Saturday, November 24, 2007
Different strokes
She’s had the courage to acknowledge her alternate sexuality, accept it and finally declare it to one and all. Arup Chanda meets Rose, who was Ramesh Venkatesan a year ago, and is today all set to be the first transgender host of a television talk show in the country
“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll give it to someone special.”
— George Michael
THIS Christmas, Rose will give her heart to someone special. Last Christmas, she had given it to a man, who gave it away the very next year.
Come December, as Ramesh Venkatesan, aka Rose, signs off a Tamil television talk show saying “Ippadikku Rose” (Yours Rose), he - who has now turned into a she - will be the first transgender to host a chat show in the country.
SITTING PRETTY: Rose will host the show in traditional finery
Her “someone special” will be the Tamil population not only in India but also abroad, particularly in North America, Europe and South-East Asia.
The Tamil talk show will initially focus on homosexuality and alternate sexuality, phobias and mania and later on socio-economic issues and politics.
With her long hair tied in a bun and wearing a printed capri and a striped top, 28-year-old Rose said, “I will be the first transgender anchor in India and after the announcement by Star Vijay, which will produce my programme, many are treating me like a star.”
At five feet eight inches and with an athletic figure, Rose can be the envy of any item girl in Bollywood. Wearing red nail polish and her eyes laced with a black eyeliner, as Rose rides into a petrol station, the attendants address her as “Madam” without realising she is a transgender.
“I was born a boy in a conservative Chettiar business family on May 6, 1979, with one sister and two brothers. From the age of five I would wear my sister’s clothes and play with her dolls. When I went to school, the boys would tease me because of my feminine behaviour but I remained quiet,” she recollects.
Made fun of and abused verbally by male friends in school, she withdrew into her shell and concentrated more on studies. This paid dividends and she ranked in the top 10 in Ramakrishna Mission School and went on to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering in Chennai.
“Deep inside I always knew I was different but I did not dare reveal my real identity. I could not disclose I felt like a woman because I was scared my parents would throw me out of home and I would miss out on my education. After graduating as an engineer, I wrote the GRE and scored a very high percentile, which enabled me to go to the US in 2001 on a scholarship.
“While I was doing my MS in bio-medical engineering at Louisiana Tech University, I gradually started dressing like a woman but strictly only in private. Contrary to popular belief, Americans are hypocrites and do not accept alternate sexuality so easily. There have been incidents of violence against people of the third gender, so I never dared to come out in the open in the US,” Rose narrates.
Her mother broke down and her father was scandalised and shocked when Rose informed them over telephone from the US of being a transgender. They immediately consulted a psychiatrist who said that being a “young boy in a different culture and environment, he was confused and it was just a passing phase”.
THE WORLD IS HER TARGET: Rose is looking forward to her chat show, which will be launched next month
After getting a master’s degree, she returned to India but did not take up job as a professional engineer. She instead worked as an American accent trainer with a call centre in Chennai
“I gave up the job after a year and went to London since I had a work visa. I knew that because of my new identity — with which I had decided to come out in open — I would not get a proper job in India. So I decided to be a web developer for foreign clients as I had also studied web designing. I managed to get some foreign clients while in London and now work as a web developer from home without my clients knowing about my alternate sexuality,” said Rose, explaining how she attained economic independence.
It wasn’t easy for Rose to take the final decision about her sexuality. “At times I treated this phenomenon as an illness. There are clearly defined roles for men and women in society. I cried and asked myself why God had done this to me. I wondered what was in store for me? But finally, I decided to take the plunge,” she said.
Early this year Rose won a transgender beauty contest in Chennai and after that, around six months ago, she approached Star Vijay with the idea of hosting a television talk show as a transgender. Star Vijay approved the proposal and decided to produce it. . . .
Transgender Politician Faces Fraud Lawsuit
RIVERDALE, Ga., Nov. 22 (AP) — Four years after she won a City Council seat, making her what is believed to be Georgia’s first transgender politician, Michelle Bruce is battling a lawsuit by an unsuccessful opponent who claims she misled voters by running as a woman.
Ms. Bruce, a tall woman with shoulder-length graying hair, said she has always identified herself as transgender.
“I’ve always been Michelle,” she said. “If someone has a problem with that, I can’t help them. It’s a personal issue.”
Ms. Bruce, 46, who runs an auto repossession business, began her political campaign in 2003. Running unopposed, she landed one of four Council seats and promised to attract more jobs and residents to Riverdale, a town of 12,000 about 12 miles south of Atlanta, lined with rundown strip malls and used car shops.
Three rivals ran against her in the Nov. 6 election. She captured 312 votes, not enough to avoid a Dec. 4 runoff against the second-place finisher, Wayne Hall, who earned 202 votes.
The third-place finisher, Georgia Fuller, who collected 171 votes, filed a lawsuit claiming election fraud.
The complaint, identifying Ms. Bruce as “Michael Bruce,” says she misled voters by identifying herself as female. It asks a judge to rule the November election results invalid and order another general election.
Ms. Fuller did not return calls seeking comment, but her lawyer said voters in Riverdale tended to favor female candidates, particularly if they were incumbents.
“It gives her an unfair advantage,” said the lawyer, Michael King. “It’s not just sour grapes. The people need to know whether the election is fair.”
The suit is unlikely to be settled before the Dec. 4 runoff, but Ms. Bruce sees it as an effort to alienate her from voters.
“They’re just distracting the voters from the issues,” she said. “Everybody in my district knows me. Everyone in Riverdale knows me.”
City Attorney Deana Johnson said Ms. Bruce’s identity was no mystery to her constituents.
“She has served as councilperson for four years as Michelle Bruce,” Ms. Johnson said. “It sounds like a case of politics.”
Ms. Bruce will not say if she had surgery to change her gender, saying it is a personal matter.
She deflected most questions about her personal life, instead addressing her hopes for Riverdale, a town she said was in search of an identity.
“People want a candidate that will listen to them, protect them, save them money and be there for them,” Ms. Bruce said. “And I always will be.” . . .
WHY THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY hates the Human Rights Campaign
BY MONICA ROBERTS
Why does the transgender community hate the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)? It’s a question I get frequently asked in GLBT settings. Considering the recent GLBT family feud erupting over ENDA, it’s an appropriate one to ask as well.
Before I get started trying to shed light on it, I need to point out in the name of journalistic integrity that I was the Lobby Chair for the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) from 1999-2002.
The roots of the animosity start after Stonewall. In an effort to appear more ‘mainstream’ to the straight community, Jim Fouratt and friends bounced Sylvia Rivera and other transpeople out of New York’s GLF (Gay Liberation Front). Jim Fouratt’s anti-transgender comments culminating in a 2000 one at a Stonewall observance in which he called transpeople ‘misguided gay men who’d undergone surgical mutilations’ also added insult to the injury.
In a pattern that persists to the present day, The GLF had protections for transpeople removed from a proposed 1971 New York GLBT rights anti-discrimination bill under the pretext that it wouldn’t pass with such ‘extreme’ language.
Ironically the bill failed anyway and the New York City GLB-only rights bill wouldn’t pass until 1986. Transgender inclusion was fought at that tome by Tom Stoddard, who would later head Lambda Legal. Transgender people didn’t get added in the New York City bill until after Sylvia Rivera’s death in 2002.
In 1979 Janice Raymond poured more gasoline on the fire with her virulently anti-transgender book The Transsexual Empire.
Raymond also took it a step further in 1981 and penned a quasi-scientific looking report that was responsible for not only ending federal and state aid for indigent transpeople, but led to the insurance company prohibitions on gender reassignment related claims. Germaine Greer’s anti-transgender writing combined with Raymond’s led to involuntary outing and harassment of transwomen in lesbian community settings. It also sowed the seeds for the anti-transgender attitudes in the lesbian community that persisted through the late 90’s.
So what does this have to do with HRC since it didn’t get founded until 1980?
The problem is that the senior gay leadership is still influenced by the Fouratt-Raymond-Greer negative attitudes towards transpeople. That sentiment is concentrated disproportionately in California and the Northeast Corridor. The early gay and lesbian leadership also sprang up from those areas as well.
The transgender community around the late 80’s renewed its organizing efforts to fight for its rights. The early leadership was also concentrated in the Northeast Corridor and California as well and regarded the gay community as natural allies.
One thing they didn’t take into account was how deeply entrenched the anti-transgender attitudes and doctrines were amongst gay and lesbian leaders. Barney Frank (D-MA) is a prominent example of it. They still persisted in holding the view that transgender people were ‘crazy queens’ who would cost them their rights. Gay leaders were still trying to use the 70’s assimilationist strategy to counter the Religious Right campaign against gay civil rights fueled by fear of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
In the 90’s the transgender leadership became more national in scope and more diverse by the end of the decade. In addition to the founding core leadership from California and the Northeast corridor, transleaders emerged in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. The emergence of leaders from what was derisively called ‘flyover country’ by the peeps from Cali and the Northeast Corridor changed the dynamics of the transgender rights movement. . . .
Mich. Governor Guards Transgender Rights
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm has issued an order that bars discrimination against state workers based on their "gender identity or expression," which protects the rights of those who behave, dress or identify as members of the opposite sex.
The order, which Granholm signed Wednesday, adds gender identity to a list of other prohibited grounds for discrimination that includes religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, height, weight, marital status, politics, disability or genetic information.
"State employment practices and procedures that encourage nondiscriminatory and equal employment practices provide desirable models for the private sector and local governments," says the resolution.
The Triangle Foundation, a Michigan-based group advocating rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, praised Granholm's action.
"Coming out as transgender is a career-ender. Transgendered people lose their jobs all the time," foundation policy director Sean Kosofsky told the Detroit Free Press.
James Muffet, president of Citizens for Traditional Values, expressed doubt about the seriousness of sexual identity discrimination in state government. He said Granholm more likely was making a political gesture toward gay rights groups that backed her 2006 re-election bid.
Show Girls Doc: An Interview with Jeremy Stanford and Maria Roman
by Lawrence Ferber
In Trantasia (Smocko Productions/TLA Releasing), a film-festival hit that arrived on DVD October 30, male-to-female transsexuals compete in the first-ever Worldís Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant in Las Vegas.
While beauty isnít always on displayósome less-than-pretty drama arises among the girlsódirector Jeremy Stanford digs beneath the superficial by profiling the lives of six of the contestants, visiting their homes and frequently accepting families (maybe the 21st Century finally is arriving).
One of those contestants was Maria Roman, a Puerto Rico-born, Los Angeles-based transsexual activist who was doing HIV prevention outreach and working as the trans program manager at LAís BIENESTAR when she first heard about the pageant and documentary.
I spoke with Roman and Stanford by phone about making the doc, getting clocked on the strip, and who deserved to win.
Jeremy, was this always conceived as a documentary? I understand it was pitched as a possible reality series as well, correct?
Jeremy Stanford: We were open to options. We initially tried to get some backing, and had some interest in the time as a possible reality series. But at its heart, it was always a documentary.
Maria, you decided to join the pageant so that you might become part of the documentary, and represent and talk about trans issues. What did you think of the competition once arrived?
Maria Roman: The women there really meant business. They had been competing for years in pageants, and were there to win. I couldnít believe it. I was a novice. To be honest, I was never into the competition. My main goal was to be part of the doc. That was really what drove me through the project.
JS: Mariaís commitment to the community is impressive.
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JS: They were a little wild, and what surprised me maybe was the dissention [it caused] among the girls. Certainly, thatís an issue that exists in the community in generalóhow they want to be seen in public, and how they see themselves. It led to an interesting moment when Marie is upset, and wants to leave the pageant, because that was a bad representation of the community.
MR: What happened was, a girl grabbed one of my boobs, and I was horrified. It was a little interesting to have all these people looking at us. As it is, weíre all walking targets. I was afraid of what was going to happen. Essentially, we were exposing ourselves for everyone to look at us. Talk about carrying a flag proud!
When did the onlookers on the strip realize there was something special about theses ladies?
JS: I think the word spread rather quickly. Itís called "getting clocked," what these girls call it when they get called out. Some got clocked sooner than others.
Was there even more offscreen drama? Was it like 1968ís The Queen?
JS: We would have loved to have a little more drama! There was some stuff that went on. The great thing about the Maria moment was, we actually take the moment where she walks away from the group, and get her reaction in an interview. But in general, what amazed us as filmmakers, and the girls, was a supportive sense of sisterhood that pervaded the pageant. Certainly, they were professional, but they realized this was a moment for them as a community, so that sense of sisterhoodóthere were no catfights or wig pulling. It was more about sharing this moment, and enjoying the recognition for them and their community.
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MR: I think sheís a great human being. Sheís definitely in touch with herself, and loving to the rest of the community. She treated us beautifully, and many of us have to look at her as a pioneer. I consider her someone to look up to who succeeded in an age when everything was tabooóand she survived that huge scandal.
What are the biggest issues for transsexual women today?
MR: Being able to go on with daily things like get a job, pay rent, and have a stable home. For many of us, the moment we turn trans, we face discrimination in the workplace and housing. None of us as children say, ëI want to be hustling to make 10 dollars or a hundred dollars.í Many doors are shut in our face. I was victim of a hate crime last March. You can Google it. I was in a show in Miami, and I was drugged by a group of men, and I was arrested for disturbing the peace.
What did you learn about transsexuals and trans issues while making the documentary, Jeremy?
JS: The one preconception I had going to Las Vegas was the stereotypical story of the little girl trapped in the little boyís body. But they all had such different reasons for doing what they do. For [contestant] Tiara, it was a way to escape the projects, a survival mechanism. As she says, thereís always a way out, and this was her way out. She had a very rough life and childhood, seeing someone gunned down in her apartment building. And for some girls like her, who are young, effeminate gay boys, becoming a female impersonator and transsexual was a way to basically turn a liability into a positive. It was empowering. Whereas she might have always been ridiculed [as a boy], when she appeared as a woman at the club, that was a huge asset, and she received all this praise. Each had such different stories. . . .
Thursday, November 22, 2007
German vaulter makes a leap for mankind
November 23, 2007
New challenge … German pole-vaulter Yvonne Buschbaum during competition in 2002. "For many years, I have had the feeling I am in the wrong body," she said on her website.
Photo: AP
BERLIN: Former European pole-vault medallist Yvonne Buschbaum has announced her retirement from athletics to undergo hormone therapy, and has hinted she will have a sex-change operation.
The 27-year-old, who won a bronze at the 2002 European Championships, says a persistent Achilles tendon injury is part of the reason for her retirement, but she will soon start hormone treatment, which rules her out of competitive sport.
"My continuous injury misery has played a part in the decision, but my decision is essentially due to my mental imbalance," Buschbaum said on her website.
"For many years, I have had the feeling I am in the wrong body. Those who know me have seen a clear fault.
"I feel like a man and yet must live my life in the body of a woman.
"The years of discrepancy has left its tensions and has expressed itself in my injured Achilles tendons.
"I would not like to be misjudged any longer. I am conscious of the fact that transsexuality is a difficult topic, but I don't want to be involved in a game of hide-and-seek with the truth.
"I appeal to the public's understanding to respect my decision and not draw any wrong conclusions."
The German's personal best of 4.70 metres was achieved in 2003, a year after she won bronze at the European Championships in Munich and a silver at the indoor tournament in Vienna.
She is ranked the second-best German pole vaulter behind retired 2002 World Cup gold medallist Annika Becker.
Buschbaum also won a bronze at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest and was sixth at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
She won three German titles before picking up the Achilles tendon injury ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics and struggled to recapture her pre-injury form.
As she is set to undergo hormone treatment, she said she wanted to come clean to avoid any doping allegations.
"I do not dope and with my forthcoming hormone treatment, my decision means that I have to be honest about what I am doing," she said.
"The world of sport is too small for it to be a secret. And I wanted to be public about this so nobody is deceived or betrayed.
"From a biological point of view, the success I achieved so far has all been done naturally. I am just daring to show what is the real me. But I am glad I have started this journey and that one day I can be my true self."
Transsexuality is not a common theme in sport. One of the most famous cases was Austria's 1966 world downhill ski champion Erika Schinegger, who underwent a sex-change operation and later competed in the men's event as Erik. . . .
Glamour queens
DIAMONDS NIGHTS The ladies from Kit Kat Lounge sparkle.
Anniversaries can be such a drag—and at Kit Kat Lounge, that’s not a bad thing.
By Rachel Devitt
Forget ogling strippers or getting sweaty with hot strangers at a dance club. The new bachelorette party activity of choice is hanging out at a transsexual female–celebrity-impersonator supper club. At least that’s what Kit Kat Lounge’s Madame X (pictured, second from right) believes, considering such parties make up about 70 percent of her business. Founded in 2000 by business and life partners Ramesh Ariyanayakam and Edward Gisiger, the sleek Boystown lounge serves gourmet martinis (try the Sake-it-to-me), kicky menu items like “Just for the Halibut,” and drag from artists like Madame X, Delores Van Cartier and Sandy Solis, who perform in the aisles between tables every 20 minutes or so while pop music by Madonna, Tina Turner and Shakira plays through the swank space.
On Wednesday 28, the club will mark its seven-year anniversary with an appropriately campy and chic celebration. From 6 to 8pm, the Seven Year Itch–themed fete will feature free martinis and appetizers. And naturally, Madame X, who’s been with the Kit Kat since it opened, will sing and dance between tables, showing off her signature impersonation: Marilyn Monroe.
What the Kit Kat has managed to do since openening is introduce a niche art form to the mainstream without alienating the LGBT community. The drag performances are decidedly queer, and yet the crowd the Kit Kat performers draw simultaneously overlaps with and broadens the demographic you’d find at, say, a drag show down the street at gay hangout Hydrate. “I’m actually kind of surprised we’re still around,” says Madame X with a warm, booming laugh. . . .
A lady describes the Beach's, um, trans-formation.
A lady describes the Beach's, um, trans-formation.
By Elyse Wanshel
November 22, 2007My mother was Italian — a Catholic — and my father was a German-Jew," explains Henrietta, her blue eyes wide under two pencil-thin brows. "Back in those days, when I was a kid, people didn't believe in mixed marriage. So when I came along and I was a gay boy, my grandmother said, 'See what happens when you mix blood.'" Henrietta is a mix, all right — 60-plus years old, full of sass and class, and topped by a five-inch quaffed bleach-blond wig, which is not quite a beehive but can easily be mistaken for one, complete with bangs and an elaborate Flock of Seagulls-esque flip that frames the right side of her blushed cheek.
She offers a man-handful of stories à la South Beach, aged for about 50 years and served straight up. "I haven't been out of drag since 1958. In '58 I changed and that was it."
Henrietta sits comfortably in a black fur-lined blouse and matching slacks at the tiki-theme Bungalow Bar at Twist (1057 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). She's unfazed by the herd of Gaiety Men, the bar's resident erotic dancers, who flutter (or waddle, depending largely on their muscle mass) about the small window-lined bar in nothing but orange plum-smuggling briefs and, more often than not, nipple rings.
One of the dancers, unabashed and well versed in the art of bumping 'n' grinding, go-gos on a small silver tinsel-backed stage. Under the glow of an amber light, which makes his tan skin glisten, the dancing queen slides his hands along his chiseled abs and slightly pulls down the top of his skivvies, revealing a thin line of black corkscrew pubes. He then sticks his hands in his pants and molests himself.
"Most of those guys have girlfriends waiting for them at home," says the handsome (and well-moisturized) Chuck Fancy, who I'm shocked to discover is knocking at 40. "They're basically in the same position as porn stars. Straight men go gay for the money. They do all this kind of stuff for tips." . . .
The challenges faced by the transgendered
National Transgender Remembrance Day, on Nov. 20, marks the deaths of those slain due to anti-transgender prejudices
November 20, 2007
About a year and a half ago, I arranged to meet a woman I will call Leslie (not her real name) at a Tim Hortons coffee shop on Yonge Street in Toronto. What distinguished Leslie from the other women sipping coffee there was that up until the previous year she'd been a man.
In fact, she'd lived a pretty normal suburban life. Married for 30 years to the love of her life, she had a couple of kids, a good job, and enjoyed a night out with the boys. But inside, Leslie had always felt she was a woman and I wanted to hear her story.
Before we met, my big concern was how I would relate to her. In my head, did I consider her a man or a woman? I figured if I communicated with her as a woman, which she was now, I'd feel pretty comfortable. I know how women think because I am one. I have no idea what's going on in men's heads though. At the same time, despite the fact that Leslie felt like a woman, she'd been in a man's body for nearly 50 years so she'd had the male experience, right? I put all that aside and decided she was a woman now and that's how I would relate to her.
When I met Leslie, she was attractive, soft-spoken and warm. "My gender identity was fixed from birth," she told me. "I struggled with it until I was in my late 40s, early 50s until I finally had to do something about it."
The physical aspect of the change had gone well and she felt comfortable as a woman. I asked her if she thought people treated her differently now that she was physically female, but she said no. The glitch was in her personal life.
Her wife, who she loved dearly and had stuck with her through her change, now just found it too difficult. As a heterosexual woman, she didn't feel comfortable with the physical aspect of loving another woman. When Leslie had changed sexes, she'd simply changed her body. Her mind had always been female. She didn't change her sexual preferences either. She'd always liked women. And her wife still liked men. . . .
Views: Remembering Two-Spirits This Weekend
by Rev. Irene Monroe
2007-11-21
As I prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, I am reminded of the autumnal harvest time’s spiritual significance. As a time of connectedness, I pause to acknowledge what I have to be thankful for. But I also reflect on the holiday as a time of remembrance—historical and familial.
Historically, I am reminded that for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is not a cause of celebration, but rather a National Day of Mourning, remembering the real significance of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 as a symbol of persecution and genocide of Native Americans and the long history of bloodshed with European settlers.
I am also reminded of my Two-Spirit Native American brothers and sisters who struggle with their families and tribes not approving of their sexual identities and gender expressions as many of us do with our families and faith communities.
“Yes, there’s internalized homophobia in every gay community, but as Native Americans we are taught not to like ourselves because we’re not white. In our communities, people don’t like us because we’re gay,” Gabriel Duncan, member of Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits ( BAAITS ) , told the Pacific News Service.
And consequently, many Two-Spirit Native Americans leave their reservations and isolated communities hoping to connect with the larger LGBTQ community in urban cites. However, due to racism and cultural insensitivity, many Two-Spirits feel less understood and more isolated than they did back home.
But homophobia is not indigenous to Native American culture. Rather, it is one of the many devastating effects of colonization and Christian missionaries that today Two-Spirits may be respected within one tribe yet ostracized in another. . . .
Sex change cyclist
Santhi Soundarajan was born in poverty in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Today she is one of
But the Asian Games organizers have stripped her off her medal claiming she is more man than woman after Santhi failed a gender verification test. Now Canadian Olympic hopeful Kristen Worley a transsexual cyclist, has decided to fight for Santhi, who has been left to fend for herself by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Worley has taken up Santhi’s case, a victim of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, with International Olympic Council president Jacques Rogge.
Normally, women have two X chromosomes (XX) and men have an X or Y chromosome (XY) in their cells. The presence of XX chromosomes confirms the person’s female gender.
However, some people born with a Y chromosome develop all the physical characteristics of a woman except internal female sex organs, a result of a genetic defect that does not produce testosterone.
A person with this condition - called androgen insensitivity syndrome or AIS - might be XY but she is not a man because her body never responds to the testosterone she’s producing. Since testosterone helps in building muscle and strength, an AIS case would not give an XY female athlete any kind of competitive advantage.
Seven of the eight women who tested positive for Y chromosomes during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics had AIS. They were allowed to compete. Given the confusion and uncertainty over determining a person’s sex, the International Olympic Committee stopped gender testing in 1999. But the Olympic Council of Asia continues the practice.
Worley, a part of the Canadian Olympics team, herself underwent a sex change operation from male to female and believes that it was wrong on the part of the Olympic Council of Asia to take the medal back.
Worley has urged the Council to return the medal to the Indian runner. Worley said, ”the Santhi case should never have been handled in such a gross manner, amounting to public humiliation for the Indian runner because of their ignorance.”
While the Indian speed runner thanked the Canadian for taking up her cause and extending support to her and said, ”I was dejected when the Asian Games committee took back my medal.
I was worried whether I’d get my medal back. But now an international cyclist is supporting me, I feel very happy. I want to thank her.”
But Worley, according to a report in Gaywired, a netzine supporting the cause of gays, is fighting for the cause of Santhi and other victims of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), which results in the external physical characteristics typically associated with women despite having XY chromosomes, and wants the Indian athlete to get her Asian Games silver medal back.
Worley hopes to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has been accepted, despite a sex change from male to female, as a member of the Canadian women’s cycling team. . . .
Transgender pair say they were barred from the Cheshire Inn; seeks explanation
Sharon DeWitt
by COLIN MURPHY
8-23-2005
A St. Louis area transgender woman says she and a friend were denied entry to an area restaurant and bar last month because the doorman said that their IDs did not look like them.
On the evening of July 3, Sharon DeWitt and her friend Lisa — both transgender — along with another friend, attempted to enter the Cheshire Inn restaurant and bar in Clayton around 1 a.m. According to DeWitt, she walked through the door past the doorman and security guard only to realize that her friends weren’t behind her, as they had been asked for identification by the doorman. DeWitt alleges that the doorman denied Lisa entry because her ID showed her as a man.
"They said, this doesn’t look like you and we’re not going to let you in," explained DeWitt. "And she would have probably just left, but I like to stand up for my rights. So I went back and I started a conversation with the guy and the guy wouldn’t let me in either."
DeWitt, a non-op transsexual, stated that she tried to explain the situation and asked to speak to a manager but was told by the doorman that he was the only one in charge. The trio then left and DeWitt states that she tried to contact the management of the Cheshire Inn by telephone several times but received no reply.
"We were properly dressed and over twice the legal drinking age," she said. "After two weeks of unreturned phone calls, I returned to the Cheshire in the hopes of talking in person to [the management] to see if in fact the policies are discriminatory, and if not, what action if any will be taken with their doorman."
On July 15, DeWitt states that she arrived promptly for a 7 p.m. reservation at the same establishment, was greeted by a different doorman, showed her ID and was allowed entry. After ordering a glass of wine, DeWitt said she then asked to speak to the manager on duty but was told that one was not there and that the other was busy in the kitchen. DeWitt reports that she then gave the bartender her card to give to the manager and has yet to hear back from the Cheshire Inn.
"It sounds to me like the Cheshire Inn has badly trained their staff if some staff are doing things one way and some staff are doing things another way," said Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "That’s sort of bad hospitality. It’s clear that they have some holes in their training."
"The doorman who turned them away was badly trained, badly supervised or bigoted," Keisling continued. "That’s inappropriate, it’s un-American and it’s sad that a place like St. Louis, a place like Missouri where people are really good people and they want everybody to have a chance, they want everybody to be treated equally."
Still, this is not the first time that a Cheshire Inn establishment has made the news for their door policies. In 2003, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that the Cheshire’s Fox and Hounds pub denied entry to two African American men because the bar had a "no dreadlocks policy."
Several phone calls from the Vital VOICE to Cheshire Inn management regarding their door policy were not returned by deadline.
"You should be able to look at me and see that that’s me," said DeWitt. "I’m not made up that much. I’m not a drag queen … I think the door man was acting on his own. But like I said, I think it was a lack of training on their part of instructing employees of what to do."
According to Keisling, the questioning of IDs has always been a problem with transgender individuals, on occasion, but has gotten increasingly worse in the post 9/11 world.
"It’s one of the things that some folks in the United States are doing out of fear that really has absolutely zero positive impact on fighting terrorism," said Keisling. "And that’s allegedly what it’s aimed at but most of the 9/11 attackers had appropriate ID. That wasn’t the problem. It wasn’t whether or not they had ID, it was about their motivation, it was about their capabilities, and there’s no reason to think that anybody’s gender had anything to do with that."
DeWitt, who goes out regularly to several straight establishments in St. Louis County said that she has encountered few, if any problems, and that this was a rare and isolated incident but wanted to bring it to the attention of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. Her personal situation illustrates that there are many ways in which transgender persons mesh their lives with their true identities.
"I’m not on hormones and not planning on going through the change because of circumstances in my life. I am married and love my wife and don’t want to get a divorce — and she didn’t want to live as a lesbian — so I’m with her as a male and then I get out three times a week; once in a while during the day, but not too often; and when I’m out, I am Sharon."
Finding acceptance in the world, as well as at home, has been an unexpected bonus. "Normally I go out to a lot of the little bars out here in the county and I’ve rarely had a problem," she said. "I’m surprised at how open people are.". . .
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Born a man, he became a woman, then a man again — what's next?
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — High on prescription painkillers and four days without sleep, Michael Berke raced his Harley to the megachurch where he’d found a home.
He barged into the church office, cursing loudly and wearing a mesh shirt printed with profanity. In his hands he held a picture of a woman with long, red hair and pouty lips.
“This is who I used to be,” he said.
“And this” — he gestured to his breastless chest, bald head and red goatee — “is who I’ve become.”
He was born a man. After a lifetime as a social misfit, he had transformed himself into Michelle, a saucy redhead. Then, three months ago, he had become Michael again — with the financial aid and spiritual encouragement of Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale.
———
It has never been about sex. And the new clothes and 45 pairs of shoes were fun, but not fulfilling.
Berke wanted friendship — the kind women have.
He dreamed of shopping together and gossiping in the bathroom. “I always admired how girls can hold hands, girls can hug, cuddle, and there’s nothing abnormal about it. It’s not sexual,” he says. “The whole girl lifestyle is just so much more social and caring and loving and understanding.”
His life had not been a happy one. Kids at school teased him because he was different so he rebelled and often got in trouble.
Michael left home and a strained relationship with his parents at 19, living on the streets and flitting from job to job. He worked as a techie for Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson, followed by odd jobs at a veterinarian’s office, tanning salon and as a nail technician. He drank, used drugs.
Berke has never felt comfortable around men — he’s repelled by the angry, macho, emotionless male stereotype. He isn’t attracted sexually to men, either, and says he has never had sex with one.
He spent about $80,000, maxing out his credit cards on surgery and provocative women’s clothes. He got a nose job, brow lift and fat injections in his cheeks. His primary-care physician gave him hormones, and after a year he got breast implants.
Michael kept his penis; that surgery cost too much, and he still identified himself as a heterosexual. (He’s had relationships with women and says he’s still hoping to meet one with whom he could spend his life.)
The transformation was easy, a dream. He had few friends as Michael and no steady job, so there was no awkward explanation to co-workers.
Michelle loved pretty things. She made friends easily and was a great dancer; Michael would have never stepped on the dance floor.
Michelle talked to her mom and sister for the first time in years. She even flew to Cincinnati one Thanksgiving and met her niece and nephew for the first time. She went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings for women and “completely emotionally understood and identified with their feelings.”
But even as Michelle, the same old problems crept in.
“I was still the same person inside. Michelle was just the exterior,” Michael says.
She was depressed and suicidal and prone to cutting herself. She threw up her food trying to fit into her jeans, eventually dropping from a size 12 to a 7. She struggled with drugs and alcohol, just like Michael.
By 2005, Michelle had tried everything else, “so why not God?” A friend invited her to church.
———
An evangelical church with about 20,000 members — one of the largest in the state — Calvary Chapel has a local reputation for embracing the homosexual community. Its several homosexual and transgender participants are not allowed to serve in church leadership, but are welcome to attend services where a Bible-based message teaches sex is supposed to be reserved for marriage between a man and woman.
Many evangelical churches have evolved from fire and brimstone preaching against homosexuals and transgenders and now view those members as having a psychological illness much like depression — something that must be dealt with spiritually, says Dr. Melissa Wilcox, assistant professor of religion and director of gender studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.
“The churches that only see it as sin would not be welcoming to someone like Michael at all,” said Wilcox, author of “Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and Community.”
“It’s a way of living out their beliefs of you love the sinner and you hate the sin. Since the early ’90s that’s increasingly been the direction that a lot of evangelicals have moved in ... because it offers hope.”
Michelle loved the upbeat music and the feel-good sermons.
Everybody seemed so nice. They put her in a special women’s Bible study group, so Michelle would feel more comfortable. Her new friends showed her videos about a gay male transsexual who accepted Jesus as his savior, got married, had kids and lived happily.
You can have that too, they said.
They said “you’ll be able to meet a wonderful woman and get married and that’s what pulled at my heartstrings because I really wanted that,” Michael recalls. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”
By the time Michelle first met Calvary Chapel Pastor Bob Coy, she was self-conscious about the D-sized breasts she’d had for over a year and had started wearing baggy men’s shirts to hide them.
During the altar call one Sunday, Berke found God. And several weeks later, Michelle told church leaders she wanted to become a man again.
“This is a man with tears in his eyes who asked for help,” says Coy, a bearded, charismatic leader whose own story is one of redemption from drinking, drug-taking and the excesses of life in the music industry.
Church leaders spent weeks counseling Michelle. They brought her to their thrift store, allowed her to pick out a new wardrobe of men’s clothes for free, says Craig Huston, a church employee. And they arranged for a plastic surgeon, a member of the church, to remove her breast implants at no charge.
When do you want to have the surgery, the doctor asked.
“Tomorrow,” Michelle joked.
The doctor penciled her in for 10 a.m. And just like that, Michelle was gone, Michael says sadly.
The regrets came quickly.
Michael turned to the Bible and other theological books, but found more questions. He questioned the validity of the resurrection, and the belief that there was only one true religion.
Three months later he stopped going to church and started partying again, swallowing handfuls of pills and chasing them with vodka.
That’s when he rode his Harley back to the church and confronted the leadership. Michael, now 43, says he was cajoled into the decision to become a man again; he was the church’s “pet project.”
Coy says the church had no agenda with Michael. He asked. It helped.
“I’m aware of the legal ramifications and the spiritual ramifications if someone was forced to do anything,” Coy says.
“Anything that we have helped Michael with, he’s asked for. The hours of time that different leaders have spent pouring into his life ...”
Like the time Michael bought a motorcycle and lit it on fire. The church sent the bike ministry over to help. One of the guys even lent Michael his bike, says Huston.
“He goes in these waves where he goes from one emotional extreme to the other,” Huston says.
He says Michael was the one who asked for the surgery and pressed to have it done quickly.
“We encouraged him, but he initiated it,” Huston says.
———
Looking at Michael today, it’s hard to tell Michelle ever existed or that he still longs for her.
His head is shaved. There is a faint, rainbow-shaped scar on his forehead where he had the brow lift.
His red goatee is long and gnarly. He favors jeans, muscle tees and black combat boots. His mannerisms aren’t feminine, his voice is low, his gaze direct.
He attends a couple of Narcotics Anonymous meetings a day, just to get by.
Sitting in the Delray Beach home his estranged father bought him, Michael listens to opera and chain-smokes Camel Reds. He talks about Michelle’s favorite strappy heels and pink lingerie like they are old friends. She loved to shop and nearly bankrupted Michael, he says. Her clothes went to her best friend, Rachel; it’s too painful to keep her finery around now.
Realistically, he knows he can’t become Michelle again.
“If I do it again people are going to think I’m even more unstable,” he says. His mom and sister stopped talking to him, he says, when he switched back to Michael.
He talks about going back to college to study psychology or maybe writing books about his life. He doesn’t work, relying on money from his father and disability checks from knee injury.
He vacillates moment to moment, between depression and hope.
“I still struggle just living on a daily basis,” he says.
Then, minutes later: “Maybe I just need to meet the right woman and have a relationship. Really I’m without any sense of direction right now.”
Antonio Banderas Shares His Gender Bending Dream
Antonio Banderas
11/19/2007
Antonio Banderas wants to be a woman for a day in an effort to understand the opposite sex. The movie hunk, who is married to actress Melanie Griffith, revealed he would love to wake up as a woman during a press conference to promote his new film The Code In Bulgaria.
But he told reporters he wouldn't want to step into his wife's shoes.
When asked which woman he'd like to be for 24 hours he said, "Maybe Mimi Leder (his new film The Code's director)," before adding, "just to understand what she is going through."
Who wears the pants?
11/20/2007
Dresses epitomize womanhood in the Western world. Such has been the case since the western man adopted pants to replace the tunic in the sixth century (an aspect of the West's Germanic barbarian heritage). Dresses allow us to differentiate between the silhouettes of men and women on restroom signs. Dresses are the indelible image of womanhood because of the symbolic nature of pants and dresses. If all fashions are symbolic, dresses in particular symbolize womanhood by more fully embodying the ideal of a true lady, the objective understanding of what men find attractive in the fairer sex: passivity, domesticity, childrearing, coital love, piety and fertility. These defining aspects of womanhood are immutable. We all tacitly reaffirm these attributes in our attempts to find a partner. Flirtation and courtship are reaffirmations of what it means to be masculine and feminine because it is only by fulfilling the obligation of our form that we can attract the opposite sex.
You might say these things were once true but times have changed. Not so. The nature of sexual attractiveness in women is objective, immutable and incontrovertible because it is directly related to the constant and unchanging physiology of men and women. What men find attractive in women is fixed because the physiology of humanity has been relatively unchanged. In this way, the ideal form of femininity is also unchangeable and without regard for cultural context or time period. What men find attractive in women - the form of a true lady - is objectively identifiable, just as it was in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. In short, femininity is sexy, and sexy is timeless and universal.
What's not sexy is feminism (not to be confused with femininity), which is directly responsible for the disappearance of our beloved dresses and the adoption of pants by the "new woman." Like all fashions, pants are symbolic of something - in this case masculinity - through their allowance of physical activity. Dresses, the antithesis of pants, symbolize femininity through grace and elegance. Men find elegance in women to be attractive, and dresses are a physical manifestation of femininity. The wearing of pants by women represents the masculinization of the fairer sex, which is not at all attractive.
In advocating the wearing of dresses, I must distinguish between the flowing elegant dresses of tradition and the more degenerate and immodest dresses of our present culture. The miniskirt, a dress of sorts that doesn't extend below the knees, is both lacking in modesty and elegance. Elegance is essential to femininity, and the lack thereof implies a sort of masculinization. Modesty is essential to feminine virtue, and the lack thereof implies a state of whorification. Immodest, inelegant dresses constitute a degeneration and androgynization of true dresses.
The androgynous masculinization of the modern woman, through the donning of pants, suits, uncovered shoulders and unveiled hair, has in a sense led to the slow whorification of ladyhood. In discarding feminine dress, women seem to have symbolically discarded femininity and modesty (the virtues of women) in favor of sexual virility, promiscuity and immodesty (the vices of men). The ideal form of a true lady is a constant, immutable aspect of humanity, and this strange new development can only represent a bizarre aberration of a perverse and ignoble culture. Dresses are an essential part of any true lady's attire, and they should be worn.
Sharing a life's pain
Susan Stanton, front, and Rick Davis listen to Faith Rivera sing during a transgender day remembrance at Unity Church of Clearwater
By EILEEN SCHULTE
November 20, 2007
It's been exactly eight months and 23 days since Steve Stanton was fired from his job as Largo's city manager.
He was escorted out of City Hall by some of the same officers he hired during his 17 years on the job.
That hurt, Stanton told a group at a transgender remembrance day service at Unity Church of Clearwater on Monday.
Now known as Susan Stanton, she counts each day since the dismissal, when the greatest test of her will and strength began.
During that time, she has been searching to find employment.
She applied for a job in Berkeley, Calif., but the fit wasn't right.
In despair, she drove to the Golden Gate Bridge, where many people choose to end their pain.
She stood there in a "deep, dark hole." She said she felt she had no future.
"You can feel the environment," she said, "and that you want to jump into the hands of God."
But she didn't. And on Monday night, she spoke to an audience of some 150 people about her struggle to transform herself from a man to a woman.
Earlier in the day, Stanton was struggling with what to wear. She knew she wanted to wear black, but all her black dresses were too dressy for the occasion. So she wore a smart black pantsuit with patent leather heels. She wore a delicate gold anklet and a dainty gold chain around her neck.
Through the strands of highlighted hair you could see her sparkling gold and diamond earrings.
Her blond hair was stylish and curled at the ends. Her pedicure was perfect, complete with burgundy polish. Her fingernails gleamed as though she had just left the manicurist.
Slender and soft-spoken, she appeared as feminine as most women in the audience who had come to hear her speak.
"It's not like I'm going to walk around looking like Aunt Bea," she told the Times earlier in the day. "I'm not out mowing the lawn in a dress. Sometimes I put on a T-shirt and shorts."
She is living in Sarasota, takes female hormones and has joined a health club.
There is one downside to taking the hormones, she said with a laugh. "Without the hormones I could bench-press 90 to 120 pounds," she said. "With the hormones, I can bench 20 pounds."
Stanton is scheduled to have her first mammogram today. In May, she will travel to Phoenix for sex reassignment surgery.
Although the experience Stanton has endured is painful, she said it has brought her closer to her family, especially her son, one of her biggest supporters.
The Rev. Abhi Janamanchi, who helped organize the event, was pleased with how it turned out.
"Susan's sharing was very poignant," he said. "I was delighted that she conveyed a sense of hope and a sense of joy about who she is and that she is living her life with integrity." . . .
Phototherapy sheds light on gender stereotypes
20 November 2007
For many, photographs typically chronicle happy moments in life.
But junior Ryan Jones has been using pictures to evoke sensitive and emotional memories in some UNC students.
He gave a presentation on "Gender Phototherapy" to an audience of about 20 students Monday as part of Transgender Awareness Week.
"We were looking for interesting programs for Transgender Awareness Week," said Catherine Adamson, co-chairwoman of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender-Straight Alliance. "I've heard of phototherapy, but Ryan's project is the first to deal with gender."
Jones got the idea for his presentation after he read an article on phototherapy in his English class.
The goal of the presentation was to investigate gender as a learned social construction and to see if phototherapy is an effective therapy method.
"Ryan's presentation makes visible something people don't really talk about but that many scholars are writing about," said Terri Phoenix, the director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Center on campus. Phoenix helped Jones turn his original project into a presentation.
Phototherapy is a technique used to help individuals reflect on past experiences that might have impacted the way they define gender roles.
A therapist has the patient act out a role from a past situation while other participants act out the supporting roles. The therapist then photographs the scenes for the patient to review and reflect upon.
To complete his phototherapy project, Jones had 10 UNC students re-enact situations in which they were taught gender as children. He then asked them questions regarding gender and their reactions to the photos he took.
"Instead of focusing on gender stereotypes, I want people to remember that people are more human than male or female," Jones said.
The scenarios included one in which a male student re-enacted a time when he tried on his grandmothers' high heels and lipstick and was chastised by his father and grandfather. . . .
