Transgenders Looking For Jobs

This is info about how difficult it is for transgenders to find work.

The San Diego Kings Club

King of Drag Kings: Questions for Alexander Williams

Interview by EMILY ALPERT

March 29, 2008


By day, he's mild-mannered Alexander Williams, the sweet, somewhat nerdy boy who pampers pooches at the South Bark Dog Wash. By night, he's a hyperkinetic star who lip-synchs before a screaming crowd at a North Park bar, pelvis thrusting under the dizzying spotlights.

Williams, 21, recently earned a spot on the San Diego Kings Club, a troupe of drag performers who mimic male icons, through a three-month contest styled like American Idol, with new themes and competitors voted off week by week. His brand of offbeat, exuberant drag won over the judges and earned him fistfuls of dollars, flung at the stage by fans. His stage name is a bit too raunchy to print. As his alter ego, he's swaggered like Elvis, stumbled like a lounge lizard, and torn off a dress and wig to the tune of Queen's "I Want to Break Free."

Unlike many drag kings, who identify and live as women, Williams is transgender, and lives as a man every day. Born female, Williams came out as lesbian at age 14, and led the gay-straight alliance at Granite Hills High School. Years ago, when he started doing drag, he was still living as a woman, and had to pencil in his sideburns with eyeliner. . . .Read More

Obama Holds LGBT Fund-raiser In New York City

03/29/08-03/31/08

Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate


Sen. Barack Obama waded deep into Clinton territory Thursday evening at a private LGBT fund-raiser in New York City where the price of admission was $2,300 per person.

Held at the apartment of GLSEN founder and executive director Kevin Jennings and his partner, Jeff Davis, the event drew about 125 people and raised $170,000. No press were admitted, but based on several accounts, attendees were struck by the Illinois senator’s candor as well as his fluency with LGBT issues.

“I’ve been to many events over the past 10 years of candidates running for office,” said Corey Johnson, one of the hosts, “This was the most forthright, eloquent, and detailed stuff I’ve heard from a politician [regarding gay issues].”

Molly Lenore, 43, compared Obama’s discussion of the LGBT community to the speech he gave about race in America last week. “During his race speech, everybody said afterward that he treated the American people like adults, and I felt like that’s what he did,” said Lenore, who is transgender and an Obama supporter. “I might not agree 100%, but I want to have an intelligent conversation with somebody.” . . .Read More

Tucson Region: Transgender forum here Tuesday

Region viewed as accepting of gender variance

By Stephanie Innes

Arizona Daily Star 3.30.2008


The word "transgender" does not appear in the Bible. Save a few references to women in masculine clothing and vice versa, it's hard to know whether Scripture says anything at all about people who change their sexual identity.

Interpreting the Bible as it relates to gender-variant people is one of 80 workshops that will take place this week during an international conference in Tucson, titled "Transgender 2008," which begins Tuesday.

About 350 people are expected to attend the conference, an annual event sponsored by the Massachusetts-based International Foundation for Gender Education. The event is in its 22nd year, and this its first time in Arizona.

Among items on the conference schedule are a golf tournament, a gala, a poetry reading, music and a new theater performance titled "TransFormations."

Workshops will cover a gamut of transgender issues, ranging from hormone therapy and post-op blues to transgender Internet dating. The event will culminate Saturday with a public forum about why Tucson is considered a "trans-friendly" place to live. . . .Read More

'It wasn't my choice to be a transgender'

Ethan Baron

March 30, 2008


William, born female, has always known he was really male.

At age two, his mother was dressing the family's children -- three daughters -- for a Christmas Eve party. William, who then had a girl's name, was having none of it.

"He said, 'Little boys do not wear dresses,'" his mother told The Province. "That was one of the last times we ever put a dress on him."

His real name isn't William, but the Fraser Valley teenager, now 19, says he's suffered discrimination because of the kind of person he is, and using his real name would expose him to further bigotry.

As a child, William wanted to play hockey, but young girls couldn't. He settled for ringette. . . .Read More

Transgender Dating: Breaking the Ice in the First E-mail

by Chantel K. Williams

31 March 2008

	Male looks at Tgirl walking by.

How do you date a transgender woman? Are there certain “dos and don’ts” for asking a transgender girl out on a date? What should you say in the first e-mail? If you’re like most men, you probably met a transgender woman in either an 'online' chatroom, dating website, or social network. Along the way, you checked out her photo, profile, and common interests.

The key word is “common interests” and mutual compatibility. So, you fire-off a quick email. Yet, you failed to tell her what you are looking for in relationship or first meeting. Try to look at your first e-mail as a” business card.” It is a way of introducing yourself and exploring possibilities. Remember when you purchased that first greeting card for that special person…you took your time! . . .Read More

Julie reflects on past year

by Steven Hepker | Citizen Patriot

March 29, 2008

John Nemecek rocked Spring Arbor University and made national news last year when the transgender professor came out as Julie. Being fired in February 2007 from the Christian college only strengthened her resolve, and sharpened her pen.

In a prolific stream of one-liners on the Citizen Patriot opinion page, she fires a pea shooter at a hornet's nest.

She says her God is a loving God of diversity and acceptance.
"Sodom was destroyed not because of homosexuality, but for arrogance and lack of compassion," she wrote in a recent one-liner.

Readers thrashed that like red meat in the shark tank.

"Nemecek and people like her have created a cancer that has eaten away at the very fabric of what Christianity has been fighting for centuries," Horton's Rob Anderson responded in a letter to the editor.

His response is typical among dozens of critics who claim Nemecek is a publicity hound out to bend the Scriptures to justify her sinful lifestyle. Some scoff at calling Nemecek a "her." . . .Read More

Q&A with Norman Spack

A doctor helps children change their gender

By Pagan Kennedy March 30, 2008

CHILDREN HAVE CUT themselves. In some cases, 9- or 10-year-old kids have staged suicide attempts. The little boys sob unless they're allowed to wear dresses. The girls want to be called Luke, Ted, or James.

Their parents, desperate to know what is wrong, go online and type "gender disorder."

And what they find is that, even now, decades after doctors performed the first sex changes in America, there's little help for transgender children.

Even the care of transgender adults remains a medical backwater in the United States; in fact, we do not even know how many people in this country have gone through sex changes, because doctors simply did not bother to keep track of patients. Until recently, children with cross-gender feelings rarely received modern medical care - and certainly not hormone shots. After all, who would allow a child to redesign his or her body?

But in the past few years, some doctors have come to believe that kids should be allowed to have some control over how they grow up. Dr. Norman Spack, 64, argues that transgender kids tend to be much happier - and less likely to harm themselves - when they're able to live in their preferred gender role. . . .Read More

Pregnant Man!

See Viewers Comments and Responses

Bloggers Weigh in on Transgendered Pregnant Man

By Ross von Metzke and Ann Turner

3.26.2008

Thomas Beatie, a transgendered man from Portland, Oregon who revealed he is pregnant in the latest issue of The Advocate, is five months along according to various reports.

Now the story, which spread like wildfire on the Web yesterday following its appearance in the latest issue of the LGBT news magazine, is prompting mass discussion among bloggers.

Beatie, who transitioned from female to male, decided not to remove his reproductive organs and stopped taking testosterone injections. Upon learning his wife, Nancy, couldn't carry a child, he tried. Now, Beatie and his wife are expecting a baby girl in July.

Beatie claims he's faced discrimination from doctors and hospitals, and now blogs are weighing in on the topic.

GaySocialites.com writes: "I was even more shocked at how upset people were to find out that Beatie was born a woman. In a strange-sort-of-way, everyone seemed to want Beatie to defy the laws of anatomy by getting pregnant as a man." . . .Read More

Gays, transgenders explore meaning of sex

Laura Clark

3.26.2008


Sitting on the edge of the stage in the Center Theater last night, Sarah Perlmutter defined gender and sex as two different words.

"A person's sex is what they were born as, but a person's gender is the sex that feels more natural to them," said Perlmutter, a sociology sophomore.

Perlmutter, along with several other UK students, led a discussion titled, "In My Shoes: Stories of Our Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered, Questioning and Ally Campus and Community." The discussion was part of the Diversity Dialogues series sponsored by Student Diversity Engagement and the Division of Student Affairs.

The event aimed to raise awareness of harassment toward gay and transgender people, and to allow the panel to share their experiences and answer questions about discrimination.

The main point of the discussion was to educate those who may not understand some of the issues gay and transgender students have to deal with, which is why international studies sophomore Danielle Cole attended. . . .Read More

City's shelters to get standards of care

by Seth Hemmelgarn

March 27, 2008

After years of input by homeless shelter clients, operators, and homeless advocates, the Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday, March 25 to adopt a set of standards of care for homeless shelters. Supervisors Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd voted against the measure.

The standards, introduced to the board and sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano, address everything from training staff members on how to be sensitive to LGBT issues to making sure bathrooms are stocked with toilet paper.

Ammiano said he's "very proud" of the legislation's passage. He said Mayor Gavin Newsom is supportive of the legislation and implementation should begin "just about immediately." Newsom's office did not provide a comment by press time.

Quintin Mecke of San Francisco's Shelter Monitoring Committee, the group largely responsible for developing the standards, told the Bay Area Reporter the guidelines will hopefully "make a difference in the everyday experience people have in the shelter system."

Mecke, who ran unsuccessfully against Newsom in last year's mayoral race, said that staying in the shelters can be particularly hard for transgender people. He said there have been several cases where staff have told transgender people they need to provide a doctor's note to prove their gender when the person requests a female bunk. He referred to this burden of proof as "humiliating" and "unnecessary." . . .Read More

The Evolution of Transgender Media Coverage

March 28, 2008

(Independent press, Media criticism) Permanent link

The transgender narrative is well known, thanks to films like Boys Don’t Cry and Transamerica. But the problem, as Extra! reports in an analysis of transgender coverage over the past few years, is the idea that a single “transgender narrative” exists.

The narrative is by now quite familiar: A somewhat prominent white, middle-to-upper-class man comes out as a transgender woman, her long history of feeling “trapped in the wrong body” is detailed, and her struggles and surgeries are documented, as are the struggles of those around her to understand and embrace her change.

The Extra! report also seizes upon another shortcoming of media attention: that many reporters and television reporters obsess over a person’s “genital status,” reducing their transgender guests to sideshow surgical curiosities. Larry King is a notable perpetrator of such invasive questions—because, he explained to one guest, “we’re all fascinated with what happens.” . . .Read More

Gender Queer Me

An attempt at describing my gender identity, which, now I have had the surgery, I can finally be open about!

Hopefully this will be of value to those of you questioning your own?

This is an understanding that took me many years to feel comfortable with and in, never mind being confident enough to share publicly! xenokyle

Students go out in style - drag style

Jody Pollock

3.26.2008


It was all about the purple fishnets.

College sophomore Cameron Clark spent the past few weeks preparing for his debut as Britney Spears last night, and he couldn't have done it without the "proper purple fishnets."

In towering black lace-up boots and a pink miniskirt, Clark was just one of the many Penn performers who participated in the second-annual gender-bending drag show last night. The show was part of QPenn, the annual lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender pride and awareness week.

"This is a drag show," said the emcee of the night, MC Liza, who hosts a weekly drag show at Bob and Barbara's, a bar downtown. "So don't be conservative. If you're going to be conservative, we'll send you somewhere else."

But the audience wasn't shy, and the five drag acts, which included a group of PennQuest leaders and a contingent from alpha Kappa Delta Phi, were met with a great reception. . . .Read more

Transgender adults seek congressional support in workplace

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 3/26/2008


Transgender activists will descend on Capitol Hill next month to lobby members of Congress to include "gender identity and expression" in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which bans workplace discrimination based on "sexual orientation," passed the House last November, but the homosexual employment bill still awaits a vote in the Senate. In preparation for the lobbying effort, the National Center for Transgender Equality will be holding "lobby training" and policy briefings on April 14 in Washington. The following day, transgender activists and their supporters plan to meet with members of Congress and urge them to back special workplace protections for transgender adults. They will also hold a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol. . . .Read More

In first, black trans woman headed to Dem convention

Richmond, a Clinton delegate, would be happy with Obama as nominee

By REBECCA ARMENDARIZ, Washington Blade | Mar 26, 2008


Marisa Richmond has been involved in national political conventions since 1980, when she worked on Sen. Edward Kennedy's bid for president.

But this election year will likely be more memorable for Richmond, as she is set to become the first black transgender delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

This year, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean also named Diego Sanchez from Massachusetts to one of the convention's standing committees. Sanchez is the first transgender person to be selected by the chair of the DNC and the first to serve on the platform committee.

Richmond, a college history professor at Middle Tennessee State University, transitioned in 2001 at age 42. Though she knew since age 7 that she felt like a woman, she said she didn't know the terminology — or what was possible — until later. . . .Read More

Transgender Man's Baby May Have Health Problems

Experts Debate the Long-Term Effects of Testosterone on Eggs

By AINA HUNTER
March 26, 2008


Among the important issues raised by the pregnancy of Oregonian Thomas Beatie is whether a female-to-male transgender person who becomes pregnant might be endangering the fetus, especially someone like Beatie, who has been taking testosterone for at least 10 years.

There's very little research on the subject to date, and some experts are at odds about it. Dr. Charles Garramoni, a Florida plastic surgeon who specializes in female-to-male transgender surgery (but was not involved in Beatie's case), said the chances of complications are probably slim. . . .Read More

Author Jennifer Finney Boylan emerges as public face for transgendered

Jerry Harkavy, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 25, 2008

BELGRADE LAKES, Maine - Jennifer Finney Boylan never set out to be the public face for the transgendered.

But the novelist and English professor at Colby College was thrust into that role by her 2002 best-selling memoir about the transition to womanhood that freed her from the decades-long torment of being a female trapped in a male body.

With three appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," two on "Larry King Live" and numerous other interviews and public appearances, Boylan, 49, has become a sunny-faced activist for the transgendered and one of the most widely recognized transsexuals of recent years.

"Activism for me takes the form of living a normal life and doing so very publicly," she said. . . .Read More