Friday, May 11

What do you know about transgenders?


Calpernia Addams (Transgender Activist, Actress) gives expert video advice on: What is it like growing up transgender?; How did your friends and family react to you being transgender?; How did you change from male to female? and more...
Read the transcription if you don't want to listen, but please, try to inform yourself and understand. Some people know more about aliens than about human beings's complexity.
"How are transgender people treated in other cultures? Other cultures have dealt differently with transgender people than, sort of, modern America. There are cultures such as India who have the Hijira, which are people in the culture who are usually born male but adopt a female identity. Sometimes they don't have medical intervention, sometimes they do. In Thailand there are the Kathoey, I hope I'm saying that right, which is how Thailand identifies transpeople. It's in some ways a lot more accepted than it is here, because there are Kathoey (ladyboys) who are pop stars and actors and actresses and stuff, but the culture places them in sort of a third sex category more so than accepting them as women." (emphasis added)
Barry Winchell
Calpernia Addams: In 1999, while working as a performer, Addams began dating PFC Barry Winchell. Word of the relationship spread at Winchell's Army base where he was harassed by fellow soldiers and ultimately murdered.
Addams tells the story here.