The Week In Transgenderism 8/10/15

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Skarsgard

True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgard came to the premier of his new film The Diary of a Teenage Girl dressed in glam drag. The film premiered in San Francisco and the media were left wondering why the Swedish sex symbol would adopt a glamorous drag look for a film in which he plays a male role in male attire. Yahoo Celebrity News got a bit catty about it but People learned the reason Skarsgard dressed up when they interviewed him at a New York City screening.

Anyone remember Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco? We are guessing that Canseco believes enough people don’t remember him that something over the top is required to get folks back on the Canseco train. Maybe that’s why he is trying to climb on the Caitlyn Jenner train by announcing that while he didn’t understand it at first he now wants to be supportive of Jenner by “living like a woman” for a week. And he’s planning to document it on his Internet reality show. Learn more in the Latin Times.

Count on Doctor Who to be on the cutting edge. The show that started in the 1960s in England and featured a curmudgeonly old man as The Doctor was rebooted in 2005 and now stars a somewhat curmudgeonly older man, Peter Capaldi, as The Doctor. What has the show done now that assures its cutting edge status? They’ve booked a trans woman actor to play a non-trans role. Find out who she is in The Independent.

Candis Cayne

A trans actress who broke new ground by being cast in Dirty Sexy Money as a trans mistress still hasn’t gotten any non-trans roles. Her latest appearances on television have been in Caitlyn Jenner’s reality show. On August 14 Candis Cayne will be performing live in Montreal as part of the Montreal Pride week. Learn more about her and the Pride activities in the Montreal Gazette.

The Southern Comfort Conference is set for Sept. 20 through Oct. 3 in Weston, Florida. They’re pulling out all the stops when it comes to star power. Jazz Jennings was already a featured guest but now the SCC organizers have extended invitations to Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox. Will the two trans stars actually show up? There is some speculation on that. Read about it in the Sun Sentinel.

Where there’s a need someone will come along and fill it. There has been no peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal focused on scientific and clinical studies to advance understanding of the health issues faced by trans people — until now. Transgender Health is coming in the fall and will fill that need. Read all about it on the Medscape website.

Caitlyn Jenner worries about her voice.

In a recent episode of I Am Cait Caitlyn Jenner bemoans her manly sounding voice. She feels that she is successful looking like a woman but when she opens her mouth the look doesn’t matter. Our sometime contributor Kathe Perez of The Exceptional Voice was interviewed by a writer for her thoughts on the subject and you can read the piece in The Daily Beast.

The 14th annual Gender Odyssey conference is set to kick off in Seattle, Washington at the Washington State Convention Center August 20 through 23. The conference began in 2001 and had just a handful of attendees. This year organizers expect to reach the 1000-person attendance mark. Learn more about the conference in the Capital Hill Times.

Talulah Eve-Brown

We told you about Tallulah-Eve Brown a week or so ago. She is the trans model who was picked to be a contestant in the Miss Transgender U.K. pageant currently getting underway. Now we learn that she has been auditioning for a role in a television show called Catastrophe and she has gotten two “call backs.” That’s when the casting director brings an actor back after the initial audition to meet the director or producer. A second call back is even more exciting and could mean she’s close to landing the role. Learn more in the Burton Mail.

TGF reader Josy C. sent us a link to Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools. As Josy said, this could be a valuable resource for parents of transgender students, teachers, and school administrators. Learn more on the Human Rights Campaign’s website.

Reader Robyn Byrd let us know about a change coming this fall for students applying to the University of California. The school has added a number of gender options to its application form. Students will be able to choose from six gender identities. Find out what they are in the article in The Los Angeles Times.

The film Three Generations starring Susan Sarandon, Naomi Watts and Elle Fanning is about to be released but the name has been changed. Fanning plays a teen girl named Ramona who transitions to a teen male named Ray. The new title is About Ray. It will land in theaters on September 18. You can view the trailer on the Variety website.

The trans woman character on The Bold and the Beautiful will look beautiful this week when she starts to walk down the aisle in a wedding gown. The character will be the first trans character to exchange marriage vows on television. Maya, the character, is portrayed by a cis woman named Karla Mosley. The nuptials commence today, but as with all soap opera things, will be stretched out over a few shows. Learn more on the Entertainment Weekly website.

U.K. competitor Jai Latto

More of the contestants for the first trans beauty pageant in the United Kingdom have been announced. There are fourteen hopeful women competing and last week they participated in a final bootcamp and photo op before the contest begins. Read about it and see photos of them all in the Mirror.

Ryan Cassata, a trans man musician and activist, was turned down when he tried to audition for America Idol last year. This year he was offered a chance to jump ahead of others and go right to an audition with the producers who decide who gets to be on the show. To Cassata it seemed like he was being offered this chance due to the sudden interest in trans issues. He turned it down and he started talking about it. Read the story in Billboard and read the TGF Exclusive Interview with Cassata.

Target is phasing out gender-based signs in its toy, kid’s bedding and entertainment departments. The idea was inspired by customers who said that the signs introduced a gender bias. We ask, how is a young trans girl supposed to find the pink sheets with bunnies on them if she can’t find the Girl’s Bedding sign? But seriously, the changes will be phased in over the next few months as Target tries to get more gender neutral. Read about it in The Hill.

We’ve given Malaysia TWIT Awards for the way they treat their trans population. While there has been some improvement it is the inclusion of Islamic Sharia law into the nation’s civil law that causes Muslim trans people problems. A cisgender male cartoonist heard of the story of 17 trans women who were arrested at a wedding and had to do a cartoon about it. It’s call Not a Crime and you can view the whole cartoon on the Slate website.

A study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis has found that trans people are at a significantly higher risk of suffering an eating disorder. It seems logical to assume that trans women might develop such conditions trying to achieve the perfect slim, feminine look but it may not be just that. There could be “minority stress” at work. Learn more on the Think Progress website.

Tamara Adrian

Venezuela has had its first trans candidate register to run for Congress. Her name is Tamara Adrian and she transitioned with surgery in 2002. But since Venezuelan law does not allow someone born male to change their name to a female one she had to register under her old name. Maybe if she gets elected she can do something about getting that law changed. Meet her and learn more about the politics in her country in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Kristen Beck’s run for a congressional seat for Maryland got her some mainstream media attention last week when her story was featured on Inside Edition. The attention was mainly, about 99%, on her story of being in the SEALs and coming out after her retirement. They only devoted one line to her congressional bid. But, like they say, no publicity is bad publicity. Check out the story and a video from the show on the Inside Edition website.

The Transgender Law Center and GSA Network have launched a campaign meant to highlight the diversity of trans youth. Since it’s aimed at youth it is of course a selfie campaign. Trans and gender non-conforming youth have been encouraged to post their selfie on the project’s website so people can see that there is more to trans than Caitlyn and Laverne. Learn more on the Fusion website.

Tyler Ford

Speaking of gender non-conforming. . . Tyler Ford is a pal of Miley Cyrus who embodies the gender neutral individual. Born female they felt gender dysphoria but after taking testosterone for a year and a half Ford stopped and realized, after much introspection, that they were non-binary and didn’t identify as wholly male or female. Now they live their life without gender, or perhaps more applicable, mixing genders. Meet them and hear their story in The Guardian.

TWITs

A trans woman in India dreamed for five years of winning a job as the first trans police officer in Chennai. First she had to battle with the police force to get them to let her participate in the testing for women officers. Then she had to train for the physical portion of the test which include several footraces as well as the long jump and a ball throw. After all she went through on her quest she was held back in the final race by a knee injury and came is 1 second behind in the 100-meter sprint. We’re giving a TWIT Award to the Chennai Police Department unless they let her retake the tests after her knee has gotten healed. Read the story in The Times of India.

Mike Huckabee, presidential candidate and hard core conservative, has decried what he terms the “social experiment” of trans soldiers. He doesn’t think it’s the job of the military. He thinks the military is just there to “kill people and break things.” We think Huckabee deserves another TWIT Award. President Huckabee? Seriously? Read the story and watch a video of him saying this twittery stuff on The Hill website.

A California trans woman is serving a sentence for shooting a man in a bar in 1985. While in prison she began her transition. She is incarcerated in a male facility but is not in the general population. She has been trying to get the state to pay for her GRS and in April a federal judge ordered the state to schedule the surgery. Those clever state officials have suddenly decided that the prisoner is no longer a threat to anyone and are planning to release her on parole. That’s a TWIT Award worthy move, California. Read the story and view video on the Fox News website.

Our last TWIT Award today goes to the bank robber who hit a bank in Oak Park, Illinois last week. They did it in drag and like we always say, please stop it! The crossdressing community has enough trouble without people robbing banks in a dress. You’re making us look bad. And if by chance you’re a trans woman let the teller know so when it’s reported you’re not called a “man in a dress.” This robber can be seen in the Oak Park-River Forest Patch.

Tags: Alexander Skarsgard, Caitlyn Jenner, Candis Cayne, Elle Fanning, featured, jose Conseco, Kathe Perez, news, Ryan Cassata, Southern Comfort, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News