The Week In Transgenderism 12/29/14

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Queen in New Hope

New Hope, Pa. is an artsy town right on the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey and it’s had a long reputation for tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people. We learned last week that members of New Hope’s drag community are the stars of a reality show pilot called Pumpkin’s World. Pumpkin is a drag performer who has been working in New Hope for twenty five years. The show follows Pumpkin and four other drag performers as they prepare for their shows. Read all about it in The Intelligencer.

It’s the end of the year and that’s when media outlets haul out their wrap up stories on the big things that happened throughout the year. Here’s one that lists the 11 Ways 2014 Was the Biggest Year in Transgender History. You can find it in Rolling Stone.

Janet Mock with her beau.

Congratulations are in order for trans rights activist, author and web host Janet Mock. She’s engaged. Her longtime boyfriend popped the question and she accepted the proposal. Read how she met her man in the Michigan Chronicle.

If you want to be a trans soldier there is one country where you can serve openly. Not only that but they will help you through the transition process. The Israeli Defense Force has instituted a new policy that assists trans recruits from the time they get their draft notice till they have done their service. Everyone is Israel is eligible for the draft at the age of 16. Those who identify as trans will be taken into the service in their biological sex if they have not already begun transition, but if they haven’t started to transition the military will provide immediate support and assistance. Read about it on the YNet News website.

Noor

We have often mentioned Muslim countries as places where trans people are badly treated under Sharia Law. (Please note Sharia only applies to Muslims.) There is one Muslim country where at least one trans woman is not only accepted, for the most part, but has super star status. The country is Morocco and the star is the actress/belly dancer Noor Talbi. Read about her recent appearance at the Marrakech International Film Festival and her somewhat “guilty pleasure” status among her fellow Moroccans in the Daily Mail.

From the film.

From Vietnam comes the story of a film about a former Buddhist monk who fell in love with a fellow monk and left the temple to live life as a trans woman. Madam Phung is her name and she organized a traveling group of performers who journey around central and southern Vietnam putting on shows. The film was so well received by the people of Ho Chi Minh City that the distributors had to schedule more screenings. Read about the film and the traveling troupe on the Tuoitrenews website.

Vancouver, Canada has an organization called the Non-Partisan Association, or NPA. We’re not sure what the NPA does but we are heartened to learn that they have expelled two members who were opposed to adding a positive transgender policy to the Vancouver school system. Their reason for opposing the expansion of TG rights in the schools was that the realtors in the city were worried that the proposed TG policy would affect the “quality” of the public-school system and that would lower the price of houses. Kudos to the NPA for tossing them. Read more in the Vancouver Sun.

Charlotte, South Carolina is another city thinking about expanding its ordinances to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in places of public accommodation. Right now if you walk into a bistro in Charlotte and they read you as trans they can refuse to serve you. You can also be fired from your job for being LGBT. Federal rules are on the way to protect workers but until they arrive you have no legal recourse in Charlotte, and many other places. Charlotte’s City Council will most likely vote on the change in early 2015. Read about it in The State.

Jodie Harsh

British queen (not the royal one) Jodie Harsh is far from harsh on the eyes, and she’s a talented DJ, music producer and party promoter as well. Harsh is her own woman. She doesn’t wear breast forms, prefers trousers to skirts and didn’t dream of dressing up in her youth. She just started doing it one day after she turned 18. Meet her and learn more in The Huffington Post.

Can a homeless two-spirit native become a successful entrepreneur and fabulous drag performer? It seems this is possible in Canada. Massey Whiteknife was beaten up, molested, picked on and reviled as a child. He developed an addiction and became homeless before he was able to pull himself up and start a business that grew into a multimillion dollar enterprise. And his drag persona Iceis Rain is a hot vixen. Read all about it in the Edmonton Journal.

Conchita Wurst

In Austria they have anointed Conceit Wurst as the Queen. Not because she is a queen in the drag sense but because she has, over the last nine months, become one of the country’s biggest stars. Is it her talent? Her wardrobe? The beard? Possibly it’s all those things. And that fame and celebrity has earned her a profile in a major American magazine. Read all about Wurst in Newsweek.

Trans woman and teacher Lily McBeth passed away in 2014. When she came out to the school district as a woman they fired her. When she fought back and was re-hired she had to wage another battle against the attitudes of parents about a trans teacher in the classroom. Her attorney Leslie Farber commented about her former client on All Things Considered. Listen to it on the NPR website.

It’s not easy being trans. In some places it’s even harder. One of those places is Utah where the conservative religious views of the predominant culture cast things like declaring your own gender to be a radical thing, not a rational thing. Trans youth are particularly alone. An op-ed writer in Salt Lake City wrote about the problems faced by Utah’s nonconforming youth and she calls for legislators to provide protections. Read her thoughts in The Salt Lake Tribune.

While one writer took her plea for trans equality to the newspaper a 4th grade student  took his plea to a very important person — Santa. He wrote a letter to the jolly old elf and he didn’t ask for toys but for everyone to get along. He mentioned his trans sister and said his family accepted her and he wants all families to accept and love all their members. Read the whole letter to Santa in The Huffington Post.

Lady Ellen client.

Where can a girl go to learn more about the womanly arts of deportment, style and makeup? There is a place located in a suburb of Piscataway, N.J. called Lady Ellen’s Femme Finishing School. In her home, which is packed with tons of makeup and femme clothing, Lady Ellen transforms men from around the world into beautiful, confident women. Learn more about her and her school in The Daily Beast.

TWITs

Parents in Argentina got upset when it was discovered that a female looking fairy doll had a penis under her dress. The doll came out as trans after one of the children got one of the dolls showed her mother what was under the fairy’s frock. Of course mom immediately took a picture of the doll’s groin and posted it on Facebook. No one is sure how the doll got a penis or whether is was intentional or a mistake. A TWIT Award to the over wrought people of Argentina for getting upset about this. As a child psychologist said when asked about how this would affect the kiddies, “The idea causes more disturbance among adults.” Read about what they think of the “world’s first transgender doll” on the Queerty website.

Enough about the restrooms, already! The latest hassle over TG rights is happening in Cleveland, Ohio. There’s a loophole in the city’s non-discrimination ordinance that allows businesses to deny transgender people the use of their restrooms based solely on gender identity. Changing the law and closing the loophole is being opposed by Cleveland’s major media outlet which has been publishing false “scary TGs in the lady’s room” stories. A TWIT Award is hereby issued to cleveland.com, the news portal for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Read about their fantasy based opposition to the change on the Media Matters website.

Oh, alright. More about restrooms. This time it’s the case of a FtM teen who has been barred from using the boy’s restroom at his Virginia high school. The School Board decided that trans students using the restroom of the gender they identify with would be infringing the privacy of the cisgendered users of that facility. Huh? A trans boy in the boy’s room is infringing the other boy’s privacy? A TWIT Award goes to the School Board for their 6 to 1 vote to make TG students use a special restroom. They’re also getting a complaint filed with the government by the ACLU which feels that being forced to use a “special” restroom in unfair discrimination. Read the story in The Washington Post.

A hazard of transitioning later in life from male to female is the long establishment of a male voice. It can be hard for many trans women who have managed to adapt visually to a feminine presentation to sound womanly. This is especially difficult over the phone. That, however, does not excuse TD Bank in Toronto from locking a trans woman out of her accounts when they thought a man was trying to pass himself off as a female customer. A TWIT Award to TD Bank. Read the story in Daily Xtra.

Tags: featured, Janet Mock, Jodie Harsh, Lady Ellen, Lily McBeth, news, Noor, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News