Shelter sued for rejecting trans women

By  
Lakiesha Washington, gay news, Washington Blade

Lakiesha Washington (Photo courtesy Andy Bowen)

A privately operated shelter for homeless women funded by the D.C. government is violating the D.C. Human Rights Act by refusing to admit transgender women unless they provide “documentation” of a legal name change or gender reassignment surgery, according to separate complaints against the facility by two transgender women, as reported earlier this week by the Washington Blade. In a lawsuit filed April 5 in D.C. Superior Court and a complaint filed with the D.C. Office of Human Rights on March 22, the two women charge that employees at the John L. Young Women’s Shelter at 119 D Street, N.W. said they could not be admitted because of their status as transgender women.

The shelter is located three blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a large building that houses shelters operated by other groups, including one of the city’s largest shelters run by the Community for Creative Non-Violence, a group that has advocate for the homeless since the 1980s. An attorney with the D.C. Trans Coalition filed the lawsuit on behalf of Lakiesha Washington against New Hope Ministries, Inc. of Woodbridge, Va., which operates the John L. Young Women’s Shelter under a city funded contract.

The lawsuit says Washington, who was homeless, attempted to gain admission to the shelter on April 3, when the lawsuit says the alleged discriminatory action took place. An unidentified female employee at the shelter asked Washington, “Are you a woman or a man,” the lawsuit says. “Ms. Washington replied, ‘I’m a transgender woman.’ The employee then asked Ms. Washington if she had any documentation, to which Ms. Washington replied that she did not.”

The lawsuit says the employee then told Washington, “We don’t do transgenders here. You have to leave.”

Click the header link to read the full article.

LGBT museum planned for Washington DC

by  
TW: mention of Tyler Clementi suicide
The museum is still in planning and fundraising stages

A researcher for the Smithsonian Institute and his furniture magnate husband have announced their intentions to open an LGBT American history museum in the US capital city of Washington DC. According to the Washington Post, Tim and Mitchell Gold have said that they are in the process of raising money and collecting pieces to form the exhibits for the planned museum. Tim Gold said that he had so far collected 5,000 objects that had significant meaning in gay history.

The collection includes posters and placards from historical protests and a film strip of a 1970 gay pride parade in New York. It also includes more sombre objects, such as the violin belonging to Tyler Clementi, the student who killed himself in 2010 after his roommate secretly recorded footage of him kissing a man and then posted it online.

“So much of our history is unfortunately thrown out,” Tim Gold said, explaining that his collection would probably have been much larger already if being LGBT hadn’t been considered taboo by the families of early activists.

He summed up his vision for the museum by saying: “We are going to tell American stories. We are going to tell American history, but we are going to do it through the lens of the LGBT story.

“This isn’t a museum just for gay people or just for lesbian people or just for transgender people,” he continued. “I want anyone who walks through this door to be able to take something away from the experience.”

Joe Solmonese, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, pledged his support for the museum as a way of educating America about its LGBT population and progressing civil rights.

“Every advance that we’ve made has been brought about because we’ve been able to change the hearts and minds of the American people in a pretty significant way, and in the context of history, in a fairly rapid way,” he said. “And I see the museum as doing just that.”

The project does have its detractors. Peter Sprigg of the Christian anti-gay group Family Research Council said that while he would not try to block the museum’s creation - as long as it didn’t receive public funding - he did not feel that it would benefit anyone.

“In that I expect it to celebrate a form of sexual behaviour that we believe is harmful to the people who engage in it and society at large, I wouldn’t consider it a welcome development,” he said.

The museum is still in planning and fundraising stages and it will be several years before it could potentially open its doors.

ryansallans: D.C. ADVERTISES FOR TRANSGENDER ACCEPTANCE This well researched article by Miriam Zoila Perez explores the Trans-Awareness Ad Campaign that was rolled-out in Washington D.C. in 2012. I was fortunate to be one of the individuals Miriam interviewed for this article.  You can learn more about Miriam’s work by visiting her tumblr blog here.  -Ryan
View Separately

ryansallans:

D.C. ADVERTISES FOR TRANSGENDER ACCEPTANCE

This well researched article by Miriam Zoila Perez explores the Trans-Awareness Ad Campaign that was rolled-out in Washington D.C. in 2012. I was fortunate to be one of the individuals Miriam interviewed for this article. 

You can learn more about Miriam’s work by visiting her tumblr blog here. 

-Ryan

LGBT Latino/a center will open in D.C.

gaywrites:

Washington, D.C. will soon have a new LGBT community services center catering particularly to the Latino/a community, according to the center’s new director. 

Trans activist Ruby Corado, the founder and director of the LGBT center, says Casa Ruby will be open to everyone, but will focus primarily on Latinos/as. Every person on the all-volunteer staff will speak both English and Spanish. More details from the Washington Blade:

Among other things, Corado said she envisions Casa Ruby as a one-stop community service center for Latino LGBT people that will provide support and referrals to other service providers on such matters as immigration issues, substance abuse, domestic violence, counseling, employment services and HIV/AIDS education and prevention. …

“I want this to this to sort of be a home,” she said. “I want them to feel this is their place. If they don’t have anything out there for their needs like a place to stay I want them to come and I will help them find that.”

More and more LGBT groups are acknowledging the need for outreach to communities of color, such as the Latino/a community, which is fabulous. This is a really great, much-needed thing and I wish them the best. 

Hate crimes on the rise, no one knows why

After a rash of violence, claims of inaction and hours of back-and-forth, one thing is clear: D.C. police and the city’s transgender community can’t agree on a single thing.

Councilmember Phil Mendelson, chair of the Committee on the Judiciary, called a hate crimes hearing in response to recent attacks against members of the transgender community. He expressed a deep desire to understand why they are happening and what can be done to prevent them.

No one could provide an answer Wednesday evening.

“Trans people have always reported feeling unsafe when going about their lives in D.C.,” said Jason Terry, an organizer from the DC Trans Coalition. “After this past summer, that feeling has been exacerbated.”

Man Identified, Transgender Shooting Suspect Arrested in D.C. | advocate.com

By Julie Bolcer

2300 block of Savannah Street SE x390 (grab) | ADVOCATE.COM

Police in Washington, D.C., have identified a possible homicide victim initially thought to be a transgender woman as Gaurav Gopalan, and in a separate case, arrested a man suspected of shooting a transgender woman on Monday.

The Washington Blade reports on the identification of Gopalan, 35, who was found dead early Saturday morning in northwest D.C. wearing women’s clothes, makeup, and carrying high heels. Police thought he may have been transgender, but local responses to a photo released by the city medical examiner’s office suggested he was a gay man, perhaps dressed in drag. The cause of death remained undetermined.

Also on Tuesday, police arrested a northeast D.C. man, Darryl Willard, and charged him with assault with intent to kill for shooting a transgender woman in southeast D.C. early Monday morning. The shooter turned himself in and the victim, who was not identified, is expected to survive.

According to the The Washington Times, “Police said the shooting did not appear to be related to two earlier shootings this summer that targeted transgendered women.”

The shooting and possible homicide heightened existing concerns about an apparent pattern of targeted violence against transgender women in D.C. Since July, at least one woman has been murdered and another shot in a northeast D.C. neighborhood, with no suspects identified. Also last month, a drunk off-duty police officer fired on a group of three transgender women and two friends in northwest D.C.

Regional Field Organizer; Human Rights Campaign; Washington DC

lgbtjobs:

work with a Regional Field Director to execute HRC’s field organizing activities in a region, including maintaining and expanding HRC’s ability to mobilize grassroots advocacy on behalf of federal and state lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legislative priorities, and designing and implementing grassroots electoral and campaign strategies in support of federal candidates, state candidates and ballot initiatives. The Regional Field Organizer will also work to increase HRC’s visibility and presence in the region and improve contacts with state and local LGBT organizations.

D.C. activists fight back against violence targeting trans women

cassket:

Another hate crime against trans women in the D.C. area, this one by an off-duty police officer no less, sheds a glaring flood light on the work ahead in challenging gender-based violence.

Last week, the off-duty District police officer allegedly fired a pistol at three transgender women and two male friends while the group was sitting in a car on a city street, after propositioning them for sex and being turned down. The police issued a statement saying three people “sustained non-life threatening injuries” and that the officer involved was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and driving while intoxicated. What the statement didn’t explain, but was clarified by Jeri Hughes ofTransgender Health Empowerment, was that one of the trans women involved was struck by a bullet in the hand, another was grazed by a bullet, and one of the men in the car–identified as the brother of one of the women–sustained a “very serious” gunshot wound and was in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital.

A rally was held Friday by a coalition of LGBT organizations that brought out some impassioned speakers and even some political powerhouses, like D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. While it’s heartening to see people like the mayor acknowledge that this is a critical and ongoing issue and see the police force responding rapidly and ethically, there’s so much urgent work left to do.

 For starters, the public must be educated about the ways in which this incident, and the many others like it that have happened in recent months and years, are not symptomatic of individual bad apples, but a culture that still condones violence against anyone that doesn’t conform to the gender binary. The DC Trans Coalition summarizes:

Violence against trans women does not only exist as individual hatred or bias-motivated crime. It comes in many forms and for many reasons. Trans women are systematically placed in circumstances where we are more likely than others to experience multiple forms of violence. In order to end violence against trans women, it is important to understand that more than just personal prejudices are at fault. Other kinds of oppression like racism, laws like the criminalization of sex work, economic forces like poverty and gentrification, and many other forces are also at play.

As with all feminist issues, the recent rash of violence against trans women demonstrates just how intertwined oppressions become, and how much sweat, vision, and audacity will be needed to untangle and challenge the dangerous and discriminatory status quo in this country and beyond. In practical terms, that means taking the first steps to expressing solidarity by showing up these rallies, supporting these organizations, and educating those in your own community about the ongoing existence of this kind of immoral and unacceptable violence. This is all of our fight.

(via )

Source: feministing.com

Center faces displacement again

The planned construction of a new hotel could force the D.C. LGBT community center out of its current storefront location at 1318 U St., N.W., as soon as June 2012, according to Center executive director David Mariner.

Mariner said the Center’s landlord, JBG Properties, just informed him that it could no longer renew leases of tenants along the 1300 block of U Street beyond June 2012. He said JBG officials cited plans to demolish all buildings along more than half of the south side of the block, including the Center’s building, to make way for the hotel.

“We don’t know the exact date because we don’t know what the timeline for the construction will be,” Mariner said. “We could be asked to leave as soon as June 2012, and that will be right before the international AIDS conference.”

The Center, among other things, will host the National Gay Men’s Health Summit set to coincide with the international AIDS conference, which begins in July 2012. “We’re looking forward to bringing a lot of gay, bisexual and transgender men to D.C. to talk about gay men’s health, and hopefully we’ll have a place to do it.”

Mariner said that while the Center continues to grow it is not yet capable of purchasing its own building without help from the city. City officials have said the city’s current financial problems, including a large projected budget deficit, prevents the city from providing the Center with funds to buy a building at this time.

One proposal being discussed, according to Mariner, is for the city to give the Center free space or space at below market rent in the nearby Reeves Center, a city-owned office building with first-floor retail space. The Reeves Center is located at the corner of 14th and U streets, N.W., one block from the U Street Metro Station.

View Source at Washington Blade – Gay News

Gray names gay physician head of D.C. AIDS office

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray on Friday announced the appointment of veteran public health and AIDS physician Gregory Pappas as director of the city’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Disease and Tuberculosis Administration (HAHSTA).

Pappas, who is gay, has held a wide range of AIDS and public health-related positions over the past 25 years, including a post as adviser to U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher during the Clinton administration. He served as contributing author to the strategic plan for U.S. international emergency relief for AIDS in developing countries during the Bush administration.

In his most recent position as a global health consultant, he has served, among other things, as medical adviser to the Silver Spring, Md.-based National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA).

“I think this is the best appointment in the agency’s history,” said Frank Oldham, NAPWA’s executive director, who served as head of the D.C. AIDS office from 1993-1994, when it was called the Agency for HIV/AIDS.

“With his medical expertise and certainly his HIV/AIDS expertise, he understands the various populations – people of color, gay men of all colors, and the huge issue of AIDS among African-American women,” Oldham said. “This is a phenomenal appointment, and I really think we’re going to see a huge difference in saving lives from AIDS and a decrease in HIV infections in the District.”

Pappas, a longtime D.C. resident, served as an assistant to Dr. Mohammed Akter, Gray’s appointee as director of the Department of Health, when Akter served as the D.C. Commissioner of Public Health from 1991-1994.

Akter held that position during the administration of then-Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly and reported directly to Gray, who then headed the D.C. Department of Human Services. At the time, the human services department had jurisdiction over health issues.

HAHSTA is currently an arm of the Department of Health and its director reports to the DOH director.

Pappas will replace Dr. Nnemdi Kamanu Elias, who has served as acting director of HAHSTA since Mayor Adrian Fenty named her to the post last July. Fenty appointed Elias to the position after Dr. Shannon Hader, who held the director’s job for more than three years, abruptly resigned.

According to biographical information released by the mayor’s office, Pappas served recently as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development on mental health and HIV programs. He has also worked with the National Medical Association to improve African-American physicians’ ability to serve patients who are men who have sex with men.

His international heath work includes service as chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. In his work with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Pappas designed monitoring and evaluation plans for anti-retroviral programs in nine African countries and countries in the Caribbean.

He received a degree in medicine and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Among the jobs he held upon moving to D.C. was the post of faculty member at Howard University Medical School.

View Source at Washington Blade – Gay News

Supreme Court expected to rule on Gay Marriage in D.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce an opinion Tuesday on whether to allow voters to repeal the Washington D.C. equal marriage law.

Jackson v. the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics is scheduled to be discussed at a private conference among the Justices on Friday, according to the Washington Blade.

On Oct. 12, Bishop Harry Jackson and other gay marriage opponents filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking the court to appeal a lower court ruling rejecting the argument that the city must allow voters to decide the marriage question in a ballot initiative.

If the Supreme Court rejects Jackson’s request, D.C. would continue to prevent a gay marriage measure from appearing on the ballot; if the case is accepted, it would be the first time the Supreme Court handles a same-sex marriage related issue.

There is speculation that a decision from the Supreme Court will not be released by Tuesday.

“If there’s no order that day, that’s also significant, meaning either that the justices were not able to decide in their first discussion, or that someone is writing a dissent from denial,” Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU’s D.C. office told the Washington Blade.

View Source at 365 Gay News