Transgender leader honored at Harvard

[Kate Thomas]

http://www.planetout.com/news/election/article.html?2006/05/09/4

PlanetOut Network
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 / 02:06 PM
A Harvard University group has named transgender advocate Mara Keisling as the Outstanding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Person of the Year, and she has been invited to address the university on LGBT issues.

Keisling, who is executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, was to give the annual Papadopoulos Lecture on Tuesday.

"It is an honor to be recognized with this award from one of the pre-eminent institutions of higher learning," said Keisling. "It speaks to just how far the movement for transgender civil rights has come in the past decade. I'm proud to be asked to speak to the Harvard community about the victories transgender advocates have made -- and continue to make -- against tremendous odds

http://www.nctequality.org/




Posted at: May 10, 2006, 11:26:56 PMA Crimson news story after the event.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513432

Published On Wednesday, May 10, 2006  3:30 AM

By ABE J. RIESMAN

Crimson Staff Writer

The establishment of protections for transgender people in Harvard's nondiscrimination policy has had effects on campuses "across the country," including Princeton University, according to one of the nation's leading lobbyists for transgender rights.

Mara Keisling, the founding executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, praised the efforts of Harvard's Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) in a lecture last night at Harvard Hall.

"I was working on the Princeton policy, and the H-word was bandied about quite a bit," she said. Last week, Princeton's administration added provisions for "gender identity and expression" into its nondiscrimination policy.

Keisling summed up the need for self-determination in the transgender movement by telling an anecdote about three mice who go to heaven, ask an angel for rollerskates, receive them, and are subsequently eaten by three cats who praise heaven's "meals on wheels" program.

"The point of that story," Keisling said, "is that if you're not part of your own liberation, if it's being done by other people, even if they're well-intentioned, you might get eaten."

[NightAngel]

That's a great news!!

Thank you for sharing with us KateAlice!

* *

Michelle

[Kate Thomas]

BTW
what I think Mara Keisling  is refering to  in her closing statement is a long term dispute between trans-adovacats and national GLB-adovocates.

https://www.susans.org/Activism/7.html

KateAlice