The Week In Trans 12/14/20

| Dec 14, 2020
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Victoria Smith

Victoria Smith is a transgender woman who had a career as a jockey before transitioning to present as a woman. She would like to return to the track and win one more race, as a woman. She is profiled in The Sun.

An article in Healthline says that pregnancy loss is always lonely, and is especially so for transgender people. This is compounded when the loss happens because medical professionals did not expect a transgender man to be pregnant.

The state of Massachusetts has postponed all elective surgery in order to concentrate efforts at hospitals towards dealing with COVID-19. This means that transgender people cannot get surgery in that state at the moment. NBC Boston noticed this.

The Supreme Court refused to hear a case this week in which parents attempted to overturn a school board’s policy of accepting the gender identity of transgender students. While this is good news, it will be instructive to see whether this is applying the rule that gender identity should always be accepted or whether this is applying the rule that the choice is to be made at the local level, and the courts should respect the decision of a school board. NBC News has this story.

President-Elect Joe Biden has pledged to advance the rights of transgender people. The Washington Post takes a look at the current status of those rights and at what the president can change.

President-Elect Biden is expected to lift the ban on transgender people in the military, returning to the policy implemented under President Obama. Military Times takes a look at President Obama’s policy, and how that policy’s success was undone by President Trump’s ban.

Lady Maga

At the MAGA protests against the outcome of the presidential election the Proud Boys other MAGA supporters verbally abused a Trump supporting drag queen who was at the protest, Lady Maga. Find the info on Lady Maga halfway through the story on Out.com.

Kimberly Fial was a volunteer at a homeless shelter in San Jose, California. She was stabbed to death this week. Fernando Jesus Lopes has been charged with two counts of murder, including Ms. Fial, according to LGBTQ Nation. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

KRIS-TV takes a look back at the October 11, 2016, murder of Stacy Palistrophe near Corpus Christi, Texas. The case is still unsolved.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson has ordered the state of Wisconsin to pay for the gender confirmation surgery of transgender prisoner Nicole Campbell. You can read about this case in The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The New York City Council is recommending that the state legislature repeal or amend a section fo the New York Penal Law which prohibits “loitering the for the purpose of prostitution.” This charge has often been used against transgender women of color, even if the purpose of the loitering is not particularly clear, according to The New York Daily News.

A judge in Michigan ruled this week that the state’s anti-discrimination policy does not cover sexual orientation but does cover gender identity. This came up in a case where two companies had denied employment on the claim of a religious exemption. The Detroit News has this story.

Tim Cook quietly added his pronouns to his Twitter bio. It’s a simple way to show one is an ally to transgender people, as LGBTQ Nation explains.

Andreja Pejic

ANTIBOY, otherwise known as the late Harry Hains, has released a new song entitled Dream. The video features Andreja Pejic, who spoke to Out magazine about working on the project.

British retailer Marks & Spencer confirmed that transgender people may use the changing room which matches their gender identity, after Baroness Nicholson wrote a letter to the chairman claiming she was delighted to learn that the stores no longer had such a policy. In any event, the fitting rooms have all been closed during the pandemic. Pink News has this story.

Many transgender people have trouble accessing health care, even in more ordinary times. Cronkite News takes a look at a variety of problems that transgender people often face.

Even in this time of a public health crisis, LGBTQ people continue to feel discrimination from health care workers. The Advocate has an editorial from Cindy Wilker who is the leader of a support group for LGBTQ people in Florida. She says that transgender people especially are having a hard time getting proper health care.

A recent study found that transgender and non-binary people of color experience greater difficulties in accessing help for mental health problems. This is especially true for Black and Hispanic transgender women, according to Marketwatch.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has introduced legislation to make it clear that Title IX’s promotion of sports for girls applies to biological females, not transgender females. Sports Illustrated has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

A new study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, indicates that transgender women retain a 12% edge in sports over cisgender women even two years after transitioning. The Guardian has this story.

Mara Gomez

Mara Gomez is a transgender woman who made her debut with a women’s professional soccer club in her home country. Pink News has this story.

The musician known as Worthy announced on Facebook that she is transgender. She wrote, “Today I break free, come out (or whatever metaphor I am supposed to be using) I am ready to say this to the WORLD!!! I am Transgender.” This story comes from EDM.

Cher admits in an interview with She Knows that she didn’t handle it well when her son Chaz came out to her as transgender. She assures everyone that the two of them have a fine relationship today.

Big Mouth is now in its fourth season on Netflix, and they just added a transgender character. Natalie is voiced by transgender actress Josie Totah. Out.com has this story, which includes spoilers.

A new HBO Max series entitled Veneno tells the story of a famous transgender sex worker in Spain. While that premise may sound sensational, and indeed there are some sex scenes, the eight-part series is about more than just sex work. You can read about it at Out.com.

One of the trans actors in Veneno.

Veneno follows the trend of hiring transgender actors to play transgender parts. Out.com has an article on why it is important to not have cisgender heterosexual actors playing LGBTQ roles.

According to MeTV, the first transgender character to show up on a situation comedy was in an episode of The Jeffersons, where one of George’s old Navy buddies turns up as after transitioning. The importance of this episode is the topic of a story in Showbiz Cheat Sheet. The transgender character was played by a cisgender woman.

In many cases, transgender characters on television shows were treated badly, and in too many cases, were not even accurate representations of transgender people. In a recent interview, state Senator Sarah McBride talked about the problem of effect of such repeated negative representation. The Advocate has this story.

Out.com talked to non-binary actor Theo Germaine and transgender activist Kayla Gore about representation, role models, and what the community needs now.

This year, many people will celebrate New Year’s at home. YouTube is having a celebration, and among those who will headline the event is RuPaul. Out.com has this story.

RuPaul is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for most Emmy wins as Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program. This story comes from Out.com.

Trans man drag queen Gottmilk.

Season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race will feature the show’s first trans man contestant. Gottmilk is profiled, along with the other contestants, in The Wrap. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

RuPaul interviewed Dolly Parton for Marie Claire, and drag queens Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Trinity the Tuck, Trixie Mattel, and Alaska all contributed. Yes, she talked about wigs and heels, and her feelings about drag. They also talked about other things, such as song writing, her spirituality, and family.

Safe is a nine-minute video about the ballroom scene in Berlin. You can find a link to it at The Advocate.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation monitors news in the U.K. They just published a report on coverage of transgender issues. and found that the number of articles is significantly higher than it was ten years ago. They found that the number of negative articles about transgender people has been rising as well. The report says, “Some of the most contentious and sensitive issues handled by IPSO relate to the reporting of transgender matters. Coverage generates wide and sometimes ferocious debate.” They found that, in the last decade, the general tone of articles about transgender people has gone from disrespectful to human interest stories (often about transgender celebrities), then took a turn towards covering policy debates, often with a lot of space given to those opposed to transgender rights. Pink News has this report.

In the same week that the IPSO came out with a report that showed that anti-transgender views were gaining ground in the press in Britain, lawyers for Keira Bell, the person who brought the lawsuit which led to the high court decision that minors cannot make informed consent to transgender medications is claiming that the internet is having the exact opposite effect. The story in The Guardian reminds readers that she “gained courage from the internet.”

Leo, is that you?

Way back in the 1980s there was speculation that the Mona Lisa was actually a self portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci in drag. The Renaissance Transgender Association, a transgender support and information non-profit, went so far as to adopt the Mona Lisa image as their logo. Now ABC News is bringing the story back with word that researchers plan to dig up Leo’s skull and use image technology to reconstruct his face.

The amount of space given to anti-transgender voices in news stories has contributed to depression and anxiety among transgender individuals, in Britain and elsewhere. This is compounded by the High Court’s ruling on hormones for transgender patients under the age of 18. Pink News talked to 17-year-old Amber, one of the patients who was stripped of her medicine by this decision.

Cambridge University put a requests for students and staff to be “respectful” of differing views and “diverse identities” to a vote. 86.9% of the governing body objected to the proposal, preferring to ask for “tolerance” rather than asking students to be “respectful.” This story can be found in Pink News.

Last year, Kate Scottow made a series of disrespectful and anti-transgender remarks on Twitter regarding Stephanie Hayden. On February 14 of this year, she was convicted in St. Albans Magistrates Court, but now, an appeals court has overturned that conviction. She says that despite the conviction, she “won’t be kinder,” according to Pink News.

A twelve-year-old law of the European Union requires that transgender women receive the same care and protection as cisgender women. This law is being amended to remove a requirement that transgender women must be “diagnosed with sex dysphoria and or. . .medically treated for at least two years.” EuroWeekly has this story.

UNAIDS has a story about a campaign to get transgender women in Thailand to use PrEP.

India’s rape laws don’t protect transgender women, according to CNN.

A missing transgender woman in Melbourne is the subject of a story in The Daily Mail Australia.

A story in The South China Morning Post about transgender people in China says that, because of prevalent discrimination, they are afraid to come out as Elliot Page did.

Indya Moore

Indya Moore has launched TransSanta, to try to make Christmas a bit brighter for some transgender youths. She posted some letters on an Instagram account, along with ways that people can help. People magazine has this story.

Deutsche Wells reminds us why deadnaming Elliot Page or any transgender person, is wrong.

An advice column for teenagers in The Observer-Reporter reminds readers that transgender people, such as Dr. Rachel Levine, deserve respect.

Lillian Lennon went through conversion therapy to try to get her to become cisgender. She tells of that experience, and of her life today as a transgender activist, in an interview for Mashable.

TWITs

Kimberly Tiffany writes at The Atlantic about a group of TERFs who met on Reddit until Reddit did away with the subreddit r/GenderCritical. They are still around, but on other internet hangouts. For not taking this as a call for reflection but instead simply inventing a new space to express the same views that demean others, the people behind these sites get a TWIT Award.

The Daily Signal has an editorial from a retired general who insists that allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military will make it harder to defend the country, even though the Pentagon’s own statistics show that the ban has had the opposite effect on military recruitment. The Daily Signal also has a story which insists that the U.S. should learn from the recent decision of the High Court in the U.K., even though that decision is based on questionable science. For obvious bias with no regard to fact, the Daily Signal gets a TWIT Award.

The Economist has an editorial which claims, “Others countries should learn from a transgender verdict in England.” Another editorial in The Economist predicts that other countries will follow the example of this ruling, even though it is actually an outlier internationally. Both editorials talk a lot about the alleged sterilization which comes from the use of puberty blockers, even though puberty blockers are not strongly associated with sterility. This also raises the question of why any nation has a vital interest in the fertility of individual members of its population. For bad science and questionable logic, The Economist gets a TWIT Award.

Murdo Fraser, a Member of the Scottish Parliament, has called for Scotland to follow England in the decision on puberty blockers. He says, “The judgement is a victory for all those concerned that children’s lives are being ruined because a political ideology has been put before good science and medicine.” Yet, the major medical associations disagree with this ruling and feel that it is based on bad science and medicine. For assuming that science stops at the grade-school level, Murdo Fraser gets a TWIT Award. Pink News has this story.

The opening paragraph of a story in Hometown Life states, “Plymouth-Canton Board of Education members are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposal that, if passed, will allow students, employees and visitors to use male and female restrooms and locker rooms in the district’s buildings, regardless of gender.” This is untrue. The proposal would allow people to use the restroom or locker room which matched one’s gender identity. First, this sentence fails to distinguish gender from sex, and secondly, it fails to point out that cisgender students, employees, and visitors must still use the restroom or locker room that matches the sex assigned at birth. For inaccurate wording, Hometown Life gets a TWIT Award.

Tucker Carlson devoted a segment of his program to transgender children. He called the number of children seeking help for their gender identities “a nationwide epidemic” and described these children as “grotesque.” He fills the segment with so much bombastic hyperbole and so many untrue statements that it is hard to believe. For misinforming his audience while deliberately demeaning others, Tucker Carlson gets a TWIT. This story comes from The Daily Beast.

We have been trying hard to ignore J.K. Rowling, even though her continuing defense of her anti-transgender views (which she still insists are not anti-transgender) are harming the mental health of transgender youth. But, we have to mention this one. This week, the author said that 90% of her fans agree with her transphobic views, but that they won’t admit it due to a “climate of fear.” For insisting that people who oppose her secretly agree with her, and for continuing to misinform the public, J.K. Rowling gets another TWIT Award. The interview appears in the January issue of Good Housekeeping, but cannot be found easily on its website. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Brian Dwyer in Waterford, Pennsylvania, has a billboard, and on this billboard, he put the statement, “Don’t let a man in a dress rule us in Waterford.” He was referring to Dr. Rachel Levine, the Secretary of Health for Pennsylvania. She is a transgender woman, not “a man in a dress,” but the distinction is too much for him to grasp. In response, local resident Brittney Loper created a petition, which keeps attracting electronic signatures. In addition to the petition, Brian Dwyer now gets a TWIT Award. You can read about this in Your Erie.

A current ad by Ritz crackers shows a nonbinary person applying makeup, among other things. The American Family Association objected to this ad, even though the point of the ad is to show that not every family member is cisgender and heterosexual. “Non-traditional” families are still families according to RITZ, but not according to the American Family Association. The American Family Association gets a TWIT Award for this. The Advocate has this story.

Although Donald Trump has lost the election, and keeps losing it over and over again, The Advocate reports that President Trump’s administration is rewriting a policy so as to allow more people to claim a religious exemption as an excuse for not hiring LGBTQ people to work for them. For continuing to deny reality and for insisting on hurting people in the process, the Trump Department of Labor gets a TWIT.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Stephen Schwartz to a position on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a position which often deals with civil rights. Mr. Schwartz served as legal council for the Gloucester County School Board as it fought Gavin Grimm, and has often taken many other anti-transgender views. For stacking the deck in favor of discrimination against transgender people, the Republicans of the U.S. Senate get a TWIT Award. The Advocate 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

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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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