Carmen Rupe Memorial Trust

10/01/2017

With two weeks left, the Obama administration has asked a federal appeals court to throw out a lower court’s decision that suspended policies designed to protect transgender people’s access to restrooms — a sign the current leadership of the Justice Department will close shop mid-fight on one of its signature LGBT issues.

Federal lawyers said in a brief filed Friday with the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the previous ruling was incorrect and overly broad.

The appeal comes just as Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has taken a host of anti-LGBT votes in his career, is set for confirmation hearings to become the US Attorney General, a top cabinet post where he could reverse the government’s position on this and countless other matters.

The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to step in.

09/01/2017

Pakistan will count transgender people in its national census for the first time when it surveys its population in March this year following a top court ruling on Monday.

The Lahore High Court issued the order to the government, National Database and Registration Authority, and the interior ministry with a government official assuring the court that the transgender community will be part of the 2017 census.

By Waqar MustafaLAHORE, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Pakistan will count transgender people in its national census for the first time when

08/01/2017

Great to see some insightful media analysis of the degree to which the LGBTI communities increasingly authoritarian Intersectional Left's perpetual outrage over Milo Yiannopoulos' is now seriously backfiring, making his yet-to-be-published book an Amazon bestseller before he's even finished writing it

We've long believed that the 'no platform' approach and associated culture of unfettered outrage and victim posturing many of us now refer to as the 'Oppression Olympics' operates to the obvious detriment of the LGBTI community, permitting attention seeking bigots and alt right agent provocateurs like Milo to generate huge publicity pretending to be the victim of censorship, often generating serious lateral hostility in our own community in the process (example here http://bit.ly/2i3NpOm )

Prominent LGBTI advocates like Peter Tatchell have been arguing for sometime now that “no-platforming” policies pose a serious threat to free speech and the principals of intellectual rigor within learning institutions, adding

“All bigots should be protested,” he said. “I don’t think people with offensive views should be given a free pass. They should be challenged. The best way to do this is by open debate to refute their intolerance. If you censor of ban them, the ideas just get suppressed. They don't cease to exist and they cannot be effectively countered."

more http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/nus-no-platform-safe-space-policy-goes-too-far-threatens-free-speech-warns-peter-tatchell-a6999801.html

As Cathy Young points out, outrage and attempts at censorship have made Yiannopoulos a hit on the campus speaking circuit — because and may do the same in publishing.

We agree with Young that a better way to make Yiannopoulos irrelevant would be to roll back this culture of politically correct authoritarianism and focus more time and energy on effectively deconstructing and refuting the many toxic ideas and logical fallacies he asserts as fact - thus avoiding the unintended consequence of making unsavory rebels like Milo a hero in the eyes of people who value free speech even though many disagree with him

An even better way to make Yiannopoulos irrelevant would be to roll back politically correct authoritarianism. In a culture in which race, gender and sexuality issues are surrounded by taboos, even un

08/01/2017

Tens of thousands of elderly Australians are being denied effective public health treatments because they live in nursing homes, with experts labelling it a "disgrace" and "blatantly discriminatory".

A Fairfax Media investigation has revealed the mental health of aged-care residents suffers as a result of widespread neglect that legal and health experts attribute in large part to a "ridiculous" Medicare rule.

Under the rule almost all nursing home residents are denied GP mental health treatment plans and associated psychological therapies provided to other Australians under the Better Access Medicare program, because the government deems residents not to be patients "in the community".

Despite extreme rates of mental illness in nursing homes – with about 82,000 of 176,000 residents estimated to suffer a mental illness (excluding dementia) or significant mental distress – the Turnbull government reaffirmed the regulatory exclusion late last year.

Tens of thousands of elderly, mentally ill Australians are being denied effective public health system treatments because they live in nursing homes.

08/01/2017

2016 was the strongest yet for Hollywood depictions of le***an, gay, bisexual and transgender people, but many of us are bracing for a possible backlash in the post truth world now defined by fake news and Trump's Twitter trashtalk

Concerns that the world of politics might interfere with that of Tinseltown aren’t rooted in an unspeakable fear of the unknown, but in historical moments. The McCarthy era gave rise to the Hollywood blacklist, denying employment to industry professionals because they were, or were accused of being, communist sympathizers. Throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s, hundreds of primarily screenwriters, but also actors, directors and producers, were deemed “un-American” and found themselves jobless — a move supported institutionally by industry executives, the Motion Picture Assn. of America and the Screen Actors Guild.

Most in Hollywood think that the idea of a new blacklist is far-fetched, but some are suggesting vigilance.

Update on 'Has Hollywood lost touch with American values?'

07/01/2017

Murdoch owned libertarian conservative news site Heat Street attempts to redefine the term Transgender, which has long been an umbrella term inclusive of Tr*******als and dozens of other trans groups, as separate and distinct from being Tr*******al

What's really quite cynical about this ludicrous piece of divisive right wing propaganda is the attempt to paint the 'celebrity elite' as being somehow responsible for conflating the two terms

"Celebs who’ve undergone transexual (sic) transitions include media darlings like Jenner, Laverne Cox and Chaz Bono. But here lies the last confusing ripple of this whole transexual vs. transgender deal: All these celebs still choose to call themselves “transgender,” not “transsexual.”

This attempt to redefine Tr*******al as distinct from the Transgender umbrella is a trend we've been noticing in the right wing media for a while now. It's a pretty standard divide and conquer tactic used to right wing demagogues but has the potential to do considerable collateral damage within our community because it will not only create confusion for cis people but also taps right into the Internalized Transphobia (more http://bit.ly/2dF9DQi ) that so many of us struggle with to varing degrees

Get straight on your trans variations.

07/01/2017

As US States like Texas continue rolling out anti Trans bathroom laws pretending to solve a problem which actually doesn't exist (more http://mm4a.org/2iGIAcz), we think it's time to draw more focus to why these irrational laws will actually make women feel less safe and MORE vulnerable to cis male sexual predators

The glaringly obvious irony of bathroom laws predicated on the myth that allowing trans women to use female bathroom makes it easier for men posing as trans women to go into women’s bathrooms and sexually assault women ..

debunked here http://mm4a.org/2iGIAcz

is this...

Once you start legally compelling gorgeous Trans guys like the fabulous Oliver here on our CRMTgraphic to use female bathrooms, you effectively make it easier for cis male sexual predators to simply walk into female bathrooms claiming to be a Trans guy. They wont even have to throw on a dress.

This is why these laws are a prime example of conservative cognitive dissonance on steroids

Given that it's abundantly clear most people who support these wacky laws have never even begun to consider the likely ramifications of them, we'd really appreciate it if you'd share this message far and wide and help us get more people considering the many negative ramifications of bat-sh*t-crazy laws like the ones currently being proposed in Texas and six other US States

more http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/1/5/14173882/texas-transgender-bathroom-law-lgbtq

06/01/2017

At the dawn of 2017 the Danish Parliament struck a blow for transgender rights, becoming the first country to remove trans people’s classification as “mentally ill.”

In this New Year’s Day move the government took official action to de-stigmatize transgender individuals, separating them from any association with words such as “problem,” “disorder” or dysphoria.

As the brand-new measure takes effect, experts are speculating about its political, medical and financial ramifications in Denmark and around the world.

Danish politicians had announced last year that they hoped to spur the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove transgender from a category of mental illnesses in its globally used International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10), whose codes are used to mark health records, track epidemiological trends and inform insurance reimbursement. If WHO did not act by January 1, 2017, Denmark had promised to act unilaterally.

We definitely share Demark's frustration with the painfully drawn out ICD 11 process - which has not been made any easier by the ongoing bun fight between Trans Health professionals (more http://bit.ly/2iLbV5X )

This said, we're are pleased to note that the Australian and New Zealand Professional Association for Transgender Health are now advocating the same kind of informed consent model Denmark now looks likely to implement.

This said, it's important to note that that any responsible informed consent model necessarily has to include some degree of mental health screening in order to ensure care plans include support for those of us who suffer various mental illness or distress as a result of the trauma and associated internalized oppression we experience (more http://bit.ly/2dF9DQi )

Denmark becomes the first country to declassify it as a mental disorder

06/01/2017

Professional alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos has successfully demonstrated just how few LGBTI people actually read our increasingly bland gay press by successfully campaigning to win LGBTQ Nations "Person of the Year" vote

After a concerted effort to drum up votes via social media, the right wing media gadfly won with almost 70% of the vote, with Indiana governor and vice president-elect Mike Pence coming in a distant second place.

Hopefully this may prove to be the wake up call the gay press has clearly required for a long, long time

What do you think?

Love him or hate him, he won it fair and square.

06/01/2017

Viceland's Black Market Dispatches takes us under the radar to see how, discriminated against and shunned, Vietnam's trans community turns to illegal hormone and cosmetic treatments.

Discriminated against and shunned, Vietnam's trans community turns to illegal hormone and cosmetic treatments.

06/01/2017

A transgender woman has been found dead in her cell at an all-male prison in the third apparent su***de by a trans prisoner in little over a year.

Jenny Swift was remanded into HMP Doncaster in South Yorkshire in November after being charged initially with attempted murder. She was found dead five weeks later on 30 December.
A friend said Swift, 49, had asked to be placed in a women’s prison and had become miserable, sad and ill after being refused female hormones in HMP Doncaster.

A spokesman for the MoJ confirmed Swift’s death and said the MoJ was aware that she was transgender when she was remanded into the category B private men’s prison at Doncaster.
No explanation has been given for the decision to place her there nor why Swift was denied access too hormone treatments available to any other British Trans person on the national Health .

The prisons and probation ombudsman have opened an investigation.

Jenny Swift, 49, believed to be the third trans prisoner to have taken their own life in little over a year

05/01/2017

Great to see South Australia's new guidelines to foster acceptance of Transgender children in state schools making headlines all over the globe

The new guidelines will be mandatory for all state schools.