We’ve got a lot of problems when it comes to our food system, but one of them was clearly articulated with a simple graphic. How do food subsidies affect what we’re eating? Check this out:.
This graphic was recently published by the Consumerist, with the few words, “This is why you’re fat.”
City of Dallas says its nondiscrimination ordinance doesn’t apply to DART
March 10th, 2010
The director of the city of Dallas’ Fair Housing Office confirmed today that the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance doesn’t apply to Dallas Area Rapid Transit, because DART is considered a political subdivision of the state of Texas. The Fair Housing Office investigates complaints under the ordinance, which includes discrimination based on gender identity but exempts the state and federal governments and their political subdivisions. Since my initial story about the transgender DART employee three weeks ago, several poeple have asked whether she could pursue a complaint under the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance. The answer, according to the Fair Housing Office, is no, and this is one of the limitations of having a city ordinance instead of a state or federal law banning anti-LGBT discrimination. Indeed, there are questions as to whether the ordinance even applies to the city of Dallas itself. Ken Upton, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal in Dallas, has told me that according to his interpretation of the ordinance, the city of Dallas is exempt because it’s a political subdivision of the state. Others disagree, and it’s worth noting that in the case of the only known transgender city employee, Police Officer Deborah Grabowski, the city was fully
supportive.
— John Wright
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New publication: Transgender People and The Gender Recast Directive: Implementation Guidelines
The document provides an overview of the European Union gender equality legislation and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decisions with regard to cases that were brought forward by trans people. Subsequently it looks at the Gender Recast Directive (the first EU Directive to have an express reference to trans people in its text)
and the way that it should be implemented at national level to protect trans people against discrimination in employment and occupation.
Importantly, this document highlights the gaps that still exist and provides clear guidelines as to how they should be addressed. EU Member States and EEA countries have up to 15 February 2011 to inform the European Commission how they have transposed this Directive into national law, and we thus urge you to make the maximum use of this publication in you advocacy at national level, to ensure that all countries adequately cover gender identity.
All those who would like to receive a copy/ copies of this publication are welcome to send their postal address and requested number of copies to Nanna Moe at nanna@ilga-europe.org
Kindly be mindful that the number of copies is limited.
Mississippi has a history of un-American behavior from its act of treason in the 1860s to the KKK, Jim Crow and Trent Lott. One can never be surprised by the vileness of the reptilian KKKonservatives of Mississippi. Hatred, bigotry and the lynching noose are all stock and trade in this place forgotten by decency.
When I was an eight year old child, a young man, barely a teenager, a sweet child named Emmett Till was brutally lynched/murdered in Mississippi. The late 1950s and first half of the 1960s were a kaleidoscopic whirl of images that radicalized me. Those of us who came of age too late for the freedom rides, lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Summer were nonetheless inspired by the actions of the Mississippi Freedom Democrats and Fannie Lou Hamer. That summer Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, three civil rights workers were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi.
Considering the low opinion I have of Mississippi the story I read today of the actions of Itawamba County School District Come as no surprise.
Miss. school prom off after lesbian’s date request
By SHELIA BYRD, Associated Press Writer Shelia Byrd, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 19 mins ago
JACKSON, Miss. – A northern Mississippi school district will not be hosting a high school prom this spring after a lesbian student sought to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.
The Itawamba County school district’s board decided Wednesday to drop the prom because of what it called recent distractions but without specifically mentioning the girl’s request, which was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The student, 18-year-old high school senior Constance McMillen, said the cancellation was retaliation for her efforts to bring her girlfriend, also a student, to the April 2 dance.
“A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it’s really retaliation,” McMillen told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson. Calls to McMillen by The Associated Press late Wednesday went unanswered.
School policy requires that senior prom dates be of the opposite sex. The ACLU of Mississippi had given the district until Wednesday to change that policy, arguing that banning same-sex prom dates violated McMillen’s constitutional rights.
Instead, the school board met and issued a statement announcing it wouldn’t host the event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.”
The statement didn’t mention McMillen or the ACLU. When asked by The Associated Press if McMillen’s demand led to the cancellation, school board attorney Michele Floyd said she could only reference the statement.
“It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors,” district officials said in the statement. “However, at this time, we feel that it is in the best interest of the Itawamba County School District, after taking into consideration the education, safety and well being of our students.”
Kristy Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, said the district was trying to avoid the issue.
“But that doesn’t take away their legal obligations to treat all the students fairly,” Bennett said. “On Constance’s behalf, this is unfair to her. All she’s trying to do is assert her rights.”
Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It’s near Pontotoc County, Miss., where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.
Anna Watson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, was looking forward to the prom, especially since the town’s only hotspot is the bowling alley, she said.
“I am a little bummed out about it. I guess it’s a decision that had to be made. Either way someone was going to get disappointed — either Constance was or we were,” Watson said. “I don’t agree with homosexuality, but I can’t change what another person thinks or does.”
Other students are on McMillen’s side.
McKenzie Chaney, 16, said she wasn’t planning to attend the prom, but “it’s kind of ridiculous that they can’t let her wear the tuxedo and it all be over with.”
A Feb. 5 memo to students laid out the criteria for bringing a date to the prom, and one requirement was that the person must be of the opposite sex.
The ACLU said McMillen approached school officials shortly before the memo went out because she knew same-sex dates had been banned in the past. The ACLU said district officials told McMillen she and her girlfriend wouldn’t be allowed to arrive together, that she would not be allowed to wear a tuxedo, and that she and her girlfriend might be asked to leave if their presence made any other students “uncomfortable.”
McMillen said she feared she would be thrown out of the prom because “we do live in the Bible Belt.”
No one seems concerned that the actions of the school board will set this young woman, Constance McMillen up to become a victim of violence. Perhaps they should take into account how the Christo-fascist churches have been encouraging the murder of LGBT/T people in the name of “god”. Perhaps they should remember their own history.
Remember how the hatred they spewed led to all those murders, led to Phil Ochs writing a song “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” that suggested that Mississippi find itself another country to be part of.
Women Born Transsexual 