This And That In The News

This and That in the News is articles in the news that have caught my eye and I want to share or comment about.

Sometimes we forget about trans-people around the world when we think about the progress we have made. Consider Kuwait…

Kuwait Times
January 15, 2012

KUWAIT: Arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and sexual assaults on transgender persons have increased in Kuwait during the last four years, says the Human Rights Watch (HRW). Transgender ‘women’ are individuals who are born male but identify themselves as female. “They hunt us down for fun” was the title of a HRW report on the issue of transgender, launched at the Le Royal Hotel yesterday.

Nadim Houry, HRW Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, slammed authorities for using Article 198 of the amended 2007 law to arrest, abuse and persecute a transgender. The 63-page report bears documents and testimonies by transgender women victimized by Kuwaiti police since 2008.

“The law has been a huge enabling factor to arrest and abuse members of the transgender. It is like giving a green light to authorities, not only to police but even members of society, to arrest and torture transgender persons and use force and impunity against them.”
[…]
Transgender women reported being arrested even when they were wearing male clothing and then later being forced by police to dress in women’s clothing. In some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, transgender women said police arrested them because they had a “soft voice” or “smooth skin.” Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East Director, noted in a statement that “No one-regardless of his or her gender identity-deserves to be arrested on the basis of a vague, arbitrary law and then abused and tortured by police.”

Sometimes we do not know how lucky we are to living here in the United States, sometimes we do not know how lucky we are to living here in Connecticut.

Sometimes we do not know how lucky we are to be white,

Why Black Gay and Transgender Americans Need More than Marriage Equality
Center for American Progress
January 19, 2012

Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, Americans continue to experience stark social, economic, and health disparities despite significant gains in securing basic rights for LGBT people over the last decade. According to recent data families headed by black same-sex couples are more likely to raise their children in poverty, black lesbians are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, and black LGBT youth are more likely to end up homeless and living on the streets.

These statistics suggests that some of the high-profile gay policy priorities that have garnered the most attention and advocacy—such as marriage equality—underserve this population even though they are important for overall progress. This also applies to racial and economic justice priorities that overlook gay and transgender people within their constituencies. How can we make progress in bridging these gaps?

The next article is about a person that I have known since his transition…

True LGBTQ Stories: Transgender Man Receives Apology, Respect After 5-Year Wait (VIDEO)
Huffington Post
By Nathan Manske
Posted: 1/13/12

Dru Levasseur, prior to coming out as a transgender man, was very active in the lesbian community:

It was a really scary time, when I was starting to realize I was trans. I had had a lesbian wedding -- two white dresses -- and was very visibly a lesbian. I was very much identifying with that culture, and gay bars were the place I could go to feel safe and feel like I could be myself.

In the summer of 2003, Dru's best friend suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage at age 29. The night he found out, he wanted to go to a gay bar to cope with the horrible news. While there he decided to use the men's bathroom for the first time:

This was a really scary, courageous step to take for me... Unfortunately, this bouncer came in after me and said, 'You're in the wrong bathroom.' Because of what happened with my best friend and what I was going through at the time, I responded, 'No, I'm not,' and I wasn't gonna leave.

The confrontation escalated, and the bouncer asked for Dru's ID:

Of course, I felt scared of him. I pulled out my ID and it had an 'F' on it. I felt very ashamed and embarrassed about it, and really degraded. I felt very powerless, handing him my ID. He looked at it and said, 'See? Get out.'

Following the interaction, Dru decided to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission:

The lesbians that own the bar said during the hearing, "We don't have to do anything for those people." That was my wake-up call that my community of 10 to 12 years was turning on me. After all of that was said and done, I never got an apology.

Five years later Dru got his apology from her when Dru was organizing the first trans-pride in Northampton MA. Dru is now a lawyer with Lambda Legal and has worked on many court cases that has broaden our human rights. His parents were one of the leaders that helped us pass the Connecticut gender inclusive anti-discrimination legislation.