The Week In Transgenderism — 6/3/13

Prom Queen Cody in the center.

We’ve had all these items lately from schools denying TG students the right to graduate in the gender of their choice under the name they chose. Now comes a heartening story of a TG teen in Massachusetts who was elected prom queen by her fellow students. Get the story in Edge San Francisco. There’s video of the teen at the CBS Boston website.

A high school in Ohio has backed down on its demand that a TG teen who has been living as a female for the past two years attend graduation dressed as a male. It seems the principal who initially said the student had to follow the male dress code for graduation had a chat with district officials who may have pointed out that lawsuits might be in the near future is the teen did not get to graduate in a dress. He changed his ruling. Read the story at 10TV.com.

TG actress Michelle Hendley

A film now in development has cast a transgendered woman to play a transgendered woman. Amazing, huh? It has happened before, most recently for a television show in Canada, but in general the TG actor only gets to play the hooker or comic relief as an over the top drag queen. The film is called Boy Meets Girl and it’s TG star is Michelle Hendley. It’s a rom-com and the director has signed Michael Welch from the Twilight movies to play the boy. Find out how you can help the producers get the funding needed to shoot the movie at Big Gay Picture Show.

Don’t be hatin’. That’s what the folks at Chrysalis Lingerie were saying after they launched their line of lingerie for the transgendered community last month. Their online store opened on May 1 and at the speed of the Internet the negative comments began to pop up in their inbox. Complaints from the community included accusations that the company was catering to the most femme TGs with svelte shapes and ignoring larger transwomen. Many complained that the lingerie was too expensive and not attractively  designed. Read about the lingerie line that failed to please everyone at LingerieTalk.com.

Speaking of hating: Radio talk fount of mis-information Laura Ingraham took offense to an article from the Associated Press that told the story of a 10-year-old TG whose parents accepted her gender identity. In Ingraham’s world the parents are “pushing kids” into a transgender identity. And she confuses sexual orientation with gender identity. It’s all part of what Ingraham and those of her ilk see as a breakdown in gender norms and some kind of threat to our society. She calls transgenderism a new phenomena without realizing that TGs have been around for a long, long time. Listen to her rant and read a rebuttal that takes her to school at Media Matters.

Despite the ignorant rants of people like Ingraham we’ve come a long way, baby. (Perhaps our advances have threatened some people?) Not only is the word transgender used by the mainstream press but athletes, professors, authors and many other types of people are coming out as transgendered. It still may not be a great idea to jump on top of your desk at your workplace and proclaim you are now another gender and will be coming to work from now on in the appropriate attire but that day may not be too far off. We say that because transgendered children are coming out at younger ages everyday and they will inherit the world. Read about the TG kids in an article from Associated Press on Yahoo News.

SheZow

In other transgender kid news we have learned that there is a new animated show with a 12 year old boy who has a super hero alter ego named SheZow. When he puts on his magic ring he becomes a girl with super powers when he shout the phrase “You go, girl!” Now that sounds like a super hero for us. Apparently SheZow is not a hero for conservatives. She’s been called “demented,” “perverted” and again there’s that idea that children will be indoctrinated into transgenderism in the howls from the right. Heck, Bugs Bunny in a dress didn’t make us want to wear women’s clothing. But it helped make it easier. Good luck finding SheZow. She’s on the the Hub network. Huh? Read all about it at Salon.com.

Two Minnesotan authors of young adult fiction are up for a Lambda Award, the prestigious prize given to outstanding GLBT literature. One book features an FtM teen DJ and the other book has a MtF teen living in rural Minnesota. Read more in The Star Tribune.

Scared the Governor.

Back in 2011 we featured a story in TWIT about a TG student who scared the Governor General of a Canadian province while he was on a visit. The student, an older than average person, claimed that a territorial cabinet minister asked her to leave the presence of the governor general and she filed a complaint with a human rights panel. They have ruled that it was not transgender discrimination. Could it have been her inappropriate black lace dress? The story is on the CBC website.

TG pole dancer

As I mentioned above there are so many doors opening for transgendered women these days. Of course there are still barriers and discrimination to overcome but if you’re a TG woman in Britain and you want to become a pole dancer only your dancing prowess will keep you from having a career spinning around a pole. We say this as the woman representing one part of England in the World Pole Sport Championships in London is 50-year-old Natasha Payne. Ms. Payne is a former Royal Navy engineer who transitioned in 2008. She started pole dancing that same year. The story is found on Sky.com.

The Mumbai Police are perplexed. They are running a recruitment drive to add 950 constables to the force. They have openings for 350 women constables. One of the female candidates applying for the force made a sub-inspector suspicious. She thought the applicant had male looking features. The woman, called Radhika in the story, provided several forms of ID that said she was female. They gave her a close examination and found that she had no reproductive organs of either gender. They are perplexed because they only have “male” or “female” on their application forms. We urge the Mumbai Police to add “other” and get on with signing Radhika up for duty. They have narrowly avoided a TWIT Award but there could be one in their future if the don’t do the right thing. Get the details in the Times of India.

TWITs

TWIT Award number one goes to the home invaders who shot and killed a well known Whitney Houston impersonator from Florida. Anthony Lee, known on stage as South Beach Wanda, was caring for a sick friend’s home and children when he answered a knock at the door and was shot. Police believe that the shooting was not a random act but that someone in the house was the target. People who shoot people, whether the victim is a talented drag performer or anyone else deserve a TWIT Award so large that it crushes them to death. The sad details and a video of South Beach Wanda in performance can be found in the New York Post.

The New York State Senate is controlled by Republicans and they’re doing what Republicans do — standing in the way of important legislation. While not as direct as breaking into your house and shooting you their actions are putting transgendered people at risk. Every year for the past six years a bill called the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act has passed the New York House. And every year the Republican majority in the Senate has blocked it. They won’t allow the bill to come to the floor for a vote. For blocking legislation that would do a lot to help transgendered people get and keep jobs, obtain housing and apply for credit we give the New York State Republican senators a gigantic TWIT Award. The story is the Times Union.

Tags: featured, news, Transgender, Transsexual, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News