On a morning this week I awoke to yet another story regarding the Planet Fitness “”no judgment” policy. The new story is about a lawsuit. Yvette Cormier of Midland County, Michigan is the woman who complained first to her local Planet Fitness’ management that a transgender woman she considered to be a man was using…
The Transgender Day of Empowerment was established as a way to celebrate, empower and honor the transgender community in San Diego. The idea was conceived by Tracie O’Brien as a way to counter the sadness and pain of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors those lost due to anti-transgender violence. This year the Transgender…
“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…
Last week, I read the misinformed article by Jeremy Ogul in Gay San Diego entitled “One of the girls.” I immediately contacted trans-activist, and LGBT Weekly columnist, Autumn Sandeen to get her perspective about those in our community who are clueless about trans issues and seem to have no desire to learn. Ogul’s story was…
“‘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…
The first episode of WNET and PBS Digital Studios’ new web series, First Person, has gone live. In this episode, host Kristin Russo interviews artist Skylar Kergil to examine transgender visibility and transitions. The series is the first to come as a result of the previously announced strategic partnership between WNET’s Interactive Engagement Group and…
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…
