Posts tagged: trans rights now!
On Saturday, Sanesha Stewart, a transwoman of color living in the Bronx, was murdered in her own apartment. She was 25 years old. Her accused killer, Steve McMillan, had known her for months, yet when he was arrested, he claimed to have been enraged to find out that she was what the media coverage called not really a woman. He stabbed her over and over again in the chest and throat. She tried to fight him off; there were defensive wounds found on her hands.
On Tuesday, eighth-grader Lawrence King was in a classroom in Oxnard, Calif. He was openly gay, and often came to school in gender-bending clothing, makeup, jewelry and shoes. According to another student, it was “freaking the guys out”. One of them shot Lawrence in the head. He was declared brain-dead on Wednesday.
It is easy to look at cases like this and think, how tragic. How random. How senseless. But then, you forget how easy it is to kill a transgender person. You forget that all across this nation, faith leaders of all stripes, men and women who claim to speak for God Himself, call us sinners, call us abominations, call us evil.
You forget that at best the media depicts us as something to be pitied, something that our families must be strong and overcome. At worst, they depict us as abnormal, exploiting our bodies for ratings, exploiting the public’s fear of us for shock value.
You forget that on a good day, law enforcement agents are neglectful of us, and that far more frequently they join in our harassment. You forget the transwomen of color who are rounded up on suspicions of prostitution. You forget the beatings that go uninvestigated. You forget the molestation and rape we face when we are arrested.
You forget the medical establishment that drains our wallets for the therapy and hormones and surgeries they tell us we need. You forget the way we are then refused treatment when we are dying, dying of treatable diseases, dying of easily patched wounds.
You forget that, by the law of the land, it is legal in the majority of states to deny us employment, to deny us service, to deny us housing. You forget the shelters and the rape crisis centers that will not allow us through their doors. You forget that many of us do not even have family to turn to when we are at our most desperate.
You forget that the leaders of our own community have told us that it is not time for us to have rights, that it is not pragmatic for us to be considered worthy of the same respect as other human beings. You forget that in our own circles, it is considered a negative thing to be too flamboyant. You forget the way our pride parades have been derided by our own community. You forget the scorn heaped upon drag queens by other gay men. You forget the fear to be seen in public with a friend who is considered too open, too queer.
You forget the way it seeps into the minds of transgender people, too. You forget the way a transsexual will shout that she is not a crossdresser, as if there were something wrong with that. You forget the catty names we call each other if we don’t “pass”.
You forget how many of us take our own lives every year.
You forget because the noise is always there, a constant drone in the background. Every newspaper piece that calls a transwoman “he” instead of “she”. Every talk show host who spends an hour talking about our genitals. Every childish taunt about “looking like a tranny”. Every transperson who talks about themselves as “true” transsexuals. Every activist and politician who tells us “now is not the time”.
You forget too, how easy it is to kill a person of color, with myths about “gangstas” and lies about immigrants. You forget how easy it is to kill a person living in poverty, cutting off her welfare because she is supposedly being paid to breed. You forget how easy it is to kill a sex worker, with sex-shaming language, slinging about slurs like “hooker” and “whore”.
You forget the message hidden inside every single one of those statements.
“You are less than I am. You are not worthy of the rights and respect that I am worthy of.”
“You are not human.”
It is very easy to kill something that you do not see as human.
It is very easy to kill a transperson.
Senate blocking bill to protect transgender residents
A decade ago, voters in Buffalo approved a local law that provided full civil rights protections to transgender residents.
But New York State, despite its proud, progressive history, has fallen behind its second-largest city — and 16 states — in protecting the essential civil rights of hundreds of thousands of transgender and gender non-conforming residents.
For these New Yorkers, the simplest and most fundamental parts of their identity — their clothing, their appearance, their name—expose them to hostility, exclusion and sometimes even violence.
People who are transgender or whose appearance does not conform to gender stereotypes often suffer persistent discrimination and harassment. They face challenges earning a living, finding housing and enjoying life’s necessities and simple pleasures.
But there is no state law that explicitly prohibits discrimination against transgender or gender non-conforming people. The Gender Expression Non- Discrimination Act, or GENDA, will remedy this injustice. Passed on April 30 by the Assembly, GENDA has the broad support of legislators, law enforcement and advocacy groups that seek to guarantee civil-rights protections and safety — for everyone.
Like all New Yorkers, transgender and gender non-conforming people deserve freedom from harassment, mistreatment and exclusion. Everyone deserves equal access to housing, employment, education and public facilities, like restaurants, stores and doctor’s offices.
New Yorker Kym Dorsey lived the first half of her life as Kenny before transitioning to life as a woman. “We are all human,” Dorsey observed.
“We bleed the same. We are taxpayers — we have sisters, mothers, brothers, uncles. Who decides who’s better, who’s more deserving of humanity?”
We can’t afford to look the other way when the rights of any New Yorkers are violated. Ending institutionally approved discrimination is a matter of essential civil and human rights.
It is a nonpartisan issue that merits the support of every elected leader in the state — and members of the New York State Senate in particular.
Enacting GENDA is not a radical departure from long-held values. Many of New York’s towns, cities and counties have, like Buffalo, enacted laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender expression and gender identity.
But all New Yorkers deserve the same protection. The right to live free from discrimination should not depend on a person’s ZIP code.
While Obama was announcing his support for gay marriage, Argentina was formalizing rights for transgendered adults to get publicly-funded sex change operations and ID changes. Top that, America. (photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP)
Please visit http://supportcece.wordpress.com/ to find out more!
Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race. We say NO to racism and transphobia, and call on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to DROP THE CHARGES!Her trial starts Monday, April 30th at 9am.
Higher education has increasingly become an environment where resources like gender-neutral housing, campus maps of gender-neutral bathrooms, and “safe space” training programs allow young people to explore their gender and sexuality in safe and healthy ways. The University of Pittsburgh, however, took a defiant step in the opposite direction, dictatinglast month that transgender students could only use bathrooms and lockerrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate, as explained recently by university spokesperson Robert Hill:
HILL: As this [policy] applies to use of facilities, a female who identifies as a male, or a male who identifies as a female, may use restrooms or locker rooms of his or her declared gender identity after he or she has obtained a birth certificate designating the declared gender. This practice applies to student athletes as well.
The only way that most states — including Pennsylvania — allow for birth certificate changes is if individuals undergo sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), a costly life-changing procedure that many trans people never intend to pursue. Some states do not offer new or amended birth certificates under any circumstance. And as Pitt junior Alice Haas has pointed out in her outspoken opposition to the policy, SRS amounts to “forced castration” because it results in sterility. For the university to impose such expectations to safely use campus facilities is flagrantly offensive.
Further, as Hill’s comment alludes, the policy raises particular challenges for student athletes. As The Pitt News reported yesterday, the NCAA has rules requiring transgender students be allowed to play on the team with which they identify provided they’ve simply completed one year of hormone therapy — but that rule does not cover lockerrooms. So under the current policy at Pitt, a trans student can play on the right team, but can’t use the right lockerroom.
The policy also conflicts with the non-discrimination protections in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, which identify an individual’s gender by how it is lived and perceived by others. Pitt claims it does not discriminate on the basis of gender identity and expression, but it is essentially erasing an entire population of trans students who don’t — and shouldn’t have to — fit into an arbitrary mold of identity.
The shit hit the fan in the trans blogosphere last night, when it came to light that there is a disturbing new section in the Identity Screening Regulations used in airports throughout Canada. Simply put, Transgender People are Completely Banned From Boarding Airplanes in Canada.
The offending section of the regulations reads:
5.2 (1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if …
(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents;Although this obviously discriminatory smear of regulation did not come to significant public attention until very recently, it apparently came into effect on July 27th, 2011.
It is important to note that these regulations are not actually a piece of legislation, which would have had to pass through readings and votes in the House and Senate (which is probably why it went unnoticed until now). Rather, the Identity Screening Regulations are a set of rules implemented unilaterally by the Ministry of Transportation, as part of Canada’s so-called Passenger Protect, which is essentially the Canadian Federal Government’s equivalent to the U.S.’s “no-fly” list.
Minister of Transportation Denis Lebel is, of course, a federal Conservative MP appointed to the cabinet position by Stephen Harper.
So what does this mean? Well, in order to change the ‘sex’ designation on a Canadian Passport, the federal government requires proof that surgery has taken place, or will take place within one year. So for non-operative transgender persons, for gender nonconforming (genderqueer) persons, and for the vast majority of pre-operative transsexual persons, it is literally impossible to obtain proper travel documentation marked with the sex designation which “matches” the gender identity in which they live.
In the eyes of the honourable Minister of Transportation, that makes trans people unfit to fly in Canada.
It is interesting to note that this regulatory adjustment occurred immediately following the federal election in 2011. In the previous parliament, Bill C-389, a bill to amend the Human Rights Code to explicitly enshrine protections against discrimination for transgender people, had successfully passed in the House of Commons, only to die on the Senate floor when Harper declared a Federal Election (thereby dissolving parliament).
Is the timing of this disturbing and blatantly discriminatory regulatory adjustment merely a coincidence? That is up to you to decide. However, the negative impact on trans people is crystal clear, and we need to take action now.
What. The. Actual. Fuck?!
A trans woman former girl scout responds to the cookie boycott…
So there’s a website calling for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies because they admit trans girls.
Show these transphobic turds that we support and embrace the Girl Scout’s wonderful policy of inclusion and tolerance!
Report this video to youtube for it’s hate mongering…
http://youtu.be/Y514LSe8FWk
Support the Girl Scouts! Buy all the cookies!
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has come out with a new statement for their members: it’s time to prepare to work with transgender patients.
To address the significant health care disparities of transgender individuals and to improve their access to care, ob-gyns should prepare to provide routine treatment and screening or refer them to other physicians, according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (The College). In a Committee Opinion published today, The College also states its opposition to gender identity discrimination and supports both public and private health insurance coverage for gender identity disorder treatment.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Wednesday signed a bill into law that bars discrimination in the workplace against transgender people, the AP reported.
The law, which also amends the state’s existing hate crime laws to include gender identity and expression, makes Massachusetts the 16th state, along with the District of Columbia, to enact such a measure.
Patrick said he signed the bill as a matter of “conscience,” but added that he objected to last-minute negotiations which resulted in proponents agreeing to drop a public accommodations section of the bill in a bid to boost lawmaker support.
“It gave me pause, and it gave the advocates pause, and it gave transgender people pause,” Patrick told the Patriot Ledger. “There’s a lot of good in this bill, and after consulting with them and my team and my own conscience, I wanted to sign this bill. And then, we’ll come back around to public accommodations.”
I <3 this man.
