Transgender Issues
-
Education Needed on Transgender Day of Remembrance
-
A Transgender Political First
-
This is Why We Need an Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Bobby Jindal, Conservative Fail
Published September 04, 2009 @ 07:18PM PT
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal certainly likes to pretend that he's an economic conservative. Earlier this year, Gov. Jindal gave the official response from the GOP to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, and criticized wasteful government spending. Huh...for someone who criticizes wasting taxpayer money, why has he spent upwards of $45,000 in taxpayer money for helicopter rides to attend various churches in Louisiana?
That's a story that the Advocate paper in Louisiana broke this week. According to the paper, "In May, June and July, there was rarely a Sunday when the governor didn’t board a taxpayer-funded helicopter to attend church services in far-flung parts of the state." Going back the last five months, Jindal has taken roughly 36 helicopter rides at the expense of taxpayers. Fourteen of these trips were to visit conservative religious churches. Should the state of Louisiana be in the business of providing helicopter rides for their governor, so that he can attend Church?
A progressive religious organization known as the Interfaith Alliance called Gov. Jindal out on his massive hypocrisy. The Interfaith Alliance's Preisdent. Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, said that Gov. Jindal ought to pay the state of Louisiana back the $45,000 in taxpayer funds that these helicpoter rides have rung up for Louisiana voters. Bobby Jindal's response to the Interfaith Alliance? "Don't listen to them! They're a bunch of gay-friendly heathens!" Well, not quite. But pretty damn close. Here's the official response from Gov. Jindal:
This political group opposes putting crosses up in honor of fallen policemen, has attacked the National Day of Prayer and advocates for same-sex marriage, so it's not surprising that they are attacking the governor for accepting invitations to speak at Louisiana churches.
The fact that the Interfaith Alliance advocates for same-sex marriage has nothing to do with why the organization called Gov. Jindal out on his evil spending ways. The reason Gov. Jindal got called out is because (1) he's a big huge hypocrit who rails on liberal Democrats for wasting taxpayer money, only to throw more than $45,000 down the drain traveling to church, and (2) because voters shouldn't be funding their political leaders' rides to Mass every Sunday.
Looks like there might be another Gov. Mark Sanford on our hands. Although instead of it being a conservative who blabs on and on about family values while cheating on his wife, it's a conservative who blabs on and on about wasteful spending, only to go and waste tens of thousands of dollars. That's a fail, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and you deserve to be called out on it.
Transgender Rights on the Local Level
Published August 14, 2009 @ 11:23AM PT
History has been made in West Hollywood, with the city voting to create the first ever municipal advisory body focusing on the rights of transgender people. The goal? To provide a resource for the city to deal with the unique political issues - from discrimination to public health to housing equality - faced by transgender people in the city.
Bold step. Refreshing vision. Smart political decision. Yup, those are just a few adjectives to describe this move. Here's what West Hollywood City Council member Jeffrey Prang had to say about the city's decision to create the Advisory Board.
As one of the nation’s leaders, focused on fighting discrimination of any kind, the City of West Hollywood recognizes the issues and concerns facing our transgender community.
We created the first Transgender Task Force to provide valuable insight to our City’s leaders and our community. In formalizing our Transgender Task Force into a permanent board in our government structure, we are leading what I hope will be a national model advocating for the rights of transgender Americans.
As mentioned, the Advisory Board will deal with a range of issues facing transgender folks in West Hollywood. Primary concerns will be increasing employment opportunities in the transgender community; HIV/AIDS prevention; housing equality and community education of City resources available to the transgender community.
Now that sounds like a national model that other cities should eagerly get behind.
Urge the Senate to Pass a Trans-Inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Published August 06, 2009 @ 12:09PM PT
In 29 states, it's legal for someone to be fired because they are gay, lesbian or bisexual. In a whopping 38 states, it's legal to fire someone because they are transgender.
Think those statistics are repulsive? Well, now's the time to tell the U.S. Senate. Earlier this week, Senators Jeff Merkley, Ted Kennedy, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe introduced a bipartisan "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" in the U.S. Senate. The bill, known as S. 1584, would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Here at change.org, we've got a petition where you can send a message to your Senators letting them know that hardworking LGBT people don't deserve to be fired, and consequently lose their livelihoods, simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The fact that it's 2009, and more than two dozen states allow workers to be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, is a pretty sad sentiment.
Now is the time to change that. Please consider signing this petition, and urging the U.S. Senate to support the first-ever trans-inclusive "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" introduced in the Senate. President Barack Obama has pledged to sign it if Congress gives its approval. Wouldn't it be great to see this become law?
For more information on this bill, also check out change.org member Dave Hershey's spreadsheet on Senators who have co-sponsored the Act. Dave also gives a little comparison between those who have signed on to support this bill, and those who support expanding hate crimes legislation to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Excellent political science at play here.
Trans-Inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act Introduced in Senate
Published August 05, 2009 @ 10:19AM PT
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley gets the honor of introducing the first-ever trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the U.S. Senate. He did so today, with bipartisan support from Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. The bill, if passed by Congress, would prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Here's what Sen. Merkley had to say in an official press release sent from his office:
There is no place in the workplace for employment discrimination. No worker in America should be fired or denied a job based on who they are. Discrimination is wrong, period. I'm proud to join Senator Kennedy, who is a civil rights legend, and Senators Collins and Snowe, both champions for equality, in taking this next step in our ongoing effort to create a more perfect union and guarantee every American, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, the right to earn a living.
This Senate version joins a version already introduced in the U.S. House in June 2009. It's introduction today in the U.S. Senate was roundly celebrated by LGBT orgs. Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said, "People recognize that our nation as a whole benefits when everyone is allowed to contribute their talents and skills, free from discrimination, which is all ENDA seeks to do."
President Obama pledged his support for ENDA while on the campaign trail last year. Hearings on the bill won't happen for another few months, but this is yet another welcome sign that legislative issues pertaining to LGBT rights are finding traction throughout both chambers of Congress.
The Coup in Honduras and a Rise in LGBT Violence
Published July 23, 2009 @ 07:37PM PT
Last month, a military coup in Honduras ousted the country's President, Manuel Zelaya, and threw the country into a spiral of chaos complete with violence, curfews and a worried return to the type of Latin American politics that's a little less Democracy and a little more free-for-all. But is another side effect of the coup an increase in violence toward LGBT people.
Maybe. That's according to this post over at Pride Source, which features some information from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) asserting that a transgender activist was shot dead the day after the coup, and at least five other LGBT activists were detained in the days following the overthrow of Zelaya's presidency.
Local activists, apparently, are saying that military police are the ones who assassinated the transgender activist. Here's what the IGLHRC's Executive Director Cary Alan Johnson had to say about the worsening situation in Honduras:
The recent coup in Honduras is an illegal assault on democracy that violates the rights of all Honduran citizens, including those who identify as LGBT. We especially deplore the vicious murder and arbitrary arrests of LGBT people in the wake of this crisis.
A rise in LGBT violence: one more reason to condemn the illegal coup in Honduras, and the first overthrow of a Latin American government in more than two decades.
Of course, it's worth noting that Honduras was never a beacon of tolerance for LGBT people. Before the coup, international officials documented widespread violence toward the LGBT population in Honduras, particularly violence against transgender folks. In 2006, a report was released that documented over 200 murders of transgender people and sex workers by state and non-state actors, as well as numerous incidents of police brutality.
Looks like for LGBT folks in the country, the more things change politically, the more they're staying the same.
Every Three Days, a Transgender Person is Murdered in the World
Published July 21, 2009 @ 01:20PM PT
Sad, but probably not shocking. The European organization "Transgender Europe" has a new report out this week documenting worldwide violence against trans people, and the findings show an alarming increase in violence toward transgender people. Evidence presented by Transgender Europe tells the gruesome story: between January 2008 and June 2009, more than 200 trans people were murdered in the world.
Broken down, that means that every three days, a trans person is killed somewhere around the globe. And according to UN Dispatch, there's not one region of the world that's immune from transgender violence. Perhaps surprisingly, most of the violence has occurred in the Western Hemisphere:
The cases have been reported from all six World regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The majority of cases have been reported from Latin America and North America. On these continents the majority of cases have been reported from Brazil (59) and the U.S.A. (16) for 2008 and from Brazil (23), Venezuela (20), and Guatemala (10) for the first six months of 2009. Moreover, the preliminary results show a total of 11 murdered trans people reported for Colombia followed by 5 for Honduras and 4 for Mexico and Venezuela for 2008, and 6 for Mexico and 3 for Argentina, and the Dominican Republic for the first six months of 2009.
In the United States, of course, we're familiar with the face of violence toward trans folks. One has to look no further than Latiesha Green, or Angie Zapata, or Ebony Whitaker to see that for U.S. folks, this is happening in our own backyards.
Of course, what's even more frightening about the Transgender Europe report is that the 200+ murders they've documented over the past year and a half are likely a lowball figure. It's hard to collect accurate evidence on violence committed toward LGBT folks around the globe, since large amounts of violence go unreported.
The study itself is part of an ongoing campaign organized by Transgender Europe and the medical/health journal Liminalis, called The Trans Murder Monitoring Project. The goal of the project is to document trans violence throughout the globe, putting both names and faces to the epidemic.
Equal Benefits for Trans People in Pakistan?
Published July 19, 2009 @ 05:49AM PT
Though homosexuality is criminalized in Pakistan with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment to death by stoning, the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled this week that trans citizens should have greater access to benefits and equal rights. It's a welcome development, for a country that along with Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Iran have fought to portray LGBT rights as a western concept imposed on countries around the world by an immoral and extravagent western world.
Still, good ruling aside, this doesn't necessarily mean the end of persecution for trans folks in Pakistan. But first, here's a summary of the Supreme Court in Islamabad's ruling:
The Supreme Court has ordered that trans people, being equal citizens of Pakistan, should also benefit from the federal and provincial governments’ financial support schemes...
‘They are citizens of Pakistan and enjoy the same protection guaranteed under Article four (rights of individuals to be dealt with in accordance of law) and Article nine (security of person) of the Constitution,’ ruled a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja.
Tangibly, there are a few things that this ruling should do. It should:
- Allow trans people to receive financial support through Bait-ul-Maal (a worldwide relief and development organisation);
- Require that the government survey, likely through a census, the number of trans people living in Pakistan, which is estimated to be around 400,000; and
- Direct Pakistan's Interior Ministry to ensure that police officers are providing protection to trans people from criminal elements
Those sound like good things, and if they are enforced, this ruling will do wonders. As Gay Persons of Color blog notes, "After years of discrimination and exploitation during which transgender persons in Pakistan have often been refused entry to schools and hospitals, turned down properties for rent or purchase, and have even been denied formal burial rites after death, this recognition of the community as a protected minority is an historic step."
A historic step, for sure. But in a throwback to reality, one of the plaintiffs in this case demonstrated just how dire the situation is for LGBT people in Pakistan. The plaintiff, a trans person known as Shazia, said outside the court:
My appearance before the court today may cost me my life. Once I was implicated in a false case and subjected to immense sexual torture by the police...
Frightening that simply appearing in court to fight for your rights could end up getting you killed.
Still, this decision is a move in the right direction for a country that remains one of just a few to still keep capital punishment on the books as punishment for sexual orientation. Here's hoping that the ruling also affirms that courts in countries like Pakistan can be an objective force for determining the rule of law and protecting civil rights, as opposed to branches of a religious sect hell-bent on enforcing religious dogma.
(Photo courtesy of Back from Pakistan!'s photostream on Flickr.)
