The Week In Trans 6/29/20

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Rosemary Ketchum recently became the first openly-transgender person to win an election in West Virginia. She won a city council seat in Wheeling on June 9. CNBC has an interview with her.

Officer Megan Woods, one of the few openly-transgender police officers in Chicago, gave an interview to NBC Chicago.

People are still talking about last week’s Supreme Court ruling that extends Title VII civil rights in employment to LGBTQ people. NBC News has a story in which various people say that the decision will have broad implications in the law. Transgender rights attorney Ezra Young said much the same in an interview with Janine Jackson on Counterspin. You can read a transcript of that interview at Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting.

Jurist has a fuller look at why the Supreme Court justices voted as they did, and what it means to other cases.

Some cases which the Supreme Court will be hearing soon may test or limit the application of the Title VII decision from last week. A religious rights case in particular could show the limit, according to Reuters.

Several LGBTQ people have begun or resumed legal cases on the basis of this ruling. The Washington Post has this story.

The Title VII decision shows that gay rights and the rights of transgender people are intertwined, whether the people involved want that or not, according to an article in Slate.

A poll by The Kaiser Family Foundation found that large percentages of people, even among people who identify themselves as Republicans, oppose discrimination against LGBTQ people. (This is measuring the abstract, not specific cases of discrimination.)

Laverne Cox, spoke to Al Roker on the Today show about the intersectionality of black transgender people, as well as the new documentary film Disclosure, of which she is an executive producer.

Laverne Cox also is the subject of a new LGBTQ&A interview.

The rights of transgender people seem to be constantly questioned, according to a piece in the Daily Evergreen, a student paper of Washington State University.

Chaya Crowder writes about the importance of the Black Trans Lives Matter protests for intersectional people in a piece for The Washington Post.

A Black Trans Lives Matter protest in Charlottesville, Virginia (the home of the University of Virginia) included a remembrance of Sage Smith, a local transgender woman who is missing. The Cavalier Daily has this story.

Transgender activism is not entirely new. Berkeley, California, has a history of such activism, according to an article in The Daily Californian.

The University of California’s main campus at Berkeley has several programs and services for transgender students, which are the subject of another article in The Daily Californian.

In Marin County, the protest included support for a local transgender teen who had just been verbally assaulted for his gender identity. The San Jose Mercury News has this story.

San Francisco is the home of the only Transgender District. The district nearly went bankrupt when donations dried up due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The non-profit organization which runs it was being turned down by foundations, and was about to go out of business, until the Black Trans Lives Matter protests called attention to them, and some foundations decided to increase the priority of that particular non-profit. The San Francisco Chronicle has this story.

In Vietnam there have been traditional traveling drag shows called Lotto, or Lo To. Troupes of performers tour the country setting up stages and doing shows in the rural areas. Now the format has begun to be popular in the larger population centers and for one Lo To performer doing the show makes her feel like her true self. Learn more from Yahoo.

The Stonewall Inn is having a cash-flow problem. Being a bar, and located in New York City, they have been closed by the measures to combat COVID-19. You can find this story in LGBTG Nation.

The Trump administration is still bent on limiting the rights of LGBTQ people, and especially the rights of transgender people. President Trump this week retweeted an article which talked about his administration’s position favoring Idaho’s new law regarding transgender females in girls’ sports. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

The State of California has restricted state employees from traveling to Idaho, and have said that this comes in response to Idaho’s two new anti-transgender laws, one regarding transgender women in girls sports, and the other forbidding transgender people from getting updated birth certificates. Idaho is the twelfth state to which California restricts official travel due to laws against LGBTQ rights. The Idaho State Journal has this story.

A coalition of LGBTQ groups has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new definition of “sex” from the Department of Health and Human Services. This story comes from CNN.

A crosswalk in Washington, D.C., got a makeover in the colors of the rainbow flag, with the tip of an arrow at one end containing pink, light blue, and white stripes from the transgender pride flag, as well as black and brown stripes for the Black Lives Matter movement. You can read about it at LGBTQ Nation. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Zander Kreig, who has been fighting President Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, was named Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. Al Dia has a profile of him.

A transgender veteran shared the struggles of serving while transgender in an interview with Spectrum News.

Baptists are not noted for being especially welcoming to transgender people, but Junia Joplin is a transgender woman who is the pastor of a Baptist church in Mississauga, Ontario. She came out this month, via Zoom, to her congregation. Pink News has a transcript of her coming-out sermon.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indiana, has issued a new guidance on transgender students in the Catholic schools of the Archdiocese. While it does state that the matter should be handled on a case-by-case basis, it also comes down heavily against admitting transgender students, unless they dress in the gender assigned at birth and agree to undergo “accompaniment,” i.e., conversion therapy. This story appears in The National Catholic Reporter.

In a case of spilling the beans, Jenna Ellis, a new legal advisor to the Trump campaign, has proclaimed President Trump as the candidate for people opposed to LGBTQ rights. LGBTQ Nation has this story. (It’s ironic to note that during the presidential campaign on 2016 Donald Trump loudly announced he would be the best president for the LGBTQ community, ever.)

That bit of honesty may backfire. Not only is this an issue on which the majority of voters disagree with this administration, but candidates who oppose LGBTQ rights are losing. Steve King lost a Republican primary, and this week, Ritchie Torres won a Democratic primary in New York against Ruben Diaz Sr., a man who is often called “the leading homophobe in New York state politics.” LGBTQ Nation has this story.

It’s Pride month, even if the parades are cancelled. Forbes has a story about making a workplace more accepting for LGBTQ workers, NPR has a story about making the workplace more accepting for transgender workers, and Fast Company has a story about making the workplace more accepting for transgender and non-binary workers.

A program about how transgender people can get better health care outcomes appeared on Blue Ridge Public Radio, which has an article summarizing the findings.

The challenges of accessing transgender healthcare in rural areas is discussed on WSIU radio.

Sam Feder, the director of Disclosure, discusses the film with CNN.

The New York Times asked several transgender people about depictions of transgender people which made an impact on them.

Imara Jones made a new short film called The Future of Trans. In the film, she talks with some transgender people, many of them artists and creative people, about how they saw their future when they were younger. She writes about this project for Teen Vogue.

Several of the stars of Pose appeared on a panel to discuss the problem of violence against Black transgender women. KGO-TV has an announcement of the event, which was hosted by a Houston television station.

Four authors, including Fox and Owl Fisher, have quit their literary agency, because the agency has not denounced the anti-transgender views of their star client, J.K. Rowling. You can read about this in The Guardian.

We reported last week that some of the people at the publishing house Hachette refused to work on J.K. Rowling’s new children’s book, The Ickabog, because of her expressed views on transgender people. Apparently, the firm told these employees that they will work on the book or resign from the company. This has caused Pride In Publishing to issue a statement against the publishing house. The Bookseller has this story.

Backlash to J.K. Rowling’s statements continues. Emma Peacock, a senior editor at The Leaky Cauldron, reports that while some fans have left the fandom, others are moving on without the author. You can find her writing on Forbes.

Editor’s Note:  The Rowling problem is odd when one considers that she created what might be called the most fantastic way to crossdress, by taking Polyjuice Potion. You can become the person you want to be. The potion was used on Draco Malfoy’s Slytherin henchmen to transform them into young girls (so they would be arouse less suspicion one supposes) while they keep watch over a secret door used by Malfoy while he repairs the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. Barty Crouch Jr. used the potion to switch identities with his mother so she could take his place in prison. The potion appears several times in the series and it has the ability to change anyone into another person no matter what that person’s gender is. 

Molly Knox Ostertag, a tattoo artist in the Los Angeles area, is offering to cover up Harry Potter tattoos, and donate part of her profits to support transgender women of color. Pink News has this story.

J.K. Rowling may have trouble connecting to transgender people, but Elton John called us, “the bravest people in the world.” He added, “These people are heroes to me.” His conversation with Katie Couric appears in Time magazine.

The Chicks, the artists formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, have released a new song, March March. The song encourages people to join peaceful protests. Alongside images of civil rights protests old and new, the video also shows some memorials for transgender women who were murdered. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Dwayne Wade’s wife Gabrielle Union was selected to be on the cover of Self magazine, but due to recent pandemic restrictions, the magazine could not send a photographer to take a cover shot. 13-year-old trans stepdaughter Zaya Wade got behind the camera and took the cover photo, according to Pink News.

Caitlyn Jenner said in an interview with Women’s Health magazine that she first recognized her gender issues at age nine, and that athletics was a way to deal with those issues.

Peppermint was the first transgender woman to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race after coming out. She recently encouraged white, cis gays to join the fight for Black trans people during an interview with Pink News.

Loewe, a high fashion brand, is honoring Harris Glenn Milstead the actor who portrayed Divine, and appeared in several of John Water’s films, with a collection of their designer t-shirts. Out has this story.

The Mystic Krewe of Nyx has quickly become one of the biggest parade groups in New Orleans’s Mardi Gras. Some former members say that the group would only admit women designated female on their birth certificates as members. This story comes from the The Times-Picayune.

Members of the U.K. Parliament from all major political groups have condemned the announced plan to reform the Gender Recognition Act. The plan actually reforms things that are not part of the Gender Recognition Act, and the reforms do not go in the direction wanted by the public during consultation. Pink News has this story.

A group within the Conservative Party who support civil rights for transgender people have accused their party’s leadership of attempting to use the issue to create a “culture war,” according to Pink News.

The British Parliament elected to fly a rainbow flag that included the colors of the Trans Pride flag in an arrow. Called the Progress Flag, many have pointed out the irony of flying this particular flag, which includes the transgender pride colors, while the ruling government tries to remove the civil rights of transgender people. Pink News has this story.

It’s not just the Parliament which is having trouble on this issue. A group of Members of Parliament have labeled the BBC as “institutionally transphobic” in a new letter, according to Pink News.

Baroness Nicholson got herself into trouble for misgendering Munroe Bergdorf in a tweet, and for appearing flippant when it was pointed out. Given her transphobic views, this would merit her a TWIT. Pink News has this story. Pink News also reports that, after much public outcry, Baroness Nicholson has lost her position as an honorary vice-president of the Booker Prize committee.

A transgender woman in Winnipeg reports that she was “karate chopped” when she attempted to use the ladies’ room. The CBC has this disturbing story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Dr. Maria ELizabeth Montano’s body was found near a road in Mexico. This transgender woman and activist had been missing for ten days. This disturbing story comes from Pink News.

A transgender sex worker’s body has been sitting in the morgue unclaimed for ten days. She was stabbed eleven times, apparently by a client. Her family won’t claim the body because they disowned her as a result of her gender identity. Pink News has this story.

Alysa Washington kindly shared some tips on crossdressing for the summer that will help you avoid style missteps. You can find them here.

The Conversation has a story about Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater, a semi-autobiographical novel about being transgender in Nigeria.

A transgender woman who says she was fired for being transgender has won a lawsuit against her former employer. The surprise here is that this story comes from St. Petersburg, Russia. Human Rights Watch has this story.

Audrey Tang is a transgender woman who is the Digital Minister in Taiwan’s government. She is profiled by AFP.

Romania has announced a new law which will forbid the teaching of gender identity in schools, according to Pink News.

Kalki Subramaniam reports that she is on a mission to make India’s transgender people proud of themselves, through painted palms. CNN has her story.

Yemen is a conservative Muslim nation, on the Arabian peninsula. It still has the death penalty for homosexuality, and equates being transgender with being gay. Al-Monitor has the story of a 23-year-old transgender man in Yemen.

We reported last month that Egyptian actor Hesham Selim went to social media to announce his support for his transgender son. Two lawyers in Egypt are now suing that transgender son, alleging that his support of Sara Hegazy, an LGBTQ activist who committed suicide last month, amounts to “promoting homosexuality.”  Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, but discrimination against LGBT+ people is widespread. This report comes from Pink News.

The Daily News has the story of an Australian woman of indigenous heritage who funded her transition through sex work. She says that the sex work empowered her.

CNN has a video story about the Amaranta School, the only school specifically for transgender students in all of Latin America.

TWITs

YouTube pulled a video by a detransitioner, on the claim that the video contained false information about the prevalence of detransitioning. The anti-transgender movement has seen this as a shot across the bow. Walt Heyer then responded with a video of his own, in which he promoted himself for his own detransitioning, and for helping others to detransition. Heyer is known for sharing false and misleading information about how many people detransition, and for misrepresenting parts of the transition process. Nonetheless, Kristen Waggoner, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, writes in The National Review that the banning of these videos shows that Youtube has taken a side against her views. For deliberately misunderstanding and misrepresenting the reason that the videos were removed, Kristen Waggoner and the National Review get a TWIT Award.

Zack Cole, a solid Republican who is on the public safety committee for Trafford, deliberately misgendered and deadnamed Dr. Rachel Levine, the state’s Secretary of Health. When told that this was not a good thing to do, he replied that some people “just can’t appreciate humor anymore.” For thinking that deliberately misgendering and deadnaming a person is funny, Zack Cole gets a TWIT Award. You can read about this at Pink News.

Abigail Shrier, the author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughter, is a believer in Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria. Her book is so bad, that Amazon says it does not pass scientific scrutiny and is best explained by anti-transgender bias. Amazon has refused to run ads for the book on its site. This has upset the far-right publishing house behind the book, who were hoping that ads on Amazon would help to drive sales. For writing and for defending a book of bad science that demeans others, Abigail Shrier, her publishing house, and her defenders share a TWIT Award. Pink News 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.

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Category: Transgender Community News