Connecticut Latina/os Achieving Rights and Opportunities (CLARO) presents the world premiere of Janis Astor del Valle’s one-woman play, Becoming Joaquin, on Monday, March 8, 7:30pm, at Hartford Stage. Directed by Carolyn Kirsch, Astor portrays the title character, his family members and girlfriend, who are in therapy, struggling to accept his identity as a transgendered Latino. Tickets are $15 for the general public; a limited number of free tickets are available for high school students and anyone unable to pay the full ticket price, but they must be reserved. For reservations and information please call Charlie Ortiz at (860) 841-2345.

Click here for more details

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The Fourth Annual Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Health and Law Conference is being held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the UConn Health Center from 8:00 AM till 5 PM. This all day conference is geared towards Community, Service Providers, Medical and Legal Professionals, Trans and Gender non-conforming individuals, allies and all those interested in the Health and Law issues facing the Trans and gender non-conforming communities.

Please continually check our website at, TransgenderLives.org, for detailed and evolving conference information.

Sincerely,
Organizing Committee
Transgender Lives Conference

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President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department.

In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality’s board of directors, said that “as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

While Simpson is clearly one of the first transgender presidential appointees, Democratic officials say they’re unsure if she is the very first one.

The White House had no comment on her appointment.

A 2004 YWCA “Woman on the Move,” Simpson recently served as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona.

At Raytheon, Simpson — a former test pilot who had worked for the company for more than a generation — transitioned from male to female and was instrumental in convincing the military contractor to add gender identity and expression to its equal employment opportunity policy.

She later ran unsuccessfully for the Arizona House of Representatives and was a delegate for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

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And this issue extends to all of us and/or our loved ones within the Trans communities. The Federal Government on more than one occasion has enacted federal regulations excluding trans folks from federal protections: the Americans with Disabilities Act, Insurance Coverage and Medicaid to name a few. And we now see the House of Representatives, the Senate and even the President supporting even more abortion restrictions on a Woman’s Right to full health care coverage and her ability to govern decisions over her body. Click here to read more of these connections between a Women’s right to choose and Trans folks being denied the right to determination over their bodies, their gender identity and their expression.

So please join TransAdvocacy, the Women and Gender Resource Action Center of Trinity, NARAL Pro-Choice Ct and other organizations as we stand and say we will NOT be silent as our government tries to chip away our rights! Click here to view flyer.

Event Info

Date: Monday, December 21, 2009
Time: 4 - 6 PM
Address: Federal Building,
450 Main Street
Hartford, CT

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For Marsha P. (Pay It No Mind!) Johnson
Qwo-Li Driskill

found floating in the Hudson River shortly after NYC Pride, 1992

“You are the one whose spirit is present in the dappled stars.”
– Joy Harjo, from “For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash…”

Each act of war
is whispered from
Queen to Queen
held like a lost child
then released into the water below.
Names float into rivers
gentle blooms of African Violets.

I will be the one that dangles
from the side but
does not let go.

The police insisted you leapt
into the Hudson
driftwood body
in sequin lace
rhinestone beads
that pull us to the bottom.
No serious investigation — just another
dead Queen.

(more…)

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if you are looking for something fun to do friday, check out this great dance event by our comrade Adrienne. All for a good cause!

Come Dance the night away

Get ready for the Holiday spirit

Enjoy tons of different dances, Cha Cha, Waltz, Tango, Swing, etc. all night and help us raise money for those less fortunate than ourselves

Lesson at 7pm by Adrienne Marie cotter

Dancing follows until 11pm

Friday December 11^th,2009

St. Marks

singles and couples

147 w main st. new Britain

$5 suggested donation

download flyer

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Workshop Proposal Deadline is December 5, 2009

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Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are for a Queer discussion around Queer organizing in Connecticut!

Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009
Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Metropolitan Community Church
Street: 155 Wyllys St
City/Town: Hartford, CT
download flyer

Marriage equality represents a seat at the table for LGBT folks-but whose table are we sitting at? And what about the rest of us who are still grasping for crumbs?

On the job, at school and on the street, queerfolk of all stripes are still some of the most oppressed in society. Queers Without Borders seeks to build a movement to flip the table over altogether. Come contribute to the discussion, and meet the faces behind the statement below:

“This document is Queer As Fuck”

We are a collective of people with diverse backgrounds, ages, identities and a variety of progressive political outlooks. We are committed to creating a welcoming space for social action with a solid foundation of respect and compassion.

We want a free world based on equality, learning and healthy relationships. We believe in each person’s right to free expression of gender, sexuality and beyond, based on the desires of the consenting individual, not by other peoples’ definitions and prejudices.

(more…)

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From Vimeo

Courage comes in many different forms. For Esmeralda, a transgender asylum seeker from Mexico, who faced horrific circumstances in immigration detention, it came in the form of seeking justice. Kept in a segregated cell with other transgender detainees, Esmeralda never realized that her experience in detention would match the trauma of discrimination she had faced back home. But her story is also one of hope in its desire to create change.

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The Ct TransAdvocacy Coalition, MCC/Hartford and many of our allies and community will be Remembering those individuals who are brutally murdered simply because they did not conform to societies standards of what a “real man or woman” looks or acts like.

Friday, November 20, 2009
5:15 PM Gathering at First Presbyterian Church, 136 Capitol Ave, Hartford
Vigil Walk from First Presbyterian Church to the State Capitol
5:30 PM Rally at the State Capitol
7:00 PM Transgender DOR Program at MCC Hartford, 155 Wyllys Street, Hartford

For more information call (860) 983-8139 or email diana @ transadvocacy.com

Those Being Remembered in 2009

(more…)

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A new theater piece written & performed by activist Peterson Toscano. Toscano unearths transgender Bible characters- those people who do not fit in the gender binary and who, in transgressing and transcending gender, find themselves at the center of some the Bible’s most important stories. Hilarious and moving. Download and freely distribute the flyer for this performance [Download pdf]

Event Info

Friday, September, 11 2009
7:30 PM
Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford, CT
Order your tickets TODAY by calling (860) 249-1207
Tickets: $20 general, $10 Charter Oak and Let*s Go Arts! Members, $5 students

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photos by glenn koetzner

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Transgender people and business leaders discuss why more businesses are instituting non-discrimination policies to include gender identity and expression. Good for employees, good for business! 

video by glenn koetzner

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Supporters of legal protections for transgender and gender non-conforming people told their personal stories in Hartford on Lobby Day, urging legislators to make CT the 14th state to add transgender protections to their state’s non-discrimination laws.

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Lauren Dutton, CNM, MSN, Karel Koenig, PhD, FNP, NP-C, and Kristopher Fennie, MSC, MPH, PhD

Transgender men are a vulnerable population whose health care needs have been difficult to identify because of limited research and an inability to identify the population. Limited evidence suggests that transgender men are at increased risk of having polycystic ovarian syndrome, contracting HIV, experiencing violence, and committing suicide. This qualitative study, conducted through face-to-face interviews of a convenient sample, was a three-part interview containing a demographic and health questionnaire, the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire, as well as the Health Care Relationship Trust Scale. Audio recordings and written notes were reviewed and common themes were identified via content analysis. Six self-identified transgender men between the ages of 19 and 45 years were enrolled in the study. Participants were at varying degrees of social and medical transition. Four major themes were identified: 1) receiving gynecologic care was perceived to be important; 2) breasts caused the most gender identity conflict; 3) transgender men struggle with revealing their gender identity to health care providers; and 4) the male/female boxes on health intake forms, as well as pronoun usage by medical staff, were barriers to receiving health care. This gynecologic health care needs assessment of transgender men begins to characterize the barriers transgender men face when seeking health care. [click to view entire paper]

J Midwifery Womens Health 2008;53:331–337 © 2008 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

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