a possible participant.

The California legislature has passed and Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law legislation which says that transgender prisoners will be housed according to their gender identities. CNN has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this and many other stories this week.

A court in Minnesota has ordered a school district to allow a transgender student access to the restroom and locker room of his gender identity. This story was covered by Minnesota Public Radio. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Donald Trump’s tax returns were revealed in stories by The New York Times, and it turns out, according to LGBTQ Nation, that the tax credit which appears to be the source of his audit was so big that it would cover transgender health care for the entire military–for nearly three decades.

In a pre-recorded address to the Human Rights Campaign’s Unite for Equality virtual event, Joe Biden once more announced his support for the Equality Act. LGBTQ Nation notes how this contrasts sharply with Evangelicals who use LGBTQ rights as a wedge issue.

Keynote speaker Owen Bondono.

A Detroit area group, Stand With Trans, has a workshop for transgender youth. The Detroit News says that over 40 events will be spread out from October 1 through October 30.

Vox has an article which covers all sorts of things about being transgender that cisgender people might not know, and might not want to ask about.

Cat Burton, a pilot who flew for Cambrian Airways and British Airways, is profiled by CNN.

A former customer service agent for American Airlines is suing the carrier, saying that she was harassed by her manager before she was fired. NBC Los Angeles has this story.

Alaska’s Medicaid program is being sued for its refusal to cover transition-related health care. Three Alaskans filed the suit, according to The Anchorage Daily News.

Mia Green of Philadelphia became at least the 29th transgender person in the United States to be violently killed in 2020. Police have arrested a suspect, according to People magazine.

Philadelphia’s district attorney says that the system isn’t working very well when all that can be done for people is to prosecute killers of transgender people after they have already committed murder. The Philadelphia Inquirer has this story.

Michelle Ramos Vargas

The body of Michelle Ramos Vargas was found beside a road near San German, Puerto Rico. She had been shot to death. She is at least the sixth transgender person to be murdered in Puerto Rico this year, according to The New York Daily News.

Kee Smith of Lafayette, Louisiana, was shot on August 12, and died in a hospital the next day. She was identified as transgender this week, a month and a half after her death. Out.com has her story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Kevyn Ramirez stabbed Victoria Ramos Gutierrez to death and burnt her house with her body in it, back on January 10, 2018. This week, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for first degree murder and arson. This story comes from KTLA-TV.

A transgender woman in Memphis, Tennessee, had her truck set on fire. Fox 13 Memphis has this story.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics shows that transgender people who medically transition earlier in their lives are less likely to suffer from depression and anxiety later. NBC News has this story.

The Star-Democrat reports that Johns Hopkins University has received a $1.44 million grant to study the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on the transgender community.

Brynn Tannyhill writes in Pink News about some of the horror stories of so-called conversion therapy on transgender people.

More than 11,000 people have signed a petition urging grocery stores in the U.S. and U.K. to avoid using words such as “feminine” or “hygiene” or “sanitary” to describe menstruation products. This caught the attention of Pink News.

Munroe Bergdorf

Munroe Bergdorf no longer uses the phrase, “born in the wrong body.” She now explains that she had to make some changes to her body to express her true self. Pink News has this story.

The Australian Football League will allow transgender women to compete in local amateur leagues for women. Transgender men may play in men’s leagues, and non-binary people can choose to play in a league for men or a league for women. The Age has this story.

Outsports has a profile of Kye Allums, an out trans man who plays basketball for George Washington University.

NewFest’s New York LGBTQ Film Festival has announced a new event. On October 18, they will show a new reading of Brokeback Mountain, with an all-transgender cast. The Advocate has this story.

It is with extreme regret that we report any new developments in the continuing saga of J.K. Rowling and her attacks on transgender people. First, Pink News reports that 50 authors, who signed a letter that described the treatment of Ms. Rowling as an attempt to silence her (which it is not; it merely points out how badly informed she is on the one issue) and as “hate speech” (which is odd, since the leader of the pro-J.K. Rowling movement has been banned from Twitter for hate speech). In response, over 200 authors signed a letter of support for transgender rights. Pink News has this story.

Eddie Redmayne said that, while he disagrees with Ms. Rowling’s views of transgender people and has told her so, shortly after some reports noted him standing up for J.K. Rowling. His statements were in support of her as a person, not support of her views on transgender people, and he is upset that she is receiving death threats. This story appears in Pink News. Another article in Pink News says that Eddie Redmayne’s partial defense of J.K. Rowling shows why cis men should not play transgender women.

In the middle of the J.K. Rowling discussion comes word that Hilary Swank now says that a transgender performer would have been a better choice for her Oscar-winning role of Barndon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. Pink News also has this story.

Ellen Potter

A transgender woman tweeted that she just got her legal name change. The woman, born in Britain but now living in Ohio, was named Harry Potter at birth. Pink News tells Ellen Potter’s story.

An article in CNN Entertainment talks about how transgender people keep being shown as violent, but they are more likely to be victims of violence.

Mel C, of the Spice Girls, has been touring with a drag troupe named Sink The Pink. She talked about being an ally to the LGBT community, and said that the Spice Girls’ concept of Girl Power absolutely includes transgender females. Pink News has this story.

Members of the ballroom scene are joining forces with drag stars for a series of PSAs and events to call attention to the importance of voting. Out.com.

Drag stars and Broadway stars are combining in a variety show called Divas For Democracy: United We Slay. Out.com> has this story.

Blake Morrow has made Drag Duos, pictures of drag stars in their drag personas beside themselves out of drag. Nine of his pictures appear in The Advocate.

The Community One Foundation has awarded over $80,000 to LGBTTIQQ2S+ initiatives in the greater Toronto area. For more information visit the Community One Foundation website.

13 member states of the United Nations do not allow transgender people to exist, putting them in prison, or subjecting them to torture. 24 more countries have de-facto criminalization of transgender people. While 96 countries have some method by which transgender people can change their legal gender, only 25 of those countries do not have “prohibitive requirements.” This comes from a report from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The study is summarized by Forbes.

Belgium just appointed a transgender person, Petra De Sutter, as one of their Deputy Prime Ministers. She is the highest-ranking transgender person in politics. Politico.eu has this story.

Anna Montgomery

Anna Montgomery was out with her boyfriend at a pub in Northern Ireland, when she was attacked and beaten. Details can be found at Out.com.

A deputy editor for The Spectator writes in the i that some Conservative MPs see transgender rights as a wedge issue that they can use in ridings (districts) which have not typically voted for the Conservative party.

50 ambassadors have signed an open letter condemning Poland for its attacks on members of the LGBTQ community. Out.com has this story.

A transgender woman was shot at a checkpoint in Colombia. The two police officers at the checkpoint have different stories; one says that the car did not stop, while the other says that the car tried to back away. The official story says that a police officer shot the tire, and the bullet ricocheted to hit the transgender woman in the head. The official story has caused controversy in Colombia, according to U.S. News.

A columnist for The New Daily says that it is easy for Australians to respect transgender Australians.

The theme of acceptance is also found in an editorial for The Jakarta Post. (Indonesia is one of the countries where being transgender is criminalized.)

Chulalonghorn University, the oldest university in Thailand, has announced that it will allow graduating students to wear the graduation gown that matches their gender identity, rather than the one for the gender they were assigned at birth. While the students do need to submit a petition and receive permission to wear a graduation gown not of the gender they were assigned at birth, so far all eleven students who petitioned have been given permission, according to The Bangkok Post.

Pabllo Vittar

Brazilian drag singer Pabllo Vittar along with another drag performer are set to be featured on the cover Vogue Brazil. It will be the first time drag queens have been featured on the cover. Although note well known yet in the U.S. Vittar has been awarded multiple trophies from MTV and been nominated for a Latin Grammy. Learn more from Out. 

Facebook banned, then relented and permitted a picture of a topless Black transgender man, who was showing off the scars from his double mastectomy. The Advocate says that Facebook now says that the banning of the photograph was an error.

An ad for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland shows Jesus with a beard, doing either a dance move or gymnastics, in front of a rainbow. Not only that, he is wearing lipstick and has a feminine chest. The ad is meant to promote diversity. but it seems to spark a very different reaction in some conservative Christians, according to LGBTQ Nation.

TWITs

Jo Bartosch writes in The Article to defend a teacher who claims his autistic students were led to believe that they are transgender. The author then cites statistics about how many children referred for gender services are autistic. The author failed to note that gender counselors would ask questions that would separate those who would be recommended for medical therapy from those who would not, and that these gender counselors are quite familiar with autistic children, so they won’t likely think that autism is a sign of being transgender. For missing a large part of the story, Jo Bartosch gets a TWIT Award. The Article has this piece.

The Daily Mail has a piece about Jane Flemming opposing transgender women competing against cisgender women in athletic competitions. She once was a track and field star who won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and represented Australia in the Olympics, but the article fails to mention any background in biology or medicine. For presuming an expertise, Jane Flemming and the Daily Mail get a TWIT Award.

Eric Trump said on Fox And Friends, “The LGBT community, they are incredible, and you should see how they come out for my father every single day. I’m part of that community, and we love the man.” Of course, he is a heterosexual, cisgender male. He misspoke twice, implying that he is a part of the LGBT community when he is at best an ally, and also in saying that they support his father. Oh, and saying that they “come out for him” wasn’t the best choice of phrases, either. For sloppy speaking, Eric Trump gets a TWIT. You can read about this in The Advocate. (Out.com has a story about his attempt at a clarification, in which he says that the left takes the LGBT vote for granted, but Out.com also reports a poll in which 75% of LGBTQ voters say that they will vote for Joe Biden.) Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The Association for Improvements in Maternity Services Ireland referred to “pregnant people” in their ad. This caused tremendous uproar, not because of the issues that the ad tried to raise, but because they had the audacity to imply that transgender men might get pregnant. For raising tired arguments that ignore pregnant transgender men, the opponents of this ad get a TWIT Award. Pink News has this story.

Selena Todd has been announced as the leader of the Oxford Martin Programme on Women’s Equality and Inequality, a program that aims to figure out what is keeping women down and how to help them break out. Well, it turns out that she describes herself as a “gender-critical feminist,” so we know she doesn’t mind if transgender women are left behind. For appointing someone who will not fight for all women, the Oxford Martin Programme on Women’s Equality and Inequality gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from Pink News.

In National Review, Madeleine Kearns attempts to review The End Of Gender and Irreversible Damage, two books about modern notions of gender. As you might expect, she leans a lot more towards the anti-transgender book, Irreversible Damage, even though the title itself is a lie that anti-transgender people keep spreading. The article, though, is less a review of the books and more an excuse for more of her own misinformation. She continues to see Dr. Paul McHugh as an expert, even though his methods have fallen into disrespect because they do not produce the best results. For ignoring the far more scientific book in order to side with a book that agrees with her preconceptions, and for using the pretext of a book review to reiterate her preconceptions even if they demean other people, Madeleine Kearns gets yet another TWIT Award.

Sanay Martinez

Sanay Martinez is a high school student in Louise, Texas. When in-person classes resumed this fall, she asked to be addressed as Sanay and to be treated as a female. The school refused to grant these requests. Moreover, the district has said that Sanay must adhere to the rules for males, including hair length and dress code. For favoring the opinion of a doctor who saw the child for less than an hour over the opinion that the student has formed over eighteen years of life, the Louise Independent School District and Louise High School get a TWIT Award. KTRK-TV 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