Loungers who Lunch; Cake, Bovril and Penguins...

Sigh...

You know equal rights have a long way to come when stuff like this routinely happens, and in Canada of all places: Transsexual and transgender women denied access to shelters as temperatures drop in Montréal

25 January, 2013 - As temperatures drop to extreme lows, transsexual and transgender women in Montréal continue to be turned away from many homeless women’s shelters. Over the past week of bitter cold, ASTT(e)Q, a local trans health project of CACTUS Montréal, has witnessed several of our members be denied shelter on the grounds of being trans. While such refusals are frequently justified by administrative regulations, members of ASTT(e)Q believe that these exclusive practices are rooted in discriminatory attitudes towards trans people.

A majority of women’s shelters throughout Québec require trans people to have undergone sex reassignment surgery, and/or to have changed their legal sex. “Such requirements are unattainable for most homeless trans people, due to prohibitive costs, and extensive administrative requirements,” says Mirha-Soleil Ross, staff of ASTT(e)Q. “Trans women are left with no alternatives, as men’s shelters are clearly not an option. With no place to turn, homeless trans women find themselves on the streets, which in -30 below temperatures is nothing short of deadly.”

It just makes me want to scream

xLexie wrote: »

I don't mean to be to be rude or insensitive but why would male shelters not be an option in the freezing cold? I think a male shelter sounds better than a cardboard box on 2ft of snow.

I was going to join the library today until I realised it's closed on Mondays. I probably won't want to join tomorrow, always the way.

Hope you had a lovely birthday Ivy.

There is a lot of violence in mens shelters. In most cities, there are quite a few homeless men who will not go to shelters because of the violence and drugs.

xLexie wrote: »

I don't mean to be to be rude or insensitive but why would male shelters not be an option in the freezing cold? I think a male shelter sounds better than a cardboard box on 2ft of snow.

Then again, maybe taking your chances in the freezing cold is preferable to risking being murdered in a shelter, horrific as that is.

Links that is horrendous, my heart broke reading that.

Not to be sarky, but when someone would rather brave the cold than get shelter, there's obviously gonna be a damn good reason for it. If you're a transgender woman, you're already gonna face extremely high rates of violence and sexual assaults, not to mention the phenomena of 'rape-as-punishment' or 'corrective-rape' for people who transgress gender norms (eg; "you wanna be a woman? we'll we're gonna treat you like one!")... or just simply not a good idea for a woman being in a situation where she would not be able to defend herself from an aggressor or multiple aggressors? and really, a transgender woman's best defense is blending in and not being noticed, being placed in a men's shelter would be like having a neon sign over her head saying she's transgender so anyone with any kind of prejudice against trans people would have no ambiguity about who she is. it would be painting a target on her back.

and as Das Kitty said, trans people are statistically more likely to be homeless, so really this is just punishing those who are most vulnerable

and also, this kind of policy has already resulted in people's deaths, Jennifer Gale for example had been repeatedly refused shelter:

Jennifer Gale was found in an unresponsive state near the rear entrance of the First English Lutheran Church on Whitis Ave in Austin Texas by a staff member shortly after 7:00 am on December 17, 2008. According to an eye witness who was doing maintenance at the church, she did not respond to attempts to wake her up from where she had slept that night on a concrete ramp with little more than a sheet and some news papers. 911 was immediately called and first responders arrived in less than a minute from Fire Station #3 across 30th street from the church. After extended Attempts to resuscitate Gale, she was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:26 AM. An autopsy later revealed that she had died from heart disease probably exacerbated by sleeping outside in near-freezing temperatures

pixiebean22 wrote: »

I just sent an e-mail to a lad called Finn Ryder. How cool is that name??

Bet you his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert...

Ah_Yeah wrote: »

Links, what is their reasoning behind placing transgender women in mens shelters? Bar the idiotic reason of "they used to be a man". Sorry if I missed that bit.

sadly it just seems to be institutionalized transphobia a lot of people out there don't like transgender people, and what makes things worse is that a some homeless shelters are ran by religious organizations and would refuse shelter based on their "morals"

hell, I can even be refused medical treatment in this country on religious grounds and I know people it's happened to.

Links234 wrote: »

Not to be sarky, but when someone would rather brave the cold than get shelter, there's obviously gonna be a damn good reason for it. If you're a transgender woman, you're already gonna face extremely high rates of violence and sexual assaults, not to mention the phenomena of 'rape-as-punishment' or 'corrective-rape' for people who transgress gender norms (eg; "you wanna be a woman? we'll we're gonna treat you like one!")... or just simply not a good idea for a woman being in a situation where she would not be able to defend herself from an aggressor or multiple aggressors? and really, a transgender woman's best defense is blending in and not being noticed, being placed in a men's shelter would be like having a neon sign over her head saying she's transgender so anyone with any kind of prejudice against trans people would have no ambiguity about who she is. it would be painting a target on her back.

When I read it, that's what I figured the reasoning would be. Such a sad state of affairs.

I made the nicest beef stir fry ever. NYOM. Feeling ever so slightly better today, here's hoping it continues.

Also, I'd really appreciate opinions on this because I'm going to be complaining about it today and I'm worried I'm overreacting and might back down too easily.

I do 6 classes here; one is 10 credits and the others are 4 each. The ten credit module involves a lecture and a seminar. The lecture is assessed by an end of year exam, a group project, an essay and class participation. There are two seminar groups, and the seminar makes up 30% of the module as a whole. However, in my group we have to do a fifty page essay (I kid you not) and a 45 minute presentation, as well as participate in class, whereas in the other group only have to do a 20 minute group presentation and participate in the class. I'm going to tell the lecturer later that I think this is grossly unfair, and that as we're all in the same lecture we should be subject to the same means of assessment. Am I being unreasonable and just looking for something to complain about, though?