3/10/10

Every Child Deserves a Family Act (H.R. 4806) Important Adoption and Foster Care Legislation

Today Representative Pete Stark (CA-13) introduced Every Child Deserves a Family Act (H.R. 4806), a child welfare bill that takes into consideration the best interests of children in the foster care system. The bill would open up permanent homes to more foster youth by working with states to eliminate laws, policies, practices and procedures that exclude potential adoptive and foster parents because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.

As the House Ways and Means Committee begins to review and analyze this bill, we need you to urge your representative to co-sponsor this critically important legislation that will help give foster children permanent, safe and supportive homes.

E-mail Your Representative TODAY!

Tragically, approximately 125,000 foster children across the US are waiting to be adopted. With only 50,000 adoptions each year, there is a clear shortage of adoptive parents. The result is that children, especially minority and special needs children, languish in foster care and bounce from placement to placement. The 25,000 youth who never find a permanent family and "age out" of the system each year are more likely than nearly any other group to experience poverty, homelessness, incarceration, early pregnancy or suffer with mental illness or substance abuse.

Despite the need for more adoptive and permanent foster homes; some states have enacted discriminatory bans that prohibit children from being placed with qualified parents due to the parent's sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status. The result is less children being adopted and more children bouncing around the foster care system with no permanency and no security. In some cases these bans have resulted in a grandparent having to go through costly litigation in order to care for their own kin who are in foster care. This kind of discrimination does a disservice to many children who need a permanent, safe and supportive home. It robs far too many young people of a family, a core value that many Americans hold dear, and it's time to take a stand.

Click here to e-mail your representative to co-sponsor and pass the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (H.R. 4806). Loving homes are on the line for far too many children seeking a permanent, safe and supportive home to call their own.

LGBT Activist Take DART to TASK over it's Intervention in Family Court

Dallas Area Rapid Transit board members sat quietly during the public comment time. Alternately seemingly attentive and distracted mainly depending whether the speaker was suggesting a legal inquiry about the propriety of DART's interference in family court or a measure to correct it's nondiscrimination policy to include gender expression/identity.

When comments focused on DART's nondiscrimination policy and proposed meetings to rectify it the Board members at best feigned interest but when confronted with the Resource Center of Dallas response to DART's letter justifying it's legal wrangling in civil court the Dart Board members attention was suddenly undivided.

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3/9/10

Kelli Busey comments to DART Board Members Feb. 9, 2010

Dear chairman Velasco and board members,

Thank you for you unselfish commitment to bettering the regions public transportation system. As time progresses America will come to highly appreciate the work you are doing now.

I am kelli Busey. Co administrator of the Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies. I also author a Dallas positive blog, planetransgender.

A lot has already been said about what has filled this room with people so passionate about fairness and equality. I wish to focus on the present and the future.

The Dallas Fort Worth region has long enjoyed robust prosperity and growth which in part is brought by a perception people have. A vision all people have before they even depart for a convention or Gala event in the DFW. People think of the DFW as a safe place for visitors. A place that companies when consider moving here, take into consideration that Dallas is a city that will welcome all of there employees, LGBT included.

This perception held by residents and visitors alike is due in part to the commitment the city of Dallas has to LGBT human rights.

I beleive that vision is our reality, but our reputation as a welcoming city for all GLBT people is receiving negative press worldwide which would lead one to beleive otherwise.

The Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies have encountered a situation not unlike the one DART finds it self in today. A situation that nothing positive could possibly result.

However there is a option. I would like to invite you Chairman Velasco, and Board members, to attend a meeting that may very well be the answer that we mutually seek.

The Dallas Office of fair housing which is tasked with enforcing the Cities gender inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance has graciously offered to attend such a meeting in a educational role. The North Texas chamber of Commerce would also like to contribute it's experiences and share with you what it has done to make equality truly Dallas's business.

I will leave with you my contact information and I would like to arrange such a meeting at your convenience.

Thank you,

Kelli Anne Busey
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies

3/3/10

Take Action Against DART Transphobia

What if?

What if you woke one morning to find your employer had changed your name?

What if they altered your legal documents changing your gender marker from female to male?

What if as a woman, your employer made you dress in clothes of the opposite sex, made you use the wrong restroom and addressed you as sir?

What if your employer did not allow you to have routine medical procedures because they now insist that you are not whom your legal documents previously said you were?

What if your employer did these things and then threatened your job, your pension, the very foundation of your family home, if you asked anyone for help?

This is not a nightmarish Orwellian big brother scenario. This is happening now, today, to Ms T DART, a transgender Texan silenced by intimidation into anonymity.

If you are you a resident of:

• Collin County
• Dallas County
• Denton County
• Ellis County
• Kaufman County
• Rockwall County
• Tarrant County (TRE operates in Dallas and Tarrant counties)

Then this could also happen to you regardless of how secure you feel you are.

WE MUST NOT ALLOW THIS TO BE A REALITY FOR Ms. T DART.

Please email your city council members and elected Dart representative and tell them that you will not allow this to stand. Tell your representatives at your cities DART board meetings that we live in a country that is built on the promise that all people are equal and everyone has the right to life liberty and justice.

We do not live in a country that allows employers to influence judges to reverse court findings in a way that strips us of our very identities.

Please attend this DART Board meeting on February 9, 2009
RSVP on the Face Book event page

Sign in before the meeting to be given three Minutes to speak.

Board Meeting: Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Board Room
DART Headquarters
1401 Pacific Ave. (Akard Station)
Dallas, TX 75202
Map

• DART Customer Response Center
214-749-3333
Customer Service Feedback Form.
• DART Customer Response Center
214-749-3333

DART member city councils that elect represenitive who serve on DART's Board.

One click to Email Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and ALL the Council Members

Cockrell Hill

Farmers Branch

city of Carrollton

Addison

Glenn Heights

Highland Park

City of Irving

No email links to Plano City Council members just a phone# 972-941-7107

Richardson

Rowlett

Upcoming regional DART Board Meetings / Próximas Juntas

3/3/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Grauwyler Recreation Center
7780 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75235
MAPSCO 33M

3/4/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Thursday, March 4, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Dr Pepper StarCenter
12700 North Stemmons Freeway
Farmers Branch, TX 75234
MAPSCO 12V

3/4/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Thursday, March 4, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Skyline Library
6006 Everglade Road
Dallas, TX 75227
MAPSCO 48J

3/8/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Monday, March 8, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Dallas Police Department
9915 East Northwest Highway
Dallas, TX 75238
MAPSCO 27Y

3/8/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Monday, March 8, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Addison Conference Center
15650 Addison Road
Addison, TX 75001
MAPSCO 4Y

3/10/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
DeWitt Perry Middle School
1709 Belt Line Road
Carrollton, TX 75006
MAPSCO 12D

3/11/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Thursday, March 11, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
MLK Senior Center
2922 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75215
MAPSCO 46T

3/13/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 12:00 p.m.
DART Board Room
1401 Pacific Avenue
Dallas, TX 75202
MAPSCO 45P

3/15/2010 Open House
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Monday, March 15, 2010, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
(Open House)
DART Board Room
1401 Pacific Avenue
Dallas, TX 75202
MAPSCO 45P

3/18/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Bachman Recreation Center
2750 Bachman Drive
Dallas, TX 75220
MAPSCO 33C

3/18/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Lakewood Library
6121 Worth Street
Dallas, TX 75214
MAPSCO 36Y

3/22/2010 Pre-Public Hearing Community Meeting
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Monday, March 22, 2010, 12:00 p.m.
DART Board Room
1401 Pacific Avenue
Dallas, TX 75202
MAPSCO 45P

3/23/2010 Public Hearing
DART 2010 Service Change Proposals
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
DART Headquarters Board Room
1401 Pacific Ave.
Dallas, Texas 75202
MAPSCO 45-P

3/1/10

Dallas Blue Moon Dance Transwoman Welcome!

I stepped inside the hall and was greated by "We love to see you here" and early in my transition when I the attended my first blue moon dance these were words I desperately craved.

Attired in my tightest skirt and very best chest enhancement I commenced to sashay across the women's only dance floor, swaying to disco, rap and country! Latter when I sat down, the blur of lights still winking in my memory, I met a stream of wonderful woman who came to my table and made a point to make me feel at ease, to let me know I am one of them and loved.

But if you are a guy, even a CHARMING guy with chips, sorry! Read about Riches hysterical blue moon experience at the Dallas Voice

University of Texas Austin Hate Crime Attack Protested by Hundreds

Hate crime victims Emmanuel Winston and Matt Morgan lead fellow University of Texas Austin students and hundreds of supporters on march to retrace path that led to the attack.

We need the police to prosecute this and we need the tools in place that are afforded by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to in insure local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors pursue hate crime and accurately record the statistical data. Source Daily Texan GLBT citizens rally against homophobia