6/9/12

Trans Folk Singer Namoli Brennet New CD on KickStarter



Namoli Brennet songs tunnel directly into my transgender soul, my feet start dancing my body swaying, tears rolling down my cheeks laughing all the while.



A longtime friend supported Namoli Brennet on a funding platform called "KickStarter" which helps fund new ideas with one caveat, they have to reach full funding within the allotted time. So he sent a email recommending I also help her. Not knowing who she is I checked her out. She is amazing. I am helping her and I hope you do as well.



Namoli Brennet is a touring singer/songwriter who has been performing nationally since 2002. Her poignant, introspective and sometimes hard-hitting folk has won praise and accolades from critics and fans alike. She's been dubbed "One of the best folk-rock artists in the country", and Zocalo magazine calls her music "Gorgeous and introspective." The prolific Brennet has released 9 CDs in as many years and spends 7 to 8 months of the year touring and performing.



How can help fund her upcoming CD? Just click the widget below to learn how. a dollar, 100 dollars its all up to you. Its so exciting rewarding to support someones dreams at a grass roots level. Join the fun:)

6/8/12

Watch: Netroots Intersection of Transgender Blogging and Social Change

June 8 2012 9:30ct am start time. Tweet questions using #nn12lgbt



Watch live streaming video from fstv2 at livestream.com

GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project Director Jennifer Levi joins
bloggers Monica Roberts, Autumn Sandeen, Jos Truitt and moderator Dr.
Jillian T. Weiss for a look at the role of blogging and online
advocacy in the movement for transgender equality.



10:57 AM CT: Its over now but I'll post the video as soon as its avaliable. but while it was live I tweeted::



Which was talked about by Dr. Wiess.....so I thankd her by tweeting.....



Transgender bloggers and advocates empowering transgender bloggers. Yeah, that'll work!!! The intersection just got busier.






6/7/12

Transgender Lynch Mobs? Unfair Advantages? Our Activism Gets Pushback

We have made some notable progress so far this year with the exception of Cece McDonald's imprisonment, and the overwhelming percentage of murdered sisters who are trans woman of color. Our Agenda is non exclusionary and simple. All we ask for is full equality and integration into politics, religions and society. We seek nothing more, nothing less as we live our lives loud and proud.

Equality wins. Hate loses. Lately there have been people who's agendas are diametrically opposed to ours and consequently have been at the losing end of the struggle. They all have ia few things in common. They are playing the victim card and making outrageous allegations and associations.

Some Miss Universe Canada supporters said transgender contestant had a 'unfair advantage'. Personally, I thought her unfair advantage was the sun which never set on her, but then that's just my opinion.

And recently Miss Pennsylvania who quit her title saying the contest was rigged but in fact it was her abhorrence of transgender people that made her abdicate her title.

Then there's the outcast "RadFems" who claim they are advocating for all of womankind. Make that 'woman born woman" excluding all who they consider not "Naturally Born Woman".. Sound familiar? It should because that is the cornerstone of transphobes world wide. The phraseology differs as does the venues it is delivered but it is all transphobia just the same.

No it's not a lynch mob that's facing up to transphobia, its a few lone voices, bloggers and activists in the wilderness who are being heard, respected and amplified by the rest of the world.

What may seem to be a transgender lynch mob to RadFems is in reality, just everyone else in the world. I would strongly suggest RadFems consider the analogies they present before they make them public.

So we march on.....

6/6/12

Trump Gives Former Miss PA Sheena Monnin a Second Chance

Donald Trump: All is forgiven if Miss Pennsylvania apologizes for rigging accusation within 24 hours.

The question remains, will Shenna give herself a chance?

I don't think Sheena Monnin will apologize unless she takes to heart John 3:13 which she exhibits on her Facebook profile as her religious belief... which says among other things....

....God did not send his one and only son into the world to condemn the world....

Its not her accusation that the Miss USA pageant rigged the contest that's is troubling Miss Monnin, nor is it a fear of the Trump legal team. Miss Monnin needs to answer to God for her judgemental bigotry. Miss Morrin needs the gift of peace and that would take a gift of love from the lord. That's a really big deal and may not fit within the 24 hours allotted by the the Trumpster.

Source CNN Blog: According to the e-mail released by the Miss Universe organization, Monnin sent her resignation after 4 p.m. ET Monday before writing on her Facbeook page, saying the organization had strayed by allowing transgender participants in the pageant.



"I am officially and irrevocably resigning the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012," the e-mail released by Miss Universe said. "I refuse to be part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it. This goes against ever moral fiber of my being. I believe in integrity, high moral character, and fair play, none of which are part of this system any longer.

"I hereby return the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012."


I hope Sheena Monnin allows herself a chance and comes clean about the real reason for her abdicating her title. Its a make or break decision for her that would allow her the opportunity to get to know love.

Black? Trans? Alive? Defended Your Life and A Racist Died? Go to Jail.


Picture BDOLAN
The anger at the sentencing of Cece McDonald can not be expressed logicaly right now. America has failed us. So I'll let these videos and pictures do the talking.



Leslie Feinberg Arrested

Contact: Katie Burgess, Executive Director, Trans Youth Support Network, transyouthsupportnetwork@gmail.com, (612) 363-7574; and Billy Navarro, Jr., MN Transgender Health Coalition, mntranspr@gmail.com, (612) 823-1152
Leslie Feinberg was arrested last night amidst hundreds of Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald supporters protesting outside of the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility. Feinberg is being held at the Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis and is facing charges of property damage. The protest was held on the eve of McDonald’s transfer to the state prison system, where she will serve out a sentence of 41 months for defending herself against racist and transphobic attackers. Although McDonald initially faced two charges of second degree murder, earlier this month she accepted a plea agreement to a reduced charge of second degree manslaughter due to negligence. Outraged supporters took to the streets, blocking traffic for over an hour in protest of the violent abuses McDonald has faced at the hands of our legal system. Feinberg joined demonstrators in making noise loud enough to be heard within the facility McDonald is currently being held at, and marching through the streets in a show of love and solidarity with CeCe McDonald and with all incarcerated individuals. Feinberg was the only person arrested, and is excited to draw more attention to McDonald’s story and to the prevalent racism and transphobia within the criminal system.

Feinberg has given the following statement:

Many people across the United States and around the world are watching, and history will record what happens on June 4, 2012. CeCe McDonald survived a fascist hate crime; now she’s sentenced as she struggles to survive an ongoing state hate crime. As Martin Luther King Jr. reminded: “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

As a white, working-class, Jewish, transgender lesbian revolutionary I will not be silent as this injustice continues! I know from the lessons of histories what is means when the state—in a period of capitalist economic crisis—enacts apartheid passbook laws, bounds up and deports immigrant works, and gives a green light to e white supremacists, fascist attacks on Black peoples—from Sanford, Florida, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a courtroom in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The prosecutor and the judge are upholding the intent of the infamous white supremacist Dred Scott ruling of 1857.

The same year Fredrick Douglass concluded: “Without struggle, there is no progress!”

CeCe McDonald is being sent to prison during the month of Juneteeth: celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation—the formal Abolitionist of “legal” enslavement of peoples of African descent. The Emancipation Proclamation specifically spelled out the right of Black people to self-defense against racist violence.

Yet, the judge, the prosecutor, and the jailers are continuing the violent and bigoted hate crimes begun by the group of white supremacists who carried out a fascist attack on CeCe McDonald and her friends.

CeCe McDonald is being sent to prison in June—the month when the Stonewall Rebellion ignited in the streets of Greenwich Village in 1969. From the Compton’s Uprising to the Stonewall Rebellion, defense against oppression is a law of survival.

This is Pride month, and will be bringing the demand: “Free CeCe—now!” to the regional Pride march where I live. I believe many other individuals, groups, and contingents will thunder that demand in Pride marches and rallies all over the world—informing millions who take part, and millions more who support.

The prosecution hopes this struggle is over. But it is not over: Free CeCe—now! An injury to one is an injury to all! Come out against racist, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and sexist wars at home and abroad!
Feinberg’s arrest is symptomatic of growing anger and frustration at the disproportionate targeting and abuse of young transgender women of color in our society. The actions Feinberg took last night were in solidarity with McDonald and all prisoners to let them know they are not alone. Feinberg is excited to garner attention to how McDonald is treated today as McDonald is transferred to the prison intake facility in St. Cloud, MN.

McDonald’s case does not reflect an isolated aberration in the functioning of the U.S. legal system, but rather business as usual within a society that has, for hundreds of years, profited from the incarceration and exploitation of people of color and trans/gender non-conforming people. McDonald’s sentencing sends a very clear message to all those following her case across the country: transphobia and racism are alive and well, both in the violent verbal and physical attacks on trans youth of color in the night as well as in the legal system which makes surviving this violence a crime punishable by years of incarceration. Nevertheless, we look forward to joining all of McDonald’s supporters in continuing to fight against these systems of power, for CeCe and for all transgender women of color targeted by the prison-industrial complex.

With love and rage,

The CeCe McDonald Support Committee












6/4/12

Watch Miss Rhode Island Clinch Miss USA With Transgender Answer

Fans tweeted the this final question, a first for a Miss USA pageant and asked a question about another first.

Source: Buzfeed.com What really clinched the win for Olivia was probably her answer about whether transgender pageant contestants should be allowed to compete and win. She said, "I do think that that would be fair, but I can understand that people would be a little apprehensive to take that road because there is a tradition of natural-born women, but today where there are so many surgeries and so many people out there who have a need to change for a happier life, I do accept that because I believe it's a free country." Watch her and the other four finalists answer their questions in the video.

I couldn't agree more Amy! I am thrilled that her answer in your opinion was largely responsible for her win. But is it possible there were no "Natural Born" woman in that competition.

"Natural born". What does that mean? dictionary.com definition

nat·u·ral-born

adjective

1. native-born.

2. by virtue of one's nature, qualities, or innate talent: a natural-born musician.

...makes no mention of gender, only attributes such as talent or abilities. So saying someone won the Miss USA Pageant because she was really, I mean really more woman more naturaly born is pretty absurd, intrusive and rude as quantifying a persons humanity always is. Transgender people could write volumes on that topic alone.

Peter McKnight at the Vancouver Sun makes a strong scientific argument that there is No such thing as a natural-born woman.

The reality is, in my opinion, we are all naturally born.