Kwnowledge Is Power!
Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci has cast a transsexual model in the fashion house’s fall-winter ad campaign, WWD reports. Lea T., formerly known as Leo, is also Tisci’s longtime personal assistant and former fit model.
Tisci said, “She’s always been very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic.” He added that including a transgendered person in his campaign illustrates the “masculine-feminine dichotomy” he is now known for.
This debate had steam coming from my ears! Equating transsexualism to mental illness!
What really amazes me is that time after time we hear cases of women who sleep with their students and male teachers who engage in “extra curricular” activities with their students (if you know what i mean). If the goal is to protect children, someone is obviously asleep at the wheel.
I fail to see how ones gender identity will adversely affect a child’s rearing. Its not the children who are confused…its the parents. Children are very accepting until they are taught to be otherwise.
Lets remove transsexuals from the equation for a moment and hypothetically say a teacher was inter-sexed, would that adversely affect a child?
Earlier this week in news that was as shocking as placing your tongue on a 9-volt battery, officer Bridges McRae’s trial for the beating on transgender woman, Duanna Johson, ended in a mistrial. In spite of the entire beating being caught on tape and there being several eyewitnesses to the event on juror decided to hold out for the officer’s innocence.
But a hung jury does not a free man make… The trial has now been rescheduled for July and with all new jurors. My fingers are crossed that this time…they will give Duanna the justice that both she and her loved ones so justly deserve.
Memphis, TN – A new trial date has been set for the former Memphis police officer accused of beating a transgendered woman.
Bridges McRae will face a new jury on July 12, 2010 after jurors in his first trial could not reach a verdict. Eleven jurors thought he was guilty. One juror believed he was innocent.
McRae is accused of violating Duanna Johnson’s civil rights.
Surveillance video shown during the first trial showed McRae punching Johnson while she was being processed on a prostitution charge.
If convicted, McRae could face up to ten years in federal prison.
Duanna Johnson was shot and killed about nine months after the beating. Her murder remains unsolved.
Things are heating up at the White House as opponents of the long standing “Dont Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (inacted by former president Clinton) have grown tired of waiting for President Obama to make good on his promises to the GLBT community.
6 gay and transsexual veterans have decided to voice there opposition by chaining themselves to a White House fence.
I just hope their all wearing diapers or this thing could get real ugly….if you know what I mean.
WASHINGTON – Moments ago, Lt. Dan Choi along with five other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) discharged veterans — Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, Petty Officer Larry Whitt, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Cadet Mara Boyd, and Airman Victor Price — handcuffed themselves to the White House gates to demand that President Obama keep his promise to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell this year. The vets are concerned about mounting signs that the President is wavering on his promise to push for repeal this year.
Today’s action comes one month after Choi and Pietrangelo were arrested for a similar DADT protest at the White House in which they handcuffed themselves to the gates for a period of an hour, while hundreds of protesters looked on. The new LGBT activist group, GetEQUAL, coordinated both today’s action, and last month’s civil disobedience.
“We are handcuffing ourselves to the White House gates once again to demand that President Obama show leadership on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ If the President were serious about keeping his promise to repeal this year, he would put the repeal language in his Defense Authorization budget,” said Choi. “The President gave us an order at the Human Rights Campaign dinner to keep pressure on him and we will continue to return to the White House, in larger numbers, until the President keeps his promise to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year.”
Amid growing signs that the White House is wavering on its commitment to repeal DADT this year, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) called on the President last month to publicly state his desire to repeal DADT this year. President Obama has refused to respond, prompting Frank to say last week that he is “disappointed” and “frustrated” with the Obama administration’s silence on DADT. “At this point the President’s refusal to call for repeal this year is a problem,” Frank added, saying that the President’s silence is now costing us votes in the Congress.
You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see this coming. However there is a bit of good news as far as I am concerned. The just which ultimately could not come to a unanimous decision was prevented from doing so by a lone holdout. One man stood between Duanna and justice.
Its nice to know that for the most part the jury actually sided with Johnson and wanted to see the man responsible for the assault (McRae) held accountable.
MEMPHIS, TN – One juror tells myEyewitnessNews.com, the justice system has failed. Will Batts with the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center agrees. “It looked to be unprovoked. It looked to be excessive on the part of the police officer. It looked to be just an attack on someone in a police station with other people standing around. And it was just incredibly violent.”
At the center of the case was a video that shows McRae beating transgendered woman Duanna Johnson. “It just seems so clear cut to me,” says Batts.
Five witnesses testified the attack was unprovoked. Enough to convince all but one juror McRae was guilty of violating Johnson’s civil rights. “Talking about taking handcuffs and putting them around his knuckles,” says Batts. “That to me seems like a conscious act. That’s not an act of passion of the moment.”
McRae’s attorney, Larry Trapp claims the ten Memphis Police Officer acted in self defense against the 6’5, 250 pound Johnson. “I believe the tape, if you look at it and was diligent about it, and I believe the jury was, demonstrated he had no intent to use excessive force and he used reasonable force under the circumstances he faced.”
Johnson’s supporters tell myEyewitnessNews.com they will not take this lightly. They feel because Duanna Johnson was different, she wasn’t given due diligence. The Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center will hold a rally on April 20, 2010 at 6:30p.m. in front of the Federal Courthouse to show their disapproval. “Would it have been different if Duanna were not transgendered,” asks Batts. If it were just an average person from the suburbs that happened to be sitting in that jail room on that day and had this kind of response from the police, would the decision be different?”
All parties involved plan to meet with the judge to discuss setting a new trial date.
Duanna Johnson was shot and killed nine months after the beating. A spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department tells myEyewitnessNews.com Johnson’s murder is still unsolved.
When you think of places like Australia, you typically think of Koala’s, Kangaroos and the majestic Sydney Opera house. Who knew Australia was hiding a dirty little racist secret.
This article I am sharing with you below now only talks about the racism but the mistreatment of those in the GLBT community by Australian officials.
Demand ensues for open investigation into an Aboriginal trans death in custody in Sydney, writes Rachel Evans.
On March 10, 2009, three days after the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, 34-year-old Veronica Baxter was arrested by Redfern police. She was charged with six counts of supplying a prohibited drug and held on remand at the all-male NSW Silverwater Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre.
Despite being a trans woman, she was placed in the maximum-security jail for men. Six days later, after a 14-hour break between checking her cell, she was found dead, hanging in her single cell.
Baxter was an Aboriginal woman from the Cunnamulla country, south- west of Queensland. She dressed, appeared, and had identified as a woman for 15 years and was known by family and friends as a woman.
Yet she was placed in a male jail against NSW government policy, which states that trans people be placed in the jail of their choosing.
Ray Jackson, president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association and elder of the Wiradguri nation, and has been fighting black deaths in custody for decades and campaigning around the Baxter case for a year.
He explained: “If trans people are post-operative transgender women, they are considered real women, and are placed within the women’s jail. If they are pre-operative transgender women, they are considered ‘male’ and are normally processed in a male jail.”
Trans people face a disproportionate amount of abuse, rape, and murder in jail. Consequently, in Australia, strict guidelines exist, requiring protective segregation of trans people from mainstream prisoners.
The Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999 states “any person received into the custody of the NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS) who self-identifies as transgender has the right to be housed in a correctional facility appropriate to their gender or identification”. It says: “Transgender inmates are to be managed according to their chosen gender of identification.”
Trans women normally request to get placed in women jails. “After processing in the male jail, pre-operative transgender women are then given an opportunity to go to a women’s jail, but have to stay in solitary confinement because they are still considered ‘male’”, Jackson said.
“Pre-operative transgender women won’t be in solitary confinement in a male jail, but they will suffer more harassment, assault and abuse.”
This policy discriminates against poor trans people. In Australia it costs up to $20,000 for a male-to-female sex/gender realignment surgery and up to $14,000 for a double mastectomy for a female-to-male trans person.
Baxter was allowed to move about Silverwater, among other male prisoners, and had not been checked on for 14 hours before she was found hanging from her cell hook. This contravenes another Department of Corrective Service (DCS) policy of regular cell check-ups.
“We don’t know for sure about why she was placed in Silverwater. That’s because the NSW Department of Correctional Services has not released any paperwork regarding Baxter’s death”, Jackson said.
In August 2009 he sent a letter to the NSW state coroner demanding a full report be sent to the family. In October 2009, the coroner’s office replied that it was initiating a full investigation into the death of Baxter, and that it would be “inappropriate at this time to comment on the specific circumstances surrounding Ms Baxter’s death”.
The coroner’s court has advised it will be meeting in mid-April to make a decision as to the actual date of the Baxter inquest.
Queer rights activist group, Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) is demanding action on this campaign. Steaphan Markatony, CAAH co-convenor, said: “Was Veronica Baxter killed in custody by transphobic guards or inmates? We don’t know. The only way we will find out is if there is a full, open inquiry. Support CAAH’s campaign to get it.”
Sign CAAH’s petition for a public enquiry.
This article first appeared in Green Left Weekly.
Rachel Evans is a Sydney-based freelance writer and activist. She is one of the founders of Community Action Against Homophobia and a member of the Socialist Alliance.
“Deadlocked” my ass! This is some Bernard Goetz shit right here. I cannot believe that a jury can be so blatantly prejudicial. I mean seriously, what more evidence is needed to get a conviction. The officer can be clearly seen beating the victim (unprovoked).
This is why so many cases of trans-abuse and hate crimes go unreported. Because many victims feel the justice system will let them down just as it is doing Duanna.
MEMPHIS, TN – The jury in the Duanna Johnson jailhouse beat down case is hopelessly deadlocked. On Friday, April 16, 2010, they once again failed to reach a verdict.
And Johnson’s family and friends say they know why the jury is reluctant to convict the former Memphis Police officer accused of the attack.
A jury of seven women and five men has been deliberating for three days, and still no verdict, even though the 2008 beating was caught on videotape. That’s good news for Bridges McRae, the former Memphis cop on trial right now for violating the civil rights of Johnson, who was a transgender prostitute.
But it’s disappointing for Duanna Johnson’s loved ones who say this case should have been a no-brainer.
“This should have been decided the day before yesterday,” says Johnson family friend Larry Jackson.
He has his suspicions about why the majority white jury in the case is still undecided.
“There are those that still feel that old-status, Jim Crow quota,” says Jackson, “you know, that whatever is done to people of color is right.”
Joan Bailey, who often counseled Johnson, thinks there’s another reason for the difficulty in reaching a verdict.
Duanna, who was born Dwayne Johnson, chose to live as a transgender woman. And a transgender victim, says Bailey, may not be a sympathetic victim to a jury.
“They should give them the respect that is due them,” Bailey tells myEyewitnessNews.com. “They’re citizens of the United States and have protection under our constitution.”
A videotape that went global on the internet clearly shows McRae beating Johnson. He testified that it was self-defense. Five other witnesses called his attack “unprovoked”.
McRae refused to talk about the hung jury with reporters outside the federal courthouse, referring all questions to his attorney, Frank Trapp.
“You’d always like to have a not guilty verdict,” says Trapp, “because that’s what we think the evidence shows.”
With Duanna Johnson’s 2009 murder still unsolved, those who know her mother, Hazel Skinner, say she deserves some justice for her child. This police brutality case, they contend, is being watched far outside Memphis city limits.
“The entire world is looking at this case,” says Larry Jackson, “and how it’s going to be played out. We’re trying not to make it a racial thing. We want to make it a thing about justice. And we hope that justice will prevail.”
The judge dismissed the jury for the weekend. They’ll start deliberating again on Monday.
If found guilty by a unanimous verdict, Bridges McRae faces up to 10 years in prison. If the jury cannot reach a verdict, it will be up to federal prosecutors to decide if they want to put McRae on trial a second time.
He was fired from the Memphis Police Department in 2008, shortly after his altercation with Johnson inside the Shelby County Jail at 201 Poplar.
There are only two people who know what went on in that apartment on that fateful night and one of them no longer has the ability to tell her side of the story. Hopefully having this man arrested will give us some insight into what led to Amanda’s untimely demise.
A young woman cut down in her prime is gone and we need to know why. I am certainly hoping Rasheen owns up to what he’s done and doesn’t attempt the ever popular trans-panic defense.
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A Manhattan man has been charged with murdering a transgender woman in her Ridgewood apartment last month and then pouring bleach all over her body, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Rasheen Everett, 29, was arrested in Las Vegas April 9, about two weeks after allegedly strangling 29-year-old Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar in her 62nd Street apartment on March 27, the DA said. Everett returned to New York Tuesday and is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court. He could receive 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence.
“The defendant is accused of violently taking the life of another human being in her own apartment and then tampering with the body by dousing it with bleach,” Brown said. “This case will be vigorously prosecuted in order to secure a measure of justice for the victim and her family.”
Everett entered Gonzalez-Andujar’s apartment a little before 9 a.m. on March 27, and several minutes later individuals heard screams and loud banging, Brown said. The defendant left the apartment about 17 hours later, carrying the two bags, according to the DA.
Three days later, on March 30, a police officer found the victim lying on the bed and reported bleach had been poured on her body, Brown said.
The city medical examiner determined the cause of death to be manual neck compression.
Gonzalez-Andujar was the first person murdered in the 104th Precinct in 2010. A total of two people were slain in the precinct in all of 2009.
Some of you may remember the tragic story of Duanna Johnson but for those of you who are not familiar…take a look at the video below before reading the story.
Seeing the video only makes what the officer has to say that much less credible.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Former Memphis Police officer Bridges McRae took the stand Tuesday during a federal trial on charges he violated the civil rights of the late transsexual Duanna Johnson. But, McRae’s testimony of what was captured on videotape two years ago at the Shelby County Jail portrayed him as fighting in self-defense.
It’s said pictures don’t lie, and for more than two years since shocking Shelby County Jail surveillance video first lit up television screens and websites, it’s been widely assumed the late transsexual Duanna Johnson was the victim of a brutal assault by former police officer Bridges McRae.
But, what if the apparent victim was actually the aggressor?
Well, then you’d have the key to the strategy that Jackson, Mississippi attorney, Frank Trapp is using to defend his client Bridges McRae against federal charges the beating violated Johnson’s civil rights.
The 30-year old McRae took the stand in his own defense as the 7th day of the trial got underway on Tuesday. In a loud, but calm voice, McRae was led by Trapp through critical segments of the tape as a jury peered into a monitor.
McRae testified he had arrested Johnson without incident in December 2007 for prostitution and possession of a crack pipe. At the time Johnson identified himself on a police report as Reginald Jones. However, when picked up again by McRae in February 2008 on the same charges, Johnson initially gave his name as Dwayne Johnson not “Duanna.” McRae then testified once the uncuffed Johnson reached the booking area Johnson allegedly became more belligerent and actively resistant, refusing his numerous and firm requests to have a thumbprint made.
In an interview with FOX13 in June 2008, Johnson, who was murdered 9 months after the incident, alleged McRae yelled slurs at her during the booking procedure.
“As he was calling me he said, ‘he/she come over here.’ I knew he couldn’t be talking to me because that’s not my name,” said Johnson.
McRae testified when he decided he’d cuff Johnson again because he feared she was getting “completely out of control,” Johnson grabbed his right arm and jerked him which he alleges suddenly made him “startled, scared and afraid.” He said he operated on instinct to act in self-defense.
In court, he demonstrated how he held the handcuffs he would use only to ward off the aggressive Johnson, who he says slapped and kicked him, causing him bodily harm in the form of cuts and a gash in his head.
McRae concluded Johnson assaulted him as other officers watched the fracas and did nothing to help him. The case should be handed to a jury by Wednesday.
I don’t know how I missed this one but I found it very interesting and informative.
Hopefully you will too.
See part 2 after the jump! Read more…
May 8, 2010
cerebraldiva
Cerebraldiva's Blog 