The Week In Transgenderism 6/10/13

Former SEAL Kristen Beck

A book by a former Navy SEAL is making waves but not because it criticizes the administration or gives away military secrets. Warrior Princess is causing a stir because its author is the princess of the title, Kristen Beck, and she used to be a dude who infiltrated Afghan militias and served several tours of duty in other dangerous theaters around the world. You might think that her former SEAL colleagues would be upset that they fought next to a TG but some of them have been surprisingly supportive. Read about Beck’s journey at UPI.com.

Another controversial book is making waves in England. It’s a conspiracy novel based on the theory that Queen Elizabeth I was actually a queen. In the drag queen sense of the word. Called The King’s Deception the book uses the theory that was detailed in a 19th century book by Bram Stoker. It posits that young Elizabeth died of a fever, possibly the plague, while she was under the care of a guardian in the countryside. He and her governess, realizing they would be hideously tortured if the King learned that she had died while in their care, searched the small village nearby for a substitute to pose as the the 10-year-old Elizabeth. The only child of the right age and semi-resemblance was a boy. Once the deed was done there was no undoing it and the boy was raised to become The Virgin Queen. Read about the new book and the old theory in the Mail.

Yet another book that’s been published recently celebrates the influence of the Glam Rock phase of the early ‘70s. It’s called All The Young Dudes: Why Glam Matters. Many TGs of a certain age found one artist who epitomize that era — David Bowie —  to be an inspiration. I know I got interested in his music when I learned that he wore dresses and had long hair during his visits to radio stations promoting his Man Who Sold The World album. (The British cover (to the left) showed Bowie in a designer dress.) Then Ziggy Stardust and his drag roles in the Boys video sealed the deal. Read a review of the new book about the influence Bowie had on the kids of Middle America at boingboing.net.

It’s good news from Arizona. The sponsor of the bill that would have made it illegal for TGs to use the bathroom linked to their gender identity says that the bill will not be moved to a vote. Till next year. The sponsor has already modified the bill after a national outcry from TG advocates but he’s not giving up on it totally. Read about it in a story from Associated Press.

On the east coast the first bit of good news comes in from Washington, D.C. where the D.C. Council is poised to pass legislation making it much easier for transgendered resident to obtain new birth certificates with the gender corrected. Get the news on the Channel 4 website.

Delaware TG activist Sarah McBride

More good news comes from Delaware. The Senate there has passed a bill that would protect transgendered people from discrimination in housing, employment, insurance coverage and public accommodations. The bill would protect people who dress, behave, identify of present themselves as the opposite of their birth gender. Kudos to the 11 Delaware Senators who voted yes. Now the bill just has to get passed by the House. Read all about it, included the bigoted drivel that was said by the Senators who voted against it, at delawareonline.com.

There’s really only one reason to include this next tale of bathroom woe in TWIT. That reason is the name of the establishment in Anchorage, Alaska that tossed out a transwoman and banned her from the place. Her crime? She was using the lady’s restroom. The establishment’s name? Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse. That doesn’t sound like any place a respectable transwoman should want to go. Humpy has apologized for embarrassing the TG and say it won’t happen again but people are still riled up. Check out the (short) story in the Anchorage Daily News.

Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross

So listen. Not like we pay attention to who’s Jewish and who’s not, but you should know there are several Jewish drag queens. Not only are they drag queens but they’re very successful drag queens and each one a mensch. Who are these sexy Semites? Read all about them in The Jewish Daily Forward. Then talk amongst yourselves. Discuss.

The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals has stood up for transgendered people in that state. After learning that insurance companies were denying transgendered people coverage the Federation took steps to campaign to get insurance regulators to issue a bulletin prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity. Way to go VFNHP! Read about it in AFT News.

Walliams as Emily Howard

Former Little Britain star David Walliams has made a documentary that will be airing soon in England. Walliams has acknowledged being a crossdresser and his best known character is Emily Howard the unconvincing transvestite from Little Britain who kept saying “I’m a lady” in hope that she would be believed. Lately Walliams has been appearing as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent. His documentary is an effort to recreate a photo from his old school in which he and several other lads, all around 11-years-old, appeared in drag for a theatrical production. The documentary follows Walliams as he tracks them all down and gets them to dress up and pose for the re-creation of that shot. The story is in Radio Times.

A noted Indian film director passed away from a heart attack last week. Rituparno Ghosh was not just a film director. He was well known in India as a crossdresser. His films featured themes of sexuality and gender identity. In his 2012 film Chitrangada he played a gay male who has SRS so he and his partner can adopt a child. He was only 49 when he died. Read more about him in The New York Times.

See my boobs?

Here’s one for the What’s Up With That? file. We’ve heard male comedians riff that if they had breasts they would just hang around the house feeling themselves up. One Singaporean pop singer, of the male variety, last made big news when he shelled out over three thousand dollars for a boob job. His C-cup titties fit his frame but he aspires to getting them pumped up to a G-cup. He doesn’t dress as a female. He just wears tight tank tops to show off his rack and says that he has no desire to be “Ah Gua” which is street slang for males who dress and act like women. Read all the details at AsiaOne.com.

TWITS

There is an activity that some police officers believe is a crime. It’s called “driving while black” or even “walking while black.” The type of cop who feels that way is just the type who uses “walking while transgendered and black” to arrest transwomen for prostitution. To be fair it’s not just transwomen of color who are targeted. If you are out en femme in an area known to be frequented by hookers you stand a chance of being pulled in. To those officers who use this type of profiling to make arrests we award a big fat TWIT Award. Read about this type of abuse directed at TGs in a story from Takepart.com.

It the conservative mind LGBT people are an example of “what’s wrong with this country” and part of the “unraveling of society.” When they think like that, labeling gay people and TGs a deviates and saying that it’s a “lifestyle choice” there’s no surprise that they think transgendered people in the bathroom are a major threat that needs to be dealt with. A TWIT Award goes to one Fox News reporter who did a report about a woman who ran into a TG in the ladies room and complained to management. He just couldn’t help adding his own bias to the report. No other news outlet picked the story up but since it plays well as further evidence of the decay of our society Fox jumped right on it. And they were hardly “fair and balanced.” Read about the stupid and demeaning things Fox Reporter Todd Stames said at Media Matters.

We would be remise if we neglected to give Lauryn Hill, an R&B singer from Philadelphia, her TWIT Award. Ms. Hill, who will soon be incarcerated for income tax evasion, recently released a new song in which she lists all the reasons the world is going to hell in a basket and she compares “girl men” “drag queens” and “social transvestism” to “pimps” “pushers” and “serial criminals.” Sounds like that guy from Fox News. Seriously Lauryn? Then she tried to respond to the out cry by saying her lyrics were mis-interpreted. And she just made it worse. Check out why she’s getting her TWIT in Philly Mag’s Blog.

So many TWITs this week. Is there enough space on the Internet? This Award winner, the Red Lion Area School District, has won before for at first insisting that an FtM student wear the female graduation gown. Isaak Wolfe won that fight and was allowed to wear the the male graduation gown. But when he walks across the stage to pick up his diploma they will announce his former female name because the name hasn’t been legally changed. Grow up Red Lion District! Enjoy your TWIT. The principal needs to think about how he’d feel if he was announced as principal Judy. The story is in The Canadian Press.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News