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  • Remembering the other Stonewall

     Take a moment and remember the riots, Compton’s Cafe, and the trans women, drag queens, butch lesbians and leatherpeople who weren’t afraid to fight back 

  • Dragging the Line

     Pakistan's transgender people are ready to play a greater role in mainstream society. How far are we willing to bend our perceptions of...

  • A transgender journey: part one

     Juliet Jacques was born a boy, but always knew that something wasn't quite right. In the first of a series of columns charting her gender reassignment process, she describes how she gradually came to terms with her true identity

  • Transgender Rabbinical Students Finding Equality in the Jewish World

     As a child, Reuben Zellman found life anything but cut-and-dry.

  • The Super Boy Controversy

     I'm really moved by [Liu Zhu's] honesty and courage. Under all the pressure, he's just being himself, and he's not afraid of being seen as 'alien' by the society. That's real confidence.

  • Teaching tolerance

     People of faith are called to address issues of violence, especially as it pertains to those who are homosexual, bisexual or transgender.

  • Life for a Trans Student

     For most nine year olds, life centers around toys, recess, and ice cream sundaes.

  • Report-back from the 5th California Transgender Leadership Summit and 1st Transgender Advocacy Day

    State Senator Mark Leno encouraged Summit participants to stay engaged in politics at the end of Sunday's Advocacy Day training.

  • SistersTalkRadio Interview

     Part Two of an Interview with Genia Stevens of SistersTalk Radio

  • Have Sex BEFORE You Transition

    Let me be blunt. I am a virgin. Ok, now that everyone’s passed the gasping and horror over the idea that, at 35, I have never had sex, let me explain why.

     
  • Meet Meagan Chevalier

    Porn star, singer, songwriter, author, and founder of Stop The Hate in a recent interview

  • Living Transgender

     ORONO, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Though Claire Folsom lives life as a woman, she was born male.

  • Wife Finds Out Husband Wants To Be Woman

     Man said before marriage he just liked woman's clothes

     
  • They Called me

     Autumn Sandeen First Class Petty Officer who retired in 2000 from the U.S. Navy after twenty years of service, was one of the protesters arrested at last week's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" action in front of the White House. In her own words she explains the slurs she endured.

  • The Story From The Closet

     His body was male, while the mind was female. She wanted me calling her Nangi (sister). 

  • Transsexuals in Kuwait: Criminals or victims?

     The term 'transsexual' (third gender or she-male as they are locally known) is often mistaken for homosexuality in the Arab world and is considered highly sinful in Islam. 

  • UM student talks about life as a transgender woman, helping others find their way

     Sutherland, 23, is a University of Montana student. She's a painter and a carpenter, an artist and an athlete. She's a student of computer science. The reason you're meeting her, though, is because she's a transgender woman.

  • Transgender India: Banned in Bombay?

     Prominent activist Laxmi Tripathi suffers the very discrimination that she fights.  

     
  • My long lost transsexual sibling

     David Waters was shocked to find out that his mother had given up a baby, born before her marriage. But there were more shocks to come

  • Law Panels Stress LGBT Unity

     Law students, legal rights activists, government officials, and interested individuals from around the globe gathered at Harvard Law School for the fifth annual Harvard Lambda Legal Advocacy Conference, “Diverse Sexualities/Disparate Laws: Sexual Minorities, the State, and International Law.”

  • Public triumph, private torment

     When Times sportswriter Mike Penner announced he'd become Christine Daniels, he sought joy and fulfillment.  After a year of accolades and ordeals he returned as Mike. But his struggles continued.  

     
  • Transsexual's Leighton business blighted by bigots

     Teraina forced to hand over running of workshop due to boycott

  • The State of Transgender Hate Crimes in D.C.

    Last month, D.C. police released a report breaking down every hate crime reported in D.C. [PDF] over the past five years.

  • Helping Youths Who Struggle With Identity

     Vidari DeGuzman was a New York City teenager searching for acceptance when he first came to the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a service organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths.

  • My journey to getting a 'sex not specified' legal document

     Norrie was once ‘may well be’, but is now definitely ‘not specified’. Norrie tells The Scavenger hir story of androgyny and journey to being issued what is believed to be the world's first 'sex not specified' legal document equivalent to a birth certificate by the NSW government.

  • Transgender Buddhist priest shares story

     Cheryl Ann Costa is and has been many things — an airman, submarine sailor, coast-to-coast talk radio host, television show co-host, playwright, author, filmmaker, coven priest, co-owner of a fabric shop and an engineer at a major Fortune 500 company.

  • Transitions: Patti & Julia's story

     Two women can’t legally marry in Pennsylvania. But Patti Wallech and Julia Martin Wallech did.

  • Transgender teen talks about life in school

     COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Alex Roberson is a senior at Wasson High School. He "came out" two years ago, when he was 16, as "trans" or transgender.

  • An Interview With Kalki

     Eunuchs, hermaphrodites, MSM (men who have sex with men), along with the LGBT group (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) are all labeled as ‘transgender’ by the generally confused public, especially in ‘conservative’ societies.

  • Understanding the challenge of being a transsexual

    It has been discovered that post-operative transsexuals, prior to 1991, reveal a rate of serious regrets of less than 1% for transsexual men and less than 2% for transsexual women while studies published after 1991 have reported a decrease in the rates for both, likely due to improved psychological and surgical treatments and increasing acceptance from society. 

  • Pakistan's hijra transgender minority finds its voice

     New civil rights for Pakistan's long-oppressed 'wedding dancers' offer hope of a better life 

  • Pumped Up for the Ball

     Pumped up .. and ball-gowned too, my day as a cross -dresser in A.C. 

  • CUBA: Wendy - Reconciling the Inner and Outer Image

     HAVANA, Jan 25, 2010 (IPS) - It was as if she had only closed her eyes for a moment. When Wendy Iriepa came round after surgery over a year ago, she tried to get up as if nothing had happened, but a nurse gently pushed her back into bed. "All done?" she asked, and the nurse replied, "Yes."

  • For Transgender People, Name Is a Message

     Katherine used to be Miguel. Olin had a girl’s name. And in October, Robert Ira Schnur, 70, became Roberta Iris Schnur, a Manhattan retiree with magenta lipstick and, she noted the other day, chipped silver nail polish.

  • Visually Impaired Trans Artist Captivates

     It is almost midnight, and the dressing room at San Antonio's storied gay club the Saint on North Main Avenue is abuzz with chatter and preparation for its weekly drag show.

  • The Chloe Prince Story:

     While on the surface, sexually progressive America would probably not pay particular attention to the girlie duo of Chloe and her ‘wife’ Rene Prince, an Ohio couple who go through a typical American way of life, juggling professional and personal lives while trying to bring up their two kids, the twist in the tale steps in when confronted with the fact that attractive blonde Chloe was in fact, born a man.

  • Silverton Mayor Stu Rasmussen 2009

    Whether the country's first cross-dressing mayor got a slap on the wrist for inappropriate clothing, breaking ground on new development projects or calling for avacuations due an explotion, there was nothing dull about her first year.  Here is a recap. 

     

  • Legislative Editor Fired over Sex Change,

     A former legislative editor for the Georgia House of Representatives is suing her former employers after she was fired for announcing her intent to transition from a man to a woman.

  • Girl Talk

     There are some trans people who don’t do anything to modify their bodies and still identify as trans. There are many ways to go about transitioning, and everyone is different, but I knew I was done with my breasts.

  • Interview with Julie Nemecek, Michigan Equality

     Interview with Julie Nemecek, a lobbyist with Michigan Equality (an LGBT Interest Group), was conducted on October 28 in the Burger King at 505 E Saginaw St, Lansing, MI.

  • Transsexuals: Too much papaerwork

     For some transsexuals, it is easier to have their sex reassigned but it is almost impossible to change their gender and photograph from male to female in their identification papers.

  • Lebanon's other women 'out' in force

     BEIRUT — They remain anonymous, but their voices are out in force and bold print: a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women have braved law and social taboo in Lebanon with a little pink-and-white book.

  • Transsexual Model Fights Prejudice

     When it comes to sex, whether it refers to gender or sexual intercourse, Korea, built upon Confucianist ideals, has stayed very conservative.

  • April Ashley: 50 happy years for sex-swap pioneer

     Britain's first transsexual is, in a new exhibition, again challenging ideas about gender, identity and DNA. 

     
  • Chaz Bono talks to GMA about his sex change and being the face of trans-America

     The new face of transgender, Chaz Bono, is making the media rounds to help clear up any confusion about his recent sex change.  Today he spoke withGood Morning America.

  • For transgender people, acceptance is hard to find-even in LGBT community

     When Adrianna King was turned out of her home, she went north in search of acceptance.

  • 17 years on the job, Officer Joe became Officer Debbie

     After 17 years with the Dallas Police Department, Officer Joseph Grabowski showed up at work one day sporting makeup, a feminine hairstyle and a new first name: Deborah.

  • Finally, A Lady

     A small but growing number of people are identifying themselves as transgender.  Richard/ Renee Ramsey is likely the oldest to make the surgical switch.  

     
  • Guardian Angel of Gulf Transsexuals

     Transsexuals in the Gulf call Bahraini lawyer Fawziya Janahi "guardian angel". She is the Arab world's only female lawyer who takes up cases on behalf of clients who want to change their sex.

  • Millionaire had to fight after she had a sex change

     MILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Stephanie Booth had to overcome some remarkable challenges to build her string of successful businesses.

  • Katie Price and Alex Reid in drag

    Katie Price has always known how to make a spectacle of herself - and today was certainly no exception. 

  • That’s So Gay: Translating trannies

     My fascination with the transgender lifestyle began long before I fully understood what being transgender really meant.

  • Trans-Parenting: How Daddy Became Mommy

     One mom shares her journey of becoming a mother ... and the woman she always knew she should be.

  • EHRC Calls For More Research

     The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched a report into the experiences of trans people.

  • A mother's story: Hate crime brings new bond with transgender child

      Early on, l knew my son Michael was different. While my three other sons begged me to buy them G.I. Joe figurines and were obsessed with football, Michael preferred playing with My Little Pony and taking tap dance lessons.

  • Translating Gender

     Since last year’s merge with TransAction Student Network, Queer Student Union has expanded both its membership and diversity. Still, some issues in the transgender community are beyond reach of a student organization.

  • Monica Helms, transsexual Navy veteran

     "There were a lot of things that got in the way of me realizing what I was."After growing up a “typical boy,” marrying “the one” and fathering two children, Monica Helms finally acted on a lifelong desire to become a woman.

  • A Question of Identity

     Vanessa Van Durme was – is – Belgium’s first transsexual. In 1975, at a time when most people were consolidating the sexual ‘freedoms’ of the sixties, Van Durme travelled to Casablanca, where she had a sex change operation.

  • Female-born transexual: I'd rather die as an ugly man

     THEY live on the fringes, shunning attention, like this Singaporean transsexual.

  • Not A Secret Anymore

     East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer's apparent transgender life has been exposed days before a primary election is to be held, the Cleveland Leader reported.

  • Transgender reverend tells all

     Transgender paster comes out to congregation with surprising reaction

  • Best of Vancouver communities: Transitioning to a bright future

     She’s big, she’s bold, and she may as well have brass balls. And you might as well get used to her because she isn’t going away.

  • I became a woman at 70, says Sheffield ex miner

     RACHEL Fleetwood is 75 years old, lives in a Sheffield nursing home - and is most likely Britain's oldest transsexual.

  • A transgender's life in transition

     Anne Faith Beon was born practically with axle grease on her hands -- pumping gas as a child, working on car engines and driving hot rods in the beachfront blue-collar community where she was raised.

  • Twilight life of Malaysia's Muslim transsexuals

     KUALA LUMPUR — With her tight jeans, elaborate make-up and flowing hair, Tasha looks for all the world like a striking young woman. But her all-important Malaysian ID card declares she is a Muslim man.

  • Transsexuals in the Middle East Await the Wave of Change

     Hell is what most Arabs think of when the word “transsexual” comes into any conversation since many mistake it with homosexuality, which is a sin in Islam. 

  • Diego Sanchez: trans man on Capitol Hill works for passage of inclusive ENDA

     Last week, we talked about trans man visibility and role modelsDiego Sanchez is one of many trans men whose visibility and achievements are providing a model for others.

  • Mourning a daughter, celebrating a son

     More transgender teens are coming out than ever before – and at increasingly earlier ages. But even as resources for families grow, parents struggle with being supportive while coping with their own conflicting emotions

  • Congregation embraces transgender minister as his secret is revealed

     As soon as he raises the topic of gay rights to his conservative clergyman friend one day at lunch, he knows it’s a mistake.

  • Trans Health Care: Life and Death

     Robert Eads was visiting friends in the late 1990s when he woke up in a pool of blood. His terrified hosts quickly began calling hospitals, clinics, and private physicians, explaining that Robert was a partially-transitioned female-to-male transsexual and demanding an immediate appointment.

  • This Boy's Life: Being Transsexual in Kuwait

     'Gharam' means passion in Arabic and Gharam is what this young Kuwaiti male- to-female transsexual likes to be called. The first impression you get when sitting with Gharam is confusion. 

  • So quick she's become a blur

     AT FIRST they thought she must be on steroids. Surely there could be no other explanation for such a suspiciously stellar rise in performance, one that saw her knock more than 16.5 seconds off her time from the same meeting a year before.  But then a routine drugs test dispelled that notion, and deepened the mystery of the girl who had come from nowhere.

  • They loved Lucie

     A strange story of a transgirl and Vodou

  • Cross-dressing murder case surprises experts

     Amber Hartwig finally broke down and told her family back in Iowa about the cross dressing.

  • Transition of a Boxer

     To say that Mercedes Newbiggin is "in the news" is a little bit of an understatement.

  • A Different World

     The first time I met Angelica I didn’t know how to address him, as a man or a woman. 

  • Cross-Dressing Hairdresser

    Indri has known for a while now that he should have been born a girl. He wears women’s underwear, he feels comfortable in his favorite shade of lipstick, and if he looks at himself in the mirror without a wig, something just isn’t right.

  • Music is message of compassion

     Two minutes before I picked up the phone to call Suzy Wedge, the mastermind behind a local and very hip surf-rock band, a man accosted her while she walked down the street. Threats of violence followed before he got back into his car, filled with his laughing entourage, and sped off.

  • TS Kim Petras Attracking Male Fans

     NORTHERN blokes are going nuts for transsexual pop babe Kim Petras.

  • Working the streets in Old Goucher

     Nicole wanted to be a lawyer but instead, at the age of 23, is "on the stroll" on Calvert and on East 21st streets, at 1 a.m. this past Saturday, searching for the next trick. "She" is a "he," working the Old Goucher neighborhood in Lower Charles Village, an area notorious fo

  • 77-Year-Old Gets Transgender Operation

     Recently Chastity Bono announced she was having surgery to become a man. A transgender center in Montgomery County is busier than ever. Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has the exclusive story of one of the oldest patients to make the switch.

  • A Mother's Tale

     Some time ago, my mother wrote a piece about what life is like living through the transition of her son to her daughter. I will begin posting her story in increments. There will be several parts to this story.

  • Calpernia Addams is Transfixed

    Advocate/Actress Addams & Jer Ber Jones Bring Their Show to San Francisco. Bay Windows sits for a one on one interview with Calpernia. 

  • A transgender star sparkles in India's TV firmament

     Rose Venkatesan opens the country's eyes to a community it has typecast and reviled

  • A tragically complicated love story

    Swathi and Sneha were men who became women in the hope of finding male lovers. They've now found each other and want to marry

  • GLBT Worldwide Pride Photos

     From London to Calcutta, Spain to Vienna, photos from LGBT Pride

  • We don't encourage transgenders

     JUNE is going to go down in the history of Tamil Nadu as a progressive and poignant period thanks to pride taking centre stage on June 28.

  • Pain, progress and a pride march

     AT 3 pm on Sunday evening five members of the LGBT community arrived at the Triumph of Labour statue at the Marina, to participate in Chennai’s first-ever gay pride march. 

  • Laos tackles transgender taboos

     A new drive to contain the spread of HIV/Aids in Laos is forcing officials to recognise a marginalised group - transgender men known as "katheoy". The BBC's Jill McGivering went to meet some of them in the capital, Vientiane

  • Born in male body, Jenny knew early that she was a girl

    Henry Joseph Madden was a good student and track team member in high school, but he had a secret: He sometimes wore his mother's pantyhose and underwear under his clothes.

  • Film on Irish transgender person wins rights award

     A FILM telling the true story of an Irish transgender person was presented with a human rights film award in Dublin last night.

  • Cross-Dress to Impress

    Hey guys—ever feel awkward walking into the Harvard College Women’s Center with a not-so-femme phallus? Just tuck it in!

  • Trans Basketball, Oh Yeah!

     I came across this video the other day, and thought you might like it.  

  • Transsexual takes to the footy field

     LIKE many young Victorian males, Will loves his footy. He dreams of joining the thousands of men who lace up their boots every weekend and play in amateur competitions. He's just like them in every way but one — he was born female.

  • Ex-fighter pilot listens to feminine voice he'd tried to ignore

    Darlene Fike shifts in a chocolate brown recliner seated on a heating pad in a small two-story apartment near the University of Memphis and recounts her life. It hasn't been long since the last remnants of Darlene's manhood were surgically removed, and she's sore.

  • Finding Work

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sydney Dupree came to Los Angeles because, as a young male-to-female transsexual, she found Memphis hostile. She came to the transgender job fair because jobs are hard for her to find, even in Los Angeles.

  • Living A Lie

    SPOKANE -- Few in today's society understand the reasons behind someone's desire to live as the opposite sex. For Gianni Giuliani it's been a lifetime battle.

  • Becoming Ginger

     He's quite the celebrity in Nashville's bar scene, but you wouldn't know George if he strutted right past you in slacks and one of the four men's shirts he owns. In fact, you wouldn't know him as a man at all, unless maybe he showed a little leg.

  • Gender setters- when doctors play God

     Two former patients of Australia's controversial sex-change clinic say misdiagnosis and wrongful surgery destroyed their lives.

  • Change of direction, new love

     RACHEL and Kimberley Rae say they owe their lives to Dr Trudy Kennedy and the gender dysphoria clinic she worked at. Theirs is an unlikely love story.

  • Mr Para Becomes Ms Cop

     SEX swap soldier Jan Hamilton is joining Scotland's biggest police force.

  • When a staffer switches genders

    Tony Ferraiolo will never forget his first day back at work after surgery. The 46-year-old supervisor's knees trembled as he entered the windowless headquarters of Madison Co., a switch and sensor manufacturer in Branford, Conn.

  • A woman's quest to erase a past that won't die

     PAYETTE, Idaho - Catherine Carlson threads through the discount store, her hiking boots clopping against the linoleum. She is numb to the shoppers who glance curiously as she plucks a pair of long underwear from a sales rack.

  • Comedian David Hoyle is no drag

     David Hoyle tosses his head back and regards his reflection. His outfit - leather miniskirt, fishnet top and cut-off leather jacket (plus red dog collar) - pleases him, with its whiff of Nancy Spungen

  • Fast and Possibly Deadly Route to Beauty

     Like almost every woman, Fiordaliza Pichardo just wanted to look beautiful, so a few years ago, she began getting silicone injections from a woman she met through a friend in order to plump up her thighs and derriere.

  • Journey to womanhood

     KALAMAZOO -- For almost all of his life, Bill Hunter was not comfortable with himself. From the time he was a child, says the lifelong Kalamazoo area resident, he was profoundly aware that he was not meant to be in the body he was born with. For more than 40 years, Hunter knew he was meant to be a woman. Today he is.

  • Putting a face on transgender issue

    I’m just a boring accountant," Joanne Herman told an aide to state Rep. Brian Wallace during the transgender lobbying day on April 7. Herman was one of hundreds who turned up at the State House to muster support for the transgender rights bill.

  • Capital of Transsexuals

     More than three years ago cinematographer/director PJ Raval heard about a small town in Colorado that was "the sex change capital of America." Intrigued, he contacted the doctor, herself a transsexual woman, and began a conversation that resulted in a two-and-a-half year film project, Trinidad. 

  • My true self has finally been released

    For years, Maurice Pepper had a secret he couldn't reveal, even to his wife. It wasn't until she was taken into care that he made a life-changing decision

  • DHS sends boy home for dressing as a girl

     DUNNELLON - Inside the halls of any typical American public high school, the outfit would hardly be construed as outlandish: a V-neck T-shirt, blue jeans and high-heeled boots, accentuated by earrings and a necklace.

  • Don't call me the 'Tranny Trucker' anymore!

     A transsexual truck driver who was victimised when she started dressing as a woman has made a heartfelt plea: "Don't call me the tranny trucker!"

  • KUSI TV refuses to have me on because i'm transgender

    I am so upset. The reporter from the San Diego Reader, Ernie Grimm, contacted me a few weeks ago to ask if I would do a television interview with him when the story came out on the cover of the reader about my performance Becoming Dragon. 

  • Woman in hiding

     I AM in my late 40s, and am married but have no children. Though I am male, I have had this feeling from the time I was a teenager that I am a woman caught in a man’s body. I have not seen a doctor regarding this feeling but I have confided with my wife and a female friend. They are very understanding about my situation.

  • Isis King Surprises On Tyra Show

     Isis King made headlines as the first transgender contestant to compete on America's Next Top Model. She didn't win the prize, but she served as an inspiration to many.

  • Of Two Worlds- An Introduction

    I’m Sei. For those who read my coming out piece on this blog entitled The Longest Road, you know that I’m both transsexual and lesbian. Beginning this week and for as long as I can write them, I will be exploring and explaining the world of transsexuality here, and especially focusing in on that place where it intersects the lesbian world.

  • I have been cross-dressing again

     There is something shocking about seeing yourself as your mother, peering out of a national daily.

  • Citizens Without Rights Come Out

    "They don't have the right to vote or own property; rarely marry and have great difficulty getting crucial documents such as passports and driving licences, which would mean they have an official identity. "They cannot be admitted to hospital, schools and colleges." 

  • Living on the fringe of society

     My name is Priya and I am 30 years old. I was born a male, but have always felt I was a woman from the time I was a kid.

  • Trans Friendly and It is Heart Warming

    When you get right to it, underneth all our differences, we're all human and share in that experience.  

  • Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical: how Priscilla changed my life Tony Sheldon on the drag-queen role he is bringing to the West End.
  • Rapper educates against hateAthens Boys Choir draws attention to transgender issues
  • Transgendered HPD officer: I'm the same cop I've always been

    HOUSTON—Sgt. Julia Oliver serves and protects the public.  She’s been called an excellent police officer, but she’s also been called other, less-flattering things.

  • What the people say about - Cross-dressing being an offence

    This week we asked the man, woman in the street what they thought about the cross-dressing charges that were brought against seven men last week.

  • The Little Sissy - Part II

    The conclusion to The Little Sissy - Part I

  • Macho sports editor who became a transsexual

    WHEN sports journalist Gerry Greenberg married his wife Lynn in 1969, he was a self-confessed rugby-loving macho man. Forty years on, they are preparing to celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary – but theirs will be a celebration with a difference.

  • Free to be he

    Puberty is hard. Body changes and raging hormones can make it a confusing time for everybody. But as a pre-teen girl struggling with gender identity disorder, puberty for Julien Davis was more than just confusing.

  • Stories from living a transgender life

    An upfront and close look at living transgender from several true life cases.

  • Dr. Kenneth Zucker's War on Transgenders

    Lynn Conway is one of the trans community's great heroes. An inventor and computer chip researcher, in the late '60s she was fired from her job at IBM when she began to transition from a man to a woman

  • Jude Law Is So Pretty

    Jude Law has often been accused of being too pretty for certain roles (except as that creepy killer photographer in Road to Perdition), so he's apparently decided to take those lemons and make a big ol' pitcher of cross-dressing lemonade.

  • Pure Love Sistergirl

    The Tiwi Islands in Northern Territory is home to one of Australia’s most inspiring drag performers. Crystal Love, also known as Crystal Johnson Kerinaiua, has performed all over the country delivering inspirational shows whilst tirelessly educating people on gay, bi and transgender issues.

  • Loose Silicone Injections: My Horror Story

    I don't usually speak openly about silicone injections because honestly I never thought it was anyone's business what I may have or not have had done to my body to physically transform myself to who I am today. But ...

  • Tough times for Tennesseans

    For James Huff, 19, stocking produce at the grocery store where he works isn't a bad gig because he rarely has to deal with customers. But when he mans a cash register, awkward interactions aren't uncommon. “Sometimes people aren’t really sure what I am,” James said.

  • Invaded by transvestites

    For centuries, it has been a bustling little community that always boasted a warm welcome for unexpected visitors.  Queen Victoria stayed here once on her way to the south coast from London, and Lord Nelson is said to have spent a comfortable night at the local coaching inn with Lady Hamilton.

     

  • Campus SMASSified for Ally Week

    Ally Week, hosted by the Sexual Minorities and Student Supporters club, or SMASS, lasted from Saturday the 17th to Saturday the 24th. The seven days were devoted to awareness and defense of sexual minorities. The purpose of Ally Week is to remind students and faculty to be supportive of gender expression and to eliminate judgment. Throughout the entire week, in the dining hall, members of SMASS encouraged the Choate community to sign a banner pledging to be an “ally” of sexual min

  • Turkey 2008

    On January 24, 2009, the Platform of LGBTT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestites and Transsexuals) Rights of Turkey issued a detailed report about LGBTT Rights Situation in Turkey during the year of 2008

  • Humanities project challenges definition of gender

    Socrates, a transvestite and English teacher Kindel Launer have one thing in common: Palo Alto High School junior Avi Arfin.

  • Legal Guide For Transgender Immigrants

  • Punishing difference

    How many sexes and genders are there?  So many more than you think; chromosomes don't come in just male and female, and Santhi has been victimized because of what nature provided her. 

  • TS Police Officer Nominated Grand Marshal of Pride Parade

    The nominees for Grand Marshal of the Pride Parade were announced recently and Houston Police Officer Julia Christina Oliver is among the women named. That couldn't have happened two years ago when Oliver was still a male.

  • Meet TS Performer And Star Kimber James

    It was hailed as a first for a major adult talent agency in the industry, when L.A. Direct Models signed its first Transsexual performer; Kimber James.

  • Denise to take final step in bid to become a woman

    DENISE MOSSE can hardly bring herself to look at the black and white snaps from her childhood.

  • Trans Cast Member of Real World Opens

    Katelynn, the first transgender person to be a cast member on the MTV reality show "The Real World," gives what's being billed as an exclusive interview.

  • Interview: Antony Hegarty

    SITTING alone in an empty hotel lobby, as still and noble as a Roman statue, is Antony Hegarty. At first I walk right past him, which seems ridiculous considering he is the only person in the room. And also he's Antony Hegarty. A one-off talent, a transgender torch singer who warbles like Nina Simone, a gentle giant from Chichester with a shock of black hair and a smock who Lou Reed has described as an "angel".

  • The Labyrinth of Identity Change

    In this overview of changing gender, it's not just about changing your outer gender presentation; but also the documents.

  • Transsexual wins 2008 Most Inspirational Businesswoman

    Kate Craig-Wood, 31, is the managing director of her own IT consulting firm, who transitioned in 2005 and never looked back, but never hides either.  Below she tells her story.

  • Trans Author Revisits Her Story

    When I decided to transition I didn’t have the option of melting into society, which is what a lot of transgender people do. I had a family to support, and responsibilities to honour. Since I couldn’t disappear, I decided to make my visibility useful by writing my book Katherine’s Diary. I relaunched it last year.

  • The Raleigh Rings in 2009 with Change (and Pussy) We Can Believe In

    The naked body of Amanda Lepore, the world's self proclaimed #1 transsexual, is about as good of a metaphor for change as any so it was suiting that the first sight of 2009 that the crowd at The Raleigh's Burlesque New Years saw was Ms. Lepore clad only in balloons as hostess Susanne Bartsch popped them.

  • Transsexual joins Real World

     

    All Katelynn Cusanelli was trying to do was give a friend a ride to Miami. But that ride began a journey that continued on to a reality show in New York City and, if Cusanelli has her way, will end in a happy and uplifting place.

     

  • Changed lives win acceptance in Iran

    TEHRAN  - After waiting nearly 30 years, Sogand finally became the person she dreamt of.

  • TG Golfer Long Ball Champ

    “I am shocked more women are not complaining about this,” three-time world champion Sean “The Beast” Fister said. “It’s not an apples-to-apples deal. Men and women are different.”

  • Washington embraces trans athletes

    Before the 2006-07 school year, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association had never fielded a question about transgender athletes. That year, they received four inquiries about whether teenagers with non-traditional gender identities could compete for their schools.

  • A Call To Action

     In the December 5, 2008 edition of The New York Times, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty published a full page advertisement that makes inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims about supposed “violence and intimidation” against religious groups by “mobs” since the passage of Proposition 8.  

  • A Day In The Life

     Never pretend that you are not what you are.' I'm very open and, as a result, I'm not embarrassed or scared any more, Sahara says.  

  • The Lady Regrets

    Dr. Renée Richards became famous after sex-change surgery and a legal fight to play in the U.S. Open. But a great love affair with a man has eluded her. A 2 hour interview, prompted by Dr. Richards’s new memoir, “No Way Renée,” provides an intimate look into her life now. 

  • Trans community demands justice!

     The following article is based on a speech given at the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance in Canberra. 

  • Trans community demands justice!

     The following article is based on a speech given at the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance in Canberra. 

  • Religion and Sexuality

    That's one way to sidestep discrimination

  • Top Model Talks About Being Transgender

     BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― If all humans are created equal, then why do only two Maryland jurisdictions have laws to protect a group that includes hundreds of Marylanders?  It's a statewide conflict over transgender discrimination. 

  • A Boy's Life

    Since he could speak, Brandon, now 8, has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one. His case, and a rising number of others like it, illuminates a heated scientific debate about the nature of gender—and raises troubling questions about whether the limits of child indulgence have stretched too far.

  • Living On The Front Line

     “I left in 1999 and went illegally first to Mexico and then to the US. I was in the closet when I left and the economic situation was bad. I was begging for food in Mexico. Eventually I ended up in Dallas, homeless and living in the Salvation Army’s shelter.

  • Sex. Gender. Employment Discrimination.

    One woman’s successful lawsuit against the Library of Congress could spell more legal victories for transgender employees across the country.

  • Remembered and celebrated

    A man with salt-and-pepper hair and a black jacket pauses outside the lit-up windows of the Cornerstone Café. It’s after eight on a Thursday night in the final days of October. I see him peer through the glass, then watch as he reads the signs posted on the door: “Café Closed,” “TransAction Meeting here!” Lights from the Fernwood Inn and the Belfry Theater illuminate this junction of Fernwood square. The clatter-crash of a kitchen next door drifts i

  • In Their Scarred World

    They are not welcome in restaurants; auto drivers dont take them; passengers refuse to sit near them in buses; walking down the street is tough; getting a passport or opening a bank account is almost impossible and they are randomly picked up by the police and beaten mercilessly. Their crime not fitting into the gender roles society has determined.

  • Transgender journey

    After years of living in shame and torment, Cindy Thai Tai underwent sex reassignment surgery and says she’s never felt happier.

  • Teens in TransitionAs puberty hits, transgender youths are increasingly finding it the catalyst for coming out about their sexual identities.
  • Isis; The Back Story

    She took America by storm as the first trangeder model to compete on America's Next Top Model. But what do you know about Isis King?

  • Orthodox Jewish Transsexual

    The student newspaper of Yasheva University conducted an interview with a transsexual living within the orthodox Jewish community. 

  • Tranny day

    Three courageous ‘girls’ talk sexual ambiguity with Lin Sampson, explaining life before and after realization.

  • Trans Singapore

    A DEGREE from Curtin University, Western Australia, and a regional management position in a large logistics organisation. And, she's a transsexual!

     

     

  • Difficult Job Search for Transgender Woman

    Prejudices compound the struggle to find employment

  • Now he really is Jahn the Man

    Jahn Kirchoff calls to check in, and the voice on the phone is startling. It has dropped considerably in just a couple of weeks. No way it sounds like a woman's voice anymore.

  • Bobby Darling
    Eight years back a starry-eyed Pankaj Sharma left home in Delhi with a strong determination and came down to Mumbai to make it big. 

     

  • My body is wrongShould teenagers who believe they are transgender be helped to change sex? And if so, what about the four-year-olds who feel the same way? Viv Groskop meets the parents and doctors in favour of intervention
  • Forty Bucks and RuPaul Pumps

    One of my sons wears high heels. And, so whip me, Dr. Laura, I let him. A lot.

  • Sex Change Ends Miltary Career

    To put it bluntly, the military uniform once so proudly worn by Captain Ian Hamilton no longer fits. It is packed away, out of sight, in a wardrobe, along with the paratrooper's red beret, and the medals of service which document how he served in every major conflict of the past 20 years. Why he can no longer wear it  -  and, moreover, who is to blame for that fact  -  is a matter of much controversy.

  • Going Home Again

    A hometown visit brings back the struggles of growing up black and transgender.

  • Through Sickness, Health and Sex Change

    The Brunners redefine same sex marriage, because when they originally got married they were man and wife. Now they are wife and wife.

  • It wasn't my choice to be a transgender

    The story of William, who at the age of three began battling the establishment.

  • Up in the air as a woman

    "Well-known among fellow cabin crew members as "Nicky", Kiranunt enjoys walking up and down the aisle with baskets of snacks for passengers who are unaware that this flight attendant, wearing make-up and in a full air stewardess's uniform, was not born a woman."

  • For some, a job well done isn't enough

    I had always thought that to advance in my career I just needed to be very good at my job — that I would be judged on the merits of my work. At the age of 40, however, I learned how very wrong I was.

  • Transgender odyssey

    Workplace inequity takes teacher from Michigan campus to national stage.

  • Former transsexual cop opens up

    In the spring of 1995, Hoboken motorcycle police officer John Aiello told his superiors that when he returned from his leave, it would be as a woman named Janet.

  • Renee Richards is a trans hero

    Imagine waking up every day and feeling like you were in the wrong body.

  • The Little Sissy Part 1

    Boys have penis', girls don't

  • Navigating the space between genders

    Minneapolis, Minn. — When Barbara Satin first started going out as a woman, it wasn't just different, it was dangerous.

  • How can I tell my kids I dress like a woman?

    I came across this article with a crossdresser named Kate as she sat down for an interview with the Cambridge Evening News

  • Norma's Voice

    In this excerpt from the book, "Norma's Voice," available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com (and, I believe the British amazon site too), a married cross-dresser and his wife go shopping.

  • Joy Liddicoat

    How Noel became Noeleena, the story of the 60-year-old married builder who had gender reassignment surgery, is at heart about how important it is to assert our true identity.

  • Victims or Villains?

    Are we as a community the victims we claim to be? 

  • Candidly Transgender

    Sometimes I find that humor can be the best solution

  • The Corset

     I wrote this story several years ago and it was originally published in the "Femme Mirror" the TRIESS bi-monthly magazine.  

  • Door to Door

     This is an exerpt from my TG novel "Door to Door."

  • Winter Solstice

    A recently returned Vietnam veteran learns the consequences of failure to fully disclose.

  • It Knows You By No Other Name

    New Serious Transgender Suspense Novel IT KNOWS YOU BY NO OTHER NAME by Dan McNayavailable from AMAZON.COM

  • The Mouse Trap

    An overbearing boyfriend is tamed by his girlfriends girlfriend.

  • Wild Ride

    An innocent ride home has a cost, and a reward.

  • The Transformation of Kerry

    Then the doorbell rang. My fear escalated and my heart was about to rip through my blouse and I felt sweat trickle down my back to the top of my pantyhose. What was my stepfather doing? I wondered as he stepped into the hallway and pulled open the door.

  • Love, Magic and Money

    A simple lap dance can change everything

  • New Boobs

    During his vacation Aaron decides to get implants, without much forethought

  • Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives: Exploitative or empowering?

     Dallas filmmaker Israel Luna’s latest effort,Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives, has made headlines and stirred controversy across the country, from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in May, to the Seattle International Film Festival last weekend, with a stop in betweenat Fort Worth’s Q Cinema Film Festival earlier this month.

  • Mental Illness and Transgender People

     Many transgender people, me included, bristle at the notion that we are mentally ill. 

  • When Should Newspapers Mention A Person Is Transgender?

    When the Santa Fe New Mexican reported the arrest of 60-year-old Randey Michelle "Mikeh" Gordon for impersonating a police officer and illegally pulling over another vehicle, they opted for the headline "Transsexual faces charges of police impersonation." 

  • Are Breasts a Right or a Privilege

     Although the National Health Service in Great Britain has paid for gender reassignment surgery for transsexuals since 1999, at a cost of approximately £10,000 per procedure, precisely how much masculinization or feminization should be funded by the taxpayers remains a matter of ongoing controversy. 

  • Should gender identity be protected?

     Indiana's own Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Merrillville), like other House Democrats who spent much political capital on the health care reform vote, is hoping for a softball legislative schedule so he can focus on his top priority, re-election. However, a bill -- pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- that would give transgender individuals the same legal status as minorities will prove to make this election cycle anything but easy.

  • Pakistan's hijras deserve acceptance

    A great challenge for Pakistan has been crafting a sense of shared identity.

  • Wrong Way to Advance a Good Cause

     Althea didn't seem to us a viable candidate for state representative in the city of Boston; her minority status was a lot to overcome.

  • California Trans Rights

      What will it take to transition California into a state where all gender identities and expressions are valued and respected? 

  • Why We Need ENDA

     Americans all over the country are out of work, with many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — transgender Americans in particular — facing tough times because of workplace bias. Thankfully, our nation is on the cusp of seriously addressing this injustice: The House is forecasted to soon consider the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

  • Is My Husband a Cross Dresser?

     DEAR ABBY: I think my husband may be a cross-dresser. Last night while “Roland” and I were cuddling in bed, I felt his legs and they were smoother than mine. I asked him why he keeps shaving his legs and stomach, and then it dawned on me. Roland has sent me e-mails hinting about dressing up.

     

  • What's next? Transgender showers for kids

     The writer projects his negative opinion with HRC and transgender rights

  • Bill O Reilly Mocks

     Fox “news” media knows that “real Americans” are concerned about how the evil, librul gay agenda is threatening America’s bathrooms. 

  • A Kinder, Gentler Approach to Transgender Care

     The part of the transgender population wishing to transition genders can be subject to some of the most rigorous pre-qualification requirements of any medical procedure. A Boston organization thinks there's a better way.

  • Cracking the gender binary

     Ash Yezuita would like to wash her hands in peace.

  • It's all about the toilets: Annise Parker's transgender order causes protest

     One might have thought that in a time when Felicity Huffman can win an Academy Award for playing a transgender woman (and Hilary Swank can win one for portraying a trans man), Eddie Izzard can sell out stadiums while wearing makeup and heels and

  • You're Transgender? You're Fired!

     After almost half a century living as a male,Joanne Herman transitioned in 2002 to live as a female in order to resolve a gender incongruity she had felt for as long as she remembers. 

  • Mississippi's Prom Scandal Just Keeps Getting Uglier

     By now, the story of Constance McMillen is well known. If you missed coverage (a good deal of it by AlterNet), Adam Weinstein over at Mother Jones has a good summary today .

  • Census doesn't fairly count transgender persons

     All the advertising I have seen for the 2010 census has a unified message: We must all participate so we can count. However, some of us will be participating in this census, but will not be accurately counted .

  • Church says schools should not be biased

     Unitarian Universalists in Mississippi endorse safe schools for all of our children regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.

  • Health Care Reform and Its Impact on Transgender People

     President Barack Obama today signed into law an historic bill designed to increase access to health care throughout the United States.

  • Religion won't help kids with diversity, fluidity might

     A Victoria University academic believes teaching primary school children about the world's main religions will promote understanding and tolerance, and prepare kids for an increasingly diverse 21st century. Has anyone else spotted the irony?

  • Transgender or Transgendered?

     I've increasingly been seeing and hearing the word "transgendered," and I have cringed every time. What's wrong with the seemingly subtle difference between saying "transgendered" and "transgender?" Actually, a lot.

  • Why Transwomen Are the New TV Makeover Must

     VH1, the Viacom network responsible for the exploitation of D-list has-beens and the word "Love," this month premieres Transform Me, a television makeover show. Featuring three transgender makeover-ers.

  • Eddie Izzard Defines Drag and Explains How He's Like George Washington

     Very little in life came easily for the British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard. 

  • Transgender issue draws controversy

     Generations of schoolchildren — nerdy ones, shy ones, fat ones and ones who were simply different — are all too familiar with the gut-wrenching fear that a trip to a school bathroom or locker room can invoke.

  • Cross-dressing in Guyana: Is the Supreme Court Courageous?

     Cross-dressing lawsuit more than just about clothes

  • Psychiatrists, sissies and the schoolyard

    With no input from Sarah Palin (as far as we know), the American Psychiatric Assn., in its newDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, has replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability." Whether this will stop schoolyard taunts of “retard”

  • Is the APA Playing Politics With Sexual Disorder Definition?

     In mid-February, the American Psychiatric Association released the latest proposed changes to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), considered the “Bible” used by mental health professionals in diagnosing patients. In addition to providing a guide for mental health diagnosis, the DSM is crucial in helping third-party payers (insurance companies) determine what they will cover under health insurance policies.

  • Planning a Transgender Wedding... My Own

     Valentine's Day this year found me dreaming about my upcoming wedding. What's different about a transgender wedding? Nothing, if I have my way.

  • Are Transgender Pageants More or Less Exploitive of Women?

    It's not like women, every time they get together to crown someone Miss USA or Miss America or Miss Childish Bigot From California, have to defend their right to competition based on pretty faces and smoking bods .

  • The Assassination

     About a year ago, I was the subject of a character assassination.   This is probably something we all have some familiarity with to some extent I would think.  

  • State of the LGBT Movement: Speeches aren't change, change is more than words

  • What being transsexual means to me

     I think one thing many will agree upon is the critical need for change — personally, publicly, politically and socially.

  • With REAL ID, Privacy Concerns for the Transgender Community

     The level of data collection mandated by the REAL ID Act of 2007 should raise concern for all American citizens who enjoy their privacy, because it mandates unprecedented levels of data collection and an equally unprecedented level of nationwide access to that data (EPIC, 2007, 14). 

  • Julie Bindel's dangerous transphobia

     I don't much care for Julie Bindel, unlike Beatrix Campbell, who defended her on this site yesterday. That does not mean I don't admire her.

  • Transgender Politics

     Tall and slim with natural blond hair, the young lady walking by us exuded a confidence that belied the struggles she must have gone through to be where she was. I gestured toward her. "No matter what I do, I'll never be able to look like that," I complained.

  • THINK OF THE BATHROOMS!

     Last Thursday, hundreds of transgender Massachusetts residents gathered in the State House to lobby (yet again) for the right to stand under the state's hate crime and nondiscrimination umbrella. Currently, a range of person-flavors are covered—including race, religion, age, nationality, disability, sex and sexual orientation—but not transgender identity.

  • On denying reality

    A response to Cothran and his recent post mocking the notion of transgender, and mocking the transgendered.

  • Balance in pageantry

     Beauty pageants have been used to celebrate women for decades. Sure, their roots were less than balanced, but many modern pageants promote self-esteem, personal achievements and world-view thinking. Pageants have also substantially broadened their contestant base: seniors, children, plus size, and, finally, transsexuals.

  • Lack of Trans Student Support

     Transgender children are some of the most vulnerable students in America’s schools. Nobody knows how many there are, and very few educators know what to do with them.

  • The Transgender Athlete

     "I was really worried about coming out as transgender to anyone else because I knew there weren’t any policies. I was so afraid that my school would ban me from my sport and that was the only thing I had at the time. I finally decided to come out my senior year of college because I was going down a slippery slope and I didn't think I could pul

  • Caster Semenya and the apartheid of sex

     Xeni asked me to give a brief analysis of her earlier post on the International Olympic Committee's decision regarding sex tests for athletes like South African sprinter Caster Semenya. Caster is one of the millions of people in the world who challenge our simplistic male/female sex binary by their very existence.

  • Light on the path

     Transgender activist Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi talks about Super Queen, her multi-city beauty contest, which seeks to bring the Kinnar community to the public eye

  • Being First Sucks

     "Being first sucks." That's what Amanda Simpson, one of the country's first two openly transgender presidential appointees, told ABC News. 

  • Lets Ban Pre-Op Transsexual

    No, not the actual people, but the term itself. It's fallen as out of favor as stiletto heels at an office picnic, and I'm pretty sure I know why.

  • Steps Taken to Correct Gender Identity Discrimination

     The new year has ushered in two measures of fairness for transgender people. 

  • The other side of privacy

     Many people in the media and in government have been advocating full-body scanners in the wake of the failed Christmas Day attack by so-called Underwear Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In recent weeks Canada has quickly moved towards introducing the scanners, along with the U.S., U.K., Nigerian, and Dutch governments.

  • It's Time For Tony Perkins' Fear and Confusion Show: ENDA's a DRAG!

     Tony Perkins, the endearing don't-I-look-like-a-choirboy? president of Family Research Council is sizzling over ENDA - the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

  • You will become mentally ill in 2013

     Toronto is a lovely and tolerant city full of amazing resources for LGBT people and their allies. My many visits resulted in nothing but the fondest of memories

  • Is Transgenderism a mental illness?

     The American Psychiatric Association thinks so, or is history repeating itself?

  • Seeing My Transgender Roommate Transition Changed Me Too

     There’s a certain amount of brouhaha amongst some evangelical Republicans over a minor presidential appointment in the Commerce Department.

  • Religous Extremism and Transsexuality

    On 11 September 2009, America woke up to watch helplessly as 2,900 of its citizens lost their lives as a result of a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda.

  • The generosity of strangers

     SOMETIME last month, a parcel was delivered to my doorstep. Inside was a box full of goodies for my baby, with a few handmade embellishments personalising the package. I was gob smacked. The parcel was from a woman I’ve never met, a woman with whom I’ve had intermittent contact over email while we worked on a project together. She’d sent the parcel all the way from Germany.

  • This pub ain't no drag

     The thing that separates a great drag show from a mediocre one is simple: attention to detail.

  • How to Close the LGBT Health Disparities Gap

     In the past decade lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people have made rapid progress in winning and securing equal rights. Fifteen states and Washington, D.C. now give same-sex couples at least some of the same rights afforded to heterosexual married couples. Even more states offer nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or both. Polling data show that the general public has increasingly positive views of LGBT people and are becoming m

  • Treating transgender children as mentally ill creates the problem

     A debate is raging in the psychiatric community about the appropriateness of Gender Identity Disorder as a designated illness

  • What About Roberta?

     So one of your long-term employees, Bob, comes into your office and tells you that he no longer identifies with the sex assigned to him at birth and that in two weeks he will begin the process of “transitioning” from male to female. 

  • The Sad Struggles of a Transsexual Sportswriter

     A little over a year after deciding not to go through with a sex change, LA Times sports columnist Mike Penner killed himself. Jacob Bernstein on the pain of his final days.

  • Magazine Preview: In Transition

     There’s been a lot of ink spent in the off-campus press on the recent gender-neutral housing proposal, but most of it has ignored one targeted community: trans students. But gender-neutral housing is just one of seve

  • Drag-Haggin wiith the Best of Them

    Runnin with RuPaul, Tranimals, Squeaky and Fadedra 

  • It's Fatine's Choice

     I'M emotionally disturbed by the public response towards the marriage of Fatine Min Baharin with Ian Young.

  • Amazing and fabulous

     Wikipedia describes transgender as a person who may act, feel, think, or look different from the gender that he or she was born with while a transsexual is someone with a mind that is literally, physically, trapped in a body of the opposite sex.

  • Should We Remember Mike Penner or Christine Daniels?

    On Saturday, Nov. 28, Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner was found dead in his Los Angeles home, the victim of an apparent suicide. Penner had been covering the sports beat for theLA Times since 1983. But the writer’s public profile skyrocketed in April of 2007, when he came out as transgender, began living publicly as a woman, and changed his byline to Christine D

  • Transgender lives matter, too

     This past weekend I attended Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) events in Sacramento and Stockton and participated in two web-based memorials. Each year I am moved to tears listening to the manner in which humans are subjected to violent murder based on their perceived gender identity. This year was no different except the list of dead went up from 29 human souls murdered last year to 119 human souls this year.

  • Transgendered people deserve to live the lives their mind dictates

     I may have a bit of the Alberta rube in me, but hey, I knew what the Kinks were singing about when they sang Lola. Or so I thought, up until about age 19 or 20.

  • Malaysia Report: Transgender Day of Remembrance

     Held on the 20th of November every year, this day is set to commemorate transgenders who have been killed due to discrimination, prejudice and hatred towards the community. It is also to raise awareness and act against the violence, brutality and murder of gender variant or non-gender conforming individuals within the LGBT community worldwide.

  • Tampa's transgender ruling elicits uncertainty

     BROOKSVILLE - Will Tampa's decision Thursday to broaden its policy on discrimination to include transgendered individuals lead to a review of personnel procedures for Hernando County, the city of Brooksville and the school district?

  • Accepting CU-Boulder's transgender community

     As a queer-person-of-color-identified student at the University of Colorado, I have a good idea of what it means to be on the fringe of society and all the hardships that go along with it. But when you add not conforming to heteronormative ideals of gender identity and gender expression as it relates to the transgender community, those hardships are only made worse and more numerous.

  • Hong Kong plays transgender catch-up

     HONG KONG - In the biggest challenge yet to traditional Chinese values about sex in this city of 7 million people, a male-to-female transsexual is suing the government for the right to marry her male partner. Moreover, because the plaintiff makes such a compelling case, traditionalists find themselves on the legal defensive. 

  • Del. moves slowly toward equality on LGBT issues

     This was the best legislative year in Dover that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Delawareans have ever seen. 

  • High school cross-dressing in the spotlight

     High school is a tricky time for many teenagers, with the simple act of what to wear becoming a huge dilemma. Does this skirt look right, a girl might wonder to herself before school. But what about when a boy wonders the same question? 

  • The Big Problem If ENDA Doesn't Stipulate What Changes Must Be Made to Employee Bathrooms

     As members of the House debate whether the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is something this country needs to keep queers safe in the workplace, should they also, by the end of all of this, issue strict directions on what employers need to do about the signs they hang on bathroom doors?

  • In mixed up world Girls will be boys and boys will be girls

     There was a good Sunday New York Times story on the growing tension between gender-bender high school students and traditional dress codes. The story made brief reference to the recent North Cobb High case involving student Jonathan Escobar.

  • Get A Grip

     On Tuesday, voters in Maine approved a bill establishing second class citizenship for millions of American citizens by a slim margin. Despite the tireless work of organizers, fundraisers and the amazing turn-out by the supporters of equality, in the end, discrimination won over fairness. We see across the country voters choosing to create two types of citizenship: the folks we’re comfortable with get first tier, and those we aren’t comfortable with get second tier.

  • Ending Employment Discrimination in America

     Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics about America’s LGBT Families

  • Cross-Dressing John Kenley Is A Life Ignored

     RIP John Kenley. Anorak’s Man In LA remembers the cross-dressing, hermaphroditic theatre star being ignored by the big media:

  • drag culture and the transgender community

     Tis the season for trick-or-treating, candy chomping and costume wearing. And if you’re not a fan of those, at the very least, you can curl up your couch and enjoy a cult classic, such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

  • School Halloween costume rules

     The RULES presented at some schools makes the whole idea of Halloween moot. . 

  • Dying Real

    Honoring Queer Relationships and the Gender Variant Body at the End of Life

  • Keeping LGBT Issues in Focus

     As has been true nation-wide, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues have been receiving greater attention and inspiring more awareness at Emory than at any time in the past. 

  • Hermaphrodite, is the word inappopriate?

     Move over Usain Bolt. Bring on a new superstar, the most talked about runner this past summer, a female. Or is she?

  • Transgender Issues 101: What is a transition? Part three

     A frequently asked question: If you were always male inside, why did you have to “learn” male behaviors when you transitioned? Wouldn’t that just come naturally?

  • How the Gay Community Is Complicit in Trans Violence

     The first article in this series took a general look at the growing problem of violence against transgendered persons, both in the U.S. and abroad. In the second part, Joe Erbentraut looks at how the media and even many gay organizations ignore or downplay these crimes and what is being done to remedy that. 

  • Why we're marching

     October 11 will be a day to march--in Washington, D.C., and cities around the country to demand full LGBT equality, and nothing less. Now, activists across the country are taking a stand nationally, and setting their sites high--equal rights in all 50 states, backed up by the authority of the federal government. SocialistWorker.org asked some of the people building this demonstration--both veterans of the movement and those new to activism--to give us their reasons for marchin

  • Majority of workers still hiding at work

     A majority – 51 percent – of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers continue to hide their identity from most or all co-workers, according to a new report released today from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation that examines the real-life experiences of LGBT workers.

  • No more waiting for crumbs

     President Barack Obama’s own equivocation these last months shows the limitations of an electoral strategy – and the importance of struggle.  He is the first president to publicly utter the word transgender and to honor the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots last June. Yet his Justice Department first insultingly upheld and then opposed DOMA

     

     

  • Treating transsexual kids

     The nation's oldest and largest organization of endocrinologists has recommended that physicians treating children with gender identity disorder intervene to delay puberty at its first signs and wait until a child is at least 16 before offering hormonal therapy that would begin his or her gender transition.

  • The Top Five Silliest Questions to Ask a Transsexual Person

     When a transsexual person comes out, the non-trans people around him or her always have a bottomless well of questions — and this is not necessarily bad.

  • History: Who wears the pants?

     Many of my students joke about the "gender police."

  • Why Black Transgender Role Models Are Important

     Wyatt T. Walker wrote in a December 1967 Negro Digest article, “Rob a people of their sense of history and you take away hope.”

  • Gay & Lesbian Manners: All About Chaz Bono, Anti-LGBT Jokes, and Straights Using Gay Slang

     What does Chaz Bono teach us about transgender folks?

  • Stealth Was A Mistake

     One of the ongoing arguments in the transgender community that’s guaranteed to generate heated debate one way or the other is the stealth vs out one.

  • Kenyans and the man-woman thing: Thanks Semenya!

     Kenya’s own Janeth Jepkosgei lost the recent 800 metres race at the World Championships in Berlin to Caster Semenya of South Africa. Kenyans seem to be waiting for the answer to the question, “Is Miss Caster Semenya a woman?” 

  • A Transgender Inquiry

     A lot of people who are trans experience body dysmorphia,” says Max, from across a table in one of Wellington’s finest bagel establishments. “I don’t personally feel that. Perhaps that has a lot to do with both my politics and the fact that I have been able to access transitional therapies easily.”

  • Transgender and Christian: Finding Identity

     The idea of transgender Christianity shocks people on both sides of the divide: conservative religious reject any kind of gender variance and the LGBT community can be suspicious of organized religion. In all of this, trans-Christians are forging a new spirituality.

  • The Issue with Transgendered in the Military

    A colleague recently was asking me about the current status of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, as it has been come to be known, with the Obama Administration.  As we we’re discussing the pros and cons of that policy and the reform that hopefully will ensue, the question of Transgendered in the military came to focus.

  • Do trans people want to do away with gender?

     Some non-trans people wonder if transgender and transsexual people want to do away with or change the concept of gender as it is recognized by mainstream U.S. culture.

  • Defining Genderqueer

     Also found under the Transgender Umbrella—besides Transsexuals—are Genderqueers

  • The fight for LGBT equality on the job

     Sherry Wolf reports on the latest version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

  • Sex advice: I've caught my husband trying on my clothes

     My husband and I have always been open to experimentation, so when he suggested I “make him up” I applied eye shadow, mascara, lip gloss and got him to wear some lingerie.

  • What is an LGBT family?

    When you hear the term 'LGBT family' you may have many things come to mind as to what this term means to you or you may not have any clue what it actually incorporates.

  • Transgender Issues 101: What is a transition? Part two

     A transition from male to female or female to male is a process that takes place over a period of time — in some cases, several years.

  • Scrambled Letters and Scrambled Words -- and a transsexula

     I am learning disabled. Being learning disabled is something that most people try to hide from, or they get exceptions from in school. They get laughed at for being ‘dumb’ or ‘stupid’. The reality is that being learning disabled is not something that I have ever been all that ashamed of. In truth, it agrivates (aggrivates) me every time someone uses my disability to

  • Transgender Issues 101: What is a transition? Part one

     You will often hear transsexual people speak of their transition from male to female or from female to male. But what does this mean, exactly? And why do some people use different terms to reflect this transition?

  • Cross-dressing makes me feel good

     I AM 40 and have been married for 10 years to a beautiful woman. I like my wife to be sexy and I always buy her sexy lingerie. However, she doesn’t like to wear them. Instead, I wear them. My wife knows about this but pretends she doesn’t. Perhaps, she just doesn’t want to talk about it.

  • Transgender Issues 101

     We have already discussed the meaning of transgender(ed) and the difference between transgender(ed) and transsexual. Today’s 101 deals more with word usage than word meaning — but usage can be just as important, if not more so.

  • Did Michael Jackson sometimes dress as a woman? And does it really matter?

     Some Jackson fans will probably be upset with Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, the new book by journalist Ian Halperin that is out today. 

  • The Politics of Pronouns

    New coverage of murders unsettling for some in the transgender community.

  • Lateisha Green, anti-trans violence never stops

     Lateisha Green was not from Colorado, but as the first state to convict the murderer of a trans person of committing a hate crime, Green’s murder should concern us as well.

  • Face to face with new ideals of feminine beauty

     There are not many of us, male or female, who are blessed with the facial beauty of a Jaye Davidson (Dil in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game). As a woman Jaye was good-looking, but as a man he was beautiful -- the same face, of course, but our perception of that face on the body of a man was different. We assign a h

  • Just looking for a little support for my transgendered child

     " You are setting him up to fail" was the last thing I heard before my throat began to tighten and my eyes flooded with tears. How could my own family say such things to me? "I will not listen to you!" sputtered out of my mouth as I frantically searched for the button to drop the call. Did that just happen?

  • Politically Incorrect

     In the process of trying to dedicate Stonewall to the transsexuals, cross-dressers, butch women and transgendered of the community, I utilized the word ‘tranny’ in the title, thereby offending one of my transgendered readers.

  • In vigilance we trust

     We have always known mankind to kill what it felt threatened by, to evaluate what it deemed dangerous and rid itself of the threat that comes along with it. 

  • Transgender marriages, a religious quagmire

     A young women contacted me through my website www.weddingsbythebay.net, asking to get married. She and her soon to be husband, Dave, wanted a nice beach wedding in Monterey, California. 

  • Did God march in the gay pride parade?

     Last Sunday, June 28, Chicago’s 40th annual Gay Pride Parade stepped off at Belmont and Halstead, marched north to Broadway, then took a sharp turn south, and ended up on Cannon Drive in Lincoln Park. That’s a long walk, but probably necessary in order to accommodate the 450,000 onlookers who lined the route. The parade outdrew Taste of Chicago that day! Not bad. Kudos to the organizers.

  • Grandpa's Agenda

     The Human Rights Commission in Maine has been getting it right lately when it comes to protecting trans people in that state. Back in May they found that a trans woman banned from using the restroom in a Denny’s had indeed been d

  • Disposable Income

     How Gender and Sexuality Don't Add Up to Equal Pay

     
  • Obama to trannies: I've got your back

     President Barack Obama is quietly preparing to release new guidelines that would bar workplace discrimination against transgender federal employees. 

  • Saudi Arabia: Drop Cross-Dressing Charges

     Criminal Charges for Choice of Clothing Violate Rights to Privacy and Free Expression

  • Trans-cending time

    Tracing the modern transgender rights movement from its beginnings in the dress code reform of the 1800s up through Stonewall to today, when Texas A&M has honored trans advocate Phyllis Frye

  • Tri-Ess: The Society for the Second Self

    Crossdressers are probably as misunderstood in our society as are transsexuals. But crossdressers are nottranssexuals, nor are they drag queens.

  • Reincarnation

     Reincarnation: A Romantic Notion

  • What It's Like To Be Transgendered

     In her own words, a transgender teen talks candidly about acceptance and tolerance.

  • Trans Rights Go Global

     May was an historic month for the transgendered around the world.

  • Human Rights Watch: Honduras

    Honduras should act to end an epidemic of violence against transgender people by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting those responsible, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today

  • Human Rights Watch: Honduras

    Honduras should act to end an epidemic of violence against transgender people by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting those responsible, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today

  • The Real Deal

     "Hello. I'm Matt Kailey, and I'm a transsexual."  No, that’s not how I introduce myself.

  • The Transition Toward Marriage Equality

    As a transwoman, where do I fit in to the whole “marriage” paradigm?  I identify as a  heterosexual female, I have a body that is anatomically female, but presumably (I say presumably, because honestly I don’t think I’ve ever had a test to check my chromosomes) I have an XY chromosomal makeup.

  • Seven unanswered questions about the trial of Angie Zapata's killer

     On April 22, Allen Andrade, an unemployed 32-year-old who had spent time in prison for a string of non-violent crimes, was convicted of first-degree murder for beating to death eighteen-year-old Angie Zapata of Greeley

  • Stonewall at 40

     This is a much-revised version of an essay that first appeared in "The Weekly News" (TWN), South Florida's gay community newspaper. I also wrote about the Stonewall Riots in "Youth, Education, and Sexualities: An International Encyclopedia," edited by James T. Sears (Greenwood Press, 2005).

  • Did Denny's Break the Law?

     A transgender woman barred from using a Denny's restroom consistent with her gender identity was likely the victim of illegal discrimination under Maine law, an investigation by the state’s human rights commission concluded this week.

  • Is My Marriage Gay?

     How does being trans fit into the same sex marriage rules, or lack of them? 

  • Will trans woman's victory bring change to government hiring?

     Military veteran Diane Schroer’s recent legal victory highlights the challenges faced by the transgendered, both during and after serving their country with honor.

  • Debating disclosure

    You say that there are “differing opinions within the [transsexual (TS)] community on disclosure,” but then you go on to give only one, in which you end up confirming the letter-writer’s date’s opinion that the guy is a transphobic jerk. This doesn’t seem fair.

  • Trans-form the debate

     As I stood in a queue at the local corner-shop, I heard a high-pitched voice beside me at knee height, “Boys, boys, girls, boys, girls, boys”. Looking down, I noticed a small boy looking at a string of babies’ dummies and labelling them “boys” and “girls” according to their colour

  • Will Clergy Lead the Way on LGBT Equality?

     "While long-term trends clearly favor equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans, we must continue to shift public sentiment and public policy in a progressive direction. And I am hoping your local clergy will lead the way."

  • Transgender world sees hope

    The redhead in the brown T-shirt and strappy sandals doesn't want to give her name because at work — she's a mechanic — they think she's a guy. 

  • LGBT advocates fight back against 'bathroom bill' rhetoric

     To hear opponents of the transgender rights bill describe the legislation, one might think it would unleash full-scale anarchy on the Commonwealth. 

  • Post Mortem: On Beyond Galloping Zebras

    Thursday I met with the psychiatrist who oversaw my transition and a few months of my re-transition. It was interesting–very brief, and anticlimactic; at this point, I’m not really in transition in either direction

  • As a transsexual person, I have no rights

     I have no rights. I have no right to freedom from discrimination. I have no right to secure employment. I have no right to a safe place to live. I don’t even have the right to go to the washroom in peace. It’s amazing that I can sit here in the 21st century, in Canada, and be able to say that.

  • Transgenders to the fore

    BANGALORE: They are excluded from the so-called mainstream, associated with AIDS and sometimes portrayed as clowns and criminals. In reality, transgenders are among the most marginalized minorities in the world. 

  • Must We Fight Over Labels?

     In the reunion show of Ru Pauls Drag Race, one contestant, identified as a gender fuck (the last word being bleeped out), and she and Nina Flowers challenged some people’s concepts of drag and drag queens.

  • The atypical brain development of transsexuals

     Transsexuals are convinced that they were born in the body of the opposite gender and would do almost anything to change that fact. 

  • ... But You Can't Take the Genes Out of the Tranny

     Etiology - The science of assigning causes. What causes transsexuality? People have been arguing over that little drama for decades. 

  • Let's Talk Turkey

     A transsexual woman was attacked and beaten in Eskisehir. A transsexual woman was found her head cut in Bursa. A man has been killed by his friend on the claim that he asked for sexual intercourse. 

  • Queer as transsexual Europe

    In a Europe with a full spectrum of languages, traditions and ethnic identities, in a place where we can travel freely, sexual identities remain black and white. In an age in which flexibility and individuality have become buzzwords it is astounding that 'man' and 'woman' are immobile categories to which we attribute certain characteristics.

  • The Mirror Has Two Faces

    What are you a boy or a girl? How many times have transgender individuals been asked this question? Personally I've heard it more than few times in my life.

  • Transgender women are not gay men

    My transgender friends in Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP) met with me for coffee one night in Makati and told me they want to write a rejoinder to my column about our common friend, BB Gandanghari. I was glad to listen to them and learn more about the transgender experience. 

  • Shifting Sexuality and Transsexuals

     I have something of a secret. While I have stated that I am lesbian, the reality is probably closer to that I was more bisexual than strictly lesbian. The reality is a lot more complex than it might seem.

  • Turkey: Transgender Activist Murdered

     (New York, March 13, 2009) – The killing of Ebru Soykan, a prominent transgender human rights activist, on March 10, 2009, shows a continuing climate of violence based on gender identity that authorities should urgently take steps to combat, 

  • Concern over misconceived transsexualism

     Transgender activists are concerned about media representations of a man who underwent gender reassignment surgery but is now suing psychiatrists at the Monash Medical Centre.

  • Transgender kids: How young is too young for a sex change?

    Delving into the often tumultuous worlds of transgender youth

  • Sex-Stereotyping and Dress Codes

     In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that Title VII – the main federal anti-discrimination statute -- prohibits employer

  • Man, oh, man! Get that guy out of the girls' room

     An Ontario human rights case involving a pre-op transgender man seeking access to a women-only gym is just one more listing in the catalogue of human-rights commission absurdities accumulated over the last 40 years.

  • Of Clothing and Being Transsexual

     The most difficult thing for any transwoman is finding clothes that fit. Most women’s clothing is designed around a woman who is, typically, around 5′5 to 5′7. I, for example, am 5′11, and I am lucky. My frame is built like any woman’s but grown from 5′5 to 5′11. 

  • For some, shadow of regret cast over gender switch

    The day Mike Penner left the Los Angeles Times made the news. The longtime sportswriter wrote the article himself, a personal essay explaining that he was taking some time off and, upon his return, he would be known from then on as Christine Daniels.

  • This is What Transsexuality Involves

    This is a ‘duh’ statement…. Transsexuality is different than homosexuality. I know, that really is a no brainer. A transsexual is an individual who seeks to alter their body’s exterior sex in order to match their gender. But ...

  • Parading Towards Equality: Transcolombia Awakes

    Ever since 1513, when the Conquistador Vasco Nuñez de Balboa decided to set his dogs on 40 Quarequa indigenous people for engaging in transvestism and homosexual acts, Colombia´s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) sector has had a stressful relationship with the dominant society.

  • Bigotry will backfire

    The greatest good that has come from Sen. Chris Buttars speaking openly, honestly and without filter, is that he has been exposed for who he is. Time and time again he proves how he feels about people who are not white and not Mormon. He has proven in words and in deed that he is a bigot.

  • Understanding the Complex Lives of Our Transgender Community

    A in depth look at the needs of transgender people in Santa Barbara, California, and whether those needs are being met.

  • Seeking a post-gender society

    There is a story often read in woman’s studies programs called “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story” by Lois Gould. In it, a child named X is raised in a gender-neutral household. Neither X nor anybody else is privy to X’s biological sex and X is never assigned a gender.

  • Colonial era laws on cross-dressing should be repealed

    Guyana has become an international laughing stock for the recent conviction and fine by our Acting Chief Magistrate on February 9, of seven Guyanese citizens for what is commonly called ‘cross-dressing.’

  • Starting a conversation is sometimes awkward but usually a good thing

    In the January 27 issue of The Beacon, we ran what has become, a rather controversial opinion article, “The Angry Rant: Celebrating cultural absurdities.” In it, Beacon columnist Tim Seigfried focused briefly on Thomas Beatie, also known by the wider media as “the Pregnant Man,” and offered his trademark satiric take on American culture, this time focused on the transgender community.

  • Flurry of pro-LGBT bills on Beacon Hill

    While passing a transgender civil rights bill remains the top priority among the state’s LGBT advocacy organizations, there are a handful of other LGBT-related bills that advocates will be pushing this session, on topics ranging from bullying prevention to LGBT elder issues to pension benefits to codifying the Goodridge decision into the Massachusetts General Laws.

  • The Plight of Kenya

    In this article the author discusses the social, legal, health and religious anti-transgender motivated oppression in Kenya, and which can be used to formulate policies that create understanding and tolerance of transgender individuals, punish those who perpetrate violence and discrimination on transgender people.

  • SRS Doctor denied OR time

    Katherine Dedyna writes about British Columbians living with gender identity disorder who continue to face expensive surgery and long stays at a private Montreal clinic now that plans for a publicly funded sexual reassignment clinic on the West Coast have collapsed.

  • Lawsuit For An Example

    APPLETON — A transgendered person who sued a downtown nightclub this past week for discrimination said she is pushing the lawsuit to set an example.

  • Anything But Straight: Dr. Phil's Poison Pill

    "In 38 years, I've only once dressed in drag .... I never found drag queens at gay bars or transgender people weird or threatening. To anyone paying attention, it is clear that we live in a world of infinite and wondrous natural diversity. There is an obvious spectrum of human possibility that is in front of our eyes. Yet, supposedly educated people still act surprised and unnerved that transgender Americans exist.."

  • Gay History: 1950s

    I first read "Making History" by Eric Marcus in the 90s when I came out. I was a teenager and didn't know enough to be able to compare the gay rights movement between now and then. So, I'm re-reading the revised edition from 2002 "Making Gay History" and it's striking me that I haven't even gotten to 1961 and the problems within the gay rights movement and the differen

  • Dynamic House duo may deliver gains for GLBT

    If Hollywood made a movie of the last Congress on GLBT issues, "The Pragmatist vs. the Idealist" would someday play at a theater near you.

  • Today's Crossdresser: The Perfect Husband!

    Suddenly Fem (www.CrossDresser.com), the leading global crossdressing superstore, believes that some of the best male companions aren’t manly men or macho types.

  • Top of the Pope's Christmas Special
    HERE'S a real gem to finish off 2008 - Pope Benedict XVI thinks saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
  • Divided and conquered

     

    Divide and conquer was a war strategy used by Julius Caesar. The Gulls were worthy adversaries but Caesar was able to overcome them by stirring up conflict between the Gallic tribes and getting the tribes to fight amongst themselves. The once fierce warriors became easy prey and were ultimately defeated.

     

     

  • A transsexual woman's perspective

    My path to being queer was in many ways extremely similar to the cisgendered women I've spoken to (cisgendered means those of you who aren't transsexuals. It's a mouthful, sure, but so was heterosexual when it started being used). I'd spent a number of years dating men, and was in a long-term relationship with a man when I realized the people I kept falling in love with were women.

  • Trans Jews Out of The Closet

    When Elliot Kukla, a Reform rabbi, came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, he never imagined how openly the Jewish community would be addressing transgender issues just three years later.

  • For 2009, the Economy Matters Most to the Transgender Community

    This year has had some amazing high points and, unfortunately, some low points, such as the economy, that many of us have never experienced before. Should I give the good news first or end this column on a positive note? I’ll start off with the bad.

  • Kate Bornstein Weighs in on Last Night's Trannytastic Terminator

    Last night, we met the first transgender person (that we know of) in the Terminator universe. We asked transgender activist and author Kate Bornstein for her opinion of the episode.

  • Pansexuality Like Mine

     For most people, sexuality is a pretty basic thing. You're attracted to men, you're attracted to women or you're attracted to men and women. However, gender doesn't matter to me. I'm all right with blurring or even completely ignoring gender lines, as long as I find the person attractive.

  • Vladimir Luxuria and the lure of the TV screen

    Last week, seemingly against the odds, Vladimir Luxuria won the Italian reality-tv game show L’Isola dei Famosi (a type of ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here’). What makes her victory worth discussing - outside of the tv pundity columns - is that she is a) transgender, and b) a former member of parliament for the Rifondazione Comunista  party.

  • What do other Ivies have to say about transgender issues?

    Transgender topics are not exclusive to Yale, but have been on Ivy tables as early as the fall of 1982, when homophobic hate crimes peaked at UPenn.

  • Gender Poser

    While the causes of gender identity disorders are still disputed, one thing is certain – these patients need care and compassion, rather than discrimination. One view of GID

  • Transgender awareness, commit to tolerance

     For a lucky few, the road to self-discovery is short and simple. Their identity is easily negotiated, and their struggle is ended. For most, finding identity is a tumultuous endeavor – navigating through doubt and vulnerability into some understanding of who we are. But for a tormented multitude, discovering identity is a journey filled with hardship.

  • Creating Safe Space in the GLBT Workplace

     It is common for people to feel stress at work, either from personal or work-related issues. Ten percent of the corporate population is gay, lesbian, and transsexual (GL&T). This group often faces more stress than most because they frequently have to conceal their sexual preference. This additional stress to one's job can lead to a bad working climate. 

  • Non-normative gender is not a disease

     In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from its list of diagnostic criteria for mental illnesses, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DMS), the standard guide for identifying mental disorders in both the U.S. and Canada. This was a major early victory for LGBTQ rights. However, despite this, two particularly troubling diagnoses remain: Transvestic Fetishism (TF) and Gender Identity Disorder (GID).

  • Tapping into trans-feminism

     Feminist movement could benefit from an alliance with trans men

  • Becoming a woman also about economics

    It's not news that women often make less money than men, even if they are working the same job, but also that that men who become women make less money than men.

  • Transgender Workplace Experiences Might Show Glass Ceiling is Real

    Transgender people and their experiences have a lot to teach the workplace.

  • Transcending the Issue of Sexuality

    As students begin to settle in a routine at Columbia—finding their place in campus activities, learning the bureaucracy of the system, and slowly becoming caffeine addicts—a small group of students begins to question where it belongs.

  • Transsexuality: Dating and Disclosure

    For some years I have grappled with disclosure issues in relation to friends, lovers and potential dates.

  • Transitioning: The Halakhic Ramifications

    If an Orthodox Jewish transsexual desires to transition, which will set him on a course of taking hormones and finally having SRS [Sex Reassignment Surgery], is this permitted per halakha?

  • Deconstructing Difference

    An American student from Texas explains her experience in Thailand; the introduction to ladyboys, the reaction of it by her and the way in which it was revealed.

  • Male? Female? Yes? No? Maybe?

    Transgender identities cross a fluid spectrum, causing confusion for some, freedom for others

  • On being transgender

    As a volunteer for Changing Attitudes at the Lambeth Conference I found myself in an opportune position to reflect from a translesbian (i.e. a transsexual woman who identifies as a lesbian not to be confused with above or beyond “lesbians,” or a transgender man) standpoint on the Anglican Communion and attempts to exclude the LGBTI.

  • Young transsexuals should be allowed to put puberty on hold

  • Why We Bash Back!Anti-Trans-Queer Violence In June and July is documented in this partial list
  • Parting Glances NGLTF: What's past is prologue!

    . . . I was 19 the summer I graduated. Free from studies, living at home, taking time off before job hunting, I was keen to explore the gay scene.

  • Recognition of their Gender Identity

    "Our lack of knowledge makes us reject and disqualify what we don’t understand, and we do it from a hegemonic position which we think entitles us to look down upon and feel above what’s different. We are thus prone to humiliate, mistreat, blackball and discriminate against people," says JR, Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX).

  • Exclusive inclusiveness

    By  Natacha Kennedy - With a labor government that has a good record of passing laws supporting minority and disadvantaged groups, including legislation prohibiting discrimination against people on the grounds of age, race and sexual orientation, it comes as a surprise to find a Labour government deliberately intending to exclude one specific minority group from the provisions of the Single

  • My transgender husband and you

    Try for a moment to imagine an America where equal opportunity really does mean everyone — even people who are transgender.

  • Breaking The Transsexual Myths

    I was assigned female at birth but it wasn’t until I was 13 or 14 years old that I experienced a very strong sense of dislocation. I was deeply depressed, but I honestly didn’t have words for any of it.

  • Breaking The Transsexual Myths

    I was assigned female at birth but it wasn’t until I was 13 or 14 years old that I experienced a very strong sense of dislocation. I was deeply depressed, but I honestly didn’t have words for any of it.

  • America in dire need of education on gender identity

    Sometimes, the biggest mistakes come from the most intelligent of individuals.

  • Moving beyond acrimony to action

    Michelle E. Brown has not talked directly about herrelationship with the Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors since the ENDA controversy began. Her resignation from the HRC Board of Governors "was not a protest but a conscious decision," she said.

  • A cure for what does not ail me

    Reponding to a letter directed to her that said,  "When you heal your early emotional wounds, you will be able to assess present danger more realistically and respond to it more effectively," and later said, "homosexual and transgender feelings are symptoms of emotional disorders...."

  • Sexual bias laws do not protect all

    The idea that a transsexual-in-progress can't be a victim of sexual discrimination is bogus. If there's a group more vulnerable than women in the workplace, it's women who used to be men and men who used to be women.

  • The Importance of Ritual

    Can one keep their faith during transition?

  • Transgender Normal

    Many years ago, Johnny Carson, being the recipient of a Sally Fields practical joke, looked at her and said, “You really aren’t normal are you?” To which she playfully responded, “Well Johnny, I guess normal is as normal does!” It was a cute punch line, and yet beneath the surface made a larger statement.  




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