Two former men share transgender experience

Diana Bubser

October 31, 2007

Transgender activists Barbara "Babs" Casbar and Terry McCorkell spoke to a crowd of about 30 College students Thursday night in Forcina Hall to address the historical, political and social issues of transgender advocacy. They also shared their own gender identity experiences: the two former men now each lead the life of a woman.

"This room is a pronoun-free zone," McCorkell declared.

The lecture was presented by PRISM, the College's organization supporting the equality of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.

"We are always looking to educate ourselves and others," Angel Hernandez, president of PRISM, said.

Wearing a multicolored dress and flashy jewelry, McCorkell spoke of her teenage years, when she was not only interested in girls, but wanted to be one. However, she waited until her 30s to join transgender support groups and start communicating with others about the issue.

The work McCorkell did in the 1990s laid the foundations for New Jersey Laws against Discrimination, and she was honored by then-Sen. Jon S. Corzine as "Activist of the Year."

"I used to be shy as a man, but learned to be assertive as a woman," she said.

Casbar referred to herself as a "woman scarred by many years of testosterone." After her wife died, she realized she was a "lower-class citizen." Instead of crying, she decided to take action.

Casbar is now the head of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey and serves on the boards of Garden State Equality and New Jersey Stonewall Democrats.

A PowerPoint presentation was then shown explaining the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.

"Sexual orientation is who you are attracted to, while gender identity is who you identify with," it said.

McCorkell feels New Jersey is the "most knowledgeable on gender discrimination" of all the states. However, she also points out that transgender acceptance is not nationwide. . . .

Reform Jewish Leader Calls on House to Pass Transgender Inclusive Non-Discrimination Act

Saperstein: The right to earn a living without fear of discrimination ought to be extended to all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Contact: Sean Thibault or Kate Bigam
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org

Washington, D.C. October 29, 2007 — In anticipation of this week’s House vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:

We are pleased by the House’s planned vote later this week on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation that will provide long-overdue protection to gay and lesbian Americans at risk of workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation. The right to earn a living without fear of discrimination ought to be extended to all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet in 31 states, it is legal to fire, demote, or fail to promote an employee based on sexual orientation; in 39 states, it is legal to do so based on gender identity.

That is why it is essential that the House also pass an amendment to be offered by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), which will add gender identity protections to the bill. Extending workplace protections to the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community bolsters the moral power of this legislation.

Throughout our nation’s history, our leaders have had to make many tough decisions about issues of justice and morality. Rarely have these decisions been easy. As Reform Jews, we are guided by Jewish tradition and text that teaches us that all human beings are created b'tselem Elohim, in the Divine image. Our nation’s sacred texts also guide us, as well as Americans of all faiths and no faith, reminding us that we are all created equal. We look forward to working with members of Congress in support of legislation that achieves that goal.

###

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the
Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose more
than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership
includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis

India: Depicting the transgender truth

Shai Venkatraman

Tuesday, October 30, 2007: (Mumbai):

It's a community most people ridicule or prefer to keep at arm's length.

But what does it mean to cross the gender divide, to be free of being male as society defines it?

That's the theme explored in the film Our Family.

A true story about a family of transgender women that unfolds over three generations.

The film's set in Tamil Nadu and tells the story of Aasha, Seetha and Dhana, who are bound together by ties of adoption.

Aasha is the grandmother, Seetha her adopted daughter and Dhana who is adopted by Seetha and her partner Selvam.

"We wanted to make a film which would question the way people look at the hijras. We wanted to look at the human rights violation, the stigmas and also look at the warmth and celebratory aspect of it," said Dr Anjali Monteiro, Filmmaker.

The film documents their journey as they discover their sexual identities and progressively blur the lines between themselves and what's seen as normal social behaviour.

"They become a regular family. So the woman Seetha does the cooking. She does assert herself but in trying to do so she asserts her womanly identity even more, one of the things that struck us was that they were normal but in trying to be normal they had to play out the politics of being normal in some sense," said K Jayanshanker, Filmmaker.

The film will not release commercially and will remain limited to the festival circuit. Clearly that's one barrier that will take some time crossing. . . .

Stereotypes under fire

By Julie Baker
The State News
October 29, 2007

When Knoll Larkin was coming out, he said he thought everyone smoked.

Smoking seemed to be accepted as a part of the bar culture that historically provided the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community with a safe haven, said Larkin, health services coordinator for Affirmations, an LGBT community center in Ferndale, Mich.

These perceived high smoking rates inspired Affirmations to collect information on the number of actual smokers in the LGBT community and gather their views on the health, social and economic aspects involved with smoking.

It also prompted their support for a Michigan bill that would ban smoking in places of employment, such as bars and restaurants.

Affirmations’ study — using information compiled in 2006 — revealed that 53 percent of the more than 350 people surveyed were past or current smokers, 33 percent of which identified as current smokers.

The average age of survey respondents was 35, with a range of 16 to 66. Most respondents, 76 percent, identified as gay or lesbian, 14 percent identified as bisexual and 2 percent identified as heterosexual, according to the study.

Contributing factors to smoking for LGBT people include heightened stress levels, increased incidence of substance use, reduced access to health care and targeted marketing by the tobacco industry, according to the study.

Mandi Rabe, a member of People Respecting the Individuality of Students at MSU, or PRISM, said she doesn’t see the LGBT community as being affected by smoking more than any other population.

“I think it’s still a stereotype that the queer population does more drugs,” said Rabe, a political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore. “With my own involvement in the community, I don’t see it any more. Clearly out of all the stereotypes, it’s one of the least worrisome — but it’s still something that needs to be dealt with.”

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 30,000 LGBT people die from tobacco-related diseases each year.

Smoking also increases the risk of blood clots in transgender women who take estrogen, and heart disease in transgender men who take testosterone, according to the National Coalition for LGBT Health.

David Jaques, president of Respecting Individuals on Neutral Grounds, or RING, said the number of LGBT and heterosexual smokers seems to be proportionate.

“It’s like saying gay people ride more bikes than straight people — there’s not a correlation in my mind,” he said.

The difference in generations also should be taken into account, Jaques said. Older people seem to smoke more than younger people, he said.

Jaques, who said he doesn’t go to bars or clubs very often, said banning smoking would only make it more enjoyable to go out. . . .

Methodists Vote to Keep Transgender Pastor

Video by Pauline Bartolone

In a potentially landmark decision, the United Methodist Church has ruled that a transgender pastor who applied for a name change can remain in the ministry. The decision in case of the Rev. Drew Phoenix was released on Tuesday by the church's Judicial Council.

The United Methodist Church, or UMC, bans gay people from serving as clergy, but its Book of Discipline makes no mention of transsexual people. "Essentially, they said that I'm a pastor in good standing and therefore I'm appointable," says Phoenix, who leads St. John's in Baltimore.

In affirming Phoenix as an ordained minister, the council left aside the specific question of whether transgender people can serve. What mattered here was that Phoenix faced no "administrative or judicial action" beyond the question of the name change itself. "The Judicial Council does not reach the question of whether gender change is a chargeable offense or violates minimum standards established by the General Conference," council members wrote.

Phoenix says he always felt male. As a girl, the Methodist minister says, he was known as "Dave Gordon's son." Even when he was preaching as Ann Gordon, Phoenix says, people related to the pastor as a man. But it wasn't until last year, at the age of 47, that Gordon decided to undergo surgery and hormone therapy -- to formally become male.

After the then-Rev. Gordon was reappointed as Drew Phoenix at the Baltimore-Washington Methodist Conference in May, members of the UMC petitioned to ban transsexuals from serving. Now, with the Judicial Council's ruling, Phoenix plans to continue at his church.

Phoenix says he knows he's something of a test case, but calls his transition a gift to the church. The ruling "is outstanding," he says. "It's historic."

UMC members have been wrestling with issues of gender and sexuality, as have other branches of the wider Protestant church. The Phoenix case was one of several on the Judicial Council docket that dealt with such matters, including one from northern Illinois for an initiative called "Affirming All Familes" and another from the California-Nevada conference about plans to "Welcome and Include LGBT" people in church leadership.

The church could take up the issue of transgender clergy again at its general conference in April. Questions concerning sexual minorities have become regular a feature of national UMC gatherings. "It has come up at every general conference in recent years," says spokesperson Diane Denton, "so I would expect it would be an issue again."

Win Rosenfeld

big yellow taxi - joni mitchell in concert 1970

My $150,000 body

Shinan Govani, National Post

Published: Saturday, April 22, 2006

Nina Arsenault is a columnist for Fab Magazine, a freelance writer and sex-trade worker. Her television appearances include Showcase TV's Kink and Global's Train 48. Shinan Govani reported in January about her famously friendly chat with Tommy Lee at Ultra Supper Club; she has previously revealed that she has ''had sex with two professional athletes, a movie star, two TV personalities, the CEOs of two Fortune 500 companies, four guys who worked for the mob, a string of strippers, many male models, a bunch of body builders, loads of nightclubbing suburban guys ... all of them straight."

- - -

Last December, I lay on the operating table of one of Toronto's top plastic surgeons getting my boobs re-done with state-of-the-art cohesive gel silicone implants, a.k.a. the ''gummi bear implant.'' They're nicknamed for their gelatinous consistency.

Anesthesia coursing through me, I aggrandized my upgraded $9,000 breasts. With no liquid silicone they can't rupture and leak. They've a more realistic droop and came custom made in shape and size -- differentiated by a tenth of a centimetre to my specifications.

''Can I keep my old breast implants after you take them out of me?'' I asked the doctor.

I didn't know that I'd need five more operations to fix complications from this impending boob job. I've had 50 cosmetic procedures to transform my body, some in Third World countries and hotel rooms, and the latest surgery has gone wrong.

Has it all been worth it? I'm a whole new woman.

- - -

I grew up, a little girl inside a little boy's body, in The Golden Horseshoe Trailer Park in Beamsville. By age five, I loved Barbie dolls and X-men comics. I'd pretend I was Storm, fighting evil in a disco-inspired super-bikini, with a killer bod to boot. I also had secret crushes on the prepubescent hell raisers of my little town, foul-mouthed boys who already smoked and who'd probably end up doing time for petty crimes. One summer afternoon, they allowed me a peek at the glossy images they'd heisted from their fathers' hidden caches of Playboy magazines. I was awestruck by portraits of an elusive, fully sexual female-ness that seemed more mythical than real.

Innocently, I thought to myself, ''I want to look like that when I grow up.''

By 1997, I'd become a 22-year-old man who resembled character actor Crispin Glover (the ''Thin Man'' from the Charlie's Angels movies). I was living in South Africa when my doctor noticed a cyst growing below my left eye. Worried it would cause serious damage to my face, he sent me to a plastic surgeon. The physician injected freezing into my face. I felt no pain as he started cutting, but I heard tissue tearing. He cauterized some bleeding and my nostrils filled with the smell of my own burnt flesh. Minutes later, he was sewing me up. I paid him with money my parents had sent me; thanks to the favourable exchange rate, roughly $100 Canadian covered it.

The horrific memories faded when I saw my improved appearance and realized the potential of plastic surgery. I arrived for my post-op visit and confessed, ''I want to be a woman.'' . . .

Love Bites.

Birth Right

BY SASHA

When someone changes gender, do they get their birth certificate changed? WKRP

I spoke to three transpeople, initially expecting just a simple yes-or-no-and-away-I-go. It sparked a really interesting dialogue, though, since it turns out you can have your birth records changed but, at the moment, you aren't legally obligated to. In Canada, the process of changing your sex and then your ID exists in somewhat of a neutral area -- not that the informality is a sign of our unrestrained liberalism, just oversight.

Anyone can change the name on their birth certificate (for $137), thereby making it easy to change it on all subsequent ID. Though changing your sex is cheaper ($37), it requires more effort and, certainly, some consideration.

My colleague Adrien has been living as a man for several years, and hasn't changed his records in any way. He's had no major problems at borders, but one reason he's reluctant to have his ID reflect his sex change is, on the very slim chance he's ever arrested, he'd rather be imprisoned with a bunch of biological females than a bunch of biological males. Transpeople have a lot to think about when they go through their changes, and no doubt the totally shitty fact that they're so often targeted in hate crimes informs some decisions.

Canadian celebrity transsexual Nina Arsenault never bothered to have her identification changed. Her passport reflects her female status only because, when she applied for it, officials judged by her submitted photo that she had checked the wrong box and amended it. The rest of her ID is male. "Crossing the border is terrifying for me, the States specifically," says Nina. She once went with a girlfriend who is very convincing, but whose passport says male. When they explained to the border patrol they were transsexuals, the guys got on their walkie-talkies and had all their colleagues come over to gawk at them, making remarks like, "Let me get this straight: you two have dicks?" They didn't let them cross, claiming they were a flight risk. Don't you just love those nightclubs where you're treated like shit at the door and then they won't even let you in?

Related tales of Nina's include having her breasts and ribs done in Mexico just after 9/11 and then going through the border at Houston, where they demanded she take off her surgical girdle because the gauze made it appear as though she had dynamite strapped under it. (She refused.) As well, she was turned back another time and forced onto a plane full of cranky Thunder Bay residents who had all been informed over the intercom that their flight had been held up by a transsexual -- guess who, everybody?! . . .

A case of her: channeling Joni

John Kelly moves audiences and the singer herself with 'Paved Paradise'

John Kelly says "Paved Paradise: The Songs of Joni Mitchell" is "about getting at the essence of something." (josef astor)

By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | October 28, 2007

You won't see "Joni Mitchell" on Commercial Street in Provincetown, handing out show leaflets to tourists alongside the drag Cher, Barbra, and, yes, Susan Lucci. With her yellow hair, her tilted beret, and a billowy outfit right off the cover of "Hejira,""Ms. Mitchell" appeals to far more rarefied tastes. When she beckons, only the fanatics queue up, eager to hear sweetly edgy trills, lines of wisdom, and some homespun stage banter, eh?

And anyway, this Joni isn't strictly a drag queen, evoking one shining icon during year after year of hot Cape Cod nights. She is John Kelly, an Obie-winning New York actor, singer, and dancer whose long list of stage credits extends to "Orpheus X" at the American Repertory Theatre and "James Joyce's The Dead" on Broadway. She is a man who pays camp-free homage to the "woman of heart and mind," as Mitchell has called herself, with a performance of Mitchell songs that's as moving as it is funny, as sincere as it is droll.

Impersonation? Drag? Cabaret? Kelly no longer tries to define his show, "Paved Paradise: The Songs of Joni Mitchell," which the Theater Offensive is presenting at the Boston Center for the Arts Thursday through Nov. 4.

"Believe me, I was lip-synching Maria Callas recordings at the Anvil [gay bar in New York] in punk drag in 1979," he says recently during a visit to Harvard Square, speaking in gentle tones that barely hint at his piercing Joni-esque tenor. "That's how I started. I was hanging out with all these amazing drag performers. But I'm trained as a dancer and a visual artist and now as a singer. . . . And so still I'm always grappling with the semantics of it."

Most people are surprised to learn that the late Divine, the diva in John Waters movies such as "Hairspray," did not consider himself a drag queen so much as a character actor. Kelly, too, feels he just happens to be crossing genders as Joni: "A Barbra Streisand queen or a Cher queen, they're very defined, and when they don't do it well enough, it's not working. I really don't look like Joni. It's an acting thing. I change the way I walk, I change my face, my nose tends to feel smaller when I focus on my mouth. . . . But it's not really looking like her and not always even sounding like her. It's more about getting at the essence of something." . . .

Australia: Transgenders, Big Spenders And Suspenders

by Tracey

29 October 2007

Chanel is a transsexual sex worker and was just nineteen when she began working the streets. Unlike most young people, Chanel’s worries were not focused on fashion or what she was planning to do on the weekend. Instead, she was more concerned with where was she going to sleep that night and what her next meal would consist of, or more to the point, if she was even going to be having one.

How does someone find themselves in such a predicament? And why, ten years later, does she still choose to work in this industry?

I meet with Chanel at her place of work called Tiffany’s Palace. From the outside it’s fairly unassuming. Inside a number of paintings hang precariously from mauve coloured walls and the aroma of freshly cut flowers linger in dimly lit rooms. A sign on the counter reads, “No condom, no sex”.

I greet her, and soon after, the door bell rings.

“Ooh, that’s our shopper, got any cash on you?” she says excitedly. “She brings make up and sunnies, all sorts of things – real cheap too.”

The shopper enters, high as a kite, her baby son waiting in a pram outside. She’s selling Gucci sunglasses for a tenth of their value, $150 jewellery for $20 a pop and top quality make up at bargain bin prices. She has hats, nail art and moisturisers by the dozen.

‘Welcome to the dark side,’ I think to myself. ‘In just ten minutes of entering Chanel’s world I’ve already rubbed shoulders with sex, drugs and theft.’ Half an hour later and the shopper leaves beaming, with an empty bag and a full wallet.

Chanel is stunning to look at and as she gives me a tour of the parlour I am astonished at how beautiful everything is. It’s not at all like the image I had conjured up in my mind. It’s later that I realise that subverting these kinds of stereotypes is exactly what Chanel is all about. . . .

Rebecca Romijn family fears

10/17/2007 - Rebecca Romijn - The Late Show with David Letterman - October 17, 2007 - Ed Sullivan Theatre - New York City, NY, USA © Janet Mayer / PR Photos

"Ugly Betty" star Rebecca Romijn is worried she may have to quit the show if she wants to have children.

Rebecca, who married actor Jerry O'Connell in the summer, believes the hit US TV show's bosses will struggle to create a pregnancy storyline for her character, because she plays a transsexual.

She said: "Motherhood is absolutely on the cards. I would like to have a couple of kids and I think Jerry would too. I don't know exactly when, but it will be interesting to see how the writers will figure it out if I get pregnant while we are shooting 'Ugly Betty'. My character Alexis Meade is not supposed to have a womb!"

Rebecca, who met Jerry at a Las Vegas hotel three years ago, also revealed she often used her feminine charms to get her way with men before she met Jerry.

The stunning blonde star explained: "Of course I have used my feminine wiles to get what I want. But I really don't manipulate Jerry. We focus on friendship - that comes first with us. That is how we fell in love.

Nina's Unstoppable! desire to be herself

Arsenault's drive to become glamorous included 60 surgeries that cost $160,000

June 14, 2007

As a child growing up in a Beamsville trailer park, Rodney Arsenault was shown pictures of the beautiful, naked women in Playboy by some other kids.

There was instant attraction – of a very different sort.

There were no pre-pubescent sexual stirrings, but a desire by Rodney to become one of those "gorgeous, glamorous women" he admired, because he was "a little girl trapped in a little boy's body."

By age 24, Rodney had two master's degrees and was one of the youngest course instructors at York University, teaching acting, but was ready to jettison that promising career and his male identity for a female one.

Rodney changed his name to Nina while still at York and let nothing – not money, pain, negative social attitudes or medical concerns deter "her" from that goal, which was achieved after nine years and about 60 cosmetic surgeries and procedures costing $160,000, financed by working in the sex trade.

It's that determination that has Arsenault being cited for this year's Unstoppable! theme award at the annual Pride Gala in Toronto, one of eight persons to be honoured for their achievements in different categories.

"Knowing that Pride Toronto selects one Canadian queer who embodies the event's theme every year, I'm really honoured that it's me. I know so many unstoppable people," Arsenault says.

"I had this long-term vision in my head of the type of woman I wanted to be and that sort of woman doesn't blend in very well. I'm kind of over the top in my gender expression – with all my cosmetic surgeries, the way I wear my hair and my flashy clothes. But I walk down the street every day with dignity." . . .

Transgender Rights

Nothing extraordinary for Jo Normal

Dear Mariella 'My sister is a depressed, post-op transsexual. She has no friends, no job, and feels her life has not moved on. I'm very supportive, but have run out of advice' Mariella Frostrup Sunday October 28, 2007 The Observer The dilemma My sister is a post-operative transsexual who had the op six years ago. She is almost 40 and lives alone. She has never felt happy in her own skin, and this has become more pronounced since the op. In her own words, she is a 'freak' and 'not real' and is very aware of people staring at her when she is out and about. She is on antidepressants, but they don't help. She has a nonexistent social life because she is scared of people and their reaction to her, although she has had a loyal best friend for years. Over the past five years she's got back in contact with Mum and as a family we are supportive, although our brother is still in denial about it. How can she stop feeling like a lesser person, and sort her life out? She wants to move nearer to me, which I fully support, to find a job, a house, etc. However, she is in a dark place, and motivating her to look for a job and to see that life can be exciting is difficult. She has a big birthday coming up and is depressed her life has not moved on, yet she is the one who has not moved it on. I have run out of advice and motivational support. I love her a great deal and only want her to be happy. What should I/she do? . . .

Hearing changes how people perceive gender

October 26, 2007

CHICAGO, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- People can feel unsettled when a person's voice doesn’t fit his or her gender, because the brain may do multi-sensory processing, a U.S. study suggests.

Lead author Eric Smith, a graduate student; Marcia Grabowecky, a research assistant professor of psychology; and Satoru Suzuki, an associate professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University say researchers have long thought that one part of the brain does vision and another does auditory processing, and that the two don’t communicate with each other.

"But emerging research suggests that rich information from different senses come together quickly and influence each other so that we don’t experience the world one sense at a time," Grabowecky said in a statement.

The researchers used "simple tones with no explicit gender information to get a window into how vision and audition work together to process gender information," Grabowecky said.

The study, published in Current Biology, shows that when an androgynous face was paired with a pure tone that fell within the female fundamental-frequency range -- 160 to 300 Hz -- people were more likely to report that the face was that of a female. . . .

Blanchett enjoys cross-dressing roles

Last Update: 10/26 10:31 am

Cate Blanchett (Getty Images)

Australian actress Cate Blanchett loved dressing up as a man so much in her new movie - she is to do it again on stage.

The 38-year-old donned men's clothes in Todd Haye's forthcoming movie I'm Not There, as one of several thespians to portray musician Bob Dylan.

Now Blanchett intends on appearing in a stage version of The War Of The Roses for the Sydney Theatre Company Down Under, and will once again take on the role of a man.

She says, "I see nothing strange about it being a cross-dressing production. In Shakepeare's day, men played all the roles and I think we can learn so much about each other if we swap around now and again."

What’s in a Name

Illustration by Leanne Shapto

By SAM KEAN

October 28, 2007

Shirley Temple didn’t make many enemies, but Alleen Nilsen can think of a few people who loathed America’s sweetheart. Nilsen, a professor of English at Arizona State University and president (with her husband, Don) of the American Names Society, once met a Shirley from a family that used the name for four generations — for its men. As soon as Temple stamped it as indelibly girlish, Shirley IV disgustedly switched to Shirl. There was no Shirley V.

Dozens of longstanding male names — Kim, Beverly, Ashley, etc. — have met the same fate. Linguists know the pattern well: not long after a boy’s name catches on with girls, parents shy away from christening sons with it. “We crowd them out,” Nilsen says. Consider some examples from the Social Security Administration’s baby-name database. Through 1955, “Leslie” consistently appeared among the 150 most popular boys’ names. About a decade earlier, it began to catch on among girls. And the “crowding out” Nilsen mentioned took place. “Leslie” fell out of favor, dropping from a peak of 81 in male popularity rankings in 1895 to 874 a century later, and will most likely never gain traction with men again. Dana, Carol and Shannon met similar ends.

By contrast, Jordan has appeared in the Top 100 most popular names for both sexes since 1989, and other modern unisex names coexist peacefully, too. Angel, overwhelmingly male until the mid-’50s, became popular for girls around 1972. Yet boy Angels surpassed girls in 1986, and the name now sits at No. 31 for men, 160 for women. And the popularity of Logan for boys (it perennially appears in the Top 50) may have eroded its cachet for girls, an unusual reversal.

The best example of a new gender-fluid name is Peyton, which wasn’t popular until the quarterback Peyton Manning emerged. It tested parents’ tolerance of ambiguity, since it lacked strong gender connotations. The name caught on with girls first in 2000. But parents, perhaps hopeful for their sons’ athletic futures, loved it for boys too. Strikingly, its popularity with both sexes surged and dipped in lock step over the past decade — meaning parents responded to the fickle laws that govern name popularity identically, as if sex made no difference. Peytons of both sexes probably gained thousands of peers when Manning’s Colts won the Super Bowl in February.

The loosening of sex roles may have freed parents to choose neutral-sounding names like Riley and Jaden (or Jayden), but other factors bolstered ambiguous names, too. Herbert Barry — co-author of the paper “Feminization of Unisex Names From 1960 to 1990” — found that between 1900 and 1910, 27 boys’ names and 26 girls’ names accounted for half of all names. Between 1990 and 2000 it was 60 and 90 names, respectively. The upshot is that parents are less likely to encounter any child named Devin, say, and are therefore less likely to associate that name with either sex. . . .

Drag queens camp it up for Pride Week

Danielle Lampkin
Jonathan Smith
Staff Writers

Oct. 26, 2007




Founders Auditorium was packed Oct. 23, as students gathered to watch the performance of 4 Drag Queens, including well-know singer/actor Jackie Beat; Also known as Kent Fuher. Beat is the lead singer of Dirty Sanchez and has appeared in numerous films and TV shows. Leah Heagy


Wearing rather high stilettos and more make up than most women, several drag queens graced the stage of Founders Auditorium to be a part of “Confessions of a Drag Queen” on Tuesday.

While many felt the show was entertaining and funny, the main purpose of the show was to educate people about the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning community.

The event was just one of five that was featured for Housing’s Pride Week.

“I heard nothing but positive remarks from people, even though we started late due to technical difficulties,” resident assistant Adam Carranza said. “I thought it would be a low turnout because it was a gay event and (audience members) were still out there.”

“I thought it was a great event,” junior arts and music major Alan Hernandez said. “It was something that needed to be heard.”

About 220 people attended the event, which was sponsored by Housing and Residential Life and Campus Activities Board.

The event lasted a little more than an hour, featuring several acts that perform professionally as drag queens across the region.

Jackie Beat served as master of ceremonies and provided the audiences with a huge array of topics that sent them into a laughing frenzy.

Most of Beat’s laughs came from song parody that featured explicit and risqué topics, ranging from gay men to Catholic priests.

“My favorite part (of Jackie Beat’s performance) was the rap song at the end,” Jacob Delgado, a senior movement and sports science major, said
.
“The way she mock but at the same time inform was useful,” Hernandez said.

The three featured drag queens participants, Jayla, Susie Q and Serenity that performed at the event lip singing to songs like “Let’s Get Loud” and “Diamond Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” . . .

How to Act Like a Princess ;)

Acting like a princess takes a little getting used to but it can be done. Think: wealth, pageantry, gorgeous clothing, palaces, fantastic communication skills, kindness towards others and an ability to charm, impress and greet people. Behaving the way that a real princess would means being thoughtful, gracious and charitable. Consider Princess Diana or Princess Mary of Denmark. These ladies do not epitomize girls strutting around acting more superior than anybody else. These refined ladies care about their subjects, do not objectify anybody and run massive households with the skill and accuracy of a sharp shooter. If you really want to act like a princess, you need to be smart, kind and elegant. Think you can do this? Well, let's try!

Transgender advocate lauds OSU’s stance on the issue

BY JAMI KINTON
News Journal

MANSFIELD — Last year “Advocate” magazine named Ohio State University the No. 1 transgender-friendly campus in America.

Last week, Jack Miner, associate registrar and president of the OSU-Columbus Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender SXociety, spoke to OSU-M and North Central State College students about understanding the Transgender community. A large portion of his speech focused on the life of a Transgender on a college campus. A transgender is a person appearing or attempting to be a member of the opposite sex.

“Every month, one to four Ohio State students and alumni become Transgender,” Miner said. “This is something that’s really becoming more common and regardless of your beliefs on the matter, we all need to be educated about the Transgender society.”

Miner said in the past few years, OSU has installed transgender-friendly bathrooms on their main campus.

“If you’re in the process of transitioning from a woman to a man, would you use the women’s or the men’s restrooms?” he said. “It can be confusing, and so to make it easier on the person, we have Transgender restrooms that they can use.”

Miner said housing arrangements are also an issue.

“Should a Transgender live with men or women? It really depends on who you ask,” he said. “I say it depends on which gender the person identifies him or herself with. If you say you’re a woman, than you’ll live with women.”

By having a non-discriminatory clause, Miner said Transgender students know they will be accepted at OSU.

“We’ve pushed other campuses to also adopt this clause,” he said. “OSU did this a few years ago. It’s a great way to say, ‘You’re welcome here.’ ”

Miner added that OSU is also willing to change names on diplomas for graduates who later became Transgender.

Chief student affairs officer Donna Hight asked Miner what plans are in the works to keep the five commuter OSU campuses as progressive as Columbus.

“Well, you’ve got folks like me going out and spreading the word, and that’s what we really need to do,” Miner said. “We need passionate people out there making acceptance happen.” . . .