The Week In Trans February 5, 2018

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Staff Sergeant Patricia King

Two members of Congress invited transgender members of the military to be their guests at the State of the Union. Representative Joseph Kennedy III invited Staff Sergeant Patricia King to attend, while Representative Jared Huffman invited Marine Corps veteran Lynda Bengtsson-Davis. This story comes from the Washington Blade.

Although all ten federal judges who have ruled on preliminary motions in the four cases have said that the ban on transgender people in the military is blatantly discriminatory and has no rational basis, the Republican National Committee this week approved a resolution supporting the ban. The resolution says that being transgender is “a disqualifying psychological and physical” condition. Edge Media has a copy of the Associated Press story.

Coca Cola ran an ad in the Super Bowl that seems to be inclusive of gender fluid individuals who drink Coke. As different voices say these words “There’s a Coke for he … and she … and her … and me … and them” the image that comes up as the last word is said is of a young person of indeterminate gender. Learn more about the commercial from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently issued guidelines that allow medical professionals the right to refuse patients based on a “religious objection” to the patient’s gender identity, among other factors. Even before that policy was put in place, it was hard for some transgender people to find health care, according to a story by Vice News.

Jess Herbst

Jess Herbst is running for re-election as mayor of New Hope, Texas. Her opponent is the widow of the previous mayor. The election will be in May. D Magazine has more.

A “bathroom bill” has been introduced in the Iowa legislature. This particular bill seeks to protect schools and businesses which wish to limit access to their restrooms. The bill would overturn protections in Iowa civil rights law for gender identity. The bill is not on a fast track to passage, according to the Des Moines Register.

In South Dakota, the legislature is taking up bills which would determine what students should be taught about gender identity and whether schools should make public their policy on restroom use by transgender students. So far, neither bill has been given a schedule for a committee hearing. The Argus Leader has more.

Dr. Annamaria Kontor

Dr. Annamaria Kontor has won another round. She was fired as a doctor for students at the Rochester Institute of Technology when it was found that she had treated two transgender students, even though there was nothing in the guidelines to say that she should not treat them and the university had sent her to a training session on how to treat transgender patients. This week, the New York Division of Human Rights found that she likely had been discriminated against, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

In 2016, the company building a new detention center for undocumented immigrants told the press they had a special area for transgender detainees, with 36 beds and special security to keep these people safe. After a change of administration in Washington and a sale of the facility, the detention center is open, but that special area for transgender detainees has become just another part of the facility. Vice News covered this story.

A 19-year-old man who deliberately hit a trans woman with a car was sentenced to five years in prison. The article in the Washington Blade does not mention whether the sentence, part of a plea bargain, includes punishment for stealing the car with which Startwaune Anderson hit Boo Boo Washington. The defendant will also be on probation for five years after the completion of the jail term.

Candis Cayne

Both The Good Doctor and Grey’s Anatomy will have story-lines involving transgender patients. Grey’s Anatomy has cast transgender actress Candis Cayne to play the part of a transgender patient. Learn more from TV Guide.

A twelve-year-old student in Red Bluff, California, was told that she must resign from the school’s basketball team because she recently came out as transgender. Apparently, the school feels that a transgender girl cannot play for the boy’s team, but many others feel that the school board is misunderstanding state law. This story, with odd pronouns, can be found on Action News Now.

The Guardian reports a marked increase in the number of hate-crimes against transgender students reported at schools and colleges in England and Wales. A part of the increase could be that police are simply more willing to report an incident as a hate crime. There was also an increase in hate crimes based on race and ethnicity.

April Ashley

Oldie Magazine in Britain has given out some awards. April Ashley was named the Oldie Woman Ahead Of Her Time. If you don’t know her story, you can read about her in the coverage at Pink News.

The group Stonewall has announced the results of its search for the best employer in Britain. The winner is the Welch National Parliament. The Independent has more.

While Britain’s National Health Service still has a goal of reducing the wait for an appointment with a gender clinic to 18 weeks, the shortest wait is currently 51 weeks. The longest wait is two-and-a-half years. Once one gets that initial consultation, then the process moves along, but getting that initial appointment can be tough, the BBC reports.

A supermarket in India will be run by the local transgender community. It is a make-work project for an underemployed community, according to the story in the Hindu.

Look #6, Coco Montrese.

The Painted For Filth! queens for January 2018 are now available for perusal. The top 10 fierce, sick drag looks are put together by Dragaholic and you can check them out on the Queerty website.

A couple in Singapore who had their marriage terminated against their will when the husband changed gender have won the right to appeal their case in court. While the law as written is against them, being allowed to appeal is a big thing in Singapore. This story comes to us from Pink News.

Police in the Indonesian province of Aceh arrested a dozen transgender women who work as hairdressers, and cut their hair while they were in detention. The police released the women when the women promised to “return to their nature as men.” The national police are looking into the incident, but since the province of Aceh permits Sharia law, it is unlikely that anything will be done.

Ashlee Marie Preston

Ashlee Marie Preston is a trans woman who has traveled from being a homeless teen prostitute to becoming the editor of Wear Your Voice magazine, and now is running for State Assembly in California. She also has made the news by calling out Caitlyn Jenner for her support of Donald Trump, and for other trans activist activities. Learn how she left the street life in a recent interview in Teen Vogue.

Last week, we reported that Russia has created a way for people to change their legal gender without surgery. This week, we get a report that a man in Russia was arrested for possessing testosterone. It turns out that he was arrested because he did not have a prescription for the testosterone, so he had been purchasing it from Belarus. And the reason why he did not have a prescription is that it is so hard to get a doctor to prescribe cross-sex hormones in Russia. Gay Star News has this story.

Rose McGowan has cancelled public appearances which were designed to promote her new autobiography following a screaming argument with a transgender woman at a public appearance at a Barnes & Noble at Union Square in New York City. The activist who shouted at Ms. McGowan, Andi Dier, says that she would do it again. Ms. Dier argues that Ms. McGowan has not supported transgender women, while Ms. McGowan denies the charge. Ms. McGowan claims that Ms. Dier was planted by Harvey Weinstein, although there is no evidence of that.

Variety has a review of a new film called A Boy Like Jake, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. The plot is that a couple is told their four-year-old is borderline for acceptance at a prestigious school (which they can’t really afford), but that the odds of acceptance (and the odds of a scholarship) improve if they play up the angle that their child is “gender expansive.” Perhaps the writer knows that the plot is a stretch, as topics get brought up briefly only to never appear again.

Courtney Act

Drag Race star Courtney Act has been appearing on the British edition of Celebrity Big Brother. She was in the Big Brother house with trans television personality India Willoughby, a former conservative MP named Ann Widdecombe, and a few other English celebs. The former MP was bemused when on the season finale she was the runner up and Courtney was named the winner. Learn more about the show from BBC News.

Ipsos released the results of a new study of people’s attitudes towards transgender people. The study included people from sixteen countries. The United States was in the middle of the pack overall, due to sharp divisions. Three in five people in English-speaking countries said they would misgender a transgender person, though that is not the wording that was used. In the U.S., only 22 percent said that they would use the transgender person’s preferred pronoun.

An article in the February issue of Plastic And Reconstructive Surgery says that the risk of complications from phalloplasty are greater in trans men than they are in cisgender males. The article also says that there are fewer problems when reconstruction of the urethra is done in one step rather than in multiple steps. Medical Express has a summary of the article.

TWITs

A transgender woman was detained for using the “wrong restroom” at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino in Indio, California. She was eventually handed over to sheriff’s deputies, who released her without issuing a ticket. The transgender woman was not in violation of the law, although the security people who detained her might be. Management says that the security people were out of step with the policies of the resort. For overstepping their authority, these security people get a TWIT Award. KSEQ-TV has more on this.

A judge in Japan has found a man guilty of grabbing the breast of a trans woman he was seated next to at a gyoza restaurant. The incident happened in March of 2016 but the Osaka High Court ruled on the case at the end of January of this year and fined the man $2740 saying the trans woman had the same sense of humiliation as any other woman would when treated like that. We give the guilty man a TWIT Award. Read the story in The Asahi Shimbum.

A Republican candidate for governor in Illinois ran a campaign ad that stirred controversy. The ad targeted women who get abortions, illegal immigrants, and trans people. The portion on trans people featured a purported trans woman thanking the legislature for “…legislation that let’s me use the girls’ bathroom.” For running this ad that even Republicans in the state are upset about, we award candidate Jeanne Ives a TWIT. Learn more from The Chicago Sun Times.

TWIT is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner.

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Tags: andi dier, April Ashley, Ashlee Marie Preston, Candis Cayne, Courtney Act, featured, Jess Herbst, news, Rose McGowen, Transgender, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News