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United Nations Reports: Reparative “Therapy” is Torture

Major Points: Every  reputable mental health or medical association in the US denounces conversion or reparative “therapy” as harmful to its victims.

• The United Nations defines reparative “therapy” of transgener people as torture.

• The UN calls for national laws prohibiting conversion and reparative “therapy” and calls for prosecution of those who violate those laws.

• Americans, particularly “Christian counselors” continue to engage in this practice, even though it is based on pseudoscience and  its practice denounced by every reputable medical organization.

• “Leelah’s Law” is being proposed to stop reparative “therapy” in the US on a national level, both in the interest of stopping the torture of children and in helping prevent more needless suicides.

I’d like to thank Lexie Cannes for bringing the UN report to my attention.

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NOTE:  This post was written for Leelah’s Law: Support the Ban on Conversion Therapy and is reprinted here. This post may be reproduced only if it is reproduced in its entirety, including copyright notices.
© Jody Ann Malsbury & The Transgender Human Rights Institute.

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There is nothing therapeutic about so-called reparative “therapy.” The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), in its 2012 “Position Statement on Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, or Gender Expression” stated:

Psychoanalytic technique does not encompass purposeful attempts to “convert,” “repair,” change or shift an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Such directed efforts are against fundamental principles of psychoanalytic treatment and often result in substantial psychological pain by reinforcing damage in internalized attitudes [emphasis added].

 

In fact, all other reputable medical and mental health professional associations in the US have denounced this practice: The American Psychiatric Association (APA), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), just to name a few.

We Americans pride ourselves in being technologically innovative, socially advanced and somehow superior to the rest of the world. Despite the recent revelations about GW and the Torture Report revealing war crimes committed during his reign of terror, we Americans don’t generally view ourselves as barbaric people who torture children. Well, not so, according to the United Nations.

In a “Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” made to the Human Rights Council of the UN, it was noted that:

…“members of sexual minorities are disproportionately subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment because they fail to conform to socially constructed gender expectations. Indeed, discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity may often contribute to the process of the dehumanization of the victim, which is often a necessary condition for torture and ill-treatment to take place.” [emphasis added] (page 19)

 

Discriminating against, denying or trying to change someone’s gender identity or gender expression is clearly dehumanizing, as it seeks to malign or erase a core part of someone’s concept of who they are.  Among recommendations in the report were for all nations:

… to repeal any law allowing intrusive and irreversible treatments, including forced genital-normalizing surgery, involuntary sterilization, unethical experimentation, medical display, reparative therapies” or “conversion therapies”, when enforced or administered without the free and informed consent of the person concerned. [emphasis added] (page 23)

 

“Without the free and informed consent of the person concerned.”  Why would someone consent to what the UN itself has defined as torture? In any case, a minor child is legally unable to provide informed consent, therefore, any parent who subjects their child to so-called reparative or conversion “therapy”—clearly defined as torture by the UN—is violating at least 3 of the UN’s recommendations:

1. Torture (child abuse, really) in the form of reparative “therapy”
2. Lack of informed consent
3. Lack of consent by the person concerned.

 

Finally, the UN report also calls for all nations to:

Promote accountability for torture and ill-treatment in health-care settings by identifying laws, policies and practices that lead to abuse; and enable national preventive mechanisms to systematically monitor, receive complaints and initiate prosecutions….  [emphasis added] (page 21)

 

I guess we’ll have to wait  and see when Leelah’s Law is enacted to see what the likelihood of anyone actually being prosecuted will be.

 

Jody Ann Malsbury, MSW
LCSW, Retired; license no longer active
Clinical Social Worker & Psychotherapist

The Transgender Human Rights Institute is the first 501(c)3 transgender international human rights organization specifically organized for transgender rights worldwide.

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© Jody Ann Malsbury & The Transgender Human Rights Institute.  This post may be reproduced only if it is reproduced in its entirety, including copyright notices.

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Related articles

• Transgender Teen’s Death a Call to Action (hrc.org)
• Want to stop LGBT teens from committing suicide? Ban conversion therapy (dailydot.com)

An Open Letter to Doug and Carla Alcorn

Originally posted on January 2, 2015 by Jani McCauley

http://transincidental.blog.com/2015/01/02/an-open-letter-to-doug-and-carla-alcorn/

Reprinted with permission

Dear Mr and Mrs Alcorn,

First of all let me extend my condolences on the death of your daughter Leelah on December 28 2014. I do so as a parent who could not even begin to comprehend the pain of losing one of her children

I am, as your daughter was a transgender woman, and I would ask that you believe me when I tell you that it can be and most certainly is at times a living hell. A hell made not by any vengeful deity, but rather a hell made by other human beings, who, like yourselves prefer to torture others by your words and actions.

You may cling to the notion that Leelah was actually a confused boy you named Joshua at birth, but in reality she was your daughter.

Your daughter Leelah 

Difficult as that concept may be for you to grasp, she deserved better from you as her parents.  She deserved your unconditional love and support, not love and support conditional on your view of the ordered world; Not conditional on your religious beliefs; Conditional only on the fact that she was your child, a child who craved only your love and acceptance.

Both of you let her down badly.

Many people are calling for you to be prosecuted on the basis that it was your actions which led to your beautiful daughter being made to feel so worthless, so absolutely desolate, that she decided to end her own life. Can you imagine the fear and sadness she experienced in those last moments of her young life?

A life so needlessly ended.

However personally I do not believe you should be prosecuted, and let me tell you why. It is not from any position of sympathy for you, because beyond the common decency of feeling for your loss, I have none. Rather I think about Leelah. My heart breaks for her, and I feel her loss intensely, as do many others throughout the world who did not have the privilege of knowing her in person. Beyond that any prosecution would turn into a media circus which would distract attention from the greater tragedy of Leelah’s death.

Having said that don’t get the impression that you have a get out of jail free card , because believe me you do not. Both of you are responsible for your daughter’s death as if you had physically pushed her under that truck because you may as well have by your despicable treatment of her.

Leelah was your child. She should have been able to count on your unconditional love and support, but she couldn’t. Instead you demeaned her at every chance. You abused her in the worst way possible. You destroyed her fragile spirit, and for what? So you could stand up and tell everyone how much you believed in your god. How good you were. How much you loved your child.

Had you really loved her, you would not have contributed to her death. She is beyond you now. You cannot hurt her any more and that is the only consolation in all of this.

Neither of you realise the gift that you were given in Leelah and you let that gift slip through your fingers. That is the tragedy that you now have to live with for the rest of your lives.

Janice

Related articles

• Teen Schedules Heartbreaking Suicide Note to Publish on Blog Right After Her Death (thestir.cafemom.com)
• Leelah Alcorn’s Mom Refuses to Accept That Her Child Was Transgender (eonline.com)
• Beginning a discussion (kiramoorescloset.wordpress.com)
• ‘My death needs to mean something’ transgendered teen’s suicide note (wlwt.com)
• “My Death Needs to Mean Something” (monochromejunkie.com)
• Transgender teen pleads in suicide note: ‘My death needs to mean something’ (fox8.com)
• Leelah Alcorn’s suicide: Why reparative therapy is deadly (planettransgender.com)
• Not One More (huffingtonpost.com)

Enact “Leelah’s Law” to Ban Transgender Conversion Therapy for Children and Teens

Petitions on whitehouse.gov must obtain 100,000 signatures within 30 days in order for the White House to be required to respond. Clicking on the picture will open a new tab and enable you to add your name to the petition.

 

Enact Leelah’s Law to Ban Transgender Conversion Therapy

 

Petitioning President Barack Obama and 3 others

This petition will be delivered to:

President Barack Obama

Senator Harry Reid

Representative Nancy Pelosi

Note:  As of this writing, this petition had more than 170,000 signers. 

Transgender Human Rights Institute

On Sunday, December 27, 2014, Leelah Alcorn a 17 year old transgender youth wrote a suicide note, posted it on Tumblr and then walked out to a highway and out in front of a semi-truck tragically ending her life.  In her last post, Leelah explained how her parents had forced her to attend conversion therapy, pulled her out of school and isolated her in an attempt to change her gender identity.  One of the last things Leelah wrote is as follows:

My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.  

– Leelah Alcorn

In the pursuit of honoring Leelah’s last request we the petitioners call upon the President of the United States – Barack Obama, and the Leadership of the House and Senate to immediately seek a pathway for banning the practice known as ‘transgender conversion therapy’.  We ask that you name the bill in memory of Leelah as the Leelah’s Alcorn Law and protect the lives of transgender youth.  

To sign this petition on change.org, click here.

‘Conversion therapies’ have been documented to cause great harms and in this case, Leelah’s death.  Therapists that engage in the attempt to brainwash or reverse any childs gender identity are seriously unethical and legislation is needed to end such practices immediately.  Transgender youth have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation.  We must not allow therapists to increase those rates with therapy methodologies that have been demonstrated in harming transgender youth.

All major psychological associations speak to the heart of harms that can happen to transgender youth when attempting to discriminate and change their gender identity.

From the American Association of Pediatrics

“According to the study, “Characteristics of Children and Adolescents with Gender Identity Disorder Referred to a Pediatric Medical Center,” in the March 2012 Pediatrics (published online Feb. 20), gender-dysphoric children who do not receive medical treatment or counseling for GID can be at high-risk for certain behavioral and emotional problems, including psychiatric diagnoses. Of 97 patients younger than 21 years who met the criteria for GID, 44 percent had a prior history of psychiatric symptoms, 37 percent were taking psychotropic medications, and 21.6 percent had a history of self-mutilation and suicide attempts.”

From the American Psychological Association:

“APA calls upon psychologists in their professional roles to provide appropriate, nondiscriminatory treatment to transgender and gender variant individuals and encourages psychologists to take a leadership role in working against discrimination towards transgender and gender variant individuals.”

From the National Association of Social Workers:

“People seek mental health services for many reasons. Accordingly, it is fair to assert that lesbians and gay men seek therapy for the same reasons that heterosexual people do. However, the increase in media campaigns, often coupled with coercive messages from family and community members, has created an environment in which lesbians and gay men often are pressured to seek reparative or conversion therapies, which cannot and will not change sexual orientation. Aligned with the American Psychological Association’s (1997) position, NCLGB believes that such treatment potentially can lead to severe emotional damage. “

From the American Counseling Association:

Standard A.1.a. (“Primary Responsibility”),  states that “the primary responsibility of counselors is to respect the dignity and to promote the welfare of clients.” Referring a client to a counselor who engages in a treatment modality not endorsed by the profession and that may, in fact, cause harm does not promote the welfare of clients and is a dubious position ethically. This position is supported by Standard A.4.a. (“Avoiding Harm”), which says, “Counselors act to avoid harming their clients, trainees and research participants and to minimize or to remedy unavoidable or unanticipated harm.”

Please consider sharing and signing this petition. Together we can make the world a safer place for transgender youth everywhere.

To sign this petition on change.org, click here.

 

Social Justice Wiki: ReddOUT

 

I just discovered Social Justice Wiki. After reading this, this, this and this, I tried to remove the sharing button for Reddit from my blog but all I could do is to leave it hidden behind the generic “share” button. If you use Reddit, GTF off my blog.  And have a wonderful day.

 

 

BREAKING NEWS…. BagBrennan is in Love!

Yes, it’s true. The Gender Identity Witch is in love!

I know it’s a bit early for Valentine’s Day, and I have a lot to do on this first day of the year 2015, but when I woke up this morning it suddenly occurred to me why Cunthy Brennut is so preoccupied with transgender people, and trans women in particular.  And I think I know why she seems so focused on my Facebook friend Allison Woolbert (CEO of the Transgender Violence Tracking Project and  Executive Director of the Transgender Human Rights Institute, a 501(c)(3) tax deductible organization dedicated to advancing the acceptance of transgender human rights), doxxing her, misgendering her, and devoting what must be literally hours of her day arduously ensuring that Google searches for Allison show links to her own sites on the first page of results.

I believe that Cunthy BagBrennan, of TERF Gender Identity Witch infamy, harbors a secret and undying passion for Allison Woolbert.

Let me tell you why.

1. First of all, Allison Woolbert is an amazing woman, so that someone would develop such feelings towards her is not particularly surprising.  Allison has many admirers.
2. Allison Woolbert conceptualized, developed and implemented the first and thus far only comprehensive tool for tracking all types of violence committed against transgender persons internationally, including discrimination, microaggressions and suicide — incidents the Transgender Day of Remembrance project has taken no interest in collecting information on or memorializing thus far. This is only one of Allison Woolbert’s many accomplishments, but it is one that has gained her international recognition and has likely triggered a primitive rage reaction in the Bag, creating an emotional conflict between her jealous infantile feelings of hate and her enduring admiration and love (immature and primitive as it is; perhaps “primary process thinking” would be a better term”) for Allison.
3. The Bag is the epitome of the word “bully.”  Do you remember the bullies back in elementary school?  Well, I mean the socially misfit and emotionally immature heterosexual boys who picked on the girls that they liked? I’ve heard it speculated that Brennut is a closet trans man. Maybe she (or he?) is, maybe she (or he?) isn’t. It doesn’t matter to me and it’s not my business. But the behavior is clearly that of a stereotypical emotionally immature little boy who has a crush on a girl. That’s right, masculine behavior which the Bag professes to abhor.  It’s so sad. Pathetic, really.
4. Many have theorized that the COCKroach is not a lesbian at all, as she professes to be, but is actually heterosexual; it is further theorized that she presents as a pretendbian lesbian in order to preserve her role as the Chief COCKroach-in-charge of the TERF fundamentalist group that claims to be radical feminists. Why else would she be so preoccupied with penises? Jeez, it seems that every word out of her mouth is “dick.” It makes me wonder whether she craves the real thing IN her mouth.
5. In order for the Bag to have dick and Allison, i.e.  in order to maintain psychological congruence with her heterosexual (or gay trans man?) identity, the Bag must continue to insist that Allison — a woman — is actually a man.  There is simply no other way that the Bag can have both dick and Allison! The Bag must fantasize endlessly about Allison having… well, we don’t need to go there. (OMG, now I feel as though I’m going to throw up. BagCOCK fantasies — the material nightmares are made of.)

You see? It all makes sense!

Unfortunately, due to the Bag’s pathological and infantile narcissism, and several apparently undiagnosed and untreated personality disorders (my many years of experience as a licensed, clinical psychotherapist and my observations of the Bag’s behavior have led me to these tentative conclusions) manifests itself absurdly as pitiful personal attacks in order to gain Allison’s attention, and when that fails, pathological cyber-stalking behaviors.

Perhaps instead of attacking the poor woman we should pity her. I mean, if she were your sister, wouldn’t you be absolutely humiliated by her  behavior and be motivated by her obvious need for psychiatric treatment to get her help? Maybe we should start a GoFundMe account for getting the Bag psychiatric treatment.

But then, the success rate for treating personality disorders is not very high.  And sociopathy, which is a condition 0f brain biology — and is not a psychological condition as it was formerly thought to be — is essentially untreatable. Besides, I think I’d rather spend my money on more important things. Like paying for ice water for the other people who belong in hell. Or perhaps for jock straps for post-SRS trans women.

RIP Leelah Alcorn

If you don’t know who Leelah Alcorn was, I’m sure you haven’t crawled out from under a rock just to read my blog. Just in case, Google her name to read about her tragic suicide. Get some tissues first because the story sucks.

But the purpose of this post is to pass on information to verify that the accounts of the torment  — psychological torture, actually — by her parents is absolutely true.

Read this, then please go to Transgender Graphics’ Facebook page by clicking on the picture to post your note of thanks to Mr. Davis for his support for the transgender community:

Don’t forget to click on the picture to post your note of thanks to Mr. Davis for his support for the transgender community.

To report any incident of violence towards a transgender person anywhere in the world, please do so at the Transgender Violence Tracking Portal here.

 

 

Related articles

• Tragic Death Of Transgender Ohio Teen Inspires Call To Help Others (huffingtonpost.com)
• Dan Savage On Leelah Alcorn (joemygod.blogspot.com)
• Transgender teen’s suicide note inspires new calls to help others (rawstory.com)
• Google embraces transgender community with more gender options on Google+ (venturebeat.com)

Being Trans Doesn’t Give You a Free Pass to Be an Asshole

Or a Misogynist.

This is what irks me about some — and I emphasize some  (although this has been an all-too-frequent experience and is why I tend to shy away from them) — trans men who seem to think that it is okay to act like misogynist assholes, now that they are free to be “themselves.” No, little boys, being male is not always synonymous with “asshole.”  And yes, if you swagger around, swinging your literal or figurative prosthetic penis around, bragging about its size as you scratch your non-existent balls while calling women “bitches” and otherwise seeking to malign and oppress us, then you are nothing more than an adolescent 14 year old stilted in social development, which to me makes you an immature little boy.

Today I joined a closed Facebook group called Medicare Transgender Surgery Support Group. Imagine my chagrin when the first post I read included comments not only referring to Dr. Marci Bowers, by her first name when none of the male physicians were referred to in such a disrespectful manner, but also referring to her as a “bitch.”

I lost no time in responding to this:  

 

“Bitch” is a sexist slur, and it is “Dr.” Marci Bowers. I don’t see anyone referring to any male physicians by slurs or w/out their proper titles.

Or is this a misogynist FTM group that I mistakenly joined? <–Serious question, as I have not the time nor energy to waste my knowledge or expertise on people who have no respect for others of MY gender.

 

After receiving a response from the group administrator that the group is not a misogynist hate group of FTMs, I posted the following:

 

For anyone who is not familiar with DR. Marci Bowers’ innovative work in transgender surgery, here is some information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marci_Bowers

For anyone who doubts Dr. Bowers’ work for the trans community, I suggest you read it. For anyone who thinks she is greedy, I draw your attention to the following:

“Bowers also puts her expertise in vaginoplasty at the disposal of victims of female genital mutilation, whom she does not charge for surgery.[17] She was trained for this specific operation under Pierre Foldès and has performed 50 reversals of fgm so far.[18]”

I have friends who have had, will have and/or wish to have their surgeries done by Dr. Bowers. Those who know her think of her as an angel who has saved their lives.

 

And then, when the same trans man who had called Dr. Bowers a “bitch” (but whose comment in the meantime had mysteriously disappeared) responded by saying that he doesn’t “like” Dr. Bowers or her surgical results, I could not keep my mouth shut:

 

Calling a woman a bitch because one doesn’t like them is no different from calling someone the t-word just because one doesn’t like them… or the n-word or any other slur. It is not acceptable.

Don’t like her results? Don’t like her as a person? Curious… all my friends who’ve gotten their surgery from Dr. Bowers have had no complaints and speak the world of her. I would think they’d know, having actually been operated on by her and met her in person and all.

I’m not here to argue. But I will point out that alienating half of the population by calling them bitches is not the way to get allies. Just sayin’.

 

Or a Transmisogynist.

Actually — and more accurately — an entitled, bitching, whiny trans person who trashes the trans community, trans people and allies, complaining about the efforts of trans activists who are working to make the world better and safer for you instead of getting off your lazy ass and doing something  yourself.

How dare you?  When people like Allison Woolbert spend countless hours, days and weeks every year working on the Transgender Violence Tracking Project, collecting, tabulating and analyzing statistics on trans violence  to quantify the rampant discrimination and the senseless and horrific acts of violence encountered by trans people every day so that governments world-wide will have no choice but to face the fact that trans violence is real, how f’ing dare you sit on your lazy asses and make demands or trash others in the trans community?  You wonder why you have it so hard?  Well, look at yourself.

⇒  Click here to report an incident of trans violence ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ⇐

Tell me to “die cis scum” all you like — you certainly won’t be the first, and I doubt that you will be the last. But before you whine and complain about how hard things are for you (and believe me, I’m not saying that they’re not), and definitely before you trash others who are doing productive work to make things better, look at what you are doing… or not doing. Pissing off the people who are trying to help make your life better just won’t work.

If you don’t know where to begin, you might want to check out the volunteer opportunities with the Trans Violence Tracking Portal here.

 

 

Related articles

• The Transgender Violence Tracking Portal  (transcister.wordpress.com)

• Trans advocate Allison Woolbert takes on trans violence through technology (lexiecannes.com)

Jennifer & Marc: A Real-Life Love Story

Marc Süselbeck with the woman he loved – his fiancée Jennifer Laude   (before her savage and senseless murder by a US Marine)

An open letter to the bashers/detractors of murdered transgender Jennifer Laude, from her fiancé Marc Süselbeck

Following is a compilation of messages from Marc Süselbeck received by one Jennifer’s friends. Apparently Marc does not have a Facebook account but wanted to respond to some of the vile comments that he’s heard since Jennifer’s death. An update about Marc’s status and some final comments follow.

Posted on Facebook on October 8, 2014

As if things couldn’t get any worse, Marc will not be able to return to the Philippines to visit Jennifer’s grave or to see her family:

 

Halloween deportation for Sueselbeck

ABS-CBNnews.com

Posted at 10/31/2014 2:56 PM | Updated as of 10/31/2014 3:40 PM

MANILA – The German fiance of slain transgender Jennifer Laude will leave the country tomorrow after his request for voluntary deportation was granted by the Bureau of Immigration.

Marc Sueselbeck will leave the country for Frankfurt, Germany.

His lawyer, Harry Roque, said Sueselbeck will hold a press conference prior to his departure.

Because of his voluntary deportation, Sueselback will be blacklisted and will no longer be allowed to return to the Philippines.

Sueselbeck was prevented from leaving the country last Sunday to face deportation proceedings for being an undesirable alien.

Last week, Sueselbeck and Laude’s sister Marilou climbed a perimeter fence inside Camp Aguinaldo in their search for US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, the suspect in Laude’s killing.

Sueselbeck later apologized for his actions and said he is not a threat to the Philippines.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/10/31/14/halloween-deportation-sueselbeck

 

To report an incident of violence anywhere in the world, contact the Trans Violence Tracking Portal here.

Besides the horrible violence of this case, which tends, unfortunately, to be the case for many murders committed against transgender persons worldwide, there are 2 things that have struck me about Jennifer and Marc:

1. I cannot help but be in awe of Jennifer’s beauty. There is something about her pictures that makes it very difficult for me to tear my eyes away.  It’s more than about what Jennifer looked like – it’s something about her. After reading the above comments from Marc and seeing the picture of Jennifer and Marc together, I think I know what it is…
2.  Marc loved Jennifer.  Just how much he loved her is reflected in his writing, the way he looked at her and the radiance in her face in the photographs of her.  Not everyone gets the opportunity to experience that kind of love, and it often doesn’t come around more than once in a lifetime.  It seems pretty clear that Marc felt lucky to have met and loved Jennifer; I wonder whether anyone has ever or will ever tell Marc how lucky Jennifer was to have had his love – not because she was trans — but because he seems to be a genuinely loving and caring man and any (non-lesbian) woman would be lucky to have him.

 

 

Related articles

• Statement on the Bureau of Immigration’s go-signal for Marc Sueselbeck’s voluntary deportation  (harryroque.com)
• Marc Sueselbeck’s Motion for Voluntary Deportation (harryroque.com)

Letter to US Marine Pemberton

Jennifer Laude. INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON\

 Jennifer Laude was a transgender woman murdered by a US Marine in the Philippines on October 11, 2014.  If you are not familiar with the case, you might want to refer to the following:

• Information about the case:  There May Be Justice For Jennifer Laude, Trans Filipina Murdered by US Marine
• About Jennifer: Jennifer Laude ignored haters, fought for dolls, kept poise
• TRIGGER ALERT:  Dispelling rumors: Jennifer Laude, hate crimes, and the ‘big picture’

This is a Facebook post addressed to 19 year old Pemberton.  I couldn’t have said it better. 

This was posted to Facebook on October, 19, 2014.

 

To PFC Joseph Scott Pemberton:

Why???

Why did you think you had the right to take her life? An American solders [sic] job is to stand up for human rights. You failed your job! You have changed peoples lives and not for the good.

Do you know what you have taken from us? Do you know who you have taken from us? You have taken someone’s son, someone’s brother, and yes I guess you have to say someone’s sister, someone’s niece, aunty [sic]. You took away someone’s lover, someone’s fiance [sic], someone’s friend. You took the family breadwinner, her brother’s education. You took away a lover of animals and one of the kindest and most honest people you could ever hope to meet. You took away a beautiful, sweet, vivacious, living, breathing, caring human being. You took away someone who brought joy comfort to those around her. You took away someone we all loved!!!

You did more than that. You betrayed your uniform, your regiment and your country. What about your family? What have you done to them? So again I ask you why? Why did you kill her? Were you so disgusted to find out you just had sex with a transsexual that you felt your only option was to kill her? WHY??? To keep anyone from finding out??? Obviously that didn’t work to [sic] well. No, you didn’t kill her to keep it quiet, you killed her because you enjoyed it! You enjoyed the time you had with her! It was the best you ever had and that scared the crap out of you because you thought it might mean you were gay! It might mean you were gay and you felt guilty for enjoying it. So by God YOU were going to ease your conscience and send a statement to the world : PFC JOESPH SCOTT PEMBERTON WAS NOT GAY!!! Wouldn’t it have been better to just tuck tail and run? Jennifer wasn’t going to tell anyone about you! Just because you enjoyed the sex you killed her? You must have liked it, they found two used condoms. Probably the best sex you ever had, unless maybe one of them was hers???? Oh shit dude!!! And now the whole world knows!!

Well guess what? It doesn’t matter!!! Don’t you get it? As long as it is between two consenting adults and hurts no one, it okay!! Even the Pope says its okay. A real man understands that! You sir are not a real man! You are a selfish homophobic bastard. May God forgive you, I sir can not! Jennifer will though, she will be the first to forgive you. Oh wait…YOU KILLED HER!! She can’t forgive you….she is gone! I know its not good to harbor bitterness and resentment towards someone and that I too need to forgive you, and I will. But not today…and sorry tomorrow doesn’t look good either. Ah hell… who am I fooling? I’ll just have to take the hit. I’m gonna hate you until the day I die. Can someone else here please forgive him? I can’t! I will pray for her family and yes dude I will even pray for yours. I will pray for all of us that are hurting because of your selfish cowardly act.

Everyone is fighting to get you tried and convicted in the Philippines. I don’t care where it happens or who does it. I just want you tried, convicted and sentenced to the most maximum punishment available irregardless of which country does it. No matter what your punishment it will never be enough. I can only hope there is a part of you that realizes how horribly wrong you were and that you are tormented forever by guilt and regret for your selfish actions.

REST IN PEACE JENNIFER

The thing is, there isn’t any evidence that they “had sex” – if there was any sexual contact at all, evidence points towards her having been raped, which makes the story all the more tragic. This woman was not only murdered, but has been slandered by the press, being blamed for her own murder.  Transmisogyny at its finest.

 

Süselbeck

Related articles

• Marine accused in Philippine killing tests US ties (star-telegram.com)
• A vigil at Union Square in San Francisco, Calif Oct 15, 2014 to honor the life of Jennifer Laude (ireport.cnn.com)
• Marine suspect guarded by US in Philippine camp (cnsnews.com)
• Philippine advocates stage ‘Day of Outrage’ protests over trans murder (washingtonblade.com)
• Palace: Pursuit of justice for Laude continues despite US witnesses’ departure (globalnation.inquirer.net)

Trans advocate Allison Woolbert takes on trans violence through technology

From LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS

HOME › TRANSGENDER, TRANSSEXUAL, TRANS › DEATHS, MURDER › TRANS ADVOCATE ALLISON WOOLBERT TAKES ON TRANS VIOLENCE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

BY LEXIE CANNES on OCTOBER 24, 2014 • ( Comments )

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Violence is a major part of the lives of most transgender people in the United States and elsewhere. But being able to point to evidence supporting it is something else entirely. In most cases, trans violence incidents either fly under the radar due to misgendering, confusion, ignorance or simply not reported at all.

Transwoman and advocate Allison Woolbert of Princeton, New Jersey, a professional computer software developer, wants to change that by using computer technology to track trans violence.

Regular readers of this space are familiar with the difficulty of confirming acts of violence — incorrect names, misgendering and weak or unverifiable sources hamper the recording and reporting of trans violence. Without reliable data, reversing these conditions for trans people has been a difficult road. These issues also make it difficult for the transgender organizations that track trans murders, primarily for observation of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR).

Woolbert’s Transgender Violence Tracking Portal software generates a way of capturing a verifiable and searchable database. In addition, the tracking of transgender suicide will be possible — strengthening the case for further administrative, legal and legislative changes.

The success of Allison Woolbert’s site is dependent on the trans community and allies’ commitment to reporting all suspected acts of trans violence — if you see or hear of such a case, report it, so it can be investigated and confirmed.

Report an incident: http://data.transviolencetracker.com/Inc_Reporting

_______________________________________

Transgender Violence Tracking Portal: http://www.transviolencetracker.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/TransMSVTracker

More on Allison Woolbert: http://allisonwoolbert.blogspot.com/2014/10/allison-woollberts-transgender-violence.html

Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ

Or get the DVD:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332 

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/

Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnuPLqfadcdonnell/

Trailer to the feature film “Lexie Cannes”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnuPLqfadc

 

Related articles

• How media reports affect trans people, and what should be done (theconversation.com)
• The Next Civil Rights Frontier: How the Transgender Movement Is Taking Over (raverx.com)
• (transcister.wordpress.com)
• Transgender Violence Tracking Portal: One Year Later (raverx.com)
• Future Trans* (transgriot.blogspot.com)
• The Transgender Violence Tracking Portal (transcister.wordpress.com)

The Transgender Violence Tracking Portal

Copyright © 2014 Transgender Violence Tracking Portal. All Rights Reserved.

Note:  Everything in this post is completely and totally plagiarized from the Transgender Violence Tracking Project, founded last year by my Facebook friend, Allison Woolbert.

This is copyrighted material; I have changed the wording slightly to make it more readable from the perspective of this blog, (i.e., third person vs. first person.)  See terms for reposting/reblogging at the end of this post.

 

The Transgender Violence Tracking Portal (TVTP) provides a location to report on various forms of violence and harassment that occurs to transgender individuals throughout the world.

 

Click here to report an incident of trans* violence ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

Click here to submit a link to a media report of a violent incident to the TVTP.

 

Welcome

The Transgender Violence Tracking Portal is an attempt to collect data on anti-trans* violence in order to protect the transgender community in real time and help trans* people and allies be better-informed advocates for change.  

Transgender* people make up 1 to 1.5% of the world’s population but are about 400 times more likely to be assaulted or murdered than the rest of the population. These crimes are more likely to be violent, and are often meant to intimidate the entire community. Many of these crimes are left unsolved, which makes it doubly important to track and hold law enforcement accountable to solving these crimes.

The TVTP works to provide news of violence against the transgender* community and, eventually, a central repository of reports (searchable by location and time).

Backed by a successful kickstarter campaign, the site currently features news and the ability to submit an incident report, as well as reports of missing persons and the ability to share and disseminate news via social media from a central location.

Who’s Trans?

There are many identities and terms under the broad “transgender” umbrella. In their Incident Reporting Form, the TVTP seeks to provide a descriptor field that will allow for this diversity of identity to be honored and respected, while also providing accurate and usable data. They also are staying within the reporting criteria of governmental agencies to provide a matching criteria to dispute figures that they know at present are questionable. This limits some of the identities that are populated for statistical research. However, in the user profile, they allow a wide range of self-identities for each person’s own self-identification.

It is also important to note that sometimes transphobic violence is perpetrated against individuals who do not themselves identify as transgender*, and they seek to honor and respect chosen identities of victims and survivors while still holding perpetrators accountable. The TVTP will continue to grow identity fields as new terms are added. Here are a few (not all) that they currently list:

• Agender
• Androgynous
• Cross Dresser
• Female
• Gender Non-Conforming
• Intersex
• Male
• Transsexual
• Transgender
• Transgenderos
• Travesti

*The TVTP places an asterisk with the term transgender on their site to denote its usage as an umbrella term.

Types of Incidents That are Tracked

• Adverse Court Decisions
• Bathroom Harassment / Incident
• Employment Discrimination/ Harassment
• Food Bank/Meals Program Incidents
• Govt. Harassment / Incident
• Hate Group Harassment / Incident
• Housing/Public Accommodation Harassment
• Law Enforcement Harassment / Incident
• Medical Facility/Practitioner Refusal to Treat
• Missing Persons
• Murder
• Prison/ Jail Incident
• Religious Bias / Harassment
• Reparative/Conversion Therapy Harms
• Restaurant/Bar Harassment
• Silicone Injection- Death
• Silicone Injection- Self Injury
• Suicide
• Suspicious Death
• Verbal Violence / Hate Speech
• Violence
• Workplace Discrimination (Title VII)
• Workplace Harassment / Incident

How Can I Help?

Glad you asked!  There are several ways anyone can take action and help out:

1. Donate  – Support this project by becoming a contributor. Any little bit helps.

2. Share – Share a story from the site to help raise awareness. Each time you share news from this project, individuals learn more.

3. Volunteer – They need your help! You can volunteer for one of several jobs at the transviolencetracker.org. Click here to see the opportunities that are available.

How Can I Contact the Trans* Violence Tracking Portal?

You can contact the Trans*Violence Tracking Portal here.

Click here to report an incident of trans violence ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

 Click here to submit a link to a media report of a violent incident to the TVTP.

 

The author of this post and the Transgender Violence Tracking Project authorize and encourage that the material in this post be reposted and reblogged widely as long as the following copyright notice is included:

“Copyright © 2014 Transgender Violence Tracking Portal. All Rights Reserved.”

 

Related articles

• Transgender Violence Tracking Portal: One Year Later (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Next Civil Rights Frontier: How the Transgender Movement Is Taking Over (raverx.com)
• Transgender woman fatally shot in Los Angeles, media reports (glaad.org)
• Is Brooklyn Becoming Unsafe for Queers? (news.yahoo.com)
• Is Brooklyn Becoming Unsafe for Queers? (thedailybeast.com)
• Documents Reveal Efforts to Block Protections for Trans People in Canada (news.vice.com)

Trans American

Strength

Picture courtesy of Transgender Graphics’ Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Transgender-Graphics/592528400809041

 

Related articles

A Simple Way to Support Trans People

For more information about gender and pronouns, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-specific_and_gender-neutral_pronouns

Okay, so I said I wasn’t going to write in this blog anymore because nobody was reading it. Well, I wanted to post this message in a decent format and in a place where I can post it again if I want to, so…

CIS PEOPLE:  This is for you:

When you see or hear someone using incorrect pronouns to refer to a trans person, here is a real-life example of how you can address this:

 

That’s all.  It’s simple. Do it.  It’s easy, it’s free, it takes almost no time and it’s the right thing to do.

I also posted the following, again for the purpose of education:

 

Picture courtesy of  Transgender Graphics’ Facebook Page 

 

Related Articles:

• The Power of Pronouns
• The Pronoun Problem
• Yes, Pronouns are the Issue
• Pronouns:  A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Ten things not to say to a suicidal person

Reblogging this after the tragic suicide of Robin Williams. If you are feeling suicidal, please call your local suicide prevention number, call 911, or go to your closest emergency room.

Charlotte Walker

In July 2011 I wrote a post entitled, “Ten things not to say to a depressed person.” It was the first piece on this blog to attract a large audience and I own much of my blogging success to that post and its companion piece, “Ten supportive things I’m glad somebody said to me.”

I’ve decided the time is right for a similar piece on dealing with suicidal people (although I’m definitely not expecting the same number of readers for this post!). Suicidal thoughts have been a problem for me since around Christmas and the wide variety of responses I’ve received to my blogs and tweets, along with training to be a Mental Health Instructor, have given me cause to think about how people respond to individuals they know to be suicidal. A common response is feeling that they must throw some logic at the problem. What people don’t…

View original post 1,724 more words

Time to Go

It’s sad for me to say, but it appears that this blog has outlived its usefulness.  Its original purpose was to educate cisgender people about transgender issues, and evolved into doing the same while documenting my own journey in becoming more trans-aware and recognizing and owning my cis privilege… all with the goal of bridging understanding between cisgender and transgender people.

Writing does not come easily to me. Sometimes I spend an entire day—or more—on a single post; hence the infrequency of posts as I try to cope with a rather chaotic personal life.  Yet there seems to be only one person who regularly reads my posts and after an initial interest by a few cisgender friends, and a lot of support by a number of transgender friends, this interest seems to have dwindled.

I believe that what I was—what I have been—doing has been important and valuable, yet there doesn’t seem to be any point in continuing to write if nobody is reading.  So, I am stopping.   Unless something changes, this will be my last post.  😥

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trans-Related Books for Sale: Part 1

I am posting this as a favor to my friend Suzan.  To reach Suzan for more information, click here to be directed to her blog, then click on “About” in the upper right-hand corner and you will find her email address there. 🙂 

 

Selling off my Trans-Related Library (Part 1)

08/07/2014 — Suzan

It has been a while in coming.  First I declared myself neutral in the endless trans-wars.  Then I embraced being post-transsexual.  I realized that as an old woman I had no desire to be a trans-activist or for that matter exploit my having been trans for economic benefit.

I’m in the process of simplifying my life as well as starting a new small business.

Some people have been after me to donate my library to various institutions.

The truth is I can’t afford to donate my library to some institution that is probably better off than I am.  Therefore I am selling off  my library on E-Bay.

While you might be able to find some of the books for less it won’t be much less.

While I can’t afford to contribute them for free to an archive perhaps you might purchase one of these books and donate it.

Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green
Excluded : Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive…
Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism by Pat Califia
Trans/forming Feminisms: by Krista Scott-Dixon
Transgender History by Susan Stryker
Finding the Real Me : True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity…
Transseexualism and Sex Reassignment
Horsexe
My Story by Caroline Cossy
I Am a Woman by Tula (1982, Paperback, Illustrated)
Hidden in Plain Sight by Leslie D. Townsend (2002, Paperback)…
Lesbians Talk Transgender (Lesbians Talk Issues) by Zachary I Natif…
The Woman I Was Not Born to Be : A Transsexual Journey by Aleshia Brevard
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
Blending Genders : Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex-Changing
Sex Change, Social Change By Viviane Namaste
Presentations of Gender by Robert Stoller
The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender
Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach
Transgender Nation by Gordene Olga MacKenzie
Lessons from the Intersexed by Suzanne J. Kessler
Suits Me : The Double Life of Billy Tipton by Diane Wood …
The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male.

This is just the initial offering more will follow.

 

Cathy Brennan Interview

********TRIGGER WARNING*******

Following is a video of an exclusive video of Cathy Brennan spewing her usual TERF RATfem, hateful crap.  I will highlight some of her comments that particularly pissed me off but this post is not finished & will be completed later.

 

 

 

Pronouns: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This post may piss some people off.  If it pisses you off, please click on “About”, choose “This Blog” and read that page, particularly the last part about the purpose of this blog being my documenting my journey in understanding transgender and intersex issues and attempting to normalize the experiences of cisgender people to encourage them to take a similar journey.

I am being open and honest about my experiences and feelings, as ugly as some of them may seem to some of you.  I’m a 55  year old cisgender  woman who was socialized at a time when transgender people essentially did not exist:  I have biases that I am trying to unlearn and am working to own my cisgender privilege.  But I’m only human and 55 years of no information and misinformation is a lot to unlearn and it takes time; any cisgender person reading this needs to know that their feelings — their uncomfortable feelings of confusion, embarrassment, tentativeness about asking questions at the risk of offending anyone, etc. — are normal.  It is difficult knowing someone as one gender, learning they are another and then adjusting to their transition, using the correct name, pronouns, etc., and transgender people need to realize that when we screw up it’s not always due to malice.

I have a transgender friend I met online 2 years ago before she came out publicly as trans.  So I knew her by her birth name (I will use the name “Ron” —  not her actual birth name) and her picture on Facebook was of a middle-aged, balding, male-bodied person.

I was involved in conversations when she chose her new name (I will call her “Carrie” — not her real name), and in private all of our friends called her by her new real name.  But in public I could not do that, and her name still showed up as “Ron” and her pic was still of that same middle-aged guy.

Obviously, I would never out anyone, but I felt very uncomfortable calling my friend “Ron” and I knew that doing so would also make it even more difficult for me to see her as a woman as she transitioned, so I started calling her by her last name. This may sound weird to some, but seeing the name “Ron” accompanied by a male-bodied picture made it very difficult for me to see Carrie as a woman.   I had to see my friend Carrie as a woman and I had to do everything I could to force my mind to ignore or forget information that might make me not see her as the woman she is.

I was “there” when Carrie came out publicly and it was a relief to be able to call her by her real name all the time.  She changed her Facebook profile pic to a female picture, but it was a cartoon character, not a picture of her.  So I have not been able to get that male-bodied pic of a middle-aged balding “man” out of my head, and with the name “Ron” associated with that pic in my head, it has been an onerous task getting the pronouns right when I talk to people about Carrie (without using her name, of course) and her transition.  I would never deliberately misgender someone, but as a visual person, that picture has been stuck in my brain for 2 years and I have not been able to get it out.

Well today I finally saw that Carrie has posted pictures of herself on Facebook (and WordPress). Hallelujah!   I realize that this is my issue and not Carrie’s or any other trans person’s but my difficulty with getting pronouns and gender straight in my head with conflicting visual cues is a valid experience and it gives credence to families’ and friends’ struggles with “getting it right” when someone they’ve known for many years comes out as trans.  It is difficult for us cis people to “transition” with your transitioning for very real and understandable reasons that have nothing to do with transphobia, so please be patient with us.

Seeing what Carrie really looks like now makes me pretty confident that “Ron” and the image of “Ron” will quickly fade and I will no longer have any difficulties with pronouns when it comes to Carrie (and she looks great!)  Carrie, if you see this:  I wish I could express how confused, conflicted and guilty I have felt about my difficulties seeing you as a woman… all because of that stupid picture.  ♥