The Week In Trans 2/1/21
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Nicholas Talbott has been featured in several news story, since the military rejected him because he is transgender. He was a party to one of the lawsuits challenging the ban in court. He tells LGBTQ Nation that he is still anxious to serve.
On Monday, President Biden signed the executive order overturning President Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military. The executive order itself can be found on the White House website, a press release about the new executive order can be found at the website of the Department of Defense, and a story about this is at CNN.
Several media outlets wrote stories which feature a transgender person who either served or wanted to serve in the military. These stories can be found at Yahoo News, Newsweek, The Detroit Free Press, Fox 17 News, KMBC-TV, WVEC-TV, and NBC News, as well as other sites.
A recent poll by Ipsos shows that 835 of those polled support the policy allowing transgender people to serve in the military. Nearly 2/3 of self-identified Republicans approve of the policy. LGBTQ Nation has this story.
Military Times notes that “every marginalized group incorporated into the military has been tested. Each faced prejudicial barriers questioning their patriotism and capability.” The article concludes that transgender people passed the test.
Alfonso David, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, writes in The Advocate that lifting the ban on open service by transgender people is a fine step, but there is more to do to achieve healing for the LGBTQ community. A similar piece by Kristen Beck, former Navy Seal, appears in Newsweek.
Last week, President Biden issued an executive order concerning the treatment of transgender students in schools. The National Law Review points out that this is a high-level statement of policy, and does not by itself change the law. However, this will guide the courts and the Executive Office of the President in making changes to the law. Other lawmakers will take note of the executive order as they implement laws.
Politico points out that at least 20 states are considering legislation which would go against the spirit of President Biden’s executive order on the treatment of transgender students. In addition, a bill to forbid transgender students from participating in women’s athletics has been introduced in Congress. Baptist News Global sees a theme in the attempt to punish doctors for treating transgender minors for gender dysphoria.
Elliot Page and Emma Portner are getting divorced. They say that they have been split since last summer, and the divorce is amicable. This story comes from The Mercury News.
In Montana, a bill to punish doctors for medically treating gender dysphoria in minors died on the floor of the House, but one which would forbid transgender females from participating in school sports for girls advanced. The Helena Independent Record has this story.
Several Republican lawmakers in Montana changed their minds and voted against the bill on health care for transgender minors on its third reading, after voting for passage on the first two readings. Meeting with parents of transgender youth changed some minds, according to LGBTQ Nation.
Two medical groups for endocrinologists have formally opposed efforts to keep minors from accessing puberty blockers or hormones. This effort is outlined in Healio.
In South Dakota, a new non-profit was formed to support transgender youth, especially through advocacy at the state capitol. They plan to share stories of local transgender people with legislators, in the hope that the legislators will see transgender people as humans. This story comes from The Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
Also in South Dakota, the health committee tabled a bill which would have forbidden transgender people from updating the gender on their birth certificates. The bill was then given new life when the full House took up the measure. The Mitchell Republic has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.
The Gazette takes Iowa’s state Representative Sandy Salmon to task for introducing bills to regulate transgender people in the state. Most notably, she seems to think that transgender minors will “outgrow” their transgender feelings, which just does not happen.
Just before he left as Attorney General, Bill Barr instructed the Executive Office of the President not to implement any changes to employment law as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v CLayton County. President Biden has had Greg Friel, the acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, has issued a memo revoking a 22-page directive from his predecessor in the previous administration. LGBTQ Nation has this story.
Dominique Jackson has a role on American Gods, and the role is a gender fluid character. She discussed the role with The Advocate.
Earlier this month, a transgender man was murdered in Puerto Rico. This week, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro R. Pierluisi, declared a State of Emergency to combat violence against transgender people. You can read about it at Out.com. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center is a huge organization. It provides medical and mental health services as well as help with housing and employment. It just selected Joe Hollendoner, previously in charge of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, as its next president. the Advocate has this story.
In the week after the inauguration, Dr. Jill Biden went to visit an LGBT+ medical clinic in Washington, D.C. The Whitman-Walker Health HIV/AIDS clinic also provides some patients with gender-affirming care, according to LGBTQ Nation.
Because of restrictions due to COVID-19, the Creating Change Conference was held virtually this year. Out.com has a look at the various events that were planned.
Aetna Insurance has a reputation for approving gender reassignment surgery, but not secondary surgeries such as breast augmentation or facial feminization. That is changing, slowly. They still have some qualifications, but they will no longer automatically reject such requests. This story appear in The New York Times.
WBUR has a story entitled, “This Is What Is At Stake When We Talk About Transgender Athletes.”
“School Sports a Fresh Front in State Battles Over Transgender Students’ Rights” is the title of an article in Education Week.
Snopes wrote up a clarification of what President Biden’s executive order on transgender students does and does not do, especially for athletics.
Alexandra Billings talked to The Advocate about her work on The Conners.
Laverne Cox talked to Ellen DeGeneres and revealed that she is in love again. The Advocate has this story.
Transgender music producer, writer and performer Sophie died last week after an accidental fall. She was 34. Sophie had worked with Madonna, Charli XCX and the rapper Vince Staples. She came out while on tour in 2018. More information about her can be found in The New York Times.
The GLAAD Awards nominations were announced, and some transgender works were recognized. Disclosure was nominated for Outstanding Documentary, Saved By The Bell was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, and RuPaul’s Drag Race was nominated for Outstanding Reality Program. Also, TransGriot was nominated for Outstanding Blog. You can see other nominees n Out.com
Thirteen LGBTQ+ films are premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and two of them have transgender themes. One is a documentary entitled My Name Is Pauli Murray, and the film Shorts, which is a collection of short documentaries has at least one section about transgender people. Details can be found in the list at Out.com.
Some early-level discussion is going on about a live-action Harry Potter television series. (Apparently, the series would take place in the Harry Potter universe, but would not involve the Harry Potter novels themselves.) PinkNews reports that the idea has not been well-received by the transgender community in particular. (WarnerMedia denies the reports of these early discussions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.)
Last week Drag Race U.K. contestant, Bimini Bon Boulash came out as both transgender and non-binary. This week, fellow contestant Ginny Lemon came out as non-binary. Out.com has this story, in an article with some spoilers on the episode.
RuPaul’s Drag Race had a ballroom scene, thanks to Taisha Iman. You can see the clip at Out.com.
Cheyne Gallarde is an artist from Hawaii. Cheyne’s illustrations look live vintage comic books, and often feature drag queens as heroes. The Advocate has some of his art.
The Labour Party in the U.K. has been losing transgender members, thanks to some MPs who have shown an allegiance with the LGB Alliance. A new group called Labour Trans Equality has been launched, in the hope of stemming the departure of transgender people from the party. The leaders of the group admit, “There is much work to be done.” This story comes from PinkNews.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said flatly, “No debate can be a cover for transphobia.” This “message from the heart” comes as her party, the Scottish National Party, is accused of being a “hub of transphobia.” Allegations of transphobia have caused some young people to leave the party, PinkNews reports. Another report in PinkNews shows that members of the SNP are quickly falling in line behind First Minister Sturgeon on the matter of transphobia.
One member of the SNP has been uninvited to be part of a panel discussion about the climate crisis because of her views opposing transgender rights. This story comes from PinkNews.
Earlier this week, PinkNews reported that Stonewall wanted to be permitted to testify at the upcoming appeal of the High Court’s decision against allowing doctors to prescribe puberty blockers for transgender minors in Britain. Stonewall was not on the list which came out Friday, but Gendered Intelligence, Brook, and the Endocrine Society were given permission to interview at the trial. PinkNews has this story.
The High Court of the U.K. confirmed this week that it would hear the case in the legal fight for a third gender marker on passports. PinkNews has the details.
Dr. Heather Peto has resigned as a co-chair of LGBT+ Labour. She says that cisgender people thought that they knew more about transgender issues than she did. She also felt that the launch of the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights signaled that LGBT+ Labour was no longer going to be the go-to resource for transgender rights. PinkNews has this story.
Freddie McConnell is still fighting to be listed as the father rather than the mother on his child’s birth certificate. This week, he posted to Instagram that his second pregnancy has ended in a miscarriage. The post received an outpouring of sympathy, as The Daily Mail reports.
The Brackenburn Clinic is the only gender identity clinic in Northern Ireland, and it was unable to accept new clients for two years, due to the number of patients it already had. There is a long article about this situation in Vice.
Derek Sloan, a Member of Parliament from eastern Ontario, has been kicked out of the Conservative Party of Canada. Among the reasons for this are his support for conversion therapy, his opposition to allowing doctors to medically treat gender dysphoria in minors, and the fact that he brought a known neo-Nazi into full membership in the party. LGBTQ Nation has this story.
Dr. Clara Tuck Meng Soo is a doctor in Australia, who was given the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for her work with HIV-positive patients. She returned her medal this week, after learning that Margaret Court, a former tennis player who recently has made news for her notoriously anti-LGBT (and especially anti-transgender) comments, will be named a Companion of the Order of Australia. The doctor explained her decision in a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Advocate points out that one way to restore some of the international prestige that the United States lost is to lead in supporting LGBTQ rights internationally.
A father in Cambridgeshire talked to Cambridge Live about the overwhelming sense of loss he has after his transgender son committed suicide.
In a letter to The San Diego Union-Tribune, a parent admits to having been clueless about transgender people, and did not recognize that her own child was transgender. However, she learnt, and now, encourages others to learn to use the correct pronoun for people.
Pamuela Halliwell, a licensed therapist in San Diego, tells The San Diego Union-Tribune that the fact that she should not have to prove it is all right for her to be herself just because she is transgender.
When a professor at the College of Southern Idaho refused to use a student’s correct pronoun, the student responded, “I’m sorry, I think there was a misunderstanding here. You seem to think I’m making some kind of request? I was just informing you of my correct name so you know how to refer to me.” Out.com has this story.
A transgender student in Michigan wrote a college-application essay in which she said that she is tired of being seen as the “token transgender student.” This caught the attention of MLive.
Nine Catholic bishops in the U.S. signed on to a statement which reads in part, “God created you, God loves you and God is on your side.” Those sentiments are directed to LGBTQ youth, whom these bishops recognize as children of God. The Advocate has this story.
TWITs
The U.S. Army is investigating a chaplain, Major Andrew Calvert, who wrote some nasty comments about transgender troops. Among the comments, written to a Facebook page, is the question, “How is rejecting reality (biology) not evidence that a person is mentally unfit (ill) and thus making that person unqualified to serve?” Neither biologists nor doctors use the “chromosomes are final” argument. For presuming an expertise in a subject of which he is has little knowledge, Major Andrew Calvert gets a TWIT Award. The New York Daily News has this story.
A post on social media by a use who identified herself as a woman who is a high-school coach in Pearland, Texas, reads, “I watch my girls bust their asses everyday at practice . . . and for what? To lose to some dudes who want to be chicks? Nah. that’s RIDICULOUS…#BIDENERASEDWOMEN.” While a reasonable argument can be made in opposition to transgender females in women’s sports, this is not that argument. For issuing an uninformed rant, and for presuming an outcome that does not happen nearly that often, this coach gets a TWIT Award. The Houston Chronicle has this story.
Madeleine Kearns wrote in National Review that claims President Biden’s repeal of the ban on transgender people in the military is “a PR stunt.” Her first sentence says, “Requiring the military to make special accommodations for transgenderism is about identity politics, not equality.” But, the military is not making any special accommodations–transgender people have to pass the same physical fitness tests, take the same oath, and obey orders in the same way as any cisgender person wishing to join the military. Given that, it is President Trump’s ban which is a “special accommodation.” For getting reality backwards, and for projection, Madeleine Kearns gets a TWIT.
Madeleine Kearns also has an extended interview with Scott Newgent, a trans man who “oppose[s] radical gender activism” and who founded a group of fellow believers. The group believes in the libertarian idea that the government should leave people alone, which sounds good, but assumes that people will see the right thing and do it, even if that right thing isn’t convenient for them. For assuming selfishness is a virtue, Scott Newgent gets a TWIT Award. You can find the interview at National Review.
The Woman’s Human Rights Campaign is a new group in Britain, which is urging Members of Parliament to scrap the Gender Recognition Act and eliminate “transgenderism.” The group seems to feel that recognizing transgender people is “discrimination” against them. For projection and for asking for a right to discriminate, the Women’s Human Rights Campaign gets a TWIT Award. You can read about them in PinkNews.
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.
Category: Transgender Community News