Category — Trans Action

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!!!

A most fantastic day with over 500 queer, trans and other comrades marching through the streets of Northamptom. I will post pics, vids and comments in a day or so, though posting a few simple words I shared with those at the Transgender PRIDE Rally… Btw Mr. Metroline Editor and John Crowley: Miss Major a Stonewall Trans Vet opened the ceremonies (or would you like to revise her hirstory to be an assimilist gay/lesbian Stonewall Vet?)

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 →]

The first New England Transgender PRIDE March and Rally will be held Saturday June 7 in Northampton MA. The event is organized by members of the trans and gender variant community, and their allies with the intent of taking a visible and positive stand for transgender rights. Our own Jerimarie Liesegang will be speaking at the rally along with an impressive line up of others. Click here for details.

From the site: “We seek to educate and build awareness of the movement against gender-based discrimination. We promote self-acceptance and acceptance of our whole identities and lives. We gather to celebrate and affirm our individuality, diversity, and strength.”

Remember Stonewall. That was us!

With all our love and thanks to Sylvia Rivera..

Your spirit still guides us.

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 →]

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

This e-mail was sent out from Jerimarie of Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition and I wanted to share it with all our readers. Jerimarie is also a founding member of Queers Without Borders, Hartford Ct.

 Session Ends…Bill Stalls In House.

Thank you for getting us this far.

Thanks to you we had a remarkable year with HB 5723 An Act Concerning Discrimination. We kicked off this short legislative session with an overwhelming turnout for Trans Lobby Day at the Capital. This was followed by testimony form Child Psychiatrists, Parents, Allies, Trans Folk, Executive Directors and many more that revealed the depth of growing support we have for Trans Equality! The Judiciary vote was an overwhelming bipartisan support for HB5723 and Trans Equality. Your calls, your advocacy and your support has moved more and more legislators in support of HB5723. Unfortunately, this bill was raised in a short session that saw many critical bills being raised as well as a challenging budget issue that time simply was not on our side this year. However, we are already preparing for next years session and your continued support and advocacy will be mandatory for us to secure Equal Rights. We recognize that achieving this equality is not as simple as waking up one morning and reading in the paper that HB5723 was passed. It requires a vital amount of public and personal advocacy, meeting and calling your legislator, mobilizing your friends and neighbors to become advocates and continually educating and increasing the drumbeat that this legislation is not about Special Rights but about Human Rights. [Read more →]

*

[Read more →]

Yesterday at the Transgender Lives Conference Diana who was on a panel titled, “National, State and Commmunity Trans Legislative Advocacy” brought up that during Trans lobby days that were recently held in Washington DC, HRC was no where to be found. Take a click over to The Bilerico Project and read what Marti Abernathey has to say here. 

Just a note to any conference participant: This old queer still doesn’t trust HRC as far as I can throw an elephant.  

Read, Take Action and Forward!

Did you know that transgender individuals in CT can still be fired from their jobs or denied housing simply because of who they are?

A bill now before the CT House of Representatives (HB 5723–An Act Concerning Discrimination) would prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.

Contact your State Representative today to support this bill.

This bill is about simple fairness and deserves to become law.

But opponents of equality are using fear tactics to try and kill this legislation. YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED TODAY!

Take Action!

For more information on this bill and this topic see our webpage on gender identity and expression.

Read, Take Action and Forward!

 Come out on Saturday April 19th 8:00am registration.

Links to specific conference information are:
Conference Workshops: http://conference.transadvocacy.com/?p=12
Conference Timelines: http://conference.transadvocacy.com/blog/?page_id=6
Directions: http://conference.transadvocacy.com/?p=13 [Read more →]

 Click on over to our friends at the Bilerico Project and read all about what are sisters in the Trans community are doing as they get ready for the sleaze balls HRC to come to town. See Monica Roberts report here. A big thank you to Monica for this report. Now anyone who wondered just where this HRC was at will know. Just think calling the police on one’s own people. This mainstream crap just can’t be trusted. If the shit was hitting the fan these folks would turn any of us in just as fast as saying Jack Sprat.  This is just another case of these mainstreamers calling the police on our people. Remember the bashing our comrades in Gay Shame SF got outside of the G&L center.  SHAME ON THESE FOLKS! Read the posting about Bash Back in Chicago and the out of sight comment that was posted. Instead of lending a helping hand to our people they try to shut us down. STOP THEM IN THEIR TRACKS!

Thanks 100 times to the folks out in Houston for coming out and standing up to these creeps. Queers Without Borders stand with our people in Houston and send all good vibes and our RAH, RAH’s to this action. By our actions all over this country let it be known that we do not support HRC and they are not our leaders. This blog has spoken out against HRC since we first began to post and will continue to do so until they go the way of the dinosaur. Our fingers are crossed that more and more people will learn a lesson from this and not repeat the mistake called HRC.

At 4:10 PM Monday the Judiciary Committee voted in favor of HB 5723–An Act Concerning Discrimination, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.  The final Vote Tally sheet will be posted to the CGA site late this evening, though the vote was approximately 32 in favor and only 6 against with strong bipartism support.  And importantly there was no teacher amendment raised.  The bill now moves to the House for consideration. 

Please take a moment to thank your legislator in the Judiciary for their positive vote in support of this bill. For a list of Judiciary members click here.  Most importantly please drop a special thank you to Ranking member and Chairs: Senators John Kissel (R), Andrew McDonald (D) and Rep. Michael Lawlor (D). Without their leadership, this bill would have died today in Judiciary with the other over 100 bills not making the Judiciary JF deadline of 5 PM today!

Please visit ourwebsite at ConnecticutADC.org for full details on this legislative effort.  

QWB note: Way to go Jerimarie and all the folks who worked on this bill. Onward to pass this bill into law.

April, 2008April 1: Issues regarding Incarceration are critical to the Trans community and TransAdvocacy fully supports the  CT PARDON TEAM who will host a free forum “Providing Information and Tools to Help Change Lives” at the Hartford Library - 500 Main Street - Hartford, CT 5:30 to 7:30 PM.  Register by calling (860) 251-3810 or via website at connecticutpardonteam.org

April 19th: Second Annual Transgender Lives: Intersection of Health and Law Conference, UCONN Health Center, April 19, 8:30 til 5 PM (Details to soon be posted at transgenderlives.org).  Please contact jerimarie if interested in being on the conference organizing committee.

June 7 2008
New England’s first ever Transgender Pride March and Rally.  Ct TransAdvocacy is a proud sponsor of this event.  The march will step off at noon on June 7 at  Bridge Street School in Northamapton, MA. 

Full details at TransPrideMarch.org   Join their yahoo group

TransAdvocacy Community Meeting, Thursday March 28th, 6 PM

Our next open community meeting for CT TransAdvocacy is on Thursday March 28th and the meeting takes place at the MCC Chapel, 155 Wyllys Street Hartford

. NOTE the change in venue! The meeting will be held down and in back of the Colt Memorial Parish House of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in the MCC Chapel.
 
The meeting starts at 6:00pm and will end at 8:00.
 
 The agenda is:
 
    * Legislative update
    * Trans Health and Law Conference
    * Fundraisers: Photographic fundraiser and Fashion Show
    * Moving our Community Meetings to the MCC chapel on Wyllys Street

    * Other business

We encourage all to attend to be a part of and contribute to the work that TransAdvocacy is doing these days!  As well as a great way to meet other folks in the community.

The Judiciary public hearing on HB 5723–An Act Concerning Discrimination, is Wednesday, March 19, at 12PM. The hearing will be held in room 2-C, 2nd floor in the LOB. This bill will prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression. HB 5723 clarifies and updates Connecticut’s’s non-discrimination laws to ensure that they clearly and uniformly protect all people regardless of their gender identity or expression by simply adding the phrase “gender identity and expression”, as defined in Connecticut’s “Hate Crimes law” to all statutes that address discrimination. Support is critical and needed to protect transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from being fired, denied basic housing, denied credit and most basic services.

To take action: www.lmfct.org/transequality

For full details visit” www.ConnecticutADC.org .

http://20six.fr/trans-ftm-gay

Two years after the brutal murder of Gisberta, in Oporto, another transsexual woman was murdered and her body placed in a rubble dumpster in the Lisbon area last month.

Other crimes followed, shocking the country. However, the surge of violence cannot hide neither the victims nor the nature of these crimes. This is the case of Luna, 42, partially deaf, of Brazilian origin, for many years resident and worker in Portugal, prostitute at Conde de Redondo area (in Lisbon).

Two years after Gisberta, transsexual people are still targets for hatred and violence based on prejudice and ignorance. The crime is under investigation and under justice secret, so we know very few about its circumstances or about its motivation; we hope the investigation undertaken by the Police can provide answers. [Read more →]

Late last week we learned that the Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing on the transgender equality bill that the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition is supporting in collaboration with CWEALF, Love Makes a Family and others in the Connecticut Anti-Discrimination Coalition.Last year, this bill (SB 1044) won strong approval in four legislative committees (Judiciary, GAE, Education, Higher Education) and passed in the Senate with a total vote tally of 111 in favor and only 13 opposed. Additionally a teachers amendment in Higher Education failed by a vote of 14 to 1. We need our voices to be heard to ensure that this bill passes through all of its committees quickly and without any harmful amendments! Take action : http://www.lmfct.org/transequality,  post on your blogs,  The Judiciary public hearing on HB 5723–An Act Concerning Discrimination, is Wednesday, March 19, 12 PM. See below regarding submitting your story for the Public Hearing. Fact sheet on HB 5723 Q&A on HB 5723 Please visit ourwebsite at ConnecticutADC.org for full details on this legislative effort. Your Stories and Testimony are Needed Today! For the March 19th Judiciary public hearing

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

Ct TransAdvocacy Community meeting is this Thursday, Feb 28, 6 PM, at the Hartford YWCA, Soromundi Commons Residence, 135 Broad Street, Hartford [call (860) 983-8139 for directions/info]

This meeting is open and free to all Trans, Gender Non-conforming, Allies or just interested folks. This meeting is meant to provide feedback to the community regarding things going on at TransAdvocacy , as well as a means for folks to help give input, concerns, needs and general direction for TransAdvocacy.

This month two key areas of discussion will be (i) the the Ct Anti-Discrimination legislation and (oo) the Trans Health and Law Conference to be held on April 19th.

**Please call your State legislator within the next few days and tell them to support HB 5723 An Act Concerning Discrimination, To prohibit discrimination on the basis of Gender Identity or Expression. Click here to find your legislator and their contact information.

For more information visit:
TransAdvocacy.org
TransEqualityCT.org