We have already lost 3 Trans women 2015

Not a good start for 2015.

Lamia and Ty

3 Trans women have been murdered this month.

30 year-old Lamia Beard from Norfolk, Virginia was a talented artist and just earned a full scholarship to Bethune Cookman College. On January 17th, she was shot and she died in the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

24 year-old Ty Underwood from Tyler, Texas was just accepted to Kilgore College’s nursing program. On January 26th, Ty was found dead in her car from 3 gunshot wounds.

And late yesterday, I learned from TransGriot that 20 year-old Goddess Edwards, 20, of Indianapolis, Kentucky, was recently murdered. I will not post her mugshot, BTW

It's very sad that these women were murdered and we have no suspect in custody. But what's really bothering me is how the media continues to misgender these women. In the press, they are putting their male names in the articles! Is it so hard to use the names they want folks to know them by? It shouldn't be at all.

Then, cops and reports are linking their lives to prostitution. I'm sorry, but not all trans women are hookers. The fact that they were linked to prostitution is disrespectful. These women were murdered, killed for being who they are. Can the media and the cops show some respect?

CANDY Magazine showcase Transgender Superstars

Here's info on Candy magazine

Named for the Warhol superstar Candy Darling, it’s a celebration of gender and sexual diversity that manages to be simultaneously glamorous and radical. Venegas is wrapping C☆NDY’s fifth-anniversary issue, out this week, in a special gatefold cover (“Like Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue,” he says gleefully); it features the world’s biggest transgender names. This feels like a milestone in more ways than one. This also feels like the right moment to nag Venegas about his magnificent obsessions.

In the Philippines: A U.S. Marine was charged with the Murder of a Transgender Woman

Sad news, folks.

A trans woman named Jennifer Laude was killed by 19-year-old Marine, Pfc. Scott Pemberton in the Philippines. Scott is being held in a Philippine camp, under American custody.

Buzzfeed reports:

“The United States will continue to fully cooperate with Philippine law enforcement authorities in every aspect of the investigation,” the U.S. Embassy said in statement.
According to local media reports, Laude checked into the Celzone Lodge with a “male, white foreigner” on Saturday night. Eyewitnesses described the man as having “white complexion, with marine-style cut of hair,” standing between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10 and between 25 and 30 years old, Inquirer.net reported.

Minutes after he entered the room with Laude, the man was seen leaving the hotel alone. A hotel attendant discovered Laude’s body slumped in the toilet of the room later that night, according to police. Police said Laude showed signs of strangulation.
The victim’s friend told police that Laude met the suspect at a bar and accompanied them to the hotel. However, Laude asked the friend to leave before the suspect could discover they were transgender, according to Inquirer.net.

You can check out more info on Inquirer.net, however they are not up on the Trans language. My heart goes out to Jennifer’s family and friends.

Janet Jackson will produce Transgender documentary

Janet is jumping in the producer chair by working on a documentary of the lives of transgender people worldwide.

New York-based Brainchild Films announced Monday that Jackson was working on "Truth" and would do some of the on-camera interviews. The documentary begins production this summer and will focus on the lives and struggles of transgender persons.

Jackson writes in a statement that she is working on the project to try to stop discrimination of the transgender community.

Director Robert Jason will be working with Janet on "Truth." These stories will come from America, Europe, Australia and Latin America.

Miss USA support Transgender women in Beauty Pageants

Things are really moving forward in America. Miss USA, Olivia Culpo made news for her support of transgender women.

During the show, Olivia dazzled the crowd when she answered a question about transgender women in beauty pageants.

NY Daily News reports:

In the dreaded final question round, Culpo was faced with the most difficult question of the night: "Would you feel it would be fair that a transgender woman wins the Miss USA title over a natural-born woman?" Culpo never stumbled as she embraced the Miss Universe Organization's recent decision to admit transgender contestants. The question came from a pageant follower on Twitter, a first for the competition.


"I do think that that would be fair but I can understand that people would be a little apprehensive to take that road because there is a tradition of natural-born women, but today where there are so many surgeries and so many people out there who have a need to change for a happier life, I do accept that because I believe it's a free country," Culpo said.

That's truly something serious. Since Olivia won the crown, she will move forward to the Miss Universe pageant.


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Interesting Quote: Peggy Shorey

In the LGBT community, we must find that sense of shared struggle with a movement that truly includes all of us. Our people are getting killed. Every one of us has a moral obligation to stand up and talk about it, to find a way to take action, to do more. Those of us who are the "LGB" of our community must stand in real solidarity with our transgender sisters and brothers. Allies, you are just as vital.

There is an inseparable link between violence, discrimination, and economic injustice. Working people across all sectors are facing extraordinary levels of unemployment and underemployment. Youth, immigrants, women, people of color, and LGBT people face disproportionate hardship. Black transgender individuals are estimated to have four times the unemployment rate of the general population. 

When people are out of work or underemployed -- and can be legally discriminated against in hiring, in most states -- individuals are more likely to find themselves in vulnerable positions, in less safe work environments and less safe neighborhoods, and facing fewer options for living with basic human dignity. When people are out of work, struggling with keeping their homes, making the rent, keeping the lights on, the stress and weight of the world grows. 

please go here to read this great article from Peggy

116 Transgender people were Murdered Globally

Our Trans fam has had a tragic year so far. Over the past 9 months, many Transgender people were  murdered all over the world:

UNITED STATES
Seven of this year's murders were in the United States, TMM said. Washington D.C. hit headlines this year after a series of attacks against transgender people - one of them the fatal shooting of 23-year-old transgender woman Myles Mclean.
 (....)
LATIN AMERICA
Most of the murders of transgender people TMM recorded this year occurred in Latin America - 29 in Brazil, 22 in Mexico, 11 in Venezuela and 10 in Columbia, as well as murders in 10 other Latin American countries.

TMM also noted murders in Turkey, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Poland.

United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said in May that hate crimes against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people are on the rise around the world.

"Transgender people face the worst challenges, regardless of which country they are coming from or situated in," Liesl Theron, executive director of Gender dynamiX, an organization supporting transgender and transsexual rights in South Africa, told Reuters.

We need to do more to support and protect our Trans fam!

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Another Transgender Murder in D.C.

More tragedy in the Transgender community in D.C.:

A transgender woman suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound to the neck about 2 a.m. Monday on the 2300 block of Savannah Street, S.E., D.C. police said.

The incident was the fourth reported shooting of a transgender person in D.C. since July. The latest case prompted police officials to call a news conference Monday afternoon to discuss this and other transgender related cases.

Transgender activists Earline Budd and Ruby Corado, who spoke at the news conference, said the latest shooting was among more than a dozen violent attacks against transgender women in D.C. this year.

“The transgender community is now in crisis,” Corado said.
Monday’s shooting incident came two days after police found the body of an unidentified person initially thought to be a transgender woman on the sidewalk along the 2600 block of 11th Street, N.W., about 5:20 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10.

This is another incident in D.C. what's really going on here?

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Transgender woman murdered in her Puerto Rico home

Ashley Santiago was found stabbed in her home yesterday. Cops said she was stabbed 14 times and left on her kitchen floor naked.

El Nuevo Día reported Santiago’s mother went to a local police station to report she had not heard from her daughter since Sunday, April 18. Police said Santiago had been stabbed 14 times. And El Nuevo Día further reported the victim’s 2009 Toyota Corolla was not parked in front of her home.

Investigators have yet to determine whether Santiago’s killer (or killers) murdered her because of her gender identity or expression, but Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force urged authorities to investigate her death as a possible hate crime.

"The authorities have a legal obligation to investigate this hate angle," he told EDGE in a statement. "We urge the police and the prosecutor to appropriately investigate this murder; to determine whether it was motivated by prejudice and if there is enough evidence to classify it as a hate crime at this moment."

I hope they find her murderer soon. My heart goes out to Ashley's family and friends.

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VH1 presents: Transform Me

New show from VH1. It's called Transform Me and it's looks interesting.

Here's the lowdown:

VH1 and Left/Right Inc. have teamed up to create a new breed of fashion makeover show, Transform Me. Each half-hour episode follows the makeover of one woman badly in need of a transformation–on the outside and inside. The subjects quickly find out this won’t be your typical makeover. They’ll be transformed by three transgender women. The ultra-glamorous makeover team, led by Laverne Cox (VH1’s I Want to Work for Diddy) with Jamie Clayton and Nina Poon, travel across the country answering “style 911 calls” in their deluxe fashion ambulance, helping subjects find the right style–and the confidence that comes with it. The new eight-episode, 30-minute series is set to premiere March 15, 2010.