The Week In Transgenderism 8/13/12

What’s so bad about a boy in a dress? That’s the question asked by an article in The New York Times magazine last week. The story is about how more and more parents are coming to realize that boys may have a good reason to want to wear girl’s clothes and they’re letting their sons explore femininity. One of the featured boys appears to be a young crossdresser. Read about it at The New York Times website.

The wheels of justice grind slowly. Back in 2011 a young transgender woman was stopped by police in Cicero, Illinois. She was just walking down the street with a friend when the officers accused them of being sex workers. Things escalated and Bianca Fleciano was taken to the station in handcuffs. Now the city is paying up for her maltreatment with a cash settlement and a promise to educate its police officers about transgender people. Get the story in The Chicago Tribune.

The Affordable Care Act is a plus for transgendered people. Under the Act healthcare providers can’t discriminate against TGs who “fail to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.” Read about your new protections in Metro Weekly.

Liza and friend.

Liza — with a z, has been a gay icon, was married to a gay man for awhile and now she has been seen hanging out at a drag show on Fire Island last week. Not looking too bad for being Liza and being 66 years-old. She even got up on stage to cheers and chanting of her name. The story and photos are at TMZ.com.

The best defense against hate and bigotry is a good offense  — The Theater Offensive, that is. In order to counter the myths surrounding transgender people the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition used the acting services of The Theater Offensive to produce videos that make transgendered people a known quantity rather than an abstract concept that is so much easier to hate. Read about the video project in The Edge.

Duncan

We have mentioned before that there is a transgendered candidate running for office in central Florida. Gina Duncan wants to be a Commissioner of Orange County. Get to know her in The Windy City Times.

If you’re in Charlotte, North Carolina on August 17 you can attend a gender conference called the TransFaith in Color Conference. This is the second year of the conference. It started last year as a summit of transgender people of faith and people of color. If you fit either category, or are just interested the story is in QNotes.

Miss Bean

We’ve reported in the past that Sean Bean, the actor who played Eddard Stark on Game of Thrones, was working in drag for a British television series. The series, Accused, is set to air soon in the U.K. While we applaud the coverage of Bean portraying Tracie we are slightly miffed that the reporter commented that it’s unclear whether or not the character is transgendered or a “mere crossdresser.” Hey lady! Watch it with that “mere” stuff. The story is in The Advocate.

While Sean Bean doesn’t do a bad job looking feminine one actor you would not associate with drag in a million years does have a drag role in an upcoming film. Ron Perlman, better known for his heavy prosthetic makeup roles like Hell Boy is wearing heavy women’s makeup for his role as Phyllis in 3, 2, 1, Frankie Go Boom. Read about it and view the trailer at worstpreviews.com.

Considering a crossdressing vacation in Europe? Longing for the the Mediterranean and a place where they party all night long? Then Ibiza, off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea might be your cup of tea. Fortunately for us, London transvestite travel reporter Jade Buvez has been there and done that. Read her report on how well transgendered travelers are treated on the island. The article is on ibiza-spotlight.com.

Half and half.

A New York City photographer has done a series of portraits depicting half and half drag queens. Their right side is glammed up and their left side is the man underneath the makeup. If seeing the contrast between a queen’s drag look and how they look without hair and makeup fascinated you chck out Leland Bobbé’s Half-Drag Photo Show in The Huffington Post.

What does a transgender lady do when she wants to find romance with a man? Dating is hard enough without trying to determine just when you should let him know you weren’t always a woman but you were never a little girl. The safer course for dating fun would seem t be online TG dating sites. But there are things you should know before you post your picture. The Canadian has the story.

TWITs

TWITs seemed to pop out if the woodwork last week. First up is the Portland, Oregon bar that told several transgender women, who had been going to the bar for a couple of years, that they couldn’t patronize the place anymore. Now the club owner, who gets the TWIT Award, has some explaining to do to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. The story and a video are at CBS Atlanta.

They kind of thing just won’t stop. Apparently the people who dress up in drag to commit robberies are not reading our gentle admonitions in TGF to just stop it already. They continue to go out and pull their robberies while they give us all a bad name, so we give them TWIT Awards. Is it disguise? Are they TGs? Whatever they are they’re crooks and they’re not doing our reputations any good. Read about and view a video on the latest drag robbery in Philadelphia at the NBC10 website.

The crossdresser in England who would dress up as an old lady but hide his face with a scarf and then sidle up to women and grope them  has had his day in court. The judge decided that he could still dress up but he can no longer hide his face (a good opportunity to work on his makeup skills) but there’s to be no more “sidling up to women” on the street. We’re not Awarding a TWIT to crossdresser Paul Reed. (He has one already for the “sidling.”) This one goes to The Daily Mail, who have collected a few from us in the past, for their less than sensitive reporting. Read the story on their website.

Our next TWIT Award goes to the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco. Not only is the church in San Francisco, it’s in The Castro district. The heart of SF’s gayborhood. For years a local organization had been holding their big yearly fundraiser event in the church’s social hall. This year it ain’t gonna happen there. The Archbishop, a dress wearing man himself if memory of Catholic vestments serves, has decreed there will be no drag queens in a church in his diocese. Read about the Catholic TWITs at ebar.com.

A TWIT Award will be shared by the group of thugs who ganged up on a transgender woman in Philadelphia and gave her a concussion and fractured nose. This happened in center city Philadelphia, not out in the suburbs or the countryside. The victim said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As long as there are haters walking around anywhere can be the wrong place. Be careful out there! The story is in the Philadelphia Gay News.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News