Your voice(s) would be incredibly important to add to our chorus of support.  We just need to have written testimony submitted by this Sunday at 5pm and it takes no time at all to write. That’s tomorrow, so please jot something down if you can.

Here is a link to the Be an Advocate! page with hints on how to craft testimony, talking points for the bill, etc. http://www.ctequality.com/talk-to-lawmakers/

You can contact Pat directly through facebook or email: patrickcomerford1050@gmail.com (please put ctEQUALITY in the subject header).

This is such a crucial time for us, and we know that the Family Institute of CT will be our there at the hearing, so every voice counts…

[Read more →]

http://truthoutsidehart.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/a-statement-on-accusations-made-around-camp-trans-2010/

A Statement on Accusations Made Around Camp Trans 2010

In Regards to Recent False Allegations Made Against Me

August 8^th, 2010

It was brought to my attention Friday evening that false allegations that I had allegedly written a letter implicating people at Camp Trans in involvement in potentially illegal activities, and allegedly planned to deliver it to Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (Michfest) but did not, and allegedly abandoned it when leaving Camp to somehow be found by someone who then propagated this information throughout Camp Trans, leading to allegations being made that I intended to snitch on attendees of Camp Trans. [Read more →]

forwarded from our comrade Billy.

Iranian  transsexuals in fact experience humiliation, assault and abuse, if not  outright death - and not just by government agents, but also by neighbours,  family members, and those considered friends.  We have received reports  very recently from our contacts in Iran exemplifying the torment endured by  transgendered persons.  On Saturday October 10, members of Basiji forces  fired a gun at Sahar, an Iranian transgender, in the Abbasabad Street of  Tehran.  Sahar was hit in the shoulder and was taken to hospital by her  friends.  Once she is out of hospital, however, her safety is not  assured.

According to another report, on Wednesday October 14, Iranian  transgender Mahsa was knifed by two motorcyclists at an intersection in  Tehran.  Her lung injured, Mahsa was taken to hospital by a friend.   So far no one knows who attacked her. We asked one of our representatives in  Tehran to see Mahsa at hospital, but she is not allowed to accept visitors  now. Our representative did talk to her by phone and reported that she may be  well enough for release from hospital in the near term. 

[Read more →]

hbeftmwu9n

from the audre lorde project

Since 2005, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) communities in New York City have been urging the Human Resources Administration (HRA) to address the rampant Transphobia, discrimination, and harassment that Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people in New York City face when seeking to access welfare/public assistance.

In June of 2008, a week before the Fourth Annual Trans Day of Action (annual March organized by TransJustice of the Audre Lorde Project) which was set to protest at HRA headquarters, HRA officials agreed to meet with TransJustice to hear community concerns.  After this first meeting with HRA in the Fall of 2008,      TransJustice formed a committee of organizations including the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Housing Works, Queers for Economic Justice and others, to develop a HRA procedure to address transphobic discrimination at HRA. To date HRA has not approved this new procedure. [Read more →]

A really great piece is reposted below and all readers of qwb are encouraged to check this piece out! Also reference some other qwb written postings: Viability of an LGB”T” movement and Tyranny of the State and TransLiberation.

By Alexander Lee and MC Ettinger @ LeftTurn.org

People often fail to realize that although the contemporary gay rights movement is currently utilizing much of its resources for marriage rights, it is a movement that has rebellious, even revolutionary roots. Even fewer people realize the crucial role that multi-racial, mostly working class, transgender and gender variant people played in this history.

The notorious shoe which set off New York’s now famous Stonewall Riot in 1969 was slung by the legendary Sylvia Rivera, a Latina transgender woman. One year later, Rivera co-founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which organized transwomen of color in New York until the mid-90s. Rivera was also a member of the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican revolutionary group that was part of the growing anti-imperialist movement in the US at the time. Now deceased, Rivera was an agitator and activist who pioneered gay and women’s rights issues within the Young Lords, alongside other powerful anti-imperialist women of color. She continued to be very active in the radical queer liberation movement in New York City until her death.

The context in which Sylvia Rivera and other transwomen of color rebelled that day was as a response to intensive police profiling and targeting. However, the gay movement has forgotten that our roots of activism came out a moment of anti-imperialist consciousness and action characterized by the Anti-Imperialist Movement, the Women’s Liberation Movement, and the Black Power Movement of that era. While the words to describe the conditions have changed over the years, gay people, led by those of us most visibly challenging the gender oppressive conception of “normality” and “decency” which privileged whiteness and class, were fighting for our civil and human rights against state oppression. [Read more →]

Though not perfect, it’s great to see Massachusetts finally eliminating its barbaric gender marker policy.

January 26, 2009

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) has revised its policy on changing gender markers on Massachusetts drivers’ licenses to more accurately reflect the experience of transition for transgender people.

Now, instead of having to submit medical proof of sex reassignment surgery as well as an amended birth certificate, [Read more →]

PROVIDENCE, RI

Show your solidarity with the uprisings in Athens, and the people of Gaza.
We are planning a funeral procession in solidarity with all victims of war
and state violence on Saturday, January 10th, through the streets of
Providence. We will speak at various sites of state violence throughout
the city. Anyone interested in planning or speaking please come to a
planning meeting Monday January 5th at 6pm. Email whatqueer@gmail.com for
info, even if you can’t make it on the 5th.

Called for by What Queer?! a radical queer collective in Providence.
Please forward widely.

Kelli Busey, friend and comrade of QWB has a great posting, “HRC Shameful Transham Day of Self Promotion” posted over at her blog site, planetransgender. Keli begins her piece by saying,

“17 Years And Counting . . .
We’ve Waited Far Too Long Already!”

It was 1991 when Connecticut’s sexual orientation anti-discrimination bill was passed, without trans inclusion.  It was 2008 when the Connecticut Supreme Court recognized Marriage Equality.  It is quickly becoming 2009 and the Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Communities still lack basic human rights protections in Connecticut! The time has come for TransEquality in ‘09.
=====================================================
It truly is a time to Rejoice and bask in the sunshine of our Marriage Equality victory. This has been a long hard road to Equality that has been traveled by many brave and dedicated people from the many spectrums of the LGBT/Queer/Ally communities.  And no doubt many of us are [Read more →]

forwarded from our comrades at rha

Kailah Hayes, a client of Sylvia’s Place, was arrested yesterday by officers from the 77th precinct and charged with assault for defending herself against a trans-phobic attack. She is being held pending arraignment in Brooklyn, under the name Anthony Hayes. Yesterday, two of Kailah’s roommates, both trans women, were returning home when they passed an adult woman, a boy, and a group of little girls. The boy began yelling “that’s a man, that’s a man” at them. One of the trans women asked the adult to tell the boy to stop, and they continued home. Shortly after, the same group came up to them in front of the building, and the boy again started yelling “that’s a man” and then went across the street and began pointing them out to a couple of adult women in the van, who were staring and laughing at the trans women. [Read more →]

Forwarded to QWB by Vanessa Foster Williams (orig posted by her on Trans Political)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Donning The Rose-Colored Glasses

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” - Chinese Proverb

The rumors have been flying for some time, and even recently Donna Rose noted on her blog about meeting with Joe Solmonese with HRC. One might think she’s going there to give them a piece of her mind (or another piece as she’s already made public her opinions post-ENDA).

As it turns out, that’s not the case. A friend of mine there locally reported of the upcoming San Francisco HRC Banquet and its accompanying protest from the bay area’s GLBT community in a show of strength. Of course, we recently received a press release of HRC holding up their current Business Council trans person, Diego Sanchez as speaker (fresh from testimony on Capitol Hill.) It wasn’t the press blurb over Diego that really got my attention, but the report that another trans person was working hard to be the trans keynote there: Donna Rose. Per the note, she was trying to be “the bridge between the two parties” by addressing the banquet. [Read more →]

Boston - QueerToday.com activists and allies will protest the annual Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Dinner at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on October 25 at 5pm.

The group is working to build a coalition of trans and queer activists, anti-war activists, and women’s rights activists to protest HRC’s lack of grassroots coalition building, support for pro-war and anti-choice candidates, and support of a non-inclusive version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA).

“It’s time to show HRC what real solidarity looks like,” said [Read more →]

Click on over to QueerToday.com to view Castro in the Streets Video–HRC Protest Left Out Party. This video is on view now by clicking here.  MANY THANKS to QueerToday for this.