2/9/13

Nadine Williams South Wales Transgender Woman Cleared of Rape Charge

Nadine Williams, a transgender woman has been cleared of rape and two counts of sexual assault which she was accused of committing  before transitioning while presenting as Dean, a male.

Ms. Williams who spend 6 months remanded to pretrial confinement with men while waiting for the trial simply said she was relieved the "torment" was finally over.

The unfortunate articles I've seen to date have misidentified Nadine as a 'transgender man,'  further adding confusion by misgendering with male pronouns.

But as a testament to her character Nadine told The South Wales that while waiting trial she "worked to try to make the prison trans-friendly" and decided to make her tribulations public knowledge to help people understand the transgender community.

The  Swansea Crown Court archives don't give details only stating that the case was closed.

She now wants to move on with her life and continue her journey.

"I can now rebuild my family life," said Miss Williams.

"I am cleared and I have been vindicated," she said.

But she said the road for her could still be hard.

"There could be lasting effects to me, my family, my close friends and the whole transgender community. I just hope people will understand and let me get on with my life."

Read more at This South Wales



Boston Shelter And Police Rule Breakers Humiliate Trans Woman Settle For $30G

Trans woman Brenda Wernikoff had been staying at the Boston Woods Mullen homeless shelter for a year when a employee called the police on her for using the ladies room.

According to the Lawsuit she was arrested and humiliated, made to strip and jump up and down for the officers who then called her by male pronouns.

The Woods Mullen homeless shelter policy regarding trans peoples access to public accommodations:


It's been my experience with Dallas Homeless Shelters they can be extremely reluctant to include transgender policies. Many claim its a simple lack of physical safe space but the reality is as we see here, it's more often than not a case of embedded transphobia.

Have shelters changed that much since 2004? Not really. Lesbians and Transgenders (still) Struggle for Shelter






They Love to Function In the Dark. We'll Humiliate Them Forcing Them Into Sunlight: Oklahoma Legislator On LGBT Health Care

* Note: I changed the title from "Transsexuals" to "They" after a number people commented they thought the title was misleading. After watching the video a number of times I still believe Lankford didn't specify who "they" were, leaving that to speculation. I believe the "they" Lankford was alluding to is the LGBT people, specifically the addicted among us.

Source Think Progress: The fifth-ranking House Republican took a shot at the LGBT community at a recent town hall, saying he wanted to use “the power of humiliation” to undermine a program that helps individuals who need substance abuse treatment.

Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), who at the same Oklahoma City meeting earlier this month blamed gun violence on “welfare moms”, took a question from anti LGBT state legislator Sally Kerns about a program that counseled LGBT individuals with substance abuse problems. The woman accused the Substances and Mental Health Services Administration of “pushing the homosexual agenda” and “indoctrinating our citizens.”

Lankford agreed with the woman’s concern, vowing to open an investigation into the matter. “They love functioning in the dark,” the Oklahoma Republican said of the LGBT program, promising to use “the power of humiliation” to uproot it.




The only one being humiliated is you Lankford and possibly some of your constituents when they realize you such a bigot who may turn on them some day. Kerns, its more than obvious that you understand mental health leads to sobriety and safe sex which of course you oppose for LGBT people. You would be very happy to see AIDS continue to decimate us.

LGBT people face life threatening addictions, its a fact. Many like myself before transition turned to drugs to escape reality. Early in my sobriety I saw my transsexuality as a curse. I've been clean and sober for 23 years now thanks to god and AA. But now there's real hope for our affected population regardless of  faith beliefs or interventions of a  higher power thanks President Obama leadership.


Its called the Substance Abuse Mental Health Administration which is conducting conferences country wide to help educate mental health providers opening the door to our elevation from despair, drug dependency and suicidal thoughts.

SAMHA is opening the skylight enlightening health care providers about the obstacles LGBT people find when seeking help. However, there were a couple things I find troubling in the teaching PDF. There was a marked brevity in explaining gender expression and identity and I could not find the word 'transphobia' in the PDF. Instead the authors chose to describe our discomfort with societal misconceptions as 'homophobia'.

Source SAMHA PDF

Accessibility

"Due to homophobia and discrimination against LGBT individuals, some may find it difficult or uncomfortable to access treatment services. Substance abuse treatment programs are often not equipped to meet the needs of this population. Heterosexual treatment staff members may be uninformed about LGBT issues, may be insensitive to or antagonistic toward LGBT clients, or may falsely believe that sexual identity causes substance abuse or can be changed by therapy. These beliefs by providers become barriers to treating the LGBT client."

In any case its a great teaching tool.




2/8/13

Fox News Mocks Brown University's New SRS Insurance Coverage

Of all the things going on in the world, war, trained killers turning on each other and rape Fox uses its airtime to denigrate a health plan that they have no part of except...its money  in the bank for Fox, pandering to their hateful constituency like that. The Atlantic Wire reports this deplorable conduct by Fox and friends has ignited a firestorm of hate filled commentary on other media outlets.

Brown university's recommendation to the APA that Gender incongruence be removed from the DSM-5 has fallen on deaf ears so Brown did what it could to facilitate our transitions. Brown has now joined with Cornell, Harvard, Stanford and Penn by paying for SRS.

Kelly Garrett, LGBTQ Center coordinator, said she has strongly advocated this change for the past several years. A milestone in the movement to add coverage for these surgeries was the inclusion of hormone treatment in the current school year’s coverage plan, Garrett added. The sexual reassignment procedures that will be covered are “very standard and very comprehensive,” she said.

In the past, transgender students did not have access to sex reassignment surgeries at Brown and often were barred from treatment due to high costs, Garrett said. “I know people where it’s taken them 10 years because they needed to save money,” she said. The LGBTQ Center has no statistics on how many transgender students are at Brown, and it is difficult to get accurate data due to self-reporting and the nature of some students’ gender identity changes during their time in college, she said.

Without Brown would graduate Kate Bornstein have become the person she wanted to be?



HIGH FIVE to Brown and ALL of the other colleges. You are saving lives and molding our future leaders with those same lives. Thank you!



2/7/13

Ravens Superbowl Champion Brendon Ayanbadejo on Transgender Rights: If a man wears womans clothes and is really a man, who cares?

Human rights activist Brendon Ayanbadejo Ravens linebacker explained his support for transgender rights on CNN after eloquently stating his support of marriage equality:

“If a woman wants to wear a man's clothes or if a man wants to wear a woman's clothes or you feel like you're a woman on the inside and you're really a man. Who cares? Let's just treat everyone equally. Let's move on. Let's evolve as a culture, as a people.”

I honestly believe Ayanbadejo ether lacks a understanding of transgender people or was talking about cross dressers. In ether case it was a tragic faux pas at a crucial moment stereotyping transgender people as really men or woman who dress in the opposite sex's clothing. Can we help to understand who we are? Yes we can! (did someone say that before?) Heres Brendon's facebook fan page. Show some love. Be nice, help educate Brendon.



2/6/13

Human Life International (HLI): A Catholic Organization Promoting Death For Being LGBT?

Uganda: a modern day battle ground between indigent LGBT people and Western Catholics power brokers intent on passing the "Kill Gay" bill.

In 2008 I became a soldier in this conflict in this far off land not because the methodologies employed by anti gay groups were so nefarious, but because this hate is being funded and promoted openly by American organizations and secretly by the US goverment officals who belong to the  'family'.

Thes lies and hate mongering have taken an amazingly brave man from Uganda:

American Catholics killed David Kato who lead the fight for Sexual Minorities Uganda. Did an American actually  beat Mr Kato sending him to this agonizingly slow death?? No. Cowardly American Christians such as Scott Lively got someone else to do that for them.

The Kill Gay Bill was reintroduced this year and is intended silence if not by murder by imprisonment.

Mercedes Allen wrote a open letter to Life Site News asking for a clarification about it's relationship with Human Life International. Mercedes has also begun the petition: LifeSiteNews, stop promoting organizations that stir up anti-gay hatred in Africa.

From 2009 about the 'family'....