http://www.glaad.org/blog/ncte-launches-new-voting-while-trans-psa-series-featuring-laverne-cox-janet-mock-kit-yan-other

NCTE Launches New "Voting While Trans" PSA Series Featuring Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Kit Yan & Other Trans Advocates
Monday, 01 October 2012 - 10:00 am
by Daryl Hannah, Director of Media and Community Partnerships

Today, GLAAD and National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights and liberties of transgender Americans, released a series of public service announcements at http://votingwhiletrans.org/ outlining how transgender Americans can keep their right to vote this election day and feature NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling, writer and advocate Janet Mock, actress Laverne Cox, performance artist Ignacio Rivera, Charles Meins, and poet Kit Yan.

The PSAs are part of NCTE’s "Voting While Trans" public awareness campaign and part of GLAAD's effort to raise visiblity about the challenges thousands of transgender people may face heading to the polls this November. This year thousands of transgender Americans face being denied the right to to vote or having their vote discounted because of new strict photo ID law. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that more than 25,000 transgender people could lose their right to vote as a result of revised photo ID laws.

"New voter ID laws have created costly barriers to voting for trans people. And much worse, the debates about voter ID laws alone have made the idea of voting so toxic that many of us aren’t even going to try to vote on election day," said NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling. "Voter ID laws are silly. State legislatures have enacted them attempting to solve a fake problem. And as a result, transgender people - like students, veterans, low-income people of color, and older Americans - risk being denied a ballot this year," Keisling added.

Getting accurate identification has been an old challenge for transgender people. Many states have overcome this problem by modernizing their laws on updating birth certificates and drivers licenses, making voting more accessible to transgender people. However, the passage of dozens of new voter ID laws and strict photo ID requirements will now make it much harder for transgender people to vote. GLAAD has been working with media to elevate the everyday challenges trans Americans face trying participate fully in their communities simply because of antiquated photo-ID laws. We've also launched the http://glaad.org/vote page to encourage LGBT people and our allies to stand up and be heard this November.

"Every day, countless transgender Americans face challenges trying to secure IDs that reflect their true identity, and as a result, experience hardships in fundamental freedoms including the right to vote," said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "We all deserve to make sure our voice is heard. These new strict-photo ID laws will adversely impact thousands of already disenfranchised Americans, many of whom are transgender people of color, who may also be low income, elderly or have a disability."



NCTE and GLAAD urge transgender people to verify whether their voter registration information matches the name and address on their identification. Additionally, transgender people who are able to update their photo ID are encouraged to do so.

Visit http://votingwhiletrans.org/ to learn more and watch the PSAs, and visit http://glaad.org/vote to find out how you can register to vote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/29/oxford-university-dress-code-transgender-students

Oxford University changes dress code to meet needs of transgender students
Students sitting exams or attending formal occasions will no longer have to wear ceremonial clothing specific to their gender
Press Association
http://guardian.co.uk/ , Sunday 29 July 2012 06.27 EDT


New rules mean that male Oxford University students will be able to sit exams in skirts and stockings and women will have the option of wearing suits and ties. (Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian)

Oxford University has rewritten the laws governing its strict academic dress code following concerns that they were unfair towards transgender students.

Under the new regulations, students taking exams or attending formal occasions will no longer have to wear ceremonial clothing that is specific to their gender.

It will mean men will be able to sit tests in skirts and stockings and women will have the option of wearing suits and bow ties.

The laws, which come into force next week, follow a motion put forward by the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer society (LGBTQ Soc) was passed by the student union.

Jess Pumphrey, LGBTQ Soc's executive officer, said the change would make a number of students' exam experience significantly less stressful.

She told The Oxford Student newspaper: "In future there will be no need for transgender students to cross-dress to avoid being confronted by invigilators or disciplined during their exam."

Under the old laws on academic clothing – known as subfusc – male students were required to wear a dark suit and socks, black shoes, a white bow tie and a plain white shirt and collar under their black gowns.

Female students had to wear a dark skirt or trousers, a white blouse, black stockings and shoes and a black ribbon tied in a bow at the neck.

If a transgender student wanted to wear subfusc of the opposite sex they had to seek special dispensation from university proctors, who had the power to punish those who breached the rules.

Oxford University said: "The regulations have been amended to remove any reference to gender, in response to concerns raised by Oxford University Student Union that the existing regulations did not serve the interests of transgender students."

Simone Webb, president of LGBTQ Soc, said: "This is an extremely positive step, and indeed long overdue."

He told The Oxford Student: "I am of the opinion that it is possible to keep elements of tradition in this way while making them unrestrictive to trans students, genderqueer students, or students who wish to wear a different subfusc to that which they'd be expected to wear."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=152470558

Argentina Gender Rights Law: A New World Standard
by The Associated Press
May 11, 2012, 12:09 am ET

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Activists say Argentina now leads the world in transgender rights after giving people the freedom to change their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures beforehand.

The gender identity law that won congressional approval with a 55-0 Senate vote Wednesday night is the latest in a growing list of bold moves on social issues by the Argentine government, which also legalized gay marriage two years ago. These changes primarily affect minority groups, but they are fundamental, President Cristina Fernandez has said, for a democratic society still shaking off the human rights violations of the 1976-1983 dictatorship and the paternalism of the Roman Catholic Church.

Activists and academics who have tracked gender identity laws and customs worldwide said Thursday that no other country has gone so far to embrace gender self-determination. In the United States and Europe, transgender people must submit to physical and mental health exams and get past a series of other hurdles before getting sex-change treatments.

Argentina's law also is the first to give citizens the right to change their legal gender without first changing their bodies, said Justus Eisfeld, co-director of Global Action for Trans Equality in New York. "The fact that there are no medical requirements at all — no surgery, no hormone treatment and no diagnosis — is a real game changer and completely unique in the world. It is light years ahead of the vast majority of countries, including the US, and significantly ahead of even the most advanced countries," said Eisfeld, who researched the laws of the 47 countries for the Council of Europe's human rights commission.

( Read more... )

http://transgenderequality.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/victory-federal-agency-rules-trans-people-protected-by-sex-discrimination-law/

Victory: Federal Agency Rules Trans People Protected by Sex Discrimination Law

NCTE congratulates our colleagues at the Transgender Law Center, who tonight, announced a significant federal workplace rights victory. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled in a 5-0 decision that an employer who discriminates against a transgender employee or job applicant because of the person’s gender identity is illegal sex discrimination based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Though this ruling follows a growing number of court decisions around the country that have held that transgender people are protected by existing federal anti-discrimination laws, this is the first decision by the EEOC on this issue.

NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling said, “This ruling is a major advancement in transgender rights that will provide a significant tool to fight discrimination. It will also help us advocate for still needed protections like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the federal contractors executive order.”

The EEOC is the federal agency charged with interpreting and enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws, and this is the first time it has ruled that anti-transgender discrimination is sex discrimination. The decision applies to both public and private employers throughout the country including in the 34 states that do not yet have gender identity anti-discrimination laws.

The case was brought by the Transgender Law Center (TLC) on behalf of their client Mia Macy who was a denied a job as a ballistics technician at the Walnut Creek, CA laboratory of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). NCTE congratulates TLC on this important victory and thanks Mia Macy for standing up for herself and the rights of all trans people.

Keisling added, “this is a major victory. As many as 90% of trans people still face tremendous discrimination in employment according to our National Discrimination Survey, and it will help so much that the EEOC agrees with what more and more courts have been saying—discriminating against trans people because of their sex, or their perceived sex, or what an employer thinks about their sex is clearly sex discrimination, illegal and wrong.”

Read the full ruling here.

Sign the petition here.

http://www.glaad.org/blog/petition-chrishaun-cece-mcdonalds-arrest

Petition Chrishaun "CeCe" McDonald's Arrest
Saturday, April 14, 2012 - 4:12pm by Marcus Brock, Media Strategist at GLAAD

Momentum is building as the hearing and trial for Crishaun “CeCe” McDonald approaches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The community is encouraged to attend the hearing scheduled for April 24. CeCe was the victim of a violent transphobic and racist assault during the summer of 2011. Since, she has been incarcerated and the only person in the altercation to face legal action, even though her aggressor lacerated her cheek with a drinking glass during the heated exchange. CeCe face charges of “second degree murder” for an act of self-defense where she was injured and her life threatened. Hennepin County Attorney General, Michael Freeman has the authority to review CeCe’s case and drop the charges on the rationale of self-defense, but has yet to do so.

( Read more... )

On April 24, 2012 supporters are encouraged to attend the hearing and evidentiary motions at the Hennepin County Government Center, 300 6th Street S, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The hearing will begin at 9 am. CeCe’s trial is scheduled to follow on April 30 on the 13th floor of the Hennepin County Government Center.

You can also show your support for CeCe by signing the petition, which was organized by the Free CeCe Support Committee.

Sign the petition today in solidarity for Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald and the LGBT community! You can also call, fax or email the attorney general here.

GLAAD urges the media to tell CeCe McDonald's story and the continued discrimination transgender people - particularly transgender women of color - continue to face when trying to participate fully in their communities.

There is a poll on this site, near the bottom of the article, asking 'Should kids who believe they are born in the wrong bodies be offered a medication to block puberty?' Please go and vote!


http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/20/10450683-more-transgender-kids-seeking-help-getting-treatment

More transgender kids seeking help, getting treatment
By Diane Mapes

When Aidan Key was a little girl, he didn't realize he had gender identity issues. He simply knew something was off.

"I didn't necessarily become aware that I was trapped in the wrong body," says the 49-year-old Bellingham, Wash., native who had gender reassignment surgery at the age of 33. "I became aware that people didn't perceive me as I felt myself to be. It was just odd to me to have to wear a dress the first day of kindergarten. It didn't make sense."


Aidan Key, left, was born a girl named Bonnie.

Today, Key might have received counseling -- and perhaps even puberty blocking drugs -- at one of a handful of U.S. clinics designed to help adolescents with what’s now called gender identity disorder or GID. The psychological diagnosis is used to describe a male or female who feels a strong identification with the opposite sex and experiences considerable distress because of their actual sex (the word "disorder" refers to the distress the person feels, not the fact that they identify with another gender).

According to reports published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics, a small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are now getting support from parents and from doctors who give them treatments that could eventually help them change their sex.

Some estimates say about 1 in 10,000 children may have GID, Dr. Norman Spack, author of one of three reports published Monday and director of one of the nation's first gender identity medical clinics, at Children's Hospital Boston told the Associated Press. And that number does appear to be on the rise, experts say.

The number of people treated at Spack's Gender Management Service clinic, also known as GeMS, which was the focus of a study, increased fourfold between January 1998 and February 2010. The clinic now averages about 19 patients each year, compared with about four per year treated for gender issues at the hospital in the late 1990s.

( Read more... )

http://transgenderequality.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/breaking-new-rule-makes-trans-housing-discrimination-illegal/

BREAKING: New Rule Makes Trans Housing Discrimination Illegal

Today, at the 24th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that they will issue a historic new rule strengthening housing discrimination protections for transgender people. The regulations will be published next week, and go into effect 30 days from then.

In his plenary address, HUD Secretary Donovan said:

“I am proud to announce a new Equal Access to Housing Rule that says clearly and unequivocally that LGBT individuals and couples have the right to live where they choose [...] If you are denying HUD housing to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, actual or perceived, you’re discriminating, you’re breaking the law, and you will be held accountable. That’s what equal access means, and that’s what this rule is going to do.”

The new rule makes several urgently needed changes to current federal housing and housing-related programs including: prohibiting owners and operators of federally-funded or federally-insured housing, as well as lenders offering federally-insured mortgages from discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation;and clarifying the definition of “family” to ensure that LGBT families are not excluded from HUD programs.

According to Harper Jean Tobin, NCTE Policy Counsel, “this is a major and urgently needed advancement in basic protections for transgender people. NCTE is calling on other federal departments to follow HUD’s common-sense approach and use existing legal authority to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in the programs they fund and administer. We applaud Secretary Donovan and the Obama Administration for this much needed relief for transgender people.”

Mara Keisling added “We are very pleased that, just as he said at NCTE’s Awards Ceremony in November, HUD has clearly listened to our concerns with earlier drafts of the regulations and made them even stronger.”

In announcing the draft rules early last year, HUD cited The National Transgender Discrimination Survey conducted by NCTE and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, showing that 19% of transgender and gender non-conforming people had been refused a home or apartment and 11% had been evicted because of their gender identity or expression. The study also showed that 19% of transgender people have been homeless at some point in their lives, and 29% of those had been turned away from homeless shelters and a majority were harassed when they could get in to a shelter.

http://www.rhd.org/News/11-12-08/RHD_to_open_nation_s_first_residential_treatment_program_for_transgender_individuals.aspx

RHD to open nation's first residential treatment program for transgender individuals
Morris House to open in Philadelphia this year
12/8/2011 4:10:00 PM
Contact: Kevin Roberts
RHD Communications
1215 951 0300 (ext. 3714)
or kevinr@rhd.org

Morris House, the first residential treatment program in the country to offer comprehensive services specifically for trans and gender variant individuals, will open in Philadelphia by the end of this year. Resources for Human Development, a national nonprofit with headquarters in Philadelphia, will support Morris House in partnership with the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services.

“After years of losing hope, the Department of Behavioral Health and RHD welcomed us with open arms, delivering on an old promise with a new promise,” said Jaci Adams, a transgender individual who served on the advisory board put together by DBH and RHD to assist with the planning for Morris House. “It felt like that dream would never come to fruition, but we are lighting the flame again and giving back hope to a community. Our dreams are really coming true this time.”

Morris House will be named for Nizah Morris, a transgender woman who was allegedly murdered in Philadelphia in 2002.

( Read more... )

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2819.html

GLSEN and NCTE Announce Release of Model District Policy on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students

Media Contact:
Andy Marra
Public Relations Manager
1646 388 6575
amarra@glsen.org

Vincent Paolo Villano
Communications Manager
1202 903 0112
vvillano@transequality.org


NEW YORK, November 16, 2011 - The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) today jointly announced the launch of their groundbreaking Model District Policy for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students.

The first-ever national policy resource co-authored by GLSEN and NCTE offers solutions for school districts to incorporate into existing policies and procedures that create safer and respectful school environments for all students regardless of their gender identity or gender expression.

( Read more... )

http://www.glad.org/uploads/docs/press.../2011-09-29-adams-victory.pdf

A settlement was announced today in the case of Vanessa Adams, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) inmate at FMC Butner in North Carolina who has gender identity disorder (GID). Ms Adams sued BOP in order to receive appropriate treatment for her GID.

Ms Adams' challenge to BOP’s treatment of transgender prisoners has resulted in BOP ending its so-called “freeze frame” policy in which treatment for any person with GID is kept frozen at the level provided at the time he or she entered the federal prison system. In Ms Adams’ case, this meant that because she had not received treatment for GID before being incarcerated, BOP refused to provide her with medically necessary care even though its own doctors diagnosed her with GID, told her about treatments available for GID, and knew about the seriousness of her medical condition.

“BOP’s freeze frame policy trapped transgender prisoners in despair, leading often to depression, suicide attempts, and in many cases, serious self-harm, as was the case with Vanessa,” said Jennifer L. Levi, Transgender Rights Project Director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).

The change in policy was promulgated via two memoranda, dated May 31, 2011 and June 15, 2010, from BOP’s Medical
Director to all BOP’s chief executive officers. The May 2011 memorandum ends:

In summary, inmates in the custody of the Bureau with a possible diagnosis of GID will receive a current individualized assessment and evaluation. Treatment options will not be precluded solely due to level of services received, or lack of services, prior to incarceration.

The memo also states that “current, accepted standards of care will be used as a reference for developing the treatment plan.”

The memos have been distributed to all individuals in the prison system who have been diagnosed with GID, as well as to the medical staff treating these prisoners.

When the suit was filed on February 24, 2009, Ms Adams was at a federal prison in Florida . There she was being denied medically necessary hormone therapy and prevented from otherwise expressing a female gender identity because she had not received this treatment prior to her incarceration. In a June 7, 2010 ruling, Federal District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro rejected BOP’s argument that Ms Adams’ claim was moot because BOP had finally started Ms Adams on
hormone therapy.

Citing BOP’s consistently callous conduct toward Ms Adams, the fact that BOP could stop her treatment at any time, and that BOP did not disavow its policy, Judge Tauro sent the case to mediation. With today’s settlement, the parties jointly agreed to end the case.

Cassandra Capobianco of Florida Institutional Legal Services said, “It is critical not only for Vanessa’s health and safety but for the good of other prisoners that BOP’s policy has been changed.”

“We applaud the BOP for getting rid of an unfair policy that has denied medically necessary care to many people. We hope
that other state and county prison systems will follow BOP’s lead and eliminate discriminatory policies that are based on bias rather than medical need,” said Jody Marksamer, a staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

In addition to GLAD, Ms Adams was represented by Florida Institutional Legal Services (FILS), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Bingham McCutchen LLP, and Allyson Kurker.


Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders is New England’s leading legal organisation dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression. http://glad.org/

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organisation in the US committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and Transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. http://nclrights.org/

Florida Institutional Legal Services is a non-profit organisation that advocates for institutionalised people and other vulnerable people and groups.