In a test of District Attorney George Gascon’s appetite for the death penalty, the man accused of raping and murdering a transgender woman in 2007 will not face the death penalty, according to prosecutors.
DNA samples linked Donzell Francis, 42, to the murder of Ruby Rodriguez, who was found dead on a Potrero Hill sidewalk on March 16, 2007, according to the San Francisco Examiner. The DNA was untested for two years before they linked Francis to the killing, the newspaper reported. (more…)
By LAURA RENA MURRAY
Published: August 19, 2011
ZAIRA QUISPE, 42, said she knew as a child that she was a girl, though she had been born male. She picked up a photo that she kept on the windowsill above her bed and held it out as proof. It’s a picture of herself as a smiling baby, naked and with legs crossed, concealing genitals. “Look,” she said, “even then I was trying to hide it.” (more…)
I had an alter ego named Keisha when I was 10 years old. Like me she had bouncy tendrils and a flirty disposition, but unlike me she could present female to all of our friends.
She was someone that I hid as a Tween. She didn’t have a space in my house, where Dad ruled. I was his son, Keisha didn’t exist to him – until a boy who knew her knocked on our door and asked for Keisha, whom Dad soon discovered was me.
I remember the glare in Dad’s eyes upon this discovery. He flashed a look that frightened me because it was a complex mix of love and shame and rage. My father didn’t understand why God gave him a son that was such a sissy, a kid who skipped around the house with his hips swaying and his wrists limp. (more…)
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has directed the city’s Department of Employment Services to begin a first-of-its-kind pilot program specifically directed toward members of the transgender community for job training and job placement.
Gray disclosed plans for the program at an Aug. 4 meeting he hosted with representatives of the transgender community. Officials with several city agencies also attended the meeting. (more…)
By William Olson
My Word
HIV/AIDS is not solely an individual concern. It is a family issue that we can’t afford to ignore. It affects not only the person living with the virus, but the entire family and, ultimately, our entire community. This is especially true in California, which has among the highest infection rates of any state in the nation.
National HIV Testing Day is Monday — a good reminder to turn our attention to the ways HIV/AIDS affects our families as well as our community.
This month, various campaigns are running across the country to dispel myths, improve education and remind people that HIV has not gone away. (more…)
Here is some good news coming on the heels of Gay Pride: Hospitals in the Bay Area — San Francisco in particular — are way ahead of the curve when it comes to how they treat LGBT patients, according to a Human Rights Campaign survey results released today.
A full 23 of the 27 facilities nationwide that HRC designated “Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality” are located in the Bay Area. That includes 19 facilities within Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco General Hospital, and UCSF Medical Center. (more…)
Life as a prostitute, a drug dealer, a homeless woman, a transgender woman, an HIV-positive woman, a Texas prisoner and guard, a showgirl and a college student brings her a mix of experiences few could match.
But at 31 years of age, despite her difficult road so far, Sims has hope. She says she has never given up on God and that her bad karma is behind her now.
“I am going to have a childhood someday,” she says, “and have a birthday party.”
Sims grew up in the South Dallas area as one of four children who all had different fathers. Sims never had a chance to know her own father. (more…)
On April 18, a transgender woman named Chrissy Lee Polis went to the women’s bathroom in a Baltimore County McDonald’s. When she came out, two teenage girls approached and spat in her face. Then they threw her to the floor and started kicking her in the head. As a crowd of customers watched, Polis tried to stand up, but the girls dragged her by her hair across the restaurant, ripping the earrings out of her ears. The last thing Polis remembers, before she had a seizure, was spitting blood on the restaurant door. The incident made national news—not because this sort of violence against transgender people is unusual, but because a McDonald’s employee recorded the beating on his cell phone and posted the video on YouTube. (more…)
Ilene H. Lang: Working While Transgender: An Occupational Hazard?.
As a group within the LGBT community, transgender women face unique barriers, and they’re part of a group that’s typically left out of the conversation. But only by discussing — and exposing — the stereotypes that transgender women face, can we educate and mitigate the barriers.
Some people consider transgender issues provocative or uncomfortable — at Catalyst we consider them squarely in the domain of women and work. In recognition of LGBT Pride Month, on June 14, Catalyst hosted a webinar to examine the challenges transgender people face in the workplace. (more…)
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