NYPD's Hidden Agenda Behind The Brutal Dehumanizing Stop and Frisk Policy of Trans POC

FIERCE held a press conference at the courthouse where the NYPD are on trial for their unlawful Stop and Frisk policy. The NYPD is intent on erasing of transgender people from the city by targeting trans youth of color with continuous public humiliation, threats and assaults ultimately forcing them to make a choice.

As a white trans person, if I was faced with this intolerable life and death situation I would have two options. Conform to the rigid gender binary or leave the city. Trans and queer people of color are left with one choice. The NYPD under the direction of their masters are committed to erasing trans people of color from the city and failing that, gendercide.

Transcript from the FIERCE video:
"...but whose quality of life are they protecting? The reality of our lives as queer and transfolk of color speaks truth to the fact that we are excluded from the 'us' we speak of and the NYPD has no interest in serving and protecting our communities. It excludes us when trans bodies cannot walk down Christopher St. w/o being profiled for being sex-workers b/c they have a condom in their pocket; when a group of queer POC standing on a corner is easily mistaken for being a gang; when black and brown bodies are viewed as violent just b/c of the color of our skin; when we see and hear about our people being killed due to state violence."



"The NYPD has used their power to try and erase us, to keep us silent and to keep our stories from being talked about and heard. Ours are the stories that go unheard and we have been hidden in the statistics for far too long. I'm here today to not only share my story with you, but to tell all of you that these are the stories of many black and brown queer and trans."



"To let everyone know that walking while trans, queer, black and or brown is not a crime."

"I am not the first from the community to be targeted and mistreated by the NYPD and I surely won't be the last. And that is exactly why FRIECE fights everyday to make sure the West Village, a historical safe space for the LGBTQ community remains a safe space for LGBTQ POC."

"In the W. Village we've experienced years of gentrification which has meant the pushing out of our community, policing and more profiling of trans youth and decreased access to public space."

"We believe that the Floyd case is a step in the right direction but is not where our work ends. We know that the NYPD is rooted in institutionalized racism, transphobia and homophobia. These systems of oppression won't stop and neither will we. When this case is done we will remain on the front lines of this fight for justice. We will continue to hold police accountable. We will continue [??]-watching. We will continue to create our own systems of safety that are rooted in community power and resilience. From Amadou Diallo, Cece McDonald to Kimani Gray we will not stop raising our voices, we will not be silenced, we will not lose hope. And we as a whole will continue to fight and expose the systematic oppression projected by the NY Police Dept."

Medicaid Has Withdrawn It's Proposal To Cover SRS While Appeals Board Considers Challenge To "Experimental" Status

Thursday morning Medicare and Medicaid Services (CSM.gov) unilaterally began asking for public comment on changing its policy for Gender (sexual) Reassignment Surgery with the goal of possibly having Medicaid fund those surgeries. It seems the good people at Medicaid realized their rational for disallowing SRS was irrational.

Presently GRS is not covered by the ancient CMS.Gov policy because:

Transsexual surgery for sex reassignment of transsexuals is controversial. Because of the lack of well controlled, long term studies of the safety and effectiveness of the surgical procedures and attendant therapies for transsexualism, the treatment is considered experimental. Moreover, there is a high rate of serious complications for these surgical procedures. For these reasons, transsexual surgery is not covered.

But the link to the comments didn't work and we assumed it was just SNAFU, but thats not what happened...

Just hours after beginning the 30 day comment period Medicaid changed there minds about asking for public comments and took the link down.

one RED HOT haters POTATO to the Medicade comment section.

Mara Keisling of the NCTE messaged me moments after the last post went up and said there is a better process in place now.

The Hill reports:

"a spokesperson said Friday evening that the proposal has been withdrawn. HHS pulled information from its website Friday after various news media outlets reported on the issue."

"The controversial decision to consider using taxpayer money to cover sex changes was sure to attract criticism from Congress."

"An HHS spokesman said HHS' Departmental Appeals Board is weighing a challenge to the department's ruling that sex-change procedures are experimental and should not be covered by Medicare and Medicaid. While that challenge works its way through the system, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has withdrawn its proposal to reconsider the coverage policy on its own."

Read more: The Hill.

Medicare Wants Your Input On adding GRS Just 1 SNAFU, the Link Is Broken

The Advocate is reporting the agency which determines if a surgery should be funded my Medicaid is reconsidering adding Sexual Reassignment surgery.

Including SRS would be a humongous step forward by the federal goverment. Its crucial we comment especially since there's only 28 days left to do so. Now only if they'd get there link fixed.

I'll update as soon as they do. Hopefully they'll reset the timer.

Presently GRS is not covered by the CMS.Gov

Transsexual surgery for sex reassignment of transsexuals is controversial. Because of the lack of well controlled, long term studies of the safety and effectiveness of the surgical procedures and attendant therapies for transsexualism, the treatment is considered experimental. Moreover, there is a high rate of serious complications for these surgical procedures. For these reasons, transsexual surgery is not covered.

H/T trans advocate Jani McCauley on twitter ‏@JaniMcCauley

Texas A&M GLBT Center Fighting for Its Life Again

LGBT students attending Texas A&M which the 2011-12 Princeton Law review rated number 7 as one of the country's least LGBT friendly University's have had a rough go of it since day one coming out and apparently the hate continues.

The GLBT student center is at risk of losing $100,000 yearly in student fees if a proposed student senate rule is enacted.

The student newspaper "The Battalion" reports:

The GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill, introduced at the Wednesday Student Senate meeting, would recommend students who do not approve of the GLBT Resource Center on religious or moral grounds be able to opt out of a portion of student fees that goes toward the resource center.

Miguel, senior women’s and gender studies major, said the bill is no more than an ongoing and poorly veiled form of discrimination.

“It’s a good way of masking prejudice and discrimination against the [GLBT] community,” Miguel said. “It’s making the people who are very against the [GLBT] community sound really nice by using religion as a cover-up.”

Northside senator Chris Woolsey, author of the bill, said the bill does not oppress the GLBT community.

(This is where Woolsy's argument disintegrates)

“The belief that this bill is oppressing the GLBT community or is a way to legalize discrimination is a ploy to distract from the real meaning of the bill, which is to protect the religious liberties of students,” Woolsey said

A quick perusal of the Battalion would indicate everything that is happening at that school is an exercise of religious freedom.

Please connect with the GBLT Center EVENT PAGE for details.

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We Loaded The Gun That AZ Rep. John Kavanagh is Killing Our Agenda With

A while back I posted a highly controversial opinion about Levi Pine, a pre op trans man occupying sauna's where same sex public nudity is normal. Since then there has been one more instance and I reiterate, it is in my opinion, in this country with our current social mores, immoral for a pre or non genital op trans person to be naked in spaces where children are allowed.

Some argued more or less they felt they should not have to conform to public standards and morals at all. Some felt our movement is all or nothing.

I said this was an agenda killer and as we have just seen, it is. We loaded Kavanagh's gun by not coming out as a community and condemning that sort of behaviour.

Zoe E Whitten made a very good argument against my opinion asking among other things 'Is Levi Pine’s case an “agenda killer”? Only if your agenda was playing nice to prejudiced people in the hopes of them one day hating you less.'

I'm not saying I want Rep. John Kavanagh to hate us any less, frankly I couldn't care less if he did. I'm not saying this man wouldn't have attempted to amend Arizona law following Phoenix's passage of its far ranging non discrimination ordinance. What I am saying he might have just been another generic hater popping off with a cap gun, instead he's got a fully loaded 45 and its on auto. And we loaded it.

HB 1045 is not "softened" as the spin doctors at ABC have painted it. It is a statewide bill specifically targeting all gender variant people regardless if they are trans or not, making them subject to Jim Crow style discrimination.

So we have managed to paint ourselves into a human rights quandary corner but there is one option. There have been ordinances passed since those spa incidents that specifically exclude public accommodations protections in places where 'full public nudity is expected'.

Since we seem to have failed to set our communities standards we will have to rely on the goverment to do that.

Kavanagh's amendment is not an equality law. He is intent on enacting this law to discriminate against us. We must stop it and regroup, hopefully to enact trans inclusive laws that protect everyone including children from an immoral few.

Not an Arizona resident? Make your voice be heard and sign the petition Arizona Legislative Bodies: Repeal/Strike Down The Transphobic (Bathroom Bill) SB1045!!!

Sign the petition Pantilione of "Raise The Bar Arizona" has just filed with the state to force Kavanagh’s recall election.

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Arizona "Bathroom Bill" HB1045 Pushed Out of Commitee #noloo4u

Just now Rep Kavanagh pushed his "Bathroom Bill" through the Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee.

Watching the live feed from the Arizona appropriations committee meeting a very smug Kavanagh sat listening to the yes votes by his committee accruing DESPITE all of people who just testified against it. There was only one person testifying in favor of the bill that I saw. ONE person! This was a injustice and travesty cloaked in democracy.

Kavanagh sums up after the vote "My bill isn't about civil rights"but was forced to pause as the room broke up in spontaneous laughter. Continuing Kavanagh admonishes the attendees "we've had a very respectful evening and and I'd appreciate if we could keep it that way." waiting for more gruffs and humphs to subside Kavanagh raises his voice "Its not about civil rights its about civility and more importantly there are men's and ladies rooms and creating an environment that someone is biologically male in the women's shower as the phoenix law did is going to far and we had to fix it."

Respectively Kavanagh, the whole evening was an insult to the democratic process. You've manufactured of a bill to criminalize our minority when there's no history of criminal activity to warrant a law against us. To everyone in the room EXCEPT your cronies who voted yes on your amendment in your committee it was sickening. Civility was extended as a courtesy by the people who testified against your amendment.

Your statement that your bill wouldn't discriminate against us in the workplace is a pile of horse shit and you know it. When a potential employer is considering us for a position the FIRST thing he is going to weigh is the bathroom. He's going to wonder how his employees would respond but MOST importantly he's going to consider how his state goverment approaches trans bathroom usage.

If an employer knows as you hope he will, Arizona prohibits all gender variant people from public accommodations he will NOT hire us.

And you know that you pompous ass.

Filed under: What a totally pathetic hate mongering bigot. Common Arizona you're better than this.