by Ethan Jacobs
associate editor
Monday Mar 16, 2009

I'm really proud to have been a part of this project; I hope you'll link through and watch it.  The message is crisp and pure.

{click the image to launch link}

-Dana

Enoch Page, an anthropology professor at UMass Amherst, talks in the video about his fears about getting surgery on his knees and facing discrimination by hospital staff.   

One of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of marriage equality activists was the personal stories of same-sex couples and their families, and LGBT advocates are hoping that the power of transgender people’s personal stories will have a similar impact on the effort to pass a transgender rights bill. A trio of organizations working to pass the legislation - Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and MassEquality - produced a 10-minute online video called "Everyone Matters" featuring the stories of four trans people working in different fields and talking about the impact that discrimination has on their lives. The video can be viewed online at the MTPC website, and it will be screened publicly at the MTPC lobby day April 7 at the State House. Gunner Scott, executive director of MTPC, said copies of the video will also be distributed to every lawmaker on Beacon Hill.

Broward New Times, FL, USA
THE JUICE
Transsexual a Finalist for City Manager Job in Lake Worth
By Deirdra Funcheon in Palm Beach, Politics
Friday, Mar. 13 2009 @ 4:21PM
Susan Stanton was the city manager of Largo, Florida for 14 years
until she announced she was becoming Steve Slanton. She was
subsequently terminated. Stanton's case made huge headlines two years
ago. Now Stanton is a finalist for the city manager job in Lake Worth.
According to a story in the Palm Beach Post
<http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/03/13/0313lwmanager.html>
, "Stanton's gender was not mentioned by city commissioners Thursday
during a discussion of city manager finalists."

The confession of a Colorado man who is accused of
fatally battering a sex partner with a fire extinguisher after
discovering she was a transgender woman, cannot be presented into
evidence, a district court judge has ruled.
Allen Ray Andrade, 31, is charged with second-degree murder in the
death of Angie Zapata, 20. The victim€  ’²s bloodied, battered body was
discovered in her apartment by her sister on July 17, 2008.
Andrade was arrested in the Denver suburb of Thornton, where he lives.
Police responding to a noise complaint found him in Zapata€  ’²s 2003 PT
Cruiser, which had been missing.
Under questioning, Andrade allegedly told investigators that he met
Zapata through MocoSpace, a social network designed primarily for cell
phone users. The two met July 15 and spent the day together. Andrade
allegedly told investigators that Zapata performed oral sex on him but
wouldn€  ’²t let him touch her. When he discovered she was biologically
male, he killed her.
In the taped confession, he allegedly told investigators that he
grabbed Zapata€  ’²s crotch area, felt male genitalia and became angry. He
told investigators that he took a fire extinguisher off a shelf,
struck Zapata twice in the head and thought he €  ’³killed it.€  ’´
But in a 24 page ruling, Judge Marcelo Kopcow said that Andrade€  ’²s
rights had been violated because he had told police he was finished
answering questions, but investigators persisted with questions
leading up to the confession.
€  ’³This court finds the defendant€  ’²s statement, €  ’±I€  ’²m done. Yeah, I€  ’²m not
talking right now€  ’² €  ’¥ is a clear statement of the defendant€  ’²s request
to remain silent and cut off further questioning,€  ’´ Kopcow said in a
written ruling.
Kopcow also told the prosecution it could not describe Andrade as a
high ranking member of a gang that among other things hates gays. The
judge said it was more speculative than substantive.
He did, however, allow the prosecution to present to the jury tapes of
phone calls made by Andrade from jail to his girlfriend.
In one call he said he had €  ’³snapped€  ’´ and that €  ’³gay things need to die.€  ’´
In ruling that the tapes could be played for the jury Kopcow said that
prisoners €  ’³have little, if any, reasonable expectation of privacy
while incarcerated.€  ’´
http://www.365gay.com/news/judge-tosses-confession-of-man-accused-of-killing-transwoman/