This might be the saddest headline I’ve read in a long time.  Christine Daniels has died.  In 2007 she, then known as Mike Penner, declared, under gender therapist care, that he was in fact a transexual woman, and began her RLE as Christine Daniels.  Later, she actually left her RLE and returned back to the LA Times as Mike Penner and continued her writing career with the LA Times as Mike.

I don’t want to believe Mike/Christine is dead.  And, I especially don’t want to believe it’s from her taking her own life.  That cuts too close to home for our community.  Mona Rae Mason, of the National Institute of Health funded Transgender Project, has noted about transgender women from the study:

The rate of lifetime major depression in this study of male to female transgender persons was 54.3%. That is almost three times higher than the corresponding estimate for the general population.

Suicide ideation for this same group was at 53.3%, again three times higher than the general population.

Actual suicide plans and attempts, 35.0% in the younger group, and 27.9% in the older, are seven and 10 times higher than the NCS estimates. SEVEN to TEN times!

You can read more about Christine Daniel’s death at:

1. The LA Times
2. The Huffington Post
3. National Public Radio

A new poll just released by Lake Research Partners shows that 76% of
likely voters in Massachusetts, including 81% of women, support H 1728
An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes. These
results prove what we all knew all along; ending harmful discrimination
against the transgender community is a Massachusetts value and ought to
be made a priority of the state legislature.

Now we need your help please. Please tell your Representative to make
this a priority now! Transgender Civil Rights cannot wait any longer.

Right now, An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate
Crimes is being held in the Judiciary Committee, with no set date to be
released for a full vote in the legislature. Please take a moment to
call or  email to your Representative asking them to call on House
Speaker DeLeo to make H 1728 An Act Relative to Gender Based
Discrimination and Hate Crimes a priority this year.

Representatives and their staffs tell us that calls and emails make all
the difference!

- To get your Representative’s phone number go to
http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm

- To find out who your Rep is and their email address go to
http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php and whom
ever is listed for “Rep in General Court” is your rep.

**** some sample text and scripts you might use *****

Here is a sample script you might use when calling:

My name is _____ and I am a proud resident of (your city). I am calling
to ask you as my Representative to contact House Speaker DeLeo ask him
to make H 1728, the transgender rights bill, a priority this year. I can
be reached at _______ (give your phone number). Thank you.

Here is a sample script you might use when emailing:

Dear Rep _____

I am a constituent in your district and I am writing you to ask you
as my Representative to contact House Speaker DeLeo urge him to make
H 1728, An At Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate
Crimes, a priority this year. Transgender rights cannot wait any
longer. Thank you.

Sincerely (your name)

************

Call or write using your legal name if you wish; no one is asking any of
us to out ourselves; but, contacting our government officials is going
to help all of us here in Massachusetts.

Ashley, Paula, Joan C., Michelle, Sally, Dana, June, Gunner, Nancy,
Gordene, Ethan, myself and so many others have done little things here
and there to help move this important legislation along.  With a
little more work from our community we can all see our civil rights
returned to us!

To see Ashley and Sally interviewed by Fox News on this bill and it’s
importance, please click to Fox News here:
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/071409_Transgender_equity_bill_fuels_fight

To learn about Michelle, Becki and Paula’s experience in the community lobbing our state reps, please click to this article here:
http://beckscafe.com/2009/06/21/trans-civil-rights-lobby-day-roundtable-with-michelle-paula-rebecca/

Thanks to everyone for their support!!

Many thanks from Beck’s Cafe to all our Veterans for keeping our country safe and free and sacrificing so much for all of us.  We all can’t thank you enough!!   There is so much we need to be thankful for to our veterans.  To learn more about this important day

• Click to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs web site.
• You can also learn more about Veterans Day at Military.com’s Veteran’s Day Page.
• The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation has a nice web page on Women in our Military and special Veteran’s Day remembrance for our valiant women.
• Stories of War from Women Veterans is an excellent podcast done at NPR which tells the stories of women at war
• Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks from Vietnam to Iraq (the biographies of the women are well worth the read themselves)

New England is blessed to have a number of excellent conferences dealing with transgender issues.  First Event, Fantasia Fair, Translating Identities, Transcending Boundaries, and Transgender Lives, all provide a terrific opportunity to meet others, learn about yourself, get medical, therapy or other knowledge important to living well and healthy lives, and to have some fun.  All of these conferences tend to have an open call for workshop presenters, which affords budding educators on a variety of topics the opportunity to help others.  Pretty neat!

Transgender Lives has put out a call for such workshop presenters and the deadline to provide them with your concept is November 15th.  So if giving a workshop on a topic that may be important to the transgender community is up your alley, have a visit to the Transgender Lives site and send your form in.

Okay it’s the afternoon and, if you’re reading Beck’s Cafe you are officially goofing off.  Or, maybe you’re just giving your brain a break and, studies do show, that an internet brain breaks DO in fact improve your performance at work.  So, in some sense, Beck’s Cafe is in evil league with your employer to get you to output MORE.  Ghastly!

So, here, on a Monday, is some fun to give your brain a break!

• A teacher was asking her class: “What is the difference between ‘unlawful’ and ‘illegal’?” Only one hand shot up. “Ok, answer, Joan,” said the teacher. “‘Unlawful’ is when u do something the law doesn’t allow and ‘Illegal’ is a sick eagle.”

• Sign behind an Amish carriage: “Energy efficient vehicle. Runs on grass and oats. CAUTION: Avoid exhaust!”

• An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

• A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why,” they asked, as they moved off. “Because”, he said, “I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.”

• A hungry traveller stops at a monastery and is taken to the kitchens. A brother is frying chips. ‘Are you the friar?’ he asks. ‘No. I’m the chip monk,’ he replies

• She was the apple of his eye and he liked to sit down be cider.

• If a judge loves the sound of his own voice, expect a long sentence.

Puntastically fun jokes and puns sourced from, Pun of the Day, The Good Clean Funnies List, Best Clean Humor on the Net