The Week In Transgenderism 6/18/12

Trisha

Back in April we featured Trisha Marie Shattuck in TWIT. Ms. Shattuck is an artist and her daughter wrote a piece for The New York Times about how she felt when her dad came out to her and her sister as TG. Sharon Shattuck wishes her dad a happy Father’s Day with another article about what it was like growing up in a small town with a TG father. Find out about that and her documentary film about her dad in The Advocate.  Thanks to Linda Jensen for sending us the link.

Maria

Another story with a Father’s Day twist is the tale of Maria Chico. Maria never knew her father. Her father disappeared from her life when she was a little boy named Danny and her mother told her he had abandoned the family. Not true! Now a woman in her 30s Maria managed to make contact with her father. Read what happened in The Daily Beast

The legislative move in Ontario, Canada has born fruit. The Ontario Human Rights Code has been amended to prohibit discrimination against transgendered people. Get the story from the CBC News.

Good news for New York City trans people, or those who visit the Big Apple. The New York Police Department has updated their patrol guide, the procedural book that they are supposed to follow when on the streets, to include a written policy for dealing with “gender non-conforming” people. Now if we can just get them to read it. Get the details from The Advocate.

Speaking of guides, when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts in 2006 his administration put the kibosh on an anti-bullying guide the Department of Public Health  wanted to produce. Why did Governor Mitt stop the publication of the guide? He objected to the use of the terms “bisexual” and “transgender” in certain passages of the guide. The Boston Globe has the evidence that Romney blocked the publicatio. Get the facts on boston.com.

Ashley in the ’60s.

The first British transwoman to change her gender (at least the first one who was outed in the press) was April Ashley. Miss Ashley had a long career as a model and is reputed to have had an active sex life with several major stars of the stage and cinema. Now she has been awarded the MBE, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Get the story from the TWITs at the Mirror, who had to headline the story with one of her sexual encounters, her gender switch — and then mention the MBE.

Transgendered rappers? If you’ve read our music columnist Pam DeGroff’s contribution today you’ll know that they exist. Foxxjazell, who Pamela mentioned today, is one of the rappers who appears in an article on thegrio.com. Check it out.

Old age. We’re all heading in that direction but as transgendered people we may be heading for problems that the regular senior doesn’t have to deal with. Transgendered seniors have special needs and now there is a report from the National Center for Transgender Equality that let’s us know what needs to be done to prepare for a transgendered old age. Get the details from the Windy City Times.

Carmen Carrera

So you’re a fan of the TLC reality show Cake Boss, huh? (Wasn’t TLC supposed to be the learning channel?) The show’s producers asked Carmen Carrera, familiar to viewers of RuPaul’s Drag Race as a TG beauty, to appear on their show. Carmen was under the impression that she was going to promote equality and the beauty of TG women. Instead she got broadsided by being used in a distasteful transgender joke. Fortunately TLC has learned that you don’t insult transwomen. They pulled the episode. Still a Cake Boss fan?  Fa get a bout it! Get the story in The L.A. Times.

If you think you’ve been hiding your trans status from your friends and family for a long time we give you a story about someone who hide her true self till she was 80. Then she leaped right in and started hormones. Now she’s hoping to get her gender reassignment surgery. Meet Yilling in People’s Daily Online.

Transgender author and activist Leslie Feinberg was arrested on June 4. The author of Stone Butch Blues was protesting the semtence given to CeCe McDonald, along with hundreds of other protesters. Feinberg was the only person detained by police. Get the story from blogger Trevor MacDonald in The Huffington Post.

Needles kissed by a councilman.

Remember Sharon Needles, the winner of the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race? She has been honored by the Pittsburgh City Council with an official Sharon Needles Day. Pittsburgh? We really are living in the future. But then, Needles arrived at the council chambers in a blonde wig that was reminiscent of a former Pittsburgher, Andy Warhol. Get the amazing details in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

There’s been a lot of pageant news in TWIT lately. The latest pageant story is one that ends in murder. It comes to us froma part of the world that used to be called the “dark continent” and certainly harbors people who remain vastly unenlightened about GLBT issues. The winner of a South African Miss Gay pageant was found dead after an argument about her sexuality. Queen Bling was murdered for being gay and trans. Thanks to Jenny for sending us the link to the story on MSNBC’s World News site.

Peppermint says “No paparazzi!”

Part of the New York City nightlife experience, at least before they started to Disney-fie the town, was running into almost anyone in the restroom of the hot new club. There were boys in the girl’s room, girls in the boy’s room, and drag queens all over the place. To honor Gay Pride month in NYC Time Out New York thought it would be a great idea to take photos of drag queens in restrooms. Check out the pix on their website.

Did you hear about the turtle couple who broke up after 115 years together? Concern that the marriage might not last and go the way of the turtles’ union did not deter a transgendered man from proposing to his sweetie. Why is this news? He did it at the White House during a reception in honor of LGBT Pride Month. Read the romantic story in The Huffington Post.

TWITs

Baton Bob

Some people just can’t stand to see other people having a good time. In Atlanta there is a person called Baton Bob who dresses up in a majorette costume and acts as the city’s “self appointed ambassador of mirth.” Bob prances around doing mirthful and majoretteish things to amuse the populace. Last week Bob was confronted by a hater. It’s a good thing the majorette costume had no room to pack a pistol as Bob has said if he had one he’d have used it to defend himself. He’s filed a police report and the cops are looking for the TWIT. Bob just wants to get back to spreading mirth without worrying about possible assaults. The story is in Atlanta Magazine.

What do you do when you want to finance your gender reassignment surgery? Well, the TWIT thing to do is to grow pot in your basement and start dealing. That choice got one Seattle TG murdered in 1993. On Friday one of the murder victim’s daughters published an article about her complex relationship with her transgendered dad. There is more TWITness in the story but it’s also a moving tale of needs, drives, relationships and choices. My father, the woman is at salon.com.

Back during the first Gulf War there was a rumor that one of the Kuwaiti princes spent the war living a glamorous crossdressing lifestyle in Paris. That makes it seem odd that the country would have an “immorality” campaign that targets trans and LGB people. And trans is so confusing to the Kuwaiti bigot in the street that they beat up a transman thinking they were beating up  a transwoman. Read about the TWIT Award winning idiocy of Kuwait at lgbtgnation.com.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News