Social Justice

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logo for harbor to the bay aids ride Harbor to the Bay is a one day bike ride from Boston to Provincetown that improves community awareness and care for people living with HIV and AIDS. Their mission is to give 100% of what they raise to beneficiaries! No politics, no elaborate production and no bull! — just a dedicated group of individuals who want to ride and make a difference in our community. This is a grass roots initiative, and we are solely run by volunteers!

AND

Beck’s Cafe supporter and fellow coffee swiller, June, will be in the ride making her butt sore for this great cause.   Who’s June?  Why none other than Fenway Women’s Dinner Co-Chair that ‘s which June!   So here’s what I need my loyal and long-suffering readers to do:  Sponsor Her.  Yep, crack open those wallets boys and girls!  Here’s the link to get to her sponsor page and support a great cause: June’s Harbor to the Bay Sponsor Page

Photo from SashaW Photos

Abuse is no joke among trans-women and their partners.  Indeed, organizations like The Network La Red started partially because this kind of abuse, though not talked about, is a real.   One research who has done work in this area is Mona Rae Mason.   Our long-suffering readers might remember our previous posts on Ms. Mason here at Beck’s Cafe regarding her work on The Transgender Project.  Part of what came out of that work were two research papers and Ms. Mason has been kind enough to let us publish them here at Beck’s Cafe.  The first is “”Psychiatric Impact of Gender-Related Abuse Across the Life Course of Male-to-Female Transgender Person”

In this paper, the author’s cover:

The psychiatric impact of interpersonal abuse associated with an atypical presentation of gender was examined across the life course of 571 male-to-female (MTF) transgender persons from the New York City Metropolitan Area. Gender-related abuse (psychological and physical), suicidality, and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision) major depression were retrospectively measured across ?ve stages of the life course using the Life Chart Interview. Among younger respondents (current age of 19–39), the impact of both types of abuse on major depression was extremely strong during adolescence and then markedly declined during later stages of life. Among older respondents (current age of 40–59), the impact of both types of abuse on major depression was strong during adolescence and then marginally declined during later stages of life. The effects of both types of abuse on suicidality were weaker but more consistently observed across the life course among both the younger and older respondents. Gender-related abuse is a major mental health problem among MTF transgender persons, particularly during adolescence. As these individuals mature, however, the consequences of this abuse appear less severe, which may represent the development of moderately effective mechanisms for coping with this abuse

You can download the full study by clicking to this link here at Beck’s Cafe, “Psychiatric Impact of Gender-Related Abuse Across the Life Course of Male-to-Female Transgender Persons“.

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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

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I blogged about The TG Emergency Fund back on May 10th and in my post I noted that they would be having a party at Club Cafe on June 3rd.  Well here are more details:

Unbound By Body Party at Club Cafe, Boston MA

  • What: Unbound By Body Launch Party
  • When: June 3rd, 6:30pm-10:00pm
  • Where: Club Cafe, Moonshine Room, 209 Columbus Ave, Boston

Funnest part of the party? Their 2011 Calendar featuring trans-identified community members from across the state of Massachusetts.
This event is free but bring some change to get your own calendar!

For those of you who can’t make the party, the calendar will be on sale online and at various events throughout the year after the party. For an idea of who is in the calendar, check out the blog of their photographer, Jess Dugan: http://jesstdugan.blogspot.com/2010/04/transgender-emergency-fund-calendar.html

If you have any questions, feel free to Jesse at jessep@aidsprojectworcester.org

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Bay Windows has written a nice piece summarizing the current state of the Massachusetts Transgender Right Bill, “An Act Relative to Gender-based Discrimination and Hate Crimes” (S. 1687/H. 1728).   It’s well worth a read to get caught up with how the bill is progressing and what supporters may want to continue to do to help.  Among the latest in their article:

  • Boston City Council passed a unanimous resolution supporting the transgender civil rights bill
  • The Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts voice their support for the transgender civil rights bill
  • A summary of what the bill’s purpose is

Click to Bay Windows coverage at their site at this link: Transgender Rights Bill receives more support, extended deadline

Of particular note for supporters of the bill is to note that it’s still in the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary and it’s been given an extension to early June 2010 for consideration.   If the bill receives a favorable recommendation from the Join Committee on the Judiciary, the bill moves through the legislative process to both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and, if passed, to the Governor’s desk for approval, veto or to return it back to the legislature for changes.

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Transgender Emergency Fund logo at Beck's Cafe

The Transgender Emergency Fund is a great idea started by two social entrepreneurs, Tanya and Jesse.   It started out as a small initiative really but has truly expanded over the past two years having raised thousands of dollars through small donations mainly from the transgender community.   That money then went right back into the transgender community in Massachusetts in small grants to help low income trans-persons.   The money is most often used for medical care, to avoid becoming homeless, and help with food and heating.   This kind of communities helping themselves is really neat to see and a great example really of what can be accomplished when an entrepreneurial spirit is put with a desire to see social justice action put in place.

They are holding a kick off fund raiser at Club Cafe on Thursday, June 3rd at 6PM and the kick off includes their new calendar!  Calendars are $10 each and feature the photos of many of  Massachusetts leading trans-persons.  Pretty fun stuff!  You can get more information by dropping some mail to Jesse at jessep@aidsprojectworcester.org

May 14, 2010 Correction:  Tanya emailed us here at Beck’s Cafe to let us know that while Tanya is a volunteer for the fund she did not start it.  Jesse was the visionary who created it.

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We wrote about the health care reform bill back on March22, 2010, “U.S. Health Care Bill – Perhaps the Biggest Social Justice Issue Ever“  and we promised to cover smaller parts of that bill regarding women’s health and trans-people too.  To start fulfilling that promise, we want to point our readers to NCTE’s site where they have done a decent job summarising what the health care bill may mean for transgender people, here are some excerpts but you should read the full post:

  • Access to Healthcare: This is a biggie.  The transgender community has a poverty rate as twice the national average. In a recent survey of over 6,000 transpersons by NCTE, 26% had been fired just for being transgender. While COBRA helps, eventually that runs out so having access at all to health care is a big help.
  • Cannot be Denied Coverage or Dropped: Very important.  While transition coverage is not mandated; you can’t be denied standard health care solely because you have a pre-exisiting condition or have been receiving treatment.

Read more at NCTE’s web site news, “Health Care Reform and it’s Impact on Transgender People” and another post at the NCTE blog, “Being a Transgender Person is no Longer a Pre-Existing Condition

It’s law.  Or at least it’s been agreed to by the House of Representatives after having been approved by the Senate in December.  So now the health care bill goes to the President to sign.

Here’s a bit of news coverage to bring you up to speed here:

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/health.care.main/index.html?hpt=T1

Foxnews: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/21/house-leaders-make-impassioned-pleas-final-health-care-vote/

On both the Democrat and the Republican side there were many facts and many non-facts.  We’ve got some reading for you to hopefully steer your way through the morass of fogginess at FactCheck.org Among their findings:

  • Premiums? Some health care premiums will increase and some will decrease.  Basically, for those who get insurance through their employer, it does not appear as though it will change; for those who can afford to buy their own insurance, it may change 10 to 13%
  • Government  Run? When the BBC asked a Republican House Member today on an interview if this was in fact a Government  takeover for the U.S. Healthcare he said, “well, it’s about where we are going with healthcare”.   So what is the deal?   Well it is not government run nor aimed in that way.  And that fact made alot of liberal Democrats angry as a caffeine addict being served de-caff coffee here at Beck’s Cafe.   See Fact Check for the straight perk.
  • You Can Keep Your Old Plan? Well President Obama really didn’t give it to us straight on that one.  Under this plan employers may drop employees and plans (as they can today anyway by the way); but there’s a safety net here that let’s people dropped from their employers roles buy their own plans.  See Fact Check for the inforama.
  • Some plans are taxed: And what is up with THAT?  Well here’s the scoop – there’s a 40 percent tax on the value of plans above $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families, starting in 2018. The tax falls on insurers, but would be passed along to policyholders one way or another.  The tax would affect mainly nonunion workers, according to an analysis partly authored by a former Bush adviser.”  See Fact Check for the full report on this one.

Here is the link to Fact Check’s coverage:  A Final Weekend of Whoppers? Health care legislation coverage.

There’s alot we need to sit down and understand over way more coffee than this.  What about women’s reproductive rights?  What about breast cancer screening?  Are trans-persons helped or at least not-hindered by this legislation?  Lots of questions and we’ll have some follow up in the coming days.

When I think of hunger for a group of people I don’t split the people up between men and women or adults and children. I just think of a mass of people starving. But not so. These statistics on women and hunger may surprise you ad they did me:

  • 60% of the worlds chronically hungry people are women and girls
  • And yet 8 out of 10 people involved in farming in Africa, and 6 out of 10 in Asia are women
  • In one of three households in the world, women are the sole breadwinners
  • Babies born to hungry mothers are 20% more likely to die in infancy and those who survive face a childhood of continual malnourishment and being victims of diseases
  • A woman or girl will re-invest 90% of her income into her family while a man will only re-invest 30% to 40%

So a strategy is being rolled out, selectively and by hunger program, to target the women and girls. The data seems to support this as the best way to positively effect the whole problem. I’m not sure this is a universal approach, but, given the extent of the problem it appears to be a new angle in process that might make a real dent.

You can read more at Causecast at the article: Empowering Women as an Effective Way to Fight Global Hunger

Photo courtesy of Pulguta’s Photos

I remember when my library card was one of my most cherished possessions and it still is!  While the internet and Google Books opens up alot of reading to me, there’s nothing quite like the experience of going to the library and browsing, and then reading a book or magazine in a quiet place dedicated to books.   But that reading is more important than just for the enjoyment.  It’s about education, opening minds, and giving people a chance to grow and Room to Read is all about that.

Room to read, from their web site:

Over 300 million children around the world do not have access to education and most likely will never learn to read or write. Room to Read believes that all children, regardless of gender or background, have a right to education. By empowering children through this lifelong gift, we see a world in which people are able to realize their full potential.

Room to Read had its humble origins in Nepal in 2000, where we began bringing donated books to rural communities. Today, we are a global organization dedicated to promoting and enabling education through four core programs.

The importance of reading, according to the University of Michigan, for children is that:

  • It improves their chances for success in school itself and in working
  • It’s a fun and imaginative activity for children (so it exercises their brains)
  • It’s an important way to use language and to communicate

Those are all great goals to help kids anywhere certainly; but helping them in some of the most impoverished places on the planet can be important to start seeing the changes that make for a better world.  Sadly, 2/3 of the 770 million illiterate people in the world are girls and women and Room to Read is an important part in changing that terrible statistic.  You can learn more about this terrific program at their web site Room to Read