To memorialize and fight for a better future

November 20 marks the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, memorializing those lost to anti-transgender violence over the past year. The Task Force honors the memory of transgender people killed both in the U.S. and abroad during 2010. For more information on the Transgender Day of Remembrance and a list of related events around the world, many of which are held this week, visitwww.transgenderdor.org. From a divinity school in Rochester, N.Y., to Piazza Liberazione in Magenta, Italy, to the steps of the Cleveland Justice Center in Ohio, the Task Force hopes you will be part of one of these events and work with us toward a day when the dignity and value of all people is affirmed and protected. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey - Preliminary Findings on Employment and Economic Insecurity, a joint study from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality, found more than one quarter of transgender people surveyed have lost a job for being transgender and discovered that members of the transgender community have double the rate of poverty as the general population. And, alarming though not surprising, the survey also indicates that transgender people are very vulnerable to physical violence because of bias. The Task Force is proud of its work to change the federal hate crimes law to include anti-transgender crimes. In 2009, violent hate crimes committed on the basis of gender identity, along with sexual orientation, became federal crimes under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in October of that year.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, founded in 1974 as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc., works to build the grassroots political power of the LGBT community to win complete equality. We do this through direct and grassroots lobbying to defeat anti-LGBT ballot initiatives and legislation and pass pro-LGBT legislation and other measures. We also analyze and report on the positions of candidates for public office on issues of importance to the LGBT community. The Task Force Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation incorporated in New York. Contributions to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund are not tax deductible.

Louisiana Panel Votes in Favor of Science Textbooks BY LAURI LEBO Louisiana Family Forum behind creationist attack.

Last week, parents in Louisiana raised objections over the fact that science books proposed for adoption in that state would teach kids about (the horror!) evolution. As Winston White, one of the residents who complained about the books, said, "It's like Charles Darwin and his theory is a saint. You can't touch it."

On Friday, Louisiana's textbook advisory panel listened to the public complaints and there's some good news. By an 8-4 vote, the panel recommended the books be adopted.

More of Louisiana Panel Votes in Favor of Science Textbooks BY LAURI LEBO

US Catholic Bishops Elect a Culture Warrior

MARIAN RONAN reports in Religious Dispatches:

This brings us to the election of Archbishop Dolan as president of the USCCB. ...But his election is not a good sign. As the New York Times mentions, this is the first time a vice president has not been elected president of the USCCB since the 1960s. What theTimes fails to mention is that it happened then because the vice president was quite old and would have retired as bishop in the middle of his term. The rejection of a Bishop Kicanas is essentially unparalleled. As Thomas Reese SJ., the former editor of America has said, the election of Dolan signals the increasing investment of the US Catholic bishops in the culture wars.

Fairness Sponsors Transgender Week of Awareness Events Transgender Day of Remembrance Memorial Service Nov. 20, 7PM

LOUISVILLE, KY—The Fairness Campaign sponsors Louisville's Transgender Week of Awareness, a series of events surrounding the 12th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial service held November 20, 7 p.m. at Metropolitan Community Church to commemorate the more than 320 known transgender individuals who have lost their lives to anti-trans violence since 1998. Eleven names have been added to that list in 2010 alone. The Day of Remembrance is organized by the Women's Center of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

The Transgender Week of Awareness, organized by Louisville's transgender support group, Sienna, includes a number of events held at the University of Louisville to promote education on transgender issues and raise awareness of the disproportionately high level of discrimination and violence trans-identified individuals face. Among the events will be a showing of the popular movie Soldier's Girl, focusing on the true-life story of Barry Winchell, a Fort Campbell, Kentucky army private who was murdered for his relationship with a transgender woman. Calpernia Addams, Winchell's former girlfriend, appeared at the University of Louisville last year as the keynote speaker of the campus's popular Pride Week.

On Thursday, November 18, University of Louisville students will fill the entrance to the campus Student Activities Center with chalked body outlines to represent trans individuals who have been murdered.

TRANSGENDER WEEK OF AWARENESS EVENTS

Soldier's Girl Movie Showing, Wednesday, November 17, 7 p.m., University of Louisville Chao Auditorium, Free

"TransAwareness in Action," Performance Art (chalk lines of bodies lost to anti-trans violence), Thursday, November 18, Noon, University of Louisville Student Activities Center Entrance

Trans Health Discussion, Thursday, November 18, 5:30 p.m., University of Louisville Campus Health Services

"Night of the Legends," Performances and Speeches Honoring Trans Heroes, Friday, November 19, 7 p.m., University of Louisville Student Activities Center Multipurpose Room

Transgender Day of Remembrance Candlelight Memorial Service, Saturday, November 20, 7 p.m., Metropolitan Community Church, 1432 Highland Avenue

Alameda County home to first transgender judge in nation

OAKLAND -- Alameda County has become home to the first transgender trial judge in the country as Victoria Kolakowski won the race to fill an empty seat on the county's Superior Court bench.
Final results from the county Registrar of Voters show that Kolakowski won 50.98 percent of the vote against deputy district attorney John Creighton, who won 47.98 percent of the vote. MORE

Bars closed? Pa. church offers late-night Mass

Pittsburgh churches used to offer middle-of-the-night services for employees who worked odd hours. One church is bringing the tradition back with a 2:30 a.m. service. The Rev. Carmen D'Amico said he's adding a weekly Mass on Sundays, timed for just after the bars close. D'Amico is hoping to attract those out late on Saturday nights. Officials have been handing out fliers at local colleges to publicize the new service.

Read more.

Your angry God will not save you now

This much we know: Increasingly it is being proven that sexual orientation in general and homosexuality in particular are largely biological adventures, hardwired and pre-set in your genetic code by sly and well-groomed angels way, way in advance, back when you were but a twinkle in the eye of the moan. ... It's a lot to unpack. But it turns out we've had it all exactly backwards all along. You actually can't choose your particular wiring for love, but you can choose to be a warlike, antagonistic force of cancerous doom. We cannot design our innate sexual chemistry, but we sure as hell can choose whether to celebrate it with wine and song and fearless abandon, or poison it at its heart with ignorance, panic, a violent misreading of God.

Read more Mark Morford: