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

Autojaniphilia … ?

Some news and views, trans and otherwise, catching my attention today …

#1 – Sophia Siedlberg from the Organisation Intersex International commented on a Bay Area Reporter feature today (“DSM controversy could overshadow opportunities“) on Kenneth Zucker, Jack Drescher and DSM-V …

If the APA feel that some of the very real anger expressed about how certain people are appointed and the actions of those people, then the APA should consider the possibility that the Clarke Northwestern academics they have elected have, in the past been known to provoke an acrimonious response from those they “discuss” and then deliberately ignore any invitations for polite debate, while crying foul when people get angry out of sheer frustration. That is a well known and documented tactic on the part of the Clarke-Northwestern. And one that renders their objections to being called everything from “Quacks” to “Nazis” utterly meaningless, as they have deliberately taken an invidious approach to debate, in order to cry foul when the predictable response happens. We have to ask why do the Clarke-Northwestern do this? Most logical people would conclude that there may be some truth in the more slanderous accusations levelled at the Clark Northwestern as they persistently fail to engage in open debate, in a way that appears deliberate.

On the The Bay Area Reporter

#2 – Barack Obama supporter and Transadvocate blogger, Marti Abernathey, is the subject of a Bay Windows feature today (“Trans parent, gay son: pride across the generations“) …

Abernathey fights through her involvement with various national and state transgender and LGBT organizations. She runs the Transadvocate group blog (transadvocate.com) and is contributing editor for another, the Bilerico Project (bilerico.com). She also fights simply by being open about who she is. “A lot of the reasons why there are fewer obstacles now for gay and lesbian parents is because there are gay and lesbian parents,” she explains. “There’s exposure to the straight community, so it’s not an abstraction, it’s real. When trans people are open and honest about who they are, then people will start to see we’re just parents. We’re not trans parents, we’re parents. I think that’s what gays and lesbians want, and what trans people want.”

And, speaking of Obama, he has a fan in Rupert Murdoch (“Rupert Murdoch Says Obama Will Win“) …

“He is a rock star. It’s fantastic”

#3 – Actor and comedian Harvey Korman passed away today (“Comic powerhouse Harvey Korman dies at 81“) …

Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to “The Carol Burnett Show” and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in “Blazing Saddles,” died Thursday. He was 81.

…

His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks‘ 1974 Western satire, “Blazing Saddles.”

…

After 10 successful seasons, Korman left Burnett’s show in 1977 for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later. “The Harvey Korman Show” also failed, as did other series starring the actor.

“It takes a certain type of person to be a television star,” he said in that 2005 interview. “I didn’t have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. … Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I’m fine.”

#4 – Where would some folks be without us … ? (“A better way to morality“) …

Cross-dressing to my mind is the single most important factor in spreading the homosexual lifestyle.

#5 – One way to get rid of some carbon footprints (“Environmentally Friendly Bombs Planned“) …

New explosives could be more powerful and safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be more environmentally friendly.

…

To make safer, more environmentally friendly explosives, scientists in Germany turned to a recently explored class of materials called tetrazoles. These derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon as TNT and others do.

…

These compounds have great potential, “especially for large caliber naval and tank guns,” Klapötke added

(Oops, this didn’t post last night … )

The road to somewhere is paved with good intentions … It doesn’t look, at the moment, like there’ll be a (certainly not a) timely posting of a last week’s “transgender news in review,” which I just started last week and hope to do regularly.

Primary voting day tomorrow in North Carolina … first time that I can recall a primary here having (any Presidential) significance. Am I happy with my choices? No. But, I’ll be voting for HC, for what it’s worth. I’m hoping to get my father, who’s in his ’90′s now, out to vote. He hasn’t missed getting to the polls ever that I remember, but … this time might be the first … he’s been a bit worse for the wear recently. Bummer.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought there were some positives in the news story about the transgender youngster in the Philadelphia Inquirer today (about which Autumn commented earlier today) — parent Valerie Huff’s comment that “The kids don’t make any big deal about it at all” and that of Mary Beth Lauer, the school district’s director of community relations, that the “students seem to be accepting their classmate’s change” — for example. On the flip side, aside from the issues that Autumn addressed, using bete noire Paul McHugh for the oppositional viewpoint, was a mighty big turnoff to me.

I was much distressed by Eight Belles’ breakdown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but PETA doesn’t seem to me to have much of a clue about horse racing, frankly, and its criticisms (“euthanized in the dirt where she lay,” “Eight Belles’ jockey whipped her mercilessly,” etc.) of that day’s events are more than a bit out of touch and way over the top.

Good question: “If it’s so great to be smart, why have most animals remained dumb?”

Because it works: “Watching Bush speak you realize he’s a really dumb person who thinks everyone in the room is even dumber than he is.” (Don’t tell me it took anyone over seven years to realize that.)

For Sunday …

#1 – No surprise (Franco is dead!), I guess, that the reparative therapy business is international …

Two Spanish clerics, one Protestant, the other Catholic are under fire by gay rights organisations for their homophobic views.

Protestant minister Marcos Zapata is to face an investigation by the Galicia regional government into the organisation he runs that claims to helps troubled youth. It is claimed that he recently hosted a seminar called “How to Raise Heterosexual Children”.

According to media at the seminar, Senor Zapata likened homosexuality to alcoholism and claimed it was an illness that could be healed through family therapy. He advised the audience to “hug your sons as much as you can, because if you don’t, perhaps another man will”.

The regional government has said it is firmly against “any type of proselytising or homophobic attitudes.”

“After so many legal victories in this country, and for the first time people are talking openly about homosexuality in schools, we have to deal with fundamentalist groups which take us back to the Franco dictatorship,”Toni Poveda, the president of the National Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals told The Guardian. “And of course we are going to try to stop this from happening. Sexual orientation is innate and there’s no way to change it.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic bishop of the Canary island of Tenerife claimed in an interview that “homosexuality harms society, and we will pay for it.” He also compared homosexuality to paedophilia and drug addiction.

Spanish clerics to face investigation over gay “cure” speech

#2 – In Canada, a she said, he said …

A Quebec City trans activist and lawyer says the NDP dumped her from her candidacy in a federal Quebec City riding because of her gender identity.

“I was a very attractive candidate when I was chosen to run for the NDP but now, nine months later, it seems I have lost all of my sex appeal,” Micheline Anne Montreuil told Xtra.

Montreuil, who has been involved with the NDP on and off since the late 1970s, says Raymond Guardia, cochair of the party’s Quebec electoral planning committee, contacted her with a list of reasons for dumping her that included a desire by potential candidates in other ridings to not have their names associated with hers. She says the suggestion that she doesn’t work well with others couldn’t be further from the truth.

…

An NDP spokesperson says Montreuil’s gender identity is not the reason she was given the boot.

“She can say whatever she likes but she knows our reasons and she knows that her gender identity is not one of them,” says Matthew McLauchlin, copresident of the NDP Quebec section’s LGBTT commission. “Essentially the reason we couldn’t retain her candidacy is because of her behaviour toward other NDP activists.”

…

McLauchlin says there are no hard feelings toward Montreuil.

“I don’t want to diminish her victories as a trans activist,” he says. “That’s what attracted the NDP to her as a candidate in the first place. I hope her work for trans rights continues, as ours will.”

Montreuil’s victories include a decision last year by The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that the Canadian Forces discriminated against her because of her sexuality when it passed her up for a job. She won a similar case against the National Bank in 2004.

Turfed trans candidate speaks out

Read the rest of this entry »

Catching up on some of the weekend news …

#1 – Saturday on NPR’s Weekend Edition Scott Simon commented on Georgia Fuller’s charge that Riverdale, Georgia city council member Michelle Bruce “pretended to be transgendered, just to be popular” …

“We couldn’t find out how much a member of the Riverdale City Council is paid, but it’s probably not enough to want to make you change your gender to win a council seat — it’s Riverdale, Georgia after all, not San Francisco’s Castro District. Ms. Bruce says, ‘I’m the same Michelle I was four years ago. They’re just trying to distract from the issues.’

… Being transgendered has become a political asset in some parts of the South. Like getting endorsed by Pat Robertson or the NRA, it could have urgent implications for the presidential campaign ahead as both parties try to win votes there. Everyone running for office says, ‘I’m the candidate of real change.’ A transgender candidate can add, ‘and that’s not just talk.’ Rudolph Giuliani famously appeared in drag at a roast in 1997 — maybe that’s why he’s ahead in the polls. Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Jon Edwards — gentlemen, those accents alone may no longer be enough. [Music: "I Enjoy Being A Girl"]

#2 – A journalist asks, Must we respect stupid readers? …

One of the sacrosanct maxims of newspaper journalism is: Respect the reader. But sometimes it’s hard to do. From my phone calls the last couple of weeks:

An irate caller spits bile over our story about a transgender observance. “You people are a bunch of perverts, just like the people you’re trying to make heroes – those transgerderites or whatever they call themselves.”

Hold on, I say. Our job is to reflect the goings-on in our community and that event was news about people who live here.

“I don’t want to hear about them!” she wails. “How dare you give publicity to those kind of people.”

…

Respect the reader. Respect the reader. It’s gotten so I have to mumble those words like a prayer every morning. It is a challenge, after all, to respect readers who luxuriate in blissful stupidity and angry vacuity.

#3 – I don’t know exactly why “intersex advocate” Alice Dreger does things that seem calculated to hurt and offend intersex people (such as delivering a lecture here last June). Earlier this month, Prof. Dreger delivered a lecture at Indiana University entitled, “No Matter How You Slice It? Parsing Intersex,” which prompted this response from Curtis Hinkle of Organisation Intersex International …

That title reveals an insidiously hateful side of Dreger’s character: For someone who prides herself in being ever so clever with words, she had to know how hurtful that title would be to intersex people (especially those who’ve been “sliced” physically and emotionally by the system Dreger represents, and who don’t appreciate being referred to as “it” either).

What reason could she have had to use such an awful title? Now I’m not one to attribute motives without hard evidence, but some folks might suspect Dreger of being in a rage against intersex people for having “turned the world against her”, or some other such imagined injury. Folks might also suspect Dreger of designing that title to ensure that few or no intersex people would attend her talks (given the difficulty in maintaining one’s emotions in the face of such despicable taunts).

Alice Dreger, have you no shame?

#4 – The New York Post reported yesterday about this grisly murder case …

November 24, 2007 — Police are searching for the killer of “Sugar Bear,” a professional drag queen from Brooklyn – whose head was found frozen in the ice of a Long Island pond by skaters in 2003.

The killer had dumped the head, with a single bullet wound in the temple, in the pond in Moriches, where it was found on Jan. 25, 2003, said Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad.

The victim’s arms and legs were later found miles away in plastic bags.

It took Suffolk detectives almost a year and a half to identify the victim as Andre Jamal Isaac, 25, of East New York, the grandson of a Vietnam POW.

DNA tests linked the body parts to a torso found clad in a skirt, black body suit and tank top in Far Rockaway, Queens, in December 2002.

Detectives showed photos of his head to transvestites in Manhattan.

In May 2004, one drag queen told a detective, “Hey, that looks like Sugar Bear.” Another knew Isaac’s real name, and detectives found his mother, Kim Long Jordan, 50, on Long Island.

Jordan gave investigators a key piece of information: One of her son’s pals had seen Isaac just before Thanksgiving getting into a car with a “secret friend.” He was never seen again.

“He went out without a coat and said he would be right back. He left his pocketbook,” she said.

Fitzpatrick said the car was a red, BMW-type coupe with “nice rims” driven by a Hispanic man.

Fitzpatrick asked anyone with information to call the Homicide Squad at (631) 852-6392. All calls will be kept confidential.

Isaac was the grandson of the late Donald Rander, an Army soldier held by the North Vietnamese for five years.

Jordan, a teacher, said her son was a talented female impersonator and dancer who would enter contests from New York to Washington, DC.

“He was a big bear,” she said. “No matter what his lifestyle, he was still a human being.”

Hunt For Clues in Tranny Slay

#5 – Transgender student Andrew Gomez was elected Homecoming King at Pasadena City College earlier this month …

For Sunday, a non-ENDA inclusive edition where we catch up with some of the other recent news …

#1 – AfterElton did a feature on the “TV Landscape Changing for Transgender Characters” …

The portrayal of transgender characters on television these days seems to be sort of a glass-is-either-half-empty-or-half-full situation. For years television has presented a steady stream of “transsexual” prostitutes, murder victims, and other assorted minor characters that usually appeared for one episode and were portrayed as little more than a collection of stereotypes to advance the plot or get a cheap laugh.

A recent example of that aired this past summer on HBO’s hit show Entourage. In the episode “Sorry, Harvey” a secondary storyline centered on Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) trying to get the sad sack mayor of Beverly Hills (played by Groundhog Day’s Stephen Tobolowsky) hooked up with a beautiful woman in order to curry his favor. At a bar to which he takes the mayor, Drama thinks he has succeeded with a woman named Anika — at least until he learns that she is actually transgender.

The mayor turns out not to mind, but the show portrays this as due more to his being so pathetic rather than a message of acceptance. This impression is further underscored by the main characters’ clearly being repulsed at the idea of a transgender person, and by the episode’s big “reveal” when Anika’s male genitalia are shown during a panty-less Britney Spear’s-type incident.

On the “half-full” side of the equation there is ABC’s Ugly Betty. Last season the hit dramedy included Alexis Meade, a transgender character portrayed as self-accepting, not desperate for the approval of a man, and who wasn’t a prostitute. Audiences loved the character.

Already the most diverse network when it comes to LGBT representation, ABC deepened their diversity with two new transgender characters introduced this fall, one each on Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots. Neither are regulars at this point, and while the Dirty Sexy Money show continues to build on the progress of Ugly Betty, thus far Big Shots is a throwback to more stereotypical portrayals of transgender women. (There are no transgender men – female to male – characters currently on network TV.)

Despite setbacks like the recent episode of Entourage, Mara Keisling, Executive Director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, believes things are improving when it comes to transgender representations on television. “I’m really, really optimistic. Things are changing so much so fast. Oprah has had so many sensitive shows. Montel has done some good shows. Larry King does show after show, and that’s just really educating the public.”

As to what is driving that change, Keisling stated, “It’s just natural that as there are more and more trans people visible in public, that’s going to be reflected in popular culture.”

The rest of that feature can be read here.

Monica Roberts at TransGriot had some thoughts about the role of Dontrelle in Entourage …

It figures that we transsistahs once again get stuck being painted by the hooker brush while white transwomen are seen running a magazine or being the love interest of a US senator.

As the late Esther Rolle said in her Good Times role as Florida Evans, “Damn, Damn, Damn!”

Memo to Hollywood: Is it so hard for you to create an African-American transgender character that fits the reality of the 90% of us who don’t partake of sex work to make our living? Is it that difficult for you to craft an African-American transgender character that isn’t the punchline of a joke or doesn’t end up dead in the first five minutes of the show?

And, by the way, Oprah Winfrey has an upcoming show this week (Friday, 10/12) entitled, “Trangender Families” …

Meet transgender individuals who had the courage to say “this is who I am.” What happens in a family when Dad becomes a woman? Oprah talks with the new American family.

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J. Michael Bailey wrote the book The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism, which was published in 2003. Dr. Bailey and the transgender community have both been dealing with the shockwaves ever since publication.

Reviving the controversy in the past few weeks, Alice D. Dreger, Ph.D., wrote a paper for the Archives of Sexual Behavior entitled The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age, with the New York Times reporting on the controversies surrounding Bailey’s book and on Dreger’s paper in their article Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege.

The general spin in the blogosphere since the New York Times article has been published echoes the sentiments expressed in the Times article:

To many of Dr. Bailey’s peers, his story is a morality play about the corrosive effects of political correctness on academic freedom. Some scientists say that it has become increasingly treacherous to discuss politically sensitive issues.

What makes Bailey’s perspectives on transsexuality a particularly sensitive issue for transpeople is found in his theories of why transsexuals exist: Either a male-to-female (M2F) transsexual has autogynephilia (is sexually aroused by the idea of being female), or “he” is a male homosexual who needs to be a woman to be comfortable being sexually attracted men. {Bailey’s book completely ignores the existence of female-to-male (F2M) transsexuals}. That’s it — if you’re a M2F transsexual, Bailey says it’s solely because of your sex drive, and you’re either one type or the other.

And, given that perspective of what one of two conditions must exist for one to identify as a male-to-female transsexual, it should come as no surprise that he consistently refers to transwomen like me as “transsexual men.” Bailey has essentially relegated transsexuality to the functional status of a paraphilia, stigmatizes transsexuals and the accepted treatments for transsexuals, and exposes transpeople, like me again, who want civil rights furthered for transpeople to further societal resistance.

Adding to Bailey’s impact on transgender civil rights activism, Gary Barlow (in a 2005 Chicago Free Press article) said of the Bailey book:

…Bailey alleged that transgenders are “especially motivated” to shoplift and that prostitution is “the single most common occupation” among transgenders.

Sandra L. Samons, Ph.D., L.M.S.W., said this of Bailey in response to the recent New York Times article:

Not only did I find his premise and many of this comments and conclusions to be questionable or outright erroneous and offensive to transgender people, but also to therapist colleagues, in that he essentially stated that any therapists who did not agree with him had been duped by transgender people, who are generally manipulative in their efforts to accomplish their ends and naive therapists (meaning anyone who did not concur with his premises) had been taken in by them.

…I think it should not be overlooked that by making the kinds of assertions he made, negating and invalidating the opinions of any colleague who disagreed with him, he too engaged in this kind of approach, and did so before others reciprocated in kind. On that basis, I found many of his comments and assertions to have gone beyond offensive to being unprofessional.

Samons, like many others, recognizes that some of Bailey’s critics have stepped out of bounds in their impassioned reaction to what he wrote, but at the same time believes he should have been able to anticipate the firestorm he would bring down upon himself by making the assertions he made — one has to wonder if at least on a certain level, that was exactly what Bailey hoped to accomplish with his book.

Frankly, I’m concerned that Bailey’s “rehabilitation” in the mainstream press will have the secondary effect of his transsexuality theories being accepted as gospel — not because the theories are tested, but because a number of transactivists were passionate to the point of overzealousness in attacking his theories. Bailey — the author and researcher — should have his theories on transsexuality evaluated based upon whether Bailey’s psychological construct for transsexuals holds up when compared to a statistical samplings of actual transgender people. My guess, given recent studies on the brain structures of transpeople and recent genetic studies on mice that indicate gender is based on more than one’s natal genitalia, is that Bailey’s dichotomic model of transsexuality won’t hold true for all transsexuals. I know it doesn’t hold true for me.

Next month, the World Professional Association For Transgender Health (WPATH) holds their Biennial Symposium. It’ll be interesting to see if any statements about the Dreger paper and/or the New York Times article comes out of that event.

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Joanne Herman, columnist for The Advocate, contributed significantly to this article.

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Further information regarding J. Michael Bailey:

* KQED (Public Radio): Transgender Theories
* Northwestern Chronicle/J. Michael Bailey: Academic McCarthyism
* Aaron S. Greenberg, JD and J. Michael Bailey, PhD: Parental Selection of Children’s Sexual Orientation
* New York Times: Gay, Straight, Or Lying: Bisexuality Revisited
* Washington Blade: Report on bisexuality study angers gay activists
* The Advocate: Kinder, gentler homophobia

Egads.

If there’s ever been an issue I’m very informed about but not qualified to render an opinion on, it has to be on the book and the controversies surrounding psychologist J. Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.

I’m not a scientist, but instead am a transgender, amateur research librarian. I’ve read a lot about the controversies surrounding this book and the author, am familiar with the theories behind the book, and am familiar with many of the players involved in the controversies.

Alice D. Dreger, PhD, an intersex advocate who isn’t intersexed herself, recently wrote a paper entitled The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age. In the paper, she concluded, per a New York Times accounting of the four year history of controversy surrounding the book:

…that the accusations against the psychologist were essentially groundless.

I don’t know what to make of the whole story.

Through my own personal experience with being a transsexual, I know the transsexual dichotomy that Dr. Bailey describes is too limited. He essentially states that male-to-female transsexuals either are transsexual because they experience autogynephilia, or because they are homosexuals who are uncomfortable being with a man as a man. Although, no doubt, there are those with autogynephilia, and those who transition because they have homosexual feelings and are uncomfortable being with a man as a man, these two causations alone don’t seem to accurately describe the personal experiences of many transsexuals. I know those two choices don’t describe my personal experience.

When all is said and done on J. Michael Bailey’s theories of transsexualism; however, one can see he only sees possible psychological causes for transsexualism. Genetics and brain studies indicate other possible causations for why transsexuals exist.

In the meantime, the pot has again been stirred on this seemingly never ending story regarding Bailey’s theories and book. I’m sure I’ll be reading about this most recent controversy at some conservative Christian oranizations’ sites soon — no doubt talking about how fucked up in the head they believe transsexuals are.

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Further reading on other theories:
* Sexual Identity Hard-Wired by Genetics, Study Says
* Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus
* Brains And Hormones
* A Discussion on the Relationship Between Gender Identity And Prenatal Exposure to Diethylstilbestrol (DES) in 46XY Individuals
* Britain – Which of these women were born men?

The Bilerico Project: Denied AIDS Medication, Trans Woman Dies in ICE Detention Center
Excerpt: Apparently, the Los Angeles Daily Journal is reporting that a trans woman named Victoria Arellano died July 20 in San Pedro, California, after being denied AIDS medication and improperly treated for AIDS-related infections at an immigration detention facility. The report says that Arellano (who was detained in a men’s facility) is one of 62 people to have died in federal immigration custody since 2004 and describes systemic problems with health-care delivery in detention centers nationwide, with detained immigrants having little to no legal recourse.

Trans Group Blog: Victoria Arellano
Excerpt: Mind you, my complaints about the way various media outlets cover trans issues aren’t directed at the trans people who are often featured in these articles: their intentions are for the most part good, & they are trying, in their own way, to raise awareness of trans issues in general, all of which is much needed. It’s not that it was a terrible article in terms of The Big Picture, but I’m tired of journalists/media writing a piece that is pretty much like every other piece about a trans person (choosing someone professional, white, with a traditional narrative including surgery & the like) & presenting it as if it’s a revelation.It’s not a revelation. I’d like to get the bar set a little higher, & to start pressuring media to cover more types of trans people, in more situations, with more of the kinds of issues that come up…

City Limits Weekly: Who Are Homeless Youth?
Excerpt: When the results come in from New York City’s first survey of homeless youth, service providers hope finally to understand who these elusive teenagers and young adults are, how many they number, and how to intervene before chronic homelessness becomes an accepted – or inevitable – part of their identities.

Completed last week under the auspices of the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services, the survey aims to put a credible number on this size of this population, which over the years has been estimated at anywhere from several thousand to tens of thousands. Since the beginning of July some three dozen volunteers and employees of social services groups asked a series of questions of homeless people from age 12 to 24 who agreed to participate. On the street and at youth program sites, respondents answered questions about sexual orientation, previous home life, sources of income, educational attainment and more. In addition to counting the population, the survey seeks to illuminate the contributors to and outcomes of youth homelessness – with the goal of helping public and nonprofit agencies better house and care for these young people.

New York Times: Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege
Excerpt: Earlier this month, members of the International Academy of Sex Research, gathering for their annual meeting in Vancouver, informally discussed one of the most contentious and personal social science controversies in recent memory. The central figure, J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University, has promoted a theory that his critics think is inaccurate, insulting and potentially damaging to transgender women. In the past few years, several prominent academics who are transgender have made a series of accusations against the psychologist, including that he committed ethics violations. A transgender woman he wrote about has accused him of a sexual impropriety, and Dr. Bailey has become a reviled figure for some in the gay and transgender communities.

Northwestern University: The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age
Abstract excerpt: Dissatisfied with the option of merely criticizing the book, a small number of transwomen (particularly Lynn Conway, Andrea James, and Deirdre McCloskey) worked to try to ruin Bailey. Using published and unpublished sources as well as original interviews, this essay traces the history of the backlash against Bailey and his book. It also provides a thorough exegesis of the book’s treatment of transsexuality and includes a comprehensive investigation of the merits of the charges made against Bailey that he had behaved unethically, immorally, and illegally in the production of his book. The essay closes with an epilogue that explores what has happened since 2003 to the central ideas and major players in the controversy. (Complete article at link)

United Methodist News Service: Judicial Council to review transgender clergy issue
Excerpt: The United Methodist Church’s top judicial authority will again be considering questions about sexuality — including the case of a pastor who switched gender from female to male — when it tackles a full docket at its fall meeting.

…The transgender case involves a ruling by Bishop John R. Schol of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, who in May reappointed the Rev. Drew Phoenix as pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Baltimore. Mr. Phoenix, 48, had been minister at St. John’s for five years as the Rev. Ann Gordon. After surgery and hormone therapy in the past year, the pastor changed his gender to male and adopted a new name.

Leonard Link: Hormone Treatment for Transgender Prisoners: Court Refuses to Expand Wisconsin Case to Class Action
Excerpt: U.S. District Judge Charles N. Calvert, Jr., issued a ruling August 7 refusing to expand a pending lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s recently-enacted statute concerning hormone treatment for prisoners. The case, originally brought by Lambda Legal and the ACLU on behalf of five transgender Wisconsin inmates who were threatened with cutoff of their hormone therapy when the statute was set to go into effect, claims that cutting off the therapy would be cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment. Lambda/ACLU hoped to expand the case to include two additional transgender prisoners as named plaintiffs, both of whom have not been allowed to start hormone therapy in prison, and to get the case certified as a class action on behalf of all present and future TG prisoners in Wisconsin who may be affected by the new statute…

Blabbeando: Chile: Transgender character erased from Chilean version of Argentinean soap opera
Excerpt: …it’s no surprise that Chile is set to launch their own version of “Los Roldan,” renamed “Fortunato,” which promises to follow the original story-arc – with one key difference.

Clarin reports that while the character of Laisa will survive under a different name (Judy), the part will no longer be that of a transgender woman or even be played by a woman.

The Ultraviolet Catastrophe: The Ultraviolet Catastrophe
Excerpt: Well… okay. I’m starting this blog for several reasons.

One, I need to have a place to vent about being trans. My friends are sick of hearing about it. Two, I feel a twinge of guilt. I never was involved much in any trans community, real life or online. Now that I’m stealth, this probably isn’t going to change. But I’ve know that my path is often tread; we transition and fade into the crowd. For many, this is the ultimate goal. And I’m unapologetic about going stealth and publicly swearing off any connection to transsexuality. But the problem is obvious- if we all transition and disappear, who’s left? I feel that the “I just want to transition and get on with my f*cking life already” type’s voice is somewhat lost.