This And That In The News – Trans Issues

"This And That In The News" is about articles in the news that have caught my eye and I want to share or comment about. These are the articles that caught my attention the last couple of weeks.

First we start off in New Hampshire…

New Hampshire Governor Makes Inclusiveness the Order of the Day
OutServe
Op-ed By Karen Morgan
New Durham, New Hampshire
January 9, 2013

Last week, Governor Hassan spoke about the importance of being inclusive.  She spoke about bringing people in from the margins of society and of how these actions can make our state and our nation stronger…

Hmmm… I wonder does the governor also include trans-people when she talks about inclusion and the “margins of society?” If you remember it was in New Hampshire where the gender inclusive anti-discrimination legislation got so badly trounced that not even the sponsors of the bill voted for it.

The next article is not about trans-issues but it is of importance to us,

Marines tell spouses clubs: admit same-sex spouses
Federal Radio News
Wednesday - 1/9/2013, 5:15pm EST
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - The Marine Corps has advised its legal staff that spouses clubs operating on its installations must admit same-sex spouses if they wish to remain on the bases.

It's a step that the other service branches have not yet announced as they grapple with how to accommodate same-sex couples following repeal of the don't ask, don't tell policy that barred gays and lesbians from serving openly.

Underscoring the challenges, the Marines' legal advisory _ obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press _ refers to an ongoing controversy at the Army's Fort Bragg in North Carolina where the officers' spouses club has denied admission to a same-sex spouse.

The Marine Corps commandant's Staff Judge Advocate, in an e-mail to legal offices throughout the corps, said the Fort Bragg events had "caused quite a stir" and cautioned, "We do not want a story like this developing in our backyard."

The memo noted that spouses clubs and various other private institutions are allowed to operate on bases only if they adhere to a non-discrimination policy encompassing race, religion, gender, age, disability and national origin.

"We would interpret a spouses club's decision to exclude a same-sex spouse as sexual discrimination because the exclusion was based upon the spouse's sex," the memo said.

They are on government property, therefore they should be open to all service members and their families. I hope that one day it will also include trans-service members.

The next article is about one part of the trans-community that faces discrimination and oppression, the Latino community.

Transgender Latinos forge their own path, help others
NBC Latino
By Erika L. Sánchez
01/04/2013

At the Clínica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights, Victoria Ortega, 33, focuses on women’s health, HIV prevention, beautification, and safety. As a transgender woman and community organizer, she actively incorporates LGBTQ issues into her community-building in the neighborhood.
[…]
Latino/a transgender people often live in extreme poverty. According to a National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) survey, twenty-eight percent of transgender Latinos reported a household income of less than $10,000 a year, which is nearly double the rate for transgender people of all races, more than five times the general Latino/a population rate, and seven times the general U.S. population rate. For non-citizen Latino/a participants, the poverty rate was 43 percent. The unemployment rate for Latino/a transgender people is 20 percent.

When someone transitions in a community that is already marginalized they not only face the oppression that their community faces but also the additional discrimination because they are trans. The affects are not additional but multiplicational.

Lastly, in San Francisco a trans-woman is suing his former school and employer for discrimination.

San Francisco transgender man sues school over alleged mistreatment
S.F. Examiner
By: Chris Roberts
1/14/13 8:44 PM

A man is suing his former school and employer, alleging that positive reviews and recommendations all turned sour and that his supervisors took retaliatory actions after he disclosed his transgender status.
[…]
All of a sudden, positive reviews turned to bad ones, and a promised postdoctoral internship evaporated. One of his supervisors began repeatedly using the word “tranny” in his presence and school records were altered in an attempt to deny him a job, Bennett alleges in a lawsuit filed late last year against the university’s California School of Professional Psychology.
[…]
Milnes allegedly repeatedly used the word “tranny” in front of Bennett in class, and Wells allegedly told peers and supervisors to “watch Bennett” and “make sure he doesn’t do anything inappropriate,” according to the lawsuit, which alleges workplace discrimination and harassment and failure to promote.
[…]
“We pride ourselves on our diversity,” she [Alliant Vice President Jennifer Wilson] said. “We would never condone transgender discrimination.”

Schools and businesses may have the best non-discrimination policies on record but if they don’t enforce them or only pay lip service to the policies you are going to have incidents like this. And talk about discrimination, the newspaper should give their reporters training in the proper use of pronouns. The misuse of pronoun is almost, if not the same as the discrimination she faced at work.