In a 21-0 vote, Cleveland passes protections for transgender people

December 4, 2009

by Eric Resnick


Cleveland--By a unanimous vote, City Council passed an ordinance protecting transgender citizens from employment and housing discrimination by gender identity or expression on November 30.

The measure updated the city’s existing equal rights code, which already includes sexual orientation.

The same evening, councils in Akron and Summit County passed human rights ordinances that include both sexual orientation and gender identity (see stories).

With the new measures, all of Ohio’s six largest cities now have such ordinances. Eleven more in smaller towns mean that a fifth of the state’s population is covered by an LGBT anti-bias measure. (No state or federal equality law provides any protection, although a measure passed by the Ohio House now awaits Senate action.) . . .Read More

Looking Back: For some, shadow of regret cast over gender switch

2/26/2009

By Steve Friess, special for USA TODAY

The day Mike Penner left the Los Angeles Times made the news. The longtime sportswriter wrote the article himself, a personal essay explaining that he was taking some time off and, upon his return, he would be known from then on as Christine Daniels.

Penner's public acknowledgment in April 2007 that he was transgender and would soon live as a woman shocked the world of sports journalism and turned his new identity, Daniels, into an instant celebrity. Daniels gave speeches, was profiled in Sports Illustrated, collected honors for courage from transgender groups and wrote a blog for the Times titled "Woman In Progress."

Except that the transition didn't last. In mid-October 2008, after a lengthy leave of absence, Penner, 51, returned to the sports pages and the Times newsroom as a man.

And just as suddenly, Penner's story, heralded in its early days as a triumphant example of transgender progress, has instead become a cautionary tale of the lesser-known phenomenon: transgender regret. . . .Read More

Looking Back: About The "Real Life Experience" and Detransitioning

by Autumn Sandeen

Oct 24, 2008


[Note: LenaD has a related diary entitled The road not taken on the same subject as this diary, but with a somewhat different take. ~~Autumn~~]

Some days I hate my job at Pam's House Blend, and this is definitely one of those days. I really need to explain what the Real Life Experience [(RLE) -- also referred to as the Real Life Test (RLT)] is and why some transsexuals detransition...And, this is because the person I met as Christine Daniels is apparently detransitioning (also called retransitioning) to Mike Penner.

Basically, I need to separate the personal from the professional when discussing how detransitioning fits into transsexual experience -- a sometime component of transitioning sexes -- and yet on the very personal level I wish it weren't at the impetus of someone I've known and care deeply about that's leading me to discuss the subject.

But life is what it is. . . .Read More

Looking Back: Interview with Christine Daniels on NPR

Sportswriter Embarks On New Life As A Woman

August 15, 2007

Three months ago, Mike Penner was a longtime sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times. Then he wrote a dramatic goodbye column and disappeared for several weeks.

"I am a transsexual sportswriter," Penner wrote. "It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words. I realize many readers and colleagues and friends will be shocked to read them." . . .Read More and Listen

My Transgender Story

A process of self-discovery and self-acceptance

sillyyetsuccinct

Mike Penner dies at 52; Los Angeles Times sportswriter

Penner had been a columnist and covered the Olympics, the Angels, World Cup soccer, tennis and sports media for The Times. In 2007, he announced that he was a transsexual.

by Keith Thursby

29 November 2009


Mike Penner, a longtime Los Angeles Times sportswriter who made headlines in 2007 when he announced that he was transsexual, has died. He was 52.

Penner was pronounced dead Friday evening at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, a Los Angeles County coroner's official said.

The cause of death has not been determined but was believed to be suicide.

"Mike was a first-rate journalist, a valued member of our staff for 25 years, and we will miss him," Times Editor Russ Stanton said. "He respected our readers a great deal, enough to share with them his very personal journey. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family." . . .Read More

Should State Pay for Convict's Sex Change?

Transgender Massachusetts Convict Presses Cash-Strapped Government for Electrolysis

by ANNE-MARIE DORNING
November 27, 2009


A Massachusetts inmate recently lost a bid for state-funded electrolysis treatments. But the prisoner, who has changed names from Robert to Michelle Kosilek, is still pursuing his case to have the state of Massachusetts pay for a sex-change operation in order to complete a gender transformation that started almost 20 years ago.

That puts Kosilek squarely in the middle of a debate over just what kind of medical care prisoners are entitled to, especially in an era of strained state budgets.

When Cheryl Kosilek's strangled body was found dumped in the back seat of a car in 1990, focus immediately turned to her husband Robert. Robert Kosilek had fled the state but was arrested in upstate New York and eventually returned to face charges in his wife's murder. . . .Read More

Gwyneth Paltrow to Play Wife of Transsexual Nicole Kidman in New Flick

November 9, 2009

US Magazine.com

Gwyneth Paltrow has a gender-bending new role to add to her resume.

The actress, 37, has signed on to star in The Danish Girl opposite Nicole Kidman, in a role that brings the story of the first post-operative transsexual to the big screen. . . .Read More

Transsexual Model Fights Prejudice

By Park Si-soo

November 27, 2009


When it comes to sex, whether it refers to gender or sexual intercourse, Korea, built upon Confucianist ideals, has stayed very conservative.

But the strictness on sexual relations has become radically relaxed in recent years to the level that people believe women who keep their virginity until marriage are virtually "an endangered species."

Hostility against sexual minorities such as homosexuals and transsexuals, however, still remains robust, providing the grounds for many sexually straight people to see them as potential criminals, trouble makers or even transmitters of disease.

This invisible but obvious antagonism against sexual minorities here has served as an invincible hurdle to those trying to venture out of the closet. A couple of celebrities including male-turned-female singer Ha Ri-su, who made her debut in 2001, and Hong Seok-cheon, a male model and actor who came out as gay in 2002, have launched campaigns aimed at removing the negative images associated with those with a different sex. . . .Read More

Chaz Bono On GMA: Gender Is Between Your Ears, Not Between Your Legs

Chaz Bono On ABC's Good Morning America: Gender Is Between Your Ears, Not Between Your Legs - 11/19/09

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Sharing History and a Stage

By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO

November 18, 2009

True artists tend to follow their own internal systems. But there is something to be said about being of the same generation, which often prompts a certain kinship of values and ideas.

On Tuesday night, as part of Performa 09, Deborah Hay and Yvonne Rainer split a bill at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. It was the first time these two choreographers had shared a stage in more than 25 years, and the resulting two-hour program was an intelligent, idiosyncratic feast of works that reminded the audience of their Judson Dance Theater roots and showed how far each has traveled since those early experimental days.

Ms. Hay’s “If I Sing to You” offered her unmistakable, delicate brew of sense and nonsense. An American premiere, it featured an international cast of six women, several wearing scraggly facial hair appliqué and masculine clothing. (As with many aspects of Ms. Hay’s dances, which celebrate mutability, the performers can choose their gender each time.) . . .Read More

Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School?

November 6, 2009

By Jan Hoffman


By now, most high school dress codes have just about done away with the guesswork.

Girls: no midriff-baring blouses, stiletto heels, miniskirts.

Boys: no sagging pants, muscle shirts.

But do the math.

“Rules” + “teenager” = “challenges.”

If the skirt is an acceptable length, can a boy wear it?

Can a girl attend her prom in a tuxedo?

In recent years, a growing number of teenagers have been dressing to articulate — or confound — gender identity and sexual orientation. Certainly they have been confounding school officials, whose responses have ranged from indifference to applause to bans. . . .Read More

Chaz Bono Explains What It Means to Be Transgender

By Teddy Partridge

November 21, 2009


Chaz Bono, whose mother and father Cher and Sonny Bono made sixties television fun for so many of us, explains to Chris Cuomo on Good Morning America the transition from being Chastity Bono. This is as good an explanation I have ever seen in the mass media of the process, thinking, and feelings of this extraordinary journey — from the viewpoint of the person. . . .Read More

Transgender Day of Remembrance observed at SMU

November 21, 2009

by David Taffet

The names of this year’s 120 transgender murder victims were read at a ceremony at Southern Methodist University on Friday to commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance. Sheriff Lupe Valdez was the keynote speaker.

Because of rain, the ceremony was moved indoors. About 100 people filled the main hall of Hughes Trigg Student Center.

The names of each of the murder victims, when known, were read and followed by the method of murder and city where the hate crime took place. The identity of many of transgender murder victims is unknown. After each name, a bell was rung. . . .Read More

Transsexual woman linked to Italian politician Marrazzo dies in fire

November 21, 2009

by Matt Kailey


The BBC and Telegraph report that a Brazilian trans woman known as Brenda, who was linked to a scandal involving former Lazio Governor Piero Marrazzo of Italy, is believed to have died in a fire in her apartment.

A body believed to be that of Brenda was found in her apartment yesterday, November 20. Telegraph reports that magistrates are treating the death as a murder.

Marrazzo, an Italian politician who resigned after a video purported to show him with Brenda, admitted to having affairs with trans women, according to reports.

The BBC report says that Brenda had reported being threatened and robbed in the street, and had told friends that she was feeling depressed and suicidal. . . .Read More

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