The Week In Trans 3/26/18

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Sarah McBride

Sarah McBride who advocated for trans rights in Delaware in 2013 and went on to do nationwide trans advocacy has written a book titled Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality in which she writes about her personal struggles and her activism. Read a review of the book in The New York Times.

The Trump Administration was given a deadline to turn over the names of advisors on the proposed ban of transgender people in the military by Friday. Lawyers in the Justice Department continue to refuse to provide the names of people who were consulted, and continue to cite “executive privilege,” even though the court has said that the concept of executive privilege does not apply here. This is especially odd, since the court has already said that the plaintiffs are likely to win, and providing the names of analysts who contributed would provide support for the policy. The Washington Blade has this story.

There are transgender Republicans. The oppression of trans people by Republican legislators has prompted two of them to speak out. Jordan Evans and Jennifer Williams responded to a Republican effort to oppose the very idea of a transgender identity. They made their concerns known in a commentary for The Kansas City Star.

Marvia Malik

A trans woman model in Pakistan has become that country’s first transgender television new anchor. Marvia Malik was hired by the Kohenoor News TV channel. Read more about the story on The News website.

Researchers from Essen University Hospital in Germany did a study using a quality of life questionaire and determined that the majority of trans people who undergo gender confirmation surgery are happier and lead better lives. Read more at Medical News Today.

The timeline set out by the White House in a memo last August said that the Pentagon had until March 23 to come up with a policy for transgender people in the military, based on the findings that Secretary of Defense James Mattis was to submit by February 22. In court, the Justice Department said that the cases against the ban were premature because the policy would not come out until March. On Friday, as the deadline approached, the Pentagon announced that it would continue to allow transgender people to serve in the military. Major David Eastburn a spokesperson for the Pentagon, announced, “DOD will still comply with federal court rulings and continue to assess and retain transgender service members.” This story is also in the Washington Blade.

Late Friday night, after the Pentagon had announced that they would follow court orders, and after newspapers had gone to bed and the networks had aired their Friday newscasts, the White House announced their new policy on transgender people in the military. The new policy allows those already in the military who have been “stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession” to join, and allows those currently serving who “do not require a change of gender” and troops who transitioned under the policy put in place by the Obama administration to continue serving. CNN and Politico have this story.

Kennedy McArthur

Meanwhile in Canada, an application from a transgender person seeking to join that country’s military was turned down. After the story first came out, the military said that the wrong letter was sent to Kennedy McArthur by mistake, and that they will try to inform their people that HRT medications do not result in an automatic dismissal from the military, and that such cases should be sent to senior medical officers for review. This story was reported by the CBC.

Many people, especially trans women going into transition, wonder what the effects of HRT will be like. You can learn what to expect from the Refinery29 website’s post on the subject.

Nicole Maines

Kyle Duncan is a nominee for federal appeals court and his background, which includes defending North Carolina’s bathroom bill, and representing the Virginia school board in the lawsuit over their transgender policy, makes him ill suited for the position. Nicole Maines lays out why he should not be confirmed in an opinion piece in The Press Herald.

The Hill ran an editorial from Paige Schilt, in which she said that the Trump administration had a “secret war” on transgender health care. The ban on transgender people in the military was part of this, but so is the work of Roger Severino, who heads the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Severino was profiled on NPR.

Two members of the Trump administration were asked to testify to Congress this week. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson admitted that his department was not looking into complaints about the treatment of transgender people at shelters for the homeless, because transgender people make others uncomfortable. He gave this excuse despite the fact that the rules for treating transgender people specifically address that issue, and he is not enforcing his department’s rules. Betsy DeVos stated that her department will not deal with gender identity discrimination claims under Title IX until directed to do so by either Congress or the Supreme Court. This information came in response to the observation that a growing number of courts have issued rulings which say that Title IX does forbid discrimination on the basis of gender identity in schools.

Congress seems to have a different set of priorities from those of Betsy DeVos. In the spending bill just passed, there is less money for charter schools and other schools of choice, but more money for the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education. Regarding the Office for Civil Rights, Secretary DeVos asked that its budget be cut by $1.7 million, with that money going to other causes. Congress instead gave the Office for Civil Rights an increase of $8.5 million. This story comes from Think Progress.

In response to Secretary DeVos, some members of Congress have reintroduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act, a proposed legislation which would specifically cover gender identity discrimination. The Washington Blade has this story.

Jessie McGrath

The Advocate ran an interview which they did with Jessie McGrath, a transgender woman who works as a district attorney for Los Angeles.

Last year, transgender advocates urged the city of Scottsdale not to enter into an agreement to share a park with Great Hearts Academies because the school did not accept transgender students. This week, we got a report that, at a meeting of the school’s board last month, a decision was made to quietly remove that policy from the student handbook. Phoenix New Times has this report.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women held a meeting on women’s rights and gender equality. The event was attended by representatives of 45 governments and by people from various advocacy groups. Bethany Kozma represented the United States. She calls transgender children “gender confused,” and she claims “the U.S. is a pro-life nation,” despite the fact that Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land and despite the fact that polls consistently show that the majority of Americans do not support outlawing abortion. This story comes to us from Newsweek.

Dr. Levine

On a happier note, Dr. Rachel Levine, who has been serving as the Physician General for Pennsylvania, has a new job title; she is now that state’s Secretary of Health. She is the first transgender person to serve in either of these capacities. Philadelphia Gay News has this story.

Although the Winter Olympics were just held last month, athletes are preparing for the Summer Olympics of 2020. Several transgender athletes are vying to represent their countries at this event, as Outsports reported.

The Family Court of Australia has decided that transgender teenagers no longer need the court’s conset to have surgery, provided that both the family of the transgender teenager and the doctor agree to the treatment. The court will continue to hear cases where the family opposes the surgery. The particular case involved a trans man named Matthew, who wanted a double mastectomy. This story was covered in the Star Observer.

The government of Sweden has approved payments to hundreds of people who were required to undergo sterilization in order to get their change of gender recognized. Sweden has allowed transgender people to change genders without sterilization since 2013. The Local has this story.

Jan Morris

Jan Morris has a new autobiography coming out. In it, she talks of her many travels, as well as her change of gender. She sat down for an interview with Financial Times. (You may hit a pay wall. They do offer a free trial.)

The Labour Party of the United Kingdom continues to say that the people who walk away from the party over its support of transgender people are “a rounding error” (compared to the entire party membership), but this week the party announced that they would wait until after local elections in May before they release a statement on the status of transgender people. Pink News has a review of the whole situation.

J.K. Rowling found herself in the middle of the discussion on the rights of transgender people this week, when she liked a tweet from one of the women breaking away from the Labour Party. The tweet began, “I was shouted at by men at my first Labour Party meeting aged 18 because I asked them to remove a Page 3 calendar.” (Page 3 of the Sun, a newspaper, features a picture of a nude or nearly-nude woman.) The tweet continues, “I’ve been told to toughen up, be louder, stronger, independent. I’ve often felt not supported.” So far, this seems the kind of thing that one could support. Then, suddenly, it says, “Men in dresses get brocialist solidarity I never had. That’s misogyny!” One can see how someone could like that tweet before reading the end of it. A representative for the writer said that this was “a clumsy and middle-aged moment and to the first time she has favorited by holding her phone incorrectly.” Several people responded with disbelief and dismay, as Pink News reports.

Happy Little Clouds is an indie rock group from Boston. They released a new video called Beneath, which talks of the struggle to accept one’s gender identity. The Advocate has a story about the video.

Pete Howell is a businessman who coaches his daughter’s softball team in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada His daughter invited her friend to join the team, but officials told him that his daughter’s friend would have to provide medical proof of gender reassignment. His daughter’s friend is 15 years old. Pete Howell complained, but when that got him nowhere, he quit as coach. The CEO of Softball Canada, Hugh Mitchener, checked with his lawyer, and found that the policy was no longer compliant with Canadian law. The Canadian Press reports that a new, inclusive policy is being rushed through.

Maxi Glamour

Drag performer Maxi Glamour had just finished a performance and stopped in at the Schnucks grocery store in St. Louis to pick up some essential items. She wasn’t in the store for long when two security guards appreached her and told her she’d have to get out. Why? She was still in her performance makeup and apparently that didn’t sit well with the guards. After posting a video on Facebook she got a call from store management saying the guards had acted on their own iniciative and they were no longer working there. Ms. Glamour was told she was welcome back at any time, in any state of attire.

The city of Perth, Australia, has teamed with a local transgender charity to create a new program that aims to curb homelessness among transgender people. You can read about it in the Star Observer.In Ireland, a new telephone hotline has opened up, aimed at families of transgender people. Despite the government’s growing acceptance of transgender people, some families still have trouble accepting it when one of their own comes out as transgender. The service will operate two Sundays a month, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., to start. The Evening Echo has this story.

New Zealand has a long waiting list for transgender surgery. One estimate says that it would take 40 years for someone added to the list to get surgery, but that estimate is hard to make, since the only surgeon who performed the operation retired in 2014. It was said earlier this year that a new surgeon had been approved for treating transgender patients, but the New Zealand Herald says that this new surgeon has only been hired as a plastic surgery consultant.

Last weekend, NPR ran a story on transgender teachers. The on-air segment included information about groups for transgender educators, while a column of quotes from transgender educators appeared online.

Violet Rue

A trans college student in Oregon went to her local courthouse to have the gender markers on her birth certificate changed. That’s how a lot of stories about the legal aspects of transition begin and in many cases the next sentence tells of the horrible time people had getting their documents changed. This story however is different. Violet Rue had her new birth certificate within a week. But then the story goes on to say it’s not that easy in many states. Read Violet’s story in The Daily Barometer.

Scientists announced that they have found twenty genes which are linked to being transgender. This statement comes from a presentation at the Society for Reproductive Investigation conference. This will be featured in a peer-reviewed journal at some time. The Daily Mail had this story.

TWITs

We have been following the story of Shannon Daniels, the transgender school principal in Massachusetts. OneNewsNow ran a story on the situation, praising the parents who harassed this educator. The title of the piece is, “Applauding mental illness in liberal Massachusetts.” Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have stated that being transgender is not a mental illness, and it is not classified as such in the diagnostic manual. What is classified as a mental illness is the belief that one has an expertise that one does not possess — this is called “delusions of grandeur.” For going against the experts without expertise, OneNewsNow gets a TWIT Award. The article can be found here.

As a protest of the pending legislation to update the Gender Recognition Act in Great Britain, a group of women have started something that they call “Man Friday,” in which they claim to identify as males on that day of the week. As part of this protest, Amy Desir went swimming in a males-only pool, wearing a male swimsuit. The Sunday Times wrote an article about this (subscription required). As Uncommon Sense points out, the proposed law would allow people to self-identify their gender, but one would have to state that one plans to live in the gender for the rest of one’s life. The law would not allow anyone to go back-and-forth on a day-to-day basis. For protesting a straw man, the people behind Man Friday get a TWIT Award.

Eric Teesel, the author of the Republican Party of Kansas’s resolution to oppose equal rights for transgender people, wrote an article for The Federalist defending his resolution. He claims that it is “not a ‘theological document,'” but admits, “it does rely on some fundamental biblical principles.” He then goes on to make a mountain out of a molehill. He starts with the idea of “God’s design for gender as determined by biological sex,” largely from the line, “male and female created he they,” from the first chapter of Genesis. But, if that is taken literally, then God never created intersex people, yet intersex people exist, so there is some other creative force besides God. Further, if that line in Genesis proves that chromosomes determine God’s design for gender, then the state of Israel should find that Jewish religious leaders never agree to a legal change of gender, except perhaps when someone made a data error. And yet, Jewish religious leaders participate in discussions as the government decides which transgender people qualify for state-funded surgery. For believing that his interpretation of the Bible is better than science (see the story about a genetic cause of gender identity above), Eric Teesel gets a TWIT.

A transgender Iowa boy has been denied acceptance to an American Legion’s high school program despite support from his local chapter, his family says. He was denied admission by the the state board of directors to a week-long governmental educational program because participants “…must be a biological male to attend Boys State.” That gets the Iowa state American Legion a TWIT Award. Get the story from the Des Moines Register

TWIT is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner.

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Tags: Dr. Rachel Levine, featured, Jan Morris, Jessie McGrath, Kennedy McArthur, Marvia Malik, news, Nicole Maines, Sarah McBride, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News