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By a 46-41 margin, the Rhode Island House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill (H 5920) which would clarify that Rhode Island non-discrimination laws protect transgender people from discrimination. The bill codifies federal and state court decisions which have held that it is impermissible to discriminate against individuals simply based on traditional notions of masculinity and femininity.

"This is a tremendously important piece of legislation that updates Rhode Island law to make it consistent with our modern understanding of sex discrimination prohibitions," explained Jennifer Levi, staff attorney at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, who was instrumental in helping to draft the language of the bill. "Unfortunately, because of some poorly reasoned old cases, there is a misperception that transgender people are excluded from sex discrimination laws. This bill clarifies that no such exclusion exists."

The bill would add the phrase "gender identity or expression" to Rhode Island's non-discrimination laws. It defines "gender identity or expression" as including "a person's actual or perceived gender, as well as a person's gender identity, self-image, appearance, expression or behavior, whether or not that gender identity, self-image, appearance, expression, or behavior is different than that traditionally associated with the person's sex at birth." Consistent with the United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins in 1989, the bill makes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes impermissible.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is New England's leading legal rights organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status and gender identity and expression.
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The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) is proud to announce its strong support of the Amanda Milan Vigil in New York by a newly resurrected group that harkened back to the days of Stonewall. The organizing group, Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, has recently had new life resuscitated into it by one of its founders, Sylvia Rivera. The move by the board of NTAC only highlights the history and fresh new direction undertaken by this storied group.

The upcoming vigil will coincide with beginning of the murder trial of the two men charged in Amanda Milan's death. Ms. Milan, a transgendered woman well-known and well-liked among New York's street-workers, had her throat slashed in front of dozens of witnesses in the early morning hours of June 21 last year. The killing drew national attention due to the reactions of the bystanders at the scene. After 20-year-old Duayne McCuller sliced Milan's jugular, leaving her dying on the city sidewalk, nearby cabbies who watched the incident stood by cheering and applauding. Both McCuller and accomplice Eugene Celestine - the man charged with both encouraging him and supplying the knife - go on trial sometime in April.

Ms. Milan's death and bystanders' response inspired outrage from the national transgender community. An outpouring of grief and anger drew an estimated 300-plus to a candlelight vigil in memory of the victim - unprecedented for the death of a street-worker. Most notably it galvanized New York's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community like nothing since ...Stonewall! Thus it's fitting that Ms. Rivera, widely credited with instigating the Stonewall Riots in 1969, resurrects her creation from that era to coordinate the Amanda Milan Vigil in 2001.

Sylvia Rivera and the late Marsha P. Johnson originally founded STAR in New York City in 1970. Both Rivera, then 20, and Johnson, who was in her late twenties, are widely known as the street queens who helped propel Stonewall from a routine police bust of a queer bar to a revolutionary call for greater LGBT activism and rights.

Now some thirty years later, Sylvia Rivera continues her street level activism pressing for civil rights for queer people, and all people facing discrimination. Ms. Rivera has been the guest of the Transgender Center of Bologna at World Pride week, was arrested with the Soulforce delegation in their action at the Catholic Bishops Conference in Washington DC, and also arrested in support for the Irish Lesbian and Gay Association in New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade - all just in the past year!

"I've spent forty years of my life on these streets," related Ms. Rivera in a recent reception held by NTAC at the True Spirit Conference in Washington DC. After a long, hard life, punctuated with a period of homelessness in the mid-90's, Ms. Rivera is now drug and alcohol-free and living in a cooperative communal residence reminiscent of the 60's, aptly named Transy House. Most especially, Ms. Rivera is excited about rebuilding STAR.

STAR is also rather well known in New York's LGBT community due to the many books and articles, which cover Sylvia's role in Stonewall and the movement that grew from it. A street queen version of Transgender Menace, STAR aims to galvanize the poorer and most oppressed members of the transgender community - a segment that is most difficult to politically organize.

"The young girls respond to Sylvia very well," said Rusty Mae Moore, a board member of NTAC who also works with STAR. "They instantly see that she is a survivor in a very tough game in life." In a world of limited opportunities, "Sylvia tells people, get a job, get a real life." For more information on STAR, visit their website at: www.geocities.com/ catskillmarina © 2001, NTAC
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Are transsexual women "real" women? It's a tedious question that male-to-female transsexuals often run up against when they're open and honest about their personal history. But the life experiences of many MTFs make them more aware of how gender roles and sexism work than a lot of so-called "real" women.

I've never met a transsexual woman who didn't have a feminist consciousness. I'm sure there are some, but it makes perfect sense that many trans-women would be attracted to feminism as a philosophy. After all, feminism by definition seeks to break down the barriers society has set up based on gender.

It's infuriating, then, that some feminists and lesbians continue to question the "womanhood" of MTFs. I support the concept of "women-only space," but I'm concerned that this legitimate policy is sometimes used to discriminate against trans-women.

The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, for example, still maintains a policy of trans-exclusion that sounds eerily like the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the U.S. military. An official festival handout states, "No womon's gender will be questioned on the land." However, the flyer goes on, the festival has the right to deny admission "to individuals who self-declare as male-to-female transsexuals." In theory, one of Fred Phelps's daughters could attend Michigan, while an open feminist trans-woman could not.

In another galling example, a women's rape crisis center in British Columbia recently refused to allow Kimberly Nixon, a transsexual woman, to train as a peer counselor. The staff assumed she wouldn't understand violence against women because she was born male. According to a center spokesperson, Nixon could not possibly have faced the unique mix of social, psychological, and biological factors that "shape women's experiences and ... the world's perception of us."

But, in fact, the experience of many transsexual women turns the meaning of being "born" female or male upside down. Many MTFs talk about knowing they were "female" from a very young age. "Growing up," Nixon told a reporter for Canadian Press, "I had the sense and burden of being female and the burden of being aware of ... all the issues women deal with."

The exclusionary policies that feminist and lesbian groups institute toward transsexual women rest on two false premises. First of all, because the world once viewed MTFs as boys and men, it's assumed that they enjoyed male privilege. Yet the opposite may actually be true, given the many stories transsexual women tell about the intense gender oppression they experienced before surgery.

According to Australian trans-feminist Julie Peters, transgender male youth tend to be regarded "as feminine or different boys and are denied entry into male power structures; they are vilified, ostracized, and bashed." Misunderstood or rejected by their families, they sometimes take to the streets, where they're at high risk for drugs and prostitution and often learn early on about sexual violence, just like many girls do.

The second false premise is that only "real" women can fully comprehend female oppression. But what about the "real" women who think feminism has nothing to do with their lives? And don't forget the "women-born women" who actively oppose abortion rights, or who accept their church's dictate that wives submit to their husbands, or who voted for George W. Bush.

Now compare those "real" women with trans-activist Riki Wilchins, Executive Director of GenderPAC. In a recent editorial, Wilchins called on activists to build "a broad-based and inclusive national movement for gender rights." Gender, Wilchins states, is a basic human right that unites everyone from "a boy-dyke with buzz-cut blue hair" to "an FTM fired for transitioning on the job" to "a soccer mom banging her head on the glass ceiling" to "a gay man genderbashed ... because some bigot thinks homosexuals are unmanly."

We can learn a lot from reading the work of cutting-edge activists like Wilchins. But even older trans-women, who transitioned long before the founding of the National Organization for Women or the riots at the Stonewall Inn, have gone through their own transformative process and come out as feminists.

In an engaging new memoir called The Woman I Was Not Born to Be, Aleshia Brevard, a former drag performer and actor, describes her own personal journey. Glancing through the book's photos of Brevard boasting long, painted nails and a cinched-in, hourglass figure, you might be tempted to rehash the old feminist complaint that MTFs simply reinforce gender stereotypes rather than break them down.

But, in fact, Brevard has a strong feminist sensibility. After transitioning, she slowly came to realize that the role she envisioned for herself as a Donna Reed-style wife was too limited. Instead of clinging to the belief that "a good woman must be docile and long suffering" and invariably attached to a man, she recognized that she could be happily fulfilled as an independent woman.

The liberation of her mind, Brevard says, took much longer than the physical reconstruction of her body. Her experiences and those of other trans-women hold important lessons for feminists and lesbians who remain stubbornly hung up on biology.

Paula Martinac is the author of seven books, including The Queerest Places: A Guide to Gay and Lesbian Historic Sites. She can be reached care of this publication or at LNcolumn@aol.com.
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At the heart of the prejudice, hate and violence suffered by many Americans lies a backlash aimed at preserving traditional Western notions of gender. This, in simplified terms, is the idea behind the mission of GenderPAC which will present a workshop May 2 at PrideFest America.

"Gender in the New Millennium" will focus on the need for fair workplaces, safer communities and schools and full legal rights for all Americans, regardless of gender.

The idea that men, women, boys and girls are targeted for hate crimes or abuse because they are "too feminine" or "too masculine" or their appearance doesn't match their "true" gender is not new. Society's need for gender norms has been the topic of philosophical, psychological and feminist writings for years.

But making it the backbone of a political action committee, as GenderPAC has, is somewhat novel. GenderPAC executive director Riki Wilchins believes gender is the "next frontier" in civil rights.

"I think in a way [that] doing gender rights work is kind of a statement of the obvious - everyone knows from the time we are born we get pushed into gender roles, and we get punished pretty severely if we transgress them, yet almost no one is looking at gender as a basic civil right," Wilchins said. "In the same way you and I ought to enjoy freedom to express ourselves when it comes to free speech, you and I ought to enjoy freedom of expression when it comes to our gender, because gender is so universal and yet so personal not many people have not yet begun to think of it as a civil-rights issue."

In 1999. the organization conducted a survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on workplace discrimination. It found that a third of gay, lesbian and bisexual people responding reported discrimination due in some part to their gender, Wilchins said.

Similarly, about a third of transgender respondents said they were harassed or discriminated against because they were perceived to be gay or lesbian.

The survey, Wilchins suggested, further proved the need to address gender rights.

"We feel that gender is a common issue for all these groups, the mainspring of homophobia is gender, the prejudice that gay men are unmanly or lesbian women are necessarily unfeminine," Wilchins said. "Gender is also the moving force behind misogyny, the sense that all women must be vulnerable and passive and feminine and that this is somehow inferior to being masculine."

GenderPAC is seeking the protection and full civil rights for every American - including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, non-gay people - to express their gender without repercussions.

But it is just this broad view of gender politics that has angered many transgender activists.

When GenderPAC was established in 1995, its founding members were transgender people, seeking a national platform from which to seek equality. Its mission statement described the group as a non-profit organization made up of groups anD individuals "dedicated to a broad-based, inclusive national moment for gender, effectual, and racial equality."

The process of revising the mission statement began last May and came to vote in December at a national board meeting. The group then began to describe itself as "the national advocacy organization working to ensure every American's right to their gender, free from stereotypes, discrimination and violence regardless of how they look, act or dress or how others perceive their sex or sexual orientation."

In January, 22 gender-rights activists issued an open letter stating their concern about the direction of GenderPAC, and what they viewed as its decision to take a more mainstream approach that would de-emphasize transgender issues. GenderPAC officials issued an open response, stating it would continue to work for transgender rights, along with all gender rights.

Four GenderPAC board members, including the writer of the initial open letter, resigned over the issue.

Throughout last year and into 2001, former and current board members continued to verbally battle behind the scenes, online, on the editorial pages of gay newspapers, and in transgender magazines.

Wilchins was accused of sculpting GenderPAC to fit her personal agenda. Transgender activists believed they were being shut out or put aside as they felt so many lesbian, gay and bisexual groups had done before.

But Wilchins strongly insists transgender people will not be left out of GenderPAC's work, noting that transgender people face profound discrimination and violence based on their gender and, along with other groups, are an integral part of a gender-rights movement.

"From its beginning in the transgender and queer communities, GenderPAC has embraced a mission of being broad-based, diverse and inclusive," Wilchins said. "Some activists have stressed the need for a transgender-only organization which we support and think is an important thing; however GenderPAC's vision remains as supporting Americans' right to full equality regardless of their gender."

National Transgender Advocacy Coalition chair Yoseñio V. Lewis said his organization recognizes GenderPAC's mission as important, and believes it is still necessary to have a national organization focused on attaining equal rights for transgender people. He believes that just as there is room for several AIDS organizations or several workers' unions, there can be more than one organization dedicated to the rights of the gender variant.

Still, Lewis understands the concerns of people who are angry at GenderPAC.

"People are entitled to their opinions, and they do have validity based on history and some are based on preconceived notions; my opinion is that there is room for everyone and that some people will have a greater focus on some things than others," Lewis said. "NTAC has a greater focus on ensuring the rights of transgender people and certainly if anything we accomplish will generalize to the greater population we're happy about that, but our main goal will continue to be the attainment of rights for transgender people."

Both GenderPAC and NTAC will be holding lobby days, and GenderPAC will hold its first national conference on gender in May in Washington, D.C., to bring their respective messages to legislators.

Asked if he expected any confusion among legislators, Lewis again noted their are many groups with similar agendas descending on Washington every day.

"I think there may be potential for confusion regarding the two lobby days, however there are different unions that lobby, both are about workers rights but they both lobby Congress and they both have their own issues they bring to the floor," Lewis said. "I don't think it's a bad thing having as many people as possible saying it's important there are people in this country who on a daily basis are discriminated against, simply because of how they represent themselves and who they are and you have taken an oath to protect them as well as everyone else in this country."

The idea of having several groups pushing for positive change is one with which Wilchins strongly agrees.

"We expect and intend and are trying hard to work harmoniously with all groups who are struggling for gender rights and gender equality," Wilchins said. "We believe there is more than enough work to go around."
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"Oh my stars!'" exclaimed U. S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) to lobbyist Jessica Redman's story of being born intersexed -- a person born with both sets of genitalia. That was typical of the surprised and surprising reactions as some three dozen gender variant folks took to Capitol Hill on behalf of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC).

The lobbying effort, held May 14-16, was the first organized event for the emerging civil rights group, NTAC; whose core constituency is transgendered and intersexed persons. For their initial foray, the group began with a basic educational approach to familiarize Congress on this little-known and widely misunderstood phenomenon.

By initial reports, NTAC's first effort "was a resounding success!" claimed lobby days organizer, Vanessa Edwards Foster. "We covered every office in the Senate, and over 2/3 of the offices in the House of Representatives. In all, 474 packets were distributed."

Board chair Yoseñio Lewis measured success not only by the number of visits, packets distributed, he also measured it in the encounter he and boardmembers, Roslyn Manley and Jerry McCracken had meeting with an aide to Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA).

"At that meeting the aide confided to us that she had a close friend struggling with gender issues and that she'd been trying to help her friend," Mr. Lewis recalled. "When Roslyn, Jerry and I offered NTAC as well as ourselves personally as resources, the aide's face lit up. She thanked us over and over again for being there. That is just another example of how transpeople are touching everyone's lives.

The packets created to achieve this gender diverse education garnered a good amount of positive feedback from the Congressional aides. "There's certainly a need for education within Congress on these issues," stated Scott Dunaway, Office Manager for Rep.Kevin Brady (R-TX), "and in fact that's just what you're doing." Referring to the packet, he finished, "this is a good first step!"

Added Stanley Allen, Senior Legislative Asst. to Nick Lampson (D-TX) "You're doing exactly what you need to be doing!"

Indeed reports coming back from lobbyists Dawn Wilson and Yoseñio Lewis' visit to Rep. Edolphus Townes (D-NY), and by Naomi Goring and Julie Maverick's visit to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) were very promising. "These were very important meetings for our community," proclaimed former NTAC Board Chair, Dawn Wilson. "They will provide a solid foundation for us to build on in the future."

Ms. Foster, Boardmember Kathy Padilla and first-time lobbyist Janis Stone enjoyed a very welcomed ear in Rep. Jan Schakowsky's office (D-IL). Legislative Aide, Reva Gupta, who was new to the office, invited the NTAC representatives in for an extended chat. "This is an issue I will be covering in this office, and I really had limited information on it." Thanking the lobbyists, Ms. Gupta added, "I'm really, very glad that you stopped by! [The visit and the packet] is exactly what I needed!"

"While the turnout wasn't quite what we had expected," organizer Foster added, "our productivity and our impact surpassed our expectations!"

"The information gathered by this lobbying effort will constitute an extensive database of immediate and ongoing use for lobbyists," added NTAC Secretary, Anne Casebeer.

Some recently notable names within the transgender community took part in the historic first effort for NTAC. Christie Lee Littleton VanDePutte, of the Littleton v. Prange malpractice suit brought against the doctor who treated her late husband. "I wouldn't have missed this for the world!" exclaimed the San Antonio native visiting Washington DC for the first time. Ms. Littleton VanDePutte teamed up with the transgendered civil rights attorney who filed her case in the Supreme Court, Alyson Meiselman. The dynamic duo of Meiselman and Littleton made an effective one-two punch in Congress.

Peter Oiler, and his wife Shirley, also hit a number of offices, including most of the Louisiana delegation. Peter Oiler is plaintiff in a suit against his former employer, the Winn Dixie supermarket chain. Winn Dixie fired Oiler in early 2000, simply because he was trangendered. The husband and wife combo even managed a photo opportunity with their own U.S. Representative, William Jefferson (D-LA).

The dedicated band of nascent lobbyists produced professional numbers. NTAC Board Chair, Yoseñio Lewis summarized it simply by saying: "We were successful!"

"NTAC distinguished itself by presenting lobbyists from all socio-economic, racial, age and physical ability strata on all levels of transgender and transsexual experience," Lewis said. Numerous congressional staffers commented on "how nice it was to see a diverse group of people that more accurately represented the range of the transgender population and hence, of their consituency."

Chairman Lewis finished by promising that "we will be following up on suggestions made by the congresspeople and aides." Indeed, the up-and-coming transgender rights group is showing a lot of promise of its own.

When NTAC first learned that a transwoman had been suspended from her job with Outback Steakhouse for her off duty dressing, it began an immediate investigation into the facts and circumstances leading to her suspension and what appeared to be a functional termination.

Within forty-eight hours of the suspension, Board Member Roslyn Manley had faxed notification of our preliminary investigation to Mr. Paul Avery, President of Outback Steakhouse. Ms. Manley noted that we had no record of prior violations by Outback as well as an intentionally inclusive diversity statement by the corporation.

The facts and circumstances bore significant commonality with the Peter Oiler vs. Winn-Dixie matter and, without an immediate response, could well have taken that same well-charted course. However, consistent with their diversity statement, Outback reconsidered their position and one week after the suspension action, their employee was offered reinstatement and reimbursement of her lost wages.

Importantly, Outback Steakhouse accepted NTAC's offer for consultation in dealing with their transgendered employees and customers, a topic they had not formally addressed in the past. According to Ms. Manley, "this is truly a win-win solution for all involved. Outback Steakhouse, in taking these proactive steps, has corrected a wrong and learned of our community and needs. We extend our thanks to the officers and managers of Outback Steakhouse."

Founded in 1999, NTAC is the only national group with special focus devoted to political advocacy and education for all transgender and gender variant citizens. NTAC strives for diversity in its membership and leaders, but remains focused on achieving equal rights for all transgendered, intersexed and gender variant people.
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The movie adaptation of Hedwig & the Angry Inch won Best Feature Teddy Award at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival.

Hedwig & the Angry Inch is a surreal parable about rock-and-roll, gender, and cold war politics. Hedwig Schmidt, a tranny glam rock diva born in 1960s East Berlin, tries to escape her miserable past by marrying an American soldier, moving to Kansas, and becoming the mentor to, songwriter for, and lover of a teenage rockstar named Tommy Gnosis. The show mixes trashy jokes (the Angry Inch refers both to Hedwig's backup band and the result of her botched sex change surgery), glitter rock numbers, and mythical truths.

In a new twist, former brat-packer and current indie film star Ally Sheedy recently took over the title role from John Cameron Mitchell, who wrote the play and whose shoes will be hard to fill. The actress is faced with the challenge of being a woman playing a man playing a woman. Got that? Sheedy caught the attention of the lesbian community in High Art where she played a drug addicted lesbian photographer.
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In this first novel by the publishing director of the Modern Library, the Danish husband of a young painter gets a little too excited when his wife asks him to try on stockings, shoes, and a dress for a portrait she is finishing. Based on historical figures, The Danish Girl unravels as Einar Wegener slowly becomes the girl in the painting. Einar's wife, Greta, a confident Californian, names her husband's alter ego Lili. Lili becomes Greta's muse, Greta's paintings start to sell, and the couple move to Paris.

There, Lili starts to replace Einar on public outings with Greta. The couple decide that Einar will become Lili once and for all, and Einar sets out to Dresden, where under the care of a surgeon-psychologist he will change his gender.

Set in the decadent glitter of pre-World War II Copenhagen, Paris, and Dresden, The Danish Girl is a simply told story about love that surpasses the limitations of identity.

- Lawrence Chua
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