Transgender to play lead in Tamil film

8 Jul 2008, Ajitha Karthikeyan,TNN

In Paal, Karpaga dons the role of an intellectual who is in love but faces a dilemma in revealing her identity to her lover. (TOI Photo) CHENNAI: Young Karpaga, who makes her debut as a heroine in a Tamil film, is understandably nervous. She is busy rehearsing her lines and learning the nuances in the art of make-up, as the offer is not a passport to fame and wealth, but a lifetime opportunity to join the mainstream of the society. Karpaga, the heroine of ‘Paal', is the first transgender in the country to don the leading role in a mainstream movie. "They have played lead roles in short films and documentaries earlier. But, this is the first time a transgender is featured as a heroine in a commercial film," says D Sivakumar, the film's director. Barring a few exceptions, transsexuals have always been shown in poor light in Indian films. But the heroine of Paal is an intellectual, director of a short-film who is smitten by the love bug but facing a dilemma in revealing her identity to her lover. . . .Read More

A Humorous View: "Reasons 2 date transsexuals"

Yes, another very mis-informed, un-politically correct and very insensitive video by me. Yay. . . .Read More

Pregnant with discrimination

Ultimately it is prejudice about Thomas Beatie's perceived gender transgression that lies at the root of the objections to his decision to give birth

Jane Czyzselska

6 July 2008

For many it's the stuff of pure science fiction. But when Thomas Beatie gave birth to a baby girl in Oregon on Friday, he also gave the world a strong message: gender identity isn't as simple as Adam and Eve.

Dubbed "the pregnant man" Beatie had legally become a male, yet he opted to keep his female sex organs when he switched gender because his partner Nancy was unable to have children.

Beatie's case has sparked controversy. Interviewed on the Oprah Winfrey show, he said he believed that the desire to have a child is not gendered but rather it is a human need. He told Oprah, "I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn't define who I am. I'm a person and I have the right to have a biological child."

Doctors have discriminated against the couple, turning them away on religious grounds. Healthcare professionals have refused to call Beatie by a male pronoun or recognise Nancy as his wife. Friends and family have been unsupportive, most of Nancy's family unaware that he is transgender. . . .Read More

Girl, Interrupted

July 7, 2008

Monica Roberts


One of the things that bothers me from time to time is the fact that I didn't get to experience growing up female.

Sometimes it's triggered when I see a little girl walking hand in hand with her mother. Other times it may be a group of teenage girls walking through the mall laughing, giggling and talking as they wear their tight jeans and discreetly ogle the boys walking by. Sometimes it's seeing as prom season approaches girls with their dates or getting made up for the first time at the department store makeup counter. Sometimes it's a reaction to the depressing news of another transwoman found dead or the madness of ignorant people who haven't picked up science textbooks or read the Constitution in a while. . . .Read More

Spain: Transsexual refused army entry for 'total lack of male genitalia'

By thinkSPAIN 7 July 2008

28 year old Aitor GR, a transexual from a small village in Jaén province, has had his application to join the Spanish armed forces turned down after doctors discovered he had neither penis nor testicles during a routine medical last February. . . .Read More

Thailand Highschool Will Have Transgender Bathrooms

digitaljournal.com

July 2008


The country of Thailand has taken an initiative to consideration towards the country’s own transgender community.

Recently, a high school in northern Thailand called Kampang had launched what could be a start of an initiative to extend courtesy and consideration towards the country’s transgender community. Mainly, this one high school has taken the initiative towards making restrooms for transgender students. This has taken into effect back in May and the symbol is a guy on one half and a girl on the other side. . . .Read More

The Transformation

Artist Adrian L. Acosta transforms himself into Amnesia Sparkles for the 2nd half of the photo shoot part of "1/2 Man, 1/2 Woman" where he's photographed himself as a man and as a woman. . .

. . .gender as perfomance.

Dörchen Richter (1891 - 1933) waiter, cook, maid.

by Zagria

4 July 2008


The world's very first surgical transsexual.

Rudolph Richter was born in the Erzgebirge region of Germany. Dörchen or Dora attempted to tourniquet her penis at age 6. She expressed a strong dislike of male clothing, and was permitted to live as female.

She worked as a waiter or a cook in the fancy hotels in Berlin in the summer, and lived as a woman in the off-season. The police arrested her several times for cross-dressing, and she was sent to a male prison. Eventually a judge took pity on her and referred her to Magnus Hirschfeld who helped her obtain an official permit to dress in women’s clothes. . . .Read More

Time to give 'third sex' its legal rights

7 Jul 2008, Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN


Two years ago, a bearded Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy — viewed by their neighbours as a happy couple deeply in love — explored the idea of becoming parents after a decade-long conjugal life. Thomas, a transgender, got pregnant and has just delivered a ‘beautiful baby girl’.

Irrespective of whether the baby will call him ‘papa’ or ‘mama’, the event signals a revolution in social, political and legal thinking in countries where transgenders have significant population. Thomas is aware of this and admits that his pregnancy ‘‘sparks legal, political and social unknowns’’.

It sure does, especially in India, which is home to nearly 10 lakh transgenders — known as ‘hijras’, ‘kothis’ and other local epithets — who live asymmetrically within society. They are accepted as part of society yet refused many a legal right.

It is difficult to fathom public reaction to the audacious adventure of Thomas and Nancy in India, which recently saw a TV programme, Ipadikku Rose , hosted by a transgender — for, same-sex marriages, or those between transgenders, are still illegal. . . .Read More

Transgender Advocates Rally for Obama

By David Mariner on July 5, 2008


Dear Fellow Transgender Advocate,

This year we have an opportunity to elect a President who will be the most transgender-supportive in history.

But electing a candidate isn't enough just by itself. Unless we're visibly and vocally involved with campaigns and giving our time, energy, money, and ideas we will miss out on an opportunity to create a relationship with a President who has already said he's willing to stand with us. That is why we are asking you to join with us in supporting Barack Obama.

We've set up a specific page to track donations from the transgender community and our allies to Sen. Obama's campaign. You can donate by clicking here:

http://www.actblue.com/page/trans

In both the United States and Illinois Senate, Barack Obama has a long commitment to supporting the LGBT community—and specifically the transgender community. Most recently, here is what he said when issuing his statement on Pride month:

"It's time to live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect. Let's enact federal civil rights legislation to outlaw hate crimes and protect workers against discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. . .

"We are ready to accomplish these goals because of the courage and persistence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who have been working every day to achieve equal rights. The gay couple who demand equal treatment in our family laws as they raise their children; the lesbian soldier who wants nothing more than to serve her country openly and honestly; the transgender workers who ask for the simple dignity of being judged by the quality of their work. Generations of LGBT Americans, at once ordinary and extraordinary, have made possible this moment in our history. With leadership and hard work, we can fulfill the promise of equality for all."

--Sen. Barack Obama
June 6, 2008 . . .Read More

Disney-MGM Studios 4th of July Fireworks

Tel-Aviv Pride, Israel 2008

Pics from 2008 TLV, Israel Pride, from the transgender group.

Critique, POV, Opinion: Transgenderism -- purely psychological?

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 7/2/2008


The American Medical Association meeting in Chicago has taken action that was not totally unexpected. The organization has adopted a resolution encouraging insurance companies to provide coverage, including surgery, for transgendered people – that is, people who believe they should be the opposite gender. The surgery reworks part of the body. Dr. David Stevens of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) says it is not only immoral, but also doesn't treat the real problem.

"Well, the Bible does tell us very clearly that mutilation of the body is wrong, and it's sad that these people have this psychological disorder -- but it should be treated from a psychological perspective," Stevens contends.

The CMDA spokesman has taken a look at the recent resolution. "They're calling on insurance companies to provide treatment for gender-identity disorder, which actually is a sex-change operation. Those are very expensive and obviously treat something in a way that really isn't going to solve the problem, just perpetuate it. [It is] sad that this has happened, but we're increasingly seeing this happen at the American Medical Association and other professional organizations across the country," Stevens explains. . . .Read More.

Critique, POV, Opinion: What the Pregnant Man didn't deliver

Thomas Beatie brought us a media circus and late-night punch lines. But there's something missing, say some transgender advocates -- more respect.

By Thomas Rogers

July 3, 2008 | By the time Thomas Beatie, "the Pregnant Man," strode across Oprah Winfrey's stage on April 3, his story had already become a worldwide phenomenon. Beatie -- a transgendered man who was born a woman and became pregnant through artificial insemination -- had captured headlines, and worldwide attention, in the preceding weeks. On the show, Oprah clutched Beatie's belly like a touchy aunt and asked him nosy questions about his family, his sex life and the appearance of his clitoris. ("It looks like a penis," he answered, uncomfortably.) . . .Read More plus Letters.

Transgender man gives birth

July 3, 2008

Update on the pregnant man:

Thomas Beattie, the one-time Girl Scout, former model and finalist in a Miss Hawaii Teen USA pageant, has given birth to a baby girl, People.com reports. . . . Read More plus Comments.

The More I See You (for Kristin)

A transguy's creative video tribute to his girlfriend.

Review: Pagan Kennedy: The First Man Made Man (2008)

Craig Young

3 July 2008


Pagan Kennedy: The First Man-Made Man: New York: Bloomsbury: 2008.

As I’ve earlier provided a capsule biography of Michael Dillon, the first recorded female to male transsexual, I thought I’d focus on some more particular details involved in this biography of the world’s first transman.

Michael lived an austere professional life, whether as a mechanic, or after he’d gone to Trinity College, and qualified as a doctor. When it came to relationships with others, it never got beyond dancing due to the painful skin grafts from his legs that were neccessary to create male genitalia.

This may have served as an insurmountable obstacle to his relationship with Roberta Cowell, the first transwoman recorded in the United Kingdom. Roberta was living as a woman, taking oestrogen, and wearing female clothing. Dillon proposed that if her surgery went ahead and they married, they could move abroad to become an invisible straight couple, and then adopt a child, whereupon Roberta could settle down to become a housewife. Unfortunately, as one can see, Michael had some very conservative ideas about gender role polarisation, which may be another reason for the breakdown of their relationship. . . .Read More

Rebel without a clue

Sassy

By Patricia Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer

6/15/2008

SHE WEARS A BLUE DRESS WITH BILLOWY SLEEVES, A ribbon wrapped around her small waist. Her nails are long and pale, her fingers long and delicate, her hair long and smooth and straight. There is vanilla in her tall cup of fluffy coffee, and she drops her chin on her palm when she talks about falling in love for the first time. He was 16, she was 17, and even now, she remembers how he held her hand for the first time. There has never been anyone serious since then, after all, she considers herself a 19th-century romantic, and requires sparks and true love.

Her name is Sass, although when she was born 27 years ago, the doctor said she was a boy.

Sass is one of the co-founders of STRAP, the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines. At 3:30 on a sunny Monday afternoon, she gives an impromptu lecture on defining what a transgender is.

There are four terms to understand, says the girl in blue dress. First: gender assignment—the legal sex, the male/female box on the passport and the birth certificate. Second: gender identity—the gender felt, the gender “you believe yourself to be.” Third: gender expression—the outward manifestation of gender, the clothes, the hair, the flick of the wrist, the swing of the hip or the manly gait. Fourth: gender preference—who a person is attracted to, romantically, sexually. . . .Read More

Positively Aware Takes a Look at HIV in Transgender Community

by Gay Chicago Magazine, Gay Chicago Magazine

July 1, 2008


Chicago, IL — A groundbreaking exploration of HIV in the transgender community heads for newsstands in the July/August issue of Positively Aware magazine. This expanded 64-page issue features an exclusive interview with HIV-positive transgender actress Alexandra Billings, who also appears on the cover. Billings has recently guest-starred on the hit network television dramas E.R. and Grey's Anatomy.

Also included is an in-depth interview with noted transgender health expert and psychologist Walter Bockting, Ph.D., author of several books on the subject including Transgender and HIV. . . .Read More

Boys Will Be Girls

Transgender child caught between two worlds

by Teresa Coates

July 2, 2008


Like a lot of 5-year-old girls, Roxy likes playing with her Bratz dolls and her favorite color is pink. She likes to wear the blue dress with big purple flowers that her mom bought for her at Wal-Mart. And she loves going to her dad’s house, but she has to leave the dolls and dresses at home. When Roxy is with her dad, she’s a he.

As a toddler, Roxy, which is not her birth name, played dress-up with her sister and avoided rough-and-tumble play with her brother. She told her mom that she wanted to pull her penis off. At preschool, the teacher noticed how she never took to playing with the boys, preferring the kitchen set over the Legos.

Kate Herman, Roxy’s mother, realized something was different with her youngest child’s gender play. After all, it’s normal for little boys to want to try on their mom’s high heels, or for young girls to play with Hot Wheels. But what Herman saw was different. Her son never wanted to be with the other boys. He wanted to wear dresses. And he wanted to be called a she. Herman says she “always knew there was something going on, but it was easier to ignore it.” She and her husband assumed it was a phase. They encouraged their child to choose gender-neutral clothing, toys and heroes. Roxy still wanted the girly things. . . .Read More