caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

When Jill Soloway accepted her Emmy for directing TransParent, she mentioned her transgender parent and said,

She could, tomorrow, go and try to find an apartment, and in 32 states it would be legal for the landlord to look her in the eye and say, ‘We don’t rent to trans people.’

For as long as Paola Ramirez has journeyed through her gender identity, she has been haunted by housing insecurity — first as a pained young boy living with her parents in Guatemala, then on her own as a gay man and, finally, as a transgender woman in New York.

Paola's studio apartment in Queens has a new owner, so her lease is up for renewal. But Paola is being told she cannot renew unless she presents some ID stating that her female name and gender.

I feel pressure.

--Ramirez

The worst oil price rout since 1986 is beginning to claim victims in the shale oil patch, and now its every man for himself.

In a decision in Maryland Administrative LAw Judge Denise Shaffer has ruled that officials at Patuxent Institution in Jessup Maryland have failed to comply with the national standards for protection of sexual abuse as set forth in the Prisoner Rape Elimination Act.

Sandy Brown, a 40-year-old transgender woman, was serving a five-year sentence for assault in 2014 when she was placed in 24-hour solitary confinement for 66 days at Patuxent after a routine mental health screening. While so housed, Brown says that guards routinely watched her shower and encouraged her to commit suicide.

They didn't see me for the human being I am.

They treated me like a circus act. I understand how animals at the zoo feel now. They gawked, pointed, made fun of me and tried to break my spirit.

These were people I’d never met, people I’d never done anything to.

--Brown

PREA requires prisons to have clear policies and mandatory training for prison personnel concerning the treatment of transgender inmates.

Just one week from now tens of millions of families could go to bed hungry.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues singer and guitarist Eddie C. Campbell. Enjoy!

Most people who listened to the Pope's speech to Congress were probably waiting for him to touch on such subjects as inequality, climate change, homosexuals, priest sex scandals, or maybe some other subject.
However, Pope Francis used his strongest words for a topic that doesn't get much attention in the United States, but should.

...cause the vandals stole the handle.

A group of graffiti artists (BlakCollectiv), led by Kalkidan Assefa, created an impressive, and legal, mural during Ottawa's Pride Week honoring transgender women of color who had been murdered during the past year.

On Wednesday night an unknown person or group who were offended by the memorial spray painted over much of the mural and added these sentiments:

RACIST BULLS--T

ALL COLORS MATTER

ALL LIVES/NO DOUBLE STANDARD/YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Piedmont bluesman Amos "Bumble Bee Slim" Easton. Enjoy!

"Terrors Reign, The Streets of Chicago Given Over to Howling Mobs of Thieves and Cutthroats."
-Chicago Times headline, 1877

Ironic. Yesterday I wrote an essay about some enlightened parents. Today, I am horrified by some parental behavior.

Shivy is not currently using a last name. He probably did use when when he was a student at Cal Berkeley. But it is common in India for people to use only one name.

Anyway Shivy was born in India but has lived in the US since he was three.Thus he had an Indian passport and a green card. Emphasis on the "had."

Shivy's family has made a habit out of traveling to India to visit with family during the summer. They did so again this year, but had to trick Shivy into joining them. They told him his grandmother was very ill.

What started this whole thing seems to be that Shivy cut his hair. This freaked out his mother and caused a huge argument.