The Week In Transgenderism 8/6/12

Lana

Co-Director of The Matrix, Larry Wachowski, who has been rumored to be transsexual, has finally laid those rumors to rest — by coming out as Lana. In a video to promote a new Wachowski siblings project Lana is radiant and relaxed. (We don’t think too much of her choice in hairstyles, but as long as she’s happy.) Check the story and the video out at E! Online.

Illinois has agreed to let transgender people update the gender markers on their birth certificates without having to have genital surgery. It took a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Illinois Department of Public Health to get the policy change. Read the details  in The Windy City Times.

Students at Oxford University are free at last. To wear the formal occasion uniform of whatever gender they want. The University changed the rules on what had to be worn after pressure from the LGBTQ student group on campus. Will the crossdressers go wild in bold prints, bright colors and short skirts? Probably not. Check out what the rules still say about what may be worn in The Independent.

Rose-Spurell

Another person who has stepped out of their normal uniform and into pumps is Jason Rose-Spurrell, a nurse in Halifax who has decided to throws away her scrubs and be a fulltime drag queen performer. She’s not just jumping into it. She’s been voted best drag queen in Halifax several times and she’s going right into a full time gig at a local casino. Get her story at the CBC website.

Speaking of uniforms: A report is about to be published stating the incidence of transgenderism in male military personnel is twice as high as in the general population. Since we once knew a transwoman who had spent years as a mercenary soldier trying to get as far from femininity as she could we believe it could be true. Put down the rifle and pick up that lipstick! Read about it in Medical Daily. (Beware pop up ads.)

We’ve heard about the life of transgendered people in India. It’s bad enough that young TGs can’t get legitimate jobs so they often turn to dancing at people’s weddings until they’re paid to leave — or go right into prostitution to get by. What do you do when your joints are to0 stiff to dance and you’re no longer young and beautiful? Many older TGs had to depend on young TGs to help them out. The state government in one area is trying to make things easier for older TGs by providing pensions. They are also offering help for younger TGs in the form of low interest loans to start their own businesses. Get the story in The Times of India.

Dr. Leis

Our advertiser and contributor, renowned surgeon Dr. Sherman Leis was featured in  a Philadelphia area publication, Mainline Today. Our sex therapist contributor Dr. Michele Angello was also featured. Check it out on the Mainline Today website.

Washington, D.C. has had a lot of problems with violence against transgendered citizens during the past few months. But the city is trying to do the right thing. They have had their Office of Human Rights create a campaign to combat anti-transgender discrimination. Get the story from The Washington Blade.

England has so much going on this month. There is one foot race that is sure to have many spectators coming up later this month. Is it one of the Olympic events? No sweetie, it’s the Metro Drag Race 2012. And it’s a bit different than most of these drag race events. The majority of them that we have reported on all have men in dresses and heels competing. The Metro Drag Race encourages drag kings as well as queens to sign up. Get the particulars on the event at Greenwich.com.uk.

LaJohn

What is gender? Here at TGF we maintain that gender is between your ears not between your legs. It does us good to see that some of the younger transgendered people out and about in the world have latched on to the concept that you can create your own gender. One such individual is a performer named LaJohn Joesph. Joesph considers her/himself to be “transdrogynous” and she tells all about it in her blog in The Independent.

When you do a reality show on television the only thing you can do is raise the bar every season. How else to you keep the audience coming back when they’ve got hundreds of entertainment options? If you’ve seen people groping around in a mud hole on Hillbilly Handfishin’ once why would you watch it for more than one season? RuPaul’s Drag Race has been around long enough that it’ might be seeming a bit like the same old, same old. What’s RuPaul going to do about it in the fall? She’s doing RuPauls’s Drag Race All Stars. Check out who’s coming back from past seasons in the video below.
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Queen USA pageant winners.

Transgender women were in competition as well. The Imperial Court of Los Angeles put on its big event of the year, The Queen USA pageant. Featuring transgender beauty the pageant is the equivalent of one of the major pageants for non-TG women. But aren’t pageants of any sort a bit old fashioned? Aren’t they sexist and anti-femiinist? A female writer for the Los Angeles Times went to meet the contestants and see the show. She felt a bit like that going in. See what she thought after the winner was crowned.

What about a well know pageant loser? That would be Jenna Talackova who got the consolation prize as Miss Congeniality in the Miss Universe Canada pageant. What is she up to now and what plans does she have for the future? Inquiring minds want to know, and they can find out in the Toronto Sun.

Linday, where did Paris hit you?

Lindsay Lohan’s fame has stemmed far more from her addictions and life mistakes than from her acting career. When she should be working hard on a film she is instead reporting to jail. Her rise to Disney starlet and subsequent slide to convicted felon is almost so dramatic it could have been written. Now it has been written and it’s being performed on stage in Los Angeles. The show is called Project: Lohan and it features a cast of crossdressing actors who portray sixty different characters. Of course it’s bashing Lindsay but so what? She’s been working again. All the best Lindsay. We should do lunch. Read about the show in The Advocate and watch videos of “Lindsay.”

Skirts for men have been floating around, and blowing up in the breeze, for decades. Mostly they’ve been designer’s ideas that they feature in their runway shows but no one ever wears. Now it seems that H&M is selling skirts for men. (In Canada at least.) Since they are the first major retailer to carry them a writer decided to take one for a test wearing. He found that skirt wearing can cause problems. What the heck do you wear with your man skirt? Read his skirts for men evaluation in the National Post.

Haoge working at ChinaJoy.

If you’re reading this and you’re a biological male wearing women’s clothing then we have to tell you you’re a weiniang for sure. Don’t get upset. That’s not a dirty word in any language. That’s the Chinese word for crossdresser. It seems that crossdressers are becoming more accepted in China and one place where they are even becoming professionals is the video game arena. A story about a game convention called ChinaJoy can be found at China.org.cn. Meet Haoge, a “professional”  crossdresser who was very popular at the event.

Our TWIT Award this week goes to well meaning government officials and to the British newspaper The Daily Mail. in a long editorial they tell us that transgender rights legislation in Britain has resulted in people being asked whether they are transgendered or not when they do simple things like fill out a form regarding their broadband service. They then maintain that the British government is going too far when they implement a Transgender Action Plan to assist TGs with getting work. So maybe the government is not handling getting information about how many TG citizens they have in the best way possible but the newspaper is being overly critical. Government and newspaper — share your TWIT Award kids! Find the article in The Daily Mail.

Tags: featured, news, TWIT

Category: Transgender Community News