Emily's virtual rocket

15 September 2015

Vote!

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Hartford, CT residents - today is the LAST day to vote in the primaries. If you don't vote, you don't count. And if you skip the primaries, forty lashes with a wet noodle! Mwahahahaha!

All other residents - Register. If you can, vote. That is all.

If You Are Trans in America, Take the U.S. Trans Survey Today

Cleis Abeni
Advocate

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

ezs note: Please - this is very important! The National Center for Gender Equality is doing a nationwide survey (monitored by the University of California - Los Angeles for accuracy) There are only seven days to take this survey. If you are transgender - MTF or FTM - please take one. It's at

USTransSurvey,org.

14 September 2015

Lenox School Committee weighs policy to protect transgender students

Clarence Fanto
The Berkshire Eagle

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

13 September 2015

Laverne Cox delivered a moving speech on why being transgender is beautiful (UK)

Ellen Scott
Cosmopolitan/UK

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

Transgender Hoosiers transition to new lives

Shari Rudavsky
IndyStar

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

Falling in (and Out of) Love Is Complicated When You’re Transgender

Oscar Lopez
Raw Story/Newsweek

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please press: https://www.rawstory.com

Wentworth actor Socratis Otto talks about playing a transgender person (New Zealand)

Press
stuff.co.nz

Socratis Otto

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please press: http://www.stuff.co.nz

High school names transgender teen homecoming queen

Press
WGNtv.com

Landon Patterson

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please press: http://wgntv.com

12 September 2015

Trustees come up with transgender policy, but archbishop may have his own version (Canada)

Madeleine Cummings
Edmonton Journal

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

Lawsuit Claims Minn. Woman is Denied Health Care Because She's Transgender

Brett Hoffland
KSTP.com

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please press: http://kstp.com

Normalizing The Transgender Community

Terri Lee Ryan
ChicagoNow.com

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

‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17 spoilers: First look at ‘Transgender Bridge’

Press
CarterMatt

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please press: http://cartermatt.com

Hunting for a home not easy for transgenders (India)

Rozelle Laha
Hindustan Times

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

Fulshear, Texas

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11 September 2015

My Transgender Life: Assimilation?

Grace Anne Stevens
The Huffington Post

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

Schools hold transgender meeting

Allison C. Gallagher
Troy Daily News

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please press: http://tdn-net.com

Jail to house transgender inmates based on identity

Press
The Orange County Register

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

10 September 2015

OMV will not change ID policies, but will allow transgender people to appear as themselves in photos

Maya Lau
The Acadiana Advocate

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please press: http://theadvocate.com

The UK's first transgender 'confidence consultancy' is Born (UK)

Sian Ranscombe
The Telegraph

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

N.B. health minister meets with Transgender Health Network for the first time (Canada)

Press
CTV News Atlantic

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please press: http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca

Massachusetts’ Mayors Call on Legislature, Governor to Support Transgender Rights

Maureen McCarty
HRC

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please press: http://www.hrc.org

ezs note: If you do live in one of the Massachusetts cities that are petitioning for equality, be sure to e-write your thanks. If not, ask them why the hell not!

Nursing home sued for allegedly discriminating, firing transgender woman

Haley Townsend
WIAT.com

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please press: http://wiat.com

WATCH: Ellen and Cait Team-Up to Help Trans Nursing Student

Cleis Abeni
Advocate

Blossom Brown

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

Dallas Trans Activists, Allies, Plant Seeds of Remembrance for ‘Miss Shade’

John Wright
Texas Observer

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please press: http://www.texasobserver.org

09 September 2015

Cleveland's Chistine Howey, transgender trailblazer, schools the HuffPost on the ethics of telling trans stories

Andrea Simakis
The Plain Dealer

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

Transgender female turned away at Baton Rouge OMV for not looking like a man

Press
KLFY

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please press: http://klfy.com

Coming out as transgender while in school

Karen Miller
The News Tribune

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

08 September 2015

O Canada, my home and native land...

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I may have been placed in the United States, but I love Canada. Even with a Conservative government, you're still miles ahead of us in championing progressive principles. Which is why I urge you to get out the vote on October 19, 2015. You can do it!

Janet Mock On Global Poverty, Beyoncé & Texting Oprah

Ben Reininga
Refinery29

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please press: http://www.refinery29.com

MSU sorority opens doors to transgender women

Claudette Riley
Springfield News-Leader

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please press: http://www.news-leader.com

Eddie Redmayne on Transgender Rights and Finding ‘The Danish Girl’

Ramin Setoodeh
Variety

Eddie Redmayne

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please press: http://variety.com

Law allows transgender people to get updated birth certs (Ireland)

Sarah Bardon
The Irish Times

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

School board promises more accepting environment for transgender students and staff (Canada)

Roger Belgrave
BramptonGuardian.com

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

07 September 2015

Russia's Transgender Community Struggles for Acceptance (Russia)

Elizaveta Vereykina
The Russia Times

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

Report: NYPD still abusing rights of transgender people

Bob Knudsen
examiner.com

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

Few rules govern treatment of transgender prisoners in Costa Rica (Costa Rica)

Zach Dyer
The Tico Times

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please press: http://www.ticotimes.ne

St. Pete Officers to be Trained on Transgender Issues

Press
6 South Florida NBC

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

06 September 2015

Out Boulder seeks to 'change hearts and minds' with transgender ad campaign on RTD buses

Natalie Munio and Daniel Krum
Daily Camera

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

Transgender SA prisoner Krista Richards says future inmates will suffer if tribunal dismisses her equal opportunities case (Australia)

Sean Fewster
The Daily Telegraph

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please press: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au

Conference Countdown 2015: Transgender and intersex health charter (UK)

Caron Lindsay
Liberal Democrat Voice

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please press: http://www.libdemvoice.org

Transgender woman fights to get into nursing school

Allie Ware
WAPT News

Blossom Brown

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

Federal Court Protects Transgender Immigrant from Deportation to Mexico Based on Anti-Torture Rules

Steve Straehley
AllGov

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

Dayton, Ohio

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05 September 2015

ezs comment...

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On occasion, when a person reviews your blog, you are intrigued by what he or she says. I recently had an e-conversation with Ray Soulard regarding my thoughts in print. As I told Ray, the conversations that I had were spare indeed. I really don't like to blow my horn that much. However, he said that I might have valuable dialogue to engage in. I thought about it, and, after some consideration, I decided it would be best to give it a try.

The one that I chose to comment on was in The New York Times piece "Who Gets the Transgender Part", by Brooks Barnes. In the article, he starts by drawing a comparison between casting of transgender persons and those of African-American, Egyptian and Native American persons. It certainly is an alluring concept; unfortunately, it's also a fallacious one.

We live in times which are both promising and precipitous. As we look forward, despite all the crap that goes on around us, things look so promising. At the forefront, Laverne Cox is playing Sophia Burset in Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black". Janet Mock is certainly out there fightin'; she is a transgender rights activist and a MSNBC fill-in anchor.

However, what do we do if things start to fall apart? What do we do if Laverne Cox is given her walking papers? As much as I commiserate with our African-American, Egyptian, and Native American friends, there are stark differences. Chief among them is the relative newness of the struggles.

* * *

Hollywood has a tried but true method for choosing its actors; get as much money as you can and then spend the bulk of it on the stars. And it kinda works. Once in a great while the accomplished actor/actress agrees to union wages, but this is such a rarity it's hardly worth mentioning. Because the Hollywood stars are such a rare bird, they get the big bucks. And such is the case of Eddie Redmayne. If by chance you were in a cave, he starred in the title role "The Theory of Everything". Now, next came "The Danish Girl". If you were the director, and you had a chance to get Mr. Redmayne to play the title role, would you do it?

Well... it's not as easy as originally thought. If you were the director and one who had strong thoughts regarding authenticity in the movies, perhaps your choices would be different. I respect that.

I can only speak for myself. Yes, I am a transgender woman, but I also am a crazy movie buff, and thus I have certain expectations of the director. Chief among these is providing the actress/actor's professionalism. And to put it quite bluntly, Mr. Redmayne is a damn fine actress. And when we see "The Danish Girl", we all win.

Emily