I couldn’t help but laugh reading a recent article in The Inquirer regarding the effects of going global when one nation observes Intellectual Property protection laws and another does not. Seems that Korean company, Lucky Goldstar’s (LG) Chocolate phone was such a hot item, yet slow in getting it into the Chinese market, that pirates copied the phone and beat LG to the Chinese market with their own product but with a twist. The Chinese pirated copy was a better phone than the original!

You can read the ramifications of that by reading the original story at The Inquirer site at this link HERE.

Product quality and I’d say product experience, whether it’s a service or a thing, matters. LG didn’t quite get that here for some reason, but each of us providing a service or product need to. Tom Peter’s, the WOW guru for business, has alot of valuable (and free) thoughts on this topic for your reading pleasure. You can get to Tom’s list of design blog articles by clicking to his site at this link HERE.  Business Week has an excellent article as well on Why Design Matters, you can click to Business Week’s article HERE.

(Picture courtesy of Olav.Mueller Photos, used under license of Creative Commons)

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, what makes Democracy possible?

It’s information.

“Information is the currency of democracy.” Thomas Jefferson

It’s free flow, it’s free access and, perhaps most importantly, the free debate about it without fear. That’s why public libraries, the internet, blogs, radio, short wave, the local coffee house, on-line forums, are all vitally necessary to be kept and to be preserved. And why censorship of that information by governments, groups, communities, individuals, and even corporations should be resisted.
(photo courtesy of ukanda’s photos, used under Creative Commons License)

With the current election behind us it might be useful for us all to think about if the current crop of congressmen are going to be pro-transgender rights, neutral or against them. At some level, being transgender is just a small part of who we are and frankly it shouldn’t matter. We go to work, school, and church. Pay our taxes, our bills and pretty much live like anyone else would. But, sadly,it does matter. So it’s important that people in Congress are in favor of protections for us for equal (not special) rights.

And so let’s look at House Speak Nancy Pelosi. Ms. Pelosi is the first woman to be made Speaker of the House and as such that is an amazing achievement. What is so remarkable about the being the Speaker of the House, what power does she wield that should matter to us?

The Speaker of the House has the following roles and responsibilities:

• Presiding office of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Is second in line to replace the President after the Vice-President
• Is generally the highest ranking member of their respective party
• Insures that the House passes legislation supported by the majority party (though presumably they think about all our country’s interest first).
• Runs the debate on the House floor. Before any member of the House of Representatives may speak in the house, the Speaker of the House must acknowledge the person wanting to speak.
• The Speaker may call on people as she pleases, thus controlling the flow of debate
• The House Steering Committee is also chaired by the Speaker. The Steering Committee chooses the chairmen of standing committees.
• The Speaker determines which committees consider bills

All in all, the Speaker has direct impact on what bills get to be seen, voted on and debated. And that would include transgender protections and rights.

So what would make us in the trans community optimistic about her being there and wielding that power? Well, there is some evidence that’s positive and that should point to positive action for us or at least positive consideration. Check out this quote from Ms. Pelosi here:

“I am pleased to co-sponsor the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005, the first federal hate crimes legislation to explicitly protect transgender individuals and to add gender identity to the federal hate crimes statute. As with past versions, the new hate crimes prevention legislation covers crimes motivated by discrimination based on sexual orientation and disability. Hate crimes have no place in America, and I will fight hard to pass this legislation. (see source from her press release at her House of Representative’s web site by clicking here.

I was encouraged reading that, and then I did some more digging to see where Ms. Pelosi has stood historically. Sure enough, her history on transgender people’s rights looks encouraging supporting transgender rights over a 16 year period,including the support of $250,000 for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in San Francisco, CA (see source at U.S. House of Representative web site here). You can see more of her record over at the U.S. House of Representatives Web Site by clicking to that site at this link here.

So it’s early yet. While I am a Republican, there was little to vote for in my party frankly. But the Democrats have an opportunity now, and I’m pulling for them. For the transgender population, small as it is, there’s a good chance the equal protections we need will be put in place and maintained.

The 8th Annual Transgender Day of Rememberance is being observed in the Boston area on Sunday and Monday this year. On Sunday the 19th, there will be a Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony from 7-9 PM at the Arlington Street Church in Boston, MA. Monday the 20th in the City of Worcester, 7:30 p.m there will be an observance at All Saints Church, an Episcopal church at the corner of Pleasant and Irving streets in Worcester MA.

If you don’t know about this day, I think the words from the main web site tell it best:

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.

For those of you who don’t know, there are a number of transgender conferences that run throughout the year. Conferences such as Southern Comfort Conference, The Lake Erie Gala, California Dreamin, Be All, Fantasia Fair, Sparkle, and many others get attendance anywhere’s from 300 to over 1000+ every year. The goals for most of these are to educate the transgender community on a range of topics, to give many a chance to be with others who share the same Gender Identity Disorder (whether they be Male-to-Female or Female-to-Male) and finally for people to have a chance to have fun. The attendees are a rich mixture of transgender folk and those who are not and that lends for an outstanding opportunity to learn about others and to learn about ourselves.

The Boston area hosts a number of these events and the one that runs first is Tiffany Club of New England’s (TCNE) First Event. Sponsored by TCNE and worked on by a hive of volunteers, this year’s First Event is being held at the Burlington Boston Marriott, in Burlington MA, January 17th-21st, 2007. To check in on what is happening at this event go check out their official web site by clicking to it as this link HERE.