Dear John Joe,

I’m filing for a divorce.

Way back in 2004, *you* told *me” (your transgender partner) — via Cheryl:

In early August, HRC’s Board of Directors took the historic step of adopting a policy that HRC would not support a version of ENDA that doesn’t include gender identity or expression.

Then, *you* said to *me* on September 14 (at the Southern Comfort Conference):

We try to walk a thin line in terms of keeping everything in play, and making sure that we move forward but always being clear that we absolutely do not support and in fact oppose any legislation that is not absolutely inclusive, and we have sent that message loud and clear to the Hill.

See, here’s the video of *you* saying that:

But that’s not what *you* said today. *You* said instead:

Last night, the Human Rights Campaign’s Board of Directors voted to reaffirm the 2004 policy supporting a fully inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Therefore, HRC will not support the newly introduced sexual orientation only bill. The board’s position articulates a process for continued dialogue with House leaders about strategies that have been put forth to, in the end, achieve passage of a fully inclusive ENDA.

“We are now faced with definitive Congressional action to move forward a version of the bill stripping gender identity. Though we support a fully inclusive ENDA, we acknowledge the legislative strategy put forth by Congressman Frank and the Democratic leadership to obtain a clear path towards an inclusive bill in the future,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We look forward to working with them to accomplish the goal all of us share – ending workplace discrimination against the entire GLBT community.”

“Since 2004, HRC has had in place a policy that supports only a fully inclusive version of ENDA and the Board of Directors voted to reaffirm that position,” Solmonese continued. “Therefore, we are not able to support, nor will we encourage Members of Congress to vote against, the newly introduced sexual orientation only bill. And will continue working with our allies in Congress to support a comprehensive, legislative strategy to achieve passage of a fully inclusive ENDA as quickly as possible.”

That’s right, you aren’t opposing the plan to treat *me* like last night’s garbage — you’re just tacitly supporting this plan for inequality.

I guess to *you*, what George Orwell said in Animal Farm is true:

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

As your supposed transgender partner, *you* keep jilting me. *You* keep lying to me. *You* have an equal sign for your logo, you list me on your website as your *transgender partner,* but instead you treat me like a convenient mistress.

I want a divorce. Take the “transgender” and “T” off your website. Stop giving *me* reports and such that look like you care about *me* when — when it really, really counts — *you* bail on *me*. There are just so many fish in the sea that have shown they care much more about *me* more than *you* ever have.

Bitterly yours,

Autumn Sandeen
Jilted Transgender Activist

P.S. Expect to see *me* — and my true friends — at all your events soon, talking about being jilted and “unequal” in your eyes.

Some of the trans-related news we’re reading today, Friday …

#1 – Bathrooms have been in the news recently (here, here) in North Carolina …

In the past, an activist might picket City Hall, burn a draft card or occupy a segregated lunch counter. Now there’s a new cause: public restrooms.

Bathrooms — how and where they are built, and who should use them — are an urgent topic on college campuses across the Triangle and nation.

Three N.C. State University students have proposed installing lockable, unisex restrooms in all new campus buildings as a convenience for transgender students, the disabled, nursing mothers and single parents with children of the opposite sex. They seek to join at least 17 universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill, in mandating a gender-neutral john.

“There’s been a real push to support diversity on campus,” said Madeline Goss, a senior and male-to-female transgender student. “I go to the bathroom and I don’t get a second look. But there was a time when people walked out when they saw me in the bathroom.”

…

Goss settled on the restroom idea in a summer technical writing class. The assignment: find something on campus you’d like to change and draw up a report to make it happen. When she began becoming a woman in the spring, she met confused faces and dirty looks when she used a men’s room. Two classmates joined her in the project, and they saw potential for unisex bathrooms beyond N.C. State’s transgender population, which is small and hard to gauge.

Disabled people often have caregivers of the opposite sex. Mothers may not be comfortable taking a son into the women’s room, or sending a small child into a men’s stall alone. The students’ proposal envisions bathrooms with doors that can be locked, something that might appeal to sexual assault victims. And nursing mothers need a place to themselves.

Goss, senior Ashley Winfree and junior Karen Achtyl spent the summer poring over plumbing codes and state regulations, finding allies in advocacy groups and investigating campuses nationwide. They found policies supporting gender-neutral bathrooms at the University of Arizona and University of California-Berkeley.

At Arizona, students can choose restrooms based on perceived identity than biological gender, and the students seek a similar provision here. New restrooms would go in new buildings, those getting major renovations or anyplace possible.

…

Students rally for gender-neutral johns

#2 – Autumn posted a story yesterday of one teacher in transition. From North Carolina, here’s a another teacher story …

A teacher at a Durham private school underwent a sex change over the summer, sparking a debate among school administrators and at least one parent over how to approach the issue in class.

Leslie Webster has taught music at Duke School for Children for 12 years as a woman but started the new school year Wednesday as a man.

The parents of all 460 students at the private elementary and middle school, which isn’t affiliated with Duke University, received a letter this week notifying them of Webster’s sex change and outlining plans to inform students on Sept. 4.

…

In his letter to parents, [headmaster Dave] Michelman called Duke School “an open, accepting community that honors diversity in many aspects.”

“Leslie’s transition is making him more content,” Michelman said in the letter. “Leslie’s feeling of peace can only translate to the children having a better (classroom) experience with him.”

Parents picking up their children from school Wednesday said they hadn’t yet talked to their children about Webster.

Parent Doesn’t Want Children to Learn of Teacher’s Sex Change

#3 – From Seattle, a story on trans kids and the Gender Odyssey Family Conference which begins today …

Five-year-old Zach stands barefoot in the middle of his bedroom, faced with a dilemma: Should he wear the pink dress or the powder blue? Both are long princess-style affairs, the first displayed on a hanger held by his mother, Rebecca, the second, slightly wrinkled, pulled from the top of a dresser by Zach himself.

“Or would you rather wear your witch’s outfit?” his mother asks him, nodding at a black polyester costume in the closet, its neckline trimmed in orange.

“No,” Zach says. “I think I want the blue one.” He dashes out of the room with dress in hand, returning half a minute later, his pink T-shirt replaced by a tight crushed-velvet bodice. Zach bounds around the room, smiling, wisps of blond hair breaking free from the French braid that trails down his back.

It’s that playful exuberance that Rebecca and her husband, John, hope their son never loseWeight Exercises. “But we’re concerned that this piece of him will get lost, if other children aren’t able to respond to him well,” says Rebecca, 39, who asked that her family’s real names not be used.

Of course, most parents dream of the best for their children. But Rebecca and her husband are a certain kind of parent: They’re raising a boy who wants to dress in girls’ clothes. And that places them in largely uncharted territory. Is this a passing phase or something central to Zach’s identity?

A compass of sorts may await the family this weekend, when mother and son participate in a local conference called Gender Odyssey Family. The event at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center will be Seattle’s first conference for parents raising “gender-variant” kids, or those children who fall outside what’s traditionally defined as “boy” or “girl.”

The conference will offer 23 sessions over the course of the weekend, some geared toward entire families and others focused specifically on gender-variant teens.

…

“Whoever he becomes, that’s OK because that’s who he is”

#4 – COSMOS magazine from Australia has a feature on intersex …

AFTER YOUR NAME, what’s the first thing you’re asked on most forms? It’s almost always whether you’re ‘male’ or ‘female’, right? Gender is so basic to our identity that few of us stop to even think about it. However, for a significant proportion of the population it’s not so black and white. Consider these real-life stories:

There once was a boy named Bruce. As a baby he lost his penis in an accident and was surgically transformed into a girl called Brenda.

Then there’s Kylie. She was told that she was born with deformed ovaries that were surgically removed at age four. As a young woman, she discovered she was actually born with testes and male chromosomes, though she has only ever considered herself female.

Tony was also technically born as a genetic male but, because of his atypical genitalia, the doctors at the time decided he would be better off assigned as a female. By the time he turned seven, his phallus had started to grow. Doctors subsequently removed his testes to prevent him from masculinising any further; but the truth was he had always felt like a man, not a woman. When he turned 30, he chose to live his life as a man.

Zoe was born a male but always felt like a female. She did her best to accept her male form and identity but found the effort to maintain the charade became increasingly difficult and stressful over the years. Then, aged 47, her body spontaneously began making the transition into a female … and the relief was enormous.

SO WHAT’S THE STORY? Is gender merely a state of mind, an attribute that can be switched over with a bit of surgery and positive thinking? We think of our gender as something ‘given to us by nature’; but could it have just as much to do with ‘nurture’?

The issue of gender is not as sharply defined as most people believe. As the stories of Bruce, Kylie, Tony and Zoe make clear, the boundaries that separate masculine and feminine can sometimes be difficult to delineate. And science attests to that.

…

Intersex: The space between the genders

There’s also a companion article, Intersex: Case studies, co-authored by Zoe Brain.

#5 – The quote(s) of the day, from the Washington Blade’s Bitch Session …

It’s transgender people that need the gay and lesbian movement to succeed not the other way around. They are a minority within a minority who couldn’t get very far without us yet they always arrogantly fail to recognize that! Learn some humility instead of being so damn uppity!

To the transgender activist who had the gall to say that gays and lesbians can’t move forward without them: The fact is transgender activists have opposed gay rights legislation in the past simply because they weren’t included! Despite their being as bad as Christian conservatives or selfish brats, we often managed to succeed without them! They should thank us for forgiving them for this and allowing them to retard our progress by including them now!

Sunday edition …

#1 – The Tour de France began in London the other day, and Britons are still waiting for a Lance or even a Landis to call their own. In the meantime, they’ll just have to relax, chill and divert themselves with this read from the Daily Mail …

Known as “King of the Mountains”, cyclist Robert Millar was Britain’s best performer in the Tour de France and an inspiration to a generation of fans.
…

But as the latest Tour de France starts in London today, the Daily Mail can reveal that Millar, 48, will never be able to use the title “King of the Mountains” again.

For the powerful sporting hero who once failed a drugs test for having too much testosterone is now living as a woman under the name Philippa York in a Dorset village.

Britain’s vanished Tour de France champion reappears – as a woman

#2 – Christians will be discouraged today, so says the Christian Post, without offering much in the way of evidence. But, I guess they’re just feelin’ a bit bummed that they can’t relate to …

… equality, freedom and diversity …

Christians Discouraged by San Diego Padre’s Gay Pride Event

#3 – Of course, as the WorldNetDay obviously knows, who can worry about equality, freedom and diversity when you’re confronted with something like …

… public toilet sex …

Robo-toilets proposed to stop ‘gay’ cruising

#4 – There may be eunuchs working for Reebok …

I’ve often wondered who designs official NFL attire for females. (*blatant unfair stereotype alert*) It can’t be women or gay guys, because then the clothes would be stylish, fit well and be made from quality materials. It can’t be hetero guys, because then the clothes would be more hot looking. My process-of-elimination guess is that maybe Reebok hires color-blind eunuchs to design their apparel.

Pink NFL Jerseys Are a Fashion Don’t

#5 – Kind of lost a bit in the recent Palm Beach beating case, but this was my reaction too …

Nice of the witness to stop the beating, eh? He’s a real stand-up guy too apparently… “Just go home and don’t tell anyone.” Bah. That part really pisses me off almost as much as the verdict!

Trans hate crime is “justifiable”?

Saturday edition …

#1 – God hates fags. So Jon Eisenberg says Deborah Dewart is really trying to say …

The brief that easily stands out for its extreme tone, though, is by the Foundation for Free Expression. Writing for the foundation, Swansboro, N.C., attorney Deborah Dewart attacks homosexuality head-on.

She compares gays to “suicide bombers who destroy themselves while they murder others,” accuses the government of trying to force unwanted views of sexual morality on to unsuspecting doctors and calls homosexuality “not a minor aberration, but a revolutionary attack on God’s creation and His plan for both the family and the church.”

In a response brief, Pedroza, the doctors’ lawyer in the case, disavowed much of the “offensive language” and “tone” of the foundation’s arguments. He also claimed the foundation’s emphasis on gays was “misplaced” because, he said, Drs. Brody and Fenton refused to treat based on the patient’s unmarried status, not her sexual orientation.

Jon Eisenberg, who’s serving as co-counsel with Pizer, believes, however, that the foundation’s brief says more about the doctors’ arguments than they let on.

“Sometimes the mask of reason slips,” the Eisenberg and Hancock partner said. “This brief says exactly what the other amici curiae would like to have said, but knew better. They all but said, ‘God hates fags.’ And I think it sheds light on every single one of these amicus curiae briefs and where they are coming from. They have a pure anti-gay agenda.”

Calif. Supreme Court to Hear Contentious Gay Rights Case

#2 – The Padre is a Piper … (More lawyers … ) …

A national law firm involved with religious issues joined a local Christian minister Friday in decrying what they termed support by the San Diego Padres’ management for the “homosexual lifestyle.”

The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center said the baseball team is encouraging homosexuality by allowing a gay group to attend the Sunday game at Petco Park featuring the Padres against the Atlanta Braves. At the game, the Padres plan to distribute free floppy hats to children 14 or younger.

“The Padres are playing the part of the Pied Piper leading unsuspecting children into the homosexual lifestyle as normal,” said Richard Thompson, the group’s president and chief counsel.

Law firm criticizes Padres over gays

#3 – While Cuba sorta might be okay …

Although the government is showing no sign of changes in its relations with dissidents, important steps have been taken in recent months to promote the rights of sexual minorities, including the gay, lesbian, transvestite, transsexual and transgender communities.

A draft law presented to the highest levels of the governing Communist Party includes legal recognition of same-sex unions, the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, and the right of lesbians to use assisted reproduction services.

Meanwhile, a current government strategy is attempting to guarantee social equality for transvestite, transsexual and transgender persons, including changes of identity where necessary, and access to hormonal treatments and to sex change operations.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissident Group Sees No Improvement

#4 – … be careful in Mexico … (Oh, Canada?) …

“In theory, it’s not against the law to be queer, but it can be quite oppressive — it’s not okay to be out in everyday life,” she maintains. “They can court danger just by being themselves.”

Serrano and Cordero are both familiar with this scenario, having both successfully claimed refugee status here after fleeing alleged police persecution in Mexico. Serrano says he left his country with his partner after police began harassing them and extorting money from them after they were seen leaving a gay bar in Mexico City.

Cordero left after police allegedly threatened her life when they discovered she was transgendered.

“The police can make your life a nightmare,” claims Serrano, who worked as a reporter in the pressroom of the Mexico City police department for 11 years. “They see you as a resource to get money. They threaten to tell your family or your boss.”

Although they believe they have information that could shed light on Villegas’ murder, Serrano and Cordero say it is useless to contact Mexican police.

“When they find out the victim was gay, they say gay people deserve that,” Cordero alleges.

…

“Most Latin American countries have amazing constitutions, but that doesn’t mean [they are] enforced.”

“It has been determined by the powers that be that Mexico is friendly,” says Morrissey. “Many people who go to Mexico don’t perceive that people are persecuted over sexual orientation.”

MacDiarmid concurs, adding that some tribunal members seem to think queer refugees will be able to go back to their countries and live without incident, provided they “be more discreet.”

“It’s like they’re saying, if you don’t flaunt it, you’ll be fine. You’ve got to wonder how it’s okay to suggest to someone: ‘Don’t be yourself, and you’ll be okay.’”

Gay man killed after refugee claim denied
Murder in Mexico

#5 – On a brighter note … I’ve been clipping news items for Transgender News and TNUKdigest for more than a few years now, but this is “my first Tonga” …

Last night at the finale of the Air New Zealand Miss Galaxy pageant for 2007 – 2008, Miss Tonga New Zealand South Seas, Miss Rasa Maya Douglas Tania (pictured left with 2006-2007 Queen Miss Coco Chandelier of New Zealand), was crowned the new Queen by Hon. Salote Maumautaimi Tuku’aho.

The guest of honour for the finale was the HRH Princess Salote Pilolevu Tuita representing the patron of the Tonga Leiti’s Association, Hon. Salote Lupepau’u Tuita who is currently out of the country. HRH Princess Pilolevu was accompanied by the Hon. Salote Maumautaimi Tuku’aho who represented her Highness during the crowning of the new Queen.

Hon. Maumautaimi Tuku’aho also gave a short address saying that the contestants were all winners and should be proud of a job well done over the last three days.

The Miss Galaxy pageant, held annually during the Heilala Festival in July, has been sponsored for the last five years by Air New Zealand and is the only transsexual pageant that the airline supports.

Chairman of the Tonga Leiti’s Association, Joey Mataele, thanked Air New Zealand on behalf of the patron of the association Hon. Lupepau’u, for their support and for the love and care the airline has shown throughout the years. Mataele said that the pageant, which is all about equality, is greatly respected because here in Tonga family life is more important than anything else.

Mataele said that the association wanted to thank all the sponsors for this year’s pageant for their support and also the international media that were in the Kingdom specifically for the internationally-acclaimed Miss Galaxy pageant.

Miss Tonga New Zealand South Seas is Air New Zealand Miss Galaxy Queen 2007

My friend Vicki and I went to San Francisco Pride this past weekend.  Probably 95% of why we went to San Francisco Pride this Year was to see the first episode of Sex Change Hospital at Frameline 31 (Vicki was featured in the first episode of the six part documentary).  Episode one of the television series (shown as a stand alone film at Frameline 31) followed Vicki through her male-to-female genital reassignment surgery, and followed female-to-male Jim L. Howley through his hysterectomy.

As I said, the documentary episode with Vicki was submitted and shown as a stand-alone film at Frameline 31, which seems kinda funny to me — this is because all six episodes of the series have already been shown public television in the UK. 

Oh!  I forgot to mention earlier that Sex Change Hospital was produced by World Of Wonder — the same production company that produced Transgeneration for the Sundance Channel.

Okay, so let me try to do an unbiased review of the film Sex Change Hospital … although with my best friend as one of the two focal characters of the episode/film, giving an umbiased review may be difficult.  

Seriously, I thought this was probably the best “sex change” film I’d ever seen — and I’ve seen a lot of these kind of films on Discovery, Discovery Health, as well as other channels.  Sex Change Hospital stands our for three reasons:  The first is that they showed the surgery in graphic detail.  We heard such lines “Testicles Away!” from surgeon Marci Bowers, while actually watching the testicles being cut away.  The second is the emotional connections with the families of the patients.  With Vicki’s portion of the film/episode, you saw her Dad being so supportive and loving, and Vicki feeling the a wide range of emotions that she was feeling both pre- and post-surgery.  With Jim’s portion of the film, you saw and felt the real pain his Mom was going through as she was seeing a hard milestone of her daughter “dying” to become even more so her son.  Lastly, the episode/film wasn’t narrated — the stories were completely told in the words of the people filmed.  I can’t tell y’all what a difference that made to the storytelling — it make for a very personal experience vice a purely clinical experience.

Sex Change Hospital was shown at Frameline 31 with the film One in 2000, a film on intersex people.  The film was at least as compelling as Sex Change Hospital.  After watching One in 2000, I was left with the strange thought that two intersex infants have “corrections” done to their genitalia a day in North America (paid for by insurance companies) — with many intersexuals finding themselves as adults upset that genital surgeries were done on them without their consent for no other reason than their genitalia didn’t conform to physical “norms” — while most transsexuals can’t get insurance companies to pay for their wanted surgeries on their genitalia.  What an odd juxtoposition of human experience.

Anyway, when Sex Change Hospital and/or One in 2000 makes it to the television market where you live, I would highly recommend taking the time to watch the either or both of these.  Well worth the time.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit, I’m far from a “transgender warrior” …

My activism, as it were, mainly takes the form of the somewhat occasional, usually brief letter to the editor by me or my alter ego.

But, they usually (always so far, but maybe I need to write more often) are published.

So, I was a bit disappointed yesterday when I encountered, omg …

The Lansing City Limits

Sorry, “We do not print letters from writers living outside the area … ”

That came by way of … a postcard, no less.

Well, that letter was about this story about Lansing resident, Alice Dreger, doing her thing in a Barnum & Bailey setting.

Okay, my two cents worth may not impress. — but, heck, how provincial can you be, Lansing State Journal?

Props, to another “out-of-towner”, Curtis Hinkle, for his “Circus Freaks and Alice Dreger’s Hermaphrodite Show” piece at OII.

Alice Dreger occupies center ring tomorrow evening, June 6th, D(reger) Day, at the Psychology Building at MSU.

The Rev. Erin Swenson, who will preach in Chapel Hill, NC on June 10th, concluded a recent opinion piece in The Chapel Hill News with this thought …

“Religion and transgender experience — can the twain meet? Transgender people of faith have a valuable perspective on our national obsession with gender distinctions. They have struggled with the unreasonable demands for conformity inherent in our collective life, yet have been able to discover a place of personal integrity. They have come to understand the balance between divine creation and the ongoing responsibility that each of us has for our own self-creation. In a world where we seem to have lost the capacity to understand and affirm each other, the thread of transgender experience offers a valuable resource for transcending our differences, gendered and otherwise. Can the twain meet? Let’s hope they do. “

The full story can be found here.

From the National Center for Transgender Equality:

(Washington, DC) – Today America made an historic stride forward in protecting the civil rights of transgender people.  Members of Congress Barney Frank (D-MA), Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Christopher Shays (R-CT) introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” 

It remains legal in 33 states to fire or refuse to hire someone based on sexual orientation, and it is legal in 42 states to do so based on a person’s gender identity.  Today’s introduction of ENDA demonstrates that Congress recognizes the need for workplace protections on the federal level. 

“The introduction of this legislation represents a tremendous civil rights advancement for transgender communities,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). “I am proud of the work that the National Center for Transgender Equality has accomplished to insure that the language of this bill protects all LGBT people.” 

Since our inception in 2003, the National Center for Transgender Equality has worked tirelessly to educate Congress about the need for federal employment protections for transgender workers.  NCTE has also worked closely with national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations to grow broader community support for transgender-inclusive legislation.  Through the years, much of NCTE’s programmatic and policy work has aimed to educate both the public and policymakers on the critical importance of making employment protections for transgender people explicit in federal law.  

“Too often transgender people face harassment and discrimination on the job or when applying for employment,” said Keisling.  “Our office receives calls every week from transgender individuals who have been harassed at work or have lost their jobs simply for being who they are.  Prohibiting discrimination based on a person’s gender identity is common-sense given the level of workplace prejudice we face.  Elected officials increasingly recognize the need for civil rights protections for all of their constituents.” 

On May 15, 2007, NCTE’s annual Lobby Day will bring over 100 transgender and ally advocates from more than 25 states to the Capitol to meet with members of Congress.  This year’s Lobby Day will be the largest federal transgender lobby effort in history.

Participants will be sharing their stories of employment discrimination and asking their members of Congress to support ENDA. 

“I am so pleased to stand here today and watch the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community move forward together,” said Keisling.

Recognizing the need to curb rampant discrimination against transgender people, currently eight states (California, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Washington), the District of Columbia and over 80 cities and counties across the country have already passed explicitly transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination laws. These laws currently cover approximately one-third of the US population.  Passage of ENDA would provide much needed workplace protections nationwide.

What YOU Can Do: Join NCTE Lobby Day — infomation on NCTE Lobby Day can be found on the NCTE website.

From Autumn: This bill includes transgender people — gender identity and expression are included in the Employment Non-Descrimination Act.  If you can’t lobby in person, ask NCTE or other organization what you can do to support this bill.

An episode of Grey’s Anatomy won the GLAAD media award for best television episode.  Incredibly, the episode that won didn’t feature a gay or lesbian character, but instead featured a trans character who had to decide whether to continue hormones or die of breast cancer.

One may remember that a star on Grey’s Anatomy, Isaiah Washington, used the “other f-word” on the set of the show to describe a gay castmate.

What is the message of this particular award? — I find the message troublingly enigmatic. On one hand GLAAD honors a television show with a castmember who used a anti-gay pejorative, on the other hand GLAAD awards a episode featuring a transgender character when GLAAD can’t seem to muster even a press release against the “psychopath” and “freak” comments Micheal Savage made regarding a murdered transwoman to his 8 million listeners.

I can’t figure out the message GLAAD is trying to send me, the transgender community, the broader LGBT community, and the general public with their best television episode award.  If anyone has any ideas on what the message I, a transwoman and LGBT community member, should be taking away from this best episode award — when coupled with the lack of GLAAD press comment on the Michael Savage incident — please let me know.  Currently, I’m clueless.

*****UPDATE*****
Per E! Entertainment online (emphasis added):

You gotta give it to the LGBT community-they know from irony. . .

Proving the media watchdog can not only master irony but layer it, the episode of the ABC hit receiving the praise, “Where the Boys Are,” was the very one whose tense backstage relations resulted in Isaiah Washington referring to then closeted costar T.R. Knight as a “faggot,” a term Washington repeated in front of a throng of reporters and eventually sought rehab for uttering.

Now I’m even more confused than ever.

******Update 3*****

Comedy Central Video Link: Steve Stanton On The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 

*****UPDATE 2*****
Maybe I was in tune with the gawds!  The National Center for Lesbien Rights reports that there is a schedule change: NCLR Client Steve Stanton on “Larry King Live” Friday, May 13 Due to Schedule Change! Thank you for standing with us and for standing with Steve. –Warmly, Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights.
*****UPDATE 1*****
Egads, I got the day of the week wrong for Steve Stanton’s appearance. I was thinking Thrursday, but actually wrote Friday in the headline of this post’s original entry. GAK! His appearance is Thrursday!My apologies for mis-typing this — Thanks Dr. Weiss for correcting me.
~~A~~
***********

From the St. Petersburt Times: Stanton ready to go national; He will discuss his case on Larry King Live on Thursday. Excerpt:

Steve Stanton is poised to join a national campaign to make America more aware of the plight of transgender people.

Fired as Largo’s city manager a month after he acknowledged he planned to become a woman named Susan, Stanton is writing a book and plans to lobby Congress.

Thursday night, he’s slated to appear with his attorney on Larry King Live. And next week, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart is scheduled to broadcast its take on his case.

Stanton will announce whether he’ll sue his former employer on Larry King, said his lawyer, Karen Doering, senior counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

She wouldn’t say what Stanton will do, but did say Stanton has a “winnable” case.

“When the city terminated him they engaged in illegal discrimination,” she said.

Largo officials expect a lawsuit.

There’s more of the article at the link, and legal analysis of the Steve Stanton case by Dr. Jillian Weiss at Transgender Workplace Diversity.

–
H/t: Transgender Workplace Diversity

On Friday, April 6th, San Diego will be celebrating our fourth annual Transgender Day Of Empowerment (TDOE). Originally conceived by Project STAR Director Tracie O’Brien in 2003, this is an “opposite day” to the international Transgender Day Of Remembrance (TDOR).

TDOR is an important day set aside to annually memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. TDOE, on the other end of the spectrum, is a day set aside for transpeople (like me) and our significant others, friends, families, and allies to celebrate transgender history and future, as well as our transseniors and our transyouth.

The transgender community is filled with a rich diversity of individuals; of every age, race, faith, identifiable gender, and socioeconomic background.  The next generation of transpeople can look forward to less discrimination than the generations of transgender people past — we celebrate those who helped us get to where we are now, and those who will enjoy the advances in the future, and help us in that future to reach for broader equality and new individual heights.

I dream that one day the idea of a day of celebration of transgender diversity will catch on as an idea for the broader transgender community — for all of us transpeople, our significant others, our friends, our families, and of course our wonderful allies.

*****UPDATE*****

There is a review up of the event with San Diego’s Indy Media.

Also, there is an MP3 of my friend Vicky’s song Wrong Gender Blues.

I went to California’s Transgender Leadership Summit the weekend before last (March 23-25, 2007). It was simply amazing to see about 175 transgender people — mostly transgender activists — and allies all on the USC main campus at the same time.

There were a lot of marquee activists at the summit. Some “big names” included director of the Transgender Law Center Chris Daley (he’s a trans ally who had a major hand in organizing the summit), director of the National Center for Transgender Equality Mara Keisling, author and columnist Jamison Green, former congressional candidate Amanda Simpson, civil rights attorney Matt Stephens, director of Project Star Tracie O’Brien, online community organizer Zander Keig
. . . I could go on for awhile longer here than I have.  Needless to say, there were a lot of “big names” there, and I’ve only mentioned a few.

The summit focused on the practical aspects of leading in the transgender community. There was a transgender youth plenary (of transgender youth from middle school to Jr. College) and a status-of-the-transgender-community plenary. There were also plenty of workshops. I presented (poorly presented, I might add) a workshop on New Media (such as blogs, YouTube, podcasts, etc.). My friend Vicki Estrada presented a more interesting workshop, where she had a panel of folk who do LGBT or other community activism/provide community leadership outside the transgender activism community (panelists: Amanda Simpson, Matt Stephens, and Kelley Winters).

I also met a transgender, community college youth activist from the San Jose area by the name of Samantha — I believe I have a really wonderful friendship developing with her.

Really nice event — Gotta go again next year!

From PlanetOut:

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov vowed Monday never to allow a gay rights parade, calling such events “satanic,” but activists said they would defy a city ban to hold what would be the Russian capital’s first gay rights parade.

Luzhkov and city authorities had barred activists from staging a parade last year, citing the threat of violence. Activists ignored the ban, and were pummeled by right-wing protesters and detained by police.

Speaking at a Kremlin event attended by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Luzhkov again lambasted gay and lesbian groups.

“Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic,” he said to applause in comments broadcast on a city-controlled TV channel. “We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future.”

He also charged that Western countries were facing a crisis of religious faith and were corrupting children.

Well, what can one say to that? Well, one can say that sometimes Christians who belive homosexuality is sin sincerely believe that they act in love in pointing out sin, and sometimes — as we can see here — there is only hate and despite invloved when pointing at LGBT folk. Russian anti-discrimination laws be damned — abuse and hatred ahead.

Per PinkNews.co.uk, the parade will go on:

The organisers of Moscow Pride have vowed to hold the event in 2007, as they formally start proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights concerning last year’s Pride.

They are also considering appealing to the Russian Supreme Court in parallel with their European action.

In May 2006 the first Pride march in the city was beset by violence and police intimidation after Moscow’s mayor refused to grant a permit.

And…

Moscow Pride 2007 will take place on Sunday May 27, marking the day in 1993 when homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia.

From the Smoking Gun:

When throwing a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day party, it’s probably not a good idea for attendees to wear gang apparel, Afro wigs, and dress as Aunt Jemima. Oh, and the menu should not entirely consist of fried chicken and malt liquor served in brown paper bags. Somehow, students at one Texas university did not grasp this simple concept.

Any wonder why the Smoking Gun article title was Outrage Over Texas College MLK Day Party?

Seriously, what the heck were these kids thinking?

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Related article: Another Celebration Of Black Culture.

This weekend marks the first ever Transgender Religious Summit. The press release states the following about the event:

Religious communities struggle with full acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, causing discrimination not just in churches, temples, and mosques, but throughout society. Perhaps least understood and accepted among sexual and gender minorities are members of the transgender community. Those who identify as transgender or other non-conforming gender expressions are subject to misunderstanding and rejection by faith communities, and harassment and violence in society as a whole.

The Transgender Religious Summit to be held at Pacific School of Religion (in Berkley, CA) will be the first of its kind: a collaboration between national policy leaders on transgender issues, transgender and transgender supporting religious leaders, and academic experts on LGBT studies and religion. This diverse group of ministers, activists, and scholars will address issues of denominational and public policy, outreach to the transgender community, and transgender leadership, in order to break down the religious barriers to full inclusion of transgender and gender non-conforming people in religious communities and the nation as a whole.

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry are sponsoring the summit.

Justin Tanis is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and San Francisco Theological Seminary. He’s also the NCTE Program Manager. He had this to say about the summit:

“If there is opposition to transgender-inclusive legislation, it very often comes from a religious perspective. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Many progressive people of faith want to expand transgender rights within our religious traditions and to counter the transphobia in public policy, so this meeting will give us an opportunity to work together on that.”

I’m glad to hear it. Messages that folk like Alan Chambers, Peter LaBarbera, and Mike Ensley have put out about on transgender people need a countering voice; a voice that talks in terms of Christian transpeople, as well as a voice on transpeople of other faiths.