30 September 2015

Vote!



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I want to take you back a few years, to Harper's Weekly, around the year 1867.  See those men in the front cover drawing? They're voting.  Something so simple, yet so sublime.  Just two years earlier, the African-American men and women were nothing.  Less than nothing, really.  They were chattel. Slaves. Three-fifth of a human being, with the master calling the shots.  Slaveowners - and hopeful slaveowners - called them vicious slurs such as niggers and pickaninnies.  For a few brief years though, they called the shots.

A little less than twenty years before, the first women's rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention, was held in that town.  It took over seventy years until the final nail was put into that shameful past.  

Unfortunately, the South did rise again.  It wasn't until the protests widened and Martin Luther King Jr. began his preaching and marching (to be fair, among many others) that the South truly began to erode.  Amazingly (and so, so sadly) there are pockets that still try to keep African Americans out of the voting booth.

This is freakin' 2015!!!

As a transgender woman, I find it absolutely maddening that there are transgender people who won't vote.

Here's the question - in your life, who will call the shots?

29 September 2015

Charm play features look at transgender charm school

Press
Windy City Times


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The Transgender Journey

Alexus Arias
The Campus


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One Million Moms’ Tax-Exempt Outrage Industry

Kelly Weill
The Daily Beast


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St. Louis Transgender Memorial Garden to be unveiled

Colin Murphy
LGBTQNation


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UN agencies call for end to violence and discrimination against LGBTI community (United Nations)

Press
UN News Centre




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please press:  http://www.un.org

27 September 2015

Transgender Woman Sues Louisville Nursing College For Discrimination

Kayla Moody
WHAS11


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please press:  http://www.whas11.com

First legal victory for transgender inmate in US under the Prison Rape Elimination Act

Jacqueline Jones
Jurist


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please press:  http://jurist.org

Keep Transgender Prisoners Out of Solitary Confinement

Emily Zak
www.care2.com


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please press:  http://www.care2.com

ezs note:  If you have not done so already, please go to www.care2.com and sign the petition.  You''ll help a transgender prisoner's living conditions now.

Transgender Latina tells her story at Philadelphia workshop

Anne Marie Hankins
The Washington Post


Nicole Santamaria

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26 September 2015

Transgender Sutton Coldfield woman honoured for promoting LGBT acceptance (UK)

Dan Newbould
Sutton Coldfield Observer


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Understanding transgender: who, what, why and how

Karen Siegfriedt
Amador Ledger Dispatch


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Judge questions sexual harassment claim in Planet Fitness transgender policy case

Jessica Shepherd
MLive


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please press:  http://www.mlive.com

Transgender at school: As more teachers come out, districts struggle to put policy into practice

Casey Parks
The Oregonian

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please press:  http://www.oregonlive.com

Transgender woman Kellie Maloney on her plans to visit matchmaker Willie Daly (Ireland)

Margaret Jennings
Irish Examiner




Devils Lake, North Dakota

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25 September 2015

Parents of transgender six-year-old 'will do anything to make her happy' in spite of their own sense of loss (UK)

Zahra Mulroy
Mirror


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please press:  http://www.mirror.co.uk

ezs note:  I don't know... maybe it's just me, with transgender stories entering my brain daily, but isn't it possible that these 'heartrending' stories are just a tad bit, *ahem*, melodramatic?  Y'know, just a bit?  Especially when you consider that Christine Jorgensen had her sex reassignment surgery in 1951!!!  Just a thought...

Transgender woman wins lawsuit against prison staff who ‘called her an animal and told her to kill herself’ (UK)

Justin Carissimo
The Independent


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HC gives protection to NRI transgender 'forcibly' brought here (India)

Press
Deccan Herald


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23 September 2015

First ever transgender lingerie line to open in Kansas City

Shannon Halligan
KSHB


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please press:  http://www.kshb.com

Elko officials deny transgender student's restroom request

Press
13 Action News


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please press:  http://www.ktnv.com

Why transgender people can't get surgery approval in Thunder Bay (Canada)

Press
CBC.ca


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please press:  http://www.cbc.ca

Minister confident transgender policy coming (Canada)

Press
BlackburnNews.com


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please press:  http://blackburnnews.com

Banned Transgender Customers To Get $400K From Bar

Kristian Foden-Vencil
OPB


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please press:  http://www.opb.org

22 September 2015

S P R E A D the word!


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If you vote - particularly as a result as a result of Emily's Virtual Rocket - you have my undying thanks.  But this year, let's kick it up a notch.  You probably have a listing of friends  you've made over the last few years on your computer.  What I'm suggesting is really ridiculously simple.  Say something like  "On Tuesday, November 3rd, please remember to vote.  And please remind your friends too."

It's that simple.

You don't have to have to have a thousand "friends"; five or ten real friends will do.  If you're lazy, cut and paste the line above.  This ain't rocket science.  (Besides, that's my line!)

Transgender woman says TSA detained, humiliated her over body 'anomaly'

James Queally
LA Times


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please press:  http://www.latimes.com

21 September 2015

Vatican 'angered by transgender White House guest list'

Nick Allen and Nick Squires
The Telegraph


Credit:  http://www.davegranlund.com/cartoons/wp-content/uploads/Pope-gays.jpg


ezs note:  Oh, puh-leeezse!  Pope Frank, if you're gonna turn all purple n' shit over who makes the the guest list, remember, you don't have to go to the White House.  In fact, you don't have to come to the United States.  The door's that way.

Transgender Waitress Tells the Life-Changing Story Behind Her Viral Facebook Post

Lane Moore
Cosmopolitan


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Duke opens center for transgender adolescents

Mary Katherine Wildman
The News & Observer


Duke University

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Lib Dems move to tackle transgender discrimination (UK)

Frances Perraudin
The Guardian


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20 September 2015

OR schools' transgender policy could become model

Morgan Palmer
fosters.com


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please press:  http://www.fosters.com

‘I am who I am, and I am happy with who I am’ – the story of Michelle Sullivan (Malta)

Helena Grech
The Malta Independent


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Transition at 12: Growing up transgender in Texas

Christof Putzel and Ranjani Chakraborty
Aljazeera USA


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Gay U.S. Catholics will greet pope with rainbow rosaries, not protests

Reuters
Religion News Service


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Putting the T into LGBT (UK)

Marion Sauvebois
Swindon Advertiser


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19 September 2015

Reboot!


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Yeah, sometimes a little reboot  is helpful, and so I redid "ezs comment #2".  Hope you like it.

UT alumna Danielle Villasana documents Peru’s transgender women

Cat Cardenas
The Daily Texan


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Whacko (my version) Flocka Flame Talks Caitlyn Jenner: It's 'Marketing Evil,' 'Rebuking God'

Press
Access Hollywood


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Transgender discrimination in health coming to an end

Renate Hartman
timesunion


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Odisha govt readies sops for transgenders (India)

Press
Odisha Sun Times


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please press:  http://odishasuntimes.com

1% of Argentinian Province's Civil Servants Must Be Transgender

Adam Dupuis
Instinct


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Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada


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16 September 2015

ezs comment #2...


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Work commented on:  




One seminal work arose in the past few weeks. 
"If You Are Trans..." discusses the 
important work being done by the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition.  There is, no doubt, how
integral this work is.  I myself filled out the rather long form, but it was entirely worth it.  My voice 
was indeed heard, and I'm damn proud of that. (If you want to participate, press USTransSurvey.org.)


However, it makes me wonder what 'might have been'.  Undoubtedly, the University of California, Los
 Angeles holds a position second to none when it comes to precision.  NTAC  holds a position second
 to no one by choosing someone with such prestige.  


Indeed,  only the federal government has such clout - and that's where the problem lies.  Inevitably,
John Boehner would sound the hissy-fit alarm.  "We can't spend that much money on a couple of 
transsexuals!  (sic)  Oh the horror!  Let the private sector do it!"  And, at first blush, it would
seem to be a reasonable premise.  Well, except for the fact that the House of Representatives is built 
like a jigsaw puzzle.  Thus, the House is hardly representative... and thus, very unfair.  


When the House of Representatives is put together every ten years by those who want to stay in power - Republicans and Democrats alike - some, uh, strange things happen. Consider Louie Gohmert.   Oh, Louie, Louie, how could we forget you?  Our "hero" put on an unsuccessful challenge against John Boehner - because he was too liberal!  (Don't that beat all?)  Or his psychedelic "asparagus" comments in the House.  Of course, we wouldn't even be having discussions such as these were it not  for the machinations of Tom DeLay.  


Next we consider the capital of Texas, Austin.  Now, Austin isn't quite as liberal as Provincetown - but it's damn well up there.  Now the good friends in Texas  would have shown some kindness toward their capitol  city... wouldn't they?


Ha!


When the Texas legislature carved up its House of Representatives, they divided  Austin into five parts.  Hence, only 1/5 of Austin got a fair shake in Washington.  It is fair, of course, when a Representative gets to speak his/her mind in D.C., but it is ludicrously unfair when his/her district is shaped like a smashed-up pretzel.


There are anomalies, of course.  A conservative will fall into Jerrold Nadler's district, and a liberal (god bless your heart) will fall into into Louie Gohmert's district.  Hey, that's life.  However you can e-mail them, and let them know that the only good district is a fair district, one so founded by the framers and the Supreme Court.


And, of course, you can run.


Then let us consider the office of Speaker itself.  In the Constitution, there is precious little to tell
us what the Speaker actually does.  "The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker..."  And 
that's it!  One interpretation would give the Speaker little more clout than the Dean of the House.   
Isn't that how it was really meant to be?


Consider the case of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.  She's a proud Republican.  But, she's also a mother of a transgender son.  
Whenever the topic of transgender issues comes up, she and a handful of enlightened Republicans 
plead with the Speaker.  Predictably, nothing comes of it.  


Thanks, John.  Thanks, 1/16 of Ohio.





Cheers,


Emily



Obama Administration Pushes Again for Transgender Rights

Press
LA Independent


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please press:  http://laindependent.com