Ads In DC Trans Respect Campaign Launched

I talked about it last month when the Washington DC Office of Human Rights decided in reaction to the string of ugly anti-trans incidents and murders in the District to launch a first of a kind anti-trans discrimination campaign.

This first of several posters of DC trans and gender variant people who are spokespeople for this campaign were released.  The one featuring DC transwoman Kisha quotes her saying, "I love wandering through Smithsonian museums, eating on H Street with friends, and going to shows at Howard Theatre."

It mentions the tagline for the campaign: "I’m a transgender woman and I’m part of DC. Please treat me the way any woman would want to be treated: with courtesy and respect."

The poster then points out discrimination based on gender identity and expression is illegal in the District of Columbia under its Human Rights Law and provides a website and phone number (202) 727-4559 to get more information.or report anti-trans discrimination

The formal launch for the campaign happened last night with an event attended by DC Mayor Vincent Gray.

“This District is committed to ensuring that all people are protected from discrimination, and that includes discrimination against the transgender and gender-non-conforming communities,” said Mayor Gray. “This landmark campaign from the Office of Human Rights is an important piece of a larger effort by my administration to ensure all residents have equal access to employment, housing and public services and accommodations regardless of gender identity or expression.”

As for the spokesmodel's thoughts on the campaign, Kisha approves of the message and thinks it will have a positive effect on the city..

"I think it’s going to have a great impact," she said. "The fact that it is going to be right there in your face. People will see transgender people. They’re going through everyday life, everyday struggles — the same as straight people, rich people, everyone. Getting the message out there … is going to be great."

The rest of your transpeeps around the country think it's great, too.   Major props to the DC Office of Human Rights and DC Mayor Vincent Gray for making it happen.

Trans Prisoners Human Rights Need To Be Respected

One of the things the Kosilek case has thrust back into the spotlight in addition to the issues of SRS being medically necessary is the treatment of transgender prisoners.

Whether it's Jovanie Saldana, Dee Farmer, Lyralisa Stevens or countless others, one of the common threads is the treatment of trans feminine prisoners hasn't been an issue that has gotten the attention from trans human rights activists or the media it should probably because others have higher priorities like stopping anti-trans violence and passing ENDA.  

The 'they deserve what they get' hate on prisoners mentality from the general public and even people in the trans community probably plays into the negativity and lack of focus on this issue.  But I'll guarantee that the people who express those attitudes would find their attitudes rapidly changing if they were the persons that find themselves for whatever reason being on the receiving end of the justice system.     

Let's be frank.   Nobody deserves to be sexually harassed, raped, isolated or verbally abused either while serving time or for whatever reason brings them to the Iron Bar Motel or ICE detention.  

We have had far too many reports of trans women being disrespected, misgendered or verbally abused, placed in protective custody isolation for extended periods of time or deliberately thrown into lockups with cismale prisoners, putting them at risk for physical or sexual assault and possibly contracting HIV.  

The 8th Amendment to the US Constitution bars cruel and unusual punishment against prisoners and reminds us in the 'free world' along with the 2005 Amnesty International Stonewalled report chronicling police abuses against the TBLG community reminds us that prisoners have constitutional rights that shouldn't be ignored just because they are serving time .  

If you're thinking bull feces as I write this, I need to point out there are many other reasons people get sent to jail besides the commission of a crime.  Transpeople who have been arrested for human rights protests, immigration detention by ICE or for general po-po harassment issues have also found themselves being mistreated as Autumn Sandeen discussed after her 2010 DADT protest arrest 


As this 2011 documentary Transgression discusses, the same thing is happening to trans detainees in ICE immigration detention facilities 




So what's the solution?   In Los Angeles the repeated incidences of violence against trans arrestees resulted in the LAPD opening a 24 bed facility in the women's jail specifically to house trans detainees back in May.

Trans people are the canaries in the civil rights coal mine.   How we are treated and our civil rights are respected by the justice system is an indicator of how well the rights of cis people will be respected and protected . 

It is just as important to have human rights progress inside our nation's jails and prisons for transgender people just as it is outside of them.  Organizations such as the California based Transgender Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), Lambda Legal, Immigration Equality and countless others are working with local, state and federal officials to ensure that incarcerated transpeople, whether they are in lockup for 24 hours or life without parole don't face unnecessary cruel and unusual punishment while doing so. .

Conflicted Emotions About Kosilek Case

Usually when we have a federal court case that advances trans human rights I'm so giddy with excitement about it I'm usually posting info about the fresh legal victory on the blog as fast as I get the opinion and can read it and the synopsis of it.

But in this particular case that involves trans prisoner Michelle Kosilek in Massachusetts, I like many transpeople are conflicted about it. 

Kosilek ended up in prison for while transitioning, strangling her wife Cheryl McCaul Kosilek in 1990 and leaving the body in the trunk of a car at a North Attleborough, MA  mall parking lot.   She was sentenced in 1992 by a Massachusetts court to life without parole for that crime.

While there she changed her name in 2003 and began taking hormones to facilitate her transition.  She asked for treatment of her GID issues which was denied.  Kosilek has tried to castrate herself and kill herself twice, and filed an initial lawsuit she won in 2002 in which US District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf permitted treatment for her GID issues just short of the SRS.  

Kosilek filed the second suit in 2005 with the trial beginning in May 2006.  It resulted in Judge Wolf ordering on Tuesday Massachusetts state prison officials to provide sex-reassignment surgery for her after finding that SRS is the only adequate care for her serious gender identity disorder.  

Judge Wolf also noted that the treatment for Michelle Kosilek had been prescribed by Department of Correction doctors, and that the only justifications for denying the treatment were based on public opinion.

Wolf wrote in his opinion: “It is not permissible for prison officials to [deny treatment] just because the fact that a gender identity disorder is a major mental illness is not understood by much of the public and the required treatment for it is unpopular.”

US District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf also noted that the treatment for Michelle Kosilek had been prescribed by Department of Correction doctors, and that the only justifications for denying the treatment were based on public opinion.  

By the way conservafools, before you start ranting about 'activist judges', Judge Wolf was a Reagan appointee 

What is making us in the trans community queasy about this ruling is that although it's a federal court legal victory recognizing that GID is a medical condition in which SRS is the treatment for it,  we're worried that this one is going to cause a little turbulence for our movement.

US Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) who while a member of the Massachusetts Senate tried to sponsor a law to ban SRS and hormone treatments for trans prisoners in reaction to this case has already decried the decision as "a waste of tax dollars' and called for an appeal of it.

Um Scott, just an FYI moment for you, some of those tax dollars are earned and paid every April 15 by transgender residents of Massachusetts as well.  

We in the trans community are nervously aware of the individuals and groups who have no problem hating on us.  It's also easy to hate on people in prisons and believe it's a waste of taxpayer dollars to give them 'three hots and a cot', especially when that prisoner murdered someone.  

You have both morphing into the problematic visage of Michelle Kosilek.  To pour gasoline on this combustible mix of transphobic negativity, add the fact she just won a legal case to provide her with an SRS surgery that many people still regard as frivolous or cosmetic and this ruling comes down in the middle of a contentious political campaign season..  

But let me make this point crystal clear.  No one in the trans community, myself included, is condoning what Kosilek did.   I find it particularly odious and distasteful when I'm writing posts on a monthly basis about African descended trans women being killed and the perpetrators of those trans murders have yet to be brought to justice and Kosilek took someone's life.   It's also infuriating to me that we can barely get anyone to pay attention to the fact. that young African-American transwomen are unnecessarily dying.

Gender Identity Disorder is a recognized medical condition. Under the Constitution's equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment and the cruel and unusual punishment clause in the 8th Amendment, recently backed up by the 2010 Fields vs Smith case, you cannot deny a person hormones or SRS if they are transgender especially if they were being treated for GID before incarceration.

Unlike Scott Brown's unsuccessful attempt in Massachusetts, Wisconsin in reaction to the Kosilek case in 2004 successfully enacted a law banning SRS and hormones for trans prisoners that got struck down by Fields v Smith for those constitutional violations. 

But there's also a legal principle at stake here that was upheld in this case.  Just like everything else in life, crime and punishment issues are riddled with gray areas.

Prisoners still have constitutional rights that just because they are incarcerated can't and shouldn't be suspended or abridged because public opinion demands retribution or revenge for their crimes or it would cause problems in these public officials re-election campaigns or public relations headaches.
  . 

Speaking of public relations headaches, we can count on our haters and right wing media to seize on this case and rant about it on right wing talk radio and the Conservosphere for a few weeks. 

But trans community, I also need to point out that some of our legal victories have come from prisoners like Kosilek and Dee Farmer successfully filing lawsuits to stand up for their human rights and organizations such as TGI Justice , Lambda Legal and GLAD standing up for them. 

In the process of winning those federal suits defending their human rights, they expanded rights for us trans people that are in the 'free world' in the process.

Manitoba Trans Human Rights Code Expansion Bill Gets Royal Assent

The trans rights positive momentum in Canada continues as Bill 36, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act passed the Manitoba Legislature and received Royal Assent on June 14.

Translation for you peeps south of the 49th parallel:  it's now the law.

Manitoba now has become the second Canadian province to pass trans human rights protections with the passage of Bill 36.  .

In addition to the Manitoba human rights code now being expanded to cover gender identity, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act adds "social disadvantage" to protect individuals who are or are perceived to be undereducated, underemployed, homeless or living in inadequate housing.

It also streamlines procedures for the Manitoba Human Rights  commission to handle its business

Congrats again to the Canadian trans community.  Your home and native land is rapidly becoming one that respects and protects your human rights in at least two provinces and the Northwest Territories and its something that I home my own country will replicate soon.

Toby's Act Granted Royal Assent!

The final stage in making Toby's Act the law in the province of Ontario occurred earlier this week.

As a reminder for those of you who have been following my posts concerning this north of the border trans human rights issue, Toby’s Act enshrines gender identity and gender expression into Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

Bill 33 as it was known has been a multiyear effort spearheaded by New Democratic Party MPP Cheri DiNovo for several years.  

Bill 33 had tri party support in Queen's Park in this session of the Ontario Legislature was also sponsored by Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi, and Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott.

It passed unanimously on Third Reading last week and I discovered that it was granted Royal Assent on Tuesday by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

So it's official.  Toby's Act is not only the law in Ontario, it now becomes the first province and the second jurisdiction in Canada to protect the human rights of trans people.

And just in time for pride, too.

Chile Activists Beginning Push For Trans Identity Law

With Argentina's successful passage and enactment of a groundbreaking Gender Identity Law, their next door neighbors on the western side of the Andes Mountains want to take a page out of the Argentinian activist playbook and enact a similar law in their country.

According to Blabbeando, the Chilean Transexual Organiztion for the Dignity of Diversity (OTD) has already produced a few ads confronting discrimination against transgender individuals but started launching on June 10 a campaign specifically advocating for a nationwide gender identity law.

They are beginning to produce ads and videos like this one with many more to come.



Since trans human rights issues have been on a roll lately in Latin America, South America and the Western Hemisphere, we can only hope that the Chilean 'Fir The Dignity Of Identity' themed campaign results in the same successful conclusion that happened on the eastern side of the Andes.

Yo, Canada! Wonderful Week For Canadian Transpeeps

Transpeople in the Great White North have had a wonderful week and I couldn't be happier for y'all peeps north of the 49th parallel.

First came the unexpected news that the province of Alberta, a bastion of Canadian style conservatism reinstated funding in their provincial health care plan for SRS. 

That was quickly followed up on Wednesday by the unanimous Third Reading vote in Ontario for Toby's Act.  That makes Ontario the first Canadian province to pass trans human rights coverage and the second large Canadian jurisdiction after the Northwest Territories to do so..   

There's also word that similar trans positive human rights legislation is pending in the Manitoba provincial legislature after the province's.human rights code is being expanded to cover trans people. 

I also can't forget to point out that C-279, the federal trans rights bill, passed a Second Reading vote by a 150-132 margin in a Conservative dominated House of Commons chamber on June 6 with support from some Conservative MP's..

Hoping the positive trans human rights momentum keeps going for y'all    We'll certainly be watching from south of the border what happens from this point forward.

Toby's Act Passes Third Reading!

In an anti-climactic but still historic day for transpeople in Ontario, Bill 33, also known as Toby's Act unanimously passed the Ontario Legislature. 

Toby's Act had tri-party support and it capped several years of attempts starting in 2007 to pass it by New Democratic Party MPP Cheri DiNovo and local trans activists.

The wonderful news from Queen's Park followed good news on the Canadian trans activism front in Alberta and from Ottawa.

NDP MP Randall Garrison's C-279, the federal trans rights bill passed Second Reading on June 6 by a 150 to 132 vote that included several Conservative MPs.  A provincial trans rights bill similar to Ontario's is currently pending in the Manitoba legislature as well

Bill 13, an anti-bullying bill was also passed by the Ontario legislature as well.

Toby's Act is still awaiting the final step of Royal Assent before it becomes law and makes Ontario the second large Canadian jurisdiction after the Northwest Territories to confer upon its trans citizens full human rights coverage.

Toby's Act To Have Third Reading Today

Transpeople in Ontario may be on the verge of an historic event today when Bill 33, known as Toby’s Act has its third reading today.

It has already unanimously passed its second reading back in May and has support at Queen's Park from all three parties.

New Democratic Party MPP Cheri DiNovo is the author of the private member's bill and has tried three previous times since 2007 to get Toby's Act passed.

Thanks to DiNovo's determined efforts to make it happen, lobbying from local trans rights groups,that helped build tri-party support, Toby's Act may finally be on the verge of happening for the trans community of Ontario in its fourth attempt of passage.

Toby's Act will amend the Ontario Human Rights Code to add gender identity and gender expression language to it should it become law.   It would also make the province of Ontario the second jurisdiction in Canada after the Northwest Territories in which trans people have full human rights coverage.

“This is absolutely historic. This will be the first jurisdiction in North America outside the Northwest Territories to have included trans people as full citizens truly and given them human rights along with everyone else,” MPP DiNovo said on Tuesday.

“The time has come. Hats off to the trans lobbyists who been working on this for years and years,” she said of the bill known as Toby’s Act, after the late musician Toby Dancer, who led the gospel choir at Emmanuel Howard Park United Church where DiNovo ministered.

It would definitely be a welcome development for trans people in the Great White North and especially those in Ontario, and if it does happen, your trans cousins south of the border will be celebrating right along with you.

Black Community, It's Past Time To Fight For Black Trans Women's Human Rights

“When people are fighting for women’s rights, they’re not so much fighting for trans women’s rights. And when people are fighting for civil rights for black people, they’re not fighting for the rights of trans women of color.”   Janet Mock

Janet Mock said this in a recent Loop 21 article discussing the human rights of Black trans women, and she is dead on target  

It's a point that I have spent much of my activist career and the six years this blog has been in operation trying to make to fellow African Americans inside and outside the chocolate rainbow community and anyone else who would listen.

It seems like at long last that point is finally getting heard.

When I'm out and about in this world, my being Black goes wherever I do and is part and parcel of whatever community I interact with.   You see that aspect of me before we even touch on the fact that I'm trans.  I'm also a walking example of intersectionality because I interact with women, the African-American community, the trans community, womanists and the LGB community just to name a few.

So as someone who is a proud member of the African-American community and trans communities and who is concerned about the human rights of both, it's past time that my cis Black brothers and sisters begin to fight for trans human rights just as hard as I and other Black trans people push for the human rights of African-Americans to be respected and protected.

As Fannie Lou Hamer once said, when I liberate others, I liberate myself.   Trans people are and have always been part of the kente cloth fabric of African-American life.  We didn't just pop up in this century and the issues that affect me as a transperson also are ones that affect the African-American community as well.

For example, as a Texan, when voter suppression laws are passed that are aimed at my people, they not only affect me as an African-American, they also affect me as a transperson.   We transpeople still have problems with getting ID that accurately affects who we are as people.  

If you're going to require that I have a photo ID to vote but won't allow me to change the gender code on said photo ID without having to go in front of a judge and pay legal fees to do so, that is a poll tax that violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Police brutality, stop and frisk policing, unemployment and underemployment, racism and bigotry, HIV/AIDS, the War on Women and as I mentioned in the previous paragraph voting rights are just some of the policy issues affecting trans people that overlap with our cis African descended brothers and sisters.  

We also deal with off the charts violence aimed at African-American transwomen as well.  I'm tired of losing young Black transwomen at the rate of two per month and memorializing them every November 20 at Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremonies. I'm tired of seeing us face a 26% unemployment rate and having our humanity disrespected, people thinking it's okay to do so and our ministers, legacy organizations and media outlets being silent about it.

I'm also not happy about transwomen being used by people who hate on independent and proud Black women such as the Williams sisters and countless others to insult and question their femininity and perpetuate the 'unwoman' meme aimed at all of us. 

As the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey is pointing out, we're catching hell right now and we're going to need help passing the legislation and formulating the policies that will help alleviate our suffering.. We want to work, pay our taxes, vote for the candidates of our choice and live our lives without interference.  We also want to be in a better position before the end of this decade to be able to do our part to uplift ourselves as African descended transpeople, the race and be better allies to all the communities we intersect with.

Black community, it's past time to fight for Black trans women and their human rights.  By doing so, you'll be expanding human rights coverage for yourselves. 

Alberta Reinstates SRS Funds

Any time Alberta is mentioned in our conversations concerning Canadian politics, my Timmy's Ice Capp loving homegirl refers to Wild Rose Country as 'that wretched province' for its rampant Canadian style conservatism.  

I end up feeling obligated to defend Alberta and its dedicated activists who live there like Mercedes Allen.  I know all too well what it is like to have your nation's liberal progressive activists comfortably ensconced in liberal areas taking frequent potshots at your home turf due to the conservafool politicians in charge of it pimping jacked up social policies.

Never mind the fact you and others are busting your behinds to get progressive political momentum restarted in your conservative leaning home area.

Well, there was a big win for the Canadian trans community, and it happened in wait for it, Alberta.

On April 7, 2009 Alberta's conservative provincial government delisted SRS from its provincial health plan in order to save money, but discovered that the 700,000 CAD it costs for the 16 surgeries a year was just a tiny sliver of the 12.9 billion CAD provincial healthcare budget.  It not only didn't produce the savings they thought it would, all it did was piss trans Albertans off enough to cause a tipping point moment that got them to organize, fight and file lawsuits against the province over the issue.

Well, it was announced that Alberta would be reinstating SRS funding in its health care plan for SRS effective June 15.  

Of course our trans cousins in Alberta are ecstatic about the welcome news. 

We are pleased that the current administration sees value in caring for all Albertans needs, enabling them to live happy, fulfilled lives.  The return of this coverage, whose removal only saved Albertans $0.18 each annually, will give hope to those for whom GRS was previously out of reach.  While there are many other issues facing Trans-identified Albertans, this is a huge step in the direction of respect and dignity for the Trans Community by the Alberta Government. Thank you for taking this important first step.

Those Alberta lawsuits probably would have been successful because Ontario tried a similar delisting tactic in their OHIP provincial healthcare plan.  After a ten year battle, in March 2008 they had to restore SRS funding in OHIP after losing a human rights lawsuit similar to the ones being filed in Alberta.

Once again, another win for the Canadian trans community and in conservative dominated territory on top of that which makes it even sweeter.  Way to go, Alberta trans community!

Still Fighting For Our Trans Marriage Rights

Since June is considered the traditional start of wedding season, and #GirlsLikeUs make some beautiful brides, thought this would be a perfect time to remind 'errbody' that we still have several trans marriage cases percolating around the world.

Unfortunately, due to the same gender marriage push, our ongoing trans marriage fights have increasingly been entangled, conflated and negatively impacted by the politics surrounding the conservafool backlash against marriage equality.

Just a few updates on the three ongoing trans marriage cases that have gotten international attention.

Nikki Araguz's case is still percolating at the Texas appeals court level and we're waiting a ruling on this round of it after GOP judge Randy Clapp invalidated her marriage.   The judges at the Thirteenth Court of Appeals level are Democrats based in Kingsville, TX, a suburb of Corpus Christi, so stay tuned, this could get interesting.

On the other side of the Pacific in Hong Kong, Ms W is gearing up for another legal round in her ongoing fight to marry her boyfriend.  She has lost two legal rounds in this case, most recently in October 2011.  She is now at the highest level of Kong Kong jurisprudence, the Court of Final Appeal.

In Europe, Joanne Cassar has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights after exhausting all her legal options in Malta where she's won and lost rulings.

Yes, trans rights are human rights, and we deserve to pursue our opportunities to achieve happiness without interference from you haters.  That includes the ability to marry the person we love as well.

Toby's Law Unanimously Passes Second Reading

Looks like the fourth attempt of NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo to pass Toby's Law may finally be on its way to a successful conclusion.

DiNovo has been trying since 2007 to get this law passed.  It would amend the Ontario Human Rights Code by adding gender identity and expression to protect transpeople from discrimination in the province.

The need for it was highlighted by an ugly October 2011 trans discrimination incident at a flea market in London, ON that news of went international.

On May 10 Private Member's Bill 33 reached Second reading stage.  The bill has support from all three parties in the Ontario Legislature and after debate came up for a vote which was unanimous.

The bill now goes to committee and if it clears committe with no propblems will be brought back to the Ontario House for a Third Reading that should it pass, will become provincial law.

Wow, major props to the persistence of MPP DiNovo,  the local trans rights groups there to keep pushing for its passage.  Hopefully you peeps in Ontario will really have something to celebrate when pride kicks off later in June.  

Chile To Cover SRS

South America is quickly becoming the most trans friendly continent on our planet.  

Argentina just passed a groundbreaking Gender Identity Law  and now their next door neighbors in Chile have made some moves that benefit their trans population.

Chile will soon cover sex reassignment surgeries under its public health plan in order to allow citizens of limited means to “recover their true sexual identity,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

Brazil and Cuba are the other nations in Latin America that offer SRS as part of their national health plans to their citizens.

Until now SRS operations were only offered in private clinics at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000 but will now be performed in public hospitals in the capital of Santiago and the cities of Concepcion and Valparaiso, the health minister said late Thursday.

Before the reforms, “a poor person had no possibility of completing the process of femininization or masculinization,” Rolando Jimenez, head of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), told AFP.

The cost for SRS covered by the national health plan will now depend on the patient's income bracket, with the poorest citizens able to get the operations for free. 

Chile also enacted other reforms and measures to help prevent discrimination aimed at its TBLG population.  The health ministry ruled that blood banks cannot refuse donors based on sexual orientation and that hospitalized transsexual patients can and should room with patients of their desired gender.

If a nation of 17 million people can do this, what holding up the United States from doing so?

Manitoba Human Rights Code Expanding To Cover Trans People

More progress for our Canadian trans peeps. 

Trans people living in the province of Manitoba got some wonderful news yesterday from Justice Minister Andrew Swan.  The province's human rights code will be changed so transgender Manitobans and those with a "disadvantaged social status" will be protected from discrimination.

Manitoba's human rights code already forbids discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, marital status and other factors and will bring Manitoba's code up to speed with what exists in other provinces such as Quebec.  

The changes were requested by the province's Human Rights Commission, the body that hears complaints of discrimination and a legislative amendment was introduced by Swan yesterday to initiate the process.

In addition to adding protections for trans residents and the poor people of Manitoba, also includes revisions on how the commission does its work.  The proposed changes allow for joint Manitoba Human Rights Commission proceedings on similar complaints, allowing the commission to sit in smaller panels and expanding mediation provisions.

Swan said the changes will protect people who have a social disadvantage, or are perceived to be undereducated, underemployed, homeless or living in inadequate housing, from being discriminated against.

GENDA Passes NY Assembly For Fifth Time

The New York state trans community is justifiably happy that GENDA, the Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act got out of the New York State Assembly for the fifth consecutive session on an 81-59 vote.

Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City and Rochester have passed transgender-inclusive non-discrimination laws, along with Westchester, Suffolk and Tompkins Counties.

But now GENDA goes to the Republican controlled Senate, where it has died in the last four consecutive sessions, including most gallingly last year when there was a major push by the GL community to get same gender marriage passed.

Where are those four Republican senators who crossed the aisle to vote yes for same gender marriage and are regarded as heroes by the GL community on human rights coverage for trans New Yorkers?   Mayor Bloomberg?  Gov. Andrew Cuomo?

And oh yeah, where is Lady Gaga for her trans little monsters when you need her?    She was front and center in the 2011 same gender marriage battle, but is MIA in 2012 when it comes to exerting the same energy to pass rights coverge for trans people in New York state.

This GENDA passage for the fifth time also comes on the heels of a groundbreaking EEOC trans employment ruling as well, but will it be enough to get the votes we need in the NY Senate to finally get GENDA passed and to Gov Cuomo's desk for his signature? 

The national trans community is watching and hoping it happens for our New York state trans brothers and trans sisters, but it remains to be seen if it does.

TPOCC Needs Your Story

Calling all transmen of color, TPOCC, the Trans People Of Color Coalition needs you.

If you have a compelling story to tell please contact my friend and colleague, Kylar Broadus as soon as possible.  He's working on several projects of human rights importance to the community and needs your story.   You may e-mail him at  kylar@transpoc.org 

I know the last time I posted about TPOCC happenings they had been engaged in conducting a series of town hall meetings to talk about the issues of importance to trans persons of color in those areas..

And while you are doing your part to help advance the case of trans human rights in our community (and I thank you for that) you can hit the TPOCC website or follow them on Twitter and check out what's going on as this organization continues to build the critical mass we need to become the representative organization for the issues of trans people of color.