Transgender Equality Lobby Day – Massachusetts

“‘Cause I'm bound by love

And I'm thinking of what could be

Where there's a will there's a way…”

Gran Bel Fisher

Bound By Love

(2006)

Today was the Massachusetts’ Transgender Political Coalition’s Transgender Equality Lobby Day at the Massachusetts Statehouse. Three hundred of us, transgender people and allies, gathered to urge our legislators to support the bill An Act Relative To Discrimination and Hate Crimes. This bill would finally give transgender people and all citizens basic civil rights by outlawing discrimination (in housing, credit, employment, public accommodations and public education) and hate crimes based on gender identity and expression.

At 9:30, I gathered outside the Statehouse with Keshet – including our Transgender Working Group (TWiG), other members of the Jewish community, and the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality. After several weeks of news and work, how exciting to arrive and begin! Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, shehechianu ve'kiemanu ve'hegianu lazman ha'zeh. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the world, who has kept us in life, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.

We all walked together through security and to the foot of the Grand Staircase. It was wonderful to see the standing room only crowd – how much more so to realize how few of them I recognized! It was so good to connect and reconnect with those I knew, and meet many of those I didn’t. And people continued to arrive all day. Hinei ma tov umanayim, shevet achim / achyot gam yachad. Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters [and siblings] to sit and dwell together.

Gunner Scott, Executive Director of MTPC , spoke and MCed several fine speakers; includingtransgender people, their loved ones, legislators and other politicians, and others. One of my favorite moments was Representative Byron Rushing’s speech / sermon. He told us we weren't, couldn’t be, gathered to gain our civil rights -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- because we were born with and have always had them. We were gathered to remind our state of its failure to guarantee those rights and demand justice. I though of the early 1990s, when I first became a GLBT leader, met Rep. Rushing and heard him preach this -- during the GLBT safe schools movement, when we were working to pass the bill that added “sexual orientation” to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5: “No person shall be excluded from or discriminated against in admission to a public school of any town, or in obtaining the advantages, privileges and courses of study of such public school on account of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation.” Perhaps most moving was the presence of Kenneth and Marcia Garber – their son CJ was a transman who lost his life in January, at age twenty; Ken spoke and received the only standing ovation.

ICTE had the honor of organizing today’s clergy speakers – Rev. Cameron Partridge (St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church), Rabbi Stephanie Kolin (Temple Israel, Boston), and Rev. Will Green (St. Nicholas United Methodist Church, Hull). They spoke so passionately and beautifully – how wonderful it was to witness leaders of my own faiths and those of my colleagues preaching not only transgender equality but the inclusion and welcome of transpeople in faith communities. How much more wonderful to be able to think: This priest is my co-chair, this rabbi and pastor are our colleagues…I am so proud and blessed. To put it Yiddishly, I was kvelling! Cameron co-chairs ICTE with me, and has written a lovely blog post about today.

There was also a showing of the excellent ten-minute video MTPC created with GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project and MassEquality -- “Everyone Matters : Dignity & Safety For Transgender People”.

After the rally program, many attendees checked in at MTPC’s well-organized and stocked information table and went to prescheduled visits with their legislators – asking them to support the bill or thanking them for doing so. My fellow Keshetites and I delivered MTPC's thank-you cards to our supportive legislators and spoke with their aides and other staff, and were photographed by Ethan Halainen, Keshet’s Communications Assistant.

It was one of those days I didn’t want to end, and needed to see the end of. After most people had left, I returned to the almost empty rally site and talked with some of those who returned from their legislator visits. Even after MTPC left between two and three, I sat and talked with Joan Stratton (National Association of Social Workers) and Denise Leclair (Executive Director, International Foundation for Gender Education). Sometime after four, I had the gentlemanly pleasure of escorting the ladies out and to their next destinations.

This is one of the days when I think, over and over: I love my job. I love my work. I love my calling. I love my people, my community, my organizations and my colleagues.

How miraculous that there was a similar Lobby Day in Connecticut today, a House Judiciary Committee hearing about their hate crime definition in Rhode Island tonight, and a second vote on a similar bill in New Hampshire tomorrow. Also, Iowa legalized same-sex marriage on Friday and Vermont this morning.

And how wonderful that today is Birkat Hachama (Blessing of the Sun, the day every twenty-eight years when the sun returns to its position during Creation), that Pesach (Passover) begins tomorrow, and that it’s Holy Week (the Christian week that includes Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter).

Thank you to MTPC and its allies for creating this Day! Thanks to the Keshet staff for all their work, including creating Jewish-themed trans equality stickers for us to wear and hand out to attendees. Thanks to former ICTE member and webmistress Robyn Robbins for designing the logo for ICTE’s nametags and stickers.

ICTE's first e-newsletter!

ICTE published our first e-newsletter today -- it was emailed to everyone who has signed our Declaration Of Religious And Faith-Based Support For An Act Relative To Gender-Based Discrimination And Hate Crimes. Click here for the PDF of the 3-page MS Word document.

April 5, 2009

Dear ICTE Supporters,

Welcome to our first newsletter. You are receiving it because you signed our Declaration of Religious and Faith-Based Support for An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes.

First of all, thank you so much for being part of An Act Of Faith. You helped make the first interfaith transgender event in Massachusetts a huge success – a truly powerful and inspirational experience for everyone who attended and many others. Have you seen the Bay Windows article yet?

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=86528

Those of you who attended and filled out a commitment card – a Tree Of Life “Leaf” – will be contacted by a Coalition member. Thank you for your commitment to take action for transgender equality in Massachusetts.

MTPC’s Transgender Equality Lobby Day is this Tuesday, April 7^th. Please attend, even if you are not visiting a legislator or can only be there for part of the time, and spread the word -- one of the best and easiest ways is the event’s Facebook page.

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition

Transgender Equality Lobby Day

THIS Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Massachusetts Statehouse

(Park Street / Downtown Crossing)

ICTE will meet outside the front gate of the Massachusetts State House at 9:45 a.m., joining Keshet and its Transgender Working Group (TWiG), Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action (JALSA), Ohel Tzedek of Temple Israel, the National Council of Jewish Women and other Jewish groups and individuals. If your faith community is attending, please invite them to gather with us at any time during the Day.

There will be a panel of speakers including clergy, policy makers, transgender people and family members; light refreshments; and a short lobbying training. Then, prescheduled legislator visits – people will meet with their legislators to thank them for supporting or ask them to support the bill.

We realize that we, the members of the Coalition, haven’t formally introduced ourselves to you.

Our Co-Chairs are Mycroft Masada Holmes (Chair - Keshet Transgender Working Group (TWiG)) and Rev. Cameron Partridge (Priest - St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Founding Member – TransEpiscopal). Our Clerk is Rev. Michael Cooper (Pastor - Metropolitan Community Church / Boston).

The Coalition is also led by:

· Sean Delmore -- Program Coordinator - LBGT@MIT; Candidate for

Ordination – Deacon - United Methodist Church

· Orly Jacobovits -- Senior Organizer & Community Educator - Keshet

· Richard M. Juang -- Committee for Transgender Inclusion – Massachusetts Lesbian & Gay Bar Association

· Rabbi Daniel Judson -- Director of Professional Development and Placement - Hebrew College Rabbinical School

· Marla Marcum -- Co-Chair - Reconciling Ministries - New England United Methodist Church; Candidate for Ordination – Deacon - United Methodist Church

The Coalition at An Act Of Faith (l-r): Sean Delmore, Mycroft Holmes, Rev. Cameron Partridge,

Richard Juang, Rev. Michael Cooper, Orly Jacobovits, Marla Marcum, Rabbi Daniel Judson.

With us is Gunner Scott, Executive Director of MTPC.

We also wanted to update you on our current work:

• We’re continuing to gather signatures for our Declaration of Religious and Faith-Based Support for the bill. Do you know people who might be interested in signing? It takes just a few minutes at our website: http://www.InterfaithCoalition.org. We especially need clergy and congregational signatures.

• We’re organizing postcard-signing events with congregations. These are MTPC’s orange postcards to legislators, asking them to support the bill. Is your congregation interested in organizing an event? Please let us know.

• We’re supporting interfaith transgender organizing in Central and Western Massachusetts. The focus is planning an interfaith transgender event modeled on An Act Of Faith. Do you want to be part of this conversation? Please contact us.

• We’re part of the conversations about faith with the Pride Interfaith Coalition, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, National Center for Transgender Equality, Transgender Religious Leadership Summit, Philadelphia Trans Health Conference and other local and national organizations, conferences and events.

• We’re collecting and creating educational materials about transpeople and faith. Have you seen effective materials? Are there materials you would like to see? Please share your recommendations with us.

Thank you again for your partnership in this work. Together, we can pass the bill into law, and continue to work for transgender inclusion in communities of faith and elsewhere.

To get involved, or for more information, reply to this email or contact us:

Orly Jacobovits, Keshet Senior Organizer & Community Educator

orly@keshetonline.org | 617.524.9227

InterfaithCoalition@gmail.com | www.InterfaithCoalition.org

Fenway Community Health’s “T-Social” event

Fenway Health (formerly Fenway Community Health Center, then Fenway Community Health) held their annual “T-Social” event tonight at Club Café -- a health fair and more for the local transgender commmunity. And it lived up to its press:

“Fenway's annual T (Trans) Social is an action-packed party for trans folks and their allies. Whether you're FTM, MTF, Gender Queer, Intersex, a Cross-Dresser, a SOFFA, someone who crosses mainstream gender boundaries, or just a friend -- please join us for an evening of camaraderie, fun and support. Meet new friends and stand with a vibrant, diverse culture. There will be food, entertainment, prizes and good people. This event is 18+ and is free and open to the public. This event is not a fundraiser, it is a time for community support and networking. RSVPs appreciated but not required. For more information please call Alex Solange of Fenway’s Transhealth Navigation Program at 617.927.6449 or email asolange@fenwayhealth.org.”

I was particularly impressed by how few people I knew, even by sight – a rare pleasant surprise.

I staffed the Keshet and ICTE information table, conveniently (for me and all) located between the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) and AIDS Project Worcester tables.

Congregation Am Tikva’s Persian Purim Costume Dinner

Congregation Am Tikva, or “CAT”, is the GLBT synagogue of Boston and where I’m a member.

Tonight we celebrated Purim (rather like the Jewish Halloween, at least here in the States) by having a Costume Dinner at Molana, the Persian restaurant in Watertown. I’d never been to Molana (and I don't think I'd been to another Persian restaurant, or had much Persian cuisine) and want to return – we had an excellent experience.

Alas, many of the guests weren't able to attend due to last minute conflicts. But that turned out to mean we had a perfect intimate group, and were able to all be part of one conversation. And the costumes were wonderful – a Queen Vashti, two Queen Esthers (all three very different), an explorer (complete with pith helmet), and our Indian Muslim member in native dress of his own design and making. I wore my anime (Japanese animation) cat ears.

I took some photos of us with my cell phone, and will figure out how to put those online asap...

Whooping It Up With The Woop Woopers…What?

My colleague and friend Meike Watzlawik is a doctor of psychology who specializes in GLBT issues. We met in the late 1990s, when I was a youth peer leader at Tobacco Education for GLBT Youth (TEGLY) and she was an intern for that and the affiliated youth health education programs ELITE (tobacco ed for East Boston students and other youth) and Healthy Strong & Proud (sex ed for GLBT youth). A native of Germany, she lives there and travels; I see her maybe once a year when she visits the States.

Last Summer, she came to live in Worcester and work and study at Clark University for a year contract. It’s been good to have her in the same state! She and the other ‘internationals’ live in the same apartment building (a former corset factory – I love corsets!) and have been getting together as a varying group one night a week to eat, share their work and lives, and socialize. They call themselves the Woop Woop Society or Woop Woopers, after the Australian wine they drank at their first gathering. During most of their weekly gatherings they watch a movie recommended by one of their members, then discuss it.

At Meike’s suggestion, the Woop Woopers invited me to be their guest speaker to help them discuss transgender issues. Tonight was the night – despite the snowstorm, I traveled to and from Worcester and the experience was well worth the trip. I gave a brief talk, showed the film “Toilet Training” (the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and Tara Mateik’s documentary about transgendered people and others and their restroom and other issues), and led a question and answer and discussion session. Six of the Woop Woopers attended, from Brazil, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. We were also joined by their professor, from Estonia. Everyone asked excellent questions and contributed to the discussion – I especially appreciated their sharing their experiences of GLBT people and issues in their home countries.

Thank you for having me, Meike and fellow WWs! And thank you Keshet for loaning me your DVD.

Meike has another contract, and we hope to work together again – perhaps by co-teaching one of the sessions of a class she hopes to teach.

Happy Chinese & Lunar New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! And the rest of the Lunar New Year. I’m a Dragon (1976); the last Dragon year was 2000, the next will be 2012. This year, 2009, is the year of the Ox.

This holiday is meaningful to me because Asia and its culture (especially Japan) was very important to my late mother, and so part of my and my brother’s education from her and the Brookline and Newton public schools. Also, my stepmother is Hakka tribe (one of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan).

I chose the image because I’m a lifelong Hello Kitty fan (like me, she came to this country in 1976). This one can even looks like a Jewish and social justice message.

ICTE / Keshet event “An Act Of Faith”!

I’m a founding member of the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) and Chair of Keshet’s Transgender Working Group (TWiG), and tonight we held an event called “An Act Of Faith (Massachusetts Communities Of Faith Speak Out For Transgender Equality)”. AAOF was actually the first interfaith transgender event in Massachusetts and perhaps beyond! How long overdue, and yet how timely.

AAOF was the campaign 'kickoff' for ICTE’s and my primary work this year -- helping people and communities of faith support An Act Relative To Gender-Based Discrimination And Hate Crimes. That's the bill that we came close to passing last year; it would add "gender identity and expression" to the state's discrimination (housing, employment, education and credit) and hate crime laws. I and all other transgender people in Massachusetts would finally truly have civil rights (we still have them only in Boston, Cambridge and Northampton)! And everyone else's gender would finally be fully protected too. The bill was refiled on Wednesday, January 14th, in the Massachusetts House and Senate, and we plan to pass it into law this year.

I was one of the two Event Co-Chairs and MCs (Masters of Ceremonies) – the other was Sean Delmore (Program Coordinator - LBGT@MIT; Candidate for Ordination – Deacon - United Methodist Church; Member - ICTE;). I’d never chaired or MCed an event before, but I couldn’t have had a better debut! The event was so wonderful and successful! I am so happy about it and hopeful about our work this year! I’ve never been prouder of ICTE, Keshet, and everyone else involved! AAOF literally meant the world to me as an interfaith transgender person and leader.

We had a Welcome from Rabbi Daniel Judson (Director of Professional Development and Placement - Hebrew College Rabbinical School; Member – ICTE), Sean and I, Gunner Scott (Executive Director - Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition), and Matthew O’Malley (Political Director – MassEquality).

We had Songs from Judah-Abijah Dorrington (Chair - Boston Area Black Pride, Director of LGBTQI Programs - Wellesley College, Executive Director - People to People / Dorrington & Saunders Assoc.) -- Lift Every Voice And Sing and the Battle Hymn Of The Republic.

We had a time called Planting A Seed – Judah spoke, as did Jennifer Levi (Director - Transgender Rights Project – GLAD).

We had a time called Growing Roots -- Rev. Tiffany Steinwert (Pastor - Cambridge Welcoming Ministries - United Methodist Church), Reverend Father Toni Amato (Order of Saint John the Divine; Director & Founder - Write Here Write Now), and Marla Marcum (Co-Chair - Reconciling Ministries - New England United Methodist Church; Candidate for Ordination - Deacon; Member - ICTE) spoke, Rabbi Judson spoke again.

We had a time called Branching Out -- Representative Denise Provost (Massachusetts House), Representative Carl Sciortino (Massachusetts House, co-sponsor of the bill), and Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge (Priest - St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church; Founding Member - TransEpiscopal and ICTE) spoke.

We had a Call To Action – a ritual in which attendees filled out commitment cards about how they would work to support the bill this year; the cards were printed as colored paper leaves and hung on a bare Tree Of Life until it was beautifully foliated.

There was a Closing where Sean and I spoke again. And then there was “schmoozing” – refreshments, talking, photography and more.

For the flyer as a PDF, click here.
For the program as two PDFs, click here for the outside and click here for the inside.

For my speech (given during the Welcome) as a Google (Word) Document, click here.

For Ethan Jacobs’ Bay Windows article, click here. AAOF was also in the Keshet enewsletter, on the ICTE blog, and elsewhere.

One of our many blessings was being photographed by three professionals:
Ethan Halainen, Keshet Communications Assistant – for Keshet’s Flickr page of his AAOF photos, click here.
Marilyn Humphries, Bay Windows photographer – for her Flickr page of AAOF photos, click here.
Bill Wasserman, my father – for my Picasa Web album of his AAOF photos, click here.

Thank you oh so much, ICTE, Keshet, our cosponsors, our speakers, and everyone else who worked on, attended and participated in this event!

2 Websites Recommend Mine!

Two websites recommend mine!  Probably more do, but I don’t know about them yet
(if you do, please let me know).  The first is the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition’s
(MTPC) Wikipedia page about blogs – click here.  The second is one of Michael Alexander’s
websites – he’s a local trans Jewish colleague – click here.  Thank you to them!    

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year 2009!

If, like me, you’re Jewish, you celebrated New Year’s in September -- at Rosh Hashanah, when year 5768 ended and 5769 began. So happy new year again. If you use yet another calendar, happy that year too.

May this year be our best yet. May we find better ways to live and work together, furthering tikkun olam, (a transliteration of a Hebrew phrase for) "world healing".