Category: LGBTQIA

LGBTQIA, Women's Rights

Trans woman murdered in South Carolina

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, SC – A transgender woman was found shot dead inside a car on a rural South Carolina road Easter morning, and authorities do not know if gender identification was the reason for the brutal killing.

The victim, identified as Sasha Wall was found slumped over the steering wheel of the car in rural Chesterfield County on Sunday morning, according to the Associated Press. Wall, who owned the car, had been shot multiple times in the neck and shoulder.

“Whoever it was, was angry,” Sheriff Jay Brooks said of the killer, according to FOX 46. “You could tell by the number of shots.”

Brooks told media outlets that investigators are still working the case and believe Wall knew the killer.

“ShQe was dressed (in women’s clothing) and had makeup on and that kind of stuff,” Brooks told WCNC. “But whether that has anything to do with this case or not, we have no idea.”

Investigators have no evidence Wall’s killing was a hate crime and believe it was more likely domestic violence-related, WSOC reports.

The Anson County Sheriff’s Office and State Law Enforcement Division are assisting in the investigation, according to WBTV.

The Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization that advocates for LGBTQ people, documented the deaths of at least 28 transgender people who were fatally shot or killed by other violent means in the U.S. in 2017, up from 23 in 2016.

Investigators say Wall, 29, lived in a mobile home outside Pageland and was known to family and friends as “Sasha Wall,” according to WSOC-TV.

LGBTQIA

Pakistani trans activists under attack: kidnapped, raped, shot

Sonia, a trans rights activist, was shot on Jan. 17 in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of Front Line Defenders)Sonia, a trans rights activist, was shot on Jan. 17 in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of Front Line Defenders)Two members of Pakistani human rights organisation TransAction were brutally attacked in Peshawar.

On 22 January 2018, trans rights activist Shama was gang raped by nine men and on 17 January 2018, trans rights activist Sonia was shot and injured in Peshawar. They were both brutally attacked for their human rights work.Sonia and Shama are members of TransAction Pakistan, an organisation that represents thousands of transgender and intersex community members from twenty-five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA).

The organisation strives to support transgender and intersex individuals through providing safe spaces for them. Sonia is an active transgender rights activist who regularly participates in seminars, demonstrations and walks for the rights of transgender persons.

Shama is also involved in advocacy for transgender rights.On 22 January 2018, Shama, 18, was kidnapped then gang raped in the Gulbahar neighborhood of Peshawar by nine men in retaliation against her advocacy for the human rights of the transgender community. The assailants threatened to shoot her if she disclosed the incident to anyone or if she participated in any more demonstrations.

Shama filed a complaint with the police but so far a First Incident Report (FIR) has not been lodged, no arrests have been made and no medical examination has been conducted for Shama.On 17 January 2018, Sonia was shot in the Pahandu area of Peshawar by her partner, who is also a member of the gang that attacked Arzu Khan and Taimur Kamal, and kidnapped Sunny.

She was under pressure from her partner to stop her transgender rights activism but she refused. Her partner strongly disapproved of her activities and on the day of the incident they had an argument over her human rights work. Having failed to convince Sonia to cease her activities, the defender’s partner shot her in anger. Sonia was taken to Khyber Teaching Hospital with gunshot wounds to the face and a bullet lodged in her throat. Sonia is still in hospital. A First Instance Report (FIR) has been registered against the man who shot Sonia.Taimur Kamal, coordinator of the Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network (Photo courtesy of Front Line Defenders)

LGBTQIA, Wine Cellar Podcast

Phoenix And William Riff About Boycotting And Migos On Queers

 

This is a fun episode.
We give the news a quick nod and jump straight into conversation mode.

Use the hashtag #WineCellarPodcast and tag @UppittyNegress on twitter to interact with us on the topics.

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LGBTQIA, Misogynoir Exposed, Wine Cellar Podcast

You’re Not In A “Panic” When You Are Murdering A Trans Woman

Miss Trans America found murdered at Massachusetts home

Her 47-year-old husband is to be arraigned this morning on a murder charge.

The two wed last year after moving to North Adams. Prior to the move, they lived in Adams for three years.

Christa Leigh was known for founding and running Miss Trans New England and Miss Trans America pageants.

She is believed to be the first transgender woman killed in the US this year.

A Mason teacher told this 13-year-old he might be lynched. The child didn’t tell his mom for a week.

The incident happened in front of the child’s class in December, according to his mother, Tanisha Agee-Bell. Mason Schools spokeswoman Tracey Carson confirmed the incident occurred in teacher Renee Thole’s classroom.

Trump Administration Will Let States Require People To Work For Medicaid

The Trump administration is encouraging states to require “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients to work or volunteer in order to keep their health insurance coverage.

On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, issued new guidelines for states that want some adults to work in exchange for the health insurance coverage.

Drunk mom crashes with 2-year-old in car, cops say. But that wasn’t the worst of it

The Florida Highway Patrol arrested Brianna Dee Knox, 28, of Beverly Hills, on charges including driving under the influence, child neglect, leaving the scene of a crash and battery on a law enforcement officer.

Knox drove recklessly and crashed into four cars on I-4 at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, the FHP said. Knox’s red 2001 Honda broke down under an overpass, then she got out of the car and started acting “erratically and disturbed,” the FHP said.

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LGBTQIA

Gathering Helps To Bring Recognition To Those Impacted By Transgender Violence

Oskaloosa, Iowa – With a quiet march to the square in Oskaloosa, from St. Paul Congregational United Church, over a dozen people took time to remember those individuals impacted by transgender violence.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual event held on November 20th each year. “The best way to remember lives lost is to educate people about what it is to be trans,” said Robin White, who was leading the vigils at the Oskaloosa Band Stand. “It’s more and more people understanding who we are, what we’re about, and that we have a right to exist on this planet just like everybody else.”

The candlelight vigils to remember those lost to transgender violence started in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, who was a transgender African-American woman who was murdered in Allston, Massachusetts in 1998.

Following Hester’s murder, the idea for a yearly vigil became a reality soon after. The purpose of the vigils was to help spread information about the lives and deaths of transgender individuals.

Robin White once again lead the service in Oskaloosa. Names were read from a list, and a quote about transgender lives was read that each person had submitted.

One of those who submitted a comment was Kiki Collier of Inglewood, Chicago, who stated, “The Trump administration’s various antitransgender moves, most dramatically, the President’s tweets foreshadowing a ban on transgender people serving in the military, have collectively made it more dangerous for our community.”

Chad Farner helps to lead the PLAG group in Oskaloosa and was an organizer of the walk on Monday.

Farner said the event is really about remembering those transgender, mostly women, who have been killed in the last year. “23 so far this year.”

“The hope for an evening like tonight is to shine a light on those tragic deaths,” added Farner, who parroted the comments of White that transgender people need to be treated with respect and not subjected to the violence that they are.

Farner said that individuals in the LGBTQ members that are part of PLAG have very positive things to say about living in Oskaloosa and the way they are treated by the community. “I think there is a lot of misunderstanding and there is a lot we need to learn about. But I think the community treats people with respect.”

PFLAG meets regularly at the Oskaloosa Public Library, a change of venue, on the third Tuesday of every month.

LGBTQIA, Political News

Danica Roem? Transgender Virginia Candidate Running For Office

A different kind of glass ceiling could be broken this Election Day by a Democrat aiming to become Virginia’s first transgender office-holder — and the first openly transgender person elected to any state legislature.

Danica Roem, 32, is running for a delegate seat in the Virginia state legislature to represent a district that favored Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election by 5 percent. She holds a coveted endorsement from former Vice President Joe Biden in an effort by national Democratic leaders to end the 16-year GOP reign in the Virginia state chamber.

Roem told Cosmopolitan that she’s not running to directly oppose President Donald Trump — after all, the state Democratic Party asked her to run for office before Trump even won the White House — but she understands the importance of her voice in Trump’s America.

As Trump pushed anti-LGBT policies like a ban on transgender people serving in the military, Roem used her voice — and fundraised based on the discriminatory rhetoric from the White House. “For our president, who opted out of serving in the military, to attack transgender people for being unfit to serve… is the height of hypocrisy,” Roem told The Washington Post. “Transgender military members… have done more to serve and protect their country than Donald Trump ever will.”

Roem has campaigned on infrastructure fixes, economic development, marginally raising the state’s minimum wage, sweeping school funding reform and civil rights issues. She called the civil rights issues a way to “improve [the] quality of life” of people in Virginia.

She hopes to unseat Robert Marshall, a Republican who sponsored Virginia’s transgender bathroom bill and a ban on gay people serving in the Virginia National Guard. His campaign website highlights his authorship of an anti-gay marriage amendment, which was struck down by a federal judge. He also opposed protection for LGBT people in the state, saying there is no evidence that it’s needed in Virginia.

“Success of the GLBT agenda in recent years has largely depended on identifying the homosexual movement as a modern version of the Civil Right struggle,” Marshall said on his campaign website. “This is, of course, nonsense.”

The polls in Virginia close 7 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.

LGBTQIA, Sex Workers Rights

Trans sex worker murdered in the Netherlands 

A transgender woman killed in a home in Arnhem on Friday worked as a prostitute and was almost certainly killed by the first customer she had in Arnhem, De Gelderlander reports based on its own research. According to the newspaper, the victim was stabbed to death.
The transgender woman from Venezuela, who worked under the name Bianca, worked as a prostitute in Rotterdam. She came to Arnhem because she heard there was enough work in the city, according to the newspaper. She sublet a space in a home on Van Oldenbarnevedtstraat, arriving late on Thursday night. Her first customer made an appointment at the home for 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. 

What happened then is not completely clear. What is clear is that the woman was killed in the home between 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning. The woman who found the body told the newspaper that there were blood smears on the walls. Five plastic bags and a suitcase were found in an alley behind the home – these too were covered in blood. They contained jewelry, a cellphone, an iPad and blood covered clothing and cloths. It is believed that the perpetrator left them behind during his flight. He also left bloody footprints for dozens of meters in the neighborhood, according to the newspaper. 

According to the Gelderlander, Bianca advertised her services on several websites. “I’m brunette and naturally have long hair, attractive lips and smooth skin”, she described herself on the sites. She also wrote that she is always alone. On the websites she said she was 22-years-old. Though colleagues told the newspaper she is actually 27, and the police put her age at 32. 

LGBTQIA, White Christians

U.S. votes against U.N. resolution that condemns death penalty for LGTBQI community 

The U.S. voted against a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution that condemns the death penalty for those found guilty of committing consensual same-sex sexual acts.
The resolution introduced by Belgium, Benin, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia and Switzerland passed by a 27-13 vote margin.

Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined the U.S. in opposing the measure. 


The resolution specifically condemns “the imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations” and expresses “serious concern that the application of the death penalty for adultery is disproportionately imposed on women.” It also notes “poor and economically vulnerable persons and foreign nationals are disproportionately subjected to the death penalty, that laws carrying the death penalty are used against persons exercising their rights to freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion, and peaceful assembly and association, and that persons belonging to religious or ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among those sentenced to the death penalty.”
“It is unconscionable to think that there are hundreds of millions of people living in States where somebody may be executed simply because of whom they love” Renato Sabbadini, executive director of The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), said in a statement. “This is a monumental moment where the international community has publicly highlighted that these horrific laws simply must end.”

ILGA, a federation of more than 1,200 member organizations from 132 countries committed to equal human rights for LGBTQI people that enjoys consultative status at the United Nations, called the resolution a “historic first.” The group produced a recent report and map that detail sexual orientation laws around the world.

The resolution asked countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty to ensure that it is not “applied arbitrarily or in a discriminatory manner.”

Currently, there are six countries (eight if parts of Syria and Iraq occupied by Isis are included) where the death penalty is implemented for same-sex relations. (Penalty applies country-wide in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, and in certain provinces in Nigeria and Somalia.)

An ILGA in a press release noted Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia sought to amend the resolution and “dilute its impact.” These amendments failed, even though the U.S. supported two of them from Russia that stated the death penalty “does not per se mean a (human rights) violation, but may lead to . . . (human rights) violations” and “in some cases the (death penalty) leads to torture, rather than that many states hold that the (death penalty) is a form of torture.”
The U.S. also backed a proposed amendment from Egypt that stated “a moratorium (on the death penalty) should be a decision after domestic debate.” The U.S. abstained from voting on a proposed amendment from Saudi Arabia that said countries have the right to “develop their own laws and penalties (in accordance with international law.)”

LGBTQIA

A Transgender Teen Was Murdered and Burned. It’s Not Considered a Hate Crime

(HOUSTON, Mo.) — Some of Ally Lee Steinfeld’s burned remains were found in a bag in a rural southern Missouri chicken coop. Authorities say both of the transgender teen’s eyes had been gouged out and she had been stabbed in the genitals.

As questions swirl about why the quiet 17-year-old was killed in such a ghastly manner, authorities aren’t saying what led to the killing. But they dismiss the possibility the death was a hate crime.

Authorities identified the remains as those of Joseph Matthew Steinfeld Jr. — Ally Lee Steinfeld’s birth name. They were found last week in the town of Cabool, near the mobile home of one of the alleged killers, 24-year-old Briana Calderas, with whom Steinfeld was living.

Calderas and two 18-year-olds, Andrew Vrba and Isis Schauer, are charged with first-degree murder and other counts. A fourth suspect is charged with abandonment of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Both Sheriff James Sigman and prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. insist the crime was not motivated by Steinfeld’s gender identity.

“I would say murder in the first-degree is all that matters,” Stevens said. “That is a hate crime in itself.”

Yet the killing has drawn the attention of transgender advocates and others across the U.S. who believe Steinfeld was targeted for her gender identity, despite what the Texas County sheriff and prosecutor say.

“This violence, often motivated by hatred, must come to an end,” said Chris Sgro, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, who said Steinfeld was the 21st transgender person killed this year in the U.S. “We will continue to mourn Ally and fight back against transphobia and anti-trans violence.”

Steinfeld had been missing for weeks, and initial news reports referred to her as a male, in part because missing-person posters distributed by the family used Steinfeld’s birth name, as did police documents.

Steinfeld’s mother, Amber Steinfeld, still refers to her child as Joey, but said the teen identified as female to family and to friends on social media. She said her child was “loving and kind-hearted.”

Steinfeld was engaged to a woman until they broke up in August, Amber Steinfeld said, and soon after began dating Calderas. She said Steinfeld and the two 18-year-old suspects were all living at Calderas’ mobile home. She said Steinfeld was upbeat before she disappeared, telling relatives that she loved them and was happy.

Steinfeld grew up mostly in House Springs, Missouri, near St. Louis, Amber Steinfeld said. The family moved briefly to Florida, then to Texas County, an area of rugged hills in southern Missouri.

Steinfeld dropped out of high school upon turning 17, Amber Steinfeld said. At about the same time, the rest of the family moved back to House Springs, but Steinfeld stayed in Houston, Missouri, living with different friends.

In May, Steinfeld posted on Instagram that she was coming out and was “mtf,” or male-to-female. In a posting on June 13, Steinfeld referred to herself as “Trans male to female and I am mostly lesbian but pansexual.” In another that same day she wrote, “I am proud to be me I am proud to be trans I am beautiful I don’t care what people think.”

Vrba told investigators he initially tried to poison Steinfeld, then described how he stabbed Steinfeld in the living room of Calderas’ mobile home, Deputy Rowdy Douglas wrote in a probable cause statement. The female suspects said Vrba bragged to them about how he gouged Steinfeld’s eyes and stabbed Steinfeld in the genitals, Douglas wrote. The probable cause statement does not offer any motive.

Authorities say the three suspects burned Steinfeld’s body, placed some of the bones into a garbage bag and put the bag in the chicken coop. Calderas admitted helping burn the body and led authorities to the knife used in the killing, Douglas wrote.

An attorney for the three suspects, Michael Jacobs, said Tuesday that it was too early to comment.

Linda Camara, 61, a friend of Steinfeld’s family, was struck by the gruesome nature of the killing.

“People kill each other, which is bad, but to do it that way, that’s something you see in movies,” Camara said. “And the three people who did this, they were kids, too.”

LGBTQIA, Social Issues

Trans teen murdered in Missouri

Three people have been charged in the murder of a Missouri teen whose body was found burned and sexually mutilated.

Police charged a man and two women Thursday in the killing of 17-year-old trans girl, ALLY LEE**  Steinfeld, the Houston Herald reported. The suspects were identified as Andrew Vrba, 18; Isis Schauer, 18; and Briana Calderas, 24.

All three were charged with first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse. Vrba and his girlfriend, Isis Schauer, were also slapped with armed criminal action charges. Steinfeld’s burned remains were found at Calderas’ mobile home near Cabool after her family reported her missing on September 14th.

The break in the case came when police discovered the female suspects had messaged each other on Facebook about the murder. Court documents allege Facebook messages were found on Schauer’s phone from an account linked to Vrba, telling her to “stick to the story” and “quit talking.” Vrba later told investigators he killed Steinfeld, though he didn’t provide a motive, according to case documents.

The female suspects told police that Vrba had bragged about sexually mutilating the teen and gouging her eyes out, according to the Houston Herald. Vrba confessed to officers that he stabbed the teen to death and burned her body with the help of the women, but did not offer a motive.

The three suspects are being held without bond. Vrba’s attorney declined comment to The Associated Press on Friday, while no attorneys were listed in online court records for Schauer or Calderas.

“It is a grisly terrible series of heinous acts by the accused,” Texas County Prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. told the Houston Herald.

All three suspects are being held without bail.

 

**All news reports at this time are dead naming/misgendering the murder victim. All additional story details are being reported under the name Joseph Steinfeld.