Meagan Taylor's Iowa Discrimination Case Settled

You TransGriot readers may recall last July when girl like us Meagan Taylor and a trans friend's stay at a West Des Moines, Iowa Drury Inn on their way to Kansas City for a funeral turned ugly after a transphobic hotel employee called the police with a false claim of prostitution on the premises..

It resulted in Taylor spending 8 days in the Polk County, Iowa jail, missing the funeral, and becoming a real time example of why public accommodations language is critical in any non discrimination ordinance that aims to cover trans people.

Taylor and the ACLU-Iowa sued in November, and I'm pleased to report that with the help of the ACLU, Taylor's case was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the hotel and herself.

"What happened to Meagan was simply unacceptable and un-Iowan," said Rita Bettis, the legal director of the ACLU-Iowa. "Iowans have long valued the importance of treating every person fairly, and Iowa law has expressly protected against this sort of harmful discrimination by businesses against their transgender customers since 2007."

Thank you Meagan for standing up for your human rights, and glad the case was successfully resolved to your satisfaction.

Transphobia On The UH Campus?

Here's another example of why HERO is needed and necessary to combat discrimination in the city of Houston, and sadly it is on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Houston.

And it's also what happens when anti-trans attitudes are allowed to run unchecked in local media. They eventually filter down to the rest of the ignorati and start becoming microaggressive problems for Trans World and trans people just trying to get through their lives without drama.

Was reported to me by one of my on campus sources Monday night that this handmade sign was hanging on the ladies restroom door in the Tealicious restaurant in irony of ironies, the UH Welcome Center.

When Glissette Santana, the editor in chief of the Daily Cougar took a news team to the restaurant to check out reports concerning the alleged transphobic sign, the Tealicious management claimed the sign was in response to the broken single stall men's toilet.

Yeah right.   If you only have one functioning bathroom of a dual set of binary gendered potties, it would stand to reason the remaining operational toilet becomes by default a gender neutral restroom.  There is no need to post a jacked up sign like this unless you are harboring transphobic tendencies in the first place and wish to just be a transphobic jerk about it..

Something about this doesn't smell right, and I'm not talking about the stench from the allegedly stopped up men's bathroom at Tealicious.


TransGriot Update:  My source at UH has advised me that the transphobic sign has been taken down

CC15 Delegates, Let's Support Marjorie Silva While We're In Denver

When we start gathering in Denver next week for Creating Change 2015, I hope that one of the places we delegates visit and patronize is the Azucar Bakery owned by Marjorie Silva.

Remember the ridiculous 'swastika cakes' line that Houston suburban hate preacher Steve Riggle uttered during our HERO fight last year?  

It stems from a Colorado case in which a right wing leaning baker named Jack Phillips ran afoul of Colorado's anti-discrimination law for refusing to bake a weeding cake for a gay couple.  Because white privilege addled right wingers wouldn't know discrimination if it slapped them in the face like it does non-whites, TBLG people and women on an almost daily basis, they have a loud and wrong conservainterpretation of it that is not based in reality.

They seem to think their religious beliefs trump human rights law.   Um, no they don't.

And by the way Steve, Houston bakers still aren't being forced to bake swastika cakes.  But Houstonians are still having to deal with discrimination inside our city limits because HERO hasn't been implemented because of your friends baseless anti-human rights lawsuit.

Okay, back to Ms Silva's story.

In their zeal to prove a false equivalency,  right wing activist Bill Jack rolled over from Castle Rock, CO and trolled 40 year old Marjorie Silva's Denver bakery and asked her to make a Bible shaped cake, which she agreed to do. 

But when they were about to complete the order, according to Silva, Jack then handed her a piece of paper with hateful words about gays that he wanted written on the cake. He also wanted the cake to have two men holding hands and an X on top of them.

"It's just horrible. It doesn't matter if, you know, if you're Catholic, or Jewish, or Christian, if I'm gay or not gay or whatever," said Silva to KUSA-TV, adding in the interview that she has made cakes regularly for all religious occasions. "We should all be loving each other. I mean there's no reason to discriminate."

Silva said she would bake the cake, but would give him a pastry bag and icing to write the hateful anti-gay words on the cake himself.   

Jack didn't want that, claimed he'd been 'discriminated' against and subsequently filed a complaint against Azucar Bakery with the Colorado Civil Rights Division.

"There's no law that says that a cake-maker has to write obscenities in the cake just because the customer wants it," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado.

And that's the key difference in the Silva and Phillips cases.   She didn't refuse to bake the cake, she refused to write the offensive message on it.   She offered a solution for the customer to do it himself that he rejected.  That's a First Amendment free speech issue, not a public accommodations one

And I'm also not liking the racist fact the right wing christobigot chose a Latina owned bakery in Denver to attack.

Since Creating Change 2015 will be kicking off in Denver next week, why don't we show Ms.  Silva some love and support and buy any baked goods needed at the conference from her Azucar Bakery while we're in the Mile High City? 

There is also a gofundme campaign that has been started to help defray her legal expenses from this right wing trolling of her.

And for you TBLG peeps and allies in the Denver metro area, may I suggest pre and post CC15 you put Ms. Silva's bakery on your support list when you need to purchase a cake or baked goods for your future rainbow community events.

This is also a golden opportunity to show the nation and the world that we TBLG folks stand by and with our community allies when they are unjustly attacked while sticking it to the right wing christobigots at the same time.

And I can't think of a more delicious way to fight anti-LGBT hatred.

Public Accommodations Language For Dummies

For the people who are confused by the right wing, Barney Frank, WWBT and Exterminationalist Twins rhetoric and obfuscation about Public Accommodations language, let me direct your attention to this wonderfully succinct explanation of it by one of my fave men in this community, Ethan St Pierre.

Trans Civil Rights School is now in session, so take your seats so y'all can learn something.  

Take it away, Ethan!

***

For the people who think Public Accommodations means bathroom and locker rooms, here is your awakening:

The following private entities are considered public accommodations for purposes of this subchapter, if the operations of such entities affect commerce—
(A) an inn, hotel, motel, or other place of lodging, except for an establishment located within a building that contains not more than five rooms for rent or hire and that is actually occupied by the proprietor of such establishment as the residence of such proprietor;
(B) a restaurant, bar, or other establishment serving food or drink;
(C) a motion picture house, theater, concert hall, stadium, or other place of exhibition or entertainment;
(D) an auditorium, convention center, lecture hall, or other place of public gathering;
(E) a bakery, grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, shopping center, or other sales or rental establishment;
(F) a laundromat, dry-cleaner, bank, barber shop, beauty shop, travel service, shoe repair service, funeral parlor, gas station, office of an accountant or lawyer, pharmacy, insurance office, professional office of a health care provider, hospital, or other service establishment;
(G) a terminal, depot, or other station used for specified public transportation;
(H) a museum, library, gallery, or other place of public display or collection;
(I) a park, zoo, amusement park, or other place of recreation;
(J) a nursery, elementary, secondary, undergraduate, or postgraduate private school, or other place of education;
(K) a day care center, senior citizen center, homeless shelter, food bank, adoption agency, or other social service center establishment; and
(L) a gymnasium, health spa, bowling alley, golf course, or other place of exercise or recreation.

***

Now class, what did we learn today about Public Accommodations language? 

As you can see, PA language in civil rights bills is more than just bathrooms and showers.  I fail to understand why a few well to do white GLBT activists seem to have the deluded notion that you can pass effective trans rights bills without it. 

Oh yeah, maybe it's because their azzes never had to worry about facing any kind of bigotry, hate violence or discrimination directed at them until they became members of a despised minority in the rainbow community. 

So the next time y'all read about me putting people on blast on this blog or hear Moni go on the rant on a radio show or podcast about an unjust trans rights bill that doesn't have Public Accommodations language in it, you'll know why I went straight the hell off. 

Heaven help you if we're in a public forum and I hear someone with vanilla scented privilege who enjoys civil rights laws with PA language in them try to argue that PA language is not necessary for trans human rights laws or the proposed ENDA.  Don't be surprised when I look at you as if you're stuck on stupid, then call your behind out for parting your lips to say it.

Class dismissed.

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Transpass Is Still A Trans Problem In Philly

When I had the honor and pleasure of speaking on the Bryn Mawr campus back in October 2009 I took a SEPTA train from the airport to downtown Philly and kicked it with Dionne Stallworth for a few hours before heading to the campus.

After finishing my speech and spending some quality time afterwards with my Bryn Mawr hosts I rode the  train back to the airport to catch my flight back to Da Ville with no fuss, no muss and no problems short of falling asleep on the train and riding past my stop on the way to Bryn Mawr.

I also had a SEPTA day pass to do it with.

But for transpeeps in the Philadelphia area, they are still locking horns with SEPTA over their policy of putting 'M' or 'F' stickers on monthly transit passes in order to stem the tide the transit agency claims of $4.9 million in annual revenue losses from people allegedly sharing passes.    But opponents and even SEPTA admits there is no way of determining if the alleged fraud is actually occurring, much less have any way of tracking it.

The sticker system that was put in place to combat it has led to gender policing by SEPTA personnel and Philadelphia area transpeople such as Charlene Arcila being affected by it.

Four years ago Charlene was prevented by a SEPTA driver from using a weekly Transpass because of a gender sticker that didn't match her presentation.

She has used tokens ever since that incident and filed a complaint against SEPTA with the Philadelphia Human Rights Commission.   Because SEPTA is considered a quasi state agency and not subject to local regulations, the complaint hasn't been heard

In addition, when you ask the PHRC about it, all you get is either a 'no comment' or 'they can't discuss pending cases'.

The sticker system doesn't do what SEPTA officials claim it's supposed to do because the agency's antiquated fare collection system is only capable of tracking how often a card is used.   It doesn't track the gender of its user, or whether the card is being shared by same gender riders as the agency alleges.

In the meantime, the SEPTA gender policing issue hasn't gone away in Philadelphia.   It not only has a deleterious effect on trans patrons of the system, but affects cis people who have ambiguous gender presentations as well.   It's not only humiliating to the person who gets questioned, but could put them in a situation in which they could face abuse or bodily harm.


Philadelphia Councilman Bill Greenlee is among those voices who question the need for SEPTA gender policing. “It just seems to me it’s causing problems for people I’m sure are already having enough problems,” he said. “Unless they can really show or prove they’d lose [millions of dollars], why do this?”

SEPTA Chief Financial Officer Richard Burnfield stated, “I look at it as one of the tools that is in our toolbox to help the authority prevent fraud and misuse of our passes.” .

Interestingly enough, since January 2010 SEPTA reported receiving eight complaints about gender stickers, with two complaints regarding to specific instances of discrimination.   

SEPTA also keeps pointing out the problem will go away when they implement their new smart card system in three years, but that's not good enough for Arcila or transpeople in the area who continue to protest and speak out about the issue.

"I feel like they’re trying to sweep it under the rug,” Arcila said. “Once they put the smart card [system] into effect that would close the door on this case.”

A photo ID pass would have done the trick if they were serious about stopping the sharing of SEPTA passes. Since the smart card system is still three years from implementation, that's a moot point now.

The gender policing problem will persist until SEPTA shows some leadership and stops it. 
But unfortunately  until they do, you'll have some SEPTA employees implementing and enforcing the policy in ways that will be problematic in people's lives.