Incremental Human rights then and now a Broken Promise to broken dreams

I just finished a call with Morgan Meneses-Sheets executive director of Equality Maryland, pictured left. This was one exhausting and frustrating hour beginning with a conversation and ending in argument.

She will not be convinced Maryland's HB235 without public accommodations provisions is a bad thing. She stated that transgender people can gain equality incrementally comparing our need to use facilities of human necessity to the incremental want to move from civil unions to full marriage equality.

Published today a article by Dana LaRocca at Baltimore OUTLoud that puts things into perspective.

"Lessons from Black History".

Written by Dana LaRocca

"Gloria Richardson’s role in the struggle for black equality is a story of conscience. In the 1960’s white liberals and self-proclaimed leaders crafted a bill leaving her county, Dorchester, exempt from laws banning discrimination in public places. Gloria Richardson organized an adult run affiliate of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC).


At stake was a referendum that if passed would have ended discrimination in public accommodations in Cambridge, Maryland. Ms. Richardson and CNAC agreed that such discrimination was wrong; what they did not concede was the right of a handful of liberals and youth activists to put their civil rights up for auction. In a counterintuitive move she went door to door telling her neighbors and friends not to vote.

The referendum failed. The Cambridge riots took their place in that grand stratagem known as the civil rights movement.

In 1961 Ambassador Adam Malick Sow of the Republic of Chad was denied service at a restaurant as he traveled through Maryland to meet President Kennedy. Nine incidents involving African diplomats had recently embarrassed Maryland and angered the international community. Compromise in the General Assembly left eleven counties untouched by public accommodations legislation.

Black citizens were not consulted in making the back room deal. Some black incrementalists, as they were called then, were pushed in front of the camera in a sixties version of spin control.

See the rest of the best of this article at baltimoreoutloud.com

Personally I believe that there are many parallels to be drawn most importantly is that political expediency motivates incrementalism. This was the case in Cambridge forty years ago and is the driving force behind EQMD support of HB235 now.

TransMaryland advocates for amending trans exclusionary HB235

TransMaryland a Maryland transgender advocacy organization has come out in opposition to House Bill 235 as written without public accommodations provisions despite it being promoted by Equality Maryland.

From TransMaryLands Event "Contact your legislator":

Right now in Maryland the rights of 1.5 million Marylanders in Baltimore City and Montgomery County are assured. 3X that amount are NOT protected.

Baltimore City and Montgomery County has legal protections for their transgender citizens. The rest of the state's transgender population deserves the same level of dignity and respect afforded to ALL of our citizens. They are denied the basic rights others carry, simply because they ...were born with a gender incongruent to their physical self.

HB 235, introduced last month does NOT provide full protection under the law!

MD HB235 at introduction.

Please contact your Legislators TODAY! and tell them you DEMAND a Gender Identity Anti-discrimination Act with protects Transgender Marylanders are the SAME level as Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Age, Disability, Marital Status, Sexual Orientation, or National Origin. The current bill DOES NOT provide this!

Click here to find your legislator

[Sample letter]

Hello[YOUR LEGISLATOR'S NAME],

My name is [YOUR FULL NAME] and I live in your district at [ENTER YOUR ADDRESS].


I am writing to urge you to vote for A Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act which protects Transgender Marylanders are the SAME level as Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Age, Disability, Marital Status, Sexual Orientation, or National Origin by INCLUDING PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS. This bill is important to me because I believe that ALL Marylanders deserve protections and respect, regardless of their gender identity.


Only by passing FULLY protective GIADA can Maryland truly be called the Free State, where everyone is treated equally.


Thank you!


Only through FULL protections can our rights be upheld!!

This bill will establish transgender Marylanders as second class citizens, subject to only partial protections and send a message National, that the same unequal treatment is acceptable.

It is through your simple phone calls and emails that YOUR voice can be heard. It is the most sacred and intimate responsibility of freedom we possess.

Facebook Event page

TransMaryland on Facebook
transmaryland.org

Take Action! EQMD Now using Full Might to Push Transgender IN=EQUALITY

Click picture for larger size.

Morgan Meneses-Sheets Executive director of Equality Maryland has made it clear this morning. Equality Maryland despite the objections of the transgender community will press forward of HB235.

Morgan Meneses-Sheets sheets said about the prospects of obtaining civil unions this legislative year Gay life "It’s marriage or bust. We are not going to accept anything less.”

Apparently Martin Luther King JR's words only apply to Gay marriage equality. Morgan Meneses-Sheets is using the entire weight of Equality Marryland in calling and emailing the legislature supporting HB235 which does not include public accommodations.


The panel will ecasted live tonite 7 EST/6 CST.

You can post a question to Morgan Meneses-Sheets sheets here.

(posted to the eQuality website 1/20/2011 10:57am ET)

My question goes to Morgan Meneses-Sheets sheets,

Why has Equality Maryland banned Danna LaRoccaa a well spoken transgender journalist from your facebook page. Why has Equality Maryland has continually removed links and comments from transgender people who oppose HB235 as written without public accommodations.

Equality Maryland is censoring the transgender community and attempting to force this bill on transgender people by using the full membership of Equality Maryland to lobby the legislature for HB235.

It is common sense that a bill framed as a "equality" bill without public accommodations is useless. The transgender community is asking you to stop censoring the conversation and let free speech be the bell weather of full transgender equality.

What will it take for you to let this bill die? The transgender community does not want it.

Not a Pot to Piss in: Maryland anti discrimination bill without Public Accommodations provision

Maryland gay rights group defends a transgender nondiscrimination bill striped of public accommodations provisions that uses our lives as leverage in furthering marriage agenda.

INEquality Maryland then parades out a employee quisling apologist who personally attempts to justify this injustice as necessary incrementalism.

The Maryland legislature non discrimination bill explicitly prohibits discrimination against trans people except in public accommodations! This is a concession to extremist neo-christian groups and generic transphobic so gay Marylanders may have a better chance for marriage equality this year:

HOUSE BILL 235 (pdf) introduced and read first time: January 28, 2011 prohibits workplace discrimination and ".... discrimination based on gender identity by certain licensed or regulated persons; prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity with regard to the leasing of property for commercial usage or in the provision of certain services or facilities; altering a certain exception for employers that relates to standards concerning dress and grooming; providing that certain provisions of law relating to discrimination in 10 employment do not apply to certain religious entities.."

Glaringly absent from this years years bill, unlike previous versions offered in the past years, are provisions to allow us access to public accommodations. This will mean if this bill passes transgender Marylanders will only be protected in the areas of employment and housing.

Dana LaRocca wrote in her column in the Baltimore Outloud

"During Thursday’s Kick-Off, Equality Maryland emphasized the importance of employment protection using the statistic that transgender people have an unemployment rate ten times the norm (their website says two times, however). I doubt the accuracy of any number. The places where transmen and transwomen are most often discriminated against are in public accommodations. A bill that leaves out public accommodations leaves transfolk, literally, “without a pot to piss in.”

Commenting on Pams House Blend post "Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination bill introduced in Maryland House" Danna was more explicit in her condemnation with a post tittled:

"Public accomodations were left out as appeasment to opponents."

"Unlike the bill offered for the past four years this bill excludes public accommodations, it includes only employment and housing. This is not equal treatment under the law. This is second class citizenship. It is the moral equivalent of what would have been if the Civil Right Act of 1964 had left restaurants, the restrooms, and the lunch counters segregated."

"I have seen no support for this bill within the transgender community. What I have seen is a lot of anger and a sense of betrayal."

"The die had been cast and the rights of the transgendered were sacrificed. Just as Neville Chamberlain had sacrificed the Sudetenland for a moment of peace the LGB lobby has sacrificed the transgendered. The result will not be the peace they expected. What the LGB lobbyists have shown is that they are willing to back down at fear of something like what they have called ""vicious" attacks on Montgomery County's transgender bill," which refers to a county struggle in 2007. I'm old enough to remember the Battle of Chicago in '68 and Stonewall in '69, when activists in my day said "vicious" they meant fire hoses, Billy clubs, and teargas. The name calling we suffered in Montgomery County was not "vicious."

Yet the majority of the commenter's on Pams House Blend just shrugged their virtual shoulders sending a disastrous potentially lethal message of "oh well its better than nothing".

Better than what? Its almost impossible to prove discrimination in housing or win any monetary compensation in employment discrimination cases

Reality Check.
You are on your way to work after a Starbucks and get delayed in one of the many MD traffic jams and you can't even use a bathroom for Christs sake!

Reality check.
This is worthless bill spotlighting gay.com's willingness to sacrifice transgender lives for its agenda. Transgender Marylanders, are you going to lay down for them and let the Gay.com bus run you over?

EQUALITY MARYLAND people of good faith, I have always supported you, will you be silent?

Demand Equality Maryland treat us with dignity. Add a comment on their Facebook page post congratulating themselves on our exclusion.

TWEET THIS and make the call!!!! From « ENDAblog Maryland Mariage Equality Hearings today call the six undecided senators needed to pass #EQMD #transgender

Ask the six undecided Senators to vote against the Maryland Marriage Equality bill UNTILL there is a bill, PASS OR FAIL, that respects transgender people.

Transgender Armed service

Transgender American Veterans Association

Trans in the military Google Docs

Rapid Action Revision (RAR) Issue Date: 23 August 2010

AR 40-501, Standards of Medical Fitness, paragraph 2-14 which I have outlined and linked below.

2–14. Genitalia

a. Female genitalia.

(5) History of major abnormalities or defects of the genitalia such as change of sex (P64.5), hermaphroditism, pseudohermaphroditism, or pure gonadal dysgenesis (752.7) or dysfunctional residuals from surgical correction of these conditions is disqualifying.

b. Male genitalia.

(5) History of penis amputation (878.0) is disqualifying.

d. History of major abnormalities or defects of the genitalia, such as a change of sex (P64.5), hermaphroditism, pseudohermaphroditism, or pure gonadal dysgenesis (752.7) or dysfunctional residuals from surgical correction of these conditions is disqualifying.
Source(s):

AR 40-501, Standards of Medical Fitness

Demand NBC Pulls SNL Estro-maxx skit Humiliating Transgender people

Demand SNL apologizes for and pulls "Estro-maxx" skit exploiting the most vulnerable of minorities.




In this skit Transwoman are intentionally misrepresented by male actors as gay in these enduring images of 'bearded men in dresses with penises'.

SNL has NO BALLS.

SNL achieves cheap laughs by explaining the effects that Estrogen has on a biological male physique pointedly explaining how it shrinks the testicles. This is true, but not mentioned is that estrogen also shrinks the size of ones penis. Both effects being undesirable for MTF's who are contemplating a inversion type sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) since it may limit the amount of material used for depth of the vagina during the inversion process.

Now SNL, SRS takes balls.



This attack by SNL on our image is possibly the single most violence enabling action any network could ever undertake.

I suggest SNL should GROW a PAIR and MAN UP. Heck I got a bigger pair and I've been on estrogen for five years.

Comment at NBC/Comcast about the SNL video Estro-maxx

Join with GLAAD in condemning the SNL skit Estro-maxx

Britain and Uganda we hold YOU accountable for Brenda Namigadde's life

SAVE THIS WOMANS LIFE!

Brenda Namigadde is going to be deported to UGANDA from the UK the 28th of January 2011. Brenda says “I’ll be tortured, or killed, if I’m sent back to Uganda. They’ve put people like me to death there.” THIS IS FOR REAL. Petition site http://allout.org/en/brenda/

David Bahati the Ugandan MP who authored the KILL GAY BILL called the author who wrote of LEZ GET REAL article alerting us to Brenda's plight saying: "He told me that Brenda should stop bad mouthing Uganda; that she would be welcome back to Uganda if she renounced her homosexuality and if she “repented.”

In light of the violent murder of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) activist David Kato on January 26 2011 Brenda's life is in serious jeopardy.

Please sign the petition at http://allout.org/en/brenda/

Danish Reporter Søren Østergaard Jensen: Transgender Family "Freak Show"

A Danish TV reporter while interviewing the editor of a new LGBT magazine calls a transgender people a "Freak Show" with "perverted desires".

According to AutoTrans Blogspot Danish news reporter Søren Østergaard Jensen referred to transgender people as “weirdos with perverse desires" while interviewing "Proud" magazine editor Tina Kristensen about a transgender parented family.

TV 2 doesn't think it needs to apologigize and issued this statement;

- TV 2 l East Jutland has no prejudices against either gay, transgender and other sexual minorities. Quite the contrary. We invite them like inside and that was what happened in the program Good Evening Jutland, where the presenter Søren Ø. Jensen interviewed the editor of a new gay magazine. An informative program where all viewers will learn about life as a homosexual and transsexual. Following the broadcast, both the studio host and I have been attributed several motives and I - based on a quote that was taken out of context - among other things called a biased TV2 boss. Let me stress that I and Good Evening Jutland is the exact opposite. We are interested in living for all shades of life and have great respect for the challenges of a life as a transsexual or homosexual offers, "says managing editor Eva Kvist. TV 2 Jutland East

LGBT Denmark condemned TV 2:

"- TV 2 media will appear as an exponent of marginalization, one-sided production of sex and a valuation or ranking where transgender placed at the bottom of a hierarchy. LGBT Denmark - National Association for Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people - will find this extremely regrettable. The association believes that the news broadcast coverage to transgender was not fair and honest, " says Sebastian Svegaard trans political spokesperson for LGBT Denmark"

Wait its not over!
Martin Miller Aamand, editor of panbladet.dk a gay magazine in a example of blatant gay transphobia defends the reporters remarks Here apparently saying the transphobic remarks were taken out of context. It also appears he believes these remarks that have sparked international condemnation are simply healthy conversation.

Email TV. 2. Tell them you are not a "Freak Show" redaktion@tv2oj.dk

Vote for Claire Buffie First Pro LGBT Miss America Contestant!

Source: Queers United "Ms. Claire Buffie a contestant for Miss America is the first ever pageant queen to campaign on an LGBT rights platform. Having won the nomination for Miss New York the beauty queen/photographer and activist now vies for the top crown."

"Ms. Buffie has been active in educating students about respect and acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. A straight ally herself, Buffie has a lesbian sister whom she wants to see have equal rights in her lifetime."

"Visit the Miss America site to vote for Buffie, or text MANY to 24470."

Be sure to tune in on January 15th to see if she is selected to the top 15!

Thank you E at Queers United and my appoligies for cliping the entire article I didn't have time to write one myself:)

Honduras Three Transsexuals Murdered in Two Weeks Demand Justice!

Three Honduran travesti or transgender woman, have been murdered in three separate incidents in the past two weeks. There bodies found raped, burned and thrown into ditches.

Source the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC):

"On December 22, 2010 in Comayagüela, a 23-year-old travesti named Lorenza(legal name: Luis) Alexis Alvarado Hernández (crime scene above picture) was found dead, her body visibly beaten and burned. Bloody stones near her corpse indicate that the bruises covering her body were caused by stoning. Her body was set on fire. Used condoms found nearby have led to the suspicion that she may also have been raped. After her death, the assailants threw her body into a ditch. News reports indicate that severe injuries to her face rendered her corpse virtually unrecognizable."

"The same day, another travesti, Lady Oscar (legal name: Oscar) Martinez Salgado, age 45, was found burned to death in her home in Barrio El Rincón of Tegucigalpa. Her body showed multiple stab wounds. Neighbors report witnessing two suspicious individuals running from her house as the fire ignited."

"Less than two weeks later, on January 2, 2011, a young travesti known only as Cheo was found murdered on the main street of Colonia Alameda in Tegucigalpa. Her body was left without legal documentation. She appears to have died from a severe stab wound to her chest."

Take Action Now Sign the IGLHRC letter to Honduran officials demanding justice!

Breaking the APA's chains pathologizing transsexuals for power and wealth

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Tobi Hill-Meyer answers to a "T" What's up with "Tranny"

I highly recommend Tobi Hill-Meyer's three part series on Bilerico Project. She sets the standard defining transsexuals views on the "T" word!

Part one examines Let's Talk about "Tranny" - Meanings

"To begin with, it's important to recognize that "tranny," like most slurs, is used to say more about someone than simply whether they are trans or not. Just as how "this homework is so gay" is less about identifying sexual attraction to other homework of its own gender and more about being generically bad. Similarly, being called a faggot or a dyke is often about being too feminine, a sissy, a manhater, or just being unwilling to accept sexual harassment. So what's the implication of being called a tranny?

So what does the media's role in presenting transgender as a simplified one dimensional plaything have to do with anything? Answered in part two "Let's Talk About "Tranny" Media Criticisms"

"If you are using the term over other people's objections, then be prepared for the consequences. People may think you are ignorant or insensitive to the oppression of trans women. They may more closely examine your behavior for transphobia and/or misogyny. They may find it. They might not want to be exposed to your irresponsible use of term (or other transphobia and/or misogyny) and decide to avoid your events, your writing, or your film. They might tell their friends. So if you want to cultivate an audience that includes trans women and those who care about them, or even just a reputation as trans friendly, keep that in mind.

(Tammye Nash, John Wright and the whole Dallas Voice crew should pay particular attention to this paragraph.)

Part three talks about the effects of using "tranny" has on transgender people. It explores the rational cisgender people us in defending there cavalier use of the word.

"Similarly, I've heard people suggest that because of the overlap in the trans feminine spectrum between trans women, drag queens, and sissy faggots, that gay men should therefore be free to toss the slur around without being criticized. I can understand the point if you're a gay man who walks the streets in drag, facing harassment, being called a tranny, and getting profiled by police for walking while trans. However, that doesn't give all normatively gendered gay men carte blanche to rebuke any criticism for using the term just because they went to a few drag shows. That doesn't give all gay men carte blanche. It certainly is no excuse for OUT magazine the justification to claim that the term is powerful and liberating just because they (predominantly cis men) are the ones saying it."

It is my belief that that Tobi's three part dissertation correctly articulates the current transgender sensitivities regarding the word "tranny". These three articles should be used as a guide post for cisgender media regardless if it is a gay or hetreosexual publication.

Mercedes has a wonderfully insightful commentary on Tobi's article over at Dented Blue Mercedes

Tammye "trannye" Na$h, Editor Dallas Voice Hates on Transsexuals, ad nauseum.

NEVER GIVE UP IN THE FACE OF TYRANNY!

When you as trans activist regularly face unrelenting attacks on your dignity by media giants simply for standing up, hold your head up, face the battle bravely and what ever you do, never allow them to see your pain.

Do not believe there lies. Know that as we hold the high ground and refuse to lower ourselves to the level of these despicable attackers by refusing to use the hateful names they do know in the long run people will recognize your integrity and admire your courage.

The continued venomous attacks by the Dallas Voice on myself, dehumanizing singling me out despite being knowledgeable of trans peoples sensitivities with hated pejoratives require me to ask you Tammye Nash, what is your true motivation?

What is you investment in the word "tranny"? You are a cisgender gay woman for gods sake!

Is it you wish to hurt me personally? Our do you just hate transgender people in general?

When will Tammye Nash at the Dallas Voice learn that "Tranny" and "Faggot" hold the same negative connotations as "Nigger", Kike, "Towelhead"?

Surly our attempted education of Nash of the media guide which the Dallas voice adheres to when gay people are attacked verbally as was a dismal failure.

Nash, you are by definition a transphobic bully.

I am crying. Are you happy now? What Will it take for you to stop?

Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender & Queer Jamaica: Ten Reasons Why the Transvestic Disorder Diagnosis in the DSM-5 Has Got to Go

Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender ; Queer Jamaica: Ten Reasons Why the Transvestic Disorder Diagnosis in the DSM-5 Has Got to Go
Kelley Winters, Ph.D.
GID Reform Advocates
www.gidreform.org
kelley@gidreform.org

Click title or link for Queer Jamaica: "Ten Reasons Why the Transvestic Disorder Diagnosis in the DSM-5 Has Got to Go"

The classification of gender diversity and nonconformity to birth-assigned gender roles as mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has drawn growing protest and outrage from transpeople and and allies worldwide. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the APA, is regarded as the medical and social definition of mental disorder throughout North America and strongly influences international diagnostic nomenclature. The fifth edition of the manual, the DSM-5, is in development and scheduled for publication in 2013. While the diagnostic category of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) has garnered most of the controversy, a second category of so-called Transvestic Fetishism (TF) has harmed transwomen, including transsexual women, as well as male-to-female crossdressers, dual gender and gender nonconforming people since the earliest days of the DSM. Trans and LGB advocates have been inexplicably quiet about the TF category, even after the APA proposed to expand the category in the DSM-5, renamed Transvestic Disorder, to implicate gender nonconforming people of all sexes and all sexual orientations.

The proposed DSM-5 diagnosis of Transvestic Disorder, even worse than its predecessor Transvestic Fetishism, labels gender expression not stereotypically associated with assigned birth sex as inherently pathological and sexually deviant. The diagnosis is punitive and scientifically capricious, serving to punish social and sexual gender nonconformity and enforce binary stereotypes of assigned birth sex. Here are ten reasons why the Transvestic Disorder diagnosis should be eliminated entirely from the DSM-5."

Click the the link or post title for Kelley's Queer Jamaica' complete incredible article.