The Week In Transgenderism 3/2/15

Of course Andreja Pejic has been appearing in shows modeling women’s fashions for several years but the runway she walked last Monday was special. It was the first show she has appeared in since her reassignment surgery. Pejic modeled designs by Giles Deacon during Fashion Week in London. Also walking the same runway was Bruce Jenner’s daughter Kendall Jenner. Read the story in The New York Post.

Long, luxurious lashes are seen as a sign of beauty and the cosmetics industry has made millions on enhancements for eyelashes so that even those with short, stubby ones can bat them seductively. It turns out almost all mammals have eyelashes but do animals like goats use their eyelashes to flirt with other goats? Science has determined why we all, from drag queens to goats, have eyelashes. Expand you eyelash knowledge in The New York Times.

Amelia found running different as a woman.

There was a film released back in the ‘90s called Different For Girls. It was about a trans woman in England. The title though is what we’re interested in today. It is different for females in our western culture. (And much, much different in some other cultures) One trans woman found out some of the differences when she kept up her preferred fitness activity, running, after her transition. Running as a female is different than running as a male and it’s not just that she is slower. Read about the difference on the Run Haven website.

Lili Elbe

Eddie Redmayne was looking his usual manly self when he accepted the Oscar for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. We’ve been wondering, with his attention to detail and all the work he put into that portrayal, just how fabulous he will be portraying Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl. Now we have some idea with the first photo of Redmayne in character. You can find it in the Daily Mail.

Is “transface” the equivalent of blackface? Some in the trans community find it demeaning to trans people when cisgender actors portray trans characters on the screen. (Eddie Redmayne may soon find himself the target of some trans anger.) For more on the controversy that swirls around cis actors in trans roles check out an in-depth look at it in the Advocate. Thanks to Jan Brown for the story tip.

Mame Dennis

A drag legend in Washington, D.C. passed away last week at the age of 74. Carl Rizzi whose drag persona was Mame Dennis was a staple on the D.C. drag scene for over 40 years. learn more in The Washington Blade.

What do Catholics think of Pope Francis’s belief that “gender theory” is like something the Nazis would use and that trans people are “Herods”? One liberal Catholic news outlet uses logic and science to tell the Pope he might not be infallible on this one. Thanks to TGF user Jack for pointing us to the article in Commonweal Magazine.

David as Judy

Female impersonation legend David de Alba is preparing to take the stage again. He will be back at The Onyx Theatre in Las Vegas on June 21 with a show titled By Myself on a Lonely Stage 2015. Phone 702-732-7225 for tickets or visit the theater’s website. The show starts at 2:00 p.m. so you can see a drag legend in the afternoon, go out for dinner and then gamble the night away.

A trans teen FtM in San Antonio got tired of just taking harassment and bullying from some of his fellow students. Last week the student, Jayden Blake Castillo, contacted transgender rights activist Nikki Araguz Loyd via Facebook and she set up a meeting with the principal of Jayden’s school. The meeting was a step in the right direction but there’s still work to be done. Read about it on the KENS 5 website.

Jane Smoker

Last week the good folks in Canada held the finals of Vancouver’s Next Drag Superstar contest. The competition was held over four weeks on Thursday nights at Celebrities nightclub. And the winner is —  Jane Smoker. Smokin’ hot, you mean. Check it out on the Vancitybuzz website.

If you’ve always suspected that the Cinderella story would be a great trans fantasy if Cinderella was played by a fella you aren’t the only one who had that thought. And we’re not talking about Jerry Lewis in Cinderfella. Three filmmakers in Vancouver have created The Twisted Slipper. The young fella, Cinder, works in his wicked stepmother’s coffee shop and goes from indentured barista to incandescent diva with the help of a fairy drag mother. The film is showing in a festival in Canada. Learn more in Daily Xtra.

The trans woman who sued Cabela’s sporting goods store’s parent company for discrimination has used the Americans with Disabilities Act in her suit — while also challenging the constitutionality of the Act, since it doesn’t say a word about gender identity disorder. If her allegations against the store are true did she need to get into “trans is a disorder” territory? She could have just sued over the discrimination. Read the story and decide. You can find it in the Philadelphia Gay News.

joey Arias

Can a downtown drag performer find happiness in the upscale, hallowed halls of Lincoln Center? Joey Arias, who has been a fixture on the New York drag scene for years, and is know for her spot-on vocal impersonation of Billie Holiday took her show to Lincoln Center last week and the reviews were good. Read one in The New York Times.

Who would you expect to be most in favor of letting trans people into the restroom matching their gender identity? Besides trans people, of course. It seems that according to a recent poll old people are more likely to be against trans people’s restroom rights than younger people. 54% of those polled who were between the ages of 18 and 29 said they were totally cool with trans restroom rights. Old people said, “What’s that? Speak up.” Read the poll results in The Huffington Post.

There’s no doubt that western culture is the culture of youth. Young people, with their youth and beauty are what’s hot. When photographers do exhibitions of trans people’s photos many times it is the young and beautiful who are hanging on the gallery wall. Now a photographer has made it her mission to capture the images of trans and gender variant people over the age of 50. She calls her project To survive on this shore. Learn more about it and see some of the photos on the Fusion website.

The popular British soap East Enders has been on the air for 30 years and they’ve tackled all sorts of issues in their long history. Now they are preparing to add a trans character to the show and the producer says they will be looking to cast a trans actor. Read about it in The Telegraph.

“Helena”

Serbia is a fairly modern country in many respects but it, like the U.S.A., is not keen on the idea of having trans people in the army. A Serbian trans woman rose though the ranks to become a major in the Quartermaster Corps before she announced her true gender and was then forced to take early retirement. She has sued the Serbian Army and the Ministry of Defense  with the support of a transsexual activist group. Read “Helena’s” story in Newsweek.

A recent review of existing research into the use of hormone therapy on adult trans people has found it to be generally safe and there is little danger of the hormones causing cancer in trans women. However there are a couple of side effects that those contemplating hormone therapy should be aware of. Learn what they are in U.S. News & World Report.

La Chiquita

Hong Kong drag performer La Chiquitta recently talked with the press about how she juggles a male and female personality and the differences between her male side and her female side. She identifies as a gay queen but her story illustrates that her fluid gender identity is integral to her being. Meet her in the South China Morning Post.

From Hong Kong in the 21st century we travel back to San Francisco in the 19th century. Back then San Francisco wasn’t the most LGBT friendly place. A woman who wore pants could get arrested and of course any man who dared to wear a hoop skirt and other feminine attire could expect to be touched by the long arm of the law. That time is documented in a new book about crossdressing in the 1800s in SF. Read about it in SF Weekly.

She dances hard for the money.

Pakistan is a dangerous place to crossdress but there are men there who pursue it despite the risk. Some are transgendered, some say they just do it to earn money as dancers and are not trans. Others identify as crossdressers. Read some of their stories and see photos in The Washington Post.

Science now recognizes that gender is not as simple as male and female. There are an array of genders that are not black and white but spread across a gray scale. TGF has long promoted the idea of a “gender spectrum” and we’re happy to find that our theory is born out by an article in the journal Nature.

TWITs

Last week a bill in the Canadian Senate meant to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include “gender identity” was passed by that august body. Except, before it was passed one transphobic senator amended the bill that was meant to amend the Act. He added language that would prevent trans people from using “sex-specific” public restrooms. A TWIT Award to Sen. Donald Plett. Read about it in The Star.

Meanwhile, down in Texas, a state legislator has introduced a bill that would make it a crime, punishable by jail time, for a trans person to use the restroom that matches their gender identity. That would be jail time up to a year and a maximum fine of $4000. In the words of anyone with a working brain — WTF? The fear that motivates these people to defend their public restrooms is amazing. We’re giving a TWIT Award to major Texas twit Rep. Debbie Riddle. Read the story and read the actual bill at the Towleroad website.

Conservative commentators and pundits have little history of being supportive of trans people. Tucker Carlson, of Fox News, took it further on the Fox and Friends show Sunday, complaining that a sketch on Saturday Night Live that parodied Toyota’s “feel-good” television commercials used ISIS as the punch line. He felt that ISIS was too serious an issue to make jokes about or with and he suggested that SNL should make jokes about things like transgender people in the bathroom. Clearly Carlson’s sense of humor deserves a TWIT Award. Read more and watch video of him saying what he said on the Ring of Fire website.

Tags: Andreja Pejic, David de Alba, Eddie Redmayne, featured, Joey Arias, La Chiquita, Mame Dennis

Category: Transgender Community News