The Week In Transgenderism 11/12/12

Isis King

TG Model Isis King who rose to prominemce after her appearance on America’s Top Model has started a new career. She’s taken a bold step and moved from just wearing the clothes to designing clothes. She’s at work now on her collection so look for it to appear on the runway in the new year. Get the story at BruDirect.com.

The first openly transgendered mayor in the country, originally elected in 2008, has won a fifth term. Stu Rassmussen beat out three opponents to win another two year term. Seems like Silverton, Oregon likes their TG mayor. Read all about it a KTVZ.com.

Phoenix Rising

Our Meet The Female Impersonator story comes to us from Rehobeth Beach, Delaware. Rehobeth. Now why is that familiar? Wait! Because that’s where JoAnn Roberts just spent last weekend having her Beauty and The Beach event. Besides  the yearly BATB there is a drag scene in Rehobeth and one of it’s stars is Christopher Bradford — a.k.a. Phoenix Rising. Meet him at delmarvanow.com.

If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. And be prepared to get your gender reassignment surgery paid for by the city. Maybe. The city’s Health Commision voted last week to create a comprehensive program to treat the issue of transgendered people but the vote did not cover surgery. Transgender activists engaged the Commission in talks and now they’ve modified their plan to not exclude SRS. Get the facts, as they are, in The Norman Transcript.

Leto — pretty without makeup.

Jared Leto is the frontman for the band 30 Seconds To Mars. He’s also an actor who has appeared in Fight Club, American Psycho and most recently Mr. Nobody. Why are we telling you this? Because Leto is taking a break from fronting his band to take a role in an upcoming Matthew McConaughey film called The Dallas Buyers Club. The film is a departure for McConaughey as he has lost several pounds of weight to play a man with AIDS. Leto will also be doing something a bit different as his role is a flamboyant crossdresser named Rayon.  Read all about it in New Music Express.

One actor who has tried to cross the gender border in the opposite direction is director/actor Tyler Perry. Perry’s biggest film success is as the feisty, wisecracking grandmother Madea. His last film, Alex Cross, in which he portrays a male detective/psychologist (from the character created in novels by James Patterson) a macho action hero type, is bombing at the box office. It seems that more people love Perry when he’s wearing one of Madea’s hideous dresses. Read the article about it in The L.A. Times.

Transgendered people who have been the victims of hate crimes and died as a result will be remembered this November 20 during the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Read about it, and get a refresher course in TG terminology, in the Federal Way Mirror.

Laughton

The election last week brought many LGBT candidates into office. Among them  was New Hampshire’s first TG legislator, the new member of their House of Representatives for Ward 4, Ms. Stacie Laughton. Ms. Laughton is a a Democrat who triumphed over two Republican opponents to win her seat. Congratulations Stacie! Read the story in The Huffington Post.

Before the election there was the storm. We now know that in the midst of the destruction in lower Manhattan that occurred when the flood poured in the Ali Forney Center was wiped out. The Center is a non-profit that provides housing for LGBT homeless youth. Their facility was destroyed by Sandy just months before their planned move out of the low lying area and uptown to Harlem. Read about the destruction and about how you can help them get established in their new home in The New York Observer.

Snow White arrives at work.

Last week we brought you the story about the fella in Tokyo who learned 16 thing while spending Halloween crossdressed. Today we’re able to follow that up with an even cuter colleague of his who spent the day as a Disney princess — Snow White. Again, we feel that these guys are a little more into crossdressing than the ordinary guy and were probably using Halloween as their excuse. Note Snow’s perfect dark nail polish and feminine comportment. Hours of private practicing? How many of us wish we’d had the nerve to come to work on Halloween as Snow White? The story and many photos are at Rocket News 24.

The thing that always beats back fear is knowledge. Western Illinois University is doing its part to fight transphobia by having a Transgender Awareness Week. The program starts today and will feature the film Boys Don’t Cry, discussion groups on transgender issues and TG students telling their stories. The week of events will culminate with a Transgender Day of Remembrance candlelight vigil on Thursday. For all the details check out CambridgeChronicle.com.

Despite some progress made in rights for TGs in Pakistan that country still suffers from the sort of ignorance of gender issues that WIU is fighting in Illinois. In Pakistan the Muslim majority are particularly opposed to transgenderism, much like hard-line Christian conservatives in this country. For a taste of what it’s like to be transgendered in Pakistan check out this article from Associated Press.

TWITs

Back in September we reported on a man in Washington, D.C. who attacked a transgendered woman and was caught and arrested. He plead not guilty at his arraignment and then, for some reason, they let him go on bail while they scheduled his trial. Now they’ve issued a bench warrant to have him arrested on sight since he jumped bail and didn’t appear in court for a status hearing. TWIT Awards go to the bail jumper and the justice system in Washington that didn’t keep him locked up. The story is in Metro Weekly.

A TWIT Award in the TGs Making Bad Decisions category goes to a transgender woman in Vancouver who reacted badly when her boyfriend dumped her and told her he had a new girlfriend. She handcuffed him to the bed, stabbed him 32 times and beat him with a hammer. He didn’t survive and she got life in prison instead of respect. A Why Can’t You Get It Right Category TWIT Award goes to the paper for using her male name throughout the story. It’s in The Vancouver Sun.

Do you know this crook?

People who target the elderly to steal from them are despicable. People who dress up like female nurses to do it are even more despicable. Meko Jerran Hartfield gets a TWIT Award for dressing up and robbing people in a Central Florida assisted living facility. Hartfield may have being doing it all over central Florida. Hartfield is on the lam at the moment. We hope he’s caught soon. The story is on the WKMG website.

A 23-year-old TG in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania was doing a little shopping at the local Walmart when she got into a tiff with another woman. The TG flashed her breasts at the other woman and loudly proclaimed she was “the best whore in town.”  It’s not her first brush with the law and we give her the TWIT in  the TGs Making Bad Decisions category. The story was sent in to TWIT by faithful reader Laura Jade. Read it in The Smoking Gun.

Tags: featured, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News