Tag: transgender

Mansfield Frazier says he is a former convict.  He served his detention in a federal prison, according to him.  He has written an opinion essay about what life will be like for Chelsea Manning in prison, which the Daily Beast has published, adding the following disclaimer:

This article is an opinion piece written by a former convict and based on his perceptions of life in federal prison.  In its original version, it suggested that prison rape is rare.  In fact, according to the advocacy group Just Detention International, 200,000 adults and children are sexually abused in American detention facilities every year.  This trauma can carry serious emotional and physical consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and the risk of exposure to sexually transmitted infections.

I’m going to respond to Mr. Frazier, not form the point of view of a prisoner in a federal facility, but from the point of view I personally have.  I’m a transgender woman who formerly worked at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, the facility that Manning will probably get to call home for the next substantial number of years.

In an essay entitled The Pentagon’s Transgender Problem Mother Jones writers Adam Klasfeld and Brett Brownell consider the situation of military service by transgender people and the treatment of transgender veterans.  They have subtitled the piece, in very small type:

New studies suggest that transgender civilians are twice as likely to enlist, and transgender veterans are 20 times as likely to commit suicide.

Brynn Tannehill has been a guest author at The New Civil Right Movement this past week, writing about transgender people in the military.  She published articles on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tannehill is a former Navy pilot and also writes for the Huffington Post.

On Monday she published the title essay, After DADT: Transgender Life In The United States Military.  

Most people, including many within the LGBT community (including some very prominent LGBT leaders), were or still are unaware that the end of DADT did not end the exclusion of transgender people from military service.  There is no law preventing transgender individuals from serving.  However, being transgender is still grounds for “rejection for military service.”

Heavy Sigh.

Having not yet recovered from the murder of Diamond Williams, Philadelphia's trans community was rocked again on Tuesday night. A 26 year-old transwoman is reported to be in critical but stable condition at Hahnemann University Hospital after being pistol whipped and shot in the back of the head in her apartment in Northern Liberties. She is expected to survive.

The victim was found at the front door to the apartment building, having crawled there from her third floor apartment.  She was able to communicate with police when they arrived after being called by neighbors.  She reported that she was waiting for a family member when she heard a knock on the door.  She opened it to discover a man with a gun who she did not know.

There is video here.  That’s the CBS coverage, which describes the victim as a woman.  Early ABC coverage described the victim as a “man dressed like a woman.”  I saw video yesterday that identified the victim and had some interviews with family members, but it appears today to have been scrubbed from the internet.

Diamond Williams is described as someone who had a big personality and even bigger heart.

She was so full of life. She was funny and we used to laugh. And I remember just acting silly with her and I just miss her because we had a lot of great times.

She was a very loving, caring, and creative person. We were family. We were like sisters and she loved her sisters. No one should ever have to die the way she died.

–Rachel Rose

Williams, 31, was killed last week after having sexual relations with Charles Sargent, 43.  Sargent allegedly dismembered her in his apartment and then dumped her body parts in a field in North Philadelphia.

I don’t care if he knew or he didn’t know.  Nobody deserves to die like that.  That’s someone’s life that (you) just brutally murdered and dismembered and threw her parts in a field.

—Rose

The Christian right just hates the idea of transgender children.  Their specific target this time is a camp for transgender girls.

The camp, known as “You Are You”, is in its third year.  It’s a place where trans kids and their families can gather to network with others in a similar situation.  You can see for yourself just how obscene that can be as documented by photographer Lindsay Morris.  Or, you know, you could choose to see kids being happy.

The camp offers itself as…

…a temporary safe haven where gender-variant boys can freely express their interpretations of femininity alongside their parents and siblings.

But there is a different view from those so-called “activists”.

There is a risk of locking children into a life course, which, if they had been left to develop naturally, they would have outgrown.

–Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council

Back in June I wrote about Kristen Beck, who was came out as transgender after a career as a Navy Seal.  She shares the process in her memoir, Warrior Princess: A US Navy SEAL’s Journey Coming Out Transgender.

Kristen is back in the news after having spoken out about ENDA.  She has the current platform to speak about our issues (i.e. reporters are going to listen to her for awhile when she speaks).

In a country where workers can be fired for expressing their gender identity, people are not free.

–Kristin Beck

Francisco Alvarado at Banana Republic nails it:  The Christian Family Coalition Hates Transgender People Too.  Not surprisingly, the CFC opposes legal protections and the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for gender-variant people.

The Miami-Dade County Commission is considering an amendment to the county’s human rights ordinance that would protect transfolk from discrimination. In response CFC executive director Anthony Vedrugo is rallying his unholy band to show up at the Commission’s July 8 meeting to oppose the measure.  You can see the message Vedrugo fired off to his gang of ruffians followers on the inside.

The most basic of human needs can be simply stated.

The third part of that can be a big problem for transgender people.  The results of a survey were recently published in the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy, authored by Jody Herman who is now with the Williams Institute.  Gendered Restrooms and Minority Stress: The Public Regulation of Gender and Its Impact on Transgender People’s Lives is a pdf.

Herman begins with the following introductory paragraph:

The concept of two separate and opposing genders – men and women – is entrenched in our society and reflected in our built environment.  Public spaces throughout the United States are constructed with gender-segregated facilities, which serve to determine who is and is not allowed to use a particular space.  Gender segregation is commonly found in public restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, homeless shelters, jails, and prisons and is intended to provide safety, order, modesty, and security in these facilities.  However, the concept of gender that underlies the design of these facilities ignores people who do not fit into a binary gender scheme, particularly transgender and gender non-conforming people.  Traditional beliefs about gender are being challenged now more than ever and we must address the inadequacies of our built environment to meet the needs of all people regardless of gender.

Recently I wrote about Audrey Mbugua of Kenya in my Transgender Heroes series.

Audrey has been busy.  Not content to sit on her laurels, Audrey has formed a lobby group, called Transgender Education and Advocacy, to advocate for the rights of transgender Kenyans.  It is said to be “at an advanced stage of registration” with the NGO board.

We currently have over 40 members across the country.  Our mission is to reduce the stigma and tell the transgender victims that we are stronger together.

–Audrey Mbugua

And low and behold, her group has already paid dividends.  Alexander Ngungu Nthungi (legal name) won a case in Kenyan High Court against police, who were declared to have violated her rights and dignity by stripping her naked in public to determine her gender.