National
“Mick Jagger gets dressed up for a movie career”
January 1, 1998
Mick Jagger’s involvement with films seems to be gettting more serious, what with three movie projects in the works. But you couldn’t tell given his role in the movie “Bent.”
As Greta, the lead singer of the R9olling Stones plays a cross-dressing crooner who swings from a chandelier in a Berlin nightclub.
“I’m quite happy in drag,” Jagger, 54, says of his role in the film, which opened in some markets in November.
“It’s a serious film, but my part is comedic. And I loved dressing up, finding the right costumes. I started off with short dresses, which I knew I wouldn’t get to wear. But I looked a lot better in the short dresses, to be puuh-fectly honest.”
Law Review Article on TGism and Marriage
I just learned of a law review article entitled “Transgenderism and Sexual Orientation: More than a Marriage of Convenience” by Prof Mary Coombs of U of Miami Law School. Mary was the keynoter at the 5th ICTLEP Conference in 1996.
The law review article deals with all of the different ways in which transgenders can have a same-sex marriage and all of the ramifications of those in light of the current struggle for “gay marriage”. I will let you decide for yourself. I am delighted!
You may download it from www.sunsite.unc.edu/gaylaw.
And thank the gaylaw folks for the other TG law stuff that they carry on their web pages for ICTLEP.
Outspoken TG Ally Wins Election
On Saturday, Dec. 6, an out of the closet and vocal ally of the transgender community won a city-wide election for City Council in Houston.
Annise Parker has been a friend of mine for over 15 years. She is an out lesbian. This is the third time she has run for public office. During all of her runs, she has been out. During all of her runs, she has had lots of local TG volunteer support in her offices and doing block walking and stuffing of envelopes and handling phones. During this race, she was asked by one local gay group that does not believe in tg inclusion whether she would stick by the tg community. Her response was an emphatic yes! in the face of their threats to not endorse her candicacy.
On Saturday she won by 58% to 42%. This was an at-large race, city-wide. Her constiuency is larger than all but possibly two other openly gay office holders in the nation. If you get this today, go to www.houstonchronicle.com to see an article in the metropolitan section.
I salute my friend, Annise Parker, for her courage.
I also salute her for seeing the wisdom of including her transgendered allies.
Phyllis Frye
Diamond & Sigmundson Publish Recommendations
Sex researcher Milton Diamond and psychiatrist Keith Sigmundson, whose publication last March of a follow-up which revealed that the sex reassignment of “John/Joan” had been a failure, have unleashed a new wave of controversy. The October issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine published a new article by the pair, which outlines a new model of management for intersexuality. “Some of these suggestions,” note the pair, “are contrary to today’s common management procedures. . . Underlying our guidelines is the key belief that patients themselves must be involved in any decision as to something so crucial in their lives.”
The article emphasizes openness, honesty, peer support and professional counseling, and avoidance of early cosmetic surgery. In a break with the journal’s tradition, the article closes with nearly a full page of listings for a variety of peer support groups.
Diamond, Milton, and H. Keith Sigmundson. 1997. Commentary: Management of Intersexuality: Guidelines for dealing with persons with ambiguous genitalia.
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 151. Expected to be available shortly at http://www.afn.org/~sfcommed/mdfnl.htm”>http://www.afn.org/~sfcommed/mdfnl.htm
Diamond, Milton, and HK Sigmundson. 1997. Sex Reassignment at Birth: A Long Term Review and Clinical Implications. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 150:298-304. Available on http://www.afn.org/~sfcommed/mdfnl.htm”>http://www.afn.org/~sfcommed/mdfnl.htm
HYPOSPADIAS RISE?
Many popular media outlets carried prominent coverage of a November Pediatrics article which reported that the incidence of hypospadias (in which the urethra opens not exactly at the tip of the penis) had nearly doubled between 1968 and 1993. “A rare birth defect of the penis now affects nearly 1 of 100 boys nationwide,” blared USA Today, citing the study by the Centers for Disease Control.
But, in a letter addressed to the journal, Dr Alice Dreger questions the meaning of the study, noting that it could not distinguish an increase in hypospadias from an increase in reporting.
Medical interest in intersex conditions has increased over the past three decades, as has the number of intersex clinicians, notes the Michigan State University historian and ethicist. Dreger’s Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex, due to be published by Harvard in April, documents a dramatic increase in reporting of cases of human hermaphroditism during the late nineteenth century, apparently due to the increasing number of gynecologists and obstetricians.
Citing a 1995 study which found 45% of a random sample of men hypospadic, Dreger goes on to question the purported rise, given the frustrating vagueness of the definition of hypospadias. Indeed, all but 6 of the 225 men deemed ‘hypospadic’ were unaware of any penile anomaly.
Finally, Dreger worries about the possibility of an increase in hypospadias surgeries. “In spite of all this lack of clarity,” she concludes, “we can safely conclude that a reduction in the number of hypospadias ‘repair’ surgeries performed on boys’ penises would result in a reduction in the number of what urologists themselves have termed ‘hypospadias cripples’ — that is, men made miserable and dysfunctional by surgeries designed to ‘correct’ a merely ‘cosmetic’ problem.”
Local
Legal
International
<HTML><PRE><I>SUMMARY: A majority of Greeks seem to think it’s unfair that the Athens District Attorney could have had an affair with a woman or a man — but never, never with a transsexual.</I>
Athens District Attorney Giorgos Sakellaropoulos was disbarred last week by Greece’s high court for his extramarital affair with Jenny Hiloudaki, a high-profile transsexual former sex worker, but public sentiment is on his side, according to an Associated Press report. Sakellaropoulos, whose “social character” was questioned by the court because of the affair, is considering appealing his punishment to the European Court of Human Rights in the belief that he has a right to privacy.
Hiloudaki has become a familiar figure in the Greek media since undergoing gender reassignment in 1990, making frequent appearances to speak on sex and gender issues. The current uproar naturally brought her an appearance on television, in which she said, “It is as if he sacrificed his career on the altar of love.” She went on to claim that the affair has not ended, propose marriage to Sakellaropoulos, and remark that, “I will be hurt if he stays with his wife now.”
Sakellaropoulos’ wife is currently expecting their second child.
In a supportive open letter to Sakellaropoulos which appeared December 1 in Athens’ “Vradini” newspaper, columnist Nikos Mastorakis declared that, “The system destroyed you because you fell in love with a woman who wasn’t always a woman.”
One television station had listeners call in to “vote” on the situation and received 20,000 responses, 82% of them opposing Sakellaropoulos’ firing. Many people believe that he would have been treated differently had he carried out the same affair with either a woman or a man who had not undergone gender reassignment.
–NewsPlanet Staff
Canadian TS Beats Same-Sex Marriage Ban
NANAIMO — Tying the knot before a sex-change operation has allowed two West Coast women to make Canadian legal history as same-sex spouses. George — now Georgina — Scott and Linda Fraser were able to wed because Scott was legally and physically a man at the time of their marriage on June 24. Scott, a 46-year-old heavy-equipment operator, has since had surgery to complete the transition from man to woman. She plans to change her birth certificate to reflect her new legal status. She spent the past two years living as a woman and could legally marry Fraser because of her transsexual condition at the time of the ceremony. Most lesbians can have only a joining ceremony, Scott said. The Vancouver Island couple were married at a small ceremony in Vancouver, and plan on having a larger joining ceremony in January.
Fraser said the legal marriage was for both practical and political reasons. “Georgie said, ‘I want you to get my pension and insurance if anything happens to me.’ ” Fraser said there’s a chance the marriage won’t be called into legal question, which she says could set a precedent for gays and lesbians. “This could be a pivotal step in gaining recognition for gay and lesbian marriage,” she said.
Barbara Findlay, a lesbian lawyer and activist in Vancouver, agreed the marriage is unlikely to be challenged in the near future. “Probably nothing will happen when the application to change the birth certificate goes through because marital status is not indicated on the forms as far as I know. “The test will come when Scott attempts to rely on her marriage certificate to claim income tax benefits as spouses. They may be able to claim things that are available to heterosexual couples that aren’t yet available to same-sex couples,” Findlay said.
The union hasn’t been completely joyful. Scott says she had difficulty making the transition while working with an all-male crew. A crew member started “freaking out” when she first came out at work. “After that, no one asked me any questions. . . .” Her ex-wife and children haven’t responded well. Her children asked that she not contact them as they needed time to adjust. She recently gave a presentation to the Human Rights Commission asking that “gender identity” be added to the Human Rights Code.
Circumcision “Good for Tourism” in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) – Mass circumcision ceremonies could become a tourist attraction in ethnically diverse Malaysia, according to Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Sabbaruddin Chik.
Mass circumcisions are cultural activities that could be turned into money-making ventures, he told the daily Star newspaper.
”By charging tourists a small fee … to watch such cultural events, the organizational costs can be covered,” Chik told the paper after attending a circumcision ceremony.
Tourists would ”enjoy watching something that was different from the norm,” he said.
The Star said 48 boys were circumcised in the ceremony.
INTEGRATING TRANSSEXUAL AND TRANSGENDERED PEOPLE
An Analysis by Liberty on transsexuality and the law
Laura Cox QC, Stephanie Harrison QC
Published by Liberty, 21 Tabard Street, London SE1 4LA
” Liberty is one of the leading civil liberties and human rights organisations in the United Kingdom, and has had an active interest in the UK’s deplorable treatment of transsexual people for some time, working very closely with Press for Change and the Parliamentary Forum on key cases, with the cooperation of some of the most experienced barristers in the field.” – C. Burns
The seminal value of Liberty’s piece of research has been to show, however, that not only is there a very broad and favourable consensus among the 39 member states of the Council of Europe, in correcting the birth records and legal status of trans people after reassignment treatment, but that the United Kingdom stands out with the Irish Republic, Albania and Andorra, at the top of the list of rights offenders.
All in all, it is a splendid piece of research. An eye-opener. And it doesn’t
stop at having surveyed the Council of Europe. The research, conducted through
contact with the governments concerned or their embassies, also took in the major
commonwealth countries too, and countries around the world.
A total of fifty-one different societies, in fact.
And in the overwhelming majority of cases, the report shows that the world possesses a sympathy and respect for trans people which has so far eluded the one country where you might have expected it to have begun .. the UK.
Moreover, the report also shows a fast developing trend, seen from the way in which countries have altered their positions in growing numbers over the last few years. In short, the world is moving rapidly towards the day when the UK and Ireland really ARE the only places left where psychological harm is inflicted upon transsexual people by a state unhealthily obsessed with the importance of its’ ledgers above all else.
TRANSVESTITES NATIONAL DAY
JUSTICE FOR MARCELA ARIAS
ROSARIO, ARGENTINA,
23TH DECEMBER. The National Meeting of Sexual Minorities, in Salta, Argentina, has created December, 29th, as the Transvestites National Day.
Colectivo Arco Iris from Rosario, a sexual minorities organization, will demand that day for justice for the death, by abandonment, of Marcela Arias, transvestite, who was stabbed in the street and then leaved by the police and by a municipal ambulance.
The complaint of Colectivo Arco Iris has been answered until now by the silence from the authorities, which have not received them.
On December, 29th, I will be a transvestite too, I will feel the beatings, the threats, the tortures and the death in my own body¶, says the document published by Pedro Anibal Paradiso, Sub-Director of Colectivo Arco Iris. Marma Cristina Arrabal, sister of Marcela Arias, has written to Amnesty International, asking for support. She tells about Marcelas innumerable arrests, just for being a transvestite, never by theft or drugs, beated and stealed by the police, losing two teeth in a hiding and finally raped in Coronda, near of Rosario, by 15 policemen, five months before her death.