US - Study: Transgender vets face discrimination... [2008-08-25 Air Force Times]

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/08/military_transgender_veterans_082508w/

Study: Transgender vets face discrimination

By Rick Maze
Staff writer

Monday Aug 25, 2008

A new study by a California research center finds that transgender veterans — people who changed their sex after getting out of the military — believe they are facing discrimination and disrespect at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

Transgender people also complained they had a difficult time while in the military, with repeated inquiries about their sexual orientation. Such questions were more likely to be faced by men planning to become women than for women planning to become men, according to the study by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The survey is based on interviews with 660 people identifying themselves as transgender veterans who were asked about their military and nonmilitary experiences, including 18 who said they began their gender transition while still in uniform.

Navy veteran Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association, said most of those who began a gender change while in the military were near the end of their service obligations and worked in isolated assignments so they did not call attention to themselves.

Only about 30 percent of those surveyed used VA hospitals, most of them men who became women, were 46 or older and had annual incomes of $30,000 or less.

VA does not cover sex changes, and usually does not cover related hormone therapy or counseling. But the survey says transgender veterans reported problems even getting care routinely provided to other veterans, such as pap smears, prostate exams, hysterectomies and mastectomies.

Another complaint was that VA medical staff often refused to use the gender-appropriate pronoun he or she for the new sexual identity of a transgender veteran and sometimes would not even look at them.

The survey quotes one transgender man as saying he was “told by a religious clerk that I should just go away because I was an insult to the brave real men who there for treatment.”

Transgender veterans also complained their privacy was violated by medical staff, including one incident in which a nurse pulled a veterans’ partner into the hall to ask if the partner knew that the veteran was born a man.

Helms said the study would provide ammunition for getting VA policies relaxed and to force cultural changes to reduce discrimination.

Transgender veterans are not asking for special help, just equal treatment, Helms said.

“We did our time,” she said. “What happened to us after we got out doesn’t have anything to do with whether we deserve care. We are aware that times are tough for veterans programs and that it is difficult to get care at some VA facilities. We would just like to be treated just as crappily as everyone else.”

Among the survey respondents, 38 percent were Army veterans, 28.5 percent served in the Navy, 23.5 percent in the Air Force and 11 percent in the Marine Corps, with the rest in the National Guard, Reserves or Coast Guard.

Eighty-six percent received honorable discharges. Forty-eight percent were junior enlisted, 39 percent were noncommissioned officers or petty officers, and 13 percent were officers.

Fifty-two percent were men who transitioned to women, 28 percent were women who transferred to men, and the rest fell into other variant categories depending on the current state of their transition, or did not want to be identified with either gender.

--

© 2008, Army Times Publishing Company

Rep of South Africa - Gay and gender variant refugees meet hostility in ‘liberal’ SA... [2008-0826 Business Day]

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A830049

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Gay refugees meet hostility in ‘liberal’ SA

Kenichi Serino

SA IS one of only seven countries in the world that grants refugee status on the basis of sexual orientation. But people seeking that relief are battling as much as other refugees in the country.

In Uganda, homosexual acts are punishable with life imprisonment; in Mozambique with three years’ imprisonment, and with seven years in Botswana.

In SA, the constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexuality and the country is the only one on the continent that permits same-sex marriage.

Unsurprisingly, many African gay people are coming to SA not only to enjoy freedom from sexual persecution, but also to apply for refugee status based on that persecution.

“It’s a healthier atmosphere,” says Cary Johnson, senior specialist for Africa with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Council. They can build lives here.”

Gays and lesbians are entitled to apply for refugee status as they are classified as being part of a “social group”. But the process of applying for asylum, like for so many other refugee applicants, can be long and difficult.

Lawyer Abeda Bahmjee represented Azu Ubongu, from Nigeria, who in 2002 was one of the earliest applicants for asylum in SA on the basis of sexual persecution.

“It was very rare,” she says. “In my experience they (sexual refugees) are more willing to put forward a political case, though it is more weak.”

To successfully apply, refugees must have evidence of persecution they would face in their home countries or proof of their activism.

Ubongu had been arrested more than once in Nigeria. Homosexuality is illegal under civil law and carries a jail sentence. In northern Nigeria, where Islamic law holds sway, the penalties are more severe.

But Ubongu had never actually been charged with breaking the law. According to Bhamjee, this was only because of bribes paid to Nigerian officials. Ubongu was denied asylum in SA, but the decision was changed after a legal challenge.

“I think what is interesting about the decision is the way (they) construe the right to be gay,” says Bhamjee. “They basically say that it is a private right and that if gay people express themselves privately it is sufficient. It’s a very narrow view.”

The fear of potential homophobia from individual home affairs department officials is also a factor in dissuading refugees from making their applications.

“The problem is when you get in front of a h ome a ffairs official,” says Johnson. “Does he hate queers? Does she fear lesbians? Their application could go to the bottom of the pile.”

Gay refugees also face obstacles in their own communities . When they first arrive in SA, they often depend on networks established in SA by people of their own countries, who often bring their homophobia with them.

Liezel Theron, of Gender DyamiX, represented a transgender person, Morgan, in her bid to get asylum status. Morgan’s problems started in the queue at h ome a ffairs, with other refugee applicants.

“When they found out she’s transgender, they pushed her out of the queue,” says Theron. Morgan was also evicted from her home.

“Today, she doesn’t mix with other African refugees,” says Theron.

Johnson says the possibility of being ostraci sed is enough to keep many gay and lesbian refugees in the closet, and stops them from applying for asylum status on the basis of their sexuality.

Their isolation from refugee networks means that finding a home and a job is difficult.

Corrine Bachile left her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo in November last year.

“I love my country, but it’s not easy to live there when you have made a different choice and when you are dreaming of a new sun,” Bachile says, “In my country people look at you like a witch. They will tell you to pray to God because you have some bad spirit or trouble in your mind.”

Bachile is unable to associate with Congolese people in SA. “They treat me like in my home country. Just today I met a lady from my country who asked me why I was a lesbian. Why am I not trying to date white men?”

Bachile has given up applying for refugee status and plans to move to Europe.

Morgan’s asylum application is being processed. Theron says home affairs officials took Morgan more seriously after she had representation, and she recently had her status renewed.

Not all applicants are that lucky. Daisy Dube, a drag queen who emigrated from Zimbabwe in 2001, was murdered in SA.

“She came here because she thought it was better for gays and lesbians,” says her mother, Ntsikikeleo Dube.

As a transgender person, she wasn’t able to live “as she was” in Zimbabwe. From an early age she dressed up in women’s clothing and wore make-up.

She settled in Yeoville where she lived with other drag queens and worked as a hairdresser.

Last June, she was shot dead outside a nightclub. According to witnesses, her murderers shouted: “Shoot lezitabane (shoot the lesbians)!”
   
--

© 2005 BDFM Publishers (Pty) Ltd.

US - Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember? [2008-08-25 TS-Si]

http://ts-si.org/content/view/135/993/

TS-Si News Service   

Monday, 25 August 2008

TS-Si Living

Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember?



Dana Point, CA, USA. Christine Jorgensen (30 May 1926 - 03 May 1989) was one of the first people widely known to the public for undergoing a surgical procedure that would become widely known as Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS). It had been done since 1930, but with public exposure, she became a spokewoman for people born transsexual.

The New York Daily News created a media sensation on December 01, 1952, when it ran a front page story that Jorgensen became the recipient of the first successful SRS following an operation in Denmark. (Ex-GI Becomes Blond Beauty).

Jorgensen graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in Bronx, New York in May 1945. Perceived as a man by the U. S. Army, she was drafted and served honorably for two years.

After discharge, she returned to New York and researched the available information on what she understood as a discordance between her mind and body. Jorgensen self-prescribed the female hormone ethinyl estradiol for feminization and found help from Dr. Joseph Angelo, the husband of one of Jorgensen's classmates at the Manhattan Medical and Dental Assistant School.


Surgical Correction

Jorgensen had originally intended a trip to Sweden, the location of the only doctors in the world performing this type of surgery. However, on a visit with relatives in Copenhagen, Denmark  she met Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish surgeon who had begun a specialization in sex reassignment surgery.

Under Dr. Hamburger's direction, she began hormone therapy that culiminated in a series of surgeries that were consistent with the techniques available at that time. She was 26 tears old. Jorgensen chose Christine as her first name to honor Dr. Hamburger (Christine is the feminine version of Christian).

The American ambassador arranged or a change of her passport idenitification to "female" and Christine began a new life. Two years later, she broke the news to her parents, writing that "Nature made a mistake, which I have corrected, and I am now your daughter."

Throughout this time, Ms. Jorgensen appeared not to know that Hamburger and his colleagues, Georg Stürup and Dahl-Iversen, would later claim that the procedures were a humanitarian measure designed to help "a man who suffered from his homosexual impulses". The surgical team had become anxious about what they perceived as homosexuality, viewing Jorgensen from a eugenic point of view. They figured "it would do no harm if a number of sexually abnormal men were castrated and thus deprived of their sexual libido". [C1]

Hamburger and colleagues argued against the creation of a vagina in a post-operative transsexual. The scholar Christine Crowle sees this as evidence of reassignment surgeries designed to "produce a gender performance not a sexual performance". [C2] Several years later Jorgensen obtained a vaginoplasty under the direction of Dr. Angelo and a medical advisor Dr. Harry Benjamin.


Public Life

Conventional employment was out of reach for Jorgensen, due to her celebrity. In 1967, Jorgensen published her autobiography, Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography.

During the 1970s and 1980s, she toured university campuses and other venues to speak about her experiences. She was known for being direct and wielding a polished wit.

Jorgensen is the subject of a 1970s film, The Christine Jorgensen Story. She is referred to in the 1994 movie Ed Wood as the film-maker works on Glen or Glenda.

She had a particularly friendly interview with Tom Snyder [BLS 2008-08-26: Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 1 (of 2)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM</a>

Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 2 (of 2)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls</a>

], but some other interviews did not go as well.

Jorgensen once appeared on The Dick Cavett Show. She walked off the show when Cavett insulted her by asking about the status of romantic life with her "wife". She was the only scheduled guest on that day, so Cavett spent the rest of the show in an extended monologue, talking about how he had not meant to offend her.

On the other hand, New York radio host Barry Gray asked if 1950s jokes such as "Christine Jorgensen went abroad, and came back a broad" bothered her. She laughed and said they did not at all.


Looking back From The Later Years

Although never married, Jorgensen was twice engaged. She once said in an interview: "I have been engaged twice and I've been deeply in love twice. I was never engaged to the men I was in love with, and I was never in love with the men I was engaged to."

In her later years, Jorgensen worked as an actress and nightclub entertainer. In summer stock, she played Madame Rosepettle in the play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Locked You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad.

In her nightclub act, she sang "I Enjoy Being a Girl" while dressed as comic-book heroine Wonder Woman. She closed the act when faced with legal action by the publishers who owned the copyright on the Wonder Woman character.

On the eve of her death, Jorgenson said that she'd given the sexual revolution "a good swift kick in the pants."

Christine Jorgenson died of bladder and lung cancer on May 03, 1989 at age 62. She was remembered by friends as a warm and loving person. Most of the interviewees or people who had worked with her, regarded Jorgenson as fine woman and a "lady".

Following a private ceremony and cremation, Christine Jorgenson's ashes were scattered off Dana Point, California on June 9, 1989 by her two nieces and two of her closest friends.

The mourners wept.

-

[N1] This article is an update of a work that first appeared here at TS-Si.org on May 3, 2006. The editors invite readers to share their memories and appreciations of Christine Jorgensen in our comment area, located at the end of this article.

[N2] Portions of this article have been adapted with permission from Wikipedia sources and private correspondence.



[C1] Transvestism: hormonal, psychiatric and surgical treatment. Hamburger, C, Stürup, GK, Dahl-Iversen, E. JAMA 1953 152: 391–396.

[C2] Deviant Desire: Gender Politics and the Cultural Metamorphosis of George/Christine Jorgensen. Christine Crowle. Australian Humanities Review. Currently available online.



Comments 1
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Comments:

..., Having been privileged to have been Christine Jorge 26 August 2008 : 07:36 EST

Having been privileged to have been Christine Jorgensen's housemate and confidante during the terminal six months of her life I have a problem with—first:

"On the eve of her death, Jorgenson said that she'd given the sexual revolution "a good swift kick in the pants."

While the statement may correctly attributed to Chris... it was a rightfully justified boast made (many times) by her in her retirement days... but not on her San Clemente General Hospital 1989-05-03 death bed... for having hospitalized her Monday 1989-05-01... in the wake of my having applied my power of attorney for her health care to decline proffered hospital life support systems... I recall inwardly begging my comatose housemate make a speedy transition... and... while seeming occasionally semi-comatose... Chris never regained sufficient consciousness to utter any death bed statements...

and secondly with:

"Following a private ceremony and cremation, Christine Jorgenson's ashes were scattered off Dana Point, California on June 9, 1989 by her two nieces and two of her closest friends.

"The mourners wept."

Borrowing from my own copyright archived musing here:

2008-08-26 extracts from “a’top a dung-hill...” © Brenda Lana Smith R. af D., 2008

pages 111 - 113:

Poorly as she was in her dying days... I soon became familiar with a belying "It's show time" change in her whenever she beat her face into shape—as she was wont to wisecrack when applying her make-up—to entertain our visitors... or... leave home... poorly as she was—her near daily trip to the Mission Viejo Hospital's oncology department was to her just another starring gig... pure... utter "the show must go on" professionalism...

Trust me... Christine was a past-master when it came to the art of applied thespian pretense...

Much as she might be poorly and mope around our apartment... once she'd patiently made up her face, touched up her carefully coiffured hair (in her late days—a professionally styled wig), and suitably dressed and bejeweled the hands of her always manicured nails for the occasion... beyond our front door and or in front of visitors she was on stage—center stage... she never merely walked into a room—Christine Jorgensen "Entered..."

She was however saddled with the fact that Christine Jorgensen and her initial apparent uniqueness were synonymous from day one of her stepping into the critical world limelight...

Christine Jorgensen... no matter what her artistic talent... or... valuable unsung behind-the-scene contributions to the entertainment world... had been irrevocably typecast for life "Christine Jorgensen..." and... that is whom her audiences paid good money to see... no matter how hard she later tried to break out of the mold...

Even so... I believe Chris should have a "Star" on Hollywood Boulevard's walk of fame for her unique talent and unsung contributions to the entertainment industry...

A posthumous accolade I was exploring as the result of Chris and myself having three months before death pragmatically... in the company of two of Chris' younger gay Hollywood fans—Chris Basinger, Chris' trusty Hollywood gopher, who'd years before introduced Chris to Mae West, and his friend Gary Edwards, an amateur drag-artiste... quite gaily inspected all of Hollywood's famous memorial parks vainly looking for a suitable memorial niche befitting "Christine Jorgensen..."

After one hectic weekend mix of living it up and mulling her memorial park options over with Virginia Chenoweth—an old Hollywood drinking-buddy of hers—with whom we were staying... a very weary Christine announced out of the blue on our drive home that she would go ahead with her original funeral wish of having her ashes scattered at sea... the pros and cons of which we had but idly discussed a day or so before her getting a bee-in-her-bonnet about us... and... her... our... beloved little dog "Bonnie..." traipsing up all the way from San Clemente to Hollywood...

"Not by the Neptune Society..." of which she had long been a member... "but by my friends in Hawaii..." she contentedly let be known with a nostalgic smile...

Christine Jorgensen's final wish was that her ashes be respectfully scattered by friends from an outrigger at sunset... with all the melodious Hawaiian funeral pomp she nostalgically recalled having once seen... and considered she well deserved...

However... despite having reiterated her desire for a Hawaiian send-off to her attorney Donald Segretti—in the presence of another attorney friend Terry Kling and myself—four days before she died… it was a burial wish rudely thwarted not only by her supposed friends in Hawaii... but... many in California... too... who felt slighted that she had not made them privy to her final wishes...

Having Chris' power-of-attorney I might have legally forced the issue... but not wishing to take Chris where—in Oahu resident Art Koppen's no uncertain telephonic terms—in death she was not wanted... I diplomatically opted against doing so... and... fell out of the pot into the fire endeavoring to dampen the fire that... in retrospect... I had loyally but unwittingly kindled in the first place by endeavoring to effect Chris' unpublished Hawaiian burial wish...

Determined that Chris' burial be thwarted no longer by her attorney Donald Segretti's failure to dutiful record her dying Hawaiian burial wish and the consequent meddlesome negativity stemming from a seeming vexatious coven of Chris' now "Brenda" hostile friends... exactly one exasperating month to the day after Christine Jorgensen's cremation with the gladly given unquestionable matriarchal blessing of Chris' family probably gotten by omission—in the rush of things I might have neglected to make Dolly Cudworth (Chris' sister) privy to my having heard mentioned somewhere that it was probably illegal to scatter cremated human remains on the shoreline waters of California's coast—Christine Jorgensen's ashes were discreetly scattered on the darkened deserted Californian Pacific shoreline waters of Dana Point at 20.10 hrs Friday 1989-06-09 by a wading foursome... Chris' two nieces—Connie Jenkins and Wendy O'Malley—and close confidants Stanton Bahr and myself... clandestinely scattered under the cover of dark through purposeful cut holes I had made in the base of Chris' favorite Martini promo beach bag that camouflaged the kitchen knife that I used to rupture the beach bag's sealed inner plastic bag containing the ashes that I had jimmied with great difficulty with a hammer and chisel a top a 4ft circular dinette table in Chris' San Clemente apartment's kitchen from the Neptune Society's intended tamper proof cubic metal urn ... the sealed bag was labeled:

"Cremation No. 33554
Cremated Remains of
Christine Jorgensen
Cremated at
CREMAR CREMATORY
2299S MANCHESTER
ANAHEIM, CA 92802
Phone (714) 634-3836
On 5-9-89"

(SNIP)

While Chris' ashes might not have enjoyed the Hawaiian-like funeral send off that she had wishfully envisaged... apart from a general sense of relief that her ashes had finally been interred it was a brief sombre affair... I don't recall there being any tears or other undue signs of emotion among our odd Dana Point wading foursome...

For me—probably alone in my knowledge of their possible unlawful committal—there was a joyous comedic relief in their riddance as I quietly shook loose the contents of the knife slashed Martini beach bag's inner plastic bag and bade Chris' contentious ashes defiantly find their own way to Oahu... there was an inner satisfaction too in the realization that at least in line with Chris' and my jocular agreement that her ashes had most certainly not ended up—despite all the untoward hurdles engendering thoughts of my resorting to such—being unceremoniously flushed down some toilet... especially as they were scattered in the wake of one hellish comedy of frustrations surrounding not only Chris' and my attorney friend Terry Kling's never-to-materialize funeral boat that she had volunteered to carry Chris' ashes for scattering at sea in the august company of a "tidily" group of Chris' intimate circle of friends... but... in arranging a gala Christine Jorgensen memorial get-together...

UNQUOTE...

Ciao...

brendalana...
Brenda Lana Smith R af D

--

© 2005-2008 TS-Si, Inc.

[2008-08-26 BLS: Christine Jorgensen videos

Christine Jorgensen

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D5ht4vv-JRo" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/D5ht4vv-JRo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/D5ht4vv-JRo</a>

Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 1 (of 2)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/WbHwxbX4iRM</a>

Christine Jorgensen on the late night Tom Snyder show Part 2 (of 2)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/PRj0GvBQOls</a>

Christine Jorgensen Iin Denmark Part 1 (of 2)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cd2-IhPyziU" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cd2-IhPyziU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Cd2-IhPyziU</a>

Christine Jorgensen Iin Denmark Part 2 (of 2)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qBU9G4wO2eM" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/qBU9G4wO2eM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/qBU9G4wO2eM</a>

Christine Jorgensen Reveals (1957)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zrOnss_ZjMU" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/zrOnss_ZjMU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/zrOnss_ZjMU</a>

The Christine Jorgensen Story 1970 Trash Movie Trailer

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ufsJn63CMmw" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ufsJn63CMmw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ufsJn63CMmw</a>

Christine Jorgensen on adoption

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/t4sYhZCYtKA" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/t4sYhZCYtKA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/t4sYhZCYtKA</a>

Christine Jorgensen arriving at Idlewild airport(1952)

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M9Q50y5IsJU" width="425px" height="350px" AllowScriptAccess="never" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /><noembed><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/M9Q50y5IsJU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/M9Q50y5IsJU</a>

...]

US - Further to Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember? [2008-08-28 TS-Si]

http://ts-si.org/content/view/135/993/

TS-Si News Service   

Monday, 25 August 2008

TS-Si Living

Christine Jorgensen: Do You Remember?

(SNIP)

Comments (3)

(SNIP)

..., Sharon... I should have mentioned, too, that I hav 28 August 2008 : 00:48 EST

Sharon...

I should have mentioned, too, that I have a problem with “Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish surgeon who had begun a specialization in sex reassignment surgery...”

So... again borrowing from my own copyright archived musing:

2008-08-28 extracts from "a'top a dung-hill..." © Brenda Lana Smith R. af D., 2008

pages 103-104:

Christine Jorgensen's notorious "sex-change" was performed in Denmark... a noteworthy fact because in 'fifty-two such surgery violated the mayhem statutes... the religious mores... and... medical ethics of most countries…

In 1935 little Denmark... not George Dubya Bush's second favorite American lap dog after Britain that it has politically allowed itself to become today, but a socially progressive world leader then... amended an experimental law on its statutes that for six years had permitted the voluntary rehabilitative sterilization of certain sex offenders over twenty-one years of age to embrace people experiencing considerable mental conflict, or social devaluation caused by their sexual drive...

Rehabilitative surgical castration was only availed those males on whom voluntary chemical or hormonal castration had already proven beneficial... and... it was under this statute's therapeutic umbrella... with typical Danish pragmatism... that in psychiatrist Georg Sturup and endocrinologist Christian Hamburger’s firm opinion that the already successfully chemically castrated feminized twenty-five-year old gender distressed Danish-American Georg Jorgensen would—in all probability—experience considerable psychological relief from not only surgical castration, but the complete removal of incongruent male genitalia and the plastic sculpturing of a vulva, and the consequent thereafter full socio-legal recognition of her chemosurgical facilitated womanhood in Denmark... that plastic surgeons Poul Fogh-Andersen and Erling Dahl-Iversen first operated on an already chemically feminized Georg Jorgensen at the Denmark's state operated Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen, on September 24, 1951... in essence... contrary to the reports in New York's Daily News... Georg Jorgensen had been rehabilitatively de-sexed...

And... with my former Danish consul's tongue-in-cheek... no matter what the Daily News' or the world's interpretation of the startling news out of Denmark... it was to be one of the few times that the Danes could not export "Danish Know How..."  the major snag being a legal requirement... candidates for such therapeutic surgery needed to be domiciled nationals of Denmark...

A then a more lucky than a farsighted decision when it comes to surgical sex-reassignment... for it has since been proven to be in the best interest of all concerned that candidates for genital conversion surgery are evaluated... rehabilitated... and... integrated in their chemosurgically facilitated gender in a society where they legitimately may and will permanently reside...

Christine told me that... as "Georg" Jorgensen... she had loosely passed muster as to being a domiciled Danish national through having declared that she was in the process of exercising her right to patriality... and... had shown intent of permanent domicile not only by taking up gainful employment... and... dutifully filing tax returns... but... also by acquiring a funeral plot...

Despite Chris having in all probability previously filed Danish income tax returns to cannily substantiate Georg Jorgensen's Danish patriality intent... with that and the resultant Danish state provided genital reassignment done and dusted... as a legal resident of Denmark suddenly negatively impacted by the fact that income tax in Denmark was then—as probably now—notoriously higher than that levied in the United States... I cannot imagine this canny born and bred American vacillating very long before deciding not to halve her financial windfall by astutely upping sticks for the United States... she was not about to dutifully or otherwise declare and pay tax on her windfall's American sourced mega amount—payable for the exclusive media rights surrounding her alleged sex-change... ergo... in my eyes... Danish tax evasion in all probability was the major motivating factor behind Chris' hasty flit... made as soon as she considered her now comparatively wealthy self well and perceptibly womanly enough to optimistically be able to market itself in—what was for her—the then more tax hospitable environment of the United States...

It was only after the Danes were inundated with hundred upon hundreds of beseeching applications from all four corners of the earth seeking similar surgery to Christine's that the letter of the law was stringently adhered to... the state considered that surgery performed on other than a resident national would constitute an irresponsible act... probably because it was felt that Christine had not been able to beneficially integrate in the matrix of normal society on her almost immediate postoperative return to her native American domicile... whereas she had ably demonstrated that she could... and... would have if she had stayed in Denmark... which all along had been the socio-legal permit behind her surgery...

The potential risk of creating sociomedical anguish rather than beneficial relief is probably the reasoning... and... not that it was an US Department of Defense sponsored project... as has often been rumored... why only United States citizens were accepted as candidates in the later... although now defunct... transsexual program at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital...

======

UNQUOTE...

You might care to add these two 1989-06-09 CJ burial related .jpgs to your archives--whatever...



Wendy/Stan/Connie [CJ in bag}



Connie/Wendy/BLS [CJ in bag]

And... for the record... Chris' life was joyously celebrated by near 300 friends and guests attending a memorial party on 1989-06-11 at the Crown House, Laguna Niguel, California...

Ciao...

brendalana

END

US - Atlanta policewoman Darlene Harris' intersexuality no longer confusing... [2008-08-31 AJC]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/living/stories/2008/08/31/intersex_atlanta_officer.html

Officer’s sexuality no longer confusing
Atlanta policewoman understands at last why her voice is deep, why she’s attracted to women and why she can grow a full beard. And she’s OK with it.

By TIM EBERLY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, August 31, 2008

  Darlene Harris 2008-08-29

Anger doesn’t live under Darlene Harris’ skin anymore.

It’s melting away — the same way bad memories do — along with the confusion she has carried from a rocky childhood in New York City’s housing projects to her life as an Atlanta police officer.

She now knows why her voice is so deep, why she’s always been attracted to women, why she can grow a full beard.

Harris is intersex — someone whose internal or external sexual anatomy or chromosomes don’t fit the typical definitions of female or male at birth or puberty, according to Sharon Preves, a sociology professor and intersex researcher from St. Paul, Minn.

Genetic testing recently revealed that Harris carries the XY chromosomes of a male while having external sexual anatomy that appears to be a blend of a man’s and woman’s.

“It was like, ‘OK, I’m not crazy,’ ” said Harris, 35, who was identified as a female at birth and has lived her adult life as a lesbian, feeling like a man in a woman’s body.

“It was like a burden had been lifted. All of these things came together full circle at that moment. I now understood the reason why I am the way I am.”

As a result, the five-year Atlanta police veteran has come out of the closet again, this time as intersex, first to her family and friends and then publicly at an intersex workshop in Atlanta in May. She says her openness serves a dual purpose: helping heal wounds caused by a “life of confusion” and helping others who are going through similar experiences.

An estimated 1 in 2,000 people are considered intersex, and numerous medical conditions cause it, said Preves, who wrote the book, “Intersex and Identity: the Contested Self,” in 2003.

People become intersex when they have overactive or underactive hormones or the inability to respond to hormones during fetal development, Preves said.


‘Extremely difficult time’

For the past three years, Harris has been the Police Department’s liaison to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. She works with those who are victims of hate crimes or who file complaints against police officers. She also gives speeches for groups or organizations in those communities.

Harris said she has never had a problem with anyone in the Police Department while she identified as a lesbian. And no one has had a cross word for her since she went public about being intersex.

She said that her supervisor, Maj. Pearlene Williams, took a supportive role as she went from doctor to doctor. Once Harris learned she had male chromosomes, she said she broke down and cried in Williams’ office.

“This was an extremely difficult time for her, and I will continue to be as supportive to her as I can as she traverses through this defining period in her life,” Williams said in an e-mail.

Atlanta police Sgt. Lisa Keyes described Harris as an officer who is passionate about her job and tries to make sure everyone in the city’s alternative community is treated fairly by the Police Department.

As a result, she has strengthened ties between that community and police officers, her colleagues say.

Now that Harris has been identified as intersex, she said she wants to be a public face for those just like her. Of course, she wishes that she’d found out sooner.

“It’s embarrassing, because I’m 35 and I’m just finding out about things that I should have known years ago,” said Harris, who has shoulder-length dreadlocks, dresses like a man and is often mistaken for a man.

But Preves said that’s not unusual because many intersex people are shamed into spending their entire lives without confirming it.

“We’re living in a society where there are only two choices for anatomy, even though there are so many variations,” Preves said.

Numerous variations considered intersex include:

• A person who has female chromosomes but external male genitalia.

• A person who has male chromosomes but external female genitalia.

• A person who is internally male or female, but has ambiguous external genitalia, such as a noticeably large clitoris that resembles a small penis.


‘I was really angry’

In today’s society, it’s a difficult condition to live with, even for those with stable families and strong support systems, Preves said.

Harris had neither. She said she grew up “hating the world” in housing projects in East Harlem, developing anger issues that stalked her into adulthood.

Her early life included watching her father and other men beat her mother, she said, and getting batted around between foster and group homes.

“I was really angry,” Harris said. “I was extremely angry on the inside.”

She kept her hair cut short and preferred climbing trees over playing with dolls.

“I always called her ‘Boy,’” recalled one of Harris’ siblings, Tanisha Brew-Adams, who lives in Lithonia with her husband and children. “She looked like a boy, talked like a boy, fought like a boy.”

Harris went through puberty while she was in a group home in New York’s child welfare system. She noticed she had a stronger body odor and more body hair than other girls.

It would be years later — when she became sexually active with women as an adult — before she learned she was anatomically different. Every partner she’s ever had has commented on how she looks different. But Harris never listened, likely as a defense mechanism, she said.

“I used to shrug it off as, ‘That’s just me,’ ” she said.

While in a previous relationship, Harris started to realize her anger issues.

“She would always say things to me like, ‘You’re a very angry person,’ ” Harris said of her former partner.

Harris remembers the day she admitted that to herself. Several years ago, her then-partner’s oldest son from another relationship was picking on a younger son they had through in vitro fertilization.

She says she became enraged.

“I was so angry — almost to a point where I couldn’t talk,” Harris said. “I looked at the fear in my oldest son’s eyes. Something went off in me. It scared me.”


A burden lifted

It wasn’t until Harris started dating her current girlfriend in late 2007 that she went to a gynecologist to explore the differences in her body and, in turn, her anger issues.

That visit led Harris to an endocrinologist, who ran a chromosome test in February that offered medical proof to support how she feels: like a man in a woman’s body.

The news made Harris weep.

“It has lifted the burden off me and also released a lot of the anger,” Harris said. “I was angry and I couldn’t understand why.”

Harris said she thought about having a sex change to male, but decided against it.

“For what?” she asked. “God doesn’t make mistakes. I’m just uniquely different.”

She has quickly found peace being somewhere in the middle.

She is, however, changing her name from Darlene to something as ambiguous as her body: Danni Lee.

“Danni is an intersex name,” Harris said. “It can go either way — male or female.”

These days, Harris is not as quick to snap at people, and she’s more in tune with herself and her feelings.

But she admits that she still has work to do and wants to stay on the right path, so she’s seeing a psychologist and anger counselor.

“I thought I was free when I came out as gay,” Harris said.

“That’s nothing compared to this. It’s freedom, total freedom. It’s like I can fly.”

--

© 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Canada - Former Vancouver mayor a big fan of M2F gender variant park board hopeful Jamie Lee Hamilton's community work and activism...[2008-08-29 Vancouver Courier]

http://www.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=7a6f2762-83e9-4d80-a1f8-214a5162fbd4
   
Transsexual's old online ad won't derail parks board bid
Former mayor backs NPA nomination candidate and escort

Sandra Thomas
Vancouver Courier

Friday, August 29, 2008

One of the NPA's more colourful parks board hopefuls says an ad she posted in 2000 on a website advertising escort services won't stand in the way of her political career.

Jamie Lee Hamilton told the Courier she's always been honest about admitting her work in the sex trade, and that she is not working as a paid escort while seeking a nomination for the parks board. While Hamilton has completed the criteria required by the NPA to seek a candidacy, the review is not complete and she has yet to be approved or declined by the civic party.

"When I had my initial interview with the NPA I think the perception some of the board members had about me changed when they saw how much I know about civic politics," said Hamilton, who for decades has lobbied on behalf of sex trade workers and residents of the Downtown Eastside. "I hope this doesn't change anything."

Hamilton readily admits she's worked as a sex-trade worker for years. She said she placed the ad on ShemaleCanada.com in 2000, where it's remained since. She added while she can be accused of poor judgment in not immediately taking the ad down, the ad now does not solicit clients. "I am not currently involved in the sex trade, but I have done it in the past to survive. And I'm not ashamed of that," she said. "It's not like I'm a member of an al-Qaida sleeper cell."

As of Wednesday, Hamilton's ad, under the name Tricia Foxx, read in part, "This Hot [transsexual] Girl Cougar once invited guys to experience a goddess who knows how to tease, torture and please men. This warm and passionate goddess has always been extremely discrete, personable, classy and full-figured. She continues to be, however, she is now seeking political office and has had to engage in a forced retirement of sorts..."

Never one to miss an opportunity for exposure, Hamilton ends her ad with, "If you wish to donate to my campaign please contact me through my political website."

"I have always had a public life and everyone knows I'm a transsexual and have been involved in the sex trade," said Hamilton. "It's an integral part of who I am, but it doesn't mean I won't do a really good job for the park board."

Former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen told the Courier he is a big fan of Hamilton's community work and activism. Owen publicly endorsed Hamilton at a fundraiser and political roast in her honour Tuesday night.

"I've known Jamie Lee for a long, long time," said Owen. "I knew her when she lived in a tent outside city hall while she was trying to make a point to council."

Owen admires Hamilton's determined support of the residents of the Downtown Eastside. He noted the area has become the poster child for negative media reports, many of which, he said, are misinformed.

"The lies just go on and on," he said. "People are continually hammering the Downtown Eastside and it doesn't deserve it."

Owen hopes the NPA gives Hamilton the nod to run as a parks board candidate, despite the news about the website. "This is a very diverse city and we should encourage interesting people to run for office if they're qualified," he said. "We don't want council to be full of right-wing, hardcore supporters of George Bush."

NPA spokesperson Ned Pottinger said the party is still considering Hamilton's application. "The NPA has a very rigorous process when it comes to choosing candidates and I understand Jamie Lee has a great level of knowledge and commitment to local politics," he said. "Some people are wondering why we're dragging this out, but the board wants to collect all the input it can before making a decision."

--

© Vancouver Courier 2008

US - M2F gender variant Iranian refugee Majid Kolestani, 42, charged with murder... [2008-08-29 KBCI-TV]

http://www.2news.tv/news/27660334.html

Transgendered refugee charged with murder

Aug 29, 2008

By KBCI Web Staff

  Majid Kolestani 2008-08-29

TWIN FALLS - An Iranian refugee is behind bars - accused in a deadly shooting in Twin Falls.

Police say the crime occurred Monday morning on 5th Avenue East. When officers arrived on the scene, they found 29-year-old Ehsan Kababian shot dead. Majid Kolestani, 42, who had also been shot, was taken to St. Als in Boise.

Kolestani was released from the hospital Friday morning, and arrested for the murder. According to the Times News, Kolestani shot himself in the head after shooting Kababian. The two were roommates.

Kolestani, who's transgendered, now faces charges of first degree murder.

--

©2007 KBCI-TV.