Featured Editorials

Making a new plan, Stan

Submitted by Robyn on Fri, 09/11/2015 - 1:46pm

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has a new plan.

Under a new policy announced yesterday Sheriff Mirkarimi intends to house all inmates in San Francisco County's jails by their gender identity.

He hopes to have transgender inmates living with their preferred population before 2016.

But transgender inmates who choose to remain in segregated housing or to continue living with other inmates who share the their birth sex can do so, according to Kenya Briggs, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

I carry the perspective forward that the transgender population is marginalized on the streets of America. Consider how magnified that treatment is inside prisons and jails.

--Mirkarimi

Imagine

Submitted by burnt out on Fri, 09/11/2015 - 4:29am

We celebrated our grand daughter's 8th birthday this evening and watching the joy in her face and hearing the laughter in her voice as she opened her presents was almost enough to get my mind off the world situation for a little while, if it hadn't at the same time magnified my concern for her future.

The 14th Anniversary of the War on Terror

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 09/10/2015 - 4:14pm

As the nation looks back on that terrible day, we should spend some time looking back on what's been done and what we are doing in the 14 years that have followed. The act that started this war is no more important than the acts that have followed.

What does this say about us as a nation?

A day at the Louisiana OMV

Submitted by Robyn on Thu, 09/10/2015 - 2:06pm

photo glover_zpsbrba5jms.jpgAlexandra Glover of Denham Springs, LA needed to update her drivers license. That's not a fun thing to do for anyone, but it was worse for Alexandra. You see, Alexandra is transgender and she lives in Louisiana.

Transgender advocates say Louisiana is one in a minority of states that are behind when it comes to accommodating transgender and gender non-conforming people in ID laws. Recent efforts by transgender people in South Carolina and West Virginia have helped to change driver’s license practices in those states.

After being denied at a couple of OMV offices, Alexandra's friend thought she should document a visit with video.

You can’t present as a woman if you’re listed as a man.

If you have makeup on or anything like that you’re supposed to take all that off, because you are actually a man.

--OMV worker

The social costs of denying health care for transfolk

Submitted by Robyn on Wed, 09/09/2015 - 2:12pm

For background you might read Joan McCarter's How bad is health insurance for trans people? Really, really bad.

A new nationwide survey measures the social cost of health care providers denying care to transgender people.

As a result of being denied insurance coverage for transition-related medical care, 35% of survey respondents reported needing psychotherapy, 23% became unemployed, 15% attempted suicide, 15% ended up on public assistance programs and 14% became homeless.

The report also discovered that 37% of respondents who were denied care turned to drugs and/or alcohol and 36% developed other physical symptoms.

Pages