The Week In Transgenderism 4/15/13

Batgirl’s TG roomie

Holy transwoman, Bat Girl! Is that a transgendered character in Bat Girl #19? Why yes, it is. While the comics have started featuring gay and lesbian super heroes (Green Lantern is marrying another male super hero!) and Batwoman is a lesbian there’s been a shortage of transgendered characters in comic books. Like none, that is. Sure there are characters like J’onn J’onnz the Martian Manhunter who has transformed himself into a female for some of his missions and Jimmy Olsen certainly wore a lot of dresses in Superman comics over the years but a character just coming out and saying that they are TG is a first (in a mainstream comic). Read all about Alysia Yeoh on wired.com.

Transgendered people in California no longer need to worry about being denied health insurance coverage. The California Department of Managed Health Care issued guidelines last Tuesday that make sure TGs get the same health care coverage as any other residents of California. The language of the guidelines say that no one can be denied coverage because of their “gender identity or expression.” Get the rest of the story about the California Insurance Gender Non-Discrimination Act can be found at TakePart.com.

Fox

The Fallon Fox saga continues. The latest twist to the story, which we thought was over since Fallon was cleared to fight, is the transphobic remarks a male mixed martial arts fighter made about her during a recent interview. Matt Mitrione who fights with the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts group implied that Fox wanted to be a MMA fighter so she could beat up women. In a roundhouse kick to the head Mitrione has been suspended by UFC for his comments. Read all about it at CNN.com.

Las Vegas female impersonator Frank Marino (called Queen of the Strip in this story but we beg to differ. The number one legend in Vegas is David de Alba) is the new face of a cosmetics line for transgendered people. While he uses MAC and Makeup Forever on stage Marino has added Dagarcamelle Cosmetics to his makeup kit. We hope the makeup, available online only, is good because that’s just an awful name. It sounds like the name  of the villain from The Smurfs. Read about the cosmetics and Marino at Blog.Vegas.com.

100 TGs

A TG website and Arizona TG advocacy group have been busy for the past few months compiling a list of one hundred transgender pioneers. No, not TGs who crossed the country in Conestoga wagons to settle the west. These 100 people are TGs from all over the U.S. who embody the best parts of being TG. Somehow my name did not make the list. I gotta stop being a sad Sally and say congratulations to the TGs who were selected for their contributions. Find out who made the list in the Huffington Post.

Laura Jane Grace

You’ve lived as a woman for a year. What do you do now? Go to Disney World? No. Give an interview to Cosmopolitan magazine. At least that’s what the lead singer of Against Me! did. Laura Jane Grace sat down with a Cosmo writer and opened up about her experience. The article is called My First Year as a Woman. Read the article about the article at radio.com.

Stephanie Mott

Some transsexuals don’t front a rock band and after they transition they don’t give interviews to national magazines. They disappear from the transgender community. One woman who, while not fronting a rock band, chose not to disappear but to keep working on behalf of LGBT people is Topeka, Kansas resident Stephanie Mott. Ms. Mott is the executive director and found of the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project, a position she handle along with several other jobs. Now she has received the Pioneer Woman Award recognizing her contributions. Get the story from The Topeka-Capital Journal.

Sir Richard Branson is no stranger to wearing feminine garb. In 1996 he wore a $10,000 wedding gown to promote a venture called Virgin Brides, which never quite gained any altitude. Three years ago he made a bet with the boss of AirAsia X concerning whose Formula 1 Racing team would win a race. He lost. The loser would have to be a flight attendant — adhering to the uniform requirements for female flight attendants — on the winner’s airline. Since Branson is a busy guy he’s just this year getting around to honoring the bet by working the first flight by AirAsia X from Perth to Kuala Lumpur. Of course it caused some controversy since the rich entrepreneur will be doing what transgender MtF Malaysians are not allowed to do — wear women’s clothing. Get the whole story from asiancorrespondent.com.

Indecent in Savannah?

It’s a he-said-she-said situation about an incident in Chatham County Georgia. A TS from Queens, New York was on vacation in Savannah and went out clubbing in a sheer top. (Well if they take the time to grow those things some girls like to show them off.) Sadly the local police decided it was indecent exposure and arrested her. An event that she disagreed strongly with. Strongly enough to add charges of disorderly conduct. She says that she was treated badly in jail and placed in a cell surrounded by male prisoners after the jail staff determined she still had male genitalia. The jail’s spokesman says she was treated according to the procedures established for TGs at their facility. See what you think after you read the story and watch the video on the WSAV website.

The Philadelphia, Pa. City Council is working on an expansion of the city’s LGBT anti-discrimination laws. Recently an LGBT-reform bill passed in committee and is being sent to the full council later this month. It contains several transgender specific provisions such as a Transgender Health Tax Credit for companies who offer TG specific health coverage to their employees and would mandate that city buildings be equipped with gender-neutral restrooms. Find out what other benefits are coming upon passage of the bill in The Philadelphia Gay News.

The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival still maintains a policy that makes it a cisgendered women only event. (And they still haven’t learned how to spell.) Transgendered women have been left out of the fun since the festival organizers found out that TGs were coming to the event. They tossed a TG out in 1991 which prompted the TG community to establish “Camp Trans” right across the road from the festival entrance. But the organizers were not moved and they still maintain the festival grounds as “womyn-born-womyn” space. This year The Indigo Girls are scheduled to perform at the festival and they have announced that this will be their last performance there unless the policy is changed and TGs are allowed to attend. We’re left wondering how the festival gate keeper checks everyone’s DNA. Get the facts from the Huffington Post.

TWITs

Our first TWIT Award today goes to The John L. Young Women’s Shelter in Washington, D.C. On two separate occasions in recent months two transgendered women tried to get shelter there and were denied by staffers who said transwomen were not allowed to use the shelter. The women are standing up for their rights and one is suing while the other filed a complaint with the Office of Human Rights. Read about it in the Huffington Post.

A person in Salmon, Idaho who identifies as transgendered wa arrested after using the ladies room at a local grocery store. At first it sounds like a typical case of the establishment suppressing the rights of a transwoman to pee where she wants. But reading more of the article we learn that she had been coming into the store for several days, going in the ladies room and standing up to pee. Don’t go into to the ladies room and stand up to pee. A TWIT Award to the TG and a TWIT Award to the store for having her arrested. It seems that Idaho law allows store owners to ban anyone from entering their store for any reason so they didn’t need to have her arrested. And a TWIT to Idaho for having a law like that. Read the story from Rueters on Yahoo.

Tags: Activist, drag, featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News