The Week In Transgenderism 4/23/12

Trisha

The majority of crossdressers can always find a reason to stay in their comfortable closets. There are dangers involved in being open about your feminiine pursuits that stop CDs from simply declaring that they love a femme lifestyle and telling everyone their name is now Sandra. Or Betty, or Ashley. But now and then there is that rare individual who, because their circumstance is a bit different to begin with, or they simply are too honest to lie about it, comes out in their whole life. One such is artist Trisha Marie Shattuck. Read about her daughter’s reaction to Trisha’s desire to be Trisha all the time and view a video about it in The New York Times. (Visit Trisha’s art website.)

Chaz Bono’s got a pair! Two GLAAD Media Awards, that is. The first-ever transgender contestant on Dancing with the Stars got one award for the documentary about his transition, Becoming Chas, and another award for just for being a prominent GLBT member of the entertainment world. Get the story and a picture of Cher with a supersized version of Esmeralda Spalding’s hairdo in The Washington Post.

You’ve no doubt read about the Chevalier D’Eon, the spy, master swordsman, ambassador and crossdresser who lived, loved, and dressed up in France is the 1700s. For many years D’Eon has been an inspiration for crossdressers everywhere — if he could do it back then maybe there was a chance that we could become glamourus crossdressing spys, too. Last week a British art dealer got a shipment from an art dealer in New York and discovered that they had a portrait of D’Eon that had been disguised as “woman in a feathered hat.” See the portrait at artdaily.org.

Just when you think Texas is the major home base for conservative thinking they surprise you. This time the surprise is from the University of Texas. The school is allowing transgender students to change their name on school records to reflect their preferred name. The preferred name will appear on all class rosters, ID cards and medical files instead of the student’s legal name. While we applaud this plan it’s important to remember it’s Texas. We hope that frat boys don’t use it to change non-TG nerd’s names without their knowledge. “Hey dweeb, your name is Debbie, now.” Read about the new policy in The Daily Texan. “Where’s that beer I sent ya for, Debbie?”

Drag U

The University of Maine is the latest school to dip into drag shows. Last week we told you about a couple of universities that were drawing big crowds with their annual drag shows. No word on the number of audience members but the show was deemed a success by those who performed. Get the story in The Maine Campus.

The ”first pregnant man” Thomas Beatie suffered business set backs after he got pregnant and came out about it in the media. His T-shirt printing enterprise started losing business. Now it seems the stress of being the world’s first pregnant man and having cash flow woes has created problems in the Beattie’s marriage and he has separated from his wife.  Just like a man. Get the details in the Christian Post.

It’s important for everyone to know their legal rights. It’s even more important for transgendered people to have good information on how they should be treated under the law. To address the need for a comprehensive source for transgender family law the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders has published Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy. Read about the book in The Rainbow Times.

If you live in Canada you can now change your gender legally without undergoing surgery. The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled last week that a requirement that surgery be completed was discriminatory. Learn about it at CP24.com.

Lucas

Matt Lucas, the bald, shorter one from the British series Little Britain, will be appearing in a movie that is currently lensing as famous drag queen (she was an actress, darling!) Divine. The film is called King of Soho and it’s directed by Michael Winterbottom. Who? Lucas’ Little Britain partner David Walliams is in the film as well but he’s playing a character named Vicar. Hope it’s a vicar who does drag. Get the skinny on the flick from indiewire.com.

Bill O’Reilly is worked up about the television show Glee. What pushed him over the edge? The inclusion in last week’s episode of a transgender teen doing a disco song in drag. (Watch the clip in today’s edition of TGF.) Bill is worried about what kind of effect that might have on impressionable kids. They might “go out and experiment with this stuff.” First of all Bill, they will experiment with it in their own bedroom first and not “go out” for a long while. Second, if they aren’t crossdressers or little drag queens already a television show won’t make them want to start dressing up. Bill’s statement is a seeming flip flop on transgender issues as the man has come out in favor of Jenna Talachov’s right to compete in pageants. Maybe he’s just more comfortable supporting the rights of a person who looks like a beautiful grown woman? Read about it in The New York Daily News.

Bolivian TS

Speaking of the Miss Universe contest, Jenna’s breakthrough may have opened the floodgates of transsexual contestants. One such “beauty” is a Bolivian TS who is now determined that she will represent her country in the 62nd Miss Universe pageant. Ah, is this a good thing? Read the story, view the photo. Is she in the same league as Jenna? You decide. The story is in The Daily Mail.

If you’re heading to Las Vegas in June to catch David de Alba’s show at The Oynx Theatre in June you might want to head out for drinks after the show at that town’s latest bar and gaming venue Drink & Drag. It’s said to be the first all drag queen staffed bar and gaming venue anywhere. We think it only gets that distinction by having gaming on the premises since there are a couple of places — like Lips and Lucky Cheng’s — that have a drag wait staff that come to mind. (Whatever happened to that Lucky Cheng’s that was supposed to open in Atlantic City?) Check out the story about  this new Vegas hot spot in the Las Vagas Review-Journal.

Our real life transgender teen story today comes from  New Jersey. Young Chantel Watkins-Murphy didn’t have Glee to lure her into an FtM lifestyle. She felt like a boy since she was a toddler. Today Chantel is  a teen named Shawn and he s trying to fit in at his high school. Hard enough to do without the TG thing. Meet him in The Hunterdon Democrat.

Kumar

Singapore is so conservative that chewing gum is illegal. When you think of Singapore you don’t think of comedy, or gender bending. You just think of a staid, boring place that’s clean and uptight. Now, after years of telling the citizens to toe the line, the  government there is trying to get people to lighten up. To that end they are not locking up a crossdressing comedian named Kumar. (Not the one who goes to White Castle with Harold.) They’re actually allowing him to perform to sold out crowds. Read about Kumar on the Public Radio International website.

TWITs

Submitted for your consideration: A transman (age 22) and his transwoman wife (age 56) are in hot water with the FBI as part of the agency’s investigation of over 100 bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh. The husband was a student at U of P and he was expelled in January for using the men’s locker room instead of the private locker room the university required him to use. The bomb threats began in February. The couple claim they are innocent but we see the potential here for TWIT awards to all parties. Read the story in The New York Daily News and decide where the TWITs should be assigned.

If you don’t think the new crop of voter ID laws that have been enacted in many states will affect you, you many be right. If you’re a crossdresser and you don’t plan to show up at the polling place en femme then you’ll probably be allowed to vote. (If your photo ID is completely kosher.) If you’re one of the transgendered citizens of those states with ID laws you may have a tough time exercising your right to vote. If you haven’t been able to have the gender changed on your ID you may be turned away. If you don’t look like your ID picture anymore you could not be allowed to cast your vote. Another TWIT Award goes to voter ID laws that seek to address a largely imaginary problem and create a major problem for transgendered people. Get the facts on the disenfranchisement in The Nation.

Tags: featured, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News