Amber Yust Case Settled

The Transgender Law Center announced yesterday that Amber Yust has settled her privacy and civil rights lawsuit filed against the California DMV and the employee who precipitated it.

In October 2010, Thomas DeMartini, a San Francisco area DMV employee who had a known history of denying equal service to transgender customers, retained Yust's personal information through his employment at the DMV.   He then used the information to send her materials condemning her transgender status, and calling for homosexuals to be "put to death."

DeMartini was suspended for his action, and Yust through her attorneys Chris Dolan and the Transgender Law Center, filed a lawsuit in December 2010 against the DMV, alleging violating of her rights under the California Information Practices Act and Unruh Civil Rights Act.  Yust brought similar claims against the DMV employee, who voluntarily resigned from his position with the DMV shortly after the incident.

The matter was resolved with the State of California for $40,000, and with the former DMV employee for $15,000.  According to the Transgender Law Center press release, as part of the settlement, the DMV agreed to work with the Transgender Law Center in an effort to incorporate transgender sensitivity into its ongoing employee training. 

Chris Dolan said, "this suit affirms the right of all people to equal access to government services, regardless of their orientation or decision to make a transition to live life as their full and complete self.  In the big picture, this suit promotes the privacy rights of all Californians by ensuring that confidential information retained by our government stays confidential."

Kristina Wertz, legal director of the Transgender Law Center said "All Californians have the right to do something as simple as going to the DMV without fear of harassment and threats of violence. What happened to Amber reminds us that for transgender people, our state's promise of equal treatment is often unfulfilled. The case serves as a reminder to all businesses that nobody should be treated differently simply because of who they are."

Amen, and thanks for the wonderful work.

8-0!

Nope, that wasn't the score of the latest Houston Astros loss.    It was the result of the HISD board of trustees vote on the second reading of the measure Thursday night that adds gender identity and expression to the district's employment policy.

HISD is now the second school district in Texas after Fort Worth ISD and the largest in the state to have an employment policy that covers transpeople.

Dallas ISD will have their final vote on August 25, so get busy Dallas peeps being agents for your own liberation. 

Thanks to Chris Busby and Jenifer Rene Pool who have been working on this for several years, and megathanks to the eight school board members who voted for this measure.  

Would have been a 9-0 sweep had one member who was in favor of the policy change not had pressing out of town business.   That member let us know via e-mail that they would have voted yes

Thanks for having our backs Thursday night.   We as a community won't forget it and damned sure have yours the next time you are running for reelection.

2011 TTNS-Back At UH Again

I'm back for Day Two of the 2011 Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit at the University of Houston's Roy G. Cullen Building, Room 104. 

Here's the schedule and come join us! .

Day Two-August 13

• UH Welcome, Dr Wyman Herendeen, UH Department of English, Chair

August 13 workshops:

• Inclusive Language and Policies for School Districts and Junior Colleges: A How-To Toolkit, Rafael McDonnell, Lee Taft, J.D., M.Div., and Deborah Cavazos, Resource Center Dallas Texas

• Transgender Health Priorities: A Knowledge, Barriers, Vulnerabilities Model, Katy Stewart, Transgender Education Network of Texas

• August 13, 2011 Keynote Speaker, Meghan Stabler, Board of Directors Human Rights Campaign (HRC);
You, A Life Worth Living,

• Transgender Case-Law, Phyllis R. Frye, Frye and Associates PLLC

• Building Grassroots Change in Your Local Community, Christopher Busby, President Log Cabin Republicans, Houston Texas; Jenifer Renee Poole, Candidate for Houston City Council At-Large-2

You GL Peeps Don't Have The Right To Deny Me My Rights, Either

One of the things we will hear loud and long griping about from the GL community is when the Tea Klux Klan, the Religious Reich, the GOP and the conservafool movement work separately or in concert to oppose or take away the civil rights of GL people. 

They will also point out when allies in their assessment fall short of being supportive of their issues as well.  

But when the pump is on the other foot there is cricket chirping silence or defensiveness when people point out the times that GL people engaged in exhibiting civil rights oppressing behaviors just as reprehensible as the ones they complain about when that anti-civil rights negativity is aimed at them by the agents of the Forces of Intolerance.

There are elements of this community that are standout allies to and for us.   But it's also sad to note their are GL people that when are presented with the opportunity to be drum majors for justice, they drop the baton and are breaking their collective necks rushing to lead the band highstepping across the civil rights field to take away the civil rights of trans people

Thomas Jefferson said this over two hundred years ago, and it applies to the GL community as well

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. 

Got that right.  Just as you hold my African American community to a certain standard when it comes to GL rights, I as a trans African American are holding you and your community to the same standard when it comes to fighting for the human rights of trans people.   The US constitution and what Thomas Jefferson said applies to your behinds as well.

Let's be real for a moment.  Our civil rights are all wound up in the same constitutional package.  If my civil rights aren't secure, then yours aren't either.  And we have to stick together to ensure that none of the rainbow family's hard won civil rights gains are rolled back.

You don't have the right to take away my rights   If you think otherwise, you are nothing more than oppressors, and you are proving beyond the shadow of a doubt the nagging perception that is out there that  when you say 'equality',  you want to arrogantly assert the 'special right' to oppress others.