This posting was found on Kelli Busey’s site planetransgender. Read all about this latest slap to our Trans Sisters and a slap to our true spirit. To Kelli and all of our people Queers Without Borders stands up and OUT and in our Queer Spirit march with you on July 26th. Link here for the full article that is from the Dallas Voice.  Link here for planetransgender. The posting is posted July 18, 2008 and contains an interesting video. Have a good laugh with it.

A big thank you to Kelli for this posting. Give our support to our sisters in Dallas. We march with you on July 26th, 2008.

  If Queers Without Borders could fly off to San Francisco we would be there for the protest against HRC’s annual dinner. We will be there in spirit, in solidarity sending out our good vibs for justice and freedom for all. We will be in the street with the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, And Castro 4 All, SF Labor Council, Pride at Work at what these groups are calling the “Left OUT Party.” I found this information on Kelli Busey’s site  (see link for planetransgender on our side bar) and she had a link to an article from San Francisco’s Alternative Online News. The article by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca can be found here. There are many fine articles stating QWB’s position on HRC. To sum it up in a nut shell, Fuck HRC!!!

“Nashawn Williams Addresses The Media” posted by Kevin over at the Undercurrent Blog is a video in 3 parts of the press conference held last Saturday at Charter Oak Cultural Center. Please click here. Nashawn William is a 16 year old black youth who was attacked by a gang of whites in Plainfield while waiting for a school bus in October 2007.  Police are trying to close the case, no witnesses or arrests.  Click here for a report from Frank O’Gorman on QWB’s blog.

QWB thanks Kevin of the Hartford Undercurrent for this video.

We Keep giving Insurance Companies 

-MORE-

They keep giving us less.

Where is all the money going? 

Join healthcare advocates, policy makers, activists, and allies for a Roving Demonstration.

DATE: Thursday July 24, 2008

Time: 3:00 PM

[Read more →]

Wearing signs that said, “NO ATTACK ON IRAN”, 200 +protesters poured into Grand Central Station at the heart of rush hour. The protesters FROZE in place for a few minutes and then erupted in shouts of

“NO ATTACK ON IRAN!!!!!!!”

If you work hard, you deserve a secure retirement. And no one would suggest that Hartford’s retired teachers, paraprofessionals, police and firefighters didn’t work hard. Of course they did.

But Mayor Eddie Perez wants to slash the health benefits that retirees bargained for while they were working. Retirees are seeing their insurance premiums double and even triple!

Hartford WFP Councilman Larry Deutsch has been the real champion on this issue. Monday evening, Councilman Deutsch will introduce a resolution to put a 90 day moratorium on any changes to retiree health benefits, to give retirees the time to figure out their options, and to limit increases in retiree insurance premiums to a reasonable amount.

But we need you to join us. It’s time to stand up for retirees.

Join us for a rally for retirees:
Monday at 5:30 PM at Hartford City Hall.
Click here to invite a friend to the rally. [Read more →]

Where to begin when trying to knock tricksters off the pedestal that they sit up upon.  Many of our readers and those in our e-mail circles know about the recent flap with the Metroline. Joe DaBrow the editor wrote in the Metroline’s so called PRIDE issue these words. “Stonewall was not simply an activist protest where they went home afterward and partied. They were beaten and dragged away to jail by the police. It was a time when fag bashing was an accepted method of controlling homos and keeping them out of the neighborhood. There were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were.” 

In a recent Metroline article dated late June, Mr. DaBrow then tries to say that he meant he was talking about the first night of the Stonewall Rebellion. The first night of the fight back June 27, 1969. He even puts this qualifying statement in all capital letters. VERY FIRST NIGHT. Mr. DaBrow then backs up his statement by saying that he talked with the President and founding member of the Stonewall Vets who remains nameless. (Mr. Williamson Henderson was the president up until July 1st.) Mr DaBrow claims his source told him that there were no drag queens in Stonewall the first night. (Mr. DaBrow claims this but didn’t find in necessary to put it in quotes in the article.)  Mr.DaBrow claims a lot of other things in his ramble as he attempts to smear the reputation of my good friend and comrade Jerimarie and to set himself and the bar rag Metroline as the oracle of all things LGBT. The Metroline’s recurring argument about whether drag queens and trans people were a part of the Stonewall rebellion or not really reflects a long standing phenomenon in “gay” history which is the discomfort of many gay men and lesbians with transgender, transvestites, drag queens, etc. So, this almost annual argument is a small reflection of the continuing desire for all trans people to be fully respected and recognized by many of us and the continuing desire by the homo-normative and somewhat straight laced gay men and lesbians to minimize or outright deny any presence of contributions by drag queens or other trans people to the early “gay” rights movement. And today claims are made by the Metroline that they respect and include Transpeople now, yet it has an unconvincing “ring” to it still.  [Read more →]

Forgot to mention in my previous post about the Providence IWW action that it would be wonderful to get a big carpool (dare I say, caravan?) to the protest next month. I will also send a note out to other relevant listservs, but I hope we can rally some righteous queers against the fucking pigs in N. Provi. If ever you needed a reason for why they get called that, just take a glimpse of Alex’s leg. Fuck the pigs. The only people they protect are the rich.

To all of our friends outside of the Connecticut area in the U.S., and around the world who read the QWB blog a little explaining is in order about what is going on here and what has gotten QWB steaming. The Metroline is a GL magazine that is the oldest GL magazine in New England. Over the years folks in the GLBT community have had trouble with them over one thing or another. One time it was over the abundance of half naked young men on the cover and the bar rag quality of their reporting, and another time over their disrespect for the trans community. Once again around and around we go and we find that the Metroline is now once again displaying half naked young men on the cover and disrespecting the Trans community. The former editor explained to me that the advertisers (mostly bars) who pay the bills wanted to see only half naked young men, no women and no politics.  Another very political person who is much respected within all circles of the movement told me that the Metroline informed them that the group could no longer have any free space to publish updates on their important work since the Metroline was going back to being a skin variety magazine. Recently the Metroline’s editor, Mr. Joe DaBrow in a letter from the editor had this to say. [Read more →]

On August 11 2007, while marching in solidarity with our union
sisters and brothers of the Industrial Workers of the world (IWW) 460/640
campaign in NYC, the Providence, RI IWW branch was attacked by the out of
control North Providence Police force. During the attack Providence IWW
member Alexandra Svoboda was brutally maimed by officers of the NPPD and
arrested. Jason Friedmutter, also of the Providence IWW branch was
arrested as well. Alex has faced a long road to recovery that she is still
on. Alex and Jason both face dubious criminal charges that the City of
North Providence has drummed up in order to thwart Alex from receiving
justice and to protect their violent, inexperienced police force.
Included in this article is a brief, but all encompassing account of
August 11, ‘07, Alex’s injuries and recovery, Alex and Jason’s legal
status at the time of this writing.
[Read more →]

As a follow up to the prior piece on the call for a Transforming Justice Northeast, I am posting the conference minutes from the 2007 SF conference. Great reading and vital work by some great activists! Perhaps if the current day Metroline carried pieces like this it would be worth reading rather than wiping your butt with

Transforming Justice

ENDING THE IMPRISONMENT & CRIMINALIZATION OF TRANSGENDER & GENDER NON-CONFORMING PEOPLE

In April 2006, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in New York City contacted LGBT, prisoner rights, and human rights activists and attorneys across the country to create a national conversation about transgender imprisonment issues. Over the next year and a half, a vibrant coalition of local and national organizations came together to plan Transforming Justice, the first-ever national gathering of LGBTIQQ former prisoners, activists, attorneys, and community members to develop national priorities towards ending the criminalization and imprisonment of transgender communities.

The planning process had two main components: the first was a Local Coordinating Committee led by formerly imprisoned transgender people along with allies and representatives from the TGI Justice Project, the Trans/Gender Variant in Prison Committee, Critical Resistance, Justice Now, Community United Against Violence (CUAV), [Read more →]

I had saved this article in my archives and just recently re-read. I am posting here for others to read. Piece is by michelle o’brien

Reading Trans-Health/
Reading Race War
Trans health organizing and neocolonial capital
Michelle O’Brien, May 2003
Thanks goes out to the organizers of Philadelphia’s 2 nd Annual Trans Health
Conference, especially Jaci Adams and Rick Feeley. Gratitude to Dean Spade
for much of my analysis. And serious props to the girls working the streets,
from San Salvador to London, Bangkok to Philly.
Recently I was involved in the organizing of Philadelphia’s 2 nd Annual
Trans-Health Conference this May of 2003. Drawing about a hundred and
fifty people, the one-day free conference offered a space for transgender
people, health care providers, social service workers and trans allies to
share knowledge, develop relationships and address the ongoing
concerns of affordable, respectful and accessible healthcare for trans
communities. The small conference organizing committee reflected a
mixed, cross-racial and cross-class group of trans people and close
community allies. Several of us had worked closely together in organizing
a memorial for Nizah Morris, a trans woman murdered in Philadelphia in
December.
In this article [Read more →]

See also Anti-Gay Fascists Successfully Confronted at Chicago’s Gay Pride Parade

[Read more →]

The following is a reposting of a great blog article (containing much truth and passion) from a dear friend and trans activist in the movement ~ Dru (Love ya Dru!)

The time has finally come for Trans Pride. It’s been a long journey since I posted the initial email in late September calling for a march and rally. http://femulate.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html. I was interviewed yesterday by the person doing a documentary on the march. It was cathartic for me to be able to tell my story. I made it about my own journey through my own fear in this organizing process. How terrified I felt to call for visibility in the trans community - specifically in this trans community. It was interesting to deal with unchecked transphobia from the LG community - which felt like “get back in your place…or…we already include you (by having one token trans speaker at our pride - which ironically turned out to be me this year - token ‘Trans political speaker,” Noho pride); and LGB people who were not used to dealing with a trans person with self respect, who doesn’t degrade themselves around them or allow them to talk down to them in a paternalistic manner. That was a shift. It was also hard to deal with the city of Northampton… explaining to the police, Mayor’s office, DPW, why we need our own separate day and march. “You already have a march - isn’t it LGBT? - why do you need another one?” I was asked. It was shocking and uncomfortable for many to see trans people asking, rather demanding, their own day. [Read more →]

cross posting from jason’s great website blackandpink.org

This is Gael from Sylvia Rivera Law Project & Reg from Critical Resistance and Queers for Economic Justice. We’re calling out to folks interested in being part of the planning committee for a Transforming Justice East Coast regional gathering.

First, a little about Transforming Justice. Back in October 2007, Transforming Justice brought together over 200 formerly imprisoned transgender people and allies to work together to:

• Build a shared conversation and analysis among the LGBT, anti-prison, and prisoner rights movements about the root causes of imprisonment, poverty, and criminalization in transgender communities;
• Prioritize and build leadership of transgender and gender non-conforming people most impacted by prisons, poverty, and policing;
• Create space to share and develop strategies to end the cycles of imprisonment, criminalization, and poverty in our communities.

A number of participants from the Northeast region who attended the gathering Transforming Justice on October 13th & 14th in Oakland California have been talking about organizing a regional gathering similar to the national one maybe some where in New York, New Jersey or Philadelphia. [Read more →]

An injunction has been filed against the closing of 2 branch libraries in Hartford.

On Monday July 14 there will be at least 2 events: A rally at 2:30 pm at Mark Twain School
in the Northend of Hartford (more info below) and an opportunity to voice protest at the
City Council meeting that evening. [Read more →]

Stonewall Rebellion and the tasks ahead

We reprint this article from Workers World of June 27, 1975, as part of our archival series. In 1976, the writer, Bob McCubbin, published the first edition of his ground-breaking book, now titled “The Roots of Lesbian & Gay Oppression: A Marxist View” and available from LeftBooks.com.

[Read more →]

WHO: Political Music Video critical of governments in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DRedNC6p4U

Dear Friends,

*

The recent votes in congress to give Bush $165 billion more for Iraq and also to authorize warrantless wiretapping make it clear that we urgently need to elect real progressive candidates, not conservative Democrats and corporate pawns in order to protect our rights and ensure peace.

In the meantime, we must keep pressuring the representatives we have now to avoid yet another disastrous war- this time with Iran.

Next week the House of Representatives is likely to vote on Resolution 362, also known as the Iran War Resolution. [Read more →]

For Immediate Release: Sat June 21, 2008
Contact: Ralowe T. Ampu, media rep (415) 863-3249

Bay Area NJ4 Solidarity
freenj4@yahoo.com
(510) 400-8462
http://freenj4.wordpress.com
Terrain Dandridge, one of the New Jersey 4, released after 2 years of incarceration; first day free will be spent meeting with Angela Davis and the Queer Community in San Francisco
Appeal Update for the case of the New Jersey 4

Terrain Dandridge’s appeal has been successful and she should be released from Albion Correctional Facility as early as this Monday, June 23, 2008! Terrain Dandridge’s case was overturned, all her charges were dropped and her record has been cleared.. Renata Hill is awaiting a new trial of the events concerning the night of August 18, 2006, where her and seven other young black lesbians from Newark, New Jersey faced a homophobic assault in New York’s East Village. [Read more →]

For more information check out the posting here.  *Spread the word.* Thanks to Dr. Lilly von Marcab for this article and to International at http://www.indybay.org for publication. I found this article on Lesbian Pro this evening. Check them out www.lesbian.pro for loads of good stuff.

New Haven, Conn. –This article is from www.deletetheborder.org.  A summary as written: When Abel Sanchez went to check on his brother-in-law, he was issued a ticket for interfering with a police officer. When he left police custody, he needed to go to a hospital, according to a civil rights complaint filed in federal court Monday. The affidavit alleges Sanchez was shoved to the ground, punched, kicked, handcuffed, and Maced in the back of a squad car by patrol officer Dennis O’Connell, before being taken to a warehouse and cleaned up by other cops. Read more of this story here.

The Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective sent us this notice. For anyone living with HIV/AIDS please take the time and fill out the survey.

CAEAR Coalition and the National Association of People with AIDS are sponsoring a survey to gather information about access to medical care and support services for people living with HIV and AIDS. This survey is one part of a coordinated effort (surveys, town hall meetings, etc.) with some of our national partners to ensure that the voices of people living with HIV/AIDS guide advocacy efforts on behalf of the Ryan White Program. [Read more →]

A Tribute

“Songs in a Miner Key”

Elizabeth Sipos and Dan Thomson

As we enter the month of June celebrating the 39th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, we should take this time to reflect on the State of our Activism. The following is a video clip from the KQED documentary Outrage ‘69 (Series: A question of equality) that discusses a brief historical perspective of the Gay Liberation Front and the transformation to the beginnings of the reformist single issue, white male dominated, Gay Activist Alliance. Also linked below (2 pages) is the letter from Huey P. Newton to his Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters about the Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements. This letter is a remarkable evolution in stance of the Black Panther Party’s recognition of the need for a united front of oppresssed groups in forming a revolutionary movement and society!

[Read more →]

The following clip is excerpted from a wonderful KQED series titled The Question of Equality. This clip is from part one of this series: “Out Rage 69″ that talks about Stonewall, the Gay Liberation Front, the GAA, and the movement from a multi-issue queer movement to a single issue gay movement that excludes drag queens, people of color, street people and anyone not fitting the white gay mentality of the GAA. This clip presents a view into the backlash by gays and lesbians against drag queens and street transvestites and has some excellent interviews with Sylvia Rivera as well as her storming the stage at NYC Pride 1973, following Jean O’Leary’s vicious attack on Transvestites and Drag Queens. ENJOY!

Click to view in standalone player

Chisholm ‘72: Unbought & Unbossed.

Thursday, June 19, 2008, 6:30

Faith Congregational Church

2030 Main Street, Hartford Ct.

This movie is about Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and her campaign to become the democratic party’s presidential nominee in 1972. Come join us to honor her legacy with a screening of this historical documentary. The film will be followed by a community conversation with community leaders.

[Read more →]

ALERT: First HRC attempts to marginalize the Transgender Community and now Metroline is quick on their heels of Trans Oppression! The current issue of Metroline has an Editorial by the Editor Joseph DaBrow that revises Stonewall History (4th paragraph) by stating that at Stonewall “there were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were.” Has Mr. DaBrow and the publisher of Metroline John Crowley never heard of Sylvia Rivera or Marsha P. Johnson both well know and prominent Stonewall Veterans? Perhaps if Mr. DaBrow and Crowley attended our New England Trans Pride, they would have heard Miss Majors, a Stonewall Veteran, as well as many other speakers remember the critical participation of our Transgender (i.e. Drag Queens or Transvestites in 1969 vernacular) comrades at Stonewall. Or to learn that the theme of this first ever New England Trans Pride was: “Remember Stonewall? That was us!” Or perhaps they never listened to Pacifica Radio’s excellent audio documentary: “Remembering Stonewall.” [Read more →]

BULLETIN: Cuban 5 appeal denied, protests set

June 4—As the Cuban Five near the end of their 10th year of unjust
imprisonment, the 11th Circuit Court denied their latest appeal today. A
three-judge panel upheld all convictions but ruled that the Miami trial judge
must re-sentence Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, and Fernando
González, who are serving life sentences.

The Cuban Five were jailed for monitoring Miami-based CIA-backed
paramilitaries, who planned violent attacks on the Five’s homeland, Cuba.
Meanwhile Luis Posada Carriles, who in 1976 organized the first mid-air bombing
of a passenger airliner, killing 73 people aboard Cubana 455, walks free in
Miami.

Demonstrations demanding immediate freedom for the five heroes begin on
Thursday, June 5. Make your voice heard! For more information on demonstrations
see www.freethefive.org, www.antiterroristas.cu and www.freethefiveny.org.

Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php

Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2008/us/cuban_5_0612/

QUEERS WITHOUT BORDERS (QWB) 

Who we are. 

A small group of Queers activists who are active in the anti-war movement began meeting several years back to bring a queer presence to the many movements that we as individuals were involved in. Our name Queers Without Borders was taken from the slogan, “We are here, there and everywhere.”  It logically follows in our mind then that all issues are our issues. We stand with all who fight oppression. We work to build a new day of justice and a culture of peace. 

Over the years we have actively help to plan and to participate in all sorts of activities.  We firmly believe that for the lgbt community to not take a multi-issue stand is foolish and unwise and any single issue stand denies our true heritage. The following is just some of the events that we worked on. These are not listed in chronological order. [Read more →]

Demand Freedom for Our Political Prisoners and POWs! Jericho 10th Anniversary National March to the United Nations, NYC, Friday October 10, 2008. Followed by evening concert to benefit the prisoners! For details visit the National Jericho Movement website.

QWB supports the 10th Anniversary Jericho October 10th March on the United Nations for Freedom for Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War! QWB signs on to the Jericho pledge which proclaims: We understand that political prisoners and prisoners of war are our own freedom fighters imprisoned for believing and acting on ideals that are shared by people who struggle for a free and just society. We understand that our own freedom to resist comes in part from the sacrifices of our prisoners and that it is our responsibility to work towards their freedom. We think this march will be an opportunity to carry our movement forward! We stand in solidarity with the Jericho Movement on its 10th anniversary in the struggle! We stand in solidarity with the October 10th Coalition of NYC and we know that actions speak louder than words! Download Flyer(english) Download Flyer(spanish)

Note: The following remarks are by Jerimarie Liesegang.  Jerimarie is the Director of Ct. TransAdvocacy Coalition and a founding member of Queers Without Borders, Hartford Ct. When the city announced that it was going to correct the problem Jerimarie chose not to give her speech. I publish it here as it is a damn good speech and shows our willingness to correct this situation. Thanks Jerimarie for your leadership on issues affecting our people and many others.

It’s a Travesty.

As one enters New York Harbor the Statue of Liberty proudly proclaims, “Give us your poor, tired, your huddled masses longing to be free.” As one approaches the front doors of the Hartford Public Library in a wheelchair you see the proclamation: “Give us your poor, your tired, your homeless, your sexual predators..and those in wheelchairs GO AROUND BACK for your are NOT Welcomed through these front doors!”

[Read more →]

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL ACCESS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Organizations including ADAPT of Connecticut, Queers  Without Borders, Connecticut TransAdvocacy and other activists will gather at Hartford City Hall on Friday May 30th at 12:00 noon. We will be gathering to speak out about the lack of accessibility for people in wheel chairs through the front doors of Hartford Public Library.

Seven months ago Claude Holcomb of ADAPT of Connecticut began this effort to get the main doors of the Hartford Public Library accessible for all. Seven months later we bring this unsolved problem to the steps of City Hall. The work hasn’t been started and for seven months we have been given the run-a-round by employee’s in Constituent Services, Public Works and by the Director of Hartford Public Libraries. We have been told by these same people to “go around to the back door.” Hardly words to use in this day and age. Included in the new construction is a beautiful new ramp but once up the ramp a person in a wheel chair can not get in the front doors. While the city stalls for 7 months, a power button could have been in place by now.

NO MORE STALLING!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Our Demands are:

1. A power door opener must be installed at the front doors of the library.

2. This work must begin by July 1, 2008.

3. We must have in our hands a copy of the work order with a start date.

4. They mayor of Hartford must sign a letter committing to a start date.

For other QWB postings on this subject click here and here.

**note: Today I went to look again at the doors. Contrary to what Ms. McMullen is stating  in her comment on the Undercurent site, there is a good 2 feet of metal above the wing doors on each side of the revolving door. So I  don’t see what the problem is. Unless of course its this “lets play a game” talk, and she is talking about the inside foyer where there is a glass wall and glass doors to get into the closed coffee or party area that the library doesn’t use. Perhaps that is what she is thinking, we want to get in and have a cup of non-existent coffee.  Hardly MS. McMullen that isn’t what we are talking about and you know it, the mayor knows it and the activist community knows it! Let’s stop this game playing and get the problem fixed. **Richard Nelson, Queers Without Borders, Hartford Ct.

The average gas price in Connecticut is $4.06 per gallon — prices in Hartford might be even higher. So what is Big Oil’s solution? Not cutting into their record multi-billion dollar profits to reduce your pain at the pump. Instead, oil execs testified before Congress Wednesday that their solution is to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Please act now to protect the Arctic Refuge»

Our own government estimates that drilling in the Arctic will only affect gas prices by two pennies per gallon … in twenty years. But our polar bears could be extinct in less than 50 years.

If you believe polar bears and their Arctic Refuge home are worth more than two cents per gallon, tell your senators to protect the Arctic Refuge permanently»

From the Care2 and The Petition Team.

The Demands:

1. Install a power door opener at the Front door of Hartford Public Library.

2. Work must begin by July 1st, 2008.

3. We must have in our hands a copy of the work order with date of start.

4. The Mayor of Hartford Eddie Perez must sign a letter committing to a start date.

On Tuesday May 27th Claude Holcomb of ADAPT will once again go to city hall with the demands that were drawn up at the meeting. We will also be pursuing legal remedies with supportive attorneys and reaching out to the anti-discrimination coalitions.

On May 30th at high noon the coalition that has formed under ADAPT’s leadership to address this problem, will hold a press conference at City Hall. 

[Read more →]

“From the moment Nancy Pelosi became speaker she said impeachment is off the table. My slogan is as long as I am on the table, impeachment is on the table.” To regain our moral authority the American people have to make a statement that we don’t agree with what our president has done.”

“The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is suppose to be about non-discrimination right?” Yet they left out the T.  How is that not discrimination? It seems like discrimination to me, if she were fully representing the gay community’s interest Pelosi would have remembered the T.”

The above quotes are by Shirley Golub a lesbian who is running against Nancy Pelosi in the democrat primary in San Francisco. The article here was published in the Bay Area Reporter on May 15, 2008.

QWB would like to take this one step further and ask that Mr. Bush and all his cronies be tried for war crimes. 

Khadijah Farmer who describes herself as not the most feminine looking was asked to leave a woman’s restroom in the West Village NYC by a bouncer because she looked too much like a man. Ms. Farmer showed the bouncer her state issues ID which identified her as a woman but the bouncer insisted she get out. The group of people she was with were also asked to leave the restaurant Caliente Cab Company.

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund filed suit in October in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the restaurant asserting that Ms. Farmer was a victim of gender discrimination. The Legal Defense and Education Fund took up the suit because it touched upon many issues that transgender people commonly face and could set in the Fund’s words a “very interesting legal precedent. According to Michael D. Silverman the executive director of the defense fund this case, “really straddled the line of gender expression.” Caliente Cab Restaurant decided to negotiate and a settlement was signed last Friday. Ms Farmer will receive $35,000 and the restaurant also agreed to pay the Fund $15,000. The restaurant also must put in place workplace practices adding gender identity and expression to its corporate non-discrimination policy; to adopt a gender neutral dress code for its employees; and to amend its employee handbook to sate, “persons patronizing or employed at Caliente have the right to use the bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression.”

“Over and Over again we told them, and they still don’t want to listen” my friend Claude Holcomb told me. “I guess they don’t get it”, I responded. Claude is the founder of ADAPT CT. whose site can be found here.  ADAPT has been working for 7 months now in trying to get the city of Hartford and the Hartford Public Library to fix a big mistake.  The city of Hartford built a beautiful addition to the public library. Everything is spanking clean and shiny and up to the minuet with the latest technology. They even put in a fine new ramp to get from street level up to the entrance but guess what? They forgot to make the doors accessible for people in wheel chairs. No button. No automatic door opener. Claude told me that in researching this the cost of a button and automatic door is around $2,000 dollars. Not very much at all. The city says that they can’t put a button because the door is glass. Well I don’t where they have been as many doors with a button are made of glass. In fact where I work we have them. But the thing that makes us the maddest is being told to use the back door. “Go around to the back, that’s accessible.”  Well, let me say this isn’t 1952. To say something like that is rather insulting. I wonder what it feels like to go up the beautiful ramp in your chair and then to be turned around at the door and told to go to the back. About three weeks ago I went down to Constituent Services and talked to a Sue Mc Mullen in the office. She told me that she was waiting to hear from corporation council on what the ADA law says and then could tell me how the city would proceed. Today I put another call in to her. She seemed to talk a good round and round talk, telling me what she thought I would want to hear. At one point she said, that it is only a few people who were complaining. Today May 13 I sent out a e-mail to some of my activist friends in the community about this matter. I have included it in this article. I will update this as more information comes in. All are welcomed to come to the meeting on May 23rd at 4:30 pm. The meeting will be held at 24 Park Place which is Park Place Towers, the 2nd building from the street.

[Read more →]

If you have not already heard, a dangerous thing happened this week that poses a very serious threat to the transgender and allied community, and could potentially impact lesbian, gay, bisexual, and allied people as well.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently appointed Dr. Kenneth Zucker to chair the task force responsible for updating of mental health language and treatment of diagnoses such as Gender Identity Disorder (GID) for the upcoming DSM-V (Diagnostics and Statistics Manual, Fifth Edition).

Don’t let his recent appearance on NPR sounding like a nice guy fool you. At a time when the American Medical Association (AMA) is supporting stopping discriminating against and stigmatizing transgender people, Dr. Zucker is a widely recognized proponent of reparation (”ex-gay”) and aversion therapy for children and youth. These techniques have been proven to be ineffective
at best and–more often–severely damaging to the mental health of people who are LGB or T.

Dr. Zucker holds the fate of our young people in his hands. WE MUST ALL TAKE ACTION to remove Dr. Zucker as well as his cronies from this all-important APA working group, based upon his approach to clinical treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming identity in children & youth.

Please sign this petition to remove the most outrageous members from the DSM-V GID committee, and then the link on to everyone you know: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/412001300

It only takes a moment or two, and your signing could literally save lives. Thanks so much for your help and support.

From,

Michael Woodward

Tucson, Arizona

See also:

http://transactive.blogspot.com/2008/05/dsm-v-kenneth-zucker.html
http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/kenneth-zucker.html
http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2007/05/zucker-and-bradley/
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Dreger/ASB%20paper/Zucker/Zucker%20subverts%20ASB.html

QWB got this leaflet yesterday. Let’s support the Cafeteria Workers of Travelers’ in any way we can.

COULD YOU LIVE ON A CAFETERIA WORKER’S SALARY?

A Cafeteria Worker employed by Aramark, serving food to the employees of Travelers, earns $9.68 an hour. That’s $387.2o a week before taxes!

The average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Hartford is over $700.00 a month. (1)

The average gas price per gallon in Connecticut is $3.83. (2)

After all the bills are paid, would YOU have money left to put food on the table?

Call on Travelers’ Brian Maclean, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President to tell Aramark to Respect its Workers. 860-277-0111.

We Can’t Live on Poverty Wages!

(1) http://www.ct-housing.org

(2) Source: AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report; www.fuelgaugereport.com/sbsavg.asp.

Info: www.unitehere.org

UNITE HERE! Local 217, 860-246-2561