Dallas Transgender Advocates DEMAND R-E-S-P-E-C-T at the Tribeca PROTEST

Press Release
April 6, 2010
For Immediate Distribution

Contact
Kelli Anne Busey
email: kellibusey@yahoo.com
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies
DTAA Call to Action

Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies urge attendance at the Tribeca protest in New York City.

The Tribeca film festival chooses to abdicate it's moral responsibility by ignoring AP and Glaad media guidelines and proceeds with premiering 'Ticked Off Trannies With Knives" (TTWK) despite transgender peoples strenuous plea's that it be removed from their upcoming festival lineup.

Kelli Busey, founder of the Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies was the first to protest and take action against the unaccredited and indiscriminate usage of the word 'tranny' by the Dallas Voice in 2009, and was subsequently the first to become acquainted with Israel Luna's proposed project 'TTWK'. The trans community at that time upon learning of TTWK clearly stated it's objection to it's name and message.

Kelli Busey says "Transgender people, STAND UP for your dignity". Make a statement today that you are not allowing gender slurs to be used freely without attribution in the press or by movie producers, be they straight OR LGBT." she elaborates, This is not censorship. It is transgender people claiming our place in society!" She states emphatically, "We have stood shoulder to shoulder with gay and lesbians in outrage when media has defamed them with slurs targeting their sexual preference, DEMAND the same R-E-S-P-E-C-T today from gay movie producer Israel Luna at the Tribeca protest!"

Tribeca protest details

When: Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Time: 6:30-8:00pm
Location: Tribeca Cinemas @ 54 Varick Street, NYC
Google map

Protest Organizer:

Ashley Love
email magnet_right_ now@yahoo.com

Facebook April 6th Protest Event Info & Press Release

Home PageMedia Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People (MAGNET)

Media guidelines recommended terminology and definitions of defamatory language PDF Glaad and AP style guide

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The Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies (DTAA) are a Texas based worldwide group of Transgender, Queer, Intersexed, Asexual, Questioning and allied people advocating for Equality in Politics and Religion. DTAA dallastaa.ning.com

Protest At Tribeca NYC Cinema planned For Premiering “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives”

Press Release: For immediate release April 4, 2010

Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People (MAGNET)

“Protest/rally Against Tribeca’s Decision to Premiere Transphobic Film “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives”

What: A protest/rally demanding that Tribeca Film Festival remove the transphobic film “Ticked Off Trannies With Knives (TOTWK)”. Melissa Sklarz- Director of New York Trans Rights Organization, celebrities, elected officials & LGBT activists will be speaking. A candle light vigil for trans victims of hate crimes will also be held.

When/Where: Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 6:30-8:00pm @ Tribeca Cinemas @ 54 Varick Street, NYC

Why: The movie makes light of violence and rape against trans women, exploits the high-profile murder of teenager Angie Zapata, includes the pejorative term “trannies” in its title, inaccurately depicts trans women’s identities as drag queen “performers” and “caricatures” and misrepresents the lives of an extremely disenfranchised group who suffer violence at alarming rates.

Kim Pearson, Executive Director of TransYouth Family Allies, says "Negative and stereotyped media portrayals of transgender people hurt the community because Americans still need more education on transgender issues. The images in this film (TOTWK) make a mockery of their lives. I want more for my child and all transgender people.”

“The transsexual and transgender communities are all too often the victims of violence, marginalization and discrimination as a result of inaccurate media depictions like this film, which is offensive, dehumanizing and misogynistic and causes further misunderstanding and harm to an already dangerously oppressed minority group”, states Ashley Love, Organizer of Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People (MAGNET).

MAGNET had a meeting with staff at Tribeca Center on Friday, March 26, educating them about why this film is extremely problematic and dehumanizing. They refused to remove the film or make a statement that they don’t endorse the oppression of transsexual and transgender women, so MAGNET is now organizing a protest/rally, in association with Families United Against Hate, International Foundation For Gender Education, New York Trans Rights Organization, World Gender Coalition and Remembering Our Dead, to demand that they remove the film, and to draw attention to injustices trans people face in everyday life and in the media. Many trans advocates, trans organizations, women’s groups and allies voiced their concerns to GLAAD, expressing they needed aggressive action. GLAAD issued an uncompromising and strong petition & call to action demanding that Tribeca remove the film:

To support or endorse protest on Tuesday, receive information about issues raised or press questions, or become involved in anti-defamation/media work for the transsexual and transgender communities:

Join the Boycott TOTWK” Facebook page & find more info/articles on the story:

CONTACT: Organizer of MAGNET: Ashley Love- Email: magnet_right_now@yahoo.com

For info/articles on issues raised: Ashley Love’s blog: Transforming media.blogspot.com

Texas A+M Lecture ‘Gender Identity Issues and Workplace Discrimination: The Transgender Experience’

A&M-Central Texas Lecture Highlights Gender Identity Issues and Workplace Discrimination

By tamuct

Department of Marketing and Public Relations
1901 S. Clear Creek Road, Killeen, Texas 76549
Alison Rex, Communications Specialist
254-519-5790 rex@tarleton.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2010

A&M-Central Texas Lecture Highlights Gender Identity Issues and Workplace Discrimination

Killeen, TEXAS—Texas A&M University-Central Texas Assistant Professor of Sociology, Dr. Michelle Dietert, will conduct her presentation of ‘Gender Identity Issues and Workplace Discrimination: The Transgender Experience’ on April 8, 2010 from 6­­–7:30p.m. in Warrior Hall.

Dr. Dietert will share her presentation and research with A&M-Central Texas before it becomes published in the Journal of Workplace Rights. The lecture will include an introduction to the social issue, the literature, methods, data (actual words collected from some of the participants), and a question answer session with the audience.

The focus of Dr. Dietert’s abstract is how mainstream social constructions of gender tend to demand conformity by adhering to only two choices of gender identity, male and female. Transgender individuals transgress this binary conception of gender by deviating from societal gender norms associated with assigned sex at birth. Using a combination of face-to-face and phone interviews to collect data, twenty-six interviews were conducted with male-identified transgender individuals aged 18 to 57 from throughout the United States. All participants were born female-bodied but eventually expressed gender traits that align with male identity rather than female identity. Participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Our findings reveal the workplace experiences of a sample of female to male (FTM) individuals and provide accounts of how male-identified transgender individuals negotiate their gender identities within the workplace and deal with issues that arise as a result.

Dr. Dietert states, “I think the TAMU-CT faculty, students, staff, and community can learn a great deal about a social group that is not often talked about, namely transgender female-to-male individuals.” She continues, “This population faces a great deal of discrimination in all areas of their lives, including in the workplace. They often cannot find employment or are fired from their current jobs for being transgender.”

The presentation will take place at A&M-Central Texas North Campus in Warrior Hall (701 Whitlow Drive Killeen, TX 76541). For more information please contact Dr. Michelle Dietert at DIETERT@tarleton.edu

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A&M-Central Texas Lecture Highlights Gender Identity Issues and Workplace Discrimination

Transfolk just want to 'Give Peeps a Chance'

There is a inane urgency expressed by Gay and hetero Cisgender people to hang a new moniker on transfolks that's more writer friendly, cuter than the longer and more difficult to use respectful adjective "Transgender" .
Whether we like it or not!
Some of our preferred titles shortened from transgender such as 'Transmen' and 'Transwoman' remain unused, languishing in mainstream media and gay bloggers keyboards.

WE have and will continue to demand respect and loudly reject the misogynistic pejorative 'Tranny' as a accepted term in media and society despite cisgender gay peoples insistence we should 'own this' reviled defamatory slur.

Then call us 'Tranpeeps'! This word is universally accepted within the trans community and is commonly used as an endearment usually in times of heightened passions or turmoil. Additionally transpeeps are strong, intelligent sensitive and insoluble in acetone, water, sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide! And we are now available year round!

If cisgender folks must use a name other than 'transgender' you may call us transpeeps. It's clearly not misrepresentational since transpeeps does not conjure a mental vision of transgender people being 'fierce hot' or violent over the top parodies of femininity bent on inflicting vigilante justice.

wiki 'People' "The concept of personhood (who is a person within a society) is the fundamental component of any selective concept of people. A distinction is maintained in philosophy and law between the notions "human being", or "man", and "person". The former refers to the species, while the latter refers to a rational agent (see, for example, John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding II 27 and Immanuel Kant's Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals)."

"Central issues of interest to people are the understanding of the human condition and the meaning of life, and survival. Religion, philosophy, and science show or represent modes and aspects of inquiry which attempt to investigate and understand the nature, behavior, and purpose of people. Sociology, economics, and politics represent modes by which people investigate how to maximize a collective survival strategy."

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Man Charged in murder of Baltimore Transgender Woman Dee Green

Baltimore Sun Larry Douglas, 20, of Baltimore has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing of _____ Dee Green__, 25, of the first block of N. Woodington Road in Southwest Baltimore.

A counselor said she knew Green as "Dee," and that Green identified as a woman.

In November, Green was recognized at a vigil at City Hall commemorating International Transgender Day of Remembrance, according to an item on Baltimore Brew, a local news Web site. One who attended the event, Cydne Kimbrough, founder and director of the Gender Learning Advocacy and Support System, said in an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun that Green had been a client.

"We were helping her start the process of going to school and [the] name-change process," Kimbrough said. "She was very interested in a better quality of life for herself."

Dee Green is listed on the Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorializing 2009

Unidentified person [Dee Green] dressed in woman’s clothes
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Cause of Death: Stabbed
Date of Death: October 25, 2009
Police found her lying unconscious and bleeding in the street.
They took her to the hospital where she died a half hour later.
Original Source: Baltimore Sun


The first Day of Remembrance was held in San Francisco in 1999 as a vigil for Rita Hester, murdered in that city on November 28, 1998. Since then, Day of Remembrance ceremonies have spread to over 150 cities, from Minsk to Tel Aviv to Yogyakarta, Indonesia—anywhere that transgendered people live, die and are not too afraid to speak out in public against the violence, discrimination and prejudice they confront daily.

“We have to fight every day just to maintain a sense of self,” said Falina Laron, a peer educator and trans outreach worker at AIDS Action Baltimore.

2nd Annual International Transgender Day of Visibility March 31st

The Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies are celebrating our lives with the second annual International Transgender Day of Visibility!

Being out today is the cornerstone of our lives for many of us. We have been blessed to spend at least a part of our lives living in our true gender.

As we may celebrate living out and proud we may also pause a moment in recognition of our transgender sisters and brothers still living in seclusion, unable to live in true freedom.

Come join in the celibrations at the Dallas Transgender Advocates and Feministing!