5/18/13

Transgender Senior Damian Garcia Would Walk Graduation Without A robe If Allowed

“I just want to walk in my black robe, nice and proud and have that memory to look back on with my family and friends,” said Damian Garcia. “I would rather not walk than to embarrass myself by wearing a female robe.”

Damian will not be allowed to walk in a males black robe May 22nd even though he has legally changed his name. Saint Pius High School is demanding that he wear in a female white robe because he has not had medical surgery altering his chest to present a male appearance, the prerequisite to changing the gender on his birth certificate in New Mexico.

Some state still demand unnecessary medial intervention for physiological issues before allowing their citizens to pursue a life guaranteed by the constitution.

New Mexico will produce a new birth certificate, with both name and sex changed, and seal the old birth certificate. However, a letter from a surgeon documenting Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) is necessary, prohibiting those who cannot afford or do not desire SRS from amending their birth certificates. Female to Male SRS can cost between $12,000 and $20,000 in addition to years of costly therapy and hormone replacement therapy(HRT)before SRS can be considered.

Two unrelated children, Will 8 and sibling Phynn 12, were so upset after viewing the KRQE news report about the way Saint Pius High School is treating Damian they "refused to go to bed until our mom agreed to help us fix this". So together with mom they began a facebook page "Let Damian Walk and started the Move on petition "Let Damian walk for graduation in male cap and gown" which had 9,000 signatures as of this posting.

Note to school administrators. Will and Phynn are your future students or not, in the case of private institutions like Saint Pius High School with open bias against LGBT minorities.

Principal Barbara M. Rothweiler's welcoming letter states her school is geared towards furthering students education and that 98% of her students go on to university. Her selling point is substituted by pointing out that "Some of our recent graduates can be found at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, Notre Dame, and Brown."

Out of all of those schools Principal Rothweiler so proudly listed only Notre Dame does not include LGBT inclusive clauses. The other top 20 universities do. When students and parents shop for preparatory schools like Saint Pius High School, LGBT inclusiveness is a major indicator of the quality of education they will receive their regardless is they are LGBT or not. Discrimination against any minority is not acceptable.

President Obama's it gets better message:

5/17/13

Video: Issak Wolf Addresses The Red Lion School Board Meeting

Transgender senior Issak Wolfe stood up in front of the the Red Lion School Board June 16th reminding them "You are dealing with a flesh and blood human being not just a story in the paper, not just a thorn in your side."
Issak knows from experience how painful it is to be bullied by people in authority. His high school principal changed his campaign from prom king to queen without telling. If that wasn't bad enough the school board is persisting in lying to Issak and his supporters saying it would be against the the law for them to read his male name at graduation.

Issak drives the point home "Reading my male name at graduation wouldn't hurt anyone but reading my female name serves no purpose other than to hurt me more. Is it more important to push around a teenager than to make the school a safer place for all students?

PA Title 22 Education Code does not require schools to read a students legal name at graduation and the Red Lion School District has nothing in writing making that a requirement.

Issak isn't asking them to put his male name on his diploma or alter the official records. He's simply asking to be recognized on graduation for who he is.

CLICK HERE for video in new window

You can help take the sting out of Isaak's graduation by signing his Graduation card.

Kudos to WPMT FOX43. Every story this station has published about Issak has been presented in the highest tradition of journalism and amazingly they just keep getting better with each report. Thank you.

Read more at Red Lion transgender student wants male name read at graduation



5/16/13

Transgender Woman and Two Men Arrested For Norwalk CT Robbery and Beating

 
A trans woman and her boyfriend from Bridgeport CT were arrested for a February robbery according to the "Hour's" problematic headline "Warrant: Transvestite and boyfriend beat man until he was blind in one eye". It is not clear how the Hour ascertained with any degree of certainty that Karma is a 'transvestite'. The HOUR is the only news source I could find that is reporting on the arrests.

The Hour reports:

"Milton "Mel" Hudson, 53, of 36 Kossuth St., and Lucinda Karma, 35, of 554 Soundview Ave., Bridgeport, both face charges of first-degree assault, second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery. Juan "Cody" Jimenez, 37, of 21 Taylor Ave., is charged with second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery."

"Hudson and Karma were arrested Sunday, and Jimenez was arrested Saturday. All three suspects were unable to make their bonds after their arraignment Monday at Norwalk Superior Court and are being held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, a prison for men. Their next court date is June 6."

"Hudson told police that he assaulted the victim, because he was defending the honor of his transvestite girlfriend Karma, police said."

"Hudson claimed that the victim had touched Karma's buttocks, police said. Karma admitted to telling Hudson to assault the victim, stating that the victim had touched Karma inappropriately, according to police."

"Both Hudson and Karma said Jimenez went through the victim's pockets after Hudson knocked out the victim, police said. Court documents show that Karma positively identified Jimenez as the third suspect."

Read more at The Hour.

Why not just let a sleeping dog lie, after all the Hour mug shots of Karma doesn't portray her as female? There has already been confessions made and some degree of culpability established and as a community we have to confront the good, the bad and the ugly fearlessly or faux and others will do it for us.





5/15/13

South Carolina Sued over failed sex assignment surgery on 16 Month old Intersex Infant

A South Carolina Couple who's adopted intersex infant was operated on without their knowledge just three months before they took custody to 'correct' ambiguous genital are suing saying the gender that was assigned was wrong.

Pam and Mark Crawford's first of a kind lawsuit alleges the doctors couldn't have known which gender the 16 month old known only as "M.C.", would identify as later in life when they modified his genitalia to appear female. Now that M.C. is 8 years old and identifies as male his female genitalia is causing him great distress.

South Carolina does not change gender on Birth Certificates but it is not clear if that will be affected by this lawsuit.

The Crawford began raising M.C. as a female after adoption but as time went on they begun to notice he gravitated towards typically male toys and behaved as boy would be expected to. After consulting with a pediatrician and discovering M.C. had been operated on the couple facilitated their child's transition to male. The couple is pursing legal action in hopes of preventing this happening in the future.

"We feel very strongly that these decisions to permanently alter somebody's genitalia and their reproductive ability for no medical reason whatsoever is an abhorrent practice and can't be continued," Pam Crawford told Reuters in a phone interview.

"It is too late for our son," she added. "The damage has been done to him." “This case is about ensuring the safety of all children who do not have a voice,” said Alesdair H. Ittelson, SPLC staff attorney. “No one advocated for M.C.’s right to be free from unnecessary medical intervention at a time when the state was entrusted with his safety and well-being. It is high time all involved answer for the needless injury they inflicted on M.C.”

“By performing this needless surgery, the state and the doctors told M.C. that he was not acceptable or loveable the way he was born,” said Pam Crawford, M.C.’s adoptive mother. “They disfigured him because they could not accept him for who he was – not because he needed any surgery. M.C. is a charming, enchanting and resilient kid. We will not stop until we get justice for our son.”



Advocates for Informed Choice has partnered with the SPLC in this case and has initiated Project Integrity and invites you to add your name in support of M.C..

The lawsuit, M.C. v. Medical University of South Carolina, was filed in County of Richland Court of Common Pleas. M.C. v. Aaronson was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Defendants include the South Carolina Department of Social Services, Greenville Hospital System, Medical University of South Carolina and individual employees.

SPLC co-counsel include Advocates for Informed Choice and pro bono counsel for the private law firms of Janet, Jenner & Suggs and Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

5/14/13

Nevada Legislature Passes Bill Adding Gender Identity To Hate Crime Laws


SB 139 was approved March 21st 2013 by the Senate with 20 ea, 1 nay and one abstaining.

The Nevada State Legislature approved the bill today 5/14/2013 with 30 yeas, 11 nay and one excused.

The bill authorizing additional sentences of up to 20 years for hate crimes motivated by the victim's gender identity or expression now goes to Governor Brian Sandoval who is expected to sign it into law.


5/13/13

Queensland Doctor Calls For A Gender Clinic: She's My Girl

THE leading Queensland psychiatric expert on children with gender identity disorder says the number of transgender children is increasing.
Dr Stephen Stathis said he expected parents of two children would apply to the Family Court for permission for them to be given feminine hormones within the next year and more would follow as others reached puberty.

But he said some desperate parents who were unaware of the professional help available for their anxious transgender children were getting unregulated, unregistered hormones from overseas via the internet.

Dr Stathis, Director of Child and Youth Mental Health Services at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital, has seen more than 20 children with GID in the last four years, including some as young as four.

"The numbers are rising and now we're looking at developing a gender clinic," Dr Stathis said. Half his gender identity patients are boys who identify as girls - the other half are girls who identify as boys.

More at couriermail.com.au