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The transgender community saw a victory in New York on Tuesday as The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act passed through the state’s Assembly facing an overwhelming 91-40 vote.

Not everyone is in support, however, as member of the committee, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., is pushing forward with opposition to the legislation, gaining support 5-3 for preventing the bill from continuing to the Senate.

The sponsor of the bill, New York Sen.Tom Duane, is optimistic about the outcome.

“We still have plenty of other strategies,” he told Gay City News. “There’s great movement and many options to get it passed.”

For more visit 365gay.com

Olivia Stephens

New York State Assembly passed a bill limiting discrimination based on gender identity Wednesday. (Courtesy of Advocate.com)

A new law passed yesterday in New York will protect transgendered people from discrimination, the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) reported.

The Gender Expression Non-discrimination Act (GENDA), under the state’s Human Rights Law, would extend protections to transgendered people, according to the article.

ESPA stated the GENDA has passed three times previously before failing in the house.

According to a Pride Agenda report, some 28.4 percent of transgendered New Yorkers have been physically or verbally assaulted because of their identity.

For the original Advocate.com article, click here.

During the spring of 2009, Lambda Legal circulated a survey across the country to many LGBT people and also people living with HIV, with the help of over a hundred partner organizations. The survey included some of the following: patients being refused care, medical professionals refusing to touch patients or using extra precautions, medical professionals using harsh or abusive language and professionals being rough or psychically abusive.

Based on the responses of over 5,000 participants, 56 percent of LGB participants in the survey claimed they have had one of these experiences, as well as 70 percent of transgender and gender nonconforming participants. Almost 63 percent of participants living with HIV also experienced one or more of these forms of discrimination.
From looking at the results, it was found that transgender or gender nonconforming participants dealt with two- to three-times more discrimination than LGB participants.

Beverly Tillery, Director of Community Education and Advocacy, finds the results unacceptable.

“The results of this survey should shock the conscience of this nation,” Tillery said, ”and make it clear that the system is broke when it comes many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and people living with HIV. No one should be turned away or face discrimination when they are sick or seeking medical care.”

To read the full article click here.

Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, who battled the IRS's decision not to allow her to deduct her sex reassignment surgery from her taxes as a medical expense. (Photo taken from Glad.org)

BOSTON — The IRS allowed a woman who underwent sex reassignment surgery to deduct it from her taxes Tuesday, according to the U.S. Tax Court.

Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, who had sex reassignment surgery at 57, sued the IRS after it failed to recognize $5,000 in deductions from the cost of the surgery and hormone treatment.

In ruling that sex reassignment surgery is a non-cosmetic procedure, the IRS has set a precedent in recognizing gender identity disorder as a medical problem, according to Hayley Gorenberg, Lambda Legal‘s deputy legal director.

“… it ratifies what the medical community has said clearly for years,” she said, “which is for people with gender identity disorder, this type of surgery is frequently a medical necessity for their lives and for their health and for their well-being.”

According to the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, between 1,600 and 2,000 people a year undergo the surgery.

For continued reading, see the original Associated Press article at Yahoo! News.

By Ben Wolford

Their beds may be lofted, but Andy Sokolich, left, and Adam Schulte still sleep together in their Johnson Hall dorm room. The university doesn’t have a policy regarding same-sex students living with their partners on campus. (Photograph by Caitlin Sirse)

If Adam and Andy break up, they’ll probably just draw a line down the middle of the floor. They could request to switch roommates, but they can’t break Residence Services’ contract and leave their dorm room in Johnson Hall. They don’t think they’ll break up, though, and they haven’t had any problems yet. Well, they’ve had a few problems.

“I usually wake up with an arm under my head and the other arm shoved up against the wall …” says Adam Schulte, sophomore biotechnology and math major.

“I told you, they take four inches off the side and add it to the end. That’s exactly how they get an ‘extra-long twin,’” says Andy Sokolich, freshman business and math major.

Residence Services has no policy regarding guys rooming with their boyfriends and women living with their girlfriends. So basically, they don’t not allow it.

Then why can’t heterosexual couples live with their significant others in Kent State’s dorm rooms?

“That’s a good question,” says Jill Church, associate director of Residence Services, “and I think it’s more rooted in that’s how we’ve always practiced it.”

Church says she doesn’t have a personal opinion about gay people living with their boyfriends or girlfriends. When I tell her Adam and Andy are dating and living together, she says she has no interest or grounds to do anything about it.

So with no administrative pressure discouraging gay couples from living together, the decision falls with the couples, and you can find a range of opinions.

“I asked my friends if they thought it was a good idea,” Schulte says. “The ones who were single said it would be a bad idea, but the ones in relationships said it would be a good idea. Probably because the ones who were dating thought it would be nice to live with the person they were dating.”

Before 1984, there weren’t many co-ed residence halls at all at Kent State, says Kim Ferguson, coordinator of residential communities. Now all of them have at least male and female floors.

Church says it’s likely dorm rooms will never be co-ed at Kent State, at least not any time soon.

“The reality is we’re a state institution, and we’re in Ohio,” she says. “Ohio is pretty conservative in that area.”

Kent State’s policy regarding transgender and gender-neutral housing

(This article originally appeared in the Winter 2009-10 print edition.)

Formerly Robert Ira Schnur, she is one of hundreds of transgender people whose legal names were changed in Manhattan. (Photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times)

While some may consider the push for same-sex marriage and partner benefits the frontline of the modern LGBT liberation movement, those who represent the “T” in the cover-all pejorative are steadily gaining traction by defining a voice all their own.

Consider this piece from the New York Times this weekend on transgender New Yorkers’ name changes through a Manhattan court. The article by William Glaberson explains that legal name changing cases are finally seeing their day in court across the country, but specifically discusses one Civil Court in the Big Apple where hundreds have, in the eyes of the government, aligned their name with their identity.

“A rare network of some 200 lawyers now works on such cases filed in the Centre Street courthouse,” the article says, “and nearly 400 of their transgender clients so far have, more or less, become someone else.”

Of the name changing experience, one 25-year-old slam artist who was born Laura successfully changed his name to Kit told the Times “it felt like giving away, say, an ugly Christmas sweater your mom made you.”

On the Web site for the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is mentioned in the Times report, the organization describes it’s Name Change Project, which has helped many legally change their name by providing free lawyers to assist with the official process. “By ensuring that transgender people have adequate legal representation when seeking name changes, TLDEF’s Name Change Project ensures that they can successfully negotiate the legal process and move forward with their lives.”

While TLDEF is currently only able to assist transgender New Yorkers, such organizations represent the emerging niche that is transgender rights.  A discussion that is often much more ambiguous for the majority is really coming out, and transgender people are increasingly willing to take steps to live in their true gender and not accept the body they were born into as society may pressure them to do. It’s an interesting discussion to follow, and we’re always looking to invite more trans voices to contribute to these pages.

It’s still very vague ground, but for those for whom gender and sex are very complicated questions by which they are discriminated against, it’s finally time for them to have their due — starting with the simple change of a name, a reality most assuming for those of us who don’t feel as if the mind and body don’t seem to quite match up.

See Wikipedia for a more involved discussion of transgender and what exactly it means.

— Adam Griffiths, editor-in-chief

Transgender woman Amanda Simpson is appointed by Obama to work in Department of Commerce. Photo courtesy of Advocate.com

Amanda Simpson, transgender woman and former National Center for Transgender Equality board member, was appointed by President Obama on Jan. 1 to work in the Department of Commerce. Simpson, formerly the Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Arizona, has been appointed as a Senior Technical Officer in the Bureau of Industry and Security.

Upon the appointment Simpson released a statement through the National Center for Transgender Equality.

“I’m truly honored to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me,” Simpson said.

Simpson said she sees the appointment as an opportunity for many others in the transgender community.

“As one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others,” Simpson said.

Simpson holds degrees in Business Administration, Engineering and Physics.

Visit the Advocate online for more information on this appointment.

-Christopher Clevenger

Zikerria Bellamy was denied a McDonald's position because of gender identity. Photo courtesy of TLDEF.

Bellamy, after applying online for a shift manager and crew leader position at a McDonald’s in Orlando, received a voicemail from a current manager informing her she was not being considered for the position because she had lied about being a woman. The manager then proceeded to call Bellamy a “liar” and “faggot”.

According to TLDEF, Bellamy is only one example of discrimination in the workplace that commonly targets members of the transgender community.

“Transgender people face tremendous discrimination in the workplace,” TLDEF reports. “According to a recent survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality, 47 percent of transgender people report being fired, or denied a job or promotion, just because of who they are.”

While there is currently no law in Florida protecting individuals from discrimination based on gender identity and expression, the states Human Rights Act protects individuals from discrimination based on sex and disability. TLDEF has since contacted the Florida Commission on Human Relations claiming McDonald’s violated this act.

TLDEF also reports that discrimination against individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression in Florida may soon be made illegal with the recent introduction of a bill to the states legislature.

“The Competitive Workforce Bill, which would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the Florida Civil Rights Act, was introduced in the Florida legislature on November 20,” TLDEF reported on their Web site.

For more information on the progress in this case visit TLDEF online by clicking here.

-Christopher Clevenger

Cleveland city council member Joe Santiago first introduced the transgender protection ordinance last year. Council passed the law Monday. Photo courtesy of cleveland.com.

Councilman Joe Santiago, the first openly gay council member, introduced the ordinance last year and wants the city’s members to take more action from this decision.

“I hope the new council coming on board will help this legislation evolve,” Santiago told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

LGBT activists have lobbied for more than a year to include gender identity and expression in the city laws. Council members also said they will look to expand transgender protections next year.

Read the full article here.

-Kim Brown

Surgeon Marci Bowers. Photo courtesy of thehostess.wordpress.com

Marci Bowers decided to train with the doctor before he retired. Bowers was connected to the procedure because Marci used to be “Mark.”

According to The Denver Post, “four years after leaving her wife and kids” and her job as a gynecological surgeon in Seattle, “she is one of the more visible impresarios of the transgender movement.” Bowers has rock star status around the LGBT community when it comes to her reputation as a skilled surgeon.

To read the full article go here.

— Katelynd Jarvis