Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Kings Village Roma 2008



"10-12 Luglio 2008, Roma, Kings Village
The first international drag king festival in Italy" ikkait

Ad makers urged to remove LGBT stereotypes

September 24, 2008

ADAIR
utalkmarketing.com


Some of the world’s biggest advertising agencies are being encouraged to call an end to any lingering lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender stereotypes, homophobia and transphobia in their ad campaigns.

The Commercial Closet Association has sent a letter to the New York branches of leading advertising agencies with the support of leading government officials and advertising industry executives.

Penned by Mike Wilke, executive director of Commercial Closet Association, it reads, “All too often, commercials use stereotypes of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people for humour, with stock homophobic and transphobic responses.

“It’s time to remove any remaining potentially harmful stereotypes that only encourage narrow-minded and discriminatory behavior, and damage business opportunities.” . . .Read More

A Crossdressing Lesson from Isis – America’s Next Top Transgender Model

September 23, 2008

Vanessa


As many of you know Isis is a transgender model competing in America’s next top model. She has already done incredibly well, passing through the first two rounds of the competition, despite being perilously close to being eliminated last week. (For those counting, I may be a week behind thanks to the wonders of Tivo – I’ll try and keep up with the episodes in the future).

Isis has two valuable crossdressing lessons for us from last week’s episode. The first has to do with handling yourself in the face of intolerance. One of the other girls in America’s next top model was clearly uncomfortable with Isis being transgendered. Even pushing her away during an evening when the girl’s where partying and hanging out. I was very impressed with how Isis responded – she didn’t get angry or upset, and pretty much just ignored it. . . .Read More

University of Pittsburgh Lets 'Transgender' Students Choose Their Dorm

9-24-2008

Devon Williams


The University of Pittsburgh is revising its policies to include special protection based on "gender identity." That means "transgender" students can live in the dormitory of their choice — male or female.

So, a biological man who "identifies" as a woman will be allowed to room with a woman and use the women's showers and restrooms. The same would apply to biological women who believe themselves to be men. . . .Read More

Transsexual Turkish singer defends self in court

By Selcan Hacaoglu

September 24, 2008


ANKARA, Turkey – A transsexual singer charged with illegally criticizing mandatory military service in Turkey said in court Wednesday she would say the same thing again.

Singer Bulent Ersoy has acknowledged saying on television that if she had children she would not want them to join the army to battle Kurdish rebels who are fighting for self-rule.

“I spoke in the name of humanity. Even if I were to face execution, I would say the same thing,” the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Ersoy as telling the court in Istanbul. . . .Read More

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (2008) Movie Trailer




"The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela is a 2008 drama film directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson.

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela Plot

Raquela, a Filipino transsexual prostitute dreams of making a new life in Paris. She becomes an internet porn star and meets Valerie, an Icelandic transsexual, and Michael, the owner of the website she works for.


The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela Cast

Raquela Rios as Herself
Stefan C. Schaefer as Ardilo, Michael
Olivia Galudo as Olivia
Brax Villa as Aubrey
Valerie Grand Einarsson as Valerie Einarsson

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela Distribution and reception

The film showed at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film. It will be screened in the Emerging Visions section of the 2008 South by Southwest festival in the United States.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Truth_ About_Queen_Raquela"  
 MovieTrailerNetwork

A new twist for 'America's Next Top Model'

By GILLIAN GAYNAIR
23 September 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a little boy in the Washington suburbs, Darrell Walls liked to pretend to be Lil' Kim or a Pink Power Ranger.

He felt different — like a girl mistakenly born a boy.

But Walls eventually embraced that difference and today is living true, as Isis King. Now 22, King is the first transgender contestant on "America's Next Top Model," the CW Television Network reality show hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks.

"I'm just trying to be myself," King said during a telephone interview last week. "If I inspire people, that's a wonderful thing — whether you're trans or not."

While the number of transgender representations on television remains small, activists say in recent years they have seen a movement away from stereotypical roles such as transgender sex workers or villains. Now, the roles are not as marginalized — and some are even portrayed by transgender actors. . . .Read More

Study shows prime-time television showing more gay, lesbian characters

September 23, 2008 


NEW YORK - Broadcast television will have 16 gay and bisexual regular characters in prime-time series this fall, more than double the seven of a year ago, a new study has found.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said it was a positive sign of networks making their shows more representative, although more work needed to be done. These characters accounted for 2.6 percent of all the regular characters in TV series, up from 1.1 percent last year and 1.3 percent in 2006, according to the study, released Monday. . . .Read More


Slowly, Companies Embracing Transgender Employees

Workplace attitudes and policies have eased over time.

By LISA BELKIN
THE NEW YORK TIMES


September 21, 2008


Breanna L. Speed waited four years before announcing to her co-workers that she would not be Wendell anymore.

KOREN SHADMI | THE NEW YORK TIMES

She was concerned that the revelation that she felt more comfortable living life as a woman than in the male body she was born with would jeopardize her job at Hewitt Associates, an outsourcing company in Lincolnshire, Ill., where she had worked as a database administrator for seven years.

But since Feb. 26, 2007, when she walked into the office as Breanna (with a company ID and a workplace paper trail that carried her new name), Speed said she has received nothing but support.

The workplace piece of her transgender puzzle, the part she had worried about most, "turned out to be the simplest," she said. "That was a surprise." . . .Read More

Monday, September 22, 2008

How To Help A Transgender Child.




"Alaina and her mom Carolyn discuss helping children who may be transgender."   TheTyraBanksShow

GENDER ANSWERS

'The Transgender Child' New handbook has tips for parents whose children don't fit the societal mold, and probably never will

Talia Kennedy
September 18, 2008

A child may be born with female anatomy, but what if her first words are "I'm a boy," and she wants to live as a boy as she gets older?

Or a boy enjoys playing with girly toys and sometimes expresses himself in traditionally feminine ways?

Two Bay Area women who have worked with transgender and gender-fluid children have written a handbook for parents whose kids aren't typical boys or girls.

"A parent can't change a child's gender identity but can change how they respond to it. It requires a lot of respect, kindness and support," says Stephanie Brill, who, along with Rachel Pepper, wrote "The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals" (Cleis Press; 200 pages; $16.95).

Some parents have a hard time accepting their transgender and gender-variant children's identities, but Brill stresses that children's genders are usually a permanent part of who they are. . . .Read More

The Real World Brooklyn Cast Gets Transgendered


Sep 21, 2008 by Michael Martin

The cast of The Real World Brooklyn looks to differentiate itself from the previous twenty seasons on MTV by having the first transgender cast member.

The cast’s head shot compilation was posted on Vevmo and combined with my sources indicate the naming of the cast is as follows - starting clockwise from the top left.

Unfinished Business

22 September 2008
by SUSAN MARINE
 

. . .I love football. 

Many who know me, or who know my politics, are surprised by this fact. After all, as the director of a women’s center, and a committed feminist, shouldn’t I feel ambivalent about—if not downright opposed to—the degree to which American culture celebrates such a brutal, macho sport, and glorifies those who play it? Shouldn’t I want a kinder, gentler game—like synchronized swimming, or equestrianism—to rule the day? 

Not really. I am in awe of the both graceful and guttural physicality of the game, the full-contact, heady delirium of the pileup, and the breathless climax of a perfectly executed 60-yard Hail Mary pass. Just about the only thing I don’t like about football is the knowledge that women will likely never get to play it side by side with men. 

Since 1982, when the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus was founded, the movement for gay rights has come a long way. For most of us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) at Harvard, we can live openly and without fear in our jobs and as students. We can pursue both our degrees and employment with the protection of the law behind us, we can hold high positions of leadership and esteem, and we can even legally marry our sweethearts in Memorial Church. Although I wasn’t at Harvard in 1982, I understand that it was a very different place then, and that silence and social sanction were de rigueur for virtually all queer folks.
. . .Read More

Sunday, September 21, 2008

My transition so far - University and Residence Part 1


"READ FIRST!
By this time I'd left home and the farm and moved to the big city to live with my brother because my parents didn't want me with them, and they moved to Torquay anyway. So yeah, everything was new to a naive farmgirl like me.
UNIVERSITY IS LIKE COLLEGE FOR YOU NON-AUSTRALIANS, BUT I GUESS YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT!"   EtherealKingdom 

Trans U comes to CU

Groups discusses transgender issues on campus

Sam Dieter
September 20, 2008

An audience of about 40 people gathered in the Dennis Small Cultural Center in the UMC Friday for "Trans U: an Introduction to Transgender Issues on Campus." 

The presentation was sponsored by the Vice Chancellor's Office of Student Affairs, the GLBT resource center and The Community Health resource center.

"I want people to understand what transgender is, what are the barriers that transgender people face and how everybody is responsible for improving how it feels for people who are different," said trainer and lead speaker Samuel Lurie.

During Lurie's presentation, he said transgender is an "umbrella term for (a) wide range of people who challenge or don't fit social norms of gender expression."

The term transsexual refers to a person who "specifically desires to live full-time in the chosen gender that matches their internal gender identity," Lurie said. Individuals in this group must often make use of medical interventions, social and legal changes.
. . .Read More

Teen transgender launches pop star career

By 
JD Uy
 on September 21, 2008

''I know that because of my past people will always bring up the subject, I can't get away from it. But I hope that one day I might be better known for my music than for my past.'' . . .Read More

200 discuss high school for gay, lesbian, transgender youth in Chicago

CPS chief Arne Duncan expected to decide fate by Oct. 1

| Chicago Tribune reporter

Transsexual wins lawsuit against Library of Congress

September 19, 2008

by Bill Mears 
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former Army commander who underwent a sex change operation was discriminated against by the U.S. government, a federal judge ruled Friday in an important victory for transgenders claiming bias in the workplace.

Diane Schroer won her federal lawsuit against the Library of Congress after officials backed out of a 2005 job offer when told of her intention to become a transsexual. At the time of the job interview for a position as a senior terrorism research analyst, David Schroer was a male. He had been a onetime Army Special Forces commander.

U.S. District Court Judge James Robinson said Schroer's civil rights were violated.

"The evidence established that the Library was enthusiastic about hiring David Schroer -- until she disclosed her transsexuality," Robinson wrote. "The Library revoked the offer when it learned that a man named David intended to become, legally, culturally and physically, a woman named Diane. This was discrimination 'because of ... sex.' "

The judge will later rule on what financial damages Schroer is due. . . .Read More

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Darts team 'ejected from league over transsexual player'

A ladies darts team claim they were kicked out of a league because one of their players is a transsexual.

by Chris Irvine
17 September 2008

Colliers B ladies have been told they have been thrown out of Cheslyn Hay women's league, near Cannock, Staffs, because of the language they used during matches.

But the players suspect it is because some opponents have complained about teammate Melanie Partlow, who used to be a man.

The Sun reported Ms Partlow joined the side two years ago after an operation turned her from a married forklift truck driver called Mick.

She had the sex-change operation in Thailand after she and her then wife Sue won £250,000 on the lottery.

The 57-year-old, who lost part of a leg after an illness, proved to be a star player and has helped the team win several cups. . . .Read More

World's youngest sex change star

September 19, 2008

A GIRL believed to be the youngest person in the world to have a sex change is set to become a pop star.
 Kim Petras - originally called Tim - changed sex after she started hormone treatment at the age of just twelve. 

Now 16-year-old Kim is ready to storm the charts with her first album after landing a record deal. . . .Read More