The fashion industry may have a long-standing tendency to exclude certain groups and cultures, but more and more we’re seeing this change as people begin challenging the status quo. Now the transsexual community is getting a voice with a new style publication. Billed as “the first transversal fashion magazine,” Candy has just debuted its premiere issue in a limited-edition circulation of only 1,000 copies. The indie publication doesn’t reveal too much through its main online information source, a Facebook fan page, but its official statement explains that the mag is “completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, transexuality, cross dressing and androgyny, in all its manifestations ... CANDY is a magazine for everybody. A space for individual freedom, and a publication that pushes people to take on the persona of what they always wanted to be.”

Check out the amazing behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot of some seriously made-up drag queens, after the jump! Now we’re dying to know more. Where can we get our hands on a copy? [Candy‘s Facebook Page]

Here’s a brainteaser: If someone is born a man, but becomes legally female aside one special male part, and then they kill someone, which prison should they be held in—male or female?

Well, according to a transsexual inmate in this specific situation, she says she should be hanging with the ladies. Currently held in a men’s prison in the UK, this inmate claims her human right to “respect of her private life,” as stated in European Law, is being violated by having to stay in a men’s facility. And she’s suing over it. Not only is the she-mate unable to wear skirts or make-up—she also says its a glaring violation of her human rights not to be able to have gender reassignment surgery. And she’s so close—she has hormonally grown breasts and has lasered off all the hair on her face and legs. But doctors have repeatedly denied her the final surgery because she must live as a female for a certain period of time before being eligible—something she cannot do being held in a men’s prison. [Daily Mail]

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.

Kim Petras has a lot going on in her life, and she’s only a teenager. She was signed to a record label and released a CD; her first single, “Last Forever,” became popular on MySpace and YouTube; she works as a model; oh, and she also had a sex change. Kim Petras use to be Tim Petras. Only 16., she began hormone replacement therapy at 12. By 14, she was officially a girl. Recently, she finished gender reassignment surgery. She told The Sun, “I was asked if I feel like a woman now, but the truth is I have always felt like a woman. I just ended up in the wrong body.” She’s believed to be the world’s youngest transsexual. These days, she’s studying to be a fashion designer. What ambition at such a young age! [AOL]

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]