The Week In Transgenderism 12/24/12

If you’re a fan of men dressing as women and also a fan of ballet then you can’t help but love Les Ballets Trockadero. The all male ballet troupe is in residence at the Joyce Theater in New York City till January 6th and the New York Times dance reviewer caught their show and had some criticisms. Not about the ladies prancing about on stage. They found fault with the way the male roles were danced. Catch the review in The New York Times.

A male teacher in England will be returning to school after Christmas as a female teacher. Now that’s some Christmas present. The teacher, who had worked at the St. Mary Magdalen School has the full support of the school administration, which is the Church of England. Get the story from The Huffington Post.

Another  Canadian teacher made the news when he approached the subject of transgender issues by showing his class a video  featuring drag queens lip syncing to a Bette Midler song. His students were in the fourth grade. The video was deemed by the School District superintendent to be grounds for suspension while the whole thing is investigated. Take a look at the video and read what’s happened to the teacher in Metro News.

Stacie Laughton is back in the news. The former State Representative-elect who quit after her felony conviction in 2008 was revealed has decided to make another run for the office she resigned from — in the special election that’s being held to replace her. Find out why she’s decided to get back into politics in Union Leader.

Fleming as herself

Speaking of politics, is that the first lady on the cover of Candy magazine? You may have heard about Candy. It’s the very expensive limited edition magazine devoted to male to female TGs. And the answer to our opening question is no, that’s not Michelle Obama. That’s TG model Connie Fleming. Check it out examiner.com.

The Illinois school district that instituted protections for TG students only to rescind them within days and then created a committee to formulate an anti-discrimination policy for TGs has decided to dissolve the committee. Why? A hundred people opposed to TGs getting what they considered “special” protections showed up at a school board meeting to protest. Read the story in The Advocate.

A Canadian woman who transitioned when her children were in their teen years was concerned that there seemed to be no books for young children explaining why daddy might become a woman or mommy might start shaving and get a deeper voice. (She must not have heard about Fluff the Bunny, a kids book about TG issues that was available from CDS.) So she wrote a book called Muffy was Fluffy. If you are in need of a book to explain to your five or six-year-old about what’s going on check it out in Metro.

Dil

Transgender characters started showing up in film in the last 20 years. Sure, there were drag characters in movies going back to the beginning but characters that were truly transgender are, for the most part, a recent addition to film plots. What are the six most memorable TGs characters? See if you agree with the list put together by Screen Junkies.

While the six TG characters they picked were not bad, Screen Junkies loses points for doing a feature on “5 Sex Change Movies (that) Will Change Your Life.” The correct terminology would be “gender swapping movies.” Still, they have some good ones listed. Check it out at Screen Junkies.

The easy going Caribbean is not that easy on gay people. If you look at the islands from the outside you don’t see too many gay people proclaiming their sexuality. If they do they are subject to anything ranging from beatings to jail or murder. So most of the gay men in the Caribbean keep it on the “down low.” One crossdresser from Antigua is pulling the veil aside and exposing the secret gays  on the islands. She’s looking for a publisher who will put out her book. Read about it in the Antiqua Observer.

TWITs

Crooks and scam artists abound and the TG community is not lacking members with criminal tendencies. The TG TWIT in this story from Hyderabad in Southern India is a prime example of a transgendered scam artist who fully deserves the TWIT Award. TGs in India have a hard time getting real jobs. The scam artist told a Facebook friend, also TG, that a job could be had working for the government and all it took to get it was a large amount of cash. It gets worse from there. A minor TWIT must be given to the reporter who couldn’t get the right pronouns into the piece. Get the story from Postnoon.

The British crossdresser who impersonated an old lady so he could get close to young women and touch them has violated the court order that says he can’t dress up to fool his victims. Not once. He’s violated the order 15 times. The judge has made it clear that Paul Reed can dress like a woman any time he likes but he’d best not use it as a disguise to touch and cuddle unsuspecting women who have been fooled into thinking he was a harmless old woman. So we hand another TWIT Award to Paul Reed and applaud the judge for saying Reed has every right to present as a female, as long as he doesn’t do anything criminal. May we also suggest that the jail time Reed in threatened with when he does it again is not going to keep him from doing it. This Twit needs serious mental health intervention. Read the story at SWNS.com.

What is it about the Irish? There was the commercial produced by an Irish bookmaker that caused the TG community in the U.K. to turn green around the gills. The premise was “spot the bloke” in a dress among women attending the races. That got pulled off the air after complaints hit the authorities from outraged TGs. Now an Irish mobile phone company has had an “advert” pulled for offending TGs. Some people will do anything for free WiFi access. Some will even dance with a transvestite who doesn’t know enough about beard cover. TWIT Award! Read the story and see the commercial in Gay Star News.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News