Backwards Mitten: Michigan Might Be The Next “Right To Discriminate” State

feature image via shutterstock

In the bid to cement its position as one of the absolute worst places for LGBTQ people in the US, the Michigan House of Representatives has approved a bill that would functionally legalize discrimination throughout the state, so long as it is based on a “strongly held religious belief.” HB 5958, also known as by the spin-tastic title of the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” was introduced by House Speaker Jase Bolger in response to a renewed push by Michigan Democrats to add protections for sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s civil rights law. While the proposal to add LGBT protections has not yet been allowed to come to a vote, the House approved the religious protections bill on December 4th along straight party lines.

While proponents of the RFRA have been quick to claim to that the bill is not a “license to discriminate,” the text of the bill is very similar to a bill that was approved in Arizona earlier this year but ultimately vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer after a loud public outcry. The Michigan version of the bill is even more troubling, as it contains an additional cause that could be construed to grant even wider latitude to those who object to providing services to members of the LGBTQ community, especially in the wake of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. The clause reads:

“This act shall be construed in favor of broad protection of religious exercise to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of this act, the state constitution of 1963, and the United States constitution.”

While some of the pushback against this bill has been somewhat hyperbolic, there are some very real and very frightening risks to a bill such as this become law. First and foremost, the bill could provide loopholes for businesses to ignore the patchwork of local non-discrimination ordinances that current protect at least a portion of Michigan’s queer residents. The ACLU of Michigan has an even dimmer view of the situation. In their analysis of the bill’s potential fallout, they conclude:

“If it passes, it will permit people to take advantage of the law to claim that their religion gives them the right to ignore criminal and civil laws – non-discrimination laws, child abuse laws, and domestic violence laws. This means a police officer could refuse to defend a mosque or synagogue, a school guidance counselor could deny help to a gay student, a landlord could refuse to rent to a single mother, or a man could claim that he has a religious right to discipline his wife and kids as he sees fit — all based on their religious beliefs.”

There have been a number of blog posts about the bill floating around social media claiming that the bill would allow healthcare professionals like EMTs to let us die. There is no specific language in this legislation that would specifically empower healthcare professionals to elect not to provide life-saving treatment. However, it’s easy to see why queer folks and women in Michigan are concerned about how this law could affect their healthcare. Just two years ago, the Michigan GOP attempted to pass a bill through legislation that would have specifically allowed healthcare professionals to refuse to give medical care that violated sincerely-held religious beliefs and barred their employers from disciplining them for doing so. While that particular bill failed to become law, Republicans in Michigan continued to demonstrate their intrusive, regressive nature earlier this year when they passed the “rape insurance” law, which bans Michigan health insurance plans from covering abortion for any reason (and requiring those with uteruses to purchase additional insurance to cover any potential abortion needs.) With such a rabidly anti-LGBT, anti-woman regime in place, the fears of the queer community are entirely justified.

The leadership of Michigan’s LGBTQ community continues to push back against the regressive efforts of the Republican-controlled legislature. Emily Dievendorf, Executive Director of Equality Michigan, pulled no punches in her criticism of actions of the Michigan legislature:

“House Bill 5958, the so-called ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’, is unnecessary, unpopular, and risks violating the basic principle that an individual’s religious beliefs should not be put ahead of the common good. LGBTQ advocates, religious leaders and victim advocates agree, if this bill becomes law, it will provide licenses to discriminate to people who decide that anti-discrimination laws, child abuse laws, and domestic violence laws do not apply to them. No Michigander should be denied access to services by government officials, turned away from a business, or evicted from their home, just because of who they are.”

Equality Michigan’s Emily Dievendorf (photo via Detroit New

Amanda Niven, Director of the Trans* Leadership Project of Unity Michigan, was equally critical of the legislation:

“This so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act is both dangerous and unnecessary. We are all free to put our faith in whatever we choose, and to live out our faith in our daily lives. That freedom has always been and continues to be constitutionally protected. In contrast, the LGBT community has no protections from discrimination in this state, with transgender people being at the highest risk for being fired, kicked out of their homes, denied services, and physically assaulted for who they are. We know most folks don’t want to use their faith to harm other people, but there are those few who would, and this bill gives them permission to do that.”

It’s key to remember that HB 5958 was introduced as a “companion piece” to the Democratic-lead proposal to add LGBT protections to Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Last month, Democratic Rep. Sam Singh introduced a proposal that would have added gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of classes protected from employment and public service discrimination within the state. Republicans submitted a counter-proposal that would have scrapped the gender identity protections and left Michigan’s transgender population out in the cold. Both bills were scheduled for debate in the House Commerce committee last week, but no vote was held. While testimony from numerous business and religious groups were heard, at no point were any representatives of the LGBT community permitted to testify before the committee. Following the hearing, Committee Chairman Frank Foster announced that there were not enough votes to advance the measure. Speaker Bolger re-asserted his claim that trans people did not need protections, re-stating his opinion that trans people have sufficient protections under existing court rulings. He went on to blame the death of the bill on “leftist-extremists” for demanding protections for an “already-protected group”. The “extremists” he refers to are, in actuality, a coalition of nearly every single LGBTQ group in the state of Michigan who have banded together to support and promote only a fully inclusive bill. Furthermore, given the recent Federal court ruling that Title VII does not protect transgender people, it’s difficult to see how Bolger could continue to hold such a misguided view.

With the civil rights amendment stalled in committee, and the RFRA on its way to the state Senate, it’s entirely possible that the legislative session could end without any protections for the highly vulnerable LGBTQ community and a deeper enshrinement of conservatives right to treat us as second-class citizens.

Maine, Virginia and Minnesota Grant New Trans Student Rights, With Room For Improvement

One of the issues that has been at the very forefront of the Trans Rights Movement in the last few years has been that of trans students rights. Their rights to use the correct bathrooms and locker rooms, play on the correct sports teams and be in the correct clubs, and simply be able to present as themselves while in school have been the subject of many lawsuits and city council meetings. In some cases, like that of Coy Mathis in Colorado and California’s Trans Students Rights Bill, we’re winning huge victories, but in other cases, things are going a little more slowly. The recent steps in Maine, Minnesota and Virginia to protect trans students, while largely being positive, still have a ways to go.

Pat Cordova-Goff, a trans girl playing softball in California via Aljazeera America

In the case of the state of Maine, which is probably the most positive, we finally have closure in the case of Nicole Maines, a seventeen year old trans girl who, back in 2009, sued the Orono School District after she was forced to use a staff restroom rather than one available for students. The grandfather of a fellow student complained that Maines was using the girls’ restroom in her elementary school and the school’s reaction was to force her to use a seperate bathroom.

Thankfully, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the school district violated Maine’s state Human Rights Act. As a result, not only does the highest court in the state say that trans people have the right to use the correct bathroom, but the Maines family was awarded $75,000 in damages. Finally, after five years, Maines has some comfort and peace of mind.

Nicole Maines (far left) with her family listening to her father give a speech. photo via Bangor Daily News

Things aren’t such clear-cut victories in Virginia or Minnesota. In the case of the Virginia High School League, they voted unanimously to approve a new trans student athlete policy that would allow trans students to participate in the correct sports – mostly. In order to even begin trying out for sports, trans athletes must prove that they are in fact, trans, and not just pretending “for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage in competitive athletics.” Because we’re living the classic Rodney Dangerfield movie Ladybugs.

The hoops that a trans Virginian must jump through include submitting a written document saying they are trans, one or two letters from family, friends or teachers confirming they’re trans, a list of all treatments and medications they’ve received and are taking and written proof from a health-care professional. Then the principal combines these things with the student’s school records, adds their opinion on if the student is really trans and passes it on to a three-member committee who will determine eligibility and pass their recommendation along to the Virginia High School League Executive Director. The Executive Director then approves the request or if they don’t, the student can appeal to the Executive Committee who will consider it for ten days and then vote on how trans you are.

Minnesota’s new policy is, unfortunately, very similar in how difficult the process is for trans students. Their new policy, starting in the 2015-2016 school year, allows for trans students to participate, but only after they go through a process proving they are really trans. Religious schools are also exempt. While the policy does state that trans students should have access to all the correct bathrooms and locker rooms, it clearly still has issues.

Zeam Porter, a gender non-conforming former athlete testifies in Minnesota. via Washington Post

A Minnesota student must submit their school transcript and registration, written statements from themselves and their parents or legal guardians affirming their gender, other statements from friends family or teachers saying that the student’s “actions, attitudes, dress and manner” show that they are sincere in being trans, a written statement from a health-care professional and any other evidence that they are trans that they think might help them. After an Independent Hearing Officer looks at these documents, they’re also allowed to talk to gender identity “experts,” the Minnesota Department of Education or others to make sure everything looks right. Then the student has to wait until the next scheduled Minnesota State High School League meeting to find out if the Board of Directors accepts them.

I’m not saying these policies are all bad. Obviously I’m elated that trans students will be able to participate in the sports and clubs they deserve to. Trans students deserve to have the full high school experience as they desire it. And I definitely applaud the school districts for not giving in to hate groups who complained at meetings using scare tactics and fake science and took out adds, like the ones in Minnesota that declared this policy “the end of girls’ sports.”

The unfortunate thing is that trans students aren’t given the benefit of the doubt like cis athletes are. Can you imagine if a cis girl had to prove her gender with piles of paperwork and statements from their parents, teachers and friends saying that she’s a girl and her “actions, attitudes, dress and manner” are consistent with those of a girl, just to play basketball or soccer or be a cheerleader? Virginia, Maine and Minnesota all definitely took positive steps forward, lets hope they don’t stop there.

Our Lady J Hired as Transparent’s First Ever Trans Staff Writer

On her various social media platforms yesterday, trans performer, singer, classical pianist and Daniel Radcliffe’s friend Our Lady J announced that she has been officially hired as a staff writer for the second season of Amazon’s hit series Transparent. The show has been praised for it’s sympathetic and often very authentic portrayal of its trans characters and storylines and for its hiring of 25 trans people in its cast and crew including Alexandra Billings as a supporting actress and Zackary Drucker as a producer, actress and consultant. However, the show didn’t have a trans woman on its writing staff for the first season. That’s all changing now, as Our Lady J will be filling that much needed role.

Our Lady J via bcc-la.org

Our Lady J announced on Instagram and Facebook, “I’m so happy to announce that I’ll be taking the next year off from touring to dedicate my life to the Pfefferman’s as staff writer for season two of #transparenttv. Thank you for having faith in me, @jillsoloway. The world is beginning to see us as we have seen ourselves.” Although the show did have trans consultants helping on the scripts for the first season, Our Lady J will be the first trans woman who is a full-time writer for the show.

Back in October, show creator Jill Soloway announced that for the second season of the show, she would be seeking out a writer who had a transfeminine perspective to join the staff, noting that “No matter what we did, we were always going to be otherising Maura in some way. And in the same way where I wouldn’t want a man to say, ‘I can have a writers’ room full of men and we can write women just fine,’ I can’t say that I can create a show about a trans woman and not have a trans woman writing for me.” Soloway then developed a writers workshop for trans women specifically to help them develop their television writing skills. She hoped that in doing this, she would not only possibly find someone to hire for Transparent, but she would help create a pool of trans writers who all had spec scripts and some industry experience that other shows could pull from.

However, there are many who criticize Transparent. First of all, the show stars Jeffrey Tambor as Maura, and although he does a wonderful acting job, the fact remains that casting cis men as trans women not only takes jobs that could go to trans actors, it also helps to reinforce the idea that trans women are men. Additionally, Transparent tells the story of a well-off, older, white trans woman with a family, a story that has been told many times already. Many trans women of color and younger trans people have said that although they think the show is well made, they don’t really see themselves or their experiences reflected very much in it. Some even found Solloway’s announcement that she would be mentoring trans women writers to be a bit condescending. There’s also the fact that having just one trans woman on the writing staff who is supposed to represent All Trans Women is not really the ideal situation. And as you might remember, Mari and I both had very conflicted feelings about the show before it came out.

This happened. And it was joyous. @ourladyj @reinagossett @zackarydrucker @JuliaSerano @shadipetosky @jillsoloway pic.twitter.com/hahSgxnnDz

— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) November 26, 2014

After hosting this workshop, Soloway did end up finding a writer who fit what she was looking for in Our Lady J. Based on other twitter posts, it seems like some of the other writers who were a part of this trans women writers workshop were Jen Richards, Reina Gossett, Julia Serano, Shadi Petosky and the aforementioned Drucker. Jen Richards took to twitter to congratulate Our Lady J, saying, “I’ve never been so happy to learn that someone else got something I wanted. I guess that’s real love & sisterhood. What a blessed feeling.”

It will be very interesting to see what Our Lady J’s writing adds to the next season. As a fan of the show who also recognizes its flaws, I’m very excited that the show will be adding a trans woman as a staff writer. As a trans woman, I’m very excited that trans women are getting opportunities like this. Hopefully not only will Transparent continue to expand its trans women inclusive behavior, but other shows will soon follow suit.

http://twitter.com/SmartAssJen/status/538794225924849665

So You Can Fuck Us; What’s Next? Going Beyond Sex With Trans Women

I’m writing this article centering experiences of trans women of color, though other trans women may relate as well. I’m discussing our disposability, lack of desirability, and offering strategies to combat transmisogyny within our communities. I speak on behalf of myself, the experiences I’ve collected, and possible solutions. What’s stated here may not be true of every trans woman’s experience, and this isn’t an article that is asexual inclusive since I do not have experience or knowledge with those experiences.

As part of Trans Awareness Week, I think it’s incredibly important to talk about dating and having sex with trans women. We have a legacy of being queer that is often erased in narratives about trans womanhood, and this article aims to bring that up while also pushing this discussion further than just having sex with us.

I read this incredible article about having sex with trans women, and there’s also a pretty comprehensive zine called Fucking Trans Women that I would recommend though I have only skimmed it. After seeing both of these exhaustive resources on how to gender a trans woman’s body and how to have sex with her, I began thinking of how people already only value us for sex. It’s definitely important to have great affirming sex and less awkward or awful moments, and I want to push this conversation forward about loving trans women beyond sex.

Abbygail Wu and her wife Wu Zhiyi
via whatsonxiamen.com

It’s within my experience, and the experience of at least a dozen trans women of color that I know, that we are the first to be disposed of in intimate relationships. By “disposed of,” I mean when life gets hectic for our partner(s), we are the ones who take the least priority and are the first “stressor” to be cut off. This is definitely an acceptable thing to do when someone is genuinely having their life fall apart and cannot maintain a relationship, so I am not advocating that every person stay in a relationship with a trans woman in every situation. I’m simply noting a theme that has been true for me and many trans women I’ve talked to about intimate relationships. I mean, what reason could you have for breaking up with us but maintaining a relationship (sexual, romantic, or a mixture of both) with other people? If your life is in shambles, wouldn’t it make sense to not be with anyone? Why are trans women the first to be cut off, and the only people to be cut off?

I feel like the answer of “transmisogyny” doesn’t explain enough. It’s because we are not valued as lovers, partners, or long-term relationships. The recent cultural trend of supporting trans women has made us highly prized assets; somehow you can prove your radicalness by being the example of someone who has worked through transmisogyny enough to view us as worthy of sex and love. But what kind of love views us as disposable? What kind of love makes us the casual fuck buddy while you pursue romantic interests with non-trans women?

Russian couple Irina Shumilova and Alyona Fursova
via instinctmagazine.com

There are other patterns I noticed with trans women of color, and I’m gonna break these down a little bit, depending on how complex I want to get with them:

When we are in poly relationships, we get the least amount of time and/or emotional investment.

I’ve seen and experienced trans women being the least prioritized in poly relationships. Again, because we aren’t seen as valuable of long-term relationships or emotional investment, we are treated like sex experiments for Radical Points without being centered in another’s life. I’ve had a few conversations where TWOC admitted that they didn’t want to be in poly relationships, but didn’t think anyone would seriously commit to being monogamous with them. This has led to flexing our boundaries in order to have some semblance of love in our lives rather than nothing.

We are left or cheated on for lighter-skinned/white trans masculine people.

It is seriously a community trauma. Almost every queer trans woman I know has experienced being devalued for someone lighter-skinned or white, and/or masculine. This is probably one of the worst damages done to a TWOC because it has led to lots of feelings of self-loathing and questioning of self-worth. We are constantly resisting white supremacy. We are viewed as the opposite of cis white men, and to be left for a cis white man can lead to feelings of inadequacy and undesirability. Especially in situations where we are cheated on for white masculine folks, that deception and betrayal cuts deep into self-esteem because the message is “a white masculine person is worth the ending of our relationship.”

Sofia Burset and her wife, Crystal from Orange is the New Black

We are often the “first” for someone, regardless if they’re straight or queer.

Being The First for someone, regardless if they’re queer or straight, is one hell of a roller coaster. Since there’s so many narratives of trans women being loved in secrecy, it’s terrifying to be out in public with a First Timer since we are viewed as “giving them away.” I’ve tried to shrink myself, talk less, and become hypersensitive of my body instead of feeling present. As the article “Trans Women + Sex = Awesome” states, if you’re going to be with a trans woman for the first time, process that shit with your friends or therapist or family first before you place that responsibility onto us.

We bear the weight of stigma for our partners being attracted to us and being seen with us in public.

Related to my last point, we bear the stigma any person faces for dating us, especially straight cis men. Since cis men’s straightness is called into question for being with a trans woman, this can lead to a lot of issues with intimacy. We become the scapegoat, which can leave us susceptible to violence (Janet Mock writes about this here). We become the reason that cis men’s sexuality is invalidated. It takes a lot for cis men to own up to their desires towards us, especially when it involves sex *and* romance beyond bedroom dates. The best way for anyone to approach their attraction to trans women is being fiercely unapologetic about it to your social circles, and exposing us to as little of the lash back as possible.

Additionally, lesbians also face stigma for dating us because we aren’t seen as “real women.” This transmisogyny has been persistent in many lesbian communities because a strong basis for their identity is not having sex with a penis, which makes the assumption that all trans women have penises or want to use their penis in sex. Many lesbian or queer women’s spaces have made space for trans men but not for trans women. I encourage cis lesbians to talk to each other about why this is, to undo their transmisogyny of viewing penises as revolting, and de-centering the idea that being a lesbian requires an aversion to penis or that lesbians cannot be in relationships with women who have penises.

We don’t get asked out on dates in queer spaces, and there’s a lack of sexual tension that many other queers share with each other.

This is real. In my 3+ years in queer spaces as a trans woman, I haven’t been asked out on a date. Most TWOC I know haven’t been asked out on dates by other queers. This often leaves us to dating straight men who do initiate contact with us, or we have to pursue romantic/sexual interests ourselves.

This notion that trans women are only straight stems from outdated medical guidelines around gender identity that created the idea that to be a “legitimate” woman meant being heterosexual. Trans women have a legacy of being queer, including Sylvia Rivera and her partner Julia Murray. Fallon Fox, an MMA fighter, is also in a relationship with a woman and I, too, am centered on dating, loving, and desiring femmes and women. Queer/lesbian trans women exist, and we’re worthy of the risk of being asked out just like every other queer.

We are viewed as supporting patriarchy by dating straight cis men.

Honestly, in my experience, I have found cis straight men who have handled and viewed me as a woman more readily and steadfast than cis queers. It is incredibly validating having cis straight men view you as a woman worthy of desire and love. I have had transformative sex with cis men who have unapologetically embraced my body in ways that countless queers have not. There’s been this hesitancy with queers who are afraid of my body, or who have not worked through their transmisogyny that makes them disgusted by my body. I know the focus of this article is on love, and when sex is tainted by disgust, that prevents folks from Making Love to us. By saying we are supporting patriarchy by being in relationships with cis men, you are denying us healthy, supportive, and loving relationships. And you can go fuck yourself for that.

Sylvia Rivera and her partner Julia Murray with Randy Wicker.
Photos by Randy Wicker & Diane Daives

…and also, I dream of finding a femme or woman who has dated trans women before. As much as cis straight men are accessible to me now, my sexuality and desires are still centered on finding love and partnership with a femme or woman.

*Inhale of a deep breath*
*Exhale of a deep breath*

My goal in talking about these patterns was to make other aware of what trans women have to deal with when dating. I mean, there are simple things like Don’t Lie To Your Partner(s) that every person should know, but can always use some repeating because it’s still a problem. If you see yourself doing any of these things (putting the burden of being a First Timer on your trans woman partner, desiring whiteness and/or masculinity over your trans woman partner, giving trans women the least amount of your resources/time/intimacy, etc), seriously ask yourself why you’re being such an asshole and talk about it with people who aren’t your trans woman partner.

I know we’re magical and powerful and amazing and magnificent and can handle tons of shit, but maybe try to make our lives easier and enjoyable and relaxing instead? That’d be nice.

November 14th-20th is Trans Awareness Week, leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance on the 20th. This is a week where we raise visibility for trans people and address issues that affect the trans community. For Trans Awareness Week this year, we’ve asked several of our favorite TWoC writers to come in and share their thoughts and experiences with us. TWoC started the entire LGBTQ movement in the U.S. And they continue to be the victims of most of the anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination. If we aren’t centering things on them, we are failing.

Remembering Us When We’re Gone, Ignoring Us While We’re Here: Trans Women Deserve More

Feature image via transascity.org

There’s an interesting phenomenon that I’ve witnessed over the past few years. The names of trans women of color will be in the mouths of the queer community after they’ve been murdered, but support for us while we are still alive is sporadic at best. Trans women are pushed out of queer spaces by cis people, dfab genderqueers, and trans men, just to name a few. Women’s spaces are frequently hostile to us because we aren’t “real women” but trans men almost always get a free pass. And I’ve seen more than one cis queer say that trans women are “appropriating” the gay rights movement, totally ignorant of the fact that we started the damn thing. I have seen more than one cis queer say that we have nothing in common with them, that our issues are completely unrelated. We have a hard time finding dates, finding support, finding community. And when we dare to call people out for their transmisogyny, we are labeled crazy, hysterical, divisive. I have been called Austin “queer scene’s” number one enemy. All for daring to share my thoughts on the world around me.

Via gazettenet.com

Trans Day of Remembrance is filled to the brim with the names of murdered Black and brown trans women, but is a single evening of remembering enough? And what does it mean that TDoR doesn’t explicitly talk about race and is often dominated by white people? Here in Austin there’s this tradition of calling the names of the dead and then having an audience member sit in a chair that represents where the dead trans woman would sit. The seats are always filled with white people and non-trans women. What do our deaths mean when our bodies, our lives, the physical space we take up, is appropriated by white folks? How can I mourn for my sisters when the space set up for that mourning is so thoroughly colonized? And how can I even see hope of living a full life when I don’t see myself reflected in what is supposed to be my community?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to honor those women who came before us, those women murdered by colonial patriarchy. But it seems like more often than not, the queer community at large is content with just remembering. We only hear about trans women after their deaths. And even our deaths are not our own. A week doesn’t go by without a white queer citing the deaths of trans women of color as the evidence of how oppressed they are. These stats are often used in service of their own assimilation; meanwhile, they’re happy to leave us out in the cold. We don’t even have dignity in death, nor the ability to decide what it will mean for us.

Via giveout.razoo.com

Support for trans women dwindles when we are still alive. Nowhere is this clearer than in fundraisers run by and for trans women. There have been some success stories, but they always seem to be few and far between. More often than not, a trans woman’s fundraiser will get a few signal boosts, maybe a couple of dollars and then languish. Meanwhile, trans men’s fundraisers for transition related care often get fully funded. This funding disparity is also clear institutionally, where organizations that focus on the concerns and issues of trans women of color get a miniscule amount of all the money from LGBTQ foundations. This is especially true in the South, where LGBT organizations only get 3-4% of domestic LGBT funding. Again, cis, white, rich institutions are quick to use our murders in their statistics then turn around and spend their money on organizations that look like them: cis, white, and rich. Organizations that push for assimilation.

Via americanprogress.org

Obviously financial support isn’t the be all end all action to support trans women of color, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. And the fact that it’s a struggle for trans women to acquire financial assistance is symptomatic of our society’s priorities. It points to who is valuable and who is disposable. At the bottom of this article is a list of fundraisers and organizations for trans women that I would strongly encourage you to support. If you’re not a trans woman and you’re reading this, think long and hard about the ways that you’re supporting trans women in your community. Do you see trans women in public community spaces? How are your actions pushing them out? Don’t think that just giving money nullifies your collusion in transmisogyny. Financial support is important but it is not the only step. As we honor the memory of those girls who have been murdered, ask how you’re helping the living.

Fundraisers to Cover Living Expenses

Via gofundme.com

Backing Biko
Support Cherno Biko in advocating for folks like us!

Love Aaryn
Help Aaryn reach her dreams!

Support CeCe
Support CeCe’s work!

Lift Up Lourdes
Support a trans leader!

Save Fake Cis Girl from Financial Apocalypse
Help a trans woman of color keep her lights on!

Support Monica Roberts
Help Monica stave off homelessness!

Operation Zipzap
Help a trans woman go to electrolysis school!

Support Michelle
Help Michelle get money to go to school!

Miss Major Monthly Giving Circle
Help support a TWOC elder and living legend!

Fundraisers to Cover Transition Related Care

Via gofundme.com

TRANLATIN@ needs HELP for Surgery
Help a Pervuian trans women get access to gender affirming surgery!

Support Vanessa on her medical need
Help Vanessa get chest reconstruction surgery!

Proud Trans Latina seeking help with GRS
Help Naiymah get access to gender affirming surgery!

Sophia’s Breast Fund
Help Sophia access breast augmentation surgery!

Help a Homegirl out!
Help a trans latina get access to transition related care.

Ida’s Surgery Fund
Help writer and activist Ida access surgery!

Fundraisers for Organizations that Serve Trans Women

Via gofundme.com

Support the TWOC Collective
The TWOC Collective in NYC needs your support!

Alexis Documentary
Help a documentary about a trans woman activist get off the ground!

MagniFLY!
Donate to support TWOC filmmakers!

Trans Tech
Support an organization giving trans women the tools to support themselves!

Quirell
Help a social network by and for marginalized folks get started!

El/La Para Trans Latinas
Help fund an organization working to advocate for trans latinas!

Trans Latina Coalition
Support an organization doing national movement work!

Support Casa Ruby
Help a community center stay afloat!

If you are aware of any other similar fundraisers, please share them in the comments.

November 14th-20th is Trans Awareness Week, leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance on the 20th. This is a week where we raise visibility for trans people and address issues that affect the trans community. For Trans Awareness Week this year, we’ve asked several of our favorite TWoC writers to come in and share their thoughts and experiences with us. TWoC started the entire LGBTQ movement in the U.S. And they continue to be the victims of most of the anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination. If we aren’t centering things on them, we are failing.

Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Lesbian, Activist, Author, and Revolutionary Dies at 65

“Remember me as a revolutionary communist.”

These were the last words of Leslie Feinberg, as reported in an obituary by Feinberg’s partner of 22 years, activist and poet Minnie Bruce Pratt. According to the obituary:

Leslie Feinberg, who identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist, died on November 15. She succumbed to complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections, including Lyme disease, babeisiosis, and protomyxzoa rheumatica, after decades of illness.

She died at home in Syracuse, NY, with her partner and spouse of 22 years, Minnie Bruce Pratt, at her side.

Feinberg’s written work is widely known. Hir groundbreaking 1993 novel, Stone Butch Blues, broke open the discussion about the complexity and fluidity of gender. Over twenty years later, it is still being printed, read, passed around between friends and lovers. For many baby butches and transgender bois and genderqueer lesbians, this is the book that was dogeared and read and reread. Stone Butch Blues has been distributed all over the world, translated into seven languages, and sold by the hundreds of thousands.

The first Feinberg book I picked up was Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue. My partner and I also own and have read her other books, Transgender Warriors: Making History and Feinberg’s second novel, Drag King Dreams. In 2004, as college students running the campuses feminist organization and pride organization, my partner and I both met Feinberg when we brought her to speak at our campus. Feinberg’s talk was on hir theory of transgender liberation, a Marxist and intersectional view of organizing for collective equity. As Feinberg writes in Trans Liberation, “A political movement isn’t just our physical motion into the streets, it’s the motion of our consciousness soaring, too.”

Feinberg came from a working-class Jewish family, born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Buffalo, NY. Held up in academia as a theorist and activist, ze identified with working-class people more than ivory towers. Feinberg began supporting hirself at the age of 14. Due to discrimination based on hir gender identity and expression, ze was unable to get steady work for most of hir life. Ze worked in a pipe factory, cleaning ship cargo holds, as a dishwasher, and other low-wage jobs.

Feinberg was a lifelong member of the Workers World Party, which ze joined in her early 20’s through the Buffalo branch. Over the years, Feinberg was instrumental in many radical mass organizing campaigns. Pratt shares some of this work with the WWP in the obituary:

After moving to New York City, she participated in numerous mass organizing campaigns by the Party over the years, including many anti-war, pro-labor rallies. In 1983-1984 she embarked on a national tour about AIDS as a denied epidemic. She was a key organizer in the December 1974 March Against Racism in Boston, a campaign against white supremacist attacks on African-American adults and schoolchildren in the city. Feinberg led a group of ten lesbian-identified people, including several from South Boston, on an all-night “paste up” of South Boston, covering every visible racist epithet.

Feinberg was one of the organizers of the 1988 mobilization in Atlanta that re-routed the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan as they tried to march down Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., on MLK Day. When anti-abortion groups descended on Buffalo in 1992 and again in 1998-1999 with the murder there of Dr. Barnard Slepian, Feinberg returned to work with Buffalo United for Choice and its Rainbow Peacekeepers, which organized community self-defense for local LGBTQ+ bars and clubs as well as the women’s clinic.

Feinberg was a gender revolutionary in openly straddling the space between, or rather off of, the binary. In a 2006 interview with Kansas City LGBT magazine, Camp, Feinberg said, “For me, pronouns are always placed within context. I am female-bodied, I am a butch lesbian, a transgender lesbian — referring to me as she/her is appropriate, particularly in a non-trans setting in which referring to me as he would appear to resolve the social contradiction between my birth sex and gender expression and render my transgender expression invisible. I like the gender neutral pronoun ze/hir because it makes it impossible to hold on to gender/sex/sexuality assumptions about a person you’re about to meet or you’ve just met.”

Pratt included these words on pronouns in Feinberg’s obituary:

[Feinberg] said she had “never been in search of a common umbrella identity, or even an umbrella term, that brings together people of oppressed sexes, gender expressions, and sexualities” and… believed in the right of self-determination of oppressed individuals, communities, groups, and nations. She preferred to use the pronouns she/zie and her/hir for herself, but also said: “I care which pronoun is used, but people have been disrespectful to me with the right pronoun and respectful with the wrong one. It matters whether someone is using the pronoun as a bigot, or if they are trying to demonstrate respect.

Diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2008, Feinberg stayed active in organizing, politics, and art. Ze lived her last years in the Hawley-Green neighborhood of Syracuse, NY with Pratt. (Pratt teaches at Syracuse University.) Some of my Syracuse friends met Feinberg when ze came to a community meeting about starting a Syracuse LGBTQ community center, something the city is sorely lacking. Feinberg was instrumental in raising awareness and support for CeCe McDonald. Ze was collecting documentation of the grassroots organizing work to Free CeCe in a project called, “This is What Solidarity Looks Like,” meant to be part of the free-access version of Stone Butch Blues ze was planning to release online for the book’s 20th anniversary.

Feinberg took up photography as a hobby when ze could no longer read, write, or talk. Hir work is posted on Flickr, including a “disability-art class-conscious documentary of her neighborhood photographed entirely from behind the windows of her apartment.” Hir photography was also shown at the Syracuse gallery, ArtRage.

my camera bag by Leslie Feinberg

Feinberg blogged about hir experience with Lyme disease and health care access as a transgender person in her “Casualty of an Undeclared War” series. Feinberg’s friends are working to post hir final works of writing and art online at a new site, LeslieFeinberg.net.

Feinberg is survived by Pratt and an extended family of choice, as well as many friends, activists, and comrades around the world in struggle against oppression and for liberation.

A Thank You Letter From One Trans Woman To The Others in My Life

Dear trans sisters and mothers and abuelas and aunties and daughters and nieces and cousins,

Thank you for everything.

You are my life. You are my reason for being alive. Like, literally, when I was a young, closeted trans girl, and I became a part of the disturbing statistic that is 41% of trans people who attempt suicide, it was all of you who helped me get through. I saw you and I knew there was hope for me. I read your words and knew I had a future. I saw your lives and knew that I could have one too.

It was you who I looked to to find the courage to come out and it’s you who I keep looking to every day. Without you paving the way for me, I wouldn’t have had the options that I did. Thank you for that.

It took me years and years and years to feel beautiful, and thanks to all of you, now I do. You make me feel beautiful even when I’m at my least passable. You make me not even care about passing anymore. You give me the strength to say “fuck you” to the whole concept of passing. But that’s just for me, if you need to pass to survive or thrive, go do your thing. Put your safety and happiness first.

Thank you for showing me how to be my femme best. You gave me tips on how to apply lipstick, which colors make me look the best and which looks make me the most intimidating. You taught me how to look good in dollar store makeup and 80% off clearance dresses.

Thank you to all the trans women and trans feminine folks who came before me. You get erased so often and you deserve better. We should be teaching about you in our history classes. We should be learning about you on the History Channel. We should be seeing statues and murals celebrating you.

And thank you especially to my trans women of color sisters, you are pure divinity. You are heaven sent and you are the power in my life and in the world.

Thank you for the modern trans movement. Thank you for the entire modern LGBTQ movement. Thank you for standing up at Stonewall and refusing to back down or let the “respectable” queers silence you. Thank you for everything you’ve done and everything you continue to do. You face more discrimination, more hatred, more oppression and more violence than anyone else and you still stand in the front and lead us to a better place.

You are the power behind the movement and the light at its front. And you should be the focus of it.

I’m so sorry that we fail you so often.

My white father has given me privilege that I need to better use to support you. You’ve done so much for me and for every other trans woman and queer woman and queer everyone and I haven’t even come close to starting to pay you back.

Thank you for continuing to fight for our rights even as the rest of the “LGBTQ” movement continues to throw you under the bus.

Thank you for giving me a legacy to be proud of. It makes me beam with pride knowing that it was a fellow trans Latina who was one of the leaders at Stonewall, who fought for the rights of STARs to shine, who shouted and demanded rights for her and for people like her and refused to let others shout over her. It makes me proud to know that at every stop on the road to where we are today, you’ll see trans women of color standing there, fighting and loving and living.

Thank you for showing me that I have the strength within me to change the world. Y’all hustle so much harder than anyone else I’ve ever seen. Although so much of the world tries to stop you, the world stands absolutely no chance against you. And now I know that it stands no chance against me.

Thank you Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major and Marsha P. Johnson. Thank you Octavia St. Laurent. Thank you Janet Mock, Laverne Cox, CeCe McDonald, Reina Gossett, Carmen Carrera and Monica Roberts. Thank you Annika, Luna, Morgan and countless others. I love all of you and owe you everything.

November 14th-20th is Trans Awareness Week, leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance on the 20th. This is a week where we raise visibility for trans people and address issues that affect the trans community. For Trans Awareness Week this year, we’ve asked several of our favorite TWoC writers to come in and share their thoughts and experiences with us. TWoC started the entire LGBTQ movement in the U.S. And they continue to be the victims of most of the anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination. If we aren’t centering things on them, we are failing.

Michigan Same-Sex Couples Get a Court Win, But State Legislature Wants to Leave Trans People Behind

feature image Michigan Pride via Mari Brighe

It’s been a week of mixed feelings for the Michigan LGBTQ community. Yesterday, a federal judge struck down a Michigan law that banned municipalities and public schools from providing health benefits to domestic partners of employees. Meanwhile, the state legislature is finally looking to amend Michigan’s civil rights bill, but there’s a push to exclude protections for trans people in that bill.

Back in 2011, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill which banned all Michigan municipal governments and public school districts from providing insurance benefits to the domestic partners of employees. With gay marriage banned in Michigan by a 2004 constitutional amendment, these kinds of domestic partner benefits were provided primarily with the intention of being inclusive of queer employees. The GOP, who control the Michigan Legislature, claimed the bill was necessary as a matter of “fiscal responsibility,” though many cities issued formal rebukes following the approval of the legislation. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Michigan LGBT couples in 2012, claiming the law was discriminatory. On Wednesday, federal District Court Judge David Lawson issued a ruling striking down the law as unconstitutional.

Lawson’s ruling held that the state unfairly targeted queer couple in this bill, and that the justifications of “encouraging heterosexual marriage” and “cost savings” did not hold water. He writes:

“Public Act 297 sends a message to committed gay and lesbian partners that the State of Michigan is willing to invest in the health of married heterosexual couples, but is unwilling to invest(or allow local governments to invest) in the health of similarly-situated same-sex partners who cannot marry. How does that promote traditional marriage? Several of the plaintiffs, who are covered by their partners’ health insurance, have health conditions that require ongoing monitoring and care, including arthritis, glaucoma, high blood pressure, and fibroid tumors. How does prohibiting local governments from furnishing health insurance to those partners benefit the State in any way? And how does this justification amount to anything more than a desire to impose a deprivation upon a disfavored group?”

Lawson wrote another strongly-worded rebuke of the state government in his decision earlier this year that overturned Michigan’s gay marriage ban. That decision was recently overturned by the 6th Circuit Court.

Unfortunately, the press for comprehensive state-wide discrimination protections for the queer community isn’t going as well. There was some initial optimism for amending the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act (Michigan’s law that covers things such as employment and public accommodation discrimination) following Governor Snyder’s mentioning it as a priority during the state’s lame duck legislative session. Democrat Sam Singh introduced a bill earlier this fall that would amend the act to include protections for “sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender identity.” However, it now appears the Republican caucus is set to disrupt those efforts and exclude the trans community. GOP Rep. Frank Foster announced a competing bill today that includes protections only for sexual orientation, over the insistence of LGBTQ advocacy groups all over the state that gender identity must be included. Frank told local media:

“I had a good conversation with my girlfriend this morning that perhaps we’re going down the right road. Not everyone is going to be happy, but I still believe we’re moving an issue forward that’s been a long time in the making.”

Michigan’s LGBTQ community has responded strongly to this step backward. In a press release, Equality Michigan Executive Director Emily Dievendorf derided Foster’s bill:

“By deciding to leave gender identity and gender expression out of the bill, the sponsors of this bill have handed those who wish to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people a huge gift. Either intentionally or naively, this bill accomplishes none of its stated goals. We have no intention of leaving the transgender community behind. We also are faced with the reality today’s glaring omission impacts the entire community. As LGBTQ victim and legal advocates can tell you, many lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are also fired because of their gender expression, any bill which is not fully-inclusive is inadequate.”

Emily Dievendorf  at Michigan Pride Rally, Photo by Mari Brighe

While Michigan’s business community has been strongly supportive of comprehensive protections, AT&T Michigan President Jim Murray, who also co-chairs the state’s Competitive Workforce Coalition, has sided with the Republican lawmakers, citing his belief the the recent EEOC rulings in favor of trans employees were sufficient coverage. In response, a coalition of Michigan LGBTQ organizations has set up a website to raise awareness of the need for trans protections, and to pressure AT&T into changing their position. AT&T had previously signed onto a statement supporting the comprehensive bill, and Dievendorf had called them out on their reneging on the promise:

“AT&T has made a strong and admirable commitment to equality and inclusion for all LGBT people. But we fear the face of their commitment is in jeopardy in Michigan – putting the wellbeing of our community in jeopardy as well. We will not stand for this and call on AT&T Michigan to reflect AT&T’s inclusive values and not an intention to harm Michigan’s LGBTQ communities.”

The prospect of meaningful policy change was further eroded when Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger introduced a bill to protect business’s right to discriminate against the queer community — so long as it’s based on a “strong held religious belief” — titled the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act”. Bolger believes the bill to be a necessary companion to amending the ELCRA, stating “Nobody should be discriminated against because of who they are, just as nobody should be forced to violate their faith.” He opposes transgender protections because he believes trans people are already protected under inclusion of the term “sex,” stating he trans-specific language “is not necessary, therefore it should not be included.” Bolger has also insinuated that Michigan LGBTQ organizations are prolonging the fight to maintain their relevance. Dievendorf dismissed that criticism and fired back:

“Today’s bill is an unnecessary and wasteful effort to steal attention and credit away from a far more effective bill introduced earlier this year in both the Michigan House and Senate. Equality Michigan, our membership, and our coalition partners will not accept or ignore legislation which not only splits our community up and leaves transgender people behind, but does not even deliver on its promises. Speaker Bolger’s claim that we are only continuing this fight for our own gain is correct. We seek to gain our equality and we don’t feel it should arrive for some now and some later when the whole can be protected from unnecessary vulnerability today.”

Michigan Democrats have insisted that will kill the bill if it does not include gender identity protections, and push for a state-wide ballot measure on the reforms in 2016.

Coming Out to Your Friends: The Autostraddle Roundtable

feature image via shutterstock

One of the most quintessential moments of queer life is the act of coming out. It’s such a life-changing event that we have entire day devoted to celebrating it every year. While the coming out process and experience is different for just about everyone, the actual act of coming out is often a unifying concept for the LGBT community. At almost any queer event, you’ll probably overhear some folks discussing how and when they came out, whether it’s about their sexual orientation, gender identity, or both.

We come out to lots of people, of course. We come out to ourselves, our friends, our family, to our cats (who are universally the most accepting, of course). Often the coming-out moment that gets made the biggest deal of is coming out to your family. This makes sense; some of the most emotional coming-out stories, whether heart-warming or hear-wrenching, come from the family talk, and the risk — of being disowned or rejected — is often greatest. But, for many of us, myself included, a more important (and scary) reveal is when we tell our friends. Don’t get me wrong, I was scared to death when I told my parents that I’m trans and queer. However, I have a complicated family history, so it’s my friends have long made up the vast majority of my support system, so their rejection would have been so much more devastating than any blood-family rejection could have ever been. I think that’s the case for a pretty large swath of queer world. And really, the content of the conversation with your friends is so much different than with family.

So just how does one go about coming out to their friends? The Autostraddle team held a roundtable to impart our vast wealth of queer experience to help you through this big step.

Mari

For me, I came out to my friends in stages. I knew early on that my social network has going to be critical in survivingmy transition, and I wasn’t prepared to risk all of it in one big shout. It started with my very closest friends, who were actually the first people I came out to at all. It was probably a little overwrought and dramatic, but I sat each of them down individually and started with that cliche line “I have something important to tell you…” and just let the words flow out. Oh, and then I cried (the crying is totally optional). After the closest of my friends were taken care of, I started picking particular friend clusters that I felt ready to share my journey with, then picked out one or two people from that group that I felt would probably be supportive and told them first, followed by a broader announcement to the larger group later on. Wi. With some groups, it was easier to make the announcement by email. With others, it was easier to catch everyone at a big gathering and talk to the stragglers afterwards. Once I had taken care of all of the “friend groups” and individual people that I felt it was important to have one-on-one conversations with, I just made one big final Facebook announcement along the lines of “Hey everyone, this is what’s going on. I’d love if we could still be friends, but you can’t deal, you can see your way out.”

I knew early on that my social network has going to be critical in surviving my transition, and I wasn’t prepared to risk all of it in one big shout.

So that’s the process, but how about the words? Well, I found that there was a basic set of information that every talk/speech/email needed to cover. The first was the obvious: that I’m trans and what being trans really means. I found it really helped people relate better if explained how emotionally painful dysphoria really is. Second, people needed to hear the really practical stuff, like how my coming out would affect them. This is where I explained my new name, my new pronouns, that I would “look different,” and all of that. Third, I wanted people to know what was expected of them (which wasn’t much). I let them know that what I cared about was their friendship, and that I didn’t expect them to automatically become a champion for trans issues, just that I expected them to respect me as a person. Fourth, I gave them permission to feel whatever they were feeling, and to make mistakes. Adjusting to a trans friend is complicated, and I wanted people to know that I wouldn’t get angry at them for making mistakes. It’s also a pretty huge change, and sometimes people have pretty strong reactions or take some time to process the information, and I wanted them to know I was cool with that and wouldn’t judge them for it. Lastly, I offered them resources. Sometimes, it’s easier for people to grasp things when they’re explained in alternative ways, or when they’re outside an emotionally-charged conversation with a close friend. So, I linked helpful resources from groups like PFLAG that explained transgender concepts and language.

Nowadays, I find myself having to come out in the “opposite” direction at times. I have a pretty cis-normative appearance, so people generally don’t know I’m trans unless I actually tell them. I’ve become a little more casual about those moments. I treat being trans as basically one more incidental fact about me, like where I went to college, or when I got my driver’s license. If it comes up in the context of conversation, then that’s how they find out.

Laura

I don’t think I ever sat anyone down with the intention of having a serious “coming out” conversation. Like, I didn’t even do that with my mother. I just started slipping, “my girlfriend, M,” in casual conversation. And watched people’s wheels spin as they tried to act cool.

It’s bullshit that I would need to come out as bi when I never came out as straight… I’m not going to create high pressure situations that make me feel awkward about my queerness, when it’s other people who should be feeling awkward about their heteronormativity.

This approach worked really great for me! I think only two people asked any follow up questions, and it was to clarify how long I’d been seeing my girlfriend. I’m pretty sure some people still think I’m using “girlfriend” to mean “chummy female best friend,” but like… I’m fine with that. They’ll definitely get it if they ever check my Facebook or look me up on Google, you know?

I guess my main feeling on this is: why should it be my responsibility to baby people as they work through their own mistaken assumptions? It’s bullshit that I would need to come out as bi when I never came out as straight. I’m going to take care of my own feelings, and they should take care of theirs. I’m not going to create high pressure situations that make me feel awkward about my queerness, when it’s other people who should be feeling awkward about their heteronormativity.

Lydia

I came out to most of friends long before I came out to my family. I distinctly remember coming out to two of my gay male friends first, and I was terrified. I was (and still am) navigating what my identity was exactly — I knew I liked girls, but I had a boyfriend — so I was really scared to tell them what was up.

It doesn’t get less scary for me, per se, but the more times I do it, the better equipped I feel to deal with the backlash (if there is any).

The first two were the hardest, and they were really accepting and didn’t question me even though it was all very new. I spent my teenaged years in the suburbs, in a closed-minded, conservative environment. This queer/lesbian/gay realm was all very, very scary to a little conservative girl like me. After breaking up with said boyfriend, my dating wasn’t limited to a specific gender, so I had to slowly start telling my other friends as well. It doesn’t get less scary for me, per se, but the more times I do it, the better equipped I feel to deal with the backlash (if there is any).

I officially “came out” to my entire network of friends, so to speak, when I posted a link to my Autostraddle interview for Straddler on the Street on my Facebook profile, and on my blog. It was the first time I had spoken publicly about being queer, and I was SO nervous. Again, I was very afraid of the outcome, but I also knew that hiding away this important part of myself was slowly eating at my well being. The reaction was far more supportive than I thought it would be. People that I hadn’t spoken to in years sent me messages saying that they were happy to see a person like me — someone who perhaps doesn’t necessarily fit the stereotype of what a queer person “looks” like — come out and be proud of their identity. I suppose I’ve learned that the friends who support you are the ones who were worthwhile, and who gives a fuck what the others say?

Hollywood Is Ready For Trans Characters, But Not Trans Actors

feature image via shutterstock

Over the next year or so, two major films focusing on transgender characters will be making their way into theaters. One, The Danish Girl, will focus on Lili Elbe, often thought to be the first person to undergo genital surgery to alter their physical sex. The other, Three Generations, will focus on a young trans man’s journey through transition while his family copes with the news. Sounds great, right? Hollywood is finally taking an interest in trans characters, and these are opportunities for increasing trans visibility. But, in a frustratingly predictable plot twist, the focal trans person in both films will be played by… dun dun dun… cis people! That’s right, Eddie Redmayne will play Elbe, and Elle Fanning will play the lead in Three Generations.

Of course, there’s a long history of trans people being portrayed by cis performers in film and television. Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry, Felicity Huffman in TransAmerica, and Jared Leto in Dallas Buyer’s Club all earned significant accolades for their portrayals of transgender characters. All three of them were nominated for Academy Awards for these roles, and Swank and Leto both took home an Oscar statue. Jeffrey Tambor is currently receiving piles of praise for his role in the new Amazon series Transparent, and is already been hailed as Emmy-worthy performance. Let’s face it, playing a trans character is basically award-bait for cis actors. But, why aren’t these groundbreaking roles going to trans actors instead?

In the grand scheme of things, it’s been a really good year for trans visibility. Laura Jane Grace released her incredible True Trans documentary series on AOL Originals last month. Laverne Cox’s documentary on trans youth, The T Word, just came out over on LogoTV. Former Navy SEAL Kristen Beck released a best-selling memoir about her transition. Fashion Model Andreja Pejic will be releasing a documentary about her experiences. Hell, even Tyra Banks is producing a trans-focused documentary.  Considering how completely ignored and invisible the trans community has been for so long, it’s extremely encouraging to see so many of our stories coming to light. So, what gives? Why is it that we can get all kinds of documentaries about trans people, but we can’t get trans actors playing trans characters?

Andreja Pejic via kickstarter

I think it’s a problem of audience, money, and exploitation. In general, documentaries are seen by fewer people — documentaries that appeal to massive audiences are few and far between. Plus, they’re considerably less expensive to produce than a feature film. With those things in mind, it’s relatively easy to green light smaller documentary projects like the ones we’ve seen cropping up all over the place in the last year. It’s safe to show real trans people in a documentary. Even if it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, you aren’t out a ton of money. A big budget film is an entirely different situation. Hollywood is clearly sitting up and taking notice of the increased attention being paid to trans experiences. But this makes it even more clear that all that mainstream filmmakers are more interested in trans stories, but not exactly very interested in actual trans people. What we’re seeing from Hollywood is not a celebration of trans lives, but instead an appropriation and exploitation of trans identities.

In current entertainment climate, there’s a degree of hip-ness, of dare-I-say sexiness, to projects that include LGBT themes, and transgender themes in particular. For decades, the wider public has harbored a degree of fascination with lives of LGBT people because of their “otherness,” and films with LGBT themes provided voyeuristic windows into lives and cultures that remained a relatively mystery to the straight public until very recently. While there’s been a large degree of assimilation of gay and lesbian culture over the last 10-15 years, the experiences of trans people are still quite novel to a great number of people. After all, the vast majority of people now have at least one LGB person in their lives, but only a small percentage of the world is aware of any trans person within their immediate sphere of reality. Given that, there’s still a lot of curiosity and fascination about us in the public mind, for good or for ill. The problem is that the cis, straight world is still deeply uncomfortable with trans people. We’re still so powerfully othered by mainstream culture that many people are made profoundly uncomfortable by seeing or interacting with actual trans people. Ask any trans person about the characteristic shifts in facial expression and body language of most cis people when they disclose being trans if you need confirmation of this fact. With that in mind, it’s somewhat clearer why there has been only minimal movement towards casting trans performers to play trans roles in films geared to large audiences. While Hollywood is happy is exploit the public’s fascination with trans experiences, they’re not willing to risk their film budgets to elevate the standing of trans actors because they need to sanitize the film experience to ensure the comfort of their cis, straight moviegoers.

The media as a whole has a pretty upsetting history of exploitation the fascination of the public with trans people for attention, even when it involves spitting on the dignity of murder victims. In many ways, it feels like that’s what films like The Danish Girl and Three Generations are doing — using the spectacle of a trans character as a marketing ploy, and I think the trans community is right to be skeptical about these films. Despite his Academy Award for the role, Leto’s performance in the Dallas Buyers Club was a disappointing, highly-stereotyped, and fairly offensive portrayal of a trans woman. But, while I have some seriously mixed feelings about the casting of Tambor in Transparent, I must admit his portrayal of a trans woman is nuanced, sensitive, and touching. Transparent director Jill Soloway deserves a lot of credit for casting all of her other trans characters with trans performers, and working to bring several trans writers on board for the next season. We’ll simply have to wait and see whether Redmayne and Fanning fall into the Tambor or the Leto camp.

Of course, things aren’t all gloom and doom for trans performers. We’ve got Laverne Cox being absolutely amazing as Sophia on Orange Is The New Black. We’ve got amazing folks like Alexandra Billings on Transparent. Both shows have been wildly successful. There are also really awesome things bubbling up out of the independent film world. Currently making the festival rounds is the film Boy Meets Girl. It stars an actual trans woman, Michelle Hendley, as a young trans woman named Ricky who is beginning to explore the complications of dating for the first time. In an interview, director Eric Schaeffer explains why he felt it was important to cast a trans actress for this role:

“I also wanted to make sure every moment of this story rang true and was never false. Doing a lot of research in the transgender community taught me a tremendous amount and taught me there are many differing viewpoints within that community about certain issues. Having a transgender actress play the part made me feel confident that while the story could not reflect every transgender woman’s experience, at least I would not be making up an experience from my imagination that was not vetted by a transgender woman so I could make sure it was at least germane and authentic to her experience and therefore valid.”

Boy Meets Girl has received excellent reviews from its first festival screenings, including glowing praise for Hendley’s performance. (We liked it here at Autostraddle, too.) So, we can get supporting trans performers in hugely successful TV shows, and we can get transgender leads in indie film. It’s about time for mainstream filmmakers to move into the present day and cast their trans characters with trans performers.

Michelle Hendley in Boy Meets Girl via the film collaborative

It’s disappointing and frustrating to see that Hollywood is ready for trans characters, but still almost completely closed to trans actresses. The directors of The Danish Girl and Three Generations had the opportunity to take a real step forward for trans inclusivity, and to potentially launch the careers of one or more trans actors. Instead, they chose to simply exploit trans experiences for benefit of the acting careers of established cis performers, and of course, their own bank accounts. Directors and producers taking on projects that feature trans themes would do well to study the ways that Soloway and Schaeffer tackled the subject matter, and focus themselves on including trans people in their process, particularly if cis actors are cast in trans roles.

Media Refuses To Grant Trans Women Dignity — Even Murder Victims

feature image via shutterstock

I think if you ask just about any trans person what they fear the most, they’ll probably tell you that it’s violence. While the everyday worries of harassment alnd discrimination are probably more constant worries, the cold hard fact that I’m at much higher risk for violence simple by virtue of my gender identity is something that has weighed on me since I first came out. Most days I just try to put to the back of my mind. Sure, I’m still vigilant and aware of my surroundings, and I never leave home without my pepper spray. But if I allowed myself to dwell on reality of the situation, I’m pretty sure I’d never leave my house. A few months ago, I got a really nasty reminder of just how present those risks are when two trans women were shot just a few miles from where I live.

When I began to investigate that incident for Autostraddle, I was sickened and distraught at home much indignity those women suffered at the hands of the local media. Nearly every local news outlet that even bothered to cover the story (many didn’t) misgendered these women, referring to them as “transgender males” or “men dressed as women,” and worse yet, many of the reports heavily implied that these women were sex workers, despite police insistence that there was no evidence of that. One station went for far as to interview a cab driver who hinted that the women may have deserved to be attacked for being “deceptive.” The entire experience left me frustrated, sickened, and even more intensely aware of how little dignity trans women are afforded, even when they’re the victims of violence.

Those frustrations have come to a head again recently when the publicity surrounding the brutal murders of two more trans women, Mayang Prasetyo in Australia and Jennifer Laude in the Philippines. Prasetyo was mutilated by her husband nearly beyond recognition, and it is believed that Laude was murdered by a US Marine. Unfortunately, much of the news coverage following both of their deaths has treated them as headline-grabbing spectacles and little more than lurid clickbait, not as real, innocent human victims of anti-woman and anti-trans violence. The fact that violence against trans women is enacted overwhelmingly against trans women of color — 87% of LGBTQ murder victims in 2011 were people of color, and black trans women in particular experience incredible rates of violence — makes this trend particularly horrific.

Mayang Prasetyo

Trans people aren’t exactly offered much in the way of dignity from the media when we’re alive. For decades, we were relegated to trashy daytime talk-shows and treated as little more than props for these lurid, disgusting spectacles. We were never presented as people, as beings with humanity, feelings, or agency of our own, only as punchlines for whatever joke was lowest-common-denominator flavor of the day. Only recently have trans people managed to find their way out of the daytime garbage and into the mainstream consciousness to some degree. Unfortunately, even as trans folks are interviewed by major news outlets or featured in popular TV shows or front tremendously successful bands, the news media still treats us as little more than spectacle. It’s rarely our humanity that’s being celebrated or highlighted in those moments.

Jennifer Laude

Even as the media attempts to frame their vignettes on the “overcoming adversity” narrative that’s oh-so-commonly applied to trans people, it’s rarely our accomplishments, our warmth, our love, our beautiful lives, or even our personal anguish they’re highlighting. Instead, the focus almost unfailingly falls on our “otherness,” the things that set us apart from so much of the world. It’s about the “transformation” angle of our lives, often with photos or video of our pre-transition bodies. It’s about our surgeries (because they always assume there must have been surgeries). It’s about our dysphoria and the profound disconnect we have with physical shapes we were given at birth. In short, it’s the things that set us apart from the cissexual population that people are only ever interested in, and almost never the multitudes of things we experience just like any other person — like love, joy, accomplishment, community, pain, loss, and disappointment. We’re denied the chance to have others see us and connect with us on a fundamentally human level.

Of course, the moment a trans woman becomes the target of violence, all facade of guarding her humanity flies out the window, as the coverage of the attacks in Detroit clearly demonstrated. While women in general are often framed as complicit, or at least culpable, in their own victimization at the hands of violent offenders, trans women (and really, all trans people) endure this to an even harsher degree. Slut-shaming is a frequent occurrence — it will often be pointed out that they were dressed or acted “provocatively,” or somehow enticed their assailant. It feels like sometimes, simply being a trans woman — no matter how demurely one might dress or act — is seen as inherently “provocative.” Almost as frequently, the trope of trans-people-as-deceivers will be trotted out, and in that moment, we are transformed from victim to perpetrator. It will be said that those who assaulted us were victims of our “trickery,” and it will be implied that the violence we endured was deserved and justified. And there, in the recitation of that tired trope, the beautiful authentic lives we’ve carefully carved out for ourselves are transformed to artifice for all those who read or hear the media’s story. The apocryphal identities we’ve worked so hard to shed are forcibly pressed back upon us as they were at birth. In a few short lines of text or seconds of news story, we’re stripped of our dignity for the terrible crime of daring to be ourselves too close to someone who was made uncomfortable by it. And just as quickly, a seriously misogynistic and transmisogynistic crime becomes a justifiable action.

Even compared to the little dignity afforded to living trans persons, it’s even worse in death. A trans person who loses their life to transphobic violence often has her character just as brutally assaulted as those survive it. That’s particularly evident in the coverage of the deaths of Mayang Prasetyo and Jennifer Laude. Both women were referred to by anti-trans slurs throughout the media. Multiple reports have implied that Jennifer Maude was murdered because she “deceived” her murderer by simply being trans. The bulk of the coverage focused on the fact that these women were transgender, and treated the fact that were brutally murdered as a secondary, somewhat irrelevant factoid. Driving that point home were the number of pictures published of both women in bathing suits and lingerie. While publishing these kinds of photos of a cissexual woman who had been murdered would be distasteful, for trans women it becomes part of the show. Jennifer and Mayang became little more spectacles for driving clicks, and lost in that grab for internet eyeballs was the suffering and loss of these two beautiful young women.

Beyond the indignities of victim-blaming and slut-shaming, these women (and so many other murdered trans people) also had their identities tainted by constant dead-naming. (For those unfamiliar, dead-naming refers to revealing a trans person’s birth name without permission). Neither woman’s birth name was even remotely applicable to these stories (neither was any history, real or alleged, of sex work), and yet story after story insisted on adding these details. Dead-naming a murdered trans woman serves no practical purpose. It only adds to the spectacle by reinforcing her status as “other.” It robs her of her dignity, for the hope of added traffic and revenue. To use a trans person’s birth name after they’ve been murdered in an anti-trans hate crime undermines their identity and their agency in defining that identity on their own terms. Trans people go to great length, expense, and risk to live as their authentic selves. Dead-naming, in one fell swoop, declares “Sorry, but we know who you are better than you ever did.” Perhaps even more hideously, it erases the experience that cost them their lives. It’s yet another way to flip the narrative from a person killed for living as their authentic selves to a deception-gone-wrong.

Every time one of these ghoulish situations occurs, it stands as a reminder to trans people that we’re only human beings in eyes of society right up to the point where we can be clickbait — that our worth lies in how fascinated other people are by us. It’s a reminder that, for all of our progress over the last few years, we are still very much othered outsiders in most places, that we’re little more than curiosities at best. Worse yet, it serves as a strong deterrent for trans people to report violence committed against them. If reporting a hate-crime is going to bring the attention of the media and their inevitable slut-shaming and dead-naming, why would anyone go the police? Most disturbingly, it harms the safety of the transgender community. Because this treatment discourages the reporting of anti-trans hate crimes, those offenders are free to continue to assault, rape, and murder trans women with impunity. But, more importantly, the constant othering and denigrating of trans women in this fashion only makes it easier for people to harm us. It’s far easier to hurt someone you view as less than human, and the news media is still constantly reminding the world that we are just that: without humanity or dignity, even after death.

GetYrRights: New Site for LGBTQ Youth Organizing Against Policing and Criminalization

Get Yr Rights: A National Know Your Rights Network for LGBTQ Youth (GYR) went live earlier today, providing a platform for LGBTQ youth in the struggle to end policing and criminalization to share Know Your Rights (KYR) information, materials and strategies across the world.

Get Yr Rights was born out of conversations at the Allied Media Conference in 2012 between groups like Streetwise and Safe in New York, and BreakOUT!, a New Orleans group that’s been making headlines with their new kick-ass report “We Deserve Better: A Report on Policing in New Orleans By and For Queer and Trans Youth of Color.”

According to the GYR Facebook page,

“[The site is] chock full of ‘know your rights’ information specifically tailored to the experiences of LGBTQ youth and rooted in their realities and expertise. The site will be a source for news from all Network members on the front lines of the struggle to end the criminalization of LGBTQ youth!”

GYR kicks off with over thirty LGBTQ Youth or youth-serving member organizations, and the site features a map of its members, resources and policies, so you can find information or resources near your community, or submit your own additions. A GYR curriculum and toolkit are coming soon.

via The Native Youth Sexual Health Network Facebook

Before the site launch, GYR organized on Facebook and Twitter. They led campaigns and conversations focusing on policing and criminalization in relation to Ferguson and National Coming Out Day. They’ve also promoted events and campaigns run by Network members, like a conversation on NCOD held by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network on how Two Spirit and Indigenous LGBTTQQIA youth “are ‘coming out’ in the face of policing and criminalization.” Having a national network helps expand the reach and influence of organizations that are doing vital work, and helps organizations collaborate and learn from each other.

Check Out Two Trans Youth Who Are Changing the Way America Looks at Gender

Jazz has been in national spotlight for a while. She’s an incredibly bright, bubbly and brave fourteen-year-old girl who came out as trans and started transitioning before she was even in kindergarten. Since then, she’s been just about everywhere, including the GLAAD Awards, her own documentary that aired on OWN, 20/20 being interviewed by Barbara Walters,  the Advocate’s “Top 40 Under 40” list and even recently Time Magazine’s “25 Most Influential Teens of 2014.”

I Am Jazz art by Shelagh McNicholas

Jazz’s latest move is to help write and publish a children’s book about her life. She hopes that this book, titled I Am Jazz, which shows her early journey, including her diagnosis with gender dysphoria, her struggles at school and eventually her being able to grow into the person she is today, will help other trans kids, and just any kids who feel different, who are looking for someone who is like them.

I wrote this book so we could help educate other transgender youth and families that it is OK to be different. It’s not just geared to LGBTQ people, but for everyone who is unique. And hopefully it can make a huge impact in letting everyone know that they have to accept each other because we’re all part of the same society.

Jazz recently sat down with Katie Couric to talk about her book and what it’s like being an influential trans teen in America. She and her mother want to get the message out that it’s okay to be yourself, no matter what other people say. I Am Jazz, which was released in September, was co-written by Jazz and Jessica Herthel and features illustrations by Shelagh McNicholas. All the proceeds go to the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to help trans youth.

Another trans teen who’s stepping into the spotlight is thirteen-year-old Zoey, who appeared in the recent LOGO and MTV documentary Laverne Cox Presents: The T-Word. In the documentary she talked about how her mom helped her deal with bullying that not only came from other students after she transitioned at school, but from the school officials as well. Her scenes were some of the most inspirational and optimistic in the special.

Jazz and Zoey even appeared together during the Laverne Cox Presents: The T-Word post-show when Zoey and her mother Ofelia were talking about how to deal with bullying as a trans youth. Ofelia is an incredibly supportive mother, and seeing the two of them there standing together sent a powerful message. Zoey even says that “the biggest personal achievement was when my mom was like, ‘What do you need? What is it that we need to do to make you happy?’ I felt like my mom was there to love me and accept me,” instead of being resistant to having a trans daughter.

After Zoey and her mother showed just how amazing a supportive family is to trans kids, Jazz stood up in the audience and answered questions about transitioning at an early age from Su-Chin Pak. Jazz’s mother is also super supportive, and Laverne Cox pointed out just how important that is to being able to transition young.

These kids are showing just how brave they are by going into the national spotlight and discussing these issues. Jazz doesn’t have to speak in public and didn’t have to write a book about her life. Zoey didn’t have to go on national TV and tell her story in front of millions of viewers. But they did, and they continue to spread their messages of being able to be yourself and accepting others for who they are. They continue to stand up for trans rights and give trans kids a place where they can look and see themselves. The future of the trans movement is definitely bright as long as we have amazing trans kids like them.

Injustice in the Justice System: Two Lawsuits Expose Struggle for Incarcerated LGBTs

Two new lawsuits brought by LGBT inmates call out different arms of the criminal justice system on their brutal and inhumane treatment of people incarcerated with and without charges. The people bringing the cases have been singled out for their gender expression and sexuality in violation of their constitutional rights. These cases could create major shifts for the experiences of incarcerated LGBT people. They also raise important questions about what a justice system better equipped to incarcerate LGBT people might mean for our communities.

Justice 4 Jane Organizers via Feministing

Jane Doe, Connecticut

Last week, Jane Doe brought a federal lawsuit against Connecticut state child welfare services and prison officials, saying they violated her constitutional rights by detaining her in solitary confinement. The suit also says she’s been called male pronouns and her birth name at the Connecticut Juvenile Training Center where she’s being held, and made to wear boys’ clothes.

The public eye has been on Jane’s case this year, as she’s been bounced around between different facilities. Her case came to national attention in April when she was transferred to the York Correctional Facility, a Connecticut prison for adult women, despite her being a minor with no criminal charges. After public outcry, including a statement from Connecticut Governor Dannel Molloy, she was transferred to a children’s psychiatric care facility, but was then transferred to the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS), a facility for boys, where she has been kept away from the boys in isolation. CJTS reportedly offered to let her be in the Center’s general population, but she faces harassment and abuse there. “It is psychologically damaging and harmful for a transgender female to be placed in a male facility and to be unable to express herself as female,” Aaron Romano, Jane’s attorney told the AP.

IV Sta, an organizer with Justice 4 Jane, said, “This lawsuit is one of the things that DCF is most afraid of, and I think that legal action and more publicity for Jane are the things that they fear the most and the reason that they are launching all of these assaults against her and trying to get her to be as subdued as possible, as afraid as possible.”

Sta also spoke about what they thought success in the suit would look like:

“Success in this lawsuit would both mean a legal victory for Jane that would allow her to be treated better by DCF [and] hopefully it would allow for Jane to finally look at being to be adopted, because there are so many families that are interested in adopting her. One of the things being demanded of DCF — at least at a grassroots level — is that they release her to one of these families.”

West Valley Detention Center, San Bernardino County, CA via WVDC Bail

Class Action Suit On Behalf of GBT Inmates, California

At the West Valley Detention Center in San Bernardino County, California, self-identified gay, bisexual and transgender inmates are held in isolation in the “alternative lifestyle tank,” or ALT. This bizarrely named (particularly for those who might imagine the alternative lifestyle tank as that white tank top you wore to Pride along with your alternative lifestyle haircut) section of the Detention Center is meant to keep GBT inmates from being exposed to harassment or abuse from inmates in the general population. It consists of eight cells, each holding two inmates. The ACLU of Southern California, with the law firm Kaye, McLane, Bednarski & Litt, is representing fifteen people who are or have been incarcerated in the ALT in a class-action lawsuit against San Bernardino County. The plaintiffs — three trans women, eleven gay men and one bisexual man — argue that despite being framed as a “safe” place for GBT inmates in the detention center, being held in the ALT comes with its own set of restrictions which have other highly detrimental effects on inmates. A press release from ACLU SoCal says the suit “charges the county’s policy is unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection to all individuals.”

Inmates held in the ALT are not permitted to participate in programs that are offered to the non-GBT inmates at the facility, including drug rehabilitation programs and work programs that allow inmates to earn time off their sentences, thus guaranteeing that GBT inmates will serve more time than their non-GBT counterparts, solely on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Not having access to these programs also also puts them at a disadvantage when they do eventually leave the facility, because it will more difficult for them to create stable lives and put them at higher risk for recidivism.

GBT inmates in the ALT are not permitted to attend congregational prayer meetings, access Bibles or have visits from chaplains in their cells. The inmates are also being kept in their cells for 22-23 hours a day, despite the fact that there is an isolated common area that they could access without interacting with the non-GBT population. This isn’t technically considered “solitary confinement” because two people live in each cell, but it’s only a small step up. They still aren’t able to move freely to the extent that people in the non-GBT population are, and for no specified reason. Inmates are also singled out for harassment from the staff that patrol the ALT, who call them derogatory names and subject them to humiliation, neglect, harsher punishments and retaliation against people who have filed complaints about their poor treatment.

”Gay, bisexual and transgender inmates should not have to accept a longer sentence and an extra layer of punishment as the price of safety,” said ACLU attorney Melissa Goodman in an email. She told the LA Times, “Imposing harsher penalties just because of who they are is illegal, and it’s unconstitutional.”

The people represented by the ACLU have reported that when they have complained about their treatment in the ALT, they have been offered spots with the non-GBT population, but this is not a realistic option, because the entire reason for the ALT’s existence is because they’d face harassment and abuse in the non-GBT population. According to ACLU SoCal, “the lawsuit seeks to require San Bernardino County and the sheriff’s department to provide all inmates equal access and treatment to programs, as required by state and federal law.”

These cases are pretty different. The suit brought against San Bernardino County deals with a group of adults being held in jail, who have been charged and/or convicted of crimes. The suit brought against Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families addresses the Department’s handling of the case of one girl, who has never been charged with a crime, but is in the custody of the DCF, which gets to decide where she lives. What both cases illustrate is how the idea that prisons, jails and detention centers can be safe for LGBT people is a pipe dream. Both of these lawsuits point to glaring inconsistencies and gaps in the current capabilities of the state to care for the inmates and detainees kept in their custody, particularly those who are transgender or living other “alternative lifestyles.” They also show how measures taken for these people’s “safety” often means they are forced to be in the care of their abusers or other staff that harass and aggravate them.

We should not be reading the San Bernardino case as an expose of one place that is “doing it wrong” when it comes to its GBT inmates. The “Alternative Lifestyle Tank” method of separating GBT inmates from the general population is not typical. Usually, GBT inmates must be with the general population, or else they are held in solitary confinement “for their protection.” These options come with their own risks to LGBT inmates.

Jane Doe is fighting for her right to be acknowledged as the young woman that she is. Her being addressed by the wrong pronouns and name are signs of willful neglect and mistreatment, and we should absolutely have her back as she fights for them. It’s also important to remember that her case is one amongst an unknown number of transgender kids in DCF custody. It’s also not a horrible exception to sunshiny lives of other kids who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. It’s a whole system that is dramatically underfunded and ill-equipped to care for its kids, which mirrors and feeds a criminal justice system that we know to be oppressive in pretty much every possible way.

It’s interesting to see these two cases drop within days of each other. The plaintiffs in these cases are not the first trans or LGB people to be discriminated against while in the custody of the state. Not by a long shot. What these cases show is that we are in a moment where the legal system might actually be equipped to respond to one of the multitude of ways trans and LGB people are stripped of their rights.

Is this a good thing? On the one hand, yes, it is good. It means that there is actually a mechanism of accountability that trans and LGB people can turn to! It means we have lawyers and national organizations like the ACLU who are equipped to take on these fights. It means there is a glimmer of hope that things might get better for Jane, or that the people incarcerated at WVDC will be able to work at reducing their sentences while also not being exposed to abuse and harassment from non-GBT inmates.

But on the other hand, wins in these cases would mean that the criminal justice system can expand in its capacity to incarcerate LGBT people in a way that is seen as acceptable. And when the system expands in its capacity, it ultimately means more of us will be swallowed up by it, particularly people of color within our communities, who are already disproportionately targeted by the prison industrial complex and the school-to-prison pipeline. Even if prisons and jails and detention centers and juvenile correction facilities become safER for individuals held there, the prison system continues to be a mechanism to police and oppress and dehumanize. As CeCe McDonald reminds us: “men’s prison, women’s prison, trans prison, or unicorn prison — no prison is safe.”

As these suits go forward, it’s important to fight for Jane and the plaintiffs in the San Bernardino suit. It’s also important to remain critical of the current function of the justice system as a whole, particularly as it works to incarcerate more and more people from marginalized communities, and to work on envisioning alternatives to incarceration altogether.

The State of Trans Women and the Seven Sisters: Mount Holyoke Opens Its Doors, Smith and The Rest Drag Heels

feature image via Mt Holyoke College

It’s not really a secret that the elite women’s colleges known as the Seven Sisters are bastions of queerness, or at least a specific brand of it. That makes it particularly disappointing that they remain so woefully behind the times when it comes to transgender acceptance. Of the five schools that still have not gone co-ed, only Mount Holyoke has adopted rules that encourage and allow trans women to apply and be admitted. The remaining schools — Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard — either specifically or vaguely exclude trans women from admission. Most often, this exclusion hinges around vague references to “female-only” admissions. This week, despite increasingly vocal support from the student population, the Smith College Board of Trustee has pushed the issue off for “study”, meaning the earliest trans women could be admitted is the fall of 2016.

A group called “Smith College Q&A” has been pressing the school’s administration for a more inclusive for admission policy for two years now. Last Saturday, the group met with the college’s Board of Trustees to address their concerns, a meeting which “did not go well” according to Q&A’s blog. It appeared the administration wasn’t nearly as interested in a legitimate dialogue as the students had hoped. According to their post:

“Although Q&A was told they were there to discuss their policy proposal, during the 25-minute meeting the Board read the policy and asked a couple clarifying questions, with very little follow up to what a new admissions and educational policies would look like implemented. These clarifying questions were unnecessarily invasive — with one Trustee claiming she wanted to be a “Devil’s advocate” in this discussion — despite the fact that Q&A representatives provided educational packets that addressed any curiosities the Board might have.”

Smith has been at the focus of much of the criticism regarding the exclusion of trans women among women’s colleges, particularly after their highly-publicized rejection of Calliope Wong after providing her complicated, conflicting information about her admissibility. Q&A isn’t taking the Board’s reticence lightly, however. They’ve launched a change.org petition and have planned a protest on Thursday on Smith’s campus to press the adminitration for action.

Similar presses for inclusion are being made by students and alumnae at the Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Barnard. Shortly after Mount Holyoke’s announcement, a group from Bryn Mawr released an open letter pressing the college’s administration to craft a clear trans-inclusive admissions policy. In it, they chide Bryn Mawr for getting away from its core mission by excluding trans women:

“Bryn Mawr’s current approach to handling trans student applicants is ineffective and insufficient. As long as Bryn Mawr continues to exclude trans and nonbinary students, it continues to neglect its essential educational mission. Bryn Mawr has a long history as an institution that offers educational opportunities to students who face discrimination because of their gender. The time has come to expand Bryn Mawr’s safe, supportive community to fully include trans students and other gender minorities.”

Wellesley College has adopted a similar party line to Smith with their president, Kim Bottomly, announcing in September that the institution would take undertake a year-long “conversation” about the concept of womanhood. She states:

“We recognize that the issues of gender identity and transgender experience are relevant and complex. We must build a better understanding of these issues and determine what current policies and practices might need revision in light of this understanding”

She appointed a committee to examine the issue, which is due to issue its report sometime this spring.

The press from alums for trans women to be included at Manhattan’s Barnard College has been particularly fierce. Last spring, Dean Spade — founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Barnard graduate — spoke at town hall on meeting on campus, pressing for action by the administration to adopt policies inclusive of trans women. A few months later Spade co-wrote an op-ed with Smith alum Avi Cummings denouncing women’s college as being on the “wrong side of history.” They write:

“By effectively saying “no,” women’s colleges are endorsing and strengthening a concept at the root of transphobia: the belief that trans people are not who we say we are. Whether written into policies or informally practiced, this fundamental denial of trans people’s identities leads directly to our communities being disproportionately turned away from education, healthcare, housing and jobs, and disproportionately profiled by the police and immigration authorities.”

Interestingly, both Spade and Cummings are trans. They’re trans men. Historically, trans men have had a place (even if that place is somewhat complicated) within the student body of liberal women’s colleges due to admissions policies heavily focusing on government-sanctioned “femaleness” as opposed to a more complex concept of womanhood. Barnard, to its credit, has signaled at least some degree of increasing trans acceptance by awarding its first Anna Quindlen Writer-in-Residence position to trans writer Jennifer Finney Boylan.

Earlier this year California’s Mills College, which is not associated with the historic Seven Sisters group, broke ground on trans acceptance in women’s colleges when it announced that it would accept students who identified as women, regardless of birth-assigned sex. Mills was the first US women’s college to adopt such language for its admission guidance. While it appears there’s at least a begrudging move towards similar policies at other prominent women’s colleges, it appears that it could be at least 2016 before any of those schools see a trans woman walk through their doors.

Gloria Casarez, Organizer, Activist and Total Badass, Dies at 42

Gloria Casarez passed away on Sunday, October 19th, after living with cancer for five years. She was 42, a Philadelphia native, and a longtime activist and organizer in Philly’s LGBT and Latin@ communities. Casarez fought tirelessly for her communities, acting as a mentor, galvanizer and leader.

Casarez rallies the 2012 Dyke March.

Casarez wore many “hats” in her life as an organizer: Director of the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs, Executive Director of GALAEI, the Gay and Lesbian Latin@ AIDS Education Initiative, founding member of Philly Dyke March, founding member of Empty the Shelters, Grand Marshal of the Pride Parade. The hat she always wore was mentor. Every single person I spoke to who had known Casarez, in any capacity, younger or older than she, said they saw her as a mentor in their work and activism. Her reach was large and her impact was great.

“She was a total bad-ass,” GALAEI said in a statement on their Facebook page. “And she fought for what she believed in — holding us all accountable to act against any injustices that were perpetuated in our community.”

“She was a big deal for all of us.”

In 2008, Casarez was appointed as the very first director of Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs. As director, she pushed her agenda hard, keeping Mayor Michael Nutter’s attention on vital issues for the LGBT community. “She was very concerned,” said Elicia Gonzales, Executive Director of GALAEI, “that she have her finger on the pulse of what was happening in the communities. She was regularly checking in with folks from all over, in every aspect of the community.” Chris Bartlett, Executive Director of the William Way LGBT Community Center, spoke to her other initiatives:

“Going department by department, whether it was Behavioral Health, or the Health Department, or the Department of Housing, or the School District, she was able to identify the need and get resources there. One of the things she pushed for was recent legislation that expanded access to trans people for healthcare, and made the restrooms in the city non-gendered. Getting that bill passed was a heavy lift, and the fact that she was able to get that legislation and do the work that she did in City Hall enabled us to position ourselves as the greatest LGBT city in the country, and I really believe that it is. She knew how to use her power for good.”

Casarez also used her platform to speak out against violence faced by trans women of color in Philadelphia. She gave remarks at a vigil for Diamond Williams last July.

“We’ve done a lot of work here in Philadelphia on LGBT issues and I’m proud to be a part of these positive changes in law, policy, and protections — but — we still have work to do. And by WE, I mean all of us.”

In a ceremony in front of City Hall, the Mayor spoke to the personal impact Casarez had on his work, and assured the community that he would continue to prioritize the issues Casarez advocated for. “Know that you are cared about, know that you are respected, know that you are protected in this city,” he said. “I’ve had some of my best moments of life in public service with many of you.” In a statement released on Sunday, Mayor Nutter said, “our entire Administration team has benefitted from having had the opportunity to serve our City and citizens with the support of her leadership and wisdom.”

Community members gathered at City Hall to remember Casarez and lower the Rainbow Flag to half-mast.

Casarez continued with her work for the City through the last weeks of her life, recently presiding at the fifth annual City of Philadelphia LGBT History Month Celebration and Flag Raising Ceremony at City Hall, where the City honored organizations including GALAEI, the Mazzoni Center and Philly Black Pride.

“She was a big deal for all of us,” said one young organizer who Casarez inspired.

“What Would Gloria Do?”

Before she worked at City Hall, preceding Gonzales, Casarez was the executive director of the GALAEI for nearly ten years, though even after leaving the organization in an official capacity to work for the Mayor’s office, she provided support and inspiration. Gonzales spoke to Casarez’s commitment to her vision for GALAEI:

“[Gloria] wanted to make sure that we remained a social justice grassroots organization, and if there was to be growth, it would be serving the needs of the community, and that we were always taking into consideration folks who were underserved. …She wanted to make sure we were paying attention to who’s not in the room, who’s not at the table, whose voices aren’t we hearing from, and making sure that those were people we continued to work for.”

Casarez speaks at the 5th Annual City LGBT History Month Celebration via G Philly

One of Casarez’s priorities while directing GALAEI was her work with transgender communities in Philadelphia. She worked with Casey Cook, who then directed of Prevention Point Philadelphia, to found the Trans-Health Information Project, which became one of the only information projects of its kind in the country.

Under Casarez’s leadership, the organization followed in the vision of GALAEI founder David Acosta. Both Casarez and Acosta were “incredibly visionary,” Gonzales told me. “They’ve both always seen all of our issues as intersecting. Being queer and Latin@, homelessness and poverty are part of that struggle. I know she saw the intersections of what it meant to be queer and Latin@ with other social issues.”

Casarez’s vision and leadership remained alive and well in GALAEI after she left the organization for the Mayor’s Office. “I would often reach out to her for guidance,” said Gonzales. “In the office, there were certain things, that if there was a question for how to proceed, I’d say WWGD — What would Gloria do?”

GALAEI marches with Gloria’s Cardboard Cutout at 2014 Philly Pride. via GALAEI

GALAEI recently honored Casarez and other queer Latin@ leaders in the 2014 Pride Parade by carrying giant cardboard cutouts of their heads in the 2014 Pride Parade, of which Casarez also happened to be the Grand Marshal.

“The Dykes, United, Will Never Be Divided!”

Dyke March in Love Park, 1999 via Philly Dyke March

In 1998, Casarez became one of the founding members of the Philadelphia Dyke March and remained an active member of the Philly Dyke March Collective until the end of her life. At the 2014 March, she took the stage to rally the crowd:

“The Dyke March is about you and the Dyke March needs you! The Dyke March needs your support! If you haven’t bought a t-shirt, buy a fuckin’ t-shirt already! The dyke march is about your voice! It’s about you! You are taking the streets! You are visible! You are heard! You are beautiful! You are a dyke! You are an ally! You are a faery! You are Philadelphia Dyke March!”

Amber Hikes, Dyke March organizer, spoke to Casarez’s role in the March:

“Every year, Gloria’s familiar voice recalled the history and purpose of the march and served as the galvanizing call to action we needed… At the end of each march, it was Gloria I’d look to and I’d always find the ultimate comfort in her wide smile and glistening eyes as she’d say, ‘Amber, this was the best one yet.’ … It feels impossible to imagine marching on without her by our sides. I don’t know how we’ll do it, but I do know that when we do find the willpower to march, it will be Gloria’s strength in our steps, her words in our mouths, and her passion in our hearts. She will fuel our purpose as she always has and at the end of each year, I know we’ll hear her in the wind whispering, ‘This was the best one yet.'”

This year, to celebrate fifteen years of the Dyke March, from 1998-2013, Casarez and other Dyke March organizers created an installation at the William Way Center commemorating the March’s history, including photographs, t-shirts, stickers, and a video of footage from the 1998 and 2013 Marches. “Gloria worked tirelessly to make the exhibit happen,” said Kate Hinchey, William Way Center Development and Communications Associate and Dyke March Organizer. “She personally archived all of the stuff. We wouldn’t have all of this stuff without her. She constantly made sure we had what we needed from City Hall.”

The Dyke March Exhibit at the William Way Center, Summer 2014 via Philly Dyke March

When it came to her organizing, Casarez also wasn’t afraid to push people, call them out or, as Bartlett put it, “lovingly confront.” He gave me an example: “When we wanted to do Homecoming, which is one of [the William Way Center’s] fundraisers, on the same night as the Dyke March, she said, ‘Can’t you find one other night in the year? This is our night for the Dykes!’ And she was totally right.”

Hinchey confirmed this. “In this community, she wasn’t afraid to call people out and she never took any shit.”

“There are so many people that have inspired me.”

Casarez started her political organizing in college, and right out of school she began working on anti-poverty and welfare rights campaigns, during the Clinton administration. From this work came the first organization Casarez co-founded, Empty the Shelters, which organized around housing rights. In a 2010 interview with the Philadelphia Gay News, Casarez talked about the organizers she looked to for mentorship and inspiration:

“There are so many people that have inspired me. When I was younger and doing grassroots work, I was moved over and over again by women who were poor but always put their families first and tried to make things better. …We did housing takeovers [where you take over an abandoned house and move people in to give them a place to live], which can be dangerous, but they were fearless. Watching that mama-bear instinct was inspiring. Working with David Acosta when I first came to GALAEI was also a learning experience. He was the first man I ever met who described himself as a feminist. He was a mentor, both as an activist and as a creative person.”

Casarez was also involved in the efforts to save La Milagrosa, the first Spanish-speaking church in Philadelphia, which her great-grandparents attended.

Gloria and her wife Tricia ride at the 2012 Dyke March.

Casarez is survived by her wife, Tricia, their families, and a community that loved and loves her dearly. She has received countless awards and honors for her work, including the David Acosta Revolutionary Leader Award from GALAEI, the Kiyoshi Kuromiya Award for Justice from Philadelphia FIGHT, the Annual Community Service Award from the NAACP, and the Cheryl Ingram Advocate for Justice award from the Philadelphia Bar Association. She also threw the First Pitch at a Phillies game in 2010.

Casarez’s passing is a tragedy for Philadelphia, and for communities everywhere that have been impacted and inspired by her. Her life and legacy will carry forward in our work and our struggle, but we wish she were here to do it with us.

There May Be Justice For Jennifer Laude, Trans Filipina Murdered by US Marine

The story of a trans woman of color being murdered is, disturbingly, an all too common one. In fact, since the beginning of October, at least three trans women of color have been murdered and two more have been the victims of high profile violent crimes. One victim is Jennifer Laude, a trans Filipina who was apparently murdered by an American Marine, who was in the Philippines as a part of a military exercise.

Jennifer Laude via Facebook

Reports say Ms. Laude was with a friend and a “foreigner” with a military-style haircut at a hotel after leaving a local disco bar. Laude’s friend told police Laude was nervous that the man would find out the they were both transgender. Unfortunately, her body was later found in the hotel with signs of strangulation after her worst fears came true.

Transmisogyny and racism are dominating and toxic forces in our world, and when the two intersect, the result is often deadly. With this case, there’s an extra dose of Imperialism to make things even worse. Trans people (and mainly trans women of color) are so often the victims of violent crimes and murder that we have a day to mark the violence that has happened during the past year — Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Protesters in Manila via NY Daily News

There have been protests in both the US and in the Philippines demanding justice for Laude and an end to the continued presence of US troops in the Philippines. On the 14th, around 40 protesters showed up and burned an American flag outside the US Embassy in Manila to show that they would not stand by silently. They waved flags and held signs that read “US troops out now!” and “No to US bases in PH!” Corky Hope Maranan, leader of a Filipina trans and lesbian group said that the crime is “…just so abominable. It’s one of the worst hate crimes I’ve seen,” and demanded that an arrest be made.

This month’s barrage of tragic transmisogynistic violence started with the horrifying case of Mayang Prasetyo, an Indonesian trans woman living in Australia who was brutally murdered by her husband, and the murder of Aniya Parker in Los Angeles, both around October 2. Next, this case of a US Marine being charged with the murder of a Filipina trans woman. On October 12, a trans woman was beaten with a 2×4 in New York after some men found out she was trans and started shouting slurs at her. Finally, a trans woman named Alexia Dupree Taylor was attacked in Memphis around the 15th.

So often with murders of and attacks on trans women of color, the police refuse to call it a hate crime or even arrest a suspect and bring charges. However, after the protests, the US Marine is now being held and has been charged with the murder of Jennifer Laude. Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton is currently in US custody, but a senior Philippine official said that the Philippine government wants to take custody of him and that this case could damage the military relationship between the US and the Philippines.

Don’t Miss Laverne Cox’s Important New Documentary Featuring Trans Youth

Tomorrow, on both MTV and Logo, people of all genders, ethnicities, sexualities and beliefs will be able to watch a new hour-long documentary produced and hosted by Laverne Cox focusing on the lives of seven young trans people and on the experiences of trans people across America. Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, hopes to not only educate viewers on issues that affect trans people’s lives, but also show trans and gender non-conforming youth that it’s okay to be whoever they are. The subjects of the documentary include three trans men (named Ari, Kye and Shane) and three trans women (named Avery, Daniella and L’lerrét) in their early twenties, as well as a twelve-year-old trans girl named Zoey.

Some of the cast members marching in a Pride Parade via Look Different

This documentary discusses everything from dealing with unsupportive family, trying to find love, facing anti-trans violence and bullying and even disclosing your trans status to others. For all people, both trans and cis, this documentary is an extremely important television event. If you don’t have MTV or Logo, I’d suggest finding a friend who does.

One of the highlights of the documentary is all the time they spend focusing on then twelve-year-old Zoey. Despite being bullied by both her classmates and even by school administrators when she came out, she doesn’t let that bring her down and has an incredibly positive outlook on life. Cox told me that it’s these kinds of attitudes that are going to allow the young trans people of America to bring about change.

I think young people tend to be more optimistic and politically active… There’s this hope that every single young person who participated in this special has that they believe they can change the world around them. When I think about that I get really emotional, I really do believe that every young person involved in this project believes they can change the world around them. I think that it is incumbent upon all of us to not disappoint them, to not allow the world around them to stay the same, where we are treating each other in ways that are reprehensible, that we continue to have systems in place that disadvantage certain people. When there are young people who have this sense of hope, who put themselves on on the line in a really intense way by going on national TV. We should live up to the hopes that they have and try to make this world better for them.

Avery Grey and Daniella Carter, two of the trans women featured. via NY Daily News

Another unforgettable, but much more sombre moment is when Cox talks to Daniella, a 20-year-old woman from the Bronx about her experiences with transmisogynistic violence. Watching her tell her story of being attacked and sexually assaulted on the street is both heartbreaking and eye-opening. But the documentary doesn’t stop there, Cox, along with Daniella and Avery also go to the spot where Islan Nettles was murdered and discuss the fact that there is still no justice for her over a year later. With the news that at least 3 trans women of color have been murdered in the first half of this month alone, these scenes become even more powerful.  L’lerrét Ailith, a trans woman featured in the documentary who is working to decriminalize the lives of trans youth of color in New Orleans, said that she hopes this documentary will be jumping off point for discussions about how to reduce anti-trans violence

This documentary is important because it will help inspire more dialogue on these issues and increase visibility of trans* persons living in their truths in a world that seeks to invalidate and marginalize them. People who watch this can use this opportunity as a starting point to sparking up discussion on systematic oppression. They can use this as a sort of guideline to help them become better allies and to speak up for us in places we can’t speak up for ourselves.

It’s really amazing that we’re getting a televised documentary like this about trans people and produced and hosted by a trans woman of color and featuring several more when just a couple years ago pretty much the only times trans people were on TV were in sensationalized or mocking roles. While things are getting better on TV alternatives like Netflix and Amazon Prime, regular TV still lags behind. Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word is changing all of that. This time, trans people get to tell their own stories, get to talk about their lives in their own words and on their own terms. And Cox hopes that that will encourage viewers who aren’t trans to view trans people in a new light.

I’m consistently struck that a lot of those who are in the LGBTQ movement don’t understand trans people, don’t think that trans people should be included in the overall movement and don’t value trans voices. I mean, it’s just pretty shocking. I would hope that people who aren’t trans in the LGBTQ community would just see our humanity and understand that we are who we say we are that we should be treated in ways that are consistent with that. That’s all. That young Zoey should be treated like any other 12 or 13 year-old girl and not be denied anything that other young women are receiving in terms of treatment. I mean we still live in a sexist society, we still live in a racist society, so those things need to be changed as well and need to be addressed – because people live at intersections of multiple identities. But I think that individually that they just see us as who we are and not who they want us to be. And I think that goes for LGBTQ people and non-LGBTQ people as well. That we are who we say we are and we should exist on our own terms, not terms that you want to place onto us.

The T Word will hopefully not open only challenge people to think about the way they treat trans people, but will also challenge people to think about the way they view gender as a whole. L’lerrét said she just wants people to be free to be themselves.

Think of us all as Christmas trees – we’re all the same type of tree but we decorate ourselves differently depending on our moods and personalities. Let the tree be. Let it choose it’s own ornaments. Let is develop it’s own personality. Stop making gender such a huge deal. Gender is neither rigid nor definitive so stop trying to make the binary happen for every single being that inhabits this Earth. Allow people to truly practice free will.

For trans people who watch, Cox and the others want them to feel affirmed, like they have a future where they are free to be themselves. As L’lerrét says, there’s nothing better than being true to who you feel you are.

Living authentically is the most rewarding experience. Whether you be stealth or not, at the end of the day, live your true life how YOU want to and you will be the happiest person ever. Everyone doesn’t need to know your business but do what you want to do to make your own self happy. You are ethereal. You are enough.

You can watch the one hour documentary on Friday, October 17 at 7 pm ET/PT on Logo TV and MTV. Check out and use social media to participate in the live “Trans Forum” hosted by Cox and everyone’s favorite MTV News Anchor SuChin Pak on Logo TV and MTV.com directly following it. MTV has also set up an online hub they’re calling Look Different, where you can find resources both for trans people and potential trans allies.

National LGBTQ Task Force Has A New Name — Will It Have More Inclusive Programs to Match?

With little fanfare, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force changed its name to the National LGBTQ Task Force last week. In an op-ed for The Advocate, director Rea Carey wrote:

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is changing its name and upping its game to tear down any remaining barriers to full freedom, justice, and equality for all LBGTQ people. We want to create a world where you can be you, without barriers. Our new name is the “National LGBTQ Task Force,” our tagline is “Be you,” and our vision is a society that values and respects the diversity of human expression and identity and achieves freedom and equity for all.

The Task Force began as the National Gay Task Force in 1973 and added lesbian to its title in 1985. After decades of pushing for a more inclusive name from bisexual and trans activists, it has officially incorporated the B, T and Q. It’s great to see a major organization embracing more people in the rainbow in its name. But the timing and manner of the name change leave me a bit cynical.

In recent years, the Task Force has increased its efforts to work on behalf of bi and trans folks. In 1997, it updated its mission statement to include those groups, and a look at its campaigns, events and reports in recent years demonstrates a growing diversity in its programs.  Hopefully this new name will precede even stronger efforts on behalf of more parts of the complex and beautiful community we are part of. Mark Daley, a spokesman for the group, says he fully anticipates that the community will continue to define itself with new letters and names.

“Regardless of which letter you identify with, whether it’s used today or has not been invented yet, we include you in our work,” Daley said. “And we want to do more for everyone who belongs to our community.”

It would have been powerful to see the Task Force get ahead of the political curve with its naming and mission. Instead, its name change coincides with a political and cultural moment when transgender and bisexual people have seen a burst in acceptance and success in achieving policy needs and when “queer” has gained acceptance, at least in some circles, as both an identifier and a blanket term. In the last few years, bi, trans and queer people have made extraordinary efforts to pursue their goals, often without the support of mainstream gay and lesbian groups like the Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign. Nominally supporting bi, trans and queer people has gone mainstream, but those groups haven’t seen substantial increases in funding and political action. Instead, national organizations often promote statistics about the crisis facing bi and trans people without always supporting those groups and their work.

More promising than the name change is the corresponding announcement that the group will increase its focus on topics like anti-queer and -trans violence and employment and housing discrimination. The Task Force should also turn its attention to problems like mass incarceration, police violence, institutional racism and homelessness that disproportionately harm queer people. The group’s future actions and inclusivity will speak much louder than its name, said bisexual activist Lynnette McFadzen, the creator of the BiCast. The Task Force has a history of excluding bi and trans needs from its programs, though it’s improved in recent years, she said.

“The real issue isn’t their name, it’s their conduct, and that’s something they need to work on,” McFadzen said. “If they conducted themselves as an inclusive task force, that would be great. I’m not concerned about the alphabet soup.”

The organization’s upcoming programs include several trans specific initiatives, including a campaign to protest violence against trans people using the hashtag #StopTransMurders. But they still have work to do. The organization left the bi community stunned when it published an piece from one of its staff members called “Bye Bye Bi, Hello Queer” on Celebrate Bisexuality Day. The article called for a rejection of the term bisexuality based on outdated definitions of the term that enforce a binary understanding that the bi community itself doesn’t use. The Task Force also published a positive article about bisexuality on the same day, and it later published a counter article from trans and bi writer Aud Traher. Weeks later, it took the offensive post down and posted a brief apology.

The complexity of our community makes it hard for us to be 100 percent inclusive all the time with our work and language. At Autostraddle, we sometimes default to LGBT, queer or gay because we’re working with a language that doesn’t actively create space for all our experiences. We also work to be inclusive of everyone’s stories and examine our own biases and failures to do better. I hope to see the same efforts from national organizations like the Task Force so that their organizing, writing and political work celebrate and advance every part of our community and family.

5 Trans Legal Protections Mapped Across The US, Plus Bonus 6th Map

feature image via Shutterstock

Vocativ and the National Center for Transgender Equality joined forces to bring you five helpful maps illustrating the current state-by-state situation for transgender legal protections in the US.

Maps like these are useful because they show us where laws have been implemented without ignoring where the laws aren’t. Trans issues have had a more mainstream audience in the past year, and in many respects have gained more traction with those audiences. But these maps all lined up next to each other vividly show that even with that visibility, trans people still lack the most basic protections across most states, even those that are generally considered “progressive.”

The maps cover five issues: schools, healthcare, employment, hate crime legislation and identity documents. They are strictly focused on legal rights, state-by-state, which doesn’t consider the many other barriers trans people face. These barriers cannot be resolved with laws and legal rights, but they need to be broken down in order for trans people to fully exercise those rights. A sixth map for the infographic, which might not be considered a “measurable area” in statistical terms, would still be useful in demonstrating reality: “States where transgender people still face dramatically disproportionate levels of interpersonal and state violence, prejudice and general lack of mainstream understanding and acceptance.” We made it for you: