DIVA

Short Film: "Escaping his home-town that completely rejected him, alone, Vincent
goes to Paris to be entirely Herself, but life is never that simple. . ." josephineonearth

Tilda Swinton in W Magazine September 2008

Looking one moment like a Park Avenue matron and the next like a punked-out artist, Tilda Swinton is doing what she commonly does when she alights in a city from her home in the Scottish Highlands: gallery hopping.

But on this particular weekend in New York’s Chelsea, she is portraying an assortment of über New York women for photographer Juergen Teller. Inside Barbara Gladstone’s gallery, wearing seven-inch stilettos and a silk miniskirt, she gets down on the floor and raises herself into a shoulder stand, jackknifing her legs so that they dangle precipitously. At Andrea Rosen, her 5-foot-11-inch frame skyrocketing another 10 inches atop platform wedges, she pokes her head between the hairy legs of one of David Altmejd’s colossal sculptures of giants.

The next day, as the shoot winds down in a SoHo loft, Teller asks Swinton to play herself. “Do you want me as I am?” she asks, running her fingers through her styled red hair and across her blushed cheeks. “Because this isn’t how I look.” Without waiting for a reply, she walks over to the bathroom, scrubs the makeup off and dunks her head under the faucet, letting the cold water run over her face and ears until they’re pink. Teller snaps away in close-up as Swinton turns toward him, her head in the sink, caring not a whit that the bright, unforgiving afternoon light is streaming through the window. . . .

. . .Her status as a style icon has also been helped along by Stafford, her sounding board in all fashion matters. “She’s always been interested in ambiguity, transformation, transgender,” he says. “Clothes are an extension of this. She loves taking the idea of a lady and just twisting it on its head. It’s Nancy Mitford meets David Bowie.” . . .Read More

London Transgender Film Festival announced

By Rachel Charman • August 12, 2008

2008 London Transgender Film Festival will take place at Ritzy Picturehouse, 7th-9th November.

Organisers describe the festival as ‘Independent, experimental, cutting edge and diverse.'

They hope to 'increase trans visibility and acknowledgement, question the gender binary, to dispel ignorance and demystify stereotypes, unite and support a diverse LGBTQI community and celebrate trans spaces and their friends.'

The films featured are to represent and focus on intersex, androgyny, gender variance, trans feminists, gender queer, and gender fluid persons of all natures, all races and cultures, ages and abilities.

As well as film screenings, the festival will include an exhibition, workshops, and a panel with special guests. . . .Read More

Issues & Risks Transgender People Face

August 12, 2008

MyFOX Colorado


DENVER (MyFOXColorado.com) - Imagine living your life as a man physically, but you are a woman emotionally and psychologically.

It's what drives some to undergo a transformation so they can live as the gender they identify with. . .but they also take on great risk.

The TransgenderSoul organization provides information and resources for persons interested in learning more about transgender and transsexual issues. . .Read More

New Rocky Horror film

Qwen Gibson

August 13, 2008

More than 30 years after they introduced the public to a "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania", the makers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show have reunited to do the time warp one more time.

Sky Movies yesterday confirmed it would co-finance a remake of the cult 1975 musical starring Tim Curry that still draws a full house of fans dressed as characters from the film to late night screenings. The original kitsch parody of science fiction and horror, which cost $1.2m (£630,000) to make and has taken more than $140m at the box office, is the longest running cinematic theatrical release of all time. The new version, financed by Sky and MTV in the US, will be overseen by the original film's executive producer, Lou Adler. . . .Read More

Changing Sex Documentary Transsexual Trans #3 of 8

Daily Assaults on Personal Dignity

by Donna Rose

August 8, 2008

As transgender people feel more and more empowered to come out of the shadows to take their rightful place as contributing and accepted members of society, incidents against us based on discrimination, hatred, and ignorance are on the rise. These incidents range from the relatively minor indignities that we often come to quietly accept as simply part of the journey, to brutal, life-threatening physical attacks.

Whether it's the horrible video in Knoxville where police verbally and physically assaulted a trans-woman earlier this year or the brutal murder of Angie Zapata in Greeley, Colorado where her murderer referred to his victim as an "it" - the assaults many of us face on a daily basis are part of a constant de-humanizing assault on our personal dignity and sense of self-worth. Although we can sugar coat it with statistics of growing acceptance and protections for transgender people in workplaces, cities, counties, and states across this country, the soul-sucking reality that many of us face on a personal level can easily become overwhelming.

Being transgender is a difficult life. There are no two ways about it. To hide it is to struggle with the life-long conundrum of knowing that you're living a lie, a constant battle with the fear and shame of being discovered. To acknowledge it is to submit to the discomforts and ignorance of others, and to risk everything you know and love. For what? For the simple peace that comes with being authentic about who you know yourself to be. Unfortunately, many of us will never know that peace no matter which direction we choose. . . .Read More

My Peeps Transgender Ignorance

Monica Roberts

August 11, 2008


I continue to be amazed and appalled at the breathtaking levels of ignorance that have been leveled at transpeople by some of my fellow African-Americans.

That ignorance takes many forms. Sometimes it's people spouting anti-transgender comments steeped in bigoted stereotypes across the Net. Sometimes it's bloggers writing endless posts speculating on whether celebrities such as Ciara or Wendy Williams are transwomen because they have physical, emotional or behavioral traits that some people perceive as not belonging to their gender.

Sometimes it's hurling the 'tranny' epithet at women they don't like. Sometimes it's disrespectfully and cattily calling a transwoman who is unmistakably feminine on the outside and lives her life that way for decades a 'man'. . . .Read More

Dem platform called 'strongest ever' on gay rights

Document calls for 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity' protections

By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade | Aug 11, 7:10 PM

A final draft of the Democratic Party’s 2008 platform strengthens the party’s support for gay civil rights and calls for an end to discrimination based on gender identity.

The document, which is to be presented to the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month for final approval, also includes what party officials described as strongly worded language opposing the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which precludes openly gay people from serving in the military.

But the platform draft approved Aug. 9 by the party’s 186-member Platform Committee apparently omits any mention of the words “gay” or “lesbian,” which had been included in the Democrats’ 2004 platform.

The document, discussed by Democratic officials and gay activists during a conference call Monday with reporters, was not publicly available. The Democratic National Committee has yet to release a final draft of the platform approved in Pittsburgh. . . .Read More

Vigil Held For Murdered Transgender Woman

"Friends and family remembered a loved one at a candlelight vigil on the evening of Saturday, August 9, 2008. They celebrated the life of transgender woman Angie Zapata."
autumn59

Transgender city worker dismayed by intolerance

By Brian Meyer

8/10/08


The person who made history six years ago by becoming the first city employee to openly transition from male to female in the workplace has never found a burning cross outside her home.

The acts of bigotry and intolerance have been more subtle — but every bit as disheartening, said Camille Stephanie Hopkins.

Crude notes have been slipped under her office door. She hears giggles — sometimes sarcastic whistles — as she walks the halls. When elevator doors open, friendly chatter often turns into an icy hush.

“It hurts, because in some people’s eyes, I’m a freak,” she said.

Compounding her pain is Hopkins’ belief that the city has contributed to what she calls a climate of intolerance. City leaders have failed to provide enough sensitivity training and taken a dismissive attitude when she has raised concerns, Hopkins claimed.

She was even brought up on departmental charges for wearing a T-shirt that sported the phrase “fagbug,” a word the gay community considers a statement against hate crimes and homophobia. . . .Read More

BOCES, transgender teen face challenge

By Ben Rubin • The Journal News • August 9, 2008

Michael Arone has been called every pejorative someone could direct at a transgender teen.

But, while most harassment the 16-year-old West Haverstraw resident faced has been short-lived, Arone reached a breaking point at a summer program in Clarkstown South High School.

Arone, a North Rockland school district 10th-grader, is a male transgender teen who publicly goes by Melissa Andrews and prefers to be referred to as a female.

Arone said classmates have routinely called her "faggot," "she-male," "it" and "queer" in response to her wearing eye shadow and lipstick, straightening her shoulder-length brown hair and carrying a purse to school. . . .Read More

Nation’s first transgender MP takes up next challenge: reality television

Left-wing campaigner heads for celebrity island

From Philip Willan in Rome

THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Italy's first transgender MP will participate in a Survivor-style reality television show in September has surprised her many admirers. Vladimir Luxuria - whose real name is Wladimiro Guadagno - was one of many left-wing MPs to lose their seats after Silvio Berlusconi's crushing electoral victory last April.

An actor and campaigner for homosexual rights, Luxuria, 43, was viewed with suspicion by many when she was first elected to parliament two years ago for the Communist Refoundation Party. The parliamentary controversy for which she is best remembered concerned her right to use the ladies' toilets in the Chamber of Deputies, a right that was fiercely contested by the former TV showgirl Elisabetta Gardini, who was beginning her parliamentary career with Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party. . . .Read More

Are you a boy or a girl?

"Just watch it." ss713

Gender Barred

Transgender inmates sue for hormones

by Nathaniel Hoffman

August 6, 2008


Natalia Whitefeather Flores, as she calls herself, is getting her hormones.

But the Idaho Department of Corrections waited until she filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against the state, got a visit from the American Civil Liberties Union and contacted BW to provide Flores, whose given name is William Ray Flores, with her estrogen pills and a testosterone blocker.

"France does the best sex changes, I hear, and that's where I want to go," Flores said in a call from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.

But she's not going anywhere until at least September 2009 when she may be up for parole. Flores was born a woman in a man's body on the Rocky Boy Reservation near Havre, Mont. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and has spoken Cheyenne, Spanish and English from an early age.

At 5 years old, Flores, who then called herself Susie, was diagnosed with gender identity disorder, a psychiatric disorder that the Idaho Department of Corrections defines as dissatisfaction with one's biological sex. The department has recognized GID since 2003, after an earlier lawsuit forced officials to develop a policy.

Flores is transgender in that she desires to become a woman. But she also considers herself two-spirited, a condition recognized in Native American society long before 2003.

"We are considered more spiritual than most people because we've got the spirit of a woman and the spirit of a man," Flores said. . . .Read More

New book explores trans kids

by Zak Szymanski

7 August 2008

	Co-author Rachel Pepper, with her daughter, Frances. Photo: Tony Ferriola

More children these days are insisting upon their right to claim a variety of gender identities and expressions. But for most of these kids and their families, the issue isn't about queer politics – it's about struggling through a society still ill-equipped to handle gender-variant youth, all while navigating the fine line between happiness and safety.

Writers Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper hope to make that path a bit easier with their new book The Transgender Child, published earlier this summer by Cleis Press. This Sunday, August 10, Books Inc. at Opera Plaza in San Francisco will host a 4 p.m. reading and discussion of the book. Brill, who runs the support group at Oakland Children's Hospital for gender-variant children, and Pepper, a journalist and the coordinator of the LGBT studies program at Yale University, will both be at the event. A wide variety of people are encouraged to attend. . . .Read More

Friends stand up for Angie's life

Her alleged killer appears in court, facing a crowd of people who knew the transgender woman and want to remind others of her heart and popularity.

by Monte Whaley

The Denver Post

August 7, 2008


GREELEY — Angie Zapata's family and friends celebrated her birthday Tuesday night and then faced her alleged killer Wednesday morning.

The party — a barbecue at the Brighton Recreation Center marking what would have been her 19th birthday — drew a huge turnout and reminded supporters of her popularity.

"It was something; she would have loved it," said her older brother, 24-year-old Gonzalo Zapata.

Wednesday's hearing in Weld County District Court reminded them how brutally her life ended.

"Who in their right mind would do this to someone?" said friend Leticia Portillo. "Angie was a great person. She should have had a chance to live.". . .Read More

An Open Letter to Dr Phil

Patrick Lockyer

August 06, 2008

Dear Dr Phil

I am quite taken aback to witness the lack of actual skills you possess in the psychology fields. I did notice that you don´t actually have a doctorate but then you have always impressed me in the past with your human touch.

Perhaps you have not experienced sufficiently in your own life certain things to allow good judgment in the issues you now take up. You are casting your net wider these days and I think it is taking you beyond your realms. You really need to have someone else advising you from moment to moment as to what is cool to say/do and what is not.

Your program about Michael the transgender guy/gal made me quite mad. I even fell out with my wife about it and we never fall out and especially at bedtime. I found you to be way off beam in your assessment of the situation. I found you prejudiced and biased against your guest and your studio audience were equally prejudiced and you threw him/her under the bus. I actually wondered how on earth you ever persuaded the person to attend and be victimized and I thought he carried himself majestically in the circumstances. I really wondered for a time whether I had landed amongst aliens. . . .Read More

Questions & Answers 1

"Just answering my viewers questions! ;) I didn't tackle the "dating" story, that's a topic long enough for one video. So, next time around! ;)" truellement

Cross Dress for Red Cross

August 6, 2008

perth NOW

WANT to liven up your workplace and help your local community? Dress up for Cross Dress for Red Cross on September 5.

Swap your normal daily attire for that of the opposite gender, for the fancy dress fundraising event with a twist.

You could be Marilyn Monroe, Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, one of the Blues Brothers, or you could even make up your own unique character for the day.

Encourage your family, friends and co-workers to sponsor you to dress up. The money raised will support over 20 vital community services that Red Cross provides to vulnerable West Australians. . . .Read More