Susan Stanton in the Whirlwind of Separatist Controversy

Trans-Cendence

God Loves Transsexual and Transgender People - a blog on religion, politics, and sometimes history, science and law, with a smattering of gender theory.

January 19, 2008


Susan Stanton, the transitioning transsexual woman who first became the subject of the news media when she was fired from her job as City Manager by government officials in Largo, Florida, was quoted in an article I found on Google, in The Ledger (a newspaper published in Polk County, Florida) on January 4, 2008 in an article - you can find it at:

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080104/NEWS/801040352/1023

However, the article first appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on December 31, 2007 - here is the URL for that (it did not come up in my Google search, while The Ledger article did):

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/31/Life/Susan_Stanton_s_lonel.shtml

Here is the section with the quote:

Susan has met hundreds of other people like her. She was among the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people lobbying for a law that would make it illegal for others to discriminate against them.But Susan has said all along that she's not like other transgender people. She feels uncomfortable even looking at some,"like I'm seeing a bunch of men in dresses."Eventually, she decided it was too early for transgender people to be federally protected. People need more time, more education, she says. "The transgender groups boo me, now, when I speak. Isn't that ironic?" But I don't blame the human rights groups from separating the transgender people from the protected groups. Most Americans aren't ready for us yet, " Susan says. Transgender people need to be able to prove they're still viable workers, especially in the mainstream."The biggest issue against the federal legislation is that politicians think the ladies' rooms will be invaded by guys in drag," Susan says, "instead of someone like me."

Now, I have it from someone who actually spoke with Susan that she states that she was actually misquoted - and here is a link to Susan's own website that indicates the same:

http://www.susanastanton.com/What_America_Said_and_Saw.html

(And an excerpt for those who don't want to click, or in the event the URL gets stale . . . ): . . .

Nepal’s Gender Benders

19 January 2008

Anjali Lama, a transvestite from Nepal, was struck with a mixture of pride and embarrassment when she came to Thailand to participate in the world’s biggest transsexual/transgender beauty pageant.

She was proud because she had the opportunity to represent her conservative country in an international event but embarrassed because she knew she could never compete physically with other contenders.

She was bold and outspoken, even the organisers agreed to it. And her five-feet-nine-inch slim body had cast spell on some people from the fashion industry. But these characteristics, according to her, were not enough to leave a mark in the contest.

“See how others have come here,” the 23-year-old said, pointing at other participants at Tiffany’s backstage in Pattaya, where Miss International Queen 2007 was held. “They are followed by a troop of dress designers and make-up assistants, but for us, we even had to rent the dresses.” . . .

(By RUPAK D SHARMA In Pattaya/ ANN/ AsiaNews)

Ida Nevasayneva's life as a cross-dressing ballerina

The incomparable dancer looks back on three wild decades

Jan 17, 2008 04:30 AM

Susan Walker
DANCE WRITER

It has been nearly six years since Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo last graced a stage in Toronto. But this is a favourite city for the company, as the site of their first performance outside New York City, where the butchiest ballerinas in pointe shoes formed their company in 1974.

Combining parody and technical perfection, the Trocks have been entertaining audiences around the world ever since – they are especially revered in Japan – with their repertoire of classical ballet and modern dance pieces.

New York dance critic Arlene Croce legitimized the Trocks with a review in 1974 that called them "dead on target and hilarious." Artistic director Tory Dobrin, who joined the company in 1980 as a dancer, says Les Ballets remains true to its aim to be funny, adding new repertoire each year, but preferring choreographers drawn from the company ranks.

To create dances for the Trocks, he says, "You have to have a little bit of a twisted mind-set." Fans of the boys in tutus will be pleased to know that they will perform Les Sylphides and Paquita, among other pieces, for the two shows coming to the Elgin Theatre Saturday and Sunday.

A Trock since 1995, Paul Ghiselin is now the company ballet master (mistress?). But until recently, he was thrilling audiences as the exquisite Ida Nevasayneva. In a rare interview, Ida agreed to tell all to the Toronto Star.

Q: What was your greatest moment on stage? . . .

It's cool to be a (drag) king

January 18, 2008

Drag kings are sexier than drag queens, discovers Fiona Scott-Norman.

ONE of culture guerilla Banksy's works of graffiti has just sold for more than $400,000. Elvis Costello is in an advertisement for Lexus. You'd be pushed to find anyone under 35, male or female, bogan or bourgeois, without a tattoo or piece of metal thrust through some nubbin of soft tissue. Society doesn't so much as attack counter-culture as appropriate it to death.

Drag queens are another example. Only 30 or so years ago a drag queen was unusual, confronting, and more provocative than sketching a jaunty cartoon of Muhammad; these days they're family entertainment on stage at the Regent and scarcely raise an eyebrow.

Not all drag is safe and familiar, however. Melbourne has a thriving drag king scene, but most folk wouldn't know a drag king if he came up and humped their leg. Bumpy has been running King Victoria Drag Kings for eight years (the world's longest-running weekly drag king night), and she says that drag kings seem destined to remain underground. . . .

Sciortino transgender bill testimony heard

Jan 17, 2008

Boston - Soon after he started to transition between genders in 2003, Ethan St. Pierre was fired from his job as a security manager for a protection services company. Since then, St. Pierre, 46, of Haverhill, has been between jobs, which he says are hard to come by because the company keeps providing bad references for him. “I’m constantly out,” he said. “My field is closed off to me.They think there’s something wrong with me.”

St. Pierre and others are hoping Beacon Hill can do something about job discrimination against transgender people, pushing legislation (H 1722) that amends anti-discrimination laws.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) and 22 co-sponsors, also includes language amending hate crime laws to include transgender individuals. . . .

Pilot columnist takes aim at LGBT youth programs

by Ethan Jacobs
Bay Windows

Thursday Jan 17, 2008

The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has been largely silent on the marriage issue since the defeat of the amendment to ban same-sex marriage last June, but it has by no means abandoned anti-LGBT advocacy. The Jan. 4 edition of the Archdiocese’s official newspaper, The Pilot, featured a column by Dale O’Leary attacking LGBT youth programs and warning parents of the dangers of their youth getting involved with homosexuality and transsexuality. O’Leary, who last year published a book called One Man, One Woman: A Catholic’s Guide to Defending Marriage, deploys some of the most well-worn arguments used by anti-gay activists, claiming that homosexuality can be cured, that it is frequently caused by a childhood gender identity disorder, and that "an extremely high percentage" of gay adults were molested as children. It also claims that transgender identity is "problematic" because "no one can change their sex." O’Leary urges parents to share these "truths" with their children when exposed to pro-LGBT messages in school.

O’Leary claims her arguments are backed up by scientific evidence, but she provides little to no information about the studies that she purports to cite. If there are any peer-reviewed studies that back up her claim that most gay people are victims of child molestation, O’Leary declines to name them. She briefly cites the work of Dr. Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley, who claim that many gay and lesbian people suffer from a gender identity disorder and that that disorder can be treated. She quotes John McHugh, the controversial Johns Hopkins psychiatrist who ended the medical school’s practice of providing gender reassignment surgery for transgender patients. But she makes no mention of statements from mainstream medical institutions offering a more positive view of LGBT people, such as statements by professional associations including the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics that homosexuality is not a mental illness or the presence of gender identity disorder as a recognized condition in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). . . .

Transgender Club Owner Takes On City

January 16, 2008


WYANSOTTE, Mich. -- The owner of a transgender club has appealed to the city of Wyandotte's Zoning Board on Wednesday night, after she said officials have denied her permits to allow her to open a transgender and crossing-dressing club.City officials insist the transgender club, Janet's Place, lacks proper parking to accommodate customers. The owner, Janet Law, claims the city is discriminating against her and city officials have ulterior, "moral" motives.In an e-mail sent to Local 4, Law said, " The city of Wyandotte must approve the transgender club on Jan. 16 or be sued!" . . .

New Zealand: Constable who changed sex tells story

January 18, 2008

By Simon Collins

On September 9, 2005, Christchurch Police Constable Stephen Lurajud became Constable Sarah Lurajud. The date is etched in her mind.

For 45 years she had lived as a male. For 20 of those years she was married.

But even before she went to kindergarten, she knew she was a female trapped inside a male body.

Her story, as the only police officer in New Zealand history to undergo a sex change, is told in her own words for the first time in a report published by the Human Rights Commission today.

The report recommends rewriting the law to let people change the gender on their passports and birth certificates to the gender they identify with, regardless of their bodily features.

It also recommends amending the Human Rights Act to make it illegal to discriminate against gender identity in the same way as discrimination on grounds of race is illegal. . . .

Design studies inform White Williams’s music

January 17, 2008

By Alexander Varty

Operating under the name White Williams, 24-year-old Joe Williams is responsible for one of the most intriguing debuts of 2007. Released on the Tigerbeat6 label, Smoke combines state-of-the-art computer manipulation with whomping glam-pop bass lines and hints of ’80s experimentalism. It also features transsexual “It” girl Sophia Lamar on the cover, and a ferocious version of the Bo Diddley–style ’60s stomper “I Want Candy”.

The strangest thing about Williams, though, is not his precocious mastery of the recording studio, his ability to fuse wildly disparate musical idioms, or his infatuation with the seedier side of the club scene. Instead, it’s that—possibly alone among his hipster ilk—he’s seriously thinking of voting Republican in the upcoming U.S. election.

If, that is, his man gets the party’s nomination. And that’s a big “if”.

Interviewed by phone from a New England tour stop, Williams reveals that he’s backing dark-horse candidate Ron Paul as Republican nominee. “He’s the only person that’s saying anything,” he explains, citing the Texas congressman’s commitment to abolishing income tax, legalizing drugs, and ending the Iraq war. “Everyone else has these vague, vague, vague stances on everything. They always divert any question into some weird rhetoric.” . . .

Skin Deep

Do My Breast Implants Have a Warranty?

By NATASHA SINGER

January 17, 2008

A NAKED woman, her left arm strategically draped over her nipples, grins beatifically at readers in an advertisement for cosmetic surgery that equates breast implants with a more durable commodity: jewels.

“You know that feeling when you find the perfect size,” reads the copy for the Natrelle Breast Enhancement Collection that ran in the November issue of Elle magazine. “And we’re not talking diamonds.”

It is the kind of marketing analogy that gives breast implants a bad name. Diamonds, as De Beers and a James Bond novel once suggested, are meant to last forever. But breast implants often do not.

“Breast implants are not lifetime devices, and breast implantation is not necessarily a one-time surgery,” reads a warning in much smaller type on the back of the advertisement. Indeed, whether women initially underwent implant surgery for cosmetic reasons or for reconstruction after breast cancer, roughly one third of patients in clinical trials had a second operation within four to five years, according to statistical tables in the ad. . . .

Phoenix rising

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Local trans author Katherine Cummings, 73, has experienced highs and lows in her gender journey. She spoke with Katrina Fox.

In 1986, John Cummings, a 52-year-old academic librarian, became Katherine. In addition to the physical changes achieved by gender realignment surgery, Cummings’ life – and those of her family – changed forever.

Although Cummings had “desperately wanted to be female ever since memories began”, she believed for many years that she was simply a transvestite, rather than a transsexual – or transgender as she describes herself today. After a somewhat idyllic early childhood, part of which was spent in the Pacific Islands (her father was captain of a medical yacht), Cummings returned to Australia in her teens after living in New Zealand and Scotland for short periods of time.

In her autobiography, Katherine’s Diary: The Story of a Transsexual, which was originally published in 1992 and won the Australian Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction at the end of that year and which has now been revised and updated, Cummings says she spent the first 28 years of her life trying to conform to parental expectations before marrying and raising a family for the next 25 years. . . .

TYFA launches Support/Referral Source for families of gender variant/transgender children ages 3-18

TransYouth Family Advocates, Inc. (TYFA) is proud to announce the launch of TYFA-TALK!

TYFA_TALK is an online support group and referral source for parents, grandparents and guardians negotiating the journey of raising gender variant and transgender children ages 3-18. Members will be able to ask questions, gather information and seek support and referrals from TYFA Board Members and other parents, grandparents and guardians who are also raising gender variant and transgender children. . . .