The Week In Transgenderism 2/25/13

Miss Transsexual

Two transgender Filipina women who now live in Australia won the top spots in the Miss Gay and Miss Transsexual Beauty Pageant. The pageant is an alternative beauty contest for LGBT people. The new Miss Gay is Gabrielle Louise Mendoza and the new Miss Transsexual is Sofiya lya Cocaina Vergara. Congratulations ladies! Get the story from GMA News Online.

Things may be looking up for transgendered people in Ireland when it comes to getting respectful treatment when seeking healthcare. A 2012 survey of health and social work professionals found that they were ill informed about transgender health issues. There’s a move underway toward providing more training on TG issues. Get the story in The Journal.

You tend ot think of London, England as a pretty hip spot where a TG can be a TG without too many problems. Just don’t have to empty your stomach quickly while on the street. That got one TG woman a pile of pain. It happened outside a restaurant named Le Pain Quotidien. Instead of calling for medical assistance London police called her names, ripped off her wig and emptied her purse in the street. Get the details on the incident, and a video, in The Independent.

Out of work. Diana O’Brien

Times are tough for everyone these days, even without police brutality. The poor economy has put many people out of work and while it’s slowly improving those outside the “normal” type of job seekers have even more difficulty getting employed. Transgendered people in particular are having trouble finding employers who can accept their trans status. Read about one lady from Florida, Diana O’Brien, who has been out of work for fours years. Sadly her story is not unique. The story is on CNN Money.

Precious Jewel

Here at TGF we use the word “transgender” as an umbrella term that covers a large variety of “trans” activites. If it crosses a gender border in some way then to us it’s transgender. That makes drag queens TGs for us. To others drag has nothing to do with TG issues. Recently a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race, a competition for drag performers, came out as transgendered during the show. (Two previous contestants did so after their shows aired.) A Chicago radio station wanted to investigate what the difference between doing drag to perform and being transgendered. They interviewed Precious Jewel, a drag performer who identifies as transgendered. Find the interview on the WBEZ website.

JDA

Speaking of the variety to be found under the TG umbrella, the singing competition show American Idol recently eliminated a performer who they called “camp” and the media referred to as a “drag queen.” What gender identification JDA (the contestant) identifies with is not clear but she does blend male and female so androgyne may be the best label. JDA’s performance in the “Sudden Death” round was applauded vigorously by the theater audience but yet the judges eliminated her. Buzz Feed thinks the heave ho was based on discrimination.

Last week we mentioned that Janet Mock was in attendance at the fashion show in the Big Apple featuring designs by Isis King. This past week Ms. Mock left NYC to travel to Chicago and give a speech to students at The University of Chicago. Read what she told the students about transgender issues in the Chicago Phoenix.

It’s a fact that Republicans in Congress opposed re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act but did you know that one of the reasons they oppose the Act is the inclusion of transgender, transsexual and Native American women in the Act? That’s right Republicans are opposed to giving protection from domestic abuse and violence to TGs and Native American women. They have introduced their own version of the Violence Against Women Act in the House of Representatives that excises inclusive language. Apparently the Republicans believe that TG and Native American spouses can be beaten by their husbands with impunity. Get the strange facts on this lame legislation in The Examiner.

Jones

Meanwhile, at the local level, Washington D.C. council members are taking steps to amend the Vital Records Acto 0f 1981 to allow transgendered individuals born in the Disctrict of Columbia to obtain new birth certificates with the gender marker updated. There are 8 Councilmembers who introduced the bill in honor of a transgendered woman who was murdered last year. The bill is named JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013. Get the full story on it in Metro Weekly.

Kye Allums

The first FtM to play Division I basketball, Kye Allums, has given an interview in which he talks about how it felt to be the first transman on the team at George Washington University in 2010. See what he has to say about the experience of coming out on the court at OpposingViews.com.

If you’re looking for information on transvestism and you do a web search on the word “transvestite” the first four or five hundred links you get will all be about the Rocky Horror Show. Well, maybe not that many but enough to make finding any serious info on transvestism a bit tough. The Dr. Frank-N-Furter who created the show that spawned the film and started generations of people dressing up in corset, hi heels and fishnets (in movie theaters) is Richard O’Brien. He recently met up with a reporter to promote a revamped 40th anniversary production of the original show in Scotland and you can read the interview with him and the actor who portrays Rocky in the Scotsman.

The old saw in mystery stories (after “the butler did it”) was cherchez la femme, or in English — look for the woman. It seems that in the mysterious case of the retiring Pope you should cherchez la travesti. Allegations have surfaced that the Pope stepped down because a network of male prostitutes are blackmailing several members of the clergy and there are incriminating photos (and videos) of prelates in drag. According to news reports several high ranking priests and cardinals were customers of a transsexual prostitution ring. Get the slimy details in The Daily Beast. (Thanks to TGF reader Emily Sheldon for pointing us to the story.)

Epiphany Get Paid

After the previous story perhaps the next item may seem odd. A Catholic Church in Manhattan is upset because there is a brunch production going on in the restaurant next door to the church and it’s called Breakfast at Epiphany’s. The star of the show is drag performer Epiphany Get Paid. The church seems to feel this is blasphemy but the queen insists the show is loaded with family values. A Catholic Church upset about drag? Read about the brouhaha in The New York Post.

Are you straight out of Compton? Well, not quite Compton but North Long Beach. And did you ever hang out at a drag bar there called Club Sylvia back in the ‘80s? If you did or if you’re just a fan of LGBT history you may be interested in checking out this story about that bar between 1985 and 1987. It’s an effort to honor the LGBT History Project developed by the Historical Society of Long Beach and it appears in the Long Beach Post.

In Brazil they know how to have a protest. No marching and chanting for Brazilians. When they want to protest something they post it on Facebook and hundreds of people show up at a specified public place, set up barbeque grills and cook meat. That’s right it’s protest and protien in Brazil. One of the leading barbeque protesters is a Brazilian queen named Tchaka. Read all about “barbeque prostests” and that queen’s role in them in FT Magazine.

On February 16 the Imperial Court of San Francisco held their “voting day” for the top titles in the Court, emperor and empress. This year there was controversy as one of the candidates for Empress was not, as some insist you must be, a drag queen but a transgendered woman. Former Empress of Nebraska, now a transwoman, Danielle Logan sparked the kerfuffle by running for the title. Some court members defended her right to hold the job while others think it’s not right to be empress unless you identify as a drag queen. Read all about it in The Bay Area Reporter. (The coronation was Saturday but no word on who won, yet.)

Tags: featured, History, news, politics, Transgender, Transsexual

Category: Transgender Community News