The Week In Transgenderism 5/11/15

Links in TWIT will open in this window. To return to this page use your browser’s Back button.

Angie Esteban

Another trans high school girl has been crowned prom queen. On April 18 Angie Esteban won the crown at Salinas High School in Salinas, California. She started expressing her feminine nature as a child but did not start dressing as a female until her sophomore year of high school. Read an interview with her in USA Today.

A New York Times editorial on May 5 was supportive of the new transgender policy at Smith College. Trans women may apply for admission to the all-female school starting this fall and any trans men who had enrolled as women will be welcome to come out and remain as male students. Learn more in The New York Times.

The Times has also started a series called Transgender Today which features the stories of many trans people. It can be found in the Times’ Opinion Pages.

In 1966 at a cafeteria in San Francisco a group of drag queens, trans women and gay hustlers were hanging out in the pre-dawn morning having late night breakfast when the police were called to clean out what the owner considered undesirable patrons. When a cop tried to pull a drag queen out by force she tossed her coffee in his face and a riot broke out. This was three years before the riot at The Stonewall Inn. Here is a short video produced to promote the 2005 film Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.

Read more about the riot and the people who were there on the NPR website.

Carty as Beyonce

Aaron Carty who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent last week doing a Beyoncé impersonation is a former policeman who first gained fame for arresting a former reality show star named Jade Goody. The judges included Little Britain alum David Walliams who said, “Feel free to arrest me anytime.” Read more about Carty’s performance and how it went over with judge Simon Cowell in the Mirror.

A trans woman who was working at a Barnes & Noble store in California has sued the company for discrimination and harassment. Victoria Ramirez was an assistant manager in the store where she had been hired as a male. When she told the manager that she was planning to transition she was told she could not wear makeup and women’s clothing, or ask fellow employees to use her femme name. Eventually she was fired. Barnes & Noble has a policy of supporting trans workers. Why did this woman face such discrimination? Read the story in Fortune.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is pushing U.S. companies to formulate workplace policies that take the health and safety concerns of trans workers into consideration. One of those health concerns is ready access to the restroom facilities. Learn more about the move by OSHA in the International Business Times.

Last weekend while dining in a chain restaurant I overheard a group of people at a nearby table discussing Bruce Jenner. While some of their comments showed a small understanding of trans issues it was heartening to know that the general public has become more acquainted, thanks to Jenner, with the concept that gender does not depend on what body you were given at birth. Fallon Fox, the only active U.S. trans Mixed Martial Arts fighter was inspired by Jenner’s interview with Diane Sawyer. Read what she took from it in the Seattle Times.

An actress who worked with Eddie Redmayne on the upcoming film The Danish Girl says that she believes the trans community will be “raving” over the film. Alicia Vikander plays the artist wife of the man who became Lili Elbe, the first person to undergo reassignment surgery. Redmayne, according to Vikander, gives a marvelous performance and transforms into a beautiful character. Read more in Xposé.

Hillary Clinton has come out against putting undocumented trans women into men’s immigration detention centers as that puts them at risk for assault. Trans women make up one third of all sexual assaults in immigration detention facilities. See what members of the trans immigrant community think of what Clinton said on the campaign trail on the Fusion website.

Last week’s issue of the showbiz newspaper Variety featured Laverne Cox on the cover and the headline read, “Hollywood Trans Formation.” The feature is an interview with Cox who talks about her early roles in TV and film and how she is now being bothered by fans when she heads out of the house. Oh, the price of fame. Read about it on the AL website.

The Southern Comfort Conference’s sudden departure from Atlanta left a gap in the Atlanta area that was quickly filled by a local group that is not only sponsoring a conference but is doing more to serve the needs of all members of the trans community. It’s called the Transgender Health and Education Alliance. Thanks to Jan Brown for pointing out the story. Learn more about THEA and their new October conference on the Georgia Voice website.

If you live in the Northern Territory of Australia and you’re trans you will have a difficult time getting the informed medical care you need. The Northern Territory is where Alice Springs, the spot where the ladies in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were headed to do their drag show, is located. It’s far away from the major population centers and the doctors who are there either don’t know much about trans issues or they move on after a year or two. Learn more about it on the Australian Broadcasting Company’s website.

It’s Miley! The pop singer and former Hannah Montana has been very supportive of LGBT youth. She has launched a new non-profit called Happy Hippie Foundation to “fight injustice faced by homeless youth, LGBT youth, and vulnerable populations.” She paid tribute to decease trans teen Leelah Alcorn during the announcement about the Foundation. Learn more in The Independent.

Miz Cracker and her drag mom.

With all the hoopla over Mother’s Day this past weekend it’s nice that some people remembered their drag mothers. Often times when a young queen starts out she needs guidance and direction. A good drag mother does that and can replace the young queen’s real mom, who may have thrown her out of the house for dressing like a woman. Get one queen’s thought on drag mothers and her drag mother in particular at Slate.

Trans people desiring transition in Hawaii have been forced to obtain reassignment surgery before they could change their official documents. Now, thanks to a bill passed last week by the Hawaii Legislature the surgical requirement has been removed. Learn more in The Huffington Post.

A female police officer in Austin, Texas decided to transition on the job after her young nephew came out as trans. Officer Abbink had felt more male than female for years and finally started transition in April of 2014 with the support of his fellow officers. His job on the Austin force is to provide continuing education for members of the force. He’s now also educating them about gender issues. Read his story in The Christian Science Monitor.

Queens in Austin.

Austin was also in the news last week for a sudden influx of synthetic hair, tons of makeup and many suitcases filled with flashy femme attire. The city hosted an event called the Austin International Drag Festival and queens from around the world descended in a flurry of boa feathers and sequins. Old school queens Jackie Beat and Lady Bunny mingled with Drag Race girls like Pandora Boxx and Adore Delano. Find out who else showed up in The Huffington Post.

Ashley Diamond, the trans inmate in a Georgia men’s prison has finally gotten relief. The Department of Corrections has moved her from the men’s maximum security facility to another prison where she is not in as much danger. Read a bit more about it in The New York Times.

Lil Miss Hot Mess

Facebook is reaping the disdain they sowed last year when they banned many drag performers Facebook pages for not using “real” names. The battle went on for months as the company deactivated hundreds of accounts for using pseudonyms. One queen called Lil Miss Hot Mess (why wouldn’t that be a real name?) lead a protest agains Facebook and is now calling for them to be banned from participation in the upcoming pride parades. Even though Facebook says they’ve fixed the policy. Have they? Learn more on the ABC 7 website.

Does being trans make you more likely to have an eating disorder? Of course there are those in the crossdressing segment of the community who diet all the time trying to get into a smaller dress size. But what about the others? According to a new study transgender and LGB college students are at a greater risk for an eating disorder than cisgender people. Trans women are many times more likely to suffer an eating disorder than cisgender men. Could it be the stress of the condition? Learn more in Medical Daily.

Speaking of the crossdressing segment of the trans community, where can a CD get advice on things like how to have a a good sex life with your partner? A satisfying sex life with your wife is crucial in a relationship where one partner is a crossdresser. It is the most challenging issue for your wife even when there is strong love between you. Terri Ryan deals with this most difficult of all issues on Sister House Viewpoints.

A major U.S. newspaper has a long article about trans people at the CIA. The story concentrates on one person’s transition and tells how the culture of the agency has changed over the years to bring acceptance of trans employees. It’s in the Opinion section of The New York Times.

TWITs

A school board meeting in Fairfax County, Virginia descended into chaos during the Board’s consideration of a proposal to add “gender identity” to the district’s nondiscrimination policy. At first the rules were followed as people who had signed up in advance to speak to the Board had their say but as the vote drew nearer the opponents of the change began screaming out their ill informed objections, which mainly boiled down to “no penises in the lady’s room.” The measure was approved by a vote of 10-1. A TWIT Award goes to all those who so little understand trans issues that they are frightened of a trans woman in the restroom. Read about the kerfuffle on ThinkProgress.

Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson said on the air that the passage of the addition of “gender identity” to the Fairfax County non-discrimination policy was causing “outrage” because it would allow “a student who is male but identifies as female” to pee in the girl’s room. He claimed that letting this happen would undermine the lessons that kids learn in science class and biology. Sorry Tucker but science and biology both affirm the existence of trans people. You wishing them away just won’t work. If you want to see Tucker winning his TWIT Award the story and a video are on the RawStory website.

The insurance industry is supposed to abide by the rules put in place by the Affordable Care Act. But there are several companies that can’t get used to having to follow the rules and they are still not living up to their obligations under the ACA. One of those rules is that there can be no discrimination in coverage based on gender identity. We hand a TWIT Award to those insurance companies. Learn more about how you can push the Health and Human Services Administration to make them toe the line with this survey/petition by the National Women’s Law Center. Thanks to TGF reader Claire for the tip.

Tags: Ashley Diamond, drag, Fallon Fox, featured, Laverne Cox, Miley Cyrus, news, The Danish Girl, Transgender, Transsexual, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News