The Week In Transgenderism 4/20/15

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Kenyan TS Audrey Mbugua

It’s not easy being trans anywhere but it’s especially difficult to be trans in Africa. The many nations that exist on that continent are not well educated about trans issues and the citizens of those countries equate a male wanting to be a female with homosexuality, which is a major taboo. One woman has been fighting quite publicly for her gender reassignment in the country of Kenya. Meet her on the TakePart website.

Equal pay for equal work is a no-brainer. Gender should not matter when it comes to getting paid but women routinely are paid less than men in the same job. The focus is of course on cisgendered women but that focus must expand to include trans women whose pay declines after they transition. Read more on PRI.org.

Laverne Cox

Laverne Cox accomplished another transgender first and it also involves a magazine. Cox has become the first trans woman to appear in Allure magazine’s annual nude issue. Beat that Sports Illustrated. Cox agreed to appear in a tasteful nude photo to inspire other trans women to embrace their bodies and feel empowered. Read about it in USA Today.

The Texas bathroom bill that would have put a bounty on trans students in the “wrong” school restroom has been withdrawn. The bill would have given any student who encountered a trans student in the restroom that didn’t match their birth sex the right to have the school pay them $2000. Read more on the HRC website.

Trace Lysette

The rise of television shows like Orange is the New Black and Transparent have given trans actors a boost. Transparent employs several trans actresses in supporting roles and those women are starting to get cast in other trans roles. One such actress is Trace Lysette who spent several years in the business keeping her gender a secret, worried that someone would find out she was trans. Read about trans actresses and Trace in The Advocate.

A Girl Scouts troop in Salt Lake City is trying to boost its declining numbers by attracting trans girls as new scouts. They’ve set up a meeting in the LGBT center and while no trans girls have joined yet, or attended the meeting, they have high hopes. Maybe they should try luring them in with cookies. Read all about it and view a video on breitbart.com.

A school in Maine neglected to inform parents that their children would be exposed to a reading of Jazz Jennings’ book I Am Jazz. A few parents complained that they were blindsided by the lesson while many were supportive. One parent took her outrage to the media by sending an email to Sean Hannity. Sensing blood in the water Hannity put the upset mother’s message on his website. Get the whole story from Seacoast.

Men’s Health cover dude?

Need proof the world is changing all the time? A 27-year-old trans man could be the first man of his kind to be on the cover of Men’s Health magazine. Learn more in The Washington Post.

A school in Mississippi, an arts school, kindly allowed a trans student to wear a dress to her prom. They did so after first rejecting her choice of attire and then giving in when the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to take them to court. The were not happy about it and said “he” could wear what “he” liked. Pretty conservative artists running that school. Get all the details from The Clarion-Ledger.

Some Vegas queens.

On April 12 the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas attempted to set the world’s record for the “Largest Drag Stage Show.” No word on how many queens they got onstage at one time but your can view photos from the event in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

It’s that time again — time for college drag shows! And time to revel in some really bad writing in student newspapers. Michigan State University had theirs on April 17 and over 500 students showed up to applaud drag queens and one king in the annual Official MSU Drag Show. Read about it and view a short video in their student paper, The State News.

The College at Brockport held their 20th Annual Drag Show on April 11. Along with several professional performers, amateur student performers took to the stage. Get the review in The Stylus.

Winner Man-ificent

Oklahoma State presented their Dragonfly drag contest extravaganza hosted by Carmen Devereaux, a professional performer from Oklahoma City. The show was a contest for amateur student performers. The contest winner was Man-ificent. Get the story from Daily O’Collegian.

The University of Maryland held their Art Scholars drag show last week and it was another contest modeled on RuPaul’s Drag Race. They’ve been doing their show since 2011. Students competed for a crown and the winner was a junior neurobiology and physiology major who used the stage name Patti LuBones. Read more in The Diamondback.

Northern Kentucky University held their drag show on April 10 in the Student Union Ballroom. Their event is the Drag Show Benefit in support of the Gay-Lesbian Student Education Network. The professional queens who participated donated their time to the event. Read all about it in The Northerner.

McHenry County College did their 4th annual Drag Show on April 17 but all their paper published was a photo of their professional host and a short paragraph on the event. See what little there is in the Northwest Herald.

University of Washington

The University of Washington’s drag event was Latin themed and used 21st century Internet spelling of the name: Quinceaner@. The @ is supposed to encompass varying genders and identities. It’s making my spellcheck work overtime. Learn what the name of the event means and what it benefited in The Daily.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health has a decision to make regarding gender reassignment surgery. They can cling to their old policy of not acknowledge that there is such a thing or they can start to allow it on a selective basis. One trans woman teacher is “elated” by this development since she sees it as a possible step forward to easier transition for Vietnamese trans people. Get the story from Tuoitrenews.

Iranian TS

What is the second sex-change capitol of the world? We all know that Thailand hold the top spot but if you are about to say the second place is held by the United States you would be wrong. The second place is held by Iran. That’s right. Those crazy Iranians who were part of G.W. Bush’s “ Axis of Evil” are totally cool with providing state sponsored gender reassignment surgery. Why? Because it’s not mentioned in the Quran. But, there’s a downside to becoming a woman in Iran. Find out what it’s like to be transsexual in Iran on OZY.com.

Tasi, we hardly know ye. But we can learn a lot more about our fashion contributor Tasi Zuriack in an interview she did with the press in Chicago. Tasi talks about her life as a crossdresser and how it affected her marriage, relationship with her children, and she tells what she sees as the future of crossdressing. We have to give her a demerit though since she totally neglected to let us know she was featured in Chicago Now. (Her interviewer, Terri Lee Ryan, has also contributed to TGF.)

Sissy Goodwin

Sissy Goodwin, a full-time crossdresser who has lived in Caspar, Wyoming for his whole life has finally decided to take his ultra frilly self to Portland, Oregon when he retires in May. Goodwin was profiled in The Los Angeles Times in 2013 because he persisted, even in the face of physical violence, to wear frilly dresses and other femme attire in public without attempting to pass as a female. He has been teaching classes at Casper College and doing it in his dresses with no hassles from his students. In fact he’s been nominated for the outstanding teacher’s award. Read more about Sissy on PostStar.com.

TWITs

Can a gender-queer drag queen get a burger up in this joint? That was the question that a burger place near the University of Texas answered with a resounding “No!” Tyler Grant who prefers the pronoun “they” (even though there’s only one person inside there, we guess. Oops, I just called myself “we.” It must be catching) over “he” or “her” and so on, attempted to enter in bare feet carrying their shoes. They were told to put their shoes on and did but were then turned away when the security guard asked if they were a dude. Now the store claims that Tyler was attired in lingerie and that was the problem. Tyler’s outfit would have fit well at a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show but apparently it was too much for Whataburger. We’re giving a TWIT Award to the burger place for over reacting and we wonder if a cis woman worn that corset and fishnets outfit if the security guard would have had as much of a problem. Read the story and see video of the incident in the Austin American-Stateman.

Also from the Lone Star State it seems the bill to keep trans students out of the restroom of their choice has been withdrawn, while in the state of Nevada they are poised to vote on their bathroom bill. It has gotten through the last committee before a vote by the full assembly. It may not make it to the vote as it’s opponents keep pointing out it violates federal law. A TWIT Award to the Nevada legislators who are wasting taxpayer dollars on a non-problem. Learn more in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Drag queens in London are mad as hell that one of their performance venues is shutting down. The Black Cap closed suddenly without any warning to its diverse patrons. The rumor is that the building has been sold and developers plan to turn it into shops and flats. (Apartments to U.S. readers.) A TWIT Award to the new building owner for not letting people know that their favorite drag bar was going away. People need some closure, damn it! The patrons were so angered that they staged a colorful demonstration to show their displeasure. Read about it in The Independent.

One of the judges of the television talent show Romania’s Got Talent (yes, it’s everywhere now). Soon we’ll see Antartica’s Got Talent) has spoken out about the attacks she sees on good old “family values” posed by the LBGTI people of the world. And she even went after Conchita Wurst saying she’s “a woman who was a man but can’t let go of the beard.” Okay, the beard is kind of odd — but it’s Wurst’s face so leave her alone. A TWIT Award goes to Mihaela R?dulescu. Read about it in the GayStarNews.

So you’re into exploring your crossdressing feelings. What do you do to get out in public and interact with other humans? What you shouldn’t do is go into local businesses, start asking about their products or services then announce that you’re exploring your crossdressing desires and lift up your skirt to show them your underwear. That’s what the San Diego panty flasher has been doing. Then he gets into his big pickup truck (a double cab) and drives away. Oh, and he says his friends dared him to do the skirt lifting part. Yeah, sure. A TWIT Award goes to this dim bulb who is giving crossdressers a bad name. Since he didn’t actually show any genitals to anyone he won’t be charged with a crime but he is making a lot of business owners uneasy. Stop it! You can get the story from the NBC affiliate in San Diego.

Tags: Audrey Mbugua, crossdressing, featured, Laverne Cox, news, Sissy Goodwin, Trace Lysette, Transgender, Transsexual, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News