The Week In Transgenderism 11/26/12
Grand dad?
We’ve been finding stories all over about young men in Asia who are dressing up like lovley ladies. Japan, China and other countries seem to have grown a crop of young men who love their ruffles, bows and pantyhose. But the latest crossdressing sensation from China is not a young man. He’s a 72 year-old grandfather. He’s become an Internet hit modeling teen girl’s clothing. The story, and all the fashion photos, are at Offbeat China.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has been watching a lot of television over the past ten years and they have bad new for TGs — over 50% of the depictions of TGs on television during the last decade have been negative. They mention a scene on The Cleveland Show in which a character vomits for an extended amount of time after interacting with a TG. Since we vomit every time we see The Cleveland Show we missed that one. But we saw the talking dog on Family Guy pull the same stunt after he encounters a TS. Maybe it’s that MacFarland guy (creator of both those shows) who’s responsible for the high rate of negative portrayals? Check out the story in The Chicago Tribune.
Jackie Green
The transsexual teen who made it into the Miss England competition earlier this year is the subject of a documentary that is airing on BBC3. Jackie Green, who transitioned fully at 16, is followed through the stages of the beauty contest — which she didn’t win. The story is available on Pink News.
Gandalf is gay! Well, we’re not sure about the Tolkien character but the actor who portrays him is most definitely gay. Sir Ian McKellen is so gay that he helped to start a gay rights charity in England called Stonewall. He recently spoke to a group of students in the Camden section of London about his acting career and about his firght for LGBT rights. One of the students asked why TGs were not served by Stonewall and McKellen said he wants to see that happen soon. Read all about it at Time Live.
There was a party in Detroit on November 17. It was an event in celebration of the name change of an organization there that serves the transgender community in Detroit and hopes to grow to serve beyond that city. Transgender Detroit has become The Gender-identity Network Alliance. Read all about it in Pride Source.
Morgana
We told you recently about the winner of the Miss International Queen contest in Thailand. The woman from the Philippines, Kevin Balot, took the crown but what happens to the losers? One contestant, Morgana Martinez, came from Mexico to compete for the prize which would allow her to pay for her gender reassignment surgery. Before she transitioned to living as a female she was a well known (in her country) opera singer who specialized in countertenor roles. When she lost the contest her hopes for surgery were dashed. But thanks to a documentary film crew that was following her on her journey she did achieve her goal. Learn what happened in the Bangkok Post.
Michelle Kosilek, the transsexual prisoner in Massachusetts who won a case that granted her state paid for gender reassignment surgery has lost her latest case. Apparently the judge feels she can have a vagina but she’s going to have to keep shaving. He rejected her request for hair removal. Read the story at boston.com.
Another loser in court is the transgender student in Maine whose family just wanted her to be able to use the girl’s room in her school, like all the other girls. They thought they had triumphed in 2007 when the Maine Human Rights Commission ruled that blocking the girl from using the girl’s room was discrimination. Now, the school district has won their case in court and the judge ruled in their favor. So now they can make her use a single toilet restroom? No. She now attends another school and is happy and goes to the girl’s room when every she needs to. Read about it and view an interview with her dad at the WLBZ website.
Female menswear model.
We’ve often told you about the TG and male models who have taken to runways around the world modeling for top designers. Bet you didn’t know that the androgynous, or perhaps “gender fluid” modeling trend goes both ways. Along with Andrej, Lea and Stav have been gracing the catwalk in feminine attire some designers are using female models to show off their menswear. Meet one in The Guardian.
The transgender flag is flying proudly — for the first time — in San Francisco on Harvey Milk Plaza. The flag was raised as part of the San Francisco observance of the Transgender Day of Rembrance last week. Get the story in The Huffington Post.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was also an occassion to think about the contributions of transgender people in the arts. The Huffington Post put together a gallery of transgender artist. View it here. The Trans Murder Monitoring Project has documented the murders of 256 transgender people world wide in the past 12 months. The info is in On Top magazine.
Author Danielle Marie Bergan appeared on the Honolulu morning news show, Hawaii News Now Sunrise last Tuesday, to chat about Transgender Remembrance Day and her book, It’s Always Okay To Be Me, A Journey to Recovering Lost Hope. Danielle kindly provided a link to video from her interview and you can check it out here.
Name changed now.
The judge in Oklahoma who told a transgender woman that she couldn’t change her name because her DNA was still the same after her gender reassignment has been overruled but the Court of Civil Appeals. They decided the original judge didn’t have a legal leg to stand on when he ruled in Christie Ann Harvey’s case. Ms. Harvey had to spend $18,000 on legal fees to eventually win. The story at NewsOn6.com.
TWITs
A Texas transvestite is back in prison after pulling some crimes dumb enough to make you think he wanted to get back to his cell as soon as he could. We are awarding a TWIT to this guy because he incorporated crossdressing into his crimes and you know how we feel about crooks who pull off their jobs in drag. Stop it! Get the story in the Laredo Sun.
The good news is that the United Nations has passed resolution A/C.3/67L.36/. It condemns extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings and for the first time since it was originally introduced twelve years ago the language of the resolution included “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Why is this good news thrown in with the TWIT Awards? Because we must give TWIT Awards to the Holy See, Singapore, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Trinidad, Tobago, Egypt and a few other nations for opposing the inclusion of specific language about sexuality and gender. They’ve been responsible for holding up the resolution for 12 years. Way to go troglodytes. Read about the resolution in the San Diego Gay & Lesbian News.
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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Regarding Gandalf being gay and ditto Sir Ian. I suppose it isn’t uncommon knowledge that Dumbledore, (Harry Potter) is also gay? M/s Rowling quietly dropped the piece of information a few years ago. I didn’t hear one single word of protest and why should there be?
It is good to hear of main stream characters in fiction or even in movies expressing feelings like this. I wonder how many will get a quiet surprise in the latest Bond movie, Skyfall when Bond drops a hint to his enemy, who is making some very, intimate, movements on Bond’s chest.
Let it all hang out I say!
Helen
Dumbledore was indeed gay but not Harry.