The Week In Trans 3/5/18

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Ada Vox

News Flash: Daniela Vega’s film A Fabulous Woman has won the Oscar for best foreign Language Film.

American Idol is returning to television on March 11 on ABC. In the original show on Fox a singer from San Antonio named Adam Sanders appeared in season 12. Sanders is back for the new version of Idol but he’ll be competing as his drag persona Ada Vox. Learn more from the MySA website.

Two months after the U.S. military opened its recruitment offices to transgender people, one transgender person has gone through the enlistment process, passed the physical and mental fitness tests, and signed a contract. The next step will be for this unidentified transgender recruit to report to boot camp. Stars And Stripes has this story.

A full-page ad ran in USA Today on Wednesday, and television ads began running on cable news services on Friday, promoting the idea of transgender people being allowed to serve in the military. The newspaper ad features quotes from four Republican senators, one Democratic senator, three former secretaries of branches of the armed services, as well as the current and two recent Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all of whom support the idea that anyone who is willing and able to serve should be allowed to serve. The Television ad ran on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The ads are the work of the Human Rights Campaign, OutServe-SLDN, and three other advocacy groups.

Peppermint was an out trans woman when she appeared on Drag Race.

With several of the competitors on RuPaul’s Drag Race coming out, mostly after competing, as trans women we learn that the mistress of ceremonies, Miss RuPaul Charles, doesn’t think it’s right that trans women who have transitioned compete on the show. What makes RuPaul feel this way? Read about it in Metro. (Metro flirts with a TWIT Award for having a slightly misleading headline.) Of course not everyone is accepting RuPaul’s statement. One drag queen disagrees with an op-ed in the Independent.

This week, conservatives gathered for the annual event known as CPAC. In the past, this event has featured anti-LGBT rhetoric. This year, social issues were toned down, as the emphasis was on the economy and reducing the size of government. As we mentioned last week in TWIT four transgender women attended in a rather conspicuous manner. There is more coverage of their appearance in Metro Weekly and the Washington Blade.

While the reception of these transgender women at CPAC was nice to see, it contrasts with what is happening at the state levels, especially at the Kansas party conference. Amanda Kerri of the Advocate sees the entire Republican party turning into a hate group.

Lisa Middleton

California Democrats held their state convention in San Diego, and they invited Palm Springs city councilwoman Lisa Middleton to speak to them. While she is the first transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in the state, she spends most of her time on the mundane issues of local government such as the condition of the roads, as she told the Desert Sun.

Alaska Family Action has gathered signatures and put a proposition on the ballot which, if passed, would roll back protection against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Anchorage. The side that wants to keep these civil rights protection has received 13 times as much money as those who want to overturn the protections, reports the Anchorage Press.

The European Union released its annual report on how well member nations are doing at implementing the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This year, the European Union put an emphasis on LGBT rights. Among this is a call for quick, accessible, and transparent methods for changing legal gender. The Intergroup on LGBT Rights wrote a press release on this.

Along the same lines as the European Union, Spartacus World released its Gay Travel Guide. Canada and Sweden tied for the title of best country for LGBT travelers. Gay Star News has a story on the guide, which can be found here as a PDF.

Farrah Moan

The folks at Cosmopolitan have a love affair with drag performers. It seems just about every week a new drag queen stops by their office and does a makeover video showing their transformation from dude to fabulous drag star. This week’s featured transformation is by Farrah Moan. Check it out on the Cosmo website.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has just ruled that transgender people in that country can change their legal gender designation without having to have surgery. They merely have to fill out a form at the notary’s office. Folha di Sao Paulo has this story.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery found that there was a fourfold increase in the number of gender confirmation surgeries performed in the United States between 2000 and 2014. While there were several factors at work here, two important reasons for the increase were the growing acceptance of transgender people and the growing the number of insurance programs which now cover such surgery. The Washington Post has an article culled from this study.

Philadelphia’s Mazzoni Center announces the dates for their 2018 Trans Wellness Conference. The 17th annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, has been renamed Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference (PTWC), and will be held August 2-4, 2018, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The General conference is free, and gives participants access to workshops on a broad range of topics relevant to the trans community. Get more info on the Conference website.

Cassie Workman

Getting insurance to pay is very important for many transgender people. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio service has the story of transgender comedian Cassie Workman, who barely makes ends meet, who has found that the various surgeries she wants would cost her $100,000 in Australian currency.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, discovered the body of trans woman Zakaria Fry in a trash bin alongside a road, and the body of her roommate a few miles away. Both were murdered. KOB-TV has this story. KOB-TV also reports that an arrest has been made in this case.

A 45-year-old trans woman, Felicia Mitchell, was shot and killed outside her home in Cleveland. The Cleveland Plain Dealer talked to her partner, who remember her fondly.

Shots were fired into a transgender bar in Las Vegas, Nevada, recently. No one was killed, but some patrons were injured. After The Daily Dot ran a belated story on the incident, blasting the media for not covering it, KLAS-TV ran a story, including quotes from the bar’s owner.

Trans people are most often in agreement that we are, to quote Lady Gaga, “born this way.” Many of us have very early memories of longing to look and act like the opposite of our birth sex. But clues to why we are the way we are have been hard to pin down. An article in The Scientist looks at what evidence there is that trans brains are different than cisgender brains.

Lucia Lucas

The Tulsa Opera Company announced their 2018-2019 season, and it will feature trans woman Lucia Lucas singing the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Until now, Ms. Lucas has been singing with the Staatstheatre Karlsruhe in Germany. This performance will mark her American debut. Tulsa World has this story.

A transgender teen in Ohio who wanted to join his high school’s wrestling team was outed by the coach and made to change in the girl’s locker room. The local school board is investigating the incident. This story comes from the New York Post.

Last August, the body of Alloura Wells was found near Toronto. Recently, a GoFundMe Campaign has been created for the purpose of giving this trans woman a proper burial or cremation. You can read about this campaign and about Ms. Wells in the Toronto Star.

A bill passed by the New Jersey Senate will allow trans people to change the gender on their birth certificate to either gender or to “undesignated/non-binary” without requiring gender confirmation surgery after signing a statement that the change is not for nefarious purposes. Learn more on the NJ.com website.

Being a teenager is hard enough all by itself  but the rise of young people who are adopting a non-binary identity and go from “her” or “him” to “them” is making things even harder for young folks. Fortunately there is help from an article on the Seventeen website.

Shannon Daniels, a school principal in Massachusetts who came out as transgender recently, had to take a few days off due to some very hurtful messages that she received, according to the Newbury Port Daily News.

Eisha Marjara

Filmmaker Eisha Marjara has premiered a new film called Venus. In it, a transgender woman who is dealing with telling her parents about her gender identity discovers that she has a teenage son. The Canadian film had its premiere in Montreal. the Montreal Gazette previewed the film.

Two stories out of New Zealand feature transgender athletes. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has been approved to compete in the Commonwealth Games next month, after medical testing showed her testosterone level to be within the limits approved for competition. Meanwhile, Kate Weatherly competed in the women’s division of mountain biking three weeks after competing in a race in the men’s division. Both of these athletes have attracted some backlash for competing against females.

Mack Beggs won the Texas state wrestling championship in the girl’s division for the second time. He finishes his career with a 132-9 record. Carson J. Phillips of the New York Daily News started with that story, and went on to write about the general idea of transgender athletes in competition.

Munroe Bergdorf

Transgender model Munroe Bergdorf has been named as an LGBT advisor to the Labour Party in Britain. This has been met with complaints from some members of the Conservative Party, since Ms. Bergdorf was dropped as a spokesperson for L’Oreal after she made some comments that were considered racist. Nonetheless, Labour’s shadow Women’s Equality Minister Dawn Butler has kept her as an advisor. This story comes to us from the BBC.

North Carolina congressional hopeful Wendy May made history Wednesday by becoming the first transgender candidate in the state to file for federal office. May hopes to take the seat of U.S. Representative George Holding (R). Learn more about her congressional run from Indy Week.

Sarah McBride

Sarah McBride has released a new book, Tomorrow Will Be Different, which she co-wrote with Joe Biden. She sat down for an interview with Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air and the book is reviewed in The Washington Post. Thanks to TGF reader Jamie Roberts for the story tip.

The Jewish coming-of-age ceremony is very gender-specific. A boy gets a bar mitzvah, and a girl gets a bat mitzvah. But, what should a non-binary Jewish child have? 14-year-old Esther Thorpe of northeast England recently had a b’nai mitzvah. It turns out that there are companies that will help in planning a gender-neutral coming-of-age ceremony, as the Jerusalem Post found out.

With The Keystone Conference coming this week to Harrisburg, Pa. many will be looking forward to attending but not looking forward to the pain they may experience from being in high heels all day long. (Although some will take joy that they are experiencing discomfort related to wearing a typically feminine item.) Never fear, Who What Wear comes to the rescue with an article on how to avoid high heel hell. Thanks to Jan Brown for the tip.

TWITs

A group called Citizens for Community Values has begun a protest at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The group is complaining about the transgender clinic the hospital runs. Apparently, the publicity of the recent story of a court decision in which a transgender teen was allowed to seek treatment at the clinic, in accord with the wishes of the teen’s grandparents and against the wishes of the teen’s parents caught the attention of the group. This group has asked the medical board of the state to investigate the clinic, claiming that the clinic has approved all the children it sees for treatment. Treatment in this case does not always mean medical intervention; some are only getting counseling but no medications. Among those who are getting medical treatment, many are only getting hormone blockers, not HRT. For making a huge issue out of something they do not understand, Citizens for Community Values gets a TWIT Award. The Cincinnati Inquirer has this story.

Lyle Shelton of the Australian Conservatives has joined the ranks of those who see drag queens as transgender people. In criticizing a shopping mall in Sydney that recently hosted a performance by a drag queen, Mr. Shelton went one step farther and called a drag show “porn.” A similar objection, on similar grounds, was raised against Drag Queen Story Time at the public library in Santa Ana, California. It may come as a shock to Mr. Shelton and other protestors, but in the early days of television, when networks had such strict standards that they would not even allow the word “pregnant” to be said on television, there was a program which featured the host in drag. That host was referred to as “Mr. Tuesday Night” and “Uncle Miltie”– terms which are notable for their masculinity. People used to understand that drag is about performance, not identity. For failing to find out anything about what they’re talking about, Lyle Shelton and other protestors get a TWIT. Mr. Shelton’s rant was covered by Pink News, while the press release for the protest of Drag Queen Story Time comes from Christian News Wire.

Chad Groening writes for the Tupelo Reporter and for the American Family Association. He wrote a piece for One News Now, the news service of the American Family Association, in which he called transgender people “mentally ill.” He also complains about “an Obama holdover. . .pushing a homosexual-rights agenda at the Pentagon.” (He mentioned the name of the particular individual, who happens to be 32-year veteran of the Navy who now has a desk job at the Pentagon. For bombastic rhetoric without research, Chad Groening gets a TWIT Award. Here is a link to his piece.

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TWIT is assembled through the efforts of Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner.

Tags: Ada Vox, Cassie Workman, Esther Thorpe, Farrah Moan, featured, Lisa Middleton, Lucia Lucas, Mack Beggs, Munroe Bergdorf, news, RuPaul, Sarah McBride, Shannon Daniels, TWIT, Wendy May

Category: Transgender Community News