The Week In Transgenderism 9/10/12
Scotti
A comic from Philadelphia named Rick Scotti spent the first fifty years of his life trying to be a regular guy. After a couple of failed marriages and some experimentation with a gay lifestyle Rick came to realize that as much as he was a funny guy — he more of a funny woman. Rick transitioned to Julia Scotti, went back to school to get something to fall back on and then did what every true comic can’t help but do — she made a comedy comeback. Read all about her and her second comedy career in the Philadelphia City Paper.
Michelle Kosilek, currently serving a life sentence for murdering her wife in 1990, has won a legal battle with the Massachusetts Department of Correction that will force them to pay for her gender reassignment surgery. The judge ruled that since reassignment surgery is the only “adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s gender dysphoria if she didn’t get it she was being denied her Eighth Amendment rights. Of course this is causing heads to explode among those who think taxpayers shouldn’t be buying GRS for a murderer. Read all about it in The Huffington Post.
If prisoners can get their gender reassignment paid for it’s only fair that workers should be able to have a health plan that covers their’s. According to a recent poll more companies are offering coverage for non surgical care for TGs and some are adding or plan to add coverage for surgery. The story is in The Advocate.
Delegates Jamie Sheir and Janice Covington
How many delegates to the Democratic National Convention last week were transgendered? The number keeps going up every time the Dems have a convention. In 2008 there were 6 TG delegates. Last week there were 13 TG delegates. Google has the story. For a closer look at the TG delegates check out the story in The Advocate.
So where does a guy with a vagina go to meet potential mates? A good question since many FtMs are no different in appearance than men with penises so there is a high potential for rejection when the woman you’ve been dating finds out you used to be a woman. To address this problem transgender porn star Buck Angel has started a dating site specifically for FtMs. Read about it in On Top Magazine.
Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy who won an Oscar for her documentary on the survivors of acid attacks in Pakistan (yes, women who violate their family’s “honor” often have acid thrown into their faces by outraged male relatives), has done a film about the transgendered women in Pakistan. Read about it at indianexpress.com.
Wachowski
Another filmmaker, Lana Wachowski, recently spoke with The New Yorker magazine. It’s something filmmakers do when they’re getting ready to release a new movie. Well before the film is released stories start showing up about the director, the production and other stuff that’s supposed to start getting buzz going. During the 8 page article Lana tells the writer more about why she finally came out and transitioned, and gives more details of that transition. And she talks about her new movie, too. Find the story on The New Yorker website.
Yet another filmmaker, this one from Argentina, has created a movie about a transsexual woman who lives in the Villa Rosa area of Buenos Aires. That section of the city is a refuge for LGBT people who have nowhere else to go. Ale collects cardboard for recycling, does sewing and at night works the street as a prostitute. But he life becomes connected to a wealthy family and the story unfolds as the characters interact. Read about the film, Mia, and the Villa Rosa area in the Vancouver Observer.
Anders
A transgendered woman has won one of science fiction’s top honors. Charlie Jane Anders won the Hugo Award, the award given by fans who attend or support the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), for her novelette Six Months, Three Days. The list of winners, including Ms. Anders, is on the Tor website. There’s a link to her story if you want to read it.
Living in the United States where we don’t have Sharia law it’s easy to think it’s brave to go downtown in a dress. Real courage is what it takes to challenge Sharia law in Malaysia. Four transsexuals there are challenging Sharia as unconstitutional in Malaysia. Read about their fight at iol.co.za.
Wants back on the force.
Two decades ago a member of the Metropolitan Police in England told his boss that he wanted to have gender reassignment and live his life as a woman. His boss told him to hand in his resignation. Now, after having her surgery and appearing on a British television show called My Transsexual Summer, Karen Gale wants to get back on the force. Her chances are good because now the Metropolitan Police does have transgendered cops. Read about it in The Sun.
If you’re a transgendered veteran there’s good new, at least for vets in the Minneapolis area. The VA hospital there will provide hormone therapy to TGs who served in the military. The bad news is that repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell did nothing for TGs in the military. You can still be discharged if they catch you coming back to the barracks from the drag show in a dress. (Klinger would have been booted out so fast…) Read about one nurse practitioner’s attempt to provide services to TG vets in Minneapolis at CBS Minnesota.
Vietnam’s first.
The first “transgender woman” to be legally recognized by authorities in Vietnam as a woman is Pham Le Quynh Tram. She was reportedly born intersexed but was raised as a boy. In 2006 she was advised by doctors to have surgery and become a woman. In 2009 she got her official recognition from the authorities. The story is on Vietnamnet.vn.
In the 1980s when the name Malcolm McLaren meant something (you remember him, manager of The Sex Pistols and so on) Alan Moore the creator of the Dr. Manhattan character in the Watchmen comic-books was approached by McLaren to write a screenplay for a film called Fashion Beast, a gender bending variation of the Beauty and The Beast story. The film was never made but now the story is coming out in a comic-book. Read about it and see a preview of it at queerty.com.
TWITs
What do you call a sex worker who shows up after you hire her but then drops a rooffee in your drink and robs you while you’re passed out? We here at TGFcall her a TWIT. We also give the would-be john a TWIT as well. He told the police he hired his robber as “a joke.” Yeah right. Tell us another one. Get the story from WMBF News.
An Orlando crossdresser is in jail being held on charges of kidnapping, battery, loitering, larceny, indecent exposure and resisting arrest. He got arrested in Altamonte Springs, Florida after he stole a woman’s top from her laundry then attacked her in the laundry room. We hereby award a TWIT to the criminal crossdresser Steven Alden Shepard. Get the story from the Orlando Sentinel.
The Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office has charged TG activist and author Leslie Feinberg with a gross misdemeanor related to Leslie’s participation in a rally to support CeCe McDonald, the young TG woman who was sentenced to prison for murdering a man who she was defending herself from. Feinberg had been arrested at the demonstration in June but was released and charges were dropped after massive pressure was directed at the county attorney who had charged Feinberg. Now for no good reason the City Attorney has decided to waste the taxpayer’s money prosecuting Feinberg. A very large TWIT Award is winging its way to The Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office. Read the story and Leslie’s statement in Workers World.
Category: Transgender Community News
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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The article below sums up how I feel best. If high levels of health care apply to incarcerated murderers, then such precedents will surely apply to everyone else. That’s why this is a victory for us all.
Far too many people push for socialist policies and laws, then think that they can decide who benefits from it.
The article I was referring to:
“There is a strong medical consensus that health care related to gender transition is medically necessary for transgender people. We are heartened to see the court recognize that transgender people who are incarcerated are entitled to the same access to medically necessary services that all people in prison should receive.” – Kristina Wertz, Director of Policy and Programs
Source: http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/1821
I may be a minority, but I’m opposed to the convicted (and incarcerated) murderer getting a free GRS surgical package. Reason: I’m a law-abiding citizen and a veteran and I have to pay thru the nose for this. Where has fairness gone — if it was ever here??
The argument is that locking up a transsexual person and denying them the treatment they need to live without the stress of being stuck in the wrong gender is cruel and unusual punishment, which is not legal. It would be like not treating some condition that they had that left them in pain while they were serving their sentence. Ideally no one should murder anyone and then we wouldn’t have to have debates about what they should or should not get while incarcerated. But we don’t live in that world. How about other readers? What do you think about taxpayer provided surgery for prisoners?