Unjust Virginia Anti-Trans Bill Dies

Good news to report out of Virginia concerning another Republican sponsored anti-trans bill.

HB 781, the bill filed by Del. Mark Cole (R-Spotsylvania) that would force trans students to use locker room and bathrooms based on genitalia and possibly force school officials to engage in genital checks has died in the House of Delegates yesterday on a 13-8 bipartisan vote.

Had HB 781 become law, which was unlikely considering Terry McAuliffe (D) was standing by with his veto pen, it would have compelled school districts across the state to formulate policies that required locker rooms and bathrooms to be designated for and used by students based on genitalia.

Violations would have carried a $50 civil penalty, and Del. Cole repeated the conservafool  lie talking point that the bill wasn't discriminatory, 'but was about privacy'.

Yeah, right. It's all about discrimination for you GOP types. You aren't happy unless you're oppressing somebody, and the trans community is now the community du jour you wish to oppress.  

The bill has also been filed at a time when Virginia trans student Gavin Grimm's anti-trans discrimination lawsuit against the Gloucester County School District is now being litigated in the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.  

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, the executive director of the ACLU of Virginia urged the committee to hold off on this bill until the US circuit court has had the opportunity to rule on the pending federal lawsuit.

We'll see what happens in the G.G. vs Gloucester County School Board case later, but for now the unjust anti-trans bill is dead in Virginia.

Fairfax Co. VA School Board Adds Gender Identity To Non Discrimination Policy

The Fairfax County School District is the largest in Virginia and the tenth largest in the nation, and Thursday night had a vote adding gender identity to their nondiscrimination policy on the agenda.

The haters had something on their agenda too, and it was busing in out of town haters to stir up anti-trans animus in a desperate attempt to derail doing the right thing for its trans and gender variant students, teachers and staff.

The contentious meeting took place in front of a room packed with opponents to the proposed policy change that were polite to the ten speakers allowed to comment pro and con on Policy 1450, but cut loose to rudely interrupt board members who spoke in favor of the change as they unleashed every lie from their anti-trans fear and smear playbook.

The transphobes were so out of control that five were removed from the meeting room, others were threatened with removal, and Board Chair Tamara Denarek Kaufax threatened to clear the room if they didn't cease and desist with the nekulturny behavior.

After a failed attempt by the two board opponents of Policy 1450 to delay the vote until October, the Fairfax School Board voted 10-1 with one abstention to pass it as the opponents shouted insults at the board and policy supporters and stormed out of the room.

Ryan McElveen, the Fairfax School Board member who introduced the update to Policy 1450, proclaimed, “Our board will be remembered not for postponing, not for delaying civil rights but for protecting all of our employees and all of our children.”

A statement from Chair Kaufax said that the policy will ensure everyone in the district is treated “with dignity and respect.”

And that's all transpeople and trans students want.  Policies that protect their human rights so they can focus on getting their education, and if they are staff or teachers, do their jobs to the best of their ability..

That's obviously something the professional trans haters forgot in their zeal to foment hatred of transpeople for their paymasters.

Rest In Peace, Lamia Beard!

Well, didn't take long for me to have to write my first post of 2015 memorializing one of our fallen African-American trans sisters.

This happened in Norfolk, VA, her name was Lamia Beard, and she was 30 years old.

Lamia was found just before 4 AM EST on January 17 suffering from a gunshot wound in the 700 block of E. 25th Street.   She was taken to Norfolk General Hospital where she later died.

And as you probably guessed when it comes to media people covering the murders of our sisters, it came with another heaping helping of disrespect.   She was not only misgendered in the Scott Daugherty Virginian-Pilot article, her past arrest record was injected into the story.

#BlackTransLivesMatter

For those of you in the Norfolk area who wish to pay your last respects to Lamia, the viewing will be held on January 25, with the funeral service to take place at 11 AM on  Monday, January 26, 2015at the Metropolitan Funeral Service, Berkley Avenue Chapel

Address is 120 W. Berkley Avenue, Norfolk, VA.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Norfolk Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

Rest in power Lamia!   We won't rest as a community until your killer is found and brought to justice.

Down Goes Cantor! Down Goes Cantor!

As you longtime TransGriot readers know I can't stand conservafools, and never liked Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) the House Majority Leader. 

That dislike of Cantor goes back to August 2009 when Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) referred to him (and McCarthy and Ryan) as 'Great White Hope leaders' in the wake of their loss of the White House to then Senator Barack Obama.

So you know I was doing the happy dance when the breaking news came onscreen as I was watching MSNBC about Cantor losing his House primary race to Teapublican challenger Dave Brat.   

And it wasn't a narrow loss either.  Cantor got spanked by 12 percentage points and lost to a guy he outspent by a 25-1 margin.   Hey, as the POTUS proved in 2012, Koch Brothers money can't buy everything and in many cases, it IS about the candidate. 

Cantor made some history with this political earthquake of a loss.   He is the first sitting House majority leader to not even survive his party's primary. 

In case you're wondering, there is a Democratic candidate in the Virginia 7th Congressional District race in college professor Jack Trammell, who ironically works at the same college as Brat.

Now we need to send some cash to Trammel and help him win that seat. 

Bye bye, Eric.   Not sorry to see you go.

New Virginia Governor Signs Exec Order Banning TBLG Discrimination

The inauguration of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) happened Saturday during a sometimes rain soaked ceremony on the capitol steps in Richmond.

Despite the rain, it heralded a joyous day for liberal progressives and Democrats in the state because this was the first time since 1989 that the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general spots were held by Democrats.

And as McAuliffe promised during his campaign, one of his first acts as the 72nd governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia was signing an executive order banning discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation and for the first time ever, gender identity.

Word to the wise 2014 midterm voter:  This is why elections matter.   The Republican governors would rescind the executive orders the Democratic governors issued once they got into office.

It's about time that happened, and hopefully before Gov. McAuliffe's term ends, maybe they can pass a law that adds gender identity and sexual orientation language to the categories of persons protected in their state nondiscrimination laws.

Sage Smith Case- 21 And Still Missing

D. Sage Smith turned 21 on December 13.   But there was no party, no gathering of family and friends around a birthday cake with 21 candles on it to celebrate this milestone occasion because Sage is still missing. 

And so is the person of interest in this case who probably holds the key to finding Sage in Erik McFadden  

A vigil for Smith was held on November 20 at Lee Park to mark the one year anniversary of Sage's disappearance, but you can bet the one thing the family and friends most want for Christmas is Sage's return to their lives. 

Charlottesville Police are still searching for both persons, and especially Erik McFadden.   There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conclusion in the case. Anyone with information on Smith or McFadden should contact Detective Ronald Stayments at (434) 970-3280 or Crimestoppers at (434) 977-4000.

Are Virgina's Transpeople About To Be Thrown Under The Civil Rights Bus?

While I'm happy that the next governor of the commonwealth of Virginia will be a Democrat, what I'm not happy about is that Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe is possibly about to throw the Virginia transpeople who helped get him elected under the human rights bus.

McAuliffe announced that one of his first acts as governor once he is inaugurated in January would be banning  discrimination in state workplaces based on sexual orientation.  

It's the same executive order that former Virginia governor Tim Kaine signed in 2006 that was rescinded four lears later when Republican Bob McDonnell succeeded him.

That's a problem because sexual orientation language alone will not cover trans people.  Gender identity or expression language needs to be added to that executive order to cover the trans community  

And for those of you in GL World who will throw the 'you transpeople are covered under Title VII and we're not' point to justify this, bigots aren't paying attention to Title VII, Glenn v Brumby or the EEOC Macy v Holder case until after they discriminate against trans people and get whacked by it.

What they do pay attention to is laws and the media telling them laws have been passed that make it illegal to discriminate against protected classes of people.

Bottom line is that favorable court and EEOC rulings and precedents aren't enough .  We need anti-trans discrimination laws on the books in our cities, counties, states and our nation that explicitly state anti-trans discrimination is unacceptable.  

If you GL people in Virginia and elsewhere don't think that it's important to have those laws on the books or transpeople pointing out the missing gender identity and expression language is 'attacking your allies', then let's see how secure you would feel your human rights are if all the anti-discrimination laws in this country that have sexual orientation only language in them to prohibit discrimination against you were suddenly no longer available and you had to depend on the court system or EEOC administrative rulings to enforce them. 

Bet you'd see it differently wouldn't you? 

So to ensure the executive order covers all LGBT Virginians in state employment, gender identity and expression language needs to be expeditiously added to that executive order. 

We'll see if it happens. 

Sage Smith Case- Police Want To Chat With Erik McFadden

While there's unfortunately still no word about Sage Smith and her family has yet to hear from her a week after being reported missing, there is some news in this case.  The Charlottesville, VA police have a person they wish to talk to that may shed light on what happened to her.

21 year old Erik Tyquan McFadden was the last person she talked to on her cell phone the day she went missing on November 20.  According to McFadden's Facebook page he is a student at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. 

The Charlottesville police spoke to McFadden, who admitted he did talk to her, they were supposed to meet on that day but according to him it never happened.

Since that conversation with the po-po's occurred McFadden is believed to have left the area and his whereabouts are unknown.  Police want to talk to him again, but as of this writing have not issued a warrant for his arrest nor have they named him as a person of interest in this case.

The Smith family, friends and supporters held a candlelight vigil Wednesday for Sage at Lee Park according to local media and asked for anyone who had information in this case to come forward.   A Facebook page has also been created for that purpose as well.

If I hear any information or important updates concerning the ongoing Sage Smith case, I will pass it along to you TransGriot readers as fast as I receive it.

Virginia Trans Hate Attack Update-Charges Dropped

Back on May 21, 2011 transwoman Ahnesia Jett was attacked and beaten by three and possibly four people outside a 7-Eleven at approximately 3:30 PM near Fredericksburg, VA led by then 18 year old Laqueta Webb and her boyfriend Farkeem French.

Jett claimed the attackers uttered transphobic slurs in the attack in which she was kicked, punched and beaten with a metal broom handle that happened a month after Chrissy Polis was attacked in neighboring Maryland.  Webb and French were arrested and charged with two felony counts of malicious wounding and malicious wounding by mob.

Allen Frye, Jr, the third person charged in the trans hate attack on Jett plead guilty last year to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to a year in jail with all but 15 days suspended.  

Back in February according to Fredericksburg.com the prosecutor was unable to proceed because Sharon Forsyth, the only witness to come forward was a no show.

Webb and French faced the judicial music at the Fredericksburg Circuit Court June 21 and walked out of the front doors of it after the charges were dropped due to Jett and Sharon Forsyth failing to show in court for the trial.   

A defense motion that the charges be permanently dropped was denied, leading to speculation that the felony charges Webb and French are facing in this case could be reinstated, but it is highly unlikely according to the Examiner's Tammy Reed 

August 20, 1619

On August 20, 1619, the first 20 Africans arrived at Old Point Comfort in what would become the the United States.on a Dutch ship named the 'White Lion' under the command of Captain Jope and an English pilot named Marmaduke.

Old Point Comfort is now Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA..

The Africans were originally loaded onto a Spanish ship named the Sao Joao Bautista that set sail for Vera Cruz, Mexico.  They encountered the 'White Lion' and an English ship called the 'Treasurer' which robbed the Spanish ship of its cargo and 60 Africans. 

The 'Treasurer' arrived 3-4 days later and attempted to trade their African captives for supplies, but weren't allowed to do so and set sail for Bermuda. 

The arrival of the 'White Lion' was a event that only garnered this line for the journal of colonist John Rolfe, who wrote, "......there came a Dutch man of warre that sold us (20) Negars."

The African arrivals bore Spanish names, such as Antonio, Isabella and Pedro.and were sold to work at plantations up and down the James River.  Only two of the original twenty Africans arrived at Jamestown according to Calvin Pearson, the president of Project 1619, Inc.

Capt. William Tucker, the commander of Point Comfort  purchased Antonio and Isabella, and in 1623 they became the parents of the first African-American child, William Tucker.  The descendants of this child and the Tucker family still live in the Hampton area, and William Tucker is buried there.

Jamestown myth event in Hampton: wavy.com

As part of African Arrival Commemoration Day,  residents of the city of Hampton will mark the occasion of the first Africans arriving in the New World with a candlelight ceremony at Fort Monroe and a free 3:30 PM EDT symposium at the American Theater in Hampton entitled 'Defying The Myth of Jamestown' .  

The Project 1619 group is also trying to raise funds for a permanent memorial so that they can have it erected in time for the 400th anniversary in 2019.