Sam Melrath, 22, is a trans guy who now lives in Northeast Philly. He came out as trans during 11th grade at Abington High School. He says his classmates were very supportive, as has his family been.

When his junior year ended, Sam got a summer job as a bagger at Giant Food Store in Huntingdon Valley. At the time he was living as a man, dressing as a man, and had chosen the name "Sam," which also happened to be a short version of his birth name.

After he began working there, store management began pressuring him to dress and act like his sex at birth. He says he was pressured to change his name tag from Sam to his given name at birth, even though other employees were allowed to use shortened versions of their names on their name tags, including one female employee named "Samantha" who used the shortened version "Sam."

The following is an essay from c99p member Wendy Davis with permission to repost in it's entirety. She has problems posting essays here so I reproduced it in full upon request by dancingrabbit.

H/T: dancingrabbit

The essay and comments can be viewed here.

The author/s at massprivateI.com (as in ‘Eye’) go full-tilt Godwin, and I don’t blame them a bit. Rather than reconstruct what they’ve written, I’m going to reproduce most of their alert, although I might draw attention to a few of their links with bolds or excerpts. If this ain’t Minority Report pre-crime baseless assumptions from cradle to prison (at least in some locales using some of the related programs), I don’t know what is what is.

There are several important, although conditional, gains against ISIS in the last few days.
The most dramatic was the retaking of Sinjar by the Iraqi Kurds.

The House LGBT Equality Conference announced this morning that they will hold the first ever congressional forum on transgender issues next Tuesday.

Following a press conference in the morning to launch the Task Force the forum will specifically address violence against the transgender community.

The forum comes during Transgender Awareness Week, which culminates with Friday's Transgender Day of Awareness.

This week, as we seek to raise awareness of the issues facing the trans community, it is important to renew our commitment to help trans individuals be free of the fear of violence or bullying just for being who they are. It is my hope that by launching this workforce and holding a first-ever forum, we will reach some of my colleagues and encourage them to stand with the trans community. It is only through social change that we can truly elevate the conversation in this country and reach a place of true understanding and embrace all people for who they are.

--Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA), who has a transgender granddaughter

Most of this year's 21 transgender murder victims were trans women of color.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer Eddie Floyd. Enjoy!

It's time to break out of the straight jacket of incremental progress or none at all. We are told that we must support the establishment democrat or get stuck with a crazy republican. Either way, the establishment wins. And the people lose.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features The King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier. Enjoy!

A ceremony was held today in the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center to announce the opening of the GIVE (Gender Identity Veteran Experience) clinic.

The clinic will have an initial enrollment of 20 transgender veterans, aged 21 to 75. GIVE will be open on a half day each month and will be supervised by Dr. Megan McNamara, who began working with trans veterans two years ago. Dr. McNamara is a primary care and women's health doctor. She will be the clinical lead physician. The treatment team will also include a nurse, a psychologist, and a social worker.

It felt like a good fit for me, professionally, and I felt that a lot of patients could use this service.

--Dr. McNamara