Saturday morning 20-year old transgender woman Amber Monroe was found dead in her apartment in Detroit, a victim of an apparent shooting. Details are sketchy at the moment but, according to transgender rights activist Julisa Abad, this was not the first time Monroe had been the victim of a shooting. Monroe was a student at Wayne State University but had […]

Both the lawsuit and legislation seek to update gender markers on state identification. Imagine having to share the deepest of personal information about yourself — information that could subject you to discrimination, violence or worse — every time you wanted to cash a check. Imagine being challenged every time you pull out your state-issued identification because you look like a […]

Earlier this month I wrote about a woman in Midland who had her Planet Fitness membership cancelled because she spent her days in their gym warning anyone who would listen that Planet Fitness had a “No Judgment Zone” policy that permitted a transgender woman to enter the women’s locker room. Keep in mind that their locker rooms have private changing […]

This is the feel good story of the month so far. Planet Fitness, a national chain of fitness clubs, has a the motto “Judgement Free Zone”. So, when one of their members in Midland, Michigan complained (and complained and complained) that a trans* woman was using the women’s locker room, they reluctantly took action. The action was to tell the […]

Since last week’s hearing on expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include the LGBT community, I have been sharing testimony prepared by members of the trans* community that were to be delivered at the State House Commerce Committee hearing. Since not enough time was alotted to hear these personal stories at the hearing, seven of them have been […]

Over the past two days, I have been sharing testimony prepared by members of the trans* community that were to be delivered at a State House Commerce Committee hearing on expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include the LGBT community. Unfortunately, not enough time was alotted to hear these personal stories. You can read them HERE and HERE. […]

Yesterday, I wrote about how nobody from the LGBT community was given time to speak about their personal stories at the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act expansion legislation hearing. In that piece, I published the prepared testimony of trans activist and personal friend Amy Hunter from Kalamazoo. Amy wasn’t the only one who had prepared to speak but was unable to […]

Back in September, I wrote about how Michigan Republicans, facing massive pressure from across the state – including from the business community they worship with such reverance – started discussing updating the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include civil rights protections for the LGB community. They had no intention, I had heard at the time, of including protections for “gender […]

Advocates are working to get the same services covered for trans men and women that are covered for everyone else. Jay Maddock has known he was a man for most of his life, even though that’s not the body he was born with. At age five, he told his dad he wanted to be a man, and was fortunate to […]