Venus Xtravaganza. . .from the film, "Paris is Burning"

from Wikipedia:

"Venus Xtravaganza (died 1989) was a transgendered Latina saving up money for sex reassignment surgery while earning a living as a prostitute in New York City. She appeared in Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning, a 1991 documentary film about New York City ball culture.

While her birth name and date of birth remain unknown, her last name was given to her because of her membership in the House of Xtravaganza. The house, like similar houses, is named in the style of European fashion houses (e.g. House of Chanel) and is an affiliation of young drag queens and transgendered youth who have come together around the Harlem drag ball scene.

During a 1987 interview in "Paris is Burning," she says she want to be "a spoiled, rich, white girl living in the suburbs." [1] She shares a story of her time as a prostitute where one of her clients became enraged upon the discovery that Venus was not a biological woman. Venus fled through a window and, fearing for her life, claims to have left the prostitution business as a result, opting instead to work as an escort.

According to her drag mother Anji Xtravaganza, Venus Xtravaganza was found strangled and stuffed under the bed in a New York hotel in 1989. [2] Her body was discovered by a stranger 4 days after her death.[3]"

Unfair and unequal: Attorney Minter champions rights of sexual minorities

Nov. 29, 2005

by George Lowery

When Shannon Price Minter, J.D. '93, returned to Cornell Law School Nov. 16 to speak about the future of gay rights, he brought a different perspective to bear on the issues. Minter, who attended the Law School as a woman, is now a married man and legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) in San Francisco.

Sheryl Sinkow Photography

Shannon Price Minter, who attended Cornell Law School as a woman, returned as a man Nov. 16 to speak about the future of gay and transgender rights.

"I remember my time here very vividly, and it's great to be back," said Minter, whose talk was sponsored by the Law School's Cyrus Mehri Public Interest Speakers Series. As a law student, Minter interned at the NCLR and helped start a legal aid program for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) who had been forcibly hospitalized for psychological treatment to change their gender identity.

In a dozen years with the NCLR, Minter has become known for his tireless work on precedent-setting cases. "We litigate across quite a wide range of issues across the country," said Minter. "Our goal is to advance the human rights and safety of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, so we end up litigating in state and federal court across the country." His successes include helping to pass anti-discrimination laws protecting transgender people in employment and health care.

"A really wrenching aspect of our work, one that is very dear to my heart, is working on behalf of LGBT youth in foster care and juvenile justice systems," Minter said. "No one can work in this area without being struck, first and foremost, by the overwhelming racism of our current child welfare system. The vast majority of children who are taken out of their homes and put into foster care or incarcerated are youth of color. And their families are subject to a degree of state surveillance and intervention that is rarely if ever directed at middle-class or upper-class families.

"For youth who are dealing with being gay or transgender on top of that, it's really hard to describe the brutality they're facing currently. It's really, literally, a nightmare for those young people. They are subjected to sexual assault, physical assault from other youth and often from staff. There's been very little legal progress in this area. We're representing a young gay man from Tennessee who went into a foster family that forced him to undergo repeated exorcisms to cure him of being gay."

Minter has also brought national attention to transgender parents threatened with losing parental rights. In 2003 Minter represented Michael Kantaras, a transgender father, in a custody battle televised in its entirety on Court TV. "Whatever theories or philosophies any of us may have about gender or about child development, the reality is that, for whatever reason, there are children born into this world who have a very deep-seated internal conviction that their gender is different than the one assigned to them at birth," Minter noted in a 2002 speech. . . .

Feminine guys better for long-term love: study

FP - Wednesday, August 8 01:20 pm

LONDON (AFP) - Women see masculine-looking men as more unsuitable long-term partners but men with more feminine features are seen as more committed and less likely to stray, researchers said Wednesday.

Scientists at the universities of Durham and St Andrews came to the conclusion by asking more than 400 British men and women to make judgments on character after looking at digitally-altered pictures of men's faces.

The web-based test asked participants to rate the face for traits such as dominance, ambition, wealth, faithfulness, commitment, parenting skills, and warmth.

Men with square jaws, larger noses and smaller eyes were classed as significantly more dominant, less faithful, worse parents and as having less warm personalities.

Those with finer facial features, fuller lips, wide eyes and thinner, more curved eyebrows on the other hand were viewed as a better bet for long-term relationships.

And healthier-looking faces, for example those with better complexions, were seen as more desirable in terms of all personality traits compared to those who looked unhealthy.

Older faces were also generally viewed more positively compared to younger ones.

The scientists said there was a "high amount of agreement" between women about what they see in terms of personality when seeing a man's face and they may well use their impression to decide whether or not to engage with him. . . .