Extra, Extra — More TG News You Can Use

After our TWIT column went to press we found these other pieces of useful information laying amidst the scattered press releases, store fliers and sale coupons that we call a desk. We’ve scrapped them together and present them here. Info on Lobby Days, and how to participate in a creative photography project make up this Extra, Extra and you can read all about it by clicking for…

Lobby Days Press Release from National Center for Transgender Equality and the Transgender Law Center

Lobby Day: April 14-15, 2008 sponsored by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Transgender Law Center

Dear Friends and Allies,

Mark your calendars, make your plans, and reserve your spot today at America’s only federal Lobby Day devoted exclusively to winning full transgender equality. Join us in Washington, DC on Monday and Tuesday, April 14-15, 2008.

Every year transgender people, our families, and our allies come from around the country to speak directly to our representatives about the laws and issues that impact our lives. Last year’s debates about employment non-discrimination and hate crimes laws showed us just how critical it is that lawmakers hear directly from us. We need you to make that happen, so register today and bring a friend.

• When you attend, you will get:
• Briefings on the hottest public policy issues impacting transgender people right now;
• Full training and support materials for the lobby visits;
• Assistance in setting up your meetings if this is your first time;
• Paired up with an experienced lobbyist if you’d like.

Since the schedule for these two days is packed, please plan to arrive on Sunday, April 13. We are working with a hotel near our offices and near Dupont Circle to provide a block of rooms for us at a discounted rate. We’ll send you the details when it’s confirmed. The draft agenda is below.

Monday, April 14, 2008

•  9am – 1pm Policy Briefings (lunch provided)
• 1pm – 3pm Training for Lobby Visit
• 3pm – 4pm Policy Briefings, part 2
• 7pm – 9pm Reception at the National Press Club (separate ticket)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

• Morning (exact time tbd) Rally in front of the United States Capitol
• 9am – 12pm Lobby Visits on Capitol Hill
• 12pm – 1 pm Lunch On Your Own
• 1pm – 5pm Lobby Visits on Capitol Hill

Participating in Lobby Day, including the training, policy briefing and rally, is free. We do need you to register in advance so that we can plan for your participation and make sure that you are able to meet with your member of Congress. Once you register, we’ll send you a comprehensive packet of information about how to prepare for your visit. Click to register today!

There will be a ticket charge for the reception, to defray our costs and to help raise funds to support this and ongoing efforts to educate Congress about the need for transgender-inclusive legislation. Scholarships are available; please contact us at ncte@nctequality.org for more information. Click for more information.

The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people. The National Center for Transgender Equality is a 501(c)3 organization. For more information, please visit the website.

Your Children Project

Stephen Whittle and Sara Davidmann invite you to take part in a photography project based on trans childhood and adolescent experiences. Contact: yourchildren@saradavidmann.com

The project, Your Children, centers on bringing about awareness. It aims to educate and contribute towards generating understanding and greater safety for those concerned. The project will involve printing an adult trans person’s image from childhood of their face and head onto a brown paper bag. The person will be photographed both as they are now, and wearing the bag on their head to show their childhood self.

We welcome trans adults of any age to take part in this, but would like to emphasise that older trans people are welcome. We recognise you may have quite private lives now. However we welcome you to the project, and would give consideration to other ways of representing you so as to afford your safety. The minimum requirement is a childhood or youth photograph.

This project references back to the early trans awareness movement of the 1970s, when trans people were often asked by the media to tell their story for educational purposes. People said they might, but because of the grave danger they would face (at work, on the streets and at home) they would laugh and then say they would do it, but only if they were allowed to wear a brown paper bag. By exhibiting the two pictures together, this project will focus on the idea that trans people were once ‘Your Children’, hopefully educating parents, teachers and other child workers to the possibilities that a child in their care might be transgender.

Alongside relevant support documentation, it is hoped this will result in more younger trans people being listened to and believed as they tell adults of their cross-gender feelings. Your Children will be launched and exhibited in the UK. Educational talks will be given to coincide with the exhibition. A website of the work will be developed allowing trans people to contribute to the project on a global scale.

If you would like to take part please send a photograph from your childhood or adolescence with your name and contact details on the back. Please also include your name and a few sentences (or longer) about your childhood/adolescent experiences on a separate sheet. Selected written pieces will be exhibited alongside the pictures and will feature on the website. These should be sent (by registered/recorded post) to: BM Transperspectives, London, WC1N 3XX.

Once the pictures have been printed onto bags Sara will travel to various UK centres to take photographs of people wearing them and will return the original pictures. (We will confirm details of these centres once we have an idea of where contributors are based.) The photographs taken in the present will then be uploaded onto the Your Children website and an exhibition of the work will be held. All participants will receive private view invitations and will be kept informed of the project’s future developments.

We are also seeking volunteers living in or close to London to work with Sara on taking apart (before printing) and re-assembling (after printing) the bags. If you would be able to help with this please email: yourchildren@saradavidmann.com.

Tags: Lobby Day, Your Children Project

Category: Transgender Community News