Working for Freedom and Empowerment in Gender Identity and Expression Since 1996

The Fourth Annual Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Health and Law Conference is being held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the UConn Health Center from 8:00 AM till 5 PM. This all day conference is geared towards Community, Service Providers, Medical and Legal Professionals, Trans and Gender non-conforming individuals, allies and all those interested in the Health and Law issues facing the Trans and gender non-conforming communities.

Please continually check our website at, TransgenderLives.org, for detailed and evolving conference information.

Sincerely,
Organizing Committee
Transgender Lives Conference

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President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department.

In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality’s board of directors, said that “as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

While Simpson is clearly one of the first transgender presidential appointees, Democratic officials say they’re unsure if she is the very first one.

The White House had no comment on her appointment.

A 2004 YWCA “Woman on the Move,” Simpson recently served as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona.

At Raytheon, Simpson — a former test pilot who had worked for the company for more than a generation — transitioned from male to female and was instrumental in convincing the military contractor to add gender identity and expression to its equal employment opportunity policy.

She later ran unsuccessfully for the Arizona House of Representatives and was a delegate for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

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And this issue extends to all of us and/or our loved ones within the Trans communities. The Federal Government on more than one occasion has enacted federal regulations excluding trans folks from federal protections: the Americans with Disabilities Act, Insurance Coverage and Medicaid to name a few. And we now see the House of Representatives, the Senate and even the President supporting even more abortion restrictions on a Woman’s Right to full health care coverage and her ability to govern decisions over her body. Click here to read more of these connections between a Women’s right to choose and Trans folks being denied the right to determination over their bodies, their gender identity and their expression.

So please join TransAdvocacy, the Women and Gender Resource Action Center of Trinity, NARAL Pro-Choice Ct and other organizations as we stand and say we will NOT be silent as our government tries to chip away our rights! Click here to view flyer.

Event Info

Date: Monday, December 21, 2009
Time: 4 - 6 PM
Address: Federal Building,
450 Main Street
Hartford, CT

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I found this beautiful poem while searching for archival remnants of Sylvia and Marsha

For Marsha P. (Pay It No Mind!) Johnson
Qwo-Li Driskill

found floating in the Hudson River shortly after NYC Pride, 1992

“You are the one whose spirit is present in the dappled stars.”
– Joy Harjo, from “For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash…”

Each act of war
is whispered from
Queen to Queen
held like a lost child
then released into the water below.
Names float into rivers
gentle blooms of African Violets.

I will be the one that dangles
from the side but
does not let go.

The police insisted you leapt
into the Hudson
driftwood body
in sequin lace
rhinestone beads
that pull us to the bottom.
No serious investigation — just another
dead Queen.

[Read more →]

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