Gender Identity Project

The Gender Identity Project (New York City) is a program at the Center that offers people of trans experience the opportunity to find support, information and a community. Back in 1989 when the Project first started at the Center there were few resources for transgender and gender questioning individuals. This segment, the first-time work of new volunteer producers, takes a look at the Gender Identity Project from people who were there when it started and those who are running it now. To find out more about the Gender Identity Project call 212 620-7310 or visit www.gaycenter.org/gip.

Stunning model has sex change

EXCLUSIVE Stunning Katherine has sex change to turn into Adrian

by Nick Owens

1.27.2008


With her long blonde hair and green eyes Katherine Dalton had a body most women would die for. She worked as a top model and starred in pop videos.

Yet Katherine has now spent £30,000 on a sex-change operation after feeling trapped for years as a gay man in a woman's body.

And in another amazing twist the ex-model, now known as Adrian, is dressing again as a woman at night - as she launches a new career as a drag act.

"People looked at me as if I was nuts when I told them I was a gay man trapped in a woman's body, but I couldn't be happier since the operation," says Adrian, 30.

"Friends have said, 'You were a beautiful woman so why change?' But when I look back at old pictures, Katherine is to me another person."

Katherine went to an all-girl boarding school in Wiltshire where her life was made a misery by other pupils who called her "the freak". But at 16 the dowdy girl bullied for her odd looks and behaviour - she wasn't interested in boys and talked in a strange way - blossomed into a beautiful teenager. She left school and headed to London where she was soon signed up by a string of modelling agencies.

Yet she was still so unsure about her sexuality that she could only face photo shoots after marathon drinking bouts. . . .

Stella Walsh's Secret

Monica Roberts

January 27, 2008

When the Beijing Olympic Games kick off in August we will hopefully see history made with the first open transgender athlete to win a medal.

Note I said open.

Hall of Fame sprinter Stella Walsh competed in the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games for Poland, and she had a secret.

But before I tell you what it was, let me give you a little background on her.

Stella Walsh was born on April 3, 1911 as Stanislawa Walasiewiczowna in Wierchownen, Poland. Her family emigrated to the United States and settled in the Cleveland, OH area when she was only three months old.

By the time she entered high school, Stella was a star track athlete. She was so good that she qualified for a spot on the 1928 US Olympic team. She couldn't compete for the US because she wasn't a citizen and couldn't apply for it until she turned 21.

She did compete in American track championships even though she wasn't a citizen and won her first AAU championship in 1930. . . .

Transgender Photography

by admin

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Student Support Services Library News and Updates about the GLBTSSS, located in Bloomington Indiana

From the gorgously striking to the beautifully mundane, this post celebrates photography collections featuring transpeople from all walks of life.

The first book is BODY ALCHEMY: TRANSSEXUAL PORTRAITS by Loren Cameron (1996). This collection features portraits and stories of Female to Male (FTM) Transsexuals that celebrate body modification, masculinization, and every day life in the face of immense oppression from both straight and LGB persons alike.

Next is CASA SUSANNA by Robert Swope and Michel Hurst (2005). When Robert Swope found some old photographs of men in subdued and conservative women’s clothing at a flea market, he had a feeling he had found a goldmine of transgender history. He has turned these personal photographs into a book that celebrates Casa Susanna, a place of refuge for these MTF’s from the harsh gender expectations of the late 1950’s.

Finally we have PERSONA by Susan Brown (1997). These black and white portraits capture the dramatic, sexual, and gender-bending world of drag queens, MTF transsexuals, and other ‘gender illusionists’ who use their talent and gender performance to entertain. Each photograph is accompanied by an essay or interview about their identity and their act. . . .

LGBT community unites under new coalition

1/26/2008

by Heidi Zhou


Some say harmony in Austin's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community has been a long time coming.

"You can look back two, three, four years to see failed attempts among the community at coordination," said Jimmy Flannigan, president of the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Coordination is a challenge due to the LGBT community's internal diversity, Flannigan said.

"And accordingly the message has been mixed. Even when you go to a legislator and you say, I want to pass hate crime legislation or employment nondiscrimination, if you can't come with a single voice, you don't get anything done," he said. . . .

Transgender teens: Doctors refine hormone, other therapies

by CHLOE JOHNSON

January 27, 2008


Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series about transgender youth.

Puberty can be scary for many children, but doctors say it's absolutely terrifying for transgender youth.

"If they're not terrified of it, they're not trans," said Dr. Norman Spack, clinical director of the endocrine division of Children's Hospital in Boston.

The hospital opened a transgender clinic for children nearly a year ago, the first in the nation like it, according to Spack.

At the onset of puberty, children begin to feel the effects of their gender assigned at birth and develop the related secondary sex characteristics, such as breasts. That's especially difficult for transgender youth who identify with a gender opposite of the body in which they were born.

ransgender is an umbrella term used to describe people who don't fully identify with their birth gender or who were born with intersexed conditions. It can include people ranging from transsexuals who live as the opposite sex or have been surgically reassigned to someone who cross-dresses occasionally.

There is limited and varying data on the number of transgender people in the nation, according to the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. A report issued last year by a University of Michigan professor estimates the frequency of male-to-female transsexualism is in the range of 1 in 500 to 1 in 2,000.

There are medical options for transgender youth, but opinions differ on the best time to intervene, doctors say.

One option, practiced in the Netherlands, is to delay puberty by prescribing hormone blockers in an early stage of development called Tanner 2, Spack said. He said this is between the ages of 12 and 14 for boys and 10 to 12 for girls on average. The blockers extend the time doctors have to evaluate the child and make a diagnosis, while the child continues to gain the reasoning skills to help make up his or her mind. . . .