EXCLUSIVE - Interview With Katelynn From The Real World: Brooklyn

Read more at http://glaadblog.org/tag/the-real-world/

As I posted about on Friday, GLAAD was able to sit down with some of the cast members from this season of MTV's The Real World. It's the most LGBT inclusive season to date.

If you missed the first few interviews, you can click here to watch them. And if you missed the first episode, you can visit MTV's website and watch the entire thing along with video dailies from the cast members. The next episode airs this week on Wednesday, January 14th.

Below is our exclusive interview with Katelynn, The Real World's first ever transgender housemate.

It's encouraging to see MTV including a transgender housemate and providing greater visibility and a larger platform for transgender issues. Katelynn worked at the New York City LGBT Center while filming, which we'll hopefully learn more about as the season unfolds.

You can read more information on the cast members from the MTV press release:

Katelynn, 24 - West Palm Beach, FL

Katelynn is a native of West Palm Beach and was raised in a religious Italian household, where she dreamed of being as good of a mother to her children as her own mom has been to her. Yet, this goal seemed unattainable since Katelynn was born male. In high school, she realized that something was missing in her life, and she began the slow transgender process by starting to dress in more feminine clothing. By age 17, she began living as a woman. This past July, Katelynn traveled to Thailand to undergo surgery to complete her transformation. She is a self-proclaimed computer geek and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. After a string of bad relationships, she hopes to one day marry her current boyfriend, Mike.

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New senator from NY named

January 23rd, 2009

— Tammye Nash

Newly-appointed U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York

Reports are that New York Gov. David Paterson has chosen Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. And LGBT rights activists - or at least the ones sending me press releases - are already singing the new senator’s praises.

Here’s the statement from Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle:

“We congratulate Kirsten Gillibrand for being appointed by Gov. Paterson as our new U.S. senator from New York. Finally, the great state of New York has a U.S. senator who supports marriage equality for same-sex couples. . . .Read More

Real World Brooklyn: Transgender goes mainstream

January 23

by Leah Klein

Despite the fact that we didn't have television (no my parents weren't hippies) I am a piece of the MTV generation. This is when MTV played music videos and not much more. Now, 20 years later, I still watch MTV for the occasional show and I haven't seen a music video in years.

I was browsing the channels and came across The Real World, Brooklyn and decided to watch for a while. It was the episode when Katelynn comes out to a member of the house. I now save it on TIVO to follow the story. It is an interesting cast of "characters". The dynamic in the house seems good, but Katelynn seems like she's having a rough time. . . .Read More

HIGH-FLYING BIRD: Antony's luminous new album

by George Varga on January 23, 2009

Few singers anywhere sound as haunting -- or as haunted -- as Antony Hegarty, the brawny-looking, transsexual Irish-American maverick with a wonderfully androgynous voice and a tremulous chamber-pop style all his own.

An outsider who proudly embraces his sense of "otherness," Antony achieved international acclaim with his second album, 2005's "I Am a Bird Now." It featured a series of poignant torch ballads and what were once quaintly called art songs, each impeccably crafted and each infused with a dark, shimmering beauty that made them sound like the work of someone who came from another time and place. . . .Read More

Attagirl: Transsexual Police Officer Nominated Grand Marshal of Pride Parade

By Olivia Flores Alvarez in Spaced City

Jan. 22 2009

The nominees for Grand Marshal of the Pride Parade were announced recently and Houston Police Officer Julia Christina Oliver is among the women named. That couldn't have happened two years ago when Oliver was still a male.

In 2006, Oliver, who had been on the force for more than 25 years, was beginning to make the transition from male to female and had just started hormone therapy. She had plans to tell her superiors, of course, but not just yet.

Those plans were put on fast forward when someone tried to blackmail her.

"I had somebody want $10,000 or they were going to tell the police department. So I went in and told them myself the next day, rather than let somebody blackmail me," Oliver tells Hair Balls. "My captain was very supportive. He made an effort to explain what was going on in my life to the other officers, and we suspect somebody walked out of that meeting and called Channel 2 News. The next morning, 9 o'clock, there they were at my doorstep, I was basically ambushed. In one day, I went from being very quiet and private to being very public about my life - whether I wanted to or not.". . .Read More