University offers toilets for transsexuals (VIDEO)

January 14, 2009

www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk

TRANSGENDER university students have been given their own set of toilets at their union's nightclub.

Staffordshire University Students' Union nightclub, LRV, is believed to be one of the first in the country, and the first venue in Stoke-on-Trent, to have gender-neutral toilets.

They were introduced for the first student night of the new semester last Wednesday.

A decision was made by the student council in December to trial the toilets.

The nightclub at the university's Leek Road campus, in Stoke, is now trialling them for the rest of the semester.

If it proves successful, gender-neutral toilets could be rolled-out in other union venues at the university. . . .Read More

True to life Transamerica?

by Joanne Clarke - 15th January 2009

Transamerica plays on TV2 this Monday, but is it an accurate depiction of a trans journey? Chch transgender broadcaster Joanne Clarke takes a look.

Transamerica shows us the journey of a trans woman working towards her surgery when a week out she receives a phone call from a son she never knew she had.

He is in trouble with the law and she unwillingly goes to help before her therapist will release the paperwork for her surgery. It is sort of a Trans, road trip, buddy, love story kinda movie. And it works.

"This is the voice I want to use" repeats Bree, a post-op transsexual trying to create a more feminine voice.

Transamerica is one of those rare movies that doesn't sensationalise the trans journey. We see a trans woman dealing with the cards she has been dealt, from the dysfunctional relationship with her dominant mother, to someone learning who they are. . . .Read More

Megan Fox: Transsexual Posing as Alan Alda?

01/14/2009

by Celebuzz

Megan Fox gave a bizarre interview to E!'s Giuliana DePandi Rancic on the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night that included her physically comparing herself to Alan Alda and spewing forth other odd neuroses.

"I am pretty sure I am a doppelganger for Alan Alda. I'm a tranny. I'm a man. I'm so painfully insecure. I'm on the verge of vomiting now. I am so horrified that I am here, and embarrassed. I'm scared," she said.

Whoa! Have a glass of champagne and settle down. Alan Alda? Trannies? What?

Fox, 22, explained that her alleged fiance Brian Austin Green didn't accompany her to the ceremony because "he's a man, he has an ego" and couldn't put up with being her purse carrier. . . .Read More

No Brooklyn Beef for Real World - New York Post

NYPost.com's Jarett Wieselman talks to the cast of MTV's "Real World: Brooklyn" about the relationships forged on the show.

Transgender Kids: Early Revelations

dj6ual

Real World Brooklyn May Bridge Transgender Understanding

by Michael Martin

January 9, 2009

Katelynn Cusanelli of The Real World Brooklyn may be to Transgender awareness what Pedro Zamora was for both AIDS and Homosexual understanding on the same show 15 years earlier, was my impression after watching the first episode of the 21st Real World season.

The Real World Brooklyn premiered on Wednesday January 7th, 2009 at 10pm as MTV reported the show was #1 of the entire day for 12 to 34 year olds with a 2.3 rating, reaching almost 2.3 million viewers.

MTV went on to report that the debut provided the strongest Wednesday rating for the 12 to 34 year old viewers since the Summer of 2007 beating The Real World Hollywood premiere by 6%.

I was impressed by the first episode of the Brooklyn season as for the first in a long time there was a FILM cast.

• Functional
• Intelligent
• Likable
• Mature

I have worked with all previous Real World cast members, booking them for appearances, but as of recent years I barely, if ever, watch the show as I felt it was a constant rewind of the same ol same ol - drink, hookup, and argue. . . .Read More

Critique, Opinion, POV: 'Puberty blockers' pushed on children

by Judith Reisman

9 January 2009

The sexualization of tots in diapers has been ongoing since Alfred Kinsey bragged of infant orgasms in 1948, kicking off Playboy's infant-and-child sex vignettes in 1954. After the late 1960s, schoolhouse administrators increasingly trained children in Planned Parenthood texts to engage in "outlet" sex, homosexuality, bisexuality and pornography use.

Millions of children did as they were educated and became sexually promiscuous. This opened the door to Big Pharma when, in 1992, the State began mandating an improperly tested venereal-disease vaccine, HepB, for neonates.

Big Pharma neglected to inform mom and dad that one commonly gets HepB from sexual contact with a vector. The Imperial State now mandates yet another improperly tested STD vaccine, HPV, to allegedly protect "tweens" from cervical cancer. . . .Read More

Sweden: Former Women, now Transsexual Men, get free prosthetic penises

Special to The Canadian

12 January 2009

A decision to allow transsexual men in Sweden to get prosthetic penises free of charge from local health authorities has drawn criticism because the prostheses on offer don’t get erect.

Starting on January 1st, 2009 transsexual men (i.e. men who were born as females but have undergone sex-change operations) will, with a note from a doctor, be able to receive a prosthetic penis from a plastic surgeon at no cost, according to Ottar, a magazine published by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU).

The move is meant to correct what has long been considered a glaring case of gender bias against transsexual men when it comes to the support they receive to help them fit into society following sex change surgery.

While transsexual women have long been eligible for publicly funded wigs, breast implants, and hair removal operations, transsexual men have previously been without any corresponding cosmetic adjustment assistance.

While Cecilia Dhejne, a sexologist and specialist in psychiatry at Karolinska Hospital in the Stockholm suburb of Huddinge, agrees that the measure is an important step forward, she remains critical of the decision because the prosthetic penises cannot be used to urinate and cannot become erect. . . .Read More

Real World Preview - New York Post

The Post's Jarett Wieselman goes behind the scenes and meets the cast of the hit show "Real World: Brooklyn." http://video.nypost.com

Boynton Transsexual on MTV, Town Now That Much Duller

by Eric Barton

12/26/2008


If you've been to Boynton Beach, then you're aware that it's best known for being sort of near Delray Beach. But it also apparently had, until recently, at least one transsexual resident, because she's now starring on MTV's The Real World. Katelynn Cusanelli even grew up in Sunrise, which is known for being kind of near a bunch of other places. As we all know, the show simulates real life by finding the most peculiar of us and putting them into one room and then solving our societal problems, like cancer, the AIDS epidemic, and why The Gap isn't cool anymore. . . .Read More

Elton John – Liverpool Echo Arena

by Neil Docking

1/7/2009


‘FABULOUS’ is the most obvious adjective with which to describe The Red Piano show.

But perhaps it is also the most appropriate, because this slice of Las Vegas razzamatazz is every bit as flamboyant as Elton John himself.

"A bewildering suicide story on screen depicted an angel being fed honey by an ice–skating bear, a seemingly transsexual figure destroying a wedding cake and then his/her naked figure set on fire (in the most painful of places) while sat on an electric chair."

Neil Docking

Striding onto the stage sporting a sequined jacket flecked with musical notes, Sir Elton was met with a standing ovation before he had even taken his seat at the grand piano set upon a luminous red star.

Giant neon letters spelling out his name were lowered from the rafters, but launching into Benny and the Jets it was his signature piano playing and the musicianship of his band, including longtime collaborators Davey Johnstone on guitar and Nigel Olsson on drums, that seized the audience’s attention.

His range may have diminished but Elton’s voice has definitely retained its power.

And by combining timeless hits with brazen pomp the piano man provides an irresistible spectacle. . . .Read More

A ‘World’ of difference

by Heidi Patalano

January 7, 2009

MTV changes the game for the mother of all ‘Real’ shows.

To say that “The Real World” has a tarnished reputation is an under-statement.


After 20 seasons, the MTV reality show that once captured the real lives of seven interesting young people has devolved into one giant petri dish for bratty, alcohol-infused debauchery. Praise be to a renewed sense of decency, as the producers have seemingly recognized the downward trend by getting back to the roots of the program with “The Real World: Brooklyn.”

With the lack of a contrived business endeavor or group project for the cast members to run this season, it’s clear that the lives of these seven will create enough fodder for drama on their own. The diverse group includes the first transsexual cast member to the program, a self-described “punk rock Mormon,” a dolphin trainer and a soldier who guarded Saddam Hussein during his trial. Throughout the show, each was followed independently as they pursued their own goals — a format that hasn’t been used in the show since season four, “The Real World: London” in 1994.

But don’t be fooled into thinking there won’t be a bit of the sleaze-o angle we all know (and begrudgingly love).

Never a show to play down the sexual element, the bathroom in the remote Red Hook apartment is furnished with three showers facing each other with only a central bit of fogged glass for modesty. . . .Read More

female to male and back again

i did this make up for a halloween party last year. this is a very fast and sloppy version but you get the idea. i was kind of popular among the girls on the dance floor that evening ;D and the reason why i don't smile when i'm made up as a guy is because that really blows my cover ;)

jerassap

Transgender people often face a legal labyrinth when changing gender on identity documents

by Emily Gurnon

1/04/2009


When Carrie PepinSmith wanted to become Cary PepinSmith, a Hennepin County judge had no problem granting the request.

But when the 44-year-old transgender man wanted to change the "F" on his birth certificate to an "M," the judge balked.

"He had no idea how to change the gender on my birth certificate," PepinSmith said. But he'd heard other people had gone to the same place, the Hennepin County Courthouse, and had both the name and gender designation changed at once.

"So why is there no consistency in this?" he wondered.

People who move from one gender to another — with surgical changes or without — face a confounding maze of legal challenges. One of the greatest is changing identity documents, including birth certificates, driver's licenses, Social Security records and passports.

It doesn't stop there. Issues involving employment, health insurance and even bathroom use are among the top concerns facing transgender people, advocates say.

"Our legal system is so premised on the notion of two categories, male and female, that it doesn't easily grasp what to do when a person moves from one category to another," said Phil Duran, staff attorney at OutFront Minnesota, a Minneapolis-based group that offers programs and services for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

"The law often just does not have easy, established answers for the questions transgender people find themselves facing," Duran said. . . .Read More

Transgender Rabbi Blazes Trail for Observant Jews

by Kilian Melloy
EDGE Contributor
Jan 5, 2009


The Jewish community has largely embraced its GLB members, with transgendered Jews now also being more widely accepted.

A Han. 5 article at Haaretz.com related the experience of Elliot Kukla, a rabbi in the Reform tradition of the Jewish faith, who disclosed that he was transgendered before he was ordained over two years ago.

In that short span of time, Kukla has seen the his faith open up to him.

The article quoted Rabbi Kukla as saying of his fellow Jews in the San Francisco area, "I’m so amazed at the old ladies who will turn to their friends and say, ’Did you meet the nice, young transgender rabbi?’"

Added the rabbi, "Some of that is San Francisco, but that conversation would never have happened a few years ago."

Jewish GLBT group Mosaic’s executive director, Gregg Drinkwater, noted, "Transgender issues are really the next set of issues that the Jewish community feels it needs to address." . . .Read More

A transsexual woman's perspective

Inclusion isn't inclusion if it stops at the bedroom

Aleisha Cuff / Vancouver / January 01, 2009


I'll admit I winced when someone handed me a copy of the Dec 4 edition of Xtra West. Two men in bed, not exactly groundbreaking news for an LGBT paper.

Then I saw the title of the piece splashed across the photo: "Shifting Desires: How Trans People are Reshaping Same-Sex Attractions." I winced again.

Truth be told I don't read Xtra West very often. That's not meant as a singular slight against the paper, I just don't do many LGBT community things anymore. I don't go to Pride parades, I haven't been to a bar in years, and I rarely go to any other mainstream LGBT event.

The reason I wince, and why I don't do these things anymore, is because I am a queer transsexual woman, and being a queer transsexual woman in Vancouver is, to put it mildly as I can, a difficult proposition.

There have been a great many words written about Kimberly Nixon v. Vancouver Rape Relief Society, and I don't have much to add to that. To begin a discussion of the relationship of trans women and Vancouver without acknowledging it, though, would be remiss.

The ripples from the ruling in that case (where a BC Supreme Court judge sided with Rape Relief that a trans woman is not a woman) are still being felt, and the implications for trans people and all minorities are still yet to be fully realized.

But I don't want to debate a court case, and I don't want to debate my identity. Having spent years involved in the trenches of these discussions I'm tired, and I don't think I'm going to change anyone's bias based on a good argument anyway.

I think, however, those biases will have a harder time if faced with stories about people. It's a great deal harder to hold essentialist beliefs about someone you know.

My path to being queer was in many ways extremely similar to the cisgendered women I've spoken to (cisgendered means those of you who aren't transsexuals. It's a mouthful, sure, but so was heterosexual when it started being used). I'd spent a number of years dating men, and was in a long-term relationship with a man when I realized the people I kept falling in love with were women.

With this realization came a range of emotions, but ultimately the strongest of these was trepidation —and the excitement of coming out and finding this part of myself was tempered with fear.

Although I'd been living in the straight world, I knew that Nancy Burkholder had been escorted off the land at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in 1991 for being transsexual, and I had heard from queer trans women I knew that I should brace myself for shunning, exclusion and anger.

Whipping Girl, by American writer, trans activist and biologist Julia Serano, reads like a primer for a feminism that includes trans women. Her primary thesis deals with what she calls trans misogyny —a kind of misogyny perpetrated on trans women, but having far deeper implications. Serano argues, and I'd agree, that much of the anger and fear of trans women speaks to a deeper misogyny that is somehow legitimized when it is aimed at trans women. . . .Read More

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

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

caryn331

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