Turkey: TransAction ConVergence "Demand Freedom" for Five Transgender Activists Türkiye'nin Beş Transseksüel Aktivistler Talebi Özgürlük

Demand Freedom for five

TransAction ConVergence joins with Episcopalian TransEpiscopal in calling for the imediate release of five transgender activists beaten, gased, falsely charged and held for trial on Oct. 21 2010.

IGLHRC
For Immediate Release

(New York, October 18, 2010) Prosecutors should investigate the attacks against five transgender rights activists by police in Ankara and drop all charges against the activists, five human rights organizations said today. In a letter to Turkey’s Interior and Justice ministers, the rights organizations said that the police officers responsible for the attack should be held accountable and called for an end to violence against toward transgender people.

The five activists from the Ankara-based transgender rights organization Pembe Hayat were arbitrarily detained and beaten by police officers on May 17, 2010. Following a familiar pattern in Turkey, the five were speedily charged with resisting the police, before the prosecutor had concluded an investigation into their complaint of ill-treatment. Their trial is set for October 21. If convicted, they face up to three years in prison.

"Police ought to protect transgender people and their advocates, not attack them," said Hossein Alizadeh, Middle East and North Africa regional coordinator at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "When police turn into perpetrators, it becomes painfully clear that official apathy allows leeway for attacks on transgender people."

The letter to the Justice and Interior ministers was signed by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Human Rights Watch, COC Netherlands, GATE - Global Advocates for Trans Equality, and the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe).

Four police officers from the Esat Police Station stopped the car the in which the activists were riding at about 10:30 p.m. on May 17 and accused them of intending to commit sex work. The women –Yeşim (Duru) Tatlıoğlu, Buse (Bülent) Kılıçkaya, Türkan (Deniz) Küçükkoçak, Selay (Derya) Tunç, and Eser (Nehir) Ulus – phoned for help, prompting 25 local human rights observers to go to the scene. The police forced the five activists out of the car, beat them with batons, kicked them and sprayed them with tear gas. Witnesses told the human rights organizations that the police screamed at the activists, "[f]aggots, next time we will kill you!"

"The Turkish government is turning us trans people into criminals, for no other reason than existing. Being trans in Turkey means being judged and condemned just because of what we are," said Mauro Cabral, co-director of Global Advocates for Trans Equality (GATE). "We are the crime: the government abuses us and forces us to live and die outside of the law, instead of protecting us."

Police handcuffed the women, forced them to kneel, and beat their heads and legs while one policeman told them their activism would not protect them. All five women, visibly bruised, were forced into a police van and taken to the police station. Police held them in custody until the next morning. They were officially charged on June 18, 2010.
Full press release (IGLHRC) Turkey: Drop Charges Against Transgender Rights Defenders

The Rev. Cameron Partridge of TransEpiscopal has this to say:

"We stand in complete solidarity with the five transgender activists as they go on trial in Turkey . We pray for their release, for the recognition of their human dignity, and that those who have treated these women in such a dehumanizing way would be held accountable for their actions. As we move toward Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, when communities around the world remember those who have died because of their gender identity or expression, we work to transform cultures of violence into spacious communities in which all of us can be who we are."

Please join TransEpiscopal, Integrity and other major international human rights organizations by expressing your concerns to the two Turkish Ministers:


Mr. Sadullah Ergin
Ministry of Justice
Address: 06659 Kizilay, Ankara, Turkey
Fax: +90 312 419 33 70
E-Mail: sadullahergin@adalet.gov.tr
or
iydb@adalet.gov.tr

Mr. Beşir Atalay
Ministry of the Interior
Address: T.C. İcisleri Bakanlığı, Bakanlıklar, Ankara, TurkeyTel: +90 312 422 40 22
E-Mail: besir.atalay@icisleri.gov.tr
or
ozelkalem@icisleri.gov.tr

Reuters Alertnet

Walking with Integrity supports global transgender community

Turkish LGBT org. "Pembe Hayat"

Demand Freedom for Five Turkish Transgender Activists

TransAction ConVergence. Transgender, Transsexual, Intersexed, Asexual, Gender Gifted and Allied people converging on Facebook, the world's largest social network, to share news and ideas and to advocate.

Moscow Gay Pride 2011 Nikolai sez Come to the PARTY!

The lone figure in a smokey dimly lit Moscow room bent over his maps. Picking up a phone quickly sent last moment false signals after learning of a communications leak that threatened the success of the small contingents of sequestered comrades silently, impatiently awaiting for the signal move out.

Meanwhile in city hall, former Mayor Yuri Luzhkov took the bait believing the misinformation, shifted his massed riot police, committing them to ensnare his adversaries in a ten block net. The price of failure? The cities destruction according to the former mayor with a diabolical "satanic weapons of mass destruction".

Who is this mad man and who were his conspirators who since 2006 were so bent on outwitting the Moscow police?

A raving homicidal lunatic? A transgender woman? Nope, just a gay man wanting to parade.

And this year unlike the ones since 2006 its going to happen in public without fear of being beaten, held without charges and food, according to Nikolai Alekseev president of Gay Russia.com.

And everyone is invited to the par-taa!

Dallas TDOR 2010 Transgender Day of Remembrance

Sunday, November 21 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

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Location Interfaith Peace Chapel
5910 Cedar Springs Road
Dallas, TX

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Transgender Day of Remembrance
Facebook Event Page
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We encourage everyone to show up a little early, between 6:30 and 7:00 pm.

The location is on DART Bus Route 39.

Map to the location: Here

For a pre-event demonstration, see also: Click here

Transgender Owned Austin City Power Sports Taking the lead

Jennifer Baggarly's thirty years of faithful motorcycle repair and multiple certifications meant nothing to potential employers after being dismissed because of her gender expression.

"They lied about my experence and employment record" Baggerly said "every interview went great untill our following contact when they declined my application after having had a conversation with my former boss."

Jennifer's career seemed in ruins as she spent the next year unemployed. Resilience defining TransAction, not to be defeated, Jennifer took the bull by the handlebars and Austin City Power Sports, her start up business venture became the answer.

Jennifer was forced into this because of transphobia, her car repeatedly defaced a
employer refusing to address her with the proper pronouns, let alone give her the respect every woman deserves.

"Our customers care about our ability to get the job done right, the first time" Jennifer explaining the shops phenomenal success "and they aren't worried if its a transgender gal or guy who gets it done."

It is ironic and wonderfull that the same bigots who forced her into unemployment now must compete with Austin City Power Sports superior operation.

Maybe one day her former employers will be asking Jennifer for a job. Who knows.

Austin City Power Sports.com

Mum wishes I wasn't a faggot but transgender, so we'd be girlfriends

Title adapted from UK S*onewall youth PSA: "Maybe my mum wishes I was a tranny then we'd be girlfriends."



Is this post's title Offensive S*onewall UK?

You bet your ass it is. So is your video offensive WORLDWIDE to transgender people in the same way.

Pink News reports "yet another bone of contention between Stonewall and the trans community – the FIT DVD, produced by Stonewall for distribution to schools, which talks about “trannies” in a manner that Trans Media Watch believes serves to normalise what is generally considered a term of abuse." Stonewall tries to rationalize "This is rejected by a spokesman for Stonewall, who claims that the DVD is meant to be illustrative of everyday language, without endorsing it in any way."

NO tranny in this context is NOT everyday language.

S*ONEWALL is attempting to socially normalize a former term of endearment by adding negative connotations to 'tranny' thereby transforming 'tranny' into a pejorative. 'Tranny' could then be used then by S*onewall to defame trans people while S*onewall continues claiming innocence. Eventually they even may begin demanding transgender people 'reclaim tranny' as gay men in America have been attempting to do.

I used to be a adult volunteer with a youth group that held weekly talk sessions much like your the one shown in this PSA. Whenever one of the male identifying youth gathered enough courage to admit to the group he liked or felt best when wearing female clothing the group leader a gay man, would look at him with a smirking incredulous look, and shout "NO WAY". A response undoubtedly moderated because I was in the room.

This would always lead to a pillows being thrown at the youth with shouts of negativity. Undoubtedly shamed, the gender questioning youth would become silent and remorse forced further back into hiding, perhaps for the rest of his life. BY GAY PEOPLE.

Like this video, at this group if a female indicated she felt more comfortable identifying as a male she was readily accepted because that's sexy and she was after all, just a confused lesbian. A precept encouraged by misogynistic men gay and straight. Because two lesbians having sex is hot and not a threat to their masculinity. They could after all be 'cured' at leisure by any man with a dick and a good fucking.

?Just like gay men could be UN homo-ed by a fixer, or a woman?

Now that IS threatening to gay men and not sexy. You will NEVER see a gay organization endorsing a PSA with that content.

You are not LGBTQI Stonewall? NO! You are gay men intent on destroying our communities sense of self respect and dignity.

Does Stonewall UK have a anti transgender agenda? You bet your ass you do.

Just two yeare ago Stonewall refused to change it's choice of transphobic Julie Bindel as journalist of the year despite the outcry from the transgender community.

This year's Stonewall's transphobic choice of transphobic journalist of the year is Sun columnist Bill Leckie who is infamously noted for this article describing his reaction to watching transgender patrons exist a bar Mr Leckie wrote: “Eight o’clock on Wednesday and an army of frighteningly ugly women are pouring into a boozer called Prism for bingo night. Or at least from a distance they LOOK like women.”

"Stonewall Scotland, which is a subsidiary of Stonewall UK, said that although such writing was “probably intended in a spirit of light heartedness”, it was “prurient” and made fun of trans issues."

Stonewall UK despite the overwhelming evidence that Leckie is transphobic unbelievably defended their decision because he had recently written a (very courageous) article about gay footballer coming out.

S*onewall folding under pressure was not a moral decision. Stonewall rescinded the choice this year's journalist of the year under threat of again being targeted by the largest transgender protest as was the result of their persisting on retaining Julie bindel.


S*onewall has demonstrated by actions and excuses it desperately needs change so the British are going forward to Demonstrate against Stonewall duplicity and transphobia

Stonewall UK a transphobic misogynistic organization is regularly called on to advise the goverment on transgender issues despite there being readily available transgender organizations.

PSA "Then am I transsexual?" asks a Q fem youth group response "Lot's of girls are tomboys when they are young but then they you know, grow out of it." Again, BULL~SHIT unbelievable.

Letter to the editor Bowling Green Tribune Vote YES against Discrimination

I am Kelli Anne Busey, Cleveland-born transgender activist and woman of faith. I founded the 5000 member Facebook group TransAction ConVergence.

I became concerned with Bowling Green's embattled LGBT human rights ordinances because of the malicious nonstop attack on innocent non-Ohioans by the local opposition’s canned mass mailing.

In response, I initiated an event asking my members to "picture themselves in Bowling Green". We now invite you into our lives, to see our faces, hear our voices, by visiting us on my blog planetransgender and meeting us!

I took it one step further and offered our event to One Bowling Green to illustrate our community's goodwill. But the ONE campaign did not accept our offer, explaining that although they appreciated our desire to help, they "felt it was very important to concentrate on the faces and voices of Bowling Green."

We have gladly complied with this request even as the opponents of the ordinances brought in multiple non-resident "experts", their appearances being hyped with national right wing media. The accusation by opponents of the ordinances that ONE Bowling Green has done the same is, in fact, dishonest.

Time after time across our great country similar attacks on equality ordinances have failed. Gainesville, Fort Worth, and Kalamazoo, plus the states of Maryland and Texas are shining examples of how people of good will vote. Conservatives, liberals and people of faith have all been led by their own personal moral imperatives to vote for equality. When given the chance, most Americans have not taken an 'easy out' or chosen to take a politically expedient “no to equality” stand. Across all demographics, people are saying “Yes” to fairness and equality.

Transgender, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people need only to be given the opportunity that cisgender (people born comfortable with their gender expression) and heterosexual people now enjoy. We are your neighbors, police officers, store clerks, mayors and unfortunately, mainly due to prejudice, still the most likely to commit suicide.

You, Bowling Green, have an opportunity that would make me, an Ohio native, so very proud. You have the power to be who you say you are - welcoming of all people as our American founders intended.
Please Vote YES on 7905 and 7906.

Thank you
Kelli Anne Busey
Fort Worth, Texas

Submitted to the editor Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune October 20, 2010