The Week In Trans 6/14/21

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President Biden sent out a tweet addressed “To transgender Americans across the country – especially the young people who are so brave . . .“. The tweet continues, “I want you to know your president has your back. During Pride Month . . . and all the time.” PinkNews has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this and other stories this week.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin specifically called out transgender members of the armed services in a speech during Pride month. He pronounced that transgender rights are human rights. This story comes from PBS Newshour.

The U.S. Navy joined the Air Force and Space Force in releasing their updated transgender policy. President Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military is being lifted, one branch at a time. Navy Times has this story.

Speaking on ESPN, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said that his department would support the right of transgender athletes to participate in sports, if they meet reasonable conditions. He described it as a civil rights issue. This story comes from PinkNews.

Although Secretary Cardona said that he is committed to protecting transgender students as a civil rights issue, them noticed that he did not spell out specifically whether transgender females should be allowed to compete against cisgender females in athletics.

11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson has filed a lawsuit against the ban on transgender athletes in West Virginia. She says she wants to try out for her school’s cross-country team. PinkNews has this story.

Some transgender students who participated in school athletics, including Jazz Jennings, talked to The South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the experience, and about state bans on transgender athletes, including the one in Florida.

In the “just for laughs” department, a letter to the editor of Inforum suggests that, if “transgendered” students want to compete in athletics, they should compete against “other transgendered persons.”

In an interview with The Advocate, President Barack Obama said of bills attacking the rights of transgender people, “It breaks my heart. This is not who we are.”

Despite the promise that the president supports transgender people, the Biden administration will continue to defend Christian schools which are accused of bias. This is continuing lawsuits that were begun under President Trump, so as to not use the Department of Justice as a tool to make new law. They will attempt to change the law through the legislative process, while defending the current law in court. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Newsweek reports that, as Washington D.C. prepares for Capital Pride, a Black transgender woman was stabbed in the head. The incident happened in a laundromat, and was caught on the security camera. The victim is in the hospital, but spoke to WUSA-TV about the incident. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Poe Black, a transgender man, was fatally stabbed in a small town in the California desert. The sheriff’s department is asking for help in solving the case. The Advocate has this story.

A Montana trans woman talks of a violent attack on her in a story for KTVH-TV.

Unfortunately, transgender people are sometimes on the other side of the law. A transgender woman in Florida was arrested in connection with the thefts of expensive wristwatches. NBC Miami has this story.

A story in NBC News finds that transgender rights are under attack in the Southeastern U.S. states, and that a significant number of murders of transgender people and other violent attacks are happening in those same states.

Nashville’s District Attorney, Glenn Funk, has said that he would not enforce the law which forces business to post a notice if they allow transgender people to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify. Some lawyers say that he has the right to select which laws to enforce, while other say that he as an obligation to enforce all laws. WKRN-TV has more on this.

The Tennessee Lookout has a profile of a transgender woman, Wendy McCown-Williams, who owns and runs a gay bar.

In Virginia, a gym teacher who deliberately misgendered transgender students was reinstated by a federal judge. The judge felt that this was a matter of religious rights. This story comes from NBC News.

Senate Republicans are using the filibuster to defeat The Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill to fight discrimination in the workplace. While the measure was not aimed specifically at helping transgender people, it would have helped reduce pay differentials based on gender. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he would have signed a ban on the medical treatment of gender dysphoria in minors, if the legislature had sent him such a bill. This came up in an interview with the far-right site The Daily Caller. This story can be found in The Hill.

The Denver Channel and them have stories about families which have decided to move out of Arkansas in order to get their transgender children medical support for their gender dysphoria.

New York State is on the verge of expanding the ability to change legal gender. Transgender people will no longer have to publish their request for a name change, and minors will be allowed to change their legal gender with a parent’s permission. This story can be found in Spectrum News.

The North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners deemed it an ethics violation for licensed workers to engage in conversion therapy. The state’s Administrative Rules Committee, a group within the legislature, granted them the right to suspend the licenses of those who engage in that activity. Since mental health workers tend to belong to the association, it makes it possible to not license those who do conversion therapy. The Advocate has this story.

The Attorney General of Michigan has set forth a new policy for dealing with transgender, non-binary, and intersex people, and with issues pertaining to them. This story comes from Fox 47 News.

A lawyer from Missouri quit his job to move to Tulsa. He passed the bar in Oklahoma, and now, has a clinic where he helps transgender people to legally change their names. The Tahlequah Daily Press has a profile.

Construction is under way for an emergency shelter for homeless transgender youth in the Chicago area. This story comes from The Daily Herald.

A new program in Washington, D.C., specifically addresses the needs of homeless transgender men, according to them.

The San Francisco Examiner reports on a pilot program to pay some transgender people a basic income.

A campaign is underway to restore the mural of Marsha P. Johnson in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which was damaged by vandals. ABC 7 Chicago has this story.

Walmart heirs have donated one million dollars to LGBTQ charities, in response to the anti-transgender legislation passed by the Arkansas state legislature. The gesture is nice, and the money is appreciated, but it comes after the legislation is passed and signed, and it comes without even a threat to the campaign donations to the politicians behind this. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A nonbinary flight attendant is complaining about the gendered nature of flight attendant outfits. The ACLU has assisted, sending a letter demanding a new policy with a gender-neutral option. This story comes from them.

Recently, a Texas bakery found some of its customers complaining about their cookies in the shape of a heart, with icing like the rainbow Pride flag. Any lost business was temporary, as the bakery received orders through the Internet. The Advocate has this story.

The show The Best Of Our Knowledge on WAMC public radio looks at transgender students and transgender health, in the light of Florida’s new law.

A survey found that Generation Z is more likely to be LGBTQ+ that previous generations, and that members are more likely to support LGBTQ people than previous generations did. Out.com has this story.

A nonbinary physical therapist named Katie McGee, who specializes in transgender care, talks about what she wishes everyone knew about transgender therapy in an article for Women’s Health.

An article in The Henry Herald states that, while there are some gender patterns to human brains, the patterns have a good bit of overlap, making it difficult to say that a particular brain definitely belongs to a male or to a female.

Dr. Rachel Levine would like to get the message of Pride across this June, but she is busy working on getting out the vaccines to combat the pandemic. The Advocate has this story.

The Sports Minister of New Zealand, Grand Robertson, said that any discussion of transgender athletes should start with the presumption of inclusion. He said this in response to comments from a former weightlifting champion, who thinks that transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard should be on New Zealand’s Olympic team. This story comes from Reuters.

WWE star Gabbi Tuft says that she had tremendous fears about coming out as transgender, but she did it anyway. This was part of an interview with Yahoo.

Ian Boswell won the men’s Unbound Gravel 200 cycling race, and said that this win was about raising awareness of transgender identity. Cycling News has this story.

Outsports reports that BMX freestyler Chelsea Wolfe appears to have won a spot on the U.S. Olympic cycling team. If so, she will be the first self-declared transgender Olympian for the U.S.

Pose aired its final episode last Sunday, and reviews are in. Them and Out.com were lavish in their praise of the finale.

Steven Canals was profiled in the Now List for them.

Mj Rodriguez has released a single. Them has a review of it.

Loki is about to get a series on Disney+, and in the series, the character will finally be seen as gender fluid–or so we are told. He sat for an interview with Out.com.

Lex Mayson, a non-binary actor, has been cast in Kate McKinnon’s production of Joe Exotic. Out.com has this story.

The E! True Hollywood Story took a look at transgender characters, especially those played by transgender performers. Candis Cayne had a story to tell about teaching the director and writers of CSI about a transgender character. This story comes from them.

Alex Schmider is creating stories with transgender characters, and not the kind where the transgender character is a murder victim. Most of the stories are romances. He made the Now List on them.

Imara Jones also made the Now List, for her transgender storytelling. Them has an interview.

Variety has an interview with Jazz Jennings, in which she reflects on growing up in the spotlight and being an inspiration to other transgender children.

Business Insider has 21 books with transgender or non-binary characters. Them has only a couple of books with transgender or non-binary characters.

Akwaeke Emezi has a new memoir, entitled Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir. In it, the author asks us to examine the masks that we wear in our lives. Them has this story.

Some transgender classical musicians are finally getting some recognition, according to Colorado Public radio.

Denne Michelle, podcast host and author, was overwhelmed with positive sentiment after revealing that she is a Black transgender female. PinkNews has this story.

The comic book/graphic novel Y: The Last Man is being turned into a television series. Out.com wonders how the transphobic parts will be handled.

Allure has a list of Black LGBTQ+ beauty influencers to follow.

All we know about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 is at Out.com.

Gigi Good, Symone, and Rosy Thorn are part of a campaign for a new cannabis-based beverage. The Advocate has this story.

Nina West has six tips for LGBTQ entrepreneurs. You can find it at The Advocate

Caitlyn Jenner was on The View. It was a disaster. She would not answer whether Donald Trump lost the election last November. She proposed finishing California’s portion of the wall with Mexico, and somehow protecting the state’s “Eastern front.” PinkNews has this story.

A tribunal sided with Maya Forstater, who was fired for anti-transgender arguments that she wrote on Twitter. She had originally lost her case, but a High Court decision found her writing was protected under the Equalities Act. This story comes from The BBC.

PinkNews does not think it is surprising that these views are now protected, as the Equalities Act seems to protect, according to this judge, anything short of “Nazism or totalitarianism.” In another article, PinkNews finds that the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission agrees that this is not the license to express anti-transgender views that it appears to be.

The head of the Institute of Race Relations says that those “gender-critical” feminists are expressing views that come from the far right. PinkNews has this story.

Stonewall has told their head of media to take a year off, due to burnout from dealing with transphobia. This story appears in PinkNews.

A new study shows that the majority of people in Britain who oppose transgender rights, and oppose the Black Lives Matter movement, do not have a clear grasp of the facts in these cases. PinkNews has the results of this survey.

The current government of the U.K. talked about reforming the Gender Recognition Act, but never did it. The leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer, renewed his party’s support for reform of the GRA. PinkNews.

Legislators in Spain have rejected a bill which was going to reform the process of changing gender in that country. The proposed law would have introduced a third-gender for non-binary and intersex people, among other reforms. The Los Angeles Blade has this report.

Denmark is again accepting visitors, just as WorldPride and the Eurogames are about to begin. This story comes from Out Traveler.

In Greece, a transgender woman has been found, after she was missing from the hospital since April. For some reason, the alarm was not raised until seven weeks after she was last seen. PinkNews has this story.

Luna Guzman left Guatemala to come to the United States, and has been held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement people since them. She has finally come back into the U.S. She is still awaiting further legal proceedings, but is doing so from within the U.S> now, according to KQED.

Maura Martinez is a transgender woman who left Nicaragua for the U.S., but has been detained by ICE for the last two years. Her story is found in The Guardian.

A judge in India used a case brought by two lesbians to highlight the need for sweeping reform of LGBTQ rights under the law. CNN has this story.

The Progress Pride flag has a proposed change. The new design replaces the white triangle with a white chevron and a yellow triangle, with a purple circle within the yellow triangle. The new triangle is similar to the design of the intersex flag. Them has this story.

The original Pride flag was thought to be lost, but it mysteriously reappeared among the belongings of its creator, Gilbert Baker. This story comes from them.

The San Francisco Giants got special caps and a redesigned patch on the shouder of their uniforms. Both took the interlocking “SF” design, and changed it from orange to the colors of the Pride flag. They included the black, brown, pink, light blue, and white from the Progress Pride flag. Out.com has this story.

Although the Giants are the only major-league team to get special caps and a change to the uniform for Pride, nearly every team has a Pride celebration. An exception is the Texas Rangers. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Scientific American has the story of Dr. Alan Hart, an early transgender man.

Among the Champions of Pride from the Mid-Atlantic in The Advocate is Moss Froom, a Maryland trans man who is working to improve the experience fo pregnancy for trans men and gender-nonconforming parents.

A new play, The Gospel According To Jesus, Queen Of Heaven, depicts Jesus as a transgender woman, much like the playwright/star of the one-woman show, Jo Clifford. The story is also set in the present age. As you might expect, a significant number of social conservatives are upset about the play. PinkNews has this story.

Chris Buice, a Unitarian Universalist minister, wrote an editorial for Knox News, advocating we “Show all our children we love them by fighting anti-transgender laws.”

The Daily Princetonian shines a spotlight on transgender people who attended Princeton.

In October, a 15-year-old student in Spain, Mikel Gomez, wore a skirt to school, hoping to challenge gender expectations. He was pulled out of class and brought before a psychiatrist. On November 4, hundreds of boys around the country wore skirts, to call attention to this story. Now, male teachers are joining the action. Out.com has this story.

A married couple are going to have a “re-wedding” ceremony, after one member of the couple came out as transgender. This story comes from PinkNews.

When a homeowners’ association told a family that they couldn’t fly a Pride flag, the family got an idea. They bought some flood lights in the colors of the Pride flag and put up some fixtures, so that at night, their house is bathed in the light of the Pride flag. Out.com has this story.

In a similar move, officials from the Florida Department of Transportation told the city of Jacksonville to stop lighting the Acosta Bridge in the colors of the Pride flag. Then, when word got out that they were behind this, they rescinded their order. The Florida Times-Union has this story.

A study found that ex-gay content is still around on TikTok, despite a ban on material related to conversion therapy. Them has this story.

A group of “ex-gay” activists who defend conversion therapy had an event. The number of attendants seemed to be so few that they could be counted on one hand. This story comes from The Advocate.

Jackie Thornhill is a transgender woman who had some difficulty getting her parents to support her transition at first, has opened Transgender School with her mother, to try to help people to figure out how to handle various situations when around transgender people. This story is from ABC 6 Philadelphia.

In time for Father’s Day, Dwayne Wade says that his daughter Zaya made him a better parent and a better person. Out.com has this story.

A woman writes in USA Today that seeing her transgender grandnephew gave her a greater awareness of what transgender people go through.

Transgender activist and rabbi Abby Stein tells us that there is no word for “transgender” in Yiddish. This and other tales come from and interview with the Jewish Exponent.

Laverne Cox is talking even more forcefully these days about the damage being done by the onslaught of anti-transgender legislation. Hollywood Life has this interview. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

TWITs

U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal issued a series of tweets, highlighting the fact that many companies who are trying to present themselves as friends of Pride have actually been giving generously to the campaigns of folks who vote against such legislation as the Equality Act. While she often spoke of the donations given to Senator Mitch McConnell, he is really the public face for the anti-LGBTQ sentiments which are so common among Senate Republicans. For hypocrisy, these companies share a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

It has just come out that, during the General Session of the Arkansas Legislature which just ended, state Representative Mary Bentley referred to transgender people as “abominations,” a term from the Old Testament. LGBTQ Nation noted that she was wearing a blazer, which mimics the design of a men’s sports coat, while quoting, “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man,” a questionable but popular translation of a verse from Exodus. For the grave sin of focusing so intensely on the perceived sin of someone else that she loses sight of her own tendency to sin, Mary Bentley gets a TWIT.

Tammy Bruce, a Fox News contributor and host on Fox Nation, and out as bi/lesbian, warned that human-animal mutants are among the things that Democrats support. She points to a scientific research bill, to which some Republicans in the Senate added an amendment that would stop research on “human-animal chimera,” an amendment that Democrats failed to support on the grounds that it was both unnecessary (no such research is underway) and unrelated to other content of the bill. Since the Democrats did not support this effort to stop the non-existent research, they must support such research. For faulty logic, Tammy Bruce gets a TWIT. You can find this story in LGBTQ Nation.

A transgender student named Chloe Kreutzer died recently. Claremont High School, where the teen had attended, deadnamed the student in an email announcing the death, and continuously used the wrong pronoun. For grossly mishandling the situation, the school gets a TWIT. This TWIT is shared with the father of the deceased, who did not approve of his daughter’s gender identity, and who likely assisted the school in preparing the email, according to a report in them.

Former President Trump praised the audit in Arizona in a recent speech, while complaining of election fraud. (Does anyone think that the people conducting this audit would be this quiet this long if they found any real evidence of fraud?) In that speech, he also treated transgender athletes as cheaters, unaware that the idea of Donald Trump calling anyone else a cheater is silly. One of the leaders of the audit objected to wearing a bright pink t-shirt, which the auditors are supposed to wear so that they are visible during the process. He said that it made him “look like a transgender.” For failing to see that looking like “a transgender” is better than looking like a sore loser who resorts to after-the-fact cheating, Randy Pullen gets a TWIT. In fairness, he says it is “interesting” that this observer reported this comment, though he did not deny making the comment. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

A teen made a TikTok video, in which she says that her father threatened to disown her because her boyfriend is transgender. If this is accurate, this father gets a TWIT Award. this story comes from PinkNews.

Abigail Shrier wrote an article for City Journal about parents who were threatened by authorities with losing their children because they did not respect the gender identity of the child. While it may be possible that a child is misdiagnosed it is significantly possible that the diagnosis is right, and the parents are causing psychological pain in their refusal to accept their children. For praising acts which may constitute abuse, and for refusing to even entertain the possibility that the children could be expressing a genuine gender identity, Abigail Shrier gets a TWIT Award, and for giving a space to these ill-informed views, City Journal shares that TWIT Award.

Stephen Miller complains about “transgender ideology” violates his deeply-held religious beliefs. I guess he blacked out the part of the Acts of the Apostles where the Apostles welcome an Ethiopian eunuch to the group of believers. Certainly, Jesus would have been aware of people who preferred same-sex relationships, living as he did in an area that had a significant Greek influence, and He never told His followers that those who enjoyed same-sex relationships were great sinners. (The great sinners, according to Jesus, were the folks with the holier-than-thou attitude, those who thought that someone else’s sin was worse than their own.) He complains that “transgender ideology” tells young people that they can be “whatever they want to be,” unaware that Dan Quayle used exactly that line in a vice-presidential debate. For engaging in behavior which Jesus condemned, and condemning behavior which Jesus did not condemn, all while calling himself a good Christian, Stephen Miller gets a TWIT Award. LGBTQ Nation has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The term “transgender ideology” also appears in both the headline and the body of an article in The National Review. The body also claims that transgender children have been “taken hostage” by this “ideology.” A medical condition is not an ideology, a psychological condition is not an ideology, and the treatment of a medical or psychological condition is not an ideology. People who have a medical or psychological condition are not hostages of practitioners. For misuse of language that must have William F. Buckley Jr. rolling in his grave, and for allowing such bad scientific research to have a forum, the editors of National Review get a TWIT.

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