Boston University is using a self-administered questionnaire to understand how facial appearance impacts the quality of life in male-to-female transgender individuals. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymous. Your email address or name is not required. Your participation is entirely voluntary and you can stopthe survey at any time.

WHY
- Your responses will hopefully allow us to better understand the best way to help the transgender community.

WHO
- Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel and Tiffiny Ainsworth from Boston University and Boston Medical Center are researchers studying the quality of life in male-to-female transgender individuals in the hopes of better understanding the best way to help the transgender community medically. Dr. Spiegel is the chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Boston Medical Center and an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine with appointments in the department of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery and the department of plastic and reconstructive surgery. He has significant experience in facial feminization surgery.

HOW
- Go to our website to fill out the online version of our survey at http://bmc.org/survey The Password for the survey is: Boston

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE
- Male-to-female transgender individuals between the ages of 18years and 64years are eligible for participation in the survey.

QUESTIONS?
- Please contact Tiffiny Ainsworth at tiffann@bu.edu

Mon/Tues call you congressional rep ask them to SUPPORT THE BALDWIN AMENDMENT TO ENDA (H.R. 3685)

The Vote will be this Wednesday.

This is our last effort to include gender identity in ENDA. As of now, it looks like there will be a vote on the Amendment and then on the overall ENDA bill next Wednesday, October 24. Please call your congressional legislator and ask them if they are supporting HR 3685 and if they will support the Baldwin amendment.

We need a big push on Monday and Tuesday!

We need to convey a specific, very targeted message that we want our Congressional representatives to vote YES on the Baldwin Amendment to put gender identity back into ENDA.

You can call your Representative right now at 202-224-3121, even if you have already called him/her already about this issue. Tell him/her to support the Baldwin Amendment to H.R. 3685.

You can learn more about House Bill 3685 at:

• The U.S. Government via Thomas’s Register HERE.
• GovTrack.us. H.R. 3685–110th Congress (2007): Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007, GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation) HERE
• The Baldwin announcement is at Representative Baldwin’s press release at her site here.

Call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative. You can find your Congress Contact at this link at the United States House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

If your in Massachusetts, please click on over to the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition to let them know you called and what the outcome was. This will help them report in how Massachusetts is voting. Click to MTPC and their report HERE.

(notice courtesy of Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition )

October 11, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release -Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin
Wisconsin’s Second District

Statement on ENDA

“Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize”

I have always been a strong supporter of guaranteeing full civil rights for all in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
community. My work on this issue will continue until these protections become law.

I strongly support H.R. 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007. For many years, I have worked closely and tirelessly with people in the LGBT community and our allies to build support for this important legislation. I have personally spoken with well over one hundred Congressional colleagues, explaining the importance of this particular bill, listening to their concerns, and answering their questions. As a result of all of our work, and that of Congressional supporters, 171 Members of Congress have co-sponsored thelegislation, authored by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), which protects not only gays, lesbians and bisexuals, but also provides equally strong prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity.

Last weekend, Speaker Pelosi, in remarks before the Human RightsCampaign National Dinner, said: “I strongly believe that transgender individuals deserve the same rights and the same protections as any other Americans and will work to see that ENDA also protects their rights.” I share her sentiments.

Soon, I expect the House Committee on Education and Labor to consider this issue. It is my hope that the Committee will take up H.R. 2015 and pass it. I further hope for, and continue to work towards, passage of legislation by the full House, banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

All of the Democratic leaders involved in this discussion are committed to employment non-discrimination protections for
transgender Americans. We share a common goal, but disagree over process and strategy. Yet these procedural and strategic decisions are important because they affect the ultimate question of how and when we can most quickly pass protections that include transgender people. This is how a democracy works.

I am under no illusions about the challenges of achieving our goal. But, the quest for advancement of civil rights in our nation has never been easy. It is precisely because of the discrimination these groups experience that this legislation is needed.

As is the case with all legislation, there is no guarantee of success. Everyone pressing for this legislation knows that. We know that opponents of workplace protections may offer any number of amendments designed to derail the bill, including, perhaps, an effort to remove protections based upon gender identity. I believe we must boldly face these challenges.

Perhaps some of these hostile efforts will be successful. That should not deter our work. We must bring the strongest possible bill to the floor of the House for a vote. If our adversaries wish to erode protections in the bill, we must be prepared to face that challenge and make our case.

However, I believe it is a mistake to concede defeat on any issue, before our opponents even raise it.

In recent weeks there have been many efforts which have had the effect of distracting allies from the work at hand.

The House leadership afforded supporters of the fully inclusive bill two weeks to demonstrate that sufficient support exists to withstand worst-case scenario assaults on the bill. My work whipping Members on passage of a fully inclusive bill continues. I hope that the effort will culminate in sufficient evidence that the votes exist to withstand attacks and pass a fully inclusive bill.

Toward that end, I encourage all advocates to focus their efforts on building Congressional support for H.R. 2015. There will be ample time to consider distracting issues later. For now, let us keep our eyes on the prize.

# # #

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin
Wisconsin’s Second District
2446 Rayburn H.O.B. 10 E. Doty St.
#405 400 E. Grand Ave. #402
Washington, DC 20515 Madison , WI
53703 Beloit , WI 53511

Phone: 202-225-2906
Phone: 608-258-9800
Phone: 608-362-2800

Contact:
Jerilyn Goodman
608-251-8737
Cell: 608-347-6557
jerilyn.goodman@mail.house.gov

The Neighborhood is billed as:

A space for all queer and transgender folks…We like mixed up spaces and so should you! Always femme, butch, gender varient, fairy, leather, & CD friendly

This place lives up to it’s billing and then some. The organizers, Gunner Scott of XGender productions see: http://www.Gendercrash.Com and dj d’hana of Cherub Productions, http://www.Myspace.Com/chubrubproductions have created a welcoming and high energy environment that is worth the trip to.

The vibe at The Neighborhood, which is held the second Saturday of the month at The Midway Cafe, located at 3496 Washington Street in Jamaica Plain is decidely good. I’m not sure there is a better way to describe it. Really good vibe. My co-conspirators and I met femme’s, butch’s, FtM’s, and straight folk just being themselves and having fun. Dj d’hana is an excellent DJ. She moved effortlessly from one music genre to the next mixing up hip hop, techno, 80′s and various other types of music in a style that kept the crowd on it’s feet and not bored. I remember standing with two other women, both femmes and an incredibly cute couple, and having just met and chattinng and hearing a smooth transition from a hip hop tune to The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven“. All our eyes met and simultaneoulsly the three of us yelled out, ‘WE LOVE THIS SONG” and we just started spontaneously dancing. That typifies The Neighborhood “experience” for me. Fully accepting, packed, good vibe. To top it off, Gunner is one of the coolest guys around and donates part of the procedes from The Neighborhood to a charity every month. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Go visit the neighborhood. Get their by 9PM or you’ll end waiting in line out front to get in.

For more details see: http://www.myspace.com/theneighborhoodjp

———————————————

Updates
September 5, 2009:  GenderCrash site taken down.  You can still follow Gunner on Twitter @gendercrash

Dr. Julie Nemecek has some interesting thoughts on the conundrum that our President, George Bush, may be finding himself in with The Matthew Shepherd bill slowly making it’s way to his desk.  The bill, which many of our reader’s already know about, makes violence against people due to their gender or gender identity, a federal crime. It’s good protections not just for the transgender but also for, as the bill states, hate crimes against persons due to:

Section 2 Findings…actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim…

So if your transgender, it’s protective and it’s also true if your disabled. That’s right, the disabled are in fact a group even more subject to hate crimes than transgender people. Sadly, they can’t hardly speak for themselves at all. Thank God all we have is GID. Check out these factoids on hate crimes focused on the disabled:

• In 1994, due to the growing prevalence of studies and massive anecdotal instances of hate crimes against people with disabilities, the category of “disability” was added to the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990
• The U.S. Office on Crime Statistics reported in 2002 that in many cases, crime victims with disabilities have never participated in the criminal justice process, “even if they have been repeatedly and brutally victimized.” (the victims are often afraid of retaliation from the perpetrator; even the caregiver)
• disability-based bias crimes are all too frequently mislabeled as “abuse” and never directed from the social service or education systems to the criminal justice system. Even very serious crimes — including rape, assault, and vandalism — are too-frequently labeled “abuse.”

(data on hate crimes against the disabled from Civil Rights.org and UCLA Berkley Newsletter, “Flawed FBI reporting system undercounts disability hate crimes“. )

So back to President Bush and his conundrum. Dr. Nemecek sums it up nicely, at her blog, when she says, “

He doesn’t need to ask “What would Jesus do?” because he has a more certain answer in asking “What DID Jesus do?” That answer is simple. Jesus befriended and sought to protect the oppressed of his day from the attacks of the religious right

In Jesus day, the Pharisees were a sect in the Jewish faith who would have been part of the religeous “right”. They were those who, in His words were:

• (vipers) “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” (Matthew 3:7)
• (hypocrites) “But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in. (Matthew 23:13)
• (unjust) “But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of your mint, rue, and every herb, yet you neglect justice and love for God! But you should have done these things without neglecting the others. (Luke 11:42)

Jesus didn’t say that what the Pharisees taught was wrong…it’s how they lived and lived among the people that was wrong. It was their oppression of the people and unjust actions. That’s the conundrum President Bush has. To not sign the bill means he’s choosing to not protect the oppressed and siding with a vocal religious right. It doesn’t take a leap of faith to see that’s what Jesus did, protect and advocate for the oppressed, it just takes doing the stuff Jesus did.

(Bible references are from the Net Bible)