2/20/13

ต่อไปนายกเทศมนตรีกรุงเทพมหานคร A เพื่อนคน Transgender | Leading Candidate Courts Thai Trans Votes

บางที หรือบางทีไม่ Maybe, but then maybe not.

Pongsapat Pongcharoen the leading candidate in the race to become the next mayor of Bangkok has released a campaign video with many transgender faces, but no policies.



Source: Global Post His ad also runs through a list of Thai-language sexual identities that will prove dizzying to the uninitiated. In addition to "kathoeys," he's embracing mainstream gay identities in Thailand such as "toms" (butch lesbians) and "dees" (lipstick lesbians). And he's also thrown in few highly obscure identifications that drove me to the wilderness of Thai message boards. (A "cherry," I've just learned, is a non-transgendered woman seeking a kathoey.)

What's the takeaway here?

Perhaps it's that, in the 21st century, we can finally envision a society in which politicians eager for power practice equal opportunity pandering.


Perhaps or maybe Pongsapat Pongcharoen was so impressed with the global transgender community which stood with the Thai trans community compelling IKEA to apologize for their problematic transgender ad he decided to court us politically.

It is our T.E.R.N. Transgender Equality Right Now. Not just in one country. We are worldwide.



Montana Transgender Rights Bill 481 Gets First House Hearing

Click Here To Watch Video On NBC
Montana House Bill HB 481 PDF received its first Judicial committee hearing Tuesday. The bill containing public accommodation provisions still has two more hearing before it can be voted on the House floor.

There were many proponents of the bill but one opponent, Dallas Erickson using the time tested fail fear mongering approach claimed the bill would ruin the state for religion.

The group Erickson claims to represent "Help Our Moral Environment" has no web address that I could locate but is listed by Guide Star without a mission statement or any validating information.

Source Bear Tooth NBC "By the end of the hearing, committee members clarified the goal of the bill. A proponent assured the committee the bill would not change any
definitions that apply to the Montana Human Rights Act, including
distinctly private organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold 2 more hearings on the bill
before taking executive action. If the bill passes, it will go to the
House floor for a full debate.


2/19/13

Body Discovered In Dumpster Near Where Transgender Rapper Evon (Young LT) Young Was Murdered


The badly decomposed mutilated body discovered last night had been covered in a white sheet was less than a mile and a half from where Evon Young LT was murdered. The police have yet to identify the body. I will update when they make a identification.

Although five people have been charged with Young's murder his body has not been recovered. The police gave up trying to finding him in the Menominee landfill last week.

*Update Feb 20: The lawyers of the five who are charged with murderering Evon were in court for a hearing the 19th .

WTMJ has more on this story.

2/18/13

Vida Plena Negado: Trans Woman Slain in Mexico Minutes From Where Anges Torres Was Murdered

A young trans woman was found dead in Santa Isabel Cholula with her head stove in, her body showing signs of torture according to Sinembargo.mx.

This murder is only 21 Kilometers from Puebla Mexico where trans activist Anges Torres was burned to death in 2012.

Source Sinembargo.mx:

For his part, the President of Vida Plena(Full Life) organization, dedicated to the defence of homosexual rights, Onán Vázquez Chávez, said that "there are indications to suspect that it is a crime for homophobia".

Vazquez recalled that in the past 14 years is a record reading of 29 crimes by homophobia in that State, of which only four have been resolved by the authorities.

"They are committing these crimes with the certainty that the authorities will not do anything and that is unfortunate," said the leader of Vida Plena.
Source Wikipedia on LGBT rights mexico:
Former assistant attorney for crime victims at the Federal District Attorney General's Office (PGJDF) Barbara Illan Rondero strongly criticized the lack of sensitivity and professionalism on the part of investigators in crimes committed against homosexuals and lesbians:

"I still can't determine if this is due to negligence, lack of preparation or down-right covering up, and is a matter that has to do with the intention of not solving these crimes because they carry no weight of importance".[19]
Alejandro Brito Lemus, director of the news supplement Letra S (Letter S), claimed that only four percent of gays and lesbians who suffer from discrimination present their complaints to authorities:

"In spite of the gravity of the aggressions suffered, the majority of gays, lesbians and transsexuals prefer to keep silent about what happens and to remain isolated in fear of being attacked again in revealing their sexual orientation".

2/17/13

The Table is Set: A Teen "Son" Tells her Mom She's Really A Girl. ABC's What Would You Do?

CLICK Here Opens Video In a New Window



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.