The Week In Trans 3/16/2

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A federal judge ordered Chelsea Manning freed from jail, after a suicide attempt. She still has a legal bill of roughly $256,000, according to Common Dreams.

Lucky Ward, a serial killer from Houston whose victims include transgender woman Charlie Rodriguez, has been sentenced to die. He is suspected in the death of another transgender woman, and the deaths of several other people. This story can be found in Pink News. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Exit polling of voters in presidential primaries show that the number of voters who identify as LGBTQ is at least double, perhaps triple, the rate in the general population, according to Metro Weekly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the Chair in Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria to postpone the Moving Trans History Forward conference which was scheduled for April 2^nd-5^th, 2020 to 2021. More info can be found on their website.

Zaya Wade appeared on the red carpet for the first time since coming out as transgender. You can see pictures in LGBTQ Nation.

Breakfast On Pluto is moving from film to stage, and in the process is becoming a musical. However, the role of Patrick/Pussy Braden (the character named Kitten in the film), a transgender character, was given to a cisgender male. Kate O’Donnell, herself trans, who was to play the part of Patrick/Pussy’s mother, quit the production in protest. The Guardian has this story.

Last week, the state Senate of Alabama passed a bill which would ban doctors from performing surgery or prescribing medicines for gender dysphoria to those under 19 years of age. NBC News talked to some people who would be affected by this.

Alabama is also being sued because their state law requires people provide proof of surgery before they will allow a change of legal gender status. Three transgender people are challenging that in federal court, with the help of the ACLU. You can read about this at ScienceLine.

The New Hampshire state House of Representatives voted down a bill that would exclude transgender females from school sports in the state. The New Hampshire Union Leader has this story.

The father of a transgender son wrote in The Idaho Statesman that businesses have found diversity is good, but the Idaho legislature doesn’t seem to agree.

The rash of bills in state legislatures restricting transgender people is the subject of an article in The New York Times.

The state of Virginia is moving in a very different direction. They have recently passed bills which support LGBTQ people. NBC News reports that this shows that elections have consequences.

Amelia Hindle is a transgender actress, and she feels her pronounced jaw is keeping her from getting parts. She is attempting to raise £15,000 in order to get facial feminization surgery. She is profiled in Yahoo Style UK.

At the same time the Ohio state legislature is considering a bill to limit how doctors can treat gender dysphoria in minors, other legislators are pushing an expansion of existing civil rights to cover sexual orientation and gender identity. This caught the attention of LGBTQ Nation.

A bill in Missouri threatens to imprison any librarian who schedules Drag Queen Story Time. A group of drag queens participated in a protest at the state capitol. LGBTQ Nation has this story, with pictures. You can also read what two drag queens say about this subject at NBC News. Meanwhile, Pink News reports that opponents of Drag Queen Story Time are passing out bumper stickers that equate gay people with pedophilia. (Far more children are sexually abused by Christian religious leaders than by drag queens.)

The state of New York has excluded minors from the law which allows a change to the gender marker on birth certificates. One particular 14-year-old challenged that, and he won. His victory is a victory for all transgender minors in the state of New York, according to NBC News.

North Carolina has attempted to exclude transgender health care from its state employees’ insurance plan. Some employees are suing over this, and a federal judge this week ruled that the suit has merit, is likely to succeed, and shall go ahead. Metro Weekly has this story.

In Alaska, a state employee has sued the state for excluding transgender medicine from its insurance plan, and a federal court ruled in her favor. This story appears in Metro Weekly.

A court in Indiana recently denied a name change request, on the grounds that the person seeking the name change did not supply proof of a change of gender. An appeals court found that the denial used the wrong legal logic, and that a citizen can change their name to one that does not match their legal gender status. Indiana Lawyer has this story.

Georgia state Representative Vernon Jones said to a transgender city councilperson that she “might be a man one day and a woman the next, I don’t even know who you are.” Representative Jones says that his recollection of the conversation is different from what the transgender woman, Stephe Koontz, said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

A prisoner is suing because he was strip-searched by a transgender prison guard. While it is easy to be cynical of a request like this from a prisoner, that may not be accurate. Eugene Volokh reports this story on his blog at Reason magazine.

Advocates tell The Associated Press that Alejandra Alor Reyes, a transgender woman, was sexually assaulted while in the custody of ICE. The immigrant from Mexico seems to be suffering mental health issues as a result.

A transgender woman who says she was sexually harassed and denied an apartment by a real estate broker received a $50,000 settlement from the New York City Human Rights Commission. The broker said that he couldn’t rent anything to her that would be “near people and children.” (Wait, children aren’t people?) The Gothamist has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Yampi Mendez Arocho was a transgender man in Puerto Rico who was shot in the face at a local park. His parents misgendered him in talking to the police, the police misgendered him in their reports, and the press picked up that misgendering from those reports. He is the third transgender person and second transgender male to be murdered in Puerto Rico in 2020. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Sean Dorsey Dance, a company of transgender dancers based in San Francisco, is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. That was reason enough for NBC News to run a story about the troupe.

Four human rights organizations are suing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the claim that he is trying to rewrite human rights laws to say that rights come from God, and therefore do not exclude discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Parents of transgender and “gender creative” children often find it a good idea to join a group of parents with transgender and gender non-conforming children. One such group is the subject of a story inThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A story on NBC News about LGBTQ support groups in Appalachia features a gender non-binary person as the first one profiled. One of the groups that they talk about is specifically geared to transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people.

A long story about transgender people in prisons appears in The Tampa Bay Times.

Reuters has the story of Sarah Jane Baker, a transgender woman who spent thirty years in prison for attempted murder. She has served her time and been released, but keeps going back to check in on other transgender women in prison in England and Wales.

Several LGBTQ organizations signed a letter to health care professionals, telling them reasons why LGBTQ people may be at higher-than-average risk for COVID-19. You can find this story in Metro Weekly.

Caitlyn Jenner has often said that she was trying to make conservatives and Republicans more accepting of transgender people. Well, a new paper in American Politics Research has concluded that indeed, some older, more conservative people have expressed a few less-transphobic opinions, such as saying that her transition was not a sign of “negative social trends.” You can read about the paper in LGBTQ Nation.

A news organization doing an investigation set up a fake environmental charity, and asked some celebrities to endorse it in exchange for a fee. One of the celebrities who agreed to endorse it was Caitlyn Jenner. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Quince Mountain, a transgender man, is competing in the Iditarod. He is said to be the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the race. NBC News has a profile of him.

A cisgender model named Presley Gerber got a face tattoo which consists of the word “misunderstood.” In defending it, he mentioned other people getting “face lifts, change genders, lip injections, etc” but he gets a tattoo and he gets what he interprets as a lot of hate. People then jumped on him, because he seemed to be saying that people were changing gender casually. He later apologized for the comment, according to The Independent.

Jan from RuPaul’s Drag Race was the subject of a profile by NBC News.

Alaska the drag queen is hosting a pageant for fellow drag queens, and she is inviting everyone, including transgender drag queens to appear in her pageant. Out.com has this story.

Two years ago, the drag queen Florida Man became famous as Lady V, the female version of Lord Voldemort. Now, Florida Man is back, with Bye Bye, Miss Sherry Pie, a song about Sherry Pie’s sudden departure from RuPaul’s Drag Race. You can read about it at Out.com.

Mila Jam, a transgender singer, is the latest person to sit down for the LGBTQ&A podcast interview.

The Korean drama Itaewon Class features a character undergoing a gender transition. The show focuses on the courage it takes to transition and the power that acceptance can have. This caught the attention of Forbes magazine.

Canada’s Parliament is debating a particularly inclusive ban on conversion therapy. It seems to have a lot of support, but will have to wait until Parliament reconvenes after a break due to the Coronavirus. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A Canadian father couldn’t find the right swimwear for his transgender daughter in any store, so he went ahead and made some. The company got some free publicity from a story on The CBC.

Amita Kuttner is running to become the leader of the Green Party in Canada. Mx. Kuttner is an astrophysicist from North Vancouver, and would be the first non-binary person to lead a major party in Canada. Pink News has this story.

Valentina Fluchaire won the title Miss International Queen in a pageant for transgender women in Pattaya, Thailand. The winner comes from Mexico. This story comes from Mexico News Daily.

Camila Diaz was a transgender woman from El Salvador, who was sent back home when she tried to immigrate to the United States, and who was found dead back in El Salvador. Three police officers have been charged with assaulting her after her return from the United States. A judge said this week that there was sufficient evidence for the case to move forward. Foreign Policy has this story.

A Court of Appeals in the United Kingdom has ruled against gender-neutral passports. Actually, the court did not say that they were unlawful, only that the courts cannot make the government add a gender-neutral option to passports. This story comes from Pink News.

Scotland’s consultation period on reform of the Gender Recognition Act will be ending soon, but there is still time to make your voice heard. Pink News tells you how to participate.

Surrey Online has the story of local transgender woman Carmel Fleur.

We keep hoping to find some sign of sanity returning to British TERFs, but so far, no luck. Some “gender-critical feminists” sent nasty tweets about the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre in Scotland, because they have a gender-neutral restroom. Is there no limit to this nonsense? Pink News has this story. (We’d award a TWIT, but the TERFs would likely think it a badge of honor.)

Juliet Jacques wrote recently about two types of transphobia on display in the U.K. One is the right-wing kind which says that gender dysphoria is a serious mental health problem, and the other kind feels that civil rights for transgender people impose on civil rights for women. You can read more about this in Pink News.

While we hear a lot from some “gender-critical” feminists, Pink News reports that women’s groups in Scotland seem to be supporting the proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act.

Piers Morgan got into another dispute over the rights of transgender people on Good Morning Britain. As usual, he looked like an idiot, and also as usual, he neither noticed nor cared that he looked like an idiot. You can find more at Pink News.

In spite of the many articles giving voice to the views of “gender-critical” feminists, Vic Parsons of Pink News sees signs that perhaps the TERFs are losing ground in the argument over transgender civil rights.

Asifa Lahore, a transgender woman and a drag queen, went on a British television show called Eating With My Ex. The object of the show seems to be for former couples to talk over their problems, although why people would want to watch that is something of a mystery. In this case, a lot of the show was more a reminiscence of what they shared while they were still a couple, according to Pink News.

A mother who homeschools her transgender son is so proud of how he is doing, overcoming the transphobia he felt in school, that she continually praised him in an interview with Birmingham Live.

Someone has set up a social media campaign in the name of Hannah Graf and is using it to scam people. They are even offering a portion of a financial settlement to those who give them money. Pink News has this story.

In Cordaba, Spain, a transgender teenager was viciously attacked and left bleeding. Vile insults were screamed at her during the attack, according to the story in Pink News.

We’re not sure what to make of this story, but a doctor in Michigan, whose clinic includes several transgender patients, claims to have given himself gender dysphoria from taking too much estrogen. That’s not how this is supposed to work, but whatever. Pink News has this story.

Natalia Maximova just became the first transgender woman on the cover of a Russian magazine. She is on the cover of the society magazine Tatler, according to The Moscow Times.

TWITs

Angela Stanton-King, who was pardoned by President Trump after being convicted for her part in a complicated car theft ring, is running for Congress. She has taken a stance which conflates gay men with pedophiles. She has now gone after Zaya Wade, again with the idea that it’s all about sex with children. For sheer stupidity, Angela Stanton-King gets a TWIT Award. Metro Weekly has this story.

Jackie Doyle-Price, a Member of Parliament in Britain, wants to create a law that would keep transgender women out of “women-only” spaces. She also says that trying to exclude transgender women from “women-only” spaces is not a hate crime. When you define your own bigotry as “not a hate crime,” that is a sign that you know that it is hard to distinguish your bigotry from a hate crime. For practicing exclusionary politics and for not caring that her bigotry is indistinguishable from a hate crime, MP Jackie Doyle-Price gets a TWIT Award. You can read about this in Pink News.

Senator Pauline Hanson, of the far-right One Nation party, said that there were only 57 transgender minors in Australia. She claimed to get this from census figures, but the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which compiles the results of the census, says that she is using the wrong sort of logic. (57 people age 0-14 did list their gender as “other,” but those who identify as “male” or “female” would have checked that box instead of the one marked “other”.) The Australian Broadcasting Corporation goes into detail to show that the Senator is wrong, including statistics from gender clinics in the country. For misunderstanding statistics, Senator Pauline Hanson gets 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: Caitlyn Jenner, Chelsea Manning, featured, Mila Jam, news, RUPaul's Drag Race, Stephe Koontz, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News