May 13, 2007 - Seventeen-year-old Alexis Arquette landed her first acting role in 1986 playing a transgender in "Last Exit To Brooklyn." Eighteen years later, she went through a real transition from man to woman. Arquette, an actress, musician and cabaret drag performer, comes from a family of actors that includes siblings Patricia, David, Richmond and Rosanna Arquette, father Lewis Arquette and grandfather Cliff Arquette. She's done almost 70 films—mostly indie, some adult—but one of her most memorable roles was as the Boy George character in 1998's "The Wedding Singer." "I did play transgender characters that were comedy roles and I feel bad about that now," says Arquette, 37. "That Boy George character, it's offensive to me now." She's now starring in a forthcoming A&E documentary about her transition, "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother," which just debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. . . .
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Alexis Arquette on the Politics of Gender Change
Transgender pioneer rises to powerful spot
Saturday, May 12, 2007
If ever there was a real-life, rags-to-riches fairy tale, Theresa Sparks' story is it.
Only, this being San Francisco, Cinderella used to be a man and went from riches (traveling in a corporate jet) to rags (driving a taxi and sleeping on friends' couches) to prominence again by becoming a pioneering transgender activist and the chief executive officer of a multimillion-dollar sex-toy company.
It's not the way Sparks, 58, ever thought her life would turn out.
As she says in her profile on an Internet dating site, she's "just another San Francisco trans-woman with the uncanny ability to get myself into trouble."
But this week Sparks started what could be one of the most important chapters in her life when she was voted president of the San Francisco Police Commission. Her election shook up City Hall -- she beat out Mayor Gavin Newsom's pick for the job and prompted a prominent member of the board to resign abruptly.
After her election as president of one of the city's most powerful commissions, which oversees department operating rules and sets crucial policies, Newsom's administration is promising to work well with her, the transgender community is hailing her ascent as groundbreaking, and Sparks is enjoying the ride.
"Yesterday, I hit a new record in phone calls," Sparks said Friday, juggling a morning of interview requests from the media and meeting appointments with Newsom and other City Hall politicos. "I actually had to start counting them. Fifty-three!"
It's a far cry from the life she led a decade ago when, shortly after she transitioned from being a man to a woman, Sparks suffered countless rejections of job applications and was a near-homeless cabdriver.
"I went on 30 interviews, sent out 150 resumes," she said. "I couldn't find a job."
They were barriers Sparks never had to encounter as a male. . . .
Friday, May 11, 2007
Transwoman Elected President Of SF Police Commission
Posted: May 11, 2007 - 11:00 am ET
(San Francisco, California) The San Francisco Police Commission has elected openly-transgender Commissioner Theresa Sparks as its new President.
Sparks, who joined the commission in 2004, has a long history of advocating for the transgender community, including working on a set of transgender-specific policy reforms adopted by the Police Commission in 2003.
Her election as President makes Sparks the city’s first openly transgender head of a major commission in San Francisco and likely the city’s highest ranking transgender official.
"I feel honored to have been selected for this position by my fellow commissioners," said Sparks in a statement.
"While I think it is important to recognize the historic step they've taken to make San Francisco a city in which everyone, regardless of our gender identity, can meaningfully contribute, I am thrilled for this opportunity to represent all of the people of San Francisco."
Sparks said that she wants to lead the Commission towards more fully realizing the police reforms endorsed by voters in 2003.
Prop H was a city initiative that passed in the fall 2003 election. It ushered in reforms to the Police Commission to improve citizen oversight of the San Francisco Police Department.
Among other things, it expanded the size of the commission, including expanding the number of Commissioners appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Sparks joined the larger commission in 2004 as an appointee of the Board of Supervisors.
Sparks election has not been without controversy. It led to the resignation of the current President, Louise Renne, who had backed Mayor Gavin Newsom's chosen candidate, Commissioner Joe Marshall.
Believing in music
FILM | washingtonblade.com
Film about transgender chorus gets screening at Lincoln Temple UCC
By
May. 11, 2007
Anyone attending a gay choral concert has experienced the strange power of seeing a group of gay men or lesbians singing together. Amplify that by about 100 percent, and you’ll get a slight idea of what it must be like to hear Transcendence, the transgender choir of San Francisco that’s the focus of the documentary “The Believers.” Music soothes the savage beast, and in this case, that beast is intolerance.
The film opens with a transgender woman, Ashley, listening to a phone message from her mother, who says she shouldn’t “give [the filmmakers] a screwed up background” during any interviews. It’s a perfect beginning for a film about misconceptions, denial and the need for community, especially since Ashley’s not just another chorus member — she’s actually one of the group’s founders.
She approached her San Francisco-based United Church of Christ’s leaders about starting a transgender chorus, and they went for it. The film follows the group from its early, off-key stages to its performances at various venues (queer and otherwise) and the recording of an album. One of the film’s selling points is that it’s not a cheerleading piece for a remarkable group of people. There is a definite journey and arc for the chorus and the individuals, giving the documentary the feel of a feature film.
EACH PERSON’S PERSONAL story is framed by the group’s growing cohesion and musical abilities, and the questions of identity and community are movingly handled for everyone profiled, including Bobbie, one of the group’s most prominent singers. Bobbie is a black, male-to-female “transgender person” (her words), who has chosen not to undergo gender reassignment surgery but lives full-time as a woman. She’s a recovering crack addict, did some time in prison and is one of the group’s strongest soloists.
For many of the singers, vocal placement and hormones are a challenging cocktail, with most singers wanting to be the soprano they’ve always dreamed of being but not having the physical voice for it. Bobbie has a killer “man’s” voice, and when it comes out of that feminized body, the experience is unearthly, exhilarating and a testament to the long and hard road that she’s walked.
Bobbie’s chorus mentor, Miss Major, is a 62-year-old transgender woman who went through shock therapy and institutionalization during the ’50s to help her become more “normal.”
DESPITE THE DIFFICULTIES of their daily lives, the chorus members look to the music and the ministry of singing to help heal themselves and their audiences. Transcendence is made up of both male-to-female and female-to-male transgender people, which makes the squabbles between gay men and lesbians seem paltry in comparison to the ability of this mixed gender group (in more ways than one) to focus and get along.
It’s not all sunshine-and-roses among the singers, but the group regularly has sit-down sessions to discuss ways to address their communication difficulties. The chorus’ ways of interacting, working, listening and playing apply as much to their ability to sustain a functioning community as to their music.
After numerous rehearsals, the chorus’ sound finally clicked (in the early days, the non-transgender conductor said, “God, they can’t sing. How am I gonna do this?”). They even performed at the UCC’s 2003 international synod, also testifying before a committee on the necessity of including transgender inclusive and affirming language as part of the church rhetoric. (In a triumphant moment for the chorus and for transgender Christians, this measure did pass.)
Music made inroads where regular speech failed, allowing them to become part of a decision-making body that, because of their voices, sent a landmark message to churches and Christians around the world. Now, that’s a good tune.
Making Change: The Cost of Being Transgender
Cast Out of Their Homes and Unable to Find Work, Many Transgender Young People Turn to Prostitution to Buy Illegal Hormones
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
May 10, 2007 —
Kenyatta can't talk long; she has a date.
"We call them dates," she said of the men with whom she has sex for money.
Anxiously, she brushes her long dark hair off her slight shoulders and out of her smoky eyes.
Once you know that Kenyatta, 22, was born a male, her large hands and Adam's apple seem obvious. But at first -- and even second -- glance, there is little to suggest that she wasn't a girl her entire life.
She prostitutes herself "about twice a month" in order to buy the black market hormones that enlarge her breasts, raise the pitch of her voice and keep hair from growing on her face.
"Honestly," she said, "I have to pull a trick to pay for hormones."
Kenyatta is one of 25 young people spending the night at Sylvia's Place, an emergency homeless shelter for New York City's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. . . .
Thursday, May 10, 2007
LGBT-inclusive hate crimes bill passed by House
The bill, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, would amend current legislation that lists race, religion, color and national origin as categories federally protected from hate crimes, to include sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability.
Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, welcomed passage of the bill. He declared it “a win for young GLBT men and women, including an increasing number of GLBT individuals of color, who have lost their lives for merely being who they are.”
Urging quick passage of the bill, currently in the Senate, National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy said, “Hate violence sends two messages to the targeted group: ‘not knowing your place is dangerous’ and ‘your kind is not welcome here.’”
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force singled out the bill’s inclusion of gender identity as a protected category for special mention.
“This clear inclusion of transgender people in hate crimes laws is especially important,” read an NGLTF statement. “[V]iolence against transgender people is widespread, largely underreported and disproportionately greater than the number of transgender people in society.”
According to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the anti-hate-crimes bill has broad support from law enforcement organizations, religious groups, labor unions and civil rights organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches, and the Parent Network on Disabilities. Approximately three in four Americans support comprehensive hate crimes legislation.
Yet the bill’s passage may be thwarted by the loud voices of a few extremists.
Right-wing radio personality James Dobson is leading an effort to pressure Republican senators and President Bush to block passage of the bill. Bush has indicated that he may veto the bill if sent to his desk. In a recent radio program, Dobson implied that laws aimed at preventing hate crimes against gay people are anti-Christian and amount to making anti-gay beliefs a “thought crime.”
The Rev. Bishop Yvette Flunder, senior pastor at San Francisco’s City of Refuge United Church of Christ, rejected Dobson’s message. “When religious leaders speak about a God that supports violence perpetrated upon some supposedly outside of God’s will, they give permission for acts that lead to physical abuse and death.”
Praising passage of the anti-hate-crimes measure, Flunder, who is African American, said, “People are getting weary of the politics of fear. People are seeking peace. [They] are understanding that violence begets violence.”
Send a message to your senator here: http://hrc.org/.
FUSD Boy wants to be Prom Queen
By Gene Haagenson
05/10/2007 - It looks like high school proms in Fresno will never be the same. After the school district changed its rules to allow a girl at Fresno High to run for prom king, a boy from Roosevelt High wants to be a prom queen.
Roosevelt High holds its prom on Saturday and one of the three candidates for queen is a boy, who likes to be thought of as a girl. The campaign for prom queen is on at Roosevelt High and Johnny Vera is stumping for votes.Johnny is a transgender. A boy, who wants to appear to his classmates, and the world as a girl. Johnny says, "You know, to start, I was never a typical boy. Cause you know, it's just a fact."
Johnny who also goes by Crystal is a cheerleader, and was class vice president last year. He was also elected homecoming prince two years ago, as a boy. For him queen is just another step.
Johnny says, "First of all, I want to run for queen because I've been very involved in my school. You know, I get along with a lot of people. I feel that I have made an impact in my school."
He was inspired to run after Cynthia Covarubias from Fresno High ran for prom king last month. Her candidacy changed school district policy, clearing the way for Johnny to run. Cynthia lost the race for king, and not everyone at Roosevelt will vote for Johnny.
Matthew Esparza, student, says, "I don't think it's good for him to be prom queen."
Action News: "How come?"
Esparza: "'Cause he's a guy. He's still considered a guy, still."
Student Colleen Aguilar says, "I think it's really cool because it's the way he wants to be, and its his choice in life, so, if he wants to go for prom queen, good luck."
But win or lose, Johnny is just happy to have the chance to try. Johnny says, "I'm just like any other girl. I'm just like any other candidate. I'm just trying to do this cause, I want to do it."
The prom is Saturday night. Now, Johnny says he's been treated well by most students at Roosevelt. After graduation he is going to fashion design school in San Francisco.
Copyright KFSN-TV, www.abc30.com, and myabc30.com. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit written
She’s Not The Man
Published: April 19, 2007
 |
| Betty Crow (left) with her wife, author Helen Boyd. Photo by Haley Thayer. |
“Being trans happens to more than just the trans person,” says Betty Crow.
She should know. The trans-identified New Yorker is best know as cover girl and subject of her wife Helen Boyd’s books 2003’s My Husband Betty: Love, Sex and Life with a Crossdresser and the recently released She’s Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband.
The struggling actress, and web designer has spoken widely on trans issues and served as a board member for the National Center for Transgender Equality, before recognizing that her passions lay not in advocating for trans people themselves, but for their partners. “I’ve [heard] so much heartbreak…that I feel drawn towards doing what I can to let [partners] tell their stories. We need the stories of our partners and loved ones; without them we’re just a group of people existing in a void and the general public will dismiss us as such.”
Crow says that while people often think she is not getting her voice heard, she is actually quite content being the written about by her wife. “I’m okay being the subject. Completely willing, in fact. I’m all for personal transgender narratives, but I think equally valid and important points can and should be made by those who love us.”
Although Crow recognizes that transition can be a “beckoning siren, calling you and you alone,” she argues that it invariably impact others—and their relationships.
She suggests that couples often don’t survive one member’s gender transition, because the experience is more change than most people can accept. “This really can be a deal breaker for a great many partners. That’s understandable. It’s not like a gender change is something they signed on to. Having your partner change gender…certainly changes the basic equation of the partnership.”
In her partnership, Crow spends more and more of her time as a woman, but retains “some version of a boy life.” She calls her transition “non-standard,” because while she generally passes, Crow hasn’t begun estrogen treatment nor undergone gender reassignment surgeries. She’s not sure she ever will. “I got lucky enough to be physically androgynous and I’m going to explore that…before doing things that have irrevocable consequences.” Ultimately, Crow says that while she tips toward the female end of the scales, she feels more “in-between” than anything else.”
Still, Crow hasn’t ruled out the possibility that one day, “I [may] have to live my life fully and 100 percent as a woman.” Concerned that might doom her marriage, Crow insists—that for now—she’d rather remain “in-between” than run that risk. “I refuse to be a slave to something I didn’t ask for. Being transgender..isn’t and cannot be the sole thing that defines me.”
Explaining some trans women’s overtly feminized presentations, Crow argues, “Overdoing it seems like such an understandable response in a culture that so readily adores the trivialization of beauty in women. Maybe the critique…should more properly be seen in the context of our culture.”
In a short afterword to She’s Not the Man, Crow echoes some of Boyd (myhusbandbetty.com)’s feminist sentiments. “I’m not a woman (I don’t have the hubris to claim that). Until I’ve a lot more time in this world being seen, treated, and perceived as a woman, I cannot in good conscience take upon myself such a term. Don’t get me wrong, I feel female, but truly, what does that mean: feeling like woman?”
Crow has a sexual preference for other women, but she acknowledges that without experience in the lesbian community, she doesn’t really feel comfortable claiming a lesbian identity. “I really don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”
Blind Curves, the first Blind Eye mystery co-authored by trans writer Jacob Anderson-Minshall, is available now through powells.com. Contact jake@trans-nation.org or visit Anderson-minshall.com for more information.
Dignity for All
| By Jacob Anderson-Minshall Published: May 10, 2007 | ||
Asian American transgender activist Pauline Park considers the push for gender-neutral pronouns in the U.S. “profoundly ahistorical.” “Gender-neutral pronouns are not native to the English language,” she argues. “And—unlike in Chinese, for example—[they] feel extremely artificial to speakers of English.” Park says she’s come to understand that the historical roots of transgenderism differ in various cultures. For instance, she contends, “There was a pre-modern trans identity in virtually every Asian society, and I think it’s important for transgendered Asians to envision themselves in light of their precursors.” Co-founder of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), the first statewide transgender advocacy organization in New York, Park is best known for spearheading the successful campaign to pass the New York City transgender rights law enacted in 2002. After leading that campaign, she (www.paulinepark.com) helped draft guidelines—adopted by the Commission on Human Rights two years later—for implementation of the statute. NYAGRA (www.nyagra.com) is a founding member of a coalition that secured enactment of the New York City’s Dignity in All Schools Act, a law making schools safe for gender-variant children. Likewise, the organization supports the statewide version of the Dignity Act—currently pending in the New York state legislature—which would prohibit discrimination and harassment in public schools throughout the state. Park argues the law is essential because transgendered and gender-variant students face “pervasive discrimination and bullying and bias harassment in schools…throughout the state.” Unfortunately, she says, “[The Dignity Act] has passed the [New York State] Assembly several times but never the Senate, whose Republican majority refuses to consider any bill with gender identity and expression in it.” At least 10 states (including California) and dozens of New York localities have passed comprehensive anti-harassment measures for their public schools. Park also serves as vice-president of the board of directors of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF). Last December, the TLDEF (www.transgenderlegal.org) honored her work by establishing the Pauline Park Fellowship. And in 2005, Park was chosen as the first openly transgendered grand marshal of New York City’s LGBT Pride march. The inexhaustible transgender activist also authors a regular blog on BigQueer.com, and has a piece in the upcoming anthology Homelands: Women’s Journeys Across Race, Place, and Time. In her essay, “Homeward Bound: The Journey of a Transgendered Korean Adoptee,” Parks writes of coming to terms with her gender identity as well as her identity as a Korean adoptee. White fundamentalist Christian adoptive parents in Milwaukee raised her and her non-transgender twin brother. “Being born in Asia and adopted and raised in the United States,” Park says, “enabled me to understand that all identities are social constructions. Just as I have come to realize that I have a distinct identity as a Korean adoptee, I have come to understand that I have a distinct identity as a transgendered woman that is different from that of a non-transgendered woman.” Although her identity may be a social construct, Park admits she can’t step away from it. “It’s not as if I’m Asian American one day and transgendered the next. When people meet me for the first time or see me on the street, they may or may not read me as transgendered, but the first thing they see is my Asian face and features, and they often make assumptions based on that Asian physiognomy.” Park says that transgendered white people need to understand that discrimination and harassment based on gender identity or expression differs in important ways from that based on race or ethnicity. “There are so many challenges facing transgendered people of color both within the transgender community and in their own communities of color. And non-transgendered people of color need to understand that there are important parallels and similarities between those two different types of experiences despite significant differences.” Trans writer, Jacob Anderson-Minshall, co-authored Blind Curves, the first in the Blind Eye Mystery series, available now. Contact jake@trans-nation.org or visit Anderson-minshall.com for more information. |
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
'Born in the Wrong Body'
Transgender youth share their stories in an MSNBC documentary.
The page includes two videos (MTF and FTM).
Gender and the Pulpit
Jan. 23, 2007 - In 1973, Eric Karl Swenson was ordained in the Presbyterian Church and went to work doing what he’d always dreamed of: ministering to a congregation of the Southern Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. More than 20 years later, one dream almost ended when another began. When the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta discovered in 1996 that Swenson had finally fulfilled another lifelong desire—having sex-change surgery to become a woman—it started proceedings to revoke Swenson’s ordination.
At the time of her “transition,” Swenson did not resist the church’s questions nor blame its reluctance. “I had been in the closet for 30 years, learning to accept myself,” she says. “It is difficult for me to be angry at others for not accepting.” Married with two daughters before her transition, Swenson described her struggle, years later, in a sermon: “I had spent the better part of four decades wrestling secretly with the unreasonable and incorrigible desire to be female.” After almost three years of grueling questions and debate, the Presbytery finally agreed, 181-161, to sustain her ordination, making Swenson the first known Protestant minister to transition from male to female while remaining in office. Now 59, Swenson is tall and blond, with shoulder-length hair and an assertive manner. Erin, as she’s called, continues to work as a pastoral counselor and, she hopes, as an inspiration for others who find themselves living out, what may be, the last taboo in society, let alone organized religion.
This past weekend, Swenson and her peers gathered in the hills of Berkeley, Calif., for the first National Transgender Religious Summit at the Pacific School of Religion, an ecumenical seminary that prepares students for ordination in the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church and the Disciples of Christ. The conference, open to members of all faith traditions, is a joint project of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) in Washington, D.C., and the Pacific School’s own Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS). Sixty-five religious leaders attended, from Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Quaker, Jewish and Agnostic communities across the country. On the agenda: denominational policy and outreach to transgender communities.
At the heart of almost every conversation that occurred during the conference was this: how does a person who chooses to live “with permanent gender ambiguity,” as one handout put it, also participate as a leader in an institution as traditional as religion?
Conference organizers think the time is right for transgendered persons of faith to come out of the closet. “Transgendered people are beginning to find their public voice with more advocates and opportunities for protection,” explains Justin Tanis, an ordained minister who helped put together the summit—and who was born female. With the House and Senate now under Democratic control, Tanis says, activists in the transgender community feel that they may finally be heard, and they are working hard to put together legislation on Capitol Hill, especially on the issue of workplace rights. No one knows how many people in the United States live with an ambiguous gender identity, either because of a firm conviction that they were born in the wrong body or because of a political ideology or youthful experimentation. But the issue has gained great resonance on college campuses of late, as well as in local legislatures and in gay activist circles. Last weekend’s conference was evidence that at least some of these people have strong religious identities as well.
The transgender issue is so new that most religious denominations have not yet made policy statements about it. In 2003, the Roman Catholic Church announced that transsexuals suffer from “mental pathologies” and should be barred from religious orders and the Catholic priesthood. Often using Biblical language to make their point, conservative Christian groups have treated transsexuals and other people with ambiguous gender as having psychological defects that can be cured with psychotherapy. Swenson, not surprisingly, objects to this characterization. “To pick out small pieces of Scripture and use them in a hateful way is damaging to me and to the Scripture,” she explains. “God says to love one another; should anything else matter?” Swenson finds evidence of God’s love, for her unique case, in Isaiah: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than songs and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah 56:1-5).
Transgendered people say another difficulty is that many religious denominations reinforce gender stereotypes—conventions about women’s and men’s roles in the life of a church, for example, that pose problems for people who want to live outside those rules. “The Bible has been used incorrectly throughout history to justify slavery and to oppress women,” says Joshua Holiday, a female-to-male pastor at the LIFE (Love Is For EveryBODY) Interfaith Church in Louisville, Ky. A year and a half ago, Holiday organized a gathering of African-American transgendered people, The Transsistahs, Transbrothahs Conference (TSTB), to promote greater acceptance in the black community.
Transgendered clergy say they know that parishioners can become distracted by thoughts about what lies beneath their robes, but they hope that people in the pews can learn to see them as ministers with a holy mission. Religion, says Tanis, “is about compassion and human dignity”; he hopes the seminar will teach transgendered clergy to embrace their uncommon situation and use it for good. After going through his own transition, he says: “I had a greater sense of internal peace; I was wiser and could be a better religious leader. It is a gift to be able to see the world through more than one gender’s eyes.”
College made easy
Best of the Best: Top 20 Campuses from The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students
(in alphabetical order)
American University
Duke University
Indiana University
New York University
Oberlin College
Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Stanford University
Tufts University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puget Sound
University of Southern California
Schools adjust to transgender teachers
TUCKERTON, N.J. --For nine years, he was Mr. McBeth, a substitute teacher who kept things moving along in the classroom and filled in ably when the regular teacher was out sick.
And then one September, he was Miss McBeth.
The sex-change operation William McBeth underwent in 2005 roiled this rural, conservative area when she applied to be rehired as a substitute in Eagleswood Township. Parents packed a school board meeting last winter, some decrying what they termed an experiment, with their young children as guinea pigs; others supported her right to be who she is and work at what she does best.
But then a strange thing happened a few months later: When McBeth was up for a job at a different school in the area, no one protested. In fact, no one voiced an opinion at all when she was hired.
"There's no doubt about it; they've calmed down," said McBeth, a retired marketing executive and divorced father of three.
"There's no reason I shouldn't teach," said McBeth. "Look at me as a person: Am I qualified to teach? Yes. Do I have experience? Yes. Do I have a good report card from the schools? Yes. I have nothing to hide, and I'm proud of who I am."
About 20 transgender teachers are working in classrooms nationwide, but more are in the process of "transitioning," experts estimate. That opens up a host of issues the teachers -- and their employers and students -- have to deal with.
"The question often arises: Are transgender people competent to be employees, and those questions can come from co-workers, management or students," said Chris Daley, director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. "A lot of that is because there is a lack of information about who transgender people are."
David Nielsen, a librarian at Southwest High School in Minneapolis, began living as a woman in the spring of 1998 and came to school one Monday as Debra Davis. She was sued by a co-worker who objected to her using the women's restroom. The claim eventually was rejected by an appeals court, but not before local police got involved.
"I had a sex crimes detective in my building investigating me," she said.
Part of the difficulty was the suddenness of Davis' transformation.
"As far as I knew and as far as the school knew, I was among the first people to suddenly do that in a high school who worked directly with children, basically over a weekend," Davis said. "I didn't take a year off, I didn't do it over the summer. Literally, a man left on Friday and a woman came back on Monday."
She met with school officials and staff, and again with students to answer any questions they had.
"They asked, 'What do we call this person?' It's Miss Davis now, it's Debra," she recalled. "It's 'she' now. 'What bathroom is she going to use?' The kids did pretty well. Did they come to the library to see their new, improved librarian? You bet they did!"
The students were great, she said. Some festooned the hallways with signs of support, including one with the slogan "Hate Is Not A Family Value."
Not every adult was as welcoming, though.
"The people who struggled were people who struggle with diversity," she said. They were concerned that "the kids would have to have contact with someone like me who's an abomination of God."
For 72-year-old William McBeth, he had the feeling he was different from the age of 7. Growing up in Atlantic City, N.J., he would sneak into the closet to try on his mother's and aunt's clothes when no one was around, and wasn't quite sure why.
"You had these feelings that you didn't clearly recognize," she said. "You knew you were different, and you knew these were thoughts you couldn't bring up to anybody. I lived that life in fear. I did everything I could: I was a Boy Scout, a surfer, I was in the military. I ran a ski lodge in Alaska. I had a magnificent life.
"But you're living under the fear that someone would find out about you," McBeth said. "You know they wouldn't understand; I didn't understand it. It wasn't until middle age that I knew there were other people like me."
In 2003, while hospitalized for a heart condition, McBeth did some soul-searching.
"I said to myself, 'What is the one thing you've always wanted to do in your life?'" McBeth recalled. "On your deathbed, you regret not the things you did, but the things you didn't do. I said, 'Well, let's do it.'"
McBeth had a sex change operation in May 2005, after a long process of psychological evaluation, hormone therapy and electrolysis.
She said she erred by not keeping her certification as a substitute teacher current while she was out of work during the surgery. That required her to reapply, and set the stage in February for a contentious school board meeting in Eagleswood, a community near Atlantic City. One parent, Mark Schnepp, took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper urging parents to oppose the hiring.
"This person taught as a man, left for a year, and came back as a woman," Schnepp said. "My biggest problem is it's very young children in the Eagleswood school. For the young ones, it could cause tremendous confusion."
But Scott Rodas, whose son is a third-grader in Eagleswood, said McBeth's hiring "should have been a no-brainer. We should give enough credit to our children to know that someone like this isn't going to hurt them."
When McBeth was up for rehiring at the Pinelands Regional School system in September, no one said a word.
"I personally don't think there's anything wrong with it," said Katie MacPhee, a student at Pinelands Regional High School. "I can see where some people might have concerns, but people just need to get over it."
Jennifer Boylan, an English professor at Colby College in Maine and author of the best-selling autobiographical novel, "She's Not There: A Life In Two Genders," said she was concerned about how students and faculty would respond to her transition six years ago.
"Everyone was extremely supportive and generous," she said. "That surprised me, but maybe it shouldn't have. It's possible that we are all more grown up than we think."
For some who have made the transition, what's at issue goes beyond an identity change.
"This is about how we treat people in the workplace in a civil society," said Jillian Todd Weiss, an assistant professor of law and society at Ramapo College in New Jersey, who transitioned in 1998, about five years before she began teaching. "It's not about acceptance, although that would be nice. It's about law and policy, which states that it's illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of gender."
Daley said the same rules apply to transgender teachers as anyone else.
"Just treat them like you would any other employee," he said. "Give them a supportive, comfortable work environment, and you won't have any problems."
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Agents of change . . .
Transgender Canadians are coming out at younger ages, raising a host of new and sensitive issues
As a child, Adrian Daniels wore hockey jerseys. He dreamed of marrying figure-skating champion Katarina Witt. And each night before he went to bed, he prayed that he would wake up the next morning with something he had always wanted: a penis.
"I always knew I was a man," says the Toronto native, now a frank 20-year-old with a neatly trimmed beard, pierced eyebrow and confident swagger.
Adrian's transition from female to male included an official name change at the age of 16, male hormones at 18, and breast-removal surgery a year later.
With each step, he bumped into people who argued that his feelings were temporary, banished him from the boys' washroom, or made him pay for being different with taunts and fists. "They thought I was a freak," he says. . . .
Monday, May 07, 2007
Transgender teen, Fort Worth ISD reach compromise
By John Wright of the Dallas Voice
Friday, May 4, 2007
The BS at school is over for Rochelle Evans, according to her attorneys.
Rochelle, a 15-year-old transgender girl formerly known as Rodney, was suspended for three days from Fort Worth’s Eastern Hills High School on Thursday, April 26. Rochelle said school officials told her the punishment was for saying “bullshit” during an emotional conversation with a friend after an assistant principal demanded that she remove a wig and high heels.
But she returned to school Thursday, May 3, after reaching an agreement with the Fort Worth Independent School District that will allow her to be identified as Rochelle and with feminine pronouns, her attorneys said. She will also be allowed to use a single-stall bathroom in the nurse’s office rather than a boy’s or girl’s room.
The agreement came during a meeting Wednesday, May 2, attended by Rochelle; her mother, Lenora Flores; her two pro bono attorneys, Phyllis Frye and Jerry Simoneaux Jr. of Houston; and three district officials, including the principal of the school.
“It was definitely worth it — definitely, definitely, definitely — because I finally get to be me,” Rochelle told a contingent of news reporters outside district offices after the meeting.
Simoneaux said he was “very, very happy.”
“This is a win for everybody,” he said. “This is a win for my client, Rochelle. It is also a big win for the Fort Worth school district.”
In a statement issued shortly after the meeting, the district referred to Rochelle as Rodney; said her suspension had nothing to do with dress code violations; and said the issue could have been resolved much sooner and without the involvement of attorneys.
“We find it disheartening that anyone would use this situation — or any of our students in any way — for their own personal or professional agendas,” the statement read.
Frye, a noted transgender activist, brushed off the statement Thursday, saying she believes it was written prior to the meeting and had nothing to do with the outcome.
“We stand by the positive message that we felt was conveyed to us on Wednesday,” Frye said.
District spokeswoman Barbara Griffith, who wrote the statement, admitted Thursday she may not have “been in full communication” with district officials who attended the meeting. Griffith confirmed that Rochelle would be allowed to use the nurse’s bathroom, but declined to comment further for privacy reasons.
“I’m just going to let the statement speak for itself,” Griffith said.
“If they seemed happy with the way things worked out, then that’s great. I’m not here to tell our side of the story.”
In addition to the suspension, Rochelle was charged with class-C misdemeanor disorderly conduct. According to Simoneux, district officials said during the meeting they have no authority to drop the charge because it was filed by the Fort Worth Police Department.
To avoid further problems — such as retaliation against her client from school officials for “dragging them through the mud” and a possible expensive lawsuit — Frye said she advised Rochelle during the meeting to wear flat shoes to school and avoid wigs, although continuing to identify as a girl.
“Our tone was to try to present to them [district officials] with alternatives,” Frye said.
Rochelle and her attorneys said district officials cited cutting classes and poor grades as part of the reason behind the suspension. But Rochelle said those problems stemmed from her coming to grips with being transgender in the face of harassment from school officials.
“It was my way of dealing with it,” she told the Voice during an exclusive interview at Agape Metropolitan Community Church after the meeting.
Coincidentally, Rochelle had just signed up for Saturday sessions to make up for missed classes when the latest brouhaha began. After signing up in an assistant principal’s office — wearing high heels and a wig — she returned to class but soon was summoned back.
The assistant principal, claiming that Rochelle’s outfit was disruptive to the school environment, demanded that she remove the wig and high heels, Rochelle said. After calling her mother, Rochelle agreed to take off the high heels but not the wig. The assistant principal then told Rochelle she was suspended for three days for refusing to follow orders and told her to wait in the hallway.
There, sobbing, Rochelle said she encountered a friend and unleashed.
“I stated this is bullshit that I can’t be who I am in school,” she said.
Rochelle said she’s unsure whether anyone but her friend heard the remark, but in any case she was called back into the assistant principal’s office and told to leave campus.
Rochelle said three friends who accompanied her for support later were disciplined unfairly in an unrelated matter.
“Go figure,” she said.
Rochelle said for the most part, other students and teachers at the school don’t have issues with her transgender status. Every day, she sports things like girl’s jeans, fingernail polish, a purse and makeup.
But on the roughly six occasions this year when she’s worn a wig, high heels or fake breasts, one school official in particular has taken exception.
“Every attempt has failed,” she said. “It was either being sent home for the remainder of the day, going to in-house suspension for the remainder of the day, or being suspended for the remainder of the day and a day.”
Fortunately, in addition to her friends, Rochelle has the firm support of her mother, Flores.
“As a mother, it’s my duty to my daughter to allow her to feel comfortable, safe and whole,” Flores said.
Rochelle said the most important thing is being able return to school and finish her education. But she also said she hopes what she’s been through will help other transgender kids.
“I think I’m strong enough to take a stand for all those who don’t have a voice,” she said.
Colorado Legislature Passes Non-Discrimination Bill
Members of the Colorado Senate voted to pass a bill prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity last week. This legislation, which previously passed the Colorado House, now goes to Gov. Bill Ritter’s desk.
Assuming the bill is signed into law, Colorado will become the 20th U.S. state to ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and the 12th to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
"Legislators in Colorado have taken historic action to advance the cause of equality for all Coloradans. Once this bill is signed into law, Colorado will be a freer and fairer place for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents," Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said in a release. "We applaud the many legislators who voted for fairness and equality, and we congratulate Senator Jen Veiga, who has fought for more than a decade to pass this legislation. We also thank Michael Brewer of Equal Rights Colorado for his hard work, as well as all the HRC members in Colorado who gave their efforts toward passing this important legislation."
Brewer, a spokesperson for Equal Rights Colorado, added: "We are very proud and pleased in Colorado that after a decade of hard work, patience and education, we join the ranks of states which give basic employment rights to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. We are very proud of the hard work Senator Jen Veiga has done to pass this bill, and we are thrilled to finally bring this to conclusion."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Mookey's Story: A Transgender Journey
Entry VC FILMFEST 2007
NAM Multimedia, 
Editor's Note: A new generation of transgender youth is finding more societal acceptance and support than ever before. But hardships remain, particularly for young people from immigrant backgrounds. Carolyn Goossen, a content producer at New America Media and Daffodil Altan spent time with Mookey, a 24-year-old Chinese-American college student just beginning hormone treatment. Min Lee is an editor at YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia. This film is an official entry into The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival VC FILMFEST 2007 -- Southern California's largest and most prestigious film festival of its kind.
This is a streaming MP4 video - you'll need Quicktime 6 or later to view it.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
City worker pushes for sex-change coverage
After three marriages that all quickly broke up as soon as she told her male and female spouses she felt trapped in the wrong body, Lynn Riordan decided she couldn't remain a man the rest of her life. So at age 39, she began taking hormones that would gradually begin her transformation from man to woman. Then, unemployed but with $11,000 scraped up from the equity on her home, she paid for a sex-change operation four years ago in Montreal, where she says such procedures cost less than in the United States. "It seems to be a medical condition, not a choice, and many people have tried to be what they are not. I did, for 30 years, and couldn't do it anymore." Today, the 49-year-old Riordan is an accounts clerk for Berkeley's finance department and because of her persistence, the city will consider allowing sex-change operations to be covered as part of its employee health benefits. City Council members Darryl Moore and Kriss Worthington are asking the city manager and the city's personnel board to explore the financial feasibility of offering the benefit to any of the city's approximately 1,500 employees. They are to report back in six months. Moore said Riordan brought the issue to his attention as an equity issue. Noting that the city's health care providers, Kaiser Permanente and Health Net of California, cover heart surgery and gallbladder surgery, Riordan couldn't understand why sex change surgery should be treated any differently. "They have these exclusions specifically for transgender surgery being covered, and it's just not fair," Riordan said. "This is not about choice; it's a birth defect. It's just to alleviate suffering for some people, and, well, that's a noble thing." Riordan said ignorance "is driving the fear to removing the exclusions to allow the surgery." Brad Kieffer, a spokesman for Health Net of California, which insures 2.3 million customers in the state, said the company doesn't normally cover sex-change surgery under its group benefits, but will add them if a company or municipality asks. Kaiser Permanente spokeswoman Alix Saben said Kaiser offers sex-change-operation benefits to all University of California employees and San Francisco city employees, but groups must ask for it to be included in their plan. "It's really controversial, that's really the answer. The society doesn't view it the same way as a birth defect, they view it as a psychiatric issue, and the psychiatrist and the patient make the decision whether it's medically necessary," Saben said. San Francisco started offering the benefit to its employees in 2001, said Marcus Arana, a discrimination investigator with the city's Human Rights Commission and one of the architects of the policy. Arana said he faced resistance from people who feared it would end up costing the city too much money because those wanting the surgery would flock to San Francisco to get jobs or marry city employees just to get the benefits. Insurance companies don't offer it unless specifically asked, and out of fear, he said. Through 2005 the city collected $5.6 million from employees in increased premiums to cover the benefit, but paid just $183,000 on 11 claims for different surgeries, Arana said. Worthington said many U.S. corporations offer the benefit, so Berkeley should, too. "I just think it's time for Berkeley to catch up with mainstream corporate America on this issue," Worthington said. "I think it's a medically desirable thing for Berkeley to include in health plans." Moore said San Francisco's experience shows it won't cost Berkeley much money, and it's the right thing to do. If Berkeley approves the plan, those who want the surgery will be able to avoid the financial and emotional hardship Riordan faced four years ago. "There's so much suffering involved when you don't have the surgery," Riordan said. "Every single day you suffer it."
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Friday, May 04, 2007
Demagogues of defamation
EDITORIAL | www.sovo.com
Where is the outrage when cable TV’s talking heads trash trans people?
By SIMON ARONOFF
May. 04, 2007
Our community newspaper, The Citizen, was absolutely devoid of any liberal media bias, and when Ellen DeGeneres made the decision to come out on her sitcom, The Citizen opined with a column that read, in a nutshell, “Gross!” Why must Ellen bring her lily-licking ways into our living rooms? Why does she have to flaunt it?
Young and angry, I decided to submit a letter to the editor. It actually got published, and I still have the yellowed clip. Not all of The Citizen’s readership appreciated my 19-year-old explanation of the cultural importance of Ellen’s coming out. In fact, we got venomous prank calls at my parents’ house for months. But my soccer coach’s wife did call with a surprisingly appreciative review, and I got a really nice letter from a family friend.
Words have power. Words in the media have more. That’s why Michael Savage’s recent disgusting on-air tirade slandering Ruby Ordenana, a 27-year-old transgender woman who was found murdered on March 16, was so dangerous. I know you’ve read this before: Hate speech creates an environment where hate crimes are acceptable. But is anybody listening when those words slander transgender people?
SAVAGE’S COMMENTS MAKE the world an even more dangerous place for me and my trans brothers and sisters. Ruby’s body was found nude, lacerated and strangled, and the attention-seeking Savage called her a “freak” and a “psychopath.”
What is worse, Michael Savage (who no one expects to deliver actual news) is not the only trans-bashing voice in the media. Try reading through some transcripts from CNN’s Glenn Beck or MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson. Enabled by networks, producers and advertisers in this dangerous defamation, here’s Carlson in his own words:
“Just because you’re castrated and have a fake set of boobs does not make you a woman. It makes you a castrated man with a fake set of boobs. If a person voluntarily undergoes a castration … that is an act of a crazy person. … That’s like setting your hair on fire or blinding yourself … and I don’t want a person that unstable teaching my kids.”
And from CNN’s talking head Glenn Beck reporting on a trans teen who was turned away from her prom for wearing a dress: “Don’t we as a society, don’t we have the right to say, what the hell is wrong with you? … Go home and change, freak boy.”
AT THE NATIONAL Center for Transgender Equality, we’ve been trying for a year to get CNN and MSNBC to take some responsibility for these trans-bashings. We monitor. We write. We speak with the network ombudsmen. We ask, at the very least, that producers book a trans-positive guest interview to offer some balance as their pundits call us “mentally ill.”
The silence is deafening.
As a community, we’ve made solid progress curbing anti-gay defamation. Ann Coulter and Isaiah Washington use the f-word a couple of times and they are rightfully raked over hot coals. Syndication is clipped. Rehab is called for. In 2000, Dr. Laura’s “biological error” comment spawned an amazing wave of grassroots media activism that ultimately cost the TV host her show. And Imus finally got his comeuppance.
But is anybody listening when Savage, Beck, Carlson and others routinely slam transgender people? Let’s set up www.StopSavage.com. Let’s join together and organize “CNNWatch.” Let’s make sure that Tucker Carlson’s boss calls him into the principal’s office the next time he mocks transgender lives because the network is nervous about a wave of public outrage and the loss of advertising dollars.
I’m not young anymore, but I’m still angry. That’s why I’ve started the web site Trans Media Watch (www.TransMediaWatch.blogspot.com). This time, I don’t think I’ll be the lone voice. Besides, my parents are moving out of Fayetteville in a couple of months. Let’s stop these demagogues of defamation. Together we can make the environment a little less toxic for transgender people. Let’s do it for Ruby.
