Kenyan Teen arrested for being Trans is Facing New Charges

In 2012 Kenyan transgender teenager Brenda Stella Achieng was arrested for Pretext/defamation of character after her employer on the Nyamasaria estate discovered she is transgender. According to Identity Kenya.com she was treated very badly during the arrest. Brenda was paraded about the city and while awaiting trial and held in solitary in a mens prison.

Since then Changing Attitudes has received a report from Brenda's hearing confirming that those charges were dropped.

A couple of months after she was fired the family Brenda worked for had her arrested again for allegedly stealing cell phones from their home. But those charges are extremely suspect according to Voices of Women in Western Kenya (VOWWEK) and Jinsiangu because of how long it was after her dismissal that the charges were filed.

But more than likely these recent charges against Brenda were motivated by hate, just like the previous ones.

I have reached out to Idenity Kenya for more information to update this post with.

So its a call to the worlds bloggers and journalists and activists to publish about our family in African, especially Nigeria, Uganda and Brenda's country Kenya. We care about you. You are our family.

Genderation Rebels: Trans Visibility leads To Trans Murder

There has been a shocking increase in reported murders of trans people worldwide over the past years. There are many reasons why these numbers have jumped, but the number one reason is us.

Transgender Europe's Transrespect Transphobia project reports "Most reported cases were from Central and South America, which amount to 643 cases in 21 countries and account for roughly 80 % of the globally reported murders of trans people since January 2008. In this region, there has been the strongest increase in reports (2008: 94, 2009: 165, 2010: 180, and 2011: 204)."

"The new result update moreover reveals that in the last 4 years, 59 killings of trans people have been reported in Asia (2008: 12, 2009: 14, 2010: 16, 2011: 17), 53 killings have been reported in North America (2008: 18, 2009: 13, 2010: 8, 2011: 14), 53 in Europe (2008: 13, 2009: 19, 2010: 9, 2011: 12), 4 in Oceania (2008: 3, 2009: 1) as well as 4 in Africa (2008: 1, 2009: 2. 2011: 1)."

Photo TGEU Click to enlarge

We are rebels living our gender revolution. In many countries such as Canada our right to life to larger degree is respected. That has come about through decades of effort and sacrifice which is not to say the battle is over in Canada.

In the US, like many European countries, we have found marginal success. The US still holds the distinction as a leader in the numbers of murdered, many being victims of unemployment, drugs and prostitution by no fault of there own. Much of the progress there is localized but the domino effect of perceived acceptability helps us in neighboring states.

South America is currently on the cutting edge of the transgender sword. There have been unconscionable amount of trans murders of our southern community in the past years and it seems as if this sad trend is continuing unabated.

Many factors contribute to the numbers. One, our sisters and brothers are openly transitioning despite north American's religious rights increasing presence and influence. Two the drug wars, fueled with US dollars places many of our family directly in the line of fire.

There's no language barriers so when we are murdered in South America the world knows it.

Africa has one of the fewest reported trans murders. Again there are many reasons. Most of Africa's social climate does not allow for a person's gender to be perceived as anything other than cisnormal. In some countries such as Uganda it's a death warrant. Again, there is not many reported murders because the press won't even acknowledge us when we are alive, let alone dead.

Russia has two reported murders. Vladimir Putin and his partners in the Orthodox Church have crushed the trans community throwing our progress back centuries. This is particularly disheartening to me personally as a former cold war soldier. It has taken years of beating of LGBT activists by police to attain that brief visibility, now they are being cut off from the rest of the world, again.

The subcontinent. India's trans population is struggling mightily against embedded societal bigotry and they are winning. Neighboring countries trans populations seem to have more work to catch up.

China has only six reported murders but that can be attributed to there being so very few who have dared to transition in the country. Combined with state censorship and little access in the world wide Internet leaves our family's progress there in a perpetual stall.

Oceania apparently is leading the world in the battle against transphobia. There have only been four reported murders in this region with such excellent access to media.

So there are many contributing factors worldwide that lead to the incredibly high numbers of trans murders, but none more so than our willingness to take the risk, to put our lives on the line so the next genderations may thrive.

Rebel on!

I'll Be in Philadelphia for the LGBT Media Convening Next Weekend. Meet you there?

I'll be in Philadelphia flying out of Cow Town on Friday to attend the 4th Annual LGBT editors, bloggers, and reporters convening.

This all expense paid invitation came as a suprise as it is a first for me. I've generally been viewed as a upstart outsider partly because I am a functioning illiterate, partly because I'm a radical trans activist. But apparently thats my ticket because one of the purposes of the convening is to encourage new blood participation in the blogosphere.

This convening is supported by the National Lesbian Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) ). Bil Browning board member being crucial to the convening. The Forum is sponsored by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

Friday night we will attend a greet and meet with NBC News and Comcast. Saturday will be spent learning better how to connect with other minorities, something I say I do but in fact am not that good at.

(from the invite) Saturday night's party will be at Tavern on Camac from 9-11. Invite your local readers to come out and join the festivities; Joe.My.God. and Bilerico usually host a meetup for fans that weekend, but this year we can all co-host! The party is being thrown by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.

We'll be staying at Loews Philadelphia and after a tour of the city I will fly home on Sunday.

It's a long ways from cowtown and planetransgender grass roots. I look forward to meeting all of the people I have agreed with, argued with but all ways respected. I hope I can meet you there.

Open Letter to Angie L. Pineda, Lariet Student Newspaper

In response to Angie L. Pineda's comment left on the planetransgender post "California Saddleback College Breaks Laws Denying Public Accommodations Outing Transgender Student".

Dear Ms. Pineda,

I will take this opportunity to educate you and your staff about how to write about transgender people. I am somewhat a authority on this subject having published thousands of articles about people under our umbrella. Besides drag queens I can only recall one prior instance when a trans person was publicly equally comfortable with both gender pronouns and names.

To say it was s surprise when Kevin Balot won the Thai transgender beauty contest would be a understatement. To the best of my knowledge that was the the first time I wrote about a transgender person who identified publicly as female but was equally at ease being addressed with male pronouns and presentation.

There were no condemning responses to the multitude of articles about Kevin Balot because they were respectful in making sure the reader was aware of the trans persons extraordinary identity.

Your article did not do that. I was taken unaware as you made no effort to educate readers Natalie Smith is currently at ease with both her male and female names. That could be construed as exploitative but for the sake of argument lets just assume you are ignorant about transgender sensitivities.

Let me explain why you article was seen as problematic.

Glaad has established the industry style guide when writing about transgender victims, which Natalie Smith is.

As you can see it's not acceptable to place a trans persons name in parentheses regardless. If you still doubt Glaad and I, take a moment and sample the millions of articles about trans people on the web. You will find haters put our preferred names in parentheses to invalidate us consistently. On the whole, you will not see that practice in respectable informed media sources.

Now, I'm not suggesting you edit your article to adhere to this style guide. What I am trying to do Ms. Pineda is to educate you about what is expected from the media.

So in the future, now that you are are aware this, please help trans peoples struggle for respect by making your readers aware of extraordinary circumstances such as these so they know it's unusual to use a name other than a trans persons preferred name when writing about us. That way your articles will be received like the articles about Kevin's were, with amazement and open minds and gratitude.

Truly,
Kelli Anne Busey

Texas State Rep. Lon Burnam announces HB 1300 Freedom To Marry For ALL

Transgender Texans are 'allowed' to marry the opposite sex but sadly we know all too well that these marriages do not stand legal challenges.

And what is we want to marry a person who is of the same sex? Marriage equality is for everyone transgender, gay, cisgender or straight.

Rep. Lon Burnam announced HB 1300 (text) (current status) as his Valentine present to us. His legislation to extend the freedom to marry to all Texans, gay and straight or transgender.


Published on Feb 14, 2013



My dear friend Daniel Williams field organizer for Equality Texas, legislative expert author of Legislative Queery and amazing trans ally explains the obstacles to passing this bill:



Love ya Daniel. You rock. See you on the 11th.

Thirty seven Senators Urge President Obama To Act on ENDA

The Washington Post  published a letter signed by thirty seven Democrats urging Obama to sign a executive order banning job discrimination with companies that contract to the Federal Government.

Trickle Down Transgender Protections?

Many of us ask, OK so thats nice, cynically remembering the HR3015/3685 debacle, even if there was a executive order how would that affect me as a civilian?
Nether executive orders, legislation or company policy guarantee fair treatment, but it does affect employers perceptions on how they should treat all LGBT people.

The letter published on the Post can be read in full Here:

[Y]ou are in a position to protect millions of American workers immediately by including sexual orientation and gender identity alongside long-standing anti-discrimination protections.

As you know, ENDA would prohibit most workplaces in the United States from discriminating against potential and existing employees on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. From our perspective, ENDA’s premise is simple: it would make federal law reflect the basic principle that Americans should be judged on their skills and abilities in the workplace, and not on irrelevant factors such as their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Currently, an Executive Order prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin…Issuing an Executive Order that includes sexual orientation and gender identity is a critical step that you can take today toward ending discrimination in the workplace.

The Washington Blade reports that support for ENDA is building in the Senate:

In addition to Merkley, who has sponsored ENDA in the Senate, signers of the letter include longtime members of the chamber who’ve supported the bill, such as Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Senate Health, Labor & Pensions Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who pledged to move the ENDA legislation out of committee this year.

New faces to the Senate have also signed the letter, including Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), William Cowan (D-Mass.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only openly gay member of the Senate, is also a signer. No Republicans signed the letter, but an Independent, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), penned his name