Some of the folks we’re reading today, Monday, July 30th …

ENDA and the Matthew Shepard Act are on the minds of many of us. There are probably few people in the trans community as qualified as Ethan St. Pierre to write about rights … and pain, loss, suffering, indignity and unfairness …

…

Transgender Americans are not asking for special rights but for the same rights that other people have. The fact that transgender Americans are NOT treated equally in employment, housing, credit..etc. begs for legislation to stop discriminatory acts towards transgender people. Transgender Americans are not asking for rights that others don’t have. Transgender Americans are not asking to be treated better than everyone else or to have something that other Americans don’t have.

When I began transitioning on the job and I started exhibiting male characteristics, I was fired from my job and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I was told by every lawyer that I did not have a case because there was no law to protect transgender people from being fired in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

…

It would be nice to think that we are all human and therefore we should all be treated as human beings, that we should all be treated fairly and that all laws should apply to all of us. The simple fact is that we are not and we are dying as a result.

We are not disposable people and if Congress can’t pass a law that sends that message, they might as well just paint a target on our asses.

Read all of Ethan’s post at Bilerico here.

Jillian Weiss’ been traveling …

I’ve been away at the Law and Society Conference in Berlin and it’s been wonderful. Ich spreche kaum Deutche. (I hardly speak much German.) Eine tasse kaffee bitte. (A cup of coffee please.) Anyway, I went to some wonderful presentations on transgender issues and got to know some new people. There was one from Andrew Sharpe, whom I knew from his book entitled “Transgender Jurisprudence,” and Dean Spade, who founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a project specializing in transgender issues in New York. I’ll give more details on those presentations in my next post. I gave one entitled “Relationships between Transgender Non-Discrimination Law and Corporate Policies.” …

At the Law & Society Conference in Berlin

Monica Roberts, a phenomenal writer and exceptional person …

It’s ignorance in motion
The science hating GOP
They’re causing a commotion
Hating peeps that are GLBT
But the GOP hates science
“The GOP hates science!”
Because they failed biology

…

The GOP Hates Science

… and …

When W.E.B DuBois first envisioned the Talented Tenth in his book The Souls of Black Folk it wasn’t intended to be interpreted as being exclusionary or elitist. But that’s the connotation that has been placed on the concept by many peeps in the African-American community.

DuBois concept was that the Talented Tenth would be given the mission to uplift the race and help it thrive through a combination of economic and political empowerment with a strong moral center as its core.

I believe that The Talented Tenth concept is one that is sorely needed at this juncture in the African-American transcommunity.

…

The Transgender Talented Tenth

… and much more.

 I received this in my inbox this morning from the NCTE. I cut and pasted it verbatim here.
~~A~~

Transgender people have the right to equal treatment under the law

Equal treatment under the law is a vital human rights concern. It is also very important to transgender people. There are a number of community organizations working on legal issues for the transgender community. Some of them are:

Please click today and download your free copy of the latest page of the calendar. By putting the calendar on your wall, you can help spread the message of human rights for transgender people.

Thank you for your support.

Justin Tanis
NCTE

—————
email: ncte@nctequality.org
phone: 202.903.0112
web: http://nctequality.org

Recently, the New York Blade published a piece entitled Trans Marriage Poses Immigration Glitch.  Beyond the particulars of the story highlighted in the article, the article addresses U.S. transgender/transsexual immigration and citizenship issues.  At the bottom of the highlights of the the New York Blade article, I’ve added some links to help explain the transgender immigration and citizenship issues more clearly. 

As a resource to those with U.S. transgender immigration and citizenship issues, I also added links (at the bottom of this post) to the Transgender Law Center and Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which can help individuals dealing with these issues.

New York Blade article excerpt:

The petition of a fully transitioned New York transgender woman who has been a U.S. citizen since 1996 to sponsor her foreign-born husband for citizenship has slipped through the cracks of U.S. governmental bureaucracy.

Melissa, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, has legally changed her name and possesses a U.S. passport issued in her proper name and gender; she has licenses from two different states where she is correctly identified; she is recognized under her new name by the IRS for tax purposes and has been issued a new social security card in her female name.

But the Department of Immigration and Naturalization has denied her request to reissue her naturalization certificate with her female name and gender identity—a certificate she needs in order to sponsor her foreign-born husband for a green card.

“I was surprised that all these other branches of government would have no problem,” Melissa said, questioning the logic of the Department of Immigration and Naturalization, which falls under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. “If they’re really talking about homeland security, they couldn’t ask a citizen any more than what I’m doing.”

According to Victoria Neilson, legal director at Immigration Equality, a 2004 office memo from the Immigration Department states that in instances where an individual claims to be a transsexual, any documentation, whether it’s original or replacement, should reflect the outward claimed and otherwise documented sex of the applicant at the time the document is issued.

“For example,” the memo reads, “an alien with an approved application to register permanent residence who underwent sex reassignment surgery shall be issued a permanent resident card reflecting the claimed sex of the alien at the time of issuance provided the alien submits appropriate medical or other documentation establishing the alien’s new claimed gender and legal name.”

Based on the memo, Neilson said, “It seems pretty clear-cut that the point is, for security reasons, that a government issued identity document is supposed to match the way the person actually looks.”

Though the department’s denial notice itself stated that a legal name change is in fact grounds for reissuing a naturalization certificate, Melissa’s application was denied by Immigration on the basis of her sex change. “This application is not for changing the sex as indicated on the original certificate. Your application is hereby denied as a matter of law,” read the denial notice.

“They denied it saying they have no jurisdiction to do this when in fact, she did legally change her name,” said Neilson.

Given the fact that Melissa does have a valid 2002 U.S. Passport in her female name and gender, Neilson also noted that it seems contradictory for Melissa to have two different federally issued identity documents in different names and genders. Passports are issued by the U.S. State Department.

Without her proper naturalization papers, the second hurdle Melissa faces is that of sponsoring her husband for a green card.

Related:

- U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services Interoffice Memo On Transgender Immigration

- The Status Of Transsexuals Under US Immigration Law

- Immigration Law & Transgender People

- Policies or Practices for Changing Name and/or Gender Marker on Some Federal Identity Documents

- DHS Advisory to Security Personnel, No Change in Threat Level
Previous attacks underscore Al-Qaeda’s ability to employ suicide bombers – a tactic which can be used against soft targets and VIP’s. Terrorists will employ novel methods to artfully conceal suicide devices. Male bombers may dress as females in order to discourage scrutiny.

Resources:

- Transgender Law Center

- Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Well.

365Gay.com is reporting that a NY Juvenile Facility Admits Denying Care To Transsexual Teen.

It seems that during 2002 and 2003, transgender teen Alyssa Rodriguez was…

…deprived of her prescription hormone medication and punished for her feminine hairstyle and other aspects of her gender expression by the OCFS while she was at the Red Hook Residential Center and other New York facilities…

The article also stated:

Rodriguez, who is now 20, had been on hormone therapy from a young age and experienced both severe health consequences and emotional distress due to withdrawal symptoms after being forced to go without hormone treatment.

“OCFS placed Alyssa in a male facility, denied her appropriate health care, and punished her for being herself,” said Gabriel Arkles, Staff Attorney at Sylvia Rivera Law Project and organization which serves the transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming communities in New York.

“This is a clear example of why it is critical that institutions such as OCFS are educated about the needs of transgender youth before anyone is harmed,” Arkles said.

onAnywho, the case has just been settled, and Alyssa is going to get all of $25,000(!) for the mistreatment at the hands of government.

I wish more adult transpeople and trans organizations would, like the organizations of Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Lambda Legal have, begin worrying about the next gender-ation of transgender youth. The next gender-ation of transgender youth shouldn’t have to go through the same discrimination the previous gender-ations of transpeople have.