Pam is working on seeing what data from SoapBlox can be saved from PHB’s host, and looking to see how to host the old data (and new material) elsewhere.
Late in December, Q-Notes announced their Person of the Year, and that person is North Carolinian Angela Brightfeather. I actually know Angela personally — we’ve met at a number of Southern Comfort Conventions, and we served for awhile together on the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) board.
From her humble home in North Carolina to the doorsteps of national organizations and the halls of Congress, there’s no doubt that Angela Brightfeather has done her part this year.
If there were issues to be discussed, if the transgender community needed an advocate or if the transgender community was being ignored, Brightfeather stepped up.
The 63-year-old transgender leader and activist is a legend — she’s been involved in advocacy work since she was in her 20s; and she’s certainly not afraid of ruffling feathers.
“Anybody who challenges the establishment is going against the flow,” she told Q-Notes. “When you do that, you become the ultimate activist. You become the one that pushes too hard, that wants everybody to take a lead, the one who wants to really change things.” …
One of TAVA’s big accomplishments this year, of which Angela played a significant part in making happen, was a survey done with the Palm Center — The survey was a first ever study at transgender people’s military and veteran experiences.
With regards to Angela’s Person Of The Year honor, TAVA president Monica Helms told me:
“Angela has been my friend for nearly as long as I’ve been an activist, and if anyone deserves this award, it would be her. For 40 years, she has helped our community through some of its toughest times. Her voice has never been silenced, and now, it has been praised.”
Basically, Angela makes a difference for trans people both locally and nationally, and she’s been doing it for quite awhile. Kudos to Angela on her recognition by Q-Notes.
~~~~~ For disclosure purposes, Autumn is a past-Secretary for TAVA.
Belated congratulations to a couple of over-the-hill sexagenarians. We’ll see about that wish of yours, Barbra … but, I’m already getting the feeling we were “fooled” again …
I get angry reading about the same tactics over and over again against LGBT civil rights legislation – You just can’t sell me that this isn’t about hate when were seeing these same, hateful “Christian” mistruths and fear tactics used over and over again. When do we develop some good answers to his and his “Christian” peers’ lies and fear tactics?
KALAMAZOO-Less than one month after the City of Kalamazoo Commission voted 7-0 to adopt an expanded human rights ordinance that makes it illegal to use sexual orientation to discriminate in housing, public accommodations and employment, petitions were filed Dec. 31 to repeal it.
City Clerk Scott Borling said that the circulators of the petition had filed over 1,600 signatures. If at least 1,273 of them are valid city registered voters, it will cause the new ordinance to be suspended immediately.
The city charter states that valid referendum petitions require the commissioners to take up the challenge at the next regular meeting which will be held on Jan. 26. They will either repeal the ordinance or place it on a ballot for city voters to decide. The certification process began Friday and the outcome should be known sometime this week.
The American Family Association of Michigan, led by Gary Glenn and Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema, a former City Commissioner, submitted the petitions. Glenn has been quoted in local press claiming that the new ordinance would force some people to base decisions that run counter to their religious convictions, as well as possibly violate the privacy of women and children.
Glenn has led every challenge across the state in the past decade to defeat city ordinances that include sexual orientation and gender identity. A circulated flyer of talking points stated, “This ordinance violates the First Amendment rights of religion and free speech of those who oppose cross-dressing and homosexual behavior.”
Glenn has used scare tactics in other ballot initiatives. For example, the title of one of the petition circulator scripts reads, “IS THERE A MAN IN YOUR DAUGHTER’S BATHROOM?” …
First I rant about a lack of an effective counter argument to the same, tired arguments of the conservative “Christians,” and then I sigh. *Sigh.*
The 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals has mad a ruling regarding in the past week regarding Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The state Supreme Court, after a nearly two-year delay, will be asked to determine whether city of San Diego leases of Balboa Park land violate the state constitution’s ban on government preference for religious groups.
The move Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is hearing a lawsuit challenging the leases, is the latest turn in the long-running case.
…The case focuses on a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones in San Diego. Jones struck down two leases that the city had with the Scouts for 16 acres in Balboa Park and on Fiesta Island. Jones concluded the Boy Scouts, which bars openly gay leaders and requires members to take an oath to God, is a religious organization and the leases amounted to government assistance to religion.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple. The Scouts appealed, and in December 2006, the federal appeals court said it wanted the state Supreme Court first to weigh in on three questions of state law: Do the leases amount to aid to religion; if so, does that aid support a sectarian purpose; and do the leases violate the state constitution’s “no preference” ban on government favoring a religious group.
Federal courts on occasion will ask state high courts to issue opinions on unique questions of state law that arise in cases before federal judges.
Back in December of 2006, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America, according to a December, 2006 San Francisco Chronicle article, that:
[Below the fold, some history of Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America.]
First I rant about a lack of an effective counter argument to the same, tired arguments of the conservative “Christians,” and then I sigh. *Sigh.*