The Week In Trans 12/28/20

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It’s the final TWIT of 2020! Happy New Year!

Cassandra Grace

Cassandra Grace had a career working for the government, then decided to go into the private sector and set up as a contractor. That much is common. However, when she went into business as a contractor, she also transitioned genders. This required using change management skills she had acquired as a government employee, according to Washington Technology.

A federal court has issued an injunction against the implementation of Donald Trump’s order that would have limited anti-discrimination training by federal employees and contractors. The executive order would have affected training to prevent gender-based discrimination. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

The Manitoba Metis Federation voted to add a non-binary gender option to its citizenship cards. Since the Metis are defined as being of mixed European and First Nations ancestry, the non-binary option is a recognition of two-spirit people. This story comes from The CBC.

Bella Pugh, a Black teenager from the Mobile, Alabama, area who was gender non-conforming, was shot and died at a Christmas party. Their mother believes that they were shot for wearing a rainbow jumpsuit. Pink News has this story.

Hundreds of people went to a vigil for Avril, a transgender teen in France who committed suicide after being humiliated by school authorities for wearing a skirt. More details of the humiliation are found at LGBTQ Nation.

Elliot Page

Elliot Page returned to Instagram, to thank people for the kind wishes and acceptance. He also posted a new picture of himself. Harper’s Bazaar has this story.

We reported last week on Michael Correia, a member of the Providence City Council, who was recorded referring to a Black transgender activist as “an it.” This week, we can report that he has resigned from the position of Pro-Temporare, but remains on the city council. He also said that he met with and apologized to Justice Gaines, the transgender woman of whom he was talking. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

The Vermont Department of Corrections fired an employee because of a Facebook post complaining about a transgender inmate who was on suicide watch. The post included several slurs and obscenities. Some quotes from it can be found in VTDigger.

The West Hollywood City Council voted to add black and brown stripes to their crosswalks that have the colors of the LGBTQ pride rainbow flag on them. They also agreed to add some crosswalks with the colors of the transgender pride flag. The Advocate has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this and other stories.

A letter to the editor of The Photo News in upstate New York compares the feelings of isolation that many have had during the pandemic with the feelings that transgender people who are isolated from their families have all the time.

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox is starting a new podcast. Beginning in February, she will talk with a guest each week on her podcast. She also is in an upcoming Netflix series, Inventing Anna, about someone who fakes her way into high society. Out.com has this story.

Laverne Cox also talked to Good Morning America about the recent transphobic incident in which she was involved. Pink News has this story.

Supporters of the idea that transgender teens are participating in “a fad” say that it is too easy for teens to access medical care for their gender issues. A parent of a transgender child writes to The Sydney Morning Herald to say that it is not that easy for children to get medical treatment for gender dysphoria.

Detransition is rare, but individual stories are sometimes told widely. Very Well Health tries to examine this, but finds that statistics are not being kept.

Eddie Izzard appeared on a television show, and shared her pronouns publicly for the first time. It was met with a lot of positive responses on social media, according to Pink News.

The call for proposals for The Moving Trans History Forward conference closes on January 4. If you have an idea for a presentation learn more about how to submit your proposal on the Conference webpage.

With so many television, cable, and streaming services, it was just a matter of time before someone came up with a romantic comedy that features a non-binary character. A Very Queer Holiday is not only a rom-com with a non-binary character, it is also a Christmas musical. It is available on Amazon’s streaming service. You can read about it in Pink News.

Walter Mercado

A list of the 10 Best LGBTQ Films of 2020 in LGBTQ Nation includes Disclosure, as well as a horror film set at a gay bar (the cast includes drag queens) and a documentary about the gender-nonconforming psychic Walter Mercado.

Annette Benning did an interview with The Daily Beast, and the subject of raising a transgender child came up, which led to a conversation about public reception of transgender people. (Warning: J.K. Rowling comes up in the discussion.)

A mother with a transgender son finds that her youngest son is hearing a Harry Potter book read in class, and is enchanted. She asks if she can separate the books from the author, and specifically from the author’s views on transgender people. The answer comes from Slate.

Naomi Wolf’s new book Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love, is out in an expanded edition, which addresses some of the criticisms the book received when it was released in the U.K. last year. The book deals with attempts to institutionalize opposition to homosexuality in Victorian England, and Wolf compares that to the way that transgender people are being treated today. The Advocate has this story.

Layshia Clarendon is a guard with the New York Liberty of the WNBA who came out as transgender last month. When she heard that a teenager stopped getting birthday greetings from friends after coming out as transgender, she sent him a birthday greeting. Outsports has this story.

Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe, and Candace Parker all signed onto a brief in the case of Idaho’s new ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports. More than 175 athletes signed the brief, as Sports Illustrated reports. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The Conversation has a look at how school sports became the latest battleground over transgender rights.

A new film entitled Wonderfully Made: LGBTQ+R(eligion) imagines Jesus as an ally to LGBTQ people, and asks people to react to art with that depiction. One of the filmmakers explains the approach at Out.com.

Jinkx Monsoon

Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme have made a holiday special, and they have sold it to Hulu, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Roly China Fusion, a restaurant in Palm Springs, California, has a new offer–customers can have their dinner order delivered by a drag queen, who will even perform for the customer. Out Traveler has this story.

Pink News explains the significance of a trans-masculine contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

OZY asks, “Is The Music Industry Ready For A Trans Star?”

Nicki Swift has a list of transgender celebrities who transitioned after hitting it big.

A story of a ballet dancer who enjoyed being cast in male roles before he realized he was transgender was turned into graphic art and featured on NPR’s website.

Fourteen teenagers were arrested in Lancaster, England, and charged in connection with a brutal transphobic attack of four friends back in October. This story comes from The Lancaster Guardian

Anyone appearing in a court in British Columbia must now declare which pronouns they wish to have used in referring to them. They must also share their full name and title, such as Mr., Ms., or Mx. CTV News has this story.

A group of Irish pensioners, mostly age 70 and beyond, recorded their version of “Silent Night,” dedicated to “transgender children everywhere.” This story can be found on Pink News.

Shon Faye

Freddy McConnell and Shon Faye were guests on Owen Jones’s podcast, where they discussed a number of transgender issues, including the question, “What is so intrinsically British about transphobia?”. Pink News has a link.

Transgender people in Egypt do not have it easy. They have to convince a doctor, mental health professionals, and an Islamic religious authority that they are the gender they believe themselves to be. Al Monitor has this story.

Transgender people in Indonesia do not have it easy either. One of the few legal jobs that they could get was working in a beauty parlor, but since the pandemic hit, beauty parlors have been getting far fewer customers. You can read about it in Al Jazeera.

In India, a transgender dancer was kidnapped, then raped and beaten for three days. Video was uploaded to the Internet, causing people to demand action against the gang responsible. The Express Tribune has this story.

In this year, when many of us are unable to keep our usual holiday habits, a writer in The Advocate encourages us to make our own traditions for the season, blending what we grew up with and what we find is now a part of our lives.

A grandmother wrote for The Huffington Post “A Love Letter To My Granddaughter (Who I Knew As My Grandson Until 5 Weeks Ago)”.

When a Canadian mother texted her father to remind him of his transgender granddaughter’s new name and her pronouns, the grandfather texted back a message saying, “She’s a he and if you don’t knock it off, I won’t come.” However, the mother stepped up for her daughter. Today’s Parent has this story.

A boy wrote a little book for his mother, explaining that he is transgender and is a boy. His mother turned out to be not only accepting, but quite tickled with the book. She shared it with the Internet, according to Pop Sugar.

LGBTQ Nation has a guide to how to handle unaccepting family members this holiday season.

When one family had trouble using a transgender member’s correct name and pronouns, one ally in the family found a way to get others to remember. Pink News has this story.

The baby panda.

A baby panda born in a Japanese zoo was identified as a “healthy baby boy,” but the zoo now finds that the panda is a girl. This story was in the Daily Mail.

TWITs

Jo Walker, an employee of the CDC, wrote a report which looked at who should get priority in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. While the report does make recommendations, it explains logically why this group should get a priority, so that if a state disagrees with the logic, that state can make an adjustment to the recommended order. Tucker Carlson disagreed, not with the report, but with Jo Walker for being a non-binary individual. He claimed, among other things, that Jo Walker is “not a disinterested scientist,” but rather a “left-wing activist.” For attacking the person and not the logic of the work that the person produced, Tucker Carlson gets a TWIT Award. The Advocate has this story.

E.W. Jackson is an Evangelical preacher and conservative pundit who has tried running for office but was never elected. In March, he claimed to have immunity from COVID-19, but he was diagnosed with the virus in November. And now, he has a new target to oppose–drag queen story time. He calls it “the equivalent of pedophilia.” In reality, children are savvy enough to realize that the drag queens are performers, just as clowns or cowboys or other children’s show hosts are performers. While there is something of the drag queen’s own personality in the character, there was some real cowboy in the character of Roy Rogers, for example. For failing to see with the clarity of a child, E.W. Jackson gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

As the year ends, many people give us various best-of-the-year lists. BBC News has several of these, one of which looked at the best reads of the year. Among them was J.K. Rowling’s long and rambling essay on gender. The list praises the “bravery” of Ms. Rowling, and praised the “plain English” of the essay. For praising the “plain English” without recognizing the twisted logic that it exposes, Amol Rajan gets a TWIT. Pink News 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