Webcomic “Becoming Me” Shows What it’s Like to be a Young Trans Woman Around Town

by rory midhani

Seeing as I’m a trans woman who loves comics and who loves diverse queer representation in the comics that I read, I’m constantly on the look for good webcomics with trans protagonists. I recently found the lovely comic Becoming Me and it is wonderfully filling that role. Written by Mia Rose Elbo, a 24-year-old Chilean trans woman, Becoming Me only started as a comic back in April. But what’s up so far is completely relatable, extremely cute and utterly delightful when it’s not totally devastating.

The site says that it’s “a comic about Mia, a trans girl in her twenties who, fresh out of college and finally in hormone therapy, is slowly exploring her new life” and a “A totally mostly kind of  barely biographic comic about the many silly and strange things that tend to happen to me in the AMAZING city of Santiago de Chile.” Since it’s written by a trans woman and based, at least partially, on her life, it does a really great job of telling a trans story.

For example, the comic so perfectly captures what it’s like to be misgendered. Even when it’s on accident by a person who is trying to be nice and doesn’t mean anything by it, it still feels like your humanity is being taken away. When Elbo said that she wondered if maybe she was a ghost when an elderly woman mistook her for her son, my heart shattered into a million pieces of “I know that feeling.” She again makes a comic that hits me (and I’m sure plenty of other readers) right where it hurts in the comic that first led me to her work. In these four panels, she shows the different kinds of pain many of us go through as trans women, and ouch, does the final panel really land a killing blow.

Not to worry, it’s not all Debbie Downer. There are cute comics about how fun it is trying new outfits and looks, meeting with friends for a night on the town and bragging about having dates. Since it is sort of an autobio comic, Mia’s emotions seem real and varied, just like an actual person’s. Being trans isn’t just about the lows of being misgendered and feeling dysphoria; there’s also highs and mediums.

The latest storyline has focused on Mia’s adventures in online dating. At first the date seems to be going well, very well in fact. The two are having a great time, and Mia even gets invited back to the girl’s place. There they start kissing, and Mia wants to disclose whether or not she’s had surgery. This is a huge thing for a lot of trans women when we go on dates. It can be hard to figure out when to disclose both the fact that we’re trans, and if we’ve had surgery. Some people are up front with it and say before the date even starts, many more of us wait until we know the person or until we’re ready to be intimate with them. Really, people only have a right to know what’s up with what it’s your pants if you plan on sleeping with them or getting certain kinds of medical help from them.

For Mia, she decided to disclose in two parts. Her date seemed to know she was trans, which I took to mean that Mia disclosed that before the date. However, when they start making out and taking their clothes off, Mia makes sure she says that she’s pre-op before they get too far. She wants to make sure her partner is completely comfortable. At first it seems like she is, but then she turns on a dime and the date immediately goes sour.

I really like seeing a story about a trans woman where she’s into other women. Although they’re becoming more and more popular, for a long time it was hard to find stories that highlighted queer and lesbian trans women. However, seeing as the most recent data shows that upwards of 40% of trans people identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, queer trans women should be all over the place in transgender fiction. I’m also really feeling the minimalist, but not overly simple character design and artwork. It gives the comic a clean, smooth look that helps the story flow.

Becoming Me updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can also keep up with what Elbo is doing online via her various social media accounts, her website and the comic’s blog.

Comic Releases (June 4)

Adventure Time The Flip Side #6 (Boom! Studios)

Angel and Faith Season 10 #3 (Dark Horse)

Harley Quinn #1 (4th printing) (DC)

Harley Quinn #3 (2nd printing) (DC)

Black Widow #7 (Marvel)

Loki Agent of Asgard #5 (Marvel)

Painkiller Jane The 22 Brides #1 (Marvel)

Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.

If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com.

Laverne Cox is Amazing on the Cover of Time, Time’s Story Inside Not So Much

A month after being one of the top vote-getters in Time Magazine’s online poll for their annual “Person of the Year” issue and then being subsequently left completely out of that issue, actress and transgender rights activist Laverne Cox has leapt completely past the idea of being one person in a giant list of the year’s most important people and has secured the entire cover for herself.  This cover goes along with Time’s story, titled, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” and makes Cox the first ever openly transgender person to grace the cover of the magazine.

via Time

First off, I just want to celebrate Cox’s accomplishment. This is a big day for Cox, for all trans people, for trans women, and for trans women of color. Being on the cover of Time Magazine is a huge honor and I want to stand up and applaud Cox for accomplishing so much that Time couldn’t help but notice her.

When I saw that Cox was on the cover I was so happy and proud. I think that it’s awesome that so many of the leading faces in the current trans movement are trans women of color (Janet Mock, CeCe McDonald and Carmen Carrera) and Cox is another example of that, and this is another example of the great couple of years she’s been having. However, when I heard the premise of the article, some of that excitement turned to trepidation. The cover calls the transgender movement “America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier.” This is problematic on multiple levels.

Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and others marching. via masstpc.org

First of all, it makes it seem like we are done fighting for other civil rights, when it has Cox, a black trans woman, who is discriminated against not only because she is trans, but also because she is black and a woman. Also, the fight for trans rights isn’t exactly new. What many see as the genesis of the modern Gay Rights Movement was started by trans women of color. I really want to be happy that we’re getting attention for such an important issue and such a great possibility model like Cox, but I can’t help but think, what if back when Miss Major, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera started the modern Gay Rights Movement at Stonewall, people looked at them and took them and their needs and demands seriously? How far advanced would we be today?

Then there’s the actual content of the piece. This article is written so problematically that I had to actually stop reading it at several points. In the cover story by Katy Steinmetz, the writer positions this “new civil rights frontier” as coming one year after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, which, I guess, was when the Gay Rights Movement was won.

She then talks about trans people “emerging from the margins” to fight for rights, I agree that it does look like more trans people are being given spotlights and microphones in order to tell their stories, but we weren’t the ones who put ourselves on the margins. Sylvia Rivera was shouting at the top of her lungs about trans women’s rights decades ago when the mainstream Gay Rights Movement shoved her, and other trans women of color, under the bus and off of the stage.

Cox via Time

The article says “This article will use the names, nouns and pronouns preferred by individuals, in accordance with Time’s style” but then goes on to use “him” to describe a trans woman and Christine Jorgensen’s birth name in the very same paragraph. That wasn’t the last time they would use incorrect names or pronouns.

They even give an entire paragraph to the anti-science, anti-logic, anti-human-decency opinion of people who “don’t believe in” the concept of gender identity. Why do we need to give a voice to someone who asks “Can I claim to be an African American if I feel African American?” (The answer is: we don’t.)

In another paragraph they explain how gender and sex are different, and how understanding this is how we are able to understand trans people. They say “sex is biological, determined by a baby’s birth anatomy; gender is cultural, a set of behaviors learned through human interaction.” Then later, when talking about trans people taking hormones, they use “biological females” when talking about trans men and “biological males” when talking about trans women. Calling trans women males is not a good way to explain us to people who don’t understand, it’s a good way to misgender us and reinforce the idea that we’re not “real women.”

Saying that it’s a “baby’s birth anatomy“ that determines sex, and not even an adult’s anatomy (which is already plenty simplistic and misguided and superficial and leaves out a lot of factors) is extremely frustrating and damaging to the trans cause. They even have a quote from Mara Keisling at the National Center for Transgender Equality about how focusing on genitalia is “maddening for (trans people)” and shouldn’t be the focus of discussions about us. After this article call trans women “biological males” how are we supposed to take their dedication to helping trans people seriously?

Then, when discussing Janet Mock, who famously was misgendered and treated extremely poorly on the Piers Morgan show just a few months ago, they use her birth name. Do they really have to keep doing that? Did they not learn that she doesn’t appreciate that kind of thing?

Time also has a video showing Cox talking about trans issues that is, in my opinion, a lot better than the article. In it, and in the interview that is transcribed on the same page, Cox is able to shine, because she is able to control the narrative (which is something she talks about being important in the interview) instead of having it being written by a cis person. Cox is able to wonderfully sum up how cis people can best help trans people.

A lot of it is just listening to transgender people and taking the lead from trans folks. The reality is that I don’t represent the entirety of the trans community… and so it’s really about listening to individuals… and taking people at their word. When we look at the discrimination that transgender people face there tends to be intersections of race and class. The homicide rate, for example, in the LGBTQ community is highest among trans women and then when we look at trans women who are being victims of violence most its usually trans women of color… I think the trans movement, and the LGBT movement in general, really has to be a social justice movement where we look at issues of race and class and phobia…

via Time

I really, really hate that so often when I write about the media’s coverage of trans people I’m writing from a place of anger or pain. I wanted to just be able to write something celebrating Laverne Cox and her accomplishment. She is killing it right now and deserves to have people write positive articles about her. I really wished that I could’ve just celebrated her being on the cover, but reading this article was frustrating and difficult and reminded me that even “allies” still often see me as male.

I can tell that this story was coming from a place that’s trying to do good – and for much of the article, I think they do just that. Having the cover story in Time means that a lot of people will become aware of a whole slew of trans issues that they probably otherwise wouldn’t have heard about. However, if an article talking about the positive strides the trans movement is making gets so much wrong, how much worse are other articles going to be? I’m glad that Time featured Cox on their cover, but I do not appreciate them using trans women’s birth names and calling Cox, me and every other trans woman a male.

Still, let’s take a moment to applaud and appreciate Laverne Cox; heck, let’s take a whole bunch of moments. She deserves every bit of praise that is being heaped on her. She’s on the cover of motherfreaking Time Magazine.

Carmen Carrera and Tyra Banks Are Making A Docuseries About Trans Women

Carrera in Glamour UK

Tyra Banks via Celebrity Fix

Carmen Carrera not taking any of Katie Couric’s nonsense.

Laura Jane Grace via Nashville Sound

This is the latest is a group of reality shows and TV documentaries starring trans women to come out or be announced lately. First there was former Miss Universe contestant Jenna Talackova’s show that debuted earlier this year, then it was announced that Against Me!’s lead singer Laura Jane Grace would be getting her own show through AOL, and now this one and the recently announced Trans Teen: The Documentary, produced and hosted  by Cox for MTV, that are both coming soon. Hopefully with more trans representation like this, more and more people will start seeing and treating trans women (and all trans people) as the human beings that we are. Hopefully the more they see us on TV and learn about us, the less they’ll feel like they need to ask invasive questions. I’m super happy to be seeing so many trans women getting what seems to be positive representation on TV; now we just need to see the same kind of representation in film and TV, where trans women are still often played by cis men and are still usually only portrayed as sex workers and the victims of violent crimes. I’m excited to watch this show when it eventually airs later this year or early next, and I’m excited to see Carrera moving up in the world like this.

Protesters Take Stage at Health Conference Because NY’s Trans Healthcare Failure is Inexcusable

This morning, members of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, including SRLP membership director Reina Gossett, took over the stage at the HxRefractored Conference in New York City to demand that the New York State Department of Health repeal the 1998 regulation barring transgender people from accessing healthcare through state Medicaid coverage.

Banner drop at HxR Conference via via @ericachain

The action is part of an ongoing campaign to repeal the discriminatory regulation by the SRLP, GLAAD and the Audre Lorde Project’s TransJustice initiative. SRLP has been working on transgender Medicaid coverage since 2002, filing lawsuits and petitions with thousands of signatures. The Department of Health has consistently responded by taking no action whatsoever.

SRLP flyered with an infographic about transgender healthcare before the action, which, Gossett reported, conference goers were really interested in. Then, during a moment of “serendipitous technical difficulty,” Gossett and two members of SRLP took to the stage, intervening in New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker’s keynote address. As Gossett said, they intervened during Zucker’s speech because “…[the regulation’s] not a law… if [Zucker] decided tonight that he all of a sudden cared about healthcare for transgender people, he could change it. And so we knew that we wanted to take that message to this audience and to him and really confront him.”

Gossett spoke for five minutes:

“I talked about why this regulation is so harmful – it’s not just a policy issue, it’s about who can go to the doctor, who can access medically necessary care, and who can live. And right now the message that the Department of Health is sending to transgender New Yorkers is that they don’t care if we live, they don’t care about our health.”

via SRLP

Zucker’s keynote focused on the government’s role in health care innovation and “using technology to promote more patient-centered care.” The audience responded with applause and cheers, pleasantly surprising Gossett, who pointed out that the action could have received negative response and resulted in her arrest. Conference-goers took Zucker’s message to heart, and used social media technology to promote access to patient-centered care for trans people, tweeting with the hashtag #TransHealthcareNOW. Even the HxR official Twitter account got involved in the conversation by retweeting people using the hashtag.

Because trans lives matter: @HealthNYGov stop denying trans people necessary healthcare! http://t.co/nfLXU4Bbth #transhealthcarenow #hxr2014

— Christy (@llchristyll) May 14, 2014

“Stop discriminating against transgender people” #hxr2014 @HxRconf #NYC #transhealthcarenow #medicare #medicaid pic.twitter.com/MkwWkMudoi

— Dr Vladimir Choi (@vladimirchoi) May 14, 2014

Gossett wrote on her website after the protest, “We went [to HxR] to stop business as usual at the Department of Health. 16 years of transgender exclusion from medically necessary healthcare is far too long!”

The fact that the regulation still exists in New York State is absurd. The reasoning that precipitated it — that healthcare for trans people was somehow “special” or “too expensive” — is discriminatory, inaccurate and dangerous, and counters the reports made to the DoH when the regulation was implemented that said preventing transgender people from accessing healthcare is detrimental. To add an additional layer of absurdity, the NY Department of Health website has a relatively comprehensive section about LGBT health, headed by the statement that “One of the goals of the New York State Department of Health is to eliminate disparities in health care access by increasing the availability and quality of health care services for New York’s underserved populations.” The page links to sites like Injustice at Every Turn, the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and a specific page describing the obstacles trans people face in getting healthcare. This page notes,

“Transgender persons are often reluctant to seek medical care through a traditional provider-patient relationship. Some are even turned away by providers. A doctor who refuses to treat a trans person may be acting out of fear and transphobia, or may have a religious bias against LGBT patients. It’s also possible that the doctor simply doesn’t have the knowledge or experience he needs. Furthermore, health care related to transgender issues is usually not covered by insurance, so it is more expensive.”

Clearly, the Department of Health has the information it needs in order to have a pretty solid understanding that trans people face incredible obstacles when seeking healthcare, but this understanding is pretty hollow when their own regulations do the work of creating the barriers they describe. #TransHealthcareNOW reminds New Yorkers that trans people need real action from the state. Given the positive response of HxR conference attendees today, it seems clear that New Yorkers are starting to hear the message. The question that remains is when the Department of Health will wake up and smell the justice.

As of 4pm today, the Department of Health has not yet responded to or even commented on this morning’s action. For Gossett, “…I don’t know what a response is anymore other than a repeal of the regulation… That and an apology.”

To support #TransHealthcareNOW, donate to SRLP for GiveOUT! Day tomorrow, and sign their petition on Change.org.

Trans Teen Girl Remains in Adult Prison Despite Not Being Charged With A Crime

A 16 year-old transgender teenage girl has been locked up in an isolated mental health unit of the York Correctional Institution since April, despite not being charged with any crimes. She was recently moved to another building that the Connecticut Department of Children and Families hopes will better suit her needs. However, advocates for the girl say that the new location isn’t any less isolated and still isn’t a suitable place for her. Additionally, the fact remains that Jane Doe, as she is known because she’s a minor, hasn’t been charged with any crimes, has mental health needs that aren’t being met and has been locked up in an adult prison since last month. Some documents suggest that DCF may even be misleading the press and the public as to their treatment of Doe, and wish to cover up the fact that they tried (and failed) to have Doe transferred to a men’s prison.

Child advocates, civil rights groups and lawyers are still fighting to get her removed from the adult prison that she was placed in and moved to a facility that can provide treatment and rehabilitation for her. “The challenge remains that it’s a correctional compound, and it’s not designed for teenagers with significant mental health needs,” Child Advocate Sarah Eagan said. Connecticut ACLU attorney David Maguire added that “it’s widely recognized that solitary confinement is … particularly dangerous to the psychological health of children. Jane Doe is not an adult. She is not a criminal. She does not belong in prison, let alone in solitary confinement.”

via colorlines

Doe has been under the care of the Department of Children and Families since age five and says that they have a long history of not giving her proper care or protection. Doe, along with attorney Aaron J. Romano, is filing a legal complaint in federal court against the DCF, the state Department of Corrections and both groups’ commissioners. In this complaint, Doe says that under the DCF’s care she was placed in homes where she was victim to abuse, including rape, homelessness, drugging and sexual exploitation. Doe says that this is just the next step in a long and horrible journey with the DCF.

I was placed in DCF custody because my father was incarcerated and my mother was using heroin, crack, alcohol and possibly other drugs. While in DCF custody, I have suffered immensely. I feel that DCF has failed to protect me from harm and I am now thrown into prison because they have refused to help me.

The girl was placed in prison by a judge in April after the DCF requested that she be locked up due to “violent behavior.” However, as was stated before, she wasn’t charged with any crimes, is only 16 years old and is in need of mental health services, not imprisonment. Doe has said that while locked up at the York Correctional Institution, she can hear the adult inmates “screaming, banging and crying” all night long. Her lawyer says that she’s under lockdown for 22 hours a day and isolated in a “setting where aggression is the norm.” The only positive that she’s reported is that they have provided her with Hormone Replacement Therapy to help her development.

Her lawyer is trying to get a judge to rule that her transfer to an adult prison is unconstitutional. He says that it violates two federal laws, the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act and the Prison Rape Elimination Act. They are asking the judge to cancel the original transfer to the adult prison facility and also asking that the DCF “institute programming specific to the treatment and rehabilitation of transgender youth and children, which Doe would be permitted to attend.” The second part of that is key. That programming could ensure that the horrible things happening to Jane Doe won’t happen the next time the DCF doesn’t know how to handle a trans teen under their care.

Gov. Dannel Malloy via greenwitchtime.com

Luckily, Doe has some big friends on her side. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has publicly called for her to be moved out of the adult prison and into a facility that will be able to properly help her. he spoke with DCF Commissioner Joette Katz about getting Doe out of prison as quickly as possible. A spokesman for Malloy said that they have “been developing a plan that will assure Jane Doe’s safety as well as the safety of others,” and that they hope “Jane Doe’s transition to a more appropriate setting can be accomplished in a matter of days or weeks, not months, and that she benefits from the treatment and opportunities available to her.”

Both the prison and mental health systems in the United States have a long history of abuse, mistreatment and neglect of trans people, and especially trans women. In many places trans women have to fight just to be placed in women’s prisons and to get necessary medical attention, and they’re often losing those fights. Sometimes the stories get a lot of media attention, like  the story of CeCe McDonald and this one. With this story, it’s a miracle that Doe was placed in a women’s facility and is getting her much-needed HRT. However, this story is still full of tragedy and bafflingly horrible conditions for this trans teen.

CeCe McDonald via GLAAD

It seems clear that putting a 16 year-old trans girl in an isolated prison facility with adults is not a good solution to either her problems or the problems that the DCF is having with her. If she has a long history of being abused and neglected, putting her in a situation where that will almost definitely happen daily isn’t going to help. She needs treatment, she needs people who care about her and she needs to know that people are going to try to help her, not just lock her away. The pressure put on the DCF by Doe and her lawyer and advocates seems to be working, as they said that they are looking into other treatment options and locations for her. However, we need to start seeing permanent solutions, including new laws and changes to existing law, if we want to avoid problems like this in the future. Doe and her lawyers are calling for that, and hopefully they’ll be able to set a precedent that will save the lives of trans people for years to come.

Defense Secretary Sorta Open to Kinda Revisiting Military’s Ban on Trans Troops

United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview Sunday that the military’s ban on trans people is a complicated issue, but one that “continually should be reviewed.” His statements could lead to big changes for the estimated 15,450 trans service members who were left in the closet when the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal allowed gay and lesbian soldiers to come out in 2011.

“I’m open to those assessments because, again, I go back to the bottom line: every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity, if they fit the qualifications and can do it,” he said.

Despite serving at about double the rates of rest of the population, trans people in the U.S. are still officially banned from the armed forces. If they come or are forced out, they can be and often are immediately discharged. Concerns about trans people serving tend to focus on medical care and troop morale, two topics that have been addressed both anecdotally by soldiers who have come out and via studies like the one issued by the Palm Center in March. That investigation found “no compelling medical reason” for the ban, which was introduced in the 1960s but has not been updated even as medical and psychological associations across the nation recognize trans identities as valid rather than mental illnesses.

The Palm Center panel included a former U.S. Surgeon General and a former chief health and safety director for the Coast Guard, but there was some doubt that military higher-ups would pay the study much attention. Hagel’s statements this week prove that a conversation about the ban is happening at some level, even if it’s not as informed as one would hope — Hagel referenced those same medical concerns that have been shown to be unfounded. The next step is to make sure military and defense officials like Hagel are as informed on these issues as possible before they make decisions that affect thousands of Americans.

 Feature image: AP Photo by Rich Pedroncelli

Get Excited About “So Much More,” Laura Jane Grace’s New Reality Show for AOL

AOL is partnering with a group of about 15 celebrities including Zoe Saldana, Steve Buscemi and Ellen Degeneres to create online reality shows that will debut later this year. While very little is being said about most of the shows (including Ellen’s), one is catching a lot of attention so far. That one is the show starring Against Me!’s transgender frontwoman Laura Jane Grace.

Grace came out back in 2012 and since then has become one of the most recognizable faces in the transgender community. The band has also gained some popularity and many critics think that they are currently making some of the best music of their careers. Grace really is an awesome figure in both the trans and punk scenes, whether she’s making roaring and triumphant punk records, performing on The Late Show with David Letterman with her band, raising a daughter with her wife, or having one of the most badass twitter accounts on the internet.

The band’s 2014 album Transgender Dysphoria Blues debuted at number 23 on the Billboard charts, making it the band’s highest charting album of their career. On the album, Grace sings about the struggles of growing up as a trans woman who is dealing with gender dysphoria, being in the closet and coming out. The songs on this album are aggressive and furious and she holds no punches when singing about these often very personal issues.

I’m really excited to have the chance to see more about how Laura Jane Grace and Against Me! are doing. I was a fan before she came out, and I’m an even bigger fan of her newer stuff. Plus, she’s been a great supporter of all the trans fans who’ve reached out to her at shows and online. She often spends time after shows talking with transgender fans and also sends messages via twitter to people who reach out to her saying that she inspired them or that they need help. It’s going to be really interesting to see some of these interactions up close on the show. Also, the band is always spot-on when they perform live, so I’m hoping to see a lot of great clips of live shows.

Against Me! via Consequence of Sound

In the preview for the show, Grace talks about how she hopes the show will give hope to others thinking about transitioning. “It took until I was 31 to publicly come out as a transgender woman; nothing has been the same since. You build it up in your head beforehand … ‘Should I transition?’ And you’re following through with that and you realize life’s a transition, everyone’s in transition, that’s just the way it is. … That’s what I hope [the show] gives other people, too, that they feel like they’re not alone in the world.”

Grace’s show will be called So Much More and showcases her meetings with trans and gender variant people that she met while the band was on tour supporting their recent album Transgender Dysphoria Blues as well as personal interviews and performances. No release date has been announced yet, but you can watch a preview here:

Yup It’s True, Trans and Queer Students Get Title IX Protections Too

On Tuesday, the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education issued a list of questions and answers on the implementation of its guidelines for Title IX, including explicit protections for transgender, gender nonconforming and queer students:

“Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR accepts such complaints for investigation. Similarly, the actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of the parties does not change a school’s obligations.”

It continued:

“A school should investigate and resolve allegations of sexual violence regarding LGBT students using the same procedures and standards that it uses in all complaints involving sexual violence. The fact that incidents of sexual violence may be accompanied by anti-gay comments or be partly based on a student’s actual or perceived sexual orientation does not relieve a school of its obligation under Title IX to investigate and remedy those instances of sexual violence.”

Title IX is the federal civil rights law prohibiting federally funded education programs from discriminating on the basis of sex. This includes instances of sexual assault and harassment between people who attend and are employed by schools with federal funding — which is to say, almost all schools.

In 2011, the Office of Civil Rights released a “Dear Colleague Letter,” (DCL) which created a set of federal standards for schools responding to sexual violence in order to comply with Title IX. These clarifications responded to various questions that have arisen from the implementation of the DCL guidelines over the past three years. Along with providing inclusion for gender identity and sexual orientation, they noted that undocumented students and students with disabilities are protected from gender-based discrimination under Title IX, and discussed the extent to which campus resources can maintain confidentiality.

Explicitly including trans, gender nonconforming and queer populations in Title IX protections is incredibly important for students who are seeking fair treatment and access within their educational institutions. The Transgender Law Center noted the positive impact of a similar law implemented on the state level in California, which includes mandates that students be able to access gender-segregated spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms that reflect their gender identity, and to be referred to by their correct pronouns and names. Julian Williams, Title IX Officer at Vassar College, said, “[the new clarifications] really raise the bar for schools to say, ‘look, this is what you have to do and now it’s up to you to figure out what you need to do to respond and to really make your campuses safe and welcoming for [transgender] students.'”

via Southern Connecticut State

The clarifications released from the OCR set a standard and hold colleges accountable for responding to complaints brought by trans, gender nonconforming and queer students, and for providing them with the accommodations they are entitled to to feel as safe as possible at school. These accommodations include measures like helping students switch living situations or classes without academic or financial penalty when they file complaints. This can offer essential relief to students living and studying in the close quarters of a college community, and can be especially useful for trans, gender nonconforming and queer students seeking safe living situations, whether or not they have experienced assault.

However, in order for these guidelines to be implemented for queer, trans and gender nonconforming students effectively, schools need to invest in trainings and institutional adjustments so schools can be responsive to the unique needs of gender nonconforming, queer and trans students. Unfortunately, the updates to the DCL contain almost no information about how support for transgender, gender nonconforming and queer students can be implemented into school policies or introduced to administrators who may not be familiar with trans issues. It encourages training, but it is unspecific about what that training would entail. And as Williams further noted, “a lot of people making these decisions in these institutions aren’t really well versed in how to do these things, so that’s where the challenges are going to arise.”

While the inclusion of gender nonconforming, trans and queer populations explicitly in the DCL are useful, gender nonconforming, trans and queer identities still clearly not the priority in the federal government’s response to sexual violence in schools. While Williams expressed the importance of listening to the needs of trans, gender nonconforming and queer students and adapting school responses to individual situations, the recommendations of the Office of Civil Rights more closely advise schools to treat trans students and queer students as they would anyone else: “A school should investigate and resolve allegations of sexual violence regarding LGBT students using the same procedures and standards that it uses in all complaints involving sexual violence.” It does not discuss the possible need to adapt responses to best fit the needs of individual students — something that would ultimately not only benefit transgender, gender nonconforming and queer students, but any student needing a response specific to their own situation.

Title IX provides guidelines for best practices because we students are demanding a response to the rampant sexual violence on college campuses, and while our calls are heard, it is vital that we remain vigilant about the impact of policies responding to sexual violence, especially since our schools depend on funding from the federal and state governments that make the policies. We need to hold our schools accountable to implement these new policies in ways that reflect our needs and our safety.

We have hit a point where support for trans, gender nonconforming and queer students is becoming a national issue, with inclusion polices from California to New York City public schools, but doing so in name only is not enough. Transgender, gender nonconforming and queer students have unique needs that educators and administrators are not always familiar with. More dramatic systemic overhaul needs to happen for inclusion and justice to be a reality.

VIDEO: Janet Mock Turns the Tables On Interviewer, Asks What It’s Like To Be Cis

Janet Mock Recently sat down with Fusion’s Alicia Menendez and totally flipped the script on how an interview with a trans woman normally goes. Instead of answering a barrage of uncomfortable and unnecessary questions, this time Mock gets to ask the questions. And it is beautiful.

If you’re a trans woman (or any other trans person), you probably know exactly how this feels. Especially if you’ve ever been interviewed or spoken in front of a group. Mock asks Menendez questions like, “What’s one thing people need to know about being cis,” “When did your breasts start budding,” and of course, the classic “Do you have a vagina?”

This video intentionally harkens back to Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera’s appearance on Katie Couric’s show and Mock’s own appearance on Piers Morgan’s show, and many, many more instances. In both of these examples, the women were appearing on the shows under the pretenses of talking about their projects, but instead had to deal with questions about their genitals, their childhoods as “boys” and other completely inappropriate and ignorant topics.

My favorite part is when Menendez tells Janet that they wrote many of the questions and even role-played them beforehand to test them out, she still didn’t realize that anything was wrong with them. “I thought we needed to know that as a way of bridging an understanding gap,” she said. Mock tells her that she often hears that as an excuse, that “the audience wants to know,” but that it’s almost always just the asker who wants to satisfy their own morbid curiosity. For anyone who was wondering why it’s innappropriate to ask this kind of questions, Mock answers and absolutely knocks it out of the park.

Many trans women, including Mock, want to be open about their experiences as a trans woman, and Mock is exceedingly so in her book, but still, there’s a line. So, next time you think about asking a trans woman if she has a vagina, please think twice. And then after you’re done thinking, just don’t ask.

The Complex Paradox of Transgender Rights in India

After its regressive ruling last December, when it recriminalized homosexuality, the Indian Supreme Court recognized the rights of transgender persons on 15 April 2014. The ruling, which recognizes the legal rights of the Indian transgender community, is currently making its larger queer community hopeful. The recognition of the “third gender” on one hand, and the recriminalization of homosexuality on the other, makes queer rights in India a complex paradox, where alternative gender is recognized but alternative sexualities are not.

Via newsfirst.lk

The Indian Supreme Court however has agreed to hear a curative petition in open court to revisit the IPC 377– the colonial era British law that forms the basis of the recriminalization of homosexuality. Following the December 2013 ruling, which was challenged by the Indian government but overruled by the court in late January this year, a curative petition is now the only option left to the Indian queer community to win back its rights. As the matter now stands, it is not the “right to marry” or immigration reform for binational queer couples that Indian queers are currently grappling with, but merely the right not to face police harassment with up to 10 years in prison.

With the 15 April ruling, India will join Germany and some other very select group of countries in the world that allow individuals to tick “other” in the gender box. That the ruling covers pre-operative, post-operative and non-operative state means that it touches the lives of a large proportion of alternative gender identities in India. Yet, as this Guardian piece notes, the third gender ruling, albeit positive for transgender rights, is probably not progressive on queer issues overall because of the complicated history of hijras in the Indian society and their place in Hinduism.

A closer look at the Indian Supreme Court ruling demonstrates that it has probably more to do with the economic and social injustices meted out to trans-identified people over centuries – many of them forced out of schools and compelled to beg and/or engage in sex work for a living – than with a legal recognition of their gender per se. Among the steps for redressal that the Court enlisted are the issue of voter’s ID card, passport, and reservation of seats for transgender people in education and employment. It is the issue of affirmative action that generates concern here. India, being a diverse country, already has reservations in education and employment in the public sector for backward castes, scheduled castes and tribes, and in some cases, for individuals with physical disabilities. When transgender persons are offered reservations, to my understanding, it tends to equate them with “another oppressed caste” instead of offering them due recognition of their genders.

The economic and social oppression of transgender people in India is indisputably real, as is their taste of victory in the court ruling. India now has its first transgender candidate at the ongoing parliamentary elections, which is not of little significance. And yet, the reason for the legal recognition of the transgender people in India is not really about their selves or gender, but the violation of their human rights because of their gender. By tying legal recognition to reservations, it neither stimulates debate on queerness in India, nor does it question the practice of “quick fixes” like affirmative action to solve centuries-old systematic repression. Frustrating as it may be, this is probably the least harmful way in which a conservative postcolony can act.

Tourmaline, CeCe McDonald and Dean Spade Sit Down to Talk Prison Abolition

Author’s Note from Mey: Tourmaline and CeCe McDonald introduced me to concept of prison abolition, and I am forever changed for having known them. Just like the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, I wouldn’t be who I am today without the work, help, and love of Black trans women. We must dismantle the police state and prison industrial complex and invest in our communities. Black lives matter and Black trans lives matter and we all have to do the hard work to prove that we mean that.

On April 21, Tourmaline, CeCe McDonald, and Dean Spade will be at Barnard College for an event called “I Use My Love to Guide Me”: Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Impossible Situations. It will take place at 7:30 pm at The Auditorium at the New School and admission is free. This event is a part of the No One is Disposable series, where Tourmaline has conversations for the Barnard Center for Research on Women about trans activism and prison abolition.

McDonald, who was recently incarcerated, sits down with Tourmaline and Spade, two prison abolition activists, for a conversation about the prison-industrial complex and community-based solutions to the violence it brings. They discuss McDonald’s “own experiences surviving trauma and impossible situations, and the importance of collective organizing for people facing systems of violence.”

In order to get the public prepared for the event, Tourmaline, McDonald and Spade have started releasing a series of short videos showing a conversation between the three about McDonald’s experiences with trauma, survival in impossible situations and what people can do to bring about change. At the event they’ll show more excerpts from this conversation and expand on the ideas brought up in it.

Back in 2011, McDonald and her friends were attacked by a group of white assailants who were shouting racist and transmisogynistic slurs at them. McDonald stabbed one of them in self defense and was arrested and sentenced to 41 months in a men’s prison. After serving 19 months, she was released and has since been sharing her experience and survival. During the time leading up to the trial, her time in prison and since, McDonald has been advocating for the rights of trans women, women of color and all people who have to face the impossible situation of being imprisoned. As she says, “Prisons aren’t safe for anyone, and that’s the key issue.”

Apart from being an activist and artist, Tourmaline is the membership director at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and an activist fellow at the BCRW. She also has a blog where she writes about her projects. Spade is the founder of the SRLP and an associate professor at Seattle University School of Law. He is the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of the Law.

In the first video, McDonald touches on what it’s like to be placed in “impossible situations” and how to survive them. She stresses the importance of love in overcoming these impossible situations and healing.

Here, they talk about how although police and prisons are often portrayed as being the safekeepers of society, they don’t in fact keep us safe at all. In order to help our communities, we need to work together and build each other up.

McDonald is an incredibly inspiring and resilient woman. When she gets together with Spade and Tourmaline, the conversation is sure to be thought-provoking, insightful and challenging. The event page has a way for you to ask questions for the three of them to answer and information on how to register to attend. There are also still two more videos that will be posted there in the weeks leading up to the event.

Want to Support the Women of the Trans 100? Here’s How.

The second annual Trans 100 list was announced at a live event on the night of Sunday, March 30th. This list highlights trans people who are helping to make a positive impact in the trans community and the world. Jen Richards, who cofounded the Trans 100 with Antonia D’Orsay, says that the Trans 100’s goal is “to create a counter narrative that offers a growing compendium of people organizations and projects that simultaneously reveals the diversity of trans people and celebrates the work being done in the community.” She also added that the list “is not a ‘Top 100,’ ‘Best Of,’ or even the result of straight voting by the public or volunteers. It is an intentionally curated list of out trans people who are working on trans issues in the United States and having a positive impact.” The event included many great speakers and performers, including Richards, Kye Allums, Laverne Cox and members of Trans*H4CK Chicago. This year’s list was curated by 2014 Trans 100 Co-Director Asher Kollieboi. If you’d like to watch the event, it’s still available to view online (the event starts about ten minutes in).

Janet Mock, the author of Redefining Realness and one of last year’s honorees, helped to introduce the Inaugural Trans 100 Living Legend Award. She gave me some great advice on how to support trans women.

One way we can work in coalition with trans women is by embracing trans women as women, and hopefully the ones you know, as sisters. This work is one that’s harder for many to do due to the misleading and pervasive rhetoric around trans women’s identities, lives and bodies being framed as inauthentic and artifice. Combatting this misinformation and replacing it with truth is a powerful first step towards working in solidarity with trans women. Various other ways include hiring the amazing women on the Trans 100; donating your talent, time and funds to the organizations they lead; and incorporating and engaging these women in discourse and actions addressing criminalization, healthcare, reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, homelessness, employment, domestic violence and much more.

I also spoke with model, Gender Proud founder and recent TED Talker Geena Rocero, who was one of the presenters at this year’s event.

It was my first time being in Chicago, so what better way to be welcomed than being at HOME, with my community of amazing trans sisters and brothers. It was a powerful weekend full of LOVE and support. I believe the Trans movement as a whole is at a turning point. We are here and we are visible. We will continue to elevate each other’s platforms!

The best way for people to support trans women is by simply supporting our work and to continue to tell our lived experiences. We have a lot of powerful stories that needs to be told NOW! And get to know a transwomen, you’ll be surprise what you find out about our feminine divine!

This list is a great way to get familiar with a huge number of trans activists, artists and workers who might not otherwise show up on your radar. It’s also a great way to find out about a huge number of ways you can support trans people. Here are some of the trans women and trans feminine folks who made this year’s list along with information and links that let you know how to support them and their projects. If I don’t have specific information, I provide info on the kind of projects they are involved with. I also talked to several of them to get special insight on how Autostraddle readers can support our trans sisters. All information comes from the 2014 Trans Booklet unless otherwise stated.

via Windy City Media Group

1. Gloria Allen (Inaugural Trans 100 Living Legend Award recipient)

Allen is an elder trans woman of color who started transitioning in the 1970s. She currently shares her experience and wisdom with young people in Chicago where she is known as “Mama Grace.” She runs a “Charm School” where trans youth can learn safety, skills and education in order to live and thrive in the city. Her Charm School is hosted at the Center on Halsted, which you can volunteer at or donate to.

2. A. Dionne Stallworth

Stallworth is one of the founders of Gender PAC, the first transgender political action committee in the country and one of the founders and first cochairs of the Transgender Health Action Coalition. You can support her current work by helping out Project H.O.M.E., a housing and support organization that looks to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.

via hunginthemiddle.com

3. Alana Nicole Sholar

Sholar released a memoir, Hung in the Middle: A Journey of Gender Discovery in 2012. She currently shares her experiences as a trans woman by speaking at colleges and public events. You can buy her book (and her spouse’s book My Husband Looks Better in Lingerie Than I Do… Damn It!) online and you can check her facebook fan page to contact her about speaking engagements.

via The Daily Reveille

4. Alison Gill

A graduate of Rutgers and George Washington Law School, Gill now works at The Trevor Project as the government affairs director. Her job is to work through policy initiatives at the federal, state and local levels to advocate for LGTBQ youth health and safety. She also works with the Trans Legal Advocates of Washington (TransLAW), where she helps with trans advocacy in Washington, DC. You can get involved with The Trevor Project by connecting or volunteering or by donating. You can also support TransLAW by donating.

5. Angelica Ross

Ross is a modern day Renaissance Woman. She’s a writer, speaker, photographer, actress and singer/songwriter. She is also the coordinator of TransWorks, a project that works toward the economic empowerment of transgender and gender-nonconforming people. She also works as a mentor and cofacilitator for The National Trans Leadership Academy. To help out with TransWorks and Ross’ work, you can support the Chicago House or go to her website to find out about upcoming appearances and projects. We talked about the important of space and opportunity for trans women.

The trans community continues to be excluded from so many spaces including places of worship, the workplace, and even their own homes. Being excluded from so many spaces also means being excluded from so many opportunities. What can you do? Create space & opportunity. Think about the spaces you occupy, are they safe and welcoming to trans people? Creating more safe and welcoming spaces creates more opportunities for trans people to fully exist as human beings.

via vivalaluna.com

6. Askari Gonzalez

Gonzalez is a writer, performer, poet and artist.  One way to support her is by buying her book, Trauma Queen, as either an ebook for yourself, or as a paperback to donate to libraries or LGBT centers. If you’d like to book her for speaking engagements, performances or workshops, you can contact her via her website. Also, for next few days, the International Trans Women of Color Gathering, which she is one of the coordinators of, is accepting money for their Indiegogo campaign. She talked to me about a few things people can do to be better trans allies.

Reach out to trans women of color in your community and ask them how to be in solidarity with them, which can look like going to LGBTQ centers and joining trans support groups that are open to non-trans members. Also, any space made safe for women *must* be safe for trans women, and especially trans women of color.

7. Bailey Jay

An AVN award winner, comedienne, B-MovieHorror Hostess and frequent podcaster, Bailey Jay is able to reach a huge audience with her wit and irreverence. She’s hosted several podcasts, but her newest one is called Gender Coaching with Bailey Jay, where she discusses spirituality, sexuality and challenging traditional gender roles. I talked to her about how she thinks people can best support trans women.

At the risk of being broad, I would say I want people not to be afraid to ask Trans women to define themselves. Including sex workers. Don’t limit us or assume what our journey was or how we feel. Ask us. Ask us what terms we prefer. Ask us how our experience was in high school. Let a Trans woman educate you. Maybe I don’t care about certain slurs. Maybe they infuriate me. Maybe I always knew I was Trans. Maybe I just found out. I want people to know there isn’t one Trans story just because the same one is portrayed by cis people over and over again. We are beautiful, multifaceted individuals like all humans are. When your readers meet a Trans woman, allow her story to organically unfold like you would any person. Don’t limit her to being your idea of Trans.

8. Bali White

White is a writer, researcher and PhD student in African Studies at Howard University. She previously earned a BA magna cum laude in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures and an MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University. She is also a community organizer who works to address transgender identity, legal, health and social concerns. She can be found on twitter.

via Docudharma

9. Brynn Tannehill

Tannehill is the director of advocacy for SPART*A, which is an LGBTQ organization that focuses on helping service members. She works with active duty and recently discharged trans service members connect with others, find medical and mental health services and get legal support, as the current US military policy requires that all openly trans service members be discharged from service. She also advocates for a trans inclusive military and writes for the Huffington Post and Bilerico Project.

10. Carmen Carrera

After first finding the public spotlight on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Carrera came out as trans and has now earned herself a successful career as a model and showgirl. She appeared on Katie Couric’s show with Laverne Cox and on that appearance, helped to shine a light on the rude, invasive and unnecessary questions that trans women are so often asked about their genitals. She signed with Elite Modeling Management, promotes transgender equality and HIV prevention and was the subject of an online movement to have her become the first trans Victoria’s Secret model.

via yagg.com

11. CeCe McDonald

CeCe McDonald is an incredibly courageous trans woman of color who was sentenced to 41 months in prison after defending herself from a transphobic and racist attack. She’s since been released after serving nineteen months and has been advocating the rights of trans women of color and for prison reform and abolition. For more information on prison abolition, you can check out the work of Reina Gosset and Dean Spade. You can also support CeCe by supporting the documentary being made about her.

Arcila, second from left, at the 2014 Pennsylvania Youth Action Conference.

12. Charlene Jacqueline Arcila

Arcila is responsible for the largest trans conference in the US, the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. This conference is currently looking for donations, volunteers, workshops, vendors and advertisers. She also is working on a project called H.O.P.E. (Helping Others Pursue Excellence), which will address the needs of trans people being released from correctional facilities and substance abuse programs. Arcila is also an ordained minister at Unity Fellowship of Christ Church Philadelphia and educates liturgical staffs on how to make their chruches more trans-friendly.

via Black Girl Dangerous

13. Chella Isabel Marie Coleman

Working in Los Angeles, Coleman is an activist, artist and organizer who educates the public on issues that impact the trans community, especially low income trans women of color. She works with Gender Justice LA and the Los Angeles Poverty Department to serve high risk and low income communities. If you live in LA, you too can get involved with these groups, or you can donate to each of them.

via Quorum Columbus

14. Cherno Biko

Biko publicly came out as intersex and transgender last year in a one person show called LIFE: Lessons Learned. Since then, Biko has become a board member of TransOhio, the codirector for We Happy Trans and a codirector for Project I Am Enough. Biko talked to me about how people can support trans women.

We need funding resources to do the work we do. But even if folks can’t contribute that way, I love Laverne Cox’s speech at Creating Change. (We need to) love trans women out in public.

via Transgriot

15. Cheryl Courtney-Evans

In 1979, Courtney-Evans came to Atlanta, joined LaGender, a transgender support group, and received her certification as a transgender peer counselor. In 2007, she founded TILTT (Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth), which was the first trans support group in Atlanta to serve both trans men and trans women. TILTT helps transgender people with moral support, advocacy, resources and legal information. She also provides trainings for organizations who want to improve their employment diversity practices and is currently helping to organize a group working to establish transgender focused emergency and transitional housing in Atlanta.

via One Colorado

16. Courtney Gray

Gray founded the GLBT Community Center of Colorado in 2010 and now works as the transgender programs manager. She also worked on the Denver Sheriff Department’s Transgender Inmate Policy, the US Department of Justice Transgender Law Enforcement Training, trans inclusive health insurance and the first state-level Transgender Behavioral Health Survey. Gray also volunteers at One Colorado, on the Kitchen Cabinet and Health Advisory Committee. One Colorado is open to even more volunteersand donations.

via The Raw Story

17. Cristan Williams

William started the first trans homeless shelter, cofounded the first ever federally funded trans homeless program, pioneered Houston area affordable health care and has done countless other goods for the trans community. She is currently the editor at TransAdvocate and TheTERFS.com, a long-term member of the City of Houston HIV Prevention Planning Group and the executive director of the Transgender Foundation of America.

via danielleaskini.tumblr.com

18. Danielle Nika Askini

A social worker and activist, Askini is the policy director of Basic Rights Oregon and was the founding executive director of Gender Justice League, which takes donations, and Trans* Pride Seattle which you can volunteer at or donate to. She currently works in both Seattle and Portland to help bring justice to trans people in the Pacific Northwest.

via whitehouse.gov

19. Dee Dee Ngozi Chamblee

Chamblee brings over 20 years of organizing and advocacy to her work which includes health HIV/AIDS research, substance about prevention, mental health, intimate partner violence and counseling. Her organization LaGender, works through SnapCo (Solutions Not Punishment Coalition), which combats police profiling of trans women of color. She also became the first trans woman to receive the Champion of Change honor from President Obama in 2011.

via Net Roots Nation

20. Dr. Jillian T. Weiss

Weiss is a professor of law and society at Ramapo College where she has authored over fifty academic publications, presentations and scholarly works and about forty article and interviews for organizations like the New York Times and Associated Press. She also is a practicing lawyer who represents trans employees across the nation and serves on the board of directors of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and as the chair of the annual Transgender Law Institute.

via wehoville

21. Drian Juarez

Juarez works as a consultant on trans issues in the workplace and helps to develop programs that help transgender people get back to work. She also served as the program manager for the Transgender Economic Empowerment Project of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

22. Fallon Fox

The first openly trans woman to be a professional MMA fighter, Fallon Fox has had to face more adversity than almost any other athlete in her sport. One obvious way you can support her is to cheer her on whenever she fights. As a part of the bigger picture, you can check out the Trans*Athlete website to see how you can help trans athletes across the country. She told me that just reading the Trans 100 is a great first step to support trans women.

Just knowing about the people in the Trans 100 and their projects and organizations is an important step. There are an incredible number of resources contained there, so sharing the booklet online helps disseminate that information while also changing the public perception of the number and variety of trans people. Many of the organizations listed are nonprofits and will accept donations and volunteers.

via bklooks.com

23. Imogen Binnie

The author of the novel Nevada, Binnie is currently a Lambda Literary Award finalist and continues to write about trans women and trans womanhood. To support her, you can keep buying her book, reading her blog and checking out her column for Maximum Rocknroll magazine.  We talked about the importance of challenging the misinformation about trans women that permeates culture.

I think my best advice is to start at zero and ask yourself: what do you know about trans women, and where did you get your information? It seems like most television and movie writers don’t know any trans women in real life, which means if you can trace what you know about trans women back to old episodes of Law & Order — or even appearances by trans people on talk shows created and edited by cis people for cis people — you might not know as much about trans women as you think you do. Read Janet Mock, Reina Gossett, Casey Plett and Ryka Aoki and ask yourself: is this similar or different from what you’ve heard from Neil Jordan, Thomas Harris, Stephen Colbert and John Irving?

via Huffington Post

24. Jazz

The youngest person on the list, Jazz is a thirteen-year-old trans girl who bravely came out and has since used the platform that she has to advocate for the rights of other trans children. One of the projects she’s involved with is the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation. In supporting them, you’re helping send trans kids to trans camps, supporting trans youth organizations and homeless shelters, trans youth social events and more.

via housingworks.org

25. Kiara St. James

Kiara St. James was one of the major players in highlighting and helping to change the trans-woman-denying policies that many New York City shelters had. She also has used fashion shows to raise money for the transgender community. Currently, St. James works at the Lutheran Medical Center where she teaches cultural competency, helps to link trans women looking for jobs with employment and does consulting at Housing Works, which has a bunch of ways you can donate or volunteer.

Kim Watson, far right, at the Transfeminine Show and Tell event. via Body Image 4 Justice

26. Kim Watson

The cofounder of Community Kinship Life, also known as CKLife, her organization helps trans men and women with life skills, medical needs, counseling and access to resources. The group also sponsors the CKLife scholarship fund which helps to pay for transition related procedures.

via Slate

27. Lana Wachowski

Lana Wachowski, one of half of the influential filmmaking duo The Wachowskis, who are responsible for The Matrix Trilogy, Bound, Speed Racer and several other films. They also have the movie Jupiter Ascending coming out later this year.

28. Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace is the lead singer and guitarist for the punk band Against Me!. She came out in 2012, and since then has written many songs that deal directly with trans struggles and issues. The band recently released Transgender Dysphoria Blues, which is the highest charting release of the band’s career.

via gofundme

29. Lourdes Ashley Hunter

For over twenty years Hunter has led a number of initiatives that have impacted the socio-economic growth and development of trans people of color. She is currently the cofounder and executive board char of The Trans Women of Color Collective of Greater New York, which empowers trans women of color to take charge of their own stories.

via zimbio

30. Maria Louise Roman

Roman has been one of the leaders in social services for the Latina trans community in Los Angeles for over sixteen years. She was the first trans person to be program manager for Transgeneros Unidas, which is an HIV prevention program. Now, she is a member of the West Hollywood Transgender Advisory Board, a Los Angeles County HIV commissioner and a drug and alcohol counselor at the APAIT Health Center.

31. Mattee Jim

Jim is of the Zuni People Clan, Born for the Towering House People Clan. She is originally from Tse’na’oosh’jiin, and currently works as a supervisor for the HIV Prevention Programs at First Nations Community Health Source. She also is a board member for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health out of UCSF and a member of the Statewide HIV Prevention’s Community Planning and Action Group and the National Native Transgender Network.

via mohammedtomaya.com

32. Maya Jafer

Jafer is currently employed as a counselor at the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team where she serves people, especially trans women of color, in Los Angeles who are struggling with trauma, PTSD and substance abuse. She comes from a long line of healers and has two doctorates in holistic medicine with years of experience focused on trans women’s health in India and the US. She is also the subject of the award winning documentary Mohammed to Maya, which is currently looking for sponsors for the final stages of post production.

33. Morgan Robyn Collado

Collado is an Austin-based working class femme trans woman of color. She is of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent and works as a community organizer and family builder. She is also a poet, and you can support her work by buying her first book of poems, Make Love to Rage, which will be published through Biyuti Publishing soon. I talked to her about what people can do to support trans women of color.

I think the best way folks can support trans women of color is to know that we are alive. We are not just a headline. So if you don’t know any of us or our work, ask yourself why. Who has the most visibility in life? We are the lives of twoc celebrated when they are still alive? Examine who benefits from our erasure. And know that queers would have NOTHING without us.

34. Nancy Nangeroni

Since 2008, Nangeroni has served as chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) Steering Committee, helping them pass the Massachusetts Trans Equal Rights Bill. She started her trans activism in 1990, and then in 1995 founded the GLAAD award winning radio program GenderTalk, which she cohosted until 2006. In 1998, she lead a candlelight vigil for murdered trans woman Rita Hester that inspired the International Transgender Day of Remembrance.

via The Bay Area Reporter

35. Nikki Calma

Known in the Bay Area as “Tita Aida,” she has been a part of API LGBTQ HIV/AIDS activism since the 90’s. If you’d like to help that community, you can donate, volunteer or help in other ways. She also helped to conduct the first Transgender Community Health Project Survey in San Francisco back in 1997 and served as program supervisor of TRANS: THRIVE, San Francisco’s first drop-in center for the transgender community.

via Huffington Post

36. Octavia Hamlett

Hamlett has worked on two trans inclusive bills, which advocated for employment, housing and public accommodation equality for trans people in Las Vegas in the four years since she came out as a trans woman. She is also a lobbyist at Progress Leadership of Nevada, where she raises awareness for issues important to the trans community. She recently won the QUEST: Woman of the Year title in a pageant hosted by the APAIT Health Center, which encourages the empowerment of the marginalized trans community.

via Salon

37. Parker Marie Molloy

Ms. Molloy is a talented writer who has written about feminist and trans issues for The Advocate, Huffington Post, Rolling stone and many other publications. She often brings to light stories that are often otherwise ignored by the media. She wrote a blog about her feelings on the subject, saying that not only is it an honor, but also a call to action.

I feel a true obligation to step up my game. I’m refining my approach to several aspects of my life, including how I use social media, the content of my writing, and my overall outlook on life.

I started writing about trans issues because I witnessed the lack of quality trans media coverage. If I’m going to be in it for the long haul, I need to focus. Less a firebrand, and more a unifier. I amin this for the long haul.

via We Happy Trans

38. Precious Davis

Davis is the youth outreach coordinator at the Center on Halsted. There she coordinates youth programming about HIV prevention, trans advocacy and cultural awareness. She is also an artistic associate with the About Face Theatre, a facilitator with the National Conference for Community and Justice STL’s Anytown program and she has a strong passion for challenging young people and helping them to see bigotry and prejudice in their communities.

via uiowa.edu

39. Red Durkin

Durkin is a comedian, writer and activist who was voted the 2013 MOTHA Performer of the Year. She is the managing editor of PrettyQueer.com and has written nine zines and a piece in Topside Press’ The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard. She also organized a 2013 Change.org petition against trans women’s exclusion from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and is the originator of the Trans Ladies Picnic.

40. Sarah McBride

One of Delaware’s favorite daughters, you might remember her from when came out as trans just after completing her term as American University’s Student Body President. Since then, she’s worked with the Center for American Progress, the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware, several political campaigns, the White House and she was extremely influential in helping to pass Delaware’s Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act. She talked to me about the many different ways people can support trans women.

Contact your member of congress and urge them to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Contact – email, call, or write a letter – to the White House urging President Obama to issue an executive order banning discrimination against LGBT people in federal contracts. And urge him not to include any religious exemption beyond the current basic one in federal law.

If you have a story and you feel comfortable telling it, please share it. This isn’t to say everyone needs to come out or that everyone needs to be an activist, but know that your voice and experiences matter. We need to tell the stories – both positive and not-so-positive – of LGBT people.

If you have the resources, donate money to your favorite LGBTQ advocacy organization or advocacy organization that does LGBTQ advocacy within a broader portfolio.

I think Autostraddle readers can continue to stand up and articulate that queer identities, trans lives, and feminism are natural allies and intersect in both lived experiences and in cause. Autostraddle and its readers are important voices in combating anti-trans sentiments among the very small, but vocal group of trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs).

via Transgriot

41. Sharyn Grayson

Grayson recently announced her retirement after over thirty years in the nonprofit sector across several states, including her position as Program Coordinator for Transgender Programs and Services at AIDS Project of the East Bay in Oakland. She has received many awards for her work with trans people and plans to establish a national magazine and publishing house to provide an outlet for aspiring trans journalists.

via East Bay Express

42. Tiffany Woods

Woods is the Program Manager for Transgender Services at Tri-City Health Center in Fremont, California. There she helps the trans and gender neutral community gain access to healthcare, hormones and HIV prevention and care services. In 2002, she cocreated the program TransVision, which helps trans women of color with jobs, health services and mentoring.

43. Tobi Hill-Meyer

Hill-Meyer won an Award for Emerging Filmmaker of the year in 2010 after releasing her first film, Doing it Ourselves: The Trans Woman Porn Project. She helped to found Handbasket Productions and is currently working on Doing it Again and the website Doing it Online, which she hopes will help create a trans positive culture. Aside from being a filmmaker, she also serves as External Coordinator for Washington’s Gender Justice League. She gave me an entire list of ways you can support her.

Organize a screening, workshop, lecture, or talk at your campus. Donate money to the Gender Justice League or help volunteer for Seattle Trans* Pride. Buy/promote my films (use coupon code tpositive for $5 off films). Review my films – get in touch about free review screeners. Join my casting listserve or announcement listserve. Become a member of my soon to be launched website, I really need the regular income in order to keep doing this, or become an affiliate for [that] website- promote it and get a percentage of sales. You can follow me on tumblr/twitter as Tobitastic.

Garza, far left.

44. Tracy Garza

Garza is the cochair of the San Francisco Trans March, the largest trans pride organization of it’s kind in the world, which you can support through donations or by volunteering. She is a founding board member of the Transgender Law Center She also recently joined the staff at El/La Para Translatinas, which advocates for trans Latinas in the Bay Area.

via Learning Trans

45. Valerie Spencer

One of the stars of the documentary Beautiful Daughters, about a 2004 all trans woman production of The Vagina Monologues, Spencer has a long history of working within the trans community. She often focuses on health disparities in the trans community and was honored with the Berman Shaffer Award for her years of community service in progressive action.

46. Vanessa Losey

Losey is a Pima Indian from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is a founding member of the Salt River L.O.V.E. (Lifting Our Voices for Equality) Support Group, which serves Two-Spirit people and provides them with a community.

via The Heroines of My Life

47. Vanessa Victoria

Vanessa Victoria is an executive board member and ambassador of the Trans Women of Color Collective of Greater New York and also works for the Anti-Violence Project in New York City., which can always use more support. Apart from her advocacy, she is also an entertainer and model who started performing when she lived in Puerto Rico.

via Believe Out Loud

48. Vivian Taylor

The Executive Director of Integrity USA, Taylor is a writer, activist and military veteran. Integrity USA is the Episcopal Church’s national LGTBQ organization, which aims to get full inclusion and access to rites for LGBTQ church members. Integrity offers training programs for people who want to help affect change at local, regional and national levels.

49. Z Jae Williams

Known affectionally as “Auntie Z,” she helped to create the Youth Lounge in Chicago, a drop-in for queer youth where they don’t have to worry about ID checks, sign-ins or removal of their possessions. She has the goal to take her work with queer youth nationwide, and with the expansion of Youth Lounge, she is starting on a new project, ARIZE.

via LA I’m Your’s

50. Zackary Drucker

Drucker is a Los Angeles based artist and performer. She uses a wide range of media to express her ideas about identity, bodies and womanhood. Her art challenges concepts of traditional power dynamics, comfort and gender roles. You can check out more of her art online

It may seem a bit overwhelming seeing all of these project and groups and people, and seeing that the best way to help them is often by donating money. However, every little bit helps. Even if you can’t donate to any of these groups, having awareness about how to help is a great first step in case your situation changes or you meet someone who can do something that you can’t. Additionally, a lot of these projects need support that isn’t monetary, and all of the amazing, hardworking and talented women on this list need support in every way that they can get it.

So, You’re A Trans Woman Looking For A Bra

WELCOME TO BRA WEEK! This week and next, the Autostraddle writers and some special guests will be giving you the scoop on over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders and otherwise-inclined chest-covering situations — fashion, history, feelings and so much more.

For trans women, buying bras is often a new experience, even if we’re adults. If you transition later in life, you probably won’t have much experience picking out bras and the sizing might be confusing. Since most of us didn’t have the typical girl childhood, we’re kind of jumping in feet first and blind. When you add in other factors that are unique to trans women, picking out the right bra can be an arduous task.

For example, many of us have larger-than-average band sizes and many of us have smaller-than-average cup sizes. Many of us are looking for padding or space to use inserts and many of us are just starting hormones and know we will be changing cup sizes gradually over time. Unfortunately, many of us also have limited financial resources. If you’re new to hormones, I recommend getting more affordable bras for now and then reassessing your bra needs later in your transition.

Obviously, not all (or maybe not any) of these will be problems for all trans women. We come in all different shapes and sizes and body types! But I’ve got some tips that I hope will be helpful.

You probably won’t have this much fun via Village Voice

I recently went in for my first ever bra-fitting. I’d suggest going to a store that you’re familiar with or at least that you know will be trans-friendly and/or bringing a friend who can soothe your nerves. But if you can do it and you feel comfortable, I think it’s definitely worth your time. I wish I’d done it years ago. As a trans woman who didn’t start transitioning until after college, there were a lot of factors that went in to a number of regrettable bra purchases I’ve made over the years: smaller-than-average cup size, larger-than-average band size and lacking a decade or so of bra-buying experience.

Honestly, getting fitted was a little scary, and I know it’s not something all trans women will feel safe doing — if you think it’d be dangerous and don’t feel like there are any nearby stores where you won’t be misgendered or mistreated, then definitely put your mental health and safety ahead of getting a bra fitting.

I told the bra-fitter that I’m a trans woman who would be experiencing some breast growth in the coming months/years. She was super polite and helpful about everything. I found out that I was wearing the wrong bra size (one band size too small) and the woman working there also gave me some extremely helpful tips. She suggested that one thing that would be helpful would be to look for bras that have side panelling, because it guides the breast tissue forward. And believe me, if you don’t have a ton in the first place, making sure it’s all in the right place is definitely a good thing. Also, she told me that if I’m looking for a bra in my size (44C) and they don’t have it, a 42D will almost always fit the same.

Cushion Comfort Balconette Bra ($38.50-$48.50), Smart & Sexy Plunge Push Up Two Pack ($20), Gilligan & O’Malley Women’s Favorite Lightly Lined Demi Bra ($9.98-$19.99), Smart & Sexy Extremely Sexy Extreme Pushup Bra ($15)

When it comes to actually buying bras, Lane Bryant has a ton of plus size bras for trans ladies who have larger band sizes. One bra I’d suggest is the Cushion Comfort Balconette Bra. Another good choice is the Gilligan & O’Malley Women’s Favorite Lightly Lined Demi Bra, available at Target, which is not only cute, but also has enough padding to make a difference, but not feel like you’re stuffing your bra. A more price friendly option is the Smart & Sexy Plunge Push-Up Bra, which sells at Walmart and on Amazon in two packs for under $20. This is another bra that has some padding, but also feels natural. You might want to also check out the Smart & Sexy Extremely Sexy Extreme Pushup Bra (also available from Walmart or Amazon). So to sum up, these are a couple of different bras that each have some padding, but don’t look fake, are comfortable and won’t break the bank.

I also talked to some of my trans friends, with a variety of body types and bra preferences, to see what kind of bras are their favorites and why.

NuBra ($42-$49.99)

Aly has several options, depending on whether you’re looking for push-up bras or not. “I really love Gilligan & O’Malley and Forever 21 for push up bras. Frederick’s of Hollywood for non-push up bras. I use them with (for now) the NuBra as breast forms. I used to wear an A cup and B cup NuBra, one atop the other, and then the bra. You can hide the edge with makeup and presto- cleavage if you want it.”

Sensational Push-Up Bra ($34), Lily Of France Soiree Extreme Ego Boost Tailored Bra ($21.61-$34)

Askari has advice for trans women who want to make their flat chests more full. “I bought two black super push up bras from Lily of France (brand carried at Kohls) during a buy one get one half off sale (still expensive at $50). They carried roughly my size of 36 A and when both bras are worn together, they give my mostly flat/non-hormone enhanced chest a huuuge push to look like a full A cup. Soft, simple, and seductive.”

Push Up Demi Bra ($36), Cotton Demi Bra ($28), Cushion Comfort Demi Bra ($38.50-$52)

Lexi often has a hard time finding good bras at department stores, but still has a favorite. “So I’m a 44B, which is not an easy size to find in most department stores when shopping for a good bra. On top of that I have a good amount of boobage that needs to be picked up. The Black Demi by Cacique has grown to be comfortable and one of my go-tos for casual to formal events.”

Or if you want to go a more simple route, you could follow Teagan Widmer’s advice when she wrote about the problems she and many other trans women had with Chrysalis, a brand of lingerie designed for trans women and just, “go to your nearest Target. Buy a two pack of push-up bras ($24 for 2), and Target’s bra inserts ($12).”

Finding the right bra not only can help you feel more comfortable and make your outfits look better, but it can also help aleviate some of the dysphoria that you might be experiencing. Although it can seem intimidating at first, finding the perfect bra for you is ultimately a great feeling.

Header by Rory Midhani

Good Riddance, DOMA: Medicare and Social Security Now Recognize Trans Spouses and Same-Sex Marriages

Two important changes came quietly to some of the country’s most widely used social services this week that will allow same-sex partners and married trans people to qualify for coverage along with their spouse. On Tuesday, the Social Security Administration announced it was updating its policies to allow transgender individuals to automatically collect social security benefits through their spouses. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services instituted a similar change Wednesday, when it announced that same-sex couples will now be recognized in any application for Medicare benefits regardless of where they live. Both are an extension of efforts to change federal policy following the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act last June.

The social security change was spurred by the case of Robina Asti, a trans woman who was denied benefits after her longtime partner’s death because she was “legally male” at the time of their marriage. Asti was awarded benefits this Valentine’s Day, two years after her husband’s death. Lambda Legal, which represented Asti throughout her petition, lauded the change as “a 180 degree turn” from the old one, under which trans individuals had to seek spousal benefits on a case-by-case basis that could drag on for years — a particularly heavy burden on the elderly.

The CMS decision will allow same-sex couples in any state to apply for Medicare benefits, regardless of the marriage laws in their state of residence. Previously, Medicare officials in each state had authorization to administer benefits to same-sex couples based on local law. Now, a same-sex couple married in New York but living in Florida is eligible to seek benefits as a couple even though Florida does not recognize their marriage. Effective immediately, couples can apply for Medicare enrollment and request Special Enrollment Periods or reductions in late enrollment penalties for same-sex spouses. Couples in domestic partnerships and civil unions will gain access to some, but not all of these benefits. Some who previously applied but were denied benefits because of DOMA will be eligible to re-apply, as well.

The pattern we see here — protection for LGBT people as the default, rather than the exception — is one that has slowly but surely spread in the wake of the DOMA repeal. In the case of health care it is particularly important because, as we know,  LGB people have historically been disproportionately likely to be uninsured. The community sees higher poverty rates as well, making things like collecting a deceased spouse’s social security benefits even more vital. The lack of consistency in legislation surrounding marriage between different states has also placed disproportionate stress on trans married people, who found that the legal status of their marriage may fluctuate wildly between states, a condition which the repeal of DOMA is slowly correcting. But even if that weren’t the case, these changes would be important, because they affirm that being queer or trans does not automatically exclude you from the rights everyone else in this country is entitled to.

Laverne Cox to Receive GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award, Ellen Page to Present It, Everyone to Swoon

Yup. You read that right. Beacon of magnificence Laverne Cox will be honored at the 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, and beacon of magnificence Ellen Page will present it.

via GLAAD

GLAAD made the announcement this morning, noting that the Stephen F. Kolzak award

is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality. The award is named after a successful casting director, who devoted the last part of his life to raising awareness in the entertainment industry about the discrimination faced by LGBT and HIV-positive people.

GLAAD honors Cox for her portrayal of incarcerated trans woman Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black, and commitment to increasing visibility for trans issues, in particular those that impact trans women of color. As you probably know, Cox has had a huge year advocating for trans women in the media. She called out Katie Couric on her inappropriate and invasive questions, spoke on the revolutionary act of loving trans women at Creating Change, and is producing the upcoming documentary about incarcerated trans women of color, Free Cece! Cox was also just named to the second annual Trans 100 list.

via E! Online

When Page came out on Valentine’s Day and inspired this epic playlist and this epic essay, she named Cox as one of her inspirations. I am really excited to well up with tears when I hear Page present and Cox accept this award. They are both really good at speeches, guys.

via National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change Facebook

Past winners of the Stephen F. Kolzak award include Wanda Sykes, Melissa Etheridge and Ellen DeGeneres.

The GLAAD awards take place in Los Angeles on April 12, when this very website will also be up for the Outstanding Blog of the Year award. A lot of other amazing humans and internet/media entities are up for awards, too, so STAY TUNED.

It’s Trans Day of Visibility! Here’s 15 Ways To Let Trans People Know You See Them and Care

International Trans Day of Visibility is here! This event, which happens each year on March 31st, was started by Rachel Crandall, the leader of Transgender Michigan. It exists so that we can focus on the trans people around us and the good that they do. She wanted a day that celebrated and recognized trans people who are still with us to go alongside Trans Day of Remembrance, which remembers those we lost.

I was thinking… whenever I hear about our community, it seems to be from Remembrance Day which is always so negative because it’s about people who were killed. So one night I couldn’t sleep and I decided why don’t I try to do something about that… The Day of Remembrance is exactly what it is. It remembers people who died. This focuses on the living. People have told me they love Remembrance Day but it really focuses on the negative aspect of it. Isn’t there anything that could focus on the positive aspect of being trans?

There are many ways you can celebrate Trans Day of Visibility. Some places hold live events, such as readings or appearances by trans speakers, others host parties celebrating trans people. Although the event started in Michigan, it has spread all across the USA and into Canada and the UK. On a more individual level, you can celebrate Trans Day of Visibility by paying attention to and caring about trans people and trans issues. Here are some ways that you can do just that.

Pat Cordova-Goff via Aljazeera America

1. Cheer On Trans Athletes

The playing feild is a place where people seem to fight extremely hard to defend their right to discriminate agaisnt trans people. Although the Olympics and NCAA both have trans inclusive policies, other organizations, such as Crossfit and many state high school sports leagues aren’t as progressive. A couple examples of trans athletes you can support are MMA fighter Fallon Fox and Pat Cordova-Goff, a high school softball player, who is playing the right sport thanks to California’s new trans student rights bill.

2. Read Trans People’s Blogs

It’s extremely important to listen to trans people’s voices. We know what rights we want and we know the best ways to help us. One of the easiest ways to do this from your home is to read our blogs. Some blogs that you can check out include Transgriot, run by Monica Roberts, Janet Mock’s blog, and Biyuti Binaohan’s blog.

via Trans Justice Funding Project

3. Support Trans People’s Projects

Trans people are constantly putting ourselves out there and accomplishing great things. However, due to discrimination in the workplace, schools and the government, trans people often could use all the help that we can get. You can support projects like the International Trans Women of Color Gathering, the Free CeCe documentary about CeCe McDonald and produced by Laverne Cox, Biyuti Publishing, which looks to publish works by marginalized people, the documenary Major! about trans pioneer Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Trans-Genre, which supports trans artists and publishes books by trans writers or the Trans Justice Funding Project, where your money will go to a variety of trans projects.

4. Watch Movies and TV Where Trans Characters are Played by Trans Actors

In case you missed the news, cis people playing trans characters not only takes jobs away from trans actors, but it usually relies on stereotypes and when it’s a cis man playing a trans woman, it also reinforces the idea that trans women are just men in dresses. So instead of watching Dallas Buyers’ Club or Hit and Miss, watch things like Orange is the New Black, The Fosters, Gun Hill Road, and other projects featuring trans actors and actresses like Laverne Cox, Harmony Santana, Angelica Ross, Tom Phelan, Jamie Clayton and Candis Cayne. It’s important that we have accurate portrayals of trans people, and the only way to do that is to let trans people play trans characters.

Imogen Binnie via youtube

5. Read Books and Listen to Music by Trans People

Speaking of accurate portrayals of trans people, another way to make sure that happens is to let trans people write their own stories. You can read memoirs like Janet Mock‘s Redefining Realness, Toni Newman‘s I Rise, and Ryka Aoki‘s Seasonal Velocities. Or you can check out fiction like Imogen Binnie‘s Nevada and Choir Boy and Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders. You can also buy and listen to music by trans artists including Angelica Ross, Kokumo, Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!, Namoli Brennet and Rae Spoon.

6. Donate to or Volunteer with Trans Organizations

Not only are there nationwide organizations like the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, The TransLatin@ Coalition and the Transgender Law Center, but many cities also have local organizations that support and provide safe spaces for trans people or trans youth.

via Smith Q&A Facebook Page

7. Make Sure to Involve Trans Women in Women’s Spaces

This one should be a no-brainer. Trans women are women. End of sentence. Since we are women, women-only spaces, whether it’s colleges or music festivals, should clearly be open and welcoming to us.

8. Write a Letter to Your Congressperson Asking Them to Support Non-Discrimination Ordinances

Many states don’t have statewide protections for trans people in the workplace, housing and other areas. However, many cities and states are starting to pass non-discrimination ordinances that protect LGBTQ people from being fired or denied housing just because of who they are. If you want to support and protect trans people, this is a great first step that will only cost you fifteen minutes and the price of a stamp.

Reina Gosset and Janet Mock via Tumblr

9. Support the Trans People in Your Life

Trans people are often kicked out of our houses and lose friends when we come out. It can be very lonely being trans, and knowing that you have a community around you who will invite you into their lives really does help. Trans people are fun, smart, adventurous, nerdy, funny, athletic, talented and creative. If you befriend us, more than likely, we’ll have a great time together. Although we are generally Flawless, trans people are still people. We shouldn’t be treated as if we are mythical beasts who you can only talk about and support online. Get to know trans people in real life — in authentic, non-tokenizing ways — and you’ll probably find that you have a lot in common with us.

10. Stop Saying “LGBT” When You Really Mean “Gay”

Although people are getting better at this, I still see it all the time. If you’re making a list of the “Top 10 LGBT” anything, you better have at least one trans person on there. I’m also looking at you, Netflix, with your “Gay and Lesbian” section. Boys Don’t Cry and Gun Hill Road tell neither gay nor lesbian stories. On the other side of the coin, please stop saying “gay” when you mean “LGBT.” When Janet Mock was named one of the “15 Most Powerful Gay Celebrities” in 2012, I rolled my eyes so hard I went blind for a week. Many people will talk about Gay Rights or Gay History when they are talking about things that affect and involve trans people as well. This erases the hard work they have put in and ignores the fact that without trans women of color, we wouldn’t have the LGBT rights movement as we know it today.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson (far left) via Transgriot

11. Learn About Trans History

Like I was saying, it was trans women of color who threw the first bricks of the “Gay Rights” movement. The first step is to learn about trans (and LGBT rights) pioneers like Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major. It was them and other trans women of color like them who started the Stonewall Riots. Once you know about our modern history, you can move on to learn about gender variant people throughout history. Although the terminology might be new and it’s probably inaccurate to call anyone who crossed gender in ancient times “transgender” as they would have no concept of that as an identity, trans people are far from a modern phenomenon.

12. Stop Stressing “Sex vs. Gender”

This is often a way for cis people to try to bring some simplicity and rationality to that confusing thing that is Trans People. They say that “Gender is in your mind, and Sex is in between your legs” and think that since that makes sense to them, that is a good way to describe trans people. However, if you really listen to what you’re saying, you’re claiming that although you are okay saying that a trans woman’s gender is “woman,” her sex is still “male.” When you say that a trans woman’s sex is male, even though you call her a trans woman, you’re still misgendering her. This is a not a good way to be an ally and it makes it seem like you don’t see trans men as fully being men and trans women as fully being women. Repeatedly pointing out that sex and gender aren’t the same thing just ends up othering trans people and actually pushes them away while you’re acting like you’re including them. Saying that sex=genitals reinforces the idea that pre or non-op trans people aren’t as “real” as trans people who have had surgery. I know you’re trying to help, but this isn’t the best way to do it.

It’s funny because all trans women are liars.

13. Listen When Trans People Tell You That Something is Transphobic or Transmisogynistic

When a trans woman complains about RuPaul’s Drag Race having an entire game named after a transmisogynistic slur, don’t try to defend it by saying that they’re drag queens, so it’s okay. Similarly, when Stephen Colbert uses transmisogynistic slurs on his show, don’t defend him by saying that it’s “just satire.” Trans people (or at least most of us) actually do have senses of humor. We love to laugh. But we don’t like to constantly be the punchline of jokes that make light of violence against us or portray us as liars who want to trick you into sleeping with us. So please, believe us, we know when we’re being insulted.

14. Check Out This List of 52 Things You Can Do for Transgender Equality

If this list isn’t enough for you, here are dozens of more ways you can show your support.

via The Salt Lake Tribune

15. Love and Defend the Trans People in Your Life

Trans people are oh so valuable, and our lives are far too often cut short. Since trans women (and especially trans women of color) face so much violence and murder, and so often those crimes go unpunished, the lives of trans women are precious things. All trans people face discrimination and oppression in so many areas of society, so make sure you tell the trans people in your life that you love them. Make sure you use your actions to show them that you love them. Make sure you tell those around you that you won’t put up with oppression of or violence against trans people. Don’t laugh at transmisogynistic jokes, don’t call trans people who don’t immediately disclose their trans status liars and don’t let your friends use transmisogynist slurs. When it comes down to it, the best way to let trans people know that they are visible and important in your life is to make sure that we are safe, comfortable and able to live the lives that we want.

What The Headlines Missed: Landmark Ruling In Lebanon Advances Trans* Rights Too

Earlier this year, a ruling in Lebanon advanced the cause of LGBT citizens by simultaneously addressing sexuality and gender identity. On January 28th, Judge Naji al-Dahdah terminated a case involving an unnamed, self-described trans woman accused of having a same-sex relationship with a man. The judge’s decision was made public in a report this month.

The defendant argued that she was born with “incomplete genitalia“, but her personal status registry described her as male. She further explained that she transitioned in the 1990s, undergoing bottom surgery. Prosecutors, who clearly conflated gender identity and sexual orientation, sought to use Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code, which criminalizes “unnatural sexual intercourse,” punishing offenders with up to a year in jail.

via iloubnan.info

In spite of prosecutors’ attempts, al-Dahdah rejected this argument, referring to a court case in 2009 that negated the legitimacy of Article 534. In 2009, Judge Mounir Suleiman from the Batroun court district decided that consensual homosexual relations are not unnatural, and thus not prosecutable. Resulting from a legal campaign launched by Helem (Arabic acronym for “Lebanese Protection of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders”) that sought to annul Article 534, Judge Suleiman stated that “man is part of nature and is one of its elements, so it cannot be said that any one of his practices or any one of his behaviors goes against nature, even if it is criminal behavior, because it is nature’s ruling.” In this 2013 case, Judge al-Dahdah found that Article 534 does not clearly articulate what constitutes as “unnatural.”

While wonderful that al-Dahdah’s order legalized homosexuality, the judge’s final ruling made really significant strides for the recognition of trans* rights. Also influenced by Helem’s previous legal campaign, Judge al-Dahdah pronounced in his final ruling that, “Gender identity is not only defined by the legal papers, the evolution of the person and his/her perception of his/her gender should be taken into consideration.” This resolution expands upon definitions of gender in a legal context, demonstrating that an individual’s gender identification is not as simplistic or reductive as what that person is assigned at birth.

Protestors gathered in Beirut, Lebanon at the International Day Against Homophobia in 2010. Their sign reads, “What do you know about normal?”
via muftah.org

It’s important to celebrate this victory for trans* communities as well as LGB people in Lebanon, but this case did not progress without any pitfalls. Even though al-DahDah’s statements about gender identity reimagined trans* rights in the legal sphere, he did refer to the defendant as “male” before switching to “he/she”, which blatantly ignored how the defendant identifies. Furthermore, various news outlets like PolicyMic, Daily Star, and the HuffingtonPost (all referenced throughout this piece), disregarded the crucial role of a trans individual in this case in the headlines, reducing this triumph to a homo-centric victory for LG (and maybe B, if you want to assume these news sources thought that far) people.

Keeping in mind that the legal dispute made a lot of basic errors in treating the defendant’s gender identity, this trial in Lebanon perhaps does suggest a different framework for LBGT rights. As Erin Kilbride discusses in her piece, “Lebanon Just Did a Whole Lot More Than Legalize Being Gay,” in the West, we often approach LGBTQ rights in a hierarchical way. When white cis-gay men and cis-lesbian women gain rights, then cis-gay men and lesbians of color can talk about their issues; once cis-lesbians and gay people gain their rights, we maybe can consider the issues bisexual people face; if we successfully touch upon LGB concerns, then we finally will have time to address difficulties trans* communities deal with. This “trickle-down” idealization of progress doesn’t actually change the game because it depends on prioritizing certain identities over others.

The Lebanon case presents us with legal proceedings where the sole focus and settlement did not reside on decriminalizing homosexuality but also on recognizing the nuances of gender identities. Of course the court case reminds us that our communities have a long way to go in properly respecting identities that don’t fit neatly into heteronormative and even homonormative gender constructs, but I think it also opens up the possibilities for simultaneous LGB and T work, instead of creating hierarchies of equality rights.

Join Janet Mock, Me and Other Trans Women Writers in a Women’s History Month Google+ Hangout!

Janet Mock, trans activist and author of the New York Times bestselling book Redefining Realness has gathered up a great group of trans women writers to celebrate Women’s History Month, talk about our craft, and interact with all of you this Wednesday, March 26! In on this conversation will be Toni Newman, Ryka Aoki, Janet Mock and me! It’s such a great honor for me to be included along with these great trans women authors. This is going to be a great way to learn more about trans women writers and get to know us better. Or, as the event page puts it:

Join #RedefiningRealness author +Janet Mock for a live, intimate conversation with some of her favorite trans women writers in celebration of Women’s History Month. They’ll be on-air discussing their books, writing and craft. Watch live and join the Q&A via Google Hangouts and broadcast on YouTube.

If you’ve been reading Autostraddle for a little while, you’re probably already familiar with Janet Mock. She’s an activist, speaker, author and Piers Morgan slayer. Aoki is a “writer, performer, and educator who… was  honored as a member of the “Trans 100″ list as one of 100 groundbreaking trans advocates from around the country, and named as one of “11 Trans Artists of Color You Should Know in 2013″ by the Huffington Post.” Newman is the author of I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman, which is the first memoir written by an African American trans woman. This is an amazing bunch of talented and inspirational women that will each bring their own unique flawlessness to the table.

The chat is happening this Wednesday, March 26 at 8pm Eastern and you can either join in on the Google Hangout, or you can watch it later on Youtube. This is going to be a great conversation, complete with readings from the writers and discussion and questions submitted by viewers. Plus, you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own home. Make sure you check out the event page, RSVP and submit your questions!

You might remember a previous chat that she hosted back when her book first came out and landed on the bestseller list. If you enjoyed that chat, enjoyed reading Redefining Realness or enjoy the work of any of the other trans women writers involved (including me!), this is the perfect event for you. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to have your questions answered by some truly talented trans women!

Again, this conversation will be happening live at 8pm Eastern on March 26 via Google Hangouts. So get out your laptops and join in. This will be my first time doing something like this, so I’d love to see a bunch of friendly Autostraddle faces joining in the conversation!

5 Things to Know About Prison Abolition and the Prison Industrial Complex

Maybe you’ve heard, and maybe you haven’t, but I’m going to say it again because it’s still true: the criminal justice system in the United States is a fucked up institution that is every kind of -ist you can think of, and feeds off of the most marginalized bodies of our society in order for companies to maximize profits. It’s often called the prison industrial complex (PIC), a term coined by the activist group Critical Resistance.

The problems with the criminal justice system have been in the media more than usual in the past year. This is in part because of Orange is the New Black bringing the lives of fictional incarcerated women to our computer screens. It is also because of the outcry over the blatantly unjust treatment of CeCe McDonald, who served 19 months in prison after defending herself against a racist, sexist and transphobic attack, and the trial of Marissa Alexander, who is clearly being racially targeted by Florida Attorney Angela Corey, and could face sixty years in prison for firing a warning shot that hurt nobody into her ceiling while being threatened by her abusive husband.

The PIC is a massive system, and is defined by Critical Resistance:

“Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps and maintains the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other privileges. There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the PIC, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, and other oppressed communities as criminal, delinquent, or deviant. This power is also maintained by earning huge profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn political gains for “tough on crime” politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unions; and eliminating social and political dissent by oppressed communities that make demands for self-determination and reorganization of power in the US.”

Because of the PIC, the US prison system currently houses 25% of the world’s prison population, when we only make up 5% of the general population.

via Prison Culture

The PIC is especially dangerous for queer and trans* people. Outside prisons, queer and trans* people are vulnerable to being targeted by law enforcement for gender identity and presentation. In prisons, queer and trans* people, and in particular trans women, face high rates of violence, sexual assault and harassment, especially from prison staff.

Learning about the many tentacles of the PIC has been a huge part of my coming into radical politics. There is inspiring and challenging work happening amongst communities of prison abolitionists to educate people about the PIC, to challenge the laws that keep it in place, and to make people’s current lives inside the system more dignified and humane.

Here are five important things I’ve learned about the PIC and prison abolition.

via colorlines

1. Prison is bad for everyone

Since CeCe McDonald’s release from prison in January, she has been an outspoken advocate against the prison system, giving interviews and meeting with abolitionist groups. In an interview with the Socialist Worker she said,

“I JUST feel like no matter what, prisons are bad for everybody. They aren’t just bad for trans people — they’re bad for all people. It wouldn’t be fair for me to make it seem like it was so hard for me, just as a trans woman, because I’ve been around a lot of people who don’t deserve to be in prison at all. Prison is hard for everybody. We’ve all got our personal issues and have to do what we need to do to survive in there and be strong.

“It’s not the right approach for people to sensationalize this story and say: You were a trans woman in a men’s prison. Because at the end of the day, all prisons are bad for all people — trans, cis, gay, straight, Black, white, Asian, brown, purple, polka-dotted, striped, zebra, alien or whatever.”

2. The PIC influences how we think about who is and is not dangerous.

If we are in the mindset of understanding that prisons are bad for all people, we can start to question the idea that there are some people who belong in prisons more than others. Dean Spade and Reina Gossett recently had an online discussion about prison abolition and addressed the question, “What about the dangerous people?”

Spade and Gossett encourage us to think more broadly about who is being held accountable for the violent acts they commit. The media and the state do a really good job of teaching us that the only way to stop a person who is violent is to lock them away. But as Gossett points out, the idea of people being either guilty or innocent is flawed:

“The one thing I go back to is Ruth Gilmore, who’s a professor at CUNY and one of the founders of Critical Resistance talks about, really importantly, no one is innocent. There’s not a violent person and a non-violent person. All of us together are doing things that are hurting other people. …there’s not a dichotomy of innocent people and guilty people. The logic of the state, of the prison system, demands that idea… so that all sorts of structures and all sorts of processes – like policing, prisons, imprisonment, deportation – can be justified. …I think there’s a really long history going back to slavery where the state was really dependent on this logic that “free black people” are incredibly dangerous …that poor people wandering are incredibly dangerous …so I would say that no one is innocent, people are consistently harming each other all the time. There are some people who are held accountable by the state for doing that kind of harm, and there are some people who will never be held accountable by the state… people who are running Blackwater, people who are running the military, or Obama…”

3. The PIC is in our Schools.

The School-to-Prison pipeline, which refers to the increased presence of police officers in schools, who are increasingly deferred to for disciplinary matters, makes schools more dangerous for queer and trans* youth, especially queer and trans* youth of color. As a result, more students are ending up in juvenile detention, and are more likely to be incarcerated as adults.

via the Center for American Progress

Having criminal interventions in schools has also led to cases like Jewlyes Gutierrez’s. Jewlyes was sixteen and assaulted by three cisgender girls who regularly harassed her. Jewlyes was charged with battery for defending herself, while her attackers saw no consequences. Cases like hers show us how trans* and queer youth can are unsafe within school systems, at the hands of their peers and adults.

4. Organizations are working to resist the dehumanization of incarcerated people by building community that transgresses prison walls.

Prison abolitionists are working to make life better for people in prison by building community across the walls.

Organizations like Black and Pink have pen pal programs for queer and trans* people between incarcerated people and people who aren’t incarcerated to build community and systems of support for people in and outside the system that look to abolish it.

via Shutterstock

Black and Pink writes,

“Our goal is liberation. We have a radical view of the fight for justice: We are feminist. We are anti-racist. We want queer liberation. And we are against capitalism. Prisons are part of the system that oppresses and divides us. By building a movement and taking action against this system of violence, we will create the world we dream of. We also celebrate the beauty of what exists now: Our love for each other. The strength of our planet. Our incredible resiliency. All of the power we have to continue existing. While dreaming and struggling for a better world, we commit to living in the present.”

5. People are showing up to protest mass incarceration

From the Free Marissa Now campaign to the Free CeCe Documentary to collectives working on transformative justice responses to violence, organizers across the country are standing up to fight the PIC.

Monica Jones, a black trans woman, is currently on trial for “manifestation of prostitution,” which she was arrested for while protesting the criminalization of sex workers through Project ROSE. She is fighting her case and working with Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) of Phoenix to bring a report to the UN Human Rights Commission on the treatment of sex workers in the US criminal justice system.

via SWOP Phoenix

Jones spoke out on A Kiss for Gabriela in anticipation of her trial, which has been postponed until April 11, about the urgency of the work to fight the criminal justice system:

“…police arrested more than 40 people in Phoenix for prostitution last night. I don’t have all the details yet but these ongoing arrests show that we have so much more to do to end the criminalization and incarceration of people due to the policing of victimless crimes. I won’t give up until all of this is ended.”

Here’s How NYC Public Schools Plan To Better Support Their Trans* Students

New York City Department of Education has implemented new guidelines for schools to support transgender students. With 1.1 million students, NYC is the largest public school system in the country, and has a lot of influence setting standards for how other big school systems and states support trans* students. “They’re taking a step in the right direction,” said Octavia Lewis, educational specialist of transgender programming at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, “hopefully this will set things in place for other school districts, and serve as a model for going towards inclusiveness.”

We are grinning and adorable and respect everyone’s preferred pronouns! via Shutterstock

The guidelines are expansive and flexible to adapt to the needs of the student, school and family. Still, there are limitations on these guidelines, which need resources in order to be implemented well. The Department of Education writes,

“These guidelines are intended to help schools ensure a safe learning environment free of discrimination and harassment, and to promote the educational and social integration of transgender students.  They do not anticipate every situation that may occur and the needs of each student must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.  Every student and school is unique and building administrators should discuss these issues with students and their families and draw on the experiences and expertise of their colleagues as well as external resources where appropriate.”

The guidelines assert that students have the right to be identified in school by the names and pronouns they identify with, without requiring a legal name or gender marker change. They also establish privacy and confidentiality for trans* students and allow students to decide whether or not they want to be open about their trans* identities with their peers. The guidelines affirm students’ rights to participate in sports and physical education and to use the locker rooms and restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. Lewis noted,

“it allows students to be addressed how they identify, because you have some people who are gender non-conforming… some students do not conform to the binary of male and female, it creates a third space for those who do not follow the binary.”

The report meticulously avoided using language that reaffirmed a gender binary, except in contexts where it referred to how schools should work with trans* students within the existing infrastructure of the school. S. Leigh Thompson, Executive Director and Co-founder of the Forum Project, pointed out,

“some of the things that are going to be issues for some time in New York City public schools are things like gender-segregated spaces like bathrooms or locker rooms, which are already rooted in the idea of a gender binary. Men go in one room, woman in another, and there’s not really room for anyone to do but identify with one of those categories, which is challenging for a lot of young people whose gender identity may not necessarily be something that’s rock solid or completely formed.”

No dumb gendered graduation robes at Shutterstock High! via Shutterstock

Needless to say, the fact that these guidelines exist at all is a huge step in the right direction and one many could’ve never dreamed possible even five or ten years ago. There are some places where the guidelines struggle, though — there is room within the guidelines for schools to accommodate students that do not identify explicitly as male or female, but because of the pieces that inevitably involve gendered infrastructure, the guidelines are scattered with language like “the gender identity that is consistently asserted at school,” which could contribute to an expectation that trans* students need to pick a gender, stick with the gender and abide by stereotypes associated with that gender, rather than being able to express their gender however they feel most comfortable. It also may encourage educators to label students who don’t conform to gender norms as trans* even if they don’t identify that way. The guidelines need to be more explicit in asserting that students will have a wide spectrum of gender presentations and that each is valid and worthy of inclusion.

The guidelines also fall short in their assumption that parents and students will be on the same page about the student’s needs in school. Most of the guidelines assume that students’ parents are fully supportive of their children’s gender identity, only mentioning the possibility that students might not want their parents to know about their being trans* in a short paragraph. While schools are required to involve parents in decisions made about their children in school, these guidelines could be reframed to put student experience at the center and to encourage the school to work with the student to determine the best way to involve the parents. If, in the implementation of these guidelines, schools become too quick to reach out to parents, more trans* youth may be at risk of being mistreated, abused or kicked out of their homes, an already widespread issue for queer and trans* youth.

Just hangin’ out, talking about our awesome trans* history class. via Shutterstock

The next step for these guidelines is for schools to be supported in their implementation because many educators, students, administrators and parents are unfamiliar with trans* issues and because so many of the guidelines are on a case-by-case basis. There are a variety of resources for parents, educators and students on the guidelines page, but supporting trans* students requires more than just reading some web pages. Experiences vary across communities, schools and families. Going case by case is great because trans* students’ experiences vary widely, but educators need training to understand the nuances of different students’ experiences and needs with regards to their gender identity. If they don’t, the open-endedness of these regulations could end up resulting in unsafe situations for students. Thompson said,

“this [policy] is going to be something that administrators are going to learn about, but the extent to which they are supported in understanding why it’s important, the extent to which students are aware of the rights that they have so they can ask for them and feel confident and say, ‘actually, this is what I get,’ that’s what’s going to be missing.”

Administrators and educators may also be biased by their own prejudices, which could lead them to follow these regulations in ways that are marginalizing or stigmatizing for students. The City Department of Education did not offer any further clarification on what sort of support or training schools would have in implementing these guidelines.

Overall, these guidelines lay out an incredibly important framework for supporting and affirming trans* students’ rights in New York City, and the fact that they exist means that now they have the potential to shift and grow as they are put into action.