The Week In Trans 12/16/19

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Mara Keisling

The National Center for Transgender Equality recently saw many staff members take a buy-out rather than stay on after the organization was accused of racist attitudes and engaging in other forms of oppression. Despite this, founding Executive Director Mara Keisling refuses to step down and claims the problems have been fixed, as LGBTQ Nation reports.

Back in July, some members of the House of Representatives inserted an amendment into the Defense Appropriation Bill which would have reversed the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. The Senate never even took up that amendment, and when the bill came to a conference committee, that provision was replaced with one which requires the Pentagon to periodically release information on those service members who have exemptions, including simply how many there are. Mother Jones has this story. Thanks to reader Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Kentucky state Representative David Hale has pre-filed a bill which, if passed, would force transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms according to their “birth gender.” According to the provisions of this bill, any student could sue a fellow student who used the “wrong” restroom or locker room. The bill has little chance of passing, according to The Louisville Courier-Journal.

In Dallas, vandals spray-painted facial hair onto a mural of Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera. (We decided not to award a TWIT, for fear that that might encourage others to do likewise.) CBS Dallas has this story. Many thanks to contributor Alyssa Washington for sending us a link to this story.

Four teens harassed a legally-blind transgender woman in Seattle, to the point where she felt it necessary to use pepper spray on them. The teens were arrested and charged with assault. You can read about it in The Seattle Times.

Indya Moore

Indya Moore tweeted that all identity is naturally non-binary, and the gender binary is a complication, a layer on top of nature. Pink News has some reactions to that.

In New York, when a married woman gives birth, her husband is legally assumed to be the father, with all rights and privileges of that title. However, some transgender men are afraid that, if they should move into, or visit, a state without such a law, their legal status as the father might not be recognized. Law.com tells us that a family court in Brooklyn has decided that transgender men may legally adopt children whom the law of New York already recognizes as theirs.

Vanessa Lynn Gibson asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court decision which denied her gender confirmation surgery while she is in prison. The appeals court decision did use poor science, stating that there is a disagreement about whether such surgery is the best way to deal with gender dysphoria. (Every major medical association disagrees with this judge.) This story appears in Metro Weekly.

The family of Roxsana Hernàndez, who died while being held by U.S. immigration services, has filed a complaint saying that U.S. immigration agencies were complicit in her death The Advocate has this story.

The case of Luna Younger continues to come back into the news. This week, the judge who overturned the jury decision was recused from the case. Judge Kim Cooks shared a story about the case on her official Facebook page, and that was grounds to remove her from the case, according to Judge Tena Callahan. Another judge will be appointed, according to The Dallas Morning News.

In what appears to be a first, a Texas inmate has asked that a newly-appointed federal judge be recused from her case because his previous writings show prejudice against transgender people. She also says that he made three legal errors in his decision. Law.com has this story.

One of the new flight attendants.

In the Philippines, Cebu Pacific Airways just hired two transgender flight attendants, a first for that airline. ABS-CBN News has an interview with them. (A Thai airline, PC Air, hired transgender women as flight attendants in 2012. The airline stopped operation several months later.)

The Vienna Opera House is 150 years old. Even so, the Vienna State Opera is putting on an opera by a female composer. Olga Neuwirth is the composer, and the inspiration for her opera is Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando, the story of a long-lived character who was male in Elizabethan times, but becomes female as the story continues. The title role is sung by Kate Lindsay, who has made a career of “trouser roles” in operas. The BBC has this story.

Out magazine has a Trans Obituary Project, which remembers transgender women of color who were victims of violence. Executive editor Raquel Willis talks with Morning Edition on NPR about the project.

Global News has a piece in which the author links violence against transgender and non-binary people with violence against feminists that resulted in deaths.

Fair Michigan held a coat drive for transgender people. This is their fifth year of hosting this event. Pride Source has this story.

The idea of a clothing exchange for transgender people has caught on, and Casa Ruby in Washington, D.C., hosted one recently. This caught the attention of WJLA-TV.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary has proclaimed the singular “they” as the word of the year. LGBTQ Nation has the story of this non-gender pronoun.

Research by Tinder finds that more and more users of the dating site identify as something other than “man” or “woman.” There was a 30% increase in people using “other gender” compared to last year, according to Pinknews.

Baga Chipz

Vivienne and Baga Chipz, the winner and runner-up from RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K., will reprise their roles as Donald Trump and Margaret Thatcher for a new show, called Morning T&T. It appears to be a spoof of morning news shows, says Out magazine.

Diana Tourjèe thinks that cisgender heterosexual men who nonetheless date transgender women  are “trans-amorous” and should be thought of as part of the transgender community. You can read her thoughts in Vice.

YouTube just rolled out some new policies. Among other things, they ban inciting violence and implied threats. They also forbid racist and anti-LGBTQ attacks on public or private individuals. It’s one thing to make a new policy, and another to actually use that policy to stop people. LGBTQ Nation wonders aloud if the new policy will have any teeth.

A “gender-critical” individual on TikTok said “There are only two genders, and that’s the way God made it.” Transgender video creator Kendall Olivia replied, “If God only made two genders, how am I here then? Cuz God made me.” She made a video in which she delivered that line side-by-side with the transphobic video. Pink News has this story.

Someone on Twitter found a bit about a non-binary Quaker named Public Universal Friend (born 1752, died 1819), and others are rejoicing in the discovery. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

In a bit of bad news, the editors of Out magazine and the Advocate magazine both quit this week. Both publications are owned by Pride Media, which is experiencing financial difficulties. You can read about it in LGBTQ Nation.

With the holidays fast approaching, Teen Vogue has some gift suggestions for people you may be shopping for.

Forbes has a piece about transgender people in the workplace. This article emphasizes that transgender people are individuals.

Inclusion does not stop with the workforce. It also includes how you treat customers. The Taxi and Limousine Commission, which covers all taxis and cabs in New York City, just sent out an email with “Inclusive Language Tips.” It includes making an effort to use the right pronoun, and apologizing if you make a mistake. You can read about this in LGBTQ Nation. Our thanks to Alyssa Washington for sending us a link to this story.

Lola Rose

A transgender woman was fired as manager of a Starbucks in Oklahoma, after someone on her crew wrote the word “pig” written on a police officer’s order. The former manager, Lola Rose, insists that the officer laughed about it but his superiors complained to Starbucks and she was fired. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Gilead Science had agreed to donate $4.5 million over two years to health initiatives for the transgender community. Several of the organization have familiar names. You can see the whole list at Metro Weekly.

Surgeons in Belgrade, Serbia, have given a cisgender man a testicle transplant. The donor was the recipient’s twin brother. This could eventually lead to testicle transplants for transgender males, as LGBTQ Nation notes.

A recent study in Clinical Endocrinology shows that more and more transgender males are seeking help for gender dysphoria. You can read about it in Healio.

The FCC has given initial approval to a new three-digit phone number, 988, specifically for suicide prevention. Dialing 988 will immediately connect one with the National Suicide Hotline, if this goes into action. LGBTQ Nation.

When Dr. Izzy Lowell moved from Boston to Atlanta, she found a surprising lack of LGBTQ patients, especially transgender patients. She knew that Georgia has a lot of transgender people, but they didn’t seem to be coming to her new clinic. So, she created a mobile clinic. She goes out to see the patients, and she then does follow-up visits via teleconference. This is one of the stories about problems getting transgender medical care in the South which can be found in an article in The Daily Advertiser.

Dame Judi Dench was supposed to be part of the original cast of Cats in 1981, but had to drop out due to a snapped achilles tendon. She can be seen in the movie coming out later this month, where she plays Old Deuteronomy, a character typically played by a male performer. She appears to see the character as not in the gender binary, although she has some trouble expressing her view. You can read her interview on this in Out magazine.

Joel Zigman

Some people change careers while changing genders. Trans man composer Joel Zigman went from an academic position in the classical music program at the University of Texas-Austin to composing new-wave classical music and writing about it, to composing synth-pop and teaching. He also moved from Austin to New York City to Denver. He is profiled in Westword. Listen to Zigman’s music on Bandcamp.

Pantene’s new commercials feature transgender people talking about going home for the holidays, and about their hair. CNN has this story.

British transgender power couple Jake and Hannah Graf tell The Daily Mail that they are expecting a child in April. One of Jake’s eggs was used to create the child.

Caitlyn Jenner was voted off I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and she had no family or friends to comfort her on camera. That was a bit sad, but one of her fellow contestants filled in as her squad, according to Pink News.

A court in Tokyo ordered the Japanese government to pay damages to a transgender government employee who was banned from using the restroom matching their gender. Agence France Presse covered this story, which Raw Story ran in English.

Willam

Drag Race has spawned another show. Willam will have a show called Fashion’s A Drag. It will appear on a new streaming service, Quibi. Out magazine has this story.

Hungary just had its first Pride celebration, and it seems not to be very celebratory. The government still will not allow transgender people to change their names or genders. They have been sitting on public input regarding updating that law for over a year now. You can find this story in Pink News.

The hiring of the first openly-transgender police officer in Toronto prompted an interview with Global News.

British daytime television presenter Lorraine Kelly announced her support for updating laws about transgender people this week. This puts her squarely opposing the TERFs who are so common in Britain. Pink News has the story of her debate with Ann Widdecombe.

Just before the election in Britain, Jo Swinson, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, defended keeping a pledge to reform the Gender Recognition Act in the manifesto (party platform, for Americans). She told BBC Radio 4 that gender and sex are not as binary as some people are making them out to be.

A new poll shows that a majority of Scots support at least one of the proposed reforms of the Gender Recognition Act, a shortening of the time living in the “new” gender before legal recognition of that person in that gender. This story appeared in Pink News.

Ash Lammin

Ash Lammin is a Brit who, at the age of 12, has begun taking puberty blockers. Thanks to a very understanding mum, she has been able to transition socially, and now, she is beginning the medical phase of her transition. The Daily Mail has this story.

Although at least ten openly transgender or non-binary people stood for the recent election in Britain, none was elected. Only one got above 20% of the vote. That one was Helen Belcher, who received 34.5% of the vote. She still came in second in that riding. Pink News has this story.

A British show called The Last Leg has a contest for “the d**k of the year.” They are currently accepting nominations. The leader, at least prior to the election, is Graham Lineham, a former comedy writer who has pretty much given up given up comedy to become a full-time transphobic loudmouth. You can find this story in Pink News.

TWITs

In Japan, the government refused to change its practice by allowing a transgender person to legally change genders because the transgender person is the parent of an eight-year-old. For staying in the past, the government of Japan gets a TWIT Award. Human Rights Watch has this story.

A group of “gender-critical feminists” (otherwise known as TERFs) are suing the National Theatre Bar. They were asked to leave, following an incident which the management of the bar described as “abusive behaviour.” Back on July 5, they were part of a group of about 15 people who were refused service after causing a series of disturbance, including refusing to put away their anti-transgender protest signs and later, abuse of the staff, according to the management at the time. However, these two say that they were refused service because they are lesbians. No doubt that the bar can and will show that they served other lesbians, meaning that there was something else that caused them to refuse service to these particular people. For ignoring what they did wrong and making it all about something else, Anne Ryzulo and Dr. Julia Long get a TWIT Award. You can read about this incident at Pink News.

Several psychologists have quit the NHS’s gender service for children in recent months. The Tavistock and Portman Trust is experience very long wait times, and because of that, they are pushing staff to see more patients in the same amount of time. This does lead to spending too little time with any patient, and it causes burn-out in the staff. Sky News got hold of this, and they made it out as though the children being seen are being pushed through too fast. In a way, that is true, but they make it out that these children are being rubber-stamped with little or no professional evaluation. In fact, if they are uncomfortable after beginning a social transition, there is nothing to stop them from detransitioning, but very few do that. For big-time spin and deception, Sky News gets a TWIT Award.

President Trump keeps telling us that things aren’t real unless he says that they are real. Following in that trend, The Washington Times tells us that the number of transgender women of color who are murdered is “remarkably low.” Even if that statement could be supported by statistics, it is remarkably callous and unfeeling. For misuse of statistics and for showing a lack of compassion, The Washington Times gets a TWIT Award.

Yellowhammer asks, “Should all rights give way to the transgender revolution?” Giving others civil rights does not take away from your rights. This is not a zero-sum game. The only right you lose is the right to discriminate, and if that right is so precious to you, well, that says something about you. It says you deserver a TWIT Award.

The Federalist claims, “Transgender demands are an attack on real human rights.” In reality, your demand that you be allowed to discriminate against us is an attack on our human rights. For backwards thinking and for egotism, The Federalist gets yet another TWIT.

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