Transgender Center on ABC News

This is a news story on the Transgender Center in Houston, Texas.

ehipassiko

Generation B - Anything He Can Do, She Can Do

By MICHAEL WINERIP

13 November 2009


IN September 1998, David Buechner, then 39, a prominent classical pianist, came out as a transgender woman, explaining that from then on, she would live and perform as Sara Davis Buechner. The pianist had been accustomed to rave reviews (at 24, David, in his New York City concert debut, was called “an extraordinary young artist” by a New York Times critic). But the debut as Sara, reported in a Times magazine article, was not so well received, even by loved ones. . . .Read More

17 years on the job in Dallas, Officer Joe became Officer Debbie

By SHERRY JACOBSON

14 November 2009

After 17 years with the Dallas Police Department, Officer Joseph Grabowski showed up at work one day sporting makeup, a feminine hairstyle and a new first name: Deborah.

The 44-year-old officer was scared and relieved that the secret was finally out.

"I have always felt like a woman and, suddenly, everybody knew I was going to have the surgery to make it real," she said.

Because the city of Dallas does not offer health insurance coverage for sex-change operations, Grabowski paid for the costly procedure herself.

In recent years, a few cities – and a growing number of private employers – have decided to cover the cost of these surgeries, and the city of Fort Worth is considering whether to join them. . . .Read More

“Candy” Is The First Transsexual Fashion Magazine

by Leonora Epstein

November 13, 2009


The fashion industry may have a long-standing tendency to exclude certain groups and cultures, but more and more we’re seeing this change as people begin challenging the status quo. Now the transsexual community is getting a voice with a new style publication. Billed as “the first transversal fashion magazine,” Candy has just debuted its premiere issue in a limited-edition circulation of only 1,000 copies. . . .Read More

Artificial Penis Tissue Proves Promising in Lab Tests

by Charles Q. Choi

9 November 2009

One day artificial penis tissue could be grown to help men, new findings in rabbits now suggest.

After implantation with replacement tissue, lab rabbits that once had damaged penises had working organs and could produce offspring.

"Further studies are required, of course, but our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction," said researcher Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Such methods could potentially aid men who just want to enhance their normal penises, rather than repairing any damage.

"Our intent and the goal of our work is to provide a solution for men who need penile erectile tissue for medical reasons," Atala told LiveScience. "Of course, you cannot control how the technology is used in terms of what patients want.". . .Read More

Transgender Day of Remembrance - list of 2009 Trans Deaths

The number of Transgender Deaths has doubled within one year. As of Oct 22 2009 there has been 95 deaths calculated the year year before there were 47.

We are people,
We have faces,
We have families,
We have friends,
We have lives,
We have value,
We have voices,
None of this should be taken away from any of us because of who we are.

Please http://www.transgenderdor.org/ to find a TDoR event near you and to see that statistics from the las year or years past.

LindsayStone

Bodyshock | Age 8 & Wanting A Sex Change | C4

The parents of a transgender child discuss why they have allowed their boy to make a decision to become a girl.

channel4

Transsexual wins apology over passport

by ADELE HORIN

October 31, 2009

A TRANSSEXUAL has won a written apology from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the distress she experienced as a result of having to travel on a passport that identified her as a man.

Stefanie Imbruglia, 42 - a first cousin of the pop star Natalie Imbruglia - has also secured the department's agreement to other measures that amount to fairer treatment of transsexuals who apply for passports.

Ms Imbruglia had lived for two years as a woman before applying for a passport to travel to Thailand for sex realignment surgery in October 2007. She wanted her passport to identify her as a female. But the Howard government rescinded an established practice of issuing transsexuals who were to travel abroad for surgery a one-year limited passport in their nominated gender. . . .Read More

Miss International Queen: World's Largest Transsexual Pageant Raises Awareness

November 3, 2009

By Caroline McNaught

Beauty pageants get a bad rap for many stereotypes and promotion of shallow values, but the recent winner of Miss International Queen 2009 argues otherwise. Known as the world’s largest transsexual cabaret, the Miss International Queen pageant is seen as a platform not only to model swimsuits, but also to raise awareness for transgender issues.

The winner, Japan’s 37 year-old Haruna Ai, was overjoyed at press time, but also aware that her beauty and victory would not be well-received among all audiences, including her home country. “The way of life in Japan is more traditional and transsexuals cannot live freely, but in Thailand they can do what they want,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

. . .Read More

Evangelical outrage over play featuring transsexual Jesus

November 5, 2009

by Charlene Sweeney

A controversial play which portrays Jesus as a transsexual woman was defended yesterday by its writer who has herself crossed the gender barrier to live as a woman.

Jesus, Queen of Heaven, has caused a storm of protest from Christian evangelical groups, who picketed the Tron Theatre in Glasgow when it opened this week.

However, their attacks have caused deep offence to the play’s author, who also acts the leading role. For Jo Clifford — formerly the playwright John Clifford — wrote the piece in an attempt to create greater understanding of transgendered people like herself.

The play’s opening night was attended by about 300 demonstrators. Roman Catholics joined evangelical Christians for a two-hour protest during which they waved placards and sang hymns. . . .Read More

Gender identity

Got a cross-dressing kid? Ease up on the validation, experts say—it may not be what you think.

By Patty Onderko, November 2009

A notorious hallmark of tristate parenting is well-intentioned overencouragement: If your toddler is into music, say, you pack your weekends with live performances and spend thousands on Music Together classes. If your kid happens to like apples, you take him to a pick-your-own orchard, teach him the botanical terms for the parts of a tree and expound on the hardships suffered by migrant laborers. And if your son likes to dress up as a princess, you take him to Disney World and buy him a licensed-reproduction gown.

My son, Cinderfella

The day Meredith H. picked up her son from his first day of preschool, the teacher greeted her and announced, “Oh my God, you have to see Sean. He looks adorable!” In another room, the three-year-old was dressed in a Minnie Mouse costume, grinning from ear to ear. “My heart just thumped,” recalls the Huntington, New York, mother of two. “I knew this was not going to be a one-time thing.”

Sean was never interested in the trucks and trains that his older brother, Liam, had been obsessed with at the same age, and he always gravitated toward girls as playmates. Sure enough, Meredith says, from then on “every day he’d walk into school, head straight for the dress-up section and put on a princess dress.” When the family visited Disney World later that year, both boys were allowed to pick out one souvenir. Liam chose a pirate costume; Sean chose a Sleeping Beauty gown with matching shoes. “He saw the dress hanging there and just said, ‘I want it.’ It was the first time he realized he could have a dress of his own. It was the sweetest thing.” . . .Read More

The Boy or Girl Question.

itschriscrocker

Italian Left in turmoil after governor quits because of transsexual prostitute blackmail case

25 Oct 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk


Italy's main opposition party was in turmoil yesterday as its supporters voted in a primary to select a new leader after one of its high profile politicians was forced to step down because of a video apparently showing him with a transsexual prostitute.

Piero Marrazzo, who was once tipped as a future leader, announced just hours before the polls were due to open that he would resign as governor of Lazio.

Four policemen have been arrested for allegedly attempting to blackmail the 51-year-old over the apparent encounter in a Rome apartment. . . .Read More

The Sex of Athletes: One Issue, Many Variables

By ALICE DREGER

October 24, 2009


Track and field’s world governing body has begun trying to devise new rules about who can compete as a woman. This comes nearly two months after being presented with the case of Caster Semenya, the South African runner whose sex was questioned when she won the 800-meter world championship.

Let’s start with the reasonable assumption that we want to maintain gender segregation in most sports. It provides girls and women — half the planet’s population — a real hope of winning. Without that hope, many may not bother.

The pickle, then, is how to maintain that segregation in the face of apparent challenges. A Renée Richards or a Caster Semenya doesn’t come along too often, but often enough that there needs to be explicit rules about who is considered a woman. But what rules? . . .Read More

Transsexual marriage blessed by priest

October 26 2009

http://www.iol.co.za


Rome - A priest in Italy on Sunday blessed the marriage of a 64-year-old transsexual to her 58-year-old male partner, in defiance of Vatican guidelines, the ANSA news agency reported.

Sandra Alvino - who underwent a sex change more than 30 years ago - and Fortunato Talotta had been in a civil partnership for 25 years before tying the knot in a religious ceremony in Piagge, an industrial suburb of Florence.

Father Alessandro Santoro gave his blessing to the marriage, which was attended by some 200 people, despite the Roman Catholic Church advising him not to go ahead with it. . . .Read More

MTF 10 month hormone effects

Sorry about the quality don't know how to clear it up. Basically just showing my changes I have experienced while being on hormones for 10 months.

jani8suomi

Judges barred from demanding doctor's notes in transgender name change cases

In a brief citing the Bible, Bob Dylan and Marilyn Monroe, lawyers argue asking for doctor's note violates rights

by Daniel Nasaw

October 23, 2009

After living for more than three years as a man, the person known on his drivers license as Leah Winn-Ritzenberg decided to change his name to match his identity.

A New York court clerk asked for a doctor's note proving Winn-Ritznberg's "need" to change his birth name to Olin. Now, an appellate court has struck down the requirement, saying the state has no business asking people who change their gender to prove it to a court, in a decision transgender advocates hail as a step for equality.

"The court is weighing in and saying transgender people need to be treated the same as anyone else," said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defence and Education Fund, which provided legal assistance. "We can't impose additional or different burdens upon people just because they're transgender." . . .Read More

Kings County Supreme Court rules transsexual father has standing to petition for custody of child

by Daniel Weaver

October 20, 2009

In a complex decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court of Kings County ruled that a transsexual father has standing to petition for custody of a non-biological child.

J.R. agreed to marry K.B. even though she knew K.B. was born a woman. K.B. took hormones and had done everything short of surgery to become the man she believed she was. J.R. eventually gave birth to a baby conceived through a third party sperm donor. In 2007 after the marriage between the couple had gone sour, both parents filed petitions for custody of the now five-year-old child. The mother's petition argued that:

"...it would be in the best interest of the child if custody of the child was awarded to her since the Petitioner is actually a woman. In Respondent's affirmation it is alleged that Petitioner committed acts of domestic violence against her while they lived together and that she feared for the safety of the child. In Respondent's custody petition she stated that the Petitioner was "actually a woman" and therefore the marriage was "invalid". (Cross Petition of JR August 6, 2007). " . . .Read More

Daily Gut: Transgender and Terror by Greg Gutfeld

by Greg Gutfeld

23 October 2009


So a dude at the UN named Martin Scheinin filed a report calling for a trashing of our current counter-terrorism policies. The new plan, he believes, should “abandon the ‘war paradigm’” and “enshrine the principles of gender-equality and non-discrimination…”

Among his odder proposals: rethinking security checks that “focus attention on male bombers who may be dressing as females to avoid scrutiny [and] make transgender persons” – who might also be cross-dressing – “susceptible to increased harassment and suspicion.” . . .Read More

Transgender homecoming queen a first for College

By Felicia Tsung

October 23, 2009

Jessee Vasold ’11 made history at the College of William and Mary Wednesday when ze was announced as the school’s first transgender homecoming queen, representing the Class of 2011.

Vasold identifies as gender-queer and prefers to be referred to with gender neutral pronouns: “ze” in place of he or she and “zir” rather than him or her. Vasold has also created a Facebook account for a female identity, Kathy Middlesex.

Friends suggested that Vasold run for homecoming queen. Even though Vasold thought that there was a good chance at being elected, Vasold said the win was still surprising to hear.

“We figured it would be something different for the school to go through, something that hasn’t happened too often,” Vasold said. “I was kind of surprised that I won because I knew the other girls running. I know that they’re really friendly; they’re wonderful people, so I was unsure.”

This year marks the return of direct voting by students. Last year, there was no platform to host voting, so the homecoming kings and queens were chosen by class officers out of student-submitted nominations. . . .Read More