This And That In News

A couple of articles caught my attention yesterday; the first is about Ohio’s Republican governor sign an executive order giving state LGBTQ employees protections and the other article is about Colombia trying a murderer of a trans woman as a hate crime.

Gov. Kasich Issues New Executive Order to Protect all LGBTQ State Employees
Ohio Equality
By Grant Stancliff
December 19, 2018

Today, Governor John Kasich issued Executive Order 2018-12K to take a significant step in ensuring that all Ohioans, including LGBTQ Ohioans, are protected from discrimination in state employment. This Executive Order explicitly prohibits discrimination in state employment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and other protected bases such as race, color, religion, age, and disability.

Today’s Executive Order builds on a previous order issued by Governor Kasich, which had only protected lesbian, gay, and bisexual state employees. By adding gender identity and expression in his latest Executive Order today, Governor Kasich showed leadership in ensuring that transgender and genderqueer Ohioans have the employment protections they deserve.

Maybe some Republicans are seeing the light and breaking away from the extremism of the national Republican Party.

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Down in South America Colombia they are charging a killer of a trans woman with a hate crime.

For the first time, Colombia prosecutes a transgender woman's murder as a femicide
“This shows a change in the way the judiciary and the prosecution are dealing with crimes based on prejudice," said the deceased family's attorney.
NBC News
By Nicole Acevedo
December 19, 2018

In a historic ruling, Colombia prosecuted the murder of a transgender woman as a femicide.

Colombia instituted its femicide law — also known as the “Ley Rosa Elvira Cely,” named after a woman who was brutally killed and raped in 2012.

Under the Rosa Elvira Cely law, the killing of a woman for simply being a woman or for how she expresses her gender identity or sexual orientation is considered a femicide.

Davinson Stiven Erazo Sánchez, 23, was sentenced to twenty years in a psychiatric center for “aggravated femicide”— a year after he fatally shot Anyela Ramos Claros, a transgender woman who used to run her own beauty salon.

This is doubly important to us, first that the murdered was convicted of a hate crime and that she was recognized as a woman (too bad it a death to bring about change).

“This shows a change in the way the judiciary and the prosecution are dealing with crimes based on prejudice. Clearly, there’s still much to be done in both the State and civil society; we are willing to contribute what we can,” said the lawyers who represented Ramos Claros’ family in a statement provided to Colombia Diversa.

Hopefully this is the start of a new movement down in South and Central America in protecting trans rights.