A Gender Variance Who's Who

K (189?–?) Soviet pioneer.

2012-01-27T05:07:00.000-05:00

From Kazan, Tartarstan, USSR, K was diagnosed as a ‘transvestite’ in 1937.

She was given permission by the People’s Court to wear female clothing, her identity papers were changed to her female name, and her name was removed from the military recruitment rolls.

She was featured in a 1957 gynaecology textbook.

M.G. Serdiukov. Sudebnaia ginekologiia I sudebnoi akusherstvo. Moscow: Meditsina 1957: 47-8.
Dan Healey. Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001: fig 24.

David Wilde (1917 - 2001) writer, publisher.

2012-01-24T05:02:00.000-05:00

David Wilde was born to rich parents in New York. He was an avid cross dresser from childhood. After doing a degree in English Literature at Yale University he married Mary Scott. They had two daughters. He became a news writer and film critic. For several years from 1949 he published The Record, a weekly in the Westchester County village of Bedford. Later he worked in public relations.

David and Mary separated in 1960, and David moved to an apartment on the East Side of Manhattan and then later to another in Greenwich Village. As Gail he subscribed to Virginia Prince’s Transvestia, and became a New York contact for the Foundation for Full Personality Expression, (FPE). Those who knew both David and Gail found Gail to be less abrasive, but both personae were negative about gays and transsexuals.

Gail met Katherine Cummings at Susanna Valenti’s D’Eon Resort, and met Darrell Raynor when the latter used the contact listings in Transvestia. Gail’s antique-filled apartment was open as a meeting place for transvestites, and she would answer the phone with “Downtown Branch” in recognition of Susanna’s uptown location. At this time David was the publisher of Girl Talk, distributed free in beauty parlours.

In 1968 David met Joan Bennett (1910-90), the film star and member of the New York acting dynasty, at a party. Joan had been in Bulldog Drummond, 1929, Little Women, 1933, Trade Winds, 1938, Scarlet Street, 1945. Her third husband, Walter Wanger jealously shot and injured her agent in 1951 which almost ended her career. She finally divorced Wanger, who served four months for the shooting, in 1965.

When she met David she was appearing in the occult soap opera, Dark Shadows, 1966-71. They dated for ten years. When David told her about Gail, she was initially dismayed, but afterwards she was unperturbed. David asked Harry Benjamin to talk to her about cross-dressing.

They married in 1978, shortly after she was in Dario Argento’s Suspiria, 1977. Only a few weeks later they awoke to find their Scarsdale house on fire. The police decided that it was arson, and even suspected David, but no-one was ever arrested.

David and Joan remained married almost 13 years, during which David did no cross-dressing as such, although he maintained a longtime friendship with Katherine Cummings who he wrote to as Gail. In 1989 David berated her when she was about to have surgery, and tried to talk her out of it for the harm that she was doing to her family.

Joan died of a heart attack at age 80. Afterwards Gail was quickly resurrected.

David committed suicide at age 84 in despair at how the world was going.

*Not the pianist/composer, nor the cricketer, nor the writer for Rolling Stone
* Not Girl Talk the pre-teen magazine.

Darrell Raynor. A Year Among the Girls. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1966. New York: Lancer Books, 1968: 32, 42-3, 45-53.
Brian Kellow. The Bennetts: An Acting Family. Lexington, : University Press of Kentucky, 2004: 428-9, 440-1.
Katherine Cummings. Katherine's Diary- the Story of a Transsexual. William Heinemann Australia 1992. Revised and updated 2008: 133-8, 151-2, 195-6, 277, 317, 391.
The Peerage: Page 29808. http://thepeerage.com/p29808.htm#i298078.

Andrés Ignacio Rivera Duarte (1964–) professor, activist.

2012-01-21T05:54:00.000-05:00

Raised in Rancagua, Chile, Rivera called himself Andrés even as a child. He was a girl who played football and identified as masculine, and one of her teachers had the other children call out that Rivera was ‘res cocos’ and ‘amachado’. At university Rivera used her intellect and was treated like a man.

Rivera became a professor at the Universidad de Rancagua, but always dressed in a male fashion, and was said to be a lesbian. In 2003 Rivera was interviewed anonymously on television, without the face being shown. Then there was two years of deep depression, drinking heavily and an attempted suicide. A psychiatrist taught Rivera to ignore the prejudice.

He emerged as Andrés. Other transsexual men who had seen the television program contacted Andrés via the program, they exchanged emails and Andrés invited them to his place. This grew into the Organización de Transexuales por la Dignidad de la Diversidad (OTD), Chile’s only group for transsexuals.

In 2006 he obtained a new teaching contract, but was fired when he turned up. He had no choice but to for for discrimination. In 2007, after being examined medically and a psychiatric and psychological examination, Andrés was awarded a Judicial Decree of change of name and legal gender, despite not having had phalloplasty - the first Chilean trans man to do so.

Andrés worked with government and the health system for provision for trans people, and organized a debate at Rancagua on civil unions. He has done support work to sex workers distributing food and drink and information about HIV/Aids.

In 2008 he was awarded the Felipa de Souza Award sharing with the Iranian Queer Organization. He is a financial advisor with the Rancagua Municipality.

Andrés and the OTD helped other transsexuals, male and female, who were left homeless after the March 2010 earthquake.

*Not the Argentinian novelist.

Patricia Aburto. “Transsexual Instructor: I Was Fired Because of Discrimination”. Las Ultimas Noticias, 17 de mayo del 2006. Online at: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/FtM/Andres/Andres.html#EN.
“Transexual Chileno, Obtiene Sentencia de Cambio de Nombre y Sexo”. Prensa: Organizacion de Transexuales por la Dignidad de la Diversidad, 4 de mayo del 2007. Online at: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/FtM/Andres/Andres.html#sentencia%20judicial.
“Conversation with Andrés Rivera”. ILGA. 2007. http://trans.ilga.org/trans/welcome_to_the_ilga_trans_secretariat/trans_zone/interviews/conversation_with_andres_rivera. Now at: http://web.archive.org/web/20090310122834/http://trans.ilga.org/trans/welcome_to_the_ilga_trans_secretariat/trans_zone/interviews/conversation_with_andres_rivera.
“Trans activist wins 2008 Felipa de Souza Award”. ILGA, 2008. http://trans.ilga.org/trans/welcome_to_the_ilga_trans_secretariat/news/trans_activist_wins_2008_felipa_de_souza_award_iglhrc.
Andrés Ignacio Rivera Duarte. “A Transgressor’s Love”. In Tracie O’Keefe (ed) Trans People in Love. Routledge 2008.
“Update from OTD Chile on the earthquake and request for donations”. Bird of Paradox, March 4, 2010. http://birdofparadox.wordpress.com/category/chile-earthquake.
Organización de Transexuales por la Dignidad de la Diversidad. http://transexualesdechile.org/

Elizabeth Coffey (194? - ) actress, housewife, manager

2012-01-18T10:42:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth, from Philadelphia, had a small but memorable part in the John Waters’ film, Pink Flamingos, 1972, where she fully reciprocates when approached by a flasher.

Elizabeth & Maralyn, Philadelphia drag queen, in Nickels, p57

She was in the late stages of transition at the time, and in fact had her surgery a week later. Waters says that he cast her because “I knew that she had a wonderful sense of humor”, and that “I was especially glad to know that she had the first sex change in Maryland that was paid for by welfare. At last, my tax money was being put to a good use”.

She was also in Water’s next film, Female Trouble, 1974. as a death row inmate.

She later moved to Chicago, married, adopted a child, and managed an all-male traveling construction crew.

In 1985 she appeared as the one female in Divine’s music video, Walk Like a Man.

John Waters. Shock Value. New York, N.Y.: Dell Pub. Co, 1981: xi, 129.
Thom Nickels. Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2002: 57.

The GLF Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen group, 1972

2012-01-15T05:57:00.000-05:00

Come Together is a song on The Beatles 1969 Abbey Road album. It was also the newspaper put out by the UK Gay Liberation Front from 1970-3.   The following article was collectively written by the Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen group and published in issue 11, the Lesbian Issue, January 1972.   It is reprinted in Aubrey Walter (ed). Come Together: The Years of Gay Liberation, 1970-73. London: Gay Men's Press, 1980: 164-7.

It is now 40 years later.   Some things have changed enormously. There is the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Acts.   The trans woman who thought that she was the only one in the world until she learnt a word by watching Psycho, is very much of her time. There is so much today about trans persons on television and in the press, that one can no longer not know.

However basic issues like passing and the attitudes of other people have hardly changed at all.

Note the use of sex changes as a a noun – that is almost never said any more.   There is no attempt by the transsexuals to say that they are not transvestites, or vice versa. This was GLF though.   You could also go to The Beaumont Society, which was formed as a Princian group for heterosexual transvestites only, and was much more homophobic and transsexual-phobic in 1972 than it became in later years.   And shortly afterwards Charlotte Bach started giving weekly talks in a friend’s flat, but most interested people never heard about it, and after that the UK offshoot on Angela Douglas’ TAO (which Stephen Whittle identifies as when transsexuals started to talk about being a separate group). Yvonne Sinclair started the TV-TS Support Group in 1976. Judy Cousins established SHAFT in 1980, and Press For Change was formed in 1992.

Note the rejection of ‘a woman trapped in a man's body’ as a stereotype imposed by outsiders.

60,000 taking sex hormones by 1972.   I am surprised by that statistic.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen group has been meeting for several weeks. So far about forty people have called or visited. Some have come regularly, some have drifted off. Almost all have been women — people born males who live as women, or more commonly, dress as women whenever they get the chance. Transvestite men — people born female who live or dress as men (if the language confuses you it confuses us too, it's not meant to include us) have so far not come forth. We're working to break down these barriers, but for now this article will be the experience of transvestite women. Not an article really, just some notes of things we've learned talking to each other. How many of us are there? Nobody knows, or has any real statistics, but there are 60,000 people in the United Kingdom taking sex hormones. Add to this the people who want them but the doctors won't give them, the people who want them but are afraid to ask, and all the transvestites who at the moment aren't interested in hormones. The amazing thing is, most of us think we're a tiny minority. One TV thought she was the only person in the world who did this strange thing until she saw the movie Psycho in which the detective uses the word 'transvestite', and she thought, 'There's a word for it!

When we're alone we tend to accept the stereotypes. By getting together we've discovered how ridiculous they really are.   No one in the group has ever said, 'What horrible trick of nature has made me a woman trapped in a man's body?' We just don't think that way. The psychiatrists who electro-shock us think we're pathetic or tragic, but even those who are very much in the closet enjoy being transvestite as long as there's some outlet. We don't follow any single profession. Recently a GLF brother said he thought most transvestites were upper-class and in the art world. At one meeting we had, among others, a student, a house cleaner, an office worker, an engineer, a prostitute, a pub entertainer, and a taxi driver. Most of all, we are not heavily rouged, teased-hair parodies of anybody's traditional role. Some of us dress that way — why not? some 'regular' women dress that way — but we're just people and our taste covers the whole spectrum, from middle-aged matron to hot pants to maxi-skirt, even to butch.

The whole question of roles needs to be examined, and particularly what we as transvestites, transsexuals and drag queens can contribute to a new understanding of how they operate. Some of us are opposed to roles because they can limit self-discovery. We don't want to discard the male role just to take on the female role. Others think that transvestites can show people that roles can be fun, if you're free to take the ones you want and discard them when you don't want them any more. The important thing is, no one should tell you, as a man or a woman, this is the role you have to play, and you have to play it all the time. One TV, when told by a regular woman, 'You're just parodying my role', replied, 'Who said it's your role?'

There are many questions we are just beginning to examine. Why is Danny La Rue a West End institution, when we get kicked out of our flats for wearing a skirt? Apparently it's all right if you're doing it for money, but perverted if you do it for personal satisfaction.

A more central question is how to relate to other women. When we talk about our hopes and fantasies, it becomes apparent that what we want above all is to be accepted as women, primarily by other women. But will we achieve this by looking for ways in which we share experience with regular women or by developing a unique transvestite consciousness?

Sometimes the second approach seems real militant and proud, at other times it seems a cop-out, accepting the prejudiced view that we're not women, that we're some freaky third sex (or fourth or fifth?). Possibly we can find some light by considering the situation of black women and gay women, who develop black pride and gay pride, but still explore their feelings as women. Think how much more inspiring and beautiful the women's revolution will be when it joyously includes all women. Think of a Holloway demo with transvestite, transsexual and drag-queen women, gay women and heterosexual women, black, yellow, brown and white women, mothers, daughters, poor women, rich women, working women, housewives and career women. Certainly, whatever course we take as transvestites, transsexuals and drag queens, we must first destroy the trap wherein regular women set up standards by which they accept or reject us.

A similar question, perhaps even more immediate, is the question of passing. Transvestites have always sought to pass as regular women by disguising their voice, walking right, etc. Certainly it's a thrill to have a salesgirl say, 'Can I help you, madam?' But do we give up too much? How can we escape the feeling of being just an illusion, something that can't be touched or looked at too closely? And we become so paranoid when we're worried people will read us. Also, one transsexual said, you don't become the woman you are, but the woman you can pass as — which means you may feel like maxi-skirts and scarlet capes, but you wear brown midis so people notice you less. So many sex-changes live in constant fear people will discover their pasts. One sex-change said she's torn between two desires, one to disappear and be accepted as a regular woman after struggling so many years, the other to shout up and down the street how beautiful it is to be transsexual. If you're young and haven't suffered as much, you're quick to say be militant, don't hide. Those who came out long ago are often the proudest because they've been themselves the longest. But they also know that if you pass you're treated as a human being, if you don't you're treated as a pervert or a roadshow.

Yet there are also thrills to not passing, or more precisely, not caring if you pass. You dress, comb your hair, use make-up to suit yourself, not to go unnoticed. And you discover yourself developing street instincts: how to handle crowds, how to judge people approaching you, what to do about police. One sister always carries an Italian women's magazine on the tube so if someone speaks to her she can wave the magazine and pretend she doesn't speak English. You learn to laugh at people before they laugh at you. You become your own street theatre. Two transvestites can conquer a whole department store of uptight straight people.

Certainly one thing becomes more and more clear as we come together; pass or not pass, we can't let anybody tell us what we are. One sister said that after six months of psychiatric treatment she discovered that no one knew her like herself. We can't let anybody tell us we're men, when we know we're women. As Holly Woodlawn once said in New York, 'Don't call me mister, you fucking beast!'

Some people whose ideas or experience are reflected in this article are: Roz, Paula, Rachel, Delia, Edith, Susan, Perry, Patty, Christine.

Clarabelle (18?? - ? ) pioneer activist

2012-01-12T05:33:00.000-05:00

Clarabelle, who lived full-time as female, was the "queen mother” of Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill, an informal position co-ordinating homosexuals, queens, communists and bohemians. She had a dozen lieutenants, one of whom monitored the so-called Fruit Tank, the jail for queers.

During the 1933 ‘Milk Strike’ when mothers of the poor and unemployed protested that large amounts of milk were poured down the storm drains to keep the price up, and the police were beating heads bloody, Harry Hay the future homophile pioneer threw a brick and dislodged a policeman from his horse. Sympathizers rushed him away, and to Clarabelle’s for hiding.

Bunker Hill was in the way of downtown development and by the 1960s, against local resistance, it was all removed: 396 buildings were destroyed and 11,000 residents displaced, the hill was flattened and sold for a song to developers.

Harry Hay and Will Roscoe. Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the Words of Its Founder. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996: 37,52.
Edward W. Soja. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell, 1996: 213.
Leslie Feinberg. “Young Harry Hay and the Wobblies”. Lesbian, gay, bi and trans pride series, part 31 Workers World, Apr 14, 2005. www.workers.org/2005/us/lgbtseries-0421.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

This snippet of history was almost lost, surviving merely as an anecdote by Harry Hay. Here are some of the books that do not mention Clarabelle: Gay LA; Lavender Los Angeles; Bohemian Los Angeles; How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. The next generation of trans activists in Los Angeles, Virginia Prince and Ed Wood, if they knew about her, did not mention her.

Jean Bonnet (1849 - 1876) frog catcher.

2012-01-09T04:07:00.000-05:00

Jeanne Bonnet was born in Paris and raised in San Francisco, one of two daughters of French theater players. Their mother died, and soon after the sister, at age 16, was incarcerated in the State Insane Asylum where she also died. The father, who was disabled, left to find work in Oakland. Jeanne was in and out of the Industrial School (juvenile detention), and made a living catching frogs and selling them to French restaurants.

When in the Industrial School, Bonnet had gained entry into the boys’ section and then attacked the largest boy, just to show that she could. Bonnet was often arrested for fighting, and for wearing male attire. He visited brothels as a customer, and had several run-ins with pimps after encouraging their women to leave them. In 1874, Bonnet was hospitalized after ingesting laudanum.

In 1875 Blanche Beunon arrived from France with Arthur Deneve and their child. Deneve was a friend of Ernest Gerard who shot Jean Bonnet early 1876 and then visited him in hospital. Beunon and Deneve broke up, and Deneve took the child and returned to France.

Beunon turned to Bonnet, and Gerard accosted them in the street, accusing Bonnet of luring Blanche from Arthur, assaulted both of them and then called a police officer to have Bonnet arrested for wearing male clothes.

After hearing that Gerard was threatening to throw acid in Blanche’s face, Jean took her, first to stay with a Frenchman, Pierre Louis and his wife, and then to McNamara’s Hotel at San Miguel Railway Station. On the night of September 1876, there was a shotgun blast through the window and Bonnet was dead.

Gerard was suspected but had a strong alibi. Then the police heard either that Deneve had offered $2,000 to Pierre Louis to kill Blanche as a example to the other girls, or that L’Amant d’Blanche, another jealous lover of Beunon, had paid Louis. In either case it was not intended that Bonnet be killed. However Louis and his wife had fled to Montréal, and later Louis hanged himself before he could be arrested.

L’Amant d’Blanche took Blanche back, but she died of throat cancer six months later.

Allan Bérubé. “Lesbian Maquerade: Some lesbians in early San Francisco who passed as men”. A Slide lecture, San Francisco, June 1979. Reprinted in Gay Community News, Boston, Nov 17, 1979. Reprinted in My Desire for History: Essays in Gay, Community, and Labor History. The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
The San Francisco lesbian and Gay History Project. " 'She Even Chewed Tobacco': A Pictorial Narrative of Passing Women in America". A slide show based on primary research by Allan Bérubé, edited and reprinted in Martin B. Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey. Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past. New York: New American Library, 1989: 183-194.
Kevin J. Mullen. “The Little Frog Catcher”, The Toughest Gang in Town: Police Stories From Old San Francisco. Noir Publications, 2005: 150-5.

______________________________________________________________________________

Both Bérubé and Mullen persist in referring to Bonnet as 'she' and 'Jeanne', presumably because the only primary sources are newspaper accounts which in 1876 would refer to Bonnet in that manner. We do not actually know that Bonnet called himself Jean, but, as most English speakers do not pick up on the difference in pronunciation between Jean and Jeanne, it is likely. Jean presented as male and went to brothels as a man. He would not undermine his own presentation by insisting on a female name.

Manabi Bannerjee (1966–) professor of literature

2012-01-06T04:09:00.000-05:00

Somnath Banerjee was raised in Naihati, Paschim Banga (previously West Bengal), an only son with two sisters. He insisted on learning to dance to classical music as Indian girls do.

After school he went to a psychiatrist who told him to forget about being a woman or end up killing himself. He studied hard, obtained first class degrees and became a professor of Bengali literature at Jhargram college.

She was for a while a woman at home, but a man when on the street. Then she was obviously in transition. The other teachers forced her to move out from the professors’ quarters. She was called a hijra and accused of child abuse. She approached the West Bengal Human Rights Commission and they served a show-cause notice on the college. She started a group for Bengali transsexuals, and edits their magazine, Aba-manab (=sub human) so called for "That's what transsexuals are, in other people's eyes".

In 2003 she had genital surgery for 5 lakh rupees (=£8,000) after many sessions of counselling. She immediately started wearing a sari and changed her name to to Manabi (=woman) The college authorities wanted to fire her on the grounds that they had hired Samnath, but Manabi won the court case.

She met a Bengali business man and they had a Hindu ritual marriage. Their house was attacked and the landlord tried to lock them out. The police did nothing, and the husband was taken away by his family. In a subsequent court case the state prosecutor tried to argue that that Manabi was a minor in that she had been female for only three years. Manabi was also accused of "sinister and anti-social activities" and of being a witch. She turned to the state women’s commission which complained to the district authorities which in turn warned Manabi’s landlord. Manabi was also beaten up by hijra at an NGO rally when she said things they did not want to hear.

She now has a boyfriend who works in government. She takes care of her aging parents. She has written a bestselling novel, Endless Bondage, about hijras. She is still teaching at Jhargram college, where she is better accepted by the students that by the other teachers.

“Even my parents have not accepted my transsexual identity”. The Times of India, Mar 18, 2001. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/Even-my-parents-have-not-accepted-my-transsexual-identity/articleshow/34354152.cms.
“Man changes sex to marry, faces social boycott”. Deccan Herald, July 11, 2004. http://archive.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july112004/n5.asp.
Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri. “Can a a 40-year-old transsexual be a three-year-old girl?”. Daily News & Analysis, Feb 17, 2006. www.dnaindia.com/india/report_can-a-40-year-old-transsexual-be-a-three-year-old-girl_1013429.
Manabi Bannerjee talks to Anthony Dias. “Transgenderism: ‘Society can be cruel’ ”. The Guardian, 14 July, 2009. www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/14/india-gender.
“From Somnath to Manabi“. Indian Express, Sep 18, 2011. www.indianexpress.com/news/from-somnath-to-manabi/848084/0.
“Change Over”. Parth Sanyal, photography. www.parthsanyal.com/galleries/change-over.

Hedy Jo Star (1920 - 1999) showgirl, costumier, business woman.

2012-01-03T04:50:00.000-05:00

Carl Rollins Hammonds was born in Prague, Oklahoma, the eldest of seven children. He grew small breasts as a teenager, and his mother took him to several doctors including a ‘brain specialist’, but would not consent to exploratory surgery. She was told that Carl would not live past 35, or that he would go insane.

From age 17 Hammonds worked as a half-man-half-woman in carnival, and then as an ‘exotic dancer’, and took the name Hedy Jo Star.

Hedy was drafted in 1942, and was in the press after making a fuss about not cutting her long hair. She served as a female impersonator in the US Army shows.

After the war, she returned to carnival life. She was a friend and colleague with Tony Midnite, and both of them made costumes for other people. Hedy was the owner-manager of the Hollywood State Revue, a troupe of female dancers, some of them biologically so. They played state fairs in summer, and in winter Hedy worked as a hypnotist in nightclubs.

Just after Christine Jorgensen was in the news in 1954 Hedi wrote her autobiography, I Changed My Sex!, which was only a slight exaggeration.

In 1956 she saw a female endocrinologist in New York.

“My face was covered during the examination with a sheet. Then my doctor and her colleagues examined me. Later my doctor explained to me that what she was planning to do was illegal under New York law, which is the reason the other specialists she consulted wished to remain anonymous.”

The doctor put Hedy on estrogen and arranged breast-enhancement. Despite testimony from twelve physicians that Hedy should have gender surgery, the New York State Medical Society refused permission because of the mayhem laws.

In 1958 Hedy, by then two years on estrogen, applied to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She received an answer by letter three months later:

“We do realize that you are psychologically more comfortable in your role as a female and perhaps it would be wise for you to continue as you have done in the past”

but her request was refused on the grounds of her not being intersex, and that the surgery “might in actuality constitute mayhem”.

A few years later she saw Dr Harry Benjamin who referred her to Elmer Belt in Los Angeles. She was saving up for this when, early in 1962 and just before Belt discontinued doing genital surgery, a friend referred her to a doctor in Chicago who, after an examination, phoned the Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and she had an appointment. The Memphis doctor and four colleagues examined her and then warned her that the operation was extremely dangerous, that she might not survive, and if so may not be able to walk. However the operation was done the next day. Hedy prayed to God “not to let her live to leave the operating table if she was doing wrong and going against His will”. One of the doctors punctured her urinary track and corrective surgery was needed. She was in hospital for 45 days.

Novel Books, associated with The National Insider republished her 1955 autobiography, and she wrote an advice column for the National Insider which also was later published as a book.

Hedy married a doctor from Boston, Dr Ralph Bucinskas (1943 - 2003). They moved to Las Vegas where she developed her career as a costumier. One of her first clients was the impersonator, Kenny Kerr, then just starting his career. She was known for her expensive costumes for dancers, strippers, female impersonators, clowns, burlesque and circus performers, and for Elvis Presley and Anne Margaret.

She died at age 79.

Hedy Jo Star with and Introduction by Dr Edwin Poole. I Changed My Sex! Chicago: Allied Books 158pp 1955. Novel Books 1963. Reissued as "I changed my sex!": the autobiography of stripper Hedy Jo Star formerly Carl Hammonds; with an introduction by Edwin Poole. Allied, 158 pp 1980.
Hedy Jo Star. “Both Sides of Love”. National Insider. Early 1960s. Advice column.
Hedy Jo Star. Sequel: I Changed My Sex! Chicago: Novel Books 1964. The advice columns that Hedy wrote for the National Insider.
H.J Star/ Carl Hammonds. My Unique Change Chicago: Novel Books 128 pp 1965.
Joanne Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, Ma, London: Harvard University Press. 363 pp 2002: 198-9, 218-9,325n85.
Deborah Rudacille. The Riddle of Gender. New York: Pantheon Books. 2005: 102, 113-9.
“Circus Sideshow ‘Girls’”. Tribe Dec 22, 2006 http://circusarts.tribe.net/thread/8df0806c-1137-40f5-b613-b52911666261#f52bdcff-d0b2-4c8d-95ef-2bac0ec10d49.
Ray E. Richmond “Hedy Jo Star”. Sideshow World. www.sideshowworld.com/81-SSPAlbumcover/HH/9-Hedy-Jo1/Star1.html
Ward Hall. “Hedy Jo Star”. Sideshow World. www.sideshowworld.com/81-SSPAlbumcover/HH/19-Hedy-Jo2/Star2.html.
Lauren Gillette. “Miss Hedy Jo Star”. Eat It or Wear It, Nov 9, 2009. http://laurengilletteeatitorwearit.blogspot.com/2009/11/miss-hedy-jo-star.html.
Dennis McBride “Las Vegas Transgender”. OutHistory, 2010. www.outhistory.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Transgender.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Some say that her birth name was Joseph Starke. This is repeated by Ward Hall in his comment on the article in Tribe.   When his comment was reprinted in Side Show World, this datum was removed.   Ray Richmond is Hedy’s nephew and he is able to assure us that this rumor is untrue.

Does anybody have any idea who the female endocrinologist in New York in 1956 was?

Likewise who was the surgeon in Memphis in 1962? Did he ever do another sex change operation?

Why does nobody mention that I Changed My Sex! precedes Hedy’s operation by 7 years?

Notes towards the social construction of intersex: Teenage Carl grew small breasts and his mother, being freaked out by that took him to a series of doctors.   However in 1958 the doctors at Johns Hopkins found that Hedy did not meet their definition of intersex.

Ray Richmond has been writing a book about his aunt. I look forward to reading it.

There are comments in some sources about Hedy being America's first complete sex change even though she did not have genital surgery until 1962. The implication here is that Christine Jorgensen did not have vaginoplasty in Denmark, and not until a date in the 1960s that is not specified in most sources. However to even bring up this claim is to totally ignore a) all the persons who had surgery with Elmer Belt b) those who had already gone to Dr Burou in Casablanca c) those who had had surgery in Europe e.g Tamara Rees in the Netherlands in 1954 and Sally Berry in Sweden in 1953-8.

Sandy Stone mentions Hedy Jo Star in her "The Empire Strikes Back", with the quote: "I wanted the sensual feel of lingerie against my skin, I wanted to brighten my face with cosmetics. I wanted a strong man to protect me."   This kind of stereotyped femininity was expected of 1950s women, cis and trans alike, but nowadays is rather suspect and is even liable to be labeled 'autogynephilic', even in androphilic early transitioners as Hedy definitely was.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 10: Books.

2011-12-30T05:21:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.
Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Books

Who reads and writes gay romance novels. Straight women apparently.

$£¥ €=Excessively overpriced books.

++ added later

· Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin. The Lives of Trans gender People. NY: Columbia University Press, 2011. A survey of 3,500 transsexual women, transsexual men, crossdressers, and genderqueer individuals in the US.

· Kyla Bender-Baird. Transgender Employment Experiences: Gendered Perceptions and the Law. State University of New York Press, 2011.

· Diana Blok. See Through Us: Portraits of Gay Women, Men and Transsexuals in Turkey. Blok, 2010.

· Peter Boag. Re-Dressing America's Frontier Past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. “A vivid picture of a West where cross-dressing--for both men and women--was pervasive, and where easterners as well as Mexicans and even Indians could redefine their gender and sexual identities. Boag asks, why has this history been forgotten and erased?”

· Margarita Camacho Zambrano. Cuerpos encerrados, cuerpos emancipados: travestis en el ex penal García Moreno. Editorial Académica Española, 2011. “Las realidades de una comunidad transgénero, todavía estigmatizada y violentada en todos sus estratos sociales, es un secreto a voces que se evidencia aún más, para quienes lean este trabajo de investigación, la autora refleja desde su percepción muy cercana y palpable, como ésta estigmatización se agudiza al interior de la cárcel, individuos marginados por la sociedad como son los reclusos, son quienes a su vez, marginan a las transgéneros, pero siguiendo la misma práctica hipócrita de una sociedad machista y sexista, las someten como un objeto sexual, el deseo implícito y oculto.”

· Sheila L. Cavanagh. Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. “Based on 100 interviews with GLBT and/or intersex peoples in major North American cities, Cavanagh delves into the ways that queer and trans communities challenge the rigid gendering and heteronormative composition of public washrooms.”

· Trystan Cotton (ed). Transgender Migrations: The Bodies, Borders, and Politics of Transition. Routledge, 2011. “A collection of emerging and established scholars to examine the way that the term "migration" can be used not only to look at the way trans bodies migrate from one gender to the (an?) other, but the way that trans people migrate in the larger geopolitical contexts of immigration reform, the war on terror, the war on drugs, and the increased policing of national borders.”

· Ivan E. Coyote (ed). Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011. “Contributors such as Jewelle Gomez, Thea Hillman, S. Bear, Chandra, Amber Dawn, Anna Camilleri , Debra Anderson , Anne Fleming,Michael V. Smith and Zoe Whittall explore the parameters, history, and power of a multitude of butch and femme realities.”

· $£¥ €. Zowie Davy. Recognizing Transsexuals: Personal, Political and Medicolegal Embodiment. Ashgate, 2011. “Interviews with transsexuals at various stages of transition to offer an account of transsexual embodiment and bodily aesthetics.”

· Morty Diamond (ed). Trans/love: Radical Sex, Love & Relationships Beyond the Gender Binary. Manic D Press, 2011. “Dating, sex, love, and relationships among members of the gender variant community.”

· Alex Drummond. Queering the Tranny: New Perspectives on Male Transvestism and Transsexualism. True Colours Publishing, 2011. A Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist with clinical specialism and research interests in Adult ADHD, Sexual Minorities (LGBTQK issues) and Transgender spells it out for beginners. Excerpt.

· Noach Dzmura,. Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community. Berkeley, Calif: North Atlantic Books, 2010. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Various Jewish experiences.

· Diane Ehrensaft. Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children. New York: Experiment, 2011. A parents’ guide by a psychologist.

· $£¥ €. Patricia Elliot. Debates in Transgender, Queer and Feminist Theory: Contested Sites. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub, 2010. “A central concern is the question of whether the theories and practices needed to foster and secure the lives of transsexuals and transgendered persons will be promoted or undermined - a concern that raises broader social, political, and ethical questions surrounding assumptions about gender, sexuality, and sexual difference; perceptions of transgendered embodiments and identities; and conceptions of divergent desires, goals and visions.”

· $£¥ €. Leslie C. Guditis. When a Transsexual Family Member Transitions: A Qualitative Exploration of the Family’s Experience. Proquest, 2011. A 144 page PhD thesis. “This study consisted of interviews with 20 family members and/or romantic partners of transsexual individuals who have already transitioned. They were asked to tell their story about their relationship with their transsexual loved one before, during, and after transition. The intended benefits of the study were increased knowledge about the relationships of transsexual individuals with their loved ones, as well as insight for family therapists and other mental health professionals who work with transsexual individuals and/or their loved ones.”

· $£¥ €. Rosanne Terese Kennedy. Rousseau in Drag: Deconstructing Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. “Kennedy reads Rousseau's well-known but brief flirtation with cross-dressing as a starting point to dramatically reconsider the standard reading of Rousseau as a misogynist.”

· Irwin Krieger. Helping Your Transgender Teen: A Guide for Parents. Genderwise Press, 2011. Basic information for parents.

· Charles Le Goffic. Fêtes et coutumes populaires Les fêtes patronales-Le réveillon-Masques et travestis-Le joli mois de Mai-Les noces en Bretagne-La fête des morts-Les feux de la Saint-Jean-Danses et Musiques populaires. Free Kindle, 2011. Also as a free eBook.

· Gesa Linemann. Das paradoxe Geschlecht: Transsexualität im Spannungsfeld von Körper, Leib und Gefühl. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften / Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, 2011. “Die paradoxe Struktur der transsexuellen Geschlechtsveränderung lässt sich nur verstehen, wenn man nicht von Subjekten ausgeht, die ihr Geschlecht einfach wechseln können. Vielmehr gilt es, die Dimension der subjektiven leiblichen Erfahrung einzubeziehen und zu verstehen, wie diese mit einer objektivierten zweigeschlechtlichen Ordnung verschränkt ist.”

· Jana Marcus. Transfigurations. 7 Angels Press, 2011. Photographs. “I discovered that gender is both real and illusory, natural and constructed. By capturing the physical and mental transformation from one sex/gender to another, the photos reveal the importance of the body in gender identity, as well as the effects of transformative practices on the body, which creates a reality beyond ordinary experience.”

· Aurélie Martinez. Images du corps monstrueux. Paris: Harmattan, 2011. “Le monstre ne vient-il pas à point nommé pour exacerber les peurs et les fantasmes sur les diverses mutations identitaires face à la norme et aux évolutions techniques de la science?”

· Moe Meyer. A n Archaeology of Posing: Essays on Camp, Drag, and Sexuality. Macater Press, 2011. ‘Diverging from the text-based premise of most queer theory, Meyer utilizes performance studies and interpretive anthropology to examine camp and drag performances in the spaces in which they appear. He explores a variety of topics—from transsexual striptease and Harlem drag balls to the death of camp—within the genre of queer drag and sexuality performance.’

· Glenn W. Olsen. Of Sodomites, Effeminates, Hermaphrodites, and Androgynes: Sodomy in the Age of Peter Damian. PIMS, 2011. Front Matter.

· Laurie Penny. Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism. O Books, 2011. “The important chapter on trans women sets out clearly and succinctly why the transphobic attitudes of radical feminists like Julie Bindel and Janice Raymond must be rejected. This is an issue that I suspect few cis women have given much thought to and its importance will become apparent in the very near future as the struggle for trans rights becomes more prominent.”

· Catherine Platine. The Cybeline Revival. Lulu, 2011. Review.

· Julia Reuter. Geschlecht und Körper: Studien zur Materialität und Inszenierung gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeit. Bielefeld: transcript, 2011. “Julia Reuter [gibt] einen Überblick über die Relevanz und Vielfalt körper- und geschlechtersoziologischer Sichtweisen auf die moderne Gesellschaft.”

++ Megan M.Rohrer and Zander Keig. Letters for My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect. Wilgefortis, 2010, Kindle 2011. Essays by Jamison Green, Raven Kaldera, Lou Sullivan, Cristopher Bautista, Malcolm Himschoot.

· Jon Ronson. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry. New York: Riverhead Books, 2011. Not about trans, although there is section on David Shayler. There is more on the DSM and David Spitzer.

· Martine Rothblatt. From Transgender to Transhuman: A Manifesto On the Freedom of Form. Martine Rothblatt, 2011.

· Kristen Schilt. Just One of the Guys? Transgender men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality. University of Chicago Press, 2011. “As tall, white FTMs see more advantages than short FTMs and FTMs of color, these experiences also illustrate how men's gender advantages at work vary with characteristics such as race/ethnicity and body structure.”

· Francoise Sironi. Psychologie(s) des transsexuels et des transgenres. Odile Jacob, 2011. “Sironi ouvre à une compréhension nouvelle des vécus transidentitaires, en décrivant comment appréhender et accompagner, sans les discréditer, ces expériences de métamorphose humaine. Elle montre également en quoi les trans-identités sont en fin de compte un nouveau paradigme qui nous aide à penser les identités émergentes à l heure de la mondialité : métis culturels, migrations planétaires, familles recomposées, homo-parentalités, adoptions internationales.”

· Brock Thompson. The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South. University of Arkansas Press, 2010. “Thompson analyzes the meaning of rural drag shows, including a compelling description of a 1930s seasonal beauty pageant in Wilson, Arkansas, where white men in drag shared the stage with other white men in blackface, a suggestive mingling that went to the core of both racial transgression and sexual disobedience. These small town entertainments put on in churches and schools emerged decades later in gay bars across the state as a lucrative business practice and a larger means of community expression, while in the same period the state's sodomy law was rewritten to condemn sexual acts between those of the same sex in language similar to what was once used to denounce interracial sex.”

· Sarah Wong and Ellen de Visser. Inside Out: Portraits of Cross-Gender Children. Zwolle: Uitgeverij d'jonge Hond, 2010.

(Auto)Biography

· Helen Berry. The Castrato and His Wife. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. The life of Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci. Both Mozart and Bach composed for him. While the title connotates a book by Virginia Prince, Tenducci was a man who asserted his masculine identity despite his gender surgery. Review.

· Chaz Bono and Billie Fitzpatrick. Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man. New York: Dutton, 2011.

· Jean-Pierre Bourgeous (ed). Le curé travesti. Lausanne: Humus, 2011. “Dans une malle, dénichée chez un brocanteur, des milliers de petits papiers parcourus d'une fine écriture. Une masse de feuillets consacrée à la description très minutieuse de fantasmes de travestissements et de combinaisons sexuelles. Poésies, comptines, courts récits, parodies, fragments... L'auteur de ce flot luxurieux est un abbé, officiant dans le Centre de la France, au milieu du siècle dernier...”

· Beth Elliott & Geri Nettick. Mirrors - Portrait of a Lesbian Transsexual. CreateSpace, 2011. Revised edition.

· Jon-Jon Goulian. The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt. Random House, 2011. A cis man in a skirt. Article.

· Shuniyya Rumaha Haiibalah. Jangan Lepas Jilbabku!: (Please Do Not Remove My Hijab). 2011.

· Paul Hendrickson. Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. A large section on Gregory/Gloria Hemingway.

· Nick Krieger. Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender. Beacon Press, 2011. A very well-received autobiography.

· Toni Newman. I Rise-The Transformation Of Toni Newman. Kindle, 2011. “Toni tells her story of being a 'sissy boy', a scholarship student, a business professional, an escort, a drag queen, a NYC prostitute, an LA dominatrix, and finally, a transsexual attending law school in order to help her transsexual sisters in need. From cross-dressing and Bible Study classes in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to writing and studying while tending to the fetish fantasies of Hollywood’s A-list, I Rise is far from a tale of fitting in.”

· Kathy Anne Noble. Two Lives: A Transsexual’s Story and the Fight for Recognition. Zeus Publictions, 2011.

· Edi Oliveira. Journal d'un travesti. Favre SA, 2011. “Un jeune Brésilien arrive en Europe, la vingtaine, hétéro et naïf. Il veut juste échapper à la misère de son pays, travailler pour aider sa famille. Entraîné dans la prostitution, il finit par trouver son indépendance dans le milieu et devenir un professionnel expérimenté.”

· Chloe Jane Oliver. Finding Chloe. Matthias Press, 2011. Review.

· Faith Turner. Me and Julia Reeds. Kindle, 2011. “A curious, wayward little Texas boy, despite his traditional, conservative upbringing, becomes a transsexual escort and adult entertainer, making lots of money and living the fast life, only to lose it all in the end, before picking up the pieces of a shattered life to carry on.”

· Hubert Verneret. Le travesti de l'étoile: Jeanne Baret, première femme à avoir fait le tour du monde. Précy-sous-Thil: Armançon, 2011. 1766 –9, botanist set sail in male disguise.

· Fabrice Virgili and Danièle Voldman. La garçonne et l'assassin. Histoire de Louise et de Paul, déserteur travesti, dans le Paris des années folles. Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2011. Paul Grappe spent the Great War passing as female. After the amnesty for deserters, he reverted to being male, and then annoyed his wife to the point that she shot him.

Fiction

· Cris Beam. I Am J. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011. A trans boy growing up. Cris is the foster mother of a trans.

· Elliott DeLine. Refuse. Smashwords, 2011.

· Herman Frank, Esq. Ultimate Revenge: Involuntary Transsexual. Trafford Publishing, 2011.

· Catherine Ryan Hyde. Jumpstart the World. Knopf, 2010. Leslie Feinberg’s younger sister. This novel reopened the estrangement between them.

· Brian Katcher. Almost Perfect. Delacorte Press, 2009. 2011 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award.

· Mike Perry. Klec pro majáky (A Cage for Beacons). Zlín: Kniha Zlín, 2011. The first Czech trans man autobiographical novel.

· Justine Saracen. Sarah, Son of God. Bold Stroke Books, 2011.

· Jon Smith. The Boy Who Was Born a Girl. Arrow, 2011.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 9: News Media, Journals

2011-12-29T05:12:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

News Media & Bookshops

A Different Light bookstore, Castro St, San Francisco, California’s last GLBT bookshop closed.

Gay’s The Word, London’s GLBT bookshop, was the only bookshop vandalized in the August riots.

The News of the World, which has been aggressively outing trans persons for more than a century, finally closed as a tactical retreat by News Corp International, after a hacking scandal.

Magazine covers:

Soho Magazine, Columbia, 11 Feb 2011 Endry Cardeño

Love Magazine The Androgyny Issue, Feb 2011, featured Kate Moss and Lea T. on the cover kissing.

Elle Brazil December: Lea T.

Schön! 14 with Andrej Pejić.

Dossier Journal, May 2011, showed Andrej Pejić taking off his shirt with his hair in curlers. Barnes & Noble covered this up lest he be taken for a topless woman.

Newspapers

The Guardian

· A series of articles by Juliet Jacques about her transition.

· Articles by Roz Kaveney on various topics.

· Stephen Pritchard. “The readers' editor on... reporting transgender issues: The strong response to our feature about the death of human rights lawyer Sonia Burgess highlights the need for sensitivity and respect”. 23 January 2011. www.guardian.co.uk/theo bserver/2011/jan/23/readers-editor-on-reporting-transgender-issues

· Becky Garrison. “Trans clergy are finally gaining greater acceptance”. 30 March 2011. www.guardian.co.uk/comm entisfree/belief/2011/mar/30/trans-clergy-acceptance-church.

· Natacha Kennedy. “Trans people speak up for themselves: Trans people have long been the objects of discussion by others. Now, the net has helped us become a strong, vocal community”. 21 April 2011. www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/201 1/apr/21/transgender-community-net

· Rasha Moumneh. “The Gulf’s gender anxiety: Moral panic over transgender men and women is symptomatic of the Gulf’s problem with shifting gender roles”. 6 July 2011. www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/06/gulf-gender-anxiety-transgender.

· Flavia Dzodan. “Argentina's big step towards true sexual equality: Proposals to allow trans people to change their names and gender on legal documents could be another landmark measure”. 2 Sept 2011. www.guardian.co.uk/com mentisfree/2011/sep/02/argentina-sexual-equality-trans-people.

· Kate Hodel. “Indonesia's transgender couples surrounded by fear and persecution”. 16 Oct 2011. www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/16/indonesia-transgender-couples-persecution.

· Alan Travis. “Transgender and disabled murders to incur far harsher hate-crime penalty”. 8 Dec 2011. www.guardian.c o.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/08/transgender-disabled-murder-harsher-penalty

The New York Times

· John Eligon. “Suits Dispute City’s Rule on Recording Sex Changes” March 22, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23gender.html

· Elliott DeLine. “Stuck at the Border Between the Sexes”. May 29, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/fashion/stuck-at-the-border-between-the-sexes-modern-love.html

· Erik Piepenburg. “When They Play Women, It’s Not Just an Act”. July 28, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/movies/new-roles-for-transgender-performers.html

· Laura Rena Murray. “The High Price of Looking Like a Woman”. Aug 19, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/nyregion/some-transgender-women-pay-a-high-price-to-look-more-feminine.html. On pumping.

· Adrienne Lu. “For Transgender Detainees, a Jail Policy Offers Some Security”. Dec 22, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/us/for-transgender-detainees-a-jail-policy-offers-some-security.html

Xtra

· Aaron Leaf. “Trans activism in South America”. Nov 17, 2011. www.xtra.ca/public/National/Trans_activism_in_South_America-11089.aspx.

· “Camille Paglia disses Chaz Bono”. May 04, 2011. www.xtra.ca/public/National/Camille_Paglia_disses_Chaz_Bono-10111.aspx.

· Andrea Houston. “Trans sex workers still most vulnerable”. Nov 09, 2011. www.xtra.ca/public/National/Trans_sex_workers_still_most_vulnerable-11058.aspx.

Advocate

· Michelle Garcia. “Trans, Gay Murders Rock Honduras”. Jan 21, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/01/21/Trans_Gay_Murders_Rock_Honduras/

· Julie Bolcer. “Study: Discrimination Pervades Trans Lives”. Feb 04, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/02/04/Study_Discrimination_Pervades_Transgender_Lives/

· Trudy Ring. “Voter ID May Affect Trans Citizens”. June 23, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/06/23/Voter_ID_May_Affect_Trans_Citizens/

· Winston Gieseke. “Miss Universe Shows Support For Trans Community”. July 15, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/07/15/Miss_Universe_Shows_Support_For_Trans_Community/

· Neal Broverman. “Trans Activists Criticize NAACP”. July 24, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/07/24/Trans_Activists_Criticize_NAACP/

· Neal Broverman. “Study: Black Trans People Suffer Extreme Prejudice”. Sept 16, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/09/16/Study_Black_Trans_People_Suffer_Extreme_Prejudice/

· Diane Anderson-Minshall. “Trans American Military Stories”. Sept 21, 2011. www.advocate.com/Politics/Military/Trans_American_Military_Stories/

· Diane Ehrensaft. “Op-ed: On Trans Kids, It’s Us Who Are Confused: The creative gender cases of Storm, Chaz, Tammy and Mario revealed our society’s knee-jerk and crushing reaction to nonconformity.”. Oct 07, 2011. www.advocate.com/Politics/Commentary/Oped_When_It_Comes_to_Trans_Kids_It_Us_Who_Are_Confused/

· Andi Alexander & Neal Broverman. “Trans Rights: What Capitol Hill Could Learn From Corporate America”. Oct 2011. www.advocate.com/Print_Issue/Features/Trans_Rights_What_Capitol_Hill_Could_Learn_From_Corporate_America/

· Winston Gieseke. “IRS Rules in Favor of Trans Deductions”. Nov 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/11/04/IRS_Rules_in_Favor_of_Trans_Deductions/

· Michelle Garcia. “Trans Employees Fight to Work in Georgia and Chicago”. Dec 07, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/12/07/Trans_Employees_Fight_to_Work_in_Atlanta_and_Chicago/

· Diane Anderson-Minshall. “Girl Scout Troops in Trans Panic Mode?”. Dec 19, 2011. www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/12/19/Girl_Scouts_Troops_in_Trans_Panic_Mode/

Other

· Smitha Verna. “Betwixt and Between”. The Telegraph, Calcutta, March 2, 2011. www.telegraphindia.com/1110302/jsp/opinion/story_13655143.jsp.

· “Joy and pain as transgender Indians 'wed' Hindu god”. France24, 03 May 2011. www.france24.com/en/20110503-joy-pain-transgender-indians-wed-hindu-god.

· Henrietta Cook. “Transgender people face 'social isolation'”. The Canberra Times, 06 May 2011. www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/transgender-people-face-social-isolation/2154850.aspx.

· Tony Philips. "The Tranny Chaser Chaser: Gay guys who like straight guys who like guys dressed as girls". The Village Voice, Jun 22 2011. www.villagevoice.com/2011-06-22/news/the-tranny-chaser-chaser/

· Darah Hansen. “Companies are changing to support transgender employees: When workers undergo a change in gender, their employers need to address new needs”. The Vancouver Sun, Aug 15, 2011. www.vancouversun.com/health/Companies+changing+support+transgender+employees/5250992/story.html.

Paul Schindler. “Moving Beyond Shock on Transgender Health”. Gay City News, Sept 14, 2011. www.chelseanow.com/articles/2011/09/14/gay_city_news/perspectives/doc4e7034edcd6fb560256687.txt

· Gee Ammeena Suleiman. “Non-hijra transgenders struggle for identity”. Daily News & Analysis, Sep 18, 2011. www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_non-hijra-transgenders-struggle-for-identity_1588421.

· “Special law for adoption of transgenders planned”. Daily News & Analysis, Oct 16, 2011. www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_special-law-for-adoption-of-transgenders-planned_1599676.

· Sofi Papamarko. “For transgender singles, online dating is a minefield”. The Globe and Mail, Oct 13, 2011. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/love/dating/for-transgender-singles-online-dating-is-a-minefield/article2200256.

· Kellee Terrell. “Black and Transgender: A Double Burden: A recent report confirms that they face extreme discrimination and poverty.”. The Root, Oct 18, 2011. www.theroot.com/views/black-and-transgender-double-burden.

· Jack Dolan. “Lawsuit asks state to pay for inmate’s sex-change operation”. Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/20/local/la-me-prisons-transgender-20110420.

· Transgender: A Special Report. Albany Times Union. www.timesunion.com/transgender

· “Intersex Babies: Boy or Girl and Who Decides”. ABC News, March 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/intersex-children-pose-ethical-dilemma-doctors-parents-genital/story?id=13153068.

· Donna Nebenzahl. “Gender Identity Crisis”. Montreal Gazette, 20 March 2011. www.atq1980.org/en/archives/articles/gender-identity-crisis/?lang=en

· Eliza Gray. “”. The New Republic, June 23, 2011. www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/90519/transgender-civil-rights-gay-lesbian-lgbtq.

· “Modern world plays havoc with age-old livelihood: Members of India's transgender community are turning to sex work to survive as their traditional way of life is eroded, writes Matt Wade in Delhi”. The Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 8, 2011. www.smh.com.au/world/modern-world-plays-havoc-with-ageold-livelihood-20110107-19ity.html

Journal Articles,Theses & Studies

· National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality. Injustice at Every Turn. 2011.

· The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), in collaboration with the National Gay and Lesbian task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). "Injustice at Every Turn: A Look at Black Respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey," 2011

· University of California, San Francisco. Primary Care Protocol for Transgender Patient Care, 2011. www.transhealth.ucsf.edu/trans?page=protocol-00-00.

· Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy, University of California Los Angeles. Three-quarters of 283 transgender Massachusetts residents surveyed have experienced some form of employment discrimination. Estimates show that the Federal and State Governments are losing more than $330 Million in income tax revenues and paying an extra $140 million for increased public assistance and health insurance costs.

· Council of Europe. Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Europe. www.coe.int/t/Commissioner/Source/LGBT/LGBTStudy2011_en.pdf.

· Y. Gavriel Ansara & Peter Hegarty. “Cisgenderism in psychology: pathologising and misgendering children from 1999 to 2008”. Psychology and Sexuality, Jun 2011. Abstract. Full text.

· Juno Obedin-Maliver, Elizabeth S. Goldsmith, Leslie Stewart, William White, Eric Tran, Stephanie Brenman, Maggie Wells, David M. Fetterman, Gabriel Garcia, Mitchell R. Lunn. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender–Related Content in Undergraduate Medical Education”. Journal of the American Medical Association, 306,9, 971-7, 2011. Abstract. The median reported time dedicated to LGBT-related topics in 2009-2010 was small across US and Canadian medical schools, but the quantity, content covered, and perceived quality of instruction varied substantially.

· Paisley Currah and Tara Mulqueen, "Securitizing Gender: Identity, Biometrics, and Transgender Bodies at the Airport," Social Research 78:2 (Summer 2011): 556-582. Abstract.

· Signe Bremer. Kön, transsexualism och kropp i berättelser om könskorrigering (Bodylines - Gender, transsexualism and embodiment in narratives on gender correction). PhD. Gothenburg, 2011. Abstract.

· Charlie L. Law, Larry R. Martinez, Enrica N. Ruggs, Michelle R. Hebl, Emily Akersa. “Trans-parency in the workplace: How the experiences of transsexual employees can be improved”. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 3, December 2011, 710-723. Abstract.

· Human Right Watch. “We’ll Show You You’re a Woman”. Violence and Discrimination against Black Lesbians and Transgender Men in South Africa. 2011. Full Report. Summary.

· Fundamental Rights Agency. Homophobia, transphobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in the EU Member States. 2011. “All EU countries require for legal gender recognition a ‘medical opinion’ aka mental diagnosis, 17 member states demand sterilization. In 15 countries transgender people are not (clearly) protected from discrimination (in breach of EU law). This and the invisibility of trans issues in public awareness campaigns of public and national equality bodies is appalling: 79% of trans people in the EU experience some form of harassment in public ranging from transphobic comments to physical or sexual abuse.”. Summary. Full Report.

· Friedermann Pfafflin. “Remarks on the History of the Terms Identity and Gender Identity’. International Journal of Transgenderism, 13, 1, 2011: 13-25. Abstract. “This article reflects on the history of the term identity in general and especially on sexual/ gender identity and concludes that an amendment of the German Constitution is not needed.”

· Angela Calderera & Friedermann Pfafflin. “Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment Surgery in Italy”. International Journal of Transgenderism, 13, 1, 2011: 26-36. Abstract. “The resulting prevalence, lower than in other countries, suggests that the data is not complete”.

· Veronica Pimenoff & Friedermann Pfäfflin. “Transsexualism: Treatment Outcome of Compliant and Noncompliant Patients”. International Journal of Transgenderism, 13, 1, 2011: 37-44. Abstract. “The noncompliant patients achieved equally good results as the compliant ones, and did so in a shorter time. A good treatment outcome could be achieved even when the patient had told the assessing psychiatrist a falsified story of his life and sought hormone therapy, genital surgery, or legal sex reassignment on his own initiative without a recommendation from the psychiatrist. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the doctor-patient relationship be reconsidered and founded on frank cooperation.”

· Ernest Govier, Milton Diamond, Teresa Wolowiec & Catherine Slade. “Dichotic Listening, Handedness, Brain Organization, and Transsexuality”. International Journal of Transgenderism, 12, 3, 2010: 144-154. Abstact. “Taken together, the dichotic and handedness data reported here indicate that the MtF and FtM conditions are not mirror images in terms of the verbal-auditory aspects of their brain organization and neurobiology plays an important role, particularly in the development of the male-to-female trans-condition.”

· Susan B. Marine. “ ‘Our College Is Changing’: Women's College Student Affairs Administrators and Transgender Students ‘. Journal of Homosexuality, 58:9, 2011, 1165-1186. Abstract.

· Stephen L. Mann. “Drag Queens' Use of Language and the Performance of Blurred Gendered and Racial Identities”. Journal of Homosexuality, 58, 6-7, 2011: 793-811. Abstract.

· Elijah Adiv Edelman. “ ‘This Area Has Been Declared a Prostitution Free Zone’: Discursive Formations of Space, the State, and Trans ‘Sex Worker’ Bodies”. Journal of Homosexuality, 58, 6-7, 2011: 848-864. Abstract.

· Michelle Davies & Jenefer Hudson. “Judgments Toward Male and Transgendered Victims in a Depicted Stranger Rape”. ”. Journal of Homosexuality, 58, 2, 2011: 237-247. Abstract.

· Anne A Lawrence. "Further Validation of Blanchards Typology: A Reply to Nuttbrock, Bockting, Rosenblum, Mason, and Hwahng (2010)." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.6 (2011): 1089-91.

· Larry Nuttbrock et al. "Sexual Arousal Associated with Private as Compared to Public Feminine Dressing among Male-to-Female Transgender Persons: A further Response to Lawrence (2011)." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.6 (2011): 1093-6..

· Peggy Cadet. "Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome with Male Sex-of-Living." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.6 (2011): 1101-2.

· Marcos R Garcia, V; Lehman & Yvette Piha. “Issues Concerning the Informality and Outdoor Sex Work Performed by Travestis in Sao Paulo, Brazil”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.6 (2011): 1211-1221. Abstract.

· Prado Cortez, Fernanda Cestaro; Boer, Douglas Pieter; Baltieri, Danilo Antonio. “A Psychosocial Study of Male-to-Female Transgendered and Male Hustler Sex Workers in Sao Paulo, Brazil”. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40. 6 (Dec 2011): 1223-1231. Abstract.

· James M. Cantor. "New MRI Studies Support the Blanchard Typology of Male-to-Female Transsexualism." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.5 (2011): 863-4.

· Thomas D. Steensma and Peggy Cohen-kettenis. "Gender Transitioning before Puberty?" Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.4 (2011): 649-50.

· Anne A. Lawrence, "Do some Men Who Desire Sex Reassignment have A Mental Disorder? Comment on Meyer-Bahlburg (2010)." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.4 (2011): 651-4.

· Heino Meyer-bahlburg. "Do some Men Who Desire Sex Reassignment have A Mental Disorder? Response to Lawrence (2011)." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.4 (2011): 655-7.

· Esther Gómez-gil et al. "Birth Order and Ratio of Brothers to Sisters in Spanish Transsexuals." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.3 (2011): 505-10. Abstract. “The results showed that MF homosexual transsexuals had significantly more older brothers than the non-homosexual MF group”.

· Paul L Vasey et al. "Traits of Separation Anxiety in Childhood: A Retrospective Study of Samoan Men, Women, and FaAfafine." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.3 (2011): 511-7. Abstract. “Our results indicated that Samoan fa'afafine recalled significantly more separation anxiety in childhood compared to Samoan men and women. These findings, coupled with research on U.S. and Canadian boys with GIDC, suggest that separation anxiety in childhood may represent a universal pattern of psychosexual development shared by most gender-atypical, androphilic males, regardless of their cultural milieu.”

· Guy Tsjoen et al. "Male Gender Identity in Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.3 (2011): 635-8. Abstract. “The first case of male gender identity in a CAIS individual raised female leading to complete sex reassignment involving both androgen treatment and phalloplasty. CAIS was diagnosed at age 17, based on an unambiguously female phenotype, a 46,XY karyotype, and a 2660delT androgen receptor (AR) gene mutation, leading to a premature stop in codon 807.”

· Larry Nuttbrock et al. "A further Assessment of Blanchards Typology of Homosexual Versus Non-Homosexual Or Autogynephilic Gender Dysphoria." Archives of Sexual Behavior 40.2 (2011): 247-57. Abstract. “Contrary to Blanchard, differences in transvestic fetishism were observed across subtypes of the non-homosexuals, and linear (not curvilinear) associations were found along a continuous measurement of gynephilia and transvestic fetishism. Age and ethnicity, in addition to sexual orientation, were found to be statistically significant predictors of transvestic fetishism.”

· Heino Meyer-bahlburg. "Gender Outcome in 46,XY Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome: Comment on TSjoen Et Al. (2010)." Archives of Sexual Behavior 39.6 (2010): 1221-4.

· Lai Meng-chuan et al. "Correlates of Gender Dysphoria in Taiwanese University Students." Archives of Sexual Behavior 39.6 (2010): 1415-28. Abstract. “Results showed that gender dysphoria was more prevalent in females (7.3%) than males (1.9%). Young adults with gender dysphoria were more likely to meet a wide but specific range of co-occurring psychiatric symptoms. The most significantly associated symptoms for males were agoraphobia, hypochondriasis, manic episode, and pathological gambling, and for females dissociative disorder, hypochondriasis, and body dysmorphic disorder. Both males and females with gender dysphoria perceived significantly less support from their families and less affection/care from both parents.”

· Annika Johansson et al. "A Five-Year Follow-Up Study of Swedish Adults with Gender Identity Disorder." Archives of Sexual Behavior 39.6 (2010): 1429-37. Abstract. “At follow-up, 32 patients had completed sex reassignment surgery, five were still in process, and five--following their own decision--had abstained from genital surgery. No one regretted their reassignment. The clinicians rated the global outcome as favorable in 62% of the cases, compared to 95% according to the patients themselves, with no differences between the subgroups. Based on the follow-up interview, more than 90% were stable or improved as regards work situation, partner relations, and sex life, but 5-15% were dissatisfied with the hormonal treatment, results of surgery, total sex reassignment procedure, or their present general health.”

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 8: Theatre & Cinema

2011-12-28T05:55:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Television & Radio

Channel 4 is the first media outlet to sign Trans Media Watch’s Memorandum of Understanding. The BBC and ITV are considering the legal standpoint.

--------

"Amra Tomadery" (We are for you). ATN Bangla. A talent show for hijras.

Bad Habits: The Return of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Kevin O’Keefe (dir). Canada iChannel 2012. Trailer.

Being Chaz. OWN, Nov 27, 2011. With Chaz Bono. Trailer.

Granada Television’s Coronation Street, which has had a transsexual character since 1998, now has a cross-dressing character and a civil partnership.

“Dad’s Having a Baby”. Bodyshock, Channel 4. April.

Dancing with the Stars. US version had Chaz Bono as a contestant.

“The Fantastic Show” Sponsored by Harisu.

“Harisu, 10 Years Of Her Dream“, SBS.

Hit And Miss was filmed: the story of a trans hitwoman, Chloe Sevigny, who discovers she fathered children before transitioning. "It’s very realistic". !

Hung, Season 3, trans woman Jamie Clayton plays a trans woman in 2 episodes. HBO.

“I’m Passing as Somebody That I’m Not”. True Life, Apr 27, 2011. MTV. With Domaine Javier.

Inside the Transgender World. ABC, Aug 2011, with Charles Kane and Kim Petras.
Sarah Graham. A Letter to my Body. BBC Radio 3, 6 Jun 2011. At 25 Sarah found that she was AIS.

“Mexico’s Third Gender”. CNN, May 11, 2010. Part 1, part2, part3.

Mind. Emma Crimmings (dir), about Tom Cho. Australia ABC Television 2011.

Channel 4: My Transsexual Summer. A reality show. Follows 7 persons undertaking a range of gender affirmation procedures. Review.

NBC’s Saturday Night Live played a mock commercial “Estro-Maxx”with bearded men in dresses.

“The Sissy Boy Experiment”. CNN, June 7, 2011.

TV2, Denmark, Soren Jenson, reporting on a new gay magazine continually referred to trans women as ‘he’ and described them as “an outright freak show with perverted urges?” The National Organization for GLBT persons filed a complaint.

Thailand’s Got Talent. Bell Nuntita sings in both female and male voices. 16 March 2011. Then an international tour.

“Transgender Child: A Parent’s Difficult Choice”. Our America. Oprah Winfrey Network, March 2011.

Madison Park. “Transgender kids: Painful quest to be who they are”. CNN Sept 27, 2011. And a followup: “What fuels transgender backlash?”. Sept 30, 2011.

Take a Look at Ladyboys. Sky, 29 Aug 2011.

Work It. ABC. Due to start in January 2012. An unfunny comedy about two men passing (or not) as women to get a job. A lot of trans people had objected to the concept, and in effect have done free advertizing for the show.

Theatre

Brian Bedford (dir). The Importance of Being Earnest. Scr: Oscar Wilde. Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell. The Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, Ontario, and then the American Airlines Theater, NY.

Alan Cummings as both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. National Theatre of Scotland.
Audra Lord’s play Fugue about memory and identity, in which transgender Stephanie (played by the artistic director Keith Medilis) is the only one who is comfortable with her present state. The New Theater Project in Ypsilanti. Inspired by artist Stephanie Loveless.

A revival of Michel Tremblay’s Hosanna at Stratford, Ontario, with Gatheth Potter as Hosanna.

Southern Comfort Annette O’Toole as Robert Eads. At the CAP21 Black Box Theater, Chelsea, New York. Based on the 2001 documentary.

Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

Thai Ladyboy troope did an Indian tour.

Octavian Chan (dir). Lady Samantha, Pak Li (scr) with Sam Choy as Samantha, a pre-op trans woman. Hong Kong.

I Am What I am. Angus Chan and Garrick Wong (dir & scr), with Angus Chan as Abigail Chay and Garrick Wong as a boyfriend. Based on the life of Abigail Chay. The Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre in Hong Kong. Cantonese version will run on Jan 7 and 8 and the Mandarin version on Jan 14 and 15.

Sammy Auttayakorn crowned Miss Tiffany Universe in Pattaya.

Nina Arsenault. The Silicone Diaries. Theatre La Chapelle, Montreal. Dec 14-18, 2010.

Aleksa Lundberg. Infestus. Thule Theatre, Stockholm. October 2011.

‘Tranny Hotel’ was in Cologne in June and at Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel in November. Dozens of transgender artists, including Lazlo Pearlman, Jo Clifford, Rae Spoon, performed. Organized in Liverpool by Mandy Romero. Part of the Homotopia Festival.

Being Eunuch, staged by the city-based theatre group Nishumbita as part of the Hyderabad Theatre and Rock Music Festival in association with Samahaara.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – over 200 performances on Broadway

Gardenia. Aging trans performers. At Sadler’s Wells Theatre and then at Montreal’s Festival TransAmériques. With Vanessa Van Durme.

Cinema

Matt Mazur. “Connect the Dots: Transgender Narratives in Pop Culture”. PopMatters, 9 Sept 2011. www.popmatters.com/pm/column/145222-connect-the-dots-transgender-narratives-in-pop-culture. An essay on the image of transgender in film.

Tracy Clarke-Flory. “What’s behind transsexual attraction?” Slate, Oct 20, 2011. www.salon.com/2011/10/21/whats_behind_transsexual_attraction. A trans woman wants to know what kind of men watch "T-girl" porn. Are they the same ones who bash her in real life?

Oscar hosts, James Franco and Anne Hathaway in drag.

Film actor Giuseppe Schisano will soon transition to Vittoria.

-----------

Albert Nobbs. Rodrigo Garcia (dir). Glenn Close & John Banville (scr), based on the novella by George Moore. With Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs. Ireland 2011. I MDB. A trans man in 19^th century Dublin. Tra iler.

All Good Things. Andrew Jarecki (dir). Scr: Marcus Hinchey & Marc Smerling, with Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella. US 101 mins 2010. IMDB. Based on the Robert Dunst story, but with all the names changed. Trailer.

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye. Marie Losier (dir), with Genesis P. Orridge and Lady Jaye. US 72 mins 2011. IMDB The love story and pandrogyne art project as Genesis and Lady Jaye have a series of surgeries to closely resemble each other. Trailer.

Becoming Chaz. Fanton Bailey and Randy Barbato (dir), with Chaz Bono. US 85 mins. IMDB. Trailer.

Bella Maddo. Janice Danielle (dir) with Janice Danielle, Miss Jazz, Isis King, US 2011. IMDB. A melodrama with an all-trans cast. Trailer.

Berlin 36. Kaspar Heilelbach (dir), Lothar Kurzawa (scr) with Sebastian Urzendowsky as Marie Ketteler and Karoline Herfurth as Gretel Bergman. Germany 100 mins 2009. IMDB. Based on the Dora Ratjen story, but some names changed. Trailer.

Le Coccinelle - Sceneggiata Transessuale. Emanuela Pirelli (dir). Italy 2011. Trailer.
Dalam Botol. Khir Rahman (dir). With Arja Lee as Ruby. Malaysia 90 mins 2011. IMDB. Rubin becomes Ruby for her lover, but he then leaves her. Trailer.

Florent: Queen of the Meat Market. David Sigal (dir) with Florent Morellet. US 89 mins 2010. IMDB. A diner in New York’s meat market, serving trans persons, sex workers and show biz stars. Trailer.

A Dragged Out Affair. Sonia Hong (dir). Canada 15 mins 2010. IMDB. A fantasy among Toronto drag queens. Trailer.

Gun Hill Road. Rashaad Grenn (dir & scr). With Harmony Santana as Michael/Vanessa. US 88 mins 2011. IMDB. Ex-con father returns to find his son turning into Vanessa. Trailer.

The Hangover Part II. Todd Phillips (dir) Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong & Todd Phillips (scr) with Ed Helms as Stu and Yasmin Lee as Kimmy. US 102 mins 2011. IMDB. After getting drunk in Bangkok, Stu bareback bottoms for a trans woman. Trailer. The trans women is played by a trans woman. Is it transphobic?

Horrorween. Joe Estevez (dir). Scr: Ed Meyer, Mike Muscat, Judd Rubin, with Alice Cooper, Enza Anderson as herself. US 2011. IMDB.

I Am the Queen. Henrique Cirne-Lima & Josue Pellot (dir). US 2010. IMDB. A trans pageant in Chicago’s Humbolt Park. Trailer.

I Was a Trannie Werewolf. Lola Rock’N’Rolla (dir & scr), with The Lady Bunny, Mistress Formika. US 10 mins 2009. IMDB. Trailer.

Jack and Jill. Dennis Dugan (dir), Steve Koren, Robert Smigel & Ben Zook (scr) with Adam Sandler as Jack and as Jill, and Eugenio Derbez as Felipe and as Felipe’s grandma. USA 2011. IMDB. Unfunny conflict between a male and female twin played by the same actor. Trailer. Made some worst top ten of the year lists.

J. Edgar. Clint Eastwood (dir), Dustin Lance Black (scr). With Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover and Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson. US 2011. IMDB. Hoover shown in drag only once after his mother dies. Trailer.

Lost in the Crowd. Susi Graf (dir). US 61 mins 2010. IMDB. Trans and gay youth living on the streets of New York. Trailer.

Madame X. Lucky Kuswandi (dir) with Aming Suagndhi as Madame X. Indonesia 100 mins 2011. IMDB. Trans superhero against homophobic criminals. Trailer.

Mavro Livadi (Black Field). Vardis Marinakis (dir) with Sofia Georgovassili as Anthi. Greece 104 mins 2009. IMDB. In the 1650s, a wounded deserter escapes with a nun who turns out to be a boy. Best actress award at the Seville Film Festival. Trailer.

Narthaki. Vijayapadma (dir). With Kalki Subramanaian and Punnagai Poo Geetha. India 115 mins 2011. IMDB. In India given an A(adults only) certificate to shield children from existence of trans persons. A trans woman goes through trauma, but survives. Trailer.

Out on the Street. Amy Seigel & Alex Abramovich (dir) with M. Callaghan. Canada 11 mins 2010. IMDB.

Pay it no Mind: Marsha P Johnson. Michael Musto (dir) with Marsha P Johnson. US 2011. Trailer.

La piel que habito (The Skin That I Live In). Pedro Almodovar(dir & scr ) based on the novel Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet, with Antonio Banderas as Robert Ledgard, Elena Anava as Vincente/Vera Cruz. Spain 117 mins 2011. IMDB. A very stylish film of forced-feminization and revenge. Trailer. Review with spoilers.

Regretters. Marcus Lindeen (dir & scr), with Orlando Fagin & Mikael Johansson. Sweden 58 mins 2010. IMDB. Two men who changed back after surgery and living as women. Trailer.

Renée. Eric Drath (dir). With Renée Richards. US 79 mins 2011. IMDB. Trailer.

Rum Diary. Bruce Robinson (dir). Scr: Bruce Robinson, based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, with Johnny Depp as Kemp, and Karimah Westbrook as the hermaphroditic Papa Nebo. US 120 mins 2011. IMDB Trailer.

Sally’s Story. Mark Andersson (dir) with Sally Goldner . Australia 21 mins 2011. IMDB. The story of the winner of the 2011 Bruce McGuinness award. Trailer.

Shock Head Soul. Simon Pummell (dir & scr) with Hugo Koolschijn as Daniel Paul Schreber. NL/UK 86 mins 2011. IMDB. The madness and gender changes of Daniel Schreber.

The Sons of Tennessee Williams. Tim Wolff (dir). US 75 mins 2010. IMDB. Drag balls and Mardi Gras crews in 1950s New Orleans. Trailer.

Tomboy. Celine Sciamma (dir & scr) with Zoe Heran as Laure/Michael. France 84 mins 2011. IMDB. A 10-year-old girl, settling into her new neighborhood outside Paris, is taken for a boy and lives up to this new. Trailer.

Translatinas. Luis Felipe Degregori (dir). Peru 2010. Trailer.

Transmen. Tiffany Gibson (dir). US 2011. Three transmen in Tennessee. Trailer.

What’s the Name of the Dame. Allan Neuwirth (dir), with Hedda Lettuce, Sade Pendarvis, Yolanda. US 84 mins 2009. IMDB. A camp version of Abba tunes. Trailer.

Announced:

I Am Divine. Jeffrey Schwarz (dir) with Divine, John Waters, Holly Woodlawn,. US 2012. IMDB. Trailer.

K-11. Jules Mann-Stewart (dir & scr), With Kate del Castillo as Mousey. US 2012. IMDB. Prison drama.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music

2011-12-27T06:08:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Art

Josh Lahrer, New York, NY, Becoming Visible, portraits of Homeless transgender teens.

Living My Life exhibition celebrating the trans community on display in Sheffield.

Nina Arsenault photographed by Bruce Labruce in 2006. Donated to Buddies in Bad Times annual art auction and sold for $1700.

Stop-Aids calendar featuring trans women

Trans/Tender. Exhibition at Sydney's Damien Minton Gallery Annex of photographs by Patrick Jones of trans prostitutes in Dili, East Timor.

Christopher Makos. Warhol an d the Diva at The Lowry in Salford. The drag photographs.

“Woman Soul” at the Alliance Française de Manille, Makati City, Philippines. Photographs by Romaine Rivierre, text by Sebastien Farcis.

Robert Crumb’s rejected New Yorker cover on marriage.

Fashion

The End of Pantyhose? For the last 15 years, sales have been going down, down, down, the victim of leg tanner, open-toed shoes, more casual dress codes, and the general fickleness of fashion. Slate, Nov 8, 2011.

Andrej Pejić, androgynous model, walked both the men’s and women’s shows for Jean-Paul Gaultier, was on both Schön! and Dossier Journal covers, number 18 in top 50 male models, and 98 in FHM 100 Sexiest Women.

Claudia Charriez beaten by her NY firefighter boyfriend.

Isis King, having completed transition, returns to America’s Next Top Model.

Lea T, a year of success.

Malika, 28, Chennai. First Indian to participate in the Tiffany Show Pattaya.

Nikkiey Chawla, 26, India, has walked at Milan, and is in an episode of UTV Bindass’s show Emotional Atyachaar.

Valentijn de Hingh. Followed by a documentary team from age 8-17. Then a model, then rejected because too tall. Now modelling again.

Music

Allison Annalora is now a singer.

Big Freedia, Bounce dj.

Interview with CN Lester and En Travesti Ensemble.

Bell Nuntita, big star in Thailand played in Singapore.

Coyote Grace with Joe Stevens.

Life of Agony singer Keith Caputo announces start of transition.

Kim Petras released first EP.

Paige Elliot Phoenix was on The X Factor.

Piyah Martell/Honey B Diva internet sensation.

Sharon Cohen(Dana International) reached the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Ding Dong”.

Schmekel. An all trans male Jewish punk band. New album is Queer on Rye.

Tona Brown performed at the Out Music Awards in New York.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 6: Deaths

2011-12-26T05:00:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

++ added later

Cis Obituaries

Sidney Lumet (1924 – 2011) directed Dog Day Afternoon, Q & A.

Dolores Fuller (1923 - 2011) girlfriend of Ed Wood in life and in Glen or Glenda.

++ Joanna Russ (1937 - 2011) author of The Female Man

Killed by a trans person:

Padge Victoria Windslowe a.k.a. Lillian Languri aka Black Madam killed a UK woman in a hotel room near the Philadelphia airport. The young woman, Claudia Aderotimi, died February 8, shortly after becoming short of breath. Police believe the "Black Madam" may have "nicked a vein and put the substance into the bloodstream." Padge/Lillian has since been on the run.

Asia Santana, Pennsylvania, killed her boyfriend during an argument after he infected her with HIV. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14-28 years

Alicia Simmons, of Philadelphia, an associate of Peaches Burton (see 2010) killed her boyfriend.

Trans Obituaries – other than being murdered

Aleta Elysia Turner (1922 – 2011) photographer, model builder, of complications from diabetes.

Vicki Marlane (1934 – 2011) performer, after medical problems.

Rose Jackson (1935 – 2011) window dresser, costume maker, performer, club owner.

Carmen Rupe (1935 – 2011) performer, mayoral candidate, after medical problems.

Julie Ann Johnson (1942 – 2011) Chicago activist & train buff, of cancer.

Kathryn Leigh McGuire (1942 – 2011) socialite, performer, electoral candidate.

Catherine Jones (1944 – 2011) major US artist, from emphysema and bronchitis.

Roberta Franciolini (1945 - 2011) co-founder of Movimento Identità Transsexual.

Joanne Proctor (1949 – 2011) HBS advocate, after medical problems.

Frank Spisak (1951 – 2011) executed in Ohio after 27 years on death row.

Dana Turner (1954 – 2011) lawyer, performer.

Miranda Jean Henke (1957 – 2011) president of the Gender Identity Center in Colorado, in a driving accident.

Chloe Dz ubilo (1961 -2011) activist, artist, over-medicated and fell onto subway lines.

Chris Dale/Crystal (1961 – 2011) mountaineer, died of cancer.

Paris Dupree (19? – 2011) founder of Paris is Burning Ball and in film of same name.

Tracy Bumpus (1966 – 2011) activist.

Lois Bates (1970 - 2011) Chicago trans and HIV activist, of health problems.

Aleesha Farhana (1986 – 2011) having failed to change her legal gender, died of cardiogenic shock.

13 killed, 40 injured, in fire at trans convention in New Delhi, on TDOR day.

Murdered Trans persons

221 murders of trans persons were recorded in 2011, and many more died without being recorded. These are but a small sample.

Sonia Masi, trans leader in Gujarat, assassinated in Ahmedabad.
Camila Guzman (1973 – 2011) killed by her boyfriend.
Cassidy Vickers (1979 – 2011) shot on the street in Los Angeles.
Priscila Aguila (1989 – 2011) shot 7 times on CCTV, Brazil.
Lashai McLean (1988 - 2011) shot while walking on the street in Washington, DC.
Shakira Harahap (? – 2011) shot in the street in Jakarta.
Naomi Adames (1984 –2011) murdered at home, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Michelle Hilliard (1992 – 2011) Detroit
Luisa Nicol (1993 – 2011) murdered in a hotel in Caracas by a gang that exploits gays and trans.

Reports on some locations:

Honduras 6 trans women were tortured and murdered in just 60 days.
Puerto Rico – 3 murders in a single week; 18 since 2009.
USA – report of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects.
Brazil – murders up 31%.
Washington, DC.
Turkey
UK --crimes against transgender people rose by 14 per cent during 2010.

Here is the best list of names for November 2010-November 2011
www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/TMM/TvT%20TMM%20TDOR%202011%20Name%20list.pdf.
Note the increase: 162 in 2009
179 in 2010
221 in 2011

the majority from Brazil (97), Mexico (23), Colombia (19), and Venezuela (14) followed by Argentina (9), Honduras (9), and the USA (9). In Asia most reported cases have been found in Pakistan (6), and the Philippines (5), and Turkey (5).

Here is an interactive map of all murders of trans people since January 2008.

The outrageously bad Wikipedia page called List of unlawfully killed trans gender people lists a total of 1 trans person being killed in 2010, and none in 2011.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.

2011-12-24T10:22:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Doctors & Sexologists

The conference, Transgender: Time to Change was cancelled after complaints that it was giving a platform to Julie Bindel and Az Hakeem and excluding the opinions of trans people themselves.

Seminar at Chennai University: “Transgender – the Forgotten Gender”. March 2011.

WPATH: September 2011: 7th Version of Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People. Definitely less pathologizing for trans persons: Treatment aimed at persuading congruence with birth sex now regarded as unethical. States that being trans is diversity, not pathology; Psychotherapy is not a requirement; Removal of required 3 months RLE before hormones. However pathologizes intersex persons by using DSD terminology, and requiring counselling for intersex persons who reject birth assignments. No intersex input was solicited.

Another reaction to the WPATH SOC.

APA May 2011: Released 2nd Proposal to Replace GID in the DSM-5. GID replaced by Gender Dysphoria. Identities and expressions still described as mental illness and sexual deviance.

The British Psychological Society. Responds to the DSM-5 and finds it based on unsound methods.

A disgruntled double transplant patient shot dead the top surgeon who saved his life because he believed his operation was about to fail and wanted revenge. No sex change patient has been that unreasonable. Ever.

Robert Spitzer, DSM III and Bipolar kids.

Medicine & Genetics

A manufacturing delay that has created a shortage of the injectable testosterone drug Delatestryl has inconvenienced many trans men.

National University of Distance Education in Madrid, brain-scanned in four regions, 18 trans men before treatment and found a male distribution of white matter. 18 trans women had white matter half-way between male and female. Volume 45, Issue 2 of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

US NIMH’s study of boy and girl brain development.

Neuroscientists discussed sex brain differences, reality of, and innate vs social at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
1) Fear of sexism has produced a bias against conceding sex differences, which gets in the way of frank discussion and investigation.
2) Hormones matter, but so does socialization.
3) The effects of sex difference on behavior and performance vary.
4) Women perform worse at mental rotation (compared with other women) when they’re told that men are better at it. The greater danger is that single-sex education, by preaching and practicing segregated socialization, may exacerbate the differences.
5) Sex differences don’t show up as separate clusters. They show up as “overlapping distributions”.
6) Not that boys are better than girls at math on average, but that boys are more spread out, with lots of boys scoring very high or very low compared with girls, who tend to cluster more in the middle.
7) The hard part is figuring out what these differences mean. Yes, the brains of male fetuses and boys get bathed in testosterone. But does this really affect their math skills or their ability to communicate and process emotions, as some theorists assert? Yes, men have more gray matter, and women have more white matter. The fishy part of neuroscience isn’t the data. It’s the spin we put on the data in the guise of explanation.
8) Today’s differences may not have existed yesterday and may not exist tomorrow. So while scans may show differences between men’s and women’s brains, that doesn’t prove the differences are innate.
9) “most of our behavioral sex differences are quite a bit smaller than [sex differences in] height” obscures the curious fact, that boys and girls differ more in toy preference than in height.
10) Boys scored “an itty-bitty bit better” than girls in math in the United States, Taiwan, and Japan, but she pointed out that the bigger difference is between the three countries, with Taiwanese and Japanese girls outscoring American boys. Summary in Slate, Nov 17, 2011.

Cambridge University/Medical Research Council: trans men have a higher than average number of autistic traits. "If such girls do believe they have a boy's mind in a girl's body, their higher than average number of autistic traits may also mean they hold their beliefs very strongly, and pursue them to the logical conclusion: opting for sex reassignment surgery in adulthood."

Angelique Chrisafis. “France's faulty breast implants scandal: More than 30,000 women have had breast implants filled with industrial silicone instead of medical-grade fillers” Guardian, 14 Dec 2011.

Statistical correlation between the percentage of women using the pill, intrauterine devices, condoms and vaginal barrier contraceptives in 87 countries, then examined the incidence and deaths from prostate cancer. Globe & Mail, Nov 14, 2011. But maybe 1. Pill use is correlated with the industrialization level. 2. Industrial chemicals are responsible for prostate cancer.

What is genius? Is it learned? How the game is stacked against women? The case of Judit Polgar who reached the quarter finals of men’s chess in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Sexual orientation and handedness are both natural variants, but etiology likewise unknown. Slate, Oct 29, 2011, taken from Rik Smits. The puzzle of Left-Handedness. London : Reaktion Books, 2011.

Amaegarite. “Born this way?” The Functional Form, 08/20/2011. The speculations re gay causality are almost the same as those re trans causality. “If Ray Blanchard’s completely un-based theory were true, then we could stop mothers from birthing gay boys. And we’d implicitly place all blame and responsibility on her. In this way, “Born This Way” intensifies misogynistic social currents that are ever-present. Is THIS a happy ending to GaGa’s Madonna-stolen melody? That Mom f’d up?”.

A new definition of addiction by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) makes it a) neurological b) not a choice. How long before someone applies this to trans persons.

Did your pheromones change with your sex? This article says: “No scientific study has ever proven conclusively that mammals have pheromones”.

An article about thousands of pregnancies aborted for 'abnormalities' including cleft palates and Down's syndrome. If a biological marker for transsexuality could be established, we could be included.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.

2011-12-22T22:55:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Nemeses

Michael Bailey was reprimanded by Northwestern University President after he had a guest speaker achieve orgasm with a mechanized sex toy in an after class session.

Brian Souter, the Stagecoach billionaire, who gave £1 million in support of the homophobic Section 28, was knighted in the Queen’s birthday honours list. 2,500 signed a petition to rescind the honour.

-------

Former Memphis police officer Bridges Sutton McRae was sentenced to two years for beating a transgender prisoner and for evading taxes.

Craig Nash, former San Antonio police officer, as part of a plea agreement pled guilty to misdemeanor rape of a trans woman sex worker, and was sentenced to one year in jail and loss of his job.

A trans man in St Paul, Minneapolis was robbed and raped. The perpetrator, Demetrius Miller has been sentenced to minimum 27 years.

Jason Lewis Ronoff, Queensland, ordered to pay $15,000 after threatening to burn down neighbour’s house.

Philip Robertson, of Streatham, jailed for 7 years for raping a trans woman in 1990.

Teonna Brown, who attacked Chrissy Polis in the ladies toilets of a McDonalds in Baltimore, was sentenced to ten years in jail with five years suspended, plus three years of supervised probation. Her 14-year-old accomplice remains in a juvenile detention facility. The McDonalds employee who filmed the attack was fired.

Soldier Terry Porter in Perth & Kinross admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm and also admitted that the offence was aggravated by prejudice towards transgender status. He was fined £200 for breach of the peace, plus an extra £150 for the transgender prejudice.

Two men, Wayne Blair and Stephen Currie, fined for verbally harassing two trans women.

A trans woman was attacked by a mob in a shopping area in Fredericksburg, Virginia

-------

Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the 2009 convictions of Allen Andrade for the hate-motivated murder of Angie Zapata.

Alrashim Chambers, who was arrested after a month on the run for the shooting death of model Victoria White in Maplewood, New Jersey, has been charged with murder.

Arnold Waukazo of Minneapolis was convicted of 2^nd degree murder of his girlfriend Krissy Bates.

Brandon McInerney, who shot Larry King in 2008 for being too feminine, pleaded guilty to second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun.

Kenneth Furr, a Washington, DC cop, fired a gun into car containing three trans women and two men, apparently after failing to solicit sex.

Leon Fyle of Catford, London, had his conviction for the murder of Destiny Lauren ruled unsafe. However at his retrial he was again found guilty, and is sentenced to 21 years.

Lucky Ward/Lawayne Jackson has been linked by DNA to 5 murders including two of trans women.

--------

Gender Trender, mainly written by Gallus Mag and BevJo Von Dohre, has allowed its transphobia to become an obsession, just as much as DirtyWhiteboi. On the other hand Gallus Mag defined Genderism as

“A political philosophy, movement or regime based on the supernatural belief that certain unrelated traits are caused by an individual’s physical sex” – a sentiment that many trans persons will agree with.

Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford tendered a paper(summary) to the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in which they oppose the extension of basic human rights to transsexuals, in that such erodes womens' rights. This was rebutted by Beth Elliot, but Jennifer Usher, Suzan Cooke, Dana Lane Taylor supported Brennan & Hungerford.

Sheila Jeffreys. “The need for feminists to challenge the practice of transgenderism”. Radfem Hub, May 31, 2011. http://radicalhub.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/guest-post-sheila-jeffreys.

“There are similarities and some dissimilarities between [sterilization of the unfit and transgenderism]. The similarities include the forces that created the practice, scientists and the medical profession, the explanation, biology, the support from ‘progressive’ sectors of society, in some cases a similar set of victims, lesbians and gay men, and the aim, social engineering,. In the case of transgenderism the social engineering should be abundantly clear. The practice straightens out those who are a problem for the politically constructed gender structure that founds male domination. Those who do not conform to gender rules, and homosexuals, are surgically reconstructed to fit in. A whole industry and politics has developed to carve ‘gender’ onto the bodies of adults and children. Maintenance of the gender system is vital to the survival of male domination. Any challenge to the idea of gender threatens the main justification for the subordination of women.”

Dale O’Leary continued her diatribes against trans persons. More, more

Keith Ablow, contributor to Fox News, criticized J Crew catalogue for its image of a mother painting her son’s toenails pink, and urged parents not to watch Dancing with the Stars with Chaz Bono.

-----

Malaysian Fatwa council. Malaysian trans persons had limited freedom until 1983, when Perak mufti besar Harussani Zakaria and other issued a fatwa banning both gender surgery and cross-dressing for those who Muslim. Zakaria has recently said: “You cannot be transsexual, you are either a woman or a man. Why do they want to go against Allah? If God has created you as a boy, then act like a boy.” This resulted mak nyahs being arrested by the religious police and being abused and humiliated in prisons. This went further this year when the government established boot camps for gender variant boys. Ayu, 44, was beaten and arrested at a bus station for the offense of “men dressing up as women in a public space” which is punishable by a a RM1,000 fine, a six-month prison sentence or both.

Vatican: voiced strong opposition to March resolution by UN in that ending discrimination against gays, lesbians, and transgender persons would make those who oppose such human rights the real victims.

Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute: redistributed a 2009 paper by Richard Fitzgibbons, Philip Sutton and Dale O'Leary, “The Psychopathology of ‘Sex Reassignment’ Surgery”. Trans people are mentally ill, and by implication need therapy not rights; it asserts that there is no evidence that trans identity, or indeed gay identity, is innate.

Institute for Canadian Values ran an advert during the Ontario provincial elections in The National Post with the picture of a little girl: “Please don’t confuse me. I’m a girl. Don’t teach me to question if I’m a boy, transexual, transgendered, interesexed, or two spirited.” The Post apologized. The same ad was then run in The Toronto Sun which refused to apologize.

Connecticut State Missionary Baptist Convemtion: said they take particular objection to the prospect of enhanced transgender protections.

National Organization of Marriage: campaign against gender identity lessons in Oakland.

Massachusetts Family Institute put out inflammatory adverts against the new Massachusetts law.

Media Research Center objects to any positive representation of trans people.

------

Thomas Moutame, mayor Taputapuatea, Tahiti, convicted of abuse of power because he refused a to marry Claude Simon and Pero Mareva (trans) in 2007.

Internet

Two transgender activist’s (Kathy Padilla and Katrina Rose) who contribute regularly at Pam’s House Blend questioned Lurleen Blogovitch, an admin and front page blogger there and why she was using an anonymous account instead of her real name. It turned out that Lurleen was actually Laurel Ramseyer, Communications Director for Equal Rights Washington, with a history of fighting for gay and trans rights.

Carolyn Petit, associate editor of Gamespot and video reviewer.

Gay Girl in Damascus, Amina Abdallah Aral al Omari, a blogging lesbian heroine in the Syrian uprising turned out to be Tom Macmaster, a male heterosexual American in Edinburgh. Syrian gay activists feel that real people were put in danger by this prank.

LezGetReal, a lesbian news site run by Paula Brooks, who turned out to be a man, Bill Graber.

Charlotte Goiar sponsored a care2 petition: Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is not transgender!

The Charlotte Goiar HBS for um was discontinued, and its active members moved to a Facebook group.

The HBS writer variously known as Courtney Holder/Donna Reiser/Purple Speaks/Plum is emphatically rightwing. I have never seen any of the other HBS/not-TG writers disassociate from her positions. On an article about the struggle for trans rights in Maryland she posted:

“As a transsexual who believes homosexuality is an immoral choice and that non-op transgenderism is a mockery of women and makes true-TSs look bad in the eyes of the mainstream and face even more discrimination from them, I will vote AGAINST *ANY* law that will supposedly help those of us with this medical condition, if it ALSO supports homosexuals, lesbians, and gender-variant persons. It is one thing to support mainstream women born with a birth defect that robs them of their rightful plain in mainstream society as women. However, it is another to support men sodomizing other men and pretending it is love, another to support women degrading each either in a fashion similar to the sodomites, and another to support a man who acts like a man and wants male privilege, all while dressing like a woman of the night and modeling in porn as a “woman” with his parts hanging out. I never was a part of the LGBT, and I want none of its rights, privileges, or protections.”

Transhi story.net and transhist ory.org are now both advertising sites (erectile dysfunction and car accidents).

First Cristan Williams (Ehipassiko, 2011 June 2, 28, 30, July, 5, 6, 9, 11,12,14,21) and then Zagria explored the rich history of the term ‘transgender’. Both writers amply demonstrated that the misconception that Virginia Prince coined ‘transgender’ is exactly that: a misconception. Zagria concluded:

Therefore, I think that we can see that the idea of Prince being falsely nominated as the creator of ‘Transgender’ comes from an attribution error in Docter, a political inflation of her achievements by IFGE, a disinformation campaign by Cook-Riley and an injudicious and unsupported sentence in Feinberg. By this time Prince had started claiming to have coined the term when she felt that the audience wanted her to, but at other times made fun of the claim when that seemed appropriate. The misinformation was propagated by lazy academics who repeated the sentence in Feinberg and never bothered to fact check and search for the actual citations as they should have done.

Lisa McDonald, commenting at Bilerico, severely twisted both Zagria’s article on Leslie Feinberg and Richard Ekins writing about Carol Riddell to conclude “as an umbrella term Transgender has been based on Communism”. It would seem that Lisa is unacquainted with the history of ideas, and amongst other errors refuses to distinguish humanist Marxism from Soviet Communism. It is interesting to juxtapose her with Tracie O’Keefe who rejects ‘transgender’ as an Americanism.

Zagria initiated a discussion on cis gender variance.

Pauline Park argued for ‘transgendered’ rather than ‘transgender’.

Julia Serano. “A “Transsexual Versus Transgender” Intervention”. Whipping Girl, Sept 8, 2011. http://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2011/09/transsexual-versus-transgender.html.

Apparently discontinued blogs (but some such do return after a break):

Riding the second wave
TransBo utique
Trans Frie d Fluff
Dyss onance
Grace and Wild Roses
Bitter ness Barbie
Hijda Eu nuch Blog
LGBT Late st Science
Confissões Agridoces [de uma sereia trans]
Battybattyb ats' Cave Of Rationality
whittl(e)ings: Thoughts Of An Equalities Activist
Gen der Lines
Miche lle’s Reality
Normal is a Sociolo gical Construct
Elain e’s T* Art Blog
Cali e’s T-Tunes

Blogs moved:

The Adventures of Jessica Sideways --> Moving on Up a Little Higher
The Stranger --> Tarald Steins
Patent Pending --> Jillian Page

Blogs changed:

Womenborntranssexual has become a political digest

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.

2011-12-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Spouses and Family

(We have several female spouses and lovers of trans men and trans women. But where are the male spouses and lovers?)

The wife of a self-declared Irish autogynephilic granted an annulment in B (formerly known as M) -v- L. James Barrett of Charing Cross GIC, medical inspector, used an earlier report by Richard Green.

Andrea & Papi.

Danielle Brown and her father.

Diane and Lina

Fanny’s husband’s father transitioned at Stanford in the 1970s.

Helen Boyd is now a Lecturer of Gender and Freshman Studies at Lawrence University, and was awarded a Community Activist Award.

Nicola & Meg

Tomomi Sakura Osaka,

A grateful mother celebrates her son.

Trans Kids

“Children & Teens Caught In The Wrong Bodies”. Anderson, Season 1, Episode 48. Warner Bros. December 15, 2011. With Danann Tyler, Domaine Javier and Kyle Allums. Pr eview.

Transgender Kids. CBC, Oct 30, 2011. Complete.

I am Jazz: A Family in Transition. OWN, Nov 27, 2011

Wallace Wong. When Kathy is Keith. Xlibris, 2011. Newsitem. “He was inspired to write this book because many children he counselled had difficulty finding “things they could relate to” and their parents also had trouble finding books about these issues.”.

Roberta Staley. “When boys would rather not be boys: Kids are being diagnosed—and identifying themselves—as transgendered younger than ever before”. Macleans, Aug 12, 2011. www2.macleans.ca/2011/08/12/when-boys-would-rather-not-be-boys.

Lornet Turnbull. “Kids challenge gender identity earlier — and get support”. The Seattle Times, July 30, 2011. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015778687_trankids31m.html.

Fundamentalist Parents Who Have Attacked Their Own Gay/Trans Child.

“Born in the wrong body: how gender-identity issues affect children”. Irish Times, Dec 10, 2011. www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/1210/1224308848909.html.

“Children of 12 to be allowed gender drugs to prepare for sex change”. The Mirror, 10/04/2011. www.mirror.co.uk/news/health-news/2011/04/10/children-of-12-offered-gender-drugs-to-prepare-for-sex-change-115875-23050335.

“Some transgender youths look to black-market hormones”. AM New York, 4/5/11. www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/some-transgender-youths-look-to-black-market-hormones-1.2802396.

Kai Smith. “Supporting Transgender Children in the Primary Classroom: A Reflection”. Gender & Education Association, 16 Feb 2011. www.genderandeducation.com/issues/supporting-transgender-children-in-the-primary-classroom.

“All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families”. Center for American Progress, Oct 25, 2011. www.americanprogress.org/events/2011/10/LGBTfamilies.html.

Trans Youth Family Allies YouTube Channel

--------

10-year-old girlin Worcester was permitted to start new school year as a girl.
Alex at summer camp.

Cris Beam, author of I am J, mother to a trans daughter, and who spent years working with trans teens in New York.

Danann Tyler, featured in documentary ”Children & Teens Caught In The Wrong Bodies”

Hailey, featured in "Transgender Child: A Parent's Difficult Choice" on OWN.

Jackie’s 16^th birthday present from her mum was a sex change operation.

Jazz - featured in the documentary.

Nicole, and her cis identical twin brother in Maine are going to school. She and her family were awarded by the ACLU.

Tammy, who has two mothers.

Tyler Littlejohn, New York,

A Mother’s Transition Story – in 3 parts.

A trans girl wanted to join the Girl Scouts which has caused confusion for the organization.

Sarah Hoffman and her son: “Because the problem ain’t Barbies. It’s bullies.”

Political Candidates & Parties

National

Anna Grodska, of Poland’s Palikot party, was elected to Parliament as a list MP.

Spain: Izquierda Unida-Verdes (United Left-Greens) proposed a bill to guarantee the rights of transsexuals.

Australia’ ruling Labor Party voted to support the introduction of equal marriage despite the opposition of Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Brigitte Goldberg is the Avenir 2012 French Presidential candidate. Avenir 2012 grew out of Trans-Europe, but is not exclusively for trans persons.

Öykü Özen, who attempted to be a Turkish Republican People’s Party parliamentary candidate, and is head of Gökkuşağı Derneği (Rainbow Association), attempted suicide but was talked out of jumping from the fifth floor where Gökkuşağı Derneği is located, after a fight with her husband.

Shahana Abass, chairperson of the Punjab Shemale Protection Association (PSPA) hopes to run as a Pakistan Peoples Party candidate.

Swedish Christian Democrats voted to retain sterilization as part of a sex change.

Swedish Liberal Party to push for a removal of the requirement for compulsory sterilization for those undergoing a sex change.

US Democratic National Committee has elected Babs Casbar Siperstein to its executive committee.

Also: Openly gay Elio di Rupo now Prime minister of Belgium. The second only gay Prime Minister after Iceland’s Johanna Sigurdardottir.

Provincial

Both Kalki Subramanian and Rose Venkatesan considered running, for different parties, in the Tamil Nadu elections.

Brittney Novotny ran to become a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She received 35% of the votes in very conservative area.

Christin Milloy was a Libertarian candidate in Mississauga–Brampton South in the Ontario Provincial election.

Iowa Republicans: “We support an amendment to both the U. S. and Iowa constitutions that states that all marriages should be traditional one natural male and one natural female, omitting transgendered.”.

The Rashtriya Viklang Party in Uttar Pradesh has decided to field 50 trans candidates, including Shobha Bua for the chief ministerial candidate.

Also: Open Lesbian Ruth Davidson elected leader of Scottish Conservative Party.

Cities and towns

Bharathi Kannamma, computer programmer, ran for mayor of Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Carla Antonelli was elected to the Madrid Assembly as a List PSOE member.

Carol Mapley, ex-cop, announced that she will be running for the Castle Douglas and Glenkens seat in Dumfriesshire in next year’s council elections.

Donna Milo ran for Miami City Commissioner.

Jenifer Rene Pool ran for an at-large position on the Houston city council.

Jenny Bailey, previously mayor of Cambridge, and her partner, Jennifer Liddle, ran for the East Cambridgeshire District Council.

Kamala Kinnar elected mayor of Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, in 2009 with a margin of 43,000 votes over nearest rival from the BJP. Two years late her election was declared "null and void" because the mayor's seat was reserved for a 'woman' belonging to scheduled caste category.

Katherine Haque-Hausrath, elected to council of Helena, Montana.

Marla Murphy, previously on Rapid City, South Dakota, council as Tom, ran again as Marla.

Sarah Brown is a Cambridge city Councillor, and on IOS Pink List.

Sandra Dunn came 3^rd in mayoral contest in Amarillo, Texas.

Tony Briffa, previously deputy mayor, now elected mayor of Hobsons Bay, Melbourne, Victoria

Also: Houston Mayor Annise Parker re-elected to a second term.

Celebrities

Chaz Bono. His autobiography and a film on his transition were released; he was a competitor on Dancing with the Stars.

Stephen Beatty, son of Warren Beatty: "Chaz is a misogynist...This man doesn't represent our community. He especially does not represent those of us who are non-binary, non-op, women, or feminist men. Chaz needs to do some hard thinking about what it means to appoint oneself representative of a whole group without considering the desires of all the group's members."

Lady Gaga performs as Joe Calderone, and taunts fans by saying: “It’s not that I’ve been dishonest, it’s just that I loathe reality... The beginning of the story I never told you.”

Trans porn star Kayka Coxx calls cops on artist Allan D Hasty.

Peaches Geldorf talked about how she had dated a trans man.

Former New York Republican Rep. Chris Lee advertised for trans women on Craigslist.

Reality star, Kelly Osbourne ungraciously dumped fiance who was having an affair with a trans woman.

Liv Tyler taken for a transsexual. No big deal.

Sofia Vergara pleased to look like a transvestite.

Sports

Kye Allums, who continued playing on a womens’ basketball team before taking hormones, suffered a series of concussions, and had to stop participating.

The Chicago Outfit Roller Derby League now permits trans women to join.

Lana Lawless settled her suit against two golfing organizations that had barred her with ‘female at birth’ rules. They have now lifted the ban.

Chris Mosier, New York triathlon,

Samoa footballer Jonny Saelua part of American Samoan team in its World cup victory over Tonga.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 2: Persons.

2011-12-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Public & Private Events

Africa:

A trans man and a trans woman, by chance on the same plane from Amman. Jordan to Egypt, both without revised passports, were refused entry and sent back to Amman.

Justine-Paula Howard, Durban, finally got her ID changed.

Natasha Saitoti, founder of Transgender Foundation, and in transition.

Patricia Dludlu, school teacher, sentenced to 7 years for abusing a 25-year-old, raped in jail and refused medical attention.

Americas:

Acey Mercer, New York State, client advocate.

Alejandro Iglesias, Argentina, disclosed that he was trans on Big Brother reality show Dec 2010; in April 2011 he became one of a few trans to get his ID changed, and active in campaign for gender identity law.

Allyson Robinson, associate director of diversity for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) flies frequently with an M on her ID.

Amber Yust, who went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in San Francisco to record her sex change - and then got a letter from a DMV clerk saying homosexual acts were "an abomination that leads to hell" - will receive a $55,000 legal settlement.

Anastasia St. Clair-Hannah, executive housekeeper fired after a background check outed her. She is suing.

Andrea Jones, Tennessee, who was refused a change of her driver’s license because she is a man, took off her top and as Mr Jones was charged with indecent exposure (a law that applies only to women). She spent 23 days in jail.

Andrea Viveros prom queen.

Ashley Yang, airport screener, forced to be male, fired, won compensation.

Avery Mitchell, Calgary, winner of breast implants in competition by AMP 90.3 Radio.

Beth Elliott, released a revised edition of her autobiography, and wrote a rebuttal of the Brennan-Hungerford letter to the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Biancah Melanie Ortiz awarded the David Acosta Revolutionary Leader Award by the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative.

Bradley Manning, political prisoner, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material. He has been made to stand naked in the morning as other inmates walked by and looked. His trial finally started in December.

Brittany Roche, in geography liaison, has completed transition successfully.

Broo ke, is a New York firefighter.

Chris Cochrane, Halifax, was shot in the arm during an attempted home invasion.

Chris Goldman, Maryland, completed transition.

Chrissy Polis was attacked in April in the restroom of a Baltimore McDonalds, and in December was arrested for disorderly conduct after calling the police to report a robbery.

Christy M, who had been rudely ejected from a Ross Dress for Less store in 2011, was informed that the store has now issued special instructions to staff to not do so.

Claudia Vásquez Haro, teacher at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, obtained her revised identity certificate.

D.B. Karron must repay $4 million after using grant money for sex changes for self and three others.

Dallas Denny revived Chysalis Quarterly. In it she has raised serious questions about what has happened to IFGE.

Dana Beyer, Maryland, cleared of ethics charges resulting from political activities.

Dana Peterson, police lieutenant, Hartford, Connecticut, refused canine certification.

Do maine Javier, who appeared on an MTV reality show, “I’m Passing as Someone I’m Not”,was then expelled from California Baptist University for having ‘falsely’ claimed to be female on her application.

Drew Cords, Albany, completed transition.

El’Jai Devoureau, New Jersey, who has lived as male for 20 years, was hired by a drug treatment centre to watch men giving urine samples for drug testing, and then fired on the second day, after an acquaintance informed his bosses.

Florencia de la V, of Argentina, appears in a series on the Disney Channel in Spain.
Catholic school teacher Jan Buterman in Alberta, dismissed for "not being aligned with the values of the Catholic Church", rejected $78,000 cash settlement.

James Scott, Texas, disabled house husband. Wife applied for voiding of marriage on grounds of transsexuality. Judge ruled that a divorce was appropriate.

Janet Mock, editor at People.com, shared her transition story.

Janis Stacey sued Agere Systems & LSI.

Ja'Von Crockett becomes a pastor and is on television.

Jovanie Saldana, who has been 14 months in a women’s prison in Philadelphia, complained about being forced to give oral sex to a prison officer, and the prison authorities then noticed that she is trans and transferred her to a men’s prison.

Juani Santos, Cuba, diagnosed as a trans man 1972, finally has surgery.

Justus Eisfeld, of Global Action for Trans Equality, received revised diploma from University of Amsterdam as its president was on a trip to New York.

Katie Hill, Tulsa, portrayed in local newspaper.

Kissy Bates , Minneapolis, was stabbed multiple times and left to die by her boyfriend, Arnold Waukazo.

LaShawn Peterson and her husband, together for 14 years, received an apology that their application for a marriage licence had been turned down.

Lyralisa Stevens, serving 50 years to life for murder in California, wants surgery and transfer to a women’s prison.

Malcolm Himschoot, married father of three, installed as pastor at Parker United Church, Denver.

Meggan Sommerville, of Oswego, Illinois, in transition with drivers licence changed, has filed two charges of discrimination in that her employer will not allow her to use the ladies’ toilets.

Morgan Page, Toronto activist, Community Services Co-ordinator, sex wo rker, Lukumí priest.

Nikki Araguz, Texas, honored at the Harvey Milk rally in Austin, rode in the Houston Pride, is still appealing the ruling that she and her husband were not legally married, and has been charged with stealing a Rolex watch.

Oneal Ron Morris, Florida, arrested for pretending to be a doctor and ‘pumping’.

Ophelia De'lonta, inmate in Virginia, again attempted self-castration, sued to state to pay for a sex change, without success.

Pauline Park called for transgendering higher education.

Rachel Tudor, English professor, Southern Oklahoma State University for 7 years, denied tenure and fired.

Ray Clarke is in transition.

Ray Grosz, transitioning to male at Barnard, an all-female college.

Rebekah Brewis is an involuntary inmate in a male ward at Oregon State Hospital.

Robin Mathy, who filed an ethics complaint against Michael Bailey in 2008, did so again after his sextoy demonstration.

Ruth Wood, lay minister, Calvary United Church, Kingston, Ontario, completed transition

Sandy Battista, Massachusetts inmate, has received the right to receive female hormones.

Spencer Cullen, Phoenix, robbed Walmart to pay for surgery.

Susan Stanton accused of homophobia, firedas Fort Worth, Florida, city manager, and hired as Canton city clerk.

Susan Stryker, historian, is now director of the University of Arizona's Institute of LGBT Studies in Tucson.

Teni ka Watson, who was in the car crash with Teddy Pendergrass, is interviewed.

Toby Hemker, Michigan, transitioned.

Tona Brown, Baltimore, violinist, is working on an album.

Trudie Jackson, ex prostitute and inmate, is doing a public policy degree in Phoenix.

Valerie Villalta, escaped death threats in El Salvador, and is now an activist for gay and trans Latinos.

Vandy Beth Glenn, of Georgia, fired state legislative aid. Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in her favor of District Court.

Victoria Kolakowski became a trial judge in California.

Wendy Iriepa quit her job at the Cuban sex studies centre after Mariela Castro objected to her boyfriend, but then she and Ignacio Estrada of Cuba were married on Fidel Castro’s birthday.

Asia:

It was reported from India that some parents are having daughters, aged 1- 5, surgically reassigned as boys, to avoid future dowrys. Although this was later denied.

An Afghan transvestite (ezak?) is humiliated by the police, and her image put on YouTube.

Abdul Qawi Jamil, Malacca, arrested by religious police for cross dressing.

Adi, Tel Aviv, fired for transitioning, awarded 30,00 NIS.

Ayumu Mogi, Osaka, has got a job at a nursing home.

Bhawana Dhakal, Nepal, still without citizenship papers despite 2007 Supreme Court ruling.

Bhumika Shrestha, represented Nepal at the UN, despite a stoppover at Qatar where the discrepancy between her appearance and her ID was questioned.

Fouzia Janah, Bahraini lawyer, took on more intersex cases.

Hender Gercio, Diliman, Quezon City, objected to being referred to as male, but the administration decided otherwise.

Jin Xing was dropped as judge on a TV talent show in Zhejiang Province because “transgender identity could have negative effects on society”.

The recently married Kamran and Wajahat of Karachi were murdered.

Patarchokchain Sarawit fell in love with a Kashmiri shawl salesman, lived with his family for two years and supplied 36 lahk rupees. While she returned to Germany for surgery, her fiance became engaged to another woman.

Randi, a beggar in New Delhi, was released from a two-year sentence at the beggars home because transgendered.

W, Hong Kong, appealing to refusal to let her marry.

In Dera Gahazi Khan, 3 hijra, Mona, Matu Reema & Kansal Mastoi, were abducted from a wedding and raped.

Europe:

2,500-year-old skeleton found outside Prague is male-bodied but buried in the female way.

Abi Hamilton (previously Jan) is having problems transferring her army pension to the Strathclyde Police plan, and with colleagues treating her as a man.

Adriana, of Valencia, unable to get work or accommodation as a woman, has returned to being a man.

Aleksa Lundberg, Swedish actress 29, who transitioned at 18, objects that she was sterilized, and that she has to pay attention to her voice. She has played a theatre piece based on her own life all over Sweden.

Ayla Holdom, helicopter pilot, on UK royal wedding guest list.

Cathy Daniels of Burnley, Lancashire, has had genital surgery, but NHS East Lancs does not fund breast enhancement.

Scottish prisoner William Wallace, 5 years for dealing drugs, became androphilic in jail, changed name to Cassie, and has applied for a gender change.

Chloe Avrillon, France, went to court for judicial recognition of her marriage which pre-dated her transition. It was refused.

Chloe Oliver, ex-bodybuilder, father of five, after 17 years living in France, completed transition at age 60.

Chrisie Edkins, of Southampton, previously a 16 stone bodybuilder, now works as a model, and had recorded an album.

Diane Hughes wants to stay married.

Dominik Sejda, a Czech, left her husband and son 15 years ago on becoming a man. Now his son is becoming a woman.

Fatine Bahari granted a visa to stay in the UK, and then left her husband.
Gina Philbin, grandmother in Gainsborough.

Joanne Cassar, Malta, lost appeal and still not able to marry. Next step, the European Court of Human Rights.

Kerry Marshall impersonated Kate price at the bank and withdrew £9,000.

Kim Oakland of Carlisle, endures prejudice and prepares for surgery.

Kristy Cass of West Sussex almost bled to death after an attempt at self-surgery. She will soon have proper surgery.

Lee Brooks of Perthshire has been charged with obtaining sexual contact by fraud, in that he deceived two women.

Louise Lamb, ex-soldier, now a train driver.

Lucinda Ferguson, Galashiels, shocked by the level of abuse she has received from both men and women of all ages since setting up home in the region.

Natasha Gray, ex-Navy, now pole-dance teacher

Oliv er Danes. His mother paid for his breast removal.

Nicole Sanders has spent £200,000 in 12 years transforming her body: five breast operations, four nose jobs, a brow lift, cheek implants, jaw surgery, chin implants, calf implants, filler injections in her lips, botox jabs and sexual reassignment surgery.

Nina Kanagasingham, charged with the murder of Sonia Burgess, has been held in a men’s prison, has been found guilty to manslaughter.

Robin White, barrister, London.

Miss Sahhara, from Nigeria, living in London, was named Miss International Queen runner-up at the Tiffany contest in Pattaya.

Sandra Buljubasic, a Dane with Bosnian roots, was attacked in Koprivnica, Croatia.

Two drag queens, Lady Shaun and Calvin Fox were attacked in separate incidents in Liverpool’s gay quarter.

Stephanie Booth, Business woman, proposed to take over Wrexham football club, her hotels went into administration, and was burgled.

Stephanie Collinsof Surrey told to use disabled toilets at Sainsburys supermarket. Sainsburys quickly apologized.

Tina Cook, of Darlington, told by JobCentre to dress as a man to get a job.

Victoria Saxe-Coburg of Poole, Dorset, who transitioned 20 years ago, was told off at Poole Stadium for using the ladies’ toilets and told to use the disabled instead.

HBS author Rose White of Calderdale Yorkshire, who last year initiated a complaint to the ECHR re the NHS spending too much on her sex change, completed transition at age 63, continued her legal case, and wrote to her local paper objecting to drag persons in local Pride parade.

Kerry Whybrow, ex fireman, civil unioned.

Oceania:

Partial paraplegic, Donna Macklan of Albury-Wodonga, NSW-Victoria, attacked by couple with a shovel who severely damaged her and her wheelchair. Graeme Loxton and Christie Keighran also shouted ‘hermaphrodite’. They have been convicted and ordered to pay $2638 compensation for damage to the wheelchair.

Marcelle, Canberra, appealled and got a passport with an F.

Some Events of the year 2011. Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation

2011-12-19T16:36:00.000-05:00

Some events of 2010. Some events of 2009. Some Events of 2008.

This is just some of what happened in 2011.

Part 1: Organizations, Legislation, litigation.
Part 2: Persons.
Part 3: Spouses and Family, Trans Kids, Political, Celebrities, Sports.
Part 4: Nemeses, Internet.
Part 5: Doctors, Medicine, Genetics.
Part 6: Deaths
Part 7: Art, Fashion, Music
Part 8: Theatre & Cinema
Part 9: News Media, Journals
Part 10: Books.

Each year that I do this feature, it gets longer, partly because I know more places to look, but mainly because there is so much going on. Good things, bad things. Political, personal, media. I try to gather them all together at year end.

Organizations

Africa:

Transgender and Intersex Africa – specifically for black persons, to deal with the inherited cultural problems of Africa.

Transgender Foundation, Kenya.

Americas:
Exposures Festival, Edmonton. Carol D. Allan discussed her own struggle (and victory) with the Alberta Board of Education in the late1980s to continue teaching and expressed her disgust and disappointment that 20 years later, Jan Buterman (who was himself a part of the packed crowd) finds himself having to take on that same fight. Laine Mandlis’, a PhD student in the University of Alberta’s Department of Sociology spoke about the fight to remove gender identity disorder from the DSM. Lucas Crawford spoke about the complex relationships between identities like queer, trans and fat. Dean Spade spoke about the importance of questioning the social and political imperatives to “document gender” and the relationship between being able to prove one’s gender and citizenship

IFGE – no more annual conference

- Transgender Tapestry no longer published

- bookstore no more

- walk-in center in Waltham, Boston, closed

- webpage now requires a login.

- the separate Winslow Street Fund seems to have been raided for its money.

- Runs a Facebook news page.

Rikki Swin Institute. In 2000 the RSI purchased the purchased personal papers of Virginia Prince, Betty Ann Lind, Ariadne Kane, and Merissa Sherrill Lynn, and the next year with much fanfare those attending the IFGE conference were invited to an opening. In 2002, both the RSI and Ms Swin disappeared. The collection is now available as part of the University of Victoria Libraries, Vancouver.

Transsexual Menace was revived.

As there was no mention of transgender or transsexual in the 2011 Vancouver Pride Guide, Tami Starlite organized a separate Trans Celebration & Liberation March.

Genderqueer Chicago signed up local businesses to sign a pledge to keep their restrooms welcoming for people of all genders. Participants display a decal.

Silueta X, in Guayaquil, Ecuador; Diane Rodriguez fighting to changing gender on ID.

Sylvia Rivera Law Project did a teach-in at Occupy Wall St.

Transgender Health Empowerment runs Wanda Alston House, Washington, DC.
Trans Health Conference, Philadelphia.

LGBTA Youth Awards. Kim Pearson awarded Vanguard Award for her work on behalf of gender-variant youth and their families.

First TransFaith In Color Conference, Charlotte, NC, July.

Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund won the right to paid medical leave for facial feminization surgery.

Asociación de Travestis, Transexuales y Transgéneros de Argentina & Federacion Argentina Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales y Trans campaigned for the Ley de Identidad de Género with an excellent video.

Asia:

Blue Diamond Society, Nepal, reports that of 200,000 transgender persons (out of 30 million) only 5 have obtained citizenship.

Samapathik Trust, Pune, Maharashtra, opened a beauty salon for trans persons.
TransFemale Association, Thailand, Sister’s Hand Project. Has obtained sponserships from the private sector, and is able to pay for gender surgery.

Arus Pelangi have gone to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) re the murder of Shakira Harahap.

Gender Interactive Alliance explained that while the Pakistani supreme court directed the government to issue third-gender ID cards in 2009, none have been given out yet. As a result, many transgender citizens lack any identification documents at all.

All-Pakistan She-Male Association welcomed the right to vote.

Europe:
STP 2012. More

Trans-Aide accused the French minister for justice, Michel Mercier, of hypocrisy when he confirmed that the state will not recognise a change of gender identity without proof of “irreversible sterilisation”, in that France had supported Council of Europe resolution 1728 the previous year that sterilization was not required. They are continuing their struggle through the French legal system, which is the necessary precursor to taking the issue to the European Court of Human Rights.

Press for Change website is back up after problems.

WightConnect – a new group in the Isle of Wight.

TGEU has received significant funding from the Netherlands Government, and also from the Open Society Foundations.

TGEU, Interights and ACCEPT organized a Workshop on Transgender Rights in Central and Eastern Europe/former Soviet Union (CEE/fSU). “Recurring issues were absent or defunct gender recognition legislation; lack of knowledge by public officials. Medical specialists play a crucial role but expertise, facilities and treatment are rare. Given deficiency in funding and trans-friendly structures, support through having a trans community is crucial for trans people in the region”.

TDOR in Kiev brutally attacked.

The Independent on Sunday Pink List 2011 includes Sarah Brown, Christine Burns, Jay Stewart, Roz Kaveney, Bethany Black and others. www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-ios-pink-list-2011-2374595.html

Oceania

UNAIDS withdrew its funding from the Adi Senikau pageant in Fiji, which will now be the Yellow Tail Adi Senikau Pageant.

The Pacific and Asia Trans and Intersex Hui, Wellington, NZ, held ahead of the AsiaPacific Outgames.

OII: 14 days of Intersex.

Australian Mental Health, Human Rights and Law Reform Coalition gave its Bruce McGuinness award to Sally Goldner.

Equal marriage & civil unions

For a full history of the move towards equal marriage legislation see: http://ukgaynews.org.uk/marriage_timeline.htm. This issue is important for trans people, especially in the US where upon widowhood or divorce, a trans person often finds that s/he has no legal standing.

The changes in what marriage is across time and cultures. Alternet, Nov 4, 2011.
Why rational conservatives would support equal marriage. New Statesman, 23 Sept 2011.

Why conservatives should welcome gay marriage. The Spectator, 5 Oct 2011.

UK Civil Union recognized as equivalent to marriage in Spain, but not in Canada.

Prime Minister Cameron on gay marriages. Even Conservatives are to the left of Obama on this issue. His proposal for a Tax Relief for married couples will include same-sex civil unions.
-------

Americas

Brazil: Supreme Court voted 10-0 for gay civil unions.

California: three years after Proposition 8 removing equal marriage rights, the issue is still before the courts.

Delaware: approved Civil Unions.

Illinois: Civil Unions for both gay and straight couples.

New York: Senate voted 33-29 for gay marriages, and Governor signed the bill immediately.

Nova Scotia: Legally partnered same-sex couples in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada, can now obtain a blessing from the country’s Anglican Church.
Rhode Island: Civil Unions for gay couples.

Louis Marinelli, formerly of the National Organization for Marriage, has changed his mind and is now pro equal civil marriage.

Suquamish tribe, Washington State approved same-sex marriages.

Europe

Ireland: Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 came into effect

Lirchtenstein: voted 68% in a referendum for Registered partnerships

Scotland: consultation on whether to rewrite the traditional definition of marriage so that people of the same sex can marry found 60% in favour.

UK: the coalition government has stated that it intends for same-sex civil marriage to be legal in the United Kingdom by the next election.

Oceania

Tasmania voted in favour of same-sex marriage, but needs federal approval.

Other Legislation, Litigation, other government and corporate actions, etc

UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution 23-19 calling for universal rights for GLB and T persons. The resolution was introduced by South Africa which was accused by Nigeria of “breaking the tradition of African group”.

After much talk, the Commonwealth failed to stand up for GLBT rights.

Americas:

Argentina: - 2010 introduced equal marriages

- Security Ministry is allowing transsexual members of federal police and security forces to be recognized under the gender that they’ve adopted. The new ministry resolution also lets transsexuals wear the uniforms and use the facilities matching their adopted gender.

- by 167 votes against 17 and 7 abstentions, the Argentinian Lower House passed a gender identity bill. Under this law, trans people will be able not only to have access to gender recognition by a simple administrative procedure, without any kind of requirement, but also to hormonal and surgical treatments within the public health system with the only requirement of informed consent. To become a law, the bill has to be ratified next year by the Senate.

Canada: - a bill to add gender identity and gender expression into the Human Rights Act was passed by the House of Commons and was awaiting Senate approval when the election was called, and it died. It has been re-introduced by both an NDP and a Liberal MP, but is opposed by the ruling Conservatives.

Ontario. Despite Liberal Party support for adding gender identity to Canadian Human Rights Act, the governing Liberal Party of Ontario refused Parliamentary time to debate Toby’s Bill which would do the same thing in Ontario.

- London, Ontario: farmers' market that evicted a local candle and incense retailer because she had a transsexual clerk.

- Canada Border Services Agency issued a directive in August telling officers that transsexual and intersexed individuals can choose whether a man or a woman will search them.

Nova Scotia: fingerprinting required for all name changes except marriage, including gender transition and abuse victims.

Chile: the Movement for the Intergration and Liberation of Gay people (MOVILH the Chilean National Health Fund (FONASA) and the Chilean Ministry of Health (MINSAL) agreed a Gender Identity Congruency Protocol. Gender affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies will be like any other vital health service covered by the State.

US:

- Bureau of Prisons. New rules permit a trans person not already on hormones to start taking them, and to live and dress as identity gender.

- Social Security Administration changed its gender notification policy to avoid outing workers to their employers. It had sent 700,000 no-match letters in 2010.

- State Department: further relaxed rules for changing passport gender.

- US Military: suspension of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell now permits openly gay and lesbians to serve, but trans persons still deemed unfit for service.

- Veterans Department: "Providing Health Care for Transgender and Intersex Veterans"

- American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators ( AAMVA ) recommended that transgender drivers be allowed to more easily change the gender markers on their driver's licenses.

Alaska: ACLU filed a lawsuit to the effect that denying the woman a license that accurately reflects her gender identity because she hasn't undergone surgery is unconstitutional.

California: - “gender identity and expression” added as a type of “gender” discrimination under the existing non-descrimination laws.

- removed surgery re quirement for revised birth certificate removed.

Connecticut: House of Representatives passed a bill to add “gender identity or expression” to its anti-discrimination law.

Illinois: A successful class action lawsuit was filed by the ACLU in that the state of Illinois refuses to change the gender on birth certificates of transsexual people unless they’ve undergone genital surgery.

Cook County,announced new policy of jailing trans prisoners by gender identity rather than by birth sex.

Hawai’i: prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression as a public policy matter and specifically with regard to employment.

Maine: outlawed discrimination against transgender persons.

Maryland: House passed a bill give trans people protection from discrimination but it was quashed in the senate.

Massachusetts:

-Governor quietly issued an executive order banning discrimination against transgender workers in state government.

- Transgender Equal Rights Act give trans people protection from discrimination in employment, housing and credit, but not ‘public accommodation’

Michigan: Two Republican state representatives introduced a bill Aug. 25
called the "Moral Values Bill" that would ensure no public funds could
be used to pay for sex change operations for prisoners.

Nevada: companies with more than 15 employees cannot discriminate against staff on the basis of their gender identity. They may demand appropriate dress codes and grooming standards for the individual’s preferred gender.

New York State: two trans women and one trans man are suing the city of New York over a requirement that they must have gender reassignment surgery in order to have their birth certificates changed.

North Caroline: Hospital Patient’s Bill of Rights now prohibits discrimination on basis of gender identity.

Ohio: Governor Kasich renewed executive non-discrimination order, but dropped gender identity and expression from it.

Oklahoma rejected possibility of revising birth certificates.

Oregan: - Portland: Adopts Trans-Inclusive Health Care for City Workers.

- Lamda Legal sued Oregan over denial of insurance for medical procedure for a state worker.

Philadelphia Transit Authority renewed its policy of gender stickers on its ‘trans pass’ and refused to consider the situation of trans persons.

Tennessee; Senate passed bill to ban all teachers in public elementary and middle schools from talking about GLBT subjects.

Texas: University of Texas in Austin has installed gender neutral toilets for trans and disabled persons.

Marriage laws :

legal decisions in favor of James Scott and against Nikki Araguz.

A bill was introduced to remove proof of a sex change from the list of documents that can be used to obtain marriage licenses. While it cleared a Senate committee, it never made it to the floor.

A trans woman and a cis woman were able to marry.

Wisconsin: law banning hormone therapy for trans inmates struck down.

Vermont: clear statement in law that surgery is not necessary to update a birth certificate.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) now allows ordination of openly LGBT ministers, elders and deacons.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) “will allow a transgender student athlete to participate in sex-separated sports activities so long as the athlete’s use of hormone therapy is consistent with the NCAA policies and current medical standards.”

Asia:

Hong Kong: while transsexuals can marry as their acquired gender in China, Taiwan and Singapore, they cannot in Hong Kong. This was again confirmed by the High Court.

Malaysia: - High Court Judgein Taiping rejected application to order National Registration Department to alter gender on identity card of trans woman.

- boot camps set up and effeminate Muslim boys sent for physical education and religious classes.

- The Women’s Minister described gay cure camps as traumatizing.

India: - Planning Commission taking input from Dalits, gays and lesbians and transgenders.

- Census: other category for transgender persons.

- Tamil Nadu: State government declared April 15, the date the transgender welfare board was set up in 2008, to be Transgender Day.

Nepal: census included third gender option.

Pakistan: - Supreme Court has ruled that Pakistanis who do not consider themselves to be either male or female should be allowed to choose an alternative sex when they apply for their national identity cards.

- Supreme Court ordered the election commission to collect data from the hijra community and register them as voters.

Thailand: PC Air specifically recruited katoeys.

Monks at Wat Kreung Tai Wittaya attempt to teach maleness too katoeys.

A court ordered the military on Tuesday to stop labeling transgender people as being mentally ill i

Turkey: Amnesty International report that the government has refused to back laws against discrimination and violence against GLBT persons and has allowed leading politicians to make explicitly homophobic statements.

Europe:

EU:

- adopted a new set of asylum rules that include gender identity as a grounds for persecution. This applies to all EU Member States except the United Kingdom, which previously opted out of EU asylum policies.

- EU parliament voted for Human Rights for gays and trans people. A total of 586 MEPs voted, with 442 in favour, 104 against and 40 abstentions. Text of resolution.

- European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for WHO to stop classifying trans persons as mentally ill.

- Thomas Hammarberg, EU Commissioner for Human Rights, made a speech specifically on trans rights.

Finland: Transvestism is no longer a disease.

Germany: Constitutional Court declares compulsory surgeries unconstitutional. The plaintiff, a 62 year old transsexual woman, had acquired the so-called “small solution” with a name change, but not altered the civil status due to the requirement to undergo sterilization surgery. With a still “male” civil status she and her female partner had been denied the right to enter a registered same-sex partnership.

Ireland:

- report published by the Gender Recognition Advisory Group as a precursor to legislation which will be introduced next year. It will be similar to UK law.

- Louise Hannon, of Ireland, was awarded €35,000 after discrimination at her job at First Direct Logistics Limited.

- State paid for 14 sex-change operations over five years, mainly in UK

Italy: 2 law cases in Rome: sterilisation is not to be understood as a mandatory requirement for gender reassignment; a grant of gender reassignment in a case where the applicant eventually decided not to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

Lithuania: proceeds with plans to prohibit ‘medical sex change’. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stresses that the proposal is an explicit infringement of the fundamental human rights, contradicting the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights which includes the right to sexual self-determination, as well as being at variance with the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Malta:- trans man won right to have birth certificate altered.

- Justice Ministry has announced that it will simplify the process for transsexuals.

Netherlands: Human Rights Watch says that Article 28 of the Dutch civil code constitutes a violation of international human rights instruments by making recognition of gender identity conditional on medical intervention.

Portugal: after initial Presidential veto, Parliament confirmed the legislation, the President signed it, and the Gender Identity Law is now in effect. As Portugal has equal marriage laws, no divorce is required. There are no mandatory surgical requirements.

UK:

- coalition government rejected proposals to cover a minority of trans women who are not getting their pensionat the female age, but agreed to look at the matter further.

- New Police and Criminal Act Code of Practice: Annex F: Establishing Gender Of Persons For The Purpose Of Searching.

- West Berkshire: C. The Court of Appeal rules that her Primary Care Trust was entitled to refuse funding for breast implants.

- Equifax: where a person has changed his/her name but not (yet) obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate, both names are displayed to any enquirer about credit ratings.

- England & Wales: National Offender Management Service, Ministry of Justice: New prison guidelines for trans prisoners. Where to place a post-op without a Gender Recognition Certificate, a pre-op or a non-op with a GRC, a seriously committed pre-op etc. This is expected to end trans convicts avoiding prison because it is unclear where to send them.

- Home Office has begun a consultation on allowing an X on passports for trans persons.

- The Justice Minister has announced that the "starting point" for judges sentencing in disability and transgender murder cases was to double from 15 to 30 years.

- Equalities Minister has announced support for transgender pupils in schools, measures to tackle discrimination in accessing public services and greater steps to protect transgender people's privacy, including not having their transgender identity revealed at work without their consent.

Oceania:

Western Australia: two trans men who had been refused recognition as men by the state Gender Reassignment Board appealed and are now recognized.

Australia: Gender on passports may now be M, F or X.

Kurt Warnekros (1882 – 1949) gynecologist.

2011-12-15T04:55:00.000-05:00

The son of a medical professor at Berlin University, Warnekros studied in Wuerzburg and Berlin. From 1909 he worked at the Women’s Hospital at the University of Berlin, and in 1924 he became the director. In 1925 he became director of the women’s clinic in Dresden.

In addition to being a gynecologist and obstetrician, he was also a pioneer in the use of X-rays.

He had high-society patients: the Romanian princess Ileana Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Ivy Lowe, the English Jewish wife of the Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov, and members of the Rothschild family.

In 1930 he made newspaper headlines when he transplanted ovaries and a uterus into the pioneer transsexual Lili Elbe. However she died during a follow-up operation a year later.

In 1933 he joined the Nazi party. In 1936 he was accused of being a Jew-lover because of his work with the Rothschilds. However he was able to keep treating Jewish patients until 1944, partly because he also treated the wife of Nazi Party leader in Saxony. In addition he also did involuntary sterilizations.

His clinic was destroyed in the February 1945 air raids on Dresden. He remained head of the clinic until 1948, when Baroness von Goldschmidt-Rothschild invited him to live in Paris.

“Kurt Warnekros”. Wikipedia: Die Freie Enzyklopädie. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Warnekros.

Richard Curtis (1959–) state representative.

2011-12-12T05:58:00.000-05:00

A veteran of the US Air Force, and later a fire department captain and a councilman in La Center, Washington, Richard Curtis was married with two daughters. He was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives as a Republican in 2004 and again in 2006.

In 2005 and 2006 he voted against gay rights bills. In 2007 he voted against a bill to create domestic partnerships.

Later in 2007 he resigned after it came to light that he liked to cross-dress and have bareback sex with male escorts.

During a Republican retreat, after taking drugs and wearing some female clothing under his suit, he picked up a male escort in a porn store and took him to a hotel room. The young man stole Curtis' wallet after sex and tried to obtain a promised $1,000 for barebacking. Curtis contacted a friend in the Washington State Patrol claiming extortion and hoping to keep the details quiet, but the WSP correctly referred the case to the local police.

*Not the trans doctor who took over Russell Reid’s practice, nor the NZ-born writer and director of popular comedies.

Jeffrey Mize. “Police report sheds new light on Curtis encounter”. The Columbian. Oct 30, 2007. http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/10/10302007_Police-report-sheds-new-light-on-Curtis-encounter.cfm.
Dan Savage. “Richard Curtis: More Shocking Details”. SLOG Arts & News, Oct 30, 2007. http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/richard_curtis_more_shocking_details.
“Republican Sex Maniac Richard Curtis Can’t Quite Get the Toothpaste back in the Tube”. Down with Tyranny, Oct 31, 2007. http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/republican-sex-maniac-richard-curtis.html
“Richard Curtis (politician)”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Curtis_%28politician%29.

Nadia Almada (1977–) performer.

2011-12-10T05:11:00.000-05:00

Jorge Leodoro was born in Madeira. He lived in South Africa with his parents and five brothers 1989-1992. After his parents broke up, he moved to Woking, England at age 19, and worked in retailing and as a bank teller.

As Nadia she completed transition in 2003.

In 2004 she competed in Channel 4’s reality show Big Brother 5. Her fellow contestants were not aware of her gender history, but viewers were informed. £4.9 million was traded on Nadia alone by bookmakers. After 71 days, she placed first, with 78% of the vote, and won £63,500. The Sun newspaper tracked down her father in South Africa to inform him that he had a daughter. Later that year she released a single, which charted at number 27 in the UK.

She has since appeared in other reality shows and television shows.

In Ultimate Big Brother, in August 2010, another contestant was removed after making transphobic comment, none of which were broadcast, but Nadia also was evicted after conflicts with others. She objected that the transphobic remarks were not broadcast, and chose not to attend the final with all the other contestants.

Barbara Ellen. “The more people criticized, the stronger I became”. The Observer, 22 Aug 2004. www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2004/aug/22/features.review17.
“Nadia Almada”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Almada.
“Big Brother 5 winner and BB’s First MTF Transsexual”. TransgenderZone. www.transgenderzone.com/features/bigbrother.htm

Camilla De Castro (1979 – 2005 ) model, porn star.

2011-12-08T04:50:00.000-05:00

Alessandro Caetano Kothenborger grew up in São Paulo.

As Camilla De Castro she became a model and a porn star, and appeared regularly on Brazilian television.

She killed herself during a heavy drugs binge by jumping from her 8^th floor penthouse.

She has been deleted from en.wikipedia.

“Camilla de Castro”. Wikipedia, Die freie Enzyklopädie. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilla_de_Castro

Rachel Pollack (1945 - ) novelist, poet, Tarot grand master.

2011-12-06T04:51:00.000-05:00

Pollack was raised Jewish in Brooklyn, New York. He did a BA in English at New York University and a masters at Claremont Graduate School in California.

In 1971 Pollack declared herself as a transsexual, and as a lesbian (an almost unknown position at that time). Rachel, and her wife Edith, moved to London and Rachel became the contact person for the Gay Liberation Front TV/TS group, which is how she met Roz Kaveney, and together they formed a transvestite presence at the GLF meetings. Rachel and Edith were misunderstood in different ways by both GLF and the political lesbians, but raised issues by their very presence. In line with the magical reality of her fiction, Rachel challenged the biological definition of women. Edith was active in the Women’s Liberation Front.

Rachel moved on to Amsterdam, where she started on hormones and then had surgery from Philip Lamaker in 1976. This was done without counselling in that she obviously knew what she was doing.

She returned to the US and has successfully pursued a career as a writer. Her Unquenchable Fire won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best novel of the year 1989.

In 1990 at age 45 she had a bat mitzvah, 30 years after her bar mitzvah.

In 1992 she wrote “Abandonment to the Body’s Desire” in Rites of Passage:

"the trance-sexual woman sacrifices her social identity as a male, her personal history, and finally the very shape of her body to a knowledge, a desire, which overpowers all rational understanding and proof".

Her emphasis has been and remains that transsexuality is a passion, and certainly not a sickness. In 1993 Rachel spoke on trans issues to the Council of Europe, and also at the International Conference of the Harry Benjamin Association.

From 1993-5 she revived the Doom Patrol comic book and introduced, Coagula, a trans character.

She was a contributor to TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism. In a 1997 paper for the Transsexual New Telegraph (as Rites of Passage had become), she wrote:

“What sense does it make to label some people as true transsexuals, and others as secondary, or confused, or imitation? Whom does such an attitude serve? I can think of no one but the gatekeepers, those who would seize the power of life and death by demanding that transsexuals satisfy an arbitrary standard. To accept such standards, to rank ourselves and others according to a hierarchy of true transsexuality, to try to recast our own histories to make sure they fit the approved model, can only tear us down, all of us, even the ones lucky enough to match that model.”

Rachel’s Godmother Night won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, 1997.

Anne Lawrence cites Rachel as a major influence and includes two essays on her site, and Catherine Platine quotes her “words of wisdom” from her “Archetypal Transsexuality”:

"Transsexuality comes to us with all the power of a divine force who will not be denied. If we recognize it and accept it as a true vision of the self from the deepest part of the psyche, if we carry the Goddess with us .....then we may find it opens us to a life of spirituality and joy. If we try to deny or belittle it, or explain it away, it can destroy us. Knowing ignorance is strength. Ignoring knowledge is sickness. If one is sick of sickness, then one is not sick.".

Her 2002 novel, A Secret Woman, has a police detective who is both trans and Jewish.

In 2003 she published The Body of the Goddess: Sacred Wisdom in Myth, Landscape and Culture.

She is an expert on the tarot, and has written many books on its interpretation. She wrote the text for the tarot decks of Salvador Dali and Hermann Haindl, has designed her own tarot deck, and worked with Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman on the Vertigo Tarot Deck.

Rachel Pollack. “Abandonment to the Body’s Desire”. Rites of Passage, 1992. Reprinted: www.annelawrence.com/abandonment.html. Reprinted again in Noach Dzmura (ed). Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in the Jewish Community. North Atlantic Books, 2010.
Rachel Pollack. “Archetypal Transsexuality”. 1995. www.annelawrence.com/archetypal.html.
Rachel Pollack. “Aphrodite: Transsexual Goddess of Passion”. Journal of Archetypal Psychology, Spring 1995.
Rachel Pollack. “What is to be done? A Commentary on the Recommended Guidelines” In Gianna E. Israel & Donald E. Tarver. Transgender Care: Recommended Guidelines, Practical Information, and Personal Accounts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997: 229-35, 269.
Rachel Pollack. “The Varieties of Transsexual Experience”, 7 Transsexual News Telegraph 18, 20, 1997.
“Transgender Jews”. Lilith, Spring 2002.
Rachel Pollack. “The Transsexual Book of the Dead: Osiris and the Trance Man”. In Dean Kotula. The Phallus Palace: Female to Male Transsexuals. Los Angeles, Calif: Alyson Publications, 2002.
Cathryn Platine. “The Wisdom of Direct Knowledge”. 2003. http://gallae.com/gnostic.html.
Rachel Pollack. The Body of the Goddess. London: Vega, 2003.
Mair Davies. “Rachel Pollack” in W11 in the 1970s, 2006. http://maironline.com/bobby/w11/09rachel.htm.
"Rachel Pollak". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Pollack.
www.rachelpollack.com.
“Pollack, Rachel”. tarot.pedia. www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Pollack%2C_Rachel

Esdras Parra (1939 – 2004) writer, translator, painter.

2011-12-04T04:07:00.000-05:00

Parra was born in Santa Cruz de Mora, Estado Mérida, Venezuela. He was a poet, essayist, narrator, translator and painter.

In the sixties he published novels: El insurgente (The Rebel),1967, Por el norte el mar de las Antillas (On the sea north of the West), 1968, Juego limpio (Fair Play), 1968. He was a co-founder of the magazine Imagen, where he was the editor for several years, and he was a major presence in the Venezuelan literary world.

After transition to female in Europe, Esdras was silent for many years, until she was awarded the Poetry Award of the Biennial Mariano Picón Salas of Merida (1993) with Este suelo secreto (This Secret Land), 1995. And he published two more poems: Antigüedad del frío (Seniority of cold), 2001, and Aún no (Not yet), 2004.

At her death she left several poems and unpublished texts and drawings.

“Esdras Parra: Personajes en la Historia del Transexualismp”. Reflexiones de una Diva, 1.2.07. http://divarios.blogspot.com/2007/02/esdras-parra-perdonajes-en-la-histoia.html
“Esdras Parra”. ILGA Trans Personalities. http://trans.ilga.org/trans/welcome_to_the_ilga_trans_secretariat/trans_zone/personalities/esdras_parra
“Esdras Parra”. Wikipedia: La enciclopedia libre. es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esdras_Parra