1/19/14

Indigent Ukranian protests against Russian style anti LGBT laws erupts into violence

Breaking: Ukrainian protesters demanding a end to new Russian oppresion and LGBT propaganda laws. #euromaidan #ukraine #Kyiv Transgender and the rest of the LGB community in Ukraine lives rest on the outcome of these protests after the goverment sold out to Gazprom, Russia's tool for oppression and imprisonment of bordering countries.

UkraineNews UkraineKommersant

potatogedoRT @zaytsev_eng More photo by #kommersant from the center of #Kiev after 30000 people opposition rally (#Ukraine) http://t.co/A5yjuhkAwm


lyalyaHorskyRT @MaximEristavi The crowd at the standoff looks bigger than the protest inside the barricaded #EuroMaidan pic via @euromaidanhttp://t.c…


lterrenesRT @RKacinskas News: #Ukraines police use tear gas against #euromaidan protesters who demand to revoke harsh anti-protest laws. http://t.…


tora3xRT @BuzzFeedNews Protesters, police clash in Ukraines capitalhttp://t.co/fELFdHG8ey http://t.co/x00sLKGROp


FroodyWiscoRT @BSpringnote Foto of #euromaidan. All those ppl are in contempt of Yaniks new assembly and protest law. Jail? Lets c Yanik try http:/…


JozeBiscakRT @ChristopherJM Remnants of smoke canister thrown by police at protesters. #kyiv #ukraine #euromaidan http://t.co/FGRVqV7VkE


enrsamaRT @electionista Opposition leader @Klitschko sprayed with a powder fire extinguisher during #Kiev rally http://t.co/sE7mcfz8EM http://t.c…


d_poRT @gkates A better shot of the police bus on fire from @radiosvobodafeed http://t.co/Lk0XDCgPZ4 #euromaidan http://t.co/n29rImIqyS


CrispyPuppetRT @RT_com PHOTO: Riot police bus engulfed in flames in #Kiev via @lb_ua http://t.co/nf9yBH0gN0 LATEST UPDATES:http://t.co/dtNPO4j5os


newsgonPHOTO / Fires in central #Kiev break out as buses are set alight and protesters clash with riot police. #Ukraine http://t.co/EACElVP40J


dhdfisherRT @MaximEristavi A police bus on fire, in 600 meters from #Ukraines parliament pic by @aronets http://t.co/OKTJQDLtwJ #Euromaidan


Neferure1RT @RFERL A police bus set on fire in standoff near gov. quarterhttp://t.co/ByiXBLEly7 #euromaidan http://t.co/9uc6P5sxfX


mclayfieldRT @markmackinnon Photo of Ukraine opposition leader Vitali @Klitschko after he was reportedly sprayed with a fire extinguisher: http://t.…


PzFeed: Ukraine opposition leader Vitali @Klitschko after he was reportedly sprayed with a fire extinguisher. Via @nycjim http://t.co/8R8c1dDvqs


Asher_WolfRT @ChristopherJM Protesters, police clashing on Hrushevskoho. 20+ smoke bombs thrown by police. Protesters throwing objects. #ukraine htt…


grace8mingRT @ChristopherJM Protesters have taken over at least 3 police buses, one is burning. Clashes continue. #euromaidan #ukraine http://t.co/G…


EastOfBrusselsRT @VitaliiSediuk gas, stones and bus on fire #Euromaidanhttps://t.co/UeiDiGoFRp


2021RT @maxseddon Protesters in Kiev set a police bus on fire, reportedly with Molotov cocktails. Pic via @lb_ua http://t.co/H0kSWnPkzM


IndyradmamaRT @Yaro_RT Firecrackers thrown at the police in Kievhttp://t.co/DNdQceyMLL via @lb_ua


joshuafoustRT @RFERL From livestream of Kyiv standoff between police and protesters now #euromaidan http://t.co/ZnqX2QoVF1http://t.co/vdmPtL4Da3


Andriy_KhomaRT @MaximEristavi Flairs, gas everywhere. Some are chanting Revolution! #Euromaidan #Kyiv http://t.co/3JobAW2ul0


kaatje36RT @nycjim Dramatic live stream of #Ukraine protesters clashing with riot police in #Kievhttp://t.co/x7CvyJo1P6 http://t.co/QFS99VdmdB


katalin_potaRT @RT_com PHOTO: Protesters clash with police in Kiev after 10k took to streets for anti-govt rally http://t.co/dtNPO4j5os http://t.co/3D…



Against Me! Laura Jane Grace on being a trans roll model looks for the same from us. That's Punk.

Laura Jane Grace interviewed by Radio.com talks about the experience of breaking away from the security of recording under a major label to produce their own music again freely.

"We did our last two records on a major label and that experience towards the end felt like very stifling in that there were too many cooks in the kitchen trying to tell you how to do your art. So we really wanted the opposite experience with this record, having complete freedom to do what ever we wanted."

"It's been liberating in that sense but it's scary."

Via jillian clark photo.tumblr
As a transgender journalist I of course focus on Laura Jane Grace's transition. It huge in the punk world but the reality is if Against Me! is to thrive there has to be more to the story.

Laura explains For years people focused on their recording with a major label calling Against Me! sell outs. Laura Jane explains "there will always be people like that, now the focus is on something else (for instance her trans identity)

On $10,000 dollars of her most precious guitars being stolen by a moving company "Theirs a special place in hell reserved for guitar thief's. Maybe one of us will earn a place in heaven if we find one of her guitars.



The video I recorded of Against Me! in 2012 3ft from the stage at The Dallas House of Blues. I had never been to a punk concert before that. The word "Punk" just carried too much negative baggage for me to even consider. But I've learned through Laura's transition is that Punk is transsexulism personified in sound in that the commonality we share with cisgender people searching for the same personal truths. Punk easily bridges our differences. Its Punk.




1/18/14

Buttloads of pain in Butt~tropolis ~ Vice

An epidemic is raging through the trans community. More and more females and males alike are becoming obsessed with our bootys. So badly troubled by anything we consider not perfect some will take any risk to transform there back ends into a heavenly perch. What better then a quick, cheap fix~a~flat~fix?

Click here to watch on Vice


1/17/14

Shreveport transgender woman dares religious zealot councilman Ron Webb to stone her

The defining moment for transgender rights in Shreveport Louisiana came as Pamela Raintree audaciously challenged Councilman Web to stand up and throw the stone she offered.

On December 10, 2013, the Shreveport city council passed the non-discrimination ordinance by a 6-to-1 vote. The lone dissenting vote came from right-wing councilman Ron Webb, who said that he opposes the non-discrimination law because "The Bible tells you homosexuals are an abomination."

Less than two weeks after the fairness ordinance passed, Webb drafted a resolution to repeal it. This week, dozens of people signed up to make public comment at the city council's meeting to discuss the repeal measure.

One of them was Pamela Raintree, a transgender woman who quoted the Bible to Webb, saying, "Leviticus 20:13 states, 'If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, they shall surely put him to death,'" she said. "I brought the first stone, Mr. Webb, in case that your Bible talk isn't just a smoke screen for personal prejudices."

Minutes later, Webb withdrew his resolution without calling for a vote.



This morning after tweeting the Advocate's article I was mentioned in a  tweet by who else but. Peter LaBarbera who for a lack of anything else to do also followed me. LaBarbera is the leader of the "Americans for Truth About Homosexuality" which the Southern Poverty Law Center deemed a hate group







For the record the bible does condone stoning.

Leviticus 24:16

King James Version (KJV)
16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.


Federal Appeals Court rules transgender murderer will have publicly funded sexual reassignment surgery


BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s ruling granting a taxpayer-funded sex change operation for a Massachusetts transgender inmate serving a life sentence for murder.

Michelle Kosilek was born male but has received hormone treatments and lives as a woman in an all-male prison. Kosilek was named Robert when convicted of killing his wife in 1990.

Kosilek sued the state Department of Correction after prison officials refused to grant her request for sex reassignment surgery. A federal judge ruled in 2012 the surgery is the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s gender identity disorder.

Prison officials appealed the ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled Friday the 64-year-old Kosilek is entitled to the surgery.
Prison officials argued there are legitimate safety concerns over protecting her in prison if she has the surgery.





I know some will disagree with me but if that were you in prison how would you feel if you were denied medical care simply because someone felt you weren't entitled to it?


Belize Transgender woman's murder hate crime says family

El Guardian reports that police are investigating the January 12th murder of Joseph Sanchez, 18 as a robbery even though no money or personal items were taken as recorded by a video camera on a nearby school.
" Police found Sanchez motionless body on Elston Kerr Street, behind Gwen Lizarraga High School. He had a single stab wound to the chest. They’ve since reviewed camera footage of the attack which reveals that Sanchez was walking on the sidewalk when two men on bicycle rode up to him. He realized that the men intended to rob him, so he threw his phone away. At knife point, they frisked him, and he didn’t resist them in anyway. After taking what they wanted from him, the man with the knife inexplicably stabbed Sanchez in the chest. Investigators are puzzled as to why the assailants decided to murder Sanchez, since he cooperated completely."

That version is refuted by members off her family who say Sanchez has been afraid for her life after her boyfriend broke up with her. United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) reports that:
"Sanchez’s family is disputing the police’s theory that his death is as the result of a robbery, however. They say that that theory does not hold water because his cell phone and money were not stolen. They believe that the well-known cross-dresser was killed simply because he liked to dress as a woman."

"She said that he had been receiving death threats, and had been told on several occasions that he would be killed."

" Abner Sanchez, Joe’s brother, said that his brother was frequently harassed and threatened because he dressed in women’s clothing."

"Abner said that when he saw his brother at the morgue, he saw marks on his hands and face which made him believe that Joe fought with his attackers. He believed his brother was lured out of their house, and that whoever did so intended to kill him. He said that his brother’s phone had been handed over to police."



One report states that she used to be picked up at her house by men who conspicuously  never walked with her. in public.

Belize human rights advocates recently challenged the constitutionality of the Belize anti sodomy lays which carries a 10 year imprisonment and outlaws entry of LGBT people into the country. That effort was defeated  thanks to the efforts of Scott Stirm, a Texas evangelical who rallied local churches to keep this law.

*Note I am addressing Ms. Sanchez with female pronouns out of respect for her dress when she was murdered. R.I.P. Joseph Sanchez.