One Down,Three To Go In LA

One of the wastes of DNA suspected of being involved in the brutal May 31 transphobic hate assault on Vivian Diego was arrested by LAPD Hollywood Division detectives in the San Fernando Valley

21 year old Nicol Shakhnazaryan, was arrested Thursday night on felony battery charges for the May 31 attack and is being held on a $1.05 million bond.  LAPD with an assist from the FBI are searching for the other three suspects and the $25,000 reward for information leading to their capture is still in effect.

One down, three to go.

Eva Longoria Offers Support To Trans Employee

I have much love for my fellow Texan Eva Longoria, and like many people in the trans community was pissed to hear the story about about trans barista Vivian Diego.

The 22 year old Diego worked at Longoria's LA restaurant Beso that she opened in 2008 with chef Todd English. 

Vivian was headed home after working her shift at the restaurant when she was ambushed near the Hollywood Blvd LA METRO station by four knuckle dragging wastes of DNA, severely beaten and left for dead 

Vivian was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and treated for two fractured ribs, a shattered cheekbone, a broken jaw and damage to her temple.  The perpetrators of the assault are still being sought by the LAPD's Hollywood Division  and it is being investigated as a hate crime. 

It didn't get much better when that cesspool of transphobia celeb gossip blog Bossip posted the story and I ended up along with several other transpeople and our allies having to go to war in the comment section against all the transphobic ignorance running amok in the comment threads.

On June 3 Longoria tweeted about the incident and offered support to Diego by posting on "My heart and prayers are with Victor Diego and his family."

Glad to hear her comment about it, and hope the LAPD gets the creeps who did this.

Upon Further Review, The 2013 Honor 41 List...

Has FIVE trams people on it..    There are four trans Latinas and trans man Isaac Gomez on the 2013 edition of the Honor 41 List. 

To explain the significance of the Honor 41 list and how it became a reality, here's the creator of the list Alberto Mendoza to discuss it. 

The Honor 41 List highlights and shines a much needed media spotlight on the contributions of LGBT Latino/a people.

I knew about three of the women who were honored when I composed my initial post about it and have had the pleasure of meeting two of them personally over the last several months in Arianna and Bamby. 

The videos for numbers 31-41 weren't up yet at the time i compiled the initial post, and I wanted to share that good news with the rest of our community and congratulate the women I knew who had been given the honor of being on the inaugural list..

Speaking of honors, the other trans Latina besides the lovely trio of Bamby Salcedo, Maria Roman and Arianna Inurritegui Lint who is on the initial list is Danielle Castro. 

Maria, Danielle and Isaac I am so looking forward to meeting you one day.  I wish you continued success in being outstanding role models for not only the trans Latina/o community and the TBLG Latina/o one, but your local, state and the national LGBT community as a whole.

Ohio High School Lets Trans Latina Student Graduate Wearing Correct Gown

This was the way Damian Garcia and Isaak Wolfe's cases should have gone.down and it's nice to see common sense prevail.

In a scenario that has become far too familiar in this 2013 graduation season,  17 year old Fostoria, OH high school senior Chris Calderon-Perez has been transitioning for the last two years, but was initially told by principal Tom Grine she would have to dress as a male and wear the black male graduation gown instead of the red female one that matches her current gender presentation.  

However, the dress code policy that Grine was trying to enforce runs counter to the Fostoria school board non-discrimination policy that had just been updated in March to include gay and transgender students as protected classes.   Forcing Calderon-Perez to dress as male for her graduation would have been in violation of that newly minted non-discrimination policy.

"All I want to see is my mom proud of me, to see me walking — because I deserve it," Calderon-Perez said. "My academic achievement has nothing to do with my appearance."

Exactly.  So when Calderon-Perez's graduation happened yesterday, she was wearing the red female gown and following the female dress code.

No fuss, no muss, everybody's happy and you peeps in Fostoria avoided the transphobe instigated drama that happened in Pennsylvania and New Mexico.

Congratulations Chris, and may you have much sucecess in your future endeavors.

History Making Argentine Trans Woman Murdered

Sad news coming out of Argentina.  

32 year old Laura Aguilar, one of the first people to obtain a gender ID change under the Argentine Gender Identity Law in Tierra del Fuego province, was killed in the city of Rio Grande.

She was fatally stabbed May 12 in the home of her former partner Carlos Humbeto Traberg in what appears to be a relationship quarrel that went horribly wrong.

According to a spokesperson, Aguilar had gone to the home of the 55 year old Traberg where he cares for his mother with the intention of trying to rekindle their relationship.   In the midst of a heated argument in the kitchen he took out a knife and stabbed Aguilar in the heart and neck.  

Aguilar had recently filed a complaint because she was facing resistance in terms of local implementation of the nearly year old Gender Identity Law and access to trans specific medical care mandated in it.  With the help of local OHA activists and the backing of Tierra del Fuego provincial Governor Fabiana Rios she prevailed and was on track to get SRS before her untimely death.
   
She is being mourned by her activist colleagues in Argentina and hailed for her history making role.


H/T Eduarda Santos Transfofa em Blog

Lorena Escalera-One Year Later

Today marks the one year anniversary of the day that 25 year old Lorena Escalera was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment following a suspicious fire.   The model and member of the House of Xtravaganza was found during the subsequent investigation to have died by strangulation and suffocation suffered BEFORE the fire started at approximately 4 AM.  

However, the New York Times and the rest of the New York media decided to engage in an all too familiar pattern in media coverage of the deaths of POC trans women and sensationalize it. 

As Janet Mock stated about the coverage of Lorena at the time:

“As my city's and our nation's paper of record, I would expect the New York Times to treat any subject, regardless of their path in life, with dignity.”

"In Lorena Escalera's life she was so much more than the demeaning, sexist portrait they painted of girls like us. It goes beyond a ‘choice of words.’ According to the Times' limiting, harmful portrait of Lorena, she was nothing more than a ‘curvaceous’ bombshell for men to gawk at. That is not the ‘personal’ story of any woman, and until we treat trans women like human beings - in life and death - with dignity, families and struggles, our society will never see us beyond pariahs in our communities."
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It's now a year later and her killer or killers still haven't been brought to justice and the murder remains unsolved.   Lorena's friends and family want NYPD to move forward on the investigation.  

They want justice for Lorena.   So do we as her trans brothers and trans sisters.  And as the Good Doctor says, justice delayed is justice denied.   It's past time for the process to begin so that the wastes of DNA who killed her can be punished for it and justice can finally happen for Lorena and all the people who loved her.

Introducing The TransLatin@ Coalition

One of the reasons that my home girl Arianna Inurritegui Lint was at the Black Transmen, Inc conference in Dallas was to do a presentation about the Trans Latin@ Coalition along with doing a little networking. . 

Its founding president is Bamby Salcedo, who I spent some quality time with in Philly last month.  Arianna serves on the executive board as the organization's East Co-Chair.  The other executive board members are West Co-Chair Brenda del Rio Gonzalez and Paola Coots.

The Trans Latin@ Coalition mission is to 'advocate for the specific needs of Trans Latin@ immigrants who reside in the US and plan advocacy strategies that would improve our quality of life.'

As the National Transgender Discrimination Study points out, trans Latinas are catching hell, too.  Then toss in discrimination and immigration status issues into that foul cocktail of transphobic oppression and you see the end result in the sobering NTDS stats. 

The Trans Latin@ Coalition seeks to accomplish their mission by:

*  Having a network of trans-Latin@ immigrant leaders who advocate for the advancement and development of the quality of life of trans Latin@ immigrants who reside in the US.

*  Increase societal acceptance by providing visibility to our issues

*  Advocating for laws for protection, human and civil rights, health care, social and cultural inclusion

* Emphasizing that “Our Unity is Our Development”

The Trans Latin@ Coalition is an organization that is sorely needed in our trans advocacy circles.  It's also one the Trans Persons of Color Coalition, Black Transmen, Inc and Black Transwomen, Inc are eager to work in partnership with.  We do have some common problems in terms of the unemployment underemployment issues, anti-trans violence and sexual assault aimed at non-white transwomen, and visibility in the greater trans community as common ground issues we are motivated to work intersectionally to solve.


May the TransLatin@ Coalition have abundant success in fulfilling your mission to be the voice of immigrant trans Latinas.   Judging by what I saw in terms of Bamby's and Arianna's presentations I'd say you were well on your way to fulfilling that part of your mission.  

May your voice also be heard and respected not only by the greater Latin@ community, but all the ones you intersect and interact with.  More importantly, may it be turned into governmental policy that will positively impact your lives.

Ecuador's Diane Rodriguez Poised To Make History

February 17 could see international trans history being made if all goes well for 30 year old psychology student Diane Rodriguez on election night.

The student and trans activist from Guayaquil heads a trans rights organization called Silhouette X and is running for a seat in Ecuador's 100 member  unicameral Congress as a member of the leftist Ruptura 25 party.  

"My focus will be on all minorities, vulnerable ethnic groups and feminist causes,: she said in an AFP interview.   One of the legislative agenda items she'd like to see happen is same gender marriage in her nation that is 85% Catholic. 

But then again, Argentina is heavily Catholic and not only has marriage equality but a groundbreaking gender identity law on the books as well.

She came out as trans as a teen. In a scenario far too familiar to many of us around the world, she was kicked out of her parent's home for a while before being allowed to return home and pursue her dreams.

Rodriguez also won a precedent setting legal battle in 2009 that allowed her to change her name on her ID card but not the gender marker. 

She subsequently with the help of other NGO's launched a campaign that calls for individuals to be allowed to choose which gender they want to register as

If she is successful, she would become not only the first open trans lawmaker in her nation, but the first on the South American continent and the only the fourth ever in the entire world.  If she goes into a runoff election for this open seat she is competing for, that would take place on April 7.   

Dominican Republic Trans Org COTRAVEDT Demands End To Anti-Trans Discrimination

There have been some interesting things happening for trans people in the Caribbean since 2010.  With the Organization of American States adopting a resolution urging its member nations to implement their resolutions covering human rights sexual orientation, and gender identity we are starting to see some of our transpeople in the region become more insistent that their various nations respect and protect their human rights.  

Monday was the 64th anniversary of the ratification of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.   In the Dominican Republic COTRAVEDT, the organization that advocates for the Dominican trans community, chose that date to hold a press conference demanding an end to anti-trans discrimination and they have equal access to basic services in their nation.

COTRAVEDT represents over 1,200 trans people in their island nation and Nairobi Castillo, the coordinator for the group pointed out 18 transsexuals and sexual workers have been killed this year, but no indictments to solve any of those killing have yet been made by authorities.  

Castillo noted the Dominican Republic lags further behind in discrimination in education, health and freedom of movement for the trans community.

To add an exclamation point to the anti-trans discrimination being decried by Castillo, Eddy Flores, the mother of a transwoman described her outrage over taking her trans daughter to a public hospital but having to leave because of the negativity aimed at her.  She eventually had to find the money to take her trans child to a private clinic.


Flores also proclaimed at the COTRAVEDT press conference her trans child isn’t a monster and she loves her the same as any other mother loves her child.

It's past time for the Dominican Republic to treat transpeople living inside their country's borders with the same dignity and respect that they would have for any other citizen of that nation.

Be nice if that would happen for our trans cousins in the Dominican Republic as expeditiously as possible.
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Trans History-Roberta Close

Contrary to this article implying that trans models like Lea T, Felipa Torres and Carol Marra are some 21st century twist to the Brazilian modeling scene, that isn't the case.  There was a trans woman strutting the catwalks in Brazil and elsewhere in the world back in the 80's.

This latest group of twentysomething Brazilian models need to bow down and recognize their trans sister who paved the way for them to be able to strut those catwalks in Rio, New York, Milan and Paris.

The pioneering transwoman in question is Roberta Gambine Moreira, who was born on this date in 1964 in Rio de Janiero.  

Known professionally as Roberta Close, she started surreptitiously taking hormones in her teens and began her modeling and film career at age 17.

The 5'10 1/2" beauty won the Miss Gay Brazil pageant at age 20, appeared in a popular Brazilian soap opera and print ads. 

She was the first trans woman to appear on the cover of Brazilian Playboy (while preoperative), and hosted a late night talk show in her homeland.  Even though she was comfortable with her pre-op status during that time period, she eventually had SRS in Britain in 1989, appeared in a post-operative photo spread in the  Brazilian mens magazine Sexy and was voted the 'Most Beautiful Woman In Brazil'.

In 1993 she married her Swiss manager, Roland Granacher, in Europe since in Roman Catholic Brazil she wasn't able to do so.



She also fought a lengthy legal battle in the Brazilian court system to challenge the laws that refused to recognize her femininity in her documentation.  She lost an initial round in 1997 and another in 2003, but eventually won her case to have her birth documentation changed.

On March 4, 2005, Roberta Close acquired legal status as a female in Brazil after Judge Leise Rodrigues de Lima Espiritu Santo of the 9th Family Court of Rio de Janeiro legally recognized her as a woman.

Roberta Close is the reason that the current crop of Brazilian trans models have their opportunities to make it in the fashion world today, and hope these 21st century ladies appreciate the barriers Roberta broke down for them.


   

Sylvia Rivera 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally Speech

This is 1973 video of Sylvia Rivera speaking at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally despite attempts to silence her.   

She pushed her way past rainbow community transphobes determined to keep her off that stage and still managed to grab the mic, have her say and be heard that day over a crowd that was hatin' on her.  

That it the legacy that we trans activists living in the second decade of the 21st century must honor and live up to.

Here's the video of Sylvia's speech.

y'all better quiet down! from reina july on Vimeo.

Janette Tovar Update

The friends and family of our trans sister Janette Tovar held a candlelight vigil for her Thursday night at the Grapevine Bar in Dallas that was well attended.   People in the Dallas rainbow community are still stunned, shocked and angry about her untimely loss and how it transpired.

As for the arrangements for Ms. Tovar, there won't be a wake, viewing or funeral because Janette is being cremated.  A church service is being planned and scheduled for a later date and as soon as I have that info, I will pass that along to you.

Thanks to my friends, fellow bloggers and allies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I'll have some help keeping you apprised of the ongoing developments in terms of the murder investigation and how the case against her alleged killer Jonathan Kenney is progressing. 

I will definitely let you know if and when our fallen trans sister Janette receives justice.

RIP, Janette

Damn, we'll be adding another name to the 2012 TDOR list.  This time the fallen trans sister comes from my home state.   According to the Dallas Voice, 43 year old Janette Tovar was murdered Tuesday by her life partner, 26 year old Jonathan Stuart Kenney.

Kenney was arrested by Dallas police yesterday.   According to an arrest affidavit, an investigation into Tovar’s death revealed that Kenney slammed Tovar’s head into the concrete in the 830 block of West Davis Street at 6:20 AM CDT Monday.   Kenney then continued to assault Tovar when they returned home to 918 W. 8th St.

Police then responded to a 911 call at about 4:20 PM at the couple’s residence. The initial police report states that a man called 911 around 4 PM Monday after finding Tovar “not breathing and unresponsive.” Dallas Fire-Rescue and homicide detectives responded to the scene.

The arrest affidavit states that Kenney did not tell police he and Tovar had a fight before he found Tovar. The apartment manager told police the couple were fighting between 8 and 9 AM and that he heard Tovar tell Kenney to “Get off me!” The manager told police he lives directly below the couple and banged on the ceiling to get them to stop fighting. He told police they “are always fighting and arguing.”

Kenney provided a taped statement to police Monday night, admitting that he slammed Tovar’s head into the concrete at Tyler and Davis streets and that he continued to assault her after they arrived home at their apartment.

After the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy, Tovar’s death was ruled a homicide Tuesday with the cause of death listed as blunt force trauma to the head.

An arrest warrant was subsequently issued for Kenney on Wednesday with Dallas PD confirming that he was in custody on Thursday morning.

Will be keeping track of this case to see if Janette receives justice

Femanda Milan Scheduled To Be Deported From Denmark Today

In October 2011 the European Union Parliament adopted asylum standards that stated that EU member nations must now include gender identity as a ground of persecution and take it into account when they make decisions to grant or deny asylum status to people seeking it.

There were three EU nations that opted out of the process, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark. 

Unfortunately that opting out of the trans asylum rules has had a negative effect on Fernanda Milan, a Guatemalan trans activist who was forced to flee her homeland and ended up in Denmark due to horrific anti-trans violence in her central American nation and she being considered a major trans human rights leader in Guatemala.

After arriving in Denmark, her treatment didn't get much better in the nation that once was the place in the early 1950's where Christine Jorgenson transitioned before returning to the United States in 1953.   She was housed in the male wing of the Sandholm Asylum detention camp run by the Danish Red Cross, and several men broke into her room and subsequently raped her.  She was denied the hormones she's been on since age 14. After escaping the detention camp she ended up in a brothel in Jutland for two years until it was raided by the police. 




She was scheduled to be deported today from Denmark back to Guatemala
“What I’m most afraid of when I go back isn’t being killed. What really petrifies me is being attacked and tortured,” Fernanda says, adding that she knows “no transgender people in Guatemala over 35.”

The anti-trans violence in Guatemala is a consequence of the anti-trans attitudes injected into Catholic Church doctrines at the senior levels of the Vatican by Dr. Paul McHugh, who was named a few years ago as their advisor on trans issues.   The Catholic Church has major influence in that nation, and the anti-trans attitudes implanted in Rome in 2003 are now infecting the flock.

Despite the efforts of people in Denmark and around the world, Fernanda's application for asylum was denied and she is being deported.

So if something unfortunate does happens to Fernanda Milan, there will be a lot of people who will have to answer for that.  But the folks with the most soul searching to do will be the people in Denmark who had the chance to act humanely toward her and for whatever reason failed to do so. 

Those people not only failed Fernanda on multiple occasions, but made the decision to deport her back to Guatemala and possible death in the first place.   

TransGriot Update:  Fernanda Milan's case was reopened, so she's still in Denmark for now.  But keep the pressure on the Danish government to either let her stay there or allow her to go to a nation that will accept her.

Death Threat Aimed At Casa Ruby

I had the pleasure of meeting longtime Washington DC trans activist Ruby Corado last year while I was up there for Out On The Hill and was thrilled to hear about the recent opening of Casa Ruby  in Northwest DC

Its mission is to serve as a safe haven for the local Washington transgender community from violence and serve the Latino community. 

But I was not happy to hear that Casa Ruby  recently received a death threat that is being investigated by the DC Metro Police.

Corado explained in a WAMU-FM radio interview why she doesn't take these threats lightly:

" I have been to dozens of funerals throughout this city and I have also been hundreds of times to the hospitals to aid people who have been victims of a violent crime or death for being who they are."

Casa Ruby has continued to serve as a safe haven for the Washington DC transgender community despite the threat. It is playing host to Latino delegations attending the 2012 International AIDS Conference that started on July 22 and ends today

It is my hope that the waste of transphobic DNA who called that threat in to Casa Ruby is expeditiously caught by MPD and swiftly brought to justice.  I'm also looking forward to visiting Casa Ruby the next time I'n in the Washington DC metro area.

4th Anniversary Of Angie Zapata's Murder

Four years ago today we were beginning to hear the story about a young Latina transwoman who was found dead in her Greeley, CO apartment and how a reporter initially got the pronouns wrong.

Her name was Angie Zapata.    

She's no longer with us, and the waste of DNA who took her life was convicted and is still getting 'three hots and a cot' in a Colorado prison.   The national media that descended upon Greeley for the trial has long since dispersed to cover other issues.

But we can't forget Angie.   We know her family and those who loved her won't.   But the rest of us in the rainbow community cannot forget there is a War on Transwomen, especially in light of the fact there have been more Latina and African-American transwomen who have lost their lives to anti-trans violence. 

Angie's case was solved and Allen Andrade is doing jail time for it.   But another murder of young trans women is approaching its ten year anniversary next month and crying out for resolution in the persons of Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis in Washington DC.    The Chicago po-po's have been glacially slow in trying to apprehend Paige Clay's killers.  

And another November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance is rapidly approaching.

But today is about remembering what happened to Angie and how her life tragically ended before she even had an opportunity to begin living it.  

NY Latina Trans Activist Starts LBCF Community Fund

As I've stated more than a few times on this blog over the last now six years and Amnesty International has cosigned on that point, Officer Friendly ain't exactly friendly at times to the trans community, and especially trans people of color. 

There have been more than a few times these negative interactions have turned into highly publicized court cases.

My trans sisters in New York are dealing with the disproportionate fallout of the odious NYPD 'stop and frisk' policies   Because the po-po's assume they are sex workers, if during one of those stops the transperson in question has more than three condoms on them, according to local activist that transperson can find themselves arrested for prostitution

Interesting story about long time New York trans activist Lorena Borjas, who started the Lorena Borjas Community Fund.  

The LBCF provides legal assistance and funding to pay bail for low income and immigrant members of the Queens community in which she has resided for over 25 years.

RIP Agnes Torres Hernandez

The international community of trans activists is one in which we are not only a close knit bunch, we tend to form friendships for life as we get to know each other.

When we're not busy e-mailing and chatting with each other trading strategy, tactics and information as to what has worked and what hasn't in our struggles in our various nations to advance trans human rights coverage, we'll quickly shit to what's happening in our personal lives or give each other the moral and emotional support we'll need to continue to do a job we all know can be a tough one.  

We are also painfully aware that in some nations, being an out, proud and open trans human rights activist takes tremendous courage because it can lead to being harassed by the powers that be you are fighting.  It can also be a death sentence as Cynthia Nicole Moreno's 2009 death in Honduras sadly pointed out.

Sadly, I won't get the pleasure to meet Agnes Torres Hernandez. 

Agnes Torres Hernandez was a 28 year old psychologist and educator fighting for the human rights of our trans brothers and sisters in Mexico.  She disappeared last Friday after leaving her home in Puebla to attend a party in the small town of Chipilo.   Her body was found with her throat slashed, burn marks on it and clothed only in her underwear, a blouse with suspenders and a brown jacket.

Hernandez was becoming an important TBLG human rights voice in Mexico for her trans brothers and sisters, and 2000 people gathered in Puebla's central town square to demand justice for her murder.   

It is the sixth crime aimed at members of the Mexican TBLG community that has yet to see even one of them solved and a perpetrator brought to justice. 

While her voice has sadly been stilled, the fight continues for trans human rights coverage around the world and her trans brothers and sisters in her homeland and elsewhere will not rest until it happens..

TransGriot Note:  Read this open letter from Bamby Salcedo the publisher of xQsi Magazine, which covers Latin@ trans issues.   It concerns her thoughts about the senseless murder of Agnes Torres.

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