POV: Transsexuality: Dating and Disclosure

October 20, 2008

Special to The Canadian

For some years I have grappled with disclosure issues in relation to friends, lovers and potential dates. I have wondered about both ethics of disclosure and the practical consequences. Like you, I doubt there's any clear-cut answer. Some days I feel so frustrated with the complexities that I feel like making an "I am a transsexual" t-shirt and wearing it everywhere to make life simpler.

The ethical questions are so complicated. On a basic level, of course it is the right thing to disclose. That way you live positively. There's nothing to hide. It's all out in the open.

There's a bravado attitude out there that says "if anyone doesn't accept it then they are not worth knowing" but it's easier said than done. It's all too glib for my liking. There are many, not terribly deep, interactions we have with people that help to make life enjoyable. So if it's not absolutely essential to a relationship then why spill the beans and have some of those easy relations transformed into weirdness and suspicion? That's the easy one. . . .Read More

POV: Transsexual Dating: Eligible Bachelorette

October 20, 2008

by Kennidi Monroe

Dating; Is It Easy For Anyone? I Used To Think That Dating Would Be Easier Being A Girl Versus Being A Boy. Wow, Was I Totally Wrong!

Many people say dating should come easy to me because I'm a beautiful girl. Guys should be swarming over me. Well the reality is that it's the total opposite. I may get a little bit of attention but I would never say men are dropping at my feet to be with me.

Here are some reasons why I think it’s hard for any transgendered person to date:

One: Most men interested in transgendered women have this fantasy about being with them. They feel that they can get their kicks off for being with "The Best Of Both Worlds" but reality sets in and they only want it as a fantasy. They can't deal with society accepting their fantasy. Men I think have a hard time accepting that they could actually want a relationship with a trans woman. Some guys would always wonder what would happen if their friends or family find out the woman they are with was once a man. See, it today’s society it’s still very taboo to be with a trans woman. Most people think that being trans is confusing, even people in the gay community. So they sell us short and use us for a fantasy but try to live that normal life. . . .Read More

Hillary Clinton speaking at 2008 HRC National Dinner

"Sen. Hillary Clinton speaking at 2008 HRC National Dinner"   hrcmedia

Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher's Class

Travis Unified School District Says It Must Respect Privacy

October 14, 2008

by KCRA 3

VACAVILLE, Calif. -- A teacher's gender reassignment surgery has caught the attention of some parents who want to know why the school district didn't notify them ahead of time about the change.

A music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School, who was formerly a woman, returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year.

The teacher, who was not identified by KCRA 3, is now being addressed as "Mister."

Some parents told Travis Unified School District that they feel like their rights to know were violated. . . .Read More

City leaders to recommend approval of gay high school

Studies show increased dropout risk because of stigma, fear of violence

October 09, 2008

By Carlos Sadovi | Chicago Tribune reporter

Pointing to studies showing that gay high school students are at greater risk of dropping out because of stigma and fear of violence, Chicago Public Schools leaders said Wednesday that they will recommend opening a campus aimed at these students.

Final approval of the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, designed as the city's first school for gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers, along with 17 other schools, is expected to come Oct. 22 when the Board of Education votes.

Schools chief Arne Duncan said he will ask the board to approve the schools, which are expected to open in the fall of 2009 and 2010, to give greater choice to parents and students. "We want to create great new options for communities that have been traditionally underserved," he said. "If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates. . . . I think there is a niche there we need to fill." . . .Read More

Coming Out Gay Becoming Moot, Transgender Most Difficult

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF 
OCTOBER 15, 2008

Comedienne/chat-show host Ellen DeGeneres announced she was gay on the front cover of Time magazine in 1997 with the headline, “Yup, I'm Gay.” Many blamed the decision to come out for stalling her skyrocketing career. Singer Clay Aiken's recent admission of being gay on the cover of People magazine – “Yes, I'm Gay” – drew mainly hugs and a few shrugs.

Does Aiken's cakewalk coming out illustrate a new American irrelevance with being gay? According to a new Harris-Interactive survey, coming out gay is out.

In the national survey a majority (67%) of heterosexual adults agreed that they prefer honestly about sexual orientation over deceit and if someone they knew is gay or lesbian, they'd want to know. And a near universal majority (87%) of heterosexuals said that the coming out gay of an acquaintance would have a positive or no impact on how they view gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people. . . .Read More

transgender rights in california schools

transgender law center:
phone#: (415) 865-0184
website: www.transgenderlawcenter.org  whoelsebutfelix

A Boy's Life

Since he could speak, Brandon, now 8, has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one. His case, and a rising number of others like it, illuminates a heated scientific debate about the nature of gender—and raises troubling questions about whether the limits of child indulgence have stretched too far.

by Hanna Rosin

November 2008

Brandon Simms at age 5 in a Disney princess costume (Courtesy of the family)

THE LOCAL NEWSPAPERrecorded that Brandon Simms was the first millennium baby born in his tiny southern town, at 12:50 a.m. He weighed eight pounds, two ounces and, as his mother, Tina, later wrote to him in his baby book, “had a darlin’ little face that told me right away you were innocent.” Tina saved the white knit hat with the powder-blue ribbon that hospitals routinely give to new baby boys. But after that, the milestones took an unusual turn. As a toddler, Brandon would scour the house for something to drape over his head—a towel, a doily, a moons-and-stars bandanna he’d snatch from his mother’s drawer. “I figure he wanted something that felt like hair,” his mother later guessed. He spoke his first full sentence at a local Italian restaurant: “I like your high heels,” he told a woman in a fancy red dress. At home, he would rip off his clothes as soon as Tina put them on him, and instead try on something from her closet—a purple undershirt, lingerie, shoes. “He ruined all my heels in the sandbox,” she recalls. . . .Read More

Disparities surface among transgender workers

The Canadian Press

14 October 2008

GENDER INEQUALITY: A recent study has found a new way to examine pay disparities between men and women: Comparing the salaries of transgender employees before and after their gender changes.

The study in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, an academic journal published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, found that while the average earnings for women who changed their gender slightly increased after the transition, it fell by nearly a third for workers who went from male to female.

The research was based on interviews with 64 individuals employed before and after a gender transition with hormone therapy or surgery.

"I think the gap that we've found has to do with ideas about gender and how masculinity is valued in the workplace," said Kristen Schilt, a sociology professor at University of Chicago who conducted the study with New York University professor Matthew Wiswall. . . .Read More

A phantom penis, and how to remove it

October 13, 2008

Michael Marshall

The Neurotopia blog draws our attention to an intriguing paper in Acta Medica Okayama. Titled  "Phantom erectile penis after sex reassignment surgery", it's a report by a group of surgeons atOkayama University in Japan.

They describe a twist on "phantom limb" syndrome, in which people who have lost a limb still experience sensation in it. Their patient experienced a phantom erect penis.

Phantom penises were first observed in 1951, and a 1999 review concluded that they were extremely rare. So what happened here?

Well, essentially this is a snapshot of how much sexual reassignment surgery has advanced in recent years. . . .Read More plus Comments

Phantom erectile penis after sex reassignment surgery.

Namba Y, Sugiyama N, Yamashita S, Tokuyama E, Hasegawa K, Kimata Y.

Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. y-namba@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp

Between January 2001 and December 2007, we performed vaginoplasty as sex reassignment surgery in a total of 14 male-to-female transsexual (MTFTS) patients [1]. Several complications occurred such as partial flap necrosis, rectovaginal fistula formation and hypersensitivity of the neoclitoris. Just after the operation, some patients feel that their penises still exist, but by several weeks postoperatively, this sensation has disappeared. Herein we report a case of MTFTS in whom the sensation of a phantom erectile penis persisted for much longer.

PMID: 18596839 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Translate - Film about New England's Transgendered Community

"Funded by Rhode Island PBS and Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, 'Translate' is a short documentary film about the struggles of the New England Transgendered community. Winner of the PBS / Independent Lens Film Festival."  videoandvision

Greenwich resident is Japan's first transsexual geisha

October 13, 2008

News Shopper Online

THE reaction Mary Murdoch gets from walking down her street is very different to how she was greeted in Japan.

Born Malcolm Murdoch, the 68-year-old says she recently became the first transsexual geisha on a visit to Kyoto.

Mary, of Brownspring Drive, New Eltham, explained: “My ambition was to dress up as a geisha and at first they were reluctant.

“But in the end I convinced them. I was the first person to actually do this. They were very welcoming and put aside the normal rules for foreign tourists.

“Since then the Japanese government has a policy which says if there’s a female name on the passport then you may dress up as a geisha.”

Mary started having therapy at the Charing Cross Hospital in London four years ago.

Under the hospital's rules, she had to change her name and swap trousers for skirts, to make sure she would be comfortable turning her life inside-out.

She said: “The situation in the 60s was dreadful - it was hardly understood. People used to be given electro-shock therapy. . . .Read More

All GLBT High School Not Favored by Students

by Cole Mathisen
KIMT News 3

Clear Lake, IA- Bullying is a growing problem in many school systems.  One major Midwest city is looking at a possible solution to bullying in its schools.  The idea is to help one of the most targeted groups of students.

Later this month the Chicago school board will consider an all gay, lesbian, bi, and transsexual school.  The idea is to create a safer place for the students.  More than half of all gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and bi-sexual students admit to feeling unsafe at high school.

"I think a lot of the survey's that the youth of today complete in regards to this topic show that they can be very much at risk because of how they are treated,” said Kandice Bienfang-Lee who is a Social Worker for the Area Education Agency in Clear Lake, IA.

She says GLBT students come to her for a variety of reasons.

"Some are just wanting to be able to talk and explore that possibility others maybe have shared, and they are having some peers that are supporting them, and being an ally, and maybe others who aren't," she said.

It’s the students who are facing harassment that is prompting educators in Chicago to explore alternatives.  They say a proposed school would be open to all students but would cater to those with gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transsexual issues.  But some Chicago area students don't think it’s the answer. . . .Read More

Where have Kerala’s Hijras gone?

11 October 2008

K.P.M. Basheer

KOCHI: After a quarter century of tortured life as a woman trapped in a man’s body in a Kerala village, Geeta had fled to Chennai 16 years ago.

There, a small group of Hijras took her in. They sheltered her, burned her shirt and trousers, dressed her up in a sari and blouse and gave her the present name. Eventually, they nudged her into prostitution, at that time the easiest job available to a Hijra. She hated it initially, but found comfort in the identity as a Hijra (pronounced Hijda, meaning a transsexual person) and felt secure in sari-blouse and in the company of people of her own gender.

“Life in my village, near Thiruvananthapuram, was horrible,” Geeta recalls. “I was taunted, insulted and physically harassed at school, home and on the street, just because I talked and behaved like a woman.” Raised as a male and given a male name and male clothes, she yearned to be a woman though. She was more comfortable with cooking and housework at home than going out and doing the guy things.

“People in Kerala only accept males and females and not us, the trans-gendered people who are humans too,” she says in her Tamil-blended Malayalam. “It was my own family that insulted and harassed me the most, as they considered me as a curse.” Finally, when the family found a bride for her and the wedding date was fixed, Geeta tried to commit suicide, but ended up in hospital. One night, she left home and took a train to Chennai. Sixteen years on, Geeta is now an activist of a Chennai-based NGO that works for the welfare of trans-gendered people. . . .Read More

No Reservations - French Polynesia

"Tony Bourdain takes a look at transgender culture in French Polynesia."  wenkaimc

A Paleo-Feminist on Transgender Sexism Studies

by Debra Dickerson on 10/06/08

An extremely 'well intentioned' young white guy I work closely with said to me the other day that, appalled as he was by this "new" notion of white privilege he'd just heard of, thank god he'd never been its beneficiary. Others had, of course, but not him and man! would such a thing suck if it actually did exist.While trying not to either laugh at him or slit his throat, I informed him about a study done by U of Chicago and MIT professors. In that study, identical resumes were sent in response to their local papers' want ads. Identical, that is, but for names like "Jennifer" v. "Tanisha," and "Jamal" v. "Joe". Let's just sum it up thusly:. . .Read More

A positive change on reality TV

By Vanessa E. Jones

Globe Staff / October 7, 2008

Levi Valentine had never watched a full season of Tyra Banks's reality show "America's Next Top Model" in the 10 seasons it's been on the air. Then Valentine heard that a transgender woman, Isis Tsunami, was going to be one of the contestants. That was enough to persuade Valentine, a 29-year-old transgender man who lives in Jamaica Plain, to tune in.

"Top Model" isn't the only reality show featuring a transgender woman this season. On VH-1's new show "I Want to Work for Diddy," Laverne Cox battles other contestants to become the rap mogul's assistant. Even before the shows premiered, their casting was applauded by groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the gay news website AfterElton, and local organizations such as Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, which works to end discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression in the state.

Once the shows began airing, the two women gained a strong following among viewers.

"They've presented themselves pretty well," Valentine says, "but they're not doing this for the community; they're doing this for themselves, which is great to see. It's about time actually." . . .Read More

Opinion, Critique, POV: Schwarzenegger Signs Homosexual-Bisexual-Transsexual Bills

by cwnewz network, on 07-10-2008

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed three bills squashing moral values and religious freedom. By elevating the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda above the rights of everyone else, Schwarzenegger has confirmed his legacy is being the most anti-family Republican governor in California history.

"There is no gay gene, but religious freedom is a God-given right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. So it's wrong and unfair to create new laws which make homosexual-bisexual-transsexual 'rights' superior to everyone else's rights," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading West Coast family issues organization.

"The words 'discrimination,' 'harassment,' and 'tolerance' have been redefined and are actually resulting in reverse discrimination and intolerance against people with moral values," said Thomasson. "Under these new laws, foster parents, nurses, doctors, health insurance plans, city and county commissions, and court-appointed children's advocates must abandon their moral, social or financial values at the alter of the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda. This crate load of homosexual-bisexual-transsexual laws embodies the same intolerant spirit of the recent California Supreme Court ruling that trampled the religious freedom of doctors at the behest of homosexual 'rights.'" . . .Read More

A life shunned

by Sharmila Billot

2008/10/07

Poh Si Teng with Natasha (right).

SHARMILA BILLOT speaks to Poh Si Teng about her winning short film on transsexuals.

FOR a young filmmaker, Poh Si Teng is bold and courageous when it comes to tackling controversial issues.

Poh’s short film, Pecah Lobang, was one of the winning entries at the Freedom Film Festival (FFF) 2008.

Pecah Lobang, which means “busted”, is about transsexual sex workers in Malaysia. It is also a term commonly used by transsexuals.

“They are just normal people who had no choice but to become sex workers in order to earn a living,” said Poh Si.
“Life is hard for them as they can’t secure proper jobs. To add to their misery, their families and society shun them. . . .Read More