The Week In Trans 1/4/21

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LaLa Zannell

LaLa Zannell, who has worked as a transgender organizer for the city of New York and now works for the A.C.L.U., tells LGBTQ Nation that there is a lot of work that legislators can do to help transgender people.

Toy Prendergast worked for FedEx for twelve years, before transitioning genders at age 55. As soon as she transitioned on the job, she received endless humiliation. She quit her job, and is now suing the company for not doing more to end the abuse. The Daily Mail has this story.

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics finds that transgender and gay children are more likely to be obese or to have binge eating disorders than are other children. The data was compiled from a questionnaire answered by 12,000 children. This caught the attention of The New York Post.

A recent court decision in Britain held that children under the age of majority could not make an informed decision on medical treatment for gender dysphoria. The state of California’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, warned insurers against denying coverage of gender confirmation surgery based on the age of the patient. The Bay Area Reporter has this story.

As 2020 ended, LGBTQ Nation made a list of Six Victories for the LGBTQ Community That Came In 2020. All six of the items on their list happen to be things which particularly affect transgender people.

The state of New York has designated all single-person restrooms as gender neutral. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Courtney Eshay Key

Courtney Eshay Key was murdered on Christmas day. The Chicago police who investigated her shooting listed her as “male,” which shook several people in local transgender groups. This story comes from The Chicago Sun-Times.

D.D. Decor, a Black transgender woman, tells KSAT-TV in San Antonio that “My people are dying.”

The Advocate has a photo gallery of the transgender people who were violently murdered in the U.S. this year.

Although many LGBTQ people are at heightened risk of getting COVID-19, many might be reluctant to get the vaccine due to a mistrust of the medical establishment. Some LGBTQ groups are calling on Pennsylvania secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine to help publicize the need for getting the vaccine. PinkNews has this story.

Senators Mike Lee and Kelly Loeffler are backing an effort to withhold federal funds from school districts that allow transgender students to join women’s sports teams. They say it is not about being transphobic, but rather about protecting cisgender girls from physical harm. This story comes from The Deseret News.

USA Powerlifting has introduced new categories for competition, including a gender-neutral “MX” category. The new category forbids the use of testosterone, even for non-performance reasons such as HRT therapy. PinkNews has this story.

Sam Feder and Amy Scholder, the creators of the movie Disclosure, talk with Pink News about how they committed to making the film, and about some of the impact that the film has had so far.

Sarah McBride

Senator Elect Sarah McBride sat with Dr. Danielle Jones for her YouTube channel. They discussed the problems that transgender people have in accessing healthcare. You can read about this in PinkNews. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Eddie Izzard is now asking people to use she/her pronouns when referring to her. PinkNews looks at reaction to this, as well as a look back at Eddie’s previous comments about her gender and her wardrobe.

Eddie Izzard and Elliot Page are two of the eight celebrities who came out a transgender or nonbinary this year, as featured in a list in Out magazine.

Frankie Boyle, a stand-up comedian, has condemned comedians such as Ricky Gervais, who use old and tired jokes about transgender people. According to Mr. Boyle, such jokes are “very lazy.” PinkNews has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

RuPaul’s Drag Race has begun its new season. Out.com has a partial list of celebrities who are scheduled to appear on the show and other upcoming highlights. Also, PinkNews has a tip for how to fix a glitch in Netflix’s delivery of the show.

RuPaul has changed one catchphrase from the show, in an effort to make it more inclusive. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Karen McDowell

Karen McDowell, a fire station commander from Northern Ireland who works as an advocate for transgender people, was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Joanne Monck was also named to the Order of the British Empire for her Services to Transgender Equity. This story can be found in PinkNews.

John Nicolson, a Member of Parliament from the Scottish National Party, has said that “under no circumstances” should the LGB Alliance be granted status as a charity. More than 30,000 people signed onto a petition to stop the group from getting status as a charity. PinkNews has this story.

Ofcom, the communications regulator in Britain, has added an intolerance of gender reassignment to its definition of hate speech. They also added intolerance of “political or other opinion” to the list of hate speech, which could give transphobes a defense. More about this change can be found at Yahoo News.

Colton Stankowski

A transgender woman, Colton Stankowski, says that she was denied service at a women’s clothing store in Calgary. She made a TikTok video about the incident. CTV has this story.

Germany is considering a revision to its law regarding changing gender. The revision would replace the long and expensive current process with a simple declaration of gender. This story comes from Deutsche Welle.

South Africa is thinking of adding an “X” gender for non-binary individuals. Their ID cards typically use a structure such that the ID number identifies whether the holder is male or female, but they are debating whether to use random numbers or perhaps an X in place of one digit in the ID number for transgender and non-binary individuals. Business Insider South Africa has this story.

LGBTQ Nation writes that it has been “the worst year for LGBTQ rights in Europe.” Poland and Hungary have been especially trying to deny rights to LGBTQ individuals. But, prominent campaigner Remy Bonny says that activists are ready to fight for LGBTQ rights in the coming year.

Iratxe Otero from Spain was found murdered early in the morning of December 26. It is thought that she was killed four or five days earlier. An arrest has been made. Few details have been made public. PinkNews has this story.

A man in India was arrested for attempting to murder a transgender woman when she foiled his attempt to rob her. Two more men are sought in connection with the crime, according to The Logical Indian.

Two transgender women were elected to local government in India. Pink News has this story.

Shaine Soni

Shaine Soni, a fashion designer, won the title of Miss Transqueen India. Because of the pandemic, they were unable to hold the pageant in the usual way, according to CNN.

A group of transgender women, living in a shelter, have been providing free meals for some of their vulnerable neighbors. The United Nations has a video.

Sky News reports that transgender people in China are unable to obtain hormones legally, so they are turning to illegal markets.

A non-binary refugee from El Salvador was recently awarded asylum in Liverpool due to anti-LGBTQ violence from both the public and police. The Liverpool Echo has this story.

The Telegraph recently had an article entitled, “Lesbians facing ‘extinction’ as transgenderism becomes pervasive, campaigners warn.” The “campaigners” are members of the LGB Alliance. In response, several lesbians tweeted two pictures of themselves, “How it started” and “How it’s going,” along with the hashtag, “#notextinctlesbian”. You can find some tweets repeated at PinkNews.

A video on Yahoo News points out how hard it has been for transgender youth to deal with the pandemic.

PinkNews tells cisgender people that they can be better allies to transgender and non-binary people by not supporting causes and organizations with anti-transgender views. Speaking of which, a review of AmazonSmile shows 40 anti-LGBT groups which get money through Amazon’s charitable sharing program. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Lindsay-Hecox

Lindsay Hecox, a student at Boise state University who wants to try out for the school’s cross country team has been awarded special recognition by Outsports for taking a stand against the rule that keep her from competing with cisgender athletes. The magazine has given her a brand new Transgender Athlete Advocate Award.

An anonymous transgender woman, who is finally accepting that she is transgender, wrote about it for The Guardian.

A transgender woman told Emily VanDerWerff of Vox about the discovery of coming to grips with her gender identity during the pandemic.

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted that Santa does not know zoology, that the reindeer pulling his sleigh, who all have antlers in winter, are actually females. LGBTQ Nation reports that some of the responses and replies by Dr. Tyson are quite interesting.

TWITs

We mentioned above the claim made in the Telegraph about lesbians becoming “extinct” because of “transgenderism.” Brynn Tannehill does an excellent job of refuting that claim in an article for The Los Angeles Blade. PinkNews also has a round-up of responses on Twitter. For sheer silliness, the LGB Alliance gets a TWIT Award.

Andrew Sullivan bought into the idea that lesbians are disappearing. He wrote, “I miss lesbians. . .  They check our sometimes tenuous grasp of reality, they roll their eyes at our hedonism, they show us how marriages can last, and take care of us when we get sick.” For claiming that lesbians are dying out when in fact they are alive and well, as any statistics show, Andrew Sullivan gets a TWIT Award. You can find his column at The Spectator.

Tucker Carlson is at it again. This time, he was complaining about a non-binary epidemiologist. He claimed that, as a non-binary person, Jo Walker was “not a disinterested scientist” but “a left-wing activist.” It may surprise him to find that there are some transgender and non-binary people who are actually Republicans. For name-calling, and for pretending that one’s gender identity clouds one’s professional impartiality, Tucker Carlson gets another TWIT. PinkNews has this story.

Dr. Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list. In accepting her OBE, rather than the usual statement that she is “humbled” to receive the recognition, she called Stonewall “a threat to freedom of speech” and complained about “gender identity ideology.” For misusing her moment in the spotlight, Dr. Kathleen Stock gets a TWIT. PinkNews 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