Caster Semenya is blurring sexual identity definitions

That’s what the IAAF running officials are wondering about the fantastic South African runner Caster Semenya.

(The Endurance Sports Examiner, Roman Mica, did a top-notch job of capturing the controversy, and you may want to follow more about this issue and the world of racing through the column. And, New York Celebrity Fitness and Health Examiner Samantha Chang is following what is going on with the issue, too!)

The issue is befuddling the sports world (and it’s about time!) Man? Woman?

Well guess what? What if she is neither—or all of the above?

Finally, people may start realizing that the definition of sex is perhaps as fluid as the definition of one’s sexuality. Yeah, just like people aren’t homosexual or heterosexual, they aren’t just simply male or female either. It’s really not confusing at all. It’s about learning a few more definitions, and realizing that world isn’t made up of just black or white, but many shades of gray.

I have known a handful of beautiful people who are considered “intersex.” (Sometimes, they are lumped into the “trans” category, which includes transsexual, trans-gendered and transvestite people, but that’s whole different column!)

The intersex people have (or had) genitals resembling both a male and a female. Sometimes, tragically, their parents have made a decision for them when they were babies to have one side forced upon them over the other side. Inevitably, the parents get the choice wrong. The child is pumped up with drugs or mentally pushed to live all the stereotypes of the chosen gender, but inside they may feel very different.

Alas, one of my intersex friends committed suicide because the overwhelming pressure of being different was too much. He/she (how he/she preferred to be called) couldn’t cope with the feeling that he/she was part of a freak show. Someday, I’ll go into more details about it, but it’s still a raw subject. But yes, these people do exist.

Also, they almost universally consider themselves bisexual. They have attractions, or recognize their attractions, to both males and females (and the wonderful, but forgotten, range of sexual identities in between.

See a wonderful explanation of an intersexed person by 37-year-old Misha Kailana below. Maybe it will open up your mind about the dual definitions of sex and how mainstream society defines it.

As far as the runner’s association, they’ve got a lot of mind-expanding issues to deal with themselves!

Courtesy Examiner.com

Kate Lynn Blatt

The Advocate reports that Kate Lynn Blatt has filed suit against Manpower, Inc., a staffing services agency, after she was let go from a temporary job in 2007 and then refused further employment through Manpower until she produced a letter from a surgeon and a photograph of her genitalia to document male-to-female surgical procedures.

A Manpower branch manager, Irene Kudziela, apparently told Blatt that the photograph would solve problems related to restroom and locker room issues.

The original report, by Philadelphia Gay News (PGN), states that Blatt filed complaints with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission against Sapa, the temporary employer who let her go because “she was not physically well enough to work at the job,” and against Manpower.

Blatt refused to supply the photograph, calling the request “repugnant” and “disgusting.”

The reality is that no employer knows what an employee’s genitals look like — or they shouldn’t, anyway. We make assumptions every day on what lies beneath a person’s clothing, but they are only assumptions. Unless we become intimate with that person, we have absolutely no way of knowing, and we manage to proceed quite well in employment and other areas of life without such knowledge.

Should every job applicant be required to turn in a photograph of his or her naked body along with a resume, just to be sure that it’s acceptable to an employer?

Bethany Perkins, a Manpower spokesperson, is quoted in PGN as saying, “The biggest thing to remember is that we’re absolutely committed to the safety and security of our workforce, including the transgender members of our workforce. We’re committed to having diversity in our workforce.”

To be asked for a photograph of genitalia is not likely to make a person feel either safe or secure in any work environment. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved quickly and in Blatt’s favor.

Courtesy Examiner.com

Guess what I got in my drawers?

Word game

There’s a lot of different terms meaning “a chick with a dick” – shemale, lady boy, tranny. What is the difference between them if all these websites look the same?

• Shemale (sometimes called she male, she-male or she-man) is a partially-feminized male. They typically have breasts (either grown through hormone therapy or breast augmentation surgery) and other female secondary sex characteristics, but they have not undergone male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. The majority of shemales are from Thailand and Brazil. You can also find hot girls from Argentina, USA, Philippines and Colombia.
• Tranny is a derogatory abbreviation of transvestite. This term means cross dressers – men wearing female clothes. However, nowadays tranny niche can also include transgenders and transsexuals.
• Ladyboy is a term that describes a “chick with a dick” from Thailand and South East Asia.
Another problem is the difference between a transsexual, transgender and transvestite. It is often unclear to the majority of porn surfers. Here are some basic differences between the “trans”:
• Transgender is an umbrella term for individuals who may have the genitals of one sex, but they associate themselves with another gender. For example, a person who has a penis but feels female may be called a transgender.
• Transvestite, or cross dresser, is a man who enjoys wearing women’s clothes. He may be fully dressed as a woman or wear certain articles of women’s clothes such as lingerie or stockings. Transvestites and shemales are two different niches, but a lot of people (and webmasters) confuse them.
• Transsexual is a person who doesn’t only dress as the opposite sex but also fundamentally feels that he/she was born in the wrong body. They could have a male body with a female mind (it is called Male to Female Transsexual, or MtoF). There is also the reverse situation when a person is born with a female body and a male mind (Female to Male Transsexual, or FtoM). Not all shemales are transsexuals – some of them prefer being both sexes just to make money.

Who likes shemale niche?

Who becomes a member of shemale paysites? Gays? Girls? Actually, the majority of customers for this niche are straight men. The reason is simple: even though shemales have a penis, they look and act like women.

For this reason shemale niche is not popular in the gay market. Gay guys want to see guys, not girls. There may be a demand for effeminate looking guys in the gay niche, but the models still have to be guys.

People who like shemale niche often call themselves ‘Straight with a twist’. Many of them are over 30, probably married, or in a relationship with a woman. They have seen a lot of stuff, and they are just looking for something more exotic.
Shemale niche has a lot in common with strap-on dildo fetish and anal sex. There are hundreds of websites that feature women with strap-on dildos having sex with men, and they are quite popular. That’s close to shemale having sex with a man.

Most of the straight audience considers sex with a shemale as an erotic fantasy – almost like forbidden fruit. They don’t want to be caught with a transsexual. So they just look at hot pictures and videos, but don’t try to meet them in real life.

Shemale websites

There are many sub-niches in the shemale market, just like in the gay or straight genres. You can find websites with European, Afro-American or Asian shemails; live webcams; dating sites; solo model sites; cartoons and comics; and various provocative combinations like shemale/shemale, shemale/female, and shemale/male.

Here are some websites you may consider to learn more about shemale niche:

• www.shemalescenes.com. Shemale Scenes offers downloadable hardcore movies and photos of gorgeous girls with penises between their legs. At the present moment there are 117 models. The membership fee is $35 for 30 days (recurring), $75 for 90 days (non-recurring), and $99 for 150 days (non-recurring)
• www.shemale-club.com. Shemale-club features hundreds of hot shemale models. Besides standard content, they also offer pictures and videos made my members’ request. The membership fee is $35 for 30 days (recurring), $75 for 90 days (non-recurring), and $99 for 150 days (non-recurring).
• www.shemaleseduction.com. Welcome to tranny town! Shemale Seduction offers porn movies and hi-resolution photos with horny models. The membership fee is $4.87 for 3 days trial (recurring), $39.73 for 30 days membership (recurring). You can pay with a credit card or a check.
• http://www.shemalereality.com. Would you like to pick up a hot transsexual and take her home? At ShemaleReality sexy models with penises seduce straight guys and live out their fantasies. The membership fee is $29.95 for 30 day access and $56.95 for 90 day access.
• www.shemalenova.com. Shemale Nova is variety, quantity, and innovation. They do their best to cover the whole market – from hardcore to reality, from vanilla sex to kinky fetishes like group sex, sharing partners, domination, double penetration, etc. The membership fee is $1.00 for 1 day trial period; and $29.95 for 1 month (then $29.95 every 1 month until cancelled).
• www.blackbrazilianshemales.com. Black Brazilian Shemales offers high quality exclusive videos, photos and screenshots. You can meet brand new, carefully selected black shemales models every week. The membership fee is $1.00 for 1 day trial period; and $29.95 for 1 month (then $29.95 every month until cancelled).
• www.lb-69.com. Lb-69 offers a mix of solo and hardcore scenes of over 200 ladyboy models. There are 100% original high-quality pictures and full-screen videos, a big forum for transsexual admirers, direct email and phone numbers of the girls. The membership fee is $39.95 for 1 month (then $29.95 every 1 month until cancelled), or $99.95 for 6 months.

Shemale niche used to very small, but now, thanks to the Internet, it has become a major player in the adult entertainment industry. Affiliates will enjoy the benefits of the curiosity that surrounds this genre in addition to the shemale admirers that spend a lot on their adult entertainment. However, it also means that you will have to work hard as more and more people are going to promote this niche.

Courtesy ecommerce-jounral.com

Chastity Bono, from attractive twenty-something singer to...

The 40-year-old writer, activist and reality-TV star came out as gay 20 years ago, Bragman said.

In the book “Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming-Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, & Their Families,” Bono describes the realization of being “somehow different – specifically different from who my mom expected me to be.”

A message left with Cher’s representatives was not immediately returned Thursday.

Bono’s second book, “The End of Innocence: A Memoir,” details how relationships with Joan, a lover, and Sonny and Cher changed after coming out.

In 1995, Bono posed for the cover of the gay magazine The Advocate and began working for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Miss Tiffany 2009 winner Sorrawee Nattee (R) and second-placed Writtorn Narapaipimol (L) after 2009 Miss Tiffany transgender contest in Pattaya, Thailand, 15 May 2009 At a popular beauty contest this month in southern Thailand, 30 attractive, feminine figures glide onto the stage.

Dressed in sparkling evening gowns and perfect hair and make-up, the contestants smile widely at the audience as the cameras broadcast the pageant live across the nation.

But, the contestants at Pattaya’s Miss Tiffany Universe contest have something special in common other than looks. They are all transgenders.

Transgenders are born as men but live and look like women, often taking female hormones and having cosmetic and sex change surgery to appear more feminine.

Transgenders are more visible and more accepted in Thai culture than in most parts of the world. Some believe this is a result of the Buddhist culture, which places a high value on tolerance.

Just before the competition, contestants and their teams are in the changing rooms, applying last-minute hairspray and lipstick and posing for the media.

Kotchakorn Surajan, 24, a competitor for this year’s crown, says while Thai society has become more accepting of transgenders, there is still a long way to go.

“I wish we would be more accepted in society nowadays. The reason I joined this contest is to tell society that we are human and we think just like normal, real men and real women,” said Kotchakorn Surajan

Despite Thailand’s reputation for sexual tolerance, transgenders still face ridicule and are discriminated against in the workplace.

Many transgenders have turned to prostitution, a tolerated but risky profession in Thailand, where less than one in three sex workers are educated about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

At a counseling center for transgenders in Pattaya, called Sisters, a group of transgenders sit on the entrance floor chopping a large papaya and green beans for a spicy salad.

Standing at a table just behind them are several more transgenders with long hair and wearing mini-skirts. They are mixing eggs, flour, and other ingredients into a blender to make cookies.

Sisters is Thailand’s first counseling service for transgenders, providing them with advice, support and activities such as cooking.

The walls of the center are decorated with posters promoting condom use and a table near the door is piled with pamphlets about safe sex.

On one wall, a series of framed photos shows the Sisters grand opening in 2005, which was attended by the mayor and blessed by a Bhuddist monk.

Neung, who like most Thais prefers to use a nickname, is Sisters outreach supervisor. Neung says there are close to 2,000 transgenders in Pattaya.

“We have many transgender working as sex worker,” said Neung. “Many kind of transgender but nobody come to take care and teach them about protecting themselves against HIV or STIs. That’s [why] we have to open the Sisters.”

As night falls, Neung and other members of Sisters take to the streets of Pattaya’s “hot zone,” where prostitution is an open trade.

The group wears a signature pink T-shirt with the slogan ‘Sisters, where our second home is.’

They distribute education materials and condoms to transgenders and encourage them to visit the drop-in center.

Many of Pattaya’s transgenders are not accepted by their relatives and Sisters is the closest thing they have to family.

Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, a researcher on transgender issues and is also a transgender, says if they are truly to be accepted the Thai government must offer them more specific legal protections.

“Every policy and funding which is try to support transgender need to separate transgender from gay or male who have sex with male. Of course, if we focus in terms of biological sex, transgender is a male as well,” said Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya. “But, if policy focused on the male who have sex with male and maybe activity might not go so far from the term ‘male’. But, the life of transgender is go beyond the term male. Even it’s not might fit to the term female, but we have another way of life.”

Prem says Thai authorities have taken some steps towards improving the rights of transgenders and to recognize them as separate and distinct from homosexuals.

But what Transgenders really want is the right to legally change their gender to female so their ID cards and documents can match the way they feel and appear.

A change in the law would also allow transgenders in Thailand to get married, which is currently prohibited between two men.

Courtesy VOANews.com

Naked Circus related news:
And the Most Beautiful Tranny in Thailand is…
How to Spot a Transvestite
Transvestite Teacher to be Transferred
Beware of Angry Transvestite
Mexican Transvestite Fiesta Rocks Indigenous Town

She’s like a Forrest Gump — that is, if anyone ever suspected that Mr. Gump had undergone a sex-change operation.

Allow us to explain. For decades, rumors have swirled that the chameleonic six-foot starlet Amanda Lear was a performing transvestite who became Dali’s greatest art project — a boy who became a girl. Though Lear herself has always denied it, she has also worked the rumors to her lifelong advantage. “There is nothing the pop world loves more than a way-out freak,” she has said.

Born in 1946 in Hong Kong to a French/English father and a Russian/Asian mother, she was one of a kind from the jump. Raised in France and Switzerland, as a teenager Lear went to Paris to study art. Over the years, a succession of famous European transsexual entertainers have claimed they worked in Paris in the late ’50s with a teenage boy named Alain Tapp, who performed under the assumed name Peki d’Oslo and would later become Amanda Lear.

Moving next to swinging London, Lear fell into the nightclub crowd, where she befriended rock stars like the Stones’ Brian Jones and the Who’s Keith Moon and was soon discovered by Europe’s biggest modeling agency. A notorious part of the scene, she became the thinly disguised subject of a Stones song, ‘Miss Amanda Jones.’ Around this time, Lear met Dali, who took her under his wing. Years later, in her book ‘My Life With Dali,’ she explained the artist’s fascination with her image: He loved effeminate boys and the Greek ideal of the hermaphrodite, she wrote.

With a deep voice and an ambiguous persona, Lear took the painter’s advice, creating a spectacle that would propel her singing career. Her celebrity fed off itself. Briefly engaged to Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry, she posed in a leather dress, holding a leashed panther, for the cover of the Roxy album ‘For Your Pleasure.’ Shortly thereafter, she had a yearlong affair with Bowie.

When the disco craze hit, Lear was ready-made for it. Her albums ‘Sweet Revenge’ and the aptly titled ‘Never Trust a Pretty Face’ produced several huge hits across the globe. Emerging as a superstar in Germany, Japan, France and Italy, she had chart records in more than 40 countries. (Lear has sold a reported 25 million singles and 15 million albums to date.) Despite posing for Playboy in 1977, however — “they could see I was a woman like everybody else,” she said — she never had the same success in America that she enjoyed overseas.

Though she lost her husband in an explosion that leveled their house in 2000, Lear continues to record, paint and show up where she’s least expected. Joanna Lumley, who played Patsy Stone in the hit British comedy ‘Absolutely Fabulous,’ has acknowledged that her character was based in part on the strange legend of Ms. Amanda Lear. Lear was reportedly asked to star in a French film version of the show, but she declined.

“I’ve already lived it,” she said.

Courtesy Spinner.com

Dr Barry

Dr James Barry had been living in the household in London’s Cavendish Square where Sophia served following his return, due to ill health, from Canada two years earlier. The Edinburgh University graduate’s decline marked the end of a long and distinguished career for the eccentric, slightly-built medic, culminating in the rank of Senior Inspector General.

Yet Dr Barry’s lasting fame would not be for his groundbreaking medical achievements. As Sophia set to her task, she discovered to her astonishment that Dr Barry was, as she is said to have put it, “a perfect female”.

Bishop had uncovered in a moment’s work a lifelong deception which began in Barry’s teens when he disguised his true identity in order to gain entry to Edinburgh University’s medical department – decades before Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became Britain’s first, officially-recognised female doctor.

It was not the first time scandal had surrounded the doctor. On a posting to South Africa in 1824, a sign posted on a wall accused him of having a homosexual affair with the colony’s Governor, Lord Somerset. Few people can have guessed the truth. If there was an affair, it was clearly not homosexual.

Barry was certainly close to Somerset, describing him on one occasion as “my more than father, my almost only friend”. Sophia Bishop is also reported to have discovered stretchmarks on Barry’s body and to have been convinced the doctor had borne a child – if so, Somerset seems a likely candidate for father.

Perhaps aware of the gravity of the scandal she had uncovered, Sophia Bishop is reported to have kept her discovery secret until after the doctor’s funeral. With the body interred, there was no way to verify her claim, and speculation began.

Some said Dr Barry was a hermaphrodite, others that the maid was simply courting scandal. But for those who had known Barry, there was a ring of truth to the tale – the smooth chin, the small frame, the squeaky voice. It seemed possible that Sophia Bishop’s claims were not entirely fanciful, and Barry had successfully duped both Edinburgh University and the British Army for decades.

After so much speculation about Dr Barry’s true identity, the most convincing explanation came last year from Dr Michael du Preez in New Scientist magazine.

He suggests that Barry began life in Cork in 1789 as Margaret Bulkley, the niece of artist James Barry. She and her mother, Mary Ann, found themselves destitute after Margaret’s father Jeremy was jailed for debt, and the two set sail for London around 1804.

There they enlisted the help of two of James Barry’s influential friends, Dr Edward Fryer and the Venezuelan revolutionary, General Francisco Miranda. The group evolved an ambitious plan for Margaret which would enable her to fulfil her academic potential, and support herself and her mother.

Fryer tutored her and Miranda threw open his extensive library for Margaret’s studies, proposing that, if she concealed her identity for the duration of her medical training, Margaret could practice as a woman in Venezuela, after he had overseen revolution in the country.

Du Preez notes: “In the early 19th century only men were admitted to the medical schools in Britain, and discovery of the sex of the young medical student would have ruined any chance of success. The plan for Margaret’s education had now assumed the dimension of a conspiracy.”

In late November, 1809, mother and daughter set sail from Wapping to Leith, and before boarding, Margaret took on her new identity. To avoid suspicion on their arrival, she posed from the very beginning of the voyage as Mrs Bulkley’s nephew, James Barry, and wrote later to the family’s solicitor, Daniel Reardon: “…it was very usefull (sic] for Mrs. Bulkley (my aunt) to have a Gentleman to take care of her on Board Ship and to have one in a strange country”.

Barry was swiftly matriculated in Edinburgh and began to study anatomy, chemistry and natural philosophy under his new identity.

Following research into the Bulkley family archives, du Preez commissioned forensic handwriting analysis, which he says proves beyond doubt that letters written by Margaret and James before and after the change were of the same hand. What’s more, in December 1809, the medical student wrote to Reardon, signing the letter with his new name. The meticulous solicitor, however, recorded the sender of the letter on its envelope – “Miss Bulkley”.

Having evidently carried out his deception with enough panache that no-one had suspected his true identity, James Barry was one of 57 students to graduate from Edinburgh’s medical school in 1812.

However, the plan for him to depart for Venezuela and become Margaret once more had run into trouble. Just as Barry was taking his final exams, General Miranda was betrayed by Simon Bolivar and imprisoned by the Spanish.

Forced to reconsider his limited options, Barry applied for the British Army and was recruited into the medical service as a hospital assistant on July 5, 1813 – it is not known how he avoided the mandatory physical examination, but it has been speculated that family connections may have helped him to submit private letters vouching for his good health.

He worked first in Plymouth and in 1815 was promoted to be assistant staff surgeon. He was subsequently posted to the Cape of Good Hope.

It was in the Cape that many of the Doctor’s most notorious adventures and achievements occurred. He was the first British doctor to carry out a Caesarian in which both mother and baby survived. He recognised the dangers posed by disease spreading through dirty and overcrowded field hospitals, and campaigned to improve conditions.

Barry also led a colourful personal life, quite apart from the alleged affair with Lord Somerset. He is reported to have fought a duel in Cape Town, and to have been sent home under arrest on numerous occasions after run-ins with his Army superiors.

There were also subtle clues as to his hidden identity. In 1819, Lord Albermarle remarked that the doctor showed “a certain effeminacy in his manner”. Barry is reported to have worn three-inch soles on his shoes, and shoulder pads in his coat to increase his build.

After leaving South Africa, Barry continued to be posted around the world with the Army, until ill-health forced his retirement.

Barry must have known that the secret of a lifetime would be uncovered after his death, but, despite the wagging tongues, death was kind to the memory of the honourable doctor. He was buried in Kensal Rise cemetery in London, his gravestone bearing “his” name and rank for posterity.

Courtesy Edinburgh Evening News

She's stronger than she appears

The man, who has only been named as Aitor G R, was born female but underwent a mastectomy and hormone treatment several years ago in the first step of “gender reassignment”. He is on a waiting list for an operation to reshape his genitals into a penis.

Although the Spanish army recruits women, Aitor G R is recognised as a man legally and was declared medically unfit by army recruiters because of his lack of male genitalia.

He was first turned away in Feb 2007 but reapplied earlier this month only to be refused again. He said it had always been his dream to join the army since playing with toy soldiers as a child.

“I want to be a soldier, not a porn star,” the transsexual from Jaen told Spanish media, stating that he would appeal the decision.

Carme Chacón, Spain’s minister of defence, has promised to revise legislation concerning medical reasons for exclusion from the armed forces.

A ministry spokesman said on Thursday that under the new guidelines the lack of a penis would no longer be sufficient reason for excluding a male army candidate.

Courtesy Telegraph.co.uk

Jude Law stars as Minx in a credible new role in Rage

But in an unlikely reinvention, Primrose Hill stud Jude Law has lost himself in the make-up box.

Convincing Jude looks more like his ex-wife Sadie Frost as he dons a black crop wig and ruby sharp lipstick for his role in new film Rage.

Law, 36, is set to debut his gender-bending role as androgynous supermodel Minx at the Berlin Film Festival next week.

Courtesy Metro.co.uk

I hope that's a cross in her pocket

The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours sentenced the accused to a six-month suspended jail term, three years in probation and Dh10,000 in fines. The police arrested the man in the upscale mall while he was wearing glittering women’s clothing, underwear and mascara.

Courtesy EnglishChosun.com