Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Yours Truly was interviewed for an article on “Ten Hot Sexuality (and Gender) Issues of 2007 by Naked on the Internet author Audacia Ray. My bit is mostly the “(and Gender)” part of it, about ENDA & the Hate Crimes Act.
I think it’s the first time I’ve been interviewed for anything that was also about pole dancing.
from NCTE’s website:
Senate Passes Historic Hate Crimes Bill
The Hate Crimes Amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (S. 1105) was passed on a voice vote of the Senate today, September 27th. Immediately prior to the voice vote, a cloture vote to end debate of the Amendment was passed 60-39 with bipartisan support.This amendment was already passed on May 3rd in the House by a vote of 237-180.  NCTE is calling on President Bush to sign the bill with this historic provision included.
Mara Keisling, NCTE Executive Director, says, “While transgender people still have many obstacles to overcome, we are overjoyed that the hard work of so many people is coming to fruition.”
The Hate Crimes Amendment extends the federal hate crimes law to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability.
ACTION ALERT from the National Center for Transgender Equality
On Thursday, the Senate will be voting on Senator Kennedy’s Hate Crimes amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (S.1105). We need you to call your Senators now to urge their support of this critical bill, which would extend hate crimes protections to transgender people.
Please, call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 right now; let them know what state you are from and ask to be connected with your Senators.
The language of the amendment is identical to that passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 3, 2007 (H.R.1592). It is vital that you contact your Senator today or tomorrow. As you read this, the Radical Right is mobilizing to oppose the federal hate crimes bill and attempt to prevent its passage in the Senate. They’re using scare tactics and flat-out lies in hopes of killing the amendment. Make sure that your Senators hear your voice and how important this bill is to you and our community.
The Hate Crimes bill would:
- Extend existing federal protections to include “gender identity, sexual orientation, gender and disability”
- Allow the Justice Department to assist in hate crime investigations at the local level when local law enforcement is unable or unwilling to fully address these crimes
- Mandate that the FBI begin tracking hate crimes based on actual or perceived gender identity
- Remove limitations that narrowly define hate crimes to violence committed while a person is accessing a federally protected activity, such as voting.
Find your Senators’ contact information.
Background information about the hate crimes bill is available on NCTE’S webpage.Call your Senators today and urge your friends and family to do the same.
2 in 3 subway riders have been sexually harassed, and 99% of them are women. Why am I not surprised? Because just about every woman I know can tell you a story of a groper or a lewd comment or some other form of sexual harassment.
What’s surprising is that someone actually wants to do something about it. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer conducted the survey and has suggested changes that would help prevent these kinds of crimes:
Stringer recommends an increase in NYPD presence on subway trains and in subway stations as well as brighter lighting, more pay phones, a hotline for attack victims, and the installation of additional digital security cameras.
He also wants a public education campaign to change “a culture that has been allowed to fester for generations.”
About damn time. You can thank Scott Stringer via his website.
For the aspiring authors out there, an interview with a book contracts insider. Most interesting to me:
While few of us would turn down a big advance if we were lucky enough to get one, but if you’re aiming to be a writer with a lengthy publishing career, starting out small isn’t such a bad thing.
She talks about the value of having an agent, and what to do if you don’t have one when you’re signing.
This optimistic bit is surely good for plenty of as-yet-unpublished authors to hear:
It occurred to me then that if there’s a market for books on cats that quilt while solving crime, there must be room out in the world for my story.
NCTE has reported today that since they sent out their alert for calls to your senators to support The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act more senators have signed on to support it!
So keep calling! Tell your friends to call!
You can find your senators’ contact information through NCTE.
Today Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Smith (R-OR) introduced the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1585), which is being debated in the Senate this week and next. This amendment could be voted on as early as today. In short, today transgender people are one giant step closer to gaining federal hate crimes protections!
The language of today’s amendment is identical language to that of S. 1105, which the Senators introduced in April.
But to ensure that the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act becomes law, you must contact your Senators now and urge them to support this life-saving legislation.
As you read this, the Radical Right is mobilizing their base to oppose the federal hate crimes bill. They’re using scare tactics and flat-out lies in hopes of killing Kennedy’s amendment. Make sure that your Senators hear your voice and the true importance of this bill.
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act would:
Find your Senators’ contact information.
The time to act is now! Call your Senators today and urge your friends and family to do the same!
(A sample letter you can copy & paste is below the break.)
I read this great article about Diane & Jake Anderson-Minshall, who just co-wrote their first mystery novel, Blind Curves, and this line stopped me short:
“I would say Susannah was my wife, and they’d tell me she would have to contact them,” Diane says. “Now I say Jacob is my husband and it’s immediately accepted.”
Because Diane is, of course, talking about the difference in how their relationship is perceived by others now that they’re “straight.” I’m pretty certain they don’t think of themselves as straight, of course, but they are legally married now, and wow – it surprised me how much that one sentence stuck in my craw. I feel like I’m on the wrong side of the equation, even if I know full-well how difficult it is for partners like Diane and other lesbian-identified women to “give up” having others perceive them as lesbians.
But still. Damn.
The Hate Crimes Bill has passed the House this afternoon. For more information, check our thread on the boards about it.
We are down to the wire on the federal hate crimes bill (H.R.1592).
This Thursday, May 3, the federal hate crime bill is scheduled to be voted on in the U.S. House. We really have a chance to pass this life-saving law this year.
But what we are hearing today is that the radical right has turned their lie machine on force blast and turned out their followers. Members of Congress and their staff are telling us that the people who hate us, who are lying about us, are contacting Congress in greater numbers than we are. That’s not unusual, but it is very dangerous. It is not unusual because that’s what they do: they scare their followers into calling their representatives in Congress. It is very dangerous because it could work this time.
What YOU Can Do
1. Find your member of Congress and call him or her.
2. Sign our petition supporting the hate crimes bill by clicking here.
3. Support the passage of this bill by joining us for NCTE’s annual Lobby Day on May 14-15!