Trans News Worldwide

[CherryJ]

Lovely Nikka, happy to hear the good news xx thank you for the post

First Trans school in Chile

[smalltownguy]

June 13, 2018

Pakistan: 13 transgenders to contest July 25 elections

Reports said that two transgender leaders - Nayab Ali and Lubna Lal - will contest on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Gulalai (PTI-G) tickets, while the remaining 11 candidates will run as independents..
In 2009, Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognise a third sex, allowing transgenders to obtain identity cards.
Thirteen members of the transgender community will be contesting the July 25 elections on various seats across Pakistan, the All Pakistan Transgender Election Network (Apten) said today. It said two transgender leaders – Nayab Ali and Lubna Lal – will contest on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Gulalai (PTI-G) tickets, while the remaining 11 candidates will run as independents, Dawn reported.
However, they said, at least two transgender people – one in Peshawar and another in Haripur – were unable to submit nomination papers because they were beaten up and harassed after their intentions to contest elections became public knowledge. Apten, a rights group focusing on the invisibility of leaders from the transgender community, comprises TransAction KP, the Sindh Transgender Welfare Network, the Balochistan Alliance for Transgender and Intersex Community and the Punjab Transgender Foundation.

The group, led by TransAction KP President Farzana Jan, also demanded removal of systemic barriers to entry of transgender people into politics, and for political parties to induct more members of the community into their ranks. It said the network would form its own political party after the elections. The group said that it was aiming for the party to be registered before local body elections.

In 2009, Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognise a third sex, allowing transgenders to obtain identity cards. They number at least half a million people in the country, according to several studies, but their representation in politics and many other spheres of life remains negligible.

[smalltownguy]

June 15 2018

Smear test campaign drops the word ‘woman’ to avoid transgender offence

Cancer Research UK has been criticised for dropping the word “woman” from its latest public health campaign against cervical cancer in an effort to be more inclusive of transgender people.

Cervical screening rates have fallen to a 20-year low in England. Every year more than 3,200 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 890 die.

However, the charity’s latest message for cervical screening awareness week has prompted dismay after it encouraged “everyone aged 25-64 with a cervix” to go for their smear test, with no mention of women at all.

[smalltownguy]

June 20, 2018

Mercer County school district the latest to adopt bathroom policy for transgender students

Starting next school year, students at Lakeview School District in Mercer County will be allowed to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Students who are uncomfortable sharing facilities with a transgender student will be able to use a private restroom near the high school guidance offices.

The Lakeview School District — and its roughly 1,200 students — joins a growing number across the country that are adopting policies that prohibit discrimination against transgender students.

“Nationally, we are seeing [more] local school districts, big and small, urban, suburban, rural, adopting policies to ensure equal opportunity for transgender students,” said Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C. “All school districts have transgender students, and they're recognizing this really is necessary to make sure the students can participate in school. If you can't go to the bathroom, you can't really go to school and learn and participate.”

Besides the anti-discrimination protections of the federal Title IX law, more and more states have written laws to prevent discrimination against transgender people, Ms. Tobin said, and the courts have weighed in on the issue, as well. School districts across the country have responded by writing their own policies.

Lakeview Superintendent Hendley Hoge said that while considering the change, his district studied the policies and reactions in the Pine-Richland and Boyertown Area school districts, which both ultimately wound up before a judge.

Pine-Richland last year settled a lawsuit brought by three transgender students after the district enacted a policy requiring them to either use a unisex bathroom or the bathroom that corresponded to their biological gender.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the Boyertown Area School District’s policy to allow all students to use the restroom or locker room that corresponds with their gender identity. Four students had sued to overturn the policy, arguing it violated their privacy to share facilities with transgender students.

Lakeview is “squarely in line with how the law is developing,” Ms. Tobin said. The district’s policy — letting all students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity and providing a private alternative for students who may be uncomfortable with that — is similar to the sample policy the National Center for Transgender Equality has posted on its website, she added.

Mr. Hoge said in an email that the Lakeview school board did not adopt a new policy, but rather changed the bathroom rules to be in compliance with the school district’s existing non-discrimination policy.

He would not say how many transgender students the district has, but said he has gotten “many negative concerns” from the community since he sent home a letter explaining the change in April. He said he’s also gotten positive feedback, as well.

“As superintendent, I believe in being transparent and keeping our Lakeview community informed,” Mr. Hoge said. “As I have shared with numerous residents over the past month, this may not be the most popular thing that I am doing, but it is the right thing.”

The Lakeview school board will hold a public meeting July 17 to address concerns and “highlight the rights of transgender students, as well as the rights of students that feel uncomfortable with a transgender [student] sharing a restroom.”

“The Lakeview School District believes that all of its student are valued members of the school community and should have a positive education experience,” Mr. Hoge wrote in the letter. “A key component of a positive educational experience for all students is the need to understand and appreciate the differences between themselves and others.”

[smalltownguy]

June 23, 2018

Cynthia Nixon celebrates her transgender son: ‘I salute him’

Former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon has shared a heart-warming Instagram post celebrating her son, Samuel, and the 14th Annual Trans Day of Action.

“I’m so proud of my son Samuel Joseph Moses (called Seph) who graduated college this month,” she wrote. “I salute him and everyone else marking today’s #TransDayofAction. #TDOA.”

This very public nod to Samuel’s transgender status is the first time Cynthia has openly shared this fact.

The 52-year-old and her son are pictured both sporting massive grins taken at Samuel’s graduation from The University of Chicago.

Back in November 1996, Samuel was born as Samantha to Cynthia and her then partner, Danny Mozes.

Since the former TV star began her campaign for Governor of New York, Samuel has been absent from the public eye.

Despite the mum-of-three attending many Pride events during the past month, her son hadn’t been seen at any with her.

The keen politico also has another son with Danny, Charles Ezekiel, born in December 2002 and a son, Max, with new partner, Christine, Marinoni.

Cynthia is well-known for keeping her personal life extremely private and rarely speaking about her children so this latest public show of love comes as a sweet surprise.

[smalltownguy]

June 25, 2018

Ohio Republicans Introduce Bill That Would Allow Parents to Deny Transgender Children the Right to Transition

Last week, the Ohio GOP decided to push forward with a bill that would allow parents the ability to deny their transgender child body autonomy and the right to transition.
Sponsored by Republican House Reps. Tom Brinkman and Paul Zeltwanger, House Bill 658 grants parents sweeping rights to “withhold consent for gender dysphoria treatment or activities that are designed and intended to form a child’s conception of sex and gender.”

HB 658 also prevents schools from affirming a child’s trans identity without the consent of the young person’s parents. Violating that portion of the legislation would result in a 4th-degree felony.

Despite the fact studies have proven that children are aware of their gender identity around the age of 4, this bill authorizes parents to reject their children's gender identity or expression.

Perhaps more damning, one of the other provisions of HB 658 prevents Ohio courts from denying custody to parents in the event they block their transgender child from transitioning.

"[The bill's] a waste of time and money that could otherwise be spent on actual issues affecting Ohio's minorities," Kate Kloss, a transwoman from Cleveland, tells Scene. "And it's insulting to teenagers, cis or trans, to say that they can't make decisions for themselves."

Rep. Brinkman says the legislation was inspired following a February court ruling by the Ohio First District Court of Appeals in which the grandparents of a 17-year-old transboy were awarded custody after his family attempted to force him into conversion therapy.

Meaning, if a child wanted to move in with more affirming family members that would support their transition, the child would be completely helpless and would be stuck living in a non-affirming household.

“They should have that responsibility,” Brinkman told WOSU Public Media. “And if somebody doesn't like it, you're emancipated at age 18 and you can go do whatever the heck you want.”

The problem with that, however, is that transitioning later in life can be extremely difficult. Once a transgender person has already gone through puberty, reversing those changes is much harder than if the child was able to transition beforehand. Transmen would have developed breasts. Transwomen would have already developed deeper voices and facial hair.

While being trans is about existing and not about passing, disallowing a transperson to transition as early as possible is denying them the opportunity to live authentically as soon as possible.

Additionally, the law seems frivolous because children under 18 years old already need parental or guardian consent to begin hormone treatment. There is no set age limit for starting on prescription hormones related to transition, and doctors need to assess a patient’s situation on a case-by-case basis. This law is specifically about preventing the affirmation of transgender youth disguised as a concern for their "health."

"Medical professionals are more qualified than parents to make decisions about a teenager's healthcare," says Kloss. "I wonder what [the legislators] could accomplish if they cared as much about police brutality as they do about interfering in teen healthcare."

According to a statement from Equality Ohio, “This unnecessary and discriminatory bill does nothing to support youth and families, In fact, it puts the livelihoods of some of our most vulnerable youth—transgender youth—further at risk with bullying and discrimination by potentially forcing teachers to out them.”

The bill attempts to perpetuate a dangerous narrative surrounding transgender youth, despite all research proving that access to transition related care is vital in allowing a healthy future for transgender individuals.

This is just the latest anti-trans legislature to be introduced in Ohio, wasting valuable time that could be spent on anti-discrimination and protection legislation, as Transpeople are at higher risks of violence and discrimination than anyone else under the LGBTQ umbrella.

HB 658 received a hearing from the Community and Family Advancement committee earlier this week, but it remains to be seen whether it can find support in the Ohio General Assembly.

If it does, it can only be expected that a massive pushback from progressive groups and protests would soon follow.

[smalltownguy]

29 June 2018

Transgender row makes waves in London park pond

A tranquil pond on London's Hampstead Heath has become the latest battleground over gender identity after a decision to allow transgender people to bathe in the women-only enclosure.

The issue has divided female bathers between those who want to preserve a "sanctuary" and those in favour of "inclusiveness".

The oasis amid the noise of the British capital is one of three fee-paying ponds that have been open for swimming for several decades in the north London park.

Another is for men only, while the third is mixed.

On a scorching day in the middle of a summer heat wave, around a dozen women -- some topless -- read or chatted around the pond, while some cooled off with a dip.

"For many women who come here, you're in your own little world," said Ann Haidari, 51, a teaching assistant who comes to the pond several times a week, all year round.

"I really love my privacy here and I imagine most people who come here want that," she added.

"I love the fact that it's very much a female sanctuary. It's a rare thing."

The decision late last year by the City of London, which governs the green space, to allow men identifying themselves as women to access the pond and its changing rooms has unsettled many regulars.

'Uncomfortable'

"These rules are very open to abuse. Self-identification (as a woman) is quite ridiculous," said Amy Desir, a 30-year-old mother of two who strongly opposes the measure.

"We're in a vulnerable situation. You might be bathing topless. It's about privacy, dignity, and our rights. It's an attack on our safety," she said.

Desir said women with daughters and visitors of different religions such as Orthodox Jews and Muslims who have strict cultural rules were particularly affected.

"It's a very different atmosphere," she said, adding that one day they were joined by a "man who was trying to wear a costume, but obviously he had a penis so it didn't quite fit."

"The space where women felt free and relaxed is now a space where they are feeling uncomfortable," she said.

Clare Stewart, a 58-year-old acupuncturist, said she comes regularly with her teenage daughter because "I don't want to be bothered by predatory men".

"They could go to the men's pond, there's no need for them to come here," she added. "It would blow the whole thing apart."

But other bathers defended the "inclusive" move, including writer Anna Russell, 53.

"You don't think anybody who's a blokey bloke would have the balls to come here," she joked.

"Maybe make a separate space for their (transgender) privacy," suggested 64-year-old Vicky Joseph.

"That would solve the problem for people who find male genitalia offensive," she said.

Self-declaration

Desir believes the City of London is one of many organisations that have adopted similar measures in anticipation of government reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, to make status change "less bureaucratic and intrusive".

Currently, a certificate of sex change can be obtained even without transformative surgery, if the person has lived for at least two years as a member of the desired sex and can provide a medical report diagnosing gender dysphoria -- a condition in which gender identification does not correspond with biological sex.

A self-declaration procedure will be considered in a consultation to be launched in early July.

Opposing the move, Desir launched the #ManFriday campaign this year, with females posing as males accessing men-only places and events highlighting the implications of gender self-identification.

In May, in one of their most publicised stunts, they swam in the men's pond before being removed by police.

"The men started very angry, they were shouting at us, but once they understood why we were there they were actually very supportive," Desir said.

City of London officials refused to confirm who was allowed in the male-only pond, saying only that "all lifeguards and managers at Hampstead Heath ponds have taken transgender awareness training courses".

Under pressure from an online petition signed by more than 12,000 people, the government already appears to be relenting.

Responding to the petition, the government said it "has not yet decided whether or not to introduce a self-declaration model, and will not change the Equality Act 2010 provisions which support organisations to run single-sex services" such as toilets, changing rooms or shelters, it said.

[smalltownguy]

July 02, 2018

Women's university in Tokyo to accept transgender students

TOKYO - A national women's university in Tokyo said Monday it will start from April 2020 accepting students born male but who identify themselves as female.

Ochanomizu University, Japan's first institution of higher education for women with a 142-year history, is believed to become the first women's university in the country to accept transgender students, according to the education ministry.

Women's universities in Japan have restricted applicants to those registered as women under the country's family register system.

But many of the universities, including Tsuda University and Japan Women's University, both in Tokyo, are considering modifying their qualifications as similar moves have been taken by universities in the United States in recent years.

Ochanomizu University will hold a press conference in the near future to explain the details of its measure, including how it plans to confirm whether an applicant is transgender.

The university said it intends to accept "transgender students who hope to study at a women's university based on their gender identity."

"There is no reason to turn down transgenders as long as they are eager to study at a women's university," said a 20-year-old student attending the university.

A graduate student, 25, welcomed the move too, saying, "Some students might mind what to do with restrooms and dressing rooms, but I personally have no problems with it. A greater variety in people on the campus brings more fun."

The latest move comes as Japan is slowly starting to accommodate the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Some municipalities have started recognizing LGBT couples due to the lack of a national-level system to recognize such partnerships, while some junior high schools are introducing genderless uniforms or flexible uniform codes to support sexual minority students.

One in 13 people in Japan is estimated to be a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, according to a survey conducted in 2015 by the Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Inc.

[smalltownguy]

July 05, 2018

The first transgender model was crowned Miss Spain, and now she'll compete to become Miss Universe

Pride Month might be over, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate this latest victory for the LGBTQ community. For the first time in history, a transgender woman will be competing in the Miss Universe pageant, and this is obviously huge news.

According to Express, 26-year-old Angela Ponce won Miss Spain on June 29th after competing against 22 other contestants, and that means that later this year, she’ll be competing in the 2018 Miss Universe pageant when it’s held in the Philippines in December, making her the first trans woman ever to compete.

Considering the fact that, until 2012, trans women were banned from the competition, this is a Very Big Deal, and it seems like Ponce is excited for the opportunity. Earlier this week, she shared a photo on Instagram of herself in her crown after winning the pageant, thanking the people who have been there for her from the start.

Her caption is in Spanish, but she writes that she has finally accomplished a lifelong dream and that she will continue working towards tolerance and acceptance for all people.

“Today begins a new chapter for me,” she wrote in Spanish. “I’m going to the @missuniverse pageant with the awareness and commitment to carry forward a message of inclusion, respect, tolerance, love for oneself, love for others.”

So many congratulations to Ponce, the new Miss Spain. We can’t wait to see her compete, because whether or not she wins Miss Universe is irrelevant — just by competing at all, she’s changing the world. Fingers crossed that this leads to even more inclusion in pageants from here on out. All women deserve the chance to shine — in whatever way they choose.

[smalltownguy]

July 5, 2018

Teddy Geiger, ex-teen pop star who came out as transgender, finally doing fame her way

The day the songwriter Teddy Geiger came out publicly as transgender — in a playful Instagram comment sent from Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu — was the same day she shared the news with Shawn Mendes, the 19-year-old pop phenom who has been her closest and most successful A-list collaborator.

It was last October, and she had already spent roughly three weeks writing and recording for Mendes’ new album, hoping to rekindle the spark of their multiplatinum singles “Stitches,” “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back,” “Mercy” and “Treat You Better.”

“We hadn’t talked about it,” Geiger recalled recently over eggs in the San Fernando Valley, “but I was dressing in all women’s clothing and wearing makeup.” So as she sat on a studio couch and wrote a response to fans who had wondered online about her evolving appearance, Geiger showed a draft to her musical family.

“Should I post this?” she asked, effectively answering any questions that may have been lingering in the studio. The other musicians encouraged her to go for it, and so she did, concluding: “this is who i have been for a looooong time. I love u guys. Talk sooooon byeeee,” punctuated with four emojis: A lipstick kiss. A sparkling heart. A lightning bolt. A peace sign.

“She let it out, and she was just so happy — I can’t even describe it,” Mendes said. Then they all got back to work.

For Geiger, 29, this new chapter as perhaps the most prominent producer and songwriter in pop who also happens to be a trans woman is coinciding with the richest creative moment in her decidedly non-traditional, decade-plus career. Once a rising teen pop star herself, Geiger turned away from the spotlight around the ripe age of 21, retreating to the basements and studios where she had always been most comfortable.

While hundreds of songs she has written and recorded since exist only in an array of computer folders, a select few made their way to One Direction, Icona Pop and Mendes, all but ending any chance Geiger had at receding fully into music-business anonymity. Mendes’ self-titled album, released in May, featured 11 songs written and produced in part by Geiger and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart. The single “In My Blood” is a Top 40 radio staple and reached No. 11 on the Hot 100.

Predictably, demand for Geiger is way up: Lately, she has been in the studio with the Dixie Chicks, as well as rising artists like King Princess, Olivia O’Brien and Lauv. Along with another close collaborator, Ricky Reed, she wrote the ballad “Unless It’s With You” from the latest Christina Aguilera album, and the self-love declaration “Liberated” by Dej Loaf and Leon Bridges. This month, she will emerge from the behind the scenes to reprise her first role — that of the public-facing artist, billed now as teddy<3 — with a new single, “I Was in a Cult,” a fuzzy, sturdy rock song about “acting from a place of freedom.”

“I just feel more open,” Geiger said, well aware that emotional intimacy is the lingua franca of a good pop songwriting session. “Because I’m willing to talk about everything now, people are then more open with me.”

She added: “There’s no longer this piece of me back there saying, ‘Don’t go there.’ I used to find that I’d sing songs and think, ooh, it sounds like I’m talking about that stuff, and I don’t want to talk about that stuff. But it was just coming out.”

Reed said only in retrospect did he notice “these sort of cryptic little hints and clues buried in these half-spoken, half-mumbled melodic passes and demos” — nearly subconscious nods toward struggles with identity. “Teddy was already really open and great to be around,” he said, “but that has increased tenfold. When you feel all of that freedom and honesty, how could you not just radiate it?”

Known as a studio whiz, proficient on every instrument and quick to offer a melody or turn of phrase, Geiger is also an eternal font of silliness, with her affinity for inside jokes, arcane YouTube videos and nonsensical, pun-heavy ditties well-known to all collaborators. Musically, she specializes in what she called “roughing up pop music a bit,” leaning on organic rock instrumentation in a digitized world and hoping to keep the radio as idiosyncratic as possible. (A track she is producing for O’Brien is built around a cellphone recording of Geiger making a beat on the tab of a beer can while at a house party.)

Justin Tranter, a fellow pop songwriter who also started in scuzzier bands, called Geiger a “musician’s musician” — one whose coming out helps to shift the landscape for queer creators.

“To see that this trans person is an instrumental queen — one of the most technically talented people in the pop world — is a really amazing thing not just for our industry but for the world,” Tranter said. “For young LGBTQ people to know that a trans woman has co-written and produced some of the biggest hits of the last couple years is beyond inspiring and beyond important.”

Mendes, among the only current pop stars to convincingly wield a guitar, was a natural ally for Geiger, whose early career mirrored his own. A budding star on the social network Vine, Mendes aimed to cross over into the mainstream and found his first defining smash in a demo of “Stitches” sung by Geiger.

“She’s mesmerizing and just has a star quality to her,” Mendes said. “She was the person I was trying to sing like.” His version reached No. 4 on the charts and now has more than 1 billion views on YouTube.

For Mendes’ next album, “Illuminate,” the pair wrote together directly (including “Treat You Better,” 1.5 billion views), cementing a kinship that went beyond music. “I met someone who really acts like me in the studio, who really sings like me, who gets excited like me,” Mendes said. “It was a serious, serious connection — deeper than a songwriter — and from then on, I decided she has to be a part of everything I do.”

Geiger, who signed to Columbia Records at 16 as a singer-songwriter in the mold of John Mayer and Ryan Cabrera, saw flashes of her own past pressures in what Mendes was experiencing. “Everyone that’s around you is working for you, and you feel responsible for them,” she said. “But also you’re a child.”

Geiger’s late teens were a pop-star movie montage that ended in the inevitable screeching crash. First there was the VH1 competition show, “In Search of the Partridge Family,” followed by a record deal and a slot opening for Hilary Duff on tour. Not long after came a hit single, “For You I Will (Confidence),” with a video featuring the reality starlet of the moment, Kristin Cavallari.

Full-blown heartthrob status came next: a “Got Milk?” ad, a tour of her (parents’) house on MTV Cribs, the cover of Seventeen magazine, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and a partnership with Procter & Gamble that positioned Geiger as eye-candy to sell deodorant and makeup to young women. (“If they associate the brand with the first time they saw Teddy Geiger’s eyes — well, you can’t buy that kind of thing!” an executive said at the time.)

“I was going through adolescence and having sex for the first time, but it was in this really weird context,” Geiger said. “I didn’t have a real support group.”

What she did have was an overeager business team that ran her ragged on tour and pushed her toward Hollywood, including appearances in The Rocker, a goofy teen comedy starring Rainn Wilson and Emma Stone, and the short-lived CBS show Love Monkey.

“The only roles I had done were musician roles, and then they were sending me out for the lead in ‘Spider-Man,’ or like, the military boy with a crew cut,” Geiger said, motioning to her lanky frame. “Um, it’s not going to work.”

Before turning 21, she had returned home to Rochester, unsigned and uninterested in the constantly cranking machine. The years that followed were full of exploration and self-discovery — including a particularly poignant acid trip — as Geiger honed her writing and production, churning out songs in every style, from ‘80s pop-rock to scuffed-up punk to experimental psychedelia.

“Having a hit is fine, but doing the work is what I want,” she said. “I get more excited the day of creation than once it’s big.”

But even as her songwriting began to find new audiences via other artists, and she moved from New York back to California to pursue the industry from another angle, Geiger was plagued by intense anxiety, exacerbated by a dependence on cigarettes and marijuana. By last summer, Geiger said, she was smoking up to two packs and a half-ounce of weed a day; she had also developed obsessive-compulsive tendencies that manifested as ruminating thoughts and a fixation on keeping her nails — which she had begun painting on the advice of an ex-girlfriend — pristine.

“It was the only femininity that I was expressing, so I wanted it to be so perfect,” she said. “It was the only thing I could control.”

In September, Geiger entered a month-long treatment program to address her anxiety and, as she put it, “get to the bottom of the gender thing.” Parsing the sources of her shame and anger in marathon group-therapy sessions, she emerged ready to confront her truth with friends and family, all of whom she said have been supportive.

“I can remember back to being 5 and looking in the mirror, feeling like a girl and wanting that,” she said. “But growing up in Rochester, there were limited resources. I’d never met a trans person before.” It was not until her 20s that she even really knew they existed. Geiger pointed to increased transgender visibility in popular culture, including the models Hari Nef and Teddy Quinlivan, as crucial to her journey, and said she hoped her own coming out (and its typically lighthearted documentation on Instagram) might do the same for others.

As soon as she was back from treatment, Geiger said, “I threw away all my boys clothes and started wearing makeup.” She said she has not smoked anything since, diverting the money saved to beauty supplies and studio gear, and filling recording breaks by firing pellet guns at bottles from her back porch. (She is a great shot.)

Geiger met Mendes in Malibu to begin work on his album the day after she returned.

“It was the first time I ever saw her sober,” Mendes recalled. “She was like Teddy, but on steroids. There was this electricity running through her.”

And while weeks went by before Geiger addressed her newly public reality with her collaborators, the adjustment period, she said, was all but nonexistent.

Mendes said he would never forget when he “unconsciously referred to Teddy as ‘she’ for the first time in the flow of conversation.” Geiger stopped what she was doing, turned around and “looked at me with an overwhelming amount of happiness and joy beaming out of her eyes,” he said.

“It was right then that everything really made sense to me,” Mendes said. “For everybody that ever questions why people may choose to transition, if they had a best friend or somebody they loved dearly look at them the way Teddy looked at me in that moment, they would no longer question it.”

“To me,” he added, “Teddy is more her than she’s ever been.”