Hey,
My name's Aidyn, I'm 22, ftm, just wanting to invite anyone in the Las Vegas area to come to The Center at 5:30 on Fridays for Trans.lation. It's a weekly group open to anyone trans identified, supporters and loved ones.
Our first meeting was pretty large – 21 trans individuals and supporters attended and brainstormed about what trans-related services are needed in Southern Nevada. That night, we also began compiling information and resources from group attendees and other trans-folk in order to create a transgender resource guide that will be available to anyone who needs the information.
Our second meeting (on December 26th) was small but very informative and productive. Jane Heenan, a local Marriage and Family Therapist and transgender advocate attended the meeting and shared some very important information with us, which I am passing along to you below. The information comes directly from an email that she sent a few weeks ago:
hi all,
i write to announce that recently elected assemblyman paul aizley (d-district 41) has submitted a bill draft request numbered 792 by the legislative counsel bureau. this bdr would add protections to the nevada statute on employment protections for persons on the basis of gender identity and expression. the lcb will take the bdr and create a bill that will originate in the assembly and will assign this bill a number that can used to track its progress through the legislature. (here is a site to see:
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/BDRList/page.cfm?showAll=1 -- bdr 792 is near the bottom of the page.) i am told that the presence of this bdr means, in part, that the leadership of the state democratic party is not opposed to this legislation. we have miles to go before we sleep, and we will need lots of assistance to get there, and this is certainly an event to celebrate, especially since such an event has never before occurred in nevada!
thank you to all of you who have played a part, however big or small, in making this happen. thank you especially to assemblyman paul aizley.
peace,
jane
(Note: BDR is an acronym for Bill Draft Request and LCB is an acronym for Legislative Counsel Bureau)
And our third meeting last Friday, we discussed the recent murders of three transgender women in Tennessee (which have all occurred in the last six months). If you would like to read more about these occurrences, please see
http://ttgpac.com/2008/12/29/another-transgender-woman-shot-in-memphis/ for more information.
There are just a couple of other things I would like to share with you, which I will keep brief despite my enthusiasm!!
. As decided at our last meeting, I have started a MySpace page for the group (it's not much to look at yet, but I will be adding information very soon):
www.myspace.com/translationlv· My girlfriend spoke with Kate Bornstein on the phone today about potentially visiting Las Vegas for a speaking engagement in the upcoming months (!!!). (If you don't know who Kate Bornstein is, please look her up online! She is an amazing woman, writer, trans-advocate, etc.)
I hope to see you all this Friday at 5:30! Have a great week,
Aidyn
