10/29/10

AC Cooper 360 McCance "I will resign" Arkansas citizens will make sure he will at least honor this promise

Little Rock AR Center For Artistic Revolution (CAR) "After a few days of intense organizing working to secure Mr. McCance’s resignation, CAR went to Pleasant Plain, Arkansas. Our purpose was to put more pressure on the school board and Mr. McCance to ensure that he resigned. We conducted a vigil at the Midland High School commemorating the lives of the 11 teenagers who took their lives in September as well as all those who have killed themselves because of being tormented by remarks much the same as those of Mr. McCance."



"Cooper asked exactly what are you appoligizing for?" McCance "It was over the top"

Cooper "Do you understand the pain you have caused with those words to bullied gay children if there is any in your school district and to those who aren't gay but are bullied anyways?" MaCance "Well that's a big what if"

"If" meaning he doesn't seriously beleive there are really and gay children in Pleseant Plains. That response is worthy of Iran's Ahmadinejad who also believes there are no gay people in his care.

He said he would resign (submit a letter in 3 to 7 days) from the school board to spare the district the bad press and distractions of dealing with the fallout from his comments.

AC 360 blog

As of Friday there has been no letter of resignation received according to the Arkasas Times blog.



CAR's Facebook's response? "...if he reneges we will go back until he does!"

So will we.

Hollywood Transgender Attackers Caught on Video Have you seen this man?

Scene outside the bar before the beating.
 

October 3rd these five people were taped running out of the Plaza a latino drag bar after a "transgender woman dressed as a man", probably a drag performer.

The main suspect is a Latino man, approx. 25 years old, white shoes, orange sweat, closely cropped hair and possiable wearing a gold medallion.

He was seen leaving the scene in a white late model suburban.

Please call the police at 213-922-9234 or 213-922-8268.

La Blog

10/28/10

McCance Death Wish for Queers Creates "Grave Situation"


Pleasant plains Arkansas population 267 give or take a couple of queers that kill themselves if of school board member Clint McCance has his wish.
Pleasant Plains Graveyard.

The Midlands school district website has removed all pictures and contact information. The district issued a statement condeming McCance's statement but distanced itself from him saying he acted as a private citizen.



Tens of thousands of angry concerned citizens LGBT and heterosexual agree on one thing, he should be fired immediately.




A school board member should never wish death for his students regardless if he is acting as a public official or a private citizen.

The concerned citizens also agree hate speech is unacceptable from anyone. Condemning children publicly to death is inexcusable regardless if someone is from a major metropolitan area or as in McCance's situation, a rural community. There is no excusing someone for wishing children dead. Period.

10/26/10

Turkey: TransAction ConVergence "Demand Freedom" for Five Transgender Activists Türkiye'nin Beş Transseksüel Aktivistler Talebi Özgürlük


Demand Freedom for five

TransAction ConVergence joins with Episcopalian TransEpiscopal in calling for the imediate release of five transgender activists beaten, gased, falsely charged and held for trial on Oct. 21 2010.

IGLHRC
For Immediate Release

(New York, October 18, 2010) Prosecutors should investigate the attacks against five transgender rights activists by police in Ankara and drop all charges against the activists, five human rights organizations said today. In a letter to Turkey’s Interior and Justice ministers, the rights organizations said that the police officers responsible for the attack should be held accountable and called for an end to violence against toward transgender people.

The five activists from the Ankara-based transgender rights organization Pembe Hayat were arbitrarily detained and beaten by police officers on May 17, 2010. Following a familiar pattern in Turkey, the five were speedily charged with resisting the police, before the prosecutor had concluded an investigation into their complaint of ill-treatment. Their trial is set for October 21. If convicted, they face up to three years in prison.

"Police ought to protect transgender people and their advocates, not attack them," said Hossein Alizadeh, Middle East and North Africa regional coordinator at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "When police turn into perpetrators, it becomes painfully clear that official apathy allows leeway for attacks on transgender people."

The letter to the Justice and Interior ministers was signed by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Human Rights Watch, COC Netherlands, GATE - Global Advocates for Trans Equality, and the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe).

Four police officers from the Esat Police Station stopped the car the in which the activists were riding at about 10:30 p.m. on May 17 and accused them of intending to commit sex work. The women –Yeşim (Duru) Tatlıoğlu, Buse (Bülent) Kılıçkaya, Türkan (Deniz) Küçükkoçak, Selay (Derya) Tunç, and Eser (Nehir) Ulus – phoned for help, prompting 25 local human rights observers to go to the scene. The police forced the five activists out of the car, beat them with batons, kicked them and sprayed them with tear gas. Witnesses told the human rights organizations that the police screamed at the activists, "[f]aggots, next time we will kill you!"

"The Turkish government is turning us trans people into criminals, for no other reason than existing. Being trans in Turkey means being judged and condemned just because of what we are," said Mauro Cabral, co-director of Global Advocates for Trans Equality (GATE). "We are the crime: the government abuses us and forces us to live and die outside of the law, instead of protecting us."

Police handcuffed the women, forced them to kneel, and beat their heads and legs while one policeman told them their activism would not protect them. All five women, visibly bruised, were forced into a police van and taken to the police station. Police held them in custody until the next morning. They were officially charged on June 18, 2010.
Full press release (IGLHRC) Turkey: Drop Charges Against Transgender Rights Defenders

The Rev. Cameron Partridge of TransEpiscopal has this to say:

"We stand in complete solidarity with the five transgender activists as they go on trial in Turkey . We pray for their release, for the recognition of their human dignity, and that those who have treated these women in such a dehumanizing way would be held accountable for their actions. As we move toward Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, when communities around the world remember those who have died because of their gender identity or expression, we work to transform cultures of violence into spacious communities in which all of us can be who we are."

Please join TransEpiscopal, Integrity and other major international human rights organizations by expressing your concerns to the two Turkish Ministers:


Mr. Sadullah Ergin
Ministry of Justice
Address: 06659 Kizilay, Ankara, Turkey
Fax: +90 312 419 33 70
E-Mail: sadullahergin@adalet.gov.tr
or
iydb@adalet.gov.tr

Mr. Beşir Atalay
Ministry of the Interior
Address: T.C. İcisleri Bakanlığı, Bakanlıklar, Ankara, TurkeyTel: +90 312 422 40 22
E-Mail: besir.atalay@icisleri.gov.tr
or
ozelkalem@icisleri.gov.tr

Reuters Alertnet

Walking with Integrity supports global transgender community

Turkish LGBT org. "Pembe Hayat"

Demand Freedom for Five Turkish Transgender Activists

TransAction ConVergence. Transgender, Transsexual, Intersexed, Asexual, Gender Gifted and Allied people converging on Facebook, the world's largest social network, to share news and ideas and to advocate.

10/25/10

Moscow Gay Pride 2011 Nikolai sez Come to the PARTY!


The lone figure in a smokey dimly lit Moscow room bent over his maps. Picking up a phone quickly sent last moment false signals after learning of a communications leak that threatened the success of the small contingents of sequestered comrades silently, impatiently awaiting for the signal move out.

Meanwhile in city hall, former Mayor Yuri Luzhkov took the bait believing the misinformation, shifted his massed riot police, committing them to ensnare his adversaries in a ten block net. The price of failure? The cities destruction according to the former mayor with a diabolical "satanic weapons of mass destruction".

Who is this mad man and who were his conspirators who since 2006 were so bent on outwitting the Moscow police?

A raving homicidal lunatic? A transgender woman? Nope, just a gay man wanting to parade.

And this year unlike the ones since 2006 its going to happen in public without fear of being beaten, held without charges and food, according to Nikolai Alekseev president of Gay Russia.com.

And everyone is invited to the par-taa!

Dallas TDOR 2010 Transgender Day of Remembrance


Sunday, November 21 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location Interfaith Peace Chapel
5910 Cedar Springs Road
Dallas, TX

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transgender Day of Remembrance
Facebook Event Page
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We encourage everyone to show up a little early, between 6:30 and 7:00 pm.

The location is on DART Bus Route 39.

Map to the location: Here

For a pre-event demonstration, see also: Click here