The Week In Transgenderism 6/1/15
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Jazz and Laverne
Jazz Jennings, a keynote speaker at the upcoming Southern Comfort Conference, is at that delicate age. She is attracted to boys and would like to date but boys who know her don’t want to take her out. That’s the lead angle of this story about her. Fortunately it also has a lot of other information about Jennings so the sex part is not the whole focus. The article is in the Irish Examiner.
Banerjee
A trans woman in India has been named the principal of the Krishnanagar Women’s College in West Bengal. This is a big step for a trans woman and Manabi Banerjee had to work harder than a cisgender woman in order to win the position. Read her story on the First Post website.
Christina and daughter.
Our “meet a trans person” article today outlines the difficulties trans people in The First State — Delaware, have to contend with. One of the people featured used to attend my Angela’s Laptop Lounge parties before she moved south to the wilds of Delaware. Also mentioned is one of the support groups that remains from what was National Renaissance. The Delaware Renaissance group is said to be thriving as they continue to fill a need in that state. Read about it all at Delaware Online.
A trans woman in the Outback.
Australia gave us Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and it’s hard to remember that Priscilla is the bus, not one of the passengers. Along with an iconic movie Australia also brings us Sistergirls and Brotherboys. These are the trans people of the indigenous population living in the outback. They have a champion in Starlady Nungari. She fights for them because out in the middle of nowhere they suffer, and if they leave for the coastal cities looking for a better life they most often do not find it. Learn more about the situation down under on the Buzzfeed website.
Also from that land down under there’s news concerning the Lord Mayor of Melbourne and a drag queen. In the U.S. that might mean a politician caught in a compromising situation with a drag queen. In Oz it means the Lord Mayor is co-hosting a radio chat show with drag performer Dolly Diamond. Learn more in the Herald Sun.
Did you know there is a trans flag? It was designed in 1999 by trans Navy vet Monica Helms. It consists of pastel pink and blue stripes with a white stripe in the middle. The City of Philadelphia is planning to raise that flag over City Hall, right next to the Stars and Stripes. Read more about it at Fusion.net.
Clubkid couple.
The Club Kid phenomenon that took over New York City in the late ‘80s and into the ‘90s. That’s when drag started showing up in all the downtown clubs and the door person was most likely some kind of gender bender. The Club Kid lifestyle lingers on with new generations of kids putting on way too much eyeliner and trying for more flamboyant looks every week. Two of the new kids on the block are taking the prize for the oddest. One is a female drag queen and the other is her straight male partner who is also a drag queen. Read about them and the new Club Kids in Paper.
Did you know that OSHA has jurisdiction over the number of restrooms places of business must have? They do and that means they can jump into the fray over toilet access for trans employees. The EEOC has already stated that trans people can’t be discriminated agains since they are covered by Title VII. Now OSHA, working with the National Center for Transgender Equality, is preparing guidelines for availability of restrooms to trans employees. Learn more in The National Law Review.
Violet Chachki
On the RuPaul’s Drag Race front there’s a big finish coming — tonight! It’s the season seven finale tonight on Logo and one of the queens is being looked at as a favorite. It’s not just her 19” waist that has people talking about Violet Chachki as the front runner. She’s got a lot going on and tonight could be her big night. Learn more about her and the finale on the AJC.com blog page.
Canada has only one gender reassignment clinic. Strange but true. Dr. Pierre Brassard’s GRS Clinic in Montreal is the only place in the country where Canadians can get their surgery. The clinic has provided surgery for non-Canadians and one wonders if the foreign patients are getting in first and contributing to the up-to 2 year wait for male to female surgery. Read about it and view video at CTV News.
Hari Nef
Another trans model has been signed by a major modeling agency. IMG Models signed Hari Nef after she made her debut on the runway during the spring Fashion Week. For a bit more about Nef check out the story on the Mashable website. Get more in The Guardian.
The Affordable Care Act has stopped insurance companies from denying care based on pre-existing conditions — like being the wrong sex. But that doesn’t mean that companies won’t take advantage of loopholes to wiggle out of providing trans related care. Fortunately there are many health insurance companies who do provide coverage. You can find a list of of the ones who do and what is covered on the CheatSheet website.
Protester Kristina Hernandez.
Trans kids in Las Vegas have had it. Schools in the district have been making trans students use the toilet in the nurse’s office, making it hard for them to get to class on time and leaving them feeling isolated and alone. They spoke out at a school board meeting in April and did it again last week. They vow to keep on fighting for a policy that guarantees them equal treatment. Read about their fight in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Charles Busch
Drag icon, actor, playwright, singer and entertainer Charles Busch has taken his act on the road. He is currently appearing in Florida at the Cabaret South Beach and of course he’s performing in drag. Though he’s wearing a dress for roles in a play or film Busch has never created a femme persona to call his own. Even though, as he admits, after 40 years in drag he is completely comfortable dressed as a lady. Read the rest of his interview with Sofla.
Two weeks ago the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of six trans people in Michigan who have been stuck with the wrong sex marker on their state identification. Michigan is one of those states that requires people to have reassignment surgery before any of their legal identification can be changed. This puts them in a limbo state where the simplest things, such as flying somewhere or cashing a check can be a major problem. Learn more about the suit on the Al Jazeera America website.
Are crossdressers legally “transgender”? As far as TGForum is concerned all movement across the gender border, whether temporary or permanent counts as trans. But a columnist in Canada wonders — do crossdressers identify as trans when they have no intention of getting surgery or taking hormones just so they will be protected by anti-discrimination laws? Or, do they want to go into women’s restroom facilities because they’re afraid of violence in the male facility? See how you feel about Jillian Page’s column in the Montreal Gazette.
Who’s that girl? Call her Caitlyn.
Word is that Bruce Jenner will be the cover model of the June issue of Vanity Fair. The photographer who will shoot the cover is reputed to be Annie Leibovitz. Meanwhile, Jenner’s eight-part docu-series is set to premier on E! July 26, at 9:00 p.m. Read more in People.
THIS JUST IN: The new woman in the Kardashian world has eschewed a femme name with a K. The person formerly known as Bruce is now officially Caitlyn Jenner. And she’s on the cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair. Check out the story and see more of Caitlyn on the Vanity Fair website.
We always have an eye open for photos of drag from back in the days when photography was new. Whilst on the hunt we came across a Turkish website with a feature titled “Vintage foto?raflarla 1800’lerde “drag queen” olmak.” Google translate tells us that means “Vintage photos with 1800s ‘drag queen’ to be.” Well one of the photos is not a drag queen or from the 1800s. It’s the much seen photo of Lili Elbe, the transexual known as The Danish Girl. Some of the other photos are interesting though and not that often seen. Check them out on the Gaia Dergi website.
Muxes
Are Mexico’s muxes really not part of the trans community? That’s what is said about these people in the Juchitán region of Mexico. Many males there choose, are even encouraged by their families, to live a female lifestyle. They date “heterosexual” men and have jobs as teachers, nurses, caregivers, event planners and work in other professions. But it’s not all muxe positive. Read about the positives and negatives of being a muxe on the Fusion website.
Do you want to know what Bruce Jenner has picked for his femme name? If you do you can find out on the inTouch Weekly website. Note to inTouch: You could have used a better picture of Bruce. Really.
Re-Designing Women cast.
If you’re a fan of Designing Women, the old sit-com, then you will either be amused or appalled at ta show that’s premiering in New York City on June 10th. It’s called Re-Designing Women and it’s a parody of the original show. Of course the new show will be loaded with witty dialogue and smart one-liners just like the original but the main difference is the women are played by men in drag. I do declare! Learn more on the Theater Mania website.
Last week we couldn’t find any press coverage of RuPaul’s Drag Con. Ms. Charles put it all together at the Los Angeles Convention Center on May 16 and 17 but after the event all was quiet on what happened. Did no one show up? Was Drag Con a drag? Well, the press must have been so stunned by the event that it took them a few days to write anything. It seems that 13,718 people showed up for the drag shows, screenings, vendors and panels. I guess this means you should expect another one next year. Learn more on the PQ Portland website.
TWITs
Is it possible that the people opposed to LGBTQ equality are so scared of it because they just don’t have a clue what it is? That might be the case with Iowa State Rep. Greg Heartsill. When he learned of an event called The Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth he immediately started demanding information about the event. From his enquiries he obviously thought that the event was somehow unwholesome and seedy. Like it was less of a conference and more of an orgy. What gets him his TWIT Award is the way he trash talked the keynote address by Coco Peru, one of the most classy and least nasty drag performers on the scene. He characterized her as advocating that the students vandalize the property of those who disagreed with them. Miss Coco? Never! He also admitted that he doesn’t know what the letters LGBTQ stand for. Read more on this small minded moron at jezebel.com.
Facebook still hasn’t sorted out their “real name” problem. Their rule requires everyone who signs up for an account to use their real name — legal name that is — as found on your birth certificate. Some trolls (or possible one troll) who wanted to cause trouble for drag performers turned in many drag queens for using their drag names on their Facebook page. With no warning people’s pages were gone. A TWIT Award to Facebook for letting months go by and still not sorting out a way that people can use the names they use in public all the time for their Facebook page. Certainly you don’t want people representing themselves as something phony on Facebook for nefarious purposes but there are several legitimate reasons to use a name other than your legal one. Get it sorted out FB! Read about a protest that’s set for today at Facebook headquarters in San Francisco. You can find the story in USA Today.
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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The story on the princiapal of Krishnanagar Women’s College in West Bengal is interestig because it says look how smart and professional we are.
Too may of the other stories are focused on look how pretty I am.
The Jenner situation is turning into a total exercise of self-aggrandizing vanity. The man is an embarrassment. Do we really need this type of story for society to have a favorable opinion of us? If it works for Caitlyn fine. I think we are past this type of photo shoot display. Break away from the pack folks, show the world you are better than Caitlyn Jenner.