The Week In Trans 10/8/18

Links in TWIT will open in this window. To return to this page use the Back button on your browser. If the link opens in a new tab, close the tab to return to this page.

Christine Hallquist

Christine Hallquist says it was hearing four Muslim girls after the 2016 presidential election perform slam poetry about being harassed, that made her decide to run for the governorship of Vermont. In the latest poll results she trails the incumbent governor 42 to 50 percent with a margin of error of 4.86%. Read more about her and her campaign from Agence France-Presse via Yahoo News.

Judge Thomas Schroeder has issued decisions on some pretrial motions in a lawsuit based on North Carolina’s HB142, the replacement for that state’s HB2. The suit will go on to contest whether the state can deny local governments the right to create nondiscrimination laws prior to December of 2020, but the complaint about access to restrooms by transgender people will not go forward. The Washington Blade has this story.

A mother in Decatur, Georgia, alleges that her daughter was assaulted in a school restroom last year by a “gender-fluid boy.” The incident happened a year ago, the complaint was filed last May, and the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the mother’s attorney, saying that they were looking into the matter, on September 14. So, why is this in the news this week? Because the Alliance Defending Freedom became involved. The ADF made sure that the complaint was made public. Because the school district refuses to comment on the complaint, the story is being told in a one-sided way. This story was covered by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Dilruba Akther

A company in Bangladesh has begun recruiting trans woman to join their workforce. Denim Expert Limited announced that it would accept employment applications from trans women and to date have they have gotten 15 applicants. Two women who were the first hired are Shima Akther and Dilruba Akther. Learn more from the Dhaka Tribune.

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism finds some evidence for a genetic basis for being transgender. The evidence found something in twelve genes which regulate the processing of estrogen and androgen. While this is not conclusive, it does indicate that a genetic factor is probable. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote about this study.

Dr. Kristina Olson of the University of Washington has received many awards and grants for her research on transgender youth. This week, she also got a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, which is often referred to as a “genius grant.” Winners of the fellowship receive a $625,000 grant “to exercise their own creative instincts for the betterment of human society.” It is presumed that she will use the money to continue her study of transgender youth. The Seattle Times has this story.

Marquis Monroe

Marquis Monroe, a transgender high school student in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was told by her principal that she was not eligible to run for homecoming queen. However, after she initiated a petition drive, she was told she could run. She also was profiled in Yahoo Lifestyle.

During a debate, Texas Governor Greg Abbott was asked whether he would push for a “bathroom bill” if elected. He tried to avoid the question, but eventually said that such legislation was “not on my agenda.” Asked if he would sign such a bill if the Legislature passed it, he repeated that it was not on his agenda. This report comes from The Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

During a lock-down drill at Stafford County Middle School in Virginia, a transgender student was denied access to a locker room, which had been designated a “safe location.” The student sat in the stands while adults argued about which locker room she should go to. She was eventually told to sit in the hallway outside the locker room, which would put her in a spot that an actual shooter could easily access. (TWIT Award being considered.) This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier, a 31-year-old trans woman of color, was stabbed and left to die in an abandoned building in Chicago. Police report that she had been arguing with an unidentified man before she was murdered. The Chicago Sun-Times has more. A little over a month ago, another trans woman, Dejanay Stanton, was murdered in Chicago.

Kylie Smith

Kylie Smith, a transgender high school student in Spokane, Washington, went gown shopping for the homecoming dance and was happily looking at pretty dresses when an employee at the boutique told her that she could not shop there. That is a violation of the law in the state of Washington. The Spokane Spokesman-Review has this story.

A transgender prisoner in Washington Parish, Louisiana was raped by fellow inmates while deputies ignored the situation, according to a lawyer who plans to file a suit on behalf of the prisoner. The transgender prisoner was released on bond. This story comes from WDSU-TV.

It is well known that the percentage of transgender people who are on the autism spectrum is significantly higher than the percentage in the general population. However, when people asked the National Autism Society in Britain why they had links to the transgender charity Mermaids, they removed the links from their site. It appears to be another manifestation of the debate over transgender self-identity in Britain. Pink News has this story.

Apple just released a new set of emojis, but, despite a coordinated effort, the transgender flag is not among the new ones, according to this story in Pink News.

Lisa Ling has a new show on CNN, entitled This Is Life. One of her first episodes (which aired last night but should be available on demand) deals with gender identity. She talks with several trans people include Magic Johnson’s offspring EJ Johnson. The Advocate has a preview.

Angela Ponce

You might recall that transgender model Angela Ponce was crowned Miss Universe Spain. This week, Valeria Morales was crowned Miss Universe Colombia. The South American contestant says that the competition should only be for “women who were born women.” You can read more at the Daily Star.

Netflix has a new series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the 1996 series Sabrina The Teenage Witch. The new series premiers on October 26 and will feature a new non-binary witch, Susie Putnam, who will be played by non-binary actor Lachlan Watson. Syfy Wire has more on this.

The list of famous women who have a transgender child is not that long, but it has to include Cher. She told Pride Source that when Chaz announced he was trans, she felt fear over losing a child she loved, and about what would replace that child. But, she didn’t give up, and soon, she came to love her son.

Filmmakers Owl and Fox Fisher have begun a new hashtag to celebrate the beauty of transgender people. Transgender people are invited to share photos with the hashtag #MyTransBody. They made a YouTube video to promote the campaign. You can read about it on Pink News.

Lala Zannell

Lala Zannell is a black queer transgender woman who lives in New York City. She is an activist for transgender rights and she works with the New York City Anti-Violence Project to provide safety planning and counseling as well as legal resources to trans women. She also works to combat violence against trans women. Learn more from USA Today.

Trans actors have been lamenting that there are not enough roles in major motion pictures and television shows where they can show their acting skills. Things may be changing as two trans people have roles playing cisgender characters in two upcoming films. Rebecca Root landed the role of a tough female brothel owner in the old west in The Sisters Brothers. Trans man Jake Graf landed the role of French playwright Gaston De Caillavet in Colette. Get more about the films and the actors from the IndieWire website.

TWITs

In the election to San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a group which calls itself “SF Progress Alliance” has accused candidate Matt Haney of being a “closeted tranny” in a post to the website Medium, which has since been deleted. The piece seems to be a retaliation for the fact that Josephine Zhao dropped out of the race after some of her remarks were translated from Chinese and seemed to be quite opposed to transgender people. For making multiple slurs against transgender people while denouncing someone who is not transgender himself, SF Progress Alliance gets a TWIT Award. The Bay Area Reporter has this story.

Lynsey Hope wrote a piece for The Sun which attempts to present a two-sided look at the increase in the number of young people who are diagnosed as transgender. How two-sided it is can be seen from the blurb under the headline, which asks, “Is changing gender the new anorexia? We investigate if transgenderism has become a coping mechanism for teens.” A great deal of the article is given to the story of Cale, who once was a self-described trans man, but who has since de-transitioned. For pretending to be balanced while really taking a side, Lynsey Hope gets a TWIT.

At the National Catholic Register, Marcia Segelstein gives her piece a slight attempt at two-sidedness, by entitling her blog post, “Is Transgenderism In Teens Contagious?” She answers the question in her subhead, when she says, “Adolescents can be influenced by peer pressure and social media when it comes to identifying as transgender.” Not “might be influenced,” but “can be influenced.” Her two medical experts are Dr. Lisa Littman of Brown University and Dr. Michelle Cretela of the American College of Pediatricians. For using biased research and biased experts, and for either not noticing or not caring about the criticisms of her experts and the research, Marcia Segelstein gets a TWIT Award.

A Welsh general practitioner who was not licensed to treat trans children was found guilty of treating children as young as 12 with “cross-sex hormones.” Dr. Helen Webberley used a website to illegally provide her services online. We give the doctor a TWIT Award for practicing without a license. We also have a TWIT Award for Breitbart for carrying the story and illustrating it with a photo of drag queens at a Pride event. Drag queens and trans kids have very little to do with one another, unless they share a fashion sense. The article also contained questionable information about hormones. Get the whole story from Breitbart.

TWIT is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner. Care to make a comment on this post? Login here and use the comment area below.

Tags: featured, news, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News