The Week In Trans 9/28/20

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Soraya Santiago

Soroya Santiago, the first transgender person to run for office in the United States and the first person to receive gender confirmation surgery in Puerto Rico, has passed away at the age of 73. She is remembered in Pink News. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

A group of 24 state attorneys general have stated their opposition to the new HUD ruling which will allow homeless shelters to exclude people for being transgender or gender non-conforming. WLNS-TV has this story.

The National Law Review reports that a group of pro-bono lawyers, with support from the National LGBT Bar Association and Foundation, has also filed a public opinion letter opposing the new HUD rule.

Lea Day was a transgender woman, who died while in the custody of the Cuyahoga County Jail, where she was housed with male inmates. She wrote a letter before her death, complaining about the conditions in the jail, especially the food, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Her story is also the basis for an episode of the Ideastream podcast.

Bennett Kaspar-Williams

Bennett Kaspar-Williams is a transgender man who suspended his hormone therapy in order to conceive a family. The Daily Mail has his story.

Last week, we introduced you to Aria DiMezzo, who is running for sheriff in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. She describes herself as an anarchist, and in that spirit, she and a restauranteur are suing to overturn the mandate to wear face masks. This story can be found in The New Hampshire Union-Leader.

The Corvallis Advocate has an article about statistics regarding transgender people and some local resources.

Aerrion Burnett of Independence, Missouri, was killed by a gunshot this week. She is at least the 27th transgender person to die violently in the United States this year. Out.com has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Berks County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney John Adams has said that three police officers, who shot a total of 16 rounds at transgender woman Roxanne Moore engaged in “a reasonable use of force, which is justified under the law here in Pennsylvania.” Although the victim’s gun had its safety on, and could not have been fired without a key, the officers were unable to tell that from a distance, according to the district attorney. No charges will be brought against any of the three police officers, according to Local 21 News. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Tarena Williams survived being shot three years ago, and out of her emotions while recovering she resolved to create a support group for transgender people in Norfolk, Virginia. The Washington Blade has this story.

Susan Stryker

Transgender activist, writer, and historian Susan Stryker has been hired by Mills College. Part of her job is to host speakers, according to The San Jose Mercury News.

Chicago Alderman Andre Vasquez has proposed a new ordinance, which states, “No form issued by the city shall ask an individual’s sex unless it is necessary for medical reasons or required by another law.” The ordinance would also add the term “nonbinary” as an option alongside “male” and “female.” The Chicago Sun Times has this story.

We reported last week on Plume, a company which provides transgender health care. Their move to offer their services to employers caught the attention of Fierce Healthcare this week.

A recent study found that 71% of transgender patients surveyed had had a negative experience with medical imaging, according to Radiology Business.

Charlie Martin

Transgender racer Charlie Martin uses the racing stage to promote LGBTQ+ issues and is an ambassador for Racing Pride—an organization that formed in 2019 to promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity within the motorsport industry. She also serves as a trustee for Mermaids, a U.K.-based organization that has been helping gender-diverse young people and their families since 1995. This past weekend she competed in a 24 hour race. Learn more from Auto Week.

NYU Langone is touting new robotic systems which could help reduce complications from gender confirmation surgery. Here is a copy of their press release.

A study in the Journal of Child and Family Studies found the surprising result that families are less likely to accept their LGBT+ child today than they were twenty years ago. Highlights of the study can be found in Pink News.

A doctoral student at Howard University, who identifies as gender non-conforming/woman and queer is doing their dissertation and wants study participants who are 18+ and identify as trans, non-binary, or any non-cisgender identity. The study is completed online and participants will get a $8.00 gift card. For more information visit the study web page. 

Kay Sedia

How does a Tupperware drag queen carry on in the face of the pandemic? She does what everyone else has done and takes the Tupperware party online. Learn more about Kay Sedia from Broadway World.

Transgender athletes are the topic of the latest episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Idaho Ed News has this story.

NBC News reports that legislators in South Dakota are moving to force their state’s athletic authority to join Idaho in banning transgender females from girls sports.

While Connecticut’s Governor Ned Lamont had some harsh words for Betsy DeVos during a press conference on Monday (see the story in Pink News), by week’s end, the New Haven School District and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights had reached a tentative agreement which would avoid the schools losing funding. The New Haven Independent has this story. This story may not be over, however.

KIRO-TV reports on a transgender teen who was told he could only play soccer on a team with girls.

Eddie Izzard at the gallery.

Eddie Izzard wore a miniskirt to the opening of an art exhibition, and The Daily Mail wrote about it.

Rebecca Quinn gave interviews to The Sports Network and BBC Sport.

Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union appeared on The Today Show, where they talked about how inspiring it is to see their daughter Zaya “be her most authentic self.”

A grandmother asked Dear Abby if she should talk to her granddaughter about the granddaughter’s transgender friend. Abby advised against outing the child.

J.K. Rowling took to Twitter to plug a t-shirt which says, “This witch doesn’t burn.” She included a link to the Wild Woman Workshop, which sells the shirt. It also sells merchandise with anti-transgender slogans such as “Trans ideology erases women.” The New York Daily News reports that the owner of the shop is a noted opponent of transgender people. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story. (We’d give Ms. Rowling another TWIT, but she seems to feel that such recognition is good for her.)

Yahoo has a story about some Harry Potter fans who are moving on with their fandom while leaving J.K. Rowling behind.

Performer Andrea, now homeless and nowhere to perform.

The explosion of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in Beirut was close to the most accepting of LGBTQ people part of the city. Many of the drag performers who worked in the nearby gay club now not only have nowhere to perform but many were injured and their homes destroyed. Learn more from ABC Australia. 

In an interview with The New Statesman, feminist and philosopher Judith Butler denied that “gender-critical” feminists are the main stream of feminism, insisting that they are a small splinter group. She also opposed gender-critical theory with logic.

Kise Vincent Hastings and his brother Hunter Levi Hastings, have written a young adult fantasy book with a transgender character. Coast Mountain News has this story.

Vision 2020 is an art exhibition with intimate portraits of transgender people at least 50 years of age. The photo exhibit is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and a write-up appears in Wallpaper.com.

Several Black stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race appear in a new public service announcement to talk about racism. The Advocate has this story. (Spoiler alert: they are not in drag in the PSA.)

Kat Cummings

Actor/singer/dancer Kat Cummings, who announced this spring that they are nonbinary, gave an interview to The Advocate.

Louis Theroux interviewed Deborah Lee Worledge for his 2007 documentary Behind Bars. Ms. Worledge died a year later of an overdose, so it is too late to apologize in person for how the movie misgendered her. Pink News reports that the filmmaker has publicly apologized for the misgendering.

The British government promised to announce the result of their public consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act “later this summer.” They waited until the final day of summer to drop the news that there will be no reform. A medical diagnosis will still be required. You can read about this in Pink News. As you might expect Pink News has a lot of stories on this, too many for us to list them all.

The Liberal and Labour parties have pledged to do what they can to continue with reform of the Gender Recognition Act, but they do not have the votes in Parliament to overcome the opposition from the Conservative party. Pink News has this story.

Juliet Jacques writes in The Guardian that transgender rights seem more fragile than ever.

Paris Lees

Paris Lees has an article in British Vogue in which she talks about being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. It’s a disorder that can manifest in self-harm and other dangerous behaviour – an estimated 10 percent of sufferers die by suicide. She tells her story so others suffering with BPD can know they aren’t alone and help is available.

Since the Gender Recognition Act is going to stay as it is, The BBC has an article about what it is to be transgender and what the law says at the moment.

The responses to the public consultation have been released, and there were more people who sent in a pre-written response from an anti-transgender campaign group than responses from transgender people, who had to write their own responses. This story comes from Pink News.

C Benedict wonders if non-binary people should try to get legal recognition or if the better move would be to abolish gender categories. Pink News has this commentary.

While the Gender Recognition Act will not be reformed, the government did promise three new gender clinics to help with the backlog of patients awaiting care. It turns out that the new clinics are actually a pilot program that had been announced earlier in the year, and which are now up and running, according to Pink News.

The NHS is in the process of reviewing its care to transgender children. They are also still determining what they will do as a part of this review, and one of the steps they just announced is to actually talk to some of the patients. Pink News is grateful, but wonders why it took so long to decide to do this.

Aaron Philip

Black, trans & disabled model Aaron Philip is the face of the Moschino Fall/Winter Campaign. When word got out about her being chosen the internet went wacky over it and people began calling her an activist. No, the 19-year-old insists she is a model and asked people not to politicize her. Learn more from Femestella.

More than 60 LGBT people have been violently killed in Colombia this year. That includes 17 transgender women, and one transgender man, according to Pink News.

Iran has been a bad place for human rights, and especially so for the rights of the LGBTQ community. Out.com highlights a study, which says that violence against LGBT people is common, and that gay men are encouraged to change their genders surgically.

UNAIDS looks at how the transgender community in Jamaica is doing during the COVID-19 crisis.

We told you last week about a restaurant in India where the staff is transgender. Pink News reports that they already have an eye towards opening a second location.

Chiyo Gomes

Chiyo Gomes is a transgender man, a drag artist, and a contestant for Mr. Gay England. While some are complaining that a gay trans man should not be competing for the title of Mr. Gay England, the organizers are supportive of transgender people in the competition. Pink News has this story.

The Unicode Consortium will release a lot of new emojis in the next year or so. Several gender-neutral emojis are included in the new batch, and so at last is the transgender flag. You can read about this in Pink News.

TWITs

U.K. Women and Equalities Minister Liz Truss announced this week that the government would not reform the Gender Recognition Act. That news in itself is bad, but not as bad as some of the proposed reforms (which included making it harder for transgender children to seek medical care). Rather, our complaint revolves around a statement which says that reforming the law is “not the top priority for transgender people.” While there is a great need for health care reform, that does not mean that there is no need to get rid of some unnecessary red tape and expense in fulfilling government mandates. For reducing the needs of the transgender community to a “pick one and only one” option, Liz Truss and the British government get a TWIT. Pink News has this story.

The Spectator printed an editorial with the headline, “Transgender wars and the fight for female emancipation.” No, recognizing transgender people does not enslave women, or even deny them their rights. For hyperbole, The Spectator gets a TWIT Award.

Kelly Loeffler has proposed a bill to add this to Title IX: “For purposes of this subsection, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” For ignoring the danger both in terms of bigotry and in simply enforcing the provision (which is far more vague than she realizes), Senator Kelly Loeffler and her co-sponsors get a TWIT Award. Law And Crime 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