Category: trans

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Homophobic Sue Stanton?

Change.org has a petition up in support of a gay club that’s gotten some homophobic response from city government over noise complaints.

The Cottage, 522 Lucerene Avenue, Lake Worth, FL has been under attack by a small group of local residents who are using the city’s noise ordinance to harass The Cottage.  Noise complaints have been made by four residents on almost a daily basis for the past three years.  The noise complaints began shortly after The Cottage began its Sunday Tea Dances and branded itself as the only gay-friendly, downtown restaurant in Lake Worth. Many times when the police have responded to a complaint, The Cottage has not even had any live music playing.  The police in general are sympathetic and understand that The Cottage is being unfairly targeted but must continue to respond to the calls.

After a year of harassment, The Cottage reached out to the city for assistance.  Unfortunately, the City chose to enable and feed the underlying homophobic current, instead of helping a viable and community oriented business as well as honoring its own civil rights ordinance which provides protection for sexual orientation and gender expression.

In May of 2009, Loretta Lutfy, proprietor of The Cottage, along with family friend and local gay rights advocate, Mike Zewe, met with City Manager Susan Stanton to seek assistance to stop the harassment.  Instead of receiving support from Ms. Stanton, they were dismissed from her office with homophobic remarks.

Ms. Lutfy says, “She (Stanton) first asked if I would consider stopping the Tea Dance for awhile.  I responded that I would close my entire business first. She dismissed Mike and me from the office ending the conversation by saying that “men in dresses, and men dancing with men is offensive.  If you continue, you will just have to suffer the consequences.'”

For the next year, The Cottage, knowing that they had no support from the City, felt the only choice was to bear the harassment and hope it would stop.  Unfortunately, it has not and Susan Stanton has joined the four complaining residents in their crusade to chip away at the business until it has no choice but to close.  Stanton has added to the attack by sending code enforcement daily to The Cottage to look for violations. She went as far to change the hours of the code enforcement office to send employees at all hours of the day and threatened criminal prosecution.

What isn’t mentioned is that Stanton herself is trans; she quite famously & publicly transitioned a few years back, so I’m certainly not outing her.

First, I’d love to hear some verification of these claims from someone in that neck of the woods: I know you’re out there, so either post a comment or send me an email.

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Women’s History Month: Sylvia Rivera

For the last day of Women’s History Month, I give you Sylvia Rivera, proud, out, trans woman who participated in the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, and only a year later watched as gender and trans rights were disappeared from the new Gay Rights’ movement’s agenda.


On June 27, 1969, Rivera was in the crowd that gathered outside the Stonewall Inn after word spread that it had been raided by police. The sight of arrested patrons being led from the bar by authorities riled the crowd, but it was Rivera who threw one of the first Molotov cocktails that actually initiated the riots and sent Stonewall into the history books.

In 1970 Rivera joined the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and worked on its campaign to pass the New York City Gay Rights Bill. She attracted media attention when she attempted to force her way into closed-door sessions concerning the bill held at City Hall. In spite of Rivera’s (and other drag queens’) participation in the GAA, the organization decided to exclude transgender rights from the Gay Rights Bill so that it would be more acceptable to straight politicians.

Rivera was shocked and betrayed by this decision. She also became disillusioned with the gay rights movement in general and dismayed by the backlash against drag queens that had developed by the mid-1970s.

Perhaps already sensing that transgendered people could not rely on the gay rights movement to advocate for their civil rights, in 1970 Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson had formed a group called Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.). The members of this organization aimed to fight for the civil rights of transgendered people, as well as provide them with social services support.

At this time, Rivera and Johnson began operating S.T.A.R. House in the East Village, which provided housing for poor transgendered youth. S.T.A.R. House lasted for two years, but was then closed because of financial and zoning problems. Although in existence only a short time, S.T.A.R. House is historically significant because it was the first institution of its kind in New York City, and inspired the creation of future shelters for homeless street queens.

Shelters seems like an exaggeration, since the only other I know of is Transy House (which was around the corner from where we lived in Park Slope). I’m pleased to see the Day of Silence and GLSEN are honoring her as well this year.

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ENDA

ENDA has been re-introduced in the House as of today, according to NCTE and TLDEF. More updates as they come through.

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Look Ma, It Can Talk!

As others on our mHB message boards have noticed, there is a certain tone of disbelief in stories about trans women who are attractive that is offensive, frustrating, and yet – and yet – progress.

In this story about a trans woman and trans man not being allowed entry into Egypt, it’s just a mention of her “outstanding beauty” – I’m sure she was – but once you’ve read enough news stories like this you just get a kind of creepy feeling. I have a friend who used to refer to it as the “look ma, it can talk!” tone (except he was taking about stories about African Americans).

& That’s aside from there being no explanation as to why, when everything they said was true, and their IDs checked out, they were still sent back to Jordan.

And because I have some very literal readers, I will add here that I find this practice of being amazed that a trans woman can be not only a woman but an attractive woman, appalling and offensive.

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All Out: Help Brazil Pass a Hate Crimes Law

A 22 year old woman named Priscila was murdered execution style in Brazil. Too many LGBT people in Brazil – particularly trans people – are killed. A local group, All Out, is seeking a hate crimes law to help prevent these murders, and have an online petition you can sign.

I didn’t embed the video here because it’s too triggery for too many of us who have lost people to transphobic violence. Do watch, because it’s important – and a lovely chance to see this young woman alive and optimistic about her life – but I thought people needed to ready to watch.

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Great News on Trans Marriage Rights in NYC

From the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF):

We are happy to announce that the city of New York has adopted a new policy designed to ensure that transgender people have equal access to marriage licenses. The policy was adopted as part of an agreement to resolve threatened legal action involving a transgender couple. The couple wishes to remain private and we refer to them as Jane and John.

Jane and John are both transgender. They are an opposite-sex couple who have been in a relationship for over a decade. In Dec. 2009, they attempted to marry in the Bronx. They fulfilled all of the requirements for receiving a marriage license in New York City and presented their government-issued photo identification – the only identification required by the City Clerk’s office. Rather than issuing the marriage license, the City Clerk refused and instead demanded that Jane and John produce their birth certificates before they could be married – something not required of other marriage license applicants.

Under the terms of the new policy, issued on Feb. 7, 2011, once a marriage license applicant produces the required photo ID, the City Clerk may not request additional proof of sex. Moreover, City Clerk employees are forbidden from considering the applicant’s appearance or preconceived notions related to gender expression when deciding whether to issue a marriage license.

“Transgender people are challenged all the time about their status as men and women,” said TLDEF executive director Michael Silverman. “Our clients are legally entitled to marry and were denied that right just because they are transgender. We applaud the City Clerk’s office for adopting this policy and for taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.”

In addition to the adoption of the new policy, the agreement to resolve the couple’s claims calls for the City Clerk to apologize to Jane and John, to institute training for all City Clerk employees on issues relating to gender identity and gender expression, and to ensure that Jane and John are free to marry at a time and place of their choosing.

For more about this new policy, read up at TLDEF’s site.

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Trans Friendly Bathrooms

Genderqueer Chicago is working on a campaign to make bathrooms in Chicago trans-friendly:

CHICAGO–In an unprecedented effort to make the city of Chicago safer for transgender individuals, Genderqueer Chicago, a local youth group, launched the “T-Friendly Bathroom Initiative,” a grassroots project that challenges business owners to recognize and protect gender identity in their public restrooms, according to a press release.

This year, more than 500 businesses and organizations will be asked to sign a pledge that commits them to allowing gender-variant customers to use the bathrooms they choose. Businesses that sign the pledge will receive window decals that gender-variant people can easily identify as trans-friendly.

It sounds like a very cool plan; I hope to see this idea transfer to other cities. Maybe there will be a day when Safe 2 Pee isn’t needed — imagine!

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Roller Derby Trans Grrrl

I’ve known other (trans) women in roller derbies before, but I’m happy to see an official policy by a women’s organization siding in favor of inclusion. Bethany Johnson said:

“We’ve yet to send out a formal press release regarding this, but we are very proud of the diversity represented by our league and we’re glad that our league can be one of the leagues to formally create a policy allowing transwomen skaters . . . For The Chicago Outfit, I think that having this policy is another step for our league to show how open and accepting of women from all walks of life we are. This policy also hopefully will help to continue the legitimization of transwomen athletes in this sport in other leagues throughout the country.”

Although “allows” really chafes, even if the person who said it is trans herself.