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The Week In Trans 5/20/19

ceciliab | May 20, 2019

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Jazz Jennings

Jazz Jennings is going to Harvard. She was surprised that she was accepted, and quickly agreed to attend. She made a video announcement for TLC.

North Carolina held a primary election to fill a vacant seat in the House of Representatives, after the state’s election commission refused to certify the results of the election last November. The winner of the Republican nomination is Dan Bishop, who is best known as the author of HB 2, North Carolina’s infamous “bathroom bill.” NBC News has this story. Thanks to Jamie Roberts for pointing us to more coverage in The Washington Post.

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering six LGBTQ sites for designation as landmarks. One of them is the LGBT Community Center, which is the birthplace of the Gender Identity Project. The Stonewall Inn was designated as a landmark in 2015, according to a report by NBC News.

The House of Representatives passed the Equality Act on Friday. It now heads to the Senate, where Mitch McConnell could refuse to bring it up. Buzzfeed has this story.

President Trump is opposed to the Equality Act, according to a senior official within the administration. “The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all. However, this bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights,” the unnamed spokesperson told NBC News.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives are adding amendments to the Equality Act. Most of their proposed amendments are anti-transgender proposals, such as Arizona Representative Debbie Leskowho’s proposal to change the name to the “Forfeiting Women’s Rights Act.” Other proposed amendments forbid transgender women from participating in women’s sports and an exemption for religious schools and organizations. Other amendments aim at protecting the rights of parents and doctors. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

One Democrat in the House of Representatives said that he would vote against the Equality Act. He now says that he will vote for the act, although he will remain the only Democrat in the House not to sign on as a co-sponsor of the bill. You can read about it in LGBTQ Nation.

Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning was released from jail last week, but was sent back to prison on Thursday. She had been held for 62 day for contempt of court, after refusing to testify before a grand jury looking into Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. She was released when that grand jury’s term expired, but a new grand jury was seated, she was again subpoenaed to testify, she again refused, and she was again sent to jail for contempt. She is also being fined for every day that she does not comply, according to NPR. Get more reporting from Philly.com.

Last week, we reported that a high school in Indiana was going to deadname a transgender student, because of an “unwritten rule.” This week, we can report that the school has relented, and will use the student’s chosen name. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

As graduations start taking place, this is likely happening in many places without it being reported. Jesuit College in the Philippines has granted the request of a transgender graduate, who wanted to wear a graduation gown consistent with her gender identity. It is the first story in the Campus Roundup at New Ways Ministry.

Samantha Allen of The Daily Beast figured out that there are about 300,000 transgender people in the United States who consider themselves to be Christians, and another 50,000 who call themselves Jews. The conventional wisdom holds that being LGBT and being Christian or Jewish should be incompatible, yet presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has described himself as a Christian and a gay man.

Danica Roem

Danica Roem (D-Prince William) has become a force in Virginia politics: a first-term lawmaker largely focused on traffic and other bread-and-butter issues, but with a celebrity profile that opens pocketbooks and draws attention nationwide. Find out what she’s been doing to attract that attention in The Washington Post. Thanks to Jamie Roberts for the tip.

The Senate of Texas has been trying to pass what is known as the “Save Chick-fil-A Bill”. The bill says that no person or business can be punished for acting on religious beliefs. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A new study showed that transgender women have a greater risk of breast cancer than cisgender males, but their risk is still lower than that of cisgender females. Transgender males have a lower risk than cisgender women according to the same study. You can read about it at EurekAlert.

A nurse in a hospital noted that an “obese” man was reporting abdominal pains, and didn’t think it was an emergency. It turned out that the man was pregnant and in labor. USA Today has this story.

An article in Science News For Students talks about transgender people who become researchers in STEM topics.

Lucia Lucas

PRI has a profile of Lucia Lucas, the opera singer who performed as Don Giovanni with the Tulsa Opera.

Zeta Phi Beta, the sorority which in its diversity statement excluded transgender women, has had a change of mind, as reported by The Grio.

The Transgender Law Center and Southerners On New Ground have produced a new report called The Grapevine: A Southern Trans Report.

Last week a report came out which showed that large city police departments in the U.S. were not doing well by transgender people. This week, both The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun Times had stories that came from that study, concerning the Chicago Police Department’s interactions with transgender people.

Live in L.A.? Need work? KCRW has a story about a job fair in Los Angeles which is specifically for transgender people.

A group of people participated in a one-day call-in for Kaanautica Zayre-Brown, a transgender woman who has been abused in a men’s prison. They want the state of North Carolina to transfer her to a women’s prison. You can read about it in North Carolina Policy Watch.

Photo of a murdered trans woman based on her DNA.

Anthony and Lee Redgrave have created the Trans Doe Taskforce, a project which aims to use DNA evidence in an attempt to create images of what unidentified transgender murder victims looked like in life. The hope is that this could lead to new information about their lives, which might lead to solving their murders. Gay Star News has this story.

The International Association of Athletics Federation has said that Caster Semenya, a cisgender woman whose body produces more testosterone than is normal for a woman, can run in men’s competitions. That same organization will not let her run in women’s competitions unless she takes testosterone suppressants. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

The Harvard Gazette ran a profile of Schuyler Bailar, who was recruited to join the women’s swim team, but after transitioning swam on the men’s team.

John Simone has created a photo video with over 500 photos of New York City’s transgender and drag celebs from the ’80s. It’s titled International Chrysis and the Queens of New York, which he presented at the IFC Center in New York City last week. The Advocate featured a gallery of his photos. There are also photos at his website.

Amiyah Scott

Amiyah Scott talks about growing up in the ballroom scene in New Orleans in the latest edition of LGBTQ&A on the Advocate website.

A former psychiatrist who became a Labour minister and was given an appointment to the House of Lords has resigned from the party after being investigated for uncomplimentary comments about transgender people, and said he would resign to “carry on campaigning for women.” The Independent has this story about Lord Moonie.

A committee of the legislature of Ireland was told that there are not many homeless services which will accept transgender of gender nonconforming people. This especially hits transgender children, who often leave home or are thrown out because of their gender identity. The Irish Times has this story.

BBC News ran a video story about a school in Chile which is specifically designed for transgender children.

A boarding school for transgender women in Indonesia, set up to demonstrate a tolerant form of Islam, was the subject of a story by Reuters.

A report by the Human Dignity Trust found prejudice against transgender people in every region of the world, often in the form of laws. Reuters has this story.

Valéria Rodrigues

Valeria Rodrigues, a transgender woman in Brazil who helps investigators convince transgender sex workers to leave their pimps, was profiled by Reuters.

A Brazilian surgeon has given a new vagina to a transgender woman whose gender-confirmation surgery went bad. Since the surgeon could not use the woman’s own tissue, the new vagina is made from the skin of a fish. You can read about this first-of-its-kind surgery in The Daily Mail.

Reverend Kit Robinson is the new pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Miami Springs, Florida. She is the first transgender woman to be pastor of a Lutheran parish in that state, according to Miami New Times.

A transgender woman in Sydney, Australia, was publicly ridiculed because her short skirt failed to hide a certain anatomical bulge. Imogen Loxley, who is also transgender, saw the incident, and helped the woman get onto her bus safely. The next day, reflecting on that, Ms. Loxley took a picture of herself with her bulge showing, and posted it to Facebook, to announce that transgender women are beautiful and valid even when bulges show. The Daily Star ran this story.

Gwen Smith of LGBTQ Nation writes about a company which sells make-up to men, calling it “war paint.” She sees toxic masculinity in that branding.

Gender fluid emoji.

Google has come out with some new non-binary emojis for Android. These people are not obviously male or female. Fast Company has more on them.

Snapchat came out with a filter (which they call a lens) that makes a person’s picture look like the opposite gender. A story for the Associated Press saw some benefit for transgender people along with a potential for problems. Rose Dommu writes in Out magazine that her friends’ joking attitude about pictures using the filter was a problem. Jamie Roberts found a story on the filter in The Washington Post. Thanks Jamie.

Transgender racing driver Charlie Martin credits her transition with giving her confidence, and the confidence has brought about more success as a driver. She is the subject of Fox Fisher and Owl’s latest film in the TransAnd project. You can read about it in Pink News.

When a family sent their four-year-old, who was assigned male at birth, to school in a girl’s uniform, social services threatened to take the child away from the parents. Social Services relented after receiving fantastic feedback about the parents. The parents pursued the matter, hoping to clear their names–which they did. The judge in the matter praised the parents for their bold action. The story comes from The Daily Mail, which unfortunately uses the child’s originally-assigned gender fairly often in the story.

Melissia Ede

Melissia Ede, a taxi driver who won £4 million on a lottery scratch-off card, has died. Pink News has her story.

TWITs

The Liberty Counsel is complaining about the fact that the State Department is admonishing nations that criminalize being LGBT. Mind you, at home the Trump administration is setting a very low bar for LGBTQ rights, yet they are at least making some soft noise about others who set the bar lower. For complaining that anyone else gets the crumbs of your pie, the Liberty Counsel gets a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

On Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Miss Vanjie uses the catch phrase, “Get those cookies.” For Mother’s Day, Chips Ahoy! asked her to do a plug for them. This caused some people to say that they will add Chips Ahoy! to the things that they are boycotting, such as Target and Disney World. For being so fragile that a commercial featuring a drag queen causes them to have a tantrum, the people who shared their protest on social media get a TWIT. You can find some of their posts reprinted at LGBTQ Nation.

Some of the same people who are upset about a cookie commercial with a drag queen are also upset that the main-stream media did not stress the fact that one of the people arrested for the shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado is transgender. As Snopes points out, there is no evidence of a connection between the suspect’s gender identity and the shooting. Others in similar crimes have well-known connections to conservative politics, but those aren’t stressed either. For bad logic, these people get a TWIT Award.

Pat Robertson predicts that if the Equality Act passes, God will “vomit you out,” punishing the United States with either a “solar ray” or a nuclear attack. The “solar ray” is a way of explaining the effect of climate change. For false prophecy, Pat Robertson gets a TWIT Award. The Hill has this story.

The National Review has an interview with “the Bold Sexologist Questioning Transgender Orthodoxy.” The person they interview is Dr. Ray Blanchard. He is not some outsider whom the establishment has been ignoring; he is someone who was once regarded as an authority, but whose methods have been shown not to produce the best results. Blanchard is the person who coined the controversial term “autogynephilia.” For praising someone who has been discredited, The National Review gets a TWIT Award.

Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht in the Netherlands gave the opening address at the Rome Life Forum in the Vatican. He started by stating his disagreement with the idea of women as deacons or priests (even though there is evidence of female deacons in the early Church). He then criticized “gender theory,” calling it a threat to the family. LifeSiteNews stresses his background in medicine, as though that gives him the right to criticize medical bodies. For promoting a false expert, LifeSiteNews gets a TWIT. (Speaking of a false expert, LifeSiteNews also praises Phil Robertson for saying that he is the “brother” of ex-transgender Christians. Not that he’s offering to make ex-transgender Christians his business partner, like his actual brother is.)

Lansdowne’s Penn Wood High School in suburban Philadelphia, Pa. has an event scheduled for this week that is sponsored by the Gay-Straight Alliance. It’s an educational event about the History of Drag and it’s prefaced by a drag show. The event takes place during school hours and some people don’t approve of that. That’s the obvious slant taken by the website that ran an article on the show. For more on the story visit The College Fix which wins a TWIT Award for its shocked reporting.

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.