Tag: transgender

Reid said the Senate will consider a version of the bill which would “work against discrimination on gender identity.”  That is, the version will be trans-inclusive.  Currently 29 states have no laws protecting workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation, while 33 states have no employment protections based on gender identity.

Former (and some would add disgraced) Navy Chaplain Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt has joined in on the battering of Florence, Colorado teen “Jane Doe,” who the Pacific Justice Institute has falsely accused of harassing girls in the restrooms and locker rooms.  Klingenschmitt, who is running for the Colorado House in District 15, has accused the trans teen of “visually raping” teenage girls.

Now the public school children are being told by a demonic spirit, “You must open up your daughter’s privacy to our perversion.”  And this demonic spirit inside of this boy is now violating, and for all intents and purposes, he’s raping – at least visually – these teenage girls.

There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly unique about Jane Doe; she simply had the misfortune of existing in a community where a few intolerant families rallied against her and used an anti-LGBT group to draw national attention to her.  But PJI is simply using Jane as an example.  There are trans young people in schools all across the country just like Jane who simply want to be safe in school – to be able to go the bathroom or change clothes for phys ed without being ostracized to a staff bathroom or nurse’s office.  How that has any impact on other students remains unclear.

—Zack Ford, ThinkProgress

Jane is now said to be on suicide watch after her family decided she needed professional intervention.  There is something to worry about when some right-wing voices say she deserves to die.

Conservative media has been spreading a story that apparently first appeared on the badly named Christian Broadcasting Network about a transgender student in Florence, CO who has been accused of harassing girls in the locker room and rest rooms.

My old friend Cristan Williams debunked that story by speaking directly with Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti, who explained that there was indeed no harassment taking place.  Indeed there were rather a few parents who were opposed to the fact that a transgender student was being allowed to use the locker room of the gender with which she identifies.

Pacific Justice Institute, which is taking the lead to repeal California’s AB 1266, which protects the freedom of transgender students to pursue an equal education with that of their peers, has now basically admitted that they invented the story.

Assumptions can be dangerous to people who are habitually marginalized.  One of the big assumptions that people make about the concept of “transgender” is that transgender is a subset of homosexual.  It is not.  I do not have data to turn to, but I have heard, as I shared in a diary last week, that about 1/4 of transgender people are gay or lesbian, 1/4 are heterosexual, 1/4 are bisexual and 1/4 are asexual.  

What exactly that says about the influence of the normalized control of gender and sexuality by our culture is something I’ll let other people discuss.

But the assumption has a large impact on the everyday lives of gender-variant people.  Even scientists studying sexually-transmitted diseases jump to the conclusion that transgender women are “men who have sex with men.”  And even direct evidence to the contrary often does not dissuade people from adopting the assumption.

Tonight I have two cases in point.

On the afternoon of September 9 Leticia Alvarado, cashier at a motel in the 13900 block of Francisquito Avenue in Baldwin Park CA, discovered the body of her friend Melony Smith in her motel room.  

Alvarado says that Smith had been staying in the motel on and off for three years.

We became very close.  She called me sister.  I was her sister.

Before I go to work, I always stop by her room and we have breakfast.  That day she wouldn’t answer her phone.

–Alvarado

So Alvarado went to the room and had the maid open the door and found Smith’s body lying on the floor.

She was all bruised up.  She had blood on her head.  She was lifeless.  I could tell she was dead.

–Alvarado

[I’ve been asked to repost this here.  I hope you enjoy it.]

Awkward.  That’s about the only way I can explain the New York Times article by Emmarie Huetteman and Brian Stelter, After Sentencing, Manning Says, “I am Female”.

It’s almost like the writers didn’t even read Chelsea Manning’s statement. which is somewhat odd since the last paragraph indicated that they were aware of the issue.

And what was the issue?  Chelsea Manning had asked that people refer to her by using feminine pronouns.  The Times writers managed to write about that while referring to her only with male pronouns.

I want to thank everybody who has supported me over the last three years.  Throughout this long ordeal, your letters of support and encouragement have helped keep me strong.  I am forever indebted to those who wrote to me, made a donation to  defense fund, or came to watch a portion of the trial. I would especially like to thank Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network for their tireless efforts in raising awareness for my case and providing for my legal representation.

As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me.  I am Chelsea Manning.  I am a female.  Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.  I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

–Chelsea E. Manning