The Week In Trans 10/1/18

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Tiffany Abreu

A transgender woman volleyball star from Brazil is running for congress there. Tiffany Abreu made a name as a male player in professional volleyball in European leagues then returned to Brazil to become the first transgender professional volleyball player there. She is running for congress as a candidate from the center-right MBD party. Learn more from Yahoo Sports.

A recent international poll showed that a majority of women feel that transgender women should have the same rights as other women. One caveat is that the women polled all live in major cities; opinions in other areas may differ. The good news can be found at Reuters.

Recently, a federal judge in Wisconsin told the state that their insurance has to cover transgender-related medical care. This week, a similar decision came from a federal judge in Minnesota. The Honorable Donovan Frank in Minnesota went a step further, saying, “Title VII, and by extension Title IX, recognize that sex discrimination encompasses gender-identity discrimination.” The Trump administration has tried to roll back the Affordable Care Act, or at least the portion of it that requires insurance to cover transgender care, but the Affordable Care Act is still in effect. Zack Ford of Think Progress has more on this.

The state of Hawaii has released a study of transgender youth. It shows a high incidence of homelessness, drug use, depression, and other bad signs. This story comes from the Honolulu Civil Beat.

Nomi Zahid

The federal government of Pakistan has made history in that country by hiring the first ever transgender federal employee. Her name is Nomi Zahid. While we applaud the government of Pakistan for hiring a trans woman it would be better if she was in a more prestigious position. Nomi is a cook who will be working in the cafeteria of the Benazir Income Support Programme. Well, people have to be fed and it’s an honest job. Learn more from The Express Tribune.

A commentary in The Advocate says that public policy is needed as well as better mental health care if we are to tackle the problems of transgender people. Problems like those found in the Hawaii Health Department’s study.

For some time, New Jersey’s state legislature has been willing to pass pro-transgender legislation, but Governor Chris Christie kept vetoing it. Now, Governor Phil Murphy has signed a new law which directs the state’s public schools to accept transgender students in the gender with which they identify, and puts an end to deadnaming on official school records. Bloomberg News has more.

Dr. Karen Blair writes in Psychology Today that according to a study people who are heavily invested in the gender binary are more likely to be upset about people who move from one gender to the other than they are by people who exist between the genders.

Evie Macdonald

13-year-old Evie McDonald, who asked an insightful question of Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was profiled in Gay Star News.

In Britain, Girl-Guiding has expelled two adult leaders because they violated the guidelines for volunteers. The specific violation has to do with comments the two made on social media criticizing  the fact that Girl Guides will accept transgender girls. Pink News has a story about the facts vs. myths in this story, as well as a story about Lily, a transgender girl who joined the Brownies.

The group Transgender Trend has apologized for having the stickers that say “Women don’t have penises” on their website. The group is still distributing their infamous pamphlet that claims that being transgender is a fad, and most children grow out of it. Pink News has this story.

A billboard in Liverpool, which bore Google’s definition of “woman” was taken down, after complaints that it was a message from a hate group The woman who put the message up says that it is not part of a hate campaign, but also said the idea that trans women are women is “preposterous.” The mayor of Liverpool recently took a stance in favor of the idea that trans women are women. This story comes from the BBC.

Pippa Bunce

A new controversy arose when Financial Times & Her-oes Champions came out with their list of 100 Most Influential Women In Business, and included Philip Bunce, an executive at Credit Suisse. Despite occasionally wearing a dress to work and calling himself Pippa, Mr. Bunce seems to go by male pronouns. The Sun has more on this.

A new lawsuit in Britain charges that the NHS has not offered to freeze the eggs of transgender children prior to them beginning hormone treatments. The NHS replies that other agencies are responsible for offering the service, while they simply pay the providers of the service. The Guardian has this story.

Back in 2010, the city of Cambridge, England, passed a law which specified that self-identified transgender people could use the restroom of the gender with which they identified. This July, Ann Sinnott stepped down from the City Council because of concerns the law could lead to trouble. The Council then asked a lawyer to review the law, and the lawyer noted the language of the law was not the same as the language of the Equality Act, although both were passed in the same year. Following the recommendation of the lawyer, the Council wants to amend the law so the language matches that of the Equality Act. Any change to the law concerns local transgender people, who fear a change in language could mean a change in substance. You can read more at Cambridge News.

Danni Askani

Danni Askani is a transgender activist who had her passport renewal request rejected. She has surfaced in Sweden, where she is seeking asylum, according to The Local.

Switzerland just added protections from discrimination due to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to its nondiscrimination laws. Violations can be punished by up to three years in prison. Gay Star News has this story.

Thompson Reuters Trust ran a profile of Audrey Tang, a former agitator against the state who is now the Digital Minister in the government of Taiwan.

In Scotland, some new public service announcement posters directly address the sorts of people who might commit hate crimes. One such poster is addressed, “Dear Transphobes.” Gay Star News has the details.

Candidate Brianna Titone.

Four transgender people who are candidates for state legislatures are profiled in LGBTQ Nation.

Back in May, Jazmina Saavedra made the news when she went into the ladies’ room at a Denny’s restaurant in Los Angeles and yelled at a transgender woman to get out. She recorded the incident and posted it to social media. Well, all these months later, she is now complaining that people are still giving her negative feedback from that incident. “What they don’t realize is they are the one with the problem, not me. I don’t have nothing, nothing against the gay people, against the lesbians. I don’t care what you do with your life in private. What I do care is you trying to contaminate our kids, that you are trying to force the regular people to get into your nasty behaviors.” Ms. Saavedra, who finished in third place in a Republican primary for a seat in Congress, still refers to the person she shouted at as “a gay man.” The Advocate has this story.

The recent Value Voters Summit caused the Washington Blade to run an editorial about what social conservatives mean by “religious freedom.”

A floral queen at NYC Dragcon.

In addition to the Value Voters Summit, this week saw Dragcon in New York City. Gay Star News has a gallery of the best outfits.

Mass shooters are rarely female, so news that Snochia Mosley had opened fire in a Rite Aid warehouse in Aberdeen, Maryland, was rare enough. However, after the incident, evidence came out showing that Snochia identified as a trans man. Experts say that this could be the first time a transgender person has been responsible for a mass shooting, according to the Baltimore Sun.

The idea of identification in death as in life, with an obituary in one’s proper name, has been on the mind of Gwen Smith.

The Irish Times has a profile of four young transgender people from Ireland.

TWITs

Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a statement in support of transgender children, urging its members to give transgender children access to proper care. Right on cue, this week, the American College of Pediatricians came out with a statement of their own. Their statement makes the claim that almost all transgender children grow out of it, a statement which doctors involved in treating transgender children found did not agree with what they were seeing. For spreading false information, the American College of Pediatricians gets a TWIT Award. You can read about their statement in LifeSiteNews.

Dr. Paul McHugh and Dr. Michelle Cretella were part of a panel at the Value Voters Summit, discussing transgender people. Of course, they think people who are transgender are vanishingly rare, and most people who seem to be transgender are following a trend. They used scare tactics by telling about teens who were getting surgery or taking medicine that can have scary side effects. And, as expected, they brought out the old chestnut about more than 80% of transgender children grow out if it. For spreading lies and fear (as well as an ungrounded conspiracy theory), the members of that panel get a collective TWIT Award, The Christian Post has this story. Following the Value Voters Summit panel, Dr. Cretella spoke to OneNewsNow, spreading the same fears.

Denise Schick wrote a piece for The Federalist in which she rants about California’s new law that allows transgender children in foster care to get access to counseling and medical care, as well as acceptance. In both the headline and the first paragraph, she does not bother to note that this law applies to children in foster care, and makes it seem as though every child in the state is covered by this law. Once she does mention that it covers children in foster care, she remains quite careless to facts, if she even bothers to find any. She gets a TWIT.

We seem to give Piers Morgan a lot of TWITs, but he never seems to learn, despite looking like a fool whenever he turns a discussion on gender into a debate. He recently told Susie Green of Mermaids that being transgender was “a fad.” He insisted that accepting a transgender girl as a girl is going to cause problems, even though there are no recorded incidents of the type that Mr. Morgan insists will automatically follow such acceptance. For raising a false alarm, Piers Morgan gets another TWIT Award. You can read more in The Sun.

The headline in The Daily Mail reads “Girls who identify as boys are to be BANNED from the Girl Guides in move branded ‘cruel, unfair and appallingly hypocritical’ by furious parents.” Is this really a problem? Are there a lot of children who were assigned female at birth but who identify as male, who want to join a group that is specifically for the gender with which these children do not identify? For general silliness, The Daily News gets a TWIT Award.

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Category: Transgender Community News