Judge Wants Closing Statements on Marriage Equity Case in California
By: Michael Leon Hate and prejudice as embodied in anti-marriage, anti-gay laws face devastating arguments in the federal civil rights case, Perry, Stier, Katami and Zarrillo v. Schwarzenegger. Judge Vaughn Walker has posed specific questions for closing arguments this coming week. Here’s an update from Paul Hogarth in Proposition Eight Trial Tracker: By Paul Hogarth Today, Judge Vaughn Walker delivered a series of 29 questions (12 to plaintiffs, 12 to Prop 8 supporters, and 15 to both) that will guide the Closing Statements. You can read them all here. “What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of questions,” he ...
Prop. 8 Challengers See Promise in Supreme Court Decision
By Andrew Harmon In a recent decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the view that gays and lesbians are an identifiable class in the eyes of the law — a characterization that anti-gay-marriage forces have vigorously fought and that attorneys challenging California's Proposition 8 see as a crucial element of their case. In a Tuesday letter to U.S. district judge Vaughn R. Walker, Theodore J. Boutrous, who argued against Prop. 8 in the high-profile case Perry v. Schwarzenegger alongside lead plaintiffs' attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, wrote that “sexual orientation is not merely ...
Jeff Felix, superintendent of the Coronado Unified School District, issued a press release Thursday night announcing that Westboro Baptist Church had canceled its protest of The Laramie Project on Saturday.
Westboro, an independent religious organization, announced earlier this week its plan to protest the play at Coronado School of the Arts. Westboro is known for its extremist, anti-gay views, and the play in question centers around the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student.
But on Thursday morning, the Coronado school district filed suit for an injunction against Westboro. The lawsuit was then forwarded to the church’s lawyers, who said Westboro had canceled its plans and would not be picketing at the high school after all, according to the press release.
“I believe that the entire community of Coronado was very appreciative of the stand that the district took on this issue. Such issues can be divisive and incredibly traumatic to a community,” Felix said. “This community instead chose to band together, show support for one another and encourage each other in a variety of ways.”
Coronado High School Principal Karl Mueller sent an e-mail to parents Friday morning confirming the cancellation and echoing the sentiments set forth by Felix.
“A goal of presenting The Laramie Project to our school was to serve as a catalyst for dialogue,” Mueller said in the e-mail. “As an educational community, we are examining issues of bullying, tolerance and respect on our campus. Our students have had an opportunity to unite, heal and provide one another with support as they consider themes introduced in the play.”
Mueller said Westboro’s attention on the play has prompted an overwhelming sense of unity among CHS students, as many of them stood up to support their fellow classmates.
“This experience has proven larger than any protest,” he said. “Through the events of this week, we have learned important things about the character and resolve of our students and the community of Coronado.”
“We are all so proud of our Islanders!” he added.
The school is still anticipating “an act of solidarity” from the student body on Saturday night. Mueller said Coronado Police will be on hand and safety precautions will still be in place.
For more background on the planned protest and Westboro Church, click here. And be sure to check back with Patch for an update on Saturday night.
(via Coronado Patch – http://coronado.patch.com/articles/kansas-church-cancels-its-protest-of-local-play)
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A member of the House Armed Services Committee plans to introduce legislation next week designed to put the brakes on repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay troops.
The measure by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) would add the four military service chiefs to the list of those who must sign off on repealing the policy before it can be officially scrapped.
Hunter, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, is concerned that the bill passed in December repealing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy “excluded the service chiefs from the certification process,” said one congressional aide.
The repeal bill, signed into law Dec. 22 by President Obama, requires only the OK of the president, defense secretary and Joint Chiefs chairman.
“The chairman technically speaks for the chiefs, but they should be included in the debate,” said the aide. “The chiefs are the ones carrying the burden of combat on their shoulders.”
Hunter’s measure would require the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps chiefs to submit to the congressional defense committees “written certification that repeal … will not degrade the readiness, effectiveness, cohesion and morale of combat arms units and personnel of the armed force under [each] officer’s jurisdiction engaged in combat, deployed to a combat theater, or preparing for deployment to a combat theater,” according to a copy obtained by The Hill.
“The emphasis here is on combat troops,” said the aide, “because when Congress heard from the military chiefs, it was the leaders of the Army and Marine Corps who had the strongest concerns — the services that are most engaged in war right now.”
The aide said Hunter could introduce the bill as soon as Tuesday evening, adding that “15 to 20” members — so far all Republicans — have signed on.
(via The Hill – http://thehill.com/homenews/house/138037-house-republican-aims-to-put-brakes-on-dont-ask-repeal-)
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12-year-old Augusta ‘Gus’ Dexheimer is one of those young activists who gives you hope about the future of this country and for the future of LGBT equality.
I’ll let her explain, from her Facebook page:
Hello all! Gus Dexheimer here. Would you like to help me overturn Proposition 8, which is the law that keeps gay marriage illegal in California? If you or any of your friends can’t get married—which is unconstitutional—you might be interested in raising some money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, by making a wedding pillow. I will now explain.
In February, I will have my Bat Mitzvah for which I am required to do a service project. When I first heard that gay marriage was illegal, I was nine. I was simply appalled. I don’t know how old I was when I learned about gay and lesbian relationships but it was never something to hide in my family. My sister is straight, I am straight, my parents are straight, but that never has and never will matter. So when my Bat Mitzvah rolled around and I had met still more gay and lesbian people, I began to think about what I could do for them.
The Pillow Project is this:
Because I know so many artists and crafty people, I am asking you to make pillows for a silent auction in January. I bet you’re familiar with the normal wedding pillow. It has two rings on it and a little boy carries it down the aisle looking cute.
My pillows will be much more creative and exciting and they can be made out of anything. (See FAQ) They will honor same-sex marriage. I am going to give the money we raise to the American Foundation for Equal Rights, because I think that they will actually use it to make a change.
In response, more than 50 people have created pillows for Gus’ benefit.
You can check out, and bid on, all the pillows that folks have created for the project, HERE.
Here’s Gus’ Facebook page for the event.
The live auction is this Sunday at 1211 Ravine Drive in Austin, TX from 3:00-5:00 pm. The online auction is ongoing now but ends this Sunday as well.
(via Towleroad – http://www.towleroad.com/2011/01/12-year-old-launches-pillow-project-auction-for-marriage-equality.html)
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SAN DIEGO — Two particularly brutal attacks during Halloween weekend have spurred fears in San Diego’s sizable LGBT community that hate crimes are on the rise. School bullying has also garnered nationwide attention and community members have called upon law enforcement and public officials to respond.
Statistics, however, show that hate crimes are actually on the decline in San Diego County.
A crowd numbering about 40 people gathered at The San Diego LGBT Community Center on Monday night for a forum that addressed hate crimes in the community.
The town hall meeting, called “Keeping San Diego Communities Safe,” was organized by City Councilmember Todd Gloria in response to concerns from residents who feared that hate-motivated crimes were on the rise in the city.
Deputy District Attorney Oscar Garcia noted in a PowerPoint presentation that reported hate crimes in San Diego County have decreased since they peaked in 2006 with 181 incidents. In 2009, that number was down to 115.
Garcia played the audio from the taped 911 call after six men were attacked outside the San Diego LGBT Pride Festival in 2006. This attack was one of the most high-profile hate crimes in San Diego County in recent years, and spurred a great deal of public outcry at the time, including a rally and town hall meeting, and the formation of the Stonewall Citizens Patrol.
Garcia noted that the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) arrested all three suspects in the case within two days of the attacks, and all of the perpetrators have been sent to prison.
Also on the panel were Capt. Walt Vazquez of SDPD’s Western Division; Daniel Meyer, SDPD LGBT Community Liaison; Michael Skerlos, Executive Assistant to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy; and Steve Godinez of the FBI’s Hate Crimes Unit.
Gloria said he was particularly pleased that the FBI was taking part in the presentation, noting that when the bureau heard about the forum they reached out to his office asking to participate.
Godinez, who is with the FBI’s San Diego office, said his unit is assigned to investigate civil rights matters including hate crimes. There are three agents in the local office who investigate these crimes.
In his presentation, Godinez said hate crimes are a high priority to the federal agency, and that “hate crimes affect not only affect the victim but the entire community.”
Following the introductory remarks by each of the panelists and Garcia’s presentation, Gloria read a series of scenarios and the panel went through each one explaining the factors in the case that led it to be considered a hate crime.
Meyer said that investigators look for evidence of bias when determining whether or not a crime could be considered hate-related. “We ask ourselves: What is the specific motivation that is causing the crime to occur?”
One of the scenarios involved school bullying, and some audience members questioned why many acts of bullying are not tried as hate crimes.
“Bullying is hard to prosecute,” Meyer said. “It has to be coupled with a crime such as robbery, battery or assault. But that does not mean that we can’t do anything. It is the school district, and many of them have their own procedures to handle bullying incidents.”
The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education passed a resolution on Oct. 12 that would provide for a safe environment and equal opportunities for LGBT and questioning students.
The district is currently working on policies and procedures to put this resolution into action.
“When you see our friends from the school board out in the community, let them know that we haven’t forgotten,” Gloria said, encouraging audience members to lobby for anti-bullying protections in our schools.
The formal presentations and scenarios were followed by a question-and-answer session. Audience members were encouraged to submit questions via note cards, which were read to the panel.
One card was addressed to the Stonewall Citizens Patrol, which had a few of its members in the audience.
The card asked, “Where has the Stonewall Citizens Patrol been? A group of community members want an investigation of the organization.”
Randy Wortman, training coordinator for the Stonewall Citizens Patrol, made it clear that the group has been very active, “although not as much as we would like.”
The group, which currently is working to build up its volunteer base, has continued to patrol nearly every weekend between the hours of 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., Wortman said.
“We have been out there,” he said. “We continue to be a visible presence in the community and I hope we have made a difference.”
Wortman then encouraged audience members to consider volunteering for the organization, which provides all-volunteer patrols in the Uptown neighborhoods, along with community safety education and awareness.
Gloria praised the patrol, saying that its model has been replicated in other local neighborhoods, including Talmadge and City Heights.
“It is a community policing model for the 21st century,” Gloria said. “Being a part of this patrol is not the most glamorous work but their work is much appreciated.”
Tom Kirkman, a community activist and former executive director of the SAGE Center, said the Stonewall Citizens Patrol benefits our community.
“I also think that the community should be grateful for the presence of the Stonewall Patrol in our neighborhoods, and be willing to step forward and volunteer with them,” Kirkman said.
Other questions dealt with topics like why the presentation did not discuss hate crimes against white individuals, and the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Gloria thanked the LGBT and non-LGBT media alike for being present and helping to spread the word about this issue. “It is through the media that a we will put a face to this,” he said.
Dave McCulloch said he was pleased with what he took away from the event.
“After attending tonight’s event, we now definitively know what constitutes a hate crime,” McCulloch said. “We can rest assured that law enforcement is here for the LGBT community — and all communities. It is now up to us to step up and put our foot down to end these acts of hate and intolerance.”
Kirkman expressed disappointment with the low turnout but agreed that the event was informative.
“I found the forum informative, especially the role that the various agencies play and what classifies an incident as an actual hate crime,” Kirkman said. “As we continue to gain more rights, I feel we will see an increase in incidents of violence and I think more members of the community would have benefited from the forum, and feel more empowered to respond to them if they happen.”
(via SDGLN – http://www.sdgln.com/news/2011/01/11/hate-crimes-decline-san-diego-county)
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SAN FRANCISCO — Before handcuffing herself to the White House fence, former Petty Officer First Class Autumn Sandeen carefully pinned three rows of Navy ribbons to her chest. Her regulation dress blue skirt, fitted jacket, hat and black pumps were new – fitting for a woman who spent two decades serving her country as a man.
Sandeen was the only transgender person among the six veterans arrested in April while protesting the military’s ban on openly gay troops. But when she watched President Barack Obama last month sign the hard-fought bill allowing for the ban’s repeal, melancholy tinged her satisfaction.
“This is another bridesmaid moment for the transgender community,” the 51-year-old San Diego resident said.
The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy now heading toward history does not apply to transgender recruits, who are automatically disqualified as unfit for service. But the military’s long-standing posture on gender-identity has not prevented transgender citizens from signing up before they come out, or from obtaining psychological counseling, hormones and routine health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs once they return to civilian life.
So as the Pentagon prepares to welcome openly gay, lesbian and bisexual service members for the first time, Sandeen is not alone in hoping the United States will one day join the seven other nations – Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, the Czech Republic, Thailand and Australia – that allow transgender troops.
“There is really no question, it’s just a matter of when,” said former Army Capt. Allyson Robinson, 40, a 1994 West Point graduate who has spoken to sociology classes at the alma mater she attended as a male cadet. “There are active-duty, as well as reserve and national guard transgender service members, serving today.”
No one knows how many transgender people are serving or have served. Neither the Department of Defense nor the VA keep statistics on how many service members have been discharged or treated for transgender conditions or conduct.
The Transgender American Veterans Association, an advocacy group founded in 2003, estimates there could be as many as 300,000 transgender people among the nation’s 26 million veterans.
When 50 TAVA members laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier six years ago, representatives from every U.S. conflict since World War II were there, said former Navy Machinist Mate First Class Monica Helms, the group’s co-founder and president.
Most had spent years, if not decades, as veterans before they could acknowledge the mismatches between their brains and their bodies. Helms, 59, spent four years in the engine room of a nuclear submarine during the Vietnam War, but did not start living as Monica until 1997.
Military regulations state that men and women who identify with or present a gender different from their sex at birth have mental conditions that make them ineligible to serve. Those who have undergone genital surgery are listed as having physical abnormalities. Service members caught cross-dressing on base have been court-martialed for interfering with “good order and discipline,” according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Until the American Psychiatric Association removes Gender Identity Disorder from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as it did for homosexuality in 1973, that’s likely to remain the case, Sandeen said.
The very diagnosis that keeps transgender Americans out of uniform has enabled some to obtain transition-related medical care and other services when they become veterans.
Federal law prohibits Veterans Health Administration (VA) facilities from performing or paying for sex-change surgeries. But some VA medical centers provide psychological counseling, sex hormones, speech therapy and other medical treatment short of gender reassignment surgery.
Sandeen said the VA hospital in San Diego made it possible for her to start living as a woman once she retired from the Navy a decade ago.
“As soon as I got an appointment with the psychiatry department, the first thing I said to them is, ‘I have gender issues. I don’t know if I’m a transvestite or a transsexual or if I’m something in between, but I need to work this out with a therapist,’” she recalled.
She eventually received a recommendation to see a VA doctor who could prescribe estrogen to help her grow breasts and hips and diminish body and facial hair. The endocrinologist told her she first would have to try presenting herself as a woman for two-and-half-months.
Sandeen, already classified as a disabled vet with bipolar disorder, had lined up a work-study job at the hospital’s patient health library.
“February 6, 2003, my first day of being publicly female, I was working for $10 an hour at the VA helping other vets with health care
needs,” she said. “The VA is the organization that helped me work this out.”
The attention Sandeen received as a veteran is not unusual, but not universal, transgender advocates say. In response to complaints that some transgender veterans have been treated disrespectfully or denied care at VA facilities, Helms’ group has lobbied the Veterans Affairs department to issue guidelines on services to which transgender patients are entitled.
San Diego resident Zander Keig, who was a woman during a two-year stint with the Coast Guard, had been on testosterone for a year when he wanted his prescription transferred from a suburban VA clinic. But veterans are not allowed to change their names on discharge papers so he was directed to the women’s VA clinic in San Francisco.
Keig, 44, said a senior physician there “grilled me with questions. Why are you taking T? Do you know what it’s doing to your body? How are you eligible for these services?”
“I said, ‘I established my eligibility for VA services in 1988, I have every reason to be here. Am I going to get my shots or not?’” Keig recalled. He did get his injections.
In 2007, the VA complex in Boston became the first veterans’ medical provider to draft a policy designed to assure transgender veterans received consistent and sensitive care.
Department of Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Katie Roberts said the VA is reviewing the Boston policy and others, hoping to create a formal directive in the “near future.”
“As all veterans served this nation with the same expectation of honor and excellence, VA strives to provide all veterans equitable treatment respecting their honor by providing medical services with excellence,” she said.
Even with the enormous changes in their lives, many transgender veterans maintain connections with their military service. Sandeen still shops at a Navy commissary and grabs her military identification when she goes walking. Robinson considers her four years as a West Point cadet the best of her life, although she feared being caught with women’s clothes in her trunk.
“I love this country and I felt a personal calling to express that love of America through my willingness to sacrifice,” she said.
But when Robinson made her triumphant return to the academy for her speaking engagement, along with the congratulations, came comments that she was unworthy to be part of the “Long Gray Line.”
“It was as though the service I had rendered was suddenly worthless,” she said.
Former Air Force Sgt. Nicole Shounder, 52, who underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1999, has spent the last four years wearing a uniform at sea, first with the Coast Guard auxiliary and now, as a civil service mariner nurse aboard the USNS Robert E Perry, which recently supplied deployments in the Mediterranean.
Shounder considers it a privilege to wear Navy-issued collar brass and shoulder boards.
“Given my circumstances, it really is,” she said. “Essentially until someone can say otherwise, I am probably the only out and open post-op transsexual in uniform for the Navy, or as close as you can be.”
(via The Washington Post – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011101480_3.html)
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Daniel Hernandez had been U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ intern for five days when she was shot Saturday outside Tucson.
The junior at the University of Arizona was helping check people in at the 
“Congress on Your Corner” event when he heard gunfire. He was about 30 feet from the congresswoman. When the shots began, he ran toward them.
“I don’t even know if the gunfire had stopped,” he said Saturday night as he kept a vigil at the University Medical Center cafeteria, gathered near a TV watching tributes and getting updates.
When the shots began that morning, he saw many people lying on the ground, including a young girl. Some were bleeding. Hernandez said he moved from person to person checking pulses.
“First the neck, then the wrist,” he said. One man was already dead. Then he saw Giffords. She had fallen and was lying contorted on the sidewalk. She was bleeding.
Using his hand, Hernandez applied pressure to the entry wound on her forehead. He pulled her into his lap, holding her upright against him so she wouldn’t choke on her own blood. Giffords was conscious, but quiet.
Ron Barber, Giffords’ district director, was next to her. Hernandez told a bystander how to apply pressure to one of Barber’s wounds.
Barber told Hernandez, “Make sure you stay with Gabby. Make sure you help Gabby.”
Hernandez used his hand to apply pressure until someone from inside Safeway brought him clean smocks from the meat department. He used them to apply pressure on the entrance wound, unaware there was an exit wound. He never let go of her.
He stayed with Giffords until paramedics arrived. They strapped her to a board and loaded her into an ambulance. Hernandez climbed in with her. On the ride to the hospital, he held her hand. She squeezed his back.
When they arrived at the hospital, Hernandez was soaked in blood. His family brought him clean clothes because the FBI took his for evidence.
He waited at the hospital while she went into surgery. He needed to tell police what had happened. He overheard people walking by talking about how Giffords had died. He also heard this on NPR. Later, he learned she had lived.
“I was ecstatic,” he said. “She was one of the people I’ve looked up to. Knowing she was alive and still fighting was good news. She’s definitely a fighter, whether for her own life, or standing up for people in southern Arizona.”
The fact that Hernandez was nearby and able to react quickly probably saved Giffords’ life, said state Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson, and a hospital physician. He talked to Hernandez at the hospital after the shooting.
Eight hours after the shooting, Hernandez stood with Giffords’ friends and staff and told them what had happened. The tall, strong 20-year-old said, “Of course you’re afraid, you just kind of have to do what you can.”
They hugged and thanked him. Later, he sat with his mom and sisters and told them about his friends and the staffers who had died that day.
“You just have to be calm and collected,” he said. “You do no good to anyone if you have a breakdown. . . . It was probably not the best idea to run toward the gunshots, but people needed help.”
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In a bid to forestall a backlash from congressional conservatives, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered the State Department to amend a bureaucratic change that would have eliminated the titles “mother” and “father” in favor of the gender-neutral term “parent” in passport applications and other documents.
The State Department said Saturday that Clinton had instructed the department to retain “mother” and “father” in passport applications as well as in a form known as a “Consular Report of Birth Abroad” that U.S. embassies use to document the birth of a child to expatriate Americans. It said the forms will now ask for the names of the child’s “mother or parent 1″ and “father or parent 2.”
Gay and lesbian groups had applauded the initial change, which was announced with little fanfare in late December. But conservative groups criticized it as an attack on traditional marriage and family values.
Clinton has been a forceful advocate for gay rights and in 2009 moved to give gay diplomats, their partners and families the same benefits that heterosexual diplomats and their families receive. That step at the State Department preceded a similar government-wide move announced by the White House.
However, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Saturday that Clinton had not been aware that the terms “mother” and “father” would be stricken from the consular birth reports and passport applications when she signed off on broader changes to the documents last year.
“She has directed that the relevant forms retain to the existing references to ‘mother’ and ‘father’ in addition to the designation ‘parent,’ ” Crowley said. He said her decision would ensure that the documents are as inclusive and informative as possible.
(via The Washington Post – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/08/AR2011010804439.html)
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The Westboro Baptist Church is, of course, planning to picket the funerals of those slain in Tucson over the weekend. One group plans to raise money for the anti-violence project of Southern California during Phelps’ picket.
Chris Mason, Director of Phelps-A-Thon.com, writes, in a press release:
“The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocacy group, Progressive Approach, is hosting an online PHELPS-A-THON to 
counter-protest the Westboro Baptist Church’s (WBC) picket of the funeral of the victims of the recent shooting in Arizona. The WBC is protesting the funerals because they believe God sent the shooter to punish America for its tolerance of LGBT people. During their own protest, the Westboro Baptist Church will in fact be raising money for Wingspan, the Anti-Violence Project of Southern Arizona. The website, http://Phelps-A-Thon.com is collecting pledges online for every minute WBC pickets the funeral. The longer they protest, the more money they will raise.”
More info on the fundraiser here.
(via Towleroad – http://www.towleroad.com/2011/01/wbc.html)
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On Jan. 4, Vicky Kolalowski was sworn in as a Superior Court Judge for Alameda County. The final tally of her hard-fought election revealed that she won by 9,535 votes, 50.98% to Alameda County Deputy District Attorney John Creighton’s 47.98%. Most race watchers believe she won on her merits and experience – having practiced law for 21 years and served as an administrative law judge with California Public Utilities Commission for the last four years. But Kolalowski’s campaign and election was historic: she is the nation’s first openly transgender trial court judge.
Ye Tian reported for Oakland North that Kolakowski received sustained applause Tuesday night in Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center during a special session of the California Superior Court.
“It’s a very powerful and deeply healing experience,” Shannon Minter, the transgender Legal Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights told Oakland North. “It makes us feel not just that we’re entitled to quality, that we also have something important to offer and to contribute.”
Kolakowski’s acceptance remarks projected hope (see the full transcript below):
“Much has been made in the press, and this evening, about the historic nature of this event, and I do not wish to understate its significance. There would not be such attention to this evening if we weren’t making history. To this very day, if you read comments on the Internet about my election, you’ll find a few misguided people who say that I am unfit for this great responsibility because I am transgender.
However, to me the real news of my being here tonight is not that a transgender person was elected as judge, but that it was never an issue in the campaign. My opponents ran honorable and respectful campaigns, and a majority of the voters of this county reviewed my qualifications and character and selected me for this office.”
Five days before her induction, InsideBayArea.com wrote an inspiring story about Kolalowski’s journey of personal liberation.
“No, I am not going to be able to get you out of things,” she said jokingly to an audience of transgender advocates on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, two w
eeks after her upset victory over deputy district attorney John Creighton in November.
“But if you come into court and they call you names or the wrong pronoun, then that’s something we can take a look at,” she told the crowd, brushing a lock of brown hair back from her round face. “I’m not trying to turn this into a political statement or promote an agenda.”
Instead, she said she finally found the opportunity she had been waiting for. “I had a chance to serve. If my being visible helps a community that is often ignored and looked down upon, then I am happy. If not me, then who?”
But it took years of rejection and perseverance to get from Michael Kolakowski to 49-year-old Judge Victoria Kolakowski, even though as a child she hoped and prayed to wake up in a female body.
“I guess the prayer was answered,” she said. “But not for a long time afterward.”
And the fact that she was elected in the same county as transgender teen Gwen Araujo, who was brutally murdered in 2002, sends a chilling reminder of how dangerous being visible can be.
Kolakowski’s spouse Cynthia Laird, news editor at the Bay Area Reporter, participated in the enrobement ceremony before the actual induction, according to Oakland North. The couple, who met in 1994, married first in 2004 and then legally married in 2008 at Oakland City Hall, with former mayor Ron Dellums officiating.
(via LGBT POV – http://www.lgbtpov.com/2011/01/vicky-kolakowski-sworn-in-as-americas-first-elected-transgender-trial-judge/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+lgbtpov/hMHW+%28LGBT+POV%29)
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SACRAMENTO – California Gov. Jerry Brown has named former Assemblymember John Laird as secretary of the Natural Resources Agency.
Laird was one of the first openly gay elected officials to serve in the state legislature.
The agency is responsible for preserving the state’s natural resources, something that is a passion of Laird’s.
During his tenure in the legislature, Laird spearheaded several vital pieces of legislation barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including the Civil Rights Housing Act of 2006.
“Equality California is delighted to congratulate John Laird, who has an exceptional track record as a tireless public servant committed to bettering our state,” said Geoff Kors, Equality California executive director.
“His appointment is a source of tremendous pride for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians, and we wish him the best in his new position.”
(via SDLGN – http://www.sdgln.com/news/2011/01/06/gov-jerry-brown-makes-first-lgbt-appointment)
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