Bobby Montoya wanted to be a girl scout. The trouble was, apparently, that Bobby was born a boy. At least that's what a scout leader in Denver initially thought. But fortunately, that thinking is not Girl Scout philosophy, which is that "if a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout". Bobby's mother, Felisha Archuleta has not followed through on enrolling Bobby in the troop.
It's like hurting my heart. It hurts me and my mom both. Somebody told me I couldn't like girl stuff.
--Bobby Montoya
But the policy announcement was sufficient in itself to cause the leaders of three troops in Louisiana to
disband their troops. The three troop leaders are all afilliated with the same Christian school,
Northland Christian School of Lacombe, LA.
So the children in Louisiana will be punished and they will be told to blame the transgender child. That's bound to keep them from being transphobic.
In other news:
Canada
Northwest Territories Finance Minister Michael Mittenberger stepped in it earlier this month in an effort to keep Governor General David Johnston from knowing that NWT had transgender citizens.
Mittenberger walked up to math and business major Gabrielle Landrie during a visit to Aurora College and told her she would have to leave because she "spooked the governor general".
Mr. Miltenberger walked up to us, looked at me directly, and said ‘You have to leave’.
And I said, ‘oh?’, and he said ‘You spooked the governor general so you have to leave’.
--Gabrielle Landrie
Landry did not leave since she had school work to finish. This caused Mittenberger to demand she leave once again.
The amount of anger… you could basically almost taste it,
Landrie is filing a complaint with the NWT Human Rights Commission, saying the incident was extremely hurtful.
Michigan
The Kalamazoo City Council has passed a resolution unanimously opposing proposed legislation which would void Kalamazoo's local ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
62% of the voters in Kalamazoo voted in favor of the anti-discrimination ordinance in 2009, but that doesn't sit well with the Michigan republican party, so they are forcing legislation that forbids local entities from passing such ordinances and another bill which forbids state employers, such as Kalamazoo, from extending domestic partner benefits to employees. So they have asked the governor to veto the bills.
This is bad legislation.
This is wrong to intervene in communities that have been given the right to govern. It's wrong to take away the most important responsibility you all have in our community for our society and that's voting.
--Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell
Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Lansing and Ypsilanti passed similar resolutions.
New Zealand
Transgender Icon Carmen Rupe recently died in a Sydney hospital of kidney failure. She was 75.
Born in Taumaruni, NZ in 1935, she moved to Sydney to become a sex worker in the 1950s. She worked in a drag show in Kings Cross, billing herself as the first Maori drag queen.
Former NZ Labour MP Georgina Beyer is broke and living off unemployment in a one bedroom "granny flat" in Johnsonville, having sold her house and everything she owned in order to try to keep her head above water. Ms. Beyer was the first transwoman worldwide to hold political office, serving as mayor of Carterton from 1995-1999 and then as a Labour MP from Wairarapa from 1999 until she resigned in 2007.
Running for mayor of Masterton in 2010 led to her losing her job with a jewelry company. She has an eye on the 2013 Masterton mayoralty race.
It's not a fall from grace ... but it's certainly a tumble off the pedestal.
--Georgina Beyer
Here's Georgina on Carmen Rupe.
Fashion
Brazilian transsexual model Lea T landed her first mainstream fashion cover by appearing on Elle Brazil's December cover, wearing a gown by Givenchy.
Meanwhile Bosnian androgyne model Andrej Pejic has scored a push-up bra campaign with Dutch department store Hema.
In September of 2011 Andrej was ranked #18 on models.com Top 50 male models list, while simultaneously being ranked #98 in FHM magazine's 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2011. Unfortunately FHM decided the nod needed to be accompanied by transphobic commentary, not unlike the commentary at RadarOnline.