On the heals of the revelation that the Philadelphia District attorney's office has not fully and unconditionally released to the police what know of the murder of transgender woman Nizah Morris comes some good news.
While in the city of brotherly love expect respect from law enforcement.
The bad news is it took the misgendering and dehumanization of yet another murdered transwoman, Diamond Williams, by the Philly PD amplified by the sensationalistic local reporting to make this happen. The good news is if you have interactions with the Philadelphia police expect respect.
After establishing what gender expression/identity is Directive 152 makes clear how officers are required to interact with trans people and offers guidelines on how to refer to trans people in reports and while in custody.
Blake told WCNC "Throughout my life I haven't always been treated equally as a male, so I've always wanted this and everybody has told me I couldn't do it. ‘You are a girl,' even though I've always identified myself as a male," said Brockington.
There were 13 seniors vying for the coveted title as king. Brockington won, collecting the most money for the school's chosen charity, Mothering Across Continents. It's a non-profit organization that funds the building of schools in the Sudan.
Brockington is no stranger to adversity. He says he is living with foster parents because his father is unable to accept his gender identity.
His foster parent, Donald Smith, told NBC Charlotte Brockington has the perseverance to overcome the challenges he faces.
"He really is hoping that it helps those behind him going through the same challenges and struggles," he said.
If the world's not ready for a trans woman to be the next top model, thats to bad because she's already tops in our hearts hearts. Carrera is one glamours woman with style and grace but she wants everyone to know, she's a Jersey Girl at heart.
Carmen told CNN she/'s proud of herself as a Latino and being trans even if some other people didn't like that about her. You go girl!
The Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) is the premier annual gathering for environmentalists worldwide, and is distinguished as the oldest and largest of its kind. The Conference historically unites more than 3,000 activists, attorneys, students, scientists, and concerned citizens from over 50 countries around the globe to share their experience and expertise. ~ PIELC website
Many members of the transgender community and people with good conscious are aware of Lierre Keith's views of transsexualism are already protesting, outraged over her selection as a keynote speaker at the PIELC.
In essence, Keith denies transgender peoples right to exist. Kieth believes that once born a man, a transgender woman forever maintains male privilege and therefore cannot be female.
Recorded at a 2013 DGR conference a member describes DRG's rejection of gender which to them encompasses transsexualism. This by her own admission is the cornerstone of the failing DGR's agenda for deconstructing patriarchy.
The four-day Conference includes over 125 panels, workshops, and multi-media presentations addressing a broad spectrum of environmental law and advocacy. Topics include: forest protection and ecological restoration; grazing and mining reform; labor and human rights; air and water pollution; Native American treaty rights; globalization and "free" trade; environmental justice; corporate responsibility; marine wilderness; international environmental law; water rights and dam removal; oil and gas litigation; genetic engineering; and urban growth. (emphasis added)
PIELC was aware Lierre Keith's transphobic agenda when inviting her and there seems to be disagreement within the PIELC as whether Keith's invite should stand, as there should be.
The PIELC makes an effort to be inclusive of every other minority, even co hosting a "Civil Liberties" celebration but as their press release indicates they will ignore violence advocated by one of their keynote speakers against transgender people.
Speaking with Gordon Levitte at the PIELC Wednesday I asked him for a statement regarding Keith. He pointed out that although she was invited and listed, she had not yet been assigned a panel as of yet.
Levitte asked for 'a couple of weeks to respond explaining he couldn't speak for the group. I emailed Levitte questions as he requested but I have not yet received a reply. Should the PIELC respond I will keep my word and publish it. Levitte didn't mentioned that the PIELC had already issued an official statement.
SOURCE Decolonizing Yoga "The cornerstone of Keith's feminism is the that transgender woman are in fact men who pretend to be female while enjoying the benefits of our patriarchal society."
"What exactly does Keith believe? Among other things, that the “phenomenon of trans” was created from porn culture and “that men insisting they are women is insulting and absurd.” Rachel not only celebrates Keith’s position but she labels it as DGR’s official stance and states that she can’t understand why people were bothered by it."
Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) facebook statement written with TERF signature pose warns that violence directed against keynote speakers (insert Keith) will be dealt with:
"This is the official public statement regarding Lierre Keith and her involvement in the 2014 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC). Any previous statements that were attributed to PIELC or the PIELC Co-Directors were not approved and should be disregarded."
"Lierre Keith was invited to share her perspective on environmental issues and activism. PIELC and the Co-Directors do not align with nor endorse every viewpoint of any particular keynote speaker, and simply seek to further constructive discussion of today’s environmental issues. The Public Interest Environmental Law Conference is a forum to respectfully discuss public interest perspectives on the environment, the law, and environmental law and activism. PIELC is an opportunity for people of differing opinions and viewpoints to join together and find common ground. Any actions that threaten this peaceful discourse will be unwelcome at PIELC and will be met with the appropriate legal response. The PIELC Co-Directors value the safety of our keynote speakers, panelists, and attendees."
"We encourage all interested parties to submit panel suggestions that are relevant to our conference theme prior to February 1."
Excepts from the Deep Green Resistance (DGR) press release. Reading this press release keep in mind in Keith's mind transgender woman are really men.
"Lierre Keith has been selected to give a keynote speech at this years Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. Lierre is a natural choice as a keynote speaker- as an impassioned writer Lierre has forcefully advocated direct action to address our dire environmental crisis for years."
"Her writing and lectures focus on civilization’s violence against the planet, male violence against women, and the need for serious resistance to both."
"As an outspoken advocate for radical feminism and a leader of the radical environmental movement, the selection of Keith as a keynoter continues a long tradition of controversial speakers at PIELC."
The cornerstone of Keith's feminism is the that transgender woman are in fact men who pretend to be female while enjoying the benefits of our patriarchal society.
That this set of transphobic values will be promoted in the heart of Oregon the home feminist inclusion is unacceptable.
You have a opportunity to petition the University of Oregon to Cancel Lierre Keith.
I was censored on this post by Daily Kos for my belief that DGR is capable of violence and was told until I proved otherwise the paragraph stating that would remain censored.
I will now show that DGR has historically endorsed violence, is transphobic and make a argument that they could under duress direct violence towards the transgender community's physical infrastructure or even our own beings.
14
MAY/13
Off
This is a note I sent to Decolonizing Yoga after their piece on DGR and transphobia was posted.
My name is Aric McBay. I'm the primary author of the book Deep Green Resistance and was (rather briefly) one of the original people behind the organization which Be Scofield writes about on your website.
You mention in your piece that I'm a founder, but what you probably don't know is that I left the organization at the beginning of 2012 after a trans inclusive policy was cancelled by Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith. Many good people and good activists left the organization for that reason.
I find these transphobic attitudes to be disgusting and deeply troubling, and it bothers me a lot to have any past association with people promoting transphobia.
For me, trans rights and trans inclusion are fundamental to building effective movements and to building a world worth living in. Speaking as the main author of the book that inspired the organization in the first place: they are most definitely my core values.
And transphobia--like racism and sexism and classism and homophobia--is a poison that those in power use to destroy movements and ruin lives. When faced with such poisons, who needs COINTELPRO?
Solidarity between movements is the only hope we have. I would appreciate it if you would mention this as an addendum on your piece, because I want to make it clear to people that I, and the vast majority of radical environmentalists, fully support trans rights and trans inclusion. I don't want to allow a few outliers to drive wedges between movements that can and should support each other.
""We are aware of some vicious attempts to discredit and undermine Ms Keith’s important analysis of women’s oppression and her fight for women’s freedom; including women’s right to gather and self-organize in women only space. We encourage you to not to be bullied or intimidated by those who oppose Lierre Keith and her fight – our fight – for liberation.""
The cornerstone of Keith's and DGR's feminism is the that transgender woman are in fact men who pretend to be female while enjoying the benefits of our patriarchal society and therefore must be denied "woman only spaces", IE public accommodations.
Source DGR Wikipedia: "Proponents of Deep Green Resistance encourage strategies for social action that run the gamut from violent to non-violent. DGR's support for violent action (described as a potentially necessary means by which to invoke drastic environmental change) is rejected by many pacifists. Some have called this a potential deterrent to environmentalists who believe in nonviolent activism.[7] In terms of the use of violence, Jensen, Keith, and McBay's strategies all largely center around hard-hitting infrastructural vandalism, such as forcible dam removal, rather than any kind of personal violence."
It is my experience as a activist that has engaged in civil disobedence that people who allow themselves to resort to the lowest form of communication, violence, are capable of acts of violence in any form.
I am not comforted that DGR the Wikipedia entery. DGR, identified as a core transphobic organization by one of its founders could use this same rational to destroy physical structures associated with gender diversity.
If DGR's views on transsexualism were to be adopted by the greater society, trans inclusive laws would never be enacted and current ones would be repealed resulting in violence against gender diverse people skyrocketing exponentially as would unemployment, homelessness and suicides.
That fear is real. This is why I contend that within the obfuscation of environmentalism the core purpose of DGR is to promulgate rhetoric which would inevitably result in increased violent acts against trans people.
Transgender people are the most victimized minority in the world today and any increase of violence towards 1% of the worlds population would have dire consequences, possibly leading to gendercide. Extermination of trans identity as we see happening in Russia today.
Transgender people are the "soft targets of opportunity" that the DGR is looking for to colece its movement, but that strategy has backfired time and again.
Inviting a violent transphobic group such as the DGR to keynote at the PIELC in the heart of Oregon the home feminist inclusion is unacceptable.
You have a opportunity to petition the University of Oregon to Cancel Lierre Keith's engagment .
Additional reading list for Lierre Keith and DGR regarding transphobia
We want to thank all members of the community that have informed and enlightened us to DGR’s role in promoting transphobia. We deeply apologize to all that were triggered by DGR’s presence. We would like to use this conflict as an opportunity to create dialogue about transphobia as well as other issues around marginalized groups. It is our understanding that this incident is resulting in DGR members having to own up to their views, and that some members of DGR Portland have left the group in protest to these views – we applaud this and stand in solidarity with them.
On Sunday we were pleased to see a successful confrontation take place between concerned conference attendees and members of DGR. A group of about 15 individuals confronted DGR on their perpetuation of transphobia and the need for them to hold themselves accountable as well as the need to hold Lierre Keith and Derrek Jensen accountable. There is a video that documents this confrontation, with it ending in recommendations for DGR members to further their education on transgender issues, and develop a broader gender analysis.
During the second appearance of Janet Mock, he asked her what was so offensive about inquiring about the "surgery you had to become a real woman."
Looking at Janet Mock I see a young defensive transgender woman who has traveled our road less taken. I saw her taking a back seat as Laverne Cox defended her to Katie Couric's earlier invasive questioning of Mocks Genitalia. I'm sure Morgan saw the Couric interview, knew she was a soft target, but still had the gall to observe in a tweet that she didn't have a problem with the interview while it was taking place, why was she upset now?
But then the Young Turks don't get it ether at first commenting on Mocks reply during the second interview. "Bad answer I'm on his side." Many cisgender people see transition as a 'decision'. Many as the Young Turks, bless their hearts, dis not get it at first. However, unlike Morgan, they work at it and come to understand it is not a sexual organ that defines a individuals gender. its the innate sense of who you are, the driving force behind transition is not a choice.
The vast majority of trans people come to a point in our lives when not transitioning would be unbearable.
I've supported #LGBT rights vociferously on air for the past 3 years and I'm now the target of the LGBT community's fury/mockery? Pathetic.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 7, 2014
Finally, someone at CNN understands the offensiveness of the banner shown on the first show flashing like a neon billboard proclaiming that Mock used to be a man.
Why didn't Mock object to the line of questioning during the first interview? Maybe like me, I found it problematic, ignorant and ill informed in itself, but Mock didn't know there would be a banner beneath her stripping her of her dignity.
Why doesn't Morgan get that too? Ego perhaps? Sensationalist journalism perhaps. His panel 'of cisgender people debating our right to exist puts a explanation point on his inability to get it.
Not sure at what point this was tweeted or by who at the Piers Morgan tweeted it, but maybe, just maybe theres hope for Morgan yet.
"I'm sorry that you feel offended. I think people in the transgender community feel equally offended." Author @janetmock#RedefiningRealness
— Piers Morgan Live (@PiersMorganLive) February 6, 2014
The take away as I see it? Its critical that we remain vigilant and respond as we do to problematic and transphobic media but its equally important we don't seem hyper sensitive inadvisedly making ourselves less visible.
When transgender woman Ricky Nathanson woke that Thursday morning, she probably would have never suspected her name would become recognized worldwide. And Ricky almost certainly wouldn't have guessed she was to become the next target for extortion by the corrupt ZANU PF party.
Ms. Nathanson existing the women's room at the Palace Hotel was was stopped from leaving by ZANU PF party youth leader Farai Mteliso and crew that demanded money from her in lieu of calling the police. However, she wouldn't give him any, but it didn't get better after the police arrived. They remanded her and forced her to strip, purportedly to ascertain her gender robbing her a again this time of her dignity.
Ricky had her day in court and proved without a shadow of doubt she was legally entitled to use the women room. What remains to be seen if the court press's charges against ZANU PF party youth leader Farai Mteliso or the police that made her strip and humiliated her.
SW Radio Africa reports the Magistrate Abednico Ndebele told Ms. Nathanson“It appears the State is still yet to make a decision on the charge, and according to what’s in court, there’s no offence in anyone entering a female or male toilet… For now you can go and the State will call you if it needs you,” Ndebele told Nathanson.
However Zanu PF thug, Farai Mteliso, who effected a citizen’s arrest on Nathanson at the Hotel was not impressed.
Mteliso told reporters he was surprised prosecutors claimed he was in Harare when he was in the court gallery.
“The magistrate presides on a case of a man who comes into court wearing a dress, which obviously shows that he is practicing homosexuality,” Mteliso said.
“Do you think that if President (Robert) Mugabe was in this court that man would have come out of court?
“Just imagine how many women this man has seen naked by entering ladies toilets.
“I think he has even seen my wife’s nakedness since I usually go with her to drink at the Hotel.”
Ian Maseko, director at lobby group Sexual Rights Centre, said Ricky’s court case shows how the legal system is being used to harass those perceived to be different.
“The way Ricky has been treated is inhumane. The constitution guarantees equal rights and respect for the dignity of all citizens and we should all be affirming that,” Maseko told SW Radio Africa Wednesday.
Dozens of activists feed up with the Idaho Legislatures inaction took it to the next level. by locking arms and blocking the doors of the State building and keeping lawmakers out.
The police started arresting Add the words Idaho members after the speaker was denied entrance.
(AP) Police arrested dozens of gay rights activists Monday after a protest that blocked entrances to the Idaho Senate chambers for more than two hours.
Idaho State Police said they took 43 people into custody on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing after demonstrators stood shoulder to shoulder and prevented lawmakers from getting past.
Former state Sen. Nicole LeFavour, the Idaho Legislature's first openly gay lawmaker and an organizer of the protest, was among those arrested. Ahead of the demonstration, she had said the group would block the entrances until lawmakers agreed to take up a bill adding anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people or until protesters were removed by authorities.
Relatives were horrified to learn that the victim's body was dismembered by confessed killer, captured yesterday by police
CURRENT yesterday published the story of a barbaric crime that occurred in the early hours of Sunday to Monday (27). A transvestite identified as Leticia received two stabs Walace de Souza Silva, confessed killer, who led the police to where the body was, at Avenida Ayrton Senna. But the family of Thifani - not Leticia - told another story, on Wednesday (29), with rebels at heart.
Quartering Family of Thifani - born Felipe Matheus, who was 18 years old - were the 50 Precinct (ItaguaÃ) to inform the assistant deputy Luiz Jorge, who were horrified to recognize the victim at the Medical Legal Institute in Campo Grande: the body was dismembered. According to Thifani aunt, Elizabeth Santos, the funeral had to be held with a closed casket because his nephew's face was completely disfigured. Thifani was buried on the afternoon of Wednesday (29) in the Cemetery Father CezariVigezzi (SASE).~ Source
A transgender woman was murdered by two men while talking to a woman at a sidewalk bar nearby house where she lived, police said. According to the agency, the crime happened late on Wednesday (29), in municipality of Itabela , about 690 km from Salvador .
About 150 people including mother Nettles attended the protest at One Police plaza Thursday demanding justice for Islan Nettles. They were braving the frigid cold in protest of the incredibly inept unprofessional handling of the murder investigation which resulted in the DA dropping the charges against the youth who beat her to death, in spite of him confessing to the crime.
The pictures posted here are just a few of those that can be viewed at Rediscovering NY.com
According to dnainfo people were Chanting "transgender lives matter" and holding signs that said "Justice for Islan," protesters, bracing against frigid temperatures, said they feel the NYPD did not investigate the death well and that the district attorney's office was not doing a good job of prosecuting the case.
"I feel like someone got away with murder," said Delores Nettles, Islan's mother.
She said delays in updating the initial misdemeanor charges against initial suspect Paris Wilson and in collecting evidence and witnesses have led to no one currently being charged or in custody for Islan's death.
"When people are beaten to death in the street it takes their power away," said Carl Siciliano, executive director of The Ali Forney Center that serves LGBT homeless youth. Islan Nettles had been a client.
"When police fail to take that death seriously it takes away their power," he added
Meet Michael S. Kennedy (R) the Republican wants to look at school children's genitalia. OK, so he wouldn't personally gawk but he wants to have everyone he deems suspiciously gendered certified by a doctor.
That's creepy.
Lets not stop there Rep. Kennedy! Why don't we stare at every child judgmentally, to decide if their genitalia should be inspected. You never know these days, there are many trans children using hormone blockers living fully integrated lives, happily with their peers.
This grown man doesn't have anything better to do? And he's a 'doctor'? As first broke by PARKER MARIE MOLLOY at the Advocate....
Well I guess it's pretty much a sure fire way to get reelected in Utah if you prey on trans children. Here's a partial transcript of HB0087:
Part 15. Student Accommodations
882 53A-11-1501.Gender-segregated bathrooms in public schools. 883 (1) (a) "Bathroom" means a room intended for more than one occupant at a time that: 884 (i) contains a toilet or a urinal; or 885 (ii) is used by occupants to undress and dress. 886 (b) "Gender identity" means an individual's own opinion of whether the individual is: 887 (i) male; 888 (ii) female; 889 (iii) neither male nor female; 890 (iv) both male and female; or 891 (v) another designation. 892 (2) A student may not use a public school's gender-segregated bathroom if the 893 bathroom does not correspond to the student's gender. 894 (3) A school district or charter school shall make available to a student reasonable 895 alternate bathroom accommodations if: 896 (a) the student's consistently-asserted gender identity does not strictly correspond to the 897 student's gender; and 898 (b) the student requests alternate bathroom accommodations. 899 (4) A local school board or charter school governing board shall establish a policy in 900 accordance with this section.
1181 (9) (a) "Gender" means the either male or female phenotype designation of an 1182 individual as documented by: 1183 (i) the individual's birth certificate, if the individual has not obtained a designation 1184 under Subsection (9)(a)(ii); or 1185 (ii) a signed, written document from a physician, as defined in Section 58-67-102 , that, 1186 based on a physical examination of the individual's genitalia, designates the individual 1187 phenotypically as either male or female, if: 1188 (A) the individual does not have a birth certificate that designates the individual as 1189 either male or female; or 1190 (B) the document conflicts with the individual's birth certificate. 1191 (b) "Gender" does not mean an individual's own opinion of whether the individual is: 1192 (i) male; 1193 (ii) female; 1194 (iii) neither male nor female; 1195 (iv) both male and female; or 1196 (v) another designation. 1197 (c) "Gender" is defined for the purposes of state law only and does not apply to federal 1198 law.
Two days after a courtesy ride by Philadelphia police on December 22, 2002 transgender woman Nizah Morris died at a Philadelphia hospital of a subdural hematoma, the result traumatic blows to her head. Her family believes that police murdered her and have received a $250,000 dollar settlement in civil court where it is easier to fix blame, but her murder remains unsolved today.
What happened that December 2002 night as best as we can figure:
A concerned individual called an ambulance for an inebriated Morris at the front of the Key West bar where she had been drinking. Morris declined the hospital visit instead accepting a courtesy ride from Philly officer Elizabeth Skala. According to witnesses who helped her into the squad car, she asked to be taken her home
Skala gave her a courtesy ride because of her inebriated state but denied she needed help getting Morris into her car and made no mention of injuries in her report.
Morris never arrived at her home.
Officer Skala testified that Morris asked to be dropped off at Chancellor St and S. Juniper St, two minutes distant driving from the bar and 45-minute walking distance from her home. One minute after being dropped off at 3:30am a motorist testified he called 911 reporting a woman she was laying on the street naked from the waist up, bleeding from her head.
The DA has refused to release the 911 records.
Another wittiness testified he saw her body laying in the street at 3:45am. He later said one officer placed a jacket over her face as she was being loaded into the ambulance. The ambulance attendants said they loaded her at 3:30am. The officer on the scene testified the ambulance didn't depart until 3:45am.
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital records state that Morris didn't arrive at the emergency room a mile distant, until 4:13 am.
The Philadelphia police advisory commission second report released 2013 is highly critical of the police actions and obfuscation even putting into quotation marks "lost" while talking about the eight year period the police report couldn't be 'found'.
The police report wasn't made public until 2011 and then only after ordered to do so by the court after the Philadelphia Gay News filed a right know request.
While the commission report doesn't place blame police for Morris's death directly or indirectly, it acknowledges that it can't because the 'highly redacted' information the DA previously allowed them to see was under the condition they wouldn't make it public.
The Police Commission advisory second report surmises:
These are the problems that we know. What we do not know may be more problematic. The Police Advisory Commission cannot state with certitude if this was a purposeful course of activity to obfuscate the facts of the Nizah Morris homicide, or just simple human error. The Police Advisory Commission cannot state with certitude if there was a purposeful course of activity to erase the existence of the “courtesy ride.” We have reached our procedural and legal limitations. We therefore intend to forward a copy of this advisory opinion to both the Pennsylvania Attorney General and the federal Department of Justice, and urge both agencies to review the facts and the Police Department’s investigation in the Nizah Morris homicide. The passage of time may well prove fatal to any realistic investigation, but that does not mean it should not be attempted lest we fulfill the ominous prediction of Edmund Burke: “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”
It is just coming to light after reading the second Commission report that the police officers 'were aware of Morris's anatomical sex before they had indicated on their reports".
Without breaking the first commission's review where they agreed not to disclose the DA's finding the second Commission's report is making it clear the officers reacted differently than had Morris been a cisgender female.
@DASethWilliams Sir the 1st commision was bound by a nondisclosure agreement the 2nd reconstituted commision decried that @phillylgbt
— planetransgender (@kellibusey) February 2, 2014
@DASethWilliams@phillylgbt the 2nd commision is calling for a full and transparent investigation that can only be accomplished if you co-op
— planetransgender (@kellibusey) February 2, 2014
Did the police murder Morris? Why did an officer cover Morris's face as if he knew she was already dead, when she was loaded into the ambulance? Did the officers hold the ambulance up making sure that any treatment Morris might have received if she arrived in a timely manner would be ineffectual?
What is the Philadelphia DA scared of? Obviously something because the District attorney of Philidelphia has begun a twitter conversation with me, a practacly unhearlded blogger, on the Sunday racheting it up a notch.
@kellibusey@phillylgbt to say we refused to help the investigation is a blatant lie we reviewed police work & allowed commission to review
I never said the DA didn't help in the initial investigation, I said you have not released your full unredacted files to the Police advisory commission unhindered by a non disclosure agreement.
I asked why would the DA submited this report, and only after public awareness demanded it, to the police in the form it was.
I said that without the complete unconditional release of the Philadelphia District Attorney's files to the Police Advisory Commision, the murder of transgender woman Nizah Morris and understanding circumstances that led to her death will have lost a crucial opportunity to be resolved.
In essence, the second reconstructed Police Advisory Board agrees with this assessment by writing:
We therefore intend to forward a copy of this advisory opinion to both the Pennsylvania Attorney General and the federal Department of Justice, and urge both agencies to review the facts and the Police Department’s investigation in the Nizah Morris homicide.
I am asking that Mayor Nutter takes a personal interest in this case. I am hoping that once more that increased public awareness will help nudge the wheels of justice to turn.
Finally, I am curious why the Philadelphia District Attorney feels compelled to ratchet up this conversation with a practically unknown blogger like myself, insinuating that I lied, on the weekend?
Pretty intimidating.
The PGN and other groups are now asking for the state DA to investigate.
I would also like to ask that Mayor Nutter whom I recorded last year at the LGBT Journalist Convo. to throw his considerable political might into solving the Nizah Morris cold case.
History was made in the fight for LGBT equality this year with the first ever passage of ENDA in the Senate. All was left was the Republican controlled House.
It was revealed an off the record meeting occurred 'sometime last week' where Boehner announced that his posse of bill killers would shoot a hole through yet another American dream.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told attendees last week at his first-ever meeting with the LGBT Equality Caucus there was “no way” the Employment Non-Discrimination Act would pass this year, according to a gay lawmaker who attended the meeting.
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who’s gay and one of the caucus co-chairs, volunteered information Tuesday night about the meeting in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol when the Washington Blade asked him about his views on the absence of the ENDA from the State of the Union address.
“A number of us did meet with, actually the caucus met with Speaker Boehner,” Takano said. “He said no way was it going to get done in this session.”
Calling the discussion between Boehner and the lawmakers “a historic sort of meeting,” Takano later clarified he was referring to the LGBT Equality Caucus, a 113-member group of lawmakers committed to advancing LGBT rights, and said the meeting took place “a few days ago” or last week.
