2/26/14

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer tweets a picture of her vetoing the anti LGBT bill

The bill that would have not only allowed, but encouraged people to discriminate met a righteous demise as this afternoon as Arizona Governor Brewer put a stake through it's heart.

After her tweet meet Rocco DiGrazia, the pizza joint owner who put a face on whom the bill would have hurt. Of all the people who opposed the bill, the Republican senators, the  business owners the corporations, Rocco's voice spoke the loudest from his heart straight to Jan Brewers ears. Thank the stars she heard.





Editor's note: Rocco DiGrazia describes himself as a "failed anthropologist and thwarted musician, but a decent father and passable pizzaiolo." He owns Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson, Arizona, and is married with two children.
(CNN) -- On Wednesday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer rightly vetoed the state bill that would have allowed businesses to deny service to gay people on religious grounds. I had a bet with a friend that she wouldn't sign it -- and wonder why it took her so long. She won't take a hit to the pocketbook -- she's too savvy for that.
In the days leading up to this, I put a sign in the window of my pizzeria that said: "We reserve the right to refuse service to Arizona legislators." The reaction was vastly and overwhelmingly positive, with only a few people telling me they wouldn't ever eat at my restaurant again. Mainly, we have received many, many messages of support; phone calls, e-mails and texts, from people who live in Tucson, across the state and even from outside the United States.
Arizona pizzeria owner Rocco DiGrazia says he can\'t condone discrimination against one group of people.
Arizona pizzeria owner Rocco DiGrazia says he can't condone discrimination against one group of people.
The sign is part of a tradition we have. When I moved into the supposedly cursed restaurant space on Broadway in Tucson, Arizona, 15 years ago, I found a box of letters -- the kind you put on a marquee sign out front. By the end of the day, I had a message on the sign. We've been changing it every day since. I am often told people plan their routes to see what we have to say each day -- even if just for a chuckle.
Sometimes we put up song lyrics, or a snarky comment about someone in the news, such as Anthony Weiner. One day we put up "Free Pussy Riot." Some people get their knickers in a twist about our messages, but we do it for ourselves as much as anything.
Then I learned that the state Senate once again passed an appalling bill that attempted to save me from my fellow Arizonans. I thought, "Oh no, not again." If anything seemed ripe for parody, this was it.
It was irresistible. I instantly typed a comment on my Facebook page, saying that the busybodies in the capital of Phoenix were not allowed to come in and sit at my table. Minutes later, one of my followers supplied the sign that so eloquently expressed my viewpoint. I laminated it, and by that afternoon it was on my doors.
Since then, a lot of similar signs showed up in the windows of Tucson businesses saying "We reserve the right to serve anybody." Tucson is a little more liberal than Maricopa County and Phoenix: We're a university town. People here just don't care about things like that. At restaurants, we just serve you and smile.


2/24/14

Petition to force a vote on California Transgender students rights fails: San Fran peeps celebrate in the street


Just posted by the California Secratory of State:
"Privacy for all students" failed to gather enough VALID signatures to force a referendum of AB1266

The petition to force a public vote on AB 1266, Pupil rights: sex-segregated school programs and activities, fell short by 17,276 valid signatures. The petition needed 504,760 signatures to put the referendum on the November ballot.

The haters aren't done just yet. They want to check the signatures that were thrown out

Click to see the full spreadsheet
Karen England, co-chairwoman of 'privacy for all students told the Washington Times they have 'people lined up' for Tuesday to check the signatures.



San Diego, California News Station - KFMB Channel 8 - cbs8.com






Uganda's president signed anti LGBT bill into law

(CNN) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law Monday a bill that criminalizes homosexuality.
He had gone back and forth about the controversial bill.
Last month, Museveni said he wouldn't sign the bill, describing homosexuals as "sick" people who needed help, not imprisonment. Then he backtracked this month and said he'd sign it because scientists had determined that there's no gene for homosexuality and that it's merely abnormal behavior.
Then, last week, he said he would seek advice from American scientists before he made any decision.






Minister's proposal would allow Irish transgender people legal gender recognition at 16

Transgender people will be allowed to apply for legal recognition of their acquired gender from the earlier age of 16, under proposals Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton will bring to Government today.

Last summer Ms Burton published the draft heads of the Gender Recognition Bill which will allow transgender people to have their status recognised by the State for all purposes – including the right to marry or enter a civil partnership in the acquired gender.

After the issuing of a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection, the transgender person will be able to apply for a new birth certificate that recognises his or her acquired gender.

The person has also right to have a birth certificate that recognises his or her acquired gender. This will be done through the issuing of a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection. The transgender person will then be able to apply for a new birth certificate. However, the original draft legislation recognised those rights for people over the age of 18. Source: Irish Times

Why does Gender Recognition Legislation matter?

Trans people cannot legally change the gender on their birth certificate under any circumstance. Birth certificates are a foundational identity document and are often requested for official purposes (such as accessing social welfare, attaining a PPS number and getting married). While Ireland does, in certain cases, allow for changing gender on documents like passports and driving licences, this results in trans people having inconsistent official identification documentation. That is, a person may be recognised as one gender on certain documents and another gender on their birth certificate. The result of this can be a ‘forced outing’, where a trans person is outed as trans against their will when they apply for a job, a new passport or entry to college. Forced outing can result in harassment, discrimination and even violence.
The lack of legal recognition for trans people has also been deemed a clear human rights abuse. Presently, Ireland is the last country in the European Union that does not allow for legal recognition of trans people, despite a High Court ruling that this is incompatible with Ireland’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2009, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg stated, “There is no excuse for not immediately granting [the transgender] community their full and unconditional human rights”. source: Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) 


2/23/14

Barneys New York Brothers, Sisters, Sons, & Daughters: The Film

This one is for you Candy Darling.

Arin Andrews, Edie Charles, Valentijn de Hingh, Ashley de la Cruz, Sawyer Devuyst, Peche Di, Dezjorn Gauthier, Trevon Haynes, Katie Hill, Eve Lindley, Niki M’nray, Ryley Pogensky, Ines Rau, May Simon, Ahya Taylor, Maxie Neu, and Gisele Xtravaganza.

These seventeen extraordinary men and women, transgender individuals with diverse experiences and unique personal stories, are the faces of Barneys New York’s Spring 2014 campaign: Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters, which launches today exclusively on The Window.



Directed by Bruce Weber, Brothers, Sisters, Sons, & Daughters takes a closer look at the lives of seventeen transgender individuals and allows them to tell their stories in their own words.

Even on her death bed Candy Darling was the star
She lives on today in the hearts of all who knew her..


Transgender Purple heart recipient abused by Houston VA hospital

Born intersex and raised as a male Charlene Lauderdale found herself identifing more as a female later in life.





video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player