NY State Supreme Court Rules Trans Discrimination Case Can Proceed

TransGriot Note: Press release with good news about a trans discrimination case in New York City. 


NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT RULES THAT TRANSGENDER DISCRIMINATION SUIT AGAINST NYC TRANSIT AUTHORITY CAN MOVE FORWARD  

Landmark Decision Rejects Constitutional Challenges to New York City Human Rights Law Prohibiting Transgender Discrimination



January 21, 2011

In a landmark decision just obtained by Housing Works, Justice Kenneth P. Sherman of the New York State Supreme Court, Kings County, has upheld the New York City Human Rights Law’s provisions prohibiting transgender discrimination against the challenge of the New York City Transit Authority (“TA”).  Among other things, the TA argued that the anti-discrimination provisions violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitutions; are constitutionally vague; and should not apply to non-supervisory TA employees.

In the first ruling of its kind, Judge Sherman ruled that “the prohibition of bigoted behavior in the public accommodation context contained in the [Human Rights Law] does not violate the constitutional guarantee of free speech.”  Judge Sherman explained that “the State of New York and its subdivisions, such as the City, have a compelling interest in combating invidious discrimination,” and found the Human Rights Law “sustainable as a regulation of a transit system, which is not a ‘First Amendment forum.’”  The Human Rights law is “narrowly tailored,” Judge Sherman noted, and applies “only to agents of public accommodation companies who engage in discriminatory conduct that suggest victims of bias are unwelcome.”  Judge Sherman ruled, finally, that “[t]here is no authority” for limiting the scope of the Human Rights Law “only to supervisors or managers.”

Plaintiff Tracy Bumpus, represented by Housing Works, filed suit against the Transit Authority and one of its employees in 2006, alleging that Transit employees subjected her to a series of transgender-phobic ("transphobic") incidents, beginning with a vicious and sustained transphobic tirade on a subway platform after she requested assistance with her MetroCard.  This is the latest in a string of victories in the case of Bumpus v. New York City Transit Authority.

Armen H. Merjian, Senior Attorney at Housing Works, commented:  “Sadly, we are still in the nascent stages of establishing the basic civil rights of transgender citizens in New York.  This was just the latest attempt by the Transit Authority to greatly circumscribe or even eliminate the transgender discrimination provisions of the New York City Human Rights Law, enacted in 2003.  We are delighted that the Court has rejected these unfounded challenges and reaffirmed the continuing vitality of this critical law, particularly on behalf of a community long excluded from the antidiscrimination protections afforded other groups.”

Happy Birthday Toni D!

There's another Toni I love even more than a certain petite diva from Severn, MD and today is her birthday.

The Toni I'm talking about is Antonia Elle D'orsay, AKA Dyssonance for those of you who have had the pleasure of reading or being on the receiving end of her commentary at various blogs and her own spot.

That is when she isn't working at her day job.

I have had the pleasure of meeting her and getting to know her since 2009, and wasn't going to let today pass without wishing her a very happy, stress free, and blessings filled birthday.

Happy birthday sis!   May you have many more so you can keep speaking truth to power and keep tellin' it like it T-I-S is!.

2011 Williams Watch-Venus Out Of Aussie Open

While Big Sis manged to gut out a three set victory over Sandra Zahlavova despite the injury she suffered in the first set of that match, 48 hours wasn't enough for her to recover from it.

Seven points into the first set of her match with Germany's Andrea Petkovic and trailing 0-1 she was forced to default due to that injury to the muscle that flexes the hip and spinal column. 

.“The last 48 hours, I just did as much pain management as I could,” Venus said. “A lot of times when you play, you get that adrenaline and that blocks pain. I just didn’t get enough of that today. I was hoping for some magic that I could recover.” 

It ended a remarkable streak over her career in which she had never defaulted in a Grand Slam match in addition to ending another quest for her first Australian Open singles title.

Get well Big Sis and hope we see you and Little Sis playing some Grand Slam tennis before the year is out.

WTF? Keith Olbermann Leaves MSBNC

While watching Countdown like I always do, I was shocked and stunned to hear that last night was Keith's final MSNBC broadcast.  

Media Matters David Brock has echoed what many of us on the left are saying about this travesty.

For nearly eight years, Countdown with Keith Olbermann led the charge against conservative misinformation in prime time. He was one of the few voices in the media willing to hold the Bush administration accountable and fight the right-wing smears against progressives and their policies.
Keith is an innovator and an extremely talented broadcaster who showed there was a market for progressive views on cable news. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him soon, and I eagerly await hearing of his next move. And on this evening, I wish him "good night and good luck."

 Anybody who tells it like it is the way Keith did about the right wing idiots in our midst and incurs their wrath is okay in my book.   

Goodnight and good luck yourself, Keith   MSNBC will definitely be less fun without you.

Roland Martin Smacks Down Rick Santorum

One of the things I'm not liking is white pro-birth conservafools recently injecting race in this highly charged debate on a woman's right to choose.    Y'all have never cared about Black people and our reproductive rights before, and we are quite capable of speaking for ourselves frack you very much.


Roland Martin tells it like it T-I-S is.

All US Politics Are Identity Politics

One of the terms I see with regularity in the liberal progressive blogosphere is someone writing a comment decrying 'identity politics'. 

After slamming the term, they will then make the case that if identity politics didn't exist, our country would be a better place or whatever point they are trying to make at that time..

News flash, people.  All politics in the United States are identity politics, and that reality of American life ain't going away any time soon.   When you have one ethnic group which has dominated American life since before the founding of the United States, is grudgingly reluctant to share power and engages in the same identity politics decried to keep their hold on the top rungs of society despite their declining population numbers, you can guarantee that identity politics will be hanging around for a while.

So since we know that identity politics are an integral part of the American political landscape, why aren't we factoring that into the way we conduct our civil rights business in the TBLG community?

The Congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific caucuses in Congress exist for a reason.  Those caucuses advocate for their ethnic groups interests as public policy is formulated .


We are still acting in the GLBT community as if the country is already 'post racial' and 'colorblind' when it most certainly isn't, and our organizations are not configured to deal with that reality.    They are also not dealing well with the reality that our rainbow community is multicultural, just like the country is.

It's past time that the organizations that claim to represent this diverse rainbow community represent and reflect that diversity.

You need Latino, African American and Asian Pacific islander GLBT people in your orgs to eloquently speak not only for the entire community, but articulate the concerns and policy needs of their specific communities in order to make overall GLBT policy better and more inclusive.

It should be obvious by now that you are not going to get broad based support for BTLG policies that are formulated of, by and for the benefit of predominately upper middle class white GLBT people.


The point is that you can either continue to misfire on gaining LGBT rights by ignoring reality and continuing business as usual or step into the 21st century, realize that we are a multiethnic country that engages in identity politics and calibrate your policies to not only be cognizant of that fact, but calibrate your politics to account for the identity politics that said polices will have to negotiate to become codified into the law of the land.

Soul Bowl 2?

When Super Bowl XLI between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears kicked off in 2007, it marked the first time in NFL history that two African-American head coaches had taken their teams to the NFL title game.

In the African-American community that game received the nickname of the 'Soul Bowl' because of that Black historical footnote.    It also meant that both coaches, Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and Lovie Smith of Chicago would also become depending on the result of that game trailblazing Black history makers in being the first African-American NFL coaches to win and lose a Super Bowl.     

Tony Dungy's Colts came out on top that February 4 day and Dungy's name was the one etched into the history books as the first African-American NFL coach to win a Super Bowl.   

Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers followed him just two years later when he took them in only his second year as their head coach to their record breaking sixth NFL title    

With Championship Sunday looming, we have the potential for another Soul Bowl clash at Super Bowl XLV in Arlington.    Dungy has retired from the NFL coaching ranks, but Lovie Smith is still the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Mike Tomlin is still the Steelers head coach.
   

If Tomlin's Steelers and Lovie Smith's Bears win their respective AFC and NFC title games, it would set up another Soul Bowl clash at the Jerrydome.  It would also give Lovie Smith another shot at winning the NFL title that eluded him in Miami a few years ago.

The game would also have the added historical footnote of President Barack Obama, our first African American president being there to not only watch that Black history being made, but become the first sitting president to watch what should be a very interesting Super Bowl.

The POTUS has stated he will go to the game if the Bears win their NFC title game on Sunday.   

Sorry TransGriot readers who are Jets and Packers fans, you know who I'm rooting for to win this weekend.
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