The Week In Trans 1/29/17
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Gigi Gorgeous
Canadian YouTube star Gigi Gorgeous, who last appeared in the TWIT column when she was turned away from entry into an Arab country because she was trans, is the subject of a documentary film titled Gigi Gorgeous: This is Everything. The film premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival. Learn more on the CTV News website.
Another Canadian, one of stars of the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? has announced to the world that he has a trans daughter. Colin Mochrie announced in a tweet that he has a trans daughter and that she is accepted as a girl by her grandmothers. Read more and see a video in The Huffington Post.
In the state of Wyoming, a so-called “Government Nondiscrimination Act” was actually aimed at protecting business owners who cite their religious beliefs as a defense for refusing to hire LGBT employees. The bill would also have nullified any local nondiscrimination ordinances for LGBT people. The bill has since been withdrawn by its sponsors. While it could be re-introduced, at least for now, it has been withdrawn. Wyoming Public Media has more.
TGF contributor and friend David de Alba, the Cuban Legend and last female impersonator from the Finocchio’s nightclub to still be performing, is excited to be the subject of an article in his local Las Vegas newspaper by Robin Leach, the Celebrity Insider. If you recall, Leach was the host of the television show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous which aired from 1984 to 1995. Leach now writes for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and profiles David who has another live show coming up in that town on March 12. You can find the article here.
One of the defenses of “bathroom bills,” such as Texas’s Senate Bill 6, are sometimes described as “not anti-transgender” because, supporters of the bills say, transgender people can get their birth certificates updated. There are some places where there is no process for updating the birth certificate, and then there are places like Texas. In Texas, a court order is required to change the gender on a birth certificate. Fewer than 500 Texas natives got court orders to change the gender on their birth certificates in the last ten years. By contrast, there are estimated to be 125,000 transgender adults living in Texas. You can find this story in the Texas Observer.
Members of the Charlotte, North Carolina, City Council report that they are receiving many emailed requests for the city to reinstate its non-discrimination law, even though that law would be superseded by HB2. So far, both the mayor and members of council are showing no plans for action. The Durham Herald-Sun has this part of the story. In other HB2 news, North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger has said that he doubts HB2 will be repealed soon, as there are not votes for an outright repeal in the Senate. Governor Roy Cooper says that he is still working on getting the state legislature to repeal HB2. This story is in the Charlotte Observer.
Sweden has decided to stop classifying trans people as “mentally ill.” Sometime this year they will stop diagnosing trans people with “gender dysphoria.” Get the story from The Local.
Jimmy James
The Central African Republic issued commemorative stamps honoring Marilyn Monroe back in 2014. Imagine their chagrin when it was learned that one of the stamps was produced with a picture of a drag performer — not the movie star. Jimmy James did a photo session as Marilyn back in 1991 for LA Eyeworks and is so Marilyn that the photos fooled the people who designed the stamps. That’s affirmation but since they didn’t get permission Jimmy is thinking of suing. Get the story from the Queerty website.
The University of Arkansas was set to include gender-transition-related medical care in its employees’ insurance coverage, but the university has since decided to suspend implementation of that coverage, following Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision on the relevant section of the Affordable Care Act. This shows that Judge O’Connor’s decisions have consequences. Arkansas Online has this story.
The Trump administration is making several changes as quickly as they can, but one thing that they cannot change is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Members of the EEOC are appointed by the president, but their terms do not expire when the new president takes office. In the meantime, the sitting commissioners can do their work, including safeguarding LGBT employees. The National Center for Transgender Equality discusses this on its blog.
The EEOC has asked for and received an extra month in which to file its brief in the case of Aimee Stephens, a Michigan trans woman who was fired by a funeral home for changing genders. The appeal in the case must be filed no later than February 27. The ACLU has filed a motion to intervene in the event that the EEOC is unwilling or unable to continue the appeal. This story is in Buzzfeed.
Hanne Gaby Odiele
Hanne Gaby Odiele is a fashion model who has just admitted that she is intersex. The 29-year-old from Belgium said, “It is very important to me in my life right now to break the taboo. At this point, in this day and age, it should be perfectly all right to talk about this.” She has Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. She is a woman with the XY chromosome pattern. You can read a profile of her in USA Today.
Kristie Maldonado, the New Jersey mother whose transgender son, Joe, was barred from membership in his Cub Scout pack, has announced she will file a discrimination complaint against the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America. They will charge the Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts of America with violating the state’s “public accommodation” law. The Jersey Journal has this story.
This week, the Girl Guides in Ireland announced that they will no longer have a blanket ban on transgender girls. This comes a week after the Girl Guides of the United Kingdom decided to allow transgender girls into their ranks. The Girl Guides of Ireland plan to amend their equality policy to say that “anyone who lives their lives as female is welcome to join.” The Girl Guides of Ireland followed the guidelines put into place by the Girl Guides of Canada. This story is in The Journal.
Ameko Eks Mass Carroll
Ameko Eks Mass Carroll is an 11-year-old actress who happens to be gender fluid. She starred in a short film called Limina, which filmed in British Columbia. She has been declared eligible for an acting award in either the male or female category. One of the film’s co-producers says that a goal of the film was to highlight trans diversity. CBC has this story.
West Bengal was going to become the second state in India to perform SRS in leading state-run hospitals, but that plan got cut during a budget crunch. Individuals in West Bengal who wish gender-confirmation surgery will either have to get it at a private hospital (which is quite expensive) or else somehow manage to get to be one of the few from outside Tamil Nadu state who get surgery in that state’s hospitals. This story is in the Hindustan Times.
Koko Nishumura
Can a Buddhist monk find happiness as a drag queen? 26-year-old Kodo Nishimura can answer that questions since he is a Buddhist monk, a makeup artist and a drag queen. Nishimura lives in Tokyo and recently made up the faces of Miss Universe contestants. When he makes up his own face it transforms from monk to blonde hottie. Read about him and see more photos on the New Now Next website.
Jay Irwin is a 35-year-old associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is also a trans man, and he is a member of his local school board. He is thought to be the first openly-transgender elected official in the state. He won his seat through a write-in campaign; he got 36 votes, while his opponent got 4 write-in votes. He is profiled in the Omaha World-Herald
Roey Heifetz
Roey Heifetz is a trans woman artist in Israel. As an artist, she found that The Transformation Is Appealing To Me, which became the title of a profile of her in A Wider Bridge. She has an exhibit of her work at a gallery in Jerusalem, but the captions refer to the artist with male pronouns. She has begun to refer to herself with female pronouns lately. You can find the profile, with some of her work, here.
The 37th annual First Event took place last weekend in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Over 700 people registered in advance for the event and the organizers expected over 800, counting walk-ins. The event included a fashion show with models ranging in age from 8 to 70 years old. For the full review of the event visit Metro West Daily.
More and more people are coming out as trans sooner than previous generations. That means that schools are having to deal with trans students and trans students have to know how to deal with their school administrations. School is hard enough without having the trans factor in play. A “non-binary trans*-femme person” names Z Nicolazzo has written a book to help trans students navigate the halls of academe. A campaign is under way to send a copy of the book to every member of the Texas Legislature in hopes of influencing them to be more accepting of trans students in Texas schools. Read all about it in Inside Higher Ed. Thanks to Jamie Roberts for the tip.
TWITs
Conservative Review has a new story entitled Transgender Movement’s New Frontier: The War On Medicine. In this story, they begin with the idea that both science and medicine presume that gender and chromosomes line up perfectly and that any failure by a individual to recognize that alignment in themselves is a delusion. Nowhere in the article do they ever bother to test this, which is expected, since to them it is a given. Never mind the fact that the American Medical Association disagrees with them. They cite the lawsuit of Jionni Conforti, a trans man who is suing a hospital that agreed to perform a hysterectomy then refused his surgeon permission to do the operation. They say that, after describing the situation, the lawsuit fails to mention anything about “health” or “cancer.” Perhaps that’s because the rest of the argument is about what the law says. For thinking that they know more about medicine than the American Medical Association, Conservative Review gets a TWIT. You can find the article here.
Doctors in the U.K have been instructed by the British Medical Association to refrain from referring to pregnant women as “expectant mothers.” Why have they issued this odd sounding instruction? Because trans men can also become pregnant doctors now must call all humans carrying a zygote or fetus “pregnant people.” This seems like it’s extremely silly as most doctors should be able to tell the difference between a pregnant trans man and a cisgender woman. We are issuing a TWIT Award to any doctors who can’t, and to the BMA for excessive political correctness. Read the story in the Daily Mail.
TWIT is edited by Angela Gardner, who also supplied several articles.
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.Subscribe
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Here’s a story we can all get behind, mayor of New Hope Texas comes out as transwoman. Let’s hope she keeps up the hard work to improve the lives of the citizens and bring quality services to the residents.
http://newhopetx.gov/important-message-from-the-mayor
> We are issuing a TWIT Award to any doctors who can’t, and to the BMA for excessive political correctness.
Good TWIT award, perfect example of folks jumping into our lives thinking they are helping build acceptance but just making us look silly. No thank you BMA, if I want to look silly I can do it on my own.
By the way I think the pardon of Chelsea Manning falls in the same category of well intention acts that make TGs look foolish.