Transgender

Forum












From our fabulous News Hawks!

Have you seen a TG-related news story online or in your local paper? Send it in to TGF and become a News Hawk! Don't assume we know everything that's out there, because you are our eyes and ears. To file a story, send it in to Cindy.

Michigan TG Fights For Diploma Name Change

Contributed by Jayne Fischer
Journal News Service
June 18, 1998

FLINT, Michigan - A man who graduated from Birch Run High School as a woman will have to sue to force the school district to change his transcript and diploma to reflect his sex and name change. Board of Education members met privately with their attorney, Michael J. Eschelbach, and decided that they would rather pay for a court fight than comply. "There was no action, which means that the offer to have a first initial last name and no indication of gender is where the district stands," Superintendent Peter J. Dion said of the compromise that the district proposed Neither school officials nor the graduate's lawyer, Rudy Serra of Detroit, will identify the man.

School officials will not say when the man graduated, while Serra said he believes that it was 1983. Serra gave the board an ultimatum in May: Make the document changes by Thursday of this week or face a suit. Serra said he now might file the suit immediately. "'They told me ... that there's no need to wait, because they're not going to change their mind," Serra said.

He said his client suffers gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder. Serra said his client is a married stepfather who lives in Washington and needs the transcript to apply to college. The Americans with Disabilities Act covers gender dysphoria, so the district must comply, he said. Using a first initial and no gender designation is unacceptable because it opens the alumnus to', discrimination, Serra said. "By doing that, that's like a red flag that here's a disabled person," he said. "I don't understand what benefit the district derives from keeping my client from going to college." Dion said he will not alter the document because it could set a precedent. Serra called the argument "silly," and said the precedent would comply with the law.

Mrs. Doubtfire to dress as Italian musical

Contributed by Jodie Miller
via Reuters
June 17, 1998

ROME - The hit cross-dressing comedy "Mrs. Doubtfire" is getting a makeover in Italy, where a theater impresario is turning it into an Italian- language musical.

The project will be freely adapted from the 1993 Fox feature, which starred Robin Williams as a father who loses custody of his children and disguises himself as a nanny in order to be near them.

Veteran theater director Pietro Garinei has acquired the rights to transform the film into a musical, and has slotted it to launch at Rome's Teatro Sistina as part of the season beginning in fall 1999.

Negotiations are under way to attach a composer and lyricist to the project, with Garinei expected to take an active role in shaping the vehicle for the stage.

The announcement comes on the heels of a season in which Broadway-style musicals have become unprecedentedly popular in Italy, led by a hit production of "Grease" that recently transferred from Milan to Rome's Sistina.

Several other imports such as "Hair," "The Rocky Horror Show," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "A Chorus Line" and "The Phantom of the Opera" have recently been staged or are in preparation, and audience appetites also are returning for homegrown musicals made popular in past decades.

"There's a new generation of theatergoers in Italy that also are music-lovers, and naturally, they seek out theater with music," says Garinei. "People are rediscovering that musicals are complete entertainment and by far the best form of theater in Italy for family audiences."

Millenium March Board Selected

via UFMCC News Service
June 9, 1998

LOS ANGELES-- The June 9th meeting of gay organizations in Washington, DC has moved the Millennium March on Washington forward, according to the Rev. Troy D. Perry, Moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches and one of the first three leaders to call for the March.

"Members of 32 organizations representing a broad, grassroots cross-section of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered movement participated," said Perry. "The representation was as diverse as our larger community, and included civil rights organizations, bisexual and transgendered groups, youth advocates, state organizers, aging activists, sexual minority coalitions, people of color organizations, community activists, spirituality groups, and AIDS organizations."

The group designed and adopted an organizing structure composed of a 15-member Board of Directors and a much larger Leadership Council. The Board will have parity for people of color and by gender, and will include bisexual and transgender representation.

Seven members were elected to the Board and two additional members were appointed after the meeting. Six additional members will be appointed at a later date.

The initial nine members are:

Elizabeth Birch (Ex. Dir., Human Rights Campaign, Washington, DC) Beverly Biddle (Ex. Dir., National Lesbian & Gay Health Assoc., Washington, DC) Rea Carey (Ex. Dir., National Youth Advocacy Coalition, Washington, DC) Duane Cramer (Board Member, Names Project Foundation, San Francisco, CA) Ann DeGroot (Ex. Dir., Out Front Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) Dianne Hardy-Garcia (Ex. Dir., Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, Austin, TX) Kerry Lobel (Ex. Dir., National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Washington, DC) Rev. Troy Perry (Moderator, UFMCC, West Hollywood, CA) Nicole Ramierz-Murray (Co-Chair, National Latina/o LGBT Org., San Diego, CA)

The Millennium March on Washington is scheduled for April 30, 2000. It will be the fourth national March on Washington by the GLBT communities and the first human rights march of the new millennium.

For additional information, contact MMOW2000@aol.com by e-mail.

TGF's Home Page