Vicco: Smallest City In America To Pass LGBT Protections

Usually its the big cities that make big news when they institute LGBT protections but this time the big news is how small the city is and how big their hearts are.

Vico Kentucky is located in the southern tip of Perry County, 12 miles from the county seat of Hazard in rural Appalachia has 318 residents covering only .08 square miles.

Source Fairness Campaign: Vicco, KY) Today the Fairness Coalition joined the Appalachian town of Vicco, Kentucky as they approved the state's first lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) anti-discrimination Fairness ordinance in a decade. The measure, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations based upon a person's actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, received support from three of the city's four-member commission and mayor.

Vicco becomes the smallest municipality in America with such anti-discrimination protections and joins three other cities in the commonwealth with Fairness laws--Covington, which passed an ordinance in 2003, Lexington, and Louisville, which both approved laws in 1999.

"Vicco is a community that believes all folks should be treated fairly," shared Vicco City Attorney Eric Ashley. "We believe everyone deserves the opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fairness is a Kentucky value, a Vicco value, and one of our most American values."

"Seeing Red" A tempest in a teapot. Now Sack Julie Burchill

A lot of trans people were upset by a Suzanne Moore piece in the New Statesman tittled 'Seeing Red: the power of female anger'. In all honesty I didn't find it offensive.

But then the piece didn't have the paragraph that angered so many people stereotyping Brazilian transsexuals when I read it. For the record Moore wrote:

" [Women] are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual.”

All and all not that offensive but that's just me. I have watched in utter amazement  trans Brazilian pageant contestants. So in a way its a complement as they have raised the bar so frustratingly high that many, both cis and trans people might see as unattainable. 

But reading into the comments I do find reasons the UK trans community would be offended since between 126 and 200 trans murders were reported in Brazil at the 2012 TDOR especially since the ink hasn't even dried and yet another Brazilian trans woman has been reported  brutally murdered today.

In that context Moore's comment is an offensive stereotyping of  a particular ethnicity of the trans community. The 126 who were murdered probably weren't drop dead gorgeous and didn't have wide hips or big breasts. They were most likely like me in appearance.  It then becomes obvious the Moore used that comparison as backhanded slap at trans peoples as she refused to become educated about that indiscretion.

Moore's true colors came out as she responded to trans people's indignation by tweeting

" “People can just fuck off really. Cut their dicks off and be more feminist than me. Good for them.”

So good riddance to Moore but that was nothing in comparison to what followed ber departure.

Columnist Militant Feminist Julie Burchill responded to Moore's leaving twitter on the Guardian with "Transsexuals should cut it out" saying it's a shame she' should be driven from her chosen mode of time-wasting by a bunch of dicks in chicks' clothing.

Burchill didn't limit her disrespect to trans people she obviously abhors other minorities as well.

"The reaction of the trans lobby reminded me very much of those wretched inner-city kids who shoot another inner-city kid dead in a fast-food shop for not showing them enough "respect"

That shouldn't be too surprising since in 2002 she narrowly escaped prosecution for incitement to racial hatred, "following a Guardian column where she described Ireland as being synonymous with child molestation, Nazi-sympathising, and the oppression of women. Source: Wikipedia

Burchill was just getting warmed up and refocused her hated on trans people cavalierly using the reviled word 'trannies' and threatening "these bed-wetters in bad wigs are "lucky I'm not calling them shemales. Or shims."

As you can guess the trans community is up in arms about this outrage. Many have already emailed complaints about Bruchill's article to Stephen Pritchard president of the Organization of News Ombudsmen  but don't let that stop you. Email him at reader@observer.co.uk

The Independent is running a poll to get a idea of how society in general feels about Julie Burchill's article.

This poll was shared 500+ times and of those shares I assume most responded to the poll to. Click Here to take the poll.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Personally, I don't want the article removed from the Guardian. I want Burchill fired. I want a full retraction and apology from the Guardian addressing each instance of Burchill's hate.

Bill O'Reilly Bashes Trans Prisoner Michelle Kosilek

Fox News sinks to its lowest point by allowing this sad excuse for a human mock a minority prisoner for of all things, how she looks. Just when you thought you couldn't think less of faux news along come something like this diatribe...

O'REILLY: My question is, in the promo, couldn't they do a better job for a million bucks than this guy? Look, there he is. For a million you figure he might look like Annette Funicello or somebody. I don't know.

A couple of comments from the Media Matters article that has the rest of the story:

Two In Custody For Transgender Shooting, Ignorant Reporters Still At Large

With a sigh of relief I can report that the police have the two suspects in custody however two reporters from ABC and The Sarasota Patch remain at large. These two reporters are armed with laptops and should be considered extremely ignorant/transphobic.

A cascade of ignorance/transphobia? A possible second hate crime?

The waterfall of ignorance about transgender people began with the WWSB Sun coast article which stated the police transported whom they assumed to be a man and a woman to the hospital but later discovered it was a man in women's clothing. The article stated that one of the men had female on his drivers license but hadn't yet undergone the surgery to make him a woman.

The ABC article is so bad I wonder if it wasn't written by a transphobe with a axe to grind. That was the first crime against literacy.

Transgender people are looking into a second possible hate crime after the Sarasota Patch parroted the gawd awful ABC piece and the reporters? They remain at large and should be avoided at all costs.

Trans Woman Kylan Arianna Wenzel Competing For Miss California Today

Transgender beauty Kylan Arianna Wenzel is in the preliminary round competing with 229 other woman For Miss California Today.

Source LGBT POV: "Wenzel is among 229 contestants participating in the preliminary Miss California show on Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Pasadena Convention Center. The 20 contestants left will then go on to compete in the final show on Sunday, Jan. 13, at 4 p.m."

"Miss California pageant producer Keith Lewis finds Wenzel inspiring. “I so admire what Kylan’s doing, because she’s fought so hard to be here,” Lewis told Frontiers. “I think she will be successful in whatever she decides to do in her life. When we talked about her participating, she said, I really just want the other girls to accept me. And I think they not only accept her but will celebrate her because she’s loving and she’s open and courageous and she’s trying to do the best she can, like pretty much all of the rest of us.”

The Miss California pageant will be webcast live for a fee of $15 at misscaliforniausa.com. Or you can buy tickets through Ticketmaster. A longer version of this story is available on LGBT POV.

Drunk DC Cop Kenneth Furr Who Shot At 5 Trans Woman Fined $150

August 2011 Officer Kenneth Furr in a fit of rage jumped onto a car and fired his service revolver five times into it trying to murder the trans women who had just rejected his offer for paid sex.

To the trans community it seemed like a open and shut case of attempted murder but to D.C. Superior Court jury and Judge Russell Canan it was self defense.

The story at the time...

...doesn't fit the crime... According to the Washington Blade Canan sentenced Furr to "five years in prison but suspended all but 14 months of the prison term and credited Furr with the 14 months he already served between the time of his arrest and his trial last October."

"Officer Furr also received three years of supervised probation, a $150 fine, and 100 hours of community service and told to stay away from areas that are known to be populated with trans sex workers." "D.C. police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump said Furr has been suspended without pay and that the department will follow its standard procedure for dealing with an officer convicted of a felony. Police observers have said a felony conviction, especially one associated with violence, usually results in the firing of a police officer." Read more at the Washington Blade .