Articles tagged with: transgender
Amanda Simpson, government official (LGBT History Month)
Amanda Simpson is the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology in the U.S. Department of Defense. She is the first openly transgender female presidential appointee. Bent Alaska presents her story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.
Amanda Simpson
“I’d rather not be the first but someone has to be.”
Amanda Simpson (born March 26, 1961) is the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology in the U.S. Department of Defense. She is the first openly transgender female presidential appointee.
Born in the Chicago area, Simpson grew up in Southern California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics, and master’s degrees in engineering and business administration.
As an undergraduate, Simpson trained as a pilot. “I quickly realized this was a way to use all the sciences and technology I had been exposed to in the classroom,” she says. “I’ve been lucky to incorporate my love of flight into my career.” Simpson is a certified flight instructor, and has her airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate.
For 27 years, Simpson worked at Raytheon Missile Systems. She spent 20 years as the manager of flight operations and departed as Deputy Director of Advanced Technology Development. In 2005, she successfully advocated for Raytheon to include gender identity and expression in its nondiscrimination policy.
In 2004, Simpson became the first openly transgender person in the United States to win a contested primary by securing a Democratic nomination for the Arizona House of Representatives. In 2008, she was a delegate for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.
Simpson has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Arizona Human Rights Fund, the Tucson Corporate LGBT Coalition, Out and Equal Workplace Advocates and the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Before she was appointed to her current position, Simpson was Senior Technical Advisor in the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security. As the highest-ranking technical member, she advised on policy issues and monitored the export of weapons technology.
Simpson was appointed by President Barack Obama in January 2010 as a senior technical adviser in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, where she monitors exports of U.S. weapons technology. Her appointment received wide media coverage. ABC News reported:
For Amanda Simpson, believed to be America’s first openly transgender presidential appointee, the job she starts Tuesday in the U.S. Commerce Department is an honor and the culmination of a career dedicated to understanding military technology.
But what gnaws at her, she says, is the fear of being labeled a token who was hired because of her sexual identity rather than on her merits.
“Being the first sucks,” she told ABC News.com. “I’d rather not be the first but someone has to be first, or among the first. I think I’m experienced and very well qualified to deal with anything that might show up because I’ve broken barriers at lots of other places and I always win people over with who I am and what I can do.”
Simpson’s many honors include the 2001 Raytheon Woman on the Move Award, the 2005 Arizona Human Rights Fund Individual Award, the 2010 Louise Young Award, and OUT for Work’s 2010 OUTstanding Individual Award. She resides in Tucson, where she was Grand Marshal of the city’s 2005 Pride Parade.
Amanda Simpson was the keynote speaker for the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington on November 18, 2010, where she spoke out against transphobia and its consequences — whether coming from a comedian like David Letterman or from within the gay community. Watch:
For more about Amanda Simpson, visit her LGBT History Month page, or Wikipedia article.
Photo credit: Official profile photo of Amanda Simpson, Sr. Technical Adviser, Department of Commerce, 17 January 2010. Public work, all rights released.
Victoria Kolakowski, judge (LGBT History Month)
Victoria Kolakowski is the first openly transgender person to be elected a trial judge in the United States. Bent Alaska presents her story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.
Victoria Kolakowski
“I have been very fortunate to have a successful career as a public servant, and I feel an obligation to serve my community as a role model as well.”
Victoria Kolakowski (born August 29, 1961) is the first openly transgender person to be elected a trial judge in the United States.
Born in Queens, New York, Kolakowski graduated from Stuyvesant High School. She was the first person in her family to attend college. Kolakowski earned master’s degrees in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, public administration and divinity. She received a law degree from Louisiana State University.
In 1990, Kolakowski moved to Berkeley, California. She served on the Oakland Budget Advisory Committee and was an administrative law judge for the California Public Utilities Commission.
In 1994, the East Bay Lesbian/Gay Democratic Club named her Woman of the Year. In 1995, she received the Outstanding Woman of Berkeley Award.
In 2010, Kolakowski campaigned for a judgeship on the Superior Court of Alameda County, California. She won by 10,000 votes. Her victory was significant, not only for the transgender community, but also for women, who occupy a small percentage of judgeships. She received Equality California’s Equality and Justice Award.
Kolakowski co-chaired the Transgender Law Center, an organization dedicated to the well-being and protection of transgender individuals. She serves on the California Council of Churches and is a volunteer clergy member at the New Spirit Community Church.
In 2004, Kolakowski married Cynthia Laird, editor for the Bay Area Reporter. The couple lives in Oakland, California.
In 2010, while a candidate for the Alameda County Superior Court judgeship she later won, Victoria Kolakowski appeared on Comcast’s Newsmakers show. Watch:
For more about Victoria Kolakowski, visit her biography at Smart Voter, LGBT History Month page, or Wikipedia article.
Photo credit: Victoria Kolakowski. Photo copyright Jane Philomen Cleland; used by license through the Equality Forum (LGBT History Month).
Alaska Pride Conference 2011: A photo essay
Mel Green spent most of yesterday at Alaska Pride Conference 2011, held on the Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. The Alaska Pride Conference is an annual day-long event held in Anchorage filled with workshops, speakers, vendors, and great food.
Kye Allums, athlete (LGBT History Month 2011)
Kye Allums, is the first openly transgender athlete to play NCAA Division I college basketball. Bent Alaska presents his story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.
Bent News, 9/29/11: Andrew Caleb Pritt makes the Anchorage Daily News
The Anchorage Daily News reports on Caleb Pritt, Wal-Mart adds transgender protections, and more in this edition of Bent News.
Freedom to Serve: New guide for LGBT servicemembers in a post-DADT world
It’s not a post-DADT world yet, but it will be after September 20 — and now Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) has prepared a comprehensive new legal guide to laws and policies related to U.S. military service as an LGBT servicemember once Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is finally gone.
Trans driver license lawsuit: Privacy & equal protection
Jillian T. Weiss, J.D., Ph.D., analyzes the legal issues of privacy and equal protection in the ACLU’s brief in K.L. v. State of Alaska, which involves Alaska DMV’s denial of a transgender woman’s driver’s license with a correct gender marker without proof of a surgical sex change.
Who writes Alaska’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)?
Alaska DMV based its refusal to put the correct gender marker on a transgender woman’s driver’s license on Alaska’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) D-24. Just who wrote SOP D-24, and what kind of review did it get before being used to make decisions affecting people’s lives?
Alaska DMV refuses to put correct gender on drivers license; ACLU sues
The ACLU and the ACLU of Alaska have brought suit against the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles over DMV’s refusal to put the correct gender marker on a transgender woman’s driver’s license without proof of a surgical sex change. The brief in the case, K.L. v. State of Alaska, can be read at at the ACLU or ACLU of Alaska websites.
Here is the ACLU of Alaska’s press release:
DMV Refusal to Correct Transgender Driver’s Licenses Unconstitutional
ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Requirement that Transgender Persons Undergo Surgery for Proper Gender on License
ANCHORAGE, AK, July 18, 2011 — The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alaska filed a brief today seeking to allow transgender individuals to correct the gender marker on their driver’s licenses without undergoing major surgery. The state’s surgery requirement places an undue burden on transgender individuals and presents a gross violation of an individual’s right to privacy.
“It is unfair and unnecessary to require that transgender people undergo prohibitively expensive and drastic surgery in order to have accurate identity documents,” said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Alaska. “No one should have to disclose sensitive personal information or be forced to make major medical decisions in order to get an accurate driver’s license.”
The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of a transgender woman, K.L., whose United States passport and work documents all identify her as a female. After initially securing a change to the gender on her driver’s license, she was told that her new license would be revoked unless she submitted proof of having surgery. The American Psychiatric Association and medical experts agree that surgery is medically necessary for some with gender identity disorder (GID), but not for everyone. Treatment for GID is individualized, and some can be effectively treated without it, making it unnecessary for the state to confirm whether or not an individual has had surgery before correcting a license. Additionally, such surgery is extremely expensive and potentially dangerous. The State Department no longer requires transgender people to have surgery before it will correct the gender marker on passports and a growing number of states have stopped requiring surgery for changing the gender marker on a driver’s license.
“Having a driver’s license that doesn’t match my appearance and identity would place me at risk of discrimination and physical harm,” said K.L., who has lived as a woman for two years.
The state supreme court has found that the Alaska Constitution’s privacy clause protects individuals’ right to self-expression and to be free from the disclosure of sensitive personal information and government intrusions on their decisions about medical care.
“The surgery requirement not only violates Alaska’s laws, it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about what it means to be transgender,” said John Knight, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. “The state cannot deny transgender people an accurate driver’s license based on an arbitrary and unconstitutional policy that clashes with accepted medical standards.”
The brief can be found on the ACLU websites at www.aclu.org and www.akclu.org.
Attorneys include Knight of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, Thomas Stenson of the ACLU of Alaska Foundation, and Stephanie Boehl of Perkins Coie.
Right now you may be crazy for wearing a dress or pants. You can help change that.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the last word defining “mental illness” to mental health, medical, and legal professionals — despite its many flaws and biases. It has a long record of being used to label gays and lesbians as “deviant.” It’s still being used that way against trans people
