A week ago, Cromwell High School allowed Andraya Yearwood, a female transgender student, to run on the girls’ track team. The school was supportive of Andraya’s transition and decision to run on the team, as were the schools against which she ran, according to news reports. This wonderful acceptance of Andraya as she is resonates with me — as a transgender person, I know this kind of respect is not always accorded transgender people.
Every April we celebrate Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a national campaign that aims to empower survivors and to call for action in the fight to end sexual violence. The month-long event brings people together from college campuses to advocacy organizations in a powerful display of solidarity that helps to remind survivors that they are not alone, that they have a voice, and that they deserve respect.
Identity — gender, sexual orientation, or the connection to one’s own race or ethnicity — plays a pivotal role in all our lives. But it is especially crucial to those who have to earn the right to express it.
The right to one’s own identity is something still being fought for in many marginalized communities, and when something so precious is reduced to a thing, a thing desired solely for sexual pleasure, it hurts in a very deep way. This is what can happen when a transgender person encounters a “chaser” — someone who has a “fetish” for transgender bodies.
#TRANSformTech is this week in San Francisco! If you’re trans or gender nonconforming and interested/working in tech, this is the conference for you!
*No cost tickets (not including transportation) available for community with limited means. DM us for more info. http://bit.ly/TransformTech
I used to tell everyone I wasn’t going to make it past 30 because I was convinced that I wasn’t. I was suicidal and pretty much a hermit—everything was wrong but I didn’t know why. Then I realized it was because I wasn’t living as a woman, so at 29 I decided to transition. I started to go out and meet people, and I learned that North Carolina isn’t really friendly toward transgender people. People just get quiet around you, they whisper. And my family was in shock. They tried to be supportive, but I don’t think they could cope with missing the son they had loved and raised—we haven’t really talked much since.
We’re thrilled to invite you to TRANSform Tech, a summit for transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people in tech!
TRANSform Tech welcomes TGNC people who are currently working in these fields, those who are interested, as well as companies and businesses who want to grow more in this area. The summit will include TGNC people, advocates, and experts in a multi-format, daylong event.
This commercial is redefining India’s traditional family.
The touching short film above, which Procter & Gamble’s Vicks created, tells the true story of a young orphan in India named Gayatri who was adopted by 37-year-old Gauri Sawant, a transgender woman and social activist who lives in Mumbai.
On the way to boarding school, Gayatri recounts her life, her adoption and meeting her new mother, Sawant, for the very first time. Gayatri says that her mother sends her to boarding school so she can one day be a doctor. But Gayatri says she wants to be a lawyer instead, so she can fight for the rights of people who are like her mom.
“My civics book says that everyone is entitled to basic rights,” Gayatri says. “Then why is my mom denied them?”
Queer and trans immigrants rights activists in Phoenix blocked the route of the city’s Pride parade on Sunday with a huge banner that read “no justice, no pride.”
About 100 activists blocked the parade for roughly 5 minutes, just as the Phoenix Police Department float and the newly elected Maricopa County Sheriff, Paul Penzone, started marching. The protesters actually took over the route immediately behind the police float and blocked Penzone from continuing.
The doc follows a year in the life of Zoey Luna, a 13-year-old girl living in California with her mother, Ofelia, and her older sister, Letty. Like many other girls her age, Zoey wants nothing more than to enjoy her life and have a great group of friends. But facing a willfully ignorant and intolerant community, especially at her school, made her childhood and teenage years a difficult time in her life. Chronicling the support she got from her mother and sister and the eventual legal fight they all became involved in as they sought to protect Zoey’s right to self-expression at school, Raising Zoey puts a Latina face on the ongoing battles trans youth have to wage every day.
Even amid the swell of anti-LGBT legislation being introduced by conservative lawmakers, it would be wrong to make assumptions and generalize about religious people and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, rights. Communities of faith are broadly supportive of the LGBT community, including transgender people. People of faith are especially concerned about bullying and protecting transgender people through comprehensive nondiscrimination policies, and many have expressed their support for the transgender community through the passage and implementation of denominationwide policies. In fact, apart from a small vocal minority, many diverse faith traditions show majority support for transgender rights and inclusionary policies both in and outside houses of worship.
princesskane
“Gender identity is the color I get to put on the pages of my personal coloring book.”
Only I get to decide what that looks like and trust me, it’s fantastic! #transTRUTH