$60,000 Raised In Three Days To Help Kate Bornstein Stay Alive! Your Help Is Needed Too

Over $60,000 dollas has been raised by Laura Vogel Go Fund Me project in three days towards the $100,000 needed!

Kate Bornstein has cancer. The good news, direct from the team of skilled doctors on her case, is that the cancer is curable. However, the treatment plan that gives Kate the best chance of beating cancer is incredibly expensive. Kate has spent the past thirty years helping the rest of us Stay Alive—now it’s our turn to give back. Let’s HELP KATE BORNSTEIN BEAT CANCER AND STAY ALIVE!

This August, Kate was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery, after which extensive testing led her doctors to believe that the cancer was gone. However, in February, Kate’s doctors discovered that this was not, in fact, the case. The cancer was back. Since receiving this news, Kate has seen numerous talented physicians and other medical professionals. The consensus is that Kate’s cancer IS CURABLE. However, Kate’s treatment plan is more complicated than most because she has suffered from another kind of cancer--CLL, or Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia--for over fifteen years. Kate will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment. She will eat according to strict nutritional diet plan and she will take a large number of supplements that will strengthen her body’s ability to handle the chemo and radiation.

This is the treatment plan is Kate’s best—and only—chance at survival. However, it is also exceptionally expensive. While Kate does have health insurance, she must pay the very high deductable, make high monthly insurance payments, and make co-payments for doctor visits and prescriptions. Also, Kate has to travel to the hospitals that are best suited to administer her unique treatment plan. Right now, this means going to Chicago five times over the next two months for chemotherapy. In the coming months, she may also have to travel to San Diego and Texas for additional treatment. Luckily, Kate will undergo radiation therapy in New York City, where she lives, but because of her weak immune system, she will have to take cabs to and from the hospital five days per week for at least two month s . Additionally, insurance does not cover the high cost of the supplements that her doctor insists are an integral part of her treatment plan.


During the course of her treatment, Kate’s immune system will be seriously compromised, she will be exhausted, and she will experience periods of extreme nausea. As a result, her doctors have insisted that Kate take a hiatus from work-related travel, speaking engagements, performances, and even writing. For the next eight to ten months, Kate will be undergoing treatment and recovering from cancer, so she will not be able to work. This means that Kate will have no way to pay for rent, utilities, food, pet care, or any other normal expense. So, not only does Kate have to worry about paying her medical bills, she also has to worry about paying her basic living expenses. This is where we come in. Kate’s work—her books, lectures, performances, apps, and online presence—has helped countless people choose life instead of suicide. Kate’s efforts have literally saved thousands of lives. Now, it’s time for all of us to save the life of just one person: Kate Bornstein. Through our donations, each of us has the power to give Kate our thanks, to be there for her in this difficult time, and to help her save her life. Please join me in donating whatever you can to help Kate beat cancer and STAY ALIVE.

Lucy Meadows Just Out Trans Teacher Found Dead: Mail Online Deletes Article That Caused Her So Much Pain

When you click the link to Richard Littlejohn's Mail Online now deleted article crucifying Lucy Meadows...... it still appears momentarily like a ghost haunting them from Google's cached graveyard.

I was able to snip it before it fades away completely.

While it's not clear at this moment whether Lucy Meadows committed suicide or whether her death could be attributed directly to the toxicity of this article a number of things are certain.

Her transition would have been a whole lot better if the schools letter to the parents, however well intended, hadn't misgendered her. This letter alone probably wasn't the sole reason Mr Cowie and other transphobic parents contacted the Mail Online about this, but it certainly did not help.

The Mail online removed this article March 21st two days following Miss Meadows death which in my book is a self incriminating admission of culpability.

There was a level of acceptance by students for Lucy Meadows who by all appearances was a lovely caring soul regardless of her gender expression.

Zinna Jones read the article before it was taken down and reports it essentially told her to go away. This is devastating for someone who cares for her students as Miss Jones undoubtedly did.

There is a online petition: Daily Mail: Fire Richard Littlejohn for victimizing Lucy Meadows, leading to her possible suicide.

Note to the Fail Online. Your turn is coming. You can't run, delete or hide. We don't forget or forgive. Anonmyous Open Letter To Richard Littlejohn of the U.K. Daily Mail:

I am writing this to be the voice of Lucy Meadows. Words are not enough for me to describe the sadness and horror I feel on behalf of Ms. Lucy Meadows. As someone who was bullied for coming from an LGBT home, and for having obviously less than male emotions and less than male macho behavior, I know the effects of being bullied to the point of suicide. I almost took my own life back in 1993. I unknowingly tried to overdose on an anti-anxiety med that I became addicted to in my pain and deep depression of that time in my life. I was only 15 years old. I use the word "unknowingly" because I was in such an overwhelmed, separated, otherworldly mental state that was dark, lonely, beyond painful, and truly scary. I was lucky enough to somehow know that I needed emergency medical help. I am still here because I sought help. Lucy Meadows deserved to life her life with encouragement, support, dignity, respect, and she deserved to be treated like a valuable human being.

Richard Littlejohn has done more than just step over the line, he has used his position to commit pre-meditated murder, even if British law doesn't see it that way. Richard Littlejohn, YOU are worse than the lowest and most worthless excuse for a human being! YOU used your position to gain ratings and profit at the expense of the life of another person.

What's real means nothing to you, Dick Littlejohn! The disgusting, skin deep, inhumane mind and existence you live in is worse than that of any other evil that can be referred to. EVIL is too nice to call you, you are far worse than evil, you are a huge zero! Your existence here on this earth never mattered, and will never matter. I am speaking, Dick Littlejohn, as the voice of the person who can never speak for herself, for the voice you stole without any sort of legal or moral justification. Asking who the hell you think you are to do what you did and to have done it at the cost of sending someone to their untimely grave is an opportunity I am NOT going to give you!

YOu didn't give Lucy Meadows ONE CHANCE to live a decent life, YOU did NOT give Lucy Meadows mercy or understanding, YOU are guilty of the worst crime anyone could ever have committed! I AM NOT here to give you a chance to have a voice or a chance to explain, because no one anywhere wants to hear it. YOU DON'T GET A CHANCE to defend yourself! On behalf of the life that was taken, I am reserving that right to take YOUR voice from you in exchange, and what I mean by that is to tell you that you should not even attempt to speak. You should wallow in the same shame, inhumane indignity, and your life should literally become worse than the hell you heaped upon Lucy!

Dick Littlejohn, you stand publicly convicted by public morals and everyday standards of human living. You stand convicted outside the realm of a legal court of law for the crime of being a predator who singles out women whose only crime is to correct their bodies to match their brain. A transgender person live with a very real medical problem for which the only treatment is to transition into the proper physical body and social mode of living. YOU took that HUMAN RIGHT and MEDICAL OPTION away from Lucy, and it led to her death!

Shame is too light of a word to use here for you. On behalf of thee educated, civilized, compassionate, understanding, loving people of the world: RESIGN YOUR POSITION IMMEDIATELY and PERMANENTLY RESIGN FROM EVER AGAIN BEING A MEMBER OF THE MEDIA! After that, YOU CAN GO LIVE A LONELY, SOLITARY, PAINFUL LIFE OF INTERNAL TORTURE UNTIL THE MOMENT OF YOUR OWN NATURAL DEATH! When the day of your death comes forth, I hope you are greeted by Lucy Meadows, and I hope you are tormented by her in the exact way you tormented her! After that, I hope she is granted the power to send you straight to hell if there is such a place!

Smith College Requires a Trans woman to be Sterilized prior to Admittance

In what amounts to forced eugenics, Smith College has told a transgender applicant she must complete sexual reassignment surgery as a requirement before she can attend the school. The Smith College Trans : policy would appear it is a welcoming place.

From Calliope Wong blog "But in order to be legally recognized as “female” on my birth certificate according to BOTH Massachusetts and Connecticut law, I have to undergo vaginoplasty (feminizing genital surgery). From what I understand, Smith College will only evaluate me as a “real” girl if I get sex reassignment surgery."

"If I understand Smith correctly, this is perhaps the most obscene of rights violations that I have ever witnessed from a school. It’s not a loud and boisterous violation, which is all the worse: its sly wording hurts just as much but is hard to detect. By simply stating that only “females” may be allowed to apply and attend Smith, Smith College sets the bar for transwomen applicants impossibly high."

-transwomen are most likely not ready for surgery at 17 or 18, the typical age of a college applicant. It’s a monumental personal decision that usually arises from years of introspection and deliberation.

-transwomen may not even feel the need for genital surgery. Some transwomen do not experience extreme dysphoria about the state of their genitalia, and opt not to undergo vaginoplasty.

-genital surgery is notoriously expensive (several tens of thousands of dollars, easily), and many transwomen cannot afford to pay for vaginoplasty at this point in their lives."

What NOW? A Trans Skateboarder? Ready Or Not Her She Comes!

Given the push back MMA fighter Fallon Fox has received for asking to fight people of her own gender it begs the question asked by JENKEM: Is the world ready for a transgender skateboarder? Photos are awesome and the writing superb. Check out her story here.

Arizona Amendment to S.B.1432 Seeks to Criminalize Undocumented Trans Potty Goers

Rep. John Kavanagh has submitted an amendment to the states disorderly conduct classification effectively making transsexuality illegal. This amendment is being snuck into a bill that has to do with providing an executive director to the board of licensing for massage therapists.
Many believe the amendment is in response to Phoenix adding trans protections which was seen as a stab to the heart by some the most venomous anti LGBT groups in the nation such as Az Policy Institute which happen to be based right in Rep. Kavanagh's back yard.

Rep. Kavanagh told KNAU public radio"...it will not be necessary for people to carry that (a birth vertificate) around, any more than it's necessary for someone entering a men's room or women's room now to produce documentation. "But if you go into a public shower," Kavanagh said, "and you're a male and it's a female public shower, and the police are called, well, you'd better be able to prove that you're a female and not a male. Otherwise, you're going to go to jail, which is where you belong."

The amendment gets it'd first hearing today.

NGOs Urge Japan: Halt Forced Sterilization Of Transgender People

In Japan the right to legal sex change in case of transsexual has been approved by legislation in 2004. The legislation only allows the person who has no children in addition to having undergone the sex reassignment surgery. The condition is amended in 2008 to "those who has no child under 20 years old", but still sterilization and sex reassignment surgery is compulsory to legal sex change.

Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced sterilization, programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization. In the first half of the 20th century, several such programs were instituted in countries around the world, usually as part of eugenics programs intended to prevent the reproduction and multiplication of members of the population considered to be carriers of defective genetic traits. Widespread or systematic forced sterilization has been recognized as a crime against humanity by the Rome Statute in the Explanatory Memorandum. This memorandum also defines the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.[1][2] Despite international agreement concerning the inhumanity and illegality of forced sterilization, it has been suggested that Government of Uzbekistan continues to pursue such programs.[3] Also, in many countries, transgender people are required to undergo sterilization before gaining legal recognition of their gender. ~Wikipedia


Joint statement by the International Lesbian and Gay Association, Gay Japan News and Rainbow Action Delivered by Azusa Yamashita March 14, 2013.

Thank you Madam/Mr. President, This statement is also on behalf of Gay Japan News and Rainbow Action. We welcome the responses of the Japanese government to the recommendations made by the governments of Argentina, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and the United States requesting to prohibit and eliminate discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. We appreciate that the Japanese government has taken positive steps in recent years towards protecting the rights of LGBT people by changing relevant policies. Such changes include issuing the legal document certifying one’s single status when one attempts to marry abroad whether it is same-sex or opposite-sex couples. Inclusion of mental health of sexual minority population in the national policy on suicide prevention is also one of these changes. However, sterilization requirement of transgender people in the Law on Special Provisions for Handling People with Gender Identity Disorder, lack of anti-discrimination legislation including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as well as social stigmatization remain great challenges towards achieving equality and wellbeing of LGBT people. We are also concerned by the government’s decision to reintroduce the supplementary teaching materials for moral education in elementary and junior high schools that says being attracted to someone of the opposite sex is natural. This reinforces heteronormativity and excludes non-heteronormative pupils. We call on the government of Japan to take concrete steps to implement the recommendations to protect all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. We will be happy to share our expertise in this regard. Thank you Madam/Mr. President. Azusa Yamashita March 14 2013