This Week In Transgenderism 3/5/12

Susan Stanton

The transgendered City Manager who was fired in Lake Worth, Florida last year has gotten a new job in Fort Lauderdale. Susan Stanton’s going to be an accountant in that city’s Housing and Community Development Division. Read about it in the Miami Herald.

Washington, DC has been a trouble spot for transgender murder victims. there have been allegations that the police there are biased against TGs and have routinely violated transgendered people’s civil rights. Now come word that the U.S. Justice Department is conducting an investigation. Get the facts from WMAU radio.

Advocacy groups in Massachusetts are happy. The mayor of Newton has appointed the first transgender representative to that town’s Human Rights Commission. Read about the appointment of Holly Ryan at boston.com.

A transgender woman student at Aurora College in Fort Smith, Canada has filed a human rights complaint against the Finance Minister of the Northwest Territories Legislature. She claims he told her she had to leave the campus while the Governor General of Canada was visiting. The Minister claims that the TG “spooked” the Governor General. Maybe a black lace cocktail dress is not what most of the co-eds are wearing when they attend classes? (Photo at left.) Read the story at the CBC website.

A bar in St. Petersburg was dangerously close to getting the TWIT Award this week. Last Thursday a TS and a drag queen pal went to the Bishop Tavern for ladies night. At first they were both welcomed but while they were enjoying their free ladies night drinks they were approached by a bouncer who told them they couldn’t have any more free drinks because they were “dudes.” It’s all worked out but read about the brouhaha in The Tampa Bay Times.

The runnerup.

Meanwhile, a transgender student in the Philippines (with a better fashion sense) has been elected head of The University of the Philippines student government. She will chair the University Student Council for a year.The person who ran a close second gets a seat on the Council and, surprise, she’s TG, too. Read about the advances TGs have been making in the Philippines at gmanetwork.com.

Drag is flourishing at the university level in this country. In the past few months we’ve had stories in TWIT about students at schools all over the country working out on stage in drag. Now we’ve got a story about a drag competition at the University of Washington that featured both drag queens and drag kings. Read about it in The Daily.

ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm, is not being as cold to transgender people it has detained. They have revised their policy for transgendered detainees to provide better treatment. Find out about it on SirusXM’s OutQ News Blog.

Ever wonder what happened to The Lady Chablis, who came to national attention in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? She’s got a regular gig at a club in Atlanta. Get her schedule at examiner.com.

This Boots & Saddles bartender got into the spirit.

Queens in New York City are doin’ it for the kids. Last week the Christopher Street bar Boots & Saddles held a 12 hour drag marathon to raise money to aid homeless LBGT youth. They started at 4 p.m. on Tuesday and didn’t leave the stage till 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Can you say five o’clock shadow? Check out the story at DNAinfo.com.

Ebony magazine has and article in its March issue that celebrates the contributions of transgendered people to African American history. In the 1950s, while everyone was excited about Christine Jorgensen, JET Magazine readers were learning about Carlett Brown, a black TG who wanted to have a “sex change.” Learn about Carlett and many other black TGs in Ebony.

Black Madam

Remember the silicone “pumper” who killed a British woman last year when the injected silicone got into her bloodstream and lodged in her heart? They called her Black Madam and she has been on the lam since last February. Philadelphia cops set up a sting and now have her in custody. Read about it in the New York Daily News.

The University of Pennsylvania has been covering reassignment surgery for students under the university health plan since fall 2010. Now they have decided to extend the benefit to their employees. Read about the decision in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Kudos to Verizon Communications. Why? Have they lowered the phone rates? No, they have added “gender identity or expression” to their non-discrimination policy. Kudos also to the Unitarian Universalist Association who pushed Verizon to adopt the new policy. The facts are in lgbtweekly.com.

Our Meet the TG Professor article today is about W Meredith Bacon. Professor Bacon. In addition to teaching political science at the University of Nebraska she is the Secretary/Treasurer of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Omaha.com has the story.

For all of the visibility of transgender people in England there are places where you still have to be careful. Like Northampton where Dr. Peter Trigger was arrested for violating an anti-social behavior order. The order was put in place by the local magistrates in 2008 when Trigger started walking around in public in short skirts. Their problem seems to be that Trigger is mixing genders by wearing skirts, men’s shoes, and no wig, or makeup. That and he has a thing about wearing schoolgirl uniforms. (Who doesn’t?) Read about this troubling case in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo.

Jackie Beat

Could Jackie Beat be a TWIT? We hope not but the hornets nest she poked with a tweet proves one thing — you might get a TWIT if you’re not careful what you tweet. Last Wednesday Ms. Beat made a joke on Twitter that has many pairs of knickers in a twisted condition. Read what she said and what people think at queerty.com.

We definitely award a large TWIT this week to Rush Limbaugh. By making his misogynistic remarks about the law student who was barred from testifying at the hearing on contraception coverage under the new health care law Rush painted himself as an enemy of women — and that makes us mad since we think women are pretty neat. We like to look and act like them don’t we? But, perhaps Limbaugh’s woman bashing doesn’t extend to drag queens? What evidence do we have? Check out the story and photos in The Miami Herald.

We send another TWIT Award to the state of New York. While they have done a lot right lately they still have some laws that are very irksome. Take the case of the transsexual woman who was arrested for a minor offense then booked on prostitution charges when the police found condoms in her purse. (Or did they put them there?) Yes, if you are carrying condoms at night in New York State you can be arrested for prostitution. At least they’re considering dumping this law, but hey New York — what’s up with that? Read the details at jezebel.com.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News