The Week In Trans 3/8/21

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Pose will end after its third season which will begin on May 2. The series finale will air on June 6. Out.com has this story.

Michelle Obama sang the praises of Zaya Wade after talking to the teen during a question-and-answer chat. The former first lady said, “You know, I am just so proud of you for being an amazing role model and just embracing your truth.” You can read more about this at PinkNews. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Ser Anzoategui of Vida wants to create a special category at awards shows for nonbinary people. While it’s a fine idea, there just aren’t enough roles for nonbinary people to merit a separate category. Them has this story.

Katrina C. Rose calls The Woman I Was Not Born To Be by Aleshia Brevard “the best trans memoir I’ve encountered.” You can find her review at LGBTQ Nation.

TS Madison, formerly of YouTube, is about to hit television with The TS Madison Experience. It is the first reality show to star a Black transgender woman. She talked about the show with them.

Lily Jo Hanson of the Joe Goes series of videos on YouTube came out as transgender. She also announced that she was done with the videos and was moving on to writing. PinkNews has this story.

Hogwarts Legacy, a new Harry Potter video game, will allow players to play a transgender character, according to the publishers. The choice of masculine or feminine voice is separate from the choice of body type. It’s obvious that they are trying to make up for J.K. Rowling’s transphobic comments. However, most transgender players prefer voice and body to match; we get enough mismatch in real life, and escape from that in things like video games. This story comes from Bloomberg.

A group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced a resolution to specifically include some LGBTQ+ people in Black History Month. Among those listed are Marsha P. Johnson and Stormé DeLaverie, both of whom were participants at Stonewall, as well as Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Carter Brown, and Andrea Jenkins. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

President Biden has appointed Reggie Greer as senior White House advisor for LGBTQ+ issues. He also is director of priority placement, and previously was director of constituent engagement at the Victory Institute. Out.com has this story.

36 transgender people who were housed in immigrant detention centers have signed a letter urging the Biden administration to release all LGBTQ+ people who are currently in ICE detention centers. The letter asks the president to apply the principles outlined in his memorandum on February 2, where he vowed to “protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons everywhere.” This story comes from them.

Mississippi became the second state to pass a bill which prevents transgender females from participating in women’s sports through its legislature. Governor Tate Reeves says that he will sign the bill, according to The Hill. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this and several other stories.

The bill banning transgender women from girls athletics in South Dakota seems to be a zombie. The Senate State Committee deferred the bill to the 41st day of the 40-day legislative session, a method of tabling the bill, after the bill failed a “do pass” vote. KELO-TV has this story. However, the next day, the state Senate decided to overrule the committee, and bring the bill to the floor of the state Senate anyway. The bill does not have a specific date on the calendar, according to KOLA-TV. The legislative session ends on March 29.

Missouri state Representative Chuck Bayse has proposed an amendment to the state constitution to ban transgender females from participating in sports for girls and women. An amendment to the state constitution would have to be approved by the voters in a referendum, as KRCG-TV points out.

An editorial in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls the proposed constitutional amendment “a solution in search of a problem.”

Deadspin says that legislation proposing to ban transgender athletes is “disingenuous, cruel and on-brand.”

One of the big disincentives to these bills banning transgender female athletes is the possibility of losing tourism, according to WTVF-TV.

The Human Rights Campaign notes that the same national politicians who want to pass legislation to demonize transgender people are also trying to stop an economic relief package that would help those who have been affected by COVID-19.

Dawn Ennis noted five problems with the bills regarding transgender athletes. Her article appears in USA Today.

While some state legislators try to make the case that cisgender females cannot compete in sports against transgender females (whom these politicians refer to as “biological males”), a cisgender girl named Heaven Fitch won the North Carolina state high school wrestling title in the 160-pound category, competing against cisgender boys. WTVD-TV took notice of this story.

Other bills concerning transgender people are on the agendas at state legislatures. South Dakota’s state legislature passed a bill to strengthen religious freedom regarding transgender people. You can read about it in The Advocate.

Alabama’s state Senate has passed the bill which would prohibit doctors from medically treating gender dysphoria in those under the age of 19. The vote was 23-4. It now goes to the state House of Representatives. The Hill has this story.

The Hill reports that more than half of state legislatures are considering some type of a bill to limit transgender people.

An article in The Washington Post points out that the rights of transgender people has emerged as a growing political flash point.

Transgender rights are respected by many corporations and by some other organizations. The Atlanta Constitution points out that laws restricting transgender rights might make it harder for Georgia to host the World Cup.

The body of Jenna Franks, a transgender woman, was found in Jacksonville, North Carolina, last week. This week, her identity was released, and she was identified by police as a transgender female. Police are treating this as a homicide, according to WTVD-TV. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

We reported last week on the death of JJ Bright, a trans man who was shot to death by his mother. This week, we found out that JJ’s older sibling, Jamine Canady, who was also killed in this incident, was nonbinary, and was quite well known by the local LGBTQ+ group. The Advocate has this story.

LGBTQ Nation notes that the murder of Bree Black remains unsolved, despite dozens of witnesses. This points out how tough it can be for police to know how to interact with transgender people.

Last year set records for the most transgender people murdered, and this year appears ready to surpass that record, as them notes.

A transgender female prisoner is suing the Michigan Department of Corrections alleging that, while she was housed in a men’s prison, she was molested by her cellmate, who was a convicted rapist. The Detroit Free Press has this story.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a South Carolina school, saying that the school was not obliged to publish a fourth-grader’s essay booklet. The essay was an affirmation of transgender people. The ruling did not disagree with the content of the essay, but merely affirmed the schools have discretion in what topics to present at what grade level, Courthouse News points out. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

A middle-school teacher in Minnetonka, Minnesota, takes a few minutes each day to talk about a “Person of the Day.” On February 19, his person of the day was Marsha P. Johnson. KARE-TV reports that the community rallied around the teacher, Colin Perucco. LGBTQ Nation points out that sites such as The Daily Caller have raised the issue as a point in the culture war, causing the school to receive negative feedback.

The Kingsport Times-News has an article entitled, “We need to have compassion for transgender students.” The author starts with the fact that being born intersex is about as common as being born with red hair.

The pandemic has hit transgender people especially hard. NJ.com takes a look at some stories of transgender people during the pandemic.

Mitchell Hamline School of Law has a course on the rights of transgender people. You can read about it on their website.

Marjorie Taylor Greene came up with her own response to the Equality Act–her proposal would allow people to sue the federal government if they feel that their religious rights are being violated. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quickly responded. When Representative Greene moved to adjourn before the vote on the Equality Act could take place, Representative Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “You could just vote ‘no’ instead of trying to get out of work early. And you should probably stop using those hashtags because women’s rights include trans women.” Them has this story.

An editorial in The Advocate sides with Representative Marie Newman and derides Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for her anti-transgender sign (which also is factually incorrect).

Colorado state Representative Brianna Titone wrote an editorial opposing U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert’s recent speech opposing transgender rights. The article appears in The Denver Post.

A reporter alleged that provisions of the Equality Act would force doctors to perform abortions or “perform gender transition surgeries [sic] and sterilizations, again, even if the [sic] violates their conscience,” and asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if the President agrees with this. Ms. Psaki responded to the question about abortion, but later, the official President of the United States twitter account said, “Transgender rights are human rights — and the House made that clear today by passing the Equality Act.” LGBTQ Nation has this tory.

The American Psychological Association has long condemned conversion therapy in general, but this week they finally came out opposing the practice for transgender people. This caught the attention of them.

A new study showed that intramuscular injections of estradiol brought higher levels of estrogen, while all available methods of hormone therapy brought similar levels of testosterone in transgender males. Healio has this story.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that its members be ready to handle transgender and gender diverse patients. OB/GYN medicine tends to presume the patients are female, and that sort of thinking can be a problem for transgender males, as MedPageToday points out.

The University of Maine at Augusta monthly Zoom meeting concerned problems with accessing transgender medical care in rural communities. The Franklin Journal thought that was close to home, as Franklin County is pretty rural.

At a medical conference on the consequences of the High Court’s ruling to prevent doctors from prescribing puberty blockers to children under the age of 16, Dr. Jay Stewart said that transgender children are feeling a lack of control over their lives. They feel as if “the world hates them.” This sad story appears in Pink News.

Twitch tried to use the term “womxn,” thinking it to be more inclusive, but found out from its users that the opposite is true. Them has this story.

Carolyn Mercer spoke to PinkNews about how she was given electric shock aversion therapy by Britain’s National Health Service in an attempt to treat her “gender confusion.”

South Korea’s first transgender soldier, who was involuntarily discharged from service after getting gender confirmation surgery, was found dead this week. Byun Hui-su was 23 years old. CNN has this story.

Nur Sajat is a Malaysian transgender woman and business tycoon. She suddenly disappeared after a video popped up on the Internet which seems to show her renouncing Islam. She was already in trouble with the religious authorities of her country. The South China Morning Post has this story.

The Supreme Court of India has asked the government to respond to a request to change the guidelines for blood donation, to allow gay and transgender people to donate blood. “Donor blood is tested for infectious diseases, including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS. Such a ban solely on the basis of their gender identity and sexual orientation is completely arbitrary, unreasonable, and discriminatory. It is also unscientific,” says the ruling. This story comes from The Hindu.

A story in bitchmedia looks at the phenomenon of crowd funding to cover the cost of gender confirming surgeries.

There is a guide on how to know if you are nonbinary in them.

Brynn Tannehill has a new book due out later this month, titled American Fascism: How the GOP Is Subverting Democracy. She talked about the book, and some of its major themes, with Outsports.

Parents of transgender children are quite upset with the images of transgender people that are being presented in the media these days. Part of the problem is that the media are reporting what opponents of transgender people are saying about us, and what they are saying is far from positive. But, that is being presented without a lot of push-back from the media. Yahoo has this story.

The term “TERF” is older than you might realize. PinkNews has a short history of the term. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this article.

TWITs

During the debates on transgender athletes, the Associated Press noticed that very few examples of transgender athletes were actually being given. All of those lawmakers who are rushing to pass legislation to “protect girls sports” without any evidence of a threat share a TWIT Award.

During his speech to CPAC, Donald Trump referred to transgender females as “biological males,” and said of transgender females competing in women’s sports, “If this does not change, women’s sports as we know it will die. It’ll end. It’ll end.” He added later, “A lot of new records are being broken in women’s sports.” For exaggerating the extent of the threat, and making up what is happening, without any care for reality, Donald Trump gets a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump Jr. also made anti-transgender jabs during their remarks at CPAC. Both made attempted humor at the recent rebranding of a toy as “Potato Head.” They imply that transgender people pressured Hasbro to drop the gender of the toy, although there is no evidence of such a campaign. They kept referring to the rebranding as a part of “cancel culture,” even though it really is an attempt to revive sales of a toy that is seen as old and from a bygone time. They seem to forget that the company which rebranded the toy as gender-neutral is the same company which gave the toy its gender in the initial release of the product. For making a mountain out of a molehill, Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump Jr. get a TWIT Award. This story also comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Richard Grenell tried to share with Twitter followers the experience of a transgender woman at CPAC. Gina Roberts tweeted, “Statement for the record. CPAC 2021 was an incredibly accepting and wonderful experience for this transgender Republican woman. I worked the Log Cabin Republican booth and received nothing but respectful questions about things in the news about transgender people. Much better and easy to get along with crowd than any Pride festival I was involved at. . .” After retweeting these remarks, Richard Grenell got a number of replies such as “transgenderism is demonic, no matter how much $$ your donors give you to convince you it isn’t.” While there were a few who tried to defend this bit of inclusion, the trend was to publicly denounce the transgender attendee. For jumping to condemn on the basis of prejudice, those who sent anti-transgender replies get a TWIT. PinkNews has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Newt Gingrich claimed that Joe Biden’s administration is “a sprint to radicalism” and that his policies would create a nation of “racial deep inequality.” He referred to the policies as “anti-white” and “anti-Asian.” In the midst of this rambling rant on Tucker Carlson’s show, he claimed, “It’s an America in which transgender dominates Christianity and Judaism.” He seems to be having some trouble with grammar–“transgender” is an adjective, not a noun. Moreover, he is making empty claims, with no attempt at proof. For making transgender people into villains who will destroy things, Newt Gingrich gets a TWIT. This story comes from The Huffington Post. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Representative Lauren Boebert went on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, and went into a disjointed attack on the Equality Act. She said of the act, “If anything, it’s the supremacy for gays, lesbians, and transveshikes,” making up new words in an attempt to smear people she does not like. She claims that the bill is not needed because the fourteenth amendment already accomplishes what the bill would do. For not recognizing reality, and for attacking others, Representative Lauren Boebert gets a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

A month after President Biden signed an executive order promoting fairness for LGBTQ people, Clare Morell takes objection to the inclusion of “transgenderism” in a piece for The Daily Signal. She claims that the Equality Act would “imperil victims of abuse,” by which she means women who are victims of domestic abuse. More specifically, she is talking of these women at homeless shelters, having to put up with transgender women in the same facility. She ignores the fact that many transgender women have been victims of sexual abuse themselves. She also seems not to be too familiar with what happens at a homeless shelter. For doing little research before spreading her prejudiced opinion, Clare Morell gets a TWIT Award.

Representative Mary Miller, not satisfied with opposing the Equality Act, has proposed a bill to tell transgender people which bathroom we can use. She claims that the bill is needed to fight “radical gender ideology” that is being forced “on our children.” As with transgender athletes, the people proposing these bills do not bother finding any examples of the sorts of incidents that they say must be prevented. For fighting a problem which does not exist, Representative Mary Miller gets a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

In the midst of a pandemic, with so many problems in the nation, a group of Republican senators took the time to sign a letter to Jeff Bezos, complaining that Amazon has stopped selling a poorly-researched book on transgender people. They say that not selling Ryan Anderson’s book is “political censorship,” even though, as a decision by the estate of Dr. Seuss shows, ceasing sales of a book only makes the existing copies more valuable. For misplaced priorities, and for exaggerating the impact of one retailer’s decision, these Senators get a TWIT award. This story comes from The Hill.

In New Hampshire, a committee of the state House of Representatives was debating a bill to ban the use of gay and transgender panic as a legal defense. The debate became confused and chaotic when state Representative Dick Marston said, “We refer to people as gay or ‘LGBs’ or so on and so forth, and we want to carve them out and say they got special privileges.” He claims that equality clause in the state constitution “covers everybody to begin with,” ignoring the fact that historically a lot of discrimination has happened despite claims that everyone is equal. He went on to say that the proposal would protect people “because he or she was some deviant sexuality that I’m not –.” just before he got interrupted to ask him to keep within expected decorum. For displaying exactly the disrespect of others that the legislation aims to ban, state Representative Dick Marston gets a TWIT. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

The Communications and Digital Committee of the British House of Commons asked Graham Linehan to give evidence on “freedom of expression online.” Graham Linehan has been banned from Twitter for using free speech to attack others in what the social media company referred to as “hateful conduct.” Also testifying was Helen Staniland, a software developer whose Twitter account was permanently suspended because of her abuse of transgender people. For being more interested in attackers than in their targets, the Communications and Digital Committee of the House of Commons gets a TWIT Award. This story is found at PinkNews.

We reported last week how the BBC did not include transgender people in the discussion of legislation that affects transgender people. This week, a similar thing happened in the U.S., where discussion of the Equality Act did not include LGBTQ people. There also were instances where some outlets quoted anti-transgender comments without noting that the allegations are untrue. For not being careful about who speaks or what they say, these news outlets get a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A far-right website called Gab was hacked. A site run by a transgender woman announced that the site had been hacked, and that they kept information on users which they said that they did not keep. Naturally, the people behind the far-right website assumed that the attack came from the person who announced the hack. The CEO of the far-right site blamed “Mentally ill t****y demon hackers” for what happened to his website, without mentioning his site’s lack of emphasis on security. For belittling others, and for not admitting to their own role in this, Gab gets a TWIT. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Finally, Minnesota state Representative Eric Lucero introduced a bill about transgender females in girls sports, but he added a new twist. His bill would allow fines or even juvenile detention for transgender females who participate in girls sports. For making a crime out of trying to participate in school sports, and for providing a punishment greatly in excess of the seriousness of the act, Representative Eric Lucero gets a Double TWIT Award. Them has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

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