Featured Editorials

Down by the banks of the River Charles

Submitted by Robyn on Thu, 10/08/2015 - 2:20pm

They are debating our rights again in Massachusetts. I hate when that happens. It always makes me feel so scummy.

The legislators are discussing H. 1577 and S. 735 which would increase the scope of the current anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender people in public places.

Currently it is illegal to refuse to hire someone who is transgender but totally legal to refuse to provide service to that same person.

Massachusetts lawmakers in 2011 passed a law adding transgender individuals to the list of protected classes from employment or housing discrimination, but stopped short of including public accommodations protections. Other states — 17 in total — have passed similar laws offering such expanded protections.

Completing a Score

Submitted by Robyn on Wed, 10/07/2015 - 1:58pm

photo KieshaJenkins_zpsp1u3toie.jpgKiesha Jenkins lived in North Philadelphia. At Oh-Dark-Thirty Tuesday morning, Keisha got a ride from someone to Hunting Park in Logan.

Upon exiting the vehicle Keisha was surrounded by five or six men who proceeded to beat her. Then one of the men took out a gun and shot her twice in the back.

When police arrived, they rushed Keisha to a hospital, where she was later declared dead.

The twenty-two year old transgender woman is the twentieth transgender woman in the US known to have been murdered this year.

Right now we don't have any motive. We don't know if it's potentially a hate crime or if it was a robbery. We really don't know. It's too early in the investigation to tell.

--Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark

Deflation, negative interest rates and the derivatives mountain

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 10/06/2015 - 5:32pm

In a press conference last week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen was asked about negative interest rates. Yellen dismissed the possibility, but also said if "we found ourselves with a weak economy that needed additional stimulus, we would look at all of our available tools, and [a negative rate] would be something that we would evaluate in that kind of context."

Shivi can come home

Submitted by Robyn on Tue, 10/06/2015 - 1:33pm

A week and a half ago I shared the story of Shivi, a transman who is a student at Cal-Berkeley and whose parents tried to arrange a marriage for him with a man in India, to "fix his sexuality." (Parents traffic their child to India as attempted cure for the trans). Though Shivi was born in India, he has lived in the US since the age of three.

When last we saw, Shivi (who only uses the one name) was stuck in India because his mother had stolen his passport, green card and cellphone, and returned to the US with his siblings). His father, a researcher in the US, tried to enroll him as a girl at Dayalbagh University in Agra. But Shivi got access to her grandparents internet and contacted friends in the US who put him in touch with the LGBT NGO Nazarya. Members of Nazaraya helped Shivi escape from Agra and go to Delhi, where he filed a petition with the Delhi High Court claiming he had been wronged by his parents. The High Court found in his favor and granted Shivi an order of protection.

Beautiful as I want to be

Submitted by Robyn on Mon, 10/05/2015 - 2:00pm

Transgender model Geena Rocero has joined forces with the cable network Logo to produce a video series which will highlight transgender young people. The series will be called Beautiful as I Want to Be and will consist of four part episodes which will be introduced by Rocero and "focus on partnering young trans people with successful trans leaders to explore how they define beauty and identity. Young trans people share their backstories, their identity journeys and their dreams for the future. Their mentor/coach then readies them for a transformative photo shoot and offers life advice."

I am excited to share with trans youth the ways that I’ve used modeling and art to creatively express myself and to realize my dreams. This project is to affirm our youth’s potential, their beauty and the possibilities when we celebrate and allow them to be their most authentic selves.

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