Tag Archives: transgender issues

Via the Tampa Bay Times: After an emotionally charged debate, state lawmakers Wednesday gave their initial backing to a bill that would prohibit transgender men and women from using public restrooms aligned with their gender identity. The proposal is intended to address public safety concerns that its sponsor, Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, said arise from a broad nondiscrimination ordinance passed …

On the slim upside, we saw some real heroes tonight – both at the speakers’ podium and in City Councilwoman Lawana Mayfield. UPDATE: The Charlotte Observer reports: After its most contentious meeting in years, Charlotte City Council voted down the most controversial bill they have considered in years, an amended nondiscrimination ordinance that would add sexual orientation and gender identity …

This happened tonight during the LGBT rights debate. Matt Comer reports at Q Notes: qnotes has received two reports of confrontations of transgender people using the government center’s bathrooms, including one confrontation in which anti-LGBT street preacher Flip Benham, once convicted of stalking a local abortion doctor, confronted a 17-year-old transgender girl. Olivia, 17, told qnotes she went to use …

“Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings.  Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation. With this attitude, man commits a new sin, that against God the Creator. The …

 Thank you, Rep. Honda!

I reported on this early today and this afternoon the Task Force posted video. The audio cuts in and out early in the clip but returns after few minutes.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock canceled his planned welcoming address at the Task Force’s annual  Creating Change conference last night after a large group of transgender advocates stormed the stage in protest of the recent killing of a Latina teen by Denver police. Michelle Garcia reports at the Advocate: Task Force deputy executive director Russell Roybal and Creating Change director Sue …

JMG reader Mike forwards us yesterday’s message from ExxonMobil’s LGBT employee group, which notes that the company’s board of directors has approved the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. In July 2014 ExxonMobil announced that it would comply with President Obama’s executive order regarding companies with federal contracts, but at that time a company spokesman would …

Via Yahoo News: Transparent is putting Amazon on the map for original programming in a bigger way than any of the company’s other shows have. And there are awards to prove it. Jill Solloway’s series earned two Golden Globes earlier this month. One was for best television comedy or musical; Amazon knocked off Netflix’s Orange is the New Black to …

GOP Kentucky Senator C.B. Embry has introduced a bill authorizing students to sue their schools for $2500 each time they encounter a trans person using the “wrong” restroom, locker room, or shower. “Parents have a reasonable expectation that schools will not allow minor children to be viewed in various states of undress by members of the opposite biological sex, nor …

Via Reuters: Russian officials have given transgender citizens, many of whom have felt increasingly persecuted by the state in recent years, the green light to keep on driving after a new road safety decree sparked panic that they would be banned from the road. The decree, a legal amendment which includes a list of symptoms from the World Health Organization’s …

InTouch has angered transgender advocates with a photoshopped cover image of Bruce Jenner. BuzzFeed reports that the magazine appears to have superimposed Jenner’s face on that of British actress Stephanie Beacham, lipstick and all. Hollywood Life, an entertainment blog, also quotes an “insider” who claims that Jenner plans to come out as a transgender woman in a future issue of …

JMG reader Andy writes: My partner and I live in Northern Kentucky in the greater Cincinnati area and attended Leelah’s vigil at the Woodward Theater in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood last night.  There were approximately 600 persons attending the vigil last night in the theater, both on the floor and in the balcony. In attendance were many of the Cincinnati LGBT …

Via the BBC: Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences. Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as “mental disorders” now barring people from driving. The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents. “Pathological” gambling and compulsive stealing are also on …

“‘Transgenderism’ is a deeply disturbing mental and spiritual sickness. Any person who believes he is the opposite sex has serious problems, and society’s rightful disapproval is the least of them. Not everyone will like to hear this, but demon possession certainly plays a part in homosexuality and ‘transgenderism.’ In the Bible, we see that demon possession was commonly acknowledged and …

Gay Star News notes today that Leelah Alcorn’s Tumblr has been deleted. Leelah’s tortured yet eloquent posts there have galvanized LGBT activists worldwide since her suicide earlier this week. It’s unknown whether the deletion was requested by Leelah’s family, whether they obtained her password and did it themselves, or whether it was removed for violating Tumblr rules about discussing suicide. …

At this writing almost 200,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for a national ban on so-called transgender conversion therapy.  Almost 70,000 have signed a separate petition which calls for Leelah Alcorn’s preferred name to be inscribed in her headstone. Yesterday CNN got a brief quote from Leelah’s mother: When Josh Alcorn voiced a desire to live as a …

The suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn has been a trending topic of Twitter for two days and there have been hundreds of stories about her in the mainstream press. Here’s yesterday’s coverage by Reuters: A transgender Ohio teen walked in front of an oncoming truck and was crushed to death on Sunday morning, leaving behind a suicide note that …

From Leelah’s suicide note: Please don’t be sad, it’s for the better. The life I would’ve lived isn’t worth living in… because I’m transgender. I could go into detail explaining why I feel that way, but this note is probably going to be lengthy enough as it is. To put it simply, I feel like a girl trapped in a …