The Week In Trans 4/6/20

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Indya Moore

Last Tuesday was Transgender Day of Visibility. Media Matters for America has a list of five positive stories about transgender people. Pink News has a list of “25 trans and non-binary people who are happy, visible and making the world a better place.” Pink News also has a story on 28 times “trans and non-binary people made history and did truly incredible things in the last year.” Mashable has a list of “7 tips to help you observe Trans Day of Visibility.” The Trevor Project released a new guide to being a better ally to transgender and non-binary people. Pink News also has a list of famous people who have shown themselves to be transgender allies. Pink News also has a story about some of the ways that famous allies showed their support for transgender people. Given the scare of COVID-19, International Transgender Day of Visibility was practiced with social distancing this year, as The Times of India reports. Insider has some before-and-after transition pictures, which are acceptable as long as they got permission to make them so public. At Forbes, Ashlee Fowlkes had an update on how transgender rights are doing and how that is affecting visibility. The Los Angeles Times ran a piece celebrating the beauty of black transgender women. Civil rights organizations such as The ACLU and The Human Rights Campaign had articles acknowledging International Transgender Day of Visibility. The World Economic Forum also had an article about the importance of transgender rights, though theirs came with the disclaimer that “the views expressed are those of the author.” Adweek has an article about how some brands chose to acknowledge Transgender Day of Visibility.

Rex Wilde created the Transcend Career Fair, a Los Angeles event which is said to be the world’s largest career fair for transgender people. This week saw the next step, Rex Wilde Consulting. The firm will concentrate on workplace acceptance of transgender people, through education as well as consulting. This caught the attention of Yahoo Finance.

Lorena Borjas

Lorena Borjas, a transgender woman and an activist, has died of COVID-19. She was a fighter for transgender rights, immigrants, and sex workers. She got an obituary from CNN. Ms. Bob Davis found an article about Lorena Borjas in The New Yorker.

Transgender activist Valentina Ferrety was murdered in Mexico. She had been documenting discrimination and human rights violations in Mexico since January. Planet Transgender has this story. LGBTQ Nation reports another transgender woman was killed in Mexico, near Acapulco. This victim, who was bludgeoned with rocks, has yet to be identified. NBC New York has a story of a transgender woman who died after being stabbed in the throat. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report which shows a 43% rise in the number of anti-LGBTQ hate groups. Some of that rise was due to the SPLC finally adding some groups to its list, and some of the rise was due to the formation of new groups from within previously-existing groups. While there is some evidence that there is a rise in membership, this report does not deal specifically with membership numbers. You can read about it in LGBTQ Nation.

Danica Roem

Virginia state Delegate Danica Roem writes in LGBTQ Nation about confronting a fellow state legislator, who was trying to make a hero out of a teacher who refused to acknowledge a student’s gender identity. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The Advocate has an editorial from a conservative Republican who sees the need for the Equality Act.

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has released a guide titled A Know Your Rights Guide for Transgender People Navigating COVID-19. According to the guide, the fact that there is a pandemic does not mean that your legal rights are suddenly suspended. The Washington Blade has a report.

The Williams Institute estimates that 9,000 transgender people in California are at high risk for COVID-19. You can read their findings on Yubanet.

Dr. Rachel Levine is the Secretary of Health for Pennsylvania, as well as the state’s Physician General. She is helping the state’s governor to create policy to fight COVID-19. She gave an interview to The Advocate.

The Hill has a guest editorial about the problems transgender veterans have with accessing care for gender dysphoria through the VA.

Q Notes has an article about current practices for treating gender dysphoria in youth.

Saff Saffery

The new Netflix documentary Tiger King was all over social media this week. It seems that the documentary misgendered one of the nicest people in the whole sordid incident. “Kelci Saffery” is actually a transgender man named Saff Saffery. You can read about it in RVA magazine.

An article on depression and suicidal thoughts among transgender youth appears in Medical Express.

A new study on mental health in transgender youth can be found in The American Academy of Pediatrics News and Journals.

An article in Oncology Nurse Advisor discusses how to treat a transgender cancer patient with respect.

POZ has some new statistics about HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases among transgender people.

Franklin Graham’s medical charity, Samaritan’s Purse, is behind the 68-bed hospital for COVID-19 patients that was set up in Central Park. They have asked all medical and volunteer staff to sign a pledge, which includes an anti-LGBTQ provision. The pledge denies that transgender people exist, as well as stating that gays must be celibate or “risk eternal damnation.” LGBTQ Nation has this story. Although the anti-LGBTQ portions of the pledge are out of step with the civil rights protections of LGBTQ people in the state of New York, Pink News reports that at least one person was unable to volunteer without agreeing to the pledge.

Jonathan Van Ness has a new children’s book, entitled Peanut Goes For The Gold. The main character of the story is a guinea-pig who happens to be non-binary. The author read the book live on Instagram for Transgender Day of Visibility. Pink News has this story.

Insider has a story about transgender YouTubers who are doing their best to educate their viewers.

The Guardian has a piece about celebrity fathers as told by their children. The second piece has Brandon Jenner talking about his relationship to Caitlyn.

Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Jenner sat down for an interview with Dawn Ennis from Outsports.

Drag queens Aja and Honey Davenport talked with Pink News about their new single.

Fabian and Angel Griffin are identical twins from Mississippi who both transitioned from female to male. They tell Pink News that transitioning brought them closer to each other.

Love can come when it’s least expected. The Daily Mail has the story of Adriel and Monae Alvarado, who met while both were in prison in Pennsylvania. Monae is a transgender woman who was held in a men’s prison.

In Britain, the Charity Commission is receiving a lot of requests asking them not to award the LGB Alliance with the status of a charity. A petition at Change.org has been signed by more than 13,000 people. You can read about this at Pink News. Pink News also reports that among supporters of the LGB Alliance are homophobes, and even Neo-Nazis.

In Canada, a politician named Derek Sloan did an interview with CTV, in which he claimed that conversion therapy could work if done right. Pink News has more about this interview. That’s getting very close to TWIT Award territory.

Juliet Evancho

Juliet Evancho and her sister Jackie are sheltering in place in Pittsburgh, with their parents. Their parents are in the process of divorcing, according to People magazine.

A new report in The Taipei Times notes that 37.3% of transgender people in Taiwan reported gender-related discrimination or bullying in the workplace. The same survey shows 55.4% of transgender people have been afraid of using a public restroom.

Transgender people in Gujarat are giving away food packets to the needy, as a response to the COVID-19 crisis. The Logical Indian has this story.

The Cuban Legend, female impersonator extraordinaire David de Alba is back on YouTube with a video blog in which he discusses what it was like when Hollywood stars were truly stars. David’s fans won’t want to miss this. Find it now on YouTube.

TWITs

Steven Crowder is an alleged comedian who works for The Blaze. In his latest prank call skit, he impersonates a black transgender woman as he calls the people behind Dove soap to complain about their latest campaign, which he pretends should have included “her,” a quadruple amputee with rickets. For blackface, impersonating a transgender woman, bigotry, and unfunny comedy, Steven Crowder gets a TWIT Award.

Panama instituted a gender-based quarantine schedule, in which different genders were required to stay indoors on different days. However, when Bárbara Delgado left her house on Wednesday, a day when women are allowed to do essential shopping, but men are not, she was detained by the police. For using COVID-19 to punish a transgender woman, the Panamanian police get a TWIT Award. This story can be found at Human Rights Watch.

Governor Brad Little of Idaho signed two bills into law that directly affect transgender people. One of them forbids transgender females from participating in women’s sports in Idaho schools. The other forbids the state from updating the sex listed on a birth certificate. Forbes has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story. KBTV finds local lawyers who agree with the Attorney General of Idaho that these new laws are likely unconstitutional. The Idaho Statesman quotes the ACLU as saying that they will take the matter to court. The birth certificate bill defies an existing federal court order. The Bay Area Reporter tells us that the new laws will get Idaho added to the list of places where California and San Francisco will not allow their state employees to travel at state expense. Teen Vogue and BeLatina have editorials about why such bills make Idaho look like a bad place. Dexter Komakaru writes in The Advocate that, in the middle of a global pandemic, there are plenty of things for lawmakers to be concerned about besides limiting transgender rights. Governor Little shares a TWIT Award with the Idaho legislature.

A city councilman in Yakima, Washington, praised the new laws regarding transgender people in Idaho. He also called the leader of Yakima’s Pride “an idiot.” For outright prejudice, Jason White gets a TWIT Award. The Yakima Herald-Republic has this story.

Hungary’s parliament gave Prime Minister Viktor Orbán extraordinary powers under martial law. The first thing he did with these new powers was to replace “gender” with “birth sex” on all legal documents. For using a global pandemic to spread prejudice, Victor Orbán gets a TWIT. The Guardian has this story.

A new poster showed up in Hyderabad, India, stating, “If you talk to transgenders, you will get Corona.” For spreading hysteria and false science, whoever is behind these posters gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from New Indian Express. [Editor’s Note: Talking up close with anyone could give you the virus.]

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