News of Note

Violence against D.C. prostitutes has gone too far

  Violence against local D.C. prostitutes has become alarming. A local transgender woman, "Jane," who wishes to remain anonymous, shared her story with me. As she describes it,"I was beat an inch from my life." She said she was going to work as usual,"clocking in" as it's called -- those few moments that you take to get yourself ready for the long dreadful night to come. For some girls it's a breather, for some it's a drink or a drug and for others it's simply a prayer to get them through the night, but this routine is done among co-working prostitutes ...

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in End Police Bias / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by 1 comments

International Transgender Day of Remembrance in DC

This month’s official DC Transgender Day of Remembrance honors all of those who have died in the strucggle for equality, and their families, as activists rededicate themselves to help answer today’s community concerns. Celebrated internationally, the Transgender Day of Remembrance in DC will take place at 6 PM, Tuesday, November 20, 2012, at the DC Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW (just north of M Street, near the Green and Yellow Mount Vernon Square Metro Station), and organizers hope the public will attend. Earline Budd, Executive Director of Transgender Health Empowerment (THE), and Day of Remembrance planning ...

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in Campaigns / Events / Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Grassroots / News of Note / Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Voting while trans and the problems you might face

New voter ID laws have created costly barriers to voting for many trans people. And much worse, the debate about voter ID laws have made even the idea of voting harder. so many of us may feel discouraged from even trying to vote on election day, according to National Center for Trans Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling. "Our message is don't let them scare you into giving up your vote." I know that this is  tough to face. Honestly, who wants to walk into a voting site as a trans person and present an ID that doesn't completely match ...

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in Events / Key Issues / News of Note / Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by 0 comments

Half-Drag Photos Spark International Conversation on Sexual Identity

Leland Bobbé  is a New York photographer who has found himself at the center of attention in the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, and Bisexual (LGBT) community. His amazing  Half Drag  photos are split down the middle with one side showing a man without makeup and sometimes even with a beard. The other side shows the same man in full drag including makeup, hair, and jewelry, taking viewers instantly into the juxtaposition. We wanted to know more about how the photos came about. Were they just photo-shopped or were two different photos pieced together? No, says Bobbé, "they were all done ...

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in News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education / The Sexual Freedom Project  by Brenda 0 comments

The FBI in the Palm of Your Hands

With the release of iPhone 5 and its clear success, Apple is making great strides to entrench itself as the most widely used smartphone. What is surprising is that iPhone sales have been strong since release despite the fact that a few weeks prior, it was reported that the FBI may be tracking iPhone users. According to various news outlets, 12 million iPhone and iPad device identifiers were swiped from an FBI computer by hackers associating themselves with the group Anonymous. Luckily for consumers the hack was meant to expose the tracking that was going on and ...

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in News of Note / Public Information  by Fito 0 comments

The Way We “Talk the Talk” Controls the Way We “Walk the Walk” PART 2

(También en español) In Part 1, I highlighted the first three of six sex narratives developed by Marty Klein, Ph.D., in his book, America’s War on Sex, and outlined in last year's  State of Sexual Freedom Report, produced by the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance (Woodhull). Dr. Klein posits, “Sexual freedom expands or contracts within political, social, economic, cultural, and psychological contexts–some of them contradictory, some of them mutually reinforcing.”

A quick recap: a “narrative” is a coherent storyline that contains a set of assumptions that enables people to make meaning out of raw fact. So the way we ...

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in Events / News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 2 comments

The Way We “Talk the Talk” Controls the Way We “Walk the Walk” Part 1

(También en español)

“Sexual freedom expands or contracts within political, social, economic, cultural, and psychological contexts–some of them contradictory, some of them mutually reinforcing.” Marty Klein, Ph.D.

This is where the narratives of sexuality come into play: a “narrative” is a coherent storyline that contains a set of assumptions that enables people to make meaning out of raw fact.

For example, take the fact that there are 1 million abortions in American every year. Now, some people will argue that this fact as evidence of moral weakness and sexual promiscuity, while others ...

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in Events / News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 2 comments

Blow the Whistle on Stop and Frisk Today

  The Stop Mass Incarceration Network will be blowing the whistle on the NYPDs "stop and frisk" program. It is estimated that every day 2,000 New Yorkers 2000 of color get unconstitutionally stopped by police in the war on drugs. Organizers Carl Dix and Cornel West are calling on thousands of people in New York and nationwide to respond to the NYPD's racial profiling by blowing a whistle. On September 13, whistles and palm cards will be distributed with instructions for people to blow whistles when they see the police violating the ...

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in Campaigns / Events / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Public Information  by Brenda 0 comments

Pass This Test and Get Kicked Out of School

También en español Delhi Charter School, in Louisiana, has a Student Pregnancy Policy that allows staff to force female students who are suspected of being pregnant to take a pregnancy test. If students are pregnant or refuse to take the test, they are kicked out and must undergo home schooling if they want to continue their education at the school. Apparently, Delhi Charter School doesn’t believe that female students have a right to education free from discrimination, unlike the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance (Woodhull) as mentioned in my previous post, “Sex Education is a Human Right.” Moreover, the ...

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in News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 0 comments

Newsflash America: Denying Teen Sex Doesn’t Make It Go Away (Part 2)

In the U.S., teens often feel that if they were to confide in their parents about having sex or thinking about it, their parents would be very disappointed.

That is one of the reasons why teens don’t seek advice or guidance from their parents when it comes to sexual matters. But what about parents who don’t talk to their children? Two major fears that American parents have are that if they broach the subject of sex with their teen, they may give the impression that they condone it or put the idea in their head in the first place. Let’s take ...

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in News of Note / Public Information / Sex Education  by Alifa Watkins 1 comments