Sunday, 25 September 2016

Gay Teen Suing School That Refused To Let Him Bring A Date To Prom



A gay teen from Tennessee is suing his former school after they refused to let him bring a date to his homecoming prom.

Lance Sanderson has filed a lawsuit stating that his school, the all male Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, went against anti-discrimination laws when he was told that he could not bring another boy to the dance as his date, despite other students being allowed to bring female partners from outside of the school.

Lance chose to skip the dance rather than attend without being able to bring a partner, but reports that the school still suspended him for a week for having requested permission to bring a same sex partner.

The lawyers in the case, which cites breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent training among it's violations, have said that that despite the school's private status it is in receipt of federal funding, and as such must abide by anti-discrimination laws and legislation.

Speaking out on the incident Lance said, 'I've been out since my freshman year of high school, and I've been a great student as well as a photographer for most of my school's events.  When I first started to float the idea of bringing a same sex date to homecoming I was told that my school doesn't discriminate by a school official.

'But, when that school official left over the summer, I was met with harsh opposition by my school.  One administrator told me that even though some people interpret Pope Francis's teachings on the issue as as meaning that they should support same sex couples, these people are 'not the authority to which Christian Brothers High School is accountable'.

'Now my school is making daily announcements across the whole school saying that students can't bring same sex dates from other schools.

'I just want to bring a date of my choice to homecoming like the rest of my friends and classmates.  I'm not asking for special treatment.  I'm just asking for respect and the chance to make my last homecoming a truly memorable experience.'

Lance's case is still ongoing.


Amy.
xx



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Saturday, 17 September 2016

Christian Music Festival Bans Gay Singer




Joshua Fest, a Christian festival in Quincy, California, has dropped an openly gay singer from it's line-up and banned him from their event.  Trey Pearson, lead singer of the popular Christian band Everyday Sunday came out to fans as gay in an emotional letter earlier this summer, a shock revelation to many of the bands fans as he has previously been believed to be straight, being married and having two children with his wife.

In his coming out letter Pearson admits that he has been 'choosing' to be straight after being raised in a Christian environment that taught him that homosexuality was a sin, and a choice.  'I tried for a really long time , I don't think I was ever trying to lie to anyone, I was trying to convince myself I could be something I wasn't.'

Despite some of his more open minded fans congratulating him on his bravery at coming out and living his life as his true self, others have been extremely critical of his sexuality, and Joshua Fest has since dropped the band from their event and have reportedly banned Pearson from attending.

The decision to drop the band came after members of the festival crew threatened to walk out of the event if an openly gay man was allowed to appear.  The festival owners cite this as their reason for dropping the act, claiming that the amount of staff who threatened to leave would have made the event unable to be run.


Amy.
xx


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Monday, 12 September 2016

Judge Tells Trans Man To 'Pick A Name I Can Live With'



A judge from the state of Georgia has refused to allow a transgender man to change his name unless he chooses a gender neutral or unisex name.

Earlier this year Andrew Baumert filed a petition to have his name legally changed from his birth name to Andrew.  Court records show that Andrew provided all of the relevant and correct documents necessary for the change, yet Judge J. David Roper denied the request less than 10 minutes into the hearing.

Roper stated his reason for denying the change as being that Andrew is too masculine a name, and that it may confusing or misleading to other people.  Whilst there are exceptions in which a court can deny a name change, such as a lengthy criminal record or if they believe that someone is trying to defraud creditors, but there is no legal standing to deny a petition based on the ground of gender dysphoria.

Court records have shown that Roper told Andrew that he would be fine allowing the name change if a gender neutral name was chosen.  He said, 'I can live with Morgan, Shannon, Shaun and Jamie'.

Andrew has since approached civil rights organisations for assistance with this case and has gone on to describe the incident as 'humiliating' to the press.

'It was humiliating and insulting to be told by the court that I would not be able to change my name legally when I'm already known as Andrew by my family, my friends and my community.  I work in labs all day, but it doesn't take a scientist to know that the judge's ruling was based on sexist opinions about 'appropriate' names.'

This is not the first time that Roper has denied a trans man's petition to change his name legally, however, as in the past he has refused to allow a trans man to change his name to Rowan.  At the time Roper denied this change, which also met all of the legal requirements, on the grounds that he believed it could 'offend the sensibilities and mores of a substantial portion of the citizens of this state.'


Amy.
xx


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Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Leicester Pride Issue Apology For Using The Word 'Tranny'



Five days after an incident at my local Pride event in Leicester where I received a torrent of abuse online for asking event organisers why a member of their team was wearing a high-vis jacket with the word 'tranny' printed on the back, Leicester Pride has released an official statement regarding the incident.


Apology from Leicester Pride

With reference the recent event in Leicester and it being highlighted to us about the use of the word 'Tranny' being an offensive word to some people in our community, we would like to whole heartedly apologise for any offence taken. It was never meant in its context to be offensive and it was ignorant of us to think that in this day it was ok.

One the day of the festival comments were made on our Facebook page, which by the time we were aware had also got very abusive sub comments added by members of the public. We took what action we felt was right at the time, which was to delete the entire thread from our page.

Leicester Pride welcomes people from all walks of life and to think that this has in anyway ruined people's day when they were attending or upset them in any fashion is totally unacceptable and for that we once again apologise.

Since then we have been contacted by the publication Planet Transgender and agreed to meet to discuss this, although a formal time etc has not yet been agreed we hope that we can have an open discussion and move on from this is a positive way.

Leicester Pride will never encourage any sort of negatively to people in our community and hope this apology is accepted in the spirit it is intended.

Leicester Pride


I would like to thank the organisers of  the event for taking this incident seriously, even though it did take them a while to respond to the incident it's encouraging to see that they have not just dismissed it out of hand the way that some groups might have done.

As they have said in their statement, they have been contacted via Planet Transgender, who I work with, and they have greed to discuss the matter with us further,  As the rest of the Planet Transgender Team are not within the UK I am pleased to be the one to talk to them regarding this matter, and am hoping that they contact us regarding this very soon.


UPDATE

Leicester Pride did not contact myself, or Planet Transgender, after this initial message, and as such their pledge to reach out and discuss the matter further was apparently false. This only furthers my initial feelings that they only issued an apology to try and save public face, and that if it were not for public attention they would have simply dismissed the matter.


Amy.
xx

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Sunday, 4 September 2016

Trans Radio Presenter Stephanie Hirst Set To Move To BBC Radio 2



BBC Radio 2 could be about to get their very first out trand DJ as Stephanie Hirst begins negotiations to take over from Paul Gambaccini as he moves slots.

According to the Daily Mirror 'Stephanie has had four meetings with senior bosses, including three full auditions, which saw her record her show as though it is live and going out on air.  She really impressed and is now very much in the frame for the job.'

Stephanie has a great deal of experience as a Radio DJ, having previously worked for both Captial FM and Radio 5 Live.


Amy.
xx

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Saturday, 3 September 2016

Prometheus Coming to Season 5 of Arrow



After fighting super soldiers, immortal assassins and magicians Arrow is heading back towards to regular human villains going into it's fifth season.

Whilst a large part of the season will involve the Russian Maffia, with 80's movie legend Dolph Lundgren playing a key role, a new villain will also be staling the streets in the form of Prometheus.  The series producers are saying that Prometheus will be the major threat of the season.

Hopefully he won't be as destructive a force as he was for Green Arrow in the comics, where he destroyed a huge section of Star City, resulting in Roy Harper losing an arm, and the death of his daughter Lian.


Arrow will return on October 5th.


Amy.
xx

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Supernatural Release First Picture of Mary Winchester in Action



Season 11 of Supernatural wasn't one of the best, it had a great idea for a villain in an 'evil' counterpart to God, and the actual inclusion of God towards the end of the season, but sadly let itself down with a lackluster final episode.

With God dying and Amara looking unbeatable the Winchesters win the day by essentially getting her to agree to have a talk with her brother and the two of them putting their differences behind them, not exactly the best finale the show has ever given us.

The final episode did, at least set up some interesting new ideas going forward into season 12, one being the new human villains, the other being the surprise return of Mary Winchester, Sam and Dean's mother who died when Sam was still a baby.

It's anyone's guess what her return will mean for the show and the relationships between the characters, but from new promo images it would look like she's quickly calling on her history as a hunter and jumping straight into the action.


Supernatural is set to return to screens on October 13th.


Amy.
xx

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Leicester Pride Happy Using Trans Slurs



Today I attended my local Pride event in Leicester, an event that I'd been to before and enjoyed.  Our household was excited to go, and we spent the morning getting ourselves ready for what we thought would be a great day our.  However, the three of us were extremely disappointed by the event.  Not because of the constant rain that soaked us through, it's summer in England, we're used to that kind of thing, no we were disappointed by some of the incredibly offensive language being used by one of the event's organisers.

As we were waiting for the event to begin my girlfriend noticed the high vis jacket one of the event crew was wearing, which had the word 'Tranny' printed on the back.


I have to be completely honest, when I first saw this I thought that I must have misread something, that I'd seen one thing and accidentally read another.  But no, it very clearly has the word tranny printed on it.  I felt absolutely disgusted when I saw this.  Here we are, at an event that is supposed to be celebrating an embracing all parts of the LGBT+ community, somewhere that is supposed to be a safe space, where we can all be ourselves, and someone is wearing one of the worst slur words for the trans community.

If I'm being completely honest, I wanted to leave.  I absolutely hate that word.  I have had people call me that word when they've threatened to kill me, I've had people shout it at me in the street, I've been called it when I was spat on.  It's used to put down and humiliate trans people.  It's a word of hate.

Because I was meeting a friend and his some at the event I chose to stay on as not to disappoint them, but my day was essentially ruined from that point onward.  I felt that as a trans person I was being told that I wasn't welcome at the event, that trans people were being looked down upon by the rest of the community, or even mocked.

However, I wanted to ask the event organisers themselves as to why this word was used, for all I know this guy could be trans himself and using the word to reclaim it, which is fine.  So, I went and uploaded the photo to Leicester Pride's Facebook page and asked them about it.

As of yet I haven't received a response from the Pride organisers themselves, but their supporters have responded, and boy is their reaction not nice.







These are just a few of the comments being made on Leicester Pride's Facebook page.  I've been told that I'm being PC, that I'm overly sensitive, that they can use that word because they're a drag artist, that I'm a 'fucktard', that I should never leave my house.  This is the reaction from the LGBT+ community, to launch into an attack where I'm the villain for asking why a slur word was used.

So far the actual organisers haven't given a response, but they're allowing these responses to be made on their social media, they're allowing their supporters to attack a member of their community.  Well, maybe I guess this event is just for the LGB community.

The abuse is still rolling in at the minute, please feel free to see for yourself on the link below, or even get involved in the discussion if you want.


Perhaps there was no malice in this person using that word, but it's still not right that they do use it, and the reaction to someone from a marginalised group telling you that something is highly offensive isn't to launch into an attack and tell that person that they're wrong, especially if you're not in that community.  If you're not a part of the community what makes you qualified to tell them that something's not offensive to that community.

This reaction is shocking beyond belief, it's ruined what should have been an amazing event and it's completely unacceptable.


UPDATE

The entire conversation thread, including dozens more abusive comments, has now been deleted by the Leicester Pride page admin.  The page has also been made so that all posts and comments must be approved by their page admin, effectively preventing anyone from speaking out on this incident and any other issues that people may have.


Amy.
xx

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Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Labour MP Reported To Police For Calling A Trans Woman 'He'



Transgender Tory Councillor Zoe Kirk-Robinson has reported fellow politician Guy Harkin to police following him referring to her with male pronouns twice during a council meeting.

Ms Kirk-Robinson attended a council meeting on August 24th, where she delivered a speech to the assembled representatives.  She reports that after her speech Labour Councillor Guy Harkin became visibly upset and launched into an angry rebuttal.

Zoe told journalists, 'During his rant, he repeatedly misgendered me, referring to me as 'he' and 'him' numerous times; which stunned the room into silence.  The tirade was clearly meant to not just insult but injure; and I can tell you that he did, sadly, hit the mark on that one.

'It hurt a lot, the guy had no reason to suggest that I was male, he's never met me as male, I transitioned over ten years ago.  I've lived in Bolton for eight years.  He never met me before transition.'

Greater Manchester Police have confirmed that Zoe has filed a complaint regarding the incident and that they will be looking to speak to Mr Harkin.  

'It's offensive.  Police are looking into it and will speak to him and settle it with restorative justice,' Zoe said.  'He will sit in a room with me and listen to why it's wrong.

'The thing is, we were all shocked by it.  There have been complaints from the Labour Councillors, it shocked everyone.  He shouldn't have done it.  I'm a crime ambassador for the council, I tell each person to report it so that they know how much is happening.

'If he feels comfortable doing this at the highest level in town, it's going to set a precedent for people of the town.  There is a huge problem with transphobia in Bolton, it legitimates it for all of the other people.'

Speaking on the issue Mr Harkin has said that 'I was utterly unaware of this slip of the tongue until it was pointed out to me the day after the meeting.  I offered immediately to apologise as there is not a homophobic or any kind of phobic bone in my body.

'I am told that I used 'he' instead of the appropriate 'she' twice, not repeatedly, or someone would have surely have raised a point of order - and I would have apologised there and then.'

Mr Harkin, who has in the past come under criticism for suggesting naming streets after Adolf Hitler and other high ranking Nazis in a bid to sabotage housing development, has tried to deflect anger by saying that one of his oldest friends is transgender author Roz Kaveney.

Despite Harkin claiming that he has heard nothing from police regarding the incident both Zoe Kirk-Robinson and a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police have said that the incident is being taken seriously and that enquiries are ongoing.


Amy.
xx

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Friday, 26 August 2016

Girl Claims She Will Fail High School If Trans Students Treated With Equality



A 13 year-old girl and her conservative Christian mother are fighting against legislation that allows transgender students the right to use bathroom and changing facilities that match their gender identity, claiming that it will result in her failing High School.

Sigourney Cole has told school officials that she is being discriminated against because transgender students have been given the right to use the bathrooms and changing facilities that best match their gender identity.  Speaking out on the issue Sigourney told officials that she did not wish to use the same facilities as transgender students due to religious reasons, and that her feelings should trump the law.

Sigourney and her mother have been fighting hard to get her school, Emmaus High School in Eastern Penn, to ban transgender people from using bathroom and changing facilities, despite the fact that there are no actual transgender students in the same class as Sigourney.

Speaking on Monday evening at a school board meeting the young woman said, 'I am a woman, and I identify as a woman, and you can't make me change in front  of someone who I don;t identify with who is physically male.'

She went on to say that because transgender students are allowed to use the same facilities as her (again, despite not having any trans students in her own class) she feels that she must sit out of gym class, a choice that will result in her failing gym and ultimately High School.  She is claiming that this is somehow her being discriminated against.

'I feel nothing against transgenders, I would just not like their rights to overrule mine.'  She spoke out, somehow equating equal rights to a marginalised group having more rights than she does in some warped view on reality where not being privileged means being discriminated against.

'Gym requires us to participate to pass high school and if I don't change I'm not allowed to participate.  So my options are to let myself be discriminated against or fail gym for not participating and not pass through high school, which would jeapardise my future.'

Sigourney's mother, Aryn Coyle, shares the same extreme views on the situation and has been actively supporting and encouraging her daughter, going so far as to likening the fight to discriminate against transgender students as a 'battle' on her Facebook account.

Aryn has tried to write tot he school to have them allow Sigourney to be excluded from the class due to religious reasons, however, the school principal responded to her to say that 'religious exemption from class only applies in health class due to sexuality content and not gym class'.

'I have always been an advocate of any special arrangement that prevents any group of people from being mistreated based on who they are.'  Aryn wrote on social media, blissfully unaware of how contradictory that statement is to her actions and just how bigoted she actually is.  'But I will NOT stand by while the law dictates that male bodies are allowed to walk into my daughters locker room, undress next to her, and shower alongside her.  Whether or not the male bodies are covered in pants or skirts is irrelevant.  They have no place in her locker room.'

Aryn has said that she is proud of her daughters bigotry, and that she will stand by her even if her selfish hate leads her to fail high school for wanting transgender students to be discriminated against.  Again, just to make this clear, there are no transgender students involved in this case at all, Sigourney Coyle has no transgender classmates, she just wants her religion to trump any potential real people.


Amy.
xx

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