Subject: STRAIGHT MEDIA DISCOVERS TRANSPEOPLE - FILM AT 11!
From: Riki Anne Wilchins <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 12:08:07 -0500

STRAIGHT MEDIA DISCOVERS TRANSPEOPLE - FILM AT 11! 
 
Contact: Riki [email-masked] (212)645-1753 
 
[New York - January 15] 
	Sources at ABC's 20/20 have confirmed it will air a groundbreaking segment
on transgender activism, Friday, January 19th, at 10pm (EST).  It will
reportedly focus on TOPS (Transgender Officers Protect & Serve), the
national organization for transgendered police and fire fighters.   
 
	The piece reportedly touches on decorated Florida Deputy Sheriff Tonye
Barreto-Neto, as well as embattled New Jersey police Lt. Janet Aiello . 
Deputy Sheriff Barretto-Neto is believed to be the sworn transexual officer
to come out in the "Bible Belt."  Both officers are founding members of
TOPS, and both have come out recently, with mixed results.  Despite a
distinguished career and her status as a top prospect for promotion to
Captain, Lt. Aiello is currently fighting efforts by the Hoboken PD to have
her discharged.  Deputy Barreto-Neto, initially encountering a supportive
response from the Hillsborough County Sheriff (Tampa, FL), has recently
begun to experience resistance among some deparment officers.   
 
	20/20, a weekly news-magazine and perenial frontrunner in the Nielsen
ratings, is viewed by about 26 million people weekly.  Announcement of the
piece follows hot on the printing of an extensive and unprecedented lead
article on Lt. Aiello in the Sunday New York Times Metro Section, January
14.  The article also mentions TOPS and the steepening trend of trans
political activism.  The article surprise some in the transgender
community, for although the Times has vastly stepped up coverage of gay and
lesbian topics, coverage of bisexual, transgendered and intersexed people
has been conspicuous by its absence. 
 
	The 20/20 confirmation comes after a particularly disturbing piece it
aired last week on the intersexed.  The piece left viewers with the
impression that any genital configuration which was intersexual, i.e., not
clearly male or female, was a "deformity" in need of surgical "correction."
 This view has been mobilized by the surgical establishment to cut away the
sexual functioning of intersexed infants (i.e., clitorises that are "too
large" or penises that are "too small"), depriving them of all erotic
sensitivity in later life, all in the name of a cosmetic standard of
"normalcy."    
 
	Not to be left behind, and proving ime-Life remains as uninformed and
neolithic as ever, the January 15 issue of Time Magazine (article by Bruce
Handy) successfully lumps together "neo-nazis and transsexuals," as
examples of "talk show sleaze."  The activist group Transexual Menace is
currently considered picketing both organizations as this release goes to
press. 
[END]