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TSA Posts Info for Trans Travelers

 

Re-posted from The National Center for Transgender Equality

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently unveiled a webpage featuring information and advice for transgender travelers going through airport security. TSA’s advice, while not comprehensive, covers a few important points:

Travelers should make sure that the gender provided when they book their flight matches the gender designation on the government-issued ID they bring to the airport. TSA Travel Document Checkers […]


Mexican Trans Advocate Agnes Torres Found Murdered

Re-posted from TowleRoad

 

Mexican transgender activist Agnes Torres was found dead this week outside her home in Puebla, Mexico. Her neck had been slashed, her body burned in signs she had been tortured.

The Puebla-based organization Vida Plena Puebla released a statement, 2bmag reports:

“We condemn this crime against a woman, an academic, a psychologist, educator, role model and activist for human rights for women in general and for sexual diversity as a whole,” the Puebla-based organization Vida Plena Puebla. “We are distraught, pained, enraged and saddened by this crime, and feel powerless over how, yet again, a brave person has succumbed to the most brutal of gender-based violence… in this case, violence against a transgender woman.” The organization demanded in their statement that Torres’s murder case be treated the same way as that of “the daughter of any governor, politician, or attorney” and that it be solved swiftly.

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Aflac: Add Domestic Partner Benefits

Equity Foundation: Sign our Petition to Demand that Aflac Provide Domestic Partnership Benefits to Their Employees

In the 21st century discrimination against LGBT people is unacceptable – and we believe that unfortunately that is precisely what insurance giant Aflac is doing. Aflac has recently refused Equity Foundation’s request to include domestic partner benefits in Aflac’s employee benefits package. This is wrong and should not be allowed to stand. When […]


A Mom Becomes A Man, And A Family Sticks Together

Re-posted from NPR.org

This spring, Les and Scott GrantSmith will mark their 25th wedding anniversary. The couple raised two daughters along the way. But 15 years ago, they hit a crisis that nearly shattered their family. Les was keeping a secret, and that became a problem. But they solved it as a family, in a way that kept them together and happy.

In the weeks leading up to that day back in 1997, Les was certain of two things: She was a mother who loved her daughters — and she was also transgender, the term for someone born in a body of the wrong sex.

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Second Class Citizens Doc Raises $176K

LA-based filmmaker Ryan James Yezak has launched an effort to raise funding for “Second Class Citizens,” his planned documentary about the gay rights movement. This documentary will encompass all areas in which the LGBT community is discriminated against. This includes: discrimination towards the gay community revolving around marriage rights, gays getting denied admission to private schools, private organizations and religious institutions. Additionally, the documentary will also cover the reality […]


Gay Hotel, the Out NYC, Opens

On a recent afternoon, construction was brisk and the excitement was palpable at 510 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, the site of THE OUT NYC, a sleek, three-story structure with a glass façade that its creators say will be the first gay hotel in New York City.

The 105-room boutique hotel, located between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, close to Chelsea, Times Square and the Theater District, opens its doors on March 1.

“I had a vision five years ago,” to create a gay hotel that would be conveniently located, said Ian Simpson Reisner, a managing partner of Parkview Developers, which owns THE OUT NYC, but would also “be a relaxing home base resort-style retreat where guests can stay, eat and play.” 

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As Gay Marriage Gains Ground in Nation, New Hampshire May Revoke Its Law

Reposted from the New York Times

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

As same-sex marriage supporters celebrate victories in Washington and Maryland this month, they are keeping a wary eye on New Hampshire, where lawmakers may soon vote to repeal the state’s two-year-old law allowing gay couples to wed.

A repeal bill appears to have a good chance of passing in the State House and Senate, which are both controlled by Republicans. The bigger question is whether they can muster enough votes to overcome a promised veto from Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

Based on party lines, House and Senate Republicans both have veto-proof majorities. But this is an issue where party allegiance gets muddy.

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A Marine Comes Home

reposted from Towleroad:

Above: A pic of the homecoming of Brandon Morgan, of the United States Marines Corps, posted to the Gay Marines Facebook page yesterday. It’s now got 1,000 comments and 800 shares.

Thanks to Joe.My.God for forwarding it along. He’s also found this statement, from Mr. Morgan’s own Facebook page:

To everyone who has responded in a positive way. My partner and I want to say […]


Gay Texas Judge Refuses To Wed Straight Couples

By Brock Keeling on SFist

A Texas judge made her staunch stance on gay marriage publicly known on Tuesday, and her position might surprise you. Judge Tonya Parker of Dallas County made the bold decision to no longer marry couples until same-sex marriage is legal. “I do not perform them because it is not an equal application of the law. Period,” she explained at a monthly meeting for the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas.

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Blumenauer among congress members who pose for No H8 campaign, and you can too!

Contgressman Early Blumenauer, who represents a large swath of Portland, poses for the No H8 campaign

We love our bowtie wearing Congressman Earl Blumenauer for many reasons including his bikey liberal ways and staunch support of LGBT rights. Now we have even more photographic evidence that he’s super awesome and has great, if eclectic fashion sense that a Portland queer can get behind.

He, along with 9 other members of Congress, have posed for those iconic No H8 pictures in support of gay and lesbian equality. (And his yellow and pink bowtie goes great with the silver of the duct tape over his mouth). These 10 members of Congress may come from mostly blue states (and they were all Democrats) but there’s a Mountain and Midwest state in the mix of reps from California, Oregon, Colorado, Ohio, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Four are men, six are women, and only one identifies as LGBT.

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