Sheena Monnin Still Owes The Donald And Miss Universe $5 Million

Remember Sheena Monnin, the transphobic 2012 Miss Pennsylvania pageant queen who threw shade at Jenna Talackova and made the sour grapes tinged accusation the Miss USA pageant was rigged? 

The Donald as the co-owner of the Miss Universe pageant system sued, alleging that Monnin's accusation cost them a $5 million fee from a potential 2013 pageant sponsor and she lost a December arbitration hearing.

She also inserted herself in the at the time news surrounding Jenna Talackova competing for the 2012 Miss Canada Universe crown by shadily using her as a excuse to resign the Miss Pennsylvania Universe 2012 crown June 4 after she failed to make the Top 15 in the 2012 Miss USA pageant won by eventual Miss Universe Olivia Culpo.

“I refuse to be part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it,” Monnin's resignation email said. “This goes against ever moral fiber of my being.”

Well, she's in the news again because she tried to get the adverse arbitrator decision against her overturned and failed. 

U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken upheld the arbitrator’s decision that Monnin sought to have overturned on the grounds that the arbitrator overstepped his authority, his decision disregarded law, and she didn’t know the arbitration hearing was taking place.

Judge Oetken, who was appointed by President Obama to the federal bench in July 2011 said otherwise.  Judge Oetken BTW is the first openly gay man appointed to the federal bench, so I found it it deliciously ironic he received this case.

And yeah, karma is a rhymes with itch.    Miss Moral Fiber 2012 still owes The Donald and the Miss Universe pageant system $5 million.

What, Fox Noise hasn't called you for a fembot commentating gig yet?  Gee, I wonder why? 

Arrest Made In Racially Charged Denardo Pizzeria Attack Case

On June 23 there was a 3:15 AM EDT incident in a Washington DC pizzeria in the 1800 block of 14th St. NW that went viral due to it being filmed and posted on three websites and briefly on YouTube.

It started when 28 year old Raymone Harding and 22 year old Rachel Manna Sahle of Gaithersburg, MD started making fun of drag queen Miles Denardo's makeup as he entered the Manny & Olga's location to pick up food after performing at the Black Cat nightclub in the same block under his Heidi Glum performance name.

It escalated into a heated argument in which epithets were exchanged, one of the women is alleged to have slapped Denardo, Denardo is alleged to have spit in the face of one of the women and egged on by an unidentified patron, resulted in a fight in which Denardo was punched by Harding and Sahle while being dragged across the floor of the take out pizzeria by his hair as bystanders laughed and cheered.   

Elements of the Washington DC and national LGBT community decried the attack in which the 'faggot' and 'tranny' slurs were deployed by the women against Denardo.  The African American end of the trans and SGL community were not too happy (myself included) about Denardo tweeting the n-word in the aftermath of it and the LGBT social media bigot eruptions that ensued aiming racial animus at Harding and Sahle.

There's also the problematic point of the HIV positive Denardo admitting to spitting in the face of one of the women and claiming they now had HIV.

If a person is HIV positive and deliberately spits in the direction of another person or bites them, in some states that is considered assault with a deadly weapon.  

On Tuesday police arrested Harding and charged her with misdemeanor simple assault in the ugly incident which is still under investigation by DC Metro Police. 

The misdemeanor simple assault charge carries a maximum six month jail sentence and/or a $1000 fine.

Sahle filed a police report the night of the June 23 incident accusing Denardo of biting her on the thigh and telling her 'now you have AIDS'.  

Denardo is claiming self defense for the felony aggravated assault charge that carries a maximum 10 year jail sentence,

He asserts in a Washington Blade interview that he had no choice but to bite her in order to get her to release the grip she had on his hair.   He also denies saying that she now has AIDS when the tape of the incident does capture him saying precisely that.

There's enough wrong to go around on both sides.  And as the conventional wisdom goes when you have two conflicting sides of a story, the truth is somewhere in the middle.  

It will be up to federal prosecutors in the District to sort out where the facts are and who is telling the truth in this convoluted and racially charged case.   


TransGriot Update: Rachel Manna Sahle was also arrested. charged with misdemeanor simple assault and released along with Harding after both women plead not guilty in DC Superior Court.
Both are scheduled for misdemeanor initial status hearings on September 5, ordered to take drug tests and stay away from Denardo.  

One Of The Killers Of Evon Young Convicted

Billy Griffin's trial may have ended in a hung jury on June 17, but that wasn't the case for Ashanti Mcalister

The 18 year old Mcalister was one of the five men arrested and charged with the brutal murder of 22 year old transmasculine rapper Evon Young who went missing on New Year's Day.

Mcalister's trial started June 24 and he was found guilty of first degree intentional homicide on June 27.

With the conviction, Mcalister is facing a maximum life in prison sentence for the murder of Evon Young with the sentencing soon to come.  37 year old Ron Allen's trial in this case is now set to start on October 7.

23 year old Devin Seaberry plead guilty to a lesser charge of second degree reckless homicide on July 2 in return for their testimony against Griffin, Mcalister and Allen.   Seaberry will be sentenced on October 17.

Victor Stewart also plead guilty June 5 to second degree reckless homicide in exchange for his testimony against the other three defendants and will be sentenced on July 23.     

After having his first one declared a mistrial Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner, Billy Griffin is facing a new trial that is scheduled to start September 16.

So if you're keeping score at home on how justice is being served in this Young case here's how its broken down so far.

Two defendants (Stewart and Seaberry) have plead guilty to second degree reckless homicide and have yet to be sentenced.  Mcallister has been convicted of first degree intentional homicide and yet to be sentenced.  Ron Allen is still awaiting trial for first degree intentional homicide, and Billy Griffin was tried, a mistrial was declared and he will have to face the judicial music again.

I will be keeping track of this Evon Young case until all the defendant have been sentenced to do the time for this heinous crime.  

Suspect In Vivian Diego Beating Case Pleads Not Guilty

21 year old Nicol Shakhnazaryan, one of the alleged perps arrested June 20 in the vicious beating of Vivian Diego has plead not guilty to charges of battery with serious bodily injury and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury in the May 31 attack.

Shakhnazaryan's attorney is incredibly claiming self defense for his client.  He asserts that Diego was the aggressor that night and attacked his client and his friends.

Yeah, right. That surveillance videotape says otherwise.  But if that tactic of convincing a jury that the videotape is lying worked to get off LA cops shown beating the crap out of Rodney King with their batons back in 1992, I can see why you'd try to run that same legal defense playbook with a white defendant from the San Fernando Valley and a Los Angeles trans Latina victim.in court especially since the Gwen Araujo Justice For Victims Act bans the use of the trans panic defense in California..

Shakhnazaryan faces eight years in jail if he is convicted and is due back in court July 16 to get his preliminary hearing date. 

The other people involved in the beating of Diego have yet to be arrested and a $25,000 reward is still being offered in the case for any information that leads to their arrest. Anyone with information about the attackers should email hollywoodcrimetips@gmail.com or call LAPD detectives at (213) 972-2967.  

Deoni Jones Trial Delayed Again In DC

Gary Niles Montgomery was arrested and charged with the murder of 22 year old Deoni Jones back on February 12, 2012, but the wheels of justice in this case are moving at tortoise like speed.

He is charged with first degree murder while armed for Jones' February 2 slaying, but the trial has been delayed as his current attorney Colle Latin contests the two mental competency evaluation that found him fit to stand trial.

That forced Judge Robert Morin to postpone the June 10 trial and set a third mental competency evaluation for Montgomery that won't take place until January 6, 2014.   That pushed the tentative trial date back to April 14, 2014.

Montgomery was initially found competent to stand trial in March 2012, but the case was not allowed to proceed due to the failure of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia to obtain an indictment until November 2012. Montgomery also switched defense lawyers, further delaying court proceedings.

His defense attorneys have also been fiercely contesting the two mental competency evaluation results finding the 56 year old Montgomery fit to stand trial as the frustrations of Jones' family, friends and supporters mount.

Meanwhile Montgomery sits in the DC Jail without bond as he awaits their third mental competency evaluation.


"The delay prolongs the pain and suffering of Deoni Jones's family," Hassan Naveed of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) said. "It is critical for the court to act fast and show its commitment to ending these vicious hate crimes. Our city has faced a decade-long trend of targeted and often lethal violence against the transgender community, it is time for the courts to take it seriously."

It's not only time to take that decade long trend of anti-trans violence in Washington DC seriously, but do what it takes to eradicate it.

Expeditious trials of perpetrators accused of killing transpeople would be a great place to start.

Nerve Wracking SCOTUS Watch Week

Good thing I'm going to be hitting the road in the middle of the week for a long interstate highway journey to Denver.  It'll keep me from not being stressed out reading SCOTUSblog about the potential results in several cases of importance to me and the various communities I'm a part of.  

I'm keenly interested in the Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder case which takes aim at Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Fisher v UT Austin one and the ones the marriage equality peeps are sweating in Hollingsworth v Perry and United States v. Windsor.

Note to John Aravosis and the rest of you GL peeps pimping that tired Blacks are keeping us from getting gay marriage meme, let me drop another 50 megatons on knowledge on to you irradiate that lie. 

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund wrote friend of the court briefs in support of striking down DOMA and was part of the coalition of organizations filing in the Hollingsworth v perry care to take down Prop 8.

The LDF has been filing friend of the court briefs on behalf of the LGBT community since the 1996 Romer v Evans case. 

But back to the SCOTUS and these upcoming landmark cases.  The only thing we know about these cases is that there is no way of knowing which way they will go, and we can't even say for certain the vote will break down on 5-4 conservative-liberal lines as has been the pattern in the Roberts Court era.

For those of us who like to see human rights expand, all we can do is watch, hope and pray that justice prevails. 

These SCOTUS decisions will drop either sometime this week or next, and you will definitely know when it happens because the online chatter will be off the charts when it does.

Tracey Lynn Garner Facing Second Murder Charge In Silicone Pumping Death

Tracey Lynn Garner of Jackson, MS is now facing a second charge of depraved heart murder to add to the one she's facing concerning the death of Karima Gordon.   

Also charged in the Karima Gordon case is Natasha Stewart, an adult entertainer who goes by the name Pebbelz Da Model who accepted $200 for the pumping referral to Gordon.

Garner is now being accused of and charged with causing the January 2010 death of Selma, AL resident Marilyn Hale after another silicone butt injection that went horribly wrong.

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger story violates the AP Stylebook guidelines, but what else is new?

The new indictment issued by the Hinds County grand jury according to the in violation of the AP Stylebook guidelines story alleges that Garner, on or about Jan. 13, 2010, “did kill Marilyn Hale…by means of injecting a silicone substance into the body of Marilyn Hale, thereby committing an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart.”

Garner is under house arrest while awaiting a trial that has been postponed twice after being set to start on April 8 and June 10.  There is also an ongoing investigation in which the Attorney General's office is searching for more people who got pumped by Garner. 

If Garner is convicted in either case she is facing life imprisonment.   

Evon Young Trial Defendant Billy Griffin In Deliberations

Billy Griffin, one of the people accused of killing Milwaukee transmasculine rapper Evon 'Yung LT' Young took the stand in his own defense during his trial late Wednesday and early Thursday. 

He described the New Year's Day murder of his former roommate and music collaboration partner was an indirect payback for him leaving a violent gang run by his cousin Victor Stewart.

Griffin tearfully testified that his days of feigned ignorance during the search for Young and initial lies to police when they began to suspect a homicide, were driven by fear of reprisals from his cousin and Stewart's gang.

Prosecutor Grant Huebner argued that because Griffin's performance was so convincing over the two weeks leading up to his January 15 arrest, his story and display of emotion on the witness stand might also be only an act.

After Griffin wrapped up his testimony, the jurors began deliberating his fate after lunch on June 13 and are still deliberating as of this writing.

Griffin is facing a maximum life in prison sentence if he is convicted of first degree intentional homicide as the family and friends of Young and the trans community await the jury's eventual verdict.

TransGriot Update: After several days of the jury failing to reach a unanimous verdict in the case of Billy Griffin, the accused murderer of Evon Young, a mistrial was just declared this morning by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner.   Wagner scheduled a new trial for September 16.

George Zimmerman Trial Starts Today

While I'll be keeping an eye on Washington DC and Milwaukee for two trials starting there , my still unapologetically Black and trans behind will have my attention focused along with the rest of the country on the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, FL.

The trial of George Zimmerman gets started in Sanford, FL today in which he will attempt to get off for killing 17 year old Trayvon Martin in cold blood for the crime of Walking While Black.

Sarcasm meter off, continuing post.

This trial like the OJ one turned out to be in the 90's is unavoidably going to be an American racial issues litmus test.   We African Americans since the day we heard about what happened have been in 'there but for the grace of God go I' mode every time we see pictures of Trayvon or his parents stoically fighting for justice for their son.

As much as Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin and their attorney have tried to focus the attention on the legal case and getting justice for Trayvon, we can't avoid the overwhelming racial subtext permeating this case.

Those of us who are Black and TBLG and our organizations have a bitter familiarity with the result of what happens when the toxic union of bigotry and violence happens and see it visited upon our people far too often.

We can't avoid thinking about race in this situation especially when the conservafools, their talking heads, and their whiteness uber alles orgs sent cash and rushed to the defense of George Zimmerman. 

And before you even think about e-mailing any comment about Zimmerman isn't white, don't waste your time. He didn't bother claiming that Latino heritage until it was needed.  He had no problem accepting that whiteness and privileged white male status he got from Daddy and was obviously benefiting from by being able to sleep in his own bed the night he murdered Trayvon.

If Zimmerman is convicted, the justice system worked in this case despite the attempts o the Zimmerman family and the vanillacentric conservafool movement to shift the narrative, 'work the refs'  and demonize Trayvon for the fateful decision he made to simply get some tea and Skittles from a local 7 Eleven.

If he walks, we're probably looking at Rodney King levels of anger and pissivity in our community that I hope and pray doesn't explode into what Dr King called it in his 'The Other America' essay as 'the language of the unheard'.    

And what I wrote on March 20, 2012 will sadly be verified.

Once again, it reinforces the fact in the USA that no matter what we do, whether we are the president of the United States or some 17 year old kid just getting a late night snack, the lives of Black people don't mean jack to some people infected with vanillacentric privilege, ignorance and bigotry. 

And in some cases it's justification enough for these bigots to kill us.

We'll see as the court case in Sanford, FL unfolds what happens to Zimmerman and if Trayvon will get justice, or Zimmerman will be given a get out of jail free card for killing a 17 year old Black kid minding his own damned business until he stuck his nose in it despite the Sanford police dispatcher telling him not to. 

Two Trans Murder Trials Start Today

The eyes of the African-American trans community and our allies will also be focused today on Washington DC and Milwaukee,WI as the alleged murderers of Deoni Jones and Evon Young face the legal music for their crimes.

Inside I-495, 56 year old Gary Niles Montgomery after two psychiatric evaluations that declared him mentally competent to stand trial, finally gets to face a jury for the fatal February 2 attack last year on trans woman Deoni Jones at a NE Washington DC bus stop. 

A few hours later in Wisconsin, Billy Griffin, the first of the five suspects involved in the murder of transmasculine Milwaukee rapper Evon Young goes to trial.  They were all initially charged with first degree intentional homicide but Victor Stewart plead guilty June 5 to second degree reckless homicide and will be sentenced on July 23.    

Ron Joseph Allen and Ashanti Mcalister are the next scheduled to get their day in court on June 24 and Devin L. Seaberry will be schedule to go on trial July 8.

If they are convicted of first degree intentional homicide they are facing maximum life in prison sentences.
   
Will Deoni and Evon receive justice?  We'll have to wait and see what happens as the legal maneuverings take place in those courtrooms in our nation's capitol and Wisconsin in front of the judges and jurors empaneled to decide the fates of those defendants.

Based on past cases involving trans murder victims and the outrageous verdicts that have come from past trials,  it's a valid question for the African-American trans community and our allies to ask right now.


TransGriot Update:  Devin Seaberry also took a plea deal to a lesser charge in this case in exchange for his testimony.    In Washington DC, the Deoni Jones trial is once again held up by questions over Montgomery's mental competence to stand trial.

Guyana Reviewing British Colonial Era Crossdressing Ban

I wrote about this February 2009 case in the South American nation of Guyana in which several of our transsisters there were arrested for violating the British colonial era anti-crossdressing statute that for now is still in effect in that nation.   They were fined and given a faith based lecture from the bench by Guyanese Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson, the judge handling the case. 

The four transwomen involved in the case filed a lawsuit on February 20, 2010 to challenge that 1893 law.

Three years have now passed since that case was filed, and Guyana's chief judge Ian Chang is holding hearings on whether to eliminate that colonial-era prohibition on cross-dressing that Seon Clarke, spokesman for the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination alleges is being selectively used by the police to target the country's trans population.

“The law is plainly at odds with the ethos and provisions of the Guyana constitution, which states that it is committed to eliminating every form of discrimination,” said Clarke.

Guyanese officials who attend an annual United Nations conference on human rights issues have promised to review the British colonial era law.   The Government of Guyana committed at the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in Geneva in May 2010 to “hold consultations on this issue over the next two years.”

But as you probably guess, because of faith based opposition Christian, Hindu and Muslim groups no action has been taken so far to keep that promise to review the law the faith based haters wish to keep in place.

The first hearings to review the law were recently held, with the government response coming on June 4. 

“Tuesday’s full-day court hearing is really the culmination of more than 4 years work between SASOD, U-RAP, Guyanese human rights attorneys and the transgender folk who suffered egregious abuses and enduring injury to their human dignity during the February 2009 police crackdowns on cross-dressing,” said SASOD’s Co-Chair, Joel Simpson. “Justice can only be served by the court declaring this insidious law unconstitutional, null and void,” Simpson concluded.

What Is An Unjust Law?

You've probably read a few posts ion TransGriot in which when I've commented on anti-TBLG laws or bad legislation that is purported to help us I've called them 'unjust laws'.

So what is an unjust law?   St. Augustine has said "an unjust law is no law at all." 

To clarify what he said, an unjust law would be one that takes away an individual's or a group's freedom, causes harm or basically just causes chaos.  It's the opposite effect of what a law is put in place to do.

The Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. broke it down more eloquently in his 1963 'Letter From Birmingham City Jail' the concept of just and unjust laws.  

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I it" relationship for an "I thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

So the next time you see me in this space call a law just or unjust, you'll now have a better understanding of what I'm talking about

Audrey's History Making Kenyan Case

I've had the pleasure of conversing with Audrey Mbugua online for several years now and I'm looking forward to the day I finally meet this trailblazing Kenyan trans activist.   .
 
I'm following with keen interest her Kenyan history making legal case in her homeland in which she sued the Kenyan National Examinations Council and the Kenyan Attorney General to change the name on her KNEC certificates and other identity documents including her national identity card and passport to reflect who she is now.

“The process of changing my name and gender in my identity, travel and academic documents was fraught with challenges such as lack of understanding among public officers in charge of these processes,” Audrey says in a recent interview.

The initial court hearing was on May 28 and the counsel representing KNEC and the attorney general asked  High Court Judge Weldon Korir for more time to prepare a response to Mbugua's petition because this case is in their words 'tricky'.   The counsel also indicated that the petition response will require extensive consultations between several Kenyan government departments, including the Registrar of Births and Deaths.

There's nothing 'tricky' about it.  29 year old Audrey lives her life as and presents as female, she has undergone a medical transition except the genital surgery she started in 2001, and her documentation needs to reflect that.

  


Audrey's interview on NTV Kenya



Good luck sis!  Hope common sense prevails on August 6 and your document changes are granted..

Delaware FINALLY Introduces Anti-Trans Discrimination Bill

After declining to take the opportunity to do so in 2009 when they added sexual orientation to the state's anti-discrimination law, Delaware lawmakers on Wednesday finally got around to introducing legislation banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity and joining the other 16 states plus the District of Columbia that already do so.  

The proposed bill would add gender identity to the existing list of protected nondiscrimination categories, including race, age, marital status, creed, color, sex, handicap, sexual orientation and national origin.

The legislation defines gender identity as “a gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of a person, regardless of the person’s assigned sex at birth” and would prohibit discrimination against a person on the basis of gender identity in housing, employment, public works contracting, public accommodations, and insurance.

Predictably the haters in the Delaware Family Assn. are already deploying 'bathroom bill' shade at it but it has the alleged support of Gov. Jack Markell (D).

His spokesperson Cathy Rossi stated 'The governor believes that discrimination on the basis of gender or gender identity is inherently wrong and supports legislation to prohibit it,”.

ENDABlog 2.0's Katrina Rose on her FB page sums up elements of the trans people's bordering on cynical attitudes toward this news. 

'And yet his (Gov. Jack Markell) belief wasn't strong enough to even suggest that trans people be included in the gay rights bill four years ago, eh?

'I presume that this current bill will receive just as much attention as GENDA has received in New York.'

I'm with Katrina Rose in asking where was Gov Markell's support for adding gender identitiy in 2009?  There is a far more urgent need for covering trans people in anti-discrimination law and it should have been handled four years ago, but better late than never.

The bill also would require educational institutions to provide “reasonable accommodations” to permit access by transgender people to such facilities as single-sex student dormitories, fraternities, sororities, and other housing and allow businesses to require workers to adhere to reasonable appearance, grooming and dress standards consistent with the employee’s gender identity.

We'll see if Delaware becomes the 17th state to outlaw anti-trans discrimination.

Puerto Rico House Passes Trans Inclusive Rights Bill

In a historic day for the Puerto Rican TBLG community, the Puerto Rican House of Representatives  approved the trans inclusive Senate Bill 238 on a 29-22 vote after nearly three hours of debate in a session that ended well after midnight. 

“I can serve God without having to discriminate against anyone,” Rep. Lydia Méndez Silva said before she announced her support of the anti-discrimination bill.

The bill authored by Senator Ramon Luis Nieves would ban anti-TBLG discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and government services in the US territory based on real or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation. 
.
The Puerto Rican House also approved by the same 29-22 margin House Bill 488, which extends existing domestic violence protections to any person regardless of their marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity.  

HB 488 will now move to the Puerto Rican Senate for its approval while Senate Bill 238 heads to the desk of Governor Alejandro García Padilla.

Governor Garcia has indicated he will sign into law the passed SB 238 and HB 488 if it reaches his desk. He is also in favor of a bill that would extend second parent adoption rights to gay and lesbian couples and met with legislators on Thursday morning to garner support for the human rights legislation.

Puerto Rican homeboy and singer Ricky Martin also urged legislators to vote favorably on that pending TBLG rights legislation in an open letter he penned to Puerto Rican House members.

“The rights of gay people are human rights, and human rights are for everyone,” Martin wrote.“The passage of [SB 238] would represent the respect of our brothers and sisters’ rights.” 

American GL community, I hope you were paying attention to what transpired in Puerto Rico.

This is the 'Dallas Principles' in action in terms of not leaving anyone behind and moving forward to make collective human rights progress.  Unfortunately that's a concept that seems to have escaped some selfish people in this community. 

Trans inclusion helps TBLG human rights move forward for all of us, not backwards. 

It's also another concrete example of what I've been saying for years.  If you want liberal progressive change and laws, you have to elect liberal progressive politicans to do the job. 


But megacongratulations to my TBLG brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico.  It would be nice if our politicians in Washington DC would follow the sterling example of what yours just did, say no to the faith based haters and do the same thing on the mainland.

Evon Young Case Update

The last time I posted on the murder of Milwaukee trans man and rapper Evon Young five suspects, 37 year old Ron Allen, 23 year old Devin Seaberry, 26 year old Billy Griffin, 18 year old Ashanti Mcalister, and 27 year old Victor Stewart had been arrested and charged with Young's murder. 

In a January 31 court hearing they defendants all plead not guilty to the first-degree intentional homicide charges they face. The charges come with a maximum life in prison sentence if they are convicted

Young was brutally killed and once the the murder was done one or more of the perpetrators took the body to a trash dumpster behind an apartment complex and set it on fire.  But by the time the police detectives investigating the case discovered that information, the dumpster in question had been picked up and emptied around January 8 at a transfer station before being taken to a massive landfill in Menomonee Falls, WI  

While the court pleas were happening, the police on January 28 began searching a 200 by 200 foot section of the landfill with cadaver dogs for Young's body which ended after 13 days.   Then on February 19 a body was discovered near a dumpster at 63rd and Kraul Streets where evidence in the Young murder was previously found.   It raised the hopes of Young's family that it was his body, but it turned out not to be.

Despite the lack of a body, police and prosecuotrs belive that they have collected enough crime scene evidence combined with the statements of the alleged killers to secure convictions in this case.

As for the projected trial dates for the defendants in tthe Young case, they are as follows.  Billy Griffin is first up on June 10.  Ron Joseph Allen and Ashanti Mcalister get their day in court on June 24.  Victor Stewart will start on July 1 and Devin L. Seaberry on July 8.    Those dates could change based on whether they change their initial 'not guilty' pleas and take plea bargains  or the trials get rescheduled.

Will Evon Young's family get justice?   That remains to be seen.  But you know I will keep you posted about any developments in this case as I get the information.

Why The Negative Plain Dealer Coverage May Result In Cemia NOT Getting Justice

As I noted yesterday, the police in the Cleveland suburban hamlet of Olmsted Township have arrested 36 year old Andre L. Bridges,who is accused of the murder of 20 year old Cemia Dove Acoff.

Cemia's funeral is going to be this morning at 10 AM EDT at The Temple Baptist Church in East Cleveland, OH and there will also be a vigil held afterwards at the AIDS Taskforce of Cleveland.  It's a local organization in Cleveland according to Zoe Lapin that has heavy trans POC participation levels and significant POC trans involvement .

While the police and FBI capture of Bridges is a wonderful development in this case and as Olmsted Township Police Chief John Minek noted there is still an active investigation going on, I fear the damage has already been done that will ensure that Cemia may not get justice when this case finally goes to court.

While I hope and pray that when it goes to trial, it's proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Bridges did it and he spends the rest of his life getting three hots and a cot at the Ohio Iron Bar motel for what he's allegedly done, I fear that the Plain Dealer's transphobic coverage may have already poisoned the well and tainted the Cleveland area jury pool in the direction of Cemia NOT receiving justice for what was done to her.

If it happens that Andre L. Bridges gets a ridiculously low sentence or walks, you'll only need to look back to the day that the Plain Dealer's rabidly transphobic coverage of CeCe's death was unleashed upon the world..

For starters, the Plain Dealer went too far in ignoring the AP Stylebook guidelines and erasing Cemia trans feminine status.  Instead of reporting the murder of a trans feminine woman, you stripped her of any dignity by misgendering her, commenting on what she was wearing when the body was discovered, and categorizing her as 'it'  Then on top of that, you used her old name in the story, used mugshots of her and dragged her old criminal record into it   

Way to go in your first class efforts Cleveland Plain Dealer to dehumanize her.

Because you set the demonizing and dehumanizing framing of the story, that meant the other Cleveland area media outlets followed your transphobic lead to the point where the Lanigan and Malone morning team at Majic105.7 cracked jokes (around the 7:00 minute mark) about this killing. 

That initial negative framing led to a television interview with a family member that obviously wasn't down with Cemia's gender transition.  That family member constantly misgendered her as old male pictures were shot without balancing the story out with people who knew and loved her as CeCe and pictures reflecting that. 

Never mind the fact that Cemia was the victim in this and isn't the one that should be on trial.  And when the backlash started, instead of correcting the story, you started wallowing in white male cis privilege, circled the wagons and blamed everybody else but yourselves for the fracked up coverage you justifiably got called on and kept on digging that transphobic hole you started with. 

Even in the article you claimed was an apology, you are still using the jacked up photo of Cemia when there are more tasteful feminine photos of her and trying to stick to using her old male name which isn't germane to the story.

Tina Turner's old name is Anna Mae Bullock.  Do you call her by that name in any story you write?   See how fast you get another interview with Cher if you insist on repeatedly writing Cherilyn Sarkisian in that article or Reginald Dwight in one for Sir Elton John.   

 But back to focusing on the transphobic news coverage.   What it did was basically paint Cemia in a negative light, and it's something that Bridges' defense attorney will possibly exploit now that you media peeps did all their work in demonizing Cemia for them.

You've laid the groundwork for Bridges' defense attorney to possibly deploy the 'trans panic' defense and make the murderer look like a everyday and twice on Sunday church attending choirboy vis a vis the 'crazy tr---y' who 'deserved what she got'.  

Oh my bad, you refused to acknowledge that she was a trans woman.

And when that trial starts, we'll have an empaneled jury whose minds are already compromised by marinating in the anti-trans media negativity stirred up by that journalistic hate crime.   We already know the odds are going to be long (but not impossible) for obtaining a murder conviction of a cis person who kills a transperson.

Worst case is he walks, best case is he gets life in prison pending the evidence and skill of the prosecuting attorney.   What I wouldn't be surprised that happens in this case is we possibly get a plea deal for aggravated manslaughter.

Your transphobic reporting has pretty much framed this trial one it starts as a Black cisman kills 'deceptive' Black 'man' or in the minds of many people not well versed in the lives of trans people a 'freak who deserved to die for tricking an unsuspecting cis man'.

That's not me spouting over the top rhetoric, that's the gist of the comments running around in the comment threads on the various posts.  A mentality that may seep into the jury deciding Andre L Bridges fate.  

So Cleveland trans community, if Bridges walks or gets a ridiculously low sentence, you'll know where it started.

 

GENDA Passes NY Assembly For Sixth Straight Time

Back on April 19 I asked the question if GENDA would finally pass in New York State this year.  

Well, it's off t a great start.  For the sixth straight time GENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act passed the NY state Assembly on a 84-46 vote Tuesday. 

GENDA (A.4226)(S.0195) ensures that all New Yorkers, including those who identify as transgender or present their gender in a way that differs from what is traditionally associated with their birth sex, are protected from discrimination in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life under the Human Rights Law. The measure also expands the state's hate crime protections to explicitly include crimes against transgender people.

And yes, as you probably guessed opponents of the bill threw the bathroom meme into the debate in their attempts to block it but failed.

Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick said about its passage, "GENDA appropriately extends long overdue civil rights protections to the transgender community. I am confident that fairness and justice will result in passage, and I call on the NYS Senate to embrace the 21st Century and approve this crucial bill.
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Tuesday also saw 700 people descend upon Albany to lobby for passage of GENDA and work on the senators in the Republican controlled New York Senate.  The bill has gone from being passed in the Assembly to dying in the Senate for the last five sessions without ever getting a floor vote.

Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Nathan Schaefer is hopeful this time will be different  and congratulated the Assembly for standing up for the rights of trans New Yorkers.

"LGBT New Yorkers have made significant strides towards equality with legislative victories on hate crimes, bullying, and most recently, marriage equality. And yet, we have work to do. In many places across New York, people can be fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, and experience discrimination just because of their gender identity or expression. The time to extend basic civil rights to transgender New Yorkers is long overdue. We commend the Assembly for recognizing this need and passing GENDA for the 6th time.

Senate Sponsor Daniel Squadron will lead the charge to pass GENDA through the Investigations and Government Operations Committee and the full Senate.  If that happens, it will then go to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk for his signature.

Transgender New Yorkers have been waiting far too long to have their home state cover them in anti-discrimination and hate crime laws, and it's past time it happened .

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.

Ms W's Final Trans Marriage Legal Appeal Starts

TransGriot Note: Here's another one you can e-mail to Karin Quimby

Been keeping up with along with my trans sisters in the Asia-Pacific Rim region and around the world the case of Ms. W ever since it started back in 2010.

It's also an example along with the now resolved Joanne Cassar case of how the same-gender marriage push has deleteriously affected the ability of transwomen in some areas of the world to get married. 

She's the transwoman who is now in her 30's that has been fighting a pitched legal battle in Hong Kong to have her rights recognized to marry her boyfriend.

She was back in court on her final two day appeal of this landmark legal case that started Monday (Sunday US time)   Ms W is seeking to overturn two previous rulings that went against her and had the effect of keeping the ban on her getting married (along with other transpeople in Hong Kong) in place.  

The city's Registrar of Marriages is claiming that since her birth certificate states she was born male and it can't be changed, she is still male despite having government funded SRS in Hong Kong and Ms. W changing all other identity documents to reflect her life as a female.

And as you probably guessed, only marriages between male and female couples are recognized in Hong Kong.   Never mind the fact that Ms W has done everything possible including a government funded genital surgery to be recognized as female. 

“We say the laws of marriage can and should recognize that sexual identity can change,” W’s attorney David Pannick told the court in his opening arguments.

“The right to marry is fundamental... the birth certificate is a record of historical facts,” he said, adding that W is now “medically, psychologically and socially” a woman.

Pannick said the Registrar of Marriages should recognize his client’s new gender, which is stated in official documents like her identity card and passport, and a denial of her bid to marry violates her constitutional rights.

Well, duh.  It's obvious to any of us without law degrees looking at it simply on the face of the human rights issues that Hong Kong is violating Ms. W's human and constitutional rights, but unfortunately we aren't the people wearing judicial robes and making the ruling on this case.

And it's even more ironic that if Ms W were living across the border in China and not in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that's under British law, she would have been happily married a few years ago. 

Here's hoping the judges in this case do the right thing, overturn the two previous jacked up rulings and let our trans sister (and everyone else in Hong Kong who would like to) get married.