This is big news and good news for transgender Coloradans. The dominoes keep falling, one by one…note that this even covers surgery, but SRS is not specifically called out.
Kaiser Permanente now covering transgender services in plans – The Denver Post.
New Zealand has recently been looking more and more like a great place to live. Not only is it an incredibly scenic place (being the set for the Lord of the Rings and many other films), but they recently passed a same-sex marriage law and other major anti-discrimination laws helping transgender persons.
Here they are taking action even though there are only 9 transgender prisoners in their prison system. Note that this new policy doesn’t care if you are pre-op, non-op, or post-op.
Dr. Heather Ann Clements had some news to give to her students – that she was transgender. It’s scarily reminiscent of how I broke the news of my transition to my UMKC students. Except in my case I was welcomed, and in Clements – now Heath Adam Ackley – he fears being fired for being a transgender man. However, the University has not come out and said anything negative in public, so we will just have to wait and see.
Transgender Azusa Pacific University professor reveals male identity | Mail Online.
Really, I can’t do much justice to this article by trying to summarize it here. It’s a lengthy and comprehensive piece by the American Bar Association on the current status and developments in the field of accommodating transgender kids in schools, sports, and life.
I found this part here telling, about the discrimination faced by Nicole Maines.
By the time Nicole was in the third grade, according to the complaint, Asa C. Adams Elementary School recognized her as a female student and outlined how the situation would be handled in an education plan. She was placed in the girls’ chorus section, and it was agreed that she should use the girls’ restroom.
Shortly after Nicole started the fifth grade, a male classmate twice followed her into the girls’ restroom and called Nicole a fag, according to the complaint. He also disputed her use of the girls’ restroom. The boy was sent to the principal’s office, Levi says.
The boy reportedly entered the girls’ restroom again, and the school determined that the student’s grandfather, who was his guardian, encouraged him, according to Levi and the lawyer for the school district, Melissa Hewey.
So some hateful old geezer brainwashed his grandson. Classy.
The boy was suspended and removed from Nicole’s class, Hewey says. The boy’s grandfather, Paul Melanson, complained to the Orono School Committee, with support from the Christian Civic League of Maine.
Of course, because bullying, harassment, and slurs are the sorts of things Jesus would approve of. Wait, what?
Melanson also filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. Prohibiting his grandson from using the girls’ bathroom or the faculty one like Nicole did, he argued, violated the boy’s right to public accommodation under the state human rights act.
Shame there weren’t punitive fines for frivolous actions.
“It ticks me right off that you’re letting a kid run the whole system,” Melanson told the Bangor Daily News. “Little boys do not belong in the little girls’ room, and vice versa. This isn’t just about my kid. A lot of children have come up to me and said that this isn’t right.”
Oh, the children have ruled it isn’t right. Well, that convinces me – everyone, back in the closet!
After the Maines’ lawsuit, a state senator proposed a modification to the state human rights act that would shield public institutions and businesses from discrimination complaints involving transgender people and bathrooms, showers and locker rooms. The proposal failed.
Yeah…feelin’ the hate here.
If you want to dig into the deeper details of what transgender youth are facing today, take a read.
For young people, transgender life means stress and confusion over restrooms, sports and harassment.
Really, we’re going to be seeing two spates of these sorts of stories from now on. In the fall, it will be homecoming queens and kings. In the spring, it will be proms.
In today’s case, we have young Kasey Caron, a transboy who wanted to run for homecoming king at his school. Of course the school board went on RED ALERT, and decided that they MUST DO SOMETHING TO STOP THE TRANSGENDER MENACE. Or whatever. Anyhow, Kasey can still be on the ballot as queen, and he says if elected he will make the best of it – good for him!
Is it even possible to express how awesome this is? What’s more, she had full faculty support as well, unlike what we’re used to reading about.
There is a short video at the link, and I do object to them referring to her as a “transgender,” as it’s a adjective and not a noun…
Transgender Teen, Cassidy Campbell, Named Homecoming Queen in Huntington Beach | KTLA 5.
Guess who’s back – the National Organization for Marriage, which of course has proven they are an anti-LGBT group, and not a group interested solely in the “sanctity” of “traditional” marriage. I recall posting that they were such and being shouted down by people who said no, they don’t have anything against gays and lesbians, they just think they don’t deserve the human right of marriage…now they’re getting involved with transgender schoolchildren. Nope, nothing wrong here!
Prop. 8 players join bid to repeal transgender law | www.ktvu.com.
This is a case which I admit worries me a little. The background is that in 1999, the Texas Courts ruled that transsexuals are always to be considered the gender which was listed on their original birth certificate. Kansas referenced this decision from Texas in their own case, In re Estate of Gardiner, 42 P.3d 120 (Kan. 2002), which held the same.
The reason that this concerns me is that I personally get the benefit of being a legally married trans lesbian. If this is reversed, it calls into question the validity of all trans lesbian and trans gay marriages in Texas.
Do people still not get it, even in 2013? The university simply is not going to win, they’re going to lose money and time and public relations cred, and for what? So they can torment this poor woman who simply wants to be able to go to the proper toilet? Words fail tonight.
There is a short video segment at the link below.
ACLU files federal complaint on behalf of transgender PTEC student denied bathroom access | wtsp.com.
The meat and potatoes of the story is below – it’s great news, and another precedent-building case for all of us!
A Rapid City grocery store has settled with an employee who claimed she was fired for being transgender.
Cori McCreery says she was fired in 2010 from Don’s Valley Market after she announced she was transitioning from being a man to being a woman. McCreery had worked at the store on and off for five years and at one point had held a supervisory position.
McCreery filed a discrimination complaint and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated. The EEOC says the store has agreed to pay McCreery $50,000 and apologize to her.
The store also must develop an anti-discrimination policy and provide anti-discrimination training annually for employees.
via KELOLAND.com | SD Store Settles With Fired Transgender Employee.
OK, now a bit of skin…and what skin, too. Nicole, you are really working your transition, holy crap! The before and after photos are stunning, although there is a significant age difference between the two.
I try not to post many of these articles. For one thing, they can seriously depress me, and can get me into a mode of thinking that we really still have so much further to go. For another, I try to post mainly positive articles which show transwomen succeeding. However, I never advocate ignoring the hate and the crimes committed on us, and two women murdered in one week has made me feel like yes, we need to stop and think about what it really means to be transgender.
Melony Smith, a transgender woman who press reports identify as Vanhxay Inthichack, was found dead inside a motel room last week in Baldwin Park, just east of Los Angeles, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. An autopsy revealed she had been beaten to death, prompting detectives to rule the case a homicide.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau confirmed it had taken Stephen Gonzales into custody on drug charges and was preparing to file murder charges against the 28-year-old from West Covina.
A 31-year-old transgender woman, identified in media reports as Shaun Hartley, was found dead inside an abandoned house in Baton Rouge Thursday. The local coroner declared that Hartley had died as a result of blunt trauma to the head, neck, and torso.
Trans Women Beaten to Death in Los Angeles, Baton Rouge | Advocate.com.
This story is really strange, I must admit. If even a quarter of the complaints are true, Pitt sure seems like a trans-hostile place. And if they gave the plaintiff’s name to the FBI over a bomb threat…I hope he wins a few score million.
Pitt faces suit from man questioned about threats – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
I was asked why this was relevant, and why focus on someone who is rich enough to have “everything they ever wanted.” The point of posting is to illustrate the tremendous diversity of transgender persons, and to highlight that no, we are not dysfunctional misfits – we work hard, we’re better educated than the average American, and we even have some stellar successes in the business world – like Jennifer Pritzker.
Jennifer Pritzker Becomes First Transgender Billionaire – Forbes.
Pretty cool – Penny Ellis, writing under her boy name of Peter Ellis, has written a novel about a transwoman detective. I confess to being amused that copies of the book are being sold at the Leominster Tourist Information Centre. Having visited innumerable English towns and their respective tourist centres, I can just imagine “Here’s a book about our Roman ruins, here’s a book about the county wax festival, here’s a book about a transgender private detective…no dears, it’s fiction, we don’t get many serial killers in this county…well, there was Fergus last year…”
When I read the book (it’s on my wish list) I’ll post a review. From the article:
Peter Ellis’s first crime thriller Painted Ladies follows Jasmine Frame – a pre-op transsexual on the trail for a knife-killer.
Her own sense of identity is tested in the search to find the murderer, and Peter’s attempt to tackle transgenderism in the novel stems from his own experiences. … “I thought it might be useful to make the central character someone who is transsexual and use the novel to present the transition to a place where she wants to be,” Peter said.
It took 10 years for Painted Ladies to come together but this isn’t the last of Jasmine Frame and Peter is already half way through the next book with plans for another three or more.