The Week In Transgenderism 1/2/12

Last week a transgender woman in New York City got called a man by one of those people who feel they have to shout it out in the middle of a crowded subway car. — just so all the other riders know that they have a man dressed as a woman in their midst. We’ve all dreamed about what we’d like to do if that happened to us. The TG woman in this case gave the shouter such a beatdown that the video on YouTube was pulled for violating their policy on “shocking and disgusting content.” But the comments made are still there on The Huffington Post.

Whalen

An acceptable place for some unnecessary roughness is the roller derby world. But while aggressive behavior is accepted and encouraged in women’s roller derby, transsexuals who were less than two years past their surgery were not allowed to elbow their way around the rink. Read about how Kayley Whalen lied her way into the sport and how it all worked out at dcist.com.

We may have to put up with fools outing us in public from time to time but the National Center for Transgender Equality thinks that transgender people in general have had a great year. Their Executive Director, Mara Keisling, came up with fourteen reasons why 2011 was full of TG victories. Read the reasons in The Advocate.

Beatie and child.

Thomas Beatie, the “pregnant man,” was in the news a lot in the past few years. He just kept getting pregnant — till last year when he decided to give up birthing babies. Now comes word that Israel has a transman who has given birth and that country is having trouble handling it. The story appears in the Christian Post. Be sure to read some of the un-Christian comments from their readers.

While some segments of society view puberty blocking drugs for transgender children as nothing but child abuse in disguise, more parents of TG children are taking that route to let their child wait to make a decision on their lifetime gender. Anyone who has transitioned as an adult and had to undo, as much as possible, the masculine features they acquired during puberty no doubt wishes that they had the chance to put off those changes. Read about (and listen to the audio) of Dr. Norman Spack’s interview on NPR.

From Sweden comes word of a push for the National Board of Health and Welfare to cover breast implant surgery for Swedish MtF transsexuals. The group pushing for making breast implant surgery part of the gender surgery and not just elective surgery say that transsexual women who don’t get implants have an increased risk of suicide and other psychological problems. Read the story at lgbtweekly.com.

Pizza Stuffer auditioner

Back in October General Mills ran an ad for their Totino’s Pizza Stuffers. The ad featured dramatizations of actors auditioning to play the Pizza Stuffers Mom. One of the “auditioners” was a man dressed as a woman, doing the audition in drag out of his love for Pizza Stuffers. General Mills got a petition from angry viewers pointing out that General Mills was making fun of transgender people. Find out what happened — and see video of the offensive spot, and some other ads featuring men in dresses — at Xtra.ca.

Where do transgender super models go to get away from the bright lights and flashing cameras? They pop off to the rain forests of the Amazon basin for a wilderness vacation. And they still look fabulous. Check out a photo of Andrej Pejic hanging out in the jungle. It’s featured at radaronline.com.

Luzon

In the run up to New Year’s Eve many websites featured hints and tips on how to look fabulous for the evening’s party scene. Who provided the best hints on how to do a fabulous makeup for New Year’s Eve? A drag queen, of course! And not just any queen, the awesome Manila Luzon of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame was featured on Jezebel.com doing a makeover video. New Year’s Eve is over but the makeup hints are still good.

Eddie Izzard hasn’t done much dressing up lately but he is still known as a transvestite comedian and actor, and that’s great for all the other transvestite comedians and actors. Come out of the closet girls! Eddie has broken the barriers. His latest project is drag again, in a way, since he’s playing Long John Silver — it’s pirate drag — in a British televison production of Treasure Island. Read about it in The Telegraph.

Sushi in the shoe.

In New York City they lower a crystal ball at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Key West, Florida has another tradition. They drop a giant red pump with a drag queen inside. Now we have to wait till next New Year’s Eve for the other shoe to drop. Check out the New Year’s drop of Sushi in her giant red heel in The Times of India.

A few weeks back we reported on a British TS who had impersonated a famous English model and media personality, and gotten money from the celeb’s bank. The story sounded pretty hard to swallow and after seeing a photo of the real person next to the TS who did the impersonating and stealing we have wonder how blind the people at the bank were. Judge for yourself after you’ve seen the photos in The Mirror.

Dropout.

The struggle for acceptance by her fellow students caused one young British TS to quit school where she was studying animal care. Her classmates where all animals and she couldn’t put up with daily harassment over her gender. He mother was inspired by her plight to promote a campaign to educate the public about TG issues. Read the story in This is Derbyshire.

Vandy Beth Glenn won her case and is now back at work for the Georgia General Assembly. All the details of her battle with the state are detailed at WMTW.com.

Lance Bass used the word “tranny” on Access Hollywood a a week or so ago and he got jumped on and verbally pummeled by gay organizations and media. Lance is an out gay man and he didn’t realize that the word is seen as a slur by many in the transgender community. He wrote an op-ed to apologize for saying it and urging others not to use the word. But he’s also defending himself and admonishing the gay media who jumped on him. Read it in The Huffington Post.

TWIT Award

Why would anyone shoot you for giving them a compliment? If you’re a ladyboy in Thailand complimenting the wrong person can get you shot. We give our first TWIT Award of 2012 to the “bad boys” who shot up the area and wounded several people after a ladyboy said they were cute. Insecure much, boys? The story is in the Pattaya Daily News.

Tags: featured, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News