Drunken flies get hypersexual

Chronic boozing sends male flies chasing after any and every potential mate.

Heidi Ledford

Fruit flies get amorous under the influence of constant booze.GETTY

From the annals of insect biology comes a cautionary tale for those recovering from their post-New Year’s celebration: heavy boozing has been shown to send male fruitflies, like their human counterparts, into a lusty fog.

In the flies, hypersexuality caused by chronic alcohol exposure has the effect of making the males chase anything with wings — other males included. Although sexual preference in humans is obviously a complex phenomenon not replicated by the fly work, the findings could be used to further establish a fly model system for the study of alcoholism, observers say. . . .

David (The current Dr. Who) Or Davina Tennant Part 2

Trans teacher changing lives in SF jail

01/03/2008

by Heather Cassell

Life is different for transgender teacher Dana Rivers, who lost her high school teaching job in Sacramento nearly 10 years ago. The media spotlight that was her life for nearly three years has faded, she now lives in the Bay Area, and while she still teaches at the high school level, her students are different.

Rivers, 52, an award-winning educator, knows she's fortunate and is happy to be teaching again.

"I always thought that [I] would teach again because it's what I do," said Rivers, who teaches social studies and history at Five Keys Charter School in San Francisco's county jail. "There was a period of time when I thought that the activist part of my world would kind of dominate things for a while, and it did for a couple of years, but when that quieted down, I just went back looking for another teaching job and went back to doing this." . . .

Dirty Sexy Money has 2007's Most Memorable Transgender Character

January 03, 2008

BuddyTV

By many accounts, Candis Cayne's portrayal of Carmelita on ABC's Dirty Sexy Money has been considered as 2007's most significant transgender character. Cayne herself made it to Radar Magazine's list of the New Radicals, which names "the year's most notable rogues, renegades, and rule-breakers."

Ironically, Cayne had just about given up on getting her acting career going when Dirty Sexy Money fell onto her lap and turned things around for the transformed former Brendan McDaniel. . . .

OPINION: Trans activist crosses the line

by Kevin Naff, Washington Blade Editor | Jan. 3, 2008

The recent remarks by Meredith Bacon, president of the board of the National Center for Transgender Equality, denouncing the Human Rights Campaign’s handling of the ENDA debate, serve as a vivid and disappointing reminder of why the trans movement hasn’t progressed as far as the gay rights movement.

“[A]s the chair of the NCTE Board of Directors, I can assure all who read this blog that NCTE will not work with HRC in the foreseeable future, until the current leadership is completely purged, and until we are convinced that, unlike its predecessors, any new HRC leadership is totally committed to working for transgender rights,” Bacon wrote.

“As long as HRC is controlled by and is dependent upon white, rich, professional gay men, such collaboration may never occur,” she wrote. . . .

Standing tall for AIDS victims.

A Vietnam vet puts on her big-girl outfit to take care of fellow sufferers.

By BY JIMMY FOWLER

2 January 2008

At a recent Wednesday night benefit show at the popular gay bar Stampede, a crowd of 30 or so had wandered out on a week night to catch a Fort Worth legend — albeit one that most Fort dwellers have never heard of.

This legend didn’t need an ornate theater full of dazzling lights and extravagant costumes. More fittingly, the Stampede was just as laid-back as ever — pictures of Santa Claus exhorting “Merry Christmas!” mingled with illustrations of shirtless, hairy-chested men in cowboy hats. A twinkling Christmas tree sat next to the DJ booth. And there wasn’t even a stage — just a brightly lit patch of wood floor in front of the bar near the restrooms.

She strode into the bar, microphone in hand, at 9 p.m. sharp—all her Wednesday-night benefit shows start with military punctuality — looking at least 6’5” tall in heels. As the hostess for the Fort Worth “Wall of Food” shows, whose earnings benefit the food pantry at the city’s AIDS Outreach Center, Rhonda Mae was not so much regal as charmingly down-home and self-deprecating. She never dominates these shows, preferring to emcee the proceedings with a maternal touch. This night she favored a simple knee-length black skirt and black short-sleeved blouse with glittery golden swirls. Perched on her aquiline nose were a pair of thick-lensed suburban-mom glasses that covered the top half of her face.

She sidled up to one good-looking Latino man at the end of the bar, ran her long fingers playfully through his hair, and declared in a very deep, cigarette-honed voice, “You know what I want for Christmas: diamonds. But honey, sapphires will do, too.” . . .

Not all lost with defeat of transgendered bill

January 2, 2008

Jennifer Madden M.D.
Amherst


House Bill 711 did not make it past the committee hearing stage. This is the bill that would have required insurance companies in the state of New Hampshire to cover physician-prescribed hormone medications to individuals regardless of assigned sex at birth.

Am I saddened by this decision? Do I think it's discriminatory? The answer for me is yes, of course, but I am a transsexual and a physician who cares for transgendered patients.

Was the fight useful? Did we accomplish anything? Have we done anything to change societal attitudes toward transgendered people?

Yes, I believe we have. The fact that this letter is being printed is proof of that.

Gender variance is not something new to society, but it is something that Judeo-Christians have trouble accepting, even when science supports it.

Vern Bullough, the author of "Science in the Bedroom," once wrote: "The main obstacle to understanding our own sexuality is realizing that we are prisoners of past societal attitudes."

How can the majority of human beings understand something that's foreign to them, that they don't experience? If it's not true for them, then they must either act on faith believing what I and other transgendered individual's sense about ourselves is true or take the alternative course and say we're all crazy. . . .

Fruit & Fly Trailer

Susan Stanton's lonely transformation

A year after Steve Stanton became Susan, the physical and emotional changes are surprising sources of wonder and pain.

By LANE DeGREGORY, Times Staff Writer

December 31, 2007

SARASOTA -- Every morning, Susan Stanton wakes early and takes three pills. They help her suppress who she was and become the person she believes she should be.

At 9 a.m., still in her pajamas, she climbs the stairs in her Sarasota bungalow, clicks on her computer and goes to work. Looking for a job.

"I miss the 16-hour days, working with so many bright people, leading the city. I still love Largo," she says.

"I think I'm suffering from 'Pretty girl syndrome': People assume I'm making tons of money, traveling around speaking. But the truth is: I need help. I'm starting to approach people I know in the area, which I never thought I'd be doing.

"Maybe that's the last part of the transition: Losing my male ego."

* * *

This time last year, Susan was Steve Stanton, husband and father, a 48-year-old conservative man who oversaw 1,000 employees as Largo city manager. He had led the town of 76,000 for 14 years. City commissioners had consistently given him raises and rave reviews.

This time last year, Steve was making plans to tell city leaders that he had always wanted to be a woman.

The truth came out when a St. Petersburg Times reporter heard a rumor and asked if it was true. Steve said yes. A month later, on March 23, commissioners fired him.

So after years of fear and secrecy, Steve became his second self. Susan testified before Congress, appeared on TV with Larry King and Montel Williams and became the somewhat reluctant face of the transgender-equality movement. A CNN documentary crew followed her and still does.

Nine months later, she finds herself waking up alone in a new city, her year's severance pay running out, with no friends -- except the woman who does her electrolysis.

"I was totally unprepared for the reaction and rejection of almost everyone who'd been close to me," Susan says. "People I'd known for 20 years won't even talk to me."

Recently, over a long lunch in Sarasota, Susan opened up about surgery, family, dating -- and her greatest fear.

And for the first time since Susan appeared in public, her wife Donna and 14-year-old son Travis talked in a separate interview about what it has been like to watch their husband and dad turn into a woman. . . .

OPINION: A Medical Transition

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

I was recently alerted to a news release that reminded me that, in spite of all the pain and struggle, all the fighting over ENDA and other bills, and all the times it feels like there is no forward motion no transgender issues, there really are some changes going on.

The release, a call by Dr. Kate O’Hanlan, pushing for other doctors in the field to perform total laparoscopic hysterectomies for those female-to-male patients in need was certainly interesting enough on the surface. I’m not a doctor and cannot attest in any way to the validity of this, of course, but the release indicated this could provide a greater likelihood of a less complicated and potentially less painful surgery for FTMs.

Consider this, however: that there would be a press release on this at all may well be more notable than the text of the release.

Transgender surgical options has long been looked at by the medical establishment with some derision. Many do not view any surgical procedures related to genital reassignment – or any other surgery or treatment related to transsexuality – to be “real medicine.” It’s treated as the lowest of surgeries, somewhere above sub-dermal implants and lower than penile extension.

Doctors who perform this type of surgery are viewed – at best – as some sort of “niche” specialist, and not seen as “real” as surgeons working on any other malady or need of the human body. Most, I suspect, are viewed as Dr. Stanley Biber once was – likable, but eccentric, the sort of guy who gets a lot of “news of the weird” style coverage that earned Trinidad, Colo., the nickname of “sex change capital of the world.”

It’s been that way for more than a century, with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and his contemporaries in turn-of-the-previous-century Germany being viewed positively, but nevertheless offbeat. It was Dr. Hirschfeld who helped pioneer a lot of what we know today under the umbrella of transgender.

Likewise, Dr. Harry Benjamin, who bridged the gap from Hirschfeld and the modern era, or Dr. Christian Hamburger, the practitioner who worked on Christine Jorgensen, or scores of others who practice today, have all been viewed as somewhat outside the medical establishment, performing surgeries seen as radical, even unethical, by their contemporaries. . . .

Resources: Understanding Transgender Youth

The Tyra Banks Show

Gay, lesbian and bisexual people seldom appear physically different from straight people. Transgender people must go through a process of transition where they might have difficulty “passing” as their correct gender. They can opt for surgery and/or hormone therapy to better align their physical bodies with their correct gender; changes can be made to names and identifying documents. This can eventually provide them with a way to pass as a biological male or female.

The following websites are resources for transgender youth:

YouthResource
Created by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) young people 13 to 24 years old, takes a holistic approach to sexual health by offering support, community, resources, and peer-to-peer education about issues of concern to GLBTQ young people. YouthResource has four focus areas: health, advocacy, community, and issues in our lives.

www.youthresource.com


Trans Proud 

OutProud's website for transgender youth. Headline news, links to other transgender sites for trans youth, loads of resources and information, stories of other transgender teens, message boards, as well as resources for parents of transgender children.

www.transproud.com . . .

Berlin Journal: Gay Muslims Pack a Dance Floor of Their Own

BERLIN — Six men whirled faster and faster in the center of the nightclub, arms slung over one another’s shoulders, performing a traditional circle dance popular in Turkey and the Middle East. Nothing unusual given the German capital’s large Muslim population. . . .

“Depending on which part of Berlin I go to, in one I get punched in the mouth because I’m a foreigner and in the other because I’m a queen,” said Fatma Souad, the event’s organizer and master of ceremonies. Ms. Souad, 43, a transgender performer born in Ankara as a boy named Ali, has put on the party for over a decade. . . .

Gender Identity

31 December 2007


So, recently some people have linked to me in blog posts while under the impression that i was female-identified... which has led me to try to work out why...

I tend to assume that it's obvious to people that i'm (physically) male, because, well, if you can see and/or hear me "in the flesh" then it is obvious; i'm about 5'11", with a body consisting almost entirely of straight lines and right angles, no breasts, big feet, a bass voice (albeit one that goes up or down a couple of octaves somewhat randomly, but still a clearly male-sounding voice), and prominent facial hair. (I can't find a decent picture of myself to put here, but you can see me in the photos on this post; i'm the one with long dark hair and a beard, in the general style of Aragorn or Faramir in the Lord of the Rings films, or a typical 16th/17th century English Catholic style, such as Guy Fawkes or King Charles I.) . . .

Susan Stanton Doesn’t Support Trans Rights?

We’re truly disturbed. Susan Stanton, the former Largo, Florida city manager who left her job after transitioning from male to female, made some comments recently that make us question our unwavering support for her decision:

…Susan has said all along that she’s not like other transgender people. She feels uncomfortable even looking at some, “like I’m seeing a bunch of men in dresses.” . . .


See responses same page.

Deportista renuncia a su carrera para convertirse en hombre

Female Olympic pole vaulter to become a man

Olympic pole vaulter Yvonne Buschbaum, who finished sixth in 2000, has said on her Web site that she is beginning the process to become a man.

“I feel as if I am a man and have to live my life in the body of a woman,” Buschbaum said in a statement on her Web site, according to AOL Sports blog FanHouse. “I am aware of the fact that transsexuality is a fringe issue, and I do not want to be responsible for it remaining on the fringe.” . . .

Pakistan: Govt grants no special representation to eunuchs in assemblies

12/25/2007

* Around 1.5 million eunuchs in the country
* APEA says eunuchs harassed at men’s election booths
* NADRA spokesman says providing special treatment to eunuchs could ‘create trouble’ for others

By Hasan Ali


LAHORE: The government has not fulfilled the demands of eunuchs to register them as a third sex and to reserve seats in the national and provincial assemblies of the country. This is not fair to many members of the community, the All Pakistan Eunuchs Association (APEA) told Daily Times on Tuesday.

APEA also said that there are around 1.5 million eunuchs living in Pakistan and they are all treated as male voters while most of the eunuchs prefer to be recognised as females. . . .

Challenging Transsexuality?

12.24.2007


"Without gender differentiation... There would be no need to reconstruct genitalia to match identity - interests and life-styles [would] not [be] gendered."
– Judith Lorber

The above quotation by sociologist Judith Lorber is an example of the so-called gender-progressive challenge to transsexuality (understood as a process of surgical changes to the body that would transform one’s sex or gender identity). The standard argument goes something like this: Transsexuals are victims of society’s oppressive gender diktat. They mutilate their bodies because gender norms require having ‘the right’ genitalia in order to be a ‘real’ man or a ‘real’ woman. Wearing dresses and high-heels is contingent on having a vagina and breasts; facial hair and tuxedos are only for those with penises and a flat chest. And as good gender-progressives, we all know that these norms are a sham, and that many people with vaginas do ‘masculine’ things and many people with penises do ‘feminine’ things. We are aware of the terror and discrimination faced by these gender non-conformists, and thus, we are tempted to explain away transsexuality as a relic of gender oppression: transsexuals are forced to change their bodies because that is the only way they can construct a socially acceptable gender. They would be subject to shame, prejudice and violence if they did not change their bodies to conform fully to the gender prerogatives they want to enact. Thus, in a world without a tyrannical, binary gender ideology, transsexuality would cease to exist. . . .

Club in transgender dispute now caters to gays

29 December 2007

Brian Powell, Tribune

Anderson’s Fifth Estate, which had a 25-year run as a downtown Scottsdale nightclub and was most recently known for its ban on transgendered patrons, is now a gay dance club.

Club Forbidden opened its doors Friday evening in the same building that once housed the rock, comedy and dance club at 6820 E. Fifth Ave.

Bar owner ends transgendered patron ban
Club slapped with complaint from gay rights group
Scottsdale bar owner fights discrimination claim

“This will be more like a New York nightclub, and I couldn’t do that under Anderson’s Fifth Estate,” owner Tom Anderson said.

Anderson, who recently lifted his ban on transgendered customers and settled a discrimination dispute with transgendered woman Michèle deLaFreniere, said the club’s change is a business — not a political — decision. . . .

OPINION: It looks like Ford Motor Co. is into more than just selling cars -- promoting sex changes

December 28, 2007


The American Family Association, which has called for a boycott of Ford Motor Co. because of their aggressive advocacy for and support of homosexual causes including redefinition of marriage, has brought to light another of Ford's efforts along these lines -- promoting sex changes.

According to an AFA email action alert,

The December 18 edition of The Advocate, a magazine for homosexuals, featured the transgender issue. A transgender is a person appearing or attempting to be a member of the opposite sex, as a transsexual or habitual cross-dresser. The Advocate article showed numerous pictures of people who had sex operations to change from male to female, and vice-versus (I'll spare you the details).

Ford Motor Company placed a full page ad for its Volvo brand in the publication.

Ford offers medical benefits to help pay expenses of those who choose to undergo sex change operations. Ford pays for mental health counseling, hormone therapy, medical visits, and short-term disability after surgical procedures for employees who desire to change their sex. . . .