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

Some of the gender and transgender-related blogs we’re reading today (Super Tuesday - please vote!), all of which may be found here too …

At BEING “T” …

Border Patrol

At Bi Girl Friday …

EQCA to honor transgender and marriage equality leaders

At author interviews …

Jennifer Finney Boylan

At Transsexual Road Map Notes …

Protest vigil outside HRC Annual Dinner 2/9 Philadelphia

At The View From (Ab)Normal Heights …

Sen. Clinton Today Wrote The Words “Fully Inclusive” With Regards To ENDA

At ATRANS.PT (a video from The Center in NYC) …

Transgender Basics

At Crossing the T …

Transgender Religious Summit themes … part 2

At Bilerico Project …

Sex(ism) and gender and everything that comes next

Transgender author and luminary Jenny Boylan has given me another ear worm …

~~~~~

h/t Trans Group Blog

~~~~~~

Autumn note: Just for fun, Let’s add the vid where Jenny sings!!!

Blame it on Jenny, but I’m thinkin’ of Joe …

I’m looking through you, where did you go
I thought I knew you, what did I know
You don’t look different, but you have changed
I’m looking through you, you’re not the same

Your lips are moving, I cannot hear
Your voice is soothing, but the words aren’t clear
You don’t sound different, I’ve learned the game.
I’m looking through you, you’re not the same

Why, tell me why, did you not treat me right?
Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight

…

“I’m Looking Through You” - The Beatles

Funny, they didn’t say anything about sex in 2046 …

An artificial intelligence expert claims we will be having sex with robots by 2050.

David Levy says by then robots will be nearly indistinguishable from real people.

In his book, Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot relationships, he writes: “Great sex on tap for everyone, 24/7. What’s not to like?”

According to Levy, the people who are most likely to benefit from these sexbots are those so ugly or isolated that they have trouble finding human romance.

He said: “They’re lonely, they’re miserable. I think society will be a much better place when they have an alternative that satisfies them without doing any harm to other people.

“If there was a robot of the sort I describe in the book, I would certainly want to experience using it for sex and I wouldn’t regard it as anything untoward.

“I would do it out of curiosity. Not that I have a need for a new sex partner, I’m happily married.”

Sex with robots by 2050

This is Part 2 of my chronology of some of the trans-related news archived (well over 6,000 items) during 2007 at Transgender News and TNUKdigest (see Part 1 here) …

MARCH (Continued)

In Spain, a transsexual geriatric care worker is taking her former company to court, alleging sexual discrimination. It will be the first court case in Spain where transsexuality is given as the reason for employment discrimination, and it comes just two weeks after Congress approved a new law which allows transsexuals to change their registered name
and sex without a sex-change operation.

In Vermont, a bill that would prohibit discrimination against people based on their gender identity or expression wins preliminary approval in the state Senate and the governor says he will likely sign it if it reaches him.

In Maryland, opponents of the new sex education curriculum being tested in Montgomery County schools will ask state officials this summer to quash the gay-inclusive lessons. As part of that curriculum students in eighth grade are taught to recognize health relationships and how to define sexuality, gender identity and other terms. Students in 10th grade receive a more thorough curriculum, including an examination of topics such as coming out and transgender discrimination.

In Georgia, a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill passes its first test in a long, uphill battle to become law, by gaining broad bipartisan support during a state Senate Judiciary Committee meeting March 13.

Largo City Manager Steve Stanton files a written response to the city commission’s decision to begin the process of firing him because he is changing his sex. The document represents Stanton’s rationale as to why he should not be let go from a post he has held for 14 years. The gist of it reiterates what Stanton, 48, has said publicly: namely, that he should be judged on his job performance and not his plans to become a woman.

In Oregon, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people would gain protection from discrimination in employment, housing, access to public places and other areas, under legislation approved by the state Senate.

In Washington, DC, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Hate Crimes Prevention Act is introduced in the U.S. House.

In Wisconsin, despite the state’s same-sex marriage ban, Barbara Lynn Terry and Nicole Winstanley carried purses into a judge’s office Friday and emerged as Mrs. and Mrs. Terry. But first, a doctor had to confirm the male anatomy of Barbara Lynn Terry, who was born a man, lives as a woman and has been undergoing hormone therapy for years. The judge performed the wedding after learning that gender-reassignment surgery hadn’t been performed on the person who used to be Ronald Francis Terry.

In Indiana, a state lawmaker decides not to call the hate crimes bill he’d sponsored after changes to it made it unpalatable to him. The proposed bill would have allowed judges imposing sentences to consider it an aggravating factor if the criminal selected the victim of the crime because of “color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex.” A critic of the proposal objected to giving “cross-dressers … special legal treatment.”

Largo, Florida’s city commission votes 5-2 to uphold its Feb. 27 decision to fire its city manager. City manager Steve Stanton said he was fired because he revealed his plans to become a transgendered woman named Susan. [More here.]

Radio personality Michael Savage blames sexual reassignment surgery for the Columbine massacre. [More here and here.]

In Iowa, the Iowa Senate approves legislation prohibiting discriminatory practices in employment, public accommodation,
housing, education and credit based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Debate on the legislation now shifts to the House, where the outcome is uncertain.

Maryland legislators vote down an effort to bar discrimination against the state’s transgender residents and workers.
By a 6-5 vote, the Senate judicial proceedings committee rejected a measure that sought to outlaw discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. [More here.]

In South Korea, a group of transgendered people will file a suit in April to seek the legal right to change their genders in
their family registries, a civic group said.

In Washington, DC, any thoughts that a transgender protection clause in the recently introduced federal hate crimes bill would slip through Congress without controversy were put to rest as social conservative groups blasted the legislation as a pro-homosexual measure that would promote “cross-dressing” and “transsexualism.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Autumn and I (along with our colleague, Meryl) are what she calls “news archivists,” so I felt I should present here over the next week or so (better later than never, I hope) a chronology of some of the news we’ve archived (well over 6,000 items) this past year at Transgender News and TNUKdigest …

JANUARY

A Japanese court refuses to amend the birth records of a transsexual because prior to sex reassignment surgery she had
fathered a child.

On Pakistani television, Ali Saleem, 28, portrays Begum Nawazish Ali, a flirty, teasing widow, to achieve both political and
personal goals.

The author of a new book about transgender teenagers in Los Angeles talks straight about hormone smuggling, life on the street, and the rise of America’s first trans-rapper. [More here.]

An American transsexual woman who says she was forced out of a job at Hitachi Data Systems in London has lost the biggest discrimination case brought by a transgendered person under Britain’s anti-bias law. [More here.]

New Jersey extends statutory rights and protections to civil union partners and prohibits discrimination on the basis of
gender identity or expression.

In Washington, DC, news surfaces about the Jan. 3 murder of Grafton Lee Person, a 42-year-old transgender woman known in the community as Diamond Lee Person, whose death has reverberated through the local transgender community. [More here.]

A Mexican transsexual wins a new hearing on claims both for asylum and, alternately, for protection in the U.S. under the international Convention Against Torture, or CAT.

Mordechai used to be known in his Toronto Orthodox community as Nord, short for Nord the Barbarian, which referred to his girth and hairiness. He now wishes to be called Nicole, and has chosen Neshama, or Soul, as a Hebrew name. [More here.]

With the Democrats in control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, gay rights advocates are optimistic about a vote in the House and Senate later this year on the long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA.

A Taiwanese teacher’s involved in sex-change drama.

A former San Antonio, Texas police officer is sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison for the rape and
beating of a transsexual woman.

The Division of Corrections in Maryland wonders “Where To Place Transsexual Convict.”

In Ohio, cross dressers, transsexuals, gays, lesbians and bisexuals may be protected from job discrimination in the attorney general and secretary of state’s offices under soon-to-be expanded employment policies.

A conservative Christian minister began work on a referendum to overturn Washington state’s inclusion of gays
and lesbians in its human rights law.

A groundbreaking conference in California gathers transgender Christian advocates.

California’s first transgender administrative law judge is sworn in.

A Mexican congressman says he will submit a bill to Congress in March that would amend the country’s constitution to guarantee the rights of transsexuals and change civil laws to ensure they can legally change their name and gender. [More here.]

Gay Sports publishes a feature on 1932 Olympic gold medal sprinter, Stella Walsh –”The Story of Stella Walsh.”

Artnet Magazine publishes a feature on transgender artist, Greer Lankton.

In Austria, a boy of 12 is believed to have become the world’s youngest sex change patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a female. [More here and here.]

More U.S. employers are covering sex transition surgery. [More here.]

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