Gender- bender teen shot in B’klyn
By CELESTE KATZ
and GREG GITTRICH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A 20-year-old Brooklyn man shot a teenage transvestite four times – capping their illicit pre-dawn encounter with gunfire after discovering the youth was a boy, cops said yesterday. Jamel Stevens was tracked down Wednesday by detectives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and charged with attempted murder, assault and menacing
in the attack, authorities said. Stevens shot the 14-year-old twice in the left arm and twice in the left thigh just after 3 a.m. on Feb. 21 in the Marcy Houses playground on Nostrand Ave., police said. The young victim’s wounds were not life-threatening. He was treated and released from Kings County Hospital, police said. The teenage transvestite was wearing lip gloss and tight pants, and had long hair and painted nails, the source said. Still, there is no mistaking him for a girl, said Rafeal Hernandez, 17, a neighbor of the victim.
“It’s just noticeable that he’s a guy,” Hernandez said. Crystal Gonzalez, 19, said she had warned the teen to stop stuffing his shirt and dressing like a girl. “But he didn’t listen to me,” she said. “There are a lot of crazy people in this world who don’t accept gay people.” At Marcy Houses, Stevens’ family was stunned by his arrest. “Jamel has never been in trouble a day in his life,” said his grandmother, Patricia Fleming, 62. “I never had to go to the police station for him.” Fleming said Stevens, a construction worker, was living in Florida but moved back to Brooklyn this year after his sick mother lapsed into a coma. Fleming said she visited Stevens’ mother in the hospital yesterday. “I told her, ‘We need you. I can’t do this alone,'” she said.
Originally published on April 16, 2004
NBC poll on crossdressing
NBC is running a poll as to whether a person being a crossdresser would affect your vote – & right now, the people who wouldn’t vote for a CD are winning!
C’mon, folks, let’s turn this around!
Vote NO!
This Week's Action – 4/5/04
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women’s clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth. Local Republican leaders confirmed separately that they had seen the photographs of Walls in a wig, dress and high heels.
The story is on the Reuters newswire, and so is being picked up by other papers – Newsday, the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, etc. Find one of these papers – or write to Reuters directly – explaining that a man’s crossdressing by no means affects his ability to do his job! If you are a CD, explain who you are (engineer, teacher, tech, etc).
This is your opportunity, closeted CDs! Stand up for one of your fellow CDs. Mr. Walls is, some stories mention, a member of a chapter of Tri-Ess.
Of course, his being a CD is not a good reason to vote for him, either – unless of course his crossdressing encourages him to vote for trans-friendly legislation.
11 Stories about Crossdressing
An online magazine called The Morning News has a great set of stories up about crossdressing, by a writer named Kevin Fanning. Do check them out.
(thanks, gazingo!)
TG Kickboxer in Thailand
From National Geographic:
Read the full article
View a photo gallery of Nong Turn
Here’s their intro to the story:
Thai “Ladyboy” Kickboxer Is Gender-Bending Knockout
Laura Greene
March 25, 2004
Laura Greene, host of National Geographic On Assignment, traveled to Thailand to delve into the world of the ladyboy – Thailand’s “third sex.” While on location she met with the country’s most famous ladyboy – a former champion kickboxer named Nong Tum.
Here Greene describes her time with Tum, and his transformation from a masculine boxer to a petit, pretty young woman. Tum’s story is now the subject of the new movie Beautiful Boxer.
I’m on my way to meet a celebrity who is a gender-bending knockout. Here in Thailand, Nong Tum is a household name.
Meeting a star is a little nerve wracking at the best of times. But today I have extra reason to worry…
Nyack, NY Talk on Intersex
This article, ” Talk Calls for Fair Treatment of Intersex Children ,” is about a local talk that was given by members of the intersex group Bodies Like Ours.
It does a decent job of presenting the evidence against surgical choices made without an intersexed child’s consent. Up until now, the standard operating procedure has been to assign intersex children a sex at birth, which often leads to more confusion, shame, and medical problems. Intersex groups, like the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) and Intersex Initiative recommend instead that no surgical options be used without the patient’s consent, although they do think the children should be raised one gender or the other.
Continue reading “Nyack, NY Talk on Intersex”
MTF TGs in Pakistan
In Pakistan, MTF TGs are apparently called “Zananis.” But their fate isn’t much better than it is anywhere, especially those working as prostitutes.
Here’s an article about Zananis from the Daily Times, a Pakistani paper.
Continue reading “MTF TGs in Pakistan”
Soldier's Girl
A review of Showtime’s Soldier’s Girl showed up in a local NY newspaper, Newsday:
Soldier’s Girl (Showtime Entertainment, $27) is an astonishing piece of work that might have hit theatrical 10-best lists if it hadn’t been made for Showtime. This heartwrenching true-life tale topped my 2003 TV list, and the American Film Institute named it one of the tube’s 10 best (full disclosure: I was on the institute’s jury). The filmmakers could have gone wrong in so many ways with the story of an ingenuous GI who falls for a transgender woman, then is murdered by fellow soldiers for his unconditional love. But this film goes right every step of the way, focusing into its characters’ hearts and minds rather than on a “message” behind it all.
Director Frank Pierson talks in bonus interview footage about the “difficult and dangerous material.” The actors add insight into defining the simple but not simplistic GI (Troy Garity) and the woman/man he let his heart love (male actor Lee Pace, now on “Wonderfalls”) despite his brain’s bewilderment. Even the man behind the murder (Shawn Hatosy) is given depth and compassion. Other DVD extras reveal Pace’s gender-changing make- up routine, and trace the real-life tale as told by murdered soldier Barry Winchell’s mother, lover Calpernia Addams and the crew that put the project together. Addams joins Pierson, Garrity and scripter Ron Nyswaner (“Philadelphia”) on an emotional commentary track that captures how affecting it was to depict, as Nyswaner puts it, “a love that stepped outside the labels.”
This Week's Action – 3/22/04
I just posted a bunch of articles about trans issues, covered for the most part by GLBT media.
Pick one, and send them a letter thanking them for covering TG issues.
This Week's Action – 3/7/04
The TG Community has got to increase visibility. Crossdressers, t-girls, transgendered people, transsexuals, = all of us = have got to keep the media aware that we want to see positive portrayals, and have got to insist that the law does not discriminate against us.
In that spirit, I am going to post a weekly “action.”
This week’s action:
Email CBS (48Hours@cbsnews.com) to thank them for covering TG/TS issues on last week’s “48 Hours.” Here’s my letter, which you can use as a template to send them, or write your own.
**
To the producers of “48 Hours”:
I am the wife of a TG person, and I wanted to thank you for the recent “48 Hours” show, “Trapped.” Your coverage was sensitive and accurate.
That said, it would be fantastic if you would cover more of the TG community, and not just transsexual lives. Crossdressers, drag kings, transbois – all of us who are TG – live lives that are invisible and little understood. More public awareness would be a great relief to many lives.
Again, thank you. Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Helen Boyd
Brooklyn, NY
**