The Week In Transgenderism 6/25/12

We know, from reading Pamela DeGroff’s TG music columns that Justin Vivian Bond is a talented performer who used to play Kiki is the off beat Cabaret due Kiki and Herb. We know v (what Bond prefers to “he” or “she”) is a gifted actor who just starred as Jackie Curtis in Jukebox Jackie, but did you know v is a minister? Will wonders never cease? Get the story on what Justin Vivian Bond is up to from The New York Times.

Filmmakers have jumped all over the transgender subject in recent years. Documentary filmmakers, that is. The latest one to enter theaters is Trans. It’s playing around the country in various theaters and LGBT centers and one of the stories they cover is that of Doctor Christine McGinn.  Read a review in Vital Voice.

The Priscilla crew.

You can’t keep an old transgendered bus down. That’s right, I said bus. The bus we’re talking about is the one from The Adventures of Priscilla , Queen of the Desert. The bus is Priscilla and she’s on the road again in the Outback. This time she’s not alone. She’s accompanied by three other buses, a crew of 120 people and ten men in drag. Maybe you’ve guessed by now — it’s all part of a reality show for Australian TV. Get the fun details from ABC Australia.

We told you about a transgender man who was competing for a spot on the women’s US Olympic Team competing in the hammer throw. The hammer has come down on Keelin Godsey. He didn’t make the cut. Read about his disappointment in The New York Times.

Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace, the punk rocker who came out as a transwoman, has been doing concerts and her fans seem to be totally cool with her transformation from an angry male punk singer to an angry female punk singer. But what has happened in her family? How’s it going with the wife and kids? She talks about that on MTV.com.

Coming out as trans in a punk rock band is very different than coming out in a conservative office/corporate environment. Just how safe is it to come out as transgendered in today’s workplaces? Funny you should ask. There’s an article in The Atlantic that will give you all the information you seek.

A Parisian lady.

Christer Strömholm has a photo exhibit coming up in New York city. The Swede who spent a decade living with and photographing transvestites in Paris in the 1950s passed away in 2002 but his photos of the crossdressing ladies of the night live on. The exhibit is called Les Amies de Place Blanche. Read a review in The New York Times.

More recently than the 1950s a photographer in Virginia was inspired to work on a a drag queen themed exhibit. (Drag is always inspiring artists.) She took her daughter to a drag show and that was the start of her Tribute to the Queen collection of altered photographs. (No gritty realism a la Strömholm.) Shades of Andy Warhol. Her exhibit opens in July. Get the details from WTOP.com.

Remember the story last week about the transman who proposed to his girlfriend at a White House reception? The story triggered a poop storm from conservative media types like Laura Ingraham (she’s still on the air?) and the transman, Scout (just a one word name but we won’t hold that against him. Guess his wife will be Mrs. Scout), has made video response to the negative attacks his proposal has generated. Get the amusing details of his response in The Huffington Post.

Kajol’s femme side.

The people who were outraged about the White House TG proposal are the same people who get incensed that Muslim religious law — Syariah — is going to become accepted in our U.S. justice system. Fat chance. And a good thing too, as Syariah law is pretty much totally opposed to crossdressing. Take as a for instance the case of a transsexual singer in Malaysia who was sentenced to a month in jail for “dressing in women’s clothes and having feminine mannerisms.” Known professionally as Kajol, Hafiz Jeffri showed up in court attempting to look butch. Apparently it worked since the judge dropped the prison sentence. Read about it and check out the singer’s “manly” court look in The Star Online.

In Chicago a mansion that used to be an AIDS hospice is being re-purposed to help members of the homeless trans community. The mansion has nine bedrooms  that will serve as refuge for TGs who have been living on the street. Read about the TransLife Center in the Chicago Tribune.

That was the good news out of Chicago. Now the bad news. The latest celeb to open mouth and insert foot by dropping the T word in a transgender joke is Big Red himself, the captain of Team Coco, Conan O’Brien. Conan launched the T bomb on his June 12th show which was taped in Chicago. The joke involved Chicago and used the T word. How did Conan defend himself from the scorn of outraged TGs? Get the story at examiner.com.

Janice Covington

The Democratic National Convention is being held in North Carolina and the state is getting into the convention spirit — which in the case of many of its more conservative citizens could mean gassing up the pickup and getting out of town for the entire week of September third. But local Democrats are excited in a positive way and have gotten busy selecting delegates to the convention. Guess what? They picked a transwoman as one of the delegates. Meet Janice Covington on the WCNC website.

Two people who attacked a transwoman in Virginia last year have walked. They weren’t acquitted. The victim and a witness did not show up for the trail. No doubt the victim felt a bit like the victim in the Maryland McDonalds attack and just wanted to put it behind her but it would have been nice to see them get their just desserts. The story is at examiner.com.

TWITs, Where are they now?

Sasha

One of our TWITs from the beginning of the month was the professor who tried moonlighting as a transvestite prostitute. Her first mistake? Moonlighting as a prostitute. Mistake number two? Advertising her services on a personal ad website. Didn’t she know only cops respond to those ads? While we don’t advocate punishing people for trying to actualize their fantasies (hey, our motto has been “don’t dream it, be it”) you could just see that there would be consequences from the professor’s arrest. Find out what they are in the Athens Patch.

TWITs

It’s a no-brainer. This week our first TWIT Award goes to the officials in charge of the Minnesota prison system. As if defending yourself from an attack by a drunken transphobe and his drunken girlfriend by stabbing and killing the attacker, then being arrested for murder, pleading to second-degree manslaughter and being sentenced to three years in prison wasn’t enough, the bright boys in the prison system decided to place CeCe McDonald in a male prison. Somehow that doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out well. Get the story in The L.A. Times.

We give the second TWIT Award this week to British transvestite Paul Reed. Mr. Reed has a history of dressing up like a little old lady so he can chat up younger women, and touch them. We’re semi-conflicted about giving him a TWIT as it is his transvestic tendencies that have driven him to impersonate old ladies so he can interact as a lady with a woman. But the way he’s gone about it, which is scary and invasive of the women’s personal space, is why he gets the TWIT. To be fair, he told the judge he’d like to stop it and he wants to get help. Read the sad, twitty, story at Kent Online.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News