September 2007

We’ve been swilling coffee and trying to cover a bit of what is happening with ENDA here at Beck’s Cafe. We started with:

• Transgender Rights Hail Storm
• Petition Drive to Support Complete ENDA

We’ve got some more for you that is well worth 10 minutes of your time. Robyn is a professor of computer programming. Sounds safe enough profession wise to come out and transition? Read her story at her blog here and the conversation in the comments afterward.

Historically other groups have also been told they couldn’t have job including the Jews. That’s right. Read Peter Flom’s view point on the developments on ENDA on his blog here from his perspective and he’s not Transgender.

The Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Transgender Equality are jointly sponsoring an online petition that they will submit to Ms. Nancy Pelosi to keep Transgender people in the ENDA bill. Please consider signing the petition as soon as possible. It only takes a few seconds. Then pass it on.

You can reach the petition at here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/transgender_inclusive_ENDA/

(thanks to Mike at The Transgender Planet for bringing this to our attention)
(You can follow some of what is happening on this important topic by checking the links on this article at Beck’s Cafe: Transgender Rights Hail Storm ) 

When our children were growing we often wondered if their faith in Christ, something we had always nourished in them with the same care as we took care of their bodies, would flourish in public schools. Most of our friends opted for private Christian schools as nurturing grounds for their children’s education. We could never afford such a luxury, feeling instead that a faith that grew in the real world, no matter how questioned, would be stronger than one without tests. Afteral, Jesus had taught us that we were in the world but not of the world (John 17:14-15). That said to us that we had to stay in the world, not hide from it. We can’t say for sure that such an approach is always the best though. Afterall, poor public schools do exist and a private education, Christian or otherwise, might be the best option. But we now have a little data to backup what we had always felt in our gut.

The Denver Post reported, in the September 24th edition, the results of a study performed by the University of Texas that,

higher education is not the secularizing influence many Christians suspect it to be…Texas researchers found that college students were less likely to lose their religion than others in their age group, 18 to 25 years old.

Interestingly, 24% of those who never attended college said that religion had become less important to them compared with only 15% of those who did attend college. Could college make you smarter and more religious? We certainly didn’t think so as we saw our little birds flutter from our nest. But we felt that we and our public school, had taught them to think for themselves. It turns out that thinking about your faith is what this is all about. And at U.S. Universities, where the percentage of atheists and agnostics teaching are three times as high as the general population, a UCLA study found that,

79 percent of college students surveyed believed in God, 69 percent prayed and 81 percent attended some religious services.

Teaching of all kinds makes kids think about who they are, who they are becoming and what they believe. That sounds healthy not damaging. This quote, by Church of Christ Minister Mark Wylie, from the Denver Post article, might be the best lesson here,

“You have to let college students explore,” Wylie said. “They are incredibly spiritually active and vibrant.”

But, he concluded, they don’t like a hard sell from any side of the debate; I think alot of us fall into that category these days.

Speaking of thinking, another writer, named Caryn Lemur, has penned some outstanding articles to help Christians and non-Christians alike, think about what it means to be transgender in the midst of their faith. It can be a damning paralysis to be Christian and be transgender (perhaps this is so for all faiths) but Caryn’s essays will help you to think critically about this topic. That is if you need to think about it at all.

To read the Denver Post article; “Study: College campuses may nurture faith”, click to the Denver Post HERE.
To read Caryn’s “Essays For The Thinking Christian”, please visit her site at this link HERE.

There is, literally a hail storm of happenings regarding ENDA and The Matthew Shepard Bill, and how what happens to those bills on the national level could effect our efforts in Massachusetts on “House Bill #1722: An Act Relative to gender-based discrimination and hate crimes“.

Frankly, my head hurts. I don’t know whether to be mad as hell or cry or think, I and my sisters and brothers might have a much harder time getting jobs than we all thought. Having lived on welfare before, I can tell you it’s not a vacation.

Rather than tipping over a pot of coffee of blind rhetoric here at Beck’s Cafe right now, we are going to link in some of the outstanding conversations happening on the net on ENDA. The Mattehew Shepard Bill actually had good news as it passed the Senate.

ENDA conversations we’d recommend you check in on:

• Pam’s House Blend does her usual great job of coverage so check in on the conversations at her site here. Scroll down to see the coverage throughout the front page.
• A Hidden Saint over at the Daily Kos has two posts with hundreds of comments and discussion
  • Part 1 of the discussion at The Daily Kos
  • Part 2 of the discussion at The Daily Kos
• Congress Barney Frank issued this statement, STATEMENT OF BARNEY FRANK ON ENDA,
• Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin withholds name from non-transgender ENDA, see story at gaycitynews

There is some worry that with ENDA being stripped of transgender protections that support for Massachusetts HB 1722 might get weakened. That would be a bad thing. What happened in Key Largo could happen to any of us and we’d have almost no recourse.

As some of you know I’m looking for gainful employment. So, why not Google? They have scads of money and wicked smart people. Then I ran into this comparison of working at Google vs MeetUp. As one of my friends reminds me on occasion….”Becki, I really think that things really happen when people are with people”. I believe this comparison further strengthens her conviction! You can jump to the comparison by visiting Scott Heiferman’s (the CEO of MeetUp) blog at this link HERE.

Some tidbits though to wet your appetite..but you have to see the photos to really “get” these:

You have to see the site to really appreciate the text, so go get an iced latte and have a look at the comparison of working at Google vs MeetUp at this link HERE.

This is the fourth and final installment in a special four part series from an interview with Yvon Steel and June Casad on the Massachusetts transgender social and support group FoRCC, Friends of Randolph Country Club.   To easily reach part 3, please click here.  Please enjoy!

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BECK’S CAFE: So then Randolph Country Club came into the picture?

JUNE: Well that took work. Randolph Country Club, RCC, a premiere GLBT country club and dance club, had a bad relationship with the transgender community up until that point.

YVON: I visited them a couple of times to outline what we were trying to do and what the benefits were to them. They told me that their relationship with the transgender community had soured primarily due to lack of follow through on the transgender community’s part. It was common for transgender women in our community to plan an event with them and then not to actually hold the event or communicate about it. I had to convince them that the community was honorable and could be trusted.

JUNE: And we’ve done just that. We plan events with them for about every six weeks, we communicate with the RCC team, and we have our event. This has resulted in a benefit to RCC, to FoRCC and to the transgender community overall. We had to insure that we would be good patrons and good contributors to the benefit of RCC. The reception that the management and patrons now give the trans community has been overwhelmingly supportive and nice. Even the bathroom is a non-issue.

BECK’S CAFE: So, every six weeks FoRCC has a transgender party at RCC and you’ve been doing this all told for 10 years. What keeps you doing this?

JUNE: I remember what it was like to not have a place to go and in feeling isolated and alone. To the extent that I can provide an opportunity for others to come out and be themselves and really, to lead much healthier lives, that’s what motivates me.

YVON: My personal satisfaction is to produce something and watch it grow and see the results. The fruit is in the smiling faces; they are smiling not because they are drunk but because they are getting a chance to be who they are. It’s my chance to get out and I’m having a great time and I want others to as well. I don’t want it to stop I’m having fun!

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Copyright© 2005 - 2007 Beck’s Cafe, All rights reserved.

The weather woman (yes it was a woman I’m not just being politically correct) tells me that there will be a frost this weekend here in New England. That’s great for my carrots; a good frost sweetens them up.

It’s not so good for transgender homeless people who try and find a safe place to sleep in a shelter. We’ve written about the need for shelters for transgender people before, back in July 2006 in the article, “Shelter/Housing Needs for GLBT Victims of Domestic Violence“.

At the Creating Change web site they have some ideas on how to make those shelters transgender friendly. They have published a 59 page booklet to try and suggest those changes. According to Creating Change:

Transgender people are disproportionately represented in the homeless population because of the frequent discrimination they face at home, in school and on the job.

Homeless transgender people can experience extreme difficulties obtaining adequate and safe shelter because many facilities have rules about gender-related dress or appearance.

Rules about the following can create problems:

• Intake processes and confidentiality;
• Harassment;
• Showers;
• Restrooms;
• Sleeping arrangements;
• Dress codes.

Life is hard enough on the street without having to deal with all that too. The Creating Change booklet has some great ideas and you can read about them by downloading the booklet from their website by visiting Creating Change’s “Transitioning our Shelter’s” booklet at their site here.

This is the third part in a special four part series from an interview with Yvon Steel and June Casad on the Massachusetts transgender social and support group FoRCC, Friends of Randolph Country Club. To easily reach part 2, please click here. Please enjoy!

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BECK’S CAFE: With that “walk out” certainly there must have been some sense of displacement or abandonment?

JUNE: Well, with the end of the relationship between Friends Landing and the transgender community something had to fill that void. So, a sort of entrpereneurial spirit was unleashed from the split and some new groups started forming. One of those was The Girl’s Night Out group, or GNO for short, which began in Manchester, New Hampshire. GNO’s approach was to provide a safe space for gender expression and have, as the founder, Maxine, was fond of saying, “The Courage to be Free”. Many girls did end up gravitating to GNO and GNO had a big, positive impact on the New England Transgender scene allowing many transgender women to come out and be free to be themselves.

YVON: FoRCC, or FoF at the time, needed a new place and we approached the Crowne Plaza in Woburn, and they suggested Friday Night. At the time, GNO wanted to merge with FoRCC (or FoF) group. We felt our group’s unique character and identity was still alive due to the real life relationships of people that grew out of this one little place.

JUNE: That’s right, many of us with FoRCC (FoF at the time) wanted to continue our group and keep it alive. The Yahoo Group kept us communicating and loosly together, as it had always been, we just needed to find a physical place. We weren’t against GNO, we just felt we had a unique group.

BECK’S CAFE: So did FoRCC every find a new place to meet?

YVON: We were alive, still looking for a home, and in March of 2006 the group was having a lot of hang wringing about going back to Friends Landing after the year long walk out.

JUNE: Friends Landing was part of my journey and I felt I had a right to be there. Some felt the same way, but not in general. I really felt that I deserved to be there but the good part about it was that the management had changed over the year and Friends was very welcoming to us.

YVON: This was a BIG surprise to all of us.

JUNE: I agree, I was expecting an attitude and had a hard time going in. But I was bound and determined to go there and even to use the ladies room. I didn’t feel like I had my begging bowl out. We were transgender and this was a GLBT club and that was that. I had a right to be there and so I went.

YVON: In a way the Friends Landing incident did us a favor. They got us out into the world MORE.

JUNE: Yes that’s right. That was the year we started going to other GLBT and Straight clubs that welcomed us. We learned we could come way out of the closet and just be ourselves.

YVON: When we came back to Friends Landing they were so happy to have us there they put our name and a big picture of us on the front of their web page, “Welcome back T-Girls” We returned in March of 2006, we had some big parties there and things were really cranking along fine until the 2006 Halloween party. It was a packed house and then on the Monday after the Halloween, with no notice, Friends Landing closed it’s doors and was sold.

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In Part four of this four part series, we’ll wrap up about how Yvon and June worked to heal a rift between the transgender community and the GLB part of the community so that FoRCC could find it’s new location.  To easily reach part 4, please click here.  Copyright© 2005 - 2007 Beck’s Cafe, All rights reserved.

This is the second part in a special four part series from an interview with Yvon Steel and June Casad on the Massachusetts transgender social and support group FoRCC, Friends of Randolph Country Club. To easily reach part 1, please click here. Please enjoy!

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BECK’S CAFE: How would you say that FoRCC has evolved over it’s 10 year life?

YVON: Well, FoRCC started as FoF, Friends of Friends Landing and was out at Friends Landing, in Haverhill, MA like we mentioned. We used a Yahoo Group for all of us to build connections outside of those meetings and stay in touch. In many ways, the Yahoo Group became the The Unofficial Friends Landing Message board. And it was a way to get people to know what was happening in each of our lives and who was going to go to be together at Friends Landing. Once in a while we’d do a roll call to create a more structured kind of meeting. But the evolution was more of one of closeted strangers who all came out to become friends.

JUNE: I’d agree. Over time what was just transgender people meeting in person and communicating online grew as friendships grew. It’s really a story of people isolated in their experience who became people connected in a shared experience of being transgender. They made friends at Friends Landing, grew into using the Yahoo Group to communicate and spilled out into real life. The Events weren’t all done at Friends Landing but sometimes happened at Jacques Cabaret or MANRAY. And that’s the interesting point. The group became interelated, invited others in, accepted them for what and who they are, and ended up having fun in the process.

YVON: Really the group grew and grew and became the focal point for THE Transgender SCENE in New England then one day it was gone. And it was really the result of one unfortunate incident.

BECK’S CAFE: You know, this “incident” is the stuff of folklore. What was the incident and how did it not only effect FoRCC but what were it’s effects, in your opinion, on the transgender scene in New England in general?

YVON: Well, at one point, Friends Landing became very trans-unfriendly and they instituted what amounted to a “vagina check’ for the ladies room and people just stopped going. You know, as transgender women, we present as women and using the right bathroom is a big deal. One key part of it is safety for us. Using a men’s bathroom presenting as a woman could put us in physical harm.

JUNE: I remember times at Friends Landing when bouncers would swarm t-girls if they felt what they wore for clothing was inappropriate even. They would harass someone like that out of the club. I had to intervene in one case. And then on St. Patrick’s Day 2005 the transgender community walked away from Friends Landing; tired of a GLBT club that had rejected us.

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In Part three of this four part series, we’ll talk about how the transgender community reacted to the Friends Landing incident.  To easily reach part 3, please click here.  Copyright© 2005 - 2007 Beck’s Cafe, All rights reserved.

Friday September 28, 2007, Phone-a-Thon for Massachusetts Transgender Equality, House Bill 1722; “An act relative to gender based discrimination and hate crimes.”

In order to bolster support from local businesses and organizations before the hearing on HB 1722, Boston University Law’s LGBTQ organization, OUTLAW, will be hosting a phone-a-thon! All you need to bring is yourself for an hour, or two, or four, or whatever you can commit, and they will have telephone scripts, contact information, and resources.

• WHEN: Friday September 28
• TIME: 12-4 PM
• WHERE: Boston University School of Law 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02215 Room 734

Try to RSVP to jsutto02@bu.edu, but if you can suddenly come on Friday, don’t hesitate–just head on over to BU. Please invite friends and allies to come help, and bring computers/cell phones if you have them! Also, if you are on any student listservs, please forward the event information!