Mistaken identity

On Monday, psychiatrist Russell Reid was censured for improperly authorising five sex changes. Claudia, whom Reid approved for gender reassignment 20 years ago, tells Julie Bindel how she was rushed into the operation - and quickly came to regret it.

Wednesday May 23, 2007
The Guardian

There was a moment when Claudia, as a young gay man living with the person she describes as the love of her life, was "blissfully happy." . . .

First sex-swap mayor to be sworn in - and the mayoress used to be a man too!

A man who had a sex swap is set to become the UK's first transgender mayor - and his mayoress has had a sex change too.

Liberal Democrat Jenny Bailey, 45, who underwent a sex change operation when she was in her 30s, is likely to be sworn in as the civic leader of Cambridge City Council at a ceremony tomorrow.

Her partner, Jennifer Liddle, 49, who also underwent a sex swap and is a former councillor, will be mayoress.

They are believed to be the world's first transgender Mayor and Mayoress.

Ms Bailey, who was once married and fathered two children, now aged 20 and 18, has served on Cambridge City Council with her partner.

The world's first sex change mayor and mayoress: Jenny Bailey (right) with partner Jennifer Liddle . . .

Transgeneration - Dad's reactions to his transsexual child

Here's a touching video where Lucas, a young FTM, comes out to his dad. (I think they even look alike!)
In addition, Raci (MTF) briefly talks about coming out to her acting partner.

Rage Against the Machine

Transsexual Men Discover Differences Are More Than Skin Deep
2007-01-03

_______

By Jacob Anderson-Minshall

Dhillon Khosla wants to have things both ways. His personal publicist ( Levine Communications ) bills his new book, Both Sides Now, as “a rare glimpse in to what it is like to live as both a woman and ( currently ) as a man—and offers extraordinary insight and perspective into the sexes.” Yet in the concluding chapters of the memoir he writes, “If there ever was a time when I thought I had some special insight into the minds of women, that time was now past.”

Khosla declined to be interviewed for this article. In a recent appearance on The View—explaining his discomfort at the term transgender—Khosla says that after 15 surgeries, he feels “to use any other label but man feels like a betrayal to those efforts.” Elsewhere, he’s noted that he feels more accepted in blue-collar bars than the LGBT community. Neither sentiment however, precludes an interest in queer money, and Levine Communications is actively courting the LGBT press and marketing Both Sides Now directly to LGBT readers.

The East Indian-German first-generation American ( who recently left his post as a staff attorney to California and federal judges to join the lecture circuit ) insists that “warmth and openness” is his natural state, but nearly every chapter in Both Sides Now references his “murderous, overwhelming rage,” which he describes as “simply a reaction to my circumstances.”

That fury is directed at doctors; his mother; fellow spiritual students ( one of whom says “I hate the kind of masculinity you have come to embrace” ) ; people on the street who mistakenly call him ma’am in the early stages of his transition; and lesbians. Angry that a woman he’s interested in won’t date him because he’s now a man, Khosla—who once identified as a lesbian—fumes in Both Sides Now: “Fuck lesbians. Fuck all of you. When I was in a different body, you all wanted me—drooled over me. And now it’s different? Well, you’re all hypocrites because I’m the same person.”. . .

Heavy handed but tender-hearted, transgender hip-hopper Katastrophe is a rebel with a cause

Rona Marech, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, February 25, 2005
Transgender hip-hopper Katastrophe, at home in San Franci... Katastrophe cuts tracks in his bedroom recording studio. ...

Rocco Kayiatos, the hip-hop artist known as Katastrophe, compulsively discloses his past. He talks about it with strangers on the street, with waitresses, and always, always with his audiences.

"I'm the token joke in this world," he sings in "Something Different." "If you didn't understand, try to, woman or a man, not true. There's something different."

For fans who don't see what the lyrics are getting at, he comes out and says it: The swaggering, rhyme-throwing, emoting, girl-crazy, 25-year-old hip- hopper with the scramble of brown hair and the dark eyes that have sent more than a few Catholic schoolgirls into happy paroxysms is transgender. He used to be a girl. . . .

Kate Bornstein interviewed on her new book, "Hello Cruel World."

...a Google video.

Pakistani police arrest couple for lying about sex of husband, who underwent sex change

The Associated Press


LAHORE, Pakistan: Police arrested a wife and her husband — who was born a woman and underwent sex reassignment surgery 16 years ago — and accused them Sunday of lying about the husband's gender to a court in eastern Pakistan.

The case pits the bride's father, who wants to annul his daughter's wedding on the grounds that it is against Islam for two women to marry, against the couple, who said they married to protect the bride from being sold into marriage to pay off her uncle's gambling debts.

The husband, Shumail Raj, 31, first brought the case to court, appealing for protection from harassment by their relatives. But earlier this month the Lahore High Court ordered the arrest of Raj and his wife, Shahzina Tariq, 26, for lying to the court.

Raj told the court he is male, but a court-appointed panel ruled that Raj is a woman, whose breasts and uterus were removed in sex-change surgery.

Raj told the court-appointed doctors that he underwent gender reassignment surgery when he was 15 after he noticed changes in his voice and began to grow facial hair. The court-appointed panel found he had no penis, and the entrance to his vagina was surgically closed. . . .

Activist's bumpy road takes her to city government

Theresa Sparks took on the discrimination she felt as a transgendered woman by becoming a regular at San Francisco's City Hall. Now she leads the police commission.

By Cecilia M. Vega, San Francisco Chronicle

Last update: May 19, 2007 – 4:37 PM
If ever there was a real-life, rags-to-riches fairy tale, Theresa Sparks' story is it.

Except Cinderella used to be a man and went from riches (traveling in a corporate jet) to rags (driving a taxi and sleeping on friends' couches) to prominence again by becoming a pioneering transgender activist and the chief executive officer of a multimillion-dollar sex-toy company.

It's not the way Sparks, 58, ever thought her life would turn out.

But Sparks is starting what could be one of the most important chapters in her life -- this month she was voted president of the San Francisco Police Commission. Her election shook up City Hall -- she beat out Mayor Gavin Newsom's pick for the job and prompted a prominent member of the board to resign abruptly.

After her election as president of one of the city's most powerful commissions, which oversees department operating rules and sets crucial policies, Newsom's administration is promising to work well with her, the transgender community is hailing her ascent as groundbreaking, and Sparks is enjoying the ride.

It's a far cry from the life she led a decade ago when, shortly after she transitioned from being a man to a woman, Sparks suffered countless rejections of job applications and was a near-homeless cabdriver.

"I went on 30 interviews, sent out 150 résumés," she said. "I couldn't find a job."

Once an 'alpha dad'

They were barriers Sparks never had to encounter as a man.

She spent decades running several waste management and recycling firms in Kansas, California and overseas. She patented two recycling techniques she developed and shuttled back and forth between jobs on a corporate jet.

A Vietnam veteran who was divorced twice and has three grown children, Sparks called herself "an alpha dad."

Born and raised in Kansas City, Sparks enjoyed dressing up in women's clothes from a very early age, but fought those urges as a young man and underwent intense therapy, including electric shock treatment, hoping to suppress his desire to live as a woman.

Eventually, Sparks realized it was the only way for him to be happy. By 1997 Sparks was living full time as a woman, and three years later she traveled to Thailand for sexual reassignment surgery.

"It's an unusual condition, but it's not unnatural," she said. "You discover that the only way to live with it is to transition physically so your physical appearance matches how you feel about yourself."

Tested by life

She moved to San Francisco to blend in easier and formed a support network and a close circle of friends in the transgender community.

"Really, we get tested by life experiences constantly throughout our transition," said Cecilia Chung, deputy director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco and one of Sparks' best friends. "We're discriminated against, judged by everyone, and we have to overcome just being ourselves."

But the welcome Sparks found in San Francisco was the opposite of the reception she received from some of her own children.

While she remains very close to her daughter, who lives in Kansas City, her two sons don't speak to her. One son has done three tours of duty in Iraq and while overseas e-mailed Sparks occasionally, but the communication is limited.

"It's not an unusual story for transgendered people," she said. "They feel betrayed, probably. They feel embarrassed. They don't understand, even though I've sent them books."

Taking the heat

In her search for a job, Sparks took temporary work at the sex-toy retailer Good Vibrations, packing vibrators in the shipping department over the Christmas holiday in 2001.

A few weeks later, she applied for a job as the company's chief financial officer and got it. Two years ago, she became the chief executive officer.

But it was the rampant discrimination she experienced when she became a woman that pushed Sparks into her activism. She became a regular face at City Hall meetings and the Police Department.

Former Mayor Willie Brown appointed Sparks to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission in 2001. The Board of Supervisors appointed her to the Police Commission in 2004.

"There are a lot of things we have to change," she said of society's views on transgender people. "Somebody has to do it. I'm old. There's not a lot people can do to me, so it's kind of like I figure I'll stand up and take the heat."

S Korean transsexual singer Harisu married

South Korean transsexual entertainer Harisu (L) kisses rapper Micky Chung during their marriage ceremony at a wedding hall in Seoul May 19, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Susan Stanton makes D.C. debut

Susan Stanton made her Washington debut this week after garnering national media attention two months ago when Largo, Fla., officials fired her for coming out as transgender. (Blade photo by Henry Linser)

Transgender / Transsexual Men on the Maury Show / Lando FTM

Here's a video with Lando Thomas et al educating the masses on Maury's talk show.

Boy, 12, Given Questionable Sex-Change Therapy after “Diagnosed” as Transsexual

Leading US psychiatric researcher strongly criticizes such procedures

By Gudrun Schultz

VIENNA, Austria, January 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A boy of 12 began receiving radical hormone treatment to stop the natural development of male puberty and prepare his body for a sex-change operation, after doctors and psychiatrists diagnosed him as transsexual.

The boy, now 14--called Kim instead of his original name of Tim--convinced his parents and medical professionals that he was “in the wrong body” and needed to receive treatment to prevent him from developing into an adult male, the UK Telegraph reported earlier today. His parents said they initially assumed their son’s desire to be a girl was a temporary phase, but after psychiatrists supported the child’s request for therapy, they accepted the decision to pursue physical treatment for a desire they said had been expressed by their son since he was a toddler. . . .

Boston Children’s Hospital Opens “Transgender” Children’s Clinic

Will reportedly offer the treatments to children as young as seven years old

By Gudrun Schultz

BOSTON, Massachusetts, May 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston is offering hormone treatment to young children identified as “transgender” to facilitate eventual surgery for a gender switch, according to a report by MassResistance May 17.

Led by endocrinologist Dr. Norman Spack, the Gender Management Service Clinic is the first U.S. clinic to initiate medical intervention for healthy children on the basis of a “transgender” identification. A 12-year-old German boy who began receiving puberty-blocking hormone treatments last winter in preparation for sex-change “transition” surgery was believed to be the youngest child to receive the treatment at the time.

The Boston clinic will reportedly offer the treatments to children as young as seven years old, according to researcher Ari Taube for MassResistance.

Hormone treatment of pre-pubescent children is intended to prevent normal development of gender characterization in order to ease eventual surgical procedures to complete a change of gender, which can take place once the child is about 16.

On a MassResistance radio report, Taube emphasized that transgender procedures can only achieve the outward appearance of the opposite gender. . . .

Helen and Betty Interview part 2

Helen and Betty Interview part 1

Author Helen Boyd and Betty Crow discuss their lives together. Betty is Helen's transgender husband.

I recommend Helen Boyd's books.

Transsexual Wins Battle Over Surgery Payment

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: May 17, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET

(Allentown, Pennsylvania) A 15-month battle with the administrator of a company insurance plan over the cost of sex reassignment surgery has ended in victory for an Ohio transsexual woman.

Electronics engineer Jan Stacy was told by company that its self insured plan covered the surgery, and in 2006 she entered hospital.

But when she later submitted her bills to the plan's administrator, Highmark Blue Shield, it refused to pay.

Stacy went back to the company human resources officer and again was told the company plan included sex reassignment. Nevertheless, Highmark stood firm, refusing to pay.

She then took her case to Equality Advocates, a Pennsylvania organization that provides legal services to the LGBT community.

Even after the initial intervention of Equality Advocates, Highmark continued to insist that it owed no reimbursement to Stacy and extended the policy exclusions to a routine office visit.

The organization and Highmark agreed to an arbitration process to avoid going to court. But even after Highmark finally conceded that Stacy’s surgery was covered by her employer’s current plan, they continued to refuse to pay most of the claim, on the grounds the surgery was performed "out of network", and that the surgeon did not charge the "reasonable and necessary" amount for the procedure.

Equality Advocates persisted and Stacy’s employer intervened forcing Highmark to reverse its position.

Stacy was ultimately awarded $14,097, the bulk of the surgery costs.

"It is appalling how badly Highmark Blue Shield mishandled Ms. Stacy’s claim," said Katie Eyer, Employment Rights Project Attorney at Equality Advocates.

"Their repeated refusal to pay this claim was clearly the result of bias against the transgender community, and demonstrated a willful ignorance of the medical necessity of procedures such as SRS."

Eyer said that transgenders across the country have "systemic" problems dealing with insurance claims. Stacy was fortunate, said Eyer, that her company has a written policy on equality and that it had its own insurance plan which specifically covered transsexuals.

Few other self administered plans or HMOs have such provisions.

Crowning moment . . .

Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee

Johnny Vera, at 6-foot-4 in heels, towers over enthusiastic supporters as he sports the tiara representing his selection as queen for Roosevelt High's prom Saturday. More photos

Roosevelt prom queen a transgender pioneer.

By Diana Marcum / The Fresno Bee

05/13/07 06:05:54

The silver tiara matched his silver stilettos when Johnny Vera was named prom queen Saturday night at Roosevelt High School.

He's the first transgender prom queen in Fresno -- and possibly anywhere.

Vera's win probably didn't surprise anyone who had seen the prom queen candidates' speeches Friday in the quad during lunch. Vera, effeminate and towering in heels, had wrapped his manicured nails around the microphone.

"For me, it's about more than a crown. It's about saying to people, 'Come out and be who you want to be,' " Vera said. A crowded, urban high school scene paused to listen. "You have to say, 'I am who I am, and I'm proud of who I am. My spirit will never be down on the floor.' "

The students cheered and whistled. The girls on Vera's cheerleading squad got teary-eyed. A boy wearing a pin supporting another queen candidate started the chant: "Johnny! Johnny! Johnny!"

On Saturday night when his name was announced, Vera wept like a newly crowned Miss America to thunderous applause in a downtown Radisson Hotel ballroom. The same chant started: "Johnny! Johnny! Johnny!"

Vera's crowning comes less than a month after Cinthia Covarrubias made national news by running for prom king at Fresno High School. . . .

The crying game . . .

Amanda Milan was a jet-setting, transgender escort. Why did she wind up with a knife in her throat at New York's Port Authority bus terminal?

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Nina Siegal

June 20, 2001 | NEW YORK -- The sky was unusually bright that night, the air humid and sultry, embracing the light. Amanda Milan had pulled a trick for an escort agency, then stopped by Times Square to join an early-morning coffee klatch with a group of transsexuals who sometimes gathered at McDonald's on Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street to trade laments over Styrofoam cups.

Amanda was a tall black transsexual, with a long hair fall that masked the broad cut of her chin and a welcoming smile dabbed with glossy red lipstick. She had ample breasts (with the help of D-cup implants), and much of the time she could "pass" as a woman. But around the Port Authority, people recognized "the girls" who hung out by the Duane Reade drugstore, and Amanda was something of a celebrity in that circle.

Amanda kissed her friends goodbye at about 4 a.m. and then crossed Eighth Avenue, hoping to catch a cab in front of the bus terminal. Her friends watched her go, and continued to watch as a man approached her. . . .

It's a trans world . . .

The author of a new book about transgender teenagers in Los Angeles talks straight about hormone smuggling, life on the street, and the rise of America's first trans-rapper.

By Nona Willis-Aronowitz

Jan. 5, 2007 | "Transgender": Does even the word confuse you? If you were asked to define it, could you?

If not, you're hardly alone. For years, the transgender community has existed in the shadow of the gay, lesbian and bisexual rights movement -- though most trans-people agree that redefining their gender has little to do with their sexual orientation. The word is applied to everyone from drag queens and sex reassignment surgery patients to femme gay men and butch straight girls. And these days, when discussions of transgender do happen, it's usually in the context of the sex industry or debates about unisex bathrooms and gender-blind hallways in college dormitories. With such boundless, cloudy meanings, is it any surprise that even the most sex-savvy, gay-friendly, politically correct among us still have a hard time explaining the term?

Cris Beam, the author of "Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers," hopes her new book will help take on some of the mysteries and misconceptions that still haunt the transgender community. Beam, now 34, moved to Los Angeles in 1997, while her girlfriend attended graduate school. Lonely in her new city, she became intrigued by Eagles, a local high school specifically for gay and transgender kids; with the time left over in her freelance writing schedule, she began to work there as a volunteer. During the two and a half years Beam taught at Eagles, she discovered a complex but marginalized tribe of transgender teens who had nowhere to go but the streets. "Transparent" chronicles those stories, and describes how, within a few years, Beam found herself deeply involved in the kids' lives, entangled in their dreams, disappointments and their search for the truth about themselves and their gender. . . .

A plague undetected . . .

(This story's over 6 years old, but as relevant now as then.)

Did shady backroom hormone treatments and dirty needles cause a killer outbreak of HIV in the transgender community?

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By Nina Siegal

March 28, 2001 | NEW YORK -- Fourteen years ago, when Barbara Cassis was a 24-year-old man, she asked a family physician to give her hormones so she could become a woman. He prescribed a visit to a psychiatrist instead.

Undeterred, Cassis, now a towering blond with swimming-pool-blue eyes and a C-cup chest, entered an underground economy of fake doctors and self-appointed medical gurus who were willing to help her make the transformation she desired. She didn't know at the time that she was putting herself at risk for AIDS.

At transgender clubs in Hell's Kitchen, she asked the convincing-looking girls where to start. One gave her a business card for a hormone home delivery service. Another, she recalls, told her about a doctor who administered treatments in the bathroom of Sally's, a popular Hell's Kitchen bar catering primarily to transgender patrons.

According to Cassis and outreach workers who are familiar with the transgender scene in New York, this so-called doctor would set up shop in a bathroom stall for hours, injecting possibly hundreds with a single needle, without sterilizing it between shots. . . .