This month we finish off this series by discussing developments in the past two years, leading to the present.
2007 - The rock-star character of “Zarf,” who debuted on the soap opera “All My Children” near the end of 2006, comes out as a male-to-female transsexual, Zoey. Although this isn’t the first time a soap opera featured a transgender character in a recurring role, it is the first to feature an MTF character in the beginning of her transition, and follow the process along (and second only to “The L Word” to feature a transsexual throughout the process). Rather than alienate AMC’s viewership, the character of Zoey appears to have re-energized it.
40-year-old Chanda Musalman, who lives as both man and woman and has not had any GRS surgery, is granted both male and female citizenship by Nepali authorities. This is the first known case of dual-gender recognition. It is unclear how this unique legal status will play out in practice - for instance, how it will affect Chanda’s marriage rights, or how it will be recognized in other countries.
The Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear Kimberly Nixon v. Rape Relief, a case in which a transwoman was dismissed from training for rape counseling because she was not born female (she had been living as female several years, had surgery and is legally female). Because it was refused at that level, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruling against her still stands - a ruling which pointed out that transgender people are not currently protected by the Human Rights Charter under either category of “gender” or “sexual orientation.” This is later used as the pretext for the opening of Lu’s: A Pharmacy for Women in Vancouver, where transwomen are deliberately refused entry and where the controversy continues at the time of writing.
A 12-year old in Vienna, Austria is thought to be the youngest person in the world to undergo GRS.
The city of Largo, Florida fires long-time City Manager Steve Stanton, after he is outed during preparation to announce his intention to undergo hormone treatment and start the process toward GRS surgery.
This launches a nationally-publicized court case, in which the City of Largo is revealed to have operated counter to their own laws, which prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. In order to save face, the City attempts to first claim that city employees had lost faith in Stanton, and then (in the failure of that) dredge up performance issues, despite their overwhelming support, praise and raises given to Stanton prior to the firing.
Spain passes the most progressive law regarding Gender Identity in the world, allowing for the change of documented identity just by proving a medical treatment for two years, and a medical or psychological certificate, proving a diagnosis of gender dysphoria - not requiring surgery. This outdoes the UK’s Gender Recognition Act by not requiring divorce prior to transition.
UCLA scientists find 54 genes that may explain the different organization of male and female brains. They go on to state that “...gender identity likely will be explained by some of the genes we discovered.”
In Fresno, California, Tony (Cinthia) Covarrubias runs for Prom King, supported by a state law passed in 2000 protecting students’ ability to express their gender identity on campus. Covarrubias loses, but approximately one month later, her story lends a groundswell of support when Johnny Vera runs for and wins the title of Prom Queen at Roosevelt High School - the first transgender person known to have won such an honor.
Dr. Russell Reid, a UK psychiatrist specializing in gender reassignment, is found guilty in a medical community investigation of accusations that he inappropriately treated five patients, allegedly fast-tracking them, in contravention of established standards of care.
Although not the first time a doctor has been brought under fire or threat of legal action for his work (some had even been sued by their transgender patients), the high-profile case reopens major debates in the medical community about transsexuality and its treatment.
The Matthew Shepard Act, an anti-hate-crimes bill, is introduced and achieves some success in both Congress and the Senate, but is scuttled by Senators’ protests over the attachment of the bill to a military spending bill, a strategy which was initiated in hopes of avoiding a Presidential veto from George W. Bush.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) stirs up even more controversy when, at the eleventh hour before the bill is introduced to Congress, “gender identity” and “gender expression” are dropped from the bill. This legislation originally sought to add protections for gay and transgender people across the US, and the act of abandonment is seen by many as a dark hour in the trans movement. But in reaction to the bill’s sponsor, congressman Barney Frank, and a history of assumptions by legislators that perceptions of transfolk might hurt the GLBT community as a whole, organizations from across North America band together, forming UnitedENDA - a coalition of nearly 370 organizations wishing to send a strong protest against the exclusion and pledging to persist in only supporting legislation that is transgender-inclusive. There is one notable exception, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), one of the largest GLB organizations in America (which already had a long history of trans exclusion, with one former director once declaring that trans inclusion would happen “over my dead body”). But HRC’s defense of the exclusive ENDA would erode its support and credibility significantly.
ENDA ultimately failed to pass, but the debate reignited the LGBT community’s trans-supportive and trans-exclusive factions. However, the divisions that happened in the years following Stonewall also seemed to be narrowing significantly. While writers like John Aravosis and Chris Crain would persist in questioning whether transgender people should be included in gay activism or even considered allies, mutual respect and coexistence proved more prevalent, with many local GLB organizations coming to the conclusion that they would love to help the transgender community... as long as there’s help in understanding what its needs are. Additionally, awareness grew from this controversy about “gender expression,” which, while a transgender issue, also affects many “effeminate” gay men and “butch” lesbians, as well as heterosexual persons who fall afoul of societal gender expectations.
2008 - Artist, actor, filmmaker, farmer, teacher and writer Erica Rutherford passes away in Charlottetown PEI. Rutherford is one of Canada’s best-known transsexual achievers, whose story is told in the CBC documentary, “Nine Lives”. In 1999, she was admitted to the Royal Canadian Academy. Her career illuminated many ways in which art and other achievements by women are received, as compared to similar achievements by men.
Female-to-male transsexual Thomas Beatie explodes into the public consciousness as “the pregnant man,” having stopped hormone therapy mid-transition in order to bear a child because his wife could not.
While not the first person to do so (FTM pregnancies were noted as far back as 10 years ago from a man named Dylan in Germany and also Patrick Califia’s partner Matt Rice), Beatie’s appearances on Oprah and People Magazine galvanize the issue in the public eye nearly as vividly as what happened when Christine Jorgenson was first noted to have changed her sex. A year later, a Spanish transman would become pregnant with twins, but miscarry. This event brings transsexuality under the spotlight, signaling to the far right that the time was apt to bring anti-trans sentiment to the fore. The pregnancy announcement inspires some unusual political actions, such as a proposed law in Sweden that would require transsexuals to be sterilized before beginning transition. It also sparks divisions between transgender modes of thinking, between “old-guard” ideas that had evolved into “Harry Benjamin Syndrome” (HBS), “Womyn Born Transsexual” (WBT) and other gender binary concepts versus “deconstructionist” thought growing from third-wave feminism, genderqueer concepts and people who question the male-female gender binary such as activist, author and performance artist Kate Bornstein. Debates rage about transsexuals who are “real” and who are not, with some arguing that no “real” FTM transsexual would choose to give birth. It also feeds some of the growing disillusion in the transsexual community generated by the feeling of erasure - that inclusion in the larger transgender umbrella has obscured transsexual-specific needs and uniqueness.
The Lahore High Court in Pakistan rules in favour of allowing Gender Reassignment Surgery.
Visitor to Japan, Mary Murdoch, becomes the first transsexual to be accepted and trained as geisha.
Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a therapist at Toronto’s Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH, formerly known as the Clarke Institute) and notorious for his reparative therapy treatments used on transgender children and adolescents, is chosen by the American Psychiatric Association to lead the team to revise the diagnoses of Sexual and Gender Disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) “bible” of the psychiatric community. Mentor, former CAMH department head and creator of the theory of Autogynephilia Ray Blanchard is named to lead the Paraphilias sub-workgroup which includes the diagnosis of “Transvestitic Fetish.” The infusion of controversial Clarke-Northwestern figures (which also includes J. Michael Bailey, Anne Lawrence and others) to shape the diagnosis and potential treatment of transsexuals spurs widespread controversy in the trans community and sparks an outcry for “Gender Identity Disorder” to be delisted from the DSM.
Stu Rasmussen becomes the first openly transgender mayor in Silverton, Oregon. Rasmussen is notable in that he still identifies as male, but has had breast augmentation and presents fully as female. Rasmussen had previously been a popular mayor of the town, but had taken a hiatus to change his presentation before returning to the public eye.
2009 - Early transitioner Angela Morley passes away. Morley, a three-time Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee for film and television music, transitioned in 1972 and contributed orchestrations to “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Falcon Crest,” “Wonder Woman” and other shows as well as the motion pictures “Star Wars,” “Superman,” “E.T.,” and “Schindler’s List.”
German pop singer Kim Petras grabs international attention by undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery at the age of 16. Also, 77-Year-old Renee Ramsey becomes the oldest-known person to undergo GRS.
Kitty Gabriele is arrested in Italy and identified as the first-known high-ranking transsexual mafia “capo,” or godfather.
The Province of Alberta delists health care coverage of GRS, followed by a declaration by the NDP government of Manitoba stating that it would not be funding the procedure. These events highlight the deliberate exclusions made by insurance companies worldwide, despite the fact that the medical establishment considers GRS a necessary procedure and that it impacts lives in significant ways that no other elective “cosmetic” procedure does. The Health Care coverage debate would mushroom into a major furore when right-wing organizations whip up the fear that Democrat-proposed universal health care in the US would likely result in coverage of GRS, as a tactic to try to kill the proposal.
Virginia Prince passes away. While one of the first activists in modern transgender history, Prince was also a polarizing figure and center of divisions in trans spheres (she coined the word “transgender” to mean only male-bodied crossdressers who were attracted to women, at the deliberate exclusion of everyone else).
As the divisions between GLB and trans communities and between feminists and transfemales dissolved, divisions within the enormously diverse transgender community developed - perhaps a sign of the growing awareness of and freedom of self-identification for trans people. Patterns emerge within the transgender community itself that appear to be harbingers of division, as people seek to distinguish and distance themselves from each other, not having learned the lessons of the damages the trans community had suffered at the hands of others.
At this time of writing, though, those divisions are not complete, and many transactivists call for people to avoid the mistakes of the past.
There is some growing sentiment for a distinguishing between transsexual and other transgender populations simply by virtue of the unique needs of the former and fears of erasure of those by inclusion under an umbrella term, which is seen by many as an acceptable exception. As the GLB community becomes receptive to assisting its trans allies, the question arises: are transfolk willing to show enough unity in order to help themselves?
The next chapter, of course, is yet to be written.
Partial Bibliography:
Much of this had been compiled over time, and not all the sources have been recorded. Some online sources have been involved as well, although I search for more corroboration in these cases.

Bullough, Vern: Homosexuality: A History From Ancient Greece to Gay Liberation Califia, Patrick: Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism Colapinto, John: As Nature Made Him: The Story of a Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl Currah, Paisley; Richard M. Juang and Shannon Price Minter: Transgender Rights Feinberg, Leslie: TransGender Warriors Fletcher, Lynne Yamaguchi: The First Gay Pope (and other records) Kessler, Suzanne; and McKenna, Wendy: Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach Rudacille, Deborah: The Riddle of Gender Walker, Barbara: various works Williams, Walter: The Spirit and the Flesh


Mercedes Allen is a writer who blogs at http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/, has been featured on bilerico.com, PageOneQ and others, and has also developed the website at AlbertaTrans.org as a resource for transgender information and support.