The Week In Trans 3/21/22

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LGBTQ Nation has a story from Sarah Aston-Cirillo, describing her experiences as a transgender journalist covering the war in Ukraine. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

Idaho’s state Senate leadership released a statement, saying that although they oppose “any and all gender reassignment and surgical manipulation of the natural sex of minors,” they will not take up the bill which just passed the state House, which would have put doctors in jail for even prescribing puberty blockers for transgender minors. The statement from state Senate leadership continues, “We believe in parents’ rights and that the best decisions regarding medical treatment options for children are made by parents, with the benefit of their physician’s advice and expertise.” The Advocate has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story and several others this week.

Transgender Day of Visibility is coming up on March 31. The Washtenaw County Council in Michigan will fly the transgender pride flag outside their administrative building in Ann Arbor. This story comes from The Ann Arbor News.

Hanover County, Virginia, has been at the heart of debates about the treatment of transgender students in schools. On Friday, dozens of students and their parents attended a pro-transgender-rights rally at Atlee High School in Hanover County. WTVR-TV in Richmond has this story.

Students at Kenyon College in Ohio are demanding that their school increase its support for transgender people, including those within the student population. This story comes from The Buckeye Flame. Alyssa Washington submitted a link to this story.

The family of Elise Malary has asked for help in finding the missing Chicago transgender activist. Block Club Chicago has this story.

Alabama’s bill to outlaw transgender medical care for minors passed the state Senate. It now goes to the state House of Representatives, where it is likely to pass. The Advocate has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to the story.

A bill banning transgender students from participating in school sports on girls’ teams passed both houses of the Kentucky legislature, and now goes to the governor, who is expected to sign it. This story comes from Lex18 News. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

Last week, Judge Amy Clark Meacham issued an order temporarily stopping the investigation of families with transgender children by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. However, Attorney General Ken Paxton indicated his office has appealed the judge’s order, and indicated that the investigations will continue during the appeal. Civil rights groups, including the ACLU, have asked for a pre-trial hearing at the state’s Third Court of Appeals, hoping to get that court to enforce the order to stop the investigations temporarily. CNN has this story.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that is supposed to be investigating families with transgender children, has itself been investigated for over a decade, for potential violations of the civil rights of foster children. The agency has had trouble filling its positions and keeping employees, even before the pandemic. The workers at the agency have had the hope that they were doing something to help the children in their care, but with the order to investigate families with transgender children, even that hope of improving the lives of the children they investigate is gone, according to The Texas Tribune.

An article in The Denver Post tells of a family planning to leave Texas for Colorado, even though they do not know anyone in that state. The article also tells of the difference between Texas’s treatment of transgender children and Colorado’s.

A new bill in California would strengthen legal protections for families with transgender children. The sponsor says that the bill, if passed, will guarantee that “California is a place of refuge for transgender children and their parents as a wave of criminalization sweeps through Texas and other states.” The bill would both protect the right of minors to access gender-affirming medical care with the support of their parents and would reject orders from other states removing a child from their parents’ custody if that order was issued because of gender-affirming care. The Los Angeles Times has this story.

Jeff Younger, whose custody case set off the investigation of families with transgender children for “child abuse,” is profiled in The Texas Tribune.

The Republican party of Texas used to be split on the idea of transgender rights, but lately, they have come to see denying trans rights as a requirement for their politicians.  The Texas Tribune has this story.

Doctor Ximena Lopez has filed a petition against UT Southwestern, saying that the hospital was guilty of discrimination on the basis of sex when it told her to stop providing gender-affirming care to minors. She is seeking depositions from some people who made this decision, according to WFAA-TV has this story.

Three transgender people in Oklahoma have filed a class-action lawsuit, seeking to block Governor Kevin Stitt’s executive order which rejects changes to birth certificates for transgender people. This story comes from them.

The Maine Human Rights Commission voted this week to begin a process which could result in the Sunrise Assisted Living facility being sued for discrimination for rejecting a transgender woman’s application to live there. This story comes from NBC News.

Dr. Rusty Mae Moore has passed away. She was an Associate Dean of the School of Business at Hofstra University, as well as a transgender activist. She was known for providing shelter for transgender people. The Hofstra Clocktower has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us the link to this story.

Many companies are asking employees to return to the office, after working remotely throughout the pandemic. The New York Times reports that some employees used the time working remotely to start or further a gender transition.

March 15 was Equal Pay Day, marking the passing of a percentage of the year equal to the percentage by which women are paid less than men. This year, Equal Pay Day was the earliest it has ever been, as was noted at a White House event. Vice President Kamala Harris noted that Black women and other women of color get paid less than other women on average, but no one mentions transgender women. It seems that Equal Pay Day for transgender women would be around May 26. Teen Vogue has this story.

The Harvard Health Newsletter has a story entitled, “The Care That Transgender Youth Need And Deserve.”

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to order the state of Arizona’s Medicaid program to pay for the transition surgery of a teen. The fact that the teen is a minor was noted in the court’s opinion, reports.

Some transgender men spoke about their abortion experiences in the video series Trans Bodies, Trans Choices. Teen Vogue has this story.

Lia Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle swim, earning her a NCAA Division I national championship. She then finished fifth in the 200-yard freestyle, and finished eighth (and last) in the 100-yard freestyle. ESPN has the story of her first-place finish.

The Christian Science Monitor asks what is fair for transgender athletes and their competitors.

A new ad campaign, launched by GenderCool, celebrates transgender people in sports. The campaign is called Play It Out. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

John Oliver took on The Disney Company for their support of politicians who voted for Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Although CEO Bob Chapek has since stopped all political donations in Florida and finally denounced the bill, it seems to be too late to avoid damage. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Disney employees are still planning a walkout in response to the long wait before the company finally took a stance on the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This story comes from them.

The Umbrella Academy season 3 featuring Elliot Page as Vanya debuts on June 22, according to Out.com.

Hip-hop poet and playwright Kae Tempest talks about coming out as nonbinary in an interview with The Guardian.

Kim Shappley and her transgender daughter Kai are one of three stories of conservative Christian mothers and their LGBTQ+ children in the new documentary Mama Bears. Their story is one of the two featured stories which show acceptance. The Advocate has this story as part of their SXSW Film Festival coverage.

A list of LGBTQ+ films that debuted at the SWSX Film Festival can be found at The Advocate.

ScreenRant has the story of two transgender supporting characters in the manga  My Hero Academia.

DC Comics revealed the covers or their Pride Month issues. Out.com has this story. Out.com also has the covers for the Pride Month issues of Marvel comics.

Transgender porn star Angelina Please died at the age of 24. Police estimate that she was dead for four days before her body was discovered. This story was exclusive to The Daily Mail.

Scott Galloway has agreed to stop using drag when hosting his videos on business. Fast Company reports that the request from a parent of a transgender child came during a question-and-answer period at SXSW.

At the BAFTA Awards, Emma Watson was introduced with the line, “She calls herself a feminist, but we all know she’s a witch.” Picking up on that line, she began, “I’m here for all the witches by the way,” a line which was interpreted as a response to J.K. Rowling’s TERF-like statements. Reaction was positive, both in the auditorium and on Twitter, according to PinkNews.

Also on Twitter, the hashtag #JKRowlingDoesntSpeakForMe began to appear, after the author tweeted, “Innumerable gay people have been in touch with me to say exactly this. Like women, they–especially lesbians–are under attack for not wishing to be redefined for refusing to use ideological language they find offensive,” as she retweeted a link that opposes the idea that trans women are women. For a writer, she composed a messy sentence, saying lesbians are treated like women. Moreover, it seems to have gone right past her that the women who agree with her are often social conservatives, who disagree with her feminist ideas. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A police chief in Britain got into trouble for retweeting an anti-transgender tweet written by J.K. Rowling. The retweet by Lisa Townsend, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, was reviewed by the Surrey Police and Crime Panel. They found that the retweet was not “dignified or respectful.” This story comes from PinkNews.

J.K. Rowling’s views on transgender women are hurting the financial prospects for projects set in or around Hogwarts, Gamespot reports. It seems that her anti-transgender views don’t sit well with her fans, and have caused them to move away from their fandom.

Out.com has a list of the best lip-syncs with stunts from the history of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Kornbread announced that she will not be back for Season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and apparently, she has not been invited to appear on All-Stars–yet. Out.com has this story.

Kornbread has been cast, along with Ginger Minj and Kahmora Halll, in the upcoming sequel, Hocus Pocus 2. It is intriguing, because original stars Bette Midler, Kathy Najini, and Sarah Jessica Parker gave performances that resembled drag in a lot of ways. This story comes from them.

Kaitlyn Weaver did an ice dance tribute to Sasha Velour’s rose petal reveal from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9. Out.com has this story.

Sexual health clinics designed to accommodate transgender people are popping up in Britain. they are filling a need, according to PinkNews.

Saeed Gholipour has made a new film about transgender people in Iran. This Is Not Me premiered at the BFI Flare film festival in London. The filmmaker spoke with PinkNews about the film.

Three transgender Ukrainians talk of their experiences in an interview with them.

Have A Gay Day, a group headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, has rented billboards in 15 states, including their home state, to tell transgender people they are loved. The billboards also bear the message, “Be careful who you hate, it could be someone you love.” The Buckeye Flame has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

In an editorial, The Miami Herald complained about the Republicans of the state legislature passing their “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, when there are so many other issues that need to be addressed in the state.

Families in Texas with a transgender child say that they are “living on high alert” because of Governor Greg Abbott’s directive that equates supporting a transgender child with “child abuse.” One family tells their story in them.

Transgender Texans, even those who are adults, are feeling the effects of Governor Abbott’s directive equating gender-affirming care with “child abuse.” They took their fight to the governor’s mansion, to let him hear from them. You can read about it in LGBTQ Nation. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

Kai Shappley joined a protest at the Texas Capitol this week. She said, “If I could sit down with the governor, I would ask him to please stop. I would tell him,’you’re hurting us. Is that too much to ask? Just stop.'” LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A transgender reverend in Austin, Texas, is on a mission to tell everyone how much she opposes Governor Greg Abbott’s directive on families of transgender children. PinkNews has a profile of Rev. Remington Johnson. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

TWITs

As we told you above, the investigations into transgender families continue, despite an injunction against them, while the matter is being appealed. The Texas Tribune has a long story about a family still being investigated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. For misuse of the law and misuse of the badly understaffed agency, Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton get a TWIT Award. [Editor’s Note: A.G. Paxton is currently under indictment, and has been for seven years, for felony securities fraud charges.]

We mentioned TWIT Award winning City Journal last week. This week, they continue to publish their nonsense, which starts with the idea that transgender people are a “trend” that needs to be stopped, and squish everything to fit that view. The latest example can be found here.

The Washington Times has an editorial that starts with the idea that parents should be the ultimate authority for how their children are treated. They ignore the fact that this makes for a most uneven playing field, as some parents will accept behavior (and even facts) that other parents condemn. They refuse to admit that this idea of parents as ultimate authority authorizes parents to accept their child’s gender identity. For insisting on inequality as good, and for rejecting the “freedom” they seek when others use it for views that they don’t like, The Washington Times gets a TWIT Award.

Medscape has a story about a Zoom meeting hosted by a group promoting what they call Detransition Awareness Day. No one has ever denied the existence of detransitioners. What is denied is the number of detransitioners. Those who try to call attention to detransitioners always say that detransitioning is far more common than it is. Perhaps that is because they predicted that detransitioning would be a lot more common than it has been. Detransition advocates insist that there are a lot of them who are silent, but there is never proof of their prevalence. Frankly, finding enough people to fill a Zoom panel who blame anybody else for not stopping them from “a mistake” that they themselves made, does not impress us much. For failing to show any evidence that detransitioners are more than a tiny fraction of those who transition, and for condemning the vast majority for the mistakes of the very few, the organizers of Detransition Awareness Day get a TWIT Award.

We mentioned above how opposition to transgender rights has become a requirement for Republican candidates in Texas. It seems to be becoming a requirement for all Republican candidates. Fox News has a story about David McCormick, a businessman who is running for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania. It seems that his company covered transgender surgeries for employees, did not withhold a promotion from an employee who identifies as transgender, and, according to Fox News, once hosted “a transgender activist.” When asked for comment, though, a spokesman for the McCormick campaign responded by pointing out that another Republican candidate for that seat, Dr. Mehmet Oz, hosted Jazz Jennings, which they turn into “encouraging children as young as 8 years old who may be vulnerable and not have the maturity to understand to get transgender surgery and take hormones to block puberty.” For spinning so much that statements lose all semblance of reality, and for turning a medical condition into a political issue, the McCormick campaign and Fox News receive a TWIT Award.

Christina Pushaw, Press Secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, pushed back against the label “Don’t Say Gay bill.” Rather than call it by the original name, the “Parental Rights In Education bill,” she now refers to it as an “Anti-Grooming bill.” For starters, the idea that talking to grade-school-age children in ways that accept LGBTQ people is going to turn them gay or transgender is silly, and yet, with the name “Anti-Grooming Bill,” she promotes that incredibly silly aspect. For admitting that the most outrageous accusation against the bill is true, Christina Peshaw gets a TWIT Award. And for promoting this anti-LGBTQ bill as somehow a good thing, the Log Cabin Republicans get a TWIT Award. The Advocate has this story.

Anti-transgender political messaging is not limited to the United States. Zac Goldsmith, who ran for mayor of London and now serves in Parliament as environment minister (which, to the Conservative party, is a minor cabinet position), said of puberty blockers, “Putting children on this brutal pathway will one day be seen in the same way we now view lobotomies.” Lobotomies were never the recommended way of dealing with anything–they were seen as experimental when they were performed, and they stopped being performed when it was obvious that the experiment had failed. While Mr. Goldsmith is far from the only Conservative to view puberty blockers as “experimental,” all who use that term fail to notice that the experiment compared transgender children who received puberty blockers with those who did not, and the results of that experiment found those who received puberty blockers had far fewer mental health issues than those who did not. For showing a lack of knowledge about medical history, and for promoting what experiments show produced more anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts, Zac Goldsmith gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from PinkNews.

Missouri state Senator Elaine Gannon asked 14-year-old Avery Jackson, who was testifying against an anti-transgender bill, about her genitals. The state senator justified it with the “You’re in the ladies’ room” trope. No 14-year-old has had transgender surgery, so either this politician is woefully misinformed, or this politician already knew the answer and went ahead with the intention of embarrassing the transgender witness. For displaying a fixation and refusing to curb it for the sake of good manners, and for letting either ignorance or arrogance (or a combination of both) prevent her from listening to a witness, state Senator Elaine Gannon gets a TWIT Award. The Advocate has this story. Alyssa Washington sent us a link to this story.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seems completely unashamed by his actions against transgender people. When USA Today listed Dr. Rachel Levine as one of its Women Of The Year, Ken Paxton deliberately misgendered her in a tweet which could have no purpose than to point out the attorney general’s TERF-like view on gender. Twitter allowed the tweet to stand, but added a statement that the tweet violates the platform’s standards, but is being shown because “it may be in the public interest.” Since that “public interest” likely includes showing the voters of Texas what a moral degenerate this candidate for re-election is, we will not be giving Twitter a TWIT Award. However, for deliberate and purposeful misgendering, and for showing no understanding of how rude his behavior is, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton does get a TWIT Award. This story comes from The Huffington Post.

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