Victoria Kolakowski has declared victory in the closely watched Alameda (California) County Superior Court election, becoming the country's first transgender judge. She has 21 years' experience in the law and transitioned to female in 1989 culminating in surgery in 1991.

Her opponent has graciously conceded, with her "luck in her position."

Cher gave a hilarious interview to David Letterman last night. He deserves some of the credit for presenting her with a list of men she's rumored to have bedded, eliciting responses from her that ranged from "yes" to "once" to "noooo!", but giving candid, funny, earthy interviews is in my opinion what Cher does best. She also talks about her son Chaz's transition and her, er, eagerly anticipated film Burlesque (the lips and cheeks look painful! There, I said it!)...after the jump...

According to National Enquirer (August 23, 2010), Annette Bening has decided to pay for and support her daughter Kathlyn's gender-reassignment surgery even though Warren Beatty is still being a dick about accepting the inevitable. I hope the daughter soon-to-be-formerly known as Kathlyn will have both parents' support—and soon.

Is this all leading to a teary Oscar acceptance speech (for The Kids are All Right) in which Bening thanks her son?

Daniel Radcliffe—overappreciated for Harry Potter, underappreciated for Equus and for being a gay-rights supporter—grants a cover interview to Out in which he chats with his friend, trans singer/songwriter Our Lady J.

It's a great, funny piece, ending with J mentioning that she has some girlfriends for admitted girl-chaser Radcliffe, who replies:

"Oh, fantastic. You'll have to introduce me."

More here.

If Kate Bornstein's piece for Out on Israel Luna's (pictured) controversial film Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives is not the final word on the subject, I will cut a bitch. Her essay is just brilliant, beautifully written (despite the use of the phrase "marshal arts" a few times) and thoughtful to an extent that could be called brain porn.

Via Towleroad: Many of us have laughed at the Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber tumblr, but a Facebook page dedicated to voting him out of the male gender goes way beyond edgy humor and straight into hate speech. I was skeptical it was a big deal at first, but the comments are virulently homophobic and the images posted are violent and ugly.

Visit it here and use the "REPORT" link on the bottom left of the page to report it for hate speech. I can't imagine all the kids who've seen this already, and it's probably mostly populated by vicious older boys and a great number of adults who really shouldn't have such strong fucking opinions about a child star.

Not since the Great Hanson Backlash of '98 have I seen such nasty homophobia directed against a presumably non-gay entity.