TransNews Weekly - 23 June 2007
1. Trans March kicks off San Francisco Bay Area Pride weekend
For the fourth year in a row, the annual Trans March, which is expected to attract nearly 10,000 people, is to kick off San Francisco Bay Area Pride weekend.
Read more at the Bay Area Reporter website
2. Four lesbians sentenced for self-defense
Four African-American lesbians in New York City were sentenced to time in prison ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years for defending themselves from two sexual predators last August.
Read more at the Workers World website
3. Wal-Mart restricts LGBT support
After only a year of joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the largest retailer in the world has decided to decrease support for LGBT organizations after it received boycott threats from conservative Christian groups.
Read more at the CNN website
4. New Jersey’s protection for discrimination against transgender people goes into effect
An amendment to New Jersey’s ‘Law Against Discrimination’, which includes gender identity or expression protections, went into effect June 17, 2007. The law, which explicitly prohibits transgender discrimination, was passed by both houses of the state legislature and approved by them back in December 2006.
Read more at the Asbury Park Press website
5. Chicago-area library to get a transgender collection
Oak Park Public Library, a library in the suburbs of Chicago has received a grant to add a collection of books, fiction as well as non-fiction, related to transgender issues.
Read more at the Advocate website
6. U.S. Social Forum to include sexual identity
Thousands in Atlanta will participate in the U.S. Social Forum, which will for the first time tackle issues that will include socio-economic justice to LGBT rights. The event, which will last from June 27th to July 1st, will be held after Atlanta Pride ends.
Read more at theSouthern Voice website
7. Transsexual murderer sentenced to two life terms
Leslie Nelson, the transsexual convicted of killing two law
enforcement officers and wounding a third in 1995, was sentenced Friday to
another life sentence. The decision was made after the prosecution took back their plea for capital punishment, an issue that had troubled the judges and juries for more than a decade.
Read more at the Philly.com website
8. Northern Ireland Police Board eager to learn LGBT issues
The LGBT community representatives have been called on by the Northern Ireland Police Board to form a “reference group”, so that the latter can be aware of pressing LGBT issues as a part of their part of their Community Engagement Strategy.
Read more at the 4NI.co.uk website
9. Police deem murder of trans-woman unworthy of investigation
On March 22nd, a 20-yr-old African-American trans-woman named Erica Keel was run over and brutally murdered. Investigators have refused to conduct an investigation, and the driver, Roland Button, is yet to be charged.
Read more at the Young Philly Politics website
10. Pakistani Censor board ends a transvestite’s chat show
A transvestite’s television chat show, the first and only one of its kind in Pakistan, was ordered to be taken off air by the state’s censor board. “Ali Saleem, who dresses up as Begum Nawazish Ali for the show, said its last broadcast will be on 1 July.”
Read more at the BBC website
11. Mothers and transsexuals allowed to compete in Miss Spain pageant
Spain’s Miss Spain beauty pageant officials decided on June 15th to open the competition to mothers and transsexual women, in addition to single, non-trans women.
Read more at the Khaleej Times website
12. UK to consider offering legal protection to gender non-conforming citizens
Legislators in the UK are drawing up the “draft content of a Presentation Bill that would offer legal and social recognition and protection to individuals who do not identify as male or female”. The bill is expected to be completed for consultation around fall this year.
Read more at the Organisation Intersex International website
US Trans-Legislative Update:
Iowa, Oregon, Colorado, and Vermont pass new non-discrimination bills
• Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed two laws in May, 2007, that gear towards legally protecting LGBT rights. The first one, passed on May 25th, extends civil rights protections and non-discrimination provisions to LGBT people in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and educational institutions. The second bill mandates that all school districts in Iowa have anti-bullying policies barring harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
• Oregon passed the Senate Bill 2, which makes it illegal to discriminate people on the basis of gender identity and expression in employment, public accommodation, housing, and public education, among other things. This bill will go into effect starting 1st January 2008.
• Colorado passed the Senate Bill 07-025 on May 25th that prohibits discrimination against LGBT people at the workplace. This is in addition to Colorado’s hate crimes bill that already protects the LGBT community.
• On May 22, Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont passed the bill that amends Vermont’s non-discrimination act to extend protection to people on the basis of ‘gender identity’.
Others states that already protect transgender people through non-discrimination laws or hate crime bills are California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut.
