TransRadical

The documentary is titled Truth and described as “a journey through the lives of trans- and nongendered people around the world and their epic struggle for equality.” The film will be directed by Robert Jason and is expected to begin production this summer.

“All people are very important to me,” Jackson says in a statement released to the media. “I’ve been fortunate to make friends and learn about very different lives. Truth is our small chance to ask that you try and understand someone who lives their life in a way that is a little bit different from yours, even though all of our hearts are the same. We want to stop the hate and find understanding.”

The last we heard of University of Arkansas guest lecturer and student Jennifer Braly had filed a lawsuit and a complaint the Department of Justice against her school for their discriminatory restroom and housing policies for trans people. UA responsed by banning Braly from giving any more lectures at the university, despite her receiving support from several professors. (One went so far as to cancel her class rather than host it without the student lecturer.)

Now, the school has changed their transgender policies in response to a letter sent to their lawyers from the DOJ. (This, of course, continuing the department’s established record under the Obama administration of supporting of rights of queer people.) The university has declines to make the contents of the letter public, but their quick turnaround on the issue would seem to indicate what little legal footing they had.

Score one for the good guys. 

I know you’ll all be shocked to hear that yet another cis-gay activist affiliated with a major LGB(t) organization has publicly revealed himself to be a trans-exterminationist. This time it’s Nelson Garcia of GetEQUAL who has released a post on his blog criticizing GLAAD and others for “bullying” the New York Times over their widely criticized coverage of the death of Lorena Escalera.

Garcia characterized critics of the coverage as “a bunch of bipolar tr***ies and other assorted characters upset that she was getting some and they’re sitting at home pretending.”  Classy.

Whether or not GetEQUAL will attempt to distance themselves from Garcia or his comments remains to be seen, but if history is any indication, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

UPDATE

I received a response from GetEQUAL:

I’ve tried to explain in multiple other forums that Nelson is NOT associated with GetEQUAL. He is on a public, open Google Group that GetEQUAL started two years ago to offer a place for folks to brainstorm LGBT direct action ideas. Nelson has repeatedly distanced himself from GetEQUAL, so it’s clear that he’s not associated with us - repeating that he is associated with us is simply not true.

Heather, GetEQUAL

I apologize for the error.

Since the recent EEOC ruling where transgender people were granted protection under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, trans-exterminationists have revived with increased furor the call to remove gender identity protections from the Employment Non-Discrimation Act (ENDA).

This was of course done the last time the bill came for a vote in 2007 under the direction of Rep. Barney Frank and a Joe Solmonese-led Human Rights Campaign. The bill failed anyway but the betrayal has stuck in the minds of many in the trans community.

In an article simply credited to “Advocate Contributors”, the leading LGBT magazine laid out several reasons why the EEOC ruling should not stand as a replacement for gender identity inclusion in ENDA:

The first and most obvious reason is that the EEOC’s determination is vulnerable to being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The legal battle on this question is not yet over.

But also interestingly, this case could have just as easily been a case about a lesbian, gay or bisexual person based on their sexual orientation. Many may not realize that the EEOC has issued non-precedent setting decisions in two cases recognizing the potential validity of sex discrimination claims against LGB people as sex discrimination as well.

In 2011, a gay man was physically threatened at a Connecticut post office after his wedding announcement appeared in a Hartford newspaper. The EEOC determined that the allegations are sufficient for a plausible claim of hostile work environment based on sex, because he is a man marrying a man. In a second instance, a lesbian was harassed on the basis of her sexual orientation and was found to have a “plausible sex stereotyping” case.

These rulings are less precedential than the Macy case because they were not issued by the full commission. But we can certainly hope that a sexual orientation case will reach the full commission at some point and will be decided with the same reasoning that made Mia Macy’s case a winner.

Yet, despite all of these rulings, discrimination against LGBT people will continue to persist. This is in large part because the EEOC enforcement process kicks in after an employee has been fired or an applicant has been denied a job. Conversely, ENDA would be proactive and would put in place a clear, comprehensive law banning discrimination against LGBT people.

I am currently homeless in NYC and my bed is provided for by the Ali Forney Center. If Mayor Bloomberg’s budget goes through, there is a good chance that I will end up back on the street or into a shelter where I’m likely to face constant harassment and probably violence. (That is not a hypothetical, I know a lot of people who have been attacked in city shelters.) 

If you have a problem with a billionaire like Michael Bloomberg forcing LGBT youth like me out of safe shelters and onto the street, you can let him know here. 

If you want to donate to or volunteer at AFC and help homeless LGBT youth, you can do so here.

Don’t let New York City’s billionaire mayor get a way with this. I will provide details on the planned protests of Bloomberg’s budget by AFC as I get then. 

The student, Seamus Johnston, was expelled over using the men’s locker room in accordance with the University’s (possibly illegal) policy of banning transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms matching their identified and presented gender.

But something else happened in the months after Johnston was expelled, while he was filing complaints and trying to get reinstated to school: bomb threats. More than 90 bomb threats have hit the University of Pittsburgh, most of them via email re-routed through a private server that’s difficult to trace, some simply scrawled on the women’s restroom walls. All of them have disrupted student and faculty life at Pitt for months now.

Johnston had actually heard very little about the bomb threats, he says, mostly from headlines in the Pitt News. But when a subpoena arrived from a joint task force of the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office, those headlines became shockingly real for him. Johnston and [his also transgender girlfriend Katherine] McCloskey were brought before a grand jury as potential suspects.

He says at that time, investigators didn’t even tell him why he and Katherine were suspected of making the threats. “No, although they obviously suspect we are connected somehow,” he says, adding that it feels like retaliation. “Absolutely. Why else?”

…

Johnston’s current goals sound as though they may take Herculean strength, but he’s up for it, he says. “I just want to fight my criminal charges, fight this FBI investigation, file my class action lawsuit, follow up with the Human Relations Commission, and continue talking to the university to negotiate my reinstatement as a student.”

Still, he says none of this would be happening if he weren’t transgender, if he hadn’t insisted on using the men’s facilities at Pitt.

While the couple was sequestered inside the court giving grand jury testimony, another bomb threat came in to Pitt. Many LGBT activists said this was a sign that McCloskey and Johnston had nothing to do with the threats. Officials, and anti-LGBT activists, insinuated that perhaps it wasn’t just Johnston at the heart of the threats but a wider group of activists supporting him, fighting for trans rights with violence. Johnston says that’s ridiculous, and on Monday, a group called “The Threateners” took responsibility for the bomb threats, announced they were calling an end to them, and said none of the current suspects are responsible for the threatening messages. 

“Anyone who could do this is missing a few screws and could be in support of anything or nothing,” Johnston says. “If they are trying to support me or us, they are doing a criminally bad job of it.”