Tom Ammiano

Bill Will Ensure the Success and Well-being of Transgender Students

Transgender Law Center commended the California Assembly today for passing the School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266), introduced by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano.

The bill, which is co-sponsored by Equality California, Transgender Law Center, Gender Spectrum, GSA Network and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, addresses the exclusion of transgender students from classes and activities, and clarifies existing anti-discrimination law to provide clear protections to transgender students.

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Toni Atkins

California Transgender Identity Bill Passes Assembly

Assembly Bill 1121, authored by Assemblymember Toni Atkins and co-sponsored by Transgender Law Center and Equality California, was passed by the Assembly today by a vote of 54-16. The bill will help ensure people who are transgender have access to identity documents that accurately reflect the name and gender that correspond to their gender identity.

“Transgender people are entitled to have their official documents and their legal name reflect their true identity without a burdensome and expensive process that endangers their personal safety,” said Atkins.

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By Victoria Michaels

In the transgender community it is primarily common as the exploitation of trans-females forced into the sex trade or any other form of sexual exploitation.

Transgenders don’t have it easy — largely rejected by their families and society — bounced between group homes, roommates, short-term romantic and often abusive relationships — denied employment — and all too often fall prey to drugs — sex trade — and now — ”human trafficking.”

Bio: Victoria Michaels, a pre-op transsexual, has served as an advocate and activist for the LGBT community for over 20 years and graduated from the College Of Philadelphia. She is the winner of many titles such as Miss Pennsylvania USofA 1999, Miss World 2000, and our current reigning Miss Florida F.I. Michaels is on the board committee for T-HouseOnline and is known for her dedication as a diva hostess at the world famous Boardwalk Bar in Fort Lauderdale. She formerly worked at WDEL News Radio in Wilmington, Delaware, and is an aspiring radio talk show hostess.

Vermont joins three other states and D.C. in having such a mandate.

Vermont regulators have issued a mandate that insurers operating within the state cover all medically necessary procedures for transgender people, including gender-reassignment surgery.

The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation’s Division of Insurance laid out the policy in a bulletin saying, “DFR is committed to ensuring that Vermonters do not face discrimination in accessing medically necessary health care benefits, including those based on gender identity and gender dysphoria,” the Rutland Herald reports. The document adds, “This is both a simple question of fairness and a matter addressed by existing insurance law and DFR regulation.” The policy went into effect last week.

Three other states — California, Colorado, and Oregon — and the District of Columbia have similar policies, according to ThinkProgress. The Transgender Law Center and other advocacy groups praised Vermont’s move.

Source  Advocate.com

Philadelphia, PA

— Philadelphia At-Large City Councilman James F. Kenney’s LGBT Equality Bill passed by an overwhelming margin of 14 to 3; the bill now goes to Mayor Michael A. Nutter’s desk (who has indicated his support of this bill) for his signature. It should be noted that the bill passed with well more than the 12 votes needed to override a mayoral veto.

This Bill will make Philadelphia the largest city and the first city on the east coast to remove transgender discrimination from its employee health plan. It also creates first in the nation tax credits to encourage private employers to provide life partner benefits and remove discrimination targeting transgender employees from their health insurance plans. It also provides for gender neutral single user rest rooms to benefit the entire public, including voluntary usage by transgender individuals who may have safety concerns. 

This omnibus bill will raise Philly’s listing in the Municipal Equality Index to first in the nation.

In the Northeast/Mid Atlantic Region Pennsylvania has the lowest LGBT equality ranking. In Pennsylvania, there are no statewide workplace nondiscrimination protections, no statewide public accommodations protections and no hate crimes protections for Pennsylvania’s LGBT citizens. In addition, Pennsylvania law does not provide for any kind of partnership benefits for unmarried heterosexual or same-sex couples.

Philadelphia is clearly leading the way in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania…and now, because of Councilman Kenney’s bill, Philadelphia is clearly leading the nation.

We Philadelphians are tremendously proud of what we’re achieving in The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection; please join us in celebrating this monumental and historical achievement!

Babs Siperstein

Editors’ Note: Babs Siperstein is a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee, Deputy Vice Chair of the NJ Democratic State Committee and Political Director of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of NJ.

A

s a trans activist who is relatively new to the dance, I missed the years of bitter fighting by transgender activists merely to be included in the mission of the Human Rights Campaign. I became involved when HRC said we were included and the fight at that time (and arguably still today) is that HRC’s actions do not meet and match their words. I suppose the slogan, “Trans rights are human rights!” was intended for the ears of HRC directors rather than right wing legislators as one might reasonably assume.

After observing the manner in which transgender people were excluded from “SONDA,” the NY state gay employment non-discrimination legislation that was promoted in 2001, I was appalled, shocked, and angry. Was not the beginning, at least the symbolic beginning, of the modern “gay” rights movement in New York the Stonewall riots? Were not the acknowledged heroes of Stonewall the trans identified or openly gender variant icons, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and Stormie Delarvarie?

Meanwhile, in the fall of 2001, for me, personally, the unthinkable happened. My lover, my best friend, the mother of my children, the woman who gave me support with my transition – at first reluctantly, but later with enthusiasm – my wife of 34 years died suddenly of late stage cancer which had been diagnosed only a month before.

At some point in time, trying to focus and fight the murky clouds of my loss and grief while trying to make some sort of sense of everything and hold together a family and a business already under stress, I came to a stark realization. I was no longer a comfortable middle class married white man living a double life with a supportive wife, but now a single transwoman.

What was frightening was the realization that if gays and lesbians were “second class” – what was I? How was I now perceived? I was angry, frightened and insecure because the conclusion to that question was, to me, intolerable and unacceptable.

I was angry, but I saw an opening, maybe an opportunity to be part of the “gay establishment.” After all, in my old life as a straight white man, I was used to have a little privilege – a little local stature.

Read the full article at  The Bilerico Project

A D.C. Superior Court judge on Friday issued a temporary restraining order requiring a city funded shelter for homeless women located near the U.S. Capitol to stop denying transgender women access to the facility.

The Blade had previously reported about a lawsuit brought upon the shelter by a trans women alleging discrimination.

Judge Geoffrey Alprin issued the order after the executive director of New Hope Ministries, which operates the John L. Young Shelter for Women, chose not to contest a request for the restraining order filed by an attorney on behalf of Lakiesha Washington, a transgender woman who was denied admission to the shelter.

Lillian Lopez was born in Cuba. She was sweet, kind, and gentle.

A Beautiful Flower plucked too soon from the garden; to become a bright shinning star

Rest in Peace our friend; you are loved !

Lillian Lopez 3-22-1963 to 4-15-2013

Please feel free to leave your kind words and thoughts for Lillian in the comment section below:

In what many see as  ”too little too late,” the Indigo Girls have announced that 2013 will be their last performance at the Michigan Womyn’s Festival unless until they change their policy of excluding trans women.

All proceeds from their performance during the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, will be donated to transgender activism.

You can read the Indigo Girl’s Full Correspondence here.