The day after the Maryland House of Delegates passed legislation making discrimination against transgender people illegal, one group has decided to take action against it. The bill, SB 212 "Fairness for All Marylanders Act of 2014" amends the state's law to include gender identity in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the conservative group MD Petitions emailed supporters telling them: "The good news is that we don't have to accept this bill as law – there is another… Read more.

"I don't mind if you take pictures, especially like liposuction me, if you've got any sort of like...yeah, Photoshop -- something like that. But, we're not recording tonight. We recently were targeted by the IRS for those of you on our email list; we recently just finished -- and you'll be hearing more about this -- an audit by the Attorney General that was due on the same day that final numbers on AB1266 came out." - Karen England,… Read more.

The one thing that you have to realize is that everything the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) did to a trans kid in Colorado was about PJI's desire to stop a law in California that codified equality standards for trans children. Law makers in California proposed legislation that would help ensure that California's trans children would be able to have a school experience free from institutionalized oppression. PJI hated this idea and decided that were going to fight it every… Read more.

On Monday, January 13, I interviewed Judy Chiasson of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for a bit under an hour, and this post is the second segment posted of this interview. You may remember that Chiasson was the LAUSD representative who gave testimony before the California Senate Education Committee in June of 2013. This segment of the interview for the most part was about AB1266 and what the Los Angeles Unified School District policy regarding transgender students. This… Read more.

On Monday, January 13, I interviewed Judy Chiasson of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for a bit under an hour. You may remember that she was the LAUSD representative who gave testimony before the California Senate Education Committee in June of 2013. The interview for the most part was about AB1266 and what the Los Angeles Unified School District policy regarding transgender students. Key parts of the interview include her take on whether LAUSD is going to change… Read more.

Quoting my anonymous peer activist friend whose helping me with the numbers: San Diego County is in and puts the pro-trans side in a better place than it found itself Friday. Only three counties to go: Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Nevada. I'm getting a feeling this may not make it from spot-checking to the full count. Duplicate signatures in spot-checking drive down validity rate dramatically. San Diego County had a whopping 4 duplicates in spot-checking, but this forced its… Read more.

In their December 30, 2013 press release Co-ed Bathroom Bill Update: Legislature Still Has To Hold It, the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) claims that the California Success and Opportunity Act (the act that that they're attempting to rebrand as the "Co-ed Bathroom Bill") doesn't go into effect on January 1, 2014. Sacramento, CA-- A referendum has put on hold a 37 word bill which would have opened up restrooms, locker rooms and showers in K-12 public schools to students “irrespective… Read more.

The data in this update is in large part from a peer LGBT community activist who wants to remain anonymous, and the commentary is mine. The update is accurate as of the December 10th update found on the California Secretary of State's page on the AB1266 referendum update page. The position of the proponents has improved since the December 4th update. Counties that have completed the spot-checking of signature validity: 32 of 58. Percentage of total signatures turned in that… Read more.

If we don't get it -- enough signatures -- we have to get over a half-a-million signatures, and if we don't...we aren't able to get enough signatures, then it goes into effect on January first. And then it's...we're going to see victims -- I believe we'll see victims all throughout the state of California. Boys and girls -- You know, 13 year-old, 14 year-old girls who suddenly find themselves in the same shower bin as a naked boy...a 16 year-old… Read more.

The Secretary of State's office described the process and procedure for qualifying the School Success And Opportunity Act (AB1266) for referendum on the November, 2014 ballot: Once the requisite number of signatures has been collected, they must be filed with the appropriate county elections official(s). Counties then have eight working days to report the raw count of signatures to the Secretary of State. If the raw count of signatures equals 100% or more of the total number of signatures needed… Read more.

I've collected a number of quotes from those against California's School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266) referendum signature drive and should it turn out to be successful. There's also some background quotes by some of the characters or organizations involved with signature drive as they give some context for previous comments. So, to give you an idea of the measured words of the PJI at the hearing on AB 1266 (The California Success and Opportunity Act) bill and their… Read more.

Ben Lopez of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) testified against California's Success and Opportunity Act at the State Senate Education Committee hearing on June 12, 2013. An excerpt from his testimony: This bill would call for any student and young adult who perceives themselves to be something other than their sex at birth to share shower facilities, restrooms, locker rooms with gender or sex they feel they are at any given time. The problem is that this bill, or current… Read more.

Call them classic transsexuals or women of operative history; call them true transsexuals or transsexual separatists -- whatever you call them, you can also call them ineffectual slacktivists. Over at LGBT Weekly where I write the Trans Progressive column, the August 15, 2013 column is about this year's California Transgender Advocacy Day. About fifty people, including trans adults, trans youth, parents of trans youth, and allies lobbied for three bills that will impact trans people -- trans people who are… Read more.

It's kind of sad, really. Progressive talking heads on cable television aren't talking about Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signing AB 1266, the School Success and Opportunity Act. (The act will become law on January 1, 2014 -- the tenth anniversary of California's first transgender rights bill, AB 196, the Gender Nondiscrimination Act, becoming law.) From the Transgender Law Center's description of the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed on August 12, 1213: California law already prohibits discrimination in… Read more.