The Week In Trans 4/26/21

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Dr. Rachel Levine

Dawn Ennis interviewed Dr. Rachel Levine for Forbes. In the interview, the Assistant Secretary for Health talked about the COVID vaccine, and about the rash of bills about transgender youth.

The Biden administration continues to chip away at anti-transgender policies of the Trump administration. This week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the end of the proposed requirement that homeless shelters sort people according to sex at birth. The Trump administration never got the chance to put the rule into practice. NBC News has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this and other stories.

The U.S. State Department reversed a ban on flying the rainbow LGBTQ Pride flag at embassies. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Media Matters For America notes that CNN and MSNBC recently interviewed transgender people to talk about the anti-transgender bills being filed at state legislatures, and that the transgender people did a good job of debunking the arguments for the bills.

Welton Gaddy is a minister with a congregation in Louisiana, who disagrees strongly with the idea that transgender people deserve shaming as sinners. This article appears in Religion Dispatches.

The Reverend David Chatel wrote an article for The Human Rights Campaign a faith-based perspective on transgender inequality.

Eric Tannehill is an 18-year-old transgender man. He writes for the Los Angeles Blade that seeing conservative politicians target transgender youth is “like watching a murder in slow motion.”

Several corporations have expressed their opposition to the bills which target young transgender people, according to The Hill.

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Johnny Santos Moreno attacked a transgender woman with a skateboard recently. He pleaded guilty, and as a result, he received a mere six months in prison. PinkNews has this story.

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox complains that “not nearly enough” has been done to see that the stories of transgender women are included among the “me too” incidents. This story comes from Attitude magazine. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Jennifer Pritzker is the first known transgender billionaire. She told lawmakers that she might move out of Tennessee if they keep passing bills targeting transgender people. Out.com has this story.

Gearbox, the gaming company, told Texas legislators that the company would move out of Texas if they pass a bill which affects transgender people, including transgender youth. This story comes from PinkNews. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

New York City is launching a workshop to help young LGBTQ people, especially the homeless LGBTQ people, to find jobs. This story comes from them.

Employment is the theme of the initial PinkNews Summit.

Kellogg’s has teamed up with GLAAD to create a pride-themed cereal. This story comes from them.

Another study has found that transgender children who socially transition have levels of depression and anxiety which are similar to those of cisgender children. Since we know that transgender children have high levels of anxiety and depression, those high levels have to be found in transgender children who did not socially transition. Psychiatry Advisor has this story.

A transgender medical resident at the Mayo Clinic tells of her experiences as an out transgender person in medicine. Her story can be found at Medscape.

Aiden Vasquez

Transgender people continue to have trouble getting insurance to pay for medical care related to their gender dysphoria. In Iowa, Aiden Vasquez is suing the Department of Human Services for excluding care related to gender dysphoria from Medicare coverage. Little Village Magazine has this story.

A new study in the U.K. finds that transgender youth are the least optimistic about the future. 14 percent report never feeling optimistic about the future, a number well above levels found even in LGB peers. This story comes from PinkNews.

Celebrity hairstylist and transgender woman Gracie Cartier has admitted that she is HIV-Positive. The Advocate has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Pose premieres its final season next week. Plot outlines for new episodes and pictures were released this week, according to Out.com. The Advocate reports that Pose will be honored at a live streaming event by the Human Rights Campaign.

Changing The Game is a new film depicting the ups and downs of transgender athletes, including Mack Beggs, the transgender man who won wrestling championships in Texas in the girls category. The film will come to Hulu this summer, according to The Advocate.

Richard Dawkins has been stripped of the title of “Humanist Of The Year,” 25 years after he received that title, in response to his recent tweet indirectly comparing transgender people to Rachel Dolezal, who declared herself Black despite having White parents. Forbes has this story.

Insider has a list of transgender celebrities in television.

Seven Black LGBTQ+ actors talked to them about the character which inspired them.

Ezra Furman

Singer/songwriter Ezra Furman has come out as transgender. Pitchfork has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Singer-songwriter The Blossom uses music to break free of gender dysphoria, according to a profile in them.

Harpist Ahya Simone talked about being a Black transgender woman in an interview with them.

Julia Scotti is a transgender woman and a stand-up comedian. She talks about that in a new documentary entitled Julia Scotti: Funny That Way. The documentary was filmed over five years. The Advocate has this story.

MMA fighter Fallon Fox is getting a bio pick, according to SkyNews.

Pixar has announced an open casting call for a young transgender woman to be the voice of their first transgender character. SF Gate reports that they are looking for a 12-to-17-year-old female “who can authentically portray a 14-year-old transgender girl.”

Caitlyn Jenner has announced that she is running for governor of California, as Gavin Newsom faces a recall effort. She is known as a Republican who is opposed to former President Trump, which will affect her chances in the election. Out.com has this story.

Hunter Schafer and Jeremy O. Harris, the writers behind Euphoria, talk about their show and about writing queer characters in an interview with them.

Munroe Bergdorf

PinkNews reports that Munroe Bergdorf wants to be the first transgender contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, a BBC dance competition show.

Cher revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she is a big fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race and feels she needs to become a guest judge on the show.

Marjorie Taylor Greene retweeted a story from a far-right site, which noted that children were brought onto the stage at a drag show, and added the comment that someone should be arrested. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

A gender clinic in Exeter has a five-year wait to get an initial appointment. The NHS apologizes for the wait, but seems to be unable to shorten that wait, due to a lack of medical professionals trained in caring for transgender people. Devon Live has this story.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told Prime Minister Boris Johnson that if he does not ban conversion therapy in the U.K., she will see to it that it is banned in Scotland. This story comes from PinkNews.

London Trans Pride has announced that there will be a peaceful protest in June, aimed at calling attention to the U.K. government’s disregard for transgender safety. PinkNews has this story.

Nicole Maines

Nicole Maines expressed her displeasure and disappointment in the new bills regarding transgender youth. The Wrap has this story.

Political leaders in Chechnya have been arresting and torturing people who are suspected of being LGBTQ. Now, the European Center for Constitutional and Human rights has detailed the abuses, and called for those leaders to be charged with “crimes against humanity.” This story comes from them.

The government of South Africa has introduced a third gender option on national IDs. Since the 13-digit ID number is supposed to reflect whether the person is male or female, they need to create a new number pattern specifically for the third gender option, which is designed for non-binary people. PinkNews has this story.

Teddy Cook is a health professional who addressed the parliament of New South Wales on the topic of transgender people. He said that transgender people are “not the threat you imagine us to be,” and that “we deserve the dignity of being known.” This story comes from The Guardian.

Mark Latham, who left the Labour Party of Australia to join the far-right One Nation Party, has introduced a bill which would allow parents to stop schools from teaching their child about transgender people. A protest against this bill was held in Sydney, according to PinkNews.

In Australia, a 15-year-old who committed suicide was given two funerals, because their parents could not agree on which name to use at the memorial. The father wanted to use the boy’s deadname, while the mother used the child’s chosen name. Perth Now has this story.

A new podcast episode on LGBTQ Nation asks transgender teens what they think of the new bills affecting transgender people.

Danica Roem

Danica Roem has suggested that voting and running for office can be effective ways to combat the efforts to deny the rights of transgender people. Her comments can be found in LGBTQ Nation.

The Washington Post has a FAQ about transgender children, their medical treatments, and their athletic abilities.

An opinion piece in The Conversation describes how parents can support a child who comes out as transgender.

The Advocate exposes the arrogance of politicians who think they know transgender people better than transgender people know ourselves. In reality, these people can’t tell the depth of their ignorance, nor can they recognize good science.

TWITs

Buzzfeed News has the names of politicians pushing the anti-transgender legislation, and calls them out for using bad science. For arguing from ignorance, and for not even expressing a desire to learn better, these politicians get a TWIT Award.

The LGB Alliance, the group who argues for excluding transgender people from gay events and laws in the U.K., has been given the status of a charity by the Charity Commission. For granting charitable status to a group whose primary purpose is to deny the civil rights of another group, the Charity Commission gets a TWIT Award. PinkNews has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

In a sign of how polarized and how set in-their-ways people are, Kai Shappley has received death threats after testifying before the Texas legislature. For showing that the real danger to transgender youth is not puberty blockers and medication but rather politicians and their partisan followers, the people who issued these death threats to transgender youth who testified receive a very large TWIT Award. This story comes from Newsweek.

For no obvious reason, O.J. Simpson felt compelled to speak out against transgender female athletes. His opinion shows that he has no idea about transgender medicine, and is quite ignorant of the science behind athletics. He gets a TWIT.  PinkNews has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to the story.

Instagram has been censoring pictures of transgender people, while allowing otherwise similar pictures of cisgender people. For creating a separate set of rules for transgender people, and for essentially fetishizing transgender people, Instagram gets a TWIT. This story comes from PinkNews.

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