Posted in: Comics, Current News, Ike Perlmutter, Marvel Comics | Tagged: ike perlmutter, marvel, trans

Ike Perlmutter, A Huge Donor To Both Trump & Gender-Affirming Surgery

Former Marvel chair Ike Perlmutter is one of the biggest financial supporters of Donald Trump's political campaigns, but also of gender-affirming or transgender surgery.

Bleeding Cool has long been fascinated with the former chair of Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter. An Israeli soldier who came to New York penniless, he built up a toy business, was bought out by Marvel, ended up saving Marvel from bankruptcy, started up the film division with Iron Man, and sold the company to Disney, making him Disney's largest solo shareholder and putting him on the board.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Ike Perlmutter confirmed Bleeding Cool's reporting of the story that he was fired rather than laid off. But among the internecine political backstabbings at Disney, Ike Perlmutter doubled down on a most unexpected aspect of his character. His funding of transgender surgery research and operations, with his wife Laura Perlmutter, at an amount higher than any other publicly known individual.

This comes despite also being one of Donald Trump's biggest donors – to the extent that he and Laura shared Thanksgiving dinner with Trump at their club Mar-Al-Ago instead of his family, Laura was on his Inaugural committee, and Ike controversially put in charge of Veteran's Affairs. Other Republican politicians supported are also of the further-right persuasion, with virulent opinions regarding trans rights in the USA today. They donated $6 million to Trump's first campaign, $15 million to his 2020 Super PAC, and a third of all donations to the Trump Foundation as well as $50,000 to Miles Of Greatness Fund in support of Texan Republican Representative Ronny Jackson, over a million to Trump For Victory, $76,000 to the Republican National Committee,  $11,200 for Texans For Ronny Jackson, half a million to the Republican National Committee, and a final $11,200 to Donald Trump For President.

Perlmutter himself has a reputation for being anti-gay. According to first-hand reports previously made, he got rid of Marvel president Bill Jemas over the Rawhide Kid comic, getting publicity for being a gay lead character at Marvel and accusing Jemas of stealing from him for publishing such a comic. He appeared to try and strangle gay Marvel editor Eric Ellenbogen after he had sacked him, but he kept returning to the office. And there were contemporary reports that he told former EIC Bob Harras that Bob should kill his kids if they turned out like Eric.

But in 2017, the Perlmutters donated $5 million to NYU Langone Health, which named a wing after them. At the time, its purpose was unclear. However, it was later revealed to be specialising in transgender surgery and hired the country's top cosmetic plastic surgeons specializing in gender-transition procedures. The Perlmutters have continued to fund and promote it since, and this came on top of a previous fifty million dollar donation. And their donations in total have topped seventy million.

The WSJ reports that "He said he later called Disney's human resources department and offered to pay any costs of gender-transition surgery that aren't covered by insurance for any Disney employee," quoting Perlmutter saying, "I called and said if anyone would like to change their sex, my professor is the number one in the country. They should call me, and I'll help them to make an appointment."

The Perlmutters' own website includes the following;

In 2017, Laurie and Ike Perlmutter contributed $5 million to fund the Perlmutter Cosmetic Surgery Center, which functions as a part of the Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery at NYU Langone. The contribution has enabled NYU Langone to care for more patients and to expand the care team, including supporting the recruitment of Dr. Rachel Bluebond-Langner, the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Associate Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, who is one of the country's notable specialists in providing safe, gender-affirming procedures for transgender individuals. Dr. Rachel Bluebond-Langner is part of an initiative that aims to advance healthcare for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

Dominique Jackson is an actress, author, model, and reality television personality who currently plays a leading role on the television series Pose, which centers around NYC's downtown ball scene in the 1980s, the issues facing the transgender community and also features the largest number of transgender actors playing transgender characters. Dominique Jackson said to Essence, "I'm so proud to be able to share my story with others who might be going through a similar process with their identity. It's been a long road of self-transformation for me, and I'm so grateful for the care I received at NYU Langone with Dr. Rachel Bluebond-Langer, one of the best transgender surgery specialists in the country. I hope that others will feel less alone after hearing about stories like mine."

How the two positions exist in tandem baffles me; if I ever get the opportunity to interview the Perlmutters, this would be top of my list. I am told that it is possible that the Perlmutters have a family member/close friend who has transitioned, giving them new insight into that lives challenges, and it is something they now have a lot more empathy for and wish to support. But that is as close to supposition as we get.

What is slightly easier to understand is the Perlmutters commitment to funding the acquittal of long-term wrongly incarcerated prisoners in American jails, which received a $15 million donation from the Perlmutters and recently saw their first prisoner freed after thirty years. Ike Perlmutter had a decade-plus-long legal battle (which he won) with his Palm Beach neighbour and fellow billionaire Harold Pereenboom from Canada and felt he and Laura were unjustly accused.

That being said, if anyone has any insight into the trans situation, I'd love to hear it.

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