Mass. Transgender Political Coalition
Since 2001, MTPC has worked toward persons of all genders being treated with respect and fully participating in all areas of society, free from fear of discrimination, prohibition, harassment, or violence based on their gender identity and/or expression.
General Information: info@masstpc.org
Upcoming Events: calendar@masstpc.org
MTPC is proud to cosponsor the transgender films highlighted at the Boston LGBT Film Festival, which runs May 2-14 in Boston and Cambridge. The full program with venue information and links for buying tickets can be found at http://www.bostonlgbtfilmfest.net.
TRANS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD screens Sunday, May 12 at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square, Cambridge, at 4 p.m. This collection of shorts especially lifts up voices from the global trans community, including many trans women and people of color. Tickets to the shorts screening are available on a sliding scale to make this event accessible to everyone in our community.
See http://www.masstpc.org/boston-lgbt-film-fest-2013 for a listing of the shorts and other trans films screening at the festival.
POSITION OPEN: Executive Director
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Location: Boston, Mass.
Posted: 04/26/2013
Apply by: 05/31/2013
Founded in 2001, MTPC is dedicated to ending discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. MTPC envisions a world where persons of all genders are treated with respect and fully participate in all areas of society, free from fear of prohibition, harassment or violence based on their gender identity and/or expression. The organization has accomplished major advocacy successes including passage of the Massachusetts Transgender Equal Rights Act in 2011. By attracting and mobilizing the under-utilized talents and skills of the transgender community, it has increased the visibility of transgender people and built a vibrant and supportive transgender and allied community across the state. Its current annual budget is $100,000 under the fiscal sponsorship of the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (BAGLY). MTPC currently has in place an Interim Director, part time staff and interns, and a volunteer Steering Committee.
The Opportunity
MTPC is small, powerful, nimble and ready for its next stage of evolution. As the go-to transgender advocacy and education organization in Massachusetts, it is also frequently called upon to assist individuals in the role of direct service provider. Though committed to staying closely attuned to its community’s needs, it has been spread thin as a small organization with limited capacity. Recognizing and managing these (and other) disparate demands will be a key challenge for the new director.
The Steering Committee and staff have identified the following focus areas for the next three years:
- Advocacy (coalition building and legislative strategy)
- Education (community advocates program, trainings and speaking engagements)
- Community (organizing effective community events)
The Position
The new Executive Director will lead an organization of diverse transgender activists and advocates seeking to continue an ambitious agenda of improving the lives of transgender people in Massachusetts. The incoming ED will share this goal and commitment to the organization’s mission, bringing aspirations, perspective and experience to guide the organization. The ED should be passionate, knowledgeable, and politically savvy. The ideal candidate is a seasoned manager with imagination and purpose, able to successfully implement ideas and plans, a skilled collaborator, committed to open dialogue and transparency, and a hardworking self-starter who is dedicated to social justice. The ED will have demonstrable successes as an innovative, facilitative and collaborative leader, able to create a vision and inspire others through positive, inclusive engagement.
The ED will report to the Steering Committee and is responsible for programming and fundraising, as well as financial and administrative management of the organization. MTPC’s new leader will be expected to play a strong, visible and strategic role in developing and implementing plans to promote growth, impact and long-term sustainability.
Application Process
Click here to see the full position description and instructions for how to apply.
Due to the pace of this search, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible with a deadline of May 31, 2013.
TONIGHT! MTPC and LifeSkills present:
Creating Change Through Lived Experience
Join us tonight at Fenway Health, 6-8 pm, to talk about what discrimination in public accommodations is and learn a bit of history on the current Massachusetts Equal Access Bill.
We will open up the conversation so folks can speak out and share their own personal stories about experiencing discrimination in public spaces. Next, we will provide space for participants to write down their stories for use when advocating for the Equal Access Bill.
We will then come back as a group to learn about legal rights and what we can do as community members when facing discrimination. We’ll end the night with a conversation about self care for ourselves and our larger communities.
TONIGHT! Tuesday April 23, Fenway Health, 1340 Boylston St., 9th Floor, 6-8 pm.
In this United Nations video, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls LGBT rights “one of the great, neglected human rights challenges of our time.”
The main text of the speech is below, but I recommend watching the full video. It will make your heart grow three sizes today.
We should all be outraged when people suffer discrimination, assault, and even murder simply because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We should all speak out when someone is arrested and imprisoned because of who they love or how they look. This is one of the great neglected human rights challenges of our time. We must right these wrongs.
Governments have a legal duty to protect everyone, but far too many still refuse to acknowledge the injustice of homophobic violence and discrimination. We need to document this problem and share information with the states on a regular basis for discussion and action. We must institutionalize our efforts to address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We need public education to change popular attitudes.
Some will oppose change. They may invoke tradition or religion to defend the status quo. Such arguments have been used to try to justify slavery, child marriage, rape in marriage, and female genital mutilation. I respect culture, tradition, and religion, but they can never justify the denial of basic rights.
My promise to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members of the human family is this: I’m with you. I promise you that as Secretary General of the United Nations, I will denounce attacks against you and I will keep pressing leaders for progress. I’m committed to leading a global campaign in partnership with the United Nations Human Rights Office.
I count on others to join us. Together we can make the world safer, freer, and more equal for everyone.
Our thoughts on the tragedy at the #BostonMarathon & hero Javier Pagan.
Introducing Alysia Yeoh, Batgirl’s roommate in Batgirl #19 and DC Comics’s first transgender character, who is also bisexual. “Alysia ‘will be a character, not a public service announcement,’ Simone told Wired. ‘Being trans is just part of her story. If someone loved her before, and doesn’t love her after, well — that’s a shame, but we can’t let that kind of thinking keep comics in the 1950s forever.’” (via SheWired)
There is now a bisexual transgender woman of color in a major comic book series.
The undersigned transgender service and advocacy organizations join to state their support for common sense immigration reform efforts that address the issues faced by undocumented transgender immigrants. (see also: Why trans & immigrant rights?)
An estimated 20,000 transgender adults in the US are undocumented, and thousands of transgender youth who came to the US at an early age also lack legal status. In addition, thousands of transgender American citizens have immigrant partners or other family members who have been or may be separated from them by our immigration laws. Among a population that is highly marginalized, transgender immigrants are among the most vulnerable to discrimination and violence. Our current immigration laws, together with pervasive discrimination against transgender people, force transgender immigrants to live in dual shadows.
Many transgender immigrants came to the US to escape severe and often life-threatening persecution because of who they are. Others came fleeing desperate poverty; still others arrived at a young age with family members and have grown up in the United States. Transgender immigrants work hard to support themselves and their families, and make the best of the circumstances created by a broken immigration system and lingering prejudices against trans people. Yet among a transgender population that is already marginalized, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey shows that undocumented transgender people face even higher risks of discrimination and violence in employment, housing, health care, and when seeking various services. Trans immigrants often have nowhere to turn, find themselves shut out of jobs or education that could provide them with better opportunities, are denied the right to seek asylum or to be sponsored by a partner, and are thus subject to detention in inhumane and dangerous conditions. Given these factors, any vision of Comprehensive Immigration Reform and equality for transgender people must include ensuring security and safety for trans immigrants.
No single change to our laws will bring transgender immigrants to safety and allow them to reach their full potential to succeed and continue contributing to American society. The undersigned transgender organizations call on policymakers to uphold and incorporate the following principles to ensure that the basic rights of all immigrants and their families are protected:
- Create a definite, reasonable pathway to citizenship. Provide the estimated 267,000 LGBT and as many as 21,000 transgender undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship. This would give them the legal certainty that they can work and travel safely, will not be separated from their families and communities, and can become full and equal members of society.
- Ensure a swift pathway for DREAMers. Undocumented trans youth who were brought to the US as children, attended school here or served in the military, and see themselves as Americans in every other way should benefit from the swift pathway laid out in the DREAM Act.
- Strengthen the family immigration system by increasing the number of family visas and including binational LGBT families.Family unity is central to American immigration policy because Congress has recognized that the fundamental fabric of our society is family. Yet today many face absurdly long waits of years or decades to sponsor family members such as parents or siblings. In addition, US citizens who are LGBT or have an LGBT partner are typically barred from sponsoring their partner for a visa. Even transgender people and their partners who are in different-sex marriages can face overwhelming legal battles to be recognized under current law.
- Repeal the one-year filing deadline for asylum-seekers. Each year many transgender people come to the US fleeing life-threatening persecution because of who they are, leaving everything behind to protect their life and their freedom.Yet many do not know that asylum is potentially available to them as a trans person, and the current one-year filing deadline is the primary reason why many are denied protection and risk being sent back to dangerous situations. Even those granted withholding of removal live in a permanent legal limbo, unable to travel abroad or to permanently integrate into US society. The one-year deadline is harsh, arbitrary, and no longer serves any legitimate purpose in light of other changes that have made frivolous asylum applications far less likely.
- Reduce mandatory detention and reform detention conditions. The current immigration system detains more than 400,000 people each year in prison-like conditions, with no right to counsel. Transgender detainees are overwhelmingly housed according to their birth-assigned gender, are subjected to prolonged isolation that can amount to torture, and are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. Many are asylum-seekers who are further traumatized by detention. Current law prohibits even considering many people for bond or alternatives to detention. This wasteful and inhumane use of the detention system must be reduced and reformed.
- Reform the Secure Communities program and other similar state and local enforcement measures. Under current laws, 90% of state and local jails nationwide share fingerprints with DHS, in most instances before there is a final disposition in the criminal case. Transgender individuals are often targeted by police based solely on their appearance and have thus been disproportionately affected by removal proceedings stemming from these programs. Enforcement measures should prioritize targeting serious offenders by giving states the discretion to comply with federal detention requests for undocumented low-level and non-offenders.
- Any employment verification system must not violate personal privacy. Verification measures should use the minimum information necessary and should not include additional personal data that invades personal privacy. For transgender workers, a system that tracks gender markers, or uses other personal data such as former names, could “out” individuals and make them vulnerable to discrimination.
We recognize that transgender immigrants are a highly vulnerable population within the immigration system and we stand committed to advocating for a series of comprehensive immigration reforms that protect all immigrants’ rights.
Signatory Organizations
Black Transmen, Inc.(Dallas, TX)
Black Transwomen, Inc.(Dallas, TX)
Casa Ruby(Washington, DC)
Center of Excellence for Transgender Health(San Francisco, CA)
DC Trans Coalition (DCTC)(Washington, DC)
FORGE(Milwaukee, WI)
Gender Justice Nevada(Las Vegas, NV)
Gender Rights Maryland(Laurel, MD)
Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey (GRAANJ)(New Brunswick, NJ)
Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project (K-STEP)(Topeka, KS)
Louisiana Trans Advocates(Baton Rouge, LA)
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition(Boston, MA)
National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)(Washington, DC)
Rainbow Community Cares (RCC)(Raleigh, NC)
Southern Arizona Gender Alliance (SAGA)(Tucson, AZ)
Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP)(New York, NY)
Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPAC)(Nashville, TN)
Trans*Action Florida(St. Petersburg, FL)
Transgender Civil Rights Project – National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund(Washington, DC)
Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)(College Station, TX)
Transgender Health Empowerment (T.H.E.)(Washington, DC)
TILTT, Inc. (Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth, Inc.)(Atlanta, GA)
Transgender Law Center(San Francisco, CA)
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF)(New York, NY)
TransOhio(Columbus, OH)
Transgender People of Color Coalition (TPOCC)(Washington, DC)
Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico(Albuquerque, NM)
Trans Youth Equality Foundation(Portland, ME)
Trans Youth Family Allies (TYFA)(Holland, MI)
Transgender Youth Support Network (TYSN)(Minneapolis, MN)
TransLatina Coalition(Los Angeles, CA)
Fourth Annual Lawyers for Transgender Rights Event to Feature Representative Carl Sciortino and Dylan Orr from the U.S. Department of Labor
The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) is pleased to announce its fourth annual Lawyers for Transgender Rights (LTR) event on Thursday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at The Estate in Boston. Massachusetts Representative Carl Sciortino will be accepting MTPC’s 2013 Transgender Ally Award, and Dylan Orr of the U.S. Department of Labor will be accepting the 2013 Community Advocate Award. The recipient of this year’s Commitment to Service Award will be announced during the event.
This LTR cocktail reception and silent auction brings together lawyers, law students, law firms, legal organizations, bar associations and law schools to network and build support in the legal community for MTPC’s work on behalf of transgender rights.
“Lawyers for Transgender Rights provides an important opportunity to hear about MTPC’s exciting work while raising money for this amazing organization,” said Bri Lacy, co-chair of LTR’s Host Committee.
2013 Transgender Ally Award recipient Carl Sciortino has been a leading progressive voice in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since his election in 2004. In addition to being a lead sponsor of both recent transgender rights bills, he has led battles for preserving marriage equality and establishing a buffer zone around reproductive healthcare facilities. He has also advocated for a range social and economic justice issues, including raising the minimum wage, closing corporate tax loopholes, passing the state’s landmark universal healthcare law, pushing for improvements in education and testing policies and increasing access to public transportation.
“Carl Sciortino is the very definition of a strong ally,” said MTPC Interim Director Jesse Begenyi. “He has been there at every step of the process in securing equal rights for the Commonwealth’s transgender community, and he understands the complex systems of oppression creating the need for legal protections. You can tell that even beyond fighting for legal equality for our community, Carl is very invested in people as individuals and works to make sure everyone has an equal chance to lead a full and rich life.”
2013 Community Advocate Award recipient Dylan Orr serves as Special Advisor to Assistant Secretary of Labor Kathy Martinez in the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, contributing to the development of national disability-employment-related regulations and policy. He also represents the Department of Labor on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Among Orr’s volunteer pursuits, he is a founding member of Trans Legal Advocates of Washington and is the first openly transgender person appointed to a U.S. presidential administration. Prior to this appointment, his legal and policy background focused on civil rights and social justice issues.
“MTPC plays an invaluable role in Massachusetts,” Host Committee Co-chair Lacy said. “It led the fight for the transgender equal rights legislation that passed in 2012 and is still working to broaden the legal protections available for gender identity and expression. MTPC also establishes best practices and provides much-needed educational opportunities. I’m thrilled that the legal community has become such a strong supporter of its work.”
2013 Lawyers for Transgender Rights event sponsors include Ropes & Gray, WilmerHale, Foley Hoag LLP, Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP, Edwards Wildman, Kauffman Crozier LLP, and many other organizations and individuals (the full listing is available on MTPC’s website).
This year’s event will include live music by Urban Myth and a silent auction featuring items such as Red Sox tickets and a limited edition (only 1 of 39) 20×16 framed photo of the 2004 Patriots signed by 29 players. Tickets will be on sale at the door the night the event: $70 for lawyers, $40 for non-profit and $20 for students. For more information please see masstpc.org/community-events/ltr2013.
LTR Host Committee Co-chair Catherine Deneke said, “We are so proud that the legal community continues to stand on the side of equality and has shown such tremendous support for MTPC and this event.”
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Founded in 2001, the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) is a 501(c)(3) that works to end discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. MTPC educates the public; advocates with state, local and federal government; engages in activism; and encourages empowerment of community members through collective action. MTPC is a member of the Trans Advocacy Network, the Equality Federation and the Massachusetts Transgender Equal Rights Coalition.
The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) needs an administrative intern to start ASAP and stay through summer.
The intern/volunteer will be integral to the backbone of the organization. This is a great opportunity to learn about all the kinds of work MTPC does and how non-profits work in general.
Tasks:
- Maintain Google calendar of statewide trans events
- Assist MTPC director on special projects
- Help with mailings and event preparation
- Provide general office support
Please join MTPC and MassEquality at Tuesday’s Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) meeting in Malden. Opponents of DESE’s guidelines for the equal treatment of transgender students will be there to force a discussion of the guidelines at the meeting. We need you there to show a critical mass of people on the side of right. There will also be time for a few people to speak. DESE needs to know that we stand with them in standing up for equality.
Tuesday, March 26, 8:30 am
Mass. Department of Elementary & Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148
Please let us know you can make it by contacting Andi Wheeler at andiwheeler@massequality.org.
Our opponents also tried to pass a hateful resolution at a recent Medford City Council meeting. Medford council members mentioned our strong trans-positive showing more than once at that meeting. We outnumbered the anti-equality contingent 20 to 1, and the matter was resolved in a positive way. The council supported diversity and equality in the Medford community and agreed to leave the education experts to decide what’s best for students.
If you can’t be at the DESE meeting on Tuesday, you can call the Commissioners to thank them for their ongoing support of transgender youth and the creation of a safe learning environment for all students.
Commissioner Mitchell Chester: 781-338-3100
Associate Commissioner John Bynoe: 781-338-6300
