Posts by Gwen Smith

Posts by Gwen Smith

Gender Nation: Funeral funded, certificates changed, and film faux pas fixed

August 8, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Funeral funded for fallen trans man Daine Gray, a 22-year-old trans man who was studying at City College of San Francisco took his life on the 2nd of July. Thanks to the generosity of both his friends and sympathetic strangers, Gray will receive a proper burial. After his death, his body stayed in… Read more.

Gender Nation: Is a serial killer targeting black trans women?

July 4, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Is a serial killer targeting black trans women? The transgender community in Florida is on edge following a string of murders, leading many to assume this could be the work of a serial killer. Three African American transgender women have been shot in Jacksonville just this month. On the 4th of February, Celine… Read more.

Gender Nation: A pair of painful losses

June 1, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Obama-era trans prison policies rolled back A federal lawsuit in Texas is at the heart of an attempt by the Justice Department to roll back protections for transgender inmates and is the latest in a string of rights losses under the Trump administration. In a revised Transgender Offender Manual, the Bureau of Prisons will… Read more.

Gender Nation: State health case could have national ramifications

May 23, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. State health case could have national ramifications The state of Wisconsin may have violated the rights of two state residents by denying medical treatment related to them being transgender, claims a Federal lawsuit. The plaintiffs, Cody Flack and Ann Makenzie, have been turned down for surgical care by the state. Wisconsin Medicaid classified treatment… Read more.

Gender Nation: Military Ban is stayed, once again

April 30, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Military Ban is stayed, once again In yet another rebuke of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, a federal judge has once again barred the implementation of the administration's ban on transgender people serving openly in the United States Military. The Government had been arguing that their ban on transgender service members… Read more.

Gender Nation: Transphobia, Termination, and Tinder

April 2, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. A questionable search leads to lawsuit A lawsuit against a Louisiana prison claims that a transgender visitor to the facility was ordered to strip and reveal her genitalia before she would be allowed to leave. China Nelson visited her brother, an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana in September of 2017.… Read more.

Gender Nation: An Oscar Win while RuPaul Fails

March 12, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. An Oscar Win The Academy Awards, which has been beset with calls for greater diversity in recent years, was nevertheless the site of a landmark victory for a transgender Chilean as the movie A Fantastic Woman won for best foreign language film. The movie is the first to feature a transgender story and a transgender… Read more.

Gender Nation: Attacks of all sorts

February 18, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Attacks of all sorts In what may set the tone for the 2018 midterm elections, an ad for Illinois candidate for Governor, Jeanne Ives, is targeting transgender people and other favorite conservative targets. The advert, named "Thank you, Bruce Rauner," criticizes her Democratic opponent, using people who may or may not be actors to… Read more.

Gender Nation: Justice Served for Davia Spain

January 26, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Justice Served for Davia Spain San Francisco will not be filing charges against Davia Spain, a trans woman who was arrested on the 19th of January for domestic violence, battery, and burglary. The case led to an online petition signed by nearly 2000 people calling for her release, as well as a gathering at… Read more.

Gender Nation: Trans prisoners, the next battleground

January 10, 2018 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Trans prisoners, the next battleground A federal court case represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, Rhonda Fleming vs. the United States of America, could effectively bar transgender prisoners from facilities appropriate to their gender identity. The case, filed in late 2016 under the Obama Administration, seeks to have trans feminine prisoners removed from Federal… Read more.

Gender Nation: Catholic Bishops & Trump’s DOJ are liars

December 19, 2017 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Department of Justice caught fibbing about trans troops In yet another "last-ditch" effort to continue their ban on transgender troops, the Trump administration has been caught in a lie. In seeking a stay of the most recent order to left transgender people serve openly beginning on the 1st of January, the United States Department… Read more.

Gender Nation: Justice coming in two anti-trans murders

December 2, 2017 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Justice coming in two anti-trans murders Vermont and Texas, as a pair of anti-transgender killers, get their day in court. In a grand jury trial in San Antonio, Texas, Mark Daniel Lewis was indicted in the death of Kenne McFadden, an African-American transgender woman whose body was discovered in the San Antonio River on… Read more.

Gender Nation: Rape, Segregation, & Justice

November 16, 2017 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Molesting & Raping Inmates as "Justice" A 52-year-old trans woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. The case cites harassment suffered by both guards and other inmates due in part to her being housed in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, an all-male prison. She is seeking to be… Read more.

Gender Nation: Killing Pride, Politically Pimping Rape, & Wal-Mart Discriminates Against Trans People

November 2, 2017 ·

Gender Nation is a bi-weekly column by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, reviewing news affecting the trans, intersex, and genderqueer community. Killing Pride A teacher in Cambridge, New York, was suspended with pay after complaints from parents over a transgender-themed handout. The teacher, reported by the Glens Falls Post-Star as Jacqueline Hill, teaches health classes for both the seventh and tenth grades at Cambridge Central School. She was placed on "administrative leave" as a result… Read more.

We’ve been here before: child molesters & the political right

April 4, 2017 ·

This was the era of Anita Bryant's crusade against lesbians and gays. "As a mother," Bryant said, "I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children." This was the predominant belief; this notion that gays and lesbians need to "recruit" people to grow in numbers, and therefore are grooming children. It was very effective, as it tapped into primal fears that one's own sons and daughters could be in peril from a menace that the… Read more.