2/7/14

Piers Morgan still doesn't "get it" and shows that with the second Janet Mock interview


Piers Morgan still doesn't get it.

During the second appearance of Janet Mock, he asked her what was so offensive about inquiring about the "surgery you had to become a real woman."
Looking at Janet Mock I see a young defensive transgender woman who has traveled our road less taken. I saw her taking a back seat as Laverne Cox defended her to Katie Couric's earlier invasive questioning of Mocks Genitalia. I'm sure Morgan saw the Couric interview, knew she was a soft target,  but still had the gall to observe in a tweet that she didn't have a problem with the interview while it was taking place, why was she upset now?



John Aravosis defended Morgan posting incredulously "CNN’s Piers Morgan vilified for amazingly pro-transgender interview". Aravosis should read the comment about how he doesn't get it.Maybe he'd get it.

But then the Young Turks don't get it ether at first commenting on Mocks reply during the second interview. "Bad answer I'm on his side." Many cisgender people see transition as a 'decision'. Many as the Young Turks, bless their hearts, dis not get it at first. However, unlike Morgan, they work at it and come to understand it is not a sexual organ that defines a individuals gender. its the innate sense of who you are, the driving force behind transition is not a choice.

The vast majority of trans people come to a point in our lives when not transitioning would be unbearable.



Finally, someone at CNN understands the offensiveness of the banner shown on the first show flashing like a neon billboard proclaiming that Mock used to be a man.



Why didn't Mock object to the line of questioning during the first interview? Maybe like me, I found it problematic, ignorant and ill informed in itself, but Mock didn't know there would be a banner beneath her stripping her of her dignity.
Why doesn't Morgan get that too? Ego perhaps? Sensationalist journalism perhaps. His panel 'of cisgender people debating our right to exist puts a explanation point on his inability to get it.



Not sure at what point this was tweeted or by who at the Piers Morgan tweeted it, but maybe, just maybe theres hope for Morgan yet.



The take away as I see it? Its critical that we remain vigilant and respond as we do to problematic and transphobic media but its equally important we don't seem hyper sensitive inadvisedly making ourselves less visible.

2/6/14

Zimbabwe transgender woman Ricky Nathanson exonerated for using the woman's bathroom

When transgender woman Ricky Nathanson woke that Thursday morning, she probably would have never suspected her name would become recognized worldwide. And Ricky almost certainly wouldn't have guessed she was to become the next target for extortion by the corrupt ZANU PF party.

Ms. Nathanson existing the women's room at the Palace Hotel was was stopped from leaving by ZANU PF party youth leader Farai Mteliso and crew that demanded money from her in lieu of calling the police. However, she wouldn't give him any, but it didn't get better after the police arrived. They remanded her and forced her to strip, purportedly to ascertain her gender robbing her a again this time of her dignity.

Ricky had her day in court and proved without a shadow of doubt she was legally entitled to use the women room. What remains to be seen if the court press's charges against ZANU PF party youth leader Farai Mteliso or the police that made her strip and humiliated her.

SW Radio Africa reports the Magistrate Abednico Ndebele told Ms. Nathanson“It appears the State is still yet to make a decision on the charge, and according to what’s in court, there’s no offence in anyone entering a female or male toilet… For now you can go and the State will call you if it needs you,” Ndebele told Nathanson.

However Zanu PF thug, Farai Mteliso, who effected a citizen’s arrest on Nathanson at the Hotel was not impressed.

Mteliso told reporters he was surprised prosecutors claimed he was in Harare when he was in the court gallery.
“The magistrate presides on a case of a man who comes into court wearing a dress, which obviously shows that he is practicing homosexuality,” Mteliso said.

“Do you think that if President (Robert) Mugabe was in this court that man would have come out of court?

“Just imagine how many women this man has seen naked by entering ladies toilets.

“I think he has even seen my wife’s nakedness since I usually go with her to drink at the Hotel.”

Ian Maseko, director at lobby group Sexual Rights Centre, said Ricky’s court case shows how the legal system is being used to harass those perceived to be different.

“The way Ricky has been treated is inhumane. The constitution guarantees equal rights and respect for the dignity of all citizens and we should all be affirming that,” Maseko told SW Radio Africa Wednesday.

2/3/14

43 LGBT activists and allies arrested at the Idaho Statehouse protesting legislative inaction

Dozens of activists feed up with the Idaho Legislatures inaction took it to the next level. by locking arms and blocking the doors of the State building and keeping lawmakers out.

The police started arresting Add the words Idaho members after the speaker was denied entrance.

(AP) Police arrested dozens of gay rights activists Monday after a protest that blocked entrances to the Idaho Senate chambers for more than two hours.

Idaho State Police said they took 43 people into custody on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing after demonstrators stood shoulder to shoulder and prevented lawmakers from getting past.

Former state Sen. Nicole LeFavour, the Idaho Legislature's first openly gay lawmaker and an organizer of the protest, was among those arrested. Ahead of the demonstration, she had said the group would block the entrances until lawmakers agreed to take up a bill adding anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people or until protesters were removed by authorities.

Read more at the Boise Weekly and The Idaho Statesman.





Published Feb 2 2014 a mother from Pocatello Idaho talks about her gay son's suicide...








2/2/14

Family of murdered Brazilian transgender woman want justice


Relatives were horrified to learn that the victim's body was dismembered by confessed killer, captured yesterday by police
CURRENT yesterday published the story of a barbaric crime that occurred in the early hours of Sunday to Monday (27). A transvestite identified as Leticia received two stabs Walace de Souza Silva, confessed killer, who led the police to where the body was, at Avenida Ayrton Senna. But the family of Thifani - not Leticia - told another story, on Wednesday (29), with rebels at heart.
Quartering
Family of Thifani - born Felipe Matheus, who was 18 years old - were the 50 Precinct (Itaguaí) to inform the assistant deputy Luiz Jorge, who were horrified to recognize the victim at the Medical Legal Institute in Campo Grande: the body was dismembered. According to Thifani aunt, Elizabeth Santos, the funeral had to be held with a closed casket because his nephew's face was completely disfigured. Thifani was buried on the afternoon of Wednesday (29) in the Cemetery Father CezariVigezzi (SASE).~ Source 


Transgender woman gunned down in Itabela, Brazil

A transgender woman was murdered by two men while talking to a woman at a sidewalk bar nearby house where she lived, police said. According to the agency, the crime happened late on Wednesday (29), in municipality of Itabela , about 690 km from Salvador .

The principal delegate José Hermano Costa Carvalho, infromou the G1 that the victim, 35, was killed around 20h40. "sHe was on a sidewalk, five meters from home, talking to a woman when two men came and participated in the discussion. Few minutes later shot they shot her" he explains.
The delegate also it is thought that the suspects are minors. Police said Marcus lived with an old man who witnessed the action of giving rise to suspicion. The motivation is unknown. The victim's body was sent to the Medical Intituto Statutory Eunápolis (IML). The case is being investigated by the Civil Police. ~ Source

2/1/14

Protest at One Police Plaza draws hundreds demanding justice for Islan Nettles

About 150 people including mother Nettles attended the protest at One Police plaza Thursday demanding justice for Islan Nettles. They were braving the frigid cold in protest of the incredibly inept unprofessional handling of the murder investigation which resulted in the DA dropping the charges against the youth who beat her to death, in spite of him confessing to the crime.

The pictures posted here are just a few of those that can be viewed at  Rediscovering NY.com

According to dnainfo people were Chanting "transgender lives matter" and holding signs that said "Justice for Islan," protesters, bracing against frigid temperatures, said they feel the NYPD did not investigate the death well and that the district attorney's office was not doing a good job of prosecuting the case.

"I feel like someone got away with murder," said Delores Nettles, Islan's mother.

She said delays in updating the initial misdemeanor charges against initial suspect Paris Wilson and in collecting evidence and witnesses have led to no one currently being charged or in custody for Islan's death.

"When people are beaten to death in the street it takes their power away," said Carl Siciliano, executive director of The Ali Forney Center that serves LGBT homeless youth. Islan Nettles had been a client.

"When police fail to take that death seriously it takes away their power," he added

From Thursday's protest...