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Check out the video:



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Found at komonews.com

Plenty of politicians reinvent themselves. But none quite like Mayor-elect Stu Rasmussen.

Rasmussen, 60, has been a fixture in Silverton politics for more than 20 years, and had twice before been the mayor of this small city 45 miles south of Portland. Those terms, however, were before the breast implants and before the once-discreet crossdresser started wearing dresses and 3-inch high heels in public.

In a week when America loudly chose its first African-American president, Silverton quietly made Rasmussen the country's first openly transgender mayor, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a group that works to help openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people win elected office.
Rasmussen unseated incumbent mayor Ken Hector, with whom he had long clashed — 1,988 votes to 1,512. Because Rasmussen's appearance is no secret, it was policy issues that dominated the campaign.

"I've blackmail-proofed myself," said Rasmussen.

The story of Rasmussen's election was first reported by JustOut, a bimonthly publication for Portland's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

"Stu never sought this recognition out," said Stephen Marc Beaudoin, the reporter who broke the story. "He's interested in doing a great job for the community that he loves. The gender identity thing is just a total backseat thing."

That comes across when Rasmussen speaks in his decidedly masculine voice. Though he dresses more like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Rasmussen describes himself with a word assigned to Todd Palin.

"I am a dude," he said. "I am a heterosexual male who appears to be a female."

His longtime live-in girlfriend, Victoria Sage, told The Oregonian newspaper that she and Rasmussen have been an item for almost 35 years.

"I heard a quote, and I don't know who said it but I think it's fabulous, that Silverton is a place where Mennonites and transvestites can get along," she said.

The quote rang true when two cowboys came across the new mayor on a downtown sidewalk. "Good job, Stu," one of them said to the man wearing a leather skirt and maroon stockings.

"Congratulations, Mr. Mayor," called the other.

Found at komonews.com

Technorati: usa oregon transgender transsexual mayor politics

Found at New York Post

A Yeshiva University professor left two years ago as a man - and returned last week as a woman.
Literature Professor Joy Ladin, formerly known as Jay Ladin, 47, showed up for her first day of school sporting pink lipstick, a tight purple shirt and a flirty black skirt. She cheerfully strutted through the doors of the Midtown campus' main building, where she oversees the writing center.
Many at the Jewish university are horrified by the presence of the transgender professor. Some fear the news could cut alumni donations.
Ladin and the school won't comment on the situation, but some rabbis are shocked that she's still a member of the faculty.
"He's not a woman. He's a male with enlarged breasts," said Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a senior dean at Yeshiva's rabbinical school and a professor of biology and medical ethics. "He's a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual.
"There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics and Torah morality."
Even if not in spirit, Ladin remains part male.
Although she's taking progesterone and estrogen to grow breasts and feminize her appearance, she retains the most prominent part of her manhood, according to the prologue of her unfinished memoir, "Inside Out: Confessions of a Woman Caught in the Act of Becoming."
Ladin wouldn't respond to Tendler's statement, and her only comment on the controversy was: "I'm not at liberty to discuss the matter."
The conflict with the university started at the end of 2006, three years after Ladin joined the faculty. Less than two weeks after the university gave the celebrated poetry and literature professor tenure, she told them that she was transgender and in the process of becoming a woman.
The university placed Ladin on indefinite leave, according to faculty members, who requested anonymity. After months of heated debate among rabbis, administrators, Ladin and her lawyers, the university agreed to let her return, according to sources close to the negotiations.
No one from the school would comment officially, but many faculty members, who spoke anonymously, said the decision was legally motivated.
"They didn't have a choice unless they wanted to be embroiled in a legal battle," said one faculty member. Ladin had to face a far messier legal battle on the home front.
Ladin's wife filed for divorce and custody of their three kids and moved out of their Amherst, Mass., house, according to friends.
Although some rabbis are outraged by Ladin's return, many students are celebrating.
Sarah Rindner, 25, of the Upper West Side, took Ladin's classes twice in 2006 before the professor went on leave.
"This is great news, and I'm sure the university won't regret it," said the former student, who now works as a high-school English teacher.
Shayndi Raice Sigall, 26, of the Upper East Side, took Ladin's class in 2004 and said her return would offer students a unique learning experience.
"There are transgender people all over the world, and this is a wonderful opportunity for the school to show students firsthand how you can respect and learn from someone who might be different from you," Sigall said.
The transgender community is also thrilled with the surprising decision.
"I think it's fabulous and wonderful. I don't know of any other religiously conservative university that employs someone trans," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
University President Richard Joel declined comment, except to say, "I'm proud of my university and all my faculty."

Found at New York Post

Technorati: jewish university transgender transsexual professor Yeshiva Joy Ladin

Found at News4jax

The new season's big secret is out! For the first time, "America's Next Top Model" includes a pre-op transgender model among the show's 14 contestants vying for the top prize.

The model, 22-year-old Isis from Maryland, says although she was physically born a male, she was "born in the wrong body" and always felt completely female. In the competition, she said she is prepared to do whatever it takes to win, even if the various modeling challenges force her to face her greatest fears.
"I like to help people, but I'm here to follow my dreams," she told The Huffington Post.

See Isis Tsunami in action at a ball:



Found at News4jax

Technorati: Isis transgender model America's Next Top Model

Found at Gay People`s Chronicle

A Cleveland city swimming pool has told a transgender woman that she must sign in as a man and use the men’s locker room to change into her swimsuit.
Karen Deamons of Cleveland has been swimming at the Cudell Recreation Center on the city’s west side since 2005. She swims there three times a week as part of her rehabilitation from a stroke that year.
Deamons says that there has been tension between her and Cudell management since she started swimming at the facility. But it has escalated in the last month, resulting in her being barred for a week, then being required to sign the men’s registry when she arrives.
She has filed a sex stereotyping complaint against the city of Cleveland. The complaint, filed June 24 with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, will be investigated by Gina Curry of the commission.
Deamons says she complied last year when Cudell told her to use the men’s changing room, but “it’s getting harder and harder” mostly because of the children at the facility.
During the day, Cudell is used primarily by children. It was built in 1964 and the men’s locker room has no doors on the stalls and no privacy in the changing area.
But the women’s locker room does have doors on the stalls, Deamons said, and she prefers to change in one of them.
Deamons, 52, is a former electrician, Paradise Club member, and former president of the Alpha Omega Society.
She has been undergoing hormone treatment for ten years, has legally changed her name and lives completely as a woman according to the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association standards, in preparation for eventual sex reassignment surgery. She has breasts and swims in a black one-piece women’s swimsuit. Because of the stroke, she uses a wheelchair.
She was in the men’s locker room on June 21 when a young boy came in and asked her why a woman was changing her clothes in the men’s room.
Deamons said all she could do was ask him to leave the room until she was done.
But for her, that was the last straw.
On her next visit, she used the women’s locker room and was promptly suspended for seven days.
“It’s embarrassing, coming out of the men’s room,” said Deamons, adding that the city’s policy of making women use the men’s room is what is confusing the children and causing complaints among adults.
Cleveland’s swimming pools are open to the public and free of charge, even for non-residents. Cudell requires that guests sign in on sheets marked “male” and “female” before using the pool or other facilities.
The city is not commenting on the matter. Cudell manager Ron Fields would not discuss it.
City Parks and Recreation director Michael Cox also refused comment, although he noted that, “I have been dealing with this situation for a long time.”
Law Director Robert Triozzi said, “The City of Cleveland approaches with regard to its recreational centers and all its business a sense of fairness. We try to accommodate all people regardless of the issue.”
Asked what accommodation the city has made for Deamons, Triozzi said, “I’m not going to go there.”
Triozzi said he could not comment because the matter is now before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, but emphasized that the city “takes it seriously and has nothing to hide.”
Neither Triozzi nor Cox would say whether or not the city has a policy governing the use of its facilities by transgender people.
While Cleveland has ordinances barring discrimination by sex and by sexual orientation, it does not have any that cover transgender people, as do Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and Oxford.
Triozzi would also not say whether or not there had been any complaints filed against Deamons by other Cudell patrons.
Deamons says that Cudell manager Fields has used them to justify the restrictions she has been placed under, though she has never seen them either.
Deamons said that a previous manager she knew only as Mary called her into the office shortly after she started using the pool, and asked if she had the reassignment surgery.
Deamons said it was after then that the tension with the facility started.
Triozzi said the city is preparing its answer to Deamons’ complaint.

Found at Gay People`s Chronicle

Technorati: usa cleveland swimming pool discrimination

Found at NY1

Some angry community members spoke out against violence in Astoria Thursday in response to an assault on a neighborhood priest and transgender youth earlier this week.
Father Louis Braxton, Jr. was attacked by four teenagers Monday night outside Carmen's Place, a homeless shelter for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.
Police say the boys were assaulting a transgender teen in front of the Steinway Street shelter when Braxton stepped in to help.
"Unfortunately, violent attacks against transgender youth are not unusual,” said Braxton. “The thing that really upsets me is this happened here in such a nice neighborhood and such a nice community.”
“Transgender youth must walk down the street with their eyes over their shoulder because they never know what's gonna come their way,” said Daniel Dromm, co-founder of Generation Q Youth Services Program. “This type of violence is deplorable."
The attackers were arraigned Tuesday on weapons and harassment charges and are due back in court on August 13.

Found at NY1

Technorati: new york astoria hate crime transgender transsexual shelter

Found at Newsday.com

A New York priest who runs a shelter specializing in outreach to homeless transgender youths was beaten with construction equipment and paint cans by a group of teenagers in a possible hate crime, authorities said Tuesday.
Two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old were awaiting arraignment Tuesday on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon, Queens prosecutors said. A 15-year-old was being charged as a juvenile in the Monday attack outside the Carmen's Place shelter, prosecutors said.
The four boys gathered in front of Carmen's Place around 10 p.m. and started harassing and taunting the residents with homophobic slurs and insults, people at the shelter said. The director, the Rev. Louis Braxton Jr., tried to intervene but was attacked with paint cans, a woodworking tool and other objects found along the street, they said.
Braxton, 52, was treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises. A shelter resident also was injured in the attack, which occurred on one of the main thoroughfares in the Astoria neighborhood.

Braxton spoke about the attack on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, violent attacks against transgender youth is not unusual," he said. "What made this incident so disturbing is that it occurred on a congested and busy New York City street."
The incident was being investigated by the police Hate Crimes Task Force, and charges could be upgraded if it's found a hate crime took place.
Carmen's Place first was established by a missionary named Carmen Solis in the basement of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, where Braxton was pastor. The shelter provides beds and food for youths who have been kicked out of their homes or turned to prostitution.
When the parish closed in 2007 because of financial trouble, Braxton rented a nearby two-bedroom apartment for the shelter, which currently houses about a dozen transgender youths.
The nonprofit runs on a shoestring budget and relies on donations.
Shelter spokesman Reggie Johnson said residents there often are harassed and the attack on Braxton is the latest in a string. He said the shelter is working with community leaders and the local police precinct to help make the area safer for residents.

Found at Newsday.com

Technorati: transgender youth new york astoria hate crime homphobia

Found at Out&About

Memphis Police are investigating the death of Rodney Whitaker, age 20, an African American transgendered woman who was found on July 1, just steps away from a daycare, an abandoned apartment complex and a strip club.
WREG-TV in Memphis broke the news and reported that Whitaker was left naked and that police were investigating the crime as a possible murder. A daycare worker discovered the body around 7 a.m. Tuesday and WREG said that parents at the daycare say this is the second murder there in a year. One man said he heard a gunshot early in the morning, but police are not providing any details about this case other than to say an adult male was dead on arrival, according to WREG.
“The specific circumstances leading to her death are not known at this time,” said Tennessee Equality Project President Christopher Sanders. “But there is reason to believe this is a hate crime fueled by transphobia. Memphis police officers are searching for any possible witnesses. If you have information that could aid police, call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.”
The murder is the latest in a string of hate crimes against the Memphis transgender community and prompted a group of citizens to bring it to the attention of the Memphis City Council at their meeting on Tuesday. That group included members of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC).
"We consider these two recent crimes, combined with the still unsolved murder of another African American transgender woman, Tiffany Berry on February 16, 2006, to be totally unacceptable,” said Marisa Richmond, president of TTPC. “The lack of response by the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County to the beating of Duanna Johnson has set a tone in the community that the lives of transgender people, especially African American transwomen, are irrelevant.”
Richmond will appear this weekend on Out and About Today, and will talk about these brutal hate crimes against transgender persons, along with several other topics of interest. Out and About Today is broadcast on NewsChannel 5+ and will debut on Friday, July 4, at 10:00 pm, CDT, and will repeat on Saturday at 9:30 pm, CDT, and Sunday at 10:00 pm, CDT. NewsChannel 5+ can be found on Nashville Cable at Channel 50. If you do not live in Nashville, check your local listings to see if NewsChannel 5+ is available in your area.
"We insist that local authorities aggressively investigate and prosecute these and other hate crimes against transgender, as well as gay, lesbian, and bisexual, people. It is also time for the State of Tennessee to add 'gender identity or expression' to the Hate Crimes Enhancement Factors in Tennessee Code Annotated 40-35-114 (23), and for the Federal Government to pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act," Richmond said.
Sanders said members of the Shelby County Committee of TEP was interviewed by local media about the incident, and they had learned that while investigators suspect foul play, the medical examiner has not determined the cause of death.
“We call on the Memphis Police Department to be expedient, yet thorough, in its investigation of this sensitive matter,” Sanders said. “We also join those throughout Memphis and Tennessee in mourning and extending our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Rodney Whitaker. This horrible incident serves as a reminder to our communities and elected officials of the necessity to add gender identity/expression to existing state and federal hate crime laws so that these terrible acts can be properly recorded, investigated and prosecuted as hate crimes.”

Found at Out&About

Found at Fresh News

Victoria Beckham is living in constant terror after being dragged into a war of words between her favourite fashion designer and a group of furious transsexuals.
The whole drama started when Posh Spice’s fashion designer pal Christian Siriano offended LA’s gender-bending community.
The 21-year-old Christian, who himself has admitted that he’s gay, was forced to apologise to “he-she” groups for using the term “hot tranny mess” on TV to describe frocks he doesn’t like.
He further made the “snip-tuck” brigade angry by saying in a magazine interview: “If you think of heterosexuals, they have white trash women and trailer parks and we have drag queens and trannies.”
Following the spat, Victoria has also become a target as the transsexuals believe that she’s championing Christian’s career.
“How dare she support this freak. She might not have to worry about physical attack but boy is she going to be embarrassed when 50 of us turn up at her next public function and tell the world what we think,” The Daily Star quoted LA transsexual Dawn, as saying.
“No one’s designs are going to do anything for an emaciated stick insect with sparrow legs like her. She might as well stick to the kind of ho-bag outfits we usually see her in. Come to think of it, she’d probably fit in quite nicely in a trailer park,” Dawn added.

Another source in the transsexual community in LA said: “Siriano has made himself a target because of his hateful comments.
“And now Posh is a target too, by default, for giving him her support.”

Found at Fresh News

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found at Central Florida News 13

Controversy surrounds a local gym that told a transgender man, who is undergoing treatment to become a woman, he can't use the women's bathroom.
Stacy Scott, 18, was on a trial membership at the Bally Total Fitness Center on West Colonial Drive in Orange County.
He said last week management told him he couldn't use the women's room, and had to use the men's room instead.
Scott, who is undergoing transgender therapy hormone treatments, already considers himself a female.
He said he's considering suing the gym. But lawyers said it could be a tough case to prove.
"If nothing was done to help me, they'll feel they're helpless,” said Scott. “So I want to fight it, for all other transgender people."
"Whoever takes that case is going to have to do a fantastic job of convincing the judge that it truly is discrimination in the legal sense," said Aldo Bartolone, a lawyer.
The manager at the gym wouldn't comment about what happened.
The gym's corporate office did release a statement saying "Bally Total Fitness is willing to accommodate specific needs while being sensitive to the rights of all of our members and guests."

found at Central Florida News 13

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