Club Femme MA, hosted at Indian Meadows Country Club in Westborough, MA, is held the second Friday of the month, has a great DJ, a large and excellent dance floor, and a quiet, well lit, lounge for conversation. The club’s focus is on the MtF crossdresser, transgender woman, supporters and admirers.  It’s a space for flirting, having fun, dancing, meeting a new friend and maybe finding romance just like at any other dance club, but, Club Femme MA happens to target the transgender community.  There are a number of population specific dance clubs in Greater Boston most notably Dyke Night leading the way with lesbian targeted nights in Greater Boston, The Neighborhood, a transgender/queer targeted dance club that used to meet the first Saturday of the month at The Midway Cafe and FoRCC Transgender Party which meets at RCC the fourth Saturday of the month.  Club Femme  carries on that style of a themed nightclub.

I visited Club Femme with my friend Paula in May.  Prior to that, I had several conversations with Club Femme’s promoter, Jon. Jon’s been a supporter of the transgender community for some time and told me his motivation for starting Club Femme. He really felt that the Greater Boston area needed a transgender friendly social space for the MtF transgender community, supporters and admirers to feel comfortable mingling together at.  He felt a transgender specific club would be especially helpful to those crossdressers and trans-women who had not had the opportunity to be out in public.

My first impressions?  Club Femme succeeds on most of its goals.  For those gals who like a bit more discretion or are starting to get their confidence up going out in public, Club Femme is really perfect since you will be with other trans-persons in a welcoming environment. If you are out and about in the world, Club Femme’s DJ is worth bringing friends with you to go dancing.  He’s that good and takes requests.  Parking is free and the entrance fee is $15.00, but, given that Boston clubs cost $10 to get in with $15 for parking, the $15.00 is reasonable.  Drink prices were reasonable.

For more info, email Club Femme’s promoter, Jon at hottimesforall@yahoo.com you can also join their mailing list off their Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/friendsofclubfemme/

Update:
9-7-2010:  Club Femme’s team has told us that they are not meeting at Indian Meadows any longer and are searching for a new location.  As soon as we hear where they are meeting we’ll post it here or Beck’s Cafe’s loyal caffeine crazed readers.  Your best bet is to join their Yahoo Group for updates.

ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, has  failed to be passed for this session of congress.  The push to enact ENDA isn’t over of course, the House might still vote it in during this session of congress but, according to a post in the Billerico Project by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss, “it’s likely too late in the session to move through the Senate“.

That being said, it would be good for everyone to know the current language in the bill and what Barney Frank’s clarifications of it are. First, what is some of the current language and then, what Representative Frank’s thoughts are.

Rebecca Juro reported, on May 4th in The Billerico Project:

• Employers will not be permitted to force a transgender employee to use a bathroom that is opposite of their gender identity, but they also will not be obligated to allow that employee to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, as long as (currently undefined) reasonable accommodations are made.
• These rules may only be applied to transsexual employees who are currently transitioning, and those who have already completed the transition process will not be affected. What we don’t yet know here is what will be the requirements to be considered as fully transitioned.

Those are pretty powerful statements in terms of how ENDA is being drafted.  The key however, as Rebecca Juro writes in her piece, is that “none of this is written in stone”.   There may be changes yet.  Many thanks to local gal turned educator of our congress, Denise Leclair, for her unearthing this text from the ENDA document.

Congressman Barney Frank gave his views on the transgender piece of ENDA in a May 10th report in “Roll Call: the newspaper of Capital Hill since 1955“.  In the piece, “Backers Say Gay Rights Bill will Pass in House” Representative Frank stated that:

• Regarding Transgender protections remaining in ENDA, he said, “There’s no chance of doing it without it.”  He believes that at the base level, it’s about discrimination plain and simple.

Representative Frank noted in the Roll Call piece that alot of work went into the bill to meet moderate’s concerns such as:

• Transgender people with “one set of genitals” would not be able to go to a bathroom for people with another set of genitals.
• Transgender people would have to have a “consistent gender presentation” in order to be able to sue for discrimination.  “They can’t sit there with a full beard and a dress,” Representative Frank said.

So, the push isn’t over for ENDA yet.  Passing ENDA in the House of Representatives would be at least a step in the right direction to get the pins set for equality and protections in 2011.   I’d encourage our readers to check the following resources as well:

1. The comments section of Rebecca Juro’s post are vital to understanding and interpreting what is happening now.  You can reach that story at the Billerico Project at this link: “Current ENDA Language Regarding Transgender Revealed, Concerns Mount“
2. Wikipedia article on ENDA which contains a good number of reference links for those wanting to read more: Wikipedia article on ENDA