The Week In Trans 8/10/20

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Janet Mock

Janet Mock is featured on the cover of the September issue of British Vogue. Pink News has this story.

The state of Kansas has been dominated by Republican politicians for some time, but trans woman Stephanie Byers will run for state Representative this November. She was unopposed in her primary bid. The Advocate has this story.

Steuben County in New York has settled a lawsuit regarding the arrest and jailing of a transgender prisoner. This settlement could be a model for others for how to treat transgender prisoners, according to NBC News.

A candlelight vigil remembered Rem’mie Fells, a black transgender woman who was murdered in Philadelphia in June. Pink News has this story.

In Oregon, a vigil was held for Tyrell Penney. Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears, a transgender woman attending that vigil, was stabbed to death. This story appears in People magazine.

Rico Leblond has been charged with the murder of Zella Ziona. The victim’s mother has identified him as the murderer. Yet, his first trial ended in a hung jury, the second jury found him guilty but the verdict was thrown out on appeal. His third trial will be shorter, since he has agreed to plead guilty as part of a plea bargain. WTOP has this story.

Damion Campbell has been indicted in the death of Helle Jae O’Regan, who was fatally stabbed at the Diesel Barbershop in San Antonio, Texas. This story can be found at KSAT-TV News.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

When Raquel Willis writes and fights for transgender people’s rights, she is reminded of those who preceded her–Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and Zazu Nova, among others. She spoke about that to Pink News.

A non-binary protestor in Portland reports being misgendered, denied medical attention and separated from their service dog. Pink News has this story.

Samson Tequir was demonstrating for Trans Black Lives Matter in Rochester, New York, when two men started yelling at him. They then beat him until he passed out. His story is found in Pink News.

Reuters reports that 2020 is on track to set a new record for the number of transgender people murdered, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Reviews of the Trump administration’s policies regarding transgender people can be found at WBUR radio and CounterPunch.

A Republican political action committee is running advertisements which attack Joe Biden for his support of transgender rights. The ad runs in Michigan now, and may spread out from there. Pink News writes that the group hopes to “weaponize” transgender rights as a campaign issue.

When asked a question about the ban on transgender people in the military, President Trump pretended he did not hear it. Out magazine reports that the President has no plans to change his ban, but Congress does.

Lily Wachowski

In an interview that is part of The Netflix Film Club, Lilly Wachowski confirmed that there are many transgender themes present in The Matrix. The Netflix Film Club then ran down those themes in a thread on Twitter.

Adam Walker of Tennessee says that his sons did not approve of his transition at first, but now, four years later, his relationship with them is better because of his transition. The Daily Star has this story.

A transgender man tells what it is like to be a pregnant man in the deep South of the U.S. in Upworthy.

Pink News has some letters that LGBT people wrote to their younger selves.

In response to Elon Musk’s recent tweet about pronouns, Forbes suggests that talking about pronouns is an easy way to be an ally to transgender people.

The voice is one of the biggest problem spots for transgender people, especially transgender women. WRBL has a story about this.

An article in The New England Journal of Medicine bears the title “Two Steps Back–Rescinding Transgender Health Protections in Risky Times.”

A new study from the University of Cambridge shows that transgender people are three to six times more likely to be diagnosed as autistic than are cisgender people. Medical Xpress and The Daily Mail both have stories about this.

VDA performer Lemon.

Vision Drag Artists is Canada’s newest talent agency representing drag performers. The agency has 20 artists on their roster and promotes them for work in television and film. Learn more from The Star.

Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago became the first hospital to issue an apology for performing cosmetic surgery on intersex babies. LBGTQ Nation has this story.

Sage Dolan-Sandrino writes about the importance of support for Black transgender people, especially in this time of pandemic, in Complex.

The NCAA has announced that it will review its policy on transgender athletes at its meeting in October. KMVT-TV has this story.

Athletes are lining up on different sides of the issue of transgender females competing in women’s sports. Lori Lindsey, a soccer player who has been on Team USA, wrote a column for The Indianapolis Star, in which she argues for the inclusion of transgender females in girls’ sports. Martina Navratalova took the other side of the issue, as you can see in the TWIT section.

Ballroom is the subject of this month’s Culture Cruise on YouTube. You can find an article about it at LGBTQ Nation.

Trinity the Tuck

Trinity the Tuck has a new digital drag competition, Love of the Arts. It will appear on Twitch. Out.com has this story.

The Queens is a documentary that looks at the lives of three drag contestants. You can read about it at The Advocate.

A new documentary entitled Pier Kids looks at the lives of three homeless queer Black teens. The Advocate has a story about it.

Yungblud had to clarify the meaning of his tweet, “trans wizard lives matter.” It was meant to poke fun at J.K. Rowling’s attitude towards transgender people, as Pink News explains.

You may remember last week’s story about some people donating to the transgender charity Mermaids in honor of J.K. Rowling’s birthday. Those little donations added up to a 36% increase over the donations received the week before. Pink News has this story.

We’ve had a number of stories about how the British government under Prime Minister Boris Johnson was about to announce that they were abandoning efforts to change the Gender Reform Act. A story in The Mail on Sunday says that the PM’s fiancee, Carrie Symonds, convinced him to not go ahead with this plan. It should be noted, however, that a source close to the Prime Minister says that the two have not discussed the issue. They now say that they will publish their plans “over the summer.”

The European Commission ranked the governments of Europe according to their handling of transgender rights, and the United Kingdom is in a group it does not want to be in. They are in the next-to-worst cluster, a cluster which is ahead only of Hungary. They are in there with Poland and its LGBT-free zones. You can read about this in Pink News.

Trans woman featured in the film.

Coronavirus has devastated communities the world over, but in Brazil’s favelas – the tightly packed slums that crowd the country’s biggest urban hotspots – it has been particularly merciless. British filmmaker Florian Joahn went to Brazil in 2019 and has shot a short film focused on the lives of the transgender residents of Brasilândia, an urban district in the north. Learn more about being trans in Brazil from Them.

The head for the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights, Torr Robinson, says that unless the Labour Party fights the anti-transgender statements coming out in Britain, they risk being on the wrong side of history. This story can be found in Pink News.

A transgender woman was viciously attacked at Southampton. Police have closed-circuit television of the attack, and are looking for the perpetrator. BBC News has this story.

Joshua Sutcliffe, a teacher who got into trouble three years ago for misgendering a student has been dismissed from another teaching position. In a series of videos on the Bible and Christianity, he said, “Mohammad is a false prophet.” This story comes from The BBC.

NHS People Plan put out a paper on improving working conditions for staff in England. The plan talks of “the difficulties that colleagues with disabilities and long-term health conditions face,” then abruptly shifts to saying, “For example, we know that the majority of staff who identify as LGBTQ+ do not feel confident enough to report their sexuality on their employment record.” The NHS has since apologized for this abrupt shift within the same paragraph, and for the concern that it caused. The Sun has this story.

Trace Lysette

Trans actress Trace Lysette, know her work on screen in Transparent is going behind the camera. She will executive produce a documentary series called Trans in Trumpland. The four-part series will follow four trans people as they fight for transgender equality. Learn more from NBC News. Thanks to Jan Brown for the story tip.

Cosmetics retailer Lush has a sign in their store, saying, “Please don’t enter with signs of COVID-19, racism, homophobia, sexism, or transphobia. Pink News has this story.

A group of LGBT+ people from the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community have formed with the intention of marching in the next U.K. Pride parade. They have announced a fund for this purpose, according to a story in Pink News.

Ryder and friend.

The CBC has an editorial by the mother of a nine-year-old transgender child. This child, Ryder, and her mother, Anne are also featured in a story on POPSUGAR.

The U.N. High Commission on Refugees says that the story of a transgender woman who sought asylum in Guatemala who was murdered last week shows how much work still needs to be done to make the world safe for refugees.

A transgender woman who survived conversion therapy says that she has scored “a victory over my abusers” by surviving the treatment. Pink News has this story.

TWITs

As mentioned above, Martina Navratilova was one of 300 athletes who signed a letter opposing the inclusion of transgender females in women’s sports. Ms. Navratilova is no stranger to this topic, having previously implied that male athletes who can’t win against males would simply declare themselves to be females, win trophies, then declare themselves males again. That’s not how it works, and there are rules which prevent this from happening. For not listening to criticism, Martina Navratilova and others who signed this letter get a TWIT Award. The Independent has this story.

A high school in Salt Lake City has apologized for a comment which made its way into the school’s yearbook. The quote from a senior said, “There are only two genders and a lot of mental illness.” The senior who said that gets a TWIT Award. This story can be found on Fox 13 Salt Lake City.

We’ve told you about the people who complain when inclusive language is used regarding who can get cervical cancer. Rosie Duffield, an MP in Britain, was one of those who criticized the inclusive language. She was then defended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who largely vouched for her character. For missing the point about inclusiveness, both MP Rosie Duffield and the Archbishop of Canterbury get 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.

Tags: featured, news, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News