The Week In Transgenderism 12/26/11
Chaz Bono
Being the nation’s most famous transman means that people just won’t give Chaz Bono a break. A Massachusetts newspaper saw fit to print a parody version of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer that features lyrics making sport of Chaz, and the state’s new TG protection law. Many GLBT people were not amused. Read about the latest Bono based controversy in The Huffington Post.
Maybe it is Chaz’s sudden celebrity but the woman he has been dating for six years, and was going to marry, broke things off. Read about it at gmanetwork.com.
Meanwhile, the “psychologist” who said that young children watching Chaz on Dancing With The Stars could be harmed by it because it could make them want to adopt a different gender identity has been awarded the title of Misinformer of the Year on LGBT Issues. Media Matters bestowed the title on Fox News’ Keith Ablow last Tuesday. Read about the other ideas Ablow has pulled out of his Cracker Jacks box in The Advocate.
Work It
The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation are doing all they can to stop the ABC sitcom Work It from hitting the air on January 3rd. Both groups have demanded a meeting with ABC to plead their case that the show should be shelved. HRC and GLAAD are upset that the show holds TGs up to ridicule and promotes the notion that men dressed as women are “inherently funny.” We here at TGF notice that there are no TG characters in the show but we are against it because the actors don’t pass as women — at all — and the idea that they could suddenly acquire the skills of makeup, deportment, style, etc. and land jobs as female drug company reps is just plain ridiculous. (Hey, they’re unemployed — where do they get the cash for women’s business wardrobes? Wigs? Makeup?) Much of the “humor” of the show is based on old fashioned misogyny. Check out the full story in the Los Angeles Times.
ABC seems to feel that men wearing women’s clothing is funny. On the other hand women wearing men’s clothing creates pathos and the parody of masculinity “…is charming, revealing and sad.” At least that’s what movie critic A. O. Scott says of Glen Close’s performance as Albert Nobbs in the film of the same name. Albert is a woman living her life as a man in 19th century Dublin. Is Albert a TG? Read the film in The New York Times and decide.
We know that it was Robert Downey, Jr’s idea to do a drag scene in his new Sherlock Holmes flick. He recently appeared on The Graham Norton Show in England with co-star Jude Law. Norton dug up a photo of Law in drag. But you knew that Jude Law did a drag role. You’re loyal readers of TWIT and we told you about it when it happened. In case you didn’t see a photo of Law in drag check out this video from the Norton show. And there’s another guest on the show who knows a bit about being a man in women’s clothing. Guess who?
Maribel
The Cook County Jail was having a problem with inmates who didn’t fit into the general population. One such inmate was a transgender lady named Maribel who was sentenced to Cook County for retail theft. Despite her feminine appearance she was placed into the male unit for two weeks. Fortunately for Maribel and other TG inmates the Sheriff realized that they didn’t have an official policy on transgender inmates. So he instituted one. Read all about it in The New York Times.
Samoa was mentioned in a recent TWIT when the Samoan football (soccer to Americans) team won it’s first match, ever, with the help of a TG player. Today brings more news from Samoa. The government is going to change its 50-year-old Crimes Act to make female impersonation legal. Hey! Didn’t we just hear about a TG on their soccer team? What’s this about? The Samoan men who adopt a feminine lifestyle are called Fa’afafine. They don’t consider themselves as part of the GLBT community but a third gender that has grown out of Samoan culture. Read the details at RadioAustraliaNews.net.au.
New Scout
Remember the transgender girl in Colorado who wanted to be a Girl Scout? The troop she wanted to join turned her away at first, then relented and welcomed her to join. Now three other Girl Scout troops, all in Louisiana, have disbanded in protest. They claim it goes against their Christian beliefs for someone with boy parts to be accepted as a girl. Their attitude doesn’t sound that Christian to us. Get all the facts from The Daily Mail.
Our “meet the transgender activist” article comes to us from Charlotte, North Carolina. A transplanted Virginian TG got active in the local GLBT scene when she moved to North Carolina. Read all about Roberta Dunn, named 2011 Person of the Year by Qnotes.
A week or so ago Neil Patrick Harris used the word “tranny” while he was hosting Live! with Kelly Ripa. Neil is an out gay man. Now another out gay man has used the T work on live television. Lance Bass (Lance Bass is being invited on television?) was on Access Hollywood last Thursday. What’s up with these gay guys? The story is in The Advocate.
Art Exhibit
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, or planning to travel there before January 22nd, you might want to check out an art exhibit at the Luis de Jesus Gallery in Culver City. It features photographs of a FtM and a MtF called Home is Where the Heart is; Home is Where You Hang Your Heart. Read a review of the exhibit is The Los Angeles Times.
We often hear of how hard it is to be a transgender person in South America. We also hear of how tough it is for them to get asylum in Los Estados Unidos. We have found a story about a TG immigrant from El Salvador who is one of the rare success stories. Check out Valeria Villalta’s story in The Huffington Post.
Remember the Wiki Leaks fiasco? That was where an organization dedicated to exposing state secrets so people could see what kind of things go on behind the scenes in diplomatic and military circles got its hand on tons of classified documents and published them on the Internet. The documents were obtained from a a soldier named Bradley Manning. Manning was arrested and locked up, reportedly in severe conditions. It was hinted at that Manning was gay. Now we have confirmation that Manning’s preferred first name is Breanna. The info is on the Internet at globalcomment.com.
Dame Mattingly
Hey sports fans! Here’s one for you. The manager of the Dodgers, legendary former Yankee, Don Mattingly, has appeared in a ballet. In a blonde wig. Makeup. And a dress. Don expects that he’s going to hear from his players about his turn as Mother Ginger in a production of The Nutcracker. Get the story and a link to some blurry video of Don’s performance in The New York Daily News. Cool move Donnie Baseball.
Last TWITs of 2011
Senthooran Kanagasingham
TWIT Award 1 goes to a British TS who shoved her crossdresser friend under a train. Find out why in The Mirror. The victim was a respected lawyer who specialized in human rights and immigration issues, and was trying to help the TS with her transition.
TWIT Award 2 goes to the “cross-dresser” who shot his wife and killed her during an argument over his crossdressing. No matter how bad it gets there’s just no excuse for violence, let alone murder. TWIT Award 3 goes to KMBC.com for not doing more actual journalism and finding out if the killer was a crossdresser, or had other gender issues.
Category: Transgender Community News
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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Saturday’s Wall Street Journal review of Work It has a remark along the line that nothing looks sillier than a man in a dress.
An obvious man in a dress has been used for comic effect many times in theater, film and TV. The problem I have with Work It is that we’re supposed to accept that these guys, with no help from anyone who knows what it takes for a man to impersonate a woman, can dress up and get jobs as pharma reps. Then conceal that from their wives and families. Work It could have been made to provide comedy, and education about the rough road TGs travel trying to find employment, but they settle for tired old gender stereotype jokes. We’re going to be in the Chat Room on Tuesday night at 8:30 Eastern time to make live comments about the show as we watch. Maybe we’ll send the transcript of the Chat to the producers of Work It so they can see what those of us who wear dresses because we enjoy it think about their show.