Tag: LGBT

I figure international news includes the United States.  There’s a pretty even split between stories from other countries and national stories, presented so the public might know a little better what’s happening of interest to people in the trans community.

Poland

Anna Grodzka, 57, became the first ever Polish lawmaker to have had sex reassignment…which makes her the only current transsexual national legislator on the planet.  Spain’s Carla Antonelli is transgender, but has not had sex reassignment surgery.

Grodzka runs Trans-Fuzja (website is in Polish), a foundation which supports Poland’s transpeople and says she decided to run in order to promote the work of the foundation.  She won 19,451 in the Krakow II electoral district, making her the top vote-getter for Palikot’s Movement in that district and thereby winning one of the 460 seats in Poland’s lower house, the Sejm.

The world’s first transsexual MP was Georgina Beyer of New Zealand’s Labour Party, from 1999 until she resigned her seat in 2007.

Today, Poland is changing. I am the proof along with Robert Biedron, a homosexual and the head of an anti-homophobia campaign who ran for office in Gdynia.

–Anna Grodzka

Grodzka says that the time has come for sexual minorities to enjoy equal rights in Poland.

Enough of this concealing of the truth.  This group of people, even if small, has its rights and they should be respected. They should not be pushed into oblivion.

On her to-do list are legal partnerships, job security, and state funding of sex change procedures.

Subtitle:  The majority of Americans (including small business owners) support ENDA

How high does the percentage of Americans who believe that GLBT people should have legal protection from discrimination in the workplace have to be before this country will act on the will of the people?

Last June a Center for American Progress poll revealed that 73% of likely 2012 voters supported workplace discrimination protections for GLBT people.  That was 81% of democrats, 74% of independents and even 66% of republicans.  Catholics favored the concept with 74% support and senior citizens with 61% support.  Voters who self-identified as having an unfavorable opinion of GLBT people even supported the idea at a 50% rate.

Since at least the early 1980s, a majority of Americans have supported equal rights and opportunities for gay people in the workplace. Polling questions about transgender workers have only been asked recently. But the CAP poll shows that voters support transgender protections at almost the same rate they support gay protections. Seventy-five percent of likely voters say they favor “protecting gay and lesbian people from discrimination in employment,” while 73 percent say they favor these protections for “gay, lesbian, and transgender people.” The responses are essentially identical.

Even among voters who identify themselves as feeling generally unfavorable toward gay people, a full 50 percent support workplace nondiscrimination protections for the gay and transgender population.

So what’s the problem?

Medical schools in the US and Canada are giving short shrift to the medical needs of LGBT patients, according to a study by the Stanford University School of Medicine which is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  One needs to be a JAMA subscriber to actually read the report.

The web-based survey was submitted to 176 medical school deans in the US and Canada, with an 85% response rate.

The average amount of time spent teaching the potential doctors about health issues facing LGBT patients is about 5 hours over the entire curriculum.

Although many medical schools do address some LGBT-related health issues in their curricula, the conversation needs to go deeper, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver, of the University of California, San Francisco.

Sam P. Yalley, a so-called public interest lawyer and a former deputy minister in the administration of former military dictator Jerry John Rawlings.  He is proposing that persona arrested for acts of homosexuality be charged with genocide.  His reasoning is that homosexuality exterminates the concept of procreation.

He made his comments in response to the Attorney General, Martin Amidu, who said that homosexual acts between two consenting adults were not illegal with regard to Ghana’s laws if they were confined to the privacy of the partner’s bedroom.

For me there is another session of the criminal code which people are not taking a look at, it is about genocide.

Genocide results in the extermination of the human race and if you expand the meaning of homosexuality to mean that a man cannot have a child with another man then it means that that practice would lead to the extermination of mankind and therefore for me if i am to charge anybody apart from having unnatural carnal knowledge, i would also charge him with genocide and see how he can get out of that situation.

If you are a man and you are having canal knowledge with a man how are you going to have a child?

I agree totally with the clergy in condemning it.

—Sam P. Yalley

The True Colors Residence is a project of Cyndi Lauper, her manager Lisa Barbaris and the West End Intergenerational Residence, a non-profit that provides housing and support for homeless families and seniors.

The True Colors Residence will be the first permanent housing facility in the state of New York for homeless LGBT youth.  Up to 40% of homeless youth in New York identify as LGBT.

In New York City, a very disproportionate number (up to 40%), of homeless youth identify as LGBT. Even more disturbing are reports that these young people often face discrimination and at times physical assault in some of the very places they have to for help. This is shocking and inexcusable!

That’s why my manager, Lisa Barbaris and I are collaborating with Colleen Jackson and West End Intergenerational Residence to create the True Colors Residence, (TCR), a permanent supportive housing program for homeless LGBT youth 18-24 years old.

We’ll be building from the ground up so our residents will have a brand new, modern building with studio apartments for each resident and both indoor and outdoor community space to socialize or attend education and recreation programs.  Each resident will be responsible for paying affordable rent based on their income and will receive ongoing assistance in obtaining employment best suited to their individual interests and skills.  Although TCR will not require participation in it’s programs, a variety of social and educational support services will be available to all who request them.  Our primary goal is to provide a physically and emotionally safe and supportive environment that will empower our young residents to be the self-loving, happy, and successful individuals they were meant to be.

–Cyndi Lauper

The facility on W 154th Street near Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem will have 30 studio apartments and will open September 1.

Donations are encouraged.

I have to admit I have somewhat been avoiding this story, which has become a very big story in some transgender circles.  

Last Saturday, on Fidel Castro’s 85th birthday, post-op transsexual woman Wendy Iriepa, 37, whose surgery at the National Sex Education Centre (CENESEX) was paid for by the Cuban government four years ago, married the love of her life, gay-activist and dissident Ignacio Estrada, 31.  

Their engagement had caused so much turmoil within CENESEX (causing a rift between her and CENESEX director Mariela Castro (daughter of Raul and niece of Fidel)  that Wendy resigned her position (or was fired) at CENESEX, where she had been in charge of the care of transsexual persons.

Whatever the case may be, the 37-year-old transsexual underwent a radical change: from holding an active and distinguished post in the institution, to joining demonstrations by the dissident Women in White, a group of relatives of political prisoners.

She also invited internationally renowned dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez and her husband, journalist Reynaldo Escobar, to stand up in her wedding.

GLAAD has released this year’s National Responsibility Index ratings of the television broadcast networks and major cable networks.  

The GLAAD National Responsibility Index examines the quantity and quality of images (called impressions) of LGBT people on television.  It is intended to help media representations be fair, accurate and inclusive.

In a country which does not recognize the equality of its GLBT citizens, it is important that their are media portrayals of us to assist in correcting the problem.

As diverse LGBT images in the media become more prevalent, the general public becomes exposed to the truth of the LGBT community: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are parents and teachers, law enforcement officers and soldiers, high school students and loving elderly couples. It is as important for LGBT Americans to see our lives reflected on screen as it is for others to be exposed to the rich tapestry of the LGBT community.

As people are fond of noting…sometimes as if I didn’t know this…the best way to get people to believe in our need for equal rights is to share our stories.  I’ve tried to do that in my time here, which began in 2005.

Today I have a few more people I’d like you to meet.

And there’s a boycott that needs to be countered.

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Court Rules Against Ban on Gays in the Military

The government must stop enforcing the law that prohibits openly gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from serving in the military, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a two-page order against the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” in a case brought by the group Log Cabin Republicans.

In 2010, a federal judge in California, Virginia A. Phillips, ruled that the law was unconstitutional and ordered the government to stop enforcing it. That decision was appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which issued a stay allowing the government to continue enforcing the policy as it made its way through the courts.

Congress repealed the policy last year, but called for a lengthy process of preparation, training and certification, still under way, before ending it. While the government has significantly narrowed enforcement, some discharges continued. And while the Obama administration had advocated the Congressional repeal, it had asked the court to keep the stay in place until the policy could be ended in an orderly fashion.

This is very welcome news. Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog Gay gives the best explanation of what this ruling means:

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay of the District Court’s injunction against enforcing DADT. When DADT was found unconstitutional in the Log Cabin case last October, the District Court judge issued an injunction against its enforcement. And, Judge Phillips refused to grant a stay pending appeal. Despite numerous requests (including 21 U.S. Senators) that the Department of Justice not appeal this decision, DOJ did. DOJ also immediately went to the Ninth Circuit asking for a stay pending appeal, which was granted. Today, the Ninth Circuit lifted that stay, meaning DADT can’t be enforced anywhere in the world.

It is still not safe for gays in the military to reveal themselves. Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, deocrated US Air Force fighter pilot, appeared with Rachel Maddow to discuss the aspects of this latest ruling

It was a celebration of being GLBT in American and a review of our recent history in this country.

It had its flaws, I think, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend that people view it…many times, if possible.  I love it that we live in the New York City environs (just west of Newark, NJ) and we get two New York PBS stations, so I got a chance to watch it Wednesday night on Thirteen and will have another chance Sunday on WLIW (Long Island).  And it will probably eventually come to our own New Jersey PBS station, NJN.

It is, after all, time for another pledge drive.  It’s always time for another pledge drive.

What is it?  It’s the new documentary by Andrew Goldberg, Out in America.  The version we get here is actually called Out in America/Out in New York, which consists of the original documentary wrapped in some local material, hosted by Kate Clinton (who also participated in the documentary) and Andrew Goldberg, who wrote and produced the documentary in conjunction with Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Mr. Goldberg said that he felt that if people could just see how much GLBT people were like themselves, that the world would get better.  There was a bit of a flaw in his procedure for doing that.

He didn’t find average, everyday people to interview.

Recently I attended a Quaker wedding.  Having now introduced the subject of this entire post, the temptation is to add a sufficient  qualifier.  None of the most common phrases used sounds especially elegant.  Same-sex marriage or its compliment, same-gender marriage, sounds pedantic.  Gay marriage sometimes implies that a union between two homosexual people is less authentic or valid than one between a heterosexual couple.  In conclusion, what I will say is that there were two grooms.  And over the past nine months I have gotten to know the both of them, which was why I was put to work that day as the world’s most nervous and highly anxious usher.  Friends tend to be introverted and somewhat socially awkward, and this Friend is no exception.    

The Third Annual Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit was scheduled to be held at Texas A&M in August, but a conservative group expressed its outrage over the idea…after there was a seminar on Safe and Fun Sex sponsored by the TAMU GLBT Resource Center.

[Sex therapist Cay] Crow taught students in graphic detail ways to enhance fellatio and cunnilingus (i.e. oral sex). She specifically discussed how to put a condom on someone with one’s mouth, deep-throating, G-spot stimulation, tongue piercings, condoms, genital shaving, and changing the temperature of one’s mouth.

—Link

Their response?

Texas A&M should not be using taxpayers’, students’, and donors’ money to teach unchaste sexual behavior to young, unmarried men and women.  What does the university administration have to say about this funding inequality and bias?

–Justin Pulliam, chairman of the Texas Aggie Conservatives