Identical twins walked divergent paths

Pair's tough teen years, one brother's sex change chronicled in documentary at gay film fest

Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic

Saturday, June 16, 2007

When Alex and Mark Farley were growing up in Missoula, Mont., in the 1980s and '90s, they were inseparable. The crew-cut identical twins played together, attended school in the same classrooms, swam in Flathead Lake together at the family's vacation home.

"They had always been perfect children," their mother said. Then things started to happen -- lots of things, most of which are revealed in a documentary to be screened Sunday at the Frameline gay film festival.

The boys were 11 years old when their parents, Scott and Jenny, divorced. That followed a six-month period when Scott had lost his real estate job but continued dressing for work, driving off somewhere in the car every day and pretending that nothing had changed. Within a year of the divorce, Jenny was living with another woman. Their mother's relationship, which continues to the present day, is "a life partnership" but not a sexual one, according to the Farley twins, who now live in San Francisco.

Alex came out as gay in seventh grade. His brother acknowledged his own homosexuality later on. By then, the boys often fought with each other and their father, sometimes violently. Alex and Mark fell under the sway of a 17-year-old gay disc jockey, who once raped a 10-year-old boy in their presence. The twins used drugs, all kinds of drugs. One night they drove up to a bluff above Missoula, fitted a rubber hose over the car's exhaust pipe, and tried to breathe in enough carbon monoxide to die together.

"I thought no one loved us," Mark says in the half-dreamy, half-disarmingly blunt documentary "Red Without Blue." The title refers to the color-coding the twins' parents imposed on the boys' clothes when they were young.

After the suicide attempt, the boys were sent first to drug rehab and then to separate boarding schools and had virtually no contact with each other for two years. When they graduated, Mark returned to Missoula to start school at the University of Montana. His brother moved to Colorado to attend Naropa University. That's when Alex began morphing into Clair, dressing and self-identifying as female. The sex-change surgery took place five years later, in October 2006.

"During those two years I was away from him," Clair said of her twin brother in a recent interview, "I started to create an identity that wasn't connected to Mark. It was a fight to do it, but once I'd set my mind on it, I knew it was something I had to do, something very positive."

Clair, sporting a long, slender necklace and electric-blue tights under a pale blue dress, sat in the living room of her brother's San Francisco apartment, an airy space on a quiet street near Duboce Park. Mark, whose artwork adorns the apartment's white walls, sat nearby on an adjacent couch, dressed in a maroon velour top. Red and blue.

The twins get on well these days. They see each other several times a week -- "more than that," insisted Mark -- and speak by phone almost every day. Both are soft-spoken and reserved, almost demure in their becalmed physical presence and concise gestures. The family resemblance is strong. So is the sense of their having survived a stormy passage in their lives and made it safely to the far shore. . . .

Korea: Adoption by Transgenders?

Ha Ri-soo, a newly wed transgender entertainer, expressed her will to “adopt four children,” causing a heated debate on the right to adoption by transgenders. Mixed reactions are posted on bulletin boards of portal sites.

The Dong-A Ilbo found that some transgender couples have unofficially adopted children in Korea. The country’s transgender population is estimated at 1,200 to 4,500. But none of them have adopted a child through an official channel.

Opposition from Adoption Agencies-

Adoption by transgender couples is totally legal in Korea. There are no regulations on sexual orientation in the qualifications for adoptive parents. Also, a single can adopt a child, as the government eased regulations on adoption last year in an attempt to facilitate domestic adoption.

However, all of some 20 domestic adoption agencies that the Dong-A Ilbo talked to said, “Transgender couples have difficulty adopting a child, even if their qualifications are perfect.” They added that they can offer explanations about qualifications to inquiring transgender couples but cannot agree on their adoption. . . .

Punk comes wrapped in stockings and eyeliner from Japan's only transgender band

By Dan Grunebaum

TOKYO — Imagine how you would feel if the lead singer of your rock band suddenly told you that he was going to quit the group and become a she. This is exactly what bass player Minato Kota experienced seven years ago when a former high school mate, now known as Sasori (scorpion) Chikako, announced that he was quitting to undergo sex change procedures to transform himself into what in Japan is known as a “nyu hafu” (new half).

“At the time the last band ended, he told me that he wanted to become a woman, which as you can imagine was a huge surprise,” Kota says with a chuckle at a noisy family restaurant around the corner from the Shinjuku basement bar where Ikochi have just finished playing. “He said that he would be busy with his new quest, and wouldn’t have time for the band anymore.”

But an even bigger surprise was to come a few years later. Chikako decided that, after cementing her transgender status with a stint at a new-half bar in Shinjuku’s infamous Nichome gay district, she wanted to get the band back together. Kota agreed. “Something attracted me to the idea of playing with her now that she was a woman, so we got back together three years ago.” . . .

Kit Kat Dolls perform on "Britain's Got Talent"

London: It's Doll good

No-one could believe their eyes when the 'girl' group Kit Kat Dolls walked onto the stage at the Shaftsbury Theatre auditions in London.

The nine-piece outfit - which includes members from the UK, Holland, Brazil, The Philippines and Thailand - is the world's first transgendered girl band - which means all of the girls were born boys!

The ladies made quite an impression on our hard-to-shock judges. Amanda told them "I knew I was going to like you", while Simon questioned "are you sure you're really all men?"

In the end the decision was taken "we're a bit nervous about you performing for the Queen but we like you and we're going to take the risk".

While the judges were nervous, most of the girls in the hall were just jealous - and in keeping with the band's chosen song of the evening, the question Don't Cha (wish your girlfriend had legs like that...) was on audience minds!

Malaysia: Different and diverse

By EVA SAN AND HWA YI XING

By embracing diversity, we can learn to understand, and not fear, each other.

LELAKI lembut! Cannot, cannot. Send them to pusat pemulihan (rehabilitation centre) now!

Yes, with counselling and testosterone injections, they can be cured ...�

Cured, we say. Sometimes, we think that our own way is the right way, the only way one should be allowed to be, the only way one should be allowed to behave, believe, think and identify. Imagine, a perfect world of clones where everybody agrees and there is no such thing as war ...

But we don't live in that world. We live in Malaysia, a society crammed full of wonderfully diverse cultures, ethnicities, races, religions, sexualities and gender identities. But we still find it very hard at times to deal with diversity in its different forms.

As a society, we self-regulate, we collectively determine what is and what is not acceptable. When you buy your baby girl cute pink pyjamas and your baby boy blue ones, when you stare at the androgynous person walking down the street, when you help a stranger chase down a cell phone thief, or when you decide to beat a red light, all these actions have an impact. You are sending a message to other Malaysians about what their fellow Malaysians do. . . .

The Fact And Fiction Of Being Transgender

By REGINE LABOSSIERE
Courant Staff Writer

June 15 2007

A disgruntled playboy becomes a female fashion magazine editor. A rock star born biologically male finds her true self. A boy is scripted freely adding a pair of girl's shoes to accessorize his outfit.

Transgender people have become the new go-to characters on television on such ABC shows as "Ugly Betty " and "All My Children" and the FX show "The Riches." They also have become the topic of more news reports in recent months.

A Florida city manager is fired seemingly for disclosing he will have a sex-change operation. A sports reporter in Los Angeles decides it's time everyone learns who she really is.

A sibling in the famous acting Arquette family has brought the struggles that a transgender person faces to the big screen in the documentary "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother," which made its debut this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary follows other indie favorites, such as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Transamerica," to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender stories to the forefront.

Fiction and reality have mixed to bring an increasing presence in the media of transgender people in the past six months. This is all positive for transgender individuals and society, say those who are active in the transgender community.

Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality, partially credits the Internet and medical advancements with allowing people to express themselves physically. That outlet, she says, has created a domino effect.

"There's so many trans people out that more and more people do have trans people in their lives, and that's going to cause more trans people in the media," she says . "... When the entertainment media stories happen, they really have a dramatic impact. When they're done sympathetically, they make people feel safe and more willing to come out. . . .

Some Dates and Events on theTrans History Timeline

577 King Henry III of France frequently crossdressed and while dressed as a woman was referred to as her majesty by his courtiers. Even his male clothes were considered outrageous despite the flamboyant standards of 16th-century France.

1654 Queen Christina of Sweden (often considered bisexual) abdicated the thrown, dressed in men's clothing and renamed herself Count Dohna.

1676 MTF transsexual Abbe Francois Timoleon de Choisy attended Papal inaugural ball in female dress. His memoirs, published postmortem, offer the first written testimony of cross-dressing.

1700s "Molly houses" provided a space for the English gay community to meet, carouse and relate to one another. "Mollies" were men who often crossdressed and developed their own queer culture.

1728 Chevalier D'Eon, born Charles d'Eon, was a famous French spy/ambassador who was born male but lived a significant part of his/her life as a woman. Chevalier's birth sex was a hotly debated question.

1804 George Sand, born Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, became an accomplished French romantic writer as famous for her affairs as for her words. She was the first woman in modern European history to frequently wear men's clothes, shocking her contemporaries.

1839-1844 "Rebecca and her daughters," a group of male-to-female cross-dressers, battled throughout the Welsh countryside destroying road toll barriers, which were making the poor even poorer. These warriors also adopted the names and identities of women.

1850 Crow nation "woman chief" Barcheeampe was spotted by appalled white travelers in Wyoming and Montana; she was renown for her war exploits and for having several wives.

1861 Franklin Thompson, born Sarah Emma Edmonds, fought for the Union Army in the Civil War. During the war, Franklin served as a spy, nurse, dispatch carrier and later was the only woman mustered into the Grand Army of the Republic.

1886 We'Wha, an accomplished Zuni Weaver and potter, was two spirit - born male but lived as a woman. She spent six months in Washington, DC, and met President Grover Cleveland, who never realized this six-foot Zuni maiden was born male.

1897 Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld founded the first gay liberation organization in Germany (the Scientific Humanitarian Committee). Hirschfeld coined the term transvestite and was known to cross-dress himself.

1952 Christine Jorgensen is the first American whose sex reassignment surgery became public. Her surgery caused an international sensation, and for many, she was the first visible transsexual in the media.

1969 Transgender and gender-noncomforming people are among those who resisted arrest in a routine bar raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village, thus helping to ignite the modern LGBT rights movement.

1974 Jan Morris, one of Britain's top journalists who covered wars and rebellions around the globe and even climbed Mount Everest, published Conundrum, a personal account of her transition. The book is now considered a classic.

1989 Celebrated jazz musician Billy Tipton died in Spokane, Washington, revealing that he was a woman. Tipton, who played in big bands in the 40s and 50s, lived for 56 years as a man, marrying several times and raising children.

1991 FTM activist Jamison "James" Green took over Lou Sullivan's FTM newsletter and transformed it into FTM International, Inc., the world's largest information and networking group for female-to-male transgender people and transsexual men.

1993 Cheryl Chase founded the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) to build awareness and offer support to intersex people.

1993 Transgender youth Brandon Teena was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. This hate crime brought widespread attention to transgender discrimination and violence and became the subject of the award-winning film, Boys Don't Cry.

1997 Trans activist Leslie Feinberg published Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, a who's who of transgender people throughout world history that traces the roots of transgender oppression.

Source - Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth
Lambda Legal (2004)

Pleiades...gas and dust

Genderqueer

Genderqueer is a gender identity. A genderqueer person is someone who identifies as a gender other than "man" or "woman," or someone who identifies as neither, both, or some combination thereof. In relation to the gender binary (the view that there are only two genders), genderqueer people generally identify as more "both/and" or "neither/nor," rather than "either/or." Some genderqueer people see their identity as one of many different genders outside of man and woman, some see it as a term encompassing all gender identities outside of the gender binary, some believe it encompasses binary genders among others, some may identify as a-gender and some see it as a third gender in addition to the traditional two. The commonality is that all genderqueer people reject the notion that there are only two genders in the world. The term genderqueer is also occasionally used more broadly as an adjective to refer to people who are in some way gender-transgressive, and could have any gender identity. . . .

Lisa Jackson & Girl Friday - AOK

The Transgender Rock Music Explosion

by Robert Urban, March 17, 2005 Some of the highest profile transgendered people in the world are musicians, and they have done much to raise positive public awareness for both the transgender community and the broader gay community. Many years ago, Wendy Carlos hit platinum sales status with her 1968 recording Switched-On Bach, which propelled the Moog synthesizer into the public consciousness and won three Grammy Awards. More recently, Israeli singer Dana International won the Eurovision Song Contest, and now plays to sold-out converts around the world.

As with other categories in the larger gay community, transgenders have their own culture and voice, and this is what many trans artists aim to share. In doing so, they not only entertain but also inform.

Here are a few examples of some of the exciting new trans artists making waves across the U.S.

LISA JACKSON
In just a few years time, NYC-based transgender rock powerhouse Lisa Jackson and her band Girl Friday have risen to become one of the top GLBT music acts in the U.S. Lisa began as an occasional cross-dressing rocker playing Blondie songs in small clubs on the lower east side of Manhattan, but her “fem side,” as she calls it, eventually got the best of her. Good thing too: with great support from both GLBT and hetero fans, Lisa came to life, let the lady within come out, and started cranking out her own original songs.

Lisa is utterly fascinating to watch onstage. She deconstructs the typical, over-glitzed drag-queen look, and instead goes for a softer, quasi-Alicia Silverstone, middle-America mall-teen image. With little makeup, no cheap glitter, no spike heals, and no big hair, there is nothing "gaudy" about Lisa. She lets her considerable natural beauty shine through.

With her realistic "everygirl" approach to the feminine, and the fact that she really sings, (and plays great rock guitar), Lisa is poised on the cutting-edge of the new cross-dressing rock revolution. On the band's latest CD I Am AOK, Lisa's original song lyrics praise the bravery of those who dare to be "different," and promote tolerance of gender and sexual orientation differences.

“I hope those of you out there that are thinking about performing, and maybe putting on a dress for the first time, if you are feeling a little off beat--please go for it," says Lisa. "There are people around that will lift you up and help you make your dreams come true." . . .

A Sense of Anxiety a Shirt Won’t Cover

By ALEX KUCZYNSKI
Published: June 14, 2007

ON a recent afternoon, Dr. Michelle Copeland, a plastic surgeon whose offices face the Metropolitan Museum of Art, clicked her computer’s mouse as images of young men’s torsos flickered across the screen. Unlike the ancient Greek statues of Herakles or the bronze discus throwers in the newly renovated galleries across the street, the young men in Dr. Copeland’s digital images were a bit different: Rather than bearing the broad, flat chests of Greek athletes, their pectoral areas assumed a fuller, more feminine shape.

The patients were found to have enlarged male breasts, a condition known as gynecomastia. While it is not a new disorder, more men are seeking treatment for it, and new statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show that the majority are adolescent boys.

In 2006, according to the group, nearly 14,000 boys age 13 to 19 underwent surgery to reduce the size of their breasts. That represents 70 percent of all the male patients who had such surgery last year, and an increase of 21 percent over the previous year for that age group.

In a culture that increasingly encourages young boys to be body conscious, demand for chiseled torsos and sculpted pecs is rising, so much so that the number of boys ages 13 to 19 who had breast reduction surgery last year is equal to the total number of all men who had the procedure just two years earlier, in 2004.

The foremost reason is the rise in obesity, according to several plastic surgeons who were interviewed. At the same time, there is a new willingness among pediatricians and plastic surgeons to surgically treat enlarged male breasts.

Often, enlarged breasts are simply part of adolescence, most commonly caused by the hormonal fluctuation of puberty, according to the National Institutes of Health. But in a society that values chiseled abs and Rafael Nadal biceps, adolescent boys are willing to resort to surgery to fix problems their bodies might resolve later on their own. . . .

Chile: Karina's Story

Buidling a life as a transgender woman BY Joui Turandot June 01, 2006

Length: 15:04

Background Facts and Related Links Find out more about Chile's recent political struggles and visit Chilean Web sites dedicated to advancing transgender issues. Credits Reaction About Rough Cut Julie Willmarth, a California native, has a B.A. in media studies from Mills College. Yo Soy Asi (I Am Who I Am) was her senior thesis film and was subsequently featured in the New Fest Film Festival in New York City in the summer of 2004. Willmarth currently works under the name Joui Turandot, inspired by the French word jouer, meaning "to play," and the Puccini opera Turandot, which features a powerful female protagonist. She lives in San Francisco. If you didn't know what you were watching, the opening scenes of this week's Rough Cut might look like the rushes from a film by Pedro Almodovar. Our stories come in a variety of styles; this time around, we present a cinema verite piece, a "day in the life," narrated by its main character, a transgender hairdresser living in Santiago, Chile. All Karina Parra wants is to lead the life of an ordinary 27-year-old woman. But, as filmmaker Joui Turandot explains, a normal life for a transgender person in Chile is no easy task. "Transgendered people are almost always rejected by their families and end up on the streets. Basic human rights and opportunities do not apply." Many of them, says Turandot, become child prostitutes, and many who have mainstream jobs often lose their jobs as soon as they assume a female identity and are then forced into prostitution to survive. Turandot spent a year studying in Santiago, where she was surprised to find a visible community of transvestite prostitutes in a society characterized by overt homophobia. With her film, she wanted to explore what it was like to be transgender in a fiercely Catholic and conservative country such as Chile. "It's difficult for transgenders to make it as professionals. They are often condemned to dwell at the margins of society," says Turandot. "With few exceptions, Chilean universities will not accept openly transgendered students, and the best schools often expel male pupils who come to school dressed as a woman." . . .

Wrong bathroom!

Portugal: Gender Diversity and Transgender Issues

A. Sociolegal Status, Behaviors, and Treatment

There are no specific laws in the country regarding transgenderism or transsexualism, only a few court decisions that serve as references about the latter, and these are sometimes contradictory (ILGA–Portugal 1999). According to one of these court decisions, someone that goes through the process of sex change cannot truly become someone of the other gender. The explanations are, in the case of a male-to-female transformation, that the individual cannot get pregnant or maintain sexual intercourse in the same conditions as a woman. Sex change is seen as an error and transsexuals are considered mentally unhealthy people. These ideas are a step back regarding a previous sentence (in 1984), according to which the moral personality of the individual should be respected, the sex change recognized, and the name change accepted by the civil registration.

In fact, name change is possible for any citizen who wishes it and is a relatively accessible procedure, but only when the new name belongs to the same gender category as the previous one or to a gender-neutral name. This last alternative is the one chosen by some transsexuals in order to avoid the complicated procedure to have gender identity recognized. For this, the person has to go through a complicated legal process, and it can only occur with the decision of a court of law.

It is only since 1996 that sex-change operations are possible and occur in Portugal, because the Portuguese Medical Order allowed it to happen. However, no information is available regarding the real number of operations performed in the national territory. The Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon is the institution that has the major experience with these kinds of operations. Nevertheless, the process to have a sex-change operation is long and implies a severe psychological and psychiatric evaluation to verify whether the candidate is eligible for the process. This difficult process usually takes about two years. Before 1996 and still today, many Portuguese transsexuals went to other countries, like Morocco, or more recently to England, to have their operations done, sometimes under unsafe conditions.

In a study conducted with a sample of approximately 50 transsexual individuals, some of whom were sex workers and others working in various professional areas, the great majority came from rural parts of the country (72%), and many had changed from their birthplace because of their sexual orientation (28%) (Bernardo et al. 1998). This gives us important information regarding the problems that these individuals have to face related to their social adjustment. Besides, most of them do not benefit from social security. . . .

Talk about Not Being Sure

An articulate FTM spectrum 21 year old talks about being in between, exploration, working at finding out who you are, and the importance of being comfortable with yourself.

Pro and Con: June is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month

La Voz Weekly writer Jay Donde tackles the celebration from both sides

By: Jay Donde

Posted: 6/11/07

Gay Pride Month: Pro

For nearly 4 decades, June has been recognized around the world - and especially in the US - as Gay Pride Month. In fact, on June 2, 2000, President Clinton even made it semi-official, by proclaiming Gay Pride Month to be one of the US's handful of National Heritage Months, along with Black History Month and Irish American Heritage Month.

When the former of these was first instituted in 1976, many critics questioned it's value, and some wondered, "Why, then, shouldn't we have a White History Month?" The answer to that question was, and still remains, a lucid insight on American cultural politics: we already have a White History Month - it's every month other than February.

Without the special emphasis and recognition they receive on their respective holidays, weeks, and months, the marginalized groups in American society would likely get no emphasis or recognition at all.

Understandably, some would then be prompted to ask why a lack of recognition for these groups is a problem in the first place. But such a question displays an ignorance of history. It is not happenstance that Gay Pride Month falls in June. June was the month, in 1969, of the Stonewall riots in New York City, when gay and lesbian patrons of Greenwich village bars finally fought back against NYPD harassment that included warrantless raids, police brutality, and unlawful arrests. The police even recorded the names of those present during the raids, but not arrested, specifically in order to send them to newspapers for publication.

Despite a great deal of progress, the prejudices and homophobic sentiments that gave rise to such behaviors on the part of the New York City police are still very much present in our country today. In fact, nearly 16 percent of hate crimes in the US are based on sexual orientation, well beyond the demographic proportion of gays and lesbians in America. Gay Pride Month, and other Heritage Months like it, are not only important to the communities they celebrate, but to American society as a whole. This must have been on President Clinton's mind when he stated, in his 2000 proclamation, that "America's greatest strength is it's diversity." . . .

Bob, bathrooms and bogus anger

By: Kate Bigam

Posted: 6/13/07

Kent State practices tolerance and advocates privacy.

What terrible things, I know.

Just how terrible? Ask Akron Beacon Journal columnist Bob Dyer, and he'll tell you how disgusted he is by the school's decision to convert faculty restrooms into gender-neutral facilities.

The restrooms, available in the Student Center, may soon be located in other buildings on campus, too. Although they came into play as part of a request from the Queer Liberation Front as a means to make transgender students more comfortable, university architect Tom Euclide said in an April Stater article that the facilities are also open to the rest of the public, anatomy and gender preference aside. They can even be used as family facilities for parents whose young children need assistance in taking care of their bladder woes.

But on the online version of Dyer's May 17 column about gender-neutral bathrooms, more than 600 reader comments provide an array of opinions on the issue. Although Dyer admits the majority of students he polled weren't offended by the new restrooms, plenty of his readers, most of whom are unaffiliated with the university, were outraged. . . .

We all have our boxes. What's yours?