Showing posts with label intersexed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intersexed. Show all posts

7/29/08

Queer issues take a global stage at the United Nations



By Emily Geminder

29 July 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Of the more than 3,000 non-governmental organizations holding consultative status to the United Nations, only a handful address gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex issues. This week saw an incremental but significant step towards change: two groups, COC Netherlands and the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals of Spain (FELGTB), gained admittance to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
The impact of United Nations policy bears far-reaching implications for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals everywhere, and the community’s marginalization within the international framework has come under increasing scrutiny. According to South Africa based Gender Dynamix, Africa’s first transgender rights organization, discrimination against individuals who do not conform to conventional gender expression places them at high risk for HIV infection, compounding the impotence of national and global policies that fail to take sexual and gender minorities into account.

7/2/08

Reconciling Ministries New Blog Proactive Radical Inclusion



By Kelli Busey
July 1, 2008

The Reconciling Ministries Network is launching a new blog in accordance to it's mission of bringing ALL of God's children home. In following the teachings of our lord, this vision of radical inclusion has been shaped into action by Antony Hebblethwaite and the staff of of the RMN. Among the writers who are contributing are people who have known personally Dr Martin Luther King's struggle, people who have experienced South African apartheid, pastors who are living with the denial of their Church to minister because of sexual affinity and teachers who have dedicated their lives to the good of human kind. All are human rights activists who are now deeply involved with bringing us together in peace. And one transgender truck driver, thats me. I was so inspired to by what I saw in General Conference 2008 that I self promoted my application to contribute to this blog and to my amazement, was accepted. But I got cold feet after reading the biographies that the other writers submitted. I questioned myself about my abilities. How could I ever write on the level as these educated and wonderful people. And lets face it, I'm not the most pious of people. I'm more akin to the 250lb hot dog with mustard and relish eating 9th inning self appointed 3rd base coach! Antony wrote back to me and said "easy girl". This is what reconciling means. Inclusion. So we are all here. And this is the scoop of my life! This world is after all a place for me.

Reconciling Ministries Network is a national grassroots organization that exists to enable full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the United Methodist Church, both in policy and practice.

http://www.rmnetwork.org/

2/9/08

Laura Ingram and Fox TV at WAR(warbeeaatch)


Laura Ingram and Fox Tv at war (WARbeeaatch)

By Kelli Busey
Febuary 9,2008

http://planetransgender.blogspot.com/


Laura Ingraham in this video broadcasted on FOX TV attempts to bully and intimidate CODE PINK'S Medea Bejamin. This defies all standards of broadcast decency and the principles of free speach. Laura Ingraham is in the absence of armed men demanding silence, is by default the enemy of free speach and an America where we respect the right of others to have and express an opposing opinion. As someone who served in the Armed forces I can attest she is not speaking for me nor a majority of service members.

I would hope Laura Ingram would have a more open mind to the Transgender community. According to the WIkapeda, she has involved herself with purposefully harming innocent people by ingaging in Anti-homosexual activism.
According to David Brock (in his 2002 book Blinded by the Right), Ingraham, while writing for The Dartmouth Review in the mid-1980s, once attended meetings of a gay student organization for the purpose of publicly outing them in the newspaper. Ingraham secretly taped a meeting of the Gay Students Association, then published the transcript, identifying students by name and calling them "sodomites." According to Ingraham, however, she attended the meetings to report in the newspaper how tuition money was being spent.

A decade later, on February 23, 1997, however, Ingraham wrote an essay in The Washington Post in which she announced significant changes in how she views gays and lesbians. This was motivated primarily by her experience with one of her brothers rumored to have been estranged from her for a time after the gay student group controversy, as he cared for his ailing partner:

"In the ten years since I learned one of my brothers was gay, my views and rhetoric about homosexuals have been tempered... because I have seen him and his partner of 14 years, lead their lives with dignity, fidelity and courage.

I AM FURIOUS THAT I SPENT 7 YEARS IN THE ARMY TO HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH DESECRATED.
You may contact FOX at yourcomments@foxnews.com and exercise your freedom of speech!

SUPPORT CODEPINK's peace efforts at

http://codepinkalert.org/

http://planetransgender.blogspot.com

2/5/08

Gainsville FL Transgender Debate Draws croud

Transgender debate draws crowd

By MEGAN ROLLAND
Sun staff writer
11:57 pm, January 28, 2008
City Hall was buzzing Monday night with both protest and support for a proposed city ordinance that would include gender identity as a class of people protected from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation.

Continue to 2nd paragraph The auditorium had standing-room only, as did the entryway where a large crowd watched the decision on closed-circuit television. The vast majority of those who spoke on the issue were against the ordinance.

Those in favor of the ordinance lauded it as a step toward increased human rights for transgender individuals, who some said are marginalized in society.

The ordinance would add gender identity as a category of people protected from discrimination. Discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation and gender are already outlawed in Gainesville.

City officials defined gender identity as a situation where people have an inner sense of being a gender other than their gender at birth.

Those opposed reiterated oft-cited concerns of having a man in a woman's restroom, as well as the burden it would place on business owners to provide accommodations in the case of changing facilities.

Commissioner Ed Braddy immediately made a motion to deny the ordinance, and Commissioner Rick Bryant quickly seconded the motion.

"When you boil it down the issue is that because of some people who have some sort of emotional or psychological issue, others have to change," Braddy said.

He said the ordinance would require separate facilities if a business owner decided to deny a transgender individual access to dressing rooms.

"In that sense it makes a claim on other people's property," Braddy said. "This is about granting special privileges to a class of people."

Commissioner Craig Lowe countered. "There is nothing special about being able to have a home, get a job, go to a restaurant," said Lowe adding that those are simple rights that are often taken for granted.

"It does a very simple thing for a group of people that is very intensely discriminated (against). They are few in number but sometimes it is the few in number who need the most protection," Lowe said.

Commissioner Jeanna Mastrodicasa emphasized that there is a standard across the nation for these types of ordinances.

In Florida the cities of Lake Worth and West Palm Beach, Miami Beach, Wilton Manors, Gulfport and Key West have anti-discrimination policies that protect gender identity, as do Orange, Monroe and Palm Beach counties.

Some residents quoted the Bible and expressed anger that the city would make an ordinance protecting people who in their minds were going against the way that God created them.

One man said the commissioners would suffer the wrath of God and another yelled "the blood is on your hands" for supporting the ordinance.

Several pastors, including the pastor of the Rock of Gainesville, also spoke against the ordinance. Many opposed to the ordinance said it was unfair to make the majority uncomfortable in order to protect a minority.

A University of Florida student said in the meeting it was a sad state of affairs when basic human rights were debatable not only among the public but also among elected officials.

Another UF student said, "We have a right not to be hassled, harassed, beat up or killed, and it happens everyday based on what people look like and what we wear."

By press time, the commission hadn't voted on the issue.

Megan Rolland can be reached at 338-3104 or megan.rolland@ gvillesun.com.

http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080129/NEWS/801290319/1002/NEWS

1/14/08

TACT to conduct Independent Educational Initiative

Transgender Advocates of Central Texas
P.O. Box 2602
Austin, Texas 78768
info@tactx.org
http://www.tactx.org

January 13, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEEDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE DURING HRC GALA
Austin, Tx -- Transgender Advocates of Central Texas (TACT) will be holding an independent educational initiative during the gala event of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on January 26th at the Austin Hilton. This initiative is motivated by the desire to educate the members of HRC about gender identity and expression and the need to provide protections in legislation. HRC continued to support an Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) after Representative Barney Frank deleted protections for gender identity and expression. This was despite a coalition of over 300 national, statewide, and local groups who signed a pledge to not support a non-inclusive bill.
TACT board member, Lisa Scheps said, "We feel the leadership of HRC not only hurt the transgender community, but also any person that doesn’t conform to gender norms. This includes feminine men and masculine women – many of whom are HRC members. Under the ENDA that passed in The House of Representatives these people would have no protections. And, let’s face it, when a person is discriminated against it is usually because of how they present themselves and not because of who they sleep with." TACT looks forward to a day when all people get all of the protections provided by the Constitution.
Transgender Advocates of Central Texas is an advocacy group dedicated to furthering the cause of Gender Diverse people in Central Texas. We will accomplish this through advocacy and education in both public and private forums. Through our efforts we will strive to halt discrimination through social, legal, legislative and corporate education.
For more information on opportunities to get involved in transgender advocacy in Austin, e-mail to info@tactx.org

12/26/07

ENDA let's get it right

The Orginal ENDA 2015 submitted in April of 2007 included laungage which afforded protection to
transgender people and GLB people regardless of how gay you are.Unfortunately it is of our opinion that political mistakes were made based on incorrect interpretation of
history and a skewed sense of political expediecy..Barney Frank is of the opinion that transgender people are new to the advocacy arena and therefor not to
be allowed to enjoy the same status as the rest of the GLB community.Transgender people have been in the forefront at the Compton Cafateria and Stone wall riots.The LBGT community has voiced it's discontent via UNITED ENDA's 7 million..

On 9/27/07 without advance warning Barney Frank intoduced HR(3585) which eliminated transgender
protection. With the exclusion of gender identity laungage it will be subjective depending on the
conception of the judge, what behavior falls within sexual preference or gender identity. Thereby
eliminating the person who on a given time acted too gay, in the judges opinion and the transgender
person from protection under the law.Glbtq people have themselves often criticized identity politics, particularly on the grounds that individuals
possess multifaceted identities and thus involvement in politics based on a single identity does not suffice
On 9/27/07 Barney Frank submitted HR(3586) which has gender only protection launguageTime has shown that incremental steps when applied to a group i.e. shades of black, only serves to
weaken the validty of the entire concept and promote discord and disunity.Time has also shown that if a small portion of a group is sacrificed on the premise that they will be returned
for, then this fails to happen as the motovation to do so is not present.
Therefore It is our goal to allow the protections of ENDA to extend to the entire community.This goal is the wish of UNITED ENDA comprising 368 National, State and Local groups and 171 house
representitives.We emplore you to contact your orginization represenitives and political leaders and lend them your
wisdom. Let us welcome our entire LGBTIQ community at the finish line, together the truth will win