the strong stance

Moving to any new environment always means adjustment: Taking a new job, starting a new family, moving to a new city. With each of these shifts often comes a new culture and a new social circle. And while building that circle can be at least somewhat difficult for most people, it’s particularly more onerous if you belong to a community that is not widely accepted or even understood. Combine that with any other minority status and the intersectionality of those identities can compound those adjustments. And what if that new culture is one that tends to be significantly more conservative? Tonight we have two guests that have recently made moves from larger cities in the North and Midwest to the Deep South state of Georgia and we are going to talk to them about their experience of ‘Adjusting to Southern Intersections’.

Guests:
Melvin Whitehead
Morgan Rich

Resources:
America In Transition: http://americaintransition.org/

For all the advancements that the transgender community has seen over the last couple years, there are still staggering statistics of discrimination and oppression that our community faces on a daily basis. We face employment and housing discrimination, the outright denial of adequate healthcare or the coverage thereof, bullying, suicide and murder at alarming rates.
At the time of this taping, there have been 20 identified trans women and gender non-conforming people murdered in the US in 2015.*** All but a few of whom were trans women of color. Here is the list of those individuals:

1. Papi Edwards, 20 years old, Louisville, KY
2. Lamia Beard, 30 years old, Norfolk, VA
3. Ty Underwood, 24 years old, Tyler, TX
4. Yazmin Payne, 33 years old, Los Angeles, CA
5. Taja deJesus, 36 years old, San Francisco, CA
6. Penny Proud, 22 years old, New Orleans, LA
7. Brian Golec, 22 years old, Akron, OH*
8. Kristina Gomez Reinwald, 46 years old, Miami-Dade, FL
9. Keyshia Blige, 33 years old, Aurora, IL
10. Mya Hall, 27 years old, Fort Meade, MD
11. London Chanel, 21 years old, Philadelphia, PA
12. Mercedes Williamson, 17 years old, George County, MS
13. Ashton O’Hara, 25 years old, Detroit, MI**
14. India Clarke, 25 years old, Tampa, FL
15. K.C. Haggard, 66 years old, Fresno, CA
16. Shade Shuler, 22 years old, Dallas, TX
17. Amber Monroe, 20 years old, Detroit, MI
18. Kandis Capri, 35 years old, Phoenix, AZ
19. Elisha Walker, 20 years old, Johnston County, NC
20. Tamara Dominguez, 36 years old, Kansas City, MO
    *Brian identified as a woman until one year before being stabbed by his father. He then identified as an androgynous pansexual man.
    **Ashton identified as transgender but used male pronouns.
    ***stats from http://fusion.net/story/185799/2015-transgender-women-murdered-underreported/

It’s Pride season again and while so many people are attending festivals, parties and parades to celebrate the equality gains that have been made in the LGBTQ community and rejoicing in the existence of any space that allows us to truly exist in the comfort of our own skins without the judgement and burdens that come with daily life in the non-queer world, I have to ask the question of where the trans community fits into this schema. It’s ironic that we have to have a conversation about where trans people belong in an annual affair that basically celebrates an event sparked by trans women...but here we are. So where do trans people fit into the traditional pride landscape? And is this an event within which we should fight for our rightful place, or should we focus our efforts on something more targeted to our specific issues? Like our previous conversation about the T’s place within the queer acronym, I am drawn back to questions of collaboration within the whole, or the splintering off of the most vulnerable of our population.

Tonight we are going to engage in a discussion with three guests about their personal experiences in pride, as well as their views on the necessity, or perhaps lack thereof, of the trans and gender non-conforming community within this celebration.

Access to health care has lately been a hotly debated topic, both inside and outside of the transgender and genderqueer community. What’s covered, what’s not, who is covered and who is not. It’s a discussion that cuts across class, race, sex, and gender identity. Now, with the Affordable Care Act, there is even more debate and discussion. A good number of these decisions particularly affect the trans* community. Tonight,  Danielle Askini - Policy Director at Basic Rights Oregon, will join us to discuss the current climate of health care as it relates to the trans* and queer community and the access and/or hurdles to competent and comprehensive care. Danielle joined Basic Rights Oregon from Seattle, Washington where she was the founding executive director of Gender Justice League – a Trans* Activist Collective where she worked to repeal Trans Health Insurance exclusions in Washington, launch Trans* Pride Seattle – the largest Trans* event in the Pacific Northwest, and mobilizing to include Trans people in HIV Prevention and testing efforts in Washington State.

The focus of Transgender Thursdays is to provide hope, education, awareness, and advocacy for our transgender sisters, brothers, and their supporters.  While the primary focus of Transgender Thursday is on increasing awareness of and improving advocacy for the transgender community, these shows will also tackle topics that transcend sexual orientation and gender. Tonight, tune in for The Strong Stance with Eli. On November 7th, the Senate voted 64-32 to extend the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and include workplace protections to the LGBT community. What does this really mean? Tune in!  The Strong Stance-- things that “we don’t talk about in polite public society”.

Outing Post-Transition: Last week, ESPN's Grantland ran an article about trans golf-club inventor Essay Anne Vanderbilt (Dr. V). The lengthy article used her trans identity to sensationalize the story; and, Dr. V committed suicide in the midst of the writer researching the story. Tonight on The Strong Stance, Melvin Whitehead will join me as we reflect on how we feel about ESPN's handling (or lack of) on the situation.  We're also going to talk about outing/disclosure and transphobia.  Yes, the gloves are off, emotions are checked at the door; and, we've got the labels on the table.  We're taking The Strong Stance. Are you?