The Week In Trans 2/7/22

Links in TWIT will open in this window. To return to this page use the Back button on your browser. If the link opens in a new tab, close the tab to return to this page.

Caroline Farberger

CNBC has a profile of Caroline Farberger, CEO of the Swedish insurance company ICA. She transitioned genders at age 49, well into her career. She says that “the biggest transphobia” she had to overcome was “my own.” She also reported that her transition changed her leadership style.

A trans woman in Texas complained about a rule which made an applicant for food assistance correct the errors on their own applications. After changing her name, it took the applicant, Stephanie Todd, nine months to get approved for SNAP. The Dallas Morning News has this story

South Dakota’s legislature passed a law forbidding transgender females from participating in athletics, and Governor Kristi Noem signed it into law. The law resembles Governor Noem’s executive order from last year. This story comes from KELO-TV. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

A bill on transgender athletes is working its way through the Georgia legislature. The Albany Herald reports that Planned Parenthood called the bill “political,” “baseless,” and “discriminatory.”

Arizona’s state Senate just passed a bill that would limit transgender athletes. And editorial in The Arizona Republic says that the bill attempts to solve a problem which Arizona does not have.

In Virginia, a bill to remove protections for transgender students is progressing through the state legislature, according to The Virginian-Pilot. However, The Washington Blade reports that the bill was tabled by the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee.

Flame Monroe

Transgender comedian Flame Monroe is featured in a three-part series on the history of Phat Tuesdays at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. The Advocate has this story.

A 27-year-old Black woman in Pennsylvania was jailed with 50 males, and ended up with a concussion. She alleges that officers attacked her, calling her names. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons officially denied a request by a transgender prisoner to get gender confirmation surgery. This story comes from The Hill. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

A man was arrested for shooting a transgender woman in Newport News, Virginia. The incident happened on January 23, and the transgender woman is expected to survive. WAVY-TV reports that the shooting took place during an attempted robbery, and the same suspect has been charged in that incident.

Attorneys for the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego are looking into accusations that Uber discriminates against transgender drivers. In some cases, Uber has treated photos and documents of transgender drivers as fraudulent. The Los Angeles Times has this story.

An Australian carpenter tells The Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the building trades need to be made safe for transgender people.

USA Swimming has come up with its new policy on transgender swimmers. They will set up a three-person medical panel to review the “prior physical development of the athlete as a male.” This, of course, presumes that the members of the panel can determine whether a particular athlete has a physical advantage. The BBC has this story.

Sixteen of Lia Thomas’s teammates sent a letter to their university’s athletic department and to the executive director of the Ivy League, asking that the league not challenge the new policy of USA Swimming. It is hard to determine whether these people feel that Lia Thomas should not have been allowed to swim, or whether they feel that she would have been approved by the medical board. Perhaps they neither know or care, since Lia Thomas has used up her college eligibility. This story comes from ESPN. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to another version of this story.

Purported to be Phelps’ former girlfriend Taylor Lianne Chandler.

Michael Phelps said recently that transgender women have genetic advantages over cisgender women when it comes to swimming. Michael Phelps has feet that resemble flippers, as well as a lung capacity which few humans possess, giving him genetic advantages. His ex-girlfriend, who is transgender, called him out for hypocrisy in an interview with Radar Online.

Transgender wrestler Nyla Rose talked about how she confronts transphobia both inside and outside of the ring in an interview with Sports Illustrated. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to another version of this story.

Euphoria just got renewed for a third season. This renewal comes before all the episodes of the second season have been shown. By contrast, the renewal for the second season came a year after the first season aired. Out.com has this story.

A new production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music cast female, transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming performers. Almost the entire cast will be female-presenting. This story comes from The Advocate.

Classical FM has a biography of Angela Morley, a composer for films who was the first transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Emira D’Spain

Emira D’Spain is the first Black transgender model to be hired by Victoria’s Secret. Among her qualifications for the job is her work on TikTok, according to WWD. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to another version of this story.

Fashion designer Thierry Mugler passed away. Outcom reminds us that Thierry Mugler used trans models and drag queens such as Lypsinka in his fashion shows.

Nowlle Deleon has archived the ballroom scene, and highlights six Black femme queen voguers in an article for them.

Holly Parker has died. She was known as a transgender porn star. The New York Post has this story.

On RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K. vs. the World, Pagina Heels was the winner of the first episode, and the Thai queen chose to eliminate the Canadian queen, Lemon. This move did not please everybody on social media, and some chose to include racist remarks in their comments. Some even sent death threats. This story comes from The Advocate.

Trixie Mattel

Kylie Jenner’s cosmetic line now has lip gloss in heart-shaped boxes. The thing is, Trixie Mattel’s cosmetic line has been putting lip gloss in heart-shaped boxes for three years now. Some people think that this is not the first time that Kylie Jenner copied from Trixie Mattel’s cosmetic line, according to The Advocate.

Get ready for a drag-related video game. Drag Her! is actually a fighting game, but all of the fighters are drag queens. In fact, all of the fighters are modeled on real-life drag performers. This story comes from them.

LGBTQ+ Labour has apologized for inviting Helen Lewis to a panel discussion on the legacy of Maureen Colquhoun, the first openly gay member of Parliament. Ms. Lewis, a staff writer at The Atlantic, is known for her gender-critical views. PinkNews has this story.

Several members of the staff of the Equality and Human Rights Commission have resigned. This follows a report that the group had met with anti-transgender groups, and a report that the group had told Scotland to slow down its reform of the Gender Recognition Act. Now, Vice News reports that the EHRC has sent emails urging courts to remove the rights of transgender people. The group also wanted to delay implementation of the ban on conversion therapy, particularly in the case of transgender people. At least six members have resigned or are in the process of resigning.

A video in which a group of men threatened to shank gay men and transgender people has gone viral on TikTok. The video has caused alarm. Indeed, the men who seem to have recorded themselves caused such a commotion that patrons at a fast food restaurant in London left without getting their food. TikTok eventually removed the video, saying that it violates community guidelines. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

Eddie Izzard

Mumsnet tried to hold a discussion about getting more women involved in public life. Unfortunately, most of the questions turned out to be about transgender women, and in many cases, it was pretty obvious that the people asking the questions were gender-critical. Then came a question from Graham Linehan. After telling them the problems he encountered because of his anti-transgender statements, he asked, “Do you think Eddie Izzard is a woman?” Labour MP Stella Creasy started her response by saying, “[I] am bemused that a discussion of mums in politics needs to be framed by a question about Eddie Izzard.” She then stated the fact that Eddie Izzard does not identify as a woman, before saying, “My feminism is inclusive of all those who are targeted by the patriarchy.” (We’d give Graham Linehan a TWIT Award for crashing this discussion, and another to Mumsnet for allowing him to crash it, but we feel that both might enjoy the notoriety. Also, we feel that the response properly dealt with both Mr. Linehan and Mumsnet, so we don’t need to add.) PinkNews has this story.

The CBC reports that, although Canada has laws and regulations to protect the rights of transgender students, there are still reports of instances where teachers have a hard time getting used to the correct name and pronoun for transgender students.

A Christian school in Australia, Citipointe Christian College, agreed not to make parents sign a form which included language which compared homosexuality to bestiality, incest, and pedophilia. The contract also said that students would only be enrolled “on the basis of the gender that corresponds to their biological sex,” apparently using the singular “they” without realizing it. This story comes from CNN.

The Language Council of Norway announced the inclusion of a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun, “hen.” The masculine third-person singular pronoun is “han,” and the feminine is “hun.” The word “hen” has seen increasing use, and the Council is simply recognizing that, as a story in them points out.

Doski Azad

In the Kurdish region of Iraq, a transgender woman named Doski Azad was assassinated in an “honor killing.” Her brother shot her to death. The Daily Mail reports that her family phoned the police about the murder three days after the incident happened.

A nightclub in London has a sliding scale for admission. Straight cis men are charged six times the cover charge that lesbians of color pay. Allies, such as white transgender people or straight women of color, also have a reduced rate, but not the lowest cover charge. This caught the attention of PinkNews.

Stalking remains a problem for women and for LGBTQ people, according to The 19th.

Trans men need to be “part of the chat” about periods, says a poet named Fredie Lewis. PinkNews has this story.

A transgender woman who identifies as having the spirit of a wolf is the subject of a story in The Daily Mail.

A trans-owned tattoo studio complains that the British government is no help, so the studio is raising money to start a trans charity dedicated to hair removal by laser as a gender-affirming treatment. PinkNews has this story.

Sean Ebony Coleman

Sean Ebony Coleman, a Black trans man and activist, writes in LGBTQ Nation that he owes everything to his “praying Granny,” who raised him.

PinkNews has a story charting the history of conversion therapy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is complaining that someone keeps messing with her transphobic sign. Maybe that is a message about how little support her transphobic views have in Congress. LGBTQ Nation has this story. She is on the sixth such sign. One had to be replaced when someone wrote a Bible verse on it, which she said is, “an attack on my faith.” (So, her faith disagrees with the Bible.) Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

The Advocate has a list of 18 books which the anti-LGBTQ forces want ot ban.

Amy Schneider’s run on Jeopardy! is over, but some outlets are still intrigued. The Advocate has a list of seven times that Amy Schneider made history on Jeopardy!. The story of how she conquered vocal dysphoria and dealt with Internet trolls is told by them.

TWITs

Donald Trump promised, “We will ban men from participating in women’s sports” if he was re-elected President. For jumping on a bandwagon to score points by giving the people what they want, and for failing to listen to best evidence before simply acting (as a dictator would do), Donald Trump gets a TWIT Award. NBC News has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

At least six states are contemplating bans on transgender females in girls’ sports. The habit has been to push the bill heavily, allowing those who favor the bill to have as much debate time as they need, then limiting opponents to short speeches because “time on this bill is limited.” For making sure that they hear what they want, even if it is not the best science, and for attempting to solve a problem that cannot be proven to exist, the lawmakers pushing these bills get a TWIT Award. This story comes from The Pew Charitable Trust.

We mentioned the Equality and Human Rights Commission of the British government above. We also gave them a TWIT Award last week. We want to further note that, under Women and Equalities Minister Liz Truss and commission chair Baroness Falkner, the commissioners have been meeting with anti-trans groups, and re-writing regulations so as to remove protections for transgender people. For displaying the sort of prejudice that the commission is supposed to prevent, Baroness Falkner gets a TWIT Award, which she shares with the woman who appointed her and keeps her in the position, Liz Truss. PinkNews has another story on this.

Conservative radio host Charlie Kirk said, “The transgender movement is an introductory phase to get you to strip yourself of your humanity to mess with machines.” “It’s called transhumanism.” He describes it as a cross between sci-fi movies, neither of which have transhumanism per se. For creating a slippery slope to a dystopian future, and for giving zero evidence that such a future is even in the works, Charlie Kirk gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

The Federalist claims that President Biden’s health care policy will mean that “Everyone including kids could more easily get transgender surgery.” So, which gatekeeping measures are being done away with in the proposal? No gatekeeping proposals are being eased, actually. The only thing is that insurers cannot unilaterally refuse to pay for a surgery that doctors recommend, which sounds like common sense, but still bothers The Federalist and Roger Severino. For exaggerating to the point of falsehood, and for using a scary headline to attract people while misinforming them, The Federalist and Roger Severino get a TWIT Award.

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.

Tags: featured, news, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News