Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 102
January 25, 2011
Jobs Matter, As Do The People And Vision Behind A Jobs Program
We in trans community have long history with many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, and often the history is less than satisfactory. So, it should be noted when an LGBT organization that has a checkered history with transgender community -- and its members -- engages in some remarkable programming for transgender people.
Good programs often are the result of the right person or two being at the right place at the right time. My friend Allyson Robinson, who is the Associate Directory of Diversity at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), is one such person at the right place at the right time. Another is Sharon Skipper, the CEO of the for-profit firm LGBT Career Assistance, and the CEO of the non-profit firm the Foundation for New Beginnings, is another such person. Allyson and Sharon have teamed together to with the HRC develop the project entitled Back To Work; Empowering Transgender Job Seekers.
The HRC describes the Back To Work project in this way:
Transgender Americans are highly employable job candidates. But they need superior, specialized job-hunting skills to help overcome hiring biases.HRC's Back to Work project empowers transgender Americans who are unemployed or underemployed to find jobs that match their unique expertise and experience, providing them with essential skills to make the most of the job market and get back to work."
The inaugural event of its Back to Work project in Boston on February 26-27, 2011. Seventy-five to eighty-five transgender job-seekers will receive training in a classroom setting, and the first thirty of these who enroll in the class will receive individual assistance from Sharon Skipper. If this program was being offered by a for-profit business, this would be a six figure program; it should therefore be noted the transgender job-seekers who receive the group training and the individual counseling will be receiving that training at no cost to them.
Beyond a press release for this project, and the HRC's webpage for this project, are questions regarding how this project was conceived, why Boston is the first city where this program is rolled out, and what are the plans beyond the Boston roll out?
Well, part of the story here is found within Allyson's own life story; Allyson's father did the same kind of work that Sharon Skipper is doing. That is, Allyson's father was a specialist in training skilled job seekers to find new and better jobs, and find those new and better jobs faster than they would without that specialized job-hunting training. In other words, Allyson has known for quite awhile what the value of superior, specialized job-hunting skills are because she had family history that told her there is great value in that kind of training.
Allyson's history also includes being a West Point Graduate and a Patriot Missile Battery officer. It also includes her being a seminary school graduate, and an ordained American Baptist Minister who's pastored a couple of churches. My friend Allyson's history indicates to me a person tyat has that military leadership quality of knowing how to get things done, while also being someone who is filled with a lot of many of us call "heart."
Allyson is also a transsexual woman who identifies as transgender. When the HRC was looking to add a transgender staffer back in 2008, she was the one the HRC hired.
Employment is a huge issue for transgender community members. If one were going to list the leading five transgender community issues -- those being employment, housing, public accommodation, healthcare, and education -- employment would either be the first or second community priority for most trans people.
[More below the fold.]
Knowing the importance of employment to many transgender community members, Allyson had been -- since early 2009 -- developing some ideas for an HRC a job-hunting program for transgender job seekers. It would not only provide those superior, specialized job-hunting skills that transgender people need to transgender people who need them, but the training could also help transgender people address issues that other job-seekers don't have to deal with. Those include using a name that isn't yet one's legal name, or having people who are one's references that know the job seeker by one name and gender, but that the name and gender doesn't match the name and gender the transgender job seeker is looking for a job with.
Enter Sharon Skipper. In late spring of 2009, Sharon Skipper presented to the ideas that she had for a pilot project to teach unemployed or underemployed transgender people "to find jobs that match their expertise and experience by providing them with essential skills needed to make the most of the job market." Sharon's ideas and Allyson's ideas were parallel ones -- the Back To Work project was conceived from the meshing of their ideas.
The HRC got behind this project, and resources were spent flushing out the details for this project. Funding was found so that the Back To Work project could be rolled out as a pilot project in three to four cities.
When I asked Allyson this past week why Boston was chosen to be the inaugural city, she told me that it was because 1.) the city has a large, visible transgender community, and 2.) the city has a cluster of employers that have a 100% rating on the HRC's Corporate Equality Index.
For those who aren't aware, the HRC releases a report each fall that provides an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. This report is called the Corporate Equality Index. or CEI. To obtain a 100% CEI rating, a U.S. employer must have an antidiscrimination policy that included gender identity and expression.
In 2012, there will be a new requirement added that U.S. employers to have at least one transgender-inclusive health insurance plan that removes transgender exclusions and acknowledges the WPATH Standards of Care for treatment -- and these employers know this requirement is coming. These employers with a 100% CEI rating have a commitment for equality of opportunity for their transgender employees.
With Boston having a significant cluster of employers with a 100% CEI rating, and a significantly sized population of transgender community members, it makes sense why that city was chosen for the roll-out of the Back to Work project.
A secondary benefit of having this training in Boston will be the ability of the HRC, the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY), the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts (AAC) and MassEquality to point out that Massachusetts doesn't have an antidiscrimination law that protects people based on gender identity and expression.
And again, there is money for the Back to Work project to be held two or three more cities beyond Boston.
It seems to me that his is wonderful news. Dozens of transgender job-seekers will be assisted in Boston, and dozens more will be helped in the next three or four cities selected for the Back To Work project.
And too, Allyson is already talking about future plans for a second phase of this project that will be based on the anticipated success of this first phase.
Let's be honest with ourselves. The HRC has angered a lot of trans people over the years, and I'm one of the ones they've angered. The HRC hasn't treated gender identity and expression and the transgender subcommunity of the LGBT community as equal in priority to sexual orientation the lesbian and gay subcommunities of the LGBT community. This, despite the HRC having an equal sign as their logo. And many, if not most, transgender community activists will never forgive the HRC for their past misbehavior towards the transgender subcommunity of the LGBT community. It would seem natural for the HRC to write-off transgender people as a constituency, yet we have the Back to Work project.
This project speaks volumes those at the HRC. The Back to Work project doesn't erase the less than satisfactory history that the HRC has with the transgender community, yet it does speak to the HRC's commitment to the transgender community at this point in time. For the HRC to regain credibility with the transgender community, they'll need to keep doing projects like the Back to Work project.
We, in transgender community, must take note though of Allyson Robinson being at the HRC, doing the work that she does on behalf of transgender community. I don't believe that without Allyson Robinson being at the right place at the right time -- with the personal history and the personal vision that she has -- this project by the HRC wouldn't have come into being.
Transgender community is perhaps just lucky that Allyson was in the right place at the right time to help make this project get off the ground -- and perhaps it's more than just luck. Whatever the reason, my transgender peers and I are extremely blessed to have Allyson as one of our community activists doing the work she does at the place she's doing it.
Allyson Robinson's history, vision, and heart no doubt contribute to her being the extraordinary person she is -- The HRC did better than they probably knew in hiring her.
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January 24, 2011
Senator Madaleno, aren't you forgetting something?
Equality Maryland has assured us that the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act is on their equality agenda. But one wonders why it isn't on Senator Madaleno's agenda because Senator Madaleno isn't some rabid Republican bigot. He's an openly-gay pro-equality Democrat who invokes MLK, Jr. but fails to champion a non-discrimination bill that MLK, Jr. surely would have dubbed a no-brainer.
This week, we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday and his place in our nation's history as a visionary leader for equality. As we remember Dr. King, we have a responsibility to continue building on his legacy by promoting fairness and equal opportunity for all. I am proud honor Dr. King's legacy through two civil rights initiatives I am working to pass this year in the Maryland General Assembly.Now, I personally support both the marriage equality bill and the state DREAM Act. What I do not support are gay legislators who make the rest of us gays look bad by failing to also stand behind the other LGBT bill, the gender non-discrimination bill. Let us hope that the brevity of Sen. Madaleno's Equality Agenda indicates nothing more than some other (as yet unnamed) senator being the Senate champion for the gender bill, and not that Sen. Madaleno views it as a bargaining chip for the marriage bill.My Equality Agenda
Tuition Equity
In Montgomery County, we celebrate diversity and value education. I am working with my friend and fellow Senator Victor Ramirez, along with Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez and the New Americans Caucus, to pass the Maryland DREAM Act. [snip]
Marriage Equality
While Congress finally found the political courage to end the discriminatory "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, we are continuing the fight to bring full equality for gays and lesbians in Maryland. I'm happy to tell you that the Majority Leaders in both the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates will serve as the lead sponsors for the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. This symbolic action shows that Maryland's leaders are ready to provide same gender couples with the freedom to marry. Additionally, every legislator from Montgomery County, including my District 18 colleagues Delegates Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutierrez, and Jeff Waldstreicher, have signed on as sponsors.
Working with Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian Frosh, Majority Leader Rob Garagiola, and my strong ally Senator Jamie Raskin , I will do everything I can to move this bill through the committee process and find the votes on the Senate floor. However, this effort will not succeed without your active support. Please call or e-mail your friends and family around the state and encourage them to contact their State Senator and Delegates to urge them to vote for Marriage Equality this year. If you live outside District 18, make sure you contact your legislators as well.
Other Business
[snip]
Thanks for taking the time to read this legislative update. I look forward to continue updating you on our progress. As always, please feel free to contact me at (301) 858-3137 or e-mail me Richard.Madaleno@senate.state.md.us. Visit www.richmadaleno.com and friend me on Facebook for the latest updates.
Chris Johnson of the Blade puts Gibbs on run on Q about Obama's 'de-evolution' on marriage equality
Chris Johnson's story is up now.
Q (Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade); I have some questions for you on marriage. Back in 1996, when the President was running to become Illinois state senator, he stated in a questionnaire response to what is now the Windy City Times that he supports same-sex marriage. He wrote, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages." That's not the President's current position. Has he backtracked on an earlier commitment he made to gay and lesbian Americans?
MR. GIBBS: I think there's a whole host of issues that I would direct you to during the campaign on different questionnaires. And I would again reiterate what the President has said recently on that issue.
Q But do you dispute the accuracy of this questionnaire response?
MR. GIBBS: Again, I'm happy to send you the several thousand clips of which went around during the course of 2008 on a whole host of those issues.
Thanks, guys.
Q Hold on, Robert.
Q Robert, one question.
Q Don't leave us.
Q We haven't even finished the third -- you have not finished the third row.
Monday Open Thread...
Just a little blast from the past here from my days living in NYC. When I lived in the Big Apple, there was nothing like seeing the bizarre and often tasteless tabloid daily newspaper headlines. These are now legends.
FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD
(Daily News, 1975)
Notes: New York City had been seeking federal help to get out of its fiscal crisis. "Drop dead!" is a Yiddish-ism and President Gerald Ford never actually said the words, but the headline was powerful enough for New York City readers. Ford was not re-elected.
HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR
(New York Post, 1982)
Note: It's a matter of historical record that the headline was written by then-managing editor VA Musetto (who is today The Post's film editor and Cine File columnist).
MARLA: 'BEST SEX I EVER HAD' (with The Donald; couldn't find this image)
(Post, 1990)
Michele Bachmann's epic dumb*ssery continues: America Was Founded On Diversity
I realize that the GOP is striving to blunt the ugliness of America's past when it comes to slavery, but future GOP Clown Car occupant Michele Bachmann is not exactly the best spokesperson for the cause. From my POV, it's essential that she keep stepping before any mic and letting the batsh*t rip.I mean come on, who is going to buy this?
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had an interesting take this weekend on America's first European settlers, who she said "had different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions."Realizing that the little issue of white founders owning black people had to be mitigated, Bachmann fantasizes that the founders didn't want to keep a good economic arrangement going; after all, they got free labor and sex benefits (see founder Thomas Jefferson raping and knocking up his Sally Hemings, for example). That this posed a problem seems to escape her; suggesting you can't really include the negroes in the "all equal once we got here" celebration. Watch it."How unique in all of the world, that one nation that was the resting point from people groups all across the world," she said. "It didn't matter the color of their skin, it didn't matter their language, it didn't matter their economic status."
"Once you got here, we were all the same. Isn't that remarkable?" she asked.
Speaking at an Iowans For Tax Relief event, Bachmann (R-MN) also noted how slavery was a "scourge" on American history, but added that "we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."
Maryland to introduce marriage equality bill on Tuesday
On another front Equality Maryland is moving forward in this legislative session to advance the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act. If passed this bill would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit.On January 25, 2001, Equality Maryland, along with Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola, House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, Senator Rich Madaleno, Senator Jamie Raskin, Delegate Ben Barnes, Delegate Keiffer Mitchell and community partners who support the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples in Maryland, will hold a press conference at the state capital to announce the introduction of the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act. This bill ends the exclusion of committed same sex couples from civil marriage and protects the religious freedom of churches and synagogues.
EVENT DETAILS:
WHAT: Press conference to launch the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act and talk about why marriage matters to loving, committed gay and lesbian couples in Maryland.
WHEN: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM
WHERE: Joint Hearing Room
Legislative Service Building
90 State Circle
Annapolis, MD21401WHO:
? Majority Leader Rob Garagiola (District 13)
? Sen. Rich Madaleno (District 18)
? Sen. Jamie Raskin (District 20)
? Majority Leader Kumar Barve (District 17)
? Del. Benjamin Barnes (District 21)
? Del. Keiffer Mitchell, Jr. (District 44)
? Morgan Meneses-Sheets, Executive Director, Equality Maryland
? Sean Eldridge, Political Director, Freedom to Marry
? Melissa Goemann, Legislative Director, ACLU Maryland
? Maryland Representative from Catholics for Equality
? Representative from Maryland Black Family Alliance
? Representative from the Maryland NAACP
? Sister Jeannine Gramick, Maryland Coordination for National Coalition of
American Nuns
? Frank DeBernardo, Executive Director, New Ways Ministry
? Rion Dennis, President, Progressive Maryland
C&L: Terrorism directed at 'liberal' and 'government' targets since July 2008: An interactive map
-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.
-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.
-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.
-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.
-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.
-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.
-- September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year--old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden" in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant.
YouTube World View - Your Interview with the President on 1/27 - submit questions now
On Tuesday January 25 at 9 p.m. ET, President Obama will deliver his 2011 State of the Union Address, which will be streamed live on YouTube on http://youtube.com/askobama . This year, you can do more than just watch the speech: you can also submit your questions for the President for an exclusive YouTube Interview that will take place just two days later, on January 27.
"Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America - Part 2"
Monica Helms, the president of the Transgender Veterans Of America, posted a video entitled Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America - Part 2 . The video features some notable transgender and/or transsexual veterans, including Christine Jorgenson, Diane Schroer, Jan Fee, Sir Jesse McNulty, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, and Calpernia Addams.
The text for the video's naration is below the fold.
The prepared text for the video's naration:
Hello. My name is Monica Helms and I'm the President of the Transgender American Veterans Association. This is Part 2 in a series of documentary videos on Transgender and Transgender-Like Veterans. We changed the name for Part 2 to "Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America," because the women and men featured in this segment actually identify or identified as being transgender, crossdresser or transsexual. The one exception was the movie director Ed Wood, who referred to himself as a "transvestite." That was the common term in the 1950s and 1960s.Since the making of Part 1, a major event took place when Congress passed the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and President Obama signed it on December 22, 2010. The repeal will soon allow gay, lesbian and bisexual people to serve openly in the military.
However, the repeal did not address transgender and transsexual people serving in the military. They still cannot serve openly in the military, making them the Last Minority that the Department of Defense can discriminate against.
Various rules and regulations still prevent transgender and transsexual people to join and to admit they are trans to anyone. Telling a fellow service member, a chaplain, a doctor or a commander will get them kicked out.
It is our hope that this new video will show the public and the Department of Defense that transgender and transsexual people have already served this country and are still doing so this very day.
It may make it easier for the DoD to change their mind and allow transgender and transsexual people to serve openly like they do in several of our allied nations around the world.
On top of all of that, Congress does not need to be involved.
After the release of Part 1, we received an E-mail from a trans man, Ox Freeman, pointing out that we missed an important individual from the Civil War, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. After reading about her life, we knew we had to include her in Part 2.
Dr. Walker became the first and only woman in American history to receive the Congressional Medal Honor. Her father believed women should not be required to wear restrictive clothing, so all through Mary's life, she supported clothing reform for women. Many times in her life, she dressed as a man and was even arrested several times for "impersonating a man."
Dr. Walker graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. During the Civil War, she became an unpaid field surgeon for the Union Army front lines, carrying two pistols with her. In 1863, she was awarded a commission as a "Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon." On April 10, 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops and arrested as a spy, then was exchanged with other Union doctors for Confederate doctors.
President Andrew Johnson awarded Dr. Walker the Congressional Medal Honor in 1865, but in 1917, Congress changed the requirements to earn a CMH and asked Dr. Walker to return hers. She never did and kept it until she died in 1919. In 1977, President Carter reinstated Dr. Walker's CMH and in 1982, the US Post Office issued a stamp with her picture on it ... wearing a dress.
In Part 1, we saw women who dressed and acted like men so they could serve in the military. In Part 2, we'll introduce you to both men and women who - for the most part - lived their lives as the opposite of their birth gender AFTER they finished their military service.
The first 20th century person we are featuring was mentioned earlier, Ed Wood. Wood joined then Marines during WWII and in later life, stated he wore a bra and panties into battle under his uniform.
However, Wood's real claim to fame came after the war when he made a career of directing movies. His movies were so bad that in later years, they became cult classics. Those movies earned him the title of "Worst Director of All Times," long after his death in 1978.
This clip out of Wood's movie "Glen or Glenda" will probably seem eerily familiar to many transgender and transsexual veterans. (clip) Wood was speaking from experience.
One of the most famous transsexual veterans was Christine Jorgenson. Jorgenson was drafted into the Army in November 1945 and even though that was after the Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945, the VA considers anyone who entered the military before December 31, 1946 as World War 2 veterans.
Jorgenson made headlines in December 1952 when she arrived in New York after her "sex change operation" in Denmark, now know as "sex reassignment surgery" or "genital reconstruction surgery." She became the first publicly-known transsexual and even knocked the testing of the first hydrogen bomb off the front page. One headlines read, "Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty."
Jorgenson spent time in the entertainment business after she came back from Denmark and became an icon in the trans community. She wrote a book of her experiences called, "Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Biography," and she died in 1989, just shy of her 63rd birthday.
Another World War 2 transgender veteran is Jane Fee. Born in 1927, "GI Jane," as she likes to call herself, first enlisted in the Pennsylvania Reserve Defense Corps in 1943. After moving to Maryland in 1944, she enlisted in the State Guard Brigade.
Fee enlisted into the regular Army in 1946, just under the deadline to be considered a World War 2 veteran. Being one of the last people to become a WW2 veteran, Fee has made a goal to be the last living WW2 veteran.
Jane Fee has been very active in the community throughout her life. She fought for LGBT rights in Minnesota in the 1990s, helping the state to create one of the country's first fully inclusive non-discrimination laws.
She was on the Board of the International Foundation for Gender Education, won the Transgender Law Conference's Pioneer Award in 1994 and the Trinity Award in 1995. She became the first trans person to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2000 and won the Virginia Prince Award in 2001. She is also the oldest member of the Transgender American Veterans Association.
Transgender veterans have served during the Korean War and one of them was Linda Bedore. She joined Navy in 1950 and served on the USS Rodman, (DMS 21) until she was Honorably Discharged in 1954. In just under 4 years, she reached the rank of Pipe fitter 1st Class.
After the Navy, Bedore worked in construction, then owned a dune buggy shop in Arizona for 27 years and retired in 2004 at the age of 73. She raised six children.A Vietnam War transgender veteran, Tasi Zuriack, served in the Air Force from 1964 to 1975 and got out as a Captain.
I came from a long line of military people, including my grandfather, father, uncles, brother, his son and my son. Serving eight years in the Navy, I was trained in Naval Nuclear Power, stationed on two submarines and got out as a Submarine Qualified Machinist Mate 1st Class with an Honorable Discharge. I helped raise two sons.
Shortly after starting my transition, I was thrust into activism in Arizona, then moved to Georgia in 2000. In Georgia, I became active locally and nationally and co-founded the Transgender American Veterans Association in early 2003. I created the Transgender Pride Flag in 1998 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. During all of this, I have worked for the same telecommunications company for 21 years.
One of the most interesting transsexual veterans is Diane Schroer, a highly-decorated Army veteran. Diane spent 25 years in the Army and served in Special Forces as an officer. After 9/11, she was hand picked to operate a secret unit of 120 people, dedicated to stopping terrorist activities. The job was intense and occasionally she had to report to Vice President Dick Chaney on their activities.
What makes Schroer notable in our community was the law suit she and the ACLU filed against the Library of Congress in 2005. The Library of Congress created a position to study terrorism in the world and needed someone to fill that position. The job was tailored made for Schroer's extensive experience, and after several months of interviews, they offered her the job. However, when she told them she would be starting her transition from male to female, they rescinded the offer. The ACLU filed a law suit under Title 7 sex discrimination and won the case in 2008.
In 2008, Schroer also appeared before the House Committee on Education and Labor to speak on LGBT job discrimination base on her experience with the Library of Congress.
Autumn Sandeen spent 20 years in the Navy and retired in 2000 as a Fire Controlman 1st Class. During her 20 years, she served on four ships. In the last few years of her service, she was sexually harassed by men because she appeared to them too effeminate. Her Executive Officer tried to investigate her under Don't Ask, Don't tell, but she successfully fought it and won.
Since retiring, Autumn has become one of the most respected bloggers in the LGBT community, writing for the award-winning blog, Pam's House Blend. In 2010, she decided to take her activism to another level by chaining herself to the White House fence, twice, with other LGB veterans in protest of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, even though its repeal would do nothing for transgender and transsexual people. She was arrested both times. Now that DADT has been repealed, she has become a strong advocate for allowing transgender and transsexual people to serve openly in the military.
Even though we know of many male-to-female transgender and transsexual veterans, for the most part, a lot of them decided not to participate in this video.
One trans man who gave us permission to feature him in this video is Sir Jesse McNulty. McNulty joined the Army in 1985 and was trained as a Military Police Officer. However, his photojournalistic talents were quickly recognized by his command.
McNulty ended up writing and editing for the military community newspaper, The Town Crier and the 18th Engineer Brigade's Sword and Castle. In 1987, he was named 21st Support Command's Journalist of the Year.
Sir Jesse has a Masters Degree in Education and teaches in the DeKalb County school system, in Georgia. He has contributed on many levels in the community. McNulty facilitates a weekly support group called Trans and Friends and is a member of the Feminist Outlawz since 2003. On several occasions, McNulty has participated in the Atlanta Pride Color Guard. He is one of the founding members of the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition and each year speaks and plays taps at the Atlanta Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Calpernia Addams is probably one of the most well-known transsexuals in the world. In the late 1980s, she enlisted in the Navy to escape a strict fundamentalist household. She served four years as a field medical combat specialist, first stationed in the Middle East during the Gulf War, and then later at Adak, Alaska.After Addams was discharged, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to eventually work as an entertainer in the city's largest drag club. In 1999, she fell in love with a young solider stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY, by the name of Barry Winchell. On the 4th of July weekend of that year, Winchell was brutally beaten to death by a fellow solider who was egged on by another solider. Their love story and Winchell's murder was the subject of the 2003 award-winning movie, "Soldier's Girl."
Today, Addams is one of the trans community's most respected spokeswoman for equality. She has won countless awards for her positive image of our community and her work to help others in becoming who they are.
This is the end of Part 2 of "Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America." In Part 3, we will see more stories of Transgender and Transsexual Veterans and some of the issues they face in the VA. Thank you.
African-American community needs more honesty and fewer 'apostles, bishops, and prophets'
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
I sincerely HOPE to step on toes with this post.
I submit to you the REAL problem in the African-American community when it comes to issues of lgbts of color. The following is from a little-noted press conference by some black pastors in Illinois (naturally put together by a predominantly white religious right group - that's always how the story goes) whining that the struggle for lgbt equality isn't the same as the African American struggle for equality:
It's a cute ignorant speech by Ms. Vessel whom I am certain most likely earned her title (s).
But then that's the thing which bothers me.
This woman reminds me of Crystal Dixon. Remember her? She is the former University of Toledo Human Resources Officer who, in 2008, got sacked for writing an anti-gay piece. She became a cause celebre of the religious right in regards to freedom of speech as long as they omit the fact that while she wrote the piece on her own times, she was talking about her employer's policy without the permission of her employer.
The important thing to remember about her for the benefit of this post is that she had claimed to be called by God to preach.
And then there is the case of the 2009 supposed exorcism of a gay teen by a woman who called herself a "prophetess."
Do you get what my point is here?
Just in the few blocks where I live, there are close to six or seven churches. And while I know there isn't anything wrong with this, I can't help wondering if some of those churches are run by people with a real interest on doing God's work or folks more interested in anointing themselves as "Reverend Doctor Bishop Prophetess Apostle whomever" in order to get a spotlight regardless of the fact that they don't know what the heck they are talking about.
I don't care what the old adage says. Ignorance is NOT bliss. And in the hands of people like the folks I mention, it's a deadly weapon used against lgbts of color.
Like so many others, some African-Americans need to be educated on the fact that lgbts of color exist and we are just as normal and beneficial to the community as heterosexual African-Americans.
But our community also has a plethora of individuals who desire titles before their names or wanting their own churches to be filled with people drooling over their every word.
Unfortunately a lot of times, these folks aim their venom at us in order to get that spotlight. Folks such as Bishop Eddie Long who, before the gay sex scandal, not only led marches against the lgbt community but also spoke out publicly against us
And while these enterprising black leaders receive a great deal of prominence (hello Bishop Harry Jackson - another wannabe getting well-known from hurting his own people), lgbts of color, particularly young lgbts of color, are suffering.
We need less "apostles, prophets, reverends, and bishops" and more out and proud lgbts like so:
The question is who should the African-American community stand with - people who are simply standing up for themselves or a sad system of charlatans, liars, and secret humpers out to use God to get meaningless titles before their names.
The choice is yours, my beautiful black brothers and sisters.
Hat tip to Goodasyou and No More Downlow TV
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