OKlahoma county judge overruled, Transgender woman allowed name change

KFOR Oklahoma City reports that "today an Oklahoma transgender female was granted the name change she had been previously denied.
According to reports, the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals reversed Oklahoma County Judge Bill Grave’s refusal to grant a name change to a transgender individual."

A little history and a painful reminder of how prejudice can be masked with religious beliefs to twist the law and deny others their constitutional rights. From 2012, a report by the OK News Network "Oklahoma judge refuses to let men planning sex-change operations have feminine names."

District Judge Bill Graves had denied her name change stating

“To grant a name change in this case would be to assist that which is fraudulent,” Graves wrote. “It is notable that Genesis 1:27-28 states: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth ...' The DNA code shows God meant for them to stay male and female.”

Fred Phelps founder of the Westboro Baptist Church has died

Fred Phelps has died. CNN is reporting that the founder of the Westboro Baptist church passed away today Thursday the 20th of March 2014 from natural causes.

While many calling for a picket at Phelps funeral Stephanie Mott, executive director of the Kansas Transgender Project doesn't agree telling CNN "hate doesn't drive out hate. Thats what Martin Luther King said. It takes love to drive out hate."

Indeed it does.

Kaye Bowens fired by Star City Arkansas McDonalds for using the woman's restroom

Star city transgender woman Kay Bowens has filed an EECO Complaint after she fired for using the woman's room. Fellow employees have confirmed with Fox News her contention that she was mistreated and terminated after a shift manager demanded she use the men's room.

The McDonald's owner. Michael Retzer, at first denied she was fired or that her that her future employment was contingent on her using the wrong restroom. He later said she no longer worked at the McDonalds because she failed to report to work.

Star City AR is located in the south-eastern portion of the state and has a population of 2,471 as of the 2000 census. If the outstanding job of reporting by this FOX affiliate is any indication of the state of our agenda, I'd say we are doing pretty good. It's sad that we still face discrimination in the workplace but as Ms. Bowens so succinctly put it, what's a bathroom have to do with with her job performance?

Invitation to the moderators of the 2014 LGBT convening to discuss it on the Rebecca Juro Show

An open invitation to moderators and attendees of the 2014 LGBT media Convening.
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I have been invited by Rebecca Juro to talk on air March 20th about the convening with its mantra of 'real talk' about radical inclusion and I want to hear from you afterwards.

My name is Kelli Busey, and I am a radical. Why you ask? I haven't blown anything up. I am different in that I do not look or act or conform to most gender expectations. I am not ultra fem. I am a former soldier who never lost her zeal for exercise. I am unique. I am a radical trans advocate

I am also a radically different in other ways. I have been blessed, as was my mother, with empathetic abilities that many associate with witch craft,
Having begun transition in the 90s when transsexuality was considered a mental illness in conservative Texas, my sensitivity was a curse. Nearly everywhere I went. People looked in disapproval, some with hatred, Those feelings amplified by my innate perceptiveness bounced around inside me like daggers.

However, as the years progressed and the transgender agenda moved forward those negative reactions became less noticeable, and my curse became a blessing. To surmise, I survived by learning to trash the hurt and embrace the acceptance.
But I cursed my lucidity again just a few weeks ago.

What I felt and saw at the 2014 LGBT Media Convening made me feel like I haven't since Barney Frank split ENDA. I felt like a 'fucking tranny' and said so on a post on the TransAdvocate and at planetransgender.

Those posts weren't well received.

I dare anyone to suggest that transmisogony, transphobia or indeed, homophobia don't exist within the LGBT media community.

In light of what I wrote I most likely won't be invited back to meet with the nations top LGBT journalists again, but maybe thats for the best. I will not allow myself to feel like I have to conform to do that.

But then again maybe this is a beginning of true radical inclusion in LGBT media. Maybe next year's critical voices will energize our movement. Time will tell.

But in the meantime folks we need real real talk.

Rebecca Juro show airs live at 7:00 to 9:00 PM eastern on http://www.live365.com. If you miss the show you can listen to the Pod Cast.

Hope to hear from you then.

Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church near death

Nathan Phelps, the estranged son of Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church has posted on facebook that his father is near death.

 I know there will be many who will cheer at his demise but I have to think about what my pastor told us this morning, We are the Church so what we do and say matters. If we forgive this man despite all he has done we will be doing exactly what God told us we need to do. After all, he was responsible for uniting bikers, truckers, conservatives, hippies, transgender, lesbian gay and bisexual people to invalidate, challenge and face down hate.

I will never forget a sign I saw when Prop8 was upheld at a rally.The sign read "Love is love is love is love" and that is how we are winning, with love..

Fred, I pray for you and hope you can find the faith to let your hate go. Give it to Jesus.

Post by Nathan Phelps.

Transgender woman finds discrimination and violence on St Patricks day at The Irish Times Pub and Restaurant

Andi Dier. a transgender woman from New York was roughed up by the employees of The Irish Times Pub and Restaurant in Holbrooke as they bruskly removed her from the premise. Ms Dier says they used transphobic slurs and tried to take her I phone after seeing she had recorded part of the incident.

They then stole her state issued ID and had it not been for a stranger outraged over her treatment, she says the employees would have kept it.

Most New York transgender citizens are not protected against discrimination as the legislature has repeatedly failed to enact  Genda

From Andi Dier's  Tumblr Post:
"The incident started from a lack of competence on the 14th of March; I was being harassed about how my state issued driver’s permit didn’t look like me. But it did, because it was, however I had makeup on. I patiently explained that I was transgender. In response, the staff condescendingly told me, “… that’s your fault.” Demanding that I come back with a new I.D. But this card was not expired. I haven’t had any surgery. And they wouldn’t have told a cisgender girl that her I.D. was invalid simply because she decided to sport makeup that night which she hadn’t previously photographed. This is a clear issue of discrimination."

"When I tried asking for the manager the staff not only ignored my request; they violently slammed me against the wall when I was not attempting to advance any further into the building. One of them, bearing three times more weight, kept charging at me with untempered fury; breaking the door behind him. This was after I requested their names and upon noticing my phone in hand they attempted to steal and smash it."

"They behaved unprofessionally, acting out of ignorance and rage. When my friends, who’d already been let in, tried calmly explaining the situation to the staff they replied by intentionally misgendering me as a “he.” After being corrected they used transphobic slurs like “he-she” and “it.” When I attempted to show my legitimate I.D. they swiftly stole it from my hand, refusing to give it back."

T"hey stole a government issued permit. They chuckled as my night was ruined, along with my mascara. They publicly embarrassed me. They made me feel unsafe.
We (as trans people) are denied access to proper healthcare. We’ve been denied access to the bathroom. And now we can’t even get into the pub."

I contacted Andi on facebook she provided this explanation of what happened:

I was assaulted in the vestibule of the pub. I did not make any advancement to further into the building. The security wouldn't let me ask for a manger without violently pushing me out. They said their names were Rob and Matt, as stated in this audio clip:



They took my driver's permit after I took it out to show them that this was me. I did not get it back until the end of the night when someone else, who I did not know, had to aggressively fight for it. Without them I'd still be without it.

I asked Andi if she considered the Pub's employees action a physical assault and if she had contacted the police yet.

If pushing me, with unnecessary force when I'm at least half the weight of them, so untempered and disregard for physical consequences that they smashed me into the wall and broke the closing mechanism on the door is physical assault then yes. They kept pushing me out when I was asking for a manager, getting more and more aggressive. I was honestly starting to fear for my well-being but my ride was inside. They did not lighten up on the physical contact until I shouted, "This is physical assault. You're physically assaulting me." As if acknowledging their own wrong doing, their touch lightened up.

And no. I've not yet contacted the police. I've been afraid they wouldn't do much, if anything, and was scared the situation would escalated further. Police do not have a good history of understand trans* folk.