The Week In Trans 5/13/19
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Érica Malunguinh
Erica Malunguinho, the first transgender person elected to a state congress in Brazil, sat down for an interview with The Washington Blade.
The National Center for Transgender Equality released more findings from the U.S. Transgender Survey. The report says that 58% of respondents say they were harassed, abused, or otherwise mistreated by law enforcement. The NCTE also looked at the policies of the twenty-five largest police departments in the U.S., and found that none of them had all the recommended policies in place, and some were in need of a lot of updating. The New York Daily News has this story.
Map Pesqueira, whose ROTC scholarship was revoked due to his transgender status, wrote a letter to the editor of USA Today.
The Colorado National Guard joined the National Guard of five other states in refusing to implement the ban on transgender people in the military. Colorado Politics has this story.
Data from the LGBTQ Teen Study shows that transgender students who are denied access to the restroom or locker rooms at school that matches their gender identity are significantly more likely to be victims of sexual assault than those who do not have such access. While this does not prove causation, it is hard to ignore. This story comes from CNN.
Amber Nicole
Amber Nicole, a Denver trans woman who is described as a “beloved trans performer and a Denver socialite” was attacked outside a bar. Denver Police have their bias-crime investigation unit looking into the incident, even though it has not yet been officially determined to be a hate crime, according to The Denver Post.
Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill which bans the state of Iowa from using taxpayer money to pay for transgender medical care. She sites a previous state policy. CBS2 Iowa has this story.
Mexico’s Supreme Court has ordered the state court of Jalisco to issue a new birth certificate to a transgender person. The decision says, “As the Supreme Court has argued in other cases, everyone has the right to define their own sexual and gender identity and it is the state’s responsibility to guarantee this decision, which is reflected in different documents, mainly the birth certificate.” Reuters has this story.
Two Portland State University researchers have received federal funding to help develop a mobile app aimed at reducing HIV among transgender women, a group whose HIV rates are much higher than other high-risk groups. Get the story from the Eureka Alert website.
A new report from Amnesty International shows that transgender people in China have difficulty getting to see doctors, and many self-medicate. There is also a lack of information about gender identity, and there is no law forbidding conversion therapy. Some have even tried to perform surgery on themselves. You can read about the findings in Pink News.
Amnesty International explains the problems of Chinese trans people using 8 cat memes. See the kitties on their website.
There is an effort underway to convince the governor of California to induct the founder of The Imperial Court System into the California Hall of Fame. Jose Julio Sarria died in 2013 at the age of 90. Sarria, in addition to founding the Court in 1965, was the first drag queen to run for public office — in 1961. Thanks to Ms. Bob Davis for the link. You can learn more from The Bay Area Reporter.
Sue Pasco
Sue Pascoe is a trans person in Britain who is running for a seat in the European Parliament. Until Great Britain finalizes its departure from the European Union, they still have seats in the European Parliament, and six of their seats are up for election on May 23. Gay Star News has this story.
Katherine O’Donnell, an editor at the Times of London, claims that she was laid off (or as it’s called in Britain, “made redundant”) due to her transition and her habit of asking the paper to be less negative in covering stories about transgender matters. You can read about it at Buzzfeed.
A sticker was found added to a restroom sign in Dundee, Scotland, to make it seem that transgender people were not allowed in the lady’s room. The sticker, which looked official but was not, was removed, according to Pink News.
The BBC has a video feature about a wig shop that is giving transgender women confidence.
A member of the Scottish Parliament, Joan McAlpine, has received criticism for inviting noted anti-transgender Canadian journalist Meghan Murphy to speak to the assembly. Specifically, Ms. Murphy was invited to speak on “women’s rights and the trans debate.” Pink News reports that much of the criticism comes from Ms. McAlpine’s own party.
A think tank in Britain decided not to renew the contract of Maya Forstater after she publicly expressed views which she describes as “gender critical.” She is suing for discrimination, hoping that the courts will find her views protected, according to Pink News.
Mary Gregory
Mary Gregory thought that she had set four women’s records in powerlifting, but they were taken away from her. She was declared “actually a male” by the Raw Powerlifting Federation. You can read about this in Outsports.
A Canadian father, who constantly misgenders and otherwise criticizes his transgender son in media interviews, has been ordered by a court to stop talking publicly about his son. The order specifically forbids the father from using his son’s brith name and from calling him a girl, among other things. The father’s comments appeared in The Federalist. The decision accuses the father of “gender violence.” The Advocate has this story.
Boise Weekly has a preview of Opera Idaho’s presentation of As One, an opera in which two singers play the part of a transgender character.
There is much talk about the need to cast transgender people in transgender roles. In Arizona, a performance of Things I Know To Be True will feature actor Kevin Kantor as a transgender character, one of an ensemble of performers. Having an actor who describes themself as “trans nonbinary” in the role made a difference to writer Andrew Bovell, a cisgender Australian who is updating his play to fit the United States. The Arizona Republic has this story.
Jeka Jane writes about his gender transition and dance in The Advocate.
Desmond is Amazing is now a sneaker model. The 11-year-old drag performer is appearing in an ad campaign for Converse footwear. They’re not your grandpa’s Chucks anymore. The campaign features five other LGBTQ+ individuals to promote the company’s Pride Collection. Learn more from Life Site News.
Indya Moore
Indya Moore, one of the stars of Pose, is about to be the first transgender woman to grace the cover of Elle magazine. The interview with her can be found on Elle’s website.
The theme of this year’s Met Gala was “camp.” While that can mean a lot of things, it can indicate playing around with gender expectations, as can be seen in a pre-Gala story at Teen Vogue.
Aquaria
The Met Gala theme was camp but there were only three drag queens there and one of them, RuPaul, wore a camp outfit that wasn’t female drag. The other two were Aquaria and Violet Chachki. Chachki went as the date of designer Jeremy Scott. See what she wore on the Vice Garage website.
Speaking of drag; there’s a new book out about how drag has been a part of showbiz for over a 100 years. The book is by Frank DeCaro and is titled Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business. Learn more from The Hollywood Reporter.
To show their support for their transgender son, two parents got matching tattoos. You can find this story at LGBTQ Nation.
This year in the fall the Supreme Court is going to hear several cases dealing with LGBT rights. Find out what they will be ruling on and what you need to know in The Lilly. Thanks to Ms. Bob Davis for passing along the link.
TWITs
When a second-grader in Oregon was seen using the staff restroom, the teacher gave the child a short lesson on what “transgender” means during recess. In return, the parents are suing the teacher, charging “false imprisonment,” and claiming that the teacher was trying to “promote becoming transgender.” It turns out that the child has a digestive condition which makes it difficult for others sharing the restroom. The parents are asking for $79,999 for current and future medical expenses and $920,000 for non-economic damages. For expressing a transphobic attitude and for greedily attempting to grab cash, these unnamed parents get a TWIT Award. The Salem Statesman Journal has this story.
When the younger of the two alleged shooters at a school in Colorado turned out to be transgender, several conservative media outlets rushed to report this, even before the gender identity of the suspect was confirmed. They seemed to relish this, as though it somehow showed that transgender people are mentally ill. Admittedly, the sheriff said of the suspect, “Right now, we are identifying the individual as a female, because that’s where we’re at. We originally thought the juvenile was a male by appearance.” For condemning a group on the basis of one member, these publications get a TWIT Award. Examples can be found in The Washington Examiner and PJ Media.
Several people seem to be reacting to a report that in an upcoming movie, Sonic the Hedgehog is transgender. It turns out that the source of this is a story on a parody news site. For not doing their homework in checking out the source, those who reacted as though this were real share a TWIT. Snopes has this story.
California has released its new guidelines on sex education, and they got a predictable reaction from CBN. For destroying the reputation of others, CBN gets a TWIT Award.
A website called Church Militant goes into over-the-top mode in attempting to defend Maya Forstater, the woman whose contract was not renewed because of her anti-transgender tweets. She had over one hundred of these tweets, not just a couple–that alone indicated some sort of obsession, and that obsession was reflecting badly on her employer. Moreover, the article on Church Militant claims that science backs up anti-transgender beliefs, when in fact high school students should realize that there is more to sex than chromosomes. For insulting those who know more than he does, the author of the editorial in Church Militant gets a TWIT.
Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has decided to use the deadname of a transgender child at graduation. When the child’s father pleaded with the principal, he was told that it had to be so because of an “unwritten rule.” For failing to give the respect that one expects, the principal gets a TWIT. The Advocate has 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.
Category: Transgender Community News
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Every week Cecilia Barzyk diligently scans the internet to assemble as much trans-related information from the weekly news as possible.Subscribe
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I’m an active crossdresser and I appreciate your weekly updates. I often pass your information on to my friends. This week’s items brings up my main problem in all news. What can we trust? Trans content or not, we need to have the facts.
I grew up being a “news junkie”. Back then all the news outlets did scrupulous fact checking to assure what they were printing or broadcasting was true. Some outlets worked to slant things to their point of view, but they still fact checking. The most obvious examples of “slanting” the news was to just report parts of stories instead of all the facts.
Now it seems certain “news” outlets search for and report on items that first of all meet their particular point of view. The better the match, the quicker it gets reported. Of course the Fox so-called-news comes to mind first. And even when a story is proven false they continue to report it for several more days. Additionally, they call on those false reports as backup for future slanted reporting. Here in Baltimore we have the headquarters of the arch-conservative Sinclair broadcasting network. They are even more right wing than the Fox people and report on items that “prove” their point of view. They are unlikely to report on the fact that these stories have been proven false.
Thankfully I have The Washington Post here in my area. They now do their best to triple check their sources before reporting a story — to get the story right, of course, but also to keep their critics off their ass. They understand that people can’t trust a news outlet that reports before fact checking. They provide full stories, not just the parts that support any particular agenda. I long for the days when newspapers, even though they might not print “all of the news” at least fact checked what they did print or broadcast.
And one more “tip o’ the hat” to the network that reported “Trump cuts aid to three Mexican countries”. Is there no end to the incompetence of the Fox so-called-news?
Thanks for your comments, Mikkil. TWIT is a compilation of news about trans-related topics. I do try to look over each site we mention but it is important for our readers to double check any stories they suspect of promoting an agenda.