8/14/10

Degrassi FTM portrayed by cisgender actress powerful and intuitive

Cisgender female 15-year-old Jordan Todosey portrays a female to male transgender character Adam. The episode follows a purposefully hard hitting storyline about being a young transgender man who's very masculinity is challenged and even attacked.

xtra.ca"Hit teen TV show Degrassi has introduced its first trans character this season, and Xtra went on set to speak with actress Jordan Todosey, who plays the role of Adam. Watch our interviews with Todosey and writer Michael Grassi, and watch a clip of an upcoming episode featuring Adam."



"Watch Degrassi in Canada on MuchMusic from Monday to Thursday at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT. The show airs on TeenNick in the United States. Adam's storyline comes to a head in the episodes airing August 11 and 12, "My Body Is A Cage". Catch the episodes online at muchmusic.com/tv/degrassi. www.xtra.ca



Read more from Steve Williams "Trans Story Tackled on Hit Teen Show Degrassi"

8/13/10

Jesus Christ, Kelli Busey and Whoopi Goldberg Give a Damn


I hope my transgender friends join this effort and are counted! Its the only way people will know you are alive. A New PSA from We Give A Damn.Org!



My shared story on Wegiveadamn.org

I am transgender male to female and having completed many of the prerequisite steps in rectifying my gender expression to match my identity and yet I still felt something was missing. I felt a unexplainable emptiness.

That was untill a cisgender friend finally convinced me to attend a service at a Metropolitan Community Church. The next few Sunday's my legs would buckle, my heart would roar and tears of joy fell from my eyes with uncontrollable joy!

After all these years of denial I could show love for Christ without reservation, without being belittled, without shame.

This is a love story, a begining, a wonderfull joining with Christ as I walk in his footprints on a shared 'path less taken'.

I wanted to share this what after all these years remains the very most important part of my transition. I hope you like it.

We give a Damn On twitter

Wegiveadamn.org

8/10/10

Stop Corporate Takeover of Web No Pay Per USE

PETITION: STAND WITH ME TO SAVE NET NEUTRALITY AND STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF OUR MEDIA



The Comcast-NBC merger is the first domino. If it falls, the rest will soon follow. If no one stops them, how long do you think it will take before 4 or 5 megacorporations effectively control the flow of information in America not only on television, but online? How long do you think it will take before the Fox News website loads 5 times faster than DailyKos?

It's almost too late to stop this from happening, but not quite. The government can stop them… but first the government has to be MADE to act.

Net Neutrality is THE First Amendment issue of our time. If you want to protect the free flow of information in the country and all that depends on it, you have to help me fight this.


Sign the Petition! Help Senator Al Franken fight the corporate takeover of media

Texas Transgender peoples Lives Riding on Nikki Araguz Marriage Litigation as Attorney General Declines to Rule

Texas transgender people like myself have long understood that living in a specific county and petitioning a particularly progressive judge to amend our drivers licence was key in establishing our correct gender identity, regardless if you were post SRS. Because there was no law or ruling by the Attorney General it allowed us to fly under the radar in this the bluest of states. It was our secret.

This allowed Texas transgender people to live our lives presenting ourselves as who we truly are without fear of arrest in the workplace and in most social situations. Most.

This is all possibly coming about to a screeching halt as our anonymity has become headlines because of the marriage controversies. Texas transgender people such as myself have our worlds riding on the outcome of the Nikki Araguz litigation recently filed in the 245th District Court of Wharton County, In the Estate of Thomas Trevino Araguz III, Deceased, Cause No. 44575.

Source Texas Attorney General Declines To Issue Opinion To Clarify Same-Sex Marriage Controversy In El Paso
"EL PASO, Texas -- El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal on Monday announced that the Office of the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has formally declined to issue a legal opinion regarding the granting of marriage licenses to individuals who have undergone sex change operations."

"The request was made after two Hudspeth County women - Sabrina Hill and Therese Bur requested, and were denied, a marriage license in El Paso in February of this year. As proof of identification, Hill presented a birth certificate identifying her as a male, a court order approving his name change from a male to female, and an Arizona driver's license with her new identity as a female."

"Presented with conflicting documents, the El Paso County Clerk's Office requested guidance from the County Attorney's Office as to the eligibility of the applicants to obtain a marriage license."

Legal analysis revealed the existence of a legal gray area around this particular issue, raised by recent changes adopted by the Texas Legislature. Up until 2009, the identity and gender of a marriage license applicant was established through a birth certificate.

"However, during the 81st Session, the Texas Legislature expanded the list of documents acceptable to establish proof of identity and age for purposes of obtaining a marriage license. Section 2.005(b) of the Texas Family Code lists the nineteen documents approved and, to make things more difficult, all are given equal legal weight. This is important for transgender individuals, as conflicting information on various personal documents may arise not from fraud, but because of sex reassignment surgery, and so transgender applicants should be able to self-identify their gender, as opposed to a court doing it for them."

"In a letter dated on August 6, 2010, the Texas Attorney General's Office notified the El Paso County Attorney's Office that they will refrain from answering any questions or issuing an opinion, and in fact are closing the file on this request. The reason provided for this action is that issues included in the opinion request are the subject of pending litigation recently filed in the 245th District Court of Wharton County, In the Estate of Thomas Trevino Araguz III, Deceased, Cause No. 44575. The letter further states that, once that litigation is concluded, the El Paso County Attorney could submit another request if these questions remain unresolved."

"El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal expressed her disappointment regarding the decision of the Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott."

"Unfortunately, the ambiguity in the law and confusion for the County clerk remains," Bernal concluded.

8/9/10

Angie Zapata Missed 21st Birthday, Drag Queens and CNN


Drag Queens and Angie haven't been a good mix lately but the reigning Miss Rocky Mountain Shining Star, Leo "Sable" Corona, is doing her part to heal the wounds. What can happen when people act in a socially responsible and caring manner (take note Israel Luna).

According to the West Word Blog Friends and family joined with Sable to remember Angie on her missed 21st birthday and to raise money for a documentary of Angie's life that is missing just one very expensive two minute segment from CNN shot during the Allen Andrade trial. Donations can be made via the Photos of Angie Facebook page or through Just Media, a local nonprofit that backs social justice media projects.

Photos of Angie - Day 1 from Alan Dominguez on Vimeo.

Fort Worth Weekly Writer Jimmy Fowler Fouls Out with "Ticked Off"

Fighting misogony one trashy publication at a time.

Fort Worth Weekly stoops to deceiving, defaming and maligning minorities to increase readership.

"Transgender activists took to the streets to oppose a locally made movie — and made it more successful than ever."
~FW Weekly Tittle and lead paragraph.

FT Worth Weekly author Jimmy Fowler called me and asked if I would interview for a article about TO#WK and my first response was "why now?". I had read the earlier Weekly article which liberally used pejoratives defaming transgender people without attributing the sources and I was very wary. I explained I have turned down similar requests from print and radio media because of their histories of past hate inciting journalism. Fowler reassured me saying previously he was unaware that 'tra##y' was demeaning and that the FW Weekly was blessed with great writers. I was led to beleive it would be a intuitive thought provoking piece.

It was a piece, a piece of crap that is. The second line proclaimed that efforts of all woman to advocate only results in promoting those that would harm us and any further efforts would be futile.

It pissed me off the author claimed ignorance about the word "tra##y. While he never offered he would not use the word 'tra##y' his tone and sincerity suggested that he now understood how harmful that word is for transgender people. That led me to beleive Fowler would at least obscure some of the letters. He did not and in fact Fowler quoted the pitiful excuse Luna made for reneging on his promise to 'blur' tra##y.

In essence, the Fort Worth Weekly is using a pejorative intentionally, being aware of it's injurious nature to transgender people while simultaneously insinuating standing up for our dignity was futile.

It really pissed me off they did not use a photograph of me. The photographer was told I was a principle in the story and that was confirmed by the FT Worth Weekly's Fowler. The FW Weekly had been initially unsure if they were going to pay the photographer for the session, dependent on his editors decision.

These two pictures were supplied by the photographer and should have been next to my interview.

I felt they refrained from including any of my picture from the session was because they wanted the readers to form a perception of my physical being which would not be supported by a photograph showing me as who I truly am.

A beautiful, well adjusted transgender woman.

Why did the Fort Worth Weekly lower itself to such depths?

Of course as anyone who was in the room when Fort Worth city council debated on amending the non discrimination policy to include transgender people will confirm there is a massive contingent of the north Texas population who would See us stoned, raped and institutionalized.

The Fort Worth Weekly editors obviously realized a huge potential for readership and lowered themselves to publish that despicable article catering to sexual perverts, haters and bigots.

I would ask you to comment on the fort Worth Weekly article, but instead of increasing their web visibility, comment here. You will be doing the transgender community good.