Latest news with #transgender
CBS News
an hour ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Thousands join 22nd annual Trans March in San Francisco
The 22nd annual Trans March took place in San Francisco on Friday night. It's one of the largest events of its kind in the world. Organizers say it was more important than ever to come together this year and support each other. Roughly 20,000 people marched from Dolores Park to the Tenderloin, as one trans community supporting each other. The Reyes-Hodges family marched for the first time, with their daughter recently coming out as trans. "Coming out myself when I was young, that was hard," said Nancy Hodges. "I can't imagine how hard that was for my parents. Then when she came out, it was like crap." "As a mother, just thinking about the obstacles she will face," said Zulma Reyes. "Not about the physical or anything about the transition itself, because I will support her no matter what. But what are the obstacles and challenges? Life is already hard enough." Pothi Reyes Hodges says she was nervous and cried as she told her parents about her transition but at this march feels lucky to be supported by the community and by her parents. "I'd rather they be here with than not," Hodges said. "It means a lot that they both came out here." "We love her, so that is what it is," said Hodges. "I'd much rather have her here with me and with us than not at all because they don't feel accepted." Organizers of the Trans March say this year's event is an act of resistance. To be trans is to transcend the idea of every binary that exists," organizer Eli Berry said. "Nothing is about either or." Berry said that with a wave of anti-trans legislation introduced this year, it was especially important for the trans community to speak out. "There's an argument of whether trans should be in LGBT," Berry said. "However, for me, trans people are disproportionately impacted. What that means is there's not even that much of us, but there are more of us that get arrested. More of us that are homeless. More of us that can't get jobs." Many say seeing this turnout gives them hope for the future. That one day trans people will be accepted and understood. "We're all on this earth for so little," said Reyes. "Such a small amount of time. All we want is happiness, love to just live life."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Names of Sam Nordquist, Jiggly Caliente, Lady Chablis, and more added to Stonewall Wall of Honor
Names of seven transgender trailblazers were added to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall Inn Thursday night. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. The Wall of Honor posthumously celebrates LGBTQ+ activists, artists, and others who played crucial roles in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. This year's inductees are all transgender at a time when trans Americans are under attack from the federal government and elsewhere. They were inducted by the National LGBTQ Task Force and the International Imperial Court Council. 'This year's focus on transgender trailblazers and changemakers underscores the importance of recognizing our history and the current climate for our trans siblings,' Cathy Renna, communications director for the Task Force, said in a press release. 'As we continue to fiercely battle against attacks on our trans and nonbinary communities, we are honored to uplift their legacies. Their courage inspires our ongoing fight for liberation, both within the Task Force family and across every queer advocacy organization.' 'In these times, when there are radical and extreme campaigns trying to erase our transgender community, the Imperial Courts and Task Force are reminding us all that transgender people have not only always been here, but have also been some of our community's most dedicated activists and leaders,' added Nicole Murray-Ramirez, founder of the Wall of Honor, a San Diego city commissioner, and titular head of the Imperial Court System. This year's honorees are Ruddy Martinez, Chilli Pepper, Lynn Conway, Alan L. Hart, Jiggly Caliente, the Lady Chablis, and Sam Nordquist. Related: Martinez, a.k.a. 'Mami Ruddys,' was the matriarch of Puerto Rico's LGBTQ+ community and a pioneering drag artist, activist, and trans woman who, since the 1980s, opened her home to young queer people rejected by their families. Chilli Pepper appeared on talk shows, including Phil Donahue's and Oprah Winfrey's, in the 1980s to discuss life as a trans woman and debunk harmful stereotypes about trans and queer people. She also was an activist for AIDS awareness. Conway was an electrical engineer, computer scientist, and trans activist. While facing discrimination as a trans woman in her field, she created a simplified method of microchip design and helped develop the Very Large-Scale Integration design. Hart, a physicist and writer, was among the first people to receive gender-affirming surgery and identify and live as a man. He attended medical school after the typhoid epidemic in 1912 and contributed to tuberculosis Caliente, a.k.a. Bianca Castro-Arabejo, died at age 44 on April 27 of this year. The Filipino-American drag queen rose to fame in season 4 of RuPaul's Drag Race and also starred in the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. She was a resident judge of Drag Race Philippines and appeared in Pose as Veronica Ferocity. The Lady Chablis, a performer in Savannah, Georgia, was portrayed in John Berendt's nonfiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which highlighted the city's underground nightlife scene and a scandalous murder. She played herself in the film based on the book. While publicizing the film, she charmed journalists and audiences with her charismatic presence. Nordquist, a Black trans man from Minnesota, died in February in upstate New York after being tortured for more than a month. Seven people have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with his death. All have pleaded not guilty. Nordquist's family attended the ceremony. 'We just wanted to thank everybody for acknowledging Sam and having Sam being honored on the wall,' his mother, Linda Nordquist, said at the event, according to TV station WHEC. 'There's no words to express how we're feeling.' The Wall of Honor was inaugurated in 2019 with 50 names to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Each year, additional honorees are added, joining a living memorial of LGBTQ+ legends such as Leslie Jordan, Gloria Allen, Terrence McNally, Harvey Milk, James Baldwin, Keith Haring, José Sarria, Audre Lorde, Marsha P. Johnson, and Matthew Shepard. This article originally appeared on Advocate: Names of Sam Nordquist, Jiggly Caliente, Lady Chablis, and more added to Stonewall Wall of Honor
Japan Times
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Diva of dualities: Maria Seiren sings opera and noh in both a female and male voice
When opera singer Maria Seiren opens her mouth, you're never sure which voice you will hear. One moment she is singing an aria in a high, warbling soprano. The next, she switches to a booming tenor, effortlessly leaping back and forth in a duet with herself. The first-ever winner of talent show competition 'Japan's Got Talent' dazzles both with her ambivoce (Seiren's term for dual male and female singing voice) and her elaborate costumes and headdresses, designed by Mieko Ueda. Even offstage she rocks a flamboyant floral blazer and elegant long dark hair when we meet on the ground floor of the offices of MondoParallelo, her own opera production company. Seiren rejects rigid definitions and embraces experimentation. She masterfully mixes styles such as classical opera and traditional noh theater, high art and entertainment, as she blends the masculine with the feminine — in spite of, or maybe precisely because, she has had difficulties with gender roles from a young age. 'I never really cared about gender,' Seiren says. 'I never fully grasped the concept that men and women had to be one way or the other. 'My first consciousness of being transgender was the color of the randoseru (school backpack). Black randoseru is for boys, red randoseru for girls, but I wouldn't follow those rules. My father was always strict about gender roles ... he gave me a hard time. But my spirit wasn't broken. I was a fighter.' Thanks in part to her mother, who sang traditional songs to her as a child, Seiren developed a deep love for music and trained herself to maintain her higher vocal range through puberty. She had not, however, seriously considered entering music as a career until designer Junko Koshino invited her to sing at one of her fashion shows in 2013. Inspired by one of her icons, pop-opera queen Sarah Brightman, Seiren covered 'Time to Say Goodbye' for the event using her soprano and tenor voice switch. To her surprise, a YouTube video of the performance hit 15 million views. 'That was the first time I experienced singing as a professional in front of a lot of people,' Seiren says. 'Up until then I was just singing for fun. That experience opened my eyes to a lot of other possibilities — what if singing was my calling?' Maria Seiren has struggled with the rigidity of gender norms since childhood, but also didn't want to be stereotyped as the queer character on TV. She founded her own production company to ensure creative experimentation and freedom. | Yutaka Mori © 2025 Mondo Parallelo Inc. Looking back, Seiren says 2013 was a great year as it also kickstarted her close business partnership with Fumiaki Uemura, now general director of MondoParallelo. An advertising agency director, Uemura had no professional background in music when they met, but he knew many people in the world of entertainment and he had ideas on how Seiren could boost her budding career and stand out in the industry. He became her mentor, friend and, ultimately, her adoptive father. 'Back then, I was getting a lot of offers from TV to play the onee talent role, the comedic queer character. Those roles made me uncomfortable, so I turned the offers down,' Seiren says. '(Uemura) saw he needed to protect me from people who would want to exploit my talent and queerness. So he decided to legally adopt me.' While Seiren never attended music school, she began intensely training her operatic vocals under the guidance of Takehiro Shida , as well as her Italian pronunciation and mouth shape under vocal coach Francesca Miscio. When asked which of her two voices feels more authentically her own, Seiren says, 'They both feel true to me.' She differentiates the energy that she puts into vocal techniques. 'For soprano, I focus on the contraction in the upper area of my head and think of echo, vibration and softness,' she explains. 'When it comes to the tenor, I think of power, strength, intense energy and vibrations that reach the ground. Both ranges exist very naturally to me; switching comes naturally. Sometimes I don't even notice I've shifted from one to the other.' While Seiren's aim has always been limitless creativity, fusing opera and noh theater in particular was Uemura's idea, as part of his master plan to enhance Seiren's uniqueness in the highly competitive music industry. Initially, Seiren was unimpressed by the notoriously slow and rigid noh theater. 'It was actually emotionally painful when I first had to sit through it,' she confides, recalling her first exposure to noh in 2013. 'At the same time, I remember going to see another play called 'Toru'. After the play ended, I heard many people saying, 'Wow, the moon was so beautiful!' and I was like, 'What moon? There was no moon!'' Noh is a practice in minimalism: minimal movement, expression and set design. The true art of an experienced noh performer is igniting the audience's imagination with just a few gestures and pantomimes, such as gazing at an imaginary moon reflected in an imaginary bucket of water. Seiren knew the magic of noh had finally captured her after seeing a play called 'Kanawa.' During one scene when a namanari (half-demon) woman suddenly droops her head and curses, Seiren thought she saw a huge storm whirling behind her. 'I could see the storm that no one else could see!,' she says. Soon after, Seiren began training in noh dancing and acting with actor and teacher Akio Awaya and eventually entered the Kita-ryu School , one of the five branches of noh, which specializes in dynamic movement. Noh, she found, was more about silence and standing still than moving and singing. Profound sadness could be shown by wiping a single tear; there is a depth of art and emotion Seiren says she now always strives to bring out in her opera and noh collaborations. At the same time, she says the vocal techniques of opera and noh are not dissimilar. MondoParallelo's latest show, 'Keisei Aoshigure Torimono Emaki' (The Mystery of the Summer Rain Courtesan), combined classical opera, rock, disco, old-timey kayōkyoku pop ballads and enka folk songs. | Tetsuo Isowaki © 2025 Mondo Parallelo Inc. 'The biggest difference with singing is in opera you lift your face to project your voice and resonate with the stone ceiling. In noh, you lower your face to resonate your voice with the wooden floor of the stage,' she says. Seiren's goal in learning the history and traditional practices of noh is to more effectively mix the art form with other types of performance and to create something new instead of simply showcasing two things together on the same stage. 'In my show, the singing aspect is mostly opera and the movement and expression of my body is noh,' Seiren says. 'It's like taking two eggs, cracking them and mixing them together!' MondoParallelo's latest show, 'Keisei Aoshigure Torimono Emaki' (The Mystery of the Summer Rain Courtesan), was a particularly wild omelet, whipping together classical opera, rock, disco, old-timey kayōkyoku pop ballads and enka folk songs. A particularly illustrative scene: The cast of courtesans, in elaborate noh kimono and front-facing obi knots signifying their occupation, assume position in slow noh-step, then break out into disco hit 'She Works Hard for the Money' by Donna Summer. The show was the eighth production of noh and opera by MondoParallelo, the first being 'Otohana no Inori' (Prayer of the Song Flower) in 2020. The next opera-noh play, 'Yumekikyo' (The Bellflower of Dreams), where Seiren plays the historical figure Gracia Hosogawa, daughter of samurai general Mitsuhide Akechi, will premier in October at the Umewaka Noh Theater Hall . Seiren says the production will lean more heavily toward noh and there will be more professional noh actors joining the cast. 'Japan is usually not enthusiastic about art like opera and noh because they're considered boring. I was glad my voice could reach so many people,' says Seiren. Seiren has released four albums, including the diva's long-awaited 10th anniversary collection 'One More Time' on June 18. Though her career has spanned over a decade, the past two years have been the start of an exciting era for the opera diva: Seiren's participation in Japan's first ever 'Japan's Got Talent' in 2023, her victory and, a year later, her preliminary performance on 'America's Got Talent: Fantasy League' brought her fame not only throughout Japan, but worldwide. Moving forward, she hopes to continue to grow with her company. Most of all, however, Seiren intends to keep living and performing true to who she is. 'Especially for transgender kids,' she says. 'I want to encourage them to pursue their own dreams. I want them to see that anything is possible.' For more information, visit
Fox News
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Texas parents sue Houston school district for secretly transitioning their child against their instructions
Texas parents filed a lawsuit Monday against a Houston school district they say "repeatedly" violated their requests to address their daughter as a girl. The lawsuit, filed by Sarah and Terry Osborn, alleges that school officials in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) referred to their daughter by a masculine name and with male pronouns for at least two years after the parents instructed them not to. According to the filing, during their daughter's freshman year, the student's theater teacher asked the Osborns what pronouns to use for their daughter. After instructing the teacher to only use female pronouns, the parents thought that was the end of it. But over the next two years, the parents discovered that school staff continued to address their daughter as a boy during the school day, without their knowledge or consent. "The Osborns only discovered HISD's actions because they found schoolwork that referred to their daughter by a masculine name," the complaint stated. Despite several meetings with staff and the school principal, the lawsuit alleges that school officials continued to ignore the parents' requests. "For at least two school years, pursuant to the policy, over half a dozen HISD employees referred to the Osborns' daughter as a boy without their notice or consent—in fact, notwithstanding their express objection," the complaint said. The lawsuit alleges that the school principal, district superintendent and its counsel did not respond to the parents' request to provide documents explaining its gender policy and whether it included a parental notification requirement. "HISD has a widespread practice and official policy of treating students, including the Osborns' daughter, as the opposite sex without parental notice or consent; against their express instructions; and while actively concealing that treatment from parents. That practice or policy violates the Osborns' fundamental parental rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Additionally, because it burdens their sincerely held religious beliefs and is not neutral or generally applicable, it also violates their First Amendment, free-exercise rights," the complaint stated. "The Osborns want to help their daughter in the way they think best. But the actions of HISD and its employees are preventing them from doing that," it added. The parents say the school's actions violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. They are asking for a preliminary and permanent injunction to demand the district honor their wishes to not refer to their daughter as male. Faith-based legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing the parents in the federal court case. The Bellaire High School counselor and principal are also named as defendants in the suit. ADF senior counsel Kate Anderson said in a statement, "Parents have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children without fear of government interference. Schools should never hide vital information from parents, let alone go against their express instructions related to the well-being of their children. School officials should support parents, not replace them, and we are urging the court to make sure HISD updates its policy to respect these parents' constitutional rights." The HISD told Fox News Digital, "Given there is pending litigation, at this time, the District is unable to discuss any aspect of this incident."
ABC News
11 hours ago
- Health
- ABC News
PNG declares national HIV crisis
Andy Park: Papua New Guinea has declared a national HIV crisis with the number of new cases increasing by almost 50% in the last decade. PNG correspondent Marion Faa has the story. Marian Faa: Living as a transgender woman in Papua New Guinea, discrimination is part of Nancy's everyday life. Nancy: Papua New Guinea, like PNG, they still have this thing that, I mean if you're a man, you're a man and they don't really, like it's a male or a female, it's just one gender. Marian Faa: But when she was diagnosed with HIV 10 years ago, the stigma doubled. Nancy: I felt hopeless. I just felt like that was the end of my life, yeah, and it really affected me mentally. Marian Faa: Nancy is now healthier than ever thanks to the antiretroviral medication she takes regularly. That's not the case for many. Of the 120,000 people estimated to have HIV in PNG, less than half are accessing medication. And there's concern about a dramatic increase in new infections. Ken Wai is the National Health Secretary in PNG. Ken Wai: The biggest worry is we don't want to run the risk of increasing these numbers. Marian Faa: In the past decade, the number of new cases has nearly doubled from around 6,000 per year in 2015 to 11,000 last year. If the trend continues, Mr Wai says the whole country will suffer. Ken Wai: Then we are going to buy HIV medicine only and then we will run out of money to buy TB drugs and malaria drugs and typhoid drugs and diarrhoea drugs and every others. Marian Faa: He says the PNG government is doing its bit. Ken Wai: Government does not fail in providing money to buy HIV medicines. For the last five years, seven years, we've never run out of HIV medicines and we've never run out of HIV testing reagents. Marian Faa: But UNAIDS, the United Nations HIV prevention arm, says the health department could be doing more. Manoela Manova is the UNAIDS country director in PNG. Manoela Manova: The need for controlling the epidemic is huge, it's enormous and it is estimated to cost 280 million per year. It requires resources and our call is for the government at least to match and to allocate double the amount that is currently allocated. Marian Faa: In PNG, authorities say it'll take a concerted effort from individuals, donors and the government to get things under control. They're urging individuals to practice safe sex, use condoms and get regular health checks. Andy Park: Marion Faa there.
