At the intersections--

Busy, busy, busy...What's cool is everything I'm busy with seems to be all connected to this fellowship. There's things to do at the RIC--people to follow up with, surveys to plan, research to investigate and turn around, social media websites to update. There's things to do for the Health Brigade, a project I'm working on with some friends--working out the details for the website, compiling our mission statement, figuring out just what "good care" looks like and how to start people talking about good care and where to find it. There's things to do with "Stop Transphobic Reporting Now!"--local and national connections to make, meetings to attend, people to update...Not to mention getting library books reasonably on time, washing the dishes, searching for work-appropriate clothes in my size, supporting cool stuff other people are doing, watching the (mostly disappointing) Grammy's, celebrating Valetine's Day with my sweetheart and friends by eating heart-shaped pizza and hanging out...Then things all seem to come together when I talk with a friend at my local queer bar about starting a sexual health campaign for female-born, masculine-presenting folks at a clinic offering internships!

And hey! Did you hear Rustbelt Radio on WRCT, WPTS, podcast, streaming live, etc. etc. this week?? They interviewed me for a story about the recent transphobic news story. Contact me to stay involved with that or join the Facebook group.

So now it's been nearly a month since the fellowship began. I'm keeping up with everything better than I thought, but I can feel another swell coming soon. Detailed project plan is nearly complete and thinking about bringing together LGBT student groups in the area with LGBT-focused internship opportunities, tapping all involved about being LGBT in the workplace and/or what LGBT organizations bring to the larger community and incorporating that with the larger student/internship systems at work in the SWPA region...

One cool thing I got to do recently was visit the Good Grief Center for Bereavement Support in Squirrel Hill to interview the staff there for a video blog about their internship program. (I refuse to say "vlog") The GGC provides free support (one-on-one, over-the-phone and in groups) to those grieving the loss of a loved one, or even anticipated loss. I got a chance to talk further with them about the grieving process, especially how the "talking about it" seems to help so much: people experiencing grief "have to tell their story, sometimes many times, to make it more concrete, more real for themselves." Yes--This idea keeps coming up everywhere if I take a little time to search for it.

p.s. My new favorite queer community alphabet soup combo: QUILTBAG--queer/questioning, intersex, lesbian, trans, bisexual, asexual/ally, gay. LOVE this! (Thanks Alicia!)

Martin Niemöller

p.p.s. Thanks, Briana, for pointing me in the direction of Lee Harrington's essay "Growing Beautiful Flowers at the Intersections: From Complex Ecosystems to Interstitial Collaboration." This reminds me of how we would have nothing without the total combination of all of our efforts, and how great and beautiful "flowers" erupt at the intersections of our selves and communities. It also reminds me of the poem "First they came" by Martin Niemöller and of proposed Title X  funding-slash (take action!) and how each of us can only do so much alone, but together we can have so much more.

Transphobia in Journalism: Give WPXI a Piece of Your Mind

Dear friends,

Please read this news story from WPXI and click the link to get to the video clip. This is a disgusting example of transphobia.

I am trying to get in contact with the Allegheny County Jail to get more information about the arrested individuals and write to them in the hope that we can do something for them. In the meanwhile, please call WPXI, tell them that this is unacceptable (412-237-1100) and spread this story far and wide.

In solidarity,
Rayden

Update: I created a facebook group about this found here. I'm wondering what kind of community response this requires. I actually had a long and, I think, productive, talk with Vince Sims today about why that story is offensive even if, according to him, it was not meant to come off that way. I was very upset at first but we ended up getting somewhere. He expressed interest in doing a story, basically about how trans people are members of our community and this is not an okay way to talk about them.

This is all so relevant considering the recent release of "Injustice at Every Turn," the first comprehensive study of the discrimination faced by, and resilience of, transgender and gender-variant people in the U.S.

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 4 – The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) today released a comprehensive new report, "Injustice at Every Turn," revealing the depth of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in a wide range of areas, including education, health care, employment, and housing. The study, based on the results from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), was based on responses from over 6,450 participants. The NTDS is the first large-scale national study of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming Americans, and paints a more complete picture than any prior research to date.

I'm also including a link to my partner Ocean's blog with a letter she wrote to WPXI.
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This is all what we've been fighting for, no?

Update #2: Neither person is currently being held in the Allegheny County Jail. However, there is a loud community response to this story from WPXI and also about the language in the police report. No one at the police department has gotten back to me yet. We may do a story with Rustbelt Radio at WRCT and there might be other media coverage of the response. Stay tuned!