“Every gay person must come out,” Harvey Milk said in his What America Is speech in June 1978. “As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell the people you work with. You must…
“‘Homosexuality’ remains an identity that is subject to a ‘we/they’ distinction. People who would not say ‘I am like this, but black people are like that,’ or ‘we are like this, but women are like that.’ or ‘we are like this, but Jews are like that,’ find it simple to say, ‘homosexuals are like that,…
I remember in early 2004 going to the SRO bar on Fifth and Elm, one of the maybe half-a-dozen times in my life. I remember hearing the line from a cis man (a non-trans man) in male attire saying to me, “I like people like you.” I remember thinking it was the oddest line I’d…
When the issue of trans people is brought up, always just under the surface of discussion is public accommodations in sex segregated facilities such as public locker rooms and restrooms. Without directly discussing it, the majority of us think about bathrooms when discussing anything related to trans people. One recent issue where the public discussion…
If one needs to go to the Restroom at San Diego’s LGBT Center or at the San Diego Airport, one may find oneself presented with an all gender identities public restroom sign. The LGBT Center’s public restroom sign has the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) international symbol for males, the ADA international symbol for females…
In recent weeks I’ve submitted several California Freedom of Information Act requests of various entities at San Diego State University (SDSU), and many have been related to training that SDSU entities do regarding transgender students. What I’ve discovered is that apparently no one has been training staff of SDSU’s Associated Students, to include the staff…
If you use a single stall public restroom in Washington, D.C. it’s going to be gender neutral. It’s a city ordinance that mandates all of its restaurants, businesses and other public places with single occupancy restrooms to designate these as gender neutral. In June of last year, the City of West Hollywood passed a similar…
Given the alleged Jan. 14 incident at San Diego State University (SDSU), how transgender students are publicly accommodated in public spaces at schools covered by Title IX is a relevant question. In the spring of last year the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) released new Title IX guidelines for protections against sexual assault. In that…
If you’re active in San Diego’s trans community, you’ve likely heard of Claire Russell. She’s known for being imaginative, being service oriented and for being an organizer. Her work includes volunteering at the LGBT Youth Center, creating an online San Diego Trans Resource Center and she was a key organizer for the first annual Trans*Pride…
If there ever is an object lesson about vetting leadership for transgender specific organizations, Allison Woolbert’s elevation to executive director of the Transgender Human Rights Institute (THRI) start-up nonprofit and creation of the Trans* Violence Tracking Portal (TVTP) should be that lesson. Allison Woolbert recently resigned as executive director of Transgender Human Rights Institute (THRI)…
