4/4/13

Scottish Transman Chris Wilson, To Be Sentenced Friday For Not Revealing His Trans Status Before Sexual Intimacy

Gay Star News Reports: "Last month, Wilson admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old girl who said she was 16, after telling her he was 16 when he was really 22."

"He also admitted to kissing and cuddling another girl who was also 15 at the time, and also lied about his age."

"Despite the ages, it is believed due to the ‘obtaining sexual intimacy by fraud’ charge, Wilson was only convicted on the basis he had lied about his gender history."

"Nathan Gale, development worker at the STA, said: ‘There are other factors involved in this case, the two young women involved were only 15, but in bringing these particular charges the message the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has sent to trans people is, we will criminalize you if you fail to disclose your gender history to sexual partners."

"Source Scottish Transgender Alliance:" On 6th March 2013, a court case was heard in the Edinburgh High Court where a Scottish trans man was accused of two counts of 'obtaining sexual intimacy by fraud' for not disclosing his gender history and real age to two teenage girls. He entered a guilty plea, meaning he will face jail time. Sentencing has been deferred pending background reports."

"The Scottish Transgender Alliance is very concerned about this case and the message the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is sending to trans people. The Scottish Transgender Alliance strongly oppose any criminalisation of trans people for not revealing their gender history to sexual partners. Obviously there are other factors involved in this case and other details which we may not know of. However we have requested an urgent meeting to clarify the position of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on this. We have also sent a letter to the Lord Advocate expressing our concerns."

"If you share our concerns, please consider signing our online petition "Trans Privacy Not Jail" which calls upon Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to urgently work with trans equality organisations to address the concerns of trans people that they risk imprisonment simply for non-disclosure of their gender reassignment status to sexual partners."



Texas Senate Hears First Ever LGBT Workplace Legislation

Equality Texas is shepherding SB237 through the Texas Senate. As a transgender Texan I will tell you this. We desperately need this legislation to become law. Many companies will hire us but have no idea how strongly our employment will be resented by staff potentially making our daily lives a living hell.

Authors Intent:

"S.B. 237 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression."

"Currently, employment protections are in place to protect employees and job applicants against discrimination based on race, color, disability, religion, sex, and national origin. S.B. 237 adds sexual orientation or gender identity or expression to that list."



"Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Several cities in Texas, including Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio provide such protections to municipal employees."

Similar bills by Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, went through the motions the last three legislative sessions but failed to pass. Villarreal filed a companion bill this year that will be heard by the House Economic & Small Business Development committee.

Clicking here opens the video in a new window



4/3/13

Mother Sues NYFD Claiming Trans Daughter Died Because EMS Refused Treatment

The allegations stem from a June 15, 2012, incident, when Smith’s mother, Jenette Cox called 911 after Smith – a transgender woman who was born a man – went into diabetic shock. When EMS responders arrived on the scene and found the victim to be transgender, they failed to render services, Cox alleges.

“This is somebody who needed urgent care and didn’t get it, and basically what stopped them were breasts on an originally male body,” said Ilya Novofastovsky, the Sheepshead Bay attorney representing Cox in the malpractice and discrimination case against the NYPD and the FDNY, which operates the EMS.

Read more at Sheepshead bites.

Brennan Outed Trans People On "OK Cupid" In Retribution For Time Article

Brennan sent me this tweet yesterday as she began outing trans people   who were on the dating site "OK Cupid".


In Brennan's mind this was punishment for our telling the readers of the Time article she was attacking trans people on, who she really is.


Cathy Brennan is an attorney believe it or not. But this isn't the first time she maliciously outed a trans person. Brennan had no qualms about outing a trans teen to his school high school.



4/1/13

HRC has yet to apologize to the People They traumatized Personally Like They Claim They Did

HRC is slipping into a quicksand pit of duplicity and once again it's trans and queer people who are suffering.

On March 27th HRC staff members accosted C.d. Kirven and Brian who were waving a Bi flag and a trans flag respectfully, while attending the marriage equality rally at the Supreme court.

The HRC staff members were most upset by the trans flag focused in on Brian, terrorizing him to tears to the point he dropped our flag and ran off crying. C.d., a cisgender ally, jumped in at that time picked up our trans flag and stood her ground proudly waving our flag for us.

HRC has since offered two contradicting statements:

The latest on April 1, 2013 by Fred Sainz, Vice President, Communications and Marketing.

"Human Rights Campaign Statement on March 27 Events"

"In the midst of a tremendously historic week for our community, two unfortunate incidents at the United for Marriage event at the Supreme Court last week have caused pain in the community. In one case, a trans activist was asked to remove the trans pride flag from behind the podium, and in another, a queer undocumented speaker was asked to remove reference to his immigration status in his remarks."

"HRC joined in a coalition statement on Friday apologizing for these incidents and the individuals involved have personally offered their apologies to those affected. But to be perfectly clear, HRC regrets the incidents and offers our apologies to those who were hurt by our actions. We failed to live up to the high standard to which we hold ourselves accountable and we will strive to do better in the future. Through both our legislative and programmatic work, HRC remains committed to making transgender equality a reality."

In a previous press release on March 28th HRC Communications director Michael Cole-Schwartz issued this statement to Qnotes denying any wrong doing in response to the growing ground swell of condemnation.
“It was agreed that featuring American flags at our program was the best way to illustrate this unifying issue which is why when managing the area behind the podium, several people were asked to move who were carrying organizational banners, pride flags or any other flag that was not an American flag,” the statement read. “Several people refused and they were allowed to stay. The coalition welcomed the variety of signs and flags that were throughout the plaza that demonstrated the wonderful diversity of our community.”

HRC added, “It is a not true to suggest that any person or organization was told their flag was less important than another — this did not occur and no HRC staff member would ever tolerate such behavior. To be clear, it is the position of the Human Rights Campaign that marriage is an issue that affects everyone in the LGBT community.”

I just contacted C.d. Kirven. I asked her if anyone had contacted her or Brian and offered an apology. C.d. Responded "No one has contacted me. I'm unsure about Brian."

First off, HRC did NOT join in the apology made by the coalition. At that time they too busy lying saying they were innocent of all the allegations.

If it weren't for social media HRC wouldn't have said a thing about their tyrannical behaviour much less offer a 'personal apology' to thin air. They still need to contact these three people personally, Jerssay Arredondo, Brian and C.d. Kirven and present themselves as a responsible respectable organization and offer a heartfelt apology.

And please, don't don't tell me 'oh everything is fine now can we get back to winning' because the shit is broken and ignoring the problem is not going to help. The public thanks to the white washed portrayal of the marriage equality movement during the rally doesn't know undocumented trans and queer folk are the ones most affected by the upcoming supreme court marriage ruling.

And thats just how HRC wants it.

HRC needs to come to terms with the fact rich white men are not the only people in this struggle. HRC needs to put our interests, undocumented binary non conforming queer and trans people in front of corporate concerns then maybe, just maybe we can say things are getting better.

Petition: HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: Enact a Concrete Plan of Action Ending Transphobia/Gender Bias at HRC

HRC shamelessly promotes and profits from the stygmization of the trans persona with Orbitz.