Bloggers Weigh in on Transgendered Pregnant Man

By Ross von Metzke and Ann Turner

3.26.2008

Thomas Beatie, a transgendered man from Portland, Oregon who revealed he is pregnant in the latest issue of The Advocate, is five months along according to various reports.

Now the story, which spread like wildfire on the Web yesterday following its appearance in the latest issue of the LGBT news magazine, is prompting mass discussion among bloggers.

Beatie, who transitioned from female to male, decided not to remove his reproductive organs and stopped taking testosterone injections. Upon learning his wife, Nancy, couldn't carry a child, he tried. Now, Beatie and his wife are expecting a baby girl in July.

Beatie claims he's faced discrimination from doctors and hospitals, and now blogs are weighing in on the topic.

GaySocialites.com writes: "I was even more shocked at how upset people were to find out that Beatie was born a woman. In a strange-sort-of-way, everyone seemed to want Beatie to defy the laws of anatomy by getting pregnant as a man." . . .Read More

Gays, transgenders explore meaning of sex

Laura Clark

3.26.2008


Sitting on the edge of the stage in the Center Theater last night, Sarah Perlmutter defined gender and sex as two different words.

"A person's sex is what they were born as, but a person's gender is the sex that feels more natural to them," said Perlmutter, a sociology sophomore.

Perlmutter, along with several other UK students, led a discussion titled, "In My Shoes: Stories of Our Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered, Questioning and Ally Campus and Community." The discussion was part of the Diversity Dialogues series sponsored by Student Diversity Engagement and the Division of Student Affairs.

The event aimed to raise awareness of harassment toward gay and transgender people, and to allow the panel to share their experiences and answer questions about discrimination.

The main point of the discussion was to educate those who may not understand some of the issues gay and transgender students have to deal with, which is why international studies sophomore Danielle Cole attended. . . .Read More

City's shelters to get standards of care

by Seth Hemmelgarn

March 27, 2008

After years of input by homeless shelter clients, operators, and homeless advocates, the Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday, March 25 to adopt a set of standards of care for homeless shelters. Supervisors Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd voted against the measure.

The standards, introduced to the board and sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano, address everything from training staff members on how to be sensitive to LGBT issues to making sure bathrooms are stocked with toilet paper.

Ammiano said he's "very proud" of the legislation's passage. He said Mayor Gavin Newsom is supportive of the legislation and implementation should begin "just about immediately." Newsom's office did not provide a comment by press time.

Quintin Mecke of San Francisco's Shelter Monitoring Committee, the group largely responsible for developing the standards, told the Bay Area Reporter the guidelines will hopefully "make a difference in the everyday experience people have in the shelter system."

Mecke, who ran unsuccessfully against Newsom in last year's mayoral race, said that staying in the shelters can be particularly hard for transgender people. He said there have been several cases where staff have told transgender people they need to provide a doctor's note to prove their gender when the person requests a female bunk. He referred to this burden of proof as "humiliating" and "unnecessary." . . .Read More

The Evolution of Transgender Media Coverage

March 28, 2008

(Independent press, Media criticism) Permanent link

The transgender narrative is well known, thanks to films like Boys Don’t Cry and Transamerica. But the problem, as Extra! reports in an analysis of transgender coverage over the past few years, is the idea that a single “transgender narrative” exists.

The narrative is by now quite familiar: A somewhat prominent white, middle-to-upper-class man comes out as a transgender woman, her long history of feeling “trapped in the wrong body” is detailed, and her struggles and surgeries are documented, as are the struggles of those around her to understand and embrace her change.

The Extra! report also seizes upon another shortcoming of media attention: that many reporters and television reporters obsess over a person’s “genital status,” reducing their transgender guests to sideshow surgical curiosities. Larry King is a notable perpetrator of such invasive questions—because, he explained to one guest, “we’re all fascinated with what happens.” . . .Read More

Gender Queer Me

An attempt at describing my gender identity, which, now I have had the surgery, I can finally be open about!

Hopefully this will be of value to those of you questioning your own?

This is an understanding that took me many years to feel comfortable with and in, never mind being confident enough to share publicly! xenokyle

Students go out in style - drag style

Jody Pollock

3.26.2008


It was all about the purple fishnets.

College sophomore Cameron Clark spent the past few weeks preparing for his debut as Britney Spears last night, and he couldn't have done it without the "proper purple fishnets."

In towering black lace-up boots and a pink miniskirt, Clark was just one of the many Penn performers who participated in the second-annual gender-bending drag show last night. The show was part of QPenn, the annual lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender pride and awareness week.

"This is a drag show," said the emcee of the night, MC Liza, who hosts a weekly drag show at Bob and Barbara's, a bar downtown. "So don't be conservative. If you're going to be conservative, we'll send you somewhere else."

But the audience wasn't shy, and the five drag acts, which included a group of PennQuest leaders and a contingent from alpha Kappa Delta Phi, were met with a great reception. . . .Read more

Transgender adults seek congressional support in workplace

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 3/26/2008


Transgender activists will descend on Capitol Hill next month to lobby members of Congress to include "gender identity and expression" in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which bans workplace discrimination based on "sexual orientation," passed the House last November, but the homosexual employment bill still awaits a vote in the Senate. In preparation for the lobbying effort, the National Center for Transgender Equality will be holding "lobby training" and policy briefings on April 14 in Washington. The following day, transgender activists and their supporters plan to meet with members of Congress and urge them to back special workplace protections for transgender adults. They will also hold a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol. . . .Read More

In first, black trans woman headed to Dem convention

Richmond, a Clinton delegate, would be happy with Obama as nominee

By REBECCA ARMENDARIZ, Washington Blade | Mar 26, 2008


Marisa Richmond has been involved in national political conventions since 1980, when she worked on Sen. Edward Kennedy's bid for president.

But this election year will likely be more memorable for Richmond, as she is set to become the first black transgender delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

This year, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean also named Diego Sanchez from Massachusetts to one of the convention's standing committees. Sanchez is the first transgender person to be selected by the chair of the DNC and the first to serve on the platform committee.

Richmond, a college history professor at Middle Tennessee State University, transitioned in 2001 at age 42. Though she knew since age 7 that she felt like a woman, she said she didn't know the terminology — or what was possible — until later. . . .Read More

Transgender Man's Baby May Have Health Problems

Experts Debate the Long-Term Effects of Testosterone on Eggs

By AINA HUNTER
March 26, 2008


Among the important issues raised by the pregnancy of Oregonian Thomas Beatie is whether a female-to-male transgender person who becomes pregnant might be endangering the fetus, especially someone like Beatie, who has been taking testosterone for at least 10 years.

There's very little research on the subject to date, and some experts are at odds about it. Dr. Charles Garramoni, a Florida plastic surgeon who specializes in female-to-male transgender surgery (but was not involved in Beatie's case), said the chances of complications are probably slim. . . .Read More

Author Jennifer Finney Boylan emerges as public face for transgendered

Jerry Harkavy, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 25, 2008

BELGRADE LAKES, Maine - Jennifer Finney Boylan never set out to be the public face for the transgendered.

But the novelist and English professor at Colby College was thrust into that role by her 2002 best-selling memoir about the transition to womanhood that freed her from the decades-long torment of being a female trapped in a male body.

With three appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," two on "Larry King Live" and numerous other interviews and public appearances, Boylan, 49, has become a sunny-faced activist for the transgendered and one of the most widely recognized transsexuals of recent years.

"Activism for me takes the form of living a normal life and doing so very publicly," she said. . . .Read More

Meet The Transsexuals (Recorded in 1999)

Information on transsexual living from the founder of the Transgender Support Web Site:
MelanieAnnePhillips

American author explores crossdressers and transsexuals in Get Dressed!

by Brianna Austin

March 25, 2008

	Get Dresseed! book.

Crossdressers and Tranassexuals, although both under the transgender umbrella, are really very different things, which Gina Lance talks about in her new book entitled: Get Dressed!

Gina Lance, the Editor In Chief of TGLIFE.com, may be the most well known cross-dresser on the planet. After producing and co-hosting TV-TV for Century Cable in 1997, Gina went on to publish Hollywood TVs, a retro pin up girl calendar, and then in 1999 founded Girl Talk Magazine which became the Vogue of trans publications in ten countries.

In the last decade, Gina has been featured on MSNBC’s documentary “The Secret Closet,” ABC’s “Philly After Midnight,” MTV, Showtime, HBO, E Channel, FOX and NBC’s “To Tell The Truth,” along with hundreds of radio interviews from London to New Zealand and across North America discussing what it means to be a crossdresser. She has been keynote speaker at TG conventions such as Atlanta’s ‘Southern Comfort Conference, Arizona’s ‘Puttin’ On The Glitz’ and Arkansas’s ‘Eureka En Femme Getaway’ and also participated in the West Hollywood, California “Transgender’s in the Media” televised town hall event. . . .Read More

Transexual teen has faith in self, others

Ralph De La Cruz | Lifestyle Columnist
March 4, 2008

The night I heard that a cross-dressing teen had been shot and killed on Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, I immediately thought of Willie Litersky.

I had interviewed Willie, another cross-dressing teen, for a column about the challenges that gay and transgender kids face.

I had been so impressed with Willie's courage and self-confidence that I wrote, "When I grow up, I want to be like Willie."That was 18 months ago. When he was 15. When Willie was still Willie.

Monday, Willie turned 17, the same age as murder victim Simmie Williams Jr.

And Willie is now Niki.

"Nicholas was her middle name," Niki's mom, Linda, explained. "Niki's totally transsexual now. She's dressing as a girl all the time."

After receiving a recommendation from a therapist, Niki soon will be going to an endocrinologist. She expects to begin the hormone therapy needed to move toward eventual sexual reassignment surgery. . . .Read More

Buenos Aires legislature confers award on transsexual on Women’s Day

Buenos Aires, Mar 11, 2008 / 03:06 pm (CNA).- In order to mark International Women’s Day, the legislature of Buenos Aires decided to confer honors on twenty Argentinean women who “broke the traditional molds,” including a transsexual activist.

The transsexual activist underwent an operation in a public hospital and last year received an official ID under the name of Alejandra Portatadino. Currently she works in the law division of the Argentinean Homosexual Community. . . .Read More

Glamour queens

Anniversaries can be such a drag—and at Kit Kat Lounge, that’s not a bad thing.

November 2007

By Rachel Devitt

DIAMONDS NIGHTS The ladies from Kit Kat Lounge sparkle.

Forget ogling strippers or getting sweaty with hot strangers at a dance club. The new bachelorette party activity of choice is hanging out at a transsexual female–celebrity-impersonator supper club. At least that’s what Kit Kat Lounge’s Madame X (pictured, second from right) believes, considering such parties make up about 70 percent of her business. Founded in 2000 by business and life partners Ramesh Ariyanayakam and Edward Gisiger, the sleek Boystown lounge serves gourmet martinis (try the Sake-it-to-me), kicky menu items like “Just for the Halibut,” and drag from artists like Madame X, Delores Van Cartier and Sandy Solis, who perform in the aisles between tables every 20 minutes or so while pop music by Madonna, Tina Turner and Shakira plays through the swank space. . . .Read More

Thai army to introduce 'third category' for transsexuals

3.19.2008

BANGKOK (AFP) — Thailand's military will stop branding transsexual conscripts as mentally disturbed, and will list them in a new "third category" as neither male nor female, a senior officer said Wednesday.

Thai men are required to report for the draft once they turn 21. Under the current system, transsexuals are rejected as suffering from "a mental disorder."

Gay rights groups complained that the label penalises transsexuals for the rest of their lives, because men are required to prove if they have completed their national service when they apply for jobs or bank loans.

When transsexuals submit their military rejection forms declaring they have a mental disorder, they are automatically disqualified from many jobs and mortgages. . . .Read More

Kim Pearson Interview On CNN Concerning Transgender Student

Change gender/sex virtually. . .

The Sims 3 will launch in 2009

EA confirms 2009 for Sims 3

Third installment to sport brand new engine

Written by Guy Dixon

20 Mar 2008

"It is this type of open-ended gameplay that inspires endless creative possibilities"
Ben Bell Executive producer, The Sims 3

Electronic Arts has released the first official details of the next version of The Sims, one of the world's best selling computer games, which will launch in 2009.

With 98 million games sold around the world in 22 languages, the transgender appeal of the franchise has made The Sims the third best selling game in history, behind Mario and Pokemon. . . .Read More

Trans job fair

compiled by Cynthia Laird

3.20.2008

. . .The San Francisco LGBT Community Center will host its next transgender job fair Wednesday, March 26 from 1 to 4 p.m., at 1800 Market Street. Organizers said that this event has 25 employers signed up, and that there are many more private sector employers attending the event.

Ken Stram, director of the center's economic development program, said that a new feature for next week's event is a "Dress for Success" component, where hair and makeup professionals will be on hand to help job seekers look their best to meet and greet prospective employers.

The event is part of the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative, a collaboration between the center, the Transgender Law Center, Jewish Vocational Services, and SF Transgender Empowerment Advocacy and Mentorship. . . .Read More

For more information, visit http://www.sfcenter.org.

Slain transgender woman to be remembered

by Seth Hemmelgarn

3.20.2008

A demonstration to remember a transgender woman whose naked body was found on a San Francisco sidewalk last year will be held Friday, March 21.

Ruby Ordenana, 24, whose legal name was Rudy Ordenana, was found dead in the 1600 block of Indiana Street, near Interstate 280, on March 16, 2007, according to police. The death was ruled a homicide.

Community United Against Violence is inviting people to remember Ordenana and others who've been lost to violence. The event begins at 6 p.m. at the 24th Street BART station on Mission Street.

San Francisco Police Department spokesman Sergeant Neville Gittens said the investigation remains open but there are no leads in the case.

Mayor Gavin Newsom's office has authorized an increase in the reward. . .Read More