In the upcoming issue of Seventeen there’s a story about a young woman who discovered that her boyfriend was actually a female. While I think it’s cool that a traditional teen magazine like Seventeen is covering the existence of transgender teenagers, which wouldn’t have happened when I was reading the mag back in the day. But the story’s angle doesn’t do much to discourage negative attitudes towards teenagers who are struggling with their gender identity, and that’s a shame.

• Rapper Lil Mama issued an apology for a comment she made about trannies on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.” As a judge on the show, Mama chastised Leiomy Maldonado, a ‘transgender Beyonce,’ and said, “Leiomy, come on. Your behavior…it’s unacceptable. I just feel that you always have to remember your truth. You were born a man and you are becoming a woman. If you’re going to become a woman, act like a lady.” After an LGBT group complained to her and MTV, Lil Mama apologized. [GLAADblog]
• Actress Hope Davis talked about how it takes a bangin’ makeup artist and a costumer to turn her into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who she is playing in a biographical film about the Clintons and former British prime minister Tony Blair.  “The pantsuits have been made exactly to spec. There are some bright pantsuits,” she said. [NYTimes]
• Tyler Perry will write, direct and produce an adaption of the play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” by Ntozake Shange, a series of 20 poems about black women’s experiences with love, domestic violence, and other issues. [Variety]
• Teachers in Britain lashed out at advertisers for contributing to the “sexualization” of children by “infiltrating” their lives with too-sexy toys. The National Union of Teachers said girls, pre-teen and teen girls suffer from “inappropriate” toys, tee shirts and lingerie, like Bratz dolls, padded bras, and shirts which say stuff like “So many boys, so little time.” NUT (not a good acronym, guys) advised the government to set up a commission to regulate the advertising industry and be more “socially responsible” for youngsters. [Guardian]

Kim Petras, a German teen whose name used to be Tim, says she always knew she was meant to be a girl. Her parents let her undergo genital reassignment surgery last year after she turned 16. Now she’s completely focused on her musical career, which might not last long if her song “Die for You” is any indication because it’s totes crappy. Hopefully, all this coverage she’s getting for being transgendered will get the attention of a top music producer who can help her develop a more unique and interesting sound. [Dlisted]

Honesty is always the best policy… except when you lead a double life as a porn star. Haylie Hocking thought she knew everything about her fiancé, personal trainer Jason Brake. The 27-year-old bride was just weeks away from her wedding when she discovered Jason spent more time in the buff than getting buff. Haylie’s friend started searching online for a male stripper for the bachelorette party and came across a video of a man who seriously resembled Jason getting raunchy with another woman. Turns out, Jason was a porn star on the side, and wasn’t training people in the gym like he told Haylie. Not surprisingly, Haylie canceled the big day. Hey, nobody wants to introduce Mr. Porno as their husband, at least not without a little warning. [Telegraph] 

Oh, but Haylie is not the only one to discover something shocking about her significant other. After the jump, other people whose jaws hit the floor when they found out the truth.

If you’re a woman in your mid-thirties, the dating scene is challenging enough. You’re conscious of feeling older, wrinkles become a reality, and you feel like your stock value as a potential wife has started to head south faster than the housing market. So in the past year, I decided it was high time I met a fabulous man.

During the most recent Democratic primary, I found myself wondering how things might have turned out differently if Hillary Clinton had spent less time with the glass ceiling and more time campaigning for President. For that matter, would Sarah Palin have been chosen as John McCain’s ticket mate if she had not been female?

To say that I’m displeased with Tyra and the other “America’s Next Top Model” judges for eliminating Isis would be an understatement. I’m actually pissed!

The 11th “cycle” of America’s Next Top Model premiered last night and it was really worth the two hours The CW allotted for it. This season promises to be the most daring ever because Isis is the first transgender contestant. Amelia and I couldn’t wait to start IMing about the new contestants and, of course Tyra, when we got into The Frisky offices this morning. Our chat is after the jump, but also check out the video clip above. First, Gossip Girl, then 90210, and now ANTM...this has been a great week for TV. [Um, and a bad week for reading and outdoor activities.—Editor]

Each season of America’s Next Top Model has a sob story or a gimmick, a model that is just so different from the competition, that host Tyra Banks has decided to take under her wing and mold into the perfect supermodel. Usually this gives Tyra a platform to “save” someone and then applaud herself for being so courageous—at first, this “different” model was just, say, overweight (only last season did a big girl actually stick around long enough to win), or from the streets. But as the seasons went on, Tyra and crew had to find someone with a more dramatic story—a refugee from Africa, a woman with Asperger’s Disorder, a woman who had been raped and molested, and a woman who had experienced domestic violence. Last season, I thought Tyra peaked with the sadness by casting an African woman who had experienced genital mutilation. Though she was gorgeous and certainly a worthy competitor, it did seem like another cheap ploy for Tyra, again, to toot her own groundbreaking horn.

Well, this season the gimmick isn’t sad, but it sure is daring. One of the models on the new season, which premieres September 3, is a transgender woman (who was born a man) named Isis, 22, from Maryland. Sure, in the past many of the models who have appeared on Top Model have looked like drag queens (love you Dominique!), but this is a pretty fantastic step for a popular reality show on a major network to take. While transgender characters have appeared on TV shows like Nip/Tuck, The L Word, Ugly Betty, and even the soap opera All My Children, but never on an American reality show. So here’s a pat on the back Tyra, from The Frisky. Give that hand a rest! [Us Weekly]

It always annoyed me a little that on Facebook my mini-feed would say, “Catherine just updated their About Me,” but I never gave too much thought to it. Well, Facebook just announced that they’ve updated it to say either “his” or “her.” This is great for people who care about matching nouns with pronouns, but not so good for transgendered members of the Facebook community. Luckily, Facebook will allow people to manually opt out of the gender classification. “We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account,” said Facebook product manager Naomi Gleit. It’s nice to know they’re sensitive to this, isn’t it? [CNET]

A few weeks ago we wrote about Thomas Bettie, the Female-to-Male transgender man who’s currently six months pregnant. Yesterday, as the news of Thomas’ pregnancy spread like wildfire through the media (initially his story was reported in The Advocate, which everyone seems to be forgetting in lieu of the fact that People has jumped on it), he appeared on Oprah with his wife Nancy. It was kind of an awkward interview, honestly, because the audience had no warning and appeared flabbergasted the whole time, while Thomas and Nancy are clearly not media whores—they just want to get their story out into the public so they can go on with their lives, without scrutiny. I really do think this story is wonderful and phenomenal and give so much credit to Thomas and Nancy for being brave and telling their remarkable story. Oh, and as a side note, I totally think Thomas makes for a pretty good-lookin’ dude, but he was really hot as a woman too. Clip above.

Speaking of babies, here’s a story far more amazing than J.Lo finally giving birth to twins. As Elle mentioned in The Frisky Forums, The Advocate has a first person essay by the first transgender man to carry a child. Thomas Beatie was born a woman and is married to Nancy. Though he went through sexual reassignment surgery, Thomas didn’t opt to be sterilized and kept his reproductive rights. Together for ten years, the couple had always wanted to have children, but Nancy is unable to conceive after a hysterectomy 20 years ago, so Thomas decided to carry the child himself. He hadn’t had a menstrual cycle in nearly eight years, however (due to testosterone therapy), so getting pregnant required fertility treatments—his first pregnancy resulted in an ectopic pregnancy with triplets, a life-threatening condition that required surgery and all three embryos were lost. Thomas successfully got pregnant again, and this time everything seems healthy—he and Nancy are expecting their baby girl this summer.

The story is an interesting one for many reasons, particularly because it describes the experience of a man experiencing pregnancy. While Thomas’ ability to get pregnant is possible because he was born a woman, he identifies as a male and therefore, “Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.” It’s a great essay—check it out and then chime in about the story in the forums. [The Advocate]

Calpernia Addams, showgirl, motorcycle enthusiast, and Southern belle, is the newest reality dating show star. She’s gorgeous, she’s smart, she’s funny, and she’s got a better boob job than Miss New York.  What’s her secret? She used to be a man, but after serving as a decorated medic for the Navy in Desert Storm, Calpernia transitioned into the leggy redhead she is today. Ms. Addams has dedicated her life to activism and was the subject of the 2003 film, Soldier’s Girl.  Now, at the ripe age of thirty-six, the femme fatale is ready to open her heart and mansion so eight men, from a car dealer to a professional wrestler, can compete for her love. Calpernia’s show, TransAmerican Love Story, premiers tonight on LOGO at 10pm, so don’t try to phone call us—we’re going to be glued to our LGBTv’s.  What a woman! [ABC News and LOGO]