The Week In Transgenderism 8/8/16

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Talleen Abu Hanna

It’s difficult to be a trans woman in an Arab culture but since there are trans people everywhere you know that somehow they find a way to survive. One such woman is the winner of the Miss Trans Israel pageant, Talleen Abu Hanna. Not only is she an Arab, she is a Christian and she lives in Israel because that country is more accepting of LGBT people. But, when she announced she would represent Israel in the Miss Trans Star International pageant in Barcelona controversy appeared. Learn more about the the 21-year-old beauty and why she is creating controversy in The New York Times.

The state of North Carolina has been in the news with their restrictive restroom legislation. The NBA will not be holding it’s All Star game in the state but another competition is set to move forward this week. The Miss Gay North Carolina America pageant will be happening this coming Thursday and Friday in Charlotte. We suspect the queens will go potty wherever they like. Meet one of the oldest contestants, Shana Nicole. Shana is an HIV positive gay man who is in love with a straight woman. They wear the same sizes. Get more on Shana and the pageant in The Charlotte Observer.

Darcelle

Meet Darcelle, the USA’s oldest working drag queen. She’s 85 and does six shows a week in her Portland, Oregon club. She has a 61 year old son and she’s happy to be able to be who she is. She remembers living years ago when you had to hide what you were. She’s a bit concerned about the current political climate in the country and how it may affect LGBT people. Find out why in The Huffington Post.

Logic would lead one to accept that perhaps the high rate of depression and suicide in the trans community might, just possibly, be related to the enormous amount of rejection, scorn and shaming that trans people are subjected to on a daily basis. That’s if you’re logical. The conservative view is that trans people are mentally ill. That view is no longer supported according to a research study published in The Lancet. The study finds that it’s social stigma not mental illness that causes problems for trans people. Read about it on the Good website.

If you’re looking for another group that has put up with discrimination for many years it would be red headed people. Just because of their hair color they have been picked on forever. It even became a plot on South Park when the odious Cartman spread the lie that “gingers don’t have souls.” That bit of satire upset one ginger so much that six years ago they made a YouTube video to refute the show’s assertion. The vid went viral and that ginger became a social media star. Now we find out that she is also trans. How much oppression can one person take? Get her story from Pink News.

There is a shortage of injectable estrogen in the United States. Supply has not kept up with the sharp increase in demand. The shortage is expected to last at least into October, and it may last much longer than that. It seems that the highest dosage of injectable estrogen, 40 mg. per ml., has not been available for the last year and a half, so many transgender women have been prescribed the 20 mg. per ml. dosage. Now, the 20 mg./ml. dosage is in short supply as well. Out Magazine has this story.

Sara Davis Buechner

The New York Mets will host an LGBT Pride Night at Citi Field. (They held LGBT Community Nights in 2004 and 2011, but this is the first use of the term “pride” in association with the event.) As part of LGBT Pride Night, the Mets have hired a transgender pianist, Sara Davis Buechner, to lead a sing-along of the Met’s song, Meet The Mets. Joe My God has this story.

The Supreme Court, by a 5-3 vote, issued a stay of an order by the Fourth Circuit Court which would have allowed Gavin Grimm to use the boys’ restroom at school this year. Mr. Grimm is forced to use a one-person restroom. The Gloucester School Board has not yet filed its case with the Supreme Court. The stay will terminate if they fail to meet the filing deadline, or if the Court refuses to hear the case. If the Court does agree to hear the case, then the stay will remain in effect until they reach a decision. It’s little surprise to see Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas voting for the stay. It’s slightly more surprising to see Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy voting for the stay, but it is not too surprising to see them so vote. Even so, that would only make four justices, which would be one short of enough to stay the order. The surprise fifth was Justice Stephen Breyer. Justice Breyer voted for the stay “as a courtesy,” he said. It seems that when four justices agree to issue a stay, tradition holds that a fifth will vote for the stay, until the case can be heard. This usually involves a stay of execution, so Justice Breyer voted for the stay this time in the hope that a conservative justice will vote for a stay at a future date. You can read about this in Metro Weekly, and more specifically about Justice Breyer’s vote on Bloomberg News.

Ona Louise

A bookstore in Brooklyn had a special event for kids last week. Drag Queen Story Hour featured a glamorous drag performer named Ona Louise reading from a book titled Tatterhood: Feminist Folktales from Around the World. The idea is that the kids will learn they can wear anything they like and you don’t have to be stuck in gender specific attire. Learn more in the Brooklyn Paper.

When you hear the word “trucker” you tend to think of hairy dudes dressed in denim and flannel shirts pushing their big rigs across the country’s interstate highways. You don’t tend to think about trans people behind the wheel of those big rigs. But it turns out there are many LGBT folks working in the trucking industry. One woman is writing a book about them. Learn more in The Chicago Tribune.

The Olympics in Rio opened last week and one of the people participating in the opening ceremony made history as the first trans woman to do so. Who was she? The trans model Lea T. Check out the story on the Telesur website.

Gemma Cowling

Australia now has its first home grown trans model. Her name is Gemma Cowling and she makes her debut on Tuesday night at the Adelaide Fashion Festival. Cowling is 19 and was born in Adelaide. Read more in The Advertiser.

Another model was in the news last week. This one is a female to male gentleman who used to model as a woman but has transitioned and now works exclusively as a male. Casil McArthur is his name and he recently did a 16-page spread for W magazine’s September issue. Meet him in W magazine.

Charlie Lowthian-Rickert is a ten-year-old trans girl who lives in Stittsville, Ontario. She has been chosen as the Grand Marshall for this year’s Capital Pride Parade in Ottawa. The post of Grand Marshall is given each year to someone who has shown leadership in advocacy for the community. You can read more about this young person in the National Post.

Sometimes, making one change upsets something else. The province of Ontario recently started issuing health cards which do not have gender information on them. One woman recently found that, since her health card does not have a gender on it, it cannot be used as identification in her quest to get a passport. This will become worse soon, when Ontario allows people to choose not to list gender information on their drivers licenses. The CBC has more.

Officer Budd

Aiden Budd just became an officer in the New York Police Force. He is a military veteran, and while studying to join the police force, he also transitioned from female to male. The New York Times wrote a profile of him along with Officer Denise Dragos and officer Brooke Bukowski, all members of the NYPD.

One county in the U.S.A. recently found that its transgender employees were having trouble getting the county’s insurance plan to cover transgender-related health needs, so the county passed a resolution which made changes to the county’s contract with the insurer, specifically allowing transgender-related care to be covered. The surprise is that this happened in Salt Lake County, Utah. KUER radio has more.

A former male handball player in Australia has transitioned and will be joining a female handball team in the fall. Her name is Hannah Monucey and she told the Australian handball association that she planned to return to the sport as a female. Everyone has been supportive of her switching teams. Get the story in The Daily Mail.

Mia

If you are in the town of Wilton Manors, Florida and you’re feeling hungry there’s a spot you should visit. Particularly if you’re trans and a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches. It’s called New York Grilled Cheese Co. and it made the news last week for standing behind its trans employee, Mia. A customer kept using male pronouns to refer to her and then left the restaurant and went on Facebook to rant that he wasn’t coming back since they had “transgender restrooms.” See how the establishment stood by Mia in The Huffington Post.

There is a new drop-in centre in Las Vegas specifically for transgender people. It is called “Transcending The Gender Box,” and it gives transgender people “a place they can go to where they feel safe and just be themselves,” according to co-creator Jamie Sprague-Ballou. You can read more in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Susan Sarandon has produced a new film. It’s a documentary that tells the story of a transgender boy from an evangelical background in North Carolina. The film will debut at the Belfast Film Festival in Northern Ireland. The Belfast Telegraph has more.

GLSEN has released a new report about LGBT students. The report finds that LGBT students are more likely to be given detention, suspensions, and expulsions. They also are more likely to go through the juvenile justice system. And yes, the transgender students are especially likely to be disciplined. You can read the full report on GLSEN’s website, you can read GLSEN’s summary, or you can read a summary by the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Teen book “If I Was Your Girl”

Trans students who like young adult fiction have had more books to read that feature trans characters. 2016 seems like it’s the year that trans teen fiction blows up big-time. These novels are aimed at readers between 15 and 18 and feature stories that involve all the issues trans teens are likely to run into in real life. Read more about what trans teens are reading in USA Today. They also have a list of trans teen fiction titles available here.

In Japan there is resistance to taking Gender Identity Disorder out of the diagnostic guide. While all around the world activists have been saying that being trans is not a mental disorder and it should not be classified as such, in Japan having it listed as a mental disorder allows Japan’s top psychiatrist who deals with gender issues to make life better for his trans children patients. He readily admits that being trans is not a mental illness but being able to diagnose kids with GID allows them to live as they wish. Get the full story from Buzzfeed.

Adele is touring the world in support of her new album and during a recent concert in Seattle she brought an Adele impersonator onstage with her. Kristie Champagne is her name and she had a social media campaign going to try to meet her. She didn’t expect to be invited onstage. Read more and see some pictures on the Her website.

A bar in West Los Angeles has decorated the doors of its restrooms with a pre-transition picture of Bruce Jenner (from the Wheaties box) and a post-transition picture of Caitlyn Jenner (from the Vanity Fair cover). Reaction is mixed, to put it mildly. It’s meant to be a joke, certainly, although how funny it is varies from individual to individual. The Nickel Bar’s story is covered by LAist.

Athena Cadence

The wheels of justice grind slowly at times, okay, most of the time. Back in 2012 The Justice Department issued guidelines instructing jails and prisons to make an effort to accommodate trans prisoners according to their gender identity and not their genitals. San Francisco took until the end of 2015 to work on a plan but after announcing one would be in place by the end of that year the plan has still not been implemented. Athena Cadence (an Iraq War vet) was incarcerated and subjected to harassment from the jail staff and male inmates. After filing numerous complaints over her treatment she went on a hunger strike. She did not eat solid food for two months. Just last week she ended her hunger strike and was released from jail. Read her story in Mother Jones.

On Bill Maher’s last Real Time show before he went on hiatus for a month he devoted his New Rules segment to the coming election and urged trans activists to put the restroom issue on the back burner till after November. His reasoning is that the restroom wars could motivate more conservative people to vote for Trump and that would be a bad thing. The Democratic Party has openly embraced LGBT people and if the right wing makes a big deal out of propaganda about “Democrats want to let perverts attack your wife and daughter in the ladies’ room” type lies it could hurt the Democrats chances to stop Trump. Maher is even willing to put his personal issue of legalizing pot on the back burner till the orange man is defeated. Read more about his New Rules segment on the Interrobang website.

While all eyes this week are on Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for the Olympics, Buenos Aires in Argentina is having a week-long LGBTQ festival featuring drag queen performances, queer tango classes, sports activities, photo exhibitions and business networking opportunities. We know where we would like to be this week. Argentina, though it is a Catholic country, is extremely supportive of the LGBTQ community and wants to become a destination for LGBTQ tourists from around the world. Learn more on the Fusion website.

Imagine you are a trans girl in a school were you were known as a boy. You begin to transition and become the focus of bullying so your parents enroll you in another school and tell the staff there to use your new name and not let anyone know that you are trans. Then, in your first class, the teacher calls your old name when taking attendance. You old name is on seating charts and one time it’s even projected onto a screen at the front of the classroom. That’s what happened to a trans girl named Ella in a school in Edmonton, Canada back in 2013. The only reason this story isn’t in the TWIT Awards section is that the school has revamped its policies after the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta found that the school had violated Ella’s privacy rights. Learn more from Vice News.

A young gay man, who is one of those YouTube stars you hear about all the time, does videos on makeup techniques. He feels that makeup isn’t a gendered thing and that anyone can express themselves using makeup. When he was younger he posted a photo to Facebook in which he was fully made up and was wearing false nails. His mother asked him if he was a transvestite and he told to “stop living in the dark ages.” Meet Georgie Aldous in Pink News.

TWITs

Police in Uganda raided the Venom nightclub in Kampala on Thursday night, as the venue was hosting the Mr. and Miss Pride Uganda pageant. While most of the people attending were allowed to leave, about 20-25 people who are known LGBT activists were detained. A TWIT Award to the Ugandan police for attempting to impose upon this vulnerable group. Buzzfeed has this story. Update: The activists have announced that the Pride March was still on for Sunday. The update is in Gay Star News.

A headline reads, “Pope Francis laments that children are taught they can choose their gender.” This is not what actually happens. People do not choose to be male or female; they simply are male or female (or some form of non-binary). Being transgender is not a choice; being Catholic is a choice. So, sadly, the Pontiff gets a TWIT Award. The story with that headline is in the New York Daily News.

“Transgender performer” Valentine Steaphon was using the ladies’ room at the Boots & Saddle Drag Lounge in New York city when a cisgender woman raised a ruckus. She said that Steaphon, who identifies as trans-genderqueer, should not be in the ladies’ room since she/he has no vagina. The exchange grew heated and club security showed up to find two people yelling at each other and the cis-woman’s (possibly) gay friend had gotten involved outside the restroom yelling that Steaphon couldn’t be trans without breasts and a vagina. We’re issuing a TWIT Award to the cis-woman and her uneducated friend. We’re letting the club off the hook at this time since it’s security’s job to intervene in altercations on the premises. The club management is investigating to see if the security people did anything wrong. Read the story on the Out Magazine website.

Breitbart adds another TWIT Award to their large collection for running a story on Sunday with the headline Physicians Decry Pseudo-Science of Transgenderism, ‘Absurd’ to Say Anyone is Born Into ‘Wrong Body.’ As if that wasn’t enough to win the TWIT they illustrated the story with photos of drag queens from some Pride event and their “physician experts” are The American College of Pediatricians. That’s the splinter group with maybe 200 members that broke away from the mainstream American Academy of Pediatrics — which has 64,000 members. The ACA formed after the AAP supported adoption by gay couples. The ACA are social conservatives who don’t hold with none of that liberal LGBT stuff. The Southern Poverty Law Center has classified them as a hate group. For Brietbart to quote their “study” as fact is absurd. Read their bull poop on the Breitbart website if you like.

Portions of this edition of TWIT were researched and written by Cecilia Barzyk.

Tags: Aiden Budd, Darcelle, featured, Gavin Grimm, Gemma Cowling, Lea T, news, Ona Louise, Sarah Davis Buechner, Shana Nicole, Talleen Abu Hanna, trans truckers, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News