In January of 2014 California, Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins introduced the Respect After Death Act (AB 1577), and Gov. Brown signed it into law the following September 26th. As of July 1, 2015, it requires the official responsible for completing a transgender person’s death certificate to do so in a manner that reflects the person’s gender identity if they are presented appropriate documentation, such as written instructions from the deceased person confirming their wishes, an updated birth certificate… Read more.

The inaugural BlaqOUT Conference will be held April 18-19 on the UC Riverside campus! The University of California, Riverside cordially invites all folks who self identify as Black/African American or of African descent and as Same Gender Loving, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning or somewhere on the LGBT spectrum to apply to attend. So what does it cost to attend BlaqOUT? The Regular Registration Fee is $20 per person selected to attend and a t-shirt is included. The Reduced Registration Fee is $10 per person… 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.

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.

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.