MassEquality Staff Celebrates Transgender Awareness Week

To memorialize and fight for a better future November 20 marks the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, memorializing those lost to anti-transgender violence over the past year. The Task Force honors the memory of transgender people killed both in the U.S. and abroad during 2010. For more information on the Transgender Day of Remembrance and a list of related events around the world, many of which are held this week, visit www.transgenderdor.org. From a divinity school in Rochester, N.Y., to Piazza Liberazione in Magenta, Italy, to the steps of the Cleveland Justice Center in Ohio, the Task Force hopes you will be part of one of these events and work with us toward a day when the dignity and value of all people is affirmed and protected. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey - Preliminary Findings on Employment and Economic Insecurity, a joint study from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality, found more than one quarter of transgender people surveyed have lost a job for being transgender and discovered that members of the transgender community have double the rate of poverty as the general population. And, alarming though not surprising, the survey also indicates that transgender people are very vulnerable to physical violence because of bias. The Task Force is proud of its work to change the federal hate crimes law to include anti-transgender crimes. In 2009, violent hate crimes committed on the basis of gender identity, along with sexual orientation, became federal crimes under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in October of that year.  The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, founded in 1974 as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc., works to build the grassroots political power of the LGBT community to win complete equality. We do this through direct and grassroots lobbying to defeat anti-LGBT ballot initiatives and legislation and pass pro-LGBT legislation and other measures. We also analyze and report on the positions of candidates for public office on issues of importance to the LGBT community. The Task Force Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation incorporated in New York. Contributions to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund are not tax deductible.

MassEquality staff and interns reflect on gender identity and stereotypes in recognition of Transgender Awareness Week.



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