Monday, August 11, 2008
Daily Assaults on Personal Dignity
by Donna Rose
August 8, 2008
As transgender people feel more and more empowered to come out of the shadows to take their rightful place as contributing and accepted members of society, incidents against us based on discrimination, hatred, and ignorance are on the rise. These incidents range from the relatively minor indignities that we often come to quietly accept as simply part of the journey, to brutal, life-threatening physical attacks.
Whether it's the horrible video in Knoxville where police verbally and physically assaulted a trans-woman earlier this year or the brutal murder of Angie Zapata in Greeley, Colorado where her murderer referred to his victim as an "it" - the assaults many of us face on a daily basis are part of a constant de-humanizing assault on our personal dignity and sense of self-worth. Although we can sugar coat it with statistics of growing acceptance and protections for transgender people in workplaces, cities, counties, and states across this country, the soul-sucking reality that many of us face on a personal level can easily become overwhelming.
Being transgender is a difficult life. There are no two ways about it. To hide it is to struggle with the life-long conundrum of knowing that you're living a lie, a constant battle with the fear and shame of being discovered. To acknowledge it is to submit to the discomforts and ignorance of others, and to risk everything you know and love. For what? For the simple peace that comes with being authentic about who you know yourself to be. Unfortunately, many of us will never know that peace no matter which direction we choose. . . .Read More
My Peeps Transgender Ignorance
August 11, 2008
I continue to be amazed and appalled at the breathtaking levels of ignorance that have been leveled at transpeople by some of my fellow African-Americans.That ignorance takes many forms. Sometimes it's people spouting anti-transgender comments steeped in bigoted stereotypes across the Net. Sometimes it's bloggers writing endless posts speculating on whether celebrities such as Ciara or Wendy Williams are transwomen because they have physical, emotional or behavioral traits that some people perceive as not belonging to their gender.
Sometimes it's hurling the 'tranny' epithet at women they don't like. Sometimes it's disrespectfully and cattily calling a transwoman who is unmistakably feminine on the outside and lives her life that way for decades a 'man'. . . .Read More
Dem platform called 'strongest ever' on gay rights
By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade | Aug 11, 7:10 PM
A final draft of the Democratic Party’s 2008 platform strengthens the party’s support for gay civil rights and calls for an end to discrimination based on gender identity.
The document, which is to be presented to the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month for final approval, also includes what party officials described as strongly worded language opposing the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which precludes openly gay people from serving in the military.
But the platform draft approved Aug. 9 by the party’s 186-member Platform Committee apparently omits any mention of the words “gay” or “lesbian,” which had been included in the Democrats’ 2004 platform.
The document, discussed by Democratic officials and gay activists during a conference call Monday with reporters, was not publicly available. The Democratic National Committee has yet to release a final draft of the platform approved in Pittsburgh. . . .Read More
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Vigil Held For Murdered Transgender Woman
"Friends and family remembered a loved one at a candlelight vigil on the evening of Saturday, August 9, 2008. They celebrated the life of transgender woman Angie Zapata."
autumn59
Transgender city worker dismayed by intolerance
8/10/08
The person who made history six years ago by becoming the first city employee to openly transition from male to female in the workplace has never found a burning cross outside her home.
The acts of bigotry and intolerance have been more subtle — but every bit as disheartening, said Camille Stephanie Hopkins.
Crude notes have been slipped under her office door. She hears giggles — sometimes sarcastic whistles — as she walks the halls. When elevator doors open, friendly chatter often turns into an icy hush.
“It hurts, because in some people’s eyes, I’m a freak,” she said.
Compounding her pain is Hopkins’ belief that the city has contributed to what she calls a climate of intolerance. City leaders have failed to provide enough sensitivity training and taken a dismissive attitude when she has raised concerns, Hopkins claimed.
She was even brought up on departmental charges for wearing a T-shirt that sported the phrase “fagbug,” a word the gay community considers a statement against hate crimes and homophobia. . . .Read More
BOCES, transgender teen face challenge
Michael Arone has been called every pejorative someone could direct at a transgender teen.
But, while most harassment the 16-year-old West Haverstraw resident faced has been short-lived, Arone reached a breaking point at a summer program in Clarkstown South High School.
Arone, a North Rockland school district 10th-grader, is a male transgender teen who publicly goes by Melissa Andrews and prefers to be referred to as a female.
Arone said classmates have routinely called her "faggot," "she-male," "it" and "queer" in response to her wearing eye shadow and lipstick, straightening her shoulder-length brown hair and carrying a purse to school. . . .Read More
Nation’s first transgender MP takes up next challenge: reality television
Left-wing campaigner heads for celebrity island
From Philip Willan in Rome
THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Italy's first transgender MP will participate in a Survivor-style reality television show in September has surprised her many admirers. Vladimir Luxuria - whose real name is Wladimiro Guadagno - was one of many left-wing MPs to lose their seats after Silvio Berlusconi's crushing electoral victory last April.
An actor and campaigner for homosexual rights, Luxuria, 43, was viewed with suspicion by many when she was first elected to parliament two years ago for the Communist Refoundation Party. The parliamentary controversy for which she is best remembered concerned her right to use the ladies' toilets in the Chamber of Deputies, a right that was fiercely contested by the former TV showgirl Elisabetta Gardini, who was beginning her parliamentary career with Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party. . . .Read More
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Gender Barred
by Nathaniel Hoffman
August 6, 2008
Natalia Whitefeather Flores, as she calls herself, is getting her hormones.
But the Idaho Department of Corrections waited until she filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against the state, got a visit from the American Civil Liberties Union and contacted BW to provide Flores, whose given name is William Ray Flores, with her estrogen pills and a testosterone blocker.
"France does the best sex changes, I hear, and that's where I want to go," Flores said in a call from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
But she's not going anywhere until at least September 2009 when she may be up for parole. Flores was born a woman in a man's body on the Rocky Boy Reservation near Havre, Mont. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and has spoken Cheyenne, Spanish and English from an early age.
At 5 years old, Flores, who then called herself Susie, was diagnosed with gender identity disorder, a psychiatric disorder that the Idaho Department of Corrections defines as dissatisfaction with one's biological sex. The department has recognized GID since 2003, after an earlier lawsuit forced officials to develop a policy.
Flores is transgender in that she desires to become a woman. But she also considers herself two-spirited, a condition recognized in Native American society long before 2003.
"We are considered more spiritual than most people because we've got the spirit of a woman and the spirit of a man," Flores said. . . .Read More
New book explores trans kids
by Zak Szymanski
7 August 2008
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Co-author Rachel Pepper, with her daughter, Frances. Photo: Tony Ferriola |
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More children these days are insisting upon their right to claim a variety of gender identities and expressions. But for most of these kids and their families, the issue isn't about queer politics – it's about struggling through a society still ill-equipped to handle gender-variant youth, all while navigating the fine line between happiness and safety.
Writers Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper hope to make that path a bit easier with their new book The Transgender Child, published earlier this summer by Cleis Press. This Sunday, August 10, Books Inc. at Opera Plaza in San Francisco will host a 4 p.m. reading and discussion of the book. Brill, who runs the support group at Oakland Children's Hospital for gender-variant children, and Pepper, a journalist and the coordinator of the LGBT studies program at Yale University, will both be at the event. A wide variety of people are encouraged to attend. . . .Read More
Friends stand up for Angie's life
An Open Letter to Dr Phil
I am quite taken aback to witness the lack of actual skills you possess in the psychology fields. I did notice that you don´t actually have a doctorate but then you have always impressed me in the past with your human touch.
Perhaps you have not experienced sufficiently in your own life certain things to allow good judgment in the issues you now take up. You are casting your net wider these days and I think it is taking you beyond your realms. You really need to have someone else advising you from moment to moment as to what is cool to say/do and what is not.
Your program about Michael the transgender guy/gal made me quite mad. I even fell out with my wife about it and we never fall out and especially at bedtime. I found you to be way off beam in your assessment of the situation. I found you prejudiced and biased against your guest and your studio audience were equally prejudiced and you threw him/her under the bus. I actually wondered how on earth you ever persuaded the person to attend and be victimized and I thought he carried himself majestically in the circumstances. I really wondered for a time whether I had landed amongst aliens. . . .Read More
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Questions & Answers 1
"Just answering my viewers questions! ;) I didn't tackle the "dating" story, that's a topic long enough for one video. So, next time around! ;)" truellement
Cross Dress for Red Cross
August 6, 2008
WANT to liven up your workplace and help your local community? Dress up for Cross Dress for Red Cross on September 5.
Swap your normal daily attire for that of the opposite gender, for the fancy dress fundraising event with a twist.
You could be Marilyn Monroe, Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, one of the Blues Brothers, or you could even make up your own unique character for the day.
Encourage your family, friends and co-workers to sponsor you to dress up. The money raised will support over 20 vital community services that Red Cross provides to vulnerable West Australians. . . .Read More
Controversy: Florida Citizens Unite Against 'Transgender' Activists
Catholic News Agency
The concept of ‘gender identity’ was fashioned by radical homosexual groups and advocates to protect the bizarre sexual behavior of a few people,” Thomas More Law Center's Richard Thompson
GAINESVILLE, FL (CNA) - A coalition of citizens and businesses in Gainesville, Florida has formed in reaction to the Gainesville City Council’s passage of a ‘gender identity’ ordinance that allows men who perceive themselves as women to use women’s bathrooms in any school, business or public facility. The coalition, called “Citizens for Good Public Policy,” aims to enact a Charter Amendment that would oppose the addition of such categories to the city’s civil rights ordinance.
The group has gathered 8,800 signatures to place the proposal on the March 2009 ballot, though only 5,581 were required. . . .Read More
Rock ‘Bobby’ Rock!
The Times of India
Eight years back a starry-eyed Pankaj Sharma left home in Delhi with a strong determination and came down to Mumbai to make it big. But once here, one gets to know how difficult it is for a person to even survive in the city! Seems like a rip-off from a Hindi movie, doesn’t it? But it’s true-life for Pankaj, who got re-chistened as ‘Bobby Darling’ and has braved a lot of taunts, criticism, ridicule, et al. to come up to this level today, where people recognise this name well. “When I came here, I didn’t have a place to stay and I slept on railway platforms; for earnings, I worked in a dance bar where the girls would not let me share the green room and would also often push me. . .Read More |
Suspect In Transgender Slaying Formally Charged
August 6, 2008
Allen Andrade Accused Of Killing Angie Zapata In Greeley Apartment
GREELEY, Colo. -- A man accused in the brutal beating death of a transgendered teen was formally chargedAllen Ray Andrade, 31, was charged with first-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of Angie Zapata. He is also charged with a bias motivated crime and motor vehicle theft.Zapata, 18, was found dead in her Greeley apartment on July 17, and Andrade was arrested following two-week investigation into her slaying. Zapata was born a male but was living her life as a female, according to her family. . . .Read More
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Angie Zapata in Greeley, CO
BRIGHTON -- At least 200 people gathered on Wednesday night to mourn an 18-year-old transgender person who was apparently beaten to death last week.
Justin Zapata, who went by the name Angie Zapata and was living as a woman, was found dead in a Greeley apartment in the 2000 block of 4th Street on July 17.
She had fatal wounds to her head and face.
Greeley Police say they don't have the evidence to definitively call Zapata's murder a hate crime, but they are not ruling it out.
Her family and friends remain convinced that was the reason she was killed.
"Why would anybody, you would dare do something like that? Why?" said Alicia Portillo, one of Zapata's friends.
Zapata's funeral service was held Wednesday night in Brighton.
Police believe they are getting close to a suspect.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.asp...
Blurring the lines of sexual demarcation
THAT'S MEN: Our sexual orientation may be guided by culture as much as by biology, writes Padraig O'Morain
'IF YOU look at the number of women wearing trousers walking down Grafton Street any day, there is a very high percentage who appear to like wearing trousers," writes Seán, a reader responding to a column I wrote a while back about the use of cosmetics by men.
Eighty or 100 years ago, he writes, all the women walking down Grafton Street would be in dresses or skirts. "So, the question is, if there was more acceptance of cross-dressing for men, and they were freely allowed their choice in this, could you see as many men in a similar percentage to current day women, wearing skirts or dresses down Grafton Street? I think so," Seán writes. . . .Read More
