CUBA: Wendy - Reconciling the Inner and Outer Image

By Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jan 25, 2010 (IPS) - It was as if she had only closed her eyes for a moment. When Wendy Iriepa came round after surgery over a year ago, she tried to get up as if nothing had happened, but a nurse gently pushed her back into bed. "All done?" she asked, and the nurse replied, "Yes."

"I wanted to look at myself, and I managed to feel how I was now. That thing I had had to live with for 33 years of my life was gone for good," Iriepa, a Cuban transsexual who had the sexual reassignment operation approved by the Public Health Ministry in 2008, told IPS.

"When they finally removed my bandages, I went to the bathroom and I saw my reflection in a huge mirror. It was the happiest moment of my life. The 16 days I spent in hospital were neither an ordeal nor a form of imprisonment for me, but a spiritual liberation that freed my soul," she said.

As she tells her story, the tears flow again. But since her operation, her tears have been mostly of happiness. Basically she is still the same person, a hard worker and a stubborn rebel, yet she has also changed, and not just physically. Powerlessness and all its consequences are buried in the past along with that burden that was "always dragging me down." . . .Read More

Top model admits being transsexual

asiaoneNEWS

23 January 2010

Taiwanese model Alicia Liu (Xun Ai) has admitted that she is a transsexual.

The 24-year-old model-cum-actress, nicknamed Xiao Ai, said she underwent sex-change surgery at the age of 18.

"My ex-boyfriend paid for it," she said in an interview with a Taiwan magazine on Friday. . . .Read More

Christine Daniels by any other name

20 January 2010

LGBT community remembers the transgender sportswriter

By Cyd Zeigler jr.

A rose by any other name is still a rose. Christine, by any other name, is still the most caring, kindest, sweetest, most giving, most talented person I’ve ever known.”

Those words began the eulogy for Christine Daniels last Saturday at the Metropolitan Community Church in Hollywood. They’ve echoed in my head since Suzy Horn, a close friend of Christine, uttered them.

It’s been over six weeks since Mike Penner ended his own life, and over a year since he ended the life of Christine Daniels, the woman he became before becoming Mike again. The family had held a private memorial service in December, to which none of the members of Christine’s church were invited. Some in the media criticized Metropolitan Community Church for having a memorial service for Christine when the family had had a service for Mike, and since last we’d all heard she had transitioned back to Mike. . . .Read More

Girls may learn math anxiety from female teachers

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer – January 25, 2010

WASHINGTON – Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach. . . . .Read More

Act Two. Tom Girls.

This American Life

Chicago Public Radio 1.15.2010

Lilly and Thomasina have a lot in common. They’re both 8 years old. And they were both born boys, although it became clear pretty early on that they'd prefer to be girls. There aren’t all that many kids in the world like them, but recently, at a conference in Seattle on transgender parenting, they met. And they immediately hit it off. . . . Read More and listen to the kids

Transgender bias at Thruway

Former Army dispatcher wins $55,000 after firing at authority

By BRENDAN J. LYONS

January 9, 2010


ALBANY -- A transgender woman who was secretly subjected to harassment, openly called "drag queen" and "freak," and later fired by the New York State Thruway Authority has been awarded more than $55,000 for her ordeal.

She is still seeking reinstatement to her job.

A judge with the state Division of Human Rights has issued an order sustaining a complaint by Mackenzie W. Valentine, 29, a former Army dispatcher and military police officer from Cohoes who was diagnosed with gender identity disorder and underwent a court-approved gender change several years ago. The transformation took place around the time that Valentine, who changed her name from "Matthew Valentine," began working for the Thruway Authority in Albany as a $15.30-an-hour dispatcher. . . .Read More

Being First Sucks

BigThink.com | January 17, 2010

"Being first sucks." That's what Amanda Simpson, one of the country's first two openly transgender presidential appointees, told ABC News. "I'd rather not be the first, but someone has to be first."

Amanda Simpson started two weeks ago at the Department of Commerce, where her job will be to keep track of the export of American military technology. Dylan Orr, who is also openly transgender, was recently appointed to a lower-level job in the Department of Labor, but Simpson is apparently the highest-level transgender executive official ever. A former test pilot, Simpson holds degrees in physics, engineering, and business, has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for thirty years, and is eminently qualified for her position. Nevertheless, the Christian group Focus on the Family released a statement accusing President Obama of appointing her as "payback to his far-left base for their political support." And Peter LaBarbera, president of an anti-gay group called Americans for Truth asked if there was going "to be a transgender quota now in the Obama administration?" . . .Read More

Sixteen-year-old becomes Spain's youngest transsexual

• Teenager required court ruling for operation in Barcelona
• Judge granted permission after request by parents

by Giles Tremlett

12 January 2010

A Spanish clinic today revealed it had performed a male-to-female sex-change operation on a 16-year-old, making her the youngest patient to undergo the operation in the country's history.

The unnamed teenager had been taking hormones to change her body since she was 15, according to doctors who treated her at Barcelona's hospital clínico, and she had been seeing doctors and psychiatrists for even longer. "The patient has been in treatment for nearly three years," said the surgeon who carried out the operation, Dr Iván Mañero.

A sex-change operation on a minor requires the approval of a Spanish court to override a law that sets the minimum age for such operations as 18. . . .Read More

Transsexual reality star Miriam Rivera is a £300-an-hour 'escort'

Suzannah Hills and Will Payne 17/01/2010

The transsexual who rose to fame on the hit reality TV show There’s Something About Miriam is working as a £300-an-hour “escort”.

Miriam Rivera, 28, caused ­controversy on the dating show when she duped six male contestants – competing for her affections and £10,000 prize money – into ­believing she was a woman.

It was only in the final episode of the cult 2004 programme that Miriam ­revealed the truth… that she was born male. The outraged contestants then sued the producers for personal ­injury. . . .Read More

Do You Have the Perfect Hourglass Figure?

by Lesley Kennedy

January 12, 2010


Am I a pear? Or an apple? Maybe a banana? Most days I feel like a donut.

The body shape food analogies just make me hungry, so let's try measuring devices: spoon, ruler, cone or hourglass?

I, like most women (and men), according to a recent survey, prefer the hourglass description. We're talking Marilyn Monroe curves here -- tiny waist, big chest, full, round rear, everything in perfect proportion. That's the stuff legends are made of.

Unfortunately, legendary curves are hard to come by. The survey found that 72 percent of men are attracted to curvier women, and 63 percent of women wish they had the womanly bodies of stars like Helen Mirren or Kate Winslet, the Telegraph reports. . . .Read More

Obama Names "Transgender" Appointee to Commerce Department - Part 1

ABC News: President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department. In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equalitys board of directors, said that as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.

In this three-part series that aired in May 2008, Political Perspectives host Cynthia Dickstein talks with transgender guests Amanda Simpson and C. Michael Woodward about the issues that they must confront as a result of their decisions to change their genders.

Kerrville911Truth

Kindergarten Complications

By Megan A. Gex

January 2010

Editor’s Note: Silverton native Megan A.Gex is a fourth-year magazine journalism and digital art major at the University of Oregon. Her mother, Susie, was Oliver’s Kindergarten teacher and was intimately involved in his transition into grade school, as well as his gender identification process. Over the past two years, Gex and her mother have continued to be in contact with the family, and follow Oliver’s progress. The family’s last name has not been included to respect their privacy. Gex can be reached at: megangex@gmail.com


At first glance, Oliver is a healthy, jovial seven-year-old boy.

In the schoolyard he’s known for his gelled faux-hawk, and his favorite color is blue. His favorite book is The Dangerous Book for Boys. He loves to sprint the 200-meter in track and watch Sponge Bob on the weekends with his best friend. His rambunctious attitude and boyish tendencies belie a core reality: Oliver was born a girl. . . .Read More

More On Transgender Regret

Joanne Herman

7 December 2009


With the post-Thanksgiving apparent suicide death of Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner (also known for a year and a half as Christine Daniels), gender transition regret is again a topic on the blogosphere. I explainedwhy regret happens in my book "Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not". Bloggers have brought up some additional points that I thought were worthy of mention.

As background, few people regret their gender transition but it does happen. In "USA Today", Ron Lawrence of the Community Counseling Center in Las Vegas was quoted as saying that about 5 percent of his transgender patients revert. The few studies I could find on the topic had an even lower percentage. . . .Read More

Should your school’s dress code address transgender students?

Fisher & Phillips LLP
Danielle Urban

January 1, 2010

Teenagers who push the limits of school dress codes are nothing new. Experimenting with clothing, hairstyles, and even make-up is a way for teens to explore their identities and test the limits of socially-acceptable behavior. Although school officials might find dress code enforcement challenging, dress code violations in the past tended to be fairly routine and usually revolved around prohibiting overtly sexually suggestive clothing or outward signs of gang affiliation.

But a new wrinkle in the dress code debate has developed, with some students demanding to express their gender or sexual identities by cross-gender dressing. Although cross-gender dressing is not particularly widespread in schools, a growing number of students throughout the country have begun dressing according to the gender identity they have chosen, which may not necessarily reflect their biological gender.

Whether the student is gay, lesbian, transgender, or just testing the limits of a school dress code, the issue has emerged as a dress-code challenge for many school officials, and schools must face competing demands and evolving ideas of acceptable dress. . . .Read More

Autogynephilia . . .

. . . in the actor, the filmmaker, the audience?

Where is it?

Who owns it?

Also, see: "Autogynephilia" and the Clinical Gaze

Transgender 101 part 1

Interview of Joanne Herman and Diego Sanchez about what it means to be transgender - 6/21/06

transaware

ABC Dating Show Features Transgender Contestant?

By Steven Avalos - Jan 6th 2010


Anyone watch 'Conveyor Belt of Love' on Monday night during ABC's 'Marry Me' Monday night line up after 'The Bachelor'? No? Just us?

ABC describes their new reality show as "five women [who] take a shot at finding love when 30 men are given the chance to impress them as they pass by on a moving conveyor belt." Why? Why not? Because why should you have to get out there and look for love when it can be brought to you on a fully stocked assembly line? But hold onto that remote -- was one of those men actually a transgender performance artist? . . .Read More

Give young transsexuals special ID cards: doc

January 10, 2010

By David Landes


Young Swedes who suspect they are transsexuals ought to be issued special ID cards allowing them to hide their undesired gender during their trial phase as the opposite sex, according to one of the country’s most respected child psychiatrists.

• Swedes change last names in droves (31 Dec 09)
• 'Vaginal corona' makes 2009 word list (31 Dec 09)
• Gender-reassigned face health hurdles: study (12 Dec 09)

“This has to do with the practical aspects of living life as the opposite gender,” Per-Anders Rydelius, chair of the maternal and child health department at Karolinska Institutet’s Astrid Lindgren's Children Hospital, told The Local. . . .Read More

Paper guilty of transsexual slur

BBC

January 4. 2010

A Belfast newspaper has been found guilty of breaching the press code of practice for describing a transsexual as 'a tranny.'

The Sunday Life was reported to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) by a male-to-female transsexual who had worked as a rape counsellor in Belfast.

The paper had raised concerns about her suitability for the role and described her as a 'tranny.'

The PCC said the use of the word was pejorative and upheld the complaint. . . .Read More

U.S. Job Site Bans Bias Over Gender Identity

By BRIAN KNOWLTON

January 5, 2010


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has inserted language into the federal jobs Web site explicitly banning employment discrimination based on gender identity.

The protection is expected to apply to the small transgender population — people who identify their gender differently from the information on their birth certificates — and it merely formalizes what had been increasingly unchallenged government practice over several years. . . . Read More