Apr 25, 2008
by
Marti Abernathey
In March I said:
"Essentially it’s business as usual for HRC. Nothing has substantially changed in their lobbying efforts. They’ve had no “'rehabilitative”' moment or change of heart. If you take Keisling’s words to heart, the only other conclusion that seems logical is that United ENDA is dead."
Recently Matt Foreman said:
" 'Congress is a creature of history,' Foreman said. 'If lightning strikes and it passes the Senate, it will more than likely be the broken ENDA that is introduced next year because it ... Read More
Apr 22, 2008
by
Vanessa Edwards Foster
This week has been wild … far too many things to write about – not enough time. On top of it, my dad and Sally were in from Oregon the past two days – monopolizing my time since we rarely see each other.
On the subject of parents, Matthew Shepard’s mom, Judy Shepard was in town as the keynote speaker at Houston’s HRC banquet. I missed out on getting a chance to touch base with her again. We met in ... Read More
Apr 18, 2008
by
Marti Abernathey
Last October Representative Barney Frank said:
"It's partly because some of the people who are now lately to this fight weren't there helping us through the lobbying. "
and then said:
I have been pleading with people in the gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender communities to lobby for us. Instead, they want to strategize, many of them. Some, no. Some have done a very good job. But many of them weren't there.
Hearing those words, I assumed that the lobby day events would get ... Read More
Apr 13, 2008
by
Marti Abernathey
I just recieved this from Phyllis Frye:
By calling the Houston Police, national HRC deliberately set in motion a police over response. HRC used government and taxpayer monies to intimidate the hell out of TG and gender variant people who drove in to participate, but were scared away.
I hope the Advocate or Blade or Voice do a freedom of information act request to determine how much money was used to cover the HRC "false alarm." I think the City of Houston should ... Read More
Apr 9, 2008
by
Marti Abernathey
I've just returned from the International Foundation for Gender Education's annual conference that was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. A speaker on the very first day said “If you let it, this conference will change you.” Even though this was my first conference, the skeptic in me heard a sales pitch being thrown. “Maybe some other people buy that stuff, but not me”, I told myself.
Most of the conference is spent in workshops (the full list here), but there ... Read More
Categories: IFGE
Apr 5, 2008
by
Mercedes Allen
In recent years, the GLB community has been more receptive to (and even energized in) assisting the transgender community, but regularly asks what its needs are. One that is often touted is the “complete depathologization of Trans identities” (quoting from a press release for an October 7, 2007 demonstration in Barcelona, Spain) by removing “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) from medical classification. The reasoning generally flows in a logic chain stating that with homosexuality removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM, the ... Read More
