The Week In Transgenderism 12/31/12

Andrej Pejic

We’ve gotten used to seeing Andrej Pejic as a hot blond so it’s a bit of a shock to find him in black hair on the cover of Elle Serbia. (It’s a shock that someone that beautiful is called “he.”) The androgynous super model is dressed in Jean Paul Gaultier fashion creations and sporting a black wig. Blond hair, black hair. It doesn’t matter. Pejic is so freakin’ hot. The magazine also features an inside photo spread with Pejic, blond again, playing the girl and the boy. The story is at globalgrind.com.

The year has come to an end and for TGs it was a year loaded with civil rights gains. How can you possibly keep track of all the different gains that happened in 2012 (and started at the end of 2011)? Fear not, Dana Beyer has cataloged them all on her blog which you can read on The Huffington Post.

Those English folks do seem to approach things from a different place now and then. For some reason a road project in the Manchester area sent out a questionnaire asking people about their gender identity, race, religion and sexual preference. As one resident said, “I can’t quite see what difference being a sky-blue lesbian Hindu makes to where the bypass goes.” Read the story in The Telegraph to find out why they need to ask those questions before they build a road.

The Be-All just won’t be this coming year. Organizers of Be-All announced last Friday that the 30-year annual event saw the light of day for the last time this past May. Organizers blamed the economy for declining attendance. Read it and weep in the Chicago Phoenix.

Former Miss Pa.

The Miss Universe pageant made news in 2012  when it agreed that transgender women should be allowed to compete in the contest. Mean girl Miss Pennsylvania USA made headlines when she gave up her state crown in protest over the inclusion of TGs. But she didn’t stop with that. She accused the pageant management of rigging the contest. For that pageant co-owner Donald Trump filed a $5 million suit against her. Now the U.S. District Court has ruled and the former Miss Pennsylvania is going to need to raise some cash. Check out the story at LGBTQNation.com.

Culpo

Meanwhile, some cisgendered beauty pageant participants are very supportive of transgendered women entering mainstream pageants. One such is Olivia Culpo who stated during the interview portion of the Miss USA pageant back in June that it would be fair for TGs to be included in competition for the Miss USA title. It seems that the nice girl made out better than the mean girl. Ms. Culpo was crowned Miss Universe on December 19th. Read about her win in Newsday.

Jenna Talachova

The pageant contestant who caused all the fuss as the first TG to compete in Miss Universe Canada, Jenna Talackova, may be getting her own reality television show. While we here a TGF believe reality TV rots the mind and is in general a sign of the rapid decline of humankind we applaud any show that focuses on Ms. Talackova. The show, if it makes it to the air, will follow her around the world as she makes public appearances. Read about it on Yahoo.com.

The police in Albany, New York are working with the TG community there to develop new guidelines for the protocols and procedures officers use when dealing with TGs they are arresting. The quest for new guidelines was kicked off in August after the arrest of a TG female who was identified in early police reports as “he” and called a man. Get all the details on the new cooperation at timesunion.com.

Ethel Person

Return with us now to the 1970s when crossdressers and other trans people were looking for answers about why they were the way they were. It was hard to find information about TG issues back then. Some were lucky enough to find books and research papers by a woman named Ethel Person that shed at least some light on TG issues. The New York Times  Magazine has a profile of Ms. Person and it was written by a man who openly identifies as a crossdresser. Imagine that happening in the 1970s. Read Stephen Burt’s profile of Ethel Person on the NYT website.

Do drag queens…

One of the questions the straight world often wonders about is what kind of lovers do gay drag queens have? Okay, maybe it’s not the biggest thing on their minds but it’s a reasonable question to ask. Are gay men attracted to gay men who dress up like women? Do straight men become seduced by the glamor and attempt to mate? A writer for a website called same same got to thinking about it and asked some drag queens in Sydney, Australia this question: “Do drag queens get laid?”

Drag king

And yes, it’s usually all about the queens. Could 2013 be the year drag kings start to get some respect? Most of the gender shifting shows that can be found in the U.S. are dominated by men dressed up as women. Well, it turns out there are plenty of women who like to dress up as men and their popularity as performers has been going up every year. Read about a group of kings from Detroit who are performing all over the Midwest. The story is at pridesource.com.

Earlier this year (May 14, 2012, Dina’s Diner) TGF reported on a British spy who was found naked and dead inside a locked sports bag. Gareth Williams was his name and he was reported to have had a large wardrobe of women’s clothing. That led to speculation that Williams was a crossdresser. There was also speculation that he had been assassinated by enemy agents. The investigation is still underway and a source in the police department said that he died as a result of “auto-erotic activity.” Of course it’s hard to lock yourself into a sports bag so there must have been an erotic play partner around who failed to let him out. The coroner who ruled earlier this year said that just because Williams had a large collection of women’s clothing, shoes, wigs and makeup that didn’t necessarily make him a crossdresser. Right. Read all about it in Pink News.

The transwoman who joined her college’s women’s basketball team is flourishing in her role as the tallest woman on the team. Her teammates were not concerned about Gabrielle Ludwig’s gender reassignment or her age. They just saw a 6’ 7” teammate as a major plus. Read about Ludwig and view video at the Fox 19 website.

TWITs

We must award not just a single TWIT but an entire truckload of TWIT Awards to Kuwait. Kuwait if you recall is the country we first went to war with Iraq over.  They asked us to help defend them from an Iraqi invasion. Back then it was mentioned in some reports (and repeated here on TGF) that one of the Kuwaiti princes spent the entire invasion and war cavorting around Paris in glamorous drag. While we have no proof the story is true it would make this truckload of TWITs  even worse since we’re awarding them because Kuwait is currently on a moral crusade against males dressing as women. The most recent arrest under Kuwait’s 2007 anti crossdressing amendment is a young TG who was arrested along with her mother who was trying to help her escape the police. Shame on you Kuwait. The story is at GayStarNews.com.

Turkish TG

Another country that has been crying out for the TWIT Award is Turkey. There, as it is in many other places, transgendered women can’t get jobs so they have little choice but turning to prostitution. Then they become the victims of their clients —  and the police. The country has no hate crime law that would give at least a bit of protection to TGs and if defendants claim they were enraged or upset at the time they committed the crime they can get a reduced sentenced. So, clean up your act Turkey. Enact some rights legislation and hate crime laws. In the meantime here’s your TWIT Award. Read the sad story in Al Monitor.

Dubai is no bed of roses for TGs, either. We gleefully fling a TWIT Award at them for their law against impersonating a woman. We have reported previously about the TG beautician who was arrested after she burned a female undercover health inspector with a laser hair removal system. The beautician was also charged with practising medicine without a license since she was administering botox injections in her salon. It was only after her arrest that the her gender status was discovered and she was further charged with impersonating a woman and a morals charge for watching the inspector strip before the hair removal debacle. Now the Appeals Court has upheld her two year prison sentence and subsequent deportation. Come on Dubai. At least she had managed to avoid hooking, even if she had some trouble operating her laser properly. The story is in The National.

Tags: Andrej Pejic, featured, news, Talackova, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News