[Discussion] Trans Issues and Rights

This thread is for the discussion of current events relating to trans rights, for discussion of the lives of trans people and difficulties they face, and for basic questions about the lives and experiences of trans people. (If basic questions become dominant we'll look at making a Q&A thread at that time.)

Freyja wrote:

It's TDoR.

https://tdor.info/

Had to scroll down way too many times, hopefully there will be a year that list is a lot shorter.

Hey gang, my work donates $500 per year per employee to the charity of our choice. I would like to donate to an lgbt related cause. Any recommendations?

SallyNasty wrote:

Hey gang, my work donates $500 per year per employee to the charity of our choice. I would like to donate to an lgbt related cause. Any recommendations?

Lambda Legal's a good one. Also The Trevor Project.

Slight ray of hope:

"Saskatchewan does have our backs," says an LGBT activist.

Background: hockey player billeting with host family is suddenly not okay with having the host's transgender granddaughter living under the same roof. Hockey team pulls player from billet.

There may be some haziness in what the team's eventual statement called the "causal sequence" after that, but the upshot was Facebook lost its sh*t over the team summarily telling this woman she was no longer a host.

Everything is now, sorta, okay? And we've all learned a little about life. And hockey.

Gov. Pat McCrory calls for special legislative session Wednesday to repeal HB2

At the price of Charlotte repealing its non-discrimination ordinance.

Time and time again I'm shown that trans people are never considered worth standing up for - our lives and our safety will always be considered a bargaining chip by the Democrats and something to hold hostage by the right.

McCrory goes straight into victim-blaming, huh. Really great.

complexmath wrote:

McCrory goes straight into victim-blaming, huh. Really great.

That's his claim to fame and not something new. The man is truly reprehensible.

Oh. f*cking SURPRISE.

BREAKING: North Carolina Republicans renege on deal to repeal HB2 ‘in full’
LGBT nondiscrimination protections are still prohibited, as they were under HB2.
(Zack Ford, ThinkProgress, 2016-12-21)

Short form:

First the bill they put up for vote repealed HB2 but added in restrictions on municipalities passing laws protecting employment or public accommodations 'specifically noting “access to restrooms, showers, or changing facilities.”'

Then Democrats including governor-elect Cooper said basically "Um, no, that's not what you agreed to."

And now they're just not going to pass anything, so HB2 stands. Fun!

ffs

I saw this coming a million miles away. I have no idea why democrats and Charlotte thought that any other result was possible. These jackasses aren't interested in governing, only dictating what they believe is right.

The only positive is that the Charlotte repeal had a clause that stated everything reverts back on the 31st if HB2 wasn't repealed. At least someone anticipated this BS.

NC really wants to win the prize for most backward state in the US.

I swear, my dead cat could do a better job as an opposition party than the NC democrats.

The only positive is that the Charlotte repeal had a clause that stated everything reverts back on the 31st if HB2 wasn't repealed. At least someone anticipated this BS.

Charlotte repealed that clause. :\

NCGOP you mean.

Public polls are all in favor of repealing it. McCrory and the NCGOP are the only ones holding on to HB2, stubborn jackasses.

I didn't, but I'm not super interested into getting into why I'm utterly frustrated with the Democratic party's unwillingness to actually put up a fight these days. I've had a bad day.

e: To be fair, this feeling also applies to the Democratic party as a whole, not just the NC ones.

Freyja wrote:

I didn't, but I'm not super interested into getting into why I'm utterly frustrated with the Democratic party's unwillingness to actually put up a fight these days. I've had a bad day.

e: To be fair, this feeling also applies to the Democratic party as a whole, not just the NC ones.

I'm frustrated too, but since I've started getting more politically involved with the party in my NC county, I have met other very progressive Dems, so they are out there, and the next few months/years is going to be critical in deciding the direction the party is going to go. It is extremely important for everyone to get as much involved as possible and not just on voting day. Join your local Democratic party group and help to make change from the inside so that the party will truly be for everyone.

If all goes well, 2017 is going to be very important for NC because we will be having another House election due to the racist, gerrymandered districts. New districts are supposed to be drawn up by March...though I fully expect more Republican lack-of-ethics in that matter, so we'll need to be prepared.

Taking back our state (and other states in similar circumstances) is also good preparation for taking back our country from the bigots, fascists, authoritarians, and autocrats. And not just taking it back, but making it better than it was because it's not good enough to just put things back and leave it there.

It's also crucial that we educate the ignorant. We need to fight against misinformation and bad media.

This is our damn country, not Russia's or the country for global billionaires, and they aren't going to drive us away or into slavery. We fought to be free of one king when our country was founded and we aren't going to accept another in his place.

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine

bekkilyn wrote:

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine

Have you been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine?

/Hamilton

SillyRabbit wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine

Have you been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine?

/Hamilton

I haven't lately, but still thought it appropriate under our current circumstances.

The right wing's favorite pet judge just enjoined Section 1557, the ACA rule preventing discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The rule was supposed to go into effect today.

At least one trans girl has had coverage for her surgery scheduled for Monday denied. She's on suicide watch now.

Happy f*ckin' new year.

The list is going to get bigger through 2020. Mark my words.

Texas, Kentucky, Washington and Virginia legislators have proposed a new round of anti-trans bills. They cover the restroom stuff like you'd expect. They also require educators to report queer or trans kids to their parents. Virginia's creates a cause of civil action if a trans person uses a restroom. So we're back to the bounties on our heads.

I'm going to paraphrase a few friends here instead of talk about the particulars.

These bills are a test balloon for legislative control of the population. These are authoritarians trying to determine if the public will accept having rights stripped away from some groups.

These bills as well as HB2 usually apply to government buildings. Think about the amount of time you spend waiting in any given government building. The DMV, a courthouse, a police station, an airport. Imagine not being permitted to use the restroom for the entire time you spend in that building. Would you think twice about accessing the services in those buildings? Think about the effect that would have on your ability to access government services, or police protection, or your freedom to travel. They would be seriously curtailed.

What if going to court was mandatory for you? If you were on trial, or compelled to appear as a witness? What are your options then?

This is the reality for trans people in North Carolina, this could be the reality for many more if the rest of these become law.

These aren't bathroom bills. The name is misleadingly diminutive; these are efforts to outlaw our existence.

They also require educators to report queer or trans kids to their parents.

I... wait... what? Like, in what scenario are they expecting the parents not to know before the teachers do?

I literally cannot wrap my brain around this scenario, like, at all. At least in the grade to high school level.

Demosthenes wrote:
They also require educators to report queer or trans kids to their parents.

I... wait... what? Like, in what scenario are they expecting the parents not to know before the teachers do?

I literally cannot wrap my brain around this scenario, like, at all. At least in the grade to high school level.

A lot of kids feel more free to act in particular ways at school then they do at home.

Demyx wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
They also require educators to report queer or trans kids to their parents.

I... wait... what? Like, in what scenario are they expecting the parents not to know before the teachers do?

I literally cannot wrap my brain around this scenario, like, at all. At least in the grade to high school level.

A lot of kids feel more free to act in particular ways at school then they do at home.

My experience with that was largely college, where you were AWAY from home rather than just like not home for 8 hours... but huh, interesting.

That said, I'm also confused how you're supposed to confirm that someone is queer or trans at school. Did they have non-hetero sex at school to prove queerness? Did they miss too many gender role norms to be reported trans? Like... the whole thing sounds like a quagmire to start... much less the horror of the actual bigotry somehow being written into law because it's not like we as a country have learned that lesson at least half a dozen times over.

It pretty much means if a child expresses to a teacher or counselor that they might be trans, gay, GNC, etc - the school is required to report that to the parents.

Depending on those parents, that could go very badly.

Freyja wrote:

It pretty much means if a child expresses to a teacher or counselor that they might be trans, gay, GNC, etc - the school is required to report that to the parents.

Depending on those parents, that could go very badly.

Ohhhh... Having gone to a sh*tty conservative school with a supportive family, the opposite scenario literally did not enter my brain. :X

I've had several friends who opened up to teachers and counselors at school about sex-related issues that would have gotten them a beating or even ejection from the home if they'd brought it up to their parents. Doesn't surprise me at all that some kids follow that route. This is a barbaric law.

School is the first area of life where kids are somewhat independent of the home. They have their own friends, mentors, leaders, support networks and safe spaces mostly out of their parents knowledge, and it's in school that they begin to develop their own identities. Breaking that independence at a crucial time in their development could be crushing for people whose parents don't understand or even agree with their child's development.

It's horrible.

Mississippi transgender woman Mesha Caldwell is first reported trans killing of 2017

January
Jai Bornstein, 19 - Bakersfield, California
Mesha Caldwell, 41 - Madison County, Mississippi

Transgender woman found dead in cell at HMP Doncaster

January
Jai Bornstein, 19 - Bakersfield, California
Mesha Caldwell, 41 - Madison County, Mississippi
Jenny Swift, 49 - Seaforth in Sefton, Merseyside, England

The Guardian article goes more indepth.

Essentially Denied hormones (continually promised but never arriving), misgendered by staff AND kept separated from other Trans Women held at the same facility.

The "prisons and probation ombudsman" can be as sorry as he likes, and promise whatever investigations he wants but this KEEPS HAPPENING.

Has anyone else been listening to the How to be a girl podcast?