The Week In Transgenderism 10/29/12

Allyson Robinson

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Fun and OutServe, an organization created to support gay and lesbian service members while Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was in effect, are merging. Now that gays and lesbians can be out and serve their country there’s no longer a need for OutServe. But, we all know that transgender service members are still in the closet because the repeal of DADT did nothing for them. To show that the merged organizations realize that and haven’t stopped fighting for all GLBT service members they have chosen a transgender woman to be their new leader. Allyson Robinson is her name and she’s a West Point grad and former missle unit commander. Read all about it in The Huffington Post.

A 25-year-old FtM from the United Kingdom is taking steps to normalize transgenderism. Maxwell Zachs (he doesn’t have a silver hammer. Oops, Beatles reference) transitioned in 2009 and has decided the world needs to know that being TG is not an illness or disorder. He has started a petition at change.org aimed a changing the World Health Organization’s classification of transsexualsim as a mental disorder. Of course when it’s seen as a mental disorder you can, in some places, get your hormones and surgery paid for as a needed medical expense. Read about Maxwell’s crusade and the TGs who oppose it at ABCNews.com.

Lana Wachowski

Film director Lana Wachowski, who just recently came out as transgendered and is known for creating (along with her brother) The Matrix, V for Vendetta and the new film Cloud Atlas, has been given the Visibility Award by the Human Rights Campaign. In her speech to the group she told about her struggle with her transgender issues and suicidal thoughts. Get the story and a video of her speech in The Huffington Post.

Eden Lane

So we have a transgendered film director. Are there any transgendered broadcast journalists? You bet! There’s one and you’ll find her on public television in Colorado. Her name is Eden Lane and she does a weekly interview program on arts and culture. Ms. Lane didn’t mean to become a broadcaster after her transition but, as they say, one thing led to another. Meet her in The Huffington Post.

Good news for transsexuals in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Public Health has been forced by a court decree to make it easier for transgendered people to get their birth certificates updated. But the IDPH is still not making it entirely easy. Get the facts at thinkprogress.org.

Trouble in Jackson Heights

If you’re planning on taking a stroll while enfemme in Jackson Heights, New York be aware that your attire may attract unwanted attention from the police. That’s the New York Police Department which has gained negative comments for the way its members have brutalized protestors and for the implemtation of “stop-and-frisk” which seems to target minority people far more than it does white people. It seems that transgendered people are also a big target for the NYPD’s
“stop-and-frisk.” Read the story in DNAinfo.com.

The latest clash between transgendered people of the 21st century and people rooted firmly in the 18th century is happening in Brighton, England. The city council is considering a move to drop the use of Mr. and Mrs. on official documents. They say that TG people shouldn’t have to pick one of the “useless” honorifics. Conservatives are outraged. “How are they going to address letters properly?” they asked. Read about the kurfuffle in The Mirror.

Batty Davis

You can find drag performers everywhere these days. Our Meet The Drag Performer article comes to us from Grand Rapids, Michigan. There’s drag in Grand Rapids? Sure is. They’ve got two drag bars there. Meet one of their top performers — Miss Batty Davis. Get to know her at rapidgrowthmedia.com.

Drag church

Did I just say that you can find drag queens everywhere? You bet I did and if the Grand Rapids story doesn’t prove it this one does. A church in Massachusetts just had its second annual drag gospel worship service. That’s right — queens in church. After the prayers and sermon a drag performer did a show. The story is in The Boston Globe.

There’re also queens in Dakota — South Dakota that is. The students at the University of South Dakota brought back their annual drag show benefit on October 19. (There wasn’t a show last year.) Ten professional drag artists were joined on stage by student queens and a packed house went wild with all the glamor. Proceeds benefited the school’s efforts to bring in educational speakers and to fund the sponsoring group ,the 10% Society, a student LGBTQ organization. The story is in The Volante.

The Washington, D.C. police officer who in his off duty time back in 2011 solicited a transgender woman for sex and reacted badly when she turned him down (He jumpede on to  the hood of the car she was in and fired his gun at the occupants). It’s a tangled tale and who knows what really happened? There could have been some “interaction” between the TG’s companions and the off duty cop. The jury at his trial decided that he did indeed shoot at the people and found him guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. He got off on some other charges and is free while he waits for his sentencing hearing in January. Read about it in The Washington Post.

Another inmate who is seeking gender reassignment surgery from the state took her case to federal appeals court in October. Ophelia De’Lonta is serving a sentence for bank robbery in Vigrinia. We had reported on Ms. De’Lonta in a previous TWIT  column when she made the news by attempting self castration. Get her story at WTVR.com.

Elvira

It’s Halloween time and one spooky fact you probably didn’t know is that Elvira: Mistress of The Dark, got her start in showbiz as a drag queen in Colorado. That’s not quite true, her first showbiz job was go-go dancing, but that led to the drag queen gig. No, she’s not really a TG. Cassandra Peterson, the woman behind Elvira, is really female but she is a pal to the BLBT community. Find out what we mean by saying her first job in showbiz was as a drag queen in South Florida Gay News.

TWITs

A large TWIT Award goes out to the unknown assailants of a transgender woman in Brazil who stoned her to death. Her murder is just another in a series of hate crimes against Brazilian TGs . The story is in The Advocate.

Another celebrity thought to be cool with LGBT has made news and gotten herself a TWIT Award by making anti TG Twitter comments. Who was it? Roseanne Barr. Wow! Tweeting your way into TWIT. In a Twitter barrage Barr said that people with penises shouldn’t be allowed into “space where little girls get changed.” She was accused of transphobia and more 145 character comments were exchanged. The story incorrectly identifies Barr as a presidential candidate but it’s just sloppy editing. There is a candidate in the story but it isn’t Barr. Read it at Queerty.com.

We’ve got a TWIT Award for the jury in Albany, Georgia who acquitted a man of charges of armed robbery and aggravated assault last week. Jeremy White was arrested for robbing a transgendered woman and shooting her in the leg. While his defense attorney asserted that the acquittal had nothing to do with the victim’s lifestyle we suspect the sight of the victim on the witness stand in women’s clothing may have influenced them. I guess the victim didn’t shoot herself in the leg. Oh, and the TWIT had an ironclad alibi. He was home with his parents at the time of the incident. Right. The story is in the Albany Herald.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News