DNC Platform’s Stand on LGBT Issues, A Transgendered View

Yesterday, the Platform Committee of the Democratic National Committee met in Pittsburgh to review and amend the draft platform.  In July, community meetings were held all across the country to gather input from people of all walks of life.  Those of us in the 2nd Transgender Caucus stepped up in our own way to ensure that the concerns of the Transgender community were heard and ncluded.  Amanda Simpson of Arizona met with her Governor, Janet Napolitano, who was the Chair of the Drafting Committee.  Several others, including me, met directly with Platform Committee members from our respective states.  Tennessee has three members on Platform and I met or talked with all three.  In our meetings, we expressed the desire to have language calling for Democrats to support only a fully inclusive, employment non-discrimination act.   We also urged passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, access to health care for all Americans, and expressed concern over various ID laws at the federal and state levels.  For Transgender Tennesseans, this includes the right to change gender on Birth Certificates, and opposition to the Real ID Act and new voter ID’s.

Read more at avalonfarmblog.com.

Transgender Teen Faces Hate and Abuse Daily

Michael Arone has been called every pejorative someone could direct at a transgender teen.

But, while most harassment the 16-year-old West Haverstraw resident faced has been short-lived, Arone reached a breaking point at a summer school program in Clarkstown South High School.

Arone, a North Rockland school district 10th-grader, is a male transgender teen who publicly goes by Melissa Andrews and prefers to be referred to as a female.

Arone said classmates have routinely called her “faggot,” “she-male,” “it” and “queer” in response to her wearing eye shadow and lipstick, straightening her shoulder-length brown hair and carrying a purse to school.

“He’s dealing with a hate crime,” said her mother, Patricia Arone, 37, who often refers to Arone as Michael. “That’s the only way to say it, it’s hate.”

In one instance at Clarkstown South, a female student tried to punch Arone and said, “Come fight me, you faggot,” according to a Clarkstown police report.

Arone said she had a dating relationship with this girl, but the girl began instigating much of the harassment against Arone after they broke up, Arone said.

Read the rest at lohud.com.

Religious Right Targets Transgendered Community

Religious conservatives are hoping a referendum on a Montgomery County law protecting transgender people could become a template to repeal similar measures across the country.

Montgomery County Council members unanimously approved a measure last fall that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodations, and taxicab and cable service. Council members included an exemption for “personal and private” places, but nonetheless drew the ire of local conservatives, who said they feared men would be allowed in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.

A local group, Citizens for Responsible Government, ran a successful petition drive to get the 25,000 signatures required to put the law on the county’s November ballot for possible recall.

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for national conservative group Focus on the Family, said his organization is tracking the Montgomery issue.

Get the rest of this story from examiner.com.

Transgender: Changing the Face of Feminism

In 1991, Nancy Jean Burkholder was expelled from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MWMF), the world’s largest annual women-only event, because festival workers suspected that she was a trans woman — that is, someone who was assigned a male sex at birth but who identifies and lives as female. That incident sparked protests from a burgeoning transgender movement to challenge what eventually came to be known as the festival’s “womyn-born-womyn”-only policy, which effectively bars trans women from attending. The protests evolved into Camp Trans, which continues to take place just down the road from MWMF each year, and which has become a focal point for a much broader push for trans-inclusion within feminist and queer communities.

Despite more than 15 years of petitioning, and a growing acceptance of trans identities in both mainstream society and within queer, feminist and other progressive circles, the festival still officially maintains its “womyn-born-womyn”-only policy, and countless other lesbian- and queer-woman-focused groups and events continue to harbor dismissive, if not outright disdainful, attitudes toward trans women.

Read more at alternet.org.

Right Actively Seeking to Legalize Discrimination Against Transgendered

Religious conservatives are hoping a referendum on a Montgomery County law protecting transgender people could become a template to repeal similar measures across the country.

Montgomery County Council members unanimously approved a measure last fall that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodations, and taxicab and cable service. Council members included an exemption for “personal and private” places, but nonetheless drew the ire of local conservatives, who said they feared men would be allowed in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.

A local group, Citizens for Responsible Government, ran a successful petition drive to get the 25,000 signatures required to put the law on the county’s November ballot for possible recall.

Read more at the examiner.com.

Next Page »