The Week In Trans 6/17/19

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Indya Moore

Pose star Indya Moore got into a fight with a protestor. Mx. Moore had taken the protestor’s sign, and the protestor resorted to violence. A part of the incident was caught on camera. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Samantha Allen writes in praise of the television series Pose, in an editorial for CNN.

A second lawsuit has now been filed to prevent the adoption of the new rule which protects health care professionals who refuse to provide certain services because of “religious or moral” objections. CNN has this story.

Two months into the ban on transgender people in the military, The Guardian has a story on how it is already affecting the lives of some members of the military.

A poll by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that the number of Republicans who indicate that they support transgender people serving in the military has grown over the past two years, from 37% in 2017 to 47% this year. Newsweek has this story.

In the larger picture, Gwen Smith of LGBTQ Nation notes that overall support for transgender rights has been increasing in recent years.

Jennifer Finney Boylan

The Advocate says, “The New York Times is lucky to have Jennifer Finney Boylan, and so are we.”

Beto O’Rourke has released a plan for improving the rights of LGBTQ people. It includes repeal of the ban on transgender people in the military, passing the Equality Act, and improving a path for LGBTQ immigrants. This story comes from The Hill.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the number of Americans who think that federal law protects LGB people from discrimination is almost twice as big as those who know (or think) that there is no federal protection for LGB people. This poll also found that nearly one in three respondents feel that transgender people are protected from discrimination by federal law. LGBTQ nation has this story.

Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee pushed for approval of a bill to assure transgender people access to homeless shelters. Republicans urged the committee to wait until the Department of Housing and Urban Development created an actual rule. This story comes from The Hill.

A judge has ruled against a former Starbucks employee who says that she experienced discrimination because of her gender identity. The judge did not find evidence of discrimination, according to The Fresno Bee.

Paris Lees

Paris Lees has been named a Pantene ambassador, according to Gay Star News.

Red Washburn is an associate professor of English and director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Kingsborough Community College in the CUNY system. They write for The New York Daily News, alleging discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

A West Hollywood gay bar known as The Abbey admits that one of its staff was guilty of anti-transgender statements. Specifically, the employee told another employee, who is a trans man, “Trans women aren’t real women.” The trans man quit working there, and posted the message to social media, where it went viral. Wehoville reports that upper management has apologized to the former employee, and offered him his position back.

June is pride month. In Detroit, a group of neo-Nazis showed up at Detroit Pride, along with a police escort. The National Socialist Movement had flags — and guns, but thankfully, no one was hurt. Gay Star News has this story. According to The Grit, the Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the police were not there to escort the neo-Nazis, but to assure peace between them, the people at Pride, and some who showed up to protest the neo-Nazis.

In San Francisco, there are calls to exclude Google from Pride. Gay Star News has that story.

Disney World hosted Magical Pride, its first official Pride event. You can see some pictures in Gay Star News.

A hospital in Israel says it has a new procedure to reduce or remove an Adam’s apple which leaves a smaller scar. Such surgery would be of great value to transgender women, as Time Magazine points out.

Jazell Barbie Royale

Jazell Barbie Royale, Miss USA, won the Miss International Queen competition in Thailand. The Advocate covered this event.

Gay Star News has short profiles of 21 nonbinary or gender neutral artists.

Teen Vogue has a story about seven transgender or non-binary people who have done drag, and found it was good for their mental health.

Electronic Arts is coming out with an expansion pack for The Sims 4, which will include It Gets Better tee shirts as well as a gender-neutral restroom. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

The Los Angeles Times ran a profile of Natalie Wynn, a transgender woman who makes videos for YouTube. In the videos, under the name ContraPoints, she plays various characters, and often makes political statements.

The American Medical Association has issued a warning about what it calls “the epidemic of violence against the transgender community, especially the amplified physical dangers faced by transgender women of color.” You can read about it in Forbes.

Hannah Graff

Hannah Graf was made a Member of the British Empire. The honor was bestowed by Prince William at Buckingham Palace. Gay Star News has this story.

Layleen Polanco, a Latinx transgender woman who was held at Rikers Island when she could not pay bail on misdemeanor assault charges, was found dead in her cell. The New York Times reports there was a protest aimed at calling attention to her death and demanding a report on what happened.

Dallas Police have arrested Kendrell Lavar Lyles, and charged him with three counts of murder. One of those counts is the murder of Muhlaysia Booker. Police have also said that he is a person of interest in the death of Chynal Lindsay, according to CBS News.

The Sheriff’s Office in Robeson County, North Carolina, announced that they have charged Javaras Hammonds with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon, in connection with the death of transgender woman Chanel Scurlock. The Raleigh News & Observer reports that Ms. Scurlock was killed while her killer was stealing her car.

The family of Johana Medina Leòn, who died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has said that they will sue the U.S. government. This story comes from NBC News.

ICE is considering opening another facility specifically for transgender migrants, according to The Associated Press.

Meghan Stabler

Meghan Stabler was elected to the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood, where she plans to speak for transgender people. The Advocate has this story.

A design student named Miles Kilburn has created a new type of chest binder for trans men which is less painful to wear. Pink News has this story.

A survey of 15 current and former Olympic athletes from Britain found that 11 agreed with the statement, “It can never be fair for transgender athletes who have been through male puberty to compete in female sports.” Of course, these are athletes, not medical experts. The current athletes may have a vested interest in this matter. The Guardian has this story.

Australia has created new guidelines which encourage transgender people to participate in sports. The guidelines suggest that organizations encourage high-profile players to make proclamations of support for the guidelines. Straits Times has this story.

In Brazil, a new soccer club called the Bigtboys has started play after only four months of training. The club is made up of transgender men, a first for that South American country, according to Fox News.

A transgender woman in Mardan, Pakistan, says that she was kidnapped outside a mosque and held for three hours, her head was shaved, and she was beaten, because she would not pay her abductors one million rupees. Pink News has this story.

The Scottish Parliament offered unanimous support for a question on gender identity on the 2021 census. Answering the question will be voluntary, but it will give an idea of how many transgender people there are in Scotland. The Guardian has this story.

Sparkle

A 10-year-old drag queen named Sparkle, who has been performing their drag act for two years, was all set to participate in the Portland, Oregon Pride Parade when the family got online threats from people who only had hateful and homophobic remarks to make about Sparkle. The threats became so bad it looked as if Sparkle would not be able to appear but in stepped the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who offered to protect Sparkle and their family during the parade. Learn more from the KGW8 website.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said, “I think the times have passed in which girls have to wear a skirt and boys have to wear pants.” She announced that the new uniform policy in the city’s schools will allow girls to wear pants and also allow boys to wear skirts. This story appears in Gay Star News.

The city council of Hobart, in the Australian state of Tasmania, formed a committee to create a poster that would promote the fact that transgender people can use the restroom representing the gender with which they identify. In doing so, the council invited Women Speak Tasmania to participate in the design. As transgender rights advocates point out to Australian Broadcasting Corporation News, Women Speak Tasmania is opposed to transgender people using the restroom of the gender with which they identify.

Two who were on the frontline at Stonewall: Marsha P. Jones and Sylvia Rivera.

In another story about Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and the Stonewall Riot, Reuters notes that just last week, the New York City Police Department apologized for the behavior of their members during that incident.

The San Antonio Express News has a photo story about Andy Warhol and the transgender artists at his Factory, which is the focus of a new exhibit at the McNay Art Museum.

The Angry Grammarian of The Philadelphia Inquirer says that the Trump administration has been trying to eliminate words of inclusion from government documents, and he says those terms are important.

Twitter suspended the account of “God” this week, but reinstated it before long. The tweet in question, which the social network deemed “hateful conduct,” said, “If gay people are a mistake, they’re a mistake I’ve made hundreds of millions of times, which proves I’m incompetent and shouldn’t be relied of for anything.” Pink News reports that Twitter has since apologized for the misunderstanding.

TWITs

The Congregation for Catholic Education, the educational arm of the Vatican, has come out with a new document, “Male and Female He Created Them: Towards a Path to Dialogue on the Questions of Gender Theory in Education.” It states the position of the Catholic Church regarding what it refers to as “gender theory.” The document denounces modern views of gender identity as a “trend.” The title itself takes one of the most inclusive lines of the Bible and uses it for purposes very much counter to inclusion. They claim that transgender people are a threat to the family, whereas accepting transgender members has made families stronger, not weaker. The document also seems to denounce intersex people, or at least it denounces those who do not live as either male or female. For not learning the lesson of what happens when the Catholic Church ignores science, the Congregation for Catholic Education gets a TWIT Award. The Daily Beast has this story, while Gay Star News points out that the document shows one side of disagreements within the Church, and that many parishes continue to accept LGBTI members, and Vox has feedback from some transgender Catholics.

The Daily Caller makes a lot of noise about “social justice advocates” who were complaining about an image from the video game Cyberpunk 2077 which showed a transgender female with an erect penis. It seems that the graphic is an in-game ad for a product which does not currently exist. The Daily Caller seems to think that this makes it quite all right. The graphic was no doubt made as a satire on advertising, a point which may or may not have been known by people who complained about it. The author of The Daily Caller’s article does know this was an in-game ad, and seems to think that that by itself shows that people who complain about treating transgender people as sex objects are silly. For missing the point when complaining about someone else missing the point, The Daily Caller gets a TWIT Award.

The British charity Childline had an agreement to make Munroe Bergdorf an advocate. However, there appears to have been an organized campaign against her, with many people making nasty comments about a transgender person being harmful to children. Worse, some people threatened to cancel their direct deposit donations to the charity if Ms. Bergdorf was not removed from this position. Pink News reports that the charity announced that Ms. Bergdorf has no ongoing relationship with the charity. For perpetuating distrust of transgender people, the people behind the campaign to remove Munroe Bergdorf from the charity 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