News and views for Tuesday, November 4th …

[USA] “The queen is dead. The drag queen, that is. Bridget Nickles, aka Anthony Jarrell, died last week of weariness after an illustrious career as a female impersonator. She was 25.” — Life becomes too much of a drag for this queen

[USA] “Kate Bornstein didn’t go through with her sex change operation with the intention of tackling gender theory. “No, I went through my gender change with the intention of being pretty,” the artist and author said at a performance last year at Virginia Commonwealth University. “I never set out to deconstruct a gender binary. I didn’t have a clue of what that is. I just wanted to be a pretty girl.”” — Kate Bornstein: ‘Don’t Be Mean’

[India] “Bharathidasan University has come forward to offer free education and job training to bring about academic and economic inclusion of transgenders … ” — Transgenders to get free education

[Israel] “Israelis placed in a witness protection program will be able to have cosmetic surgery to change their appearance, but will not be allowed to claim that they have a new religious identity or to undergo a sex change, according to a bill to be brought before the Knesset plenum for its second and third readings this week.” — As Knesset approves bill, witness protection program makes aliyah

[USA] “At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, surgeon Howard Snyder says he and his colleagues repair the genitalia of roughly 300 baby boys every year - about double what they did when he started his practice 30 years ago … Snyder suspects that while in the womb, some of these boys may have been affected by hormone-disrupting chemicals called phthalates, found in dozens of consumer products … Phthalates fall into a group of chemicals called endocrine disruptors because they either mimic or block the action of human hormones. Phthalates interfere with the synthesis of testosterone. Bisphenol A, another controversial chemical that is found in plastics, can mimic female hormones.” — Male, interrupted

[UK] “A Muslim doctor who claimed homosexuals ‘prey on society’ was guilty of misconduct by undermining confidence in the Islamic medical community, a disciplinary panel ruled yesterday. Dr Muhammad Siddiq, at the time president of the Islamic Medical Association, wrote to a GPs’ magazine accusing homosexuals of spreading disease and said they needed to feel ‘the stick of the law’. He also branded transsexuals ‘twisted’.” — Top Muslim doctor suspended for saying ‘transsexuals are twisted and society needs protection from gays’

[VT, USA] “The University of Vermont will be hosting the sixth annual Translating Identity Conference on Saturday at the Davis Center. The conference is a free, student-run, non-profit conference focusing on transgender communities and gender identities. The conference is open to the public to help further educate all about gender.” — Gender identity conference planned at UVM

[USA] ““Our goal, after a very long and tough Presidential campaign, is just to have a little fun with our studio audience and viewers at home,” Povich says. “Maury” returned this fall for its 11th season. The show continues to deliver more than 3 million viewers per episode and finished the 2007/2008 season as the second youngest-skewing talk show (behind only “The Tyra Banks Show”).” — Maury Povich’s Transgender Election

[UK] “This document gives practical best practice advice for NHS organisations to address their responsibilities relating to trans employment and healthcare delivery.” — Trans: a practical guide for the NHS

[Canada] “There are many schools of feminist thought, and many divergences in trans philosophy as well. I’m not trying to paint all feminism as an “enemy” when I know the two concepts can be resolved and have comfortably done so for my own personal perspective, as have many others. But there are times — such as the current debate featuring the writings of Julie Bindel and an associated journalism nomination — when certain branches choose to set themselves up in an adversarial position.” — Julie Bindel and the Trans vs. Feminism Tug-of War

[UK] “I have written on Julie Bindel before, and of course she is the cause of an outcry from transsexuals etc because she has been short-listed by Stonewall UK for an Award as Journalist of the Year. She has issued a statement in reaction to this outcry in which she cites the case of Claudia again. I, and I think most transsexuals, feel that Bindel is incapable of understanding us, and wish that she would stop writing about us. Her current statement contains reactions from transsexual and intersex persons, some of whom are well known activists. The statement is worth reading, but do continue on through the comments, and notice that initially Bindel responds, but then doesn’t. Many of the most salient points elicit only silence from her.” — Claudia (1958 - ) opera singer, drag performer

[USA] “What I’ve learned … is that coming out as a transgender person often times has a much greater impact on one’s finances than coming out as a gay person. In a way, it seems like the workplace treats the trans community today much like the treatment of the gay community thirty years ago.” — Back to Mike: Money, Career, Transitioning and Tolerance

[UK] “All I ever originally wanted was a safe space for people like me and trans folks as well. Was that too much to ask? Well, it seems so, doesn’t it?” — All I ever wanted

[Europe] “The Steering Committee of Transgender Europe lends its support to the joint statement of May 28, 2008 issued by the American organizations National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), the Transgender Law and Policy Institute (TLPI), the Transgender Law Center (TLC) and the Transgender Youth Family Allies (TYFA) … We, the Steering Committee, are firmly of the conviction that the stigmatization, which in part is grounded in the mistaken assumption that gender variance is prima facie a medical disorder, is discriminatory … ” — TGEU Statement on DSM/ICD-Revision