The Week In Transgenderism 11/3/14
Laotian contenstant Piyada (L) with famous ladyboy Poy.
What beauty pageant for strictly trans contestants is happening right now? Miss International Queen 2014 kicked off over a week ago and it culminates on November 7 at Tiffany’s Show Theater in Pattaya, Thailand. Contestants come from 21 different countries and this is the pageant’s 10th anniversary. Read all about it at Rocket News 24.
If you’re deep in the heart of Texas and need a lawyer to help you negotiate the maze of getting your name and gender changed on your legal documentation it’s good to know that there is someone who can help, and she’s good at since she is also trans and had to do it for herself. Katie Sprinkle is her name and she is a lawyer in Dallas County. She’s the only openly trans lawyer in that county. Read her story in the Dallas News.
High Heel racers.
October 28 was the date and they did one more time. The 28th time, actually. It was the High Heel Race in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of people turn out to watch dozens of drag queens, and drag queens for one night, run down 17th Street in their high heels. There are a bunch of pictures on the event at DCist.
Kye Allums
Back in 2010 we featured stories about Kye Allums in several TWIT columns. Allums was playing basketball on the women’s team at George Washington University. Now Allums is 25, transtioned to a male presentation and traveling the country talking about gender issues. He’s also one of the stars of Laverne Cox’s new documentary, The T Word. He recently did an interview about his life with Time magazine.
Good news for TG federal workers insured by Aetna plans. Next year the company will begin covering gender reassignment surgery. And in the next couple of years the company plans to start including the coverage in its commercially available plans. Get more info in The Washington Post.
For the past three days Edinburgh, Scotland hosted a conference on transgender and interest rights. The Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance’s (STA) Trans and Intersex Conference of the Isles (could the name be any longer?) brought together over 150 trans and interest people from all over the U.K. and Ireland to provide a push for transgender and interest rights in Scotland. Read about it in Kaleidoscot.
Lauren Scott
A trans woman in Nevada not only transitioned her gender, she transitioned her political party, too. Lauren Scott was a Democrat who campaigned for John Kerry in 2004. Scott is an Air Force veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm. She’s also served on the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. No one in Nevada has made an issue of Scott’s gender. In fact the Republicans in her district are more concerned that she used to be a Democrat. Read about her bid for a seat in the Nevada Assembly at chron.com.
Another trans themed drama is reported to start production next month. It’s called Three Generations and the youngest character is a trans teen. He will be (get ready for controversy) portrayed by actress Elle Fanning. Susan Sarandon plays the lesbian grandmother who doesn’t understand gender identity issues and the mother is Naomi Watts. Read more about it at indiewire.com.
Maid cafe maids.
Japan always seems to be a place where gender fluid behavior is not a problem. They have “maid cafes” where young men dress as sexy maids and serve food and beverages. There are clubs where over worked businessmen can check in for a makeover and spend the evening as a beautiful woman. But like all places where we think trans is welcome there are a few rough patches that need to be sanded down. One trans woman in the Shizuoka Prefecture was denied membership in a golf club because she has “gender identity disorder.” The woman is the owns of a company and had reassignment surgery in 2010 but the golf club won’t allow her to join since her official family registry shows that her gender was changed. She is suing the club and already won a victory in a lower court but the club has taken it to a higher court on appeal. She is thinking about moving away from Japan to someplace more accepting, like San Francisco. Read her story in The Asahi Shimbun.
After two gay men were attacked by a group of yuppies in downtown Philadelphia last month the cry went up for the addition of “sexual orientation, gender identity and disability” to the state’s hate crimes law. That didn’t happen when the legislature wrapped up their agenda and left for last minute campaigning. It did however get added to the Philadelphia hate crimes law. Read about it and watch video at NBC10.
Just a few years ago we reported on a woman from Malta who could not get her gender changed on official documents and was unable to get married to a man. That seems to be changing now as the government of Malta has put out a draft of a law that would allow trans people to change their birth certificate and subsequently their other official documents without having to undergo reassignment surgery. Read all about the far reaching changes in Malta Today.
The Compton Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco in 1966 and the Stonewall Riot in New York City in 1969 are often called the first instances of LGBT rebellion against the oppression that kept us living in the shadows. It turns out that there was an earlier protest that featured LGB and T people staging a sit-in in Philadelphia. Get the details on the sit-in at Dewey’s from the Philadelphia Gay News.
The U.S. Marine who is accused of murdering a transgender Filipina woman will be tried in the Philippine justice system. The marine met the woman outside a bar near the U.S. naval base and went to a hotel with her. She was found dead in the bathroom of the hotel room. Her death caused an international incident over who would put the marine on trial. Read the story at Al Jazeera America.
House ball.
You might remember the film Paris is Burning from back in 1990. It documented the house ball scene and helped inspire Madonna to appropriate voguing and make it into a song. You might also think that voguing and house balls are a thing that died out long ago. After all, it’s been over 20 years. You would be wrong. The “houses” are alive and well and trans and gay house members still walk the balls to compete for prizes and raise money for charities. Read about what’s been going on with the houses at Al Jazeera America.
TWITs
A black transman in Georgia was pulled over for speeding. The man, a trans activist in the Atlanta area, did not have his driver’s license on him and when he gave the officer his birth name it caused a lot of confusion. Perhaps he said, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” In any event the officer arrested Juan Evans and took him to the police station where he was repeatedy called “it” and “thing.” While those are lovable characters from The Addams Family those are not words you should use to refer to another human being. To the East Point, Georgia police we deliver a giant TWIT Award. Read about the incident and see video in The GA Voice.
Talk show host Wendy Williams is in hot water with GLAAD for making “gross and invasive speculation” about Bruce Jenner’s gender identity. Well we’ve all been wondering if Bruce has anything she’d like to say on the subject but that’s not what this TWIT Award is about. It’s about Williams’ comments in her show last week in which she chided Jenner for being photographed holding a cigarette and sporting pink nail polish, among other things. We’re with her on the cigarette. Those things are bad for you. But we’ve specifically spent little time speculating about Jenner’s gender issues. Those are not our concern until an official announcement is made. Read exactly what Williams said to get her TWIT Award in The Wrap.
We mentioned in a previous TWIT column that a school district in Nebraska had provided gender sensitivity guidelines for its teachers that recommended the terms “boy” and “girls” not be used so that any students who were gender fluid would not be offended. The issue raised such a kerfuffle that over 200 parents showed up at a school board meeting. About half were for the training materials and half were against their use. The school board has decided to withdraw the material. We give a TWIT Award to the parents who can’t understand that gender is not “either or” and that all children should be valued no matter what their identity. Another TWIT Award goes to the school board for not introducing the materials in a more reasoned manner, following all the guidelines for any training info. The fact that they were introduce with little explanation or education to parents contributed to the kerfuffle. And another TWIT Award to the website that has the story. They appear to be happy that the conservative faction got their way. Read the story at Nebraska Watchdog.
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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