The D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill last week that makes it easier for transgender and intersex individuals to obtain new birth certificates reflecting their correct gender and name, while simplifying and streamlining the current process of amending such information.
The JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013, named after transgender woman Deoni Jones, who was killed while waiting at a Northeast D.C. bus stop last year, seeks to modernize the District's laws to make it easier for transgender individuals to request new birth certificates reflecting their correct personal information. The bill was introduced by Councilmember David Catania (I-At large) and shepherded through the Committee on Health and the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety by Council Chairman Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), respectively.
The bill requires those seeking to obtain a new birth certificate to submit a written and signed request from the person in question and a signed statement from a licensed health care professional attesting that the applicant has received treatment appropriate for a gender transition. The bill also eliminates a requirement that individuals publish their names and gender change in a general publication newspaper for three consecutive weeks.
The two activists spearheading the effort to pass the bill, Andy Bowen of the DC Trans Coalition, and Lisa Mottet, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project, say the procedures for obtaining a new birth certificate outlined in the bill mirror policies currently used by the State Department regarding gender reassignment.
The legislation also allows people born outside the District wanting to amend their name or gender to obtain a court order asking the original jurisdiction to issue a new birth certificate with the corrected information.
The June 26 vote, which Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) called a ''great leap forward,'' sets up the bill to be unanimously approved by the D.C. Council for the second time in early July, just before the scheduled summer recess. Once passed, Mayor Vincent Gray (D) is expected to sign it into law, meaning it will take effect after the mandatory 30-day congressional review period, sometime in the fall of 2013.
...moreLocal activists, community members, business owners and officers of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) gathered at The DC Center, Washington's LGBT community center, Friday to discuss possible responses to several recent anti-LGBT attacks.
Earline Budd, of the transgender-services agency Transgender Health Empowerment, chaired the meeting. David Mariner, executive director of The DC Center; Richard J. Rosendall of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA); Nico Quintana of the DC Trans Coalition (DCTC); Ruby Corado of Casa Ruby; and Sterling Washington from the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs were also part of the meeting of about 30 people.
''Unfortunately, we find ourselves coming together again to condemn violence against the LGBT community, and specifically transgender women of color,'' Quintana said to the audience.
Recent attacks discussed at the meeting involved a transgender woman stabbed 35 to 40 times June 21, a transgender woman fatally shot June 22, a transgender woman who suffered a non-fatal bullet wound June 27, and a gay man beaten June 23 while wearing his drag-entertainer attire. After the meeting, however, on June 29, two more transgender woman were assaulted.
Budd warned the audience that anti-transgender attacks typically tend to increase in the summer, as do the number of overall crimes, but said it was important to seek community feedback in order to take needed steps to prepare for the next anti-transgender attack that occurs in the District. In particular, Budd emphasized the need for outreach to those who might be at risk, such as transgender women who are out on the streets at night or in the early morning hours.
''We've got to get involved, and the biggest thing is making the trans community aware that these things are happening, because there are a lot of transgender women who know absolutely nothing of any of the events we are talking about,'' Budd said.
At times, the meeting roiled, as Rosendall called for calm. Many in the audience vented their anger specifically at Earl Hooks, a public relations representative who attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of Manny & Olga's restaurant, where the gay man, Miles DeNiro, who performs as Heidi Glüm, was beaten.
Local activist Danielle King, as well as other transgender audience members, seemed to take offense at Hooks's characterization of the incident, asking Hooks why employees of Manny & Olga's did not step in to stop the fight or call 911, which, according to a viral video clip of the fight, continued for several minutes.
''Why did you allow this incident to occur, instead of proactively addressing hate crimes, or hate or violence within your store?'' King asked during an exchange with Hooks. ''My other concern is how do you employ individuals who are not human enough to protect other individuals, or at least pick up the phone and advocate for them by calling the police?''
The audience's anger spilled over when Hooks began to expound the company's policy of not putting employees in danger, with audience members countering that an employee may have safely phoned the police.
''No one asked you to put anyone in danger,'' Mariner said tersely.
Hooks maintained that employees did contact police, though he could not say whether a call to police came from the restaurant's main phone or an employee's personal cell phone.
''Our policy is not to touch anyone that comes into the store,'' Hooks said of the company's policy regarding fighting. He expressed uncertainty as to the specific policy regarding intervention when acts of physical violence occur, but said that the determination of when and how to get involved is often left to the discretion of employees, who may be trying to follow the lead of senior staff or management.
''Often times, we're always able to look at video, and look at something after the fact, and talk about what we would have done or what we should have done,'' Hooks said, promising that the restaurant would seek to institute training for its employees to better deal with such situations in the future. ''What it is up to us to do now is take this particular instance, learn from it, make sure we do have the proper policies in place, make sure we do know how best effectively to respond to physical actions that could involve our employees as well, and learn some of that from the Police Department. Because we've had instances where they don't want us to get involved because it then escalates.''
But the activists didn't just vent their frustrations over the recent spate of anti-LGBT attacks, but used the meeting as a brainstorming activity to propose actions to help combat bias-motivated crimes. Budd, for example, proposed LGBT-cultural-sensitivity training for employees of area establishments.
D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, appeared during the brainstorming session seeking about what the D.C. Council can do legislatively to better address the needs of transgender citizens.
''To a degree we've made some progress, but now and again we take two steps back,'' Wells said. ''When we hear about the amount of violence that has occurred, we've taken two steps back. … I know we've made a lot of progress on gay and lesbian rights, but we still have a long way to go on transgender rights. We have to get smarter and better about that, but I also believe that, at least in D.C., we're a city where we can do it.''
Some of the more popular proposals generated at the meeting included investing substantial resources into training, not only for police but across government agencies; organizing a social media forum or message board where people could learn about recent incidents in order to take precautions; submitting victim- or community-impact statements to judges presiding over bias-crime sentencing; and using social media to help document cases where anti-LGBT violence occurs.
King, a victim of violence, recounted her struggles with navigating the bureaucracy of support systems already in place that are intended to serve crime victims, indicating a need for reform in those systems. Other activists, including Nick McCoy and Rosendall, also emphasized the need for better communication among various advocacy groups and ways to provide more opportunities for those transgender residents without gainful employment, particularly those who have been forced into survival sex work.
''I think it is important that there is a proactive approach from the agencies that may have the ability to resolve, or at least attempt to, the issue of violence in the LGBT community,'' said Corado, who described the ongoing fight against bias-motivated violence as ''one of those never-ending issues in this city.''
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D.C.'s summer of 2013 is off to a tragic start, with these first days since the season began June 21 seeing attacks against five transgender women, one fatal.
The first attack occurred June 21 around 1 a.m. in the 3000 block of Stanton Road SE, in the District's Fort Stanton neighborhood. A transgender woman was stabbed anywhere from 35 to 40 times, suffering injuries to her back, hands and chest, including a punctured lung.
According to a friend of the victim who gave her name as Tammy during a June 28 community meeting addressing recent anti-LGBT violence, the victim told her that the suspect had asked to meet her in an abandoned house. After a passerby asked what the man was doing with the victim, who the passerby allegedly referred to as a ''faggy,'' the man attacked the victim and then fled.
The victim attempted to return to her home, at which time responding officers arrived. The victim was transported to Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly, Md., where she was listed as in serious but stable condition. On June 27, the victim wrote on her Facebook page that she had been released from the hospital, one day after MPD announced the arrest of its chief suspect in the case, 23-year-old Michael McBride, who has been charged with assault with intent to kill.
The second attack occurred a day after the stabbing, around 2 a.m., in the 1300 block of Stevens Road SE, in the city's Barry Farms neighborhood. MPD officers responded to a report of a shooting and found a transgender woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics transported the victim to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries. MPD has identified her as 35-year-old Malika Stover of Southeast D.C. The homicide remains under investigation.
On June 27, a transgender woman was in the 500 block of Eastern Avenue NE, in the city's East Corner, when she was approached by two males around 6 a.m. One of the men assaulted her, prompting her to flee, at which point she was shot. The victim was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for her injury. According to MPD, the two suspects in that shooting were seen fleeing the scene in a gray, four-door sedan, with the front driver's side hubcap missing. The first male is described as a black, 5'10'' with a dark complexion, and the second is described as heavyset, black, 6-feet tall, with a medium-brown complexion. Police also posted surveillance video of two ''persons of interest'' in the case and are seeking the public's help in identifying them.
On June 29, at 3:30 a.m. a transgender woman was walking in the East Corner neighborhood, in the 300 block of 61st Street NE, when she accepted a ride from an unknown male. Once inside the vehicle, she was sexually assaulted.
The suspect in that case is described as a 30- to 35-year-old male with a stocky build, light complexion, mustache, driving a dark gray Toyota Corolla with Maryland tags. The case remains under investigation.
Half an hour later, at 4 a.m., on the other side of the Anacostia River, a transgender woman was approached by two adult males while walking in the area around 5th and K Streets NE. The men attempted to rob her and one of them shot her. The victim was transported to a local hospital where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The two suspects are described as a 19- to 20-year-old male with a light complexion, dreadlocks, wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and a red jacked tied around his waist; and a black male with a dark complexion.
Anyone with information in any of these cases is asked to call Police at 202-727-9099. Information can also be submitted to the Text Tip Line by text-messaging 50411.
MPD offers a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest or conviction of the people responsible. MPD also offers up to $10,000 for those who provide information related to a robbery, and up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information related to a homicide.
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