The Week In Transgenderism 10/5/15

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Gutiérrez

The undocumented Latina woman, Jennicet Gutiérrez, who interrupted President Obama’s remarks at a LGBT reception at The White House in June of this year feels she has made her point. Which was that the President should stop all detention and deportation of LGBTQ immigrants. While we don’t condone interrupting the President for any reason we do admit sometimes it takes bold action to get a conversation started. Learn more about the LGBTQ immigrant’s concerns on the NBC News website.

Caitlyn Jenner is relieved. This past February she crashed into two cars on a California highway and one of them was pushed into oncoming traffic. It was hit by a Hummer and the driver died. After a through investigation prosecutors have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support a case against Jenner. She is still facing lawsuits from the driver of the other car involved in the accident and the children of the deceased driver. Learn more on the Philly.com website.

Gabrielle Gladu, trans teen in Ontario, attended a dinner her mom had organized and had no expectations except that there would be some of the family’s friends there, the food would be good and there might be cake. Turns out there was cake — and a surprise of the really nice kind. Read about what happened and watch the video in The Huffington Post.

Corey Maison

A trans girl in Detroit also got a big surprise from her mom. Her mom handed her a small package and she opened it to find her first dose of estrogen. Life for trans people can be much improved if they start their transition early. Young Corey Maison now has a chance to grow up as a well adjusted young woman without the masculine characteristics that could cause social problems throughout her life. See a video and read her story on the ABC News website.

A new organization has formed in the Detroit area that aims to help trans teens meet others like themselves and acquire skills they will need in their true gender. It’s called Stand with Trans and it was founded by the mother of a FtM trans teen. They are planning an inaugural event for Oct. 18. Learn more about it in the Detroit Free Press.

One of the hottest, Ines Rau.

Beauty is always a way to get ahead in our society since it oftentimes values a pretty face over intelligence and compassion. And it can certainly attract attention. But women get judged all the time on how they look — by men and by other women. So it’s no surprise that a website would assemble a list of the hottest trans women of all time. They flirted with a TWIT Award though when they titled the feature Hottest Transgenders Of All Time. Seriously. They are the hottest trans women of all time. See who they are on the Time To Break website.

Another thing that always attracts attention is sex. The advertising profession figured that one out years ago and in the 21st century they have determined that using trans models presented in a sexual way will get a lot of people checking out the product. One model who has just signed with a large agency is speaking out about how she is used in advertising. It seems the ad agency people like to get her to show her tits. Is this a good thing or a sign that advertising is happy to sexualize anything if it moves the product? Read what she had to say on the Mic website.

Did you know that the world record for the number of drag queens lining Chapel Street in Melbourne, Australia is 144? Well, it was until last Saturday night when the attempt to break the record took place. Did they make their goal of 145? We don’t know yet since the news is slow but you can read about preparations for the record breaking in the Herald Sun.

Hari (L) and Zachary.

The experience of today’s young trans people is far different from that of the older generations. There are more resources today and more awareness of people who are differently gendered. Two young women who have recently risen to some prominence as out trans women, model/actress Hari Nef and TV producer and artist Zachary Drucker, sat down for an interview discussing how they developed as trans women, the state of the gender binary, and more. You can find the interview on the Good magazine website.

Southern Comfort was last week and in the time leading up to the event the local papers were featuring stories about how the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau reached out to the T of LGBT after they had already attracted all the other letters to come there to vacation. Getting Southern Comfort is presented as quite a feather in their cap. Read the story on the WLRN website. See our contributor Christine Zee’s report on the event in today’s New Content.

Twitter has become a big part of political campaigning and since the first part of the word is “twit” we approve, Last week presidential candidate Bernie Sanders tweeted “In many states, it is legal to deny someone housing for being transgender. That is wrong and must end.” Sounds like Bernie is down with our cause. Check out a few of the Twitter responses he got from his followers on the Sun Times website.

Michael in his LBD.

We all know the importance of a LBD, little black dress, in any woman’s wardrobe. Last month a 16-year-old male student wore his LBD to school on “picture day.” When he arrived at school he got a few “weird” looks but no one teased or taunted him. He did it so he could see how tolerant his schoolmates were and to his surprise they ended up defending his attire when the photographer wasn’t going to take his picture for the yearbook. Learn more about Michael Melo and his LBD in The Windsor Star.

And the winner is…. The winner of the Miss Transgender U.K. title that is. The contest happened last week and the winner was 22-year-old Jai Darra Latto. She is from the Scottish Borders region of the U.K. and hopes to use her win to spread awareness of trans issues. See her photo and what she tweeted after the contest on the ITV website.

In other pageant news; Natasha Scott, a 44-year-old student at the University of Brighton was crowned the first ever Miss Transgender Brighton in the early rounds of the Miss Transgender U.K. pageant. Read about it on The Argus.

Fifi Dubois

There’s a new Miss’d America! The annual drag pageant happened in Atlantic City, NJ on Saturday and Fifi Dubois took the crown over eight other contestants from all around the country. Read a review of the event in The Daily Journal.

Hear the beat of those marching feet. Activists in Philadelphia, Pa. are organizing the fifth-annual Philly Trans* March. The event will be held on Oct. 10 and will follow and expanded route from Love Park in the center of the city, down Broad Street and then through the “Gayborhood” before winding up back at the park for speeches and such. For all the info visit the Philadelphia Gay News website.

On Sunday the 42nd Annual Castro Street Fair took place in San Francisco. It was the first one was without longtime Fair hostess drag performer Cookie Dough. Earlier this year Cookie Dough was stricken with meningitis while in Mexico to perform in The Golden Girls Live and passed away. The Fair was dedicated to the memory of Cookie Dough. Learn more at the SFist website.

Homosexual men have always had an outlet that would allow them to express a feminine side. Those who feel the urge to dress up can always become drag queens. Adopting the drag queen life allows them to perform, to have community and for many be part of a family. “Drag moms” and “drag aunts” are not uncommon. Meet some drag queens from Arizona who live, eat, and breath the drag lifestyle in the Casa Grande Dispatch.

Parti gets ready for her closeup.

Drag performer and marriage equality advocate Panti Bliss, a.k.a. Rory O’Neil is the subject of a documentary film titled The Queen of Ireland. It will open in Irish theaters on October 21. View the official trailer for the film on the Out magazine website.

A legislator in Wisconsin is working on a bill that will add transgender to the state’s current anti-discrimination law. Being that the state is more Republican than Democratic Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit is starting out his attempt with an education campaign to make sure both parties understand what he’s talking about when he brings his bill to the legislature. Learn more on the Channel 3000 website.

TWITs

A trans man suffering from severe anxiety and elevated blood pressure went to the ER for help. What he got was abuse and ridicule from the hospital staff who treated him like “a freak show at the circus.” While the patient and the hospital remain anonymous we give a TWIT Award to any ER, where the staff should know better, that treats a trans person in need of care in such an unprofessional manner. Fortunately this trans man had a chance to tell his story to the Journal of Emergency Nursing which should help to spread the word that physicians and nurses are there to help people, not laugh at them. The article in in The Huffington Post. TGF reader Naomi Paul also pointed us to the story on the CBS News website.

Surprisingly Brietbart had a story last week on The White House initiative to gather data on what members of the trans community want and need. They have launched a #transneeds Twitter account and want trans people to tweet their ideas on what is needed. So far so good, Brietbart. But, the website is getting a TWIT Award for snarking up the sub headline which said trans people were “following their lifestyle choices.” Shouting now — it’s not a lifestyle, it’s who we are! Get the useful facts about the initiative from Breitbart, or if you prefer a more friendly site you can learn more in The Advocate.

Meanwhile, bloated sack of excrement and radio talk show blowhard Rush Limbaugh is picking up another TWIT Award for the outrageous statements he made on his show saying that people were pushing their kids to be trans so they could become famous like Caitlyn Jenner. Did Rushbo’s parents push him to be an ass so he could be famous? And Brietbart also chimed in with a tale of a mother who has been “trying to transgender” her son for years. Is it any wonder that the trans community has to fight for acceptance when idiots like Limbaugh and his fellow travelers spread lies? Watch a video of Rushes rant on the Media Matters website.

This TWIT Award is “TWIT lite.” An Irish drag performer ordered a cab to take him to a show. When it arrived the driver took one look at the performer’s costume and deemed it “unhygienic” since it appeared the costume exposed the performer’s butt cheeks. Paul Ryder, the performer, told the news that every bit of him was covered. His cheeks were clad in fishnet tights. Both parties have expressed concern over what happened. Ryder does not want the cabbie fired and the cabbie has said he would apologize and could have handled it better. A TWIT Lite Award to both. Read about it in the Gay Times.

Wanting to start a business is not a bad thing and starting an agency to represent drag performers is also not a bad thing. Stealing from your boyfriend’s father, especially when his father has dementia, is a very bad thing. That’s what TWIT Award winner Clarence Michael Ousley, Jr. did to support his drag queen management business. Get the slimy details on 5ABC’s website.

Tags: Caitlyn Jenner, Cookie Dough, Corey Maison, featured, Hari Nef, Jai Darra Latto, Jennicet Gutierrez, Miss'd America, news, Panti Bliss, Southern Comfort, Stand with trans, Transgender, TWIT, Zachary Drucker

Category: Transgender Community News