Excerpted from a press release entitled Lambda Legal Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Woman Whose Job Offer Was Revoked Because She is Transgender, published Dec 18, 2006, by the pro-homosexuality legal advocacy organization Lambda Legal:

Today, Lambda Legal has filed papers in federal court in the Southern District of Texas on behalf of a transgender woman whose employment offer was rescinded because she is transgender…

Lambda Legal filed Lopez v. River Oaks in the Southern District of Texas in the Fifth Circuit of the federal court system. The lawsuit charges that River Oaks violated Lopez’s rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment…

Lopez v. River Oaks is Lambda Legal’s latest lawsuit in its Blow the Whistle campaign to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and those with HIV in the workplace. At Lambda Legal’s Blow the Whistle campaign website visitors can learn how to share their own stories of workplace discrimination or become an ally to others in the Blow the Whistle campaign. Employers, unions, coworkers, customers and clients can all serve as important allies for fairness in the workplace.

Continue reading at Lambda Legal…

Excerpted from Transgender Woman Sues Would-Be Employer, by Cindy George, published Dec 19, 2006, by Houston Chronicle:

A man who lives as a woman sued a would-be employer Monday for allegedly revoking a job offer after realizing she is transgender.

Izza Lopez, 26, filed the lawsuit in federal court against Houston-based River Oaks Imaging and Diagnostic. She alleges employment discrimination.

She is seeking damages for lost pay and benefits, and for emotional distress, pain and suffering.

The suit says company officials told Lopez she misrepresented herself as a woman. Lopez had been hired to manage appointments, it says…

You might recall that Tyrone Hanley was on the “sex worker” panel at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force 2006 Creating Change conference.

From the pro-transexuality Gender Public Advocacy Coalition on Dec 17, 2006:

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) today announced a grant of $125,000 from the Ford Foundation to develop new partnerships with community youth groups combating the crisis of masculinity among young men of color.

…The new effort, named “Community Partners,” is an expansion of GenderPAC’s GenderYOUTH Network, which empowers youth leaders to ensure classrooms and communities are safe for everyone – whether or not they fit stereotypes for masculinity or femininity. The Network currently supports student leaders on 55 campuses in 27 states.

Said Tyrone Hanley (pictured right), GenderYOUTH Coordinator, “These funds will enable us to better reach off-campus youth in local communities. They will also enable us to better address intersections of race and gender and the strong pressures many youth of color face when it comes to codes of masculinity and femininity.”

As an initial step in this new work, the GenderYOUTH spring campaign HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, will focus on issues of misogyny, homophobia, and violent codes of masculinity in hip-hop culture and the larger American society. It is designed to help GenderYOUTH chapters hold mainstream culture accountable for perpetuating gender stereotypes, particularly among youth of color.

The campaign is part of a national effort also named HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, after the groundbreaking documentary of the same name by filmmaker Byron Hurt. The documentary examines representations of manhood, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture and will premiere February 20, 2007 on PBS. (For more information: www.itvs.org/outreach/hiphop).

A new GenderPAC human rights report documents an under-reported epidemic of murderous violence that has claimed the lives of more than 50 youth and young adults since 1995 because of their gender identity or expression – 92% of the victims were Black or Latina, and most were killed by young men their own age.

“These deaths are about young using murderous aggression to enforce standards of masculinity on other youth, and this grant will enable us to focus on underlying attitudes that foster such violence,” said Riki Wilchins, Executive Director of GenderPAC. “We thank the Ford Foundation for this amazing opportunity.”

Continue reading at GenderPAC…

Excerpted from New Jersey Lawmakers Pass Transgender Rights Bill, published Dec 14, 2006, by the pro-homosexuality PlanetOut:

The New Jersey state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that would make the Garden State the ninth in the nation to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression. The bill, passed by the state Senate on Monday, now goes to Gov. Jon Corzine, who is expected to sign it.

“The legislation in New Jersey represents a huge civil rights victory for transgender communities,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement.

“I applaud the amazing efforts of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, Garden State Equality, and local advocates who showed that when we stand up for what’s right, we can win. While we celebrate that one-third of the US population is now covered, NCTE continues to fight for explicitly transgender-inclusive protections on the federal level.”

New Jersey’s new law prohibits discriminatory practices in employment, housing and public accommodations based on “gender identity or expression” — the legislative language that covers transgender people.

Continue reading at PlanetOut…

Excerpted from Too Much Information?, by Peggy Noonan, published May 5, 2005, by Wall Street Journal:

I was at a wedding, standing just off the dance floor, when a pleasant young man in his 20s approached, introduced himself and asked where I’d had my hair done. I shook his offered hand and began to answer, but before I could he said, “I’m gay, by the way.”

I nodded as if this were my business, but thought: I wonder why a total stranger thinks I want to know what he wishes to do with his genitals? What an odd way to say hello.

We live in a time in which people routinely violate their own privacy.

I don’t think the young man lacked a sense of privacy. I suspect if I’d said, “Tell me your annual salary,” he would have bridled. That’s personal.

Maybe he wanted me to approve (“That’s wonderful!”) or disapprove (“Unclean!”). Maybe he felt compelled to announce his orientation because homosexuals are so often told that not to declare is to be closeted, and to be closeted is shameful. Maybe he was doing what he thinks he must to do to show integrity.

Whatever his thinking, it has occurred to me that in the old, clucking, busybody America it was not unusual to meet people who needed to be told, “That’s none of your business.”

But in the new and infinitely stranger America there are a lot of people who need to be told, “Buddy, that’s none of my business.”

Or, as people began saying about five years ago, “Too much information!”

Continue reading in Wall Street Journal…

For background, see New York on the Cutting Edge of Gender Confusion.

Excerpted from NY Rejects Transgender Birth Certificate Law, by Daniel Trotta, published Dec 5, 2006, by Reuters:

New York City’s health department on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have allowed transgender people to switch the gender on their birth certificates without a sex-change operation.

…The health department cited “broader societal ramifications” for killing the proposal, noting that hospitals, schools and jails still must classify people by gender.”For example, how can you send a person with a penis to a women’s prison?” said one health department official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the department.

Continue reading at Reuters…

by Sonja Dalton

CosmoGirl! editors have become “conversant with queer issues,” according to a pro-lesbian website.

In an article entitled CosmoGirl! Includes Queer Peers (published Aug 8, 2006, by afterellen.com), writer Rose Yndigoyen says,

“Over the past few years, CosmoGirl! has subtly but steadily included stories from and about lesbian, bisexual and questioning girls, as well as coverage of LGBT issues amid the more traditional teen magazine fare of quizzes and heartthrob interviews.”

Ms. Yndigoyen offers this sample of Cosmo’s foray into lesbian love stories for adolescent girls:

When my family moved to a small town in Illinois, I’d been having mixed feelings for about a year. All I could think about was who did I like — boys or girls? One day at my new school, I was in the locker room.

All the girls were taking showers when one of them saw me looking at some of them and made mean comments about me being a “lesbo.” Everyone left in a hurry after she said it, except for this one girl. I didn’t notice that she was there so I got dressed, sat on the ground and started bawling my eyes out.

Suddenly she came up and put her arm around me — she didn’t have to say anything. I could tell from that moment there was a connection. Later on, after a long talk about my feelings, I told her I felt comfortable with her and had never felt that way with a girl. Then she kissed me.

I almost pulled back, but I stopped myself and put my hand on her face. I never wanted it to end, and I knew at that moment I’d never forget it, because it was my first kiss with a girl.

Wonder why Cosmo is writing about lesbian teenagers? Ms. Yndigoyen explains:

• 60 percent of CosmoGirl! readers revealed that they have a friend who is gay or bisexual, and
• 63 percent of readers support “gay marriage.”

Click HERE to see photos from “Transgender” Awareness Week, Nov 13-20, 2006, in Tucson, AZ.

Mayor Bob Walkup signed an official proclamation commemorating “transgenders”:

Dr. Albert Mohler discusses the New York Times article on “transgender” children and also interviews Rabbi Bruce Ginsberg, cantor for the Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere, NY, regarding the controversy within conservative Judaism over interpretations of Scripture regarding homosexuality.

Click HERE to listen.