Muammar Al Khadafi

I talked about Philly's Jovanie Saldana, who has not only found herself locked up for over a year on $15,000 bail while awaiting trial for an aggravated assault and other charges, she found herself being transferred to a male prison unit from the female one she'd been housed in.

Jovanie has been transitioning since age 12 and it was discovered she was a pre-operative trans person in the wake of her filing charges against a guard for an alleged sexual assault.

I discovered that the corrections officer in question was cleared of the charges (surprise, surprise) and a cis female prisoner housed with Jovanie for five weeks is now suing the city of Philadelphia for 'violating her privacy'.  

According to this Tara Murtha story in the Philly Now blog,  the Philadelphia prison system has a policy that addresses transgender inmates beyond sorting by genitalia only.  Policy 3.E.7. states that “the classification of transgender inmates, or inmates who are “intersex,” will be determined by the Classification Unit in partnership with the medical and behavioral heath services providers.”After evaluation, transgender inmates are classified as either confirmed (wherein the transgender status of the inmate is supported by legal and/or clinical documentation, regardless of sexual anatomy) or unsubstantiated.

Jovanie was classified as 'unsubstantiated' and is now in isolation in that male dominated facility with her trial scheduled to start on Halloween (no joke) after being postponed six times since February 2011

Stay tuned, will keep you posted with any further updates on this one.

One of the things the trans community is painfully aware of is that the ballyhooed repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell last month still left the trans community behind and vulnerable to the same discharges that GLB soldiers used to endure but no longer have to worry about.  

Staff Sergeant Rebecca Grant was discharged under the DADT policy two weeks before it ended.

Besides TAVA who is leading this fight to allow trans people tom openly serve, we just picked up an ally in pleading our case to allow trans people to openly serve in our country's military in Ivy League institution Brown University.

Brown President Dr. Ruth J. Simmons called on the university to "commit to helping to arouse greater national attention to the discrimination of the military and others against transgender individuals."

She wrote in a letter to the university community,"We must do all in our power as an institution to carry the message to Congress, the executive branch, and the military establishment that the policy barring transgender individuals from military service must be changed,"  

Brown ended its ROTC programs during the contentious Vietnam War era in 1969 and kept the bans in place due to anti-GLBT discrimination in the military.   In the wake of the passage of the repeal legislation and September 20 implementation of the end of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, the Providence, RI based school was in the process of reconsidering lifting the ban and allowing the ROTC programs to resume on campus. 

Dr. Simmons favors continuing the on campus ROTC program ban while favoring expanded options for Brown students to participate in ROTC programs on other campuses

The proposal by President Simmons to continue the ROTC ban must go to the university's Corporation for the final say.

"Many speak about the importance of service to the nation through the military and they are correct," Dr. Simmons wrote in the letter. "However, to root out the manifestation and vestiges of discrimination from our national life is an equally important dimension of serving the nation."

Thank you Dr. Simmons and Brown University community for being willing to add your voices to others who speak loudly and clearly against anti-transgender discrimination and are standing up for our right to serve in our nation's military.

Usually I ignore stuff from the gossip blog world unless I need to put them on blast for their transphobia (Bossip and Sandra Rose), but when it comes from the blog that broke before the mainstream media did the news that Michael Jackson had died, you have to sit up and pay attention.

According to the booking documents that TMZ.com dug up, troubled actress Lindsay Lohan who was just ordered back to jail for violating the terms of her probation, may be trans.

Note the big 'M' in the gender code in these booking documents.

She's facing a pissed off judge, a $100,000 bail and a November 2 probation violation hearing which could result in her spending a year and a half in the Iron Bar Hotel. 

Stay tuned.   Unless this 'M' in the gender field was a coding error, she's a stealth trans person who just got outed in a very uncontrolled and embarrassing way, and it'll be interesting to see how she and her publicist handles it.

If it's true, it's another example of Hollywood being able to keep secrets better than the folks inside I-495 can.

And my rule is I assume you're a cis person until you tell me otherwise.


It also explains some of her behavior lately, which I'll offer my thoughts on once I confirm if this is true and not a coding error.

And cue me putting TMZ.com on blast for their transphobia in 5...4...3...2...1...