Women Born Transsexual

ASTT(e)Q, a project of CACTUS Montreal, offers access to an emergency fund to pay for short-term housing to individuals for whom shelter has been denied, allowing the opportunity to seek more long-term housing solutions. “This stop-gap measure falls incredibly short of addressing the systemic lack of access to housing for low-income trans people. Yet we feel it is a necessary response in the face of such neglect from the shelter system and the city of Montreal,” says Bianca Aponte of ASTT(e)Q. “It is our hope that ‘We Live Here’ will raise the profile of these issues, while also paying tribute to our community’s vibrant histories of struggle in the face of injustice. We invite the public at large to come out to show their support and to take part in this evening of reflection and celebration.”

For interviews: Nora Butler Burke

Event details

Saturday October 16, 2010, doors at 9pm, show at 10pm.

Café Cleopatra, 1230 St-Laurent, 2nd floor

$5-10 at the door, no one turned away

Performers: Including cabaret performers Lili Champagne, Lovely, Mia, Cassandra, Farah, Dixie-Lee and Michelle de Ville; poet Trish Salah; filmmakers Rémy Huberdeau and Renaud St-Amour; DJ CPI; and MC of the night, Professor Viviane Namaste.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155814291107336

About ASTT(e)Q
Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ASTT(e)Q) is a project of CACTUS Montreal, and was founded in the late nineties in order to encourage the health and well-being of trans people through access to resources and support. The organization aims to develop and strengthen trans people’s social and medical support networks. We also work to educate health and social service providers regarding transsexuality and gender variance. We provide information about the medical, social and legal aspects of trans lives and transitioning.

From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/judge-orders-dont-tell-injunction/

By The Associated Press
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 — 3:42 pm

Judge stops ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy with worldwide injunction in landmark case

A federal judge has issued a worldwide injunction stopping enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, ending the military’s 17-year-old ban on openly gay troops.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips’ landmark ruling Tuesday was widely cheered by gay rights organizations that credited her with getting accomplished what President Obama and Washington politics could not.

U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have 60 days to appeal. Legal experts say the department is under no legal obligation to do so and could let Phillips’ ruling stand.

Continue reading at:   http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/judge-orders-dont-tell-injunction/

More and more I am starting to view Obama’s long on rhetoric and short on action routine as being the problem and not the solution.

From Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20101012/sc_livescience/largeswathsofearthdryingupstudysuggests

The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including large parts of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a new study finds.

The study is the first major one of its kind to look at the movement of water from the land to the atmosphere, called “evapotranspiration,” on a global scale. This phenomenon returns about 60 percent of annual precipitation back to the atmosphere, in the process, using more than half of the solar energy absorbed by land surfaces. This is a key component of the global climate system, linking the cycling of water with energy and carbon cycles.

Most climate models have suggested that evapotranspiration would increase with global warming, because of increased evaporation of water from the ocean and more precipitation overall (water that can evaporate). The new research, published online this week in the journal Nature, found that’s exactly what was happening from 1982 to the late 1990s.

But in 1998, this significant increase in evapotranspiration – about 0.3 inches (7 millimeters) of water per year – slowed dramatically or stopped.

In large portions of the world, soils are now becoming drier than they used to be, releasing less water and offsetting some moisture increases elsewhere.

Because the data only goes back for a few decades, the researchers say they can’t be certain whether the change is part of the natural variability of climate or part of a longer-lasting global change. One possibility, though, is that on a global level, a limit to the acceleration of the hydrological cycle (the transfer of water between land, air and sea) on land has already been reached.

Continue reading at:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20101012/sc_livescience/largeswathsofearthdryingupstudysuggests

From Anti-Fascist Encyclopedia: http://www.antifascistencyclopedia.com/allposts/former-employees-racism-abuse-at-american-family-association

By Sarah Posner
Religious Dispatches | October 11, 2010

Just before this year’s Values Voter Summit, the progressive advocacy group People For the American Way called on Republican elected officials and candidates to condemn virulently anti-gay and anti-Muslim statements made by the American Family Association’s director of public policy, Bryan Fischer.

Fischer, who hosts a daily radio show on AFA’s radio network of 180 stations, has, among other things, claimed that inbreeding causes Muslims to be stupid and violent; called for the deportation of Muslims and for banning them from military service; claimed that gay sex is “domestic terrorism”; called gay adoption a “terrible, terrible, inexcusable, inhumane thing to do to children”; and claimed that Hitler and his Stormtroopers were all gay.

No one took PFAW up on its suggestion, and AFA’s founder and chairman emeritus Don Wildmon was feted at the Summit’s gala with the James C. Dobson Values & Leadership Award, which declared him “one of the most effective Christian leaders of our time.” At the award dinner, anti-gay marriage crusader Bishop Harry Jackson called him a “legend” and “the ultimate advocate for the kingdom of God”; Focus on the Family founder James Dobson called him “a wonderful man of God” who had a “great influence” on the culture; and Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson added, “I don’t think there’s been a more fearless defender of righteousness and truth than Don Wildmon.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.antifascistencyclopedia.com/allposts/former-employees-racism-abuse-at-american-family-association

Where’s your uniform, Tom?

At least Richard Iott wears the Waffen SS  uniform so we know what he is about.

The Republi-Nazis are using LGBT/TQ people and people of color as their Jews, running hate campaigns straight out of Mein Kampf and Triumph of the Will.

From Queerty: http://www.queerty.com/targets-pick-tom-emmer-wont-support-anti-bullying-laws-since-they-just-get-in-between-people-20101012/

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

The housing market has been tough.

And in the LGBT/TQ community, we face added insecurity because there are no legislative federal fair housing protections for marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

No one should be evicted, be kept from living where they want to live or pay more rent simply because of who they are. And no one should have to lie about who they are in order to have safe housing.
Recent studies by the Task Force show that’s exactly what is happening in the LGBT community:

11 percent of transgender people reported having been evicted and 19 percent reported becoming homeless due to bias.

While the general population has a home ownership rate of 68 percent, only 32 percent of transgender people do, and they are missing out on the stability and security of owning their own home.

Due to the lack of equality in federal safety net programs like Social Security and the lack of LGBT-friendly elder housing, LGBT seniors face even higher rates of housing insecurity.

Simply put, everyone – including LGBT/TQ people – should have equal access to safe housing.
And while many states prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, robust federal protections are still needed.

Ending housing discrimination is an issue that deserves attention in the next Congress. With the election less than 3 weeks away, we need your vote to help keep this issue at the forefront and give the LGBT/TQ community the opportunity to take care of ourselves and families in safe homes.
Please sign our pledge to vote and tell 5 friends about it.

To support our voter education efforts and all of work to advance equality for the LGBT and progressive community, please make a special contribution today.

From The Dallas Voice: http://www.dallasvoice.com/trans-teen-fights-crown-1047585.html

Posted on 07 Oct 2010 at 10:12pm

DAVID TAFFET  |  Staff Writer taffet@dallasvoice.com

Even though students nominated Andy Moreno for homecoming queen, North Dallas High School principal says she can’t run

Like most teenage girls, Andy Moreno wants to be homecoming queen. And her classmates want Andy to be homecoming queen, too; they are the ones who nominated her for the honor.

But Dinnah Escanilla, the principal at North Dallas High School where Andy is a senior, has said that can’t happen.

Why? Because Andy Moreno is transgender.

Escanilla suggested that Andy run for homecoming king, instead.

Continue reading at:  http://www.dallasvoice.com/trans-teen-fights-crown-1047585.html

From Metro Weekly: http://www.metroweekly.com/news/?ak=5654

Students organizing memorial for 19-year-old lesbian student who died by suicide last week

By Yusef Najafi
Published on October 9, 2010

A former Howard University student died from suicide on Tuesday, Oct. 5, in her home state of California.

According to the university’s college newspaper, The Hilltop, students organized a candlelight vigil for Aiyisha Hassan, 19, who attended Howard University from 2008 to 2009, on Thursday night.

Amari Ice, 22, president of C.A.S.C.A.D.E., the Coalition of Activist Students Celebrating the Acceptance of Diversity and Equality, Howard University’s LGBT student group, said Hassan was a lesbian who attended C.A.S.C.A.D.E. meetings regularly.

”It’s devastating to say the least,” Ice told Metro Weekly on Saturday, Oct. 9. ”It’s been a lot to deal with especially with all the other youth suicides that have been happening. It’s just fuel to the fire. It brought the national issue very very close to home.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.metroweekly.com/news/?ak=5654