TRANSGENDER WOMAN APPOINTED TO COMMERCE

Bringing T to the Party

Let me begin this post by (re)stating that I am an advocate for transgender rights. I believe in full equality for all LGBT people and support the inclusion of trans rights in any future gay rights legislation.

As such, I am happy to hear that President Obama made the first presidential appointment of a transgender person by selecting Amanda Simpson (formerly Mitchell Simpson) to join the Commerce Department as a Senior Technical Adviser.

I don't know much about her politics, but I do know she ran, unsuccessfully, as a Democrat for Congress and she sits on the Board of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

More importantly, she'll eventually make it into the history books as a trailblazer in politics, breaking barriers like Keith Ellison, Tammy Baldwin, Shirley Chisholm, and Sandra Day O'Connor did before her.   

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Now, at the risk of making what appears to be a bad joke, I can't help but confess my difficulty with the fact that Ms. Simpson (or any other M-to-F transgender woman) changed her first name to Amanda.

When I lived in San Francisco, I vaguely recall going to Asia SF and being served by someone who claimed her name was Amanda Reckinwith.  A great drag queen name, to be sure.  But Amanda cannot be the best name for a former defense industry veteran seeking a long future in politics.

I genuinely wonder if she's inviting jokes so she can build a case for a future lawsuit.

The best explanation I can imagine is that she wants to put people at ease and make people laugh by saying, "I used to be a man, but now I'm Amanda."

All I'm saying is, if I were to become a female-to-male transgender man, I wouldn't change my name to Tam Pon.

All I'm saying is, if I chose to pursue a career in valet parking, I wouldn't change my name to Carlotta Tendant.

All I'm saying is, if I chose to get plastic surgery, I wouldn't change my name to Angie O'Plasty.

All I'm saying is, if I were this woman who went into the hospital for a leg operation and instead received a new anus, I wouldn't change my name to Tara Nusphincter.

--Junichi

MEDICAL NEWS ROUND-UP

This dude's bark is worse than his bite

Medical stories for your reading pleasure:

• One Man's Roots: Check out this story about a poor Indonesian fisherman whose body has been hijacked by tree-like growths. (See photo above.) His bark-like sprouts are actually warts caused by HPV. The article link includes video to satisfy those, like me, who suspect some sort of sci-fi-inspired, Photoshop-created practical joke. Sadly, the man's wife left him, effectively cutting herself off from the family tree. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
  

• "Which side is it? Left?" "Right." "Right?" "Your right": Rhode Island Hospital was fined $50,000 and reprimanded after the -- not once, not twice, but -- third time one of its doctors performed brain surgery on the wrong side of a patient's head. The state has ordered a major investigation to determine how to prevent this from happening again. Doesn't the solution lie in buying a few good Sharpies?

• Trichophagia link of the day: Doctors in Illinois found a 10-pound "bezoar" in an 18-year-old woman's stomach. What's a bezoar? It's a term for swallowed foreign material. What was the foreign material? Hair. Why was there hair in her stomach? Apparently, she suffered from trichophagia, which is the habit of eating one's own hair. Doctors discovered that her stomach pains were caused by the giant schnitzel of her hair, which measured an astonishing 15" x 7" x 7". What's that, reader? You wish you could see a photo of the hair? Well, Happy Hanukkah, then.
  

(Credit: H-Town 537)

--Junichi