According to a 2017 report by the DC Department of Health (DOH) HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration (HAHSTA), 12,964 people residing in Washington D. C. live with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
For that reason, HAHSTA is launching the “Pledge to be PrEPared” campaign this month to educate the transgender community living in Washington D. C. about the importance of taking Preexposure Prophylaxis or PrEP.
PrEP is a pill taken once a day, and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that can prevent the HIV infection. Taken daily, PrEP is safe and over 90% effective at preventing HIV.
This unique campaign was created with the close participation of the Latin transgender community in Washington D. C. and Alexa Rodriguez, the Director of Trans-Latin@ DMV. It was developed based on HAHSTA’s ability to recognize the way the transgender community has been perceived in the past. The transgender representation is important to allow this community to communicate their values, their role in society, as well as their needs.
The transgender community participation in the campaign took place from the strategic planning and focus groups to the inclusion of real transgender Latina women in the promotional materials. This resulted in trusted messages in hopes of building trust among this community when deciding to take PrEP, as well as understanding its benefits.
“It’s important to educate the transgender community, as well as to break barriers and taboos about taking PrEP, and understand the real benefits of taking it, especially to prevent HIV,” Alexa said. She added that “the DC Department of Health’s efforts to benefit the transgender community are a big step, but there is still a lot to be done.”
Michael Kharfen, HAHSTA’s Senior Deputy Director, agreed with Alexa’s statement, adding: “At DOH we are pleased to introduce this campaign created in collaboration with the transgender community, but we understand these are just the first steps, and that there is more to do in order to fulfill our commitment and dedication to supporting this significant community residing in Washington D. C.”
In 1999, Melissa Sklarz broke new ground as the first transgender person to hold an elected office when she was elected as a judicial delegate in the 66th Assembly District. In 2004 Sklarz made history again, this time as New York state’s first transgender elected delegate to the DNC. Now, she is poised to break another barrier by becoming the first transgender person elected to the New York State Assembly. Sklarz is running in the Democratic Primary for the District 30 Assembly seat, an area where she has lived and been politically active for more than a decade.
Melissa currently serves as Secretary for the Northern Regular Democratic Club and is a member of the Powhatan Democratic Club, which honored her in 2013 her work on civil rights. She previously served as president of the Stonewall Democrats of New York City. Melissa is also a member of the U.S. Electoral College, serving as a delegate during the 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) and in 2008, as a member of DNC Rules Committee.
Melissa stated on her facebook page: “After the 2016 election, I realized that now, more than ever, my years of experience in Albany and NYC advocating for equality will be put to good use representing the voters in my district. With our transportation network in crisis, the Trump budget assault on New Yorkers, and women still lacking proper representation in all sectors, I will make sure all voices are heard in Albany.”
You may also remember Sklarz from her appearance in the 2015 film, Transamerica, starring Felicity Huffman.
Alexandra Chandler has earned the endorsement of Trans United Fund in her run to be the next Congresswoman representing the third District in Massachusetts.
From their endorsement by their Board Co-Chair, Hayden Mora stated:
“Trans United Fund is proud to endorse Alexandra Chandler for U.S. Congress. Alexandra has a progressive vision for her district where trans people – and all people – can truly thrive. She’s a leader with a deep understanding of and commitment to racial and economic justice for all people. She brings policy expertise with a track record of getting things done. She’s tackled some of the toughest problems in the world, including weapons smuggling to terrorist groups and WMD proliferation, and she’s a champion Massachusetts families can count on.
I’m particularly proud of the endorsement because I grew up in a working class family in East Boston, MA. I’m grateful to have a fighter like Alexandra in Congress to fight for people like my family of origin and my chosen family of trans and gender expansive people.”
Trans United Fund provided expertise and resources that helped transgender candidates win historic victories last month, including the election of Virginia Delegate-elect Danica Roem, and Minneapolis City Councilmembers-elect Phillipe Cunningham and Andrea Jenkins.
An estimated 15,000 Transgender Americans are Veterans or Active Service Members in the U.S. Armed Forces (Williams Institute). This Follow Friday is an opportunity to meet just a few of them. Follow these committed and brave activists and share their stories with your friends. It’s important to put some names and faces to the conversations that are currently happening about trans service.
Drill Seargant Ken Ochoa joined the Army in 2010 and began his transition in 2014, long before it was allowed. Ken has been serving openly as a transgender man for more than year.
Ken was planning to re-enlist in the Army this year. In a recent article in BBC News, however, he states:
“”Now I don’t even know if I can do that,” he said. “It just seems like chaos, so many unknowns.”
Jamie Lee Henry joined the Army at the young age of seventeen and currently serves as a doctor and major in the Army’s Medical Corps. She also is a transgender woman.
Jamie Lee Henry came out in May 2015 in a Buzfeed article written by Chris Geidner
Jamie is the first known active-duty Army officer to come out as transgender. The Army granted her request to officially change her name and gender. Jamie gives credit to her commanding officer for supporting her during this time, telling Buzzfeed News: “My commander said, ‘I don’t care who you love, I don’t care how you identify, I want you to be healthy and I want you to be able to do your job.”
Evan Young is the President of the Transgender American Veterans Association, which works to ensure that transgender veterans will receive appropriate care and advocate for transgender veterans with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. Evan graduated from basic training in 1929 eventually rising to the rank of Major before his retirement in 2013.
Karen Kendra Holmes works for the Corporation for National & Community Service. She is also, however a Staff Sergeant with the Maryland Defense Force
In 2012 she received the Soldier of the Year Award from the by the Maryland State Guard Association, and in 2013 she received the National Soldier of the Year Award from the State Guard Association of the United States.
Karen volunteers her time with a wide variety of organizations including PFLAG Metro DC, the American Red Cross, and Equality Maryland.
Brynn Tannehill graduated from the Naval Academy with a B.S. in computer science in 1997. She earned her Naval Aviator wings in 1999 and flew SH-60B helicopters and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft during three deployments between 2000 and 2004. She served as a campaign analyst while deployed overseas to 5th Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain from 2005 to 2006. In 2008 Brynn earned a M.S. in Operations Research from the Air Force Institute of Technology and transferred from active duty to the Naval Reserves.
In 2008 Brynn began working as a senior defense research scientist in private industry. Brynn serves on the Board of Directors for Trans United. Brynn and her wife Janis currently live in Springfield, VA, with their three children.
Shane Ortega is an American Soldier who served with both the U.S. Army and the U.S Marines. Ortega has served three hostile fire combat tours, two in Iraq, one in Afghanistan.
Ortega has used to his personal experience to become a powerful advocate for transgender service members. Now retired, Ortega pursues a wide variety of interests. He is a sought after public speaker, community activist, a professionally ranked body-builder, and a brand ambassador with #ILoveGay.
Laila Ireland served in the Army as a combat nurse. An Iraq veteran and transgender woman, her service included three combat tours.
Laila is married to Logan Ireland, an openly trans man who currently is serving in the Airforce.
As members of SPARTA, Laila and her husband have been powerful advocates for the transgender community. Find out more about Laila and Logan in this recent article.
Kristen Beck is a retired United States Navy SEAL who gained public attention in 2013 when she came out as a trans woman. She published her memoir in June 2013, Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming out Transgender, detailing her experiences.[1]
Beck served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years and is the first openly transgender former U.S. Navy SEAL.
The National Center for Transgender Equality has released the results of the 2015 US Transgender Survey, which documents widespread discrimination against the transgender community in employment, housing, healthcare, and public accommodations. It is the largest survey of it’s kind, with over 27,000 respondents from across the country. Of these respondents, more than one third did not identify as either male or female, but reported a non-binary (or genderqueer) gender identity. Among the key findings in the report.
Poverty
Survey respondents reported an unemployment rate of 15%, which is three-times that of the general population. Not suprisingly, this means higher rates of poverty and a reliance on underground economies. Close to one-third of all survey respondents were found to be living in poverty (this number being even higher for transgender people of color), and one-third also reported having experienced homelessness at some points in their lives.
A lack of financial resources proved to be a significant barrier to participants getting identity documents updated with their desired name and gender. 35% of those who have not changed their legal name and 32% of those who have not updated their identity documents (like a drivers license) have not done so because they could not afford it.
Healthcare
One quarter of all respondents had a problem in the past year with their insurance related to being transgender. Further, one third of those who sought medical care reported a negative experience such as being harrassed, misgendered, or refused treatment.
This lack of access to quality care is particularly disturbing when you take into account the needs of the transgender community. Transgender individuals reported higher rates of recent psychological distress, which is not suprising considering the challenges faced in society. An extremely troubling 40% of respondents report having attempted suicide in their lifetime.
Finally, the HIV/AIDS rate of the survey participants was (1.4%) was five times that of the general population in the United States. That number skyrockets to 19% when looking specifically at Black transgender women.
Violence
46% of survey respondents report being verbally harrassed and 9% report being physically attacked in the past year. Nearly half of respondents have experienced sexual assault at some point in their lifetime.
Room for Hope
While these numbers are deeply troubling, there are some reasons to be hopeful. More than two-thirds of those who were out at in the workplace reported that their coworkers were supportive.
Further, more than half of participants reported that their families are currently supportive of them, and this family support is crucial. Individuals with supportive families experienced lower rates of homelessness, suicide, and psychological distress, a finding consistent with the work of the Family Acceptance Project.
The District of Columbia Office of Human Rights has released a new resource for employers entitled Hired and Transgender: Self-Testing for Hiring Bias against Transgender Applicants. The report is is a part of ongoing work in the District of Columbia to reduce employment discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming job applicants. It provides step-by-step instructions for employers, human resources professionals, and hiring managers to evaluate their hiring practices for discrimination based on gender identity and make changes as needed.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) have come out with a new report on protecting the rights of transgender parents and their children.
All too often parents who have transitioned or come out as transgender after having children have seen their gender transition raised by their ex-spouse or partner as a basis to deny or restrict custody or visitation. Transgender people who formed families after transitioning have faced challenges to their legal status as parents, often based on attacks on the validity of their marriages. This guide provides information to transgender parents and their attorneys to help them protect parent-child relationships and assist them when faced with disputes over child custody issues.
In my early teens I started to become aware of transsexuality. I finally had terminology to describe this feeling that had been growing within me, this overwhelming feeling of despair and hopelessness. And in my lament I would retreat to the safe and hopeful mental state of the “one day”: “one day I’ll have breasts”, “one day I’ll be free to be me”, “one day”. So for many years in my youthfulness I believed that the world was my oyster; that all my dreams were just 18 candles away. I believed then, that I’d move to a big city and have my own apartment and become the woman I knew myself to be. With this idea in mind I went on a journey to South Florida, 300 miles away from my friends, family and people throwing passive bible verses in my face.
Like most youth in discovery there is that moment when you realize the world is not what you thought it was. Life was not a Cinderella story. Where you just show up at the club, dance with the man of your dreams that’s all sorts of fine and whose complexion can only be described as caramel macchiato; you forget your pump—as if you wouldn’t notice you’re missing a 5 inch stiletto. A week later he finds you on facebook or as was popular at the time, Myspace. He hits you up to return your shoe and professes his undying love for you with his deep baritone voice and because he just happens to have good credit, he’s willing to pay for your whole transition (yes, this was a reoccurring dream). I look back on my youthful ignorance with a simple “bitch please”.
I realize that life wasn’t any different then when I was back home. Sure I did not have to deal with the constantly having to explain things to mother or deal with the persistent gaze of people who knew me. I could get all fished out for the gawds in my own place and feel my trans but life did not get any easier. Instead it got harder. The more I tried to take steps in transitioning; the more the world around me pushed back. The more I began to express my femininity; the more I was ostracized. At first I lost my job. Finding new employment became a challenge. I eventually found a second home at the Boardwalk—a gay strip club. I began to sell jello shots in my underwear. However the money wasn’t enough. I was barely making enough to pay my rent. Forget about hormones, clothes and surgery. All of which began to seem further and further out of reach. Trying to capitalize on all the daddies in Fort Lauderdale I eventually began to dance; because private dances paid more I began to do those too.
*****
One evening a client from the club asked me to go home with him, he flashed a few twenties in my face and before I knew it I was in his car. The thing about South Florida is there were always young people like myself with these dreams of moving to the city and living the night life. Being the new trade in town quickly wore off. I tell my younger kids who I know are in the sex trade, have a plan because every day there is a whole new batch of 18 year olds and they are cuter and tighter than you are. Once the mystic of being the new trade wore off I was back to square one. Each day began to feel more and more like a struggle. Money was never enough. I was eventually evicted. Seeing everything I had come to South Florida with on the curb for the entire world to see was one of the most painful experiences of my life. It was visual confirmation that I was a failure.
I loaded up my car with as much as I could and lived out of my car for a few nights parking it in a super Wal-Mart that wouldn’t take notice. I went to a shelter and was placed with a bunch of men who did not take to effeminate young boys that easily. Every night something would go missing, first it was my hair gel, then my deodorant. That shelter was not a temporary place while you got back on your feet. It was a cot nothing more. A week later I went back to sleeping at that Wal-mart. Hooking up was no longer something I did for fun. It was now something I had to do if I wanted a shower. Eventually I bounced from couch to couch with friends that took pity on me. Everywhere I turned I couldn’t escape people’s judgmental eyes. I began to rediscover that state of despair that had imprisoned me for so many years, only now I did not have that “one day” to escape to. I was a prisoner with no release date. The anguish that was caused by what I deemed as “my failure” broke me, and, I only saw one way out. When I left the hospital a few days later, I found my car in the parking lot with a full tank of gas and a note on the dash. “We think you should move back home”.
Although, I never came back home, I came back to “my mother’s house”. There is an air of entitlement you have over your parent’s house before you ever move out it’s “your house” after you move out and move back in, it’s no longer your house it’s your “parents house” you simply live with them. That sense of despair accompanied my trip back on I-95, the same Highway that I once viewed as the road to freedom. That sense of despair paralyzed me and robbed me of two years of my life. I eventually gave in to the pressure and cut off all my hair, getting in line as I was told to do and in that time hashed out a plan birthed out of trial and error, of moving to a big city and starting again. Years later I’d move to DC to carry out that plan.
*****
Looking back on my experience I now have the language to contextualize my experiences. I am now able to feel the emotions that my younger self did not have space to feel. I am now able to see and call out this greater system that I was too busy navigating and surviving through. And although I have since developed enough agency to advocate for myself and have access. I still have to deal with victimization and violence. They’ve taken on a different form today. I no longer have to fight for a place to live, but I have to fight for medical coverage. I no longer have to deal with the physical and sexual violence of clients who feel that they own me, but I have to deal with the administrative violence of having to argue for my medical needs. I’ve since developed a voice to advocate for myself but every so often just as it was last Friday at Five-Guys with a simple “here you go sir” a cashier can cut me down to size and tell me to get in place.
Furthermore I am still a victim to myself. Although I am able to realize I am the survivor of a broken system and multiple system failures. I have been conditioned to blame myself for the things I went through. Victim blaming is something so pervasive in our society that we train the survivors to do it themselves and worst of all we train them to believe it. It’s taken me years to come to terms with owning the totality of my experiences, a process that I’m still learning to do. Very few people know about this chapter of my life. For a long time I have kept quiet and tried to erase this chapter of my life out of fear of being re-victimized or seen as less than.
My experiences are not uncommon for girls like me. My silence about my experiences have fed into this false narrative that I am somehow the exception I am often showcased as the example—the one to emulate. Another fear I’ve had about coming forward with experiences from my past is perpetuating this false narrative that you can have anything you want if you just “try hard enough and pull yourself up by your boot straps”. That the things I have been able to achieve are accessible to all trans girls. Let me channel the words of Janet Mock when she said. Let me be clear: It is not. For as much as I’ve gone through I also experienced my fair share of privilege. I am articulate, English proficient; I was born documented and have the full love and support of my family but most importantly I was lucky.
As service providers recognizing these systems is crucial but recognizing our role in the continuation of administrative victimization is essential. We must be proactive in addressing these systems as a broad network and be intentional in creating safe spaces for people of trans experience to be able to let their guard down. It’s not enough to say “I know twoc have it harder” we need to address the disparities and not just respond to the outcomes. As service providers we need to do the work to meet our clients where they are and view them as whole beings deserving of the right to be heard, affirmed, validated and served. To do otherwise would be to perpetuate a culture of victimization and violence against trans people.
A transgender women experiencing violence simply for using the restroom? For those of us who have lived in DC for a while, we know the recent experience of Ebony Belcher at Giant Foods is nothing new. Thankfully, it happens less often than it used to in the District, but it still happens. In 2010 two transender Latina women in the Columbia Heights neighborhood were attacked after they had used a public restroom in a local business. The suspect was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
Since that time (and many years before) DC activists have spent a lot of time working on “the bathroom issue.” While it is frustrating to hear about what happened to Ebony, we can take solace in the fact that DC has made progress. Most importantly, the police arrested the right person. Affirming Ebony’s right to use the bathroom, the police arrested the security guard for the assault that occured when the guard tried to remove her from the bathroom. Sadly, we know now there are many parts of the country where that would not have happened.
So how did we get to this point? Here are some tipes on the progress we’ve made, and how we can move the ball even farther forward.
The local law is on our side.
The Human Rights law is clear as day in DC. Transgender women are women, and transgender men are men. Everyone, including genderqueer, gender non-binary or gender non-conforming folks, can use the bathroom they choose.
We also require single stall restrooms to be all-gender
Any business in the District of Columbia that has a single-stall restroom, is required to make that restroom gender-neutral (or all-gender). Simply put, there is no reason to have a gender marker on a bathroom made for one person. Having more all-gender restrooms in the city makes it easier, less stressful,and safer for trans and gender non-conforming folks to pee in peace. If you happen to notice a restroom in a DC business that is non-compliant with this law, simply take a picture with your phone and tweet the information using hashtag #safebathroomsdc. The Office of Human Rights will then follow up on that business.
The conversation does not begin or end in the bathroom.
What’s next? All-Gender Restrooms in DC Government Building.
Finally, it’s important to notice that there is still much work to do on this issue. It is very disappointing that so few DC government buildings have all-gender restrooms. The Reeves Center, a government building that houses both the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs as well as the DC Center for the LGBT Community, still does not have a permanent all-gender restroom. This needs to change, but so do other government buildings. In fact every large DC government building with more than 10 public restrooms, should have at least one dedicated all-gender restroom. The work continues ….
A new report published by the Equal Rights Center takes a closer look at the discrimination transgender women face in retail stores. The pilot project was conducted in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Utilizing ‘secret shoppers’, or ‘testers’, the study compared the experiences of transgender women and cisgender women. Some of these tester pairs were African American and some of the pairs were White. This made it possible to also see differences on treatment based on race.
The results will not be suprising to anyone who is familiar with the experiences of Transgender Women.
In 75% of the tests conducted, the transgender tester experienced at least one type of adverse differential treatment and service. The adverse differential treatment included differences in the quality, quantity, and content of the service provided to the testers.
African American transgender testers faced higher rates of verbal harassment and other forms of negative interactions than their white peers. In the jurisdictions with nondiscrimination protectiosn (DC, MD) the white transgender tester experienced significantly less negative interactions (19%) than the African American transgender tester (81%). In the jurisdiction lacking nondiscrimination protections (VA) the African American transgender tester experienced a negative interaction in 57% of the tests, while the white transgender testers experiences negative interactions in 43% of the tests.
This study is a sobering reminder that legislation is needed at the federal level to prohibit public accomodation discriminationcbased on gender identity and expression. Still, passing a law is a beginning, not an end. As this study shows us this kind of discrimination continues even in a place like the District of Columbia, which has strong laws supporting the Transgender community. Legislation has to be coupled with active enforcement of the law. It is also crucial that retail employees are educated about the rights of their transgender community. Further, it is crucial that transgender and gender variant indivduals themselves understand their rights and how to report discrimination when it happens.
