May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Awareness Month

  I’d love to see a therapist, but I’m too busy with work/family/other activities. I talked to a counselor one time and it didn’t help. I’m not someone who talks about my feelings with a stranger. Psychiatry is a racket. It is on my list of things to do, right after I accomplish <insert xyz […]

UPDATED: Trans Woman of Color Yazmin Vash Payne Murdered Near Los Angeles

transgender women

Note: this post has been updated to reflect the preferred name of the victim. Her name is Yazmin Vash Payne. She had previously been identified as Michell Vash Payne and alternately as Yasmine Payne. Some media outlets have posted her old name, but we will not do that. If you have photos of Yazmin, please […]

Another QTPOC Murder Underscores Epidemic of Violence

Transgender Candle

I saw a tweet when I slipped into my car after some grocery shopping. It was impossible, I thought to myself, that another transgender sibling was dead. Not again. I just wrote about two trans sisters who had been murdered as well as the murder of a lesbian and the death of a 51 year […]

Update on the Lives and Deaths of Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson

Crystal Jackson and Britney Crosbey

The story of Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson resonates through recent events even though they’ve been dead for more than ten months. Britney and Crystal were 24-year-old queer women of color from Houston. Their bodies were left near a dumpster, Crystal died of a gunshot wound and Britney due to severe head trauma. They were […]

When UPMC and Highmark Work Together: Saving the Life of a Newborn Baby

I was so saddened to learn that a neighbor of mine from the Northside was killed in a terrible car accident Wednesday evening. Her name was Jodie Guthrie and while I did not know her, I am a regular customer at the Rite-Aid where she was killed. She lived near my neighborhood. Jodie was pregnant, […]

Nashville Trans Woman Gizzy Fowler Found Murdered

Gizzy Fowler

Wednesday, a 24-year-old transwoman of color from Nashville was found murdered in Bordeaux, TN – a suburb of Nashville. Her name was Gizzy Fowler. Police are still investigating the motive in the shooting death. Fowler was found laying next to an open-door car in a driveway at a house of a homeowner that recently passed […]

Tajshon Ashley Sherman Found Murdered in Indianapolis, 9th TWOC Murdered This Year

Tajshon Sherman

I learned about the murder of the 9th trans woman of color this year (in the US) from an email update. 25-year-old Tajshon Ashley Sherman was found in an empty lot in Indianapolis with “intense head injuries” by a police officer driving nearby. Her body was discovered on October 26. Police have confirmed that she was […]

Why I Don’t Go Into the Woods

Like most kids, I grew up with a mixture of urban legend and cultural frights that together made for terrifying experiences. Our neighborhood was the border of “The Woods” which lent itself as a source of horrifying creatures sneaking through the backyard and into our lives. Nevermind that during the day, we ran wild and […]

Second Trans Woman Murdered in Baltimore

Mia Henderson

    Tonight comes more terrible news from Baltimore – the murder of 26-year-old Mia Henderson, a trans woman of color whose body was discovered today. From Parker Molloy at The Advocate: Police have identified the victim as 26-year-old Mia Henderson, and said her murder bore similarities to that of another transgender woman, killed in Baltimore […]

Petition: Keep Domestic Partner Benefits Until PA Passes Statewide Non-Discrimination

UPDATE: Nearly 550 signatures in three days. Let’s keep this going.  UPDATE: Over 150 signatures in less than 24 hours. Will you lend your name?Allegheny County in Southwestern Pennsylvania has announced plans to eliminate domestic partner benefits for employees, effective July 31, 2014. Same sex couples who receive benefits have until that date to legally marry […]