Pure Romance CEO Starts LC Foundation To Help Trans Kids

Chris and Jessica Cicchinelli thought their child LC was just going through a phase when she announced that she was a girl and not a boy. 

But it came to a head during a Florida vacation  trip two years ago when LC was 8, and refused to go to dinner unless she could wear a dress.   When Chir saw how happy LC was when she came out of the dressing room, he knew it was time to deal with the fact he and his wife had a trans child.

Cicchinelli is the CEO and president of Pure Romance, a Cincinnati based romance aid company founded by his mother that does $250 million a year in business

When they returned home to Cincinnati, they wanted to take LC to the Adolescent and Transition Medicine Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center for an immediate appointment, but discovered it would be seven weeks before they could get an appointment.   They were also looking for information concerning how to navigate parenting for a trans child

This is also the region of the country where Leelah Alcorn was from, and since her suicide death in 2015, the number of people seeking help from the clinic has tripled to nearly 1000 a day. Many of the folks seeking help for their kids are coming from as far away as northern Ohio and other parts of the region

The Adolescent and Transition Medicine Clinic opened in July 2013 and is run by Dr. Lee Ann Conard.   It is one of 24 in the United States dedicated to transgender youth and their care.

Knowing there were other families out there that needed help, support or information, the Cicchinellis launched the Living With Change: The LC Foundation that will train teachers and educators and provide financial support for the Adolescent and Transition Medicine Clinic.

The LC Foundation was seeded with $500,000 of their own money the Cicchinellis expect to get matching donations for by June.  They have pledged another $2 million to the clinic. 

"We had to do something," Jessica Cicchinelli said. "We want this for other families. We want them to know it's there and not be scared and to know there is help."

One of the places that has already signed on for the foundation's training is the Cincinnati Public Schools.

They hired Cincinnati councilman Chris Seelbach to run the foundation,   Seelbach was Cincinnati's first openly gay councilmember, has been a vocal advocate for the TBLGQ community, and has spearheaded many of the civic reforms that have catapulted it to the top of the HRC Municipal Equality Index.

The LC Foundation is not only starting at a fortuitous time for the clinic, it is needed and very much necessary.,

   

2016 UH Cougar Watch- Coogs Open The American Conference Play Against Cincinnati

After playing a marathon football game against Lamar that lasted 6 hours and 18 minutes, the number 6 University of Houston footballers take their 2-0 act on the road to Cincinnati for their ESPN televised The American conference opener against the Bearcats.

Yep Cincinnati, the #HTownTakeover is headed your way, and Greg Ward, Jr will be starting this week.

Like UH, the Cincinnati Bearcats are also 2-0 and one of the schools rumored to be in the mix for Big XII expansion.  They would be like the Cougars a logical pick to be granted membership because Cincinnati would give West Virginia a Big XII regional rival and travel partner, but would also bring a quality basketball program to the party as well.

But unfortunately, the Big XII hasn't distinguished themselves in the logical thinking department, so we'll have to see what happens next month on the expansion front.  If I were leading the Big XII I'd be advocating expanding to 14 teams to ensure that if someone bolted for another league I still had the number of teams necessary to have a conference title game.  

But right now it's football season, and the the 2-0 Cougars are on a mission to repeat as The American champs, and make the CFA national championship playoffs as a bonus.  

But it all starts here at Nippert Stadium with a Bearcat team that would love to not only ruin those plans, but avenge last year's 33-30 loss to the Cougars and prove they are also Big XII ready at UH's expense.

Should be a fun game to watch starting at 6:30 PM CDT

Hillary Clinton 2016 NAACP Convention Speech

Lost in all the news of the opening of the RNC convention is the fact that 250 miles away on the southern end of Ohio, the 107th NAACP National Convention is taking place at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati.

As per tradition, both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates were invited to speak to the NAACP convention delegates, with Sec. Hillary Clinton accepting her invitation to do so while Donald Trump declined.

Then again, if I sucked as bad on issues of importance to African Americans, had been saying racist crap for decades and my presidential race poll numbers were worse than Romney's, I'd be finding any excuse NOT to speak to 'The Blacks' either or put myself in a position to be called on it.

Here is the video of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's Monday speech to the NAACP convention.

   

Tiffany Edwards Case Update

Here's the latest news update in the Tiffany Edwards case courtesy of LGBTQ Nation. 

Quamar Edwards, the 25 year old waste of DNA arrested in the murder of our sister Tiffany after he turned himself in to Cincinnati Police on July 2, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on one count each of aggravated robbery, aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, having weapons under disability and tampering with evidence.

Investigators said Quamar Edwards solicited the victim for sex, and fatally shot her following an argument.   So much for his uncle trying to play the 'trans panic defense' card. 

Edwards is currently cooling his heels in the Hamilton County Jail under a $500,000 bond

And as always, I will keep you TransGriot readers posted concerning any new developments in this case.

Suspect In Tiffany Edwards Murder Turns Himself In

Good news out of Cincinnati to report.   

Quamar Edwards, who since Saturday has had a warrant out for his arrest in connection with the senseless murder of Tiffany Edwards, turned himself in yesterday morning to Cincinnati police accompanied by his mother, brother, aunt and uncle,

Edwards showed up at 11 AM EDT at Cincinnati Police headquarters, and while he was being booked, his family attempted to sow the seeds for the trans panic defense in the media while claiming 'this wasn't a hate crime'.

Oh really?  The uncle claims that Tiffany hit on him, Quamar didn't like it and his response is to shoot her and dump her body on a suburban street?   Go sell those transphobic woof tickets somewhere else.

That same day Tiffany's family, who is no relation to the alleged killer, held a vigil at the Tuxedo Place spot in Walnut Hills, OH where her body was found.

"I never expected the support that I'm receiving. I'm glad this vigil couldn't have been on a better day. This guy turned himself in (Wednesday)," Tiffany's mother, Temeka Edwards, said.

Will keep you peeps updated on what's happening in this case until justice is served for our fallen sister.  

Black Trans History-Philecia Barnes

Black transpeople aren't strangers in having to fight tooth and nail for our human rights.   We know from our history as African descendants in America we've had to rely on the courts at times to secure those human rights.   Some cases we've trans African-Americans have engaged in we've won, some we've lost.  But they have done their part to keep the momentum of trans human rights moving forward.

Here's another one of those cases from our history book, and this one takes place in Cincinnati, OH.   Philecia Barnes was a Cincinnati police officer for over two decades before beginning her gender transition and taking the sergeant's exam and passing it on July 13, 1998.    She placed 18th out of 105 candidates who took that examination.

You would think that having placed inside the Top 20 of people who took the exam she'd have a great chance at the promotion combined with her two decades of experience as a patrol officer.   But it was well known in the CPD that Barnes was transitioning and had notified CPD of her intention to do so well before taking that exam.   She was then subjected to a stressful three-month probationary period as a sergeant, during which time she was monitored on a daily basis, forced to wear a mike, and rated on a six-page form designed specifically for her. At the end, she failed because of what was termed a lack of 'command presence' and was demoted in June 1999 on the orders of then Cincinnati Police Chief Thomas Streicher.   

But Barnes also had warning signs that something shady was going on.   Col. Twitty told Barnes she did not appear to be “masculine,” and that she needed to stop wearing makeup and act more masculine prior to Barnes's promotion.  Col. Twitty stated the objective of such statements was to correct Barnes's “grooming deficiencies.”  Col. Twitty also claimed that the decision to fail Barnes from probation had nothing to do with Barnes's transsexual characteristics.  

However, Sergeant Ford warned Barnes that he heard rumors that Barnes was going to fail probation because Barnes had not been acting masculine enough.   It was also interesting to note that Barnes was the only officer to fail probation during the seven years from 1993 to 2000, according to court papers or be placed in a training program similar to what Barnes endured.   

So what happens when you feel you've been treated unjustly?   You sue, which Barnes did in October 2000.
     
At the heart of the Barnes case was the question of whether this country's main federal law against workplace discrimination, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protects transgender workers (and tangentially, gay workers) against sex discrimination.  Neither "transgender" nor "sexual orientation" appears in the text of Title VII, which bars job bias because of religion, race, sex and other factors.

But in 1989, the Supreme Court in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins ruled that an employer who punishes a worker because he or she does not match gender stereotypes is guilty of sex discrimination under Title VII.   This case was being cited by more courts deferring to the Hopkins precedent in favor of gay and transgender plaintiffs.  It was cited in the 2012 Mia Macy v Holder EEOC case that ruled transgender discrimination is sex discrimination.

Barnes challenged her demotion from sergeant under Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause in a case she filed with the US District Court for Southern District of Ohio in addition to taking legal aim at the odious Article XII of the Cincinnati City Charter.  

Article XII was passed by voters in 1993 as a homobigoted reaction to the city’s human rights ordinance including sexual orientation as a protected class against discrimination in 1992.   Barnes and her attorney Al Gerhartstein asserted that Article XII was a factor in this case because its existence encouraged supervisors to discriminate against his client and others based on sexual orientation.

Barnes also told the judge during the district court trial that as long as Article XII existed, she and others would continue to face discrimination.

The City of Cincinnati filed a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment, which were both denied by the district court.   The City argued that a legitimate reason, poor performance, justified the demotion in this case.   The claims were submitted to a district court jury, which returned a verdict in Barnes's favor.   The jury on February 23, 2003 awarded Barnes $150,000 in compensatory damages, $140,000 in front pay and $30,511 in back pay.   The City moved for judgment as a matter of law, which was also rejected by the district court.  The district court then awarded Barnes $527,888 in attorneys fees and $25,837 in costs on February 27, 2004.  

The city of Cincinnati promptly appealed the adverse district court rulings to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.  It has the reputation of being the most conservative leaning federal judicial circuit in the nation, but Barnes' case was upheld on March 22, 2005.    The Sixth Circuit agreed that Barnes had a legitimate claim of sex discrimination under Title VII. It was the second such ruling out of the Sixth Circuit, where a transgender fire fighter won the right to sue under Title VII in the July 2004 Smith v. City of Salem case.

The City of Cincinnati then appealed the Barnes case to the US Supreme Court, but on November 7, 2005  they declined to review it, which meant the ruling in Barnes favor at the Sixth Circuit level stands.   

In March 2006, the City of Cincinnati repealed the discriminatory Article XII, then passed on an 8-1 vote an anti-discrimination ordinace that added sexual orientation and gender identity to it.

So you can thank Sgt Barnes on two levels.   You can thank her for standing up for her rights and as a result of her win establishing another trans employment friendly legal precedent that happened in a conservative federal circuit.   You can also thank her for striking the legal blow that took down Cincinnati's discriminatory Article XII.