4/22/09
New York Assembly Passes Genda : Now onto a Democratic Senate
By Kelli Busey April 22, 2009 planetransgender
One year ago Genda, a bill that would have afforded transgender New Yorkers protection against discrimination in housing, the workplace and would have amended the law to include transgender people as a protected class, passed the NY Assembly only to die in the the previously republican controlled Senate.
Genda has once again passed the lower legislative house and now moves forward to a vote in the Senate where a slim majority of law makers indicated approval offering it a better chance than last year.
According to civil rights leaders in New York, the marriage equality bill which was recently publicly endorsed by Governor David Paterson, will have a better chance of passing if the less controversial Genda Bill becomes law.
Found on the Web
Gay City News Assembly Again Approves Gender Rights Measure
"GENDA would bar bias based on gender identity and expression in employment, housing, public accommodations, and access to credit. It would also amend the 2000 hate crimes statute to include gender identity and expression as protected categories."
4/21/09
Obama : Torture is NOT Tolerated by America
Who: President Obama, the former Justice Department officials Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury. Bybee is currently a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Yoo is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
What : Charges of conspiracy to commit felonies, including torture be considered against among others Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury and the goverment and contracted officials of the United Stared who participated in planning for and or committed criminal acts of torture.
When : NOW! Call on your legislative representatives to demand full transparency, accountability and justice.
Were : From your keyboard. Tell him now to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate Bush administration officials who authorized torture.
Why : He[Obama] said anew that CIA operatives who did the interrogating should not be charged with crimes because they thought they were following the law. Obama, so did HITLERS henchmen.
Obama would rather forget than pursue justiceUNLESS we force him to.
Americans are coming to realize that we were mislead by Obama's presidential promises and that we must act to keep all politicians honest.
Citizens, hold Obama accountable to his campaign commitment to end torture and prosecute those criminals who perpetrated and carried out act's that freedom loving democratic countries worldwide and formally the United States had decried as illegal torture.
Unresolved debate in DOJ memos: Does torture work? AP
How Waterboarding Got Out of Control Time.com
Obama defends secret memo release to CIA employees AP
Scientists Claim CIA Misused Work on Sleep Deprivation Time.com
Waterboarding: A Mental as Well as Physical Trauma, Expert Say Time.com
By Kelli Anne Busey, April 22, 2009 planetransgender
Walking With Integrity: Write Congress
Please take action with Queers United action to Demand Hate Crimes Legislation http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2009/04/demand-national-hate-crimes-legislation.html
Andrade Murder Trial for the Death of Angie Zapata :" Jurors hear defendant’s jailhouse calls"
Source CNN Side Bar by Beth Karas Posted: 10:40 PM ET
GREELEY, Colorado–Jurors heard from accused killer Allen Andrade today in recorded jailhouse calls with two former girlfriends, Angie Tyree and Felicia Mendoza. A cavalier-sounding Andrade said he “can’t cry over spilt milk” regarding the brutal killing of transgender teen, Angie Zapata, last July. That call and three others, recorded in the days after his July 30th arrest, gave some insight into Andrade’s reaction to his plight.
“It not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head…or like I killed a law-abiding straight citizen,” he told Tyree. Andrade said he could do “10 or 15 [years]” but that he hoped not to be imprisoned forever. At one point, Tyree scolded him: “You should’ve stayed home.” His response: “I know I should’ve stayed. I should’ve done a lot of things differently…shoulda, coulda, woulda.” Though no longer dating, the two were living together for about three months at the time of Andrade’s arrest.
Full story at CNN sidebar by Beth Karas, In Session correspondent
Jurors hear defendant’s jailhouse calls
Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial: Pink Vibrator With Only Andrade's DNA Entered Into Evidence
Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial: Pink Vibrator With Only Andrade's DNA Entered Into Evidence
by: Autumn Sandeen Originally posted Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 07:22:00 AM EDT on Pam's House Blend. Reposted with permission from Autumn Sandeen in an our effort to to bring national attention to the murder trial of Allen Ray Andrade for the death of Angie Zapata.
When I was a teen, I acted shamefully. I had a friend, who's name was Brett, who I ended up shunning when he came out as a gay teen. I was a closeted trans person who's church -- I was raised a Pentecostal. I didn't want to hang out with my effeminate gay friend because I was afraid people would be able to tell I was trans -- or believe I was gay -- if I was seen in the company of a gay peer.
As many of us remember doing, some of us in the gay community go beyond shunning when we were in the closet -- we were homophobic and transphobic bullies. We were the ones who were the worst at calling individually out lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans (LGBT) people, or gender variant people (effeminate males and masculine females) as "faggot," "fairy," "dyke," "it," and "that thing." Many of us, when we were closeted, were physically violent against those who were out as LGBT, or who were gender variant.
We were so often afraid of being discovered as LGBT ourselves that we called others names, and/or became physically violent to out LGBT individuals because we were afraid that if we were seen as not being bullies against out LGBT individuals and gender variant people, we would be discovered as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender ourselves.
In court yesterday, three things that I thought were very significant were entered into evidence. To me, these explain this crime is a way many in the LGBT community "get."
The first thing is that Allen Ray Andrade, according to his ex-girlfriend, was seen browsing the bisexual pages of the social networking website Mocospace.
The second thing is that hat Allen Ray Andrade, according to his ex-girlfriend, was a "snap cat" (or "snap cat"). He was called this because he was often quick to snap to anger. The ex-girlfriend also testified that he literally hit himself sometimes when he got angry at himself.
Lastly, a pink vibrator was entered into evidence that was collected from Angie Zapata's apartment. When DNA tested, only Allen Ray Andrade's unidentified DNA (as in it was with scientifically certainty that this was his DNA, but it wasn't as being his semen -- not sure identifiable as which part of the body the DNA came from), was on the vibrator. The defense was trying to argue that this could be "touch" DNA from someone who was particularly sweaty, but the DNA testing expert stated that "possible, but not probable." This is because of the amount of Andrade's DNA was on the pink vibrator.
Paraphrasing he DNA expert, she explained that her studies and experience in DNA that would lead her to a reading amount of 3.19 measuring units of DNA if he had put the pink vibrator in his mouth, but he had 19 point something units of measuring units of his DNA on the pink vibrator -- in other words, more than six times the DNA material expect if he had sucked on the pink vibrator. The Deputy DA who was questioning the DNA expert asked if this large amount of DNA could be explained by putting that pink vibrator up an anus, and the DNA expert said yes, this would be one of the ways one could expect to find that much DNA material on the a pink vibrator.
In other words, the Deputy DA was essentially making the case Andrade had sexually used the pink vibrator in his anus.
Today, we're going to hear a jailhouse telephone call between Allen Ray Andrade and his ex-girlfriend. In that phone call, he is going to be heard saying:
.............Gay things must die........
I go back to how I treated my friend Brett in high school. It was self-hate that motivated me to act homophobicly.
I'm only speculating, but it sounds like to me that we had a self-hater who killed someone whom he regretted that he spent time with. We in our community who have been in-the-closet homophobic bullies on the way to accepting our own sexual orientation, or own gender identity, know what that this not only is possible, but in this case probably probable.
By circumstantial evidence, the prosecution is showing that he went to traffic court on July 15th, 2008 with Angie -- the day before he admittedly killed Angie. He allegedly heard the court refer to Angie by her male name approximately 36-hours before he killed her.
And, we heard the testimony last Friday that Angie's sister Monica 
literally saw Angie "always" out herself to strangers -- especially male strangers that were hitting on her. Frankly, Angie was young and gorgeous, so she was hit on "a lot" by men. And yet, she had the habit of outing herself to men.
In my mind...by my speculation...this wasn't a crime of passion. Allen Ray Andrade very likely knew Angie was trans many hours -- more than a day -- before he admittedly killed her. It looks to me that a publicly homophobic, closeted gay or bisexual man killed a woman he saw as trans and gay because he didn't want to be identified as gay himself. In my mind, this reads as a crime of angry regret instead of a crime of passion. The gay panic, trans panic strategy that Andrade's defense is using seems to me to be a convenient ruse to violently attempt to hide his own sexuality. This would be no excuse for killing Angie -- the young woman that he, after admittedly killing her, referred to as "it."
Not he, not she, but "it."
So, let me backtrack a bit -- back to my story about Brett.
Brett, if you're reading this piece, I'm so sorry. So, so, very sorry. I was a closeted, homophobic fool. I regret so deeply being an emotional bully to you -- just so I wouldn't be discovered as a gender variant, trans person. It's my greatest regret in life -- shunning you. You were my friend, and yet I behaved so wrongly to you. I'm so, so very sorry.
Original post found at Pam's House Blend by Autumn Sandeen :: Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial: Pink Vibrator With Only Andrade's DNA Entered Into Evidence