The Week In Transgenderism 2/27/12

A few weeks ago there was a flap in New Zealand over a tampon ad that featured a TG and a GG competing over who was the most womanly. Last week it was England that provided controversy over an “advert.” The ad plays on the British tradition of “ladies day” at the horse races. Women get dressed up, with those wild hats that are so popular in Britain, and attend the races. A bookmaker created an ad that inserted TG ladies into the crowd and asked the viewers to spot the “stallions.” Oh my. See what they say about it on the BBC website and watch the ad right here.

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Now here’s some news you can use — if you are about to dive into estate planning, and you live in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association is sponsoring an estate planning seminar for “transgender clients.” That means you shouldn’t go yourself but send your legal counsel by all means. For all the details on the event read the story in The Rainbow Times.

Alexandria of Iowa

Iowa is located in the heartland of America and is known as the “Food Capital of the World.”  If you’re a fan of corn then Iowa is the state for you. You don’t tend to think of drag queens when you think of Iowa. But it’s not all hicks and haystacks out there. They’ve got their own drag pageant — The Miss Gay Iowa USofA, and it happened last weekend in Des Moines. Corn fed queens! Check out the story at metromix.com.

The Obama administration has taken another step toward helping transgender people. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has announced two new grant competitions focusing on connecting HIV-positive transgender women of color with health care services, including primary care and HIV-related care. Get all details at thinkprogress.org.

Daytona drag

The Daytona 500 was held up by rain this past weekend. We don’t know who won because we don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. What did catch our eye though was a headline that read “Birthplace of NASCAR is a historic, highfalutin, hidden gem in Daytona Beach” Further perusal told us that the Streamline Hotel, the birthplace of NASCAR, is now a gay bar and while the straight racing crowd is gone the racing motif remains and drag queens perform. Read about this interesting intersection of cultures on Yahoo.

The anti-discrimination bill in Baltimore County, Maryland has passed, despite fierce opposition from the fearful. Those who are concerned that going to the bathroom will expose them to crossdressed rapists lurking in the stalls will just have to hold it when they’re out in public. Read about the win for TGs in The Baltimore Sun.

In Canada it’s illegal to discriminate against anyone for any reason. Of course that doesn’t mean you’ve got clear sailing if your a TG. So a legislator in Ontario has introduced a bill to add “gender identity” to the Ontario Human Rights Code. This is the fourth time she’s introduced the amendment. It keeps getting shot down by lack of liberal support. Huh? Well, it seems it’s complicated. Adding the language might actually reduce TG people’s civil rights. Read all about it at Xtra.ca.

If you were wondering what it’s like to be a transgendered teenager in Canada this is your lucky day. We have found the story of Lucy Wallace, a TG teen in Kings County — which we believe is located in Nova Scotia, not an urban center of Canadian tolerance to say the least. Read her story in The Kings County News.

High school can already be hell if no one knows you’re transgendered. If they do know it can be worse than hell. A survey conducted by the Endocrine Division at Children’s Hospital Boston has found that 41% of TG youth have attempted suicide. Get the appalling facts in The Advocate.

Activists in Chicago are pushing that city to adopt guidelines for police to follow when dealing with transgendered people. They have introduced an ordinance with the city council to create a Police Transgender Issues Commission and when it gets though all the steps needed it’s expected that Mayor Rahm Emanuel will sign the legislation into law. Get the whole story in the Chicago Phoenix.

Lauper

Along with a transgender issues commission Chicago can look forward to the October premier of a musical based on the 2005 film Kinky Boots. Harvey Fierstein is writing the book (as they call the script in the theatre, darlings) and Cyndi Lauper is doing the music. Say what? You read it here. The girl who just wants to have fun is working hard on a musical score. Read all about it on msn.com.

Oy! You think it’s tough to be TS when you’re a goy?  Try transitioning on the job when you’re a Jewish professor at an Ortohodox Jewish college. A mitzvah it’s not. The story is told in a new book by Joy Ladin, a woman who has transitioned while teaching at an Orthodox college. The book is called Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders. Read a review of it in The Huffington Post.

Has student government at Exeter University gotten too PC? The university’s students guild has published an article warning students to avoid crossdressing when they go out on the town for fun. They compare crossdressing to white people going out in black face. Huh? This admonishment comes at a time when the president of the students guild admits there have been no complaints from transgendered people about student crossdressing. Try to make sense of the story at thisiscornwall.co.uk.

If you can offend people by dressing up in Exeter it’s probably a good idea that those who are easily offended by drag don’t go to Rio during Carnival. There’s all kinds of drag going on down there as the populace parties hardy before they give it up for Lent. One photo blogger claims she has found the hottest drag queen costumes. Sorry, but hot they’re not. Interesting, though. Very interesting. See the photos at gadling.com.

Lookalikes?

The British TS who convinced a famous glamor model’s bank that she was the model and got thousands of pounds out of the model’s accounts has been sentenced for her crimes. If you look at the photo to the right of the actual model and her impersonator you may find yourself wondering, as do we, how she managed to get away with it. Blind bankers? Get the story in The Telegraph.

Our first TWIT Award is being sent to Britain. It seems the Green Party, one of the English political parties, has a fundraising comedy show set for April 4th. They had a headliner booked along with several other acts. One of the acts was a female comic who got notice last week, via email, that she was being dropped from the show as they needed to increase the diversity of the comics. They replaced her with a transsexual comic. For offending both the female comic and the TS comic we send our TWIT across the pond to the impolitic politician who sent the email. Read the whole sordid tale in The Express.

Our second TWIT Award this week is shared by the British tabloid that printed the story and the subject of the report. A 71 year-old TG posed as her former business partner and as his daughter to scam thousands of pounds from their bank accounts. That’s why the TG is getting the TWIT. The paper gets the TWIT because they have played up the TG angle in typical British tabloid style. Read all about it in The Daily Mail.

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Category: Transgender Community News