Tag Archives: transgender issues

Yesterday the Cleveland City Council unanimously passed a weakened transgender rights bill. Via Spangle: By adding the words “gender identity or expression” to a criminal law that provides protection in areas of employment, housing and public accommodations, council members took a huge step forward, supporters said. “Basically, it means that I won’t have to worry about being fired,” longtime activist …

In his confession to the decapitation murder of gay teen Jorge Mercado, Juan Martinez Matos (left) claimed that Mercado had been dressed as a woman in an area known for prostitution, driving him, he claimed, to murder Mercado in “gay panic” once he discovered Mercado’s true gender. But according to Puerto Rican activist Pedro Julio Serrano, those close to Mercado …

In 2007 Los Angeles Times sports writer Mike Penner announced in his column that after a vacation, he would be returning to work as Christine Daniels, a transition that was met with surprising support from the sports world and Penner’s colleagues. But in a decision commonly called “transgender regret,” Penner revealed in February of this year that he was now …

Today is the 11th annual International Transgender Day Of Remembrance. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil …

Two weeks ago the Tampa City Council made a preliminary unanimous vote to extend employment and housing protections to transgender residents. The law will be finalized in a vote today, which has brought out the wingnuts with their now familiar and ridiculous claim that cross-dressing sexual predators will freely molest children in the city’s public restrooms. “This ordinance will give …

Voters in India will now have the option of identifying themselves as male, female, or “other” on ballot forms. Indian election authorities Thursday granted what they called an independent identity to intersex and transsexuals in the country’s voter lists. Before, members of these groups — loosely called eunuchs in Indian English — were referred to as male or female in …

After heated debate, last night the Fort Worth City Council voted 6-3 to expand employment discrimination protections to include transgender persons. Outside the building, pro and anti-gay activists clashed and nearly came to blows. Reportedly, the city’s human relations committee was working on adding transgender protections before the recent embarrassment over the Rainbow Lounge raid. More than 200 people packed …

The Family Policy Network goes for the tired “man in the ladies room” crapola in this last minute ad urging the overturn of Kalamazoo’s LGBT rights law.

The students of the College of William and Mary have elected their first ever transgender homecoming queen. Jessee Vasold [left] took the field Saturday at halftime of the Williamsburg school’s football game against James Madison. The junior and other members of the homecoming court were introduced to the crowd and posed for pictures. Vasold identifies as “genderqueer,” a term for …

The State Supreme Court of New York has dropped the requirement that transgender individuals provide documentation from their doctor before changing their name. The fund had brought the case on behalf of a transgender man, Olin Yuri Winn-Ritzenberg, who had petitioned the New York City Civil Court seeking to legally change his name from Leah Uri Winn-Ritzenberg. In February, a …

You may recall the nasty anti-gay campaign to repeal Gainesville, Florida’s LGBT rights law, during which images of men creeping into ladies’ rooms was used as a scare tactic against transgender rights. The repeal failed, but now comes word of the arrest of one of the repeal’s petition gatherers. For creeping into ladies’ rooms and filming them! The CVS Pharmacy …

Just weeks after they fired a staffer for writing a homophobic email, Atlanta’s Morehouse College has issued a new dress code banning its all-male student body from wearing women’s clothes. Surprisingly, the college’s gay student group endorsed the change. No dress-wearing is part of a larger dress code launched this week that Morehouse College is calling its “Appropriate Attire Policy.” …

Before he enrolled, school officials at a Kennesaw, Georgia high school assured Jonathan Escobar, 16, that he would be allowed to cross-dress as he pleased. But after a fight erupted between one of Jonathan’s supporters and one of his tormentors, the school told him that he was in violation of their “no disruptive clothing” policy. He dropped out after four …

The mayor of East Cleveland, Ohio has found himself in the middle of a controversy after photos of him in drag (NSFW) were leaked, presumably by his opponent. Barring the possibility that he’s campaigned against LGBT rights, who the hell cares how the mayor gets his private jollies? Cross-dressing is not a crime, but it will surely be the end …

Saying that transsexual prostitutes were using Craigslist to hook up at his bar, the owner of the Chicago-area Hunters Nightclub has ordered that all patrons must have an ID listing a gender which matches their appearance. Under the new admission rule, cross-dressers must have a government-issued photo ID that looks like the person presenting it at the bar. That, of …

As she awaits the results of her “gender testing” at the hands of track and field officials, world champion South African sprinter Caster Semenya has been given a girly-girl makeover for a magazine cover meant to “silence her critics” who claim she’s a man. Via Yahoo Sports: For the shoot Semenya sported a less ambiguous hair style, a designer black …

Teenage killer Brandon McInerney, who last year walked into his 8th grade classroom and shot openly gay classmate Lawrence King in the head, has pleaded not guilty in a Ventura County, California classroom. Teen murder defendant Brandon McInerney pleaded not guilty Thursday to first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the fatal shooting of classmate Larry King, 15, at …

Well, you knew the Christian right just had to weigh on the situation faced by South African sprinter Caster Semenya. Some Jeebus-based track and field organization named 4 WINDS bleats: The liberal San Francisco-based National Sexuality Resource Center (NSRC) says the IAAF should “stay out of Caster Semenya’s pants”. “Your efforts to make champion Caster Semenya ‘prove’ she is a …

Since Sally Kern blames LGBT folks for the bad economy and thinks we’re worse than terrorists, I find it more than a little bit delicious that her just-announced 2010 opponent for her Oklahoma House seat is Brittany Novotny, a young transgender attorney. Novotny operates a private law practice specializing in employment and civil rights law in downtown OKC. She represents …