VL.9.23.2002

      ANNOUNCMENTS
   
   [1][USA: San Francisco Bay Area--Advanced transition / Recent post-op, Male-to-Female Group Reforming:
   Facilitater---Anne Vitale PhD 
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   The Advance Group is for MTF's who are either in an advanced stage of transition (living full time in the female gender role) or 
has had SRS in the last year. The group has been meeting for the last 20 weeks and is well established. But due to natural attrition,
there is room for two new members. Although we will be having our second of 10 sessions on Wednesday, January 29th, it is still not
 too late to join us.

This is NOT drop-in/social groups. I expect real, intraspective work to be done at each session. Each participant is expected to make an attitudenal commitment to attend all or as many as possible of the 10 scheduled meetings. The fee is $25 per session. Participants are responsible for payment of each session whether they attend or not. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and think you can make it to San Rafael from 7:30 to 9:00 pm on alternate Wednesday evenings, let me know. The next meeting for the Advanced Group is January 29h. Visa and MasterCard accepted.

Call Anne Vitale PhD at 415-456-4452 or send an email to Group@avitale.com for more information.
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[2] USA: Toby Meltzer MD-- Move to Scottsdale Arizona Update

Although Dr. Meltzer is now performing all of his surgeries in Scottsdale, Arizona, he has maintained his office in Portland Oregon to handle all inquiries and scheduling. The office in Portland will be open through July, 2003. The Portland phone number is 800-525-2426. Some of the current office staff will move down to join him in August.

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GENERAL INFORMATION

[3]SCOTTLAND -- Catholic ruling on gender
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From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.

Scotland on Sunday - UK - Catholic ruling on ...
http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/uk.cfm?id=102032003

Sun 26 Jan 2003

STEPHEN FRASER RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT

CATHOLICS who opt for sex change surgery will not have their new gender
recognised by the church.

The Church argues people should be content with their God-given gender at
birth and insists it will not allow people who have swapped gender to marry
in a Catholic church, be ordained into the priesthood or become nuns or
monks.

A special Vatican think-tank studied the issue of sex-changes and its
findings have now been sent to the leaders of the Catholic Church all over
the world.

The Vatican began to look at the issue after an Italian priest went through
a sex change in the late 1980s. Church group, the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, spent several years studying the phenomenon of
transexualism.

The new rules were received by the Scottish Bishops' Conference - which runs
the Church in Scotland - and are now official Scottish Catholic policy.

The Church will also refuse to alter any of its records on baptisms or
marriages involving someone who later goes on to change their gender.

Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Church in Scotland, said: "In the case of
our baptismal records, they are historical records and we do not feel we can
go back and alter them, because they were true representations of the gender
of people at that time."

He added: "Our general position is that everyone has the gender that God
gave them at birth and they should accept that. We do accept for some
people, there are conflicts over their gender that they feel may be
reconciled by undergoing treatment, but we do not feel we can alter our
rules on these issues."

British law on the legal status of people who have changed sex is due to be
altered next year to recognise their new gender.

There are said to be around 150 Scots who have changed sex since the
National Health Service began offering "gender reassignment" surgery.

[4] USA: Philadelphia -- Memorial for trans activist , Nizah Morris ,scheduled
Top

Daily news ... Advocate.com
http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=7577&sd=01/25/03-01/27/03

01/25/03-01/27/03

A memorial service will be held January 28 for Nizah Morris, a Philadelphia
transgendered woman and activist who died on Christmas Eve, two days after
being found unconscious lying in the street. Philadelphia police said an
officer found her asleep outside a downtown bar and offered her a ride home
but that she jumped out of the squad car just a few blocks later. Police are
still investigating Morris's death, and her family has called for an
independent investigation into the matter.

The memorial service will begin at 7 p.m. in the ballroom of the William Way
Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. in Philadelphia. Following the service
will be a candlelight march to commemorate her life.

"I think the community of Philadelphia has suffered at the hands of police,"
transgender activist Rick Feely told Advocate.com "This memorial for Nizah
is a call to action for everyone to get involved in transgender rights in
the future."

[5]UK: Transgender actress in Green crusade
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This is Brighton & Hove | News |Transgender a...
http://www.thisisbrightonandhove.co.uk/brighton__hove/news/NEWS12.html

Friday, January 24, 2003

Transgender actress in Green crusade

by Adam Trimingham

Transgender actress Mjka Scott will be standing for the Greens in May as a
city councillor.

Her opponents in Queen's Park ward will include Labour city council leader
Ken Bodfish.

The ward covers the St James's Street area and has a large lesbian, gay.
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population.

Greens say New Labour has served these groups poorly, nationally and
locally, and they should have the opportunity to put their arguments to
voters.

Also standing for the Greens are Nigel Tart, a teacher and activist in the
LGBT community, and Becky Whale, a policy officer in an HIV/AIDS charity.

Mjka Scott is a campaigner for transgender equality and was a founder member
of Press for Change, a legal equality group for transgender people.

She appears regularly in shows in London's West End and Brighton, most
recently in Dick, the alternative Dick Whittington play at the Marlborough
Theatre.

[6] CANADA:Toronto--Enza Anderson supports Barbara Hall for mayor
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From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.

Town Crier Online - Your source for local Tor...
http://www.towncrieronline.ca/main/main.php?direction=viewstory&storyid=1702
&rootcatid=&communityid=2&rootsubcatid=

Supermodel runs on the issues

(Posted Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2003)

By Andrew 'Superfly' Matte

Enza 'The Supermodel' Anderson is known more for fabulous legs and planting
kisses on the cheek of prominent people in public places.

But Anderson, also known as Toronto's cross-dressing transsexual political
campaigner, has tossed his tiara in the ring again.

Instead of running for mayor, as he's done in election's past, Anderson is
running for a job as councillor in the riding of Toronto Centre-Rosedale.

He says the campaign will be a serious one, even though one might accuse the
leggy celebrity of seeking the spotlight rather than legitimately seeking
office.

"This is not a drag pageant, this is serious politics," he said at Toronto
City Hall after filing his nomination papers and submitting the $100 fee.

"I am going to be raising the issues, I am going to make sure people get the
message that I am out there to win," he said.

He also says he has no specific beef with current councillor Kyle Rae, his
main opponent so far.

"I am not running against Kyle Rae. I am running for political change at
City Hall," he said.

When Anderson, dressed in a tight, cherry-red cocktail dress and high-heels,
arrived at City Hall, he was surrounded by a group of schoolchildren who
were taking a tour of the city's political headquarters.

He said his shift in mandate and taking issues more seriously will become
evident as the campaign unfolds toward the November election. He also plans
to turn down the volume on what he wears to public events. He's even turned
brunette.

"I have made some changes in my looks. I am more professional, more
conservative," he told reporters.

"I began my mayoralty campaign as a blonde, but I am going to be winning a
councillor's seat as a brunette."

He said he's not running for mayor, has he's done in previous elections,
because he's a supporter of Barbara Hall, a former Toronto mayor who's
running again this fall.

Anderson said had he run for mayor, he would have feared splitting the vote,
or just taking votes away from Hall.

In terms of issues, he wants to lobby to ensure councillors are more up
front with their own mandates and do all of their work in public. He says he
would forego a small portion of his pay and use it for community
initiatives.

"We have to make sure Toronto isn't full of corrupt politicians any more,"
he said.

Other important issues to the cross-dresser are development of the
waterfront, going to bat for renters and ensuring there's enough green
space.

"The strong issues of downtown Toronto are development of the waterfront.
And we need some green space. Development is important, but we can't overdo
it. We need to make sure we have enough green space," he said.

"Housing and environmental issues are also very important. We want to help
people enjoy living downtown."

Anderson said he picked the riding to run his campaign because he lives in
the area, has support of the gay community in the Wellesley and Church St.
areas and understands the issues of the riding's residents.

"I think I have some support among the gay community, but I also live in
that riding. I know the issues and I know how they affect the people who
live there."

--
© 2002 Town Crier Media Inc.
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[7]USA: California--Gender Dilemma
Inmates Who Look Like Women, Housed With Men
Top

ABCNEWS.com : Prisons Face Dilemma With Trans...
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/transgender030122.html

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

By Oliver Libaw

Jan. 22 -- With fully developed breasts, long hair and feminine features,
Kelly McAllister is not the sort of person you'd expect to find sharing a
cell with a male prisoner.

But that's exactly where the 5-foot, 7-inch, 135-pound prisoner was housed
after being arrested in connection with an alleged public disturbance, a
lawyer representing McAllister says. McAllister is a "preoperative
transsexual" -- anatomically male, but living as a woman and undergoing
feminine hormone treatment.

The Sacramento Sheriff's Department classified McAllister as a male,
however.

"They classified her as him and put him in protective custody. Then they put
her in cell with a straight male inmate," said McAllister's lawyer, Dean
Johansson. "There's no wonder why what happened happened."

Johansson claims that McAllister was violently sexually assaulted by the
other inmate, and then received little help after the incident, which
allegedly occurred last September.

Sgt. Lou Fatur, of the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, said the claim was
without merit, but declined to comment further. He said the department's
policy was to put transgender and homosexual prisoners in facilities apart
from the general jail population.

"They're separated and protected," he said.

No one knows how many "transgender" inmates are in the nation's prisons and
jails. The term itself is a catch-all used to refer to many different
groups, says Vanessa Edwards Foster, the head of the National Transgender
Advocacy Coalition.

But it is clear to advocates and prison system experts that transgendered
inmates are particularly vulnerable to abuse and assault, in part because
they are routinely housed with inmates in the general prison population.

"I would say there probably is a serious problem, especially with
preoperative transsexuals," says Christopher Hensley, a sociology professor
at Morehead State University and director of the Institute of Correctional
Research and Training there. Most prisons have some form of "administrative
segregation" for some inmates, but the facilities typically involve reduced
privileges and are more expensive to run, Hensley says.

Harrowing Stories, But Little Clear Data

A number of harrowing reports have reached the courts and newspapers, though
it is often impossible to confirm the allegations.

"There seems to be an institutional problem," says McAllister's lawyer,
Johansson.

Prison officials like Russ Heinmerich, a spokesman for the California
Department of Corrections, say there is no such dilemma.

"If they've had the operation, they go to the appropriate [suitable for
their new gender] facility," he says. "In the meantime [male-to-female
transgender inmates] are housed with the male population."

As in some other states, inmates already receiving hormone treatment are
allowed to continue, he says, and prison officials take extra precautions
with vulnerable inmates.

"Any inmate that is likely to become victimized for any reason we'll put in
protective housing," he says.

Most states do not have transgender prison facilities, however. New
Hampshire prison officials and attorneys for convicted murderer Joseph
Shanley are still arguing over where to house him, for example. Shanley had
sexual reassignment surgery in 1969 and asked to be housed in a women's
prison.

Bringing Lawsuits, With Mixed Results

Nevertheless, transgender inmates and prison officials has repeatedly
sparred in court over their treatment.

In August, a Canadian transgender person filed a multimillion-dollar suit
against U.S. and Montana officials, claiming abuse. Alexandria Tucker, a
self-described preoperative male-to-female transsexual, was allegedly
sexually assaulted while housed in Montana's prison for men. Montana prisons
officials have said the case is without merit and that the prison made
adequate arrangements for Tucker's safety.

Such lawsuits have had mixed results in the past.

Last May, a U.S. district court jury in Ohio ruled against Traci Greene, a
transgender inmate who sued the state. Greene's lawyers alleged their client
was severely beaten by another inmate at the all-male Warren Correctional
Institution in southwest Ohio in 1996.

Officials had originally classified Greene as a woman, but then moved Greene
to the male facility when they learned the inmate was anatomically male and
undergoing hormone treatments.

Despite a size 36-D bust and other feminine characteristics, Greene was
still theoretically capable of impregnating females, officials said during
the trial.

In a 1994 case brought by a transgender inmate named Dee Farmer, the Supreme
Court ruled that prison officials must protect inmates from sexual attack.
The plaintiff, a pre-operative transgender inmate serving time for credit
card fraud, alleged repeated sexual assault while housed with a group of
male prisoners.

The problem of sexual abuse in prisons goes far beyond the transgender
population, of course. More than 200,000 men are raped behind bars each
year, according to the group Stop Prisoner Rape. Hensley, the Morehead State
University researcher, says research has found that between 14 percent and
22 percent of male inmates are subjected to sexual violence or threats.

RELATED STORIES:

• Punishment in America
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/punishment_subindex.html

[8]UK: Why trial by media will continue unhindered, the case for a full-time CRE head, and an apology
Top

From -- Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Marcel Be...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/story/0,3605,878955,00.html

Marcel Berlins

Tuesday January 21, 2003
The Guardian

(SNIP)

· As you may have read in the news reports, the Bellinger case, currently
being heard in the House of Lords, is about a transsexual's right to be
considered legally married as a person of the sex she has acquired (female)
rather than the sex on her birth certificate (male). I am not here concerned
with the result of the appeal, but want to bring to your attention what I
think is a new, and welcome, innovation. The lord chancellor's department
website has a section headed "Frequently Asked Questions on Bellinger v
Bellinger" that explains and clarifies the issues in the case. It rightly
understands that people will want to know, given that the government has
already announced its intention to allow people to marry in the sex they
have acquired, why they are bothering to contest the case before the law
lords. (Answer: because until there is legislation to the contrary, they are
defending their interpretation of the existing law.) It's not the content
I'm interested in, but the fact that such a website has been set up at all.
It's a real contribution to the public's understanding. I trust that more
cases of significance will be dealt with in this way.
(www.lcd.gov.uk/constitution/transsex)

(SNIP)

[9]AUSTRALIA --X marks the spot for intersex Alex
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Form Lynn Connway who writes:

Note: The original story can be accessed on the web at:
http://www.thewest.com.au/20030111/news/perth/tw-news-perth-home-sto84205.html

Page three, the West Australian Newspaper, Perth 11 January 2003:

X marks the spot for intersex Alex

By Julie Butler

A QUIET trailblazer from Perth's Hills has become the first in Australia and probably the world to hold a passport acknowledging that not everyone is male or female.

Alex MacFarlane, 48, is intersex and wanted a passport recognising it.

Women have a 46XX chromosome mix and men 46XY. Alex is 47XXY, a form of androgyny shared by about one in every 1500 to 2000 babies.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade initially baulked, saying its computers could deal only with an F or M in the sex field of passports.

For Alex, choosing M or F would have been lying.

"I should not have to commit fraud because of a department's production inadequacies," Alex said.

Late last year, after months of correspondence from Alex, and an inquiry from The West Australian, the department had a rethink, deciding to change its passport processing system to allow an X in the sex field.

The X signifies unspecified sex or intersex and is the only other sex category allowed under International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines for machine-readable passports.

A spokeswoman told The West Australian that, after reviewing the issue, the department had decided to accommodate people whose birth certificates recorded their sex as indeterminate.

Alex has since received the passport, with an X in the sex field.

After making inquiries with intersex people overseas, Alex believes the move set a global precedent.

"It means a great deal," Alex said.

"I've been battling with 30-odd years of misrepresentation. It means I can now

participate in more of the community."

Alex is also believed to be the first Australian issued with a birth certificateacknowledging a gender other than male of female.

Alex's says "indeterminate - also known as intersex". It was issued in Alex's birth State of Victoria, which unlike WA, changed its policy to allow the category.

Despite all this ground-breaking, Alex shuns the limelight, quietly chipping away at bureaucratic discrimination.

"Finding a niche to crawl into has been impossible, so I've made my own," Alex said.

"I do not want to change the world, but just the way some of it thinks.

"Intersex individuals should not have to break the law, by pretending to be male or female, in order to vote, marry, hold a licence, or own property."

Not all 47XXY people identify as androgynous. Some perceive themselves as male or female, and many, like Alex, were surgically altered at birth to appear male or female.

CAPTION on photo: Stamp of recognition: Alex MacFarlane, 48, who has a form of androgyny shared by about one in every1500-2000 people at birth, with the hard-won passport that denotes the sex section with an X, for indeterminate, in what is believed to be the first issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

January 11, 2003

www.thewest.com.au/20030111/news/perth/tw-news-perth-home-sto84205.html <http://www.thewest.com.au/20030111/news/perth/tw-news-perth-home-sto84205.html>

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   MEDIA WATCH
   
   [10] UK: The show goes on - without the hype
Times Online
   Top
   
   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,590-556022,00.html
   
From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. 
        
Fashion & Style
 
January 27, 2003
   
By Lisa Armstrong
   
Transvestites, burkas and no Versace show. How did Paris cope? Our
correspondent reports
   
PRINCESS MENORAH, a self-styled "Jewish Princess" and transvestite from
South Africa, delicately crossed "her" 12in stilettos and pondered the
question asked by a smiling German reporter with gleaming blonde hair and
chic Jil Sander suit. How long had it taken the princess to get ready today,
the reporter and her TV crew asked. Faced with such overwhelming
earnestness, the princess gazed at her white hands and eventually plumped
for archness. "Forty years," she replied, before turning to her neighbour.
   
I can believe it. It certainly took her about 40 years to descend the
staircase after the show. She was sheathed in a skintight dress that
appeared to be constructed entirely from needles and clearly wasn't your
average pull-on-and-go outfit, and her head was a perfectly smooth alabaster
orb. As fragile-looking as a newly hatched egg, it was unsullied by hair and
embellished with, among other things, a stark black Star of David. The
princess is an avid admirer of Jean Paul Gaultier, whose front row she so
diligently adorned, and her face was a powdered mask, eyes blackened, nose
veiled in jewels, some of which dangled from the tip like a frozen stream of
golden snot. 
   
I hope that she found the Gaultier show worth the preparation. The colour
combinations --orange and turquoise, aubergine, lime, shocking pink,
apricot, sulphur, red --were inspiring, the tailoring characteristically
Gaultier-esque, although I thought I detected some puckering in those
pinstripe pencil skirts. There was one heavenly draped navy column with
twisted straps that made the sparkly jumpsuits worth the while. But it
wasn't his best showing.
   
Without any heavy-hitting stars, it was left to the likes of Princess
Menorah to provide the occasional diversion. I say no stars, but there were
sightings of a few celebrities. Sophie Marceau was at Ungaro, although the
Anglo-Saxons mainly didn't recognise her. Ashley Judd was at Valentino
(beautiful, traditional stiff silk suits, of the type that Joan Collins
loves, and sparkling gowns), but no one really recognised her. And Elizabeth
Hurley was at Dior. But the most interesting thing about the Hurley
appearance wasn't her mystery new man (no mystery, as it turns out; he's
rich and in the rag trade), but that she wasn't at Versace. For the first
time in more than a decade, Versace--shock horror, cue stories about the
house's imminent collapse --wasn't showing. No Donatella hospitality, no
A-list. In PR terms the static presentation of ten rather magnificent
jewelled, embroidered, fringed, beaded silk and leather gowns seemed
initially to be a disaster, with an audible embarrassing creak of belts
being dramatically tightened. But halfway through the week came news that
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sharon Stone and Rosaria Dawson all wore Versace to
the Golden Globes, which were broadcast to more than 120 countries. So maybe
you don't need a £750,000 show.
   
Without Hollywood, Paris during couture week was a different place. The
paparazzi stopped twitching in anticipation of their next stampede; bouncers
desisted from their Stalinist purges, and restaurants didn't laugh in your
face when you tried to make a reservation. The smalltalk switched from
botched facelifts and droopy jawlines to cack-handed buy-outs and sagging
stock. Many luxury labels are dangerously overextended and underperforming.
Production of an increasing number of ready-to-wear labels  -- their
Frenchness for so long a given  -- is being farmed out to cheaper Eastern
European workers. The world has, it seems, fallen out of love with designer
hype  -- all in all, it's hard to think of a climate less inclined to be
sympathetic to a bunch of indulged designers saying "think bustle".
   
And yet, you have to hand it to them; when the chips are crashing,
couturiers somehow show their mettle. Emanuel Ungaro, Karl Lagerfeld at
Chanel and John Galliano at Dior came up with their best collections in
years. Galliano's was a rerun of his ready-to-wear show for his own label
last October, but this time the pumped-up shapes came in posh fabrics &emdash;
lavish chinoiseries, heavy-duty satins, and so on. Never mind Elizabeth
Hurley's lips; these clothes looked as though they had been on steroids for
years. Heels, hats, shoulders, sleeves, everything was bigger than Russell
Crowe's ego. Faces were kabuki white (or cornflower blue), daubed with the
prettiest poppies outside a Monet, and lips that were tiny and red. Having
been inspired by The Last Emperor and all that, they may well turn out to be
suggestive of the female pudenda.
   
If you have time on your hands you may like to ponder how any of this is
going to filter down to mere-mortal level. I wouldn't bother. I've given up
on the filtering line of inquiry at Dior. Suffice to say that it was a
glorious spectacle. And I daresay the clients will order some of the trims.
   
Chanel's offering will probably rank as one of the most beautiful
collections of clothes so far, managing to be lovelier than any you've seen
before, yet not theatrical. No wonder it has recently expanded its atelier
to cope with demand. There wasn't a trace of Lagerfeld's occasional lurches
into heavy-handedness in the stem-thin silhouettes. Even the colours, not
usually a Lagerfeld strong point, were dreamy, cloud-like wisps of dove
grey, flesh pink and taupe. The daywear consisted, as ever, of those narrow
bouclé suits. This time, using a sort of devoré technique, the tweed was
burnt away towards the hems of skirts and dresses to leave tulle that was
sprinkled with tiny embroidered flowers. After more than 20 years with
Lagerfeld returning to this theme, the Chanel suit looked as fresh as ever &emdash;
no small feat. In feel, the eveningwear was fin de siècle  -- empire lines,
tulip skirts of tulle over trailing column chiffons, tumbling chignons
stuccoed with jewelled flowers and pompons  -- but delicate and fragile as
vapour and very reminiscent of The Go Between  -- and, in its way, just as
poignant. Ungaro looked back to the interwar years, too, with floor-length
satin Thirties evening dresses and a gorgeous selection of slender, sinuous
columns that came with tiny beaded jackets, shredded chiffon shawls and
transparent tulle bustles.
   
Ungaro and Lagerfeld, both in their late sixties, showed impressive forward
thinking with these collections. Though nostalgic (what else can couture
be?), the construction was cutting- edge. To take a bustle or
jewel-encrusted coat and make it lighter than a pair of jeans is quite
something. 
   
Meanwhile, back at the light-as-an-oil-tanker school of dressing, Galliano
reminded us that he can do breezy, too. For there in the audience was the
fashion editor Isabella Blow, wearing an orange chiffon burka from new label
Undercover. It was intended as a show of solidarity with Islam, apparently.
Who can tell whether Muslims will sleep easier in their beds after this?
>From Stars of David to burkas  -- you can't say that couture doesn't have the
political spectrum covered.
   
--
   
TRENDS
Slim silhouettes 
Narrow, skinny lines
Huge hats 
Exaggerated shapes for after dark
   
Belle époque style 
Fin-de-siècle details
   
Colour
>From pale pastels to bold brights
Long gloves
Just below the elbows or halfway up the upper arm
   
Chiffon and tulle
Lots of floaty layers
   
Bustles
Above a long, full skirt
 
--
   
Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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[11]USA:  In Bay Village, a new gay 'upper class' fights to shut down a symbol of the area's seedier past
Boston Globe Online
   Top
   
   http://www.globe.com/dailyglobe2/027/metro/Culture_clash+.shtml
   
Culture clash
   
By Donovan Slack
Globe Correspondent
   
1/27/2003
   
John Shope says he's tired of waking to the sounds of prostitutes selling
themselves outside his Bay Village window, disgusted by the used condoms he
finds on the sidewalk in the morning, and afraid of having to explain to the
children he hopes to adopt what a transvestite hooker is.
   
Being openly gay, Shope appreciates diversity, but he is also a lawyer and
one of a growing number of neighborhood residents whose affluence has made
this once-gritty sliver of the city a fashionable and high-priced nook of
row houses and gas-lit streets. It's no place, he says, for the flamboyant
crowds that flock to a bar called Jacques, a vestige of the neighborhood's
seamier past that claims to be the oldest drag club in the country. Saying
the bar is a magnet for drugs and prostitution, Shope and other residents
are petitioning the city to close it down.
   
The controversy that has erupted between the bar and residents is, in part,
an old-fashioned story of a gentrified neighborhood squeezing out unwanted
neighbors. But there's an undercurrent, too: Some upwardly mobile gay men,
who've moved to Bay Village in droves, increasingly find themselves joining
the ranks of the mainstream and want distance from what some see as the
seedier transgender community.
   
''In a sense, this controversy is about the maturation of the gay community
from hanging around sleazy bars to wanting to raise children,'' Shope said.
   
The 160-year-old Bay Village neighborhood has been gay for decades,
residents say, but with gentrification in the '80s and '90s, property values
shot up, and more affluent, well-educated gay men began moving in.
   
''They're upper class, they have a lot of money, they're embarrassed when
they have friends over,'' said Jon Fishman, who lives around the corner from
Jacques. He is gay but doesn't mind the bar in the neighborhood. ''They
think it's bad for them when other people see drag queens.''
   
Gays in the neighborhood said that at one time the only places where they
could meet other gay men were bars. But that's changed. Clubs, business
associations, and other venues now are available since society began viewing
the gay lifestyle as acceptable, they say. And a Supreme Judicial Court
decision that paved the way for same-sex couples to adopt children has
spurred a shift toward family values in the gay community.
   
Shope and his partner hope to adopt children soon. ''We want to raise them
in a neighborhood that is both gay-friendly and child-friendly,'' he said.
''We don't want to be in a gay ghetto.''
   
In Boston's transgender community, that attitude smacks of hypocrisy.
   
''The transgender community has been ridiculed by the gay community for an
awful long time,'' said Endego Jones, a male-to-female transgender and
outreach worker with Gender Identity Support Services for Transgenders, or
GISST, which is one of the only support programs in Boston for the
community. 
   
''We can't go to gay clubs unless we're performing and they're throwing
dollars at us,'' said Tatianna Akins, another GISST outreach worker.
   
''It's all about, `Look at these freaks, who are they?''' added Tinoyia
Taylor, also of GISST. ''`And who do they think they are coming out here
looking like this?'''
   
Jacques is the only place where transgender individuals can be comfortable,
they said. ''If it shuts down, who knows where these women will go?'' Taylor
said. 
   
Jacques's manager, Donald Richards, said any prostitution in the
neighborhood is not the fault of the bar. ''It's a police enforcement
issue,'' he said. As long as the activities do not happen inside the bar or
on Jacques's premises, Richards said, they are not his responsibility.
Richards says he has done everything he can to work with neighbors.
   
When the Bay Village Neighborhood Association goes before the Boston
Licensing Board for a Feb. 4 hearing on its request to revoke Jacques's
liquor license, it plans to present a video shot by member Barbara Warren,
who began filming late-night activities outside the club last year from her
fifth-floor window. Warren says the tape shows a man and a transvestite
having sex outside the club.
   
''When I was filming it, I thought it was just loitering,'' she said, adding
that the viewfinder on her camera was dirty. ''It wasn't until I put it on
my television the next day, that I saw. Oh, my goodness.''
   
The Licensing Board requested a copy, but has yet to receive it. ''We want
to see it before the hearing,'' Licensing Commissioner Daniel Pokaski said.
''We can correct activity that we can relate directly back to the club.''
   
In the meantime, patrons and performers at Jacques said they'll carry on. As
a drag performer called Destiny vamped across Jacques's tiny stage last week
in a black-and-silver, sequined gown, about 200 people sat enthralled by her
opening number.
   
''No matter what they say, words can't bring me down,'' Destiny lipsynched
passionately. ''No, no, no, they can't bring me down.''
   
Groups of gay, straight, lesbian, transvestite, and transgendered patrons
gathered around the stage, offering dollar bills.
   
''A girl can come here and be totally comfortable,'' said one heterosexual
woman. ''It's mutual respect. The world is tough enough. People need
somewhere to go.''
   
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 1/27/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
   Top
   
   
[12]USA: Safe in the Sisterhood?
St. Petersburg (Florida) Times
   Top
   
   Author: Lane DeGregory
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/index.html?ts=1042355071
Date: Dec. 22, 2002
   
Safe in the Sisterhood?
Abstract:
   
Transgendered people believe they were born with the body of one sex
and the brain of another. "A woman trapped in a man's body," is how
many put it. It's a psychological disability, like schizophrenia or
depression. Some transgendered people have surgery to change their
gender. Others take hormones and dress in female clothing but retain
their male anatomy.
   
After February's presentation, when self-professed "resident
genderqueer" Elliot Poleshuck started talking about transgender
issues, a few more males started showing up at Salon. They introduce
themselves as women, dress as women and try to talk like women. They
identify as lesbians and, like most of the longtime Women's Energy
Bank women, say they have no desire to date men. (Poleshuck, for the
record, was born female but presents as a male. Poleshuck is 23 and
is welcome at the Women's Energy Bank, all members agree, because the
appropriate body parts are still intact.)
   
[Chris Lovett] agrees. "Some people unfairly label lesbians - and
myself - as transgendered or cross-gendered. But gays and lesbians
don't want to change their sex," says Lovett, 55. She's willing to
accept people who have had sex change operations to become women, she
says. "But I don't agree with allowing in transgendered who are still
physically and legally men."
==================================
   
Full Text:
   
They sit in a circle, facing each other, 44 women on wooden folding
chairs. Teachers and nurses, artists and pizza makers, grandmothers,
therapists and telemarketers.
   
Some have with them typed statements. Some have scribbled notes to
themselves. One woman is cradling pink carnations in her lap.
   
"Okay," says a white-haired woman in a purple patchwork vest. She
steps into the center of the circle, carrying a Ziploc bag. "There
are many feelings here, going around this room. And that makes us all
very vulnerable." She opens the bag and explains its contents. Inside
are 70 small cards, each with a number, she says. Every woman will
draw a card. "And that number will determine when you get to speak."
   
Many of these women have been getting together for 20 years. Fighting
for feminist causes. Trying to find a few like-minded females - and a
place of their own.
   
Others have come to the group more recently. And some women don't
want them around. These newcomers, these so-called women, have no
right to be part of their sisterhood, some say.
   
The issue is tearing the community apart.
   
So on this chilly Friday night in December, almost a year after the
arguments began, these women have filled the fellowship hall at Good
Samaritan Church in Pinellas Park.
   
They used to be outcasts themselves, most of them, scorned by a
society that didn't understand or accept them.
   
Now they're trying to decide who is welcome at their gatherings. And
who isn't. And why.
   
"I know people are frustrated," the white-haired woman says. "My
expectation for tonight is that every woman will get to speak. And I
hope we'll all be good listeners here as well."
   
Usually, these women discuss peace marches and politics, quilting a
legacy and smashing the glass ceiling.
   
Tonight they'll talk about what makes a woman. What body parts she
has to have. And whether you can really fight for feminism if you
don't bleed.
   
The Women's Energy Bank started in 1982 as a place to promote
feminism and foster friendships. The woman wearing the purple vest,
Edith Daly, helped found the group with her partner. "There was
nothing here, then, for women. Especially lesbian women," she
says. "There was little feminist activity around the bay area."
   
So Daly and her partner started holding monthly "Salons." Some
political. Some social. They invited speakers, staged concerts and
drafted mission statements. They pushed for peace and equal rights,
and went bowling.
   
Soon, as many as 100 women were attending the meetings. They formed a
bulletin board, offering services to help each other, woman- to-
woman. They started a monthly newsletter, Womyn's Words, and the
mailing list grew to 250. They solicited ads but banned any that
depicted violence or showed a man.
   
"Salon is a Womyn-only space," they proudly proclaimed.
   
Men have never been allowed, not even gay friends or members' young
sons. Salon is supposed to be a sanctuary, a place free of patriarchy
and prejudice.
   
For 20 years, the group grew and prospered. The women agreed, mostly,
on the agenda. Men never tried to horn in on their meetings.
   
Then, in February, a notice appeared in the newsletter, on the right
side of Page 3:
   
"Everything About Gender You Always Wanted To Know: But Didn't Even
Know How To Ask," hawked the headline. "Come to this February's Salon
to experience an interactive, multimedia introduction to gender as we
know it - and as you've never seen it before. . . . So come one, come
all, for a fun evening of learning and connections."
   
It was supposed to be an invitation to the regular monthly forum.
   
Instead, it started what could be the end of the Women's Energy Bank.
   
"A Group Without Shared Values Cannot Survive," a headline in the
November newsletter said.
   
"WEB is now at a crossroads and crisis," says its Web site
(www.womynswords.org). "The tension, dissension, disrespect and
negativity cannot continue."
   
The issue, really, is who qualifies as a woman. It's an interesting
discussion anywhere. But here, in this fellowship hall, it's
especially fascinating.
   
Most of these women have cropped their hair, sworn off makeup and
nail polish, opted for earth shoes instead of high heels. Almost all
are wearing pants. Only two of the 44 people in the circle are
wearing skirts - and they were born male.
   
"We live in neighborhoods with men. We work in jobs sharing space
with born men. . . . They invade our homes out of necessity as
electricians, roofers, painters, etc.," Chris Lovett wrote in the
Women's Energy Bank's April newsletter. "Is there ANY one place where
we, as womyn born, can feel safe in our Sisterhood?"
   
Some say that only people born female, with ovaries, a vagina and all
the other appropriate body parts, should be allowed in "Womyn- only
space."
   
Others say that anyone who thinks of himself or herself as a woman,
who feels like a woman, should be welcome, regardless of what
plumbing he or she has.
   
Transgendered people believe they were born with the body of one sex
and the brain of another. "A woman trapped in a man's body," is how
many put it. It's a psychological disability, like schizophrenia or
depression. Some transgendered people have surgery to change their
gender. Others take hormones and dress in female clothing but retain
their male anatomy.
   
Some say that transgendered people have been coming to the Women's
Energy Bank for years, whether or not the majority of members know
it. "It was never spoken about. It was always in the closet," Daly
says, "just as we used to hide lesbianism in most of our daily
lives."
   
But after February's presentation, when self-professed "resident
genderqueer" Elliot Poleshuck started talking about transgender
issues, a few more males started showing up at Salon. They introduce
themselves as women, dress as women and try to talk like women. They
identify as lesbians and, like most of the longtime Women's Energy
Bank women, say they have no desire to date men. (Poleshuck, for the
record, was born female but presents as a male. Poleshuck is 23 and
is welcome at the Women's Energy Bank, all members agree, because the
appropriate body parts are still intact.)
   
"I'm not very comfortable around some transgendered people. And on
the surface, it does not seem like I have much in common with them,"
Carole Bryan wrote in the newsletter. "(Transgendered) people have
groups they have formed for themselves. Why do they want to come to
ours?"
   
They say they want to come because they want to belong. Transgendered
males-to-females crave female friends, real women who can help them
adapt, who will accept them into their culture. They can't learn
about being a woman unless they're around women.
   
But some women say that transgendered males-to-females still look and
sound like men, no matter how hard they try not to. Even the tone of
a male voice frightens some of these women. Besides, some argue, you
can never really understand what it's like to grow up female if you
have never menstruated and you were brought up male, no matter how
you feel inside.
   
"Why limit our membership at all?" Bryan asked in the April
newsletter. "We could feature a new group of people every month -
recently released male parolees, for instance. . . . Or, how about
drug addicts?"
   
"Is womanhood really defined by our genitals?" Gabrielle Barry and
Nan Klater retorted in the next issue. "And if so, who plans on being
the genital police? . . . Will everyone have to submit to a strip
search before entering Salon?"
   
The issue is dividing feminist groups across the country. A couple of
years ago, the Lesbian Community Project in Portland, Ore., struggled
over whether to admit male-to-female transsexuals. And the Michigan
Womyn's Music Festival fights an ongoing battle about the issue.
   
By the end of the summer, most Women's Energy Bank members had agreed
to accept transgendered people who had completed male-to- female
gender reassignment surgery. But that didn't settle the issue.
   
In September, for the first time in 20 years, the Women's Energy Bank
didn't host a Salon.
   
"WEB has always been about feminism. And I think it's very unwise and
unfeminist to argue about which group is more oppressed than the
other," Lisa B. Wild says. She drew card No. 1 and is the first to
speak at the forum. She brought the carnations. She's passing them
around the room while she speaks.
   
"I think of WEB as an ailing old friend," she says. "She's losing her
memory. She's losing her vision. And that's why I brought flowers
tonight.
   
"I support groups that support diversity. But I'm afraid WEB may be
so far down the toilet that even Pat the Plumber can't retrieve it."
   
Anna Linville drew No. 2. "I'm confused about how this could happen,"
she says sadly, scanning the familiar faces. "All of us have known
transgendered people who are much, much more feminine than all of us
put together."
   
"I believe in the idea of inclusion," Claudia Cole says a few
speakers later. "But I don't believe we should give up our women's
space at the expense of it. We've fought very hard for our space. And
I, for one, don't want to lose that."
   
Chris Lovett agrees. "Some people unfairly label lesbians - and
myself - as transgendered or cross-gendered. But gays and lesbians
don't want to change their sex," says Lovett, 55. She's willing to
accept people who have had sex change operations to become women, she
says. "But I don't agree with allowing in transgendered who are still
physically and legally men."
   
As the discussion continues, the "more equal" arguments escalate.
Some women say that not even all lesbians born female are the same.
Those who grew up liking boys, who married men and lived, even for a
short while, in the heterosexual world cannot possibly understand
what it's like to know you're a lesbian all your life. To grow up
feeling disenfranchised. To never want to be with a man.
   
"In a gay community, we must not exclude anyone," one woman says
about an hour into the forum. "If we don't guard against it, we will
find ourselves becoming the very forces we're trying to resist."
   
Because the drawn numbers dictate who speaks when, the women don't
get to answer one another, ask questions or refute remarks. Each
woman gets three minutes to speak, and most go over their time. The
arguments bounce around the room slowly, from one end of the spectrum
to the other. The antitransgendered group is sitting together on one
side of the circle. The transgendered people are clustered together
on the other.
   
Janice Carney drew No. 19 and is the first transgendered person to
speak. She was born male, fought on the front lines in Vietnam,
married a woman and fathered three children. Six years ago, she
started living as a woman. She had surgery to become what she says
she always knew she was inside.
   
"This is very difficult for me," says Carney, 52, who is wearing red
nail polish, strappy sandals and a black skirt. "Yes, it is
personal. . . . Yes, I am here to defend all our rights to women-
only space. I was born a woman, with a woman's spirit and brain and
heart. Thirty years ago, when I was growing up, lesbians were
considered to be mentally ill, just like transgendered people are
today. We need to invite all women into this community. We have to
support and hold up each other."
   
Lesbians and transgendered people share many issues, some say.
   
They're generally interested in human rights, in same-sex marriages,
in protection from discrimination in employment and housing, in the
ability to adopt children and raise foster families.
   
If we join forces, some say, both groups will gain power and
protection.
   
If we allow transgendered people into women-only space, some say, the
real women will have lost the war.
   
"We thought at first, if we don't make a thing of it, the
transgendered people would realize they're not welcome and they'd go
away," Carole Bryan says. "That's why we didn't confront them. That's
why we kept the issue confined to print, in the newsletter."
   
"But they're not going away," Shirley Mason, 67, says.
   
"No," Bryan says, shaking her head. "There are so many of them now.
And they're not going away."
   
A social worker talks about the psychological need for inclusion,
especially among females. An American Indian woman recounts her quest
to be accepted, for her race and her sexual orientation. A therapist
reads a letter from a hermaphrodite patient who was born with a
vagina and a small penis. "I lived half my life believing that if
people knew, they would reject me," the letter says. "But somehow,
through the years, I decided WEB was different. Now I don't know.
Talk about not feeling safe! I don't feel safe. And I do not feel
welcome."
   
The arguments continue, back and forth, for more than three hours.
Some women get so emotional, they choke on their statements. Others
hug and cry between speakers.
   
"The thing I keep hearing here tonight is that transgendered people
would bring a lot of male energy into this room. That's ridiculous,"
says Elliot Poleshuck, whose presentation opened the floodgates on
this issue. "The whole idea of male energy is a myth. It's sexist.
   
"I mean, how many people in this room have been criticized for
talking too loud or being too assertive? Those are good qualities.
All of us here have that kind of so-called male energy in addition to
our female energy. We just do.
   
"What I'm hearing here tonight seems to be a small minority who feels
really strongly about this issue and is not willing to change their
minds," Poleshuck says. "Sometimes, when something like this happens
and a group is no longer exclusive enough for some of its members,
the minority needs to start over and start its own group."
   
They talk about all-inclusive love and penis envy. They talk about
war and peace. One woman tries to read a new resolution from the
National Organization for Women and gets corrected for misspeaking
the group's name.
   
"This is a statement from the National Organization of Women," she
says.
   
"No, no!" a half-dozen women shout. It's the National Organization
FOR Women.
   
In this circle, semantics matter.
   
NOW voted to "work for the inclusion of . . . transgendered people,
and gender identity and/or expression as protected categories in
legislation," the woman reads from the statement.
   
The Women's Energy Bank doesn't believe in taking votes. The founders
thought that all decisions could be reached by consensus. That was 20
years before the transgender issue arose.
   
By 10 p.m., the forum has been going on for almost four hours. The
moderator collects money to rent the church for an extra hour. And
the women agree to give everyone one more chance to talk.
   
"Are we afraid transgendered are going to take over? That's bull,"
Lisa Wild says. "That's never going to happen."
   
Vonn New agrees. "Men don't want to come to our group," she says. "If
you go to a Bucs game and invite those men to Salon, they won't come.
They're not going to sneak their way in to eat our ethnic food or try
to crash our Christmas party. They don't want to be here.
   
"The question is, are we willing to listen when someone tells us
they're really a woman?"
   
Near the end of the night, when everyone is starting to realize that
no one is going to agree, and most women are finally willing to admit
that maybe consensus is out of the question, and no one is quite sure
how to wrap up the discussion, a tiny, thin woman stands to speak.
   
Her name is Ellie Nissley. Her shoulder-length hair is pulled back in
a ponytail. It used to be black. Now it's streaked with gray. She's
wearing green pants, a white T-shirt and white sneakers. A dark green
cardigan is buttoned around her slim shoulders.
   
She peers through her wide glasses, scanning the circle. "I'm not 100
percent woman, either," she says softly. "I've had a lot of stuff
removed. I've had a full hysterectomy. Vaginal cancer. Surgery on
both breasts."
   
For the first time all night, the room is quiet. All the women's eyes
are on Ellie. She's trying to summarize the essence of womanhood.
She's talking about absence instead of inclusion.
   
"I mean, even though all those parts are removed," she says, "I still
feel like a woman."
   
[Illustration]
Caption: Edith Daly, a founder of the Women's Energy Bank, and her
partner, Jackie Mirkin.; Photo: PHOTO, STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON
   
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Dec 22, 2002
   
   
   
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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   Top
   
   
   [13]USA: Down Democrat: Rocky Horror show supported
The Down Democrat:
   Top
   http://www.downdemocrat.com/news/story.asp?j=971
   
RETRIEVED:  Sunday, January 26, 2003
         
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
   
Rocky Horror show supported
   
A FORMER Primary School Principal has defended the involvement of children
as young as ten in a version of the controversial Rocky Horror Picture Show.
   
Jim Curry, a former teacher in St. Mary's and who retired as Principal of
St. Patrick's Primary School in Mayobridge claimed that anybody who
"objected to the play had sick minds."
   
Mr. Curry, who admitted that he had not seen the school show, is understood
to have been briefed on its actual content by his wife, Bernie Curry, who is
the Vice Principal of St. Mary's.
   
"The teachers and pupils put a lot of hard work into getting the show
organised. It was not the fault of the school that there are not sufficient
numbers of girls that could play the various parts.
   
"That is the reason that boys had to dress up in skirts and dresses. After
all what is the harm in that? If people want to draw the wrong conclusions
then that is there problem. It is nothing to do with St. Mary's," Mr. Curry
added.
   
The former Principal, who now works in the entertainment business as a band
promoter, claimed that the production was a reflection of progressive
attitudes in the school.
   
And he accused parents who made complaints to the Press of "behaving in a
cowardly fashion." "There are various channels open to anybody that has a
problem with aspects of school life in St. Mary's. They don't have to hide
behind a Press that has had a negative attitude towards the school."
   
Mr. Curry's comments followed the revelation's in the Down Democrat
regarding the production and in particular the disgust of many parents, that
the show had been chosen in the first place as a suitable vehicle for
Christmas entertainment.
   
The pupils of St. Mary's Primary in Newcastle took part in an adaptation of
the cult cross gender show as part of the school's Christmas programme of
events.
   
The play, which ran over two nights to capacity audiences, sparked a
critical response from a number of parents.
   
They contacted the Down Democrat to complain about the choice of the play.
They claimed that the subject matter of the show, including homosexuality
and transvestism, was not appropriate for a Catholic Primary School, or for
children attending any Primary School.
   
One mother of two boys, said she had been appalled at the choice of subject
matter.
   
She said however that she had "absolutely no faith" in her complaint being
treated objectively by the school authorities.
   
"They are not going to admit that they made a blunder. The other problem I
have, along with many other parents, is that there is a fear that if you
complain your children may end up being isolated.  "No matter what excuses
are provided this is simply inexcusable that a show that has such strong
smutty sexual undertones was put on in a Catholic Primary School."
   
--
   
© Down Democrat, 2003.
   Top
   
   
[14] USA: Panel covers transgender identity issues
Transgender activists spoke about their experiences and difficulties with daily living 
Oregon Daily Emerald 
   Top
   
   From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. 
   
Panel covers transgend...
http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/01/24/3e31793042c21
   
   
Roman Gokhman 
Campus/City Culture Reporter
 
January 24, 2003 
   
What does it mean to be a man or a woman?
   
That was the subject of Thursday night's "Trans Rights: National, Local and
Personal Perspectives" forum.
   
The forum was moderated by Lori Buckwalter, executive director of It's Time,
Oregon!, a Portland-based state organization that works to accomplish gender
identity rights for all Oregonians.
   
The panel included transgender activists Sheila Coats, Octavian Starr, Reid
Vanderburgh and Salli B. Goode.
   
"I never found out who I really was until I was 45 years old," Coats said.
   
Coats has been transitioning from biological male to biological female for
the past two years, which she said has been a tough period.
   
Goode, who has not had any physical medical procedures, said it is not fair
to be classified into any one category.
   
"Some of us do not fit into any rigid role," she said. "We are really
comfortable being both things."
   
Members of the panel discussed the risks faced by transgender people,
including hate crimes and discrimination in all aspects of the society.
   
"It's unacceptable to me -- it should be unacceptable to you," Coats said.
   
All of the panelists said they have been harassed and treated unfairly.
   
Starr, who grew up in Colorado and is transitioning from a biological female
to a biological male, said he felt like an outsider in his home state.
   
"I thought I was an alien until I moved to Portland," he said.
   
Members of the panel agreed that transgender people face the same problems
as the rest of society -- problems with health care, employment and public
safety -- only more of them.
   
"We're just people like you," Coats said.
   
Vanderburgh, who transitioned from biological female to biological male,
said he is concerned for transgender people who are having problems
receiving health care because physicians refuse to see them.
   
About 70 people attended the forum, including Ward 3 City Councilor David
Kelly, who represents the University area.
   
Kelly said the council dismissed a possible resolution protecting gender
identity because Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey told them he would veto it.
   
"We need to use the (Eugene) Human Rights Commission as a means to break the
myths, misconceptions and fears ... (and to) convince the mayor to change
his mind," Kelly said.
   
Buckwalter said a few other U.S. cities, such as New York, have gender
identity resolutions.
   
"It's not like Eugene is on the verge (of the movement)," she said.
   
© 2003 Oregon Daily Emerald
   
   Top
   

   LEGISLATIVE ACTION
   
   [15] USA Florida--Seminole reluctant to dive into rights issue; Florida city in no rush
   Top
   
   Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003
Source: St. Petersburg (Florida) Times
Author: Maureen Byrne Ahern
   
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/01/05/SouthPinellas/Seminole_reluctant_to.shtml
   
A county resident wants the city to be among the first in Florida to
add protections for transgendered residents. The city's in no rush.
   
   
SEMINOLE -- As director of a group that lobbies cities to adopt human
rights ordinances that include transgendered people, Janice Carney
thought it only made sense that the city she lives in have such a
protection.
   
So she approached the city clerk in Seminole and asked if the town
would consider joining cities like Key West, Miami Beach and St.
Petersburg in passing a human rights ordinance. But unlike those
places, she wants the ordinance in Seminole to include protection for
transgendered individuals like herself.
   
Carney says she was told the City Council would have to talk about
such a rule at a workshop. But no date was set.
   
Instead, Carney received a letter from City Attorney John Elias
telling Carney that "Seminole will continue to monitor the issue of
sexual orientation in both the United States and the State of Florida
and will continue to evaluate the need for legislature action in the
City of Seminole."
   
In other words, Carney said, request denied.
   
In her view, the issue isn't about sexual orientation. "It's about
asking for our basic human rights," said Carney, 53, who was born a
male but underwent a sex-change operation several years ago.
   
"Transgender" is a relatively new term that encompasses all people
who identify or express themselves in the gender opposite of their
birth. Transgendered people range from those born as one sex who live
as another or who have changed their sex through surgery to drag
queens to straight cross-dressers.
   
"To me, it's really important if I can't get that protection in the
town I live in, how can I expect to be fighting for it in other towns
and cities?" said Carney, director of the Florida Gender Equality
Project, whose goal is to educate the public on transgender issues
and to advocate for social change.
   
Actually, Carney doesn't live in Seminole. Yet the apartment complex
she has lived in since moving here from New Hampshire a year ago is
just blocks from city limits and most likely will be annexed. And
like many people who live in unincorporated areas surrounding the
city, Carney considers Seminole home.
   
Americans have struggled with discrimination laws for decades.
African-Americans were denied basic rights before civil rights laws
were passed in the 1960s. Gays and lesbians have made progress in
passing antidiscrimination laws in cities and states. And now
transgendered individuals are pushing for equality.
   
"Right now we are just beginning to come out of the closet and stand
up for our rights," said Carney, a disabled Vietnam veteran.
   
Kathleen Farrell says the transgendered community always has been
linked with the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities. "Whether this
is legitimate, I'm not sure," said Farrell, a therapist who holds a
doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati
and counsels transgendered individuals in her St. Petersburg office.
   
But nevertheless, she said, with the transgendered population
being "a very small community with a very small voice," it makes
sense they piggyback on to the gays' and lesbians' pursuit for
equality.
   
Most human rights ordinances prohibit sexual or racial discrimination
in employment, housing, public accommodations and lending, but they
don't include specific references to transgendered people. In St.
Petersburg, the City Council approved a gay rights ordinance last
year, but declined to consider protections for the transgendered.
   
One of the missions of the Tampa-based Florida Gender Equality
Project is to encourage cities in Florida to pass human rights
ordinances that include protections for transgendered individuals or
to add such language to the 13 ordinances that already exist in the
state.
   
Key West's City Commission is poised to add the phrase "gender
identity or expression" to the city's human rights ordinance, which
already protects people from discrimination based on race, gender,
religion and sexual orientation.
   
If the change receives final approval this week as expected, Key West
will be the first city in Florida and the 44th in the United States
to offer the protection. Eight counties and two states -- Minnesota
and Rhode Island -- also have added similar language to their
antidiscrimination laws.
   
Carney would like Seminole to be on that list as well. Seminole Mayor
Dottie Reeder says she is against discrimination of any kind, but
prefers that the city follow state and federal laws pertaining to
discrimination. Reeder says Carney should focus on getting
legislation passed in Tallahassee.
   
"I can't see our cities creating laws like that," she said.
   
Reeder is not alone. Many elected officials consider the transgender
issue a gray area.
   
In fact, gender identity disorder is included in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, along with depression,
bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. At one time, homosexuality also
was listed as a disorder.
   
Carney says she felt trapped in a male's body since childhood, but
gender identity issues weren't talked about then. Carney joined the
Army, fought in Vietnam, got married and fathered three children. Six
years ago, he started living as a woman. He had surgery and legally
changed his name.
   
Now Carney says all she wants is for transgendered people to be
included in the human rights ordinances that protect gays and
lesbians. She says she has no problems where she lives, but wants the
security of knowing she won't be evicted from her apartment because
she is a transsexual.
   
Carney says she was so discouraged by the city's response that she
forwarded the city attorney's letter to Karen M. Doering, a staff
attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and asked her to
respond.
   
Doering wrote to Elias, the city attorney, saying that "many Fortune
500 businesses and technology companies will not even consider
relocating to a city that does not have an HRO that would protect its
employees from discrimination in these areas."
   
Most human rights ordinances prohibit housing discrimination, meaning
that a landlord, seller, housing association cannot refuse to rent or
sell housing to someone simply because of their race, religion,
sexual orientation. A place of accommodation typically refers to a
place of business, such as a hotel, restaurant or store.
   
"It certainly would be very courageous for the city of Seminole to
step up to the plate and do something that St. Petersburg failed to
do last year," said Farrell, the therapist who counsels transgendered
people.
   
Seminole City Manager Frank Edmunds says a human rights ordinance
that covers the transgendered community could be tough to enforce. He
said if such discrimination happens in Seminole, there already are
agencies to address it.
   
Carney says she's used to rejection and realizes her cause will take
time. In the meantime, she says she deals with discrimination. She
says she's tried to no avail to get a part-time job at three grocery
stores.
   
"I'm sure they checked the Social Security and it came up," she said.
   
It being her old name: John Joseph Carney.
   
© Copyright St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
   
   Top
   

   IN THE COURTS
   
   [16] USA: California --Letter allegedly depicts killing of transgender teen
One of the defendants allegedly wrote note to 'implicate the other three'
   Top
   
   Oakland Tribune Online
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1133993,00.html
   
Friday, January 24, 2003 - 12:36:21 PM MST
   
By Robert Airoldi, STAFF WRITER
   
FREMONT -- A letter, purportedly written by a defendant charged with
murdering Eddie "Gwen" Araujo, describes in detail what took place the night
the transgender teen was killed, according to court records.
   
The letter -- which led to the arrest of Jason Cazares, according to his
attorney -- has not been made public. But an edited version of a motion to
seal the letter says its "graphic and disturbing" content was written by one
of four defendants "who manages to extricate himself from wrongdoing, while
implicating the other three."
   
It purportedly was written by 19-year-old Newark resident Jaron Nabors to
his girlfriend about a month after he and Fremont resident Michael Magidson,
22, and Newark resident Jose Merel, 23, were arrested and charged in
mid-October with beating and strangling Araujo, 17, according to court
records. Cazares, 22, a Fremont resident, was arrested shortly after the
letter was written.
   
All four have pleaded innocent.
   
Fair trial  
   
J. Tony Serra, Cazares' attorney, argued that the release of the letter --
intercepted by jailers at Santa Rita county jail in Dublin where all four
are being held -- would have prevented his client from getting a fair trial.
   
Superior Court Judge Dennis McLaughlin disagreed, however. He returned the
letter to Serra without releasing its contents to the public, but ruled if
it is ever introduced as evidence, then it would be made public.
   
When Cazares was arrested in mid-November, police said he was one of the
main participants in Araujo's death. During a bail motion for Magidson last
week, officials in the District Attorney's Office also called Magidson a
main participant in the crime.
   
Araujo, also known as "Lida," was killed during a party at Merel's Newark
home the night of Oct. 3, after the four men discovered Araujo -- who
dressed as a woman -- was biologically male, police said.
   
Araujo's body, bound with ropes, was found Oct. 16 in a shallow grave east
of Placerville in the El Dorado County wilderness. It was Nabors who led
police to the body.
   
Police would not elaborate on Cazares' role in the slaying, but they
confiscated his Chevy pickup. They also took a red pick ax, two shovels, a
flat spade and a hoe from his parents' Newark home.
   
'The Laramie Project'
   
The killing -- with eerie similarities to the Teena Brandon transgender
murder portrayed in the movie "Boys Don't Cry" -- occurred as Newark
Memorial High School students were rehearsing for November performances of
"The Laramie Project," a play about a Wyoming city's reaction to the murder
of a gay college student.
   
The Araujo case drew national media attention and became a rallying point
for gay and transgender rights groups.
   
-- 
   
©1999-2003 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
   Top
   
   
   [17]USA New York City--Transsexuals In 'Real' Dispute
Transsexuals Say They Were Fired in Favor Of 'Real Women'
   Top
   
   From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
   
Newsday.com - Transsexuals In 'Real' Dispute
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-transsex0124,0,7030918.story?co
ll=ny-nynews-headlines     
    
   
By Robert Kahn
Staff Writer
   
January 23, 2003, 7:31 PM EST
   
Jury selection began Thursday in a civil trial pitting two Manhattan
transsexuals against the owners of a once trendy, now shuttered Chelsea
nightclub.
   
Amanda Lepore and Sophia La Mar Munoz, dancers employed by Twilo during the
late 1990s, filed a sexual discrimination suit against the club's operator
in 2001, claiming they were fired "because the owner wanted to hire real
women."
   
They are seeking $100,000 from Stuart Cromwell Inc., operators of the
legendary West 27th Street nightspot.
   
A lawyer for the defendant said the women were fired only because the club
wanted to take "a new marketing approach."
   
"If there were a gay-friendly and transgender-friendly nightclub in the
world, Twilo would have been at the head of the class," said Peter Sullivan,
an attorney for the club's owners.
   
"Transsexual rights are worthy of protecting, but to expend energy against a
nightclub that was a home for the transgendered community is
counterproductive," he said.
   
Sullivan said the club owners knew Lepore and Munoz were transsexuals when
they were hired.
   
"And they were fired based on a professional marketing judgment by the
business, which wanted to take a different approach," he said.
   
Tom Shanahan, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the issue was
fundamentally about the women's right to work.
   
"Amanda and Sophia had worked there for years and had received raises right
before they were fired," he said.
   
At the time Lepore and Munoz were fired, club promoter Marc Berkley told The
Village Voice: "If you're changing the kind of party you're doing ...and
they're doing something that's totally heterosexual and they now want
regular female dancers, why aren't they allowed to do that?"
   
Sullivan said Stuart Cromwell Inc. is in the process of being dissolved and
has no assets. Shanahan said he would pursue the owners' other assets in an
effort to reach a "fair settlement."
   
Reached at home Thursday, Munoz said she was looking as much for a public
apology as she was compensation.
   
"I'd worked there for three years and they gave me two hours notice that I
was being fired," Munoz said. "The club's manager didn't even call Amanda to
tell her she was being fired. He asked me to tell her."
   
New York City revoked Twilo's cabaret license in May 2001, effectively
putting it out of business.
   
Munoz and Lepore have since been employed by, respectively, the Manhattan
nightclubs Spa and Splash.
   
--
   
© 2003, Newsday, Inc.
   Top
   
   
   [18]UK: Transsexual told to wait for new law
   Top
   
   From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
   
this is lincolnshire - news, entertainment, j...
http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=57685&command=displ
ayContent&sourceNode=57237&contentPK=3784910
   
10:30 - 22 January 2003
   
A transsexual fighting to have her marriage legally recognised has been told
to wait for new legislation.
   
Male-to-female transsexual Elizabeth Bellinger (55), from Lincoln, had asked
Britain's highest court to grant her full legal status as a woman.
   
On the last day of a two-day hearing at the House of Lords yesterday she was
told legal reforms giving transsexuals the right to marry would happen.
   
But Law Lords said such reforms should not by forced through by the courts.
   
Mrs Bellinger was born male. She married a woman and fathered children
before the marriage was dissolved and she underwent surgery and hormonal
treatment to become a woman in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
   
In 1981 she married Michael Bellinger (57) and the couple raised his
daughter by a previous relationship.
   
But they are not married in the eyes of the law because Mrs Bellinger is not
legally entitled to change her birth certificate.
   
The European Court of Human Rights has already ruled that this goes against
the Human Rights convention which grants everyone the right to marry and
live a private life.
   
In response the British Government announced it was to change the law and
give transsexuals the recognition they had long fought for.
   
But it has not happened yet and lawyers acting for the Bellingers say the
law, if reinterpreted, already affords transsexuals those rights.
   
That claim is hotly disputed by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, who became
personally involved in the case at a late stage.
   
Lawyers acting for the Lord Chancellor - who is a member of the Cabinet and
Britain's most senior lawyer - yesterday argued that it was up to the
Government alone to enact the necessary changes.
   
The issue of transsexuals in marriage was first brought to the courts'
attention in 1969 when Mr Justice Ormrod ruled that someone's gender could
only be determined at birth on the basis of biological evidence.
   
That conviction was made law in both the Nullity of Marriage Act of 1971 and
the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1973.
   
But Mrs Bellinger's lawyers argue that the law gives room for an
interpretation which allows transsexuals to marry.
   
Both acts use the word gender, not sex, they say.
   
Furthermore, any definition of gender which excluded psychological factors
was flawed, it was claimed.
   
On day one of the hearing, Pamela Scriven QC told the court there was a
growing body of evidence to prove the importance of psychological factors in
determining someone's sex.
   
Someone's birth gender, she argued, was a "presumption" capable of being
challenged at a later date as an individual's sexual identity developed.
   
Transsexuals, she said, testified to a "very strong sense" of psychological
identification with the other sex.
   
Biology could even play tricks on doctors and midwives who were responsible
for determining someone's gender at birth, she told the Law Lords.
   
For example, a baby could be born with one set of genitals but have the
chromosomes of the opposite sex.
   
If the Law Lords cannot accept their argument, Mrs Bellinger's lawyers have
asked them to issue a Declaration of Incompatibility, which effectively
forces the Government to change the law.
   
But the Lord Chancellor is strongly resisting that idea, arguing it could
lead to a flood of cases by transsexuals.
   
Some commentators suspect the Government fears it will lose time to
introduce domestic law reform if it is forced to enact a change in the law
brought my Mrs Bellinger's case, if she is successful.
   
The Lords' decision is expected to be announced in a few months.
   
Copyright
   Top
   

   BOOKS Etc...
   
   [19] LA Weekly: Books: Born Identity
T Cooper on the transgendered, postmodern families and her debut novel, Some of the Parts
by Trinie Dalton 
   Top
   
   http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/10/books-dalton.php
   
JANUARY 24 - 30, 2003
   
Born Identity
T Cooper on the transgendered, postmodern families and her debut novel, Some
of the Parts
by Trinie Dalton 
 
   
T COOPER'S GRITTY DEBUT NOVEL, SOME OF the Parts, offers a suicide, a
mugging, blowjobs, AIDS, carnival freakage, pill-popping mothers versus
Edward Scissorhands-like suburban conservative mothers, and a manipulative
20-something, borderline lesbian named Taylor at the center of it all.
Taylor isn't fazed by her queeny Uncle Charlie, his lover Isak, a
transgender man who's really a woman, or her single mother, Arlene, who used
to be married to the biggest dildo ever. Mary, the male dog, serves as a
sort of metaphor for the family's strange mix. The story is told from their
four perspectives, each chapter titled according to who's speaking.
   
Though she now lives in New York, Cooper is from Los Angeles, and the
locations in her book shift from Providence, Rhode Island, to Hollywood and
Pasadena. I appreciate the ambiguous plot, too; not that much happens  -- but,
nonetheless, Cooper does manage to explore eccentric family dynamics and the
subtleties of gender. Relationships are healing, and people in general are
getting it together. If you normally detest psychological journeys into
wussy family politics as I do, you might still enjoy this book. (Who doesn't
like to get tips on how to give first-rate head?) There's a hardcore element
to keep skeptics and perverts satisfied. Underneath the hardcore, there's a
soft core (not porn): love.
   
L.A. WEEKLY: Some people are calling the family in your book postmodern.
Really, though, what does that mean anymore?
   
T COOPER: You're asking the wrong person about postmodernism! If anything,
you could call it a post-nuclear family. This family could comment on where
we are at the turn of the century, and it certainly comments on how families
are comprised of not only birth relatives, but people you choose by will. If
there's any post-ness going on, it's about an artistic lifestyle, an urban
lifestyle. I kind of see this book as an update of where we were in the
1980s. 
   
In the book, Taylor says, "The ultimate power is taking yourself away from
somebody against their will." Do you think that's true, or is it only true
for the character? 
   
Well, for the character, that's true. Taylor's sense of control is based on
her beauty, style and personality. She knows she can get by on other
people's help. She's a high-class, unofficial hustler. She bumps around from
situation to situation until things don't work out, then she arrives in Los
Angeles and hooks up with this high-level producer. She's a walking cliché!
What she gets off on more than anything else is the fact that people will
give her anything. 
   
So, if you can get anything you want in life, the only thing left to get off
on is taking things away from others?
   
Yeah. And always being in control. Isak, on the other hand, is a character
who doesn't even enter into the power situation. If you talk about
post-anything, the book is about identity. I mean, Isak's a transgender,
sometimes she gets beat up, but that's not all she is, that's just one
aspect. People label her X or Y, but below that, what is there? Taylor has
it all: She's an actor on an inane TV program [Beverly Hills 90210], but
beyond that, the power trip is all she has.
   
Taylor also says, "It's funny how people can just be exchanged." Do you
think this is true  -- that people are interchangeable when you're creating an
extended family for yourself?
   
In a way, yes. Because when you aren't fulfilled and you aren't getting what
you need, you have to go elsewhere. The narration in the book, in its
multiple perspectives, helps to underscore the fact that people who are
related, either by birth or by being roommates, may not know each other as
well as they think. You can live with someone for 20 years and not know
them. I learned a lot by having my characters comment on the same event. In
a family, assumptions don't float. You can't assume you know somebody.
Arlene and Charles grew up in the same house, but they have two entirely
different space orbits going around inside their heads. We just go through
life thinking we know  -- that we know our spouse, we know our kids, and
sometimes we know them the least.
   
You mention reality a couple of times, and your book is fairly realistic. Do
you consider yourself a realist?
   
I started out as a nonfiction writer in college, but I wasn't interested in
writing about myself. I love reading nonfiction research books, historical
studies; but when people only talk about themselves, I just want to slit my
wrists. With that background, I learned not to take as many liberties as
fiction writers sometimes do. It took a while to train myself to make things
up. Reading Jonathan Safran Foer's book Everything Is Illuminated helped.
There's some magical realism in it, and he's very inventive.
   
One criticism of my book is that the dialogue is too realistic, and mundane
as a result. But when I read a book and know a person wouldn't really say
something in that way, I don't like it. I tried to read Harry Potter, but I
don't like fantasy. I like true crime. When I finally read Helter Skelter, I
was so happy. 
   
"You spend your whole life getting hurt," says Arlene, "and out of it you
hope for some grace somewhere in all that hurt." Do you think a lot of
people feel that way as they get older?
   
That quote is similar to the Virginia Woolf quote that the book's title is
taken from. In To the Lighthouse, [Mrs. Ramsay] feels so much emptiness, so
many parts missing, but at the same time she notices some of the parts, so
it's okay. Some people think that my book is bleak because of this. There's
a lot of heartbreak, but there are also fleeting moments of grace. I see
humor in it. Some of the most gruesome stuff is funny as hell.
   
   
SOME OF THE PARTS
BY T COOPER
Akashic Books
264 pages 
$15 paperback
   Top
   
   

   ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
   
   [20] Alec Mapa relives the rocky path he's trodden as a gay thespian and teen in
"I Remember Mapa" and "Drama!"
   Top
   
   Los Angeles Times: Drama played out on stage ...
http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/theater/cl-et-daryl25jan25.story
   
From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. 
        
January 25, 2003   
   
THEATER REVIEW
   
Drama played out on stage -- and in the actor's life
   
Alec Mapa relives the rocky path he's trodden as a gay thespian and teen in
"I Remember Mapa" and "Drama!"
     
By Daryl H. Miller
Times Staff Writer 
   
The show business story is an enduring favorite in part because it's so
universally understood. For what is life but a performance in which we're
all looking for a little applause to know that we've done well and earned
someone's approval?
   
Alec Mapa supplies a couple such tales in the solo shows "I Remember Mapa"
and "Drama!" Presented in alternating repertory under the umbrella title
"Mapa Mia!," they are the first of the Mark Taper Forum's Taper, Too program
of developmental plays to be presented at the Ivy Substation in Culver City
while the nearby Kirk Douglas Theatre is readied.
   
Simply yet imaginatively staged by Chay Yew, both shows tell the story of a
gay Filipino American who grew up feeling like an outsider until he
discovered the stage.
   
Presented in 1997 as part of the Taper's Asian Theatre Workshop, "I Remember
Mapa" focuses on Mapa's brush with fame as understudy and, later, lead in
the 1988 Broadway phenomenon "M. Butterfly," in which he played, as he
concisely puts it, the "Chinese transvestite spy." It is the stronger work,
with more to say about life and show business.
   
"Drama!," a new piece, looks back to high school days of yearning,
experimentation and friends lost to AIDS. Though it's engaging enough, it
recalls too many similar stories, from the gay monologue in "A Chorus Line"
to David Drake's "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me."
   
In his late 30s and full of vinegar, Mapa all but shouts his lines in
excitement and cracks jokes with antic wit, as though desperate for the
audience's acceptance.
   
He sets up "Drama!" by first looking back at his work on the short-lived
2001 CBS sitcom "Some of My Best Friends." Entertainment reporters at the
time wanted to know how he felt about playing a flamboyant gay character on
national television. The role seemed stereotypical to some people, but Mapa
found the character to be independent, empowered and, well, a lot like
himself. "Ever since I was a little boy, I've been a great big girl," he
dryly announces.
   
This carries him back to youthful fears of rejection by his Catholic family
as well as the crowd at his ethnically diverse San Francisco high school. He
found comfort first in classic movies and contemporary TV, which bred his
show-business dreams. (A fantasy sequence envisions him in his own variety
show, lip-syncing to "I've Got the Music in Me" while disco lights pulse.)
He then found his "tribe," as he calls it, in that gay and lesbian support
group otherwise known as drama club. Backed by friends and, ultimately, an
accepting family, he faces his fears, embraces his identity and moves
forward with pride.
   
In "I Remember Mapa," the actor finds positive reinforcement in the standing
ovations that greet his work in "M. Butterfly," only to lose it again when
the job ends and he can't find comparable employment. He waits tables at a
restaurant where customers sometimes recognize him; he frantically pursues
even the most humiliating acting jobs; he gets depressed. Sustaining him
through this dark time is his mother's ever-determined admonition, "What's
stopping you?" 
   
-- 
 
'Mapa Mia!' 
   
Where: Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City
When: "I Remember Mapa" and "Drama!" alternate Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.;
both shows Saturdays, 6 and 9 p.m., and Sundays, 5 and 8 p.m.
Ends: Feb. 9
Price: $20 apiece
Contact: (213) 628-2772
Running time: "I Remember Mapa," 1 hour; "Drama!," 1 hour, 15 minutes
   
--
   
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
   Top
   
   
[21] A tragedy -- and unique love story
Handled with skill and care, 'Soldier's Girl' tells of a gay GI, slain in 1999, and his transsexual partner. 
   Top
   
   
   Los Angeles Times: A tragedy -- and unique lo...
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-et-turan22jan22,0,5965853.story?coll=c
l-home-more-channels
     
January 22, 2003  
   
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
   
A tragedy -- and unique love story
Handled with skill and care, 'Soldier's Girl' tells of a gay GI, slain in
1999, and his transsexual partner.      
     
By Kenneth Turan
Times Staff Writer 
   
PARK CITY, Utah -- Even by the relaxed standards of the Sundance Film
Festival, quite a diverse quartet had gathered in an empty hotel ballroom to
talk about a picture. But together in "Soldier's Girl," they helped create a
kind of magic.
   
At age 77, so old that he joked about deserving a prize for "directors in
their second childhood," the senior of the group was Frank Pierson,
president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the
Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975).
   
Young enough to be his grandchildren were a pair of accomplished actors
whose careers are just beginning. Troy Garity, excellent in Barry Levinson's
"Bandits," is still best known to the public as the son of Jane Fonda and
Tom Hayden. Lee Pace, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Juilliard, is so new
to the business he jokes that he has "about 20 minutes of life experience
under my belt."
   
None of these individuals would be in the room except for the fourth person,
a demure, soft-spoken woman named Calpernia Addams. In 1999, when Addams was
a preoperative transsexual working as a nightclub performer in Nashville,
her soldier boyfriend, Pfc. Barry Winchell, was murdered for being gay. It
was a death that called into question the efficacy of the Army's "don't ask,
don't tell" policy, and when Addams' story put her on the cover of the New
York Times Sunday magazine a year later, the movie offers started coming in.
   
"There were a lot of people who started calling me for a lot of different
reasons, but I was grieving, all confused, and it took me a long time to
settle on a group I felt comfortable with," recalls Addams, who chose
producers Doro Bachrach and Linda Gottlieb. "A woman in my situation can be
so exploited. And I didn't want Barry's memory dishonored by a portrayal of
some flamboyant, clichéd, drag queen character. I was really scared how it
might be portrayed."
   
Though her concern was understandable, Addams made the right choice. A
Showtime movie playing in the festival's Premiers section, "Soldier's Girl"
is a heartbreaking and touching experience. Persuasively written by Ron
Nyswaner ("Philadelphia") and acted and directed with remarkable skill and
care, the film is especially effective in making us believe completely in
the love story between Garity's Winchell, "a straight boy" in Addams' eyes,
and Pace's Addams, genitally male but, due to hormone treatment, a beautiful
woman in all other respects.
   
Still, when Pierson was approached about directing Nyswaner's script, he was
far from convinced. "It scared the hell out of me," he remembers. "It was
beautifully written and so original and fresh but I didn't know how I could
cast it. It seemed an overwhelming thing to do on a TV budget so I
reluctantly turned it down."
   
But during the next two weeks, the story stayed with Pierson. "Most of the
screenplays we read we can't remember the next day, so I asked myself, 'Why
am I not doing this?' and I changed my mind. But I was still terrified
because there was no margin for error. It would either be an embarrassing
disaster or very much worth seeing, nowhere in between."
   
Though Showtime wanted stars, Pierson decided to remain true to the youthful
age of the real characters, especially the young soldiers, "and actors who
can play that range have not been around long enough to build marquee
value." He saw 40 to 50 actors for each of the leads (Shawn Hatosy got the
key role of the barracks Iago) before settling on Garity and Pace, who had
qualms of their own.
   
"I had a similar reaction to Frank, I was intimidated by the script," Garity
says. "Given the current state of pictures, I wasn't sure how it would be
handled, if it would be sensationalized. But I mean, listen, as an actor
you're constantly plagued with questions about what it all means at the end
of the day -- am I being a contributing member of society. It's so rare that
a script comes across your desk that actually lives outside of itself,
that's about something greater than you. It's so rare an opportunity in
comparison to 'Dude, Where's My Car' that you'd be foolish not to take it."
   
Pace had similar and additional worries. "I didn't think I'd be able to pull
it off, it was so far from anything I've ever done, and I worried, 'Am I
going to be pretty enough?' " the handsome, 6-foot-3 actor says.
   
Each day's shooting started for Pace with the application of three to four
hours worth of molded-to-the-body prosthetics, including breasts and hips,
which had to be remade at one point because Pace lost more weight than he
was supposed to out of fear that he'd be too big for the part.
   
Before shooting started, Pace, on Pierson's advice, went out and observed
how women behave in public places. "The first time I saw you in high heels,"
the director kids him now, "I thought you'd hurt yourself." The actor got
more comfortable with the role as shooting progressed. "On the first day,
when someone said, 'You look hot,' it was like, let's just get on with it.
But by the end of the shoot, when I'd hear that, I'd say, 'Thanks.' "
   
Pierson's goal for the film was simple. "I wanted to make this a love story.
The only thing I remember saying to the actors is that Barry keeps
forgetting that [Addams is] a man; [Barry is] in love with a woman. Once you
show the character's sex to the audience, you can't take that away from
their awareness, so you don't need to press the sexuality. I wanted to deal
with getting to the truth of the love relationship, with what it feels like
to be in that golden bubble."
   
As the person who lived that relationship, Addams feels the film is "more
beautiful than I could have ever hoped, though it's hard to wrap my mind
around it, it's surreal. And the movie gave me a really unique chance to go
back in time, to say goodbye to Barry, to relive those good moments again.
That's something nobody has."
   
Addams is now a postoperative transsexual, writing and producing videos to
help the transgender community with makeup and beauty. The child of a
fundamentalist minister, she's written a book about her experiences
pointedly called "Mark 947" after the biblical verse that says "if thine eye
offends thee, pluck it out."
   
Consulted on specific questions of dialogue during the filming, Addams
clearly enjoys the rapport with the actors that the shoot created. When
Garity jokes with Pace that his work in commercials might dry up as a result
of "Soldier's Girl," Addams waits a beat and says, "There's always
Maybelline." 
   
   
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
   Top
   
   
   RELIGION
   
   [22] USA--Transgender minister visits local churches
Presbyterian cleric invited by members concerned by slaying of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo Jr.
   Top
   
   Oakland Tribune Online
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~1125287,00.html
   
Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 4:01:47 AM MST
   
Transgender minister visits local churches
Presbyterian cleric invited by members concerned by slaying of Eddie "Gwen"
Araujo Jr.
   
By Julissa McKinnon , STAFF WRITER
   
CASTRO VALLEY -- At first glance, Erin Swenson fits the nostalgic model of
the well-mannered housewife. Blonde hair pulled back loosely into a
ponytail, her soothing voice is nurturing, almost maternal.
   
And yet Swenson, the first transgender minister to preach within the
Presbyterian Church, defies all gender stereotypes. Since deciding to
surgically change sex from male to female in 1996, the Georgia native has
made challenging gender stereotypes her lifework.
   
Besides running her own therapy practice, Swenson recently founded the
Southern Association for Gender Education (SAGE). When she's not working
with her small congregation in Ormwood Park, Ga., she's speaking at
universities, churches and anywhere else where there is an interest in
transgender awareness.
   
This past week she came to Hayward and Castro Valley at the invitation of
Lynn Reede, a 75-year-old parishioner at Westminster Hills Presbyterian
Church in Hayward. Reede, who lives in Fremont, said she and her fellow
congregants have craved a greater understanding of transgender people and
issues since the slaying of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo Jr. -- the 17-year-old
transgender teen slain last October.
   
She went on to speak before the governing body of the Presbyterian Church in
Castro Valley on Tuesday, forcefully condemning "artificial gender
expectations" that drive girls to starve themselves and boys to become
violent. 
   
Nancy Byers, executive director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians,
said Swenson's appearance was intended to dissolve mainstream congregants'
ignorance about transgender people. Ignorance leads to the prevalent
stereotype that transgendered people are somehow bizarre and frightening,
Byers said. 
   
Questions about how to approach transgender and gay issues linger and
continually spark debate in the Presbyterian Church.
   
Later this spring the Presbytery will reconsider amending the portion of the
Presbyterian Church's constitution requiring ministers to live "in fidelity
within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in
singleness." Last year the church's governing body voted down the amendment
2-1, according to Byers.
   
Despite the Presbyterian Church's ambivalence about accepting gays and
lesbians as ministers, Swenson was allowed to continue as a minister after
her gender change. 
   
It was a struggle, Swenson recalled as she sat relaxed in her host's Oakland
hills home -- the hardest fight she's won since converting to womanhood.
   
But even as Swenson is plunging forward into what she calls her "new life"
as Erin, she sorts through her past.
   
Currently Swenson is writing a book recounting her painful experiences as a
boy struggling to cope with his longing to be a woman.
   
In her calm therapist's voice, Swenson remembers being 10-year-old Eric and
stuffing toilet paper under a T-shirt to make breasts. Looking at himself in
the mirror, the young Swenson knew he liked what he saw.
   
"I was absolutely overcome with awe," Swenson said, a dreamy look clouding
her blue-gray eyes. "There was this incredible tugging at my heart. I knew I
liked what I saw. I wanted what I saw."
   
The longing to be a woman grew, and the bigger it became, the more fiercely
Swenson concealed it. He thought nobody was like him, until the young teen
saw a newspaper headline one day that read, "Ex-marine becomes bride."
   
Swenson treasured the article but feared someone would discover it and
suspect his secret. The teen hid the newspaper article in the intercom box
in his room, and recalls pulling the article from behind the wall every now
and then to pore over the unbelievable fact that someone else felt the way
he did. 
   
Despite his growing shame about his longing to be a girl, the young Swenson
found solace in church. There, the Rev. Harold Miner constantly preached a
message of God's unconditional love for everyone, Swenson said.
   
"The message that God loved me no matter what was so meaningful to me,"
Swenson said softly. "Things of faith became essential."
   
Swenson obtained a degree in electrical engineering, before following the
call to be a minister. And yet Swenson's closeness to God did not ease his
longing to be a woman. His shame deepened.
   
Now Swenson can laugh about how her repression drove her to succeed. At 47,
she held four degrees, a doctorate in psychology, had launched a therapy
practice, built a sailboat, learned to fly, became a meticulously caring
father to two daughters. And yet despite his worldly success, secretly
Swenson felt miserable.
   
Swenson said in her "previous life" she would drive away into the night for
hours and hours. Suicide was a common contemplation.
   
It wasn't until Swenson almost forged himself a prescription for estrogen
replacement hormones that he realized he wanted a sex change.
   
"It's like I woke up one morning and the scales of my life had been tilted,"
Swenson said, recalling her decision to undergo surgery to anatomically
transform from Eric into Erin.
   
Since then, Erin has rebuilt her life slowly. After undergoing the change,
she was asked to leave the therapy practice she had established with three
other therapists. She has restarted her practice, mostly treating
transgender clients. But she also hopes to extend compassion for transgender
people to the general public mostly through her homespun organization,
Southern Association for Gender Education.
   
"Gender is the basis of the power struggle going on today," said Swenson, a
self-proclaimed "rabid feminist." "I want to make the world a safer place
for transgender people, but also people everywhere. I see Gwen Araujo as a
victim of those stereotypes, but also the boys who murdered her. They
participate with all of us in a society oppressed by unreasonable gender
expectations." 
   
--
   
©1999-2003 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
   Top
   
   
   COMMENTARY
   
   Employers urged to get to grips with transsexuals
HR Gateway Editorial
   Top
   
   HR Gateway.com - HR News & Information with U...
http://www.hrgateway.co.uk/viewnewsdetail.asp?uniquenumber=1312&loginstatus=
   
From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
    
Details
Ref :               N/1312
   
Date Posted : 23/01/2003
         
HR Gateway Editorial
    
Brief Details 
Following recent high-profile legal cases and the impending tightening up of
discrimination legislation, lawyers are warning employers to treat
transsexuals' requests fairly.
--
   
Staff are often more liberal-minded than employers expect and as such should
be careful not to discriminate against employees who are either considering
or actually undergoing a sex change warned lawyers today.
   
High profile cases such as the recent audio buying manager who received an
out of court settlement after being 'humiliated' by her employers, should be
outlining to organisations how they should be adjusting their behaviour,
claims Rachel Jones of law firm DLA:
   
'Since the Sex Discrimination Act was amended to protect from discrimination
in the workplace those individuals who are in the process of, have, or
intend to undergo, gender reassignment, some employers have found the
concept of employing or retaining employees who live as the opposite sex,
difficult. 
   
'Often managers report that they fear what the reaction of colleagues and
other staff will be, and this is often far worse than the reality. Staff and
colleagues are often more supportive and liberal minded than employers
anticipate,' she said.
   
Jones warned employers that discrimination law will from December 2003 and
onwards become far more embracing. As well as prohibiting discrimination on
the grounds of sexual orientation, be that homosexuality or bisexuality, it
will also cover religious or philosophical beliefs - age will also be
covered by 2006. 
   
In the case of Sharon Persky, an audio buying manager for S Gold and Sons,
after telling the company of her decision to change sex, she alleged that
her employers began a campaign of humiliation. They denied her access to the
women's toilets and engaged lawyers to write letters to her parents asking
about her sex life.
   
Nearly three years after she had informed her employer, despite changing her
name by deed poll, amending her details with her bank and other
institutions, presenting full-time as a female and taking medical advice,
her employer had still 'considered her to be a man', she said.
   
The problem of shared toilets is one that employment lawyers face on a
regular basis, explains Jones. In the case of Persky, the EAT held that it
was not discrimination for an employer to require a pre-operative
transsexual to use a gender-neutral toilet at her workplace, rather than the
women's toilet. 
   
'The message to all good managers is to be open minded and to deal with
people based on their abilities at all times. Look beyond characteristics
which make our society as interesting and varied as it is, and consider the
skills and experience which are relevant to the job in question,' said
Jones.  
   
--
    
Thursday
23 January 2003 
   
Copyright HR Gateway Ltd 2002
http://www.hrgateway.co.uk/terms.htm
   Top

-----------------------------------------*****----------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: The accuracy of any information presented herein cannot be guaranteed. The opinions expressed may not reflect those of the Editor, Anne Vitale PhD.

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