Oct

22

New York Ruling Eases Name Changes for Transgender People

Filed Under LGBTQ, courts, gender, human rights, trans | 4 Comments

The New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan has made a ruling that will make it easier for transgender people to petition for a name change. The ruling overturned a previous decision by a lower court:

Should a transgender person seeking judicial permission to change her or his name be required to furnish medical documentation justifying the change?

A panel of justices in State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday that the answer is no. The ruling was a victory for the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

The fund had brought the case on behalf of a transgender man, Olin Yuri Winn-Ritzenberg, who had petitioned the New York City Civil Court seeking to legally change his name from Leah Uri Winn-Ritzenberg.

In February, a Civil Court judge in Manhattan, Manuel J. Mendez, denied the petition, ruling that Mr. Winn-Ritzenberg first had to provide a letter from a physician, psychologist or social worker documenting the “need” for the name change.

Michael D. Silverman, the executive director of the transgender advocacy group, argued that the state’s common law generally allows an adult “to change his or her name at will, for any reason,” and that transgender petitioners like Mr. Winn-Ritzenberg were being held to a higher standard. About 10 other people, all in Manhattan, have approached the fund with similar reports of having their name-changing petitions denied for the same reason Judge Mendez gave.

Legally changing one’s name is one of many major hurdles that trans people face during transition, and the unnecessary difficulty of the process is just yet another way that a cis controlled system polices trans people’s genders and identities. Cis people already regularly feel as though they get to call trans people by the incorrect name, and that’s all about reinforcing undeserved privilege. Further, the issue is about more than just respect and the right of every person to be called what they want to be called — which ought to be enough — but also about basic safety. In a world where transphobia is so regularly expressed through violence and seriously consequential discrimination, one’s official documents matching their identity can sadly be a matter of life and death, or of accessing needed services or not.

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Oct

12

Boss Admits to Firing Woman Because of Her Gender Identity

Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, discrimination, gender, human rights, legislation, misogyny, politics, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, work | 7 Comments

Vandy Beth Glenn was fired in 2007 when she informed her boss her boss that she was a trans woman with plans to begin her transition. With Lambada Legal, she has since launched a federal lawsuit against her former employer, the Georgia General Assembly. (Yes, you did in fact read that correctly — her employer was a government body.) In an interview, she said:

“Mr. Brumby told me that people would think I was immoral. He told me I would make other people uncomfortable, just by being myself. He told me that my transition was unacceptable. And over and over, he told me it was inappropriate.”

Then, Brumby fired Glenn.

“I’m not sure I was really thinking anything in that moment other than utter shock,” Glenn told ABCNews.com. “That he was so matter of fact about it blew my mind.”

Now, Sewell Brumby has actually confessed to firing Glenn on the basis of her gender identity, while still claiming to have done no wrong (warning: transmisogynistic/transphobic language contained in the quoted text):

During the deposition, Brumby describes Glenn, who is referred to in court documents by her pre-transition name of [redacted], as not being very good at her job and not particularly well-liked. Brumby said several times that Glenn’s transition would have been disruptive to his workplace.

“I think it would have been, I suppose, an unusual and notorious event. And I think when unusual and notorious events happen in the workplace it distracts the people in that workplace and takes away from the performance of their job duties,” he said.

Although the legislative cousel office has four one-stall gender-neutral bathrooms, Brumby was concerned about what would happen if Glenn were to use one of the public women’s bathrooms. He also expressed personal concerns about his reactions to Glenn’s transition.

“I think it would have made it very uncomfortable and emotionally upsetting for me to communicate with [Glenn's male name redacted] under those circumstances, and I imagined that some other number of our employees would feel likewise,” he said.

“It makes me think about things I don’t like to think about, particularly at work … I think it’s unsettling to think of someone dressed in women’s clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing.”

Brumby couldn’t explain to Cole Thaler, the Lambda Legal attorney representing Glenn, why it was upsetting.

“It’s not something that I enjoy thinking about, and I think it would have been unsettling to have a constant reminder to think about something I don’t like to think about,” he said.

Brumby called her transition unnatural, but said he didn’t make moral judgments while acknowledging others would. He said that some in the legislature would view Glenn’s transition as “liberal or ultra-liberal” and could lose faith in the office’s required neutrality.

Shorter Brumby: In addition to generally being a transphobic bigot, I also can’t stop thinking about the genitalia of the women who work in my office, and see this as a reason why they should be fired instead of myself.

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Oct

3

Edmonton Teacher Fired Over His Gender Identity

Filed Under International, LGBTQ, bigotry, discrimination, education and schools, gender, human rights, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, work | 8 Comments

A trans man who worked as a substitute teacher in Edmonton, Alberta was fired by a Catholic school upon telling them about his plans to transition:

Jan Buterman is praised in a letter of dismissal for his teaching abilities, but told his gender change from woman to man is not aligned with the teachings of the Catholic church or its values.

The letter says the teacher would confuse students and their parents.

“I am horrified that this would happen to anybody,” said Buterman, 39, who taught social studies, German and French to students in Grades 7 to 12 in the well-to-do bedroom community of St. Albert north of Edmonton.

“I don’t think that someone’s medical condition is really fodder for your employer. It should not be any of their business. I respect people’s beliefs, I do. That doesn’t mean they get to ignore the laws we have around equality.”

Officials with the Greater St. Albert Catholic School Board were not available for comment.

The letter suggests that board officials consulted with Catholic church leaders before telling Buterman that he was being removed from the list of substitute teachers on Oct. 9, 2008. Buterman filed the complaint Thursday before the time limit on filing ran out.

“The reason for removing you from the substitute teacher list follows a conversation we shared in which you indicated that you had been diagnosed with a gender identity medical condition and that you were undergoing physical gender changes from the female gender to the male gender,” wrote Steve Bayus, deputy superintendent of schools.

“In discussions with the Archbishop of the Edmonton Diocese, the teaching of the Catholic church is that persons cannot change their gender. One’s gender is considered what God created it to be.”

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Aug

19

New TSA Requirements Pose Risks to Trans Travelers

Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, discrimination, gender, human rights, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny | 10 Comments

Those of us who have been to the airport in recent years know that it is a much larger hassle than it was in pre-9/11 days. (Remember back when friends and family could come with you and see you off at the gate?) But as is usually the case, it’s a much bigger hassle for some people than others, and the increased frustration and outright harassment tend to fall along lines of oppression. If you breastfeed, you may be harassed about your pre-pumped milk. If you have a disability, you may be harassed about medical devices that are unfamiliar to screeners. If you have a certain national origin or heritage, or dress in accordance with certain religious customs — meaning, if someone could read you as Arab and/or Muslim — you may be harassed on the basis of racial profiling.

And if you’re transgender, you might be harassed on the basis of your government-issued identification, and whether or not it “matches” with your gender identity and presentation. Thus, the very real fear surrounding new regulations being implemented by the TSA:

Airlines this week will begin requiring some people making reservations for domestic flights to submit their dates of birth and genders as part of a screening process aimed at keeping boarding passes out of the hands of suspected terrorists, the Transportation Security Administration said.

The agency said the screening would all play out behind the scenes, meaning there should be no additional delays for passengers at airport terminals. The change will be phased in starting Saturday. Not all airlines are fully participating yet and might not request the data.

The TSA said it would be up to individual airlines or travel agents to decide how to collect the required information at the time a reservation is made. The program, called Secure Flight, is aimed at meeting congressional mandates, including those passed in 2007 to put into practice recommendations from the commission that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks. The government’s goal is to vet all passengers on domestic commercial flights by early next year.

Several others have already written about these new requirements: I strongly recommend checking out Helen, Monica, Jos, and Belledame.

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Jun

18

The Advocate Misgenders Trans Woman

Filed Under LGBTQ, assholes, bigotry, discrimination, gender, media, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny | 11 Comments

It’s pretty well known that the Advocate, while billing itself as an LGBT news publication, doesn’t exactly give trans issues a whole lot of coverage at all.  But taking a look at this latest move, one almost has to wonder whether silence is preferable.

A man and woman named Jason Stenson and Kimah Nelson got married in NY state.  Why is it news?  Because Kimah is also trans.  Which means that outlets like the NY Post are reporting that the two have “duped” the state into certifying a “same-sex” marriage, and that the state is also claiming their marriage is not valid.

So how did the Advocate respond?  By fighting back against the misgendering of Kimah Nelson and demanding better, more respectful reporting?  By admonishing the state for their declaration that Kimah isn’t a woman?  By just ignoring it entirely?  Or, by perpetuating the misgendering themselves?

Sadly, if you guessed the last answer, you’d be correct.

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Jun

3

Another Trans Person Shot in Memphis

Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, gender, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls | 4 Comments

Last Wednesday, Memphis resident Kelvin Denton was shot in the nose and throat.  According to police documents, the alleged shooter Terron Taylor says that he committed the assault because Denton misrepresented hir gender.

Kelvin Denton is currently still in critical condition.  Details are short at the moment, and so how Denton self-identifies with regards to gender is currently unclear; The Memphis Flyer and Helen G report that Denton is a trans woman, while the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition says that the details of Denton’s life are still unknown and declines to speculate on hir gender identity.  (For that reason, I will be using gender neutral pronouns in this post, and update later if/when Denton’s gender identity becomes known.)

No matter how Denton identifies, though, it seems clear that Taylor committed his assault based on transphobic rationale.  The logic used implies that any person living under the broad umbrella term trans is misrepresenting hir gender, which buys into an exceedingly rigid gender binary system and further presents cis gender identities as more “real” and/or legitimate.  Even worse, it says that a person who lives as trans is asking for violence simply by existing.

There is no excuse for this shooting.  None.  But it’s not a stretch to say that many will likely attempt to argue that there is.  Such an argument is the basis of the trans panic defense.

Helen G notes that the shooting of Denton is at least the fifth violent attack on a trans person in Memphis since 2006.  Looking at the dates of the attacks, it’s also the fourth within the past year.  The other known victims — Leeneshia Edwards (December 2008), Duanna Johnson (November 2008), Ebony Whitaker (July 2008), and Tiffany Berry (February 2006) — were all women, showing that, as seems to also be the case in the attack on Denton, the violence is also heavily rooted in trans misogyny.

Monica also notes that the news of the shooting came less than a day after debates in Memphis’ Shelby County over an anti-discrimination resolution that would have protected on the basis of gender identity.  The resolution was passed, but only in a watered down form. And several county commissioners stood up to argue that the resolution was unneeded, and sexual orientation and gender identity should not be protected classes.  This, of course, despite all the violence.  As is no big secret, bigotry holds no bounds.

There are sadly few corners on this globe where transphobia and targeted violence against transgender people are not a problem.  But it also seems pretty damn clear that, for whatever reason, there is some kind of particular problem in Memphis.  Time and time again organizations like the Tennessee Transgender Political Coaltion have stood up and demanded action; and time and time again, the cries have largely been ignored.  As far as I can tell, most if not all of the previous violent crimes listed above remain unsolved.  Political leaders have failed to enact the needed legislation that would protect transgender people in the state.  And most of those outside the transgender community have remained silent.

When will the violence end?  When will we demand that it ends?  When will we as a society decide that the lives of transgender people matter?

My thoughts are with Kelvin Denton.  I hope that sie is able to make a full recovery.  And I hope that somehow people will wake up before another similarly horrific act is committed.

May

20

New York Statewide GENDA Call-In Day

Filed Under LGBTQ, action alert, activism, bigotry, discrimination, gender, legislation, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, work | 3 Comments

CALLING ALL NEW YORK STATE RESIDENTS!

You may have heard a whole lot about the marriage equality bill currently awaiting a vote by the state Senate. What you have likely heard significantly less about is GENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (pdf). GENDA would provide anti-discrimination protections on the basis of gender identity and expression in areas of housing, employment, and much more. The legal right to not be discriminated against is something that transgender New Yorkers currently live without.

Today, Wednesday May 20, is the statewide call-in day to help get GENDA passed! GENDA passed through the Assembly back in April (before the marriage equality bill). But now it’s still awaiting a Senate vote. This legislative session is ending shortly, so it’s absolutely vital that the bill be brought to a vote now.

Details on making your call(s) from the NY State Pride Agenda:

We need you to get on the phone and call the lead Senate sponsor Tom Duane and your Senator to tell them that you want them to bring GENDA to the Senate floor and pass it. We’re in the final stretch and it is vital that they hear from you.

With more than half of the Senators indicating their support for GENDA, we know that we have enough votes to get it passed in the Senate if it comes to the floor for a vote. So now is the time to call Senator Duane and your State Senator!

Talking Points:

Reach Tom Duane at (518) 455-2451 and find your Senator’s Albany phone number here. Call their offices on Wednesday to tell them that the time is now to end discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.

Remember to give them the number of the GENDA bill (S.2406).

Ask your Senator to vote for GENDA, and ask lead Senate Sponsor Tom Duane to bring the bill to the floor for a vote now.

Tell them about the broad support for GENDA statewide, including:

  • 78% of New York voters
  • Unions representing 2.1 million working New Yorkers
  • 27 Fortune 500 companies based in cities like Rochester, Corning, New York City and White Plains.
  • 344 clergy and lay leaders, representing over 20 different denominations

Working together, we can make this happen! Start making those phone calls now!

It sounds like Duane’s phone may be ringing off the hook, but calling your own senator (assuming it’s not Duane) should only take you a moment or two.

If you’re still wondering what to say, something along the lines of “I’m a constituent of Senator X, and calling to ask him/her to vote for GENDA, which is S.2406. GENDA would protect New Yorkers from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and has the support of 78% of New York voters” should be more than sufficient.

So get calling, and tell your like-minded friends and family, because every call is going to count.

cross-posted at Feministe

May

18

On Gender and Sexual Insults

Filed Under assholes, gender, misogyny, patriarchy, sex and sexuality, sexism, slut-shaming | 18 Comments

Yesterday, a piece by India Knight about the breakup of Katie Price and Peter Andre appeared in the Times Online (h/t Gauntlet).  It seems that these two are reality television stars in the UK.  I’ve never heard of them before in my life.  So let’s just get it out of the way that I have absolutely no dog whatsoever in that fight.

The argument in the article revolves around Price’s reported and repeated insults regarding Andre’s penis size and sexual prowess.  And if what is reported here is true, I agree that she certainly is an absolute, major asshole:

Having dissed on record everyone she’s ever gone to bed with, she even used an insult to reel Andre in. The pair met in 2004 on I’m a Celebrity. . . Get Me Out of Here!, the reality show on which C-listers are humiliated in grotesque fashion – bug-eating and so on – for viewers’ pleasure. Andre was a rabbit caught in Price’s headlights. She liked him, too, so she looked in his shorts and told him he had a tiny penis.

They eventually got married, even though she kept on telling him – and a million or so viewers every week – that he still had a tiny penis. I don’t mean once or twice – I mean repeatedly, for years on end. Recently, on The Graham Norton Show, following a complaint from Andre about infrequent sex, Price said he took “too long” (45 minutes, since you ask), and on a recent episode of their reality show she repeatedly trotted out her favourite line about her husband’s “acorn”. He dumped her shortly afterwards, although it is still unclear whether the dumpage will lead to divorce or to a lavishly remunerated reconciliation via the pages of OK! magazine.

My problem isn’t with Knight sympathizing with Andre, in the least.  In fact, it does indeed sound like he deserves some sympathy.

My problem is with the conclusions that Knight draws about men in general and women in general (who are all assumed to be heterosexual), and how they relate to one another in romantic relationships and in the aftermath of breakups.

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Apr

27

In Support of GENDA

Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, discrimination, gender, human rights, legislation, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny | 4 Comments

As I imagine most of you reading this blog know, transgender people face enormous amounts of bigotry and discrimination in the U.S.

But what some of you may not know is that that there is also currently no federal legislation that protects against such discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression.  And in most states, there is no such state legislation, either.

Currently, 13 states and DC have some kind of laws on the books that do protect against discrimination on this basis — though that number drops to 12 states and DC if you’re looking at laws that include protections against employment discrimination.  Several states, in fact, have passed anti-discrimination legislation to protect on the basis of sexual orientation, while leaving protections on the basis of gender identity and expression behind.  And while some local jurisdictions have passed their own laws to protect citizens, in other areas of the country, discrimination is entirely legal.

What kinds of discrimination?  Housing discrimination, for example.  In places without non-discrimination laws prohibiting it, it’s entirely legal for someone to deny housing to a transgender or gender non-conforming person.  Employment, of course, is another.  Again, where protections are not in place, it is legal to fire someone because of their gender identity.  It’s also legal to, on that basis, not hire them at all.  Transgender people are also denied credit, and discriminated against in terms of public accommodations, and kicked out of restaurants, hotels, etc.

Again, this bears repeating: in New York state, for example, it is entirely legal to refuse to hire someone because they are transgender (or otherwise do not meet someone’s gender expectations), to refuse to provide them credit to buy a home, to refuse to rent to them, and to refuse them service at your place of business.  Just because of their gender identity.  And not a single one of these things is at all uncommon.

Statistics on these matters are hard to come by, but what is available suggests the obvious effects.  The number of transgender people who are or have been homeless is outrageously high.  The unemployment rate is huge; so is the rate of people who have been fired based on gender identity and gender expression.

GENDA (pdf) is a piece of New York legislation that would protect New Yorkers on the basis of gender identity and gender expression in matters of housing, employment, credit, and more everyday areas that the privileged among us like myself don’t even usually have to consider.  It is basic justice.  It is common sense.  It would bring the law up to par with state protections already in place on the basis of sexual orientation.  Perhaps surprisingly, it even has overwhelming support on the part of voters.

And yet, it has been languishing without passage for several years.  For several years, the New York legislature has refused to provide basic rights for its citizens.  Too risky.  Not important enough.  Whatever the reason, it’s outrageous, offensive and inexcusable.  And it needs to be corrected right now.

The good news is that we’re getting closer to seeing GENDA become law.  The NY State Assembly voted last week to pass GENDA. (Big shock –  my Republican representative voted no.)  They did the same last year, shortly after Equality and Justice Day.

But last year, of course, the bill died in the Senate. The hope is that now the Senate has a Democratic majority, GENDA will go through.  But sadly, a Democratic majority is not the same as a pro-LGBT majority (and a pro-LGB majority is not necessarily a pro-trans rights majority), any more than it is necessarily a pro-choice majority.  And so, unfortunately, we don’t yet know.

It’s not just a “shame” that GENDA is not yet law in supposedly progressive NY State.  It’s a downright travesty of justice.  And yes, it is also an embarrassment.

No piece of legislation can ever correct every act of bigotry; that much should be obvious.  In practice, it can’t even correct every act of bigotry that it is designed to correct.  But what it can do is create a standard that people are worth protecting; it can create a standard of what counts as basic rights that cannot be denied based on bigotry.  And it can give legal recourse to those people who are still victims of those kinds of bigotry in spite of the law.

That’s why GENDA is the primary reason that I will be present at Equality and Justice Day tomorrow, April 28.  And it’s why any New York resident reading this should contact their senator now to ask them to support GENDA. And then immediately spread the word.

Apr

8

Woman Speaks Out Against Abuses of Trans Prisoners in Idaho

Filed Under LGBTQ, bigotry, courts, discrimination, gender, human rights, rape and sexual assault, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls, women’s health | 3 Comments

Via Questioning Transphobia comes this story about Antonia Lara, a trans woman speaking out against the mistreatment that she and a cell mate, Majid Kolestani, received in jail:

Lara, who lives in Jerome, said jail officials also made disparaging remarks toward her while booking her.

“They were making comments the whole time, bringing people by the window so they could laugh at me like I was some freak show,” Lara told the Times News. “These people are the people who are supposed to serve and protect.”

Twin Falls County Jail Administrator Capt. Douglas Hughes said the transgender inmates were classified as men when they were taken into custody, and so they were not put in cells with female prisoners. The transgender women were placed in a cell by themselves as a precaution, because in the general jail population “they become preyed on,” Hughes said.

“We treat them as they need to be treated, and we offer them the kind of treatment that is needed by law,” he said.

[. . .]

Kolestani has taken female hormones, but while in jail was denied the treatments for several months, Lara said. Medical staff at the jail are aware of Kolestani’s needs, Hughes said.

As Helen said in her original post, any law which allows the withholding of medication is inherently unjust and in breach of human rights.  Indeed, it’s inherently abusive.  And in this case, it’s inherently discriminatory.

And that makes me physically ill.  It should make all of us physically ill, when our judicial system repeatedly attempts to strip women of their gender identities, openly mocks and belittles them, and denies them medical treatment and other very basic amenities like a bra.  It’s absolutely disgusting and should outrage all of us.

And this is even more true once we recognize that the much bigger, overarching problem is that what these two women endured is not an isolated incident or even the worst of the abuses that women in similar situations are subjected to.  Trans women are routinely abused in jail and prison. (As, of course, are women of color; another group that both women fall into.)  They are physically assaulted and sexually abused.  And they are not only regularly falsely identified as male and housed in male prisons; very commonly, they are put in cells with male prisoners who repeatedly rape and otherwise abuse them.  Often in addition to police and prison guards who do the same.

If Lara and Kolestani endured these types of abuses in addition to the ones laid out above, they have not apparently said as much.  And that means that the horrific abuses they endued are actually, terribly enough, on the relatively lower end of the abuse spectrum.  This bears pointing out not because it in any way lessens what was done to Lara and Kolestani, but precisely because it compounds it.

The guilt or innocence of either Lara or Kolestani also makes no difference here.  Even if Kolestani was guilty of murdering her husband (it bears stressing that she also suffered a gunshot wound and maintains her innocence), human rights are human rights.  And everyone deserves basic medical care and protection from violence, both of which she is not currently receiving.

Antonia Lara certainly has my praise and respect for choosing to speak out about these injustices and violations of human rights.  It’s a very brave move on her part.  And I wonder when officials across this country, and the ordinary citizens who have the power to pressure them, will begin to listen and take action.

With that in mind, the Twin Falls County Jail seems to be run by the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office.  Their contact information is here.

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