The Week In Trans 9/7/20

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One of the victims Eden Estrada.

Two weeks ago, we reported on three transgender women who were attacked in Hollywood. Last week, we reported that two suspects were arrested in connection with the attacks but were released. This week, we report that the two suspects have been charged with assault and theft as well as a hate crime. A third man, who had earlier been arrested, has not been charged due to lack of evidence. The Los Angeles Times has this story.

Although charges have been filed in this case, some members of the transgender community are preparing for what to do if they are attacked, according to KCRW.

An arrest has been made in the murder of Shakie Peters in Louisiana. The Advocate of Baton Rouge has this story.

Police in New York City are investigating the death of a transgender woman whose body was found in the sand on a beach. Her name has not been released, pending notification of family, and police are not sure if this was a murder, according to WNBC News.

During the week of the one-year anniversary of the killing of Bolman “Bee Love” Slater, whose body was found in a burnt vehicle, the local sheriff’s office and the FBI announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. WINK has this story.

NBC4 Washington reports that a mother is still looking or information on the murder of her transgender daughter, Mia Penny, who was found shot to death in an abandoned apartment building last year.

Layleen Cubilette-Polanco

New York City has agreed to pay out $5.9 million to the family of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco to settle the matter of her death while on Rikers Island. She was in the jail for inability to pay $500 in bail. CNN has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

While an article in USA Today notes that several court decisions have cited the Supreme Court’s recent decision on Title VII regarding discrimination against transgender people being discrimination on account of sex, a guest editorial in The New York Times notes that the reinterpretation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act still poses a threat to transgender people regarding their access to health care. Meanwhile, The American Independent reports that the Trump administration is continuing to try to treat transgender people differently until they are ordered to do otherwise.

Judge James E. Boasberg is the second judge to issue an injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from changing the interpretation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. You can read about this in The Advocate.

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis is one of several people who were ordered to give depositions in one of the cases against the ban on transgender people serving in the military. Specifically, this is the case being heard in Seattle. Law And Crime has a list of those being asked to give answers.

Murder victim Jennifer Laude.

A court in the Philippines ordered the release of Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, a U.S. Marine who has been in jail for the murder of a local transgender woman. An appeals court ordered that he remain behind bars for now, as they take a look at the case. This story can be found at Marine Corps Times.

Nick Moutos has been fired from his job as a Assistant Attorney General of Texas after tweets advancing conspiracy theories and anti-transgender tweets emerged. He also had homophobic, racist, and islamophobic tweets, among others. Pink News has this story.

An old controversy has come up again. Poynter News has a story about Mina Brewer, the transgender person who appeared on the cover of The Atlantic with the headline, “Your Child Says She’s Trans. She Wants Hormones and Surgery. She’s 13.” Brewer was 22 and used they/them pronouns at that time. Brewer feels betrayed, having been told that the article would present multiple views of the topic, when in fact the article was slanted against teenage transitioners.

When Jacob Blake’s transgender cousin joined the family in speaking out against police brutality, he began receiving transphobic abuse in return, The Advocate reports.

Lala Tanmoy Das makes the case for more transgender doctors in an article in the journal AAMC.

A recent letter to the journal Science says, “[t]he disruptions caused by COVID-19 have likely burdened transgender scientists with an outsized share of the poverty, disease and exclusion from science.” They also propose some ways to make science more accommodating to transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people. Mirage News has this story.

A new study shows that LGBT+ people have experienced significant levels of depression during the COVID-19 lockdown in the U.K., and that transgender people are experiencing the most depression. This story appears in LGBTQ Nation.

Ian Alexander trans character on Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery announced this week the addition of a transgender character, and a non-binary character, to be played by a transgender and a non-binary actor, respectively. While long-time fans of Star Trek will argue with the idea that these are the first transgender and non-binary characters in the history of the franchise, they are welcome additions. The Hollywood Reporter has this story.

Earlier this year, World Rugby announced that they were considering the possibility of banning transgender women from playing against cisgender females. However, Sky Sports reports they are receiving some negative feedback on the plan, which will be voted on in November.

Twenty-five years after the release of To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, interviews from The Today Show were put on the Internet. You can find a link in a story on The Advocate.

Donta Storey is a non-binary writer and director. They talked to The Advocate about their new project, LiME.

Transgender musician Glenn Copeland is the subject of a new movie biography. Director Posy Dixon talked about the film in an interview with The Advocate.

When Louis Theroux made the documentary Behind Bars, he interviewed a transgender prisoner named Deborah. In a recent interview with UniLad, he said that he regretted the fact that he did not use more sensitivity with her. The Independent has this story.

The first chapter of the video game Tell Me Why, in which a transgender man reconnects with his twin sister in Alaska, was released last week. The other two chapters will come out this week. You can read about it at NBC News.

The Oasis delivery queen.

The Oasis nightclub in San Francisco closed due to the COVID-19 virus. However, they are able to serve food, and they offer delivery by the drag queens in their cast. NBC News has this story.

Mica Daly-Smith is a 29-year-old woman who had a real passion for Harry Potter. She amassed quite a collection of Harry Potter memorabilia, but after J.K. Rowling’s recent comments about transgender people, she is selling her collection on eBay, and donating the money to Mermaids. You can find listings at the story in Pink News.

Cynthia Nixon talked about her transgender son, Samuel, in an interview with The Times. She did not foresee the announcement that he is transgender, but she supports her son. Pink News has this story.

Chaz Bono appeared on the A Gay And A Nongay podcast, and in the interview he talked about how disappointed he is in J.K. Rowling’s statements about transgender people. He has tattoos of Hogwarts on his legs, and to say he was disappointed in Ms. Rowling would be an understatement. The Advocate has some quotes, and a link to the full podcast.

Police in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, were called to an incident in which a young transgender person was violently assaulted. The incident was captured on video. The victim is doing well, according to CBC News.

Police also had to respond to an incident in Manchester, England, in which a group of students, who had apparently been drinking, launched an assault on the transgender people in Manchester Pride. The Manchester Evening News has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Sophie Cook

Emotions about transgender people remain high in the United Kingdom, and people seem reluctant to keep quiet. Pink News reports when Sophie Cook, a transgender photographer who worked in the publicity department for a football team, talked about her experiences on the BBC, she was met with much opposition which even got abusive. Pink News also reports that some “gender-critical feminists” have been seen lately mocking causes that other protestors support, such as Black Lives Matter.

A report from the University of Limerick finds several incidents in Irish schools where LGBT+ students met with resistance from teachers and staff. Among the incidents, a transgender student was forbidden from forming a gay/straight alliance. Pink News has this story.

Would you be interesting in hearing compelling firsthand accounts about the often life-or-death stakes of unchecked biases and bigotry? Would you listen? Biracial journalist Daralyse Lyons has interviewed more than 100 people – academics, politicians, thought-leaders, advocates, activists, and even an incarcerated inmate – for an in-depth exploration of a wide range of topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Learn more at the Demystifying Diversity website.

Susan Willan gave teen Valium.

A transgender woman in Australia pleaded guilty to giving a 14-year-old some Valium in a restaurant. The teen had to be hospitalized later. The Daily Mail treats this as a huge story.

Pakistan is a bad place for transgender people in the best of times, but when there is a pandemic, it becomes even worse, according to Deutsche Welle.

The Associated Press has a photo story about Key Trans Haiti, an organization dedicated to helping transgender people gain dignity.

A group of Mexican activists have put on a play in which they poke fun at the local police for how slow they are at investigating the death of a transgender person. The activists say the police find it easier to pretend drug traffickers are dressing up dead rivals as women than to admit that there is a problem with transgender women being attacked. Local Syracuse has this story.

TWITs

A customer of The Co-op noticed that the retailer, whose ads feature transgender people, was advertising in The Spectator, a weekly that often prints anti-transgender articles. The Co-op then announced that they would cease advertising in The Spectator, which caused The Spectator’s publisher to ban them from advertising in the magazine, and accused the retailer of suppressing free speech. The right to publish what you wish does not extend so far as to force anyone to advertise in your publication even if they disagree with your views. For bullying, both in the articles and in soliciting ads, The Spectator gets a TWIT Award. Pink News has this story.

Pink News reports that someone has created a “parody” account on Twitter which offers anti-transgender advice. It is made to look similar to the account of the group Mermaids, but obviously, its message is quite far from that of the real Mermaids site. For infringement on identity, this culprit gets a TWIT Award.

In yet another example of how hanging around like-minded people can cause one to go too far, a group of Polish bishops suggested sending LGBT people to “conversion clinics,” where they would “regain their natural sexual orientation.” It seems pretty obvious that the goal is for them to change their natural sexual orientation to one which less natural for the individual but is in line with recent Catholic writing. For promoting something that has been shown not to work, the Konferencja Episkopatu Polski (Polish Episcopal Conference) gets a TWIT. The Advocate has this story.

We mentioned before that the American Principles Project is using anti-transgender ads to attack Joe Biden and Senator Gary Peters in Michigan. The ads are now out, and they show Kevin Whitt, who tells of being a detransitioner. He also calls transgender medical treatments for minors “dangerous and irreversible,” and says that Joe Biden and Gary Peters support “sterilization.” In fact, the Equality Act which they support calls for the recognition of a person’s gender without sterilization surgery. For false information in support of a policy which causes much harm, the American Principles Project gets a TWIT Award. You can find the ads at The Advocate.

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