D.C. launches transgender rights campaign

[SandraJane]

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D.C. launches transgender rights campaign


By Michael K. Lavers on September 13, 2012


http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/09/13/d-c-launches-transgender-rights-campaign/


https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,126737.0.html   Related article



Consuella Lopez is one of the five transgender residents who appears in the campaign (Photo courtesy of the D.C. Office of Human Rights)


Mayor Vincent Gray and other D.C. officials on Thursday officially unveiled the country's first publicly-funded campaign to combat anti-transgender discrimination.

"We know an ad campaign is not a cure all or a panacea, but it is a step in the right direction," said Gray at Mova on 14th Street, N.W., before he, Office of Human Rights Director Gustavo Velasquez and others unveiled five separate ads that feature five trans or gender variant people who live in the city. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1;) Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs, Earlene Budd of Transgender Health Empowerment and Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, were among the activists and other officials who attended the unveiling. "It is saying that we are going to step out; we are going to be on the forefront; we are going to send a message that people who are transgender have as much a place in the District of Columbia as anybody else."

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Office of Human Rights



OHR and Mayor Gray Launch Groundbreaking Ad Campaign Promoting Respect for Transgender Community


Messages to Appear Citywide; Advocacy Organizations Say Campaign Is First of its Kind


Thursday, September 13, 2012


http://ohr.dc.gov/release/ohr-and-mayor-gray-launch-groundbreaking-ad-campaign-promoting-respect-transgender-community


(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Mayor Vincent C. Gray and the D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR) today launched an ambitious and groundbreaking campaign promoting respect for the District's transgender and gender-non-conforming communities. The campaign advertisements feature community members with positive messages and are intended to increase understanding of transgender and gender non-conforming people, reduce incidents of discrimination and increase reporting of such incidents to OHR.

According to advocates, the citywide campaign is the first government-funded campaign in the nation to focus exclusively on these communities.

"This District is committed to ensuring that all people are protected from discrimination, and that includes discrimination against the transgender and gender-non-conforming communities," said Mayor Gray. "This landmark campaign from the Office of Human Rights is an important piece of a larger effort by my administration to ensure all residents have equal access to employment, housing and public services and accommodations regardless of gender identity or expression."

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Office of Human Rights



Transgender and Gender Identity Respect Campaign


Retrieved from the Internet on September 16, 2012 by SJ


http://ohr.dc.gov/transrespect





Spread word on Twitter: #TransRespectThe groundbreaking Transgender and Gender Identity Respect Campaign has been called by advocates the first government-funded campaign focused exclusively on the betterment of transgender and gender non-conforming people. Developed at the DC Office of Human Rights (OHR) in close consultation with transgender advocates and community members, the campaign aims to increase understanding and respect for the transgender and gender non-conforming communities, decrease incidents of discrimination and increase reporting of discrimination to OHR. The five campaign ads feature actual community members, and will appear citywide on bus shelters in the fall and winter of 2012.

[Shana A]

D.C. Launches First-in-Nation Transgender Ad Campaign
Effort aims to promote awareness among District residents of transgender people, combat anti-trans discrimination

By John Riley
Published on September 18, 2012, 1:39pm

http://www.metroweekly.com/news/?ak=7745

The D.C. Office of Human Rights officially unveiled its first-in-the-nation government-sponsored transgender ad campaign Sept. 13 before a packed room at a local bar, Mova.

The campaign – developed through collaboration with transgender advocates, focus groups and LGBT organizations such as Transgender Health Empowerment, the DC Trans Coalition and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force – features five variations. Two of the ads feature transgender women, two feature transgender men, and the fifth features a person who identifies as ''genderqueer.''

Each ad, intended to familiarize District residents with the transgender community and emphasize things they have in common with other community members, features one transgender person and a quote from that person about what they love to do or like about living in the District.

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Transgender tolerance campaign launches in Washington D.C. in order to promote understanding and positivity
In response to incidents of violence and cultural misunderstandings that transgendered Americans face on a day -to-day basis, the nation's capital rolled out their #TransRespect campaign, in print ads and on Twitter and Facebook.

By Lindsay Goldwert / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 1:05 PM
   
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/transgender-tolerance-campaign-launches-washington-order-promote-understanding-positivity-article-1.1162133

For one of the campaign models, the choice to participate wasn't just a matter of pride -- it was a matter of life and death.

"I chose to participate in this campaign and advocate on behalf of the transgender community in memory of LaShay McLean, my intern who was killed last year because she was a transgender woman," Iden Campbell McCollum, a mental health advocate and transgender man told GLAAD. "Our community still faces high levels of discrimination and violence, but things are improving, and the government's willingness to launch a campaign for our community speaks to that improvement."