The Week In Transgenderism 7/20/15
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Jazz Jennings
Jazz Jennings’ realty show on TLC debuted last Wednesday. Before the show aired Jazz sat down for an interview with People. She told the interviewer that she knew she was a girl from the age of 2. Read what else she had to say on the People website.
Now that trans people are being recognized as existing, thanks to Caitlyn, Laverne and Andreja, some people are starting to wonder what the rules of comedy about trans celebrities are. Is it okay to make fun of Caitlyn in a late night monologue because she wore a super short mini skirt with an ugly jacket? (OMG, did you see it?) Or do you have to treat trans celebs differently? See what some, including Andreja, think about it in USA Today.
This trans stuff is really catching on. How do we know? Family Circle magazine has a column called Modern Life which is meant to tell the stories of real people’s families. The magazine got blowback from readers when it featured a family with two dads. Now they’ve got some upset for featuring a family with a FtM child. Read the story on Yahoo.
Schofield
What soap opera features the first ever trans soap actor playing a trans character? That would be The Bold and the Beautiful. The character’s name is Nick and he’s portrayed by trans man Scott Turner Schofield. His story is one of those Hollywood tales of being “discovered.” He wasn’t sipping a malted at Schwab’s Drugstore. He auditioned for the role without having an agent — and got the part. Learn more about him in The Advocate.
Are you a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinx Monsoon? If you are then you will be thrilled to know there is a documentary about the Portland, Oregon queen’s life called Drag Becomes Him. A filmmaker followed Jinx around and chronicled her daily life. So you see her male side and her female side. Learn more in an interview with the director on the Street Roots website.
Many companies are adopting rules for employees shifting genders on the job. One such company is AT&T. Thanks to their policy an employee who had been living as a woman everywhere but at work was able to transition to female and be herself all the time. She learned of the policy by mistake while looking for another file. Meet Ginger Chien and learn about the other companies with trans policies in Fortune.
Some voices in the trans community have been raised saying that it’s great that same-sex-marriage has been obtained for the gay community “but what’s in it for us?” As it turns out there are benefits to the Supreme Court ruling for trans people. To find out what those benefits are take a look at this op-ed from last Thursday’s New York Times.
Busch on stage.
If you’re in Manhattan this Friday you have a chance to see Charles Busch’s new show, That Girl/That Boy at 54 Below. Busch entertains with song and beings out his creation Miriam Passman a “diva in her own mind” for both laughs and touching personal reflection. Read a review of the show in The New York Times.
Will it play in Philadelphia? That’s what they’re asking about a new show that’s opened in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s based on the life of Glenn Milstead a.k.a. Divine. Divine gained fame of sorts by starring in John Waters’ films but Glenn always said he was a character actor and Divine was just a character. The play has Glenn sitting face to face with Divine and having a conversation about their life. The show runs through August 2. Read a review in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
If electronic dance music is your type of entertainment then get ready, girlfriend — RuPaul has a new album. It’s called Realness and it’s getting some praise from reviewers. Check out a review of Miss Charles’ latest musical venture on the Hyperallergic website.
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has made a big move toward ending the ban on trans people in the military. Last Monday Mr. Carter announced that he has authorized a six month study on what type of guidelines and regulations would be needed to make the services trans inclusive. Learn more from The New York Times.
Alex Trujillo was inspired by Caitlyn.
Like her or not Caitlyn Jenner is a force for acceptance of trans people. After her speech at the ESPY Awards last week Good Morning America featured a trans native American teen who was inspired by the fact that Jenner spoke of the importance of trans athletes being able to compete as their true selves. This extra boost to her confidence came at a time when she has been barred from playing soccer on the girl’s team at her high school. Read about it in Yahoo News.
Meanwhile, what of trans veterans? They have a hard time since many of them either hid their gender status (see Dana Bevan’s post today) or were found out and kicked out of the service. Now they have a hard time getting benefits and being treated as their preferred gender by they Veterans Administration. See video of one woman’s story on the NBC 4 website.
A recent documentary video made for The New York Times followed the experiences of two trans military personnel. The director and producer of the video, Fiona Dawson, sat down for an interview to discuss trans issues. You can read the interview and get the URL to view the video at the Dallas News website.
Daye Pope
Equality Pennsylvania, an organization that advocates for LGBT rights in that state, has hired a trans-rights organizer. Daye Pope is her name and she comes from Iowa where she worked with the Iowa Democratic Party and a group called Working Families Win. Pope has started a listening tour or the state on which she will meet with trans Pennsylvanians to get a handle on what issues they face on a regular basis. Read about her and Equality Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia Gay News.
Two trans men in Kansas City were looking for a gym. Their goal was to work out and get pumped and express the male image they had in their minds. They found the regular gyms to be to daunting. They feared that the other men would learn their secret and there would be trouble. Then they found a place called City Gym which had private, gender-nuetral showers and restrooms. The staff was LGBT-friendly and when the owner met them she developed a training program specifically for trans men. Then Google found them and the rest is history. Read their story on the ESPN website.
Last week we reported on a Miss Transgender U.K. contest that was getting underway. Things have been moving along and more contestants are signing up and training for the competition next month. Meet some of the new ladies in the Daily Star.
She heard rude remarks.
A trans woman in New Zealand, a local trans activist and media personality, went to a local clothing chain to try on some shorts. While she was in the dressing room she heard the shop assistant making negative remarks about her. Upset and angry she contacted the store’s home office and there will be some changes in that clothing chain. Read about it in the Otago Daily Times.
In India some are concerned that the granting of legal status to the hijra will in some way limit their freedom. Hijras have long made a living performing rituals at births, marriages and death ceremonies for families of various religious backgrounds. Read more in the Times Union.
Vera in the middle.
Veronica Vera made the news last week. Her Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls opened back in 1992 and over the years she has trained hundreds of crossdressers and trans women in the feminine arts. Read her latest press in the New York Daily News.
Zoey Luna
To conservative people the rights of trans people to use the rest room of their choice is nothing more than an intrusion on a space reserved for one gender by a person of another gender. They feel this way because the can’t understand that sexual organs do not define a person’s gender. California passed a law that allows trans people to use the restroom of their choice in public schools. The conservative opponents have trotted out all the usual objections and are mobilizing to get signatures for a repeal vote. One of the people defending the law is 13-year-old trans girl Zoey Luna. Meet her and learn more about the kerfuffle in The Sacramento Bee.
You’ve seen the top drag movies, no doubt. Thing’s like Some Like It Hot, Tootsie, Victor/Victoria and of course To Wong Foo… and Priscilla. But for a comprehensive listing of drag films and some suggestions for what Hollywood should do with drag in the future check our Michael Musto’s column in Out. He’s got other dish after the movie section.
TWITs
How fast can you end up in jail and stay there for a long time if you’re a black trans woman? Pretty fast. Two young black trans women visiting the city checked into the Drury Inn in Des Moines, Iowa. They were not there long before the hotel staff called the police to let them know “two males dressed as females” had checked in. The staff was concerned that there might be “possible prostitution activity.” But wait. It gets worse. Meaghan Taylor had her hormone pills in an unmarked container in her purse. When the cops showed up — to protect Des Moines from trans hookers — they found the pills. Pills plus a “fake” (read femme) name and they took her to jail. There was no evidence of prostitution. Her bail would be 10% of $2000. She doesn’t have that $200 and is locked up in solitary confinement. TWIT Awards are given to the hotel staff and the cops for harassing and incarcerating a young woman for nothing more than being black and trans. Read her story and see how you can help on the Raw Story website. The original story is in The Des Moines Register.
What do you get when you put a columnist from right wing media outlet Breitbart on a show with trans reporter Zoey Tur? You get, as the drag queens would say, a hot mess. The two were on the HLN network with Dr. Drew Pinsky and the topic was whether Caitlyn Jenner should have gotten the ESPY Courage Award. Two TWIT Awards are issued in this story. One goes to Ben Shapiro from Breitbart for using male pronouns when referring to Tur and Jenner and insisting that Jenner is a male and can’t be anything else. A TWIT Award goes to Tur for threatening to send Shaprio “…home in an ambulance.” If you can’t take the heat don’t go on TV as a trans representative. And don’t lose your cool on the air and threaten someone with violence. You can read about it and view video on the Mediaite website.
Bring back the uke! That’s the plea of a drag performer in Manchester, England named Lush Lucy. Lucy’s ukulele was a gift from a former partner and it not only cost $428 but was autographed by Lucy’s idol Bette Midler. A TWIT Award to the goons who stole the uke and made a drag queen cry. Read the story in the Mirror.
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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Zoey Tur made one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a transperson, or any race, any religion, any group, making a threat when you start losing or feel insulted in a debate. Which basically goes where the opponent wants you to go, showing your ideas lack substance and are not defensible other than by force.
I’ll say it again the easiest and quickest way to earn respect as a transperson is to avoid the topic of transgenderism and be able to debate, discuss, and innovate on other issues.
I made that mistake a few times in my early days; Once I was discussing trans things with a group of women and took the bait on the subject of HRT. The women were fascinated and I thought I was rolling, earning respect. They then started chuckling and walked away. I realized I had been had and was the subject of their humor, not their respect.
On the Zoey Tur topic, she is either legally female or male, and 99% of us are XX or XY and should admit that we are biologically and genetically in one of those catagories. The question is what are we legally? She should have told the other individual that the issue has already been resolved with all states and the federal government already recognizing post SRS as legally female. If he disagrees he has a legal problem.
On the NyTimes column about same sex marriage and “what’s in it for us?”. The answer is easy and one that many won’t admit, same sex transgenders often fall in love and can now marry. I have seen way more transwomen form lesbian relationships than I have transwomen form a relationship with a man. It’s as if transwomen are afraid to publicly admit that they are lesbian and have limited to no interest in marrying men.