WWYD- The Trans Bathroom Episode

Finally found the YouTube video of the ABC What Would You Do show that featured Jazz Jennings and people in the situation of a transphobe dissing a trans woman for going to a fracking restaurant bathroom.

FYI for you transphobes.  Trans people have to poop and pee as well.   But then again you're more concerned with aiming oppression and disrespect at trans people than minding your own damned business and letting trans people go through their day without hearing your unsolicited comments.

It's one that we increasingly run to no thanks to the conservafools and evilgelicals stirring up anti trans hate, and even led to on August 13 a trans woman in the Philippines getting arrested for using the potty in a shopping mall in Quezon City.

If you're looking for predators and pervs, start in in your right wing evilgelical churches and Republican Party meetings. 

Here's the Friday episode of the WWYD show if you missed it.

Past Time To Add Trans Texans To The James Byrd Hate Crimes Law

Back during my first Texas trans lobby day 20 years ago, one of the twin ;legislative goals for that effort was not only to pass a Texas Gender Advocacy Information network (TGAIN) sponsored bill to streamline the name change process, but to make sure we stayed in the proposed James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill.

We intrepid trans citizen lobbyists arrived in Austin to discover that we'd been cut from that bill by the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby (LGRL) so that the sexual orientation language could survive.   It had already been sent out of committee and to the then Democratically controlled Texas House floor for a vote, and it was too late to amend the bill to add us back into it.

And yeah, I'm still pissed at Dianne Hardy Garcia for that shady legislative BS.

Karma surfaced swiftly because while the trans-free bill passed the Democratic controlled House, it ran into the headwinds of 2000 presidential politics.  It died in committee in the Republican controlled Texas senate.

We got cut out of the Byrd Hate Crimes bill again during the 2001 Texas legislative session, and unfortunately this time it passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry (R)

In the 2002 midterm election the Democrats lost control of the Texas House, and we Texas transfolks are still waiting to get added to the James Byrd Hate Crimes Law.

I bring that sorry legislative history up to point out why the Byrd Hate Crimes law doesn't cover trans Texans.   It's way past time that it does since we are the peeps being attacked and killed as Muhlaysia Booker's case painfully pointed out.

Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has been trying since 2007 to get trans Texans added to the Byrd Hate Crimes Law, but with Republicans in control of all three branches of Texas government it has been a tough slog to do so. 

Nevertheless, he keeps trying, and has filed HB 1513 in this session in order to do that. 

HB 1513 is sitting in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee chaired by Rep Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth) and is still awaiting a hearing as of this writing. 

But the clock is ticking toward the Memorial Day end of the session.  It would be nice if HB 1513 could finally get a hearing and at least start the process of righting a wrong that was perpetrated on the Texas trans community 20 years ago.   

Strawberry Hampton Finally Moved To Illinois Women's Prison

Some good news as we close out 2018 on the trans rights front

27 year old Deon 'Strawberry' Hampton has been transitioning since she was 5 years old.   She is unfortunately doing a 10 year sentence in Illinois for burglary that she started serving in 2015.

But no prison sentence should include sexual and physical assault, transphobic harassment from prisoners and guards and incarceration in a men's prison if you are a trans feminine person. That is a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment

Hampton has been in four different men's prisons in Illinois, and has according to court filings suffered violent sexual and physical assault and emotional abuse at four different prisons.

At Pinckneyville Correctional Facility, she alleges guards sexually assaulted her, then forced her to have sex with her cellmate for their entertainment.   That incident led to a suicide attempt.

In December 2017 The MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People's Law Center filed the first of several lawsuits on her behalf seeking a court order to stop the abuse being aimed at Hampton.

She has finally had her request granted to be moved from Dixon Correctional Center, a men's prison in Dixon, IL, to the Logan Correctional Center, a women's prison in Lincoln, IL

The Illinois Department of Corrections initially denied Hampton’s transfer request. 

In November  US District Court Judge Nancy Rosenstengel ordered the Illinois Department of Corrections to re-evaluate its denial of Hampton’s request for transfer to a women’s prison.
The judge also ordered they develop training on transgender issues for all staff.

If you're wondering what POTUS appointed Judge Rosenstengel to the federal bench, she was appointed by President Barack Obama. 

Despite the positive ruling in Strawberry's favor, the MacArthur Justice Center said that the Illinois Department of Corrections still hasn't done enough to remedy the systemic failures that lead to the abuse of transgender inmates. 

The transphobic hatred being put in the atmosphere by the Republican Party, conservafool media and evilgelicals isn't helping either.

'Trans People Deserve To Live' Banner Displayed During World Series Game

I wasn't watching Game 5 of the 2018 World Series in Los Angeles because I'm still salty about what happened to my Astros.   But when chatter started popping up online about something happening at the game, I took a few moments from the writing assignment I was working on to check it out.

My online social media search was rewarded with the glorious sight of a trans flag themed banner being unfurled in Dodger Stadium with the words 'Trans People Deserve To Live' on it.

The question that crossed my mind when I saw it was,"I wonder if the trans Latinas were behind this?" It didn't take long to have my hunch confirmed that it was indeed the Trans Latina Coalition handling their Dodger Stadium protest business.

Bamby Salcedo and Maria Roman were at the Red Sox- Dodgers game and during the fifth inning, dropped the banner from the left field upper deck seats of the stadium.

Even if I had been watching the game, would have found out about it until later because the banner according to multiple reports, wasn't shown during the FOX broadcast of the game.

It did hang for a few minutes before security personnel intervened, removed the banner and escorted Salcedo and Roman out of the ballpark without incident and without being arrested .

“I felt my heart was dropping along with it,” said Salcedo,  the president of the Trans Latina Coalition in an interview with INTO. “I was kind of exploding because of the adrenaline. You don’t know what’s going to happen with the police and security and all of that.”

Even though the banner drop didn't make it on the FOX broadcast of what turned out to be the final game of the World Series, it is blowing up on social media.

Salcedo is calling for trans people in other communities to take up space in mainstream community events and replicate the action just conducted in Los Angeles as a show of resistance to the anti-trans actions being aimed at us.

“I hope that this action will motivate members of the trans community, our allies and our comrades to really activate and to really understand that we have power,” Salcedo said. “We can demonstrate our power anywhere and everywhere.”

Yes, we can.    What it also demonstrates is that we will not be erased, either. 

Trans, Muslim and Living In Malaysia

If you're trans, Muslim  and live in Malaysia, it means that you are not only dealing with the anti-trans hatred aimed at you, you also have to contend with the religious police messing with you as well.

You also have to contend with religious authorities trying to forcibly detransition you back to living in a gender role you are not comfortable in

This situation our trans Muslim fam face in Malaysia is probably the wet dream of our Talabaptist right wing fundies to replicate the religious persecution of trans Americans here.

Here is a documentary discussing the fight for trans Malaysian Muslims to not only have their human rights they deserve, but just have the ability to happily live their lives.

Sen Garcia Takes On A Legislative Trans Oppressor

Texas state Senator Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) has been a stand up ally and champion for the Texas trans community as we have fought SB 6 and now SB 3.   She's not a member of the Senate State affairs Committee, but she sat in the hearing room through the 10+ hours of testimony back in March and during last Friday's hearing.

Yesterday she took part in a conversation hosted by the Texas Tribune in Austin yesterday concerning the anti-trans HB 46 and HB 50 bills with their sponsor Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton)

All that came out during this conversation is just how awesome Sen. Garcia is about the subject and how clueless Rep. Simmons is when it comes to trans issues.

And Sen Garcia is right when she starts that 'Dignity and Diversity over Discrimination' is more important.



You can check it out for yourself.

The Texas Special Oppression Session Starts Today

Well peeps, this is the day we've been dreading across the Lone Star State in terms of the start of the Special Oppression Session called by Governor Greg Abbott (R) after being bullied into it by Lt Governor Dan Patrick (R) and the Texas Oppression Freedom Caucus.

The Special Oppression Session is slated to last 30 days, and the initial call on June 9 is to have some must pass sunset legislation pass that reauthorizes several Texas governmental organizations, including the Texas Medical Board that licenses doctors across the Lone Star State.

As to what to expect in this special session, the legislative process is the same except for two key differences.  There's less time than in a 140 day regular session, and if a bill is filled that doesn't fit the governor's call, it is out of bound and can't be considered.

Bills could be filed 30 days before the special session started.

Just as in the regular sessions, bills have to be sent to a House committee, passed out of that committee, go to the Calendars Committee to be scheduled to the floor for a vote, then if it passes the process is repeated in the Senate. for it to be placed on the Senate Intent Calendar for a floor vote.

Once that sunset legislation passes. the governor added an additional 19 items that he wanted to see hit his desk including the anti-trans bills we killed in the regular session, but they can only be heard once the sunset bill passes. .  

HB 46 and HB 50 are the anti-trans bills filed that we'll be focusing our trans community attention on.along with SB 23, so keep lighting those GOP trans oppressors office phones up and urge your Texas state senator or House rep to oppose these unjust bills.

The resistance to this oppression starts on the south steps of the Pink Dome with an 11:00 AM rally calling out the unjust bills that the Texas GOP wishes to pass.

We have 30 days to kill these bills.   Let's get busy doing so

 

You're In A Human Rights Fight Right Now

One of the things my friends and my blog readers know about me is I grew up with a mother and godmother who instilled a deep love of history within me.

I would read the accounts of the African American Civil Rights Movement, watch the documentaries as a kid growing up in the 70's and wonder if I were twenty years older at that time, how involved would I have been in fighting for the freedom of my people and making this country better as a result?

As an adult I don't have to imagine what I would have done, I'm involved in a freedom fight right now that is just as critical to the future of this country as the Civil Rights Movement proved to be.

Transgender people here and around the world are fighting for their human rights and recognition of their humanity.  

Here in the United States, our opposition is the Axis of Transphobic Evil comprised of the Republican Party, TERF's (trans exclusionary radical feminists), right wing fundamentalist evangelicals, the Southern Baptists, and even the Ku Klux Klan

These folks are all colluding to deny the humanity and human rights of transgender Americans, and ramping up their anti-trans hate speech and efforts to pass unjust legislation to do so.  
Those efforts of the Axis of Transphobic Evil got a major boost in the wake of the unfortunate results of the November 2016 presidential election.

It should be undeniably apparent to you that in this July 2017 moment, you're witnessing at this present time in a human rights fight. The Republicans, fundie 'christians'  and the conservative movement have made it clear that they have declared war on the transgender community, and want to exercise their oppressor gene like their Jim Crow segregationist parents, grandparents and great grandparents.

The Axis of Transphobic Evil is even going there and attacking trans kids, their parents and trans soldiers.   We can't as their trans elders allow those attacks on our trans kids to go unanswered and must push back hard against them.

Neither can we allow any attacks to go unchallenged on the 15,000 trans people currently serving in our nation's armed forces or trans vets who proudly put their lives on the line in defense of this country.

It's even more distasteful when the anti-trans rhetoric is coming out the mouths of chickenhawk Republican legislators who dodged the draft like Rep. Steve King (R-IA) or ignorant people like Rep Vicky Hartzler (R-MO).

But then again. both of them along with my lieutenant governor keep proving my point that the most dangerous transphobe is the one with the power to write or pass legislation, and the Republican Party has a bumper crop of them.

So what will you do?

Will you fight to oppose these unjust anti-trans laws when they pop up in your locale?   Will you be one of the people gleefully working to pass them?   Will you be helping to grease the skids for their passage by spouting loud, ignorant and wrong transphobic comments?   Will you sit on the sidelines and do nothing?   Will you gripe about and hate on the people actually fighting to keep these laws from passing as you sit on the sidelines?

Will you be helping to educate your fellow cis people and dispel the anti-trans lies that the Axis of Transphobic Evil is trying to put out there?

What will you say to future generations of your family about your role in the civil rights fight of your lifetime?

I know what I'll be doing.   I'll be fighting the passage of this unjust anti-trans legislation with every fiber of my being until I can't..

Bill C-16 Passes Senate Third Reading!

June 15, 2017 is a date that will be etched into Canadian trans history.

It's been a long time coming, with the first of these bills being proposed back in 2005.   It has been at times a long and frustrating road for my Canadian trans family, but when they celebrate their home and native land's 150th birthday on July 1, they will do so knowing that their human rights are covered federally as well as in every province and territory in the country.

I've talked about Bill C-16 in numerous blog posts.  It would add gender identity and expression to the list of prohibited categories under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

It would also make changes to the Canadian Criminal Code so that gender identity and expression are added to the nation's hate speech laws and make disseminating hate propaganda based on gender identity or gender expression a crime.

 Bill C-16 would also add "gender identity or expression" to section 718.2 of the Criminal Code. This section of it discusses sentencing provisions and would make gender identity and gender expression an aggravating factor, which would be the bias, prejudice or hate to commit a criminal offence against the targeted person. These criminal prohibitions would apply throughout Canada..

Translation:  Targeting trans people in Canada for simply being trans would become a hate crime.

As you probably guessed, the Conservatives hated Bill C-16, and did their utmost to kill it when it left the House of Commons and hit the Senate.   

This was the first time  the Trans Rights Bill was a government bill and not a private member's one as it has been on previous occasions thanks to NDP MP's Bill Siksay and Randall Garrison

Bill C-16 passed its Third Reading vote in the Canadian Senate without amendments today on a 67-11 vote with 3 abstentions!.  Transphobic Conservative senator Don Plett, who led the charge in the senate to kill it, was probably one of the 11 no votes

Now all it needs is Royal Assent from the Governor General to become Canadian law



When those 150th anniversary celebrations erupt all over Canada, my Canadian trans fam can do so knowing that their nation respects their humanity and human rights enough to protect it in their laws.

And that a wonderful thing to think about.  

World War T Is a Protracted Battle, Not A Conservative Political Blitzkrieg

In the wake of the Obergefell v Hodges ruling the conservative movement lost in 2015, that was the moment they decided to shift tactics and commit to politically attacking the transgender community.

On the surface, we looked like an easy target.  We don't have large well funded national or statewide political organizations.  We're an estimated 5% of the US population at best.  We have people in the lesbian and gay ranks of the community who have been documented engaging in hating on and repeatedly throwing us under the political bus since the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion we kicked off.

We aren't as well known to the general public as our lesbian and gay counterparts even though we've always been here and part of the diverse mosaic of human life.   Our media coverage comes in bursts.

So when the  Right Wing started the World War T attacks on trans people in their media, in their conservative 'religious' ranks, and eventually the Republican Party legislative win with the aid of our longtime enemies in the TERF movement, they thought they were going to roll to a conservative blitzkrieg, then move back to attacking the then Black POTUS and focusing their efforts back on their longtime enemies in the LGB community.

It isn't turning out as easy as they thought.  
If the GOP thought we trans folks would just roll over and cry in the corner as they trampled on our human rights, they were sadly mistaken. What they are finding out is that we are a far more formidable opponent than they assumed we'd be.

When you have had to for decades fight tooth and nail, scrap, claw and rumble every day just to have your humanity, human rights and your life respected, you're not just going to roll over and meekly whimper in the corner as the Right Wing Noise Machine rolls into action to take away our human rights

You're going to fight them with every fiber of your being.

And we weren't alone.   We have allies and some pretty potent ones.  There's the bi community, that knows firsthand what it's like to be marginalized and erased themselves.  There are lesbian and gay peeps who get it that we are stronger together when we fight the conservative oppressors.  

There are cis women who get it that trans women are women, and realize that some of our issues are their issues, and welcome our help in tackling the issues of importance to them.  There are cis men who get it that trans men are men, and are forging those needed and necessary ties of brotherhood.

There are politicians who recognize that trans rights are international human rights, and are increasingly moving in various nations, as Canada will emphatically demonstrate today, to help pass human rights legislation and policies that protect our human rights and allow us to be the persons we are.

The best ones we've gained so far are the Mama and Papa Bears, the parents of trans kids.   When you peeps started attacking their kids, you brought them into the fight.

You also got peeps who were sitting on the fence on our side because you made the tactical mistake of attacking kids, and it made you transphobic conservafools look like the mean bullies you are

We have also seen the timely and much needed increase of trans masculine leadership, and especially the rise of trans masculine and trans feminine leaders of color.  We've also seen an increase in progressive church folk willing to step into this fight and say no to their loud and wrong conservative brethren cherry picking scripture to Bible beat people.

We've also seen an increase of trans characters in popular culture.   We do need more diversity in those characters including more trans masculine ones.   We need diversity in the stories being told beyond the 'tragic transsexual' meme, an end to cis men playing trans women and giving roles that call for trans women to trans women first.

But the overall trend line from Hollywood is positive.

We are and continue to tell our beautifully human stories whether in written form via books and blogs or in video blogs and documentaries..

We've been fighting for our human rights in the modern era for decades and are a lot more politically savvy than the right wing assumes we are.  Ask the lesbian and gay peeps still mad because we backed a skinny Black Illinois state senator with a funny name in the 2008 Democratic primary and then raised $10K for his ultimately successful run to the presidency.

Ask the now former Republican SC state senator who tried to pass anti-trans legislation that was beaten in large part to our trans kids leading the charge

We have also seen an increase in trans people willing to run for public office.   We have been pleased to see in other parts of the world trans people win election to their national legislatures as Geraldine Roman did last year in the Philippines.  

We have more trans folks running for public office at their city, state and federal level because frankly, we needed to.

And the number of people who state that they are friends with, know or have a trans person in their families is growing.

Like any war, we're going to lose people.  We're going to win some battles and lose some.  But the wonderful thing to note here is that World War T isn't a conservative political blitzkrieg.

This is a war the conservative movement started against trans people that is not only going to be a protracted struggle, but in the end one we transpeople win because we have the moral high ground and are determined to do so.

Yukon Territory Passes Trans Rights Law!

While we're still waiting to see what happens with Bill C-16 as it sits at third reading stage in the Canadian Senate, Yukon Territory became the last Canadian province and territory to pass a trans protective law

After years of advocacy by All Genders Yukon, Bill 5 passed third reading on a 15-3 vote and received royal assent on June 13.

The bill was introduced on April 25 after promises were made prior to the November 2016 election of a Liberal majority government in its campaign materials they would review all laws to ensure they were compliant with LGBT rights.

Bill 5 adds explicit anti-discrimination protections for trans people into Yukon's Human Rights Code and also amends the Vital Statistics Act to allow the change of gender markers without having to go through gender confirmation surgery.

In a Canadian first, it also allows for a gender neutral option on birth certificates to allow to change it later.

“I’m very proud to be able to say that transgender Yukoners now have the same rights and protections under these acts as the rest of their fellow citizens. We support a person’s right to self-determination of their gender identity,” Minister of Health and Social Services Pauline Frost said in a statement after the vote. “The amendments are part of our government’s commitment to support inclusiveness, equality and a respect for diversity in Yukon.” 

Now we'll have to see if the Canadian Senate will do the right thing and pass C-16 since now all Canadian provinces and territories protect their trans citizens  

Moni's Headed To Nacogdoches

I've probably done more travel inside the state of Texas in 2017 than I have outside of the borders of the Lone Star State.

But my out of state travel will probably catch up to my instate travel before the year is over,

I've done five trips to Austin with only one of them being the personal business variety.  The other four (so far) were to battle Texas GOP legislative oppression and looks like I'll have to do that again in July.   I just came back from the ATX at the invitation of United We Dream to speak at their Memorial Day rally.

I attended a transgender leadership training in the Dallas suburb of Irving back in February, and recently returned to the DFW area for the Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas

The dates for this trip have been on my calendar since the conclusion of last year's event, but as you read this I'm headed NNE up I-69 (the highway formerly known as US 59) or the Eastex Freeway to native Houstonians, for the 9th annual Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit taking place June 9-10. .

I haven't missed a TTNS since my return back to Houston from Da Ville in May 2010, and the first event I attended after I came back home was the 2010 edition of it that was held at Rice University.

I had the honor of being the keynote speaker for it last year.

Over the last few years, the TTNS has ventured from its Houston area roots to hit the Texas roads and be hosted on various college campuses around the state.   In the last few years we have gone to San Marcos (Texas State),  Richardson  (UT Dallas), and last year Killeen (Texas A&M  Central Texas).   This year it was time to bring it to East Texas, and I know that trips to The Rio Grande Valley, West Texas and the Panhandle are probably in the TTNS future along with its desire to one day be on one of our Texas HBCU campuses.

So what's the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit?  TTNS is two days of teaching, learning and plotting the path of social justice in the Lone Star State and beyond.

 It has been instrumental in getting trans friendly policies and procedures implemented at Texas state colleges universities and several Texas school districts .  The TTNS is also two days of us getting to network, chat with with old friends and meet new ones.

There was a moment during last year's event in Killeen in which myself, Josephine Tittsworth, Jenifer Rene Pool and Phyllis Frye got to do something we don't get to do very often in Houston.  We sat down at a table and the four of us got to talk for longer than five minutes during a quiet TTNS moment.  

The reason I'm going to this year's TTNS is to teach my Contemporary Texas Trans History seminar again.

This year we're headed to Lumberjack Country and the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University  in Nacogdoches, which is 140 miles NNE of Houston.  

Nacogdoches is not only the hometown of Stephen F/ Austin State University, it also has the distinction of being the oldest town in Texas, beating out San Antonio for that distinction by being founded in 1716 and incorporated in 1837.

This year's TTNS Friday keynote will feature one of our trailblazing leaders in Barbra 'Babs' Casbar Siperstein,  and the last time I saw her in the flesh was at last year's LGBT Pride reception at the White House.

Looking forward to seeing and spending some quality time with her and our Saturday TTNS keynote speaker in  Jeremy Ivester.

So for those of you making the trip to Nacogdoches to be there for the TTNS, thanks for doing so and see y'all at the Baker Pattillo Student Center on Friday and Saturday.

Late Night In The ATX Fighting Trans Hate

It was a long day and a late night for all of us justice loving people who were there from across the state of Texas to register our opposition to the unjust HB 2899.

Registration didn't start for oral testimony until 10 AM, but when it did I was one of the first peeps at the computer set up in our hospitality room to sign up to have my say.  I was surprised because my name got called a little early in the evening to testify, but once again, being in Austin for the last few days thanks to a major assist from my BTAC fam in Maddox and Rebecca Jackson made that possible.

There were 389 people who registered to testify on HB 2899.  Of that number, the overwhelming majority of us were in opposition to its passage with only 18 people for it and 2 neutral.

And after a day that started for many of us a 7 AM CDT, the hearing finally got cranked up at 11:45 PM and went on until 4:40 AM.  

This committee was more diverse than the Senate one that couldn't hide their disdain for us a few weeks ago when we Texas trans folks, Mama and Papa Bears and our allies once again bumrushed our state capitol to express our opposition to the unjust SB 2899.

House State Affair Chair Rep. Byron Cook (R) was making sure that he ran the proceedings in an evenhanded and fair manner.

n between the time I was at the Capitol talking to numerous people, getting my lunchtime Slurpee and wings and contemplating how and what I would say to the committee,  I was getting do something I don't get a chance to do back home in Houston:. television interviews.

Thanks to Adela Uchida of KEYE-TV (the local CBS outlet) and KXAN-TV along with interviews in the Texas Observer and another local media print outlet, I was getting the message out there that this bill deserved to die and discrimination aimed at any Texan is unacceptable.

By the time I finally stepped to the podium somewhere around 12:55 AM, an Anna Julia Cooper quote was echoing in my head before I took a deep breath and handled my human rights business on behalf of my Black trans community and the orgs that I represent.

What that Cooper quote, you ask?

'Only the black woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me'

I got to crash a little after 3 AM because they called my name early, but I went to sleep knowing there were more than 50+ people still waiting to testify and those folks waiting to speak their minds to the committee were overwhelmingly going to be doing so in opposition to the bill.

And once again, I got to rep my Texas and hometown Black trans community.

As for what happened when the testimony concluded, the committee left the unjust HB 2899 pending, which means they can either call it to a vote or just sit on it until May 29.

How about y'all just kill the unjust bill and call it a day?   

Why Is A Hate Group Meddling In An Illinois School Board Race?

Normally school board races can be low key and non controversial in nature unless something happens during the campaign or a controversial candidate is involved.

There's a school board election happening on April 4 in District 211 in Palatine, IL near Chicago that is fitting that description..  District 211 has been at the epicenter for a trans human rights case involving a trans feminine student at Township High School that was allowed access to the locker room after the district was found in violation of Title IX

The District, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice entered into a settlement agreement, then were sued by a group of transphobic parents and students backed by the right wing anti-trans group Alliance Defending Freedom, an SPLC-certified hate group..

Fast forward to the looming election.   Incumbent District 211 board members Anna Klimkowicz and Robert LeFevre voted for the settlement that was worked out with the DOE and DOJ.   D211 board candidate Edward Yung is a former member seeking to rejoin it that has expressed his support for transgender students.  

They are being challenged by a trans hate slate of candidates calling themselves the 'Parents For Privacy' that are backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, and they are dumping lots of cash and lies in this race in order to get majority control of the D211 board and rescind the settlement.

Klimkowicz , LeFevre and Yung have been endorsed by the Daily Herald, one of the area newspapers , Equality Illinois PAC , and a group of parents called Progress for D15 and D211'.

Trans United Fund, sensing the importance of this upcoming election, has not only endorsed the pro-trans incumbents, but has already spent over 80 hours organizing with the moms, who have limited resources compared to the professional hate group .

Those parents are concerned about the ADF meddling in their school board race, but don't quite have the funds they need to combat the money flowing in the Parents for Privacy camp.

The rights of trans students are on the ballot in this April 4 school board race, and if you live in the area and support trans human rights, hope you're registered to vote, will participate in this election and prove that you support trans students by voting for Klimkowicz, LeFevre and Yung to sit on that D211 board.