Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss has posted an aritcle on her blog, “Transgender Workplace Diversity” that is sobering. Entitled, “National statistics on Transgender Unemployment”, the article has some chilling facts for all of us:

• There is a 35% unemployment rate among transgender persons due to discrimination
• Of those employed, 60% are earning below $15,000 per year.
• Unemployment runs about eight times higher than the national average and the poverty rate is five times higher

But Dr. Weiss wisely asks the question, “how was the data collected”. Let’s face it, even in the transgender community the massaging of numbers and the tilting of data is not above some activists approaches. And Dr. Weiss is asking the hard question, “how did you find your subjects”? Her question is valid and her conclusions are well worth a read. You can read the full article to see what is going on at her Blog, “Transgender Workplace Diversity” at this link on her site HERE. You can read the full study, as done by Richard M. Juang at “Trans Group Blog” by visiting the story at this link HERE.

Finally, such an article as this begs the question, what do I do about being employed if I’m trans? Well, there are a number of strategies, but one that pops to mind is the Career Expo being held at Southern Comfort Conference. Companies such as Microsoft, Deloitte, JP Morgan, Starbuck and Turner among many other national firms will be there exhibiting at the Career Fair. It’s well worth a look see. You can visit the Southern Comfort Conference web site at this link here.

I was watching C-SPAN2 live coverage of Senate speeches the other day and walking to the podium comes none other than the honorable Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd. At first, I thought he was delirious as he started on this bizarre speech denouncing the rise of Dog Fighting.

Dog Fighting….wtf?? I thought that went out with the middle ages.

Apparently not.

Seeing that I am covered these days in plaster, html and php trying to re-furb Beck’s Cafe I haven’t really been paying attention to the news. But I’ll be darned right there in prime time was a report on Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, himself involved in a dog-fighting ring (see story on Vic by clicking to Yahoo News here) . Friends, we have now reached a time in history where the bizarre is commonplace.

Senator Byrd went on to say that this truly horrendous bloodsport is on the rise. Clearly some people have WAY too much disposable income and FAR too much disposable time on their hands. But is it really on the rise in general and how about here in Boston?

On the national front, it is just sad. We pulled up an article from CBS that did an expose in Chicago on dog fighting on July 19th, 2007. You can visit CBS2 in Chicago at this link HERE to read the full story, but just read this quote by a “trainer” of dogs for dogfighting…this is just one method they use to get those dogs “ready” to fight:

“We’d get 17, 18 bumblebees and put them in his food so that when he ate it, it would sting his gums he went nuts, driving him berserk,” Chico said.

Well now that’s a way to train an innocent domestic animal that is 95% of the time docile and man’s best friend. It’s nice to see the human race has reached the pinnacle of civilization and is now de-evolving.

I did a little snooping around over coffee on this heinous practice and thought I’d share the linkie love with you all. Diane Jessup, who started the Law Dogs program, has a gruesome piece on what dogfighting is all about, you can read her article at her site, “Working PitBull” at this link here.. It made my skin crawl. I’m not sure what kind of “men” dogfighting kinda guys are but it’ll make you scratch your head.

But what about the hard numbers on this “sport”. Is this on the rise or was this just an eye catching feature story for a slow July news month? Sadly, according to a CNN report during an interview with John Goodwin, an expert on animal fighting with the Humane Society, there are an estimated 40,000 professional dogfighters in the United States and purses for such fights can reach $100,000.00. Follow the money and you’ll find something. Sometimes what you find is good, this time what you find is bad. You can read the full CNN report on dogfighting at this link here.

What about here in Boston? Surely we are more “sophisticated”? Well, maybe not. Beck’s Cafe had an email exchange with Joanne Mainiero, Director of the Massachusetts Humane Society on this topic. She told us that Massachusetts does indeed have some illegal dogfighting rings around but that they don’t generally last very long. Usually they are caught quickly. But, she told us, the evidence of dogfighting is here even on an amateur basis with dead dogs found in yards. Pretty gruesome.

We asked Ms. Mainiero what could be done to help combat this practice and she had this advice. First, she suggested that all of us contact the NFL to suspend Michael Vick. The Humane Society even has a quick mailer set up so that you can send your sentiments on this subject over to The NFL Commish. You can reach the Humane Society web page with the “NFL, Throw the Book at Michael Vick” emailer at their site at this link here. Second, be on the lookout. The Humane Society has a fact sheet on this subject and you can reach it by clicking to the Human Society “dogfighting fact sheet” as this link here.

Lots of changes are coming to the cafe all of them caffeine charged and good, I assure you! You’ll notice lots of theme morphing going on as we continue to screw with, hack the code for the site and give the Cafe a nice new paint job, some new upholstery, and, umm, finally clean the toilets (where the hell is that toilet brush anyway). We’ll be doing some collaboration too with others and unleash some new content areas that came over wayyy to many Cosmo’s with Boston’s own celebrity Diva, June C.

Thanks for hanging with us and probing our ample archives….thanks to YOU our readers we get 8,000 hits per month on average! And, thanks to YOU all we’ve won the following awards:

• Best of the Web Blogs: Transgender Category
• Spirit Magazine (Boston based GLBT magazine), Transgender Blog to Read

First and foremost though, Beck’s Cafe is not a “transgender” blog per se. It’s a virtual place to share ideas, get some love, tell a story, learn something new, and have a laugh and best of all, do it over a cup of coffee