Eddie Izzard on Conan O'Brien - December 15, 2008.

Eddie Izzard talking about "Valkyrie" and stuff on Conan.

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Transgender actor Eddie Izzard is a student of the military

By Rick Bentley / McClatchy Newspapers

December 28, 2008


FRESNO, Calif. _ It didn’t take Eddie Izzard long to get ready for his role as Gen. Erich Fellgiebel in the new military drama "Valkyrie." That’s because Izzard has long had a fascination with the military.

Izzard, who as a youngster thought about one day joining the army, even lives his life in a rather military fashion. That’s particularly true when it comes to making decisions. He is very careful to look at all the options before he begins his attack.

"I am a transvestite with a career. You can’t afford to screw around," Izzard says during a telephone interview. He’s spending the Sunday afternoon chatting about his role in the film that opened Christmas Day. "Think about it. There are not many of us from the transgender community who have been able to stick our heads up and say ’Yes, I am here’ and then keep your thing going.

"You can be transgender and exist on the fringes of society. I wanted to exist slap, bang in the middle. You got to be a little military to do that." . . .Read More

Openly transgender minister ordained

by Heather Tirado Gilligan

1.1.2009

First United Lutheran Church in San Francisco, the first Lutheran church to ordain an openly LGBT pastor in the 1990s, recently welcomed a new queer member of the ministry. Jay Wilson, now one of the few openly transgender pastors in San Francisco, was ordained by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries and installed as a pastor at First United last month.

First United became a refuge for LGBT pastors after the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America decided in 1989 that all openly gay and lesbian clergy must live celibate lives or be expelled from the ministry. The First United church was itself expelled from the ELCA in 1995 for ordaining openly gay pastor Jay Johnson shortly after the denomination's ruling on celibacy.

Wilson's December 6 installation celebrated the unique perspective he would bring to his pastoral work. Wilson will be working with the homeless and the disabled as well as offering education around gender identity in his pastoral role at First United. . . .Read More

Trans author revisits her story

31 December 2008

KATHERINE CUMMINGS


When I decided to transition I didn’t have the option of melting into society, which is what a lot of transgender people do. I had a family to support, and responsibilities to honour. Since I couldn’t disappear, I decided to make my visibility useful by writing my book Katherine’s Diary. I relaunched it last year.

I didn’t feel courageous for writing the book initially; I felt desperate. When people tell me how brave I am, I say it’s not brave to jump off a cliff if there is a bushfire pushing you off. You just hope there is deep water underneath.

So it wasn’t courage … determination perhaps. There are many suicides in the ranks of transgenders. Some people give up, some people crash through.

When I sat down to write the book, I wanted to make clear to people that there were differences between transvestites, transgenders, homosexuals, and drag queens — there is a whole spectrum. Nothing is better than any other thing, but they are different and indeed you can belong in more than one group.

The idea that transgender is taken as an umbrella term by many people seems to miss the point that gender is not sex, that we do not change our sex when we reassign. What we do is change our social, or perceived, gender to what has always been our innate gender. Gender is what determines whether someone says you are he or she, and has got nothing to do with sexuality. . . .Read More