Jennie Hodgers, a native of Ireland, took the name of Albert Cashier, and not only served through the entire war—she posed as a man her entire life, and was only discovered near the end of her life.

All of these women took masculine names. They cut their hair short, wore pants, bound their breasts, and learned to swear and walk like men. Their gender was often not discovered unless they were severely wounded. Some were killed in battle, and only then was their sex revealed.

Female Soldiers of the Civil War

On the occasion of this Memorial Day, Linda Paul reports on “Jennie’s Secret” …

I don’t remember how I first encountered the story of Civil War veteran Jennie Hodgers (aka Albert Cashier), but I was smitten from the start. I was amazed that hundreds of women had posed as men during the Civil War. I couldn’t imagine how she (or they) pulled it off. And I was positively gob-smacked when I found out that Hodgers went on to spend most of her adult life - as a man - in the tiny town of Saunemin, Illinois. That’s just 12 miles down the road from Pontiac in Livingston County. And Pontiac is where my family comes from.

…

Look at the picture of Cashier in 1913 (on the right) and you can see that late in life her sartorial tastes still ran to high collars around the neck. Maybe because she didn’t want people to notice that she didn’t have much of an Adam’s apple.

Cashier/Hodgers would have been 69 in that picture. She looks so calm and unassuming. Who could imagine that she led the life she did?

Today in 2009, I have the feeling everybody wants a little piece of Jennie Hodgers. Civil war buffs, the Irish, the transgender community.. each wants to claim her.. and now, after many years – for the most part, even the town of Saunemin wants to claim her too.

You can listen to Paul’s report at Transom, WBEZ or NPR …

Albert D.J. Cashier was the shortest soldier in the 95th Illinois Infantry. In one of the few existing photographs of Cashier during the war, you can faintly detect the outline of breasts under her uniform. But that’s if you’re looking for it. And the military apparently was not:

DAVIS: Uh, they didn’t conduct physical exams in those days the way the military does now.. What they were looking for was warm bodies.. people who could stand up straight.. who obviously could see.. and could hear.. and hopefully could speak English so they could follow orders.

Rodney Davis is a retired professor of history at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He taught American history, including the Civil War, and knows all about the exceptional story of Albert Cashier. And in one of those real life twists, that seems too lucky to be true, years ago Davis found some papers in an old family trunk that belonged to his great grandfather, CW Ives. To his astonishment he discovered that his own great grandfather was the commanding officer to Albert DJ Cashier.

DAVIS: CW Ives was her first sergeant.. HIS first sergeant… however you wanna do it… His/her first sergeant… And they were together for at least two years.. So, uh, they got to know each other rather well.

Jennie Hodgers, masquerading as Albert Cashier, marched thousands of miles. She was at the Siege of Vicksburg and surrender of Mobile. Her regiment took part in more than 40 skirmishes and battles. Hundreds of her fellow soldiers died from wounds and disease but …

DAVIS: Albert Cashier seems to have been in from the beginning to the end.. She uh, she stuck it out … Commander CW Ives once described Albert Cashier as quote a fearless boy.

~~~~~

Related links …

* Jennie Hodgers [Civil War Women]

* Transman Civil War Hero? [Trans Group Blog]

* My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]

* Also Known As Albert D.J. Cashier: The Jennie Hodgers Story [Compass Rose]

* Civil War house going home [Pantagraph]

* Restoration planned for home of female Civil War soldier [Transgender News]

Actually, this has more to do with the comics than the funnies and with irony than funny.  The career of the comic book artist and co-creator of the Superman character, Joe Shuster, took a turn back in the ’50s, as described by Carolyn Kellogg in the Los Angeles Times recently …

Joe Shuster drew Superman in the 1930s, which should have made him invincible. But after he and writer Jerry Siegel got into a legal tie-up with DC Comics over rights to the character in the 1940s (DC won), he moved on to other things.

One of those things, which he kept quiet, was a magazine called Nights of Horror. The salacious fictional crime booklet launched in 1954 and ran for 16 issues — with illustrations by Joe Shuster. These are now collected in the book “Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster” by Craig Yoe.

[...] Shuster drew beautiful women who were impossibly stacked and handsome men with impossibly broad shoulders. Once he drew them as heroes; later, he drew them stripped, vulnerable and twisted off into another world.

Apropos “secret identities,” my comic book “heroes” when I was growing up in the ’50s were usually not the men of steel but rather those impossibly stacked, beautiful women. I didn’t know anything about terms like GID or transgender, I just knew what I had.

More …

My Brand Spanking New Book

The Sexy ‘Secret Identity’ Of Superman’s Creator

Fetish Art Of Superman’s Co-Creator

News and views for Thursday, December 4th and Friday, December 5th …

[FL, USA] “On March 24, registered voters in the city of Gainesville will decide whether the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance should be the same as Florida state anti-discrimination statute. If local law were altered to mirror the state statute, the change would eliminate the words “sexual preference” and “gender identity” from the classes of people in Gainesville who are granted equal access to housing, employment, public accommodation and credit. Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan emphasized Thursday that without the city’s added protections, it is perfectly legal for a business owner to refuse to serve a gay person or for a landlord to deny housing to a transgender individual. She said the city has chosen to protect these people from discrimination. “If you take away your community’s right to do that and cede that right to the state, then you defacto say, that, ‘OK, we are willing to allow those discriminations.’ “” — Commissioners OK amendment wording

[NY, USA] “Rejecting a trial judge’s objection that a gendered name-change would cause “confusion,” a unanimous panel of the New York Appellate Division in Albany ruled on November 26 that the person formerly known as Earl William Golden III should be allowed to take the name Elizabeth Whitney Golden. However, the appellate court also ruled that Justice Jeffrey A Tait, the Broome County trial judge who had denied the name-change petition, should include in his order a statement that the name change could not be used as proof of a change of sex.” — Trans Name Change Win

[OH, USA] In Cleveland, the “City Council is well on its way to including transgender people in the city’s non-discrimination code and creating Ohio’s third domestic partner registry. Ordinances to do both were been approved on December 1 by council’s Legislative Committee and will likely be passed by the full council at their December 8 meeting. Mayor Frank Jackson is expected to sign both the registry and the measure to add gender identity to the city’s equal rights ordinances, said his spokesperson Maureen Harper. The equality ordinances have included “sexual orientation” since 1994 … The bill’s sponsor, [Council member] Joe Santiago, asked if there was a need to add the phrase “and expression” after “gender identity” in the bill’s wording. [ACLU staff attorney Carrie] Davis said adding “expression” would be a broader definition and more inclusive. After discussion, however, Santiago and the members agreed that the measure’s definition of “gender identity” essentially includes “expression.”” — Partner registry and TG rights bills approved

[OH, USA] And, in Columbus, “Ohio’s capital city is considering changes to its human rights ordinances to add protection based on gender identity or expression. The proposed ordinance will be introduced December 8 by councilor Priscilla Tyson, who chairs the administration committee. Tyson was appointed to city council in 2007 to fill the seat vacated by openly lesbian Mary Jo Hudson, who resigned to become the Ohio insurance commissioner. The ordinance updates sections of city code covering employment non-discrimination, fair housing, public accommodations and ethnic intimidation.” — Columbus prepares to add gender identity protections

[USA] From today’s Washington Blade editorial: “In the fight for ENDA last year, many members of Congress who agreed to vote for an ENDA bill that protected gays and lesbians wouldn’t vote for the bill if transgender people were included. No demand by the House leadership was going to get their votes for two reasons: First, many didn’t really understand the meaning of transgender; second, some felt that even if they understood they couldn’t justify that vote to their constituents who didn’t in the next election. In the future, if we can harness the energy displayed by members of our community and our straight allies after the defeat of Prop 8, we have a chance to change this outcome.” — Now what?

[USA] Michael Gross is not the only person who’s angry. From a cynical and angry Vanessa Edwards Foster, “However, the trans community’s movement – simply the essential desire of being able to survive and earn a living – is currently being overwritten, completely occluded from public sight and vanishing before our very eyes. ‘[W]e are angry, probably not least at ourselves for our own complacency and cowardice, for not working as hard as we could, for not giving as much as we could, and for letting so much slip from our grasp.‘ Nearly forty years after the late Marsha P. Johnson, former NTAC member Sylvia Rivera and others created this current popular movement’s flashpoint at Stonewall, the trans community anger will not be quelled, nor will we be sated. Will we simply allow ourselves to disappear? Those of us who’ve had virtually nothing to begin with will not relinquish our grasp on what little we do have. There are far too many of us that remember, far too many of us that are still left out. We will not go quietly into that dark night. Enter the Retributive Era.” — Trans Rights Movement Is Disappearing Before Our Eyes

[USA] We’re not just angry, we’re “thrilled” too. — Homosexual/Transgender Lobby Thrilled With Obama Team

[Australia] “The Federal Government’s human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called “intersex” adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery. And transgender lobby groups say that even this does not go far enough and are demanding a fourth legal gender called “other” for people who feel like their gender is indefinable or changes from day to day. The extraordinary proposals are contained in a discussion paper quietly issued to transgender and transexual advocates by the commission, a statutory body that advises the Government on such matters. The paper, entitled Sex Files - The legal recognition of sex: Proposed reform, says the introduction of the new “intersex” gender is a “key feature of the reform proposal being developed by the commission”. “Recognition of intersex: Persons who cannot or do not identify as either male or female would be able to choose to be identified on their birth certificate and passport as intersex,” it says. “A person who cannot or chooses not to undergo surgery would not be automatically ineligible to request a change in their legal sex.”" — Government human rights arm pushes for third gender

[Canada] “Transgendered porn star Buck Angel —who bills himself as “the man with a pussy” —makes a lucrative living selling and starring in adult DVDs (Buckback Mountain, Buck Off) and streaming videos. The demographics of his audience offer some surprising insight regarding gay and lesbian desires. “Eighty percent of my customer base is gay men. Twenty percent is female —bisexual, straight and gay,” explains Angel. “I get a lot of gay men writing me letters about how they are so turned on by me and they can’t believe it and what does that make them, are they now straight? My vagina freaks people out, especially gay men,” he says. “They are attracted to me as a person but because I have a vagina, it just totally throws them for a loop, they can’t wrap their head around it.” Angel says he has seen and heard many horror stories about the treatment of trans folks by gays and lesbians. “Twenty years ago, I identified as a dyke. When I started transitioning, the dyke community ostracized me; every single one of my friends wanted nothing to do with me. There was no knowledge about what was going on then. “Funnily enough, a lot of people have called me since then, asking me how they go about transitioning now.”" — The evolution of desire: How trans people are challenging our understanding of same-sex attraction

[UK] “The applause was heartfelt, but few of the hundreds of immaculately dressed ladies celebrating at the NatWest Everywoman Awards at the Dorchester yesterday were aware that entrepreneur Kate Craig-Wood, who won one of the main prizes, started life as a man. She certainly doesn’t feel she got the award under false pretences, telling me: ‘I officially became a woman two years ago.’” — A woman’s winning touch

[UK] The Endocrine Society has published its draft guidelines for the endocrine treatment of transsexual persons. The conclusions set forth in the guidelines were as follows: “Transsexual persons seeking to develop the physical characteristics of the appropriate gender require a safe and effective hormone regimen that will 1) suppress endogenous hormone secretion determined by the person’s genetic/biologic sex and 2) maintain sex hormone levels within the normal range for the person’s gender. A mental health professional (MHP) must recommend endocrine treatment and participate in the ongoing care throughout the endocrine transition. The endocrinologist must confirm the diagnostic criteria the MHP used to make this recommendation and collaborate with the MHP in making the recommendation for surgical sex reassignment. We recommend treating transsexual adolescents (Tanner stage 2) with suppression of puberty with GnRH analogues until age 16 years old, only after which time cross-sex hormones may be given. We suggest suppression of endogenous sex hormones, maintaining physiologic levels of gender-appropriate sex hormones and surveillance for known risks and complications in adult transsexual persons.” — Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual Persons: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline (PDF)

[UK] The New Scientist’s write-up on the Endocrine Society guidelines: “Young teenagers with extreme gender identity disorder should be given drugs to block puberty so that they don’t have to experience distressing changes to their bodies which they perceive to be out of line with their true gender. So say draft international guidelines (pdf format) issued by the Endocrine Society this week – the first to offer advice to doctors on this controversial issue. The hope is that by delaying puberty, young teens will be given valuable thinking time in which they can decide if they are sure they want to begin gender reassignment using cross-sex hormones at the age of 16. Ultimately, this strategy would also make it easier for them to live in their chosen gender. For example, potential male-to-female transsexuals will not have developed the deep voice, facial changes and body hair associated with adult masculinity. Gender-reassignment surgery should be avoided until the age of 18, the guidelines say.” — Delaying puberty could help gender-confused teens

[UK] A question that perhaps you’ll never see on the U.S. Census: “Members of the public are to be questioned about their sexual orientation in a range of surveys by Government statisticians which will create the first accurate estimate of the size of Britain’s homosexual population … Future studies could also ask Britons if they have had sex swaps or are “undergoing the process of gender reassignment”. The Office for National Statistics, the organisation that collates data for use by Government, says the new questions are essential to meet equality laws and to find out if people from minority groups are discriminated against. The answers received will also create the first comprehensive picture of how many homosexuals live in Britain, in which areas, and how old they are.” — Office for National Statistics to calculate size of Britain’s homosexual population

[UK] From a review of a new biography, “Moreschi: the Angel of Rome”: “The castrato craze was one of the most bizarre phenomena of the European Baroque period. In the middle years of the 16th century eunuchs began to be prized in the courts of Italy for their peculiar vocal power and brilliance. By 1600, Pope Clement VIII could solemnly declare that “the creation of castrati for Church choirs is to be held to the honour of God”. A century later the gelded male, whether soprano or alto, dominated the Italian operatic scene. Stars such as Senesino, Caffarelli and Carestini earned huge salaries in the course of glittering international careers, while the legendary Farinelli, by singing the same five arias nightly for 23 years to two schizophrenic kings of Spain, became their éminence grise and, as some believed, unofficial ruler of the Spanish empire. “Long live the knife!” bawled Italian theatre audiences, and for many an impoverished family the operation seemed like a passport to financial security.” — The last castrato

News and views for Monday, November 24th …

[NY, USA] The latest on Carmen’s Place: “A controversial Astoria shelter for gay and transgender young people may be forced to shut down if it doesn’t receive a quick infusion of cash. The Rev. Louis Braxton, director of Carmen’s Place, said donations have plummeted with the tanking economy. “We’ve always been hand to mouth, with just enough to make our bills,” Braxton said. “But since the economic meltdown, we just died.”" — Shelter for youths on the brink

[OR, USA] From The Oregonian, “The counterprotesters outside City Hall in this Marion County town today significantly outnumbered the protesters who inspired them: three young women and a man from a Kansas church, here to register their disdain with the recent election of the nation’s first openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen. The quartet spread out along one side of North Water Street, feet planted on American flags spread on the sidewalk and hoisting large laminated posterboards on each arm. Double-sided and easy to read from passing vehicles and local television trucks positioned half a block away, the signs offered assorted damnation — “Barack Obama = Antichrist,” “God Hates You,” “You’re Going to Hell” and “Fag Media Shame.”" — Silverton rebuffs protest of transgender mayor-elect

[OR, USA] From The Girl Inside, an interview with Stu Rasmussen, the transgender newly-elected mayor of Silverton, Oregon. — Interview: America’s First Crossdressing Mayor

[USA] “According to Stryker in Queer Pulp, the “dimestore” or “pulp” novel owes its popularity to the Army’s attempts to keep the troops occupied by printing and distributing cheap, thin editions of popular and classic novels. Soldiers spread their love of the books, allowing the pulp industry new-found clout by the late ‘40s. Stryker goes on to note that the advent of the gay and lesbian novels of the ‘50s and ‘60s also owes a debt to the rise of the sci-fi novel. Like homosexual literature, tales of intergalactic travel and ghostly apparitions had been around for quite some time, but advancing technology and the prospect of real space travel propelled the genre. As more sci-fi novels featured aliens who enjoyed alternative sexual practices or genders foreign to our two-gender system, audiences become more comfortable with reading about alien love and intercourse, allowing them to view differently sexual relationships outside of the heterosexual norm of procreative sex.” — Fresh Squeeze with Pulp

[Equatorial Guinea] In soccer news, at the African Women’s Championships in Equatorial Guinea, “the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may have filed a protest to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), over allegations that three hermaphrodites are in the Equatorial Guinea team … Nigeria had on Saturday filed a similar protest against South Africa over one of their players. The outcome of the protest is yet to be made public.” — Falcons protest alleged hermaphrodite in E’ Guinean team

[UK] Via Transsexual Road Map Notes, Lynn Conway comments on yesterday’s article in The Guardian (”Porn addicts, sex offenders, rapists, paedophiles…“) on the Portman Clinic: “Note how the Portman Clinic classifies transgender and transsexual people as ‘compulsive’ sexual deviants, and lumps them in among pedophiles and rapists. Reminiscent of the Clarke Institute (CAMH) in Toronto (which has a similar historical background), this 75 year old mental health facility is where many young trans youth are sent for “treatment” in the UK today, as you will see at this link.” — The Portman Clinic and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: eugenic hotbeds

News and views for Wednesday, November 19th and Thursday, November 20th (Transgender Day of Remembrance) …

[CA, USA] “A transsexual former California state prison inmate, who claimed to have suffered repeated sexual assaults and beatings at the hands of two cellmates, can pursue a negligence damage claim against prison officials, an appeals court ruled on November 14, but she was not entitled to seek damages under the “cruel and unusual punishment” provision of the State Constitution … As a result of the appellate court overturning that dismissal, Alexis Giraldo, sent to Folsom State Prison in January 2006 while serving time for a parole violation, will be given a trial on her charge that prison officials were negligent in failing to protect her. However, the court found, the California Constitution does not afford an individual right to sue for damages for violations of the cruel and unusual punishment provision, which can only be enforced through a suit seeking to end unlawful punishment. A trial jury considered but rejected Giraldo’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.” — Trans Inmate’s Suit Revived

[GA, USA] “Doraville has become the latest Georgia city to add transgender employees to its nondiscrimination policy. The move means transgender workers — those whose biological and gender identity are not the same — cannot be fired or mistreated in the northern DeKalb County city. “We have never discriminated against anyone, and we never will,” said Mayor Ray Jenkins. “We want to stay ahead of the issue.” The policy puts Doraville in rare company. Atlanta and Decatur are the only other cities in the state that protect transgender workers. In fact, while the protections have become more common in private business, they are more unusual at the municipal level. That is why, to advocates, it’s symbolic for a former industrial city of just 10,000 to approve the policy. The change comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit by Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, a transgender woman who said she was fired from her job at the Georgia General Assembly because of her decision to change her gender from male to female.” — Doraville won’t discriminate against transgender employees

[OR, USA] “Stu Rasmussen promised a new administration if he was elected, and he’s as good as his word: Silverton residents not only are getting a new mayor; they’re also getting a new Stu … Silverton appears to have come to terms long ago with Rasmussen’s nebulous gender, which he describes as “25%, maybe 30% between” man and woman, and his “adoption of the twins,” as the mayor-elect refers to his breast surgery. But he still manages to catch some people off guard. “Guys come up to me in the bar and say, ‘Hate to tell you this, but I saw this woman on the street the other day, and I’m thinking, great legs, nice tan, and she turns around and I go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Stu!’ ” Rasmussen recounts in the deep voice that seems always softened with a trace of humor. “If I could have a face transplant, it’d be perfect. A face like this, only a mother could love. But people overlook the face now,” he says, glancing discreetly down at his tank top, “because there’s all this other real estate.”" — The mayor-elect’s new clothes: Silverton, Oregon, elects a transgender leader

[USA] An interview with Julia Serano: “The rising visibility of trans, intersex, and genderqueer movements has led feminists—and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world—to an increasing awareness that m and f are only the beginning of the story of gender identity. With the release of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano offers a perspective sorely needed, but up until now rarely heard: a transfeminine critique of both feminist and mainstream understandings of gender.” — Gender diversity: A Transsexual Woman’s view of Sexism

[USA] From Kelley Winters, “To summarize, the term “autogynephilia” means far more than a description of erotic phenomenon. “Autogynephilia,” and its corollary “homosexual transsexualism,” have come to represent an over-arching body of derogatory stereotypes that are promoted as science but remain dogmatically resilient to contrary evidence … The term “autogynephilia” has grown to represent an affront to the human legitimacy and dignity of many transitioned women. It serves no constructive purpose in an evidence-based diagnostic nosology. I strongly urge the American Psychiatric Association to remove this offensive term from the supporting text of the GID diagnosis and refrain from adding it to the nomenclature of paraphilias in the DSM-V.” — Autogynephilia: The Infallible Derogatory Hypothesis, Part 2

[USA] From Donna Rose, “In a related note, the Human Rights Campaign has produced a video commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance. I don’t mind sharing that although I appreciate these kinds of things in principle I’m having a hard time appreciating this. I blame this organization for actively supporting the single-most destructful thing to be forced upon the transgender community despite their commitments to the contrary. I blame this organization for continuing to treat us with disrespect and, over the past year, could have used their resources to create untold amounts of support and education - but has not. I blame this organization for actually penalizing legislators who demonstrated a higher standard and a greater commitment to full Equality than HRC held itself to. I blame this organization for doing more to fracture the GLBT community than anyone from the outside would ever have been able to do. I blame this organization for trying to become a voice for transgender people when, in fact, they have no right to speak on behalf of any of us: they need to talk with us before they can hope to talk for us. All these things make these kinds of videos feel like a slap in the face more than something to appreciate. They don’t seem to learn that how you do something is just as important as what you do and they continue to do things wrong. –The best way to get the message across that you really care isn’t to produce flashy videos that include only HRC staffers. It’s to treat us with respect, to be honest with us, to engage us, and to actively help find ways that we can work together. It’s to actively build tools to help educate, to help get transpeople jobs, to do the difficult work or rebuilding some level of trust that continues to lay in shambles for most of us. If some of that had come before this video I might feel differently. However, it hasn’t. As a result, recent Press Releases and videos feel more like the same old tired HRC PR tactics than anything heartfelt or sincere to me.  Those looking for a DOR 2008 video created by and with transpeople simply need look here.” — Warning: HRC rant

[MN, USA] Minneapolis radio host Chris Baker, who last week referred to Thomas Beatie as a “mutilated lesbian” and a “freak,” on Tuesday blamed the murder of trans woman Latiesha Green on the media: “Doesn’t some of the blame lie with the American media who enables this fraud? … I would say a majority of the blame does not lie with the nitwit that shot him, other than the fact that he’s a nitwit and a guy who should have been in prison in my opinion, who shot him. But to me, this is the — this is an example of how, by enabling people and trying to push this false reality, leads to horrible crimes like this.”" — Baker: Media have “blood on their hands” for murder of transgender woman because they created “false sense of reality”

[TN, USA] “A former Memphis police officer pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to civil rights charges in the jailhouse beating of a transgender prostitution suspect that was captured on video. An indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses Bridges McRae, 28, of using unreasonable force by repeatedly striking Duanna Johnson with his fist and handcuffs in the intake area of the Shelby County Jail in February … Johnson, 43, who had a long history of prostitution arrests, was shot to death on a Memphis street by an unknown assailant earlier this month. The killing is still under investigation and no arrests have been made … The beating and Johnson’s murder have drawn the attention of advocates for gay and transgender rights, including the Human Rights Campaign, a national group that has called on the Memphis Police Department for a “commitment to treating transgender people with respect and fairness.”" — Officer Pleads Not Guilty to Videotaped Beating of Transgendered Woman

[Australia] “A doctor has been found guilty of performing an indecent act on a suicidal transsexual patient. Sulieman Hamid, 53, of Melbourne, touched the cognitively-impaired patient on her breasts and lips while he treated her for a slashed wrist in a cubicle at the Sunshine Hospital emergency department in June 2007. The court was earlier told the patient propositioned the doctor while he was treating her. A jury in the Victorian County Court today found that the touching did not constitute the more serious charge of indecent assault. It also found him not guilty of raping the woman at her home the following day.” — Doctor touched transsexual patient

[Canada] “Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) has been funded in Ontario since June, but the minister of health still seems confused about it. The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) has been paying for SRS since Jun 3, after it was announced in May that the government would be relisting the procedure again after 10 years. But health minister David Caplan — who replaced George Smitherman in the portfolio in June — seems unaware of that or that the debate over exactly what shape the final process for SRS in the province will take is ongoing.” — Caplan confused about SRS: Health minister sends contradictory messages

[Finland] An update on Olli Aalto: “The Evangelical Lutheran bishop of Mikkeli, eastern Finland, says that an Imatra vicar who plans to undergo gender reassignment treatment can keep his job … During a joint press conference with Aalto on Thursday, Bishop Voitto Huotari confirmed that Aalto has a legal right to retain his post. Huotari denied that he had ever threatened to dismiss Aalto. He added that it is up to the vicar to decide if he will continue working. Aalto said last week that he had been encouraged to leave the Church and that he would consider legal action if he was expelled from his job. The cleric says he is tired of leading a double life, noting that extensive studies have diagnosed him as a transsexual. Aalto says the Church has a responsibility to provide work for someone who has been a faithful servant.” — Transgender Vicar Allowed to Keep Job

[India] “Police in Bangalore reportedly forced about 100 hijras (working-class transgender people) from their homes last week. Human rights groups said this is part of a pattern of prejudice-driven violence and abuse in the city aimed at hijras, mostly male-to-female working-class trans people … When challenged on their unconstitutional actions, the police told some of the activists that they had orders from higher up to round up hijras in Bangalore. Hijras are often unable to obtain identity papers because their gender identity and appearance do not correspond to their sex at birth. As a result, many cannot find housing, education, or legal employment – or, in many cases, even vote. The effective loss of basic citizenship rights – coupled with widespread social prejudice leaves them economically marginalised and exposed to police abuse.” — Indian police accused of “social cleansing” after another attack on trans community

[New Zealand] “With Jack yesterday were Nicky Gerard and Brooklynne Michelle, who were both born with male bodies and had transitioned to females. One of the toughest tasks was getting a job, and even though they both had university degrees it hadn’t helped, they said. “The discrimination is always there. I mean, you’re upfront with who you are, but generally being that truthful doesn’t help. It’s hard trying to be accepted in a work situation,” Nicky said. Brooklynne remembers before her transition walking down the street to a favourite cafe for a coffee with a mate being no problem at all. “Not now. The minute I’m out walking in the street, the sniggers, the ridicule, the abuse follow me all the way. It’s tough.” The three said that “being trans” was never a lifestyle and it wasn’t choice.”It’s the way we were born.”" — Boys will be girls and life will be tough

[Sweden] “Maria Sundin from Sweden’s Trans Oresund network said: “The demand for the exclusion of certain diagnostic criterias such as transvestitism, sado-masochism and fetishism from the Swedish verison of ICD-10 (KSH97) has been supported by the GLBT community for quite a while.” The World Health Organisation’s coding of diseases is known as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems and it is on its 10th Revision (ICD-10). “It’s also important that the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare will work towards an elimination of these diagnostic criterias from the ICD-10 on an international level,” said Ms Sundin. “As far as I can see this action will not influence how our national health insurance will fund various medical needs for the transgender community. Access to treatment is based on the diagnosis of transsexualism, which will remain in the Swedish version of ICD-10.” — Sweden removes transvestism and other ’sexual behaviours’ from list of diseases

[Sweden] “It sounds like a lost episode of The Twilight Zone. A man enters a laboratory, dons a special headset and shakes hands with a woman sitting across from him. In a matter of seconds, he feels like he’s inside the woman’s skin, reaching out and grasping his own hand. Strange as it sounds, neuroscientists have induced this phenomenon in a series of volunteers. People can experience the illusion that either a mannequin or another person’s body is their own body, says Valeria Petkova of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. She and Karolinska colleague Henrik Ehrsson call this reaction the “body-swap illusion.”” — Your body is mine

[Germany] Only the sky was the limit when Yvonne Buschbaum soared to big heights as one of the leading women’s pole vaulters in Germany. Now the sky is wide open for Buschbaum, who feels the lightness of being after revealing her transsexuality last year and undergoing a gender change to Balian Buschbaum since then. “Courage is the road to freedom. I woke up in complete freedom today. The sky is wide open,” said a recent diary entry on his website … A year has passed since Buschbaum revealed that she felt like a man trapped in a women’s body and would undergo the gender change to find her personal freedom. She appeared in television talkshows and also won respect in the athletics scene for her courage. But the medical implications of the gender change - the use of doping substances [testosterone] - required Buschbaum to quit pole vaulting … ” — The sky is no limit for gender-changed vaulter Buschbaum

[UK] “The 9th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance has been marked in the UK by the Trades Union Congress with a call on employers to stop discriminating against people on the grounds of gender identity … Although there have been improvements to the law, there remain gaps and widespread exemptions that leave trans people without full protection in employment … Earlier this week the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, held a meeting about the human rights situation of transgender people and discrimination based on gender identity. He said the problems of transgender persons as to go to the “very roots of what human rights are: the protection of the most vulnerable in society, the integrity of the human body and the right to be free from inhumane treatment.” Professor Stephen Whittle, Jane Thomas and Richard Koehler represented TransGender Europe at the meeting. TEU co-chair Julia Ehrt said: “It is clearly unaccaptable that a transgender person has to trade off legal properties like the right to integrity and self determination versus the recognition as a trans person.” The group said that in most European countries sterility and being single are forced pre-requisites to obtain name and gender change.” — Unions call for an end to discrimination on Transgender Day of Remembrance

News and views for Wednesday, November 12th …

[TN, USA] “The nation’s largest gay civil rights organization is calling for a thorough investigation of the murder of a transgender woman who was preparing to sue Memphis police … The Human Rights Campaign issued a statement Wednesday, saying the Memphis Police Department needs to renew its “commitment to treating transgender people with respect and fairness.” Police say the shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been made.” — Group Wants Probe of Transgender Woman’s Death

[TN, USA] “When the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act passed through Congress in 2007, President George W. Bush vetoed the bill. President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged to support the bill. The transgender community, however, would still be left in the cold should it pass. The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition is pushing a Hate Crimes Enhancement bill that would add gender identity and expression to the definition. We remain cautiously optimistic about what effect, if any, hate crime legislation would have on the actual act itself, but if something like this could pass in Tennessee, well, who knows?” — Transgendered in Tennessee–Dangerous Enough For New Legislation?

[KS, USA] “Debra Davis is a hugger. She describes herself as a parent, grandmother, good friend and good neighbor. She’s also a transgender person. Davis will be relating her experiences in her presentation “Transgender: The New Face on Campus” tonight at 7 at the Courtside Room in the Burge Union. The presentation, of which Davis has given more than 1,000, has taken her to campuses across the Midwest, including previous visits to the University. Davis said she enjoyed speaking at each school because of the experiences she had at each one … Davis said the point of her presentation was to explain how people become transgender individuals. She said the issue was not clear-cut. “I don’t know if I even understand the whole thing,” Davis said.” — Speaker sheds light on transgender life

[VT, USA] ” A professional makeover: A gift Michele Todd desperately wanted to give herself for decades, but didn’t. Not because she couldn’t afford a visit to the salon. She had the money. Michele feared a new look would devastate her family and friends and get her fired from her job, because the makeover she wanted would be drastic. Michele lived most of her life as Michael. “I want to work and breathe and live 24-7 as Michele,” she explains. Earlier this year, she legally changed her name, started wearing women’s clothes in public, and now walks solely in Michele’s shoes. The 51-year-old is transgender. She was born with male genitalia but identifies as female.” — Understanding Transgender

[USA] “Is the baby a boy or girl? Few things are harder for new parents than hearing their doctor say, “I don’t know.” “It is shocking,” said Katrina Karkazis, PhD, the author of a new book, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority and Lived Experience, which will be released by Duke University Press on Nov. 14. Shame and confusion may overwhelm parents whose infant’s anatomy doesn’t match typical male or female patterns, Karkazis said. “It’s not something you find in most books that prepare you for having a baby.”” — Stanford author explores struggles of intersex individuals, their families and doctors

Katrina Karkazis discusses the struggles that face intersex people with the school’s executive director of communications, Paul Costello. Length: 17 mins. — Interview with Katrina Karkazis

[USA] “When Dr. H. walked into the examination room, he didn’t say hello. He didn’t shake my hand. He just started the examination. Then I noticed he was wearing latex gloves. (He never wore latex gloves for routine examinations.) He didn’t want to be in the same room with me. He didn’t want to touch me. Normally he would take my pulse by touching either my wrist or my neck. He did neither. When he listened to my heart he normally rested the stethoscope on the bare skin of my upper chest just inside the collar of my shirt. He didn’t do that. (He rested it right on the fabric of my shirt.) When he was finished he wrote the prescription, handed it to me and said: “we’re finished and I’m outta here.” He left the room and that was the last time I saw him. Interesting, he detests the Transgendered, but he’s not above billing a Transgendered person’s health insurance. (That is so morally bankrupt.) Don’t put money into these doctor’s pockets.” — Doctors, Healthcare Givers and Transsexuals: Discrimination Happens Part Two

[USA] “Yep, those are the two main strains of opinions bellowed across the web when news of Kidman’s casting broke. Either shock and fawning or pure meat-head mentality. What you didn’t hear was many people calling bullshit on the casting. Well, bullshit, bullshit and bullshit … when it comes to material featuring transgendered individuals, there’s no doubt Hollywood locks itself in the safe room … even though it’s an indie, the casting of Kidman as a guy-gone-girl transsexual is a symptom of shrewd, safety-first Hollywood studio mentality. You can almost hear the financiers. She’s a star! She’ll boost box-office! She’ll create instant publicity in a role like this! So it’s not brave or novel casting, but a rather ball-less decision obsessed with the bottom line.” — Hollywood’s Ball-less Decision: Kidman as a Transsexual Male

[USA] “A change is coming to America, and it is a scary one. What will the White House look like under an Obama administration? Well, it may look similar to that of San Francisco during the annual Sodomite parade … Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says Obama’s new non-discrimination policy will be an “open door” for gender-confused and cross-dressing federal employees …All of this is an attempt to further the so called civil-rights protections of Sodomites, and eventually lead to legislation that specifically protects homosexuals, and prohibits discrimination based on being a homosexual or “gender confused.” Unfortantely, millions of whites voted for Barack Obama without realizing that the change they voted for is not going to be in the best interest of our dearly beloved America, or their children. A change is coming, and perhaps it’s Obama wearing a dress. Until then.” — Cross-dressers in White House with Obama?

[USA] “The religious right are scared over an Obama presidency and the positive possibilities it may have for the lgbt community. So expect them to batten down all of the hatches and pull out all of their lies about hate crimes legislation, gays serving openly in the military, ENDA, and non-discrimination ordinances in general. With non-discrimination ordinances, they are going to try and exploit ignorance and fear about our transgender brothers and sisters. I see from an item on LaBarbera’s Americans for Truth (in name only) web page and the One News Now webpage, they aren’t wasting any time … ” — And it begins - One News Now and Peter LaBarbera attacks the transgender community

[Australia] “Sometimes it seems an awfully big mountain, and an awfully small teaspoon to be moving it with. I need the occasional story like this to recharge my batteries, and restore my faith in Humankind. ‘When Bishop Gayle Harris asked if we were ready to vote, she didn’t have time to specify that those in favor of the resolution should signify a yes by raising their yellow cards. Yellow cards just started rising, beginning with the left side of the hall. “Hey, what if I had started with the nos?!” she said. But the avalanche was unstoppable: a sea of yellow cards filled the room. When Bishop Harris asked those against the resolution to raise their red cards, I saw no more than 10, again, in a room of about 800 people. I imagine there were some quiet abstentions, but based on that sea of yellow cards, there can’t have been many. So the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts has now gone on record in support of transgender civil rights here in Massachusetts as well as at the federal level, and it has asked the General Convention next summer to augment its non-discrimination canon to include transgender people as part of the ministry of all the baptized.‘ Excelsior.” — A Sea of Yellow Cards Filled the Room

Frank Rich is still “off today” at the New York Times, not that there’s anything wrong with that … since last week readers had Jenny Boylan in his place, and this week Olivia Judson. Change is good.

In the case of both GID (gender identity dysphoria) and obesity, there’s still much to be learned about nature and nurture and how and what happens in the womb …

Suppose you have two groups of pregnant female rats. Rats in the first group can either eat as much regular lab-rat chow as they like, or they can eat their fill of human junk food — cookies, doughnuts, marshmallows, potato chips, muffins, chocolate. Rats in the second group only get chow, but again, can eat as much as they like. After the rats have given birth, continue the different regimens while the pups are suckling. Then give both groups of pups access to the chow and the junk food.

Experiments like this have found that pregnant females with access to junk food ate, on a daily basis, roughly 40 percent more food (by weight) and 56 percent more calories than rats that just had chow. Moreover — and this is the interesting bit — pups whose mothers ate junk food while pregnant and lactating had a greater taste for food high in fat and sugar than those whose mothers did not. The junk-food pups ate more calories and were more prone to gaining weight.

What goes for rats does not necessarily go for humans. Nonetheless, such results are thought-provoking. As everyone knows, humans are getting fatter and fatter. According to the World Health Organization, 400 million adults around the world weighed in as obese in 2005. In the United States, more than a third of women between 20 and 39 are obese, some of them extremely so. For the first time in history, large numbers of obese women are having children.

Being obese during pregnancy is dangerous for the mother and expensive for the health care system. But does it affect the babies?

There are reasons to think it might. The period between conception and birth is crucial — after all, you’re growing from a single cell into a baby. Your heart is being built; your brain is being wired. Exposure to alcohol during this time can disrupt brain development; lack of iodine may permanently stunt growth. Being starved in the womb can lead to health problems such as heart disease later in life, especially if food becomes abundant. So what about overnourishment? Does an “obese” environment in the womb somehow predispose babies to obesity later on?

At the moment, such questions are difficult to answer. Humans are much harder to study than rats, and the phenomenon of obesity in pregnancy is relatively new, so we don’t know much about it yet. Moreover, many factors contribute to someone’s becoming obese, and picking them apart is tricky. Added to that, an “obese” environment in the womb has two separate elements: the nutrients provided by the mother via the food she eats, and the hormonal environment of someone who is overweight. (Being obese can profoundly alter a woman’s hormonal profile.) Again, picking these apart is hard.

But the results of several studies suggest that the very fact of a woman being obese during pregnancy may predispose her children to obesity. For example, one study found that children born to women who have lost weight after radical anti-obesity surgery are less likely to be obese than siblings born before their mother lost weight. Another study looked at women who gained weight between pregnancies; the results showed that babies born after their mothers put on weight tended to be heavier at birth than siblings born beforehand. Since the mother’s genes haven’t changed, the “fat” environment seems likely to be responsible for the effect.

Why might this happen? Perhaps an “obese” environment in the womb alters the wiring of the developing brain so as to interfere with normal appetite control, fat deposition, taste in food, or metabolism. Studies on other animals suggest that parts of the brain that control appetite develop differently under “obese” conditions. And in humans, one study has found that babies born to obese mothers have lower resting metabolic rates than babies whose mothers are of normal weight.

For most of our evolutionary past, the problem has been avoiding starvation. An environment awash with sugars and fats is, therefore, an evolutionary novelty: in hundreds of millions of years of evolution, this is the first time such foods have been abundant. Giant quantities of fats and sugars have not, historically, been available to a developing fetus, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they do have a harmful impact.

If this is right, it raises the alarming possibility that the obesity epidemic has a built-in snowball effect. If children born to obese mothers are, owing to the environment in the womb, predisposed to obesity, they may find staying thin especially hard. Reversing the epidemic may thus rest on helping women to lose weight before they conceive and helping them to eat a balanced, non-junk-food diet while they are pregnant. The well-being of the next generation may depend on it.

Honey, I Plumped the Kids

Some poetry from Ms. Judson (aka Dr. Tatiana), which you can hear in a 2003 interview with Jackie Leyden of NPR …

Beware, for it’s easy to blunder
And be false in what you aver.

Some creatures change sex before teatime,
Some others find two sexes dull,
And that virile male fish has no free time–
He’s got all his kiddies to lull.

When it comes to the topic of gender,
Mother Nature’s been having some fun.
Take nothing for granted! Remember,
You won’t find any rules–not a one!

(Heck of a place, I wonder if Scotty McClellan passed through there … ?)

From the New York Times this evening …

ABERDEEN, S.D. — Senator Barack Obama has resigned his membership in Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, which he attended for nearly two decades, following months of controversy about pastors and their political views.

Mr. Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, wrote a letter on Friday to the church’s pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss, explaining that their estrangement from Trinity took root in controversial remarks by the church’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who once was Mr. Obama’s spiritual guide.

“Our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Reverend Wright, which sharply conflict with our own views,” they wrote. “These controversies have served as an unfortunate distraction for other Trinity members who seek to worship in peace, and have placed you in an untenable position.”

But at a news conference after a town-hall-style meeting here on Saturday, Mr. Obama sounded pained as he confirmed his decision to leave the place he had considered his spiritual home. A sermon by Mr. Wright, a longtime pastor at the church, even provided the phrase — “the audacity of hope” — that became Mr. Obama’s campaign theme and the title of his latest book.

“I make this decision with sadness,” Mr. Obama said, speaking in subdued tones as he stood before a bland background. “This is where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized. We are proud of the extraordinary works of that church.”

Mr. Obama rejected suggestions that he denounce the church, which is one of Chicago’s largest and most socially active black churches, with a wide array of respected social programs. Several of the most prominent black theologians in Chicago attend the church.

“I’m not denouncing the church and I’m not interested in people who want me to denounce the church,” he said in response to a question. “It’s not a church worthy of denouncing.”

He said that his resignation was not a matter of political convenience, but rather that he had reached the point where neither he nor Trinity’s pastors and congregants could worship in peace. He noted that reporters now pored over sermons and that some had called sick members at home to ask about the church.

The rest of “Obama Leaves Church That Drew Wide Criticism” may be read here.

And, here’s hoping that Aberdeen appears on Sen. McCain’s campaign itinerary too some time soon. Who knows, it might be contagious.

News and views relevant to (not just) trans people …

#1 - Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 08-200 (”Concerning The Expansion Of Prohibitions Against Discrimination”) into law Thursday. The bill essentially (defines and) adds “sexual orientation” to the state’s existing anti-discrimination statutes, where …

“Sexual orienation” means a person’s orientation toward heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender status oe another person’s perception thereof.

… and (I am shocked) Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is trying to whip up some hysteria (”Dr. Dobson Decries Ritter’s Signing of SB200“) …

“Who would have believed that the Colorado state Legislature and its governor would have made it fully legal for men to enter and use women’s restrooms and locker-room facilities without notice or explanation?

“Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence. The legislation lists every conceivable type of organization to which this law applies, including restaurants, bathhouses, massage parlors, mortuaries, theaters and ‘public facilities of any kind.’ Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars.

“This is your government in action. It represents a payback to Tim Gill and two other billionaires who have essentially ‘bought’ the state Legislature with enormous campaign contributions. Coloradans deserve better!

“And by the way, because of the way this bill is written, it is not subject to the initiative process. There is no recourse.”

Please, when you get down to it, this is about much more bathrooms. It’s really about issues like finding employment or housing, or even about getting someone to cut your grass, and some folks’ perceived, god-given right to say trannies or gays “need not apply.” Every restroom or bathroom in the state of Colorado could be magically transformed today into one’s own little, unassailable fortress, and these folks would be no happier tomorrow. They want their own little “land of the free and home of the brave” all to themselves. That’s it.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a list (which I posted at Transgender News) of gender, transgender and intersex-related books slated for release from now until the end of the year. (The list of publishers and titles is culled from Publisher’s Weekly’s “Lesbian and Gay Titles May-December 2008: Complete Listings.”) …

ARSENAL PULP PRESS

queersexlife: Autobiographical Notes on Sexuality, Gender & Identity
(May, $19.95) by Terry Goldie is the York University English
professor’s frank and intimate collection of responses to theories of
queer sexuality and identity.

–

CITY LIGHTS

So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (Sept., $16 paper) by Mattilda Bernstein
Sycamore is set San Francisco, where a young gay man struggles to find
hope in the ruins of the everyday. Bernstein Sycamore is the
gender-bending author of the highly praised novel, Pulling Taffy, and
the editor of four nonfiction anthologies.

–

CLEIS PRESS

The Transgender Child (June, $16.95 paper) by Stephanie Brill and
Rachel Pepper is a comprehensive guidebook for parents and
professionals exploring the challenges of raising a transgender child.
Brill is founder of Gender Spectrum Education and Training and Pepper
is coordinator of LGBT Studies at Yale University.

–

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience (Oct.,
$23.95 hardcover) by Katrina A. Karkazis examines contemporary
controversies over the medical management of intersexuality in the
U.S. from the perspectives of patients, parents and clinicians.

–

FEMINIST PRESS AT CUNY

Trans (Dec., $22 hardcover) edited by Susan Stryker, Lisa-Jean Moore &
Paisley Currah explores the meaning of “trans” as it relates to
nationality, culture, race, and gender. Currah teaches at Brooklyn
College; Moore teaches at Purchase College; and Stryker won an Emmy
for her documentary Screaming Queens.

–

FIREBRAND BOOKS

Read My Lips: Second Edition (Nov., $14.95 paper) by Riki Wilchins
weaves theory and personal experience into a story of self-discovery
for lesbians, feminists, queer academics, activists and transpeople.
Wilchins is cofounder of the Transexual Menace and Executive Director
of GenderPAC.

–

HYPERION

Smile as They Bow (Sept., $24.95 hardcover) by Nu Nu Yi was
shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. It’s the
mesmerizing, lush story of a gay transvestite, his young assistant,
and a beautiful beggar girl, set among the gay spirit mediums of
Burma. One of Burma’s leading writers, Nu Nu Yi is the author of more
than 15 novels and 100 short stories.

–

ST. MARTIN’S/GRIFFIN

Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit (Sept. $14.95 paper) by Catherine
James is the former Wilhemina model’s memoir of how, after she had
escaped her miserable childhood, her father revealed himself to be not
just a cross-dresser but a transsexual, and her mother came back into
her life just in time to die, but not to change her attitude toward
her only daughter.

–

SUSPECT THOUGHTS PRESS (dist. by Small Press Distribution)

Dying for a Change (Aug., $17 paper) by Sean Reynolds is set in summer
1965, when Miss Dive, a famous drag queen from Chicago’s North Side,
is murdered, sending fierce drag queen Henrietta Wild Child and sexy
black butch Chan Parker on a mad romp, from low life bars to mob dens,
to find the killer.

–

UNIV. OF WISCONSIN PRESS

The Gendering of Men, 1600–1750: Volume 2, Queer Articulations (July,
$65 hardcover) by Brandeis Univ. Professor Thomas A. Kin looks at the
emergence of male homosexuals in early modern England analyzes the
perception of masculinity and effeminacy in the 18th century.

–

HENRY HOLT

Debbie Harry Sings in French (May, $16.95) by Meagan Brothers. A
troubled teenage boy finds strength in the music of Blondie and in
dressing like the band’s lead singer. (14-up)

–

LITTLE, BROWN

Luna (Sept., $7.99 paper) by Julie Anne Peters is a paperback reprint
of Peters’s 2004 novel about a transgender teen’s transition from girl
to boy. (12-up)

–

PENGUIN/SPEAK

Freak Show (Oct., $8.99 paper) by James St. James. The author’s 2007
novel about a teenage drag queen’s new life in Florida returns in this
paperback reprint. (14-up)

–

RANDOM HOUSE

Cycler (Aug., $17.99 hardcover) by Lauren McLaughlin. For four days
each month, high school student Jill turns into a boy. (14-up)

Where it’s okay to judge a book by its cover …

A self-help guide called “If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs” has been voted the oddest book title of the year.

It beat off stiff competition from another entitled “I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen” to win The Bookseller magazine’s prize, reports the BBC.

“Cheese Problems Solved” took third place in a poll which attracted 8,500 votes.

Joel Rickett, deputy editor of The Bookseller, said of the winner: “So effective is the title that you don’t even need to read the book itself.”

He added that it “makes redundant an entire genre of self-help tomes”.

The manual, whose author is named Big Boom, is described as a “self-help book, written by a man for the benefit of women”.

Bookseller’s contest began in 1978, and the roll-call of previous winners includes High Performance Stiffened Structures, Living with Crazy Buttocks and How To Avoid Huge Ships.

Legs manual wins odd title prize

Some of the trans people and happenings in the news the past week or so …

People …

• Former British paratrooper Jan Hamilton
• Transgender teen Rika Navarro
• Trans activist Jenn Burleton
• California administrative law judge Victoria Kolakowski
• Race-car driver Terri O’Connell
• British surgeon James Barry

Law, legislation …

• Philippine woman will have to remain a ‘he’ in birth certificate
• Legislation to bar discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity was introduced in the Ohio legislature.
• Legislation to add sexual orientation to the state’s Human Rights and Fair Housing acts advanced in West Virginia.
• In Georgia, an anti-bullying bill, one which does not specifically address bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity, advanced, while a hate crimes bill (which includes gender identity and sexual orientation) remains stalled.
• Council Bluffs, Iowa is considering adding the protection of sexual orientation and sexual identity to the city’s civil rights code.
• In Massachusetts, advocates turned out for a hearing on a transgender civil rights bill.
• In Montgomery County, Maryland, election officials have cleared the way for voters to decide whether to uphold broad protections for transgender individuals passed by the County Council in the fall. Proponents of the trans rights legislation said they expected to file a lawsuit to overturn the petition and stop the referendum.
• New York has a new governor, a man who has been supportive of trans rights.

Arts & media …

• The Lambda Literary Foundation announced its nominees for the 20th annual Lambda Literary Awards.
• “She’s a Boy I Knew” documents the transformation of Steven Haworth into Gwen Haworth.
• Out magazine focuses on trans lives and culture in the April issue.
• Mercedes Allen continues her series on trans history at the Bilerico Project.

Features …

• “Is society ready for this pregnant husband?” in The Advocate.
• “Transgender people step out” in the Dayton Daily News.
• “When Girls Will Be Boys” in the New York Times.

Remembering our dead …

• Luna

Steve Weinstein reviewed this biography by Richard Docter (who also wrote one on Virginia Prince, and who was mentioned by Zagria today in reference to Vern Bullough’s preface to that book) yesterday in EDGE Boston.

In 1952, the front page of the Daily News blazed with a headline that “Ex-G.I. Becomes Blonde Beauty.” With that, George Jorgensen, a quiet, shy young man from the Bronx, burst into the public eye like a blazing comet.

Over 50 years later, it’s impossible to imagine the impact that Christine Jorgensen had on the United States, indeed on the whole world. She wasn’t the world’s first male-to-female transsexual, but, in one of those perfect historical storms, she became a touchstone for every compass point on the 1950s roadmap: the changing nature of human identity; science as a determinant of identity; the encroachment of medicine on human behavior.

At least as important, she came along just as Dr. Alfred Kinsey was publishing his explosive results of his extensive studies into human sexuality. Sex roles, he found, were a good deal more fluid than Ozzie and Harriett or Donna Reed on the tube could ever envision. And then there was the power of the media, which had always been great, but with TV adding to radio, newspapers and film reels, was reaching into every aspect of Americans’ lives.

…

Becoming a Woman: The Christine Jorgensen Story

I got my start in life right around the time that Christine began her new life, and, like her, grew up in the Bronx (watching O&H and Donna Reed on the B&W TV) and later lived quite near her old neighborhood in Throgs Neck (when the bridge toll was not $4.50, but $.25, and, how time flies, everything was groovy).

What’s just utterly amazing to me is Christine’s focus and determination …

George was, however, unhappy and restless as a man. What makes his so extraordinary is that he set about trying to figure it out. He relentlessly pursued any kind of expert of whom he had heard a whisper. He tracked down every available book on the subject. There wasn’t much there, but if there was anything at all, he discovered it.

He finally trekked to Denmark, where he went from George to Christine, thanks to the good offices of a research doctor, who cheerfully admitted that he took Jorgensen on as a patient for his value as an investigatory subject. But the doctor wasn’t some mad scientist. He was caring and kind, as was his family.

Jorgensen spent a long time in Denmark. He had apparently tried to keep his new identity under wraps, but, in a process that is still the subject of dispute, the press somehow got wind of his transformation.

There’s absolutely no comparing now (the information, resources, etc.) to what I found then (despite a — “we’re not in Kansas … ” backgound — going to college, socializing and working in “The Village” in the Stonewall Era), nevermind to what Christine had back when.

… for trans people (real and fictional) was the topic of a number of items in the news this morning.

First, there’s the respect that a trans or gender-variant person hopes he or she will receive when they face a medical or emergency situation (Autumn, a couple of days before her recent surgery, mentioned the case of Tyra Hunter in D.C.). A letter-writer today in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review thought that Rebecca Hare at least received that paramount respect …

I wish to thank Chief James Holman and the City of Pittsburgh’s Emergency Medical Services, River Rescue Unit, for the professionalism and respect they showed Rebecca Hare as they rescued her from the cold river on Feb. 7 (“Divers pluck woman from flooded Downtown basement,” Feb. 8 and PghTrib.com).

It makes me proud to live in Pittsburgh.

This is a stark contrast to other cities, where the treatment of transgender people has been horrendous. This is another sign of the support the city has toward its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population.

But …

However, I was disappointed with the news media’s reporting of this incident. Their reference to Ms. Hare as a man was a blatant form of disrespect to her and to the transgender men and women living in Pittsburgh.

The only reporting agency that showed some respect was the Trib, and for that I do thank you.

(The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in their article on the rescue, did not refer to Hare as a “man.”)

I don’t know if we’re making progress here, yesterday it was “garbage,” today’s it’s “slop” …

It looks like The Telegraph has reached a new low. The Sunday front-page, lead story could be a story found in any underground paper. (Part 2 of our series on New Hampshire’s transgender community.)

The Telegraph chose to put this slop on the front page. Isn’t this the type of story that can be found while waiting in checkout lines at the food store?

When is the editor going to understand that not everything that can be printed is worth printing?

When is the editor going to choose to stop downgrading the paper, or is this the type of “reporting” that we have waiting in store for us?

On a more positive note, as quoted today in the The Times (Munster, Indiana), Olympia Dukakis on Mrs. Madrigal …

Viva life!

Olympia Dukakis won best supporting actress for playing Cher’s sarcastic ma in “Moonstruck,” but her heart belongs to another character. Her favorite role to date: Anna Madrigal, the pot-smoking landlady in the 1993 miniseries “Tales of the City.”

The quirky transsexual “was extraordinary,” praised Dukakis, in town directing “Botanic Garden” at the Victory Garden Greenhouse Theater. “She was a woman who survived herself, who dared to say ‘Yes’ to life and look at the obstacles. It’s incredible how brave some people are — and have to be — to say ‘Yes.’ “

Some of the gender and transgender-related items we’ve been reading on our daily blog run, all of which may also be found here …

At hiding in plain sight …

Instead, there is only Grannan’s exploitation of her subjects’ confusion and unhappiness. The extent of that exploitation is best illustrated by reference to another woman who photographed outsiders and was accused, in her day, of exploiting them. In fact, Diane Arbus’s freaks are paragons of dignity in comparison. Some of them are even joyful. That’s because Arbus knew all along that she was one of them. Grannan is just a tourist.

Katy Grannan

At dented blue mercedes …

Don’t you just love that phrase, “used to be a man?”

Can You Ever Leave Behind the Evil Twin?

At Righteous Anger …

Now sure I’m all for individual rights, but really why can’t these sissies stop complaining about what genetics cursed themselves with and learn to cope with the reality of the world they were born into.

A TransNational Geographic Outlook

At Bilerico Project …

If progressives want to choose the lesser evil, that’s a position to take, but to claim that an insider politician backed by every establishment figure he can get his hands on is going to heal anything besides his own hemorrhoids is dangerous and embarrassing.

Barack Obama: a transcendent person of color

At Trans Universe …

In the spring of this year, Haworth Press will be releasing a new book called “Trans People in Love,” edited by Tracie O’Keefe and Katrina Fox from Sydney, Australia. This book has 25 chapters, all written by different authors from around the world about their experiences with love. I am one of the contributing writers for this book and my chapter is called, “Sex and the Single Trannie.” In my chapter, I speak about libido and how I vowed not to lose it when I started hormones.

Sex, Love and Transsexuals