The Week In Trans 12/31/18

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Brittany Lynn

The Philadelphia Mummers Parade is a tradition going back a hundred and eighteen years. Many of those years featured men playing female roles as “wenches” in the comedy brigades or any necessary female roles in the often elaborate sketches that the mummer clubs present. Women were eventually allowed to march in the parade and for the past few years a group of local drag performers marched. This year is historic for the inclusion of a drag queen judge. Brittany Lynn has that honor. Learn more from the Philadelphia Gay News.

Looking back over the past year we find that there are quite a few new laws being passed which affect transgender people. KQED radio took a look at how some of the laws in California impacted the lives of some specific transgender people.

Recently, the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to take up the case of the proposed ban on transgender people in the U.S. military, even though the appeals courts have not rendered their decisions. This week, the plaintiffs in the cases filed their brief with the Supreme Court, in which they argue the administration has not shown any urgency requiring immediate action, and that all accounts seem to indicate inclusion of transgender people makes the military stronger. Newsweek has more on this story.

Dr. James Makokis

Dr. James Makokis is a two-spirit member of the Cree nation in Alberta, Canada, as well as an M.D. Dr. Markokis has an office on the reservation and another office in Edmonton, and sees transgender patients in both offices. People come from far away to see the two-spirit doctor about their gender dysphoria. The CBC profiled Dr. Markokis.

Diane Mazur, a military analyst for the Palm Center, noticed that the Justice Department has argued that because the number of people in the military who have transitioned genders is a very small percentage of the estimated number of transgender people who serve in the military, the ban on changing genders really does not affect that many trans military members. This argument assumes that those who have not yet transitioned do not wish to do so, and that is not shown to be the case. Her work can be found in The Hill.

Last week, Secretary of Defense James Mattis submitted his resignation. After his letter of resignation became public, President Trump decided not to allow General Mattis to continue as Secretary of Defense until a replacement has been named and confirmed. Although the resignation was in response to President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, The Advocate reminds us that he seemed to oppose the ban on transgender people in the military, yet he went along with the decision, even assembling a panel to support the ban.

Christina Ginther

Christina Ginther recently was awarded $10,000 in punitive damages by a jury in Minnesota. The jury found that the Minnesota Vixens and the league they then belonged to, the Independent Women’s Football League, discriminated against her when they refused to let her play in the league because she is transgender. The jury felt that violated Minnesota’s anti-discrimination laws. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has this story.

A trans man in New Zealand has given birth to a healthy daughter. Scout Barbour-Evans plans to “chest-feed” their daughter, despite having had a double-mastectomy. This story comes from Stuff.

Although laws have been updated to allow people to change the gender listed on their birth certificates and identification documents, one document which seems to lag behind is the death certificate. Because death certificates typically reflect the anatomy observed by an autopsy doctor, and because many transgender people do not get gender confirmation surgery, the death certificate can fail to reflect one’s lived experience. This can cause various complications, as CTV News reports.

Louise Jennings

Louise Jennings has passed away. She lived the first seventy years of her life as a bloke named Robert, even being a part of the Dunkirk evacuation. She was 99 years old. Her obituary can be found in The Sun.

We know that there is a difference between sex and gender, and we know that, while most people identify with the gender assigned at birth, some do not. Could there be a genetic reason why some people do not identify with the gender assigned at birth? A team of scientists in Australia set out to see if they could find an indication within “junk DNA,” parts of DNA which have previously had no known use. You can read their paper in the journal Nature, or read a summary in New Atlas.

Stephens College in Missouri is the second-oldest women’s college in the United States. After studying the matter of admitting transgender students for four years, they have decided that, starting in autumn term 2019, they will allow transgender females to attend, but they will not admit trans men. You can read more in The Hill.

Pic from Pakistan Pride.

Transgender people in Lahore, Pakistan have held the first ever trans pride march in their country. This past Saturday trans people and their allies took to the streets to champion trans rights. Learn more from GayStarNews.

School districts in Washington, D.C., as well as Alexandria and Arlington, have pledged to respect a student’s identified gender, even if that gender is non-binary. They also had to stay within state and federal law, which requires the sex on the student’s birth certificate be listed on some forms. The DCist reports that this required some creative thinking.

Jake Graf

Actor and director Dominic West made an offhand remark in an interview with The Sunday Times, saying, “Maybe a transgender [James] Bond would be cool. There’s a very cool woman who’s the wife of an actor in Colette, who is a captain in the electrical engineers.” He went on to make the suggestion much more emphatic. The woman he was referring to is Hannah Graf, who quickly tweeted that she would recommend her husband, Jake Graf, as a transgender actor to play James Bond. Yahoo Sports has this story.

Speaking of Hannah and Jake Graf, Pink News reports that they want to start a family.

The Big Lottery Fund in Britain recently announced that it would give a prize of £500,000 to Stonewall. This triggered a lot of reactions, since by law lottery funds cannot be used for political purposes. Specifically, Stonewall said that they wanted to give some money to Mermaids, who would create local offices to help transgender children. That drew a very negative reaction from television writer Graham Linehan. The Big Lottery Fund has said that the number of complaints was so high that they have initiated a review of the grant. This story comes from Pink News.

Munroe Bergdorf

Every year, Queen Elizabeth II records a Christmas message to the people of Britain and the Commonwealth. The message is a bland encouragement to be good people. This year, Munroe Bergdorf  recorded her own “A Qween’s Speech.” She talked to Out Magazine about the video.

Broadly takes a look inside a health clinic run by transgender people for transgender people, which happens to be located in the red-light district of Amsterdam.

Transgender people in Bhopal, India, held their annual procession for the Bhgujaria festival. They pray for peace and good rains, according to Deccan Chronicle.

Railways in India issue discounts to various classes of people, including those at least 60 years old. Males get a 40% reduction in their fee, while females get a 50% discount. But, what of third-sex people? Well, as of January 1, transgender people at least 60 years of age will get a 40% discount on railroad tickets. Gay Star News has this story.

Solongo Batsukh

Solongo Batsukh is a beautician who tried out for Miss Mongolia this year. Although she did not represent her country in the Miss Universe competition, she did get profiled by AFP. You can read that article on SBS.

A wonderful grandmother won Christmas by supporting her transgender grandson. Years ago, she gave her grandchild a Raggedy Ann doll. After grandchild Gabe transitioned, she borrowed the doll, then gave it back with her grandson’s deadname replaced, along with a more masculine haircut and pants. You can read more at The Advocate.

A lost civilization in Persia may have embraced gender diversity by recognizing the existence of a third gender over 3,000 years ago. The people were called the Hasanlu and their burial grounds were divided by male and female but there were also areas where individuals with characteristics of both male and female were found. Learn more from Haaretz.

TWITs

The American Family Association has been promoting a boycott of Target, because of the retailer’s policy on transgender people using their restrooms. Target’s stock did fall recently, and the American Family Association took credit. But, analysts think that the fall had more to do with how much Target spent, rather than a drop in their sales. For giving themselves credit that they don’t deserve, the American Family Association gets a TWIT Award. The Advocate has this story.

Idaho Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, and state Rep.-elect Chad Christensen, R-Ammon, say they support an online petition that challenges a judge’s ruling requiring the state to pay for an inmate’s gender confirmation surgery. A TWIT Award goes to the representatives and to the man who started the petition. Learn more from the Post Register.

A transgender woman created quite a scene in a GameStop store in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When the cashier misgendered her, she demanded her money back, and kicked a display over before she left. She became even more indignant when another customer misgendered her while asking her to watch her language. A TWIT Award goes to the store cashier for the misgendering, and another TWIT goes to the woman who does nothing good for the image of trans people by displaying her violent anger. The Daily Mail 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