Tag: crime

Vital National Trans Survey

Posted by helenboyd – September 16, 2008

Respond to the survey online at
https://online.survey.psu.edu/endtransdiscrim

WASHINGTON, DC September 11, 2008 — In the wake of one of the most violent years on record of assaults on transgender people, the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (The Task Force) have teamed up on a comprehensive national survey to collect data on discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodation, health care, education, family life and criminal justice.

To date, in 2008, several young gender non-conforming people of color have been murdered, including California junior high school student Lawrence King, who was shot in public during the school day. King’s murder, and the murders of Simmie Williams in South Carolina and Angie Zappata in Greeley, Colorado come in a year in which we are still working to include transgender provisions in a federal bill to protect lesbian, gay and bisexual workers from discrimination in employment.

Hate crimes against transgender people suggest multiple points of vulnerability, which can compound each other: discrimination in employment may lead to unstable housing situations which in turn can leave transgender people at the mercy of public programs and public officials who may not respond respectfully or appropriately to them. These stressors add burdens in a health care system that is often unprepared for transgender people’s needs. The list goes on. “We know that transgender people face discrimination on multiple fronts,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of NCTE. “This data will help us sort out the combination of forces that leave transgender people vulnerable to unemployment, homelessness, and violence.”

Jaime Grant, director of the Task Force Policy Institute noted, “There is so little concrete data on the needs and risks associated with the widespread discrimination we see in the lives of the transgender people we know. This data will help point the way to an appropriate policy agenda to ensure that transgender people have a fair chance to contribute their talents in the workplace, in our educational systems and in our communities.”

NCTE and the Task Force have partnered with Pennsylvania State University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education to collect and analyze the data. Applying rigorous academic standards to the investigation will strengthen any case made to legislators, policy makers, health care providers, and others whose decisions impact the lives of transgender people. A national team of experts in survey research and transgender issues developed the questionnaire, which can be completed on-line at https://online.survey.psu.edu/endtransdiscrim. Paper copies can also be downloaded from the NCTE and The Task Force websites soon.

Keisling notes: “This is an absolutely critical national effort. We urge all transgender and gender non-conforming people to take the survey to help guide us in making better laws and policies that will improve the quality of life for all transgender people. We need everyone’s voice in this, everyone’s participation.”

The Requisite Sarah Palin Post

Posted by helenboyd – September 4, 2008

The real kicker of Sarah Palin’s talk tonight was the “scary ideas from Europe” idea. I mean, seriously? Scary Europeans? Where there’s national healthcare and maternity leave and no gun crime? That scary place?

I’m still flummoxed by just about everything she said tonight. Astounded, even. Aside from the Big Fat Liar issue – she was for the Bridge to Nowhere until she was nominated, and she raised taxes on Alaskans – I can’t believe her entire talk was about the elites, and scary European ideas, and tiny government. (You know, like the kind that brought you Katrina.) I mean, aren’t culture wars so 90s?

But it’s more than that. The cynicism and sarcasm and meanness she expressed blew my mind. I like people who are clever and clear-thinking, but that’s not what she is. It makes me so sad to think anyone might admire her, or find like-mindedness in her comments. She’s like Dr. Laura, and those platitudes don’t work as advice, and they definitely don’t work as policy.

Please, Dems, don’t rest easy. We need to kick this woman’s ass. She cut funding on a center for pregnant teenagers even though she has one. Talk about elitism. She tried to ban books and she got pork-barrel funding for aerial hunting (which is about the lamest, most shameful thing I’ve ever heard of).

Trans for Obama

Posted by helenboyd – July 8, 2008

The National Stonewall Democrats are doing a cool thing: trying to track transpeople’s donations to Barack Obama. The letter they sent out not along ago is reprinted below the break in full, but the basic idea is that, if you’re trans, & you want to donate to Obama’s campaign, you donate through their website, so that the donations can be “counted” as a bloc.

Excellent idea. Go do it.

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You May Now Kiss the Groom (in CA)

Posted by helenboyd – June 17, 2008

A very happy wedding day to all the Californians who are finally able to get married to the ones they love.

It’s unfortunate how much a basic civil right has to be fought for, & unfortunate in so many ways (and not even the ones Mattilda goes into).

And I know many people are bothered by it because it’s not an economic issue, and that more than anything, LGBT people need employment non-discrimination protection. And we do, we do. But I’ll make this argument, as a legally married queer: marriage is also an economic pact. It’s not romantic, but it is something. It’s about being able to be a dependent on your spouse’s health insurance (which saves you money). It’s about being able to live together (which saves you money). It’s about getting Social Security benefits. Amongst other things.

So congratulations, bride & bride, and groom & groom: you may now fight with your spouse about money, & forever have your credit record linked to theirs.

Meme x 2

Posted by helenboyd – May 9, 2008

A couple of recent memes:

  1. What is your favorite word? indeed.
  2. What is your least favorite word? relax
  3. What turns you on? genderfuck
  4. What turns you off? passivity
  5. What is your favorite curse word? cunt
  6. What sound or noise do you love? rhythmic handclapping
  7. What sound or noise do you hate? led zeppelin
  8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? fighter pilot (i’m not kidding)
  9. What profession would you not like to attempt? corporate anything
  10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? you were right.

and

  • If you get something out of a vending machine, it’s most likely the: MetroCard
  • A word you sometimes catch yourself misspelling: relevant (or is it revelant?)
  • You least want people to see you as: dull
  • You’re a little scared of: street crime
  • The least attractive thing you do in your sleep: snore
  • The number of contacts in your cell phone: lots
  • How many of them are relatives: plenty
  • You lose your cool when someone: condescends
  • When you go to the drugstore, you often can’t leave without buying: rolaids
  • Your dance moves can best be described as: masculine
  • The majority of your underwear is: dirty
  • Something you eat even though you hate how bad it is for you: ice cream
  • You think you’re really not a great: writer
  • How much cash is in your wallet right now: $12
  • The majority of your shoes are this color: black
  • You don’t think you’ll ever be able to get rid of your: bad skin
  • If your breath is bad, it’s most likely because you had the: cigarettes
  • You feel embarrassed when you: fart
  • The last public place where you used the restroom: City College
  • Something you don’t like to debate in mixed company: obama v. hilary
  • You don’t think you can pull off wearing: skinny jeans
  • Something you own entirely too much of: ants stuff
  • Someone you would love to see in concert who might bring down your street cred: devo?
  • The last thing that you spilled on yourself: tea
  • If you were on a reality show, the producers would likely portray/characterize you as the: humorless feminist

Tragedy After Tragedy

Posted by helenboyd – February 28, 2008

If the killing of Lawrence King wasn’t sad enough, there are too many other stories — all murders of trans POC that took place this year.

This article from The Root has a list.

And this murder, committed a little while back, has recently come to more widespread attention, as has the murder of Simmie Williams.

My students have asked, because they’re reading Stone Butch Blues, if the violence against gender diverse people is still as bad as it was then. And what can I say? Ask Lawrence King? Ask Adolphus Simmons? Ask Sanesha Stewart? We can’t. They’ve all been killed as a result of trans/homophobic violence. The daily threat might not feel so great for many of us. But that doesn’t mean people who don’t conform to gender norms aren’t at greater risk.

I so long for a new president who will get gender identity included in Federal Hate Crimes protection, whether it does any good or not. What I want is to see articles written about people like Sanesha Stewart that at least respect their choice of pronouns, as well as articles that don’t ask what the person was doing at the time – as if what a person is doing at the time she’s murdered makes it more acceptable for her to have been murdered! When are the powers-that-be going to understand is that sometimes all you have to “do” is be queer to be killed?!

The news also came through this week that Gabrielle Pickett, twin sister of Chanelle Pickett, was killed during the summer of 2003. Chanelle was killed in 1996.

I’m just tired this week. Tired of counting the dead. Tired of feeling so sullen and leaden with grief.

Press Release: NCTE Mourns the Loss of Congressman Tom Lantos

Posted by helenboyd – February 11, 2008

Lantos was thought to have introduced the first pro-transgender effort in the U.S. Congress – the resolution he introduced would have condemned, “all violations of internationally recognized human rights norms based on the real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of an individual.”

The only survivor of the Nazi Holocaust ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Rep. Lantos was a strong supporter of human rights for all people. He was a co-sponsor in 2007 of both the federal hate crimes bill that passed the House of Representatives and of the unified and inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015) that was eventually abandoned this fall.

Our thoughts are with the family and friends of this brave leader.

For more about Lantos, do check the Mercury News article about him.

Fighting Bob

Posted by helenboyd – January 31, 2008

I read a bunch about the Bread & Roses Strike when I was living up near Lawrence, so I figure I should poke around Wisconsin’s history and what do I find but this quote:

“The purpose of this ridiculous campaign is to throw the country into a state of sheer terror, to change public opinion, to stifle criticism, and suppress discussion. People are being unlawfully arrested, thrown into jail, held incommunicado for days, only to be eventually discharged without ever having been taken into court, because they have committed no crime. But more than this, if every preparation for war can be made the excuse for destroying free speech and a free press and the right of the people to assemble together for peaceful discussion, then we may well despair of ever again finding ourselves for a long period in a state of peace. The destruction of rights now occurring will be pointed to then as precedents for a still further invasion of the rights of the citizen.”

The scary part is the guy who said it died in 1955, so he wasn’t talking about the current war or the current destruction of rights – but he could have been. (The guy was “Fighting Bob” LaFollette, former Governor of Wisconsin, Congressman, Senator, and onetime candidate for President – who carried 17% of the popular vote, no mean feat in a two-party democracy.)

Catchup

Posted by helenboyd – January 26, 2008

I said I’d catch people up on how it’s been for me here in snowy Appleton, WI since Betty left on the 10th – more than two weeks ago. Mostly, I’ve been busy teaching. I’m somewhat convinced I do more homework for my classes than my students do, whether in preparing discussion questions, in-class lectures, or even reviewing readings or documentaries I want them to watch.

Other than that, I go outside on the front porch to smoke, since I can’t smoke in the resident housing, and that’s definitely been interesting. I find myself a little less able to focus with the huge decrease in nicotine consumption, actually. But so far I don’t seem to be eating more, & that, at least, is a good thing. It’s also a good thing to smoke less because the air is so cold; asthmatics must have a time of it here. The one thing I am sure of know is that if I could ever keep my habit at about 5 a day (which is what I’m smoking here), I wouldn’t bother quitting.

It’s quiet – other than today’s fire alarm that got triggered when my next door neighbor burnt his lunch – and the daily scraping sounds of the snow plows and shovels. I’m not complaining, by any means; as long as I don’t have to shovel, they can make as much scraping sounds as they want, and at 5am if need be.

Teaching itself is really interesting work and I’m a little amazed at how good a job it is – teaching two courses, which is what I’m doing, is considered a full-time teaching load – but also how time-consuming. I enjoy watching the lighbulbs go on, the same as I do when I’m giving a workshop for trans people at a conference.

And in fact I met some local trans people just this week, & I’m hoping to meet some in Milwaukee in a few weeks as well.

In some ways it’s a break from New York, a trade off: instead of high densities of crime and people and ethnicities, we get an awful lot of snow, an awful lot of Packers fans, & an awful lot of fish.

But in either place, mostly I spend my free time reading about gender: more on some of the new stuff I’ve discovered in another post.

Top Ten of 2007

Posted by helenboyd – January 7, 2008

Yours Truly was interviewed for an article on “Ten Hot Sexuality (and Gender) Issues of 2007 by Naked on the Internet author Audacia Ray. My bit is mostly the “(and Gender)” part of it, about ENDA & the Hate Crimes Act.

I think it’s the first time I’ve been interviewed for anything that was also about pole dancing.

Passed!

Posted by helenboyd – September 27, 2007

from NCTE’s website:

Senate Passes Historic Hate Crimes Bill

The Hate Crimes Amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (S. 1105) was passed on a voice vote of the Senate today, September 27th.  Immediately prior to the voice vote, a cloture vote to end debate of the Amendment was passed 60-39 with bipartisan support.This amendment was already passed on May 3rd in the House by a vote of 237-180.   NCTE is calling on President Bush to sign the bill with this historic provision included.

Mara Keisling, NCTE Executive Director, says, “While transgender people still have many obstacles to overcome, we are overjoyed that the hard work of so many people is coming to fruition.”

The Hate Crimes Amendment extends the federal hate crimes law to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability.

Hate Crimes Vote – Thursday

Posted by helenboyd – September 25, 2007

ACTION ALERT from the National Center for Transgender Equality

On Thursday, the Senate will be voting on Senator Kennedy’s Hate Crimes amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (S.1105). We need you to call your Senators now to urge their support of this critical bill, which would extend hate crimes protections to transgender people.

Please, call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 right now; let them know what state you are from and ask to be connected with your Senators.

The language of the amendment is identical to that passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 3, 2007 (H.R.1592). It is vital that you contact your Senator today or tomorrow. As you read this, the Radical Right is mobilizing to oppose the federal hate crimes bill and attempt to prevent its passage in the Senate. They’re using scare tactics and flat-out lies in hopes of killing the amendment. Make sure that your Senators hear your voice and how important this bill is to you and our community.

The Hate Crimes bill would:

  • Extend existing federal protections to include “gender identity, sexual orientation, gender and disability”
  • Allow the Justice Department to assist in hate crime investigations at the local level when local law enforcement is unable or unwilling to fully address these crimes
  • Mandate that the FBI begin tracking hate crimes based on actual or perceived gender identity
  • Remove limitations that narrowly define hate crimes to violence committed while a person is accessing a federally protected activity, such as voting.

Find your Senators’ contact information.
Background information about the hate crimes bill is available on NCTE’S webpage.

Call your Senators today and urge your friends and family to do the same.

Down in the Subway

Posted by helenboyd – August 6, 2007

2 in 3 subway riders have been sexually harassed, and 99% of them are women. Why am I not surprised? Because just about every woman I know can tell you a story of a groper or a lewd comment or some other form of sexual harassment.

What’s surprising is that someone actually wants to do something about it. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer conducted the survey and has suggested changes that would help prevent these kinds of crimes:

Stringer recommends an increase in NYPD presence on subway trains and in subway stations as well as brighter lighting, more pay phones, a hotline for attack victims, and the installation of additional digital security cameras.

He also wants a public education campaign to change “a culture that has been allowed to fester for generations.”

About damn time. You can thank Scott Stringer via his website.

Cats, Quilting, & Publishing Mysteries

Posted by helenboyd – August 4, 2007

For the aspiring authors out there, an interview with a book contracts insider. Most interesting to me:

While few of us would turn down a big advance if we were lucky enough to get one, but if you’re aiming to be a writer with a lengthy publishing career, starting out small isn’t such a bad thing.

She talks about the value of having an agent, and what to do if you don’t have one when you’re signing.

This optimistic bit is surely good for plenty of as-yet-unpublished authors to hear:

It occurred to me then that if there’s a market for books on cats that quilt while solving crime, there must be room out in the world for my story.

NCTE Says: Keep Calling!

Posted by helenboyd – July 17, 2007

NCTE has reported today that since they sent out their alert for calls to your senators to support The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act more senators have signed on to support it!

So keep calling! Tell your friends to call!

You can find your senators’ contact information through NCTE.

Urgent from NCTE

Posted by helenboyd – July 11, 2007

Today Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Smith (R-OR) introduced the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1585), which is being debated in the Senate this week and next. This amendment could be voted on as early as today. In short, today transgender people are one giant step closer to gaining federal hate crimes protections!

The language of today’s amendment is identical language to that of S. 1105, which the Senators introduced in April.

But to ensure that the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act becomes law, you must contact your Senators now and urge them to support this life-saving legislation.

As you read this, the Radical Right is mobilizing their base to oppose the federal hate crimes bill. They’re using scare tactics and flat-out lies in hopes of killing Kennedy’s amendment. Make sure that your Senators hear your voice and the true importance of this bill.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act would:

  1. Extend existing federal protections to include “gender identity, sexual orientation, gender and disability”
  2. Allow the Justice Department to assist in hate crime investigations at the local level when local law enforcement is unable or unwilling to fully address these crimes
  3. Mandate that the FBI begin tracking hate crimes based on actual or perceived gender identity
  4. Remove limitations that narrowly define hate crimes to violence committed while a person is accessing a federally protected activity, such as voting.

Find your Senators’ contact information.

The time to act is now! Call your Senators today and urge your friends and family to do the same!

(A sample letter you can copy & paste is below the break.)

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That One Clause

Posted by helenboyd – May 20, 2007

Some disturbing news about the currently pending hate crimes bill, which passed the House and is waiting to pass the Senate (& then, likely as not, will face veto from the president), is now possibly being stripped of it its gender identity clause, and once again, only a few groups (The Task Force, NOW, & PFLAG) are saying outloud that they will only support a bill that includes gender identity. Notice who’s missing? HRC. Again.

& I just got a call from them yesterday wanting me to donate, when I told them years ago I wouldn’t until they backed trans inclusion without caveat.

Thanks to Marti Abernathy for posting about this on the transadvocate.com blog, as I’d heard unofficial word from several trans activists that this was once again the fact but was awaiting confirmation.

Wrong Side of a Good Thing

Posted by helenboyd – May 6, 2007

I read this great article about Diane & Jake Anderson-Minshall, who just co-wrote their first mystery novel, Blind Curves, and this line stopped me short:

“I would say Susannah was my wife, and they’d tell me she would have to contact them,” Diane says. “Now I say Jacob is my husband and it’s immediately accepted.”

Because Diane is, of course, talking about the difference in how their relationship is perceived by others now that they’re “straight.” I’m pretty certain they don’t think of themselves as straight, of course, but they are legally married now, and wow – it surprised me how much that one sentence stuck in my craw. I feel like I’m on the wrong side of the equation, even if I know full-well how difficult it is for partners like Diane and other lesbian-identified women to “give up” having others perceive them as lesbians.

But still. Damn.

Hate Crimes Bill Progress

Posted by helenboyd – May 3, 2007

The Hate Crimes Bill has passed the House this afternoon. For more information, check our thread on the boards about it.

Urgent Action from NCTE

Posted by helenboyd – May 2, 2007

We are down to the wire on the federal hate crimes bill (H.R.1592).

This Thursday, May 3, the federal hate crime bill is scheduled to be voted on in the U.S. House. We really have a chance to pass this life-saving law this year.

But what we are hearing today is that the radical right has turned their lie machine on force blast and turned out their followers. Members of Congress and their staff are telling us that the people who hate us, who are lying about us, are contacting Congress in greater numbers than we are. That’s not unusual, but it is very dangerous. It is not unusual because that’s what they do: they scare their followers into calling their representatives in Congress. It is very dangerous because it could work this time.

What YOU Can Do

1. Find your member of Congress and call him or her.

2. Sign our petition supporting the hate crimes bill by clicking here.

3. Support the passage of this bill by joining us for NCTE’s annual Lobby Day on May 14-15!

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